Great moments from the original game

[hoom]

I thought it might be worthwhile having a thread where us old-timers can relive some of the great moments we experienced in STW.
Might help some of the new guys who haven't played the old games & don't think that a Japanese setting can be interesting.

For me probably the greatest was playing as one of the Eastern factions (Uesugi?).
I'd badly lost one of the early critical battles & had been unable to rebuild enough force to counter my foes' concentrated army.
I was forced all the way back to my last castle, with only my depleted Daimyos' guard & a handful of battle-worn Samurai (a few Archers + a few more Yari, maybe 20 total) left after an initial failed assault.
Fortunately the enemy decided he didn't need to send in his whole force to finish me off & only sent in about 4 full units with the bulk of the conquering army redeployed, presumably to other fights.

My Daimyo & his last loyal friends stood at the gate watching the enemy approach.
Rather than holding back to be dishonourably slaughtered in the castle yard, they resolved to go out in a last glorious charge like Itagaki at Toeizakayama.
They rushed down the hill towards the advancing unit of Yari Samurai, outnumbered nearly 10:1 just by this unit let alone the other units following behind.
At the first clash my charging Samurai cut down several of their foes, not surprising since they were veterans of several battles and were charging downhill against green recruits.
The fight continued with more & more of the foes falling, at least we will kill some of the honorless curs!

Suddenly the enemy began to waver, a few more fell and they turned tail, running from the death-charge.
They won't stand and fight, so onto the next bunch, this time some Ashigaru. After several of their first rank were chopped down, the remaining peasants turned & ran for their lives!
On down the hill towards the 3rd unit my men charged. These Yari Samurai also green, were already startled & their formation disrupted by their fleeing predecessors. They didn't stand long against the wildly swinging blades of my men.
The rest of the enemy joined the rout. Victory! From a charge to sure death!

My castle was saved for the moment but my enemy still controlled the countryside.
His numbers were thinned and my small force had lost only a couple (albeit that was a big percentage of my force!) while gaining substantial notoriety.
I immediately sallied out and was able to scare them from my province before fresh reinforcements could be sent in.
With the province in my control I was able to press some of the peasant population into arms to stabilise the situation then hire some Samurai and push out into neighbouring provinces and sweeping West, eventually even ascended to the Shogunate and control of the whole of Japan!

[Kagemusha]

I think one of the greatest moments for me was fighting in Shinano with a depleted Takeda army against a combined Imagawa and Hojo force. I had my forces of the left side large hill and Hojo forces were in front of me, while Imagawa moved behind me. I remember raining down arrows at the enemy while my yari samurai and cavalry charged again and again downhill, while i really could not give pursuit as i would have been overwhelmed from other side. Once i ran out of arrows my samurai and horse archers joined the fray as my yari sam and yari cav was melted down. I lost my daimyo in that battle, while killing both enemy daimyos and somehow i scraped a victory with my remnants, mostly samurai archers in the end. I really felt for my Daimyo, dying in one of those desperate last charges. This one one of the most memeorable TW moments ive had.

[Tera]

Although the SP campaign was wonderful, multiplayer events were for me the most memorable.

I remember taking part in the first ever multiplayer campaign between clans organized, if I remember correctly, by the Grey Wolves. It was a huge undertaking considering the Internet 10 years ago was quite different and everything except battles ran from a free ezboard. Excitement and fever ran high as the roleplay between clans was extremely intense. Alliances, revenge, backstabbing, honour, loyalty... All the ingredients for a very memorable experience.

After that all the CWCs and CWBs which continued for years to come.

[Kagemusha]

Although the SP campaign was wonderful, multiplayer events were for me the most memorable.

I remember taking part in the first ever multiplayer campaign between clans organized, if I remember correctly, by the Grey Wolves. It was a huge undertaking considering the Internet 10 years ago was quite different and everything except battles ran from a free ezboard. Excitement and fever ran high as the roleplay between clans was extremely intense. Alliances, revenge, backstabbing, honour, loyalty... All the ingredients for a very memorable experience.

