Shogun 2 Total War Black Ship

Total War: Shogun 2 Navy / Naval Tactics[edit]

1. Total War Shogun 2 Finding The Black Ship

Changing the game's Texture Quality option during a campaign or a battle may cause the terrain to appear black. This can be avoided by changing this option with the Game Settings in the main menu, and will usually stop happening after starting the next battle or re-loading your campaign. Total War: SHOGUN 2 Napoleon: Total War Empire: Total. Total War: Shogun 2 is a strategy video game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega in 2011. It is part of the Total War series and returns to the 16th-century Japan setting of the first Total War game, Shogun: Total War, after a series of games set mainly in Europe and the Middle East. Shogun 2: Total War. Shogun II’s shoehorning of Japanese warfare into the European moulds of perfectly aligned units and spear walls challenges the era’s authenticity, while hundreds of cavalry flanking armies on the field goes contrary to the historical image of Japan.

Terrain we say? In the water? Surely we jest? Nay, we would reply. The sea too has its nuances that you can twist and exploit to your advantage. More pointedly, the water in some places will have different depths. Deep water, colored dark blue, is the most common and can be used by all sea-faring vessels. This is the most common oceanic terrain and the one you'll most often fight on. That being said, you'll likely notice areas where the water is lightly colored. This water is shallow and cannot be used by many larger vessels, making it a perfect place for you to park that light arrow ship and have it take pot shots at the enemy fleet. Never discount the value of an island either. Islands can be useful for cover, to split enemy forces and even for creating bottlenecks to funnel opposing ships into.

Total War Shogun 2 Finding The Black Ship

If there's an area you know the enemy fleet will have to pass through, especially one of those tight little bottlenecks we're so fond of, mine the sucker. If you have sea mines available there's no reason not to use them. It's like having a gift certificate to the Olive Garden and going to McDonald's, it just doesn't make sense. So, in short, unless you're opposed to the idea of floating balls of death and destruction, if you have mines use them.

This isn't Shogun 2: Totally Mercy, this is Shogun 2: Total War. That being said, when in naval combat there are some distinct advantages to capturing enemy ships rather than outright destroying them. Namely, when the battles over your fleet will actually be bigger than smaller, making it even harder for the next fool stupid enough to take you on. Now, we're not saying never outright destroy enemy ships. Sometimes it's unavoidable. That being said, don't shy away from the 'boarding attack' option available to medium and heavy bune ships.

Like with ground armies, you don't want your battle fleet to be a one trick pony. Make sure your fleet is built up from a variety of different ships. For instance, it can be tempting to just stock up on medium and heavy bunes and then try to capture every enemy ship on the map. That being said, it's also tantamount to suicide. Your opponents aren't just going to sit back and let you capture them. You'll need someone backing your capture hungry marines up. Probably the most effective strategy in the game in our opinion is to split your fleet into two sections; one for direct ship to ship boarding actions and another for longer range support fire. This keeps the enemy occupied while you pilfer their ships. That being said, doing this requires a balanced force.

On occasion you'll receive a random message telling you about a black ship and its location. When you receive this message, build a big fleet and seek out the ship immediately. Capturing the black ship can be costly, but it's probably the best naval vessel in the game and will all guarantee you superiority in every engagement you partake in.

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Total War: Shogun 2 is the seventh full installment in the popular Total War series of strategy games. Like its predecessors, it features a mixture of turn-based strategy on a campaign map and real-time tactical battles. As a sequel/remake of the very first game of the series, Shogun: Total War, the setting returns to Feudal Japan and the Sengoku Period of civil war. Starting in the 1540s, the player takes control of one of the powerful clans struggling for superiority in Japan, with the eventual goal of uniting Japan under a new shogunate.

Two expansion packs were produced, introducing new campaigns to the game. The first, Rise of the Samurai, is set during the Genpei War of the late 12th century, which led to the decline of the Chinese-influenced imperial court, the rise of the first shogunate and the dominance of the Samurai class in Japanese society. Unlike the basic game, the major clans are split among three families and the igniting event of the conflict will occur (Emperor Takakura is pressured to abdicate by the Taira and his toddler grandson Antoku is placed on the throne), setting off war between the three families and probably their aligned minor clans with them - the pressures of this war will create an emphasis on the usage of agents to aid your cause without even more fighting. The religion mechanic has been adapted to 'influence' of the three major families which will be a core mechanic to deal with constantly, since Junsatsushi agents can convert provinces with a majority of influence aligned to your family without a fight - especially helpful with the war certainly occupying your troops elsewhere.

The second new campaign came in the form of a stand-alone expansion, Fall of the Samurai, which depicts the Boshin War of the 1860s between the Tokugawa Bakufu and the resurgent Emperor. As a result of Japan's opening and contact with western influences, Japanese society is changing rapidly, spelling the demise of the feudal rule under the Samurai which has been in place for almost 700 years. 'Modernization' serves as the technology trees and buildings involved in the main strategic mechanics, which will naturally improve your clan greatly to procure...at the cost of citizens becoming increasingly unhappy with their lives being turned upside down by foreign influence overtaking traditions. The influence mechanic replacing religion remains from Rise of the Samurai, instead split between Imperial and Shogunate alignment. Unlike the other campaigns, Realm Divide here will have the Shogunate and Imperial forces openly declare their loyalties and fight against each other with you forming the vanguard of one of them - or you may instead choose to fight off everyone again by forming an independent republic!

This game provides examples of:

