Shogunate Guard Infantry

Shogunate Guard Infantry
Appears in	Fall of the Samurai
Belongs to	Factions with Shogunate allegiance
Type	Elite Infantry
Ammunition	15
Soldiers per unit	50/100/150/200
Attack skill	11
Charge bonus	20
Anti-cavalry skill	7
Armour	2
Defense skill	6
Range	125
Precision	65
Loading speed	60
Morale	12
Produced from	Army War College
Special abilities	Kneel Fire Suppression Fire
Cost	1300 SP/1280 MP
Upkeep	170
Turns to train	1
Unit cap	6

Shogunate Guard Infantry are a type of elite infantry in Fall of the Samurai.

Description

These superior troops are the backbone of a modern army fighting for the Shogun.

The guard fight as line infantry, forming up to deliver controlled and accurate volleys of rifle fire into the ranks of the enemy. They are armed with breech-loading rifles, and their foreign advisors have trained them well. The guns will do terrible damage to their targets, and the men can reload at speed and keep up a good rate of fire. They are also confident of their own abilities, and have good morale as a result. A commanding general need have no fear about committing these men to close combat, as they will also give a good account of themselves in melee.

The Guard were armed and equipped in the latest French military fashion. This was a deliberate policy, as the French were considered to possess the best army in Europe at the time. This was to be cruelly exposed as a fallacy by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. All well-informed observers were convinced that the French Army would have little trouble in seeing off the upstart Prussians, especially as the French had a Napoleonic tradition of attacking their enemies to the utmost and, it has to be said, of mostly winning wars. It was therefore a bit of a shock that the Prussians reached Paris in the space of a few weeks, having comprehensively defeated the best army in Europe. This eventually gave Prussia the victory it needed to establish its preeminent position within Germany, the real aim of fighting the war in the first place. Despite the blow to French national prestige, the French continued to export arms and military expertise to the rest of the world, although their customers were a little harder to impress in 1872 than they had been in 1869.

Strengths & Weaknesses

• Very good accuracy and reload rate.
• Good in melee.
• Presence encourages nearby friendly units.
• Very good morale.

General Information

As their name suggests, Shogunate Guard Infantry are elite infantry available only to factions with Shogunate allegiance. Should their faction switch allegiances, they are automatically disbanded. They are functionally similar to line infantry, but are much more capable in melee and ranged combat, and inspire nearby troops. However, they are much more expensive to train and maintain, have the steepest building requirements of any modern unit, and are limited to only six regiments.

Unlike their regular counterparts, shogunate guard infantry does not have a superior amount of starting ammunition. Shogunate Guard Infantry are statistically identical to their Imperial and Republic counterparts.

Trivia

• The Shogunate Guard Infantry are armed with Chassepot rifles. This is a reference to the fact that Napoleon III provided shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu with 2000 Chassepot rifles, which he used to equip his personal guard.