OS - XP or Vista 32
Processor - Intel 2.4ghz or equivalent
RAM - 2GB (Vista) 1GB (XP)
GPU - 256MB Card, DirectX 9.0
HDD Space - 15GB
quote:
Empire: Total War is an upcoming 2009 real-time tactics and turn-based strategy computer game. Developed by the Creative Assembly and published by Sega, the game is scheduled for release in North America on 3 March 2009 and in Europe on 4 March.[2] Announced in August 2007,[4] Empire: Total War is the fifth installment in the Total War series, and focuses on the modern era period of the 1700s and 1800s.[5] The game follows a similar style of play as earlier Total War titles: players choose a contemporary faction and set out to ensure their faction's domination over the known world through military force, politics, diplomacy, espionage and economics. Although the campaign element of the game is turn-based, players can direct battles in real-time. Empire: Total War is the first game in the series to allow naval battles to be conducted in real-time.
quote:
Empire: Total War is focused on exploration, diplomacy, economics, the founding of colonies and ultimately conquest. The game is set in the early modern period, spanning from 1700 to the early 1800s,[5] allowing players to lead a variety of contemporary factions to dominate Europe, North Africa, the Americas and the Indies.[6] The player will use both complex strategies on the campaign map as well as command military forces in battles on both land and sea. As with previous Total War games, Empire: Total War consists of two broad areas of gameplay: a turn-based campaign map that allows the user to move armies across the globe, conduct diplomacy, trade and other tasks needed to run their faction, and a real-time battle mode that enables players to direct the course of any battles that take place.
quote:
Multiplayer comes in two forms in Empire: Total War. As with previous Total War titles, players can engage in real-time battles against each other either by creating the composition of their armies themselves or renacting historical battles. However, following a one-month delay of Empire: Total War in January 2009, the addition of a full campaign multiplayer mode was unveiled. The technology to create a multiplayer campaign game was not available in previous Total War games, and the extended development time allowed the Creative Assembly to implement the underlying technology for such a mode in Empire: Total War. The campaign multiplayer mode will first be tested in a two-player beta build, before eventually being made available in a post-release patch.
Factions: 15 Playable, 10 Announced, 50 in Game
France Spoiler:
quote:
France has had fifty years of military and administrative excellence under Louis XIV, the Sun King and his servants. They achieved this in spite of a backdrop of strife and rebellion sparked by France’s involvement in the Thirty Years War. Louis and his able ministers, Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin, were able to steer France away from the feudal struggles that hampered growth, and they created a centralised government where the King’s power is absolute.
In 1700, France is the pre-eminent power in Western Europe, with an unrivalled army, vast colonies and a King who is respected and feared by all, both at home and abroad. Few nations pose any real threat to his well-equipped armies and heavily fortified borders.
The French Bourbon dynasty is strong, even though Louis XIV is aging. There are sons and relations aplenty, with legitimate claims to many titles. To the south, the lack of a Hapsburg heir in Spain – and the feeble-mindedness of Charles II – means that a Bourbon could one day rule in Madrid. A course of action that brings this about has much to recommend it. Of course, not all offshoots of the Hapsburg line are weak as their Spanish cousins. The Austrian Habsburgs, and other European nations, may not be entirely willing to see a Frenchman or French nominee as King of Spain. No matter.
France is surrounded by possibilities, and beyond Europe there are other continents to conquer and colonise: New France in North America, and the riches of India. The untrustworthy British may have to be swept aside or crushed, but what is wrong with that?
Sweden Spoiler:
quote:
Sweden dominates Scandinavia and the Baltic, a Northern European empire that is the legacy of the incomparable warrior-king, Gustavus II Adolphus. Even though he died in battle at Luetzen in 1632, the army that he created helped Sweden profit from the seemingly endless religious struggles of the Thirty Years War. The nation emerged from that conflict immeasurably stronger in military terms, and able to invade its Baltic neighbours at will. This military power did, however, cost money and Swedish lives. Neither of these commodities is available in abundance, and the prudent stewardship has been necessary too. Charles XI, however, has left an impressive arsenal in place for his son, should he wish to take up the sword; and Charles XII has an obsessive interest in soldiering.
As the new century dawns, Sweden is a strong, aggressive state, surrounded by jealous rivals from whom she has taken territory in the last hundred years. To the east, the Russians would like unhindered access to the Baltic, and therefore Western Europe beyond. To the south, Poland-Lithuania wants its lost lands back. To the west, the other Scandinavian nations want independence or an end to Swedish domination of the Baltic.