• Achievement Mockery: There's an achievement for sinking or capturing a particularly powerful ship. Possibly due to a programming oversight, you still get this achievement if it's you who loses the ship in question.
• The Alliance: And one you'll hate with every molecule of your being. Realm Divide in Shogun 2 and Rise of the Samurai is essentially The Alliance of clans who aren't you, desperately fighting your titanic might from occupying Kyoto and declaring yourself Shogun. In Fall of the Samurai however, unless you decide to take the Republic route, you will ultimately find yourself the leader of one of the two alliances that form, the pro-Imperial and the pro-Shogunate.
• Alliance Meter: Diplomacy is governed by several factors that can increase or decrease another clan's fondness for your own which are then summed up to get their final disposition for your clan. Positive factors include having a particularly honorable daimyo, having good trade relations, having mutual enemies, and having Arranged Marriages with them. Negative factors include having a dishonorable daimyo, being known to be untrustworthy, being aggressively expansionist, trading or allying with their enemies, and being at war with them.
• Alternate History:
  • As with most TW games, this is pretty much inevitable, even playing as the Tokugawa. Who knows what would have happened if Nobunaga never rose to power, or if the samurai order was overthrown by the Ikko-Ikki?
    • Some historical inconsistencies presents in game. For example, the Chosokabe clan did not emerge until 1574, when Chosokabe Motochika destroyed the remnants of Ichijo clan. In-game, it is Chosokabe Kunichika who would crush the Ichijo around 1545 (as rebel force).
    • Did Otomo clan convert to Christianity as early as 1545? Otomo Sorin's father, Otomo Yoshiaki did not do so. It is the son that did it.
  • Rise of the Samurai gives you the option of letting the Taira attain supremacy or even allowing the Fujiwara to return from obscurity.
  • Fall of the Samurai makes it possible to see how Japan might turn out had the Shogunate won or if Sakamoto Ryoma's dream of an American-style Japanese Republic had come to fruition.
• Amazon Brigade:
  • The onna-bushi (warrior women), heavy infantry units that fight using naginata. Only available when defending a province with a high level castle (Shogun 2) or a high level Koryo dojo (Rise of the Samurai).
  • Warrior Nuns, available from high level Buddhist temples.
  • Rise of the Samurai adds Onna Bushi Heroines, highly skilled cavalry equipped with naginata and bows.
• Anachronism Stew:
  • If you have both Shogun 2 and Fall of the Samurai, it is possible to take an army of sixteenth century samurai and ashigaru, and fight a 1860s army of riflemen, cannons, revolver/carbine-armed cavalry and Gatling guns during online multiplayer matches. There are achievements for winning a match using an army from either end of the Timey-Wimey Ball against an opponent roughly two centuries ahead or behind you technologically.
  • Fall of the Samurai features the Boshin War, which took place in a chaotic era for weapons technology. Both the Imperial and Shogunate armies snapped up whatever guns were available and for sale, meaning that each side's personal weaponry varied wildly. A soldier (if he even had a gun) might have carried anything between an 18th-century muzzle-loader to the most modern rapid-fire breech loader.
• Annoying Arrows: Played With. Units with heavy armor like Naginata Samurai will shrug off a lot of arrows, but more lightly armored troops will likely get mowed down.
• Anti-Cavalry:
  • In the Sengoku Jidai campaign, spears (especiallyYari Ashigaru in Yari Wall formation), archers and guns will cause chaos amongst cavalry units, who aren't nearly as powerful as in Medieval II and are far more vulnerable to missile fire. If you're a swordsman, on the other hand... cavalry, while not as capable, are still formidable on the frontal charge against the right unit type and can be quite powerful continuously charging engaged units (even spearmen) from behind and disengaging, making anti-cavalry more relevant.
  • Rise of the Samurai lacks yari units, but archers and naginata are sufficient to deal with the cavalry they have to fight against. In particular, the weak armor of Heian-era units and the small size of cavalry combine to ensure that cavalry (even the almighty Tomoe Gozen) need to get out of the line of fire when archers are shooting at them as well, in spite of their speed.
  • In Fall of the Samurai, in the early game, a cavalry charge (whether to front or flank) can kill Line Infantry rather effectively, but traditionalist spearmen (the Yari Kachi or even Spear Levies) will clear them off the field rather swiftly. Later in the game, the more powerful domains will have developed artillery and modern rifles, and sabre cavalry will become virtually useless.
• Armor-Piercing Attack:
  • Certain fortifications designed to provide cover against arrow fire are much less effective against matchlock shots.
  • Cannons are available in the main game for those who cultivate ties to the West and are available to pretty much everyone in Fall of the Samurai. Heavy armor may as well be tissue paper against these attacks.
  • Ironclads and armored ships are best handled with armor-piercing shots.
  • Guns go through armor like butter.
    • Inverted Trope by the Date's Bulletproof Samurai - their armor uniquely is one of the only kind that can stand against gunshots, and so they get a reduced damage modifier against gunfire that allows them to survive being shot by muskets. ^note
• Arranged Marriage: You can use your daughter in your family as a political tool when dealing with other clans (marriage between clans yields a whooping +100 relation points). On the other hand, if a clan has a daughter, you can marry her to one of your sons.
• Arrow Cam: Press 'Insert' while selecting a missile unit to enable a chase camera on one of the projectiles it fired.
• Arrows on Fire: A special ability that archer units can use, provided the right technologies have been researched. They're the only way to take out buildings from a distance without siege weapons, so if you aren't going that way, you'll definitely want to research them.
• Artificial Brilliance: The AI is generally agreed to have improved greatly in Shogun 2 over previous games in the series. While not perfect, it is definitely a far more capable opponent and will ruin your day on the higher difficulties, both on the campaign map and on the battlefield.
• Artificial Stupidity: However, the AI is still prone to the occasional moment of jaw-gaping stupidity.
  • The AI often doesn't understand the importance of keeping Generals alive. It will routinely have its General charge directly into combat, often right into a spear wall and sometimes far ahead of the rest of their advancing army. This can result in the general getting killed very early in the battle, giving the player a huge advantage.
  • An AI opponent will usually stand idly by as archers outside of an AI defended castle shoot their troops to pieces instead of sallying out. (There is a reason for this, though it doesn't make the action any less stupid. Units inside walls get a large morale bonus and the computer is unwilling to sacrifice that bonus for any reason. Too bad that morale bonus doesn't protect against projectiles...)
  • If you get two missile units in a duel with one another (one isolated missile unit attacks another isolated missile unit in the field) then you'll sometimes be treated to the sight of archers and gunners forgetting about their area of expertise altogether and charging a wall of bows. Utter slaughter is, naturally, inevitable.
  • It's perfectly possible to take a bridge, rout the opposing army, and then turn right back around and amass a staggering number of taken heads as the enemy's reinforcements arrive, presumably meaning to outflank you on the ground you have just left. If their comrades have already routed, they will first attack you and then try to run away across the bridge you are now guarding; the result can be some fairly skewed kill ratios.
  • While Computer-controlled clans are not affected by upkeep, they're woefully incompetent at managing provinces and local infrastructure. Such is the case when you capture provinces with only one or two building slots in the mid or late stages of a campaign.
  • The AI doesn't know how to get through its own gates if you capture them, and will stubbornly refuse to go around. If you're besieging an enemy castle and they have reinforcements inbound, it's entirely possible to storm their walls, capture the gates and watch as the entire reinforcing army, intent on reaching their allies, crowd around the gates that refuse to open and just mill around looking like idiots while you capture the tenshu or use them as target practice.
  • If you are defending a fort and the AI manages to destroy one of your gates with artillery, it will then decide that the best tactic is to send all of its troops through that one gate. If this happens in Fall of the Samurai where cannons are more common, a mere handful of any rifle infantry surrounding the gate will mow down each invading unit as they enter single-file.
  • Clans which do something innocuous on it's own, such as revoking military access, can go into a downward spiral of decaying relations where they end up breaking other agreements, which then causes them to not like you, which then causes them to break more agreements. This is especially annoying in Rise of the Samurai, where your first enemy might end up being a former ally simply because they revoked a trade agreement with you to trade with someone else, and now they hate your guts.
  • When defending a castle, the AI will muster its forces in such a way to counter the greatest concentration of enemy forces. If the bulk of an attacking army sits on one side of the castle just outside of arrow range, the defending army will all crowd to the walls on that side of the fort. While this is happening, a small unit can flank around to the other side of the walls and be completely ignored. This means that a unit of firebomb throwers can be blowing open a gate on the fire side of the fort and the AI will never think to turn their archers around or sally out a fast unit to run them down, allowing their entire defense to be compromised.
  • Here's an important rule of thumb to remember in Campaign Mode: Don't Auto-resolve Naval Battles as the calculations can be skewed and unreliable. To note:
    • Example 1: You have two Nanban Trade Ships against one Bow Kobaya. If you fight manually, the Bow Kobaya will never survive or even inflict any damage. If you Auto-resolve, the Bow Kobaya will inflict minimal casualties and hull damage on one Nanban Trade Ship. On the other hand, if you got TEN Nanban Trade ships (galleons with cannons), well...
    • Example 2: You have eight Medium Ships against one Large Ship. If you fight manually, the Large Ship will surrender or be sunk with minimal or no casualties to your fleet. If you Auto-resolve, you will lose at least one Medium Ship.
    • Large, slow Ships are strong in manual battles but fare poorly in Auto-resolve whereas Small, fast Ships will get crushed in Manual Battles but seem to tip the odds more favorably in Auto-resolve.
  • When defending a fort against archers, enemy archers will advance to the wall while shooting at anything within range. Back up your army far enough and the archers will climb the wall and focus on capturing the tenshu, rendering them much less dangerous.
  • In Fall of the Samurai, defending AI ships tend to just sit on their side of the map and only react to your maneuvering ships by turning to present a broadside. They will only react when your ships enter their combat range or when their ships enter yours. Using this tactic, it's possible to aggro individual enemy ships and deal with them one-by-one.
• Artistic License – History:
  • In the game, your Samurai units will specialize in only one weapon while real life Samurai were Jack-of-All-Stats proficient in the spear (yari or naginata), the bow (yumi), and the sword (katana or tachi). The sword was usually a back-up weapon for when your bow or spear was broken or discarded, rather than being a main battlefield weapon the way it is for Katana Samurai and Katana Cavalry in the game. Even the legendary Miyamoto Musashi strongly advises against Crippling Overspecialization through the exclusive usage of just one weapon.
  • In real life, the 1868 Boshin War was a small-scale conflict that ended with just 8,200 deaths. In Fall of Samurai, the Boshin War is depicted as a large-scale conflict that can last up to a dozen years and involve a death toll closer to that of the American Civil War (which had over 600,000 deaths). Also players have the ability to recruit regiments from foreign armies, such as US Marines or British Marines. While foreign powers did play a role in the war, no troops from their armies were involved in it.
  • The Ikko-Ikki are presented as a unified faction following its own religion that poses a valid threat to the Japanese social order. In real life, the Ikko-Ikki 'movement' was, at best, a regional rebellion consisting of two provinces and a trio of (very centrally located) monasteries that followed a slightly more radical interpretation of Buddhism than the average.
  • Pretty much everything about the Hattori clan is this. In real life, Hattori Hanzo was a samurai retainer who served Tokugawa Ieyasu who became legendary for his battlefield prowess and numerous daring raids and unconventional actions outside the battlefield, which made him closely associated with the ninja myth. In the game, the Hattori clan holds the daimyo position over the whole Iga province, which in real life was held by independent warrior-peasants. In fact, everything about the game's portrayal of the ninja is rooted in common, historically-inaccurate tropes.
  • Many other playable clans also suffer from varying degrees of this. In addition to the aforementioned Chosokabe, the Tokugawa were known as the Matsudaira until Tokugawa Ieyasu changed his name in 1567, and the Otomo were far from dominated by Christianity in 1545, their daimyo only converting to Roman Catholicism over three decades later.
• Art Shift: This is played with in the aesthetics of Shogun 2 but is most evident with Fall of the Samurai, which has old-style photographs and Victorian-esque illustrations standing in for the usual Japanese stylings of the main game's interface. Rise of the Samurai meanwhile goes the opposite direction, showing a more archaic and stylized art direction compared to the main game. This is to match the setting of the Genpei Wars, centuries before the Sengoku Jidai campaign of Shogun 2.
• Ascended Extra:
  • As in previous Total War games, a successful low-born captain may be promoted to the rank of General and even be adopted into your clan, to the point of potentially becoming Daimyo. For a historical example of this happening, see Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
  • Your Daimyo's wife, who otherwise is more or less irrelevant, will take over if your Daimyo dies and you have no heirs that are of age yet. This can actually be a good thing if your Daimyo had low honour, since she doesn't even have that stat.
• Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: A favored 'tactic' of many Ashigaru units. Their relatively low morale means they'll often charge across the battlefield, lose half their company to your archers, and then rout before even making contact with your infantry. Hopefully you have some cavalry on hand to run the cowards down...
• Awesome, but Impractical
  • Fire Bomb Thrower. Their bombs look cool, aren't they? They are also great on defense, right? Bring them to the open field and expect a lot of morale penalty because of friendly fire they those guys are on action without proper management. Their short range means that they will be butched without having a chance to shine by cavalry if left unchecked.
  • Geisha. It is true that Geisha is skilled assassin, but on the other hand, she is visible to EVERYONE, unlike Ninjas, that makes her prone to be executed/captured by enemy Metsukes, be assassinated by enemy unseen Ninjas (somewhat unlikely, Geisha starts off with rather high rank) or be pacified by Monks/Missionaries. Her only job is to assassinate high-profile officials and passive scouting, she cannot anything else (dancing, inspring, 'helping' generals or so...). If you see a Geisha on the field, you know what to do, because Beauty Is Bad!
  • Hero units. You have to spend a lot on building and research just to be able to make them in the campaign. And chances are by the time you are able to get them, you probably won't need them anymore.
  • Kisho Ninja are only good for scaling castle walls, making surprise attacks, and butchering units that are poor in melee, weakened by casualties, and/or already tied up in melee against another friendly unit. If they try to wage a fair fight by themselves against a full-strength unit that is strong in melee, they'll get their asses kicked badly.
  • The Takeda clan specialises in cavalry in a game where the most basic and cheapest unit in the game is a spearman with a whopping +25 attack bonus vs cavalry. Cavalry are flashy, impressive, elite units and the Takeda ones are even moreso, but cannot be fielded in large numbers without a strong economy and will spend most of the battles in campaign running from the opposing side's spearmen.
    • However, their auto-resolve battle is awesome, since the auto-resolve algorithm somewhat held cavalry in high regard, so it is possible to see AI Takeda rise as a force to be reckoned with. If you happen to be Takeda's enemy, expect to fight manually a lot to send those horseriders to the Hades.
  • In Fall of Samurai, you can upgrade your castle archery towers to matchlock gun towers and eventually Gatling gun towers. However, this upgrade takes up a province building slot that would probably be better used for something else, since your constantly expanding borders will often render a specific province's castle defenses moot. Chances are by the time you upgrade your towers all the way up to Gatling guns, the castle in that province will no longer be on the edge of your border, and thus no longer faces much threat of attack. However, the only thing that doesn't make them mostly useless is the occasional enemy fleet that sneaks by your fleets and makes an amphibious landing deep in your territory.
• Automaton Horses: Averted Trope by one degree - cavalry units that dismount can expect the din of battle to eventually scare off some or even all of the horses left alone. There tends to be no issues with cavalry controlling their horses otherwise.
