What goes up must come down. And now that we've had the Rise of the Samurai expansion for Total War: Shogun 2, it's only natural that we get the newly announced "Fall of the Samurai" expansion as well. It will focus on the clash between the Imperial throne and the last Shogunate in the 19th century, when samurai culture met modern weaponry. As the name implies, it didn't end well.

The announcement on the Sega Blog calls it "significantly larger" than anything else produced for the game. It will bring in America, Britain, and France as new threats in a civil war, along with six playable clans.

New features include railway networks, ironclad warships, improved siege battle mechanics, new land and sea unit interactions, the ability to call offshore artillery, and coastal gun emplacements. You can also access three new agent types: Foreign Veteran, Ishin Shishi, and Shinsengumi.

Multiplayer will introduce a new Conquest map, with a new avatar that includes 40 retainers, 30 armor pieces, and a 19th century skill tree. Players can also use multiple avatars now, to create multiple careers across the game and its expansion.

The standalone expansion is due in March of 2012.