Matchlocks are extremely good when defending castles. You can hold a 20 unit stack with 2 matchlocks for dps and 2 Yaris for holding troops and one Cav to sweep archers. In almost all other situations they are completely outshined by bows except for the Portuguese Tercios
Don't forget if you want to position teppo unit, make sure they are not alone, covered with yari unit is the best. Because AI cavalry will tend to charge archer/matchlock unit when it goes alone. But this is also a way to attract dangerous cavalry so you can eliminate before main battle commence since enemy AI will flank you.
I had the same as you and yes Otomo is superior at the use of guns but you need no mods to use them.The funny thing is that nowadays the best meta for multiplayer are matchlocks units ^^
@@bustowski the reason that I have to say "mods" because that, to obtain matchlock units, you have to take a very long research. By that time, you have the bow warrior monks. The second thing is the firing range. Matchlock do have a shorter range than bow, but not that short.
2:17 is the tactic I just realized this is very good. I tried after watch this and against massive yari ashigaru in otomo early campaign against shoni, everyone routed after they supported by 2 teppo gunner using same tactic on what you recommend. Tahnks for a lot tactic usage and can't wait for more
I find that if you want to use your matchlock units offensively, it helps A LOT to build them in a province with the armour upgrades, and not the ranged ones like you would with bow troops. This makes it a lot easier to get into range without losing half your troops, especially if you're using the ashigaru matchlocks.
Guns 😎 Although I think the biggest problem of matchlock units is not their use in combat, but the huge amount of time you need to spend to get gunpowder arts.
1:20 you can also press insert and that will give you a first person view from the a single troop in the unit , you can scroll through the whole unit (I think) to see how many have a clear line of sight
There are two keybindsy you can use to get even closer viewer from your unit perspective. Insert and Delete. Delete follows your unit around closely in a shoulder camera. Insert gives you the first person point of view from one the single soldier in your unit and you can cycle through all your soldiers with PageUp and PageDown. Should be most helpful hopefully :)
I appreciate having the name "viking general" and having a channel filled with wonderful shogun 2 knowledge. Watched almost every video so far btw because I wanted to get back into shogun 2 on a whim and I'm so glad I did. Great info. Subbed
Thank you for your work on Shogun 2. If only I knew all the tipps before I started playing the game. Especially the economics screwed my campaigns on a regular basis, but with the knowledge gathered from your videos I am ready to give the game another shot without 1-turn research mods.
These guys completely saved my ass in more than one defensive siege battle, to the point that now if I have to defend a key or border castle I try to recruit even the Ashigaru with imported matchlocks (even if it takes me four turns to recruit them) so that the garrison of that castle have guns. They always get hundreds of kills, where they can basically wipe an entire unit and a half off the map. Even in defensive battles they are ridiculously useful with their ability to put up a barricade in front of them; Using that I recreate the Tokuwaga vs. Takeda battle where I have my infantry with guns behind the barricades and my infantry covering the gaps between the barricades causing bottlenecks that the enemy tries to get through as they die from a hail of bullets.
I think what you are referring to is the battle of Nagashino. That was a battle between the Takeda and Oda. Oda Nobunaga was ahead of his time and welcomed foreign influence including Christianity. He used Portuguese firearms to wipe out what was left of the takeda clan all in one battle. The takeda thought they could overwhelm thier enemy and decimate them with cavalry like they did with the other clans. Oda Nobunaga proved them deadly wrong. Pretty tragic for the takeda clan. Shingen already passed away, so he didn’t get to see his son’s failure and his clan being wiped out overnight.
@jaypenha5352 Yea Katsuyori is still young and hot blooded to keep trying to send dozens of cavalry to meet their death, but maybe if Shingen was still alive at Nagashino I think Shingen can actually see through Nobunaga's strategy
I'm honestly surprised that you didn't talk about Chevron formation, whereby you position your front line into the shape of a chevron, and position ranged units so that they have clear line of sight on the enemy engaging your front line. This allows your front line to engage the enemy while your guns unleash continuous volleys of fire.
@The viking general. I love your videos, and the fact that you are keeping this masterpiece of a game alive and relevant! Also, you a solid tactician. Tzun Tzu would be proud! Thanks for the content on Shogun 2, please... we need MOAR!
