Hey all,

I don't know how popular this will be, but it was something I thought of after playing Empire: Total War again after a while spent on a modded Napoleon: Total War.

The skins for naval vessels in Napoleon: Total War are nation-specific, so that Britain has ships sporting the Nelson chequer (bands of yellow and black with black gunports), France has black and white, Spain red and black and Russia green and white. Likewise, the crews of the Royal Navy in the mod I downloaded have been re-skinned with the officers in blue uniforms, the hands in a mix of white and blue seamen's outfits and the marines in the red jackets of the infantry and distinctive headgear. Not being a modder myself, I wouldn't know how to go about it, but I thought an attempt to re-skin the ships and crew of each nation in order to give them as historically accurate and nationally diverse a character as possible would be worth including in Empire: Total War, as it gives naval affairs a far greater scope than Napoleon. I doubt that the crews of the Spanish navy dressed in yellow, or the Russians in green, for example.

In the same vein, I feel that the vessels offered on Napoleon: Total War are far more realistic than those of Empire. For example, a fifth rate in the service of the Royal Navy would rarely number as many as 47 guns, and at any rate would never be called that in common parlance. The option of having ships of the same rating but with different numbers of guns (80, 74 and 64 gun third-rates are avaliable on NTW, if memory serves) is much more realistic, as is the addition of French corvettes. A navy for the United States with their characeristic heavy frigates (44 gun, 24-pounders) would also be a welcome addition as far as realism goes, I feel.

I don't know what people think, but as someone interested in the navies of the period of Empire and Napoleon, I'd be happy to talk with anyone more experienced in modding the game if they have any ideas about how something like this could find its place within Empire: Total War, preferably within a mod which addresses the realism of the game's other areas.