Best Total War game?

quarryman

I played Shogun back in the day and enjoyed it.

Since then there have been numerous releases in the series, which is the best?

Sudden Valley

I haven't played any of the earlier Total war series but out of the three I have played (MTW2, Napoleon, Empire Total war), I'd have to choose Empire. Just the choice for expansion that you have in that game make the earlier versions sound slightly limited.

Sasquatch76

Rome and Med II are my personal favourites, simply due to the number of quality mods available. I prefer these eras historically over tall ships and musket anyhow.

ChunkyLover_53

Played them all. Medieval TW 1 is probably my most played game of all time. When I upgraded to MTW2 I realised I should have done it a lot sooner. I like Empire but just can't seem to enjoy it as much as the others.

Has to be MTW2 just for some of the mods that are out there, like LOTR The Third Age.

Dave_The_Sheep

I've played the whole series from the start and as much as I love the Napoleonic Era weaponry of Empire over the swords/spears/shields of the Shogun/Medieval era, Medieval Total War 2 gets the nod. Mainly due to the whole revolution/evolution nature of the series, possibly.

Rome took the series into the movement points era as opposed to the Risk style movement of Shogun and Medieval, but Medieval 2 just refined it perfectly. There were lots of factions, great diversity in unit type, and just lots of personality to it. It just played really well. You could spend a whole game kicking around the west of the map - never seeing the East, only to play another game as the Turks or the Egyptians and never seeing England or France. There was so much replayability.

I put a LOT of time into Shogun, more than any other of the series by far but it still doesn't quite beat Medieval 2. For impact, it surely does, but enjoyment - nah.

Sephiroth_dude

Medieval Total War 2 for me,I enjoyed napoleon and empire total war to.Looking forward to shogun 2.

GarlicBread

The best way to play total war is med 2 + kingdoms expansion + third age mod. It beats the rest by a mile. The makers of total war could only dream about making such a masterpiece.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9lPgCCN_jk

The modders have also cracked the custom settlement problem and during the next few months there should be minas tirith, helms deep and many of the other cities modded in.

rockmongrel

Rome Total War with the mod Europa Barbarorum, wasted a large portion of my life on that.

degrassinoel

yep, Rome for me too, so so addictive

uglyjohn

medieval 2 for me. it built on rome without all the flaws of empire.

evercloserunion

The two mains ones I have played are Shogun and Rome, little bit of Empire as well.

I can't actually decide between Shogun and Rome. I love Rome for its complexity and Shogun for its simplicity, they're very different games but both awesome in their own ways.

If I had to pick I would say Rome, it at least keeps you hooked for longer I think as there seems to be more going on in the campaign. Maybe that's just because my memories of epic campaigns in Rome are more recent than those of Shogun.

Keggers2

I missed Empire and Napoleon but Shogun was one of my absolute favorite games of all time!

But as for best in the series, I too would to say Med 2 for sheer f**cking awesomeness!

Wolfe Tone

Rome hands down for me.

Rome Total War with the mod Europa Barbarorum, wasted a large portion of my life on that.

Whats that mod like? I played Rome Total Realism, was a bit too hardcore for me.

rockmongrel

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

Whats that mod like? I played Rome Total Realism, was a bit too hardcore for me.

Haha, if you found RTR too hardcore I wouldn't say you'd enjoy EB, it is seriously seriously tough and very slow. Roma Surrectum 2 is really great also, would very much recommend it.

Outkast_IRE

overall i got the most hours out of Medieval total war ,
but i have got to admit empire is growing on me lately

Coriolanus

I actually preferred the risk style movement of the earlier games. MTW1 is still the best in the series as far as I'm concerned.

Kirby

Rome. By a Landslide. I must have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours conquering the world with the Roman Julii.

The game was a big evolutionary leap in the series. There really was nothing like it around at the time. It combined so many elements of gameplay so well.

It helped that it coincided with a new computer I had gotten so it looked visually good too. Seeing 20,000 soldiers clash at the same time was draw dropping. You can see why the Discovery channel used the engine in its programs.

The roman era is my favourite period anyway. I tried and tried but Empire just didn't do it for me. I'm one of the few that really dug the naval warfare....but the ground combat just seemed off.

Outkast_IRE

Nevore wrote: »

I actually preferred the risk style movement of the earlier games. MTW1 is still the best in the series as far as I'm concerned.

totally agree i found it hard to adjust to changed movement after mtw , i would love if they put a option in for that.

pawrick

ones i've played:

Rome: Total War
Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion
Rome: Total War: Alexander
Medieval II
Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms
Empire
Napoleon


out of that bunch for lastability it has to is Medieval II by a mile, just wish there was more to the kindoms expansion for the British/Irish game

Barbarian Invasion was excellent also - hitting a tribe so they would form a hord and weaken your enemies.

