Shogun: Total War

From Warpedia

Shogun: Total War
S1TW.jpg
Developer(s):

Creative Assembly

Publisher(s):

Electronic Arts
Sold Out

Director(s):

Michael Simpson

Composer(s):

Jeff van Dyck

Platform(s):

Microsoft Windows

Release date(s):

NA: 13 June 2000
EU: 16 June 2000
Warlord Edition
NA: 13 August 2001
EU: 2 November 2001
Mongol Invasion
EU: 8 August 2001
Worldwide: 24 August 2001
Steam remaster
Worldwide: 25 June 2015

Genre(s):

Grand scale turn-based strategy/real-time tactics

Setting:

Base game:
Feudal Japan, Sengoku Jidai period (16th century)
Mongol Invasion:
Feudal Japan, Mongol invasion attempts (13th century)

Mode(s):

Campaign, historical battles, custom battles, map editor, multiplayer

Rating(s):

ESRB: Teen (T) for blood and violence

Media:

CD-ROM
Steam (2015 remaster)

Minimum requirements:

Memory: 512 MB
Graphics card: ATI FireGL T2-128
CPU: Intel Atom Z510
File size: 955 MB
OS: Windows 95 and onwards

 
"Samurai warfare on an epic scale."
— Tagline.

Shogun: Total War (abbreviated STW, retrospectively known as Shogun 1 and stylized as SHOGUN: Total War) is the first installment in the Total War franchise and developed by Creative Assembly and published by Electronic Arts. Originally released on 13 June 2000, Shogun: Total War is set in the Sengoku Jidai period of feudal Japan and is not only the first instalment of the Total War franchise, but also Creative Assembly's first venture into the grand strategy genre. As a turn-based strategy/real-time tactics hybrid, Shogun: Total War gives the player control of a Japanese clan with the goal of the conquest of Japan and attaining the coveted title of Shogun. Announced in early 1999, Shogun: Total War was a high risk product for Creative Assembly, one that incorporated revolutionary 3D computer generated real-time battles in addition to a turn-based strategic campaign map that was added later in development to give context to the battles. Thanks to the success of the game, it spawned an entire franchise, which went on to not only cover different periods and locations of history, but eventually into fantasy with the Warhammer titles.

On 13 August 2001, the Warlord Edition of the game was released adding full multiplayer support. On 8 August 2001 (in Europe only), an expansion pack for the game called Mongol Invasion was released adding a new campaign, faction, units (also available in the grand campaign), historical battles, historical campaign, buildings and upgrades, a map maker and campaign editor, new multiplayer game modes and modifications to AI and game balancing: this expansion was paired with Warlord Edition shortly afterwards on 24 August of the same year. The game received a direct sequel on 15 March 2011 with Total War: Shogun 2, and a remastered and polished version of the game was released on Steam on 25 June 2015, with Mongol Invasion included.

Gameplay[edit | edit source]

Shogun: Total War is focused on the samurai warfare of the Sengoku Jidai period of feudal Japan, which historically lasted from the mid-15th century to the 17th century, with the scope of the game itself beginning in the mid 16th century and continuing into the 17th century. While real-time tactics form the core of the gameplay in Shogun: Total War, the game has a turn-based campaign to give greater context to the battles fought by the player. The player is given access to numerous different factions from which to control that each represent a warring Japanese clan from the time period and which each have their own unique perks that vary how they play. Each faction is headed by a daimyo that the player can control in battle, and their main objective is to conquer Japan through military might, diplomacy, espionage, trade and religion, with the ultimate goal of consolidating power across the country under a new Shogun. This conquest is managed through two modes of play: the turn-based strategy map, where the player manages their faction's finances, strategic movements, diplomacy, and other aspects of their clan, and there is the real-time battles: when two opposing armies on the field meet, the player can choose to personally lead the battle, transitioning to a 3D map of the respective terrain where the two armies engage each other until a victor is decided, returning you to the campaign map to face the result. Outside of battles, the player can use emissaries to conduct negotiations with other factions to establish alliances, spies to gather information on other clans, or ninjas to eliminate important targets. Later in the campaign, the player and other factions will be frequently approached by Catholic Portuguese and Protestant Dutch traders offering trade agreements along with gunpowder weapons which, if accepted, allows the faction to recruit gunpowder units for their armies.

Whilst overall having identical unit rosters, each faction has unique advantages, such as Imagawa recruiting more efficient spies, or Takeda recruiting higher quality cavalry at lower cost. Each faction as a result will play differently to the rest, with varying challenge and play style. Smaller, independent, minor factions are collectively known as Rebels and Ronin, a faction that is unplayable and hostile to everyone and cannot be negotiated with. Historical events can be experienced throughout the campaign's duration, such as the Ikko Ikki uprising and the spread of Christianity: other dynamic events such as earthquakes and typhoons can occur randomly to certain provinces, which can cripple the financial output of the region or damage its public order, adding additional difficulty for the player to have to overcome.

Outside of the campaign, the player can play individual historical battles to reenact famous military clashes of the Sengoku Jidai period. They can also play custom battles against AI, allowing the player to compose unique scenarios. If the player wishes a greater challenge than the AI, they can go online to play against other players, with an honor system much like the campaign where the player gains or loses honor based on victories and losses.

