I play Empire basically deciding to keep major powers in the game, instead of trying to take over France or Spain I'll just fight for their external colonies. Just a way of playing that works around the limited provinces. Good review.
@@GudeaTW Yeah if I need my gunpowder warfare fix Napoleon does excellently in that department. Which is why I rarely play Empire and when I do its for its scope.
By the way appreciate the solid review. I've been wanting to go back and replay with a pc that can run it modded on high quality (my first few plays were on low quality)
Very well done look at the game. Thanks for the recommendations on modding as I agree that Darthmod takes it too far from the game making it a bogged down time waster.
Thanks! Yeah I used to like most of the complete overhauls (Darthmod, TROM, Empire Realism), but they just make the battles and the game overall too slow. In the end, it is a game...
I think Empire was ultimately a victim of its own ambition. CA bit off way more than they could chew with making a game like this with a brand new engine.
My very first campaign as the British I ignored Europe entirely and Focused on India and America. After 60 years in game I finally had a look at Europe to find the Dutch had conquered France and thats why I hadn't been bothered in England the whole game. In a game of Terra Incognita mod and its Manpower mechanic, I was locked in a 30 year war as the Prussians with the Dutch over Cologne. Was an extremely fun game. I had all the money in the world but I couldn't raise enough armies to kill the Dutch. Austria declared war so many times and I bought their peace every time I had so much money. If you ever decide to play Empire again, try playing without the UI switched on. Battles become a bit more interesting and the AIs brain deadness becomes a bit more challenging after contact is made, at least I think so. Would love an overhaul mod based on Terra Incognita, to be honest. The Manpower pool mechanic is the main thing I think is missing from most overhaul mods. And its a proper Manpower pool, not this artifical one where your limited to recruiting a small number of special units.
I really like this game vanilla and I play it all the time. But I do see where you are coming from with your complaints. Good review and thanks for the video!
I can't believe how the American Revolution is so often overlooked in discussions about an Empire 2, I mean even the first Empire's 'Road to Independence' campaign was a bit underwhelming to say the least. There is also so much potential in that too, I mean just look at the Civil War mod for ETW and how popular that became. The American Revolution, as well as the subsequent US Campaign, could've been the main centerpoints of ETW, but instead the devs decide to focus on early 18th century Europe, a period in which a lot of people, let alone Total War players, know barely much about.
@@GudeaTW It would honestly have been pretty cool had ETW been a Manifest Destiny game or had been a proto-Napoleon, in regards to covering stuff like the Enlightenment and the French Revolutionary Wars instead of the 1700 start date they obviously bungled with.
ah, the legendary catholic chants (yawn):D agree with regards to sometimes oddly populated campaign map. what i did love about the ETW map though is the emerging settlements and the fact you could interact (damage, garrison) with them. this added a whole new level of dynamism to the campaign map hitherto absent from TW titles. it was just awesome to seenew setllements emerging, the provinces grow and develop, and made them feel like a living breathing world rather than a standard rather static map of other TW games. shame this emerging settlements and interactability feature hasnt been replicated in later historical games where you've got that horrible provincial system and vastly oversized settlements (a la Civilisation) that ruin immersion imho. in terms of mods, i was once looking for the mod that would unlock more factions (to play as a small country) but could not find any. but thanks for the mod suggestions anyway, will give them a try next time i touch Empire. and thanks for the lovely review:)
Here is the Empire Total Factions mod! www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?350349-EMPIRE-TOTAL-FACTIONS-(Last-updated-17-08-2011) I definitely think the Empire map had potential. They really wanted to do something different, take it in a new direction... it's just that Empire was so unpolished and only the most overhaul of overhaul mods can make it feel polished (I tried out Imperial Destroyer recently, and while it isn't perfect it makes the game feel very different). The oversized settlements in Rome 2 were big turnoffs for me as well. I like Civilization, I played Civilization IV as a kid (and Alpha Centauri) before discovering MTW and RTW (around the same time). However, the Civ style settlements don't work in Total War in my opinion. Three Kingdoms and especially Troy have better looking settlements on the map, though they're still a bit big for my taste. I would be really happy if they used the Troy sizes for a Medieval 3 or Rome 3 or Empire 2, however. Regarding the soundtrack... I actually like calming, ambient soundtracks a lot, even though it is a bit out of place in Total War, it works for the campaign map (sometimes). Empire's OST is just a bit lackluster. I would have chosen a different chant track, since I do think chanting can be nice and ambient... Napoleon's is one of the best, up there with RTW, MTW, M2TW, S2TW imo, so I do think the composer (Beddow) can do a great job.
Btw, empire realism is a must have for naval battles. The ground battles are good but the naval battles are spectacular. It also adds scaling to the game which is a must in any wargame. And ETW was the first Total War where even in vanilla I had to make strategic choices that meant sometimes I had to chose between different parts of my empire.
I do like Empire Realism a lot (I just with the units were not slowed down so much, like Darthmod). I may do a vid about it... The developer, Jam, did a fantastic job with both Empire and Napoleon (and his Shogun 2 realism mod was great, but was left unfinished unfortunately).
@@GudeaTW the units are slowed down because of the scaling factor. You should take a look at Kaunitz mod (from where Jam got a lot of inspiration) that was a tactical mod based solely on historical accuracy regarding how battles went and paid no respects to gameplay. It was phenomenal. Best tactical combat mod ever made.
