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[Rhyfelwyr]

In the interests of full disclosure, I will admit I do tend play through the late-game in Shogun Total War. It feels more realistic to do so, since your goal (after all) is to unite Japan. With most games it doesn't feel right, though -- conquering all of Europe just doesn't seem like a feasible (or even desirable) goal.

It felt OK as the Romans in RTW, but I agree on the whole, I now own 80-something provinces as the HRE and am fighting a war of attrition against the Timurids and the Mongols who managed for once to established themselves. It just doesn't feel realistic at all. I'm just sticking it out to see Reiters and Serpentines in the New World.

[PBI]

I suppose that's why the long campaign goals are only to acquire 40ish provinces out of the total 108. Maybe it would be a bit more sensible to conquer the whole map if other factions were more willing to become vassals once you are the pre-eminent power, even if they hate you. That way you could amass a huge empire on paper without actually having to physically conquer such a huge expanse. As I understand it this was how most empires were built.

[CynicalP]

That would definately be not only more realistic but less tedious to manage as well.

[Andres]

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There's not a problem Andres can't fix...

Badabing!



Et voilà:

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And before I grab my coat: a warm welcome to our newest junior members

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

I thought you actually had a solution not a picture of threads... lol, well tell me if you do!

[Quickening]

Got to agree with the majority here in that the endgame of Total War tends to be very dull. Not only that, but there is so much more to keep track of and I find that if Im deep into a campaign and I leave it for a day or two then when I get back Ive lost the "feel" for it and want to start again.
Martok mentioned Gal Civ 2, at least in that game you have mega events to turn the Galaxy on it's head. Not really an option in the Total War series unless you want to totally throw history to the dogs.
This is one of the many reasons I really love the Kingdoms expansion. Just nice little mini campaigns and it also feels more believable than say, conquering all of Europe as Sicily.

As for Rome versus Med 2, it's a tough one. In fact today I was switching between Rome and Med 2 Kingdoms. For me Rome has a far more epic feel thanks in a large part to the presense of Rome itself and the music. It is also the far more polished game. However Med 2 is basically Rome + in Medieval times which is just awesome.
I just can't decide. Ive got no interest in the time period or the planned features in Empire so I'll be playing Rome and Med 2 for a long time to come yet.

[Gaiseric]

I liked RTW battles better than MTW2. In rtw units tended to stay in formation and not go blindly charging, and get spread out across half the map. World conquest was not as fun for me in rtw, however, unless I played a civilized nation with better building options. Spreading barbarian culture and squalor didn't appeal to me. It's more fun to play the barbarions defensivly and fend off attacks from armoured and disaplined troops.

Micromanagement is one of the reasons I am attracted to strategy games. I like to improve my empire and economy. The TW Series are the best strategy games in terms of letting me defend the factions, empires, and economies that I develop. In similar strategy games, all my time spent on micromanagement can be lost in a dice roll. I gave up the Civ series because I cant control the defense of my cities. Too much micromangement and not enough control.

Still, there are many things in mtw2, that drive me nuts because I don't have control over them. Controling population/squalor, generals traits, diplomacy, naval battles, agent sucess chances, rebels, etc.

I hope that Empires allows more economic options. Then instead of world conquest, my game goals could be to become self sufficient and just defend my boarders from the enemy. I could use diplamacy(warscore) to bring peace instead of having to invade and elimanante all my neighbors. Its much more fun to stay small and fight off larger enemies, then to be large and fight smaller enemies.