Matchlock Samurai are a type of matchlock infantry in Total War: Shogun 2.
Description[]
These samurai are armed with matchlock guns and harass the enemy with long range, massed volleys of fire.
Matchlock samurai fire volleys into enemy ranks to disorientate and weaken them enough so a charge cannot be effectively resisted, as it can be devastating to see comrades falling in a hail of bullets. The matchlock samurai fight in a similar way to the ashigaru, but are much more accurate in their fire.
Once fired, reloading guns is a slow business, and it can leave the unit vulnerable to cavalry attacks. The matchlock samurai should retreat behind friendly melee troops once the real fighting begins.
Historically, the majority of arquebuses were used by ashigaru troops. The guns were reasonably simple to use and arming the ashigaru with them was quicker and cheaper than training archers. It also freed up the samurai to participate in combat using weapons that required more skill, such as the katana or bow. The samurai who did use arquebuses were expected to use their better skills to take out single, important enemies rather than completely rely on volleys like the ashigaru. This distinction between fighting styles for the same weapon could also be seen with the bow and the spear, where the emphasis for the samurai was to pick targets and engage them in matched single combat.
Strengths & Weaknesses
- Good range but shorter than bow units.
- Devastating damage.
- Average accuracy, reload rate and morale.
- Vulnerable to cavalry but fairly good in melee against infantry.
General Information[]
For most factions, Matchlock Samurai are the best, but most expensive, unlimited matchlock units available to most clans. Matchlock Samurai have inferior numbers compared to Matchlock Ashigaru, but have superior accuracy, reload skill, melee skill, defense skill, armor, charge bonus, and morale. They also possess the Rapid Volley ability, pushing their reload skill temporarily far beyond what matchlock ashigaru are capable of. Despite the buffs to melee statistics, Matchlock Samurai are still very weak in melee combat, and are no match for dedicated melee troops.
Without DLC, Matchlock Samurai are the best matchlock units available. With DLC, however, they are outclassed by the likes of Portuguese Tercos and Shimazu Heavy Gunners.
- When trained by the Date Clan, Matchlock Samurai have +2 charge bonus.
- Hattori Matchlock Samurai have kisho training, allowing them to be placed anywhere on the battlefield except the opponent's deployment zone during the deployment phase of a battle. They can also hide in light scrub, as well as long grass.
- Otomo Matchlock Samurai are cheaper to recruit at 600 koku instead of 700, and have +5 reload skill and +5 accuracy. The Otomo clan has access to better matchlock units however, in the form of Portuguese Tercos. Portuguese Tercos are also available much earlier than Otomo Matchlock Samurai.