This Total War Expansion has NO RIGHT Being THIS GOOD
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Boy, oh boy, I tell you. When I heard that Total War was bringing us a massive 400 years into the future, and allowing us to play as Charlemagne himself, I was so seriously hyped.
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Age of Charlemagne is the quintessential DLC and expansion for Total War: Attila, a Total War game very dear and near to my heart. Age of Charlemagne takes us into the early medieval period and the birth of what is going to become early modern Europe. As Charlemagne, you are tasked with uniting Francia and Germania, and perhaps even Italy and Iberia if you find your TRUE power. But this expansion offers so much more, and in this video, I'll take you thought this entire expansion, its factions, battles, highs and lows, and what Creative Assembly could have done to make it even better.
But what are YOUR thoughts on Age of Charlemagne? Let me know in the comments! And don't forget to leave a like and subscribe to the channel :)
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Ooooh! Age of Charlemagne is possibly the best Total War expansion. I love it!
Yoooo! Glad to hear it, my friend!
Glad to see kings and generals appreciate a amazing TH-camr
no KINGDOM is then Barbarian Invasion
Ceasar in Gaul and Fall of the samurai are my favorites :D
@@fredrikeriksson5199 True true :)
Unfortunately, age of charlemagne suffers from at least two game breaking bugs. First shield values are not in the game meaning that every unit has abysmal armor and 0 missile block chance, and second, frankish archers (and other units) are bugged and once they hit their third tier you can no longer recruit them, so good luck finishing your campaign without archers
Really? I rememvber my archers doing fuck all against shieldwalled units
@@cathulionetharn5139 yes, but in shield wall they still get the 15 or 25% bonus from the shield wall. And since archers deal about 30 damage against 100 HP units, then you might think that they don't kill anything in the beginning but after 3/4 volleys they will drop like flies. If you hover on the armor stat, you will notice that for every unit the shield value is 0 but increases when in shield wall
Are these bugs still prevalent?
And are there mods that can fix it?
Meanwhile half the Alans roster is inaccessible in GC 😂
They probably still bugs yea. We would hear about a patch release otherwise … (and it’s only been an hour since the initial complaint). Even if we get the devs attention immediately, which I hope you go and do, it should take maybe a week to get it fixed
can you imagine how amazing this would have been with a full European map?
I CAN imagine it, which is why it makes me sad... like I said, I'd love to have at least Constantinople in it :/
I wonder if that's something modders could do. I mean, there are already mods pushing the start date to the 7th century so it should be possible to change the grand campaign factions and start positions accordingly, especially since a lot of the units, character models and 2D art are already in the game.
@@Mr.HeisenbergTheCook Wr're going to get a map editor soon
It would have been cool, HOWEVER the more they add medieval DLC for other games the less likely they are to make a BETTER Medieval 3.
As much as I like this area in this period of history, that really was a missed chance. The war between Charlemagne and the Saxons is cool and all, but in the east you have the death struggle between Byzantium and the caliphate, determining the future of western civilization. That's way more interesting.
Kingdoms for Medieval 2 was hands down the best. 4 unique campaign maps with new factions and updated rosters and mechanics. Praying hard for medieval 3
You can really tell the people who made Kingdoms _loved_ what they were doing.
Yes yes, and many great mods that game has. Btw, I'm seriously worried CA fucks TW:M3 up. If it ever comes that is.
In my opinion the best total war expansion is the "Fall of the samurai" from Shogun 2. This DLC is good but the fall of the samurai is the G i tought.
FOTS is amazing for sure, absolute legend
Fall of the Samurai is a power-trip expansion. Absolutely a blast, but cannons and artillery are just WAYYY too overpowered.
@@swvwc8393 agree and naval artillery is too much opp
@@swvwc8393 that's pretty accurate
@@swvwc8393 Don't forget the gatling gun :/
In my opinion Attila is the most underrated total war. They slayed the mood of the era. Perfect music, not really common period and great campaigin make a perfect match.
I always thought this DLC had sooo much potential
It does, and some very exciting mods will come out!