After that all the CWCs and CWBs which continued for years to come.

Tera I think if you like such things you should take a peek here.We are just talking of reviving it, or starting a new one:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...active-History

[A Nerd]

Nothing could beat the feeling of seeing your depleted army standing amidst a sea of dead as an audatious enemy routs the field shortly after the enemy diaymo has been killed. A victory attained with environmental bonuses such as hills, trees and rock outcroppings. Mangaging melee thru concentrations on morale, fatigue and ammuntionion levels. Followed by the satisfation of the risin honor levels of your soldiers and the carion birds circling the battlefield. This army has sucessfully taken this province and will have the opportunity to do it again in a few turns once reinforcments have arrived, to further reap such satisfactions from the expansionist delusions of a dishonorable enemy. Such pleasures were endless in STW, this post only notes but one. I am eager to see if such pleasantries are awating the clan of my choice in the upcoming title!

[Monk]

Trying to attack uphill in the snow, late in the campaign against a well fortified Oda force. Could barely see three feet in front of me because of the snowstorm and when my men hit the top of that hill it was like a punch in the gut. I remember starring at the "losing... losing slightly..." tabs as they flipped back and forth, my vets trying desperately to hold their own in the freezing cold against all odds, but it wasn't to be.

The losses I inflicted on the Oda were enough to seal their fate however as their Daimyo was killed. The event paved the way for my first (and only) completion of the main STW campaign a few hours later, seeing the statue of my daimyo amongst modern day Japan made it all worth it somehow.

[Wishazu]

The intro to the game really helped set the tone and atmosphere of the period. The ending scene also made me feel like I had actually achieved something, unlike any of the other TW titles. Also, like Monk, I loved seeing my factions statue standing in the centre of modern Tokyo.

As for actual in game experiences, far, far too many to mention any particular moment. STW was and still is, the greatest in the series.

[Tera]

Tera I think if you like such things you should take a peek here.We are just talking of reviving it, or starting a new one:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...active-History

Looks nice Kage, hope that in the heat of the STW2 announcement you'll be able to revive something like that. How many of you tried to re-install original STW since the announcement? ;-)

One more thumbs up for the final cutscene of your statue in modern day Japan. The text, the delivery of the voice over and above all the soundtrack really made it stand out.

[Kagemusha]

Looks nice Kage, hope that in the heat of the STW2 announcement you'll be able to revive something like that. How many of you tried to re-install original STW since the announcement? ;-)

One more thumbs up for the final cutscene of your statue in modern day Japan. The text, the delivery of the voice over and above all the soundtrack really made it stand out.

I have it installed as we speak. Re installed it once again last October.

[General Malaise]

Although people often complained geisha were overpowered (and I agree), I really appreciated how it was possible to essentially win the campaign through espionage which, IIRC, was pretty rare at the time in stategy games. There were many campaigns, including the nostalgia one I fired up and just finished yesterday, where there ended up being two huge factions left, often split right down the middle of Japan on either side. Rather than getting stuck in a war of attrition it was possible to incite rebellions in their provinces with shinobi to break up their faction or, if it was late in the game, wipe them out completely through assassination of their leaders. Most other games of the time, and still today, force you into grinding mop-up battles making the end-game rather anti-climatic. Once you wiped out the other faction though, it felt pretty damn glorious to quite easily stomp through the scattered now-ronin and conquer the map.

I hope with the remake that they open up even more options for victory, like say trade sanctions and economically crippling your foes into submission or incapacity, or using diplomacy to force them to accept terms of surrender/acquiescence. Rome and on's endgame has been particularly crappy, as not only does the AI never accept a ceasefire you get stuck in tiresome siege battle after siege battle to finally win.

