Appreciation Of Total War games leading to Rome II

[edbenedict77]

Appreciation of Total War (From Medieval 1 to Shogun 2)

I would really like to put down the things I appreciated in total war single player games, both the turn based campaign and real time battles. I cannot say that I have played the very 1st total war game, namely Shogun Total War. But I have played every game from MTW to S2TW. (Still haven’t had the time to dwell into S2TW: RotS and FotS, yet)
So here goes:

MTW & MTW:VI (Medieval Total War & Viking Invasion)

1) The concept of civil war when generals’ loyalty drops, and the option to take the side of the rebels or loyalists.
2) Taking prisoners on the battle field, option to either execute or exchange them.
3) Weather effecting way the battles plays out for both the defenders and the attackers.
4) AI’s ability to leave the battle ground if the odds are against it. Or the withdrawal of the reinforcements if the odds seem bad. (i.e. if the main army is in already in flight!)
5) Events being mentioned according to historical facts. (small pop-ups, about some incident/event in specific year)
6) Ability to grant titles to your faction’s generals/family members.
7) Titles given to generals according to the places they have captured.
8) Marrying off family members, and due to marriage direct claim to those faction’s lands.
9) Re emergence of some factions and emergence of new factions (If I recall correctly the Burgandians and the Swiss)
10) Assassins and spies can be directed to kill or spy on your own generals respectively, for your own reasons.
11) A wonderful mix of agents.
12) Religious agents causing riots/revolts.
13) The image of the settlement in the campaign map and battle map, changes as you develop it.
14) Ability to recruit and produce, special units and resources in certain regions, respectively.
15) Ability to blockade ports.
16) Fighting against historical horde armies, from the east.
17) Some cavalry units can dismount and fight on foot, before the start of battle.

RTW (Rome Total War)

1) The concept of three great families and central governing senate, if playing as the Romans.
2) An AWESOME campaign map, with features of the Ancient World Wonders.
3) Ability to fight next to such immense structures, in the battle map.
4) For the 1st time (and sadly, so far the last time!) to view all your settlements and its architecture and various building you have built, or was present.
5) Ability to appoint an heir of your choosing.
6) Ability to build forts and watch towers on the campaign map.
7) Enemy army causing pillage, if stationed in your region.
8) Rebels / pirates disrupting your trade routes.
9) Most historical disasters animated on the campaign map.
10) You get to hear your general’s inspirational speech before the battle, and use his rally ability during the battle.
11) Attack at night according to your general’s ability/traits.
12) Ability to fight on the battlements of castles.
13) Campaign time period divided into seasons.


RTW: BI (Barbarian Invasion)

1) Ability to create barbarian hordes for certain factions, and migrate.
2) Ability to choose the religion for the Roman faction. (western)
3) When certain barbarian factions lose their last settlement, they turn into a horde army.
4) Certain units can swim across the river on the battle map, in a bridge attack / defense.

RTW: Alexander
1) Fast paced game revolving around the life period of Alexander the Great.

M2TW (Medieval 2 Total War) & Kingdoms

1) For the 1st time some units could deploy stakes on the battle field, before the start of battle. (if my memory serves right, English Longbows)
2) Merchants were introduced for the 1st time.
3) The aspect of castle and town, and two different build trees.
4) Ability to ransom, execute or release prisoners, after a battle.
5) Ability to elect your pope for the catholic faction.
6) Agent actions portrayed elaborately in cut scene videos. (I believe this was 1st introduced in Shogun Total war, sorry I have no 1st hand experience of playing it.)

ETW (Empire Total War)

1) Naval battles for the 1st time.
2) Extended campaign map (Europe, South Asia, North and Central America)
3) Introduction of special trade regions/nodes.
4) Raiding trade routes.
5) Appointing minister for your government.
6) Upgrading of forts on the campaign map.
7) Introduction of the technology tree.
8) New agent, The Gentleman.
9) Ability to raid enemy infrastructures in the province.
10) Ability to use/make some structures on the battle map as fortification for your troops, during o before the battle.
11) The range arch of cannons and missile troops, made visible.
12) Ability to recruit your own generals.
13) Ability to replenish troop #s, while in a friendly province and in the field.
14) According to city size and upgrades, they get permanent garrison civil militia units at the time of a siege.

