Demo out as well, on the same day as DA2. Anyone played it yet? So far I've been hearing good things.

I played it. It's the same old Total War. I think it took way to long to download for how long I spent in the demo, but it was fun. It seems to move really quickly, and the historical battle included kicked my ass, but I had a good time watching the battle unfold.

I played the demo and loved it! Actually playing it made me get over any fears I had that it was going to be radically changed and too different. The campaign map felt really nice, and I loved being able to rotate it fully. The battles were fun to play (I only played the tutorial ones in the campaign, I didn't do the historical battle yet), and the units played as I expected them to.

Overall I am even more excited for March 15th. Now I'll just have to somehow beat DA2 in the seven days between the 8th and the 15th. haha

How big is the strategic map? One of the reasons I've not really gotten into Empire is that there was just too much to manage from the start

Did you try starting with Prussia or something smaller?

OMG Total War Fanboy!

Well, in a sense it's "smaller" since it only covers Japan, not the whole continent. But it's at a vastly different scale and much more detailled. A bit like the early Italian campaign of Napoleon TW. Except that Japan is quite bigger than northern Italy...

Do US gamersgate users get 30% cashback on Shogun 2? Europeans also can buy it from d2d paying in $ and you get r:tw for free on both sites. You don't get anything on steam and price is 50€.

That's what gamersgate.com is telling me. 30% cashback ($15 dollars worth, in other words) in Blue Coins (store credit).

Yeah, I started with one of the Indian factions. That worked out quite well.

Shogun is far smaller in scale than Empire or even Napoleon.

Shoulda ordered before tuesday was over. D2D had a 20% off coupon , worked on Shogun a nd pretty much any other game.

How are people enjoying the demo?

Just played the demo, its basically the exact same as the previous versions, just japanified and prettier.

City management, recruitement, construction are pretty much the same as Empire TW. I tried the historical battle, it seemed a little... complex for a first go. Two fronts, troops everywhere, and enemy cavalry closing on you QUICK from the start, no real time to get oriented before blammo.

But it looks nice. Looks like you can also homegrow generals through the family tree.

Yeah.

Worst deal on steam for everyone. You can buy it elsewhere and activate on steam... Hmm... Sega is up to something.

Well, I bought last December the boxed GOTY edition of Napoleon and Empire for 18 GBP on amazon UK, and that included all dlc's.

As far as I'm concerned, SEGA enforcing steamworks on the TW games means I will not rush anymore to buy the game and won't buy the collector edition. I may buy it in Steam's end of year sale. I may have to wait till the prices of the box version drops.