Why EMPIRE is the BEST TOTAL WAR GAME

The Total War series is easily my favourite real time strategy game series of all time. And it seems many fans can agree on the best entires: Rome Total War, Medieval 2 Total War and Shogun 2 Total War. However my favourite in the series is a controversial pick, Empire Total War. Although musket and cannon warfare didn't grab players the same way swords and sandles did, here's why I believe Empire Total War is the Best Total War game.

#TotalWar #EmpireTotalWar #RowanJColeman #SideQuest

Editor's Note:-
While preparing for this video, my game capture software - OBS Studio - suffered a number of technical problems and for the life of me I couldn't actually capture any game footage for this video. I tried all the settings, but nothing seemed to work. While I would have liked to figure out the issue, I had a deadline to meet and so I decided to instead use other people's gameplay footage for this video. This is somrthing I don't ordinarily like doing and in my opinion does harm the quality of the finished video. Nevertheless it was necessary to get something out in time.

Therefore to give proper credit, additional gameplay footage courtesy of:-
Pixelated Studio
SergiuHellDragoonHQ
Vulcan Total War
ytdlder
Invicta
Sinius
Prince of Macedon
Benjamin Magnus Too
Seleucus the Victor
Brantman19
LegendofTotalWar
lionheartx10
Dino Stan

[zombieslain]

This video is basically proof that we need an Empire 2 / Napoleon 2. I'd love to see Napoleon with the Empire map and improved AI.

[King_George_VI]

I have an embarrassing amount of hours in this game and wholeheartedly agree. The sheer scale of the game with the managing of multiple theatres truly makes this a grand campaign (see what I did there? No apologies).

Something that really helped this game was the famous DarthMod that helped the poor AI a little bit as well as expanding the game even more so, fleshing it out to an even more amazing scale.

[mattwilcks]

My favourite part of Empire is when it pops up saying “A new nation has formed: The United States Of America.” And I say to myself “ Time to nip that in the bud.”

[bravomike]

Alleged Total War Fans saying Muskets are dumb
Shogun 2 Fans:- "Then you are blind. Matchlocks and rifle infantry are the way."

[jarnomiedema]

Empire: Total War is still my favorite Total War game. For some reason that time period just clicks with me. Biggest issue I had with it was the fact that you could conquer most of Europe in the span of a campaign, which felt completely unrealistic. If this game is ever given a sequel, it needs a larger map, with lots of smaller settlements per province (mostly in Europe) and a culture mechanic that'd it really difficult to seize provinces that are of a different culture from your own in peace deals. Being forced to release provinces you conquered as allied states or return them to your enemy in exchange for colonial holdings seems like it might be a good alternative. Here's hoping we get to see a sequel sometime in the near future!

[arkad]

The economy of Empire is by far my favorite in any total war. The concept of region wealth is revolutionary in a total war game. Bigger Population dose not equate more taxes.

Learning the economic system in Empire took me a long time, but once I got the hang of it I fell in love with it.

[zachschacher]

I have almost 2000 hours of gameplay on Empire and I've never fallen out of love with it. The Darthmod really propelled it into a whole other level. I've been waiting patiently for a remastered version of this game, where a lot of the annoying bugs are fixed, and the AI in battle and in diplomacy are much more intelligent. Hopefully someday this will happen.

[AndrewDRed]

Of the historical Total Wars, I agree. This is the best. It's a more interesting time period, the world was a much more complicated place in the 18th Century.

[demosxn]

When I was a kid this was my first total war experience. Me, my brother and our father would gather around the computer and take turns commanding the empire. We shared tactics and advised each other what was the best move to make. I was the best at naval combat so I tried my hand at saving our fleet from whatever conundrum we threw them at. My brother was the best at empire management so he planned our economy. It was a lot of fun and the nuances to the gameplay was really rewarding.

[MasterFatness]

I've always found musket warfare to be illogical and counter-intuitive, until I (like many others) started reading more about the Napoleonic wars. Now, just like you, this is one of my favorite periods of warfare, not to mention Empire being my favorite game of the Total War series, even more so than Napoleon.

All war requires bravery, but standing in open fields less than 100 yards from your opponent, trading volleys of heavy lead, watching your mates fall over to either side of you, must have been among the most nervewracking parts of any type of warfare of any time in history. Not to mention the advanced tactics required to properly utilize your troops for maximum firepower. I tip my imaginary triangular hat to all the soldiers who served in this incredibly interesting (and deadly) period in the history of warfare.

[ChrisUAnimation]

It's a buggy mess, but my god the naval battles are amazing, and the time period amazing, the map amazing, and when the battles work amazing. it deserves a sequel. #Empire2

[andrewadams]

I just want the cutscenes back every time you do a hero action like assassinating people. That used to be one of my favorite features from the original Shogun Total War game. Eventually I got tired and skipped them, but at least half the time each campaign I would sit through it and wait to see how events played out. I especially loved the different geisha cinematics.

[matthewkuchinski]

Empire: Total War served as my first introduction into the Total War franchise and I absolutely love it. I love how it was the first game I ever played that truly allowed me to have tactical and strategic flexibility, more so than other games I played.

[michaellewis]

One thing about this game I have come to appreciate is that you can't Tech your way to victory. In Rome and Medieval Total war I would always lean heavy into Tech to field overpowered armies so the fights were not even close. Not so in Empire since your fully Teched out armies are not that much stronger than the A.I. starting armies.

[DraconimLt]

I love Empire, I just wish that the Diplomacy was better so your Allies didn't start hating you for taking 3 of the ENEMY regions in short order, and you could give regions back to them if liberated, and also that the naval battles weren't made worse when actually using tactics. Oh and some regions were too large for 1 city, should've been several regions so you could take part of it - I'm looking at you France and Spain...

[mazariamonti]

Nothing would please me more than for CA to revisit this time period for their next historical total war game (or at least roughly) - anything from 1700-1880 or so would just be great.

[joesomebody]

I liked how Empire introduced the wealth system, which made keeping your areas properly defended much more important, and actually gave you a reason to pay closer attention to your economy.
It was also in Shogun, but then for whatever reason it was eventually ditched later on.
Which is a shame, because I haven't liked any of the games after Shogun nearly as much without that feature.

[karinaser]

I love the hidden stats for the different Nations Line Infantry in Empire.

[jacobktan]

This was my first Total War, and aside from very buggy siege defenses I love it.

[handlesarecringe]

Aside from the AI, the only thing I didn't like about Empire was the sieges. Empire has the worst siege battles in the entire series by far. They're just incredibly boring due to how easily you can just wipe a fort with cannons and howitzers.