Shogun 2 FoTS multiplayer: 4 years later

Overview

So! You’re a young, budding Imperial / Shogunate general ready to make your mark on Japan! You’ve just come onto the multiplayer scene and, despite your enthusiasm, find yourself smashed by players with triple your stars. Don’t be discouraged! This small guide can help you out! Although you might have been late to the Shogun 2 multiplayer party, if enough of you newer players stick around you’ll surely become the life of it. This guide isn’t aimed at a few very high level strategies and particular broken features of the game; it’s much more about filling some (hopefully many) of the information holes that the Shogun 2 tutorial, possible campaign experience, and other guides haven’t yet cleared up.EDIT: Sorry for the lack of fixes and updates that were promised. Expect new content, so please check back! Thanks for the great feedback from everyone who commented! (last edited 29/11/19… S2 nor this guide will ever die!)

Introduction: take a look at yourself!

Good day, Commander.

Thanks for clicking on this guide of mine! Before we begin, I’d like to get a couple of points and definitions sorted out…

Before reading this guide I would highly recommend that you take a look at AggonyDuck’s excellent Shogun 2 guide titled ‘AggonyDuck’s tidbits on FoTS MP’. Although Duck has moved on from this game and I never had the good fortune to have a game with him he is still a far superior player to me in all aspects, and had the good sense to record his findings on all things FoTS. You’d be hard pressed to find a better guide than his. This one just ‘builds’ (more like reiterates and regurgitates) his ideas and throws in some other tidbits of my own that are 90% personal preference more than flat improvements on how to play the game. Duck’s guide isn’t the only good one out there though, nor he the only excellent player, so be sure to have a look around for things that are missed out in here. If you feel you are a newer player it might be better to read the first couple of sections of my guide before upgrading to his, and them coming back for the rest of mine afterwards once you’ve absorbed the knowledge through a couple of decisive victories.

Another thing you might want to do before continuing is to put yourself and foes you face into one of three broad experience camps, below. While this guide is trying to aim predominantly at intermediate-level players, I found it useful to me to assign myself into one of these categories in order to quickly compare myself in skill and arsenal to players who I’ve fought before. Having a back catalogue of the Idiosyncrasies, capabilities, and limitations of frequent opponents will do you wonders on the battlefield.

Noob (or, perhaps more diminutively) Newbie: A player new to the game, and particularly multiplayer. Skill will vary wildly but ‘noob’ players will consistently have very little experience applying whatever skills they may have. Their arsenal will also be quite limited in scope, particularly with veterans, and thus even if their micromanaging skills are excellent these players often struggle to compete in larger-funds games or siege battles. Identify others as this in-game if they have either few steam profile hours in S2 and/or low multiplayer rank.

Average Joe: A player of average skill. Amount of time in the game varies wildly and this type of player could be an experienced casual player or a semi-new player who is improving in skill quickly. Could be well equipped with good units and veterans if the player has won a lot of games or has just been playing the game for a long time. Likely, some ‘essential’ (read: annoying to deal with) veterans may be present but not in absurd quantities. High-ranking bronze players are often in this category, or at the very least they aren’t ‘noobs’. The veterans or elite units these players possess makes them considerably more suitable to larger funds, multi-player battles.

Pro: A player who plays and more importantly knows the game very well, quite often playing competitively rather than casually. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they play tournaments (Ha! S2 Tournaments in 2019…)- this gentleman distinguishes himself from the ‘Joes’ ‘below’ him though trying much harder to win, whether that be with conventional tactics or otherwise. Often very high ranked and experienced players. They may either prestige multiple times or remain a 10-star bronze, so detecting an opposing ‘pro’ can be difficult when so many players are now rank 10. Almost always in possession of the ‘best’ troops available, as well as powerful veterans. Always dangerous, though if you are a member of this elite crew pat yourself on the back (and please, have mercy on us poor souls below).

By assigning yourself to camp ‘Joe’, ‘Pro’, etc. you give yourself a weight class. Since in S2 players with greater stars have proportionally greater arsenals and experience, you have extra reason to be proud when you K.O. some guy who’s ranked above you.

A second pertinent reason is that these voluntary tags also indicate potential areas of weakness with greater precision than just your number of stars. Skill progression in Total War games (particularly S2: FoTS) is often not a constant curve. You will find yourself improving in certain areas quickly, others less so. In all cases, before you can think about the mechanical nitty-gritty behind the game, you’ll likely need to get to grips with the fundamentals!

