Total war series

[ramza]

So, TW: M2 is a must buy.

 

Is there a big difference in the gameplay compared to TW: M1? Should I also get that one (10 euros only) or do I run the risk of quickly getting bored with it and move on to the sequel which also has better graphics?

 

I should look out for Rome as well as I do like the setting...

[Hurlshort]

I would just stick to TW:M2. It's a pretty massive game, I don't think you are going to need anything else to fill the time.

[Shryke]

i liked Rome better than Medieval 2

 

maybe i just loved playing as the Seleucids and mowing through swarms of dudes with War Elephants and Scythed Chariots

 

also, the Pope is a **** - i lost count of how many of those buggers i had assassinated when i played as the Spanish

Edited April 22, 2009 by Shryke

[Deadly_Nightshade]

also, the Pope is a **** - i lost count of how many of those buggers i had assassinated when i played as the Spanish

 

[Gorgon]

In Medieval 2 they made assassins so bad they were a complete waste of the 500 florins per man in upkeep, pretty soon you would have 10 or 15 inept assassins who only got worse with every missed attempt, and generated nothing but bad PR for your factions, possibly lowering it so much you would lose alliances.

 

In medial 1 you could just generate 30 or 40 assassins and have them kill each other and you would automatically end up with a handful of 5 star assassins, who you would of course send to a friendly region near rome. heh.

 

Another tactic was just to move 2 stacks into rome and kill the pope every time he made a comeback. You would still have 1 turn to start your crusades and get the special units.

Edited April 23, 2009 by Gorgon

[Gorgon]

I remember when I got Genghis Khan with my assassins the very first turn the golden horde appeared, the next turn I bought up 3/4 of the now mercenary horde with my diplomats. I captured all of Russia just as I ran out of florins from supporting them.

 

Total war 2 also made bribing so expensive it would never ever be worth the cost, and made the AI so good at it you could never trust a stack without a general to be there the next turn. You couldn't get the enemy units either. They would just disband and disappear. I kinda missed having a zoo of exotic turncoat units.

Edited April 23, 2009 by Gorgon

[Monte Carlo]

The question has already been answered by Hurlshot, but I'll throw in my agreement FWIW.

 

Modded MTW2 is awesomely massive and satisfying on a number of levels. MTW1, although good, isn't really a must-buy in comparison.

 

With regards to assassins, I think they were re-balanced for MTW2. In the first game I could quite easily wipe out factions with a half dozen assassins by repeatedly destroying bloodlines (although, of course, they made comebacks in the first game). In MTW2 you have to develop them (i.e. by murdering lower level opponents, i.e. rebel generals and princesses and enemy faction members) and use them sparingly. Personally, I prefer this approach - political murder becomes a bit of a gamble, a throw of the dice. And there are consequences.

 

If you really want to annoy the opposition without kicking a war off, use your princesses as ersatz diplomats and build up their 'heart' ratings. Use them to pick off dashing rival faction members who will in turn become generals who will breed excellent future faction members. I did this to the Holy Roman Empire, severely weakening their bloodline (yes, assassinations and a short war did the rest). It is the ability to use tactics like this (i.e. all-out war / diplomacy / revanche or a combination) that makes the game so much fun. For example, I now have a tiny but militarily capable Venice as my gimp, and I'm just waiting for the day I snuff them out too. Mwuhahahahahaa!!

 

MTW2 bribery costs, OTOH, are staggeringly high. I'm currently buying off Mongol hordes to pave the way for my invasion of the East, and a mighty expensive exercise it is too. My treasury is taking a hammering.

 

In fact, why am I on this forum, I could be playing!

 

Later,

 

MC

[Gorgon]

They might well have shot themselves in the foot with the time it has taken to implement this. It's not out yet and already old news. A belated addon to a yesteryear game.

[Gorgon]

Wrong thread

[Purkake]

I just remembered another thing that annoyed me about MTW2 and Empire. It's the increasing complexity, I don't want to choose between castle or town, managing all your hundred universities, farms, mines and towns isn't really that fun.

