Empire Total War Retrospective | Empire Total War 2021 Review
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- In this video, we're taking a look at what Empire: Total War did for the Total series, and which major changes impacted the games after it? Do you agree with my points, and did I forget something? If you enjoyed the video, please leave a like, a comment, and subscribe to the channel! And it would be awesome if you would consider supporting me on Patreon! / andystake
I am using the Minor Factions Revenge mod to expand the factions availible from the beginning, you can find it here: www.moddb.com/...
I really wish that CA would make a empire total war 2 streatching from 1700s-ww1 technology.
That would require fall of the samurai type modular standalone dlc but I would love to see it. That said I think civil War era is basically the extent of what the total war engine is suited to. Maybe you could drag in the first 3 months of WW 1 as a late game crisis/ realm divide mechanic.
I dont need it to get to ww1,
Just give me the full map of the world, decently placed and sized cities, a decent focus on the navy (it's too important in this period), and a non buggy land AI.
@@_Azurael_ amén to you brother. That makes us 2
Would love that. I would love Asia and Oceania on the map to. So much happened in the world as a whole during the age of colonialism. That would lead to world war 1. But how would the game hold up. How can you go from armies walking in to eachother's fire to trench warfare.
Darth mod Empire made this game so much better.
I think the pirate faction is the rebel faction in the empire scenario.
Also, I love this broken game to death.
I loved taking the pirate settlements with PLC, Sweedish, and Prussians to have a ahistorical colonial empire
With Minor Factions Revenge mod you can play as pirates and it's so fun
Try playing Darth mod Empire its like a whole new game.
@@dragonflydreamer7658 I could only get that mod working for napoleon. On Empire, it's impossible for me :(
I played the hell out of this game and loved every minute of it and still love it. Capturing enemy ships was my favorite thing about it.
Empire is my most played Total war game and is great but deeply flawed.
I loved the multiple theatres which gave the game another layer of strategy as when getting into a war you had to consider who held sway in the region, for example the Americas has England,France and Spain meaing you can fight them in America to wear them now without pissing off the rest of Eruope, it also means you need to consider where else a nation is holding out, they could have a tiny hold in one region but be the big player in another giving them strength for a good fight.
I loved the era and the way they did cannons. The trading of volley fire is satisfying to watch and the way they made cannons have different ammo types and unlimited ammo made them a very important unit to fight, in other games where the ammo is limited the unit will eventually run out and become useless troops as they are weaker than peasants as infantry but the unlimited ammo makes them more dangerous as the fight wears on and numbers off non artillery units begin to wear out.
The naval combat is solid and works well for it being their first attempt, in often works better than the shogun 2 naval battles in the fall of the samurai campaign.
I did have a few issues.
The combat mentioned in the video but usually that was rare due to 90% Infantry units fight in volleys and the ai sacrifices its horses in unsupported charges making melee rare unless I am defending a wall against climbing infantry or fighting non European armies such as native tribes (if they don't route first) or Indian factions like the Maratha Confederacy.
The ai is broken in sieges, they are often dumb but for some reason they tend to have pathing issues when a wall breaks and it lags the game into unplayable vanilla.
The cities are poorly fleshed out. In some field fights you will have a little village to fight through but the walled cities are just a fort which was a disappointing step down from medival 2 and its sprawling cities and street to street battles.
@Lorenzo Morris fair enough I guess, I just find it odd that the unwalled cities have you battling through a village but the walled cities are just those forts, made more odd as their older game has you fight street by street after breaching the walls. My best guess for that is in medieval most units were melee fighters which made for better street fighting than ranged units. It doesn't matter that infantry are fighting in thin columns down streets but it looks dumber with only a handful of musketeers firing because there is only enough room for 10 guys in a line.
Try playing Darth mod Empire its like a whole new game.
@@dragonflydreamer7658 I have played Darth mod and it is very similar yet very different at the same time, biggest thing mostly fixed was ai lagging sieges but that was fixed largely by removing walls as a starting building or changing ai priority because only big cities with the extra buildings had walls
I might be wrong about the history here but I’m under the impression armies didn’t really invade cities in the same manner as in medieval or rome during this time period. And so I found the fact that large cities were not the battle ground but rather whatever nearby military fort or large field nearby fitting.
