Empire: Total War -- The Ottomans Advance

  • By Kevin-V, GameSpot
  • Posted Mar 3, 2009 2:04 pm PT

If you're familiar with the Total War series, you are surely aware that Empire: Total War is a huge, slow-paced, ambitious game, full of nuance and gravity and all of the features, wonders, and shortcomings of a game this massive. As a result, it takes a while to review a product like this, and...

If you're familiar with the Total War series, you are surely aware that Empire: Total War is a huge, slow-paced, ambitious game, full of nuance and gravity and all of the features, wonders, and shortcomings of a game this massive. As a result, it takes a while to review a product like this, and though we received our copy in the middle of last week, I still only feel like I am scratching the surface. So bear with me while I wade my through enough of it to provide a proper review. I am also working on Blue Dragon Plus and Drakensang, but both of those reviews are on hold for a short time while I let Total War take over my life.

In the meanwhile, I will be offering a couple of updates to let you know how well my empire is faring. Enjoy the look!

__________

I am playing the Grand Campaign as the Ottoman Empire, and started in 1700. Right off, I knew that the Greeks would be trouble. I wasted no time in declaring war on Venice, since they seemed to be an obvious route to keeping tabs on Austria, my mortal enemy. The problems started right away, however, as Vienna decided to pluck Athens from underneath me. I was able to get Athens back, and actually, all of Greece. Sadly, Patras, Morea proved to be a pain in the backside. Greek rebels rose up and pestered so often that I eventually decided to let them be for the time being while I whittled away at Russia and Persia.

I should have realized, however, that Austria wouldn't sit idly by, and they declared war on me just when it seemed I might be able to rid the map of Venice once and for all. It's now 1715, and I am trying to keep both Venice and Austria in check by blockading their ports and raiding trade routes with my naval forces. Without a proper income, I am hoping I can diminish their wealth, and fortunately, their navies aren't aggressive--yet.

The bad news is that with too many fronts spread about the map, my offensives on Russia and Persia haven't gone according to plan. With the Greeks more pain than I need, and France being all uppity with me every time I open negotiations, I decided to just give Greece to the British in return for an alliance and some technology. With trade routes blocked and Greece no longer a priority, I now have a far better flow of cash, and I can concentrate on technology and war.

Blocking ports and raiding trade routes is a great way to earn some extra cash while sabotaging your enemies.

1715:

I start with 9312 in funds, probably the most I have had to work with in a single turn yet. First, I use my Hashishin (assassin) to take out an iron mine in Austria. I need to cripple the economy if I have a hope of succeeding. I also recruit multiple soldiers to my nearby army. Zagreb was mine, and I intend to take it back from the Austrians.

I decide to attack the Russian city of Cherkassk. I have an Imam in there converting the population to Islam, so hopefully, keeping the city won't be too problematic, since the population will have already warmed to my presence. The assault goes well; I send melee troops into a garrisoned building, easily crushing the armed citizenry inside. Then, it's a matter of using camel nomads to off the rest. It was a snowy day, making it easier to forgive all sorts of AI weirdness--a pretty typical kind of oddity in Empire's real-time battles. Victory! The region is mine.

I also send in a small force to rid me of the Persian troops led by Shaheen Siyavushi outside Baghdad, and like an idiot, I let the battle autoresolve. I should know better--I have gotten quite good at exploiting the enemy AI in battle, so I regret taking the easy way out!

Finally, needing more income to feed my war plans, I build a cotton plantation in Egypt, an area completely unworried by military concerns. For now. End Turn.

Joy! A small Austrian army attacks troops I have holding on to a farm. No autoresolve this time--I will wait out the long loading time and do this myself. My azzars, well-positioned, take care of the Austrian pikemen. Heroic victory! And more joy--An enormous Persian army attacks a tiny force of 63 troops. This time I can retreat, so I run with my tail between my legs.

Some battles are easily won; some aren't.