[Monte Carlo]

I just remembered another thing that annoyed me about MTW2 and Empire. It's the increasing complexity, I don't want to choose between castle or town, managing all your hundred universities, farms, mines and towns isn't really that fun.

 

Er, why not check the 'Auto-Manage Region' box?

 

Although the resource management aspect is one of the things people like about the game, it's a bit like saying you hate a football manager game because "I hate choosing players."

 

Cheers

MC

[Calax]

I just remembered another thing that annoyed me about MTW2 and Empire. It's the increasing complexity, I don't want to choose between castle or town, managing all your hundred universities, farms, mines and towns isn't really that fun.

 

Er, why not check the 'Auto-Manage Region' box?

 

Although the resource management aspect is one of the things people like about the game, it's a bit like saying you hate a football manager game because "I hate choosing players."

 

Cheers

MC

honestly the biggest thing I'm loving about Empire is the change so that you can rebuild units at the front instead of having to keep a constant stream of troops to the front lines to replace losses after EVERY FRAKING FIGHT!

 

But one drawback to Total War for me is that you have to watch every single army slowly make its way across the world that you can see (which in empire is quite a bit if you've got trade routes going from here to india and america).

 

Conceptually choosing between castles and towns makes sense but I'd think that you could also have armies create castles near borders... but that's just me.

 

I think it'd be better if you could tell the AI "Manage everything" then pull certain areas out of it's jurisdiction so that you could focus on a few projects specifically.

[Rosbjerg]

You can if you tell it to only manage the places without govenors..

[Gorgon]

In Rome and TW2 settlements needed a lot more attention than in Empires, In Rome you practically had to park a full stack next to certain regions and massacre the population ever 5 turns or so to keep them in line. I refrained from building walls in my furthest colonies for that very reason. I prefer the Empires way where there are almost always effective non military countermeasures to rebellion.

Edited April 24, 2009 by Gorgon

[Gorgon]

If you had automanage on the AI would build loads of largely useless city watch units to compensate for low public order which would drain your treasury. If you clicked off auto recruitment they would rebel just as often which kinda defeated the purpose of auto management.

[Rosbjerg]

It seems like you are expanding too quickly? I only have problems with public order if I conquer more than 1 territory every 2-3 turns.

[Monte Carlo]

^ There are other factors that affect public order as your empire expands...

 

1. New faction leader. You need to keep your faction heir busy - move him around, fight battles (even itsy-bitsy rebel bashing expeditions to keep loyalty up), go on Crusades. In the MTW2 Empires mod you can also win titles as you run certain regions which affect stats. So, when your ten-fist scored faction leader croaks, the new king isn't a two or three fist weakling with no authority. If you want to quickly build credibility and public order start mass assassinations - your dread and authority will rise.

 

2. Capital location. The further from the centre of Empire your capital is, the more restless the fringes will be as upstarts plot far away from the centre of power. For example, my faction leader has just croaked. My empire now stretches from Syria, the Steppe through the Baltic to Constantinople, Spain and most of mainland Europe. London is still the capital and the news of the king's demise lead to a serious public order problem in certain regions. I toying with moving it to Milan, although I could probably crush the Papacy, occupy Rome and make that my capital instead.

 

3. Religion. Excommunication is bad news, unless you have a mighty and terrifying faction leader backed by enormous armies led by ultra-loyal generals.

 

Cheers

MC

[Calax]

You can if you tell it to only manage the places without govenors..

I'm talking in empire because sometimes it can be hard to search every province for every industry item to upgrade when you get a new tech so you don't earn as much money.

 

They also got rid of govenors all together.

[Gorgon]

The newest patch is out, and let me tell you I still had game killing crashes in my last campaign. Judging by the below there was plenty left to fix.

 

I'm going to start another game, who knows this time it might actually work completely as intended, that would be a first.

