Silver Shield - 15th Edition

[Bolkonsky]

Silver Shield 15th Edition

Hello all and welcome to Edition XV of the Silver Shield publication. A lot has happened since we released our last edition. We've got some great content by our amazing writers SonofPeverel and Sirius Black, both interviews and a mod feature, as well as an awesome featured review by Påsan, and an exclusive interview with Paradox Interactive's Community Manager, Kallocain. I'd also like to throw in my thanks to y2day for supplying us with the art templates, and main logo for this edition.

In general site-wide news, the ownership of the site has transferred from it's previous owner, Garbarsardar, to our new owner, GrnEyedDvl. Many thanks to Garb for maintaining the site for so long, and best of luck to GrnEyedDvl as he takes over the responsibilities.

The Modding Vault has also launched, in an ambitious project to archive every Total War mod on TWC's servers for long term storage. This is to ensure that no efforts are ever lost due to mirror sites shutting down, etc. It's arrival is accompanied by a 4th server for Total War Center, named Atlas. You can take a look and read more about this here.

That's about all for today, thanks for reading and please leave you comments and feedback below!

Bolkonsky
Editor in Chief

15th Edition Staff

Editor in Chief Bolkonsky
Deputy Editor Armatus
Reporter SonofPeverel
Reporter Sirius Black
Game Reviews Manager VOP2288