@@TheVikingGeneral you're quiet welcome. I've been following Mr.smartdonkey's videos, but I don't agree on his tactics or strategies..he over glorifies the yari ash, and ranks them as the single best unit in the game, and embellishes their use of the yari spear wall, like it's some unstoppable shield. He even says that the oda are one of the best factions in the game because they can mass produce them like the Russians and are slightly better. I believe this is a bunch of nonsense, and theirs a reason in almost every campaign, the ai usually wipes them out in the first few years. Yari are weak and easily countered and defeated in mid and late game, and i thoroughly enjoy slaughtering them in massive stacks with 5 or more experience... I like your strategies and way of using the units, very similar to my own art of war thinking.. I just want to make one comment... I can't play any Total War game without using the Darth Mod.. it fixes the game mechanics that are heavily broken in the vanilla version, especially with the kiso ninja, ammo for different archer units, correct damage and stats for unique specialty units...ship movement, makes charges and arrows more realistic, etc... I would love to see you do some unit reviews with the darth mod ( just the first vanilla option, no other handicaps ) Also some faction reviews as well, as Darth Mod gives specialty units accessible to the factions on turn 1, and also drastically increases unit size....so reviewing these factions with 2x army size would be amazing! One last reason to do these reviews using DM... NO ONE ELSE IS DOING IT ON TH-cam WITH SHOGUN 2.. Sorry for the long reply, just of all the total war titles I own ( 5 or 6), I only keep playing Shogun 2, as it's simply the best, most polished, story rich, and has the most replayability of any of the series..
I found it useful to get the kneel fire mod for the matchlocks. Have a one thin line of matchlock kneel and then have another unit behind then not in kneel fire either shoot regularly or have them in rank fire. Be better to have mounted gunners behind them. My usual tactic in my campaign is superior firepower
Glad you finally cover the matchlock pal. And if this is the first part. what the other part gonna be? Are you gonna talk about the shimazu heavy gunner too or talking about the mounted gunner and donderbuss cav?
The second part is going to be about all the different units, including those you mentioned ;). The third part is about how matchlocks fit into the campaign.
A couple of things missing: -gunners can shoot up a hill, just like archers, to dislodge hill campers, since hills offer nice direct line of sight 360' -guns disregard armor and 1 hit kill all but heaviest enemies, great against samurai and knights alike -great against cavalry for the same reason, 1 hit kill horses, and when the first horses die they slow those behind them, Takeda suffered this exactly from nobunaga -guns in massed fire can dislodge wall defenders very fast, unlike the curve drop of arrows who hit wall roofs often -due to animation and range mechanic problems, right click attack when using fire by rank instead of waiting and first gunner line will shoot immediately when in range instead of waiting for every line to be in range -if you don't like fire by rank or don't have kneel fire, just spread out the gunners as wide as possible. By game mechanics only first rank fires, but all gunners fire when there's only 1 rank -way less friendly fire with guns than arrows ironically
Thank you for your comment, but the first two points I mentioned (shooting from hill to flat terrain and from flat terrain up a hill, but I didn't show footage of it). I mentioned that a volley into naginata samurai kills about the same number of men as a volley into yari ashigaru since they indeed ignore most enemy armour. I think I also mentioned that they're great against elite infantry and cavalry, but I didn't really specify why. I haven't really tested massed fire onto walls, thank you for pointing that out! By not right clicking you'll actually do more damage if your unit has less than 37 reload skill, since that is the required number to get 4 volleys. They usually get off the 3 volleys if you don't issue any order, and since the enemy is closer they are way more accurate. (this doesn't work against cavalry though, they are too fast). Also you need to give the attack order before the enemy comes into range, otherwise it'll still wait. A more detailed explanation can be found here: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1518017515#:~:text=You%20can%20start%20by%20having,enemy%20is%20locked%20into%20combat. And yup, spreading out gunners as wide as possible is the way to go. This is especially true for defensive sieges, where only the first rank fires. I also didn't mention that if you use ranked fire you only want to use them 3 ranks deep. The less friendly fire is I think because they really need that clear line of sight, and don't arc their shots. But thank you for elaborating a bit on the things that I either mentioned very briefly or didn't! It's good to have more information out there. ;)
@@TheVikingGeneral I cant disagree but i prefere to use them with archers to clean enemy ranged units before they do anyting serious. Personally i see matchlock units more as samurai-counter, but it can be just my not so great amount of time in game.
