Total War: Napoleon

Empire: Total War needs no introduction to the serious strategy gamer. It's the latest title to one of the best geopolitical/historical simulation series ever made. I'm thrilled to know that there's going to be a standalone expansion, entitled Total War: Napoleon.

For the uninitiated, the Total War series focuses on a hybrid system that seamlessly combines turn-based Civilization style gameplay, with a real time component for tactical battles. It's awesome building up your armies and then watching them battle to the death in open fields, sieging castles or taking over towns and cities.

But your role in the RTS isn't passive, as the battles offer a fairly deep set of options for leading them in their fights. For me, the real time battles are probably the best of part of the game. It reminds me of playing with toy soldiers as a kid. Rome: Total War, Medieval Total War II and Empire: Total War, are among the type of games that you simply must play, if you are a devotee of the strategy genre.

From what I can tell, Napoleon looks like it's going to be awesome. I especially like the fact that it's going to be standalone. It's nice not to have to re-install and/or patch everything, or require the original game. In addition to focusing on who was considered to be the Antichrist of his time (Napoleon), it's good to know they'll be other significant historical characters as well. The last time I could play as von Blucher was in Fields of Glory.

Relive the era when the French could still win wars.

If you love strategy, history and real time strategy, I can't recommend the Total War series highly enough. I'll definitely be interested in following this newest addition to Empire Total War. It's nice to know developers aren't forgetting about their work. First, another expansion for Sins, and now for Empire. If they got around to an American Civil War mod, that would be perfect.