History VideoGame / EmpireTotalWar

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: The world map in the game is highly abstracted but doesn't have any glaring issues; the problems arise in the provinces. To meet the scale the game demands, a lot of tiny nominal powers, such as Westfalia, are now in control of far larger domains than they had historically. The sense of scale gets a bit warped when ''all of France'' is one province. WordOfGod says the developers were trying to limit the number of sieges by reducing the number of cities, thus encouraging more field battles. France specifically is meant to be tied to Paris: losing Paris means losing France.

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* FakeDifficulty: Ottoman opening situation is set up as a tough challenge, but it really isn't
** A whole lot of issues Ottomans face at the game start come from having a DecadentCourt - almost all ministers are corrupt ''and'' incompetent, creating all sorts of problems and sacking provinces for substantial value of wealth each turn. For AI, that's a disaster. But in hands of human players, it's a matter of replacing those ministers with the semi-competent alternatives that Ottomans have as candidates to the offices at the game start. Except for the lackluster ruler, the cabinet can be made functional and productive before even finishing first turn.
** Similarly, numerous provinces have juuuust enough Muslims in them already that a token effort of imams will push the percentages enough to decrease the religious unrest by a point.
** War with Russia? Simply let Peter take over Crimea, bleeding his initial army on it. This way you can reconquer it as your own province few turns later, rather than having an useless, underdeveloped and underpowered protectorate that everyone will try to conquer and will require non-stop saving.
** Barbary States are at war with pretty much everyone... which is great, because they are going to loot trade routes of just about every country that has ports in the Med, providing substantial income, percentage of which goes to your coffers. AI will need decades to deal with Barbary State and by then, you can easily muscle it out.

** France: Fastest ships and elite infantry units. France has the biggest army in Europe with a very secure position (loyal Spanish ally to the south, weak German states to the west and a troublesome Savoy and Dutch Republic offers the only resistance) and a lot of money, but the situation in the Americas is somewhat less rosy.

* AllYourPowersCombined: The games in the series that came before this one have the Assassin and the Spy as agents. This game just has the Rake.

** Spain: Cheaper, if slightly weaker units. Galleons give Spain a hefty naval advantage early on and their many American possessions are their main asset. However, they also start under [[RoyallyScrewedUp Charles II of Spain]].

* NormalFishInATinyPond: The French-controlled province of Quebec in Americas has anArmy Encampment already built and the option a Cannon Foundry to. This allows it to recruit Line Infantry from the start and quickly add artillery to support it. No other European power will have access to those buildings for the next 18-20 turns, while Natives don't have anything even remotely similar in their unit roster.

* NormalFishInATinyPond: French-controlled province of Quebec in Americas has Army Encampment already build and option to add to it Cannon Foundry. This allows to recruit Line Infantry from the start and quickly add artillery to support it. No other European power will have access to those buildings for next 18-20 turns, while natives don't have anything even remotely similar in their unit roster.

* DisasterDominoes: Military alliances matter in this game; declaring war on a country with a lot of them can pit you against half of Europe, a kingdom in India, and a couple Native American nations [[UpToEleven all at once]].

** Sweden: Weaponised HumansAreAverage, to the point their main advantage is simply ability to recruit Superior Line Infantry. Other than that, they are a VestigalEmpire that's on par with minor countries.

** Due to the way how alliances and protectorates are handled, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth starts in a fantastic position due to an alliance with Russia, rather than being at a verge of political collapse, like it was historically.

** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girardoni_air_rifle Girardoni air rifle]] is described as "not a success". While prohibitively expensive to mass produce, it was anything but a failure when deployed in military engagements and substantial effort was made by the Habsburg empire to at least get a full regiment equipped with those due to how advantageous the air rifle was in combat.

** The Brig and the Sloop-of-War are too small to be useful in naval battles. They're fast enough to execute flanking maneuvers and have sufficient firepower to outgun trade ships but they die very quickly to even Fifth-rates and Sixth-rates.
* CreepyCrossdresser: Rakes can sometimes have crossdressing as a trait that makes his job easier. The creepy part is that Rakes are assassins/spies/saboteurs, meaning that they murder people and blow up buildings for a living.

** Beware when you're playing as an Absolute Monarchy and you keep ministers in their offices for life. Even if they start out good, they will slowly, but surely start to amass negative ancilliaries and traits, unless already having full list (which is hard, to say at least). Worst of all, ministers can gain "Corrupt" trait, which starts to cause direct problems and financial setbacks faction-wide.
** Ottomans opening situation is about having extremely incompetent cabinet combined with insignificant ruler and corruption so high, provinces lose 40-50 coins of wealth per turn, destroying entire tax base in about 10 turns, as there will be nothing to tax in just few years. Human player can and should switch the starting ministers with the possible candidates, or it will quickly get out of hand. AI, meanwhile, ''never'' sacks those ministers, which is the main reason for Ottoman decline in 19 out of 20 games.
* DisasterDominoes: Military alliances matter in this game; declaring war on a country with a lot of them can pit you against half of Europe, a kingdom in India, and a couple Native American nations [[UpToEleven all at once.]]

