Total War: Shogun 2 Message Board

You’ve been told plenty about Total War: Rome II, but you haven’t seen all that much of it. Not in living colour, full motion, high-resolution video with digital sound and smellovision. How the heady scent of historical battle fills my nostrils! It’s just like my office is filled with sweaty Roman loincloths. But then again, when isn’t it?

These narrated 11 minutes of man-stabbing cover the same scenario our Jim reported on from GDC – which is to say the battle of Teutoburg forest, in which a bunch of German chaps rather unexpectedly gave three Roman legions what for.(more…)

The videogames industry isn’t all sexualisation, lies and Doritogates, you know. Sometimes nice things happen because they are nice things. Case in point, the Creative Assembly giving a fan with not long to live a chance to play pre-alpha Rome 2 code, advise on its development and be recreated as a proud soldier of the Roman empire in-game.(more…)

Total War: Shogun 2 is getting the "Gold Edition" treatment, Sega recently announced. The collector's edition will feature 2011's Shogun 2 as well as its Rise of the Samurai and Fall of the Samurai expansion packs.

Jump past the break to see a pack shot for the Gold Edition, which will launch March 5.

Creative Assembly invited key members of its modding community to its Horsham based headquarters last month for a secret meeting. Seated around a conference table, modders looking over at developers whose work we had been rummaging around in for years, one question was on everyone’s mind: Why?

We now know what they were planning to announce: the Assembly Kit for Shogun 2, a full modding suite combined with full Steam Workshop support. After a short round of applause from the modders, there was one more question: What on earth took you so long?(more…)

Modding’s been a bit of a sore spot for Total War fans in recent times, but Creative Assembly – to its credit – has spent the past few months fixing up that rather glaring crack in its series’ armor. And certainly, Total War: Shogun 2‘s dedicated (and not-entirely-uninituitive) map editor was a nice start, but people demanded more. More breadth, more tools, more tiny virtual ant men throwing away their tiny virtual ant lives in the name of history. So Creative Assembly listened. Specifically, Shogun 2′s now packing full Steam Workshop support, some seriously upgraded map-making tools, and a brand new “Assembly Kit.” Find out about all the new ways you can make sweet, sweet war to your friends after the break.

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“The world is so crazy that it is considered ‘controversial’ to call for an end to people killing each other, but not to make money from selling video games about Total War.” This is why former TV sports pundit and nemesis of the giant lizards that secretly control society, David Icke, is very cross that he’s not been allowed to use a piece of music from Total War in his stage shows. While the notorious Icke might have become a lecturer on all manner of conspiracy theory-based socio-political topics since his, uh, awakening, he’s unlikely to ever escape the lizard-shaped albatross that he hung around his own neck back in 1999. Or the thing about being the son of God. Or the thing about how we’re all being remote-controlled by the moon. Or the thing about how Bush, Blair, the Queen and chums are holograms.

Or… well, anyway, SEGA/CA own the rights to ‘anti-war song’ We Are All One by Angela & Jeff van Dyck (as used in Medieval: Total War II), which Icke had hoped to use in his upcoming talk/show at Wembley, ‘Remember Who You Are.’ They’ve since blocked this from happening.(more…)

Change Log:
• Lighting shader tweaks to improve lighting in battles throughout the game.
• A Multiplayer crash on host machine when searching for a 4v4 Set-up team siege battle has been fixed.
• Fixed crash when attempting to play Fall of the Samurai Historical Battles when players owns the stand alone Dragon War Battle Pack and not Total War: SHOGUN 2 Fall of the Samurai.
• Fix for players becoming stuck during the Avatar Multiplayer Tutorial after searching for a Match Made battle.
• The "Season" drop down list should now display correctly after changing map in a multiplayer Battle List battle.
• Wako pirates now have the correct banners in naval battles via the Campaign.
• Fix to prevent AI trade fleets grouped around occupied trade nodes in Campaign mode.
• Fix to prevent Mixed Avatars being able to join Battle List battles with 'Mixed Avatars' option turned off.
• Fix for bug in Avatar Conquest mode where players receiving a clan promotion were shown a message telling them they have been relegated.
• Desynchronisation (desync) message has been localised to French, Italian, German, Spanish, Czech, Russian, Polish.
• Fix for multiplayer campaign desynchronsiation (desync) when playing between German and Czech players.
• Improved compatibility with AMD Radeon HD 7 series graphics cards.
• Fixes to prevent desynchronisation (desync) in Multiplayer Campaign mode.
• Improved combat animation blending for cavalry.
• Added localisation to the multiplayer lobby for the status of TEd created maps when they are being shared.
• Fix for Sea of Japan naval battle map crash.
• Players can no longer delete the "Sea of Japan" Naval Battle map, and can delete their own maps (Created or shared through TEd) on the battle setup screen UI.
• Added localisation for battle setup screen UI in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Czech, Russian, Polish.