Shogun 2 looks great but it was the history bit which got me hooked on these games and I'm more of a fan of Europen history

Keggers2

pawrick wrote: »

Shogun 2 looks great but it was the history bit which got me hooked on these games and I'm more of a fan of Europen history

Trust me man, if you like history at all you'll love Japanese history, it's so rich and vibrant. Plus it looks to be the best installment in the series and if that's not a good reason I don't know what is

Dermighty

I bought Shogun2 because I love the TW games, though I've never played the original Shogun.

It looks amazing, fun to play, really cool Encyclopedia (along the lines of Age of Mythology) and it's a big improvement on Napoleon and Empire.

Personally I would prefer if Empire had the features of Shogun 2, as I prefer European history but they just decided to totally **** that one up so Shogun 2 will have to do.

Definitely worth buying and definitely challenging. I tried legendary mode and in turn 2 I was defeated (leader killed etc).

rockmongrel

Dermighty wrote: »

Personally I would prefer if Empire had the features of Shogun 2, as I prefer European history but they just decided to totally **** that one up so Shogun 2 will have to do.

Well just give it a few months and I'm sure there will be some wonderful mods banging about

Kernel

Try out Darth Mods DMUC mod for Empire. It makes the game epic - as it should have been. Adds tons of free units too, better than the DLC fiasco.

nice_guy80

any chance they'll bring out a Rome 2??

improve the graphics
more factions to play as
more barbarians (give them a chance this time)
better siege warfare
decent naval warfare
more political intrigue, diplomacy and bribery of various armies/factions

Or have they stated what they are going next to with the Total War series?

evercloserunion

nice_guy80 wrote: »

any chance they'll bring out a Rome 2??

improve the graphics
more factions to play as
more barbarians (give them a chance this time)
better siege warfare
decent naval warfare
more political intrigue, diplomacy and bribery of various armies/factions

Or have they stated what they are going next to with the Total War series?

I'd love to see better naval warfare in Rome. Thought siege warfare was great in Rome though.

nice_guy80

evercloserunion wrote: »

I'd love to see better naval warfare in Rome. Thought siege warfare was great in Rome though.

meh.

I always think in siege warfare in the total war games that the attacker has too much of an advantage.

Coriolanus

nice_guy80 wrote: »

meh.

I always think in siege warfare in the total war games that the attacker has too much of an advantage.

Id've said the opposite. You can usually hold on to a fort with a heavy amount of cavalry and a token heavy sword for the few that makes it to the top.

Raging_Ninja

I loved the first Medieval Total War for the multiplayer - I spent a whole year only playing the online battles. For me, it hasn't been matched since. I'd be playing it now if it was compatible with the graphics card on my laptop. The original Shogun's multiplayer was great as well.

Rome only really became playable through mods, specifically Europa Barbarorum, which is absolutely brilliant.

MTW2 just felt like a reskin of Rome.

Patser

The more I think about it, the more annoyed I get about Empire. It had muskets (which I liked), Big Naval battles, Huge scale and variety of units. And all let down by a poor AI, that should have been fixed. Napoleon fixed it (mostly) but lost all that scale and variety - really Napoleon should have been an add-on rather than a stand alone.

Trying the play Shogun 2 now, but melee just lacks tactics and formations of Empire's muskets and cannons. Especially early on it tends to be a case of outnumber them and charge.

Is there a 'fix' for Empire out in the modding community?

rockmongrel

Patser wrote: »

Is there a 'fix' for Empire out in the modding community?

DarthMod is your friend, improves the game immensely, really getting into it now coincidentally.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1126

Sasquatch76

Been getting back into Stainless Steel (mod for M2TW Kingdoms for those that don't have it) and thoroughly enjoying it. Having a tough old time with a Lithuanian campaign at the moment, but it's good fun.

Just waiting for v3.0 of Third Age TW (also for M2TW Kingdoms) to be released before I go back to that. Version 3 will have custom settlements based on the LotR movies!

Dcully

Is the latest TW game using a new engine?
I might grab it if so, if not and its using the same engine as the most recent TW games i wonder what game i should pick up.

rockmongrel

Dcully wrote: »

Is the latest TW game using a new engine?
I might grab it if so, if not and its using the same engine as the most recent TW games i wonder what game i should pick up.

The latest game, Shogun 2, is effectively unmoddable, which is a bit of a nightmare for the TW modding community. Empire has some great mods though, well worth picking up, if only for the Darthmod.

Gearheart

Id have to say my favorite game would of been rome, it was my first and so far the overall best. No shiny graphics or engines that are hard on older machines, just brilliant game-play.

Although my favorite Mod has to be the third age, cant beat standing up to a rohan cavalry charge with an uruk hai army.

Eggy Baby!

Rome is the best, imo- I just felt that Empire ran too slow; it was also far too painstaking, unbalanced and glitchy. The end turn times just killed it for me- at one stage I had to wait 15 minutes for the Maratha turn without AI moves visible! Too many factions (Courland?) and not enough playable, not enough cities in places (France is one city, as are Spain, Norway, Sweden, Egypt, Turkey, Iran etc etc.) and too many regions in others (Germany is ridiculous, as is Eastern Europe). The battles are extremely screwed up- the AI sucks and puts cannon emplacements in valleys/behind buildings/9000 miles away where they can't hit anything + they send cavalry headlong into pikes/musket fire- and it just feels clunky, as does the campaign in general. I'm not even going to get into the naval battles-they're ridiculous!

