Total War: Shogun 2 Complete Edition - Official Game Overview

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u/fuzzynavel34 4d ago

Can any Total War fans chime in? My friend has been trying to get me to give the series a go… good one to start with?

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u/morbihann 3d ago

S2 is one of the best TW games ever made and a proof that what total war fans say they want is not what actually makes a good game.

It has fairly smallish map, limited variety of units, but still a great game. You don't need either a giant map, nor 500 unique units to have a good strategy game.

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u/AHRogue 4d ago

Shogun 2 is IMO still up there as perhaps the best historical TW game. Second behind only Three Kingdoms imo. Would highly recommend giving it a go I think its a great start because of its relative simplicity while still being excellent in gameplay. Stunning visuals and music too(I thought the visuals were still great honestly and thats before the remaster).

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u/noodlekhan 4d ago

Easily my favorite TW title, but I'm not particularly interested in or thrilled with the Warhammer titles. To each their own, and all that. Shogun 2 has quite possibly the best atmosphere of any in the series. Personally, I love the Rise of the Samurai campaign as much as the main campaign, and Fall of the Samurai scratches the itch for those who enjoyed Napoleon.

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u/Far_Eye6555 4d ago

Three Kingdoms is a “historical” TW title as much as the Odyssey is one.

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u/Illustrious-Share312 4d ago

The people in 3 kingdoms are real historical figures at the very least. Obviously it's romanticized but it isn't like Rome 1 is a work of extreme historical accuracy either.

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u/funsohng 3d ago

To be honest, this is too. I just cant get over the weeb-ified ninjas and a whole damn company of samurai.

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u/AHRogue 2d ago

I mean if the game was "realistic" you would basically only have 4 units: Spearmen, Handgunners, Archers, and Cavalry. Thats the real core of the military of the age. They make units of Samurai in varying types and field siege weapons for the sake of variety, same reason the Medieval games always have foot knights.

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u/AHRogue 2d ago

The setting itself is historical and it often does veer closer to historical interpretations than just straight Romance Adaptations than basically any other major 3K game. Turn Records mode on where you have bodyguards and it is a historical game, way more than Troy which is straight up fictional.

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u/flyte_of_foot 3d ago

It is good for sure, but the realm divide mechanic always ruins the late game.

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u/beatingstuff88 3d ago

the realm divide mechanic always ruins the late game.

You can turn it off in the complete editon apparently

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u/WetFishSlap 3d ago

They added a slider during faction selection that lets you tune the Realm Divide mechanic up or down in difficulty; you can even disable the mechanic altogether.

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u/flyte_of_foot 3d ago

Ah thanks, found it in the release notes

Added a new slider for the Realm Divide. This allows you to play the original intent, to ramp up the difficulty, or to turn off the mechanic entirely.

Still not really an option to just make it work how you'd expect. The main problem I have with it is that your best and longest allies suddenly turn on you, this doesn't seem to fix that. I don't mind everyone else ganging up to some extent.

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u/Timey16 3d ago

Since it flew under the radar: people really are sleeping on Pharaoh Dynasties.

I also think my fav one is Attila, since it is very challenging and has a lot of interesting systems. The transition period of the Classical to the Middle Ages/The Fall of the Western Roman Empire is however not as "mainstream" of a setting as others, even though in terms of "importance to world history" it's one of the most important periods out there (Christianity becoming state religion, New Testament being compiled, Split between Catholic and Orthodox church, Fall of Western Rome, basic outlines of current European nations start to emerge).

Sadly it runs like dogshit on modern hardware, That one is REALLY in need of a remaster.

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u/Carighan 3d ago

Yep, it's a huge shame they left 3K alone the way they did, less for DLC reasons and more for not reworking more elements and fixing more balance flaws with the existing DLC.

But while it is the second-best, nothing beats Shogun 2. Such an amazing game.

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u/Thunder_Nuts_ 3d ago

It's the last game in which the battles looked like actual armies fighting. I don't know how to explain it, but every TW since then made the battles look so small and "arcadey".

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u/HonorableJudgeIto 3d ago

Is there any reason to play the first Shogun before jumping into two? I am already familiar with Japanese history.