• Badass Grandpa: Expect to laugh gleefully as you see your highest-level Ninja skilfully fillet enemy Daimyos... at the age of 65! Really, every character you have will inevitably be this if they last. They'll gain ranks as they get to work and time passes by, and never lose effectiveness.
• Badass Family: Given that many of your generals in Shogun 2 come from your family, this can easily result.
• Badass Pacifist: Monks and Missionaries (as either Buddhist or Christian specialists, respectively). While Geisha and Ninjas assassinate agents and generals, Metsuke try to execute them under the pretense of crimes against your people, Monks and Missionaries instead convince them to step away from their politically-charged life.
  • Averted if Monks or Missionaries incite riot.
• Battle in the Rain: Fighting a battle in the rain is a possibility. It prevents fire arrows from being used, consequently making it harder to set buildings alight. In addition, reload times for gunpowder units take a hit and it takes longer for tired units to get their breath back.
• Bayonet Ya: For unknown reasons, despite being present in the game files, bayonets never made it into the final release of Fall of the Samurai. However, they can be modded back into the game, arming rifle-armed units with them. However, due to the lack of bayonet combat animations, the only viable alternative was the yari animation set which may leads to a hilarious but awesome moment◊ when a line infantryman kills an on-charging enemy by hurling his rifle javelin-style.
• Being Good Sucks:
  • In Fall of the Samurai, making alliances with minor clans is a bad idea that can backfire as the clans will usually go to war against each other despite being on the same side, forcing you into a lose-lose situation that permanently damages your clan's diplomatic standing, and honour, through a betrayed alliance.
  • Sparing a clan by making them your vassal increases your daimyo's honour, gives you a new trade partner and ally, and is obviously the kind, merciful thing to do, right? Well, unfortunately for you, your vassals don't see it that way come Realm Divide, and will betray you just as readily as anyone else.
• Beleaguered Boss: If a Daimyo suffers too many Terrible Defeats, his Honour will drop to 1 (Unworthy) which will make his Generals fair game for betrayal and bribery.
• Bilingual Bonus: While your advisors will speak in heavily-accented English, your generals, agents and soldiers will generally speak Japanese.
  • In Fall of the Samurai however, everyone else is doing accented English as well. Must be from Japan opening its borders.
  • The Portuguese Tericos unit present in the Otomo DLC recycles most of the voice lines from the Royal Marines in Fall of the Samurai, resulting in a Portuguese unit speaking British-accented English.
• Bloodless Carnage:
  • Despite the fact that he just disemboweled someone, the Takeda samurai in the intro sequence of Shogun 2 has not a speck of blood on his sword.
  • Without the Blood Pack DLC, the game plays this trope straight. With the DLC, it goes somewhat in the opposite direction.
• Blood Knight: You can pick this up as a trait by intentionally engaging in meat grinder battles and sticking your general in the thick of it. By the time your general has reached the 'blood soaked' level most low morale units will voluntarily rout rather than fight him.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: Your generals are all elite warriors in their own right, but they still have bodyguards to protect them on the battlefield, as well as on the homefront against assassination attempts. When a ninja attempts to assassinate a general, sometimes the cutscene will show the general personally thwarting the assassin's plans after he makes it past the guards.
• Bonus Boss: Capturing The Black Ship is an entirely optional naval encounter, and sometimes you'd be lucky to even see it. It's the single toughest ship in the regular campaign and it carries a hefty economic toll just to pay its upkeep. But if you can handle the capture and maintenance cost, you'll have a fairly powerful weapon at your disposal.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Ashigaru are not particularly strong or tough units, being relatively unskilled and prone to Losing the Team Spirit unless they are clearly over-matching the enemy. However, they come in large units which can swamp the enemy with numbers, are great for holding down flanks and defending walls, plus they are cheap to recruit and maintain, can be recruited anywhere without any special buildings and replenish their numbers quickly between battles.
  • Line Infantry in Fall of the Samurai. Recruitable from cadet schools (the 1st tier infantry building) at the beginning of the campaign, they start out far more cost-effective than Levy Infantry, and they are the cheapest infantry to benefit from Foreign Veterans and researched upgrades. It can be hard to justify building toward Bear Infantry, Imperial/Shogun Infantry, or Foreign Marines when Line Infantry has much lower upkeep, yet still puts a lot of bullets downrange.
    • It's generally best for your armies to have a core of a few elite units (Foreign marines, Guards, Red Bears etc.) supported by lots of line infantry.
  • If you prefer traditional armies in Fall of the Samurai, Yari Kachi are recruited from the 1st tier Traditional Dojo and stay relevant for a long time. Their strong morale allows them to tolerate charging into a wall of guns, and their melee ability will cut levies, line infantry, and cavalry to pieces. They have counters — Katana Kachi, artillery, high-tier Line Infantry (Imperial, Shogun, Western Marines) — but the AI doesn't field these in high enough numbers for well over 100 turns.
    • A mix of Line Infantry and Yari Kachi makes for an army that lacks any real flavor or style and is essentially a one trick pony, but that one trick is incredibly effective and reliably counters just about any early game foe.
  • Light Cavalry in Shogun 2 is pretty much the only Cavalry unit that you can field in appreciable numbers without having to draw heavily on your clan income.
  • It is possible to reach Realm Divide without having to fight too many clans at once, by inciting riot everywhere, causing Enemy Civil War! Sending endless wave of monks/missionaries and triggering riot everywhere, chance that most of the clans will be destroyed by the rebel forces (easier if there is difference in religion, for example, Ikko vs. Shinto-Buddism or Christianity vs. Shinto-Buddism), and when your force reaches Kyoto, most of Japan will probably fall under rebels' rule. This method, while effective and possible, is boring, frustrating and surely not in favor of those who prefer Violence Is the Only Option.
    • Christian clans seem to fit with this strategy more than others (either Otomo or any clan that switches into Christianity), as most of Japanese clans are Shinto-Buddism, making missionary's jobs become easier, and only Christian clans can recruit Nanban trade ship, the most powerful warship, second only to the Black Ship, that somehow never get a scratch from auto-resolve battle, allow you to exert naval dominance.
    • If you managed to literally wipe out everyone when the Realm Divide triggered using this method, the game would become an elaborate children's coloring book, with you slowly but inevitably painting your clan colors across the map.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: It is not rare in any campaign for a 'minor' clan to expand massively, swallowing up many 'major' clans in the process. The Imagawa, Hatakeyama and, Amako seem to be the clans most prone to this.
• Bow and Sword, in Accord: Some archer units are quite capable in melee. The Bow Samurai and Bow Hero units in the main campaign have this as their personal operating philosophy. Switching to melee mode leaves you at least with a chance against charging melee units. This trope is taken Up to Eleven with the samurai units in Rise of the Samurai, which are equally highly skilled with bow and sword. They're some of the best units at range and in melee in the Genpei War campaign, although they will lose out when put up against 19th century riflemen in multiplayer.
• Camera Abuse: Subtle, but present. At the fully-zoomed-in level, the camera will bounce and shake whenever a nearby unit is on the move, as if the ground itself shakes at their advance.
• Cannon Fodder:
  • Ashigaru units are cheap and easy to recruit, numerous, and die quickly. However, they can be deadly if employed properly, particularly if they have gathered some experience. Their use should not be underestimated. Oda ashigaru in particular are a subversion of this, proving to be terrifyingly powerful combatants, with their DLC Long Yari Ashigaru being more than a match for samurai under the right conditions.
  • Levies in Rise of the Samurai are pretty much this, being ineffective fighters even at the best of times and only dangerous in numbers. However, castles have larger garrisons than in other eras, requiring subversion by junsatsushi or invasion in force to take.
  • Levy Infantry in Fall of the Samurai aren't useful for much more than this, having less accuracy than matchlocks and generally existing to take bullets so that your more useful troops don't have to. Spear Levies, on the other hand, are vital in the early campaign (where they begin with an experience bonus), make for excellent Anti-Cavalry against sabres and can take down even Line Infantry if they manage to charge home. They can still be used to fit this trope, but they have far more uses than just that.
• Cap: Certain units are limited to a small amount (such as heroes being limited to one, or various elite units being limited to four). All agents are limited to five of a kind - this notably prevents Shirabyoshi and Geisha from seducing a small army of agents to you off of the enemy as you are prevented from seducing while the targeted agent(s) are already at the limit for your faction, forcing you to disband one of your current agents of the kind to try seducing any of them again. In Fall of the Samurai, foreign ironclads are limited to 2 (except the British HMS Warrior, which is limited to 1). Japan's own Kotetsu-class ironclads (technically, French-built) are limited to 6.
• Child Soldiers: The Aizu domain in Fall of the Samurai can field the White Tiger force, a reserve militia made up by samurai children who infamously committed mass suicide after their homeland was taken by Imperial forces in real life.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder:
  • Enemy generals who have been bribed to your side have a penalty to their loyalty rating for 'disloyal tendencies', increasing their likelihood of being bribed or interfered with again.
  • The campaign AI in general (whether through typical stupidity or incomprehensible brilliance) likes to make alliances or trade agreements with you, just to declare war a few turns later.
  • In Fall of the Samurai, it is wise to never take your neighbours, immediate or distant, as trustworthy allies for they can switch sides and turn hostile at the drop of a hat.
  • It's not uncommon for low-loyalty generals to switch sides just before a battle, taking a sizable chunk of your troops with them. A good way to combat that is to get close to the enemy army, then send everyone except the general into battle. Troops will never defect without a general, and you'll still have the general show up as reinforcements.
• Church Militant: Shogun 2 has both Sohei Warrior Monks (which the Uesugi clan specialize in) and the Ikko-Ikki faction, which is basically an organized peasant rebellion that follows a different sect of Buddhism from everyone else in Japan. There's also the Otomo Clan and their Portuguese allies who seek to spread Christianity across all of Japan with both Missionaries and Matchlocks.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The zeal rating of Buddhist/Ikko Monks or Christian Missionaries protects against ninja assassination attempts.
• Clown Car: Like in the previous installments, even the most immense of armies in Shogun 2 can be transported on a single tradeship that realistically should not be able to carry thousands of men.
• Cool, but Inefficient: Late-tier markets and castles, due to their food consumption. It costs a lot of time and money to build them, they provide proportionately less to you for their cost with each rung on the ladder, and a food surplus increases that quantity for economic growth in all of your provinces meaning once you have enough provinces, consuming food will hurt you economically in the future (potentially making it worthwhile to demolish these buildings even if you got them for free from capturing their province), and their technology requirements make it unlikely you'll even be able to build them before they get decisively inefficient. Castles are only useful for their defensive benefits because the repression and buildings slots (you only need a few buildings to specialize a province for building some particular units and perhaps one more for keeping order in it) are probably superfluous, the replenishment rate can be gotten much cheaper with a Barracks and/or improved roads, and the growth and money you'd save by not building them can be spent on more units (that can actually move around) anyway.
  • For example, building a Merchant Guild over a Rice Exchange gives 500 more income and 10 more growth to the town, but costs 1 food and 3400 koku to build - and after the time it takes to be constructed, you'll still have to wait nearly 2 years to get the improved income to pay off and if you have more than 10 provinces, you'd get more growth just by saving your money for something else!
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: While it's in a sense on par with the rest of the Total War games, Fall of the Samurai has this completely played straight for the unit cards: modern units wear blue uniforms while traditionalist ones are in red outfits.
• Color-Coded Multiplayer: Most of the Rise and Fall of the Samurai factions have traits which exclusively effect their performance in the campaign, and there are very few unique units in either expansion. Consequently, faction choice in multiplayer skirmishes largely comes down to what colors you want your troops to be wearing.
• Combat Pragmatist: Modernization in Fall of the Samurai often revolves around using tactics that are effective but not necessarily 'honorable' like some traditionalist fighting techniques. A major theme is using long range weaponry like naval bombardments, cannon artillery, and gatling guns to kill enemies long before they can hope to lay a sword on you. Other technological advancements can also count, like firing long range torpedoes or explosive shells to deliver infrequent but devastating attacks at sea, or even just ramming straight into the enemy if cannons are too slow for you.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
  • On hard and legendary difficulty, the computer controlled clans will use their recruitment discounts to recruit full stack armies and fleets at any time on every turn. Even if a computer controlled clan has only ONE province left, they'll have at least one full stack at ready to make a counter-attack or a last stand despite the obvious fact that their province can't even make enough money to pay for their upkeep.
  • Even on the easier settings, the AI abuses The All-Seeing A.I. to the Nth degree. And they tend to spawn so many navies it's hard to keep up.
  • There are cases where an assassinated Daiymo instantly resurrects in his home province (especially jarring when the ninja actually assassinates him there) and AI-controlled armies being able to use flaming arrows in rainstorms. Debatable whether these are bugs or the AI deciding it doesn't like to play fair.
• Cool Helmet: The famous Kabuto helmets worn by Samurai units are (obviously) on parade, along with notable or famous examples from history belonging to the Daimyos of the great clans. Of particular note are the crescent-moon helmet of the Date, and the 'rolling waves' helmet of the Oda.
• Cool Old Lady: At age 70, your Shirabyoshi can still seduce enemy generals and distract armies.
• Cool Ship: While none of the ships available are terribly uncool, the Roanoke, Ocean and Warrior class ironclads in Fall of the Samurai still outpace everything else by dint of their staggering firepower. Expect to pay through the nose for each one you purchase, though.
• Crack Defeat: Is a distinct possibility. One example is the historical Battle of Okehazema, where Oda Nobunaga beat an Imagawa force ten times the size of his own.
• Crippling Overspecialisation:
  • The Hattori Clan relies on ninjas instead of standing armies full of regular troops to conquer Japan. This handicap manifests itself as a +25% upkeep cost for infantry units that are not Kisho Ninja.
  • The Ikko-ikki specialize in Warrior Monks, which are more powerful than any normal clan's warrior monks except the Uesugi, and the Ikko-ikki have a much easier time recruiting them than other factions. However, the majority of their non-monk units are significantly weaker in some respect than regular clans' equivalent units: monk archers (unlike samurai) are useless in melee, and naginata monks are dead against archers unless properly kitted out.
  • In Rise of the Samurai, the Kiso Minamoto move their armies faster than anyone else and recruit samurai at double speed. However, their civil technological development takes a major hit. In a game where gold is stronger than steel, this is a bad quality to have; their swiftly-recruited elite troops will quickly become too expensive to maintain with their backwards economy, and their domain will be vulnerable to enemy agents.
  • The Takeda Clan's specialization in horse-riding allows them to recruit cavalry that is better and slightly cheaper than their normal equivalents. Unfortunately, cavalry is still an expensive investment that can be blunted rather easily, and any cavalry forces that the Takeda manage to field are unlikely to be significantly more substantial than those of other clans.
• Critical Annoyance:
  • 'Our men are running from the battlefield! Shameful display!'. The battlefield advisor says this whenever a unit routs, a fairly common occurrence in larger battles. In Fall of the Samurai, the equivalent exclamation is 'Damn lily-livered cowards! Your men are running, sir!'
  • 'Master, we are not making enough trade infrastructure in this province'. The advisor will say this even for provinces where upgrading trade infrastructure is no longer an option.
• Critical Existence Failure: Your agents and generals only serve you better as they grow older and more experienced, right up until they pass away of natural causes.
• Cutting the Knot: Subverted. You'd think destroying the Ashikaga Shogunate and presumably the Shogun before Realm Divide kicks in would stop it, but you'd be wrong.