My only complaint about Age of Charlemagne was how easy it felt after the initial hurdle. For example if you formed Spain or England it felt easy to take on the entire world. Vanilla Atilla didn’t feel that way you could have Western or Eastern Rome and get dog piled and feel like you could lose. Idk it just felt like AI would never go hard against you on the campaign map
Should try Age of Justinian if you're looking for Early Medieval East-- and you can play as the Merovingian Dynasty, the precursors to Charlemagne-- they are the ones the Pippinids, Charlemagne's ancestors, overthrew.
That's interesting that they went that far forward in time!
Not the first time: "Empire Devided" DLC for Rome 2 did that, too (ca. 500 Years)!
Fall of the samurai expansión for shogun 2
I think Attila is still my favorite total war title. its my favorite period of history and I love the game mechanics. I could play as the late roman empire a thousand times and it never gets old. I have over a thousand hours in the game. Charlemagne is ok, I enjoyed it, but I like the base game more.
love this channel even though i only just found it, please keep it up.
Love to hear it, Stefan, thanks for watching! :D
im just waiting for modders to add regions in Rome 2
Interesting. However modern Total War suffers from a severe case of world shallowness. What does that mean? They keep adding all kinds of semi-realistic but also obnoxious mechanics related to all kinds of management screens for your family and your empire and agents and everything, but the map is dull. It's essentially a paint the world simulator by taking major settlements. The map is just a leap frog from one area to the next, oftentimes getting stabbed in your rear end as soon as you move your army out. Well they keep slapping more graphics onto the map, other than a few terrain modifiers it's generally useless. What do I mean?
There is not much of a sense of strategy or accomplishment, just essentially waiting until your enemy is vulnerable or you have overwhelming force and then sniping their major settlement in a turn with the DA auto resolve. There's no sense of accomplishment in taking territory. The settlement mechanics are dumb.
How to add more life to TW:
Add in separate satellite assets you can interact with like Empire and Shogun. Villages, campuses, ports, mines, farms, foundries, pastures, etc.
Add back in forts and towers.
Add in the growth mechanics from TWM 2 and Rome.
Add in religion/culture from medieval II.
Recruitment pools from medieval II.
The lack of meaningful campaign map objectives is my biggest gripe with Total War. There is nothing to fight over, but the settlements. Not even geographical features like river crossings and mountain passes matter, since they are not represented in the battle maps. All in all, the campaign map is criminally under utilized. Some games had this figured out 20 years ago and CA still struggles to implement these basics. Meanwhile they come up with a plethora of unique but mostly unconnected campaign mechanics for the different factions of the TW:WH games.
It's hard to pick my favorite expansion. There are a fair few that I would consider not worth their price and many are just ok or fine. But my heart is always happy to see and play these 3: Age of Charlemagne, Empire Divided, and Barbarian Invasion.
All 3 really added some spice to their respective games and I actually played more than one campaign in each of them. I think twisting my arms would probably be Barbarian Invasion, mostly out of nostalgia
It also has impressive artwork for all the factions just look at the buildings :P
Indeed!
Total war Attila get my atention to enter Total war universe, and this expansion convinced me to stay.
Heck yeah :)
Wish my PC wasn't a potato, been wanting to play Attila for a few years, but I lag while playing Rome 2 and Atilla is infamous for lag.
When you upload I always watch it instantly. Your humour and the interesting games you cover make this one of my favourite youtube channels. Keep up the amazing videos
Those are some amazing compliments, my friend, thank you so much! So glad to have you here!
There is a good mod that allows and expands theme of sicily, but agreed the Romans should of been a choice, Sicily is a good starting point.
Age of Charlemagne is my second favorite TW expansion, the top being Fall of the Samurai.
There's a great mod for it that adds the Byzantines.
Its really a shame that theres no byzantines here. They have more influence and strength in Italy than petty kingsoms like Asturia or Mercia
Pilps needs to do a video on this
It is a dlc that I still play, modded. However, it is not without its flaws and limitations, but, provides thousands of hours of good fun. Glad you are having a good time and are pleased with vanilla.