I came, I saw, I previewed Total War: Rome II. I also chatted to Total War series lead designer James Russell about the enduring appeal of the Roman Empire, how it’s possible to control a wargame on this kind of scale, introducing a human element to the game’s soldiers and politickers, and branching storylines on the campaign map. This is part one of a two-part interview – more tomorrow.

RPS: I guess my immediate question is the complexity of controlling something that’s so much bigger. Does it feel, when managing all these units, like a big step up, or is it more about the amount of soldiers within each troop?(more…)

Most of the internet knew the nature of the Creative Assembly’s next Total War game as of last week, but as a man of honour I have ignored the leaks and waited to mention it until I could tell you about it properly. Onwards then, and to battle… ‘Big’ would be the obvious word. “Enormous” is probably a slightly better one. “Bugger me, what an awful lot of soldiers and boats and increasingly demolished buildings that is” would be a more accurate summary of my thoughts at the time of seeing Rome: Total War II. “My deepest sympathies to anyone else currently working on a historical real-time strategy game” would be my thoughts now.(more…)

It’s apparently DIY Day in the gaming industry. First, ShootMania came down with a case of BetaMania and indulged in TrailerMania to celebrate. And now, Creative Assembly’s seen fit to lunch Total War: Shogun 2‘s long-awaited map editor. (Yes, two semi-related events apparently qualifies them for “day” status. It actually makes perfect sense because… shut up.) Simply titled The Editor – which has somewhat amazingly been designated “Ted” for short by Creative Assembly – it’s described as “a powerful tool that enables users to alter terrain type and height, and comprises libraries boasting hundreds of unique battlefield props, such as trees, buildings, railway lines and coastal batteries.” The Editor is also, of course, free, so simply venture over to Steam’s tools section and chant a few incantations to summon the fearsome Might of Ted. Alternatively, if you’d like to hear a bit more about Creative Assembly’s future plans for mapmaking and ease-of-use, head past the break. But beware, you may incur the Wrath of Ted by doing so.

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Note: There is currently a text string in the game front end advertising new DLC packs. These have not yet been released. We expect to release them next week.

