Best Total War game

[Falkirion]

Which one should I be looking at if I want the best experience of and older form of warfare?

I've got Empire but I didn't enjoy it that much. I'd prefer an older time period so I'm looking at Shogun through to Medieval 2.

[Castout]

try Medieval 2


Empire is perhaps the most expansive, the biggest one out there.

Medieval 2 is still the best of its genre and period.

Rome is probably more of a prototype for Medieval 2 though many love Rome way better than the other titles.

[Crécy]

For me Rome total war is definitely the best. It was the first Total war title I played. I've propably spent more hours in Rome than in any other game. I would still play it if one of the three disks had not broken....

[Dowly]

As you already got RTW, then, like Castout said, try MTW II.

[Raptor1]

try Medieval 2


Empire is perhaps the most expansive, the biggest one out there.

Medieval 2 is still the best of its genre and period.

Rome is probably more of a prototype for Medieval 2 though many love Rome way better than the other titles.

Rome is better than Medieval 2, though the latter is also a pretty good game.

[Castout]

Rome is better than Medieval 2, though the latter is also a pretty good game.

:D To each his own. Rome was revolutionary. It really was. But the key word here is was. To me Medieval 2 suited my interest far better and offered even more eye candy. With Expansion it was also massive in scope!

Of course my sentiment is still telling me Shogun gave me the most joy :03:

[Raptor1]

Fair enough. The expansion for M2TW was indeed awesome, one of the best expansions I've seen for a game.

[Moeceefus]

STW2 is looking nice.

[papa_smurf]

Medieval 2, tried Empire but didnt like it.

[Weiss Pinguin]

As I am still running an old clunker of a machine, Medieval is still the best in my book. But I would not say no to trying out MTW2 or Empire.

[Rilder]

Europa Barbarorum, Though M2:TW has some nice mods, Empire Total War is probably after that, and then Rome Total war.

[oche]

If i had to pick the best out of all, that would be Rome, probably because of the time period. The keyword besides that it was "revolutionary" when it came out 6 almost years ago, is REPLAY value. The game goes on a on thanks to all the mods that have been created and continue to evolve and surface. Best mods for RTW IMO are Europa Barbarorum, Rome Total Realism and the XGM. Plenty of other goods as well, to each its own. I always come back for more RTW.

Medieval II would be 2nd place. Medieval II has an active modding community too. Europa Barbarorum II mod for Medieval II Kingdoms has been under development for some time now, that's the one i'm waiting for.

Empire Total war and Napoleon are no less good, just a different setting from the traditional melee engagements since Shogun Total War. These are great games.

As someone said in the wargamer site forums i hope the Creative Assembly go easy with the eyecandy fantasy crap on Shogun 2 trying to keep the appeal for teenagers and separate them from their money.

[Falkirion]

Picked up Medieval 2 from a friend and so far I'm enjoying it more than Empire.

I need to refine my Holy Roman Empire (read German) start though. Figure I might just march straight to Hamburg and Denmark and wipe them out. Then retrain and head south to try and contain Milan.

[Biggles]

HRE is quite tricky from my experience.

Anyway, MII is a great game, and with the right mods, it becomes awesome!

[Takeda Shingen]

I'll throw in another vote for Medieval 2. The Kingdoms Expansions are pretty great as well. I found the Britannia Campaign particularly engrossing. :up:

[Radtgaeb]

MTW II is pretty awesome. I recommend the "Stainless Steel" mod and the "Third Age Total War" (if you're into the LOTR movies/books) to enhance the overall experience. For my money, it doesn't get better than wiping Isengard off the map as Rohan. :P

[Falkirion]

Okay well I've been completely contained as the Holy Roman Empire so I decided to restart this time as Spain and knock the difficulty back to Easy.

Short story, 90 turns in I own Northern Africa. The Moors were completely decimated by my forces. Portugal are gone too, the war with them lasted a while as I first focused on wiping them from Iberia completely then stretching out to take their fortresses at Bordeaux and Toulouse. Only to find that they've expanded north into England. The poms wipe out their last settlement.

Now I'm at war with England and Milan. England are losing ground in mainland Europe since I've now taken Rennes, Caen and Bruges. I think I've got them pretty well contained now. If only the Milanese weren't such a pack of tossers I could take England then France without having to fight a 2 front war.

[Radtgaeb]

Playing as Spain is pretty much a god-mode cheat. :rotfl2:

Seriously, though...the Stainless Steel mod enhances M2TW to an extreme level. It really makes it that much more fun.