Campaign[edit | edit source]

The main campaign of Shogun: Total War places the player firmly in the midst of the Sengoku Jidai ("The Age of the Country at War"), an age of strife, political turmoil and constant warfare between the Japanese clans as they fought for supremacy over the right to the title of Shogun and overlordship over all of Japan. Of the hundreds of clans that existed throughout this period, a total of seven are present in the campaign and available to the player due to limitations with the game engine. As such, Japan is divided amongst these seven clans much more evenly than it was in reality, sometimes inflating their actual role than what it was historically. Upon taking control of a faction, the player is given access to a set number of provinces, a basic economy, some military units and a daimyo. From here, the player can utilize whatever means they see fit to bring about victory: the player can construct buildings in their provinces to improve economic output or to recruit specific units/gain access to new ones, allowing them to improve their economy to produce more each turn, as well as recruit more units to build up their military for fresh conquests. Alternatively, the player can send emissaries to seek alliances with other factions, or send spies/ninjas to weaken them or spy on them. The player starts off with a set amount of money, known as koku, and gains a certain amount each turn that can be increased through constructing economic buildings and capturing more provinces to add more sources of revenue, which additionally provides more money to further expand infrastructure and/or build-up your military forces. Each faction starts off with at least one castle, which can be upgraded as time goes on to more powerful fortresses which also give access to more sophisticated buildings as a result. Some buildings, such as border forts, allows the player to see further past their initial borders, and their line of sight is increased with every upgrade. The player can garrison each castle with a set number of units, with the number increasing as the castle is upgraded, and this allows the player to utilize the fortifications of the castle to defend their province during a siege. However, buildings take a certain amount of turns to build, with each turn representing a season, and three turns a year. The same goes for recruiting units and agents: some take longer to recruit than others.

Being a turn-based system, the player must make reactionary decisions based on events as they happen. The player can make decisions within a turn, and upon ending the turn, they watch the other factions make their moves before the next turn begins and control is returned to you. During these turns, armies are moved around like pieces on a board, with the player simply clicking and moving the army where they want it to go. If the army moves into a hostile province, this is considered an invasion, and upon ending the turn, a battle may or may not commence if the faction owning it responds or not. If the faction has no forces in that province, does not move forces to defend it, or has forces present but withdraws them over the end turn, then the province transfers control to you or the faction invading it: subsequently, if an enemy faction moves forces into one of your own provinces or the provinces of another faction, the same is true. If battle commences, the player can choose to auto resolve or manually fight the battle: auto resolve calculates a result based on the forces fighting and generates a randomized outcome, whereas a manual battle triggers a real-time battle to commence, giving the player control over their army to battle the enemy and decide the outcome. Sometimes, if the province has a castle, forces defending the province will retreat within their castle walls, and you can either wait them out over however many turns it takes for the castle to fall (which increases depending on the castle's upgrades) or storm it by clicking on your army and hovering it over the castle. Doing the latter will cause a battle to trigger over the end turn, and as per usual, you can choose to conduct the battle personally or automatically resolve it. When it comes to the auto resolve, numerous factors are taken into account: the composition of your army in terms of the types of units you've brought and their stats, along with the command rating of the daimyo leading that army (each faction only has one daimyo at a time, with several lesser taisho who serve as family members and potential heirs), and all of this is compared to that of the opposing army: while still randomized, the superior composition wins out. It is also possible for more than two factions to take part in one battle, and if an ally of the enemy or one of your allies deploys an army in that province, they will join you in the battle. You can also bring more than one army into a battle, which will take part as additional reinforcements that you can call upon if you need additional units after losing some of your own. Also taken into account in these battles is honor: this is the game's version of a veterancy system. Each unit will gain honor as it sees more combat, and the higher its honor, the more powerful it is in combat and the stronger its morale. The general of an army possesses their own honor rating, which rises and falls with victories and defeats. Should a daimyo/general suffer too many defeats in succession, they may commit seppuku. If the player loses a daimyo, they will be succeeded by their heir. If a faction has no family members or none that have come of age by the time a daimyo dies, either in battle, by old age or by assassination, then the faction is wiped out. A faction is wiped out either by losing all of its family members or by losing all of its territory. If the faction is wiped out and still possesses territory and/or armies at the time, those provinces and armies will switch control to the Rebels and Ronin faction. If they remain rebel, the remaining territory isn't conquered by other factions and/or a family member for that faction hadn't come of age by the time it was wiped out, the faction has a chance to return later on, but this is specific to non-player factions: if the player's faction is wiped out, the campaign is over and they must start again.