- Total War Battle Map Editor (TEd) tool now available, offering the ability to create and automatically share Land, Naval and Siege Battle Maps with other players. The maps can be used in both Single player (Custom Battle Mode) and Multiplayer. TEd can be accessed from the Tools menu in the Steam Library.
- New Multiplayer Campaign Resynchronisation feature When Multiplayer Campaign players become out of sync with each other (aka desynchronisation or desync), the game will attempt to resynchronise the players so they can continue playing (aka resynchronisation or resync).
- Various fixes to prevent Multiplayer Campaign desynchronisation before resynchronisation is required.
- Fix for crash loading into the Sea of Japan Naval custom battle map.
- Fix for campaign map armies pathfinding causing them to becoming stuck on coast lines.
- Fixed stats for Kisho Ninja units.
- Fixed sound when broadsides are fired by players' ships in Historical and Custom Battle mode battles.
- Improved garrisoned infantry animation and pathfinding when attacking (to stop units moving on the spot and prioritising reforming over firing).
- Improved match making between avatar types to reduce erroneous match making between Total War: SHOGUN 2 avatars and Total War: SHOGUN 2 Fall of the Samurai avatars.
- Host and Host's teammates will now receive experience after a battle if the clients team had an open slot.
- Fix for Key Building timer in Avatar Conquest Mode, so that when a player loses a building, then re-captures it, the timer no longer continues to count down from when the building was first lost, now resetting. Fix in place for the timer not being displayed under certain circumstances.
- Fixed performance drop (low FPS) when accessing the recruitment tab for the Fukushima province in Single Player Campaign mode.
- Fixed crashes in Avatar Conquest Mode tutorial.
- Fixed bug where AI were only recruiting Kobaya ships on the Total War: SHOGUN 2 campaign under some circumstances.
- Fix for bug where camera scroll didn't work when the mouse was positioned over certain UI elements.
- Fixed Avatar Conquest Mode exploit where players could ignore funds bracket.
- Fix for Total War: SHOGUN 2 generals pre-battle speeches playing when playing as Total War: SHOGUN 2 Fall of the Samurai clans.
- Fix for crash when positioning the mouse over coastal batteries in Miyako Bay Historical Battle Mode on Hard or Very Hard difficulty.
- Minor text fixes for Total War: SHOGUN 2 Fall of the Samurai tutorials.
- Fix for armies reinforcing a besieger bouncing around that besieger until they run out of movement / action points (aka Army bobbling).
- Total War: SHOGUN 2 Fall of the Samurai mons will now appear on unit banners in battle.
- Improved transition blending for combat animation.
- Negative phase removed from Banzai.
- Improved Windows 8 preview compatibility.
- Fixed a number of issues with veteran clan skills
- Fixed the Stricken Unholy forge retainer effects
- Various miscellaneous crash bugs fixed.
- Various miscellaneous user interface bugs fixed

Patch Notes
- Fix for long reload times when selecting "soft shadows" in graphics menu.

Dan fights against the inexorable tides of history to bring traditionalism back to the the Japanese archipelago. Part One. Part Two. And now:

Months have passed. Togichi and Fukushima have become relative havens of tranquility – but Hitachi is a permanent wreck; I’ve fought at least a battle there every month, the first three months recapturing it from another rebel force I bribed into existence to kill off the Jozai, and then twelve months of defending it from the huge armies of new enemies; Odawara and Nagaoka, who have changed sides to Imperial, ostensibly to piss off the shogun, but mainly from realpolitik, and Kakegawa.(more…)

Dan Gril returns to continue his inevitably doomed attempts to restore traditionalism to an increasingly modernised Japan in Total War: Shogun 2: Fall of The Samurai. Here’s part 1 in case you missed it.

It’s misty out there. A thick old pea souper soaking into the old Japanese wood. Did you know that a Japanese wood called Aokigahara is the world’s second worst suicide hotspot (after the Golden Gate Bridge)? Apparently, the police have a yearly trawl of the forest for any bodies they’ve missed. It’s got so bad that they’ve stopped publishing the numbers, for fear of encouraging people.

Anyway, knowing that makes me feel much worse. Somewhere in the fug of this digital wood is a huge rebel army, comprising about 1500 gunners and 200 sabre-toting horsemen, all after my blood.(more…)

Dan has been playing through Total War: Shogun 2 – Fall of the Samurai for us. Here’s the first diary of his attempts to restore traditionalism to an empire heading towards modernisation: a tale of betrayal, Fukushima and Project Gutenberg. (more…)

#review Or, as I should have called it, my review of the Great Colon War of 1864. More »

It’s a weekend, it’s sunny, and that means you should stay indoors playing videogames. Or reading about videogames. Either really, just stay indoors no matter what. Another way you could do that is by entering our competition to win an Alienware M11X R3 gaming laptop, courtesy of the men of war at The Creative Assembly. They’ve just this week released expandalone Total War: Shogun 2 – Fall of the Samurai, which moves the setting 400 years on from the original game and brings semi-modern weaponry as well as America, Britain and France into the fray, and they’d jolly well like to celebrate it by giving one RPS reader one of these 11″ ultraportable gaming notebooks. It comes equipped with an Intel Core i5 brain, 4GB of remembering power and GeForce GT 540M graphicsability. Four runners-up can have a Steam key for a Total War game of their choice.(more…)