There was headway made in the economic/political aspects of the game but it regressed on many other small things that were in previous TW games, so its basically one step forward and two steps back. For example, they got rid of the prisoner system, decent sieges, proper conquest (you can conquer all of France by taking one city, as I mentioned)..end rage.

ionapaul

Just want to bump this thread, as I now have the 3 most recent TW games (Empire, Napoleon and Shogun 2) and would like some advise at to which to try first. Haven't played a TW game since Rome, which I enjoyed but was a little too 'involved' for my liking - I love the big battles but not the 'empire-management' aspects, at least not at anything other than a very high-level. I probably will enjoy the historical era of the first two more so than Shogun, if that matters.

rockmongrel

ionapaul wrote: »

Just want to bump this thread, as I now have the 3 most recent TW games (Empire, Napoleon and Shogun 2) and would like some advise at to which to try first. Haven't played a TW game since Rome, which I enjoyed but was a little too 'involved' for my liking - I love the big battles but not the 'empire-management' aspects, at least not at anything other than a very high-level. I probably will enjoy the historical era of the first two more so than Shogun, if that matters.

If you disliked the empire management of Rome, I would say that Empire and Napoleon will be real chores, they involve a LOT of management and quite a lot of time is spent on the campaign map.

Shogun is far more stripped back, more simplified(as opposed to filled with frivolous micromanagement) and in my opinion, a lot more fun.

Kernel

Eggy Baby! wrote: »

Rome is the best, imo- I just felt that Empire ran too slow; it was also far too painstaking, unbalanced and glitchy. The end turn times just killed it for me- at one stage I had to wait 15 minutes for the Maratha turn without AI moves visible! Too many factions (Courland?) and not enough playable, not enough cities in places (France is one city, as are Spain, Norway, Sweden, Egypt, Turkey, Iran etc etc.) and too many regions in others (Germany is ridiculous, as is Eastern Europe). The battles are extremely screwed up- the AI sucks and puts cannon emplacements in valleys/behind buildings/9000 miles away where they can't hit anything + they send cavalry headlong into pikes/musket fire- and it just feels clunky, as does the campaign in general. I'm not even going to get into the naval battles-they're ridiculous!

Try Darthmod for Empire, it rocks. Tonnes of free units too.

BDSC1964

Rome TW for me is still the best. It runs smoothly is well reved up and nothing like playing the Cartaginians on hard setting against Rome. The latest empire games require top spec pc to run them properly. I think they are now too complicated. Empire TW wasnt good just like AOE3 was disappointing.

TheSheepz

Rome TW for the vanilla experience, Napoleon Total War due to the fact the Great War mod will be released soon. With tanks, might I add.

Sephiroth_dude

rockmongrel wrote: »

The latest game, Shogun 2, is effectively unmoddable,

so there's no mods available?

TheSheepz

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

so there's no mods available?

There are mods, mostly new units, textures and gameplay changes. They can be really game-changing, there just aren't any overhauls available as things like the map and models (unless a converter has been made for S2) are not editable.

Coriolanus

Why the fúck did they do that.

TheSheepz

Nevore wrote: »

Why the fúck did they do that.

It's been like that since ETW, and despite petty excuses like the new engine being too complex, it all comes down to the cash so they can sell their DLC. At least, that's how they see it, even though it's blatantly obvious that overhauls would attract more people to buy the game.

paulthom

i think rome total war 2 is gonna be the best

TheSheepz

paulthom wrote: »

i think rome total war 2 is gonna be the best

A Rome 2 would be great, but I'd also like to see CA delve somewhere new, like the Victorian era or WWI.

Patser

TheSheepz wrote: »

A Rome 2 would be great, but I'd also like to see CA delve somewhere new, like the Victorian era or WWI.

A Victorian era, Conquest of Africa game might be cool. TW has never touched sub-saharan Africa so Zulus, Boers, British Colonial troops might make for a very interesting game with big tactical differences - Zulus v. good a melee, Boers v good at movement, British v big guns!

Spunge

What about if they did some fantasy setting ?
Might be a nice change.

Sasquatch76

Spunge wrote: »

What about if they did some fantasy setting ?
Might be a nice change.

From reading various TW forums, I think the bulk of the fanbase would be against it. Personally though, I'd be quite happy with that (Third Age TW is my favourite mod by far). The only problem I really see is that it would be a LOT of work to come up with a fantasy universe from scratch. It might be better to base it on an already existing world from a series of books/comics what have you.

Spunge

Yeah, i realize the TW community is mostly a lot of history nerds who like their stuff to be as close to reality as possible. But they might get a new market there who knows.

evercloserunion

I think WWI could be very interesting, though I'm not sure how they would incorporate aerial warfare. TW gameplay has always been relatively slow moving for me as planning is more important than rushing, planes might disrupt that. Something just prior to WWI might be ideal.