Dear All,
 
Many thanks for all the excitement and support that Shogun 2's announcement has had.
We are genuinely excited about making Shogun 2 and have been for a while, the era, the units, all are absolutely excellent source material.
 
There are a couple of misconceptions about things here which it's best to address early in case they become received as fact.
 
Hero Units: - These are not one man armies that destroy everything that opposes them. These are highly ranked elite units, available at the top of the tech tree who exemplify a mastery of a given martial technique (E.g. sword fighting). They are able to take on other heroes, and are naturally very powerful against groups of enemies but are not invincible game-changers. These figures are also based on true historical accounts of great fighters who founded schools of combat, not myths that take on whole armies and win.
 
Scope: - We see the perception here. 'If it's not the whole world its not big'.
 
Try and imagine a vast string of islands from a feudal mindset.
 
Imagine your single province defended only against your rebellious neighbors.
 
Imagine an entire grand campaign map dedicated to a single country, a place where just a few miles to the east was a mountain range, shrouded in mist and run by a fearsome enemy or perhaps rolling rice plains able to supply you with vital resources if you could just reach out and take them...Beyond that? Only the darkness of uncharted territory and the promise of Kyoto.
 
Your armies would march for days and weeks to move across provinces. Imagine the savage mountain peaks and the rolling rice plains that create natural choke points and defensible positions. Imagine each conquest really feeling like a conquest, like you and your small band of warriors fought and won your latest prize allowing you to grow an army, and a reputation with it. Coastline stretching alongside you as you march into the unrevealed mists of rebel lands, seeking only glory and the title of Shogun.
 
The Japanese creation story is that the Gods dipped a spear into the ocean and as the water dropped from its point into the sea, it formed the islands of Japan.
 
It is massive, and it is epic.
 
Our thanks agin to all of you for your excellent and inventive ideas and theories and where we were going next.
 
Here's to Shogun 2.
 
Banzai!
 
Kind regards,
Kieran

There is a diagram of a castle siege with bulletpoints to give you a rough idea of how they will work plus a picture of Japan and lots of islands but I don't think that's a CA picture I think it is just a map to go along with the interview. The other pictures are artwork like in the IGN article.
 
 
 
Ok here we go, You'll be pleased to hear it's a good fairly lengthy interview with Kieran, Mike Simpson, James Russell and Jamie Ferguson who is on the board quite a bit and reads a lot of your posts those of you who post ideas for the games will be pleased to know
 
The article starts off immediately with a bit of shocking information that I had to read three times to make sure I understood it properly and er yes I did read it properly and er yes if it is implemented it will certainly make this game quite different from the previous ones
 
The interview goes quite deeply into how the sieges will work, it also touches on naval battles, battlefield landscape, the hero's, Generals special abilities and a few other general bits of info here and there. Obviously it's a little bare on facts because as the article makes it clear a lot of things are still up in the air and the creative juices are still in full flow.
 
Major points I can tell you about are :-
 
The turn times per year have been changed for this game.
 
The special abilities of the generals are totally different from anything seen in previous games.
 
What has been mentioned about sieges so far makes them sound dull, this article gives you a much better idea of how amazing they are going to be and from what I've read I think they will be one of the major highlights of the game (but admittedly they do sound like a huge challenge for the AI -more on the AI in a minute)
 
The trait system has been totally reworked from scratch to give the player much more control.
 
The Hero's are not as superhuman as IGN's article made out, they have been exaggerated a bit. To give you an idea of more of what the hero's are like, think of Caeser in his final battle against the Gauls. The Romans were outnumbered and losing and then right at the critical moment of the battle Caeser came out of his tent, mounted his horse and rode around the front lines shouting "WILL YOU FIGHT FOR ME?" and this bolstered the troops morale and swung the entire battle, this is the kind of thing these hero's will do but they also have physical abilities as well
 
This is by far sounding like it's going to be the bloodiest and most gory Total War ever.
 
There is more but I'll stop there
 
All of the above are basically just bulletpoints and are covered in  much more detail in the interview so if you want to know what I know you'll have to buy the magazine.
 
One thing I do want to leak to you all because I think it's a very important point and you should all know about it, is something Mike Simpson says after James himself brings up the subject of AI :-
 
Mike acknowledges in the interview that the bane of the previous Total War games and of CA as a company has always been the AI, he goes on to say that CA have had enough of people complaining about the AI and "it's one of our key objectives to make sure that no one ever mentions the AI ever again in a bad light" -Mike I salute you for bringing the AI up in the interview when you could have just not mentioned it at all and I think I speak for all the fans when I say we are all very thrilled to hear that you place such an importance on the AI for this game and all the future Total Wars from here on in.
 
Shall I spill the beans on one other thing??????????????????????????????????????????

 
Here is an exclusive interview Total War’s Lead Designer James Russell regarding the recently announced Shogun 2: Total War.
 
It has been a decade since Shogun launched the Total War series. What were the reasons for returning to where it all began for Shogun 2: Total War?
 