Total War Shogun 2: Fall of The Samurai - Patch Notes
Headline additions also available to Shogun 2 players
- 40v40 unit battles available via control large armies option in Custom Battles and Multiplayer
- Numerous Battle and Campaign AI improvements (see Battle and Campaign sections below)
- Greatly reduced save-game file sizes (meaning reduced game save and load times) and full Steam Cloud support
- Battlefield load time improvement (approximately 30% dependent on machine spec)
- Greatly reduced AI turn-time
- 22 brand new Land, Naval and Siege battle-maps


Full patch notes
The majority of these also apply to Shogun 2.
General fixes/additions
- Fixes for known multiplayer campaign desyncs
- Introduced option to auto-trigger abilities through right-clicking
- Towers can now be ordered to fire at specific targets
- Domination (capture all points) victories added for multiplayer
- General optimisations across all areas of the game
- Ability to queue technology tree research
- Ability to set groups to AI control
- Ability to lock group formations with new UI button
- Fixed missing siege models
- New front-end background camera pans
- Campaign AI turn-times reduced due to pathfinding optimisations
- Naval campaign AI improved significantly

Naval battles
Fixes
- Fixed attack intercept position when in and around islands
- Fixed bug where some submerged ships did not surrender
- Fixed several rare crashes in naval battle.
- Improved circling behaviour for all ships
- Improved range detection for Fire Bomb Kobaya
- Removed stop-start movement for AI ships moving in a group.
- Improved target selection for naval AI

User Interface
- Modified the Standard Camera in naval battles to ensure that the horizon is always visible.
- Added UI toggle to battle HUD (bottom left corner), so can hide UI elements
- Mousing over unit cards now highlights the corresponding unit as if mousing over them
- Double pressing group frame or double pressing group number shorcut zooms to groups
- Added lock formation button for groups; groups act like did before, locked into formation by default, but can be unlocked to behave like a selection group. This provides an easier interface for players just wanting selection groups. (Can still quickly create a selection group pressing ctrl+g, which can also be used to toggle lock)
- Added UI support for more units in a single battlefield, card system now goes onto double rows when required
- Cursor no longer gives option to attack unmounted horses, as doing so would give order to attack riders which could be confusing
- Inspiration range now drawn for all units with inspiration aura, not just for the general (like hero units)
- Added ship schematics to info panel for boshin ships, to provide more detail on ships state
- Fixed graphical issues with naval fire arcs in night battles
- Added player names to MPC tooltips
- Added fade transitions to info panels
- Unit cards now coloured based on unit category
- Added support for unbound keys, so can disable shortcuts rather than having to give obscure shortcut
- Added page numbers to tooltips
- New group frames to support double rows, and now highlight when moused over or group selected; as well as showing group number rather than japanese number for easier access via shortcuts
- Multiplayer postbattle screen reworked
- Added option to invert camera's x-axis
- Can now move around battlefield when battle results present
- Can no longer use debug camera from preferences while in multiplayer battle
- Fixed text running off battle tooltips for some gempei units
- Fixed bug where info panel would not update while paused during a replay
- Bridge icons on battle radar given better image, and now orientated correctly
- Fort walls now visible on radar map/loading map
- Pings placed on invalid terrain no longer appear in middle of map
- Ship tooltips/cards number of men take into account officers
- Inactive battle hud buttons have tooltips
- Fix for rotated UI images behaving incorrect when running widescreen resolution
- Fix for realism mode setting being lost for campaign
- Officers taken into account for ship numbers on unit cards/tooltips
- Fixed in game chat highlight issues
- Building info panel resizes unit entries dynamically to fix unit names being clipped in certain languages
- Can now use context and tracking cameras in replays
- Fixed issue where pasted invalid characters into text inputs
- Neatend effect bundle tooltips so not larger than need to be
- Can now double click on ground in battles to move to that location
- Drag out units display now shows two arrows when will result in run on release, 1 arrow when will result in walk
- Improved target/path marker spline quality so doesn't stretch out, and head now represents movement speed of unit it represents (so know if running or walking to current target)
- Added ability to view replays at end of battle/replay, rather than routing player back to front-end then back into battle
- Post-battle screens now appear for replays
- Tweaks to main menu button animations
- Fix for inconsistent naval crew-icons on ship cards between front-end/campaign and battle
- Battle-lobby countdown timer moved so retainer panel not obscured
- Tweaked UI banner-scaling (slightly smaller) and UI splines brought closer to ground (fire arcs, paths, etc)
- Fixed cinematic borders not always being flush to edges of screen, resulting in gaps at top and bottom
- Added UI to toggle auto-triggered abilities. Right-clicking on a supported ability button will toggle it to auto-trigger, where the AI will decide when to use the ability, in order to save the player some micro-management.
- Chat-toggle button now hides all chat when currently visible rather than input, and button is highlighted when player has unread messages
- Group number shortcuts are now rebindable
- Moved pings to left-click rather than right-click for UI consistency
- Realism mode changes: radar visible during deployment, morale visible on minimal tooltips

