Total war games

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Zakhal
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Total war games

Post by Zakhal »

Since few people have posted about RTS Ill add my own too. Theres a great offer on the total war series going on currently called Total War Eras. It includes every game, expansion and patch of the series plus more. The pack contains:

• Shogun: Total War + Mongol Invasion
• Medieval: Total War + Viking Invasion
• Rome: Total War + Barbarian Invasion + Alexander expansion
• A glossy A2 poster for Medieval II: Total War.
• Exclusive preview material for Medieval II: Total War
• Five art cards covering the whole Total War series.
• 280 page manual
• An 50 page art booklet plucked from the Creative Assembly archives detailing the creation and evolution of the Total War series.
• A CD of award-winning music from the Total War series. (45 tracks)
• “The Total War Story”, a 40-minute documentary detailing the past, present and future of the Total War series, featuring exclusive interviews and game footage.

I just bought mine and its just bloody amazing after all these years of plastic wraps and pdf-manuals. A freakin 280 page printed manual. And I really like the art, history and music too. There are also many good highly praised mods for this series including napoleonic and realism mods. All this for mere 50 bucks not a bad deal!

MTW2 is just around the corned so I preordered it too. It contains a nice package too:

* A collectors edition of the Medieval II: Total War game manual with exclusive cover.
* A bespoke Medieval II: Total War Latinkon figurine based on the actual in-game model and contained within its own packaging.
* A map of the Medieval II: Total War gameworld.
* Four high quality artcards inspired by the art of Medieval II: Total War.
* A special Collectors Edition Building Planner poster.
* The Medieval II: Total War soundtrack specially remixed by BAFTA award winning composer Jeff Van Dyke.
* Exclusive Making of Medieval II: Total War documentary.

So if you are interested of RTS and dont like resource gathering you should check out Total war eras and in future perhaps MTW2.
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KG Erwin
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RE: Total war games

Post by KG Erwin »

That DOES sound like a good deal. I have MTW and the Viking Invasion expansion, which was sold as a $20 pack a year or so ago.

As for mods, Zakhal, I suggest trying the XL mod, which adds new playable factions and new provinces.
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ShermanM4
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RE: Total war games

Post by ShermanM4 »

So if you are interested of RTS and dont like resource gathering you should check out Total war eras and in future perhaps MTW2.


Nahh. I wont play a game that copies Rome Total War in any size shape or form. I think its sad that it won't be anything like the original Medieval Total War, and it will not be a uniquely new creation either. Every now and then I load up MTW VI. As Depeche Mode said, "I just can't get enough......"
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Zakhal
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RE: Total war games

Post by Zakhal »

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin
As for mods, Zakhal, I suggest trying the XL mod, which adds new playable factions and new provinces.
This is the final version of the XL mod for MTW (there might be one for RTW, who knows ;) ). I made the mod the way I belive MTW should had been, harder and with more factions.

Features of version 2.0:
- New versions of Early, High and Late.
- New map with 9 new provinces.
- 17 new factions. Included are: Armenians, Bohemians, Bulgarians, Crusader States, Cumans, Genoese, Hospitaller Order, Irish, Lithuanians, Norwegians, Portuguese, Scots, Serbians, Swedes, Teutonic Knights, Venetians, and Volga Bulgars.
- The unplayable factions can now be played (Burgundians, Golden Horde, Novgorod and the Papalcy)
- Lots of new units.
- Lots of new heroes.
- Landbriges removed.
- New Hospital, Bank and Royal bank building added.
- 3 pagan religious buildings added.
- Pagan shaman, emissaries, spies and assassins.
- New unit stats (Units have more correct stats and higher morale. Battles are now much harder and fun!).
- Improved AI (Build better units, better empire building)
- New trade structure (The AI can't handle the trade network in the original game, giving the player a big advantage. Trade income has therefore been reduced and farm income increased by 30%).
- GA mode playable with all factions.
- New GA and Prebattle shields for all factions.
- New music (large version only).
- Old game still playable, but only with the 9 new provinces.
- Auto-install (very easy install).
- English and Spanish language.
- And more!

