Interesting Activision Statement

[CBR]

Could we get a list of combat/terrain/fatigue modifiers like we had for MTW?


CBR

[The_Emperor]

Don't panic!

Your troops will definitely get tired and then exhausted in battle. They may keep going a little longer if they're winning or feeling particularly enthused, but they are definitely not 'Duracell bunnies'. OK?

Thats a releif, given i don't have the game yet I can only go by what I have seen in the demo... So I am understandably anxious about what I will read.

And do us a favor guys, the next Total War title you make... Get Activision to release it in a better way! I could get a batch of RTW CDs imported from the states in the time it takes to wait for this release to hit the UK.

C'mon its not like you need to translate the game or anything!

[econ21]

Could we get a list of combat/terrain/fatigue modifiers like we had for MTW?
CBR

I would second that. I've just got the Strategy Guide and assumed that it would have this information, as it did for STW and MTW. However, it only has some qualitative pointers, not the numerical information available for the previous TW games.

From the qualitative information, I would say, however, that a working assumption that everything was the same as STW and MTW would not be too far wrong. One thing I did not spot was anything about rank advantages.

There do appear to be a few new things:
- missiles are particularly effective against cavalry
- javelins (on loose and skirmish) are recommended vs elephants;
- woods make all units not trained for them suffer (esp. those in formation like legions and phalanx);
- the phalanx formation is said to best anything other than another phalanx in a head-to-head melee.

[GilJaysmith]

Can we ask everyone who reads this thread to help us stamp on this little bit of misinformation anywhere else it crops up? Chances are it's already been repeated as lore in another thread.

Ta.

[Encaitar]

I think people are misinterpretting that answer. It doesn't say "the combat advantage from terrain has been reduced". What it says is that "the terrain's fatigue impact on troops was reduced". i.e. Walking up hills and mountains doesn't exhaust your troops as quickly as it did in M:TW.

[Kraxis]

Exactly Encaitar.

I think CA needs to send a message to Activision so that they make the statement more specific so we won't ge any more misunderstandings.

And Gil, I'm on it.

[Osbot]

I've been playing probably pretty much non-stop since Saturday afternoon. Your troops do fatigue, they fatigue faster going up hills trudging through snow etc. The difference is, as in the real world. When you are at the top of your game, you know a cornflake-eating-out-of-someone-elses-hollowed-out-skull-Germanic-barbarian-warrior-studmuffin. You have a quick recovery time. So while you may be breathing hard by the time you get into position, it will only take a short breather untill you're "warmed up" again.

[Hamburglar]

Personally if this is the case I find it an improvement. Sometimes guys got tired a bit too easily in MTW.


My problem in RTW is that my Marian units get exhausted way too easily.


During a siege on small town my Praetorians and Legionnaries got Tired just from walking from my deployment zone into the gate. Flat ground and good weather... The Marian troops seem to get constantly exhausted all the time and I find them kind of useless. I've even had a few battles where some of them STARTED OUT exhausted. They weren't reinforcements or anything so I don't know if it was a bug or what.

[Puzz3D]

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Question to Activision customer support: In Medieval and Vikings, fatigue played a big part of my battle tactic and when I had an army on an incline I knew I had the advantage. How come being on an incline in Rome: Total War does not seem to give me an advantage?

Answer by Activision customer support: The terrain in Rome: Total War does still give some advantage, however its fatigue impact on troops was reduced to make the game more accessible to the new users.
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Captain Fishpants and GilJaysmith have said that this answer is incorrect, but the fatigue impact of moving may in fact be less because the running speeds have been increased. That will effectively reduce the amount of fatigue because it takes you less time to move between two points even if the fatigue rate hasn't been changed from MTW. There were lots of complaints about fatigue being excessive in MTW on the largest maps so maybe a reduced effect would work out well, but the faster running speeds makes it harder to control multiple units.

Right now in RTW I can only effectively control 2 or 3 units at a time because the enemy can close with you so fast. RTW seems to have a much stronger rock, paper, scissors gameplay and when you combine that with the faster speed of movement it means supporting units have to stay very close. For instance, skirmishers cannot advance without supporting spearmen very close to them. I was in the Prologue tutorial and took a skirmisher and spear unit and advanced. I was concentrating all my attention on only those two units. My skirmisher was less than 30 meters in front of the supporting spear unit. An enemy cav unit came charging into my field of view from the right, and decimated the skirmisher before my spearmen could close the distance. I would estimate the cav were 100 meters away when I saw them coming. I ordered the spears forward immediately, but it was too late to save the skirmisher. The spears did engage and defeat the cav after the skirmisher was killed. My tactical adjustment to this in the future will be to keep a spearman immediately behind within 10 meters of each skirmisher.

[Spino]

I think the new fatigue model is a huge improvement over the previous Total War games. In Medieval my troops would get fatigued much too quickly, especially on desert maps where my entire army would become exhausted simply from marching from one edge of the map to the other!