Is Empire now in a playable state?

You usually don't even need melee combat to gain control of a segment of wall - just blast some holes in it at the appropriate places to restrict enemy movement.

That is, if you're ignoring howitzers.

I just installed it and started a game, as Sweden naturally.

My first thought was that it's just the old total war with new units. After playing a while, I noticed gunpowder changed things quite a bit, and it's more civilization-like: what you build matters more, and there's research too.

This far I haven't found anything worth of complaining, save the usual TW-things (AI and men trapped inside walls). It's no worse than RTW imo.

EDIT: one annoying thing, which is usual TW-thing is the absic geographical inaccuracy.. It would be great if Paris looked like Paris and Rome was like Rome etc.

Atticus said:

EDIT: one annoying thing, which is usual TW-thing is the absic geographical inaccuracy.. It would be great if Paris looked like Paris and Rome was like Rome etc.

Click to expand...

It's not really "inaccuracy", because you never physically fight inside the cities themselves. All engagements take place in the suburbs or at fortifications built in suburban areas.

That might be headcanon for ETW (absolutely canonical in NTW due to the positioning of the forts on the world map), but since it's never clarified in-game I think it's a fairly reasonable interpretation.

You're right, the cities themselves are visible in the horizon. I thought otherwise because in RTW they were cities themselves, and it would have been nice if ther were a river flowing through Rome or Parisium.

Are you saying you don't like Rhodes being on top of a hill several miles from the shore?

Fortunately haven't been yet to Rhodes.

NOTICE:
Napoleon Total War is free to download & play in Steam this weekend. After that there's 50% discount to buy.

Sadly I promised my girlfriend to be at her place this weekend. Help me find an excuse.

More on topic, I've played almost full game (prestige) with Russia, and found this TW much more civ-like than RTW. Also the villages etc. and the ability to occupy them makes this more interesting. I find the game excellent!