In the Total Wars series which of these is better?

[Daehawk]

Napoleon or Empire? Im leaning towards Empire right now. The ship warfare looks nice. Also whats the difference really? Each on is only $5 but Im trying to save some scratch for other Steam sale games. If I do buy one of these it means I cant get Endless Space for a bit yet. But the sale seems to be improving.

[Freddybear]

I'd say Empire is better, especially with Darthmod UC.
But the whole series from Rome to Napoleon is only $12.49 today.

[Sepiche]

Napoleon has better AI and better mechanics, but Empire has the sweeping scope and freedom to let you go and do what you want where ever you want in the world. With mods Empire is greatly improved, although it still misses out on some of the better changes that Napoleon introduced.

Personally, building on what Freddy said, I'd just buy them all and try them out since they are dirt cheap right now, but both are pretty solid choices as long as you don't mind modding Empire if you go that route.

[Paingod]

I've had frustration with the titles I've played in the series.

Shogun: I loved this game and was a province away from victory when suddenly every other province rebelled and was provided with forces stronger than my armies. I quit and didn't bother playing again, but have been feeling an urge to since the Steam sales started.

Medieval: I got real tired of the Pope declaring crusades against me, so I sought him out and squashed him... but he'd pop up and Crusade me again, so I'd squash him, and he'd pop up, get squashed, pop up, get squashed. I tried so hard to eliminate the Pope, but he's immortal. I know it's not supposed to happen, but I wanted to and couldn't.

[Octavious]

Napoleon or Empire? Im leaning towards Empire right now. The ship warfare looks nice. Also whats the difference really? Each on is only $5 but Im trying to save some scratch for other Steam sale games. If I do buy one of these it means I cant get Endless Space for a bit yet. But the sale seems to be improving.

Napoleon is easier to get into and is more polished IMHO. Darth literally just finished the mod for Napoleon to the point where I don't think there will be many more updates. The AI will give you a darn good fight now and I find the scope much easier to manage.

[Paingod]

Out of curiosity, how was Shogun 2 - if anyone has it?

Aside from that, what would you rate as your favorite Total War game?

[Sepiche]

Out of curiosity, how was Shogun 2 - if anyone has it?

Aside from that, what would you rate as your favorite Total War game?

Shogun 2 is far and away the best of the series in terms of UI, AI, and mechanics, and all around best of the series IMHO. Especially if you add in the two expansions you've got a lot of fun gameplay that spans a thousand years.

[Paingod]

Shogun 2 is far and away the best of the series in terms of UI, AI, and mechanics, and all around best of the series IMHO. Especially if you add in the two expansions you've got a lot of fun gameplay that spans a thousand years.

So I should be hoping that Shogun 2 hits the Flash Sale of 75% off and that the package deal is equally discounted.

The more I recall playing, the more I want to play.

I'll never forget the original Total War: Shogun, the first time I bought it. I popped in the disc to install, heard my drive spool up, hear a building vibration noise, a quick squeal noise, and then a loud BANG. The disc was apparently unbalanced and slipped off the track, exploding inside the drive. I shook out all the little bits of it I could find but never trusted that drive again and ultimately replaced it. The store was unsympathetic to my plight and I had to drop another little wad of cash to buy a second copy.

[Hamsterball_Z]

Shogun II has been 75% off a few times now, either as a daily deal, a flash sale or part of a bundle. $7.49 for the base game and I think $14.99 for Fall of the Samurai.

Remember, you can usually buy parts of a bundle on sale separately rather than the whole thing. I keep forgetting that and have missed out on a few chances to pickup cheap DLC for something I already have.

[Isgrimnur]

Shogun II is up for community voting again right now.

[Octavious]

Shogun 2 is great I still have to go back and actually play it. I'm having too much fun blowing people up with cannons in Napoleon. FYI they do have a realm divide where everyone turns against you once you get really powerful. There are mods that remove or update this though if it's a big sticking point.