@@TheVikingGeneral When i played Hojo for the first time, i expected this to be hand motars job. It didnt work so well... but at least they keep enemy routing forces from regrouping.
@@TheVikingGeneral I hope you can give a bit of insight into what to do with them in more offensive scenarios like offensive sieges since they feel borderline useless during those.
@@ShallowTeal During offensive sieges they are borderline useless. There are a few fringe cases where you can use them, but the biggest use is to have them as fodder/distraction. During field battles you have to find a way to neutralise the enemy archers.
1:16 Well actually you can press insert to literally see from one of your man perspective. PS you can use mouse wheel to scroll trough individual soldiers.
hi im quite new to total war shogun and still on the learning phase, can you make a video on tips and important aspects when you finally became shogun and the rest of the map is against you. i find it hard to make progress when an enemy fleet lands deep into your territory and youre without a garrison there
It already gets a lot easier by knowing you will have enemies everywhere, so you can prepare for it. To guard against naval invasions, you can either try to keep a navy going, or have garrison armies deep in your territories. In my games I generally lose a few provinces to those naval invasions, but I always make sure to protect the important provinces. But I'll add your idea to my to-do list! Just wanted to give some quick pointers ;)
Is it only me that found the short range of matchlock ashigaru really made them outshined by every other bow units? They cant fire in arc, need to have LOS, but having shorter range than any of the other skirmirsher units and the fact you need to actually research heavily on them to get one if you are not playing as Japan Otomo Crusaders.
How do you manage to prevent enemy units from running in the gaps of your formation? When I try to use such a gapped formation the enemy just goes straight for my matchlocks
In my examples I might have put them a little too close to the frontline, but if you put them back a bit and have a extra unit behind your frontline you can engage enemies from the side.
The point is to make a gap large enough for the Matchlocks to fire on yet small enough that attacking units would be engaged by your infantry. Remember that all you need to hold an attacking unit is to simply clip their sides with one of your units. They can have only 5 out of their 120 units in a melee yet the entire unit will stop in place since its still engaged. That's where the matchlocks come in
The AI isn't very good with it's cavalry. If they don't suicide charge you, you can still bait them later in the battle and ambush them with some yari ashigaru (or other spear troops).
I wouldn't say they're useless in an offensive siege, since they literally can break walls firing at them after a while.....and that devastates units behind them.
@@Hussars450 I think maybe in banzai mode and if they have experience. Most units can't beat a yari wall and despite their high attack and charge their def sucks so I think yari wall can beat them
Takeda and Shimazu samurais: Noooooo! You can't train a peaseant to kill a samurai who has been trained from childhood to be an elite warrior and is equipped with the most expensive------ Some european traders: Fire!!!!!! Takeda and Shimazu samurais: Arg! My honour has been vanquished by mere peaseants. Ashigaru: Haha stick go boom boom. Nobunaga Oda: I will buy 25 000 of that. Hattori clan: And the courtesans for warming the mens heart and boosting their morale? Nobunaga Oda: I find something better to do that. Some ronin: Well i guess this answer the stupid question of who will win in a gun vs sword fight?. The lady ashigaru: Yep. The kisho ninja: Wha the F are you doing here? The ashigaru lady: Buying new dishonourable toys for T C or H C, now can you please shut the F up? Oda Daimyo: Remember me what is the reason that we let a woman join to our army? Ashigaru seargeant: She boost the mens morale for some reason. Oda Daimyo: I can see the reason And I see you're a man of culture. Ashigaru seargeant: thick thighs save lifes and also the tokugawa send her as an hostage for protection. Daimyo: Yeah for protection. Metsuke: The F are you two doing and why is that woman trading weapons with tokugawa ninjas? D and A Sgt. We need gold for rice. Metsuke: Oh ok. D and A Sgt. 7w7 22 turns later Metsuke: How the F Tokugawa gets matcklocks? .............. !!!!!!!!! That 3!!!!!!!!!!!
When placing them on the walls, hold right click and drag your mouse in front of the unit. I think every direction works, but going in front of the unit is the most consistent for me.
Shame they're not better implemented in S2. Matchlocks were game changing late sengoku but are a bit facepalm in S2 like bringing your dodgy uncle to a party.
