Does the campaign end?

[CaimDark]

Does the campaign for this and other Total War games have win conditions, or do they go on forever? Assuming the campaign ends, how long does it take more or less? I'm considering giving these games a try but I got a giant backlog and I'm hesitant to commit to "forever games".

[pgeerkens]

The shortest games are SHort Campaign at 102 turns from Summer 1700 through Winter 1750.

With practice it is quite possible to conquer the world with several factions within those time constraints, even on Campaign - Very Hard. I have won the Short Campaign at that difficulty setting, as all factions playable in Vanilla, well before Winter 1750.

You will typically meet the Victory Conditions long before Winter 1750, but the achievement only unlocks once you complete the Winter 1750 turn.

[CaimDark]

Roughly how long is that in hours?

[mechafi]

Anything between 10 to 20 hours maybe? I play the long campaign on medium difficulty mostly and try to conquer the whole map every time. The campaigns have win conditions (you have to conquer certain key provinces and some total number of provinces) but I generally play beyond them.

[CaimDark]

Thanks.

[Maximus]

really depends, my first world domination campaign took me like a hundred hours to finish, but thats probably becuase it was my first game and i didn't auto-resolve a whole lot

[Nugcrusher]

The campaign does not end. The short game or long game are the same in this respect. If you get to 1750 but you have not met the victory goals you will receive a notice that you have been defeated and you will receive an option to quit or continue. If you meet the requirements for victory the same two options will be offered.

The long campaign works the same except after 1800 no more "historical" notices will pop-up. I've continued just for a hoot into the 1820's or so and I recall some other player commenting on these forums that they had played almost to 1900...

[Inardesco]

You will need to meet the victory conditions by 1750 for shortand 1799 for long campaign. You can continue playing afterwards.

[CaimDark]

I see. It seems there´s an endpoint of sorts, which is what I hoped.

[CaimDark]

While we´re at it, I have Empire, Napoleon and Shogun 2 in my library. My idea is to play them in release order, so Empire, Napoleon and Shogun. Are they all worth it?

[pgeerkens]

Originally posted by CaimDark:

While we´re at it, I have Empire, Napoleon and Shogun 2 in my library. My idea is to play them in release order, so Empire, Napoleon and Shogun. Are they all worth it?

Yes - provided you enjoy the warfare style of the Shogun 2 period.

However, I would recommend learning them in order NTW, ETW, then SH2. The tutorials and battle scenarios in NTW are better, and the game less overwhelming at a strategic level. Then you get to move on to the much much bigger and longer ETW campaigns, having already mastered the basic techniques in NTW.

[CaimDark]

Interesting. Since Empire was released first, I assumed Napoleon would be bigger and more complex.

[operating1]

Originally posted by CaimDark:

Interesting. Since Empire was released first, I assumed Napoleon would be bigger and more complex.

Far from it..

[Maximus]

Originally posted by CaimDark:

Interesting. Since Empire was released first, I assumed Napoleon would be bigger and more complex.

Napoleon is a much smaller scale game, focusing on really just napoleon. You get a nice long campaign for napoleon and his battles, but otherwise there isnt much of a 'grand campaign'

[Inardesco]

Keep in mind that the European map for Empire is left wanting. France is one region, Spain is two regions only because of Gibraltar and it's just not well developed campaign map wise.

Napoleon's Europe map is much better.

[CaimDark]

Originally posted by Maximus:

Originally posted by CaimDark:

Interesting. Since Empire was released first, I assumed Napoleon would be bigger and more complex.

Napoleon is a much smaller scale game, focusing on really just napoleon. You get a nice long campaign for napoleon and his battles, but otherwise there isnt much of a 'grand campaign'

That does sound like a better place to start.