Empire: Total War - A Retrospective Review 

You have a very calming voice, it goes nicely with the Empire soundtrack. Great video!

I play Empire basically deciding to keep major powers in the game, instead of trying to take over France or Spain I'll just fight for their external colonies. Just a way of playing that works around the limited provinces. Good review.

I come back to Empire every once in a while because of its scope. And its one TW game i never play without mods.

Making a game about the Age of Empires without Portugal... Silly C.A.!

Oddly I never really minded the unit portraits, I kinda felt that compared to other tw titles it was fairly simple to pick out unis in a battle

Very well done look at the game. Thanks for the recommendations on modding as I agree that Darthmod takes it too far from the game making it a bogged down time waster.

My very first campaign as the British I ignored Europe entirely and Focused on India and America. After 60 years in game I finally had a look at Europe to find the Dutch had conquered France and thats why I hadn't been bothered in England the whole game. In a game of Terra Incognita mod and its Manpower mechanic, I was locked in a 30 year war as the Prussians with the Dutch over Cologne. Was an extremely fun game. I had all the money in the world but I couldn't raise enough armies to kill the Dutch. Austria declared war so many times and I bought their peace every time I had so much money. If you ever decide to play Empire again, try playing without the UI switched on. Battles become a bit more interesting and the AIs brain deadness becomes a bit more challenging after contact is made, at least I think so. Would love an overhaul mod based on Terra Incognita, to be honest. The Manpower pool mechanic is the main thing I think is missing from most overhaul mods. And its a proper Manpower pool, not this artifical one where your limited to recruiting a small number of special units.

I think Empire was ultimately a victim of its own ambition. CA bit off way more than they could chew with making a game like this with a brand new engine.

I hope CA does a remake of empire someday to do it justice

Great video, hope to see more similar stuff from you

Great video! Good point about the Persians 🙂

I really like this game vanilla and I play it all the time. But I do see where you are coming from with your complaints. Good review and thanks for the video!

Great review, comprehensive as always. I’ve only dipped my toe into Empire: Total War. Out of curiosity, why do you prefer to use Darthmod effects without the campaign overhaul?

Bravo! Thank you for being an excellent Empire enjoyer.

ah, the legendary catholic chants (yawn):D agree with regards to sometimes oddly populated campaign map. what i did love about the ETW map though is the emerging settlements and the fact you could interact (damage, garrison) with them. this added a whole new level of dynamism to the campaign map hitherto absent from TW titles. it was just awesome to seenew setllements emerging, the provinces grow and develop, and made them feel like a living breathing world rather than a standard rather static map of other TW games. shame this emerging settlements and interactability feature hasnt been replicated in later historical games where you've got that horrible provincial system and vastly oversized settlements (a la Civilisation) that ruin immersion imho. in terms of mods, i was once looking for the mod that would unlock more factions (to play as a small country) but could not find any. but thanks for the mod suggestions anyway, will give them a try next time i touch Empire. and thanks for the lovely review:)

The birth of a legend

To be fair, the BAI im ETW was the best AI in a TW game until patch 1.3. Patch 1.3 killed it somehow... it didn't derp, it flanked, it employed deception and actually could catch you off guard. Then patch 1.3 came along and chicken dance and blobing up became the norm...

Btw, empire realism is a must have for naval battles. The ground battles are good but the naval battles are spectacular. It also adds scaling to the game which is a must in any wargame. And ETW was the first Total War where even in vanilla I had to make strategic choices that meant sometimes I had to chose between different parts of my empire.

Despite the massive problems with the battlefield AI and the siege battles which lagged my computer so much it'd take hours to finish one, I quite enjoyed Empire. I appreciated and loved the scope of its ambition with the world map, and while it took a while to grow on me, I love the naval battles. With Empire, the possibilities for the roads you could take were endless. You could be Poland and decide on mass emigration to the Americas or India, or Prussia with a colonizing itch. With Rome 1, it was always clear there was one path if you wanted to maximize wealth: Invade Greece, Carthage, Sicily, and Egypt before all others. While I enjoyed the mad rush to beat the AI, it always felt a little formulaic for me. It was better in Med 2 where each faction had unique challenges and enemies, but it still felt like a blitzkrieg to me. Empire truly allowed me to slow down and choose whatever path I wanted. Overall I enjoyed the review, and it's great to see RU-vid finally doing its job and recommending the smaller (relatively) channels!

I can't believe how the American Revolution is so often overlooked in discussions about an Empire 2, I mean even the first Empire's 'Road to Independence' campaign was a bit underwhelming to say the least. There is also so much potential in that too, I mean just look at the Civil War mod for ETW and how popular that became. The American Revolution, as well as the subsequent US Campaign, could've been the main centerpoints of ETW, but instead the devs decide to focus on early 18th century Europe, a period in which a lot of people, let alone Total War players, know barely much about.

