Let's talk Total War

[Stg-Flame]

After seeing the new Romance of the Three Kingdom's Total War on Steam (and once I stopped squealing like a school girl), I started looking back on all the Total War games I picked up, played for under 10 hours, then put down. Then I looked back at Medieval 2 Total War to which I have over 7,000 hours logged (most likely closer to 10,000 since I didn't have the TimeMonitor always running while I played the physical copy) and it got me thinking about what Medieval 2 has that the newer iterations are lacking. After a discussion on the Steam forums, it seems everyone who loved Medieval 2, also loved Shogun 2 but I had a total of 5 hours logged on Steam and after giving it another three hours, I just couldn't bring myself to continue playing. It was dry, stale, felt really slow,

I also heard that with Warhammer Total War, Creative Assembly went back to some of their old roots and stopped trying to recreate Civilization 5 and tried to remake the original Total War games. I have yet to give Warhammer TW a try, but it's in my library. I do see a lot of hate towards CA these days since they are getting in the habit of releasing DLC months before the game is even out (and surprise surprise, RoTK already has a Han Dynasty DLC and the game isn't releasing until March 2019). I also see a lot of people bashing CA because they don't offer blood and gore but instead, offer blood and gore DLC packs but to me, Total War was always about the strategy - not about the cutting-edge graphics or being able to see one of my thousands of troops being disemboweled.

So, what are your thoughts on the Total War series (where it's been, where it was, where it is, and where it's going)?

 

[Regs]

I agree with your remark about trying to remake Civilization. It's a war game! The technology, generals, traits, building trees, and most importantly the units all should be evolving around war and how they play out on the battlefield. I get lost in all the new general retinues, attributes, government options, and traits. Most of it is pointless because the AI does not take advantage or exception to any of it which makes it more of a nuisance than a viable gaming mechanic. Does the AI care if my general has more integrity or authority? Attila was the worst in that it felt like all I was doing was sitting in a camp while the world map just burned around me. Oh look - got to Rome but it was already pillaged and plundered 20x over... Yes I know, in history the Visigoths and rebels took it through the wash multiple times, but there seems to be no real objective then to just wander around and destroy unfortified villages.

Make the game more about upgrading units and them actually having tiered technology. A cohort with several layers of abilities, upgrades, and advancements will make the strategy game more about war than another civ sim. Make it more about battles and make more important ones.

Have not tried Warhammer as I never thought of TW as a fantasy game but I am willing to try it when it goes on sale.