• Darker and Edgier: Fall of the Samurai has a noticeably darker and more ominous tone compared to both the Sengoku campaign and Rise of the Samurai.
  • Even the faction colors are darker without the DLC factions, especially among the historically victorious Imperialist clans. The somber blues of the Satsuma and muted grays of the Choshu stick out as especially grim, since they're the descendants of the Shimazu and the Mori, who marched into battle in vivid green and brilliant scarlet during the Sengoku Jidai.
• Deal with the Devil:
  • The DLC content features a new building called Land Lease which gives you a one-time lump sum of 4500 gold but permanently reduces your Daimyo's honor. It's bad enough that you're in league with the Portuguese and helping to further their invasive agenda of aggressively spreading Christianity but do you really need to piss off the tenets of Bushido and Buddhism even further AND promote sentiments of betrayal among your generals... just for a quick injection of cold cash?
  • Ironically, even merely converting to Christianity could be considered a Deal with the Devil. It will cause a diplomatic penalty with all non-Christian clans (which will probably be most of them) and a hefty reduction in Honour points for your Daimyo (which also has impacts on the loyalty of your Generals). What's the benefit? More trade income and some stronger weapons for the wars you will almost certainly have to get involved in. It's a question of whether you're willing to trade the good-will of other factions (and to some extent your own faction) for an edge in warfare.
• Decapitated Army: Downplayed. The loss of a general in combat is not necessarily an Instant-Win Condition for that battle, but it does cause a huge morale shock to the side that loses them, potentially causing them to break and flee. Sufficiently dedicated troops can withstand this and fight on anyway, though if the general is dead he was either making some very questionable decisions to put himself in harm's way, or the battle was already all but lost to him anyway.
• Demoted to Extra: The Imagawa Clan were playable in the original Shogun: Total War, but are now NPC-only in Shogun 2.
• Difficult, but Awesome:
  • Bomb Throwers have short range and a long wind up time, so despite their explosive damage and morale shocking ability, they are usually either pincushioned by enemy archers before they can get close or cut down by an infantry charge before they can get their bombs into their targets. However, if they can be properly positioned, say either at the top of fort walls with the enemy passing below or hiding in a forest until the enemy has passed them by and is committed to their position, can allow the bomb throwers to hit the enemy with several devastating salvos that will wreck their numbers and confidence.
  • Fire Rockets. They're expensive, deep in the tech tree and usually unable to kill enough people to justify their costs. But if you know how to use them properly, they shred armies and castles alike like they were made of wet paper, and the surviving soldiers can easily be mopped up by the screening units.
• Disaster Dominoes: Battles with forces of similar total strength tend to end this way. One moment, the outcome is uncertain, with both forces clashing violently, then one unit will decide it has had enough and flees. Then, the next regiment over will see their flank is now unsecured, so they become worried and start to fall back, which leaves the other regiment near them with open flanks, and so on.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • In Fall of the Samurai, Parrott guns can be obtained somewhat early in the campaign and can be fairly devastating in terms of their potential kill counts. Naval bombardments are also available early and can be devastating as well, but their effectiveness is much more random and the AI can be smart enough to scatter when the shells are incoming anyways. By contrast, the AI is significantly less able to counter land-based artillery shells, especially if they are unfortunate enough to get caught in an open field (though artillery can still prove quite useful during sieges of course). Given enough time and accuracy, Parrott guns can snipe generals or even rout entire unit stacks. If the opposing army is sufficiently small, a single Parrott gun unit can rout the entire enemy army without any losses on your side.
  • In Rise of the Samurai, if you have the proper technology researched, acquire a province that specializes in artisans and build a Master Bowmaker, a Hunting Lodge, and a Bushi School in that province, you can begin recruiting Foot Samurai in the early part of the campaign with a whopping 86 accuracy. And since siege weapons didn't exist at the time, this is the closest you can get to having the equivalent of a mortar with satellite-aided targeting. And if you want to sweeten this deal further, build pastures in the same province. This will enable the recruitment of Mounted Samurai which also have 86 accuracy, essentially turning them into highly mobile horseback snipers.
• Distant Finale: The ending, in a nod to the original Shogun. The cinematic ends with a transition of your daimyo's statue in a park at the middle of a very modern Japan... with your clan's emblem proudly displayed in the background, implying that your efforts continue to live on well into the present. ^note .
• Distracted by the Sexy: One geisha assassination involves this.
• Do Well, but Not Perfect: Many examples.
  • Taking territory imposes a diplomatic penalty with all clans, though in itself it's fairly small. While it's theoretically possible to have this penalty reduce back down to 0 over time, in practice you can (and probably should) expand faster than the penalty decays. This results in the penalty inevitably growing over time, often eventually becoming quite significant. As such, sometimes it's better not to take more provinces for a while to allow for at least a little decay or maintenance of a certain status quo, especially when you are around a diplomatic breakpoint (such as Indifferent->Unfriendly or Unfriendly->Hostile) and tipping further than that could cause a downward spiral of bad relations.
  • There's also the matter of Realm Divide. Taking territory, establishing vassals, and even winning battles such that you earn statues on the campaign map all increase your fame meter. When you max out the meter, you enter a state of permanent war with all non-ally and non-vassal factions still alive, and your allies and vassals are likely to turn on you eventually. Suffice it to say, entering this state before you are ready for a never-ending onslaught of war can easily spell disaster, such as by gaining many strong enemies at once and/or collapsing a trade-heavy economy. On a lesser note, there are fame breakpoints prior to Realm Divide that influence the resistance to invaders penalty, which influences how expensive it is to keep newly conquered territory sufficiently repressed.
  • It is possible to trigger Realm Divide early by taking Kyoto before you've maxed out your fame. Doing this haphazardly early could also spell your doom even if it's technically possible to do with clans like the Oda and Hattori.
  • Funnily enough, even the AI can suffer a bit of this. Clans that seem to be doing exceptionally well can be marked as a target by the incumbent shogunate, granting some rewards if territory is taken from them. Whether it's the shogun's spurring or just general AI fear that triggers it, the targeted clan can get utterly wrecked in a multi-front dogpile war afterwards. On a different but related note, individual generals can be targeted for death via missions if the game deems them 'too successful'.
  • Sometimes it might be best to leave a successful general out of the fighting for a while if the daimyo hasn't caught up to their skill just yet. Not doing so can inflict a delusions of grandeur penalty towards loyalty, increasing their capability to get bribed or to defect.
  • You'd think that utterly destroying an enemy army in one battle would be ideal, but that's not how the XP system for generals works. Any normal victory, no matter how big or small the enemy army is, tends to grant a certain fixed amount of xp. Thus, there is incentive to defeat an army over two battles to double the xp, and sometimes you might even be able to fight them over three battles!
  • Bizarrely, partial success for agent missions can actually end up more effective than a full success. Full success removes them from play, easily being able to be replaced shortly thereafter, especially if they are low rank and fairly expendable. However, partial success means they are still alive, they just can't be used for a certain amount of time and they teleport back to their clan capital. There are agent leveling options that can extend their timeout, and if the capital is far away that can effectively put them out of rotation for much longer than a removal would.
  • Though they can be difficult to acquire, traits related to winning pyrrhic victories can be more useful than those related to winning normal or heroic victories. Instilling fear into the enemy can be more valuable than boosts to the morale of your own troops.
  • Though ambushes seem like an ideal way to leverage an advantage against the enemy, you can actually potentially end up taking more casualties that way than if you just fought a normal battle. Effectively encircling an ambushed enemy pretty much requires splitting your forces, and even then there can still be outs for them. Additionally, while the victim of the ambush doesn't get time to form up in a deployment phase, even quickly forming up where they start can increase their capacity to protect themselves a lot. Unless you have cavalry that can charge in quickly or units with kisho training that can deploy practically on top of the enemy, ambushes just might not be worth ever bothering with. Splitting your forces weakens them as a whole, and unless you have multiple generals in your army some of your units will have less morale than others.
• Dragon-in-Chief: It's possible to play as a clan that controls half of Japan's provinces, has numerous armed forces at their disposal, maintains access to limitless resources, and all while technically being a vassal to a smaller, less powerful clan.
• The Dreaded: Commanders can attain certain attributes or items that will reduce the morale of the enemy units that he fights against. Amusingly, in Fall of the Samurai, two of said items are a Prussian Spiked Helmet and an Accordion!
• Driven to Suicide: Generals and even your own kin can be ordered to commit sepukku when their loyalty drops to dangerous levels. In the Shogun 2 campaign, when a Great Clan is destroyed, a cutscene is shown depicting the defeated daimyo offing himself in an act of harakiri.
• Early Game Hell:
  • The game seems to progress from early game hell, to middle game heaven, and then to late game hell with 'Realm Divide'. At the start, you'll struggle to balance fielding an army and developing your provinces as your aggressive neighboring factions torment you relentlessly. Expect to be short on funds as you exempt newly acquired provinces from taxes to maintain public order and field armies of mostly ashigaru units to Zerg Rush your enemies. Eventually, once you've carve out a nice territory and establish trade relations, your economy will rebound so you can start to produce stronger units and develop your cities. Things will go swimmingly for a while as your high grade troops carve through Japan like a warm knife through butter...then Realm Divide will kick in and everyone will be against you.
  • In Fall of the Samurai, if you can just survive to Realm Divide then your chance of a campaign victory goes up quite a bit. Suddenly, you are best friends forever with half of Japan, and your only new problem is the occasional enemy army attacking by boat. Choosing to form a Republic keeps things challenging, but in some respects it's not quite as hard as the classic campaign. Yes, everyone hates you, but they have their hands full with the enemy faction.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: Samurai and warrior monks are tougher and look cooler, but heavily relying on them is an easy way to quickly go bankrupt or end up woefully undermanned. Ashigaru look simpler, are weaker, and are prone to dying or routing in droves, yet they are a much more sensible option for basing the main bulk of armies around. On a similar note, generals and their bodyguards look cool and unique among the crowd of warriors, but actually using them to fight in the thick of things is a good way to them senselessly killed.
• Elite Army:
  • Monk clans (which means the Ikko-Ikki and Uesugi) in the original are going to have this, as Warrior Monks are a cut above the norm both in power and price.
  • The Minamoto in Rise of the Samurai are almost certain to rely on this, as samurai units (which the Minamoto specialize in) are small, expensive and devastatingly powerful. The Taira and Fujiwara can go this way if they want, or they can choose to rely on traditional Attendant forces (and the Taira gain benefits for doing this).
• Elite Mooks:
  • The Otomo Clan Pack introduces the Portuguese Tercios in the most recent DLC: armored European infantry who can stand their own against at least a good chunk of Japanese units, but their low number still makes them vulnerable in melee combat.
  • The foreign units in Fall of the Samurai (who come in British, French and American flavors) are as powerful as, if not even more so than their most modern Japanese counterparts (with Guard Infantry being the local equivalent), not to mention are apparently immune to winter attrition.
  • The Bow Warrior Monk has excellent accuracy, superior range, good rate of fire that can be enhanced even further with appropriate buildings and arts, but the downside is: they have low armor (very vulnerable to cavalry charge, melee combat and enemy return fire), and high morale (they would fight to the last man rather than run away if players did not pay attention to their position, making losing an entire elite monk warrior unit possible). Only Chosokabe Daikyu Samurai can match those elites in term of range, but as Samurai, they have better armor and melee stats.
  • Nanban trade ship: most, if not all Japanese traditional naval units is nothing when facing those behemoths (the Black Ship is a Leviathan in this case).
  • All specialist units for each clan (Shimazu Katana Samurai, Date Nodachi Samurai, etc...). They are slightly better than their normal counterparts.
• Elite Tweak: Warrior monks with proper armor, which requires you to upgrade a province with smiths to Master Armourer level and preferably have an Encampment with an Armoury as well, completely nullify the big disadvantage of warrior monks (their vulnerability to archers). Of course, these are expensive, but you don't need giant armies of these to deal with most threats.
• End of an Age: A constant theme among the campaigns. Most blatantly, the first technologies available to be researched in the trees of the two later-setting campaigns are the ultimate technologies of the previous period's.
  • Rise of the Samurai starts off at the twilight of Japan's 'classical' Heian period, marked by the Genpei Wars as well as the titular emergence of the Samurai.
  • The vanilla campaign chronicles the twilight of Japan's Muromachi period (the Ashikaga Shogunate), following the Onin War that caused a headlong plunge into the Sengoku Jidai and a lawless, mad struggle for dominance (as narrated by the campaign intro). Without a powerful Shogunate to keep the daimyo in check, the most powerful daimyo gained the submission of weaker daimyo and manoeuvred to depose the Ashikaga and reunite Japan under a new shogunate.
  • Fall of the Samurai starts off at the very twilight of the Edo period (the Tokugawa shogunate), with the Boshin War, Meiji Restoration and Satsuma Revolt as its backdrop, clashing the old order against the sweeping tides of Westernization and the country being re-opened to participate on the world stage.
• Enemy Civil War: In Shogun 2 and its expansions, you can actually cause civil wars with Monks/Missionaries (Shogun 2), Sou (Rise of the Samurai) and Ishin Shishi/Shinsengumi (Fall of the Samurai) agents, who rally the populace of a province in an attempt to overthrow the clan that currently is in control.
• Epic Fail:
  • Do not, I repeat, do not try to storm a gate in Shogun 2 while firebombing it at the same time. The gates are Made of Explodium, and if you're foolish enough to have anyone directly in front of the gate, they will die in spectacular fashion. (read: flaming bodies flying across the map as if shot by a catapault.
  • A ninja is inside a castle perched upon a cliff. His target is at a balcony looking out over the garden. Ninja takes a running start and attempts a flying kick to his target's head. Target ducks.
    • The same ninja who was descending from the tree to cut a general's throat. The sword suddenly got loose from scabbard and fell to the ground, alerting his target. The next moment, the ninja is cut down.
    • The same ninja who failed to do his task and was trying to escape by scaling the wall. The other side of the wall is... well, falling from the high ground is never a good experience.
    • [[Assassinating I Have the High Ground]] someone from above, then when landing, he somehow hit his head into something and perished.
• Exclusive Enemy Equipment:
  • Wako Pirates and Kaizoku Pirates will randomly spawn on the campaign map with their own ships which you can use for yourself if you capture them after a battle. However, the Wako Medium Bune and the Kaizoku Medium Ship have inferior stats when compared to their regular equivalents. Ironically, the Wako Trade Ship and Kaizoku Light Ship have superior stats compared to their equivalents, making them the exceptions.
  • The Black Ship is an exclusive naval unit of the Portuguese Traders and cannot be built or bought. Only captured. However, it arrives to and departs from Japan on few occasions and will cost you a lot of ships to successfully fight one.
• Expy: Foreign Veterans from Fall of the Samurai are Tom Cruise from The Last Samurai with the serial numbers filed off.
• Et Tu, Brute?: In Rise of the Samurai, your chosen clan starts off closely allied to one run by the same family as you. But as you rise up in power and Realm Divide kicks in, don't expect familial ties to keep them from turning against you.
