Empire: Total War Team Q&A
With Empire: Total War currently flying off shelves around the world, we spoke to several members of the team to get their thoughts on the game and spill the beans on their winning tactics!
Can you please introduce yourself and tell us about your role on Empire: Total War?
Mike Brunton – My name is Mike Brunton and I think my current job title is Head Writer and Senior Designer, but who can say? According to some the words “paranoid” and “curmudgeon” may appear in there as well, but I say in reply: who are these little bastards, and why are they following me around? 
I think I’ve written quite a lot of the words on Empire: Total War, or did I? Perhaps some of the historical content, whimsy and the occasional humorous asides in the game would, if dusted for prints CSI-style, lead back to me.
Lee Cowen – I’ve been at CA 10 years in May. So I’m a veteran of the company having been on the 2001 Rugby World Cup game, followed by the PS2 version and then onto Rome: Total War where I was the campaign map guy. Following this was Barbarian Invasion and Alexander and now Empire: Total War.
On Empire: Total War I’m part of the battle team responsible for all the naval combat that is the cannon fire, the crew and the ship locomotion. My other main job was the battlefield buildings. Getting them from our 3d modeling app onto the terrain and creating the internal structure logic of the building.
Jerome Grasdyke – Hi all, my name is Jerome Grasdyke and I’m the lead programmer on Empire.
Kevin McDowell: Hi all, I’m Kevin McDowell, Lead Artist on Empire TW. I co-ordinate and manage the art team and supply art direction.
Tom Pickard – Hi, I’m Tom Pickard and I’ve been on the total war team since the summer of 2006. I’ve been working on the campaign map primarily since I arrived and have been involved in most stages of its development over the past 2 and a half years. I am a big Total war fan so as you can imagine landing a job on the TW team and having to not mention a thing about it for 2 years till it was announced to the public was pretty hard…
Pawel Wojs – My name is Pawel Wojs and I’m an artist on Empire.
James Buckle – I’m James Buckle, Senior Tester and Internal Support Lead on Empire. I walk around QA and whip the testers with a cat if they’re bug count gets too low. Sometimes, between whippings, I like to drink a nice cup of tea and play the game.
Mark O’Connell: I’m the PR and Online Manager for Empire: Total War and have been with the Creative Assembly since September 2006. Some of my responsibilities include press and community events around the world, running our websites, speaking to our lovely community and spreading the word about all things Total War. I also did quite a good job on the company Christmas tree last December!
Which part of the game are you most proud of?
Mike Brunton – I’m quite chuffed I managed to use the words “genuphobe”, “tympanitic”, “air loom”, “jugs” and “pie-shop hussar”. Actually, I’d like to see “Pie-Shop Hussar” on promo T-shirts – maybe I should ask… I’m also quite pleased that the original tech tree, buildings and army lists from my early drafts of years ago survived reasonably intact into the published game. Quite a lot of the development process ends up developing stuff out of existence as needs and targets change, but in this case it looks like the first stabs were going in mostly the right direction. They’ve been extended, tweaked and polished since by many hands (some of them under the conscious control of their owners!), but that’s the nature of development.
Lee Cowen – The gameplay involved with making the naval battles fun to play. It’s not everyone cup of tea but the demo seems to have gone down really well in the community
Jerome Grasdyke – Whoa, where to begin? Empire’s such a rich and varied game that it’s really quite hard to pick a favourite feature… I guess I’d have to go for the new campaign map, which I think has worked out really well. It gives the artists a lot more control over the look of the map, and they’ve definitely made great use of it in places like India and the Caribbean.
Kevin McDowell: The new campaign map is a really big step up from what we have had in the past. The ships are wicked too.
Tom Pickard – On a Personal level, I’ve been involved with the campaign map pretty much from the start, when I arrived the concepts we’re done and the project approved so it was a case of getting down to it. It being a massive aspect of the game to work on and have a chance to influence the direction of the campaign map as we move into a non tile based design was a great experience.
The campaign map for at least a year and a half was somewhat of a minefield of new features and experimental tech, a lot of new coders and new ideas mixed with a now un-tiled handmade map, made in 3d Max(…. that one took a while ) this map would drive the path finding and was originally meant to be the graphical side of things too, however with some rather frank admissions that this would be unworkable as both sides of the map, the wonderful graphics programmers worked their butts off to make me a more usable system that would give us (well me and Ben the other artist working on the map) greater control of the graphical side of the map. The campaign programming team on the other hand we’re using my max map to the fullest, as we started to create something that looked so unbelievably complex just so you the player would get a continuous experience across the world. Over the Last 6 months and many late nights we’ve all brought this together and polished it to be the largest TW map and something I hope all the players spend many, many months looking at.
