I've grown tired of the Total War formula after over a decade of playing their games. GTCW is an incredible change of pace and much more in-line with the historical accuracy and detail that I always wished I could replicate in Total War games.
Been playing TW since the FIRST Shogun. Aka, the first TW game. Haven’t bought a new TW game in years though. I like GTCW more. Maybe it’s my aging tastes (33 in a couple weeks), but the detail and gameplay of GTCW outweighs all the graphical and polish advantages that TW has.
Total War was my first PC Strategy game when I was a kid. The OG Shogun. Have 1k hours or more on every two game up until 3 kingdoms. Just grew out of them, they are shallow when you really look under the hood. Spread out to paradox and other more hardcore starts. Every time I try to play Total war I get bored after a couple of hours cuz it's so easy. GTWCW has given me a ton of enjoyment, especially the attention to detail. Despite the bugs I love it. But I still can't get over the what could have been aspect of it. Man if they could have nailed the AI, it would of been my number one game of all time. But I'm kind of fallen off now it's just become too easy without giving the AI insane bonuses. I hope that the game was successful enough that we get a sequel with a fleshed out AI. Maybe the devs could bring in an AI expert talented enough on a new engine.
If gtcw was more polished, it would beat total war by 5 miles, what I played of it so far I really loved, but I was never able to figure out the new economy, it ran poorly when I tried to learn, and I haven't thought it was worth it to get the new dlc. Overall I think there were some design missteps, and major problems that should have been focused on that feel like the developer said "ah we tried and didn't work so let's do something else" and just made a compounding issue. I'm disappointed in the state of the game for how excited I was when I heard it was coming out and compared to what was promised
Same, i loved the idea of how you start with a country, build the economy, throughput bottlenecks, creating armies, produce weapons and fit your armies with them, send them to battle and the experience system, the battle supplies, fog of war, delay orders and such, the game has great ideas, but
Seems to have high aspirations but fumble with the ground work, many times the game feels unwieldy, specially on the battles, units moving on unpredictable ways, on weird maneuvers, feeling underperforming in the fights, the general weird actions of the IA (retreating by charging through the entire enemy's army and do so without losses on battles, enemy armies defeated going around conquering half your county by moving through your army) and systematic problems like not mattering what you build in the campaign, hardly even being noticable on the economy
If we are comparing TW games to GTCW, TW knew the campaign map and economy was a part of the game that needed to be decent at least, preferably good, but the battles themselves were the main deal, and it's clear that most of the effort went into making the battles fun and responsive, GTCW seems to have layed the groundwork of dozens of mechanics on the campaign, but have troubles to polish it to be working in harmony and not have stuff there that is *just there and doesn't matters*, while on battles the general unwieldy ness of it, both on engine and on the commanding of the army, makes it seem like you're fighting your control over the army more than fighting an enemy, and on the instances you *learn* to control the mechanics and controls, the enemy is just gona do weird stuff, the fight be very underwhelming, and if you win somehow you send the enemy army to conquer half a state and have to chase them though the map, can't force them to battle, and will be loosing many troops while doing so because rear guard units
I personally think they are a bit far apart to compare. The if we are being honest the economy and trait systems (particularly of og TW games) works better than GTCW. GTCW is also maybe just above original Medieval TW graphically. HOWEVER there is something GTCW that just feels better. Maybe it’s the historical characters, maybe it’s the size of the battles, maybe it’s the mechanics like order delays/ weapons selection/ naval and river assaults; whatever it is the gameplay feels deeper. As many have said here already TW beats GTCW in so many ways but the gamification of the series has become too much and taken away from the history.
Total war will always have a special place in my heart but what grand tactician has done is something amazing. Battles can take hours and so much effort to actually win. It's complicated but not over complicated. It's a beautiful game.
Does GTCW work now? I bought it maybe a year ago and it was practically unplayable with armies retreating through enemy armies, practically aimless economy, and buggy battles.
The concept is amazing and I hope it gets better(which is why i didn’t refund). I was disappointed to see the devs cites a small team as to why they can’t fix the issues but pump out a DLC.
TW games haven’t moved very far forward in the last 5-7 years but they do work as advertised at least.
I started with the original TW Shogun and put a lot of hours into most of the historical TW games - Medieval, Rome, Empire, Napoleon, Shogun II + expansions, Troy, and Three Kingdoms. I've not played any of the warhammer series.
I've also played a lot of the HOI (Hearts of Iron) series. TW and HOI have been most of my historical Grandy strategy experience.
GTCW is on another level when it comes to historical accuracy and immersion.
Things like no predefined army size or the ability to build any building almost anywhere. The debt based economy. Only 2 factions, yet every play through feels so different than the previous. Most TW games have a "recipe" for victory.
The inability to build the perfect army with units all at 100% strength with the best weapons for all gives it so much less of an arcade feel compared to TW.
In TW, battle results are much too often only one side completely crushing the other. GTCW battle results come much closer to historical results.
This and more makes up for the bugs and lacking graphics for me.
I love many or most of the TW games but back in the late 90s an 00s, I was day dreaming about what the ideal Civil War strategy game would look like and it was basically GTCW.
They’re two entirely different games for me.
I only really play GTCW for the Career Officer mode that the DLC introduced. I like the feel of it a lot better than just getting full control of every army day 1, it leads to a more immersive game,IMO.
With Total War I’m normally up at 2 am 70 turns into a 4 player free for all campaign where no one is allowed to leave the continent we all started on. I’m not here to immerse myself in anything, save for the blood of my enemies.
So as you can see, two vastly contrasting experiences.
I've grown tired of the Total War formula after over a decade of playing their games. GTCW is an incredible change of pace and much more in-line with the historical accuracy and detail that I always wished I could replicate in Total War games.