EDIT: Of course I should also add that it was equally cool that you had to be deathly afraid of and concerned about high level agents yourself in Shogun, whereas in Rome and on you have nothing to really fear from assassins or spies. If they do add a terms of surrender option I suggested above to the remake I hope they make sure the AI uses it as well so say, if you are badly losing and reject terms your people's morale/output is lowered or they outright rebel. What really made Shogun was the AI and whatever they do they have to be certain that the comp can handle it instead of tacking features on which were the post-Shogun/Medieval game's problem.

[A Nerd]

A nice option diplomatically speaking to end a factions existance might be that once they accept surrender, ceeding what is left of thier holdings to your clan, thus eliminating the tedium of conquering the rest of thier broken armies. In feudal Japan that might be better than them becoming a vassal, if total domination is the victory condition.

[General Malaise]

There was some minor flexibility to the victory conditions in Warlord, like 40 of the 60 provinces, eliminating all your rivals, or staying alive for 70 years. Hopefully there will likewise be some flexibility here too. Making everyone your vassal without necessarily eliminating them I'd like to see as an acceptable option. Especially if they are adding "RPG" elements you should really be able to define your style of play, which is also good for replaying things. I never felt the need to replay any TW campaign beyond shogun because it's always "take the whole map" and nothing else which, ironically, really only makes sense in Shogun anyway.

[A Nerd]

Shogun was set up beautifully as far as map size and expansion and interaction between the clans went. I really hope they can recapture this in Shogun 2.

[hoom]

Ahh yes, rebellions!

One time I had about 2/3rds of the map under my control when I made a rash move, sending my Daimyo on a behind-enemy-lines sea attack.
End turn.
Rebellion! Rebellion! Rebellion! etc.
My empire fractured into a dissolute patchwork, about 1/3rd stayed loyal surrounded by & intermixed with rebel provinces and in many cases powerful rebel armies that had been my border garrisons/reinforcements.
I had to fall back into a corner of the map with only a handful of provinces, gradually fighting my way back to power while the far reaches of my former empire were carved up by the remaining Daimyos.
A hard grind & several centuries later my descendants were able to gaze upon the giant statue of my triumph.

[Tsar Alexsandr]

What a fun game. XD I have many memories attached to it. I'm sad that my disc no longer works, otherwise I'd still play it.

I remembered experimenting with different armies, and building different ones for specific battlefields and for specific enemies. As Shimazu, who I mainly played, the No-Dachi samurai were a staple of mine. I enjoyed sending my signature troop type into my enemies ranks as well. No-Dachi swordsmen had the bite of a Warrior Monk, only without the Warrior Monk's defense. A well placed charge of my fanatical warriors armed with the No-Dachi though did wonders. XD

I remembered planing on using either bows of guns depending on weather, waiting for winter or summer to maximize the effect of my missile troops missiles. :D

One of my favorite battles happened against Uesugi! Uesugi's main fief in Dewa had a massive hill in the center. And his bonus for archers meant that he'd maximize the firepower of those archers to the fullest extent. The Yumi bow's amazing range, paired with the hill spelled disaster for my first army. After a long series of steamrolling victories, I had found defeat at the hands of Uesugi. And I had learned my lesson as well..... Samurai archers are a deadly warrior. Calmly, I rebuilt my army, this time, I would take the hill before he did, and bring more archers to counter his. I took the hill too! I split Uesugi's forces and had him on the run. Fate seemed to be on my side. And then, Uesugi taught me another lesson. A lesson in flanking and Guerilla warfare. Carelessly, I didn't notice where his archers had routed too. But now surrounded by archers and wilderness men appeared and disappeared in the dense forests of Dewa. My men fell to the vicious counter attack, as I ruthlessly pursued my attackers. But I got too spread out, once again, Uesugi had defeated me at Dewa. The last time, these lessons in mind, I returned to Dewa. I made nearly the same preparations. I took the hill and used Yari cavalry to pursue the routers on foot. This time, I won. But ever since this battle, I've never underestimated the power of missile units and tactical movements. My previous love for swordsmen infantry and cavalry, combined with a respect, affinity, and eventual mastery of ranged warfare. Shogun Total war was the perfect starting place for me, and I can't wait to go back and try it again. :D

[Sp00n]

Although I played the SP game a lot and loved it my greatest memory’s of the first game are from the Multiplayer.

