Sango 2

Sango 2 is a historical wargame taking place in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms settings. Sango 2 is best described as a combination of Creative Assembly's Shogun: Total War and KOEI's Romance of the Three Kingdoms. You can choose between three possible campaigns, set at a different time and play any ruler or famous general of that period, such as Cao Cao, Liu Bei or Lu Bu.

The game is divided in two parts: first, a world (China actually) view, in which you manage cities and armies and, secondly, a 3D battle sequence every time two armies come into fight. The battle sequence is optional, since you choose for every battle to let it be auto-resolved. The game features detailed in-game tutorial screens, displayed each time you access something new.

In the world view you can select any of your city and use the management screen to:

• View city statistics
• Create new buildings in predefined spots, which for instance allow higher military unit production, boost research etc...
• Define an optional castle policy, which will automatically give priority to city improvement productions or to military unit productions.

Similarly, you can access an army creation screen, allowing you to create armies, by selecting generals, allocating some units under their command and giving them supplies. An option is available to have the computer auto-create an army for each city. The main resources in the game, for both city and army management are supplies and men.

Finally, a Palace (kingdom management) screen is also available. It allows to: - choose some diplomatic actions, such as spying or offering an alliance - make marriage proposals - allocate items that can boost statistics of a general or give him/her special abilities - view the world map according to specific elements such as alliance treaties. - take technological decisions. There are three mutually exclusive trees (called philosophies in the game), which will lead to specific upgrades and abilities.

The battle sequence will be very familiar to anyone who played a game from the Total War series. Before beginning a battle, if you choose to not have it auto-resolved, you will choose the deployment formation of your unit on the battlefield. This plays a very important role and a lot of options are offered, such as leaving some units as a delayed detachment or as a flanking attack party.

Once your decision has been taken, the 3D battle screen appears and a real-time battle begins. Units are gathered in battalions of the same type (archers, swordmen, cavalry...) under a general command. The units obey a traditional paper/rock/scissors formula. For instance, while the cavalry is good at charging archers and swordmen, it is very weak against pikemen, whereas the pikemen are easily defeated by swordmen.The formation of each battalion can be changed according to what is best suited during the battle.

Several elements, such as the weather conditions (fog, rain, etc.) or gaining height advantage on a hill will affect the battle. Some general also have some special abilities, with a limited area of effect, which can for example boost morale or temporarily give false commands to an enemy battalion, effectively routing them for a while. If an army manages to cut down the enemy flags, this will severely lower the enemy morale, giving a huge advantage.

The aim of a battle vary between an open fight with an enemy army when the two meet outside cities, the attack of a city or the defense of a city. During the attack or defense of a city, the city doors and ramparts play an important part, forcing the attacker to either take the ramparts or assault a door, while under enemy fire.

Battles have a limited duration and if victory is not achieved before night falls, troops automatically withdraw. Finally, if you achieve victory, you can attribute some rewards to generals, that will boost their statistics in certain domains, giving the game a, albeit limited, RPG aspect.