I've never played a Total War game yet, thanks to my compulsive Steam hoarding, I own all of them. Which is the best game to start with?
Empire
>>332261428
Medieval 2 or Shogun 2.
>>332261428
you just posted it
>>332261509
>>332261607
Well, that's just left me confused.
Rome 2 is the best to be honest senpai
>>332261792
Well, I know THIS isn't true.
>>332261938
A few mods fixes everything, it really is a great game if you commit to it!
could somebody get me rome 2 emperor edition from g2a ? ill pay you back
>>332261428
Attila is the easiest game to get into by far. But Shogun 2 and M2 are okay too.
Medieval 2 (tons of cool mods) or the game with your favorite era.
>>332261769
The guy who posted Empire is fucking with you. It's arguably the worst title in the series.
>>332262315
>>332262315
Ehh, fuck it, I'll go with Shogun 2 then. The setting seems pretty cool.
>>332262315
And at any rate, it's definitely its own monster, so is inarguably the worst game to start with if you want to see the essential TW experience.
The answer to that question depends heavily on what kind of historical combat appeals more to you.
Do you want armored knights battering down on poor spearmen while being completely devoured by horse archers and superior cavalry? Play Medieval 2.
Do you want endless lines of infantry shooting in massed ranks while artillery blows massive holes in them? Play Napoleon.
Do you want muh lorica segmentata? Try Rome 2 and the original Rome, and decide which one you like best.
Do you want a mix between Medieval 2 and Napoleon with moonrunes thrown in? Shogun 2.
>>332261769
Medieval 2 for the best of the old engine. It's also the newbie total war because it's slower than fucking Rome 1 and definitely slower than Shogun 2. It's my favorite game and playing it with the Stainless steel mod is actually recommended because it stays almost 1:1 with vanilla while making the graphics better, the units more historical, and the gameplay not buggy.
Shogun 2 is the best total war in my opinion. It does everything right and I would say any criticisms I have of it are subjective.
Rome 1 is fun, but really fucking old and requires mods to fix the shit path-finding. And it's one of the easiest because Rome is the only starting faction and they're unbelievably broken.
Empire is personal preference. It's one of the slowest TW games and I call it a line-moving simulator, but it's great fun if you're into the time period.
Nappy is only if you love Empire or want to just play the Napoleonic Wars.
Fall of the Samurai is the best gunpowder TW and is utterly fantastic.
Rome 2 is the middle-ground entry. I find it more playable than unmodded vanilla Rome 1, but it's fucking boring and sterilized.
Attila is much better than Rome 2 and the Charlesmange DLC is better than both Attila and Rome 2.
As a note, DONT buy any of the DLC except the following: Fall of the Samurai, Age of Charlesmange, and Rise of the Samurai (if you're some weeboo).
Literally everything else is jew-lord to the furtherest. And I'm not shitposting. Those unique factions are generally shit, add nothing new, or add utterly broken bullshit. The DLC campaigns are usually just scaled down and add nothing to the feel of the games. The campaign dlcs I listed are the only ones that add a flavor to the base games.
I have over a thousand hours across the series and I'll tell you that starting with Shogun 1, the series really went downhill on value after Shogun 2.
>>332262315
i liked empire :(
>>332262415
Good choice, and my personal rec. Something to keep in mind is that it doesn't have nearly as many unique units as the other games in the series.
>>332261428
Pick your favorite era, shogunate japan?, medieval europe?, imperial rome?, etc
>>332262567
i woul also get the blood pack when its on sale for shogun 2
>>332262415
>>332262579
I wanted to have Empire's campaign map with Napoleon's... everything else. Shame the game wasn't very open to modding, or so I hear.
Attila is the best one
>>332261428
There is no right answer to the best TW game, arguably Attila is the most well polished TW game (also since its the newest) but all the other TW games have their merits and flaws.
Find the time period that looks good to you and play it.