My favorite dlc is Ceaser in Gaul. That Rome campaign was my first dlc win in total war, my third win in general (after Chosokabe and Shimazu), and my first legendary campaign.
i want to play attila now. Thanks xd
my pleasure ;)
@@AndysTake I united Ireland in the age of vikings. England is next. Thanks again^^
*Clouds Across europe, should be an official release on medieval mods...*
0:33 that was dope!
I honestly prefer Age of Charlemagne over the main Attila campaign most of the time. The massive amounts of factions and huge map can be overwhelming for me and get pretty taxing on my pc. The smaller faction list and smaller map in AoC makes it run much smoother and generally feels more relaxed to play.
I also do like the UI changes in it, adds a nice time period aesthetic to the game.
Only real downside I can think of is was some type glitch that would happen sometimes where I couldn’t recruit archers after a certain point, which obviously brings in some strategical issues lol
Overall tho definitely top 2-3 total war expansions imo, which is saying quite a bit cause I really loved the expansions in rome 1 & 2
Ok, you sold me on it.
Oh damn, gotta try this, looks better than I expected. I only played Attila GC as both roman factions
I been stuck on medieval 2 never played Atila is it actually good ?
yknow I have been playing TW since RTW. I have played many expansions but none kept me around for more than a few dozen hours. I just like Vanilla campaign more for some reason. The only Expansion I put just as many hours into as the main campaign was Barbarian Invasion. I loved the heck out of that expansion growing up. I loved the Horde feature so much I played BI more than any other TW until maybe R2 was fully patched. But idk I played a good bit of M2TW as well.
I do wish Theme of Sicily were playable without mods, and that the Byzantines were around in more than just Sicily.
I'm from Lichfield (the capital of mercia) so personally this one is my all time fav!
oh awesome!
Shogun 2 Fall of the Samurai is my favorite
Medieval 2 Kingdoms comes to mind.. for myself
Is the AoC expansion compatible with multiplayer? Friend and I are having a blast with thrones of britannia and wondered if this is a good one to follow up with. Just want to check the coop campaign situation though.
If only Attila didn’t crash every 5 turns with a de sync
My Mercia campaign was the best. I love it.
Mine too! Played on legendary and loved it!
How come Wessex isn't in this game but Mercia is?
Definitely my favorite expansion in TW.
A full expansion to the east could make the entire game-play quite out-of-balance, as the eastern maps have much more factions (ERE and Abbas) and wealth if follows the same regional configurations. In reality is the logistic system and army organization that prevent these great powers to exert their conquest to the west, which are difficult to be simulated in total war series.
Age of Charlemagne sounds badass!
To date the only Total War games I have played are Warhammer 2 and 3. Currently addicted.
What Thrones of Britannia could've been
I am glad you've got to the point where your video title are only partially in caps.
Still missing your face in the thumbnail pulling exaggerated expressions in reaction to the clickbaity premises though.
Huge miss that they didnt make Eastern Rome playable. Think about how many playthroughs there will be where people try to reconquer Italy and beyond
How to get Byzantine Empire mod to work properly? How far do I roll back my game?
0:58
i'm sorry what?
no.
charlemagne died 200 years before Otto I. founded the holy roman empire. charlemagne formed frankia
I’ve always wanted to play total war games that are actually based on history as I’ve always played the total war warhammer versions of the game.
It’s not even the graphics that put me off it’s just the controls etc feel so bad. Are there any mods that have rectified this in any of these games ?
I can't attest to the changes in atilla vs the age of Charlemagne expansion (potato pc) but what I will say is I do agree that the significant time difference does help to differentiate the expansion from its base game. Fall of the samurai perhaps being the most extreme and imo fun, sort of change up from the base game shogun 2. But one thing I do regret not seeing is diplomacy being more of a thing. Then again it's not that unexpected.
