Many times I've almost picked up one of the total war titles...

Which would you all recommend as the version to jump in with? ...and are there any to specifically avoid?

I'm really not sure about MTW2 at this point, especially now that Kingdoms should be out with the improvements for it.

I can vouch for the fact that Rome WITH MODS (a good one would be Europa Barbarorum) is right now in a very good state. I would avoid it like the plague as vanilla - it might not be a bad game, but it takes shall we say a lot of "entertaining" liberties with history. The AI is also not stellar but the patches improved it. Tons of fun with Europa Barbarorum though. It's what the game should've been, the map is MUCH bigger, the feature list is massive, battles are much more interesting. It's being ported to MTW2 engine now by the way.

Oh. And by the way, the Total War: Eras boxset should be still on sale. I believe it costs no more than $50-60 right now and includes every TW game besides MTW2. A good deal - you get three older games (and 4 expansions for them) for the price of one new one.

Thanks I'll look into both the "Kingdoms" expansion and that box set. :yep:

Rome: Total War is my favorite by far.

You will have to choose: Excellent mods and bad AI (RTW) or much improved AI and graphics and only announced mods (MTW2).

Here is just a quick selection of recommended mods for RTW:

Europa Barbarorum (seems the 1st choice now, came too late for me though)
http://www.europabarbarorum.com/

Napoleonic TW (no sp but great for multiplayer)
lordz.thelordz.co.uk

Rome Total Realism
http://www.rometotalrealism.org/

The Crusades (unfortunately dead)
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=134

Ran No Jidai (full Sengoku Jidai conversion that is close to release)
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=120

RTW should sell for no more than 10 $/€ so its a cheap way to get into the series. I personally feel that mtw2 is the better game, but I havent played much, basically I am still waiting for some really good mod.

What would you guys say the best Mod for MTW2 is i have been looking at a few but just cant make my mind up?

I havent played it but that is the only one I plan to download myself:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=302

Mainly because of its focus is on smaller maps and real campaigns (reconquista, italian cities, hundred years war).

Have just Downloaded this one.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=114748

Looks kind of intresting so thought i would give it ago.:D

For MTWII Stainless Steel, Lands to Conquer and Deus lo Vult are the three best mods imo at this moment.

Stainless Steel is my personal favorite. Order of the Knights Templar are a blast to play!

Which one is more about realistic short campaigns and does one have 4 seasons per turn?

RTW + Europa Barborum = GODLY AWESOME. :D


Though atm I dont play as much, to busy with other games.

Anno Domini team merged with Medieval Auctoriso Project and im waiting what they come up with. They are talented modders and strict on historical realism.

Europa Barbarorum got me really hooked again to RTW...i layed M2TW aside for now...i've been playing a roman campaign for over a month now and dam...the game is much more sweet now, it really is amazing. If you have RTW and haven't tried Europa don't waste any more time and try it out you won't regret it, Europa does for RTW what GWX mod does for SHIII.

I put my Amazon order in for the Total War Eras pack today! :yep:

Thanks for the tipoff... I wouldn't of known about the all-in-one eras pack.

I can only guess where they'll take the franchise.

I was an avid fan of the Microsoft Close Combat series, and I ended up being a Beta tester for Eric Young's Squad Assault and GI Combat. Through pure chance did I end up getting on the GI Combat team since I found a HUGE bug in the game and that opened the door for EYSA... but unfortunately the EYSA was using a poor engine and nothing really changed going from GIC to EYSA, so I when I saw that again, nothing changed going from EYSA to EYSA2, I dropped the beta testing.

It was disappointing to see the potential of a really good franchise, but they butchered the series in my opinion. GIC played better after it was patched properly, and sure as heck better than EYSA.

Where was I going with that... Oh yeah... Total War would be awesome in the Napoleonic Era and beyond... I can only imagine the Total War engine, with larger battlefields with Tanks and such...

I was hoping that Wartime Command was going to make it somewhere, but that project got dropped. Sucks too... would've probably been awesome.:hmm: