Empire: Total War

Count Duckula

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Anyone got this? It was released yesterday, I think, but seeing as I have a dissertation due in three weeks I think I ought to wait until the holidays before I get it.

It's garnered rave reviews from all corners, though, and looks bloody brilliant. Also the first of the Total War games to have proper naval combat.

What's it like? Is it as good as everyone says? What countries can you play as, or does it follow the Rome/Medieval II formula of only giving you three or four countries to play as and unlocking the others by defeating them in the campaign mode? Can I play as the Mughals in India? And what continents are available - I'm sure that North America's in it (because the USA is founded under the right conditions), but is South America? I'd love to liberate Argentina from the Spanish :D
 
I've had several goes with Rome and the later games but couldn't get my head around the change in gameplay.

Medieval 1 and Shogun were pretty basic but the balance and style felt better to me. Maybe i'll take a look at Empire instead.
 
Well critics are saying this is by far the best yet, so you certainly should give it a go if you can :D

I'm awaiting Easter impatiently as I'll finally be free of my dissertation and so can spend five weeks playing both this and Dawn of War 2.
 
Yeah, I have it. Got it this morning and been playing it all day. Yes you can play as the Mughals, they probably have amongst the most starting provinces alongside the Ottomans and Prussians. In fact the feckers made short work of my attempt to get a foot hold in India by completely destroying an army that took me about 20 turns to build. Empire in decline my ass.

It's pretty mega how you can literally play in Asia, Europe, America, S.America and Africa all in the same scenario. For example if you start as the British (as I did) you have the UK as your starting provinces, but also a province all the way across the globe in America and a couple in the Caribbean. The world is huge, I received a message saying Sweden (naturally I chose to start a war with the Swedes first) had blocked one of my trade routes and their ships were busy looting my merchant ships and stealing all my money. Unfortunately I can't find which feckin trade route as the globe is so big that I keep getting lost. Feckin' Swedes.
 
dumbo said:
Yep, it's important to clear the diary before embarking on any imperialistic ventures.

Particularly when taking on the Celts.
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Celts aren't in it I'm afriad, Wales Scotland and all of Ireland are owned by the English- as it should be :D

Count Duckula said:
So is Argentina in it, or is it more central America in the Carribean?
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Nah it doesn't cover all of S.America, only the top half which is owned entirely by Spain. Most of Central America is owned by the Cherokee
 
It's very good so far. One thing that sets it apart from the other games is that the "non-fighting" part of it is actually very good. I haven't played that far, but apparently the usual problem from Medieval II where your allies would eventually declare war on you regardless of what you did or didn't do, is gone. It's a more complete game now.

I also have to say, the way trade ships work is very nicely done, and much, much less annoying than the tedious merchants from Medieval II.
 
after playing aoe, rise of nations and empire earth i cant seem to get around total war...its feels weird.
 
After getting my new computer I'm finally able to play this, so I went and bought it yesterday and... I don't really like it :(

I don't know what it is, but it just doesn't seem to flow as well as the old Total War games did. Maybe I've just got a little bored of the format, I don't know. Don't get me wrong, mind, it's still a good game, but I've got to say I wish I'd spent the money elsewhere now.
 
niMic said:
It's very good so far. One thing that sets it apart from the other games is that the "non-fighting" part of it is actually very good. I haven't played that far, but apparently the usual problem from Medieval II where your allies would eventually declare war on you regardless of what you did or didn't do, is gone. It's a more complete game now.

I also have to say, the way trade ships work is very nicely done, and much, much less annoying than the tedious merchants from Medieval II.
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What a cnut. I had to have been high on new-game-syndrome. I pretty much disagree with what I said. It's not a terrible game, but it's not a very good one either.
 
niMic said:
What a cnut. I had to have been high on new-game-syndrome. I pretty much disagree with what I said. It's not a terrible game, but it's not a very good one either.
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Yeh, I played it all of yesterday and all of today. I don't know - the actual "total war" part seems to have taken a big hit in Creative Assembly's efforts to make it a more rounded game.

I loved carving out massive empires in Rome and Medieval (never played Shogun), but this one doesn't seem to lend itself to that, despite actually being named after it.
 
are there any other games like aoe and rise of nations ?
 
I quite like it, closest successor to Age of Empires 2 there is (AOE3 was wank).
 
