The Hidden Beauty of Total War

[@MelkorGG]

Whether intentional or not, this is an old philosophical idea, and it's great to see it actually take place through the original Total Wars. From Games, to expansions. : )

[@RoastCDuck]

If you think about it in every single Real Time Strategy it dosn't matter how much upgrades you develop at the end of the map the next one you start from scratch with nothing upgraded, this includes Starcraft, Age of Empires, Warcraft, Age of Mythology.

[@donbenjamin6459]

i really love the analisis :') Thanks

[@js500y9]

“I’ve been thinking a lot about the total war series” You don’t say? Man who runs a Total War KZbin channel

[@ShadowGMA]

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

[@MelkorGG]

Exactly!

[@freddiemercury8625]

Nice quote from the poem "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

[@dac314]

What I came here to say as well.

[@ArtyomLensky]

I am Rome, Total War of Total Wars, Look upon my AI and despair.

[@fivifivia1146]

It seems there really is something special in RTW and Medieval 2. We all know how it ends historically, just like how we all know that all good things eventually come to an end. Once there was Pixelated Apollo, Legend of total war, Lionheart and many other youtubers that played these awesome games, and as the time went by, so did they silently switch to other and newer titles. Just as we know how all of our empires don't really matter, as they too will be one day swept away by the sands of time in real life, it seems that all once popular Rome and Medieval 2 channels are a thing of a distant past. That is why we come to your channel. You make us re-live our greatest moments of our empires in all of our campaigns. Just as it felt good to watch our empires in all of our campaigns grow, it is a pleasure to watch this channel grow bit by bit. It feels like an oasis in a desert, a desert where under the sand is buried a cherished memory of greatness and conquest. And that conquest is the greatest story of them all; how Rome/Medieval 2 total war won our hearts...

[@coolthefool1]

This is beautiful

[@JordanR]

Med II multiplayer KZbinrs are still alive ^^. Reforged and Silmarillion are keeping the faith and there’s some solid KZbinrs who cover them on the daily. We exist, just gotta look for us!

[@Tom-tk4ir]

Very well said

[@The_Custos]

Yes, gone back to med 2. So good.

[@randomguy2023]

Pixelated apallo still does Medieval 2 videos

[@mercurius1877]

I am watching this channel grow like the flowers in my garden. Keep up the good work!

[@aqhat3702]

dont cut your flowers!

[@mercurius1877]

@@aqhat3702 Only in winter

[@miroslavmasek9084]

I actually used this game continuity for my campaign, first I started with Rome II by building Roman Empire, which can be spiced up by some dlcs with civil wars etc. than i would continue to play as Eastern roman empire in Attila and I finished by restoring Roman empire with Byzantines in Medieval II

[@CT--ox2iu]

I remember when I played Rome for the first time as a kid I tried to be I kind ruler, occupying and keeping the taxes low, the people were happy but as time went on and the empire expanded the amount of death and fighting. The constant riots on the edge of the empire eventually I clicked exterminate. It's the strangest feeling 12000 lives, humans all were cut down because they wanted freedom. There was no going back though at that point every faction was slaughtering towns to maintain power. Rome taught me the ideals the Roman's (and other groups) that they are superior are nothing more than a rag to clean the blood-soaked sword. Also the ability to view the battlefield during the routing phase really strikes home the amount of men that just slaughtered each other for their respective peoples. Sorry if that was a bit much, great video and stay safe everyone!

[@R-H-B]

Holy shit

[@baseddruid8773]

Inspiration and wonder can be found in anything as long as you know how see and where to look. Life is truly awesome.

[@hallamhal]

The thing I loved in Shogun TW was that if you won you got: a statue of your daimyo, largely ignored by passers by in the 21st century. And if you won as another clan it would be that clan's daimyo - they were interchangeable, almost to the point of insignificance. Sure the voiceover said you were legendary, but apart from to history buffs you're only a name and a set of dates in the grand scheme of things.

[@The_Custos]

An ikko ikki win in shogun 2 would have completely changed Japan. Japan would be politically like Tibet pre-communism.