Contents

Interview with AJStoner by SonofPeverel

The Silver Shield is back with another interview of one of TWC's up and coming mod leaders. At last look we spoke with St. Polycarp, leader of the War of the West mod team. This time, however, we introduce you to AJStoner, mod leader of the fantastic RULE BRITANNIA. : So, AJStoner, what led you to the glory that is TWC? I have been a fan of the TW series since the first Shogun came out, there had never been a game like it and I was hooked at once. Rome TW came out while I was in the army and doing a year of guard duty at the ammo dump 12 to 14 hours a day so I would bring my laptop and play that all day. When I returned to the real world I bought Medieval II and started looking for mods straight away which lead me to TWC. : Why AJStoner? AJ (Anonymous Jersey) Stoner is my pen name. I have published a novel, some verse, and a couple of short stories under it and have since grown attached to the handle. I am considering legally changing my name to that in fact. : What was the first mod that you played? The first TW mod I played was one of the early versions of “Total Realism” for Rome. I loved it, greatly expanded the experience for me; took an excellent game and made an outstanding one out of it. When I purchased Medieval II there was no thought of playing the vanilla game at all. I think the first I played for MIITW was “Lands to Conquor” and then Stainless Steel 6.0 soon after. : What do you look for in a mod before you give it a go? Depth and breadth. The game, as it stands, is excellent and for me to really take interest in a mod it needs to want to bring something new to it. I like ambitious projects. The fact that my hard drive is reasonably small, and my internet connection so crapy, means I really have to feel hooked by what I see to go to the trouble of downloading and installing a new mod. : What caused you to want to learn how to mod? Like I mentioned, I started out with Medieval playing Lands and Stainless. These I was truly impressed by but wanted to tweak them a little to my personal tastes. Firstly I wanted to make the Irish in SS pagans and so I went into the files for Teutonic to see how the conversion scripts were handled. By the time I had worked out how to do that there were dozens of other little changes I wanted to make, and by the time I had finished those I decided it would be a hoot and a half to make my own mod so I became a member here and started haunting the workshop and badgering people about how to do this and that. There is a really extraordinary group of people here who will bend over backwards to help you out and that sense of community was deeply encouraging. : Your favorite pre-modding meal? Coffee and pizza, no question. It has been my experience that little gets the creative juices flowing like near-toxic levels of grease, sugar, and processed cheese. If I am feeling adventurous, and especially self-destructive, I may head out and load-up on tacos and beer before sitting down to work. I allow no food or drink near my machine, however, so I gorge myself beforehand. I have been slack on this point in the past and lost numerous keyboards and an external CD-Rom drive before I learned my lesson so this is now a strictly enforced regulation at my desk. : What do you do to pass the dreaded turn times in some mods? Well, I am generally testing my own mod whenever I play of late so I usually sit there and implore it not to crash or freeze up on me. I am also a multi-tasker, which is a nice way to say I have ADD, and constantly step away from the machine to do a little reading, jot down some notes, snack, whatever. Tuneless humming is also a fave. : Have you ever crashed out your games so bad you had to reinstall? Constantly. I have reinstalled Medieval II at least two dozen times. I am really bad about playing with things I know that I shouldn’t and neglecting to make copies of files when I know that I should. Hell, I’ve had to reinstall my system six times and have reformatted my hard drive twice on my current machine alone. It’s just a part of a modder’s life and you roll with it: a quick bout a cursing and go look for your disks. : Which historical site would you like to visit? Why? I have always wanted to see Hadrian’s Wall. In general I am not a fan of the Roman Empire, they are perhaps my least favorite culture in all human history in fact, but I must confess that the Emperor Hadrian intrigues me deeply. He was a man of historic wander lust and that is something I can personally relate to on a very visceral level, having spent the first several years after high school hitchhiking around the country. In fact I wrote a poem about him which I will now inflict upon you: Hadrian’s Progress He takes to the road like a fugitive Convinced time and distance Might save him. Perhaps in vague hope of revelation, Or the dimmer prospects Of transformation, He drives against the sweltering heat To avoid a tomb of ice. Still, understanding the limitations Of infantry, oxen, axel and wheel, He walls-out The savage frontier; The emperor deciding for himself What is near and far and unreal. Heeding the milestone’s sage advice He confines his lusty progress; To Carthage and Spain, To Briton and Gaul, To Egypt and to Greece. Wherever his foot does deem to fall The marble starts to grow; Great walls and towns and temples abound: “You see! You see! I was here, and real!” Be it noting but petty discontent, Be it fear or the exotic’s allure; Constant motion Provides an illusion Mortality can be evaded. * * * : Ever dream of wielding the banhammer? No, but I often fantasize about deciding who lives and dies. Dream big or go home! : Zombie killing weapon of choice? That would have to be the Rugar Blackhawk .41 magnum, single-action revolver. Call me old fashioned, call me a romantic, but for my money there is nothing like a good dose of kinetic energy for puttin’ the hurt on a fella; living or not so living. And of course the chainsaw is a classic and great fun. : How did your current project (Rule Britannia) begin? I am a big fan of regional campaigns in general; they really give you a sense of time and place that the big scope game just doesn’t. Not that I don’t enjoy the full map experience now and again, there is certainly something to be said for conquering the known world and I definitely see why people like Alexander the Great were so into the idea, but the regional game has an intimacy about it. I also get attached to my characters and like to spend time with them and see how their careers turn out. In fact, one of my all time favorite strategy games is one called “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” which deals with China during the end of the later Han Dynasty. In RTK you play the role of a single character and direct his career which could be as a wandering mercenary, a local governor, a court advisor, or the ruler himself, just depending on your choices. That game was a major inspiration for Rule Britannia which seeks to add an element of role playing into the game. I have always felt that if you combined something like RTK’s strategy play and the Total War battle system you’d have something closer to a perfect war game than I’ve yet seen achieved. RB is my modest attempt at doing something along those lines. : What is your favorite feature that will be in Rule Britannia? The thing I am most proud of in RB is the interactive “Throne Room” events. I feel like it really helps facilitate the illusion of running a kingdom and not just making buildings and creating units. Another game that I really enjoyed was an old Mac game called “Castles: Siege & Conquest” from the mid 90’s. The battles were worthless and the strategic play was superficial to put it politely but it featured a lot of interactive events which made it very engrossing all the same and the experience of playing it greatly informed my interactive events. What I am most looking forward to in the future for RB is the new map we are working on. The game will feature a full-sized game map covering the British Isles, northern France, Norway, Denmark, and parts of Germany. The main limitation now is that the relatively small map means that a lot of features and events had to be compressed to all take place within the span of a shorter game. The larger map will really open things up and make it something you can truly lose yourself in for a while, which is what a story should do; be it in the form of a book, a movie, or a video game. : What is the biggest problem that you see in the world outside of TWC? The greed, arrogance, and narcissism of those who would be our masters. We live in a world were a tiny few, who contribute nothing of worth through their own deeds, control everything by birthright and presume to be the natural owners of this world. They have usurped all culture and left us with advertising in its stead; they undermine education and demonize the intellect in the vain hope of keeping the populous ignorant, pliant, and dependant. These are creature who, in placing themselves above their fellow humans, have become something less than human. We will free ourselves of their bondage or we will all share in the ruin of their folly. Sadly, that is the one thing they will gladly share… A close second would be non alcoholic beer--WTF? : What are your plans for your future at TWC and in real life? Well, once RB 2.0 is done I am hoping to keep our extraordinary mod team together to take-on the crusades in like fashion. It’s another great setting full of drama, murder, and mayhem that I would like to explore. It has great potential for adding role play elements to and, given the state of religious unrest in the world today, a well done and thoughtful rendering of the subject could have a powerful resonance. Indeed I would, ideally, love to work in the gaming industry as a writer; that would be my dream job. To me, games are just the newest form of storytelling and one that is only now beginning to be truly exploited to its full potential. I began story telling by experimenting with verse and learning its discipline has greatly enriched my life. The tension between form and content, the need to communicate big ideas in small ways and make the words say more than the sum of their parts provided a natural segue into working with games where similar content restraints provide similar challenges and similar opportunities. I also have an old paper and dice role playing game that I designed many years back that I have been thinking about trying to get published. There seems to be something of a revival going on for the old-school RPG’s and I would greatly enjoy playing some part in that. : Is there anything else you would like to say? My hero is the Blade of grass growing through a Crack in the asphalt. Interview by: SonofPeverel Edited by: Bolkonskij