Pawel Wojs – Literally every aspect, the game as a whole. I’ve seen it grow for the past 3 years, having played it to death, I still can’t get enough of it, and I’ll be playing it compulsively for a long time to come.
James Buckle – It’s hard to pick out any one feature, it’s just a big pile of awesome. But I think the naval battles really stand out. Few games have tried it and fewer have made it work. We’ve managed to capture the essence of naval warfare and make it fun on our first attempt. Building your first 1st Rate, sending it into battle and seeing it blow the crap out of an enemy ship with a single broadside is a really satisfying moment. Having said ship attempt to board a pirate galleon only to be repelled, set on fire and blown in two by its powder magazine is a little less satisfying. Damn those pirates and their wily pirateness.
Mark O’Connell: I love the entire game and it’s been an honour and a privilege to work with the talented team that created it. That said, I am particularly excited with what has been achieved with naval battles. I still can’t help but be impressed with the level of detail and depth of the new mode, which stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the other modes in the game. It’s also a lot of fun when a well-placed shot causes your opponents ship to blow up!
What is your favourite faction to play as and why?
Mike Brunton – I’m going to be dull and say the British, but that’s only because I know where to find Britain on a map, mostly. My grasp of geography south of Doncaster is a little vague. It’s a wonder that I ever find the CA office some days.
Lee Cowen – I’m currently playing Road to Independence Episode 3, so I have to say America. I’m very much into US history and politics anyway and our game fits perfectly into that. It’s good that we went ahead with RTI as it really helps with learning the mechanics of campaign map. As I was the campaign map coder on Rome and have had little to do with that side of the game this time around, it’s interesting to compare the differences. There is so much more to it now, it’s scope is massive in comparison. Rome’s campaign map was much smaller. Basically it was myself full time, plus 2 or 3 other programmers.
Jerome Grasdyke - Usually I play as the United Provinces. It’s a good challenge since you start with few territories, but you’ve got money, some targets close by and a presence in all three theatres. I like the Ottomans as well as they’ve got quite a few colourful units which are fun to experiment with.
Kevin McDowell: Sweden’s fun, you’re in your own little corner, and there are lots of different ways to break out of it…you play a land or sea game, it’s up to you.
Tom Pickard - Well… I do love playing Prussia as a faction, but when I had a campaign where I allied myself with Austria and invaded Poland and France in swift powerful moves before I was stopped as I marched towards Moscow…. sounded a little too familiar for me… So then I played as Sweden and found them to suit my style of warfare, controlling the Baltic and invading Russia (sorry Russia I seem to pick on you whenever I’m an eastern/Northern European faction) Struggling with my economy until I secured enough trade deals and regions I’d captured became well enough behaved to tax properly. Before sweeping through Denmark into the thick of Europe’s elite armies. I’m going to plug for Sweden with Prussia a close second…
Pawel Wojs – The Ottomans! Out of all the factions I’ve played they are pretty much the toughest on the highest difficulty settings, I challenge anyone to play as the Ottomans, without saving and reloading when everything goes wrong.
James Buckle – That’s a tough one, I’ve had a good run on all of them and each one is a different playing experience. I’ll probably go with the United Provinces. You have a foothold in both the American and Indian theatres right from the start, bringing in lots of trade. Your home region is sat next Westphalia, Bavaria and Hannover, so you have lots of minor factions to stomp on. Of course, it’s not all roses, if you pick on the wrong little guy and he’s allied to one of the heavyweights you’re in trouble. France and the UK are right next to you. Pick a fight with them and they will raid your trade routes, blockade your ports and generally ruin your day.
Mark O’Connell: I have probably spent the most time with the British. Being an island nation they are pretty well protected in the early game and you can work on establishing a foothold in the United States. They also have an excellent navy, which is ideal for suppressing pirates and setting up trade routes abroad. I have also really enjoyed playing as the Marathas because of their unique units and setting as well as the United Provinces when I fancy a challenge!
Have you got any tips or winning tactics that you’d like to share?
Mike Brunton – Don’t spend all your money. Keep up with the Joneses (as it were) with tech research. And never, ever, do what I did (repeatedly) and put your immovable saker cannons in a spot where they can’t hit anything. That’s really stupid, I can tell you. And remember to go fish mining - no, hang on, that’s in one of those MMORPGs, isn’t it?
Lee Cowen – Keep your ship’s in formation or you’ll end up micromanaging every single ship. Cross the enemy’s line if their sails are up and chain shot them.
Jerome Grasdyke – At the risk of stating the obvious I tend to pile in with superior forces – my victories are mostly won on the campaign map before I even get around to fighting the battles. That does mean actually paying attention to diplomacy in this game though.
Kevin McDowell: No. Loose lips sink ships.
Tom Pickard – Strong Allies, Aggression, and knowing when to run away and save your troops. Also one of my weaker aspects is my economy, most of my wars become bloated and once a campaign is completed I have to slash army numbers just to balance books… Not good when you’ve just declared war on France and its allies, and failed to take Paris.
