How is Multiplayer?

[Crazed Rabbit]

Yeah, there's no direct lobby like in MTW, but there's steam; you can chat with all sorts of individuals, join group chats, invite people to games.

Ive played four MP battles against my roommate. We're 50-50.

Report on one of the battles;

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Today, I got a big Polish army with 4 Winged Hussars and 5 Uhlans. He had a standard british set up ( we were in late and agreed to no arty, as it ruins the experience [at least in late era, exploding shells+mortars =mass death It forces you to charge immediately to keep your loses down or lose a significant fraction of men before you engage {and arty doesn't run out of ammo}]). He set up stakes around his army, I used my long range inf to take him out and sent my cav in through the side. I was winning until then, when my cav met the inf squares, which destroyed my winged hussars (heaviest cav in the game, I've read they had spears that let them hit past the bayonets) and other cav. My inf by that point was pretty toast, so i lost. :(

So a new game, he goes Poland I go America. Some wooded map. He's got an all light dragoon and winged hussar army. I've got a standard US army (substituted inf for arty).

Lucky for me, this map has an outcropping of rock. The only entrance is at the base of the hill. The raised part slopes up with the hill, surrounded on the three higher sides by rock:
........................
....+++++++++....
....+---------+....
....+---------+....
....+---------+....
....+---------+....
....//\\//\\//\\//....

...=grass outside of outcropping. + = rock --- = area on the top of the outcropping // = stakes

The top part of this image is higher up on the hill. So I had my four units of long rifle men set up stakes at the base - two rows of them. I hide all the rest of my army behind the stakes, except for four units of cav. I had my line inf form up into four squares right behind the stakes (as squares seem much more effective than just a line of infantry, even receiving the charge to the front [too effective]).

........................
....++++++++++....
....+----------+....
....+----------+....
....+----------+....
....+[]-[]-[]-[]+....
....//\\//\\//\\//....

[] = squares

So he's got to charge his army through two rows of stakes and into squares of line inf. First he dismounts some dragoons and charges in, getting sniped by my long rifle men behind the squares. I charge my cav into the rear of the dragoons and they run.

Next comes the grand hussar charge. He loses a third of them to the stakes, and the rest shortly thereafter. Not one of my inf units is below 50% men. It's a slaughter - 600+ of his 700+ dead, and i lose only 250 or so (mostly my cav outside the 'fort').

Good times.

CR

[PanzerJaeger]

I'm not really digging the loss of a chat lobby either, but I haven't really used steam very much to meet opponents in other games, so it may be fine.

I've played a few MP games and I'm still collecting my thoughts. I do agree with CR's assessment:

( we were in late and agreed to no arty, as it ruins the experience [at least in late era, exploding shells+mortars =mass death It forces you to charge immediately to keep your loses down or lose a significant fraction of men before you engage {and arty doesn't run out of ammo}]).

As it stands now, I think MP will need a dedicated group who agree on some standard rules. Jumping in random games has been hit or miss for me. Luckily, Steam seems to be a good way to organize such games.

[Andres]

There are some bugs to be found....

There's a thread in the Parliament where we try to group all bugs noticed by players -> "Official Org Bug thread"

Please, report every possible bug you encounter while playing.