Imperial Glory Demo is Out

[Nelson]

Thank for the "Heads up", phred. I'm now at 20%.

[Jacque Schtrapp]

Not overly impressed. Camera movement is too restrictive, unable to redraw individual unit formation, H2H combat devolves into these tight little scrums where it is impossible to tell what is going on, artillery range is very limited, and a CTD halfway through the Cyrenacia battle. Nice graphics though, perhaps the finished product will be more polished. I wonder if the diplomacy model actually works.

[Spino]

Just installed and played through the demo. It lasted all of 20-25 minutes on my hard drive. After enduring the lightning fast, mindless combat of the two battles featured in the demo I feel confident enough to say that Imperial Glory truly is...

PURE UNFILTERED RTS CRAP!

And that's all I have to say on the matter...

[PanzerJaeger]

Well i thought it was good, not perfect, and had alot of potential..

[PanzerJaeger]

The naval battles especially..

[Nelson]

Honestly, Spino, what do you really think?

Here's the good, the bad and the ugly as I see it.

The Good.

It looks nice. The animation is good. Volley firing is very well done. Terrain is decent.

Troops can enter buildings and fight from windows, doorways and rooftops.

Artillery is limbered or not. Cav has column and line. Infantry adds the square. Movement from one formation to the next was smooth and realistic looking.

The demo installed and played without hassle or failure.

Can’t speak to the strategy portion. As with CA, you don’t get playable strategy in a demo. Instead you get a strategy slide show. Neither can you play a naval battle. A naval movie is provided.

The Bad

Unit values are very artificial so that each type is unique. Here are the combat values for the British cavalry, melee followed by fire: Lancers 35,0 Hussars 65,0 Household Cavalry 15,45! So, no Union Brigade corp smashing charges in this game, not with the Brit heavies, anyway. Infantry is similarly hosed up. Line is 6,12 Light is 2,25 and Rifle is 5,38. Ordinary line troops melee three times better than light infantry? I don’t think so. The lights were superior by and large. The developer has chosen to ignore the fact that although an endless variety of names were used for troops, they were all, within their branch of course, far more similar than different. What really separated the men from the boys was morale, which brings us to…

The Ugly

If there is morale Imperial Glory, I couldn’t see it. I played both battles twice and each time the units fought to the last man like little robots. Not one unit ever broke and ran. Believe me, I tried to get my guys to run but the best I could do was kill them all.

Update. Some morale is present after all. I did just witness one of my light infantry units turn about and march off to a safer distance. I could not override it. When it got where it wanted to be I regained control. Cavalry will also retreat from a square. I have yet to see any unit flee a melee and have seen many units get shot to down to a man. Still, things are not so bad as I originally thought.

I thought we could maybe change the combat values. I don’t think fatigue is in either, which I could forgive. But no morale? That is sad.

[PanzerJaeger]

Yea i charged some cav into a box and they fled.. also my inf fled when they got shot to peices. I dont think any units can leave the melee unless all of one team are dead though.

[econ21]

Thanks for the heads-up, Nelson. You've saved me some money and some heartache.

Are you sure about those combat stats? Hussars have 65 melee strength compared to 15 for household cav? Household cav have 45 fire strength compared to 38 for rifles? It's just bizarre. One nice thing about the TW series is that although we can grumble about details, the unit stats and hence match ups by and large "feel" right.

The only upside to this is that it should not rule out CA doing a Napoleon: Total War!

[Templar Knight]

It looks and plays alright, not what I was hoping for, heres to Cossacks 2