Pawel Wojs – Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of melee, even in this period and especially if you have elephants in your army :p. Play RTI even if you’re a total war vet, you won’t be disappointed! Also build up a strong economy, and protect your trade routes at all cost!
James Buckle – Some of the tactics I used in the previous games don’t work in Empire as it’s a different kind of warfare, but most of them can be adapted. One that still works and is as old as the hills, is to stack units on one flank and then wrap around the enemy line. The cross fire it creates will ripe the enemy units to pieces. Unfortunately, this tactic tends to fall on its face when the enemy has greater infantry numbers.
I leave you to figure out how to get around that problem.
A sneaky tactic I sometimes use is to attack the flanks with galloper artillery. I hide them in the woods to the side and wait for the enemy to line up, once they begin firing, pop up on their flank and fire straight down the line. The effect can be devastating, whole rows of men get wiped out by canon fire. If you can get it in close, hit them with canister shot, it’s brutal. Be aware of their cavalry units, they will often be floating around on their flanks and, if ignored, will quickly obliterate your artillery and with them any chance for victory.
The new naval battles gave me a headache for a while, it’s a new aspect of the game so I couldn’t adapt old tactics in the way I did for the land battles. This took a quiet a while. A great tactic when you’re outnumbered by smaller ships, which happens a lot with all the pirates around the place, is to sail away from them in a zig-zag. As they follow you, turn into them and fire chain shot at their sails, then turn away and reload. With their sails torn to pieces they will fall away. Keep this up and as each ship is immobilized it will be left behind by the chasing pack until you have a whole fleet of strung out and disabled ships. You can now turn around, park out of range of their guns and shred them with round and grape shot until they surrender and leave you with a tidy little prize.
Mark O’Connell: In naval battles, set a couple of your ships up sideways in the deployment phase. Then unleash a devastating assault of chain shot as your enemies move into attack. It’ll leave them sitting ducks in the water as their masts come crashing down into the sea. Then you can maneuver your fleet to catch them in deadly crossfire of round and grapeshot. Here’s another tip – select any unit during land battles and press the ‘Insert’ key. It’s awesome.
Finally, do you have any messages for our community?
Mike Brunton – Thanks for being so informative and enthusiastic/keen/mad for it/vaguely threatening (delete as appropriate) in your posts over the years. Now go and enjoy yourselves playing the game!
Lee Cowen – This is one of the largest games ever written, with massive scope, so bear with us if you have any issues, we always consider your comments. Just enjoy what’s great about the game.
Jerome Grasdyke – Just to remember to take it easy, and enjoy conquering the world (again). And also, that Total War would not have become what it is without their enthusiasm and support.
Kevin McDowell: Have fun! Try playing different nations. There are lots of different play styles available.
Tom Pickard – First, I hope you enjoy, and I hope it’s as much fun for you guys to play it as it has been to make.
I’d also like to take this to address a one of the things I’ve seen repeated on the forums (see we do read them 
) The areas we covered (or the areas we left off the map): I understand many people’s frustrations at not seeing their country/faction, or not seeing all of say Siberia or china or Australia to capture, but the map is massive, it is truly giant on so many levels and it took lots of designers and many art/coders/producers months of wrangling to decide which areas should make the first draft of the campaign map, This was based on so many deciding factors, and then it took a year or so after to slim it down to a size that was both manageable and fun, and most importantly the gameplay /style/loading times/so many other things was vastly improved because of the time we we’re able to spend polishing the (vast) areas we ended up focusing on. Also If we gave you the world what would the fantastic TWMod community do
Pawel Wojs – Enjoy! We’ll look forward to your feedback, in the forums.
James Buckle – See if you can find the kittens.
Mark O’Connell: I would like to personally thank each and every one of you for your feedback and support throughout the duration of the project. We have a lot more planned in the coming months so stay tuned to www.totalwar.com for the latest information. Oh, and thanks for reading!
Comment # 2
Hi I like the way I can play Britain and not get invaded by the ai. Who’s idea was that? It makes me feel snug..
Posted by David Shaw on March 24th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Comment # 3
i’ve come across a polish rake in the game that goes by the name pawel wojs…hehe
Posted by mark on March 24th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Comment # 4
Yey, winning tactics… wait? the AI is stupid and the game crashes all the time, where should i apply this tactic?
Posted by sensei on March 24th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Comment # 5
I have a few questions on gameplay:
1. Can the player colonize any of the open regions not populated by another?
2. Can the player switch followers from one AI official to another? (book says YES)
3. Can you see specifications on brigadiers & captians so as to pick Generals & Admirals
more wisely?
