I agree that its currently like playing Risk with a semi-deep Clan/Noble management.
Now this is my first post in this forum (well, Sengoku Forums) as this is my first Paradox game i bought the others i just tested demo's.. for some reason i accidentally believed that the makers of Victoria and Europe Universalis would know how to do a Sengoku Jidai game.
The reality is, they don't. Or don't yet.. we'll see.
here is a why i think that
1) Theres no Seasons, no Winter, No Food, and no Supply mechanic (which all interlinks together) - which is one of the biggest fails ever to exist in a game about Sengoku Jidai - the age of the country at war - except the war was PRIMARILY guided by the seasons and harvest times. By food supply, supply lines and food stores. The mere notion that developing a CASTLE extends my supply limit is beyond absurd as well. If anything it extends my ability to spread supply, but not my ACTUAL supplies.... in reality a Castle would cost and drain supplies (and a lot) (Shogun 2 abstracts this with its food and attrition, its a simple but effective system to prevent Citadel and Stronghold spam and Attrition means you will stay the heck out of enemy regions during winter unless its a "do or die" attack to seize the region ,p)
2) Population isn't calculated properly (maybe Sengoku took this idea from Shogun 2? ;P) - because population isn't calculated war/food/army/levee appear nearly like magic spawns. Again this interlinks with food (a levee raise at harvest season is particularly fun ,p) Shogun 2 had no levees, which i think is for the better. Without Population there is no strategy at all. Particularly as in Japan, the population was low to begin with. And lets not even get me started on Ronin Armies.. randomly finding them because my minister is searching for them is by far the most hilarious thing i ever seen ^^ I can just see how this worked in reality, a rich well known clan member walks through the landscape asking every passerby whether theres a Ronin with an ARMY to hire somewhere... yeah
3) The Diplomacy system with its Honor is.. ehm, lets just say.. bad. Its a meta-limiter on gameplay, Honor by itself is a value here, but putting a number on Honor (and even a price!) means that even DISHONORFUL dastards, can be honorful.. its absurd (and doesn't even make sense in the Sengoku Jidai context). Shogun 2 (again) did it right, you are dishonorful? Well you are rich, but you are also HATED TO THE GUTS and back particularly by your generals (which can have a lot of funny situations, particularly when you use multiple stacks) - again, Sengoku tries to do the same with its Honor penalty, forgetting that this penalty does NOT EXIST for big clans due to how the game plays.
4) No Fog of war, does this really need explanation? I don't even mean just Army positions, i mean Shimazu knowing who is the child, how old it is, and what traits it has of some irrelevant vassal who governs Fukushima province. Thats just absurd. Without a spy in that province and in that court, we should at best know the names and ages of the important people.
5) The sea gameplay was completely forgotten, even though dominance of the sea (and with that, dominance of trade) played a role particularly for the clans on the Islands.
6) The Tech tree - *crickets* - Why not? Researching stuff is FUN, not researching stuff is NOT fun ;/
This game seems incredible complex at first, but once you dig in its totally easy, and even shallow (who'd ever figure that could be said about a PARADOX game?) I Know paradox games had always bad combat but Sengoku really takes the cake, no effort was put into making it interesting, varied and complex.
Lets recap, a game about Sengoku Jidai - and its weakest element is the war. That is some irony
I hope modders can fix all these things via scripting... but for me, and for now, its back to Shogun 2 with Trom3 (mod)
I hope i didn't step on anyones toes, please add a mental note to each my points that this is from someone whos not "greatly" into paradox games at all, I play Shogun 2 mainly so take my points with that in mind.