Total War: Dynasty (Not a mod)

[LordofSaxony]

I've been thinking lately that the Total War games seem to follow the same trend, nation building and warfare. I think it would be nice if they went a little bit of a different direction.

After playing Crusader Kings by Paradox for a long time, I always thought to myself that if they merged the general idea behind Crusader Kings with the Total War engine, it would be a beautiful thing.

Summary:

At the start screen you pick your country that you want to be a part of, from there you pick the starting rank, such as Baron, Earl/Count, Marquess, Duke, King, or Emperor. If you start as a Duke or lower you are considered a "vassal" of your liege, and that's where the inner gameplay would begin. You fight your way to be King of your country by marrying away your kids, gaining friends and allies of fellow Earls and Counts, and assassinate your rivals that stand in your way. All the meantime building your infrastructure with strong bloodties, buildings, politics, and scientific discoveries. Eventually you start a civil war because you cannot seem to get "into" the royal line by marriage, politics, and assassination. You declare independence from your liege and raise your banners for war. You eventually win and toss the crown on your head. The game doesn't end there though, now your attention is on a global scale instead of the inner politics that you were once a part of.

What does everyone think? Interesting concept for the Total War series? Basically it's a two stage approach, focusing first on your country's inner politics as you work your way to the throne, and then next to the global stage.

During both stages would be several reasons to fight in battles, afterall it's Total War.

Stage 1
- Fighting off barbarians
- Raiding enemy cities (your Liege's enemy)
- Claiming Pagan (or other) territory.
- Crusades/Jihads
- Laying claim to neighoring provinces who are also under your liege, then attacking.
- Civil wars

Stage 2

- Normal Total War global politics, wars, etc.
- Crusades/Jihads
- Civil wars (pretenders, renegade family, etc)

Your leader could be something like...

Henry Brandon
Duke of Suffolk, Marquess of Pembroke, Earl of Wessex, Count of Kent.


Ya.. just sort of ranting and typing.. lol.

[Captain Jin]

Only problem with that is that the medieval period doesn't really interest me that much. Nice idea though. I actually hope we just see remakes of the old TWs on new engines, aka Rome or Shogun.

[LordofSaxony]

Only problem with that is that the medieval period doesn't really interest me that much. Nice idea though. I actually hope we just see remakes of the old TWs on new engines, aka Rome or Shogun.

That's np, it's just personal preference. The years of 1600-1900 don't really interest me much, probably why I bought and only played Empire just a little bit, I was on the last part of the Road to Independence, didn't even bother playing the campaign (yet).

Shogun would be a nice period, I wouldn't mind that either. It's the first game I played way back in the day for the Total War series. Rome 2, I wouldn't mind seeing either. The only problem with those is that it's just another "global" game, a different face of the same thing for the most part. If in Shogun you could raise up as a warlord and do the same thing that I was saying, that would be cool too. It would still keep the inner portion and the global portion. I suppose they can do that with Rome too, instead of having just a few main families, they could chop it up and have several Roman families trying to bid for power, there could be intrigue, backstabbing, alliances, assassinations too. Eventually you work your way up the chain into the Senate, and eventually demolish it and become an emperor.

[CtrlAltDe1337]

Nice idea, as the Medieval era would be perfect for that.

[Captain Jin]

Yeah a cool idea in Rome along those lines would be you create a young man as a part of a list of prominent patrician and pleb families. Basically you embark upon his political career perhaps starting a military tribune, then build political allies and gain influence and such and start with Quastor and work your way up the chain. But I'm not sure how that would work exactly. It would be kind of interesting to do all that political intrigue crap in the Roman Republic though. Even if it became possible to do some sort of actions that would allow you to do what Julius Caesar did, or Sulla and the like. i don't know how they'd make that in a game, but it'd be interesting.

[LordofSaxony]

Yeah a cool idea in Rome along those lines would be you create a young man as a part of a list of prominent patrician and pleb families. Basically you embark upon his political career perhaps starting a military tribune, then build political allies and gain influence and such and start with Quastor and work your way up the chain. But I'm not sure how that would work exactly. It would be kind of interesting to do all that political intrigue crap in the Roman Republic though. Even if it became possible to do some sort of actions that would allow you to do what Julius Caesar did, or Sulla and the like. i don't know how they'd make that in a game, but it'd be interesting.

