Haha, pretty much xD

Shogun's certainly prettier and less glitchy than ETW, but I'd argue that ETW had more strategic depth and variation.

@@brainwasher9876 How can just going pew pew with guns have more strategical depth than any Total War with actual melee combat(like Shogun2)

@Tradpa0212 Empire has the best campaign, but the in-battle optimization could use some work. Also, Shogun 2 has the best blackpowder of all the total wars i've played. I would like an Empire 2 if at all possible

@@auxilia5024 Battles in Napoleon are lovely visually, sound design wise, and gameplay is great too. I could never really find much if any joy in Empire battles. I will say I do prefer the gunfire sounds of the muskets in Shogun 2 compared to Napoleon or empire though. The only thing Empire has going for it imo is the scale of the grand campaign map, besides that I find it to be a inferior total war game in every aspect compared to others. It did have the potential to be the best total war, but it has to many problems and just aspects that are much worse compared to other total war games. I also would like to see an Empire 2 though

An interesting way to bypass the issue of straight line shooting is just to shoot from stop a horse.

@@Elliottklassen I once experimented with putting Donderbuss behind a pike and shot formation and oh boy it was a really fun battle!

Balanced reasons

There is a generic version of Gun Monks in the game's code, and IIRC their unit name is actually "Uesugi Matchlock Monks." No clue why they were never properly implemented.

Glad you are enjoying the game! :)

Its one of the better total war games, imo after shogun 2 they started getting worse and worse :(. My personal favourite is medieval 2

They are really fun to use! :)

I used Tercos as my front line, and fire rockets to back them up. I used two units of light cav and my general to ride down routers after the massacre.

Thank you :)

He will get a bigger audience!

@@Melkor7 Thank you for your confidence! :) We'll have to see what happens.

You'll pretty much agree with the conclusion in part 3 then ;)

@@TheVikingGeneral really? Awesome :D Can't wait then.

But the truth is, fire by rank in original Shogun 2 is too problematic. It took ages for them to fire.

Haha, hopefully I'll be able to do that a third time soon ;)

Bow cavalry is low-key very powerfull ;)

Yeah, you'll probably agree with part 3 then ;)

The Kitabatake (Ise province) in the mod that allows you to play as any clan can recruit the matchlock warrior monk relatively easy. They need a tier 2 shrine (province building) and the gunpowder tech after heaven and earth. The mod gives all other clans traits that are generaly speaking good and not over powered. Mod is called "All 46 Clans Playable - Classic", made by AkaSinneslöschen.

Glad it was helpful!

Glad you like the format!

Are you sure? In my game, I only need the powdermaker to recruit the matchlock ashigaru, but the samurai matchlock do require the gunsmith.

@@TheVikingGeneral oh. I think i made a mistake. What I was trying to say was the bulding chain needed for sieges was needed in a castle to recruit matchlock ashigaru when playing as Otomo compared to other clans where reasearch was only needed, which is a hassle when you need matchlock ashigaru asap as an Otomo.

@@KyoushaPumpItUp Yeah, but from the way the game presents it, it seems to be intended. ;)

@@TheVikingGeneral Let me guess, because of their superior matchlock units that would make them easier to expand if the ashigaru were easily recruited without the need for the siege building chain?

@@KyoushaPumpItUp I don't know why the developers would implement it that way. But the powdermaker is relatively easy to get, getting the gunpowder mastery art afterwards easily takes 20+ turn.

I'd recommend sticking with bows ;)

I did indeed miss the point about the guard mode! The other things I did know, but eventually I have to cut some stuff out of the script to keep it from being bloated. And of course, the focus is on single player campaign. ;) Deployables are for every ranged unit if you "fortified" a position (spend a turn without moving your army and be attacked afterwards) I didn't mention the shimazu bit (but it's very powerful indeed) since the AI generally is very bad with their cav anyway. I'm not too familiar with the reload mechanics, but I might look into it in the future! I still have a lot of different things to cover :P

@@TheVikingGeneral Ah ok I didn't knew how bamboo fences could be used in campaign as its some years ago I played one. Can it also be used in sieges as I also have a tactic for this? :D kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bcenZd2Gv7K5qaM.html I guess thats the problem to talk about tactics here as my experience refers to MP only as I am disappointed by weak AI, but therefore AI requires completly other tactics to deal with it, which I don't really know. I just know heavy gunners are not really used in MP, but I often give love to unusual units. In one landbattle a suprised flank attack by a cav that my ally didn't stopped from his opponent was about to hit me and I could turn around heavy gunners on a bad postion in the last seconds so the cav unit was like 2m away from the unit until the salve of death completly smashed it :D They also suprise many players in sieges as they don't know that their guns deal quite good damage to buildings and they are amazing in taking down towers and gates. But also against units on the wall as bullets pentrate the wooden part and so hit the soldiers behind. Thats how you can kill units on walls faster than with archers. And their push back effect in small spaces is just perfect to stop sally outs steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2088297371

Glad you think so! :)

Using fire by ranks is circumstantial. I think I'll actually make another video about it since there's quite a bit of nuance to it. But in general, it's probably best to use it and give attack orders before they enter your firing range.