@@Heldermaior ahh I had heard of that but hadn't played it. I'll definitely do a video on Empire Realism - it really is something and really makes the battles challenging.
To be fair, the BAI im ETW was the best AI in a TW game until patch 1.3. Patch 1.3 killed it somehow... it didn't derp, it flanked, it employed deception and actually could catch you off guard. Then patch 1.3 came along and chicken dance and blobing up became the norm...
Hmm I actually didn't play empire prior to that patch so I think I missed that unfortunately... The AI in the imperial destroyer mod is extremely good, like the AI you describe.
@@GudeaTW i haven't played etw in ages (EU4 is a much better game) but I never got the same experience as i did playing ETW pre 1.3 patch. It was really something else. I remember this battle I lost due to the AI exploiting my overextended front. This was the AI doing a cavalry charge taking advantage of a tactical error on my part... in a tw game!
Despite the massive problems with the battlefield AI and the siege battles which lagged my computer so much it'd take hours to finish one, I quite enjoyed Empire. I appreciated and loved the scope of its ambition with the world map, and while it took a while to grow on me, I love the naval battles. With Empire, the possibilities for the roads you could take were endless. You could be Poland and decide on mass emigration to the Americas or India, or Prussia with a colonizing itch. With Rome 1, it was always clear there was one path if you wanted to maximize wealth: Invade Greece, Carthage, Sicily, and Egypt before all others. While I enjoyed the mad rush to beat the AI, it always felt a little formulaic for me. It was better in Med 2 where each faction had unique challenges and enemies, but it still felt like a blitzkrieg to me. Empire truly allowed me to slow down and choose whatever path I wanted. Overall I enjoyed the review, and it's great to see UA-cam finally doing its job and recommending the smaller (relatively) channels!
Hi Derek, I definitely agree that Empire was ambitious and took some risks to really change up the gameplay. Of course, not everything worked. I definitely understand your points about original Rome and Medieval 2. Those are the reasons I can only play those games modded, with mods that really change up the campaign gameplay. The newer games, even Empire, I can have fun with even when playing vanilla, which is an achievement. Thanks for watching!
I personally think that the map of the empire is between very good and very bad, the fact of not being in South America hurts Portugal a lot, I shared your opinion regarding Persia although I am one of those who believes that it would also have been good to be able to play with the Mughal empire
South America is part of the campaign , but yeah , only the northernmost part ( Colombia, Venezuela and the Guyanas). I think they did it this way because having so many provinces would make Spain too strong , and the game has a certain Anglo bias.
Great review. This pretty much sums it up perfecly. Empire is amazing but so bad (without mods) at the same time. Napoleon is in many ways the better game but always felt more like an expansion to me with a very linear setting. The more traditional make your own campaign open world feel of Empire, spanning over longer time always intrigued me more however and I'm always looking for more ways to enjoy that experience even more:) Except from better sound design and some enhanced smoke effects Napoleon TW graphics seems to be the same as Empire and I think the reason it looks better is simply because of the "cartoony" or oversaturated colours and different shadow and lighting makes it look and feel more stylized. While Empire was going for a more realistic look and comes of very lifeless and bland. Even back in 2009 I liked how Empire looked in some aspects, but at the same time it felt underdeveloped and I felt that Medieval 2 looked better in many ways, probably because of lighting and colours. A few noobie questions:P Is the AI mod you use the same as Darthmod (but only for the Ai ofc) or is it different? And does any of the listed mods also increase unit size? In your video you have infantry stacks of 300 but are not using Darthmod but a collection of other mods. While if I recall correctly the vanilla stack is maxed at 120 ish.
I edited some files to increase unit size. I'm going to do some more Empire mod videos at some point! Also check out the Durango Historical Portraits mod. Such an excellent mod.
@@GudeaTW Thanks!! Will do. I installed the mod manager and are going to try a bunch of different mods. I like the back and forth and grind like in Darthmod but the mod feels unstable and the AI is still doing weird stuff like England trying to naval invade Finland for no reason, while also being at war with France and Spain. And sieges are still horrible. So I figured customizing my own Empire experience with different mods might be the better choise as there are so many talented modders still improving the game to this date:)
Unsubscribe from some mods, right now there is a big in the mod manager where it won't load if you are subscribed to too many mods. They're aware of the issue
Ahh sorry I thought you were referring to Rome remastered, didn't see that you were talking about empire until just now. Try reinstalling the mod manager, there shouldn't be any issue
Great review, comprehensive as always. I’ve only dipped my toe into Empire: Total War. Out of curiosity, why do you prefer to use Darthmod effects without the campaign overhaul?
