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Total War Battle: Shogun Android/iOS game icon

Total War Battles: Shogun

Play it again, Samurai

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iGamer For fans of the PC series, the first hour of Total War Battles: Shogun - on iOS but coming soon to Android - will be defined purely by what's missing.

The RTS gameplay was never going to squeeze onto fondleslabs without hefty distillation, of course. But in early forays The Creative Assembly's first handheld stab at its popular Samurai-sim feels distinctly lacking the shinzui, or quintessence, of the series.

Total War Battle: Shogun Android/iOS game screenshot

Once more unto the bridge, dear friends...

Battlefields are claustrophobic, for starters. Thin, long strips of hexagonal tiles confine the scope of war, severely limiting flanking and pincer manoeuvres, and turning resource management into more of an intricate puzzle game than an RTS, with buildings requiring distinct footprints and specific connections to other buildings and raw materials.

Combat is restricted to offensive tactics only, with troops limited to advancing or moving sideways, prohibiting tactical retreats and rearguard actions.

Total War Battle: Shogun Android/iOS game screenshot

No business like snow business

Persevere for a couple of hours, however, and concerns over Total War Battles: Shogun's limitations quickly evaporate. Rather than shoehorning a full RTS into a touchscreen game, The Creative Assembly wisely opts for a more tightly focused, but equally engaging and challenging, tactical experience.

Early campaign levels function as an elegant introduction to the combat and resource management, drip-feeding new buildings, troop classes and munitions, with enemy AI and objectives scaled accordingly.

Total War Battle: Shogun Android/iOS game screenshot

I think I'm turning Japanese

In addition, dotted throughout the campaign's 23 levels are an additional 18 side-missions which hone specific skills and reward experience points to spend on attribute perks such as faster gold harvesting.

Next page: Kate Bushido

ingame XP purchasing?

shamefur dispray!

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Price

I'm just glad to see things start to be sold for a more reasonable price, that can earn proper money for the developers.

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I don't understand why someone gave the article such a negative review, so I had to tip the scales. As a huge fan of all of the Total War series, yet not an iOS user, I had to give it a read anyway. It's quite interesting to see what they've done to get around the limitations of mobile gaming... but it still looks pretty good, doesn't it!

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I missed Empire and Napolean...

but Medieval II was by far my favourite of the series.

Up until Shogun 2 came out. And then Fall of the Samurai just made it a million times better.

What a game.

By the way, The Creative Assembly have said that they are looking to release an Android port for this app, so all hope has not failed yet for Android users.

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Anonymous Coward

(in my opinion) pinnacle of the Total war games

Third Age 3.1

I have all versions from the original Shogun to Shogun 2 and the Lord of the Rings mod above is the best version I ever played. My fondest memories of an official release was 'medieval total war viking invasion'

This Total War Battles: Shogun looks like a different game genre completely. Trading off the old name.

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