Considering Buying Napoleon: Total War, Have Some Questions

I've been playing TW games since Rome, not a veteran by some standards but definitely experienced. I recently expanded my collection to include Shogun 2, however I did skip Napoleon. This was because, while Empire had a beautiful concept, it was unplayable without mods and even with them the game had its issues. I assumed this was due to the time period as well as laziness on part of the developers, but Shogun 2 disproved the latter. Let me state this right off the bat, I LOVE the idea of muskets, cannon, and the entire time period, but it seemed poorly executed. So, is NTW worth it? Also, if anyone could compile a quick list of their personal favorite mods for NTW, as well as the improvements made in NTW compared to ETW, I'd be very appreciative.

I would buy Napoleon, but it isn't much but an expansion to Empire. Napoleon does not have some of the fun to play nations in Empire, such as the USA and the Native Americans, and it's on a more narrow time frame. It did improve on Empire in that now the naval battles include repairs (really useful), as well as a more detailed UI battle map, which can be useful in planning attacks. It didn't really add much to units, the units are pretty same in both in terms of gameplay usage. If you would like to expand your collection, then by all means get it. If you see it only as an expansion to ETW, then I wouldn't get it. If you would like to mod it, I suggest the Darth mod. Fixes some of the problems, adds physics realism to it and more units.

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I'm not sure, I love the history behind Napoleon but from what I've seen the game looks too... I can't think of the word. For one, is it just me or do the infantry fire and reload way too quickly? And the campaign also looks boring and too straightforward, kind of like Alexander: Total War (I had the same issue with that one). I guess I'll skip out on this one, I'll wait for Rome II, Medieval III, Empire II, or whatever comes out next.

Napoleon focuses more on the Napoleonic wars, so obv the main focus is europe. The engine and combat mechanics for napoleon are fantastic. As to your complaint about musket reload; well realistically line units loaded and fired 3 times per minute (4-5 for british battalions). Napoleon is one of the best games, especially for multiplayer campaigns. As to the singleplayer campaign, all factions are diverse and have unique rosters (unlike shogun 2 without DLC). The multiplayer battles are also loads of fun. Frankly I think giving napoleon a miss would be a huge mistake as it is my favorite total war of all time. For the record I own all the total war games and have played all extensively. This ranks around Rome for me.

Napoleon Art of War fixes most of the of the vanilla problems

Hmm, conflicting reviews now . Well, it's only $20 for the Imperial Edition, so it wouldn't be a huge loss... I also like the unique unit rosters (adds a sense of diversity and accuracy to the game). And underworld, what I saw was French line infantry firing upwards of 5 rounds a minute, so I guess someone was either messing with the speed settings or modded it somehow. And I just looked up Art of War, seems like just what I need. I''ll scrape together the funds and sleep on it, however I do have two questions that would help. One, the time period represented in NTW saw some massive overhauls in artillery, is the represented properly? Two, I noticed that Darth Mod not only increased unit size but also doubled the amount of units you can have in one army. Is this compatible with Art of War? Because if not it will be a very hard decision between the two mods (and mods are what we all play Total War games for). Thanks in advance!

And if you want unique rosters, you have mods that add much more detailed roster. The demo for Masters of Europe should be out soon for instance.

Glad to hear it, and as always I can't Rep you Stephen, sorry