I think CA realized after the fact ,some of the flaws in the game that were mentioned here, (And others) and we can see that reflected in Napoleon: France and Spain divided into provinces, game based on a shorter time period, more building options, got forts of the map, and more research put into uniform accuracy. If they had made the game to be about the Seven Years War, and 2 turns per month like Napoleon, the game would have approximately the same amount of turns as Napoleon. Other than some of the special units, The game gives all the units of a nation the same colour uniform, which in most cases was not how it was. (e.g French Dragoons and Guard Cavalry units wore red or blue. French Maison du Roi Infantry wore blue, Saxon Infantry wore white, not green, and Wurttemberg Infantry wore blue, not red) Most people want more units. In some ways I think there are too many. Pikemen, Conscripts, Dragoons, Light Dragoons, and Colonial Dragoons could all go. The Caribineer unit better represents the appearance of dragoons for the bulk of the 18th century, so I would make them available to all the European nations. The Russians don't need both Kalmuks and Tarters as their appearance and stats are almost exactly the same. I would give the French Swiss infantry though. France used more Swiss than all the other nations combined. Other than the France & Spain Provinces thing, the other thing I would change about the map is to get rid of Westphalia (Which didn't even exist in the 18th century) and use that space, and maybe a chunk of Hannover to create more smaller German nations such as Brunswick and Hesse-Cassel. I like the trade regions, but would have made another one in North America. Maybe furs around Canada somewhere. Unlike the poster, I like the tech tree. The Minor Factions Revenge mod (And maybe others. I haven't played them all) mixed in some of the tech from Napoleon to make the tree larger, which I liked. It would vary the factions a bit more if the tech tree was larger still and factions couldn't research it all before the end of the game, so factions maybe had to specialize in certain things. I I would make it possible to dismiss any agents you don't have a use for, and finally, I would make all nations playable on prestige, and add a few to the Grand Campaign.
We just want a playable version of empire and for the heck of it we will call empire 2 . Mods are not the solution ,as darth mod after the year 1850 where the ai stacks become smaller and smaller turns take half an hour and mostly crash .
A great retrospective on this game! Do you know of any mods that put troops in tighter formations? I liked this in the Imperial Destroyer mod, but not really a fan of overhaul mods in general, with few exceptions (EB/EB2). Thanks for these review videos!
Not quite sure I get your tech tree complaint? Certain technologies require others to be studied first... which for immersion makes sense, Certain weapons or industrial developments could not happen without other infrastructure put in place before hand... it makes sense to have that in a game
The only thing that i disagree its the sound in this game. Musket sound its soo bizarre that i dont have words to describe, the battle its soo calm, you dont have people screaming, chanting or talking. In Napoleon, 70% of these problems where solved, thank God...
I use sound mods - there is the Darthmod effects pack and several others that only focus on sound and effects. The vanilla sounds I find ok, but you're right too calm.
yeah empire is an amazing game I personally had one of the best campaigns in any total war in empire just recently father 12 years since the game been released I came back to it and started to play again and I'm enjoying it so much ... also napoleon witch I kind consider basily the same game whit some graphical updates cause its just an expansion to empire if you ask me .. it just a shame that there are so many bugs and poor optimization to this game hope they make empire 2 or at lest a remake or remaster of it in the near future ... they only need to update the UI graphics and add more provicens... mergin napoleon campaign to empires campaign map would be awsome ... the europan provinces in napoleon are very well made overall napoleon is a more polished version of empire ...
I think that they dint add new provinces to France and Spain to "balance" some things, and not overwhelm the Player with Europe In one side, this Is that Europe wasn't the "world" anymore, there were 2 new continents to conquer, so, if they took more time in europe, basically you would take a LOT conquering Europe, and it would fall as America in Medieval 2 total war, it's there, but everyone is too busy conquering everything to care about some land in the west And, France and Spain have their colonies (I know great britain too, but it mostly the "easy" faction to start, like medieval 2, as it is the first to choose), so it would make them a little too much op, because of the income that they could get because of this Maybe Rusia was also a problem in expanding the map since...well...it's so fricking big wtf The sieges, i say, they work as before games, Melee combats in walls, take gate, fight better in streets...but they shouldnt be like that, so, thats a no I really feel unconfortable with the copy/paste faces of the unit after seeing my diverse army in Medieval 2 Other than the IA, and other things, if you dont bother them or upgrade them with mods...you are going to have a Blast with the campaing and Battles! (I consider Empire Grand campaing to be superior to Napoleon one)
good video but get a pop cover for your mic, its peaking with every word that starts with a 'P' which was a bit distracting from the otherwise good review :)
Haha you're right. I still don't have one unfortunately, but I think I've been more careful about this in more recent videos. I just moved so working on improving my setup.
4 роки тому
The Shokh Hates Sieges Mod has to update it's link because the link is broken. Meanwhile I found this: www.dropbox.com/s/c5v8uowjgfycpfm/mod_no_walls.pack
I agree with your critique of E:TW but this game is simply too fun even with this baggage. I sinked about 2k hours to both Empire and Napoleon with mods and vanilla. The only difference is that i think naval battles are what this game is all about. British Navy has best ships and morale and I always found it fun to challenge them with France, Netherlands or Spain.
Empire is not playable without mods. Yes the music is terrible in this game. Oh you forgot to mention the the Ottoman turn bug. As to small armies the ai makes that is fixed with Bran Empire Campaign Ai mod.
I liked the multiplayer, but the campaign just didn't work. The eighteenth century wasn't really an age of "Total War", but playing as though it were was the optimal strategy. Its jarring, and at worst its just dumb. The transition from early to late units was interesting, especially as Russia. However, it was pretty easy to just rush to regular line infantry and just use that.
When i got my hands on empire i found it boring and not fun at all. The AI is stupid and when i got into a battle it was a walk in the park. Darthmod kinda sorted out the problems but still i got bored after 2 weeks of playing. But still a great video.
