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This is by no means intended to be a complete guide to tactical combat, or even a very good one. It's just to quickly point the reader in the right direction and give a rough idea of what to look at.

Shogun: Total War is a game about positioning. Yari beat horses. Horses beat archers. Archers beat infantry. So do nodachi and warrior monks, but naginatas stop them.
It's mostly about getting the right troops in the right place at the right time. How you do that is up to you. But try to keep your main body tight enough to cover each other if you're inexperienced.
And keep a balanced army. Like a balanced diet, it's good for you. If your opponent is using a very imbalanced army, you can imbalance your own somewhat to take advantage of the weaknesses (for example if the enemy army is mostly archers and some infantry, go cavalry-heavy and with some archers and infantry of your own. If they have only infantry, use many archers and a few infantry to screen.)

Archers like to be on high ground. Everyone else likes to run downhill rather than climb uphill while fighing. So don't ignore the topography. It's not easy to win a rock-throwing contest from the bottom of a well.

Forests are very bad for cavalry, and provide some cover from archers as well, making them good defensive spots. And you can hide troops in them to ambush with.

Never fight fair. Never have one of your units fight one of the enemy's units when you can have two or three of yours fight one of theirs. And never attack from one side when you can attack from more sides. Always try to flank the enemy, or hit them from behind if at all possible. Catch the enemy unit in a vise between two or more of your units. This is one of the most important parts of the tactical battle.

Watch your units' morale. Don't send them on suicide missions if they're not brave yet. Veterans are much better for making those dangerous ambushes. Try to lower the enemy's morale by killing their general. Protect your own general.

Use cavalry for their speed to take out archers, not to assault enemy infantry. Use archers to wear down the enemy infantry and then pull them back behind your infantry when the enemy closes.

Have a unit or two in reserve to run down fleeing enemies, take the advantage of an open flank, or patch a hole in your line.

"It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten
to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one,
to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army
into two.

If equally matched, we can offer battle;
if slightly inferior in numbers, we can avoid the enemy;
If quite unequal in every way, we can flee from him." - translated from Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"

Posted by killemall54:

"To my recollection there are two kinds of fog, thin and thick and I swear there are four kinds of rain, besides intermittent and they range from light to really dark,stormy, along with lightning with driving hard rain, and two kinds of snow which are light and heavy. Fog can and will occur alone or in combination with snow and rain.

Fog has no effect on morale to my knowledge or any other effect except on your vision. As you know some battlefields are bigger than others. As an attacker, it is not advisable to play hide and go seek the last YA hiding in any kind of fog as when the clock runs out you lose even if there is only one defender. Therefore do not attack in fog if you can avoid it. Generally fog occurs in spring and winter so summer and autumn are good campaigning seasons. If you are the defender the AI will probably find you even if you don't find him when you are the attacker.

Thick fog. Can even hide you in a big province. But don't count on it. Send troops to divert their attention so your last remnant can run out the clock. Again thick fog is favorable to the defense. The AI enemy will move around your flanks and otherwise hide in thick fog. They are really more active.

In thick fog battles I throw out 3 Cav Archers ahead of the main body, across the whole front. I switch from unit card to unit card to see the view from that unit so I can quickly sweep the whole map. When they see the main body and dispersed troops i click on whatever units I need and click on the targets. This is the unrealistic fire and forget tactic. In real life the scout could not communicate the moves of the ai, but once you lock on, unless the target is BN or goes down away under a hill, your targetting units will seek out the AI, even if you lose eye contact.

So I say especially in major battles with lots of units and reinforcements do not attack in fog. But say you have 400 and they have 6 or 8 hundred. By careful manuever, in thick fog or rain, get around and flank the enemy and roll him up. When you are outnumbered like this but not when there are thousands of men, you can win.

Finally, I advance the speed slider in the move to contact phase, even in fog. This is dangerous. On more than one occasion the AI has surprised me by attacking into me and I have lost. I have tamed my overconfidence. Overconfidence and fog are a bad combination.

Rain. Damps missle and gunfire. But strings and matchlocks dry fast in intermittent rain, so arquebusiers can be deployed in that kind of scenario. Muskets will fire in all rain except the very heaviest described above. Some of the old experts argued this with me, but the muskets work. You can see the flash and a roll of smoke. I didn't ever hold that their fire was all that effective. Arrow fire is just plain less effective, but if you concentrate your archers the enemy is still dead.