Campaign
- Fixed rare case where pre-battle camera would trigger too early if an agent or neutral army was between the attacker and the defender under certain circumstances.
- Campaign variable "family_rounds_between_wife_offers" now also determines the earliest round a wife can be offered
- Stopped generating movement extents for armies on the pre-battle screen
- Fixed rare campaign lockup caused by an agent being forced out of its reserved area
- Fixed very rare campaign lockup involving an ambush across a land bridge, where an agent or third party neutral army is between the acting army and the ambusher
- Fixed multi-turn AI actions against the human player causing the game to drop out of speed-up mode even though the action will not complete that turn
- Changed format of campaign height-map to reduce load time and significantly reduce memory usage
- Fixed very rare crash caused by autosave saving an army in an incorrect order
- Fixed bug when issuing orders to agents on navies against target agents in armies
- Fixed trade-route tooltip which showed only one imported resource per route
- Fixed a rare lockup caused by a successful agent action causing an army to move, whilst another army is also in motion under certain circumstances
- Fixed rare crash when two multi-turn embark orders to embark two different armies onto two different navies resulted in an attempt to perform both embarks at the same port
in the same turn
- Fixed rare crash caused by the Daimyo's brother not being demoted from command of an army when the Daimyo dies while there is a superior general in the army
- Fixed a few issues with commerce-raid value updates when merging and splitting raiding navies
- Added information about when a diplomatic action would be considered dishonourable by other clans
- Selecting an agent in an army now shows the agents movement extents.
- Improved rope visuals on campaign map buildings
- Fixed trade-route information not being updated when a port is damaged
- Fixed obscure issue which prevented other factions movement extents showing if they had military access to players territory, but player did not have military access to
theirs.
- Modified several game areas to fail gracefully instead of crashing when loading incorrectly modded data
- Various memory-usage optimisations
- Fixed being able to get more than three agents in a city
- Fixed unusual crash in pathfinder related to blockaded ports
- Fixed crash in event-log system
- Fixed crash when issuing an order to a previously merged army
- Fixed crash related to capturing artillery
- Fixed bug where reinforcement armies solely comprised of units that can't enter as reinforcements (such as artillery) were counted as reinforcements in pre-battle
- Fixed bug where region ownership for unseen rebel regions was visible
- Fixed bug where attrition-indicator showed on rebel banners when they weren't suffering attrition
- Fixed crash when bribing cities that are under siege
- Fixed issue with missing army-templates causing lockups
- Fixed crash in sound tracker
- Fixed crash in agent-options dialog
- Fixed issue with surrender imminent message
- Fixed issue where certain melee and charge bonuses were not working correctly in battle
- Fixed issue where shroud was updated many times when a Clan dies, causing some slowdown
- Fixed unit exchange issue when in ports
- Fixed issue where some characters destroyed in battle remained alive
- Fixed issue where pre battle UI appeared in odd order when player was playing as AI in MPC
- Fixed issue where campaign thought ships needed 0 crew to function
- Fixed case where MPC players are forced to spectate an AI-vs-AI game
- Fixed issue where MPC co-op allies received message that enemy is retreating when allies are retreating
- Fixed issue where ambush cursor did not show for characters in garrisons
- Fixed bug where a force would act on incorrect orders after capturing units
- Fixed issue where recruited agents were unable to enter the settlement they were recruited from on the turn they were recruited
- Fixed missing building name in legendary building built event-log entry
- Player now gets full spying information on a force after attacking it
- Improved campaign experience-handling
- Removed timer from certain battles to prevent exploit
- Port selection marker is now centred around the flag
- Armies now only get region-unrestricted replenishment in enemy regions
- Tweaked some message events to be more informative
- Various campaign load-time and memory usage optimisations
- Reduced memory usage in front end startup process
- Reduced campaign animations memory-usage
- Improvements to campaign building-display resource usage
- Fixed religion/allegiance zeal display in religion tooltips for more than two religions
- Various mission bugs fixed
- Fix to clear military crackdown repression on handover of region
- Only primary generals now get full XP in battles; generals commanding reinforcements get reduced XP
- Technology goal can be selected to guide auto-selection of next tech when research completes
- Save games: compression and other size reductions to make files dramatically smaller; Steam Cloud support added