The economy in the campaign is the key to the player's mastery of it. The player starts off with a set amount of koku and a specific amount of koku earned per turn. As you end the turn, more money will flow in: however, the amount isn't static and is determined by player economic development and spending. The player is required to develop the provinces under their control as well as conquer new ones if they wish to expand their economy, allowing them to afford the more expensive aspects of the campaign. In order to make more money, the player can make use of agricultural, trade or mining buildings, each of which provide revenue for their respective industries, and need to be upgraded in order to produce even more cash: these also cost money however, and become much more expensive in their later iterations. However, mines require very specific provinces where metals can be mined, and if the player lacks these provinces, they must acquire them in order to mine: the benefits are high however, as mines produce a significant revenue stream when added up over time. Every 3 turns, at the end of a year, a harvest report is provided to the player: this report determines the effectiveness of the player's agricultural buildings for that year. If the player's harvest was poor, then the player earns very little koku from it, but if it was average or good, the player profits from it. The harvest's effectiveness is determined by the provinces you built the agricultural buildings in (some have poorer soil than others, while some are rich) and by disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons, which can cause damage to or simply destroy the agricultural buildings you built in the provinces affected. Recruiting units also costs money, and what's more is that each unit costs additional money per term in upkeep, meaning the player cannot just begin stocking up huge armies immediately and must play smartly, being only able to afford more armies as the campaign progresses and they build a stronger economy. Money can also be used to bribe individual armies into defecting, although things such as the honor of the army and its size can effect how much money will be required to complete the bribe.

Japan on the strategy map is meant to be symbolic of a general overlooking a map, planning their next move. The country is divided by provinces that are divided amongst the many different factions, and individual armies and agents are represented by pieces that can be moved across the board.

Agents are an important part of how the campaign is played, giving the player alternative options outside of just warfare. There are five types of agents throughout the campaign: emissaries, shinobi, ninjas, geisha and priests. Emissaries can be used to arrange alliances with other factions or to ask for a ceasefire with a faction you're already at war with. They can also be used to bribe other armies into defecting. Shinobi are spies, and when placed in a province, they will reveal everything within it, including buildings and exact units within an army in the province. Shinobi can also perform counter-insurgency in your own provinces, allowing them to fix public order issues should they arise. Ninjas are assassins, and not only can they be used to assassinate other factions' daimyo and taisho, they can also assassinate agents, including other ninjas. Geisha are very expensive and high level versions of the ninja that have a near-perfect success rate and can move across large swaths of the map in a single turn, but are only accessible through extremely high level buildings, which can be made in the later stages of the campaign. Finally, priests are Christian specific units that require the faction to be converted to Christianity and require a specific building to recruit. In addition to doubling as emissaries, they can also be used to convert the population of a province to Christianity. Every type of agent has their own honor as well, and the higher their honor rating is, the more effective and the higher the success of their missions are. Also, when a ninja/geisha is about to assassinate someone, a short video will play detailing their success or failure in their mission, with various different videos for different methods of assassination being used, as well as variations on them for a "success" or "failure" scenario. A ninja/geisha can fail their mission and still survive, but sometimes they will fail and be killed, which can make assassinations risky, but also worthwhile for taking out high-level targets the player would otherwise not want to face on the battlefield. Everytime the player is approached by another faction's emissary, or when the player is approached by one of the European traders, you are given the option to grant them an audience. Doing so will transition you to a throne room where the respective emissary/trader tells you their terms, and you can decide to accept them or not. For other factions, this will be asking for an alliance or a ceasefire, and for European traders, this will be offering a trade agreement. Accepting or declining will dictate their response, but they will leave all the same, and you click on the map on the table to return to the campaign map. Each agent requires a specific building to be recruited, with emissaries and shinobi being available early on, while ninjas, geishas and priests have varying prerequisites, with the geisha being available only very late in the campaign.

Somewhat early on in the campaign, the player will begin to be approached by European traders, starting first with Catholic Portuguese traders, and later Protestant Dutch. Both will offer trade agreements in return for granting you access to gunpowder units, which can significantly change how battles play out and the firepower the faction has access to. However, the Portuguese come with the caveat that the faction must convert to Christianity in return for these weapons, which can cause public order problems for the faction initially, and if not dealt with, can cause significant issues. The Dutch's offer comes with no such caveat, however. Access to units with guns gives the faction access to some very powerful units, and if used correctly, can outclass other factions in battle that might not otherwise have comparable units of their own. If the player does not wish to accept these offers initially, the traders will come back repeatedly in the future, giving you further opportunities to reconsider.

Before beginning a campaign, the player has access to a variety of customizable options in order to make the campaign itself more challenging and/or unique. Difficulties for the campaign are Easy, Normal, Hard and Expert, and this affects the aggressiveness of the AI on the campaign map all the way down to the difficulty of the battles themselves, giving the AI stat bonuses and forcing the player to play battles differently depending on difficulty. The player can also choose the starting date of the campaign, which will alter the number of factions that will be present/are available, their starting positions, how powerful they are, etc. Start dates include 1530, 1550 and 1580, and each of these dates will significantly alter the layout of the campaign map and the difficulty of certain factions and how they play. Shimazu in 1530 will be very different to Shimazu in 1580, and some factions, like the Mori, don't even exist on certain start dates. Ontop of this, the player can choose the victory conditions for their campaign: they can choose to conquer all of Japan, control most of Japan, wipe out the other clans or simply have their faction survive for 70 years: the player can also mix and match these, although some are obviously incompatible with others. This gives the player added flexibility in choosing how much they wish to be challenged, and how long they want their campaign to last.