Morale effects of rain. I don't believe there is any effect in light or medium rain and fatique effects are low. In heavy and Heavy Driving rain described above there is some kind or morale penalty for defender AI. I never felt or observed it when I was the defender. But I didn't wand my troops to check.

I will tell you this for sure. Mongol Defenders are much shakier than Hojo attackers in Heavy and Heavy Driving rain. This is important. Sometimes, the Mongol has position and you must attack uphill in trees against thousands of Mongols and tons of Mongol Heavy cavalry attacking downhill. I don't care who you are, you will lose and lose big. Except if you wait for a really heavy thunderstorm. I don't care if you outnumber him or he outnumbers you by a lot. Attack. Attack. Attack. Chances are the Mongol will bolt and you will have a province you could not otherwise take without many attacks and horrendous losses. All defenders are susceptible to this, but Mongols more so.

Snow. Everything I said about rain and fog applies equally here. Yes, everyone fatigues including the AI but it less than you. That makes units harder to rally if they break. So why would you ever stand around while fatigue drops to zero? Armored guys fatigue quicker than unarmoreds. Horses don't go so fast in snow. But its never slow motion. I promise. Snow fatigue has never cost me a single battle. I have lost battles in snow because of carelessness or negligence. I have had many really fun battles in snow with snow on the ground because it impairs your visual perceptions. Call it pretty clutter and it can either heighten your perception or distract it. You can lose battles by dispersing your men in snow storms and it is hard to know where they are on the map which leaves them vulnerable to ambush, counterattack or AI reinforcements. Disorientation is your enemy. "

I'd like to briefly expand on this, and perhaps offer another perspective on a few points:

Killemall neglected to mention wind. Wind will cause your arrows to miss their targets more often (unless well-trained and experienced archers can compensate for it, perhaps.)

Sometimes in winter you get "cold days". I suspect this may increase fatigue (since heat and thus energy leaves the body through the armor) but the visibility conditions are good unlike other "inhospitable weather" conditions (rain and snow.) I always fight on these days because they're rare.

Rain and snow decrease visibility, decrease the effectiveness of achers and arquebuses (rain more than snow,) and increase fatigue (snow more than rain.) You can also see the wind by the way the rain/snow is moving. When you select a day for attack you can actually see the weather, not just the forecast, so pay attention to the weather you see. If it says "intermittent rain expected" and you are looking at a thunderstorm, ignore the forecasters and their stupid weather balloons. Quite rarely you will get a thunderstorm, I love to fight in these. Visibility comes and goes in brief flashes of lightning.

A "fine day" is the perfect weather for archers. If your army is archer-heavy, try to attack on fine days. If the enemy army is archer heavy and yours is infantry heavy, try to attack in "hostile weather" conditions. If you have stealth troops (ninjas) or your plan involves stealth, try to attack in fog.
Fog should dampen bowstrings, but I don't think it does.
Personally, I greatly enjoy attacking in fog when I have ninjas or cavalry, or even nodachi or warrior monks. Reduced visibilty increases scouting and tactical options, and I just send my army every which way after I "win" to root out any hiding units.

Since you can't affect the weather when you defend and can barely choose it when you attack, I try to fit myself to the weather rather than the other way around. Since all my defense forces try to incorporate archers, a fine day is good for the range and accuracy and hostile weather is good because the enemy will be fatigued. In both cases my behavior is the same, including scouts (I scout in good weather just in case.)

I don't plan attacks years in advance like the AI sometimes does, at most I might hold off an attack to wait out the winter. Otherwise I just make do with what the weather offers when my troops are ready. Often I'll attack on the first weather offered, or the last as I can't find one I like. Depending on the troops I have and the weather, I will generate my general attack strategy.

In fog I will send out ninjas and elite task forces to hide around the enemy army.
On clear days I will march straight up and assemble in front of them.
Depending on the level of rain or snow, I may spread out my forces to converge on the enemy, sending my cavalry out first to cover the advance. In rain I will pull my arquebusiers back to sit out the battle, or use them as bait. The AI seems to be aware that they are no threat but likes to try and kill them.

