Poll: Your favorite Total War

[The_Lost_King]

So I decided to play some Total War: Rome because Jingles is doing a let's play of it, and it is easily my favorite of the 3 Total War games that I have played(Medieval 2 and a little bit of Shogun 2: fall of the samurai). It actually sucked me in and made me want to defeat Gaul and Carthage and carve a name for myself which is making me excited for Rome 2. Unlike Medieval 2 which I was trying to get into and love but it wasn't as engaging, now if only it wouldn't crash...

So which Total War is your favorite?

 

[Trololo Punk]

My favourite total war game is Rome. But, I have never played Shogun 2 cause I still cannot get it working on my computer.

 

[wooty]

Shogun 2, without a doubt. The feel of it is right, the music is spot on and the detail is gorgeous. The game can be very challenging at times too, particularly in the mid-late game, when everyone decides to declare war on you at the same time. Time to pucker up and spend lads!

Fall of the Samurai is the best "expansion" if you will, watching the game change and the introduction of the modern weapons makes the later game a complete pain in the arse, which I like.

 

[Kikosemmek]

I agree that Rome was the one that sucked me in the most. I'm a big history buff, and I absolutely love the classical period.

It's my favourite TW, but only with Europa Barbarorum installed. I wholeheartedly recommend that mod to everyone playing RTW because it just does everything right. The map's bigger and more detailed, there are more factions to play, each faction has a unique and historically researched roster (none of that pharaonic Egypt stuff in Vanilla!), and each unit is modeled and skinned custom. On top of that, there is a complete voicemod with actual recreations of ancient languages.

Seriously, play EB, it's farking amazing.

 

[Joccaren]

Medieval 2.

I loved Shogun 2, and it is a masterful game, but I love the feel of the middle ages more. Sieging a castle, rather than climbing up its walls. The wall of death that comes from a Heavy Cavalry charge. Getting Gunpowder and beginning to utterly destroy castles.

Shogun 2 I loved with its research, naval battles, scenery and graphics, its tactics - I just found Medieval 2 more enjoyable simply because of what I mentioned above. It was fun, as was Shogun 2, but destroying your enemy with a massive cavalry charge cannot be beat, nor can blasting down a castle wall and running in through the breach.

 

[Mordekaien]

Medieval 2.

I loved Shogun 2, and it is a masterful game, but I love the feel of the middle ages more. Sieging a castle, rather than climbing up its walls. The wall of death that comes from a Heavy Cavalry charge. Getting Gunpowder and beginning to utterly destroy castles.

This. I like that historical period, and therefore the Medieval wins by me, even if I liked some mechanics of Rome better. I haven't played Shogun and Empire, so I can't comment on those two.

 

[sb666]

Shogun 2 without a doubt. I love feudal Japan as a setting and the game plays really well.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Rome: Total War by far. I have also played 3 Total War games, the others being both Medievals. I liked the first Medieval but absolutely hated the second. I tried re-playing Medieval II recently, but couldn't keep at it after 30 minutes. Atrocious battle mechanics.

But yeah, Rome: Total War is the best for me. The most interesting period of history, a great variety of different factions and most of all, the gameplay! The smooth, fluid and responsive battle mechanics is what made me love the game so much, in comparison to the clunky and unresponsive Medieval II. Has a fantastic modding community as well. Among my favourite Rome mods are Europa Barbarorum, Rise of Persia and Hegemonia City States. Very cool stuff.

 

[Abomination]

Medieval 2, the modding of that community is amazing.

I also like how technology progresses - but I wish there was 'research' like they introduced in Empire.

Speaking of Empire, that's my 2nd favorite for similar reasons.

 

[uzo]

You spelt 'Napoleon' wrong.

But yeah, my fave is Nappers:TW.

I've played every TW since the beginning (does anyone remember it was actually originally called 'daimyo' *gasp* yes that long) ... but the best tactically was Nappers.

