First Impressions

[IsItStillThere]

Campaign Map: Very attractive, looks like a cross between Europa Universalis III and Civilization IV. Seems a bit hard to see units and characters easily because they don't stand out much. Lots or animations, etc. Shiny, nice looking water. Very easy to see trade routes and the amount of trade and who it belongs too.

Navies: Nations like England and France who, in 1700, had whole fleets of ships-of-the-line, start the campaign game with no ship larger than a frigate (and a small number of them at that). Very strange decision.

Armies: Like ships, the numbers of soldiers are very small compared to historical fact. Love the ability to promote units to get an instant general. General units aren't the battle hammers they used to be...best reserved for mopping up routers and shoring up morale.

Battles: I wish there were more historical battles to fight, but battle maps and controls seem very familiar and it wasn't hard to get into them. Maybe they'll make more for download, or others will make custom ones and make them available.

Campaign game: Seems like empire management gets a bit more complicated compared to M2TW. Wish they had eliminated religious units and effects entirely...a simplification to offset the other increases in complexity. Diplomacy is much better now without having to shuttle diplomats around.

off to try some naval battles...

[A Very Super Market]

Well the armies and navies are always really small in TW games.

At first. Milan

[knoddy]

i still havnt figured out how to promote a general/admiral is it just the buy admiral feature in the bottom right of the army pane? that costs like 1500 or is there a way to do it without buying?

Cheers knoddy

ps sorry for hte hijack :P

[Murmandamus]

I'm loving the game, but my first assault on a fort was an AI disaster. 800 defenders vs 1100 attackers. I think I took 30 odd casualties and only a handful of the enemy escaped.

The AI started with its artillery outside the fort all on its own in the middle of a forest. So they just sat there pounding at the trees until I sent a unit in to mop them up.

It had 1 other unit outside the walls, also in a useless position, which was quickly dealt with.

My artillery had been pounding away at the gate all this time to no apparent effect, so I switched them to the wall instead, which they ended up breaching in a 1/4 of the time that they'd spent on the gate.

External units dealt with it was time to assault the fort, but wait, do my eyes deceive me or is the brave enemy bring the fight out to me? No, it's just sending one foolhardy unit. So I arrange a semicircle of 9 of my units to greet them, which it marches straight into the middle of.

That unit dealt with it was time to assault the fort, but wait, do my eyes deceive me or is the unconventional enemy bring the fight out to me? No, it's just sending one more foolhardy unit into the semicircle of doom.

That unit dealt with it was time to assault the fort, but wait, do my eyes deceive me or is the insane enemy bring the fight out to me? No, it's just sending one more foolhardy unit into the semicircle of doom.

That unit dealt with it was time to assault the fort, but wait, do my eyes deceive me or is the retarded enemy bring the fight out to me? No, it's just sending one more foolhardy unit into the semicircle of doom.

I think you can see the pattern here. When I finally made my assault on the fort there were only 2 enemy units left + the general. It didn't occupy any of the buildings in the fort, didn't try to defend the breach in the wall, didn't even keep its remaining units together. It just bent over and took it.

I think I need to crank the difficulty slider and try again. I've never seen the AI do that badly in previous titles :)

[Hooahguy]

Murmandamus- what difficulty level were you at?

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

The AI doesn't understand forts, from what I hear.

[PanzerJaeger]

And so it begins...

[Kongeslask]

- Started a "long" Grand Campaign as France, normal/normal. A few turns in Wurtemberg declares war on me for no apparent reason. The next turn Savoie does them same, again seemingly unmotivated. I invade and defeat Wurtemberg easily.

- In 1705 my monarch dies. I get a message about a war of succession starting. Austria and German minor allies Westphalia and Bavaria, the United provinces and Britain all declare war on me. I call on my Spanish allies. By 1710 I have taken Westphalia and the Netherlands region, knocking the UP out of the game. They are quite rebellious though and will probably revolt soon. In this time the only attacks against me are some tiny, ineffectual invasions by Bavaria and Savoie. Britain has hit my shipping hard, but this is thus far only a nuisance. My ally Spain has proved entirely ineffectual, marching small bands back and forth through their territory.

