what is shogun total war like???

[alloafan1993]

I own RTW and M2TW and they are both excellent but i have never played shogun TW. can anyone recommend it

[Dead Sun]

Hell yh!! Retro style STW had the superb Honour system, IMO better than the current valour systems. It was smaller and quicker, i was able to take all Japan in about two hours!

[alloafan1993]

its just japan it is set in!! i thought it would have china and asia but that sounds better.

[clibinarium]

You might find some aspects a bit limiting after playing the sequels, but it was a revolutionary change in RTS games, and is still a fantastic game. Got me into PC gaming in the first place.

[alloafan1993]

i like the sound of this. but i live in scotland where could i buy this

[Otto von Bismarck]

It is still timeless classic and if you have chance you should play it.

[Empress Meg]

Moving to STW.

Devoirs The Empress

[The Good]

I bought Shogun: Total War pretty recently, and it's awesome. It's set in the Sengoku Jidai period of Japan (1500s and 1600s). My favourite factions are the Uesugi (spelling?) and the Mongol Empire.

[Plan C]

Your best bet is to get it from Amazon or ebay, although you might try woolies as well ("sold out" warlord edition). I'm a huge sucker for this game and over the years I must have accumulated 4 or 5 copies of the game in various guises and editions.

STW is simply brilliant. Battle maps look better than RTW zoomed out but are 2d only. The game still looks excellent in high res but is noticably dated. I don't mind. Music is better than RTW IMO.

Bear a few things in mind though. Vista (32 & 64 alike) is definitely not STW friendly, nor are nVidia drivers so if you have, say, a Vista PC + any 8800 or 9800 you might as well give STW a miss as most likely you won't enjoy it. ATi drivers + WinXP work well and I haven't heard of any issues with that config.

Also - interface is different, selecting units, ordering them to move and attack is all done with left click. Right click is only for unit formation menus so you'll have to get used to that. There's no zoom in/out feature either and camera controls are noticably clunkier, sometimes it's difficult to see what's happening on sharp inclines.

Still, tactically and strategically the STW AI is in an altogether different league compared to RTW and will give you immense satisfaction. AI makes next to no mistakes on the battlefield/strat map and you really need to flex your brain to win. Because the map is risk-style, AI manages expansion superbly well and will pick up on any mistakes you make immediately (especially on expert). I can still recall some battles 6 years back whereas I was on the edge of my seat for half an hour and a battle was in the balance until the very end.

All in all definitely give it a go and chances are you'll be blown away by how sharp the AI is and how much fun the game can offer. That, of course, provided your PC is suitable.

[alloafan1993]

Thanks for the info keep it coming!!!

[Martok]

I can never say enough good things about Shogun. While graphics-wise it's obviously dated when compared to Rome and Medieval 2, I find it remains one of the best games I've ever played despite its age. STW is one of the titles that never comes off my hard drive.

I like that the entire game takes place in Japan instead of a larger area. It gives it a "cozier", more intimate feel -- you tend to feel more involved with your clan, that you're more closely connected to your generals and soldiers, etc.

In fact, the game's atmosphere in general is far superior to that of most games I've played. The visuals, the narration/voice-overs, the weather effects, and (especially) the music & sounds all combine together to immerse you in the world of feudal Japan. Every time I fire up STW, I really *feel* like I'm a daimyo, struggling to lead my clan to dominance.

Also, as marrow pointed out, the game's AI is superb; it's easily one of the best I've ever seen in a strategy game. It's not perfect, of course, but it is fairly rare for the computer to make mistakes -- and on the flip side, it will ruthlessly exploit errors committed by the human player. This is especially true on the higher difficulty levels, but even on Easy or Normal difficulty the AI is generally a competent opponent.


I hope you check it out, alloafan1993. You'll be doing yourself a favor, I promise.

[Aetius]

Don't want to get overly nostgalgic here, but STW was very good game. It is the reason why Total War series became popular in the first place.

The graphics suck, and all the factions have (mostly) the same units but they each have their own faction bonuses. There are different time periods ranging from the Mongol Invasions to the fall of the Ashikaga Shogunate to the the rise of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu and gunpowder.



The music score is also one of the best in the series. Miharu Hill anyone?




Movies

Intro



1580 Campaign


Mongol Campaign (lol Kublai Khan sound retarded)


Ending movie


Modern Ending



Assasination Movies that are still unrivaled in all the Total War series.

[Plan C]

This is easily my favourite, only confirms Jeff Van Dyke's and the producer's super-exquisite taste in music.
Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5JO6...eature=related

[Prince of Judah]

I want to play it but it cannot be found in any store here in central FL. Plus I doubt it's compatible with my 3870 graphics card.

[Plan C]

I want to play it but it cannot be found in any store here in central FL. Plus I doubt it's compatible with my 3870 graphics card.

Strangely enough mate it is, it's nVidia drivers that cause issues.

Try here:

http://www.amazon.com/Shogun-Total-War-Pc/dp/B00004DITJ

Good luck!

[Iscariott]

I still remember the first tutorial i played for any total war game. Archers sitting on a hill, ashigaru yari coming up the hill "see how your range is greater because you are on the hill"

Other things I remember:
No-Dachi Samurai virtually never ran away, and slaughtered wantonly while taking massive casualties.

Battle monks(budaka or something) were cheap, highly replaceable suicide squads once you got them. Send those guys into the center, they wouldnt break. Send the nodachi behind them and little survived.

Small map, a nice change for anyone sick of owning a continent.

Bridge battles were bloody messes. And there were 2 bridges.

Units told you why they were wavering('worried about flanks' 'worried about casualties').

UTZ! UTZ! UTZ!

[Mithiras]

Shogun, Shogun, Shogun ... The greatest game I've played. It also it the game that first got me into the PC gaming frenzy and addicted me to the TW series. Though the graphics at that time were ... mediocre, the game had substance that many other games did not have. The system was well built, and allowed many different strategies. I personally loved the Mori and Takeda Clans. But, above all must have been the assassination videos that they showed. Those were completely amazing, and it always was fun to watch repeatedly unlike the current ones for M2TW. I still have my Copy, but I'm not sure where you can buy a copy anymore. Amazon would be your best bet. Or the Era's kit. Even though you have R:TW, you still get two great games with MTW as well as STW. I found it a good deal.

[Prince of Judah]

Strangely enough mate it is, it's nVidia drivers that cause issues.

Try here:

http://www.amazon.com/Shogun-Total-War-Pc/dp/B00004DITJ

Good luck!

Well I've played it on this pc but I was getting horrid flickering which is what I think the 8xxx cards suffer from.

[Plan C]

Flickering is a non-issue as long as you can actually play the game. It only occurs in the title screen and the game as such plays fine I was told.

Let me know if you can change resolutions (on my 8800GTS the highest available is... 640x480) and if your mouse cursor works for orders on the battle map (again, on 8800's the left click doesn't work for moving units on the battlefield, only for attacking).

If you can actually play the game ok then don't worry too much about the flickering title screen.

Best of luck mate!