By request, I wrote this one a bit sooner than I intended.
DISCLAIMER: I had a glass of tequila and sherry just before I wrote this. Any catastrophic tactical disasters that happen to you from following these tips is therefore your own #### fault!
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Cavalry archers are arguably the most versatile unit in the game, able to move very quickly and lend support or attack with bows or swords. Their speed and ranged attack mean they don’t usually need to fear any unit, so long as you keep an eye out for intercepting yari cavalry. They are perfectly suited for specialized missions on the flanks and rear of the enemy army, or for giving ranged attack capacity in a highly mobile army. And since their melee attack is greater than foot archers’, they make excellent archer-killers as well.

Tactics specific to Cavalry Archers:
Harass & delay: One fairly obvious use of cavalry archers is to follow the enemy army on their advance and pelt their infantry with arrows. By the time the enemy reaches your main force, their numbers will already be depleted and their morale dented. This tactic is especially effective against enemy shock troops, who might run down normal archers, or yari infantry, who can gravely impede an all-cavalry army. Walk your cavalry archers up to any side of the enemy army and fire at selected units, being careful to move back if you are attacked or shot at. You can go to loose formation in a line four horses deep to outshoot enemy archers, or simply avoid them. Most of your other tactics evolve from this, simply taking opportunities the enemy presents to you. My favorite targets are warrior monks, and yari samurai – but you can take any unit that exposes itself on the fringe. When using this tactic, it may be a good idea to position yourself on any hills the enemy must pass by to reach you, which will increase your range.
Pretty much the only way to counter this with conviction is to send a yari cavalry unit to run the cavalry archers down, but having a yari infantry unit in loose formation chase them away may also be possible. If the commander is not particularly skilled, archers and/or flanking techniques may be able to do some damage to the cavalry archers. If you have no cavalry, large flanking is probably the only way to pen them.

Bait and lead: Should the enemy assign one or more infantry units to attack your cavalry archers, you can easily lead them away from the main body of their army while stopping every so often to shoot at them. Be careful that you don’t get outflanked when you do this. Fire a few shots, pull back to the next bump in the ground when they near, and fire some more. Once the infantry are a considerable distance from their army, you can have your main army engage theirs or have parts of it surround the isolated unit and defeat-in-detail. This is easier with a cavalry-heavy army and either yari or heavy cavalry can be used to strike the baited unit in the back. As your support unit strikes, go into melee with the light cavalry unit as well. Attacking an isolated unit from front and back will more than make up for any disadvantage their spears cause you, and they are likely to break morale and be slaughtered in a short time, freeing up your units again. Sometimes a unit you are leading will break morale and flee just because of the arrows. When this happens you should always run them down and kill them, unless another unit is still following you. In the latter case, you must use your own judgment as regards to the range and risk.
If this tactic is used on you, remember that it is a response to your own actions. Yari infantry are much cheaper than cavalry archers and it is often a good idea to throw out one of your units to occupy their cavalry. If that is your decision keep attacking them in loose formation until you can send reinforcements to properly deal with the cavalry archers. I have had battles where a few yari units of mine occupied the entire enemy cavalry force until I beat their army and could engage them. Otherwise you may simply cease the chase and attack another target once the main battle has engaged. Or you could ignore the bait in the first place if your troops are well armored.

Archer killing: Sometimes one or more archer units will detach from the main body to shoot at your cavalry archers, or may simply not be adequately guarded. The latter situation can happen from your efforts to spread out the army or from the other general’s foolishness. The former is a common result of the harassing tactic. When this happens you have a number of options, all of them good. You may use your superior mobility to attempt to take the high ground, and spread out to exchange fire for a while. You are likely to get the upper hand in such exchanges. Then you can charge the archers, closing to a wedge if you like or close formation on contact, and hunt them down. You should be able to kill a good portion of the enemy archers before help arrives, and you can pull out if it does come. If your cavalry just happen to be at the back of poorly guarded archers, you can charge to take them out with ease while the remainder of your army engages their melee troops.
The panacea for this is fairly straightforward: Don’t leave your ranged units unguarded when there are enemy cavalry about! Always have a yari unit backing them in case the cavalry should decide to engage. And go into loose formation for a shootout, not straying too far from your army. If the enemy cavalry archers are occupied with your foot archers, you may have a chance to flank and kill them.