 

 

 

Fixed crash when disbanding generals unit

 

Fix for crash on trying to merge ships from port into ships next to port

 

Fixed rare crash relating to boarding

 

Fixed crash to do with reinforcing armies

 

Fixed crash on revolution video attempting to play

 

Fixed crash for double clicking on sinking ship on campaign map

 

Fix for crash on merging units but moving into fort before army arrives

 

Fixed several crashes related to rakes

 

Fixed crashes relating to battles when running Czech or German versions of the game

 

Fixed crash on moving army into region of faction player has military access and then cancelling military access

 

Fixed crash on trying to exchange ships between 2 fleets

 

Fixed crash on spamming move orders to puckle guns locked in melee combat

 

Fixed hard lock on inviting host to their own MP game

 

Fix to prevent loading of mod causing crash post patch

 

Various end turn crash bugs fixed

 

Fixes to crash bugs relating to completion of revolutions

 

Some fixes relating to merging and disbanding

 

Fix for several crashes in land battles

 

Several crashes relating to attacking cities fixed

 

Several load save game crashes fixed

[ramza]

I finally decided to buy Medieval II gold edition for 15 euros. It's really a bargain at that price.

I thought it would be a waste of money if I also bought Medieval I gold edition since it's basically the same game but with lamer graphics.

 

Now, should I get Shogun? From the gameplay videos I have seen on youtube, it DOES look old and primitive. Am I missing anything if I don't buy it (except for the setting)?

 

I am also looking for Rome. I noticed that my local store sells the first gold edition (rome + barbarian invasions) for 5 euros. It's missing the alexander expansion though. I noticed there is some kind of ultimate compilation with the original game and both expansions. Should I rather look for it on the web or should I just buy the gold edition I have found?

 

I have found both Shogun gold edition and Rome ultimate edition for 28 euros in total (shipping costs included) on amazon... If I don't get Shogun, I am saving 8 euros.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Alexander is the weakest of the Rome games and really doesn't add that much, I'd go with the regular Gold pack.

[Calax]

I finally decided to buy Medieval II gold edition for 15 euros. It's really a bargain at that price.

I thought it would be a waste of money if I also bought Medieval I gold edition since it's basically the same game but with lamer graphics.

 

Now, should I get Shogun? From the gameplay videos I have seen on youtube, it DOES look old and primitive. Am I missing anything if I don't buy it (except for the setting)?

 

I am also looking for Rome. I noticed that my local store sells the first gold edition (rome + barbarian invasions) for 5 euros. It's missing the alexander expansion though. I noticed there is some kind of ultimate compilation with the original game and both expansions. Should I rather look for it on the web or should I just buy the gold edition I have found?

 

I have found both Shogun gold edition and Rome ultimate edition for 28 euros in total (shipping costs included) on amazon... If I don't get Shogun, I am saving 8 euros.

I didn't play shogun like at all, the biggest thing I remember being ticked off about with it was that you had a limited number of buildings that you could place in a city.

[ramza]

I finally decided to buy the gold edition of rome for 5 cheap bucks. It was a real bargain and I was afraid someone would get the game from the shelves before me (it was a limited offer because they wanted to get rid of their stocks). I shall be looking for the Alexander expansion as well.

 

I guess I have pretty much covered everything I need, no? I have also found shogun gold edition for 5 bucks on amazon. Should I even bother with it or is it simply too old to be playable/enjoyable?

[Monte Carlo]

^ Shogun was great at the time, but rendered pretty redundant by the newer games.

 

Rome, out of the box is OK but happily there are tons of great mods for it. My personal favourite is the Total Realism mod, but beware it changes the vanilla game substantially (for example, more realistic Roman military progression) and makes it a tad more difficult. Give the vanilla game a go but I recommend giving Total Realism a try.

 

Cheers

MC

[Musopticon?]

Screw Total Realism, get Europa Barbarorum.

 

The only "total" conversion. There's even a faction for Arabia Felix, the only one in the history of computer gaming, iirc.

 

On the other hand, it's a really hardcore mod, severely harder than the other mods, even on Normal difficulty and features so many new features, that I suggest first playing Rome:Total War for a while. It's still a good game out of the box, has a nice campaign and I can appreaciate the "collect them all" approach they made for the main campaign. Each time you defeat a faction, you get to start it's campaign. It encourages thorough playing, which I heartfully appreciate.

Edited May 5, 2009 by Musopticon?