If you are at the ‘Noob’ stage let’s say, then it is also an indicator that for you, perhaps it is better to examine your army-wide control and gamesense rather than trying to pull of micro tricks with your unvetted Tosa riflemen? Equally well, if you aspire to transition from ‘Joe’ to ‘pro’, you’ve likely got sufficient APM to get by with the basics, so perhaps it is more important for you to feel comfortable enough replacing your Red Bears with Black Tortoise Force for that sweet extra 90 Koku (if unvetted) in exchange for a less sturdy, but almost as capable, unit?

My suggestions will never be true for all players, and thus never gospel to be followed without healthy critique. I personally believe it to be easier to know how to lead an lopsided army to victory (a mark of a ‘pro’) when you have done the same with a balanced one (an achievement that ‘Joes’ are capable of), but multiplayer would be all the cooler if some Champion of Chaos came along to prove my hypothesized trends wrong.

On a final note on gradings, try to know thy foe! Looks for hints on player skill and experience prior to the battle, with a common hint (aside from stars) being in how they communicate. ‘Noobs’ and tryhards may not communicate very much, while chattier, friendlier players are more likely to be either in the mid-band of skill or extremely good at the game. Your persona and attitude will affect a player / opponent’s perception of you, so if you want to put your chances of winning to the forefront be a ♥♥♥♥ and piss everyone off be aware of this and manage yourself appropriately in how you chat; to intimidate, be misleading, or—God forbid—be genuinely friendly. Above all, however, it will be better for everyone if you pretend to be a gentleman in chat and in game. Nobody won a battle without having the manners to end the enemy rightly.

Before the Battle

As a new player, don’t be intimidated by the amount of stars on your opponent’s profile. Although it is a rough estimate of how much time your opponent / ally has had with the game it has very little indication of what their true skill level will be. This might sound contradictory to what I’ve previously written, but I’m trying to point out two things:

1. Don’t develop matchmaking anxiety and freeze out of fear when fighting higher ranks
2. Similarly don’t expect an easy, low-APM victory against lower-levelled players than yourself.

There is no anti-smurfing system in place in S2 so expect to get some wildly varying skill levels on lower ranked players. In addition to this when in a lobby with a player who has no stars check their name on the player list in the lower right corner of the lobby. When there are no stars displayed the player is not necessarily bronze- they could have just prestiged (eek!). If this is the case prepare to face veteran spam combined with Red Bears or other basic units.

When I was first working my way through the lower ranks I often let higher ranking opponents walk over me as I refused to try and actually win. I spent most of my time losing slowly by trying desperately not to lose. If this applies to you, the last thing a high-ranking player will expect from a lower ranked player is confidence and decisiveness. A higher-ranking player will often put on a mental autopilot and just plink away at the enemy army with longer range weapons until the lower ranking player is frustrated enough to try and end the game in a last-ditch attack. This may have worked at the start of the battle but the lower-ranking player has been sufficiently weakened to in most instances be routed before causing any serious dents in the higher ranked player’s army.

As a lower ranked player you trade veterans / general skills and advanced units for more funds (as your general costs less). Some of the most cost-effective units in the game also come very early on the avatar conquest map- Red Bear spam, when coupled with lots of Yari Ki, (maybe with a Bow kachi thrown in) makes a simple but very effective army. On the battlefield the difference in cost between your general and your opponents’ could be 1 – 2 Red Bears, and when coupled with your heavy investment into line, you should be able to run forward and steamroll an opponent who had invested in units that don’t offer instant, high-damage firepower like yours. If you lose? Oh well. You won’t ‘waste’ much time and you’ll get far better at controlling units when rushing like mad than if you sit back and play the game like you can in singleplayer. One might think that traditional units would do well in an army like this but paying 50 or 100 Koku more than a Red Bear for a unit which can’t shoot back isn’t a good idea, especially after you get some veteran Red Bears out with improved reload. A player off balance is a player losing, unless his troops can win the battle for him through firepower alone.

Try to take every aspect of the battle to come into account. The most obvious of these is the total funds of the battle, but maps in Shogun 2 vary quite drastically in terrain features and knowing roughly the environment you will be fighting in is essential for making sure that the soldiers you have in an engagement are the soldiers that you want there. For instance:

• Caldera is a cauldron (of calamity!) – A big-ass lake surrounded by trees
• Trees are bad for cavalry, but provide cover for troops
• Cavalry is bad for skirmishers (Most often Tosas)
• Trees are especially good for Tosas, who can fire whilst hidden
• Often you are fighting through the trees
• This means you are limited on space
• Small units are better in small spaces
• Tosas are a small unit
• Thus Tosas could be a good idea on this map.

