Best Total War game?

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.

yep, Rome for me too, so so addictive

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.

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

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.

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

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 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 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.

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?