ETW: NTW (Napoleon Total War)

1) Attrition on your army, if it is in enemy territory during the winter months.

S2TW (Shogun 2 Total War)

1) The ability to make the choice of selecting ancillaries and traits for your generals and agents; as they gain Xp points.
2) A special infrastructure in certain provinces makes the difference in certain unit’s attributes. (for example; the same bow ashigaru units, trained in certain provinces have longer range and more ammunition, than their same counter parts)
3) The option of exchanging hostages, in the diplomatic screen.
4) Introduction of “Dilemmas” and accordingly its consequences portrayed in the game play.
5) Ability to make a clan/faction your vassal when you conquer their province from some other clan/faction which holds it.
6) Attrition on your navy when it sails/rows away from the shore, during the winter.

The above are the features I have come to appreciate, in the Total War games, I have played. Friends, please forgive me if I had missed any other awesome features, and feel free to add. And I hope many other players will agree too, and would love to see many of them incorporated into the new upcoming Rome II Total War.

P.s: I have not played multi-player, so I cannot comment on that.

[Shocked]

Oh wow a positive post on past games, this is a rare thing to behold on this sub forum. +rep

[Humble Warrior]

Appreciation of Total War (From Medieval 1 to Shogun 2)

I would really like to put down the things I appreciated in total war single player games, both the turn based campaign and real time battles. I cannot say that I have played the very 1st total war game, namely Shogun Total War. But I have played every game from MTW to S2TW. (Still haven’t had the time to dwell into S2TW: RotS and FotS, yet)
So here goes:

MTW & MTW:VI (Medieval Total War & Viking Invasion)

1) The concept of civil war when generals’ loyalty drops, and the option to take the side of the rebels or loyalists.
2) Taking prisoners on the battle field, option to either execute or exchange them.
3) Weather effecting way the battles plays out for both the defenders and the attackers.
4) AI’s ability to leave the battle ground if the odds are against it. Or the withdrawal of the reinforcements if the odds seem bad. (i.e. if the main army is in already in flight!)
5) Events being mentioned according to historical facts. (small pop-ups, about some incident/event in specific year)
6) Ability to grant titles to your faction’s generals/family members.
7) Titles given to generals according to the places they have captured.
8) Marrying off family members, and due to marriage direct claim to those faction’s lands.
9) Re emergence of some factions and emergence of new factions (If I recall correctly the Burgandians and the Swiss)
10) Assassins and spies can be directed to kill or spy on your own generals respectively, for your own reasons.
11) A wonderful mix of agents.
12) Religious agents causing riots/revolts.
13) The image of the settlement in the campaign map and battle map, changes as you develop it.
14) Ability to recruit and produce, special units and resources in certain regions, respectively.
15) Ability to blockade ports.
16) Fighting against historical horde armies, from the east.
17) Some cavalry units can dismount and fight on foot, before the start of battle.

RTW (Rome Total War)

1) The concept of three great families and central governing senate, if playing as the Romans.
2) An AWESOME campaign map, with features of the Ancient World Wonders.
3) Ability to fight next to such immense structures, in the battle map.
4) For the 1st time (and sadly, so far the last time!) to view all your settlements and its architecture and various building you have built, or was present.
5) Ability to appoint an heir of your choosing.
6) Ability to build forts and watch towers on the campaign map.
7) Enemy army causing pillage, if stationed in your region.
8) Rebels / pirates disrupting your trade routes.
9) Most historical disasters animated on the campaign map.
10) You get to hear your general’s inspirational speech before the battle, and use his rally ability during the battle.
11) Attack at night according to your general’s ability/traits.
12) Ability to fight on the battlements of castles.
13) Campaign time period divided into seasons.


