It's called "Warpath", and is focused on North America, and the conflict between Native Americans and European powers. It includes an all-new campaign, five new factions (Iroquois, Huron, Plains, Pueblo and Cherokee) and some new tech as well.

In addition to the expansion, a patch for the game will be released later today, which not only fixes a few bugs but also adds two new historical battles, Rossbach and Fontenoy.

There's a wide variety of minor fixes being made to the game in late September, most of them to do with improving the enemy AI. Two in particular stand out as being key, namely one fixing your troop's use of cannons while defending a fort, and the other improving AI when moving inside a fort and using ropes.

They're the two main things that made viable siege warfare nearly unplayable in the original release of the game, so hopefully in a few weeks time we won't ever have to complain about them again.

Empire: Total War Update 1.4 Gets Smart [Shacknews]

Don't expect anything too different from Empire, however, as Napolean: Total War will pick up right where the last game left off, following the campaigns of the little Corsican across three campaigns.

CA promise that, like the War of Independence tutorial in Empire, the three campaigns in Napoleon will be more story-driven than previous Total War games.

And...that's about it. No more info is available, but we'll just go ahead and assume this is for the PC only.

New Total War for February 2010 [Eurogamer]

These units are, unlike the 14 visual tweaks contained in the update, brand new units. And they're premium units too, the cream of the crop, introducing guys like Britain's Horse Guards and the earliest iteration of the US Marine Corps.

As far as the update goes, I haven't had the chance to test out the supposedly improved campaign turn times. Anyone?

For those interested, the 14 units making up the "Elite Units of the West" DLC are:

Hungarian Grenadiers (Austria) - Hungarian Grenadiers fought in the Austrian army of the 18th century and were deliberately selected for their physical size and stature. They had to have a good throwing arm, being able to propel a grenade far enough that it wouldn't kill them! Single player campaign requirements: Military Governor's Barracks in Hungary

Horse Guards (Britain) - The elite British horse guards are a heavy cavalry shock troop used by the British army. Used as a battering ram to brutally smash enemy infantry lines and drive holes in enemy ranks, these were prized troops of the British army. Single player campaign requirements: Army Staff College in London

Swiss Guards (France) - The Swiss Guards fought for the French nation and were the prized palace guard of Louis XVI. Wearing resplendent bright red uniforms and carrying smooth bore muskets they were a better calibre of heavy infantry than most of their opponents. Single player campaign requirements: Palais Bourbon in Paris

Blue Guards (United Provinces) - The Blue Guards are a strong infantry unit of the United Provinces, and have been personal bodyguards to kings since the 1600s. These are a high status regiment with a long tradition of fighting and winning key battles. Single player campaign requirements: Army Staff College in Amsterdam

Gardes du Corps (United Provinces) - The Gardes du Corps were the strongest, and often, the last line of defence for many monarchs in the United Provinces. Dressed in splendid uniforms and riding heavy horse these royal bodyguard soldiers specialised in almost unstoppable charges and benefit any army with a high morale and solid combat discipline. Single player campaign requirements: Army Staff College in Amsterdam

Guard Grenadiers (Poland-Lithuania) - The Polish Guard Grenadiers are a highly trained and well disciplined grenadier unit unique to the Polish army. These troops spent years being properly trained in the correct stances for priming and throwing explosives and were constantly assessed on their appearance and discipline as well as their technique. Single player campaign requirements: Army Staff College in Warsaw

2nd Hussars (Prussia) - These light cavalry units were specially drawn for their shorter stature and low weight making them quick and nimble on the battlefield. Ideal for hit and run attacks and ambushing enemy formations on the move, these fast and mobile hussars specialised in running down survivors and ambushing scout parties. Single player campaign requirements: Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

Bosniaks (Prussia) - Prussian Bosniaks are an irregular mounted soldier on light horse capable of a devastating charge. These riders are historically mercenary in nature hailing from the Balkans as their name suggests. They fight with a passion and zeal as they were often paid in plunder! Single player campaign requirements: Army Board in Prussian home regions

Frei-Korps (Prussia) - These irregular light infantry forces are a much needed counter-weight to the disciplined and organised ranks of the Prussian army. Professional scoundrels, they are particularly effective against soldiers that organised Prussian infantry find difficult to counter. Single player campaign requirements: Army Board or Military Governor's Barracks in any province

Gardes à cheval (Russia) - An aristocratic heavy horse unit drawn from the nobility, exclusively to protect the Tsars. These rich notables were selected not for their soldiering ability but more for their relative attractiveness to Catherine the Great. Single player campaign requirements: Winter Palace in Moscow

