Empire Total War - I Let Myself Get Steamy!
Sheldon England
The end of the world is nigh.
Two weekends ago I was looking at the store's game shelf and couldn't
resist the call of the Total War games. After having a friend convince
me that Steam really wasn't as obtrusive as the legends would suggest, I
bought my first ever Steam game.
The install was pretty straight forward and the whole event turned out
to be fairly anti-climatic. I was able to minimise the Steam impact so
that I hardly know it is there. When I load the game, Steam loads first
... and when I exit the game I can right click on the Steam icon on the
taskbar to exit the program. I don't ever have to view ads, no DNA
samples or retina scans were required. I can live with that.
As a fan of the Total War series, the game was pretty much what I
expected. The tutorials were straight forward. The Road to Independence
campaign was fun. Yes, you have to understand that it is not a 100%
accurate military simulation. As others have written, it is weird to see
formations of Inuit with artillery and the like -- but as far as the
French-English period line skirmishes go, it's quite fun. It seems to me
that rebels appear more often in this game than in the previous TW
releases ... I don't recall nearly so many revolutions in Rome or
Medieval 1/2. The naval battles were fun at first but got kind of
tedious when fleets started duking it out. I preferred the one-on-one
naval engagements the most.
I got a full campaign game going as the English and it seemed to go very
well. It was a challenge to get my economy going initially but after a
few years and some minor nations eliminated the colonies were secure.
There is a weird bug in that two of my small fleets in the Caribbean
cannot be touched. I can't even examine them without the game crashing
to a white screen of death. A quick online search revealed I was not
alone in experiencing this. Eh ... so I leave those fleets alone. Not a
big problem. Diplomacy is handled very nicely with a simple interface.
The historic event information is a nice touch as they occur much more
than in the earlier TW issues.
Fast forward several years and England has absorbed the 13 colonies, has
total ownership of the Americas from Alaska to Newfoundland and from
California to the Caribbean, I have taken out France and Spain and all
their colonies, and I have a toe-hold in North Africa and India, with
global defense fleets well deployed. It all sounds good ... but then I
hit my second game bug.
After playing several hours I saved the game and left it. Now the save
cannot be loaded. The game launches just fine but I just cannot load my
save where things are going so well. I tried loading a previous save
(worked) and played for another decade or so, saved the game, then
exited to try and load my save. White screen of death. So, I guess I
just cannot play past a certain point. This is too bad as I was looking
forward to some serious land battles in Europe and Asia.
These bugs are game stoppers for me... but the first part was fun. Maybe
in a future bug patch they can fix this so I can play into the later
years. It is fun to play and cannons are devastating ... but I actually
think I still enjoy the Rome TW game the most in that series. Because of
the crashes I probably will shelve the game for a while to see if they
can fix the crashes. No point in forging an empire if you can't play
when the going gets good.
Just FWIW.
- Sheldon the Steamy
Bloodstar
I am at 1753. and still suffered only two crashes. Of course I believe you
and this is serious let down in this game, all those bugs.
In another post I praised this game but I am completely aware of it's
shorthcomings.
This game was made by other CA studio, the one located in England. They made
Rome: Total War.
I still think that Empire: Total War is good game and with right patches it
will be almost perfect.
Australian team that made MTW2 is by my opinion with better talents than UK
team and MTW2 was masterpiece of computer games!
Just look at all details of MTW 2. No siege battle bugs like in Empire:
Total War. And so many little touches that are skipped in Empire: Total War.
No movies in game in Empire: Total War! Why they have dropped that? To cut
development time and budget obvously! Like many other things! I will name
just some that I can remember! No money when you take enemy city. Blah! Give
me some women to rape lol
Cities in battles? LOL While MTW 2 had so gorgeus city graphics in battle
with jaw droping ARCHITECTURE, cities in E: TW are so boring and obviouls
rushed design.
Monkeys from CA - fix this! LOL
And there is at least 20 small things like this and we will see will CA fix
this or take the money and run!
But still, foundation is here and game is fun and I play it very much...
Bloodstar
Turkish campaign. There is no building browser and you can see some
buildings in research panel but not all like we had in MTW2. Another example
of rushed design when you drop something good.
OK, reinforcements of units have lessened micromanagment. In MTW 2 you had
to bring back armies to castles or cities to be trained back again to full
strength.