RTW: BI (Barbarian Invasion)

1) Ability to create barbarian hordes for certain factions, and migrate.
2) Ability to choose the religion for the Roman faction. (western)
3) When certain barbarian factions lose their last settlement, they turn into a horde army.
4) Certain units can swim across the river on the battle map, in a bridge attack / defense.

RTW: Alexander
1) Fast paced game revolving around the life period of Alexander the Great.

M2TW (Medieval 2 Total War) & Kingdoms

1) For the 1st time some units could deploy stakes on the battle field, before the start of battle. (if my memory serves right, English Longbows)
2) Merchants were introduced for the 1st time.
3) The aspect of castle and town, and two different build trees.
4) Ability to ransom, execute or release prisoners, after a battle.
5) Ability to elect your pope for the catholic faction.
6) Agent actions portrayed elaborately in cut scene videos. (I believe this was 1st introduced in Shogun Total war, sorry I have no 1st hand experience of playing it.)

ETW (Empire Total War)

1) Naval battles for the 1st time.
2) Extended campaign map (Europe, South Asia, North and Central America)
3) Introduction of special trade regions/nodes.
4) Raiding trade routes.
5) Appointing minister for your government.
6) Upgrading of forts on the campaign map.
7) Introduction of the technology tree.
8) New agent, The Gentleman.
9) Ability to raid enemy infrastructures in the province.
10) Ability to use/make some structures on the battle map as fortification for your troops, during o before the battle.
11) The range arch of cannons and missile troops, made visible.
12) Ability to recruit your own generals.
13) Ability to replenish troop #s, while in a friendly province and in the field.
14) According to city size and upgrades, they get permanent garrison civil militia units at the time of a siege.

ETW: NTW (Napoleon Total War)

1) Attrition on your army, if it is in enemy territory during the winter months.

S2TW (Shogun 2 Total War)

1) The ability to make the choice of selecting ancillaries and traits for your generals and agents; as they gain Xp points.
2) A special infrastructure in certain provinces makes the difference in certain unit’s attributes. (for example; the same bow ashigaru units, trained in certain provinces have longer range and more ammunition, than their same counter parts)
3) The option of exchanging hostages, in the diplomatic screen.
4) Introduction of “Dilemmas” and accordingly its consequences portrayed in the game play.
5) Ability to make a clan/faction your vassal when you conquer their province from some other clan/faction which holds it.
6) Attrition on your navy when it sails/rows away from the shore, during the winter.

The above are the features I have come to appreciate, in the Total War games, I have played. Friends, please forgive me if I had missed any other awesome features, and feel free to add. And I hope many other players will agree too, and would love to see many of them incorporated into the new upcoming Rome II Total War.

P.s: I have not played multi-player, so I cannot comment on that.

I agree with much, save somewhat for Empire.

But the problem here is CA keep taking things out when they put new things in, and the new things often don`t make up for what they left out. For instance I really liked the prisoner aspect of MTW2 so why suddenly miss that out in Empire and STW2? Prisoners were a pretty common part of warfare, I think. Then there`s the naming of ships and units in Empire, but left out in STW2? Why couldn`t that have stayed. They forgot? Took too much time? Didn`t understand it was liked? Dumbing down?

Just small examples.

What CA needs to do is keep ALL the good stuff and stop swapping out good stuff for other good stuff that don`t replace the previous.

[edbenedict77]

What CA needs to do is keep ALL the good stuff and stop swapping out good stuff for other good stuff that don`t replace the previous.

Totally agree with you. I hope CA won't make the same ole mistakes with RIITW

[Sir Winston Churchill]

As Humble said, I agree with a lot of the points you made. Each game had its shares of improvements. The only problem was a majority of those improvements were for that game only, they didn't pass on and for reasons left unknown. That I believe has been a major problem for Total War since the beginning.

