When People Review Empire and They Got No Clue What They Are Talking About

[@ThunderForce1299]

I completely agree - people who say that empire is so bad didn't really invest time in this game and base their opinions on other "popular" theories about this game. In fact Empire is flawed but such a fun game and one of the most amazing total war games.I used to play etw with mods only and I thought that vanilla is really bad..unplayable even because that was the most popular opinion especially amongst the modding community.And I remembered one of my first campaigns back in 2009 when I bought this beautiful game. It was really unpolished version of the game with AI so passive that after 100 turns or so only I captured some regions and the rest of the factions didn't do anything xD It was still fun though...but around a year later I started playing darthmod and other mods and it became a saint rule for me to never touch vanilla again after seeing how much darthmod improved this game..or so I thought.Many years later I discovered that the truth is different.Many things that darthmod "improved" like the expansion of the AI , better battle AI was already fixed in vanilla and thanks to you Faramir I saw the truth about the game which in fact gave me more satisfaction than those mods I've been playing.The only mod that really changes the gameplay and makes the game different- not better or worse is Empire Realism. It really depends if someone likes more arcade experience or wants to be immersed in more realistic , accurate simulation of 18th century warfare.For me vanilla is the best way to go nowdays and I also don't understand the hate towards this game.There are flaws even big ones of course but overall the positives outweigh the negatives big time...by a mile.

[@FaramirsRangers]

Well said thunder!

[@bozomori2287]

@@FaramirsRangers sir, you must hear this! I heard so much bad stuff and bad mouthing about empire for years, then came the day I tried it. I liked it from start contrary to the all other tw titles that the community keeps yapping about. Empire is innocnet. I have just 14 hours in it and I've won 4 different campaigns and I just watched your video about switching governments and their bonuses. 👍 I am grateful that I am sane enough to appreciate your channel and the game. I am lucky.

[@duelinglectrics]

Another quick cool thing about empire is when your at peace with nations they can’t ( and you can’t ) just go walking into or on other nations territory you actually have to have military access through an alliance or an agreement or be at war . So it’s nice to not have random armies walking around your territory freaking you out like the other total wars .

[@FaramirsRangers]

Good point I didn’t even think of that

[@duelinglectrics]

@@FaramirsRangers It’s a neat exploit for when you’re at war and you don’t want to necessarily hold the land you’re fighting in or you want to deny the enemy access to lands simply take over a portion of their lands and gift it to a nation you have military access with and your enemy is not at war with . In this way you will effectively build yourself a springboard of which your enemy will not enter into I’m doing that currently with Spain I took a Lisbon and gave it to my protectorate who isn’t at war with Spain so I am free to ship forces in and out

[@Wesley_Cavalcanti]

Constitutional Monarchy FTW. We need an Empire 2.

[@FaramirsRangers]

ETW 2 no thanks lets get a remaster of this game.

[@MrJabbothehut]

Empire with the Rights of Man mod is a really great total war. Highly recommend it!

[@mohamedelhakem3931]

Yes .. the best mod for Empire total war

[@SquidElvis]

Empire with Darthmod is great, i think new Empire 2 mod is also really great, but vanilla game seems still broken, but it was most ambitious total war in map size, i wish if we see empire 2 also would like to see Australia.

[@blakethegreatone2058]

I love empire total war. I've been playing since it came out but I was in the marines at the time and didn't get to play much. Now I have 6k hours all in vanilla and I'm probably one of the few people who have never played a mod. I agree with pretty much everything you said though. I've even seen some of the more recent videos people have put out about the game and just thought they needed another 500 hours to understand. My biggest problem (outside of glitches) was that the minor nations aren't playable.

[@FaramirsRangers]

Yeah agree would loved to have had more nations and seen the natives done a little better. Nice to see another marine. I met one of my good friends on multiplayer named gunny who is also a former marine. He has been on the channel with me way back in the day when we live streamed a 1v1 multiplayer tournament. We did a co commentary on the battles. Was lot of fun

[@duelinglectrics]

You would love darth mod Because you can play as the minor nations and playing as the natives you need to be more into the guerilla tactics because they can’t stand up against the European tactic of the time so you need to employ ambush manoeuvres and such

[@blakethegreatone2058]

@@FaramirsRangers I've heard you reference the name quite a few times. I definitely never got close to gunnery sergeant though. Lol. The natives always throw me off because of the bowmen. The range needs to be the same as the muskets and the reload speed should be the highest in the game.