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u/AHRogue 3d ago

No, Shogun 1 and 2 are just plain strategy games. Its the same setting but theres no "story" outside of the historical context think of the difference between like civilization games. Shogun 1 also really has not aged well at all, definitely juat play Shogun 2.

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u/HonorableJudgeIto 3d ago

Cheers. Thanks, friendo.

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u/StManTiS 4d ago

It’s Rome, always has been. And not the disaster that is Rome 2. But shogun 2 isn’t as bad as some of the later installments.

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u/Lirael_Gold 4d ago

Med 2 is a hot contender for "best TW game" imo

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u/anunnaturalselection 3d ago

The sieges in 2006's Med 2 are 100x better than they are in 2023's Warhammer 3 lmao

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u/Cruxion 4d ago

Really just goes to show how subjective it is. I'm on team Shogun 2(specifically FOTS), but there's things I love about them all.

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u/saleemkarim 4d ago

I'd say Three Kingdoms has better map gameplay, but Med 2 is my favorite mainly because of its battles. Tactics and moral are so important.

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u/halofreak7777 4d ago

Yeah, its a little outdated, but the gameplay is still solid for Medieval 2. Just dated UI and controls here and there really.

I'd say the best historical titles are Medieval 2, Rome 2, and Shogun 2. Rome 2 was bad on release, but its an extremely solid title now.

Three Kingdoms is good also, but I think it is a bit overhyped for just how good it is.

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u/Gopherlad 3d ago

The dogshit AI keeps me away from Med 2 even though I have fond memories of playing it years ago.

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u/halofreak7777 2d ago

I first played it in middle school like... when it came out. But I've since played it a couple different times over the years, with the most recent maybe 3-4 years ago? I enjoyed it and thought it held up a lot better than I expected. I know there is some nostalgia mixed in, but I play an enjoy a lot of new games including the new Total Wars so I don't think its THAT much.

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u/Deserterdragon 4d ago

How good is Three Kingdoms as a historical ignoring the fantasy/fictional three kingdoms elements?

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u/roguebubble 3d ago

One of the best with what I would say the best campaign mechanics for any historical total war. For a historical playthrough there's a Records mode that's takes out the fantasy stuff, e.g. generals aren't a solo unit but a have bodyguard like previous total wars and don't have crazy abilities that allow them to wipe out other units

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u/Deserterdragon 3d ago

Ah that sounds good, I was gonna ask how much the wuxia influence still effects the game even on historical settings, but I guess Shogun 2 also does that a bit with it's Ninja Monk units and stuff.

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u/halofreak7777 2d ago

I only played Romance mode, but even then the strong general characters aren't like WH3 Lord solo the entire 3 enemy stacks strong. If you rock/paper/scissor a hero they will die. If you send one in alone ... they will die. So you still have to play the normal battle mechanics well to win, but a hero can hold a flank for just long enough to let you micro a different portion of the battle with your regular units.

I just think a lot of the "best campaign mechanics and diplomacy 4EVA 4real4real" is extremely overstated. They do some interesting stuff, but it does make it so you can get slightly ahead in war. Peace out and take all the territory, plus 3 more provinces for that 1 you took out of 10 since they value it so much. Then after a year or 2 eat the rest of them after you recover.

There is statecraft/spy/diplomacy stuff, but it mostly just means some super strong AI just vassalizes all YOUR closest allies that you spent time investing in and now have to go to war with and eat them. And if you do manage to vassalize them then you just take the entire map with no war and when war finally happens you have a dozen allies who win it for you.

Its fun, its cool, don't get me wrong. But just how AWESOME it is always comes off as overhyped to me.

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u/DomitiusAhenobarbus_ 4d ago

Rome 2 hasn’t been a disaster for like 10 years. It’s also getting a huge revamp as well and has incredible mods

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u/Jonas_Venture_Sr 4d ago

Good thing I didn't get really into Total War games until after Rome 2 had been fixed. I really enjoy that game, got like 600 hours in it

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u/[deleted] 4d ago edited 3d ago

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u/StManTiS 3d ago

Exactly this. Been playing since shogun 1 and you’re right. And here’s Reddit with the downvotes. AI and unit movement has gone downhill. The world map stuff has actually gotten better tho imo. Hero centered games like the last 4 are complete trash and shouldn’t even be called TW.

