On Unit Composition for Beginners

Overview

So, you recently bought Shogun 2 Gold edition, fiddled around with single player a little, beating everyone on legendary. You decide to hop into multiplayer, looking for the same success you had in SP. Unfortunately, you realize that something is terribly wrong. You do not have access to every unit in the game at start, you are relentlessly crushed by people who have them, are matched with high level players with more playtime, which translates into more experience, and also better upgraded troops. You then come to the conclusion that veterans in avatar mode are all that are needed to win, ruining the game; higher level players have a huge advantage over new ones, and strategy plays no part in a victory. Holding your mouse in hand, you never return to the buggy and stupidly unskilled mess that is multiplayer ever again. I find it hard to disagree with you. Yes, avatar mode has its failings. Yes, people who have played longer have an advantage over a new player. Yes, a new player would find it hard to win against hardcore diamond ranked players with level 9 units. However, that is not because strategy is irrelevant, but rather because newcomers disregard a very important part of the game; unit composition. This guide aims to cover all topics related to unit composition.

『A』Table of Contents

『A』 Table of Contents
『B』 What is Unit Composition
『C』 What is a Good Unit Composition
『D』 Key Concepts of Unit Composition
『E』Elements of Unit Composition
『F』 Building Your First Army
『G』Tweaking Your First Army
『H』The Endgame
『I』Sample Builds
『J』Questions and Answers
『K』 Annex
『L』 Notes
『M』Afternotes

『B』What is Unit Composition

1. Unit composition is the game that begins before the battle. It is the careful selection of units to maximize your effectiveness on the field.

2. It bridges the gap between a good player and a bad player. Strong unit composition will allow you to fight on even grounds with one who has poor understanding of it, but have better units. At least two fifths of a victory is credit to superior unit composition

3. Weak unit composition will handicap, cripple and disable you, forcing you to work that much harder for a victory, even on even strategic ability as your opponent.

『C』What is a Good Unit Composition

4. A good unit composition is a mix of units you are comfortable with, fits into your playstyle and is able to win majority of battles without much variation.

Let’s say that you decide to play all melee with a build that looks a little like this: 5x Naginata Samurai LV4 4x Naginata Warrior Monk LV4 3x Yari Ashigaru 2x Matchlock Samurai 1x Light Cavalry While you may have almost absolute protection against cavalry, you will have none of your own. It might have worked pre-FOTS, but now that gun cavalry is not an uncommon sight, playing like this means that you can excessively kited by them and lose the game by default as a result. A good build would need to fit in at least some Yari Cavalry LV2 to remove that weakness.

『D』Key Concepts of Unit Composition

5. Plan for the endgame. Multiplayer battles are divided into 5k, 10k and 14k battles. Plan your army for 14k battles, with a 1.8k cost general in mind.

6. Planning ahead avoids hidden cost surprises in the endgame, which is played at that fund level. You can downgrade your build to fit the appropriate funds later.

7. Find a niche. Your main units should focus on an area to be strong at. Your strategy will revolve around pushing your advantage in this field on others.

8. A build which focuses on too many things at once is a weak build.

9. All other units should support your strengths, but not add to it. Neither should your strategy demand excessive focus on support units.^1

10. Have a main line of strategy based on your composition’s strength. Having a strong composition is useless without a plan to use it.

11. To have a plan before you enter the battlefield that complements your build already gives you an advantage over others.

『E』Elements of Unit Composition

12. Based on my experience, there are six elements to evaluating a composition’s strength.

13. They are attack (ATK), defense (DEF), range (RNG), mobility (MOB), adaptability (ADP), volume (VOL).

14. Attack governs how strong the core of your army is. Majority of your funds should go here. A strong core will be able to achieve a high kills to cost ratio. ^2

15. Defense governs how much protection you have against attacks. It protects your core from taking too much damage and becoming inefficient. It is a support component.

16. Range governs your ranged advantage. It weakens the enemy core before the main engagement. It may both be a support and main component.^3

17. Mobility governs to how much land you can cover on the field without weakening your position. It also relates to how effectively you can flank, usually associated with cavalry strength.

18. Adaptability governs how well your composition can hold against other compositions. It should be well-equipped to handle the most common strategies and occurrences.^4

19. Volume governs the protection you have against massive troop loss.^5 Man for man, he with more troops will win the battle as he will have more troops at the end.

『F』Building Your First Army

20. First, adopt a strategy and general idea of your composition. It should have a very specific goal.

Sample thought process: I am starting a bushido army. The idea behind my army is that I want to win against line infantry, even though I have none/ minimal amounts of my own. The idea is to rush the enemy and take out line troops before they are able to fire.

