[Sir Thursday]

I've managed to avoid ever turning on Cheat mode - it's much more of a challenge that way...plus, I've never had actually had an AI nuke me. But then I don't really use them myself.

[Path-Shaper]

Traveller, on Mar 19 2009, 03:16 PM, said:

I've just got the 13 colonies as the british in 1712; ive just started building a load more schools to speed things up a bit..

Bloody hell that's quick.... where did you get the army from to do that with?!

Imp

[Traveller]

Path-Shaper, on Mar 20 2009, 09:12 AM, said:

Traveller, on Mar 19 2009, 03:16 PM, said:

I've just got the 13 colonies as the british in 1712; ive just started building a load more schools to speed things up a bit..

Bloody hell that's quick.... where did you get the army from to do that with?!

Imp

I sent my 1st army from Britain to Georgia in the 1st few turns; while it was travelling, I made units of infantry in Jamaica/Antigua? - (the island with the capability.)

By the time my fleet arrived (I had some cannon, a general, a few infantry and pikemen, all from London) I had a few more infantry units and another general from the island, which I sent to Georgia by fleet.

They both landed in the same turn, merged, and took out Georgia and Florida on the next turn.
They then marched to Cherokee capital, and had a big pitched battle with two of their armies at the same time. Once the Cherokees were out, I marched what was left (still quite a few, with experience points) up through the 13 colonies. This took a while as the terrain slowed it down, but speeded up further north on the roads.

I waited on the border across the river from Quebec - then took the city and the Fort next go.
I had to declare war on both France and Spain, but I asked for peace with France, and they granted it in the same turn that I had taken 2 of their regions! I had to pay Spain 1000 for peace.
The same army is now headed to help out in Ruperts Land, as the Hurons have decided to declare war. They're going to get a surprise.

Now I've got 13 colonies, I'm hoping to build up the cash flow and techs a bit. I've also got Rogers Rangers now, who are off to help out against the injuns...

[beru]

have you guys figured that you can name regemts and ships?
when i get to play the game:
2. army
Bridgeburners
bonehunters
froth wolf
twist(ed)
and so on

[Traveller]

Yep! You just click on the name at the top of the unit info window, and a cursor appears.
It's much better having individually named units, as you can follow their progress. And
go 'noooo!' when they get run down in battle.

(My Flagship is called Silanda)

This post has been edited by Traveller: 20 March 2009 - 09:46 AM

[beru]

in rome i always made elite armys and send them to hell (like 18 urban cohorts and 2 preatorian cavalry) wich i used to destroy nations (feks i sent 15 urban/preatorian cohorts and a repeating balista to grece to kill the brutii, and they capured the ntire thracia dacia greece macedonia and turky. much funn)

[Traveller]

I think I'll wait until I have a troop of Grenadiers before I create some Bridgeburners.

After getting beaten a lot in naval battles, I've just figured out a decent strategy. I group all my ships, pick the line formation, and circle the enemy, preferably trapping them by getting downwind of them. The range of fire on my fleet overlaps slightly, and using chain shot at optimum range, I take their masts out.

Then pound them until they look like they might surrender, then board them. It's great, you can see the grapples and ropes crossing between the ships. And captured ships are way better than sunk ones.

Although, when a magazine gets hit and the whole ship goes up, it looks pretty spectacular.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 20 March 2009 - 09:58 AM

[Path-Shaper]

That's really quick, it took me till 1923 or something, but maybe that's because I went after the French and Hurons first via Rupert's Land.

I agree, the explosions are spectacular, though the naval battles are sometimes annoying because the ships sometimes don't do what you want them to and cause havoc by getting in each other's line of fire.... maybe I am just a bad admiral

Imp

[Traveller]

The group thing really works, it's way better than trying to control individual ships.

Also, every shot is modelled individually, so the quantity of cannons, aim and range are all taken into account. The collision detection is really good, you can even see individual strikes on masts.

To get masts down, ideally you should rake the ship from stern or bow, and make sure (from looking at the shots) that they hit as they reach their highest point. Too far away, and they land on deck - too close, and they miss. Best bit of the game so far; the detail like reflections and debris on slowly sinking ships is awesome.