>>332262567
Thanks for the in-depth advice, exactly what I was looking for!I already own all the DLC though
>>332262567
Cheers for the rundown. In the same situation as OP.
>>332262567
>The DLC campaigns are usually just scaled down and add nothing to the feel of the games.
WAAAIT a second there.Teutonic winged helmets.
>>332262682
Blood pack is understandable as a loop hole around the ESRB rating. I recommend it for Shogun 2 if you like silly blood spills in Japanese samurai films.
It's a bad idea for Attila and Rome 2, as both chug the performance and look pretty bad. Attila especially is infamous for running kinda shitty anyways and the blood just makes it worse.
But still, don't buy the faction dlcs. I know they might look cool, but unless they're like 66$ they're jewing you. And even then they're still jewing you for content that usually is either imbalanced or redundant.
Remember to get the DLC on G2A for cheap as shit
FOTS>Med2>Shogun2>Napoopan>Empire>Rome1>Rome2
Regards, gunpowder loving weeb
>>332262984
That being said, i still have more than a hundred hours in rome 2. Theyre all excellent games.
>>332262861
That's an expansion, anon and Medieval 2 as far as I'm aware is only offered as a gold version on steam (with expansion).
>>332262801
Which as a side-note, Medieval 2 with Kingdoms is the best TW for modding in my opinion. Want Warhammer Fantasy or LotR? There's very indepth mods for those. Want more history? Stainless Steel? Want Romans? There's a mod for that.
Game doesn't even have official mod tools but you get more out of it than any of the new TW for modding.
>>332262895
got the entire sega bundle from humble bundle, should i completely ignore atilla? i hve been hearing mixed things about it
>mfw having hundreds of hours spread across countless campaigns in every Total War game between Rome and Rome 2, but every single one of themusing cheats in order to max income and technology in the first few turns so I can play soldier with endgame units wiping everything else off the map
>>332262895
66% off.
But they're probably $66 total now if you buy all of them at the non-sale price.
>>332261428
Empire.
Earth.
>>332262895
They don't jew you as much as paradox games. Those Swedish fucks sell BGM as DLC.
>>332263115
Attila had shit multiplayer and a bad launch.
The game as is now has some of the best campaign gameplay and challenge since Shogun 2. HOWEVER, there are some elements that might bother you. Razing settlements can get common and the winter encroachment feels like bullshit.
If you really want to play Attila for the era, it makes it into an impending apocalypse. It really feels like shit is getting worse even if you're winning.
My personal opinion is that you should play Charlesmange before Attila because the factions are more differentiated in the campaign gameplay. Attila is notorious for most of the factions being Germanic.
I personally had more fun with Attila than Rome 2 because it wasn't as PC, but it still doesn't match my enjoyment in Shogun 2 or Medieval 2.
>>332263132
>you will never know the feeling of finishing a legendary campaign
>you will never look over your veteran units that you worked hard to buy and train
>you will never be proud of your giant blob and the dozens of bloody pyrrhic victories it took to create
I feel bad for you son
>>332263509
>Attila had shit multiplayer and a bad launch.
No it didnt.
I'm trying to get a hang of this shit starting with Shogun 2 but I'm just no good at the RTS battle parts, everything feels so much more sluggish than in other more active RTS's and my soldiers are taking so long to get somewhere or change targets or catch up with an enemy group and I usually end up overwhelmed unless I'm cheesing it with a much stronger army to begin with
>>332263509
aight ill wait for the dlc to go on sale then
>>332263384
Yea Paradox is the bigger jew. But Sega really fucks you on the dlc and most of it is pointless garbage too. So I usually tell people to just get certain pieces but those are the ones with actual effort in them.
>>332263384
Nigga you crazy? When was the last time you saw Paradox selling country tags individually?
>>332263270
Seriously, people on /v/ shit on Empire so often yet nobody brings up that the world map has every continent except for antarctica.