• 'Facing the Bullets' One-Liner: Or close to it, anyway. When the player's clan is destroyed (and thus the daimyo dies), he recites a historical 'death poem', written by samurai before they either committed seppuku or went off to a Last Stand.
• Faction Calculus: Usually doesn't apply, but in Rise of the Samurai, the lines can be (roughly) drawn between Minamoto (Powerhouse), Taira (Balanced) and Fujiwara (Subversive). Note that the Fujiwara do not employ the Zerg Rush; instead, their strength is in their civil technology, and especially their agents.
• Felony Misdemeanor: The historical Battle of Sekigahara. A short way into the battle the Shimazu forces that promised their aid to the player's forces (which is the side that historically lost the battle) refuse to help...because the messenger that came to them to ask them to attack didn't dismount from his horse when he arrived.
• Femme Fatale: Geisha are highly effective super-assassins, whose main modus operandi is to seduce their targets, then brutally murder them.
• Fragile Speedster: Revolver Cavalry in Fall of the Samurai. Fast-moving as horsemen are apt to be and dual-wielding revolvers that have a rather short range, a high fire-rate, and not much ammunition to go with it, they'll either probably shoot up nearly the entirety of any unit in short order that they get to fire off all their rounds at, get shot to pieces trying to get in range or shredded in a melee.
• Friendly Fireproof: Averted, though ranged units do try to avoid hitting friendlies, especially riflemen. If they don't stop in time, though...
• Friend or Foe: Your units do not like this - being subjected to friendly fire causes a fairly significant morale penalty that's equivalent to being attacked at the rear...which is basically that with different words.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: It's very odd but not unheard of for you to have to deal with a minor clan that acquires more than 10 provinces in a campaign game. It can get even more odd when that minor clan becomes the vanguard for either the Emperor or the Shogun.
• Frontline General:
  • Army generals and their bodyguards are a unit on the battlefield, roughly equivalent to katana cavalry. Units within the general's command radius get a morale bonus, so the game provides strong incentive to keep him close to the front lines.
    • The generals of Rise of the Samurai are particularly good at aiding the frontlines, as them and their bodyguards are armed with bows.
  • Subverted at modernization tier 3 in 'Fall of the Samurai'. The general's bodyguard gains revolvers, but are sharply reduced in number. Their flavor text changes to remark that the general's job is organizing the battle, not fighting it.
• Full-Frontal Assault: One geisha assassination cutscene involves the geisha stripping naked to distract her target, then attacking while she's still nude.
• Funny Foreigner:
  • The Western soldiers from Fall of the Samurai, in an unusual inversion. The Americans, for instance, are very Christian and hammy blood knights, while the British are indifferent and rather detached eccentrics.
  • Shinobi, Shinsengumi and Ishin Shishi can acquire a retainer which allows them to disguise themselves as a westerner.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the Rise of the Samurai campaign, Taira factions still face the Realm Divide event even when a relative of theirs is on the Chrysanthemum Throne- who in real history was a puppet of the Taira. (Even in game there's a bit of contradiction, as the Taira face diplomatic penalties with other clans when he is installed as Emperor reflecting how unpopular their control of him made them.)
• Genghis Gambit:
  • Inevitable in the main campaign: when you control about 1/3 of the landmass, the Ashikaga Shogun will sic everyone in Japan who is not you, at you. It's called Realm Divide, and is the sole reason you kill everyone on your way to the throne instead of sparing them by making them vassals. Same thing happens in Rise of the Samurai, only it's the Emperor himself calling the rest of Japan down on you.
  • The effect is less strong in Fall of the Samurai in that you can opt to lead either the Shogunate or Imperial forces all over Japan. But should your clan say 'screw it' as its Realm Divide choice, everyone is out to kill you.
• Gang Up on the Human: 'Realm Divide' is essentially this trope as a legitimate gameplay mechanic. Basically, once your clan controls about 15 provinces (out of 65), every other clan will ally against you. You're also given a severe diplomatic penalty, meaning your former allies will abandon you and you'll be unable to establish trade relations, killing your economy. To make matters worse, the clans allied against you will be given large stacks of veteran units every turn. To add insult to injury, AI players never trigger Realm Divide, no matter how many territories they own.
• Gatling Good: Gatling guns are present as a late-game unit in Fall of the Samurai. Getting within range of one typically results in a rather grim recreation of The Last Samurai. Spamming them is basically an 'I win' button in the campaign. Kotetsu-class ironclads are also armed with a pair for close-range defence, which have a predictable result on enemy crews^note .
• Glass Cannon:
  • The No-Dachi Samurai from Shogun 2 have a very powerful attack, a large charge bonus and an ability that gives them unbreakable morale for a short time,. However, they lack any kind of melee defense or armor, so one must get them into combat with a charge (preferably into the enemy's flank or rear to better rout the enemy before their fragility becomes a liability) or watch them get slaughtered.
  • Fire Bomb Throwers and Kisho Ninja. Able to dish out truly frightening levels of damage (often breaking their targets' morale in a single volley), but if any other unit as much as sneezes in their general direction... this (and their very short range) makes Fire Bombs somewhat Awesome, but Impractical, but the Kisho Ninja can use their stealth ability to actually get close enough for the cannon part of the trope.
  • Warrior Monks will wreck enemy units in large numbers with the Bow, Naginata, and Matchlock. Unfortunately, their lack of armor means that they are easy prey to cavalry and missile fire.
  • Later artillery units in Fall of the Samurai (Armstrong cannons, Gatling guns, etc.) can be very powerful...until they engage in melee or take heavy amounts of small arms fire.
  • Cavalry armed with ranged weapons (bows or guns) can be absolutely devastating if kept away from melee units and out of the range of enemy archers. However, if engaged by enemy cavalry or spear infantry, they'll get cut up like wet tissue paper. They are also highly vulnerable to enemy bows and guns as their large horses and elevated riders make easy targets when the unit is standing still. Needless to say, proper use requires significant micromanagement.
• Gorn: The Blood PackDLC is explicitly designed to put this trope in the game.
• Götterdämmerung: The backdrop the Genpei Wars in Rise of the Samurai still has traces of what Heian period Japan was like even as it comes to a violent close. This is reflected in the stronger emphasis on agents and the leading three clans originally from the Imperial court in Heian/Kyoto rather than from among the Samurai, as well as loosely-organized formations of the in-game units.
  • Fall of the Samurai has the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate with introduction of western weapons, leading to the end of the Samurai with the coming of the Meiji Restoration.
• Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: Shirabyoshi/Geisha are implied to age rather gracefully, considering how ones in her 50's or 60's will be better at seducing enemy generals and agents than far younger ones.
• Gun And Sword: All firearm units switch their guns for their swords when they enter close combat with an enemy. Averted in Fall of the Samurai if a bayonet mod is activated.
• Guns Are Useless:
  • While the Matchlocks units are generally well balanced (and have been considered overpowered at points) in the main campaign, the one cavalry unit that uses matchlocks doesn't go into battle loaded, and reloads very slowly only once an enemy is within its range. The Donderbuss cavalry from the Otomo Clan Pack DLC are a lot stronger, however. Things are quite different in Fall of Samurai, where Revolver and Carbine cavalry gun unleash devastating rains of rapid fire.
  • Fall of the Samurai plays with the trope. Japan is in the transition period between pre-isolation and the Meiji Restoration, so while guns are very much not worthless, it'd be wise to back them up with melee units in the beginning of the campaign; spears and swords are not out of the running just yet, and if you're not ready, they'll be more than happy to validate this trope for you.
• Guns vs. Swords: As in real life 16th century Japan, this becomes a major issue after being visited by foreign traders in the main campaign. After this, the you can decide to convert to Christianity, which will give you access to powerful gunpowder units such as European cannons. However, doing so will cause you to lose access to some of the best melee units, such as Warrior Monks.
• Hand Cannon: Otomo Donderbuss Cavalry and Shimazu Heavy Gunners, while not traditional 'massive pistol' hand cannons, both wield firearms that straddle the line between small arms and man-portable artillery. The havoc they can wreak with even a single volley must be seen to be believed.
• Harder Than Hard: Legendary mode takes away the pause part of the Real-Time with Pause, removes the save function - except autosaves after turn passages and battles - to foil Save Scumming, and you still have to deal with the rules of Very Hard. As this can make coordinating your forces an absolute nightmare, and there are no second chances, even hardened veterans can find this difficulty mode a struggle.
• Heel–Faith Turn: Your monk/missionary can enlighten the agents of another clans, effectively disbanding them from their service to their lord. You can even do this to ninjas... if you can spot one.
• Highly Visible Ninja: Despite their 'stealth' skill, all the ninja (both campaign agents and battlefield ninja) dress in the Japanese stagehand costume associated with them instead of simply dressing unremarkable like historical ninja would do.
  • Averted with some retinue characters that have Ninjas in disguise which lower assassination likelihood.
• Historical In-Joke:
  • The Oda clan's tendency to develop the 'Rude' trait in their family members is likely a reference to Oda Nobunaga and his famously abrasive personality.
  • One of the first clans to get knocked out in campaign tends to be the Tokugawa, despite being the real life victors of the Sengoku Jidai and the last Shogunate. Even more hilariously, this is usually at the hands of the Oda, their historical allies.
    • Metsuke technically did not exist during the Sengoku Jidai, as the office was established by the Tokugawa Shogunate some 200 years after the war. However, the fact that the agency would be their creation translates to the Tokugawa being the only clan with an inherent bonus to their Metsuke.
  • Playing as the Kamakura will probably have you subsume the neighboring Takeda clan with your starting Junsatsushi in spite of how anyone whose looked at the main campaign will see the Takeda will persist to the Sengoku period.
    • Another minor clan who will often quickly be snapped up by the Minamoto via Allegiance mechanics are the Ashikaga, who players will immediately recognize as the reigning Shogunate from the Sengoku Jidai period and the clan who succeeded the historically victorious Minamoto to the position.
  • Similarly, some minor clan can take out the Shimazu fairly early too, despite the Shimazu historically being powerful, distant, long-lived, and independent enough that even the Shogunate hesitated on oppressing them all that much. ^note
  • Playing as the Tokugawa forces you to play as a vassal to the Imagawa, reflective of the fact that, for much of his early life, Tokugawa Ieyasu was held as a noble hostage in order to force his father to obey the wishes of the Imagawa. Unfortunately, there's no ability to have Oda Nobunaga liberate your son and free you from your obligations as happened in real life.
• Hope Spot: Most of the cutscenes shown when a clan is destroyed have one.
• 100% Heroism Rating: Among its other advantages, having a daimyo with a high honor rating gives a clan-wide boost to happiness. Even conquered provinces who resent being under the heel of a distant clan are somewhat soothed by knowing that at least their conquerors have a reputation for valor, fairness, and honesty.
• Implausible Deniability: When you're faced with the need to expand your borders but the only available provinces are controlled by neighboring Clans that are both powerful and at peace with you AND you really can't or don't want to fight any of them, your only best option is to incite a rebellion, hope that the rebels take the capital, and then go in and claim the province for yourself by defeating the rebels. Simple? Not really. Inciting a rebellion results in a diplomatic penalty labeled 'sabotage attempts' since the previous clan that owned that province will suspect you as responsible for instigating the rebels.
• 'Instant Death' Radius: If you are lucky and skilled enough to capture the Black Ship, you can expect to enjoy naval dominance for the entire duration of the game. Anything within its cannon range is usually pulverized within seconds.
  • Getting within the firing arc of the Otomo Donderbuss Cavalry tends to result in nothing but a sudden burst of scarlet spray and the terrified screams of dying men. The same applies for the Revolver Cavalry of the Boshin War.
• Instant-Win Condition:
  • Even if the last garrison unit is destroyed during a siege assault, the defender can still win if that very last unit manages to rout the attacker's last unit. This video is a very rare and amazing example of that.
  • If you have battle time limits turned on, the defender will always win if the time expires, regardless of how bad they are losing before that. This rarely happens, as the time limit is quite long, at least by default.
  • Although it's rare to actually see it trigger victory, the attacking side in a siege battle can win by capturing the tenshu, regardless of how many defending units are around or how big a reinforcing army might be making its way to help. Playing as the defender, it's a pretty dumb move to let your tenshu get captured in this manner, but it can still happen if you aren't paying attention or if your forces are too overwhelmed. Playing as the attacker, the AI will generally refuse to let you get a victory this way without first attempting a desperate last ditch fight. Units may crowd around the tenshu voluntarily, but if they aren't doing it automatically they tend to come running as soon as you start triggering the countdown.
• Island Base: It's quite possible and definitely helpful to take full control of the islands of Kyushu, Shikoku or Ezo (available only in Fall of the Samurai) since you will be able to build your armies and economy in peace with the ability to prevent or quickly respond to invasions. In Fall of the Samurai's case, upgrade your ports even further and naval invasions won't even be a possibility any longer.
• Jack-of-All-Stats:
  • Naginata Samurai are intended to be this. They are not quite as strong against cavalry as Yari Samurai, and are not quite as strong against infantry as Katana Samurai, but they can reasonably handle both infantry and cavalry. Their heavy armor also makes them more resistant to arrows.
  • Samurai units (Foot Samurai/Mounted Samurai) are this in general in Rise of the Samurai, being good archers and melee combatants while having the best armor. If they also had naginatas, one would probably need no other units.
• Jerkass: Almost In the Blood for the Oda clan, as their Daimyo begins the game with 'Rude' as a trait, giving him a whopping -20 to diplomacy. His sons seem to be quite prone to developing the trait as well.
• Jidai Geki: The base game is set at the end of the Sengoku Era. Rise and Fall are set in the Genpei War and Bakumatsu eras, respectively.
• Just a Stupid Accent: The Japanese-accented English used by the advisors in Shogun 2. By Fall of the Samurai, however, just about everyone is given the same treatment.
• Katanas Are Just Better:
  • Katana samurai are arguably the best general-purpose melee units in the game,^note and will carve their ways through almost any other unit type if they get into range.
  • In the opening cinematic, a katana-armed samurai duels with a naginata-armed Sohei. Not only does the katana cut through the naginata's shaft fairly early on in the duel, but the killing stroke against the sohi manages to slice through the monk's torso armour.
• Keystone Army: It's actually quite possible to destroy an invading army without fighting them, provided that you take out their capital first. As soon as that is done, said army will disappear into thin air, no matter how numerous or fearsome it was. However, this only applies if the army was outside its clan territories. If it was, it will just turn into a rebel army and attempt to take back its capital when the opportunity arises.
• Lady of War: Onna Bushi are among the garrison of castle or citadel-level fortifications. They are well-acquainted with the use of the naginata and will put up a good fight against most attackers.
• Large Ham: The battlefield advisor. 'Awah men are running from the battlefield. Shamefur dispray!'
• Leeroy Jenkins: The Date clan has this as their specialty: They gain a bonus to charging units and their specialty unit is the No-Dachi samurai, a unit that's most effective when charging an enemy unit. Funnily enough, their Sendai clan descendants have bonuses toward the opposite sort of mindset, with a diplomacy bonus, easier control of opposite influence in their cities, and starving out cities by a siege faster.
• Leitmotif: In Fall of the Samurai, each foreign veteran gets one depending on who they belong to. France gets a excerpt from 'La Marseillaise', the UK gets 'God Save The Queen', and the USA gets 'The Star Spangled Banner'.
• Losing the Team Spirit: Like all Total War games, morale is a huge factor in battle. If you can cause the enemy to waver and break, you have swung the battle to your advantage even if the enemy still has substantial strength left. Having other units in close support range, outnumbering the enemy, and having the general nearby are just a few of the factors that govern morale. ^note