Well, matchlocks are game changing while in a siege defense and with good terrain. The maps in shogun 2 are generally very open and relatively flat, which don't help them in the game.
Or.... you can get any unit size mod which automatically allows ALL soldiers to fire their lead into the enemy lines. I play this with the Portuguese Tercos and it was D-Day before they end up in melee. It was... a good fun.... until they send 42000 men straight at you against mine 5800. Damn the Ikko Ikki. (This is played in 3x unit size mod)
Matchlock units guide: 1. Play as the Otomo 2. Sell your ass to the Portuguese 3. Tercos. Everywhere. Tercos This comment was sponsored by the "Portuguese tercos fan club"
Strangers have come to our shores
Matchlocks are extremely good when defending castles. You can hold a 20 unit stack with 2 matchlocks for dps and 2 Yaris for holding troops and one Cav to sweep archers. In almost all other situations they are completely outshined by bows except for the Portuguese Tercios
I think you'll need a bit more than a single cav to take out all the archers, but they are indeed very powerful in siege defense.
@@TheVikingGeneral Check out some of Volund's impossible battles and get back to me. That guy is insane
Don't forget if you want to position teppo unit, make sure they are not alone, covered with yari unit is the best. Because AI cavalry will tend to charge archer/matchlock unit when it goes alone. But this is also a way to attract dangerous cavalry so you can eliminate before main battle commence since enemy AI will flank you.
@@TheVikingGeneral you need 2 cav to wipe 1 unit of archers with no casualties. Ofc considering that theres any other archer pointing at them ofc.
You need a cav to bait the ai to send all their cav to the matchlocks. Then proceed to wipe the archers with the cav.
How to use matchlocks
1: play as the Otomo
2: mods
Haha, pretty much yeah :P
The Otomo Experience intensifies "Heavy Breathing in Tercios"
3: put them on walls or over anything that over looks your troops
4: win an impossible battle with the matchlocks hard carrying
I had the same as you and yes Otomo is superior at the use of guns but you need no mods to use them.The funny thing is that nowadays the best meta for multiplayer are matchlocks units ^^
@@bustowski the reason that I have to say "mods" because that, to obtain matchlock units, you have to take a very long research. By that time, you have the bow warrior monks. The second thing is the firing range. Matchlock do have a shorter range than bow, but not that short.
2:17 is the tactic I just realized this is very good. I tried after watch this and against massive yari ashigaru in otomo early campaign against shoni, everyone routed after they supported by 2 teppo gunner using same tactic on what you recommend. Tahnks for a lot tactic usage and can't wait for more
Glad to have helped!
People did thẻ sâm in the movie “Troy”
You just gained one sub ! And one comment for the algorithm !
That's awesome, thank you for your support! :)
I find that if you want to use your matchlock units offensively, it helps A LOT to build them in a province with the armour upgrades, and not the ranged ones like you would with bow troops.
This makes it a lot easier to get into range without losing half your troops, especially if you're using the ashigaru matchlocks.
Guns 😎 Although I think the biggest problem of matchlock units is not their use in combat, but the huge amount of time you need to spend to get gunpowder arts.
Yeah, that's what I'm going to cover in part 3, the actual campaign side of things ;)
1:20 you can also press insert and that will give you a first person view from the a single troop in the unit , you can scroll through the whole unit (I think) to see how many have a clear line of sight
There are two keybindsy you can use to get even closer viewer from your unit perspective. Insert and Delete. Delete follows your unit around closely in a shoulder camera. Insert gives you the first person point of view from one the single soldier in your unit and you can cycle through all your soldiers with PageUp and PageDown. Should be most helpful hopefully :)
Nice! the checkerboard formation is what I like to use the most.
For me it really depends on the terrain situation :P
I appreciate having the name "viking general" and having a channel filled with wonderful shogun 2 knowledge. Watched almost every video so far btw because I wanted to get back into shogun 2 on a whim and I'm so glad I did. Great info. Subbed
Haha, thank you for the kind words, glad you like the channel!
Thank you for your work on Shogun 2. If only I knew all the tipps before I started playing the game. Especially the economics screwed my campaigns on a regular basis, but with the knowledge gathered from your videos I am ready to give the game another shot without 1-turn research mods.
