What is your favorite nation in Empire: Total War?

[SckizoBoy]

Prussia. Glorious glorious Prussia. One of the strongest armies in Europe makes up for the lack of sea trade. You are surrounded on all sides by Austria, France, Poland and Sweden, all of whom want you dead. Your only trade partners you can rely on are England, and only because they aren't right beside you waiting to invade.

But your army? You will mop the floor with other nations. Your Grenadiers are ungodly powerful, and your Line infantry are goddamn professionals. Upgrade your military research to gain the Fire By Rank as soon as possible, and watch armies three times your size get shredded.

QFT... though my rather hamstringing first move is to attack Hannover, so I piss off the Brits from the off as well! -_- What I regularly did was a sickle move through Hannover, Westphalia, Baden & Bavaria in the full knowledge that Britain can't really do anything, the United Provinces can't do anything either since they've only got the one province in Europe and France is the only real threat. However, always with the two front opening war against France/Austria. The exhiliration... though after all that, I still find it the shittest of the TW games... -_-

and conquering Bavaria never get's old

Ha! That made me laugh quite a bit! XD

On a related note, am I the only one who gets pissed off when Spain, France and England get their colonies automatically if the AI is controlling them? Players need to complete a quest to get their New World colonies to join up with them fully, but the AI just needs to wait a while. Not only is this unfair, it also guarantees that Spain, England and France will become massive powerhouses with minimal effort and kills any chance of alternate history shenanigans in the New World...

Eh... that's a game balancing thing... think someone else mentioned the crappy amphib invasion AI. Ironically, it's a lot better in Napoleon, even though it's largely unnecessary.

Actually, my biggest annoyance from Empire is the troop recovery mechanism. Retrain - battle... *sigh* retrain again... And I'm one of those paranoid nutcases who keeps a tab on every bloody unit, which is worse in the these two because you get numbered regiments. When I play Napoleon, every army/corps is numbered, every regiment is named, every battery has an archaic brigade designation and none of it may be lost, damnit!

 

[BrotherRool]

I loved Prussia because I didn't want to deal with colonies or naval battles and it worked out pretty fun for me. I love the improvement of diplomacy from Rome/Medeival to Empire, it made the whole game experience so many degrees more fun to actually be able to get a hook into which countries invade you and which don't. I loved being able to have small insignifcant allies and help them out and know they'd stay faithful instead of stupidly backstabbing. And the way someone becomes an enemy, so you invade them to keep their forces down which lowers your reputation with other countries so you have to invade them which lowers your reputation with more countries... until suddenly you're ruling Europe when you really just wanted to pick a fight with Poland.

I'm very cheap when it comes to actual battles though, I tended to go for that tactic when outnumbered of sitting my troops right in the back corner of the map along two sides so the enemy becomes a jangled mop of people caught in crossfire half the time not actually firing at you

 

[Gizmo1990]

England. I have no problem with the US but their is something about kicking their arse and keeping them part of the Empire that is just fun. Add powerful ships plus Green Jackets who can hit people at a much better range than other rifle units and due to the less than steller A.I the UK itself is never invaded so you always have a safe place to fall back on.

 

[an_luas]

I've only played as 1 nation Great Britain and am still playing through that campaign. 150 years have gone by and global domination is getting closer! There has been some interesting turns for me during the game, such as the Mughal Empire coming back after 100 years and that I am in a massive stalemate with the nations in India.

The way I play the game has changed quite a bit since I started the campaign, at first my victories were always through numbers but now I find that I still win a battle while outnumbered like 5-1.

One thing I find amusing is during a time of peace for my nation, every other nation left alive was at war with each other and hte ones allied with me were winning. So I started giving money to my enemies and occasionally to my allies to keep their war going for as long as possible. Didn't end so well when instead of fighting my allies, my enemies took the funds and built a few armies to invade me!

After this campaign I might give Austria (if they are playable for a campaign) or the Ottomans a go.

 

[QuartzQuadreant]

...Britain. Because I'm British. That's my only rationale. And it's the only rationale I need, dammit.

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

The Dutch, you could have one hell of a trade empire set up in no time, and build/steal ships to create huge armadas, which tended to be my strategy.

 

[Kiefer13]

Britain or Prussia.

Britain is a great choice if you want time to build up and a more strategically minded game. You have a strong defensive position in the British Isles, especially since the AI is useless at assaulting overseas (at least in vanilla, not sure about DarthMod). This allows you to build up a strong economic base to fund your colonial endeavours in India and the Americas. Meanwhile, you can blockade your European enemies with your strong navy to hamstring their trade, allowing you to keep them weakened for when you're done elsewhere. Besides, I'm British myself, so there's that.

Prussia on the other hand, is great for getting stuck into things. Unlike with Britain, colonial and naval affairs are by far a secondary concern, with the primary focus being on bringing your incredibly powerful army to bear and smashing any European power that stands in your way.

 

[Aris Khandr]

I really enjoy playing the Maratha. Managed to conquer all of the Indian subcontinent, and started moving in on the Americas, which brought me into conflict with Spain. Fast forward about 10 years, and Spain has ceased to exist, India owns most of the New World, and there are elephants marching on Paris.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

I don't really have the best computer can really deal with Empire, I have it and now you bastards (I mean it in a nice way) Make me want to play it more. I have Rome and i'm a great commander in it when warmed up (As Gauls I loved the challenge of low money. I always enjoyed wiping the Romans with my bands.) But Empire i s difficult ball game to play. i'll try more, have not even got past the damn tutorial.

use stone walls if you can and its worth delaying a turn to build fortifications. stone walls can be bugged and sometimes your troops wont fire so be aware of that. you definitely need to concentrate fire that's for sure

Yeah playing Maratha, I'm screwed though economically thanks to the Mughals blocking my ports stopping trade. I tried breaking one of their blocks but i got beaten. I'm taking a break currently. Its fun, but annoying in many places, like the interface and controls are not as good as Rome's.

