1.03 game-play praise. Some good words for CA for a change.

[Slaists]

Sure, the game still needs work AI-wise, balancing wise and bug ironing out wise. However, playing through good 60 years of a VH British Campaign I have to note that the game-play has come a long way since the original release.

In the original version (in vanilla, not mods), the game got utterly boring very soon. The player would dominate by year 1730 or so and from that point on (all the way to 1799) fighting the AI factions could be equated to kicking a dead horse in the stomach...

It's different in 1.03, even with such an easy faction as Britain. For quite some time I've been struggling (while explicitly NOT trying to rush the AI) to have sufficient income, armies and fleets (to fight off blockades and trade theater raiding) while pushing the development at the same time. By 1765, I reached the 'required province count' for long campaign victory, however, the largest AI factions were not that far behind in terms of power and development.

Spain was still mighty despite having been at war with Britain for the last 20 years. Prussia expanded all over Central Europe. Russia was still alive and kicking (and pushing Prussia back). By the way, all three were my enemies because of declaring war on my allies. On the same token, in 1765, Austria is still a major power and my faithful ally. [Something got broken in our trade mechanics though. Austria now displays two trade entries in my trade summary window. Both have been blockaded for the last 40 years or so... But that's on the bug side of the story].

I realize, many have complained about the difficulty/impossibility of obtaining trade agreements in mid-game and later. Actually, given the value the trade provides at this point in the game, I find the "difficulty" not that irrational. Example: Greece (an emerging nation) would stubbornly refuse my trade offers. However, once I gave them a couple islands they were happy to sign the deal. The income from that trade is whooping 10K/turn: way more than those two islands were producing in taxes and exports for me.

So, all in all, despite the present flaws and inconsistencies I find 1.03 to be way more fun than any of the previous versions of the game. Hey, I can go even further: 1.03 is way more fun than any of the previous TW titles (maybe discounting Shogun). Good job, CA!

But don't stop here. That AI is still dumber than dumb...

On that latter note: I have noticed some positive naval AI developments. In 1.03 sea battles, the AI is actually trying to do some manouvering...

[Durallan]

well done to CA for the first time allowing me in 1.03 to finish a campaign game completely! no more campaign game ending bugs! yay! only a couple of months after release but as long as they get the game working eventually I suppose!

I agree on the naval part in 1.03 the naval armies don't go around following my ships so i can't do my favourite trick anymore :( it means I actually have to fight xD

[Prussian to the Iron]

playing Prussia on turn 80-ish, im having a blast!

now, rather than sitting there at war doing nothing, ive actually had:

1. enemy factions attack me
2. alliances of enemy factions, all DoWing on me at the same time (bavaria, westphalia, wurrtemberg, another south-german faction, and austria). they didnt actually work together, but they were relatively coordinated in their attacks. in fact, i had a large army stationed in bavaria, siegeing them. however, a westphalian stack (admittedly filled with pikemen though) moved into saxony, threatening the almmost-empty city and forcing me to give their ally several more turns to live with the distraction.

3. an ally actually help in a war!!!

poland helped me when i called on them to help me fight austria!!!

[Hooahguy]

i agree. i recently installed ETW again and im playing as sweden, and im fighting for my life against russia. in fact, im planning on doing an AAR about it.
and the AI is better than before. i used to like to do a custom sea battle with a bunch of brigs vs brigs and see them dart about trying to fight against me, but it was hopeless for the AI, id crush them every time, even with balanced forces. but not anymore. ive lost multiple battles, reminding me i need to brush up on my naval tactics. badly.
the land battle AI is better than before, they use line infantry to pin my infantry down while thier light infantry runs around me to attack from the rear.
overall, i actually enjoy ETW now, though i do need to cut back on tree graphics. my FPS runs down to 4 when in CQC (zoomed in) when im fighting in forests.

[AussieGiant]

I'm in a GB Prestige campaign on H/M

It's been excellent. Only now in 1776 have I passed Prussia in prestige. They have been in number 1 spot for about 40 years.

I own most of continental USA, the British Isles and two provinces in North Africa but I'm missing Hindustan and Gibraltar.

In 1772 I landed my first force in India against a Muhgal empire that has reduced Maratha to one province and Mysore to 3. It's a hell of a fight moving inland at the moment.

Prussia went crazy at the beginning and I've been chasing the prestige ever since. Keeping trade going has been a great experience as other nations have declared war on eac other and due to blockading I've been drastically effected. I had a period of 3 to 4 years going bankrupt with London nearly revolting as a result.

A Prestige campaign forces you to balance your approach in order to stay competitive and you simply can't focus on the military aspect.

I've been pumping allies and other nations with technology in order to ensure no one nation gets such a prestige lead that I can't win. That meant as Sweden got on top of Russia I had to go all out handing them tech to make sure they didn't disappear. Likewise I did the same with Austria who were being hammered by Prussia, but now I've gone too far. With all the tech Austria has come back hard and Prussia is disappearing rapidly between themselves and Sweden to the north.

