[Stalker]

Do you guys actually control the battles or do you armchair general and auto-resolve like I do? The battles can be fun but it is the same thing over and over, and once you have a massive army of good soldiers they wreck the enemy. I can auto-resolve storming a fully garrisoned, fortifed city and lose like 100-200 men of the whole army.

[beru]

in school i often auto resolve... (need to be ready to press alt+tab) but i play for the tactics (my friends are good tacticians and i have to keep up and its funny) and in less important battles i also auto resolve.

to get a city from a ally bribe it, it works... (can be costy tho...)

[Impirion]

I think auto-resolving full stack against full stack with a good general is kind of cheating because I have never found a way to replicate the same victory margins fighting by myself. I mean, losing 200 odd men in a huge engagement and killing around 1000.. I am just not good enough to do that in this game, in previous ones yes (cavalry in the rear ftw ), but not this one yet since I can't figure a way to minimise casualties. So I only autoresolve small battles or ones in which one is hugely outnumbered. Just me though, I have friends who fight every battle and others who fight none.

Imp

[cerveza_fiesta]

so far the battles are by far the best part of the game for me. I really enjoy them, so no, I don't autoresolve.

Is it true that empire total war lets you control ocean battles

[Stalker]

yeah, it's kinda cool. Better than the way naval battles were done before.

[Traveller]

The naval battles are the best bit at the moment. I haven't had any major european land battles yet; but
I like the ability to form troops into squares to evade cavalry, and the effectiveness of rangers when hidden up in treelines. So far the navy is more impressive to me; the land units all look very similar, and it's very different to medieval/Rome, as there is less up-close fighting.

I've got a good navy at the moment, only 1718 so far, but am developing some second rates now.
This is from one of the pre-set naval battles.

 screenshot2.jpg (229.87K)
Number of downloads: 6

This post has been edited by Traveller: 03 April 2009 - 07:19 AM

[Path-Shaper]

Hmm, I fought a few full stack land battles so far, and they're fun and impressive. managing your cavalry is a lot tougher than in any other TW game, holding lines at certain points and trying to force the strategic positions (villages, hills, or sometimes even little stone walls seperating farmlands) are awesome, and because you need lines of fire, it is a tough choice whether to block your own lines by going into melee or soak up ranged damage. Also, outflanking and providing proper back up is very important now... if you can get line infantry or light inf around a flank, you can kill entire units in seconds. Reserve management is a real important thing.

One time, I went up against Savoy in a little village and I had to storm the place building for building, and while my grenadiers and line infantry were occupied with that, I was attacked in the back by two units of horse who first neatly circumvented my rearguard units and then smashed into my general. The AI is doing nicely when it has some options, although just like in ME 2, it seems to prefer a lot of artillery... armies of 5 line and 6 cannons are no exception.

[Traveller]

I need to stop wasting time in america and get some troops into India. I haven't had any village battles yet.

[beru]

cannons are atlast worth it! you get four canons (insted of 2) and they are exstremly good

the qoutes are cool too!

i get my new pc soon...

[Tapper]

I've never been much of an artillery fan myself in the TW series, I prefer maneuverability and massed ranged power. Cannons can be good, especially against stationary cavalry at a distance or close up against infantry with shrapnel, but they have to be employed close to the front lines to have maximum effect, and if you can get close, take their volley and then charge with line infantry while they reload, you've got them.

If I have a full stack to fill, after 2 artillery units i'd personally much rather have cavalry or line over a third arty unit, and I'll only take cannons when I can maneuver them, so either horse drawn or foot artillery, but not fixed.

[beru]

me too but i like to have artilery avalable so if needed i can get some. and i like to have artillery in brige battles (my favorit battles

[Traveller]

They can be vulnerable, but the galloper guns are good for posting up on higher ground, preferable off to one side so they can rake the enemy flanks. Then, when they get threatened, you can pack them up and head for cover.

[Impirion]

beru, on Apr 3 2009, 11:05 AM, said:

me too but i like to have artilery avalable so if needed i can get some. and i like to have artillery in brige battles (my favorit battles

Oh god that reminds me. RTW, 2 units of spartan infantry and the rest catapults on a bridge battle, absolutely raped 20 first cohort units.... it was so much fun looking at the river beneath the bridge and how it was just jammed full with dead roman infantry

Imp

[Cause]

Okay some questions.

