Total War Series

Any of you played any of these? Which was your favourite?

I've had Shogun 2, Rome and Medieval 2 to date. Thoroughly enjoyed them all, though haven't played much of Shogun yet. Medieval is one I particularly enjoyed, with the invasion of the Mongols and some others part way through. Damn Mongols always demolished any cities I had in the area.

I had Rome but that was about it, enjoyed it but I was utter pants at it for the most part.
Did used to love the programme on BBC2 that used the engine though.

Same Hero, the BBC programme was great

I wasn't the most tactically astute general...didn't have the patience for all that...was more a fan of 'select everyone and send them charging in', often resulting in a brutal defeat.

Dont they do something simular on the Military Channel but I loved the one on BBC I always thought me and my mates could do better

Fists of Fury wrote:I wasn't the most tactically astute general...didn't have the patience for all that...was more a fan of 'select everyone and send them charging in', often resulting in a brutal defeat.

I was all in for pincer movements and spearmen protecting archers etc, still got whupped by the visigoths etc

Yeah I never quite mastered the Mongol 'horns' tactic. Usually resulted in my flanking cavalry getting wiped out before they had any effect, leaving my main force outnumbered.

loved the Rome total war game, by far my favourite, think I only completed it twice, getting rome and 50 settlements or whatever.

My dad really liked Rome total war, played it once, was a good game, but freakin' hard.

Fists of Fury wrote:I wasn't the most tactically astute general...didn't have the patience for all that...was more a fan of 'select everyone and send them charging in', often resulting in a brutal defeat.

I normally just let the computer control the battles.

Yeah loved Rome Total War. If Medieval 2 was the expansion pack i've played that too. Was taking up loads of space on my PC though so don't have it now.

played medieval loads, pretty much through the majority of uni,
i used to like being attacked that way you could pick where your units started. used to get them top of the mountain/hill by the time the enemy got there the archers had taken half them out and were knackered, at which point i would send the horses running down the hill to tramble them.

the battle would normally be won before, depending on which units you would get in. didnt use to many tactics other than flanking and use of high ground. i used to win by purely having the best units and attacking the rich countries

also got rome but think my graphics card is busted as it would barely play on my laptop.

I've just started a new campaign on Medieval 2 with Spain. I have annexed portugal and kicked the Moors off the Iberian peninsula, though they still hold Marrakesh, my next target.

France are threatening to attack, so that could be a tough one. Busy spending all of my money on fortifying my current cities at the moment.

When you say you liked being attacked, do you mean as in your cities being attacked, or a general being attacked out in the open?

in the open field, just meant you get the choice where to start. my enemys very rarely choose to attck my major cities and rightly so they would get whooped! although my little wooden bases were often attacked.

spain is a good starting point because you can go through north africa where alot of gold mining can be done, also not much oppostion. get your ships all around trade routes and you soon start making loads

the other trick i used to do is dont wiped a nation out totally, just trap them in one small country with no funds they wont bother you. if you wipe them out they soon come back with loads of forces. when you need to complete it step in and wipe them all out

How do you mean when you say they come back with loads of forces? If you've wiped them out, they shouldn't have any forces?

Likewise, with the ships on trade routes, it isn't possible for you to build any additional ships, is it, and it depends on the size of your settlement, am I right?

I think North Africa is the route I will take after securing the Iberian Pensinsula, given that central europe is home to numerous countries and some pretty strong ones, too.

just realised you said you were playing medieval 2, ive only played the original so it might be different. but when you wiped a nation out sometimes out of nowhere the nation would rise again and attack some of there old countries that you now hold. pain in the backside it was!

with the ships i used to put a ship in each section and would create a link to every country the sea borders with that link. opens up the trade possibilites. could also move a army across the map in one move

Oh I don't think that happens in medieval 2, thankfully :p

The links seem to establish themselves as soon as I agree trade rights with people, and the ships just set sail without me building any. Is that different to medieval 1, then?