4. Can you see ALL replacements on cabinet members so as to pick wisely too?
5. If the answer to #1 is NO, could you impliment scouts as to colonize these regions?
6. Pioneers or Scouts would be a very good addition to the AI people list if they could do
what was listed in #1 & #5
Jim Berg, Sr.
Posted by FAdmiral on March 24th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Comment # 6
Sometimes on the campaign map, when I select a naval port, my game freezes and tells me I’ve encountered an error. Is there any way this can be fixed?
-Jay
Posted by Jay on March 24th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Comment # 7
“Mark O’Connell: I have probably spent the most time with the British. Being an island nation they are pretty well protected in the early game”
Thats true, but i would say that they are really well protected since AI cant do naval invasions not even in the late game and thats makes this game really boring.
Posted by Steve Jones on March 24th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Comment # 8
Team ETW! Great tips!Thank you for an awesome scope of a game in a brilliant period to battle in. Such a shame I’ve had problems with Steam, initially – then graphics and game flow – at the end of the day a new PC is needed but I’ll struggle on with my recent 1gb RAM upgrade and new graphics card – staying focussed on the intentions and apsirations of the game – this game is so deserved of No1. Needed to work so I’m still in 1705 as Britain – but I’m growing my fleets – chainshot? Lurvli idea.
Now where are those kittens?
Posted by ShoguntoRome on March 25th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Comment # 9
Hi, nice interview! Couldn´t help but noticing that you seem to like Sweden as a faction, I have a few questions about your historical research and thoughts about sweden as a faction. I am studying history and are researching an angle through ETW. Please indulge me.
Yours truly
Vidar
Posted by Vidar Ersare on March 25th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Comment # 10
The game still crashes when combining units.
Posted by Tony on March 26th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Comment # 11
My copy of the game crashes every time I fight with the pirates after about 1720. I have read that there are patches out but have been unable to find them. Any suggestions?
Posted by Charles Swensen on March 27th, 2009 at 1:10 am
Comment # 12
I am having problems. I have played for a couple of hours in the Grand Campaign. on the last two sessions I have recieved an error during the AI turn that crases me back to Windows. The error says there is some problem with a program?
Has anyone else experienced this. Once it happens I can’t get past that turn. If I reload I get the same error at the same place.
help please
Posted by Jeffrey Zimmie on March 27th, 2009 at 4:10 am
Comment # 13
so when you do guys plan to fix the constant crashing problems throught out the game??? im a long time fan of this series and i gotta say im dissapointed the game crashs atleast 3 times a day.
Posted by matt on March 27th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Comment # 14
Why could you let us play as one of the Italian City States such as Rome or Genoa??? I am not buying this game because i cant connect culturally with any of the playable factions… Italian-Americans and Italian-Canadians are probably thinking the same thing…plus allow us the play as these city-states in a future update and then I will buy your game.
Posted by justin on March 27th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Comment # 15
install the game properly thn go to play it and the screen goes white an wont let me play any ideas?
Posted by tails on March 28th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Comment # 16
My birthday is on March 30th… and i know what i want (only)… Of course empire total war, so bigger and better than age of empires… you can’t compare!
You guys did a very good work in this game!
I love it! Best game ever!
Posted by Francisco (Portugal) on March 28th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Comment # 17
Dear All,
I received EMPIRE: Special Forces Edition on pre-order and have really enjoyed it, and it is the best Total War product yet, and I have played them all. However, although we have a high spec Dell computer (Intel Quad Core Q9450 2.66Mhz, 4Gb RAM, 2X500GB HD, Creative X-Fi Sound, NVidia GeForce 9800 GX2 Video processor and Windows Vista Ultimate) I have got to 1767 in the Grande Campaign in the game, and can’t get beyond that because the game keeps crashing at that point? Any thoughts or advice would be welcome?
Many thanks
David
Posted by David Lambert on March 28th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Comment # 18
All bugs do not seem to be out of game yet. A couple of problems I have encountered are:
1 When I click on the TRADE tab on the empire overview –my computer crashes. Every time!
2 One time when a spanish fleet attacked one of my ships in the atlantic on the north american map–my computer crashed!
I have not experienced any other major problems so I’m led to believe they may be issues with the programing. Can you advise?
Thank you
Posted by Mike Scamacca on March 28th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Comment # 19
hi and cheers for all the updates ,
I have one question that is puzzling me: the campaign map crash is pretty annoying i mean i play for Prussia for example and as i conquer Russia and gain like my 45 territory the campaign map collapse. On another note the battles are brilliant both naval and land even though i would like to see more blood in the land battles.
cheers and have a great week ,
Tal Von Roth
Posted by Von Roth on March 28th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Comment # 20
I was wondering if you could give factions the option to convert to a different religion in future patches, it would be so funny if the turks were to convert to greek orthodox christianity.
Also, you know since the populace may not be of your religion here is an idea i think you should implement.