Warfare[edit | edit source]

While the majority of the player's time in the campaign will be spent governing their empire, there will come a time where another faction will invade the player's provinces, or the player chooses to go to war on another faction, and battles will need to be fought in order to progress. The real-time battles form the core gameplay component of Shogun: Total War, and even when not fighting them in the campaign, there are historical battles, custom battles and multiplayer for the player to enjoy, all of which focus on fighting these real-time battles. Unlike the campaign, which involves turn-based gameplay, these battles occur in real-time and entirely focus on the usage of tactics to overcome the enemy. Here, aspects such as terrain, enemy army composition, the composition of your own forces, morale, unit strength and tactics all come into play and must be mastered in order to achieve victory. In campaign and custom battles, the player will utilize armies of their own creation to overcome an AI opponent, whilst in multiplayer the player will have to demonstrate their prowess even further as they go up against other players: historical battles gives the player control over pre-organized armies with the goal of reliving an historical event, with some of these battles offering more challenges than others.

A field battle taking place within the game's 3D real-time tactics environment.

There are three types of battles in the game: field battles, bridge battles and sieges. Field battles are the most common, and are fought on open terrain where armies will duke it out in the open. Bridge battles occur on a maps featuring rivers, with each side on the other side of the river, with only one bridge connecting them and allowing the armies to meet. Sieges are when an army assaults a castle, with the defenders making use of their castle's defenses in an attempt to repel the attackers, while the attackers have to clear out the defenders and capture the castle to be victorious. Bridge battles in the campaign only occur when two armies meet in a province with a river, and these are considered one of the more difficult types of battle due to the limited options the player has. A defender has the advantage in this situation, as the attacker must cross the bridge to reach them, effectively funnelling all of their troops into a narrow kill zone that can be used as a chokepoint and is very difficult to overcome. In these cases, a smaller defending army can overwhelm a larger attacking army, and high losses for the attackers is all but guaranteed. Sieges are not quite as difficult, but provide their own unique obstacles: the attacker must funnel their forces through a narrow doorway to reach the defending forces inside, who can use similar tactics to bridge battles to defeat the attackers. Field battles are less one-sided, with corresponding terrain being less predictable. Battles in the game force the player to utilize contemporary tactics and formations with what units they have on the battlefield to achieve victory, and in this respect, Sun Tzu's The Art of War heavily inspires the gameplay of the game, with the AI utilizing lessons from this historical source to fight you as well. Aspects such as terrain, weather, the morale and strength of units, the amount you have and so forth all come into play as factors when fighting a battle, with the player needing to utilize all of them masterfully in order to decide a battle or the extent to which it is won. Rain can effect the effectiveness of archers, whilst fog limits player visibility of the map, making it harder to spot an enemy army or keep track of it; things such as hills or woodland can also effect how battles play out, with an uphill defensive position being better than a downhill one, and armies being capable of hiding in woods to set up ambushes or surprise flanking manoeuvres. An attacker fighting downhill will be more effective than an attacker fighting uphill, as the former gets bonuses to attack due to momentum, whilst the latter suffers penalties to attack and can tire out more quickly.

In battles, there are attackers and defenders, and this will decide how the player is forced to react and how the AI behaves. Attacking AI will be aggressive and go on the offensive almost immediately, whilst defending AI will be passive and attempt to hold a defensive position. A defender placed on a hill as an advantage over an attacker attacking uphill, and a defender in woodland has a significant advantage, as cavalry charges and archer accuracy is heavily impacted in woods. Attacker and defender stances are important to consider when engaging another army in battle, creating additional difficulty depending on the player's desired choice of warfare. Another aspect to consider in battles is the importance of factors such as morale, general's status and stamina, which can drastically turn the tide of battle when taken advantage of or guarantee defeat if not managed properly. Units with low morale will rout and abandon the field, with the player losing control of them as they abandon the battle: tougher, higher quality units take longer to rout, while lower class units, like Yari Ashigaru, will rout very easily, and must be watched carefully. Stamina plays into morale as well, as well as the general effectiveness of a unit: fatigue takes place over the course of a battle, with intense fighting or prolonged states of activity slowly tiring a unit, until eventually it will be exhausted if left fighting too long. A unit will go from fresh, to warmed up, to winded, to tired, to very tired and finally exhausted: as this deteriorates, the unit becomes slower and much less effective, and also impacts his morale and how easily it can be routed: a unit that is exhausted will break almost immediately in combat. Finally, the status of a general is paramount to maintaining order of battle: if a general is killed, the morale of the entire army will collapse, and they become very easy to rout: the general also has the ability to rally routing units, giving them a chance to bring back units who have routed. Units that have routed also have a chance to return on their own if they are still intact enough: units who are too badly depleted will not come back, no matter what. There are many factors that impact these, and which can be mitigated: units being outflanked can cause their morale to waver, so countering these or having a strong flank will fortify their morale: stamina also effects morale, with exhausted units having very low morale, so a way to mitigate this would be to march your units whenever you can instead of running them around, and to give them chances to rest: a unit can slowly recover their stamina, although the worst their state, the longer it takes to recover. Marching units up a hill can also deteriorate stamina, so avoiding this where possible or delaying its necessity can negate this issue. As for the general, protecting them and keeping them away from the fighting can be good for avoiding the possibility of them being killed, whilst killing the enemy's general must be a priority, especially when facing superior forces. The death of an enemy general can drastically turn the tide of battle in an instant: a battle you are losing can be turned into a victory by killing the enemy's general and shattering their army's morale. All of these aspects can be improved through a unit's acquisition of honor points, and the higher the honor rating, the tougher and more durable that unit becomes overall. Additional ratings are the weapon rating and the armor rating, which improve attack and health of the unit respectively: unlike honor however, these ratings are upgraded through the construction of special buildings that improve the armor and weapon ratings of fresh units being recruited in that region.

