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Fisherking
02-26-2010, 18:01
The game is out world wide now but we seem to be hearing very little from our members here at the .org.

I got my copy today and loaded it up. It took me about 40 min. to load and activate. I had no problems either with the game or with Steam.

The intro played smoothly and the game seems to work fine with the auto-detect functions for settings. If my machine actually meets specs, it is only by the skin of my teeth, so it is a pleasant surprise.

I loaded one of the tutorials, then escaped out just a little way into it... of course that was a crushing defeat, but I still got some achievement or other from Steam. I didn't look at what it was...it could have been "you really suck" for all I know.

I then went on to the Coalition Campaigns, and loaded up Britain. Not that I finished or even intended to.

Everything is much more detailed, and I do mean everything. However, it also leave the impression that you are playing in a twilight setting and everything it a bit dark.

The Campaigns of Napoleon are not near so dark. Some of it could be the fog of war but even your own country in the Coalition Campaigns seems set at dusk.

I think you will find battles more challenging in NTW, both land and sea. The look and feel of the game is different but most of the controls are the same.

The trade spots are still there but they run along the edge of the map. There are also two types of trade ships I saw. Indiamen and merchant ships.

I am sure I have mist have of what is new and different but I have spent less than an hour looking things over.

:laugh4:

ShadesWolf
02-26-2010, 22:42
Also got my version today, and at first looks quite impressed

found same problem took 40 mins to install, then played right away no problems, very smooth

Played a couple of historic battles and then straight into online play.
Had about 5 games so far, first three were fairly easy 1v1 and won all

then i progressed onto 2v2, bit of problem as none of my clan r around anymore so was totally wiped out, not coordinated to easy for them. well played boys

very impressed with game tho.

antisocialmunky
02-26-2010, 23:32
It has all the little things that make a game polished. It feels like a complete game like ETW should have been. :-p

My favorite one is that the loading screens now show information on how the deployment looks. I hope it also shows reenforcement direction. :)

Warluster
02-27-2010, 02:10
Yes, the game feels much more complete then ETW. All of the small additions add up to a much more enjoyale game *so far*. I've been playing for a day or so of the Italian campaign. I managed to get two heroic victories (which show on the map!!) which then gave me a special trait for Napoleon (a medal of some sort from the Consul) and increased war support in Paris which led to several more regiments joining the army.

The game runs really, really well. In ETW I could play at very low, but in NTW I can play at Medium - High. The small graphical additions which come from this are plentiful, and the game is really immersive. It deifntly isn't a 'revolution', but its such a 'evolution' that from how much I've played, I'm well impressed. (Things such as cannon marks in the ground and riderless horses running around and new smoke effects are well done.)


So far the AI is not bad. I'm playing on normal for battle and campaign. In the campaign I've thrown Napoleon and Massena at Turin and both times I won (Once outnumbered by 500 Sardinian line infantry, but I had a good position on a hill) but was forced to retreat to resupply and reinforce. Every time I snuck across the border they would throw full stacks at me, and once they were beaten off Turin was being constantly (every turn) reinforced by two line regiments from other Sardinian and Austrian cities. I have seen a army massing at the border preparing to strike at Nice (Which is essentially the flank of my campaign).

In the *infamous* BAI, its average so far. The battles I've played were fun and always involved more then 1500 which is already different to ETW for me. Two battles worth mentioning; one in the Alps. I'd sent four revolutionary regiments onto the flank of the Sardinians *Artillery is much more deadly now. It'll demolish your units* while I sent one chausseurs and dragoons to wear down the enemy, while hodling my flank with some militia. *Maybe I was just playing crap :beam:* but the enemy attacked my light infantry with artillery, sent the main army out of the city *no forts anymore?* which then advanced on my flanking main army, and meanwhile it slipped two squadrons of dragoons around my right flank and struck at my one milita reserves, killed them all and attempted to hit my main army in the back! I did manage to hold back my chasseurs and cut down their advance but it was a fun experince.