Interview with robinzx by Sirius Black

robinzx Why the name robinzx? It's a moniker I've had for a long time now. Robin is my real name so that bit is self explanatory. Z is the first letter of my surname (original, I know), and the last letter was because back in primary school IT class or similar we had to have 7 letters in our usernames and I somehow chose X... I guess I never really got the hang of this having an enigmatic online persona thing. So what Initially bought you to TWC? According to my account I joined in 2007, which I have next to no recollection of. Judging from the date it must have been because I was looking up stuff for M2TW. When I really became active on the forums was the summer of 2011, mostly in the S2TW forums at first. Any particular part of the S2TW forums? A mod maybe? In the beginning it was just the general and strategy forums. It was great to have a space for people to discuss how to play the game, and I learnt a lot from that experience. In the past few months I've been involved in the Sekigahara Campaign mod which has taken shape nicely, so there's been quite a bit of time spent on that. What are your interests on TWC? I think my interests on TWC besides the games would be writing and artwork. There's a collection of my writing work here and my art here. The writing consists mainly of my Takeda AAR, articles I write for the Quill, and some TotW entries, while the art is mainly photoshop edits of S2TW screenshots and various things I've been doing for the mod. What can you tell us about the work you've done for the quill so far? I first saw a note from Juvenal, the editor, asking for interested parties to PM him in Quill #29. Having always had an interest in writing and not always an appropriate outlet I decided to give it a go and wrote my first piece for Quill #30 - a review of an AAR I had found interesting. Since then I've written four more articles for #31 which was published recently - mostly AAR reviews and an article entitled "Writer's block", which I was quite pleased with given I suffered from it a lot in school until I found that Belgian beer was the solution to my problems. I am in the process of writing a few more for the coming issue, so do check it out when it goes live So, what is your favourite Total War game? Hmm tough one between M2TW and S2TW. M2TW was the one I started out on, and I found it intensely fun. S2TW on the other hand I have a special connection with because I am interested in the setting and it, for me, is the best all round TW game of all. ETW was nice but personally I don't think guns are as fun for a TW game. Napoleon I thought I would enjoy, and I did a lot at first, but my machine at the time wasn't up to standard to play it on higher settings, and it ended up being the least played of all my TW games for various reasons. Rome...nah. So what are your future plans for TWC? If you have any, of course. Well much the same I guess. My AAR is getting close to half way, so there's a lot of work to come on that, and then there's the many editions of the Quill and TotW to come which will be good fun. The Sekigahara mod will be the other focus for the time being with us moving through beta editions and hopefully coming to a full release soon. Exciting times are ahead The Sekigahara Campaign- A Shogun 2 mod So what can you tell us about the Sekigahara Campaign mod? What are its main features? The mod is a complete overhaul of the vanilla S2TW game, and is set in the period of 1590 to 1700, or during the last of the Sengoku period and the early Edo shogunate. We've completely revamped the clans, unit rosters and buildings so far, and are expecting to do a lot more. Currently the team consists of 5 members led by Anton III - who are all great guys to work with, and I'm mainly working on a lot of the artwork and also the new building concepts. What would you say has been your favourite aspect about working on the Sekigahara campaign mod? The work on the mod has been enjoyable throughout really. It's been a real pleasure working on it and seeing it go from nothing to us now having our own forum in the S2TW Hosted Mods section. My favourite part would probably be drawing the portraits for the major clan daimyos. It involved quite a bit of research and seeing the results were really gratifying as it gave the clans a bit more personality and immersion. People responding to the mod threads quite liked them too which is always nice. Where do you see the future of the mod going? are there going to be any major changes in future? As of the time of writing we're only up to a v0.6 "preview" beta, so a lot of things are still in flux. There are a lot of ideas we thought of to begin with and then put off for later because if we implemented everything we'd never release the mod to begin with. Since we've gone public some of our players have also contributed their ideas which has been extremely helpful and encouraging. Now that we have our own subforum it should give us a better platform to interact with players and get better feedback. In terms of actual changes I won't spoil too much, but I'll say that what is there is just a sign of things to come What would you say has been one of the hardest things you've had to do in creating the mod? The hardest thing I've found myself doing was probably drawing the large number of building pics for the campaign buttons. For example there were about 10-12 farm variants each having minuscule differences from the next. It was fun at first but became rather mind-numbing repetitive work after a while. Everything else has been quite a joy. Takeda- A Shogun 2 AAR Can you give us a brief synopsis of your aar? My AAR follows the rise of the Takeda clan under its legendary daimyo Takeda Shingen. The Takeda in the game have superior cavalry, and that has been a recurring theme in my AAR as they went from being under threat from all sides to now holding a good portion of Japan. I don't really have a finite goal for the "epic finale" of the AAR, but I would say it's inspired by historical events. I started out using Shingen's brother Nobushige as a narrator as the clan gradually expanded from its home province, but as the story started to unfold and the Takeda domains have gotten a lot bigger I've experimented with different approaches as well. In my mind the story is on the verge of something explosive, so do read it. I'm only up to 30,000 something words so it shouldn't take long to catch up How much time would you say you usually spend on your aar in a week? The planning of the storyline really takes place whenever wherever - I have a note in my phone that has any ideas I come up with while I'm away from my desk. That gets overwritten regularly based on how I feel at different times. Total writing time (rewriting entire sections/chapters notwithstanding) probably about 5-6 hours. I usually have a solid 3-4 hour sitting where I write the entire first draft, after which I usually go back to it in short stints to edit it and shore up the narrative, correct errors, etc. Then there is the taking of screenshots which takes usually no more than an hour combined, though this may be done over a couple sittings. Whenever I have time or I'm waiting for other stuff really. Do you draw any inspiration from other AAR's and writers? and if so, what/who are they? I started reading AARs quite early and there are four that really stood out for me in the early going. They are Pagan Vengeance by Skantarios, Primus Inter Pares by Radzeer, Letters of an Aragonese Knight by Thokran and the Nowhere Legion by SeniorBattavianHorse. Radzeer in particularly gave me a lot of advice throughout the writing process and even wrote a rather magnanimous review for my AAR, so he is someone I owe a lot of thanks to. I'm not going to ask the obvious on what is your favourite Shogun 2 clan but what is your least favourite? A. Yes my favourite is rather obvious () - as for least favourite probably the Tokugawa. Of the three unifiers of Japan I've always seen Ieyasu as the least talented, and lucked out in the end after people far superior than him had all died. They are a real pain in the behind to play in the game too which doesn't help either. Do you still stick with a save game or have you moved away from that in your writing now? I do. I save after every turn and my AAR is still pretty much adherent to what goes on in the campaign. I do use custom battles for some battles where the campaign doesn't suit my storyline, though, and I have replayed small parts of campaigns more than once so that the campaign develops in the way I want it to. I draw inspiration from things that happen in game so the fidelity to the campaign will probably continue. Are you finding that it gets harder and harder to get interesting shots for your aar in game? Or would you say it has grown easier the more you have done? Screenshots are usually okay. I stick to a set of angles I take screenshots from, so it's more a case of not fixing what's not broken I think. Where I do struggle from time to time is the repetitiveness of battles - sieges in particular. As a result I try to vary my tactics in places or try to introduce stories on the side that make those chapters a bit more interesting. Sometimes it just comes to me which is good. Sometimes it takes quite a while to think of something to write on the side so that the siege chapter isn't too boring. So, is it becoming difficult to find inspiration for your aar? I don't think I'm losing motivation over the AAR. Out of all my stuff it probably still ranks at top priority from a personal gratification point of view. In the beginning there was a lot of uncertainty, and I was quite tentative with updates. The S2TW AAR forum is unfortunately quite dead and feedback was hard to come by to begin with. Since then though a lot of kind souls have found the time to leave comments and the characters and plot line have grown on me as well so getting myself to write is easy. The one aspect is that now that I have a following of sorts there is more pressure. I want to do my story and my readers justice so there is more trepidation when I'm writing new chapters. There is a lot more of "am I doing this right?" I've erased big chunks of chapters and the entirety of one because I woke up one morning and the direction I took didn't feel right even though it did the night before. All in all it's good fun, and forcing myself to update every week is a way of imposing some kind of discipline on my life too which is good. What is your favourite part/chapter of your aar? And why? There is a chapter about four chapters down from now that will be my favourite, but for now it will be chapters XV and XXIII. XV was an almighty siege defence where my troops were depleted and the enemy outnumbered me 2-to-1. The funniest part of playing that battle was that I wanted to simply defend the fortress, but then the battle was hit by the siege reinforcement bug (for the uninitiated: a bug where reinforcement units simply park around the edge of the map unless provoked) and for the sake of story telling I decided not to let the clock run down but instead sally with all my troops. Was very relieved when that was over. XXIII on the other hand was basically my imagination of how Shingen directed battle. It was a chapter I'd wanted to write since the very beginning, and people quite liked the way it turned out, which was nice. Have you got any advice for aspiring aar writers? I'm not nearly as experienced at AAR writing than some of the people I refer to as "old masters" of this trade, but I will say this: a good roster of characters, both imaginary and from the game, is essentially to a good AAR in my opinion. Base them on real people around you, or even different sides of yourself. That way it's easier to put yourself in character and imagine how they think and feel. The generous use of dialogue is almost always a good way to fill out their personalities and background, which gives your story a more authentic feel to it, I think.

