History YMMV / ShogunTotalWar

* CrossesTheLineTwice: Half of the ninja assassinations, and ALL of the Geisha assassinations.
* DemonicSpiders: Warrior Monks, if the AIRoulette hates your guts. Nodachi Samurai can qualify this, but only if you don't field any cavalry or any Nodachi Samurai yourself. Any ranged units becomes this if you're fielding Kensais.
* GoddamnBats: Calvary Archers. The only unit besides themselves who can catch up to them is Yari Cavalry. However, [[UnwinnableByDesign combine it with unlimited ammo and no Yari Cavalry in your army...]]

** Christian Daimyos. Once one converts into Christiany, any Warrior Monk becomes useless against them. This does not apply to the AI fielding any Warrior Monks against you, though.
** Playing as the Rebels. Sure, you have a massive army, Warrior Monks, and Nodachi Warriors [[note]]In the base game's scenario[[/note]], but the game is coded to give YOU a morale and strength penalty once certain turns kick in.

** Auto-resolve battles are only partially based on unit type and strength comparison. For the most part, it's pure RNG and various units are ''completely ignored'' in the equation.
* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: You can wait out for the last turn without completing your objectives, or have your daimyo with no heir fight a battle with no chance to escape.

* DummiedOut: The game had text and sound files that remained unused, including:
** Material related to the Chosokabe clan, which was [[PromotedToPlayable used later in Shogun 2.]]
** Sound files mentioning the birth of a daughter, a concept which was later used in Medieval.
** Unused text lines stating Christian Excommunication, which was later used in Medieval.
** There is an unused agent named "The Father Visitor". It sounds like a predecessor to Medieval's Pope.
** The Ashigaru Crossbowmen of the Mongol invasions are unavailable in the non-mongol games. You can add them into the main scenarios without any issues, however.
** The Toyotomi and Date Clan was supposed to replaced the Oda and Uesugi clans in-game like how the Tokugawa might do under certain conditions. Unfortunately, these strings cannot load due to missing or bugged triggers.
** There was an unused building called the Medical School, with famous and legendary upgrades. It supposes to increase the regeneration of lost men in units, but doesn't work if modded in. Interestingly enough, the concept was later used in later games, and the Legendary Medical School has its art used for the Drill Dojo in the expansion.
** The devs has an anticheat message added... except that there isn't any way to cheat back then.
-->''Dev Message: HANDS IN THE AIR! YOU'RE SURROUNDED!''

* UnwinnableByInsanity: You can wait out for the last turn without completing your objectives, or have your daimyo with no heir fight a battle with no chance to escape.

* ScrappyMechanic: Oh boy, where do we begin? Thankfully some are these are fixed in Shogun 2.
** HitAndRunTactics are impossible, since the game was coded to automatically have the army to rout. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard The computer, however, is immune to this, though.]]

** Historical Campaigns. While optional, most of these campaigns are near to impossible to complete- most of these battles are a LuckBasedMission.

** Geishas. If the AI somehow creates one, the only way how to remove one is by Ninja (which can fail alot) or by another Geisha. The latter method causes you to lose your Geisha in the process. [[ArtificialStupidity However if the AI targets your Geisha...]]
** Don't have a Sword Dojo pre-built in your starting provinces? Too bad, you will have to trigger an event that happens after resolving battle, win or lose. Don't like to manually command your army? Too bad, automatic resolves seems to have a very much reduced rate for the event to trigger.
** Gunpowder units. Crosses with UselessUsefulSpell.
*** All gunpowder units are Ashigaru, none of them is Samurai.
*** Arquebusiers. Unless you happen to have a Citadel and an Armory note or a Cathedral, you're going to be stuck using them most of the game.
*** Musketeers. By the time you can make one, you already almost beaten the game. While its more feasible in the 1580 scenario, your time is SEVERELY limited with the almost lack of heirs.
*** A clever player can just ZergRush them and immediately cause them to rout. The AI is aware of this, making battles such as [[UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga Nagashino impossible]].
** Auto-resolve RNG. If the RNG hates your guts, your all powerful nodachis, heavy cavalry, and Warrior Monks may get slaughtered with no reason other than "RNG". Have 3000+ men? The enemy have less than that? RNG hates you? Sorry, you lost the battle in auto-resolve. This sometimes apply to manual commands, as for some odd reason, two heavy cavary units may rout itself after having contact with Yari Ashigaru or even Samurai Archers.

* ScrappyMechanic: Oh boy, where do we begin?

** Don't have a Sword Dojo pre-built in your starting provinces? Too bad, you will have to trigger an event that happens after resolving battle, win or lose. Don't like to manually command your army? Too bad, automatic resolves seems to have a very much reduced rate for the event to trigger.

** You can only build Sword Dojos by an event that triggers randomly, as long there isn't a sword dojo set in your province at the start. Auto resolves have a low chance while manual resolves has a somewhat decent chance.

** Geishas. If the AI somehow creates one, the only way how to remove one is by Ninja (which can fail alot) or by another Geisha. The latter method causes you to lose your Geisha in the process. [[ArtificialStupidity However if the AI targets your Geisha...]]

** Christian Daimyos. Once one converts into Christiany, any Warrior Monk becomes useless against them.

** Historical Campaigns. While optional, most of these campaigns are near to impossible to complete- most of these battles are a LuckBasedMission.