[Paingod]

Shogun II has been 75% off a few times now, either as a daily deal, a flash sale or part of a bundle. $7.49 for the base game and I think $14.99 for Fall of the Samurai.

Honestly, for some reason I wasn't seeing the "2" at the end and thought "I have that" when I saw it. Now that I know it's likely the best game in the series, I'll probably make this my one and only purchase during this sale if it comes back around.

[NickAragua]

Anything after Medieval has been killed for me by the horrible loading times. I know I keep harping about it, but it's ridiculous. When you have a world-wide scope game with 5-10 battles in a turn, at 2-3 minutes loading time you're spending anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes just staring at a loading screen, per turn.

I wonder if Empire would do better if I put it on an SSD.

[Freddybear]

Anything after Medieval has been killed for me by the horrible loading times. I know I keep harping about it, but it's ridiculous. When you have a world-wide scope game with 5-10 battles in a turn, at 2-3 minutes loading time you're spending anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes just staring at a loading screen, per turn.

I wonder if Empire would do better if I put it on an SSD.

I find all my games load a lot faster since I moved the whole Steam library to a 7200-RPM drive that is not the same physical drive as the boot drive. SSD would probably work even better if you can $pare the $pace.

[Paingod]

Hm. I use a SSD for my OS, but keep my games outside that on a SATA3 drive. My PC zips through most loading screens.

Were I to run into 2-3 minute load screens on a game, that game would certainly be installed on the OS (SSD) drive.

Fun trivia bit ... I have all of my Steam games installed and a handful of my disc games as well - and have over 320GB of installed content.

[tgb]

Fall of the Samurai is better than S:TW 2, imo, and since it is stand-alone you should really go for that first.

[Octavious]

Hmm it does have guns... I'll grab that at some point I'm sure. It's the only TW thing I don't own now.

[Paingod]

My internet connection died before I could log into Steam last night. Did Shogun get the Flash sale, or was it another game?

[Daehawk]

Well after reading everyone's suggestions and then looking more into them both im even more split.

Empire seems to be a deeper / bigger game but Napoleon has better graphics and more detail.

I bought TW Medieval 2 during the sale but without sitting down and reading the manual it is too complicated for me to enjoy. I dont care for the pope, and agents, and marrying..I just want to run cities and fight battles.

The ones in the two in this thread look like a fun period to fight in...... guns and navy ships. Maybe Im looking at the wrong game series entirely?

[Blackhawk]

Although there has been polishing and minor changes to the mechanics, Medieval 2 is typical of the series.

[Daehawk]

I loved ROME. I don't recall tons of micro in it. The worst thing I found in ROME was the Emperor wanting me to do things in so many days. I just ignored them. I wish I could have turned that off. I dont like timed orders in games of this type.

[e1123]

Napoleon is pretty much fighting with a little bit of management. Empire is more complicated. Things have really improved since M2. In Shogun 2 and Napoleon, there is no longer the need to march armies back to cities and re-train. Agents aren't as necessary, but fun if you choose to. Fall of the Samurai is better than Napoleon or Empire for more modern warfare, but I consider vanilla Shogun 2 the best in the series.

[Doomboy]

The thing is that although you don't have to march armies back to retrain them, you do have to sit around for a long time while they fix themselves. Either that or build new units and march them to the army while merging all the beat up units.

Personally, I preferred being able to just spend a bunch of cash and fix them instantly.

I also miss being able to add the new equipment to older units by retraining them.

[rlgaines]

The OP asked something specific but I cannot help but point out that both Rome and Medievil 2 Total Wars have TONS of excellent mods that really make playing them viable now. Empire and Napolean were fine -- I guess (maybe it was the era for me ...) but seemed to play slowish to me. Shogun 2 was sure an excellent game -- just not my preference either. Fall of the Samauri (the recent Shogun 2 addon) was excellent and really had some nice things in it including breech-loading ironclads (how can you beat that?).

