Has the ETW horse bolted

[Yun Dog]

I know alot of guys are excited about the new patches and DLC, and are getting back into the game.

I thought about playing again and then realized I couldnt be bothered starting another long tedious campaign that I would get bored of and not finished.

Im bored with empires

Im bored with fighting 1000's of battles that have little or no context

Im bored with the predictable moves of my AI opponent

Im bored with the sameness and clonelike armies of all the nations - playing one nation feels the same as playing any other.

What about you - is your interest in playing ETW reinvigorated or are the patches etc too little too late and trying to play ETW is like flogging a dead horse?

[pevergreen]

Happens with R:TW, Happens with M2:TW. Happens with every game.

Play a different one for a while.

[Yun Dog]

thing is I havent BEEN playing it for a long while

I recently went back to finish grinding through the last 10 turns of my Prussian Campaign

now Im like start a new Campaign - why

[Quickening]

My whole experience with ETW angered me so much that it actually made me hate the game but the praise for this new patch was so great around here I just had to give it a try. I must say I'm not disappointed.

[Krauser]

The patches have helped a lot, but I still find a lot of the battles to be boring. The AI just barricades its units inside the buildings. There is no strategy to the battles because you don't get any choice on how to control the battle. Just right click with your troops or artillery and wait until the victory screen pops up. Sure, the AI doesn't put all their units in buildings but half or more of their army.

[Slaists]

thing is I havent BEEN playing it for a long while

I recently went back to finish grinding through the last 10 turns of my Prussian Campaign

now Im like start a new Campaign - why

Try one of the major mods. Imperial Splendor will give you a completely different feel about the game. You'll also get more unit variety and differentiation across nations.

[Fisherking]

Ladies & Gentlemen,

If you are so bold as to start on H or VH in this version of the game be aware that the CAI is going to be very mean. There is little reasoning with the factions, you can get peace but it is not simple.

If the level of aggression is too much for you try the game on an easier setting until you can cope with what they are throwing at you.

I know in the past everyone played on VH/VH but this is a different beast. Even on the easier settings you should not expect for everything to be easy. You will likely not get protectorates for pocket change. You will not get France to hand over all its North American possessions if you offer to give them Paris back. You will have to kill off the Pirates before you are safe in any trade theater. You will need a good fleet to protect your merchantmen, and so on.

The BAI is improved, not perfect but improved. The AI is back to attacking from two sides at once with reinforcements. It set it up that way. Everything seems improved to some degree.

They have given you what you asked for and it seems stable but has still a few glitches in places with menus and whatnot.

It seems to be a challenge at what ever level you chose and it is a different sort of game at each difficulty level.

There are a few things that happen too regularly. For instance, the Iroquois will go to war with the 13 Colonies on the first turn. The UP will declare war on Spain each time, and a few others.

The old guides won’t do you much good in this version and I have not seen any faction that is a cake walk.

[Quickening]

Too right, I got destroyed on VH/VH as GB in this latest patch where as previously it was quite easy.

[nafod]

Yep bolted 2 months ago.

[Sheogorath]

Mods, guys. Mods are where it's at. I suggest Imperial Splendour. I'm having a blast. They make every faction unique and different, requiring at least marginal changes to play style between culturally similar factions (The UK, France) and major changes in tactics between different ones (Austria and the Ottoman Empire).

It's what ETW really should have been.

[Northnovas]

Well after 1.3 and finishing the RTI and reading the boards I stopped. When I saw what was happening I didn't even get to try 1.4 when 1.5 was out. Its got me playing I picked up an Austrian Campaign. The seiges are off still with some AI moves on the battlefield but the campaign was going well.

I was not seeing the DoW I was entering diplomacy the Ottomans were becoming friendly and the war with the Venice and Genoa stayed within our theatre no one else joined and the neighbours to the north are fighting each other. There was even decent land invasions by the Venetians to retake Rome.

I went up to 1717 and was enjoying myself. There are quirks but it was keping me entertained and that's why I bought the game. I just wish it didn't take so long.

I thinking modding is the way to improve the game to different people's taste because there only so much CA will do. I haven't tried any mods yet but I think if they are stable with 1.5 I may go that route like MTW 2.

