Best Game of the TW Series

[Fisherking]

So why was it the lowest in player?

The scope?

Who has it?

Anyone still play?

[Hooahguy]

I have it, didnt play too much of it. The #1 problem I have with it is the fact how the campaign is so limited. Im not a huge fan of these shorter, narrow campaigns. Which is why I stuck with ETW, since while the gameplay wasnt quite as good, the campaign was so large and I could do anything, like migrate as the Ottomans to the Americas, which you couldnt do in NTW.

[BroskiDerpman]

I still play it once in a while, not on my pc for a while but will install NTW3 mod soon for some good SP and MP action.

[Myth]

If I ever get the number of games i want to play below 3 I'll install it no questions asked.

[Gregoshi]

I just saw the ETW/NTW combo pack (or whatever it was called) at EB Games here in Oz for $15 AUD. I was sorely tempted to get it but know almost nothing about these games. I kind of ignored ETW primarily because my ancient PC at the time wouldn't play it. So I was wondering, what is the state of these games now that they are patched as much they will be? What is the good and what is the bad? Is there a thread somewhere that can give me a good postmortem on the two games?

Edit: Sorry if this hijacks the thread. The OP seemed to be touching on some of the things I was wondering. If you deem it a hijack, please feel free to split this off into its own thread.

[Fisherking]

The end state of both games is good. They are very playable. They both still have significant numbers of player on Steam.

Empire has almost world wide scope in the game and a strong naval game.

After the final patches it gained a resurgence in popularity. The Campaign of Empire is about as good as it gets. The downside is that when you become too successful the god of the game hates you. When you get to this point everything goes south at once and it is a struggle to maintain what you have, not to mention new expansion. It still has an issue or two but most can be overlooked.

Napoleon doesn’t have that world wide scope. The Grand Campaign is Europe and Africa, which after ETW seems a bit small but the play is fabulous. Everything stands head and shoulders above ETW.

Most of the things that frustrated players in ETW are fixed or reworked. Battles are great, campaigns are great and the Peninsular Campaign DLC is great. You have to look hard to find things you don’t like but the game is the Napoleonic Wars which limit’s the scope.


ETW was released to great industry reviews but players saw it as badly broken, which it was at the time. It took them a long time to get it all fixed. Napoleon was out before ETW was in its final form.

NTW got very mixed industry reviews because it was the daughter of ETW. This cut its exposure to players. But everyone who tried it loved it for the play. All said “This is what ETW should have been”.

It was a great game from day one and the Peninsular Campaign only made it better.

The small early campaigns are basically the tutorials moving you into the Grand Campaign. The Historic Battles are challenging. Multiplayer is also a strong point. I am usually just your died in the wool single player but in this game it is different.

This was a great game. S2 was built on top of the engine and was also a great release.

Both games are worth a try and at those prices you could hardly miss.

[Gregoshi]

Excellent! Thank you very much for the postmortem review Fisherking. :bow: I think I will jump on that deal tomorrow.

I never understood the whole map size issue people have with games. Here's a map - conquer it, be it a country, a continent, a world or a galaxy. I don't think I'll have issue with the "small" scope of NTW.

[Buzghush]

I have it. But, according to steam I played it for just 5 hours. Tbh, I didn't like it too much. So many players love this game but not my cup of tea.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Oh.....I thought this was going to be a thread on the best game of the TW series:creep:

[Fisherking]

ReluctantSamurai

We are always open to what you have to say. Have you played this one?

[ReluctantSamurai]

Until I purchased STW II, I haven't purchased a single TW title since RTW I. I don't particularly care for the Napoleonic era of warfare, and despite ETW/NTW having many of their initial bugs worked out, I can't see myself wanting to play.

As I said....I thought this was about the best in the TW series~;)

[jaspritsingh]

Nappy is my favorite in the series ( I have put in decent time in Medieval, Rome, Empire, Napoleon, S2, Rome2).

I love the gameplay and the era and I really love the gameplay. Its just right, no micromanaging of characters and still plenty of scope for subterfuge to keep an enemy angry.
I love the gunpowder units and the even the Battle AI is passable.

[totalkimbrough]

Until I purchased STW II, I haven't purchased a single TW title since RTW I. I don't particularly care for the Napoleonic era of warfare, and despite ETW/NTW having many of their initial bugs worked out, I can't see myself wanting to play.

As I said....I thought this was about the best in the TW series~;)

So what do you think is the best?

[ReluctantSamurai]

The one that started it all......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXby75cye0Y

[Dorozhand]

One of the reasons I love the Total War series is the Alternate History aspect. I loved the idea of making the Mediterranean a Carthaginian lake, or saving the Western Roman Empire from destruction, or colonizing the Americas as Mamluke Egypt, or marching the Ottoman Janissaries into Vienna and beyond. The sheer scope of the campaigns and the endless possibilities in earlier games was part of the fun, and NTW took that away. I like Napoleonic style warfare, but the narrowness of the campaign is too limiting.

[easytarget]

And that pretty well sums up exactly why no one played Napoleon.

[edyzmedieval]

Napoleon is actually one of the strongest TW games on the battlefield aspect - you have a very impressive selection of units for 5 major factions (if you own all DLC, true), but it actually makes it very fun to experiment and play in MP.

[Jacob_Sterlov]

The end state of both games is good. They are very playable. They both still have significant numbers of player on Steam.

Empire has almost world wide scope in the game and a strong naval game.

After the final patches it gained a resurgence in popularity. The Campaign of Empire is about as good as it gets. The downside is that when you become too successful the god of the game hates you. When you get to this point everything goes south at once and it is a struggle to maintain what you have, not to mention new expansion. It still has an issue or two but most can be overlooked.

Napoleon doesn’t have that world wide scope. The Grand Campaign is Europe and Africa, which after ETW seems a bit small but the play is fabulous. Everything stands head and shoulders above ETW.

Most of the things that frustrated players in ETW are fixed or reworked. Battles are great, campaigns are great and the Peninsular Campaign DLC is great. You have to look hard to find things you don’t like but the game is the Napoleonic Wars which limit’s the scope.


ETW was released to great industry reviews but players saw it as badly broken, which it was at the time. It took them a long time to get it all fixed. Napoleon was out before ETW was in its final form.

NTW got very mixed industry reviews because it was the daughter of ETW. This cut its exposure to players. But everyone who tried it loved it for the play. All said “This is what ETW should have been”.

It was a great game from day one and the Peninsular Campaign only made it better.

The small early campaigns are basically the tutorials moving you into the Grand Campaign. The Historic Battles are challenging. Multiplayer is also a strong point. I am usually just your died in the wool single player but in this game it is different.

This was a great game. S2 was built on top of the engine and was also a great release.

Both games are worth a try and at those prices you could hardly miss.

Can I quote everything you said?

I purchased in bundle STW, ETW, RTW and NTW. It was an offer. I reminded of the first Shogun and, since I liked it, I thought it would be better give it a try.

But I started with Napoleon. Why? Well, recently I have been reading a lot about wars in Northern Italy. The ones I read about occurred some 50-60 years later, yet I loved the idea of campaigning there with Napoleon.

So, in a sense, if most people disliked NTW because of its limited campaigns, well, put yourselves in my shoes: it's the first one I tried. And it's great.

Don't be fooled by my contribution to the bugs' list. The game is great. If it wasn't great I wouldn't have played 50 hours in the first week of purchase (time to pull the plug, I guess).

I managed to finish the first two campaigns in historical time and God help me if that wasn't awesome!

:D