- AI leaves its batteries entirely undefended in field battles, making them easy prey for my lancers.

Haven't played further yet, but this does not bode well for the prowess of either the strategic or tactical AI.

[A Very Super Market]

Bah, hard is always the way to go.

[Murmandamus]

Murmandamus- what difficulty level were you at?

Whatever the default is :)

[Gregoshi]

And so it begins...

Kosh?! Is that you?

[Necceh]

The AI hasn't been all that impressive, i'm usually not all that when it comes to strategy, i've been using a standard flanking approach, that i've used in other Total War Games and it seems to have worked fairly easily.

That being said i've only got it set on default, i'll crank it up on the next game :).

I love the game though, had a bit of a geek moment lastnight. Listening to Battlestar Galatacia sound track and had my infantry charge a line of Ottomons with the speed set to slo-motion, was a jaw dropping moment for me, rarely seen in games these days.

The campaign map is okay, but after playing EU3 it seems quite basic and yes it's really hard to spot certain units and so on.


Overall the game is fantastic, and despite some negative coments here i love it, these were simply me nit picking, hate it when i do that.

[Discoman]

When I was sieged the AI was very responsive. They sent two units an alternate route to flank the back of the fort and the rest attacked from the front. They placed their cannons far back, which were still vulnerable due to my cannon emplacements. They also had a second army attacking from behind and it they charged two units in reserve, killed them, and attempted to scale the fort. Meanwhile their front assault was successful, until I flanked them with 3 groups of cavalry, which had a period of struggle as they were intercepted. The battle continued on and I won with only 1/4 my original army.

[Fisherking]

It must work then!

If you are playing on the easy setting the General has all the military acumen of a Cheese Merchant and on the difficult settings you face a veteran Field Marshal.


Most of the attempted AARs have ended in uncompleted games that the players would have lost…

[JeromeBaker]

So far here are some items I love about the game:

1. On VH/H I am losing a lot of troops in battle which is making me take battles more serious.
2. I love the way you advance techs (reminds me of civ series), as it gives you a lot more control of how you advance your empire.
3. I like the way it uses rakes and gentlemen way better than spys/ assasains. The fact that they spawn makes them more important as you dont want to throw them away in a useless duel.
4. Its nice having automatic ability to negotiate diplomacy with the click of a button instead of sending a diplomat.
5. I like how you build up cities, fortifications, buildings, ect.. around your main cities
6. I like the naval battles.
7. I love the animations where soldiers scale walls, climb fences, and horses jump fences. There are a lot of little details they did a great job on.
8. Love the style of fighting with the time period weaponry.
9. Most in depth TW game so far to me, which makes it my favorite ( i know its early to say this, but it is definetly my favorite).
10. Like the fact I can promote good millitary leaders.
11. Diplomacy is improved.

Things I dont like about the game:
1. A little buggy (lags sometimes when you click on a general)
2. I am sure I will get accustomed to the AI trying to take out my general and then battles will become harder to lose.
3. I had to buy a new computer to run the game, but this is not CAs fault, its mine for neglecting my old computer for so long it wasnt worth upgrading.

[ArtillerySmoke]

I'm loving the game, but my first assault on a fort was an AI disaster. 800 defenders vs 1100 attackers. I think I took 30 odd casualties and only a handful of the enemy escaped.

The AI started with its artillery outside the fort all on its own in the middle of a forest. So they just sat there pounding at the trees until I sent a unit in to mop them up.

It had 1 other unit outside the walls, also in a useless position, which was quickly dealt with.

My artillery had been pounding away at the gate all this time to no apparent effect, so I switched them to the wall instead, which they ended up breaching in a 1/4 of the time that they'd spent on the gate.

External units dealt with it was time to assault the fort, but wait, do my eyes deceive me or is the brave enemy bring the fight out to me? No, it's just sending one foolhardy unit. So I arrange a semicircle of 9 of my units to greet them, which it marches straight into the middle of.

