[Mentalist]

yeah, that place
we all know what it stands for, though,
those puny Danes, with their lack of proper cavalry....
they put had 5 cardinals, and the Pope was Danish, but my gold proved more convincing...

[beru]

my knights usaly do the trick...
(kill the pope and you get reconsiled beacuse he died...)

[Mentalist]

whenever the AI attacked me with Denmark they'd have those cleric cavalry, but nothing heavier than that.

they've got some decent infantry that takes a while to break, but without strong cavalry they are too open to flanking manouvers.

which was also the problem of Italian armies--I'd face an army sereal times larger than my own, but the majority would be crossbowmen and spearmen. if you have a bunch of cavalry stacks so that you could hit them simultaneously form several points, the entire army breaks and you end up imprisoning like half of them if not more.

[beru]

yes i agree italian armys are to predicctable to be any chalenge at all its the mongols and the timurids that make me think twice of my armys (unless im russa then its one answer to all threats: DVOR)

[Mentalist]

heh
haven't gotten that far yet, and I haven't played in a while.
Spaniards are really annoying, they have that crazy light cavalry that throws javelins at you.... I am yet to find a good counter for those, since Spaniards insist on harassing me occasionally, trying to invade through France...

[beru]

to stop those put some light infantry in lose fromation in front of your archers... the jinets (as i belive they are called) will not attack your archers becuse they are afraid of the light infatry and your archers can pick them down (all tho at a horedus arrow cost).. or you can get yourself light cavalry and attac the jinets when they are tired...

[beru]

sorry for duble post but:
EMPIRE TOTAL WAR IS OUT NOW AND GUESS WHAT
im getting it TODAY (if they have it in the store but still) i got money and time to go and get it yay at last i will be able to kill enemy boats with my tactics muahhahha

[Traveller]

Amazon says mine is in the post! I just hope it runs ok on my pc....

[beru]

i dont think like that that would ruin my day...

[Tapper]

It looks great. Haven't had much time after the download to actually play it, so I just scrolled the map and checked out the units in the custom battle screen to see what nation would appeal to me most to start the campaign with.

The map is overwhelming and I find the research trees unclear unless you develop a tendency to right click on every tiny little icon. I'm sure I'll learn to handle it eventually but it's nothing like I'm used to from the TW series. Maybe I'm getting old and conservative

The units you can see in the Custom battle screen per nation are disappointing to say the least.
Each nation has roughly the same unit types (line inf, light inf, dragoons, cavalry, mounted and dismounted elites) and very few special ones that really seem distinct from one another... had I known this, I would have purchased the special forces edition, I think, just to add a bit more variety.

I hope the blandness is due to the fact that the game adopts the Rome: total realism mechanic where you can recruit special troops in certain locations only...

The Hessian Line Infantry for the English for example is recruitable in the US only and I guess Highlanders are Scotland only, for example - neither is included in the Custom Battle screen. Here's hoping it's that, cause every faction will have few unique elements otherwise. If so, it's still a pity they didn't include those units in the custom battle army creation.

[beru]

boght the game... and i read the manual as i wirite. captains and brigandiers (former captains aka non general army leader) can now be promoted to generals wich can train units wile outside of towns (as i understud it) you also have a new form for rebelion... revelution! it can only happen in your capital. you then chose if you suport the rvelutioners or you old goverment (goverments give difrent bonuses) and then you eater kill the skum or capture you own capital...

it also looks like its three maps:
europe
asia (thi is my guess but in the trailer you se elefants with indian looking "drivers"
america

[beru]

boght the game... and i read the manual as i wirite. captains and brigandiers (former captains aka non general army leader) can now be promoted to generals wich can train units wile outside of towns (as i understud it) you also have a new form for rebelion... revelution! it can only happen in your capital. you then chose if you suport the rvelutioners or you old goverment (goverments give difrent bonuses) and then you eater kill the skum or capture you own capital...

it also looks like its three maps:
europe
asia (thi is my guess but in the trailer you se elefants with indian looking "drivers"
america

you can now also research tecnologys... and a agent (i think) named gentelman can steal tecnologys from your adverserys

you can build small defenses in battle to protect your men from enemy fire and many units carry grapnels and rope ladders to scale the enemy walls
some cavalry can dissmunt during battles... nuff said

in naval battles you can attac only with your broad side and wind is a factor you must not forget beacuse to stand still you have to toss a anchor, you can also board the enemy.
you have three types of ship ammo:
canonballs (or round shot
grape shot (rifle ammo deals dmg to enemy crew)
chain shot (target masts and sails)

This post has been edited by beru: 04 March 2009 - 11:18 AM

[Impirion]

Tapper, on Mar 4 2009, 10:40 AM, said:

It looks great. Haven't had much time after the download to actually play it, so I just scrolled the map and checked out the units in the custom battle screen to see what nation would appeal to me most to start the campaign with.

