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Anyone here play Total War?


pTrevTrevs

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A few days ago I saw a thread about what to buy in the Steam Summer Sale, and I mentioned one of the Total War games. This revived a question I've been asking myself for some time now; does anyone here play Total War games? If so, which one is your favorite and why?

For those who don't know, Total War is a real time tactics, turn based strategy game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. On the campaign map it plays just like a simplified strategy game such as Civilization, but when one army attacks another, the play enters a real time battle where every unit in the army is controllable and every single man in every unit is modeled and animated. The series ranges from the conquests of Alexander the Great to the Boshin War and Meji Restoration in Japan while converting nearly every historical period inbetween. The newest game even expanded into the Warhammer universe, and is the first TW game not based on historical time periods.

 

Share stories and cool screenshots here, or ask about the games if you're interested in buying one.

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Love the TW games, think I've played them all at some point or another, except Napoleon, even though I own it. There's something that puts me off about "researching" tons of new units and building fleets of ships within the course of a single war.

Rome II and Attila are not exactly my favorites, they are very pretty and have all of the TW bells and whistles so they are still very enjoyable...but all of the units are the same. Oh, another type of swordsman? Very slightly different shaped helmet and a 5% increase in some stat or other? Cool variety! Was the same in Rome and Attila.

Playing TW:WH at the moment, completed a playthrough with Empire, trying the Dwarves now. The world map I feel is a little smaller than previous titles and I think this has made campaigns quite a bit shorter, but it still took me 160 turns over about 50 hours to complete as the Empire (normal difficulty). Probably the first TW where I have been interested in playing almost all of the factions, which are quite different from each other in this installment, moreso than other titles I feel.

Loving the switch to Warhammer, it fits very well with TW mechanics and they have done a great job with the lore + gameplay. Its the sort of thing that if you knew about it when you were a kid playing with the miniatures, your head would have exploded.

There will apparently be 2 "standalone expansions" to TW:WH we'll see what they bring. A new race/faction is already on the way in a free DLC, not sure when that is arriving though.

I would LOVE to see a WH:40K Total War!

I'd also like them to do a 20th Century Total War.

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1 hour ago, p1t1o said:

I'd also like them to do a 20th Century Total War.

I've heard that this wouldn't work because after the American Civil War the Napoleonic line formations started phasing out due to the advent of repeating weapons, the machine gun, and the rise of artillery. The Franco-Prussian War further reduced their effectiveness, and by 1914 line formations were all but gone. I'm not sure how a TW with squad infantry would work, especially since by WWI battlefields were drastically larger than they were in 1805.

I sure do want a Victorian era Total War though.

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20 minutes ago, pTrevTrevs said:

I've heard that this wouldn't work because after the American Civil War the Napoleonic line formations started phasing out due to the advent of repeating weapons, the machine gun, and the rise of artillery. The Franco-Prussian War further reduced their effectiveness, and by 1914 line formations were all but gone. I'm not sure how a TW with squad infantry would work, especially since by WWI battlefields were drastically larger than they were in 1805.

I sure do want a Victorian era Total War though.

It'd take quite some updating of the TW mechanic, but for example, Im sure it is feasible to make a "block" of troops into a group of autonomous squads, so that a "unit" might be several groups/sections, a-la "wargame" series. AI would have to be complex to get them to move/cover in a satisfactory manner. It wouldn't be easy but I'd love to see it :) 

Probably wishful thinking, might be easier to do WH40K.

If its easier I'd settle for Medieval III....or Shogun III

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1 hour ago, p1t1o said:

If its easier I'd settle for Medieval III....or Shogun III

I think the next one will either be 1820 to 1900, focusing on the colonization of Africa, the unifications of Germany and Italy, and the American Civil War, or a game from 1500 to 1600, with emphasis on the rise of infantry and gunpowder, colonizing the Americas, and the replacement of feudalism by absolute monarchies. I would rather have the former, but he latter would be good too.

I'm not gonna lie, I only described those potential games in such detail so I can brag about my extensive knowledge and love of history.

