[Traveller]

I think it depends solely on what you do when you first take the city. If you 'occupy' it, but generally leave the population, the numbers stay high, but they are less happy (because they are the 'original' nation under your governorship).

If you kill loads of them to start with, you reduce the population, but it will repopulate (slowly) with people from your own nation, and will be happier.
It takes a while to repopulate though, and in that time output and income form taxes are all reduced. I think there is a middle option, I can't remember.

I only totally wiped settlements in Medieval - i was retuning from a crusade, and there was no way I could keep hold of the settlements I took, as i was so far from home with no hope of reinforcement, and lots of angry locals.

So I took them, sacked them, and razed every building for the money. Then moved out. It paid for the army upkeep if I took one each turn, and it crippled the enemy as they had to retake and rebuild everything.

The happiness thing becomes a big thing in Rome - if you haven't built the right things, all your settlements start to revolt, just as your armies are miles away trying to mop up the last of the campaign.

@Cause. I meant the carronade technology, not just the carronade unit. I was assuming all your ships would get carronades on their top deck? And would be far more effective in naval battles.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 07 April 2009 - 11:44 AM

[cerveza_fiesta]

the middle choice was to enslave the population, which distributes the populace of the conquered city amongst your other cities.

I figured razing deleted the city from the game, so that's cool that you can repopulte it with your own guys.

Hopefully medieval 2 will be DL'd tonight. WOOT!

[Cause]

Almost always enslave he population. You get rid of some unhappy people in your conquered town making it more agreeable to your rule, you get some money. Also the slaves dont just dissapear they get relocated to all your other cities with a general in them increasing their population. Its the only way to get they heavy population centres and hence powerful buildingds early. Also the region that got enslaved will have a bonus to economy for the next few turns as it sells some of these slaves.

One problem though is that it can sometimes take the town you just enslaved ages to get back up and reach the next level of population to level up. Unless you put a general in and repeat the enslaving of further regions.

Cant really recall a time when its good to kill everyone unless you just want to shut down an enemy city but not hold it. In which case remeber to sell all the buildings

@Traveller-Far as I have seen it just gives you a carronade frigate. I have not noticed anything elsehappening to my fleet. But it would be hard to notice if my ships fire power rating went up by just a few points. Still I dont think its listed under the benifits when you select the tech

[Traveller]

Ah. I thought each ship would get an upgrade, like with the coppering - not immediately visable, but gives a speed and manouvreablity bonus.

Anyone playing Empire? I had a big battle against the Pueblo Nation last night - it was going well, I was advancing carefully, took out their general early, and was preparing to finish off their last unit, when I got flanked by a load of units that literally appeared out of nowhere.

I've seen this a couple of times now - enemy troops dispappearing on the battlefield, and reappearing. Is this a line-of-sight thing? They were quite close when it happened, and at first I thought it was a glitch - if it is intentional, it seems a bit unfair that the enemy can remain completely invisible until they charge.

Anyhoo, they flanked me, and I lost quite a few men before I could see them off. That said, it seems to be fairly true to the age, in the way that troop drill is important - forming square under cavalry charge is really effective, and grapeshot a close range is truly devastating, turning a unit of 60 charging men into a fleeing, ragged group of 15 in one messy volley.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 08 April 2009 - 06:50 AM

[Cause]

Many units even in the european nations can hide in certain kinds of terrain. Some can hide in forests, sme in shrubs and some can even hide in just plain old grass. So long as they are not shooting or moving you wont see them. What difficulty are you playing on, never seen the computer use that tactic though.

When you right click on a unit it will bring up the units stats, their is also an option to view its abilities. It wil tell you if they can hide. Alas in this total war your not really allowed to see what your enemy can do.

[Traveller]

I was hoping it wasn't a glitch. I'm playing on hard, but I've not had much trouble, as I try to keep everyone covered, while I methodically take out their units - bit like chess really.

This really relies on knowing where everyone is though! I was firing cannon at targets that were a long way off; i could see them ok. But to have a unit (or 3) 'appear' in front, or to the side, of my advancing army was a bit of a shock. Maybe they were just hiding, in which case maybe I need to send skirmishers ahead to scout them out.

At one point, I ws trying to target a unit that was dead ahead with some cannon; but they disappeared. I selected a unit of infantry instead, and they (enemy unit) reappeared again. They weren't in trees, either.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 08 April 2009 - 10:34 AM

[Cause]

yeah as I said some can hide anywhere. But for most they need some kind of cover. I love cannons in this game!

[Traveller]

Yep! I like the way they're so easy to move, and re-deploy against new targets.

Even if they do get flanked by enemy cavalry, it's sometimes possible to turn them and let off a load of grapeshot into their charge.

BOOM!

[Impirion]

The American Indian units all automatically become invisible if they are stationary. It is kind of a hazardous thing when trying to attack them, you never know quite where their main army is because the AI seems to like keeping its army stationary until you are really close... I had one battle where they put 15 or so units on top of each other and appeared all at once..... that would have been fun if I had any cannons....