That unit dealt with it was time to assault the fort, but wait, do my eyes deceive me or is the unconventional enemy bring the fight out to me? No, it's just sending one more foolhardy unit into the semicircle of doom.

That unit dealt with it was time to assault the fort, but wait, do my eyes deceive me or is the insane enemy bring the fight out to me? No, it's just sending one more foolhardy unit into the semicircle of doom.

That unit dealt with it was time to assault the fort, but wait, do my eyes deceive me or is the retarded enemy bring the fight out to me? No, it's just sending one more foolhardy unit into the semicircle of doom.

I think you can see the pattern here. When I finally made my assault on the fort there were only 2 enemy units left + the general. It didn't occupy any of the buildings in the fort, didn't try to defend the breach in the wall, didn't even keep its remaining units together. It just bent over and took it.

I think I need to crank the difficulty slider and try again. I've never seen the AI do that badly in previous titles :)

Guess you never played RTW or M2TW. The battle AI was attrocious.

[AussieGiant]

I remember saying this a bloody long time ago many many games ago.

Before anyone start hammering the AI, make sure you are playing on VH/VH...otherwise it MIGHT be by actual DESIGN that you are winning.

Crapping on the AI while on M/M is like a Polar Bear complaining that Australia is too hot in summer.

[andrewt]

I'm not familiar with this time period, but I'm a bit disappinted that the unit rosters are very similar. Then again, MTW2's isn't that great, either. They mostly just had different names for essentially the same units. I kinda miss MTW where almost every faction has 1-2 specialized units that nobody else has that gives it an advantage.

It seems towns and units are harder to spot in the campaign map as well. And there's no option to see stuff like income permanently on the game map. You have to mouse over the town name. Other than that, the new campaign map looks really promising.

[ArtillerySmoke]

I remember saying this a bloody long time ago many many games ago.

Before anyone start hammering the AI, make sure you are playing on VH/VH...otherwise it MIGHT be the by actual DESIGN that you are winning.

Crapping on the AI while on M/M is like a Polar Bear complaining that Australia is too hot in summer.

I've seen posts about M2TW with people complaining that the AI is "too easy" on the easiest difficulties, but yet it never occurred to them that they're playing on sandbox mode.

The AI is supposed to be dumb as rocks on the easiest difficulties.

[AussieGiant]

I've seen posts about M2TW with people complaining that the AI is "too easy" on the easiest difficulties, but yet it never occurred to them that they're playing on sandbox mode.

The AI is supposed to be dumb as rocks on the easiest difficulties.

Exactly!!

[DEY123]

I have been playing the TW games since the first MTW (I lost my log in and created a new one). I would say that so far that AI seems vastly improved over RTW and M2TW. With MTW I think some things were a bit scripted since there was a limit on the number of battlefields the computer was forced to fight on...

Anyhow I find that on H/H The computer is a reasponable opponent on land and on Sea I get torn to pieces but I am guessing that is because my tactics suck there. There are of course the occasional oddities like the danes sending single line infantry units to take my port even though I have a much larger stack in the way. If not for my stack this would be a very smart move...Anyhow as with all games I'm sure the AI has some big weaknesses but at least unlike RTW and even more so M2TW I can't just send a unit around the flank and cause the enemy to go into a mass route..


All in all I'm liking E:TW, but still working on all the new campaign details (which is great as the campaign in M2TW was too similar to RTW in my opinion).

Anyhow I'm very glad I got this game. I am playing with most things set to High (except grass and sea as I recall Grass slowing stuff down). Additionally I have no anti-aliasing set up and am playing 1280 x 1024. I do have smoke and Haze turned on I use Fraps and have yet to see the FPS dip below 18 and normally on the battles in the 20s (largest battle was probably 15 on 15).

My PC is a decent rig ( I paid about $200 recently to upgrade my CPU from a 3800+ and my GPU from a 7600GT)

Win XP
AMD X2 6000+ (overclocked by about 5%)
2GB of RAM (4-4-4-12 running above 800MHz)
512MB 9800GT (paid like $120 at tiger direct)

Anyhow back to playing.

