So, the demo...

[Sir Beane]

I can't wait till mine downloads, been 3 hours, I only just realized i was downloading from germany, only on 8%, after 3 hours! moving to east coast america through advice and its already at 46% after 20 mins

That East Coast server is truly a savior. I don't know how it manages it but it is getting excellent speed. I'm using it now to nab the demo for my laptop and it is twice as fast as UK/Ireland.

[The historian]

Maybe i was a little harsh with the AI, i did use better tactics to win after my initial rash approach charged weak points, used reserves, high ground and forests and othertried and tested MTW and RTW tactics. Maybe i was to harsh but this is what i see as shortcomings of the AI:
Coming at me 2 3 units at a time allowing me to destroy them one by one instead of using it's overwhelming numerical superiority to crush me; charging its general into a square; not using the artillery properly by moving it instead of having it fire at maximum range over a wooded hillside.
I'll admit ambushes were good and the AI dismounted it's cavalry and charged the square after a first unsuccessful charge, the artillery changed to grape shot as i charged and moved down the frirst wave, The AI did do some interesting things.

[Megas Methuselah]

Coming at me 2 3 units at a time allowing me to destroy them one by one instead of using it's overwhelming numerical superiority to crush me;

Agreed.

charging its general into a square;

With its general?! Are you sure?? Its entire army must have been destroyed and the AI itself acting in desperation. Can't blame it for that...

not using the artillery properly by moving it instead of having it fire at maximum range over a wooded hillside.

Agreed.

I'll admit ambushes were good and the AI dismounted it's cavalry and charged the square after a first unsuccessful charge, the artillery changed to grape shot as i charged and moved down the frirst wave, The AI did do some interesting things.

Agreed. For my part, I noticed how it pulled its Line Infantry out of a bloody melee with my highlanders, guards, and hessians in order to regroup with minutemen and long riflemen in the rear, leaving me to struggle with its dragoons and cannon crews. It came back in full force and crushed me with musketfire and bayonet charges. That's the result of me making a frontal assault across the first ford for giggles.

[Thermal]

3/5

Positive

-More Intelligent AI on land
-Great new game feel along with nice unit models
-Garrisoning buildings and destructible buildings evident
-More powerful gunpower than previous games thankfully
-New displayed unit stats, all of which intrigued me
-Fair sea battle graphics

Negative

-Slow download and even slower in game waiting times
-Increasing graphics or increasing any option mostly lead to game crashes, leaving me with disappointing graphics on land battles
-Still rather sluggish AI at sea
-Morale and formations more difficult to judge and access
-While expected as being poor, cavalry are beyond that and are completely useless
-Lack of varied in battle fighting
-Lots of micromanagement needed as units are terribly stupid on there own initiative


Tutorials

I only did the land battle tutorial, the process, while I knew most of it was very nice, a good map to fight the spanish against, it shown building fortification and the potential of the new units

Sea battle


I won my sea battle without losing a single boat! I was amazed at how easy it was, lining up in a row and turning to fire was rather good, but towards the end tiresome as I was chasing a french boat around the map at the slowest of speeds, while the AI acted foolishly, nice visuals though. Looks like I'll be more an admiral than a commander as I did abysmal on the land battle....

Land battle

I failed miserably, the terrain looked so graphically flawed because of my settings too, and I hated the river crossed map, My troops disobeyed and tactics were in short supply, I managed to send my men over the crossing in dribs and drabs and therefore hadn't the power to fight off the unbelievable large horde of the Americans, that once grouped, could take out one of my units in one shot of there packs, more intelligence in my opponent however.


Still going to buy it no doubt, a bit of a mix of thoughts from the demo though.

[Bob the Insane]

4 stars with a note of optimisim...

The Tutorials were good enough, not much new for the land (other than use of cover), the naval one was more interesting but I still learn't more through experimentation...

At first I thought naval combat was going to be a nightmare of micro-management, but then I discovered grouping and formations...

I soon have my line sweeping past the french chewing them up...

The land battle was interesting but just as in RTW and M2TW it is hard to judge historical battles because there is always some scripting in there interfering... I can only hope that the regular battle AI works so well in defensive battles. by harassing the main American fornce and taking the bulk of mine around the left flank I was able to defeat the enemies troops as the approached. I did take a lot of casulties though...

Personally I found the cavalry both useful and vunerable. Used right they and harass and even ride down the enemy, used wrong they are cut down by infantry in a hurry.

One nice point where all the options available. It seems we don't need to go into the files to disable path makers, selection markers, floating flags and such (though this does not appear to work in the demo, the options are there). Also the minimal HUD returns again.

A bonus for me personally is that my setup got through with all graphics on max at 1680x1050 (I switched of the field focus effect simply because I didn't really like it)...

4 stars because i am still not convinced on the battlefield AI and some of the options not working in the demo (including group formations in the land battle)...

[Lord of the Isles]

1/5 for me, though I think I was a little harsh and 2/5 would have been fairer.

I'm not totally turned off E:TW because of that however, since I remember previous demos (especially the M2:TW one) which disappointed me when they were first released and the full game was fine.

Positives

1. In-game graphics very smooth and little lag (ok, I do have a 8800GTS)
2. Naval battle eye-candy attractive, ships look decent and crews too
3. Was expecting silly exploding cannonballs all over land & naval battles, but no sign of them yet, well done CA!

Negatives

1. Naval battles are really dumbed down. Wind? Tactics? Yuck.
2. The land battle soldiers seem less realistic that those in M2:TW, somehow cartoonish and flat. This may be one of those things that will go away in the full game however. Maybe I just have to get used to lines of men wearing the same uniform in a more disciplined formation than was the case in earlier periods. But I was looking forward to a jump in eye-candy and if anything it has gone backwards.
3. Immersion lacking. The demo hasn't engaged me in the way that say R:TW did (especially after some modders got to grips with the Rome demo I had some great battles with it). I believe there are a lot of extras missing in the demo like sound files which may account for this lack of immersion.
4. Steam. Don't get me wrong - if I have to have DRM rubbish with a game I'd much rather it was Steam than Starforce/SecuRom/Sony/anythingelse. I'd just rather not have it at all.


One thing I've decided on is not to preorder the game. I'll wait to see what people think of it after 4th March and decide whether to get it then.

[Daevyll]

Gave it 4/5.

Mainly because the items that bother me I put down to it being a demo and available through Steam.

Main cause for concern is battle AI, and this stops it from getting 5/5. It tends to feed in reinforcements in response to manoeuvres piece-meal. I can win 4 vs 3 twice, I cant win 4 vs 6 at once.
Hope this is better in the full release.