On Weighting A break from composition to delve into mechanics a little. One common mistake that beginners make in composition is to take too many weak units or strong units. An overabundance of strong units will mean that you will have a small volume, despite having high attack. This allows your opponent a high kill-cost ratio as every man he downs from your army becomes a significant gain for him. In a battle of attrition, you will surely lose. Also, having more elite troops means that even losing one of them pushes you very close to the 5:1 morale shock condition. You would need to make very little mistakes in order to win the battle. An overabundance of weak units means that you can afford to lose more units before taking a hit, but the mechanics of the game prevents this somewhat. When a unit routs, a unit close to the routing unit will take a morale hit, and if that unit routs, more units nearby take an extra morale hit, causing what is known as a “chain rout”. This is why mass Yari Ashigaru is not going to work. Most low cost units are weak units. It puts a heavy strain on your general as a general’s death is a -2 morale penalty on all units for some time, more likely than not causing a chain rout. A good idea is to use a mixture of a lightly vetted main line with vanilla support troops when starting out. You do not fall too far behind in the technology tree this way.

21. Secondly, predict the winning conditions, strengths and weaknesses of your strategy and build.

Problems: Line infantry are arguably “better” if your main line does not connect. Line infantry will be very cost effective in taking out high value melee troops rendering them useless before they reach the line. Therefore, I need to find a way to reach the enemy line before they shoot at my important units. I will be using spear levy as meat shields to take the first few shots as 1. they can be thrown away in battle and are cheap blockers 2. If they survive, they can be used as anti-cavalry 3. They greatly increase the volume of the build. Strengths: I will have huge amounts of maneuverability since my cavalry will always be superior to the enemy as melee units are generally cheaper than line units. I should be able to crush one flank and destroy the rest of the army through morale shock. Since most lines are deployed in single line, this benefits my flanking strategy instead of charging up front as enemy will have an easier time to flank around. Winning conditions: I will win if I am able to strike the flank of the enemy line and defeat all general units on the field. As line units have low morale, the morale shock will cause mass routing. I will lose if my opponent is able to successfully flank me.

22. Create a template of your army based on the endgame without veterans.

Early Bushido Build 1x Bushido General 1800 4x Yari Ki 3060 2x Saber Cavalry 1300 1x Shogunate Guard Cavalry 1200 4x Spear Levy 1680 2x Katana Kachi 1700 1x Yari Kachi 800 1x Shogitai 900 2x Shinsengumi 800 13240 My initial idea (this is a real build and what I thought from when I started out) was that the biggest threat to a bushido build was flanking, as the enemy would be able to shoot me from all angles, so I thought of putting a line infantry each on the sides of my main melee body so they would not flank me, or risk being shot by the guns.

23. If you exceed your budget, reduce troops one by one starting with units that are of high cost, but are not completely essential to your build. Such units will usually the sole unit in your build.

24. If you have a little leftover funds, project the upgrades that you want to put onto future veterans.

Upgrading: I have a projected 760 koku left over. That translates to 15 50 koku upgrades. I will spend them on 2 levels for each Yari Ki as I feel that cavalry will be a deciding factor in a melee vs ranged fight and because I want cavalry superiority all the time. In case you don’t know who to put your upgrades on, and how much, a good idea is to put them on units that have done exceptionally well in battles, constantly topping the kill count on the score board. Not too much that you have to give up some essential units though.

『G』Tweaking Your First Army

On Downgrading

25. Using the strategy and build that you have planned, plan accordingly for lower funds, current general cost, veteran upgrading, and unit availability.

26. If possible, try to use as many units that are in your planned build as possible without compromising the core of your build so that you may create veterans out of them.

As your first battle will not be a 14k battle, neither will you have any veterans at this point, nor will you have a 14k general, you should use a scaled down version of the bushido build for 5k that is similar in strategy to your endgame build. 1x Bushido General 350 4x Yari Ki 790 4x Spear Levy 1680 2xKatana Kachi 1700 4520 5k Early Bushido Build An early bushido build which follows the main idea of the endgame build. Strong cavalry component (for 5k), blockers, and using Katana Kachi as the main killers. I have 480 koku left over, so I’ll put it into an extra spear levy. Notice that since I am using the same troops as my endgame build, if I get veterans for them, I am able to use them in future battles without having to need to level them up manually.

On Evaluation

27. After a battle, evaluate your build and strategy. Retain units that have high kills, gradually phase out units that have low kills.