Thanks! I agree, Empire is definitely not the strongest Total War game, but I did find it engaging with the right mods (mostly Empire Realism). Now there is a mod called Imperial Destroyer that I'm finding to be quite amazing - it overhauls the graphics and the gameplay and makes the experience way more tight. I may do a video about it.
@@GudeaTW I have herad and seen serveral videos about Imperial Destroyer and it looks lovely. It is historically accurate and gives you more stuff to the game. I haven't tried it myself yet but it looks awsome. I agree with you Darthmod was really cool in fact I enjoyed it butas I said i got realy bored and so 2 weeks later both Darthmod and Empire were outa here.
One other thing to note- the battle AI in imperial destroyer is surprisingly... Excellent. It may be some of the best battle AI I've ever seen.. (with the occasional hiccup)
@@GudeaTW yes it's a brilliant mod, and luckily it has it's attention it needs. The moders did a brilliant job, the details put onto the mod are incredible. The gunfire is also awsome. It's the generally what the Emprie should have been.
good video, i respect your opinion, but really disagree on so many things, things where you said "oh this is just bad", are sometimes my favorite thigs about the game, i love naval batteles, and in a game like rome, my fav of the series, you just need one ship to farry four army, but here there is reward for controling the seas in trade and such. Also i hated the regions at first but now, the epic specticale that is the battle for france or spain after much build up so much better, instead of eating province after province its a massive siege you have been building towards becuase you get one shot, instead of slowly eating their land with each battle meaningless, and you will still have fronts with france in americas and such that require some of the recorses needed to storm france. also i love sieges and i love the wilderness parts aswell, because in some or medieval, who gives a shit what the town is called, its a box on screen that pays your armys, and it is here aswell, but because you crossed "the wilderness" or set out on a expedition over seas that took many turns to travel and build up, what you the figt for is suddenly more than another city you border that gives income. this is also a reason that i love the teleport block system for america and the trade zones, i prefer it to one connected map, becuase if i send a huge expedition i buildt up, it feels like i traveled over seas and is somewhere far away new to get colonies, not the same as crossing the mediteranian to kill your neighbour from another angle. Also reaserch is great here, the schools, gentleman and the tree are all awsome and you have to invest in it prioritice and get to see a real change from it, its great.. There are so many more things aswell but i love this game for many of the things people call it bad for. great video though and sorry about grammar, i dont have english autocorrect and its not my first language.
Don't play Empire with mods. Mods are poorly made and often glich, bug and break games. That's why this guy complains so much. Darth mod especially glitches AI because it allows enormous army sizes. This game isn't perfect but it can be very enjoyable. This game is mostly focused on colonisation, you can find very diverse units in America or Middle East. My favorite way of playing is conquering India as Russia using cossack and tatar units. I also recommend doing American campaign and then starting as USA in later stages of the game.
You have a very calming voice, it goes nicely with the Empire soundtrack. Great video!
Thank you kindly!
Misfit you ain't lying! I can listen to Gudea talk all day. I wish he was my English teacher back when I was once young. :) Another great video Gudea.
I play Empire basically deciding to keep major powers in the game, instead of trying to take over France or Spain I'll just fight for their external colonies. Just a way of playing that works around the limited provinces. Good review.
Yeah that's a good role playing strategy. Thank you!
@@GudeaTW yeah I'm binging your videos right now, can't wait for that imperial splendour review
@@napoleonbonaparte7692 I have both versions (regular and Rotr) downloaded, will be trying them out for the first time soon. :)
I come back to Empire every once in a while because of its scope. And its one TW game i never play without mods.
Indeed totally agree
@@GudeaTW Yeah if I need my gunpowder warfare fix Napoleon does excellently in that department. Which is why I rarely play Empire and when I do its for its scope.
I just bought Empire and have been loving it! Playing as the British and really only fighting in the Americas. Very fun so far :D
Glad you're enjoying it!
@@GudeaTW Do you plan on making a playthrough/campaign of some mod or total war?
@@specioustest4321 sure when I have time
Oddly I never really minded the unit portraits, I kinda felt that compared to other tw titles it was fairly simple to pick out unis in a battle
I'm ok with Empire's unit cards, I just really don't like the character portraits
@@GudeaTW ohhhhhh yeah I can understand that they definitely could have put more work into that
By the way appreciate the solid review. I've been wanting to go back and replay with a pc that can run it modded on high quality (my first few plays were on low quality)
Making a game about the Age of Empires without Portugal...
Silly C.A.!
Very well done look at the game. Thanks for the recommendations on modding as I agree that Darthmod takes it too far from the game making it a bogged down time waster.
Thanks! Yeah I used to like most of the complete overhauls (Darthmod, TROM, Empire Realism), but they just make the battles and the game overall too slow. In the end, it is a game...
Gudea of Lagash totally agree
Empire is the only TW game i keep getting back to, year after year :D. It's just amazing, rank by fire and see the crap-AI melt.
Lol it is pretty glorious. Some ai mods actually really improve the battles pretty significantly
I think Empire was ultimately a victim of its own ambition. CA bit off way more than they could chew with making a game like this with a brand new engine.
Agreed - I think an empire 2 could be so so much better...
@@GudeaTW Id like to see a Victoria Total War mostly since Victoria 2 is my favorite Paradox game.
