[Impirion]

Tapper, on Mar 9 2009, 10:36 PM, said:

well, playing as France now, after having had a stab at Russia.
It really helps to tear down a metalworks or weaver and put up a second school.

That being said, there's not enough variation in land units - there's no unit that I absolutely WANT to get. The little differences between nations are nice touches though that do provide a different playstyle and tactics, and the small nations really pose a challenge. Baden-Wurttemberg and Westphalia ganged up on me with a full stack each not even 15 turns into the game... If only the AI could keep up in research

On sea in the campaign it's the exact opposite. Scaling up from a 6th to a 4th rate will instantly make you king of the sea if you're the first to do it - and there's extensive research required so you're probably the first to do it and free up the resources.

Then, the same happens when going from 4th to 2nd and then to 1st rate, and if you can outbuild the others by continuiing to keep 1 or 2 ships in the queue, you will outsize them and therefore outgun them easily.

All in all, I eagerly outwait the mods.

That's weird... I have only played my campaign as the British, but the AI seems to be keeping up with me, if not ahead in certain aspects of research, and I have like 6 unis.... (admittedly only 1 at the very start though)

[beru]

if you find yourself fighting elephants in india

use canons
keep all units away
maby granades will work donno
consentrate all firepower at the enemy infatry
and if you dident see where thise tactics are from try changing elephant with tank...

[Impirion]

I found my line infantry were good enough to keep them down.... 3 simultaneous volleys reduced a unit of elephants from 24 to 6 and routed them

[cerveza_fiesta]

this total war game sounds like a riot!

How would you compare it to Galactic civilizations?

[Impirion]

Erm, haven't played much Galactic civilisation. That's more turn based isn't it? Also, if I am thinking of the right game, my friend found the AI a bit poor... but then again we have Total War's AI From memory I preferred Total War but that might just be because I fricking love the series although I will be the first to admit it has its faults... like the AI and pathfinding....*bangs head against wall thinking about it*

Total War is kind of like Civ with RTS battles or at least Empire has become a little more Civ ish with its tech tree.

[Sir Thursday]

No no, GalCiv has an incredible AI. One of the most challenging you'll ever play against. I'm not a huge fan of it though because I just find it to be a bit too...empty. Habitable planets are fairly rare (unless you crank their frequency up), so there are limited places to expand to. I much prefer Civ because almost every square has potential, but that's just me.

Sir Thursday

[Impirion]

So it isn't the one that Ashley has? The one he beats by just creating 4 uber ships and destroying enemy fleets?

[cerveza_fiesta]

yeah, I should have said "how does the AI compare to galciv" or at least galciv2

I found galciv2 to be ridiculously intelligent even though it brought my poor old computer to its knees.

Total war = smart or stupid?

I like ones where it takes me a gooood looooong time before I can figure out the computer AI's patterns, or where the computer does random crazy moves just to throw you off the pattern chase. Galciv2 is like that.

[Sir Thursday]

Impirion, on Mar 18 2009, 04:23 PM, said:

So it isn't the one that Ashley has? The one he beats by just creating 4 uber ships and destroying enemy fleets?

Nah, that's Sins of a Solar Empire .

GalCiv2 is turn based. Essentially civilisation in space.


@CF: The Total War AI historically hasn't been much of a challenge, even on the hardest settings. I think Empire is quite a bit stronger than previous iterations, but it certainly isn't anywhere near the ability of the GalCiv2 AIs. It still has quite a few problems - I've been able to win a few city battles I shouldn't have because the AI just waits around instead of attacking. It's fine on the non-city battles, but I think the pathfinding is rather glitchy in certain situations. Haven't really played it enough to know the AI all that well, unfortunately.


Sir Thursday

This post has been edited by Sir Thursday: 18 March 2009 - 06:32 PM

[Traveller]

The Total War AI has a few weird habits, but I'm still enjoying the game.

I like the use of terrain, and the different tactics needed with the firearms. I built a fort on a hill on the campaign map, and the Huron indians can't even get close.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 19 March 2009 - 08:47 AM

[Path-Shaper]

Sir Thursday, on Mar 18 2009, 12:32 PM, said:

Impirion, on Mar 18 2009, 04:23 PM, said:

So it isn't the one that Ashley has? The one he beats by just creating 4 uber ships and destroying enemy fleets?

Nah, that's Sins of a Solar Empire .

GalCiv2 is turn based. Essentially civilisation in space.


@CF: The Total War AI historically hasn't been much of a challenge, even on the hardest settings. I think Empire is quite a bit stronger than previous iterations, but it certainly isn't anywhere near the ability of the GalCiv2 AIs. It still has quite a few problems - I've been able to win a few city battles I shouldn't have because the AI just waits around instead of attacking. It's fine on the non-city battles, but I think the pathfinding is rather glitchy in certain situations. Haven't really played it enough to know the AI all that well, unfortunately.


Sir Thursday

No the one he had before SoSE, you know the turn based one with the huge amount of customizability? Meh I will just ask him I guess...


