NARRATOR: Total War combines turn-based strategy gaming with stunning real-time battles.
Players take command of nations, armies and generals as they battle for ultimate victory.
With breathtaking detail and unparalleled historical accuracy,
Total War allows the player to recreate and change the course of history.
In 2011, the award-winning Shogun 2 offered new AI,
streamlined controls and a host of multiplayer features.
In the Fall of the Samurai standalone expansion,
The Creative Assembly have created the largest expansion pack ever for a Total War game.
It's taking us into areas we've never been to before in Total War. It's getting closer and closer to the modern era.
I think it's exciting because it's the latest any Total War game has ever been to the modern day,
the closest any Total War game has been to the modern day,
and with that brings a lot of really interesting, different game features,
a lot of scope in terms of how fast the game moves
and how quickly your armies are deployed across the map, how many different types of units are available.
NARRATOR: Set 300 years later than the original game, The Fall of the Samurai sees the clash of traditional samurai culture
with the explosive power of the Early Modern world.
It's the late 19th century, which means that it's got some of the most advanced technology seen in a Total War game.
So you've got torpedo ships or field artillery, all that kind of stuff that actually makes it feel quite different from
particularly Shogun 2, which is obviously set in the 16th century.
NARRATOR: This industrial age is the most recent period ever covered in a Total War game,
offering new game mechanics to please and challenge fans.
I mean, Japan actually started to build railways in this period or slightly afterwards.
Railways on the campaign map have quite important strategic influence,
in that they allow you to move armies incredibly quickly.
So as you capture more and more of the territory of Japan, you remove your armies around very effectively,
and it's really important for bringing your best troops to the front.
NARRATOR: Fall of the Samurai doesn't require the original Shogun 2 game,
and easy-to-follow tutorials will show new players how to command the action.
It's a standalone expansion, so it's not a game add-on as, as such, that you need the original game in order to play it,
but it's a fully standalone version of the game itself.
NARRATOR: The game begins with the Boshin War in 1869,
a dramatic turning point in Japanese history.
The ruling Shogunate is trading with the West,
allowing new ideas to change Japan.
Growing unrest ignites rebellion,
which threatens to overthrow the Shogun and restore the Emperor to power for the first time in six hundred years.
The Shogunate had ruled Japan for hundreds of years, since the time of Shogun 2,
but people were getting more and more agitated as the Shogunate kind of opened up Japan to foreign influence.
And so there was a movement called "Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians,"
and it eventually boiled up into full-blown rebellion where whole domains rise up
and try and overthrow the Shogunate.
NARRATOR: The player chooses a clan and decides whether to remain loyal to the Shogun
or to fight for the Emperor.
Every clan has their own unique strengths and challenges: civilian, diplomatic or military.
Each faction within an allegiance has its own clan trait, which gives it a very specific play style.
Like, you might have one who is more open to modernisation or trade,
in which case they'll have a access to cheaper modern units, more money from trade with Western powers...
Or you may have some who are just the opposite.
NARRATOR: In the next trailer, we'll find out how the campaign and the real-time battles have been reimagined and redefined.
Fall of the Samurai is a whole new experience and an ambitious entry into the Total War series.