Battles
- When units are climbing walls men can now fire their bows or guns when at the top of the walls while men in the same unit are still climbing
- Movement arrow now appears when units are ordered onto positions on zones such as fort walls
- Fixes for units not being able to fire at units behind fort walls in certain circumstances
- Unit destination proxies (shown on space bar) now update when the game is paused
- Fire arcs now only turn off when fire at will is off and melee mode is enabled
- Improvement to display of fire arc facing when defending a zone (e.g. on a fort wall)
- Fix for not being able to turn off fire at will when defending a zone (e.g. on a fort wall)
- AI unit shooting-line analysis tweaks
- In siege battles where the AI is attacking, artillery can now deploy on multiple lines.
- Units now change their tactic state more effectively if they are idle and under fire in siege battles (when AI is attacking)
- Stopped units behind fort walls being unfavourably targeted by artillery
- Fixed several fort-reinforcement AI bugs
- Stopped units from being issued attack orders when they are climbing fort walls
- Stopped units from prioritizing the capture of distant towers in siege battles
- Fixed several bugs with idle cavalry during AI-attacking siege battles
- Fixed bug where AI was unable to place units on a sensible fort approach
- Fixed strange movement bugs in AI fort defence
- Fixed rare crash-issue resulting from a scenario where the player enters a battle with no units because they are reinforcing another player, and all their units are artillery (which cannot be deployed as reinforcements)
- The last stand morale state, triggered when castle defenders are fighting to the death, now imposes penalties on ranged accuracy and reload rate
- Battle AI is more likely to deploy cavalry on both of its flanks, allowing for greater opportunities when flanking and executing a double envelopment
- Fixed an issue where naval reinforcements sometimes did not fully enter the map
- Introduced a variety of improvements to the battlefield AI's use of outflanking and double envelopment manoeuvres, making these tactics more effective overall
- Fixed a rare issue where some reinforcement units did not enter the battlefield because they were not correctly resized to avoid obstacles outside the playable area
- Battle AI now performs a deeper analysis when it decides between walking and running, resulting in the AI moving more swiftly when appropriate and tiring its troops out less often
- Fixed an issue where ships left a battle with incorrect experience data, causing them to gain experience prematurely
- Fixed an issue in Battle AI which delayed its ability to move to a good defensive position outside its deployment zone once the battle starts
- Fixed several issues in the way that the Battle AI assembles and holds a defensive line. The AI is less likely to reform when an enemy is near, and will be more stable when holding the line
- Battle AI now does a better job of advancing a firing-front towards an enemy, by performing a more robust selection of a direction from which to attack
- Mounted shooters now avoid shooting through friendly units before firing in the same way that infantry shooters do
- The duration of the friendly-fire penalty has increased from 6 seconds to 30 seconds
- When trying to set buildings alight, archers no longer continue to fire on buildings after their flaming arrows are spent
- When a unit is within range of multiple friendly passive inspiration auras, it is now given a bonus equivalent to the largest single aura; the multiple auras do not stack. Previously only the commanding general's aura was ever applied

General multiplayer fixes
- Fixed issue where a veteran unit could gain its statistics bonus prematurely during the battle, once enough experience points had been earned but before the end of the battle
- Fixed issue where LAN server browser contained wrong information
- Fixed some crashes with multiplayer
- Improved chat-room population system
- Fixed issue where battle voice was not working
- Fix for rare case where land units could be taken into naval battle

