Samurai Warriors 2 Empires date

Dave will be pleased: less than six months after the original version of the sequel, Samurai Warriors 2 Empires is due out here on 16th March.

Announced under the catchy promise that "Empires Strikes Back", the game nobody's calling SW2E is out on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2.

Empires guarantees KOEI's trademark massive battlefield action with a bit more emphasis on the pre-war machinations of tactics and council. Before each battle, you'll be called to make account of yourself on issues of politics and military demeanour.

Once the waffling's out of the way you'll be able to take to one of the 25 warring states' battlefields and try and unite them by killing everyone who disagrees with you, through six regional scenarios and five unification scenarios, making use of 50 new policy cards based on Japanese history, 30 different tactics cards and around 400 playable characters.

You can also expect two-player co-op and a Free Mode, which allows you to pick any stage you like and just go at it.

Look for word from our own war council on whether Empires makes a crucial difference to the Samurai Warriors 2 experience when the game lands on 16th March. In the meantime, you can check out our review of Samurai Warriors 2 on Xbox 360 elsewhere on the site.