All Orgahs living in Germany, Switzerland, or Austria and interested in Empire: Total War should go ahead and buy a copy of GameStar magazine. It's coming out this Wednesday and has a ten page preview of Empire: Total War.
For all the other Orgahs, I'll try to summarize the information given.
- The game spans from 1700 to 1800
- There will be 10 playable factions, including Prussia, England, France, Russia, and the Ottomans.
- The campaign map will be larger. It includes Europe, North and South America, North Africa, Central Asia, India, and Indonesia
- You will be able to build colonies. It will make a difference, whether you settle in the wilderness of the Americas, or whether you can use preexisting infrastructure in India.
- All infrastructure built within a province, will be represented on the Strategic Map. You can upgrade buildings, by clicking on them on the Strageic Map. There will still be a capital though.
- Enemy armies can plunder or conquer buildings within provinces.
- Revolutions can happen, leading to the separation of countries. (As an example, a rebellion of the Scotts was given).
- You can change the form of government between: absolute monarchy, constituional monarchy, and Republic. This will directly influence how you can deal with revolts and how fast you develop new technologies. Other factions will treat you according to your form of government.
- Taxes can be set seperately for Nobles, Burghers, and Peasants.
- The AI system will be reworked and improved. An example given is that the AI will be unified, meaning that no longer the military AI will try to conquer a territory, while the diplomatic AI is working towards an alliance with the owner of said territory.
- Diplomats, Spies and Assassins will no longer be represented on the map. A new system will be introduced.
- Generals can now directly recruit units. They will join them after a few turns.
- Historical Generals can appear.
- The mercenary system will be reworked. While you can still hire mercenaries they won't be incorporated into your regular army. How this works out exactly is not clear yet.
- Infantry can occupy buldings. They will automatically take up defensive positions and fire out of windows/doors.
- Naval warfare will be included. Each side will be able to command up to 20 ships within one battle.
- Wind will play an important role in the battles. You can set the sails of your ship according to your desired speed. You can choose between three types of ammunition, damaging hull, sails, or crew respectively.
- Multiplayer battles are supposed to be improved. A ladder will be implemented.
That's all of the information. There are a ton of really nice screenshots in there too. Some showing early infantry battles or some buildings that will be in the game. You can see one screenshot where soldiers have occupied a building and are standing on the balcony, ready to fire.
Another one shows soldiers fighting in a dry canal bed, while you can see other troops firing down on them from a bridge spanning the canal.
The sea battles were already playable and there are some screenshots showing the current interface, which is of course open to change.
The event movies will be in also, as there are already some screenshots from them too.
Some early infantry models can be seen too. British Husars and what not.
And of course there's a ton of screenshots from the naval battles. Showing some pretty intense action.
There's also a video interview on the XL DVD version. I haven't watched it yet, if there's any interesting bits in it, not mentioned in the article I'll add them later on.
Hope that was helpful. Cheers!
Ituralde
