Shogun: Warlords Edition Preview

The last year's Electronic Arts' Shogun: Total War got well accepted both by the critics and hard-core gamers. So it's no wonder that the British based Creative Assembly studio wishes to create an add-on to the last year's RTS master-piece which shifted the boundaries of strategy gaming and offered fresh solutions for massive battles.

Shogun: Mongol Invasion (or Warlords Edition, as they intend to name the box with both Expansion pack and the original Total war, even though there had been rumors that that would only be the official name for the European edition) will bring enough enhancements to the original game that you can even consider ti to be a sequel, rather than just an expansion. The story takes place several centuries before the events from Total War, or to be more precise in the XIII century A.D. This epoch was famous for the conquests of the mighty Mongol empire when Kublai Khan decided to push the boundaries of his domain all the way to Japan. The huge armada set sail towards Japan but most of the fleet sank thanks to the storms and hurricanes, which helped Japan defend its territory. This is when the winds that save Japan and destroyed Kublai Khan's forces were named the winds of the gods or Kamikaze.

The new campaign in the Mongol Invasion expansion pack will enable the players recreate the battles of this era leading the mighty Mongolian horde or the Japanese defenders. The Mongolian campaign won't require you to build structures or train troops. When you capture a territory as a Mongolian commander you will receive a Koku ( the amount of money your troops succeeded to plunder on that territory). You can use these resources to buy troops anywhere on the map, but you'll only be able to buy advanced units after you captured a certain territory and after your general reaches a certain level. The only structures Mongolian forces can build are watchtowers and forts. This is understandable, as the conquered territories always tend to rebel.

Warlords Edition will bring altogether ten new units with extremely appealing characteristics. The Mongols are famous for their riding skills; in fact the entire empire was organized in a rather nomadic style and was in constant motion. This will clearly reflect on the game as the Mongolian cavalry is far more capable then their Japanese counterparts. Their heavy cavalry will be much faster and more dangerous, and their horse archers will move faster and have a better firing rate. There will also be some interesting infantry units like the invasion forces used to conquer Korea. For instance, there will be the Korean skirmihers equipped with javelins. The most entertaining new units in the game are the thunderbombers: Korean peasants carrying bombs made of porcelain filled with gunpowder (they will frequently die together with their target because of the instability of their weapons). The guardsmen are practically identical with Naginata and Nodachi units, but they move a bit faster.

The Japanese will have sufficient new and old units to beat the Mongolian conquerors. As there were no firearms in Japan at that time, the Ashigaru will use crossbows instead of guns. The new units include the heavily armored Naginata cavalry and the special Kensai warriors. They are also called the Sword saints (which is actually the meaning of Kensai in Japanese) and present lone swordsmen which have no trouble in facing a multitude of lower-ranking units (say, hundred of spearmen), but are quite vulnerable against archers and elite units. Ninja warriors present a special treat. They will disguise as the enemy soldiers and hide in high grass or a forest and assassinate a Taisho (general) or even Daimyo (clan leader). There will be an option to infiltrate them into enemy fortresses under siege, and they will excel at throwing shrunkens and hand-to-hand combat, but they will be vulnerable against elite and heavily armored units.