Total War Campaign RTS Idea

[Jack95]

Total War Campaign Idea.

I was trying to fall asleep one night when I began to think about the reinforcement system in Empire: Total War. I imagined myself playing as Great Britain. With Great Britain (and usually any other nation) trade is vital. I was defending my seaborne trade routes from my enemies. I was trying to defend both the Irish Sea and the English Channel but found it annoying that I had to divide my fleet in order to protect all my trade routes.

(I thought of the quote “He who defends everything defends nothing.”)

I found it annoying how I couldn’t react and defend both the Irish Sea and the English Channel against a significantly large enemy fleet without compromising one of the bodies of water unless I took the fight to my enemy in my own turn.

Although this never happened, and I certainly would have no trouble defending as a nation such as Britain, this got me thinking about some of the cons there are to Total War’s turn based campaign. You cannot effectively react to rival actions in a TBS (turn based strategy).

I had an idea. Why not make the Total War Campaign an RTS; albeit a very slow RTS (real time strategy.)
For time scale a fortnight can be 30 seconds. Therefore a week is 15 seconds, a month is ~a minute and a year is ~12 minutes. A pause feature and fast forward should be added. The ability to change the pace of the game (similar to Civilization) should also be added. For example, you want to play a quick game so you decide a fortnight should be 15 seconds instead of a week.

Armies and navies on the map should move very slowly since a week is 15 seconds and so that the player can change their destination. They should as slowly (or perhaps slower) as the armies and navies in Empire move.

The movement points should also be updated. The green, red, blue, yellow indicators of when you reach your destination (Green=1 turn Red= 2 turns etc) should be kept only they should only indicate how many weeks it shall take for you to reach your destination. The movement range should be updated every week.

Also, the speed of the army should be affected by the region, the general in command, how tired the army is, the season, and randomized events such as a storm.

When I say speed of the army, I literally mean speed of the army. An increase in movement range per week should be a direct result of the army being able to move faster.

If the region is more of a woodland with dirt roads, then your army should move literally slower than if they were walking through farmland with paved roads.
The ability of a general to affect the movement of your troops is obvious and has already been done in Total War.
An army is tired if it has been marching for a long time or has made a long journey. They should move slower until they’ve rested for say... a week.
Season shouldn’t be too complex. Most armies will move slower in the winter months than in summer months. Some nations shouldn’t be affected as much as others. So Spanish armies should be more affected by cold and move slower than Russian armies in the cold. The movement range should correspond to region, so if it’s winter in Africa it doesn’t matter.
Random events also shouldn’t be too complex. If a storm randomly pops up then your troops should move slower.

Now we get to what I thought of first, the reinforcement system, which in my head turned into a complete rehashing of the military aspect of campaign.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Look at Saxony. It has a blue line around it. For now just pretend you don't have any regions other than Saxony. You are surrounded by foreigners.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Now look at the red ring around Saxony.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Any foreign army that enters inside that red ring is within striking distance of your region. You will be notified of this and the game will be paused, (as long as you can see it). You will then have to decide whether you want to do anything about it like assemble your forces and march to meet the threat or not. You should also have the option to build defenses if such an option exists.

You should be able to change the radius of the red ring according to nation. So if you're Saxony and you think the Prussians are going to attack you then you may want to increase the radius of the red ring so that you can respond to the threat quicker. Or if you have an alliance with a nation and you don't consider them threatening to you, you may want to disable the red ring completely in which case it would hover right over the blue ring. You should also be notified if any nation enters your blue ring whether they have military access or not.

The reinforcement radius (the radius an army can come to the need of another) should be decreased.

When you retreat you should be able to control where you retreat to.

This is just a thought. I don't expect any of this to become reality but tell me whether you not you'd like it to.

[Alpha Zeke]

This would be amazing, but, would it be possible on the engine? I haven't played anything past medieval due to lack of awesome computer and the lack of ability to mod, but possibly with enough scripts you could do this?

[Farmer]

I have a massive smile on my face after reading your post. Our ideas are almost identical. Real-time. Slow. Like Defcon's Office Mode (but not quite that slow!). The closest existing game I can think of is Europa Universalis, but with the key difference of lacking the free army movement, as your describe (for those unfamiliar, EU uses a Risk-style army placement system).

One area in which I disagree is the penalty for moving your army quickly. The faster an army moves, the more soldiers should die on the march. To quote Sun Tzu:

"If you march fifty LI in order to outmaneuver the enemy, you will lose the leader of your first division, and only half your force will reach the goal.
If you march thirty LI with the same object, two-thirds of your army will arrive."

This would, I imagine, make larger Empires easier to crumble, considering the distances involved.

I also do not agree with your striking-distance warning system. Could you not simply slow or pause the game yourself?

[Rinan]

This would be amazing, but, would it be possible on the engine? I haven't played anything past medieval due to lack of awesome computer and the lack of ability to mod, but possibly with enough scripts you could do this?

Very probably not, that'd be like a major overhaul of the game. That's not something you can mod.

As a whole, making the Total War Engine RTS could work out quite well and refreshing! Although I think many Total War fans are die-hard turn-based-supporters
It should be something like Europa Universalis, where you can click the fast forward like 6 times.
Of course the armies should be able to move free throughout each zone, like in Total War (post Rome).

Making the campaign map real time would result in the ability to intercept enemy forces and more realistic movement times -- Not 3 years to cross the Atlantic like in Empire.

[Jack95]

This would be amazing, but, would it be possible on the engine? I haven't played anything past medieval due to lack of awesome computer and the lack of ability to mod, but possibly with enough scripts you could do this?

I've no idea. I am completely lost when it gets to the technical stuff. I cannot manage much.

One area in which I disagree is the penalty for moving your army quickly. The faster an army moves, the more soldiers should die on the march.

What exactly are you disagreeing with? I said that if an army has been marching for a long time, it would get tired and move at a slower pace until it rests for a while. I didn't mention a forced march although now that I think about it, that should probably be in there.

I also do not agree with your striking-distance warning system. Could you not simply slow or pause the game yourself?

Well if you're managing a huge empire I think you could easily miss a little flag popping up out of the fog of war. It ensures you know about it. If it doesn't pause the game it should at least have the girl's voice say something like "Foreign Army Approaching" or something. Pausing it I thought was a good idea since a day would take roughly 2 seconds using my scale. Once you finally decide what you're going to do about it, it may already be too late.

[Alpha Zeke]

The voice warning I like. That way the game is still played by the player. And if it comes to be it, sometimes the player takes the role of a negligent emperor, and boom - collapse.

[Heavy Weapons Guy]

12 minutes a year? I don't want so short TW campaigns.

[Jack95]

12 minutes a year? I don't want so short TW campaigns.

The ability to change the pace of the game (similar to Civilization) should also be added. For example, you want to play a quick game so you decide a fortnight should be 15 seconds instead of a week.

The voice warning I like. That way the game is still played by the player. And if it comes to be it, sometimes the player takes the role of a negligent emperor, and boom - collapse.

I haven't followed Shogun II all that much but isn't there going to be a feature where you take a more personal role in your empire; like dealing with family matters? Or did I just dream that up, too? You got me thinking about that with "takes the role of a negligent emperor".

[Prince of Darkness]

There is a game already implementing your awesome method, that's Europa Universalis. But it will certainly cause problem in a more than 1vs1 MP campaign.

[ElroyErn]

No. The Americans only revolt if you are in possession of the Thirteen Colonies and cannot maintain order.

[Alpha Zeke]

Er, I think you posted in the wrong thread, or what the heck are you talking about?