A bad battle was when I had six regiments of fusiliers and revolutionary line advancing on a artillery battery, some militia and a general. I had sent off my artillery towards a hill which the general attempted to attack (But Napoleon ambushed them, himself :laugh4:) while the artillery fired straight into the side of a hill.

Overall, so far I feel I haven't wasted my money (In ETW I was horrified by it during the second RTI mission...) and its worth the $30 - $50 *I did buy the Emperor's Edition though. If there was an a award for game packaging and extras, CA should win it. :laugh2:).

The only bugs I've encountered was a one CTD after 10 - 15 turns in the Italian campaign. I also had to download 6 GB of the game off Steam which is half of my Internet limit gone. Fun so far but I am not judging this game completely for another week or two.

antisocialmunky
02-27-2010, 04:09
The freaking AI killed me in Italy. I overextended myself and didn't really have a good supply network. Since hte 2 turn reinforcement is totally gone, you get totally killed by AI continually suiciding armies. It likes to just throw itself at you when it knows it has you during battles. They'll stop, shoot, move a few times and then charge your butt with their mass.

Freedom Onanist
03-01-2010, 11:37
Got to agree that everything does look a bit dark...

Marten
03-01-2010, 13:30
I couldn't resist after the "justin.tv"-sessions and a really good review on gamersglobal.de. And i got it 20% cheaper, so i payed 30,00 Eurons ... fair price.

Fisher: Try to turn off HDR, helped for me with the "dark" and "foggy" graphics.

Seems that only the brits and holland do have the ability to build merchantmen and indiamen.

I played the last 3 evenings, finished both mini-campaigns, did the first 2 turns of the european campaign with Nappy. All campaigns seem to be scripted (even the european) as walking-stick for the AI. But it works ... :2thumbsup:

Best moment so far: Finished Nelson and his fleet in turn 2 (long, very long, even longer battle)! Lost nearly all my ships, only a 38 survived as "8 gun" frigate. That was fun!:smoking:

Marten

Edith: 111 Posts! Kölle alaaf! Helau! Narri-Narra! All drinks on the house!

Beskar
03-02-2010, 15:38
My first impression was this -

"This reminds me of the War Path DLC campaign"

"This is definitely an expansion and not a game in itself"

Other than that, it is good. It is pretty much a standalone expansion for ETW.

Fisherking
03-02-2010, 16:34
Well, you are right.

It has the patching, polishing, and optimization that ETW needed and is a small add-on campaign that would have been fun and extended play life.

The trouble was that it was too much to do for ETW, so basically it had to be stand alone.

Beskar
03-02-2010, 17:18
Well, you are right.

It has the patching, polishing, and optimization that ETW needed and is a small add-on campaign that would have been fun and extended play life.

The trouble was that it was too much to do for ETW, so basically it had to be stand alone.

Not sure on how they programme, but doesn't CA generally have a modular game set-up? As in, you could hypothetically copy and paste files from one onto the other to bring about the game change?


Yeah, the whole no building and technology system is directly taken from the War Path campaign. I actually think the War Path was "Napoleon: Total War Beta" now.

I got the European Campaign, but when I saw it, I was pretty disappointed. The map was far smaller than the Europe section of E:TW and for some reason, surrounded by lots of trade-routes.

It really is an expansion, when you play it, you can tell. I mean, the year was even 1750ish start, which is 50 years after E:TW and the game ends in 1812, which is when the American Campaign started in E:TW.

I really hope they integrate the two, at least for those that own NTW.

N:TW has some really nice improvements, which would work really well. I am not going to deny that at all, but it really does feel like I am playing an expansion pack and not a full-game and I am not saying that because I am being a git like some people would say, but because it really does feel like an expansion pack.

