superior tactics video

[Merak]

most of you have seen this but will post it anyway new video on the official page


http://www.totalwar.com/empire/gallery/videos.php

[Sir Beane]

I hadn't seen this before actually. Nice find!

[Emperor of Graal]

Neither have I.
Cool Vid!

[Greyblades]

Anyone else notice the Green-coats about 3/4ths into the video?

[Sir Beane]

Anyone else notice the Green-coats about 3/4ths into the video?

Probably a specific regiment, or a different unit type such as skirmishers. Not every unit seems to follow the faction colour scheme now.

[Monk]

The link takes me to "road to independence". What are you guys on about?

[Sir Beane]

The link takes me to "road to independence". What are you guys on about?

Empire Total War - Superior Tactics Trailer 1. It's in the video section on the main site, just scroll around until you find it.

It's a video of a CA developed playing a game against the A.I and attempting to beat its formation. A formation apparently inspired by Napoleon.

[Discoman]

The link takes me to "road to independence". What are you guys on about?

Make sure you're on the UK site. I guess they didn't upload it to the other ones yet.

[Belgolas]

They haven't uploaded like half the videos the UK site has on the US site.

I declair this as the SLOwest video download ever.

[Incongruous]

I feel that my worst fears may have just been confirmed by that awful peformance on the AI's part, that battle was pathetically easy and quick. He was able to smash the enemy army with his cavalry alone it seemed, and when he did use infantry it was enough to have them in, what was it? eight ranks deep? Troops also seem to have returned to using rockets to propell themselves across the battlefield and we once again have candy colours! Yay!!!
Improved AI? Where?

If this is all CA have to offer, and I hope they impress me with their next video, then Empire will become the biggest gaming dissapointment ever...

[Monk]

Empire Total War - Superior Tactics Trailer 1. It's in the video section on the main site, just scroll around until you find it.

It's a video of a CA developed playing a game against the A.I and attempting to beat its formation. A formation apparently inspired by Napoleon.

I found it, had to switch the site over to the UK one. (the buttons at the top!)

But I was really impressed with the AI's behavior. After it's initial formation was broken up by cavalry skirmishing, it appeared to reform a cohesive line and coordinated an effective attack against the player's position on the high ground. Although the programmer won, it looked like he had suffered quite a bit of casualties.

[hoom]

I found hi-res on the Sega FTP but its 1.2GB & I have a data cap so I ain't downloading it.

[Monk]

I found hi-res on the Sega FTP but its 1.2GB & I have a data cap so I ain't downloading it.

1.2gb for a 2 minute video? That must be some eye-melting high def.

[Marten]

1. Great Video!

2. He took heavy losses.

3. I like the style and uniforms of the dutch.

4. And i like to see the uncut version of the vid.

Nice way to slaughter your own cavalry. I fear i will have some difficulties to get used to the distance between fighting units.

[Belgolas]

I found it, had to switch the site over to the UK one. (the buttons at the top!)

But I was really impressed with the AI's behavior. After it's initial formation was broken up by cavalry skirmishing, it appeared to reform a cohesive line and coordinated an effective attack against the player's position on the high ground. Although the programmer won, it looked like he had suffered quite a bit of casualties.

I agree it seems like the AI is a lot better and marches in formation now. The battle was short but they cut out parts.

My only fear is that this was a scripted battle and not the real deal.

[Belgolas]

1.2gb for a 2 minute video? That must be some eye-melting high def.

Yeah HD takes up a huge amount of space. But it is well worth it.

[Durango]

I found it, had to switch the site over to the UK one. (the buttons at the top!)

But I was really impressed with the AI's behavior. After it's initial formation was broken up by cavalry skirmishing, it appeared to reform a cohesive line and coordinated an effective attack against the player's position on the high ground. Although the programmer won, it looked like he had suffered quite a bit of casualties.

It was somewhat difficult to tell what happened though. As I usually rely greatly on sound to orient myself in the total war games, this felt a bit too jumbled to gather any useful info on the AI - I wish he could have kept his mouth shut

That said, I agree that the AI forces do seemed to cohesively launch a counterattack on the player's main line on the hill, that's good.

Maybe the best thing would have been a loss for the AI programmer....? What could better send a message about the quality of the AI than having him lose the battle in the end?

Me wants campaign gameplay next! And no talking

[Monk]

I agree it seems like the AI is a lot better and marches in formation now. The battle was short but they cut out parts.

My only fear is that this was a scripted battle and not the real deal.

Same. However, CA knows that what we are craving is a better AI. This video seems to confirm that they have been doing a lot of work (good work at that) in implementing it. I would hope they wouldn't go out of their way to tease us with a set of scripts instead of showing off the real thing.

[Lusitani]

Hmmm I didnt really see anything new....other than someone else having fun playing a ETW battle :P.

I found everything too quick (I really hope they slow down naval battles) and hmmm those cannon shot tracers look annoying. ...all IMHO


V.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

It was hard to tell, but it looked more to me like the human zerged the AI with his cav, the AI counter zerged with cav, and then the human zerged with infantry for the win.

I don't see why a double line wouldn't have been more effective - infantry in front and cav behind in reserve to fill gaps or guard the flanks.

