An epic Shogun 2 patch has landed alongside the standalone expansion, Fall of the Samurai. If a dozen sumo wrestlers were to combine into a twelve foot tall Megazord of sumo wrestlers, the resulting horror would not be as large or fleshy as this update, which adds 40 vs. 40 units battles to multiplayer, 22 new land and sea maps to fight on, Steam cloud support, reduced battle load times, "greatly reduced" AI turn times and some 3000 words worth of balance shifts and bug fixes. Bikkuri shita!

The fixes listed in the patch notes below affect every aspect of the game, from the campaign map, to the real time battles and multiplayer. There's a bit of good news for anyone who bought the Blood Pack for Shogun 2, it'll apply the same effects to Fall of the Samurai's battles, too. Here's the full change list.

Headline additions – also available to Shogun 2 players

40v40 unit battles available via ‘control large armies’ option in Custom Battles and Multiplayer
Numerous Battle and Campaign AI improvements (see Battle and Campaign sections below)
Greatly reduced save-game file sizes and full Steam Cloud support
Battlefield load time improvement (approximately 30% dependent on machine spec)
Greatly reduced AI turn-time
22 brand new Land, Naval and Siege battle-maps

 
Full patch notes
 

The majority of these also apply to Shogun 2.

General fixes/additions

Fixes for known multiplayer campaign desyncs
Introduced option to auto-trigger abilities through right-clicking
Towers can now be ordered to fire at specific targets
Domination (capture all points) victories added for multiplayer
General optimisations across all areas of the game
Ability to queue technology tree research
Ability to set groups to AI control
Ability to lock group formations with new UI button
Fixed missing siege models
New front-end background camera pans
Campaign AI turn-times reduced due to pathfinding optimisations
Naval campaign AI improved significantly

 
Naval battles

Fixes:

Fixed attack intercept position when in and around islands
Fixed bug where some submerged ships did not surrender
Fixed several rare crashes in naval battle.
Improved circling behaviour for all ships
Improved range detection for Fire Bomb Kobaya
Removed stop-start movement for AI ships moving in a group.
Improved target selection for naval AI

 
User Interface

Modified the Standard Camera in naval battles to ensure that the horizon is always visible.
Added UI toggle to battle HUD (bottom left corner), so can hide UI elements
Mousing over unit cards now highlights the corresponding unit as if mousing over them
Double pressing group frame or double pressing group number shorcut zooms to groups
Added lock formation button for groups; groups act like did before, locked into formation by default, but can be unlocked to behave like a selection group. This provides an easier interface for players just wanting selection groups. (Can still quickly create a selection group pressing ctrl+g, which can also be used to toggle lock)
Added UI support for more units in a single battlefield, card system now goes onto double rows when required
Cursor no longer gives option to attack unmounted horses, as doing so would give order to attack riders which could be confusing
Inspiration range now drawn for all units with inspiration aura, not just for the general (like hero units)
Added ship schematics to info panel for boshin ships, to provide more detail on ships state
Fixed graphical issues with naval fire arcs in night battles
Added player names to MPC tooltips
Added fade transitions to info panels
Unit cards now coloured based on unit category
Added support for unbound keys, so can disable shortcuts rather than having to give obscure shortcut
Added page numbers to tooltips
New group frames to support double rows, and now highlight when moused over or group selected; as well as showing group number rather than japanese number for easier access via shortcuts
Multiplayer postbattle screen reworked
Added option to invert camera's x-axis
Can now move around battlefield when battle results present
Can no longer use debug camera from preferences while in multiplayer battle
Fixed text running off battle tooltips for some gempei units
Fixed bug where info panel would not update while paused during a replay
Bridge icons on battle radar given better image, and now orientated correctly
Fort walls now visible on radar map/loading map
Pings placed on invalid terrain no longer appear in middle of map
Ship tooltips/cards number of men take into account officers
Inactive battle hud buttons have tooltips
Fix for rotated UI images behaving incorrect when running widescreen resolution
Fix for realism mode setting being lost for campaign
Officers taken into account for ship numbers on unit cards/tooltips
Fixed in game chat highlight issues
Building info panel resizes unit entries dynamically to fix unit names being clipped in certain languages
Can now use context and tracking cameras in replays
Fixed issue where pasted invalid characters into text inputs
Neatend effect bundle tooltips so not larger than need to be
Can now double click on ground in battles to move to that location
Drag out units display now shows two arrows when will result in run on release, 1 arrow when will result in walk
Improved target/path marker spline quality so doesn't stretch out, and head now represents movement speed of unit it represents (so know if running or walking to current target)
Added ability to view replays at end of battle/replay, rather than routing player back to front-end then back into battle
Post-battle screens now appear for replays
Tweaks to main menu button animations
Fix for inconsistent naval crew-icons on ship cards between front-end/campaign and battle
Battle-lobby countdown timer moved so retainer panel not obscured
Tweaked UI banner-scaling (slightly smaller) and UI splines brought closer to ground (fire arcs, paths, etc)
Fixed cinematic borders not always being flush to edges of screen, resulting in gaps at top and bottom
Added UI to toggle auto-triggered abilities. Right-clicking on a supported ability button will toggle it to auto-trigger, where the AI will decide when to use the ability, in order to save the player some micro-management.
Chat-toggle button now hides all chat when currently visible rather than input, and button is highlighted when player has unread messages
Group number shortcuts are now rebindable
Moved pings to left-click rather than right-click for UI consistency
Realism mode changes: radar visible during deployment, morale visible on minimal tooltips