[@blakethegreatone2058]

@@duelinglectrics I've thought about playing Darth mod but I just haven't pulled that trigger yet. I have reservations on playing mods for any game. Just my personal preference.

[@duelinglectrics]

@@blakethegreatone2058 you wouldn’t regret darth mod the sounds of the battles now alone are enough to draw one in. The smoke from the muskets and cannons engulf the field now and units are larger . Battles are heavy and epic I might actually do a video about darth mod

[@landphil7436]

If anyone is unsure about the game, giving it a go is a great step for knowing if you like or dislike it, yes there may be issues, and for me, one of my biggest is the diplomacy where the ai is absolutely stupid when asking for deals, because giving up half your territory for like 5 turns of military access and a trade deal is completely worth it yes? But does that mean I will discourage people from the game, no. I agree with the points in the video, and to re-iterate my beginning point, give it a go, especially like with what faramir was mentioning with it being on sale. Experience is one of the greatest deciders

[@FaramirsRangers]

Well said! Main thing is have some interest going in and you will be fine. Thanks Phil

[@kapuhy]

For me, the single reason I didn't play Empire all that much is existence of NTW and its introduction of drop-in battles. I played Total War games since first Medieval and love their format, but their biggest flaw was always the fact that battle AI simply cannot compete against human player and sooner or later every battle starts to turn into a slaughter, even if you don't use cheesy tactics. Even giving advantages to AI doesn't help because there's a hard limit of how much they can throw at you at once without breaking game engine, so even with 10 to 1 advantage you'll wipe their stacks one by one with minimal losses (and God it starts to be tedious at some point). NTW's drop-ins fixed that - provided you were patient enough to wait for player to join, every battle had the potential to break your army and your empire. Even when you were strong on campaign map, an experienced opponent could wipe the floor with your most experienced stack and leave you horribly vulnerable. Since NTW is otherwise very similar to ETW, this single difference - the fact that I could actually lose - made me choose NTW most of the time.

[@NotFinnish]

Still more moddable than Napoleon. None of Empires problems are unique to empire, but the worst part is that there are few strengths of this game. I’ve learned to play around the problems, and now I’ve got an average game. It’s still good, it’s AAA game so there’s inherently some quality.

[@FaramirsRangers]

Well said! I think our best hope is not ETW2 but a competitor putting out a better game

[@va_sirberpasir9708]

I personally can see why people kinda confused with all the changes ans logics in Empire. I love Empire so does you and other but. I think. Empire is best enjoyed if you play it with mindset of a roleplayer so to speak, I found the most enjoyment when I'm just roleplaying away, make silly army composition and city/region build order.

[@FaramirsRangers]

Agree with your thoughts. You can really get some nice scenarios in this game

It's really hard to "roleplay" a game when AI is not cooperating. You try to roleplay and Britain declares war on you out of nowhere and drops a full stack on you just because you're the player. OK if it happens once, but every single campaign, that really kills roleplaying.

[@thepushmaster1273]

@ lol Tomasz I feel your pain but life does throw you curve balls out of nowhere sometimes :)

[@CosBar_]

I am a big fan of empire and napoleon. I would dare to say that it is my favorite total war game. The main downside for me is matching with historical facts. When you dive deeper, you start to realise that this game tends to be historical, but has too many historical inaccuracies. For example. In this game the Great Britain has one of the most powerful infantries. In reality british infantry was not that good and they relied more on their superior navy. While France and Prussia at that time had maybe the most advance infantry of all over nations. Needless to say that USA at that period of time had very weak infantry and no navy (in game USA in very strong…)There are a lot fo other historical inaccuracies and they make me sad. On the other hand, this problem also occurs in other Total war games. Why couldn't they hire a good historian? :D Sorry for my english. Greetings from Russia and thank you for your videos! :)

[@joecorcilles2231]

British infantry weren't good??! You are seriously misinformed, "3 rounds a minute" was the British Army motto, and for a good reason. That motto made them the most effective infantry during the Napoleonic wars, please do more reading before spewing lies on the internet

[@lipp1992]

Empire is my favorite followed by Rome 2. I hope for a remaster of this before any other only if they don't F it up.

