ES Vol. IV|Iss. IX: Ran no Jidai, AAR, Comic and Classified Ads

**therussian** · April 15, 2007, 02:15 PM

The Eagle Standard

Welcome all to the ninth issue of the Eagle Standard! Things in the administration are going smoothly: Hex Khan has been quietly submitting to my restored authority, and we are cranking out interviews like madmen!

This week's issue includes an exclusive interview with Kagemusha of the RTW:BI mod Ran no Jidai, an AAR from Hex Khan, the second installment of Halie Satanus's comic "The Last Crusader" and one of the greatest Total War screenshots I have ever seen in my life. Now, on with the show!

Hex Khan interviewing Kagemusha, leader of the RTW: BI mod "Ran no Jidai"

Greetings and welcome friends for yet another interview with me and Kagemusha, the leader of the only japanese mod for Barbarian Invasion, that of course being Ran no Jidai. So ES readers this is Kagemusha, Kagemusha these fellows are the ES readers.

Is everyone comfy? Good! Now without further ado let us press on Kage.

I’m going to firstly ask you the single most important question first, what does “Ran No Jidai” mean?

Thanks for having me.To the first question,Ran No Jidai roughly translates into era of War or era of strife.

Could you us a little about yourself?

I'm 28 years old IT entrepreneur from Helsinki, Finland. I have always been interested on history and history of Japan has been one of my favourite areas of history for a long time.

What inspired you to set about making this mod?

The mod was created by PROMETHEUS ts after another mod called Sengoku Jidai had been abandoned. I joined the team as one of the historians, because of my interest on the era. Gradually i found myself more as a coder of the team and eventually i became the Team Leader as Prom changed his focus on other things.

What backdrop is your mod set?

Ran no Jidai mod positions itself on the Sengoku Jidai period of Japan, which was era of various Daimyos(Warlords) fighting each other over the power to rule the Japan.
Sengoku Jidai period is thought to start from large civil war between Yamana and Hosokawa called Onin War, about who would control the weak Ashikaga Shogunate. It is thought to have ended variously to either to Sekigahara campaign,where Tokugawa Ieasy won Ishida Mitsunari and became de facto ruler of Japan. Another interpretation is that the period ended to Osaka campaigns,where Tokugawa sieged and destroyed his last opponents who could challenge him as the ultimate military ruler of Japan.

Have you included unique features in your mod, if so what are they?

At this point of time in RTW/BI modding i can hardly think of many things that would be unique in the modding scene. I think what makes Ran no Jidai unique is that it creates a whole another historical culture in this case Japan. This means we have had to change almost everything from visual things to names,traits and ancillaries, because there wasn't much for us to use in Vanilla Bi.

In your opinion what would you say was the best feature in your mod?

I think that best feature will be to give a chance for many players to get back on the Sengoku period to wield armies of Samurais and Ashigarus, in depth. While we are influenced by the original STW. Ran no Jidai will be more historically accurate larger,20 factions+ rebels compared to STW´s 7 factions.Many new units and has many features that STW didn't have.

Do you have a favourite faction inside your own mod and why?

Easy answer would be all of them. But if i think deep down factions like Hosokawa and Uesugi who were old clans that had traditionally wielded large power and were struggling against their new opponents and internal strife between various branches of their clans.

Since we’re on this topic of game play, what sort of player are you? Personally I’m the aggressive sort always looking for another fight and more lands to conquer.

I'm more of a "turtle". I tend to limit my growth by making personal rules to myself to make the game last longer.

Could you try and sum up your mod with 10 or less words?

A historical campaign to take over Japan.

Have you a catchphrase to match your mod?

I'm not sure I have one. Haven't really thought much of advertising slogans for RNJ.

Got any words of encouragement to potential fans?

Hang in there people.It has lasted long for us to finish this project,but there is no doubt about it that it will be finished.

What’s your favourite Total War game?

Suprise suprise,its Shogun Total War.

Do you have a favourite mod other than your own?

I haven't had much time to play any mods, but from watching the previews on other mods i would say in no particular order: NTW2, Hegemonia City States, Fourth Age Total War and Europa Barbarorum.

So outside of the Total War Franchise, what’s your favourite game of all time?

I think it would be the Civilization series.

Now is there anything you’d like to show off and tease us with?

Here are couple unpublished Screenshots and little sneak peak on the work on progress on the buildings:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Thanks again

Thank you very much for having me.

