Squid Division

Hey what do the Welsh have anything to do with it?!

Also the PS3 version comes with the PC version, so you're getting 2 for 1 (provided your PC can run it I guess).

Awesome Pirate. Any idea/do you want to say where you'll be moving to in the US? You probably have a place to stay just outside Washington DC if you want, and I wouldn't mind taking you around.

You Europeans and your Metric System.

Ouch, that sucks. Hopefully that'll get fix. It'd be cool if you could craft some saddlebags for them so they're walking boxes.

This is some kind of shot at me I presume?

HEY awesome! Thanks Jake

udEAEARD-Fo I like it, quite a bit.

I tried the Shimazu on my first campaign, and it's a bit too isolated for my tastes; I wanted to get to Kyoto early. Another reason I picked the Chosokabe is that they're in the demo tutorial, so if people decided to check the game out, they'd have more of an idea of what was going on. I need to play some more, because last time I did, shit went upside-down for me. For anyone else who's playing, you should jump into the multiplayer forum and join the Idle Thumbs clan. Once they fix the servers I imagine we'll be doing the clan battles quite a bit. Actually, it appears they did just patch it, so hopefully it works now.

Battle for Kyoto I line up in my usual formation - bows out front, samurai behind them, cav on the flanks, and general in the middle so he can rush anywhere to inspire troops. This time though, I had the european cannons I brought to besiege Kyoto, and put them up on the hill to the right (my left). The reinforcing army comes in. I doubt I'll be able to kill the first one before they get close. The cannons will help shake them up though. The cannons and arrows rout some of the enemy army, with my swordsmen taking care of the rest that charged me. I send my katana cavalry to take out their archers in a last ditch effort to make sure the first army is completely out of the picture before the main one engages. They come at me in what is essentially a column, which could break me in half very easily. I charge to snag some of their regiments so they can't all hit the same place in my line. My samurai absolutely annihilate their peasants though, and it's almost immediately a rout. The message comes up telling me I won, and asking me if I want to continue the battle. Of course I do, it means I can run down their fleeing troops so I don't have to fight them in a siege later. There are almost full regiments that didn't even engage, so it's quite the slaughter. Their bowmen make it to the forest, which slows down my horsemen, but not enough to save them. End the end, it wasn't much of a battle. Kyoto is as good as mine. Still, they retreat back within the walls of the city and in all likelihood would reciprocate the annihilation if I tried to take it in a siege. I try to starve them out/draw a field battle. It works. They have A LOT of cavalry and some fresh bow samurai. Unfortunately the battle map is tactically awful for me. I deploy slightly diagonally to a large hill they'll have to come across. My hope is that my cannons can do some serious damage with a nice clear view of them coming down the hill. It kind of works, but their cavalry is something I'm not used to. It's so quick that it's able to snag a couple of my bow regiments. I'm able to fight it all off though, and flank with my own cavalry (was hidden in the woods to start the battle, so they never expected it) coming down the same hill they did. The cavalry clear our their bowmen, light cav, and general. Unfortunately, while I was looking at something else, they send some light cavalry around my flank and hit my bowmen. I decide to make the decision to have my cannons fire right into the melee. My hope is that this will ultimately end up with fewer of my men killed than if they tried to fight it out. It works and I win the battle. Kyoto is broken. And finally mine The Lull It takes four turns of holding Kyoto to be declared Shogun. So I sat back and guarded it - fairly easy since the city is so good it VERY quickly replenishes and produces armies. This gets a little boring though, and I'd need a new target, so OF COURSE I come to my vassal's defense when the Hattori try to take that city back - once again at war with the Hattori. I took that rebel province so that I had a direct connection by a port back to my islands. I now have two Honshu-side provinces, an unbreakable military factory in Kyoto, and a clear, close enemy. And now I have the title.