Overwatch: Discretion is the better part of valor. Sometimes you may wish to assign one light cavalry unit to support one of your other task forces, to simply scout the enemy army without hostile action, or to cut off retreats. I call these cases “overwatch”, and generally assign cavalry archers who have depleted their ammunition to these missions. Light cavalry can keep a safe distance from the enemy army or the current engagement, escort heavy cavalry taskforces, or shoot into an engagement behind enemy lines to cover a taskforce’s retreat. Generally this is meant as a security measure, so the cavalry archers will be at hand to deal with any unforeseen consequences of your attacks, and to mop up any fleeing units if your missions are successful.
There is often nothing you can really do to defend against these tactics, but if your main army is victorious in battle you shouldn’t have much to worry about from them either. Just keep track of where the enemy are so that they don’t surprise you.

Recon in force: This is a more complex strategy involving two or three taskforces of at least four light cavalry altogether (I tend to use two mounted archers and two yari cavalry.) Send out small units of light cavalry all along the breadth of the map to locate the enemy army and deploy smoothly when he is found. You can search out ambushes on the way. Those task forces can later be given harass or overwatch missions, or can secure a favorable strategic position for your forces. If any of their units expose themselves, you can defeat them in detail and disperse hopefully before the enemy brings support. I always pair cavalry archers with yari cavalry on these missions, and usually end up with an “accidental” large envelopment that I can then use to take out any enemy archers and most enemy cavalry as well, guaranteeing a safe advance for my infantry forces. I like to open every battle in neutral terrain or low-visibility weather conditions with this tactic.
Since the victim probably won’t know where all of the enemy recon forces are, there isn’t much you can do against this except intercept each one in turn with your own light cavalry. Since the cost to use the strategy is high, a few units of coordinated yari cavalry can decimate a substantial portion of the enemy army when their main force is much too far to help. If they stumble too close to your army, all the better. You can herd them into your forces and defeat them with little risk.

Reserve: While unable to quickly turn the tide of battle themselves, cavalry archers can give strong support to any trouble spot. Due to their excellent mobility and versatility, cavalry archers can reach most hot spots very quickly and give both ranged and close support once they’re there. So this would be an acceptable unit to save to the end of a large battle if you can’t find another application for them (for example, when the enemy has many yari cavalry in his reserve.) Perceptive generals may note the similarity of this and the “overwatch” mission, the difference being that here you save your units fresh behind your lines. In specific provinces like Owari, you may be forced to run troops back and forth between multiple defense locations, or assist an ally. Light cavalry are ideal for this.
It is not too difficult to counter this if you have yari cavalry, but otherwise you may send two or three yari infantry units to surround the offending unit and drive them into your forces. Be aware that this may call on your troops in battle. Otherwise, you may simply ignore the cavalry archers until you have finished with their main force, then reassign what’s left of your units to trap them. Should the enemy charge into your occupied men, try to reassign a yari unit to push them out.

Yari cavalry are the fastest unit in the game, and all of their tactics take advantage of this speed in some way. Their lances make them effective cavalry-killers and they can take out archers with relative ease. Otherwise they are not an exceptionally powerful unit and should avoid any kind of infantry.

Tactics specific to Yari Cavalry:
Archer killing: Since yari cavalry are typically the first cavalry type you get, it is good that they are effective at killing archers. Walk them around to the flanks or back of an enemy army, then engage with your main force. Once the enemy infantry rush into the fray, you can charge into any exposed samurai archer units and run them down. If an archer unit is alone anywhere for any reason, yari cavalry can chase them and kill them with ease. If you are being fired upon it may be a good idea to attack in loose formation, and perhaps close to a wedge or close formation on impact. There is no need to ever hold formation with yari cavalry – rather you should encourage them to break formation and engage at will. Yari cavalry are the only unit faster than cavalry archers, and are effective at eliminating them as well. If you notice a significant portion of an enemy army consists of cavalry archers, attack with yari cavalry from behind and drive them into your yari infantry. (Or if there is little risk, chase them with the cavalry alone.) If you attack an army with unassigned yari units too near, you may have to pull out quickly. Don’t call a rout, as this is likely to just get your men killed. The same tactics can be used on arquebuses, but yari cavalry are skittish so be sure that you don’t attack from the front. By the time the arquebusiers rotate and reload you should already hit them. Just attack them from any side that bullets don’t come out of.
To counter these tactics, send out cavalry to chase the enemy units away from your army, or surround them if they are behind you. They will be able to evade anything else. Keep your ranged units guarded by yari units if you see enemy cavalry in the area – one yari infantry unit of either type is effective for holding off yari cavalry. Hiding in a forest or on high ground tends to negate many cavalry tactics.