Sure there might be small skirmishes near a small town that can get used for cover etc. But imagining 2 huge armies battling it out in the streets of paris seems unimmersive, as by then the faction would’ve surrendered. Like when prussia kicked france ass in the field and by the time it was obvious they’d get to the city the war was done.
@@miot22 I did a bit of reading and it does seem urban warfare was rare during that era as armies would surrendor when the defenses were breached or be destroyed quickly afterwards leading to the town getting sacked.
There were a few instances, the 2nd siege of vienna, the defenders were prepared to go street by street but the combination of stubborn defenders, a expert mercenary building up defenses, poor weather and a relieving army prevented the siege from getting to that point.
The US civil war had the armies fighting in the streets of Fredericksburg at one point.
History aside, I am sure it was game reasons, the engine struggles when a regular wall breaks and the artillery gets placed behind buildings then spends it time blasting said buildings, I think it would have a stroke trying to handle the buildings.
On top of that, I would think musket duels and artillery would handle awkwardly in confined hallways of city steets. Fighting through breeches in the walls are awkward with muskets and artillery is tricky to get to aim correctly. Howitzers would have been super OP in that situation as for some reason Carcass and Quicklime shells pass through walls in the version we got meaning they would be horrifying in the siege where everything else is limited in effectiveness.
I had totally forgotten what a step up Empire was from Medieval 2
Definitely in terms of graphics at least!
But it didn‘t have such an abundance of awesome cutscenes afaik, right?
@@uluomu True, none of the hilarious cutscenes made it into Empire. I guess it fit the more serious tone CA was going for, but man if it wasn't exciting waiting to see if your spy hiding in a bush would get spotted
@@phanboy3 also dont forget the abysmal collision engine it introduced that caused the rome 2 launch
*Warscape engine notwithstanding.*
I would love an Empire: Total War 2. I have a list of ideas that I think would make the game much better.
I desperately want an Updated Empire or a Total War that takes place in North and South America during the 1800s-1900s
Is this song playing in the background present in Empire? I ask because it is exactly the same song used in Victoria II.
It’s from Vicky 2, just thought it would fit in well here ;)
I wish we could get a paradox level micromanaging with total war battles
the province setup is IMO the best TW has ever been in Empire and Napoleon. These small towns help the AI so much formulating a plan of attack and open up possibilities for the player as well. I eally wish CA brought these back.
I always loved an idea of guns in total war, thus empire is the game in the series that I still come back to despite its annoying flaws.
The original Rome/Medieval 2/Empires and Napoleon are my favorite. I cannot choose which one are the best as they are good in their respective time, I like Empires but I played Napoleon more because they fix a lot of problem that was in Empire starting with the screen resolution as I always have a hard time reading the text. I still haven't found a solution for it.
Yeah, Napoleon fixed a lot, I just wish they had updated empire with the same updates and graphical enhancements!
@@AndysTake I love the scope of Empires it is unfortunate that it wasn't polish to the level of Napoleon, It is really not that bad since I am half French but still what it could have been. and truthfully I would prefer to play empire then napoleon if it was given the same level of polish.
@@TheRealSpeedWolf Agreed! Hopefully the next empire will have a map as big as Napoleon’s but with the same world wide scope
@@TheRealSpeedWolf Also say hi to France for me!
@@AndysTake I strongly doubt it especially in the world of microtransaction and multiple DLC (not expansion pack) just to be able to have a full game, maybe I'm just getting old but people focus too much on graphics then actual substance, just look at Medieval 2 expansion pack alone. imagine something being released like that today they're going to butcher it and they did actually, even by your own admission such as Thrones of Britannia as that was probably the best example of medieval 3 being released today.
Apologies for the rant, but I was raised with a French mindset that mean I complain and very opinionated. not to be confused with arrogance as I for one do not think I'm better than anybody else. :p
song? also, the Darthmod for this was the Champ.
Look up Vicky 2 soundtrack :)
I didn't like my purchase of the TW series until I played ETW ... I guess that says it all.
Empire Total war is my favourite total war, wish they made a Empire TW2
I think I disagree with your complaints about the game in respect of streamlining.
I think some of the changes were necessary because of the era involved.
I think having specialised cities actually makes the game less streamlined.
I do agree with you regarding the number of regions for places like France and Spain.
However, I think the main gripes with the game are due to the bugs during combat and in particular sieges.
I still think this is one of the better games in the series. There was a large campaign map that required a strategy for your state and the battle maps were large which allowed more options for tactical deployment than later games.
