Impressions of the demo?

[Drunk Clown]

I find it strange that I had (apparently one of the few) no problems with the gamespeed, then again I started with Rome.

That people have no time to react is only the first couple of times you play it. You'll learn to react faster. I mean my brother plays CoH and he can react fast as ****! If I try that game I fail miserably, but hey, I haven't put the time in it to learn it. Same goes for S2:TW, just play it a little longer, before saying OMG IT'S TOO FAST I CAN'T USE TACTICS. I know this because I hated M2:TW when I first played it; later loved it. Same goes for E:TW.

Btw, can't you turn off the shinyness? (Bloom) So, if you can, how's that a problem? :S

And how come you can't make formations? I can (at least in the second and third battle)

Now the castle siege; I also didn't see an opening, but atleast my cannon broke the damn gate. But first I had my Shinobi and thought, after hearing the advisor, that they could infiltrate the castle very easily and thus I sent them to the castle centre. First I noticed that they could hide themselves about everywhere, then I started moving them around and thought (seeing how the ran/walked) they hide too when they move (or stay low). So I sent them and they got stomped by archers. Now I'm asking myself how are shinobi effective if they can't walk in silence? It was really a worthless unit, they also died very quick in hand-to-hand combat. So what's the point letting them climb up and capture the centre if they can't even hold out against Ashigaru.

After the painful defeat of my shinobi, I wanted to make a mass attack; attacking them from all sides. Ashigaru trough the gate, samurai swordsmen plus the bow hero and the general to the left side of the castle, horsies to the right side (dismounted) and archers supporting the ashigaru (I left the monks behind, stupid).

Result: Samurai swordsmen died, horsies died, ashigaru fared pretty well although sustaining heavy casualties, archers stayed a bit more alive, and didn't want to risk my general. So after the samurai failed I sent my monks in and they beat the living **** out of those archers (don't understand why they had matchlock). Luckily I had a lucky shot with my cannons which killed a cavalry unit for 1/3, which probably helped. And soon after my monks had beaten the archers I won, although I should have died. Strange thing too was that the balance of the power in the upper right corner was in favor of me even though I sustained heavy casualties in comparison with the enemy.

Also those points on the map are lame (archery dojo, farmhouse, Buddhist temple).

My only concern so far is the originality of the troops between different clans. I know the Takeda (I believe) have better Cavalry, but only the word Takeda has been put in front of the standard names, which is utterly lame.

[Zarky]

My only concern so far is the originality of the troops between different clans. I know the Takeda (I believe) have better Cavalry, but only the word Takeda has been put in front of the standard names, which is utterly lame.

Then suggest a better option... This is Japan were talking about, not Europe. Different clans had different preferences over army composition, but any diversity or originality that the developers might implement, would mostly be made up. Unless we go to the Empire/Napoleon solution of having unique units you can only have one/couple of.

[Drunk Clown]

Then suggest a better option... This is Japan were talking about, not Europe. Different clans had different preferences over army composition, but any diversity or originality that the developers might implement, would mostly be made up. Unless we go to the Empire/Napoleon solution of having unique units you can only have one/couple of.

I have no knowledge of Japan whatsoever. Still without the noticeable difference I find it very hard to make the choice of choosing a clan. In previous Total War games my choice was based on recruitment of different units between different factions (e.g. I played Russia a lot in M2TW due to the Cossack units and the Boyar sons). But now, I have no idea which clan to pick because to me there's no big difference between the clans other than the location.

[quadalpha]

I don't understand how the second tutorial battle is giving people problems. You just chew through the monks in the forest and flank your cav to the left like the guy tells you to, right?

[Drunk Clown]

I don't understand how the second tutorial battle is giving people problems. You just chew through the monks in the forest and flank your cav to the left like the guy tells you to, right?

It's the third.

[Gregoshi]

I don't understand how the second tutorial battle is giving people problems. You just chew through the monks in the forest and flank your cav to the left like the guy tells you to, right?

I personally just wasn't getting the UI (user interface). There are enough differences from STW that I couldn't wrap my mind around it on the first go-round. For example, A and D are strafe left/right and I was mentally thinking rotate left/right. That messed me up a bit. I know Q and E to rotate, but I was expecting A/D so I'd naturally go to those keys when I wanted to rotate - then I'd remember and switch. Also, I'd select 2-3 units and then attempt to draw/drag out a formation for them at a location and the units would get de-selected - I had no problem in doing this with a single unit though. It was a series of issues like this that lead to frustration during the battle and clear thinking when out the window - like stopping all movement and consult help screen and UI control set-up before I continued.

In that second battle with my army in disarray, when I saw the monks in the forest, my cav units were right in front of them when the advisor said to send the naginata after them. I used the cav anyway, since the naginata where just too far way. By the time the cav finished routing the monk/guns, 1) I had lost track of the enemy cav coming around my left (again frustration and panic distracted), and 2) one of my cav was way off to my right near the edge of the map. It is not that the second battle was hard, it was just my inability to handle the UI. This problem followed through with the castle battle as well.