The Naval Battle So in my last post, the Hattori were attacking my caravel with a giant navy, and according to the balance of power bar (that the autoresolve goes off of) I was in for a quick and handy defeat. We'll see about that. I veer my caravel off so that I'm perpendicular to the enemy navy; I'm able to bombard them from afar while slowly sailing into the wind (of course the wind is coming right at me so I can't sail at them quickly). I head towards a small island to entangle their ships on one another. It seems to have worked. (You can also see the size differential and the fog) They then proceed to use fire arrows to set my ship on fire. It could be serious, but for the moment it's not. There's nothing they can do to damage me other than burn the ship down, so I stop to repair while they ping arrows off my hull. The battle has gone on too long, so I abandon the repair and go on the offensive. My marines, armed with muskets, are also devastating to the short open-decked Japanese ships. After a few decisive broadsides, the enemy flag ship begins to sink and they abandon ship. So much for the utter defeat I was SUPPOSED to have suffered. Kyoto Campaign My daimyo lands and makes his way to Kyoto, only to be confronted with FOUR large enemy armies to my one. This isn't good. I'm going to need help, and it's going to cost me. I pay the Imagawa, a few provinces south-east of Kyoto to back me up. They're already at war with the Hattori, so the money I give them should help them make an offensive. All the while, my ninja has been annihilating anyone with a name in Kyoto. He's got ridiculous stats, and even earned an awesome demon mask. Fear him. My army has been skirting around the western side of the river between me and Kyoto. I move up to the bridge when I see an opportunity to possibly snatch it. The Hattori won't have it and come at me. They have twice the number of men and luckily the Shogun isn't able to come as reinforcements as well. If they could, I'd probably be outnumbered 4:1. Still 2:1 is too much when it's my veteran and only army on the line. I retreat to the north-west and seize an empty Hattori province. My hope is that if the Hattori really want to come and get me, they can try and climb a wall with my veteran Katana Samurai at the top waiting for them. A siege battle might be winnable, a field battle would not. However, when I take the castle, I'm offered with the opportunity to make it a vassal. This resurrects a dead clan and makes it my vassal (ally who pays me money and grants me military access to their lands). I do this, because it's another, allied, army that I can use against the Hattori if they decide to attack. So I hide out next to it, baiting the Hattori. Then this happened. The Takeda had been pushing pretty hard from the north-east, and the Imagawa from the south-east, so the Hattori had better things to worry about than me taking Kyoto. This is basically what the political climate looked like: Kyoto was now open. Defended only by the garrisoning Ashikaga army and the support army guarding the bridge over the river. I decided to make my move. I attacked the support army hoping I could eliminate it and then besiege Kyoto. In a stroke of luck, the garrison sallied to reinforce the support army. I was still outnumbered by a good amount, but this would be a field battle, not a siege. I could hope to eliminate the support army before the main one shows up. Here I could break the Ashikaga Shogunate, and effectively seal their fate.