Also, no automatic ships for transporting troops which I like
With a few improvements then the game could have been right up there.
Not as much as it could have.
I would love to play it, but then ii always end up with napoleon instead of the bug-festival empire is since launch.
Haizz, you did not mention the unreadable blurry texts.
An XVIII-XIX Empire 2 would be great, with mechanics like Fall of the Samurai. I always liked Napoleon and Fall of the Samurai better than Empire, but is thanks to that game that we had gunpowder
Одна из лучших игр серии.
This its the best total war
It’s pretty great!
@@AndysTake Is Attila pretty good? I have haven’t bought it yet.
@@moisuomi it’s amazing, you should check out my review of it!
how u where capable of playing norway or other nations???
even tho i finish the campain still only manage to get the big nations from the start
Isn't this music from Victoria 2?
Correct! Thought it suited Empire just as well :)
does the mod cause crashes? especially in endgame
Hey there! Not for me yet, I haven’t experienced any problems with it!
should have taken place in the 30 years war in my opinion.
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Darthmod is broken ottomanturn lag is stronk
Empire II is LONG overdue.
Heck to the yes!
I enjoyed Empire alot, and would buy a decently priced Remaster.
Absolutely...and with almost unlimited modding like they've just patched in with Rome Remastered..that would be fantastic.
And i would pay anything for a decently made remaster
Try playing Darth mod Empire its like a whole new game.
@@dragonflydreamer7658 I've played most of the mods for Empire and Darth gives you lots of options and is without doubt a great mod, but I must say Imperial Destroyer has become my favourite and Imperial Splendour is very good along with Empire Realism. If we could have a remastered version with unlimited modding it would be just brilliant.
Empire must be the TW i played the least, but i have believed for a while now that it's the most revolutionary game of the franchise alongside the original Rome
You might be right, it really did change things up for better or worse. It’s kinda like, if Medieval 2 was the best iteration of the original formula, then Empire was the worst of the new one. Still many great things about this game, but so many flaws too. Thank you for watching mate!
Try playing Darth mod Empire its like a whole new game.
The thing that I always appreciated and was unique to Empire that I don't see many people talk about is the 'theatre' mechanic of the map. Maybe it was done at the time because the tech wasn't up to putting all the regions in one campaign map at the same time, but I always felt that it actually gave you a sense of fighting in distant lands far from easy reach of the homeland. It's not just a long trip in terms of long movement arrow, but at one point of the trip, your entire fleet goes dark with the entire stack disappearing to uncharted territory.
Especially in the early game, losing naval battles in the Americas or the East Indies were PAINFUL because your small fleet that really wouldn't measure up to the strength of homeland fleets was still the only one in the region and if they lost, that was your influence gone for the next tens of turns if not for the entire campaign. To come back from that would require significant investment in an expeditionary navy and army. It really gave the sense of empires fighting all over the globe the giant, but single maps of Rome 2 or Attila just couldn't quite replicate.
Very good analysis my friend! I agree with most of what you've said here, and I'd absolutely love an Empire 2. Warscape has issues, but it's come a long way since ETW.
Thank you so much! Very true. We can only see what happens next after… Warhammer 3 and the next 3K I suppose!
@@AndysTake Yeah I am afraid so. I am not the biggest fan of the 3K setting which means that the next major historical title for me personally is way off, possibly more than 5 years. Especially because I expect another fantasy/possibly even 40k title after the second Three Kingdoms game.
Empire is my favorite of all the games
I really liked the town mechanic as annoying as it could be to defend them I just wished there was more regions france being one region was so dumb and made them so easy to kill (also only tw game featuring the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth)
Yup. I would’ve preferred a system where region capitals could develop as they wanted (unrestricted building slots) and the small towns would be locked into something similar to rome2 and beyond. Where they’d have 2-4 building slots that would dictate what kind of town it was. A port town with a trade good building and a merchant wharf, or a plantation town with farms and food distribution buildings, or a manufacturing town with a factory and refinery. Etc.
Massive regions like france would simply need to be broken down into more reasonably sized large regions with their own small towns.
This would keep the importance of region capitals but also needing to defend those exposed small towns that the region capital depends on.
@@miot22 Well actually every city can still build any building, it's not limited like for example rome 2. It may seem like it because they use the same sort of layout, but every city has basically the same potential as with medieval 2 or rome 1. You don't have to decide between canon factories or barracks for example.
