Napoleon Total War beats ETW. Pros and Cons!

[Quintus Augustus]

So I bought Napoleon Total War 2 days ago, and since then I have enjoyed every second of it. It really does improve over Empire Total war in so many ways. I was wrong when i kept saying that Napoleon TW was just a scam for more money. note: Although the limited edition costs 10$ more on steam; all the limited edition does is add 10 more units...seriously, DONT BUY THE LIMITED EDITION!! 1 $ for each unit

Oh and btw, it cost 40$ on steam i believe. Now the price is probably a little too high, but enough content is in here to keep you locked in your room for days with no social contact what so ever . Napoleon includes 3 different campaign zones. Europe (If you count in the Coalition campaign), Egypt, and Italy (Italy is the smallest). You can play As Napoleon in the Napoleon campaign choice in which you play as France In Italy, then Egypt, and finally Europe. There is also the Coalition campaign where you can play England, Austria, Prussia, or Russia. Finally, there are the historical battles, which are very fun and addicting and the best in the series. Also there is the multiplayer which is a lot better at keeping cheap spammer bastards from winning , but is basically the same thing as ETW.

It’s a good package with a lot of pros and improvements. Though I won’t forget to add the cons of course.

PROS:
-Campaign maps are large, colorful, and leave large a large choice of decisions. (i.e. in the Italian campaign you start with one city, and where to go first was difficult)

-Campaign is a lot more challenging. the enemy will make constant attacks if you leave any place undefended. They also come in with large armies at random points and unprepared players will actually see their empire pushed back(unlike other total war titles)

-Campaign textures are more beautiful than ETW. Trees have different colors, wtaer is brighter, and well things just look... real.

-In campaign, your armies can be affected, and WILL be affected, by attrition. When walking through blizzards and deserts your armies will slowly kill itself. It is very cool when playing as someone trying to invade Russia. If you invade during winter, be prepared to lose half your men by the time you reach Moscow.

-Smart campaign AI. They will form alliances and apply political pressure on smaller nations to aid them. You can’t just take a few armies and destroy Austria in a few turns. The consequences will be harsh.

-Rebellions actually will kill you. I was playing as France and had taken Vienna with Napoleon. I saw the place was about to rebel but I didn’t care, rebellions only had about 5 militia in them. right? WRONG! A full ing stack appeared and sieged Vienna and took it back. Napoleon had to go home and...tend to his wounds(that’s what the game said instead of him dying lol). Basic point, watch out for those rebellions.

-Recruitment takes 2 turns for most units, and all buildings take about 3-10 turns to complete. AND I MEAN ALL. This adds realism since each turn= 2 weeks.
-One of the coolest new features was the changing months. Spring is as equally beautiful as fall and it really shows how stunning the campaign map is.

-The Flags, buildings, and General icons are fresh and add a good feel to the game.

-more trade routes for those people who like to win economically.

-The character faces photos. It’s fun to see the actual images of these people. It makes it feel like you are there in Napoleons World remaking his history.

-Now for the battles. The combat is much the same though it is way more fast and easier to pick up on. The AI still is not great but come on guys, its very challenging to make an adaptable AI. Though it still annoys me the first thing the AI does is end suicidal charges on me and waste their cav. (oh waits that a con! lol) This is a pro since the AI is slightly better.

-AI makes good use of terrain and uses a good mix of units in the campaign.

-Outside of the campaign, the Ai is able to interpret your move and counter react, although not always well.

-Artillery is a lot more accurate and important for routing the enemy.

-The general is now important! If he has more stars then he can see where the enemy placed his troops. Good generals can also inspire their men with a horn that goes across the battle and increases your units morale bar. They have a circle surrounding them and anyone inside that circle gets a huge morale boost.

-Units have a morale bar now that indicates how close they are to routing. If its below 50% then be prepared for your unit to rout.

-All the animations are nicer and much more epic. The fire and smoke is also engaging and fun to look at.

-Units say more things now than in ETW.

-All technologies or most from ETW are already implemented so the units get all those cool abilities at the start of the game.

-No glitches seen so far, and it worked flawlessly for me. Was able to play on very high settings without lag.

-EPIC soundtrack and overall the sound is great.

-Overall this game just rocks. It is worth the money and is a more solid, and stable experience.

CONS:
-Loading times are still painstakingly slow…

-The choice of nations is very limited.

-Not much unit variation and not as many new units as I would have liked

-Naval battles still suck and the system breaks down easily. The AI is almost too good in these battles since they can micromanage everything and not lose control, unlike I who kept having to pause and reposition my ships. I’m even in the navy and I’m not good at these lol.

-Historical navy battles are not as fun as the historical land ones.

-Units respond slowly. You usually have to click and wait a half sec before the little battle indicators show up.

-The time limit is extremely annoying. If the point is to remake history then why the hell is there a time limit. (i.e. I was playing the Italian campaign and had decided to build up the economy instead of Austria, and then suddenly it says I have 20 turns to capture a city on the other side of the map. WTF!

-The builds are too slow compared to the time limit you’re given

-Having to wait possibly a dozen turns for all your units to get back to health is just boring. We want action CA, at least I do but halting the campaign progress to wait for your army to nurse itself back was not a smart move.

-Important generals have terribly small armies. I found Napoleon with like 2 units. Also when I played the English all the French cities on the channel had little to no units in them.

-Sieges sucks. Need I say more...

-The AI still wanders into your line of fire and the continues to walk…

-Auto win sometimes gives you stunning victories and crushing defeats for no reason at all

-You can’t expand past the borders of the specific campaign you are playing

Overall this Is a must buy for total war fans out there. This a game Napoleon would be proud of. Ca listened well and addressed the major issues. This game was solid, bug free, and engaging. I’ll be spending many a night playing this game. Thanks for reading and possibly commenting J.