In fall of the samurai (legendary) everybody keeps backstabbing you, your ally that have a marriage alliance with, is literally your relative and has been allied with you for centuries will suddenly switch sides and attack you if you leave the border unguarded for 1 turn but what really got me upset is how a random nation in the other corner of the map will declare war on me AND actually focus on me instead of its neighbors. However that's what made it fun for me, albeit I had to either exploit the shit out of the game or gather a HUGE army and send them on ships to invade Hokkaido (the big island to the north), if you're able to secure this 5 province island the game is over lol, you can safely turtle and slowly invade the countries to the south. Basically, playing in the corners is OP.
How can you have Mercia and not Wessex? Wessex was around before and after Mercia was a kingdom.
Why not make a world map of ancient times and technology tier's so you can play as ancient Rome and have technology of the middle ages or higher. So who ever research's the fastest could possibly win the world. Just have the best fun ever you can research up to modern time.
Total War games: from settlement to settlement with 0 strategy involved
I love the period on charlemagne, but I hate the fact that every civ has '' spaniard spear, arab spear, italian spear, saxon spear '' and they're all the same, poor variety of units, also this other bug that drove me crazy was the fact that the chainmail texture bas bugged on most charlemagne's textures ( but not on attila's ) even on ultra
I found the best way to make Attila run better is to just wipe and tribe that migrates into your territory. Just finished a Western Rome run
My major issue with the AOC units and unit mods is that they all look the same visually.
Yeah that's perhaps my biggest gripe as well. It's the time period though kinda, isn't it?
Age of charlemagne was the reason I bought Attila.
I'd like to see a third person total war like bannerlord.
@@rory6860 Never heard of "Spartan: Total Warrior"? It's a Spin off game.
I always thought it'd be cool (if impossible) to play as the scouts and champions, etc. Like Assasins Creed or Kingdom Come to find locations to build new fortifications and towns, scout for the enemy, assassinate or sabotage enemies., etc.
@@ryanspackman548 There is a game called "Warlord: Britannia", mix of Open World, Total War like battles etc.
I genuinely prefer AoC over base game Attila
I'm obviously into LOTR mods. lol 😜😎✌
Saxland
It's great, but unfortunately is super easy after the first 10 turns or so , Even on legendary , forcing you to restart because of war weariness untill you get past turn 10 and steamroll. This is why i think FOTS is the best total war expansion , the was literally a stand alone expansion , that ive put around 600 hours in alone, it changed up combat , game mechanics and had huge amounts of polish.
Cool but is that i can sack a settlement unlimited times, farming integrity and respect of the country that's being sacked
I think thematically, this was my favourite expansion, but I could never really enjoy it because I never really enjoyed the way Attila played. I can't quite put my finger on why, because I really liked Rome 2, and the games aren't that dissimilar.
Yeah your intro about charlamaign and the time period is a little historically inaccurate. The Holy Roman Empire was anything but holy and they definitely were far removed from being inheritors of Christianity.
The Greek speaking Orthodox Eastern Roman Empire was more holy and more inherent of Christianity than the German tribes ever could be. First off.
Second off, not to steal credit from the man himself, Charlamaign did stop the Islamic horde in southern France from taking over Western Europe. He established what later became France, Germany, etc. The pope broke protocol with the church by appointing him head of the Roman Empire at the time when a Queen regent ruled the Eastern Roman Empire.
So just to clarify, the Holy Roman Empire was not holy nor was it Roman nor was it even practicing the same Christian traditions as the apostles.
Just an fyi for anyone who cares about historical accuracy
age of charlemagne is better than the base game
Fall of the samurai
1212 AD mod?
Yes.
A large overhaul mod for Attila called 'Medieval Kingdoms 1212AD'.
It is unfinished and needs work but it's worth giving it a try as it does have a lot of potential.
You can find it on the Steam workshop.
🙂
Age of Shillamane
Good part of it has no fantastic factions as Armenia, Syria, Palestina or United Greek cities and colonies as one faction.
Too bad I've no intention of playing Attila. Rome 2's still better with it's modding scene.