On my build Very surprisingly, the unit that had the highest number of kills were the Yari Ki rather than the Katana Kachi. Strangely,Katana Kachi only managed to edge out a slight more number of kills than the spear levy with the highest kills. Perhaps I should upgrade them to make them more cost effective. I also had no trouble without using line units. Perhaps I should rethink my shinsengumi line for the endgame. On Strategy I move my troops in column formation so that I can have coverage on the sides, with my general in the middle. If a line shoots me, he is only skimming off the front portion of my troops and will not be able to kill many of them. The strategy can be improved, but will do for now.

28. Do not be afraid to change even the main core of your strategy if it is ineffective. You can easily return to your strategy once you have gathered enough experience to determine if the problem lies with the build or inexperience on the field.

29. Save recordings of those whose builds beat you, or similar builds with similar strategies. Consult these recordings to help evaluate your build.

On Progression

30. On the campaign map, make a beeline for important endgame units for your build, ignoring the rest of the provinces. It is important that your build is formed before you take other units into consideration.

31 As your veterans and unit availability grow, you may want to try out things that you have not considered in your initial strategy.

32. As your general levels up, you may find that his cost may cause you to lose at least one core unit. Either downgrade the unit to a weaker equivalent, or change that unit into upgrades.

1x Bushido General 1250 5x Spear Levy 2100 3x Katana Kachi 2500 1x Yari Kachi 800 4xYari Ki LV2 3560 1x Red Bear Infantry 750 10960 I have overshot the 10k fund allocation by 960. Right away, I can see that the Red Bear Infantry has to go, because it is the odd thing out in the build and does not contribute much to overall build effectiveness. I am still overshooting by 210 koku. I can change my Yari Kachi into a spear levy, but that would cause me to have too many weak units in my build. A better thing to do would be to put a Saber Cavalry instead of a Yari Kachi. This way I do not compromise build integrity, and can prepare to have veteran saber cavalry for upgrades. I am still missing 60 koku, so an additional spear levy has to go. I now have 360 koku, enough for seven upgrades. I can upgrade my Katana Kachi to shogitai, or I could use 3x Katana Kachi LV2.

『H』The Endgame

33. At the endgame, you will have access to all units. At the same time, you will also be fighting against people with upgraded units.

34. To keep your build effective, you will need to upgrade your own. As a rule of thumb, go for at least two offensive upgrades first.

35. You should now have reached your ideal build. Notice the differences between your current and planned build. There will no doubt be a difference in composition and strategy.

Creating Variations

36. Sometimes, you build will be unable to cover all instances on the battlefield. You will then need to create variations based on your opponent’s tendencies.

37. To create variations, swap out units of similar value but of different skillsets. Any leftover koku should go to upgrades. This is to not compromise the main core and maintain the current strategy.

38. Beware of trapping yourself into a “single build, single formation, single strategy” mindset. It is good to diversify and learn what other have learned about unit composition from replays.

39. A build may have many variations on the field with different formations to suit different enemies.

40. What you may think of as a superior build may just be you being more experienced with your build, as you have been using it from the beginning.

『I』Sample Builds

Old School Bushido Build 4x Spear Levy 3x Shogitai 4x Yari Ki LV4 2x Shogunate Guard Cavalry 1x Imperial Guard Cavalry This is the final version of the build that I have tweaked from a build I used way way way back in the day before Yari Ki and Shogitai and Imperial Guard Cavalry had their costs up. It used to have Shogitais with two attack upgrades and a Yari Kachi somewhere, but the koku to do so was severely limited. The though process behind it is the same as the sample build that I put up in the guide. You might notice that the Imperial Guard Cavalry substituted the left and right line flanks. The reason for this was that the friendly fire from the line units were so tremendous that it was not worth to take them. They were also kind of weak at preventing flanking and a hassle too. The Imperial Guard Cavalry on the other hand doubled as a general sniper and mini saber cavalry. The morale penalty it inflicts on enemies is much more useful as it is a fair deal more accurate than line infantry. Oh and it also had a general aura, which was very big for me because my melee general gets sniped so very often.

『J』Afterword

The way I planned the style of this guide was to be as concise as possible, using as little words to convey the main concepts of unit composition. I feel that no one will read this if it is too lengthy, but what I am afraid is that in the process of simplifying things, I may have missed out some crucial points. If you do have any feedback, such as parts where things are not clearly explained, please let me know so I can correct it in the guide or offer an explanation.