I hope CA does a remake of empire someday to do it justice
Definitely
Although if CA see this I would love to be lead Dev although be prepared to open that big checkbook because I'm going all out
My very first campaign as the British I ignored Europe entirely and Focused on India and America. After 60 years in game I finally had a look at Europe to find the Dutch had conquered France and thats why I hadn't been bothered in England the whole game.
In a game of Terra Incognita mod and its Manpower mechanic, I was locked in a 30 year war as the Prussians with the Dutch over Cologne. Was an extremely fun game. I had all the money in the world but I couldn't raise enough armies to kill the Dutch. Austria declared war so many times and I bought their peace every time I had so much money.
If you ever decide to play Empire again, try playing without the UI switched on. Battles become a bit more interesting and the AIs brain deadness becomes a bit more challenging after contact is made, at least I think so.
Would love an overhaul mod based on Terra Incognita, to be honest. The Manpower pool mechanic is the main thing I think is missing from most overhaul mods. And its a proper Manpower pool, not this artifical one where your limited to recruiting a small number of special units.
The birth of a legend
Haha thank you!
Great video! Good point about the Persians 🙂
Thanks! 😃
Bravo! Thank you for being an excellent Empire enjoyer.
I really like this game vanilla and I play it all the time. But I do see where you are coming from with your complaints. Good review and thanks for the video!
Great video, hope to see more similar stuff from you
Just released a video on Napoleon - I'm currently working on a series of retrospectives on most Total Wars and Civilizations. Thanks a lot!
I can't believe how the American Revolution is so often overlooked in discussions about an Empire 2, I mean even the first Empire's 'Road to Independence' campaign was a bit underwhelming to say the least. There is also so much potential in that too, I mean just look at the Civil War mod for ETW and how popular that became. The American Revolution, as well as the subsequent US Campaign, could've been the main centerpoints of ETW, but instead the devs decide to focus on early 18th century Europe, a period in which a lot of people, let alone Total War players, know barely much about.
Hmm I see your point! A total war game with an american focus could be quite interesting
@@GudeaTW It would honestly have been pretty cool had ETW been a Manifest Destiny game or had been a proto-Napoleon, in regards to covering stuff like the Enlightenment and the French Revolutionary Wars instead of the 1700 start date they obviously bungled with.
ah, the legendary catholic chants (yawn):D agree with regards to sometimes oddly populated campaign map. what i did love about the ETW map though is the emerging settlements and the fact you could interact (damage, garrison) with them. this added a whole new level of dynamism to the campaign map hitherto absent from TW titles. it was just awesome to seenew setllements emerging, the provinces grow and develop, and made them feel like a living breathing world rather than a standard rather static map of other TW games. shame this emerging settlements and interactability feature hasnt been replicated in later historical games where you've got that horrible provincial system and vastly oversized settlements (a la Civilisation) that ruin immersion imho.
in terms of mods, i was once looking for the mod that would unlock more factions (to play as a small country) but could not find any. but thanks for the mod suggestions anyway, will give them a try next time i touch Empire. and thanks for the lovely review:)
Here is the Empire Total Factions mod!
www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?350349-EMPIRE-TOTAL-FACTIONS-(Last-updated-17-08-2011)
I definitely think the Empire map had potential. They really wanted to do something different, take it in a new direction... it's just that Empire was so unpolished and only the most overhaul of overhaul mods can make it feel polished (I tried out Imperial Destroyer recently, and while it isn't perfect it makes the game feel very different).
The oversized settlements in Rome 2 were big turnoffs for me as well. I like Civilization, I played Civilization IV as a kid (and Alpha Centauri) before discovering MTW and RTW (around the same time). However, the Civ style settlements don't work in Total War in my opinion. Three Kingdoms and especially Troy have better looking settlements on the map, though they're still a bit big for my taste. I would be really happy if they used the Troy sizes for a Medieval 3 or Rome 3 or Empire 2, however.
Regarding the soundtrack... I actually like calming, ambient soundtracks a lot, even though it is a bit out of place in Total War, it works for the campaign map (sometimes). Empire's OST is just a bit lackluster. I would have chosen a different chant track, since I do think chanting can be nice and ambient... Napoleon's is one of the best, up there with RTW, MTW, M2TW, S2TW imo, so I do think the composer (Beddow) can do a great job.
There's another one called Minor Faction's Revenge
@@derektai3758 how does it defer from total factions - techs, units?
Btw, empire realism is a must have for naval battles. The ground battles are good but the naval battles are spectacular. It also adds scaling to the game which is a must in any wargame. And ETW was the first Total War where even in vanilla I had to make strategic choices that meant sometimes I had to chose between different parts of my empire.
I do like Empire Realism a lot (I just with the units were not slowed down so much, like Darthmod). I may do a vid about it... The developer, Jam, did a fantastic job with both Empire and Napoleon (and his Shogun 2 realism mod was great, but was left unfinished unfortunately).
@@GudeaTW the units are slowed down because of the scaling factor. You should take a look at Kaunitz mod (from where Jam got a lot of inspiration) that was a tactical mod based solely on historical accuracy regarding how battles went and paid no respects to gameplay. It was phenomenal. Best tactical combat mod ever made.
@@Heldermaior ahh I had heard of that but hadn't played it. I'll definitely do a video on Empire Realism - it really is something and really makes the battles challenging.
