Road to Independence - Revolution episode

[Rufus]

As an American history buff, I'm excited about the Road to Independence campaign. I'm wondering what everyone anticipates, though, for the various "episodes," particularly the third one, where you have to lead the Continental Army and militias to victory in the Revolutionary War. It seems a big jump in scale from the first two episodes, and I'm wondering how it will work.

In the first episode, your task as John Smith is to develop Jamestown into a viable settlement and long-term foundation for the Virginia colony. OK - pretty straightforward, but it shouldn't be easy.

In the second episode, your task as George Washington is to lead your Virginia militia to take the Ohio Valley from the French. OK, also pretty straightforward, albeit bigger and more military-focused than the Jamestown episode. Still, not like you are the overall commander of all British forces in North America for the French & Indian War.

There's a big jump up in scale in the third episode - to lead the Americans to victory in the Revolution. That's probably intentional, since RTI is intended to be a semi-tutorial, gradually introducing the player to the elements of the game. I just hope they don't give short shrift to the political, diplomatic and military complexities of that conflict. Politically, you had a widely diverse range of regional and ideological differences in the Continental Congress and a fair percentage of the population opposed to independence. Diplomatically, of course, there was the challenge of bringing France and other allies into the war. Militarily, you have a wide range of tactical advantages and disadvantages of regular and militia units relative to the opponent, whether redcoats, Indians or both, and depending on the terrain and whether allies have arrived yet.

I hope it's a pretty good representation of most of those historical issues, but if it is ... it's going to be pretty darn difficult to win! Washington had to maintain the viability of the Continental Army long enough for the French to be convinced to come in, and even then, his cause was greatly aided by British mistakes - for example, British tactics in the South alienating a portion of the population who might not have gotten involved otherwise, and Gen. Clinton delaying sending reinforcements to Cornwallis at Yorktown. Will the AI make the same mistakes?

I guess my overall point is - although CA hasn't explicitly described RTI as a tutorial, I really hope it's more of a campaign and less of a tutorial because those missions were all enormously difficult historically and should hopefully be a pretty tough, rewarding challenge in the game as well.

[Mailman653]

If all fails, open up the console and type in oliphantcanon The British will never know what hit them.

[Barkhorn1x]

I guess my overall point is - although CA hasn't explicitly described RTI as a tutorial, I really hope it's more of a campaign and less of a tutorial because those missions were all enormously difficult historically and should hopefully be a pretty tough, rewarding challenge in the game as well.

That is the intent as I understand it , judging by the various CA pronouncements and posts.

[monsterfurby]

I'm still worried that RTI will pretty much resemble a buffed-up version of the RTW's strategic map tutorial (taking the Italian Peninsula). They are only trying to hype it much more because, well, it's the AWoI and most of their potential customers are American. But it remains to be seen, I guess.

[Rufus]

I'm still worried that RTI will pretty much resemble a buffed-up version of the RTW's strategic map tutorial (taking the Italian Peninsula). They are only trying to hype it much more because, well, it's the AWoI and most of their potential customers are American. But it remains to be seen, I guess.

That's my concern. I hope it's not just: Win one big battle (Saratoga), then take your new French buddies down to Yorktown and force Cornwallis to surrender, and - poof! - you've won your independence!

I hope it's a real campaign that covers the whole seaboard and full range of political, diplomatic, economic and military issues as much as possible. I hope you face as many of the same constraints in the game as Washington did - troop enlistments ending, logistical shortages, poor troop discipline, political pressure from Congress, etc. For example, in the game, it would be all too simple to cede New York City to the Brits as indefensible in the early stages, given the geography of the city and British naval dominance, but Washington didn't have that luxury in part because Congress insisted on making a stand there. Perhaps Congress sends you "missions" like the Council of Nobles does in M2TW?

That said, hopefully the AI would also face the issues the Brits did - internal disagreements among generals, global naval and military obligations that take resources away from the war in the colonies, French naval harassment, lack of familiarity with some areas of the terrain particularly in the Southern backwoods, inability to counter guerilla tactics effectively, proclivity to act without regard to the effects on American public opinion, and waning British public support for the war.

[Haxorsist]

I remember seeing a screenshot of a tutorial menu, which would mean that there's a tutorial (probably just a battle tutorial) in addition to the RTI campaign.

[Polemists]

I would not worry about it. I mean if you look at videos there are clearly more then one battle. You can see the player controlling a variety of units, armies, and cities in the 4/5 Video RTI.

How long is it? I don't know but I think realistically it is a heavily scripted campaign where you cover 1700-1766, and simply cannot expand outside of north america.

I don't think it's going to be, battle 1, win, PART 2 loading screen. At least that's not the way I envision it.

Maybe it will be included in demo, or at least part 1, that way we can all learn together