Siemenovski Foot Guards (Russia) - These elite line infantry were far better equipped than their standard brothers and a touch more arrogant too. With splendid uniforms and far better trained they made excellent garrison soldiers, punishing popular decent harshly. Single player campaign requirements: Winter Palace in Moscow

Walloon Guards (Spain) - These superior infantry were drawn from a region of the Spanish Empire that produced excellent soldiers. Their distinctive uniforms and colours marked them out on the battlefield as the bodyguard of kings and queens, and as effective soldiers in their own right. Single player campaign requirements: Palacio Real de Madrid in Madrid

Legion of the United States (United States) - The United States first official organised army unit. A well drilled and trained unit of soldiers taught to fight in both the traditional European line of battle style, and a looser more irregular pattern better for confronting the native tribes of the Americas. Single player campaign requirements: Army Board or Military Governor's Barracks in any province

US Marines (United States) - These are some of the toughest and bravest soldiers the United States can boast. Either on land or at sea this unit is a fighting force above all else. The marines' greatest strength alongside their flexibility and speed in combat is their resolve. They will rarely if ever run from a fight once committed, often preferring to fight to the death than hand an inch of ground to the enemy. Single player campaign requirements: Naval College in any province

As we've covered, the "new" units are really just one new unit (Russian grenadiers) along with a range of individualised redesigns. As for the fixes, most important of those seems to be one that says "various optimisations have been made to AI and path systems to reduce the campaign map turn times".

Let's hope that really means "game actually lets you play past 1760 without the AI taking 20 minutes to take its turn".

The full list of unit refreshes (sadly, none for my preferred British) and fixes/tweaks are below:

UNITS

Prussian Grenadiers

Wearing a distinctive brass fronted mitre cap, the Prussian Grenadiers are an explosive force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.

Spanish Guardias de infateria

These elite guard infantry are charged with protecting the monarch and are a potent force on the battlefield.

Swedish lifeguard horse

This cavalry regiment forms part of the monarchs' household guard. Superbly drilled, they act as a shock force on the battlefield.

Holland Horse Guard

Armed with heavy cavalry sabres, these disciplined cavalrymen represent the elite of the army.

Prussian Garde Du Corp

The Prussian Garde Du Corp are a replacement for the Prussian standard Household cavalry. These heavy horse shock troops are best used to break enemy lines and overrun enemy positions. With a strong charge and fearsome attack, these riders make short work of those who would oppose a Prussian monarch.

Prussian Life guard

The Prussian life guards are equipped similarly to line infantrymen. However their uniforms are altogether more splendid, marking them out as a superior force, in arrogance if nothing else. They do a good job as garrison troops and are dedicated to the crown.

Russian Grenadiers

This new Russian unit is great for assaults and their grenades pack a mighty punch!

Spanish Guardias De Corp

The Spanish Guardias De Corp replace household cavalry for Spain. With almost unbreakable morale, on the charge they are almost unstoppable.

Spanish Grenadiers

These are a replacement for the standard Spanish Grenadiers with a distinctive bearskin hat to mark them out as exemplary on the battlefield.

Swedish ‘Lifeguards of foot'

These are a highly trained replacement for the standard Swedish guard. They are often used as a force in a system that defends a monarchy and can be relied upon for utter loyalty and deadly accuracy in the field. Their professionalism is reflected in their fearsome battle reputation.

Holland Guard

The Holland Guards from the United Provinces are superior line infantry units. Carrying smoothbore muskets, they were traditionally chosen to protect the royal family and have an incredibly high morale, often making them the last troops to break in a fight.

Scots

The Scots are a Highland ex-patriate infantry used by the United Provinces, renowned for their deadly charge.

Swiss Infantry

Very disciplined infantry of the United Provinces with quick reload and excellent marksmanship.

Mamelukes

Mamelukes are fearless light horsemen, deadly when deployed against a broken or unsupported enemy.

Additionally the Spanish nation has had a new uniform design to better reflect its historical look.

FIXES

Audio:

Sound loading has been made asynchronous, so heavy disc access is reduced to a minimum. This makes loading times faster and reduces any instances of 'stuttering'. Unit group sounds have also been improved, for more realistic group movement. The primary sound library (Miles DLL) has been updated to stop occasional clicking. And we've added more sound variation for unit deaths and musket fire.

Campaign:

- Several crash bug fixes in saves, movement, agents and logic.