These guys completely saved my ass in more than one defensive siege battle, to the point that now if I have to defend a key or border castle I try to recruit even the Ashigaru with imported matchlocks (even if it takes me four turns to recruit them) so that the garrison of that castle have guns. They always get hundreds of kills, where they can basically wipe an entire unit and a half off the map. Even in defensive battles they are ridiculously useful with their ability to put up a barricade in front of them; Using that I recreate the Tokuwaga vs. Takeda battle where I have my infantry with guns behind the barricades and my infantry covering the gaps between the barricades causing bottlenecks that the enemy tries to get through as they die from a hail of bullets.
I think what you are referring to is the battle of Nagashino. That was a battle between the Takeda and Oda. Oda Nobunaga was ahead of his time and welcomed foreign influence including Christianity. He used Portuguese firearms to wipe out what was left of the takeda clan all in one battle. The takeda thought they could overwhelm thier enemy and decimate them with cavalry like they did with the other clans. Oda Nobunaga proved them deadly wrong. Pretty tragic for the takeda clan. Shingen already passed away, so he didn’t get to see his son’s failure and his clan being wiped out overnight.
@jaypenha5352 Yea Katsuyori is still young and hot blooded to keep trying to send dozens of cavalry to meet their death, but maybe if Shingen was still alive at Nagashino I think Shingen can actually see through Nobunaga's strategy
Watching this just right before unpausing a battle had the same vibe as going through 5 semester worth of subject before the final exam
Damn why am I just seeing these tutorials now, there are even visual guides made for fellow players - sheeeesh!
gyattttt
the most fun units to use in shogun 2 and the very units that makes shogun 2 great !
Glad you enjoyed them too!
1:32 good ol' Pike and Shot! With matchlocks siege are incredibly fun, but in the fields archers just shred arquebusiers
But assaulting a castle with matchlocks is the opposite of fun :P
@@TheVikingGeneral offensive sieges in general not that fun, but yeah... Assaulting a castle with matchlocks is an affront to human dignity
@@VaNDaIUKR I actually like them, but only if they go the way I expect them to go. I'll probably also do an offensive siege guide in the future
@@TheVikingGeneral offensive siege ultimate guide - siege enemy out or auto resolve if you can:)
Machlock are good but you really need to use them wisely and carefully
Yup, they require a decent amount of attention to make them worthwhile ;)
I'm honestly surprised that you didn't talk about Chevron formation, whereby you position your front line into the shape of a chevron, and position ranged units so that they have clear line of sight on the enemy engaging your front line. This allows your front line to engage the enemy while your guns unleash continuous volleys of fire.
Wouldn’t you get peppered by the enemy archers before the enemy infantry got in range? (I just learned about the chevron formation lol)
@The viking general. I love your videos, and the fact that you are keeping this masterpiece of a game alive and relevant! Also, you a solid tactician. Tzun Tzu would be proud! Thanks for the content on Shogun 2, please... we need MOAR!
Thank you for your compliments! I'm working on making more, don't worry ;)
@@TheVikingGeneral you're quiet welcome. I've been following Mr.smartdonkey's videos, but I don't agree on his tactics or strategies..he over glorifies the yari ash, and ranks them as the single best unit in the game, and embellishes their use of the yari spear wall, like it's some unstoppable shield. He even says that the oda are one of the best factions in the game because they can mass produce them like the Russians and are slightly better.
I believe this is a bunch of nonsense, and theirs a reason in almost every campaign, the ai usually wipes them out in the first few years. Yari are weak and easily countered and defeated in mid and late game, and i thoroughly enjoy slaughtering them in massive stacks with 5 or more experience...
I like your strategies and way of using the units, very similar to my own art of war thinking..
I just want to make one comment...
I can't play any Total War game without using the Darth Mod.. it fixes the game mechanics that are heavily broken in the vanilla version, especially with the kiso ninja, ammo for different archer units, correct damage and stats for unique specialty units...ship movement, makes charges and arrows more realistic, etc...
I would love to see you do some unit reviews with the darth mod ( just the first vanilla option, no other handicaps )
Also some faction reviews as well, as Darth Mod gives specialty units accessible to the factions on turn 1, and also drastically increases unit size....so reviewing these factions with 2x army size would be amazing!
One last reason to do these reviews using DM...
