It's set centuries before Total War: Shogun 2 - Rise of the Samurai basically gives you another campaign similar to the original for the game. Total War: Shogun 2 - Rise of the Samurai basically gives you another campaign similar to the original for the game. Because all this, I highly recommend you take the trouble to read a little bit about the Gempei War (wikipedia, fast to read) and try this DLC.

The Shirabyoshi agent also adds to this, and brings more falvour. In short, while the battle/military aspects of the game may not provide a fundamentally distinct experience from the original Shogun 2 (no guns now, though), the new allegiance element provides a whole new strategic dimension to the game, bringing much flavour and fun to it. There's also the Monomi agent, basically a ninja, and the Sou, preacher-like characters that can inspire, demoralize and incite revolts. Also interesting is the Shirabyoshi agent, female entertainers/dancers dressed as men, who can not only seduce enemy generals to join your side but also distract enemy armies, making them 'lose a turn' (very interesting for campaign map army manoeuvring tactics), or entertaining your generals in order to raise their loyalty. And, of course, all the diplomatic relations between different clans will take this into account as well, making it very interesting to plot your way through with negotiations, alliances, vassals, backstabbings, etc. You now effectively gain control of enemy provinces by converting the population to your allegiance and then requesting them to join you, kicking out their previous rulers. They enable the conversion of population to your allegiance, the paying off of enemy armies *and* the requesting of allegiance from other provinces to join your clan. The Junsatsushi is the new agent for this. So, while you can still be the military genius and crush everyone, you should take into account this new aspects, you must remember you are answering the Emperor's call to arms, otherwise you'll have no support from other clans and favour from the populace and court in your claims to power. Allegiance plays a huge role now: there there are a multitude of non-playable clans, each with its own allegiance, and the provinces' population itself has an allegiance. Each of these 6 has different and richer (not just military) stat modifiers reflecting their own characteristics and enabling different play styles and campaign experiences. Each has 2 clans two choose from, reflecting the distinct branches of each family. Firstly, there are the 3 main families available to play, Taira, Minamoto and Fujiwara. The game reflects all these Gempei War localisations very well in many aspects and adds these different dimensions to the gameplay, which complement the militaristic side very well and add to the overall strategic layer of things.

Ironically, Prince Mochihito's call for help ended up further taking effective power away from the Emperor, the Court and the nobility class, reinforcing an usurpation of Imperial power by the warrior class which later reached its peak with the Tokugawa Shogunate. The Fujiwara were exiled in northern Japan, away from power. After much fighting, eventually the Minamoto won and in 1192 established the Kamakura Shogunate, essentialy the first feudal government in Japan controlled by the warrior class (before, only nobility populated the court). Different clans aligned themselves with the Taira and the Minamoto. This provoked Mochihito to seek the aid of the Minamoto and raise a call to arms against the Taira. In 1180, the Taira clan's leader Kiyomori put his 2-year old grandson on the the throne, in detriment of the Emperor's son, Mochihito, the rightful heir. This was at the expense of the Fujiwara family, who were from the nobility class, and previously had had the most influence over the court and the Emperor himself, intermarrying into the Imperial family for generations and thus pulling all the strings of power. Before 1180, two rival 'warrior-class' clans, the Taira and the Minamoto, had been gaining more and more power over the Imperial Court by performing various 'military' deeds and getting rewards from the court in the form of lands and titles. The DLC's campaign is set on the 'Gempei War', a period of time very unjustly overshadowed by the Sengoku Jidai, which is more wildly known, but is actually very rich and vibrant, both politically and militarily.

Skip the next paragraph if you know about the 'Gempei War'. This review is long, with emphasis on the historic and political side of things, bear it with me.

This review is long, with At first glance you may wonder if this DLC isn't just more of the same. At first glance you may wonder if this DLC isn't just more of the same.

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