Publisher: Sega Developer: Creative Assembly Year of Release: 2010 Platforms: PC The Total War games don’t appeal to everyone. I understand why – there are so many factors in the games that it can be a bit worrying to play one for the first time. However, if you feel like that then Napoloen Total War is in fact the perfect introduction to the series, with smaller campaigns and a simpler selection of units to choose from. However, it also presents a whole new set of challenges for the Total War veterans and it has an improved engine. As you can tell by the name, Napoleon Total War is set during the Napoleonic War where the man from Corsica decided to get imperial ambitions and try to take over Europe. As part of this, you play through four of his campaigns from the early years in France, through Italy and the Middle East before finishing in Europe. The campaigns are all really short apart the European one, so it takes up a less time than any other campaigns in the other Total War games. This mainly due to the victory conditions which require the capture of a certain region in a certain number of turns. It is kind of against the usual method of taking your time to carefully advance – instead you have to charge straight through the lines of the enemy and get to the target as soon as possible.  The European Campaign is probably the closest to the the Grand Campaigns of the other games. This time round it is over a shorter time period but each turn is two weeks as opposed to six months in Empire. This does also mean that most units will take around six turns to make as opposed to one or two you get used to if you conquered Europe in the last game. It does slightly require you to think more turns ahead then usual.   On the campaign map there a few changes. The first is the removal of the priest agent which makes sense as there is no real need to convert the population. There has also been some changes to the town system. There are now different types of towns that can only be home to a certain type of building, which can be switched between via a button press and some time as opposed to the lengthy procedure of deleting one tree before going up the other. Also, there are no longer the other theatres of war that were introduced in Empire but there are trade areas to represent theses money caches. Another addition is attrition. If units spend time in mountainous areas or in the snows of winter, they will start to bleed off troops unless they are in range of . This stops big stacks of units charging into Russia without a care in the world while also representing the main factor in Napoleon’s defeat. Overall the campaign has fewer annoyances than the Empire due in part to the smaller size and it feels a lot faster to play. The battle system is now a lot faster as well. Firefights between units seem to last for less time as units don’t fire by rank but in a single mass leading to each battle being more devastating. Apart from this, the units and tactics remain the same – line infantry is the main part of your force while skirmishers and cannon cause most of the damage and your cavalry finish them off. Many of the tactics remain the same. One key difference is in your generals. Now you can see a general’s command radius which is the area where his rally ability affect as opposed to over the entire map. To make up for this, the general can now Inspire one unit at a time which grants them an increase in their strength so its perfect for when you are about to send a unit into the breach of a fort. As well as the land battles, the naval side returns with some new units such as the huge ironclad steam ships that blow smaller vessels to pieces. Apart from the French campaigns there are also a series of historical battles. These focus on the bigger ones such as Austerlitz, Ulm and Waterloo. Each battle sets you up in the historical position and gives you an objective to complete. There are one or two which are not so good but the rest are the perfect challenge for anyone who reckons that they are a Total War king. They can be replayed at different difficulty levels. But of course the French can’t have all the fun so there is the Campaign of the Coalitions. This allows you to play as the British, the Spanish, the Austrians or the Russians during the time period of the French European Campaign and attempt to throw a spanner in the works for Napoleon. These campaigns are slightly more about juggling the diplomatic side, especially as the British who have to carefully manage the formation of the coalition while trying to defend against the Spanish at Gibraltar. Multiplayer for Napoleon is still as fun as it was in Empire even though it does have a slightly smaller unit selection in all the battle modes. It also seems to be slightly more stable than it was in Empire with less lag. Additionally all of the campaigns are playable in two player online co-op as any of the sides so if you want to fight the French in Italy or Egypt you can only do it via this mode. Napoleon is a huge technical improvement over Empire. At the same point after release, Napoleon is much more stable that Empire ever was and still runs better. It also looks much nicer as well from the fog covered battles up to the explosions as the artillery goes off leaving shell craters. The level of randomisation in the characters has improved even more through subtle details above and beyond the usual different faces trick. Again the sound is phenomenal with loads of care taken of the sounds of battle. The only fly in the ointment is the voice actor for Napoleon whose French accent is rather annoying. As with the first game, it is approximately 15GB in disk space and requires the use of Steam. The game so far has had three pieces of DLC, unfortunately not including all the pre-order bonuses. The first was a free piece which added some more units to the French Imperial Guard but more importantly also added in the Battle of Waterloo from the British side. The second pack added the Battle of Friedland as well as some more units to the Coalition from some heavy cavalry to the Coldstream Guard. The latest and largest pack is a new campaign focusing on the events in Iberia with you aiming to keep hold on Spain as the French or trying to push them out as Spain or Britain. This adds some newer units including the guerrillas. Theses are Spanish units of skirmishers or light cavalry who can deploy almost anywhere on the field, providing a huge tactical advantage. You also gain agents designed to swing the local politics towards you faction while also slowing your opponents. It is an excellant addition which plays the same but differently. Napoleon is the slickest Total War yet with several campaigns and battles which provide hours of gameplay. It is also the best looking so far and is well worth a play if you are a fan of the series. If your not a fan, then Napoleon is the best to get introduced to due to the campaign feeling as through their are designed as extended tutorials. The only real issues is that it is slightly too close to Empire so the differences can be obvious and jarring. However, what other game allows you to jump into Napoleon’s boots and still look this good.

