What does rally do in shogun 2

For best effect, shoot at the flanks or rear of enemy formations. Target deep formations relative to your shooting direction: This way, even arrows that miss have a good chance of hitting the troops behind. Sneak in as many generals as you can in your group of archers: Sometimes, they'll get enemy archers to reposition, in which case you should return them to your melee units. When this doesn't happen, the inspires they provide are great for boosting arrow efficiency, while Stand and Fight makes everything better.

If the enemy does have enough bows to cover the entire wall, don't panic. It's fully possible to burn down a gate and sacrifice a single Yari Ashigaru per Bow Ashigaru troop if you're less confident in yourself, go for three units for two troops to make an opening.

They'll be swarmed and die, but provided you time it reasonably well, they'll destroy all but a dozen of a previously full squad. Against samurai and above, you're probably out of luck: Unlike ashigaru, they can survive reasonably well in melee, even against expensiver units. If enemy bows move in to intercept your flanking force, peel off a squad and abuse another opening, gradually adding more until all enemy archers are stuck waiting for a single bow unit preferably depleted to come in range, in a situation analogous to those camping the meleers.

Don't tire your men. The main only, even reason the AI can't to reliably win sieges with twice the defenders' force is because it can't stop running. Running is not needed in a siege: Even the meter deadzone before under the walls can be walked through, although saving energy from that is needlessly risky.

Once your melee units have scaled the wall, they are every bit as capable as the enemy, only handicap being the amount of fatigue they've accumulated from the climb: Hence, keep to scaling short sections if you can help it.

Scaling is best done from every direction, to flank the enemy: While morale doesn't matter, a troop in the rear inflicts many more kills, decreasing your own attrition. For the melee phase of the battle, don't forget to use your depleted archers: having men stand around is a huge waste. The most basic thing they can be tasked with is capturing the fort control zone: a mass of even cheap units can easily crowd the place and make it unreachable to enemies unless they can cut at a heroic pace.

The only problem is getting there in the first place, easily solved by scaling second, as a flanking force, from multiple directions. Archers can also be used to tie down enemy bows or charge flanks. Be bold when using them and prepare to take huge losses with little gains: Soon, you'll learn what works and what doesn't.

Scaling the walls is generally for when you're wiping the enemy out, burning the gates down is for when the battle isn't going your way. When scaling, the enemy should only have a third to a tenth of their original melee force left and who cares about archers, they suck at melee and invariably get forced into it within the first fifteen seconds of the charge , allowing you to swarm and massacre. If there are a lot of enemies left, presumably because you failed to empty your quivers or because you attacked with a much smaller force good job, but why are you reading this then?

Burn down a gate and make a deep yari wall formation in guard mode get inside, but don't expose their flanks: there is a castle model where some of the gates have inner walls, allowing the entire formation to get in while only exposing the front. For most, you just have to support them from the side or barely get inside. A yari wall has great staying power, especially if you manage to get enemy yari to attack it first, as opposed to katana units.

If all goes well, soon the entire garrison will be swarming your diversion: they can easily hold out if the flank is safe. If not all units are engaged, burn down a second gate and approach with a similar formation, tying up the rest. Then, scale from a third direction using a squad with big unit size, or even several, massing the fort capture point: put a wall of bodies in front of the area, making sure that the enemy can't kill enough in a minute to get to the location.

Your bow squads are perfect for this. Usually, only one or two squads will break off to meet you, letting you capture the point with little losses against what could have been unwinnable odds. Random bit of info: An unupgraded, unleveled unit of bow ashigaru without access to inspire has just enough ammo to kill the free samurai retainer unit. PS: Army composition: The more archers you have, the harder it is to utilize them properly.

Stay in the - range for a good mix of reliability and efficiency. I place a high priority in S2 on understanding the exact weaknesses and strengths of each unit type and applying them accordingly. Unlike another poster here, I like using archers in sieges as you need a way of taking the fight to the enemy without getting your troops murdered in the process.

I prioritise my targeting of the enemy carefully and I am careful and methodical - rush in and chances are you will get your ass kicked. You can research that for yourself. Other than perhaps to say this - bombardment weapons like cannon and mangonels are very useful as are archers. I try to make sure that any siege fore is strong on both where I can.

Its crucial to weaken the enemy inside the castle before they can do much harm to you and before you enter. Then if need to you can enter the castle and engage in hand to hand fighting. With luck you may not need to do much of this if you do enough damage first. I can say I have found priorities to be important. There is little point killing off all the enemy Yari Ashigaru early as they are not too dangerous - unless they are attacking you of course.

So focus on the enemy units that are meaningful and most valuable to the enemy and work your way down. To do this you have to make sure that you turn of fire at will for your cannon, archers, mangonels etc. In a way this sucks - it means you have to micro manage and in a big battle especially that brings its own difficulties - I recently almost lost in a siege when I was up one end of the fortress doing my stuff and the enemy moved up some bow samurai unnoticed into a position near the other end where they could take out my forces which I had moved closer because I was confident that there were no enemy archers in range.

