Where to start: galCivII, DA or TotA?

If you want to get the whole story unfolding in order then you'll want to start with Dreadlords. Each game starts a year after the last and continues the story. Oh, And yes each version is quite different with a lot of added content and gameplay options in each expansion.

By switching chapters on the menu i found that:

GCII has the Dread Lords Campaign

Dark Avatar has the Dread Lords and Dark Avatar campaign

Twilight of the Arnor has the Arnor campaign.

So what I should start play ... the Dread Lord Campaign on the Dark Avatar game?

I tought I had all the campaigns versions on the expansions too, this means I haven't personalized tech tree on th first two campaign, right?

Thanks.

Hello, and greetings from Greece.

I also bought the Ultimate Pack last night and have the same question with Beorne.

In particular, i 've noticed that TotA has improved graphics, so, can i play the Dreadlord Campaign on TotA, or will i miss anything? I don't want to skip the storyline, but some better graphics would be nice.

Thank you and please excuse my poor english.

Also, the game looks awesome, difficult getting used to, but this is also part of the fun for me.

Actually most people I know never played any campaigns. I myself any ran through the tutorial and then just started playing whats called sandbox games. I'm sure there are those that start out playing campaigns and that's probably one way to get started buts that's a personal choice.

Anyway as far as what to start with, DethAdders point that each version is different and has it's own flavor is definitely true. One thing I would recommend is to *not* directly jump into ToA because with each race having independent tech trees it's a lot to absorb all at once. DA definitely adds functionality over DL but at least the techs are very similar.

I'd say it would be best to play a DL game or two but if you want to skip that and go directly to DA there's nothing wrong with that. But once on DA you probably should play that for awhile before moving on to ToA. There is an unbelieveable amount of "stuff" to learn in this game and there are so many different ways to play that no matter how good your overall TBS game experience is it's going to take you awhile to master this game.

Speaking of the campaigns, how many "missions" are there in each campaign of the game, and how long do they take to play through?

I have understood that TotA has much changes over Dark Avatar, but does have any sense to play GalCivII over Dark Avatar?