Prussia has 2nd Rates floating around and I've lost a few naval engagements against them...excellent.

Likewise the naval tactics have been improved quite a lot.

I'm currently pushing on Hindustan and will make a lightning raid to take Gibraltar from Spain right at the end of the game because Spain turned into a trading partner I can't afford to lose.

The macro war economic decisions have been really really good.

The latest development was in 1774. Austria and Sweden have been huge trade partners, but because they suddenly met each other on the Russian steps they then declared war on each other and I had to choose sides. I lost Sweden as a trade partner which was 10000 per turn!! I've not managed to get it back

I recovered by investing heavily in the domestic economy.

[Prussian to the Iron]

and the AI is better than before. i used to like to do a custom sea battle with a bunch of brigs vs brigs and see them dart about trying to fight against me, but it was hopeless for the AI, id crush them every time, even with balanced forces. but not anymore. ive lost multiple battles, reminding me i need to brush up on my naval tactics. badly.

yeah, for some reason 2 barbary dhows on auto-resolve beats a galleon...........

and a 4th rate, a brig and a sloop doesnt beat a galleon with 40 cannons, a 5th rate with 23 cannons, and a xebec, in normal battle.grrrrrrrrrrrrrr..................

[Hooahguy]

apparently the line feature (in which the other ships follow the leader) doesnt work?

[Prussian to the Iron]

well, the enemy almost always uses the same combo: 1 big ship, 2 crappy ships. it then curves them around, whiile i try to 'cross the T'.then it degenerates into a micro-manage fest. since the wind is almost always against me, i sometimes try making a line. then the enemy doesnt attack. honestly it gets quite annoying.....

[Slaists]

well, the enemy almost always uses the same combo: 1 big ship, 2 crappy ships. it then curves them around, whiile i try to 'cross the T'.then it degenerates into a micro-manage fest. since the wind is almost always against me, i sometimes try making a line. then the enemy doesnt attack. honestly it gets quite annoying.....

The most annoying feature of the ETW naval engine (as balanced by CA) is that AI's ships can sail directly against the wind and do it faster than my ships sailing with the wind blowing right in their backs...

Darth-mod has done some wonders with this though. It has considerably slowed down ships across the board and the simply CANNOT sail against the wind. In his mod, the AI diligently does 'zig-zag' manouvers across the wind-line to move against wind. So, making the sailing work as it is supposed to is doable even with the current ETW engine and AI. For some reason CA just would not do it...

[hoof]

Strange. I've never noticed any difference between AI ship sailing capability and mine, at least at normal difficulty. Since hard/very-hard gives the AI cheats, it wouldn't surprise me if the naval side had some cheats too (like sailing against the wind). Are you sure you aren't playing at hard/very-hard tactical difficulty?

I verified these cheats in the land-side. Swordsmen vs swordsmen (same type, I forget which), level field, each side having 1 unit. Only on Normal did my side *ever* win. It was more dramatic with line infantry. I set up british infantry vs british infantry, 1 unit each. On hard and above, the AI would consistently finish reloading before I did, up to a few seconds on hard. Only on normal did the AI finish reloading at the same time as me.

CA used to make their Empire games w/o cheats in the tactical game up to at least Hard (don't remember if RTW's AI got cheats at VH in battle). The idea was that the AI's battle tactics would improve. Apparently there's new management at CA, because now they cheat again. I *really* hope that Normal battle difficulty gives us the full-blown tactical AI, because I *hate* cheating AI, and it would be sad that in order to get the better tactical AI, I have to accept cheats too.

[Prussian to the Iron]

in land battles, i always do VH battle difficult, and easy with naval battles.

[Slaists]

in land battles, i always do VH battle difficult, and easy with naval battles.

I guess, you can do it with custom battles. In campaign battles though you're stuck with whatever difficulty you selected at the start of the campaign.

[Prussian to the Iron]

no..........

right before you go ino the battle, press 'esc' to bring up the in-game menu. then, go to 'options', 'game options'. tere it should say 'battle difficulty'. al the way to the left is easy,all the way to the right is very hard.

you cannot change the campaign difficulty, but you can with th ebattle difficulty.

