Empire: Total War

Set in the 18th century, Empire: Total War puts the player in control of elven different nations including England, America, Prussia, Russia, Austria, France and Spain conquering provinces all over Europe, North America and India both through diplomacy or force.

True to the Total War-series, the game is divided into two parts: The turn-based campaign map and the real-time battles. While the former requires the player to manage his vast empire by moving troops around and upgrading his cities. But as opposed to its predecessor Rome: Total War, now only have space for up to six buildings like barracks. Everything else has to be build at specific places in the cities surroundings including coal mines, farms and such. This in return increases the wealth of a region and over time small villages scattered inside the province will advance to cities and once again provide the player with up to six buildings slots. Another addition are the three technology trees, allowing the player to research in the fields of military, economic or social and giving him access to new types of units, buildings or additional upgrades.

Once a unit, representing an army on the map, comes in contact with an enemy unit or settlement, the player can choose to either let the CPU decide the battle or go in himself on the 3D-terrain and order his troops around.

Besides normal land and siege battles, already present in the previous iterations of the series, Empire: Total War now also features sea battles. In these long and challenging battles, the player has the ability to control everything from manually firing the cannons of a ship to the striking or hoisting of the sails of a ship as well as choosing to board an enemy ship instead of destroying it to add it to his own fleet at the end of the battle.

The game features an tutorial campaign telling the story of the first American settlers to the Independence War, a Grand Campaign which gives the player access to the whole world and several different scenarios that depict real historical battles. In addition the multiplayer mode allows for up to eight players to fight land, siege and sea battles against each other.