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Total War Series

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rem1100

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Hey, I am new to the site and I was wondering if anybody plays the total war series, most recently empire total war. I find it to be a fascinating embodyment of capitalism, and self determination. There is a complex (and profitable) economic system, and no scripted story aside from an optional American revolution campaign.

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Well on second thought it isn't quite capitalism per say, but trade and economics are way more important. For example I play as England, and so pirating and establishing trade routes are important to my income. I am finding myself in trade wars, fighting other pirates and raiders and competing nations, it isn't just about land any more.

Your countries citizens being economically succesful is important to you, for example I always get this warning that overtaxing my ruling class is stifling growth. I don't suppose I rule as an objectivist, but a large part of my job is keeping industry and trade going. In my opinion trade is capitalism in the game, even though its government intervention I take tax revenue and I create new ports and trade routes and protect my money sources, which can be raided and rendered fruitless by maruading enemy armies.

Also certain regions have universities or colleges, where you can research military technology, industrial or agricultural technology, or social philosopical technology like "division of labor" and Adam Smith idea.

Edited by rem1100
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Interesting -- it seems economical concerns are more important in this iteration of the series. In Rome, the economy consisted of;

1: conquer province.

2: use government funds to build bath houses and stadiums and temples to keep the people from revolting.

3: tax the the living hell out of inhabitants ( secondary: Build another statue to keep them happy)

4: use taxes to raise more troops to conquer another province.

5: repeat...

If Empire has a system that is more engrossing than this, then I will be quite happy.

EDIT: Also, could you expand upon the "taxes limiting growth" bit you mentioned? It always bothers me in empire-type games that you can tax the pants off of your inhabitants, and as long as they are pacified with various social projects, trade and overall economic growth would not be effected at all. Typical economic fallacy, I suppose, but it would be nice to see a game where the economy was shrunk in the long-term if you pursued byzantine tax policies.

Edited by Sarrisan
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The tax system consists of a seperate rate for the nobility and the commoners, I haven't ever crunched the numbers, but if you highly tax the nobility you get a notice that the high taxes are hurting long term growth. Also new towns pop up when the population of a region increases and population growth is directly impacted by taxes.

Unfortunatetly for my subjects I find high taxes and military reppression to be more fun, the high taxes are neccesary to pay for the upkeep of my legions of redcoats. Do as I say not as I do in video games. :lol: .

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I've been wanting to get a good RTS game, but have yet to find anything that seems interesting enough. I might have to give this one a try.

It's more of a grand-strategy game than an RTS. The RTS element only comes in when you fight in battles, the rest of it is done in turn-based format on a large map of the world.

Having said that, if Empire is anything like Rome, than the battles will be the high-point of the game.

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