Shogun: Total War 2 Catch All thread

Will do, though solutions to what exactly?

Okay started another game, went with the same Clan this time, the ones on the far left whose name I forget.

Almost wrestled the whole starting island away from the others.

They must have done something to the Campaign AI, they actaully go for the trade ports now.

Jow wrote:

Will do, though solutions to what exactly?

I tried to give a bit of starting out advice in this post earlier in the thread. I think some other people chimed in as well. That should help you with happiness, diplomatic, and economic issues. There are just a couple things that took me forever to figure out, because they were a bit different than earlier total war games. Hopefully that helps you from getting frustrated.

There are lots of things to think about every turn, so try and get a system down where you address them each turn.

Kamakazi010654 wrote:

They must have done something to the Campaign AI, they actaully go for the trade ports now.

Nooooo! That was one of the stupid AI things I relied on. Heheheh.

Whoah... I just realized, they give you the soundtrack. I completely missed that, 31 tracks of awesomeness.

Edit: After looking at the tags, it looks like it's a Fall of the Samurai thing. Also, the game is now just under 30 GB in size. Sheesh... there goes all the space on my main SSD.

Started a Fall of the Samurai campaign as the Tosa because they are supposed to be easier and they get naval and bombardment bonuses. I'm going to try and focus on my naval power. The opening cutscene is awesome!

Jow wrote:

onboard after the 7.50 steam sale. That's one thing I adore about Steam: you know if you wait long enough you'll get great games that have had time to mature for sweet prices. CAn't wait to play.

For your first [base] game play as Shimazu on Normal (hard is tempting but this is different--better--than other Total Wars), because the Shimazu start in a corner and have good offensive units, Shimazu samurai, immediately. Don't tech up your castles right away, because you need to upgrade farms first or growth will stop. Try to get some early ships onto the foreign trade locations asap just to claim them then follow up with trade vessels for greatly increased oncome. Other than that just learn the civ and combat and you'll do fine. Don't worry about learning or using the special characters (assassins and others) until you're mid-game.

I'm going to play a lot of this over the weekend. I had a blast with Fall of the Samurai last night. It is definitely a 30 dollar game. The changes made to everything feel like the jump from Empire to Napoleon. Glad they integrated the games this time, though. I wish they had done the same with Empire and Napoleon. If anyone else is playing, be sure to share your thoughts. I will post some thoughts and screenshots when I get a bit further in.

I noticed that the cavalry AI is very aggressive in its flanking on normal difficulty. I had a battle where they had maybe 3 or 4 units of cavalry and they split up and tried to hit me from both sides when I was defending a position. It really surprised me because it is exactly what I would have done if I were the other team. Had to restart a couple times because I had the disadvantage in numbers and lost a general which I didn't want to happen that early in the game.

Yes please keep the game reports about Fall of the Samurai coming. I need to be enabled since my biggest problem isn't money but time.

I too am looking forward to further impressions from Tuffalo and whomever else has picked this up. Trying to decide if I should try to fit this one into my schedule.

Copingsaw wrote:

I too am looking forward to further impressions from Tuffalo and whomever else has picked this up. Trying to decide if I should try to fit this one into my schedule.

I'm gonna take a nap and then play some more. I'll post some impressions and screenshots next time. The expansion is definitely 30 bucks worth of content as I've stated before. I'm sure you're all in my boat, however, where time is a huge issue. I will try and base my conclusions on one playthrough of a short game. That would hopefully be 10-20 hours of time. That way, when the game goes on sale for $15 or so, you'll be able to decide if it's worth it.

So, I played a bit more and it is still awesome. I got into a battle that totally reminded me of Shogun 1 where you have a river to help your defense. I decimated the opposition. It was extremely satisfying. My Steam screenshots are here, but here are a few:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/RGPlGl.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/Wnw0wl.jpg)

Here's one of the new main menu screens:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/3tPVXl.jpg)

Here's what happens when you bombard the enemy armies with your ships:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/xcotPl.jpg)

Remember how in Empire you thought artillery would be awesome but it sucked until you got to the bottom of the research tree? In this game it starts off on medium, the takes it to an 11 about 15 turns into the game. Artillery absolutely murders armies. For example, I fought a 1200 (me) vs 2000 battle (computer). I brought 2 of the second level cannons with no tech investment. These 2 cannon units killed over 600 men, including their general, before they reached my line. My guns units first volley routed 3 or 4 units. My spear unit's charge routed the rest of their army while the guns kept firing.