Campaign Map The campaign map is similar to Empire, where your non-unit-producing buildings are actually on the campaign map and can be disrupted. Food is very important in Shogun so having your farms attacked is a big deal. Alternatively, you can disrupt the enemy's economy by sacking their farms and going after their mines. As far as feel, it feels most similar to Napoleon, which is to say large enough, but condensed compared to other total war games. Japan is large and the province sizes vary wildly. Around Kyoto there are many separate provinces akin to the German states in Empire. Up north, there are fewer, larger ones, equivalent to Russia (I guess). It takes a lot of effort to get from one end to the other, and if you start at either end, in all likelihood, you'll never see the other end unless you sail an invasion force up there. Agents Ninjas are assassins and spies. They can sabotage buildings in or outside a city so they can't be used. They can also subvert armies - meaning they can't move that turn. And most importantly, they can assassinate generals (including heirs and daimyo) and other agents. Monks convert provinces to your religion. In your own territories, this is used as a pacification technique. You can use this offensively by converting enemy territories to a different religion and thereby starting revolts. If you have them attempt to infiltrate a city, you have the option to directly 'Incite a revolt'. However, these are expensive and dependent on the settlements religious leanings. A 100% Buddhist province isn't going to be inspired to revolt by a Portuguese missionary. If you send them against an army, they can demoralize it for the next turn (and remember how important morale is). Finally, you can have them convert other agents, which means that they may disappear for a few turns or altogether while they 'devote themselves to their new life'. Metsuke are secret police/thugs and mainly anti-ninja units. They maintain order when placed in your own cities - boosting your taxes from that city and improving its defenses against enemy ninjas. In the field they are counterspies, outing ninjas so that you can send your metsuke to apprehend him, or your own ninja to kill him. They can oversee your armies as well, boosting the loyalty of its generals and their protection against ninjas. Back from previous Total War games, you can use them to bribe settlements or armies away from your enemies. Something I had forgotten about and might try (I am rolling in koku at the moment). Multiplayer The multiplayer is by far the biggest improvement in the game, with several new modes. Avatar They've added a multiplayer progression system to the game, where you get XP for your general and separate units for each battle you play (more if you win obviously). You can then use the XP to boost certain stats (like in the single player, but more detailed here) like attack, defense, inspiration to other units, and so on. The avatar is customizable with armor as well, and you unlock more armor as you fulfill requirements or by random drops ala TF2. If your units get enough kills in a battle, you have the option of giving them veterancy status. You only have a certain number of slots so you might have to be picky (I haven't had the issue as I've unlocked more slots than veteran units and never hit the limit). Veteran units also have their own small skill tree (boosting morale, attack, defense) and are customizable and nameable. They also cost a bit more too. To keep things a little balanced there are fund limits for the battles, the most common, and fun, being small funds. This means battles are fast and closer (I think). You have to be choosey with what units you bring. Unfortunately, once your general starts getting upgraded, he starts costing a lot of money quickly. This seemingly starts pushing you out of competitiveness as your general (which doesn't really do any more than when you started, because you don't really ever right with him, he's a morale booster) can cost as much as 2 other units. This is about my only complaint though. The same stuff applies to the naval battles, though there is no general involved there. Maps So how do you use your avatar and veteran units? In past Total War games, it was just a list. Now it's a separate, simplifed campaign map. Basically, you pick a region to start from, here it looks like he picked Shikoku just like in my campaign. You then drag your army icon (like in the original Shogun and Medieval games) to a province, fight a battle, and you conquer it. If you take one with a building on it, you get the bonus that the building gives - a sword gives you a new sword unit (you may need 2 sword/whatever buildings to unlock the next unit), horse gives you cavalry, ninja some ninjas for sieges, and so on. Clan Map If you click on the Clan Competition tab, the map stays, but the colors change. And you are presented with something looking like this: This is the Idle Thumbs' clan map. Clan members fight just like on the avatar map, only it claims territory for the clan, not for you (but if you take a building on the clan map, you can still unlock the unit it gives). The top 2 clans move up to the next tier at the end of the 'season' (2 weeks) and the bottom 4 are demoted down a tier. Unfortunately, the servers have been messed up since launch (going to be fixed in the next patch) and games played haven't been registering. Because of that, we haven't really been attempting to take any territories (if 1 out of 10 wins is going to count, not worth it to bother). Coop This is the biggest fix from Napoleon and Empire which kind of had coop/competitive campaigns. If you wanted to play coop, you had to have an army next to your ally's and shadow it the whole time so that you could come in as reinforcements. Now, the person fighting the battle can select any and any number of units and click the little present button and voila! the other player who had just been spectating now has control over those units. The way The Killstar and I have been doing this was to give the other person all our ranged (bows and muskets) units, or all our cavalry, or a small mixed division to flank with. It works perfectly and is tons of fun. My only gripe is that you can't gift units in the campaign. It makes sense (and happened) that a daimyo would send some troops to his allies when they needed help (Oda and Tokugawa did it all the time) - if I'm the Chosokabe, I want to be able to represent my clan well by sending my best and unique units to my ally - some Chosokabe Samurai Archers, but it's not possible. The stability can be a big wonky for coop, but nothing insurmountable. De-syncs occur, but not a lot and the game autosaves at the moment someone hits the -end turn button, so you don't lose progress, and you don't have to do your turn over again. The Killstar and I will actually be starting a new coop campaign today, so if you have anymore questions about that (or anything) or stuff you want pictures of, let me know.

