Empire Total War

Haven't played ETW but i've played the others in the series. They were completely different than the civ series, enough that i dont really think you can compare them.
Also, I heard to wait for a few patches before getting ETW.
 
I absolutely hated Rome Total War. I figure I will probably not like the others either. Bummer, I quite liked the idea.
 
I loved RTW, M2TW, and I love Empire Total War.

HOWEVER, Civ 4 BTS may not have the flashy vivid combats (among other things) - but I know I'll be playing it 5 years from now, and maybe even longer. I doubt I'll say the same for ETW.

When I'm away from BTS or its mods, I'm thinking about BTS strategies and planning. When I'm away from the Total War games, I don't think about them much (though I probably was more entertained by them; at least in the "that was awesome" feeling, whereas BTS is more...intellectual.)
 
^ i agree.

I've played all the TW games since the beginning. They're definately entertaining.. but it's something you will eventually get bored with.

that's why im in no rush to buy Empire... i think im pretty much TW'd out.
 
The game has only just come out in the UK. I suspect a ETW forum may give you a better opinion of how good the game is.

New releases tend to need patches sooooooo might be worth waiting a few months.
 
Yes, definitely wait for a patch or two. I love the TW series, but Rome and Med2 were crap right out of the box, but with two patches and some excellent mod work, they were fantastic. I expect ETW will be the same. The reviewers are sure loving it.

And yeah, you can't really compare the experience. While TW games have a strategy side, they really are all about the visceral experience of seeing the troops you've been building turn after turn do their thing on the battlefield. Watching Roman legionaries go into testudo or seeing a wave of heavy knights level their lances and crash into a body of archers is pretty damn exciting.

One last thing: the TW community is just as active and mutually supporting as the CIV community -- a wide variety of excellent mods, vibrant exchanges of ideas and helpful answers from other members.

I find I alternate between the two, given my taste at the moment.
 
I actually picked up Rome: Total Realism (the mod for RTW) just recently again...hadn't played it for roughly a year according to the numbers next to my save game.

In all, the Total War series have the advantage of RTS battles, but I think the empire management is just clumsy and doens't have the depth as well as the epic scale of Civ. It's a trade-off, which one you are feeling at the moment. I've obviously chosen Civ4. :)
 
Empire is a pretty good game crippled by an atrocious AI. I'll stick with Civ and EU.
 
Antilogic said:
I actually picked up Rome: Total Realism (the mod for RTW) just recently again...hadn't played it for roughly a year according to the numbers next to my save game.

In all, the Total War series have the advantage of RTS battles, but I think the empire management is just clumsy and doens't have the depth as well as the epic scale of Civ. It's a trade-off, which one you are feeling at the moment. I've obviously chosen Civ4. :)
Click to expand...

I think Europa Barbarorum plays out much better than Rome Total Realism. lol

Yes the management system is poor in like all the total war games. They cover only a certain time period and are effectively a scenario versus the long spanning scope of civilization 4.

I go back in forth between games. I modded a bit in medieval 2 total war and enjoyed it extensively but I then months later I started to play civilization again. Currently I am playing civilization because I like the economic aspects of it and the grand scope of it. In the end I have to say I like civilization more though, this probably being my favorite game. But I am still planning on purchasing empire total war when I fix my computer.:D
 
I just started playing Civ 4 again after a long break. I was playing the MTW2 mod, Stainless Steel for awhile and I loved it. I would recommend it to anyone who loves strategy combined with RTS action. The realism options make it a very challenging game for anyone.
Vanilla anything gets boring fast tho so I haven't picked up Empire yet. The reviews are good so I think the patches and Mods will be worth waithing for.
 
The total war games are great. Though due to the terrible AI of them (we are so spoiled with BtS), and they triviality of the economic system, overall they end up feeling quite lacking. They are great to play for a couple moths, but they loose their replayability much faster then CIV does. At least that's been my experience from them.

Now my dream strategy game would be a CIV economic engine, combined with the combat engine of a TW game. That would be strategy crack.

Antilogic said:
I actually picked up Rome: Total Realism (the mod for RTW) just recently again...hadn't played it for roughly a year according to the numbers next to my save game.