A similar run-through of this thought process could yield results such as how cavalry can be neglected, but not completely ignored, huge lines of modern infantry are unlikely to clash cohesively, artillery is going to have hard time getting high numbers of kills, though it isn’t always a bad plan to bring an Armstrong, and that veterans with speed upgrades would be a good idea, as they can ‘crab’ (walk hidden) through trees at semi-decent speed rather than the snail’s pace of most FoTS units. Although this may not help you as much if you don’t have access to the ‘ideal’ unit for the map, this same process could provide a foresight into your opponent’s army as well. Predilections, however, will often come before map for army choice. If a player brings 175-range Tosas often, expect him / her to do so again even on the hilliest maps in the game. Punish your foes for their inflexibility!

All of this, however, is very much a matter of personal approach to the game. If you don’t want to use large amounts of, cavalry being more of an infantry commander, don’t spam cavalry on hilly maps just because it may make sense. It’s just a good idea to be familiar with your engagement environment and plan accordingly.

Neglected and overused units

Now we enter the child orphanage of Shogun 2 multiplayer. I my time with the online game I’ve seen many strange sights to behold: 150-range guard armies with no Marines in sight, White Tiger Spam with no cavalry, and I myself have been guilty of brining Kelhitai as my only line units to 10k 1v1 games. Anyway, Here’s the list of what I feel are some of the most underutilized and overrated units in Fall of the Samurai, and whether their neglect or love is the right course of action or not.

These are very much a rare sight to me, sadly. As Duck and others have pointed out in both text and video guides a general with a few accuracy and reload upgrades is effectively a free half strength gun cavalry unit with absurd range for revolvers. Even low-level players will have access to a unit almost a powerful as even the highest levels of traditional S2 bow general (Due to the armour penetration). The only time where a non-top star leadership general would serve you better are in the less common situations of siege battles. Stand and Fight compared to the +4 reload that the Gun general can provide is only a marginal bonus, as the Gun general can affect a very spread out line without any problems of having to be in effect range.

With bushido generals, you will fare best if you have a very cavalry-heavy army / are using more traditional units, as after all that is what the tree is all about. The problem is If you use a Bushido general with a modern army setup you can’t compete competitively due to the nature of ranged power vs melee power when it comes to generals. In addition the support powers that the Gun general can provide at higher levels can be huge for modern units. Compare this to the deliberately traditional-oriented buffs of the Bushido tree, and you are forced down a path by your Avatar choices, which is not true to the same extent with Leadership or even Gun.
Something to take note of though is that Bushido generals have been used in fall of the samurai tournaments, though again with more purpose-built rush / traditional armies. With regular S2 players on the competitive scene Leadership was a very common tree to pick, too. I can’t comment on Heroic Assault, Bombardment or even Ganbatte (I don’t have them!) but lower-rank players won’t have access to those, either. I would go from left to right in order of quality, though.

What about hybrid generals?

I might be miscategorising generals, as a single upgrade into the gun tree gives the appearance of a modern ‘gun’ general and so I could be mistaking hybrid generals for full-gun ones. If they are indeed hybrid generals, then playing like a Gun general seems to certainly take precedence over activating things like Stand and Fight or charging into melee with revolvers in hand. Hybrid generals cannot really hybridize effectively at lower levels as the Gun tree provides the most benefits with the fewest points, in my opinion. This makes soon-to-be hybrid generals Gun generals, or default generals with slightly improved buffs, extra melee attack, and a basic gun- not particularly useful. (Of course, at low levels general buffs will be minor regardless, so it matters less anyway) You have to be a high ranking general in order to fully have investment into two or all three trees past the first few points anyway, so in order to become an effective and diverse hybrid general you are more likely to be precluding the option of taking the 20-points-in-one-tree upgrade, as you are more likely to be a higher ranked player. I would recommend watching This video is brilliant in general and around the 16 minute mark there is some information on the Avatar skill tree. He has other Shogun 2 videos on his channel as well.

Another essential unit wish I saw more often. The OG ‘cavemen in pyjamas’, these rickety, poorly-equipped troops are arguably the single most cost-effective line unit in the game, and when cared and catered for they an do a similar if not better job then their Red Bear imperial counterparts. Although they are not the units to take the line, they can most certainly hold it. Black Tortoise can be taken in three ways in my eyes: vanilla, or with 1 or two reload. The vanilla unit has a superb cost, while the two veteran variants can dish out more firepower (albeit less reliably, with their poor morale) than the otherwise ubiquitous Red Bears.