Update: I am currently editing and adding extra material to the Annex and Avatar Walkthrough sections, both which were unplanned and not part of the main guide. Have a look if you are interested.

『K』Notes

^1 For example, if you are running a katana core, you should focus your main line money into katanas. Should you bring Naginata Samurai along? Sure, if they are to delay enemy cavalry and form a solid back line. But if you are heavily investing in them by giving them six upgrades to be an effective front line unit, that is money badly spent. Also, if you are running a katana core again, you would not want to buy expensive 1500 koku bows. Why? Because the katana core is primarily a melee build. By doing so you are weakening something else in your build, may it be your back line, you cavalry component or even worse, your main line. ^2 Let me explain what I mean by kill-cost ratio. If you use a low value unit to kill a high value unit but lose said unit in process, the trade is worth it. If you use a high value unit to take out a low value unit and lose it, it is not worth it. It is similar to chess in a way. If a single saber cavalry can take out a United States Marines LV9 by striking it in the back, it has paid for itself and is a valuable component of your build. ^3 Ranged can be devastating due to FoTS. A spread out full line build is nightmare for a bushido general. On the other hand, ranged can also be a liability because of friendly fire, and the need for protection against cavalry. Until now, I still haven’t seen a good skirmish build for bows, so most ranged builds have offensive main components made out of high caliber guns. ^4 When I say most common strategies, I mean normal orthodox strategies. Like using cavalry to hit swords from behind, using ranged cavalry to snipe enemy generals, using full yari/naginata to nullify cavalry charges. What I don’t mean are stupid rare builds like mass ranged cavalry. Yes, you can beat them, but it is annoying, and in the time you take to beat one of them, you could easily have beaten five opponents. Every build will have a weakness, what is important is that your build is strong enough to mask or overcome the weaknesses. ^5 Shogun 2 mechanics time. I try not to include strategy in the guide since I am only dealing with what happens between each battle, but when the number of enemy dead to your remaining troops is 5:1, essentially 80% of your enemy force is dead or routed, there is a gigantic morale shock. This is where you get the “A glorious victory will soon be upon us” speech and is a definite sign of you winning. So in fact, volume also includes the number of generals you can field to take the place of a fallen one.

『L』Questions and Answers

『M』Annex

This section contains unformatted extra tips that are not in the main guide. There is no need to read this section unless you are really really interested. The main guide would have covered the most important points already. This section and the rest that follow are merely extra reading pieces of concepts and thought processes that have been edited out of the main guide pre-release or unplanned material that will eventually make it into the guide.

Concept: Leverage Why is it that nobody uses all their spears as blocking units while their katanas flank? Surely it would be much more effective for the spears to take some damage from enemy swords, and use your own katanas who are undamaged to hit your enemy from behind for massive damage. The reason might be rather obvious: In the case you lose your spears in the main engagement, you have nothing to defend against cavalry attacks. This idea is something that I call “Leveraging”. The enemy’s massive cavalry contingent is putting leverage on your spears so they cannot act rashly, or else be decimated/distracted/stuck in combat and leave you vulnerable to cavalry attacks. This concept explains a great deal of things behind why and how people build their armies and the formations they use. Suppose I do fancy the high defense of spear units, and want to use them as blockers. However, any number of cavalry units will be able to threaten me, so I will need some blockers behind me. However, if my blockers are too strong, it will upset the weighting of my build and weaken my front line/ other support troops. The next logical step in that thinking is to use cheap spear units as a back line defense. This reduces the amount of leverage that enemy cavalry has on my main army. You sacrifice ATK, but increase DEF, to counter the enemy’s MOB and potential ATK. While he may still crash through the back line, the threat of your Yari Ashigaru behind your lines ensures that he will suffer casualties first, so now it is you who is leveraging your opponent’s cavalry and forcing him to use another method to open the back, or take the gamble and charge through.

Concept: Checkmate Scenario There are points in the game where the outcome of the match becomes determined by the units that are left. A player who only has units that are countered by his enemy’s units is placed in something that I call a checkmate scenario. The most common checkmate scenario is when you have no cavalry left and the enemy has a cavalry with guns. That single piece of cavalry puts you in a checkmate scenario because it can constantly kite around, shooting and causing huge damage without running out of ammo, with no risk to itself. So long as it doesn’t rout (very easy to do with skirmish mode) or the victory message is sounded, there is a 0% chance of you winning.

『N』Avatar Mode Walkthrough

Lu Bu’s Path Preview “I’m new to this game.”

“Don’t worry, avatar mode isn’t as bad as the image implies.”

