The Daily Update at the Com

**johnhughthom** · 06-22-2009, 16:13

And we are go for the new patch.

**Monsieur Alphonse** · 06-22-2009, 16:17

Todays update from Mark

June 22nd:

Hi guys,

In addition to the 14 free units available in Update 1.3, we have today announced the Elite Units of the West DLC which is now available on Steam.

We can also now bring you the full fix list for Update 1.3 below.

Thanks,

Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Also:
Economic tweaks
re-balancing of units

**Forward Observer** · 06-22-2009, 16:27

I realize that it may be a whole new ball game after the patch, but I sometimes think that everybody who claims that the artillery is not effective is playing a different game than the one I have. For me, in mid to late game when large howitzers, mortars, and explosive ammo become available, I find that my artillery biased armies dominate every opponent army they come up against. I'm only playing on the normal difficulty level, so I realize that is a factor, but I still rarely lose even as much as 10% of my forces in any battle regardless of the odds--- and I owe it all to the fact that I field a lot of howitzers and mortars.

I think I may have discovered one of the factors that may be misleading people about their artillery results--- and that is the kill counts shown in the after battle stats. We all know, or at least I think most of us suspect, that the after battle stats sometimes have little resemblance to what we perceive to have happened in the battle.

I have been running some tests in the play battle component of the game--just to see how many artillery units I could put in an army and still have enough mêlée units to both protect them and defeat any forces the artillery did not eliminate.

I usually pick the late period, clear weather, an open battle field such as Caucasus, and the medium difficulty. I then use either a British or French army with the other nationality as the opponent. I also occasionally make both armies of the same nationality to level the playing field. When one does this their army will have a green band around their flag while the enemy's flag will be banded in red.

Anyhow, by fielding an army that was well over 50% artillery, I have consistently defeated the opposition with less than 10% friendly losses. My best score was only 3 men lost and that was from friendly fire. On the next difficulty level my losses usually climb to about 20%, but a win is still in the bag. In all my tests the enemy army reacts in one of two ways, which seem to be totally chance. Sometimes after getting lined up for a brief period they steadily advance and then other times they simply line up and stall in place. I have no idea why this happens, but obviously when they stall they get decimated long before they ever hit my lines.

However, in several tests, I noticed something else interesting. The battle results charts were simply not giving my artillery credit for anywhere near the kills they were getting. Fortunately, I saved one of these battles for replay, and went back to observe what happened. In this test, I played the French with the Brits as the opposition. My army consisted of:

1------General's unit
5----- 24 pdr howitzer units----set to percussion shells
3----- 4 inch mortars----set to percussion shells--I had funds to give one unit a single chevron
2------18 pdr horse guard--set to shrapnel
6----- standard line infantry units
0------cavalry
Total 924 men

I used the default composition for the British

1-------General unit
2-------life guards cavalry
2-------regiment of horse
2-------6 pdr light horse
2-------12 pdr foot
1-------grenadier---one experience chevron
5-------light infantry
5-------standard line infantry

Total 1236 men

I simply lined up my infantry, lined up my indirect fire guns behind them, and put each of the direct fire cannons between two infantry units on each end of the front line. I probably didn't even need a General's unit, but I include them since it alway seems that enemy armies tend to head for this unit.

Well, for some reason in this test the British simply stalled outside my howitzer range, and just stood there as my 12 mortars took their toll. The enemy artillery was eliminated first and never got set up in range to fire a single round. I saw a total of only 6 men route off the field. From that point on, I directed the fire as best I could trying to inflict damage on every unit. When a unit would hit somewhere between 70 and 80% in losses they would route off the field.

Finally when there was nothing left but about 50 men each of two line units, maybe 40 men each of four light infantry, 40 grenadiers, and 12 men in the general's guard, the enemy advanced towards me. When they got in howitzer range it was all over with. They all took an additional hits, and routed off the field.

As best as I could account for in total, only about 270 enemy troops routed off the field. Since my infantry never fired a shot, the artillery had to account for all kills, which would be 966 total. I also played the battle out until the end, but the final stats only gave my mortars and howitzers credit for 367 kills but said the enemy army lost 1100 men. The kill count for my arty is a little over a third of what I actually witnessed them destroying. I lost 4 men when I sent my General's unit after some routers, and forgot to stop my mortars from firing.

The bottom line is that your artillery may be doing a lot better than you think, because either the battle stats screen is bugged or it simply performs some sort of auto-calculation after the battle that only tries to approximate what actually happened--or maybe even somehow tries to seperate KIA's from MIA's.

