For Japanese soldiers fighting in the mid-1860s, modern life really is rubbish. This is because their traditional approach to warfare, faced with the rapid advancement of military technology, now means they spend their time marching in neat and orderly rows toward Gatling guns. They often do this across wide open spaces and in broad daylight. From an aerial perspective - perhaps while directing cavalry towards a flank or ordering cannons to bombard a castle - you might very well imagine them as a line of men patiently queuing up to die. The industrial revolution hasn't just created the production line, it's also made butchery much more efficient.
It's no wonder that your general populace resents technological progress, with each new level of advancement only making them unhappier. This forces you to strike a balance between embracing the gains afforded by new inventions, and the growing resentment of a conservative populace. Nevertheless, the temptation may be all too much for the would-be warlord - because Fall of the Samurai opens up a toybox of terror for Total War gamers. There are so many new gadgets to get to grips with in this new standalone expansion, from pocket derringers to pocket battleships, you'll just have to convince your subjects to get with the times.
While Fall of the Samurai may be all about change - the sudden inrush of ideas and technology to Japan - it's immediately familiar to any Total War player, and represents more of a careful, composed and considered step forward than any great leap. On the surface it may be a new setting with different units and a few alterations to play, but what Creative Assembly has also done here is make subtle alterations under the hood, ironing out bugs and looking toward areas of the game that have been lacking. The naval battles, for example, finally have some real wallop to them, feeling both more elegant and more exciting than before, not least because they present players with the option to take manual control of their ships and cannons.
This new first-person-perspective control of some units and battlefield artillery feels like a strange and rather incongruous addition. I can't argue against it being harmless fun, but every time you miss you'll feel guilty for failing to match the standards of the men under your command. I imagine many players will leave the gunning to the gunners, instead preferring to swing their ships around in wide and deadly arcs, hoping to line up another broadside.
As in other Total War games, if you do choose to get this close to your troops you'll appreciate just how brutal the battles can get. You'll see soldiers collapse under volleys of rifle fire before writhing in the mud, trying to reach for their weapons. Fall of the Samurai has even more moments of tragic beauty and spectacular slaughter. A well-timed naval barrage from offshore can send both horses and men flying; ships and castle walls alike buckle and snap under the weight of lead shot, while nothing quite matches the sight of thousands of soldiers snaking their way around the complex, many-levelled fortifications of a citadel, crawling towards its keep.
There's much less focus on family management and inheritance this time around. With even a long campaign spanning only 12 years, you'll have little interest in finding out what kind of a man your Daimyo's son grows into. But this doesn't mean that games are any shorter, as each turn of play now spans a couple of weeks, something that makes a lot more sense for a fast-moving, rapidly modernising Japan. It also gives you plenty of time to explore an interesting, many-limbed tech tree that introduces everything from copper-plated warships to the Gold Standard.
Sprinkled among the gearwheels and guns are a few new agents who, as long as they find success in your service, you'll get to shape and to guide. Political agents help to convert enemy realms or conquered regions of opposing ideologies. Foreign veterans assist with the training and recruitment of units, but nevertheless remain terribly weak to the charms of geisha: women who are somehow able to single-handedly distract entire armies, provided they're paid enough. It's tremendous fun watching these bizarre characters amass strange skills and retainers as they go about their business. Right now I have a political agitator with a baseball bat and a ninja with a pistol.
With so many unusual units, inventions and industrial innovations, Fall of the Samurai very much leaves you feeling spoiled. You'll likely want to experiment with everything in the custom battle creator. immediately hurling cannonballs at ninja to marry the old and the new and find out just how effective all this stuff is. It's a shame that the improved AI is still a little clunky on occasion, though it mostly copes with all these new units very well. Nevertheless, in one battle I found the computer player sending its units, one at a time, straight toward a wide line of my deadly sharpshooters, all the while holding the rest of its slowly-dwindling army behind a rise. I wasn't sure if this tactic was supposed to exhaust my ammunition or my patience.
