Arent there a few free to play Total War Game out there? I remember I got a bunch Arena stuff during the Total War Humble Bundle.
That’s not really a total war game. You need the strategy layer. Well except for Shogun 2’s multiplayer pre expansions, which was glorious in anything but sieges).
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Shogun 2 yet. The answer is definitely Shogun 2!
Fair enough, I should have said “don’t skip all the battles”. Overly lopsided ones and some sieges should be skipped, and if you’re later in the game, go ahead and autoresolve all of them if you just want to get to the end of the turn. I just meant that if you don’t enjoy Total War battles at all then IMHO there are better strategic games out there.
Total War Warhammer is the best one of the series. Everyone raves about Shogun 2 but I found it incredibly boring and gave up in a few hours.
Hear, hear!
I like both. But I can see why people prefer one of the other, Shogun 2 definitely has a more deliberate pace, whereas Warhammer really revels in the bombast.
Also Shogun 2 and Rome 2 make the city management part of the game much more complex, Warhammer 1 (and to a lesser extent 2) really cut a lot of meat from that part of the game to focus on the faction asymmetry and more varied unit roster.
Uh, regardless of the AI, it is true that they all play pretty much the same way.
Sure, just like shooters all play the same. There are vast differences in the games, though, that makes some more suited for beginners than others. Also, once you play some of the newer ones, you’ll find it rather hard to go back to the earlier versions, due to all the quality of life improvements that has appeared over the years.
@Bateau At first, I missed that you were asking only about those that you already have - Shogun 2 is a very good entry into Total War.
Shogun 2 is the best recent Total War game.
It has a great map, an interesting city management system and symmetric gameplay. I find it a superior experience to Total Warhammer on both layers (strategic and tactical) and find the AI far more challenging on both too.
Rome 2 felt like a step backward, though I’d have to revisit it again to be able to explain why.
Medieval 2 is aged, but it has some fantastic mods e.g. Stainless Steel or Broken Crescent.
Rome 2 had the problem of an aimless and too big grand campaign, along with a too broad time period that made combat halfway through and further less interesting, since there was less distinction at the end of the tech trees (I remember facing an army composed solely of horse archers as a distinct change, but that was unusual). Trying to do the whole Roman history in one single campaign didn’t work. Contrast that with Shogun’s tight timescale.
The mini campaign expansion bring out the best of Rome 2, and show that there’s a really good basic game in there.
Sieges, however, were the best in Shogun 2 and have not been correctly replicated since.
IMO Shogun 2: FOTS mechanics are better than Shogun 2. Strategic bombardment, they get rid of the silly naval trade node fighting, factions have more unique abilities (the Shogunate has a small guerrilla faction that has the ability to replenish in enemy territory!).
IIRC they implemented also critical successes with agents in FOTS - before a high level geisha was terribly overpowered and could destroy armies. Afterwards, they made a normal success give out wounds, and only the rarer critical would dispense death.
I do like the romantic Sengoku war setting more than the Boshin war. The period of history is uncomfortably close to Japanese imperialism.
I was one of the few people that liked Empire. Napoleon is a fixed version of Empire.
They do? I completely missed this in my recent campaign.
You and me both. It was too big perhaps, but it was a good game.
They also start with a vanguard / invisible unit (can fire and remain hidden!), as well as a couple of warships that can bombard so it’s a fun start.
Another interesting faction is the Imperial Sendai (DLC) because they start with a unit of artillery. Artillery is quite overpowered in the game.
And, to be fair, in real life at the time too.
Yeah, my last game was rush to get the a critical mass of artillery and then I was undefeatable. Maybe I should try some of these other factions, I played Shimazu and they seemed quite vanilla.