To be fair, the BAI im ETW was the best AI in a TW game until patch 1.3. Patch 1.3 killed it somehow... it didn't derp, it flanked, it employed deception and actually could catch you off guard. Then patch 1.3 came along and chicken dance and blobing up became the norm...
Hmm I actually didn't play empire prior to that patch so I think I missed that unfortunately... The AI in the imperial destroyer mod is extremely good, like the AI you describe.
@@GudeaTW i haven't played etw in ages (EU4 is a much better game) but I never got the same experience as i did playing ETW pre 1.3 patch. It was really something else. I remember this battle I lost due to the AI exploiting my overextended front. This was the AI doing a cavalry charge taking advantage of a tactical error on my part... in a tw game!
Despite the massive problems with the battlefield AI and the siege battles which lagged my computer so much it'd take hours to finish one, I quite enjoyed Empire. I appreciated and loved the scope of its ambition with the world map, and while it took a while to grow on me, I love the naval battles. With Empire, the possibilities for the roads you could take were endless. You could be Poland and decide on mass emigration to the Americas or India, or Prussia with a colonizing itch. With Rome 1, it was always clear there was one path if you wanted to maximize wealth: Invade Greece, Carthage, Sicily, and Egypt before all others. While I enjoyed the mad rush to beat the AI, it always felt a little formulaic for me. It was better in Med 2 where each faction had unique challenges and enemies, but it still felt like a blitzkrieg to me. Empire truly allowed me to slow down and choose whatever path I wanted. Overall I enjoyed the review, and it's great to see UA-cam finally doing its job and recommending the smaller (relatively) channels!
Hi Derek, I definitely agree that Empire was ambitious and took some risks to really change up the gameplay. Of course, not everything worked. I definitely understand your points about original Rome and Medieval 2. Those are the reasons I can only play those games modded, with mods that really change up the campaign gameplay. The newer games, even Empire, I can have fun with even when playing vanilla, which is an achievement. Thanks for watching!
this game broke my heart
Just like Anakin...
the empire darthmod soundtracks are really nice especially in the americas, and teh naval battle ost are amazing
Darthmod does have a nice soundtrack
I personally think that the map of the empire is between very good and very bad, the fact of not being in South America hurts Portugal a lot, I shared your opinion regarding Persia although I am one of those who believes that it would also have been good to be able to play with the Mughal empire
Regarding South America, I think it could have been added as another continent, I suppose it could be reached by land through Ecuador and by sea
South America is part of the campaign , but yeah , only the northernmost part ( Colombia, Venezuela and the Guyanas). I think they did it this way because having so many provinces would make Spain too strong , and the game has a certain Anglo bias.
Great review. This pretty much sums it up perfecly. Empire is amazing but so bad (without mods) at the same time. Napoleon is in many ways the better game but always felt more like an expansion to me with a very linear setting. The more traditional make your own campaign open world feel of Empire, spanning over longer time always intrigued me more however and I'm always looking for more ways to enjoy that experience even more:)
Except from better sound design and some enhanced smoke effects Napoleon TW graphics seems to be the same as Empire and I think the reason it looks better is simply because of the "cartoony" or oversaturated colours and different shadow and lighting makes it look and feel more stylized. While Empire was going for a more realistic look and comes of very lifeless and bland. Even back in 2009 I liked how Empire looked in some aspects, but at the same time it felt underdeveloped and I felt that Medieval 2 looked better in many ways, probably because of lighting and colours.
A few noobie questions:P Is the AI mod you use the same as Darthmod (but only for the Ai ofc) or is it different? And does any of the listed mods also increase unit size? In your video you have infantry stacks of 300 but are not using Darthmod but a collection of other mods. While if I recall correctly the vanilla stack is maxed at 120 ish.
I edited some files to increase unit size. I'm going to do some more Empire mod videos at some point! Also check out the Durango Historical Portraits mod. Such an excellent mod.
@@GudeaTW Thanks!! Will do. I installed the mod manager and are going to try a bunch of different mods. I like the back and forth and grind like in Darthmod but the mod feels unstable and the AI is still doing weird stuff like England trying to naval invade Finland for no reason, while also being at war with France and Spain. And sieges are still horrible. So I figured customizing my own Empire experience with different mods might be the better choise as there are so many talented modders still improving the game to this date:)
I don't quite get all the gripes with Empire except the a.i.
It's still my top 5 favorite game to play.
Tottaly disagree i love the agents in empire and the idea is great
What's the opening music? I recognise it but can't put a finger on it.
It's from the etw ost, battle loading screen
@@GudeaTW Thanks, thought it was historical, didn't realise it was written for the game.
It's actually one of Corelli's pieces. Wasn't written for the game.
It's actually one of Corelli's pieces. Not written for the game.
I still love Empire 😁
It's fun!
I can’t load mods anymore. 😞
Help!
Unsubscribe from some mods, right now there is a big in the mod manager where it won't load if you are subscribed to too many mods. They're aware of the issue
@@GudeaTW thanks. what mod site are you using?
Ahh sorry I thought you were referring to Rome remastered, didn't see that you were talking about empire until just now. Try reinstalling the mod manager, there shouldn't be any issue
Great review, comprehensive as always. I’ve only dipped my toe into Empire: Total War. Out of curiosity, why do you prefer to use Darthmod effects without the campaign overhaul?