I can't be arsed with Empire: Total War. Been meaning to buy it since it was released but I doubt I will, haven't really had any fun with the Total War games since Shogun. Suppose rather than game dynamics or anything like that, where the series has developed improved loads, it's just that the Samurai armies were so interesting and fun to play, really rich and unique. The following games don't really have the same focus and it's difficult to get absorbed into them.

Suppose I should try out some of the expansions for the Medieval games though since they apparently have more focus on smaller settings and individual nations and scenarios
 
Yeah have to admit I got bored of it pretty quickly. Can't quite put my finger on it either, it just doesn't 'work' so well as the others. Maybe it's the lame ass building browser or the fact that swords and bows are better than gunpowder. The battles are pretty awesome though when you have cannons and sandbanks and infantry trenched in across a line a mile wide but the fact that the quickest 'minimum time' you can set it like an hour or summit speaks for itself. Once you have had one battle you have pretty much had enough for the next 5 or so turns, but usually you have to take part in 3-4 battles a turn and when they take 30mins each it gets tedious. The whole game is a lot slower which makes it near impossible to carve out a huge empire like in the predecessors, and that destroys most of the fun straight away. Though I did have one mammoth game in which I conquered all of Europe with Sweden, which was pretty fun. Though I couldn't help but feel a bit unclean afterwards, what with it being Sweden and all.

Rome > Medieval II > Rome Barbarian Invasion > Shogun > Medieval I > Empire unfortunately. It's a good game still, just that the others were great games and Rome especially was amazing.
 
Just get Europa Universalis 3 (+expansions) and be done with it. It's the ultimate strategy game.

Also, Sweden > Smashed
 
Count Duckula said:
I wish I'd bought Dawn of War II for half the price, frankly. Though that'd probably be a disappointment, too!
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It's pants I un-installed it within about a day. You should check out Mount and Blade with the SoD mod or the new Anno 1404 if you are after a decent game that you will get hooked on massively for a good few weeks, before completely over playing it, growing bored, and going back to KotOR like an atoning lover.

Sweden sucks by the way, in my Spain game they got completely destroyed by Prussia, which shows Sweden's European dominance was in spite of the Swedes, not because of them. Bunch of bearded poofs. Even I would fancy my chances against Prussia's standing army. Reckon I could have at least conquered a few port side towns before I over stretched myself, anyway
 
VidaRed said:
any of you lot played command & conquer games ?
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Probably the greatest strategy games I've ever played, together with AoE2 maybe. Especially C&C1 and C&C Red Alert 1&2 were great. Spent months and months playing that when I was young(er).

I've recently played the latest two games in the series but didn't like them as much as the old ones. I still like to play Red Alert 2 sometimes.


I quite liked Empire Earth to be honest, even though Rome Total War is still my favorite.
 
Yeah, the C&C games are awesome. The original Command & Conquer was one of the games that really got me into gaming, I used to go round my mates house just to watch him play it.

Haven't really rated any of the games from C&C Generals onwards though, and the latest Red Alert was bloody awful.
 
Empire earth was my favourite, took forever to finish a full game though, me and mates would play for hours against computers. We like buliding big armies which didnt help.
 
The first Tiberian Sun was the greatest C&C ever, followed by Red Alert 2. The newest Red Alert was better than Generals, all that 3d rubbish ruined generals for me.
 
VidaRed said:
any of you lot played command & conquer games ?
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I was brought up with these games, from the first one (well, really from Dune 2). Absolutely love then. I like all of them, including the Red Alert games, except for Generals. That game was not very good.

Iron Stove said:
Just get Europa Universalis 3 (+expansions) and be done with it. It's the ultimate strategy game.

Also, Sweden > Smashed
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It's brilliant, to be sure. I've been playing it ever since it came out (and EU2 before that).

Christofaux said:
Empire earth was my favourite, took forever to finish a full game though, me and mates would play for hours against computers. We like buliding big armies which didnt help.
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Empire Earth was fecking brilliant.

Twisted_Woody said:
I quite like it, closest successor to Age of Empires 2 there is (AOE3 was wank).
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Surely you can't be talking about Empire Total War now? They're far from similar :wenger:

The closest successfor to AoE2 is definitely Empire Earth.
 
SmashedHombre said:
The first Tiberian Sun was the greatest C&C ever, followed by Red Alert 2. The newest Red Alert was better than Generals, all that 3d rubbish ruined generals for me.
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I'd say Red Alert and Red Alert 2 were the best (Got a serious fetish for the Soviets :D), but the original C&C was so well presented, it has it's whole distinct personality. Probably because it was one of the first games I really loved when I was a kid, but I'd say in some ways it hasn't been bettered. Red Alert and Red Alert 2 really fine tuned the balance and gameplay though.
 
