First impressions thread

**GeneralHankerchief** · 03-15-2011, 21:48

After about an hour of gameplay, I quite like it. Easily the most beautiful game I've ever played. My laptop can run it pretty well, as long as things aren't on the highest settings, and so far the campaign seems fine. My only gripe is that the battles go far too fast, and this is even coming from a guy whose introduction to the series was Rome. My archers are lucky if they can get three volleys off before I have to send them scurrying behind the lines.

All in all though, looking forward to my GPA steadily dropping over the rest of the semester as I keep diving into the game.

**knoddy** · 03-16-2011, 00:18

well off to a good start when i went to pickup my game today. the fire alarm was going off at the shopping center so i cudnt get in and pickup my game!!!! the gaming gods were hating me this morning :P got it eventaully tho and really enjoying it :D

Played a little bit in my Date campaign, really liking it so far. on hard difficulty i smashed the rebels and took a province from my nearbye enemies. the battle AI does seem improved. i tried to lure the rebel general into charging my yari spears in spearwall but at teh last minute they veered off and smashed my other unit of yari in the back :S my suprieror swordsmen won the day tho.

i do feel the battle was over quickly but it was quite a mismatch with rebel yari vs katana samurai. the second battle i fought was a seige and again pitted yari vs katana, but the unit of retainer samurai put up quite a fight despite being severly outnumbered.

im enjoying the campaign i like the fact that u have a limited number of buildings per town. this makes u choose wether to have towns be troop builders, or econimic/agent builders. similar to empire but better design.

really pleased so far!

**Doug-Thompson** · 03-16-2011, 01:01

My first impression? That it's rather frustrating to go through a quite long installation only to be told that Steam is updating the game I just installed -- and taking it's sweet time doing it.

**ByzantineKnight** · 03-16-2011, 01:09

It took me forever to get my copy as well. But here's my initial impressions.

I was very unimpressed with the AI in smaller battles (my first 3 or so were fought with a few units of Yari Ashigaru, an archer, and a cavalry unit on each side. During all three battles I managed to lure their general from behind his lines with my flanking cavalry and as soon as he started charging I beat a hasty retreat behind my lines where I was able to swamp him with spearmen before he could get away. Suicidal generals appear to be back.

A few hours later I was quite impressed with a large battle in a mostly forested area where the AI managed to pull some stealthy attacks to weak points in my line. I managed to drive them off but just barely and my archers were a little worse for the wear.

Multiplayer was fun though. I managed to get a few games in before real life took me away from my bliss. So far everyone seems quite friendly and it looks like this will be quite an enjoyable experience for at least several months to come!

As for the campaign itself, once I installed it on my desktop (my laptop's graphics card is awful) I was quite impressed with the atmosphere, simplicity and beauty of the game. Hands down, the best preorder I've ever made.

**knoddy** · 03-16-2011, 01:21

updates! load times are epicly long lol might just be my crappy pc
- for some reason the auto detect for graphics settings (if there is one) put everything on ultra which suprisingly my core duo can handle BUT it was choppy as hell so i put everything back to high and battles run much smoother.
- sieges are fun and can be quite hard to defend. the ai splits its troops and attacks from multiple sides
- im really liking the customisation of generals, towns and agents. quite cool!

question - to put a general in charge of a fleet do u just put him on the ships as if for transport? and he automatically takes charge?

**sassbarman** · 03-16-2011, 01:52

Yup it's hard. I'm playing on lengendary difficulty and have just lost my first campaign in eons in 12 turns. A bit of advise if I may BUILD UP BEFORE ATTACKING ANYONE!

**antisocialmunky** · 03-16-2011, 02:12

First TW in a long time to actually earn its score. (That wasn't an expo)

**Krusader** · 03-16-2011, 02:27

Enjoyed it. Pre-ordered Limited Edition so no encryption/pre-loading thingy for me. Quite enjoyed it so far. AI seems better, but need some more battles under my belt before a final verdict can be given.
Tried as Shimazu clan and got my ass handed to me, when the clan I beat up sought allies and got them. Still, played a few battles and it seems to me CA have reintroduced things from older TW titles, like pre-battle speeches. I also enjoyed the hell out of seeing the terrain resemble the campaign map area and the campaign map itself is beautiful and love the artistic style. Much more atmospheric game than previous titles and IMO only RTW and older TW games can compare with atmosphere.

Naval battles were boring though. Think those will get autoresolved.
Scored 3 achievements, 2 in one go even.

Although encountered a CTD doing beginner's naval tutorial, which never is fun.

**Doug-Thompson** · 03-16-2011, 02:25

Originally Posted by knoddy

updates! load times are epicly long lol might just be my crappy pc

Oh no. I have a fine PC and good internet connection. My hardware is well beyond the recommended requirements. I started updating, went to the grocery store, picked up some milk and peanut butter, then went to the pet store to get some pet food. Steam is telling me I'll be able to play in 3 hours and 58 minutes.

EDITED P.S. Oops. Pardon me. New development. Now it's saying 7 hours and 23 minutes. I guess I should be planning a good night's sleep, then getting a few minutes of play time before going to work in the morning. I should also mention that I bought the game on DISC. I'm not downloading from Steam. I'm just trying to activate it. And yes, I got the Limited Edition too.