[@soma_trip1863]

My main complaint is the tiny font size. I'm one of those who actually enjoys going through all of the flavor text, and my eyes are shite. It made me immediately quit the game when I first tried it, but thankfully I gave it another shot. Considering that "war gaming" was basically invented to depict these types of battles, I think this is one of those titles that really carry that tradition into today most successfully.

[@wonnijohn2765]

Totally accurate battle simulator? What a legend!

[@Sirvalian]

Being the first total war game to have an unmoddable map was good enough for me to hate it from the start. Still, it's better than any total war that came after it.

[@paulmorris5166]

Good video. As a new player on first campaign as England I just noticed that I was starting to depend on artillary, I shall try to avoid that in future.

[@nickelgaming786]

I think people forget that this game was made WAY back in 2009 I believe. I could be a couple years off. But it was a very early era game.

[@FaramirsRangers]

Yes 2009 crazy to think it has been that long

[@ageofwar8442]

I thought my 500 hrs meant something... 😆 🤣 😂

[@jaywerner8415]

Who in their RIGHT MIND complains about Empires tech tree? Its the best tech tree in any total war game, sure Canister shot and Fire By Rank are the most impactful but that doesn't make the rest of the tech useless. Guess those people don't build a navy, which matters in this game for protecting your trade and transporting troops after all. Plus its nice to have a DOWNSIDE to research tech (makes sense to get a upkeep increase to have better trained troops). To be fair, Empires government system is pretty basic in grand scheme of things, But it is still better then other Total War games since you have 3 different types and the people you have in your government positions have an impact on your Empire. Meanwhile in other total wars its just "give this character this officer for free bonuses". I personally wish they would bring back the little towns all over the regions, i get why they aren't their these days but it adds to immersion in my opinion. But if you can get past the Bugs and Bad AI, their is a FUN game to play all be it not very challenging. Edit: BTW the Battle Difficulty bonuses on harder difficulties (Very Hard in particular) are BULLSHIT!

[@a32oz]

I got back into Empire a couple months ago. I found a mod called Minor Factions Revenge and its great.

[@FaramirsRangers]

yeah lot of people like that one. I am about to revisit Imperial Splendor since they have new update

[@Lowenssohn]

I put in Darthmod shortly after buying the game and I have over 700 hrs. in the game with no end in sight. Your vids are entertaining and I love watching them. Nice Work!

[@pierce873]

Most people who say things are bad is because it’s Easter to say something is bad rather then good

[@pierce873]

I have seen the strangest thing ever recently in the game, all the small nations have taken over all of Western Europe and me Prussia has take the west of Europe and I’m baffled lol

[@TimmacTR]

Holy sh...

[@joshuapretorius7800]

When i got it many people said it's bad but i loved it was my first total war game also

[@hugoroldanmoncayo9813]

I hate when you have to defend a town but in the map the town is out of your range of deployment, I mean , the town is mine why I Can't deploy my forces "in" The town no outside. What is the point of star fortress if is too big to be defend or the Infanterie don't shot and the inside of the fort is empty. when you Siege a citie, you can only deploy from two sides,why? because to siege a place you have to surounding from all side And the last thing is you can only Knows from where the reiformen arrive when you Finish the deployment

[@FaramirsRangers]

Well the star forts design in this game is just not good for the mechanics of the game. This is why I think mapping earthworks that look like star forts would be better. And yes only deploying from 2 sides is strange if you got them surrounded in a siege.

[@deserted_eagle2551]