The problems I had with the demo were all squarely sitting in my lap, not the demo's.

[Forward Observer]

I liked the demo well enough that I will still pre-order the game. Being a TW fan, I would have done so anyway, and it would have had to have been pretty bad for me not to.

I was very disappointed with the problems that plagued Empire at release, but since this game is using essentially the same game engine and is more focused as Napoleon was, I have my hopes that it will be a more finished product this time around.

There's a few minor things I could quible about---like troops movement commands seeming to default to run, requiring an additional command change back to walk, or trying to get accustomed to minor camera and command control changes, but nothing I can't adapt or get used to.

On a related note, here's a tip that worked for me in the siege battle. Do not use the cannons to batter down the first gate, but instead use them to take out the one main arrow tower just to the right of the gate. This effectively eliminates the one constant and nagging source of arrow fire raining down on any of your troops as they approach the outer wall.

Since all your troops can scale walls, you really don't need the gate for access anyway. Besides, once you control the level the gate is automatically opened. You have more archers than the enemy plus you can resupply them if you take the village structure to the right front of your starting position, so eliminating this tower early gives you superiority in ranged weapon fire.

Of course I still lost archers trading arrows with the enemy, but having that tower out of the way simply made the first level of the fortress much easier to take with fewer losses.

The enemy general unit also kept running around on the first level, so they had completely routed from my missile fire before I had hardly stormed the same level. The battle was pretty much a given from that point on.

Cheers

[jean_s]

I have conquered all the provinces on the map :). It was quite cool. :)
Can't wait to try the full game :D.

[Nelson]

On a related note, here's a tip that worked for me in the siege battle. Do not use the cannons to batter down the first gate, but instead use them to take out the one main arrow tower just to the right of the gate. This effectively eliminates the one constant and nagging source of arrow fire raining down on any of your troops as they approach the outer wall.

Forward Observer fires for effect! No surprise there!

On my first siege battle the battery was out of ammunition before I had even surveyed the dispositions. Being used to Empires endless shot I thought the guns were broken in the demo. I have since learned to quickly redirect the guns as soon as the battle begins. I've found that there is ammo enough to wreck two towers and the front gate. Capturing the buildings however did not rearm the battery. The capture point was too far away I guess.

I haven't tried buring the towers with fire arrows but that works according to other posts I have read.

[NagatsukaShumi]

I have no knowledge of Japan whatsoever. Still without the noticeable difference I find it very hard to make the choice of choosing a clan. In previous Total War games my choice was based on recruitment of different units between different factions (e.g. I played Russia a lot in M2TW due to the Cossack units and the Boyar sons). But now, I have no idea which clan to pick because to me there's no big difference between the clans other than the location.

I suspect that before you pick the clans there will be a "blurb" telling you about them and what their specialities are, if not it will undoubtedly be posted via a guide on the Org.

Shogun is more about proving your the master of Japan above all others with more or less the same resources at your disposal, rather than Europe which is vast and allows hundreds of cultures.

[Monk]

I suspect that before you pick the clans there will be a "blurb" telling you about them and what their specialities are, if not it will undoubtedly be posted via a guide on the Org.

Not only that, but the game comes with its own encyclopedia (the entirety of which is in the demo) wherein each Clan has its own article. Strengths, weaknesses and a little history are all given for you. Some clans, like the Chokosabe, can recruit much better archers than others. This not only encourages a ranged play-style, but also a much heavier focus on the archery arts (technology).

If you play to your clans strength, not only in army composition but also in tech research, you can easily turn minor strengths into powerful advantages through the course of a campaign. I would assume this was the intention behind the design.

[Prussian to the Iron]

am i the only one who is still unable to use the encyclopedia? all i get is a black window where im assuming it would be.

[antisocialmunky]

It flashes black for me but works after a few seconds.

[knoddy]

am i the only one who is still unable to use the encyclopedia? all i get is a black window where im assuming it would be.

mine takes a good 20 secs to load sometimes until then its just a black screen be paitent and see if it loads after a while.

edit : also they just cant win can they. with previous demos people complained that they could never try out the camp map, so finally they put the campaign in the demo in a limited way. and people complain that its too limited. the demo is designed to wet your appetite, they clearly stated the reasons why it was so limited. Yes it sucks you can only play the historical battle and the 3 campaign battles. but if they had put all the battles in the demo would have been like 15gig and tbh who wants that. While alot of people have no internet limits there are some of us who do still have monthly data usage limits that we dont want to exceed with 1 game. thats the main reason i didnt buy online. i could have saved myself like 30$ if i preordered on steam, but i cant use half my data usage in one download.

i also find it funny that people complain that the ai is too slow to react and you have too much time etc etc in previous games. then complain that these battles are too fast paced. just further reinforces what i orignally said which is they just cant win.


what it comes down to is that the demo is exactly that, a demo. it isnt the final realease version, its desiged to give us a little bit of everything so we can get an idea what teh game is like. could they have done it better? yes. does it have bugs? yes.

all in all im impressed with the demo. its enjoyable and i think with the freeplay mod you can have a quite challenging little campaign.