Blood Pack and Hattori Clan DLC announced and released today!

Good afternoon,

Hot off the back of yesterday’s announcement of the Fall of the Samurai standalone expansion, we are thrilled to announce more brand new Downloadable Content for Total War: Shogun 2.

For years, fans have been requesting blood and gore in our games. We’ve decided to rise to that challenge. We’re therefore today announcing the Blood Pack for Shogun 2 – an exhibition of cinematic blood and gore - bringing decapitations, limb-removal and all kinds of splatters to the battlefield. We’ve put a lot of effort into new particle effects, unit animations and visual tweaks to introduce a really visceral experience.



We’re not fans of doing things by half-measures so we’ve gone all-out in our depiction of battlefield violence. Expect to see buckets of the red stuff!

Please note, that this content has a higher age rating than Total War: Shogun 2. In PEGI regions, it’s 18+ and rated M in North America. Unfortunately the Blood Pack is not available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The Blood Pack will also be compatible with the upcoming Fall of the Samurai and any existing or future Shogun 2 DLC, as well as the core game.

We’re also thrilled to announce the release of the Hattori Clan for Shogun 2. Originally available as part of the Limited Edition, we’ve taken the decision to release this clan to a wider audience in response to keen customer demand.



If you opt to purchase the Hattori pack, you’ll get the most powerful battlefield ninja available, an extra historical battle scenario, extra armour and an XP injection for your Avatar. The Hattori Clan can be played in single and multiplayer campaigns and in online battles.

That’s not everything as far as Shogun 2 goes, either. We’re expecting to be able to bring you some more news soon about what we’re working on next. All I can say is this: you won’t be disappointed.
The content is available on Steam right now from the following links:

Blood Pack
Hattori Clan DLC

Enjoy!
The Creative Assembly

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We’re also releasing a title update for Total War: Shogun 2 alongside this DLC, tweaking both the core game and the Rise of the Samurai downloadable campaign:

Rise of the Samurai

• Fixed forum issue enabling players to exceed the maximum veteran slot limit
• Fixed bug where Chosokabe Daikyu Samurai couldn't be recruited
• Fixed bug where Realism mode wasn’t being saved
• Fixed bug where players had to add an extra unit to ready up after a classic MP battle
• Fixed bug where replay battle type didn’t update correctly when switching between types
• Fixed issue with Invite Friends and Weather tickboxes
• Fixed bug where duplicate experienced and veteran units displayed incorrect cost
• State Academy entry in Encylopaedia now displays correctly
• Fixed bug where remaining funds did not update when player switches sides in a siege battle
• Fixed crash bug when starting a 1v3 on a 2v2 map
• Fixed bug where grouped units could not be given orders after rallying from a rout
• Fixed issue where players with a full unit roster could still click ‘add to army’
• Fixed bug where the cutscene after the Nagashino historical battle caused a lockup
• Fixed bug where clearing then loading an army containing Hero units prevented Hero units from appearing as selectable units on the unit selection group

Retainers

• Infantry officer: retainer’s effect is +2 instead of +1
• Yari master: Reduce spear defence from 3 to 2
• Unabalanced spears: reduced effect from -3 to -2 (the counter to yari master)
• Stricken unholy forge: tweaked to affect all monk units
• World weary: morale penalty removed
• European gun smith: Tweaked to affect reload
• Way of the Ikko-Ikki: +10% now affects monks and ashigaru, with +2 melee defence rather than +3
• Rennyo’s teachings: Morale boost now +1 rather than +2 and +3 melee defence rather than +4

Unit categories

Spear and naginata units are now distinct so that spear retainers do not benefit naginata units. This affects a number of overpowered army/retainer combinations to reduce their effectiveness.

Units

• Samurai Archers reduced in cost by 50 koku
• Great Guard cap raised to 2
• Matchlocks reduced in cost as they are now less effective with previous friendly fire fixes
• Naginata Warrior Monk Cavalry capped to 3 max to reduce potency

Awesome Craig, loving it!

This isn't April.

Originally Posted by Magicman2051

This isn't April.

I`m still checking the calendar on my sexy lady pinup on the wall, mobile phone, computer and finally people just to make sure it really isn`t April the first!

Blood looks a bit Shogun assassin over the top, but i`ll check it out.

Um. I`d say thankyou, but I still need to confirm this is real!

Very nice

Will this be up on gamersgate and the like? I'm in a steam region that doesn't get any of the DLC's..

Awsome.

stayed up late tonight and saw Shogun2 updating, already went and bought the 1.59$ blood pack.

great to see you've released the hattori pack. blood looks a little over the top. does it have scalable effects (low-medium-splatterfest)

So all this for 10 gigs?

Originally Posted by CraigTW

Unfortunately the Blood Pack is not available in Germany.

WHAT THE HELL??????

Originally Posted by Matamoros

WHAT THE HELL??????

Oh gosh, guys, you have really problem with this censorship in games.

Originally Posted by Matamoros

WHAT THE HELL??????

YEAH, WHAT THE HELL!?!?!!?



That really HURTS!!

Nice, I remember making a (rather passionate) comment about this awhile ago. Good work implementing this. I've been on a TW hiatus, but this should be fun to play around with.

The blood/decapitation sounds great, how does it look en masse?

For years, fans have been requesting blood and gore in our games.

Seriously? Blood and gore? That's the stuff you cater to? What about the many (many) other things us gamers (especially us modders) would' like to see (re-implemented). For example, making the campaign map moddable so you can create different settings. Getting rid of warscape and bring back battlemaps that match the campaign map location.

I know that your dilema (like that of all non-independent) computer game manufacturers is that the majority of gamers' (and computer gaming press' these days) attention can be gained only by flashy graphics, blood, explosions and silly loud noises.

This is really sad.

I'm looking forward, though, to your next true innovation regarding gameplay features you are surely preparing behind this smokescreen produced to silence the masses.

So if you have the Limited Edition, no need to purchase the Hattori DLC Pack because it's already there.

5000 posts!

Originally Posted by Basileos Leandros I

5000 posts!

Congrats.

Thx for balance. Maybe differency between naginata and spear is good way to balance. But Blood Pack? Really, guys, it should be for free.

respect CA :p

THIS IS ING HUUUUUUUGE

that's so cleaver, this way total war games will remain T rated yet we the radical men can have a DLC patch for 2 bucks that brings the game up to a M!

*heart* creative assembly right now, this is so full of win.

Originally Posted by da_bradler

THIS IS ING HUUUUUUUGE

that's so cleaver, this way total war games will remain T rated yet we the radical men can have a DLC patch for 2 bucks that brings the game up to a M!

*heart* creative assembly right now, this is so full of win.

Now that I realize this, I think this is a beautiful move by CA.