[@ryanthan3595]

Melkor: *delivers a touching speech about a strategy video game* Also Melkor: *sends one unit of samurai archers against the entire enemy army*

[@quno5174]

But that’s just a theory!

[@Randomstuffs261]

A game theory!

[@IllyrianTiger99]

@@Randomstuffs261 and cut

[@RoastCDuck]

Did you know that rome total war games where basicaly arcade first but later in development they were redesign to be a PC game, more to know on Didyouknowgaming

[@ThePs3Gangster]

Dear Melkor, once more I have to thank you for creating great content. Also I wanted to add a quote that I usually remember playing TW: "Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won". Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington

[@seensurvivor3156]

Reminds me of Matthew Chapter 6: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

[@KingMswatiIII]

That would be a great loading screen quote now that I think of it.

[@KingMswatiIII]

Another thing is the characters. Each game has thousands or millions of unnamed people living in the cities and towns across the map. Then there are thousands of people fighting in the various armies. None of these people are named. When they die they are simply forgotten. Then there are all the named characters who die and are forgotten as well. The captain who died fighting to the end with his hopelessly outnumbered troops in the city square. The assassin who died on his first mission. You get notifications of those who have died of old age. A "family tragedy" takes the 60 year old wife of one of your generals, and you open up the family tree to figure out who she was. I forget most of the names of my generals. However, in each campaign, there are a few leaders who did great deeds on the battlefield, conquering enemy kingdoms and making a name for themselves. And those few men out of millions of people in the world are the names you'll remember after the game is done.

[@The_Custos]

Saw an officer push back an entire line of infantry in empire. I still think of that crazy bast***.

[@stalhandske9649]

Let me shorten it for you: _Sic_ _transit_ _gloria_ _mundi._

[@virtualsignals1215]

Your love of the greatest games ever coded is what brings us all to your channel.

[@chrisd2051]

And Rome 2 Total War teaches you that unless you know what you're doing, life's gonna screw you royally.

[@johanmikkael6903]

Bro just use yari wall

[@napoleoncomplex2712]

Half of the fun of Total War is trying to build that empire and make it better, more concrete or established less bloodily or in the face of greater odds each time. There's always the feeling of gaining ground with a faction that you would have dismissed as far too hard a start when you first picked up a title, or your army surviving a battle with a foe that would have driven you from the field and shattered your efforts when you started playing. I'll leave you with a line from the paradoxical commandments. 'What you spend years building may be destroyed in a day. Build anyway.'

[@aqhat3702]

me in english class explaining how my doorknob is a symbol of life

[@daltonater1212]

Press F for all of the wonderful campaigns that are lost forever in the deleted save files.

[@tristanvonbickinstein9909]

You ever get defeated all live long enough to see your empire fall

[@SimonAshworthWood]

This reminds me of a comment I read in a Medieval 2 Total War forum years ago that I found pretty funny. The person asked: "didn't we build roads already in Rome Total War? Why do we have to build them again?" 🤣 Valid complaint?

[@fettfan91]

Seeing that menu for Medieval was a massive nostalgia nuke, picking the historical era you want to play in is something that should be considered for future titles.

[@achilles7074]

I wonder what it says about me that I have never ” finished” a total war campaign other than a couple short campaign victory...

[@MelkorGG]

I do Total War on KZbin for a living, and I am exactly the same, Short Victory is usually as far as I go. XD Usually it shows that you prefer the journey or challenge, rather than the achievement.

[@xbox_cheeto5338]

Plus most long campaigns end where u already stated the steam roll long ago. It get's predictable. Plus in short campaign u sorta have to compete a bit to race to the victory conditions first

[@Rynewulf]

It's hard for a long campaign to have the same tension and enjoyment as early or short ones. After a certain point you're just too strong for anything to push you back or stop you for long. There's a big difference in fighting for survival in a small region and invasion of eastern edge of the map #4

[@johnnyd3387]

Playing Rome total war again after watching your videos and I'm loving the current campaign. Thanks for all the information and great videos you make to keep this great game current and alive.

[@ThinkingGamer64]

I also like it how Total War games from Rome: Total War to Napoleon developed historically. I also really like it how CA remakes previous historical titles. It shows they are open to attempting to improve a particularly good historical period in a previous Total War game.

