Starting position discussion

[Cecil XIX]

This is a great video, not only because of what it says it says explicitly but because of what you can figure out by looking closely. When first starting out you can only bring five units to battle. The first four are Bow Ashigaru, Yari Ashigaru, Loan-Sword Ashigaru and Light Cavalry. The fifth is determined by your choice of starting province, being either Satsuma, Tosa, Kai or North Mutsu(?). The video makes explicit that those who choose Kai get to recruit Yari Cavalry right off the bat, and in-game description says that it's possible to pursue a strategy of targeting specific provinces in order to quickly acquire the ability to bring other cavalry regiments to battle as well. Based on the icons on the map, I'd guess that starting at Satsuma gets you Yari Samurai, Tosa gives you Bow Samurai, and North Mutsu gets you Katana Samurai. This is likely to be the primary consideration as to where people want to start.

But on the other hand, your starting position also determines what order you can get new units. Kai borders North Shinano, where you can get Yari Samurai. You can see that North Mutsu borders North Dewa and South Mutsu, which have Bow and Siege icons, respectively. Satsuma borders a Swords province, while Tosa borders a Spear province. So you might like spears best, but if you're an old-timer you can start in Tosa and get Yari Samurai (or maybe you can get a different unit in Awa?) and have just Archers and Yari Samurai like a good starting Shogun: Total War army.

It's mostly conjecture at the moment, but has anyone else given any thought as to where they'll begin their campaign of conquest? I know I'm going to start in Kai and head on to Echigo, but the more I think about it the harder it is to decide whether to move quickly through North Shinano and gain access to Yari Samurai or to take the scenic route through Musashi and Kozuke. Musashi has a retainer that decreases enemy ammunition by 10%, while Musashi has a retainer that gives +1 morale to melee infantry.

[TosaInu]

A province in STW I very much like to have was Shinano.

[DthB4Dishonor]

There are a lot of decisions to make that could potentially have long term ramifications. I just wish that more definitive information was out there. Thanks for the heads up though Cecil.

[AMP]

I would find it very annoying to swap units around like that trying to tweak out my funds just to get them all spent because they removed honor upgrades for the avatar system and gave nothing in return to correct left over funds aside from switching units until you have a perfect fit - no thanks

[t1master]

W0W meets total war? talent trees, gear?

[gollum]

Originally posted by t1master
W0W meets total war?

That's how it seems. From a marketing strategic perspective it makes lots of sense, but of course not the best for good gameplay etc.

[Swoosh So]

Not quite wow meets totalwar but somewhere inbetween more on the totalwar side :)
Its pretty good for new guys but does little for the veteran players but im glad that it should bring a wider community into play.
Shogun 2 feels more like stw1 or mtw1 than any games since then and for that im happy.

[gollum]

Its between the glass is half full and going to watch Rambo1 once more;

the same tough perennial existential question for TW mpers.

Right, i think its time for my yoga now. And a vallium.

[AMP]

Skill trees are nothing new in RTS games and the gear is just looks nothing else. It's not bad to pick what way you wanna have your general leadership, bow, melee, or hybrids instead of your old generic general.

[gollum]

In general there are games that are easy to learn and hard to master as mastering them requires increase of skill; and games that are difficult to learn but mastery with them ends with learning your way around them.

With the first type is more diffucult to attract the wider gaming audience because an increase of skill requires perseverance at th face of own noobinesh and dedication. The second type of game can work as a world that sucks you in, and be more addictive and that's all the more easy to do on the pc.

Skill trees aren't bad in their own right, but they make more difficult to balance the game, as you need to do so for every possible combo of skills in one army against another.

[t1master]

are those skill trees specific only to the campaign online? or does your general and his/her army acquire skill ups that will give you advantages over other players in the more traditional head to head mp games? i wasn't a big fan of being able to buy special units in the past two titles, not sure where i come out on the skill ups, depending on how they are applied to your account.

[Kocmoc]

are those skill trees specific only to the campaign online? or does your general and his/her army acquire skill ups that will give you advantages over other players in the more traditional head to head mp games? i wasn't a big fan of being able to buy special units in the past two titles, not sure where i come out on the skill ups, depending on how they are applied to your account.

The general acquire skills by playing online battles. Even while losing, you gain experience, by winning you gain more of course.
And you gain skills which give you advantage over other player. Some are very powerful, other less.

[AggonyDuck]

That said, the higher ranked generals also cost more.