crappy battle speeches

[MadKow]

I had a quite good General that was however not known for his personal bravery in combat, his speach starts along the lines of:

"Hmmm... huh... hello... I really didnt want to be here, but my mother said..." with lots of mumblings. Not very inspiring but quite funny

[Mori Gabriel Syme]

I had a speech unlike any other I've had before, possibly because due to a shortage of adult males in the Scipii family, I was using a general I would ordinarily have left sitting in a Sicilian city.

As his army stood to assault the city with 5:4 odds against the rival faction leader, he began his speech, "Many of you are probably wondering about tonight's entertainment." His encouragement consisted of assuring the men that the women in camp would suitably appreciative after the battle.

It must have worked because his army steamrolled over the rival army.

[Soulflame]

In my Greek Cities campaign I abandoned Syracuse almost completely. I left in a single unit of peasants so I could at least kill some of the Scipii and got a profit from the city a few turns more.
When the Scipii finally attacked, the leader of the peasants was appointed to give an inspiring speech. He ended his very short speech with "You will be victorious, this I pledge to you!". He must have missed the 650 Scipii outside the walls... .
They did end up killing 250 Scipii (they killed about 20 velites themselves, the rest was done by the walls). But when they had 50 men of the regiment left, they routed, the 'general' peasant too :p.

[crazyviking03]

I had one scipii general say "They may have the moon people on their side, but we have funny hats! And it will shield us from their gaze!" and the whol army errupts in a roar. I didnt know what to do, haha

[Doug-Thompson]

I had one scipii general say "They may have the moon people on their side, but we have funny hats! And it will shield us from their gaze!" and the whol army errupts in a roar. I didnt know what to do, haha

Please tell me you're making that up. I assume the leader had the "unhinged loon" vice.

[Sleepy]

Please tell me you're making that up.

Nope

I assume the leader had the "unhinged loon" vice.

I've had that speech from Marcus the Mad, later Mighty then even later the Cruel

[Despot of the English]

So far I have only played the Romans and I dislike their speeches. The Roman generals sound like WWF wrestlers and the Roman 'pieces' on the map sound like US marines on manoeuvres.

[GFX707]

Yeah I totally hate the stupid american accents. Hate hate hate.

[Axeknight]

My ubersuperninjamaster general (a 2-star I've farmed to a 9-star) has tedious speaker. It makes me laugh every time...

"Hello. Today we are here to do battle. I know most of you don't want to be here today, but, you know, sometimes life is like that. You have to do something you don't want to do, just because someone is telling you do it. I myself didn't want to be here, but my mother said I had to for show and all... So here we go."

[fastspawn]

is there a way to add one own's speeches into the mix?

[Captain Fishpants]

Thanks indeed for the kind words of praise.

The speech system, as you've worked out, uses a phrase bank tied into various aspects of the battle and the general's personality. It took a lot of work to make sure that the individual texts worked together, and keep the comments 'on message'. There are a few funny ones in there because I'm easily tempted into the dark ways of naughtiness... oh yes.

The length and components of a speech are dependent on the number of units present, btw, so for smaller battles you'll here a completely different set of opening remarks.

I had one speech in my current Brutii game which was so good it could have been written specially and intentionally for the battle I was about to fight. My famous hero of a general and his small army of hardened veterans against a Macedonian horde of at least 22 full units of light lancers and assorted phalanx troops. I had 11 units, mostly hastati, and it was obvious I was going to be massacred.

The speech lasted for a long time, about two minutes and every single word was so ... apt. My general broke out the old "Friends, Romans, countrymen" thing. He talked of how poor the omens were, but how brave men made their own destinies, and today was a day for great deeds. He accused the Macedonians of fearful cowardice for bringing fully half their army to face my men. He spoke of past victories, of home, of loved ones who they might not see again. Roman pride, and Roman arms, and Roman steel; and how a good death was worth more than a shameful life. Finally he finished on a note eerily familiar from the credits song, "And remember, the Roman Gods are watching - make sure they are not ashamed!"

That sold me on the speech aspect; I love it. It was so hard to believe that brilliant speech had been pieced together from singe lines of dialogue; it felt like someone had written it specially for this battle.

I wish I could have kept a replay of that battle, along with the speech. A salute: to my army, each and every man dead in honourable combat having taken at least one enemy down with each of them.

Today’s lesson: paved roads in enemy territory allow armies to spring up from what seems like nowhere. Use more than two spies to scout.

[Axeknight]

"Over there stand the Gauls. Mad, dangerous, and hairy beyond reason!"

