I came, I saw, I was unimpressed.

Well I just finished the game and unlike Empire: Total War It was acctualy decent and playable. The very small campaign however strips the game of all the fun and especialy any replay value. Something that makes total war games fun, being able to still have fun replayig it.

Napoleon Total War remind me of kingdoms for Medieval II. Its all just a bunch of small campaigns. I realy do not enjoy focusing on a small area, I like it grand. It pretty much is kingdoms just for Empire: total war. Even thought they like to say it's a brand new games It's basicaly an expansion for Empire, with a lot of fixes.

The campaigns were all dreadfully fast, and I could just autoresolve my way throught them (which I did because mini campaigns are bland and boring). The coalition campaign is the only campaign that is not auto-resolved in a few hours.

What makes me disappointed is that I kind of feel this could have been Empire. If they would have just made Empire proper in the first place it would have been satisfying. Hopefully there will be a mod for Empire or Napoleon that gives me a grand campaign with a decent amout of regions, and without a broken AI and a grand armé of bugs.

I was very excited when I bought Empire but now It's just there on the dusty shelf because of the broken and boring gameplay. Now Napoleon is there right next to it.

Hopefully there will be mods that gives me a bug free grand campaign with a decent amount of regions in a year or two but until then, Empire and Napoleon will just have to gather dust on the shelf.

Well, it is because it is an expansion.

Mods will be nice when we have a full tool set.

The expansion for a TW game I though was best was Viking Invasion. It was highly replayable even if you had a smaller scope from the original game.

But yes, NTW is a stand alone Expansion and not a complete game.

I liked Empire, but Napoleon's smaller focus was a winner for me. The map is far more detailed, and the two week turns ensure a long game. While some people appear to be breezing through the GC, I have to wonder exactly what they are doing, because thus far I have yet to experience this. Perhaps auto-resolve is the problem? I always fight my battles, as auto-resolve has the tendency to ensure a win almost outright, at least from what I've see thus far.

cheer up mate...
aslong as CA are patching up the game, I guess theres still hope.

And yes Iam really looking forward to the mods, and how much CA will support It with Tools

In opinion are worlds between Empire and Napoleon. I like the Timeframe of Empire more, but the huge Worldmap with the ugly and smal European Map was a reason why i don't like Empire in some cases. Napoleon has a European map which is exactly that what i want to see and the gameplay is much better than in Empire. At first i miss the firedrill, but now i am covinced that the new system was the best choice for CA.

I am sorry to hear you think that way MaxlurifaxI am only really getting to grips with the whole game at the moment and I understand what you mean by the short campaigns. I started off as France in the Italian Campaign and have to say that I did not find it that rivetting but then I never have found the small scenarios of the TW games that brilliant - just a personal thing.

However, I do differ from your opinion on the subject of the Grand Campaign. This really is a triumph for me. I love the 2 weeks equals 1 turn. I love the campaign map and the way it changes with the seasons. I think that the Graphics are superb and that the battle scenes are out of this world. I am really trying to play the game along semi historical lines at the moment and feel that I may lose as a result but this game is so immersive and so delightful that I am just going along for the ride and do not care overly about 'winning'.

I say a big resounding thanks to CA for this game. I will be playing it for years to come. It just makes you wonder what they will do next?

Hello if you ve got the chance try MPC campaigns then even with the small ones you ll be able to replay it many times. We started an Italy MPC campaign with my friend and it s awesome ! Actually I even didn t play one single SP battle I don t even know how behave the AI on battle, I just saw the CAI wich seem really passive on the Italy MPC campaign. We played about 10 hours and we are at the turn 30.

Just a guess, but I will bet some mods will be out in the next year to make the game more "grand."

It really is a much better game system than ETW. That is not up for debate.

Most everything works well.

And if CA is listening...the mod tool we need most is a

Map Editor

.

Building, Units, and Uniforms are fine. We can even make some changes to them on our own without more tools. It is the map, both in NTW and ETW that we need for great mods and it would hardly touch most of the DLC we have seen so far.

if anything i found the ETW map a bit too big to manage things effectively without a 'liberate' option. And i think i read somewhere (may be wrong) that there is more cities in NTW, but ETW just has bigger regions...

It also seemed a bit too easy in ETW to just steam roll and take over huge chunks of the map. Things are not so simple in NTW with liberated factions, and a more congested europe. Which i think makes it more replayable for me, then just having a bigger map

The new diplomatic options are great, but the limited size of the map and lack of other regions is a major drawback. I loved sailing and placing frigates strategically - now the only naval battles I have are massive engagements. They need to add other theaters and more technologies to Napoelon.