Compared to Rome or Empire? Thanks for all the kind words everybody. I'll get a few more posts up tonight and answer all your questions.

Except for the naval battles with cannon ships (you'll see in my next post), yes, completely. On normal at least. There's much less coin flipping to the auto resolves. It also means that unlike other games where if you had a 51% chance to win you could pull out an upset and decisively win, now you'll get a Pyrrhic victory for that battle like every time. But a vast improvement from previous titles are the casualties you'll take from small armies. No more arbitrarily losing a bunch of men manning your artillery because it takes a percentage from each unit, it now seems to calculate losses based on it's own strategy. This means that you can face a somewhat sizeable army of 700 or so and come away with no losses if you have enough bowmen.

Consolidation With the army firmly in my hands, it's time to risk it to rebels. First it's time to look at the family tree. The Chosokabe are a little thin in this area. However, you might have noticed a second general in my main army. He's the supply specialist for my nation and gives a replenishment bonus to the army he's in. Because he's so valuable and because he's been with the daimyo since the beginning and because there is only one son to be heir (and he's being used as a diplomatic hostage to my new allies, the Shimazu) - it's time to adopt him! Finally, it's time to convert. I got to work on building the caravels to get them in the water ASAP. My spy also landed and made his short way to Kyoto to scout and kill some Ashigara Shogunate family members and generals. My subordinates are getting a little grumpy. I could have made him commit seppuku for the dishonor of even making me have to deal with this bullshit, but he could flee to my enemies. I went ahead and paid him. Luckily my ninja is still loyal and brutally efficient - he's leveled up! Here's a look at the skill tree that agents and generals have (each tree is unique to the type of unit but they all look about like this). Just look at all those wonderfully boosted stats. He's kicking some Shogunate ass. That governor was just the beginning, the Buddhists have revolted in protest of my recent Christianization. They are promptly brutally slaughtered for doubting the daimyo. But, just to make sure I'm not further inconvienced, I decide to lower taxes to boost happiness and lower the chance of rebellion. Notice that I'm still making a good amount of money and have a large amount of savings in case things get crazy. And so it begins. My first Nanban (aka barbarian aka white people) ship is in the water with ten magnificent cannons and 320 marines armed with muskets. Not only that, but I also got some cannons for sieging Kyoto. The Offensive The Shogun has taken a liking to me apparently, and wants me to do some of his dirty work. I have no relations with the Takeda and feel no need to attack them. The Chosokabe obey no man and this demand is sufficient for a declaration of war on the Shogun. Well...not that Shogun, he's dead. But the next one, I'll declare war on him! Boots on the ground. My army is consisted of veterans from the unification of Shikoku, new Yari Samurai to deal with cavalry, heavy Katana Cavalry to smash opposing light cavalry and rout enemy archers after a flanking maneuver. Fortunately a province rebelled across the straights, so I could land in their province without declaring war on the Hattori (who own the rest of the coastline and are allied with the Shogunate). Unfortunately, I was marching into a giant Hattori army and a formidable enemy in Kyoto. And the Black Ship appears. A Spanish Galleon with 24 guns (my invincible caravels only have 10). It's hard to catch, but I'm counting on being able to cut if off at the straights of Honshu and Kyushu. However, this means leaving my army with no way off Honshu with two large enemy armies in front of it. Because of this I get my recently recruited caravel up to replace the two that left to hunt the Black Ship. I then declare war on the Shogunate; the Hattori of course come to their aide. They then decide to attempt to ambush my safety fleet of one ship. I'm woefully outnumbered and the balance-of-power bar has me losing horribly. --------------------------- There's apparently a 15 picture limit per post, so I'll go ahead and leave this here for the moment. Please go ahead and leave a message if you read/liked it so I know I'm not just talking to myself.