The 'rousing speech' feature was truly a brilliant idea. I think its great when you get one general talking about the good omens in one battle, and then somewhere else you get "today we make our own destiny, and we are not ruled by the flight of some damned bird!"

[Spino]

I love the pre-battle speeches. It's one of the little things that makes RTW so fun to play.

My ubersuperninjamaster general (a 2-star I've farmed to a 9-star) has tedious speaker. It makes me laugh every time...

"Hello. Today we are here to do battle. I know most of you don't want to be here today, but, you know, sometimes life is like that. You have to do something you don't want to do, just because someone is telling you do it. I myself didn't want to be here, but my mother said I had to for show and all... So here we go."

That is one the BEST pre-battle speeches in the game. I also bust out laughing every time I hear it.

Yeah I totally hate the stupid american accents. Hate hate hate.

Oh please... The problem isn't the American accents it's the kind of voice actors they hired combined with the overall quality and feel of the voiceovers. The Romans spoke LATIN so an English speaking American accent is no worse than anything else. Most of the unit & general voices are simply way too cartoonish for me to take seriously. The voice actors they cast seem better suited doing goofy cartoon characters than men of action. Personally I think they should have hired classically trained voice actors with some serious presence. Who knows? Maybe the actors they hired were capable of doing the kind of voices we all wanted to hear but the Activision suits insisted on having them sound more like the voiceovers used in Command & Conquer and Warcraft III.

[Axeknight]

The general speech accents aren't too bad, its 'The day is ours!' and the agents/generals on the campaign map I'm not too fond of. I can live with it, though.

I tend to do Latin homework while playing RTW.

[GFX707]

Oh please... The problem isn't the American accents.

Wrong. The best way to ruin ANY historical game's atmosphere is to have americans do the voiceovers. See LOTR:ROTK with Viggo Mortensen doing the "Let the lord of the black gate come forth" in a quasi-Irish accent to see what I mean.

I'm sick of american accents where there shouldn't be american accents.

[Bob the Insane]

I had a very good speech when a settle was actually stormed by the Egyptians, explaining that the soldier where all that stood between the good people of the town and the evils that would befall them if the enemy won...

Very envocative...

I am also running a Germania campaign and a brillent general and faction leader, his speaches just got shorter as time went on, in they end it was practically "enemy over there, you kill!!"

[Spino]

Wrong. The best way to ruin ANY historical game's atmosphere is to have americans do the voiceovers. See LOTR:ROTK with Viggo Mortensen doing the "Let the lord of the black gate come forth" in a quasi-Irish accent to see what I mean.

I'm sick of american accents where there shouldn't be american accents.

That's ridiculous. Don't blame an entire generation of actors for the producer's and/or publisher's casting decisions. Butchering accents goes both ways. There are numerous British actors who try to do American accents and sound like complete garbage (i.e. Ewan MacGregor). I've also heard British actors attempt French, Italian and Spanish accents with equally disastrous results. I won't comment on LOTR because that is ahistorical fantasy silliness that Tolkien pulled out of thin air. All the actors were given voice coaches to help them produce the accents Tolkien thought those various ethnicities & races should have. If you have a problem with Mortensen's accent send an e-mail to Peter Jackson because he was the one who ultimately determined what was acceptable in his LOTR trilogy.

Your concept of what is and and what is not appropriate in RTW defies logic and is purely a matter of personal taste. There are classically trained American actors who would have done a fine job in RTW. But again, to be brutally honest if there shouldn't be American accents in RTW then there shouldn't be any English ones as well.

[ChaosLord]

Oh yeah, during my conquest of Egypt I had alot of battles where I was outnumbered. So one of my generals favorite lines was "I see we're outnumbered by the enemy, but then we do have such a fearsome reputation so perhaps they were afraid." I've had the "Gods know we didn't ask for this war..." as the Britons too, fighting the Germans after they backstabbed me.

[Sociopsychoactive]

Personally I love the speeches, but even better is when you get a speech that, to me, would inspire more confidence if it was replaced with "Lets all get our throats cut lads!"

I had one the other day against the scithians, that went something like...

"I cannot join the fight myself, this is not cowardice just prudence...
We are not ruled by portents, no matter how bad they may be, we are warriors, and not ruled by the flight of some damn bird!
They outnumber us badly, but we will fight like Lions to make up for it!
That said, they are the stronger, so brute force will not be enough to win this day
They have many cavalry, and we will have to be creative as we have no spearmen to counter this with.
Before the end of the day our sword arms will ache from over-use!"

I mean, if I were a soldier I'd want to turn around and strngle the guy making the speech! AND I won the battle in the end!