[Rorarii]

ETW, ability to have Elections .. even though the results meant SFA.

R

[Anna_Gein]

Exactly it's always sad to see a interesting feature disappear in the last game.
The series can't improve this way.

[The Holy Pilgrim]

You forgot a few things

Appreciation of Total War (From Medieval 1 to Shogun 2)

I would really like to put down the things I appreciated in total war single player games, both the turn based campaign and real time battles. I cannot say that I have played the very 1st total war game, namely Shogun Total War. But I have played every game from MTW to S2TW. (Still haven’t had the time to dwell into S2TW: RotS and FotS, yet)
So here goes:

MTW & MTW:VI (Medieval Total War & Viking Invasion)

1) The concept of civil war when generals’ loyalty drops, and the option to take the side of the rebels or loyalists.
2) Taking prisoners on the battle field, option to either execute or exchange them.
3) Weather effecting way the battles plays out for both the defenders and the attackers.
4) AI’s ability to leave the battle ground if the odds are against it. Or the withdrawal of the reinforcements if the odds seem bad. (i.e. if the main army is in already in flight!)
5) Events being mentioned according to historical facts. (small pop-ups, about some incident/event in specific year)
6) Ability to grant titles to your faction’s generals/family members.
7) Titles given to generals according to the places they have captured.
8) Marrying off family members, and due to marriage direct claim to those faction’s lands.
9) Re emergence of some factions and emergence of new factions (If I recall correctly the Burgandians and the Swiss)
10) Assassins and spies can be directed to kill or spy on your own generals respectively, for your own reasons.
11) A wonderful mix of agents.
12) Religious agents causing riots/revolts.
13) The image of the settlement in the campaign map and battle map, changes as you develop it.
14) Ability to recruit and produce, special units and resources in certain regions, respectively.
15) Ability to blockade ports.
16) Fighting against historical horde armies, from the east.
17) Some cavalry units can dismount and fight on foot, before the start of battle.
18) Castles now have gates and there are now siege engines in-game
19) Could declare war on another faction IN THE MIDDLE OF BATTLE! (It may have been Shogun I to have implement this).

RTW (Rome Total War)

1) The concept of three great families and central governing senate, if playing as the Romans.
2) An AWESOME campaign map, with features of the Ancient World Wonders.
3) Ability to fight next to such immense structures, in the battle map.
4) For the 1st time (and sadly, so far the last time!) to view all your settlements and its architecture and various building you have built, or was present.
5) Ability to appoint an heir of your choosing.
6) Ability to build forts and watch towers on the campaign map.
7) Enemy army causing pillage, if stationed in your region.
8) Rebels / pirates disrupting your trade routes.
9) Most historical disasters animated on the campaign map.
10) You get to hear your general’s inspirational speech before the battle, and use his rally ability during the battle.
11) Attack at night according to your general’s ability/traits.
12) Ability to fight on the battlements of castles.
13) Campaign time period divided into seasons.
14) IT IS IN FREAKIN' 3D!!!
15) Using the new 3D feature of the game, the Parthinians show off their fantabulous pink wardrobes! (this idea would later be followed by the Tsu faction of Fall of the Samurai)


RTW: BI (Barbarian Invasion)

1) Ability to create barbarian hordes for certain factions, and migrate.
2) Ability to choose the religion for the Roman faction. (western)
3) When certain barbarian factions lose their last settlement, they turn into a horde army.
4) Certain units can swim across the river on the battle map, in a bridge attack / defense.

RTW: Alexander
1) Fast paced game revolving around the life period of Alexander the Great.
2) Immortal Generals became a thing (for the first and only time).
3) Factions could be wiped out with the death of a certain family member.
3) The FIRST story-arc to be featured via Historical Battles (i.e. complete Battle A to unlock Battle B).

