Questions about the difficulty for newbs.

[RaptiCon]

Hi again.

Well, as I have said I'm am not a strategy-patriot. I've mostly played adventure games and first/third person shooters. So when I first startet playing Total War (Started with Rome, but went over to Medieval so I can get a better foundation about how the Total War games work) I was amazed over how real-like this game is. I said to myself that I owe the game that I play it, but it's not easy. I've only been playing for 1 day you know. So here's my question, is it normal that newbies find this game difficult and maybe complicated at first or am I stupid ? It would really help if it is normal to find this game hard to learn, because I really want to be a good gamer in the Total War-series.

[MonkeyMan]

Hi Rapticon

Yes it is absolutly normal to find a totalwar game daunting at first and take a few days to master the basics. That however is exactly what people love so much about the games, it will take even a hardcore player, playing every day a few months to really experience all there is to see in the a game and master everything thats going on. I was playing MTW on and off for 2-3 years and still enjoyed a game every now and again, I expect the same to be the case with RTW. Its exactly this complexity that while making the game initially hard to grasp be such a huge, long lasting and enjoyble challenge.

I do recommend you persevere and you will be rewarded with one of the best and most latsing gaming experiences you can have. Make sure you check out the 'guides' forum sections to help you to learn to play the games. Have fun

[Lemur]

Yes, the games are hard, but rarely needlessly so. One of the things I admire about the Total War design is how the developers seem to make every effort to avoid introducing pointless complexity.

Given the amazing under-documentation of these complex simulations, I'd recommend that you follow a basic rule: if it doesn't make sense in real life/history then it won't make sense in the game. Examples:

Leaving a province without a garrison immediately after you conquer it
Charging horses directly into massed spears
Running heavily armored troops all over the desert
Pushing an army way the hell into enemy territory without a line of retreat or supply

These are all nwhoo-bie mistakes that I made in my time. I'm probably forgetting a few hundred that I learned the hard way. In general, I found that following a line of reasoning based on good, solid history made the game much easier. Unlike a lot of strategy games, there's not a lot of un-intuitive, counter-rational elements. Except maybe the naval stuff. Anything involving boats is kind of wack.

[RaptiCon]

Ok that's nice to hear ! Now I can enjoy the game even more knowing that I'm not a total moran . And about guides, I've just finnished reading frogbeastegg's 44 page guide (A Beginners Guide to Medieval: Total War), I don't memorize everything, but it's good to have as a backup when it's something I need to have answered further on in the game.

[RaptiCon]

hehe Lemurmania.. I found out some usefull stuff in the guide I just finnished with. I managaed to think out the cavalary vs. spearman rule myself actually, pretty proud ~:P. I've seen Braveheart so many times, and every time I laugh when the English man storm into the Scottish spears, brilliant

[Papewaio]

There is a paper-scissor-stone like attribute to the way units work in Totalwar.

So once you figure out which combination of units you like to use and there strengths and weaknesses you should be fine.

First Battle is with the treasury.

Second Battle is with the spouse... or is that the other way round?

[Lemur]

I've seen Braveheart so many times, and every time I laugh when the English man storm into the Scottish spears, brilliant

Hey, if you think that's funny, read up on how the battle for Stirling Bridge actually went down. It's even funnier. Too bad they didn't have the budget to film it, eh?

Maybe Gibson can pull a George Lucas and insert the real Stirling Bridge in a Special Edition next decade.

[HardcoreMorphine]

I too am struggling, this is my first Total war game and i played the single player mode for about a week before i went online to play, i soon realised that i was completely out of my league even on newbie only games so i've tried the first historical battle offline, but i just get slaughtered i cannot seem to control all the units and they all end up routing and all over the place like a christmas eve in Oxford Street !!! I must admit i am a bit despondent at the moment, but will continue to battle on so to speak !! but any help and i'm all ears.....

Many Thanks

Mark

[Lemur]

Here's a succinct version of the battle of Stirling Bridge. The screenwriter for Braveheart has admitted that he knew he was writing bad history, but felt there was no way they'd have the budget to film a crazy bridge battle.

Anyway, here's the short version.

[Blodrast]

well, first of all, MP is quite a lot different from SP. MP suffers from various...issues that have to do with balance and most profitable units. You can find a lot of details in the MP forums, but basically being very good in SP doesn't count for much in MP. However, given a bit of time, you'll catch on, don't worry. Everybody is a newbie in the beginning, nothing wrong with it.
As far as the SP game goes, yes, it takes a bit of time for everything to sink in, and I recommend you re-read FBE's guides after playing for a while. I am pretty sure you'll see things and understand them in a different light once you've actually passed by the initial stage where everything goes out of control and half your units are routing and you forget which keys to press and what they do... ;)

but cheer up, we've all been there (*cough* some of us still are *cough*), nothing to worry about. Give it a little time, and you'll get the hang of it, and you'll love it!

[Spuddicus]

but cheer up, we've all been there (*cough* some of us still are *cough*), nothing to worry about.

yeah ... I've been befuddled ever since trying to figure out whether or not to convert to Christianity and loose my Warrior Monks.