Which Total War shall I start with?

[Generalizor]

I am a very big fan of the strategy genre no matter if it's turn-based or RTS. I have played civ, warcraft, starcraft, C&C, HOMM, age of empires etc, but for some strange reason i havn't even heard about Total War till I played Napoleon on a friends computer a while ago. Being a history geek this came naturally for me to love. Sadly not even Medieval 2 worked on my computer. Now some years later however I have bought a new one and downloaded all the demos and tried them out. I thought that being so accustomed to the genre I would learn quick. This however wasn't true, I am not at all good at the game, it sure differ greatly from the other games I have played, come to think about it games like warcraft, starcraft and age of empires isn't that different. But i have decided to learn, thinking approaching the game slow and with a humble attitude might get me to the spot, because how can you not love this serie?

All this leads me to the question that you have already guessed. Which Total War game shall I start with? I am not green to the strategy genre but I am to the Total War series. I also want to have a as good experience as possible.

[bob_2000]

So as not to be spoiled by awesome graphics and better interface and whatnot, I started with Rome and worked my way up the release date. Just recently got Empire and Napoleon, will be picking up Shogun 2 eventually...

[empr guy]

start with rome, the older ones are better and rome is the first one that people can play without compatability issues. Then move to medieval 2, which is also good. Those games also have great modes, so not liking the game itself isn't much of a problem. RTW also has a great online community and there are always new people so its not like AoE were everyone has level 150 home cities and new people get raped everytime.

everything past that is rather mediocre, ETW could have been so much better but wasn't really finished, NTW isn't even a full game, and shogun two is decent but there is no replayability. And there aren't even any decent mods for the games, I might get flammed by mod fanboys but all thats changed is some stats and colors, thats it.

You many want to save yourself some trouble and wait until S2 is 75% off on steam for the christmas sale or whatever, and skip ETW and its expansion. Thats another great thing about those, mandatory steam!

[AgentGB]

Also if you decide to get rome or medieval 2, get hardcopys from play.com, i wouldn't recommended getting them on steam tbh, installing mods seems to be a headache for most people using the steam version, although buying it from steam will be dirt cheap, its just most mods don't cater for steam, or encounter bugs, as most mods are built around the hardcopys

[Generalizor]

I will probably get all the games eventually because as I said I really love the history. And since my country, Sweden, for one times sake is in Empire that seems like a must have for me. I find it amusing that you say that I shall start from the beginning and start with Rome . But I guess Shogun wasn't that great or maybe it is these compability problems that empr guy talks about. How is the first medieval game if you place it against Rome and Medieval 2? Is it worth playing through the first medieval just to play the second right after?

[Ahlerich]

well honestly i would start with rtw if you can stand the older grafics. if you dont i would start with medieval. etw and ntw are really slowplaced and sgt2 i dont know. from beginning to now the game i play the most now is m2tw

[Lord Baal]

Rome, then Medieval 2. But if you really want to develop your tastes play the first Shogun and Medieval a while, then come a play the other and as you hit Empire you'll notice a big change. Try the demos first before buying anything of course.

[empr guy]

the first shogun and medieval are pretty good, and they feature a risk style map so the campaign AI is much better. I hear the battle AI of shogun is also the best, but I can't say for certain. The problem is that they don't work with many modern video cards for some reason, meaning some people can't play and for others they can't command their troops in battle (unless they select them from the mini map, for some reason)

One thing they took out of the first medieval was that every province had a title associated with it that gave small bonuses, and you could give them to generals to make them more loyal. Rome was the first with the new map but they took that out and never added it again. Rome and M2 are a bit more complex then the first medieval, although none of the TW games have had any real depth.

If you do get rome and medieval, make sure to get the expansions. Romes expansions are pretty good, while medieval 2's expansion is decent but most mods are based off of it.

[herne_the _hunter]

Recomend Shogun and especially MTW1 though you'll probably need an older computer system to run these without problems but worth it. Shogun 1 is a great piece of game design and MTW1 is an improvement on that. There's some cracking mods for RTW and Med2 if you want to get further stuck into either of these.Trouble is there isn't enough time in the day to play it all...