The music and design of the MP foyer was great, from playing main memories are the defeats, I’d not been playing fair by sitting on hills and ambushing from trees in my early MP experiences. One afternoon I played LinkSan on Totomi and got my ased handed to me in a blaze of destructive musket fire and aggressive flank assaulting, possibly my worst ever beating on Shogie.

Later on had another beating from LinkOctavian and got invited into Chain Clan the name of the link prefix and Linkspoon li was born. Learnt an awful lot in chain which had great players such as the ones shown and also Paolai later of Wolves, sadly it collapsed and some including me went into the shortly lived Euro Clan.

Another beating came from Magy named then as Subadai Lives I believe and the top ranked player at that time, I soon found out why as I had another beating at Totomi this time in the form of those cav archer armies he would torment you with.

I can also recall the 2nd (I think for the game1v1 tourny) which I was in and progressed to the quarters before having to retire at 4am due a GF rage explosion which gave RageBlaze a free pass and I think he went on to win.

Totomi the map of choice initially where the def would sit behind those central small rises, attackers could try and negociate attacking positions either side or head on. Recall the initial rush to the left hill that many tried to use. Later on we switched to the expansion and community created maps.

The time of MP creativity where people would regularly change armies and try out new things Amp I remember you doing this more than most as I never knew what would be waiting when the game loaded, battles in Shogun were rarely dull.

4v4 games over 56k juddertastic

The community was fantastic tbh as it grew with many great competitive and helpful players who became friends and enemies, it carried on over to MTW but sadly kind of collapsed in this form when RTW hit.

So many great clans and players at the time ill mention some and forgive if I missed anyone as its been 10 years but these are the ones I recall most.

Clans I played and remember the most

Grey Wolves – (Thanks guys for making the games so much more interesting had some fantastic battles over the years)
Takiyama – (current clan and great set of guys really hope we can reform if Shoguns good)
Chain later Euros – Chain had some great players
Aggony – Still Going sups
Kenchikuka - Still Going sups
Blaze (whatever happened to you guys?)
Fearful Ways (Elmo where are you? I’ve seen NCBeach and Amp but not you ).
Celtiberos

Notable Great players at the time of Shogun that I remember. So many different playing styles here.

FearAmp
Magyarkhan/Subadai Lives
Linksan
Paolai
Kocmoc
Yuuki
Most of the Blazes
Octavian
Darealruler
Tera
Jun
Vanya

Many more I forgot so apologies, amusing mentions go to Elmark, NCBeach, Jod, Lunchbox, Majordump and Lordted and also JstFeared (where are you :) we want you back) for the constant comedy moments.

It really was a great period for those who were there and remember it well,. and for me the greatest moment from it is the Community that made it.

if they recreate a fraction of the original MP I’ll be happy but don’t forget the foyer.

[antisocialmunky]

Fighting up a hill in a 2 vs 2 battle in campaign. That was plenty epic with around 3200 guys on each side.

[Forward Observer]

It's easy to sometimes view an older game through the rose colored glasses of time, but I do remember one moment that stands out to me more than any from Shogun. I played the game so much that I knew most of the maps like the back of my hand, but now I don't even remember the particular province or even which clan I was playing. ( There is something very logical and also reassuring having the same particular maps assigned to each province.)