Dealing with spies is most boring part of the game.
Family tree is skipped as well. No big deal but...
Tatars cannot shoot and run... argh.
Loading times are attrocious. And there are delays on slower systems at
least in game. Graphics on 7900 card is lousy lol. Better is on MTW2 on this
card. OK, my bad old PC :)
Economic balance is in doubt again. Each time when you conquer a city you
must repair almost everything. And sometimes that take a lot of money.
OK, I have at last matered the game and now know everything.
The most important thing is to balance expenses and income. right now I have
plus 15000 which is not bad. Also make sure to spread your religion and look
at happiness of your citizens don't neglect this. When region is captured
leave few turns region without taxes and they will calm down a bit.
Sometimes you would have to disband some units and built them when they are
really needed. Always have strategic position in mind :)
That way I have disbanded one full Army in India and saved a lot money on
upkeep.
Other army was put to ship and taken Morocco and now it is en route to take
Spain. :)
Body guards... You don't get them as in MTW2. Somehow those idiots in CA UK
:) were thinking that we don't need that parts as well. So they dropped it
and you can only buy them.
Question again. Why they have skipped those good things?
OK, I say again even in this state I enjoy this game. Just noticing!
Sheldon England
> Loading times are attrocious. And there are delays on slower systems at
> least in game. Graphics on 7900 card is lousy lol. Better is on MTW2 on this
> card. OK, my bad old PC :)
>
My previous card was a 7900 that now sits in a box in a closet. After
upgrading to an 8800 (which is already showing its age) it made a big
difference in the Total War games. In Medieval 2 TW, on the battle maps,
it really looks like each soldier is unique! (There must be some
duplication but they are not all clones of one another.)
> Economic balance is in doubt again. Each time when you conquer a city you
> must repair almost everything. And sometimes that take a lot of money.
> OK, I have at last matered the game and now know everything.
>
Heh.
> The most important thing is to balance expenses and income. right now I have
> plus 15000 which is not bad. Also make sure to spread your religion and look
> at happiness of your citizens don't neglect this. When region is captured
> leave few turns region without taxes and they will calm down a bit.
> Sometimes you would have to disband some units and built them when they are
> really needed. Always have strategic position in mind :)
> That way I have disbanded one full Army in India and saved a lot money on
> upkeep.
> Other army was put to ship and taken Morocco and now it is en route to take
> Spain. :)
>
Oh, for sure. In the early game you can't have a lot of armies,
especially not large ones. You have to be conservative. Same goes for
fleets. Once my armies achieved their regional goals I would trim them
down to a smaller garrison in case of rebels. By the time I took out
France and Spain my income was 20,000+ per turn with many volatile
regions exempt from tax and the others all paying minimum taxes.
I also found the 'special' military units in this game interesting. Many
units that become available after research are only available in limited
numbers so you can't have them deployed everywhere. I tended to disband
them if they were far from the fronts to open up the slots for
recruiting them near battle zones.
I never really figured out what we are supposed to do with the East
Indiamen ships. I assume place them in trade zones? They just seemed so
weak so I preferred building SOLs.
> OK, I say again even in this state I enjoy this game. Just noticing!
>
Overall I enjoyed playing Empire Total War as well. If not for the
end-game crashes, I would have enjoyed it even more.
- Sheldon
Bloodstar
> upgrading to an 8800 (which is already showing its age) it made a big
> difference in the Total War games. In Medieval 2 TW, on the battle maps,
> it really looks like each soldier is unique! (There must be some
> duplication but they are not all clones of one another.)
Thanks for info, time to upgrade :)
> Oh, for sure. In the early game you can't have a lot of armies, especially
> not large ones. You have to be conservative. Same goes for fleets. Once my
> armies achieved their regional goals I would trim them down to a smaller
> garrison in case of rebels. By the time I took out France and Spain my
> income was 20,000+ per turn with many volatile regions exempt from tax and
> the others all paying minimum taxes.
Yes, maybe I will lower my taxes as well. Maybe will have to do that soon.
> I also found the 'special' military units in this game interesting. Many
> units that become available after research are only available in limited
> numbers so you can't have them deployed everywhere. I tended to disband
> them if they were far from the fronts to open up the slots for recruiting
> them near battle zones.
