Samurai Warlords a Shogun mod for Medieval:TW Viking Invasion
Introduction:
Samurai Warlords, normally called Samurai Wars in multiplayer, is a modification for Medieval:Total War Viking Invasion. It was started by barocca of
www.totalwar.org shortly after Medieval:TW was released. The mod is a complete graphic conversion of Medieval:TW into Shogun:TW keeping the basic gameplay of Shogun intact while utilizing the advantages of the Medieval engine. Many veteran Shogun community members have contributed to the mod during its development.
The objective was to recreate the gameplay of original Shogun v1.12 while making improvements wherever possible. The geisha has been removed from the game for playability reasons. The kensai, battlefield ninja and naginata cavalry units from the Mongol Invasion add-on are included, but can be removed if desired. Multiplayer stats were improved over the years using feedback from experienced Total War players.
The mod comes in two versions: beta_5 is the current stable version used for multiplayer while beta_8 is the latest singleplayer version which is more advanced in features.
Beta_8 can be used in multiplayer, but it has desync issues in battles with more than two players. The two versions are not compatible.
Beta_5 comes with a stat swapper that enables players to have MTW/VI and Samurai Warlords on the same copy of Medieval. Beta_8 is a total conversion which overwrites MTW/VI meaning you need a separate copy of the MTW/VI directory tree if you want to continue playing MTW/VI. Both beta_5 and beta_8 have to be installed on an unmodified version of MTW/VI.
Like Shogun, Samurai Warlords utilizes an anti-cav bonus for the yari weapon to set up a rock, paper, scissors combat system. There are two infantry types and one cavalry type that use the yari weapon. In addition, the four basic ranged units, two teppo units and two archer units, are effective with their ranged weapon but vulnerable in melee. The four unit type categories (cavalry, ranged, spears and swords) are balanced to emphasize combined arms tactics.
The single player tactical AI is very good at choosing advantageous matchups, and therefore it makes good use of this combat system. Its chief weakness being that it tends to move ranged units too much. However, its choice of targets is very good, so overall the AI can be difficult to beat even on the normal (no advantage) difficulty setting.
Utilizing both multiplayer feedback and analysis of replays, unit costs in multiplayer have been adjusted to reflect the usefulness of each unit on the battlefield. Samurai Wars uses a 2x cost system compared to Shogun:TW, and is designed to be played at 9000 koku (florins) compared to Shogun:TW which was played at 5000 koku. The unit costs are remarkably close to the relative costs of honor 2 units in Shogun:TW which was the default honor level for unit purchased in custom battle or multiplayer.
The cost of the two archer units in Samurai Wars has been lowered to reflect the cost of their honor 1 counterpart in Shogun:TW which is how those two units were most often utilized. Unit morale has been adjusted to preclude the need for purchasing upgrades.
Without
upgrades the units in Samurai Wars perform as their honor 2 counterparts did in Shogun:TW. Samurai Wars is self regulating in that all units have counter units and all armies have counter armies, so no rules are needed to limit what units are purchased. Units do cost 20% more once you purchase more than 4 of one type, but this is intrinsic to MTW/VI and is not needed in Samurai Wars.
Since all players in a multiplayer battle select their units from the same unit set, a player's success is determined more by how the units are used than by what units are purchased. Army purchase is intuitive after understanding each unit's abilities.
Upgrading units during purchase is not cost effective, and only a weapon upgrade on some of the lower priced units is viable. There is no need to count any flags on units or to calculate if a H6W2 YariSamurai can beat a H5W2 NoDachi or similar mind boggling insanities. There are more than enough battlefield modifiers to keep track of such as, morale, height, support, fatigue etc. to keep the game interesting. Since unit performance is predictable and the units have to be used undividually to be most effective within the combat system, the challenge of the gameplay is to coordinate your units better than your opponent. This is not an easily mastered and requires the development of multitasking skill.