The Europeans have rangers or light infantry which can do the same, and their benefit also is that they waaaaay outrange line infantry too

Imp

[Cause]

How much money do you guys make a turn. Its 1750 and Im making 30 000 profit a turn. In rome I used to make a 100 000 a turn easy after so long. Just curious if your in te same boat. I have a massive army and navy robbing me of over 50k upkeep a turn easy. Still Im worried Im way behind the curve

[Impirion]

I was up to roughly 100000 income at 1952, that's probably a better comparison. Think my profit was around 30-40000 as well.

Imp

[Sir Thursday]

Impirion, on Apr 13 2009, 10:58 PM, said:

I was up to roughly 100000 income at 1952, that's probably a better comparison. Think my profit was around 30-40000 as well.

Imp

You reached 1952? World War II must have been fuuuun .



Sir Thursday

[cerveza_fiesta]

Medieval II is a fucking rad game by the way. The city fights are MUCH improved over Rome, as well as the look of the armies on the battle map. The main map is more or less the same in my view, but the aspect of Fort vs. City to balance defense and unit production vs. income is a neato development. Much more true to life. I mean, running a castle has got to be a huge financial liability, whereas a walled town has much more room for trade and general economic growth. Makes sense. Its also very nice to see that un-governed cities can manage to keep a happiness level above 0% unlike Rome. I seem to be very stretched on the

Started a British campaign. I've got York now, wales, ireland and am happily fending off the french pigdogs to the south. Scotland thinks they're in a nice comfy alliance with me since I gave them millitary access. Little do they know that I'm going to park a huge army outside both of their cities within 5 turns and tear them a new one.

New questions:

It says "203 turns left" on one of the summary windows...can't remember which one.

Is that an overall game limit? You only get 200 turns to cap 45 territories AND Jerusalem? Or is it 200 turns until the "second age" or something? I mean, you can do a lot in a turn...but 200 just doesn't seem like enough to rule the world.

Also, the new world....when does that come into the game? Does it at all?

What is the general proportion of castles vs. towns you keep. I mean, its obvious that front-line stuff should remain a fort if possible for defense, but is it good to do the rotten egg thing...ie leave central protected territories as towns with most of the frontline stuff as forts?

[beru]

its 203 turns till you lose... (if you dont got 45 and jerusalem ofc) but you can press a fine chek buton at the botom of the "you have been defeted/wictorius that alows you to contineue playing

[Traveller]

I generally remember doing something like that - keep making productive towns on the interior, safer regions, and forts in places that will be under assault for a long time. Otherwise, I'd just keep the bulk of your armies on your borders.

Don't neglect the religion part - try and get as many priests/bishops out there burning witches etc, so you have a shot at pope down the line. It can get frustrating getting told to leave your offensive neighbour alone when they keep attacking your cities every turn.

The New World turns up much later in the game, when the shipping gets developed enough to make the journey. I think I'd pretty much taken most of my targets by then though. After the victory sequence, you get to carry on playing anyway.

Try and take the Scottish out all on the same turn if you can; but don't remove all your armies, as you might well get invaded later on.

I love the character traits that your family members develop, according to what they do. I had one guy travel to Jeruselum, take it from the french, and win a load of battles - he got a 'holy lance' for his trouble. The one who stayed at home governing a city got fat and corrupt - his description was 'indolent lump.'

@Cause - I only get about 20,000 per turn, in 1722. I have a lot of ships along the Ivory coast, one space in the Madagascar theatre, but that's it. I do have a lot of plantations/fur traders in America, but I have high costs for my huge navy.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 14 April 2009 - 12:07 PM

[beru]

personaly i like rome better but i hope they make a "rome total war 2" with castels and self played ship battles...
in rome i dont have eny problems with happiness but there im a cold bloded killer (exsterminate often more than once and if a city grows to big i leave it and exsterminate)

[Traveller]

I would love a Rome remake. Not an overcomplicated version - but better graphics, better campaign map, maybe ship battles too.

With total war, I always like the earlier stages more than the later phase of a campaign. I prefer to have fewer settlements to manage - it would be good to have a different range of goals, as while the Roman factions obviously wanted to expand and invade, it seems odd to be trying to conquer europe as any other faction at that time.

For example, the british could be focused just in britain, and have to defend against invasions for a set number of turns. The variety would be in the battle maps - more rivers, valleys, beach and hill settings, with more freedom and time to set up defensive measures like ditches and palisades.

And, the remains of one battlefield/map could stay until the next battle, so defenses might need rebuilding, new ditches re-dug or moved if they were unhelpful previously. And no Steam to deal with...

This post has been edited by Traveller: 14 April 2009 - 01:22 PM

[Sixty]

This might be a little out of place, but do any of you still play Age of Empires II (over hamachi)?

D:

Either that or Rise of Nations.

[Cause]

@Tarveller 20k profit a turn in 1722? Or 20k money a turn before upkeep takes its share. If the former incredible.

I liked the alexander expansion for rome. It takes the same engine and evrything and in a way spins the game on its head. Okay not so much since your still conquering everything. But they should make more chapter campaigns like alexander or the road to indepednace tutorial from empire. For example it would be a simple thing to have the map zoom in on britian for the royalist parlement civil war etc.

[cerveza_fiesta]

thanks.

Last question

How do I play the non-main factions? Do I need to beat a main campaign before it will let me play...for example...portugal?