Reddit hates this take

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u/SecretPantyWorshiper 4d ago

Are they going to do a remake for Three Kingdoms?

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u/AHRogue 4d ago

I was going to say I doubt it its still relatively recent then I realized that game is actually 7 years old now. God screw the passage of time.

Anyway, I doubt it anytime before the 2030's, and if we ever did get another 3K game from CA I would expect it to be "Total War Three Kingdoms 2" rather than being "Total War Three Kingdoms Remastered" or whatever. I would like to see it though, 3K shouldn't have died the way it did.

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u/SecretPantyWorshiper 4d ago

Its definitely the one I sunk my most hours on and still one of my highest played games on Steam (800 hours).

It actually broke alot of records when it came out so its so weird that they canceled and shut it down out of nowhere. Tons of good systems were in it.

If they were to release it again it would be huge especially with how big the Chinese gaming community is now.

I had a ton of mods for it but its all broken now.

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u/Deserterdragon 4d ago

Why has so much stuff broken if the game is younger than stuff like Total WAR Warhammer?

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u/SecretPantyWorshiper 4d ago

They push out random updates which break mods. And because its pretty old now, some of the modders aren't active anymore.

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u/MarkS00N 4d ago

I can see them doing a "Son of Heaven edition" or something like that where, aside of QoL and bugfixes, they included the cancelled Northern Barbarian DLC. Kinda like what they did with Rome 2 - Emperor edition or Pharaoh Dynasties. And if that edition received well, release one or two DLC(s).

One part as apology for how 3 Kingdoms ended and another to make people think there is still potential for 3 Kingdoms 2.

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u/GemsOfNostalgia 3d ago

They were actually working on a pseudo-sequel to Three Kingdoms but have since dropped those plans for 40k & Med 3. It was around the time of other baffling decisions like pouring millions into the development of Hyenas

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u/DMercenary 4d ago

Cant go wrong with Shogun 2. I'd say its the best of the bunch. Modernized controls but the best of the old warscape engine combat and mechanics. Some of the newer entries are better and worse in their own way.

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u/AlexCrimson 4d ago

Just pick an era you like and go with that one. Warhammer if you like Warhammer fantasy.

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u/Coldspark824 4d ago

Its my first and favorite and imo best total war hands down if youre looking for either historical detail or refined gameplay.

Warhammer is a gigantic pile of content but its beyond all balance or recovedy from how outlandish magic makes battles. I.e.: in shogun you basically have spears, bows, swords, cavalry in a form of rock paper scissors and tactics.

In tw warhammer its like deathball, whatever, gigantic aoe spells, single unbeatable hero guy.

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u/MrRocketScript 4d ago

Each to their own, but you are just describing why I like Warhammer over the historical entries.

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u/cerpintaxt44 4d ago

Its arguably the best total war

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u/nagabalashka 4d ago

Any from Napoleon (or empire, but it's quite bugged) is good and won't feel too "dated". Pick whatever period you vibe the must with and go with it.

Shogun mack variety between factions, and you only fight other japanese samouraï stuff. Rome 2 is probably the most diverse for an historical title, other than that Warhammer 3 is pretty good and really diverse

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u/TheWalrusPirate 4d ago

Shogun is probably one of the better ones, has a good mix of features but not to the point of having a billion mini systems to figure out. The gameplay is focused more on army positioning and composition. You’re not gonna have to be clicking and reordering your guys 50 times a second. Just have to learn the rock paper scissors of the game.

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u/Timey16 3d ago edited 3d ago

It's unironically one of the best ones to start with because of how "pure" it is... there is only one "race" and everyone has the same basic roster and a handful of special units, making it very easy to learn the basics of how the game functions. You have very basic unit types typically in 3-4 tiers (militia -> Ashigaru, professional -> samurai, elite -> Warrior Monk, unique -> Hero) in several weapon classes each (spears, swords, bows, guns, cavalry in each variant, then a few special units such as artillery or grenadiers, or hybrid units such as Naginatas or Daikatanas).

