Previous threads: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1118933-total-war-discussion/, http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1180016-total-war-discussion-2/, http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1305493-total-war-discussion-3/, http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1366074-total-war-discussion-4/

I can also provide some useful links to the Total War games series as well and here can you find more news about modding.

http://forums.totalwar.com/

• http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/124-The-Medieval-Total-War-and-Viking-Invasion-FAQ
  
• http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/118-Frequently-Asked-Questions-amp-Game-Fixes
  
• http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/119-Frequently-Asked-Questions-and-Game-Fixes
  
• http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/46-A-guide-to-the-guides-%28Empire-Total-War%29
  
• http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/263-Guide-to-the-Guides-%28Napoleon-Total-War%29

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php

• http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=735
  
• http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=736
  
• http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1549
  
• http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?p=9871125#post9871125
  
• http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Released_Mods
  
• http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downloads.php

http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Main_Page

• http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Modding_Portal
  
• http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=734
  
• http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Released_Mods
  
• http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=483527
  
• http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=92488
  
• http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=477691
  
• http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=477898
  
• http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=443435

Gameplay and strategy for each game

• http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=25
  
• http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=406671
  
• http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1448
  
• http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=136409
  
• http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1695

I'll update the OP if anyone want to have a list of mod recommendations or solutions of troubleshooting in the OP.

Mod recommendations


DarkOneVenzar has a tool for managing your Medieval2TW mods. Thanks for sharing this M2TW-mod tool.


How to install mods on Steam versions

Since http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1305493-total-war-discussion-3/page__view__findpost__p__19788436 I realize that were no such list of Steam version games in the OP, but below they are listed and let me know if there is something to add or correct that game list.


Retail Version

• Medieval TW
  
• Medieval 2 TW
  
• Rome TW
  
• Shogun TW

Steam Version

• Empire TW
  
• Napoleon TW
  
• Shogun 2 TW

Please note that most retail games is also available on Steam except for Shogun TW and probably Medieval TW, because the older titles was development with either DX7 or DX8 for Windows 95/98 when they were released in the 90's.

About the debate of real-time vs. strategy, I think Total War real-time battles are superior to any other RTS... maybe the campaign map mode is a bit too simple economically...I dunno However the strategy aspect IS very good IMO, especially in later games where a province has a major city as well as several smaller locations like ports, towns and special buildings like universities thus you have to distribute your units carefully in order to protect them (Napoleon did this best...Napoleon did a lot of things best ). It's a very nice series from almost every aspect (though some installments could work on historical accuracy).

I actually didn't like that much. To me it felt like just another step towards making the campaign map more and more RTS-like instead of turn-based.

The campaign modes in the later games (Empire, Napoleon, and Shogun 2) generally didn't hold my interest as much as in the older games. I think I only put around 80 hours into Empire and Napoleon's campaign modes, and even less into the Shogun 2 campaign mode. By comparison, I put well over 1000 hours into Medieval 1, and a good 200 or so hours into both Rome and Medieval 2.

This, very much. Medieval II is very bad at this. For example, Portugal shouldn't have been a faction at all, the Holy Roman Empire and Byzantium were way larger at that time, Sicily was owned by Muslims (I think), there are too few Pagan states, and finally I'm unsure whether Egypt was still a realm at that time.

I really like the way assets on the map are spread around the province rather than concentrated into one city, as was the case with Rome and Medieval. It forced you to protect your borders rather than your cities, otherwise enemies would run around your provinces destroying your factories and other various assets. It could also allow you to deal damage to an enemy even if they have a really strong garrison guarding the city. I don't quite understand how it makes things less turn based.

I agree with you that the campaigns of the later games (Empire, Napoleon and Shogun 2) are less compelling than Rome or Medieval. Theres also a lot less modding support for the later games and since I never play vanilla thats important to me. The vanilla maps of Rome and Medieval 2 are really small in my opinion and having a mod that expands it and adds more factions is a must have for me. It was ridiculous that in Empire, France was represented by one city.


Yeah, another reason to get mods.

I've come to realize that which installment one likes best largely depends on which sort of weapons and tactics one prefers. Personally, I was draw in by the Napoleonic warfare, and really liked using cannons to bombard enemies as well as sending out sniper troops to thin out enemy lines and occasionally making cavalry lightning strikes.
All in all, a lot of battles in Napoleon felt like deadly chess games, and they were usually long and drawn out, sometimes with both sides fearing to make a move. The motto was often "Hard pounding gentlemen. Let's see who pounds the longest." This is in stark contrast to games that are set in earlier eras where one tends to hurl their forces into combat because a disorganized melee will eventually form no matter what. Maybe it's just me but Napoleon really hit the spot, interestingly Empire remains my least favorite installment even though one can argue it's similar to Napoleon.

Is napoleon worth buying?

Yes.

No.

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/21076150.jpg

A matter of personal taste, as you can see. If you don't mind being squashed to the confines of Europe, then I say go for it. Technically, it's an overall improvement over Empire, though I still prefer the latter.

Yeah it is personal taste. I don't enjoy muskets, cannon, the time period, I just never enjoyed playing the map and battles. It felt to different to the older TW games I love.

How's the atmosphere?. For example in barbarian invasion I felt like the world was turned against me (I was the western empire) So I kept fighting until I held only Rome.

Depends. If you play France you will have a lot of enemies. I always played Britain though and it felt like I was actually part of a team effort to take down France, which was nice.

If you like post modern warfare then it's worth buying Napoleon.

I find Napoleon to advanced for my taste and I had a hard time to get into the game, but if you compare Empire vs Napoleon then Empire wins in almost every aspect I mean how advanced is it and how much time will you need to spend before you start a play a campaign without getting bored. TBH after a while I simple gave up trying to start a campaign in Napoleon and actually play a few seasons just so that I could play without thinking to hard.

I think you mean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_modern_period warfare, not http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism.

No because the warfare tactics in the 19th century was in use in the beginning of the 20th century (it feels strange to mention a century between 1800-99 as the 19th century because we in Scandinavia mean the actual century in both writing, speaking).

If you're saying that Napoleonic warfare was very different from that of the actual early modern era than I agree, but the use of the term post modern is still very wrong. Everything from 1800 to the present is usually referred to as simply modern, or contemporary history. Post-modernism is a philosophical concept, not a time period.

Whatever you know what I mean don't you.

I really wanted to like Napoleon and Empire, I just could never get into them. I don't know entierly what keeps me from liking it, something about the campaign map and battle tactics I think. Not really a fan of the timeperiod. The only feature I loved in Empire and played a lot was the naval battles.

Certainly, I just can't abide the incorrect use of such very specific terms.

I hope Rome: TW 2 let's you play naval battles. For them to be good though, they need to allow for more tactical options. And for that, they need to badly update the battle-map landscape/terrain generation.

Are they actually going to be making RTW 2 next?

Just my youthful optimism however, it wouldn't surprise me, especially with how many mods are still being made for it, not to mention Shogun and Medieval have already seen "sequels". Why not Rome right?

But still, some upgrade to tactical and strategical options would be nice.

Yeah Rome TW definitely needs to be updated imo, because the game engine is quite old by now and there is the memory bug which prevent any relevant data to be correct displayed in-game.