Shogun 2 Siege Defense
. In, Legendary Geisha. They're nearly invincible and can wipe out entire clans if used right. The Hojo clan's income bonus. Even a middling Hojo player could sweep the campaign map before the first European contact. Kensai with decent Honour/Weapons/Armour can put down whole peasant rebellions, add a few to your uber-general's army and watch them carve everything up, excluding the Heavy Cavalry lead by heirs/Daimyos, Warrior Monks and high level Naginata Cavalry. The Takeda clan will sometimes start with an heir who has Honour 5-6 in addition to their Daimyo with Honour 6.
It seems that every time I try to manually siege a castle in Shogun 2 Total War, I always get my ass kicked, no matter what tactics I use to siege the castle. Even blowing up the entrance with cannons and charging in, the enemy always defends against me and slaughters my forces. Mar 26, 2014 Total War: SHOGUN 2. Is the idea to just force them out with a long siege, is artillery actually worth getting for sieging castles, or do you just need a ninja to open the gates before you try? Showing 1-12 of 12 comments Ghadaro. Mar 26, 2014 @ 3:53pm How you attack a castle and what you use depends on your goal.
Shogun 2 Siege Defense System
In, Elephants. The Russians may also qualify:, any city of theirs with the Huge Stone Walls upgrade can build Cossack Musketeers, a top-tier gunpowder unit, the instant blackpowder weapons become available. Arguably, the Dismounted Feudal Knights are an early-game. These powerhouse infantry units have insane defensive bonuses and are very effective in close combat. They're eventually countered by crossbows and gunpowder.
They're also incredibly vulnerable to a direct cavalry charge. Best used in an assault. Also, Dismounted Feudal Knights are probably the most effective unit in auto-resolving battles, so if you feel not confident in controlling a huge army you can just spam dismounted feudal knights and auto resolve. It will almost guarantee winning against any other stack of army costing the same or even more, provided that general skills don't differ too much. The Scots have access to Noble Swordsmen, who are basically Dismounted Feudal Knights on steroids. Also, the Scots have Highland Nobles which, when fully upgraded, cleave through most infantry and cavalry like a chainsaw through tapioca. The Scots don't get high-end gunpowder units and have relatively weak archer units.
The reason for this is because when you've got 1,200 screaming, painted, claymore-swinging Highland Nobles charging you, no amount of arrows or bullets are going to save your ass. Cavalry are squished outright by the range of pikemen that the Scots can field. Timurid Elephants? Scottish infantry are some of the best in the game, especially on a charge, and are pretty cheap compared with most other factions' infantry. Pair Highland Nobles with some Noble Swordsman for shock attacks and a bunch of pikemen to ward off cavalry or accept counter-charges, and you'll destroy nearly everything. The Stainless Steel mod manages to make the Scots even more broken.
The Highland Nobles are nerfed (while still powerful, they're harder to recruit), but recruiting pikemen is even easier now, so most Scottish armies are going to be packing at least four to ten units of pikemen. Pikemen are powerful here, particularly thanks to the combat system.
Every time a soldier takes a hit from a weapon that doesn't penetrate their armor, they have a brief 'flinching' animation that either stops them from advancing or prevents them from attacking. Pikemen, thanks to their long pikes, inflict these 'flinching' animations well before an opponent can get into striking range, and three or four men at least are going to be poking every enemy soldier, thanks to the pikes' reach. This dramatically slows them down and makes it hard to attack them and with hordes of pikes poking them, even heavy infantry will go down, and the small size of a cavalry unit compared to the pike unit ensures that every cavalryman is getting stabbed by dozens of pikes at a time. But the real kicker comes from the fact that Scotland is based on the British Isles, and all castles in the British Isles, once upgraded with the right archery ranges, can produce longbowmen. Pikes + longbows = nearly unbreakable formations that render just about any form of cavalry into a sad joke.
Even missile cavalry are largely useless against this formation, as the longbowmen generally out-range them, outnumber them, and have better bows. So, instead of the Scottish armies in vanilla Medieval II, which are a powerful infantry-oriented force that can destroy anything on a charge, you instead get a nearly-invincible Scottish army with unbreakable pike-and-shot formations, about three hundred years before widespread firearms use resulted in its development historically. Adding to Stainless Steel's brokenness is the 6.4 edition. Now, a few short turns after whenever England invades in the Late Era campaign, the Scots get William Wallace and his rebellion, just like in Brittania. That's right. Two full stacks of veteran infantry light years ahead of your recruitment capabilities, with incredibly high level generals and a thirst for English blood. If someone playing the Scots plays the right cards, they can go from struggling for survival to dominating the British Isles.
If you're playing the English, prepare to lose your starting army and everything north of Nottingham. Think Highland Nobles and Noble Swordsmen are bad? Try the Moors Dismounted Christian Guard unit.
Sure, you don't get them until late in the game and all the other infantry the Moors can field are mediocre, but their baseline stats of 16 attack and 22 defense, low upkeep and good morale and stamina more than make up for it. The Moors also get Camel Gunners, which are essentially mounted musketeers, and start off close to Timbuktu, where a few merchants can make several thousand florins per turn. Camel Gunners really are in a league of their own. The mobility and speed of light cavalry? Sizeable stock of ammunition?
Highly accurate missile attack despite being a gunpowder unit? Ranged attack that can tear through entire units of heavy infantry like paper? Can fire on the move? Faster reloading than other ranged units? And enemy cavalry, who are the only units fast enough to pin them down, receive a hefty debuff due to horses being unnerved by the smell of camels.