Empire is my favourite

So some major issues with Empire: * diplomacy is trash - all Total War games have bad diplomacy, even WH2, but Empire is among the worst - you can play Persia, and AI England will randomly declare on you and drop a full stack on you out of nowhere even if you trade and have positive relations. In most Total Wars only your neighbours backstab you - in Empire anti-player bias is no dumb, everyone with a navy will declare war on the player at random. * if I had a choice of Canister Shot + Fire By Rank or every other tech for free but never getting these two, I'd pick Canister Shot + Fire By Rank, and anyone with experience in the game will choose the same. That's not to same all other techs are completely useless, but two techs are so stupidly OP compared with everything else. * it's one of the least moddable Total War games * naval combat is the absolute worst, getting your ships to even aim at enemy is so frustrating that chainshot zigzag is somehow the only way to play them without wasting hours of your life - and the way economy works (trade ports worth so much more than province taxes) you can't just decide to ignore navies like in other games * if you fight fortress with artillery and make 2 breaks in the walls, game will goes to 0fps due to pathing issues - and since AI will build forts in every settlements by 1710, most battles are like that; not using artillery is just different painful pathing issues (at least this problem can be 100% solved by no-fort mods) * battles are slow, and that's fine for normal battles, but every now and then AI just refuses to engage and you waste so much time slowly advancing even if it's trivial. Native Americans are the worst offenders here. It's not challenging, just really damn tedious. * autoresolve will just screw you over, losing your army even when you have 5:1 advantage and would kill them to zero - that wasn't a big deal before when battles were fast, but now you have to waste a lot of your time on such boring trivial battles * there's very little diversity of playable factions - every European army is Line Inf + Canister Shot Art + Cav to chase routing units, with trivial bonuses. Ottomans and various non-playables (Pirates, Natives, Mughals) are a bit more interesting. * the game has a lot of stupid bugs, like all the problems with artillery limber/unlimber getting stuck a good share of the time There are some nice things about Empire, like: * it was definitely ambitious af * battles really depend on good tactics, unlike Rome 2 etc. where they're decided by unit stats - you can absolutely win with much weaker army just fine * unique era * the politics / population system is actually pretty decent once you get how it works But overall it's a weak game. Maybe another year or two of development and patches could have made it good (fixing pathing, diplomacy), but that did not happen.

[@FaramirsRangers]

Hey Tomasz! So lot to unpack with your comment but let me take a try. *diplomacy is trash- Yes Nations that are friendly will attack you dropping of a stack by way of navy this is very true. I fail to see how this is negative though in my mind. I like the challenge that it presents. Every time you border a nation they declare on you. It's not a big deal to me but this is really just preference some like it some don't. *Canister shot and fire by rank vs every tech- sure these are 2 great techs but canister shot vs quicklime is no match. I disagree with basically everything you make on this point and I think players who understand the game fully will as well. *fort battles lag- agree with you here *naval combat is worst- I think it is again a preference some will love it some will hate it. *battles are slow- sure especially when you sit back waiting for the ai so you can use canister shot. Attacking quickens the pace *auto resolve- yep it sucks don't do it unless you can afford the losses *little diversity in playable factions- I disagree here with you. Sure the Euro armies all have line inf but they can be used differently. Russia is all about melee attacks, Prussia is all about fire power and fire fights, Brits are all about their lights, Sweden is all about their cav, Austria is an aggressive players nations great for attacking with grenzers, France and UP are strong line nation armies with nice variety of strong units so on and so on. *the Bugs- yes the game has lots of bugs this has been over covered and everyone has covered this to death As for your last point that it is a weak game I disagree but I do agree that it could have used more development but this is what we got. I think it would make perfect sense to do a remaster of this game over any other. The player base in this game proves that it still has a good following. All in all you make great points and just because I disagree with you on some doesn't mean your wrong it just means I view the game differently from my experience. The points you make mostly have been covered by other youtubers. My point of the video is to give a different point of view coming from someone who has vast experience playing the game. I have grown tired of the copy and paste reviews of this game is all.

[@dillonclaborn795]

Bro ive been wating to play with you i have such a hard time with findinv people online i know it old but its one of the greatest game made and i would like if you post you playing dates so i can play with you promise im a veteran and a strategist ready to go love you bro and glad your still playing a game of greatness pure greatnesss total war needs to make a new they have no idea of how much they can make from historical gameplay or maybe they do either love you bro and i really do appreciate what you do

[@malepagamer7281]

i agree about the ai , new meaning to bottom of the pile .. maybe paradox can contribute to the ai strategy 🤣🤣

[@corngreaterthanwheat]

I liked Rome 2 (great game) but I LOVE Empire.