Honestly its an interedting expansion but I hate the Rome 2 engine
nice clickbait with the thumbnail
Good that someone else noticed it.
Yeah only to be ruined by a broken and incompetent battle AI
Just tired of playing on the same old European map
Can't play as the Romans? lmao sorry I bothered
I may be playing it safe but my fav expansion is Barbarian Invasion. Playing with the religious and the horde system for the first time, trying to hold the empire together, it' s just so interesting and so much fun (and frustrating at times)
That was an amazing expansion for real!
M2TW Kingdoms is my favorite.
BURN THE HERETICS!
Yesssss! I HIGHLY agree
It is the most difficult campaign in the history of Total War
Fall of The Samurai was my favourite expansion. After going through the Sengoku Jidai with the Tokugawa, it was fun going to the other side with Saigo Takamori's faction and basically recreating history. Gameplay was also quite different, forcing you to adapt a lot if you wanted to keep being melee-focused.
As a Total War Veteran for many years now, i can tell you FoS IS still the best expansion! I don't know why these guys started in 2023 advertising for "Age of Charlmagne"? Maybe they testing a new PR-Marketing campagne with CA in cooperation?
@@ManiacMVK 100%, they are just hyping up modern totall wars.
FotS is definitely the best expansion i've ever seen in most games let alone total war. I absolutely loved the naval combat from empire being brought over as vanilla shogun 2's navy gameplay was pretty boring. Love seeing those massive firing lines of gatling guns and cannons and ironclad ships all set in Japan
Yeah I remember being great at playing as samurai on the fall of the samurai got ganged up on by online players switch allegiance got fire power plus with all the land I had in various resources I was able to builds fast my navel powers was grand always had ships near by for a bombardment. Plus where this fortress was located my cannons couldn’t hit main points of the fortress so k noticed a mountain side which could allow for two units of cannons which was in direct location of the castle from obove so I was getting direct hits
I first played Attila not long after it came out.
I uninstalled it after about 4 days as the campaign was repetitive, predictable and in a word... boring.
I tired it again a little while later and it was still the same, plus the performance issues.
Some years later, about 3 weeks ago I installed Attila again and played it for more than a week,just the vanilla game, no DLC's, no mods and gave it a good go.
I played all the (very limited amount of) factions.
The factions are just a copy and paste production: The 2 'Barbarian' factions are nearly exactly the same. The 2 Roman ones are the same. The 'horde' Hun factions are the same, etc etc.
You have to pay as much if not more money than the base game costs to get some variance, different 'flavour', 'mechanics' and a few 'new' units/buildings etc in the game via 'DLC's'.
Lots of the DLC's don't give you much and some of them are just 'playable' factions that are already in the game but are behind a paywall, which is a shady business practice that CA/Sega are known for and what they get criticized the most for.
Once again I found the game repetitive and predictable and devoid of any real substance.
The game is an improvement on Rome 2 (well, anything is an improvement on Rome 2) in terms of graphics,UI and the 'family tree'/'Governors' feature.
What is the most improved is actually the battle AI; much, much better than Rome 2 and pretty much most Total War games except Three Kingdoms.
The Charlemagne expansion does look good though and is actually an expansion and not just a 'DLC' of re-skins, stat-changes, a couple of buildings but with the same voice-overs etc.
The most highly rated 'culture pack' DLC's ( on Steam) are the 'Celts', 'Empires of Sand' and of course the Charlemagne expansion.
I will wait untill Charlemagne goes on sale on Steam to give it a try.
At the moment I am trying out some overhaul mods to see what they are like.
I don't play Rome 2, I play Divide et Impera which in my opinion is the best overhaul mod made for any Total War game and makes Rome 2 an actual game.
I won't play the vanilla Attila game really as it just doesn't 'draw me in' so I hope to find a good overhaul mod that is the equal of Divide et Impera, or close to it.
We'll see.