The map is overwhelming and I find the research trees unclear unless you develop a tendency to right click on every tiny little icon. I'm sure I'll learn to handle it eventually but it's nothing like I'm used to from the TW series. Maybe I'm getting old and conservative

The units you can see in the Custom battle screen per nation are disappointing to say the least.
Each nation has roughly the same unit types (line inf, light inf, dragoons, cavalry, mounted and dismounted elites) and very few special ones that really seem distinct from one another... had I known this, I would have purchased the special forces edition, I think, just to add a bit more variety.

I hope the blandness is due to the fact that the game adopts the Rome: total realism mechanic where you can recruit special troops in certain locations only...

The Hessian Line Infantry for the English for example is recruitable in the US only and I guess Highlanders are Scotland only, for example - neither is included in the Custom Battle screen. Here's hoping it's that, cause every faction will have few unique elements otherwise. If so, it's still a pity they didn't include those units in the custom battle army creation.

Well to be honest, it's the age, the 18th and 19th centuries were when people realised that guns > everything else and there wasn't anywhere near as much difference in the armies like in Roman times. The major difference seems to be range and accuracy. For example, the American units are twice as big as British ones I guess because British ones are so much better trained.

In any case, Medieval 2 was better at the training special units at certain locations only, like Hospitallers and Templars etc... whereas Rome had the First Cohort and that was about it?

You can get both in the custom Battle screen I think, well, definitely the Hessians, not sure about the Highlanders. Select late rather than early age.

Apparently the tech tree has received lots of praise although I also agree it's very daunting when you first look at it. Also, the map is so different with the outlying villages.

[Mentalist]

what are the gfx requirements?


Mentalist, wants, but can't has....

[Impirion]

256mb Video Card minimum I think, recommended 512mb. Something about shader 2.0 needing to be able to work on it etc....

[Imperial Historian]

My copys on it's way, really looking forward to it's arrival.

For those of you who wish to try out the new battles theres a demo available here

From my brief play through, the naval battles look like they could be very cool with the option of trying to disable and board a ship, and then use it yourself. Getting to grips with the naval tactics might take a bit of getting used to, when I played through it really wasn't easily apparent how effective certain strategies were.

[Mentalist]

Impirion, on Mar 4 2009, 11:55 AM, said:

256mb Video Card minimum I think, recommended 512mb. Something about shader 2.0 needing to be able to work on it etc....

I think I have 128...sigh

[Impirion]

Imperial Historian, on Mar 4 2009, 06:01 PM, said:

My copys on it's way, really looking forward to it's arrival.

For those of you who wish to try out the new battles theres a demo available here

From my brief play through, the naval battles look like they could be very cool with the option of trying to disable and board a ship, and then use it yourself. Getting to grips with the naval tactics might take a bit of getting used to, when I played through it really wasn't easily apparent how effective certain strategies were.

Yeah, it looks like bigger ships with experience may be better than a fleet of small ships with same number of cannons, though that might change if unlike me you actually know how to marshal a fleet...

Imp

[Wry]

Have been so looking forward to playing this game. Bought it today, and i'm bloody pissed off!!

I've spent 3 hours trying to get it to work! Firstly it's all through steam, even if i go to the trouble of buying the disks i end up having to go online to install it (irritating since the pc i use for gaming is not connected to the net) then after a LONG installation, and and even LONGER updating from steam (which is stupid because there've been no updates in the day it's been available)... the fucking thing doesn't work!!!

Updating drivers, rolling back drivers, changing settings for ages but to no avail...i checked the support forum and loads of people are having this same problem... i really wish developers would get their shit together BEFORE releasing things, rather than letting me pay to find all their bugs and glitches.

[Traveller]

It does take AGES to install.... the 'Steam' thing annoyed me, as it only lets you play the game once you've registered with them. And, once it was installed, I couldn't play it without it wanting internet access so it could run through the steam thing. It took a while to figure out how to turn it off. I can't complain though, apart from the intro sequence being slooow the actual game seems to be fine, and my pc isn't exactly new.

I had a few turns last night, and after getting used to the new stuff, and the somewhat overwhelming scale (there's India and areas of America to get into, and playing as Britain, you don't even have a starting colony in India) I started getting right into it.

True, the graphics don't (so far) look as pretty as Medieval2 - but it suits the age. The settlement management is different, with more specific purposes to each town or village, so rather than being able to build a load of similar looking settlements, they each specialise in something, like researching technologies, smithing, agriculture etc.

And, agents appear under certain conditions, rather than having to be built. It just looks HUGE, and that's without the naval side - trade route management, naval engagements etc.

I've had a few ship battles now - it's a lot easier with fewer ships to manage, but it looks great, and working out the timing for the broadsides is fun. i managed to cut between 2 enemy ships, and rake both of them at almost the same time with grapeshot, which was really effective - much as it would have been.

You get rewarded with men overboard, and flying splinters, and if you're lucky you can knock a mast over, or hit their magazine, which will (rarely) take the whole ship out.

Fun!

This post has been edited by Traveller: 05 March 2009 - 08:28 AM