[@thetrussell0413]

Its the best game in the series. Let me tell you man, Ive been crunching some of your videos for fun... I bought Empire back on Easter of this year because I had covid and was bored. LOL I played Medieval Total War (1) since I was a little kid.... Like 13 or 14..... Im 27. Lmfaooo Played the F*CK outta that game. Never played another total war for a decade. Every complaint I ever had about Medieval 1, Empire fixed and then also went above and beyond. Empire is the best one in the series. Medieval II is probably just as good. But the time period of Empire is more interesting. It really is the true WWI

[@thetrussell0413]

But I bought Empire simply because it has the largest map. KZbin reviews are normally just made for clout. Hating gets more views than approving

[@golan586]

To be honest the battle AI is worse than I think you let on. The AI will constantly rearrange their lines and second guess themselves even if they have an insane numbers advantage they will often not be able to form a line to even use their numbers. Its really disappointing how poorly the AI preforms in battle. For me the battle AI makes it difficult to even care about the other fantastic features of the game like the map and diplomacy. Other than the combat aspect I think this is a terrific review and much more accurate than some of the "hype youtuber" reviews or "I hate everything" youtubers. If you have figured out how to fix this I would really want to know so I could enjoy the game.

[@FaramirsRangers]

oh no I completely agree the ai is brain dead. I think what I was trying to say is that what I have found that gives the ai some kind of chance (which isn't much) is to be aggressive against them and attack. The ai will start rushing to the action and slam their units at you which makes it at least a little tense at times. I have watched so many let's plays over the years where people just lay defense and sit still waiting for the ai to suicide on them. I have seen people corner camp with art blazing. By only bring one or two art and attacking it really puts your micro to the test. The battles definitely go much faster and more interesting as you try to maneuver them into envelopments. Now this might not be a style everyone finds fun but several people have watched my livestreams and have tried my style and like it, but like I said it's not for everyone.

[@KC-pt7tr]

I mean they want to complain they much about the game they should just use mods then like imperial splendor.

[@arnaudmahieu1162]

You made me play ETW again!

[@robertellwood8601]

Dude come on. You skirted over the diplomacy there too quickly. There's just no reason behind anything the ai does. You know that.

[@joshme3659]

Tbh i quite like the diplomacy so far, factions accept or sue for peace at points that seem reasonable and i especially like how changing government type effected the kinds of trade relationships i could get, having to renegotiate my alliances and trade relationships after becoming a republic was fun and challenging imo

[@thetotalwarsmaster]

I love empire, I hate shooter cav tho.

[@tonymccake3057]

Yep they're op in every TW game. Always more accurate than they ought to be and can mass volley fire. I do not think anyone who developed the game has ridden a horse, let alone fired then reloaded a carbine from one. They also do a great job of killing friendly units if you don't micro them, something the ai can do better.

[@lars9925]

I haven't watched the entire video yet (though I am going to), but I really disagree with your premise: You don't need to play 9.000 hours to be able to review a game properly and if you dislike it after 100 hours you will not start to like it after some hundred hours more. I am a big fan of Empire Total War, and I will probably agree with most of your points. In my opinion it’s one of the best games (if not the single best game) of the TW series. But I already knew that back in 2009, and I knew after just a few hours of playing that TW-Troy was one of the worst games.

[@FaramirsRangers]

I totally agree with you everyone has a right to put their opinions out there even if they only played 5 hours. The point I am trying to make is some of the things they point out is flat wrong and it is time to give etw a review from someone who knows the game a little more. So yes I agree you can play only a few hours and know if it is for you or not. I also think this game is not for everyone just as warhammer is not my cup of tea. I hope I did make that point in the video I can’t remember

[@JDothan]

Disagree, Troy was also fantastic. Empire/Napoleon and Troy are my favorites. Interesting how people can like/dislike so differently. I wonder if it is because Troy was my introduction to TW.

[@blakethegreatone2058]

Personally I think it's one of those things that if you play for a short amount of time then you won't get a really good feel for the game. For instance I'm playing mount and blade bannerlord right now. I'm sitting at just under 1000 hrs. If I made a video about it at 100 hours, my take would be vastly different than the one I have now. In saying that you can find loads of videos where the content creator has 100 or less hours in that game trying to make videos about how to play. If you follow them then you won't do nearly as well as you would taking the advice of someone with much more time.

[@kukolar87]

9k+ hours wow, and mé thinking mine 2k was a Lot, lol gg

[@FaramirsRangers]

It’s an addiction honestly lol

[@abbe2323]

Good job on the video on Empire

[@FaramirsRangers]

Thanks man!

