Ranking the Totally War games - lazy "most best thread"

Hello, what are the top 5 best, of the best Total War games?

I would rank them

1. Shogun 2 (including expansions)

2. Napoloen

3. Rome: Total War

4. Medieval II

5. Empire

Admittedly haven't played the Warhammer titles, I do hear these are good. Or several of the newer titles like Troy, Nostalgia also plays part, objectively, Rome has very clearly been superseded.

I ranked Shogun 2 at the top because 1) Setting 2) It strips everything back 3) It has a strong focus on making the soldiers characters through RPG mechanics 4) The map size is perfectly paced 5) The music score is epic sweeping bla bla 6) The expansions morph an already great game into a godly one 7) The historical battles are argubly the best

The AI is fucking stupid, but always view them as an optional action visual spectacle among the real meat gameplay, the turn based stuff.

To be honest, I think Total War Warhammer 2 is the best, especially if you own 1. I know it's a divisive take, given mechanical and pacing changes and the fantasy universe. But what can I say - it's an absolutely enormous scale, it's pretty well balanced, the graphics are phenomenal, the factions are super distinctive, a lot of diverse units, and it's addictive as hell. It's just a really really good game.

Only Creative Assembly Games I played are Halo Wars 2 and Alien Isolation, have yet to try a Total War game but if I did I think I'd go for one of the Warhammer ones.

The only two I cared about are Warhammer 1 and 2 (soon to be 3), Shogun 2 was alright while the rest are overrated.

I've bought many Total War games, but I admit Medieval II and the Warhammer games are the only ones I've put serious hours into. I therefore feel a little lacking in qualification.

That said, the Warhammer games are great. I've been saying for years beforehand that CA really should make a fantasy Total War, just because they seemed to have plenty of ideas, but are constantly constrained by the need for historical authenticity. I felt they needed to let their hair down and let their imagination run wild, and fantasy was the perfect way to do that. I remember applauding loudly when Sega handed them the Warhammer license.

As a result, Warhammer comes off as one of those rare games that feels like the developers just had a blast making it, and the joy flowed right through the end product. I'm certainly having a blast playing the reworked Beastmen right now.

I got Shogun 2 and left it on the backlog because something else came out about the same time and iv still never played it. Im installing it now and shoved it on favourites so I don't forget about it again.

On off with the series and only really played Medieval 2, Shogun 2 and Empires so I will take your word on the ranking since you played more.

Though, Total War: Medieval 2 is still the best for me. Still friggin waiting for Medieval 3 for idk 14-15 years now?.

Rome 2 because it looks like this

Shogun 2 because it's just an incredibly fun game and a really great setting

And Warhammer because it streamlined a lot of the overworld/turn based stuff which I don't like all that much. Just made the overall experience more fun to me.

3 kingdoms is easily my favorite. The diplomacy system and spies actually work and isn't an afterthought like their other installments. Seriously, it's just plain bad in earlier installments and now that it actually works you can play diplomatically and tall. They also include faction specific play styles which give each a unique feel. I also like how it implements generals and retinues. I generally play on 'record' mode rather than 'romance' since certain generals are OP as hell. After using cavalry in 3 kingdoms there's no going back to earlier installments.

The one negative I always keep finding myself in is how long the end game can be in certain games. The map is ridiculously large and the win conditions requires min 90 commanderies held which can take a while. However, that's a gripe with plenty of grand strategy or 4X games.

After 3 kingdoms I'd say Medieval 2 and Rome are the next best, simply because they can't match the mechanics of the newer games.

My rankings are:

1. Warhammer: Total War
2. Empire
3. Medieval
4. Shogun
5. Rome

Just based on how much I've played of each. If you want my opinions on which are the better games, obviously I think Three Kingdoms is probably objectively one of the better TW games ever made, and Shogun 2 is much better than Shogun 1.

Pretty much this.

When I first heard it announced I was like "Ah man....well, cool....but, really?" because Total War was up to that point a historical thing. But then you play it and wow it's just amazing. Can't wait for Warhammer 3.

I think the diversity is what really set's it apart for me. Going from playing the supremely tanky dwarfs and just waiting for your enemy's massive armies to break themselves on your seeminly-inferior (in numbers, at least) forces is rewarding, and then switching to the lizardmen and literally doing the opposite and trying to get your units to enrage so they perform better offensively is just great.

Some armies are just brutally difficult, though. Still haven't figured out the dark elves yet.

And yeah, it's massive. You start a Mortal Realms game, you're playing for a 20+ hours, easy, unless you're going for sort of quick victory manipulation or something lol.

It's definitely one of the "if you could only have one game on a desert island" games for me ahha

Medieval 2, then Shogun 2, then the rest although for some reason i haven't played the most recent ones.

@xantufrog: It’s not a divisive topic. Everyone agrees Warhammer 2 rules and historical fanboys can suck dick. 😒 It’s the most successful Total Wat to date. Can’t wait for part 3.

I've intentionally been on radio silence concerning part 3 but will it more or less fit in with part 1 and 2 and add into Mortal Empires? Or is it going to be its own thing?

I know it's adding chaos factions and some north armies and such and I think the first "asian" inspired Warhammer faction iirc.

@mrbojangles25: Yep. It will have smaller Vortex-like story campaigns and an expansion to Mortal Empires roster. It will be pretty similar to Warhammer 2 but with a different set of factions

@pelvist: Worth playing with the expansions ROTS/FOTS.

ROTS is more bite sized and basic, Shogun 2 more devoloped, and then by Fall Of The Samurai, when Tom Cruise becomes the first white Samurai and saves all the Japanese people through sacrifice, firearms and industrialization are gradually introduced, reaching a point where Shogun 2 starts to play like a mishmash of Empire. Pretty fucking dope.

This kind of thing is nothing new, obviously, but the game injects so much character into it. Japan itself becomes the game character, as opposed to many grand strategy games that feel like sterile panels and stats, always been Total Wars biggest strength and here exemplified.

@uninspiredcup: Thanks cup ill have a look at those when I get around to playing it.

I have not played all of them (most but not all) so my ranking could be different had I played all of them. However my ranking would be as follows:

1. Rome Total War (1st one, and 1st TW game I ever played)

2. Medieval 2

3. Warhammer 1 (have not played 2)

4. Rome 2 (too many performance issues when it launched, at least on my end)

5. Empire (and related games/those in that time period, tbh was not the biggest fan