孙子兵法：导论

It might sound a bit dull at first glance, but I met on my journeys and battles many that had (or still having) a hard time when playing complex strategy games such as Total War series for not knowing anything about the art of war, so I made this guide with some basic tactics and strategies, not every information in this guide necessarily applies to Shogun Total War II, but most of it does, hope it helps! ;) The Battlefield Knowing your way inside the battlefield is half way to victory, you must understand your objective and use whatever tools you have in hands to make it possible to achieve, consider these five steps before doing anything. Cover Doesn’t matter if its bullets or arrows, projectiles are powerful tools to cause damage before combat is hot so keeping your troops behind stones, walls, trees, barricades or anything solid enough to serve as protection, but be aware of your cover weakness such as wood that can be burned or thin materials that can be penetrated. Neglecting cover to your enemies luring, pushing or keeping them into open grounds gives a huge advantage to shoot them down, winning the battle before it even starts. Flanking From a face to face engagement the victorious is the best warrior, while on a flanking maneuver the victorious is the smartest one. Whenever its possible engage your enemy from behind, sides or any other position that is weakly defended, exploring these weaknesses are a clear advantage, but be aware of counter flanking and reposition, keep your enemy distracted, suppress him with heavy fire, create a diversion, keep is attention away from your actual strike. Retreat When the tides of war are against you and defeat is certain is better to retreat to then fight again when you're actually able to stand against your enemy, but running as a crazy chicken totally exposed is not the best idea, moving backwards from a cover to another is very recommended, when the enemy is faster than you, you will need to blockade or slow down his movement somehow, it’s the worst option, but if you have no other way leave a few troops behind to cover you retreat. Ambush Surprises are always good, sometimes not for everyone, it’s awesome if you can stay away from the enemy line of sight until you have a flanking opportunity, although the simple fact of hiding and attacking while his guard is down serves as advantage in battle. Consider this simple movement, hide spearman and expose archers, cavalry will come to take your archers down, run with your archers to behind the spearman lines then smash the horses against your spear wall. Deception Deceive your enemy and you will always be in advantage, to fake weakness hiding troops or to pretend movements that will expose a weakness that you can easily outcome are some of the thousand ways that you have to turn the tides of war to your favor. Mother Nature A good strategist must know how to bend mother nature to its favor, neglecting her power is to play russian roulette with five rounds live. Terrain Learn to use height in your advantage, the higher the better usually, archers at elevated spot have higher range, better visibility, gravity will enhance their destructive power and walking up hills and mountains slows down anyone making easy targets. But there are a few exceptions like while charging against a spear wall it’s not so good to have the downhill speed up effect if you're not flanking. Tall grasses, trees and other kinds of vegetation can serve as good hiding spots or cover. Wind Affects the accuracy of ranged weapons, but its prior difference is at naval battles, old ages vessels have most of their movement and maneuverability dependent of the wind, whenever you are charging or retreating do your best to have it at your favor keeping it on your back. Fire This one could not be more logic, fire is the perfect aggressor, a perfect tool to create blockades or to destroy enemy cover, but be careful, do not damage what you wish to conquer or in the end you will have conquered an empire of ashes. Water If you plan to use fire do not neglect the influence of water, rainy days can ruin your strategy. Water also works as a strong blocker factor; troops are vulnerable and slow while crossing rivers, swamps and other waterlogged spots. Path of Glory There is a natural rule of troop type dominance inside a battlefield, at classical or medieval times such as most of Total War series games it usually goes this way: Cavalry beat Archers, Archers weaken Infantry, Swordsmen beat Spearman, and Spearman beat Cavalry. But applying the tactics and strategies mentioned before this rule can have so many exceptions that’s not even a rule anymore! Archers might be able to beat cavalry if placed in a position so high and so hard to access that they shoot down every single horse before they can hit them, principally if they are lightly armored. An infantry can have its losses due to ranged fire reduced by loose formation, but such damage can be almost completely avoided with a good ambush or exploit from cover. A spear wall coming slowly from downhill is an extremely hard task for swordsmen, depending on how strong is the wall maybe even impossible without flanking. Cavalry can excel over a spear wall simply by flanking it properly multiple times avoiding the reposition of the wall at each charge. And these are just a very few examples, you have thousands of options for thousands of different situations! Your enemy strength means almost nothing, what really matter is how wisely and successfully he uses his strategies with effective tactics in battle and how hardly you fail to respond to them. Be wise, be victorious! Cheers! If you want to go deeper start by this expert reading tip from our friend 曹丞相: The Art of War[www.classicly.com]