EDIT: I forgot to mention why I suspect these games. I believe the team that is working on the next historical TW mentioned that the game won't be announced for a while because they actually have to research the time period. This almost certainly eliminated Medieval III, Shogun III, or Empire II (unless it becomes a Victorian game), as all those games should not require enough reseat to be worth mentioning.

Edited by pTrevTrevs
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4 hours ago, CAKE99 said:

But I've never played them, I will sometime soon-ish though.

Yes, do it as soon as you can, they're pretty addictive.

1) Launch Medieval II

2) Listen to the menu music for ten minutes because it's so good

3) Play tutorial (recommended to rebind camera controls to WASD, as they are set to the number pad by default.

4) Start new campaign as England, they're the best faction fro learning the game, and it's ridiculously easy to win nearly any battle so long as you have a healthy supply of Longbowmen.

5) Take over north England and Scotland, inspiring a future movie about your actions in Scotland, known as Scaredheart, with alt-history Mel Gibson.

6) Build huge army in Normandy, genocide French. Give money to the Pope and go on Crusades to make him happy (doesn't matter if you win, just make an army of peasants and your worst general). Focus on getting high population to improve economy and build bigger castles/cities, gaining access to better units.

7) Get screwed over by Mongol invasions, Timurid invasions, and Black Death. Once gunpowder is invented push to get troops that use it ASAP

8) Wait for 1400, sail to America with lots of armored troops and cavalry, with loads of merchants to start the tobacco trade. Genocide Aztecs.

9) ???

10) Profit off gold, tobacco, and chocolate in America, as well as the sugar and stuff in Egypt (capture that and reinforce it sometime before the Mongols comes).

 

10/10 Medieval II best game ever.

EDIT: If anyone wants to do a multiplayer battle with me in any TW (except Rome II and Attilla), PM me and we can set up a time and date.

Edited by pTrevTrevs
Yeah, typos to fix!
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6 hours ago, CAKE99 said:

Medieval II just finished installing, it's been installing all day, (I made a meme about that).

Unfortunately there is no option for turning fullscreen off, (unless I failed to see it :sticktongue:).

Now to start playing!

Once you've got the basics down and can consistently beat the AI and manage the campaign well, I recommend getting one of Medieval's fantastic mods. I recommend Third Age: Total War, which puts the game in Middle Earth around the time of the War of the Ring. The unit models have been changed to look like Gondorian soldiers, Riders of Rohan, Orcs, Dwarves, Elves, etc.

Stainless Steel enhances the game with a bigger map (at the cost of removing the Americas), smoother diplomacy, and a few different factions and regions.

If you're a Warhammer guy and don't want to spend $60 on TW:W, you can download Call of Warhammer for Medieval II.

EDIT: I think most mods, especially the total conversion ones like TATW and the Warhammer one require the Kingdoms DLC, fortunately, it's dirt cheap on sales and is worth every penny. Basically it adds a few extra campaigns you can play in the game (Crusades, Teutonic Order, 1200s Britainnia, conquest of America).

Edited by pTrevTrevs
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I've played the heck out of Medieval II and love it.

My favorite civs to start as are either Denmark or Scotland.  For some reason I have a soft spot for taking civs with only one city, and then slowly expanding across the map.  Plus I prefer footmen over cav (although a healthy mix is always best) and both of those civs have em in spades :D

Besides, playing as Scotland and crushing England is just so glorious :wink:

Edit: I usually send a pretty epic army for the Crusades, though 90% of the time I kinda leave em there, doing a cycle of: Sack city > abandon city > wait for enemy to re-take it > Sack city > etc etc.   You can make a lot of money very quickly that way...

Edited by Slam_Jones
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Empire: Total War is my favorite of the lot.... but the Paradox games, in particular EU4 and HOI4, have supplanted it entirely as my grand strategy go-tos. I do miss the tactical-level gameplay though, and may revisit it someday. I've not been terribly happy with the Total War series since Empire, but Shogun II was OK. Rome II was also just ok. Plays fine now, but Rome II was badly imbalanced and very buggy on release. Still only eeked 16 hours out of the second Rome, vs ~200 for Empire (though I likely put in ~300 hours before it merged into Steam) and ~50 apiece for Shogun II and Medieval II. I put all of 45 minutes into Napoleon and haven't so much as installed Atilla.

