Which TW game featured your favourite pre-battle speeches?

System

For those of you who don't know, MikeB (head writer for The Creative Assembly) was responsible for the Generals pre-battle speeches in RTW, MIITW and TW:Shogun 2.

Now we all know the speeches in all three games are pretty enthralling stuff however in this poll we want to know which game has your favourite speeches please.

I've deliberately not given an "all of the above" option so you'll have to decide carefully and of course feel free to say why that games speeches are your favourite if you wish.

luckylimburger

Rome Total War of course.

PATRIOT45

Yeah, Rome!

Skollops#2496

Rome. But I never actually hear them but it's the only ones that I really remember.

Sasu

I'll have to say M2TW. Only because of the finesse of insinuation and the delicacy of utterance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3lxR5I19gU

I presume that the speeches are a constituent reason for the ratings these games receive .

Batavus

The Holy Roman Empire has the best speeches overall I think. The accent and the intonation is most consisten of all. The sneer he puts in his speech is also great.
The French speech would be as good as the Holy Roman Empire's but both at the beginning and start he seems to lose his French accent...
I see that the creator of this video favors captains over kings to do the speeching.

I was going to vote for RTW because of the pink elephants and the "no skipping with the entrails!" but hearing and seeing the M2TW speeches again reminded me of their overall shining quality.

Now I also remember that many RTW speeches included:
I HAVE WON MANY BATTLES FOR ROME BE SURE IN THAT KNOWLEDGE (ouch)
But also one that went:
I never wanted to be a commander... But my wife kept nagging me (or something like that LOL)

GSC

MTW2 cuz I don't have RTW and STW2

andferpa

I played medieval 2 in my old computer, so I couldnt play the battles, now that I hear them theya re quite good, but Rome's are my favorites.

System

THE ROMAN GODS ARE WATCHING - MAKE SURE THEY ARE NOT ASHAMED!!!

My favourite speeches by far are the ones in RTW, I think they are mini works of art and they just never get boring. I remember some people made comments about one of the generals sounding like a prepubescent teen but the voices were all part of the charm. Rome's speeches were pretty much all classic lines and led the way for Medieval's and Shogun 2's.

Speaking of which I note that so far Shogun 2 has not got a single vote, would this be because they are for all intensive purposes written speeches this time around and not spoken language by any chance?

andferpa

The shogun 2 ones are a bit too repetitive, also, since I am western, the western way approach to the speeches appeals more to me, I can relate to that easier, I also think that when the troops cheer in shogun 2, it looks like they are trying to pop their backs, not like they are building a battle frenzy.

just my thoughts.

Marly

Its got to be Rome, some great quotes. My personal favourite:

Let us offer prayers to the gods for victory. And then let us arm ourselves to the teeth, just in case the gods aren't listening.

daelin4#9896

I remember in Egypt I had a single Praetorian cavalry being attacked by something.

The Captain just said "Well at least the gods have a sense of humour!" *cheers*

MikeB

Hi --

It's rather nice that people remember something as ephemeral as a bit of VO from so many years ago. Thank you.

Actually, I am interested in knowing which speeches were considered the best, and why. All feedback from the sharp end is greatly appreciated. The generals' speeches are a lot of work to construct as "templates" and then write up the chunks so that they hang together in a relatively sensible fashion. So: what's good, what's bad, and what didn't make sense would help a great deal.

I reckon I've now written about 200,000 words of generals' speechs for TW. I wonder if I could sell the system to politicians, or do some of them already use something very like...:p

One thing: I am aware that, because of the way the speeches have a random element in them there can sometimes be mismatches between one utterance and the next. The game works by knowing what the general is going to say in terms of topics, but then choosing from X elements within that topic. I try to keep these to a minimum, but with hundreds of thousands of games being played, every single silly non sequitur possible is going to appear sooner or later. It's a weakness of constructed speech; I have a couple of ideas how to deal with the problem, but it needs a good deal of thought.

Anyway: as I say, feedback always appreciated, even if I can't answer every single post.

MikeB

Marly

I wonder if I could sell the system to politicians, or do some of them already use something very like...

Hmm, not sure that would work out too well Mike to be honest...not with you writing the material at least

Well ride me sideways and whip me with a winkle fork, lads! There's a lot of the *******s, aren't there? Those ****weasels are here to get away from their unfulfilled, shrill wives. Hardly surprising, as they all have tiny little manhoods! Smaller than a flea on a cockroach's bum!
Er, where was I? Oh yes. Attack the men, my elephants! Go for those little pink sods! Err, was there something… remember this: the owls have promised me their help in this fight! How can we lose?
Remember, they may have the Moon People on their side, but we have lovely hats. Those hats will shield us from their fearsome gaze!!

I have no major critisism of the speeches really. I've always found them entertaining, certainly add a lot to the atmosphere with the odd funny thrown in for good measure. The voice acting was more than a bit iffy in Rome, but much improved after. The main issue was always more with the intonation of the voice not matching from one segment to another but its as good as can reasonably be expected! Short of super intelligent AI which makes a fresh speech up (which obviously you wouldn't invent..you'll be out of a job!) it works fine.

andferpa

I have nothing major, I think that as long as you keep it up and as long as you do put the speeches in for the next game, people will like them, and if you are doing rome 2 next, go back and study the original Rome`s speeches.