I still have quite a few gripes with Creative Assembly's interfaces and how they choose to present their information. More than a few pieces of important news are delivered with nothing but a dismiss button below them and could do with more contextual options or information. A fleet can bombard your holdings, but the game won't tell you what was damaged or how seriously; or you can receive news that an entire clan has been wiped out, but not where, how, or by whom. Then, when another clan arrives to negotiate trade routes with you, there's no way for you to check where the clan actually lives or where the proposed route would run.
The latter is a particularly strange omission as the standard diplomatic screen features a map of the country which presents helpful information about any region or faction you move the mouse over, though keeping up to date with this is your business alone. Each turn, this map can hold many new surprises and I wouldn't mind someone in my court passing a subtle note my way whenever a neighbouring clan decides to take a dislike to me, rather than opening up my diplomacy options to find the people next door have suddenly (and inexplicably) shifted their mood to 'Hostile' and begun quietly massing troops.
Although Creative Assembly hasn't quite overcome all of Total War's traditional shortcomings, this latest interface nevertheless feels better, much as the combat AI feels better and those battles at sea feel much, much better. The endgame, often a micromanagement slog as everyone turns against you, also presents better choices. Depending upon your faction choice and personal ambitions, you might find yourself chasing specific objectives, fighting for or even representing one of the country's major powers as part of a greater and more purposeful civil war, or simply choosing to strike out on your own.
If it hasn't ironed out all of the creases that mark the series, Fall of the Samurai has at least gone some way to smoothing them - and with a particularly unusual slice of history as its subject, it's a fine choice as either a standalone expansion or a welcome addition to Shogun 2. I could certainly wish for a few more improvements or perhaps that greater leap forward, but I'm not one to turn my nose up at progress.
8 /10
Creative Assembly have been very aggressive with DLC for the Total War series, and never more so than in the case of Total War: Shogun 2. Between unit packs, clan packs, new scenarios, and even a “blood pack”, there’s mountains of extra Shogun 2 content to choose from.
So, let’s take a look at Shogun 2: Total War and look at all of its DLC, to help you find what’s worth your time, and what’s worth avoiding.
Rise of the Samurai Campaign
Released: September 27th 2011
Price: £5.99
Rise of the Samurai is Shogun 2’s first (and so far only) mini-campaign, and is set during 12th Century Japan during the ‘Gempai War’ – a conflict that dealt with the rise of the samurai as a ruling class and which resulted in the very first Shogunate.
RotS may require the base game to play, but it’s completely self-contained, using its own version of the main campaign map, its own factions, and its own units. You get to choose between 6 ‘families’ – two for each of the three main warring clans – the Minamoto, the Taira, and the Fujiwara. Since each family has its own distinct traits, they act and play as ‘clans’ in their own right, and simply share similarities and allegiances with their fellow clan-member faction.
With a new era, and new players, comes new units – Rise of the Samurai comes with 16 new land units that serve as precursors to what you get in the main game. Foot Samurai are small but powerful units as they are armed with both a bow and a sword, and they excel in both. You also get firebomb throwers, and a whole host of other weird and wonderful units.
‘Hero’ units are also included for the first time: from Naginata Warrior Monks to Onna Bushi Heroine (epic lady samurais on horses). There are also new naval units, abilities, and agents (although they mostly do the same things as agents in the base game).
Finally, you also get a new historical battle – The Battle of Anegawa which was fought in 1570, and is one of the memorable battles in the period covered by the base game. This is not just a single-player expansion either, as much of the content (mainly units) can be used in online skirmishes and the multiplayer campaign.
Verdict: At £5.99, this is a textbook example of premium DLC – it provides you with a whole new self-contained campaign, with everything that it needs to be entertaining.