NO ONE ELSE IS DOING IT ON TH-cam WITH SHOGUN 2..
Sorry for the long reply, just of all the total war titles I own ( 5 or 6),
I only keep playing Shogun 2, as it's simply the best, most polished, story rich, and has the most replayability of any of the series..
My prayers have been answered
haha finally come! the most requested video
Hope you enjoyed it!
I never used them right, always got only a few kills then my entire lines would be destroyed, thank you for the guide.
Hopefully you'll be able to get the most use out of them!
Another great video viking!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks man, very nice tips ❤️
Idk why but you reminding me of smart donkey whenever you say "hello everyone"
Probably because we're both from The Netherlands (at least I think he is). The Dutch-English accent is a very peculiar one :P
@@TheVikingGeneral It is always you nederlands ; D
@@totalmadnesman What can I say? It's what we do :P
@@TheVikingGeneral i'm say this again since i deleted the comment. So you both from netherlands. Sweet, i've always wanted to come.
@@TheVikingGeneral There is just something calm about you guys :p
Greeting from the West of Germany :)
Keep 'em coming!!!👍👍👍👍👍
Will do!!
I found it useful to get the kneel fire mod for the matchlocks. Have a one thin line of matchlock kneel and then have another unit behind then not in kneel fire either shoot regularly or have them in rank fire. Be better to have mounted gunners behind them. My usual tactic in my campaign is superior firepower
Great as always, sad we never got Bow Cavalry!
Thank you for this!
Glad you finally cover the matchlock pal. And if this is the first part. what the other part gonna be? Are you gonna talk about the shimazu heavy gunner too or talking about the mounted gunner and donderbuss cav?
The second part is going to be about all the different units, including those you mentioned ;). The third part is about how matchlocks fit into the campaign.
Matchlocks with the big accuracy buffs from encampment and master bowmaker combined is some scary shit.
they definitely will be able to shred enemy units.
@@TheVikingGeneralthe next time you use matchlock units in Shogun 2 try using the caroleans tactics.
"Matchlocks are useless in offensive sieges."
Pilps: That's where you're wrong, kiddo.
I mean, for most of us normal people :P
This Skirmish method gives me Napoleon flashbacks
My jagers exactly when i see lancers charging my skirmishers.
Can you explain the pro's and con's of the Fire by Rank formation ?
thanks for the video
Greetings!
Preis algorithm gods!
Thanks for this bro, matchlocks are finicky in this game and it's difficult to know how to use them properly
Glad to be of help! :)
A couple of things missing:
-gunners can shoot up a hill, just like archers, to dislodge hill campers, since hills offer nice direct line of sight 360'
-guns disregard armor and 1 hit kill all but heaviest enemies, great against samurai and knights alike
-great against cavalry for the same reason, 1 hit kill horses, and when the first horses die they slow those behind them, Takeda suffered this exactly from nobunaga
-guns in massed fire can dislodge wall defenders very fast, unlike the curve drop of arrows who hit wall roofs often
-due to animation and range mechanic problems, right click attack when using fire by rank instead of waiting and first gunner line will shoot immediately when in range instead of waiting for every line to be in range
-if you don't like fire by rank or don't have kneel fire, just spread out the gunners as wide as possible. By game mechanics only first rank fires, but all gunners fire when there's only 1 rank
-way less friendly fire with guns than arrows ironically
Thank you for your comment, but the first two points I mentioned (shooting from hill to flat terrain and from flat terrain up a hill, but I didn't show footage of it). I mentioned that a volley into naginata samurai kills about the same number of men as a volley into yari ashigaru since they indeed ignore most enemy armour.
I think I also mentioned that they're great against elite infantry and cavalry, but I didn't really specify why.
I haven't really tested massed fire onto walls, thank you for pointing that out!
By not right clicking you'll actually do more damage if your unit has less than 37 reload skill, since that is the required number to get 4 volleys. They usually get off the 3 volleys if you don't issue any order, and since the enemy is closer they are way more accurate. (this doesn't work against cavalry though, they are too fast). Also you need to give the attack order before the enemy comes into range, otherwise it'll still wait. A more detailed explanation can be found here: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1518017515#:~:text=You%20can%20start%20by%20having,enemy%20is%20locked%20into%20combat.