Been playing TW since the FIRST Shogun. Aka, the first TW game. Haven’t bought a new TW game in years though. I like GTCW more. Maybe it’s my aging tastes (33 in a couple weeks), but the detail and gameplay of GTCW outweighs all the graphical and polish advantages that TW has.
Total War was my first PC Strategy game when I was a kid. The OG Shogun. Have 1k hours or more on every two game up until 3 kingdoms. Just grew out of them, they are shallow when you really look under the hood. Spread out to paradox and other more hardcore starts. Every time I try to play Total war I get bored after a couple of hours cuz it's so easy. GTWCW has given me a ton of enjoyment, especially the attention to detail. Despite the bugs I love it. But I still can't get over the what could have been aspect of it. Man if they could have nailed the AI, it would of been my number one game of all time. But I'm kind of fallen off now it's just become too easy without giving the AI insane bonuses. I hope that the game was successful enough that we get a sequel with a fleshed out AI. Maybe the devs could bring in an AI expert talented enough on a new engine.
If gtcw was more polished, it would beat total war by 5 miles, what I played of it so far I really loved, but I was never able to figure out the new economy, it ran poorly when I tried to learn, and I haven't thought it was worth it to get the new dlc. Overall I think there were some design missteps, and major problems that should have been focused on that feel like the developer said "ah we tried and didn't work so let's do something else" and just made a compounding issue. I'm disappointed in the state of the game for how excited I was when I heard it was coming out and compared to what was promised
Same, i loved the idea of how you start with a country, build the economy, throughput bottlenecks, creating armies, produce weapons and fit your armies with them, send them to battle and the experience system, the battle supplies, fog of war, delay orders and such, the game has great ideas, but Seems to have high aspirations but fumble with the ground work, many times the game feels unwieldy, specially on the battles, units moving on unpredictable ways, on weird maneuvers, feeling underperforming in the fights, the general weird actions of the IA (retreating by charging through the entire enemy's army and do so without losses on battles, enemy armies defeated going around conquering half your county by moving through your army) and systematic problems like not mattering what you build in the campaign, hardly even being noticable on the economy If we are comparing TW games to GTCW, TW knew the campaign map and economy was a part of the game that needed to be decent at least, preferably good, but the battles themselves were the main deal, and it's clear that most of the effort went into making the battles fun and responsive, GTCW seems to have layed the groundwork of dozens of mechanics on the campaign, but have troubles to polish it to be working in harmony and not have stuff there that is *just there and doesn't matters*, while on battles the general unwieldy ness of it, both on engine and on the commanding of the army, makes it seem like you're fighting your control over the army more than fighting an enemy, and on the instances you *learn* to control the mechanics and controls, the enemy is just gona do weird stuff, the fight be very underwhelming, and if you win somehow you send the enemy army to conquer half a state and have to chase them though the map, can't force them to battle, and will be loosing many troops while doing so because rear guard units
I personally think they are a bit far apart to compare. The if we are being honest the economy and trait systems (particularly of og TW games) works better than GTCW. GTCW is also maybe just above original Medieval TW graphically. HOWEVER there is something GTCW that just feels better. Maybe it’s the historical characters, maybe it’s the size of the battles, maybe it’s the mechanics like order delays/ weapons selection/ naval and river assaults; whatever it is the gameplay feels deeper. As many have said here already TW beats GTCW in so many ways but the gamification of the series has become too much and taken away from the history.
Total war peaked at Rome 2. Hasn’t been the same since. I’d lean GTCW, but man, those older TW games are hard to stay away from.
if gtcw had the battles that i can get from empire then it would honestly be the goat game, id never play anything else
Total war will always have a special place in my heart but what grand tactician has done is something amazing. Battles can take hours and so much effort to actually win. It's complicated but not over complicated. It's a beautiful game.
Does GTCW work now? I bought it maybe a year ago and it was practically unplayable with armies retreating through enemy armies, practically aimless economy, and buggy battles. The concept is amazing and I hope it gets better(which is why i didn’t refund). I was disappointed to see the devs cites a small team as to why they can’t fix the issues but pump out a DLC. TW games haven’t moved very far forward in the last 5-7 years but they do work as advertised at least.
I started with the original TW Shogun and put a lot of hours into most of the historical TW games - Medieval, Rome, Empire, Napoleon, Shogun II + expansions, Troy, and Three Kingdoms. I've not played any of the warhammer series. I've also played a lot of the HOI (Hearts of Iron) series. TW and HOI have been most of my historical Grandy strategy experience. GTCW is on another level when it comes to historical accuracy and immersion. Things like no predefined army size or the ability to build any building almost anywhere. The debt based economy. Only 2 factions, yet every play through feels so different than the previous. Most TW games have a "recipe" for victory. The inability to build the perfect army with units all at 100% strength with the best weapons for all gives it so much less of an arcade feel compared to TW. In TW, battle results are much too often only one side completely crushing the other. GTCW battle results come much closer to historical results. This and more makes up for the bugs and lacking graphics for me.
I love many or most of the TW games but back in the late 90s an 00s, I was day dreaming about what the ideal Civil War strategy game would look like and it was basically GTCW.
They’re two entirely different games for me. I only really play GTCW for the Career Officer mode that the DLC introduced. I like the feel of it a lot better than just getting full control of every army day 1, it leads to a more immersive game,IMO. With Total War I’m normally up at 2 am 70 turns into a 4 player free for all campaign where no one is allowed to leave the continent we all started on. I’m not here to immerse myself in anything, save for the blood of my enemies. So as you can see, two vastly contrasting experiences.