[Falkirion]

Playing as the Spainish isn't god mode. But tonight it was. Nabbed London and Nottingham within 2 turns and had my assassins working the Milanese over hard. Captains, family members and even their cardinals were free game. Unfortunately the pope reconciled them so I can't continue the war.

So now I've got England penned with 2 settlements left and a couple of full stack armies (mostly comprised of peasants and militia units) versus my 3/4 veteran stack army. Feudal knights, mounted feudal knights and pavaise crossbowmen. They're doomed they just don't know it yet.

I've also got a pair of full stack armies in the south of France with a view to taking out Milan. Now if the damn Pope would just let me wage war on them without threatening excommunication I'd be okay. Or maybe I should just raise a new army and knock the French out. I need to figure out a plan.

[Takeda Shingen]

My experience with the French is that they are very tough. French armies seem to consist of an unusually high percentage of professional soldiers and trend towards heavy armor. They usually are not an oppnent you can knock out before being excommunicated and that, given how you have described the expansion of your borders, is probably exactly what the other major powers are waiting for.

You could always resort to bribery. The pope likes money. A lot.

[Falkirion]

Well I played about 20 turns worth this arvo, threw a sickie because I was tired to get a good nights rest in and spent the day playing Medieval 2 and Fallout 3.

England are now contained to one zone with a full stack marching on them. Scotland are gone after their full stack attacked mine in London, and I counter attacked and wiped out their only settlement. Edinburgh. Unfortunately Denmark held the northern most province so in order to secure all of England I had to attack them, though I probably should have moved on to Dublin before I attacked them. Benefit of hindsight I suppose.

In the south of Europe I have 2 half stacks, from a full stack holding Milan and Genoa after I attacked and sacked both cities. My pair of assassins are keeping any enemies at bay, helped by the fact that one of them is a 10 star assassin. He killed the Pope when he decided to try and stick his nose into my affairs. Wrong move on my part as there's now a Milanese pope, think I might have to go for another assassination and hope my guy gets elected.

Now as I finish up my current state of play. I'm at war with 4 factions, England, France, Denmark and Milan. Not so worried about France and Denmark as I have Caen and can deploy relief armies almost at will to hold onto my French and Belgian settlements easily. I'm a bit worried about Milan and Genoa as the Venetians have a few armies marching around the area. Probably a full stack in total. Hopefully I can deal with England and at least get them out of the way, before I turn my attention to Southern Europe and begin the campaign to wipe the Milanese out for good. Which in turn will completely encircle the French with my lands on all their borders, so I figure another army should be enough to take them out once Milan is gone.

[Falkirion]

Another 40 turns in and my borders are relatively secure. England and France are gone, they fell to my military might without much effort on my part. To take down France I attacked Milan in Italy. Florence fell with a short siege and Milan held 2 territories in Europe and 1 in the Middle east. After holding off a Venetian full stack at Milan I brought my English and Southern french armies up to Mertz and Dijon. Took both quickly and Milan was off mainlane Europe and out of my hair.

France then decided it would be a great idea to attack me. Wrong move on their part as I immediately counter attacked and took their encircled regions and then Marseilles taking France out of the game. With France gone and Denmark my only concern in northern Europe I brought Southern Europe under my heel after I forced Venice to accept a ceasefire after beating their armies back constantly. They came to me with the offer and I took it. One less European faction to worry about is no skin off my back.

Now while all this was going on I had a diplomat, assassin and spy working their way across Africa where I found the Sicilian's had entrenched themselves quite well. After a few map info trades they offered me trade rights, an alliance and to pay me for the honor. The pope also called a crusade and since my standing was quite low I jumped into the action and sent an army along for the fun. With my faction heir now king since his dad died of old age, somehow I've found that my faction heirs all seem to land up waging campaigns of conquest just before they ascend to the throne. With Sicily as my allies it took the heat from Milan off my back leaving Denmark and the Rebels as the factions I'm still at war with. Soon to be the turks as they hold Damascus the target of the crusade. Hopefully I can outrun everyone else there. I want a crack at the mongols who arrived a few turns earlier.

Now if I can only get the heretic and inquisitor problems in my lands under control I'd have the perfect western European empire. I'm thinking for my next series of moves after the crusade and attack on the mongols I'll pull back to Europe and try and get the Danes to agree to a ceasefire. Doubt it'll take, they seem to think I'm untrustworthy despite offering them a ton of cash they need to keep themselves in the game.

[kiwi_2005]

Would have to be Shogun cause it was the first gameplay type that was different that i played, had me glued to the screen for weeks.

Warhammer Mark of Chaos is another, not really a total war game style but good enough.

[Radtgaeb]

Those new screens for Shogun 2 look delectable, no? :yep: