most powerful faction

[ReluctantSamurai]

Shogun / MTW was the best.

It was Shoggie for me. Just never could get excited about warfare in the time period of MTW

And even then you had some horribly tough battles

My #1 complaint about RTW was the very short length of the battles. Don't ever recall having one longer than 20 min or so, maybe 30 min to defend a bridge against multiple stacks

But Shogun...campaigns filled with epic marathon battles of over an hour or even more. Battles where you had to pause the game to take a break because you were just as tired as your digital army

[Vincent Butler]

My #1 complaint about RTW was the very short length of the battles. Don't ever recall having one longer than 20 min or so, maybe 30 min to defend a bridge against multiple stacks

But Shogun...campaigns filled with epic marathon battles of over an hour or even more. Battles where you had to pause the game to take a break because you were just as tired as your digital army

I play with a battle time limit anyway. It helps in those circumstances where you can't win, but can run around where they can't catch you, or a siege battle where they just sit outside the walls, and they would have the upper hand if I moved outside my walls. Usually only happens when Rome has Scorpions or Repeating Ballista in a besieging army.

[ReluctantSamurai]

I play with a battle time limit anyway.

The very first time I lost a Shogun battle from the time limit after a hard-fought battle against long odds, I turned off the timer and never used it again. I still remember running around the battlefield trying to find the last AI unit hiding in the woods somewhere. It turned out to be a broken Yari Cavalry unit with 6 men left.

[Mitch the Mace]

I have never played STW, but if the battles last that long, they must be intense. The only time I ran out of time fighting a battle in RTW was in BI against a horde army. I kept defending my city against the sea of humanity and horses, and the time ran out before the enemy could throw their last units against me. I love racking up the kills against the hordes. I believe the most I killed was 4000+ while losing around 200 of my own. Heavy infantry mows down just about any horde army.

In a city, that is.

[LordK9]

Must be physically connected to their horses - can't seem to understand that they are useless in a city battle. :)

[Vincent Butler]

I still remember running around the battlefield trying to find the last AI unit hiding in the woods somewhere.

I actually won a battle that way. Two ELC and a Roman cav got attacked by a full Greek army. I hid my cohort in the woods, and ran the Roman Cav around. One unit of Greek Cavalry got ahold of them and wiped them out. Don't know how that happened, it should have been fairly even. But they never found the infantry, so I won the battle.

Have also done it, say I am moving some cav, and they get attacked by a large army of infantry. I just run around till time runs out. Usually I am able to take out one or two of their units that get too far ahead of everybody else. Even better if it is cav archers I am moving.

[ReluctantSamurai]

I have never played STW, but if the battles last that long, they must be intense.

Not all battles are an hour or two. Most are in the 15-45 min range depending on the number of reinforcements and the terrain (several provinces have extremely high mountains and it might take 15-20 min just to maneuver). But in every campaign there are at least several epic battles that take 1-2 hours to resolve Immensely gratifying when you win...heartbreaking when you lose.

If you haven't played Shogun 1, I highly recommend it. The AI is smart, both on the campaign map, and on the battlefield. The music is AWESOME: www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1_1Re0fTR8; weather effects are THE best...when there's a thunderstorm, it's a damn downpour complete with lightning flashes and thunder (I got forever hooked when I fought the historical Battle of Okehazama with the thunder of your cavalry hooves as they charged down the hill matching that of the raging storm, and your NoDachi slinking through the heavy woods to snap the jaws of Oda's trap shut). Fighting a battle in the fog is simply a blast; if it's heavy enough, you can't see a damn thing and setting ambushes is just way cool (not so much if you stumble into one)

And of course, everyone's favorite, the ninja assassination cut-scenes:www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzUs1MYjeXA

I actually won a battle that way

Not for me

[Vincent Butler]

Not for me

Oh, by no means is it my preferred way to win, but I don't like to lose. Especially if I am sending a freshly retrained unit, and don't want to have to retrain them again, or lose the unit if I autoresolve.

The battle time limit is so I don't have the issue of a battle going long when I have other things to do, so I have to either quit or leave it paused. I like to be able to gauge about how long I have, so that doesn't happen. I don't like leaving my computer with a program running, especially a game or web browser. If I am not using it, I like to have it closed.

[edyzmedieval]

Shogun was a very special game - it broke barriers, it established a new genre and it paved the way for Total War to become what it is.

Medieval however brought it into the spotlight, and Rome established the franchise. M2TW was a gem, but MTW however remains my thing.