Appreciation Of Total War games leading to Rome II

[edbenedict77]

Appreciation of Total War (From Medieval 1 to Shogun 2)

I would really like to put down the things I appreciated in total war single player games, both the turn based campaign and real time battles. I cannot say that I have played the very 1st total war game, namely Shogun Total War. But I have played every game from MTW to S2TW. (Still haven’t had the time to dwell into S2TW: RotS and FotS, yet)
So here goes:

MTW & MTW:VI (Medieval Total War & Viking Invasion)

1) The concept of civil war when generals’ loyalty drops, and the option to take the side of the rebels or loyalists.
2) Taking prisoners on the battle field, option to either execute or exchange them.
3) Weather effecting way the battles plays out for both the defenders and the attackers.
4) AI’s ability to leave the battle ground if the odds are against it. Or the withdrawal of the reinforcements if the odds seem bad. (i.e. if the main army is in already in flight!)
5) Events being mentioned according to historical facts. (small pop-ups, about some incident/event in specific year)
6) Ability to grant titles to your faction’s generals/family members.
7) Titles given to generals according to the places they have captured.
8) Marrying off family members, and due to marriage direct claim to those faction’s lands.
9) Re emergence of some factions and emergence of new factions (If I recall correctly the Burgandians and the Swiss)
10) Assassins and spies can be directed to kill or spy on your own generals respectively, for your own reasons.
11) A wonderful mix of agents.
12) Religious agents causing riots/revolts.
13) The image of the settlement in the campaign map and battle map, changes as you develop it.
14) Ability to recruit and produce, special units and resources in certain regions, respectively.
15) Ability to blockade ports.
16) Fighting against historical horde armies, from the east.
17) Some cavalry units can dismount and fight on foot, before the start of battle.

RTW (Rome Total War)

1) The concept of three great families and central governing senate, if playing as the Romans.
2) An AWESOME campaign map, with features of the Ancient World Wonders.
3) Ability to fight next to such immense structures, in the battle map.
4) For the 1st time (and sadly, so far the last time!) to view all your settlements and its architecture and various building you have built, or was present.
5) Ability to appoint an heir of your choosing.
6) Ability to build forts and watch towers on the campaign map.
7) Enemy army causing pillage, if stationed in your region.
8) Rebels / pirates disrupting your trade routes.
9) Most historical disasters animated on the campaign map.
10) You get to hear your general’s inspirational speech before the battle, and use his rally ability during the battle.
11) Attack at night according to your general’s ability/traits.
12) Ability to fight on the battlements of castles.
13) Campaign time period divided into seasons.


RTW: BI (Barbarian Invasion)

1) Ability to create barbarian hordes for certain factions, and migrate.
2) Ability to choose the religion for the Roman faction. (western)
3) When certain barbarian factions lose their last settlement, they turn into a horde army.
4) Certain units can swim across the river on the battle map, in a bridge attack / defense.

RTW: Alexander
1) Fast paced game revolving around the life period of Alexander the Great.

M2TW (Medieval 2 Total War) & Kingdoms

1) For the 1st time some units could deploy stakes on the battle field, before the start of battle. (if my memory serves right, English Longbows)
2) Merchants were introduced for the 1st time.
3) The aspect of castle and town, and two different build trees.
4) Ability to ransom, execute or release prisoners, after a battle.
5) Ability to elect your pope for the catholic faction.
6) Agent actions portrayed elaborately in cut scene videos. (I believe this was 1st introduced in Shogun Total war, sorry I have no 1st hand experience of playing it.)

ETW (Empire Total War)

1) Naval battles for the 1st time.
2) Extended campaign map (Europe, South Asia, North and Central America)
3) Introduction of special trade regions/nodes.
4) Raiding trade routes.
5) Appointing minister for your government.
6) Upgrading of forts on the campaign map.
7) Introduction of the technology tree.
8) New agent, The Gentleman.
9) Ability to raid enemy infrastructures in the province.
10) Ability to use/make some structures on the battle map as fortification for your troops, during o before the battle.
11) The range arch of cannons and missile troops, made visible.
12) Ability to recruit your own generals.
13) Ability to replenish troop #s, while in a friendly province and in the field.
14) According to city size and upgrades, they get permanent garrison civil militia units at the time of a siege.

