Macros, on 03 September 2013 - 08:37 PM, said:
two battles of the prologue wrapped up. its pretty, the commands as very simila,r i'll just have to change the wasd camera control to the arrowpad, never liked wasd.
I'll not really have any judgement on the game until I get stuck into a campaign
I had a bug in the prologue in that it didn't give me a 'finished' message after the outro movie, but that's small fries and if important, only for the Achievements.
I am now half a day in as Macedon.
Impression so far: Great. Great game.
The main gripe people name is the capture the flag mechanic, which was always there (city centre). Yes, sneaky cavalry captures are now an option to win as the attacker against a force that has you beat, but then, the defender should hold a unit or two as a reserve there. The "I will pile all my heavy infantry units around the flag" strategy is going to be sunk by using high caliber siege weapons on their massed units, I guess, once people can be bothered to build them, and the CTF requirement nullifies the 'mass units behind the gate in a slaughter pit' strategy and the 'pick the highest mountain on the map, sit on it' defense of earlier titles.
Another so-called issue is battle speed, with most 5-10 unit-a-side battles being over in six minutes where smaller scale engagements in Medieval 2 and Shogun 2 took 10-15 each (with usually 5 being reserved for missile exchanges in Medieval - I have fond memories of 7 Scottish Guards + 7 Aventuriers and 5 Dismounted Noble Knight army combinations - although in Shogun the enemy closed fast). I think it is pretty realistic in that sense; usually the first shock carried battles, and if you want to protract combat, simply line your units in multiple deeper rows, like the maniple system.
The combined arms operations with assaults from the sea are unbelievably cool. Can't wait for the moment where I take on a decent navy which is trying to attack my transports instead of unloading its troops in port, giving me an uncontested landing. I will probably try it at some point with Athens, which did a lot of landing and raiding by naval crews historically.
I love how generals can now be in different units, making them highly important parts of your army rather than a chase-the-beaten-enemy-down-for-big-experience-at-the-end-of-battle-and-sit-pretty-until-then unit.
I absolutely LOVE the new city system with 4 slots for a minor city and 6 for the capitals and the sheer amount of buildings available, but I would have liked an explanation in the tooltip whether or not for example Horse Ranches boost recruitment faction- or province-wise or only on the local city's recruitment. Makes a huge difference in city planning.
The Growth generation mechanic is equally impressive and intuitive and allows a lot of flexibility. Who cares that castle/city advancement now is point based instead of % of number of inhabitants based? It is much easier to steer, modify and calculate. The garrison system being tied to construction is equally smart, although I'd say that late game garrissons will be easily overpowered unless they grow rapidly in size and quality.
The iffier bits:
By grouping factions culturally, the buildings one can erect are a bit bland. Sparta, Athens, Macedonia, Epirus, Carthage and Egypt (the last two have different religious buildings) share a ton of completely identical buildings with only 1 or 2 differing ones, and that's a pity. I would have loved if, for example, Temple to Poseidon was Poseidon Hippios for Macedonia, giving them a cavalry bonus but no hull bonus to ships, where the building would be called Poseidon Ennosigaios he'd give a hull bonus in Athens but no charge bonus for cavalry.
Having examined the unit rosters, I'd say that Rome does have the best of it, a bit like England having a superior roster in Napoleon and Empire. Not only the units with the best stats (I guess that's offset by their unit upkeep and recruitment cost), but also superior versatility, the only thing lacking being pike units. Being able to build ships with Principes on them in the early game (if the tutorial doesn't skip stuff) is pretty overpowered as well.
The numerous special abilities may be an issue. I have seen my hoplites execute a perfect bunched up charge in formation against the enemy, boosted by a charge special ability. Likewise, my Companion Cavalry in diamond formation with the Trample special devastated a line of tribal spearmen that had just swung into position without any losses - it works, but it is a tiny bit of a hassle and a shit ton of micro management.
People also scream about boredom when they click the game map and how much time they spend there since they can only have three armies and garrissons are fairly big, early on. I love it. It gives a slower pace, is historically (more) correct and creates a more level playing field for all involved. With the fleet system being what it is, you don't have 3 armies anyway, you have 6 (unless you are landlocked).
Second to last, people shout about the technology tree. Yes, most techs are very small percentage bonuses, the same for general upgrades and army traditions. And that is perfectly fine. I saw reviewers saying "it's only a 3% bonus!" yes, of course. Not only is it in addition to unit experience, if it was 10% increase, you'd walk over opponents without a single problem. I've never been a fan of agents apart from the ninja/geisha in the Shogun games, and I don't see much of a use here but maybe I'll be proven wrong.
Finally, the lip synch of advisors is terrible, unrequired and a waste of money. The army and navy names seem to come straight out of Hollywood (Odysseus' Wanderers, wtf?!).
But all these issues are tiny compared to the joy the game gives me so far.
Everyone is entitled to his own wrong opinion. - Lizrad
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