Many unit types also show up too early or out of place. For example, the British have no trouble recruiting foreign troops representing Hessians in the New World but sometimes can’t find them anywhere in Europe. Also, those players who are students of uniformology will note that many uniforms have been generalized—not a problem for most of us, but a horror if you pay attention to such things.

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Then there is the mix of forces in the campaign game. In real-life, battles in North America were mostly small affairs, with low casualty counts. The American Revolutionary War Battle of Trenton, for example, was a mere skirmish by European standards. In E:TW’s North America, however, the player will find the Native Americans fielding massive armies, complete with well-formed units of lancers, musket troops and even artillery. Pirates, who in real life sailed mostly smaller craft, can have huge navies of massive ships. Large, well-formed units of Native American archers, can stand toe-to-toe with European line battalions. Defeating the Cherokee Nation can take as many troops and resources as it takes to defeat Austria.

But many players will not be too worried about Creative Assembly taking so much artistic license with history. What they want is a great game. In this department, E:TW often delivers a compelling mix of excitement and immersion. This reviewer found himself drawn to this enjoyable romp through history. The game is very good, but not great.

E:TW’s near-greatness is partially due to the fact that the games AI is a mixed bag. In the campaign game, the computer player is only a challenge when most of the fighting is done on land. Playing Austria, Prussia, Russia or Poland can be quite a challenge at high levels of difficulty. But the AI just does not know how to invade over a body of water. After many, many hours of playing, this reviewer never saw the computer load its armies onto ships and invade. This will apparently be addressed in future patches but as of this writing, playing England, safe from AI attack, can be rather dull.

On the tactical level, the computer opponent is mostly competent. At times, the computer even feels human. Sometimes it adroitly shifts forces to protect a flank, or changes the line of attack away from heavily defended areas. Computer cavalry always goes for the player’s artillery, and they are pretty good at charging units from the rear. At other times, however, the computer AI falls asleep or bumbles about in confusion while the human player rolls up the flank.

On the reviewer’s machine, the game was mostly stable, but CTDs were a little too frequent to be okay with. The campaign map occasionally flickered strangely, too, but not enough to be anything more than a minor irritant. Overall, none of these problems affected game-play much, but frequent saves are recommended.

In the final tally, Empire: Total War is a very good game and highly recommended. It is one of the most anticipated titles of this year and the hype, combined with the gaming audience’s thirst for a great war game, have set the bar very high for Creative Assembly. Empire: Total War is somewhat short of those lofty goals and is not a great game yet; hopefully patching and the modding community will shortly polish this somewhat rough gem. But in the meantime, fix bayonets, look to your front, and pay no mind to the man who is struck. Advance, for today you fight for the Empire!

Armchair General Score: 86%

ACG Intel

Empire: Total War

Larry Levandowski has been a wargamer for more than 30 years, and started computer gaming back in the days of the C-64. Until he recently discovered the virtues of DOS box and virtual machines, much of his computer game collection was unplayable. A former US Army officer, Larry has done his share of sitting in foxholes. Since leaving the Army, he has worked in the Information Technology field, as a programmer, project manager and lead bottle washer. He now spends his spare time playing boardgames, Napoleonic and WWII miniatures, as well as any PC game he can get his hands on.

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