This game was one of my first steam games ever. I wouldn't call it an work of art, but the huge campaign map, the beatiful (for it's time) textures and the textbook correct nations are absolutly wonderful. The variety of nations you can playas, from the OP island nation of Great Britain, to the rebelling colonists in the American theartre, and the Rebelling Maratha faction in India, this game's wide, unique and colorful blend of nations and maps are truly something worth buying this game. This is one of the best total war games out there, especially if you love 18th century history. Works perfectly with Dathmod. I highly recomend you play vanilla first, however, just to get the feeling of the great game you just bought. The battle AI could use some improvment though, other than that, great game Sega/ Total War!!!

"Your general is dead"
k rip thx

Oh yes, oh yes.
Now for my pros and cons list
Pros:
Lots of Units
Lots of Countries
Lots of Annexing
Lots of Capturing
Lots of British
Lots of India
Lots of Trade
Lots of Negotiating
Lots of Generals
Lots of Boats
Lots of Horses
Lots of cannons

Cons:
A lot of the countries, when trying to negotiate with them, are either big jerks or ♥♥♥♥ing stupid.
Ex:

Me
Offers:
All Tech
5000 Dollars
4 Regions
Indefinite Military Access
Access to Trade Routes
Demands:
Military Access: 5 turns

NPCs:
No

Took over the entire world with Russia.
10/10 Would create my own Soviet Union again

Love it! So much replayability, I'm still playing it compulsively years later :P

It's one of the best Rts games I've ever bought. Totally worth the $20

very good game, i would sincerely recommend this! some lag but easily fixed, Campaign map is awesome! AI is good, 9/10 stars!

Watching a line of infintry march down a field while cannon balls explode around them is awesome!

I've really enjoyed playing Empire: Total War.

It has the perfect balance between detail and size. Medieval II: Total War, for instance, has so much detail it's hard to look at.

But Empire is in that happy zone of size versus detail. It has great replay value, because of the level of gameplay details. At the same time, it doesn't get bogged down by virtue of being too detailed. This keeps the gameplay moving. I find it particularly refreshing in a Total War title, since I love playing them but get tired of the later-game level of nation management. In short, it doesn't drag you down with administrative tasks as the game gets into the later stages. You can keep conquering enemy nations, instead of keeping your nation afloat with never-ending building management, like in the original Medieval: Total War.

The level of advice in the game is perfect for newbies, or for players returning after a long hiatus. It really holds your hand and shows you the ropes, all without being too intrusive. After you've wrung all you can from the advice, you can turn it down or off.

The new battle mechanics of using largely gunpowder troops is a switch for Total War. Of course, previous titles were dominated by hand-to-hand combat with pikes, swords, and the like. Lining up blocks of infanty, by contrast, may get boring after a while since it has less detail. But that depends on the type of player you are.

Instead of concentrating all of a province's buildings in the region capital, there are now buildings spread throughout the province. For instance, farms, universities, and industrial buildings are spread throughout the province. This makes the game more interesting to look at, since it isn't a meaningless landscape dotted with region capitals. It also gives an added stragegic element to the game: you can pillage these buildings, and thus remove the benefits they provide the other nation. For instance, you can pillage a university and thus take it out of action. It then can't do research for the nation you're fighting. These buildings can be repaired for cash in one turn. But still it puts a monkey wrench in the works, especially if it's an advanced building which is expensive to repair.

The different strategic regions (Europe, The New World, India) feel very balanced. It's especially fun to be fighting in North America around the time range of the American Revolution. India feels very boring, since it's basically an inverted triangle. But still, it has a meaningful level of detail to it. It doesn't just feel like a sideshow, though you can ignore it if you wish.

I like that you can send trading ships, called Indiamen, to different places in the world to bring back valuable resources. So for instance, you can dispatch an Indiaman to the west coast of Africa to bring back ivory for your nation to sell to other nations. It's a good source of income, and I like the reliability and simplicity of it. It's a very nice touch.

Diplomacy has a good deal of detail. For instance, if you're allied to a nation, break your alliance with it and then attack it, you'll get a permanent negative rating with most of the nations of the world. They don't like treaty violators! It makes them think twice about engaging in any deals with you. So be careful who you ally with. Don't do it as a convenience which you intend to break 10 turns later. Additionally, there are "historical grievances" between different nations based on their actual history. So for instance, the United Provinces have historical grievances with Spain because of Spain's attempts to conquer the nation. It adds a nice amount of...landscape to diplomacy. It doesn't feel like you're all just a bunch of random nations dumped into an Earth-like arena with no background. It feels more like actual history.

Unfortunately, you can't play as the United States. I guess they thought that it would be impossible to make it into a meaningful power with any realism. Still, it would have been nice to try! So if you would like to have a part in American history, it will have to be secondary part. For instance, in my first campaign I was playing as Prussia and conquered Britain. This sparked the American Revolution by eliminating the Original Thirteen's rulers across the sea. So you can be involved, but only in a secondary way.

So if you like Total War games, and especially if you'd like one that moves a little faster than previous titles, give Empire: Total War a whirl!

I put a lot of hours into the game, and found a lot of it enjoyable. The battlefields are well designed and the animations of the troops on the field make the Total War series amazing. The road to independence was also really great due to the amount of historical content the game gave to the player. I would reccommend this game for people who like strategy, and games with large more thought process that the common shooter games.

Empire total war is like a sickly child (no offence to anyone who might have one). Of course, it's your baby and you love it, but it's just not... there, you know?
Empire, even to this day, lacks polish (not the country, dangit) and there are still some absolutely ridiculous undertakings by the AI, most of which we'll get to later. But how about the pros and cons of the Vanilla game, shall we?

PROS
-excellent representation of 18th century warfare
-the emergence of nations, such as Greece, USA and Scotland (among others) is interesting and mixes the campaign up
-you may now contest in 3 theatres: America, India and Europe
-The campaign map is pretty, has lots of cool features such as towns that magically spring out of the ground, and a realistic intercept feature, meaning you can't just trot by an enemy army without implications
-Graphics are still ok, despite it's age
-Naval battles are a very welcome introduction, and they're pulled of qute well.
-Interesting tech tree
-Fantastic new trading system on the campaign map

CONS
-Battle AI can be gamebreaking
-AI diplomacy is all over the place
-Melee combat is an absolute snoozefest, and infantry charging is all sorts of broken, glitchy and weird
-18th century warfare means little in unique units within the same culture. All european armies will end up looking the same, just as all native american armies are just as similar
-With so much emphasis on the navy and trade, naval battles can become very frequent and very repetitive, especially in local trade theatres and against pirates
-Autoresolving is broken. You can have a 1500 army come up against 80 rebel swordmen and lose 300 men. How?

If you do get this game, i highly recommend DarthMod. I'm not gonna bother with the links etc. but it's definately worth a look see. The battles in Empire are underwhelming, especially with the poor AI, decision making and lack of bloodthirsty action, but DarthMod does a great job at reparing a few glaring problems as well as adding new features not only to battles, but the campaign as well.

The broken AI means i give this game an overall 6/10. The campaign map is the best it's ever been, but in battle, it's lackluster.
With DarthMod however, this bumbs it up to 8/10 level. Makes battles and campaign far more engaging.