Time commanders new series success or faliure?

[bones58]

i think a complete success.
Richard Hammond:very good
Experts:good if a little over-dramatic.
Set:improvment
Battle:successful and unlike series 1 all the units you can get in rome:total war

What do you think?

[Wishazu]

I was very impressed with the show as a whole. but i was a bit disappointed that they dont get to learn about their own or the enemies units, the whole emphasis seems to be on just getting in there and seeing what happens. The whole skirmish thing was the best new thing

[jimmy]

good nice pace to it the vicars were mean SOB especialy the general. enjoyed it but it is the first one in the series lets see how it goes.?

[Westland]

They give the team more time to practise (skirmish before battle) and to think (2 pauses during battle). It really helped them to stick to their plan and not get overwhelmed (sp?)

[The_Emperor]

I think they learned a lot from the first series and how awful contestants were on it.

At any rate those Vicars were brutal... I got a phone call from my Mother who was watching the show, she's also a vicar and thought they did very well.

Don't mess with the clergy!

[Wishazu]

Especially when they have 3 roman legions to back em up

[ShellShock]

Yup, this is much better than the first series. The producers have learnt from their mistakes.

I expect RTW will get more sales as a result. Nice timing - it is now on the shelves, so anyone watching tonight can go into their local shop and buy it tomorrow.

Do you remember the frustration after watching the first series of Time Commanders and still having to wait to play it yourself?

[Kraxis]

How I would love to be able to watch BBC2... This sounds great. I loved the first series, undoubtedly I would drool over this.

[Throb]

Yeah saw it too, was better than the 1st series at least they got a bettre presenter than that Eddie Mare.

Could do with expalining the units though, a brief mention of what they like.

[Jace11]

thought it was aweful, turned it off after the skirmish...

Hammond was dreadful, his contribution was "ohh arrows" or "you got pasted"

It degenerated into split screen choas after 10 minutes, lots of shouting...

In the original you got a better picture of the communication and events as they happened.

Eddie was better too, more original, more cutting with his criticism and managed to remain calm unlike hammond...

[Chelifer]

Where do you guys watch the show?
Is it BBC Four?

[Jochi Khan]

BBC 2 Sunday 7.15pm gmt.

The next episode is in two weeks time... 30th January.

Jochi

[Herakleitos]

I did enjoy the show (haven't seen any episode of the first series unfortunately), but a better view of the entire battle (i.e. how many of which units on both sides?) would be nice - I'm just not a big fan of shouting vicars...

[Smaug-V]

"Eddie was better too, more original, more cutting with his criticism "

Eddie Maire was about as witty as the current president of the united states.

[Wishazu]

They`ll probably refine things as the series goes on. afterall they changed the format of the show half way through the last series

[frogbeastegg]

I thought it was mostly an improvement. I prefer to the new host to the old one, and the lack of the "Victory imminent" thingy is nice. Shame about those darned klaxons ...

Those vicars were scary; love thine enemy indeed. Host: "One of them is saying 'Don't kill them; they're women!'. I can't repeat what the other guy said they were."

We can definitely say for certain that TC does not have the team fighting against RTW's AI. I doubted it in the first series. If RTW's AI fought like TC's enemy armies then there would be very little complaining about how dumb it is.

[lanky316]

"Eddie was better too, more original, more cutting with his criticism "

Eddie Maire was about as witty as the current president of the united states.

I've always found the current US president hilarious actually...

[Epistolary Richard]

Last season they looked like they were tweaking the show evey week. They only introduced the top-down general's table computer map in the last episode.

All-in-all I thought it was an improvement.

Format
- Liked the meeting engagement, gives the team a chance to get to grips with it all
- The pauses are good, would be nice if the experts could take advantage of them to point out particular critical points in the battle or show an action replay
- Personally not too bothered about losing the explanation of the units, but it would not have been so important for this battle – largely generic Romans vs largely generic Germans – but would be needed for more exotic factions.
- Not so keen about the experts picking the generals, I want to see a team at its best, I don’t want to see a psychological study of conflicts in power status
- Yes definitely agree would be nice to have a better view of the entire battle, we had shots of entire cavalry units being chopped down by axemen then a shot of the team saying they were doing rather well and it was all going to plan. The experts were doing some of this but not enough – they just mentioned the couple of units that were getting wasted at the back
- Experts were a bit over-dramatic, but that’s just comedy.

Episode
- Surprised to see the ‘fantasy’ German phalanx and wailing women, it provoked a virulent reaction from one of my friends who knows about such things.
- I missed the first few minutes so can someone tell me whether there were victory conditions or something? It seemed that once they’d taken the Spear warbands all the Germans who’d been munching on their rear just disappeared.
- Similarly, did they have to take one of the two paths? I’m wondering why they didn’t just plough straight through the forest. Or indeed why did they move at all? Why couldn’t they wait for the Germans to come to them?
- Was there a bit of model confusion with the Roman cavalry? I thought they were supposed to be unarmoured javalineers, but from what I could see they looked like they were wearing chainmail.

