{"id":3037,"date":"2011-03-18T21:14:34","date_gmt":"2011-03-19T02:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/?p=3037"},"modified":"2011-03-18T21:14:34","modified_gmt":"2011-03-19T02:14:34","slug":"shogun-2-early-moments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/2011\/03\/18\/shogun-2-early-moments\/","title":{"rendered":"Shogun 2 Early Moments"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I got sucked in, mostly because Bill Abner told me that it was actually pretty good – the regular elimination of the Oda on the first turn (ever single game) notwithstanding. You can read his game diaries on No High Scores – first turn here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Though I defended the general design principles and aesthetic of the Creative Assembly games in a very spirited Three Moves Ahead near the beginning of its run, I can’t deny that I was exhausted by the idea of playing another Total War<\/em> game. The changes have been gradual, the campaign AI was never really all that good without some cheating that could get annoying, and by the time I saw Shogun 2<\/em> at E3, I was immune to the spectacle. I did not want to buy this.<\/p>\n

But here I am playing it and I can’t say I’ve put a ton of time into it. Some battles, some campaign tests, no multiplayer yet. And I have to say that I am pleased by what I am seeing, even on normal difficulty.<\/p>\n

The AI controlled generals still do suicide runs into the waiting arms of your spearmen, and it is still incompetent at sieges – can’t assault in an aggressive or cohesive manner and will never starve you long enough. But for the most part, the battle AI is improved. I’ve seen the computer retreat to reform lines, spring ambushes, pause before attacking…all things that I rely on. I would regularly mop up enemy armies that outnumbered me 2 to 1 in early Total War<\/em> games. I can’t expect that to happen now, even if I have a friendly battlefield.<\/p>\n

Strategically, the computer is also better. It will offer sensible peaces when it is being pummeled, it will move assertively to claim trade ports and knock out weak factions, and will almost never offer battle if it thinks that it doesn’t have a chance. You don’t have that trickle of nonsense units trying to wear you down. And, even better, it will use the oceans to move its troops.<\/p>\n

There are still some issues. The aforementioned Oda Elimination Consistency is very disappointing since it means the AI will do the same thing in the opening moves of every game. I am still not sure the AI is using the ninjas and monks, but that’s probably because I am not deep enough into some parts of the game yet.<\/p>\n

But it’s a surprise that I like it as much as I do considering how unenthusiastic I was. I am not saying you should buy it now, but I am saying you should give it a hearing before just passing by.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I got sucked in, mostly because Bill Abner told me that it was actually pretty good – the regular elimination of the Oda on the first turn (ever single game) notwithstanding. You can read his game diaries on No High Scores – first turn here. Though I defended the general design principles and aesthetic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5GFeQ-MZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3037"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3038,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3037\/revisions\/3038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}