Calling all Total War Experts!

[Citizen]

How the hell do you become proficient at this game? I've always wanted to be able to play this game with a modicum of skill...but i can't even do that

I seem to get lost in the campaign..how do you know what you NEED to build....while keeping an eye on the income? When do you attack a faction?...or not as the case my be. My mind become clouded in a fog of confusion.....i just don't know what the hell to do.

...and i DO want to be able to love this game,oh yes. Maybe i should buy it a bunch of flowers and a box of chocolates.......jeez, what do i do to get this game to love me?


Oh, and i've tried automating tasks but i don't get any satisfaction out of that.

NTW is released soon (my fav historic military period).....so i want to be prepaired

c

 

[Mart2912]

I'm no expert, but the best thing I would say is to keep your people happy (Certain buildings have a +happiness bonus) so you will get a nice income. Once you have done that I would mainly focus on military buildings so you get better/improved troops.

Build your army up and try to send a spy to the enemy that you want to attack, that way you can get information about their army and the spy can even open their front gates for you (No siege required in that case).

In the past I have managed to defend a city several times despite being out numbered 3 to 1. It's really about using the right unit at the right time.

 

[crazymofo16321]

If this is the terrible ETW, I found that trade is crazy imbalanced, just make sure you build nothing but ships early on if you are a sea nation, and claim the ivory coast and the east indies. You will be sorted with a huge income that you can use to win the rest of the game. As for battles they are a complete joke with such an incompetent AI so you shouldnt have a problem.

unfortunately you'll die of boredom before you complete more than maybe 30 turns. yeah... The old TW's are much better.

 

[Citizen]

If this is the terrible ETW, I found that trade is crazy imbalanced, just make sure you build nothing but ships early on if you are a sea nation, and claim the ivory coast and the east indies. You will be sorted with a huge income that you can use to win the rest of the game.

Well i've only ever played the demo,and was most impressed with the level of unit detail. Unfortunately (or fortunately as it seems), i'm not interested in the time period, but yes i've heard about all the problems that has beset the game. I'm probably being cynical here, but i think ETW was simply a tester code for NTW.......

As for battles they are a complete joke with such an incompetent AI so you shouldnt have a problem.

The AI hasn't had the good fortune to come across me yet

 

[crazymofo16321]

Well i've only ever played the demo,and was most impressed with the level of unit detail.

Hmm, the graphics are pretty poor if you ask me, very 'fuzzy' when compared to Medieval 2, which is much older. It seems that these days 'good graphics' are just shader effects smeared across the screen. I do respect that it can handle more men on screen without slowdown though (especially with darth mod)

I'm probably being cynical here, but i think ETW was simply a tester code for NTW.......

Sorry to break it too you but it looks like NTW is going to be even more of a dissapointment than Empire was. I mean Empire was shockingly bad, but at least it had a campaign, what you get in nappy is basically the road to independence mini-campaign but in europe.

I hate the way all the stuff i used to love (old TW for example) is just turd now, i'm sure its not me getting older because you still find gem's like STALKER or Kings Bounty that I love coming out of the eastern development houses. but every 'big' release just gets worse and worse.

Try Medieval 2 with the Deus Lo Vult mod, or Rome with Roma Surrectum for the best TW experience this side of Medieval 1 which is still by far the best total war game.

 

[Mart2912]

I'm not a fan of the ETW era, i prefer much earlier or much later. I haven’t tried NTW but to be honest I'm not really expecting much.

 

[shaggyd]

I started the opposite of what Crazymofo suggested, I built & researched industry early in the game before building a sizeable fleet. But like his suggestion, send the fleet along with trade ships to Ivory Coast and monopolise the trade routes. Make sure you have a fleet for protection there.

The next stage is to build a full army and send it to India to fight the Mughal Empire -
They are poor and the skirmishes are easy. Very good for building an army of veterans. By this time, expect the Ottoman & Persian Empires to declare war on you. Again they are easy takings and allow you to dominate the North Africa & Indian continents.

Big Advice - Avoid war with France & Spain until later in the game, they drain your resources.

Land battles - if you like Napolean conflicts, use their tactics. Build line infantry, artillery and calvary. Get your infantry to 'box' in any enemy and use rifle crossfire. Also, timing of fire is vital - too early and few units die, too late and the enemy are on top of you. Manually tell your infantry to open fire when the enemy are within 3/4 your range and they will fire a volley before using fire at will - highly devastating. Research cannister shot and the artillery will be lethal at close range.

I have only just got back into the game after the latest round of patches made it more stable. Check twcwenter for the AUP (Additional Units Pack) which gives more historical and fictional (eg. Sharpe) units. My advice is to stick with the game, but play it with some of the recent mods that are available. Naval combat is still 'meh' but again check historical information on tactics. Also, latest patch has made capture of ships easier.

 

[ps3ud0]

Hi Guys,

Not really ontrack but I thought you guys might be able to give insight - as Total War on Steam is on offer Im interested in getting it (Not got Empire ir Kingdoms basically ), but wanted to check that I can use these for Mods and the like...

I think I heard that I might have problems due to version mis-matches since Steam always keeps them up-to-date - will I miss much if I cant use the mods (I assume yes especially when it comes to AI and the like)...

ps3ud0