Should I get STW?

[Martok]

S:TW is a simplified version of M:TW. The campaign map does not feature such things as naval battles, trade or directionality (no matter from which direction you attack a province, you always get the same map). The seven clans only differ in location: every clan can recruit the same units.

However, the lack of variety in units makes the battles very balanced and S:TW has a superior atmosphere: both on and of the battlefield. If you liked M:TW, I think it is worth a try.

Yep; what he said. I still play Medieval far more often, but if Shogun had been the the only TW game ever released and Medieval had never been made (heaven perish the thought!), I would probably be playing Shoggy all the time instead. In terms of atmosphere and sheer immersion, Shogun beats every other game I've ever played, period. You really *feel* like you're a Japanese daimyo trying to unite the country behind a single leader....

However, there is also a S:TW mod for M:TW called Samurai Wars. Since there is not much difference between M:TW and S:TW, you might download it instead of buying the game. If you do buy the game, take note of the difference between the original and the Warlord Edition (S:TW + Mongol Invasion). The latter is a more expanded version of S:TW, but I am told that the original without the expansion is more challenging and balanced.

I've been meaning to ask someone about that. Have you played it, Ludens? And if so, what are the main differences between it and regular STW? And where would I find the mod to download it--the Engineering Guild?

[Ludens]

I've been meaning to ask someone about that. Have you played it, Ludens? And if so, what are the main differences between it and regular STW? And where would I find the mod to download it--the Engineering Guild?

To be completely honest, I haven't. I have been wanting to download it for a long time, but at the moment I have very little time on my hands to play TW. I haven't even installed M:TW on my new computer. As I understand it, the game is as much like S:TW as they could get it, but with new features like naval battles, trade and V&V's. Puzz3D spent a lot of time balancing it and claims it is on par with S:TW 1.12. You can find the SW forum by clicking "Samurai Wars" (I provided the link in the previous post also, but it doesn't show up on the Christmas skin).

[Puzz3D]

As I understand it, the game is as much like S:TW as they could get it, but with new features like naval battles, trade and V&V's. Puzz3D spent a lot of time balancing it and claims it is on par with S:TW 1.12.

There is a forum here called Samurai for the STWmod for MTW/VI. Barocca made the mod which is a complete graphic and strategy map conversion of MTW/VI to STW, but the castles and models are still MTW/VI type. These will eventually be converted to Japanese castles and models. Most of that is done, but it could be a while before a new version is released since it's a backburner project now. You can play the mod in SP campaign or MP. The campaign is quite hard even on normal difficulty, but probably not as hard as STW v1.12 because the AI clans had unlimited money to spend in STW v1.12. I know first hand that the Takeda clan strategy that worked in STW v1.12 also works in STWmod for MTW/VI, but there are more clans in the mod than existed in STW v1.12. Also, as in the STW v1.12, you basically have a won game once you control about half of Japan. There are no geshia to turn things around late in the game, but barocca plans to add the geshia later.

STW v1.12 was the basis of the combat stats for STWmod, but some adjustment had to be made in the charge values of cavalry since charge was broken in STW v1.12, but is not broken in MTW/VI. I did numerous direct combat comparisons between STW v1.12 and STWmod for MTW/VI to make sure the fighing time and combat results for various unit matchups was approximately the same for both games. Unlike STW v1.12, HC decisively beat WM in STWmod for MTW/VI because that was supposed to be how it worked in STW v1.12 but didn't due to the broken charge. The anti-cav spear bonus is also a bit stronger in STWmod than it was in STW v1.12 which makes the AI more dangerous since it tries to matchup its spears with your cav.

A few units from STW/MI have been incorporated into STWmod for MTW/VI. They are the kensai, battlefield ninja, naginata cavalry and crossbow units. The hatamoto, a highly skilled 10 man cavalry unit, is used for all generals. The crossbows might be a little too strong, but I'd like feedback on that from players before changing it. The kensai and battlefield ninja might also need adjustment. They are extremely difficult to balance in this system. The guns are slightly different with the weakest gun being equivalent to the musket in STW v1.12, and the stronger gun being 50% better. We did this because guns were a bit too weak in STW v1.12. Guns do not fire in rain as was the case in STW v1.12. There is enough periodic rain during most battles to cause the guns to stop firing, although, you don't get the full scale weather effects of STW v1.12 which were very nice.

You may have trouble getting STW v1.12 or STW/MI working under WinXP + SP2. I've tried both of these under WinXP, and with either of them the campaign eventually freezes when I hit end turn. I've tried a lot of things, but haven't been able to fix the problem. You're much better using the STWmod since it works fine under WinXP, and from my experience playing both games the mod gives you a similar campaign experience as the original game. Multiplayer has a very high quality gameplay in terms of balance. In STWmod, we used two different but similar sets of units for SP and MP so that the morale level of the units could be independently optimized for SP and MP. We also modelled the ranged units in MP as their honor 1 equivalent rather than honor 2 because that's closer to how the community used ranged units in MP. This kept the gameplay closer to the original gameplay, although, anyone who has played STW v1.12 and STWmod for MTW/VI will noice that units rotate much slower in STWmod for MTW/VI than they did in STW v1.12. There is no way to change this in MTW/VI to make the units rotate faster.

The mod is available in my sig. You need STWmod for MTW/VI and the Samurai Wars 10b stat. I think CBR made an installer with everything in one download, and it's a much smaller download as well, but I don't have a link for that.