There are some bugs, and the AI can do some wonky things. This is the best version of gun combat yet from CA. You can even go fully traditional with no guns, but it's really really really hard. Melee units rock if you can get close enough, which is very challenging.

It is well worth $30.

Dezlen, are you only referring to the field artillery there? How is the naval artillery?

Started playing a coop campaign with my buddy this weekend. We had a Save get corrupted where we ended up out of sync. The game wouldn't progress because it was waiting on me to make a decision (my friends perspective); for me I was waiting on my friend to take/finish his turn. Ended up losing 3 hours of game play to that gem. Also thanks to some changes we made to what we did, the game took a turn for the worse for me. Ended up having half my cities rebel due to a change in religion. Uuugggghhh, I am not looking forward to conquering half my cities again; not to mention I'm flat broke due to lack of income.

Keithustus wrote:

Dezlen, are you only referring to the field artillery there? How is the naval artillery?

I was only referring to field artillery. Naval works a bit differently. For naval bombardments, you get 2 or more shots every 3ish minutes based on the number of ships you have. This can hit anywhere on the map. With your starting ships it can do hefty damage to an early army. The number of rounds that land and the duration of the bombardment also vary according to the size and composition of your fleet.

Okay, so I started my second campaign and things were going quite well. I am the Shimazu (those fine folks over there on the far left). And I had 3 trade ports and had started working my way over to the right on the main island. The Oda were the Shogunate and had taken over probably 50% of the main island, everything righ tin the middle.

So I hit realm divide and things were still going okay for a few turns, I got to Kyoto and I am now the Shogun and I control about 2/3 of the main island. I had an income of about 11000 a turn, and I am rolling 4 full stacks, about to use one to launch an attach on the Chosokabe on their island...

and then everything went horribly wrong.

I had about 6 fleets keeping my trade routes open (about 2/3 of my income was from the trade ports), over the course of 4 turns I lost them all, they each got attacked 2-3 times in that time (all 5 of the remaining clans hate me). And now there is a fleet blocking all of my trade ports.

Then the Oda, who I have down to 5 provinces unveiled the fact that they have 3 full stacks that were apparently just hanging out as I took most of their territories.

Then some random 1 territory clan from the far side of the main island landed a full stack on my main island (the one on the far left), taking one of my settlements. I have mostly nothing back there to attack them with.

In terms of armies I still for the most part hold the advantage, but with the arrival of the Oda armies I am going to have to win some awesome battles to not lose Kyoto and a bunch of territories.

So, TL;DR, I went from top of the world to barely being positive in income in the span of 5 turns....

Kamakazi010654 wrote:

Okay, so I started my second campaign and things were going quite well. I am the Shimazu (those fine folks over there on the far left). And I had 3 trade ports and had started working my way over to the right on the main island. The Oda were the Shogunate and had taken over probably 50% of the main island, everything righ tin the middle.

So I hit realm divide and things were still going okay for a few turns, I got to Kyoto and I am now the Shogun and I control about 2/3 of the main island. I had an income of about 11000 a turn, and I am rolling 4 full stacks, about to use one to launch an attach on the Chosokabe on their island...

and then everything went horribly wrong.

I had about 6 fleets keeping my trade routes open (about 2/3 of my income was from the trade ports), over the course of 4 turns I lost them all, they each got attacked 2-3 times in that time (all 5 of the remaining clans hate me). And now there is a fleet blocking all of my trade ports.

Then the Oda, who I have down to 5 provinces unveiled the fact that they have 3 full stacks that were apparently just hanging out as I took most of their territories.

Then some random 1 territory clan from the far side of the main island landed a full stack on my main island (the one on the far left), taking one of my settlements. I have mostly nothing back there to attack them with.

In terms of armies I still for the most part hold the advantage, but with the arrival of the Oda armies I am going to have to win some awesome battles to not lose Kyoto and a bunch of territories.

So, TL;DR, I went from top of the world to barely being positive in income in the span of 5 turns....

Are you playing it on normal? Also, are you playing a full-length, medium, or short game (I forget what the categories are exactly). That sounds pretty brutal. I still haven't gotten very far in my normal/short game. Hopefully, I can put some time in tonight.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Are you playing it on normal? Also, are you playing a full-length, medium, or short game (I forget what the categories are exactly). That sounds pretty brutal. I still haven't gotten very far in my normal/short game. Hopefully, I can put some time in tonight.

