The Ultimate Evolution of the Total War Franchise

[DavosSeaworth]

The Peninsular Campaign, Fall of the Samurai all lead to what I think would be the absolute greatest single player campaign experience in CA's brilliant total war franchise.

Rome and the classical period are marked by several legendary campaigns throughout. Surely we at TWC drool over the epic struggles of the Greek city state conflicts, the Rise of Rome, the Punic Wars, Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul and Vercingetorix, Augustus Caesar against Marc Antony, Alexander's triumph over Persia and conflict in the East. Up to the Saxon invasion of Britannia and the Hunnic expansion, specific wars are so much more cinematic and engaging than a drawn out century spanning grand campaign.

I know my proposal will not come to fruition in RTW2 but write this with a mind for Medieval 3 or whatever CA has up its sleeve next. Total war ought to replace the grand campaign with actual campaigns of renowned historical figures.

Imagine the mechanics and details that could be poured into the soul of the Roman military machine in each different era, the nuances of command between Hannibal and the various Roman consuls of the Second Punic War, with extensive mechanics for Hannibal's mercenaries and the Spanish provinces. The civil war could use the allegiance system but with much more grave consequences, putting a larger focus on agents and politics for a much more scheming sort of game.

My idea for such a series would be as followed

Rome Total War (Vanilla) Campaigns

1. Rise of Rome (with Rome, the Samnites, Etruscans as playable factions)
2. The Punic Wars
3. Julius Caesar
4. The Great Civil War/ Rise of the Empire
5. Spartacus and the Slave Revolt

1st Expansion, the Hellenic Experience

1. Times of Legend, the Trojan War
2. Greek City State Conflicts, Sparta, Athens, Thessaly
3. Alexander

2nd Expansion, Barbarian Invasion

1. Attila
2. Britannia Campaign
3. Justinian's Conquests

Thoughts, questions, concerns, support, tell me why!

[Nimuro]

I'm biased to say yes just because of your name and avatar:p
but i'll still say no. Grand campaign is essential to the total war experience and it wouldnt be the same game without it.
That being said focused campaigns should be included one way or another but not at the expense of main campaign.

[Dodanodo]

I'm biased to say yes just because of your name and avatar:p
but i'll still say no. Grand campaign is essential to the total war experience and it wouldnt be the same game without it.
That being said focused campaigns should be included one way or another but not at the expense of main campaign.

Agreed, GC is essential, and can not, and will not be replaced by smaller more focused campaigns. as DLC all of the above wars could work very well, but not as a replacement of the GC.

[Rasic]

I don't really care for mini campaigns. In fact I've still to this day never played the ones from kingdoms or Napoleon. I just prefer the free form nature of grand campaign, following one of my family members through his own little mini campaigns rather than reliving the accomplishments of historical figures.

[Drtad]

I don't really care for mini campaigns. In fact I've still to this day never played the ones from kingdoms or Napoleon. I just prefer the free form nature of grand campaign, following one of my family members through his own little mini campaigns rather than reliving the accomplishments of historical figures.

Agreed. While I have enjoyed a few of the more focused campaigns like Peninsular, the Grand Campaign needs the greatest focus, especially for the large and diverse world of the Mediterranean from the 3rd-1st century BC.

[:jason:]

I have to agree with the others. Grand Campaign is king in my opinion.

[Shigawire]

For me, the future of the Total War series lay not in focusing and reducing the scope of a campaign.
At the heart of it, the Grand Campaign must remain the most important.

The future of TW is in brand new game play mechanics. Better, more historic siege warfare. Holistic supply/forage/attrition system. In-faction politics.
OF course, better graphics will come by itself.. so no need to mention that.

[Londnred]

While i've greatly enjoyed the smaller expansion campaigns (the Penninsular war by far my favourite, merely because i'm interested in the Penninsular war), Total war would just not be the same without the Grand Campaign, but certainly smaller campaigns aswell, but not if they take away from the Grand campaign.

[Gaius Augustus Caesar]

I'm with the rest and say they should stick with the GC, but these would all make great additions they could include in either the game or the expansion pack. I just hope they include a Julius Caesar career campaign in the actual campaign.

[AngryTitusPullo]

While I always love the grand campaign I'm more enjoying the small specific historical campaigns as the OP said in Peninsular campaign. I have started to enjoy playing Napoleon now after I'm basically almost finished of playing every clans in Shogun II + DLC/expansions.

I wonder for Rome II CA will do many small DLC for specific campaigns. I would love to see DLC regarding the invasion of Britain during Claudius.

