Shogun 2 Noob-ceptions: Yari Samurai are Useless

"You'll typically have a large core of samurai" laughs in Oda

Want to use Yari Samurai? Play as Hattori, just place them near the enemy, then click rapid advance.

Yari ashigaru is powerful early game when the AI is spamming and cheating out yari samurai stacks, which it doesn't know how to use effectively. But Bow samurai, even in AI hands becomes the crux of the campaign later on. I feel like, even on legendary - I naturally progress to more and more aggressive armies as the campaign goes on. One single well placed katana samurai or yari samurai flank can turn the whole battle around - especially against late game horror stacks - Naginata/Bow samurai. They also bring lots of yari cav, so 1 unit of yari samurai could potentially kill up to 5 or 6 units of cavalry totally independent of their own supporting units.

To be fair for the first statement, I remember vividly as a new player fielding large amounts of katana samurai. That is the noob friendly unit that favors the “samurai must be better” category. There’s a reason most people’s starting campaigns were the Shimazu.

There is also the strategy of recruiting yari sam in a blacksmith province. Even with moderate upgrades to the blacksmith, you get the fastest infantry unit with the highest base melee defence, with adequate armour to tank arrows, enough attack to handily beat katana samurai from the front, and is immune to cavalry.

I often use yari samurai when playing as Hattori, because they also have kisho training which makes them really good for baiting enemies from their flank while my main army charges enemy's front. I also use them for killing enemy general by placing them behind the enemy. Their rapid advance is really fast against non-cavalry unit and also increase their charge

The reason why there's such misconception is because yari ashigaru have spear-wall ability, and their cheap price recruitment and upkeep. While Yari samurai have rapid advance instead and the higher price of recruitment and upkeep, really making most of people pick yari ashigaru instead of yari samurai.

That's why there's a mod that give Yari Sam yari wall ability.

Even if spear Samurai were useless, that burst of speed really makes them useful for winning infantry engagements and picketing cavalry. I really do wish they got the spear wall though

In competitive online pvp, I saw yari samurai quite often compared to many people’s belief. Meanwhile, I don’t see people use naginata samurai that much like yari samurai as they always get rekt by katana samurai as main line units and less effective as anti Calvary unit. Being a jack of all trade is a red flag because they are good at nothing, it’s always better to have 1 katana and 1 yari sam instead of 2 naginata sam in pvp imo. I always loved it when my opponents brought a main line of naginata samurai to cover their bow units because my win rate was high against that army. And yes rapid advanced in this game is quite amazing, tho I only brought maximum of 2 yari sam, or sometimes only 1.

Yari Samurai are good for flanking and useful as early game shock troops or supporting Yari Ashigaru lines. Place them on the flanks of army and send them against the most necessary positions to take. In early game this can win you a number of hard battles.

Yari Samurai are great as a guard unit for the general. They can buy time for the general to escape ambushing units and can slaughter attacking cavalry.

Never disrespect the horse killers.

i changed my opinion alot with those guys. used to think they were complete garbage, but tbh, rapid advance makes up for it. in campaign, you can just get the attack upgrade, and they should deal just fine, even against katana samurai. on top of that, rapid advance is an incedible ability, it recharges relatively fast, and when used for flanking, they can go around uncontested, since cavalry doesnt want to pick that fight.

I remember wanting to vomit when a stack of Yari Sam with 4 star general show his face to my castle and the only thing guarding it is 2 yari Ash and Sam retainer. Only lost like 70 while the enemy is finished.

i had an online multiplayer game where i had long Oda Ashigaru units upgraded as well dont remember how much but i made 2 lines one in front and one just a little behind the trick was that i drew all my friends swords in and i came with the second line and made it advance straight through to some longer distance behind them and eventurly all his troops broke within minutes and fell in the thousends so OP just like Rome total war Phalanx wall XD

I always keep the first Yari Samurai you start with in campaign, if nothing else it has the longest time to gain experience, and has a niche in screening/guarding cavalry/hunting cavalry that the improved stats via exp helps with.

Whilst playing as the oda i often have very long lines of units next to each other (due to the size of the army and needing as much width to utilise all my matchlocks) in that case having 2 or so units of yarisam’s behind the line to punish flanking cavalry is a must since having my yari ashigarus turn around defeats the entire point of the yari wall!

I think most players play very lazy playstyle of sitting with a yari ashigaru line and an archer line while flanking the opponent's archer line with yari cav so they prefer armored yari ashigaru and then naginata samurai in late game. The more micro skill you have the more varied army you will prefer. I prefer using katana cav to flank infantry and yari cav to flank archer line, while having yari ashigaru in early game and then naginata warrior monks with +armor to hold front line. I also use bow cav for baiting and skirmish and ninjas late game to kill high priority targets like general or bow samurai. I dont use bow infantry at all since I never defend on open field. For an aggressive playstyle bow cav does the job best. Yari samurai is essential since enemy ai field yari cav and will charge them out against bow cav or general if it gets the chance. Yari Samurai are the best unit to intercept charging or flanking cav. Slowass yari ashigarus will never catch them.

I think yari samurai are great to have in Date, Takeda and Hojo comps tbh