posted 06-16- 04:58 PM               

I guess some people have been having problems with Shogun, but they ain't me. This game is great. My girlfriend won't be seeing much of me soon... and, at 29.99 - 10$ pseudo rebate, the price can't be beat.

I'm in the middle of my first campaign. So, some guy invades my home province, and I wasn't really prepared. I had 311 troops stationed at the time, but he invades with 600. Still, I felt I had to fight. I had 3 groups of 60 archers, 120 yari samurai (spearmen), and my noble Daimyo with 10 bodyguards, all heavy calvary. I pick my spot for the last defense, feeling a little like Custer. It's a high hill overlooking all the surrounding area. There is a light breeze blowing, but all in all its a beautiful day to die.
The archers go in front, a line of 180 devoted followers, ready to pick off the enemy as soon as they are in range. The pikemen are in the middle, and the daimyo is at the rear. After the battle begins, I don't have long to wait before I sight the mass of troops marching toward me from off in the distance.
The AI chooses a two pronged attack, sending about 200 peasants with spears coming straign down the valley toward my hill, with another group of about 200 peasants and 200 archers along the side to a different hill where they don't have such an elevation disadvantage. I see the banner of the enemy general waving in the group of archers.

Lucky for me, the attack is not well coordinated, and about 120 peasants come up from the valley, while the remainder of the valley force watches. I wait until they are in range and then engage with my archers, killing about 20% of the force. At the same time I move my spearmen up, and attack down the hill at the tired peasants coming up. It doesn't take much, as one of my divisions of spearmen attacks in a wedge, and breaks up the enemy attack. They run back down the hill, but about then the other peasants from the valley come up in support. The 150 or so remaining make a joint attack on my forces, while my archers switch targets to shoot at the enemy archers now in range on the adjacent hill. The enemy archers rain arrows down on my spearmen, and they are badly outnumbered. One group takes about 90% casualties and routs. The other is not looking good, so I bring my daimyo in for a morale boost, and together with the remaining spearmen, they send the peasants running down the hill.

The enemy archers have meanwhile been picking off my men, and after a little while, my archers are out of ammo. At this point I am down to about 1/2 strength, but have caused about 200 casualties. The enemy sends his next wave of peasants in, and I have no choice but to meet them hand to hand with my archers, infantry, and general. After a minute of fighting the enemy breaks and runs down the hill. The enemy general gathers his troops together, and they regroup for another assault. Again I hold them off, but now I'm down to 11 spearmen and 5 bodyguards, and about 50 archers. The general gets them to regroup again, and they come back up the hill, still about 300 strong. Again I fight them off, taking minimal casualties, but I know I can't last much longer. The enemy general is the most fearless, and he is standing at the front of his troops, trying to get another attack together. I throw caution to the wind, and send my daimyo down with his cavalry, charging toward the enemy general. The gamble pays off as I kill him before the enemy can mount an effective defense. Their morale shattered, the remaining enemy rout, running for their lives off the battlefield.

An excellent battle, and great fun! BTW, the AI is generally good. I have lost several battles which were evenly matched, due to ignoring weather conditions or terrain. This battle I only won because I had my illustrious daimyo leading the troops plus the enemy was mostly peasants.

Check it out, but be warned some people have been having trouble with bugs (go to store with return policy)! I'm on Win98 SE, using Diamond V550 with latest reference drivers, and Diamond MX300 sound. It runs well on my PII-400 with 128 megs, full install.