Router collecting: I generally like to train any new yari cavalry unit by just holding them in reserve somewhere until the enemy routs, then letting them chase down and kill as many routers as they can. This generally prevents them from rallying as well as gaining your men honor. For better response time walk a unit or two far behind the enemy and cut off their retreat. In that way you can consistently kill all of the enemy routers. Don’t underestimate this tactic: in one game I had to fight the same army many times because I lacked light cavalry to kill them when they routed each season.
The best way to defeat this tactic is to win the battle and not rout. You can deal with the cavalry later – surrounding them with infantry generally does the trick. Concentrate on winning the main engagement and you shouldn’t have much to worry about. If you are performing a fighting withdrawal, you have no choice but to sacrifice a rear-guard infantry unit to hold off the enemy units.

Escort: Yari cavalry act as an effective deterrent against other yari cavalry, so it is generally a good idea to assign them to guard your other cavalry units (see “Recon in force” above, it is important to include yari cavalry with your other cavalry archers to scout out the enemy. They can also swoop in quickly to eliminate any stranded ranged unit and return.) This mission is not limited to escorting cavalry; they can escort shock troops like nodachi and warrior monks, or any mobile task force. When escorting slower units they can move ahead as a vanguard and scout and secure a position, intercept flanking attempts, or assist in small flanking.
If enemy task forces are escorted by yari cavalry you will need more units to intercept them and take them out. However yari troops may still be able to push the cavalry task forces away from your main body.

Overwatch: Once the yari cavalry have completed their reconnaissance or escort missions they can hover near the fighting and charge in to pick at exposed backs and flanks, or intercept other units to prevent them from flanking your men. And of course, they can kill any stragglers that escape from an envelopment, or any routing units that break out of one.
There is little that you can do against this, but you could try to send a yari unit to chase the cavalry away, or to cover the engagement yourself. If you have one yari infantry screening, which is not engaged, you’ve neutralized that unit and the more expensive yari cavalry unit.

Large envelopment: A more aggressive use of yari cavalry is to spread them around the enemy army and create a ring around them. This is more effective when supported by units like nodachi infantry. One of two things can happen: the enemy may redistribute his infantry to defend in a box formation, making him weak at any point you assault with heavy troops; or he may leave all but the front underdefended, allowing you to close the noose around his army when your assault units engage, and take out his support units like arquebusiers and archers. It should be noted that this tactic requires large numbers of brave troops.
To counter this maneuver: sending out some cavalry units of your own can stop some of the enemy task forces, reducing the damage of the envelopment. Reorganizing your army in a tight formation may allow you to cover each side with infantry, but this is difficult if your army has not enough infantry. Stopping the envelopment before it is completed (by maneuvering away or by engaging one part of it with your entire army) is the best option.

Reserve: If the enemy army has any cavalry, it can be a great benefit to keep your yari cavalry in reserve. They can intercept flanking attempts against you, and thwart enemy cavalry. This is especially useful against Mongols, whose light cavalry are dangerous to any other unit. Have a few yari cavalry units in the wings or rear of your army and scramble them to break apart units trying to hit you from back or sides, or to chase away skirmishers and withdraw before their infantry screens engage you. When the main battle is over, your reserve yari cavalry can mop up.
It is very difficult to counter this. If you leave your own cavalry in reserve then the enemy has in effect accomplished their mission of neutralizing your cavalry. If you have yari cavalry of your own, send them as escorts for your other cavalry and you can outflank any individual yari cavalry the enemy throws at you.

Sounds kind of redundant doesn’t it? Heavy cavalry are the best-armored of the cavalry units, and also powerful attackers. They are slower than light cavalry but faster than any infantry. A good strategy will take advantage of both their mobility and their power. Heavy cavalry are used mostly to support or attack a flank, to cut off retreats, and to take out ranged units when the situation is too risky for light cavalry to get in.
In order to build heavy cavalry you need a fortress and an armory, so you might as well upgrade it to a legendary armory within two years and have the best defended mobile units around.

Tactics specific to heavy cavalry:
Direct charge: One of the most expensive tactics possible is the heavy cavalry charge. This involves several heavy cavalry units, thrown directly at the enemy all along their line. If there is a significant honor disparity, sometimes this tactic causes a massive hit to enemy morale and occasionally routs portions of the enemy army. If the enemy is mostly archers or has few yaris, you can very simply and effectively steamroll them this way. In most other cases, it kills a lot of expensive heavy cavalrymen. I would only suggest a direct charge when one of the following conditions is met: the front of the enemy army is mostly archers (it can include nodachi samurai, naginata samurai, and yari ashigaru), the honor of your units is significantly higher than the enemy’s, or you have more money and cavalry than you know what to do with.
As Oda demonstrated against Takeda, it is indeed possible to stop this kind of tactic with a wall of spears and guns.