The Clan Packs (Base Game)
Shogun 2 is the first instance in which Creative Assembly has charged for the introduction of ‘new’ factions into the main game. The base game for Shogun 2 only currently has two clan packs that you can buy and unlock:
Ikko Ikki Clan Pack
Released: May 26th 2011 Price: £2.99 Definitely the more interesting of the two, the Ikko Ikki faction plays very differently from all the other clans. Historically, they were a group of peasant farmers who rose up against samurai rule during the 15th and 16th century, which is reflected in the clan’s play style.
They have their own separate faith – the ‘Ikko’ faith (which is to represent the ‘True Pure Land’ sect of Buddhism that they followed), which only the Ikko themselves can spread, and because they are rebelling against the samurai they don’t have access to samurai units. Instead, they get ‘ronin’ variants – historically, ronin were simply masterless men and mercenaries, and in game this basically means more powerful stats, but reduced unit numbers. They also have their own skill tree, their own agent, and the pack comes with new retainers, armour sets, and a couple of units for the other clans to use as well. You can also fight the Nagashima historical battle, where the Ikko Ikki fought against the Oda clan.
Verdict: The Ikko Ikki pack is definitely worth look.
Hattori Clan Pack
Released: 30th November 2011 Price: £2.99
The Hattori were originally only available if you pre-ordered the Limited Edition of Shogun 2, but as has been CA’s trend lately, it was later released so that everyone had a chance to buy it. As such, the pack isn’t as ‘thought’ out as the earlier Ikko Ikki pack, as it was only ever meant to be an extra, as opposed to a DLC in its own right.
Historically, the Hattori family were famous for various ninjutsu techniques that helped them deal a humiliating defeat to a rival army during the Sengoku Jidai.
This specialism in ‘ninja’ techniques is reflected in the clan bonuses: Ninja actions have increased success, units can deploy anywhere in battle and Hattori generals start with the ‘Night Attack’ ability instantly. Apart from that though, there’s little to distinguish them from the other clans. The Pack itself comes with a special armour set for your avatar, a historical battle (Battle of Nagashino) and some XP to give your avatar a boost.
Verdict: Easily skippable.
Otomo Clan Pack
Released: 30 November 2012 Price: £2.99
Anyone who’s played as the Shimazu a lot will remember steam-rolling over the Otomo fairly easily, but actually playing as them is more interesting as it appears.
In a nutshell, the Otomo are themed on those clans that were more welcoming of western influence and religion, specifically the Portuguese. The Otomo can recruit gunpowder units cheaper, and get religious conversion bonuses to name but a few traits. The Otomo clan also have four unique land units, and one unique sea unit, as well as a unique build tree that substitutes for the Chapel building. The most interesting thing about the Otomo is their ‘Land-lease’ ability, where they can give an empty build slot in a city over to the Portuguese who use it for whatever they want – in return, the Otomo gain large amounts of money.
Verdict: Like the Ikko-Ikki, the Otomo have more character to them as a clan. Definitely worth picking up if you favour progression over traditionalism.
Unit Packs
Sengoku Jidai Unit Pack
Released: 28th July 2011 Price: £1.99
Named after the period In history that the main game covers (Sengoku Jidai roughly translates into “The Age of the Country at War”), this pack contains ten new units, one for each of the available clans in the base game (The Uesugi and Ikko Ikki share one). These units range from foot soldiers to hand gunners, warrior monks to mounted samurai. All of these units are available in multiplayer, provided you capture the correct province in the online-campaign map, and the requirements for unlocking them during the single-player campaign varies from unit to unit.
Verdict: Good, but not great. The Sengoku Jida pack only nets you one new unit per faction, and while each individual unit is interesting, the pack is so spread-out it doesn’t feel like it makes a big difference.
Saints and Heroes Unit Pack
Released: 26th July, 2012 Price: £1.99
The latest DLC pack from the Creative Assembly Factory, Saints and Heroes is a more flexible unit pack than the Sengoku Jidai pack released almost a year previous. Only nine new units this time, but each unit is available to every factions, and can be used in both single-player and multiplayer.
