When captured, it would give a bonus to my troops. Down the river to my left was an archery building. When the battle began, we found ourselves facing off on two hills sloping down to a broad river. Unfortunately, he had the same idea and picked almost the same set of retainers, so our advantages cancelled each other out. To round out the army (and spice things up), I added just two gunpowder units.įiguring that I wanted to do as much damage as possible to Rob before we actually came to blows, I picked my retainers to enhance the accuracy of my archery units and to reduce the speed of Rob’s cavalry. For myself, I tried to make as balanced a force as possible, picking katana samurai and spearmen as my primary infantry troops, and a handful of archers and cavalry as well. We each chose to build balanced armies, comprised of a core of veterans supplemented by ranks of new troops. We began by selecting an existing general profile, already loaded up with special abilities and veterans. I settled in for a few matches with Rob, a colleague and friend from another website. Thankfully, Shogun 2 seems to deliver on this score as well. Of course, all this isn’t worth much without the battles themselves. This last one is particularly useful, but even quitters can redeem themselves and remove the tag if they stick around to the end of five separate battles. There’s even a trait for “dishonorable coward,” used to punish rage quits. You might also be shown to “favor a balanced army,” which means an enemy will have to be prepared to fight against a wide range of troop types. You might be listed as a “leader,” which will let your enemies know that you have lots of skills. This way, enemies will know what to expect when they play against you. Your general will also include certain traits that describe the way you play. There are similar options in the Physical tree, which grants increases to speed, fatigue, charge and other abilities. If you’d rather specialize in your specific units, you can follow the Bow tree, opening up the option for fire arrows, invisible snipers, or arrows that have better armor penetration. Melee skills will improve your general’s fighting ability, making him a force to fear on the field of battle. This tree will help you to rally your troops, or even intimidate the enemy. You might focus on Leadership, which contains abilities that affect the entire army. There are four broad skill trees for each general. You might, for instance, invoke a Cold Snap to reduce the reload speed of enemy archers, or play Bandit Horse Thieves to reduce the speed of enemy cavalry on the field. Beyond that, there are retainers you can earn during the game, which take the form of cards played before a battle. And since the armor pieces confer bonuses (and special bonuses if you collect an entire set), there’s a practical benefit behind all this as well. This way, you can just look at an enemy general and know the types of things he’s accomplished. You can customize your armor based on pieces you’ve earned during play and actually see those choices in the battle maps. Your daimyo will also grow as you play, which adds a tremendous level of context to multiplayer. #Shogun total war 2 units upgradeYou can even upgrade the look and name of your units in between battles, giving Shogun 2 a sort of Warhammer appeal. You’ll even have to worry about casualties, keeping a careful balance between giving each of your units time to earn experience on the battlefield, and time to rest and recover their losses in between battles. You’ll retain your specializations, your unique skills and your armies. Another province may give you a Blind Bow Sensei, who you can use to increase the accuracy of your archers.Įverything persists on the campaign map. Taking one province, for instance, may give you basketwork quivers, which give your ranged units extra arrows during a battle. Here players will be able to fight across all of Japan, gaining new abilities and units with each victory. The big news, however, is the online campaign map and the persistent general profile. There’s even unit sharing, so you can give your allies control of a small segment of your armies during the battles. The new game follows on the heels of Napoleon in offering up competitive and cooperative campaign play, which uses the same map and clans as the single player game. Multiplayer is the new Big Deal™ for Shogun 2, so it’s about time we got a chance to play it. Neither snow, nor rain, nor the ham-handed groping of the TSA agents could keep me from visiting Creative Assembly’s studios last week for my very first chance to play the latest installment in its celebrated Total War series, Shogun 2.
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