>>332263597
Every single TW game can be summed up for tactics
1. Line of spears
2. Cav charge their anus
>>332263689
and most of east asia
>>332263597
Stop trying to micro your units like a starcraft fag and treat it like a real battle simulation
>>332263572
I'm sorry Anon. I even tried playing it legitimately a couple times, but I have way too much fun playing the evil overlord with endless armies and not a care in the world for logistics.
>>332263576
Balance was fucked, anon.
Cav builds were the be all end all. And some factions were completely buttfucked. The Huns in particular, despite being like all cav were garbage because the game didn't balance cav weight class.
Infantry was utterly useless and the build that dominated and was so easy a newbie could beat a vet with it was ERE two-hand axes, Tagmata, and crossbows. It was Urban Cohorts broken.
After months they finally balanced it, but like nobody plays Attila anymore for the multiplayer most of the games went back to Rome 2 and Shogun 2.
Even then the multiplayer is still fucked by DLC factions being LOL-broken tier. The Desert raiders were utter ham on release. And the Slavs have the most annoying archers in the game (poison is just fucking hilariously good).
>>332263270
Thanks for reminding me of my favorite series forever defiled by its third installement.
>>332263783
Yea, but I counted central asia and india for 'asia' overall. Its still better than anything that the other games offer. It blew my mind the first time I realized that you could pan the camera from europe uniterrupted to india.
>>332263952
Literally no one gives a shit about MP
>>332264000
trips of truth
of the ones I have played the only one that I really enjoyed was shogun two. the others didn't do it for me.
>>332263597
Battle tactics anon.
Try using Yari ashigura as a wall. Activate their spear-wall ability to hold. Charge Katana samurai into any units the Yari get through them. Use Yari cav to swing around the sides and charge archers and the backs of units held by the Yari-ash.
Battles in the TW are less about how fast a unit moves and more about you having a plan before units even collide. Take engagements on top of hills and only chase down units with cavalry. It's like real historical battles in theory, and reaching those can really give you some good strats for TW.
i think what i like about the tw series is that i can play it on a toaster
>>332264000
Well I can tell you that the balance in single player was fucked too in the same way.
I ran the easiest campaign in my TW history with the ERE build I described. Like the only tactic required was making each individual unit charge. My hardest campaign was with Huns because they're cav is fucking garbage.
Also the AI razed too often and the winter mechanics made some people pull out their hair.
I liked Attila, and NOTHING will ever compare to Rome 2's horrible launch. But I'm willing to listen to why others hated Attila, and I find a lot of that came from the launch balance.
>>332264000
Total war MP players are like Dark Souls MP players, total fags that are conpletely missing the point of their respective games.
>>332264482
>playing what is supposed to be the most OP faction was easy
Thanks for proving my point
And you're just entirely wrong on Huns. You must really suck at TW to think they are bad.
>>332261428
Rome
>>332264482
>I ran the easiest campaign in my TW history with the ERE
No shit. They are a power house faction, and literally the most powerful faction of that time period.
>>332262567
>Shogun 2 is the best total war in my opinion. It does everything right
>implying a rock-paper-scissors system is right
>implying useless cavalry is right
>implying identical battlefields and fortresses are right
>implying nearly every battle being a siege is right
>implying every faction using a standardized technology tree, architecture and unit roster is right
I could go on and nitpick further but I think it's hard to say that Shogun 2 is the best in the series. You're also not giving Rome 1 enough credit.
>>332264482
>razing
I remember people posting screenshots of their game on launch where europe is turned into a desolate post apocalyptic wasteland by the AI for no reason
>>332264562
>And you're just entirely wrong on Huns.
lol no. Not at launch. Besides Sassnids, they were the worst faction on launch. Their best cav at the time was Medium cav. Germanic cav? They're like basic cav? Those stomped the shit out of 95% of the Hunnic roster.
Hun had best infantry bar none. But that's like saying that Greeks have best pikes in Rome 2.
