Campaign
Napoleon: Total War (NTW) focuses on the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Napoleonic wars. Campaigns include Napoleon's Italian campaign, the conquest of Egypt, and the traditional grand campaign seen in previous titles. For the grand campaign the game reverts back to the traditional European map seen in previous titles. durgin the grand campaign the player can either control the nation of France, or one of the four major Coalition nations that opposed France during the Napoleonic wars.
Set in the early 1800's, the game vastly differs from previous Total War games for a number of reasons. The primary difference is the passage of time. NTW's turn system now progresses the game two weeks as opposed to six months. This change was made in order to better simulate the bloody actions of the war.
Total war takes a literal sense in NTW. In addition to the removal of religious buildings and units, none militarist industry and vast trade systems seen in Empire, NTW focuses all production on military might. Players build Lumber Jacks to reduce the cost of ships, factories to reduce the cost of cannons and tax offices to keep order. Opera houses and secret societies increase public order by happiness, but all intents and purposes every building is built with Total War in mind.
Research that was first introduced in Empire has been streamlined in NTW. The player can only build schools on specific towns; the cost of which is the loss of a secret society. There are only 3 branches of research to focus on now (military, industry and administrative) and gentlemen still take the role of speeding up or stealing technology.
Taxes and trade are much similar to Empire. You can adjust taxes for both the rich and poor. Increasing taxes too much stems growth and encourages social disorder, while cutting taxes can damage your war effort. Upgrading administrative buildings can increase tax revenue. Trade is handled through diplomacy and the construction of ports, which allows you to trade with more nations.
Combat in napoleon is similar to Empire but features improved options and game play. Enemies are still not competent but pose more of a challenge in battle. Generals, being harder to come by, can have a much more drastic effect on war if they are wounded or killed. Battles are still fought in real time with large armies conscripted from cities. A new addition is drop in battles, where you can choose to allow a player to take command of the opposing army, giving more challenge and interactivity to the game.
Rewards for conquest have been revamped once again. When the player captures a city, he can either occupy it with minimal unrest penalty, loot the city for money at the risk of riots, or establish a city-state that allies with the player's nation. City-states function in a similar manner to minor nations and will not provide you with tax revenue.
Achievements
Napoleon: Total War features 65 Steam achievements, the majority (51) of which can be earned within the single player and co-op campaign. Napoleon: Total War is also Steam activated, much like Empire: Total War, the previous title in the series.
DLC
NTW features two DLC packs. The first is the Units of the Coalition pack, which offers new elite units for each nation. The second it the Peninsular Campaign, which adds a new campaign with a new map (Spain/Portugal) and four playable factions (France, Spain, Portugal and England). When playing as Spain the game stresses guerrilla warfare and subterfuge.
Multiplayer
Napoleon: Total War features multiplayer battles in three configurations, land, sea and siege. The game supports battles between up to eight players. For the first time in the series the option to participate in a co-op campaign is included. It is played in a similar manner to the single player campaigns. Each player is given an allotted period of time per turn to carry out their faction's unit movements, build orders, and other tasks before their time period runs out and control switches to another player. If a land or sea battle occurs with an AI controlled faction during the co-op campaign there is an option for one of the human participants to take control of the AI and the fight the battle against the other player.
System Requirements
Minimum:
- OS:Microsoft® Windows Vista®/XP®/Windows® 7
- Processor: 2.3 GHz CPU with SSE2
- Memory: 1 GB RAM (XP), 2 GB RAM (Vista®/Windows® 7)
- Graphics: 256 MB DirectX® 9.0c shader model 2b compatible GPU
- DirectX®: DirectX® 9.0c
- Hard Drive: 21 GB free space
Recommended:
- OS: Microsoft® Windows Vista®/XP®/Windows® 7
- Processor: 2.6 GHz Dual Core CPU
- Memory: 2 GB RAM (XP), 4 GB RAM (Vista®/Windows® 7)
- Graphics: 256 MB DirectX® 9.0c shader model 3 compatible GPU
- DirectX®: DirectX® 9.0c
- Hard Drive: 21 GB free space
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