Just Normal Long. The worst part was I was 2 turns from stopping my advances and consolidating, I didn't expect those Oda stacks to come out so late, after I had already extended myself a bit too much.

Kamakazi010654 wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Are you playing it on normal? Also, are you playing a full-length, medium, or short game (I forget what the categories are exactly). That sounds pretty brutal. I still haven't gotten very far in my normal/short game. Hopefully, I can put some time in tonight.

Just Normal Long. The worst part was I was 2 turns from stopping my advances and consolidating, I didn't expect those Oda stacks to come out so late, after I had already extended myself a bit too much.

Yeah, in those types of situations, I usually go back a few turns. It's kinda cheating, but with long games, there isn't really a way to recover, and I don't want all of the time spent to go down the toilet.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Kamakazi010654 wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Are you playing it on normal? Also, are you playing a full-length, medium, or short game (I forget what the categories are exactly). That sounds pretty brutal. I still haven't gotten very far in my normal/short game. Hopefully, I can put some time in tonight.

Just Normal Long. The worst part was I was 2 turns from stopping my advances and consolidating, I didn't expect those Oda stacks to come out so late, after I had already extended myself a bit too much.

Yeah, in those types of situations, I usually go back a few turns. It's kinda cheating, but with long games, there isn't really a way to recover, and I don't want all of the time spent to go down the toilet.

yeah....my last save is like 2 hours of gametime ago.

I think I can dig myself out of this one, or at least I have a decent shot if I can throw down some brilliant battles over the next few turns.

Kamakazi010654 wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Kamakazi010654 wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Are you playing it on normal? Also, are you playing a full-length, medium, or short game (I forget what the categories are exactly). That sounds pretty brutal. I still haven't gotten very far in my normal/short game. Hopefully, I can put some time in tonight.

Just Normal Long. The worst part was I was 2 turns from stopping my advances and consolidating, I didn't expect those Oda stacks to come out so late, after I had already extended myself a bit too much.

Yeah, in those types of situations, I usually go back a few turns. It's kinda cheating, but with long games, there isn't really a way to recover, and I don't want all of the time spent to go down the toilet.

yeah....my last save is like 2 hours of gametime ago.

I think I can dig myself out of this one, or at least I have a decent shot if I can throw down some brilliant battles over the next few turns.

Good luck! The main hard part is getting your finances back in order. Don't be afraid to disband some troops or ships if you have to. Your military/shipping expense can be overwhelming the economy after a crash like that. Make sure to look at the economy overview to make sure things look okay. If not, you can trim a few areas until things settle down.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Kamakazi010654 wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Kamakazi010654 wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Are you playing it on normal? Also, are you playing a full-length, medium, or short game (I forget what the categories are exactly). That sounds pretty brutal. I still haven't gotten very far in my normal/short game. Hopefully, I can put some time in tonight.

Just Normal Long. The worst part was I was 2 turns from stopping my advances and consolidating, I didn't expect those Oda stacks to come out so late, after I had already extended myself a bit too much.

Yeah, in those types of situations, I usually go back a few turns. It's kinda cheating, but with long games, there isn't really a way to recover, and I don't want all of the time spent to go down the toilet.

yeah....my last save is like 2 hours of gametime ago.

I think I can dig myself out of this one, or at least I have a decent shot if I can throw down some brilliant battles over the next few turns.

Good luck! The main hard part is getting your finances back in order. Don't be afraid to disband some troops or ships if you have to. Your military/shipping expense can be overwhelming the economy after a crash like that. Make sure to look at the economy overview to make sure things look okay. If not, you can trim a few areas until things settle down.

Yeah, I am down to about 1K a turn, I can't really give up the stuff that is making me overextended because it is the only thing keeping me positive on the income. Once I get things sorted again i plan to disband one of the stacks (about 2K per turn in expenses) and focus on building ships and killing some fleets that are blockading.

Kamakazi010654 wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Kamakazi010654 wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Kamakazi010654 wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Are you playing it on normal? Also, are you playing a full-length, medium, or short game (I forget what the categories are exactly). That sounds pretty brutal. I still haven't gotten very far in my normal/short game. Hopefully, I can put some time in tonight.

Just Normal Long. The worst part was I was 2 turns from stopping my advances and consolidating, I didn't expect those Oda stacks to come out so late, after I had already extended myself a bit too much.

