The Road To War The AI of Total War (Part 1)

The first entry in the franchise, Shogun: Total War, balances the combat simulations that strive for realism and authenticity, alongside the political strategy that is aimed to give context and stakes to each conflict. The original Total War is set in 1530, during the Sengoku Jidai period of feudal Japan: a time largely popularised in contemporary fiction by the works of Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa, with films such as Kagemusha, Seven Samurai and Ran proving influential on the design and development of the game - with clips of the latter being used as part of the games cinematics. Both the player and opposing AI assume the role of the'Daimyo': local-lords who control provinces of Japan with a need to conduct both diplomatic strategy alongside military movements. When rival factions are drawn into conflict, players take control of the'Taisho' (General) and move hundreds if not thousands of troops across the battlefield. Sengoku Jidai made for an ideal period of history for the game, given the politics and even the economics of the period was built around the logistics of fielding armies in defence of the Daimyo and his ambitions. Total War deviates from many traditional real-time strategy games in that it removes mechanics such as Fog of War from combat gameplay as well as the need for resource management outside of unit counts from combat decision making.