In all these potential threats, however, lurk opportunities for those bold enough to seize the chance. Individually, Sweden’s rivals are not quite as threatening as they might appear: Russia is huge, that much is true, but incredibly backwards. There is no reason why the Baltic, as a Swedish “Mare Nostrum”, cannot become the basis of a new Northern, Protestant empire. Sweden’s armies are the equal of any in Europe, and her navy is not without resources and skill. With a home empire secured, who is to say that an overseas empire cannot be taken and held too?
The Ottoman Empire Spoiler:
quote:
The history of Europe over the last centuries can be seen as the history of the Ottoman Empire and a few annoying, small nations that thwarted Ottoman ambitions. Ottoman power is unmatched in its extent and grandeur, straddling the traditional trade route between Europe and Asia. The Ottomans also have power over the whole of the Mediterranean coast of North Africa.
This Turkish, Islamic empire supplanted the Orthodox Byzantine Empire in the 15th Century and since then it has had a continuing, if not always whole-hearted, ambition to expand further westwards into the heart of Europe. In living memory Turkish armies have reached the gates of Vienna, Austria, only to be turned back by the steadfast defenders. Turkish expansionism has always been a part of palace politics: when a Sultan has felt secure at home he has attacked Europe; when a Sultan has felt threatened by his Janissary military commanders, he has sent them to attack.
The Ottomans face challenges but within these are great opportunities. The army and navy look old fashioned compared to those of some states, but the soldiers of the Sultan are numerous indeed. Strategically, the Empire is in a potentially strong position: the Balkans are a natural bastion to defend Istanbul, and a possible springboard for conquest into central Europe. There may even be valuable allies to be found among Austria’s rivals: the authority of the Pope to stop his European flock making treaties with infidels is all but gone. Control of the Mediterranean would allow a Sultan to do as he please with the smaller European powers. And to the east, the route to India offers the chance of riches.
Great Britain Spoiler:
quote:
Great Britain is not a natural creation, but the marriage of separate kingdoms and peoples. The new nation has been through a century of unparalleled turbulence: an unwelcome joining of Scotland and England; religious strife; civil wars; an executed king; military dictatorship; a populist monarch restored; and the overthrow of a second king. Less than 15 years ago, the hated Catholic James II was forced into exile in the Glorious Revolution and a Protestant monarchy restored. A short, vicious war in Ireland put paid to any chance of a Catholic Stuart restoration. Nonetheless, the exiled James Stuart has sympathisers, the Jacobites, throughout Britain. Despite – or perhaps because of – this turbulent history, Britain is an engine driving the scientific and cultural advancement of northern Europe: turmoil fuels creativity.
As an island nation, Britons have always looked to, as Shakespeare puts it:
“…the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall, as a moat defensive to a house…”
Britain’s strength lies at sea, but in trade and colonisation as much as naval power. Trade taxes pay for the navy; the navy allows unhindered trade. The English Channel keeps the French at bay and, to a lesser extent, the Dutch. With Dutchman William III on the British throne, there is ambivalence in the traditional rivalry with the Netherlands!
The English and Scots like to think that they can sleep safe, that no foreign invader or tyranny need worry them. They are partly right, but only as long as there is no centralised Continental power. A nation that can unite the resources of Europe will surely crush the dream of Albion. This, then, is the fundamental aim of Britain: to side with the weak in Europe against the strong – and steal as many overseas possessions as possible while doing it!
United Provinces (aka The Netherlands) Spoiler:
quote:
The United Provinces are a Protestant stronghold in North-western Europe, a place where science, trade and freedom of thought have flourished since the Spanish were driven out in the last century. Having tamed their land and held back the sea, the Dutch have also embraced the sea and become the foremost naval power in the world. A mere generation ago, the Dutch navy sailed into the Thames and burned the English fleet at anchor: this kind of bravado and expertise is not quickly forgotten.
Dutch merchantmen range across the world’s oceans, and the wealth of the world passes through Dutch ports. Dutchmen can be found trading in the Indies, where they give the locals a run for their money, and the Caribbean. They are everywhere, in fact, where there is a profit to be made. Spanish claims to the New World and its trade are cheerfully ignored, as are Spanish threats. The Dutch have learned to live with Hapsburg threats hanging over their heads. Having beaten off brutal attempts to bring them to heel, the Dutch now have little love for Hapsburg-ruled Spain or Austria. A distant Catholic emperor holds no appeal for them. An expansionist France, on the other hand, does bear watching, and guarding against.
