Total War Battles: Shogun announced

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Originally Posted by Eurogamer

Sega has unveiled Total War Battles: Shogun, a mobile spin-off of the PC real-time strategy series due for release on 19th April.

Shogun was designed by developer Creative Assembly's digital team from the ground up to make use of touch screen devices such as iPad.

It features a fully-fledged campaign mode and two-player multiplayer on the same tablet device.

The Total War gameplay CA is known for has been stripped down somewhat, but Battles retains the real-time nature of its big brother, and even includes unit animations lifted from the PC Shogun game.

The player starts on the left of the "lane", the opponent on the right. You must build structures and units on hexagonal tiles to defend and attack, using finger drags on the touch screen for placement and movement.

There's resource gathering, experience gain and troop upgrades to sink your teeth into. CA said the campaign features around 10 hours of gameplay set in the world of Total War: Shogun 2.

In multiplayer, player one holds one side of the tablet, player two holds the other. Both drag and drop units onto the battlefield until one general is defeated.

The iOS app is designed to scale for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. CA will update the game with more content following its release next month.

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Looks interesting.

And some more info on Total War Battles: Shogun...

Total War Battles: Shogun follows the story of a bereaved young samurai whose hot-headed thirst for revenge quickly embroils him in a war for control of the Shogunate. Players will direct his campaign across Japan in a series of real-time battles, unlocking buildings and units and upgrading favored troops as they progress.

An enormous depth of tactical gameplay awaits, with a 10-hour plus campaign, bonus challenge missions and a shared-screen head-to-head multiplayer mode. Beautifully illustrated medieval Japanese visuals accompany remarkable audio in a single scalable app, ensuring the best possible experience regardless of device.

The game was built explicitly for the devices, and packs in a full campaign and a two-player mode. The battle system has been simplified a bit for the touch devices, but still relies on real-time strategy mechanics.

You'll be gathering resources, building structures, gaining experience, upgrading your troops, and attacking enemies on a hex grid, all with finger swipes and taps. The campaign is roughly 10 hours long. When you take on multiplayer, each of you will claim one side of the tablet and send units to attack your opponent. Creative Assembly is planning regular content updates after launch.

Build Your Economy - Deploy and manage your bases to generate resources and recruit units including samurai, archers, ninjas, and cavalry. Each victory adds XP to spend on building and troop upgrades that could make a decisive difference to your future battles.

A unique take on real-time battles - Total War Battles introduces a new real-time battle system that feels both familiar and fresh. The hex battle maps allow for natural unit movements and deeps strategy. However, as followers of “Bushido” code of conduct, your units can never turn back – this twist of classic RTS gameplay adds tension and intensity to the action, making each victory even more rewarding.

Universal app – this IOS app is designed to scale its appearance for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, which mean s Total War Battles takes complete advantage of the iOS device that it’s installed on.

Designed for Touchscreens – Drag and drop buildings and troops, swipe across the battle map with a flick, and pinch to zoom in and out.

1vs1 multiplayer – Play against a friend in real time on a single device in three different Multiplayer modes

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I'm not so sure about it. I think that it will be too dumbed down to appeal to any Total War gamer for any amount of time. Whilst I applaud Creative Assembly for trying something new, I don't think that it will last too long; just like most other iPad apps - Temple Run anyone? - I think that it will be interesting for a couple of hours but it will soon peter (spelling?) out.

The game is now out for ipod and ipad. You can see a video of it in action here. The video is over 15 minutes long and contains the intro and earliest levels. The animations look like scaled down versions of the ones from Shogun 2. The music and sound effects are definitely taken from dear Shoggy.

Did anyone buy it?

EDIT: Found the official trailer. Looks pretty interesting.

Seems like an interesting adventure/strategy mix. Clearly meant for casual gaming during commute times and such.