This is a great entry into the total war franchise.
- - - - pros
- very balanced
- good unit variety
- deep strategic possibility s
- easy to learn hard to master
- - - - cons
-very rock paper scissors when you go unit to unit
- laggy online
- no longer has a bustling player base
- units moral seems really fragile
- - - -wishes
- steam mod support

This game takes place in the colonial era. So guns play a rather large role in this, and because of the era the guns are mostly single shot muzzle loaders. There are also melee infantry, hoursemen (both armed with fire arms and melee weapons) , and artillery of varying caliber.

Landscape is very important in this game because of the surplus of ranged units. Hight as in most games will help your ranged units and slow the advance of melee infantry. Artillery is also helped by being put on hills and the like.

In all honesty melee is not as important in this game as in others. But melee troops are still very useful. Because most units are ranged a melee unit can very quickly destroy their moral or the unit in general. But this goes the same both ways because of the ranged unit being well ranged. So melee are best for ambushes or holding walls.

One of the cons i mentioned above is that moral seems really fragile. Units can brake in a mater of SECONDS. This would be ok if it was mere cannon fodder but even the most elite of units can be broken after one or two volleys of fire then at other times they charge though no problem. The moral system seems unstable and inconstant. -1 point

As mentioned above all the factions are relatively balance because they share alot of units with small changes. The only faction that is at both a disadvantage and an advantage is the Indian nations. Because they are over all more stealthy they are good for ambushes, they also have better melee units from the start of the game, but their range is a lot lower then the European nations.

The online is very laggy if more then two players are involved. This is rather common in total war games. So unless playing 1 on 1 online or playing though LAN i would recommend not putting your hopes into online -.5 points
A small complaint i also have is the lack of online campaign. Many other total war games both before and after have this feature.

As mentioned above the unit to unit comparison is very rock paper scissors. But many strategy games are like this and with proper strategy and high ground advantage it can be changed.
so because you can counter it I think it evens out.
so over all i think it is a 8.5/10