Total War

[Syt]

My understanding of "stand-alone" is that you get everything from the original game when you buy the expansion. 

Game mechanics wise yes, but not the scenarios. There's been similar standalone expansions for other games, though they're pretty rare these days.

[Josquius]

Stand alone normally means it doesn't include everything from the original.
If it did then they would advertise it as the original + the expansion to make people aware that they are pretty much getting 2 games for the price of 1.

[Agelastus]

I am kind of confused by the distinction between Empire and Napoleons TW games.

I liked Rome Total War, with the strategic part and stuff, which of those is more like that?

Napoleon is more like Rome, Empire like Medieval.  I prefer Empire, because of the naval game (even though the AI is crap at naval combat tactics, give it enough ships and it can do well enough).  Empire with Napoleon's granularity would be terrific.  Unfortunately, CA made sure that maps after Medieval could not be modded, so modding is limited to units, AI, and textures.

Yep, the naval game alone almost makes Empire worth the price; however, the fact that they never fixed the "fortress repair bug" that settlements suffer from was probably the last nail in the Total War coffin for me. At least concerning my possible purchase of succeeding games in the series, anyway; even after years of play I still enjoy dipping into the various Mods for Rome and Medieval II.