MP abilities
- Stand and fight: melee attack bonus reduced from 3 to 2
- Standand Fight: reload bonus reduced from 10 to 5
- Hold firm: melee defence bonus reduced from 6 to 3
- Rally: morale bonus to non-routing units reduced from 2 to 1 (bonus for units already routing is unaffected)
- Naval whistling Arrows duration halved
- Special abilities for towers

MP unit caps
- Kisho Ninja capped at 4 per army
- Mounted Samurai capped at 3 per army

MP retainers
- Infantry officer: +1 morale
- Way of the Ikko-Ikki: +1 morale, +2 melee defence & +5% cost for monks and ashigaru
- Rennyo's teachings: -1 melee attack, +3 melee defence all units
- Stricken unholy forge: -1 armour to enemy melee troops
- World-Weary: -1 morale (enemy veterans)
- Shirabyoshi dancer: +1 morale (veterans), +5% cost (monks, nuns)
- Naginata Warrior Monk Cavalry no longer affected by retainers affecting all monks, to bring them in line with their Samurai equivalents.

MP skills
- Fire by rank: cost reduced from 250 to 120
- Rapid Volley: cost reduced from 250 to 120

MP key buildings
- Reduced morale bonus from Shrine

MP unit costs
- Yari hero (decreased from 1200 to 1100)
- Bow hero (decreased from 1500 to 1400)
- Bow ashigaru (decreased from 450 to 400)
- Matchlock ashigaru (decreased from 500 to 450)
- Bulletproof samurai (decreased from 1000 to 950)
- Nuns (decreased from 900 to 850)
- Tetsubo monk hero (increased from 800 to 850)

The following brand new Fall of the Samurai maps will also be made available in Shogun 2:
Land battles:
- Awa Ridge Pass
- Gigu Crossing
- Happo Ridge
- Ishiyama Ruins
- Iwaki Foothills
- Jigokudani Valley
- Kawabe River
- Kurobe Gorge
- Nishizawa Valley
- Osaka Plain
- Ubayu Onsen
- Usui Pass

Naval battles:
- Hokuriki Coast
- Seto Inland Sea
- Tohuku Sea
- Tokai Coast
- Tsugaru Straits
- Sea of Japan

Siege battles:
- Iburi Castle
- Satsuma Castle
- Uzen Fortress
- Wakasa Fortress

Fall of the Samurai, a standalone expansion for Shogun 2, is the most modern Total War game yet – and quite possibly one of the most fascinating. It’s the tale of what happened when Japan met the West – where the industrial revolution and social turmoil that had been brewing in other nations for centuries was suddenly played out in the space of twenty years. “We’ve never really done anything quite like this.” explains Lead Battle Designer Jamie Ferguson as he sets out the stall for his project. “It’s all of the periods we’ve ever done, piled into one game. It shows you how truth is stranger than fiction. We’re making a game that has gatling guns and samurais, then ironclads with torpedoes fighting against wooden warships with archers…”(more…)

Videogames can expand now? Whatever is going on? And they can do it alone? I shall call this… EXPANDALONE! (You know, the last time I went on about how utterly brilliant that word is, the guy who coined it got in touch. He is my hero.) Shogun 2: Total 2 War Shogun is doing this some more, with the addition of Fall Of The Samurai: Total Shogun: War, and as further proof they’ve released a new video of non-game footage, and some shots: screen, which are by far the most ludicrously watermarked images I have seen in over a decade of doing this nonsense.

(more…)

#gamemusic2011 Total War: Shogun 2 may look and sound for all the world like the latest in a long line of reasonably bland strategy games. As most strategy games are. Removing the player from the action to such an abstract level tends to rob the genre of its potential to truly immerse you in the spirit of the war, time or place. More »

#totalwar While Total War: Shogun 2 does an excellent job of depicting the titanic clash between two warring factions, it's always been missing a little something to make the experience complete: Majestic arcs of spurting crimson lifeblood, and the odd severed head. All this and more can be yours for $1.59. More »