In regards to units themselves, their usage in combat relies on a relatively simple, but delicate, game of rock-paper-scissors. The four types of units are spearmen, missile, heavy infantry and cavalry, and each of these four has a class that counters them, and a class they perform well against. In essence: spearmen beat cavalry, missiles beats heavy infantry, heavy infantry beats spearmen, cavalry beat missile. Missile units, being archers and gunpowder units, can do enormous damage to units from afar, but perform poorly in melee, and are easily chased down by cavalry: spearmen perform poorly in melee against heavy infantry and have weak flanks, but can take a full frontal charge from cavalry and can deal enormous damage to them. Heavy infantry are the opposite of spearmen in that they are offensive units, meant for assaulting defensive formations head on and smashing their way through, and are excellent in breaking spearmen or bogging down units whilst cavalry flank and hit them from behind. While this is a very clear cut game of rock-paper-scissors, it isn't limited to that either. Cavalry can beat spearmen if they hit them from behind, missile units can decimate cavalry if they are bogged down, and spearmen can defeat heavy infantry by sheer overwhelming force or by adopting an excellent defensive position. Heavy infantry perform poorly when charging uphill, cavalry power is reliant on their offensive charges and they have poor defense stats, and missile units gain extra range when placed on high terrain. It is also possible to utilize terrain to negate the advantages of certain units: as mentioned before, tree cover can block arrows/shots from missile units, and they can also break up and kill the momentum of a cavalry charge, removing the advantage they possess. Spearmen placed at the entrance of a bridge in a defensive situation can hold back countless enemy units of superior quality, and with additional archer support, this can turn bridges into a bloodbath for the attackers. Weather also has an effect on missile units, as rain can make archers and missile units more inaccurate, while winter battles with snow and ice can make units lose stamina far more quickly. Generals are a unique cavalry unit on the field, and whilst they possess only 11 men in their unit, they are very powerful and can be used to break units engaged in combat or rally routing units/boost the morale of engaged units. All of this taken into account makes battles more than just a battle of stats vs. stats, and the player can use clever tactics and mastery of terrain to defeat a superior force with a normally inferior one, which extends to numbers. An army of a thousand can lose to a well placed, well fortified army of just a hundred. It is possible to win a battle without wiping out all enemy forces: simply causing every remaining unit of the enemy army to completely rout off the field is enough to achieve victory in a battle, and sometimes, upon realizing the battle is unwinnable, the enemy army will withdraw from the battle of its own volition.

Tutorial[edit | edit source]

Shogun: Total War has a fairly basic tutorial for the real-time battles, featuring four scenarios that each teach the player how to make masterful use of a particular section of the game's battle mechanics. This tutorial, split into four scenarios (Basic Training, Combat Training, First Encounter and Learn from the Past), guides the player on how to move units, types of units and how to use them, how to use the terrain and how to fight battles respectively. The first three teach the player how to utilize the battle mechanics, whilst the fourth and final scenario gives the player control of an army and pits them against another in their first battle, where they make use of the skills they've been taught to win the battle. Finishing the battle concludes the tutorial, although the tutorial can be played again in any order the player wishes, and is not required to start a fresh campaign or access any of the additional content Shogun: Total War has to offer. The game only offers a tutorial for the battles, and it wouldn't be until the next game, Medieval: Total War, where a tutorial for the campaign would be featured as well.

Custom and historical battles[edit | edit source]

Outside of the campaign, Shogun: Total War offers additional content in the form of custom battles and historical battles. With custom battles, the player is able to create their own scenarios against the AI, allowing them to choose the factions, map, amount of koku, and army. On the first screen, the player is able to choose what faction they will play as, how much koku is available to each side for building their armies, the number of enemy factions there can be (up to seven), who will attack and who will defend and whether to have the enemy army be randomly generated. The second screen allows the player to choose the map, whether or not to have a time limit, the season and the difficulty level. Maps available are ripped from campaign and historical battles, with each province represented and the unique maps used for the historical scenarios. There is also an additional map called the "The Ironing Board", which is a blank slate map with totally flat, generic terrain likely used as a test map during development. The third and final screen is the army customization screen: from here, the player is given access to every unit in the game to choose from, each with their own price, and if the player left the "random units" button unchecked on the first screen, they can also customize the army of the CPU players. When customizing their army, the player must keep within their set budget, with higher quality units being more expensive. From here the player can also customize the honor, weapon and armor ratings of every unit, which also cost additional koku on their own, getting more expensive the higher the rating you set. Upon completion of this, the player can begin the battle. These battles play out as they would in the campaign, with the only difference being that upon their conclusion, you are taken to a post-carnage report on the menu, as opposed to the campaign map. From here the player can see how much honor their army gained during the battle, how many men they killed and how many men they lost.