When that changed with my troops in "no fire at will" mode they managed to kill a couple of hundred of my people before I realised what was going on. So first I make sure to kill off any enemy who are attacking me or in a position to attack me. Like the enemy cavalry who start outside the castle walls in the siege tutorial. Give these attackers top priority. One unit I find it useful to kill early is the enemy fire rockets. These suckers do a lot of injury very quickly and as they have long range are hard to combat.

Then I turn my attention to any enemy archers and matchlock units who are on the ramparts of the castle walls. One good tactic is to snipe them using cannon fire.

Aim at the top of the castle wall and turn the big guns loose. Your aim is not to hit individual enemy but to bring down parts of the wall. You will find that after a few hits that will suddenly happen taking anything up to a dozen or more enemy with it.

For towers who are in range do similarly or, once the bow samurai on the ramparts are whittled down or killed off, quickly move up several units of your archers BA are fine for this turn on fire arrows and tell them to shoot the tower in a large single volley. It takes units to set a tower alight and they have to all fire at the same time. Then quickly move your archers back out of range of any remaining enemy archers if that's needed.

Or you can tell your archers to finish them off as well. For this though you generally need Bow Samurai or if you are using BA you need to use fire arrows. An alternative is to use fire arrows against enemy ramparts where the enemy archers are positioned. To be accurate try to set the wooden protective cover alight. That can work too. Once the enemy archers are killed you don't need to kill any who are in distant parts of the castle who cannot hit you though you can then move freely in that part of the castle precinct - so move your forces closer to the castle walls.

I will sometimes position YA forces at gates to stop any quick enemy cavalry counter strike. Then I turn my attention to the enemy General. Kill him and his retinue using BS or Bow Heros. That makes your job much easier later. Use your Bow Samurai for preference but they may be running low on ammo by now although if possible I will make sure I have some in reserve for this part of the mission so if necessary I will use BA for this purpose after first turning on fire arrows as these are more effective against armoured troops.

This is where the methodical bit comes in once more - have them shoot their fire arrows at the enemy samurai then move them away out of range to wait for fire arrows to become available again.

Then repeat as much as necessary. Boring I know. By now with luck you should have depleted most troops inside the fort and you can begin to contemplate entering. I try not to send troops over the wall if possible as most of them suck at this and get killed in falls. Ninja can pull it off as can a few other troops. My preference is to use my troops to burn down the gates if they are still standing.

Yari Ashigaru can do this as can some other categories of unit. Who do I send in? That depends. Common sense applies and for example if I expect a cavalry response from the enemy I will send YA in first followed by other key units - Katana Samurai and the like. Even a few enemy archers in overlooking towers can do great damage quickly. I also like to have Ninja in the first units inside as the shock effect of them throwing their grenades at any enemy attacking force is often enough to turn the tide.

Matchlock forces can be usefully deployed here too as long as they are backed up by strong melee troops. Very often by now the game is up for the enemy and while they may make a few further attacks if you can fend them off its enough to prompt a surrender.

BTW I keep my archers outside but by the walls if possible so they can fire in at any attacking forces. The space inside fortress courtyards is very limited. A couple of final words. I have found it is a good tactic to move troops in mixed units. Archers, Cavalry Katana samurai and Yari Ashigaru together can do much to compensate for each others weaknesses where even a large force of one type can get destroyed quickly if the enemy responds appropriately.

I also am curious about using a technique called "counter battery fire". In theory this should work but I must admit I have not tried it.

If you are in range use some of your cannon or mangonels to target enemy cannon and mangonels who are damaging your troops. This is a valid military tactic which could be useful in a siege or other battle. They will NOT move. Exploit this by placing melee units at the range mark, out of bow shot and move your archers in at an angle which allows them to shoot without being shot.

Use this to give your archers a fixed, stationary, non cover using target. PvE Good Tactics Attacking -always bring a few fodder units. Cheap and easily replaced. They can be used to force the enemy to respond how you want. Always fight with an advantage. Best thing is to use a dense, block formation. Charge them as a battle group into range where all six will be able to shoot at the enemy 1 or 2 units.

Lead this group with a fodder unit in loose formation to be the pin cushion. NEVER try this tactic on a corner, you will be shot by the men to the sides of the corner as ranged units have a 45 degree arc. When they are manning a wall and melee troops climb up, the troops not directing involved in hand to hand combat will continue to shoot.

The biggest advantage an attacker will have is freedom of movement. Sign In Register. Categories What does the set rally point do? Post edited by [email protected] on October October edited October Hi Set rally point is an overlooked function.

Whatever you choose make sure they are in a position to take advantage for example if you improve their skills at commanding cavalry make sure they have plenty of cavalry in their army. You can also hire retainers and they will have various effects not all of them positive. In addition your generals will develop their own character traits and some of these can be quite damaging. It all depends on their behaviour and the influence of their retainers so be careful how you handle generals.

It is vital you keep a close eye on the loyalty of your generals this is displayed on the character cards. It can be horribly disappointing to have to command seppuku for a tough general but be warned if you turn a blind eye to disloyalty your relationship with the other clans will be damaged. You can improve loyalty by researching arts such as Noh, improving your overall honour, marriage to a family member, a glorious victory in battle and making the right decision with dilemmas.

You can also assign commissions to generals and these will improve loyalty and provide some bonuses. Some apply to the general and the men under his command, others are more general.