Yeah, in those types of situations, I usually go back a few turns. It's kinda cheating, but with long games, there isn't really a way to recover, and I don't want all of the time spent to go down the toilet.

yeah....my last save is like 2 hours of gametime ago.

I think I can dig myself out of this one, or at least I have a decent shot if I can throw down some brilliant battles over the next few turns.

Good luck! The main hard part is getting your finances back in order. Don't be afraid to disband some troops or ships if you have to. Your military/shipping expense can be overwhelming the economy after a crash like that. Make sure to look at the economy overview to make sure things look okay. If not, you can trim a few areas until things settle down.

Yeah, I am down to about 1K a turn, I can't really give up the stuff that is making me overextended because it is the only thing keeping me positive on the income. Once I get things sorted again i plan to disband one of the stacks (about 2K per turn in expenses) and focus on building ships and killing some fleets that are blockading.

One thing that got me out of the realm divide crunch was looting every enemy castle I took, then sending in Metsuke to keep the angry population in check. You'll take a hit on honor but that can be overcome with either tech or the honorable character trait. The boost from looting kept me alive long enough to rebalance my economy.

Dude...why has no one said anything about the naval bombardment capabilities? Those things are awesome.

ZellbrigeN26 wrote:

Dude...why has no one said anything about the naval bombardment capabilities? Those things are awesome.

I don't think kamakaze has the expansion. I did post a picture of it, though. Yeah, it's awesome.

Well, I think my first Last of the Samurai campaign is screwed. Someone invaded my island before I had complete control of it. Then the remaining enemy island province ganged up with them on me. I'm going to have to start over. Ship battles are now back to the complexity of Empire, but at least they look cool. You pretty much have to fight them in slow motion. I'd say you could fight them on the battlefield if defending, but attacking is really hard. I failed miserably in an even battle. On the plus side, the ships are awesome!

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/j0y4xl.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/gTDYEl.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/KPbXQl.jpg)

Okay so I fought some really good battles, took care of the biggest issues I was having. and the current situation on the Main Island:

*Well, steam is having issues with my screenshots right now, so you are just going to have to use your imagination*

I finally got the three good territories that bottleneck there. So now my attention will turn to making sure I get my home island back and start dealing with all the bloody ships.

I don't have a screenshot of it but there are probably 20 fleets of 3+ ships just circling my island. I'm really not sure how to go about fixing that. Will probably have to make a fleet from the main island and try to mop up a few then guard one trade port (about 3000 gold per turn) until I can build more. One fleet will probably come close to bringing me down to zero.

On the topic of naval battles, I hate them. I tried really hard to get into them in Empire and Napoleon and I am just A. Not good at them and B. I just don't find them fun (possibly due partially to A) so at this point I pretty much just auto resolve all of them. I've never really been a huge navy player anyway.

Kamakazi010654 wrote:

Okay so I fought some really good battles, took care of the biggest issues I was having. and the current situation on the Main Island:

*Well, steam is having issues with my screenshots right now, so you are just going to have to use your imagination*

I finally got the three good territories that bottleneck there. So now my attention will turn to making sure I get my home island back and start dealing with all the bloody ships.

I don't have a screenshot of it but there are probably 20 fleets of 3+ ships just circling my island. I'm really not sure how to go about fixing that. Will probably have to make a fleet from the main island and try to mop up a few then guard one trade port (about 3000 gold per turn) until I can build more. One fleet will probably come close to bringing me down to zero.

On the topic of naval battles, I hate them. I tried really hard to get into them in Empire and Napoleon and I am just A. Not good at them and B. I just don't find them fun (possibly due partially to A) so at this point I pretty much just auto resolve all of them. I've never really been a huge navy player anyway.

Yeah, unless you are defending, those sea battles are downright painful. They are way more difficult with the expansion. I'm going to make sure I pick my battles carefully so that I have overwhelming forces and auto resolve. I can't wait for an even battle where I'm defending, though. That could be pretty fun to set up your ships so that they obliterate anything that comes their way.

You need me there then. I am a master at the sea battles, A regular Capt Aubry. If I do say so myself. I like naval battles. I am also a napoleon when it comes to land troops. Give me some arty and I am set with a smaller force. I love RTS games...they are so much fun.

Doesn't auto resolve frequently cost you more in terms of losses than just playing out the battle and crushing them?