Interview with Cahoma by SonofPeverel

What brought you to TWC? I got M2TW and discovered that I had no idea what I was doing. So I came here to read guides and such. I spent a lot of time just reading through threads in the M2TW: General Discussion forum, going further and further back in time, so that when I finally started posting a bit I necroed a bunch of threads for dumb reasons.. Why Cahoma? A long long time ago, I got one of the Battlefield games or something. When I tried to make an account though, all the good names were taken! ALL OF THEM! So I ended up just taking the two first letters of my first name, middle name, and last name, and then just putting them together. Cahoma has just stuck for some reason.. Whats with the cat? I have no idea. I remember looking for avatars and choosing this one because it looked avatar-ish. I guess, just like the name, it's just stuck with me for some reason... I must not like change or something. Why spend so much time in the TD? I don't spend THAT much time in the TD. Or atleast, that's what I keep telling myself... I guess, I just like the forum and don't really play TW games that often anymore. And it's fun! It's not like that's the only place I spend time in. I lurk a lot of places, but I rarely post for some reason.. Some say the TD is a waste of time. your thoughts? Meh. What here isn't a waste of time? I think it's fun. That's the only thing that's important anyway. What is your favorite part of the TD community? All the fun friendly people. And the fun threads. There's almost always a humorous element involved whenever someone makes a thread. If not, then it's usually about something strange and I love strange stuff. How does it feel to be a King? Weird. It's all a joke of course, but that won't stop me from milking it! What are some of the Hardships you face as King? (just gonna copy and edit a post I made some time ago that answers this PERFECTLY...) Yeah, this is what most people don't get. It's actually difficult being king. People are always going around demanding stuff, like "I want rep!" "I want food" "I don't want to be tortured!". It's so annoying. Stop complaining people! I have it much harder. When I go to bed at night, on my highly expensive bed made from the bones of my followers, I can't sleep. I think about taxes mostly. How do I get more stuff? You people certainly don't like doing your duty as taxpayers and give me all your stuff. I have to TAKE it. And then you whine and whine about silly things like "food" and "freedom". Get a grip people! We must all help out. I can't be the only one doing my part. People can be so selfish some times... What type of throne do you sit on? I have two actually. One for public events and all that stuff. Made from bones of people I don't like, a small bloodfountain if I get thirsty. It's not that comfortable to sit on.. But a king must accept the hardships laid upon him. The other one is just for me in private. Mostly just a bunch of pink fur and lots of kittens. Who are your most trusted advisers? Oh God. Well.. I don't know really... LolIsuck and Derpy Hooves... Other people..? I forget stuff like this. I don't need advisors. I need servants! But it's nice to have someone tell me when to stop murdering random peasants.. If they don't I'll soon not have any left! What is your zombie killing weapon of choice? You don't kill zombies. You capture them and get them to make power with big hamsterwheels and such. But if I had to kill them for some reason, I'd go with a catgun. It'll shoot kittens and they'll attach to the zombies face, blinding them and eventually eating the zombies brain. The irony would kill them before the cat.