Lets say you were playing as france in empire total war, and the town of marsielle was 90% catholic and 10% jewish (please include judasium as a religion as it was graudully tolerated in 18th century europe all except from russia and the polish-lithuanian commonwealth because of the pogroms “pale of settlement”). You could click the button which says force conversion in city management. That button is self-explanatory, it would inform the religous minority to embrace catholisicm. If they refuse then those people would be executed.
Posted by It's a good idea on March 28th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Comment # 21
I was wondering if you could give factions the option to convert to a different religion in a future patch, it would be so funny if the turks were to convert to greek orthodox christianity.
Also, you know since the populace may not be of your religion here is an idea i think you should implement.
Lets say you were playing as france in empire total war, and the town of marsielle was 90% catholic and 10% jewish (please include judasium as a religion as it was graudully tolerated in 18th century europe all except from russia and the polish-lithuanian commonwealth because of the pale of settlement). You could click the button which says force conversion in city management. That button is self-explanatory, it would inform the religous minority to embrace catholisicm (or any other religion you want them to embrace). If they refuse then those people would be executed, thus resulting in a 100% of the city’s population being of your desired religion either way.
Posted by It's a good idea on March 28th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Comment # 22
Ever since the new patch for empire total war it crashes after battles, not everytime but 8 out 10 times, Im not the only one, my friends ae having the same problem, what can we or you do about this?
Posted by Neil Hall on March 29th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Comment # 23
Not the right forum but i have to ask, when are you going to fix the problem with “insufficient video memory” My game crasch after a few turns when loading a battle, i have 4gb RAM and 512 ram video card a ATi Radeon HD 4850, please fix this now !
Posted by Mathias on March 30th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Comment # 24
My game keeps on crashing as Britain at turn 40, i’ve turned the sound off and changed the events on the campaign map to exhaustion yet nothing works! this game it seems was released too early and the quality testing seems poor is what I can gather and is the general feeling around the forums. This pissed off customer is getting impatient for a patch that will stop empire from constantly crashing
Posted by David on March 31st, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Comment # 25
Game keeps crashing?????????????
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Empire.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 49ccc981
Fault Module Name: Empire.exe
Fault Module Version: 1.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 49ccc981
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0070c572
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: fd00
Additional Information 2: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
Additional Information 3: fd00
Additional Information 4: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
Posted by Jeff on April 3rd, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Comment # 26
I’m quite sure it’s a great game but i really wouldn’t know since i can’t get the damn thing to work right since buying it!
Posted by rude on April 4th, 2009 at 3:57 am
Comment # 27
The only thing this game is good for is a coaster for your coffee cup!
Posted by rude on April 4th, 2009 at 4:48 am
Comment # 28
hello,
First i would just like to say thank you for keeping the Total war Series Alive. Empire is by far the best, and i love this game alot. Everything you have done with the game is excellent!
I know the game has only been out for about a month, however, i am sort of curious to when an expantion might be coming out so i can play more races. I have beat the game a couple of time now both in the campaign and global domination with each country (except the ottomans) and am now finding the game kinda boring without different counrties to play. I was hoping that you might be working on an expantion or something that would allow me to either play the Indians or the Pirates?!
Thanks for your time
Posted by Devin on April 4th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Comment # 29
can’t start new campain. game keeps shuting down. any help?
Posted by gander5001 on April 4th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Comment # 30
hi
i love your game.
the ships move to easily upwind. i realize this is for playability, but can you balance it a little more towards realism?
thanks
Posted by lute on April 5th, 2009 at 1:04 am
Comment # 31
Love Empire Total War! It’s great fun. However, I can no longer play it since it crashes every time I click the Next Turn button in the Grand Campaign mode while playing as the British in 1715. Crashes right after the Huron declare war on me and goes straight to the desktop. Too bad. It’s a great game.
Posted by Powers Foss on April 5th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Comment # 32
I was just wondering why you would not allow for the possibility to play most of the factions. All other total war series were unique in that most factions were available to play. In fact, the most interesting faction not allowable the pirates, which played a significant role during this time period, would have been the most fun to play. I am very dissapointed.
Posted by Josh on April 5th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Comment # 33
I bought this game for [...] bucks at [...] after reading many favorable reviews and seeing pictures of the beautiful graphics. After moving all of my music, Word docs, doing several rounds of disk cleanup, and deleting other games and applications on my computer to make room for the massive amount of space that Empire Total War requires, I finally installed the game. This took me about a day to get to this point. But once done, I was excited; the game looked well worth the money and the space. I hope that one day, I will be able to know whether it is worth the money and space that I used. I get to the main menu, click on any of the game modes, be it Grand Campaign, Road to Independence, or quick battle; and wait for it to load. Problem is, the load bar gets to about 40% and then jumps rapidly back and forth. The sounds of the game are audible; yells of charge, gunfire, noises of a town. I have downloaded both patches, and they have done nothing. I can’t return this useless garbage because of STEAM. I feel ripped off, and after reading many nerd site message boards, I know that my problem is very common. I hope this severe bug will be fixed, but I doubt it. I have yet to even be able to experience a bugged out version of gameplay that others describe. The ship pathfinding may indeed be screwy, and the AI may occasionally run aimlessly, and the campaign map may lag at some points; but, alas, I will never know.