Rise of the Samurai
- Fixed forum issue enabling players to exceed the maximum veteran slot limit
- Fixed bug where Chosokabe Daikyu Samurai could be recruited
- Fixed bug where Realism mode wasnt being saved
- Fixed bug where players had to add an extra unit to ready up after a classic MP battle
- Fixed bug where replay battle type didnt update correctly when switching between types
- Fixed issue with Invite Friends and Weather tickboxes
- Fixed bug where duplicate experienced and veteran units displayed incorrect cost
- State Academy entry in Encylopaedia now displays correctly
- Fixed bug where remaining funds did not update when player switches sides in a siege battle
- Fixed crash bug when starting a 1v3 on a 2v2 map
- Fixed bug where grouped units could not be given orders after rallying from a rout
- Fixed issue where players with a full unit roster could still click add to army
- Fixed bug where the cutscene after the Nagashino historical battle caused a lockup
- Fixed bug where clearing then loading an army containing Hero units prevented Hero units from appearing as selectable units on the unit selection group

Retainers
- Infantry officer: retainers effect is +2 instead of +1
- Yari master: Reduce spear defence from 3 to 2
- Unabalanced spears: reduced effect from -3 to -2 (the counter to yari master)
- Stricken unholy forge: tweaked to affect all monk units
- World weary: morale penalty removed
- European gun smith: Tweaked to affect reload
- Way of the Ikko-Ikki: +10% now affects monks and ashigaru, with +2 melee defence rather than +3
- Rennyos teachings: Morale boost now +1 rather than +2 and +3 melee defence rather than +4

Unit categories
- Spear and naginata units are now distinct so that spear retainers do not benefit naginata units. This affects a number of overpowered army/retainer combinations to reduce their effectiveness.

Units
- Samurai Archers reduced in cost by 50 koku
- Great Guard cap raised to 2
- Matchlocks reduced in cost as they are now less effective with previous friendly fire fixes
- Naginata Warrior Monk Cavalry capped to 3 max to reduce potency

Sega has announced a new standalone expansion for Total War: Shogun 2, called Fall of the Samurai, that introduces new units, a new campaign map, and new content to the acclaimed tactical strategy title. As you can see in the trailer above, the biggest new addition to the title is the inclusion of more modern Western troops and weapons, including a Gatling gun, as well as British and US troops and marines.

There are six new playable clans to deal with the American, British and French foreign powers, and there are 39 new units in total (including ten new ships), as well as four new historical scenarios to play. Multiplayer is also getting revamped, as are a few other gameplay mechanics, including siege battles.

Sega and The Creative Assembly plan to have the title ready to go in March of next year. If the trailer is any indication, the samurai should probably start making bulletproof armor right about now.

#totalwar Earlier this year The Creative Assembly took Total War: Shogun 2 players into the past with the Rise of the Samurai downloadable content. In March the company heads in the opposite direction with the standalone Fall of the Samurai expansion pack. More »

I love saying “expandalone”. Say it out loud. Sometimes those cute little terms that spring up can be nauseating, but expandalone is the best. EXPANDALONE! Creative Assembly have announced an EXPANDALONE for Total War: Shogun 2, called Fall Of The Samurai.

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Updates to Total War: Shogun 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

- Skill Points and Retainers can now correctly be assigned after your Avatar is promoted
- The correct amount of Skill Points will now be shown for Avatars promoted prior to the update

Updates to Space Pirates and Zombies have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

- The cost modification affecting Veterans through retainers has been corrected, to deduct at the correct cost.
- Promoting the Avatar now correctly adds 10 Veterans per tier.
- Invalid pre-patch army setups will now no longer be accessible.
- Fixed a hard lock in the Multiplayer campaign during FMV sequences
- Fixed a soft lock during the end sequence of a Multiplayer campaign
- Reverted the Naginata Warrior monk stats to their original values
- Clan influence modifiers will now correctly decline if a clan loses regions in the Clan competition .

Have you heard of Total War Shogun 2? I think it’s a rip-off of that new Paradox game, but with bigger battles. Will Porter played the latest DLC for it – Rise Of The Samurai – for us a couple of weeks back, and now there’s the first trailer for the DLC, which I’ve hidden from enemies below.

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Honestly, we didn't think much on what we'd say about the "Rise of the Samurai" DLC for Total War: Shogun 2 past the headline. It's good though, right? "Sho'gunna"? Like "Sure going to," get it? ... Listen, just watch your trailer, OK? It's late, and you've got soccer practice in the morning.