The new ‘hero’ units are essentially stronger, albeit smaller, variants of existing units – for example the Kiyomasa’s katana cavalry is simply a stronger katana cavalry unit, Tokitaka’s tanegashima is a stronger matchlock unit, and so on. There are some visual differences to help them stand out though, although they are more subtle.
Verdict: Again, it’s a nice package and inexpensive. If you want a bunch more units to play with, this is a good purchase.
Blood Pack DLC
Released: November 30th 2011 Price: £0.99
There’s not much to say about this one – it adds in blood effects to a Total War game for the first time, and is probably how they get around age-rating niggles at launch, as you don’t ‘have’ to buy it. Everything from decapitation and limb-severing, to blood splatter on the camera if you’re zoomed in.
Rise Of The Samurai Purchase
Verdict: Worth it. Even if you don’t care about gore etc… it’s a lot of added entertainment for only a £1!
Fall of the Samurai
Released: 22nd March 2012
Price: £24.99
Not technically speaking DLC, not only is Fall of the Samurai a standalone product (like Napoleon, except it’s there was less hand-waving and cover-ups this time), but it even got its own boxed retail release as well. Still, it deserves a mention because it’s still connected to Shogun 2, and it came with its own set of DLC, which would be hard to talk about without talking about the main game.
Set 400 years after the time period of Shogun II, Fall of the Samurai covers one of Japan’s defining moments – the Meji Restoration (Japans first major step into becoming a modernised global power). It offers a completely different gaming experience. The campaign map has been altered, with the landscape changing slightly and the northern Island of Ezo being included properly. There are new units (39 in total), which incorporate the more modern firearms being used in the 1860’s, although there are plenty of melee units as well. You have a total of six (seven if you bought through Steam) factions to choose from, split between the Pro-Emperor and the Pro-Shogunate faction, and everything from clan management, to naval warfare, to agents and even multiplayer has been changed. In short, it’s a full-bodied, full-featured expansion like the days of old.
Verdict: Worth it. Despite being a ‘stand-alone’ expansion, at £24.99 you’re essentially buying a new (albeit slightly cheap) game. If you liked Empire’s Napoleonic-style combat, then this will be an excellent blast from the past.
Clan Packs (Total War: Shogun II – Fall of the Samurai)
Released: 30th May 2012
Price: £2.99 (per clan)
The Fall of the Samurai’s clan packs are really no different from the Hattori Clan pack for the base game – they weren’t created to be DLC packs in their own right, but instead each of the four clans available for purchase were originally pre-order incentives for different retailers, which have simply been made available to everyone. There’s nothing really special about any of these clans other than a slightly different play style
The Tsu
An Imperial faction, the Tsu are an enigma. Despite being aligned to the modernisers, their bonuses allow them to field powerful ninja units, which is something you see Shogunate factions do more often. Choosing to play as the Tsu gives you added melee defence, more ninjas, cheaper ninja action, and quicker allegiance conversion.
The Obama
The Obama, a Shogunate faction clan and the ancestors of President Obama (not really) are masters of government and administration, and their clan bonuses reflect this – if you play of these guys you’ll have cheaper upkeep on armies, better income and be better in defending during sieges.
The Saga
The Saga are loyal to the Emperor, and start off with the benefit of already having trade established with Western powers. They’re also modern and industrious, so choosing this faction will give you more accurate artillery, cheaper recruitment costs and improved growth from industrial buildings.
The Sendai
The Sendai are another Shogunate faction, and are shrewd diplomats and negotiators. Playing as these guys will give you a boost to diplomatic relations, and reduces penalties when it comes to new conquests being differently aligned, and resistance to occupation.
Verdict: Overpriced and underwhelming. £2.99 a pop is pretty steep for something that ultimately adds nothing new to the game.
Dragon War Battle Pack
Released: 1st May 2012 Price: £2.39
The Dragon War Battle pack is solely to historical battles. The six new battles the key exploits of Saigo Takamori and his army as they fought in the name of the emperor during the Boshin War, and range from simple lands battles, to sieges, to naval engagements. Here’s the problem: these six battles are the same six that come with the Fall of the Samurai expansion.