Posted by Philip buneal on April 6th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Comment # 34
My son bought this game last month — we can’t get it to load on our PC. He gets to the initial screen with the famous quote, and that’s as far as it goes.
Using a Dell Dimension 9100, XP SP3, 3 GB memory, dual 3.00 GHz CPU, Radeon X600 256 MB video card, lots of hard drive space.
Any help you guys can give is greatly appreciated. It’s frustrating for him seeing all these great reviews and not being able to play the game himself.
Posted by John A on April 7th, 2009 at 1:00 am
Comment # 35
It was really interesting hearing about your personal takes on the TW series. You guys are truly wizards!
I don’t know if this is the place to ask, but I recently purchased Empire: TW but, there is no text appearing whenever I play. I’m love to play the game in all its glory, but so far am unable. I’m not a technical gamer guy, just a fan of TW. Help!
Thank you for your hard work,
Daniel O
Posted by Daniel O on April 7th, 2009 at 3:47 am
Comment # 36
Hi, I can’t seem to capture any ships. All captured enemy ships during the battle just disappear. They do not add to my ship detail at all. Is this a bug? Are all captured enemy ships automatically scuttled? Thanks, GS
Posted by Gerald Sun on April 8th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Comment # 37
Greetings,
How do I delete saved games to free up space on my computer
Posted by Michael M Ruff on April 11th, 2009 at 1:00 am
Comment # 38
I found the game fasinating overall, I played with many factions and enjoyed all the way, but there was to me a little dissapointment for me, I thought that I could influence another faction to declare a war to other factions. or influence them to stop figthing other faction.
Posted by Abdihakim Mohamed on April 12th, 2009 at 4:16 am
Comment # 39
Game installed fine. However, when I start a game, the loading bar gets halfway and starts to jump back and forth. Game itself is installed but loading a a campaign/battle does not get completed. I can hear the game in the progress, however I’m stuck on the loading screen. Your help would be much appreciated.
Posted by Jason on April 13th, 2009 at 2:46 am
Comment # 41
I purchased Empire when it was released. I loaded it and ran it but it had a lot of crashes. So I decided to delete it and reload it. But now Steam will not allow me to reinstall my program. I have gone around in circles with Steam support. At this time I get a duplicate key error. I have sent them a digital picture of the key code on the box, as they asked. But their support seems to recycle the same responses that never seem to lead to a resolution.
Is there a step by step procedure to reinstall Empire?
Thank you
Garin Hottell – garinh@charter.net
Posted by G R Hottell on April 17th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Comment # 42
what can i do if when i start up the game, after the opening video, the tiles for the menu show up but they are completely blank, and they remain blank when i click on them to go into other menus, and no matter what they remain blank, what can i do?
Posted by Bart Brown on April 18th, 2009 at 2:59 am
Comment # 43
What do you have in mind for an expansion
Posted by conner on April 18th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Comment # 44
can a advent 5411 play empire total war?
Posted by zack stewart on April 18th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Comment # 45
I have a question, I can install and start empire total war but when i’m loading a map i turns crazy. Can you help me ?
Posted by ruben roelandts on April 18th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Comment # 46
Why do all of the indian nations look the same? And why don’t you get indian allies when you play single player?
Posted by paul gforce on April 20th, 2009 at 3:07 am
Comment # 48
How do you remove games that are saved you do not want? I enjoy the game but sometimes it still stalls and blow up…
Posted by Hoppy on April 21st, 2009 at 3:13 am
Comment # 49
Great read and thanks for making another great game!
Posted by Staal on April 21st, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Comment # 50
Hey
Can you please advise why the “Mughal Empire” is not playable as it was a major faction and history builder of South Asia. Is there any chance in the future that and some other medium factions will become playable?
Thanks
Adnan A
Posted by Adnan A on April 21st, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Comment # 51
Hi i was wondering…
If you buy the normal empire total war will you be able to buy the special forces units separately for like £5.99 or something because i would really like to get them eventually but i cant afford right now…
Matt
Posted by Matthew Mckay on April 22nd, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Comment # 52
Hey guys, I am sure you have been bombarded with this question, but really, when is the multiplayer campaign patch going to be released. I read this as part of the game before buying it, and although I love single player campaigns, it is just not very challenging. How long do you expect people will be loving this game for once they complete the game in single player campaign mode? The multiplayer battles have been fun – nice work there, but come on – really it is already April 26 and no multiplayer campaign patch.
wil
Posted by Wil on April 27th, 2009 at 12:25 am
Comment # 53
I have been upgraded to version 1.2.0 and my game still crashes when I try to conquer a region. Some time if I do not use the unit designated by a star, it doesn’t. I thought the upgrade was supposed to fix these crashes. Suggestions?