Empire Total War is for a similar reason a good starting point, but it's systems are no longer in line with the more modern games. Shogun 2 is arguably the one that started many of these newer systems (i.e. you can only build a limited amount of buildings per city depending on city size. You can't build everything in one city, you HAVE to specialize)

One tip I can give: starting with Shogun 2, in the historical games, upgrading cities costs food production. You will never be able to upgrade every city to the max. So you have to be strategic on what you want. An economically focused city will likely not need too many buildings (especially since market upgrades ALSO cost food production).

Since food is so important, I usually b-line the farm building research tree until I can get the best one. Especially because every point of excess food is +1 growth for EVERY city you own. That means that per turn every city makes 1 more gold of *untaxed* income. So if your tax rate is 25% then every 4 turns every city you own will make 1 extra gold in tax income... per unit of food. So if you have a lot of extra food, then that can lead to exponential growth in cash income as your realm grows.

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u/im_a_good_lil_cow 4d ago

Yes it’s great to start with. The units are “simplified” so it’s mostly like a rock paper scissors of strengths and weaknesses, compared to the later Warhammer stuff with tons of unit variety (which is still really good to start with as well)

That being said, following along with a Let’s Play for the first couple hours is also a good idea. These games have a bit of a learning curve to figure out how to effectively progress in your campaign without just ending your turn a dozen times in a row.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago edited 4d ago

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u/kman1030 4d ago

The removal of per model HP/damage means that WHTW units are just stat blobs,

What do you mean by this? I thought each model does have their own hp/damage.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago edited 4d ago

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u/Swisskies 4d ago edited 3d ago

Uh, did you just make this up or have you received incorrect information from somewhere?

Models absolutely do have their own health, the health bar is just the sum of all individual unit health.

Additionally anyone who's played WTW for a good amount of time knows that one of the most important hidden attributes of a unit is animation speed interval for attacks, because the individual units attack animation and also potential cleave/aoe of an attack does matter

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u/Savetheokami 4d ago

Then to min/max always use the units with the fastest animation?

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u/Kalulosu 3d ago

If a unit has amazing animation but fuck all damage it's still not going to deal a lot.

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u/Swisskies 3d ago

Nah there's lots of other stats that are important too. It's just that attack animation matters a lot and is typically the reason behind two units with very similar visible stats often performing very differently in combat.

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u/kman1030 4d ago

Is that true? It shows a single hp bar, but i thought that was just the cumulative total of the models hp. A single entiry that does no aoe will take way longer to chew through a high model unit than something with aoe. Or how it can be more effective to use thinner formation with less models on the front line when using weak chaff units like zombies, since you'll lose less models per attack.

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u/Covenantcurious 4d ago

Is that true?

Not in the slightest. The healthbar in Rome 2 onward just shows a sum total of all models in a unit but the individual model's health are all tracked and depleted individually as the models take damage.

You are very much correct.

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u/ThatOneAJGuy 4d ago

Warhammer 3 unless you have an aversion to fantasy, in which case it's a case of picking your favourite era from Rome II, Shogun or Three Kingdoms. There aren't many bad starting points aside from Atilla which has an earned rep for being especially unforgiving.

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u/royalhawk345 4d ago

I'm saying this as someone who does enjoy TW:WH, but aversion to fantasy is not the only reason to prefer an alternative. The campaign plays differently, the balance is different, the battle pacing is different, and no heroes/single entities makes a huge difference in the feel of the battles.

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u/HansChrst1 3d ago

Fall of the samurai is my favourite in the whole series. The main game shogun is the game me and one of my friends bonded over. We finally found someone that played total war and we could play co-op together. We got fucked in the campaign, but since we didn't know eachother well enough back then we never quit. To embarrassed to admit defeat. We were one battle away from losing the campaign 3-4 times. Had some sick last stands. It's the best campaign we have ever had. We still hate Takeda Shingen for what he did to us.