I just bought Empire and have been loving it! Playing as the British and really only fighting in the Americas. Very fun so far :D

A great retrospective on this game! Do you know of any mods that put troops in tighter formations? I liked this in the Imperial Destroyer mod, but not really a fan of overhaul mods in general, with few exceptions (EB/EB2). Thanks for these review videos!

Great review. This pretty much sums it up perfecly. Empire is amazing but so bad (without mods) at the same time. Napoleon is in many ways the better game but always felt more like an expansion to me with a very linear setting. The more traditional make your own campaign open world feel of Empire, spanning over longer time always intrigued me more however and I'm always looking for more ways to enjoy that experience even more:) Except from better sound design and some enhanced smoke effects Napoleon TW graphics seems to be the same as Empire and I think the reason it looks better is simply because of the "cartoony" or oversaturated colours and different shadow and lighting makes it look and feel more stylized. While Empire was going for a more realistic look and comes of very lifeless and bland. Even back in 2009 I liked how Empire looked in some aspects, but at the same time it felt underdeveloped and I felt that Medieval 2 looked better in many ways, probably because of lighting and colours. A few noobie questions:P Is the AI mod you use the same as Darthmod (but only for the Ai ofc) or is it different? And does any of the listed mods also increase unit size? In your video you have infantry stacks of 300 but are not using Darthmod but a collection of other mods. While if I recall correctly the vanilla stack is maxed at 120 ish.

I personally think that the map of the empire is between very good and very bad, the fact of not being in South America hurts Portugal a lot, I shared your opinion regarding Persia although I am one of those who believes that it would also have been good to be able to play with the Mughal empire

the empire darthmod soundtracks are really nice especially in the americas, and teh naval battle ost are amazing

I'm new fan

this game broke my heart

did anyone knew the mod that increase the maximum ammo for troops on Empire?

yeah empire is an amazing game I personally had one of the best campaigns in any total war in empire just recently father 12 years since the game been released I came back to it and started to play again and I'm enjoying it so much ... also napoleon witch I kind consider basily the same game whit some graphical updates cause its just an expansion to empire if you ask me .. it just a shame that there are so many bugs and poor optimization to this game hope they make empire 2 or at lest a remake or remaster of it in the near future ... they only need to update the UI graphics and add more provicens... mergin napoleon campaign to empires campaign map would be awsome ... the europan provinces in napoleon are very well made overall napoleon is a more polished version of empire ...

What's the opening music? I recognise it but can't put a finger on it.

Empire is the only TW game i keep getting back to, year after year :D. It's just amazing, rank by fire and see the crap-AI melt.

I think CA realized after the fact ,some of the flaws in the game that were mentioned here, (And others) and we can see that reflected in Napoleon: France and Spain divided into provinces, game based on a shorter time period, more building options, got forts of the map, and more research put into uniform accuracy. If they had made the game to be about the Seven Years War, and 2 turns per month like Napoleon, the game would have approximately the same amount of turns as Napoleon. Other than some of the special units, The game gives all the units of a nation the same colour uniform, which in most cases was not how it was. (e.g French Dragoons and Guard Cavalry units wore red or blue. French Maison du Roi Infantry wore blue, Saxon Infantry wore white, not green, and Wurttemberg Infantry wore blue, not red) Most people want more units. In some ways I think there are too many. Pikemen, Conscripts, Dragoons, Light Dragoons, and Colonial Dragoons could all go. The Caribineer unit better represents the appearance of dragoons for the bulk of the 18th century, so I would make them available to all the European nations. The Russians don't need both Kalmuks and Tarters as their appearance and stats are almost exactly the same. I would give the French Swiss infantry though. France used more Swiss than all the other nations combined. Other than the France & Spain Provinces thing, the other thing I would change about the map is to get rid of Westphalia (Which didn't even exist in the 18th century) and use that space, and maybe a chunk of Hannover to create more smaller German nations such as Brunswick and Hesse-Cassel. I like the trade regions, but would have made another one in North America. Maybe furs around Canada somewhere. Unlike the poster, I like the tech tree. The Minor Factions Revenge mod (And maybe others. I haven't played them all) mixed in some of the tech from Napoleon to make the tree larger, which I liked. It would vary the factions a bit more if the tech tree was larger still and factions couldn't research it all before the end of the game, so factions maybe had to specialize in certain things. I I would make it possible to dismiss any agents you don't have a use for, and finally, I would make all nations playable on prestige, and add a few to the Grand Campaign.

Not quite sure I get your tech tree complaint? Certain technologies require others to be studied first... which for immersion makes sense, Certain weapons or industrial developments could not happen without other infrastructure put in place before hand... it makes sense to have that in a game

good to know that there is mods only for AI cause i preffer to keep my total war games as vanilla as possible

We just want a playable version of empire and for the heck of it we will call empire 2 . Mods are not the solution ,as darth mod after the year 1850 where the ai stacks become smaller and smaller turns take half an hour and mostly crash .