 
Campaign

Fixed rare case where pre-battle camera would trigger too early if an agent or neutral army was between the attacker and the defender under certain circumstances.
Campaign variable "family_rounds_between_wife_offers" now also determines the earliest round a wife can be offered
Stopped generating movement extents for armies on the pre-battle screen
Fixed rare campaign lockup caused by an agent being forced out of its reserved area
Fixed very rare campaign lockup involving an ambush across a land bridge, where an agent or third party neutral army is between the acting army and the ambusher
Fixed multi-turn AI actions against the human player causing the game to drop out of speed-up mode even though the action will not complete that turn
Changed format of campaign height-map to reduce load time and significantly reduce memory usage
Fixed very rare crash caused by autosave saving an army in an incorrect order
Fixed bug when issuing orders to agents on navies against target agents in armies
Fixed trade-route tooltip which showed only one imported resource per route
Fixed a rare lockup caused by a successful agent action causing an army to move, whilst another army is also in motion under certain circumstances
Fixed rare crash when two multi-turn embark orders – to embark two different armies onto two different navies – resulted in an attempt to perform both embarks at the same port in the same turn
Fixed rare crash caused by the Daimyo's brother not being demoted from command of an army when the Daimyo dies while there is a superior general in the army
Fixed a few issues with commerce-raid value updates when merging and splitting raiding navies
Added information about when a diplomatic action would be considered dishonourable by other clans
Selecting an agent in an army now shows the agent’s movement extents.
Improved rope visuals on campaign map buildings
Fixed trade-route information not being updated when a port is damaged
Fixed obscure issue which prevented other factions’ movement extents showing if they had military access to player’s territory, but player did not have military access to theirs.
Modified several game areas to fail gracefully instead of crashing when loading incorrectly modded data
Various memory-usage optimisations
Fixed being able to get more than three agents in a city
Fixed unusual crash in pathfinder related to blockaded ports
Fixed crash in event-log system
Fixed crash when issuing an order to a previously merged army
Fixed crash related to capturing artillery
Fixed bug where reinforcement armies solely comprised of units that can't enter as reinforcements (such as artillery) were counted as reinforcements in pre-battle
Fixed bug where region ownership for unseen rebel regions was visible
Fixed bug where attrition-indicator showed on rebel banners when they weren't suffering attrition
Fixed crash when bribing cities that are under siege
Fixed issue with missing army-templates causing lockups
Fixed crash in sound tracker
Fixed crash in agent-options dialog
Fixed issue with ‘surrender imminent’ message
Fixed issue where certain melee and charge bonuses were not working correctly in battle
Fixed issue where shroud was updated many times when a Clan dies, causing some slowdown
Fixed unit exchange issue when in ports
Fixed issue where some characters destroyed in battle remained alive
Fixed issue where pre battle UI appeared in odd order when player was playing as AI in MPC
Fixed issue where campaign thought ships needed 0 crew to function
Fixed case where MPC players are forced to spectate an AI-vs-AI game
Fixed issue where MPC co-op allies received message that enemy is retreating when allies are retreating
Fixed issue where ambush cursor did not show for characters in garrisons
Fixed bug where a force would act on incorrect orders after capturing units
Fixed issue where recruited agents were unable to enter the settlement they were recruited from on the turn they were recruited
Fixed missing building name in ‘legendary building built’ event-log entry
Player now gets full spying information on a force after attacking it
Improved campaign experience-handling
Removed timer from certain battles to prevent exploit
Port selection marker is now centred around the flag
Armies now only get region-unrestricted replenishment in enemy regions
Tweaked some message events to be more informative
Various campaign load-time and memory usage optimisations
Reduced memory usage in front end startup process
Reduced campaign animations memory-usage
Improvements to campaign building-display resource usage
Fixed religion/allegiance zeal display in religion tooltips for more than two religions
Various mission bugs fixed
Fix to clear military crackdown repression on handover of region
Only primary generals now get full XP in battles; generals commanding reinforcements get reduced XP
Technology goal can be selected to guide auto-selection of next tech when research completes
Save games: compression and other size reductions to make files dramatically smaller; Steam Cloud support added