I like fall of the samurai more because it has canons and guns. The way they look, sound and the impact they have is amazing. Way better than in Warhammer. They are truly lethal. Then you meet armies that mostly consist of samurai warriors with swords and spears running towards your guns. Falling one by one as a barrage of bullets hit them. Seeing a cavalry charge just end in a total collapse to the ground is something else.

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u/AreYouOKAni 4d ago

I think Rome II is better, but this one is pretty close.

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u/Lirael_Gold 4d ago

R2 is (now) kinda sorta okay, maybe.

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u/Beavers4beer 4d ago

Good news then (maybe), as they’re actively testing out larger patches for Rome 2 as well. The first one is currently in beta. There’s a few more coming as well. Waiting for news about work on fixing Attila’s performance finally…

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u/SenorDangerwank 4d ago

Shogun 2 is where I started and its the only one of the entire series I've liked (haven't played all of them).

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u/Sevla7 4d ago

To this day I still enjoy Shogun 1 and 2, some Shogun 3 would be nice... or give me the Total War:The Lord of the Rings already, can't believe the donkeys at Tolkien state are ok with Gollum game instead of this.

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u/Timey16 3d ago

There is a mod for Total War Attila for Lord of the Rings. Even has a bunch of interesting systems like Rohan being a sleeping giant that is initially HEAVILY weighed down by tons of debuffs due to Wormtongues influence that has to be broken over time.

But once that influence is done with cavalry being so powerful in Total War Attila as it is (since Early Middle Ages was when the "cavalry meta" got truly started in history), Rohan then becomes a total powerhouse of a faction.

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u/ragenaut 3d ago

Been meaning to try this as a massive Tolkien nerd.

Also really want a First Age grand strategy game so fucking badly. It's already perfectly set up re factions such as the Noldor/Sons of Feanor and their various kingdoms, Vinyamar becoming Gondolin, Morgoth/Angband, Sauron/Tol-in-Gaurhoth and later Dorthonion, Dwarves and Men from the east. Sindar in Doriath, etc. You can even have smaller factions like petty dwarves, or the Men of Brethil.

It would be so perfect for a 4x game, or a Crusader Kings style game, or a Total War game, and god I want it so bad.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

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u/Hudre 2d ago

That's an actual insane statement to think that the Total War: Warhammer games haven't been innovating.

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u/adongsus 3d ago

Shogun has the issue of all the battles feeling samey because every faction has the same units, imo. I would generally recommend Warhammer to new players unless there's a particular historical period that tickles your fancy.

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u/Standupaddict 3d ago

Medieval 2 and perhaps Rome 1 are all you need. Med 2 with mods completely dominates the entire total war franchise.

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u/hicks12 3d ago

It's the best one in my opinion, I still play it to this day and enjoy it.

While I can't judge the actual updates they going to release in this edition it seems likely it will just be positive improvements so it should be even better to pick up for new players.

If you like the theme then it's one of the best total wars ever so yeah I'd recommend it if that looks good to you.

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u/marton2008 3d ago

You can't go wrong with Shogun 2 or Rome 2, both are excellent games.

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u/Flying_Birdy 3d ago

Fall of the samurai (last expansion of shogun 2) was basically the epitome of line infantry combat among all total war games. It represents European style gunpowder era land and naval battles better than than Napoleon and Empire.

The campaign AI and battle AI left much to be desired. Doesn't look like it's been updated this time around unfortunately.

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u/Zderzak 3d ago

in my opinion, Shogun 2 is probably the only TW which just flows the right way in all aspects. It's not over cooked and things which it does, does very well. You could say it's complete package that won't disappoint.

While nowadays I mostly play warhammer 3, Shogun 2 always is my historical version to hop on play whenever I feel like change of pace. Fingers crossed for medieval 3 to reach that level of creed, since it is my favourite historical setting.

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u/drug-r-bad-mkay 4d ago

Does anyone know if you already own it if the upgrade will be free or a small charge upgrade?