Sounds good.
Nahh. I wont play a game that copies Rome Total War in any size shape or form. I think its sad that it won't be anything like the original Medieval Total War

Thats where the Rome Total War mod comes in place. One of its purposes is to make the game more like MTW. The mod is like 300 megs in size: http://www.rometotalrealism.com/
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IronDuke_slith
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RE: Total war games

Post by IronDuke_slith »

I think RomeTW is unplayable without many of the mods. I've played the total realism mod and It is a major improvement over the game that shipped. the game that shipped was bearable but for the arcade battles which were a joke.

I've been quite disappoionted in the way this series has evolved chasing the click fest crowd. Shogun was a ground breaking game but I think the whole thing lost its way as it went, personally.

Regards,
IronDuke
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RE: Total war games

Post by JAMiAM »

ORIGINAL: ShermanM4
So if you are interested of RTS and dont like resource gathering you should check out Total war eras and in future perhaps MTW2.


Nahh. I wont play a game that copies Rome Total War in any size shape or form. I think its sad that it won't be anything like the original Medieval Total War, and it will not be a uniquely new creation either. Every now and then I load up MTW VI. As Depeche Mode said, "I just can't get enough......"
If you still have your copy of RTW, you should give the DarthMod 8.0 a whirl. Play Europa 270 in the Provincial Campaigns folder. It is a very good mod. The changes to the combat system done by Darth are great, and the campaign map (though containing a few flaws - missing slave resources in some provinces) is derived from the Mundus Magnus map. It is huge, and there is more actual campaigning to be done, i.e., not just a seige and move on, rinse and repeat. There is a version 8.1 out now, but I haven't tried it yet, since from the feature list I've seen, I'm not sure that I like the changes from 8.0.

You can find the mod hosted over at TW Center.
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ShermanM4
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RE: Total war games

Post by ShermanM4 »

I think RomeTW is unplayable without many of the mods. I've played the total realism mod and It is a major improvement over the game that shipped. the game that shipped was bearable but for the arcade battles which were a joke.

I've been quite disappoionted in the way this series has evolved chasing the click fest crowd. Shogun was a ground breaking game but I think the whole thing lost its way as it went, personally.

Regards,
IronDuke

And that could very well be. I must admit that I never played Shogun, but I bought MTW and VI in 2003. I was so impressed with it, I remember long nights with little sleep. I have seen you and other grognards on the TW forums post these sentiments before. After looking at the screeshots for MTW2, I just can't believe that it looks the same as RTW. I hear a lot of people complaiend about the learning curve of MTW, but I can't understand why the (only) solution is to remove the learning curve and produce a RTW. Overall, I was hoping for something unique and different. Instead, it looks like the Activision machine is cranking out the same stuff year-after-year. Who knows maybe there will be some cool mods for it[&:][8|]
Thats where the Rome Total War mod comes in place. One of its purposes is to make the game more like MTW. The mod is like 300 megs in size: http://www.rometotalrealism.com/
If you still have your copy of RTW, you should give the DarthMod 8.0 a whirl. Play Europa 270 in the Provincial Campaigns folder. It is a very good mod. The changes to the combat system done by Darth are great, and the campaign map (though containing a few flaws - missing slave resources in some provinces) is derived from the Mundus Magnus map. It is huge, and there is more actual campaigning to be done, i.e., not just a seige and move on, rinse and repeat. There is a version 8.1 out now, but I haven't tried it yet, since from the feature list I've seen, I'm not sure that I like the changes from 8.0.

You can find the mod hosted over at TW Center.

Cool Thanks Guys [:)][8D]
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Zakhal
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RE: Total war games

Post by Zakhal »

Darthmod looks quite impressive. Heres a short introduction with pictures:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=56368

Player feedback on darthmod (battles). The AI seems good:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=56360

Apparently there will be darthmod for MTW2 (or so the mod designer claims).
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Neilster
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RE: Total war games

Post by Neilster »

My brother is an expert on Germanic tribes and he's involved with some super accurate barbarian mod for RTW. I don't know any other details but I'm sure they're available somewhere in cyberspace.