 
Battles

When units are climbing walls men can now fire their bows or guns when at the top of the walls while men in the same unit are still climbing
Movement arrow now appears when units are ordered onto positions on zones such as fort walls
Fixes for units not being able to fire at units behind fort walls in certain circumstances
Unit destination proxies (shown on space bar) now update when the game is paused
Fire arcs now only turn off when ‘fire at will’ is off and melee mode is enabled
Improvement to display of fire arc facing when defending a zone (e.g. on a fort wall)
Fix for not being able to turn off fire at will when defending a zone (e.g. on a fort wall)
AI unit shooting-line analysis tweaks
In siege battles where the AI is attacking, artillery can now deploy on multiple lines.
Units now change their tactic state more effectively if they are idle and under fire in siege battles (when AI is attacking)
Stopped units behind fort walls being unfavourably targeted by artillery
Fixed several fort-reinforcement AI bugs
Stopped units from being issued attack orders when they are climbing fort walls
Stopped units from prioritizing the capture of distant towers in siege battles
Fixed several bugs with idle cavalry during AI-attacking siege battles
Fixed bug where AI was unable to place units on a sensible fort approach
Fixed strange movement bugs in AI fort defence
Fixed rare crash-issue resulting from a scenario where the player enters a battle with no units because they are reinforcing another player, and all their units are artillery (which cannot be deployed as reinforcements)
The ‘last stand’ morale state, triggered when castle defenders are fighting to the death, now imposes penalties on ranged accuracy and reload rate
Battle AI is more likely to deploy cavalry on both of its flanks, allowing for greater opportunities when flanking and executing a double envelopment
Fixed an issue where naval reinforcements sometimes did not fully enter the map
Introduced a variety of improvements to the battlefield AI's use of outflanking and double envelopment manoeuvres, making these tactics more effective overall
Fixed a rare issue where some reinforcement units did not enter the battlefield because they were not correctly resized to avoid obstacles outside the playable area
Battle AI now performs a deeper analysis when it decides between walking and running, resulting in the AI moving more swiftly when appropriate and tiring its troops out less often
Fixed an issue where ships left a battle with incorrect experience data, causing them to gain experience prematurely
Fixed an issue in Battle AI which delayed its ability to move to a good defensive position outside its deployment zone once the battle starts
Fixed several issues in the way that the Battle AI assembles and holds a defensive line. The AI is less likely to reform when an enemy is near, and will be more stable when holding the line
Battle AI now does a better job of advancing a firing-front towards an enemy, by performing a more robust selection of a direction from which to attack
Mounted shooters now avoid shooting through friendly units before firing in the same way that infantry shooters do
The duration of the friendly-fire penalty has increased from 6 seconds to 30 seconds
When trying to set buildings alight, archers no longer continue to fire on buildings after their flaming arrows are spent
When a unit is within range of multiple friendly passive inspiration auras, it is now given a bonus equivalent to the largest single aura; the multiple auras do not stack. Previously only the commanding general's aura was ever applied

 
General multiplayer fixes

Fixed issue where a veteran unit could gain its statistics bonus prematurely during the battle, once enough experience points had been earned but before the end of the battle
Fixed issue where LAN server browser contained wrong information
Fixed some crashes with multiplayer
Improved chat-room population system
Fixed issue where battle voice was not working
Fix for rare case where land units could be taken into naval battle

 
MP abilities

Stand and fight: melee attack bonus reduced from 3 to 2
Standand Fight: reload bonus reduced from 10 to 5
Hold firm: melee defence bonus reduced from 6 to 3
Rally: morale bonus to non-routing units reduced from 2 to 1 (bonus for units already routing is unaffected)
Naval whistling Arrows duration halved
Special abilities for towers