Battle of Mikata Ga Hara. An example of one of many historical battles that can be experienced in Shogun: Total War.

Historical battles offer a unique experience in that they are individual, pre-set scenarios that allow the player to participate in recreations of historical battles that comprised the Sengoku Jidai period. Each battle gives the player control over the army of a faction that took part in said battle historically, giving the player a brief summary of the history behind the battle, as well as its difficulty rating and the army they will be controlling. In terms of the battle itself, its essentially the same as any other battle in the game, only in that the army, map and terrain is chosen for the player and they must use the tools at their disposal to achieve victory. Some battles contain unique victory conditions to add additional difficulty, such as keeping you general alive, ensuring a percentage of your army remains intact, or capturing an objective. Each battle varies in difficulty, with some being very hard whilst others are quite easy. In addition to these battles, there is a separate mode called historical campaigns that was added with Mongol Invasion: this consists of individual compilations of historical battles that recreate the campaigns of famous Japanese military commanders, with each battle needing to be completed in order to win the campaign. Like the standard historical battles, each of these campaigns provides an overall context behind the historical campaign, plus information on the individual battles contained in them. Many of these battles offer even more difficulty than the standard historical battles, including unique objectives. Completing every battle in a historical campaign completes it, but the player can reset it if they wish to start again. The release of Mongol Invasion introduced new historical battles based on theoretical or historical scenarios involving the Mongols.

In addition to custom and historical battles, the Warlord Edition of the game added a map editor, a secret game mode that is located in the "Options" submenu. This mode allows the player to edit maps or create new ones from scratch using the editing tool built into the game. When creating a map, the player can choose the size of the map they wish to create, and are then given a blank slate map similar to the Ironing Board where they can make modifications to many aspects of a map including the height of terrain, adding bodies of water and placing trees or buildings. Using this tool, the player can create their own historical battle maps, or unique maps for custom battles. The player can also use the same tool to edit existing maps by changing details of it.

Multiplayer[edit | edit source]

The game has a multiplayer function to give players an online function for them to compete against and fight other players in the 3D real-time tactics environment. The player has the option of playing online by connecting to the official Shogun website, or by playing the game through LAN. LAN allows the player to host or join servers hosted by others, and when it comes to hosting a server, it functions similarly to custom battles, allowing the player to choose the map, amount of koku used, the season and whether there is a time limit: additional options exclusive to multiplayer include choosing a server name, a password, the maximum amount of players allowed in the server and the gametype: with Mongol Invasion, the option to choose the era, Sengoku Jidai or Mongol Invasions, is also made available. The final screen allows the player to choose their faction, what side they'll be on (attacker or defender), allow them to customize their army and also chat with the other players. In multiplayer, there are six gametypes to choose from: Last Man Standing, where two armies clash until one is wiped out or routed from the field; Capture the Honjin, where the player's army must control a point until the point runs out, with the number of men needed in the point to hold it dependent on the settings chosen; King of the Hill, where the player must gain more points than the enemy by holding and securing points for as long as possible; Halve the Enemy, where the player reduce the enemy army to half strength before they do the same; Assassinate the General, where the player must kill the enemy general to win; and Survive the Siege, where the player must either repel the enemy assault on their castle or successfully secure it from the defenders. Of these six gametypes, four were added with Mongol Invasion, with only Last Man Standing and Halve the Enemy being available on launch. Each of these gametypes offer unique gameplay and difficulty. As the player won battles, they would gain an overall honor rating. The player would start with 100 honor, and this would increase with victories and decrease with defeats. However, as a measure taken to reduce honor farming by veteran players by preying on beginners and use them to farm for honor, a veteran player who had 49 more honor points than the player they were facing would lose honor even if they were victorious. If a player wanted to play without worrying about honor, they could play in "friendly mode", where the honor system is disabled.

Multiplayer was very unforgiving, and it required much individual skill and usage of clever tactics, and it wouldn't be until later Total War games that greater importance was placed on army selection, as Shogun: Total War had very little unit selection due to all of the factions having access to the same units. Battles were fast-paced and matches usually didn't last very long, with sieges obviously taking the longest, especially depending on the size of the castle being defended. Shogun: Total War is looked back on with some nostalgia by veteran players, especially those who believed the newer titles required less skill to master and focused too much on variety over skill. Originally, Electronic Arts hosted the Shogun: Total War servers, and there was two separate servers for the game: one for the original, and another specifically for Warlord Edition. This is due to Warlord Edition having integrated multiplayer support, which was something the original game at launch didn't have, with additional tweaks and modifications required in order to get the multiplayer component working on the standard edition, something that was heavily criticized in the original release and eventually led to the decision to make Warlord Edition in the first place. Unforunately, just prior to Rome: Total War's launch in late 2004, EA shut down the multiplayer servers for Shogun: Total War, for both the standard and Warlord editions. This caused many Shogun veteran players to turn to the newer titles, and newer players to avoid Shogun altogether. Players who were committed stayed and were able to host their own servers where players could join without registration being necessary.

