Takeda 2

[nokhor]

i was interested but i believe the developer was not distributing to the north american market. at least not for the last couple of games they've developed. does anyone know if that has changed? and i think i couldn't d/l the games either.

[edyzmedieval]

I played Takeda 1 and I think it was much more difficult than STW. You only focused on military, and the economics part was left out.

Battles were much harder in the game. Can't wait for Takeda 2!!!!!

[Aurelian]

I think that Takeda was a cruelly overlooked little gem. It was pure battlefield simulation... there were no real strategic choices to be made... but the game led you through a series of well-designed battle scenarios. I always thought that the Takeda system cried out for somebody to take its essentials and drop them into a well-designed strategic game.

A few details:

Formations were much more important than in TW. Before battle you chose one of 16 army level formations such as "the Dragon", "the Snake", "the Spear", etc. Choosing the right formation could be critical as each implied a drastically different strategy. Reorganizing your formation during battle was sometimes possible, but risky. The scale of the battlefield was smaller and closer than in TW.

Within the overall army formation, your forces were composed of 12 divisions, each composed of four battalions that were arrayed in a chosen tactical formation (line, concave crescent, converse crescent, diamond, or wedge) that strongly effected the combat capabilities of the unit. Each division could be composed of spearmen, swordsmen, archers, cavalry, or musketeers.

Unit leadership was important and introduced a RPG note to the system, as you tried to utilize your best generals for key roles during the battle, and hoped that they would improve over time (much like TW).

One of my favorite touches was a 'war drum' key that you could beat at tense moments during the battle to provide temporary morale bonuses for your troops.

Overall, the game was a great battle simulation and gave you a very realistic amount of control over the situation. Planning your formation, and which leader took which role was key. Unlike the sometimes overly long battles of TW, with their straggling reinforcements (that I love anyway), Takeda battles were sharp and had a definite objective. When the enemy general's standard on the other side of the battlefield fell, his army would flee the field.

The only real downside to Takeda was its replay value. Unlike TW's infinite replayability, Takeda took you once or twice through a series of set-piece battles. Still, it's worth playing if you can get a cheap copy somewhere.

Since it looks as if Takeda 2 has introduced a strategic system to the excellent combat model, I'll certainly try it out.