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[ansontan2000]

Soo....I've got some money to spend, and i'm going to spend it on a total war game. The question is, Napoleon or Empire? Thoughts?

[Thexor]

Of those two, I'd recommend Napoleon. The improved combat AI alone is enough of a reason.

That said, there's better modding support for some of the earlier games in the series (like Rome: TW). And, if you're buying on Steam, you could wait until the Christmas sales (in less than a month!), and get all the Total War games for ~75% off. 

[Mech#4]

I agree that Napoleon has better AI, is more stable and generally a better all round game, though I was disappointed by the smaller map present in Napoleon when Empire:Total War had Europe, America, India and several trade route locations compaired to Napoleon: Total War's Europeon theatre along with Egypt and western Russia.

[ConscriptFive]

I didn't believe it either, but the Battle AI in both Napoleon and Empire is unthinkably inept.  Even with Darthmod, you'll see the AI do something remarkably stupid in combat every other battle or so.  Mainly the AI doesn't really know how to defend while mixing fortifications, artillery, counter-flanking, artillery and counter-artillery.  In between adding those features after Medieval II, it looks like they never really spent the time training the AI how to use them.

Also, naval battles are terribly tedious affairs that you'll grow to hate.  Since the whole point of the game is to go global, lots of naval "action" is unavoidable.  You'll either have two trains of battleships chuggling around each other in circles, or fast outgunned ships running away while hardly any shots are fired.  The novelty of it wears off fast.

Honestly, your best bet is to stick with Medieval II or Rome.  Or, assuming your rig can handle it, you could spring for Shogun 2, which made battles interesting again by copying Victory Locations from Neocore's King Arthur series.  Shogun 2 has a minor expansion pack coming soon, and as a general rule of business, games go on sale the week their expansions come out.  Shogun 2 also should be good preparation for when Rome 2 comes out next Fall.

[ansontan2000]

I didn't believe it either, but the Battle AI in both Napoleon and Empire is unthinkably inept.  Even with Darthmod, you'll see the AI do something remarkably stupid in combat every other battle or so.  Mainly the AI doesn't really know how to defend while mixing fortifications, artillery, counter-flanking, artillery and counter-artillery.  In between adding those features after Medieval II, it looks like they never really spent the time training the AI how to use them.

Also, naval battles are terribly tedious affairs that you'll grow to hate.  Since the whole point of the game is to go global, lots of naval "action" is unavoidable.  You'll either have two trains of battleships chuggling around each other in circles, or fast outgunned ships running away while hardly any shots are fired.  The novelty of it wears off fast.

Honestly, your best bet is to stick with Medieval II or Rome.  Or, assuming your rig can handle it, you could spring for Shogun 2, which made battles interesting again by copying Victory Locations from Neocore's King Arthur series.  Shogun 2 has a minor expansion pack coming soon, and as a general rule of business, games go on sale the week their expansions come out.  Shogun 2 also should be good preparation for when Rome 2 comes out next Fall.

Already have Rome+MII+S2+FotS. Empire and Napoleon are the only ones left

[TheZoomZoll]

Napoleon seems harder in my opinion.Empire is more chill and easy so if you want difficulty pick Napoleon.
Empire seems iffy and stupid sometimes either glitching,crashing or freezing so again Id say Napoleon.
I got used to Empire faster than Napoleon so it may just be me but on Napoleon I always got caught by surprise rebel party's.They really like to do that.Your just chilling making economic buildings and a group of peasants comes to party in your castle in 1 turn and they either attack then,starve you out or just get murdered.

[LoSboccacc]

I love the empire settings but there still are game breaking bugs, so go for Napoleon.

If you really want a taste of total war, the best is either rome total war with total realism mod or the recent shogun II campaigns.

[Kluge]

I didn't believe it either, but the Battle AI in both Napoleon and Empire is unthinkably inept.  Even with Darthmod, you'll see the AI do something remarkably stupid in combat every other battle or so.  Mainly the AI doesn't really know how to defend while mixing fortifications, artillery, counter-flanking, artillery and counter-artillery.  In between adding those features after Medieval II, it looks like they never really spent the time training the AI how to use them.

Also, naval battles are terribly tedious affairs that you'll grow to hate.  Since the whole point of the game is to go global, lots of naval "action" is unavoidable.  You'll either have two trains of battleships chuggling around each other in circles, or fast outgunned ships running away while hardly any shots are fired.  The novelty of it wears off fast.

Honestly, your best bet is to stick with Medieval II or Rome.  Or, assuming your rig can handle it, you could spring for Shogun 2, which made battles interesting again by copying Victory Locations from Neocore's King Arthur series.  Shogun 2 has a minor expansion pack coming soon, and as a general rule of business, games go on sale the week their expansions come out.  Shogun 2 also should be good preparation for when Rome 2 comes out next Fall.

Pretty much that. The combat AI in both is horribly, infuriatingly, awful. There are battle-breaking bugs in both, too - at least when I played (one particularly awful bug in NTW caused cavalry units to get stuck in buildings, causing all sorts of related and frustrating bugs). But, keep in mind I'm one of those pre-order idiots who pay full-price for a beta game with no fixes from the mod community, and become so frustrated (incidentally, only with ETW and NTW) that I refuse to ever touch the game again after a few months of play.

MTW2 & STW2 are really the stars for me. RTW was fantastic for its time, and I'm sure I still have the RTW commemorative calendar somewhere in the garage, but I think it's really showing its age at this point, with relatively tiny battles and limited mechanics. Though.... who knows what the modding community's done with it since I last played... ETW & NTW, too. NTW definitely has the most potential, and I'm sure a lot of the problems have been fixed by modders, if not the devs... so of the two, I'd assume NTW is the better bet. Looking forward to RTW2, and it doesn't have tons of guns, so it can't be as buggy as launch day ETW....... right?? (might lose it if an elephant gets stuck in a building, though)

[Gamerboy4life]

I love the empire settings but there still are game breaking bugs, so go for Napoleon.

If you really want a taste of total war, the best is either rome total war with total realism mod or the recent shogun II campaigns.

This.

RTW is the best Total War.


But I like RTW, it allows me to play defensively, or that's just how I feel when the waves of untrained barbarian pricks crash against the shields of my Triarii and Hastati, and watch and laugh as they are picked apart.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

All total war games allow you to play defensively, empire demands it, more than 10 meter spaces between two regiments? Every unit in the enemy army tears it apart.

If your looking for battle quality, Napoleon is the better and more polished of the two, I recommend getting Darthmod or NTWIII because vanilla artillery are basically pea-shooters.

[ansontan2000]

All total war games allow you to play defensively, empire demands it, more than 10 meter spaces between two regiments? Every unit in the enemy army tears it apart.

If your looking for battle quality, Napoleon is the better and more polished of the two, I recommend getting Darthmod or NTWIII because vanilla artillery are basically pea-shooters.

Plants vs Zombies peashooters, or the metaphor?
Yeah, I know. Darthmod is a must, something I decided after I watched a number of youtube videos.

[pilgrimboy]

Maybe Amazon just answered your question with both.

The big sale this week is the Total War Bundle for $23.75. And they do say that this is Steam.

This includes Empire: Total War, Medieval II: Total War - Gold Edition, Napoleon: Total War Imperial Edition, Rome: Total War - Alexander (Expansion), Rome: Total War - Gold Edition, Total War Battles: Shogun, Total War: SHOGUN 2 DLC - Rise of The Samurai Campaign, Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai, Total War: Shogun 2, and Viking Battle for Asgard.