• Macross Missile Massacre: The faction that builds the Arsenal has access to Fire Rockets, which are more powerful than European cannon, often causing enemy troops to be launched into the air when they hit.
  • In Fall of the Samurai, Parrott and Armstrong guns have access to shrapnel shot, which like canister shot from Empire and Napoleon, turns the artillery pieces into giant long-range shotguns.
• Made of Explodium: Explosive Shells are downright murderous against wooden-hull ships since they catch fire easily.
• Made of Iron: Naginata Samurai have 9 Armor which makes them really annoying to kill with anything less than Katana Samurai. And even then, they'll still have a hard time taking them down. If you recruit Naginata Samurai with a province that has both a Master Armourer and an Armoury, their armor is upgraded to 14 which allows them to laugh at almost everything. Arrows, Katanas, Cavalry, and even matchlocks.
• Magikarp Power:
  • The Otomo Clan are surrounded by enemies and normally die a painful death before they can properly bring their clan bonuses into play. Being able to quickly recruit Imported Matchlocks helps, but that's often not enough to stave off the opening wave of enemies. If they survive long enough to climb the tech tree, however, they can conquer Japan with a wave of cheap and powerful matchlock armies and the spread of Christianity.
  • Likewise, the Hojo Clan bonus applies to siege units, but the most powerful siege units are pretty deep into the tech tree. Should the Hojo get access to the Arsenal, however, their hand mortar and fire rocket troops shoot with bow-like accuracy and utterly demolish both gates and enemy formations.
  • The Uesugi Clan's strength lies in their Warrior Monks which, unfortunately, costs a lot of time and money to research the proper technology and build the infrastructure needed to recruit them. Their exceptional ability to dominate the battlefield with the Naginata and Bow is offset by their lack of armor and high recruitment and upkeep expenses, but once you have the infrastructure in place to take away these weaknesses, their armies can utterly demolish any other force in the game.
  • In Fall of the Samurai, the Nagaoka start in an inconvenient position, and their bonuses support reliance on modern units, which only become really good after you climb the tech tree. On the other hand, once you acquire modern rifles and build some markets, their armies are probably the most elite in Japan, and they can make good money from building lots of financial districts.
  • The Tosa's strength lies in their Naval Tradition which, unfortunately, isn't very helpful at the start of the campaign since you don't have the proper technology or infrastructure to properly exploit it. It's only when you get a Drydock and several Ironclad ships up and running that this bonus finally comes into good use.
  • In terms of units, ashigaru seem to be little more than conscripted peasants meant for Cannon Fodder and little else. However, if they survive battles to attain veterancy and get led by a progressively more-experienced general, they can become a formidable fighting force capable of standing up to the more elite samurai. This all can happen without changing their cheap cost to recruit and maintain, so ashigaru can eventually become a cost-effective yet deceptively powerful strategic option for armies.
  • The Bow Kobaya is incredibly bad at the start of the Sengoku campaign as it's only strong enough to go 1-on-1 with a Trade ship with a certain chance of winning. Fighting another Bow Kobaya is a 50-50 chance and trying to fight a Medium Bune or anything heavier is pretty much suicide. It's only when you have access to Fire Arrows that the Bow Kobaya can become strong enough to make a difference against unfavorable odds.
• Master of None: Yari Samurai are decent enough units, but suffer from having no role in which they excel and are trumped, even in their own supposed specialties, by other units. Katana Samurai are superior one-on-one fighters and mainline infantry, Naginata Samurai's heavy armor make them vastly better at absorbing and breaking cavalry charges, even Yari Ashigaru are better anti-cavalry thanks to their yari wall formation. This leaves them without a niche in a game where every unit has a clearly defined purpose, relegating them only really being used by people looking for a challenge.
• Mauve Shirt: Automatically generated captains can lead armies and navies if no official general is present. They have no real special skills to speak of like generals, and can die just as readily as Red Shirts, but you can get attached to them nonetheless if you recognize their name over time. Their names also seem to be associated with the geographical area and/or clan they were recruited for, giving them that tiny bit of flavor over the nameless hordes of unknown soldiers. Army captains also have the chance of being promoted into full-blown generals for their victorious efforts, though Tall Poppy Syndrome will make doing this cause a loyalty reduction to your standard generals.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The series as a whole almost always stays on the realistic end, mods excepted. However...
  • One of the traits a geisha can have in Shogun 2 is 'fox lady', and it's unclear whether this is meant metaphorically or literally. For the Shirabyoshi in Rise of the Samurai, this is averted; the implication is pretty clear that she's the real deal.
  • One of the skills Fall of the Samurai generals can get in Avatar Conquest is 'Last Man Standing,' preventing the general from being killed while anyone in his unit still lives. The description is vague on if it is actually magic or the general is just really lucky.
  • Some of the two-choice dilemmas mention the sighting of a creature from Japanese folklore, such as a nine-tailed fox or Yatagarasu the three-legged crow, which is mentioned to be a sign of good fortune and grants your clan a bonus for several turns. Is the creature real, or is it just a nice story that inspires your clan to work harder?
• Megacorp: The Zaibatsu Fields structures probably become these post game.
• More Dakka: Hits probably the franchise's zenith in Fall of the Samurai, where proto-World War I weaponry makes its debut. Case in point, in the historical Battle of Hakodate, a small three-regiment force you control (600 riflemen) is charged by a force five times larger if they're not helped. Properly placed, even in higher difficulty levels your force has about an even chance of mowing down the entire attacking force before running out of ammo.
• The Musketeer: All ranged units are capable of fighting in melee but most are rather poor at it. This is the one thing that makes the traditional vs. modern multiplayer battles reasonably balanced. However, some matchlock/rifle units are better in melee than others.
  • Matchlock Samurai are quite effective at both ranged and melee combat with their Tanegashima guns and Katana swords.
  • Imperial/Shogunate/Republic infantry, their elite Guard variants, and the foreign marines in Fall of the Samurai are all rather capable in melee, and actually have some very good charge bonuses, to the point where they can outclass certain melee units like Yari and Katana Kachi later in the game.
  • The Shinsengumi Police in Fall of Samurai are a special unit of 'Battlefield Police' who are armed with both Katanas and modern rifles.
• Neutrality Backlash: In Fall of the Samurai, breaking a military alliance with a clan that calls upon you for help will inflict a penalty to your diplomatic relations. A premature termination is even worse: Your Daimyo's honor goes down which will also drop public order in your provinces and the loyalty of your generals.
  • This also applies to that campaign as a whole. While it's debatable whether or not becoming a republic is 'neutral' or actually just the beginnings of a third 'side', it still fits the trope. By supporting neither the Shogun nor the Emperor (the two major sides), you'll make enemies of them both.
• Ninja:
  • Recruitable as agents and as battlefield units. In keeping with the emphasis on realism, these act mostly as spies, saboteurs, and occasionally assassins, going into enemy territory in the 'Risk'-Style Map and compromising them behind the lines. Kisho Ninja can also be recruited as a battle unit. They will get swamped in open combat, but they can use an ability to hide in plain sight for a short time, climb castle walls quickly and safely, and use blinding grenades to stun foes and finish off critical targets, making them an excellent utility unit in the right hands.
  • The Monomi in Rise of the Samurai are the predecessors of ninja, but are not widely used; they can only be recruited from special buildings or a random event. Kisho Ninja don't exist yet.
  • Shinobi and Kisho Ninja return in Fall of the Samurai. They are traditionalist units; broadly speaking, Secret Police are more useful, but shinobi are still fine assassins and kisho ninja are useful for trick plays.
• Ninja Run: Unsurprisingly used by ninjas. Justified in the case of Kisho Ninja, as the low stance reduces their visibility profile, allowing them to flank the enemy unnoticed among the chaos of a battlefield.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: There's nothing stopping you from fielding ninja warriors (kisho ninja) and sending them on a pirate ship. In fact, this is an effective combination if you want to strike a general who hides behind several layers of thoroughly garrisoned territories. Barring mods though, the game doesn't have zombies or robots.
• Non-Combat EXP: Foreign Veterans can train troops that are stationed in cities or out on the field, increasing their experience with every turn.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: The fearsome Black Ships in the main campaign are overpowered Nanban trade ships that will make mincemeat out of most Japanese fleets. Compare this to Empire and Napoleon, where trade ships were on the low end of ship strength.
• Not Playing Fair With Resources: The AI gets discounts on unit recruitment on Hard, Very Hard and Legendary, allowing it to assemble larger armies than the player.
• Not the Intended Use: An emergent and gamey tactic in Shogun 2 is to decide that a difficult home start doesn't matter if you can just take Kyushu, which is absolutely prime territory both due to its corner position and its control of the majority of Japan's foreign trade. So prime Uesugi and Oda players often pack it out of their barren lands in Echigo or their endangered home in Owari and take over the southwestern isle.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore/Game Changer:
  • This is in a sense what Fall of the Samurai is in a nutshell, no matter how you play it. The Time Skip to the 19th Century reintroduces some elements from Empire and Napoleon, particularly if your chosen clan decides to follow the tides of modernization. But once you gain access to naval bombardments, gatling guns and rifle infantry regiments, there's really no turning back.
  • The end of the Genpei War led to the establishment of the First Shogunate which became the major governing power over all of Japan. The war also gave rise to a class of privileged, professional warriors who would come to dominate Japanese culture for nearly a millennium. No matter what clan you pick, the new Samurai units will come to form the core of your armies, and the Minamoto actively specialize in totally replacing Attendant units with them, uprooting the old ways and redefining Japanese society. Hence, Rise of the Samurai.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: The Kubota Fujiwara have a flaw called 'Bureaucratic' which adds +10% to the recruitment cost of Levy and Attendant units. Apparently, they have an arrogant sense of superiority that results in abrasive relations with non-Samurai people. And all of that extra spending can hurt their economy in the long run.
• Off with His Head!: With the Blood Pack DLC active, one of the kill animations that can be seen in a fight between two sword-armed units is a decapitation move. Also, in the Sengoku campaign, defeated playable clans will have a cutscene where the daimyo commits seppuku before an aide beheads him.
• One-Hit Kill: Hitting a steamship right in the midsection, where the boilers are usually positioned, is invariably fatal.
• One-Hit Polykill: The Shimazu Heavy Gunners are a borderline Game-Breaker since their bullets will go through everything that's in their path, resulting in multiple kills per volley. These twovideos show how ridiculously devastating the unit can be.
• Only a Flesh Wound:
  • When your Avatar General 'dies' in a Multiplayer Match.
  'Our general has been injured my lord. He lives, but must now leave the battle.'
  • When a cinematic video shows one of your agents successfully killing the target and you are given 'Target Wounded' as an after action report, something weird must've happened.
  • If you see a video of your Ninja failing his mission and you are told he is 'Wounded', a stroke of weird luck must've saved him.
• Only in It for the Money/Not in This for Your Revolution: Some of the upgradable traits for the Foreign Veteran in Fall of the Samurai suggest outright that he's likely more interested in his paycheck and promises of fame than any actual loyalty to his assigned clan.
• Only Six Faces: There's a pretty limited amount of faces that are used for the 3D models. It gets real obvious in Fall of the Samurai, where units' portraits are actual pictures of a 3D model of the unit.
• Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: The Blood PackDLC invokes this trope. The units bleed freaking gallons of blood which splash all over the combatants, their armor, their weapons, the game's camera...
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The Chiyodagata Gunboat can be equipped with torpedoes once you research the needed technology. Doing this will change what is obviously the weakest naval unit in Fall of the Samurai into an extreme-range equalizer that can sink an Ironclad with one shot.
• Pirate: In the Sengoku Jidai campaign, Wako Pirates will occasionally appear to raid trade routes and attack small trade fleets. Unfortunately, there is no way of effectively eliminating them permanently and they spawn fleets on random parts of the map. If you're playing as the Mori, you can even recruit units of them in the form of Wako Raiders, lightly armored and stealthy swordsmen who make life for your opponents archers a living hell.