I think it could work with the Roman period, it would just be a bit different. Families would have primary claim over certain areas when you start, and you work up from there. Although, after careful thought I do think this would be *easier* during the feudal time period and how it was organized. I'm not saying I would object to the Roman period, I just think it would be a bit more tough to do.

Well, I'd just use Crusader Kings (by Paradox) as a reference. A good game in it's own right, it's just missing the huge massive battles. For example, when I started that game last night I picked the lowest rank you can have, which is a Count. I became the Count of Suffolk and quickly arranged my main character's marriage into a neighboring province for political ties and a hopeful future "claim" on the territory. Eventually after plotting, assassinating, and marrying off my children into other families along with the royal famility, I managed to get some "claims" on those lands and titles. I was about to make my move, but I guess in doing what I did I ticked off the King pretty well so he mobilized his own lands along with all his vassals and invaded my little province (just north of London). He brought something like 30,000+ soldiers while I only managed to raise 3,600 or so (hey, I'm only a Count lol). I was quickly smashed and my family destroyed.

Anyhow, I think that type of thing is very cuttthroat and full of plots and intrigue, along with a nice amount of warfare (CK just doesn't have the real-time battle system).

[Captain Jin]

The Roman Republic offers that kind of possibility. You have strong families that marry for political reasons. You seek government positions to increase your power and influence, you can gain support of armies by leading them in legal or illegal wars as far as the Senate is concerned. Say you govern a province and you go to war ala Julius Caesar style with neighboring barbarians in order to gain support from the masses and then you have to worry about the Senate reacting. Maybe the whole point would be to become Caesar or some such.

[LordofSaxony]

The Roman Republic offers that kind of possibility. You have strong families that marry for political reasons. You seek government positions to increase your power and influence, you can gain support of armies by leading them in legal or illegal wars as far as the Senate is concerned. Say you govern a province and you go to war ala Julius Caesar style with neighboring barbarians in order to gain support from the masses and then you have to worry about the Senate reacting. Maybe the whole point would be to become Caesar or some such.

I'm trying to imagine it though, I think on some scale it would work. Although, in comparison to the feudal system it would be a bit bumpier of a ride in trying to create it.

Basically, in a feudal system you have the top tier, which would be a King, then under that tier you have several layers ranging from Duke to Baron, each with their own lands which swear alliegance to their liege. In the Roman system I'm just having difficulties on how that would work, since I don't think there is as much rigid structure as a feudal system would have. Sure families could raise armies and claim land, but are there any titles that "make sense" to have for being the leader of your family? Tribune, Consul, and etc for the most part are elected, while the noble feudal system is not. Maybe I just can't wrap my head around how that would work.

[jsktrogdor]

I would have so much fun crushing the familys who try to overthrow my regime. Its a good idea.

[Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh]

I would love a game like that. I think if they re-did Crusader kings in a better, post-EU rome graphics way. I'd love to play CK, and I have it (and EUII), but I also have EU3, and the step down in graphics is painful (thats the case with Rome as well as the fact I installed it in French.)

Starting as a landless knight.. Enlist in the services of a wealthy knight, make a name for yourself (through battles, where perhaps you only control a part of the army), and perhaps gain a small fiefdom. As you gain more land, the map zooms out to cover all your fiefdoms. Some lords had fiefs all around their kingdom, (and sometimes in other kingdoms as well!) so it would be fun to try to watch over your property.

Rise through power til you marry into the royal family or declare war on the King.

It'd be wicked.

But, we can stop dreaming, it's unlikely to happen, at least not for a while.

[LordofSaxony]

Rise through power til you marry into the royal family or declare war on the King.

It'd be wicked.

But, we can stop dreaming, it's unlikely to happen, at least not for a while.

Ya, I know.. it would be cool. Who knows what Total War will come up with, or even if there's ever a CK2 with updated graphics.

Speaking of CK, I took my Count of Lincoln and claimed the bordering county, eventually I managed to make the other guy my vassal and I became the Duke of York. Funny thing is.. in the same month I did that my vassal attacked the King of England (which is my liege). Sooo.. ya.. the King mopped us up pretty fast and I didn't even start it.

[jimmy spong]

i was imagining the perfect strategy game like that

"my lord , master is veeeeery unsatisfied with the tax income.g..g.g.f..gf..hhhhhhhhh....but why ? ......"

[LordofSaxony]

i was imagining the perfect strategy game like that

"my lord , master is veeeeery unsatisfied with the tax income.g..g.g.f..gf..hhhhhhhhh....but why ? ......"

Haha.. had the Darth Vader image popping into my head with that.