[bibouba]

start with empire. You need to downloas modds but you will have the most recent graphics.

If you start with rome or medieval you will be disapointed with graphics.

So may be lot of you will say graphic are not importants. So go with histwar the best napoleonian simulation.

[Generalizor]

All these mods makes me confused. Are really all the games that bad without mods. I really enjoy originals.

[Xerrop]

Well the graphics for Rome and MTW2 are still ok when you are used to (not so (old) games.
Only Shogun1 and Medieval1 are looking really old these day.

All these mods makes me confused. Are really all the games that bad without mods. I really enjoy originals.

Well you can still play the Original games. Good enough for most players. But this is a forum dedicated to mods, so most people advice you to try them.
Mods can create a more challenging game when you find battles to easy or repetitive. And when trying Rome or Medieval2 the mods can create whole new campaign maps/factions/and even timeframes.

I would start with a game you are historically interested about - do you like Romans, medieval Knights, Napoleon or a japanese setting (weapons and combat similar to late medieval Europe)? The basics of the game have not changed much during the whole series.

[Generalizor]

Well i'm kind of interested in all kind of history but the time period of Napoleon and Empire is very appealing to me. And don't worry about the graphic to much I play Star Craft and Age of Empires 2 thinking the graphic is good the gameplay has to be the most important. I just want to have learn basics before throwing my self into something to hard.

[Sammi79]

I would advise start with M2:TW, then if you get through that quickly, get the kingdoms mods for it. It is IMO the most polished and balanced, aswell as being optimised properly. E:TW is great but I've never seen it run smoothly even on beasty systems so unless your system is a beast I'd say skip it. M2:TW is fantastic without mods, the grand campaign is still one of the very best of the entire series.

[Mortality]

I personally started out with Rome: Total War for a project for school.

My order (From first to last) of buying them):

Rome: Total War

Medieval 2: Total War

Empire Total War

Napoleon Total War

Shogun 2: Total War.


For Rome and Medieval 2, the graphics are mehh, but the gameplay is worth it in my opinion.

[Sammi79]

In that case, if your PC can handle it, Napoleon would be best. I personally prefer Empire as it is truly on a global scale and you can choose to play any nation, only problem is game was never properly optimised, so you need a better PC to run it than Napoleon that came after - or at least whatever your PC, Napoleon will run smoother than Empire. But if the cannons, muskets and light cavalry era is your thing, Napoleon is the best example of that in battles. The campaigns are more linear and limited, but to get into the games it would be a good place to start. Only thing to consider is, the graphics are modern with both these games, so you must be sure you have the hardware for it or you'll be dissapointed.

[Generalizor]

I know that I can play both Empire and Napoleon although not on the highest settings.

[empr guy]

All these mods makes me confused. Are really all the games that bad without mods. I really enjoy originals.

No, the games all have lots of minor bugs still (except empire, last time I checked it still had alot of bugs like getting stuck in fort gates and annoying things) but that doesn't mean they aren't playable or enjoyable. The mods just mean you can take a game that you get 100 hours of enjoyment with, and then you get 500 because the game is better.

start with empire. You need to downloas modds but you will have the most recent graphics.

If you start with rome or medieval you will be disapointed with graphics.

So may be lot of you will say graphic are not importants. So go with histwar the best napoleonian simulation.

This is honestly the worst reasoning of anyone in the thread, Empire was never really finished and the moding is so limited that they change pretty much nothing, Napoleon was a rehash of empire where they tried to fix alot of problems empire had and instead of patch empire they sold it as a new game.

I don't understand how people can just ignore the glaring flaws in a game that make it nearly unplayable and then say "well, at least it looks better then those good games.."

and btw, empire is poorly optimized so it only looks good on about the highest settings, Medieval II looks better at medium then empire at medium IMHO.

I know that I can play both Empire and Napoleon although not on the highest settings.

then you could probably play some of the more graphically demanding mods for medieval II, the graphics are good but most mods improve them or do things that are more graphically demanding.

[nhinhonhinho]

Either starting with Rome nor Napoleon/Empire TW.

Btw I'm highly suggest Rome first