1716:

Seems my carpet weaver's cottage in Erbil has been sabotaged. Call me unhappy. Well, I can get the Persians back by attacking their tiny army of Zamindari pikemen. Not willing to take the autoresolve route, I decide to send my camel nomads into the pikemen--it's my only option. I watch them struggle to get over a wall, and the pikemen are done, though I lose some cavalry in the process. And rather than let the routed enemy end the battle, I finish it out all the way.Good thing, because I kill their general. I get credited with a close victory for some reason.

Next Russian target? Astrakhan. I build up the army, recruit more units, and the troops in that direction. In the meanwhile, I could use some more friends about the world, but even the few nations friendly or at least indifferent that I am not already allied with are being babies. Sweden is cold--no surprise given their geography--but I don't need them anyway. Besides, we already have a trade agreement. I convince them to trade technologies, but they'll only do it with a payment of 430. I hope canister shot is worth it. Emboldened, I go to Prussia, my greatest ally. I throw in a stipend and everything, but they don't seem to want to offer me their square formation tech. Well, fine. I didn't want it anyway!

In the meanwhile, my army in Bosnia is eyeing Zagreb closely. I recruit some units and stay my course there. The plan? Take Zagreb, build up the army, and grab Venice once and for all. Over in Fort Hunedoara, I have a small army in need of a general, so I recruit one, and plan to build up that army. It's a nice feature in Empire: armies with generals can recruit new ranks, rather than needing to get new ones at a city. I regret not being able to build more this turn, but my armies are getting feeble.

Ending the turn.

Russia decided to attack a medium sized force led by Dolabci Musa Ismail. I don't hope for the best here; he's got a definite upper hand.But I get lucky, thanks to some lucky deployment positioning and good use of infantry to distract ranged troops.

Don't forget to use melee infantry to soak up the damage, lest your gunners end up the victim of charging cavalry

I hope you enjoyed the rundown on my current empire. Look for a review of Empire: Total War, with luck, by the end of the week!

155 Comments

  • aramus555

    Posted Apr 16, 2009 12:41 am PT

    cryin out loud i managed to dominate entire europe with georgia and captured most of territories in india, and did it on hard (used alot of saves ) ... whats takin him so long to complete the review?

  • Holy_Terra

    Posted Mar 25, 2009 2:02 pm PT

    ... take your time with doing the review so far I have done two world domination campaigns with Britain and started a third with a Prussia. how long is this gonna take? Ottoman Empire has the largest amount of land and troops so why it taking so long...

  • Itakel

    Posted Mar 25, 2009 10:31 am PT

    Oh, it look so beautiful.But i still love Dawn of war 2 than

  • jimreda

    Posted Mar 25, 2009 9:14 am PT

    where or how do i keep up with any further continuing reviews of this game ? i would like to accumulate them as they come out . In the near future (after i finish "Jutland'') i plan to buy this. I am not tech savvy so please help me get to correct site (what do i click etc.) Thanks. Jim

  • greenwoofer

    Posted Mar 25, 2009 12:57 am PT

    Dusfil, get a Steam account. You can then download the game. Otherwise you have to buy it retail. Either way its probably painful to register.

    ps according to my Vista this game is a 4.8 to run and my computer scores a 5.9. But I still have crashes. My computer runs Far Cry 2 on full FX no problems at all but I still cant run Empire properly. Something wrong there.

  • m3kough

    Posted Mar 24, 2009 5:15 pm PT

    Actually, the history of Europe is much more than the collected conquests of the Ottoman history. If truth be told, the history is all the more remarkable that a loose confederation of European nations and kings stopped expansionist muslim aims: from The defeat at Lepanto by Venice, the victory of the Knights of St John on Malta, and the crushing victory of Jan III Sobieski at the gates of Vienna. The Ottoman empire at that point was little more than a collection of decadent muslims living on the fat of others.

  • snowpar

    Posted Mar 24, 2009 12:37 pm PT

    No ''mertslove'' is not only Ottoman history.

  • mertslove

    Posted Mar 24, 2009 12:20 pm PT

    hey Vasot, the european history from 1400s until 1900s is the Ottoman History.

  • dusfil

    Posted Mar 24, 2009 12:19 pm PT

    How can I download this game?

