Samurai Hero (FOTS Unit)

Samurai Hero (FOTS Unit)
File:Samurai Hero FOTS.png
Class	Bow Cavalry
Recruitment Cost	1080
Upkeep Cost	160
Requires	Buildings: Legendary Dojo
Melee Attack	9
Charge Bonus	10
Bonus vs Cavalry	0
Range	150
Accuracy	80
Reloading Skill	60
Ammunition	25
Melee Defence	2
Armour	6
Morale	20
Speed	12

Description

Skill with the bow may become outmoded, but courage lives forever!

Samurai heroes are, in short, a paragon of the samurai martial virtues and skills, figures almost from legend. They carry bows and katana swords, and have long years of practice in their use. They are horsemen almost without equal. Those years of training mean that they can fire rapidly on enemies, accurately peppering them with arrows at surprisingly long range, then close with their foes to give bravura demonstrations of swordsmanship. As might be expected, heroes have very good morale, and can be relied on to fight in almost all circumstances. They are, however, only mortal when facing rifle bullets and artillery shells, and it is a foolish general who sends them into a headlong attack against spear-armed infantry.

At their best, samurai were the embodiment of all the heroic, warrior virtues: skilled, brave, and honourable. The code of bushido defined exactly how they were to serve their masters whether by living well or dying well. Life and death were irrelevant in the performance of duty, but this was not simple fatalism or brutality; it meant that attempting to do the right thing and dying in the process was not failure. Upholding honour was expected, and opponents with honour were respected too. The traditions of bushido, honour and duty, could inspire samurai to acts of insane bravery against all odds. The demands of modern warfare, on the other hand, eventually had a terrible, corrosive effect on bushido, emphasising obedience and duty at the expense of honour and doing the right thing.

Strengths & Weaknesses

• Fast and can fire on the move.
• High accuracy and range.
• Weak against massed foot missile units.
• Average in melee.
• Very good morale.

Special Abilities

• Swooping Crane - This unit can arrange itself into a moving circular formation, harrassing the enemy with a constant rate of fire.
• Second Wind - This restores a portion of nearby units' stamina, allowing them to fight longer and harder.

Other Information

The Samurai Hero is unfortunately a very disappointing unit.

They require a Legendary Dojo, a big investment, particularly in an age where guns are beginning to dominate the battlefield. Despite this they are not even particularly strong as Samurai. They have only 40 men, like all heroes in Shogun 2. They are mediocre in melee; Katana Kachi have better stats and Samurai Heroes will have trouble even against most Line Infantry. As skirmisher cavalry their good individual stats do not compensate for their small unit size, and Bow Ki do noticeably more damage. Gunpowder Cavalry get many times as many kills. Samurai Heroes do survive a little better with their 2 hitpoints, but their unit size counters this advantage. A good volley from Riflemen can cripple them and any Spear will destroy them. They have excellent morale, but this does not compensate for their general ineffectiveness in melee and at range.

Another major weakness is their high Recruitment and Upkeep costs which is 36 Gold/Koku to recruit each man and an additional 5.3 Gold/Koku to keep them sustained, a rather substantial sum. In short, the Samurai Hero is a Cost-Ineffective Unit for both single-player and multi-player battles. They have a unit limit of 1.

They do inspire nearby troops and have the second wind ability, which helps fatigued troops recover their stamina. This is probably their most useful role.