Not the AI ... AI was probably best in Rome/Medieval because it was primarily cav/inf tactics (and relatively easy for a computer to grasp). Once gunpowder was involved the AI collapsed terribly, but the online battles became freakin' awesome.

I have a mate I regularly battle - I'm a line infantry/heavy artillery 'pounder', he's a cavalry tactics type. Our battles swing wildly depending on field of battle, cover available, forestry, because I'm best suited to defensive/pound the buggery out of enemy positions, and he's best suited to charging flanks.

We have a particularly good laugh when we team up with other players we don't know so well. I remember a beautiful 4 player game where some poor bastard cav charged my militia who were cowering behind light hedges ... he hadn't realise my light inf had deployed stakes in the hedges ... and horse burgers were had by all!

 

[Meatspinner]

Rome by far. Shogun 2 comes close. I was actually surprised how good that game was. Medieval 2 would be at the top if not for the endless string of castle sieges/fights

 

[Kristian Fischer]

Rome I, hands down. Come september, I fully expect it to be Rome II.

Shogun 2 (especially Fall of the Samurai, because Gatlings) is a close second.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

It's a tough choice for me between Rome and Medieval II, but I think Rome just edges it out because of the setting. I loved the feel of commanding one of the strongest families in the world as you systematically conquered the world in the name of Rome, and juggling the affection of the Senate and the people was an awesome mechanic (very similar to the one in Medieval II with the Vatican, which is also why I like that game so much). But yeah, Rome for me. It was engrossing, a great introduction to the genre for me and I love the period.

 

[Milkman Jim]

It's definitely Empire Total War for me. I love the Napoleonic era of history, and Empire has a great campaign with the 3 theatres.

But I'm sure Rome II will be my new favourite when it's released.

 

[Angelowl]

Favourite will probably be shogun 2 when I get it, as I can use the things I like from empire and still have a classic art of war-eque feel of it.
Rome was ruined by the whole "there are three different romes, and they are allies!" in the west and the spoiled egyptians with loads of cash and nothing better to do than steamroll everything in the east. Medieval 2 felt like a huge step up, but has a different problem. MONGOLS! So, I'm at the holy lands and IF I get rid of the mongols, more of them show up. With elephants... Empire got a great feel but the historical accuracy was close to nil, at least regarding sweden.

All three are solved by mods. And with the actual mods... I have no clue. They are all amazing.

 

[Khymerion]

Shogun 2, namely the base and rise of the samurai campaigns. Empire and Napoleon for the naval multiplayer matches. But Shogun 2 has proper Ironclads, which is all that is needed.

 

[suitepee7]

medieval 2 for me. rome was the one that dragged me in, but medieval 2 added much more depth to the city planning and management side of things.

 

[Terminal Blue]

It's a tough question for me.

I think Shogun 2 has the best system, mechanics and AI and I think the difficulty curve (for once) is handled really well, thanks to realm divide and the taxation system, it doesn't feel so much like the difficulty drops away as your faction grows, which has always been a problem with total war games.

But nonetheless, I have a dark, guilty love for Empire. It had a really bad release, but it really stepped into its boots with subsequent patches. I love the scale, I love the potential for counter-history (yay British republic!) and it's the only time period where having armies conquer large swathes of the world actually makes historical sense. Sure, there's still a lot of flaws, but I'd love to see it get a sequel eventually.

They really could have done with ripping off Imperial Glory's annexation system though. I don't think anyone would have minded since Imperial Glory was itself a massive rip off of the total war franchise. Basically, it always bugged me that as soon as you conquer a country it seems to suddenly become culturally and militarily identical to your home nation. European countries have never really conquered each other in that way, it's always been about puppet states and coalitions and vassalage, which I think IG got across (just by letting conquered countries keep their uniforms - albeit historically inaccurate uniforms - on troops recruited there) in a way no total war game ever has.

I don't think such a system would be too hard to mod actually. It would just require a metric fuckton of new unit entries.