Shogun animation sequence ???

**General Malaise** · 06-18-2010, 01:15

This animation looks like one hero/general attempted to initiate a duel with another and ended up losing. How the one in black seems to try to walk away or avoid it only makes sense in that light. Although the dueling aspect of samurai warfare ended around the first Mongol Invasion I'm okay with this if it opens up new strategic elements, like having an enemy army's morale drop if it's commander or hero refuses or loses a duel, although the effects of refusal should be complex. I also hope the stat for success in single duels is based off how many men your hero or general has actually killed in combat and duels and not his command stars. Otherwise it's going to be very easy to exploit this, not to mention commanding an army doesn't have anything to do with fighting one-on-one.

**antisocialmunky** · 06-18-2010, 04:16

Originally Posted by General Malaise

This animation looks like one hero/general attempted to initiate a duel with another and ended up losing. How the one in black seems to try to walk away or avoid it only makes sense in that light. Although the dueling aspect of samurai warfare ended around the first Mongol Invasion I'm okay with this if it opens up new strategic elements, like having an enemy army's morale drop if it's commander or hero refuses or loses a duel, although the effects of refusal should be complex. I also hope the stat for success in single duels is based off how many men your hero or general has actually killed in combat and duels and not his command stars. Otherwise it's going to be very easy to exploit this, not to mention commanding an army doesn't have anything to do with fighting one-on-one.

Ideally this would be like some sort of battlefield gentlemen.

PS. Isn't the way you use a katana usually to avoid touching swords?

PPS. I keep imagining how awesome it would have been to just have a random ninja kill the winner. Is this normal?

**Basileus** · 06-19-2010, 19:08

Sweet vid, im dying to get some more info on the game :)

**General Malaise** · 06-26-2010, 19:50

Just watched this again. Although it had some silly stuff in it, like the crossing of swords (which never happens if you're fighting for real to kill someone), one thing I did like was the demonstration of the trap-and-trip hand-to-hand technique.

People seem to not realize how much striking and grappling were a part of historical melee combat. They seem to think once you get a sword in your hand it's all smacking blades until someone gets cut. For the samurai especially the use of the sword would have entailed a lot of hand-to-hand techniques as the blade was meant to be struck at an opponents weak spot. Although, even in europe the historical use of the claymore and zweihaender type weapons involved a lot of grappling or tripping techniques, often with the blade itself which was why there was often a grip on on top of the hilt.

Anyway, to cut things short, I can't remember any TW game having soldiers trip with their polearms or crack someone in the face with the hilt of their blade, or kick their foes shield away, or even bash with their own shield, etc. So, I really hope the combat animations of STW2 include this sort of thing, or at the very least, the duels that are to be in have it.

**A Nerd** · 06-29-2010, 02:38

Do you think duels will have any player interaction? Or will they be dice-roll interactions based on traits the hero gains thru gameplay? How would one gain dueling status and/or reputation that might keep others from dueling from him for fear of said reputation or lose to him in a conducted duel? Reputation and/or skill might be gained on the battlefield or from someother 'less honorable' circumstances that I cannot quote for I know not how they would be gained. Perhaps he will have traits similar to generals in past titles that are gained thru gameplay or RPG like actions. I hope duels aren't conducted like in the Pirates remake or similar to dance dance revolution or guitar hero, I really dislike such mini-games! Dice-roll is fine as long as the animations like the one in this thread are included, not redundant and perhaps representaive of specific heros as far as dress and style go. But that might be asking too much.