Well its pretty easy to answer. Fire by rank allows a unit to have 3 ranks of firing max.(it can be less though). This means that you can have on small space a really high firepower. This for example can be needed in a siege battle at a fight close to the keep, as space is kinda limited there. The disadvantage of fire by rank is that the first volley needs more time than without firing by rank and the unit waits until almost every soldier in a rank loaded, which can cause delays when your matchlock unit gets shot by archers for example. So the first salve of firing without rank is faster and every soldier fires at will, so whenever he loaded a musket or he gets the line of sight he starts shooting. This gives a matchlock unit a really high flexibility, but remind only the first rank of a unit can fire. As a result this turns out really effective against cavalry charges by AI. Firing by rank would take way too long, the charge already hit you before ur soldiers fire. Also on hilly terrain where your line of sight is blocked sometimes the higher flexibility and initiative of every single soldier is better than a formation salve. Another thing you need to be aware of is that as your only your first line is shooting it is best to form so called "Spaghetti-lines". This means its best to stretch out the unit as long as possible. As a result of that your front size expands by alot, so you need to be sure to have enough melee power to protect all the units. One important thing that isn't mentioned in the video and I haven't even seen it on his units is activating guard mode!!! This a somewhat necessary thing to play matchlocks as this allows ur unit to fire even if some of the soldiers are engaged in melee!!! This means as long as not ur entire unit is in melee some soldiers continue shooting which cause way more damage then having them fight with swords. Also not every small touch disorders ur unit and ensure way more salves and also better retreating options. One last advise I can give is a powerful combination of fire by rank AND loose formation. I don't really have alot campaign experience, as I play MP the most, but I have 2800 hours in S2 overall and I invented a strategy to beat Fall of the Samurai armies with traditional troops with firepower and matchlocks are the key. If you use fire by rank AND loose formation it is like light infantery we know from ETW or NTW. The chance of getting hit is so low cause the free spaces and crouching soldiers combined. However Iam not sure if that can be useful against AI as I assume it tends to be really aggressive and you don't have alot skirmishing phases. But aginst players it turned out decent. I once send a replay to a famous youtuber who showed my tactic in this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jrCbhdZ_ma3Jo3U.html

@@trebor797 The time the first rank takes to fire is also dependend on wether you give it an attack order or not an the position of the enemy. ;) But I should've mentioned guard mode indeed! Thank you for pointing that out :)

@@TheVikingGeneral Yeah I knew this with the attack order, but it turned out that on larger armies its better to let the enemies come and keep the formation. However this does not refer to campaigns as you can press pause like all the time you want, which allows you way more micro opportunities than in MP. But against other players its better not to give attack orders before you army falls apart cause they chase down something. Position is important thats what I meant with hilly or lets call it complex terrain. There the fire without rank option is betetr except you can fire down from a hill with your infantery infront. Like a small conclusion you could say compared both modes after 1 minuite of continuous fire, the fire by rank gets the win for sure. But for situtations with only short chances to fire a salve its better not to use fire by rank.

@@trebor797 I mostly play on legendary difficulty, so no pausing for me during battles :P and i'm so used to it, I don't even pause when playing on lower difficulties (except when trying to get footage for these guides maybe :P) The attack order and guard mode is a bit finicky in shogun 2. I know it works really well in for example WH2, where your archers will simply not chase. But keeping your formations is very important.

I might do so in the future. But for now, there's plenty of other stuff I want to cover first.

The plan is to do a quick unit guide series for more total war games. I'm currently considering doing both the Rome1 remaster and the Total war Warhammer 2. But I'll have to see how those work out.

@@TheVikingGeneral doing warhammer would bring a lot more people to your channel, but it will be a pain to do because of the amount of units there is

@@mareus12 eh, I like the warhammer stuff, so I don't mind. Also, that just means there is a lot of content to be made! :P

Such weird beings those europeans :P

Yeah, that's pretty much the conclusion of part 3 ;)

@@TheVikingGeneral Ohh did I spoiler it already? ^^

@@TheVikingGeneral Oda matchlocks at 75 upkeep 1 vs 1 win against a Portuguese Tercos. Oda matchlock ashigaru are the best matchlock unit for cost against worth.

They are Arquebus, if they were proper matchlock during the late 16th century, then they were more powerful. Flintlock will have faster fire rate.

Yeah, I find matchlock unit is easy target for cavalry charge and I hard to take position before they launch a volley. By the time of the impact, tercos is struggling in melee defense although compare to the other of its kind, they are the best

@@ReviveHF Matchlock is broad term, arquebus, early muskets, early pistols - they all matchlocks if the use match cord and some sort of lock. Thus the term matchlock

Why is fire by rank broken?

@BobWat units will fire very late if enemy units enter their range. It's not too big of a deal for most units, but if you units have high reload speed you'll miss out on extra volleys.

Haha, in most of my campaigns, the otomo get wiped out before turn 10.

That would be an awesome opportunity I think!

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b-Cdabummqq5qGw.html

He’s in the comments under this video. Try asking him for an interview and make a poll on your channel for questions to ask him??

You have to give an attack order on an enemy unit before that unit enters your range of fire to get the most out of it.

Otomo intensifies

yeah, that's the difference between otomo and the other clans. You need the powder maker building, whereas other clans only need to have the gunpowder art mastered. However, you can build the powder maker way before you unlock the gunpowder art.

Yup. They seem so cool, but then still end up dying immediately

It could be a number of things. The first could be that they're not on fire at will. The second might be that they are instructed to fire in volleys, but for some reason one of the models can't/won't fire, causing the entire row to not fire. Or it could be some other weird buggy stuff. :(

dakka dakka dakka

We're both from the Netherlands, so it's probably our accents. ;)

I don't have any experience with mods for shogun 2