Other rivals close at hand are now less of a threat than they used to be. The British have been… tamed is too strong a word… brought to their senses by having a good, honest Dutchman on their throne. William III of Orange was an acceptable Protestant ruler for the British when they needed one. His presence has done much to calm relations, especially as the equally-mercantile British have designs on world trade that should rightfully be Dutch!
For the future, the Dutch have much to be hopeful about. They have a strong navy, and a tradition of victory. There is wealth aplenty in every corner of the world, if only the Dutch have the will to go and take it!
Russia Spoiler:
quote:
“Muscovy”, as its rulers have previously called it, is a sleeping giant, with age-old traditions and ways of doing things. Here, the feudal way of life has become so entrenched that the serfs are as tied to the land as cattle, and with almost as few rights. It is a vast, deeply conservative and religious country: Mother Russia and the Orthodox Church are the two pillars of national belief. The Tsar may be the father of his people, but by tradition and practice he is a stern parent. Ivan the Terrible was well named, and he has not been the only ruler with an iron will. Russia needs a strong hand controlling the “Third Rome”, the true home of Christianity (according to the Orthodox Church) after the fall of Byzantium.
Now, however, Russia is changing, awakening. It is beginning to look outwards, towards the best that the rest of the world has to offer in terms of ideas, culture and might. These things must be introduced carefully, to avoid the ills of free-thinking that beset some Western nations. When Russia does fully realise its strength, however, it will be formidable indeed. It has boundless resources to draw upon, and the steadfast courage of its people to bolster its armies. It can be a formidable foe, and a difficult one for an enemy to attack. One thing that Russia does have is endless space, and the lack of apparently defensible frontiers actually becomes a defence in itself. Invaders can be lured deep into the steppes, and left to the mercies of “General Winter” and Russia’s endless, empty lands.
To the west lies the wealth of Europe and access to the wider world through a port on the Baltic. That the troublesome Swedes are in the way is a bonus, for they will have to be crushed! To the south, there are fellow Slavs and Orthodox Christians in the Balkans to be incorporated into a Greater Russian empire. The infidel Turks have lands and wealth aplenty too, but possibly the strength to defend them.
And beyond, there is a wider world awaiting conquest by the sons of the Mother Russia.
Spain Spoiler:
quote:
The Spanish have a long been conquerors and colonisers in distant parts. Indeed, the Spanish and Portuguese signed a treaty in 1494 that neatly divided the world between themselves. The Spanish went conquering “for God, Spain and to get rich”. They succeeded, to a great degree, in all three aims.
Spain is a staunchly Catholic country, and the Church and the fearsome Spanish Inquisition still have their hold over men’s hearts. This partly explains why, for all its wealth, Spain is economically backward: the Church sees usury (money lending) as sinful. This may be so, but this lack of credit does not help the merchant classes. Economic growth is also not helped when it is beneath the dignity of any hidalgo gentleman to earn money or work. But a gentleman’s honour is worth defending and a nation’s glory is worth winning, so courage is not in short supply. Indeed, Spain is blessed with courageous men on both land and sea.
That Spain will need defending, and soon, is self-evident to many. Charles II, “El Hechizado” or “the Bewitched” is a feeble-minded and pathetic figure, a shadow of his Hapsburg ancestors, and childless. Spain has suffered from his weakness of mind and government, but Charles cannot live forever. When he dies, what forces will shape the destiny of the Empire? Will Spain once again face its Protestant rivals down? Will new there be a new generation of conquistadores to plant the Spanish flag on distant shores? His successor will have much to ponder, but a brave nation to lead back to greatness!
Prussia (aka Germany) Spoiler:
quote:
Prussia itself has only been “German” since the 13th Century, when the Teutonic Knights carved out a new Christian state on the Baltic coast. The present Kingdom of Prussia is a new state, the result of a union between the duchies of Brandenburg and Prussia, and it is a Kingdom only because the current ruler, Elector Frederick III has decided to improve his status to that of King! In doing so, however, he has been careful not to offend the Holy Roman Emperor, the Archduke of Austria, and calls himself the King “in” Prussia, not the King “of” Prussia. The form of words is a fig leaf: Frederick is King. And he is the king of a potentially powerful and influential Protestant nation, a centre of gravity within “the Germanies” for all those who would look elsewhere for a lead than Catholic Austria.
The Prussians believe – not without reason – that their virtues as a people can carry them through any trouble: martial discipline, sacrifice, a sense of order, but this sense of duty should not be confused with ignorance or intolerance, no matter what others may say. Prussians have always had to fight, but that has made them competent, not bloodthirsty. They have the potential to become a great continental power thanks to their martial traditions, many of which can be traced back to the Teutonic Knights. These could form the basis of a truly world-beating army. Under the right guidance, they could unite the German-speaking peoples into a single entity, dominate the Baltic and, perhaps, extend their reach far beyond the confines of Central Europe.
