As people may have noticed I haven't continued my story. There is a very good (read: bad) reason for this! I got Napoleon Total War and have been playing it. Here are my thoughts on the game:
Overall -
Honestly there is very little that is actually what I would call 'new' from Empire: Total War. Everything is handled more or less the exact same way as far as building up your economy and army. The Battle UI is the same as well. There are some new unit type abilities (especially for generals), however I will touch on them later. Basically if you disliked Empire: Total War you will most likely dislike Napoleon: Total War, although I would suggest that find a friend with a copy that you can play just to be sure.
Why? Because while all the underlying fundamentals of the game they have been given a significant amount of polish. In some cases this is merely aesthetic (such as individual troops using different color hair and even hair styles) to some new abilities to tweaking of existing game mechanics to be either more realistic and/or fun. Honestly the game feels a bit less cumbersome to me, which is a good thing, even though it is fundamentally the same game.
Naval Battles -
I'll start out with the Naval Battles I think. Up front I will admit that I hate naval battles, and this is in no small part because I do not feel I am very good at them. More or less I feel like the only thing that determines who wins in a naval battle is who has the most (and largest) ships with no real room for any other factors that come into play.
There is one major addition to Naval battles, you can now do repairs in the middle of battle. I am not sure how realistic this is but it is a nice boon. It does take some time, and your ship cannot fight or move while making repairs, but this adds a little depth to the game since if you can get a heavily damaged ship away you can probably fix it up and have it rejoin the battle.
Unfortunately as far as I can tell there is still no reason to use anything other than solid shot. Grape Shot doesn't cause nearly enough casualties to justify its use. Chain shot, while somewhat more useful at long range than solid shot (if the enemy is at full sail!) doesn't break enemy rigging nearly fast enough to hamper their maneuvers significantly (this is a sore point with me because that was actually how the french navy worked! Long range cannon firing chain shot at rigging). Meanwhile solid shot will reduce the number of enemy cannon (making their offensive power much less), kill some crew, have a chance to de-mast the enemy, and is the fastest way to sink a ship in the first place. Wonder which I will pick.
Thankfully the game has really reduced the focus on naval combat, also removing the different theaters. Although I somewhat morn the loss of the different theaters and the trade routs you could set up I think ultimately it makes for a tighter, more focused game. Theaters ultimately seem like things that while the concept is very cool the extra burden it places on the game as a whole is significantly greater then the added fun you get out of them. In that respect taking them out is a good design decision.
Land Battles -
I have always loved land battles and they remain mostly unchanged as far as how they are fought. Given that the time period is the same as Empire: Total War this is unsurprising. The unit types are all the same and everything so there is very few surprises for how battles are fought.
One very nice addition is unit special abilities. I am still just starting out so I am not sure how many of these there are or how to use all of them, but they are very nice and seem to mostly involve generals. For example, a general may have the inspire ability that makes a unit fight more effectively for a time, or a rally button that rapidly replenishes the moral of nearby units. I have also seen artillery with the bombardment ability which temporarily increases their rate of fire.
AI has been improved and I don't see the computer running masses of troops head first into artillery that is firing canister shot anymore. The AI still is weaker than a person, but that is basically a given anyway, but the improved AI does make better attempts at fighting rationally.
Battles themselves have a much more atmospheric feel to them. When the camera is closer to artillery firing (or shells landing) it shakes. The sound effects are more impressive as well. There is one down side I can think of with this little mini-cinimatic that pops up from time to time when the game is trying to call your attention to specific events (like your general being in combat or troops routing). This thing is a bit annoying to me as it kind of ruins my immersion, but I expect that others will appreciate it.
Strategic Map -
As with battles the Strategic Map functions almost exactly the same way. That said a lot has gone into making it less clunky and streamlining the game as a whole. As an example, lets say you built a trade port but find yourself in a war and need a fleet. It is now possible to convert the trade port to a shipyard (for a price). You can do this same thing with other structures.
Replenishment of depleted units has been changed in a way that has its up sides and down sides. Now whenever your units are in your territories they will gradually replenish their losses. Doing so does not reduce their experience level (this is an upside) however it can take quite a while if they took heavy losses (a down side). Rate of replenishment can be sped up with certain structures and research, but sometimes I find myself wishing for the ability to just pay for a whole bunch of raw recruits just to fill out my ranks quickly. One major thing this means you need to consider is that you cannot replenish in hostile territory, a very realistic change. Add to this that your forces will suffer attrition while experiencing harsh conditions and you have a strategic map that has become even more dynamic and important to pay attention to.
Currently AI controlled players have an annoying habit of having clusters of 1-3 units running around independently in all directions which is frustrating and I hope gets fixed. To their credit these units will link up with each other if given the chance, however this doesn't change the fact that fighting tiny battles between 2-4 units is boring as hell. Yes such raids may be realistic but I think this is one area where you need to take a look at what is fun more than what is realistic.
One interesting aspect I have not had time to investigate is multi-player campaigns. I am not sure who has time to play a whole campaign in multi-player but the idea is quite tempting.
Historical Campaigns/Battles -
Unfortunately these have to be unlocked. On the Historical Campaign side this is really frustrating as the first 3 are really just tutorials and I feel it should be possible to skip them all. That said the Historical Campaigns are very nicely done and give you objectives that direct your actions to accomplish what Napoleon did with his career, although most objectives are technically optional.
Historical battles I was really upset that you have to unlock them in order. The battles themselves are very challenging and fun, however I dislike that I need to fight my way through several different fights in order to unlock the Battle of Austerlitz. On the one hand I understand why they may wish for you to follow the famous battles in order, and especially start with smaller ones before more difficult encounters, however it seems like an easier way to do this would have them all unlocked and be given a difficulty rating. That way you can play in any order you like, but also have the opportunity to play them in order of difficulty.
Drop In Battles -
This is probably the best aspect of the game. Effectively it lets you play in the place of the AI in someone's campaign (or lets them do the same for you). This option is not ALWAYS available since there needs to be some sort of parity of forces, but it is a wonderful addition. Honestly I think this is probably the best addition to the game that has been made since Rome: Total War implemented more realistic army movement over the campaign map.
