What has been fixed, and what should be? Many questions...

[Salazar]

Well, from what i've read i would say that screaming Women etc. are quite ok, but i dont have the Game yet so i dont really know it yet.

When it comes to Cavalry: Yup Roman Cavalry was compared to almost everything else, but imho that didnt come because of the Lack of Stirrups but much more from Roman Military Doctrine takting Cavalry only in Account as Scouts and harassing Troops but at not as the Shock Troops they could have been. So in fact everybode (except maybe the Greek City States) had much better Cavalry then the Romans.

The Siege Towers, well i think these huge things were used in one or two Sieges but not so often, so what? They were used they are historically correct and as long as they're quite expensive they're ok.

[zentuit]

Killing speed mod has been released. Thread is located here: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=36883

[Ulstan]

"Do the units of dogs have human commanders, who show them the general direction of the ennemy and decide when to set them loose?"

Yes. It's pretty cool.

"Once they attack, can they, unrealistically, still be controlled?"

I don't believe so. The handlers set them lose, and then run back to your lines while the dogs run off and chew on things (ineptly if they are attacking armored wearing troops). Any further orders to the dog unit only applies to the handlers as far as I can tell.

[camulos]

I don't believe so. The handlers set them lose, and then run back to your lines while the dogs run off and chew on things (ineptly if they are attacking armored wearing troops). Any further orders to the dog unit only applies to the handlers as far as I can tell.

This is true but I would like to add an important note. Once the dogs are set loose you should protect the handlers. After the battle is over the dogs will be regenerated giving you a full unit again as long as the handlers are still alive.

From what i can tell there are 12 handlers who can handle 4 dogs each. The unit strength is determined by the number of handlers rather than dogs. So 12 handlers = 48, 11 = 44, etc. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong..

[Red Harvest]

I think a lot of the problems can be modded. The game speed is very high because of the kill rate. I've not yet tried the mod for that but it promises to fix the biggest problems. With that and the timer removed (via mod or a trick that someone has discovered) it should start to make more sense. I think that will give back the feel of watching a battle vs. watching a movie on 4x speed.

The strategic AI is better/more interesting although some flaws are apparent.

Ship battles have improved a lot, but there are problems, especially with few outright sinkings in major engagements. Moving armies by sea is good though. On high settings at least, if you attack with a much larger naval force you still tend to take disproportionate casualties. If you get into a naval war you can spend every dime just repairing your fleet and still lose ground. The ship strategic AI is weak. They don't exploit naval superiority to blockade ports.

The strategic AI is bad about sending a trickle of attackers at you rather than large forces. This makes for a lot of "trash" battles that must be fought. (If you try to use autocalc on high settings you get hammered pretty badly, and the enemy force is not usually destroyed, just beaten.)

The AI really likes bribing armies and family members! This is a real threat, deploy agents in your cities to reduce the chances of success of this AI tactic (I learned this the hard way.)

City sieges are cool. The map and road approach is great. You will spend a lot of time trying to manage your cities. Squalor is a problem that none of us have found a full answer for yet.

The mercenary system is much improved. You probably won't see as many of them, but you can upgrade their armour/weapons (but not train recruits to fill), and you can *merge* like units--so you don't have to throw away partial units after they have been through a tough fight.

The new engine heavily favours charges. This is a bit of a problem with the rapid kills and movement. You can't issue a general charge well (without hitting pause and doing it.)

Diplomacy is more interesting and useful with trade agreements being very hard. However, on "very hard" I still can't get alliances that should be "no-brainers" (like offering an alliance to a faction that is also at war with my enemies.)

[Red Harvest]

I forgot to mention that the "suicidal daimyo" is still present. The AI will do it with friendly reinforcement armies if they are led by family members.

Javelins seem to have improved a bit in their role, although they still take quite a bit of management.

Friendly fire is overdone. Men in the same unit will shoot each other. (This happened some in STW.) If you leave fire at will on they will kill a bunch of your other units in melee. If you turn fire at will off to stop this, you must issue a "halt" command as well, or they keep on merrily shooting everyone.

[camulos]

I forgot to mention that the "suicidal daimyo" is still present. The AI will do it with friendly reinforcement armies if they are led by family members..

This is extremely annoying which is why I try to have only 1 family member in a battle. Unfortunately this sometimes requires sending them off to a safe city or ship while the battle is taking place.

Javelins seem to have improved a bit in their role, although they still take quite a bit of management. .

I find that the "skirmish" setting for javelins doesnt work very well. I like using them to draw enemy cavalry away from the main force but this requires some babysitting to not get them slaughtered.

Friendly fire is overdone. Men in the same unit will shoot each other. (This happened some in STW.) If you leave fire at will on they will kill a bunch of your other units in melee. If you turn fire at will off to stop this, you must issue a "halt" command as well, or they keep on merrily shooting everyone.

Archers firing up a hill take a lot of friendly fire. The ones in the rear just shoot the others in the back. In MTW didn't the back rows not fire in this situation?

[Arakasi]

I find with multiple generals that I just keep them all in the primary army. Then they just stay there. Although I really have not fought any battles with over 20 units so I haven't had to combine armies like that yet. If I do I'll likely transfer the generals into the main army that attacks.

Haven't noticed the suicidal daimyo problem yet. It seems the enemy throws the leader in once most everything else is committed. I almost always get the leader killed message in the last bit of the battle.

[desdichado]

have seen anyone mention this but skirmishing units actually skirmish - they run from the enemy back to your lines and then move back and shoot when threat is gone - you still have to watch enemy light cav but is a vast imrpovement over mtw where you had to micromanage them to the point of distraction.

I fought a battle against an inferior enemy and just shot them to bits - they had some light cav but not once did they catch my skirmishers and not for lack of trying. I just watched the whole time - I didn't have to order them to move anywhere. Kudos to CA for getting this right.