Initial impressions thread: reviews ONLY

Initial impressions: Good!

Initially I thought the game map looked similar to RTW BI, but of course they were both set in Europe too so what else should I expect.

There is a increased variety of characters like merchants and priests and their uses can be strategic, however, ultimately require some micro managing. If you are a micro-manager then you will love the new characters. If not then don't make too many.

I've only played with English Cavalry types but so far they seem clunky and slow. They seem to be all over the place and don't have the feel of disciplined troops nor do they give the same satisfaction when smashing them into infantry as in other TW games.

Longbowmen and higher archer types have nice new ability of putting stakes in the ground in front of them. Be wise not to retreat cavalry into your own stakes. You will lose your cavalry in a gory bloody heap! :(

There are a lot of little bugs I have found and seen in the forums already. They are things which should have been easily found and fixed during test phases, but perhaps they were more concerned with getting the game out before X-mas. I always find this type of behavior to be disappointing.

Glad to have Dread and Chivalry back and it seems I have better control over the two. I have noticed that sending a high dread general on a crusade converts all his dread skulls into chivalry shields. Maybe I was seeing things. Anyone else seen this?

Glad to have the free movement ability rather than the original chess piece type movement of the original TW games.

Seems like the enemy build seige equipment faster now. They used to wait a turn and now you only have one turn to send reinforcements before they assault. I have to upgrade my strategies and be more vigilant in watching incursions. This is a good thing.

Princesses are lovely to watch and listen too. I play the game and think, hmmmn--I could marry you. Alas. . . I only seem to get one and all the others never appear.

You now have to get approval from the Pope for crusades and crusades give your faction a lot of bonuses. This new feature makes religious politics more important and I like it a lot.

The French are still snobby arses and it is still pleasing to crush them under my English boots. "God Save the King!"

So far none of the bugs are real game killers so that is good. Looking forward to the patch and hope they get them all.

Game looks better then MTW ,but what i can say hmm my country Bulgaria missing again.This is shame for these game developers. Short Bulgarian history lesson:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

In 680 60000 Bulgarians under Khan Kuber moved in today Macedonia.In 681 Bulgarians under Khan Asparuh(brother of Kuber) moved to the "Sofia" province in the game, after defeating Byzantium army.Capital city become Pliska.In 716-718 Bulgarian Cavalry help Byzantium against Arabs.From 756 for couple decades there was non stop wars with Byzantium.In 807 Bulgaria atack Byzantium and take Trace and united with the other part wich is today Macedonia. In 855 Bulgaria become cristian.In 893 Byzant. imperator moved Bulgarian Merchants bazar from Constantinople to Tessalonica and this bring a war.Bulgarian army invade Trace.At this moment Hungarians invaded from North.Bulgarian Army under Tzar Simeon defited them and then moved back to Trace.At the major battle at Bulgarofigon Bulgarin army totaly destroy Byz. army. In 904 was sighned peace contract. In 917 Byz. army invaded Bulgaria. The battle hapend near river of Acheloy. Here in 19th of August 917 hapend one of the bigest battle in history with about 150 000 soldiers.Byz. army was defeated again.Byz. again bride foreighn Armys to invaded Bulgaria from North-Hungarians,Pechenegs and Serbians.When they get the news of Byz. defeat they retread.Bulgarian Army smash Serbia and bring get its teritory.In 968 Kievs Russia under Sviatoslav invaded Bulgaria,defeated Bulgarian army and then in 970 invaded Byz. but was defeated.Byz. then invaded Bulgaria and take the Capital Preslav. Capital of Bulgaria now become Sredets(today Sofia)under Samuel.In 986 in "Trayanova vrata" pass ,Byz army was totaly defeated.Imperator Vassili II run away however. In 1014 near village of Kluch Vasilii II captured 15000 Bulgarian soldier. In next battle againts Bulgarian Prince Gavrail Radomir ,Byz Army was defeated and before retread Vassilii ordered those 15000 captured Bulg. soldiers to be blinded and sended back to Bulg. Tzar.When he saw them Tzar SAmuel got heard atack and died.In 1018 the new Bulgarian Tzar Ivan-Vladislav in the battle near city of Drach leading the atack was killed. In 1018 Byz. take the Bulgarian capital Ohrid(today in Macedonia. In 1185 Bulgarians become independent again.Until 1202 under Tzar Kaloyan Bulgarian army get all lost teritorys from Byz.Tzar Kaloyan was good polititian and in 1204 he got title King of Bulgaria from Pope Inokentii III.In same year Byz. desapear and become Latin Imp.Latin Imperator Balduin Flanders want some teritories and this bring war. On 14 April 1205 near Adrianopol Bulgarian Army crush Latin Army and captured Imperator Balduin.In 1207 Tzar Kaloyan sieged Thessalonica ,but was killed by assasin.New Tzar Ivan-Asen II was good diplomat and get some terytorys without wars,but in 1230 Bulgaria was invaded by Epirus Despot Teodor Komnin .In battle of Klokotnica Buldarian army smash his army and captured him. Next Tzars was not soo graet,and did not menage to defeat the Tatars invazions. In 1277 the General of Castle of Ovach -Ivailo organized population against invaders.In 1371 Turks defeated united Bulgarian and Serbian armys in battle of Adrianople.In 1371 Bulgarian Tzar Ivan-Shishman become vassal.In 1388 Turks take Sofia castle and in 1385 Nish. In 1387 remaining feodal leaders from Bulgaria,Serbia and Bosnia united and crush Turks army in battle of Plochnik. In battle of Kosovo pole in 1389 Bulgarian brigades was part of Serbian Army.In 1393 fall the Bulgarian capital Turnovo.In 1395 when defending Nicopol died in battle Bulgarian Tzar Ivan Shishman.In 1396 when last Crusade try to relived Constaninople in battle of Nicopol died last Bulgarian Tzar Ivan-Stracimir.

