Total War games...

[Puzz3D]

Overall, however, Shogun is IMHO the better game; it's probably the best and "purest" expression of CA's Total War concept.

It's the best balanced of all the TW titles -- no unit is overpowered,...

The guns are overpowered. You have to go back to original Shogun (the one in the red box) to get the properly balanced guns. The kensai also becomes unbalanced because the combat system was not designed to handle single man units. The battlefield ninja run rediculously fast, and have 100 ammo. The heavy cav has too much armor. The naginata cav have the same combat power as warrior monks but are cheaper. The original game had none of those units, and the programmer who designed the original battle system, battle AI and balanced the units did not work on the Mongol Expansion which introduced all these imbalanced units. The reputation of Shogun being the best balanced of the TW series was built upon the original version in the bright red box; not the one in the Eras Collection or the one called Warlords Edition or the one called Shogun Gold Edition which all include the Mongol Invasion alterations to the game. The original version also has the most difficult campaign because the AI clans have no limit on the money they can spend, and units take twice as long to train.