Shogun 2 AI War clan?

[Echo35]

I just picked up Shogun 2, being a long time fan of the Total War series (And Shogun 2 being $33 this weekend on Steam ) and put in about 13 hours so far. I went to check out the new and awesome Multiplayer suite, and noticed that it bases your clans off Steam groups, which is certainly a cool feature. I was about to join the Rock, Paper, Shotgun one when I noticed that there is in fact, an AI War clan, albeit with 6 members. Do people here play frequently?

[Otagan]

I logged a bunch of time with it on release but the friend I was playing my coop campaign with has all but abandoned the game (though I suspect it's because he got steamrolled by a clever AI move and lost 90% of his army and his 5-star general son).  The multiplayer turned me off to it very quickly due to how horrendously imbalanced it can be and how random a lot of the character development is (veteran units, availability of unlocks).  Once I got katana samurai and naginata samurai together, I went from having lost every single round to winning every round from that point on and lost interest quickly.

I currently am about half done with a single player campaign as the Shimazu, but now that I own the entirety of Kyushu (southernmost island, westernmost on the game map) and dominate global trade I can see the game turning into a slog.  I'll probably get back to it sometime soon.

Great game, though.  I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of it even now.

[Echo35]

To be fair, I don't remember a Total War game EVER having balanced multiplayer I've only played single player campaigns so far anyway, I only went and set up my online profile. For what it's worth, it's certainly a lot more balanced and solid than Empire/Napoleon ever were.

[eRe4s3r]

I only play Shogun 2 with DarthMod - it makes the "late-game" less of a slog, and this is what put me off as well, the downside is that Steam Achievements seam to not actually work when you play modded (i won a "short" campaign as Shimazu with this ;P)

Anyhow, i don't play MP shogun 2 wither, coop campaign takes a really, really long time and when you play at Normal the AI can actually reduce you to ashes in some bad situations

[Echo35]

The only one I really played multiplayer was Medieval 2 until my friend got to the point where I couldn't touch him

[Cyborg]

The total war franchise has alienated me with questionable battlefield controls and the feeling that it's just a new skin on the same game, with unit rule tweaks. This is reminiscent of games like Europa Universalis, where it's the same game as others in the publisher's catalogue with slightly different tweaks. They may as well have been mods.

I spent a lot of time frustrated with total war (the revolution one), and I really enjoyed the feeling of a large battle. But then I started to get more in-depth with the battlefield controls, and the units felt like they were ignoring my commands. I would tell them to go into a house, and they would refuse. I would tell them where to march, and they would refuse. I would create strategic layered armies, where I fully expected the rear to be attacking at the same time as the front line, and they would refuse. I got frustrated and went to play something else. It's completely possible that I am not doing it correctly, but when you click your mouse you expect units to go where you click.  And no, I did not see any morale indicators.

[Echo35]

I got frustrated and went to play something else. It's completely possible that I am not doing it correctly, but when you click your mouse you expect units to go where you click.  And no, I did not see any morale indicators.

You are doing it wrong Been a while since I played Empire or Rome, but in Shogun 2 there's a big huge bar above the Unit's flag that represents Morale. I can't remember if it was quite like that in the older games but I know mousing over the unit shows their Morale and Fatigue as well as modifiers to that (General Nearby, Flanks Secure, Taken Heavy Losses, etc). I've also never had an issue with them ignoring orders other than the fact that Ranged Units will attack-move when they're in fire at will mode, though you can double right click to make them ignore that.