 
MP unit caps

Kisho Ninja capped at 4 per army
Mounted Samurai capped at 3 per army

 
MP retainers

Infantry officer: +1 morale
Way of the Ikko-Ikki: +1 morale, +2 melee defence & +5% cost for monks and ashigaru
Rennyo's teachings: -1 melee attack, +3 melee defence all units
Stricken unholy forge: -1 armour to enemy melee troops
World-Weary: -1 morale (enemy veterans)
Shirabyoshi dancer: +1 morale (veterans), +5% cost (monks, nuns)
Naginata Warrior Monk Cavalry no longer affected by retainers affecting all monks, to bring them in line with their Samurai equivalents.

 
MP skills

Fire by rank: cost reduced from 250 to 120
Rapid Volley: cost reduced from 250 to 120

 
MP key buildings

Reduced morale bonus from Shrine

 
MP unit costs

Yari hero (decreased from 1200 to 1100)
Bow hero (decreased from 1500 to 1400)
Bow ashigaru (decreased from 450 to 400)
Matchlock ashigaru (decreased from 500 to 450)
Bulletproof samurai (decreased from 1000 to 950)
Nuns (decreased from 900 to 850)
Tetsubo monk hero (increased from 800 to 850)

 
The following brand new Fall of the Samurai maps will also be made available in Shogun 2:

Land battles:

Awa Ridge Pass
Gigu Crossing
Happo Ridge
Ishiyama Ruins
Iwaki Foothills
Jigokudani Valley
Kawabe River
Kurobe Gorge
Nishizawa Valley
Osaka Plain
Ubayu Onsen
Usui Pass

 
Naval battles:

Hokuriki Coast
Seto Inland Sea
Tohuku Sea
Tokai Coast
Tsugaru Straits
Sea of Japan

 
Siege battles:

Iburi Castle
Satsuma Castle
Uzen Fortress
Wakasa Fortress

 
EDIT: Additionally added fixes

Rally (land & naval)
Active time reduced to 60; recharge time reduced to 180

 
Hold firm

Range reduced to 30
Active time reduced to 30

 
Stand and Fight

recharge time increased to 45

 

For every Total War game, there are dozens of ambitious mods. Some, like Europa Barbarorum for Rome, overhaul the game to reflect the period in which it's set with a scholarly degree of historical accuracy. Others, like the Darth mods, prettify everything with a bundle of graphical updates tweak enemy AI to make the games more challenging.

Despite modders' enthusiasm for the series, the Total War games have never been especially easy to meddle with. If anything, they're getting harder to tweak. Is this a deliberate move to help sell more DLC by reducing fan-made alternatives? We asked Creative Assembly studio director Mike Simpson that very question.

"That isn’t the case. If anything, we tend towards: the more mod support, the more DLC you’ll sell," he said. "It has always been quite difficult to support mods quite well and it’s quite a lot of work, so we’d end up not doing something else."

The increasing complexity of the Total War engine will have made modding trickier, but it also makes creating user friendly mod tools more difficult on the development side, too. "We’ll do more," Simpson said. "We will do more."

We asked Mike Simpson if the team at Creative Assembly have been watching the launch of the Steam Workshop, and the explosion of TF2 and Skyrim mods that have resulted.

"Yeah, we’re looking at that as well. We should be letting people do this," he said. There’s no philosophical problem with modding at all."

"I can imagine situations where it might run into trouble if someone started to do a mod that happened to be the thing we were doing in the next game, then we’d be thinking do we really want to encourage that?" he added with a laugh.

The standalone expansion, Total War: Shogun 2 Fall of the Samurai, is coming out on Friday. It's good. Find out why in our Total War: Shogun 2 Fall of the Samurai review, and have a peek at our ten top tips to help you take back Japan. Hint: use guns. Lots of guns.

Fall of the Samurai's new steamboats explode as you might expect when you consider the racks of torpedoes stored within those mighty hulls. The new steam ships and sturdy ironclads of the era are just a few of the powerful new weapons that standalone Shogun 2 expansion Fall of the Samurai brings to Japan. It's set 300 years after the events of Shogun 2, at a time of rapid modernisation triggered by the arrival of boisterous Western traders from America, Britain and France. The rising number of foreign troops and advanced technology would grow to infuriate the traditionalist samurai classes leading to unrest and eventually, full-scale uprising.

