Hatamoto

Hatamoto are the élite troops of Gekokujo. They are Samurai troop tree last tier and there are 2 types of them for each clan. Despite the type, they all wear Kozane Armor with no Sashimono.

Hatamoto Guard
This élite infantry is the ideal shock troop, dealing pain and mass destruction to every formation they fiercely engage. They wield a high quality katana (Bizen or superior). Their armour won't be enough against gunners and high tier archers, so keep them safe until they engage the enemy. A cavalry charge, even mid-tier, will kill or atleast knock out one or more of your guards, because of their lack of anti-cav weapons, so placing a line of spearman in front of them and having good archers is always a good thing.

Clans
 * Uesugi
 * Date
 * Mori
 * Shimazu
 * Tokugawa
 * Chosokabe
 * Myoshi
 * Amako
 * Ryuzoji
 * Satomi
 * Ukita

Hatamoto Cavalry
Mighty Samurai riders, they will snowball every formation if in mass. They're very good units, thanks to the use of a naginata (for some) and of the yari. No formation on Japan can survive a charge of these without taking some losses. But Japanese warhorses aren't really armored so they can be easy pickings for well positioned gunners. Even though they aren't bad at all on foot, they're a fragile unit that needs care in using it also because their numbers in your armies won't be larger of those of the other units, in fact, you'll often have very few of them.

Clans
 * Oda
 * Takeda
 * Otomo
 * Nanbu
 * Hojo
 * Mogami
 * Uesugi
 * Date
 * Mori
 * Amako
 * Satomi

Hatamoto Archers
These noble dead-eyes are the most skilled marksmen in Japan, masters of one of the noblest, yet deadliest, samurai art. Incredibly precise and rapid, the Hatamoto Archers are the doom of every not-well armored formation. They are incredibly good short to mid distance due their rate of fire, but at long distance they're surpassed by gunners sniping skills. they biggest single drawback is that they run out of ammunition quite fast due their high rate of fire. It's suggested to keep them away from enemy at any moment. but they can easily handle a fight with their lessers if needed, as they have exceptional armor and katanas.

Clans
 * Takeda
 * Otomo
 * Asakura
 * Chosokabe
 * Hojo
 * Ryuzoji
 * Satake

Hatamoto Gunners
Blue blood snipers, these samurai have renounced to the traditional samurai martial arts to embrace the devastating power of nanban gunpowder. They are exceptionally good in long range as they don't have an accuracy penalty as in other mods. While they don't have the fire rate of a Hatamoto Archer, their piercing volleys can decimate even the Hatamoto Guards. It's best to keep them away from the enemy at any given moment but, just like the Hatamoto Archers, their elite weapons and skills allow them to guard themselves against lesser soldiers.

Clans
 * Oda
 * Tokugawa
 * Myoshi
 * Nanbu
 * Shimazu
 * Mogami


 * Ukita

Strategic Tips
Hatamoto troops aren't really difficult to reach, and an experienced player will get some Hatamoto after 3 weeks, having then a very nice amount of them in a month. Their upkeep is very expensive, but they're worthy of every mon spent on them, especially when they will utterly destroy an outnumbering enemy force.

With a good amount of these is possible what I call "Siege Spree", aka a long besieging campaign that results in the conquest of 4-5 castles. The lone turnside is that, after such long campaigns your forces will need a week atleast of time to fully recover as sieges in Gekokujo always favour the defenders, and attackers rarely won't experience casualties.

In definitive, the Hatamoto units can be the core of your army and the unifying force that will put you as the Shogun, so they deserve care and the use of good tactics to reduce their casualties.

Note: Ikko Ikki differ to most clans in that their elite troops aren't in the samurai tree, but the monk tree, and also they have only one elite troop, the Elite Naginata Monks, instead of the usual two hatamoto troops.