Has anyone else had this problem?

**Lurker on the Threshold** · 11-08-2006, 23:45

I recently purchased a new (older game) from the evil Walmart. Not that I don't still love MTW or STW. I just wanted a different flavor. I purchased Stronghold Crusader due the the era. I played it for a couple hours but it just did not have the appeal I had hoped for. (Thank the gods it was only 9 bucks). It seems to me that I have not found any game to stand up to the total package of either of the TW games. Once upon a time I enjoyed playing all kinds; now I'm spoiled and will settle for nothing less then what TW has to offer.

**Derfasciti** · 11-09-2006, 00:14

I have rarely found a game that could beat MTW. The only other RTSs that I can remember being really obsessed with were some C&Cs and Superpower2 for a long while. I liked the nukes

**bamff** · 11-09-2006, 00:28

Gotta agree, they are "one of a kinds" (hmmm that just looks really wrong in plural, but then I am 'crack brained', so I think I can get away with it) for so many reasons.

**Martok** · 11-09-2006, 00:34

I've yet to come across any grand strategy games in recent years that has held the same appeal as Shogun and Medieval Total War. (And since I have the reflexes of an old fogey, I play RTS's only rarely.

)

The only exception is Galactic Civilizations 2, but as that's more of a standard turn-based space strategy game, it's like comparing apples to oranges. That said, it's the *only* strategy game that I've found to be as much fun as the first two TW titles. Thus far, the Total War series is unique and has yet to truly be duplicated.

**gaijinalways** · 11-09-2006, 13:07

It's definately a cool game. I like other types of sims as well (especially business sims), but as an economy and war game, MTW reigns supreme.

Note that the Civ series rivals MTW for tech building, but the battles suck royally. As noted before, Warcraft is okay, but it doesn't have the long term interconnectiveness over a larger map that MTW has.

**matteus the inbred** · 11-09-2006, 13:23

Barely play anything else...Cossacks looked like it should have been the next generation but frankly the battles suck somewhat and it's a bit too 'choreographed' as well...'mission' formats are never quite as much freewheeling fun as campaign stuff. Did love Starcraft and C&C though...

I once owned a WW2 strategy game called Sudden Strike that looked absolutely beautiful and played really well, but had annoying glitches in the AI, took aaaaages to complete and had no building facilities...it was mission based but you got given literally thousands of troops and vehicles...every game ended up with me calling in loads of heavy artillery and bombers and 'creeping' across the map cos while it gave you loads of troops there was no easy way to control them all and have them do sensible things...the AI on the other hand could control all of its troops sensibly, so if you tried a mass tank attack you got picked off while your tanks just kinda sat around waiting for orders...frustrating

**macsen rufus** · 11-09-2006, 13:38

I used to enjoy all sorts of RTS games before TW came along: Praetorians, Age of Empires, C&C up to Tiberian Sun (I really loved the Libyan nuke truck suicide squads....), and even the original Warcraft (which got me into pc games in the first place). BUT they all just faded away after TW... too formulaic, or just stand-alone battles with no strategic value, or just too unrealistic.

TW wins because you need to use real tactics, consider terrain, morale, weather etc, not merely crank up your economy and spam out uber-units on to the battlefield faster than the other guy can.

TW is also open-ended, so you can decide your own goals, make up your own "rules" to play to - role-play to history if you like. With most of the other games you end up learning which units to train, where to place them, and how to finish a specific mission on a specific map. Once you've done it once, that's how every other game will go.

And I like a game you win by thinking, not by doing fifty-thousand clicks per second

**caravel** · 11-09-2006, 23:14

Stronghold Crusader is an RTS game, like Warcraft or C&C. To be honest I found it quite entertaining, though only for a limited amount of time, and I wouldn't revisit. It does have some good humour in it though. I don't see these type of games as being a replacement for games like STW, MTW or RTW, they're just not the same kind of thing.

**mtman** · 11-10-2006, 20:56

Hi Guys, I'm new here & want to introduce my self, I'm known as mtman. I have been playing RTW (Mostly the single player) since it came out & can't get enough of it. I been every faction in the game & still love it. I have RTW Barbarian Invasion but afraid to load it because I don't want to ruin the regular game. Any one have input on this? Also I can't wait for Medieval 2 to come out. Was wondering if its any different than RTW ?

**Martok** · 11-10-2006, 21:49

Welcome to the Org, mtman.

Glad to have you here!

I'm afraid you're actually in the wrong forum, though, if you wanted to discuss Medieval 2 Total War. The forum that you're in (the Main Hall) is dedicated to the the game's predecessor, Medieval Total War. If you have questions about Medieval 2, then I encourage you to visit the forums dedicated to it--there's plenty of people there who will be more than happy to discuss the game with you. Good luck, and have fun!

**caravel** · 11-10-2006, 23:39

**dusts self off and blows away cobwebs**

Eh? what's that?? You'll have to shout up son, these old ears aren't what they were... hold your horses now, new fangled games? I've only one thing to say to that load of old rot...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Motep** · 11-11-2006, 00:23

how do you make thing spoilers...?

**Martok** · 11-11-2006, 01:16

@Caravel:

Originally Posted by Motep dra Uha Dnia Mazzat

how do you make thing spoilers...?

On the right upper side of your posting screen, there should be the following icon: B; just highlight the text you want to hide, and then click that B icon. (Note that it's different from the boldface icon, which is on the upper *left* side.) It ought to be right next the icon that looks like ~~ABC~~.