  • JackfnBurton

    Posted Mar 19, 2009 12:01 pm PT

    I am sure there are cheat codes available for the game but it seems like cheating defeats the purpose of a "strategy" game. I wouldn't recommend buying the game if you're just going to cheat; it isn't very gratifying in a game like this. Start it on easy level if you're having trouble.

  • asas_1728

    Posted Mar 19, 2009 8:24 am PT

    VASOT NEVER FORGET THE OTTOMAN EMPİRE COMMAND ASİA AFRİKA AND EUROPE 600 YEARS.
    İF DONT BELİEVE ME CHECK HİSTORY FCKN MORON

  • shydoc

    Posted Mar 18, 2009 11:22 pm PT

    cool, never played the game...actually did tried once but couldn't get the mechnic's of it. Will try again...hopefully i have grown older and wiser.

  • kamalus

    Posted Mar 18, 2009 12:21 pm PT

    Does anybody know any useful codes, unlocks or cheats for Empire: Total War?

  • greenwoofer

    Posted Mar 17, 2009 8:06 pm PT

    Harlyboy you missed my point - the inflitrate often doesnt work. I can spend many turns "infiltrating" and nothing happens, even when inflitration succeeds. But usually my Rake gets caught and shot by then. And by the way Ive done way over 40 hours on this since I got it. Ive decided to stop playing since monday just so I could get some sleep.

    As for reinforcements coming in from where they are I will check that. Most often though I plan to "lead" with one army and use a back up but for some reason when i move my back up across the border that army triggers a fight and my plan goes back to front - and yeah when I can I check for control areas. Most often I get caught like this when going for a capital.

    Also I have terrible problems getting Rakes out of my cities - for some reason I end up continually dragging my armies out by accident (and yeah Im highlighting and dragging the rake, not the army). That is really frustrating because it screws up your plans and sometimes sparks revolts in regions youre keeping under control with armies. Also the routes chosen by armies can be stupid. Sometimes I click on a close target only to have my army revers itself and head back around the long way: more plans screwed - DOH! (and yeah Harlyboy thats NOT moving through rough terrain or anything).

    I wasnt getting to many crashes at first but now Im getting a lot. I have it on top graphics specs and my computer can handle that easily on specs but I still get regular "insufficient memory" crashes. Try having a multiple puckle gun fight and see what happens. I guarantee a crash (but its worth it - puckle guns are lethal)

    By the way you can get more than 40 units on a battle field at a time. Ive had a full scale reinforced fight between austrians and prussians with Russian allies rampaging through on my side. It was chaos (Russian gunners are kind of indiscriminate about where the park their guns and who they spray with canister - but at least my guys were behind a wall; the poor old Austrians got pasted). But it does show that you can have a lot more units on the field and the game will still run ok. BTW good strategy; pick a fight while your ally is nearby.

    And one last thing - why do I have to ask permission for military access when my allies just go wandering through my territory without asking? Not only is it rude but its a worry because their armies often camp on your other border, which means if you want to break the alliance and attack them they suddenly appear on your cities well away from your border. I dont like that but I cant stop them doing it.

    pps I hope they change the melee button method. In the middle of a fight its easy to miss a unit and accidentally leave it on melee - so it then gets shot to pieces while youre busy elsewhere. Youd think that just ordering a unit to charge another would be enough to put it into melee and automatically switch it back from there after the melee is finished. Or maybe the melee button isnt required at all to do that. All I know is that it is an extra bit of micromanagement that causes problems.

  • Vasot

    Posted Mar 17, 2009 3:49 pm PT

    Blehhhh you chose the worse faction for this review. I do not like Ottomans choose UK or some other European power next time.

  • prometion

    Posted Mar 17, 2009 3:21 pm PT

    the game looks great but..the only thing i should say about it is that rome and medieval IA are almost the same stupid machine that doesnt have a good diplomacy coherent system, if you enjoy doing everything yourself ,fine but if you plan to make diplomacy games..i think this game isn't going to fit my expectations comparing to other games..appart of that the game is cool.