Part of my problem with teh series post-Med2 is the lack of a feeling of weight behind the armies --I do not know how to describe it excactly --but Rome and Med2 feel like you are really in a smashing melee battle --while the more recent and ostensibly better graphically mided sequels of late feel rubbery or soft compared.

If I was starting out now I would want somone to recommend Rome (mean to play --to buy? heck get em all). Clear goals (conquer and exterminate) less city building (but that is still important) fast paced (turns and in-game battles) and a great era. Search for Mods -- some are unbelievable in their depth --but vanilla is fine really -- some weird units in Rome (screaching women??) but Rome: Total Realism is a great mod for that game.

And just so I answer the OP correctly -- Empire and Napolean are good games --if your a fan of that genre and like some amazing sea battles (and land battles with the above caveat) then go for it. I started to dread sea battles for some reason in those games --again not sure why -- with Empire being more "wide-open" and Napolean being much more directed.
ps -- My favorite of it all is the Med2: Third Age mod bring the Lord of the Rings wars into the game. Truly an astonishing piece of work really.

[Daehawk]

Good post. Ill look at that LotR mod for Med2. Maybe you are correct. I love Rome more than anything. Perhaps a reinstall of it would do. I dont need to make my game any tougher cause Im already bad at all the map stuff. I am great at battles. That's why I set the map to low skill and the battle to higher. Is the realism mod tougher?

[rlgaines]

The Total realism mod is tougher -- but not too tough (as oppossed to teh SPQR mod which is brutal). There are a few mods that also give Rome an almost complete overhaul -- and make the strategy part far more relevant (Total Realism does that to some extent). I think I periodically rollover to Totalwar center and look at the mods for med2 and Rome and try out the most popular. Though Rome vanilla has its charms to be sure (some of the mods start you as Rome and unify it without splitting up into faction/families). I may wander over there and list some of the better ones -- it seems my recollection is that Roma Surrectum is one of those total overhauls that is still being updated.

I would recommend Stainless Steel for Med2 as well. Third Age for that game is a completely new game -- amazing really especially if you are used to playing vanilla Med2.

[Octavious]

Daehawk if you found MTW2 to have too much micromanagement that I would just avoid the later games. Empire has TONS of micromanagement and Napoleon certainly has more the MTW2. There's lots of minor little things you have to upgrade like mines and farms, the research tree blah blah blah. I like it, but it sounds like you would just want to toss it into a wall.

[Octavious]

Also I'd second Stainless Steel. It's a bit of a pain to get it to work with the steam version though. All the games after that are easy to mod through steam since they all were sold through steam.

[mori]

The tedious micromanagement turned me off of Empire. I have Napolean but never installed it so I should at least give that a shot. To me the series has not been the same since the first Medievel. They slapped a half-ass strategy game on top of my tactical genius game starting with Rome and it lost its fun. I have far superior games for a strategy fix that the Total War series will never approach. They lost their focus on the tactical part and the battles and are not fun or challenging anymore. Also found the speed of the tactical battles crazy in Empires. Outnumber your opponents and bum rush their general and a deaf, dumb, and blind monkey could win these battles. I always think the next game in the series will bring the magic back, did they finally do it with Shogun 2?

[Daehawk]

I loved Rome so much. I'd love a game where I am a simple general in the Roman army. I would be sent to do something but I would be the one who chooses how I attack or defend and the troops I would use and such.

[Kasey Chang]

I like Rome quite a bit. I basically set everything to "auto" and fight the wars. Those senate quests are often impossible to do in the time limit given, esp. when you need to move units by sea. The sieges are really cool.

[Octavious]

Loaded up Empire and quickly remembered why I stopped playing. The damn blurry text that only happens at certain resolutions. 1440X900 seeming to be the most common complaint from my searching. Nobody ever did find a solution aside from increasing the font size. Napoleon is fine, Shogun is fine... WTF

[Paingod]

I ended up not playing the original Shogun as much as I wanted to. My Ninjas kept crashing the game when I'd try and kill some units. They're not essential, but it bothers me that they're 'broken'.