Flank pounding: A much more conservative tactic for heavy cavalry is to attack the enemy flanks, whether to kill archers and arquebusiers or to finish off infantry units that are embroiled in combat by striking them from additional directions. Have your heavy cavalry units follow your infantry, spread out just enough to bypass the enemy’s frontline infantry, and attack at will. This tactic involves combined arms, and is usually the best utilization of heavy cavalry in a balanced army. You can also circle the cavalry far to the flanks of the enemy army ahead of your infantry, and wait for the clash to charge in from any exposed side. In that case though, it might be prudent to provide them with a light cavalry escort so that enemy units won’t chase them away.
Sending a strong yari unit from the reserve is often all it takes to defeat this. Even if the cavalry close, you can attack them from another side with a yari infantry unit. It is more certain however to intercept the heavy cavalry with yari cavalry if they are alone. Keep an eye on the movement of enemy heavy cavalry units to know how big a reserve you should keep.

Cutting off retreats: Heavy cavalry are strong defensively, mobile, and can cover a lot of area. So they are very good units to send behind the enemy army to cut off their retreat, so that you don’t need to face the army again. This tactic implies placing your heavy cavalry units far behind the enemy lines (out of bowshot,) and blocking off their route of escape. It’s a good tactic for when you outnumber the enemy and expect to win quickly.
Simple way to beat this: don’t retreat. If you have to do a fighting withdrawal, you’ll need a front guard as well as a rear guard, some heavy units to plow ahead and hold off the heavy cavalry. You can also trap the rear guard with your entire army, if you have time. That is probably the most effective counter.

Hammer and anvil: This bold tactic involves sending one or two heavy cavalry units behind the enemy, and charging into them just as you close with your main army from the front. It is particularly strong against archer heavy armies, or cavalry heavy armies (though yari cavalry support may be important in the latter case.) Heavy cavalry can do a significant amount of damage when hitting the poorly defended rear of any unit, and with the main army coming in from the front, the enemy will be forced to fight two ways. Often this tactic is safer than a large envelopment. You should be sure to use units that won’t rout, but there generally isn’t much risk of that with heavy cavalry.
If there are a few yari infantry units near the back of the army, those can be used to thwart the “hammer” cavalry while allowing the main army to keep facing forward. If you have yari cavalry, those can also be commissioned to outflank the heavy cavalry with assistance from yari infantry.

Reserve: In large armies, it may be a good idea to hold one heavy cavalry unit in the reserve, or more if there is no opportunity to hit a flank. These units can reach a trouble spot quickly and are an extremely potent force to add to any flagging defense, or weak offense. Properly placed they can carry the battle. Also, armored heavy cavalry can be used defensively to stop an attacking unit in its tracks, far enough away from your archer line that you can shoot them to pieces. Send the heavy cavalry to intercept attacking shock troops and hit them from the side. The unit will take casualties, stop to face your heavy cavalry, and in the meantime get shot at by your defenders.
Heavy cavalry don’t defend quite as well against yari infantry, and they can’t defend a forest. Send masses of spear units with your own cavalry and you can overcome a defensive position backed by heavy cavalry. Try to defeat whatever units you are fighting quickly, and perhaps the heavy cavalry will arrive to meet units ready for battle. Using overwatch yari cavalry is also one possibility.

"1. Ashigaru are numbers. When you add a swarm of peasants to your regular army and invade, your opponent often retreats (even though half of your army are cheap and not-so-warlike ashigaru). Sometimes you might want somebody to retreat, right?

2. Ashigaru are garrison keepers. Why waste money on regular Yari (remember that not only their price is higher than this of ashigaru, but annual upkeep as well)? In recently taken provinces you leave two or three units of peasants, thus saving money to train better units to fight. You do not keep worthy units in castles either.