Verdict: It’s only worth it if you don’t own Fall of the Samurai, and actually care enough about Historical battles to want more of them. At £2.39, there’s hardly a question of value, so it’s swings and roundabouts really.
Really, the trick is to wait for a Steam sale, and then just pick everything up cheap. Outside of that there are still some pieces worth acquiring even at full price. Ultimately, with each piece of DLC, Creative Assembly learns what we want. Hopefully for Rome 2 we’ll see the next evolution of Total War DLC, and more consistent quality.
Meanwhile, modders continue to produce excellent (and free)work. Here’s a roundup of the best mods for Total War: Shogun 2
Total War: Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai is a standalone expansion to the strategy video gameTotal War: Shogun 2, released on 23 March 2012. It is set during the mid 19th-century Bakumatsu era which also includes the Meiji Restoration, when the threat of Western powers forced Japan's government to modernize and eventually abolish its traditional samurai-based shogunate.
Gameplay[edit]
Fall of the Samurai features weapons from the late 1800s such as the Gatling gun
This standalone expansion focuses on the conflicts between the Imperialists and the Shogunists in the final years of Tokugawa Shogunate, which takes place 300 years after the events of the original game. Gameplay is a mix of traditional Samurai culture mainly seen in the original game and the power of modern weaponry which is seen more in this version. The general objective for the player is to guide ancient Japan into the modern age, as the arrival of America, Britain and France will start a horrific civil war, which will seal the future of a nation.
Railways make an appearance in the game, allowing for much faster troop movement on the campaign map. The Gatling gun appears in the game. Artillery units and ships can now bombard enemy units directly on the campaign map. Likewise, coastal guns can now be built to counter such bombardment. Since ships in the expansion are now steam-powered, there are significant changes in naval warfare and tactics from previous games.
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Graphics-wise, the game utilises an improved Warscape engine, adding enhancements to the Campaign Map, improved water effects and more. This engine update has also added numerous performance improvements.
The player can choose to play on either the Imperial or the Shogunate side. Including all of the Fall of the Samurai DLC, there are five Imperial and five Shogunate clans to choose from. It is possible to convert a clan's allegiance from Shogunate to Imperial, or vice versa, in the early (but not the later) stages of the campaign.
Similarly to Shogun 2, the realm divide system is triggered when the player gains enough fame by capturing enough territories, though with a few differences. The player will have the option to side with the emperor or shogun or to form a new republic. The latter option will result in all other computer surviving clans declaring war on the player one by one. The former will only result in clans of the opposing side declaring war on the player and forbids the player from declaring war on their allies.
Base Clans[edit]Imperial[edit]
Shogunate[edit]
Release[edit]Downloadable content[edit]
Reception[edit]
References[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Total_War:_Shogun_2:_Fall_of_the_Samurai&oldid=871263868'
We take a look at the available downloadable content for Creative Assembly’s latest iteration of the Total War series.
Total War: Shogun 2 has been out for seven months now. While the subject matter has not pleased all fans of the franchise, this latest iteration of the Total War series has gathered praise from critics and the public alike. With comments such as “with a smaller scale and tighter focus, boasts the best gameplay and design of any entry in the franchise” and “the ideal example of evolution trumping revolution”, Shogun 2 proves that a company doesn’t always have to make huge changes in a game to create a great addition to the series.
Of course, these days there’s barely a single commercial game released that doesn’t end up having some sort of downloadable content being released for it, and Shogun 2 is no exception. Since it’s release, Shogun 2 has received 3 DLC packs, the Ikko Ikki Clan pack, the Sengoku Jidai Unit pack, and the Rise of the Samurai Campaign pack. What do these packs contain, are they any good, and are they worth the price? Let’s take a look.
The Ikko Ikki Clan Pack $4.99
The Ikko Ikki clan pack adds warrior monks to Shogun 2 as a new, playable clan, thus taking the playable factions in game to a total of ten, if you have the limited edition, or nine if you just have the standard edition. It includes everything needed for the faction : 8 faction specific units, faction specific skill trees, and the Ikko Ikki monk unit.
