XPAC worth it?

**knoddy** · 10-31-2007, 13:43

Ok Long time lurker havnt been around for a long time playing too much wow lawl!

neway im curious, i didnt even know Kingdoms was out, went into the PC store the other day and saw it, love my total war but dont play it much nemore (got holidays comin up so that may change) is the Xpac good?

is it worth buying?

What sort of pre xpac problems did it fix, and can i still play old campaigns, n stuff with the newer features or am i locked to playing pre xpac old camp, post xpac new camp if that makes sense.

Cheers Knoddy

**knoddy** · 10-31-2007, 23:08

anyone?

From what i have been able to gather, the xpac has 4 camps each with a handful of diff factions on a smaller map, so kinda like a mini grand camp, but most likely with clearer objectives rather than just pwning everyone :P

can i still play the old grand camp? does the xpac address alot of the bugs from pre xpac total war?

anyone???

Cheers knoddy

**Zim** · 11-01-2007, 00:13

I think the expansion pack campaigns are much more fun than the regular grand campaign (and they are generally more focused). The new factions, features, and balance changes are nice as well.

Sadly, this expansion doesn't affect the regular campaign, and no bugs from the old one are fixed in it (well, some minor improvements seem to have been made for the expansion campaigns, but nothing in the grand campaign).

I suppose whether it's worth it is up for debate. I think it is, though.

**Kobal2fr** · 11-01-2007, 00:14

Aaaah, got it. Xpac = extension pack = kingdoms. I had absolutely no idea what you were talking about :]

So :
- is it worth buying ? Well, it all depends. It adds nothing to the original Grand Campaign except a global rebalancing of unit stats (although there already is a simple mod called RetroFit which brings stuff from the different campaigns to the original one) and while the 4 campaigns are mostly interesting, they are also somewhat buggy still. Plus (but that's a personnal caveat) all but one of them have all factions starting with lots of territories, units and buildings, which can be a bit confusing (as opposed to the original campaign, where everyone starts with only 2-4 cities and minimal tech)

- The 4 campaigns have no better objective than "pwn everyone", but each has a specific twist to it. The Teutonic campaign adds the Hanseatic League (own a specific set of regions to unlock a building that boosts trade a lot) and the Order itself has different mechanics that other factions, the Crusades adds the ability to build permanent forts on the strat map (which should have been stone, but aren't) and hero characters with special abilities, and Britannias has two very interesting concepts : religion is replaced with culture (you can only hire your best units in regions where your culture is high, and you can recruit other factions' units when their culture is high in your lands) and of course, the border forts (small castles that can house 2 units for free, and increase devastation). Also, they have new missions and historical events.

- There is a 1.3 patch included in Kingdoms, although I still haven't been able to find the list of stuff it patches, but since it's about 500 megs and takes ages to patch, I suppose it fixes a lot of stuff :)

**supadodo** · 11-01-2007, 01:25

Although I think it is overpriced for an expansion(I'm a miser so sue me), the content inside is relatively enjoyable. I have so far played both Americas and Teutonic campaigns. You have to understand that because the campaigns are smaller in scope, they are much more fast paced and one wrong move can really set you back especially when you play as the Teutonic Order.

I have yet to play the other 2 coz i'm still stuck in with the order. The Brits interest me the least so I may not touch them for a while but the crusades seem to be quite interesting. As for bugs, they are still from the vanilla game and since CA has said about not giving us a patch, I'm worried for the long term enjoyability.

But if you you loved vanilla, then you should(...cringe..) buy this game. PCGAMER UK gave it a 90% i think though I concur they are sometimes bias. I myself would rate a 8/10 scratch the 2 from the remnant bugs and no vision of a future patch.

**econ21** · 11-01-2007, 02:56

Well, it's not as essential as the VI expansion for MTW, as it does not patch or add to the main campaign. Nor do I find it as interesting as a standalone experience as BI. I guess it depends if you like "mini-campaigns" - I bought the XPAC, but still find myself drawn to the big sandbox of grand campaign and so have not played it much.

Have a look at frogbeastegg's guide to the Britannia campaign:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=93430

Her opinion seems to be that it is well done.

**Henry707** · 11-02-2007, 12:24

Tehehehe - I didn't know what an XPac was either - sounded so exciting - like some piece of super kit for a pc! Sounds very console !!!

(my opinion - not really worth the money - get the free mods available to spice up the game

Henri

**ReiseReise** · 11-02-2007, 18:09

I would describe the Kingdoms campaigns more as scenarios. They are small geographic areas (the maps are still big with lots of regions, just zoomed in on some area of the earth) and there isn't as much "recreating history" since they only last 100 years (200 turns with 6 months per turn). It trades the "anything is possible" feeling of the GC for a more focused experience IMO. Also the AI starts with a ton of armies so it is difficult to steamroll the map in the first 10 turns. There are a lot of scripted events where armies appear here and there.

**Hellenic_Hoplite** · 11-04-2007, 02:54

Personally I think it's worth the money if you want to try out a few new campaigns and a few new factions. My two favorite campaigns (and yes I've tried them all) are the Crusades campaign and the Britannia campaign especially for the Welsh troops in the British campaign and the Greek fire throwers in the Crusades capaign.

**Old Geezer** · 11-06-2007, 14:55

Absolutely worth every penny and more! I'd joyfully pay the price just for one of the four campaigns. I thought I'd try the America campaign first because it would be lame and I wanted to save the best for last, but has been is superb. No Pope to mess with you and no stupid assassins to train and waste time with. Blowing up natives dressed in birdie feathers on their walls with culverins is funnier than a PBS telethon. My wife was impressed with their cute uniforms, especially the ones dressed up like jaguars. The AI has unpredictable responses. I have even had thunder braves sally to try and destroy my culverins. Overall, the AI seems much more clever at battle tactics and stategy than in 1.2.

**Shahed** · 11-08-2007, 00:07

It's defintely worth it. I cannot even play the normal game anymore, just no point to it since Kingdoms is leaps & bounds ahead. In fact Kingdoms is what the game should have been in v1.0.