Next Total War Possibilities

[Africanvs]

Personally I would like to see one based around the warring states. One based around the Mongol conquests would be good too. The main argument against a total war game set in the east is that the mainly western fans of the games would not be interested but I think mongols are well known enough to overcome that (rather weak) argument.
My gut feeling is that the next game (after expansions) will be Rome 2 or maybe another gunpowder era game then Rome 2.
If it is another gunpowder game then I'm not sure where they'd go WW1 and WW2 would require a massive change to the point where it essentialy would not be a total war game, that leaves you with either the renaissance or the early modern era (Crimean and American Civil wars both happend during this period).

I don't know, I wouldn't say no one in the west would be interested in a game set in Asia. There are a lot of games set in the east that have been big hits in the west such as Romance of the three kingdoms, Shogun total war etc. By now CA has had so many hits, they can afford to be a little sentemental anyway and release a game based on their first. But you're probably thinking in terms of a game that is historically accurate not being as interesting to westerners. You know CA is going to have crazy Samurai using killer death finishing moves, invisible ninjas, and huge ships with cannons on them to make it look cool and market it to as many people as possible. Although maybe they've turned over a new leaf. From what I can tell ETW is the most historically accurate yet.

[bobbin]

I don't know, I wouldn't say no one in the west would be interested in a game set in Asia. There are a lot of games set in the east that have been big hits in the west such as Romance of the three kingdoms, Shogun total war etc.

Oh no i completely agree with you, its just that whenever there is a discussion about the next TW that seems to be the most common response against a Asian game.

You know CA is going to have crazy Samurai using killer death finishing moves, invisible ninjas, and huge ships with cannons on them to make it look cool and market it to as many people as possible.

Ha! maybe we'll get Zheng He's treasure fleet of wooden supertankers.

[Apázlinemjó]

A Total War game about the Mesopotamian city states' wars before Hammurabi's time?

[Cyclops]

...Ha! maybe we'll get Zheng He's treasure fleet of wooden supertankers.

Classic. If they base it on that wonderful fantasy 1421 then there'll be icebreakers and "stealth junks" that can visit Europe and civilise it without ever being detected.

However Chinese history (real history, not crank theories) is an amazing and fascinating subject and well worthy of being explored in game form.

[desert]

Classic. If they base it on that wonderful fantasy 1421 then there'll be icebreakers and "stealth junks" that can visit Europe and civilise it without ever being detected.

However Chinese history (real history, not crank theories) is an amazing and fascinating subject and well worthy of being explored in game form.

Wait...are you saying Cheng Ho didn't exist?

[jnabb22]

personnally the best would be IRISH:total war then we could have drunk irishmen running around slautering all the other barbarians and romans that would be awsome but maybe thats just me =D

[ziegenpeter]

I would really like Heiliges Römisches Reich: TW (I know thers a mod, bt its not finished). playable would be the 7 price electors(right word?) and maybe some of their more important vassals. Unplayable the surrounding factions. But thats maybe more an expabsion for MTWIII...

[IrishHitman]

personnally the best would be IRISH:total war then we could have drunk irishmen running around slautering all the other barbarians and romans that would be awsome but maybe thats just me =D

Irish Warfare pre-gunpowder was boring...

Except for when the Vikings dropped in.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Vikings are ****ing fun!

I would absolutely LOVE to see and Asia TW of SOME type to replace STWII.

[Cyclops]

Wait...are you saying Cheng Ho didn't exist?

Wait...didn't you read my post?

I think the voyage of the Chinese treasure fleet is one of the most fascinating episodes in world history, a knife edge moment when a great power rolls its influence out in a kind of international thunderclap. It ranks in its potential with Columbus and Da Gama's voyages...you wonder what might have been if the policy had not been so firmly reversed. According to the EEP/AGC boys over at EU then they'd have suffered a -7 stab hit and a monster revolt increase but acquired Muslim (or was it Orthodox?) Tech.

However "gilding the lily" and pretending that the fleet visited Antartica or the moon or Italy is just embarrassing and degrades the discipline of history. I was refering in particular to the silly notion that Junks somehow sailed across the north coast of Asia to Scandinavia.

[desert]

However "gilding the lily" and pretending that the fleet visited Antartica or the moon or Italy is just embarrassing and degrades the discipline of history. I was refering in particular to the silly notion that Junks somehow sailed across the north coast of Asia to Scandinavia

.

0_0 Never heard that one before.

Sorry for the misunderstanding, it was kind of ambiguous.

[bobbin]

It a book called 1421 by a guy called Gavin Menzies, it makes some fairly ridiculous claims based on some very shakey linguistics, non existant or disproven archeology (one structure in australia turned out to be a 150 year old retaining wall) and what basically boils down to his own opinion presented as fact.
His book also states thet he is an expert on chinese history despite not being A: able to read chinese or B: a historian (he's a retired royal navy captain if i remember correct).

He's also relased another book about how it was china that started the renaissance which from what i've heard is even more flawed.

[Cyclops]

.

0_0 Never heard that one before.

Sorry for the misunderstanding, it was kind of ambiguous.

No wucks. There's a general information defecit on Chinese history thats pretty embarrassing, so I understand if you react to just another guy seeming to downgrade the acheivemnets of a major world culture.

I think interest in Chinese history is increasing and games on the subject will become more viable commercially.

Comparisons are invidious of course but its hard not to "line 'em up" and rank "Rome vs China vs Persia" etc and its hard to position them in my mind. Not that i want to rank them from 1 to 10 or anything...actually I do. maybe in amore complex or appealing way, but I want a top 10. Top 10 what? I don't even know.

Part of the probelm is the Yellow Rivers relative isolation from the other 3 great cradles of the Old World (the Indus, Mesopotamia and Nile). A great culture like persian has cast a cultural shadow over central Asia and Northern India, and heavily contributed to Islamic, Turkic, Greek and numerous other cultures and subcultures. Of course they are the heirs to preexisting Mesopotamian and Indus cultures. When Greeks and persians collide, first Cyrus wins a partial victory, then Xerxes gets stymied, then Alexander scores a Heroic Victory, so if you want to rank them militarily, theres a clear outcome. Culturally you can talk about Persia's amazing literary legacy (esp. poetry) and as a court language across many cultures, vs Greeks tradition of systemic thought which is so important in science. Which one wins? Maybe Greek but by golly its a close run thing.

With China the outside contacts are more tenuous and you can't say Legions ftw vs crossbow chariots. China famously absorbed anyone who ever conquered them (well mostly) so were they militarily weak, culturally strong, or what? Definitely worth exploring those ideas in a game format. How do you model Manchu or Mongol overlords becoming Sinicised? Not to mention the interesting ideas of trade-as-diplomacy, and the mandate of heaven.

[IrishHitman]

Wait...didn't you read my post?

I think the voyage of the Chinese treasure fleet is one of the most fascinating episodes in world history, a knife edge moment when a great power rolls its influence out in a kind of international thunderclap. It ranks in its potential with Columbus and Da Gama's voyages...you wonder what might have been if the policy had not been so firmly reversed. According to the EEP/AGC boys over at EU then they'd have suffered a -7 stab hit and a monster revolt increase but acquired Muslim (or was it Orthodox?) Tech.

However "gilding the lily" and pretending that the fleet visited Antartica or the moon or Italy is just embarrassing and degrades the discipline of history. I was refering in particular to the silly notion that Junks somehow sailed across the north coast of Asia to Scandinavia.

It was more impressive than Columbus or Da Gama...
They had a military and trade purposes as well as exploration...