Publisher: Sega
Developer: Creative Assembly
Year of Release: 2010
Platforms: PC

The Total War games don’t appeal to everyone. I understand why – there are so many factors in the games that it can be a bit worrying to play one for the first time. However, if you feel like that then Napoloen Total War is in fact the perfect introduction to the series, with smaller campaigns and a simpler selection of units to choose from. However, it also presents a whole new set of challenges for the Total War veterans and it has an improved engine.

As you can tell by the name, Napoleon Total War is set during the Napoleonic War where the man from Corsica decided to get imperial ambitions and try to take over Europe. As part of this, you play through four of his campaigns from the early years in France, through Italy and the Middle East before finishing in Europe. The campaigns are all really short apart the European one, so it takes up a less time than any other campaigns in the other Total War games. This mainly due to the victory conditions which require the capture of a certain region in a certain number of turns. It is kind of against the usual method of taking your time to carefully advance – instead you have to charge straight through the lines of the enemy and get to the target as soon as possible.  The European Campaign is probably the closest to the the Grand Campaigns of the other games. This time round it is over a shorter time period but each turn is two weeks as opposed to six months in Empire. This does also mean that most units will take around six turns to make as opposed to one or two you get used to if you conquered Europe in the last game. It does slightly require you to think more turns ahead then usual.

On the campaign map there a few changes. The first is the removal of the priest agent which makes sense as there is no real need to convert the population. There has also been some changes to the town system. There are now different types of towns that can only be home to a certain type of building, which can be switched between via a button press and some time as opposed to the lengthy procedure of deleting one tree before going up the other. Also, there are no longer the other theatres of war that were introduced in Empire but there are trade areas to represent theses money caches. Another addition is attrition. If units spend time in mountainous areas or in the snows of winter, they will start to bleed off troops unless they are in range of . This stops big stacks of units charging into Russia without a care in the world while also representing the main factor in Napoleon’s defeat. Overall the campaign has fewer annoyances than the Empire due in part to the smaller size and it feels a lot faster to play.

The battle system is now a lot faster as well. Firefights between units seem to last for less time as units don’t fire by rank but in a single mass leading to each battle being more devastating. Apart from this, the units and tactics remain the same – line infantry is the main part of your force while skirmishers and cannon cause most of the damage and your cavalry finish them off. Many of the tactics remain the same. One key difference is in your generals. Now you can see a general’s command radius which is the area where his rally ability affect as opposed to over the entire map. To make up for this, the general can now Inspire one unit at a time which grants them an increase in their strength so its perfect for when you are about to send a unit into the breach of a fort. As well as the land battles, the naval side returns with some new units such as the huge ironclad steam ships that blow smaller vessels to pieces.

Apart from the French campaigns there are also a series of historical battles. These focus on the bigger ones such as Austerlitz, Ulm and Waterloo. Each battle sets you up in the historical position and gives you an objective to complete. There are one or two which are not so good but the rest are the perfect challenge for anyone who reckons that they are a Total War king. They can be replayed at different difficulty levels. But of course the French can’t have all the fun so there is the Campaign of the Coalitions. This allows you to play as the British, the Spanish, the Austrians or the Russians during the time period of the French European Campaign and attempt to throw a spanner in the works for Napoleon. These campaigns are slightly more about juggling the diplomatic side, especially as the British who have to carefully manage the formation of the coalition while trying to defend against the Spanish at Gibraltar.

Multiplayer for Napoleon is still as fun as it was in Empire even though it does have a slightly smaller unit selection in all the battle modes. It also seems to be slightly more stable than it was in Empire with less lag. Additionally all of the campaigns are playable in two player online co-op as any of the sides so if you want to fight the French in Italy or Egypt you can only do it via this mode.

Napoleon is a huge technical improvement over Empire. At the same point after release, Napoleon is much more stable that Empire ever was and still runs better. It also looks much nicer as well from the fog covered battles up to the explosions as the artillery goes off leaving shell craters. The level of randomisation in the characters has improved even more through subtle details above and beyond the usual different faces trick. Again the sound is phenomenal with loads of care taken of the sounds of battle. The only fly in the ointment is the voice actor for Napoleon whose French accent is rather annoying. As with the first game, it is approximately 15GB in disk space and requires the use of Steam.

The game so far has had three pieces of DLC, unfortunately not including all the pre-order bonuses. The first was a free piece which added some more units to the French Imperial Guard but more importantly also added in the Battle of Waterloo from the British side. The second pack added the Battle of Friedland as well as some more units to the Coalition from some heavy cavalry to the Coldstream Guard. The latest and largest pack is a new campaign focusing on the events in Iberia with you aiming to keep hold on Spain as the French or trying to push them out as Spain or Britain. This adds some newer units including the guerrillas. Theses are Spanish units of skirmishers or light cavalry who can deploy almost anywhere on the field, providing a huge tactical advantage. You also gain agents designed to swing the local politics towards you faction while also slowing your opponents. It is an excellant addition which plays the same but differently.

Napoleon is the slickest Total War yet with several campaigns and battles which provide hours of gameplay. It is also the best looking so far and is well worth a play if you are a fan of the series. If your not a fan, then Napoleon is the best to get introduced to due to the campaign feeling as through their are designed as extended tutorials. The only real issues is that it is slightly too close to Empire so the differences can be obvious and jarring. However, what other game allows you to jump into Napoleon’s boots and still look this good.