Obnoxio
03-02-2010, 18:30
I got my copy in the mail from Amazon Friday. I played the Italian campaign and started the Egypt campaign. I really like that each turn is two weeks instead of 6 months which I think was too much. The uniforms are cool with more unit variety. Artillery is much more accurate and there are more options. Experienced troops actually gain better combat numbers like accuracy and morale. I've been playing on normal-normal but will switch combat difficulty up to hard on my next game. I played the naval tutorial and ship combat seems a little better. I'll play the Europe campaign this weekend. I always want the single player AI to be better but the game is good. Had a great battle against Beduins raiding my city west of Alexandria, barely held them off as most my troops were fleeing from the camel charge.

AussieGiant
03-07-2010, 18:13
Hi there all,

So I've just finished the Italian and Egyptian campaigns. The Italian on m/m and the Egyptian on h/h. I have to say this is very polished game and proves that CA can in fact release a product which is basically bug free. The game does have the feel of an expansion, but that's no surprise given the focus of the campaigns and the scripted events that are part them. The game play is very good, the BAI and CAI are certainly better, however, it is becoming increasingly unlikely that we are going to see a game of this complexity be able to simulate near human tactical and strategic skill. That's not a fault in my opinion but simply reality. The AI on both the battle and strategic level is going to be an ongoing year on year thing with no quick fix.

If you were feel jaded and have not played a Total War game for awhile then I'd give this a shot. The graphics are better AND perform better than E:TW which is a very impressive thing to see.

Murmandamus
03-08-2010, 01:50
I've done the Italian campaign, 90% of the Egypt one and had a quick play of the grand campaign and I'm really enjoying it so far. It feels well polished.

My only quibble so far is that the AI seems to go into guerilla mode at the drop of a hat. You end up with 1-3 unit armies running all over the place which is just annoying and time wasting to mop up. For instance, I marched an 8 unit army into Ottoman territory and the AI had enough units that I was expecting to get pasted. Instead it broke up it's force into about 5-6 small armies (including one that was just 3 artillery units), marched most of them straight past my one and spread them out. So I just turned mine back and was able to clean them up 2-3 "armies" at a time with hardly any losses. Bit of an anti-climax.

Suraknar
03-08-2010, 09:57
In spite of my reluctance, I got it as well.

Yes the game is really polished, except maybe for some reused Voices for units in the Campaign map "Pour la couronne et le pays!" that was from ETW, same voice, saying "for the Crown and Country" which is a bit odd to hear in Napoleon since it is post Revolution, there is no Crown anymore, but it is a detail :) Visually the game is really nice and run much much smoother than ETW.

I will agree with some here, it is what ETW should have been.

I would have liked a bigger Campaign map with more factions, however I understand the whole premise is to cover the Napoleonic Period so will let this one slide :P

The multiplayer, is welcomed, but also a bit disappointing that the Campaigns can only be between 2 players, was looking forward with many friends to start one with 4 or 6 players. I guess we shant complain either, this is a feature many of us have been waiting for since MTW or even STW.

So maybe in the coming months there could be an update somewhere along the line with more Multiplayer functionality and since the core mechanics are now finally in.

The drop in battles are a cool feature I find it gives life to Single Player campaigns, I dropped in a couple, just finished a second one, I guess the other person was expecting a sure win, I had 2 line Infantry and 10 Armed Civilian units no cannons, he had only Line Infantry and cannons...I won..to his surprise I am guessing. ;)

I also like the subtle modification to the economical aspect of the game, they focused on tactics and Strategy, the new Diplomacy options seem good too.

All in all I am not regretting getting NTW at all and after all.

This one will be enjoyable nevertheless, see you all out there, in some battle :)

Cheers!

Devastatin Dave
03-08-2010, 20:13
The game is out world wide now but we seem to be hearing very little from our members here at the .org.

:

I think because people were so burned with ETW that they are holding off on NTW. I couldn't help myself and bought it when it first came out and have been pleasantly surprised. Its a very well polished game and I've only found one bug where I go into square formation over an earth work and the unit could not go back into a regular formation. Besides that, I'm loving this and Creative Assembly has won me back.