[@Greninjia]

for me i love the longer campaigns in modded medieval 2 the art of fighting your way through hell, being battered and angry at your enemies, then sacking their lands for your own gain. You are made to feel like the true puppet master of the games.

[@sid5378]

NO MELKOR YOURE UPPING TOO MUCH I CANT TAKE IT ANYMORE

[@MelkorGG]

XD Due to a Stream Issue, the Stream was split into 2, that's why it look like I uploaded more : )

[@Chris_S.]

Pretty strong video, Melkor, and pretty much the tale I am telling in my AAR in TWCenter. Thanks for that. You totally nailed it. Keep on going. :) - Derc

[@jgmaster12]

This is deep mate. I like it

[@Ugurcan191]

Ahh mediavel 1 was so good.Its soundtrack was the best one.

[@stalhandske9649]

^ A wise man right here.

[@boshengjones1778]

Cannot agree more. Timeless Tracks! The best of the best, as best as best can get.

[@luissalcedo6493]

Maybe the hidden philosophy is that no matter how much effort you put in, and lives you sacrifice, empires will inevitably rise and fall, making the effort all for naught.

[@Yews]

Says the guy typing with Roman letters.

[@omicroneridani7456]

@@Yews Absolutely spot on!

[@gianferrepuse8873]

I love this philosophical thought about the total war series. To not get too attached to things because they're not permanent, sorta reminds me of the teachings from Stoicism and Buddhism.

[@karibrimacombe8710]

I think youre slightly overthinking this

[@sinclair726]

Nice one, Melkor ! Now that would be a cool feature I think to have a little cutscene or whatever that tells us what happened in the alternate timeline of the Total War in-between titles. Wow!

[@donbenjamin6459]

Bro, this hit me hard :'v Great analisis, i love it

[@AbrahamLincoln4]

RIP British Empire.

[@zacharymohammadi]

F

[@doguthesecond6062]

Quite poetic man 👍🏼

[@NikiGalabov]

I like the start of the video: "I've been thinking a lot about the Total War series lately." I find myself in the same situation sometimes. :D

[@louisdemm1758]

Been playing a lot of the original Rome Total War and totally forgot how special it is. If you have any imagination you can really create a narrative and motivation for your little characters.

[@jackmclaughlin7493]

You know it’s really weird because playing these growing up and getting “bored” i would always try to replicate the next phase in history ie try and do line battles with gun powder units in medieval two. To this day it truly is amazing how they released every game in the series in the order they have. It’s like this video has said everything I’ve felt since I first started playing

[@dac314]

"LOOK UPON MY WORKS, YE MIGHTY, AND DESPAIR!"

[@13141Scott]

I like to think each game is a different dimension where I the player wasn't present. All other experiences in the other total war games are still present haha

[@syndicalist-0]

Son of a bitch i never thought about this. Brilliant observation sir. This is eye opening. Ive played every TW game since shogun (1) and i can't believe i never saw this. Its one long story.

[@KirkWilliams300]

It seems nihilism is the result of looking into things with a deeper lense

[@elvischen8516]

Nah man u growing too fastt slow down we wont be able to handle the big melkor maybe he wont notice us anymore in the chats with the growing fanbase 😂😂

[@MelkorGG]

XD I will always notice chat. : )

[@dattilo1]

The empires may fall, militarily... but cultural traces of them remain and are built upon. The medieval setting is built on what it has inherited from Rome, and the Empire setting is built upon the technological advancements you developed in Medieval, all the while bringing back the long forgotten Republic.

[@balticbvll2987]

your empire is not gonna get destroyed if you just play the austrians in empire and take some land so your the same size in napoleon

[@RagingBlast2Fan]

Melkor, the enlightenment existentialist philosopher! I'll leave you with two overused pieces of literature: "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever." Ecclesiastes "Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing." Macbeth, act 5, scene 5

[@Arrwmkr]

You weren't even born for Shogun 1, were you Melkor? :)

[@MelkorGG]

I was. I was only 2-4 years old, but I was : )

[@Arrwmkr]

@@MelkorGG well great to see such an avid interest in history. As a history teacher I once used MTW to teach students but they were not interested and soon got bored of playing! They were 14 year olds and I set up a siege for them to try, so sad, I never bothered again.

