[caladanbrood]

According to Steam, I've played 87 hours of Empire Total War... as you might guess, I loves it It's not as good as Medieval 2 or Rome, but once you get used to the new style (which takes a while, admittedly), it's just as much fun as any of them.

Cause, on 18 May 2010 - 09:41 AM, said:

I would love a fantasy Total war.

There's a LotR mod floating around somewhere on the internet that is bloody awesome. Called The First Age, iirc.

This post has been edited by caladanbrood: 18 May 2010 - 12:23 PM

[beru]

third age brood, third age...

[Traveller]

Rome 2 would be a good next step. With additional, individualised units like Cause suggested.

Battles in TW rely pretty much entirely on the control of morale. Which isn't too bad, as it adds realism. It would be nice to
be able to customise a few units though, and make it easier to create a veteran unit/s, which could have specialised attacks or skills.

Different unit types could then have different skill trees, meaning that instaed of a huge mass of nameless soldiers under command, a real personalised army would be possible.

It's possible to change the names of the units in Empire, which made me far more involved with what they were doing on the battlefield, and easier to track them through a campaign.

I went back to Empire after getting pissed off with some of the bugs, but with a new PC it ran so much better, and I got totally into it... it really is an awesome, ambitious game. The naval warfare is a great addition, and could be transferred to a new Rome game.

(BTW Third Age is ok; looks nice, but I got a bit bored with it for some reason. Guess I just likes my history more..)

This post has been edited by Traveller: 18 May 2010 - 12:30 PM

[Satan]

You can get the whole series, sans Shogun and Medieval I, on the SEGA pack steam's got out now. Plus loads of other games. No, you can't have their babis. I've got dibs.

[Tapper]

I have to say: Napoleon is much, much more than 'an expansion'. If they had released this instead of Empire, it would have had the fans raving. It certainly keeps me on the edge of my seat and I hated Empire.
Imho, it is a return to Shogun: a relatively small map, not much development of structures (everything is pretty lineal), a lot of units are the same type and armies look alike a lot - but my, does it feel great to play.

The one gripe I have with the game is the fact that now, since every army can do the shooty thing, skirmishers are not superior to line in shooty combat, thanks to their longer loading times, and are weak against horse and lose a lot of people even when winning against line.
This was never the case in melee vs skirmishers (even spear throwers) in past TW games.

For me, Rome 2 or even better, Shogun 2, would be the next logical step. However, I think Shogun 2 does not have enough of an appeal as a title for Sega.

[Coco with marshmallows]

I dunno though.

Shogun 2, expand vie using Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea as a means of adding in additional size/factions....

Think about it, the invasion was fought off by Chinese armies, so add in the Chinese, the various factions within Korea, perhaps include dutch settlers as some form of independent state, similar to the papal states in Medieval.....

It's workable.

Unbelievably epic, but workable....

Now, if only I could get the idea past Sega/creative assembly......

[Adjutant Stormy~]

I would kill for a Shogun 2. I would kill an entire GameStop full of people for Shogun 2.

[MTS]

So would I. I'd kill for a Rome 2 as well. The originals of Shogun and Rome are brilliant, but they could do so much more with them now...

[Jusentantaka]

Tapper, on 18 May 2010 - 04:58 PM, said:

The one gripe I have with the game is the fact that now, since every army can do the shooty thing, skirmishers are not superior to line in shooty combat, thanks to their longer loading times, and are weak against horse and lose a lot of people even when winning against line.
This was never the case in melee vs skirmishers (even spear throwers) in past TW games.

They have longer range, and if you put them on their knees, nothing hits them, so you win! And good skirmishers can put down stakes to slaughter cavalry if they charge, or dig a fougasse if you're on defense. Delightfully useful and not weak at all.

[Tapper]

The longer range is a bit misleading. Sure, 20 metres extra (for Jägers), and 125 for real skirmishers that come in 60 man packs, but especially the 20 metres is just a sneeze as line just walks the extra 20, then shoots. Even AI doesn't stand around and gets shot by light infantry.

The stakes are nice, but they more or less mean that you have to deploy your skirmishers on your flanks, or keep them stationary - neither of which you'd want... Putting them down under enemy fire is inadviseable because of the duration of the animation, for one, so the stakes take preparation. I usually use them to fortify my artillery just a bit better, and then move the skirmishers to where I want them... usually pouring fire into incoming enemies from an angle, often covering for my arty while they load up on buckshot as the enemy charges home.

The fougasse... I have to play around with that one a bit more, seldom use it. If you have trenches, you don't need a fougasse

[Jusentantaka]

That last line makes it obvious you have never used them. Pppfffffft. if you have trenches my ass. IT GOES BOOOOOM and then there is SPLAT and NEIGH and RUNNNN and dead people everywhere. Its AWESOME.

/five year old


Huh. I use them nothing like what you say. Also, they have much greater accuracy than basic line infantry, AND, in spite of only having 80 (60??) men in a unit, they ALL fire in either loose or block formation. That single c**t punch at 100 yards (turn fire at will off until every one of the skirmishers will be able to shoot) is devastating against a line battalion, Followed most importantly by taking the skirmishers and telling them to move awaaaay from the line infantry before they can get a shot off. Mix this with a liberal rain of percussive shells, shrapnel and quicklime.