That's how I felt about Napoleon. I'd always get stuck in a stalemate with a country- be it prussia or Austria, I'd always be at a stalemate, until an ambitious stroke of luck would allow me to capture a region. The game is extreamly fun, but you find yourself stressing the fuck out when your me and having to take 30 minutes to prepair for each battle before it acually starts, and having to use every ounce of you to micromanage units to victory. so fun...

I'm actually doing well on land, its the naval battles that are a pain. Its my first time playing so i have it on easy. But it is a pain with all of this, I can't play for long other wise my eyes want to kill themselves. And my brain grows bore of looking at stuff it does not understand.

I was speaking of my experances in Napoleon TW. Pretty much a 12 year continuation of Empire, but it has a much more limited campaign, the plus is that warfare is always going on and it's always action packed, and you don't have to spend that much time building everything in your country up. I'm the same way, I'm a great land commander, but when it comes to the sea I'm mediocre at best. The units are just so dumb in sea battles. they'll act like they are going to turn and broadside an enemy, and then just turn right back into their streight possition and get hammered by the enemy ship they could have defeated. I also don't like how expensive navys are to build.

 

[Timedraven 117]

I don't really have the best computer can really deal with Empire, I have it and now you bastards (I mean it in a nice way) Make me want to play it more. I have Rome and i'm a great commander in it when warmed up (As Gauls I loved the challenge of low money. I always enjoyed wiping the Romans with my bands.) But Empire i s difficult ball game to play. i'll try more, have not even got past the damn tutorial.

use stone walls if you can and its worth delaying a turn to build fortifications. stone walls can be bugged and sometimes your troops wont fire so be aware of that. you definitely need to concentrate fire that's for sure

Yeah playing Maratha, I'm screwed though economically thanks to the Mughals blocking my ports stopping trade. I tried breaking one of their blocks but i got beaten. I'm taking a break currently. Its fun, but annoying in many places, like the interface and controls are not as good as Rome's.

That's how I felt about Napoleon. I'd always get stuck in a stalemate with a country- be it prussia or Austria, I'd always be at a stalemate, until an ambitious stroke of luck would allow me to capture a region. The game is extreamly fun, but you find yourself stressing the fuck out when your me and having to take 30 minutes to prepair for each battle before it acually starts, and having to use every ounce of you to micromanage units to victory. so fun...

I'm actually doing well on land, its the naval battles that are a pain. Its my first time playing so i have it on easy. But it is a pain with all of this, I can't play for long other wise my eyes want to kill themselves. And my brain grows bore of looking at stuff it does not understand.

I was speaking of my experances in Napoleon TW. Pretty much a 12 year continuation of Empire, but it has a much more limited campaign, the plus is that warfare is always going on and it's always action packed, and you don't have to spend that much time building everything in your country up. I'm the same way, I'm a great land commander, but when it comes to the sea I'm mediocre at best. The units are just so dumb in sea battles. they'll act like they are going to turn and broadside an enemy, and then just turn right back into their streight possition and get hammered by the enemy ship they could have defeated. I also don't like how expensive navys are to build.

I HATE naval battles. I can barely fighting one and they are very expensive. But i need them in order to free my ports which sucks because i can't make any new ships in those ports unless i break the blockade.

 

[beastro]

I'm actually doing well on land, its the naval battles that are a pain. Its my first time playing so i have it on easy. But it is a pain with all of this, I can't play for long other wise my eyes want to kill themselves. And my brain grows bore of looking at stuff it does not understand.

I havemMax difficulty on land battles, but turn the games difficulty on easiest or second to easiest for naval battles.

Why?

Because anything above those two turns ships into floating heaps of kindling just ready to blow up. I drives me nuts going for the kill and mass board an enemy fleet only to have both my ships and their light on fire in the melee, surrender and then blow up.

I find it sad that they screwed the battles up so much. Give how powerful and effective chain shot it, you'd think that the designer who made up the battle mechanics was a 18th Century French naval officer wanting his nations flawed tactics to finally win over the Royal Navy's deadly meleeing.

With that said, stick to demasting ships to mess up the enemies formation and also fight to keep windward so you can have your line snake away back and forth as the enemy tries to chase you.

I loved being able to have small insignifcant allies and help them out and know they'd stay faithful instead of stupidly backstabbing. And the way someone becomes an enemy, so you invade them to keep their forces down which lowers your reputation with other countries so you have to invade them which lowers your reputation with more countries... until suddenly you're ruling Europe when you really just wanted to pick a fight with Poland.

Simple fix to that is using the ESF editor to remove the hate from territorial expansion nations have towards you.

I HATE naval battles. I can barely fighting one and they are very expensive. But i need them in order to free my ports which sucks because i can't make any new ships in those ports unless i break the blockade.

Naval warfare is expensive, but it's also massively profitable.

My play style means I always have little money and tons of units. Raiding trade lanes, popping into the trade node areas to sweep enemy shipping and taking on enemy fleets is a major injection of cash.

I try to make it into a positive feedback loop where I pour the funds into my navy and allow it to better make money.

A massively helpful tip for protecting your ports is to build cheap ships and have them sit in port to keep them from being ruined. You can't build still, but it'll keep having to repair them over and over. IIRC with the Vanilla game, the only ships cheaper than East Indianmen are the light galleys if you're able to build em from the Baltic or Mediterranean.

 

[Yureina]

Empire crashed on me too much to ever really get to enjoy the game. But, knowing me, I'd probably have played Britain the most. I certainly enjoyed playing them in Napoleon.