[Sir Beane]

I'm not familiar with this time period, but I'm a bit disappinted that the unit rosters are very similar. Then again, MTW2's isn't that great, either. They mostly just had different names for essentially the same units. I kinda miss MTW where almost every faction has 1-2 specialized units that nobody else has that gives it an advantage.

It seems towns and units are harder to spot in the campaign map as well. And there's no option to see stuff like income permanently on the game map. You have to mouse over the town name. Other than that, the new campaign map looks really promising.

It's historical. During the 18th century everyone used more or less the same units, with uniform and technology being the only variations. It makes the game more balanced at least .

I'd like to see more variety though, and hopefully the moders can help us there .

[ArtillerySmoke]

It's historical. During the 18th century everyone used more or less the same units, with uniform and technology being the only variations. It makes the game more balanced at least .

I'd like to see more variety though, and hopefully the moders can help us there .

You guys are crazy lol. The game's out 1 day and we're already talking about mods.

[Sir Beane]

You guys are crazy lol. The game's out 1 day and we're already talking about mods.

We were talking about mods month before the game even came out . Although sadly at the moment mods are completely impossible.

[AussieGiant]

Holy Royal Mail Batman!!!!

It's arrived!! And 4 days earlier than expected!!!

The weekend has been destroyed!!!

[Belid Hagen]

im not all that impressed with the "new" AI. So far I've only lost one battle, and that was my half stack army of americans, with all units at half strenght. against two half stack armies of brits / natives with full strenght units. so about 1:4 in numbers. and i did just as much damage as i recived before the continued defense became impossible, and I withdrawing in an orderly fasion.

[Sir Beane]

im not all that impressed with the "new" AI. So far I've only lost one battle, and that was my half stack army of americans, with all units at half strenght. against two half stack armies of brits / natives with full strenght units. so about 1:4 in numbers. and i did just as much damage as i recived before the continued defense became impossible, and I withdrawing in an orderly fasion.

What difficulty are you playing on?

[IsItStillThere]

Well the armies and navies are always really small in TW games.

At first. Milan

True, and its understandable on the land battles. You can only control (and the computer render) so many men at once in a battle. So I can understand understating numbers of men.

And for naval battles, the forces are limited to 20 ships a side. Fair enough. But to pretend that in 1700 that the major nations had no ships of the line?! Ridiculous. How about Britain and France starting off with a couple of fleets of ten each? Would that be so wrong?

BTW, while there is a discussion going on about difficulty, does anyone know what happens on hard and very hard to help the AI? Do they get smarter, get bonuses or both? In the ideal world, I'd like them to be as smart as possible without getting a lot of bonuses.

[andrewt]

It's historical. During the 18th century everyone used more or less the same units, with uniform and technology being the only variations. It makes the game more balanced at least .

I'd like to see more variety though, and hopefully the moders can help us there .

Yeah, I took a look at all the unit rosters using the play battle mode. It looked at first like France has a lot of unique units, then I compared their roster to Britain's, and it seems like CA just gave them their French names in the English version to sound "different".

I'm still deciding which faction I want to start as. United Provinces looks like they have a nice starting position but I don't think there's another faction with a more vanilla roster. I might just start with Road to Independence to get used to this period's tactics.

Oh, and I didn't know the U.S. would only be playable on the RTI campaign. That's more historically accurate, though.

[Sir Beane]

Yeah, I took a look at all the unit rosters using the play battle mode. It looked at first like France has a lot of unique units, then I compared their roster to Britain's, and it seems like CA just gave them their French names in the English version to sound "different".

I'm still deciding which faction I want to start as. United Provinces looks like they have a nice starting position but I don't think there's another faction with a more vanilla roster. I might just start with Road to Independence to get used to this period's tactics.

Oh, and I didn't know the U.S. would only be playable on the RTI campaign. That's more historically accurate, though.

Great Britain has the most unique units I think, especially if you have Special Forces. Other than that the Maratha have some interesting units like Elephant General's bodyguard.