B1rd wrote:
Have 3-4 spearmen and the have the rest as bowmen. Archers can shoot over hills and soldiers while gunmen must have direct line of sight. Archers also have a longer range. So in practice you can have all of your archers concentrating your fire on a single unit while the gunmen are still struggling to get into range.
It may very well be that archers have longer range and can shoot over barricades and hills, but what happens when the approaching army makes contact with you? The archers can fight in melee, yes, but they're at a disadvantage there compared to the regular infantry. Meanwhile, guns have shorter range and have to have a direct line of sight, HOWEVER, they're the deadliest once an enemy is up close. 3-4 mass volleys and all but the toughest enemies are either going to sustain a shitton of casualties or even rout if the fire was concentrated enough.
The key to winning a battle isn't to completely decimate the enemy force - it is to make them all rout, and guns and artillery do a much, much finer job at that than bows.
I favoured the bow over the matchlock in regular Shogun, as the matchlocks are sooooooooooooooo goddamn short on range and inaccurate, whilst having almost the same morale effect as fire arrows/whistles. They were just inferior in every way to the bow, but in FoTS it seems that the muskets do a great job at screwing the enemy force in the arse.
Of course, this argument works only if the balance of forces is equal or in enemy's favour, not if you have the upper hand. Bows will ALWAYS do a better job if you have more units than the enemy does.
Edit: I just lost my general in the dumbest way possible. Set my artillery piece to explosive shot, aimed for the enemy muskets and waited for it to reload and fire. In the meantime, I relocated my general to the right flank where the enemy didn't have any spears, so I could charge in after we meet - so what happens? The pathfinder decided that the shortest route would be in front of the cannon, so it fired RIGHT as he was in front of it with his bodyguards, being blown to pieces, raping half the people who were operating the cannon and another 20 spears nearby.
What a grim day to be a leader. lol