🙂
I understand, good on you for giving Attila a try! I personally love it. As for mods, there's always the MK1212 mod which is just insane, and I don't know if you've heard, but they managed to crack the campaign map modding codes, meaning in about 1-2 years we'll have entire overhaul mods, like LOTR, with a LOTR campaign map, in Attila. Also, the Anno Domini mods for Charlemagne are looking sweet, and will come out sometime this or next year!
Had and still have the same experience with either Rome 2 or Attila. Lose interest always immediately. Gameplay is repetitive, the campaign map is awful (especially when compared to it's predecessor) and the general art style does not appeal to me at all.
@@philnerius7645
Aye.
Give Divide et Impera (for Rome 2) a go.
It's excellent and the best overhaul mod in my opinion.
;-)
@@AndysTake
Aye, I saw yer vid about the potential of modding new maps etc.
Intriguing and exciting.
The vanilla experience of Attila is disappointing though so I will get me a good overhaul and dive in.
;-)
Maybe "Fall of the Eagle" + "Europa Perdita" could be your DeI for Attila. ;)
i never think about to giva a chance to Atilla but your review make it unavoidble
hahaha glad to hear it ;)
I really liked the Belisarius campaign too. The Roman Expedition gameplay is really refreshing and interesting. This one feels a bit unfinished and rushed, for example, the unit rosters for many of the factions feel small and shallow, although it has really good ideas for a future Medieval 3
The Belisarius campaign was interesting. The thing I didn't like all too well in that was just how absolutely bleak and dark the campaign map looked.
DEI is by far my favorite but for Attila? Its gotta be 1212 Anno Domine
There's a shader bug in Atilla that degrades the framerate which also affects a few other titles and there's a mod that can fix it. Seems like they fixed it for Charlemagne!
Which mod is this?
Hey guys, the mod in question involved taking the shaders from Thrones of Britannia and dropping them into Attila. It's actually better to go in and edit your preferences file and change the number of threads to 8 and increase gpu memory value to 4000 (maybe higher, if you have more than 4GB of graphics vram).
Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion was the best. Trying to keep the Western Empire up was amazing.
How many Total War games are there now? Some have been hit or miss for me but my favourite is still the first one I played (and actually bought at full price around 2005?) Medieval: Total War II. Ooh! Just noticed Atilla can be had for a fiver!
Please total war team ..please do fix and upgrade this game
Why is attila so laggy also medival kingdoms 1212ad is so laggy can't really play any ideas
Its always hard for me to get into any total war expansion. Most of them use a way smaller map size. I don't know, I guess I just loose interest when its like that for some reason. That goes for games as well. My least played total war games are all the ones that focus in on a smaller region of the world. Like Thrones of Britannia. I think Napoleon total war is a way better game than empire. But I only have 100 hours on napoleon, compared to 900 hours on empire. Can you imagine Napoleon total war with empire's map size. Would be soooo much fun. Anyways great vid!
Hmu if someone wants to play a coop campaign
Nice clickbait thumbnail lol
0:21 someone forget Fall of Samurai
Alright. Just purchased it and will give it a go. Atilla was one TW title I ended up missing.
Attila is a really underrated Total War game. It fixed the main problems of Rome II (as much as it could, not the ungodly provincial system), but suffered the handicap of being the sequel of the huge dissapointment of Rome II in its horrible beginnings.
I wish it had the diplomacy of three kingdoms. It has the most interesting time period of all Total wars
@@rory6860 I think I like the first millennium so much, because it‘s very underrepresented in media. Most historical movies, novels and games are 12th-14th or 18th-20th century or in antiquity ages. I wouldn’t depend it so much on benefits with total war mechanics/gameplay. If I would take that in account I think 30years war would be the most interesting.