I'd love to see a Victorian-era Total War. Or perhaps late-Byzantine, such as during the Macedonian Renaissance, though I suppose that would just morph back into Total War: Medieval. Empire was good for me because it was global and allowed you to play a handful of lesser powers. I suppose a Chinese Total War would also be interesting, particularly during the Han dynasty. 

Edited by Cydonian Monk
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8 hours ago, Slam_Jones said:

Besides, playing as Scotland and crushing England is just so glorious :wink:

He's right, you know. 

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I started a new Scotland campaign today, so far I've secured all of Britain except the land south of Nottingham. I was planning on building a big army to take on the English in London, surrounding Nottingham and leaving the only other English threats across the Channel in Caen, but they struck me first. They keep sending huge armies made of the cheapest units possible to try and take Caernarvon, in Wales. Tonight alone I've fought three besieging armies, and three times the English army left with less than 10% of their original force remaining. The funny thing is that I'm actually turning a profit off the English attacks. Because the units are so cheap they usually rout with over a third of the unit still alive. Once they all chain-rout I can send my knights out to chase them down and kill/capture them. I usually round up 600 or 700 prisoners per siege, which I then ransom (they're mostly peasants, spear militia, and occasionally hobilars and mailed Knights). I've made over a thousand monies (the currency in this game was florins, right?) in a single ransom.

I still don't have a big enough army to fight anything but a defensive war, but if they keep doing this I should eventually be able to drain their wallets, since all their ports are blockaded, my good buddy  France blocks all the land trade routes leading to Normandy, and the Pope has excommunicated the English king, assuring that they will have no support in this war that they so foolishly started.

Scotland will be free, lads. Haggis for everyone!

Edited by pTrevTrevs
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I played Napoleon and quite liked it, nothing quite like firing your cannon point blank in the enemy cavalry charge :D

10 hours ago, Cydonian Monk said:

Empire: Total War is my favorite of the lot.... but the Paradox games, in particular EU4 and HOI4, have supplanted it entirely as my grand strategy go-tos. I do miss the tactical-level gameplay though, and may revisit it someday. I've not been terribly happy with the Total War series since Empire, but Shogun II was OK. Rome II was also just ok. Plays fine now, but Rome II was badly imbalanced and very buggy on release. Still only eeked 16 hours out of the second Rome, vs ~200 for Empire and ~50 apiece for Shogun II and Medieval II. I put all of 45 minutes into Napoleon and haven't so much as installed Atilla.

I'd love to see a Victorian-era Total War. Or perhaps late-Byzantine, such as during the Macedonian Renaissance, though I suppose that would just morph back into Total War: Medieval. Empire was good for me because it was global and allowed you to play a handful of lesser powers. I suppose a Chinese Total War would also be interesting, particularly during the Han dynasty. 

How are you getting on with HOI4?  Working abroad at the moment so not bothered buying it yet as my PC's at home.  Loved HOI3 though.

If you fancy Victorian era I assume you've played Paradox's Victoria 2?  The original's not bad but I've not played either of the expansions, given how much the HOI3 expansions improved the game I'd expect them to be quite good.

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6 hours ago, RizzoTheRat said:

How are you getting on with HOI4?  Working abroad at the moment so not bothered buying it yet as my PC's at home.  Loved HOI3 though.

HOI4 has some issues (typical goofy Paradox ones at that, mostly UI), it's simplified a tiny bit over HOI3, and I've almost exhausted myself on the present options, but it's a rather good game. It's a tiny bit deceptive as I leave the game open/paused overnight sometimes, but I've already hit the 220 hour mark. Really feels like the minor nations need a bit of love, which I suspect will come sooner or later. Also annoys me that the core nations are sort of predestined to their usual actions even when you flop their governments.... Pretty much just trying to pound some Steam achievements out of it now. 

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