Cavalry way overpowered

[TheDuck]

You said it brother. I have not fought a single batte -ok, three or four- that last more than a minute once the main forces are engaged. Its like your watching an auto-resolved battle in real-time. I realized people have different playing styles and expectations, but the combat system needs a lot of work.

Infantry speeds seem fine.
Infantry running speeds seem fast.
Ranged units running speed is insane.
I like the cavalry, but agree with the "school of fish" theory. An initial charge on the flank or rear should be devastating, but is too easy to do.
The combat speed/killing has got to be reduced.

Interesting, I've done a lot of custom battles to figure out how things compare in 1v1 slug fests as well as realistic matchups. I find it all depends on how you use your units and the experience level of the AI. Higher exp. higher armor is much tougher, and just head to head typically routing happens much much later.

If you are complaining about it being too easy to flank them, you might have a point, in ancient warfare a successful flank could easily route an entire line due to the lack of an infantry unit's ability to quickly change direction (with the exception of the Romans) (I believe this ability is called 'infantry articulation', but my memory is failing me and I'm not looking at one of my many books on Roman military history). The AI does not properly protect its flanks.. and that is bad bad bad.

That said, if you leave gaps in your front line the AI will mercilessly exploit them (unlike MTW AI), I learned that the hard way the first night playing. Now its 'nice neat lines of hastati' backed by velites and covered by equites/triarii on the wings.

I don't particulary have a complaint against the game at all.. I find it fun and challenging. I'm not an MP player, so that is coloring my judgement.. but I find the difficulties of building + defense and cost of those defense units challenging.. and 1:1 battles vs. factions other than the gauls are not a pushover with affordable units. The gauls are realistically weak in comparison to Roman units. More as I get more experience (First Gaul, then Germania!)

And note.. I'm a big fan of MTW also.. and I agree with some of the responses on that also.. To have 300 soldiers surrounding the general and have him not drop in a few seconds was a little odd to me.. but that not withstanding I adore that game (and have never uninstalled it).

Games have quirks.. they are games after all. And balancing a game for MP is something that ties the best of companies up in knots (Warcraft 3 and Starcraft have gone through extensive cycles that lasted years). Creative Assembly strikes me as a company that cares, so if there are MP problems I'm sure they will be addressed.

Veni Vidi Vici!