The Total War Thread

[The Dude]

Undoubtedly one of the greatest video game series of all time. Discuss your thoughts on the game series.

What's you're favorite game in the series, I like both Medieval II, and Empire. Although I like Empire slightly better because of enhanced graphics and a better campaign, even if the battle is not as good as Medieval II.

Although I heard Shogun II is excellent, haven't tired it out myself because it pretty much drains your computer due to it's requirements. Sheesh you need Alienware to play these games on the best settings.

Also, Creative Assembly stated they're working on another Total War game, I really want Medieval III (with Poland! :lol: ) but chances are it's gonna be something new or Rome 2. Although Rome 2 wouldn't be that bad...

[Nero]

When they do release a new one, I will buy it and play it. However if the specs are to high I will buy Shogun 2.

[The Dude]

Why don't you try a demo through steam?

[General_II]

The original medieval was the best. I had fun with Medieval II, but it had a lot of problems and bugs. For example, about 6 months after Med II went retail, they released a patch that was bigger than the installed game. People who played Rome usually can't stand Medieval II because of its quality control issues. Kingdoms was a bit better, but it's an expansion so I kept my expectations respectably low, and the campaigns were hard to screw up.

I've played Shogun 2 and it's.. not bad. I'm still not a huge fan of it, and only spent around 42 hours on it before getting fed up with multiplayer bugs and the repetition of battles -- it only has 4 basic maps. I don't see myself picking it up again; maybe to finish beating that campaign on whatever the hardest setting is, but that's it. Sigh.

[Nero]

@the Dude: I couldn't be bothered at the moment. But when I am I will.

[peugeot407]

Right, going through the list:

Shogun: Never played it.

Medieval: Never played it.

Rome: Sort of okay. I had fun playing as the Seleucids, and the most enjoyable Roman faction was the Scipii. I do hate the fact that no matter how high your buildings are upgraded, you can only ever train one unit per region per turn.

Medieval II: I voted this the best. The campaign map was so-so, and not much better than that of Rome, not to mention that there were some important civs missing. Kingdoms fixed that, and with the Kingdoms Grand Campaign Mod it's possible to play with all Kingdoms factions on the normal battle map (some regions have been added as well), which makes it ideal. I like the choice of units, and the battle map graphics have not become any better since (in fact they've become much worse). The most enjoyable faction probably was the Venetians, even though I must say the Danish and Polish are fun too.

Empire: This would be my second choice. It's also the first "Total War 2.0" game. Sure, they cocked up the battle maps in 2.0, but they did make the campaign map a whole lot better. I loved the sheer number of units available, as well as the new research feature and the idea of having multiple towns in a region. But obviously the most fun part was that you really could conquer the world. Bit of a shame then they made those Trade Theatres, I would have loved to conquer those too. Great Britain easily is my favourite faction, and Sweden and the Ottoman Empire are fun too, especially the latter.

Napoleon: In some ways worse than Empire (the fact that you only ever play in Europe and the small number of playable factions) and in a number of ways a lot better. I liked the automatic replenishment system, dependent on your supply lines, and I also liked the ability to switch buildings rather than first having to destroy one and then build another from the ground up. What I liked most of all though is the Liberation feature, that finally makes Protectorates a real strategic option. Great Britain once again is my favourite, with Prussia coming second.

Shogun II: I've only recently played it, and I must say I sort of like it, but it's not brilliant. I like the number of missions and rewards, especially considering they were virtually non-existant in Empire and Napoleon, but I disliked the fact that they cut the number of units down drastically. I haven't played Shogun II for an awful lot of time, but I must say that as soon as you hold the Shogunate and every other clan starts to attack you (even your Vassals, which was a shock) it gets really hard to defend your regions, even on Easy difficulty. The best faction I've played with so far are the Oda, even though the Hojo are okay as well.


peugeot407

[The Dude]

In my opinion they just should have made NTW some sort of expansion.

Now, I was wondering about the Warpaths DLC, it looks pretty cool, and natives use unconventional warfare, which is always fun...

[peugeot407]

Hmm, if I would have been in charge of all that I wouldn't have touched the existing factions (even though I would have made Genoa, Venice, Persia, Portugal and Denmark playable) but I would have added the rest of South America, the Middle East and the area north of the East Indies, roughly between Birma and the Phillipines. Also I would have got rid of the Trade Theatres, and made them conquerable.


peugeot407

[The Dude]

Well than, ETW would drain even more memory from my HDD.

[Maxulino]

I only played napoleon and hated it actually it gives me headache

[The Dude]

I got back from playing the Shogun 2 demo, it was fucking awesome!

