I was enjoying the Empire Darthmod run, but ran into a CTD at the end of the turn in 1738. Tried a few things to fix it but unable, so bought Napoleon. The campaign was getting a bit stale as we held half the map, so not a big deal really. Downloaded Darthmod and La mont�e de l'Empire mods for Napoleon but didn't install either one yet as I'm not certain which one I want to use. In the mean time I am playing Napoleon's Italian campaign to get a feel, but really, there isn't much difference from one TW game to the next.

The main gameplay differences between Empire and Napoleon that I remember are,

1. No religious agents
2. No cost for replenishing armies. You have to still pay to replenish navies though.

The biggest technical difference is the graphics engine which runs much more smoothly and it looks better too.

Are there any agents? I'm only 10 or 12 turns in but I have no spies/rakes/ninja.

It does look fine, I must agree. And you mentioned replenishment. I really like the way it's done in Nappy. A wounded army takes a while to recover, not like Empire where as long as you have the ducats you can have a full strength army in 2 turns not matter where you are. Here, dealing a defeat, or taking one for that matter, has longer term consequences.

Replenishment rate will vary depending on the level of road infrastructure you have in the region where the army is located. In order to get spies you have to have built the appropriate building. I think it's called a "gentlemen's club" or something like that.

OK, thanks PM, very helpful as always. I got a mission to build a supply house or somesuch that also increases replenishment rate in that province, but due to the nature of the Italian campaign, those provinces will soon be far behind the front and not much use.

What mods do others here like for Napoleon? I think the two I mentioned above are the most popular among the player base. I'm leaning toward LME.

I was leaning toward LME but installed Darthmod. Fired up a campaign as Denmark. It's tough. Big enemy stacks, and when I had a rebellion in Stockholm a full stack and another half stack of uber Swedish Revolutionaries spawned. Good grief. Wasn't ready for that. At least the stacks didn't spawn with generals. But still...

Seems a good mod, but way too much smoke. The smoke in Darthmod for Empire was perfect. More opaque. I will look for an alternative because I can't see half of my line once the battle is joined.

Over the course of the month since I started this thread I played quite a bit of TW. And having now played Rome, Medieval 2, Shogun 2, Empire and Napoleon, I'd have to say that Napoleon is my favorite. All of the games have their own strengths, but there are several facets of Napoleon that give it the edge for me.

In Napoleon I like that everything on the map is smaller. Units, cities, ships, etc are rendered on a smaller scale, and makes it somewhat less cartoonish. It has zero effect on the playability, but is more appealing to my eye. The graphics on balance are the best of the series. Well I haven't played Rome 2 or Atilla so shouldn't say that, but the best of the ones I've played. No news there.

The replenishment system in Napoleoon is fantastic, and I wished it worked this way in all TW games. On one hand it is far less micromanagement for the player, while at the same time being more realistic and strategic in my opinion.

I like the compressed time frames, with 2 turns per month instead of per year. Not a big deal really, but it means your generals live through the campaign, or at least won't generally die from old age. The compressed time frame also means religious conversion isn't a thing. Not necessarily a bonus, bit slightly less to micromanagement of agents, which isn't always a bad thing.

Experience bonuses translate on to the card stats/attributes on the campaign map. I could be wrong, but it seems that in other titles you can only see the improved stats when looking during the battle phase. In addition there is slightly more info available during battles, and you can see when units gain a level. Again, not a big deal, but another little thing that I prefer.

It should be said that I am playing with Darthmod, so some things may be due to that and not in vanilla. I find that the campaign AI is 'better'. By that I mean that allies tend to stay allies, and enemies are smarter about forming strong armies and using them better. In so many TW games the AI has many little armies running around rarely consolidating in to a full stack. I'm playing a Darthmod Europe campaign as France. I had been at war with Prussia, and after we took Berlin and Pomerania struck a truce. After a while Prussia declared on me again and sent 3 full stack armies to retake Berlin, but we were able to break them by making a stand at a river crossing. But the point is that the AI is forming strong armies and using them aggressively in the right situations.

Ambush. For what ever reason you can't set an ambush in Empire. But it's back in Napoleon.

This may be down to Darthmod, at least in part, but the units and battles are excellent. Until I played Empire I didn't know how much more I would enjoy battles with gunpowder units than I do with melee units like Rome, Medieval and Shogun. However, there's something I can't quite put my finger on about the battle maps. I love the terrain you fight on in Empire. It tends to be more open, with rolling terrain, and more elevation changes. More fences and stuff. I wasn't at Waterloo, but the way I picture the battle it would definitely be closer to what you see in Empire. Of course battles were fought in all sorts of terrain, but I just love the sweeping vistas full of gunsmoke that I get in Empire.