• Plunder: Captured settlements can be subjected to a sack, which will provide you with a tidy sum of koku, at the cost of your Daimyo's honour that is.
• Portuguese Men-of-War: The Otomo clan can recruit Portuguese tercos from the Nanban Quarter to fight in their armies.
• Promoted to Playable: Historically, the Fujiwara clan never had any major involvement in the Genpei War. Yet they're introduced as the third faction in Rise of the Samurai.
• Propaganda Machine: The police station subset of buildings has a specific type especially for the Republican factions implied to be this.
• Power Up Letdown/Poison Mushroom
  • Fall of the Samurai introduces some new retainers that are actually harmful than beneficial.
  Glass Plate Camera: +5% to this agent's chances of being killed in single combat.
  Opium Pipe: -5% to the chances of escape following an unsuccessful action.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Almost inevitable, given the nature (and the design) of the game. In Shogun 2, it's actually called a Pyrrhic Victory if you have a lot of casualties in a battle you won, though depending on the circumstances, this can be a mere annoyance.
• Quantity vs. Quality: In the Sengoku Jidai campaign, all clans (except the Ikko Ikki) will have the choice of filling their armies with ashigaru or samurai units. Ashigaru have larger unit sizes, are cheap to recruit, replenish quickly and are instantly available for recruitment without any building or tech requirements. However, they are prone to running away immediately when the battle starts to go south. In contrast, samurai are very capable soldiers but are expensive, have smaller unit sizes, replenish slower and require certain buildings and or technologies to be recruited. While samurai units will rip through their ashigaru counterparts in a 1 v 1 fight, ashigaru can actually hold the line with adequate support from their generals, long enough for a flanking force to slam into the rear of their enemies. Also, depending on the clan's state of finances, it might actually be more viable to send out more ashigaru armies rather than funding a fully samurai army. The loss of an ashigaru unit is little to fret about compared to losing a samurai unit.
• The Quisling:
  • The Otomo Clan DLC has hints of this, depending on how you play the aforementioned faction. If Christianization and prolific matchlock access don't give this away (among other things), then the ability to deploy Portuguese Tercios (i.e. European infantry) against your foes and lease out land to foreigners definitely will.
  • The Satsuma Clan from Fall of the Samurai gives impressions of this, having the biggest favour with all three of the foreign powers.
  • The Todo Clan of Tsu Domain in Fall of the Samurai are stated to have previously served the Tokugawa family since the battle of Sekigahara and were rewarded with lands in the heart of Honshu. Yet, as soon as they saw the way the winds were blowing, they switched sides to support the Emperor without a second thought.
  • The Saga Clan from Fall of the Samurai are slightly more direct that the Satsuma, being the only faction in the game who begin with foreigners already actively trading with them. Appropriate, as their home province of Nagasaki was traditionally the only port where European trade ships were allowed to do business.
• Ramming Always Works: Two of the ironclad types, the French L'Ocean and Japanese (historically, also French-built) Kotetsu, are equipped with a bow ram that can allow them to sink enemy ships by hitting them at full speed. However, this largely tends to be useless, as they can frequently sink most wooden ships well outside ramming range by hitting them with explosive shots, and trying that with ironclads is likely to end with your ironclad getting pulverized with volleys of armor-piercing shots before it gets close.
  • However, it should be noted that ramming attacks are a One-Hit Kill that will destroy any vessel, no matter how heavily armoured or undamaged it is. The best compromise to avoid getting peppered with shot when making the charge across the water is by letting the enemy come close to you before you go in close and personal.
• Reality Ensues:
  • More than half of the failed assassination/infiltration videos involve the would-be assassins/spies getting caught doing something fairly obvious and getting killed instantly. Especially notable in one of the geisha assassinations, where the geisha approaches two guards with polearms armed with two very short daggers. If successful, she kills both of them, while if unsuccessful....
  • Taking on later modern units (rifle and Guard infantry, Armstrong cannons, Foreign Marines, etc.) with traditional ones in Fall of the Samurai is more likely to result in a Curb-Stomp Battle against you if taken head-on.
• Real Men Wear Pink: The Tsu clan certainly believe so, marching to battle in white uniforms emblazoned with bright pink emblems and trim.
• Recycled Soundtrack: Some of the tracks in the Rise of the Samurai DLC were either repurposed or updated versions of ones from the original Shogun: Total War.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: Revolver cavalry can absolutely decimate enemies with a massive barrage of rapid fire. The downside is that the short range means to have to get dangerously close to use them.
• Rock Beats Laser:
  • This happens almost any time a melee unit engages in close combat with a matchlock Ashigaru unit.
  • Traditional units will walk all over modern units in the early portion of Fall of the Samurai. This usually gets subverted when they have to deal with artillery and modern rifles, but even late in the game traditional units can still have a place on the battlefield. Spear units can help protect the flanks and artillery units from cavalry attack, while traditional cavalry units like Yari Katchi can ride around enemy armies and take out artillery units in the rear. Units like Katana Katchi and Shogitai are good to have on standby behind your riflemen in the event the enemy tries to overwhelm you with a bayonet charge.
  • The one advantage that bow units have over rifle units is plunging fire. This capability allows bow units to fire from behind the safety of an obstruction, such as a hill, whereas rifle units need a direct line-of-fire to attack.
• Save Scumming: Nastily averted in Legendary difficulty; the game takes the power of saving away from you and puts you in the hands of the autosave, which saves too often to get much mileage out of Save Scumming, though thankfully, you only need certain provinces and arts to hire better agents.
• Scary Impractical Armor: Out on full display, as per history. While most samurai armor is practical, it is often decorated to look impressive, and for some clan leaders this can go almost over the top. Kawari-kabuto can get especially elaborate, and many samurai wear an oni mask over their face.
• Secret Police:
  • The metsuke in the Sengoku Jidai campaign, bureaucrats who also double as inspectors and spies. They can arrest enemy agents, increase repression in cities by removing dissidents and tax income by rooting out corruption, protect armies from Ninja sabotage, reinforce generals' loyalty with their presence, and bribe armies and settlements to join you. While they can't be normally dealt with by armies, they can be neutralized, one way or the other, by enemy agents.
  • In Rise of the Samurai, these are at the height of their importance, and there are never enough to go around. The Junsatsushi do everything that the metsuke did (except instead of arresting enemy agents, they bribe them to retire), and they also convert provinces to support their ruling clan, and can convince provinces to pledge allegiance to their clan (which can conquer minor clans without a fight).
  • Fall of the Samurai introduces The Shinsengumi and Ishin-Shishi, who can convert provinces, bribe armies, incite rebellion, and assassinate enemy agents. They are essentially the roles of Monk/Missionary and Metsuke combined into one agent, or a weaker form of junsatsushi.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: In Fall of the Samurai, the Traditionalist Challenge: unite Japan (ideally, under the Shogunate) while only using traditionalist units. Different players have different views on what's permissible tech-wise; the common challenge is 'no modernization,' but others prefer climbing to Tech 2, because of the traditionalist arts not available at the first tech tier.
• Semper Fi: The USMC are recruitable if you build a US military mission in Fall of the Samurai. Of the three foreign marine choices they're the cheapest and strongest in melee, but are balanced by being poorer shots.
• Seppuku:
  • When a major clan is destroyed, the recent events feed will have a unique video of the clan's daimyo reciting a death poem and then stabbing himself. This occurs even when the daimyo was killed in battle. Try not to think about it too hard.
  • You can order any general (except the daimyo) to commit seppuku by disbanding their general's bodyguard unit, complete with self-stabbing animation on the campaign map. One of the most likely reasons to do this instead of a Uriah Gambit is if the general has low loyalty, which puts him at risk of randomly defecting before any given battle.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: The Otomo Donderbuss Cavalry are the only unit in the game to be armed with the Donderbuss, ancestor of modern shotguns. In comparison to other missile infantry or cavalry, the death toll from the gunfire of these horsemen is staggering. Entire units can be halved due to a single volley.
• Shout-Out:
  • Players will sometimes get the option of adding Kambei and Kyuzo to a general's retinue. The latter is a 'Hyoho Niten Ichi-Ryu Duelist,' which is probably a reference to his Samurai 7 incarnation.
  • One of the random retainers for the Monk agent is the Bo. The caption reads 'You wouldn't deny a holy man his only support'.
  • Another potential monk retainer is an Itako companion. Her flavor text is 'Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see.'
  • In Fall of the Samurai, the Foreign Veteran agent can acquire a 'Hungarian Phrasebook' which tells him how to say 'My hovercraft is full of eels' in Japanese.
  • Fall of the Samurai has Gatling Gun units with an inscription on the body which, upon closer inspection, reads 'Hide your kids, hide your wife, and hide your husband.'
  • Listening closely to routing Black/White/Red Bear Line Infantry in Fall of the Samurai can allow you to hear some of their retreating dialogue. One of which is a panicked yell of 'Run to the hills! Run for your life!'
  • Diplomats from other clans in Shogun 2 will sometimes praise your diplomacy as a 'good conversation' with nearly the exact same pronunciation and intonation as Katsumoto from The Last Samurai.
  • In Fall of the Samurai, one can recruit Kyoto Policemen units if they control the province of Yamashiro, after which they can be deployed on the battlefield at the player's leisure. And what's their favourite line? 'Wot's all this then?!', of course.
  • Similarly, the description of the high-level metsuke trait 'thief-taker' (which improves arresting ability) has the Flavor Text'get your kimono on, you're nicked!'
  • The 'Realm Divide' mechanic's reasoning (your daimyo is so skilled and powerful that you are declared a threat to the realm and an outlaw) is very similar to the overarching storyline of Shogun — and history.
  • Flavor Text for Fall of the Samurai's Gambling Den declares, 'Bet now, bet now! Betting ends!', which was also the catchphrase that closed out the 'betting phase' of the Fox network's very short lived Japanese-style gameshow Banzai.
• The Siege: As to be expected, a majority of land battles involve surrounding settlements and either directly assaulting their defenders or waiting for them to bring the fight to you. Siege assaults are unsurprisingly costly affairs due to the fortifications and it's almost always a better decision to wait for the inevitable sally forth instead.
• Simple, yet Awesome: Despite their cheapness and minimalistic equipment, Spear Levies can and will carry the day in the early-game of any Fall of the Samurai campaign, provided that they have the support of their commander. Before the AI can gain accuracy upgrades or recruit more effective modern units, the Levies can take a beating long enough to charge home and cut the enemy to ribbons.
• Smash Cut: The trailer for Fall of the Samurai begins with a philosophical and peaceful, yellowish introduction of the process of forging and wielding a Katana, as well as its strong and ancient cultural ties to Japan. It stops abruptly in the very middle, and then cuts to a bluish view of the same samurai from the intro being mowed down by multiple handled by Imperial Japanese soldiers, with a hammyAmerican voice-over elaborating on the technological aspects of these brand new engines of death and pressing home a sales contract like he was simply selling a car.
• Snow Means Death:
  • The opening cinematic has a Takeda force attacking an Ikko-Ikki fort in the middle of winter. Both sides send out champions to fight in swirling snow. When the champions duel, the backdrop transforms to a beautiful cherry blossom meadow in bloom until the Takeda champion strikes a killing blow - vapor appears as the Ikko-Ikki champion breaths and clutches in pain, and then the snow reappears as he falls dead to the ground.
  • Winter is never a good season to start invading a neighboring province as any attacking armies in hostile territory will suffer winter attrition.
  • As part of it's general Darker and Edgier theme, Fall of the Samurai begins its campaign in the bleak grip of winter, as opposed to the base game and Rise, which begin in spring.
• Speed Run: The fastest possible domination victory of Shogun 2 on Legendary difficulty was 5 turns, by liberal usage of exploits of course.
• Spiteful A.I.: In Fall of the Samurai, the AI has been seen to ask you for all your money in return for a trade agreement. Sometimes they then break the agreement THE VERY NEXT TURN.