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Well, sorta bolted. It's hard to still love ETW, after all the disappointment.
The latest patches actually did a lot to help it on it's way, but it still is a long road to go, and I'm getting kind of jaded. Basically, the longer it takes, the less impressed I'm getting even if it were quite good.

[Grombeard]

Well, sorta bolted. It's hard to still love ETW, after all the disappointment.
The latest patches actually did a lot to help it on it's way, but it still is a long road to go, and I'm getting kind of jaded. Basically, the longer it takes, the less impressed I'm getting even if it were quite good.

Same here.

Actually, after patch 1.4 Empire is playable and some kind of fun. But after waiting for over half a year to get to that point, i just cannot really get up and say "okay, let's forget about the past". I tried and i started a new campaign, but that only showed that there is still much work to do, especially on the AI part. Okay, Rome and Medieval 2 weren't perfect too, but at least they were fun. In Empire, the battles play all the same. You don't get many different units, even the enemy has almost the same units like you most of the time. And then it's just shoot and flank and repeat until you surround the enemy and he routs. I lost more battles in Medieval 2, or at least the battles were more challenging when the enemy outnumbers you. Now i haven't had big problems against enemy armies double the size of my army, and thats on hard difficulty... :(
Then diplomacy still isn't that good as it should be. It weren't in medieval 2 vanilla (with Lusteds CAI it is!), but it didn't matter that much. In Empire diplomacy is more important, still it works the way it did in medieval 2. Because of the town system it greatly hurts my economy if i'm at war with all my neighbors who then come pillaging all over my lands. And with the biiig importance of trade, it makes it even more difficult, since everyone who hates me comes raiding my traderoutes and i simply cannot afford a navy that big to secure all my routes. In M2TW, being at war with half the world just wasn't that much of a problem. :(

It's these points, the "history" of empire after release and some more things that somehow keep me from loving this game, even if it has great potential and isn't all that bad after 1.4.

[caravel]

Im bored with fighting 1000's of battles that have little or no context

This is a consequence of the campaign map style that was first introduced in RTW - it's unavoidable in the current model.

[loony]

bolted. I tried 2 new campaigns.
1. i lost as sweden due to unprovoked and unreasonable agression from Britain invading my homelands. interesting, however, completely sensless move as I was friendly with Britain and we had common enemies.
2. as Austria I keep defeating stack after stack of Polish, Ottoman and Prussian armies. I captured capital of Prussia and was besieging Warsaw. Ottomans lost 2 regions and I cannot get peace with either even giving away all my war gains...

I think I will give it a try later, not sure when I am able to forget the frustration, especially regarding the second campaign.

[Xipe Totec]

I'm not quite as obsessed with ETW as I used to be with RTW, but I think that's because there are some other good games around these days. At the moment for the first time in years I spend less time on Total War than a certain game involving shooting mutants with a leaf blower.

But it's still brilliant! A bit repetitive maybe when you play for hours every day for months on end. Big surprise. Every tweak and tinker changes things sometimes in ways you like and sometimes irritates the bejasus out of one (errm chainshot ubersloops sinking 3rd rates with ease?).

It's hard to please all of the people all of the time, and it's damn hard for every campaign to satisfy all your desires and expectations. Other nations won't just sit still and wait for you to take over the world with impunity. For me it's a race for technology and a strong economy so you can afford to mount the unstoppable offensives your small nation dreams of. Your neighbours should try and stop you if they think they have an advantage, which they do have at the outset. Over time the better management skills of a human will lead to victory, unless they overwhelm you before you are too strong, or attack your weak flank whilst you are occupied elsewhere. Yeah its a pain in the boom when an annoying upstart minor nation DOWs unexpectedly but no-one said taking over the world was supposed to be easy.

All told the game has many superb features not found in any other. What annoyed me most was when legions of small armies kept invading to burn farms etc. which could have united and taken the whole province instead. 'Taking whole' as Sun Tzu said. That lead to numerous tedious one-sided skirmishes which did get boring. Like the annoying spawning rebels in RTW. After 1.5 I have not seen that yet so I live in hope that is a thing of the past.

I recommend giving it another chance. Do a bit of whispering if necessary, or give it a lump of sugar. But if you try to ride it for 12 hours every day the poor thing will get a bit tired.