I'm glad to see that you have been enjoying TW: Napoleon. By far the most enjoyable campaign for me was playing as the French and then followed by the Prussians. I played the grand campaign on "normal" and it was still quite a challenge for me since as the French you are often fighting Austria, Russia, Britain and Prussia at the same time. When the campaign first starts it's critical to do everything you can to make Prussia happy on the diplomatic side so you will have enough time to build up your armies before the inevitable declaration of war by Prussia. I also consolidated all of my ships into one big fleet and kept it safely away from the British until I was able to build a few decent 3rd and 2nd rate ships of the line.

Yes, I've been at war with all of those, though England, Austria and Prussia are no longer able to annoy me due no longer existing. I made England my first target. In any strategy game I tend to try to fight in as few directions as possible, no enemies (or potential enemies) at my back if I can. So England was the first to go and has been a prosperous money making region with no attempts by the AI to land armies there.

It seems that the AI is not building ships, so we have full mastery of the seas and trade routes. That's a bit of a disappointment, but whether it's down to the mod or not I can't say. But on land it's been a fun campaign, with strong, fairly aggressive enemies, with an AI that actually attempts to use their agents (sabotage & assassination), allies that actually help in war, and a sense that diplomacy isn't completely pointless.

Do these mods make the agents less affective? I just ask because I've always felt that the spy/rake/ninja agents were way too powerful and effective. I mean really, one guy can somehow sabotage an army of thousands of men and prevent it from moving for an entire turn? I also think that the odds for successfully assinating an enemy general should be much higher to reflect how extremely difficult it would be to pull that off in the real world. I'm ok though with the dignitaries/gentlemen/priest class agents as far as their abilities go.

I don't know a way to know, but my guess is that they are not less effective, probably about the same. And your points are good ones. I'm just happy they are active and trying to do what they are designed to do. The agents were a threat in Shogun 2, but in vanilla Empire and Napoleon I never even noticed them.

I didn't notice them either in Napoleon until late in the game when a Prussian spy killed Michel Ney! I was outright pissed and quickly proceeded to wipe Prussia off the map over the next few turns.

This thread's two years old, and aside from the games that have been released in the interim it's still valid, I suppose.

A few days ago I started an EU IV run in Japan. I've played in Japan before.... as a very expansionist and colonial Portugal But this was the first game I started as a Daimyo. And it didn't go so well. Eventually I quit due to ahem, AI inconsistencies

But I had Japanese warfare on my brain so I decided to re-install Shogun 2. While it was downloading I remembered that I never played Fall of the Samurai, and I alos knew it gets great ratings and reviews, and many love the campaign. So I bought FotS and gave it a go as Samatsu. And it's great. Recently we were discussing a Civil War TW. FotS is probably as close to the Civil War on the battlefield as we are going to get. It's a particularly interesting technological crossroads, where swords meet gatling guns. I'm really enjoying it, although my closest neighbor and ally is running wild, amassing 15 provinces in the time it took me to get 8, so I'm not exactly winning.

But this FotS campaign nudges Shogun 2 further up my favorites list. Glad I finally got around to giving it a go.

I play Shogun 2 and like DBond just grabbed FotS over the weekend and indeed it is a great add on..Just scratched the surface on it but it was a good buy

Fall of the Samurai is an outstanding addition to Shogun 2 and if you really want to continue your interest in that era you can then watch "The Last Samurai" starring Tom Cruise.

The ironclad naval combat is really well done too in FOTS.

Is there any more news on what the next historical title will be?... I know they said awhile back that it's an area they have never touched before.

All they've said is that they are working on a DLC (I'm assuming for Attila) and also a new full historical title. They have not disclosed which eras they are doing.


Up to now there is no news in Steam either.

WWI or ACW might tempt me to buy another TW title.

Maybe WWI but I doubt ACW will ever get done since there are only 2 factions.

I think there might be a way around the '2 factions' problem, and that's instead of factions, the player chooses from divisions or Armies. Each division could have unique traits, for example one could have superior artillery, another better scouting, another gets better cavalry and mobility, and another better supply and morale or whatever. I'm not enough of a Civil War expert to know how plausible this is, but it was something I was thinking about.

Of course ultimately any division chosen is still on one side or the other, but it could add unique qualities and make the 'faction' choice mean something as well as give some level of replayability.