Posted by dennis dishaw on May 15th, 2009 at 4:34 am
Comment # 54
Every time I play a battle or seige I cannot get the doployable deffences to activate.
Posted by James Godwin on May 16th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Comment # 55
O.K, you got me this is like my 3rd comment here today I cant wait for your next article!
Posted by hosting on May 19th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Comment # 56
I love the idea and the features of Empire. I had been waiting for a game dealing with this era and you guys did it. I was however disappointed with the selection of custom battle maps available. In previous Total War titles, there was always a variety of maps with editable settlement levels, in Empire, all they have is an open field with different varieties of trees and fences, there are no towns or villages in any of the maps which was a let down for me. Also, you can’t build fortifications in the custom battle modes, diminishing the customablity. The only maps with structures are the siege maps, which you once again can’t change the surrounding landscape. Another thing is that you can now garrison buildings (in the campaign only), most of the buildings are not garrisonsable and only serve as temporary cover from artillery. Also, the max. money limit in Empire is lower than in other Total War titles, not allowing for the creation of massive three to four on one battles I loved in Rome and Medeival. Custom battles were the best part of previous Total War titles for me but they were a huge let down in Empire. It would be deeply appreciated if you guys could create some urban or village maps, allow for fortifications if Custom battles, and raise the money limit. Thanks and keep up the good work guys.
Posted by Ross Johndrow on May 25th, 2009 at 7:05 am
Comment # 57
i cant seem to get onto the 3rd chapter of the road to independence episode 2, if there is a mission its not telling me what it is. Can you please tell me what the mission is or what i should do?
Posted by adam3767 on June 4th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Comment # 58
One huge factor left off this is attrition – any army stack of 20 units should start losing men pretty quickly if left sitting in one place. And stop the temptation of simply crushing the opposition with sheer weight of numbers.
Posted by Little Aussie Bleeder on June 13th, 2009 at 3:47 am
Comment # 59
how can i cause the random events in the campaign such as the french revolution,the 7 year war,the greek revolution etc?are there certain actions or are they totally random?
Posted by panosnet81 on June 14th, 2009 at 1:15 am
Comment # 60
Ok love the game but hate how i cant get past the 3rd chapter in road to independence i know others are having this problem so what is the fix?
Posted by crazyhic247 on June 16th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Comment # 62
I like playing the game except that it keeps crashing. about every third or fourth turn. playing england now it is stuck about 1710 or earlier. it restarts do not help it ALWAYS crashes before the computer gets to play it’s turn.
1) when are you going to fix this game and get it stable.
2) is there a refund ? the game does not play i have an alienware gaming computer.
3)I had waited for a few months before buying because i heard the game was having lots of problems.
4) do i take my game back to where i bought it or are you going to fix it?
Posted by scott corkern on June 23rd, 2009 at 12:35 am
Comment # 63
When i got the new patch that was released June 22. The new units that you added have no names when your in a battle
Posted by mm on June 23rd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Comment # 64
I have had a quick browse, but cannot find anything relating to Scenario battles, would there be more implemented, or am I missing something? As I really enjoyed them in Medieval 2 and I feel there are so many great battles that can be re-enacted in the Empire time period. Thanks.
Posted by Kosek on June 24th, 2009 at 12:47 am
Comment # 65
Hello,
I was the Maratha Confederacy and i conquered the Mughals in my campaign.
I wanted to know if the mughal faction can ever be unlocked and also is it playable?
Thanks.
Posted by Shahzad Zubair on June 30th, 2009 at 2:29 am
Comment # 66
I am a history instructor and enjoy the Total War Series and recommend it to my students. There are two problems I continue to have in the game. As I conquer 75% of the world the machine hangs up playing many different factions. I have all of the updates from steam.
There are some problems with trade. Only certain of your trade ports are used in trade. If certain trade ports are blocked then all of your sea trade ends and you still have 6 or more other ports still open. I am blocked from trading with different countries next to me by land or water even when they are frindly.
I know you are trying to put out udates as fast as possible. I hope that knowledge of these problems will be helpful to you.
I hope you decide to make a Napoleon era game and make units that fit each country. Would you be able to make a World War II game with the engine you have? My area of teaching is military history. If you would ever like any information I would be glad to help you.
