Looters will keep spawning in waves but they do eventually stop spawning. Most I have faced was around 35-40 looters I think. I brought in only Skilled Teppo troops and they did really well, but could see how ranged might struggle.

Originally posted by Rachel L:

I am especially suffering with the battesite looting thing? Like, since i cant beat everyone, i tried to retreat after looting some stuff and had 0 sucess (lost everything). And my archers refuse to attack ranged, they always are going to melee in that "map"

The latter part is because in hideout style maps ranged troops default to hold fire. Hit f4 to toggle between hold fire and fire at will.

Retreating does not lose your items, I did some last night, it is the intended way to end the battle. As far as I can tell, units that use the loot pile get an item after going through their loot animation, including the player character. If a unit holding something goes down the items go to whoever killed them. When you leave the map you will have no messages about your loot or a loot screen, they'll just be in your inventory.

I think the intended way to do it is either loot a pile or two and then run away, or let the looters pick apart the piles and murder as many of them as you can before they leave, then leave before the ashigaru take you out.

Thanks for the help guys. Retreating only works if YOU are alive it seems,if only your troops are alive (even if they looted stuff) you seem to lose all.