In fact, I've seen some gameplay vids and I love it, so tomorrow I'm heading to the store and buying Shogun 2.

[The Dude]

NECRO!

Rome 2 just announced! I've created an article up on the NE forums, I'll try to keep it up to date with the latest infos n stuff. Check it out!

[peugeot407]

Rome 2? I was rather hoping for a Victoria: Total War, continuing where FoTS left off. Still, should be interesting...


peugeot407

[Augustus Black]

Can't Wait for it to come out ,
I was hoping for actually the same. Any new Civs with Rome II Total War?

[super7700]

I don't own any Total War games, but if I do get one, should I just get RTW and download a good mod like Europa Barbarorum, or should I wait for this to come out? I do hope Rome II Total War is more historically accurate, so for instance rather than having pre-1000BC Egyptians with units such as Pharaoh's bowmen, desert axemen and chariots (that's what RTW did), they should have the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Historical inaccuracy hurts my eyes.

[peugeot407]

If you want a Total War game and you don't mind which time period it's in, get Fall of the Samurai. You don't need to buy the vanilla Shogun 2 to play it, and it's absolutely fantastic. If you want something older than that, Rome is a possibility, but Medieval II is just so much better in every way that I wouldn't, especially considering that both Rome and Medieval II are being practically given away these days.


peugeot407

[super7700]

Thanks for your advice. Personally I prefer the ancient and medieval periods, but that wouldn't stop me from getting other Total War games. How complex/difficult are these types of games to play compared to RTS games like AOE?

[peugeot407]

Very easy. You get timely warnings if you do things seriously wrong, and because the campaign map part is turn-based, you've got plenty of time to make decisions. The battle map part of the game may be a bit more tricky, but it's also a real way to vent your strategic ideas, as the games of the TW series really take everything into account, including fatigue, morale, and even the terrain.


peugeot407

[Synecdoche]

Regarding Rome: 2...

I would be excited, if I didn't think the early Roman period wasn't going to be completely and utterly cornered by the efforts of the Europa Barbarorum team. Europa Barbarorum, for those who don't know already, is in my opinion the greatest historical mod ever created. It was made for Rome: TW, and the team corners the Hellenistic period with a vigor and attention to detail that's quite frankly stunning.

Europa Barbarorum 2, the same period but with a greatly expanded scope and gameplay, is slated to come out very soon, and is a mod based on M2TW: Kingdoms. From the previous utterly commendable efforts of the EB team, and the fact that this mod has been being tweaked for about 5 years starting from an already stunning model, I'm looking forward to it as completely surpassing its original incarnation and maybe becoming my favorite game ever. Judging from Napoleon and Empire, which in my opinion were relatively bland affairs, I don't have the highest hopes for Rome 2, and the fact that CA is making it increasingly difficult to mod their games makes me quite upset that amazing, completely-driven-by-passion teams such as EB won't be able to work their magic on it. For this reason, the only ways I expect Rome 2 to be an improvement over the upcoming mod is the amphibious battles and political intrigue, unless CA removes their recent vendetta against their thriving modding community and fanbase, which remains stuck on M2TW.

If you haven't heard of them and own Rome: Total War or Medieval 2: Total War, check out Europa Barbarorum and Europa Barbarorum 2. They're gems, I swear.

[The Dude]

CA tends to learn from their mistakes.

They've already released the source code for Empire (and maybe Napoleon), and are in the process holding a modding summit of some sorts for Shogun 2, which is pretty damn cool in my opinion.

[peugeot407]

Late though, given that the source code and other modding tools for the Total War 2.0 games (Rome and Medieval II) came out almost immediately after release...


peugeot407

[The Dude]

I think most of the mod tools that came out for them are fan made.

Speaking of mod tools, CA just launched Shogun 2 ones, with Steam Workshop integration as well.

[leon the duque of birigui]

y not know why the game idustries hate moders,mods can even give money for the productors for example i get aoe3 because a mod and only not buyed it because y found it in free download site. y hope that CA release an tool for unahardcoding harcoded things

[HAL9000]

The two games who hate the modders the least are certainly MTW and RTW, and it seems the all Creative Assembly games in general, what with EB1, EB2, Roma Surrectum, Diadocci Total War, Westeros Total War... All are fantastic mods for both RTW and M2TW (I can only confidently speak for those as I don't own any of the others)

[super7700]

Well CA has made an interesting decision regarding RTW2. It will please some but annoy others:

Spoiler:

It's a clever marketing strategy, as I'm sure many people will buy the game just to play as Sparta and Athens. However it isn't very good news for those wanting historical accuracy or wanting some of the much more important factions that have been left out, such as the Seleucids and Iberians.

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