Cheers, Neilster
Cheers, Neilster
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ravinhood
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RE: Total war games

Post by ravinhood »

If you want a challenging game out of RTW, just turn off morale when you start a campaign. It makes the game 1000% more fun and challenging to play. I don't recommend using Large or Huge unit sizes though cause you are gonna lose lots of men. ;) In the early game it will be hard to keep the population up with the losses. But, it sure takes care of squalor. ;)
WE/I WANT 1:1 or something even 1:2 death animations in the KOIOS PANZER COMMAND SERIES don't forget Erik! ;) and Floating Paratroopers We grew up with Minor, Marginal and Decisive victories why rock the boat with Marginal, Decisive and Legendary?


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ShermanM4
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RE: Total war games

Post by ShermanM4 »

If you want a challenging game out of RTW, just turn off morale when you start a campaign. It makes the game 1000% more fun and challenging to play. I don't recommend using Large or Huge unit sizes though cause you are gonna lose lots of men. ;) In the early game it will be hard to keep the population up with the losses. But, it sure takes care of squalor. ;)

Squalor? Oh pish pash[&:] I think squalor was the least of the problems with RTW. I'm not going to go on a tyrade here BUT..................

The thing that bothered me the most were the 5 minute battles that involved oh 1000troops max as opposed to the MTW battles 30-120xmin battles with thousands and thousands of troops.

And was there ever any reason to ever march your army off the road? They built that gigantic 3-D map that supposedly covered every inch of ground in Europe. Yet, there was no reason to ever go marching off. You just went for each city.
i.e., not just a seige and move on, rinse and repeat.


My thoughts exactly.
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ravinhood
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RE: Total war games

Post by ravinhood »

{The thing that bothered me the most were the 5 minute battles }
 
 You mean the 5 second battles don't you? Turn Morale off and you'll experience the longer battles of old. The morale values they set for RTW is one of the major problems of quick battles. The death speed is actually pretty simular to MTW, it's just that routing was increased by lowering the morale values. I've been working on the morale values more and in the 20's plus seems more realistic to me. It's not quite the fun of no morale at all, but, it comes out more realistically and you don't lose practically your entire army after just one or two battles. It still takes a pretty good toll on your population though and that's what I'm shooting for a more balanced population usage for armies. It was just too easy to take one or two stacks and march around the map with those two only and hardly having to reinforce them.
WE/I WANT 1:1 or something even 1:2 death animations in the KOIOS PANZER COMMAND SERIES don't forget Erik! ;) and Floating Paratroopers We grew up with Minor, Marginal and Decisive victories why rock the boat with Marginal, Decisive and Legendary?


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RE: Total war games

Post by andym »

Try the SPQR mod on www.twcenter.org   its awesome.
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ravinhood
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RE: Total war games

Post by ravinhood »

I tried the SPQR mod and even did some testing to see if the AI used it to it's advantage and it most often only built one unit per turn per city (I turned FOW off and sent spies to every AI city) whereas I could build entire armies in one turn out of a city. This mod diminishes population fairly well, but, it still uses the ole principles of the AI routing on contact from a flank. It was still too easy to roll up the AI using this mod even if the army sizes were larger and more stacks involved. Turning morale off totally changed the disadvantages that the AI had from the low morale ratings CA gave them. To help the AI even more I made all upkeep 0's, so, they would build their better units more often and it wasn't so much peasant battles. But, I compensated for the 0 upkeep and made mercs cost a considerable amout of denari and gave them an upkeep cost (I basically doubled the cost in most cases, tripled in others and double or tripled the upkeep). This kept me from loading up on mercs so easily as the cost and the upkeep for some could be comparable to a whole army of their regular units. I also kept upkeep on naval units, but, charged more for them as well. I've had some very fun and challenging experiences using these modifications with morale off or using my +20 morale mod vs SPQR or RTR. RTR just changed too much though I liked their map changes, but, don't feel like modding back in vanilla RTW for the added map value.

I implemented one house rule of no bribing any of the faction AI stacks or units. I only allowed myself to bribe peasant armies (since they get so annoying with the new rebel system of appearance they put in with the last patch or two). With a sub house rule of only bribing back my own armies/cities should they be bribed by the AI.

