This game is still the best fantasy RTS I have ever played

[Shampoo]

Massive battles, playable detailed cities, monsters, giant monsters, guns/siege weapons/artillery (my favorite), medieval warriors, knights (my second favorite), magic, every fantasy race one can imagine, so many unique play styles and different unit types work differently in battle (e.g., archers and guns do not work the same), etc.

I played some legendary fantasy RTS like Warcraft 3, but this game is one of my favorite games of all time.

No matter what happens, I believe that this game will withstand the test of time, unless a new windows operating system prevents us from playing this game in the future.

[ChaffyExpert]

Agreed, i hope that CA gets a license to make a Lord of the Rings total war game too. Specifically the accurate representation of battles.

[Havean]

The game is very unquie. Most fantasy RTS games just do one or the other for overworld map or battles. Total war has such a great blend by merging them together so no single battle matters but all of them add to a mighty campaign.

[Abacus]

I don't think anyone is saying different.

That certainly isn't where the game lacks.

I hope nemesis crown makes the world more organic and meaningful. I hate the crisis thing, has zero meaning and feels super forced.

[Mr_Puddins]

Originally posted by Simply B:

I hope nemesis crown makes the world more organic and meaningful. I hate the crisis thing, has zero meaning and feels super forced.

What is nemesis crown?

[Mr_Puddins]

If you haven't gotten it already I suggest the Champions of Chaos dlc. The (Skaven) Clan Moulder dlc is fun too. Ogre Kingdoms is another good dlc that I particularly enjoy. One last personal fav - Morathi for the Dark Elves. Morathi comes with TWW 2.

You got TWW 3? I have 2, 3, and a few of the dlc.

[Green Raven]

Agreed

[Zeek]

Originally posted by Lost Latios:

And here I was happy to see a post which was free of this conflict... -sigh-

We really do live in the age of Total War.

You're right. I've removed that post as this is a positive thread and didn't want to inadvertantly provoke otherwise.

OT I agree with op 100%. This game is fantastic and easily one of the best strategy games I've ever played.

[Lokaror]

Yeah, agreed. That being said, i really don't remember very many fantasy rts's i've played beyond some LOTR ones and an old one called "Armies Of Exigo." Frankly im suprised there arent so many more. Beyond stuff like warcraft, there really arent that many "classic" fantasy rts's.

[SpeaksTooFast]

Eh Honestly I feel that TWW2 was a better game. Please prove me wrong, Bigger is not arbitrarily better,

[Filthy Pollo 🐔]

Originally posted by Green Raven:

Agreed

[Imposter]

Well, it surely isn't the worst by any stretch. It has its bad points. While indeed it certainly is a great game, with some epic battles.. It jusdt doesn't feel too sand-boxy. Most of the time: the predictable adversaries are always around in contrast to ones own faction towards the end of a campaign, and the CPU behavior (especially diplomacy) leaves much to be desired, in general.

[Zav]

TWW2 (ME) was a lot better due to each faction having an end game and actual campaign mechanics and goals.

TWW3 (IE) suffers from being way too sandboxy and gets boring very fast without goals and campaign mechanics - Champions of Chaos/Chaos generally suffers from this. Right click - capture ad nauseam. I wish they had actually fleshed out the dark fortress stuff. Ogres, Pirates, DE and HE, Dwarves (a bit less with Forge) all suffer due to no end game and way fewer mechanics than TW2

The end game horde mechanic is such a poor substitute for faction goals and mechanics - it was a massive step backwards imo.

[Father Ribs]

Originally posted by Lokaror:

Yeah, agreed. That being said, i really don't remember very many fantasy rts's i've played beyond some LOTR ones and an old one called "Armies Of Exigo." Frankly im suprised there arent so many more. Beyond stuff like warcraft, there really arent that many "classic" fantasy rts's.

There were a lot more in days of yore.

Kohan: Immortals was a nice changeup when it came out, focusing on units rather than individual entities, plus it had the add specialist upgrade to squads that Dawn of War had. Had story, healing in "owned" territory, and felt a lot more tactical than the first phase of RTS. They made a sequel and then they made a 3D version, but by then the RTS thing seemed to be coalescing around I think Starcraft and Warcraft (and Diablo?) at the time.

The guys who made Total Annihilation, one of the most epic RTS ever made, did a fantasy version, though the graphics didn't work for fantasy as much as it did for sentient robots.

Stronghold had the fun bits of building a castle and defending it, plus city management. The actual field battles weren't that detailed, more like the old "click to move here" commands. They also made a Stronhold Legends which I never played.

I never got to play Rise of Legends which I regret, because it looked like it had some neat factions. Dunno what happened, but they took it off the market, must have been some legal thing because it reviewed very positively.

[Butcher]

Originally posted by Lokaror:

Yeah, agreed. That being said, i really don't remember very many fantasy rts's i've played beyond some LOTR ones and an old one called "Armies Of Exigo." Frankly im suprised there arent so many more. Beyond stuff like warcraft, there really arent that many "classic" fantasy rts's.

There is this one:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/433280/Warlords_Battlecry_III/
It has very decent race variety with 17 races having some unique racial mechanics. You create your own hero with many classes and kit him in artifacts plus you have general system allowing to take any regular unit in retinue if it has levelled enough.
There is completely free standalone "protectors" mod on moddb, but it sucks since they completely removed levelups during the game and it greatly discourages big random maps since you can only level after match ends. Original is better as you keep progressing in long matches.


Stronghold Legends introduced interesting spin in form of giants, magics including defence and various monsters some of which can climb over the walls.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/40980/Stronghold_Legends_Steam_Edition/


Myth series is another classics, although it has no basebuilding it.

[Mazisky]

It has great potential but they need to fix its many issues first.