Kisho Ninja (Fall of the Samurai)

For similar units and agents, see Ninja.

Kisho Ninja
Appears in	Fall of the Samurai
Belongs to	Most factions
Type	Special Infantry
Ammunition	2
Soldiers per unit	15/30/45/60
Attack skill	15
Charge bonus	20
Anti-cavalry skill	0
Armour	4
Defense skill	8
Range	50
Precision	40
Loading speed	60
Morale	12
Produced from	Master Dojo
Special abilities	Stealth Blinding Grenades
Cost	1420 SP/1090 MP
Upkeep	180
Turns to train	2 (default), 4 (School of Shinobi researched)
Unit cap	2 SP/None MP

Kisho Ninja are a type of special infantry in Fall of the Samurai.

Description

Death hides in the rustling of leaves.

These men are shadows, able to move across the battlefield without being seen. They are best employed to stealthily approach high-value enemy units, and then suddenly strike. They can throw fire bombs at close range, and fight in melee with deadly skill. However, the small number of men in a kisho ninja unit means that they can be overwhelmed by numbers in close combat if badly handled. They should not be hurled into an attack just because they are at hand!

Despite more than two centuries of relative peace and calm under the Tokugawa Shogunate, there are few reasons to think that the ninja ceased to exist. Indeed, there is every reason to suppose that ninja remained in use throughout the period to keep order. The arrival of new weapons and technology in Japan in the 1850s and later would merely have given the ninja new killing devices to use. During the wars of the 20th Century, Imperial Japanese Special Forces employed many skills that would have been instantly recognisable to medieval ninja.

Strengths & Weaknesses

• Can hide anywhere.
• Can move hidden.
• Very good in melee.
• Good but short-ranged melee attack.
• Good morale.
• Weak against cavalry.

General Information

Kisho Ninja function much in the same way as their predecessors, using their high stealth to infiltrate and attack enemy positions from unexpected locations. While they retain their functions from Total War: Shogun 2, the battlefield in Fall of the Samurai is drastically different. Firepower is a much greater factor, and kisho ninjas must retain their stealth if they hope to survive: their low number of men mean that just a volley or two could wipe out their entire regiment. However, some of their advantages are amplified. While they were only somewhat better at melee combat than most troops in Total War: Shogun 2, Kisho Ninja have far better melee stats than most units in Fall of the Samurai. Should they engage in melee with rifle armed troops, particularly by surprising them in the flanks or rear, kisho ninja can expect to come out of the battle very favorably, despite their tiny number of men per regiment.

Kisho Ninja have several abilities. They come with two salvoes of grenades, which deal devastating damage but have short range. After School of Shinobi has been mastered, they also gain the ability to use Blinding Grenades, which deal minimal damage but inflict both a morale penalty and greatly decrease their targets' accuracy. Finally they can activate their stealth ability, which renders them temporarily invisible to enemies, even when running. They climb walls extremely quickly, which minimizes their casualties when climbing and also make them ideal for infiltrating and capturing castles before the defenders can properly respond, particularly for large, multi-tier castles. School of Shinobi also aids in this regard by doubling the maximum amount of kisho ninja that can be recruited from two to four: an ambush by four regiments in the castle square is much more likely to succeed than just two.

While Kisho Ninja are available very late, with the penultimate tier of traditional dojos required to train them, Tsu begins the campaign with one unit of kisho ninja. Thanks to their clan traits, the Tsu can recruit five kisho ninja instead of two (for a total of seven regiments with School of Shinobi researched), allowing them to plan ambitious and highly damaging ambushes.