Ok so I thought I'd do a little write up of the Shogun 2 campaign I'm doing at the moment. My idea is that, like EVE Online, people like the theory of the Total War games, but find them too difficult to get into or simply not their style of game. Let me know if the accompanying pictures are too big, or if this is simply a dumb idea. ---------------------- Starting Off First to pick a clan. The last game I played was with the Date, at the very north of Japan. In that campaign, I got cut off from most of the other factions geographically, so by the time I got to Kyoto in the late game, there were about 5 other factions left, all of them at war with me. I wanted to start closer to Kyoto and the other numerous factions. I chose the Chosokabe Faction. The dark green is my starting province. Playing as the Chosokabe gives me a lot of advantages: Protection - I'm on an island Isolation - there are only 3 other factions on my island Money - Proximity to trade routes Gunpowder - Proximity to the trade routes gives me access to Christianity and the accompanying muskets, cannons, and sailing ships (the best ships in the game) Shogunate - I'm very close to Kyoto, which if I hold for 4 turns, means I become the new Shogun Bows - The Chosokabe specialize in bows, which decimate the enemy's morale (unbelievably important in this game) I chose Normal difficulty despite being a Total War veteran because Hard and above are apparently broken(ly difficult) at the moment. Short campaign because I'd like to actually finish it. A long campaign requires you conquer 40-45 provinces instead of 25. ---------------------- Conquering Begins I had set goals as the campaign began: Take over my island of Shikoku. Take the trade routes early. This means the other clans can't have it, and that I have a very large comparative income without having to conquer. Get a good ninja assassin early. Ninjas are spies and assassins. They can also sabotage buildings and open gates for besieging armies. However, because morale is so important, killing the enemy's generals before the battle even starts is a huge advantage and the best use of a ninja. Katana Samurai and bows instead of spears. The AI (and players online) use a lot of Yari Ashigaru, which is spear peasantry. Spears are weak to swords and peasants have no morale, so hardened Katana Samurai and bow armies can defeat vastly larger armies. Take the Shogunate early. You get big economic bonuses and some unique units for becoming Shogun. I want these early when you can attack Kyoto without having the entirety of Japan at war with you. Technology - Since Empire, the Total War series has had a technology tree that opens up better buildings which in turn open up better units. They also increase your income and agents' (ninjas, monks, metsukes [thugs]) effectiveness. Convert to Christianity early. This gives me a huge firepower advantage and the best ships. It is extremely dangerous to do if you're not prepared, however. The unrest caused by converting means it's only a good idea once you're secure. The campaign began with suppressing a revolt. For some reason as soon as you start the game, you have a revolt outside your city. I then moved up to the north-west of the island [for some reason Shogun orients the map more or less east-west, so I'm treating that as if it was the correct way for simplicity] and took the Koku's only city, eliminating them. There a built a sword dojo to give me access to Katana Samurai. Each of these units takes two turns to recruit, so I sat back for a bit and started taking trade ports. Once I had a good force of samurai katana and samurai bowmen, I attacked the Sogo in the north-east. My trade partners and third inhabitants of the island, the Miyoshi, apparently had the same idea. Luckily, with the city under siege, they couldn't take it out from under me. I sat back and waited until they had to sally and attack me so I wouldn't have to attempt to take a castle. Since the Miyoshi were also at war with the Sogo they would be reinforcing me in the battle. However, you can see that I was still outnumbered by almost 800 men. Time for these samurai to prove their worth. Great, it's raining and flat. Since they're attacking, I can actually sit back and defend, but alas no hill to use. I put my bowmen out front to engage the enemy bowmen and spearmen before they get to mine. His formation is a bit wider than mine, and it looks like he's trying to flank with