In addition, you also get the Warrior Nun unit, which can be trained by all clans except Ikko Ikki, a new Naginata Warrior Monk Hero, the new Historical Battle of Nagashima of 1574, and finally new Ikko Ikki armor and retainers for Avatar mode.
As a DLC pack, the Ikko Ikki pack is not huge, but at the same time it is not expensive either. It adds a whole new clan to play with and some minor additions for the other clans, so basically your paying a small amount to extend the play-life of Shogun 2. If you’re still enjoying the game but are getting bored of the other clans, the Ikko Ikki pack is well worth getting.
The Sengoku Jidai Unit Pack$3.25
The Sengoku Jidai unit pack adds, surprisingly enough, new units to your Shogun 2 game. You get ten new elite units, however they are faction specific so you will not be able to try them all out in one game or battle. The units are :
The diversity of units available in the standard game and the other two expansions has been well and truly enough up until now. However there are many who complain about the lack of diversity for Shogun fans, so for those fans this pack may be a welcome edition. That said, at such a low cost there’s little reason not to get it if you want your Shogun 2 to be complete.
The Rise of the Samurai Campaign$9.99
The Rise of the Samurai Campaign DLC is the most expensive of all the DLC packs, but it’s also the largest. It includes a new campaign covering the Gempei War, set 400 years before the Vanilla campaign. It includes 3 new families divided into 6 clans, with new agents and units for every clan. Basically every clan, unit and building has been changed to reflect the earlier period. Gameplay has also had some major alterations applied to it, such as the removal of religion to be replaced by clan allegiance, (although they both have the same effect). In addition the AI has been much improved.
How much improved is the AI in Rise of the Samurai? In short, dramatically so, especially the battle AI. In my very first battle, I found the AI trying to entice me into it’s very own Japanese Cannae. For those uninitiated in military history, the Battle of Cannae was a famous battle in which a Roman army was destroyed when their Carthaginian enemies retreated the units in the center of their battle line, thus enticing the Romans to pursue and enabling them to be surrounded and destroyed. In my battle the AI sent units almost right up to the units in the center of my line, and then pulled them back when I sent my own units forward to attempt to engage.
I sat in shocked delight as I watched the enemies center retreat while his flank continued advancing, and had to react swiftly to reform my line before the AI caught my entire force out of order. For Total War veterans, that sort of AI reaction is a wonderful thing to see.
As an add-on, Rise of the Samurai is terrific value for money. It adds a whole new campaign with all the new content that goes with it – in effect, almost creating a whole new game. Indeed, Sega and Creative Assembly sold Napoleon Total War as a whole new game when many fans claimed it should have just been an expansion to Empire Total War, and they could just have easily done the same thing here with Rise of the Samurai. It’s to their credit that this time they appeared to have listened to their fans and released this as DLC. Of course, the more cynical among us may be inclined to note that while Napoleon could be marketed as a separate game without looking like a blatant cash grab, Rise of the Samurai most likely could not be.
Regardless, it’s still great value for money and a wonderful addition to Shogun 2.
Final Thoughts
Creative Assembly has a long history of releasing new content for every Total War game they release, whether it be as expansion packs or in the modern DLC form. Shogun 2 is no exception, and the DLC packs released so far for it are great value and are worthwhile additions for any fan. They add a lot of new content and make some interesting and fun changes to the game. It’s a sad fact that the game itself is now down to $29.99 on steam, while the combined cost of all the add-ons is $18.23, so it wouldn’t take more than another reduction in price or another DLC pack to be released before we find it costs the same to buy the game as to buy all the DLC. However that is the nature of the gaming industry these days.
Creative Assembly have stated on official forums that there will be more DLC packs to come in the future for Shogun 2, so we can probably expect to see that sort of situation before too long. Hopefully the content and value will continue to impress as much as that which has come so far.
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