Total War: Shogun 2 - Skill Guide

A guide to help improve your skills and chances in Total War: Shogun 2

This skill guide is aimed to give you better all-around skills in Shogun 2, after about 10 years of playing Total War games I see many people making the same basic mistakes. Which could be easily fixed by paying more attention to opponents and replays. So I plan to give you a good guide on where a lot of players go wrong and how to make yourself better player.

This guide is mostly done playing on Avatar Conquest but the skills could be put into any part of Shogun 2. The first and possibly the most important thing is the unit selection screen. In my Avatar Conquest I have gone for Territories which will provide for me a very balanced fighting force.

I found that the best way to play it enough is to go overboard with one kind of unit, you need a good mix which work well together. The army I selected is five units of Katana Samurai these units will be the meat of my army, with good attack damage and armour they will be able to hold the line in most situations. Also taking four units of Archers and using them in front of my Katana Samurai and hopefully they engage with the enemy archers and target valuable units when my Katana Samurai have engaged. My cavalry is made up two light cavalry who I will use to scout and harass enemy archers. The other cavalry I use are Yari Cavalry this unit has a devastating charge and is a heavy counter to cavalry, I will be using this unit to help my flanks clear the enemy cavalry and hopefully destroy the enemy cavalry plus the surrounding of the General or army. Finally the last unit I've taken to be my reserve are the Yari Samurai, this unit is the heavy counter to cavalry can also handle itself fairly well in combat with most melee units. With its speed ability I'm able to rush it to parts of the battlefield where I'm being overwhelmed.

Retainers

Retainers are a new edition to Total War which you pick up from capturing territories on the conquest map all have their uses for certain types of battle. The higher rank you get the more of these you can field getting a maximum of five level ten. Try and always go for retainers that boost the core of your army and will help you achieve whatever tactic you plan to go for for when the game starts. In mine I've gone for Drill Square which gives me +3 melee defence for my Katana Samurai, Yagyu Sword Instructor, +2 Melee attack for my Katana Samurai and Yumi Officer +5 reload skill for my bow infantry. Retainers are very useful if you know how your opponent is going to play you can pick certain retainers can give your opponent negative effects, but when you're playing an unknown opponent it's best to focus on your unit’s army and not what your opponent could possibly go for.

Army Deployment

During this phase it is best to setup your army in a nice simple way, archers in one group your mainline of heavy infantry another group. Always put your archers in front of your heavy infantry as it makes it easier for the archers to get the first shots in before the enemy also gives you heavy infantry screen to deploy behind. Then archers can retreat behind them when the enemy cavalry or infantry draws near. With cavalry it's a lot harder, it is best to set your cavalry up right behind your infantry for if you decide to set them up on your wings and make sure intent of flanking isn't very obvious it is best to hide you're plan of attack in your deployment. So keep cavalry at the rear of the army with the general and the reserve unit of Yari Samurai. Try to always keep the number of groups you have between four and five anything more than this becomes a micromanagement nightmare. A lot of players try for a very complicated deployment scheme that doesn't really work very well if your opponent decides not to play exactly how you expect them to, so it is best to setup in a way that is easy to move and change the formation you decided to use.

Plan of Attack

The way I've been playing Shogun 2 that seems to give me the best results is always being aggressive to keep my opponent on the back foot. All too many times a lot of players keep themselves in their own deployments zone, this instantly gives the opponent the initiative in most cases it forces the most aggressive player to choose how the battle will play out. So if there is one thing that this guide could help with I hope it's to actually make more aggressive players on Shogun 2. The formation of my army I described in the deployments phase will instantly move archers and infantry to the middle of the map, in some cases there are bonus buildings on the map in most cases they take far too long to capture and will tie down at least one of your units. So I found it is best to move quickly and aggressively toward your opponent.