Expansion and sequels[edit | edit source]

Main articles: Mongol Invasion and Total War: Shogun 2

The release of Shogun: Total War was followed by an expansion pack called Mongol Invasion in August 2001, just over a year after the original game's release. Taking place 300 years before the events of the main game, Mongol Invasion is based on the real-life attempted invasions of Japan by the Mongol Empire in the late 13th century. The Mongols launched two invasions of Japan, once in 1274 and then again in 1281, shortly after securing the vassalization of the Korean kingdom of Goryeo: historically, both of the invasions failed, with the first being repulsed and finished off by a typhoon, while the other was largely sunk by another typhoon and never made landing. These failed invasions have macrohistorical importance, being considered one of the first instances where Mongol expansion was finally halted and they gave up on a conquest, thus making it an extremely pivotal milestone in Japanese history. The expansion is based on the first invasion by the Mongols, and follows a hypothetical alternate history scenario where the Mongols were able to land in force and were able to secure a proper beachhead in Japan.

The campaign for Mongol Invasion gives the player the option of playing as the Japanese, represented by the base game's Clan Hojo, in attempting to repel the Mongol invasion, or playing the Mongol Horde in attempting to change history and conquer Japan. In addition to a new campaign, Mongol Invasion adds the Mongol Horde as a new playable faction to play in custom battles and multiplayer, complete with a unique roster of Mongol units and two new units for the base game's campaign, the Kensai and the Battlefield ninja, along with the necessary buildings to recruit them. It also adds three new historical battles featuring the Mongols, along with a completely new mode called "historical campaigns", with four campaigns following the historical battles of Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, and a fourth campaign following the alternate history battles of Kublai Khan. The expansion also adds four new gametypes to multiplayer (King of the Hill, Assassinate the General, Survive the Siege and Capture the Honjin), a map editor and makes modifications to AI, balancing and the overall game interface. Mongol Invasion was released on 24 August 2001, and was paired with the Warlord Edition when it released in Europe on 2 November 2001. It would eventually be paired with the original game in a new version called Gold Edition, which would be remastered and added to Steam on 25 June 2015.

The success of Shogun: Total War prompted Creative Assembly to go bigger in scope with their next title, and the second Total War title, Medieval: Total War, would take place in Europe during the Middle Ages. The game kickstarted a number of sequels, tackling numerous periods of history, but it wouldn't be until after Napoleon: Total War that Creative Assembly would return to the feudal Japanese period, making a direct sequel to Shogun: Total War in the form of Total War: Shogun 2, returning to their roots to take the original Shogun and bring it into the modern age, vastly improving upon it and making a worthy sequel. It would be released on 15 March 2011, going on to receive critical acclaim and with numerous expansions made for it.

Development[edit | edit source]

Shogun: Total War was announced in early 1999, developed by Creative Assembly under Electronic Arts. The Creative Assembly had previously been involved with Electronic Arts, producing games for the EA Sports brand. Development was led by Michael Simpson, a former microchip designer who had joined the company three years prior. According to Simpson, Shogun was conceived when the Creative Assembly established a secondary development team from their EA Sports designers to develop an alternate, low business risk product for the company. At the time, Command & Conquer had risen to success, inspiring the creation of a number of similar real-time strategy games. Simpson's development team therefore initially planned to create a "B-title RTS game".

As development progressed, 3dfx video cards began to proliferate amongst consumers, leading the Creative Assembly to move the game from 2D to 3D computer graphics. Initially sceptical of the results of using 3D graphics, Simpson was surprised when a 3D rendered landscape turned out to be feasible for gameplay. From this point, the game began to turn away from being a simple low-risk product to something more substantial; the camera view was moved from the traditional real-time strategy top-down perspective to the position of the general on the battlefield. As this limited the extent to which the player could see across the battlefield, this fundamentally changed the nature of the gameplay. To accompany this, the game took on a more historical approach for its units and tactics.

However, the game was not considered to be substantive enough simply with the real-time battles; Simpson recalls that "the problem [was] that the battles themselves were very short, and we needed something to tie it together and make people care about the battles". The result was the introduction of the campaign map, intended to provide the player with a broader strategic perspective and context for the battles. A feudal Japanese setting was chosen; in addition to being thought of as "cool", the Sengoku Jidai period was selected as it allowed for several different factions who could have potentially won the conflict, and due to the introduction of gunpowder to Japan, also allowed for rapid change for the game's technology tree.

To attempt to make the setting as authentic as possible, The Creative Assembly enlisted the aid of Stephen Turnbull, a military historian who specialises with samurai warfare, although the jidaigeki films by Akira Kurosawa also provided a source of inspiration—excerpts of the famous Mt. Fuji castle scene from his 1985 film Ran even feature in the opening credits to the Warlord Edition of the game. Elements of Sun Tzu's The Art of War were integrated into the game's artificial intelligence to provide more authentic decisions by computer-controlled factions in the real-time aspects of the game. The game was showcased at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in both 1999 and 2000, where it garnered interest amongst the video game media.

