White Tiger Force

White Tiger Force
Appears in	Fall of the Samurai
Belongs to	Aizu
Type	Militia Infantry
Ammunition	15
Soldiers per unit	50/100/150/200
Attack skill	3
Charge bonus	8
Anti-cavalry skill	2
Armour	1
Defense skill	1
Range	125
Precision	15
Loading speed	15
Morale	4
Produced from	Stronghold
Cost	610 SP/500 MP
Upkeep	90
Turns to train	1
Unit cap	None

White Tiger Force are a type of militia* in Fall of the Samurai.

Description

The White Tigers are line infantry, trained to beat an enemy through firepower.

The White Tigers carry rifles, and can use them well, giving good accuracy and a reasonable rate of fire. The rifles themselves are large bore weapons, and cause serious wounds when their bullets hit home. This is useful, as fire rather than close combat is the strength of the force. If the White Tigers are carelessly handled, they are vulnerable to being ridden down by a well-timed cavalry attack. However, thanks to the martial traditions of Aizu province, these men have good morale.

The feudal lord of Aizu, Matsudaira Katamori, was a Tokugawa loyalist and was appointed to be the Protector of Kyoto by the Shogun. He was declared an “enemy of the Court” by the Imperial forces, and much of his army ended up fighting for the Northern Alliance against the Emperor.

The White Tigers were part of the Aizu army at Tonoguchihara, although they were originally intended to be a reserve unit of samurai. Unfortunately, after they withdrew, they assumed that the castle town was on fire and lost, and some members of the White Tigers took their own lives. Oddly, their grave is now marked by a column from Pompeii, a gift from Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist dictator. The unit is named after a Chinese constellation, the mythological White Tiger of the West, a creature associated with the element of metal.

Strengths & Weaknesses

• Average accuracy and reload rate.
• Weak in melee.
• Weak against cavalry.
• Average morale.

General Information

White Tiger Force are a unit type unique to the Aizu, substituting and replacing standard Levy Infantry. They are somewhat superior to levy infantry, with better accuracy and reload skill (the rest of the stats are identical). Their recruitment and upkeep costs are correspondingly higher, but still relatively cheap. White Tiger Forces are thus useful for garrisoning region capitals for a low cost. They are also useful in the early game, where better troops may be too expensive to field in large numbers.

Despite their superior statistics when compared to standard militia, White Tiger Forces are no match against dedicated line infantry, which are superior in combat.

Unlike levy infantry, White Tiger Forces remain more expensive to train than Spear Levy even after modernisation removes the early discount for traditional units. This makes spear levy more cost effective for maintaining public order than White Tiger Forces throughout the entire campaign for the Aizu.

*The description terms White Tiger Force as line infantry; however, the game classes them as militia and their statistics are more in-line with militia.

Trivia

• They are armed with Pattern 1861 Enfield musketoons.
• The White Tiger Force (Byakkotai) were teenage samurai, 16-17 years old. This is not reflected in the in-game models.