Poland-Lithuania Spoiler:
quote:
Poland is an old idea, and an old kingdom. Like anything old, it has old enmities and problems.
The problems, and enmities, are those of any state surrounded by ambitious rivals, all of whom are looking to become stronger at someone else’s expense. Sweden’s ambitions to create an empire around the Baltic; Tsar Peter’s desires to make Russia a great European power to rival the style of Bourbon France; the Austrians and Prussians each seeking to define a greater Germany and secure their borders; even the distant Ottomans have to be considered, should they ever launch a new assault on Christian Europe. And in the middle of all of this, a Polish-Lithuanian state that is not under the control of a single, strong ruler, a man who can impose his will to defend his people. Instead, Poland is something altogether stranger: a land where the people have a say in government.
That the country has survived at all is a tribute to the spirit of its people.
And yet, these rivalries could be turned to advantage. A Polish leader who picked his alliances carefully, and his wars equally so, could do much to make his country great. The Russians have no divine right to dominate the steppes, or the Swedes to control the Baltic. The various Germans states need allies, the same as other nations, and cannot expect to take anything they want without a struggle. A clever Polish leader could make much of this situation, if he can manage the hopes, expectations and fears of his people at home.
Austria
Spoiler:
quote:
The history of Austria is one of warfare against invaders from the east, and the infidel Turks in particular. The originally Duchy was the eastern marches of the Holy Roman Empire (the Ostmark), and the defensive importance of Austria to the rest of Europe is immense. For nearly 250 years, the Ottoman Turks have hurled themselves against the bastion of Austria, reaching the gates of Vienna on more than one occasion. The last time was in 1683. Austrian bravery has kept them at bay, every time.
After the bloodletting of the last century – the Thirty Years War – within the Holy Roman Empire, Austria is a leading power among “the Germanies”. Leopold I, the ruling Hapsburg, has brought peace and prosperity, and maintained a first-class military machine (in particular, the Austrians have mastered the tactics using light, irregular troops). This gives the Austrians the potential to become a truly great power, either within the borders of the old Empire, to the south in Italy, or to the east. This latter scheme requires the Turks to be persuaded – at sword point – that their destiny lies outside Europe. The Austrians also have much to be proud of in the arts, music and culture.
Beyond their immediate borders, there are other matters for the Hapsburgs to consider. The Spanish branch of the family is now close to extinction, as Charles II has failed to produce an heir, among his other problems. Perhaps Spain should remain a part of Hapsburg domains, but this might lead to confrontation with France. And then, of course, there are the pan-Slavic, Christian Orthodox ambitions of the Russian Tsar to consider…
Oh god so many factions I want to play. I'll go with Sweden first to be pretend vikings, then whoever annoys me more between Poland-Lithuania and Russia, then the Ottoman empire because they'll have awesome artillery, then Prussia, then probably Spain or the Netherlands.
They've said stuff about fixing the incredibly broken campaign AI, right? In M2TW it was completely unrelated to the military AI or something, which is why your closest ally would randomly blockade your ports for no reason. I also hope we don't have to deal with a bitchy pope (protestants fuck yeah).
They've said stuff about fixing the incredibly broken campaign AI, right? In M2TW it was completely unrelated to the military AI or something, which is why your closest ally would randomly blockade your ports for no reason. I also hope we don't have to deal with a bitchy pope (protestants fuck yeah).
Yeah they're fixing that. I can't wait to do a 1v1 multiplayer campaign.
FORGED IN BATTLE, EMBROILED IN WAR - BRITAIN SHALL RISE ONCE AGAIN. NONE SHALL BE CAPABLE OR WILLING TO WITHSTAND OUR ONSLAUGHT. HISTORY WILL BE WRITTEN BY AND ENGLISH HAND, NOT A FRENCH ONE. TO ARMS BROTHERS!
FORGED IN BATTLE, EMBROILED IN WAR - BRITAIN SHALL RISE ONCE AGAIN. NONE SHALL BE CAPABLE OR WILLING TO WITHSTAND OUR ONSLAUGHT. HISTORY WILL BE WRITTEN BY AND ENGLISH HAND, NOT A FRENCH ONE. TO ARMS BROTHERS!
01-28-2009, 07:20 PM
Lady Gaga on Wii
Lady Gaga on PSN