@@HarhanDerMann that is not what I meant by unrestricted. Sure, all large population centers can build the same full list of 5ish buildings in vanilla. Smaller towns have to pick between the two governor buildings and fort upgrades.
The point I was implying was to go back to a med2 style building list with many different options. Different civil, commercial, military, etc buildings. The player would be free to build anything, though ultimately you wouldn’t want to because you wouldn’t have the resources to make every option viable. For example it would be silly to build a merchant warehouse in city that lacked a coastal port town because the two would be designed synergistically.
A capital city with textile factories would benefit from having its towns specialized to supply it with raw resources. A metal factory city would depend on nearby mining town. Maybe eventually, in late game with the advent of railroads, the city-town dependence could be relaxed. Now a city could be supplied with raw resources from a global nation pool instead of needing matching nearby towns.
Empire was my favourite total war. I loved the theme of the game, and the naval battles. Obliterating a smaller navy with your first rate ships of the line was incredibly satisfying.
However the biggest gripe I have with the game was the terrible city battles. In fact you never fought in a city, you fought in a fort. Literally every single city battle looked and felt identical. That made the game a lot less interesting for me.
My name brother, those siege battles get SO repetitive… and the AI can’t handle them, and… and… the trauma
@@AndysTake At leash it's better than Warhammer
This is the game where as Sweden I sailed to America; Recruited American Indians as scouts for my army. Then Sailed to Africa; marched to and through Persia until my Indians reached India
Me toooooooo!!😂😂😂😂👍
``royals dont lead troops like they used to in this time period`` looking at king charles of sweden leading all batles from the front line ........................
My favourite total war along side MedII
Empire 2 has so much fucking potential..
I recently finished my first Empire campaign playing as Sweden. Went to war with Russia and donated all their crappy regions to various native American factions. That was fun. I kinda like the slow tempo in battles and I would prefer a Victorian era Empires 2 over Medieval 3 tbh.
It introduces naval battle. I dont like land battle in this game. But the naval battle... it was fun.
Yes it really was :) land battles need a TON of work though…
Having played every TW since the first shogun (i missed rome and medieval) I can say that Empire is in the top 3 easily.
It's also one of the most unique.
They put a lot of effort into this one, and the naval battles were pretty much like playing a stand-alone new TW game.
Ah yes, the Karl before the Franz.
The Nappy before the Happy
Darth Mod Empire changed the game made it a whole new game the way everyone said it should be. How long are going to beat this dead horse the game is a great game.
With current tech, there is no reason not to make TW Empire II.
we need a new total war game with gunpowder....a proper sequel to empire. I'm sick of warhammer
Just imagine had Empire had the AI as smart and as aggressive as the Shogun 2 AI, that would've turned Empire into more akin of a WWI/WWII mass defense/attack game and just a completely different beast outright.
Honestly what’s weird is that I find Empire’s AI to be really aggressive, at least on harder difficulties. As France, expect to be ganged by Britain, the Netherlands and Austria at the same time, for example. At least that was my experience in my previous game and it was hard as nails!
@@AndysTake I'm more annoyed by how terrible the battle AI is in Empire though.
@@Urlocallordandsavior yes it’s horrendous, especially in sieges
The first game I got on Steam.
Aw memories! :D it just might’ve been one of my first games as well!
Best CM in the series! Raids were REAL instead of intances.
The campaign map is awesome in scope, just not in landmass haha, if you know what I mean!
@@AndysTake Now we just need a remaster or sequal that gives divides all those HUGE 1 city states into provinces.
@@jaywerner8415 Couldn’t agree more!
best total war all time for me
Second in my heart, but Medieval 2 is still the best
I love the soundtrack of this game and the amazing AI
Hahaha
was not a big fan of empire but i loved darthmod empire for properly catching the right atmosphere
im currently playing napleon total war vanilla, but with the battlefield smoke mod, i realized that smoke and sounds and not gameplay was my largest concerns to immersion
Yeah same! Is the smoke and shot effect better? I love them in Napoleon, but Empire vanilla is so underwhelming, no real shot effects just the small grey puffs of smoke basically
@@AndysTake I believe so yes! Both Napoleon and Empire DarthMod have very cinematic smoke. Darthmod empire especially has fluffy muzzle reports, and even thicker and long lasting "fog of war" as the smoke clouds blend together into a mist
I agree the atmosphere is Vanilla Napoleon is already very good, my greatest complaint is the explosions that look quite ugly to me, BSM fixes that with puffs of white smoke
I also loved naval battles in Shogun 2 (and FOTS) but they broke the AI in a patch and never fixed it. Now it just sits at the back of the map when on defence and never tried to manoeuvre
Yeah and those maps are so massive, it’s really annoying
I have always thought empire is an underrated total war game, it was one of my first total war games I played and I loved it but I do see why people don't like it because its a bit buggy here and there and because of its scale (three different theaters) by the time a turn has passed a new total war game has been released
ah.. my first TW
Memories? :)
@@AndysTake using my line infantry to charge a gunline in melee and losing badly.