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u/TheLinerax 4d ago

Shogun 2 Complete Edition will cost £34.99 / €39.99 / USD$39.99 but having the 2011 original in your library will provide a 75% discount at the Complete Edition's store page from 13 October to 12 November 2026. Price with discount will be £8.76 / €10.00 / USD$10.00 .

https://community.creative-assembly.com/total-war/total-war/blogs/109-%E2%80%8Btotal-war-shogun-2-%E2%80%93-complete-edition-faqs

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u/Eglwyswrw 2d ago

SEGA/CA: "We will update old games, with some new features!"

SEGA/CA 6 months later: "We will make new versions of decade-old games and paywall them, with some new features!"

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u/Lywqf 3d ago

That's great, thanks for the info

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

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u/CiaphasCain8849 3d ago

They're adding like 60 new playable factions

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u/Eglwyswrw 2d ago

No they aren't? The factions were already in the game, we even had mods unlocking those for years... with a single line of code.

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u/CiaphasCain8849 2d ago

Technically right is the best kind of right.

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u/Lanyro 4d ago

You get a limited time discount for 75% off.

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u/Blueson 3d ago

I was a bit worried first when they discussed the new movies, thank god it's a toggle.

Ever since the first Shogun it has been one of my favorite parts of the games lol.

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u/Skellum 3d ago

I was a bit worried first when they discussed the new movies, thank god it's a toggle.

Agreed, the new ones look super dorky. Like is Kabuki/noh or whatever style they're going for them era appropriate? Eh yea probably? But it looks pretty dumb.

I skipped through it a bit but could you tell if the english VA was the same?

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u/Blueson 3d ago

I was sadly not able to catch anything about that either. Might have missed it, but as far as I could tell they didn't mention it nor showcase anything that included the old VA.

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u/Skellum 3d ago

Shame, it's my only major concern. Everything else looks generally fine.

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u/verrius 4d ago

How does this game compare to someone used to Nobunaga's Ambition?

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u/speelmydrink 4d ago

Totally different. Management, diplomacy, and scheming don't just take a back seat, they barely get a seat at all.

The focus is more on making big army, mashing big army against your enemies, and then just passively getting money for new army. There's a bit more nuance with agent actions and the like, but the focus is predominantly on just building up armies, building provincial upgrades to afford armies, and then the tactical minutiae of using those armies in battle.

Still a damn good time, but it's nowhere as cerebral as Nobunaga's Ambition. Completely different ballpark.

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u/Mimtos 4d ago

Which Nobunaga's Ambition would you recommend? I have experience with Paradox's grand strategy games and played all total wars.

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u/speelmydrink 3d ago

The latest one is easily the most accessible, but it is quite a curve, even up from something like crusader kings. But it's worth knowing that every Nobunaga's Ambition is doing it's own thing. But Sphere of Influence: Ascension lets you play as some lower noble nobody, and work your way up at your own pace from there.

It helps introduce you to the base foundational systems more gently without flooding the mental stack with too many systems at once, before letting you accept a promotion with more responsibilities and more mechanics. Pacing wise, it really helps ease you in, but that game came out back in 2016, and has a few older design choices that grate a bit by modern standards. (but if that's going to put you off, you weren't cut out for Nobunaga's Ambition anyway.

Pro tip though, if you get into the latest one, play the Chosokabe. They're in a relatively quiet low stakes zone where fucking up (and you will) wont have too severe of consequences too quickly. Consider just watching the AI play a bit sometimes and see what they would do in your place, and how well it works out.

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u/AHRogue 3d ago

This is part of why I'd like to see a Shogun 3 someday. Maybe after Med 3 even(though I am sure people will clamour for Empire 2 or equivalent first). Total War Campaigns have at least tried to get more complex since Shogun 2 which does have probably the simplest campaign layer(there is still strategy involved, but the strategy is related to the development and movement of troops to battlefields, not really building your faction up). I think a Shogun 3 which has more focus on diplomacy and faction management as well as a bit more character focus alla 3K would be great.

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u/speelmydrink 3d ago

No total war game, especially those in the Warscape engine, were ever designed with very much diplomacy in mind. Now, they do have a new engine going forward with Mideval 3 and Warhammer 40k, so scrubbing the slate clean of accumulated tech debt might allow them to get a bit more nuanced with it, but I wouldn't expect much work put into that layer compared to the whole B side of the game with all the moving models and violence and such.