In many ways, Empire: TW represented the expansion of Total War to its greatest extent in terms of global, geopolitical scale – and that fitted the reach of the great powers of that era. What we are excited about with Shogun 2 is to taking things back to a more contained, pre-modern environment where we can really focus on characters & immersion – and in a fresh setting, away from the map of Europe. Rather than having to portray many different cultures across the world, we can delve deeply into portraying one culture in beautiful detail. The game will still be epic in scale – but in terms of story and depth rather than by encompassing much of the world in geographic scope.
 
Feudal Japan is an incredibly evocative setting with so much great content for the game: bushido (the Way of the Warrior), mighty warlords leading vast samurai armies into battle; huge castles and epic sieges in unique landscapes like nothing you’ve seen in Europe.
 
Chronologically, where does Shogun 2: Total War fit in the timeline of the original game?
 
As in Shogun: TW, the setting we have is during Japan’s Sengoku Jidai: the warring states period in the 16th century, before the Tokugawa Shogunate asserted its complete control and ended the anarchy.
 
We have chosen this setting now for the same reasons we chose it a decade ago: it was a time of epic struggle between the feudal lords of rival clans across Japan. With the breakdown of central authority, there was constant warfare and any one of many clans could have ended up winning. It’s the perfect setting for a Total War game where the player can choose one of many factions all competing for the final victory in what was the most turbulent period of Japanese history.
 
It was the time when a uniquely Japanese samurai culture was forged. It was also a time of great change: for example, first contact with Europeans saw the introduction of Christianity and later the first large-scale use of firearms in Japanese armies. This opens up lots of interesting gameplay choices for the player that are unique to this specific period.
 
How has the Total War series progressed since the original game and what will this bring to the sequel?
 
Clearly, PC technology has come on so far in the last ten years, and we can do things that were simply impossible before: the game engines for both campaign and battle have been completely revolutionised (and re-written) several times over since the original game which had sprites in battle and a 2D campaign map. Now we can portray huge samurai armies in all their glory with a new and improved battle graphics engine that looks utterly stunning. On the campaign side, we will depict the unique geography of Japan with the most beautiful map we have ever produced. We are constantly looking at ways to improve the game, and each new project gives us the opportunity to push into new territory.
 
The Total War team consulted with Professor Stephen Turnbull during the production of Shogun: Total War. Will you also be working with any experts in the field for Shogun 2?
 
Well we’re actually working with Stephen again this time round, and he’s been involved from very early in the project. He’s been to see us in the studio (his journey down, carrying authentic pieces of samurai armour raised a few eyebrows on the train!); we are talking to him regularly about planned features and game content – he’s been a fantastic help for us: not only making sure we stay on the right path, but also giving us a lot of inspiration (watching all the Kurosawa movies helps a lot too!).
 
As a studio, we have much lower staff turnover than many in the industry, and there are still a fair few people working on Total War who have been here from the very beginning, not least Mike Simpson.
 
Empire: Total War introduced naval warfare to the series. Is there a chance that the feature will return to make an impact on feudal Japan?
 
Of course – Japan is an island nation, and the sea is never far away. One thing to emphasise is that the way naval battles were fought in Japan during this period is very different from the bigger-is-better artillery-fests of the 18th century European contests we represented in Empire. Japanese ships of the era were full of samurai swordsmen and archers, so we’re focusing a lot on boarding systems and stone-scissors-paper interplay between different ship types. Another big addition is the inclusion of land masses at sea: this provides new terrain-based tactical play as well as helping orient the player. We think we can make naval battles in Shogun feel very fresh & new – and be more fun to play than ever before.
 
What other areas of the game might see major changes with Shogun 2?
 
When we begin development, as a team we immerse ourselves in the period and the setting that we are trying to bring to life in the game. We develop features that reflect the battles and the military & economic dilemmas of the time (as well as making for great gameplay).
 
On the campaign map this means we fold in the importance of honour, treachery, clan & family, and many other aspects of being a warlord in feudal Japan. Of course, we need a completely new set of agents and agent abilities too.
 
On the battle side, special, historically accurate, hero characters can help turn the tide of battle. We’re also giving siege mechanics a complete overhaul: Japanese castles are very different from European castles, and we’re working hard to make the layouts look convincingly Japanese as well as playing well.
 
We’re also planning some very exciting things for the multiplayer part of the game, so watch this space!
 
What do you want to achieve overall with Shogun 2: Total War?
 
We really want to make Shogun 2 a thing of beauty, and the most immersive Total War game ever. We are focusing on pushing gameplay depth and polish rather than raw ‘size’ or scope: doing more with less.
 
Internally, we are calling these things together (beauty, depth, polish and immersion) the Zen of Total War. We are absolutely committed to making Shogun 2 the most breathtaking Total War experience ever.
 
Thank you for your time!
 
Stay tuned to www.TotalWar.com for all the latest Shogun 2: Total War information, and be sure to become a fan on Facebook and Twitter.
 
Best regards,
 
Mark O’Connell
The Creative Assembly