@@sethleoric2598 next time playing using Sweden😂😂
I'm still hoping for an empire 2, whether it's 1700s to more Victorian, it would be great. While empires scope was great, they need to have really small regions and more realistic peace deals.
I have 1000 hours in Rome total war but i have never played Empire. This game looks incredible, I need to play this 👏
Well, most of all, with Empire we get rid of this absurd MTW2 idea of "Rebel" faction, which made diplomacy at last relevant.
They should start the time line from 1600 until 1799 so we can experience the 30 years war and Time of Trouble in Russia
Average British and French Empire fans
VS
Average Swedish Empire enjoyer
Precede is going before. Of course it looks better if you compare it to its predecessors.
it's still my favourite
ETW is a great concept but too buggy. On its release it was far too greedy on resources. It was virtually unplayable on the machine I had at the time it came out. Of course that isn't an issue playing it now, but there is sadly hard coding that mods can't fix.
The sieges are broken because once the walls start to break from cannon shot, the AI is issuing looped commands to units "trapped" on walls which clobbers CPU.
The raiding where a small force can instantly wreck multiple towns or ports wasn't thought through; better if they had to stay in place an entire turn to do damage.
Suicidal AI generals and frontal cavalry charges made battles a bit silly and predictable; the AI often attacks when it should be more defensive.
Generals & admirals that die of old age in early part of campaign, before you have the tech to recruit replacements.
Features like chevaux de frise and instantly deployable stakes that cavalry can't apparently see or happily impale themselves on, too cartoon like,(and why some mods remove them).
On the other hand the diplomacy mechanics were better than previous games, (it may seem instant, but as the campaign turn is 6 months, that's plenty of time for negotiation messages to go too and fro). Let's be frank, the MTW and Rome diplomacy was pretty useless apart from getting trade deals the AI bargaining was ludicrously unrealistic.
The battles look great (mostly with mods though), the scope is truly global for the era.
It's crying out for a second release with the bugs fixed but I won't hold my breath; too many people seem to be hooked into fantasy style (zzzz).
I want the crack of muskets, the smoke, rattling sabres and thunderous colourful cavalry charges.... But no, instead it's some three headed acid urinating dragon with spiders legs brawling with some other made up nonsense sprites from the Land of Hbghdxi ...or other BS
I totally agree with you about the bugs etc.. have you tried any of the mods..Imperial Destroyer is very good. I'm just hoping if we don't get a Empire 2 then maybe a Remastered Empire with bug fixes and pathfinding fixes along with almost unlimited modding like they've just patched Rome Remastered with..I'd be happy with that..I think that's the best us Historical gamers can hope for..I'm like you I'm not a fan of fantasy Total War games and unfortunately that seems to be the path they are taking.
Yeah, this game was hilariously buggy on launch, and the AI is atrocious and was never fixed by the developers. Even the American Independence tutorial campaign that’s supposed to teach you the game was glitched, LOL.
It needs a ton of modding to be enjoyable today, but it was ambitious and had many cool ideas. I hope CA gives Empire another try in the future with a better combat engine. There’s so much potential.
The thing that pissed me off the most is that your army spending limit was capped in custom battles to where you couldn’t fully get everything you wanted. What’s the point of a custom battle if the game puts artificial limitations on you? Lame. I don’t know if they ever fixed that, but it was definitely the case on launch.
Ah, thanks for explaining the wall bug issue. Had this happen to me and was wondering what was causing the framerate to go single digit, lol. First I thought it was the fire+smoke effects but then I noticed 4 enemy units stuck in one place on the wall and once they were changing position performance recovered.
I do like ETW thoe the AI can be somewhat low in IQ its still a fun game. And ETW modding created kinda the only modern RTS American Civil war game as well.