[Satyr]

I particularly like the speech where my Brutii general talks about slaughtering the enemy and wanting to see blood, and then goes on to talk about 'bathing in the blood of his enemies'. Very inspiring. I haven't had a lousy speaker yet but I will start watching for them.

[GFX707]

That's ridiculous. Don't blame an entire generation of actors for the producer's and/or publisher's casting decisions. Butchering accents goes both ways. There are numerous British actors who try to do American accents and sound like complete garbage (i.e. Ewan MacGregor). I've also heard British actors attempt French, Italian and Spanish accents with equally disastrous results. I won't comment on LOTR because that is ahistorical fantasy silliness that Tolkien pulled out of thin air. All the actors were given voice coaches to help them produce the accents Tolkien thought those various ethnicities & races should have. If you have a problem with Mortensen's accent send an e-mail to Peter Jackson because he was the one who ultimately determined what was acceptable in his LOTR trilogy.

Your concept of what is and and what is not appropriate in RTW defies logic and is purely a matter of personal taste. There are classically trained American actors who would have done a fine job in RTW. But again, to be brutally honest if there shouldn't be American accents in RTW then there shouldn't be any English ones as well.

Bla bla bla. Keep typing. American accents ruined RTW. Face it.

[barvaz]

Well, I assume those speeches sit somewhere on the hard disk in some sort of audio format files and are assembled together at runtime. Here is a challenge to the modding community, let’s find someone who speaks perfect Latin with the right Roman accent and do the speeches right as they were supposed to be.

Finding someone who speaks accurate ancient Gaelic would prove to be more difficult though.

- barvaz

[Mr. Juice]

Oh no! A well thought out arguement to my posts! I don't know what to do!

There. Fixed it for you.

[GFX707]

When we are speaking English portraying ancient races we speak with a classical English accent....it's just what's done. Not a distinct american accent with a flimsy pretense of englishness drawn over it where the voice actor in question has maybe seen prince charles on TV once. We do not go "Yes sir move out yeeha go get em boys" like command and freaking conquer!

Anyone who thinks otherwise is american.

[barvaz]

When we are speaking English portraying ancient races we speak with a classical English accent....it's just what's done. Not a distinct american accent with a flimsy pretense of englishness drawn over it where the voice actor in question has maybe seen prince charles on TV once. We do not go "Yes sir move out yeeha go get em boys" like command and freaking conquer!

Anyone who thinks otherwise is american.

I am not American, I don’t like much the voice that is used in the speeches (although the idea itself is brilliant and implemented relatively well) and I still think your arguments are….hmmm…what are your arguments?

The language and accent are totally misplaced and not authentic so what difference does it make if it is American English not authentic or Classic English not authentic (or German or Spanish or whatever)?

The publisher of this game is American, targeting a market consists of US being the single country with most customers, what did you expect the voice acting to be?

- barvaz

[crazyviking03]

and where are you from, GFX707?

[Colovion]

Some American accents can be alright - but I guess teh British accents in Spartacus and other movies have made me think that English Accents are more austere and regal than the American accents. American accents are just not well respected as being upper class because of this ingrained thought pattern.

Regardless, I'd rather have a British Accent for my Roman Troops.

[Spino]

When we are speaking English portraying ancient races we speak with a classical English accent....it's just what's done. Not a distinct american accent with a flimsy pretense of englishness drawn over it where the voice actor in question has maybe seen prince charles on TV once. We do not go "Yes sir move out yeeha go get em boys" like command and freaking conquer!

Anyone who thinks otherwise is american.

Better not let Mom & Dad catch you on the computer at this late hour...

[TinCow]

When we are speaking English portraying ancient races we speak with a classical English accent....it's just what's done.

It wouldn't be better to use an Italian or Greek accent speaking English? You make no sense.

[econ21]

The battle speeches are far better than I thought they'd be. When I heard about the idea, I thought it could not work but it does. Like Froggbeastegg says, they are sometimes very appropriate and generally fit well. Sometimes they are laugh out loud funny. I'm not sure I would criticise the voice acting too much - yes, it's not Patrick Stewart or John Hurt but it's fine. My generals tend to open with the line "You know me - a true Roman of the old school..." and it gives me a lift.

OT: I think Viggo Mortensen was fine in Return of the King. His speech before the Blackgate was very well delivered - "There may come a day when the courage of men will fail..." - and was the standout piece in the trailer. In the actual movie, I preferred Bernard Hill's "Ride to ruin and the world's end" speech - rather like a John Prescott speech at a Labour Party conference, it had a raw power that cannot be reproduced when written down.