The fashion sense is strong with this one. While fluffy hats can get you a long way in life and battle, so can the metal kasa–type helmet that Shogunate guard infantry use. The difference is that the Shogunate alternative can wear the more durable headgear and have exactly the same stats for 60 koku less, which is nothing to scoff at. Thus Imperial Guards are thus immediately redundant the moment the player has access to the Shogunate variant of the guard infantry. There are a couple of different situations where imperial guardsmen will still be used however, for instance as a sort of ‘troll’ units or just if you want to look like a noob, or an utter fool. If you don’t have the Shogunate foot guards unlocked then imperial guardsmen are by no means a bad unit, though like Duck I would not recommend either of them for 150-range duties. You have 3 marine units for that. Both guard units and (to an extent vanilla marines) will be covered again later.

The paper, baby tiger. With a paltry set of unit stats and a unsettlingly high cost, White Tigers fail to be the melee buffer or cost-effective monster that an FoTS general would want them to be. (Seemingly their teen angst had them forget all ability they had to actually aim and reload!) When put up against a Loan Sword Ashigaru, for instance, in a 1v1 situation the traditional unit wins with minimal losses, although they may have come close to routing at some points in the engagement. The only real use that I can see for Tigers is in very low level and funds battles where they are in sufficient numbers as to skirmish effectively with traditional armies (the idea being that most units run, free units shoot). Against FoTS, do 3 white tigers beat two red bears? No, unless they have a huge amount of morale benefits in their favour. This would seal the coffin on the unit, but Tigers still fare better than the paltry ranged stats of the non-Monk matchlock units in Shogun 2 (which still have a place even against Fall of the Samurai, mind). against the monstrous cost efficiency of Red Bears, veteran Black Bears and in close second Shogunate / imperial infantry, the morale of White Bears just doesn’t cut it even to hold ground and get the first volley off.

Just like the unit above, sadly nothing but a troll or roleplay unit. Since it only takes 1 Imperial building unlock in the faction chain on the conquest map to unlock the far superior Red Bears (better morale and general melee stats, all for 10 koku less) then this unit and their pointy hats instantly become redundant to 95% of the fall of the samurai playerbase. There really isn’t anything else to it. For a more balanced unit, I would think that all of the Red Bear units should be 30 koku more and the Azure Dragons should be the price and have the same morale as Red Bears, and give the Imperial troops Levy Infantry or Line Infantry (for both factions) as a new generic unit, that are slightly weaker unit to the faction-exclusive levy and muzzleloader mainline units, respectively. This would really help distinctly fill out most FoTS player’s armies with distinctly shogunate or imperial troops, rather than 80% Red or Black Bears. I don’t know why I’m writing about this, unless someone is inclined to make a multiplayer rebalance mod…

Guards and Ultra Funds

Ultra-funds battles can be very difficult for new players to approach. They are a mess, filled with lag-outs, expensive hard-to-counter units and salty pro players. I personally think that success in ultra-funds battles revolves around the use of the not-so-humble elite infantry of the modern army: the Guardsmen and Marines.

The extra utility of elite infantry / guard units is not immediately easy to identify. After all they may have immense firepower, but units like Red Bears provide a much greater total amount of firepower relative to their cost. As AggonyDuck stated two Black Tortoise will reliably beat a unit of guards, along with the added versatility of being able to cover two different angles at once, splitting their firepower.

The hidden usefulness may not seemingly be the amount of stress and punishment the unit can take, as again the two black tortoise have double the hit points of a single unit of guards. Guards may have high morale, but that matters little if you are dead.*

Another problem related to using guard units is that you are throwing away plenty of koku as the unit takes casualties from things it often can’t defend against. In the larger funds battles where guards are increasingly more useful, good counters to guards, such as artillery, 150-range marines (who should be handled differently to guards) and skirmishers become more common too.

So why not just write “Guards are useless, only take rank 5 Marines”?

Units only have less initial firepower (on large unit size) when reduced below 66% of combat strength, and while damaged units in a single line shuffle much more when taking casualties. For units around 100-men, however, for their initial volley (if they get the first shot off or if they is no / very little counter fire) will be just as powerful as when they are at full fighting strength. This can often cause opposing damaged units to take so much damage that they cannot form up to fire before the guards have reloaded.

