Sengoku Preview - Paradox Visits The Far East

I'm not as familiar with Crusader Kings, which was the first grand strategy game by Paradox. My first exposure with a character driven Paradox game came from Europa Universalis: Rome, which was a good game, but had its own failings. This September, Paradox are releasing Sengoku, a character driven grand strategy game set in feudal Japan, in the Shogunate era. Lets get one thing straight, this is not a game like Shogun 2 Total War. Paradox makes deep grand strategy games and the two games only share a common time period and theme(and the objective of becoming Shogun).

Sengoku is the best looking Paradox game so far

First off, I have to say that Sengoku looks gorgeous for a Paradox game. Granted, Paradox games aren't the cutting edge of rendering technology, but they've done good recently with making cool looking maps. Sengoku surprisingly moves away from the more abstract artistic representation of the geography for a more realistic 3D terrain with hills and valleys. I must say, I'm mighty impressed by just how much they can iterate on the Clausewitz engine(the engine that powers Europa Universalis III and all Paradox games since EUIII) and update the engine to look this good with every new release. That out off the way, on to the gameplay.




The Lay Of The Land

Instead of the usual, countries and provinces, you actually take control of a dynasty(the main character is the clan leader) instead of an actual a nation. Though, you could still take action to manage your holdings but things aren't as straight forward as that. Now, loyalty plays a much bigger role compared to the Europa Universalis games as your provinces are ruled by different leader who may or may not betray you in the future.

Ninja's can be used to make things easy for you. But failure can often lead to a loss of honour

Each province is called a Kori and each Kori is ruled by a Kokujin. On top of the Kokujin, is the Daimyo who rules the Kuni or a couple of Kori's and holds the allegiance of these few Kokujin. The clan leader leads everyone else under him; Daimyo and Kokujin. Which may confuse those Total War players who think the Daimyo is the leader of the clan. Each of these characters, the clan leader, Daimyo and Kokujin have their own court with a few courtiers under them. So you can imagine a complex web of hierarchy with all the clan and a tonne of different characters involved in the governance of Japan.

Between Men & Women

Unlike most other Paradox strategy game, in Sengoku you control a dynasty. You take on the role of a clan leader, one of the many clans in Japan vying for glory and the honour for their clan leader to be called Shogun. But you know... dynasties are complicated things. You aren't just dealing with enemies outside your borders but also enemies within. Bad, untrustworthy characters, back stabbing shady characters, and the sort.

"I mean having a general who is a coward is a lot more interesting than a super general who is absolutely perfect. Let's face it... nobody is perfect"

All characters have attributes such as wealth(pretty self explanatory), honour(which is a sort of rating which generally effects a lot of things), martial(important for generals), diplomacy(how well this characters handles negotiations and dealing with other characters), and intrigue(dealing with plots and limits how many provinces you can manage effectively which affects how fast you can expand). There's also this trait system whereby characters have traits that affect these attribute and over the game can gain new traits. Much like in the Total War games(and definitely like Crusader Kings), much of the personality of your character comes through this trait system. I mean having a general who is a coward is a lot more interesting than a super general who is absolutely perfect. Let's face it... nobody is perfect.

The dishonourable leader dies. The heir inherits the clan and gets back some of the honour

It's the Paradox version of an RPG and this interplay between characters is what will make for a dynamic and hopefully, satisfying gameplay. Loyalty is definitely a key aspect of Sengoku and keeping your Kokujin's on your good book can be vital if you're going to go to war. You'll need all the army you can muster.

Honour - The Way of The Warrior

The act of Seppuku, first recorded in 

the year 1198 became a key part of 

Bushido, the code of the samurai.

The most common form of seppuku for

 men was composed of the cutting 

of the abdomen, and when the samurai 

was finished, he stretched out his neck for 

an assistant to decapitate him

Unlike Europa Universalis, Honour is the prestige in Sengoku. Except with this small twist, if it gets too low, your clan leader will be forced to commit sepuku(commit suicide). Just like prestige in EU3, honor is spent to take certain actions such as diplomacy(from declaring war to creating an alliance) to playing a plot.

This whole idea of committing Seppuku is interesting. If your leader has low honour and it is affecting your relations with other characters and other clans a lot, you can decided to force your own leader to commit Seppuku to restore some honour for the clan and have your heir take up the role of leader(obviously you don't want to do this when you don't have an heir nominated).

Or you can always send gifts to the emperor or court a position in the Imperial court as a Jugoi, which will gain your clan honour(the position of Jugoi doesn't add any other gameplay significance). They ain't kidding with this new honour system, it's really important and a low honour untrustworthy scum is hard to like and you'll find diplomacy and holding on to your territories become a more tricky proposition as your Kokujins and Daimyo's loyalty waver.


Plots & Scheming

Despite the whole honour system, there is a whole other erm... less honourable system which are called plots. These are sort of like events that you can trigger if you fulfil its requirements, like in other Paradox strategy games except that you need to recruit co conspirators from other clans to set your plot in motion. There are a whole bunch of different plots from conspiring to attack a neighbouring clan with other clans, to even usurping a clan leader with a pretender.

The combat mechanics has stayed relatively the same from EU3

There is a lot at stake here. If a plot is discovered, your rival can choose to expose your plot which will cost you a lot of honour(which you can do the same if you discover a plot against you). A plot getting discovered depends on the effectiveness of that(or your) clans Master of Guard which I'm sure you'll have to do some investigation before starting a plot.

Get Your Shogun Hats On

Sengoku while not Paradox's major title(that has to be reserved for Crusader Kings II), is looking like it might be a pretty solid title on its own right. The core ideas from Crusader Kings makes this a unique strategy game not unlike any other game(other than of course Paradox's Crusader Kings).

The whole Japanese theme might not appeal with the hardcore European history nut and it does have a bit of a cultural learning curve with many of the gameplay facets sprinkled with a healthy dose of Japanese(just what the hell is a Demesne? and calling territories as Kori is bound to make it not as pick and playable like any other strategy game). You're going to have to read the manual, learn about the game and learn the terms used in this game. Yes... even if you're Asian. Sengoku releases September 13th.




Looking Forward To: Cunning diplomacy to maintain the dominance and honour of my clan


Not Looking Forward To: Trudging through a sea of characters in the game interface