Appearances[edit | edit source]

Factions

Grand campaign
Sengoku Jidai and 1550

Playable

ShimazuSTW.gif
Shimazu

MoriSTW.gif
Mori

OdaSTW.gif
Oda

ImagawaSTW.gif
Imagawa

TakedaSTW.gif
Takeda

HojoSTW.gif
Hojo

UesugiSTW.gif
Uesugi

Non-playable

RebelsandRoninSTW.gif
Rebels and Ronin

1530 campaign

Playable

ShimazuSTW.gif
Shimazu

OdaSTW.gif
Oda

ImagawaSTW.gif
Imagawa

TakedaSTW.gif
Takeda

HojoSTW.gif
Hojo

UesugiSTW.gif
Uesugi

Non-playable

RebelsandRoninSTW.gif
Rebels and Ronin

1580 campaign

Playable

ShimazuSTW.gif
Shimazu

OdaSTW.gif
Oda

ImagawaSTW.gif
Tokugawa

TakedaSTW.gif
Takeda

HojoSTW.gif
Hojo

UesugiSTW.gif
Uesugi

Non-playable

RebelsandRoninSTW.gif
Rebels and Ronin

Mongol Invasion
The Mongol Invasion

Playable

HojoSTW.gif
Hojo

MongolHordeSTWMI.png
Mongol Horde

Non-playable

RebelsandRoninSTW.gif
Rebels and Ronin

Multiplayer
Sengoku Jidai

Playable

ShimazuSTW.gif
Shimazu

MoriSTW.gif
Mori

OdaSTW.gif
Oda

ImagawaSTW.gif
Imagawa

TakedaSTW.gif
Takeda

HojoSTW.gif
Hojo

UesugiSTW.gif
Uesugi

RebelsandRoninSTW.gif
Rebels and Ronin

The Mongol Invasion

Playable

HojoSTW.gif
Hojo

MongolHordeSTWMI.png
Mongol Horde

Non-playable

RebelsandRoninSTW.gif
Rebels and Ronin

Soundtrack

Shogun: Total War
Mongol Invasion



Reception[edit | edit source]

Shogun: Total War[edit | edit source]

In December 2002, Shogun: Total War received a "Silver" award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating lifetime sales of at least 100,000 units in the United Kingdom. The ELSPA ultimately raised it to "Gold" status for 200,000 sales. In the United States, the game achieved sales between 100,000 and 390,000 copies by August 2006, but was outsold by its successor Rome: Total War. The Creative Assembly's Tim Ansell later said that "it didn't set the world alight in terms of sales, but it was still up there with the big guns."

Shogun: Total War received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic, where it got an 84/100 score. Other review scores included: AllGame: 3 and a half stars out of 5; CGW: 4 and a half out of 5; Edge: 8/10; Eurogamer: 9/10; GamePro: 4 and a half stars out of 5; GameRevolution: B; GameSpot: 8.8/10; GameSpy: 90%; GameZone: 9.5/10; IGN: 8.5/10; Next Generation: 4 stars out of 5; PC Gamer (US): 84%; Cincinnati Enquirer: 3 and a half stars out of 4.

Jason Samuel reviewed the PC version of the game for Next Generation, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "Once you figure out the realtime interface, this is a thoroughly enjoyable experience that has a lot of replay value. Shogun is only the first of a proposed Total War series. We're sure looking forward to more."

The editors of Computer Gaming World nominated Shogun as the best wargame of 2000, although it lost to Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord. They called Shogun "a dream come true for fans of medieval Japanese warfare", and wrote that "there has never been a game that so stunningly depicts historical warfare." Similarly, Shogun was a finalist for CNET Gamecenter's "Best Real-Time Strategy Game" award, which went to Sacrifice. The editors of Computer Games Magazine nominated Shogun for their 2000 "Strategy Game of the Year" award.

Warlord Edition[edit | edit source]

The Warlord Edition expansion pack received a bit more "favorable" reviews than the original according to Metacritic, with a score of 87/100. Other review scores included: CGW: 4 and a half stars out of 5; Game Informer: 9/10; GameSpot: 8.5/10; GameSpy: 86%; PC Gamer (UK): 93%.

Shogun: Total War – Warlord Edition was a nominee for Computer Gaming World's 2001 "Best Wargame" award, which ultimately went to Squad Battles: Vietnam.

Mongol Invasion[edit | edit source]

IGN gave The Mongol Invasion a score of 8.9 out of 10 and called it "a good expansion pack".

Awards[edit | edit source]

The original Shogun: Total War was nominated for a 2000 BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award, in the category of 'Games – PC' and the Warlord Edition won the award in the Music category in 2001.

Gallery[edit | edit source]

Trivia[edit | edit source]

  • At some point in development, Creative Assembly planned to include the Chosokabe clan as a playable faction but it was cut prior to release. Their territory is still present in the final game, present on the island of Shikoku, but it is simply given to the Rebels and Ronin instead. It wouldn't be until Total War: Shogun 2 that it would appear as a playable faction in its entirety.
    • Interestingly enough, the Shimazu banner and icon is actually repurposed from the cut Chosokabe clan.
  • By utilizing the cheat ".conan.", it is possible to play as the Rebels and Ronin faction. They function differently to the other factions, being able to survive without family members and being unable to recruit or use agents. The throne room icon is that of a soldier's face, and there is some instability with using it, as it can either cause the game to crash or will take you to the Shimazu throne room. It's possible the faction was originally intended to be playable.