- Various optimisations have been made to AI and path systems to reduce the campaign map turn times.

- When the pirates are destroyed and re-emerge they now maintain a status of at war with all and are unable to enter into diplomatic negotiations.

- Added small ships on domestic trade routes from the trade nodes to home regions moving in the correct direction, i.e. with the flow of trade.

- The AI should now no longer repeatedly sign a diplomatic agreement and then break it the next turn. Treaties are more valuable and adhered to.

- We've fixed some border trade agreements allowing greater numbers of bordering factions to properly trade with one another.

- Movement arrows now reflect the range of the selected units, not the whole army/navy.

- AI will no longer counter-offer and ask for more money than the player has available.

- Fixed commerce raiding taking money from blockaded trade routes.

- Fixed navies getting stuck when forced to retreat from ports (tactial retreat).

- Fixed rare inability to attack certain ports.

- Fixed middle mouse button camera drag stopping working occasionally.

- Made emergent factions be at war with the faction they emerged against if that faction is human.

- Fixed various movement extent crashes.

- Changed background income for minor factions.

- Fixed diplomatic relations with emergent factions.

- Tactical withdrawal will now always leave armies on the landmass containing the settlement of a region.

- Changed war score system to make the AI more likely to accept peace.

- Fixed crash when embarking and disembarking armies at ports.

- Fixed trade ships not being correctly registered in trade nodes after splitting forces.

- Fixed government change diplomatic effect.

- Improved commerce raiding display on trade screen.

- Faction specific text is now used in diplomacy.

- Prevent players cancelling the movement of fleeing agents.

Balance changes

Units

- Charge bonus generally increased across the board for all units and melee defence reduced.

- Greater diversification of stats between different unit types designed to emphasise differences and improve balance.

- Redone costs for all units for multiplayer to improve game balance which better reflects the actual battlefield worth of each unit.

- Mob formation added in for Native American, irregular and some skirmisher units.

- Spot distance for light infantry, skirmishers, irregulars, light cavalry and missile cavalry increased allowing them to spot hidden units at longer distances.

- Russian line infantry stats have been boosted to allow them to compete more with other faction's line infantry.

- Movement speed of all unit types reduced by 10%.

- Ammo for light infantry increased to 20, line to 15.

Land battle morale

- Charge morale bonus reduced from 10 to 4.

- Recent casualties, extended casualties and total casualties morale penalties increased slightly for higher percentages.

- Rear and flank exposed morale penalties increased.

Fatigue

- Fatigue penalty for melee reduced from 18 per tick to 10.

- Running fatigue penalty for heavy and light cavalry reduced from -3/-2 to -2/-1.

Artillery Changes

- Calibration area for cannons and howitzers reduced. Accuracy of non-round shot shot types reduced to compensate.

- Muzzle velocity of round shot for cannons increased to make them fire lower and bounce more, accuracy also increased.

- Lethality of shrapnel pieces reduced to match canister shot, range also reduced to 350.

- Load time for special shot types for howitzers increased slightly, and range reduced to 350.

- Calibration area for mortars increased, accuracy of round shot increased to compensate. Reload time increased slightly.

- Accuracy of 18 lbr horse guard artillery restored to 65.

Hit points of gun trains increased to 50, all guns and caissons to 25.

Some of these units are lying in the game code but weren't, for whatever reason, unlocked for the release of the game. Others, that are currently available to only some armies, will be made available for more armies. And to top it all off there will be eleven brand new units.

These new guys are being introduced in an attempt to break up the look of the game (those line infantry get boring after a while), as well as to bring a little more variety to playing the various factions.

Empire: Total War Expanding With Free Units [VE3D]

UPDATE - Creative Assembly let us know this morning the specifics of the new units. Only one unit - a Russian Grenadier - will be totally new. The others will be a combination of existing units being made available for nations that couldn't previously access them (the Swedes, for example, can now train Hussar units) and individualised versions of standard units, "with unique uniforms and attributes" (like different reload times, morale, etc).

While this isn't the first update the brilliant yet technically "eccentric" game has received, it's certainly the biggest (with "over 70 bug fixes") and most wide-ranging.

A number of crash glitches have been "solved", along with audio, save game and assassination fixes. The AI has been improved in naval combat, and, best of all, the AI can now attempt naval invasions of your territory. Apparently Creative Assembly are finding this very hard to balance, so they won't do it often, but they'll do it occasionally, which is better than never doing it at all.