Feature: The Sekigahara Campaign by Sirius Black

'The Sekigahara campaign' is the newest full conversion mod for Shogun 2 and is, arguably, one of the most expansive including many new and exciting features. This article will include an interview with the modder who headed the team, AntonIII, and an interview with Point_Man the creator of a 'Lets Play' series for the mod itself. AntonIII So, first of all, what can you tell us about your mod? What are its main features, things that make it unique? First, the setting! According to what I told the game to tell me, it is set 46 years after the original Shogun 2 campaign. The more important part of the setting is not so much the year but rather its close proximity to the campaign and battle of Sekigahara. As a side-note, that particular battle is one of the most, or to some the most, important battles of Japanese history as it was the point at which Tokugawa Ieyasu effectively took control of the country as the third and final unifier of the sengoku period. It led to the Tokugawa Shogunate and its rule for the following 250 or so years. The most glaring change the campaign brings is new clans. We have represented famous characters like Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Ii Naomasa, Honda Tadakatsu and Naoe Kanetsugu. Game-play wise, we also have starting positions distinct from those of the vanilla campaign. To name two, a player can choose the Ishida occupying Omi province and the Ukita occupying Bizen and Mimasaka provinces. On top this, there are a few other major points that make the mod unique. The campaign map has been re-textured, which renders each season distinct. We are also currently implementing a political alignment system, similar to what we have in 'Rise of the Samurai' or 'The Peninsular Campaign' for Napoleon: Total War. Who are the major figures involved with this mod? and what roles have they played in it? What gave you inspiration for the mod? Erwin Rommel put forth the phrase "Sekigahara Campaign" on two occasions, the last of which I seriously considered making. Apart from history itself, that was pretty much my starting inspiration! Since it was his idea, I quickly told him I was starting to create it and that I'd be wanting him to take a good look at what concepts I put forth. He did exactly that, but also focused on clan distribution (what clan goes where and such). In short, I can say pretty confidently that I would not have created the campaign if it weren't for him . Erwin PM'd a few people to get their opinions on his ideas, which leads me to robinzx! To say it pretty simply, if he had not joined the team, we simply would not have had a preview release on the 9th of January. His initial focus was buildings. The fleshed out farm chain? That was him! At the moment, he has a broader array of contributions like imagery and concept design. He deserves a pay-raise. Oh, and a pay to begin with . What kind of fan-base do you have? Over the last 20 days we've drawn about 15,000 views in our largest thread, so we seemed to have developed a solid fan base. At the moment we have quite a few that frequent the sub-forum and support us in a number of ways, but there are five I have previously noted that were supporters from the beginning: Carthago, Drtad, Date-san, The_Nord and wierdoascensor. What is your favourite in game faction? I'd say the Ukita. If not for their good-looking heraldry, then due to their leader Hideie spending most of his life in exile (so some extent by choice). Point_Man What were your initial thoughts on beginning the game? My initial thoughts on this mod were pretty enthusiastic because I knew these mod devs from previous mod work they did, and I knew they would do such a good job with this mod that I wanted to be apart of to help with or to just simply play it and show my support. Has the gameplay changed significantly from Vanilla with the mod and, if so, what improvements does it add, if any? Oh boy, how do I say this... This mod should actually be the main campaign of the vanilla version of shogun 2. It's so detailed and it has so much replayability. I played the vanilla campaign and it's pretty simply; Turtle up for a few turns, build your economy, and start pumping out non-stop yari and bow ashigaru. AI don't stand a chance. I don't know if you watched my Let's Play of the campaign or not, but I tried that same basic strategy of building up your economy, then building up non-stop ashigaru, but an AI Faction called Otani beat me in almost as many battles as I beat them. That AI can join my clan if it likes because it kicked ass. That AI actually FLANKED ME!!!! That's a miracle. The AI is the other thing that makes a campaign fun or exciting. In the vanilla version there will be like one army per faction roaming around and the rest of their bases are undefended. So if you beat their main army, you can pretty much say they're screwed, and you won. In The Sekigahara Campaign, AI makes like two armies. Sends one army out to conquer, and has the other army split up between its provinces. Well what I like about the Sekigahara Campaign AI is that even though you beat that main army of theirs, they automatically get the second army to mobilize and finish your depleted forces off. I LOVE IT!!! The AI improvement is the best improvement of them all. What do you feel are the major advantages and disadvantages of the mod? The advantages of the mod are replayability, and an actually sense of total war (how this game should feel all the time). The disadvantage so far I honestly can't think of one, but I guess the lack of amount of factions to play as...so far. What are your favourite changes personally? My favorite are the adding of all the accurate leaders to their respective factions. I always wanted to play as the Toyotomi and conquer Japan with Hideyoshi. What makes this mod unique and interesting and how does it stand out from any other Shogun 2 mod? Well other mods just change up stats of units and add handicaps, this mod should be a DLC campaign in itself because of the amount of revamping that has been done to it. It's an entirely new experience. Would you recommend this mod to other players? I already have. What is your favourite faction to play, and why? Toyotomi. I like them for their central left location on Japan in striking distance of Kyoto. I also like the prospect of fighting on multiple fronts for an interesting campaign of one versus many. Does the switching of religion to allegiance make a large difference to gameplay and, if so, how does it work/do this? I haven't switched yet in game. I would like to play with a faction with a different religion similar to how we played with Ikko Ikki in the vanilla version. So I have my eyes on Iga-Ikki in game but they aren't playable or unique yet. Have you had any technical problems at all with this mod? I had only one technical problem with The Sekigahara Campaign. I instinctively clicked Multiplayer when I started up the mod and the mod isn't compatible with MP, so it deleted my ranking, my veterans, my avatar, my retainers, and my prestige. So I had to start over. I think I lost a piece of my soul. I was thinking positive after that though. I had some vets that I upgraded wrong, so that reset them for me to fix them up again correctly. What do you think would be good additions to it in future, is there anything you'd like to see in it? Maybe an event in game. Like,reminders, or consequences for the failed Japanese Invasions of Korea. The time surrounding this mod should focus around the Rise and Fall of the Toyotomi and Tokugawa.

