Shogun II’s shoehorning of Japanese warfare into the molds of perfectly lined units forming spear walls challenges the era’s authenticity, while hundreds of cavalry flanking armies on the field goes contrary to the historical public image of Japan. It took them over 200 years to start to meekly use cavalry charges, and even when organised strategies became common form near the end of the Shogunate period, the influence of bushido’s individual mentality was strongly felt. Curiously, that is actually how it happened - warfare in Feudal Japan was severely less focused in tactics and division formation, and instead placed a critical focus on single combat and individual honour.
Popular view of the samurai period often doesn’t involve large scale battles, and the few ones that pierce the cultural veil tend to be a myriad of scattered soldiers in the woods fighting not as units, but as individuals. While accuracy is not the subject matter of this article, Shogun II’s authenticity suffers from those changes as well. Concepts like espionage, the reworked diplomacy system, and the brilliant character-interaction mechanics are things that I definitely want to see back in future Total Wars, but the simplified strategy and tactical gameplay can go away and never ever come back. Contrast that to Rome II's unit abilities, which featured half a dozen different stances ranging from defensive and attacking testudos to spear walls and chevron and diamond formations, and Three Kingdom's tactical offering is a drastic step back.Īdd to that the reduction of army sizes from 20 to 18 units, the limitation imposed by the retinue system, and the painfully similar roster that manages to be more repetitive than Shogun 2's, and you got a strategic shallower game than its predecessors. The title gamefies and simplifies mechanics to the breaking point, making units and commanders unable to adopt simple stances like a cavalry chevron or order troops to loosen up their spacing without a special skill or character in the army. While TW:3K captures the unbreakable bond of Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei or the warrior skills of Lü Bu, it, unfortunately, fails quite badly on the strategy part. The confusion comes from the fact that France’s measurement system of feet was different from the British standard, and that the Emperor’s Imperial Guard was composed of gigantic soldiers much taller than normal folk.) He was actually 1.69m, which is taller than the period’s average. For that reason, Napoleon sinks pretty quickly in any modern list of the best Total War games. The end result was an opaque and slightly slow title, which looked and performed beautifully, but played badly. Unfortunately, the actual campaign and unit mechanics were already a bit dated when N:TW was developed, inheriting many systems from the old Rome and Medieval II Total Wars and the very buggy Empire: Total War. In addition, the majestic music, the unbelievable perks of his generals, and the absolutely spot on voicework of Stéphane Cornicard manage to create the ultimate impression of the legendary leader’s influence, and uniquely capture his legacy that changed the face of military tactics forever. The game also benefits from having one of the most realistic campaign movement and weather systems in the franchise, thanks to the short timespans of each turn.
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It was the moment the series at last became a tactical and truly visual masterpiece. From the hot sands of Egypt to the frozen tundras of Russia, from the waters of Gibraltar to the hills of England, the game's beautiful graphics and effects for the first time elevated the franchise into a bonafide graphical beauty, best exemplified in naval battles as ships shake and heave with each cannon shot, their broadsides tearing at each other as wood and cloth fly through the air. Napoleon: Total War - in addition to having the best naval combat in the franchise’s entire history - also manages to utterly perfectly capture the atmosphere and climate of this momentous military period.
The guy was relentless, and the (military) world (at least) is better off for it. They even imprisoned ol’ Bonnie on an island, but he came back for a while before being exiled to another, more distant isle. Napoleon is widely recognised as one of the greatest military minds to have ever existed, taking the staunch defiance of Britain and the combined arms of every nation in Europe to take him down. The Napoleonic Wars are an integral part of the study of warfare, when the French that said “no” to multiple beheaded absolutist wanna-bes surrendered to an Italian-blooded Emperor (Napoleon's family hailed from Tuscany and he was born in Corsica, which only became French territory in 1769 - if Napoleon had been born mere months earlier, he would have been an Italian citizen).
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