Anon08/24/25, 07:32No.2128499
It depends on the difficulty you play at.
On normal or whatever it doesn't matter as much, or at all, but on higher difficulties that match-up is one you do not want to defend against as the AI is advancing and AI missile bonuses are going to lead to their archers eating your units alive; you will never win a 1 on 1 archer fight against the AI without gross min-max micro, so if you're on hard and up always attack, never defend-especially in castles against a overhelming amount of archers. Always attack, use mobile units, advance and draw out most of their archers and destroy in detail. Once the AI concludes to have inferior ranged units it will advance, then you can yari wall on some hill and win™
In case you do find yourself in a defensive battle against archers, specifically samurai, on a high difficulty find cover and hide. Trees protect not just from arrows but also hide if you do it right. You can hide your entire army in some forest but your general will never be hidden, the AI is going to advance towards him. If you do it right they'll walk right into your hidden units who are then too close for the enemy archers to engage them properly.
If you're on some open map...you're fucked so micro your manuever warfare as much as you can and destroy archers. The missile bonuses the AI gets on higher difficulty is sadly the most extreme influence on Shogun 2's overall tactical gameplay. The fight would be so much more interesting without them.