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87 of 89 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Shogun Total War, July 11, 2000
I have been playing Shogun for almost three weeks now. I've read most of the reviews and will comment on some of the common themes and add my own review.Shogun is an RTS game, and it is done better than Gettysburg or the Close Combat Series. The battle segments are well done. I've read that some people had issues controlling there troops. First, the company promo states that the troops will act independently at times. Troop management in a battle is chaotic at best. Lose your general and your troops will certainly rout. I have also read comments from people complaining about a lack of strategy guides. There isn't a lot in the manual, but the game DOES allow you to group troops and form them into one of 9 formations. Also, before you begin a battle as the attacker, right click on the leader icon for 7 different battle formations. Shogun is a combination of Risk and an RTS. In the strategic overview segment of the game, you build your empire by occupying provinces, building castles and other buildings to produce better troops. This takes time, and while some people complain that the economic element of the game is rather simplistic, it is still a challenge to build a large empire and equip it with quality troops. ECONOMIC STRATEGY I am in the middle of a campaign and there are only myself and another daimyo left. I was totally caught off guard by the quantity of his troops. I doubt I can hold him off. I thought I had prepared well, but he outnumbers me by at least 5 to 1. It takes a lot of koku, and even more time, to build superior troops. The great decisions you will face are to wait and build more troops, or to take that neighboring province since the enemy general is rated poorly. And watch out for alliances. Yes, I have agreed to an alliance only to be betrayed the next turn. I have also had allies show up on the battle field and assist me in a battle. I also made the blunder of invading a province who was allied with a large army, who promptly attacked me. Be wary. BATTLE TACTICS It will take a few battles to get use to using 16th century troops, but you don't have to be a real general to figure it out. Attack enemy archers with heavy cavalry or sword bearing troops. Watch as 80 enemy archers disappear in a matter of minutes! IF you have good troops, don't be afraid of defending with less troops than the enemy. Archers can be dealt with severely. PROS AND CONS PROS The game may be conceptually simple, but actually attempting to build a large empire with a great army is not easy. That simplicity makes the game easy to work with. The choice to have the computer solve a battle for you can save time, especially if you know your troops will win. The battles are fun, but battles with over 1,000 troops per side can be stressful to manage, use the pause button. Ever attempt a bridge crossing using 16th century troops. What a mess! CONS Rebel troops will cause uprisings, but I haven't been able to create a rebellion in an enemy province, while my enemies have done so in my provinces. It can get tedious to fight the same battle on the same ground four turns in a row. But I've seen that happen in other games. The manual has errors, but who actually READS a manual? Trial and error is the only way. If you have a good grasp of tactics and strategy, you can win. You'll need a ton of memory and a fast processor to play fast. OVERALL Sure, there are some areas where the game could be improved, but that's the nature of all games. What you DO get is a game that gives you a large challenge, try to dominate Japan. YOU control your expansion as you expand into other provinces, YOU control what troops to build; archers, cavalry, swordsmen, YOU control the quality of your troops and YOU control the battles. What more can a gamer want? Shogun, despite some minor flaws, does deliver a complete concept of a game which actually works. I've played a lot of games and I doubt you'll find a game that will keep you at the keyboard as long as Shogun will.
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