Originally Posted by GTFO. Jamie

It also seemed a bit too easy in ETW to just steam roll and take over huge chunks of the map. Things are not so simple in NTW with liberated factions, and a more congested europe. Which i think makes it more replayable for me, then just having a bigger map

Agreed. This too is what I have found when comparing the two games.

What bugs you have noticed so far?

I like the smaller campaigns, but CA already had a map of the "grand" grand campaign, they should have added that. ( ETW map with modifications to NTW's new beutifal landscapes ).

Originally Posted by Xelathur

I like the smaller campaigns, but CA already had a map of the "grand" grand campaign, they should have added that. ( ETW map with modifications to NTW's new beutifal landscapes ).

I would agree with that. And since they can't do all this with ETW it would be grand if they could just port over the map and GC.

'They need to add other theaters and more technologies to Napoleon.'

- Yes. I 100% second this motion (primarily theatres).

Loving the game so far, but also really missing the scale, variety and long timeline of Empire (though I do like the two week turns).

If Empire was properly upgraded to Napoleon's standards (with 3 month turns) it would be amazing. I just hope that we will see more territories and possibly theatres added to N:TW's GC, not more separate mini campaigns (Warpath style) which I fear will be the case.


'I loved sailing and placing frigates strategically - now the only naval battles I have are massive engagements'

Agree with this too. I love the naval combat (and the new national ship paints), but due to the limited map there isn't so much of it, especially as I'd defeated the French and Spanish fleets off the coast of Portugal by the end of the second turn. By cropping the map so tightly there are also a number of unrealistic choke points, created purely by the 'edge of the world...'

I don’t know how it is with NTW but the reason for the large regions in ETW were for performance.

You can really see that NTW is an improvement in that respect and it may have more individual regions than ETW.

Larger or more detailed maps would cause a performance hit but be it ETW or NTW a map editor are what is needed in making new campaigns. And of course a Campaign Editor would surely be useful.

Originally Posted by R.G.S.

'They need to add other theaters and more technologies to Napoleon.'

- Yes. I 100% second this motion (primarily theatres).

Loving the game so far, but also really missing the scale, variety and long timeline of Empire (though I do like the two week turns).

If Empire was properly upgraded to Napoleon's standards (with 3 month turns) it would be amazing. I just hope that we will see more territories and possibly theatres added to N:TW's GC, not more separate mini campaigns (Warpath style) which I fear will be the case.


'I loved sailing and placing frigates strategically - now the only naval battles I have are massive engagements'

Agree with this too. I love the naval combat (and the new national ship paints), but due to the limited map there isn't so much of it, especially as I'd defeated the French and Spanish fleets off the coast of Portugal by the end of the second turn. By cropping the map so tightly there are also a number of unrealistic choke points, created purely by the 'edge of the world...'

The theaters dream is all of our best dream. Remember man, this is napoleon total war, not some empire!

Originally Posted by maxlurifax

Well I just finished the game and unlike Empire: Total War It was acctualy decent and playable. The very small campaign however strips the game of all the fun and especialy any replay value. Something that makes total war games fun, being able to still have fun replayig it.

Napoleon Total War remind me of kingdoms for Medieval II. Its all just a bunch of small campaigns. I realy do not enjoy focusing on a small area, I like it grand. It pretty much is kingdoms just for Empire: total war. Even thought they like to say it's a brand new games It's basicaly an expansion for Empire, with a lot of fixes.

The campaigns were all dreadfully fast, and I could just autoresolve my way throught them (which I did because mini campaigns are bland and boring). The coalition campaign is the only campaign that is not auto-resolved in a few hours.

What makes me disappointed is that I kind of feel this could have been Empire. If they would have just made Empire proper in the first place it would have been satisfying. Hopefully there will be a mod for Empire or Napoleon that gives me a grand campaign with a decent amout of regions, and without a broken AI and a grand armé of bugs.

I was very excited when I bought Empire but now It's just there on the dusty shelf because of the broken and boring gameplay. Now Napoleon is there right next to it.

Hopefully there will be mods that gives me a bug free grand campaign with a decent amount of regions in a year or two but until then, Empire and Napoleon will just have to gather dust on the shelf.

Agreed! Only thing that makes me whana play Empire now is the mods Ape:TI and AUM, and all the other small mods that comes with it. Makes the game totaly different for ETW and the BAI acts in a whole new way!

I am also reluctant to NTW, will wait a cuple of weeks/months and see if there will be a bigger dissapointment with NTW then. In worst case il gett a torrent to try NTW out before/if I buy it, or mabe there is a Demo?(anyone?).

Best wishes.
///3inar

This map is larger strategically and it isn't short at all.