But I don't even use them like that. Take 6 line infantry (regular) in a 20 unit army, and take 3 skirmishers too. Pair up the line infantry, attach a skirmisher unit with each pair and use the skirmishers in loose formation to draw units, then run up the two line infantry to close range and hit the same battalion the skirmishers shot at. It is now broken and dead. Rinse and repeat and so forth... and get bored of the game too quickly.

This post has been edited by Jusentantaka: 23 May 2010 - 05:38 PM

[Gothos]

Aight, giving this another try, going with United Provinces M/M to get accustomed to the game (pretty easy lineup, no?)
The plan for now is to blitz Pirates in the West Indies, take Flandres and Westphalia and bumfuck the French and take Paris to cripple them. After this, start mopping up colonies in the Americas from Spain and France in the Caribbean region.
I do have a few worries, though. While I'm fairly comfortable with fighting on land, I'm not sure about the sea at the start - are mass Fluyts able to stand up to spanish and pirate galleons? UP seriously lacks a dockyard at the start, and teching up takes some time besides. Flandres and France have dockyards, as do the pirate provinces in the Caribbean, so if I rush fast enough I might get a semi-serious fleet up pretty fast, no?
After controlling the whole Caribbean region and all the theathres with trade (indonesia, ivory coast, madagascar strait and brazil coast), and with the Brits as solid allies and France with it's teeth kicked out, I should be able to control the flow of the game... finish off Spain, and then perhaps go on a campaign to claim India...

Cavalry seems too unreliable in this game, so on land I'm planning to focus on line infantry and cannons, with maybe a few wings of cavalry to counter flanking maneuvers and protect my artillery. Any specific units or tech I should beeline research for?

[beru]

boat battles are awsome, the one thing you need is to shred one side of the enemy ship and then try to stay at their bad side (ie the one with the fewest canons), so yes, Fluyts can kill galions (galions are also prone to blowing up due to big hull size and relativly low hull strength) also having a few speedy boat (brigs are good) to hinder enemy movment (ie move in front of the enemy ship) is a good tactic beacuse there is no ram command...

[Satan]

I do believe some of you were waiting for this...

[Gothos]

Okay so it's like 1716 now... I'm controlling The Netherlands, Rheinland, Dutch and French Guyana, Leeward and Windward Islands, Trinidad, Curacao, Ceylon and made Wurtenberg into a protectorate (had to lay siege to their capital and keep the siege against their counterattack, they offered to become a protectorate the next turn). After I took Rheinland and destroyed Westphalia, Bavaria and Wurtenberg were a real pain in the ass, kept harassing my right flank so I couldn't really focus on taking Flandres and France... I should've pounded them into submission then and there instead of defending my borders - when my alliance with Austria made me declare war on France I had to wrap that flank up and went and made Wurt into a protectorate and force Bavaria into peace by besieging Munich withing 5 turns... Wurtenberg seems a very valuable protectorate now, since they stormed Alzac-Lorraine without much trouble, securing my southern border... These small german countries like Wurt, Bavaria and Hanover are real pitbulls tbh!
And now what? My own allies wtfpwnd me right now, since Austria took Flandres while I was stopming Bavaria into the ground with my main army. On one hand, All my borders are now safe and secure, being surrounded by allies - Austria and Wurtenberg - while at peace with Hanover, so I'm quite safe in the European theathre now... but at some point I'll just have to take Flandres. Maybe I'll try taking Paris and trading Austria for Flandres... France is the single wealthies province in the game I think. Also a real pain to defend.
Currently allied with: Austria, Great Britain, Wurtenberg. At War with: France, Prussia.
I got really annoyed when Austria took Flandres and turned the game off, but... looking at the situation now, it seems I'm free now to go and dominate the seas. Having 2 colleges now with 2 gentlemen in each of them makes me storm through the tech tree now. Trinidad and Leeward Islands got shipyards to build 4th rate frigates, and I'll be upgrading them soon to make 3rd rates... then I can go rule the seas and monopolize the trading theathres (fucking french stormed my fluyts out of the east indies, damn them!). Then, supposedly, I'll have money coming out of my ass and nostrils, so maybe I can buy the provinces I need to finish the short campaign.

What do you think?

(as a bonus... taking down 5 indiamen with one 5th rate frigate is better to be left to autocalc... I could only take out two of them before my crewmen started panicking form the damaged hull... pussies. I'd win if they didn't run away)

[beru]

always have a admiral in your fleet the moral bonus is nice.

also burn unnecesary fleets (or splitt them up and burn the unexsperienced/unecesary) to get more income (also capture enemy ships to get monny)

and cannons with canister shots are the bane of everything (just remember to let them load before the enemy enters range.
and do not forget that before rank fire drill (wich is the one best tecnology in the game) is almost as good as line infantry...

[Path-Shaper]

The rumour is that the next TW will either be a Rome remake or Greece. One of the TW guys apparently posted a twitter pic of a replica hoplite helmet as his new desk ornament, and they posted a count down timer with years on it on totalwar.com. Started in 1906, today at 1824 when I checked. By this rate, it will apparently arrive at a year well before 0 AD at E3 (15th of june), which is a likely date for the new game to be announced.

- Tapper

[Gothos]

They're kind of running out of time periods so I guess a remake of the ancient times is in order. Would definately be more interesting for me than Empire - I'm a melee guy. Chop chop chop!

[caladanbrood]

Ancient Greece would be cracking. Persian invasion ahoy!

[Adjutant Stormy~]

Apparently I've played over 220 hours of Empire Total War. Holy crap.