Gamespot Update !!

[Orda Khan]

Maritime warfare would be nice indeed, as would the ability to fight out these battles with ships instead of units, in real time. I feel that this is expecting rather too much from an Expansion and from what I have read about the fixes included, I think we should be more positive

.......Orda

[Doug-Thompson]

... I think we should be more positive

Point taken, Orda.

After all, I agree with Roxburgh that naval warfare should not be a priority in BI. Those voyages by the barbarians were largely unopposed during this time period. I'm not aware of any major naval battles being involved.

I was just grousing at the idea that all the threats to the empire were land-based.

[SigniferOne]

The way I see it, sea battles are not a real issue in BI's era, so no point implementing them there. Whereas the sea battles were important in original RTW's era, the question comes down to finances, and making a choice between producing a spectacular land battles engine, a spectacular sea battles engine, or some sort of mutilated compromise between the two, ala Imperial Glory, thus producing a game that fails on both fronts. It took CA 4 years to develop the game as it is now, and would take at least a year more to implement a proper real time battle system for ships. There is no magic pill here, no magic hat out of which game producers can instantly pull out fully formed perfect core game features, and everything is always a matter of money, money, money. I would imagine CA plainly ran out of it after being a small little studio, and developing a game for many years without being to profit from it in the process.

And as for the historical argument that Vandals took to the ships after sacking Rome, my understanding is different, and I believe they went Westward, to Spain, crossing the Pillars of Hercules and then travelling East into Carthage. Whatever use of ships there was at the crossing of the Gibraltar, it was little, and very short lived. The same goes for the Saxon invasion of Britain -- there were no great naval battles between the Celts and the Saxons, there was no awesome clash of naval armies, no Salamis. Saxons just loaded up on boats, sailed over, unloaded on the other side, and went to it.

So, if CA only fixes some bugs and annoying features of naval battles on the campaign map (ping pong fights), I will be satisfied.

[MrWhipple]

Hey guys: it's a GAME. I know that because it says so on the box. In my opinion the point of the game is not to make history as it happened, but as it may have happened or could have happened. If your world includes more sea battles than is true to the history books, more power to you, go get em. I am just glad that CA gave us the ability to create our own unique history and the tools to mod to our hearts content if we want. As for me I am having too much fun playing the game to notice the few flaws that crop up in any game. (and btw I am a programmer and have written games and know what is involved.)

[AntiochusIII]

But after the Vandals successfully established themselves in North Africa, they became one of the masters of the Mediterranean. In fact, Geiseric (sp?) was among the most dangerous threats to both Roman Empires for a long time. He (or his Vandals) continuously raided the shores of Italy, Sicily, and probably even Greece. His fleet even crushed the combined Roman fleet raised by Leo of the Eastern Empire in conjunction with the West with the mission of destroying him, leaving the Eastern empire bankrupt and devoid of force for quite some time. He was probably the very man whose legacy gave the meaning of "vandalism" in our vocabulary...through the sea

But yeah, I'd rather have CA spending time fixing the AI and all the bugs rather than implementing manually-controlled naval battles for BI. Considering CA's past history with good expansions, I have high hopes.

[Doug-Thompson]

See the edited-in P.S. and correction in my earlier post. It appears that I groused about Mr. Roxburgh's point too hastily. For those who don't want to backtrack, the gyst of it is that the Vandals are already in North Africa and the Saxons in Britain when this game begins.

[TB666]

Actually the vandals are starting without settlements and are in a horde.
Check out the screens on this page https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=53095

[Sol Invictus]

Yeah, I don't think the Vandals or the Saxons are really in control of a settled state at the beggining of the game. Same is almost certainly true for other Barbarian factions as well. It should really make the geo-political situation quite fluid and chaotic, as it should be.