Overview:
Estimated achievement difficulty: 3/10 (Some campaign missions may be harder if you are uncomfortable with squad based strategy games).
Offline: 16/20 (170/200)
Online: 4/20 (30/200)
Approximate amount of time to 200: 20-25 hours for SP, 2-3 hours for MP.
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: In theory 1, but 2-3 is more realistic.
Missable achievements: See the introduction below.
Does difficulty affect achievements?: Yes, the campaign progression achievements require Normal difficulty.
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: See the introduction below.
Extra equipment needed?: The WP version requires either WP7 or WP8, the Win8 version requires a Windows 8 tablet or PC.
Introduction:
Skulls of the Shogun is a strategy game that was commissioned by Microsoft to highlight their cross platform ability. The game saves to the cloud and the saves can be accessed from any device. This has benefits and drawbacks. The primary benefit is that you really only have to play the game once even if you own all three versions of it, as long as you load saves correctly (see below for details). The primary drawback is that if you DO NOT load saves correctly, some achievements can become permanently unachievable on other devices. As such, I strongly recommend purchasing all of the three versions you plan on playing before starting any of them, and then progressing on all of them simultaneously. This is the most efficient use of your time and avoids any glitches. The rest of the roadmap and guide will be based on the assumption that you own all three versions. If you don't, you can ignore any parts that apply to a version of the game you don't own.
Abbreviated Walkthrough:
The first mission is a tutorial on how to play the game, so run through that to start. While there are no achievements tied to the mission directly, it is very easy to unlock "Devil Inside" once you are taught about eating skulls. This is good practice for how to synch achievement unlocks across devices, so I strongly recommend doing so. Before you eat the third skull, save the game manually. Then load that save game up on all three devices at once, and eat it as close to simultaneously as you can manage. The achievement should unlock on all three, and then you can exit the game on your two non-primary devices and finish the tutorial level on your primary.
At this point, complete all of the multiplayer and online achievements. They will serve as an extra tutorial on how to move around the maps, what the different spells do, how to use the different units, etc. This will make playing the campaign much easier, and only takes a few hours.
Multiplayer:
While there are only four achievements that require online, there are many multiplayer achievements that can be done online or local, and several achievements that are easy to unlock in multiplayer.
The longest online achievement is the 30 kills in 30 turns required for "Epic Win," so do that one first, knocking out "Web Master" at the same time. I would also recommend completing the requirements for "Gone With the Wind" and "Lightning Storm" in the same game. Next is the four-player (two of which can be AI) win for "Online Multislayer" and then "Kurokawa Would Be Proud."
The other multiplayer achievements can be done locally with one controller on an Xbox or pass-n-play on Win8 or WP: "Team Player," and "Speed Kills." I also recommend completing "Were You Using That?" and "Outfoxing Death" in multiplayer.
Mop-Up:
Once you are done with the multiplayer and online achievements, all that should be left are to complete the campaign on normal, get all the skulls, and complete the game in under 3 hours. It is very important to not change the difficulty settings AT ALL until you have unlocked all five story progression achievements. Doing so will void the achievements in such a way that you will have to start a completely new game from the beginning to unlock them. Also, pay attention to the level numbers. The progression achievements unlock every four levels, so create save games as you go through that level in case you make a mistake. When you are within a move of finishing the level, save the game and load that save up on all of your devices. At that point, complete the level on all three simultaneously to avoid any glitched level progression achievements.
Once you are done with your normal playthrough, change the difficulty to easy and get any of the the skulls you missed on your normal run (which is probably most of them). Once the skulls are completed, then you can check your times for each level and repeat any that you need to that are outside the times listed for "Speed of the Shogun."
Conclusion:
Skulls of the Shogun is a fun little strategy game that is great for pick up and play sessions across all three supported devices. The interface is slick and the cloud saves are seamless and automatic. Overall, this is well worth playing and three easy completions for 800 on all three devices combined.
[x360a would like to thank Creech for this Roadmap]