Reading Your Opponent

When the battle starts you will see your opponents units laid out before you after you send your units forward always move quickly and pay attention to your opponents units, in most cases you will be able to read what your opponent plans to do from what units they picked. Most people should play a balanced army but in some cases they may try to overwhelm you with one type or another, meaning it is very easy to work out their intent. High number of cavalry will indicate the desire to annihilate your cavalry and the encirclement of your army. A high number of archers will indicate more defensive stance and a large amount of heavy infantry will indicate head-on charge very early on. Read your opponent and build your tactics around his weaknesses and your strengths.

Scouting

Scouting is a major part of Shogun 2 you don’t even need to send units to do the scouting but if you do it's best to send light cavalry or some other cheap unit. The most important thing is to watch your opponent's deployment and if that army seems very small compared to yours it is likely that they have hidden units. In some cases it's very easy to guess where I have hidden units if they do have hidden units try to either pull a battle away from where they are deploying in a different area away from the forests or use light cavalry to flush them out. It can be very disheartening to an opponent if it always seems they can't keep anything hidden.

Engagement

Usually when both armies come closer to engage you will end up sending out your archers first to skirmish with the opposing range units. Always put your archers in loose formation this means they take a lot less range damage and be a stay in the fight a lot longer giving you time to set up your army behind them. During this part of the battle it is best to use light cavalry to harass enemy archers try running in with light cavalry at the sides of the enemy archers and always engaging just enough so the enemy pulls back a unit or two, this will give your archers more time to do more damage and hopefully win it's engagement. In most cases if you're winning the archer exchange your opponent will then try and charge you head on with his infantry in this case counter charge with your infantry. By doing this your infantry run ahead of your archers and the archers will be safe behind your heavy infantry during the melee fight.

Cavalry Battle

This is a point where cavalry really shine when both sides have engaged their infantry it’s the time cavalry can do the real damage, moving your cavalry to the flanks try and use them to engage and destroy the enemy cavalry. When this is done always try and move the cavalry behind the enemy infantry ignore archers at first, find the weakest enemy infantry unit and charge a unit of cavalry into them. Don't keep them in hand-to-hand combat the cavalry charge does the most damage and cavalry don't fare well in the long melee fights to is best to keep pulling them out and charging once again.

The General

At this point in the battle the General becomes the most important thing on the battlefield. The battle can be won and lost simply on by bad positioning of the General or by lack of care for his well-being. The death of the General is a massive morale loss to an army and will likely lose you the battle but this also works on your opponent so it is this point if you still have cavalry around it is best to try and hunt down your opponent General killing him or just forcing him to move away from his army is very important. As the General has a small aura zone as units under this aura are buffed in morale and generally fight better. His two major abilities are Inspired and Rally, the Inspire ability is a way for the player to select one unit to be given a buff in fighting and to morale is best to give it to units that are either about to do a lot of damage to their opponents or units are hard-pressed and are losing the fight. The Rally ability is very useful as it gives a bonus to a large amount of units in its area plus decreases enemy morale at the same time it is best to use this ability when you are struggling in the infantry fight or best in conjunction with the cavalry charges to opponents infantry. All these abilities used together and keeping your General very close at all-times to your army will give you victory and if not can give you a very hard for loss.

The Reserves

During the fight it is best to keep your units of Yari Samurai close to your General who should be in most cases in the middle of your army just behind your infantry so his aura can affect majority of the army. Players will try and hunt down your General with cavalry this is where your Yari Samurai can come into play with her ability to move quick through most units and being a hard counter to enemy cavalry they are brilliant bodyguards for your General. If your opponent doesn't try and take out your general army you can destroyed their cavalry. Use your reserves to either flank enemies or to reinforce areas where your opponent looks like he's about to break your line.

End Game

With the death of the enemy General or destruction of most of his army it is best to still keep up the good control of your army as even if you have won the majority of a battle ill management at the end can still lose you the game. Always try to keep low units close to your General as units that have taken heavy casualties are unlikely to run without the General being nearby. Chasing after units that aren't necessarily important or coming back to the battle is another way to lose, if your opponent could be lucky enough to General or rally enough men to threaten units that are chasing. So keep what units you have left and keep them at all times close to your General and just use cavalry to chase down fleeing units with this you should be able to win majority of your battles.

James ‘MrDogbert’ Given