Appreciation Of Total War games leading to Rome II

[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!