* {{Eurabia}}: This can happen if you manage a Muslim faction, especially the Ottoman Empire.

** Dutch Republic: Presence on all theatres and easy access to trade nodes. The Dutch army is made of generic units, so is almost all of its navy. But they have exclusive access to India early on with a base in Ceylon, giving them a good headstart in that area.
** Ottoman Empire: Artillery and an entire slew of locally-hired, unique auxiliaries. Many Ottoman troops are outright antique when compared to European ones, but their artillery is a cut above. The main obstacle is god-awful political situation and then having to play a catch-up game with rest of Europe in regards of technology.

** Sweden has a typical European army list, with only one unique unit, the [[UsefulNotes/FinnsWithFearsomeForests Hakkapeliitta]] [[FragileSpeedster light cavalry]]. They're also the only faction in the whole game to ''not'' receive any new units through {{DLC}}. However, to compensate, their base-line units have fairly good statistics: Their Line Infantry are surpassed only by those of Britain, France and Prussia. While they're criticized as a boring faction to play, they remain high-tier in multi-player and quite a few players swear by them.

* EvilLuddite: Certain Buildings cause unhappiness due to industrialization. If this industrialization causes too much unhappiness, then the people will launch a rebellion. Whether or not they win, between hundreds and thousands will die.

** Britain: Superior ships. As the foremost naval player, Britain has a high number of ports and ships to start with and three good admirals to lead their navies. The faction is well-situated to make early inroads into India: with no immediate enemies in Europe on Turn 1, all its military assets there can be concentrated into an expedition to establish a foothold at Mysore, then work outward into lightly defended or developed Mughal and Maratha territory. Overall, lots of potential to become the Big Red Blob by making gains at the periphery while the rest are stuck fighting in Europe.

** Britain: Superior ships. As the foremost naval player, Britain has a high number of ports and ships to start with and three good admirals to lead their navies. Overall, lots of potential to become the Big Red Blob.

** The University of Évora (in Portugal) was extinct 59 years into the game's timeplay, by the Marquis of Pombal who expelled the Jesuits (who directed said university); this, however, is not reflected in the game, and the University of Coimbra, which was older and continued to exist all along, does not show on the map (nor its city).

** Britain: Superior ships, good quality line and light infantry, fairly decent cavalry and artillery too. As the foremost naval player, Britain has a high number of ports and ships to start with and three good admirals to lead their navies. Overall, lots of potential to become the Big Red Blob.

** Prussia: Superior line infantry. Very easy to become the dominant military power in Europe with a nice technology lead, but they start as two small provinces split apart and surrounded by potential enemies. Prussia can't just declare war on everyone and hope for the best, they need to use war and diplomacy carefully.
** Russia: Grenadiers and line infantry excel in close-quarters, but are relatively poor at shooting and lack discipline. Russia starts with ''nine'' provinces but most are backwards and in serious need of development. However they have a lot of potential to become a powerhouse.
** Spain: Cheaper, if slightly weaker units. Galleons give Spain a hefty naval advantage early on but Britain soon supplants them. Their many American possessions are a blessing and a curse - difficult to defend, but it gives Spain a big income and makes them hard to entirely eliminate.
** Sweden: Weaponised HumansAreAverage. Sweden is quite good in every respect, and they are one of the only factions that can recruit Superior Line Infantry. They'll need it. Russia is breathing down their collars, Prussia is threatening their hegemony, and their allies are too far away to be of any help later on.
** Dutch Republic: Presence on all theatres and easy access to trade nodes. The Dutch land army is competent but nothing too special; the real power of this nation is on the seas. They have exclusive access to India early on with a base in Ceylon, giving them a good headstart in that area.
** Ottoman Empire: Artillery and an entire slew of locally-hired, unique auxiliaries. Many Ottoman troops are quite poor compared to European ones (at least early on) and their elite infantry is garbage, but their artillery is a cut above. Ottoman armies can level fortifications really quickly and punch huge holes in other armies, but their lack of horse artillery means they have trouble getting that firepower around.
** Maratha Confederacy: Cavalry, elephants and wide selection of melee infantry, but serious problems with fielding a "modern" army. Maratha plays very unlike a Euro army - you lack a full ship roster, horse artillery and guards. Whether they have swords or muskets, Sikh infantry are to be feared despite their lack of technology, and elephants can be blown apart by cannons but are unstoppable if they reach the lines. Maratha rewards an aggressive, melee-centric strategy.

** England: Superior ships.
** France: Fastest ships and elite infantry units.
** Prussia: Superior line infantry.
** Russia: Grenadiers and line infantry excell in close-quarters.
** Spain: Cheaper, if slightly weaker units.
** Sweden: Weaponised HumansAreAverage.
** Dutch Republic: Presence on all theatres and easy access to trade nodes.
** Ottoman Empire: Artillery and an entire slew of locally-hired, unique auxiliaries.
** Maratha Confederacy: Cavalry, elephants and wide selection of melee infantry, but serious problems with fielding a "modern" army.