Total War: Shogun 2 Preview

Read the bottom half, great clan and online info.

http://www.totalvideogames.com/Total-War-Shogun-2/preview-15850.html

Here are some Clan/MP highlights:

"One thing we really wanted to do for Shogun 2 - that our fans have been requesting for a long time - is a full co-operative gameplay mode," lead Multiplayer Designer, Ian Roxburgh says. "Now you can play a co-op game with a friend and play against the AI together."
In co-op you have shared line of sight and objectives, and can also share units between each other - one person could take care of just the cavalry for example, or a player who loses their units early in the match can be given a few to take care of so they still have something to do.


... consists of a map of Japan which depicts all 65 provinces. Your avatar is placed in a province on the map and can fight online battles in adjacent territories to conquer them. Winning a battle in a province unlocks its bonus: such as access to advanced troops, or a new retainer - a sort of perk that you can equip before battle. The idea is that you choose where you want to go based on what you want to unlock next.


Tying into all of this is the 'clan competition', which has a two week season. Players can join clans (in the traditional gaming sense of the word) very easily via steam groups - there's no need to go on forums and interact with the community to get involved. Once in a clan, each battle a player wins in a province adds points to their team's total for that territory; the clan with the most points owns a province, and the one with the most provinces wins the clan competition. The top clans get promoted up to the next league, while the worst performers are relegated. Clan leaders and officers can place a sword marker in a territory to encourage their members to attack it, and when players win a battle in one of these provinces they gain a 'clan token' for their troubles. Roxburgh hopes to foster an environment in which active diplomacy occurs between clan leaders, with allied clans making pacts to avoid each other's territories for example.

Customization options are weaved throughout the new gameplay systems; players can choose the colours and emblem of their army and unlock armour for their avatar by completing achievements. Obtaining complete armour sets unlocks new retainers - perks which endow stat bonuses and other effects. There are over seventy retainers in the game of which up to five can be taken into battle at one time. Retainers are also sometimes won as a result of capturing territories, and some armour appears as a random drop.

Fighting battles wins you experience; you can upgrade your avatar and its associated bodyguard unit (which protects it in battle) twice per level, across ten levels. The avatar skill tree has four main branches: Physical, Leadership, Melee, and Bow Mastery, and players are free to specialise their general as they see fit, creating for instance an inspirational character with morale boosting charm, or a formidable warrior that deals damage on the front lines. The online matchmaking system pairs up opponents of similar ranks, and a list of traits (e.g. 'prefers cavalry', 'strong leadership' etc.) gives you a sense of who you're up against and allows you to tailor your troop list accordingly. Players will want to avoid 'rage quitting' in ranked matches, as this will earn them the accolade of 'dishonourable coward' in their traits list (although this can be erased by playing fairly for a few games).

In another series first, normal units that distinguish themselves in battle can be upgraded to Veteran status, at which point they gain access to their own skills tree with a unique set of upgrades for their class. While basic upgrades can be unlocked for any Veteran unit, the very best abilities can only be accessed by contributing clan tokens at higher levels; these include 'sniping' for bowmen, which allows them to remain hidden while attacking from forests; and 'bonzai' for cavalry, which removes the penalty they suffer against spearmen.

Veteran units can be customised with their own colour scheme to mark them out as the elite units in your army. To keep the game balanced, their unit cost increases as you upgrade them, so a player with only normal units would have a larger force on the field than a Veteran unit user. Should Veterans take casualties in battle it's necessary to rest them for a few matches until they replenish their numbers, but they're never completely destroyed as a result, even if every soldier is killed.