[beru]

my first battle in etw was a ship battle:
5v5
i had Slightly better ships
they hit so one of my ships caught fire and blew itself and a close enmy to smitherens

[Traveller]

Thats unlucky, at least he took someone else out. I played a 40 min battle, and my Admiral got killed in the last 2 mins.

[Impirion]

Hmmm... I had problems with the grouping, especially when some decided to rearrange the order of the line halfway through the battle.....

One thing I miss from Medieval 2 is that you can't have multiple fully stacked armies on the map at the same time. So while you can guarantee victory by outnumbering, you can't crush them quite like before...

[Traveller]

Do you mean on the campaign map? I thought it was possible to field far more people in a single battle than Medieval 2.

The units on the campagin map are a bit weird - two enemy armies that look far apart can still reinforce each other. I think you just have to be in the same region now, not necessarily right next to them like in Medieval.

I divided an army before attacking, so I could preserve some units - moved a few spaces and attacked - and the force I left behind was still numbered in the reinforcements.

[Tapper]

Nope, they have an interception zone around them - click the army, and you'll see two green fields around it (or yellow for enemies) - the wider area is the remaining move zone, the smaller one the interception zone. Anything hostile that enters it and battle commences. Same with ships/fleets. It makes blocking a border really effective.

I got bottled up as Austria when I went to war with Venice - they were blocking an Ottoman port and the zone of control made it impossible to get any fleets (in my case, consisting entirely of Indiamen, not something you want to risk in battle) past them in a peaceful manner, even after I had taken Venice (bloody buggers owned Greece).

Had to build a few 6th rates to free the zone.

[Impirion]

I just meant if you have a full army of reinforcements, they can't be AI controlled to help or anything like that... Just meant that battles can get messy if both of you have reinforcements, and they both appear next to each other...

Imp

[Tapper]

Impirion, on Mar 20 2009, 12:51 PM, said:

I just meant if you have a full army of reinforcements, they can't be AI controlled to help or anything like that... Just meant that battles can get messy if both of you have reinforcements, and they both appear next to each other...

Imp

Ah, misunderstood then

[Impirion]

I do like the increased area of contact, makes it much easier to intercept armies like Tapper said

What are people's opinions on the fact that there are major cities and fewer territories in Europe, and the whole towns system?

I like it, it reflects the era more I feel than a map like Medieval's would have done, as if Paris falls then France would have been teetering in real life. I also enjoy raping and pillaging my way across enemy territory without having to do a stupid siege battle

[Traveller]

I like it as the settlement development directly affects what tech you get, and how fast.
It's better than having to develop the smae buildings in every settlement, like before.

Also, the tax system for a whole region speeds up the management phase of cities and towns - in the later stages of medieval and Rome, this could take ages to do.

It does just seem to reflect the age, with more unity between regions and countries.

[Tapper]

I like it as well.

The one problem with it being big regions is recruitment.
As France, you can build 5 units a turn in Paris, and 1 or 2 in Alsace.
Compare that to Austria, with 5 in Vienna, 2 in Hungary, at the least 1 in Prague and 1 in Silesia, or even Russia, which should be able to churn out full stacks a turn once decent recruitment centres have been built.

That's a big discrepancy gameplaywise, I feel - some big states are easily cornered and can't fight wars on multiple fronts, where others can. Then again, they may have to due to location.

[Impirion]

You can churn out about 7 units once fully levelled up I think. Yes France have maybe a little bit of a problem, but that can easily be solved by taking a couple of territories, which you should be doing anyway. My friend is playing as them in the campaign and he is holding together a war *technically* on 3 fronts. Don't forget the French have Quebec as well which can produce huge numbers of troops too. In addition, since France is allied to Spain, they only have the upper Easter border and lower Eastern border as fronts in addition to America, and that's manageable I think... Haven't looked up some of the other countries, but Prussia seems alright as well as there are plenty of small germanic states for them to take first to get the production cap up...