It looks like... RTW. I've seen the AI do all those things in every Total War. They USUALLY just stand there and die, but they HAVE done those things. So I doubt it will change this time.

I wonder how many bugs there will be though?

Honestly ... WOULD I buy a Japanese version of Rome Total War? Yes.

I mean, I honestly hope its a better game with more AI difficulty settings (all of which being higher/better), but yea ... I'm highly doubtful that I would ever decide NOT to buy this game.

(well, maybe if I had the original Shogun TW ... but I don't )

As long it connect with Steam, i never buy anything from them. That was really stupid thing to do to have Steam or other sites that require to play.

That was an Awesome report Tormy The AI is looking good there.

Aggh .. I remember some of the battles in Rome: Total War when I was outnumbered about 6:1 ... usually end game when I'm using the latest and greatest in Cavalry and Melee, and seiging a City, and here comes two OTHER armies full of all kinds of generals and so forth pouring in ... making at least 3 Brutii armies against my Julius army.

Those were the great times... I remember once I had a late game Scipii army almost full of legionnaires...at one end of a bridge, and then a horde of Egyptians or some other barbarians on the other. They were all gold by the time that little campaign ended.

Looks good so far. The dev diary looks a little too "rehearsed". Still, I hope they spend more time polishing the gameplay on this go round.

Hmmmm. Never seen a Total War AI with that degree of tactical skill. For all we know it may well be a 2 person match with the devs in the video saying it's an AI.

More likely that they setup the match so the AI would react properly. They do it the same in the american campaign in Empire. In real battles they just mill about getting pounded or run into obvious death traps (which if they didn't wouldn't be very fun).

I'm afraid Steam means a no-buy from me.   I like Napoleon Total War (single player) a lot, but that was my first Steam game.  I didn't know.  

Oh boy, now I'll have to upgrade my rig.

Yea, its obviously rehearsed ... and why do they send out the samurai first by themselves? To make it more "historically accurate"?

I mean, I get fighting a battle piecemeal to detect for traps or to "try" and exploit a weakness ... but the initial charge (while kinda cool) didn't make much sense. And after winning, the AI samurai went back to their lines. HEREs an idea, next time an AI samurai charges, just place peasant spearmen to walk a bare yard in front of the rest of your army, and have ALL your Archers fire at the dudes (who are just randomly charging solo towards an entire army).

I mean, its kinda cool, but I could see it getting really silly/outta hand in a sandbox environment

They are just showing off. You can then do it however you want once you're playing.