And yup, spreading out gunners as wide as possible is the way to go. This is especially true for defensive sieges, where only the first rank fires. I also didn't mention that if you use ranked fire you only want to use them 3 ranks deep.
The less friendly fire is I think because they really need that clear line of sight, and don't arc their shots.
But thank you for elaborating a bit on the things that I either mentioned very briefly or didn't! It's good to have more information out there. ;)
how do you purchase them? only at the capital? no buildings to build? how to you get the samurai ones? .... so hard to figure out
Good video, but to be true if im unlocking blackpowder tech tree i always just go straight for fire rockets. They are just too fun to miss.
If you're there you might as well pick up those fire rockets indeed. They compliment matchlock units very well.
@@TheVikingGeneral I cant disagree but i prefere to use them with archers to clean enemy ranged units before they do anyting serious. Personally i see matchlock units more as samurai-counter, but it can be just my not so great amount of time in game.
I use the fire rockets to clear enemy archers and cavalry, and to force the enemy to move to me ;)
@@TheVikingGeneral When i played Hojo for the first time, i expected this to be hand motars job. It didnt work so well... but at least they keep enemy routing forces from regrouping.
These comments are a contribution to the holy cause of knowledge, may your ranks rise as the Oda recruit Ashigaru units!
:D
Haha, thanks!
Always had trouble getting the most out of matchlocks outside of defensive sieges
Hope this helped a bit ;)
@@TheVikingGeneral I hope you can give a bit of insight into what to do with them in more offensive scenarios like offensive sieges since they feel borderline useless during those.
@@ShallowTeal During offensive sieges they are borderline useless. There are a few fringe cases where you can use them, but the biggest use is to have them as fodder/distraction.
During field battles you have to find a way to neutralise the enemy archers.
@@TheVikingGeneral Ah so basically what I was already doing well I guess they have to have some glaring weakness to be balanced.
@@TheVikingGeneral Thank you for your input
1:16 Well actually you can press insert to literally see from one of your man perspective.
PS you can use mouse wheel to scroll trough individual soldiers.
Oh yeah, that's true, I forgot about that feature. Thanks for reminding me! :)
hi im quite new to total war shogun and still on the learning phase, can you make a video on tips and important aspects when you finally became shogun and the rest of the map is against you. i find it hard to make progress when an enemy fleet lands deep into your territory and youre without a garrison there
It already gets a lot easier by knowing you will have enemies everywhere, so you can prepare for it.
To guard against naval invasions, you can either try to keep a navy going, or have garrison armies deep in your territories. In my games I generally lose a few provinces to those naval invasions, but I always make sure to protect the important provinces.
But I'll add your idea to my to-do list! Just wanted to give some quick pointers ;)
Is it only me that found the short range of matchlock ashigaru really made them outshined by every other bow units? They cant fire in arc, need to have LOS, but having shorter range than any of the other skirmirsher units and the fact you need to actually research heavily on them to get one if you are not playing as Japan Otomo Crusaders.
Yeah, they're hard to use well
How do you manage to prevent enemy units from running in the gaps of your formation? When I try to use such a gapped formation the enemy just goes straight for my matchlocks
In my examples I might have put them a little too close to the frontline, but if you put them back a bit and have a extra unit behind your frontline you can engage enemies from the side.
The point is to make a gap large enough for the Matchlocks to fire on yet small enough that attacking units would be engaged by your infantry. Remember that all you need to hold an attacking unit is to simply clip their sides with one of your units. They can have only 5 out of their 120 units in a melee yet the entire unit will stop in place since its still engaged. That's where the matchlocks come in
I have a bad habit of using Matchlocks instead of Bows and to make up for it I just use cavalry to attack enemy archers.
That should work fine ;)
I almost always go for gunpowder in the campaign. Love me some modernisation even if they´re not the most efficient choice. Pew Pew
Then you probably also enjoy the fall of the samurai campaign ;)
I'm playing as Shimazu with 2 units of heavy gunners and I'm wondering how you would do the flanking manoeuvre and avoid getting charged by cavalry
The AI isn't very good with it's cavalry. If they don't suicide charge you, you can still bait them later in the battle and ambush them with some yari ashigaru (or other spear troops).
I would like to see how to do Bow cavalry
Hopefully I'll be able to get around to that soon as well.
Matchlocks are very hard to use because of their range for rookie shogun 2 players.
