What Factions would you like to see in Empire Total War

[Grymster]

That would be great, however you must add one more:

Greece.


[I just picture the units in a Greek-ottoman struggle, awesome!]

Actually I feel that this is a must for an expansion. But not Just Greeks vs Ottomans. Serbs, Bulgarians and Romanians are needed at least. Balkan Nationalism expansion spanning from early 1800s all the way up to 1913/14 after the second Balkan wars or at the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary that sparked off World War 1.

Perhaps I am somewhat over stating the importance of this little corner of Europe but as an expansion I feel this would be one of the big ones.

[S.Selim_1]

talking of expansion for etw.. it will be cool if they had 3 or 4 different campaigns in different continents with empires struggling for power and traderouts making some of small non playable faction playable..same idea of Kingdoms with a slight difference
hope CA stuff hears of this idea..but i think they'r busy finishing the 25% of the game..looooool

[The historian]

Every country that is out there should be playable(if they ocupy enough of a province) how damn hard can it be make some minor country type units for say european middleeastern asian african types also maybe native .

[S.Selim_1]

more than 50 playable factions????!!!

it's not that hard but first of all they'll need more time..maybe a year or two(to make a good game with every faction's unique untis and not crappy)....AND they'll need to change the name of the game!..maybe to NATION totalwar and not EMPIRE totalwar.

This game about huge empires in history for god's sake..leading empires and not provinces that were part of empires...i like the game the way it is. i don't care about nationalism..empirialism is way cooler..besides that's what the age is about.

[IrishArmenian]

Actually I feel that this is a must for an expansion. But not Just Greeks vs Ottomans. Serbs, Bulgarians and Romanians are needed at least. Balkan Nationalism expansion spanning from early 1800s all the way up to 1913/14 after the second Balkan wars or at the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary that sparked off World War 1.

Perhaps I am somewhat over stating the importance of this little corner of Europe but as an expansion I feel this would be one of the big ones.

An amazing Kingdoms-esque expansion campaign: Fall of the Ottoman Empire, with the player either choosing to claim independence, or once again establish Ottoman dominance--map would include Eastern Europe to Caspian and down to Egypt(?)! If not, that'd be a great mod idea!
I've no real opinion on the real issue in this thread. I've not even miniscule knowledge of the history period and nationalism hasn't gotten anyone anywhere positive. It was different with Rome and Medieval but I think going in with no knowledge shall be fun, too! I'll base my preferences wholly on in-game playing styles!

[Sheogorath]

Seeing a Kingdoms-like expansion for ETW would be great! The Great Northern War, the Balkans wars, the struggle for India (maybe a LITTLE historical tweaking to make that one more fun, but thats what CA's good at, right? :P), the American Revolution, the Latin American Revolutions, all kinds of good stuff.
A few of those are a bit out of the time period (Greece 'officially' declared independance in the 1820's, didnt it? And the Spanish colonies in America did the same at about the same time...)

[derfinsterling]

Read history, and tell me why the Swiss and the Austrians didn't set up colonies in America, India, Australia, or the South Pacific. Why was it the countries that had deep experience in seafaring? You don't achieve that in just 100 years from scratch.

Well the Swiss haven't fought any aggressive war for their whole existence and Austria did try to engage in the overall colonisatio-thing like France and England, but suceeded only in capturing a port in India for a month.
Plus, Austria was a multi-national empire, much more so than France or the UK. Governing the balkans, the Hungarians, the Romanians, the Czechs and whoever else took the spotlight, not sending somebody overseas to claim, say, Western Africa for His Imperial Majesty.

And third - Austria, for the longest time, struggled against other German powers for dominance in the HRE. When that was settled, all the "good spots" in the world were already taken ;-)

[derfinsterling]

Oh, and I'd love to be able to play as Austria...

[Sheogorath]

Oh, and I'd love to be able to play as Austria...

Austria is already confirmed for braw-...I mean, ETW. All the Great Powers are, IE: Russia, Austria, UK, Prussia, France and Spain (Which still counted as a great power in 1700, :P)

[derfinsterling]

Austria is already confirmed

Really? Didn't see that in the summary thread.

[Sheogorath]

Huh, youre right. I could've sworn I saw it...
If it ISNT in, it should be. Austria is a very big player, especially later on.

[Ozzman1O1]

Ausria?just the battle of gefrees and you you request a faction that will start out with only one province,ohh wait...colonies..forgot,anyway,thanks for making me a member!

[Sheogorath]

I'm not sure what youre saying there, Ozz. The only Battle of Gefrees I can find was in 1809, and was an Austrian victory.
As to being small...well...


I guess it might be small compared to Russia...

[Ozzman1O1]

At that time I refer to them as th AUSTRIAN EMPIRE,not the microscopic german country that napoeleon ran out of italy and conqured.................

[Sheogorath]

Even discluding all the rest, the 'core' Austrian state is fairly large, especially in this era.
And, technically, it would be the Archduchy of Austria. It was only the Austrian Empire after 1804.

[Ozzman1O1]

if the game starts with austria as an empire though,ill be discusted,starting with the empire is cowardly,you have to start out with austria,then mold your empire....then again what do I care,ill be playing as the thirteen colonies!but i do see your point(for the first time)

[Sheogorath]

...Uh...huh.
I believe that, since the focus of the game is being shifted AWAY from Europe, that Europe will start with few 'neutral' territories, outside of the German States, unless they make a faction for EACH little principality. Borders had become significantly more 'solid' than they were in the medieval era by this point.

