Honsou Gaming

Screenshots to come! I will also update this review the more I play it.

Empire: Total War is one of those games that you can go back to years after it was released and still have a great time with it. CA mellowed down the modding scene for their games (since they don’t like people buying their games for amazing mods), but we still have a good selection of mods to choose from for Empire TW. The most popular is Darthmod Empire (currently at version 7.0) which changes the core gameplay and many other aspects of the game such as creating x2 unit sizes. The alternative version of Darthmod Empire is a combination of many mods called the DMUC (Darth Mod Ultimate Commander).

Darthmod can come across as a bit of a pick-a-mix of mods without any real direction, especially when the playable factions and unit rosters come into it. Some factions are beautifully fleshed out and detailed with historical names, and other factions just have the bare basics from the vanilla Empire unit roster. Also, some units added in are of historical significance but do not add to the gameplay unless a certain historical regiment really does it for you.

DE is a brilliant mod, don’t get me wrong! It is great to have options with your mods, and on the other side of the modded coin we have Imperial Splendor.

IS changes the core of the game for the better, much like DE. Campaign and battle AI are improved, along with plenty of other changes to give the campaign a much more authentic feel. Units and ships are very expensive but have low upkeep which has a really good effect on the campaign. Large armies are not expensive but losing them is, and the same goes for ships. I particularly like the super expensive ships as it gives them the respect they deserve, each ship is highly valued and capturing ships is a priority. 4th Lines and frigates gain a better role in this regard and makes naval battles much more fun and important.

Portugal excel in range combat, while their neighbors Spain are natural close combat warriors

The major appeal to this mod is the unit roster for each faction. Each nation has a unique unit roster with stats to support the style of combat of which each nation used to favor. The mod team had made making unique nations and they have done extremely well. You really have to play the mod to experience it, and the faction forum will show the kind of detail that each nation has gone through and how their historical fighting style is in the game.

Each nation has roughly the same amount of units (around 8+ infantry, 6+ calvary), and each unit is very unique. Most nations also has a few unique cannons as well. The unit roster is beautifully done, not just with stats to make each nation play unique (which is balanced very well), but the models themselves are truely amazing. The current versions of IS are focusing on modelling each faction, so each unit will be completely unique along with precision historical details. These changes really make a difference to the whole atmosphere of the game, it just feels much more authentic.

A few things to note; If you are familiar with DE, you might miss the x2 unit size. After a few battles you get used to the smaller sizes of units and battles. Also, the mod is not as popular as it should be, so it is lacking in sub mods or alot of the mods are not updated and thus not compatible with newer versions of IS and don’t have support. The giant aesthetics mod is not really compatible either, with some inconsistencies with some parts of the mod working at different times during gameplay, and the blood and smoke mod is not compatible which is probably the biggest niggle I have with this mod so far.I believe its not in the modding teams interest to implement these mods but they would gain many more fans if they did so, and it would make IS the pinnacle of authentic 18th century atmosphere, as close as you get with any games released so far.

The mod is truely enjoyable and was a suprise to how good it is. After participating on the mod forums for awhile I got the impression that the modders are really passionate about IS, and are steaming ahead dispite the current overall lack of popularity with the mod. IS should be on par with the top mod, and seen as offering a very different play style to DE, with the massive and epic nature of DE to refined and authenticity of IS. If more people try IS, they will get more support and we as gamers and fan of Empire will get a better mod, although at this point im not sure how much better you can make it after they redesign the whole unit roster of every nation in the game!

Honsou.