Discovering America

[Furious Mental]

Isn't it a bit demented that you apparently have to wait hundreds of years (or turns?) to sail to the Americas when in actual fact by the time the game supposedly starts (1080 AD) people from Greenland were already exploring it?

[Sykotyk Rampage]

Hi Furious

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=60375&page=4

post # 102 in this thread covers this. There are a few other posts throughout that thread on this subject.

[Zenicetus]

I think the delay is reasonable, because we're talking "Total War" here (conquest and colonization of a developed Aztec civilization), and not just exploring and setting up marginal base camps, in an area without much local opposition like Newfoundland. That requires a higher level of logistics, reinforcements, and reliable trade routes back to Europe so you can reap the economic benefits.

It also removes a potential distraction in the early game, where you'll need to focus on getting established as a major economic and military power. You don't have to worry about the other factions aiming at the New World until later on. That's probably a good game balance decision, if they're going to include the New World at all.

[Furious Mental]

I didn't realise that someone had already mentioned this. But anyway, I still think it's a valid point. The Vikings did encounter local opposition when they visited the Americas. In fact, if you read the Vinland Sagas you get the distinct impression that the Vikings thought the eastern seaboard of America would be a fabulous place to live (much better than Greenland anyway) but could never settle permanently because of intermittent hostility on the part of the natives. A large ocean going power would probably have had little trouble overcoming them but we're talking about expeditions of only a couple of hundred people- from Greenland, itself a not terribly populous place. But if Total War games are supposed to let you rewrite history I don't see why you shouldn't able to, for example, send a fleet from the North Sea via Iceland and Greenland to the New World, rather than waiting for some Italian to blunder, with the help of revolutionary navigational tools, into a continent which was fresh in the memory of North Atlantic geographers and historians and could have been reached centuries before by any group of canny sailors with a decent ship.

[Asean]

I would prefer Asian civilizations to the Americas. I hope CA makes an expansion pack that would cover Asia and Northern Africa.... that would be the ultimate Total War game...