  • travellinguist

    Posted Mar 17, 2009 2:13 pm PT

    What is so funny is that the Total War series totally lends itself to these long descriptions. I am still sending long emails to my friends detailing the events of my extended and agonizingly difficult Seleucid campaign in Rome: Total War. A game that can get this much discussion going is a fantastic one, and I haven't even done the Barbarian Invasion Expansion pack yet!

  • alex_paicu

    Posted Mar 17, 2009 10:52 am PT

    I love this game !

  • albibu

    Posted Mar 16, 2009 10:41 pm PT

    no greece, no party..at least an indepedent Morea.....
    or playable greek rebels...!!(kiddin')

  • orcsblade posted Mar 16, 2009 3:33 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    orcsblade

    Posted Mar 16, 2009 3:33 pm PT (hide)

    am so bored of these type of games

  • snowpar

    Posted Mar 16, 2009 9:57 am PT

    I would like to ask if will be possible to play this amazing game as Greeks(Greek rebels until 1821 when Greek Democracy is established).I know it is difficult but Greek players will not buy this game in order to play as Ottomans.Noway! I would appreciate if this opporunity will be given to Greeks.If anyone knows,please inform me.Thank you.

  • risbo_23

    Posted Mar 14, 2009 8:46 pm PT

    One could really be disappointed with this awesome game due to the numerous bugs it brings... it's just frustrating to play the game when there are so many things that don't work the way they should... I really hope they bring out a patch soon, 'cause I want to kick some ass! I can't even play the road to independence, because the game freezes every time on the loading screen after finishing the first battle with the natives... this pisses me off!!

  • risbo_23

    Posted Mar 14, 2009 8:42 pm PT

    One could really be disappointed with this awesome game due to the numerous bugs it brings... it's just frustrating to play the game when there are so many things that don't work the way they should... I really hope they bring out a patch soon, 'cause I want to kick some ass! I can't even play the road to independence, because the game freezes every time on the loading screen after finishing the first battle with the natives... this pisses me off!!

  • hugommorais

    Posted Mar 14, 2009 8:31 pm PT

    (sorry for the double post) ...

    Thanks greenwoofer ... I bought the game and started playing a week ago, and sleeping is something I haven't be doing a lot lately. I haven't tried the reinforcements just yet because I was trying to get a better economical situation before going to the big battles. I started playing with Russia, and on the third turn or so the Ottomans declared war on me, and so did sweden. I almost lost a few regions but controled the ottomans and got to "peace" with them. But Sweden kept coming and I had not a lot of army, so I researched a few techonologys, started getting some money and all that. Like someone said here, it's a good thing to do, to free some regions from taxes, because they produce more cities that way and you can develop a lot of schools and later colleges and university so you can research a lot more technology faster and earn money. After all sweden kept coming almost every turn until i decided to destroy them, for some reason, almost every city that had a border with Russia had little defense and I kept getting their cities until I got to Estocolm, and man, they have a lot of army there, that where I'm now.

    Until now I haven't experienced lots of crashes. I had one at the start when I played the American campaign. But I didn't like it and got to the bigger ones. And compared with you here I don't have a hell of a computer, it's just a Athlon 5600+ with 2g of memory and a 8800gts 320 mb. I haven't changed the configuration the game set at the start because I wanted to play so much and the game set it with a resolution of 1680 x 1050 with most of the specs on medium and high. But the game really takes a long time to load, that's a downside. But the game is so fantastic as a whole.

    One thing that I haven't been able to do a lot until now is trading by sea. I couldn't develop my navy a lot just yet, because Russia starts a little slow on money and the navy costs a lot. But only my port on crimea has a trading route. And I have a few trade agreements, but most of them are made by road. That's one of the reasons I'm trying to destroy sweden, to get their good position for sea trades. Anyone thinks I'm doing anything wrong in the navy part?

    Just one more thing, I don't know about you, but it's impossible to trade technology unless you give your whole country to get some crap tech like empiricism. Also, I haven't been able to steal technologys at all. Anyone here has those problems too? That game is great!