Thank you! I find the Darthmod campaign to be a bit too grindy. I enjoy other mods like TROM more
I think CA realized after the fact ,some of the flaws in the game that were mentioned here, (And others) and we can see that reflected in Napoleon: France and Spain divided into provinces, game based on a shorter time period, more building options, got forts of the map, and more research put into uniform accuracy.
If they had made the game to be about the Seven Years War, and 2 turns per month like Napoleon, the game would have approximately the same amount of turns as Napoleon.
Other than some of the special units, The game gives all the units of a nation the same colour uniform, which in most cases was not how it was. (e.g French Dragoons and Guard Cavalry units wore red or blue. French Maison du Roi Infantry wore blue, Saxon Infantry wore white, not green, and Wurttemberg Infantry wore blue, not red)
Most people want more units. In some ways I think there are too many. Pikemen, Conscripts, Dragoons, Light Dragoons, and Colonial Dragoons could all go. The Caribineer unit better represents the appearance of dragoons for the bulk of the 18th century, so I would make them available to all the European nations. The Russians don't need both Kalmuks and Tarters as their appearance and stats are almost exactly the same. I would give the French Swiss infantry though. France used more Swiss than all the other nations combined.
Other than the France & Spain Provinces thing, the other thing I would change about the map is to get rid of Westphalia (Which didn't even exist in the 18th century) and use that space, and maybe a chunk of Hannover to create more smaller German nations such as Brunswick and Hesse-Cassel. I like the trade regions, but would have made another one in North America. Maybe furs around Canada somewhere.
Unlike the poster, I like the tech tree. The Minor Factions Revenge mod (And maybe others. I haven't played them all) mixed in some of the tech from Napoleon to make the tree larger, which I liked. It would vary the factions a bit more if the tech tree was larger still and factions couldn't research it all before the end of the game, so factions maybe had to specialize in certain things. I I would make it possible to dismiss any agents you don't have a use for, and finally, I would make all nations playable on prestige, and add a few to the Grand Campaign.
We just want a playable version of empire and for the heck of it we will call empire 2 .
Mods are not the solution ,as darth mod after the year 1850 where the ai stacks become smaller and smaller turns take half an hour and mostly crash .
Agreed, I think a remaster of empire that fixes the bugs, performance, battle and campaign ai would be pretty awesome
@@GudeaTW is shogun 2 engine different?
@@tahahadada1936 no
A great retrospective on this game! Do you know of any mods that put troops in tighter formations? I liked this in the Imperial Destroyer mod, but not really a fan of overhaul mods in general, with few exceptions (EB/EB2). Thanks for these review videos!
Hmm there is the Bran Mac Born Battle AI mod that also alters formations, perhaps that might be what you're looking for?
@@GudeaTW Thanks very much! I will check it out.
I'm new fan
Not quite sure I get your tech tree complaint? Certain technologies require others to be studied first... which for immersion makes sense, Certain weapons or industrial developments could not happen without other infrastructure put in place before hand... it makes sense to have that in a game
I'm not a fan of the ui for it and I actually prefer the tech being handled through more complex building trees and reforms
good to know that there is mods only for AI cause i preffer to keep my total war games as vanilla as possible
Yup there are plenty of AI only mods for Empire
The only thing that i disagree its the sound in this game. Musket sound its soo bizarre that i dont have words to describe, the battle its soo calm, you dont have people screaming, chanting or talking. In Napoleon, 70% of these problems where solved, thank God...
I use sound mods - there is the Darthmod effects pack and several others that only focus on sound and effects. The vanilla sounds I find ok, but you're right too calm.
@@GudeaTW Yeah, me too. I even modded myself the game, like changing unit size, ESF archives and the amount of cannons.
yeah empire is an amazing game I personally had one of the best campaigns in any total war in empire just recently father 12 years since the game been released I came back to it and started to play again and I'm enjoying it so much ... also napoleon witch I kind consider basily the same game whit some graphical updates cause its just an expansion to empire if you ask me .. it just a shame that there are so many bugs and poor optimization to this game hope they make empire 2 or at lest a remake or remaster of it in the near future ... they only need to update the UI graphics and add more provicens... mergin napoleon campaign to empires campaign map would be awsome ... the europan provinces in napoleon are very well made overall napoleon is a more polished version of empire ...
did anyone knew the mod that increase the maximum ammo for troops on Empire?
Search Total War Center, I'm sure there is such a mod, but I can't recall...
I think that they dint add new provinces to France and Spain to "balance" some things, and not overwhelm the Player with Europe
In one side, this Is that Europe wasn't the "world" anymore, there were 2 new continents to conquer, so, if they took more time in europe, basically you would take a LOT conquering Europe, and it would fall as America in Medieval 2 total war, it's there, but everyone is too busy conquering everything to care about some land in the west
And, France and Spain have their colonies (I know great britain too, but it mostly the "easy" faction to start, like medieval 2, as it is the first to choose), so it would make them a little too much op, because of the income that they could get because of this
Maybe Rusia was also a problem in expanding the map since...well...it's so fricking big wtf
The sieges, i say, they work as before games, Melee combats in walls, take gate, fight better in streets...but they shouldnt be like that, so, thats a no
I really feel unconfortable with the copy/paste faces of the unit after seeing my diverse army in Medieval 2
Other than the IA, and other things, if you dont bother them or upgrade them with mods...you are going to have a Blast with the campaing and Battles! (I consider Empire Grand campaing to be superior to Napoleon one)
good video but get a pop cover for your mic, its peaking with every word that starts with a 'P' which was a bit distracting from the otherwise good review :)
Haha you're right. I still don't have one unfortunately, but I think I've been more careful about this in more recent videos. I just moved so working on improving my setup.
