Shogun Total war and TA

Magwitch

Has anyone played this game? I have had it since it came out and not the expansion "Mongol hordes" is out. I have not played on-line yet, does anyonw fancy a game?

Is it just me or is the difficulty level very steep? Everytime I put it on hard I get swamped! Even normal level stretchs ones recources.

Another excellent wargame is TA, although real time strategy there is an on-line war game hosted on the Cavedog site which is multiplayer adn strategic, dividing players into core and arm. Battles are scheduled every few days and 2 Core play 2 Arm in each battle. Results are tallied accross all the battles and a star map on the site is updated. Command strutures also exist so long playing or successful players can command which star systems are contested each week. As far as I know "The Core Contingency" and "Battle Tactics" are not needed as the necessary units can be downloaded from the site (aswel as some really good maps and thre editor program).

Celt

Um boneyards has gone down, infogrames shut ta down
We use the zone and gbl now.

Belisarius

I would but I fear the consequences , Shoguns one of the most troublesome games I own , for the last year its plagued me with problems, The game itself is brilliant but by god in heaven they could have made it a bit more flexible , and Im running a fair system aswell , P500 128 ram 32GF2 MX and it refuses to even run in 1280x768 mode , and i can forget about the 8meg textures , Good and all as it is think I prefer a nice honour match of Ground control

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Shrewgar!

Magwitch

I upgraded from a 166 to 750 when I bought Shogun. I have not had probs but could understand how their could be. I agree that the scope is a bit limited, a better AI instead of a too steep learing curve would have made a world of differance.

Pitty that the TA Boneyards have gone down, they should have started it earlier.

TwoShedsJackson

I thought Shogun was excellent, however definitely get the patch too correct numerous bugs and balance issues: also it won't run on a GeForce2 except with the Detonator 10.80 drivers - I didn't try running it under the 12.41 driver which I put on a few days ago.

Magwitch

What balance issues? IS there a patch to lesser the difficulty curve?

Also have you ever had a joint attack (all hippy ears perk up). If you invade an enemy at the same time as an ally you end up with three armies in the field at once. If its a huge battle it really rocks as you can let your ally do the fighting and prop him up so he does not rout. The enemy and your ally just reinforce as the bodies pile up. Best battle took close to 7000 casualties before I mucked up and the enemy routed with what was left.

Belisarius

I know the feeling , What I love though are single bridge crossings , Piling unit after unit in , ploughing through the opposition while being peppered by archer fire , and just Just when theyre about to rout sending in A contingent of warrior monks and watching the enemy ranks fail and run , and of course chasing them across the map with Yari Cavalry

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Shrewgar!

Magwitch

I send in a unit or two at a time only when it come to bridges. All missle units are pulled up to the banks in rows deep. Firstly I send over cavalery to whip past the enemy. Some enemy then chase them leaving fewer defenders. The bridging units hold the far side of the bridge while all the archers (or musketeers) pepper the enemy massed about your troops inflicting huge casualties. Rotate up fresh archers to insure barrage keeps pace with the attack so every enemy unit that come to defend gets hit.

When the enemy are weakening slightly then send in the Monks to rout the front units and pull the horses back (avoiding their pursuers) to hit the enemy archers in the rear and mop up routed troops.

The monks are the real bridge head and the Yari and depleted archers follow them in.

If it does not work the first time it still leaves a 2:1 or 3:1 body count so a second attack suceeds anyway more easily.

Fidelis

Can you guys give me some pointers for the game, I've not played it much but I'm not good
Any tips like units/buildings etc. and also which tribe is best in your opinions ?

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Nil Desperandum

Belisarius

Well I usually play Hojo , for theyre cheap castles and excellent starting point ,from there its easy to swamp the Usegui totally and tons of nice provences within a few turns , dont mess with catholocism *But we knew this anyway ,no?* keep with buddhism as you get the monks and it only becomes really profitable after the cathedral is builgt ,your also begging for a nasty warrior monk rebellion , err nothing else except keep the koku up with farming and hold your provences! for the love of god hold them , actual battles are a different matter of course

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Shrewgar!

Magwitch

Well Tips...lets see....

MUSKETS:
Wait for the Dutch to come if you want Muskets to avoid Buddist rebellions.
-or-
Go with the Catholics. You get muskets and church income, but can also launch a raft of attacks. Then allwo budist rebellions to take place in a few and with draw, letting the enemy take on an effective rebel army. Works are a fire break between you and an expanding and powerful clan.

INVASION:
Send your emmisarys out accross the l;asnd when you are looking to attack. If your emisary lands in an enemy province with a port you can land troops there from a province of yours with a port. It says nothing about it in the rules and the AI nevre does it so it is a bug in the game, but is excellent for out flanking enemy or getting outposts to see whets happening accross the map.

TROOPS:
Monks are excellent. So use you Yari as fodder when you get them to take down your wage bill and build monks.

BUILDING: Do not build a load of crap in every provence. If you want gesha (what red blooded male doesent) you have to build gardens, tea house and ninja house, and have a Citidel. SO build these in a provence well behind your lines. Only build "famous" Dojos in provinces that the enemy cannot take. You do not want heavy cavalary production etc falling into the enemy hands.

_CreeD_

Haven't played Shogun but I love TA. Absolute classic that has dominated near every game in the genre in the last 3 years. The shear amount of downloadable units and maps available is amazing.
It gets kinda flakey with 500 unit types loaded, 500 per side, 9 'Blood' Patched AIs enabled and 128mb maps....Good benchmark for a new system though....

[This message has been edited by _CreeD_ (edited 19-06-2001).]

Magwitch

Does anyone who downloaded the patch for Shogun and found it slows down the game in Strategic play? After I patched my version the play on the map slows down (it takes a couple of seconds to pick up a piece to move it etc).

Anyone else have this problem or should I reinstall the lot from scratch?

Belisarius

I couldnt say mags , as I just re-installed and the ******* wont start the search for the proper drivers starts again

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Shrewgar!

Magwitch

Did you reinstall because you have a problem with "Shogun" or was it computer problem?