PC Gamer - March 2012

There’s a bit of Arab in the horse model. And a bit of pantomime.

Naval cannons and coastal forts can be directly controlled too.

The death of chivalry.

Secret servants

Unsurprisingly, given the 300-year period shift, most of the cast of spies and rabble-rousers don’t come direct from Shogun 2. Working alongside familiar Shinobi (ninjas) and Geisha are two faction-specific secret policemen—the Ishen-Shishi (Imperialist) and Shinsengumi (Shogunate)—and the massively useful Foreign Veteran.

Remember the nasty Colonel Bagley in The Last Samurai?

That’s the kind of calculating, conscience-free merc you get when you employ a foreign veteran. With one of these embedded in an army, your troops will move, reload and gain experience faster.

With only a day to play the surprisingly polished alpha build, I

1

didn’t have time to hoof through the full
quarter-century long campaign, but I
did—via an existing save file—get a tan-
talizing sneak peek at late-game politics
and army compositions. Rather than glee-
fully dissolving all your carefully culti-
vated alliances and forcing you into a gru-
eling multi-front struggle for survival,

CONFLICT COMPASS Which area of the globe will Total War trash next?

Britain

Chance: Tiny

Because Blighty has figured in a good-few TW campaign maps, and Creative Assembly likes its conflicts clogged with distinctive factions, the UK Civil War installment is highly unlikely.

4 China and Korea Chance: High Extending the Shogun 2 map north or westward would open up all kinds of intriguing unit possibilities. A little further to the left, the incredible story of the Khmer Empire remains untold.

2 theMediterranean Chance: Moderate It’s only a matter of time before the team returns to the setting of their 2004 smash. A modernized Rome: Total War would sell like giant foam thumbs at a coliseum matinee.

3 theMiddle-east Chance: Slim Egypt, Iraq, Persia...wherever you look in the sandy junction between Africa and Asia, there’s combat-rich ancient history waiting to be digitally disinterred. TW needs more chariots.

5 Middle-earth Chance:Almostnone Whenever we visit Creative Assembly, we leave little LotR hints. This time it was a basket of lembas bread and a pewter Balrog. Last time it was a Tom Bombadil songbook and a severed orc head.