I can follow you ith the diplomacy, it is simplefied, but it also has improvements, like you can talk to every country and talk as much as you want, but having someone to send to everybody would be nice as well. The provinces are nice but could indeed be better, and the villages are good with the building numbers in my opinion, that way certain places are more intressting then others and some will switch sides multiple times cuz of it's buildings. The land battles are in my opinion good, I like them and I like the way the units work, but I can agree with you as well, the battles are not always that interesting. The one thing I don't like about Empire battles are that every unit had the same face. In the end Empire was AC biggest gamble and in my opinion it was a succes.
This game tech is the best. It improves units by adding options and behaviour.
Hate that they didn't have the full World map, and that some nations were f*ed. Like Portugal. A 2 city minor, instead of one of the great powers. And all because south America, Africa, and the East Indies are just ports (literally all of Portugal's land is not in the game)....
I liked empire and napoleon. The game had it's faults but the line infantry was fun enough and evolved quite a bit during the campaign. The artillery was versatile and interesting, the naval battles were quite fun too. I do wish that there were more cities and maybe a bit more diverse units, like combined tercio units. Too bad about the mods too
My favourite part about both napoleon and empire is that if you try to navigate a ship to land on the campaign map, the captain of the ship will say stuff like: “that’s impossible sir” “this is a ship, sir”, and the best is “ships can’t go there” and i like to imagine that the “character you’re controlling in this case is stupid as hell and doesn’t know anything about ships.
First time i played Empire i was blown away by how big world was. I always wanted huge maps and bigger world. But after like 5 hours i realized how the world is actually really small. Empire total war did some things good but as a total war game it failed hard for me. I barely played 30 hours. The least played total war game.
I wonder what total war would have looked like if they had milked the engine of medieval 2 and Rome as hard as they did for the same engine as every total ear between empire and troy.
I love the era both Napoleon and Empire Total war are set in, it's so hard to choose only one.
Diplomatic missions arent instant. they strech over a turn, and a turn is multiple months. same goes obviously with army movement, in that case you dont have that argument do you?
What? You can just talk to whoever you want at any time. Like once every turn.
@@AndysTake Yes and why can you move your armies each round?
@@RoBert-on1kb Yes, but you can’t teleport your armies to the other side of the world once each round. That’s the difference.
@@AndysTake but its not teleporting. yes it takes a certain time. and that time (a couple of months ususally in total war games) that your armies or your diplomacy need are simulated as one turn.
"Dumbing Down" is almost always a bad argument and bad stance to take, IMO. And honestly, not allowing cities to build up everything is not just a balancing mechanic but a more realistic one as well. I don't know of many cities that play host to virtually everything; it's always outsourced to smaller outlying towns.
I can agree that the building system was made better in Attila and after, but Empire? Way too simple
Empires system takes a couple of build slots from the city and plonks them in the countryside giving you the same generic options for each one.
There is no faction variation besides icons. There are no special buildings which produce military units. There are no area specific buildings - other than than trade resources which are more like merchant resources with buildings on top. It's blatantly dumbed down and you know it. The previous system which allowed towns to evolve into cities and the options for castles was far better. Faction specific buildings were far better. And no stables building in the 1700s seriously? Yeeeesh
@@dylanmilne6683 A mix between this system and the new one would be the best.
Small towns, bigger than this, with building variety and economic/strategic value, that could be ocupied easily if not garrisoned properly would be the best.
Adding wonders/unique buildings in certain cities would also improve this system.
@@dylanmilne6683 There are lots of different units if you play France and Germany they come later in the game. Try playing Darth mod Empire its like a whole new game.
@@dragonflydreamer7658 I think this part of the problem though. You get all these cool units once you've stomped everyone anyway. It's not like in vanilla they're anything more than a bunch of dudes with longer shootier guns or horse dudes with longer stabbier sticks tho.
Pistol armed dragoons?
Musketoons?
Blunderbuss?
Hand mortars?
Individual regiments having proper names/backgrounds not just 6th, 7th, 8th so on...
Extremely generic uniforms?
I know that some of these things are fixed with Darthmod, and, it is an excellent mod, but that's not the base game.
one thing you missed is how the economy worked, how over taxation would make your economy shrink, and how building stuff would make it grow faster, if you could have the taxes at a minimum early on, that could give you a staggering economy later.