[@MelkorGG]

@@Arrwmkr Different times. If you did it now, I am sure it would be a different scene. Part of my dissertation was looking at how Video games are used to teach history, and it is becoming much more popular in the last couple of years. You were just too far ahead of your time XD

[@mcsmash4905]

Once again reminder that shogun 2 will be free for grabs from the 27th of this month to the 1st of may

[@thatblackfish5781]

Where you found this,I've played wh2 free Week,is there any other games being free,I'm trying to see how good my set up will run 3 kingdoms

[@mcsmash4905]

@@thatblackfish5781 steamdb or something like that , at first it was from the 18th to the 21st but then they moved it to the date i mentioned in the comment itself

[@aleksjamnik5360]

i think that is just total war following history i dont thing this is total war devs being deep

[@ageofwar8442]

I'm waiting for them to come out with the total war game that starts in the Bronze Age goes all the way up until the 1900s so you can truly build a legacy forget Grand strategy I'm looking for Epic strategy

[@aqhat3702]

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[@damjan4435]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[@ayatcha7928]

Hey Melkor! How in Rome total war did you put only Julii Family without Senate and the Brutii and Scipii??

[@ayatcha7928]

Ok I saw where download!

[@Defferleffer]

I need total war Troy now

[@fredrikeriksson5199]

Good idéas! :)

[@IM1THE2KING3]

Liking Random Vids #quarantine

[@IrishPennant0311]

Big feels

[@iceintheair]

god tier click bait

[@MelkorGG]

Thanks - I do Try ; )

[@thepaladin5903]

basically why Napoleon is superior

[@Milos596]

Medieval 2 as vanilla game is the worst one historically speaking. What Spain? What Portugal? What Russia? Those countries didn't exist at the time. The only one missing is Romania and game would be totally ridiculous...

[@Arrwmkr]

'The God of war has gone over to the other side'. We can rejoice as the rise and fall of empires means that Trump too will fall :)

[@benedictjajo]

Total War Mongol.

[@atmosrex7126]

Fifty-three days in '53 Fifty-three steps for you to acknowledge your defeat The last in line: Ultimus Romanorum Evolution through revolution A frozen river, enough to tip an empire Stalingrad, Waterloo, Bastille, Poltava, Stamford Bridge At Manzikert it would all end Tough are times ahead With care you tread Before you know Out we need to bow Enjoy it while it lasts Soon forgotten in the past Our time here ended so fast Open your eyes Yourself apprise All empires find their demise The taller they are, the harder they fall The snowball Is on the roll Open your eyes Yourself apprise New powers are on the rise So strong is our faith that the world stays as is Until it hits, like shattering glass to bits How did this happen? How could this happen? How could the empire fall?

[@The_Custos]

Tooeetahl wahhhr

[@graysonjenkins9818]

Melkor x exurb1a

[@samdenisse2705]

All empires fall away, but the glory of God is forever.

[@bramlinssen6940]

#freedafez

[@koolaidman2702]

Fam you basically just read the instruction manual on the goal of the game lol what is the point of this video?

[@MelkorGG]

Really? The Manuel goes over how the route of Total War portrays real life? Which one and what page says that?

[@KingMswatiIII]

I don't remember it in the Rome, BI, Medieval, or Kingdoms manuals, and I read those cover to cover during a winter storm when the electricity went out for a week. I do, however, remember a classic line from the Barbarian invasion manual: "writers have fought and died to bring you these words, honest."

[@koolaidman2702]

@@MelkorGG take historic country from game, get big that is literally the point of tthe game. And anyone that has any understanding of how time works knows nothing lasts forever this is some fake woke shit lol

[@RoastCDuck]

For me the older rome games look like a cartoonish ant farm.

[@Doc.O.K.]

U need to improve your commentary buddy. Your tone suggests as if u r making a huge effort just to speak.

[@MelkorGG]

I am making a huge effort XD I am speaking in a completely different accent on YT just to be understood. : )