God willing, this update will be out in the "early part of next week". Shame it doesn't address the game's two biggest problems - hanging on ports and an overall slowdown in the later decades of a grand campaign - but hopefully they'll be addressed next time.

[Creative Assembly Forums]

Me, I've been lucky. In the 17,563 hours I've played the game so far, the only problem I'm having is a 10-second stall whenever I click on a port towards the end of a grand campaign. It's annoying, but hardly critical.

But those of you suffering from crashes to the desktop, or corruptions in your game that stop you from progressing in a campaign, that's critical. It's also something that should hopefully be fixed in this upcoming patch for the game.

Posting on the game's official boards, Creative Assembly's Mark O'Connell has listed some of the things that should be addressed in the next update:

- Load time detection on trade routes to fix pathfinding crash in campaign (this fixes a crash to desktop)

- Some General Sound balancing improvements (this fixes some unit sound problems)

- Fixed UI Chat hang when spectator leaves unranked match with 3+ players (this fixes a multiplayer problem)

- Addressed several code issues causing crash to desktop

- Fixed several save or load issues

- Corrected campaign map agents behaviour (this fixes a crash to desktop)

- Fix to animation glitch causing repetitive sounds when battle is launched.

Fingers crossed, eh?

Next update details... [CA]

But let's give it a shot!

Sega and The Creative Assembly's Empire: Total War is dense. It takes the existing Total War game model of turn-based strategy and real-time tactics, adds a bunch of new options and triples the size of the game world. In terms of the amount of time you'll get out of it, it's dense. In terms of the depth of options available to you as a commander, it's dense. In terms of the number of different ways you can play the game, yes, it is dense. Which is fine on paper.

But is it fine in practice?

Loved
Scale – They weren't kidding around when they said this was the biggest Total War game yet. Not only do you have the European map so frequently seen in previous games, but there's a massive map of America as well. And India. And four smaller trade theatres. Really, the amount of space available to conquer/manage is at times mind-boggling (but in a good way). The more land available, the more options you've got for your wars of conquest.

The Thin Red Line – Total War games have always looked pretty, but never like this. Seeing individual crew members of a ship clambering across the ropes at sunset, or a cloud of smoke gently envelop your infantry as they let loose a volley of musket fire is hypnotising. And if they weren't encouragement to zoom in and view your battles at ground level, you'll love the fact individual combatants now really appear to be fighting 1v1, instead of just flailing around.

The Shoe Fits – While there was nothing wrong with previous time periods, per se, the 18th century just feels more fun. The combination of melee and musket fire changes both the pace of the real-time battles and your tactical options on the battlefield. Same goes for naval battles: there's a romance surrounding tall ships, pirates and the Royal Navy that other time periods just can't match.

Overlord – Empire: Total War isn't about real-time battles. Those are just a pleasant diversion. Instead, you'll spend the bulk of your time on a much-improved campaign map, which has added new governmental control options as well as, crucially, the fact that important resources are now located outside town centres. This smaller towns/buildings can be occupied and fought over, meaning battles now take place across an entire map, and don't just focus on the big cities. Indeed, this mode is so strong that it could have been released as a stand-alone game and it would be amazing all on its own.

Play It Again – Because the game world is so massive, and because it introduces so many new features (like overseas trade routes and piracy), you can play two grand campaigns (the game's bread and butter mode) and they'll feel like two completely different games. Play as Britain and you'll be tinkering in continental politics while safeguarding vast international trade routes. Play as Prussia and you'll barely notice the sea as your armies march across the green fields of Europe.

Hated
England Expects (Ships To Be More Enjoyable) – Naval battles were hyped as this game's main new attraction. They're not. They look great, but large fleets are far too difficult to control (with most battles taking place between large fleets), so only the most resolute player will avoid the temptation of hitting the "auto resolve" button after only a few battles.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid – The Total War games have always had an Achilles heel when it comes to real-time battles: AI on stronghold missions. Out on the open fields, the computer does a great job, but if you're defending or attacking a city, it's a mess. Armies can't move around a fort with getting stuck, they can't enter or exit a fort without getting stuck, and you'll notice countless other errors, like defenders refusing to fire at attackers and attackers deciding it's more fun to just stand in front of a wall than climb up it. This means you'll sadly have to auto-resolve most city/town-based battles, which is a shame as they're often the most important.

It really is difficult to sum up such a vast game in such a short amount of space. So rather than trying to sum up any more features, I'll just say this: imagine all the power and options available to you as an 18th century King, General, Admiral or Prime Minister. Now imagine all those options could be rolled into a single job, and given to you. That's what playing this game feels like.