I can’t load mods anymore. 😞 Help!

The only thing that i disagree its the sound in this game. Musket sound its soo bizarre that i dont have words to describe, the battle its soo calm, you dont have people screaming, chanting or talking. In Napoleon, 70% of these problems where solved, thank God...

I think that they dint add new provinces to France and Spain to "balance" some things, and not overwhelm the Player with Europe In one side, this Is that Europe wasn't the "world" anymore, there were 2 new continents to conquer, so, if they took more time in europe, basically you would take a LOT conquering Europe, and it would fall as America in Medieval 2 total war, it's there, but everyone is too busy conquering everything to care about some land in the west And, France and Spain have their colonies (I know great britain too, but it mostly the "easy" faction to start, like medieval 2, as it is the first to choose), so it would make them a little too much op, because of the income that they could get because of this Maybe Rusia was also a problem in expanding the map since...well...it's so fricking big wtf The sieges, i say, they work as before games, Melee combats in walls, take gate, fight better in streets...but they shouldnt be like that, so, thats a no I really feel unconfortable with the copy/paste faces of the unit after seeing my diverse army in Medieval 2 Other than the IA, and other things, if you dont bother them or upgrade them with mods...you are going to have a Blast with the campaing and Battles! (I consider Empire Grand campaing to be superior to Napoleon one)

Prussia just can’t get a break in campaign from my experience, I wish the negotiations were better

I still love Empire 😁

I agree with your critique of E:TW but this game is simply too fun even with this baggage. I sinked about 2k hours to both Empire and Napoleon with mods and vanilla. The only difference is that i think naval battles are what this game is all about. British Navy has best ships and morale and I always found it fun to challenge them with France, Netherlands or Spain.

anybody else think they have a great asmr voice

Unit collusion or the lack thereof is an issue in Warscape engine imo

The last good TW IMHO.

good video but get a pop cover for your mic, its peaking with every word that starts with a 'P' which was a bit distracting from the otherwise good review :)

good video, i respect your opinion, but really disagree on so many things, things where you said "oh this is just bad", are sometimes my favorite thigs about the game, i love naval batteles, and in a game like rome, my fav of the series, you just need one ship to farry four army, but here there is reward for controling the seas in trade and such. Also i hated the regions at first but now, the epic specticale that is the battle for france or spain after much build up so much better, instead of eating province after province its a massive siege you have been building towards becuase you get one shot, instead of slowly eating their land with each battle meaningless, and you will still have fronts with france in americas and such that require some of the recorses needed to storm france. also i love sieges and i love the wilderness parts aswell, because in some or medieval, who gives a shit what the town is called, its a box on screen that pays your armys, and it is here aswell, but because you crossed "the wilderness" or set out on a expedition over seas that took many turns to travel and build up, what you the figt for is suddenly more than another city you border that gives income. this is also a reason that i love the teleport block system for america and the trade zones, i prefer it to one connected map, becuase if i send a huge expedition i buildt up, it feels like i traveled over seas and is somewhere far away new to get colonies, not the same as crossing the mediteranian to kill your neighbour from another angle. Also reaserch is great here, the schools, gentleman and the tree are all awsome and you have to invest in it prioritice and get to see a real change from it, its great.. There are so many more things aswell but i love this game for many of the things people call it bad for. great video though and sorry about grammar, i dont have english autocorrect and its not my first language.

I liked the multiplayer, but the campaign just didn't work. The eighteenth century wasn't really an age of "Total War", but playing as though it were was the optimal strategy. Its jarring, and at worst its just dumb. The transition from early to late units was interesting, especially as Russia. However, it was pretty easy to just rush to regular line infantry and just use that.

Empire is not playable without mods. Yes the music is terrible in this game. Oh you forgot to mention the the Ottoman turn bug. As to small armies the ai makes that is fixed with Bran Empire Campaign Ai mod.

Tottaly disagree i love the agents in empire and the idea is great

When i got my hands on empire i found it boring and not fun at all. The AI is stupid and when i got into a battle it was a walk in the park. Darthmod kinda sorted out the problems but still i got bored after 2 weeks of playing. But still a great video.

حق🤌🏼

Is a copy of imperial splendor.

Don't play Empire with mods. Mods are poorly made and often glich, bug and break games. That's why this guy complains so much. Darth mod especially glitches AI because it allows enormous army sizes. This game isn't perfect but it can be very enjoyable. This game is mostly focused on colonisation, you can find very diverse units in America or Middle East. My favorite way of playing is conquering India as Russia using cossack and tatar units. I also recommend doing American campaign and then starting as USA in later stages of the game.