Can we get a video on sieges please?
It's on my to-do list ;)
I wouldn't say they're useless in an offensive siege, since they literally can break walls firing at them after a while.....and that devastates units behind them.
Also can kill engaged horses because enemy horses are taller then your men
Yup, they are very useful for sniping the enemy general!
They are hard to be useful if enemies can reach them
If they cannot, tho...man do they cause some damage
Next:how to use nodachi samurai
I already have a video about them: th-cam.com/video/pcEt8Wl7_64/w-d-xo.html
Ok
Are nodachi samurai can beat yari wall ?
@@Hussars450 I think maybe in banzai mode and if they have experience. Most units can't beat a yari wall and despite their high attack and charge their def sucks so I think yari wall can beat them
Takeda and Shimazu samurais:
Noooooo! You can't train a peaseant to kill a samurai who has been trained from childhood to be an elite warrior and is equipped with the most expensive------
Some european traders:
Fire!!!!!!
Takeda and Shimazu samurais:
Arg! My honour has been vanquished by mere peaseants.
Ashigaru:
Haha stick go boom boom.
Nobunaga Oda:
I will buy 25 000 of that.
Hattori clan:
And the courtesans for warming the mens heart and boosting their morale?
Nobunaga Oda:
I find something better to do that.
Some ronin:
Well i guess this answer the stupid question of who will win in a gun vs sword fight?.
The lady ashigaru:
Yep.
The kisho ninja:
Wha the F are you doing here?
The ashigaru lady:
Buying new dishonourable toys for T C or H C, now can you please shut the F up?
Oda Daimyo:
Remember me what is the reason that we let a woman join to our army?
Ashigaru seargeant:
She boost the mens morale for some reason.
Oda Daimyo:
I can see the reason
And I see you're a man of culture.
Ashigaru seargeant:
thick thighs save lifes and also the tokugawa send her as an hostage for protection.
Daimyo:
Yeah for protection.
Metsuke:
The F are you two doing and why is that woman trading weapons with tokugawa ninjas?
D and A Sgt.
We need gold for rice.
Metsuke:
Oh ok.
D and A Sgt.
7w7
22 turns later
Metsuke:
How the F Tokugawa gets matcklocks?
..............
!!!!!!!!! That 3!!!!!!!!!!!
haha, Shimazu best for exploding sticks
How do you get matchlock units to be only one soldier deep on the walls? I can only get them two deep.
When placing them on the walls, hold right click and drag your mouse in front of the unit. I think every direction works, but going in front of the unit is the most consistent for me.
How to use Matchlock to defeat numerically superior enemy? Hill
How to defeat enemy that mainly use matchlock? Hill
Hills can be so nice and so cursed at the same time
Traditionalist Samurai: The gun is a dishonorable weapon for cowards and fools!!!
Oda Nobunaga: can't hear you lol goon go BRRR
Shame they're not better implemented in S2. Matchlocks were game changing late sengoku but are a bit facepalm in S2 like bringing your dodgy uncle to a party.
Well, matchlocks are game changing while in a siege defense and with good terrain. The maps in shogun 2 are generally very open and relatively flat, which don't help them in the game.
Or.... you can get any unit size mod which automatically allows ALL soldiers to fire their lead into the enemy lines.
I play this with the Portuguese Tercos and it was D-Day before they end up in melee. It was... a good fun.... until they send 42000 men straight at you against mine 5800. Damn the Ikko Ikki. (This is played in 3x unit size mod)
In shogun 2 bow are better than boomstick, but in real life it's the opposite
I need guns.
LOTS of guns.
It's definitely something special to have your entire mainline just be matchlock units.
The first thing you need to do is adding mods like all ranks fire and increase range, and you will love these fire sticks in siege defending
I already love them in defensive sieges :)
Matchlock units guide:
1. Play as the Otomo
2. Sell your ass to the Portuguese
3. Tercos. Everywhere. Tercos
This comment was sponsored by the "Portuguese tercos fan club"
While I wouldn't actually sell the land to the portuguese, I really want to know where I can apply for the Portuguese tercos fan club xD
ahh matchlock units, where the Japanese speak fluent Japanese and the Portuguese speak English.
We probably shouldn't question it too much XD
How to use matchlock?
-> you don't.
Sad life for the boomsticks :P