Making money is the thing I find hardest, as only spending it on trade/food production (as I'd like to do) leaves you completely open to attack and also hinders any attempt at expansion, which I guess is required in order to increase financial potential.

yeah on 1 you moved the ships into sections in the sea, and thats what opened your trade options, especially useful when youve got gold! havnt played two, my laptops too crap

It is good mate. After a while the Mongols invade Europe, and lay waste to anything in their path, pretty much. Fully experienced generals with stacks of horse archers, they're not fun to fight (hence me being Spain, as far away as possible)

ha ha i know your pain they came in the original, shed loads of them and all on horse back. on foot armies werent too bad as when they routed you would send the horses to capture them all. the mongols were hard as you couldnt catch them they would then re group and come right back at you. horse archers were similar. the one good thing about them is they dont really build just plunder so in the long run you could eventually knock them back, especially after gun powder being invented

the other option would get a shed load of camels from east africa, horses dont like camels

Ha yeah, true. However, I intend to expand in to Africa and let the Mongols ruin Europe. I'll then pick up the pieces

Once I have a foothold in Africa I will probably ease off the expansion for a bit and concentrate on the economy.

I also had the idea of putting together a strong army of cavalry archers to just thin out enemy armies, before retreating from the battle when it looks like I might sustain losses. It will go down as a defeat, but should help in the long run when defending my cities.

Do you know much about the use of merchants in the game?

I've been a fan of the series since the begining.
Shogun was great and inovative.
Mongol invasions was a good add-on.
Rome was an excellent game and I thought that it was better and less buggy than Medievil.
But then Medievil 2 and other add ons was fantastic.

It was about at this point where my old PC couldnt handle the new Empire games.
After a year I upgraded and could then play Empire and Napoleon - these are now my favourites. You can truely play on a global setting.

Shogun 2 - I havent played yet! Finding the time now is a problem for this sort of game. I find it difficult to play a game where I may not be familiar with the characters or the units - maybe its just me but I can just relate better to European history so I found those games more fulfilling.

Whats next for the Total war series?
Rome 2:total war? (Rome2 could now include the naval battles seen in empire)
American Civil War
WW1:Total war (could be interesting with the battlfield construction of trenches)

Could easily adapt the Empire game models to include the Crimean-Boer Wars ect.

Rome 2 is meant to be out by the end of the year.

Spoiler:

Medieval 1 was the best for me. Simple, fun, no mesding about. All the new games are getting more complicated, less fun, more time consuming.

Looks awesome the new Rome. Fabulous graphics. I'll be buying.

Azzy Mahmood wrote:Medieval 1 was the best for me. Simple, fun, no mesding about. All the new games are getting more complicated, less fun, more time consuming.

I get what you mean but if they're to go back over their old successful games they have to do more than just update graphics to expect the fanbase to spend £40 on the game.

All of them would be much better if Baldric was your mate.

Derbyblue wrote:

Azzy Mahmood wrote:Medieval 1 was the best for me. Simple, fun, no mesding about. All the new games are getting more complicated, less fun, more time consuming.

I get what you mean but if they're to go back over their old successful games they have to do more than just update graphics to expect the fanbase to spend £40 on the game.

That's the problem, they're trying to improve something that didn't need improving - I don't want to do 'missions', or make people happy - I want to do what I want for my nation.

just bought a new laptop and tried loading Rome, but it wouldn't work. i cant find disc 1 to the first medieval either!!

only ever really got into the first medieval as its the only one my old laptop could handle. any recommendations what to get next?

Disc 1 of Medieval - all the others are pale imitations that take up far too much of your PC's brain.

