Shogun 2: Total War

[Dinner]

No, not online. I actually find the combat cut scenes lame so I normally just auto resolve combat. The game is slow without the combat cut scenes but it's boring with the combat cut scenes. That's just something I never really got into about the Total War series.

[Felch]

You know you can skip the cutscenes. And you know that the combat is basically 90% of the game. The campaign map is practically an afterthought.

EDIT: There is a lot of micromanaging in the combat. It's certainly not for everybody.

[Proteus_MST]

Yep,
someone who doesn´t like combat too much
might be better off with
Europa Universalis (they have a "Divine Wind" expansion that covers Asia)
or with Sengoku (which is also based on the EU engine, but only covers Japan during the time of the Sengoku jidai)

[Dinner]

Does Rome Total War still have the problem where all of your leaders & Generals are always getting assassinated? With in a year or two literally everyone one of my characters were dead due to assassination which seems wrong.

[N35t0r]

WTF? I've only rarely gotten my chars assassinated in RTW. Generally, it's me doing the assassinating...

[Al B. Sure!]

at Oerdin not liking the combat. That's the entire point of the game

[Felch]

Well, if he doesn't like the combat, it certainly explains why he doesn't like the game overall.

[Dinner]

WTF? I've only rarely gotten my chars assassinated in RTW. Generally, it's me doing the assassinating...

I haven't played the game since the first patch came out way back when.

[Al B. Sure!]

I also find it weird he calls them 'cut scenes'. They're the majority of the game.

If you go back to Rome: Total War, get that mod I advertised in this thread. It improves the look of the game drastically and gets rid of the nonsense like the Egyptian units and the Roman families thing.

[Proteus_MST]

Have to agree with N35t0r ...
cannot remember ever having too many problems with assassinations in Vanilla RTW.

[Dinner]

I'd usually try to conquer the world as quickly as possible and that resulted in everyone hating me and trying to assassinate my people.

Edit: Ahh, I'm mixing up my ancient Rome games. I'm thinking of Europa Universalis: Rome. That was the game with the out of control assassinations where literally everyone of note in Rome got killed in the first year. It was insanely out of control.

[Al B. Sure!]

No, not online. I actually find the combat cut scenes lame so I normally just auto resolve combat. The game is slow without the combat cut scenes but it's boring with the combat cut scenes. That's just something I never really got into about the Total War series.

I still have to go back and laugh at this. Do you understand the purpose of the game? What is lame about it?

You know you can skip the cutscenes. And you know that the combat is basically 90% of the game. The campaign map is practically an afterthought.

EDIT: There is a lot of micromanaging in the combat. It's certainly not for everybody.

Not for everybody? First of all, the micromanaging in the Total War games is nothing compared to, let's say Company of Heroes or the grand strategy games like Hearts of Iron. Starcraft is more annoying with all the clicking and micromanaging than the relative relaxation of Total War. Secondly, it's not hard at all on hard difficulty if you have any sense.

Have your spearmen form the main line with archers in loose formation set to skirmish mode in front of them (archers are a little too strong in Shogun, I think). Put your cavalry on the wings and advance. Exchange arrows back and forth. If their archers are more numerous, charge your cavalry at them. If they show spearmen, charge your spearmen (or better yet, your samurai if you have them) into them. If you have the advantage on archers, just whittle them down until they charge you.

The key in any case is to flank. You'll rarely decimate an entire enemy unit before they break. In the early game, when I don't have cavalry, I just charge the rear of the worn enemy units (look for, I think, the 'weakening' designation) with my general's bodyguard. About 5 seconds into combat, I run them out and charge again. They break and run soon enough. Cavalry don't fare too well in a stand-up fight so that's why you rely on the charges. If you have reserve infantry, you can also position them to flank and encircle enemy units.

All in all, how much micromanaging did I just describe? The archers in skirmish mode will retreat on their own. You decide if you will charge with your line or stay back (it's a double left click to charge, regardless) and the most you really move around is your cavalry. Whoopty-do. You double click to charge, wait a few seconds, then double click away. When they reform, you double click the exposed enemy again.

If that's too much for some people, maybe they should reconsider video games period

[Felch]

Dude, I enjoyed Total War, Empire and Shogun 2, and have played a **** ton of both. I agree that it's not hard once you get used to it, but you're nuts if you don't think there's much micro. The player has to pay attention to facing, fatigue, ammunition, subtle differences in terrain for defilade, recharge on powers like fire arrows, and so on. At elite levels, Starcraft involves more micro, but a typical player can do just fine with masses of zerglings or marines. The marines don't suddenly panic and run if they get cut off. Coming from a traditional RTS mindset, Total War can be overwhelming.

[Al B. Sure!]

Dude, I enjoyed Total War, Empire and Shogun 2, and have played a **** ton of both. I agree that it's not hard once you get used to it, but you're nuts if you don't think there's much micro. The player has to pay attention to facing, fatigue, ammunition, subtle differences in terrain for defilade, recharge on powers like fire arrows, and so on. At elite levels, Starcraft involves more micro, but a typical player can do just fine with masses of zerglings or marines. The marines don't suddenly panic and run if they get cut off. Coming from a traditional RTS mindset, Total War can be overwhelming.

I can't even play Starcraft anymore it's too stressful. Go play a ladder game.

Total War is like a Sunday brunch in comparison, especially against the AI. Empire is more complicated than Shogun and Medieval I think because facing and ranks means a whole lot, though. Still, Shogun is the issue at hand and, as I said, it doesn't take much to beat the AI with close to similar forces.

[Felch]

So you're comparing ladder Starcraft to Shogun vs. the AI? How could you think that's valid?