All replays of my journey can be found on mediafire (just add in mediafire dot com in front of the links), in three parts of 50 replays each,

Lu Bu’s Rampage Part One: /?k94wlyg36i728hu
Lu Bu’s Rampage Part Two: /?4ue18725z0ibphi
Lu Bu’s Ramapge Part Three: /?9p3p4rb4y1n9e8w

So recently , Heirofcarthage, in my opinion the best commentator on Shogun 2 started making a series of videos aimed at helping newer players to the online environment. Which I think that is very appreciated by many new players who are transitioning from single player to an online enviroment. Personally, I was motivated enough to start an entirely new Shogun 2 avatar, and I thought to myself, hey, why not record down the entire process? A comment made by many new Shogun 2 players is that online play is imbalanced. People who play more have better quality troops, better troop selection, better general with special skills, and more likely more experience. I have to concede this point to them. In some ways, avatar mode is grossly unfair and disadvantages new players, but more often than not, I find that it is lack of experience and knowledge of the game that is the killer. My hypothesis is very simple: New players lose more often than not because of lack of experience in two areas: unit composition and strategy. For the former, they are trying to use builds that are tailored to counter AI armies which have a balanced, but ultimately weak build which try too hard to be good in every area at once. For the latter it is a similar situation, new players are going to tailor the strategies that they use offline to an online environment. Which of course doesn’t work. In order to prove my theory correct, I would need to maintain the same win/loss ratio as I had before I started this project. If my win/loss ratio is significantly lower for the period of time I am leveling my avatar to level 10, then yes, I will cheerfully admit that no matter how experienced you are, you are going to be fighting at a disadvantage from the start. So before I jump right into avatar mode, let’s slow down and talk about unit composition. Now, new players would just go into avatar mode and just make up an army on the fly based on what they’re given. But not me. The reason I’m doing this so early is so that I have a goal in mind, something to work towards as I near level ten. I will be more experienced with the strengths and weaknesses of my build than someone who hastily put theirs together at the matchmaking lobby. Here’s my build that I envisioned at the start.

Lu Bu’s Army 1x Melee General 1800 4x Yari Cavalry LV2 4000 1x Bow Cavalry LV4 800 1x Katana Cavalry LV6 900 1x Bow Cavalry LV2 700 4x Yari Samurai LV4 3400 3x Yari Ashigaru 1480 1x Naginata Warrior Monk 900

As you can see, my build is very spear heavy, and I planned it for the endgame, which is played at the 14k funds level. I will be constantly tweaking the build to show how reality smashes even the best plans apart. And when I say spears, I mean spears, not naginatas. In the rock, paper, scissors environment of Shogun 2, spear are rather weak since they are beat by swords, a common army type, and are unable to beat cavalry if they simply run away. The idea behind this build is to form a wall with my yari samurai, and flank the enemy with cavalry. Very basic stuff. If I can, I will move any spare yari samurai up using their rapid advance ability to quickly get to the back of the opponent to pincer him. Why not use monks you wonder? Well, because yari samurai are cheaper and I want to see if they are really as useless as they are. The reason I took a melee general is so that in the case that the enemy brings in superior naginata units, my melee general can eat them up with support from my spears. The sole monk is there simply for its warcry ability. You can tell that I got inspiration for this build from playing way too much dynasty warriors in my spare time. In that game, Lu Bu is this ridiculously overpowered general who beats everyone just by the virtue of him being the strongest general in the game, so I thought it would be quite fun to see one unit tear up entire armies in Shogun 2 as well. In fact, when Shogun 2 was released, I started out using a melee general, but then I realized that leadership generals are so much better since were much more effective at surviving and buffing my army, and like many players at that time, I shamefully made the switch to leadership as well. Now that I have the benefit of experience, I want to see whether a melee general is still any good. The strengths of my build is quite obvious. I am nigh invulnerable to cavalry attacks, as the huge number of spears act as a deterrent against cavalry charges. I have decent amounts of cavalry to counter the enemy cavalry. My build is not meant to beat my opponent in a straight up fight, but to outlast and delay them so my cavalry or other forces can go around, flanking the enemy and causing morale shocks to them. The weakness of course, is also very clear. I cannot, or am unable to beat an enemy in a straight up fight. Man for man against katana samurai, I will lose. And if for some strange reason the enemy manages to put up a good defense causing my surround tactics to fail, I will also lose. I don’t think I have much trouble against gun armies though, since I have enough volume to fend off a huge morale shock.

Total War: SHOGUN 2 Guide