There is no successor to AoE2. The greatest game, ever bar none. Amazing game, and online it is just a thousand times better than it is single player
 
UBERScholes said:
I'd say Red Alert and Red Alert 2 were the best (Got a serious fetish for the Soviets :D), but the original C&C was so well presented, it has it's whole distinct personality. Probably because it was one of the first games I really loved when I was a kid, but I'd say in some ways it hasn't been bettered. Red Alert and Red Alert 2 really fine tuned the balance and gameplay though.
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Red Alert 2 has more replay value for me which I think makes it better than the others you mentioned. It also has the single greatest C&C movie ever for the ending, Kuri Wuhrer as Tanya in a sexy black dress. Agree with the soviets thing though, Red Alert was damn sneaky in that it gave the allies the fit women. Having to choose between sexy women and communism at the start was the hardest part of any Red Alert
 
SmashedHombre said:
Red Alert 2 has more replay value for me which I think makes it better than the others you mentioned. It also has the single greatest C&C movie ever for the ending, Kuri Wuhrer as Tanya in a sexy black dress. Agree with the soviets thing though, Red Alert was damn sneaky in that it gave the allies the fit women. Having to choose between sexy women and communism at the start was the hardest part of any Red Alert
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It's true even in the new ones with the Japanese added. Japan and the Allies get fit women and a suggestive ending with said women. The Soviets get a woman that looks like that woman in dodgeball and the ending is a communist victory parade.

Soviet men need no sex drive!
 
Count Duckula said:
It's true even in the new ones with the Japanese added. Japan and the Allies get fit women and a suggestive ending with said women. The Soviets get a woman that looks like that woman in dodgeball and the ending is a communist victory parade.

Soviet men need no sex drive!
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You still going to Muse over the weekend?

niMic said:
Perhaps even better, the Allied ending gets David Hasselhoff.
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:lol: yes it does, I had forgotten all about that. Why must life always boil down to a choice between communism and David Hasselhoff?
 
Empire has everything required to be an awesome game, except for that magic X factor that really makes a game truly enjoyable and more importantly - replayable. Warcraft 3 (and most other blizzard games) have that "X Factor" in abundance, such that even now there are still Starcraft tournaments in Asia (hell, its basically their national sport), Diablo still has more active players than most MMO's and World of Warcraft...well..speaks for itself really.

Empire is just a game that I find - for some reason - hard to get in to. And when I do start getting into a campaign and enjoying it, its just too short. Even on the harder difficulty settings, the entire campaign is normally won within the first 20 or so years - after that it just because a fairly tedious affair of marching your unstoppable army around the world, painting the world map in your colour, until there is nothing left to conquer.



From what I have gathered, the upcoming expansion Napoleon - Total War, will improve on some of those issues - namely the fact that its too easy to just gather a full 20-unit-stack and romp around the world, replenishing it every few turns. Supposedly the expansion will add the effects of attrition and supply lines - meaning attacking an enemy province will become a much bigger deal, since by the time you reach the enemy city, half of your army might have died from starvation, poor weather and so forth - it also means that smaller "skirmish" armies (which has always been a favoured tactic of mine - a small army of elite units, ambushing enemy forces and causing havoc etc - but its never been particularly effective in the past) will have new life, thanks to the ability to cut off enemy supply lines effectively, slowly killing their army without having to do so much as fire a gun.
 
SmashedHombre said:
You still going to Muse over the weekend?
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Nah, I couldn't afford it and owing to my circumstances I realised I couldn't really go during the week. Another of my friends took the ticket instead - the four of them are down in Teignmouth right now!

SmashedHombre said:
:lol: yes it does, I had forgotten all about that. Why must life always boil down to a choice between communism and David Hasselhoff?
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I'd forgotten that, too. Frankly the cutscenes in Red Alert 3 were almost worth the price of the game alone! :D
 
niMic said:
Surely you can't be talking about Empire Total War now? They're far from similar :wenger:

The closest successfor to AoE2 is definitely Empire Earth.
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I have never played Empire Earth....:(

I was mainly referring to the random historical bits thrown in throughout the game.

But yes, there really is no successor to AOE2. I wish they'd just remake the damn thing with updated graphics and such.
 
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