Hey folks, long time Medieval, Rome, and Medieval 2 Total War player, first time poster here at the forums.

I'd actually be all right with a pseudo-sequel to Empire: Total War that took us to WW1. I just feel like WW1 has really been undervalued in strategy gaming and I do think trench warfare would be a neat change of pace. Nothing beats the raw brutality of a howitzer slicing through men charging a trench. As for the planes...well, in the WW2 era with bombers and whatnot I think it'd be more problematic, but in WW1

So an Empire: Total War sequel that went from, say, 1820 to 1920 would be okay in my book.

I think anything beyond 1920 would stretch my interest. When you start to get into the modern era with mass production and quick transportation / communication, the turn-based nature of the Total War campaign era doesn't hold up quite as well. That and, I just really doubt playing as the Germans in WW2 would "hold up" well in a turn-based format. Company of Heroes for example basically ignores everything but the military structure of Nazi Germany; by contrast, we'd expect a Total War game to actually have you lead the country -- and, uhh, I'd be uncomfortable with Concentration Camps in my Total War experience (don't ask me why I'm okay exterminating medieval cities but I feel queasy on this subject; I'm aware of the double standard.) I'm not really sure how that'd be handled unless you made WW2 Germany an unplayable faction.

Also, I don't think adding primitive WW1 armor / primitive WW1 biplanes would necessarily destroy an Empire sequel that ended around 1920, as those innovations would be late game occurrences, and biplanes wouldn't exactly change the power alignment of units significantly, their role in WW1 combat was limited at best.