#Total war shogun 2 tips series

Before moving to the game itself, it’s useful to provide a little background from a historical standpoint.

You start the game when the Japan system, basically divided in provinces with local lords, is losing grasp as local lords start attacking each others to gain territories and influence. At best, you can use the members of your family to conclude alliances (wedding your daughter with another clan’s son) or exchange hostages, but that’s about it. In titles like Rome Total War you could also manage your family lineage literally over the span of centuries if my memory does not fail me – in Shogun 2, the time scale is much more restricted, and therefore the family management aspect is a lot more limited. Now in 2017, it’s certainly not as impressive as it used to be, but it still works well to give a sense of scale and grandeur. What has made Total War so popular in the past was the sheer amount of units it could display at the same time on the battlefield, making large battles look very impressive and convincing.

#Total war shogun 2 tips series

Let’s not go in great depth as to how Total War works, since it’s about the same in every game in the series – this being said if you are unfamiliar with the overall concept, let’s say Total War is a mix of very high level strategy (mostly military with the preparation of large armies, with some pretty basic elements of civil aspects management), and battle tactics, where you can directly control soldiers and squads on a very detailed map.

I did not play the expansion at all at this stage, so let me talk only about the base game. There are two main scenarii to choose from in Total War Shogun 2: the main one from the 戦国時代 (the warring states period – approximately taken place between 15 AD) and the Fall of the Samurai (an expansion/DLC), taking place much later in Japan when it is forced to open up with the foreign powers in late 19th century. Note that I have not played the first Total War Shogun and I am therefore unable to compare what changed versus that episode. While it does retain the very same structure as most of the other Total War games of the series, there are numerous changes that were made to accommodate the Japanese context.

Total War: Shogun 2 is a relatively old Total War title, from 2011.