As leader of a pro-imperial or pro-shogunate faction, you'll have to deal with these rebellions, ideally by using the devastating new gatling guns. Plonk one on a hill in front of a unit of swordsmen, halve the game speed and you'll get something akin to the final scenes of The Last Samurai. A fitting way to crush one's enemies. Fall of the Samurai is due to drop on March 23, check out our Fall of the Samurai preview for a detailed overview.

Total War's biggest expansion will also feature their most modern setting to date. That doesn't mean that we'll lose out on cavalry charges and mass infantry melee, though. Japan's traditionalist forces will put the art of war to the test against new threats like long-range artillery, gatling guns and well-drilled ranks of gunmen. Each of the six new factions will be fighting for or against the Shogunate. Your role as the leader of one of those factions will be to push Japan in one direction or the other, ideally by creating an army that consists entirely of horses and rampaging them from one end of the country to the other, trampling the enemy underhoof. Horses FTW.

Fall of the Samurai is a standalone expansion, so you won't need a copy of Shogun 2 to play it. The expansion is due out on March 23. Which side will you take?

Which are better, guns, or bows and arrows? Guns, of course, you might think, but then you have to consider the long reload times, their tendency to explode, their unreliability in wet conditions. These are some of the issues that Total War lead designer James Russell and the team at The Creative Assembly think about every day as they balance the clash of old and new weaponry in Fall of the Samurai.

"Bows can be better than guns in the hands of a skilled user" says Russell. "If you fire arrows more frequently than you a fire a gun it can be more lethal. It's not direct fire, you can fire above, and behind a rank of guns in front of you."

But then there's the cost of teaching men to wield a bow effectively. It can take years of training and strong arms to fire a bow effectively. A unit of marksmen can be taught to use guns in weeks. A big advantage. The improving technology and craftmanship also made guns a tempting option.

"This is the era where the guns start to become more effective than bows," Russell says. "The effective ranges start to become greater. This is the last hurrah of archery, guns are really taking over."

In Fall of the Samurai you can choose to embrace the new gunpowder weaponry being brought into Japan from the West, or you can fight for the Shogunate and try to save the Samurai, and find out once and for all whether bows can beat an army of gatling guns and rifles. The standalone expansion is out on March 23.

The Samurai are doomed. That's according to the latest batch of Total War: Shogun 2 screenshots, which show off lots of new imperial weaponry. Cannons, gatling guns and muskets will make defending the Shogunate a very tough task. Fall of the Samurai's new weaponry has to be dramatic, mind, "mild decline of the Samurai" doesn't have quite the same ring to it. We'll get to fight with the expansion's new land and naval units on March 23.

You'll find plenty more in our big preview in the latest issue of PC Gamer UK. Meanwhile, see samurai being blown apart and roasted in the new grabs below, which also feature some of Fall of the Samurai's new Agents.

March 23 is the release date for Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai, the enticing standalone expansion to Shogun 2.

Fall of the Samurai introduces six new factions to do battle for an expanded campaign map portraying ancient Japan on the verge of an age of transition. Western weaponry is being imported in greater numbers, and factions within Japan are seeking to use them to overthrow the ancient Shogunate using the muskets and massive cannons provided by imperial forces.

The expansion will add new tech trees, ground units, naval units and agents as well. You can find out more in our great big preview in the latest issue of PC Gamer UK, which you can order now online, or get digitally through Zinio or Apple Newsstand.

Fall of the Samurai is a great big standalone expansion for Total War: Shogun 2 that will pit the samurai classes against imperial forces that threaten the power of the Shogunate. The influx of colonial forces and new technology leads to an internal struggle between pro-imperial forces and traditionalists. The result? WAR! Katanas will meet muskets on the battlefields of Japan.

There will be six new factions to play with, 39 new land units, 10 new naval units, an expanded campaign map, three new agents, port sieges and new technology, including railways. It's available to pre-order now on Steam and the SEGA store for £24.99 / $29.99

Pre-ordering on Steam will grant you the Tsu faction, described as astute strategists and master ninjas. The SEGA store pre-order comes with the Obama faction, who have nothing to do with the incumbent US administration. They're described as an authoritarian people "who are unsurpassed in controlling people and trade."

The official Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai pre-order page also lists a limited edition as "coming soon." That'll contain the Saga faction, who can quickly adopt the fresh technology brought into Japan by Imperial forces. Fall of the Samurai is due out in March.