Does anyone have this game yet?
It looks incredibly awesome from what I can tell, putting all previous TW installments to shame. Looks like they finally managed to get the AI right too, even on easy difficulty it looks like it puts up quite a fight. No more units standing still under a barrage of arrow/artillery fire, no more blob attacks, no more cavalry charging headlong into a forest of spears, etc. And the units have Japanese voices 
Sadly, I'm going to have to invest in a whole new desktop PC before I can even dream of playing this... my laptop can barely manage MTW2 on low graphical settings...
Easy is very different than the normal Total War you are used to. On Easy I had two different clans make a pronged attack at my two provinces at about turn 4. Needless to say I didnt have the numbers to effectively fight off two large armies in two different provinces at once. I actually had to make peace and offer a hostage with my Long Historical Enemy so I could focus on my Trade Partner turned Enemy. Diplomacy definitely plays a bigger part in the Campaign now.
I went straight onto normal and was surprised to find three clan armies bearing down and just taking the two provinces I had on turn 2! But now that I have my Japanese Head on, I think I will try another faction on Normal since I have become Shogun of Japan on my Shimazu/Easy Campaign
As for the battles themselves, its a nerdgasm. I have heard people speak of Homing Arrows. I call BS to that. If you watch carefully then you can guess where the arrows are meant to land, and they will always land there. They do NOT change course mid-flight! That said they can be deadly accurate. To me it looks like the AI now calculates where the enemy *Should be* and fires the arrows there. Of course it is not always correct since the enemy AI often moves around to escape the arrows or they might suddenly stop effectively making the arrows fall far far too wide of the mark. (Homing Arrows means they should change flight course and hit them anyway doesnt it, well it doesnt - EVEN ON EASY!).
Also you REALLY need to get your head into the Daiymo headset for Shoggy2. Think nothing of wasting Ashugari units. Sacrifice them so your Samurai can finish the unit off/deliver the killing blow/ or simply sacrifice them so your Samurai doesnt take the casualties. Ashugari are to be wasted utterly. You will always want a few of them to take the brunt of the enemy Bow/Matchlock troops especially. I have found them to be good at holding up the enemy too so you can get your Samurai into a good flanking position, or just from X to Y.
So far, the only really bad thing I have found is that Mastery of the Arts is far far too slow for my liking. But then it could be because I like to 'research all techs' so thats personal bias.
