Basic Unit Statistics (can be modified by difficulty level, arts, skills, traits and retainers)
| Recruitment Cost | 900 | |
| Upkeep Cost | 150 | |
| Melee Attack | 10 | 28% |
| Charge Bonus | 15 | 30% |
| Bonus vs Cavalry | 5 | 16% |
| Range | 125 | 19% |
| Accuracy | 40 | 40% |
| Reloading Skill | 35 | 35% |
| Ammunition | 7 | 8% |
| Melee Defence | 8 | 22% |
| Armour | 2 | 13% |
| Morale | 10 | 20% |
Strengths & Weaknesses
- Average accuracy and reload rate.
- Good in melee.
- Weak against cavalry.
- Very good morale.
Description
The shinsengumi special police are a useful force of rifle-armed samurai infantry.
These "special police" carry katanas, making them rather formidable in close-quarter battles. They are also dedicated to their cause and each other, and have good morale. Like the samurai of old, they are unlikely to break and run after suffering a few casualties. While the shinsengumi embrace Japanese tradition, they are not above using modern weapons. This gives them a good, accurate and rapid ranged attack. If they have weaknesses, they are those of lesser men: artillery is no respecter of courage, and, if they were badly handled by their general, the shinsengumi could be ridden down by cavalry. The shinsengumi were the "special police" of the Tokugawa Shogunate in Kyoto. The name can be translated as "Team of the Newly Chosen Ones". This was a useful bit of propaganda as the men who formed the shinsengumi did not have particularly good reputations in Kyoto; previously they had been referred to as "the wolves of Mibu", referring to a district in the capital. They were one of a number of armed factions who arose in the confusion and uncertainty of the late 1850s, and were actually quite violent towards their enemies, or the enemies of the Shogunate: they do not always appear to have been all that scrupulous about making a distinction between their vendettas and their duties. However, they were credited with breaking up a plot to burn down Kyoto by Imperialist conspirators. They used rather imaginative torture to establish that there was a conspiracy, and attacked the revealed conspirators with deadly force. Historians are now divided over the reality and dangers of the "plot", but the shinsengumi made the most of their new opportunity for power.