[Rorarii]

GC is just for those who want to conquer the world, any game can achieve that.

The Game is Rome 2, about Rome ,starting about 242 BCE ending 50BCE, so i hope it concentrates on historical campaigns of this period.

R

[Agathangalos]

The ultimate evolution is clearly going to be a game that spans the entire world and runs from the dawn of civilization in Egypt/Middle East/China/India up to ~WWI. Maybe we'll see it in like 10 or 20 years.

[Rasic]

haha, yeah I sort of agree. Kind of like civilization but you just keep on zooming in until you hit total war level graphics. I give it about 10-15 years until we're at that level if you take the current level of technology increase.

[Tritus]

I've never liked the campaign map being restricted to such small areas like in Kingdoms. The Grand Campaign is just so much more enjoyable in comparison.

[IronBrig4]

I'm with most of the posters in this thread; while I liked the specialized campaigns (eg. Viking Invasion) the Grand Campaign is what makes me replay the game over and over again.

[Ichon]

Usually I would say Grand Campaign no question but I actually did enjoy the Peninsular campaign and some of the others from NTW however that is only only time in any TW release I enjoyed the smaller scale campaigns as much as the Grand campaigns. I could see some short historical personage based campaigns being very interesting for RTW2- Scipio arriving in Hispania or in N Africa for example or Hannibal just after crossing the Alps would both be fun to play if done well.

[AngryTitusPullo]

I can see a DLC campaign of Hannibal crossing the Alps already. Done something along the way NTW Napoleon Italian Campaign is done.

[Ariovist]

I like the detailed and focused campaigns a lot more than just "painting" the whole world my colour and the unrealistic movement of armies who will march years from one province to other ones.
Additionaly i become a lot more attached to the characters in Napoleon and Fall of the Samurai because of the amount of turns i can play with these characters.
Julius Caesar in Rome II will never be able to achieve what he did in real life because he will die of old age before marching from Gaul to Egypt concerning the number of turns/years it will take.
We all know that the Grand Campaign will never have more than 4 turns a year in comparison to at least 12 in the focused campaigns.

I really hope for DLC campaigns such as the conquests of Julius Caesar or the achievements of Hannibal.

[Breoghan]

The Peninsular Campaign, Fall of the Samurai all lead to what I think would be the absolute greatest single player campaign experience in CA's brilliant total war franchise.

Rome and the classical period are marked by several legendary campaigns throughout. Surely we at TWC drool over the epic struggles of the Greek city state conflicts, the Rise of Rome, the Punic Wars, Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul and Vercingetorix, Augustus Caesar against Marc Antony, Alexander's triumph over Persia and conflict in the East. Up to the Saxon invasion of Britannia and the Hunnic expansion, specific wars are so much more cinematic and engaging than a drawn out century spanning grand campaign.

I know my proposal will not come to fruition in RTW2 but write this with a mind for Medieval 3 or whatever CA has up its sleeve next. Total war ought to replace the grand campaign with actual campaigns of renowned historical figures.

Imagine the mechanics and details that could be poured into the soul of the Roman military machine in each different era, the nuances of command between Hannibal and the various Roman consuls of the Second Punic War, with extensive mechanics for Hannibal's mercenaries and the Spanish provinces. The civil war could use the allegiance system but with much more grave consequences, putting a larger focus on agents and politics for a much more scheming sort of game.

My idea for such a series would be as followed

Rome Total War (Vanilla) Campaigns

1. Rise of Rome (with Rome, the Samnites, Etruscans as playable factions)
2. The Punic Wars
3. Julius Caesar
4. The Great Civil War/ Rise of the Empire
5. Spartacus and the Slave Revolt

1st Expansion, the Hellenic Experience

1. Times of Legend, the Trojan War
2. Greek City State Conflicts, Sparta, Athens, Thessaly
3. Alexander

2nd Expansion, Barbarian Invasion

1. Attila
2. Britannia Campaign
3. Justinian's Conquests

Thoughts, questions, concerns, support, tell me why!

You forgot the invasion of the iberian peninsula, the numantine wars, lusitanian wars, cantabrian wars, that marked the shape of Rome`s army forever (gladius hispaniensis), changed his calendar to begins in the actual month of january and took over than 200 years to complete it...from the second punic war to the time of Octavianus...

However i doubt CA will made too many expansions

[AngryTitusPullo]

I wonder if campaign MP can be upped to 4 player... If yes then probably some campaign during the invasion of Britain where 4 players will each play 4 legions. Of course this will be co-op campaign only. Can have roman civil war in britain though.