The reason Empire and Napoleon have no presence here has a lot to due with their poor reception, I'd imagine. I don't think a game using Shogun 2 would have that problem.

The biggest problem is that Shogun 2 gives you the fewest generals of any TW game to date. I think allowing characters to roleplay as agents is essential in this regard. My experience is that agents don't die as often either, which is helpful. Another thing we should consider is allowing players without avatars to fight battles as Captains, or whatever they're called. I don't know if their names change as constantly as they did in RTW/M2TW, but if they did it would probably be best to see who's interested in playing a Captain, then choosing randomly since they'd be no IC info to base the decision off of. Alternatively, if people were roleplaying characters that didn't exist in game, we could send them to the captain as a sort of military liaison to justify having them play the battle.

There's a benefit that's almost as big though: The game let's you choose the heir! This gives the succession disputes the chance to be deadly serious, which would be a lot of fun! Another thing to consider it is giving the four commissioners powers in the rules, and allowing the Daimyo to appoint commissioners even if there aren't enough generals in the game. The bonus the commissioners give suggest their powers:

  • Commissioner for Warfare - Recruits military units
  • Commissioner for Supply - Directs reinforcements
  • Commissioner for Finance - Determines tax rates and exemptions
  • Commissioner for Develop - Approves all construction


We have to fine tune the balance of power between them and the Daimyo, but I think it could really pay off.

Anyway, I'd certainly jump into a Shogun 2 RPG as soon as it was announced.