Just took the last copy off the shelf. $59.99. Ouch!

Perfect install. Small music bug at first. The dramatic war music played right through the intro on top of other music and into my first custom battle even when turned off. A restart fixed it.

My first custom battle was less than exciting. The dismounted French Knights approached withing fifty meters of my English lines and were then kind enough to just stand there and play the part of Sponge Bob Arrowpants. My longbowmen killed them to the last man. The French Knights never moved any closer.

The next small battle, with the French Knights given improved morale, was much better. They went right into my lines and got into it.

Beauty graphics. Playing at 1280x1024, 4xAA and 4xAF, most sliders maxed and bloom and reflection on, and getting nice FPS. Haven't tried with more than a few hundred on screen. Yet. Was about to set up a great big cavalry charge scene but was pulled away by RL.

Much, much left to discover. Looking forward to it. :yes:

(What I need is a guide to the campaign mode. I never got the hang of it in R:TW. M:TW was more my speed.)

I got the game on Christmas and I'm still pretty hooked. At first I was wary of the AI's supposed (and kinda true) dumbness on my N/N campaign as England.

But now, after a game of Short N/N Scotland and some H/H (or VH/VH I forget) France it's pretty challenging, but in a good way. The graphics, even on medium, are superb and the sounds are great. I love the cheers and roars, and clanging of metal sounds:smash:

Overall, a very nice, immersive game. It's always very hard for me to quit playing. "Just one more turn...":coffeenews:

I'm not impressed by the game sofar... to remake my post, more polite ofcourse.

I got MTW2 over the holidays and I've really enjoyed it so far. I like the ways in which gameplay has been expanded over MTW, particularly the movement model. No more plonking armies down on the other side of the map without cost. Not so sure about it for agents though, which do take a long time to manage (and shouldn't have their movement blocked by armies, especially those of factions you're not at war with).

I've read the posts about 'broken units' here with some concern, but after over 100 turns of play with the English I'm yet to encounter any real crippling problems. I have steered clear of the early Billmen though because their defensive stats are so weak.

So far, I've installed the patch but none of the 'fixes'. I'm always wary of those. Fixing it in the eyes of one person is breaking it in the eyes of another.

The charges have been less reliable than they were in MTW and the chasing down of routed enemies is not as ruthless as it used to be. But that doesn't bother me much.

I've given some thought to the charge business and I figure charges wouldn't always come off exactly right in reality either. In fact it probably degenerated into a muddle more often than not. Knights didn't train or practice together and as such I don't think such well coordinated and timed movement wasn't a foregone conclusion.

My standard English armies contain 4 Mailed Knights and I've found those to be a very potent force. Charging enemies from the side or rear there hasn't been a unit that's been able to stand up to them so far (I've eliminated the Scots and been fighting the Danes and the French since then). They do sometimes take heavy casualties but that's fine with me. Could it be that people are playing at the more difficult levels too readily ? I expect you need your units to be in the field more rather than retraining on the higher difficulty levels. At M/M I spend a lot of time getting my armies back into full working order after a battle, so they remain fully effective.

Overall, I think the game is a great progression from MTW.