  • hugommorais

    Posted Mar 14, 2009 8:11 pm PT

    Thanks greenwoofer ... I bought the game and started playing a week ago, and sleeping is something I haven't be doing a lot lately. I haven't tried the reinforcements just yet because I was trying to get a better economical situation before going to the big battles. I started playing with Russia, and on the second turn the O

  • Harlyboy

    Posted Mar 14, 2009 4:44 am PT

    @greenwoofer: Great going, you first complain that you can't get info on enemy armies, and then you ask what infiltrate does! Well... it gathers info on enemy armies!
    And the reinforcements show up relative to their postition to the battle. If they are north of battle on the campaign map, they'll come in from the north, if they're south, they'll come in from the south, and so on. So if you wanna make good use of your reinforcements, make sure that they are behind your main force on the campaign map.

    And to all those who complain about the game crashing, I've been playing for nearly 40 hours all together, and have only had 1 crash. Don't know why you all have crashes, but I don't.

  • greenwoofer

    Posted Mar 13, 2009 11:00 pm PT

    Just thought Id say the Rakes suck. Maybe Im not using them right but they never tell me anything useful and theyre always getting caught and shot. I cnat even find out what sort of enemy armies Im facing. And what exactly does "infiltrate" do?

    Also, discovered a down side of the reinforcements system last night. Reinforcements come on straight away but theyre programmed to march from the other side of the map to where you are - straight through the enemy. So you have to scramble to stop them acting like lemmings and thats a big distraction from the main fight. Worse my enemy sat there and knocked off each of my reinforcements one by one as they came on, so I had to withdraw my (smaller and badly banged up - from a previous fight) main army in order to make a stand with my larger body of reinforcements and stop them getting knocked off piecemeal.

    The AI still sucks.

    BTW while having a desultory fire fight with some US militia a few nights ago I noticed that the officer in charge of my english infantry loads his own pistol and fires it whenever he likes. Pretty cool effect. I put the camera behind the us guys behind the wall. Every now and then the english would give them a scattered volley and then a minute or so latter youd see the officer fire and hear the ball go over everyones heads. Amazing detail.

    ps I should be able to locate, examine, and assassinate enemy ministers and leaders but they dont appear on the map. Why not? Also part of the diplomacy should include diplomatic marriages. Why doesnt it? That would spark succession issues etc and add an extra dimension.

  • Claytonicus

    Posted Mar 13, 2009 6:01 pm PT

    You must have the good reviewer's version of the game Kevin, and not the crappy, bug ridden version that almost everyone else has had to deal with since release, so lucky you! I myself am extremely disappointed with the game, as CA has knowingly released a game that is far from complete, and just kept stringing me along with these so called "fixes" that seem to fix nothing at all. They also mention nothing about what they are trying to fix, so i have no idea how long i will have to wait until they resolve the issues that i have to contend with.

    - Crashes at the beginning, middle and even more frustratingly end of land and naval battles, sometimes 30 minutes in, that may soon lead to me becoming bald at 25 due to ripping out my hair.
    - An absolutely fantastic revolution system whereby revolution victory = game crashing, no matter how many times i retry. Looks like i will have to restart the game, and not put any points into philosphy to keep the populace from rioting every single freaking turn, and destroying all my buildings.
    - Corrupted save games... Oops, looks like i'll have to start the game all over again with a different race, because autosave and quicksave is corrupted, and i haven't saved it normally for 30 turns.
    - STUPID AI, despite the fact that ETW is meant to have fantastic AI.
    - Lag, lag, and more lag plus shocking loading times, despite the fact that i have a computer that gets 15000 pts on 3D Mark 06
    - A feeling reminiscent of The Witcher, prior to the release of the enhanced edition, where at any possible moment a crash might occur.

    Despite all of this negative initial feedback though, i absolutely love the aspects of this game that actually work, and i am sure that EVENTUALLY CA will sort out the bugs. My advice, however to all those people who are borderline on deciding on whether or not to buy this game, is STAY AWAY for at least a month until they at least sort out the crashing issues, and memory leaks!

  • keneth113

    Posted Mar 13, 2009 3:46 am PT

    Hi, I am a beginner

  • Tolgatiger

    Posted Mar 13, 2009 3:10 am PT

    Political Debate is funny...nice job.