>playing what is supposed to be the most OP faction was easy
On legendary. And ERE is easier than Rome 1 which everyone agrees Rome was a broken faction in Rome 1.
The balance was fucked. Simple as that.
>You must really suck at TW to think they are bad.
Heh, you know nothing about Attila if you don't think the Huns were bottom tier at launch.
>>332264669
>power house faction
Understatement. They were so broken that even artificial difficulty couldn't keep them down.
Everything is much better now that they brought Tagmata down a bit.
>>332264881
Setting MP aside, I always took it that the TW's goal wasn't to balance the factions, but to offer a variety of challenge levels to go with a variety of tactics. The criticism that the Huns are weak and the ERE is strong is kind of lost on me.
>>332264717
Rome 1 vanilla has terrible balance, bad historical authenticity, and the worst path-finding of the old total wars. The combat was also Rome 2 on launch fast. Cav was hilariously good and infantry like the Urban Cohorts beat everything.
>implying a rock-paper-scissors system is right
Every unit had a purpose. In Rome 1, I could run a stack of Urban Cohorts with Praed cav and conquer the whole map on hard/hard. I can't run Yari sam spears and great cav and do the same on legendary.
>useless cav
More like cav having a defined role that they excel at. Yari cav is fucking amazing. Great Guard is awesome. Light cav is the best route-destroyer in the game. Bow cav is fucking hilariously good. Katana cav is perfect for hole advantage.
>Identical battlefields and fortresses
Subjective. I'd rather have good gameplay that unbalanced boring shit with neat settings.
>Every battle is a siege
95% of all battles in TW are sieges. Med2, Rome 1, all that shit. At least I don't have to deal with shit sieges in literally every other total war.
>Every faction is the same
It's Japan and it's subjective. I don't complain about Attila having 90% Germanic. These are the factions of the time and you either deal with it or subjectively pick your favorite TW.
>>332265219
The criticism is the following.
Attila is a game that is heavily cav based.
The Huns were the worst faction at this. The fucking Huns. Even their archer cav was trash. The game is advertising the Huns and a whole focus is on them. Their campaign is designed for easier difficulty, but the mechanics of the game made them absolutely dog-shit at the cav game. They always took more losses when charging most cav in the game. Their charge cav often failed to rout infantry that med-tier German cav could do while also routing the archers behind them.
Huns were a disappointing faction. They were a push-over to fight and more difficult to use than any other faction, yet they were the largest focus of the marketing. It's also a bit of an irony that the game about the fall of Rome had a Roman faction as the not just the best, but one of the best in TW history.
>>332263612
>https://www.humblebundle.com/store/p/totalwar_attila_charlemagne_dlc_storefront?hmb_source=search_bar
$3.74 right NOW
>>332265604
Rome 1 vanilla had a highly competitive multiplayer which persists to this very day thanks in no small part to the developers efforts of balance. Maybe for someone who only plays singleplayer and stacks an entire army full of urban cohorts with cheats the game seems imbalanced, but they did a fine job of keeping each faction within relative power of one another.
>I can't run Yari sam spears and great cav and do the same on legendary.
Probably because as I already mentioned, most battles take place in a siege rendering your cavalry useless. Regardless, that doesn't detract from the fact that Shogun 2 makes it so units of one weapon type always, under any circumstances, will beat another. Why? Why doesn't the game properly take into account casualties, morale, flanking bonuses, etc? Because it pairs off your units and it fights them in a miniature 1v1 duel. It's a fundamentally flawed system.
>More like cav having a defined role that they excel at.
Which is nothing. Particularly in an installment that's core gameplay is sieges.
>Subjective. I'd rather have good gameplay that unbalanced boring shit with neat settings.
It's not subjective to point out that the game has few maps.
>95% of all battles in TW are sieges.
Now THAT'S subjective!
>I don't complain about Attila having 90% Germanic.
wat