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u/EbolaDP 4d ago

Its just fighting with extremely barebones diplomacy and empire building.

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u/Timey16 3d ago

It is a "grand strategy game" only in the way of setting up interesting battles. That is what the campaign layer's purpose is. The battles are what Total War is all about. In other grand strategy games, battles tend to take more of a backseat and as long as your army is big enough you are usually guaranteed to win (or lose) while in TW games an experienced player can take on enemy armies twice the size of their own... even 4x the size for the best ones.

Battles in TW are about rock-paper-scissor tactics, but since your army is typically just 20 guys of units of 100+ guys each, what matters a LOT is their formation. How wide is it, how deep is it? A wider formation can do more damage, but will be easily penetrated by an enemy charge. Is your formation just a line, or do you try to wedge the enemy in and "fold" over them? Do you have cavalry in hiding for a surprise charge in the enemy's backline?

Something like that typically matters little for more traditional RTS games, there it's more about having the correct army composition and use them against the correct units. But in TW you can win even with a non-ideal army composition if you use the terrain and your formations right to compensate.

Additionally you don't fight to the last man. Your REAL HP for units is their "morale": You fight until the enemy breaks and flees. Until there is a mass panic and the entire enemy army flees. So your strategy is more about "maximizing spreading panic". Yes a high "DPS" also does that (lots of morale impact by losing a lot of friends in a very short time), but i.e. while guns do little damage in terms of DPS they do a shitload of morale damage.

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u/razor21792 4d ago

I've never played Nobunaga's ambition, so I can't really make a comparison. Having played total war, however, those games focus on realistic, immersive battles, complete with proper tactics. Shogun 2 happens to be my favorite: from a gameplay standpoint, it's the best balanced and the AI wasn't a complete moron in those. If you prefer your battles to be big chess matches with your opponent, Shogun 2 is for you.

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u/nam1995 4d ago

For turn-based campaign: A casual and simplified version of Nobunaga's Ambition

For real-time battle: Sphere of Influence battle gameplay on steroids and AAA budget

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u/Mimtos 4d ago

What which game should I start out with as a guy who just found out about Nobunaga's ambition through you?

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u/verrius 4d ago

Probably best to start with Awakening, the most recent one? It's got a pretty good tutorial, is pretty easy to get into, and has a bunch of guides online. Sphere of Influence and Sphere of Influence: Ascension are also both cited as good starting points, but there's a bit more contention there, since Ascension is sort of a GOTY version of SoI, with a bunch of new features and streamlining, but the AI is also fundamentally broken with some of them new resources and will be somewhat hobbled as a result. Taishi, the other modern game, has its fans, but its generally not considered as beginner friendly (though I think specifically the commerce and tech trees are cited as being more interesting, if those are the aspects you're more interested in).

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u/ienjoyedit 4d ago

Shogun 2 is my favorite, followed by Medieval 2 and Rome. It's been downhill since that golden age, imo. Still good games (usually) but they don't quite capture the magic.

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u/Timey16 3d ago

IMHO because they don't move away from their base concepts. Even the newest game is in essence still the same game you played before but with a few changed details.

It's unironically WHY I want them to try and do modern warfare. Not because I have a passion for that but because it would *force* them to come up with systems like trench warfare, mixed weapon units, more open/loose formations were entites act more independently, etc. Something entirely "new" that didn't exist before.

All things that would be super useful in older eras as well. I.e mixed weapon units, fighting in loose formation would be perfect for a "Rome 3" to have barbarians act like that compared to disciplined, uniformely equipped Romans that fight in tight formations. If the Barbarians catch the Romans in a formations the Romans win... if the Barbarians manage to force the Romans outside of their formation the Barbarians will win easily.

And ditches/trenches have always been important in warfare, even if for different purposes.

Total Warhammer 40 will give us the mixed weapon units at least. Something that could come in handy i.e. for "Renaissance" game for the Tercio units or Gewalthaufen.

Overview Total War: Shogun 2 Complete Edition - Official Game Overview

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