OK - system requirements are out for Rome 2

Minimum:
OS:Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8
Processor:2 GHz Intel Dual Core processor / 2.6 GHz Intel Single Core processor
Memory:1GB RAM (XP), 2GB RAM (Vista / Windows 7 or 8) GB RAM
Graphics:512 MB Direct 9.0c compatible card (shader model 3)
DirectX®:9.0c
Hard Drive:30 GB HD space
Additional:Screen Resolution - Minimum spec: 1024x768 minimum/ Recommended spec: 1280x1024 minimum (ALL SPECS ARE CURRENTLY NOT FINAL AND ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME)

Recommended:

OS:Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8
Processor:2nd Generation Intel Core i5 processor (or greater)
Memory:2GB Ram (XP), 4GB RAM (Vista / Windows 7 or 8) GB RAM
Graphics:1024 MB DirectX 11 compatible graphics card.
DirectX®:11
Hard Drive:30 GB HD space
Additional:Screen Resolution - Minimum spec: 1024x768 minimum/ Recommended spec: 1280x1024 minimum (ALL SPECS ARE CURRENTLY NOT FINAL AND ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME)

I am not great at understanding these - can someone tell me if I need to upgrade my laptop?
its system specs are below -

Chassis & Display Viper II: 18.4" HD+ LCD Backlit Widescreen (1680x945) Super Clear
Glossy
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Mobile Processor i7-720QM (1.60GHz) 6MB Cache
(Special Offer)
Memory (RAM) 4GB SAMSUNG 1066MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 2GB)
Graphics Card 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 5165 PCI Express
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 400GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

I would appreciate any assistance.

Can't wait for this game. Love the total war series and this promises to be a humdinger.

I'm looking forward to it too - just want to know if I can play the thing before buying it!

Sorry buddy you'll need a computer nerd like Dass to help you out there

No worries - I shall investigate further.

Fists of Fury wrote:Sorry buddy you'll need a computer nerd like Dass to help you out there

I don't know whether to take this as a compliment or an insult

As for the question, yeah you meet all the recommended specs as far as you've posted. Only problem with PC gaming is even when you do meet all the specs the blasted things still find a reason at times not to play.  

Dass wrote:

Fists of Fury wrote:Sorry buddy you'll need a computer nerd like Dass to help you out there

I don't know whether to take this as a compliment or an insult

As for the question, yeah you meet all the recommended specs as far as you've posted. Only problem with PC gaming is even when you do meet all the specs the blasted things still find a reason at times not to play.  

The highest of compliments, my friend.

Will you need to play this through Steam like Empire?

Thanks Dass - I am sure that FofF meant it as a compliment also.

The ones that I wasn't sure on were the processor and the graphics card.
A colleague has just told me that my graphics card doesn't support DirectX11, only 10.1 so that might be a bit of an issue (and I cant upgrade as its a Laptop).

I think my system should handle it though - even if the graphics quality is turned down a bit in settings.

Thanks for your help guys.

Skyforger - I haven't heard anything about Steam, but I suspect it will be the same as with Empire and Shogun 2

I didn't notice first time around that it was the specs for a laptop you posted, your CPU is fine despite the lower 1.6GHz clock speed as due to its design it performs better than most of the other higher clocking CPU's.

Your colleague is right the AMD 5165 goes only as high as DX10.1 which is still somewhere between the recommended and minimum, so while not 11 it should still be more than playable since you have everything else beyond the specs recommended. My fault I just saw it was a AMD 5 series and assumed it was a desktop where all the 5 series are DX11 compatible.

So, who's enjoying the new Rome II: Total War.
I'm still on my first campaign, playing Rome. Managed to Conquer most of modern day Libya, Tunisia, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily and the Mediterranean coastal provinces of Spain. So, going well.
There have been a number of patches, latest being v4, and they are really improving game play and performance.

One thing I really struggle with is the naval combat, I tend to come off a bit worse for wear in those battles - I suppose that it reflects the unpredictability of any combat on the ocean! But suffice to say that I much prefer land combat or the combined land and naval battles/sieges - those are very cool.

With regards to economy, I was struggling with the size of the military units vs available funds, but now that I have built up my trade network I am able to start consolidating my provinces and am able to start building resources for invest back into conquest.

What are you guys enjoying - are there any changes that you would like to be implemented?