The Daily Update at the Com

[AussieGiant]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Cheetah]

Well, I went back and tried that last scenario again after the patch was applied. [...]

Anyway, the battle played out quite differently.

[...]

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

This all sounds very good. What you described in your previous post is the usual mortar-spam hill camping in MP. It worked well, and it was very popular/hated (see here: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=114387).

[Hosakawa Tito]

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.

[al Roumi]

yep! I've had to "re-calibrate" my UP starting strategy... fewer galleons though in the starting pirate fleets. phew!

[AussieGiant]

I'm getting absolutely pawned on the trade nodes. Pirates and other nations are trashing anything they can reasonably handle, either en route or on the trade nodes themselves.

I'm scrambling to introduce an escort system!!

[FactionHeir]

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.