[CBR]

Hm cavalry managing to charge frontally into infantry. Some of the infantry seemed to move pretty quickly. Does not look that promising.


CBR

[hoom]

1.2gb for a 2 minute video? That must be some eye-melting high def.

More that its been encoded with a bad codec/bad settings.

Anyway, just looked again & there is a 173MB version there now :)

[Marten]

More that its been encoded with a bad codec/bad settings.

Anyway, just looked again & there is a 173MB version there now :)

Thanks hoom! ... 40 kb/s ....???

After watching second and third time: Don't want to be "overcritical" - but whereabouts was the divisional square?
As he charges the dutch light infantry, the behaviour of the cavalry reminds me of something ...

I would like to see a vid where the human player is doing nothing (as defender) and an really aggressive AI is attacking him.
And i want to see the whole story from deploying to the end.

[Monk]

Hm cavalry managing to charge frontally into infantry. Some of the infantry seemed to move pretty quickly. Does not look that promising.


CBR

I just downloded the med quality. Sega has a speed cap clearly, i was only able to get 90kb/s.

But if you can get it i highly suggest it. You can see things MUCH clearer. While it seems that cavalry are super effective in the normal def, with Med def we can see his army composition by the end of the battle. The result? His cavalry forces have been mauled. His highest cav unit only has 16 troops in it. His infantry forces have taken serious losses and at least 7 units were destroyed or are routing

I wish it wasn't so heavily edited so we could get more battle shots and see exactly what happened. It is clear that his army took a beating but we're unsure how they ended up that way.

[CountArach]

I feel that my worst fears may have just been confirmed by that awful peformance on the AI's part, that battle was pathetically easy and quick. He was able to smash the enemy army with his cavalry alone it seemed, and when he did use infantry it was enough to have them in, what was it? eight ranks deep? Troops also seem to have returned to using rockets to propell themselves across the battlefield and we once again have candy colours! Yay!!!
Improved AI? Where?

If this is all CA have to offer, and I hope they impress me with their next video, then Empire will become the biggest gaming dissapointment ever...

Yeah I'm seriously considering not buying it now - that was shocking.

Also I found the bunched-up combat with 10 or so units on each side just on top of a hill a huge turn-off. Seriously, there is no way that any 18th Century battle would end up with that type of situation.

[Belgolas]

Yeah I'm seriously considering not buying it now - that was shocking.

Also I found the bunched-up combat with 10 or so units on each side just on top of a hill a huge turn-off. Seriously, there is no way that any 18th Century battle would end up with that type of situation.

Um check again. The enemy AI had units in 3 ranks deep. Also they have a full battalion square and used it pretty well IMO. If this is what the AI will be like in the final version then it will definitely be the best TW AI I have ever seen. Watch the 720p version. You can actually see what is going on.

This is gonna be the best TW.

[Durango]

Um check again. The enemy AI had units in 3 ranks deep. Also they have a full battalion square and used it pretty well IMO. If this is what the AI will be like in the final version then it will definitely be the best TW AI I have ever seen. Watch the 720p version. You can actually see what is going on.

Hmm, maybe I should download the HD version and have a look. When I saw the standard one there was no way to tell if the AI actually formed anything at all. But as long as the infantry uses proper line tactics with no huge clumps of units 6 ranks deep, I'll be happy.

Anyone identify exactly what kind of units were involved in the battle?

This is gonna be the best TW.

O RLY?

[Belgolas]

He started out with 1035 men and ended with 377 men left. He lost 4 units completely and 4 units routed. He almost lost all his cavalry. He started out with 519 including general for cavalry and only had 78 left at the end.

He took heavy losses losing 64% of his army. He had 2 cannon units and each cannon unit only had 18 men! That is much better then the last total wars where you had 80 guys for one artilery unit.

I forgot to mention it was 18 units and 3 cannons. So that is a large improvement.

[Monk]

He started out with 1035 men and ended with 377 men left. He lost 4 units completely and 4 units routed. He almost lost all his cavalry. He started out with 519 including general for cavalry and only had 78 left at the end.

He took heavy losses losing 64% of his army. He had 2 cannon units and each cannon unit only had 18 men! That is much better then the last total wars where you had 80 guys for one artilery unit.

I forgot to mention it was 18 units and 3 cannons. So that is a large improvement.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who liked what they saw!

[hoom]

You can definitely see the AI form its army into a big square.
Strangely with gaps you could just about squeeze a cav unit through though...

There is a special effect 'spark' sort of thing when steel meets steel. I thought it might have been just for the one shot but then I saw it again & again.
(Could this be the mystical 'glints' effect that never did anything in the RTW engine?)

I don't think our AI programmer guy is that great a TW player (or playing dumb for effect?)
He does some rather odd things with his units

Draw distance is looking way sweet, though I have to suspect that there is a battlemap edge hidden somewhere within the mini-map border.

After the initial cavalry charge, when his troops had formed on the hill, the AI is still in/has reformed a partial square :)

While it seems like it was an easy win in low quality, he started with a full 20 unit stack:
519 Horse
480 Infantry
36 Gun crew
Total 1035

But finished (last frame where you can see unit numbers) with only 11 units in combat:
71 Horse
269 Infantry
12 Gun crew
Total 352

Lost his general & 2/3rds of his force.

Edit: beaten to the numbers...