3. Ashigaru can occupy large forces of the enemy. Yup, that's true. When you invade some province, and there are enemy's troops in another nearby province, it is almost sure, that he will send reinforcements to help defend the province attacked by you. You can solve this with your handy and cheap ashigaru - just send a huge number of them to the province from where reinforcements may come. The AI won't send them and will prepare to defend against swarm of ashigaru. You of course withdraw your peasants and happily take the province you intended to take in the first place.

4. Ashigaru are target practice for your enemy. Yes, yes, there are cruel Daimyos out there. Every time you need a cheap screen of arrow-absorbers, use peasants. They are fast, so you can run them before Monks or something. Ashigaru can be useful in taking the bridge too. Just leave them ON the bridge and watch your enemy running out of arrows (no arrows, monks are happy, mind you )

5. Ashigaru are bait. When you need to lead your enemy into your trap, use ashigaru. There is nothing to regret, when they don't make it and got chopped. Still, they are fast (much training in running, I guess) and are good to this job.

6. Ashigaru are warriors. Yes, after all they are warriors too. Swarms of ashigaru can do miracles (look into my topic "The power of Oda"). If only you will remember all the battling rules, you'll to find with ashigaru. I have few guidelines:
- ashigaru aren't that worthless when placed in the forest;
- ashigaru like companionship. when unit is alone, it will most likely flee;
- ashigaru are good for flanking. If not by themselves (they are fast, but can chicken out quick), then you can use them to hold the enemy for a few seconds and then go to enemy's rear with another unit.

That will be it, for a time. I hope I helped you somehow, not only stated the obvious. I encourage others to post their ideas too.

Oh, and remember - Toyotomi Hideyoshi was ashigaru too... But he found his way to become history "
Linkage to the Oda thread referred to: pub133.ezboard.com/fshogu...4707.topic
I would like to point out that half of these uses are strategic: taking advantage of inflated numbers and reduced costs to make your armies appear larger than they are on the strategy map.

I managed to dig up this old post and commentary where we went into some detail on the merits of Yari Ashigaru vs. more professional troops.
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Very informed post Turchigawa. Have you considered becoming a lecturer on Ashigaru tactics?

I can sum up all the ashigaru strong points in one statement though:

They are cheap.

"An army of nothing but Ashigaru is useless against anything but calvary."

Actually, I might think they're useless against cavalry too unless you have a good general or good upgrades keeping them in line. I've had Korean spearmen and guardsmen run out of a forest chased by a cavalry unit so you can't expect an armyful of green ashigaru to stand up to a cavalry charge. A good general changes that. (You can be a good general by controlling your flanking and formations.)

On the other hand, an army of ashigaru is likely to be at least twice as big by numbers as any other army, so if you can halt the chain reaction of routing, they can easily make large envelopments without breaking contact (unlike cavalry and shock troops which usually need to break contact and move in task forces to make large envelopments.)

"But, in terms of maintaining a strong standing army and when used in conjunction with good troops, Ashigaru are very useful."

Of course. Half maintenance costs and low price - you can "pad" an army with them. I do not agree that they strengthen an already capable defensive army though. Use them only when you can't afford yari samurai and never give them a key position.

"First, large armies in provinces seem to deter attacks, regardless of the quality of the defending army."

Yes, that's the only thing that Yari Ashigaru have going for them when I decide whether to build them or a shinobi.

"Second, on the battlefield, Ashigaru are great when backed up by archers. Ex. With an Archer, Peasant, Archer, Peasant, etc. formation, your Ashigaru are less likely to run scared when backed up by artillery as they charge at units attempting to attack the archers."

By this you must mean using them as an archer screen, and provided they don't actually have to fight, it will work. I would rather have any other unit though. Once again, the ashigaru are effective defenders of archers if you can't afford yari samurai.

I would suggest that you put the ashigaru behind the archers rather than alternate units. And put one ashigaru unit on each flank to stop flankers, and have your archers hold formation rather than skirmish. You get a shorter line to hold that way, and if it comes to it that one of the ashigaru units does rout, the archers can hold the line still rather than be overwhelmed by units pouring through a breach.

"Third, the Ashigaru are great to hold back until your best troops and the opponent's best troops are tired from fighting. Then the Ashigaru can actually win the battle."
Using them as a reserve unit is a questionable tactic. I've seen these guys get nervous just watching a battle.

"Fourth, the Ashigaru should be placed on "Stay in Formation" and "Hold Position." The first makes them less likely to kill their opponent, but also makes their opponent less likely to kill them. Staying in formation also is good for their morale."