• Standard Snippet: The exceedingly famous, and ubiquitous, tune of 'Sakura' shows up regularly in the strategic map music.
• Stealth Experts: Kisho ninja, who (as long as they are moving slowly) can move about the battlefield undetected and scale castle walls quickly and safely. While individually skilled, their small numbers and lack of armor means they tend to get smashed in a stand-up fight, but their stealth allows them to do things like capture and unlock castle gates for the rest of the army to pour through or ambush a small, high-value unit (like an enemy general) when they are isolated.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Most siege weapons are based on this, be they bomb throwers or mangonels launching earthenware pots filled with black powder, or even rocket-firing squads for those that can manage to get them. The Hojo clan in particular seem to specialize in this, gaining hand-mortar squads in addition to the above.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: While generally considered a vast improvement over its Total War predecessors, the campaign AI is still prone to making some suicidal decisions. For instance, 'minor' clans with only one or two holdings will suddenly decide to raid the shipping lanes or destroy the rice paddies of their much larger, much more powerful neighbors for seemingly no reason. The AI on the battle map, just like the previous games, averts this by making much more intelligent decisions.
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors:
  • Shogun 2 has a clear-cut case in the specialist characters on the strategic map: Ninja/Geisha beat monks/missionaries (they can't detect ninja, ninja/geisha are hard to convert, monks/missionaries are vulnerable to assassination, ninja scouting armies makes them harder to demoralize), monks/missionaries beat metsuke (monks are hard to arrest and metsuke are vulnerable to conversion, adding monks to armies make them harder to bribe), and metsuke beat ninja and geisha (are good detectors, ninja/geisha are vulnerable to arrests, metsuke are harder to assassinate and overseeing armies make them resistant to assassination and sabotage).
  • In the Sengoku campaign, as a general rule spear infantry beat cavalry, cavalry beat sword infantry, and sword infantry beat spear infantry, but the sheer mind-boggling amount of units available renders this somewhat moot in most combats. For example, in the right situations archers can defeat all three of the previously mentioned unit types, but in the wrong situations would lose to all three.
• Take a Third Option: While your chosen clan in Fall of the Samurai can side either with the Shogun or Emperor, it can eventually opt to basically say 'screw it' as its 'Realm Divide' choice and go against both of them as a Republic.
• Take It to the Bridge: Like prior Total War installments, bridge battles can be initiated and are an excellent opportunity to defend yourself against numerically superior foes.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In Rise of the Samurai and Fall of the Samurai, the situation is such that you'll be competing for territory with the others even though you're supposed to be on the same side.
  • The Minamoto, Taira, and Fujuwara clans are all divided into two branches which are the Kamakura & Kiso, Yashima & Fukuhara, and Hiraizumi & Kubota. They are all obliged to work with each other at the beginning as diplomatic relations will slowly deteriorate between them if they just stand around doing nothing helpful for the other. But as only one clan can establish itself as Shogun, they will have to commit the necessary evil of eliminating the other branch.
  • Until realm divide comes, the Imperial and Shogunate factions will fight each other unless they choose to make alliances and reach an agreement not to break them for any reason whatsoever. Unfortunately, this tends to be easier said than done.
• There Was a Door: For some reason, even if fortifications had their gates sabotaged by ninja or damaged in a previous battle, AI armies will always choose to scale the walls instead, despite charging through the open gates being a safer alternative.
• Thieves' Guild: Shogun 2 has the Sake Den and its upgrades, which let you recruit both Ninja agents and Kisho Ninja units. The buildings also improve happiness and economy in the province. In addition to the standard building chain, there is a specialty building chain in some provinces which can be upgraded to a Smuggling Network or a Ninja Fortress.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: Bomb Throwers, who do exactly what they sound like. Notably, they have a long wind up time and short range on their attack and their small numbers mean they are easy prey in melee, but when their attack connects the effects are devastating on structures, men, and morale. They are best employed as sappers to open fortress gates, defenders to rain Death from Above on fortress walls, or ambush units set to hide in forests.
• Timed Mission: You have 200 Turns to win when playing on Long or Domination Campaign. Researching all of the Technologies, unfortunately, requires more than 200 Turns. Short Campaign gives you a research bonus but far less time to work with.
  • This is extended to 300 turns in Fall of the Samurai since 24 Turns equals a year and there are 6 turns per season.
• Token Minority:
  • The Otomo can recruit Portuguese Tercios.
  • In Fall of the Samurai, you can recruit a Foreign Veteran as an agent, as well as foreign marines (British Royal Marines, French Infanterie de Marine or U.S. Marines depending on who you establish a military mission with).
• To Win Without Fighting: In Rise of the Samurai, it's possible to knock out a one-province minor clan without fighting them by causing their province to pledge allegiance to you. This is probably the favored way to expand in the early game, especially for the Fujiwara.
• Truth in Television: People tend to criticize the melee combat in Shogun 2 because the soldiers are seen strictly fighting one-on-one. The truth is that it is usually impractical for two or more soldiers to double-team (a.k.a. gang-up) one enemy because the more soldiers that are involved in trying to engage one target with a simultaneous attack, the more likely they are to get in each other's way and, in turn, make themselves vulnerable to the target or even friendly fire.
• Unwinnable by Design: If you fail to win the long campaign by the game year of 1600, you can still keep playing, but you won't get to see the ending, even if you wipe out all the other clans and take over Japan.
• Vestigial Empire:
  • In the Sengoku Jidai campaign, the Ashikaga Shogunate is reduced to Kyoto and a handful of loyalist clans, though that changes once Realm Divide kicks in.
  • By Fall of the Samurai, the Tokugawa Shogunate is in a similar situation in terms of actual power.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can be an absolute sadist after conquered a province. Rather than occupying it, you might choose to make vassal (provided that the province is former capital of a clan), and immediately after that, send monks or missionaries to... stage a rebellion, watch them utterly crush the poor clan to dust (you might opt to add salt to injury by having your ninjas assassinate either the new shogun or the new heir). Next turn, send your army to destroy the rebels, maybe using your metsuke to bribe some of the rebel's units, and... make the poor clan vassal once again, and once again, let your monks, missionaries and ninja do your dirty jobs. Repeat this, and you will highly be profited by being a Villain with Good Publicity: you won many battles, your honour increased (due to having vassals), you gain an unit from your vassal to replenish your force (either a yari ashigaru or yari samurai) your units, generals and agents gained experience from continous battles and agent activities.
• Video Game Delegation Penalty:
  • Due to the way Auto-Resolving Naval Battles is calculated, it is highly recommended that you play them all manually. Otherwise, as described under Artificial Stupidity, you risk losing battles that would be easy victories if played manually (and/or you take more ship damage and casualties than you would manually).
  • Downplayed if your fleet contained Nanban trade ships, or in some rare case, the Black Ship, you can auto-resolve all naval battles to your heart's content. Those ships are extremely strong in auto-resolve battles, providing that your enemy is just a bunch of old Japanese ships, you can almost end up victory without even a hull scratch! Even when you fight manually, those ships' cannons are very detrimental to the enemy ships' hull and morale with good damage, extreme range and large crew. Of course, those advantages do not come without setback: your economy must be very powerful to pay the upkeep, and having Generals/Admirals with retainers that help reducing upkeep can help.
• Villain with Good Publicity: It's possible to have over 6 honor despite bonuses not extending into higher numbers. With careful manipulation of what gives honor, it's entirely possible to counteract the stain of converting to Christianity and/or heavy looting despite those being said to be very dishonorable. If you can manage to accrue 9 honor in total, you can loot to your heart's content as the maximum honor penalty for that is -3, still putting you in range of 6 for maximum honorability. On a lesser note, you can still be seen as very honorable even if you're regularly ordering the assassination of enemies with ninja, apprehending peaceful monks with metsuke and sending an endless wave of monks/missionaries to trigger rebellion everywhere.
• Violation of Common Sense: Given the undeniably obvious fact that all naval units are pulling double-duty as a warship and a troop transport, this just begs the huge question of how it's even possible to carry a full-stack army of at least 2000 men on something so tiny as a Kobaya.
• Violence Is the Only Option:
  • Played straight with the 'Realm Divide' event. Once you have control of about one-third of the map, the Shogun will send EVERYONE against you. All of the remaining clans (except those allied with you, but don't expect them to stay that way for long, as even your vassals clans will turn against you eventually) will also promptly stop fighting each other, ally with one another, and declare war against you. And they'll often send full stack armies of 20 units each (of varying degrees of quality) at a minimum. At this point, diplomacy is both worthless and amusingly impossible. Clans which you have never met before will quickly declare war on you because of the 'Realm Divide', then because they started a war with you they will really hate you.
  • Downplayed in Fall of the Samurai. After Realm Divide, unless you decide to declare a Republic, you can still engage in diplomacy with your own side (Imperial or Shogunate).
• Warrior Poet: Unsurprisingly for a warrior tradition that values the arts, generals can actually invest skill points in composing poetry. Mechanically, this helps a clan advance in the Bushido arts.
• Wham Shot: The Fall of The Samurai trailer. It starts with an elegant voice over and montage about the samurai, before a Smash Cut to them being mowed down by a gatling gun.
• A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: In purpose and essence, The Red Seal Ship is the Japanese equivalent of an Armed Merchantman. The idea is to replace the regular Trade Ship, which is highly vulnerable to being attacked, with a ship that looks like a Trade Ship but has a highly formidable crew that can defend themselves and even attack if necessary, freeing up the dedicated warships that would be allocated to escort duty (defending a trade fleet as it's sitting on a trade node) to patrol other areas and fight on the front line instead.
• Would Hit a Girl: In Fall of the Samurai, geishas are particularly vulnerable to death at the hands of shinobi.
• Would Hurt a Child: If your daimyo's sons are still in their childhood, they can be given to other clans as hostages for 8 turns, giving said clan assurance that you will not renege on your dealings with them. However, if you do (or the AI factions decide to declare war on you without provocation), they will kill the child without any qualms.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: A Level 6 Ishin-Shishi/Shinsengumi still has a very low chance of assassinating a Level 1 Geisha.
• You Have Researched Breathing:
  • In Fall of Samurai, you have to research 'kneel fire', which simply involves the front rank of an infantry unit taking a knee so the soldiers behind them can shoot. That's right, simply going into a kneeling position is something that has to be researched, and it's not an early thing either. It's actually very far down the tech tree.
  • Also in Fall of the Samurai, you can research 'censorship', which grants increased repression in your cities. In a nation that has always been an autocratic dictatorship for its entire existence, you would think all the governments in Japan would already know how to do that. Even better, Metsuke have a 'Censor' ability! Apparently no one asked them to write down their practices.
• Zerg Rush: In Shogun 2, this is required in the early game on higher difficulties. You need to get an army out, and get it out quickly, otherwise you will be overwhelmed. Ashigaru, thankfully, are pretty good for being the bog-standard cheap units; use this to your advantage to get an army out quickly and get in the face of your rivals. In a single battle, Zerg rush works just fine throughout the game. In Fall of the Samurai you can even buy one army of cheap, low-tech melee spear and sword units and pit it against another consisting of modern artillery and machine guns for the same amount of money. Even if you have them fight in a situation that favors the missile units; open, flat terrain, fighting during the day and in clear weather the melee army can rush and defeat the missile units.
  • Subverted in Rise of the Samurai. Despite the inevitable war that will break out among the major families, overemphasizing your military will leave your troops flatfooted as they must garrison a territory of majority enemy influence to keep it in order or quite slowly replenish their numbers for most of the game - be sure to leave yourself enough income to make regular use of agents to lessen your armies' dirty work.