Demo Discussion Thread

[Crazed Rabbit]

I decided to fight the land battle and charge right up the mouth of the American guns on the defended ford.

Surprisingly, I won. Lost a lot of men, though (almost 700). It was really close, and the AI might have won had it moved the hidden long rifle men who were hidden, guarding the other bridge. But they only came after I drove back the main force completely.

Also, at the end of the battle I had my general chasing the other general, who happened to run through a line of stakes set up earlier in the game. My general's cav lost five of seven horsemen as they tried to follow.

CR

[Forward Observer]

I thought the battles fun and did manage to win both on the second try.

The ships look wonderful, but there is one thing that bothered me visually about the naval component that no one here has mentioned. A poster at another forum mentioned this some time back, but I didn't pay much attention to it at the time since his illustration was from a very early build screenshot. I just assumed they would have corrected the error by now, but there it was in both the naval battle and tutorial.

Anyway, all the 3 masted ships, as portrayed in the game, have a technical error that evidently no one at CA has discovered in their nautical research.

At full sail they all have a sail bent to the cro'jack or crossjack. This was simply not done during the period that the game covers. The crossjack is the lowest yard on the mizzenmast. (rear most mast) However it is simply a lower brace for the mizzen top sail. To fly a lower sail, or course as they are called, from the crossjack is incorrect and would compete with the function of the trailing spanker or gaff sail.

Later 19th century sailing ships like the Cutty Sark actually did use a mizzen main course along with a gaff sail, but they were engineered differently and mainly for speed

In the screen below, the arrow is pointing at the crossjack and the sail circled is the one that does not belong. I guess somebody in their art department figured if there was a yard there, it was supposed to have a sail. I wonder if this could be modded out.



Cheers

[peacemaker]

nice catch! I really don't know too much about ships back then but it sounds about right.

Yay I finally beat the naval demo

[Polemists]

I'm curious for those who have demo (tonite....common download)

Everyone says the land battle Ai is improved and the naval battle has easier Ai.

Yet from what I read, everyone has a harder time winning the naval battle.

Is this just because the naval battle the unit numbers are more against you?

[Ishmael]

I'm curious for those who have demo (tonite....common download)

Everyone says the land battle Ai is improved and the naval battle has easier Ai.

Yet from what I read, everyone has a harder time winning the naval battle.

Is this just because the naval battle the unit numbers are more against you?

Well, for me it was because I had absolutely no idea what tactics to use for naval battles, how the ships would work, what do do in general etc. At least for land battles I knew to flank and focus overwhelming firepower, but for naval battles I just pressed Ctrl + A and clicked on enemy (to paraphrase another Orgah) and hoped for the best.

[A Very Super Market]

Actually, the land battle has the numbers advantage as well. I didn't even find the naval demo that hard. As soon as I figured out that I didn't need to use the broadside button every time I wanted to fire, it was alright.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Broadsides actually seem very weak. Maybe I'm not using them close enough, but letting the ships handle firing themselves seems to score much better hits.

[pevergreen]

CA got actual ship plans and based their ships off those.

Broadsides are situational. You need to be close enough that all guns will actually hit, as the all fire straight, not at an angle.