Is it just me, or are the SP tactical battles in this game so like the opening one in Gladiator?
First, you array your defending army on a hill in nice neat order, like the Romans under Maximus.
Then you see a great mass of AI units moving ominously towards you.
You send your cavalry or other flankers off to the side, ideally concealed in the woods so as to surprise the enemy.
As the enemy starts to come in to range, you tell your catapults to unleash hell and they pound down on the advancing hordes. To experience the real exhilaration and horror of battle, you follow the projectiles as they smash down into the enemy ranks.
Then your archers open up, arrows whistle and darken the sky. The enemy being to drop, but still moves inexorably. The music kicks in, as does the adrenaline rush.
Then as the enemy come within an inch of your line, you hurl your serried ranks of spearmen in at the charge.
You wait for the moment and then when the time is right send your flanking heavy cavalry crashing into the side.If the heavy cavalry includes your leader, you keep up the charge, watching anxiously as he fights like a devil, praying that he does not fall.
The battle descends into carnage, as units intermingle and both sides lose significant numbers. Against a good AI leader, the enemy fight bravely and the dead litter the ground like leaves. Finally they break, and then the real slaughter begins. At the end, your troops are ragged, bloodied, depleted and exhausted.
The opening battle of Gladiator may be a dubious representation of history but it seems a great depiction of a typical MTW encounter
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