Napoleon - Total War

[Squid Division]

I was wondering if anyone else was playing this. It's amazing how so many little changes from Empire can add up to such a different and better game. It's very constrained in every way compared to Empire; troops take way longer to build so armies won't spring up in a turn, which means your existing armies are way more important, the attrition system makes a pretty big difference - as Russia I was able to march through winter areas where the enemy couldn't follow me.

For Total War veterans definitely play the game on at least Hard/Hard - I heard from reviews that the AI was passive and that the game was pretty easy overall, but that probably happened because of an easy difficulty setting.

My one problem with the game is that there isn't as much civilization building as there was in Empire since all the buildings take so long and are so expensive. This could just be symptomatic of me playing as Russia and having to completely abandon Russia to get to the fight, however.

Probably my favorite thing about the game is the return of the battle-markers on the campaign map. In older Total War games when you had a great battle where you defeated a superior force it put a little marker on the campaign map to commemorate it. It's so satisfying seeing those around, and I had a good 6 or so of those in one campaign, far more than I've ever had before.

[Roderick]

Since I'm interested in the Napoleonic era, but haven't played a Total War game yet: is this game at all accessible to newcomers? Is there a strong narrative side to the singleplayer, as trailers seem to suggest?

[Squid Division]

Actually this game might be the one to try and jump into. The progression of the small campaigns that follow Napoleon would serve as a pretty good tutorial without being boring. I definitely wouldn't jump into the grand campaign (the entire map of Europe) first though, go through the story line. Strong narrative would be far too strong a term, the 'narrative' just means that you start on a small map of northern/central Italy, then once you beat that you go to Egypt/Holy land, and finally after that the entire map of Europe. The Total War series is pretty much entirely emergent gameplay, especially for the campaigns, but these smaller campaigns guide and focus you a bit more which is far more friendly for a newcomer.

[Roderick]

I remembered that I wanted to play Napoleon: Total War after seeing some trailers for the upcoming Shogun 2, and downloaded the demo through Steam. And err... I really liked it! It was totally overwhelming though, especially because the demo drops you right into the battle of Ligny against the Prussians, which is pretty far into the European campaign.

But OMFG it was great to have all these delicious French troops to order around, addressing you as 'monsieur!'. And the wonderful intro cinematic of Napoleon burning ships on the shores of England gave me goosebumps, but then I'm a fan of epic what-if history.

So, I'm contemplating picking the game up for supercheap. There was even a nice collector's edition with a statue of N in his famous pose on horseback, but on closer inspection the details of especially the face were kind of goofy. I am susceptible to crappy Napoleon paraphernalia though.

[The Killstar]

I can't recommend Total War enough. And Napoleon is no exception. Empire was probably their worst game, and I have 777 hours in it.

[Roderick]

On the one hand your (anti)recommendation rings true, because you've poured 777 hours into it.

On the other hand, your (anti)recommendation rings false, because you've poured 777 hours into it.