Coming back after a break

Hey guys and Gals of the Org

I'm a big TW fan, always have been since I first picked up MTW a long time ago but, as with many others, I got very frustrated with the state of RTW2 on release. I came back briefly after someone bought me CiG DLC and tried out the grand campaign then, but the major bugs were still present and it lost my interest soon after.

I came back to it the other day and found the Campaign AI MUCH improved, the diplomacy and interactions of nations far less predictable and vastly improved. It was enough to keep me playing and even to convince me to buy HatG DLC, which is downloading as I type. I read through the patch notes and spent nearly half an hour trawling through the official forums and losing the will to live so came back here where most people who post have half a brain and the ability to type. Thanks for that btw.

What I want to know is what changes are they and how should I change my tactics? I keep seeing Capture points in smaller settlements, that don't win the battle, just give a moral boost to 'Units within the area'. What area? The city? Just the capture point? The whole map? I see capture points AND Victory points in major cities, do I need them all? Does it matter as the attacking siege AI seems to be as ineffectual as ever? How is it on defence now? I see the roman festival even pretty often, and it's quite a major boost, does the AI get it if I play someone else? Should I care? Do the Carthaginians get something equally as good or is it more for the Romans? What other events are there?

As I said, I read through the patch notes (such as they are) and found nothing particularly useful, most were about tweaking units and new battle maps. Last time I played seriously was just after patch 7 (when my campaigns all needed restarting because of the major changes and I couldn't be bothered anymore).

Basically, is it actually good yet? Should I play on, or wait a few months more for them to polish it a bit more? I mean, 12/13 patches in, it's got to be approaching release state of shogun 2 by now? Hasn't it?

All I really know about is the "new" capture point system. They changed it from needing to capture most/all of them to only needing I think one of them, I think the victory point.

Yea taking the smaller ones does nothing for you. You must take the main victory point... which I think is stupid because now the AI puppy guards the hell out of it.

Actually, overall I like it.

I just now played a major siege battle against a one province minor with a full roman legion, and had to work really hard to take the town. I built rams to go with the ladders and used my lone balistae unit to knock out a few towers, just as I would have back in patch seven. Then rammed the gates while climbing the walls and suffered a fair few losses in the attempt, but broke through once the gates went down and I could come at the enemy in reasonable force. I thought 'Oh, that was easy, ONWARD!' and zerg-rushed the nearest capture point, which had the first melee units I'd seen in the battle hanging around picking their noses.

Again, I won with a few relatively minor losses, but the capture point did nothing for me other than a moral boost 'in the area' (still unsure on that one). I rounded the corner to go take the victory point and my battle-hardened leginaries suddenly needed new trousers as a screaming horde of celts smashed into us from nowhere. One swift retreat later I actually have to re-assess my plan and spent the next ten minutes capturing towers with testudo triarii to give myself three different angles of attack on the last hill. All covered by at least one tower still, all uphill against melee units with nothing to lose and none of them happy to see me.

WIN! I had taken almost the entire town. Under the previous system the victory timer would be ticking and I'd sit back and relax, or the defender would have suicide-charged me to take one of them back. I STILL had to work hard for my victory despite almost total battlefield dominance. Thats a major improvement if ever there was. In the end it was a victory for me, but over 800 men died for it, and in hindsight most of the defenders on the walls and at the first capture point were garrison units or throwaway javlin men. The real battle started at the victory point when previously it would have all been over before that.

Yes, you could argue those same troops could have held me up at the walls and probably caused a similar number of casualties but if they had I'd have just come back with artillary and bombed them to bits, this way my only option was to kill them face to face exactly where and how they wanted. Much improved over previous versions.

Now it's just a shame the attacking siege AI hasn't seen similar improvements. Managed to kill a full stack and a half stack in one battle over in athens with just the defending (and not great quality) garrison without breaking a sweat, twice.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sociopsychoactive

Now it's just a shame the attacking siege AI hasn't seen similar improvements. Managed to kill a full stack and a half stack in one battle over in athens with just the defending (and not great quality) garrison without breaking a sweat, twice.

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As you said in your OP, it must be getting near to STW2's standard if that's the case! ;)

I find the biggest problems nowadays are (in order of priority):

1. AI recruitment in mid-to-late game. The AI still insists on having militia armies, period. We see nothing of the full-upgrade full-samurai AI armies we got used to in S2 on very hard/legendary difficulties. I know this has been addressed with some mods, but some vanilla game adjustments in this department would be welcome, at least to S2 standards.

2. AI aggressiveness [lack of it] in mid-to-late game: The AI factions are aggressive enough in the early game but turn into a herd of cowards in mid-to-late game. They literally bend over to avoid any conflict with the player even on highest difficulties. I am currently playing as Suebi on legendary and the AIs turn tail and run on the first sight of my armies. I just completed a very hard Barcid campaign: saw the same. This could be a function of #1 though.

3. Siege AI [both, defending and attacking]: still abysmal, yet with some minor improvements compared to the early versions of the game.