My goal is to reach a point where a unit will not break until 2/3rds or 4/5ths of it's units have been killed. I want to fight a battle not play slaughter 3/4ths of the units during the rout. I also gave some factions large amounts of denari. Rome starts out with 500,000 heh by the time I'm ready to attack it, it has huge stacks of armies waiting and the civil war with the other two roman factions is no pushover now either. I also got so tired of Carthage always getting knocked out of the game so early that I gave them 200,000 denari as well and made spain units weaker by giving them upkeep costs and reducing morale values. Now, Carthage finally pushes into Spain, takes over Numidia and becomes a powerful force to play against. Factions like Armenia, Thrace, Numidia, Dacia and Spain I gimped so that the more powerful nations will overrun them. Macedonia is now a powerhouse in the middle and Germany overruns Dacia. Britonia still is plowing thru the Gauls and Germany too much for my liking and I am still modifying them to be weaker, though not completely out of the game. (I like fighting against their chariots of war).

It's exciting to see Carthage land units just west of the Alps now, just like ole Hannibal sorta. Heh, they don't come marching across from Spain, but, use their ships to harass me all over the western side of Italy. I had to build a navy to thwart their excursions they were getting so annoying and costing me lots of men. The Gauls will wipe me out in the early game if I don't play well as the Juliians. Heh, I've had to use diplomats and spies to find out where they are setting up ambushes. lol Yeah, exploiting the mechanics, but, they were slaughtering me with ambushes in the early game. With morale off or using the 20+ morale mod it's definitely a harder game to master. And I'm still using VH campaign and MEDIUM difficulty battles. Scipii have a much harder time getting a foothold into N. Africa and the Brutii have a grueling attrition time taking out Greece and Macedonia. As you can probably tell I've built my mod and play the Romans since that is historically how it was, but, I challenge anyone to win the game using Thrace or Armenia with morale OFF using VH/M rules. It's impossible. ;) It ain't easy with any faction really with morale off. Especially if you use large or huge size armies.

If/when I get MTW2 (bargain bin) I will do the same if it's just like RTW's battle system. MTW I think did it best and right and I still think provincial maps are the way to go for this type of AI. They just can't handle 10,000 square strategic play. If this were a player vs player(s) type of game series the map would be awesome as it is now, but, from an AI perspective the provinicial was the way to go. The AI could play a better game against you and you had to take on ALL the units in the province, not just one stack (piecemeal as they were) at a time like RTW and now MTW2 I hear.
WE/I WANT 1:1 or something even 1:2 death animations in the KOIOS PANZER COMMAND SERIES don't forget Erik! ;) and Floating Paratroopers We grew up with Minor, Marginal and Decisive victories why rock the boat with Marginal, Decisive and Legendary?


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Zakhal
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RE: Total war games

Post by Zakhal »

I thought total war had nice limited editions until I bumbed into Warhammer: Mark of Chaos Collectors Edition.

[/b]The game is actually similar to total war it has strategic map (where you move units?) and 3d tactical combat. Tactical combat looks very promising. The game itself is not really a clone of total war but heir of the warhammer games Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat (released 1995) and Warhammer: Dark Omen (released 1998). The tactical combat in both games were similar to total war. No base building, slow progression of combat, etc. I actually have the dark omen in cellar somwhere. It was a fun game. I think that game was the one that killed my interested on basebuilding RTS games.

Now as for the collectors edition of the newest successor:
  • elaborate, large-sized special box
  • Metal symbol – the collector’s item for all Warhammer fans! One of four limited Chaos symbols is contained in every box
  • The official novel by Anthony Reynolds – the enthralling background story to the game (in English)
  • Flag holder included one printed banner and three to paint
  • Poster with the Warhammer: Mark of Chaos motif
  • Sticker set with artwork from the game
  • Comprehensive, all-colour manual
[/color] Amazon has a picture of it all: http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B ... 98234_.jpg

As you can see there is a sizable battlebanner, color manual, fantasy book based on teh game, art book, sizable painting/poster, and chaos statue based on the game. Not bad. [&o]

Heres a preview of the game:
The single-player game will unfold on two fronts. The first is a dynamic campaign map (similar to Rome: Total War) where you manage your territories, construct new buildings, and move your forces. According to Wren, this mode will play out in a hybrid of both turn-based and real-time. All of the actions take place in real-time, but you are given a good deal of time to make your strategic choices. However, if you wait too long, the enemy will simply begin to make its moves.

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/warhammer-mark ... 106p1.html
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