some spearmen. I send some katana samurai to deal with them and push up the middle with others. This means that I can easily win on the flanks (swordsmen vs. spearmen, nobles vs. peasants) and break them up the middle where they're trying to win with superior numbers. Meanwhile my archers sit back and lob arrows into the mobs (friendly fire is an unfortunate side effect) and at enemy archers. My generals sit back and provide morale support to keep the few peasant spearmen I have from routing. In the distance you can see the Miyoshi coming in. They hang back though, no point in them getting involved in the battle when they can let me waste my own troops. The battle goes to plan, and they eventually have to send in their general to inspire their men. Unfortunately they send them into the middle of the field, where I'm able to bring over some spearmen (look at all the lances around the cavalry). Well, it was a bloody battle, but I won. Just one faction and its two provinces left - the Miyoshi. I've got a ninja now and he's going to down on their generals and family members. In the intervening time, I build a sword dojo in my newest province so I can replenish my army and fill out my army into a full stack of samurai. Finally, I cancel my trade agreement and declare war (after my ninja relieves them of several generals, sons, and injures the heir and daimyo). Once again, I besiege until they have to attack me to avoid starvation. No generals, but they do have some light cavalry. I don't have any yet, so I'll have to keep an eye on them and hope I can get my spearmen into position before they slaughter my bowmen. Alright! Now this is a favorable position. I'm on a hill and they have to come down out of the hills and cross a plain before they get to me. My men can charge down hill into theirs and my archers will have nice clear shots. The battle goes rather poorly initially. They outright charge, which is fairly rare, instead of exchanging arrows first. Since I wasn't paying attention to this, they snagged a few of my archer regiments with their spearmen. I was able to pull them back up the hill after samurai engaged to relieve them. Then the cavalry arrived. They came along the flanks hidden in the trees. I was just able to pull my spearmen off the front line to get them to the flanks. On the right it was very close, but I snagged them and defeated their lightly armored horsemen handily (the muskets helped a little too). On the right flank they ran straight into my hidden Yari Samurai (yari meaning spearmen and samurai meaning knights vs. ashigaru being peasants). With their cavalry slaughtered and katana samurai bearing down on them, their entire army routed, with many of them not even having engaged. What followed was a slaughter. My generals ran down their bowmen (by far the most dangerous units when facing a castle - I still have 1 more province to take remember). My samurai have proven their worth. They've annihilated significantly bigger armies of ashigaru peasants. As an added bonus, because I've decided to spend the money early for a good army, these units are gaining experience, meaning I could be marching into Kyoto very soon with a veteran army. My general is already a four star general! I was even able to steal a trade route from the Miyoshi. And a turn later I am ruler of all Shikoku. Time to consolidate, replenish my army, establish farms and roads, get some cav, convert to Christianity, suppress the inevitable Buddhist revolts, build a navy of caravels, and make a push for Kyoto. ---------------------- Ok, that's it for the moment. Questions, suggestions, complaints?

Ah good call, didn't see that.

Would've PM'd this to someone if I knew who was supposed to deal with it. Anyway, bot post with a bunch of links here in the steam exchange thread.

Oscar winning actor.... HI-FUCKIN-YA is one of my favorites. More people should start using that.

Definitely. I think I might do a short campaign and write it up for the Gaming section of the forum. It seems like these games are a bit like EVE online, where people might not want to play them, but they always like hearing about them.

The Pope is, but the other thing is not.

Spoilers bro!

It's the same difficulty as the other two I think.

Can't a creeper blow up and take out your whole pack then? Unacceptable.

I agree. I was expecting more along Monday Night Combat prices for it. I'll probably end up grabbing it in a steam sale.