Anyway, it was one of those large valley maps, and it had been a hard fought battle, but the enemy had finally broken. At that point I sent my Yari cavalry to run down as many routers as possible. As I panned my camera forward to watch, it just so happened that the camera speed was in perfect sync with the cavalry unit---and even though they were the unsophisticated 2D sprites of old---somehow with the hooves rumbling and the fleeing men screaming I just got so caught up in the moment that I imagined I was actually there witnessing it live on the battlefield. It was one of those rare--"Oh my God, I can't believe this is just a computer game" moments that we have all had at one time or another. There have probably never been more than a handful of these moments in my 12 years of PC gaming, but this was one of the best.

[ReluctantSamurai]

I have several...but I'll relate the one I lost.

Takeda SJ campaign...a number of years in.....only three or four clans left. Myself, as Takeda, obviously, and my main threat, Shimazu. I wanted Tosa for the ashi bonus for my teppo...I had just acquired guns and Oda still held Owari and was an ally.

I sent my best army led by my #1 son by sea as Tosa was very lightly defended, and made several other attacks on Shimazu lands hoping to draw off some of his accumulating hoards elsewhere. But.....since the AI moves last it spotted my force in Iyo and sent, in excess of 5000 troops, to defend (normal unit settings, so this is A LOT of units).

I thought of reloading, but decided, what the hell, I'll give it a go. That battle took almost three hours, real-time, to finally resolve and I just got worn down by numbers, in the end. My army was just too fatigued and too battered to fight off the last stack of reinforcements. #1 son went down fighting and over 4000 Shimazu samurai never got to go home and kiss the wife and kids ever again.



I was so @#$%-off, I sent two armies the next time and my 960 x 2 won the field this time.

But that was the next night because I was so fatigued myself from nearly 3 hours of micro-managing that there was no way I could continue. Imagine a PC game (other than perhaps Guitar Hero) that can tire you out

[Tsar Alexsandr]

XD It certainly had that ability! You can only take so many hard fights before you get tired out. My battles with Uesugi were like that. Pretty long affairs, where as most battles were quick. My battles with Oda in another campaign were epic. XD He was my ally, and together we defeated all the other clans. And soon... it was just me and Oda. He didn't hesitate to come after me... XD

Huge masses of troops fought in engagement after engagement. I came to the conclusion I must defeat his family line, as these wars would go on forever if I merely went province by province. And so in our final battle, reinforcements coming for both of us filled the field, easily making this one of the biggest battles I ever fought. At the end of the long battle, only the men of the Shimazu clan remained. The battle had been fought with every unit available to me and my enemy. But only my armies remained. It was a hard fight, and I felt great! The end of the game's video really made me feel like I accomplished something too. All that fighting was for those who would come after-wards, and the brave soldiers sacrifice would never be forgotten! :D

[hoom]

So time for another great moment from Shogun I think.

One of the really cool things with Shogun was that you could trace individual soldiers through multiple battles via the battle log files

In the Battle Summary screen at the end of battles Shogun listed the commander of each unit with a unit flag icon, both being selected from decent pools of names/flags so while you'd often enough get the same unit leader or the same flag, you'd rarely have the same unit commander and same flag.
If the unit commander was killed the game would select the highest Honour survivor of the battle (I think that is what it did?) then assign him a name (& new/existing flag?) as the new unit commander, displayed at the end of battle (or in campaign map eg if the commander was assassinated).
I fairly often would track units that distinguished themselves across multiple battles by their commander/flag/Honour.

The battle logs were text files that listed each unit by type & commander name, then each individual soldiers' stats.
The logs didn't list individual solider names but it did rank them by Honour at the start of the battle & recorded how many kills they got (including total kills across multiple battles?), ending Honour & if they were killed or not in the battle.

One time I tracked an individual from a unit through several (something like 6?) battles via the logs & note paper.

He was the highest Honour individual from a particular units' first battle.
I can't remember specific details of the battles in question but the unit definitely did very well in that first battle.

Each subsequent battle I was able to track him by his starting Honour including through at least two different unit commanders dying because either other commanders of the same type survived or the Honour makeup within the unit was distinct.