CA hasn't playtested this campaign. This campaign pack is pure comedy. The amount of public disorder a player is faced with is disgusting. A few turns in whichever campaign you want and all your province revolt. For example, you are at war with one faction. They dont want peace. You can afford maybe two stacks. You can' be everywhere. Enemy starts raiding your provices far away from your reach. Guess what happens - they revolt, your war exhaustion goes up. A few turns later you basically fight against your own people - the rebels. It's basically unplayable. The only faction I could have a normal campaign was Mercia. Don't bother playing other factions. Yet if you dare, be prepared for a mental breakdown. Take Avars as another example. Your religion is different which completely halts your progress and expanding is non existent. You can't leave your province because -30 public order penalty will slowly turn into an open revolt. So, your sitting in your province, trying to get another building slot to fix this problem. Your income is low, you just burn turn after turn. If that was the idea CA had in mind while designing this campaign pack, well, I salute them.
Edit. One more thing - constant fires/earthquakes/floods destroying your capital, so you have to spend your precious money on rebuilding your buildings. Great work CA. Trully the best Total war expansion ever.
I despise Attila. I think the vast majority of the campaign and battle mechanics were detrimental. I feel like it's a very boring game to play through. The pricing and DLC models are super predatory. it is so awful in so many ways... But AOC made the game playable. I really wanted to love this game since I spent so much time on it and AOC is the only thing that allowed me to actually enjoy it
The only thing that ruins this campaign for me is AI stupidity and ineptness. Major factions like the Franks, Lombards, Avars even the Moors just tend to lose half their territories to a backdrop 1-settlement npc faction which completely ruins the anticipation of two powerful rival factions facing off in endgame. The AI is simply too bad at playing large factions competently and it's always the little factions (like the Saxons) that give the most grief.
Is it possible to play with Armenia????
Warning: Long Post but worth it.
After playing ck3, imperator rome (invictus) and victoria 3 I've really come to realise just how shallow and frustrating TW games have become.
The main aim of grand strategy games is to map paint (i know paradox like to say that you can pick your own objectives but let's be real here). The developers then need to add MEANINGFUL AND ENGAGING constraints and layers which the player needs to learn, leverage and master in order to conquer territory and map paint. CK3 has character relations, inheritance of titles, light province managmentand, character developing events. Victoria 3 has economics and pops, imperator has a light mix of all of these (imo it's the deepest empire building paradox game ahead of eu4 if you look at pure mechanics and not flavour which invictus mod fixes anyway). All these layers interact with each other in a meaningful way and allow the player to get creative once they understand the fundamental interactions.
Total war's main layer is the RTS battle capability. All other restrictions such as religion, public order, money making etc are all really simple and shallow. The peak of TW for me was Medieval 2 when all the mechanics worked together and allowed for creativity. The problem was that due to the simplicity of the constraints, it was easy to keep them under control and to then build up your forces and ruin the AI. Plus the gameplay loop became super micromanagy and tedious after the initial stage of expansion.
CA tried to fix the ease of the game without actually addressing the base problem. The problem that the mechanics used to constraining the player are super shallow (devoid of decision making and thought).
What TW now has is artificial difficulty where the constraints on players are so tedious and over the top that it just doesnt make the game any more difficult. It just slows it down and bores you. Army limits linked to territory is the most shitty mechanic ever. In order to gain more land and protect yours you need more armies but you are capped at a certain amount until you take more land is a horrible clash of a mechanics.
To add insult to injury, battles have become so much worse post Medieval 2 in terms of visual, sound, and just general immersion such as physics (collisions). This is due to the core design of the warscape engine. The fundamental design of battles is also very boring now and most people dont play past the first 1 or 2 unless it's decisive down the line. This could be fixed by actually having a multi phase battle system split into say scouting, skirmishes, main engagment and running down where each phase would give an advantage lr disadvantage depending on who won/lost it on the next phase. These are just ideas but TW really needs to lean on its strengths as franchise fatigue is setting in. People play TW for the units and battle experience with that element of grand strategy attached to it. As long as battles are deep then the grand strategy part doesnt have to be super deep.
To summarise: Total War has failed to evolve in what actually made it fun amd innovative and instead focused on all the wrong things and started trying to copy competitors without realising what made it special in the first place resulting in a horribly boring spreadsheet game that has so many contradicting mechanics purely designed to make the player feel a sense of difficulty that just comes across as tedious.