Interview with Kallocain from Paradox Interactive by Bolkonsky

Article Hello and welcome to this very exciting piece on Paradox Interactive games! We'll be taking the opportunity to explain what makes these games so magical, why all Total War players should play them, and finally a small interview Paradox Interactive's Associate Producer, Linda Kiby (Also known as Kallocain.) We Total War fans each have certain things we live for in the series. For some, it's gargantuan pitched battles, for others, nothing beats seeing all the map in the color of your faction. For me, however, I can't get enough of the diplomacy. Treaties, marriages, events, those are all my things. As the games progress, we're starting to see more and more of that, and while progress is certainly being made, the diplomacy aspect of Total War still doesn't compare to that in the Paradox Interactive series, dubbed "Grand Strategy". Paradox Interactive was founded in 1998 by a small team, and released their first grand strategy game, Europa Universalis, based off a board-game of the same name, in 2000. The game was a niche hit, and prompted the expansion of the genre into other time periods and scenarios, each with their own quirks and changes to the system, to make the games unique. Their current generation of in-house Grand Strategy games is made up of Europa Universalis III, Hearts of Iron III, Victoria II, Sengoku, and Crusader Kings II, as well as their subsequent expansions, of which there are too many for me to list here. They've expanded their role into that of a publisher as well, publishing a lot of great games that a lot of people here on TWC have enjoyed. These include Magicka, the Mount&Blade, and the King Arthur series. For any Total War player looking to get into the Grand Strategy genre, (and I would recommend that all give it a try) the game of choice to start out on would probably be Europa Universalis III. Out of all the Paradox titles, this is easily the least complicated, which makes it the best game to learn the general scheme of Grand Strategy on. I've written up a small synopsis of the EU3 gameplay, and will summarize their other Grand Strategy games a little further down. Europa Universalis Europa Universalis III, Paradox Interactive's flagship title, is the most balanced of all their games in terms of scope and focus. It offers a wide variety of options, all with just the right amount of depth. It's more than enough to keep you interested, without completely overwhelming you. This in turn enables you to micromanage all of them, and get the full experience. In EU3 you take control of the nation of your choice, as you lead it from the year 1399, to the 1800's. The game takes place on a beautiful map of the world, and any country from the time period is yours to play. The player controls the country's military, economic, and political aspects, as you can raise armies, conquer nations, colonize new territory, invest in new technology, and forge alliances. The game starts off historically accurate, once you take the reigns, all bets are off. Like their other grand strategy games, the map is divided up into provinces. Each province posses a certain amount of manpower, a tax base, buildings and defenses, and trading goods, among other traits. All of these will fluctuate with the larger focus of your nation, and are affected by other factors, such as how many men you recruit, your government type, the native religion, your national religion, national culture, national stability, tax rates, and inflation, to name but a few. World View To me, however, the one thing that stands out the most in Europa Universalis III is how it all comes together on a global scale. Rather than simply choosing a financial, military, and administrative model, all the micro-choices you make add up to compile your nations overall stability and effectiveness. As a result of all these variables, as your nation grows, and times change, your nation's policy will be forced to evolve, or you could be facing revolts, instability, or threats of war. There have been many times when I've thought I was unstoppable, stream-rolling nation after nation with my gargantuan empire, just to have it collapse from underneath me. Be it cultural diversity, over-inflation, religious differences, an unchecked rebellion, or simply being spread to thin and subsequently getting ripped to shreds by rival nations. Zoomed View Another feature, which is consistent throughout all of their Grand Strategy games, is the AI. On harder difficulties, the AI is easily the most intelligent AI I have ever encountered in any video game, ever. It adapts and reacts to your nation, and other nations, very realistically, but still with the same sense of randomness that has shaped history to make modern life as we know it. This ensures that literally every game will be different, and each nation will be different as well. Admittedly there are some constants, larger nations will always be more powerful and as a result, much more likely to consistently win against a specific smaller nation in each different game. However, there's nothing stopping that smaller nation from (sometimes accidentally) allying with other nations, and winning that war. And maybe when that (formerly) smaller nation grows too large, other smaller nations will ally and take it out, or they could conquer almost everything until they fall to pieces, or alternately, conquer the world. The greatest and most common trait of nations throughout history, which is the rise and inevitable fall of great empires, happens at an almost beautifully perfect rate throughout EU3. The trick is ensuring that your nation does not fall victim to the enemy before their defeat. One small note, and I will conclude. Europa Universalis has the base game, as well as four expansions, and a couple of other editions. For those of you interested in purchasing, this can be rather confusing, so I will detail them a little bit. Europa Universalis 3 - This is the base, and first release of the 3rd generation of this game. Europa Universlais 3: Gold - This is the base game, in collector's edition form with an extra strategy guide, soundtrack, and poster. Europa Universalis 3: Napoleon's Ambition - This is the first expansion for EU3. Requires EU3 to play. Europa Universalis 3: In Nomine - This is the second expansion for EU3. Requires both NA and EU3 to play. Europa Universalis 3: Complete - This includes the base game, Napoleon's Ambition, and In Nomine in one standalone package. Europa Universalis 3: Heir to the Throne - This is the 3rd expansion, and requires all the previous titles, or EU3 Complete, to play. Europa Universalis 3: Divine Winds - This is the 4th expansion, and requires all the previous titles, or EU3: Compete and HttT to play. Europa Universalis 3: Chronicles - This is EU3, NA, IN, HttT, and DW (so the base game and all the expansions) in one standalone package. While every release is still sold individually, Chronicles is your best bet for the most complete EU3 experience. More Screens Hearts of Iron Hearts of Iron 3 is another huge title from Paradox Interactive. It's in it's third release as well, and just like EU3, it too has a handful of expansion packs. The layout of HoI 3 is also similar to EU3, with an all-encompassing world map made up of hundreds of little provinces. However, the map has changed to match the game's World War 2 setting, and so the provinces aren't exactly the same. Rather than the overall balanced gameplay of EU3, Hearts of Iron leans more in the direction of