I concur. If you want to hold an enemy unit with ashigaru, stay in formation. This buys time for your better units to move around, and most generals consider ashigaru to be disposable. Once I made about 300 to 90 kills in a fighting withdrawal, by sacrificing a yari ashigaru unit as a rear guard to cover the retreat of my archers. It took them long enough to rout, even flanked, that all my archer units were able to get out safely.

"Even presuming their uselessness, they are good for fodder. For example: drawing an army toward them and exposing their flank to your calvary or shock troops. they are also good to deplete your opponent's archers' arrows."

This last I must disagree with. Ashigaru are very poorly armored and might rout after the second or third volley kills half their unit. Depleting an enemy army's arrows in this fashion is not a very effective tactic. Naginata Samurai in loose formation can absorb many more arrows with less [though not necessarily less expensive] casualties.

Most of the things you've outlined are things that other units are better suited to, but ashigaru can fill those roles if you haven't any more advanced units.

So in conclusion I give a simple rule that can be known as the Rule of Ashigaru Usefulness: Ashigaru are useful when your money situation is poor. Use them only when you can’t afford an equal number of better troops. So in the early game they are useful for garrisons or filling the roles of archer screens, reservists, and light flankers. Not especially good, but if you have only 300 koku, three ashigaru units can hold you through the year until you can get that cavalry archer unit you need. By the late game when you are making lots of money each year, the only cowardly peasant conscripts you should be using are Teppo Ashigaru.

A few things I'll elaborate at this point:

I usually look with disdain on ashigaru as not real soldiers. Since my overall strategy involves developing infrastructure and reinvesting to gain a high income, I rarely use any ashigaru in my armies. Out of habit or distaste, I also do not use them in custom battles.

You should always think of ashigaru in numbers rather than in individual units. When making a decision on what troop to use, consider: "Will these two yari ashigaru units be more effective attackers than one yari samurai unit? Will these four yari ashigaru units hold a position more stalwartly than a naginata samurai unit?" If the answer is not a resounding "yes", do not use them.

In the campaign game, you will almost certainly run into a situation when you cannot afford "real" soldiers to pad your defense. Use ashigaru in this case, and make sure they have samurai keeping them in line. One ashigaru unit each in two provinces is often better than nothing in one of them and a samurai unit in the other. They make good garrisons as well if they don’t need to actually fight.

Upgrades have a significant effect on the performance of ashigaru. Particularly palace upgrades. I built ashigaru at a legendary dojo, legendary swordsmith, legendary palace, and drill dojo at Owari (3 honor, 3 weapons, 3 morale) and found that they made very cheap and efficient shock troops, even against units that “should” have made them wet themselves and run crying to mommy. However, they still tended to die fast enough that I had to replace them each year.

Some people have effectively used “ashigaru armies” of yari ashigaru and perhaps arquebusiers, which are large and ridiculously cheap. A high-star general is absolutely vital for these. Personally, the simplistic techniques of ashigaru armies do not fit my preferred playing style.

I just realized, maybe you were looking for actual tactics. In that case, I’ll give you the two that work consistently:

Small envelopments: Have your two ashigaru units engage each of the enemy’s single units (better in hold formation so they last longer,) and have another one or two units run behind them and attack from behind. Once the enemy is surrounded on all sides, you may let your peasants engage at will and they should be able to overcome any unit, all else being equal (meaning, if the unit in question is a warrior monk of three honor and legendary weapons and armor – a Fist of Death – and your units are honor zero raw conscripts, you’re still screwed.)

Pull-flanking: this is a subset of basic flanking that I like to think I invented. Have your two units stand next to each other, and let the enemy try to engage one. When he does, pull it outwards to the side at a run. The enemy will chase them until he is positioned between your units (he fills the space that the first unit occupied before it pulled to the side.) At that point attack with the second unit, engage with the first and you’ll catch the enemy unit in the back. This is a simple and very effective flanking method with limited units.
You can do the same by pulling a unit back and the other forward, or by having say an archer unit skirmish back and leave a hole between your ranks for the enemy to march into.

Because of the morale difficulty of ashigaru, large envelopments are not always effective unless you outnumber the enemy army at least 2:1 (in which case you organize in a long unbroken line and simply fold it around them,) and small flanking needs to be executed with perfect timing else the first unit (the holding unit) may break and rout.

Practice these tactics and you may find yourself able to turn worthless rice-grubbing cowards into a useful military force.