[Hooahguy]

no..........

right before you go ino the battle, press 'esc' to bring up the in-game menu. then, go to 'options', 'game options'. tere it should say 'battle difficulty'. al the way to the left is easy,all the way to the right is very hard.

you cannot change the campaign difficulty, but you can with the battle difficulty.

really? i didnt know that! maybe now i can actually win some naval battles!

also, i have some really good praise for ETW.

the AI is actually not as bad as everyone says it is.
today i attacked Copenhagen, i was playing as Sweden (H/H). i used a full force, 2 cannon, 4 cav, a general, and 13 infantry, as well as 2 cav, 4 infantry as reinforcements.

the enemy had used those anti-cavalry stakes (the ones shaped like big X's) at the strategic points on the battlefield, blocking access for my cavalry, and making moving my infantry around a royal pain.

the first phase of the battle went well, besides the fact that my cannons couldnt reach the enemy. i split my army into 3 groups: left, right, and middle, 5 units of line infantry on each flank, 3 in the middle.
i was pushing back the enemy on all fronts. i sent my cav around to take out the cannon emplacements on both sides, as well as rout the skirmishers around them. we were pushing them back, and i thought "this wasnt so hard."

but then 2 things happened:
1) enemy cavalry ambushed my cavalry, making all but one of my cav units rout, as well as scare my infantry.
2) the remaining infantry went into buildings throughout the town, and since my arty wasnt in range, i had to take them down with my troops. but i didnt realize that there were garrisoned enemies around until i investigated why my men were taking casualties when there werent any enemies around at first glance. i lost about 250 before i realized. i sent my men into the buildings in waves. id let them tire in fighting, then pull them out, then replace them.
but what was concerning was that the average unit size at that time was 50-70, a few had 120. my reinforcements hadnt come yet, and i had to win. win or go bankrupt. so i kept sending my men to their deaths, with the song "Disposable Heroes" (by Metallica) going through my head:

Back to the front
you will do what I say, when I say
Back to the front
you will die when I say, you must die
Back to the front
you coward
you servant
you blindman

eventually a few of my units routed. i didnt care. they only had about 30 men, and they would make way for fresh units of line infantry to come. sure enough, they came. just like in the movies, as my men were wavering, the 4 units of line infantry came and reinforced my other units.

the sight of 4 new Swedish units broke the spirit of the danish, who lost their general in a volley from my line infantry a bit back. researching fire by rank REALLY helped.

as the enemy fled the garrisoned buildings, i sent everyone to give chase, and not a single Danish soldier remained.
pity i forgot to turn FRAPS on.
heres a pic of the battlefield and its progression as i remembered it:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

wow. this battle taught me a lot, especially to research mortars ASAP. but i was so impressed with the enemy AI, the people who say its still dumb clearly havent had an experience like i did.
and im no bad infantry commander. i recently beat a russian force 3 times my size on the battlefield. pity that im a horrible admiral.

[Slaists]

no..........

right before you go ino the battle, press 'esc' to bring up the in-game menu. then, go to 'options', 'game options'. tere it should say 'battle difficulty'. al the way to the left is easy,all the way to the right is very hard.

you cannot change the campaign difficulty, but you can with th ebattle difficulty.

Oh, hehe. That's great. I had no idea about this feature. Thanks!

Not that I find medium naval battles too hard. But this leaves room for adjusting battle difficulty up for some of the more boring encounters.

[Prussian to the Iron]

holy crap hooahguy! either your microsoft paint skills suck worse than mine, or that battle was chaotic as hell!!

[Hooahguy]

the latter PI, the latter.

if you are looking for some guidence on the progression of the battle according to the pic, go from bottom to top.

[Xipe Totec]

I was just attacking Savoy as the French in 1740, having just discovered quick lime I expected no problems as I had 7 batteries of large howitzers. Not really the usual plan but they just DOW'ed on me unexpectedly after 40 years of peaceful trading while I was fighting in Spain, G.B. and Prussia. I had just built a load of large howitzers to send off to each front to replace the regular howies so I scraped a stack together to hit Savoy before they could start burning my modern universities etc.

I moved the army to attack from the flank of ther initial deployment to wipe out their artillery from where they could not shoot back, trapped in their gay little baskets. So far so good. Then because of the terrain, buildings etc., and the need to avoid dragging my artillery over their not invisible spiky deathtraps and gay baskets which are instant death to howitzers moving over them, I had to move my whole army parallel to the AI line. Aarghh! Talk about red rag to a bull. As soon as you present a load of flanks or rears of infantry to AI cavalry it of course charges. I had seven units of cavalry charging simultaneously at my moving infantry, behind which I had all the artillery moving along limbered up and vulnerable as hell. I quickly formed my infantry up into squares and managed to just hold off the cavalry, and then the moment I was impressed by the AI strategy! Lo and behold the AI line infantry and militia also attacked as well in a rational manner and shot up my squares. Of course I managed to win in the end because their army was half militia and yeomanry, and Savoy was donated to my ever growing Italian States ally as a counter-weight to Austrian ambitions. But it was nice to see the AI reacting well and aggressively to the battlefield situation, in a seemingly co-ordinated manner. Cavalry heavy armies are often the most challenging due to the speed and unpredictability of the attacks, and I always hate when they get into my artillery and scare off the horses.