Team
- Same old medieval sensibilities when it came to cavalry, thinking they can ride down blocks of infantry.
- Command structure was again abysmal. I swear, a team actually has a tougher time fighting a battle than a single player. The shouty guy was a nightmare – talking over people, not listening them, micromanaging – I barely even saw the other general. It was my experience in the first season that the generals who did best were the ones that stayed behind their table and kept relatively quiet. They let the captains deal with the unit-level stuff, while they only acted as an extra pair of eyes for the captains and dealt with any battle plan changes. It’s when the battle’s getting away from them that they come forward and start acting like captains. This guy was striding around on the floor with the captains and bellowing to urge his soldiers on. I mean, they’re computer sprites, they can’t hear you! And then he gets milk & cookies from the experts for “imposing” his plan on the others and getting his cavalry killed because they were most likely Germans anyway…

But as I say, format etc.-wise better than last season. Just wish they had contestants who had some idea of ancient warfare. Still, didn’t I hear that The Battle of Stamford Bridge was coming up?

[Myrddraal]

I prefered it too, for all the reasons given, though I think I prefered the old presenter.

[MacBeth]

I loved the first series, I found it's amateurishness appealing.

Last nights episode just seemed to be - well I suppose contrived. Don't think we are going to see many loosers in this series.

[Epistolary Richard]

I've always found the current US president hilarious actually...

You have to laugh or you'd cry.

Don't think we are going to see many losers in this series.

Oh, I think we'll see plenty of losers...

[Mikeus Caesar]

TC does not have the team fighting against RTW's AI.

I also noticed that. Why can't we have the same AI as them? We're effectively playing the same game. Or would decent proper AI be hard for all those damn NCG's out there?

Don't think we are going to see many loosers in this series.

The vicars did in effect lose, from what i could see. Due to the fact that they were giving appalling views of the battle, it looked like they just about made it through alive, more by luck than anything. In reality, if they had managed to make it through like that, then the rest of the germans would have kept following them, slowly killing them all off.

[ShellShock]

I also noticed that. Why can't we have the same AI as them? We're effectively playing the same game. Or would decent proper AI be hard for all those damn NCG's out there?

If you want to play against similar opponents as used in Time Commanders, then you need to play RTW online; in both cases the opponents are human.

Or does anyone still believe that the Time Commanders are "playing against the computer"?

[Lord Preston]

did anyone else notace at the end the expert going
"now the Roman legions with start to saw through the german spearmen" but when watching the game the only bodies were Roman from being stabed by pikes.
eventually they flanked them but lost so many men from the frontal charge.

blame the expert

[Lord Preston]

i prefer this version of the show, i still think it would be better to have a team on team approach. 2v2 a commander and a captain like it is now with the historic battles.

presenter i prefer, but im used to him from Top Gear and other programs, that eddie just got on my nerves.

the "you.......................................
......
.........
are a general" bit is rubbish, Who want to be a millionare rip off with none of the rewards.

They should show the field and units when the experts talk about the mission, its boring watching two historians talking

[Tricky Lady]

It is really great that BBC2's on cable here in Belgium, so TC episode 1 is safely taperecorded...

[Epistolary Richard]

Or does anyone still believe that the Time Commanders are "playing against the computer"?

Not I, did you see that moment where the German cavalry galloped around one of the engaged Roman rearguard and smashed into them from behind? The way it was done was undeniably human.

did anyone else notace at the end the expert going
"now the Roman legions with start to saw through the german spearmen" but when watching the game the only bodies were Roman from being stabed by pikes.
eventually they flanked them but lost so many men from the frontal charge.

Well, that's the fantasy uber-German phalanx for you. Also note the pitiful impact of the pila - a whole batch hit a German unit, a few of them jerk back and only about one of them is killed.

[StuartMaher]

Does anyome know if it is repeated as I did no know they had started the 2nd series :-(

Stu

[AmbrosiusAurelianus]

Not I, did you see that moment where the German cavalry galloped around one of the engaged Roman rearguard and smashed into them from behind? The way it was done was undeniably human.

Well, that's the fantasy uber-German phalanx for you. Also note the pitiful impact of the pila - a whole batch hit a German unit, a few of them jerk back and only about one of them is killed.

I agree with most of the comments in this thread. Timecommanders seems to be a lot better this time, and I also am pretty certain that human players are controlling the opponents.

In Nusbacher's defence the Roman infantry ought to have chainsawed through them: it's the game that's at fault. Pila are really ineffective unless they are given the armour piercing bonus, in which case they work just fine.

[Kraxis]

Pila are really ineffective unless they are given the armour piercing bonus, in which case they work just fine.

Interesting... But how does one add AP to one that has it already?