On the benefit of playing RTW for while ...

[gollum]

RTW is a fun game - if one does not expect tactical battles to be the main dish like in MTW/STW.

It has good atmosphere, and the campaign game has infinitely more games within the game to play - i am somewhat surprised that it even has a goal as it works best as a sandbox game - set your own goals following your generals life.

You can concentrate in roleplaying with the battles basically as a part of that.

In MTW the battles are important and especially in STW the battles are almost everything. The common roster that enhcances balance also helps. So does the seasonal campaign and the emphasis on the environment/terrain and weather.

In STW the charge is broken - cavalry does not get the charge bonus - but in MTW it works and if used properly it can be devastating not in kills but in its effect - that is the enemy battle line and/or units rout etc.

In both games you even have to pre-plan and work hard to kill/catch the routers - in RTW a single cavalry unit will get them (almost) all for you even in long battles.

Also missile mounted units require skill to play with in MTW/STW even in SP. In RTW it all happens by it self and horse archers are almost like cheat units - too easy to use and devastating.

Last but not least the RTW AI seems to have lost features, most obviously using the terrain (high ground/woods etc). The only thing that it does well is match up units and also i have to say flank, but the action in vanilla is too fast to notice this. Its best to meddle with the Terrain Modifier file and change the values to be on average at about 0.725 for long/short grass etc than 1.0.

This considerably slows the action down and brings fatigue back into play as well as flanking - most mods set it around 0.825 with higher morale and higher defense values to prolongue melee - but sometimes they overdo it and the melee lasts ages making match ups insignificant and flanking the central gameplay element.

Its obvious that CA wanted the tactical battles dumped down simply by the fact that in the STW/MTW engine unit speed is determined on a per unit basis - this provides great flexibility in order to find the right gameplay pace - not too slow (otherwise theres no RTS dynamics - essentially the game becomes turned based) not too fast (otherwise cant control all units at the height of the action). CA went for the second option, the action is too fast - with the benefit of these to simplify the gameplay greatly as the sophistication in control and meneuvers is no more possible. That was the only way to make TW accessible to a younger audience.

CA in RTW in fact determined unit speed by class of infantry/cavalry and those are hardcoded and not available as parameters. In this way even if modders wanted to find the range of the right pace they have great difficulties.

In MTW the AI is in my opinion generally best with the STW AI a close second.

!it burnsus!

[Fagar]

Coming back to MTW after a period of absence is definately rewarding.
I was OS for about 15 months until last October and basically did not go near a game for that entire time.
When I got back and had some time off one of the first things I did was re-emerse myself in MTW and wasn't it engrossing, getting used to the nuances and the precise AI was great fun, remembering all the buttons was hard enough but refusing to pause during a battle just meant I was getting continually toweled up.
The music, the atmosphere the intrigue and getting punished for any lack of attention.
Immediately fell back in love with MTW again and have played precious little since (only a little Halo 3)