The AI is nothing special. It tends to stick to one or two tactics. There have been some innovations such as better flanking movements by the cavalry. The American Indians are just annoying to fight because they tend to hide all their troops but the AI never comes out with a strategy that leaves you going... Wow that really turned the battle!

It looks very pretty though

Imp

This post has been edited by Path-Shaper: 19 March 2009 - 09:28 AM

[Tapper]

Path-Shaper, on Mar 19 2009, 10:28 AM, said:

Sir Thursday, on Mar 18 2009, 12:32 PM, said:

Impirion, on Mar 18 2009, 04:23 PM, said:

So it isn't the one that Ashley has? The one he beats by just creating 4 uber ships and destroying enemy fleets?

Nah, that's Sins of a Solar Empire .

GalCiv2 is turn based. Essentially civilisation in space.


@CF: The Total War AI historically hasn't been much of a challenge, even on the hardest settings. I think Empire is quite a bit stronger than previous iterations, but it certainly isn't anywhere near the ability of the GalCiv2 AIs. It still has quite a few problems - I've been able to win a few city battles I shouldn't have because the AI just waits around instead of attacking. It's fine on the non-city battles, but I think the pathfinding is rather glitchy in certain situations. Haven't really played it enough to know the AI all that well, unfortunately.


Sir Thursday

No the one he had before SoSE, you know the turn based one with the huge amount of customizability? Meh I will just ask him I guess...


The AI is nothing special. It tends to stick to one or two tactics. There have been some innovations such as better flanking movements by the cavalry. The American Indians are just annoying to fight because they tend to hide all their troops but the AI never comes out with a strategy that leaves you going... Wow that really turned the battle!

It looks very pretty though

Imp

Not Master of Orion 3?
That game sucked balls - but 2 was teh awesome.

[Path-Shaper]

Oh wait, just remembered... I think it was Space Empire V....

Imp

[Tapper]

Never played that one.
The problem for me with 4X games is usually that you sit and wait and sit and wait and click the turn button to wait for the next tech to develop - and if you go in and micro-manage, there's ages to spend to sort out the planetary/regional details each time once you have a decent realm/galactical empire.

still, I keep buying them like it's compulsory.

[Impirion]

I do like 4X games, although haven't played that many, Space Empires V a bit and Sins of a Solar Empire, though I wasn't too impressed by SoSE...
RTS for me, or Football manager

[Tapper]

Impirion, on Mar 18 2009, 11:57 AM, said:

Tapper, on Mar 9 2009, 10:36 PM, said:

well, playing as France now, after having had a stab at Russia.
It really helps to tear down a metalworks or weaver and put up a second school.

That being said, there's not enough variation in land units - there's no unit that I absolutely WANT to get. The little differences between nations are nice touches though that do provide a different playstyle and tactics, and the small nations really pose a challenge. Baden-Wurttemberg and Westphalia ganged up on me with a full stack each not even 15 turns into the game... If only the AI could keep up in research

On sea in the campaign it's the exact opposite. Scaling up from a 6th to a 4th rate will instantly make you king of the sea if you're the first to do it - and there's extensive research required so you're probably the first to do it and free up the resources.

Then, the same happens when going from 4th to 2nd and then to 1st rate, and if you can outbuild the others by continuiing to keep 1 or 2 ships in the queue, you will outsize them and therefore outgun them easily.

All in all, I eagerly outwait the mods.

That's weird... I have only played my campaign as the British, but the AI seems to be keeping up with me, if not ahead in certain aspects of research, and I have like 6 unis.... (admittedly only 1 at the very start though)

In the trees I aim at - they're usually ahead in farming and ironworking, but social and land military are mine.

[Traveller]

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..

[Aptorian]

Civ 4 annoyed the shit out of me.

I tend to prefer the Domination games where you don't win before you've wiped out every single opponent.

But in civ 4 as soon as you use more than 3 nukes or so the fucking world cracks. What kind of bullshit is that?! It doesn't even matter if you don't build any because the idiot AI doesn't get it!

[Sir Thursday]

Aptorian, on Mar 19 2009, 09:28 PM, said:

Civ 4 annoyed the shit out of me.

I tend to prefer the Domination games where you don't win before you've wiped out every single opponent.

But in civ 4 as soon as you use more than 3 nukes or so the fucking world cracks. What kind of bullshit is that?! It doesn't even matter if you don't build any because the idiot AI doesn't get it!

Attack them before they get nukes .


Sir Thursday

[Aptorian]

No. I usually cheat, make a much larger world than is standard, seed it with tons of extra ressources, give myself tons of gold, give myself all starting techs, choose second hardest level, aggresive AIs, no permanent alliances and then let the games begin.

Basically for the next 5000 years I'm just trying to not be wiped out while I stay way ahead techwise, then when I reach tank level I begin retaliating, this is when my game really begins as one or two nations by then themselves have begun becomming huge. It will often just end up in me and the AI(s) just sending waves after waves of shit at each other. It's glorious!

And I so hate the French!