Anyway, I think, judging from the interviews thus far, that the point of ETW will be to run around outside of Europe and try to get colonies, since wars in Europe tended to be messy and bloody and screw up the local economy more than they were worth.

Look at France and England. After the Hundred Years War they never really seriously tried to invade each other. The French knew that the English navy dominated the straits, and the English (much as they are loathe to admit it) knew that the French army would kick their butts right back into the sea.
Its an extreme example, and Europe did have many wars, but compared to overseas colonial conflicts they were few and far between.
It seems like every other week there was a war going on in India or Indonesia over who got to control this city or that island, see?

[Abokasee]

Hang on, wheres a list of factions which are confirmed?

[Sheogorath]

Wikipedia gives the following:
The British Empire
The Kingdom of France
The United Provinces (Dutch Republic)
The Swedish Empire
The Ottoman Empire
The Kingdom of Prussia
The Russian Empire
The Spanish Empire
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Republic of Venice
The Thirteen Colonies

I'm not sure if those are 'confirmed' or not, though, but they would make sense.

[Ozzman1O1]

And a few of them will crumble like the selucids anyway,



Will american natives be in the game,i have a feeling to play as the seminoles,or the kamanche,or mowhawk,crow,or maybe the huron,then again religion would be a problem,then again,wont religion really be a problem with all the new worlds and religions!!!I hope ca hase found a solution to that!then again it might be sorted out in rtw2 wich ca has confirmed there making....

[Sheogorath]

Its 'Commanche'. Like commando, only with a che :P

But yeah, natives are set to be in the game as far as I've heard. Whether or not the natives get a faction (or factions) or are just 'rebels' I dont know.

[Paradox]

To be honest I'm a bit disappointed in this, Mainly from the plot and setting of the game. IIRC, this is the same time period AoE takes place right? It's good that the Ottomons are included, but how about adding factions of the far-east?

[Matt_Lane]

And a few of them will crumble like the selucids anyway,



Will american natives be in the game,i have a feeling to play as the seminoles,or the kamanche,or mowhawk,crow,or maybe the huron,then again religion would be a problem,then again,wont religion really be a problem with all the new worlds and religions!!!I hope ca hase found a solution to that!then again it might be sorted out in rtw2 wich ca has confirmed there making....

I suspect that the American continent is going to be dominated by the French, British, Spanish and the 13 Colonies faction although I'm not sure how the relationship between the 13 colonies and the British will start up. Id certainly like to see the indigenous nations represented and certainly not purely as rebels that are there to be squashed in the first few moves. However I can't see them as being playable as I don't think they for fill the games criteria of historical empire builders.

I don't think religion is going to play much of a part here, instead government style (monarchy, representational monarchy and republic) seems to be more important. I suppose this means we are going to loose the priests and imams but I'm interested to see if a political dissident character type replaces them that spreads dissent amongst your populace sparking uprisings and revolution.

[samiosumo]

posibly the Belgian empire that invaded the Congo with help Mr. Stanley of Dr. Livingston fame.

also maybe sdome of the great africand nations of the time....


and Boors. WE NEED BOORS!!!!!!!

[Intrepid Sidekick]

Every country that is out there should be playable(if they ocupy enough of a province) how damn hard can it be make some minor country type units for say european middleeastern asian african types also maybe native .

Hi there,

As we have said, here and elsewhere before: *creating* factions isnt so hard...but it does take some time (not just to create).

The thing that *does* take a lot of time (and therefore money) is playtesting and also doing the text and voice localisation for all localised SKU's. It also takes up valuable disc space.

Every faction that is created has to be given signature elements that make it sufficiently different from other factions to play and localised (translations in differernt languages etc) assets provided for it. That faction then has to be play-tested, to "lose" and "win", from start to finish many times over.

Now on top of that, think how long it takes you to play through a campaign. Multiply that by the number of factions, multiply that by the number of run throughs of that test that happen every time a new testable version of the game is created and then multiply that by the number of testers required to test the game.

Now you might get a grasp of what a huge undertaking "just adding a new faction" actualy is?

We honestly do actually spend a great deal of time agonising over which factions make "the cut" as "playable" factions and which are sidelined to the "supporting" roles. In the end I think we usually get it *mostly* right.

[woad&fangs]

If you allow us the ability to "unlock" factions like we could do for Numidia, Thrace, etc... in Rome: TW then that should be fine. Anyone who asks for more then that is just being obnoxious. The game looks great so far by the way.

[Sheogorath]

Just make 'em all 'playable'. As long as there arent any insta-CTD's like accessing the senate screen with SPQR then it'll be fine with me :P

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

I would like to see the Swiss. They would be cool to play as.

[CaesarAugustus]

Wikipedia gives the following:
The British Empire
The Kingdom of France
The United Provinces (Dutch Republic)
The Swedish Empire
The Ottoman Empire
The Kingdom of Prussia
The Russian Empire
The Spanish Empire
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Republic of Venice
The Thirteen Colonies

I'm not sure if those are 'confirmed' or not, though, but they would make sense.

Wait I though the Mughals were confirmed as well...

[Ozzman1O1]

And I would like get a bird's eye view of the battle of zama too.



The swiss are smart,beacuse they know they cant win a war against anybody,same thing in etw,im sure they will stay snuggled in the alps ruled by austria........

Im looking forword to the black brunswickers....Imagine that great black uniform with the shiny bayonet in the heet of battle.The great army corps said to be un deafeted...cant find a lost battle on wikipedia...or anywhere for that matter!