ETW: NTW (Napoleon Total War)

1) Attrition on your army, if it is in enemy territory during the winter months.

S2TW (Shogun 2 Total War)

1) The ability to make the choice of selecting ancillaries and traits for your generals and agents; as they gain Xp points.
2) A special infrastructure in certain provinces makes the difference in certain unit’s attributes. (for example; the same bow ashigaru units, trained in certain provinces have longer range and more ammunition, than their same counter parts)
3) The option of exchanging hostages, in the diplomatic screen.
4) Introduction of “Dilemmas” and accordingly its consequences portrayed in the game play.
5) Ability to make a clan/faction your vassal when you conquer their province from some other clan/faction which holds it.
6) Attrition on your navy when it sails/rows away from the shore, during the winter.

The above are the features I have come to appreciate, in the Total War games, I have played. Friends, please forgive me if I had missed any other awesome features, and feel free to add. And I hope many other players will agree too, and would love to see many of them incorporated into the new upcoming Rome II Total War.

P.s: I have not played multi-player, so I cannot comment on that.

[Sp4]

6) Attrition on your navy when it sails/rows away from the shore, during the winter.

JUst when it goes away from the shore and the reason for that wasn't that ships magically have attrition when sailing around but because the shitty little ships in vanilla Shogun 2 are just like channel boats.

[Lemur]

ETW (Empire Total War)

Addendum: Powdered wigs. The TW series had a notable lack of powdered wigs before this game.

[edyzmedieval]

Nothing much to add except thank you for a excellent list.

[johnhughthom]

I would add the Crusade mechanics to the MTW post. Picking up a handful of troops you couldn't normally recruit as the Crusade made it's was to the Holy Land was pretty cool, and I used to love bringing them back home when the Crusade was over. Didn't play much M2TW, but I don't think it worked the same way?

[drone]

More MTW love:

Vice and Virtues. Some make for really entertaining roleplay!
Moddability. The VI expansion made the whole game much easier to mod, from simple tweaks to fullblown conversions.
Epic, meaningful battles!


Edit-> Almost forgot: Camels!

[quadalpha]

MTW: When you are jolted from contemplation by the strumming of a guitar, borne on a desolate wind.

[Martok]

How about a little love for the original Shogun Total War, the one that started it all?


It was the first PC title to combine turn-based strategic gameplay with massive real-time battles. (Yes, previous games like Lords of the Realm 2 had already introduced the series' signature hybrid TBS/RTS gameplay, but not on nearly so grand a scale.) Never before had gamers been able to control literally hundreds/thousands of men on the battlefield (where they weren't abstractly represented by a single icon) at once; the strategy genre had forever changed.

I would add the Crusade mechanics to the MTW post. Picking up a handful of troops you couldn't normally recruit as the Crusade made it's was to the Holy Land was pretty cool, and I used to love bringing them back home when the Crusade was over. Didn't play much M2TW, but I don't think it worked the same way?

Likewise, Jihads were also fun (if not quite as epic) when playing as a Muslim faction. A little easy to abuse the mechanic (via spamming them), but still highly enjoyable!

More MTW love:

Epic, meaningful battles!

Indeed. The original Shogun also had these in spades.

Edit-> Almost forgot: Camels!

[Xehh II]

More MTW love:

Vice and Virtues. Some make for really entertaining roleplay!
Moddability. The VI expansion made the whole game much easier to mod, from simple tweaks to fullblown conversions.
Epic, meaningful battles!


Edit-> Almost forgot: Camels!

MTW: When you are jolted from contemplation by the strumming of a guitar, borne on a desolate wind.

This and this!

Oh MTW, how I love thee. A true and undeniable legend in the universe of computer gaming