warfare, and as a result, that becomes increasingly complicated. Instead of EU3's combat system, which is basically numbers and dice rolls, with a few variables thrown in, Hearts of Iron 3 has a very advanced system. Massing hundreds of thousands of troops in a single province would be very inefficient, thanks to the "combat width" feature. Combat width determines the overall front-line area of a battlefield, and assigns division from your stack of troops in the province to the front-lines as the battles progress. Rather than the entire stack taking damage, much more damage is dealt to the troops in the front, and only they can deal damage. However a flank attack from another province creates more front-line space, allowing you to deploy more units to the front than your enemy, or vice-versa. As one can imagine, this forces much more tactical deployment and battles than in EU3. And while tactical combat may be the main focus of the game, Paradox hasn't forgotten the other elements from Europa Universalis. You can still manage your economy and engage in foreign politics, however spending too much time on that is not advised, and combat is the ultimate road to victory. Victoria II Victoria II bridges the gap from EU3 to HoI 3. As one can imagine, it takes place in the early 1800's all the way to the beginning of World War 2. The map of course, is of the world, and once again broken up into provinces. While military conquest plays a great part in any Grand Strategy game, in Victoria II, the emphasis is most certainly on industry, colonization, and politics. Vicky 2 is the first of any Paradox game to include features like political awareness, and social classes. As you make important decisions, industrialize, and wage wars, there's a chance your citizens will approve or disapprove. That's not to say that your citizens on a whole are affected, however, because of the class system some may support your government, whereas another class may reject and rebel against it. The time period that Vicky 2 covers, while being renowned for social reform, is also known for it's great advances in technology. Mobile artillery, tanks, airplanes, machine guns, and armor plated battleships were all of this era in history, and whoever has them will come out on top. As a result the infrastructure of your nation's industry plays a huge role in the outcome of this game. You may also be wondering "If EU3 starts in 1399 and goes to the start of Vicky 2, and if Vicky 2 stops at the beginning of HoI 3, can I carry my save game through?" If you were wondering that, (and it's a great thought) the answer is sort of. Paradox Interactive has no official tool, but there's a huge community effort to create a save-game converter, which can be found here on the Paradox Interactive forums. Crusader Kings Crusader Kings 2 is the most recent entry in it's respective franchise, starting in 1066, and ending around the time of Europa Universalis 3. There's a couple of oddities in CK 2, when compared to the other Grand Strategy franchises. For starters, CK 2 only features a map of Europe and the Middle East, as the game's setting is the crusades. The primary focus of the gameplay is different, as well. Thus far we've Europa Universalis's little bit of everything, Hearts of Iron's combat-centric gameplay, and Victoria's social and industrial simulation. Crusader Kings 2, however, brings something almost completely unexplored in previous games, and that is: people. In Crusader Kings 2, you don't just control a nation, you control a person. Now, you don't get to go and actually battle in Mount&Blade Warband style (though that would be quite awesome. Paradox should keep that in mind for CK3.) but you control your character and his armies. If you are successful in battle, marry famous people, or do other great feats, you gain prestige. The more prestige you have, the greater chance of you becoming King or Emperor. When your character dies, the line of succession gets passed on to your heir, allowing you to create an amazing dynasty over many generations, all this while battling Muslim forces to retake the Holy Lands. CK 2 is the latest release by Paradox Interactive, and thus will be a bit more expensive to purchase, so if you're put off by the price, you can pick up Crusader Kings Complete (the original) generally much less. When I was planning this article, I decided to cross my fingers and shoot off a message to Paradox Interactive's Linda Kiby, probably better known on the PI forums as "Kallocain", their community manager. It appears my prayers were heard, as Ms. Kiby graciously responded with an exclusive mini-interview (miniview, if you will) for the Total War Center community. Interview with Linda Kiby (AKA: Kallocain) Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions with us today! One of the things I'm sure a lot of our readers are dying to know is whether or not a cross between your trademark "grand strategy" games and a Total War RTS has ever been considered? We have King Arthur, and The King's Crusade, but both of those games were 3rd party developers. Of course we have thought about it. I'm not sure we are going to try it, but we do like to consider alternatives and what options we have. Do you play any Total War games at all? If so, what's your favorite of the series? Have you ever tried any modifications for it? Yes. My favorite is the old Shogun version. I did not try any modifications for it though, and after trying the tactical battles for a while I started just skipping them. That was not the part of the game that interested me the most. One thing I hear a lot from new players is that your grand strategy games are too overwhelming, and have a very steep learning curve, especially in comparison to Total War games. Which game would you recommend as an entry into current generation of Paradox games? I will have to say Crusader Kings II. We have made a lot of stuff that should make it easier for new players. We have the style of tutorial that worked so well in Victoria II, and we have the hint system we tested in Sengoku. I also think that the focus on characters and the improvements we made on the interface will help. Still on the above issue, do you think that your grand strategy games could be made less overwhelming while still maintaining the same degree of complexity? Do you have any plans on making them more accessible going forwards? This is just my personal opinion, but I think one way forward could be to hide the more complex parts of the game. For example in Victoria II, we have a very intricate pop and trade system. If we simplified the display of those a lot in the trade windows for example, it would not be as intimidating when you open it up for a first look. When you have gotten used to it and want to see more, we could have more stuff waiting to be shown if you just press a little + sign or something. This is obviously not very thought out right now, but it is an interesting idea I think. When playing your grand strategy games, what is your favorite aspect? Diplomacy, economics, combat, etc? My favorite is colonization and city building. My favorite thing in HoMM (not exactly a grand strategy game, but bear with me) is to create a game on easy and just build and build until I have all kinds of troops and complete cities, then crush everything. Love colonizing in EU3 though. Once again, thank you very much for taking the time to answer these, you have the most heartfelt thanks from the entire TWC community, and best of luck in continuing making your fantastic games!