M2TW (Medieval 2 Total War) & Kingdoms

1) For the 1st time some units could deploy stakes on the battle field, before the start of battle. (if my memory serves right, English Longbows)
2) Merchants were introduced for the 1st time.
3) The aspect of castle and town, and two different build trees.
4) Ability to ransom, execute or release prisoners, after a battle.
5) Ability to elect your pope for the catholic faction.
6) Agent actions portrayed elaborately in cut scene videos. (I believe this was 1st introduced in Shogun Total war, sorry I have no 1st hand experience of playing it.)
7) Hot-Seat was added to the game.

ETW (Empire Total War)

1) Naval battles for the 1st time.
2) Extended campaign map (Europe, South Asia, North and Central America)
3) Introduction of special trade regions/nodes.
4) Raiding trade routes.
5) Appointing minister for your government.
6) Upgrading of forts on the campaign map.
7) Introduction of the technology tree.
8) New agent, The Gentleman.
9) Ability to raid enemy infrastructures in the province.
10) Ability to use/make some structures on the battle map as fortification for your troops, during o before the battle.
11) The range arch of cannons and missile troops, made visible.
12) Ability to recruit your own generals.
13) Ability to replenish troop #s, while in a friendly province and in the field.
14) According to city size and upgrades, they get permanent garrison civil militia units at the time of a siege.
15) Entering enemy territory without proper diplomatic agreements had dire consequences.

ETW: NTW (Napoleon Total War)

1) Attrition on your army, if it is in enemy territory during the winter months.
2) Online Campaigns viable (improved immensely in Shogun 2).

S2TW (Shogun 2 Total War)

1) The ability to make the choice of selecting ancillaries and traits for your generals and agents; as they gain Xp points.
2) A special infrastructure in certain provinces makes the difference in certain unit’s attributes. (for example; the same bow ashigaru units, trained in certain provinces have longer range and more ammunition, than their same counter parts)
3) The option of exchanging hostages, in the diplomatic screen.
4) Introduction of “Dilemmas” and accordingly its consequences portrayed in the game play.
5) Ability to make a clan/faction your vassal when you conquer their province from some other clan/faction which holds it.
6) Attrition on your navy when it sails/rows away from the shore, during the winter.
7) Hero units make a return (last seen in Shogun I (i.e. the Kensei, but he was a one man army)).
8) Ports could now be besieged on the battle map.
9) Coastal Bombardments!

The above are the features I have come to appreciate, in the Total War games, I have played. Friends, please forgive me if I had missed any other awesome features, and feel free to add. And I hope many other players will agree too, and would love to see many of them incorporated into the new upcoming Rome II Total War.

P.s: I have not played multi-player, so I cannot comment on that.

[Anna_Gein]

You could recruit general in barbarian invasion too.
It was sadly abandon in Medieval 2 before the return of this feature in Empire.

[Kaap]

According to Iron Brigade all these games sucked. The members on Norbsoft forums say so

[Keyser]

In Medieval total war, the game made a difference between prisoners, you could release/ransom/kill everybody, or just the soldiers, or just the characters. (I usually ransomed the characters and killed the soldiers by the way, but having the choice was nice)

I thought it was better than in medieval II and didn't quite understand why they left that out.
I couldn't really understand too why the option to dismount troops before the battle as in medieval 1 was left out and instead we had to build two kind of units, mounted and dismounted.

[Asgaroth]

Totally agree with you. I hope CA won't make the same ole mistakes with RIITW

I agree too !

But how can CA know what kind of features do we exactly like and dislike, but really how can they know ?

Maybe we should open the thread and vote or something similar ? So at the end we can see how many people are amazed by faction intros, ability to fight besides wonders and so?

I like all this minor features that make the game amazing, like intro videos for factions in Rome I and city viewing and probably 95 percent of the OP .

[emotion_name]

Well, tbh if we can agree via majority that they seem to cut out one good feature in place of another, for seemingly no good reason, then surely the developers already know they are doing it.

This would then imply they are indeed doing it for a reason.

Or are blissfully ignorant.

[DarthRuanek]

Night battles were introduced in BI, not RTW. Good list, though!