**crpcarrot** · 06-22-2009, 17:03

i agree with forward observer with a little exp arty is really powerful and can decimate armies befre they ever reach me. if arty is buffed up any more that they are alreeady this game becomes way too easy.

**AussieGiant** · 06-22-2009, 16:40

I don't mean to be rude, but that #$3$^ing list is ridiculous.

Perhaps SEGA executives need to do a bit more home work before forcing a product like this out the door, because I'm totally positive CA did not recommend it.

Apart from that...pretty impressive list.

I'm interested to see the performance increases they have committed to.

-EDIT-

Given the information above from our resident Artillery expert I'd say CA are heading in the right direction then. That type of warfare is wholey inaccurate.

**Servius** · 06-22-2009, 17:15

I only bother with artillery after howiters and at least one of it's special ammo types becomes available, as I've found that the rocket-looking shells tend (or at least tended) to be far more accurate than round shot. When I deploy them, I've found that having 2 units is utterly useless and 4 units is pathetically useful. I never look at the after-action reports. I put my cursor over the enemy units during the battle and see how many casualties they take while being bombarded. I fight on Hard campaign and Normal battle.

You might see different results because of the shear number of arty units. If you're over 50% arty, I'm guessing that means 11+ arty units. With 33+ howitzers, maybe they become effective, especially if they do far more morale damage than physical damage.

One thing that concerns me with that strategy is that it seems like you'd get a lot more routing enemy units, which means more enemy units will still be alive at the end of the fight, which means the army will flee and start pillaginig your towns on the camp map. I hate chasing down remnant armies on the camp map, so I always go heavy on the infantry and encircle the AI forces so nothing escapes.

My standard 20-unit stack breaks down like this...

2 Generals
12 Infantry (10 Line + 2 Gren or just 12 Line)
4-6 Cav (usually Dragoons)
0-2 Howitzers

The patch just downloaded, so I'm going to go start up a new campaign!

**Prodigal** · 06-22-2009, 18:02

Well...started a new game with the patch installed, the pirates are destroying all my trade fleets, which I guess is good, and I'm being attacked by pretty much everyone

(feel a new thread "this game's too hard" coming on).

**anweRU** · 06-22-2009, 18:19

Originally Posted by Prodigal

Well...started a new game with the patch installed, the pirates are destroying all my trade fleets, which I guess is good, and I'm being attacked by pretty much everyone

(feel a new thread "this game's too hard" coming on).

Are they attacking the ships in the trade spots, or ships en route?

**Forward Observer** · 06-22-2009, 19:33

Well, I went back and tried that last scenario again after the patch was applied. The first thing I noticed was that after setting my army I had about 550 extra in currency left, so they must have reduced the prices of units slightly over all. Hopefully that will lessen some of the economic challenges brought on by the last patch a bit. Personally I think they over did the cost increases the last time.

Anyway, the battle played out quite differently.

First of all, the mortars did not easily take out the enemy artillery like before even though several rounds appeared to have hit with in a few feet. This must have to do with the increase in hit points for the artillery train mentioned in the patch data.

Next. the enemy did not stall but spent a short while getting in battle formation and then steadily marched across the battlefield to my lines. Still, I could tell they appeared to be moving a bit slower, which actually looked more realistic.

Also, the light infantry of the enemy deployed differently. Before they always went into the spread out mode where they would constantly appear and disappear. This time they simply stayed in close formation and then oddly planted stakes at strange angles on the battlefield when they got in within shooting range of my lines.

Of course a lot more troops reached my lines for volley exchanges. Also a few of the cavalry charged one of my exposed direct fire artillery units, but the first got decimated by canister and small arms fire. The second unit that charged managed to run off the horses and limbers before it lost it steam, but most of my gunners survived to be able to re-man the guns.

I also had to go into mêlée with the remnants of the infantry and concentrate my mortar fire on the two opposing artillery units that managed to set up in range of my lines. All in all it was a tougher battle, but I still won---only this time I lost 267 men to the enemy's 1100. Also this time my infantry got most of the credit in the stats report although I think once again some of the artillery did not get credit for its contribution.

When one thinks about it this battle may have played out more realistically, but I am sure going to miss my previous uber-artillery scores.

Cheers

**Hosakawa Tito** · 06-22-2009, 21:11

Originally Posted by anweRU

Are they attacking the ships in the trade spots, or ships en route?

Yes they are. No more "home free" once your trade ships are on the trade spot.

**FactionHeir** · 06-22-2009, 18:05

Arty dont get credit for carcass/quicklime unless its direct impact. The clouds don't count as kills for arty and consequently units don't display concerned under artillery fire messages either.