System

The parts of the speeches I found the most impressive when I first heard them were the bits that referred to that specific battle, for instance "The enemy must surely be scared for their force consists of a full quarter of their entire army" or "The force before us today represent a full three quarters of their army" and things like "We have never fought these men before" and "We have fought these people many times" and then strategical elements like "The enemy is strong in cavalry so we must rely more on our Spearmen to raise the odds in our favour" or "This battlefield is filled with trees, we should use them to hide our archers so they can surprise our foe"

Another aspect I particularly loved is the references to the Gods because of course ancient people were much more in tune with their gods than we are today so maybe when you guys make a new sword and sandals TW you can push this further by naming the individual Gods by dedicating the battles to them by saying things like "Men if we are victorious here today then I shall personally dedicate a new temple to Mars/Athena/Wotan etc" or maybe calling on the Gods to help with comments like "I call on you great Zeus father of the Gods, Neptune God of the seas, Ra the great provider etc, aid me in this struggle and I shall praise you with a freshly slaughtered Ram from my own fields" You can also mention famous buildings/monuments and characters like the vestal virgins and High priests or Pharaohs.

If it's a more modern game then they could make mention of current events that we now know as history like in a Victorian TW where your general is fighting Red Indians and he can say things like "Yes we all heard about what happened to Custer so we must insure the same fate does not befall us here today", they can also mention reining monarchs and say things like "What we do here today we do in the name of Queen Victoria, may we bring honour to her and England and fight like Lions"

Another thing you have to keep is the humour, which of course you excel in Mike, Generals speeches just wouldn't be the same if we didn't have the occasional paranoid/mad/overly optimistic/overly pessimistic/happy/sad/annoyed/frightened generals lol.

Dionysius the Mighty

I think Rome has the best speeches, although Medieval II's 'a.rseweasel' speeches nearly took the prize!

To respond to MikeB's point, even though these may not necessarily count as speeches, the faction intro videos to Rome Total War feature some of the most inspiring writing in any of the titles so far. No other game has come close to matching the feeling you get watching the RTW intros. After watching the Julii video you can really feel the disdain for the barbarians, and the sense of ambition to deal with the Senate. The other Roman factions really give you a feeling of entitlement - you are of the most ancient families and so you deserve to rule!

Then there's the Barbarian video, I challenge anyone to watch that and not feel like breaking some Roman heads!

The Greek video is also excellent, and really gives you a feeling of factions remembering lost glories, and being prepared to bring those glories back.

For those who haven't seen these videos, here's some links:

Julii: http://youtu.be/RWVgQYN37yk
Brutii: http://youtu.be/GjyKcd4yRFQ
Scipii: http://youtu.be/f7dNVEKA5Wc
Barbarians: http://youtu.be/T5Q_UJcXuMM
Greek: http://youtu.be/J2DuyYIgIp4

PATRIOT45

Fully agreed with Shire!

Dionysius the Mighty wrote: »

The Greek video is also excellent, and really gives you a feeling of factions remembering lost glories, and being prepared to bring those glories back.

I listen to the greek intro while I'm playing Shogun 2...

Durin#4613

Rome 2. When you have inexperienced roman general: "I am here because my mother said I should be." Lol

Nemo#6225

My personal favourite was by far Rome; it was both comical and it fit in nicely. For some reason, I dislike listening to them in Shogun 2, I find them a bit boring and for me at least, uninspiring.

@Dionysius the Mighty: you did not mention the Eastern intro, which was also first-class. Desert, and a thousand coins...

[Deleted User]

Rome's speeches are classical, in the sense of that term. M2's got my vote because they are classic...well, I generally only played England, and the speeches were absolute *******s...particularly against the French.

Always a treat.

@Shire...Mmmmm...so we can expect 'Men of Harlek' while we fight the zulus?

Tyer032392

I love both Rome and medieval 2 pre-battle speeches. Some can be humorous while others can be serious and straight to the poin. For example, a humorous M2TW speech was when the English general was saying " Scotmen, thats who we fight today, scotsmen, though we do them a kind favor today as when we kill them, they escape their horrid wives, women suited better to gutting fish then pleasing men".

King Rufus

It's also fun to hear them speak speciifically about the enemy's faction. Though Shire's post really nicely sums it up IMO.

Ancient_Ruffian

I liked the speeches in Rome because they often gave the struggling player a bit of good advice. But I laughed my socks off at some of the ones in M2TW, especially the English ones. I think for a later era such as the Victorian age, the speeches would probably be more prosaic, especially the English ones. Along the lines of: "Right you lot. In about five minutes time a horde of screaming savages is going to come down that hill. Your job is to stop them and send them packing. So keep a tight sphincter - I'll tell you what a sphincter is later, Barnes, unless the enemy does us all a huge favour and ends your sadly benighted life - and don't fire until you're told to. And aim low. And just remember that you're Englishmen, which means you hold your ground, you don't run around the battlefield like a blue-a.rsed ninny, and you die quietly. Understood? Good. That's all."

Corpius

Rome, especially when playing with one of the Roman factions fighting the egytptians.

And although not technically part of the speeches, the " The Roman Eagle is a Roman chicken !!" shout out from the eastern voice over still cracks me up at times.

Medieval II had some great speeches too though, I recal invading England once, with my Spanish general giving one good reason: God forgot to put in the sun when he created this country!

Knight Templar

Shireknight wrote: »

Which TW game featured your favourite pre-battle speeches?

Rome, along with Medieval II. For some reason, Shogun 2's speeches seem to be less "inspiring"....