Posted by Steven Dockins on July 8th, 2009 at 2:35 am
Comment # 67
I forgot to mention a couple of things. The chain shot is not as effective in removing masts as it was in real warfare of the period. You are not able to capture a ship and add it to your fleet. This was important in this time period. The use of hot shot and double round shot was used by fleets in this period but you do not offer them. double round shot was devestating when you were next to an enemy ship.
During this time period many countries traded with each other even if they did not like each other as long as they were not at war. I hope you loosen up the trade restrictions. Also not all allies declared war but did keep an alliance to a lesser degree and continued trading with the previous alley. A country at war could not risk insulting freinds and they needed to continue trade.
I am the history instructor that has sent you other messages. I hope they have helped. You have a great game series in Total War.
Thank you for all you have done for the fans of the Total War series.
Posted by Steven Dockins on July 8th, 2009 at 2:50 am
Comment # 68
Please Please Please help. I love the whole Total War series, but I just can’t seem to get it to work with my nvidia gtx 280m video card..i have updated to game version 1.3 and updated to 186 version drivers for the card. It constantly crashes..I can’t even get into the game most times..then when I do it crashes and the computer goes into a protect mode. help!!
Posted by Mike on July 9th, 2009 at 2:17 am
Comment # 69
Please Help~~!
I installed the ETW in my new PC but it could not start the game. I only saw Steam tried to launch ETW program then nothing happened. I also check the Windows TaskManager that could not see the emprie.exe is run. My PC spec as below:
CPU: Intel E8400
Video Card: WinFast GTX285 with Nvidia driver v186.18
RAM: 4GB
OS: Win XP with sp3
ETW with last patch by steam update
Please comment. Thanks!!
Posted by markliao on July 12th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Comment # 70
for some reason my game wont launch and it says error 86 what is that some one plz help
Posted by carlos on July 14th, 2009 at 12:40 am
Comment # 71
DEAR Creators!!!
I got the game i can play the grand campaign with no problem!!! ok!!! when i start playing the road to inpendence!!! i can only play the 1st mission of 1st episode and while loading to second mission of 1st episode the game stucks and crashes!!!! can u guys help!!! i love the game plz plz plz plz plz help!!!!
Posted by hunain ali on July 24th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Comment # 72
I lost my case and lost the key code for my game and cant play it can someone help me out cause it sucks all my friends can play but me!!!!!
Posted by DEAR Creators!!!! on August 1st, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Comment # 73
I just purchased the game and cannot get it to install. I have waited days for it to finish loading the game cache portion even not even beginning to install the game itself please send a solution.
Posted by Aaron on August 2nd, 2009 at 4:08 am
Comment # 74
I lost my PRODUCT CODE number….now I can’t reinstall the game on my new pc. Is there anyway to get a new PRODUCT CODE?
THX
Posted by David on August 5th, 2009 at 4:10 am
Comment # 75
Hi, I was wondering that Mughal Empire is a Major Faction but not playable? They were stronger than the Maratha Confederacy anyway and were a major power at this age. There has been a lot of discontent on this issue since it seems that it was meant to be playable but was unfinished.
Can CA release a patch to fix this?
Thanx
Posted by Ahmed Shah on August 9th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Comment # 76
Can Some one tell me where the multi-player campaign that was promised at the release Is ?
Can Some one tell me where the multi-player campaign that was promised at the release Is ?
I ask this twice as I Have Bought two games in order to play said , multi-player campaign
Posted by Gordon Boggon on August 22nd, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Comment # 77
download empire total war demo but it is not responding on my laptop help
Posted by aaron on August 25th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Comment # 78
Hello, When it works, this is a great game. You can probably guess from that what my problem is, yes the game keeps crashing. I have all the updates plus the elite units DLC, yet crashes for no apparent reason at random times. Playing as Austria I have got to about 1710 and have averaged between 1 and 1.5 reboots per game year. Im not a programmer although I know you must have put a lot of work into this, but sosmething within is seriously flawed. Am running 2gb memory, 2* gfx 9800 gx2 in sli, Intl core 2 quad processor Q6600 at 2.4ghz (no overclocking). I dont kow exactly what the cause is, but I play other games including Crysis, which is notoriously resource hungry, and they run with no problems
Posted by Trevor Mallery on September 1st, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Comment # 79
Why is it that if you’ve downladed the game once and used the key code, but then uninstalled it and months later you tried to install it again but now the key code wont work why is that or why wont it let you use the key code a second time.
Posted by Cody on January 6th, 2010 at 12:10 am
Comment # 80
Can I choose to install Empire total war on a different drive than the C drive?
Posted by Ben on July 11th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Comment # 81
i dont know why but i downloaded the game and everything and it said it was ready to play but then when i click the play button or insurt the disk and press play empire total war it wont even get me to the main menu so if someone could help me out in any possible way on how to play this game that would be great..thanks!
Posted by Austin on October 27th, 2010 at 3:06 am