Priests, I had an infestation of catholic priests walkin through my american colonies. How do you get rid of them. Gentleman wont duel them. I never had a rake in the theatre. I thought maybe send a priest to deal with a priest but no option seems to exist. So an thoughts?

When I conquer american-indian settlements they have a gun worls for example. Do I need to raise it so I can build a magistarte or barracks or what?

Naval battles, Any advice welcome. I win my fair share, but the same startegies which give me crushing victories sometimes see me obliterated.I cant figure out wha Im doing right or wrong.

[beru]

priests
if you are catholic then dont mind
or get a rake

naval battles
if the wind agrees zig sag infront of the enemy fiering brodside after brodside or try to avoid enemy brodsides
small boats (as gallys) are good at drawing fire from bigger ships they are low in the water so most shots will go to high

[Tapper]

I guess you are playing as Britain.
Getting a priest of the same level there will neutralize the other guy. You can't duel him, but his growth rate will cancel yours.Otherwise, you'll have to transfer in a rake.

If you want to build a proper euro-style government in the colonies, you will need to tear the native building down in the usa. Some farms and weavers can be upgraded normally, though.

I'm currently getting the Huron-CTD. Everytime I conquer their capitol as France, the game crashes, even when I gain it through a siege and not through attacking it. And they are not accepting my offers of peace, either. Didin't have this problem as GB, though.
I'll have to restart my campaign as there is no way I am going to eternally besiege that city or pay upkeep for a stack in New France to intercept their armies and raiders.

[Cause]

The game def needs some patches.

Yip playing as great britian. I own america, I rule the waves, europe fears me and Im about to start the largest land war in asia the world has ever seen. Cool game! Need to conquer Hindustan to win and by god I will have it!

One more question. When I look at the tax by theatre map it shows all my possessions as yellow except one region which is coloured Im not sure a dark blue maybe? Cant work out the meaninmg. My one thought is that this region was once a thirteen colony which was taken by the cherokee. The people than revolted and formed the USA next turn. I than conquered it the tun after that. Is the only region that can become the USA now? or can any of the colonies still become america again?

[Wry]

When looking at the regions in the policy tab the different colours represent how happy each region is with your taxation. Green is happy, Red is rebellious, yellow is in between. Grey means you have exempted that region from tax, which you change in that regions info tab (double click on region capital and there's a check box there)


On another note, this game is BAD. The AI is laughable and the game is buggy as hell. Really it had so much potential, but with the ridiculous AI that makes nonsensical, illogical decisions (Me controling a country thats three times the size of any other and having the smallest declaring war on me for no reason, or refusing to trade with me, etc. Just plain nonsense) the game just isn't really much fun. As for the battles, some of the mechanics and pathfinding etc are just messed up. And don't get me started on non-existent "fire by rank". This game was not ready for release, just log on to the Support forums to see the uproar causes by expecting people to pay to unknowingly beta-test a game.

[Tapper]

Wry, on Apr 4 2009, 02:08 PM, said:

When looking at the regions in the policy tab the different colours represent how happy each region is with your taxation. Green is happy, Red is rebellious, yellow is in between. Grey means you have exempted that region from tax, which you change in that regions info tab (double click on region capital and there's a check box there)


On another note, this game is BAD. The AI is laughable and the game is buggy as hell. Really it had so much potential, but with the ridiculous AI that makes nonsensical, illogical decisions (Me controling a country thats three times the size of any other and having the smallest declaring war on me for no reason, or refusing to trade with me, etc. Just plain nonsense) the game just isn't really much fun. As for the battles, some of the mechanics and pathfinding etc are just messed up. And don't get me started on non-existent "fire by rank". This game was not ready for release, just log on to the Support forums to see the uproar causes by expecting people to pay to unknowingly beta-test a game.

While true, this has been more or less the case in TW:M2 as well, and maybe for Rome too. Wait for the mods, there are already AI mods out there.

[Impirion]

I second Tapper's opinion. While I have never tried the mods, I heard very good things about them, and especially some AI mods which improved the AI level a lot.

However, I do agree that there did seem to be far too many bugs in the game upon release.

Mind you though, can you name another game with such an immense scope as Empire Total War though? For this, I am willing to wait for patches and mods to make the game into what it promises to be, an absolute stunner of a game (which it looks already when it plays well).