Shogun: Total War
Shogun: Total War (STW) is the first of Creative Assembly's "Total War" series. It is a history-based grand strategy computer game that combines turn-based provincial development with real-time battles. The player assumes the role of one of seven daimyos (Uesugi, Shimazu, Oda, Mori, Imagawa, Takeda, Hōjō) attempting to unite feudal Japan during the Sengoku period ("The Age of the Country at War") and become Shogun. Sun Tzu's The Art of War is central to the game; its precepts are quoted often and its strategies recommended.
Contents
Game Play
The play involves a strategic phase building up armies and moving them into provinces followed by a real time battle phase. During the strategic phase the players (that is including the AI players) decide where they are going to move their forces and then, when the player commits them, all the ordered movements are executed simultaneously. The three dimensional battles are notable for including aspects such as morale that had up to its publication usually been ignored by computer war games and are more typical of table top gaming. It shares, however, with much of table top gaming, the unrealistic feature that the player has control over their units that would be impossible before the age of portable radio communication.
Sieges are played out using the same engine as the battles in the field. The advantage to the defender comes from the narrow gateway to the castles which prevents a larger force attacking with more than a small part of its strength.
There is no naval warfare. Armies can jump across straits without restriction; for movement of armies over longer distances, there must be ports in both the starting province and the destination province is needed, and if the destination province is held by another player, the attacking player must have a spy in that province.
Basic combat units include the yari ashigaru and samurai which are excellent against cavalry units. The difference between ashigaru and samurai is ashigaru have lower morale and will retreat frequently. Ninja are helpful units as they can perform assassinations on enemy generals and daimyo, but they could possibly fail if the target is well protected.
Sequels
It was followed by the Mongol Invasion expansion pack which added a Mongols campaign, played as either the invaders or as Japan. The Warlord Edition was also released, containing both the original game and the expansion. The Total War series has been continued with Medieval: Total War, Rome: Total War and Medieval II: Total War
Multiplayer
Originally, Electronic Arts hosted the multiplayer for Shogun Total War. There were two separate servers; one for Shogun Total War, and one for Warlord Edition. In the foyer, players had their points next to their names. These points were called honour. A player started with 100 honour. Based on winning or losing, the player gained or lost honour. In order to prevent an expert from playing a lot of beginners and gaining a lot of honour, an expert who had 49 more honour points than the beginner would lose points even if he beat that beginner. The honour system made the multiplayer to be fun and challenging. If players wanted to play without a change in honour points, then the host could simply set the game to 'friendly' mode. The Shogun servers had many players when EA hosted them. Role-playing was very popular and this period is considered by many fans as the best and most nostalgic. The battles themselves were very fast-paced, unforgiving to mistakes and highly reliant on individual skill both in army selection but above all army control. In Shogun, any army could win over another using clever, fast and precise strategies. In later Total War games, army selection was given more importance. This is the reason why many fans still refer to Shogun as the purest and most skilful of the Total War games.
Before Rome: Total War was launched by Activision, EA shut down both the Shogun Total War and the Warlord Edition servers. The players turned to the other Total War series, while the new players avoided the Shogun series. Some players wanted to return to Shogun Total War. They hosted their own servers where players could join without registering. To join these servers, one must change the setup in the internet.cfg file which is in the Shogun Warlord Edition folder. The following internet.cfg setup is for the most recent server being used:
ChatserverIPAddress = shogun-fakeserver.dnsdojo.org
ChatserverPort = 8793
NewsserverIPAddress = daphne.eagames.co.uk
NewsserverPort = 8797
ShogunTotalWarWebsite = www.totalwar.com
- Questions about the server can be asked in the TotalWar.org forums: Totalwar.org forum
The top 100 ranking players have their names listed in EA's Total War homepage (not the recent homepage). The websites of the ranking lists are as follows:
- Shogun Top 100 Players
- Shogun Top 100 Clans
- Mongol Invasion Top 100 Players
- Mongol Invasion Top 100 Clans
Take note that most of the clan names that you see in the list are not being used. EA's registration for Total War required a clan name. Most players made a fake clan in order to register (and this was allowed). For the links of the real Shogun Total War clans, look at the following:
Screenshots
- Army movement.jpg
Screenshot of Samurai Army
- Mongols.jpg
Screenshot of Mongol Army
- Stw castle.jpg
Screenshot of a Siege Battle
Music
The original music soundtrack for the game was composed by Jeff van Dyck. Van Dyck won a BAFTA (British Academy) Interactive Award for his work in Shogun: Total War - Warlord Edition. He also wrote the soundtracks for the other games in the Total War franchise.
See also
Trivia
- The intro FMV contained scenes from Akira Kurosawa's final jidaigeki, Ran (film).