The advantages of the guard are how can concentrate its firepower into a small area in more situations than a pair of Black Tortoise could, (unless the Black Tortoise are either on completely open terrain or on a hill, for instance). It will also not rout under pressure as frequently due to their high morale. If you take guard infantry units I feel that you should use them as shock troops, brawling with other units where a cost-effective line could not, for instance in environments where there are lots of line of sight blocking terrain features or little space to maneuverer, so engagements often resort to close range 1-vs-1. In these conditions the guards may also be able to use their high melee stats more often than when they are out on the open field. (Do not think this means you should use them like you would Shisengumi, however!)

Linking this to the ‘ultra funds’ heading, on ultra-funds games guards suddenly become much more useful. In lower funds games / 1-vs-1 there is plenty of space to move troops about in and cavalry has a real use. In ultra-funds games, particularly ultra-ultra (Ultra funds, Huge unit sizes) there is simply no room on the crowded battlefield and thus speed of cavalry has almost no use. Armies take up the whole of the map and so putting the most firepower into the smallest amount of space take precedence over cost-efficiency.

Another minor thing to note is that Guards of course get an Encouragement aura around their unit. It’s not hugely significant but it’s always a nice help and it further encourages fighting in tight formations where at least two other units will get the morale boost. This dosen’t fit their potential 1-vs1 usage but in Ultra funds I would recommend putting a guard unit together with two non-elite modern rifle units- Tosas or Imperial / Shogunate infantry. These are generally the more cost-effective choices when compared to guards in normal battle situations and on Ultra funds games they do well to make sure you have units that you don’t mind taking casualties instead of your guards while dishing substantial damage themselves, all at 25% lower price than a Shogunate guard. Their relatively poor morale is improved by the inspiring aura and the higher a unit’s morale is, the longer it is sticking around for and fighting for, and thus the more cost effective it is being.

So, in summary, in ultra-funds games you need infantry with plenty of staying power (morale), high number of bodies (don’t spam light infantry) hitting power (high stats / modern rifles) and, when fighting Traditional opponents / cavalry, good melee stats (it is hard to mass skirmish / run on such a large scale). Guards fill all of these categories nicely. This goes hand-in-hand also with the next section…

Lesser-utilized veteran upgrades

Veteran upgrades in general are covered nicely AggonyDuck’s guide, but aside from reload, +25 range and accuracy there isn’t all that much information on the other upgrades available. This section is just as much on the understanding of the following veteran upgrades as it is on how widespread their use is.

Suppressive Fire

Poorly understood and rather problematic. The increase reload speed in exchange for reduced accuracy can actually negatively affect the upgraded unit’s performance. For instance, if you have a unit of Royal Marines, upgraded to 75 reload (which I don’t recommend doing with veteran upgrades)* so they are sitting right on their reload cap (See AggonyDuck’s guide) then the increase reload speed granted by Suppressive Fire will have no effect. Combine this with the reduced accuracy of Suppressive Fire, and then the only benefits of suppressive fire are the debuffs that suppressive fire applies to troops that are shot at by it. (Reduced morale, movement speed, etc). Overall, then, suppressive fire isn’t even a temporary flat increase in stats, it’s a temporary change -not necessarily an improvement- into how your unit performs, all at the cost of 50 koku. The increase in reload is very substantial (seemingly ~+30) but as previously said it will often run into the reload cap of efficiently upgraded units, or those with a reload cap close to their base value.

Y’know what could provide the same devastating morale impact as a couple of units who have bought up Suppressive Fire? Artillery. Artillery could do the same job, provide the negative morale effect (A -4 with artillery- though in mechanics not the in-game morale) to almost anywhere on the map instantly, and it does this with the side effect of providing additional, highly accurate fire. Yes, 1450 koku for a veteran Armstrong gun with extra accuracy (the accuracy being isn’t quite the same as a 50 koku veteran upgrade, but in the environment where artillery is scarce so a veterans, and for good reason. Yes, they could maybe be a substitute, but regardless their utility will be limited to certain fodder units in an army where units are capable of breaking enemy units selectively, then moving on- for instance a line of 5 Black Tortoise with 1 reload on 3 and Suppressive Fire on remaining 2. Combined with artillery it could be an effective counter to an enemy Black Tortoise or White Tiger line (It would be ineffective against Red Bears or higher morale units), where the low morale value of 6 could be knocked down to 2 by artillery fire, then reduced further by Suppressive Fire and the more typical (and more lethal!) volleys of the reload-upgraded troops. Flogging Officer as a retainer would do wonders, too.

