'Total War' games

[Airspeed]

BOT??

[airboatr]

yeah , BOT
Back on Topic!

[Vancouver]

On Topic - I have Rome II and Medieval, or rather I stole them from my son who moved out 3 years ago and thinks one of his friends must have borrowed and failed to return them.
I find them very complex and I get totally lost - I suppose I should read their manuals to get a grip of what is going on. Needless to say I don't last very long in them. But they certainly give the impression of quite deep simulations/games.
Maybe I'm just a bit dim

[Paul K]

OK, from what I've seen, it's not my style.
It's described as 'turn based', and there are lists of clans to join.
SOUNDS like you need to play on line?
I prefer solo against the computer's AI.
From what I've seen of my Grandsons playing combat on line, it's hard to learn, because when you walk into a space, there are experienced players already there to cut you down before you know what's going on.
I'll shut up now.

Hi Mike,

All the Total War games are single player, although you can fight stand-alone battles against other humans if you wish. It is turn-based, broadly similar to Civilization where you do your move, then all the A.I. controlled factions do their's. I can see why you might think it involved online clans - take Rome II for instance: when you start a grand campaign, you first have to choose a culture. So you can choose Rome, Greek States, Germanic Tribes, Carthage, Britannic Tribes and so on. Then you have to choose between factions within that culture. Some only have one faction: the Britannic Tribe culture only has one faction - the Iceni. If you choose the Roman culture, there are three families to choose from. If you choose Greek States, you can play Massila, Sparta, Athens or Epirus. But none of these are online human mutiplayer clans - you choose one, and all the rest will be A.I. controlled.

When a battle occurs, you go from the campaign map to the battle map, and fight the A.I. enemy army there. However there is the option for an online player to drop in and take command of the enemy just for the duration of that battle, if you so wish. You don't have to allow it - you can fight against the A.I. all the time, if you wish. Similarly, you can use the battlefield map to set up a scenario that is unrelated to your ongoing campaign. For example, in your campaign, you might be in the process of conquering Gaul, and fighting the A.I. there - but, you can set up the battle of Cannae in Italy and play a human opponent if you wish, just as a side game.

On Topic - I have Rome II and Medieval, or rather I stole them from my son who moved out 3 years ago and thinks one of his friends must have borrowed and failed to return them.
I find them very complex and I get totally lost - I suppose I should read their manuals to get a grip of what is going on. Needless to say I don't last very long in them. But they certainly give the impression of quite deep simulations/games.
Maybe I'm just a bit dim

Alex, yes they are quite complex, but as you would expect, there are many step-by-step walkthroughs and tutorials out there. I think the worst one for complexity was Empire Total War, which by all accounts is a bit bloated. Rome II is the latest, and looks to be equally complicated, though I haven't really got into it yet. Shogun II is just gorgeous, and redolent of Akira Kurosawa's films such as 'Ran' and 'Throne of Blood'. However, at the moment, I am concentrating on Medieval II, which is a good game to start with, if only because you are already familiar with the units. By that I mean, in the heat of battle, when you have to think fast, you might not know what Shogun's yari ashigaru units are for, or what Rome's triarii specialize in. In Medieval II however, a pikeman is self-explanatory, and you know they will be good against the cavalry that is bearing down on your flank !