Up to 5,000 troops can take part in one battle, though each unit in an army can be made up of no more than 60 men. At first glance the battle scenes look like those in the Warhammer games, but Shogun touts much better graphics, better camera control, and more control over tactics. Whereas the likes of Myth and Dark Reign 2 make the mistake of not allowing the floating camera to pull back up to a great height above ground, in Shogun you can pull back or up far enough to get a great feel for how the battle is flowing. The graphics are strong, with buildings, trees and terrain features all looking good. Fog, mist and musket smoke add to the atmosphere.
Fog of war is implemented in an unusual way.
This isn't quite what you'd expect, but it seems to work reasonably well, and I assume this is something that will be tweaked and tuned as the release date approaches. In battle, each unit has a concept of honour, morale and stamina, and units can have an effect on those nearby. Selecting targets to attack is also easy enough, and you can even split the fire from one unit onto two enemies. General army formations, such as wedge, loose or staggerered can be employed. Those units which do perform well in battle gain experience though, and will fight better the next time around.