Kneel Fire

Kneel Fire in my eyes turns your unit into a poor man’s Guard Infantry. In Fall of the Samurai only the front rank can fire in most situations (there are some exceptions). Kneel Fire, in theory, allows you to increase your ranged firepower by 50% on Large unit sizes, and double it on Ultra. Compared to the increase in range of the 150 / 175 range upgrade, the increase will only be a maximum of 20%. All of this makes Kneel Fire sound great, right? Well, as with Guards, there are quite a few caveats to take account for. In my entire multiplayer experience I have never seen a single player get a veteran unit to level 9 and not upgrade to 150 range. I find this rather odd, but there are several key reasons why people aren’t spamming the things:

Firstly, getting a veteran unit to rank 9 is no easy task. It requires taking an army composed of many types of the unit that you want to have a veteran of (for increased chances by having more units in battle in situations where they could get kills) or deliberately micromanaging a unit to make sure it has a disproportionately high amount of kills compared to the rest of the army. Then you have to take this unit in as many battles as you can to get the unit ranked up to maximum level in a timely fashion. Then you have to upgrade the unit, giving it upgrades when you are uncertain of how the unit’s performance will be impacted by them and with the knowledge that these upgrades are permanent. If the upgrades are bad, then you need a new unit. There’s no Reconditioning button like with you avatar. Secondly, having a small number of high-cost units makes your Kneel Fire often redundant, as you now have the space to use all of your units effectively, engaging with your whole line with units stretched out to their maximum.

Despite this, kneel Fire units do have the potential to excel. What they need to do this, however, is the thing that would cripple other, lesser gun units: A confined space. Just like guard units, with kneel fire are most at home in either in huge unit size battles where units deployed at maximum width are still two ranks deep for the entire formation. In this example (before and only before your unit takes casualties or is a depleted veteran) your effective firepower is >100% more than an equivalent line infantry unit, the ‘>’ coming into effect when you take into account that veteran upgrades your unit has received in order to get it to rank 9. The cost, however, to get a Black Bear to rank 9, for instance, is going to be ~550 extra Koku. That is less than a second unit. Could a Kneel Fire unit beat two vanilla ones of the same class simultaneously? No, and this is even on Ultra unit sizes, matching the depth and positioning of the AI units. My only test to far was with a rank-9 Shogunate infantry unit, possibly the single worst candidate for Kneel Fire possible, due to the low reload cap. This meant aside from accuracy only speed, extra ammunition and melee upgrades could be taken, which aren’t very useful for a unit that functions best when hemmed in with other units. But what about fighting enemy units one after the other, even? Unfortunately I can’t test this with the AI very well, but I’ll get on to this soon with some human slaves helpers. I expect that even rank 9 Shogunate infantry could win out against units attacking it in file as opposed to concurrently.

A theoretical, soon-to-be-tested use I could see for Kneel Fire troops outside of ultra-ultra battles is for them to be used as woodsmen. Often in forests space is extremely limited and so in order to stay hidden and protected a unit must bunch up and reduce its effective firepower. Kneel Fire could help to avert this problem nicely.

So overall, the use of Kneel Fire outside of ultra-ultra is quite limited in scope, and certainly not very competitive in one vs one 10k battles, but they do have their place (particularly vs 125-range Guards units, I found) and the upgrade is not as useless as it’s usage statistics would have you believe. A solid contender for the rank-9 veteran slot, if applied correctly. While 150 range improves the unit on all sizes On Ultra or even Large the power of Kneel Fire is impressive, something I feel must be seen to be believed in Multiplayer, almost.

Thanks and things still to do

You tell me! Aside from recommendations though, things that are coming include:

1. Testing Kneel Fire and other veteran upgrades further; getting less approximate stats
2. More underused units
3. Overused units – in their own section rather than mashed together. (I’ve run out of space!)
4. Cavalry
5. Unit disruption and artillery
6. General tips and tricks that aren’t mentioned often in tutorials yet- Peek-a-boom, managing reload cap on the battlefield, how veteran upgrading works with clans, etc.
7. Pwetty pictures ‍ლ(‍‍⇀‍‍ﻌ‍‍⇀‍‍ლ)‍

Thanks again for having a read of the gude! I hope to see you all on the battlefield taking on (and beating!) 10-star silvers!