Battle of Mikatagahara
Shingen is famous for his tactical genius, and innovations, though some historians have argued that his tactics were not particularly impressive nor revolutionary. Nevertheless, Shingen is perhaps most famous for his use of the cavalry charge at the Battle of Mikatagahara. The strength of Shingen's new tactic became so famous that the Takeda army came to be known as the "kiba gundan" (騎馬軍団), or 'mounted army'. Up until the mid-16th century and Shingen's rise to power, mounted "samurai" were primarily archers. There was already a trend at this time towards larger infantry-based armies, including a large number of foot archers. In order to defeat these missile troops, Shingen transformed his "samurai" from archers to lancers.