In all, the Total War series have the advantage of RTS battles, but I think the empire management is just clumsy and doens't have the depth as well as the epic scale of Civ. It's a trade-off, which one you are feeling at the moment. I've obviously chosen Civ4. :)
Click to expand...
Pretty much hit the nail on the head there. RTR is great though, and buefifully done. I'd wager the modders spent 5 times the man hours with the art and balancing then the devs did. Though overall I think gamers don't realize that devs have corporate masters to answer to, so I don't fully blame them. It really is a shame the TW games hardcoded the AI in the .exe, because really after all is said and done, the horrible AI is the overarching flaw in the TW series, and if they just let modders play with it, they could end up with some good development in that (much like CIV did, in that they used a modder to program and their AI for BtS).
 
phungus420 said:
The total war games are great. Though due to the terrible AI of them (we are so spoiled with BtS), and they triviality of the economic system, overall they end up feeling quite lacking. They are great to play for a couple moths, but they loose their replayability much faster then CIV does. At least that's been my experience from them.

Now my dream strategy game would be a CIV economic engine, combined with the combat engine of a TW game. That would be strategy crack.


Pretty much hit the nail on the head there. RTR is great though, and buefifully done. I'd wager the modders spent 5 times the man hours with the art and balancing then the devs did. Though overall I think gamers don't realize that devs have corporate masters to answer to, so I don't fully blame them. It really is a shame the TW games hardcoded the AI in the .exe, because really after all is said and done, the horrible AI is the overarching flaw in the TW series, and if they just let modders play with it, they could end up with some good development in that (much like CIV did, in that they used a modder to program and their AI for BtS).
Click to expand...

Your combination (referred to as the über-game concept amongst my friends) would run into some hard limits. While the hardcore lovers of the genre will probably stick it out and play it, most of the gaming world is going to see some game that is so insanely tedious with so many systems that it would take days upon days to play even a simple game. The alternative is to simplify each game system (the turn-based or the real-time part) to the point where nobody is really satisfied. If you think the developers of Civ4 or Colonization 2 ran into hard limits and were pressured by the management to release a game that wasn't ready yet, imagine the problems of a game that literally covers the whole spectrum of human history to the most minute detail.

The ultimate example: MoO3. 'Nuff said.
 
As with some of you I switch between the two. Civ is a much more in depth experience with lots of mods (providing no CTD's). The battle sequences in MTW/ETW can be repetitive and time consuming, so I dont go into every battle. Diplomacy in ETW is appalling. Wonder when Civ 5 will be upon us!!
 
I am thinking on getting ETW ( I love the TW series, but the awesome concept is completely broken in RTW and MTW II because of the horrible, horrible AI ( "oh I'm Russia and have a boat near a portuguese city, that is my ally. Let's blockade it and start a war...." Real game situation....... ), but it seems from your comments that they didn't adressed the core flaws of the series :(
 
r_rolo1 said:
I am thinking on getting ETW ( I love the TW series, but the awesome concept is completely broken in RTW and MTW II because of the horrible, horrible AI ( "oh I'm Russia and have a boat near a portuguese city, that is my ally. Let's blockade it and start a war...." Real game situation....... ), but it seems from your comments that they didn't adressed the core flaws of the series :(
Click to expand...

I think the AI is marginally better, but it's still dire. For example, it never does overseas invasions. The battle AI is just as bad. Enemy troops will mill around aimlessly while you blow them apart with cannons, or instead they'll come at you one unit at a time.

I've given up and am playing EU3 instead. So much better.
 
I loved Shogun and MTW. RTW looked nice but had some issues which I hoped would be fixed in the next game. I was very disappointed with M2TW, they didn't fix it they made it worse. With the stainless steel mod its just about playable but still gets boring pretty quickly. So I won't be buying ETW unless someone convinces me that they have massively improved the enemy AI in the campaign game. Which doesn't sound likely so far...
 
Like many others, I don't really care for ETW that much, simply because of the AI. Seems to me that from RTW onwards, they haven't even touched it.

I do still play Europa Barbarorum which is amazing mod, and I would also play MTW if it worked on my PC.
 
Played rome total war, i prefer civ by far. Only thing i like (and i love it) are the battles in rome total war. it would be cool if there was that in civ
 
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