Featured Review: Crusader Kings II by Påsan

Be sure to read Påsan's great Crusader Kings II review, which is this edition's featured review! Crusader Kings 2 is a game recently released by Paradox Interactive. As many of the other Paradox titles it is a Grand Strategy game for Microsoft Windows. It was released on 14 of February 2012. I must admit, this is my second try at writing a review of this game, I gave up on the first one. Not because it was badly written or I did not like it, but because I took an approach trying to explain everything about Crusader Kings 2, and as I look over the poor result of this, I realized I only manage to write something that was confusing and incomprehensible, even to me. Crusader Kings cannot be explained in great detail because the details are so numerous that they end up swallowing the original intent of the review. So on this second attempt I will try to explain the premise and preserve a semblance of comprehension in the process. You can read the review in it's entirety right here.

© The Silver Shield a publication of the Total War Center local moderators organization: The Silver Auxilia

[Robin de Bodemloze]

Great work guys! A thoroughly enjoyable read all round

On a personal note, a great many thanks to Sirius Black

[Akaie]

Ooo, excellent.

Oh... Robin... I must've been drunk when I said "and a pay to begin with" .

[Aikanár]

Congratulations everyone on the release!

[Ishan]

Beautiful edition, especially the limelight shed on paradox games.

[lolIsuck]

I WAS MENTIONED, I WAS MENTIONED


I mean, uhm... cool stuff people

[jimkatalanos]

Nice, especially the interview with Kallocain.

[Dago Red]

Paradox is a game company beyond compare. I'm so glad there is a game development team out there that makes intelligent games with depth and rich historical details for the thinking person. In an age where everything is dumbed down to the lowest common toddler-with-a-touchscreen-device, this is ever more important.

IT IS GREAT to see the TWC giving props to Paradox. Clearly, the greatest dream game would be: one where Paradox handles the campaign and overall development, and CA handles the real time battle engine plus 3d map environment. Add TWC modders to the unit skins, realism tweaks, and live the rest of your days in bliss.

[Armatus]

I was surprised by this announcement and am proud to admit I had absolutely no involvement in this latest release.

Keep up the great job guys

[paradamed]

"You don't kill zombies. You capture them and get them to make power with big hamsterwheels and such. But if I had to kill them for some reason, I'd go with a catgun. It'll shoot kittens and they'll attach to the zombies face, blinding them and eventually eating the zombies brain. The irony would kill them before the cat."
Priceless!!!

[Bolkonsky]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

We're moving more resources into the covering of other games as well as the local community, so hopefully we can have a couple of similar articles for the next edition. I've got some great ideas at the moment.

[SonofPeverel]

This edition turned out great. Nice work Bolkonsky!!!

[Rinan]

Good read! Especially the Paradox part Only a shame that their community manager didn't go so deep concerning the cross-over question. I think it's one of the things we on TWC are most interested in!

The idea of a Crusader Kings with Mount and Blade combat... Is so awesome!

[Mhaedros]

Very nicely done This was actually the first Silver Shield I read, but I'm surely going to continue

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

A great edition guys, well done to everyone

[Baerke Hinn Gauzki]

Someone actually took their time to interview Cahoma.... Bloody hell that's an amazing feat to say the least!! I congratulate your survival SonOfPeverel!! It must, really, have been unimaginably terrifying to sit in front of the almighty Meloncat.

[SonofPeverel]

Someone actually took their time to interview Cahoma.... Bloody hell that's an amazing feat to say the least!! I congratulate your survival SonOfPeverel!! It must, really, have been unimaginably terrifying to sit in front of the almighty Meloncat.

Thanks, but a bowl of milk and a lazer pointer and he isnt so bad.

[Dark Storm]

He is a brave man indeed

...and Nice work Bolk I enjoyed reading that article and interview, in fact I enjoyed reading them all

[Boustrophedon]

Interesting read! Especially the part with Paradox rep very nice!

[Publius]

Edit: Hmm.

Nevermind.