-----------

Don't forget to check out Ran no Jidai's forum here at TWC! It's full of all types of goodies and information!

Enter here!

This is Hex Khan, for the Eagle Standard, signing out

Eagle Standard AAR

Presents
A Hex Khan Story

The Rising Star

Chapter 1
The Forced Exile

As I was growing up my Father always told me,
'Some day the peoples of the world will respect our name,
For you my son,
You are greater than I,
You shall earn for yourself greater fame, greater honour,
For your family and for your country,
So much so that you shall shame our king'.

How right my Father was...

The year is 270 BC and great empire of Alexander the great has long since perished leaving behind many successor states all vying for dominance and supremacy, the largest of these successor states is the Empire of Alexander's general Seleucus Nicator, through cunning, charm victory on the battlefield he had forged for himself a mighty kingdom from central Asia Minor as far as the Hindu Kush in the East.

Smaller but no less formidable is the Kingdom Ptolemy in Egypt and the Kingdom of Macedon consigned largely to what was her original dominion. West still is the Epirotes of Epirus ruled over by their King Pyrrhus now looming over Italy. Least we forget the League Greek City States, trying as they will to fend off the yoke of Macedonia, Epirus and Seleucid oppression in the Peloponnesus and few independent islands in and around the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas.

Though I remind you that although that maybe situation of the world around me, it is not however the beginning of my tale, for even then my time had not yet come to take to the great stage of the world.

No, for me what was to transpire was beyond even my control.

Then they came...

Great monsters and tormenting demons with painted naked flesh bringing with them their tools, weapons of war forged of iron.

They came, sweeping East across Europa burning and looting from the west. They clashed with the might of Macedonia and prevailed, the tremors of that fateful battle deafening to all, for the backbone of Greece lay open as these great mass of unwashed hounds of Hades continued plundering the rich pickings of Greece unopposed.

Once fattened with the plunder of Greece, they sought to move on to greener pastures...

Wood reached my father that these Celtic Gauls had been invited by our one time enemy and now uneasy neighbour the People of Pontus, the King of Pontus hoped to use the Gauls to bleed our country white and then he would stride in beat off the plundering Gauls...

Our King ordered my Father to engage these 'Gauls' in open battle, what a terrible decision, however my Father was loyal and marched to war. He fought the Gauls in the plains of Asia minor and among the hills and sand blood was spilt...

Greek Blood

We are told the battle took place just outside or near a small farming estate in Asia Minor but not like the location of the battle matters but rather what happened there in.

Simply put...

Slaughter...

My Father was slain somewhere among the chaos of dying men and all we know is that even the Royal Guard Companions fought on to the bitter end as is their creed, but even the greatest and most noble of sons could stem the flow of the ravaging horde from the west...

TO BE CONTINUED..............dum dum dummmmmmmmmm.

Total War Comic

Welcome to the second installment of Halie Satanus's Total War comic entitled "The Last Crusader". When we last left our lone Crusader, he was all alone in the deserts of the Levant, surrounded by dangers. Let's see what happens next

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Any submissions and contributions from the community are appreciated!

Picture of the Week

Let me tell you people, never before in my long Total War Center life have I seen such an amazing screen. There were several past screenshots that stood out among the rest, including Marshal Qin's amazing Spartans, but that does not even come close to this week's winner.

Drum roll please.........the winner of Picture of the Week 54, carrying 75% of the vote, is the amazing screen entitled "The Siege of Vienna" by the legendary Crypel

Click on it to see it in it's full 2000x1200 glory. It's just so beautiful....sniff, sniff....excuse me, I've got something in my eyes.....

Don't forget to....sniff...to check out Crypel's wonderful AARs, located below
Cross and Crescent in Total War - The Siege of Vienna
"For the Swiss Confederation!" - The Battle of Marignano
The Legendary Gallery of Crypel

Classified Ads

As you may or may not know, there is a new section called the "Modders' Classified Ads" here at TWC, and it's a place where mods can go to post their cries for help and search for new members. Well, the Eagle Standard will be working in accord with the Modders Classified Ads forum, and we'll post what mods are looking for what types of members. Each week we'll post 5 advertisement threads. So here they are:

Wheel of Time: looking for skinner, modeller, mapper and scripter
Megas Alexandros: looking for modeller, skinner, coder, mapper, historian, and 2d artist
Medieval 2: Total Realism: looking for modellers, skinners and 2d artists
Broken Crescent: looking for 2d artists, skinners and coders
Ran no Jidai : looking for modeller