Nice tip.
> I never really figured out what we are supposed to do with the East
> Indiamen ships. I assume place them in trade zones? They just seemed so
> weak so I preferred building SOLs.
You have many trade zones. For example I've took two trade zone in Ivory
Coast and making good money there. They were from my enemy, Spain. So there
is 3 trade ships (captured galleons and dows merchant) and each trade zone
is making 920 I think. Just move trade ships in that trade zone on the map
(free). When you have more then first move out trade ship FROM trade zone
(bug) and then move all others combined BACK to trade zone. Remember that
they can be attacked at any time but leaving a big guarding ships will not
be possible all time... SOL rock, especially 3rd and 2nd rate, I still
cannot build 1st rate but soon I will have tech for building a dockyard for
them. And I still must try that Carronade Frigate in battle. :) (64lb guns,
short range 300 meters or yards)...
> Overall I enjoyed playing Empire Total War as well. If not for the
> end-game crashes, I would have enjoyed it even more.
Nice to hear that. Excellent game with some strange design choices and many
bugs but very enjoyable and every strategy gamer should get this game. Don't
regret one bit spending 50 euros on Steam on this game. I've lost more money
on some much more stupid things :)
Sheldon England
> Sheldon England wrote:
>> I never really figured out what we are supposed to do with the East
>> Indiamen ships. I assume place them in trade zones? They just seemed so
>> weak so I preferred building SOLs.
>>
>
> You have many trade zones. For example I've took two trade zone in Ivory
> Coast and making good money there. They were from my enemy, Spain. So there
> is 3 trade ships (captured galleons and dows merchant) and each trade zone
> is making 920 I think. Just move trade ships in that trade zone on the map
> (free). When you have more then first move out trade ship FROM trade zone
> (bug) and then move all others combined BACK to trade zone.
>
> Remember that
> they can be attacked at any time but leaving a big guarding ships will not
> be possible all time... SOL rock, especially 3rd and 2nd rate, I still
> cannot build 1st rate but soon I will have tech for building a dockyard for
> them. And I still must try that Carronade Frigate in battle. :) (64lb guns,
> short range 300 meters or yards)...
>
I had a nice North Atlantic fleet with a 1st, 2 2nds, five 4ths, and the
rest as 5ths ... three experienced admirals in the fleet ... they were
unstoppable. The graphics are amazing. You can tell this is an area
where they invested effort. Never really used my rocket ships or fire
ships. Just cannons pounding away.
> Don't
> regret one bit spending 50 euros on Steam on this game. I've lost more money
> on some much more stupid things :)
>
If not for Steam I would have bought this game on the day of release. I
held out for as long as I could.
I agree that the price is just fine for the amount of entertainment
provided. Overall I find computer gaming to be a very inexpensive hobby
considering the hours, days, weeks, and years of enjoyment I can get
from a $50 purchase. Very few of my game purchases over the years get
ignored or de-installed within hours due to their craptastic nature.
Even with the bugs, Empire was a fun ride.
- Sheldon, who would love to see a Shogun 2 - Total War game
No.T...@here.com
<sheldon...@netscape.net> wrote:
> - Sheldon, who would love to see a Shogun 2 - Total War game
If they would ever do this I would die a happy man! Was my favorite
and probably still is of the entire series, and I own them all.
Avatar
master Lee
>
> Fast forward several years and England has absorbed the 13 colonies, has
> total ownership of the Americas from Alaska to Newfoundland and from
> California to the Caribbean, I have taken out France and Spain and all
> their colonies, and I have a toe-hold in North Africa and India, with
> global defense fleets well deployed. It all sounds good ... but then I hit
> my second game bug.
>
Sheldon England
> So how do you get a toe hold in India, please to be telling me.
My rule was that I would never initiate hostilities against anyone but
rebels/pirates. But if any nation (major or minor) declared war against
me (not just one of my allies), they were considered fair game.
I happened to have a small fleet with an army lurking in the Indian
Ocean when Ceylon rebelled into independence. I landed my troops and the
battle was over before it began.
Then the United Provinces declared war on me (fools!) so I took out
their only Indian province and made offerings of tribute to my new
neighbours ... and suddenly I had a solid base of operations in Southern
India.
- Sheldon