Interview with Michael de Plater - Executive Producer - Total War, part 2. 25 January 2001

Q. So there will be some new battlefield units, how will this change the game? For the samurai the units that make the biggest difference are the battlefield Ninja and the Kensai [sword saints]. The Ninja have a couple of skills which make them very deadly if they are used effectively. Firstly they can hide anywhere on the battlefield, not just in woods. Secondly they are good at short range with projectile weapons and they are also pretty tough in hand to hand combat. This makes them perfect for sneaking around and setting up ambushes on the enemy Taisho [general] or Daimyo. The Kensai is a lone warrior rather than a group unit, but they are awesome in hand to hand combat and they can cut through low honour units with ease, so once again they can turn the tide of a battle if they are deployed properly. On the Mongol side their most hard hitting unit is the Heavy Cavalry, these guys are very tough and have high morale so they are even a match for the samurai heavy cavalry. The most spectacular unit on the Mongol side are the grenadiers or 'thunder bombers'. These are Korean auxiliary troops, but they have exploding gunpowder grenades which they can lob at the enemy. They can do a lot of damage, but they are also very vulnerable. The Mongols also have units of Korean javelin throwers who can be deadly at close range with a volley of spears and who are also fairly fast. And the Mongol light infantry are the fastest troops on the battlefield at the moment. Q. Battlefield Ninja and the Kensai, are these units a Hollywood style historical remix!? A. Absolutely not, we have worked to ensure that the new unit types are as authentic as the original version. Ninja were not generally deployed as frontline troops, but they were used as assassins on the battlefield and to setup ambushes. Stephen Turnbull [our historical consultant] has written an excellent book on Ninja which details how they were used in battle. Q. Have you changed anything in the game due to consumer feedback? A. Yes, we've been watching the internet forums very closely and we review every suggestion which comes up on there and we also closely monitored all of the reviews of Shogun and took the feedback from them into account. Fortunately we found that there was a real consistency between what the fans of the game wanted and where we wanted to take the game. I think that most people who've put their wish lists online should be very happy with the Warlord Edition. A. To finish why has there been a delay on the latest patch, also will the two versions of the game be compatible on line? Well the answer to the first part of your question relates to the compatibility issue. We want to make sure that both versions will be compatible on-line and so we have had to delay the patch to guarantee this. As for features, the patch will improve the graphics and the AI and rebalances some of the game play.