Only, because they've been rolled together so intuitively, it's fun.

Empire: Total War is, simply, a masterclass in PC strategy. It's boundless, it's polished, and its quality (and sales) show that despite other publisher's claims to the contrary, there is still a viable PC strategy market out there, so long as you deliver the goods. And Empire: Total War delivers the goods.

Empire: Total War was developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. Released on PC on March 3, retails for $49.99. Played American campaign to completion, played three grand campaigns to completion. Played multiplayer skirmishes, did not play multiplayer campaign.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Total War forum complaints call out issues with the trade route system that occur when shipping goods with some factions to some cities. There are also hiccups with the Steam distribution, but Creative Assembly says that these are not issues caused by the game.

The new patch will fix the bug as well as "a few stability problems and improve upon Empire's general performance," says Creative Assembly Communications Director Kieran Brigden.

Brigden's post also says:

We fully intend to support Empire consistently post-release. We're very appreciative to everyone thats bought the title and you deserve our continued support as a result. Therefore I can confirm that we are currently working on a patch that will be automatically rolled out via Steam, sometime next week.

There is a patch schedule that means regular patches will be appearing after this point.

Empire: Total War won't be the first game to be patched just days after release—or day of—but nor will it be the last.

Official: Empire: Total War Support [via Shacknews]

Why? Because the game will only run under DirectX 10, which will only run under Windows Vista. Lead designer Artem Kulakov explains:

DX10 has offered a lot of advantages over DX9. First of all, DirectX 10 allowed us to simplify the rendering engine. It matches capabilities of next generation consoles better than DX9, which is important for us considering that Stormrise is a multi-platform title. We had fewer driver-specific compatibility issues with Stormrise compare to our previous games released with DX9.

Of course, it won't officially run under XP. We're sure someone will find a workaround. Provided, that is, those kind of people aren't too busy playing that other Creative Assembly strategy game that came out this week...

On the subject, how many of you are still soldiering on with XP as we roll into 2009, over seven years since the OS was first released?

Stormrise first DX10 only game - Interview with Lead Designer [PC Games Hardware]

The latest entry in the Total War series highlights the early modern period, from the 1700s to the early 1800s, allowing players to choose between twelve initially available factions (with more than 50 in total),
using their military might, politics, espionage, and economy to ensure they dominate the known world. The same deep, addictive gameplay from the previous entries returns, with the addition of real-time naval battles sweetening the deal.

Empire: total War is available now on Steam and at fine PC game purveyors everywhere.

Speaking in an interview with VideoGamer.com, Bhopti revealed that Creative Assembly had no plans for additional copy protection for the upcoming PC release of their new real-time strategy game Stormrise, explaining that pirates will be pirates, and them's just the breaks.

That's not that much of an issue. There's no additional thing that we're going for with that sort of stuff. That's pointless. If people are going to pirate a game they're going to pirate a game. All you can do is delay the piracy, really. But that's just the nature of the beast. We are a PC developer, that's where we started, so you do what you gotta do.

Hell, I'd even take things a step further here and say that the tougher the digital rights management include with your game, the more likely it is that people will pirate it, just to show that they can. Game pirates are almost like muggers. Just hand over the goods, and nobody gets hurt.

Creative Assembly: Piracy 'nature of the beast' [VideoGamer.com]

The demo gives gamers a chance to take on the American Army and the French Navy playing as the British Empire in the Battle of Brandywine Creek and the Battle of Lagos.

Historically, the Battle of Brandywine Creek was fought between the British and Americans in Pennsylvania. The defeat there of the Americans allows the British to capture Philadelphia and hold it for nearly a year. The naval Battle of Lagos took place during the Seven Years' War off the coasts of Spain and Portugal.

So it looks like the demo will be giving us a taste of land and sea battles.

The game, developed by The Creative Assembly, is due out March 4. People who pre-purchases the title through Steam will also receive a free copy of Rome Total War Gold Edition for immediate download.

Steam

Originally delayed from February to "March 2009", the game will now be out in the US on March 4. Interestingly, it's going to use Steam as DRM, meaning if even if you don't have/like Valve's service, you'll need to install it in order to play the game.

As for the specs, here's what you'll need as a minimum in order to play the game:

OS - XP or Vista 32
Processor - Intel 2.4ghz or equivalent
RAM - 2GB (Vista) 1GB (XP)
GPU - 256MB Card, DirectX 9.0
HDD Space - 15GB

Finally, the three new screens are below.