[@augustsonseventy42]

Beautiful game. Best time period in history. Would have done better if vanilla version included more colony nations you could play as. The naval war early game is fun and beautiful but like all TW games turns into a stack fest. Happy summer and I enjoy the content. Also, mind doing a France play through where you go republicans and ditch all other territory but France? Then roleplay conquering Egypt? (Just give territory to Louisiana)

[@Telamonian]

I like empire these people are delusional, I think the province reboot system is pretty cool, I have 50 hours or so with darthmod

[@FaramirsRangers]

Yeah thing is most people I talk to like the province system. I remember the first time I played it was a bit of a shell shocker but I quickly grew to like it

[@Telamonian]

@@FaramirsRangers I was used to Rome 2 but I also like how empire did it, and the tech tree was done well, the fact you could trade technology via diplomacy is a game changer

[@FaramirsRangers]

@@Telamonian True and I will admit even though I don't want to to trading a region to the enemy that is about to capture said region for 10,000 lol.

[@nsawatchlistbait289]

Oh

[@duelinglectrics]

Get darth mod it’s much better then the base game I am still rocking as the thirteen colonies am in year 1830 I know empire total war inside and out for any wanting to know

[@FaramirsRangers]

For curiosity sake how many hours do you have in darthmod? Why do you like it better than vanilla?

[@duelinglectrics]

@@FaramirsRangers probably up around 500 or so hours in darth mod now I actually only recently got it to work I was playing a vanilla beyond mod which unlocked all factions . I like dark mod for the fact of the battle mechanics are extraordinary from the sounds of the cannon and the musket fire right to putting in the music from the last of the Mohicans and such . Portraits of characters are better and stability of being able to play minor nations in Darth Mod you’re able to play as new Spain or Louisiana or 13 colonies and a whole bunch of others pirates even . I spent probably over 2000 hours in regular vanilla though

[@FaramirsRangers]

@@duelinglectrics thanks for answering. Yeah I have probably played min 500 hrs into darthmod. I used to feel same as you did. I started out playing mods where the ai on campaign map was just nonexistent. When I switched to darthmod I thought man this is way more aggressive. I came to realize that many mods lose the campaign ai aggression and have to mod it back in to equal what vanillas is on very hard but I realized it never goes beyond what vanilla ai does. I think what darthmod is best at is the look and sound of the game. What it does not deliver at least for me is decent paced gameplay. Mods that increase a players income the ai is going to overcompensate for and spam armies. It just got to be a grinding slog that I fell out of love with. I do feel like the most of the players in etw are playing mods tho

[@duelinglectrics]

@@FaramirsRangers oh your certainly right it is a grind . They did increase income and army size and even the population happiness as well so you don’t have to garrison so many forces putting more forces back into the field and yeah the AI certainly do Spam armies. And it seems just the force is like a militia and stuff which maximize the amount of men in one army so you’ll go to invade Spain or France and they will have four armies of militia and each one of those armies is 6000 men put a little bit more strategic play into your invasions but I like to role play it . So I look at all of these invasions as a Vietnam or something lol

[@jakeand9020]

Your credentials mean YOU like Empire more than others, it means exactly NOTHING about you being "more qualified" than anyone who has played the game. Their less than a hundred hours could just mean they simply were not interested in putting in more, which means, subjectively (which any game review is) it was/is a bad game. I can sum up the major problem most total war fans have with Empire pretty easily. One, objectively the worst AI in TW history, eventually patched up to almost a comparable level. Considering TW's history with AI, that's quite an accomplishment. Two, lack of mod ability. Three, single region France, among other really poor region decisions. And finally it is so frustratingly close to being objectively the best Total War game. And no, I didn't watch the video, though I personally like Empire, I have exactly no interest what someone with that obnoxious elitist attitude has to say. Although I will note your name so I know to avoid your videos in the future.

[@FaramirsRangers]

Simple people usually look for simple minds best of luck

[@jakeand9020]

Lol, class without losing that elitist attitude, definitely the nicest way anyone has tried to insult me that I can remember. I'll watch a bit, at the least you've proven you can make me laugh.

[@FaramirsRangers]

@@jakeand9020 well elitist idk attitude definitely. Usually I go for silence is power but sometimes the attitude gets the win