The Shokh Hates Sieges Mod has to update it's link because the link is broken. Meanwhile I found this:
www.dropbox.com/s/c5v8uowjgfycpfm/mod_no_walls.pack
I'll look for that one in my files - also I think that's a good mod as well!
Prussia just can’t get a break in campaign from my experience, I wish the negotiations were better
yeah diplomacy in Empire could have been so much better
Unit collusion or the lack thereof is an issue in Warscape engine imo
Of course. It is the worst in Empire, but was improved in subsequent games
I agree with your critique of E:TW but this game is simply too fun even with this baggage. I sinked about 2k hours to both Empire and Napoleon with mods and vanilla. The only difference is that i think naval battles are what this game is all about. British Navy has best ships and morale and I always found it fun to challenge them with France, Netherlands or Spain.
I find Empire fun as well!
anybody else think they have a great asmr voice
Empire is not playable without mods. Yes the music is terrible in this game. Oh you forgot to mention the the Ottoman turn bug. As to small armies the ai makes that is fixed with Bran Empire Campaign Ai mod.
I liked the multiplayer, but the campaign just didn't work. The eighteenth century wasn't really an age of "Total War", but playing as though it were was the optimal strategy. Its jarring, and at worst its just dumb.
The transition from early to late units was interesting, especially as Russia. However, it was pretty easy to just rush to regular line infantry and just use that.
All valid points! I think having one city provinces (like Spain, France, Persia etc.) exacerbated this problem.
When i got my hands on empire i found it boring and not fun at all. The AI is stupid and when i got into a battle it was a walk in the park. Darthmod kinda sorted out the problems but still i got bored after 2 weeks of playing. But still a great video.
Thanks! I agree, Empire is definitely not the strongest Total War game, but I did find it engaging with the right mods (mostly Empire Realism). Now there is a mod called Imperial Destroyer that I'm finding to be quite amazing - it overhauls the graphics and the gameplay and makes the experience way more tight. I may do a video about it.
@@GudeaTW I have herad and seen serveral videos about Imperial Destroyer and it looks lovely. It is historically accurate and gives you more stuff to the game. I haven't tried it myself yet but it looks awsome. I agree with you Darthmod was really cool in fact I enjoyed it butas I said i got realy bored and so 2 weeks later both Darthmod and Empire were outa here.
I used to play with Darthmod, but now I find it too slow. Destroyer's combat feels more engaging imo. (The campaign is also more interesting)
One other thing to note- the battle AI in imperial destroyer is surprisingly... Excellent. It may be some of the best battle AI I've ever seen.. (with the occasional hiccup)
@@GudeaTW yes it's a brilliant mod, and luckily it has it's attention it needs. The moders did a brilliant job, the details put onto the mod are incredible. The gunfire is also awsome. It's the generally what the Emprie should have been.
The last good TW IMHO.
Napoleon and Shogun 2
good video, i respect your opinion, but really disagree on so many things, things where you said "oh this is just bad", are sometimes my favorite thigs about the game, i love naval batteles, and in a game like rome, my fav of the series, you just need one ship to farry four army, but here there is reward for controling the seas in trade and such. Also i hated the regions at first but now, the epic specticale that is the battle for france or spain after much build up so much better, instead of eating province after province its a massive siege you have been building towards becuase you get one shot, instead of slowly eating their land with each battle meaningless, and you will still have fronts with france in americas and such that require some of the recorses needed to storm france. also i love sieges and i love the wilderness parts aswell, because in some or medieval, who gives a shit what the town is called, its a box on screen that pays your armys, and it is here aswell, but because you crossed "the wilderness" or set out on a expedition over seas that took many turns to travel and build up, what you the figt for is suddenly more than another city you border that gives income. this is also a reason that i love the teleport block system for america and the trade zones, i prefer it to one connected map, becuase if i send a huge expedition i buildt up, it feels like i traveled over seas and is somewhere far away new to get colonies, not the same as crossing the mediteranian to kill your neighbour from another angle. Also reaserch is great here, the schools, gentleman and the tree are all awsome and you have to invest in it prioritice and get to see a real change from it, its great.. There are so many more things aswell but i love this game for many of the things people call it bad for. great video though and sorry about grammar, i dont have english autocorrect and its not my first language.
Don't play Empire with mods. Mods are poorly made and often glich, bug and break games. That's why this guy complains so much. Darth mod especially glitches AI because it allows enormous army sizes. This game isn't perfect but it can be very enjoyable. This game is mostly focused on colonisation, you can find very diverse units in America or Middle East. My favorite way of playing is conquering India as Russia using cossack and tatar units. I also recommend doing American campaign and then starting as USA in later stages of the game.
I prefer the lighter mods, like The Rights of Man, or the bugfixer/ai/graphics mods
Is a copy of imperial splendor.
حق🤌🏼