Eventually I lost track of him because another individual in the unit had finished the previous battle with the same Honour or the commander died or there was another unit of the same type, with similar Honour whose commander also died in the same battle & I couldn't tell who he was in the log of that battle.

My recollection is that he actually became the unit Commander along the way so I was actually able to honour his name
I kept those logs for several years but seem to have lost them (or forgotten where they are stored) somewhere along the way so I can't confirm that

[ReluctantSamurai]

The log files were really quite handy. While I never used them to track an individual, they were very handy in keeping track of friendly fire casualties. By trying different techniques while learning to use muskets, I could keep FF to a minimum especially when defending bridges. Good stuff.......

[hoom]

Hmm, thats right. Logs listed how many FF kills each individual got didn't they?

[Swoosh So]

Have to say i just loved the multiplayer community of stw and the great battles we would have every week.

Im sure ca will do a great job with stw and it will be a good game but it will need a multiplayer foyer for the mp community to flourish as the current steam system is crap (it really is) Even if they just stuck the original shogun foyer in the game would be bliss.

Fav memories... hmm theres way too many, mp campaign, 4v4s with friends, clan relations it was all great. I guess id have to add the mp chat foyer too since ive missed it badly in each totalwar game since shogun..

[NagaoKagetora]

So many hours of my life spent playing STW Multiplayer, the 3v3 and 4v4 battles on Totomi stick out as being lots of fun. And to think that back then most of us were still on 56k modem's :o things would freeze for what would seem like an eternity in the middle of a battle, but it never did spoil the experience too much (/rosetinted memories) ;)

[Wasp]

A very nice campaign I had is here. The thread evolved from a simple question to some sort of narrative, very fun.

[jodmeister]

Although I played the SP game a lot and loved it my greatest memory’s of the first game are from the Multiplayer.



So many great clans and players at the time ill mention some and forgive if I missed anyone as its been 10 years but these are the ones I recall most.

Clans I played and remember the most

Grey Wolves – (Thanks guys for making the games so much more interesting had some fantastic battles over the years)
Takiyama – (current clan and great set of guys really hope we can reform if Shoguns good)
Chain later Euros – Chain had some great players
Aggony – Still Going sups
Kenchikuka - Still Going sups
Blaze (whatever happened to you guys?)
Fearful Ways (Elmo where are you? I’ve seen NCBeach and Amp but not you ).
Celtiberos

Notable Great players at the time of Shogun that I remember. So many different playing styles here.

FearAmp
Magyarkhan/Subadai Lives
Linksan
Paolai
Kocmoc
Yuuki
Most of the Blazes
Octavian
Darealruler
Tera
Many more I forgot so apologies, amusing mentions go to Elmark, NCBeach and Lordted and also JstFeared (where are you :) we want you back) for the constant comedy moments.

It really was a great period for those who were there and remember it well,. and for me the greatest moment from it is the Community that made it.

if they recreate a fraction of the original MP I’ll be happy but don’t forget the foyer.

Hey.....you forgot me....the Ronin, without a can....JODmeister.

[jodmeister]

So many hours of my life spent playing STW Multiplayer, the 3v3 and 4v4 battles on Totomi stick out as being lots of fun. And to think that back then most of us were still on 56k modem's :o things would freeze for what would seem like an eternity in the middle of a battle, but it never did spoil the experience too much (/rosetinted memories) ;)

I remember when Lunchbox got his 1mb connection, he could host without the 56k judders.

JOD.

[Sp00n]

Hey.....you forgot me....the Ronin, without a can....JODmeister.

I remember you :) I forgot Vanya as well who I must of played 200 or more 2v2 s with apologies.

Also recall Lunchbox I also forgot Elite Clan

[Major Robert Dump]

SP was fun but MP was the best. Hours spent in the lobby goofing off and talking trash, only to always lose unless someone happened to be more intoxicated than me. Teamspeak with the Uglies was a hoot until they eventually muted my incoherent babbling.