  • mlp071

    Posted Mar 12, 2009 9:17 pm PT

    Why there is political debate in game discussion? I am sure that there is more relevant place for it to be conducted

  • thecheesemonkey

    Posted Mar 12, 2009 7:01 pm PT

    Sorry I forgot to say, Great Game. Didn't like Medieval II as much as Rome, but this is easily as revolutionary to the Total War series as Rome was. Tricornes and bayonets beat clunky helmets and cavalry charges anyday of the week.
    "God is on the side with the best artillery" - N.B.

  • mertslove

    Posted Mar 12, 2009 2:22 pm PT

    Also, It is strongly proofed, that in those times the population of Armenians in the entire Ottoman Empire was no more than 300thousand.
    The Ottomans accepted that some Armenians died. But the reason was not a massacre or genocide, it was war times, diseases, attacks by rebels, etc. Also the Armenian organizations mostly leaded by the church with the help of Britain and Russia started a huge riot in Anatolia, killing Turkish villagers.

  • mertslove

    Posted Mar 12, 2009 2:17 pm PT

    thecheesemonkey, what you say is the greatest lie in the entire human history, which millions of people believe. What Ottomans did was to move the rebelling Armenians away from the eastern Anatolia, which was critical, as the Russians were striking from there. I am really interested in History and read a lot of books about these kind of thing.
    Did you know, that the real killers were Armenians? Why do you think they do not reveal the recordings? They were supported by British, Russians and some other Countries to divide Ottoman Empire. Please, just learn the truth. Do not accept something right away, which is said to you.
    Also, a lot of Armenians, who were living in Turkey were disturbed because of these terrorist activities.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Secret_Army_for_the_Liberation_of_Armenia
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EOKA
    check these links, and see, who are the real killers. An Armenian burned himself in İstanbul to protest the ASALA, which was murdering Turks.
    I beg you, please learn.

  • thecheesemonkey

    Posted Mar 12, 2009 10:27 am PT

    Tholgair, I'm sorry, I don't normally make any comments but when I saw your comment I had to say something. The Ottomans did, as a fact, attempt to exterminate the Christian Armenians. Many people consider this to be a precursor to the Holocaust and one of the first of many atrocities of the 20th century. I understand if you genuinely believed they didn't, but what you said practically amounts to Holocaust denial. Maybe, you should look it up? No offence intended.

  • greenwoofer

    Posted Mar 12, 2009 2:06 am PT

    Altair0, I run the graphics on the highest level but I have massive specs. I have had occassional crashes, but only after a long time playing. When Ive switched it back on the game has been exactly where it was on the campaign before the crash. Had the usual problems with Steam - had to leave it to download overnight, even though I bought the game retail.

  • tholgair

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 4:29 pm PT

    To jmebaby25,
    You say this is not the place for it, so why are you taking sides by saying it's a historical fact that a million Armenians massacred by Ottomans? It is not a historical fact but a debated claim. There is no solid proof that leads to either way.

  • Altair0

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 9:14 am PT

    the upgrading system is very good and its a good idea to make all "gentlemen" (an agent type) there is good at upgrading war go to same school then on off the upgrades will not take 40 turns but 10 or something like that, its still a lot but you can get a lot of money for that upgrade(its also in industrial and the last one(dont remember the name..)) its a nice game good for any total war fan, but it sucks that you cant run the graphics on high......

  • Alizeefan

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 6:57 am PT

    I received this game last week but my PC isn't good enough to play it.
    XPS700 from Dell 3,2 GHz, 2048MB memory and a nVidia GeForce 8600GT from Sparkle 1024MB ( but it's a cheap one and it's crap).
    The game already crashed when i played the seabattle in the tutorial.I managed to play a campaign on the lowest graphics for a few hours but then it crashed again.
    i guess i have to wait till i have a new PC, any suggestions?

