This or Empire?

[Zednaught]

With the sale this week, I'd like to get one of these titles, and I'd like some opinions of both.

For what I'm looking for, I'm most interested in custom offline battles against the AI as well the reenactments of famous historical battles. I'm not too interested in a large or lengthy single player campaign, as the only Total War campaign that held my interest all the way through was the original Shogun, which felt much smaller and more focused. Multiplayer doesn't hold much appeal. Lastly, I'd have no problem installing mods, such as the DarthMod, if they improve things.

Thanks in advance.

[mcoffm]

Playing Nappy atm with Nap 3 mod I do love this mod for this game. Its funny I used to hate Nappy and liked Empire okay but modded Nappy is real good while I would say vanilla Nappy sucks. Whereas I dont mind Empire unmodded but I dont play it much either.

These games are unoptimized and I have a beast of a computer and I still get crashes and freezes FYI at times, turn your settings and unit sizes down and you should be okay.

[The Last Monke]

Originally posted by mcoffm:

Playing Nappy atm with Nap 3 mod I do love this mod for this game. Its funny I used to hate Nappy and liked Empire okay but modded Nappy is real good while I would say vanilla Nappy sucks. Whereas I dont mind Empire unmodded but I dont play it much either.

These games are unoptimized and I have a beast of a computer and I still get crashes and freezes FYI at times, turn your settings and unit sizes down and you should be okay.

Nappy? LOL

[Wolffe]

Napoleon with Darthmod installed is best. You can use the custom Darthmod campaign which is just Europe, except you can play as any major or minor faction, including French (vanilla you can't).

There's no north america or india, but you said you're looking for a smaller map anyways so this is only a plus.

Combat, AI, pc performance etc are all better in Napoleon in every way.

[Sidi Gonzalez]

Empire's map is too big, the whole game feels too drawn out. I would say Napoleon serves your purpose the best :)

[Chipolino]

Napoleonic Total War III - Lordz.org
visit the Lordz and check out the mod
This is a mod for Napoleon total war

[WavyTrail]

Both, i liked Empire for its map but Napoleon for gameplay and everything else

[Zednaught]

I think it's looking like Napoleon guys, thannks for the input.

[Samurai08]

Napolen does look better but empire is more large scale and there are countries to play from in the amaricas, middle east and India were as Napoleon is mainly Europe or the Ottomans

[[*UNITY*]_ james]

Mods are not required to enjoy the experience for either game. They may enchance it, like Darthmod or Napoleon III, but you can still easily have a good time in vanilla. Both games are fun: Napoleon is far more polished with better gameplay, more focused, better graphics, effects, etc. while Empire spans over a larger map with additional frontiers (India, the Americas) with obviously unique factions like the native American tribes or the Maratha Confederacy (the European ones generally don't feel very different from each other though). Napoleon also has better maps and certainly better historical battles. However, I strongly suggest you don't narrow what you will play, for multiplayer is very active and you can't possibly miss out on playing as Napoleon!

[Zednaught]

I've been enjoying the game so far. I'll probably try the Darthmod at some point. Right now, the only mod I'm thinking of is something to correct the how the units fire at each other, for aesthetic purposes more than gameplay. Right now, it seems like too often only the front rank fires, and sporadically at that. In the game Napoleonic Wars, my regiment delivers simultaneous double rank fire, so I'd like to see the in-game units replicate that.

[Zednaught]

Just tried my first battle with the Darthmod. Wow! That was something else. Quite epic, and a big improvement over the original battles.

[Destin Faroda]

Originally posted by Zednaught:

For what I'm looking for, I'm most interested in custom offline battles against the AI as well the reenactments of famous historical battles.

If you buy the Empire and Napoleon Game of the Year Edition, you get all games and DLCs for a small price.
If you're interested in historical authenticity, I can recommend the following mods:
- Empire Realism (best realism mod for Empire)
- Napoleon Empire Realism (best realism mod for Napoleon)
- Kaunitz Project (realistic battles with fog of war for Napoleon)
All of them can be found on twcenter.net