  • greenwoofer

    Posted Mar 11, 2009 2:34 am PT

    Hugomorais, you can do bigger battles via the reinforce method. So if you stick a few armies around an area they will continually reinforce. The problem is the reinforcements sometimes come up when you arent aware of it at first. Its different to the other games but once you get used to it its pretty cool. Last night because of a merging army stuff up I got my prized 6 prussian guards regiments attacked by a couple of massive Saxon armies so I holed a regiment up in a farm and ranged the others around the place. When my reinforcements came on I organised them while my guards shot the saxons down in the woods next to the farm then they fought their way across to my main line - which was bombarding the saxon artillery (and there was a lot of it). I was very proud of my guards but the AI does seem a bit weak. Online is going to be the best place for battles. Also, I get some weird messages. I will massacre an opponent (and I always do so I can get my units promoted) and it will say "close victory" - what the?

    Sea battles are awesome too once you work out to start as far upwind as you can and form up in lines. I do tend to loose track in the bigger battles though. On saturday I fought a sea battle where two ships blew up and set a few others on fire too. I cant seem to get the boarding down right though.

    Cool game

    ps the duelling gentleman cutshot film is cool too (except its always my guys ending up in the coffin - lol. Anyone know if theres a way to chose between duelling with pistols OR swords. One of my gentlemen guys cheated and shot the other guy after the sword fight. Oops! Also I keep getting Austrian gentlemen in my university in Magdeburg so I m wondering if theyre stealing my technology. I wasnt sure so I had a bunch of duels with them but kept losing - so I used a Rake to murder them all he he he...

  • Navidak

    Posted Mar 10, 2009 11:56 pm PT

    It's a great game.I enjoy playing it.

  • gameking5000

    Posted Mar 10, 2009 9:58 pm PT

    I have the Special Forces edition and i have no idea to play as the Ottomans or the British. The british navy is extremely powerful, they have the HMS victory while the Ottomans navy aren't good but their infantry and artillery are strong. I just miss those cutscenes that do some introducing, like in Medieval 2, in the start and when you select a faction.

  • chrisringo

    Posted Mar 10, 2009 4:45 pm PT

    im playing as the Marathas right now i took all India in my hands the ottoman empire has been destroyed i took all greece , im conquering russia ,already took moscow and algeria, marocco now im trying to take spain and austria , sweden and prussia always trying to open treaties to take some cities from me ..NEVER ACCEPTED!! well still playing for now

  • brewer_m71881

    Posted Mar 10, 2009 3:39 pm PT

    it is a good mod the aztects aer just crappy to play as dont do it

  • brewer_m71881

    Posted Mar 10, 2009 3:38 pm PT

    i play te mod for Medieval 2 it is cool u can play as the paple states and the mongles/turmids but the down side is u cant get good units in england and the aztects have so little to chuse form to play as them it is crap

  • pbrugalett

    Posted Mar 10, 2009 3:17 pm PT

    Not as good as any of the other Total War games. This one is too tedious. For every step forward I feel like I end up taking two steps back. Also miss castle sieges. So far all I've had to attack are small cities or towns and it isn't the same. Too massive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • dark_sith_

    Posted Mar 10, 2009 2:34 pm PT

    Still playing Road to Independence campaign. Started the game only today. Considering taking either Ottomans or Austrians for the grand campaign, as both were major powers in Southeastern Europe(region where I live) at the time. As for comparison between Medieval 2 and Empire, both have their good and bad sides, but imho Empire is still a better game. Battles are way more engrossing, juggling all those line infantry, sneaking skirmishers behind enemy line and hitting their rear, or trampling artillery with cavalry. All much more entertaining then battles in Medieval 2, but still i have both of the games on my computer, and will continue playing them. As for crashes and sound problems, i have(blessedly) experienced none of those, and game runs on ultra setting without a hitch. One thing that bugs me(pun intended) is how come AI always falls for my pincer attacks and flanking manouvers.

  • Holy_Terra

    Posted Mar 10, 2009 1:47 pm PT

    Started as Britain there is almost too much to do! America, Europe and India I almost thought I couldnt start but if you are good at RTS you can defeat factions one by one Im turn 10 and own a small but yet a part of America and France but I havent tried moving troops from Europe to America or India... Hmmm do you just sail that way and hope you land there?

  • shadow-warlord

    Posted Mar 10, 2009 1:41 pm PT

    Can you play the grand campaign as Greece?

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