R:TW - Good points and Bad

[KukriKhan]

Well another bad thing is that I've had RTW for well over a year now and still haven't played it because it won't work on my computer!

Sorry Cowhead418. I assume you've sought help in our tech forum (the Apothecary), to no avail?

[Cowhead418]

Sorry Cowhead418. I assume you've sought help in our tech forum (the Apothecary), to no avail?

Well actually I haven't but I just recently bought a new computer so hopefully there will be no problems there. It's not set up yet but RTW should work on there.

[Watchman]

I think the RTW cavalry is pretty OK, especially post BI. The light stuff does what it's supposed to - harries the flanks, picks on other light troops opportunistically, slaughters routers, and usually gets splattered if it tries to fight anything "heavy". Even heavy cavalry is not optimally used to charge decent infantry, nevermind now spearmen, from the front, all the more so if the footsloggers are "set" to receive the charge. Even far more powerful shock cavalry than the stirrup-less Antiquity era kind never did very optimally against solid heavy infantry. True "superheavies" - various Cataphract and Clibanarius permutations - and the elites are a different story, but then they should be - the Romans had a Hell of a time dealing with the Persian heavies, after all, and the Kataphraktoi were one of the more powerful shock elements in the Byzantine army.

Decent phalanxes seem to stop even them, though. I recall once having to kill those two Parthian Cata units with Seleucid Levy Pikemen - a fair few of them perished at the spear-wall, but the rest smashed through and caused quite some havoc before eventually routing.

That aside, I rather like the way RTW looks and handles compared to the earlier games. Cavalry in particular maneuver much more beutifully than in the past, and in general the battlefield troops look more... lively. I've bad memories of the seriously stupid-looking "file combat" animation of the MTW spearmen...

The campaign map is also a major thumbs up - I seriously can't imagine dealing with the rather crude STW and MTW ones after getting used to it. If nothing else it's by far more immersive and interesting, and allows for far more strategic chicanery.

Sieges also finally make sense. The STW ones were just bad; I seriously started doubting the usefulness of fortifications as a defensive measure in the game, aside from maintaining hold of the province while you massed a relief army of course. The MTW ones were just nasty; I never quite comprehended how exactly you were supposed to assault the bigger fortifications succesfully, at least without bringing in a full stack of artillery or something similar. RTW sieges are actually pretty fun, and at last proper siege engines are involved. The city scenes are also fairly interesting by themselves, and the street-fighting adds tactical factors.

And Jedi general are gone, thank God. Triple-gold upgrade bodyguards may be a terror, but at least the damn king isn't near-automatically the last one standing and doesn't rout half your damn army single-handedly before finally deigning to perish...

Easy modifeability is also nice. Even a layman isn't going to have much trouble carrying out simple edits that might be felt necessary, appropriate or whatever, and being able to look up detailed unit stats as is is nice.

On the negatives, the AI is still an idiot. That's probably the single biggest one.

The ahistorical units are a mixed bag. Personally I found some of them mainly amusing, such as the Arcanii, or characterful if silly such as the Egyptian chariots without which the faction would be pretty much just another collection of phalanxes. But I can see why many people might not be as generous, and the warhounds for one are odd and not terribly amusing.

[Gealai]

Cavalry in the West in the RTW timeframe was usually used to skirmish and to fight hand-to-hand, being armed with javelins beside the sword or the spear, in similar fashion to the infantry units which too were dual-armed.

The Romano-Celtic horned saddle was an excellent stable hold for throwing javelins - with the added weight behind it due the added velocity of the horse - and this art was heavily exercised, see Arrian aka Xenophon. It was also suited for sustaining the rider in a hard melee.

The Cavalry in RTW has indeed become better - meaning worse powerwise - with the progressing of the game, far from the sweeping Equites which could defeat whole Gaul stacks with annoying ease.

Gealai

[Quietus]

The difference between vanilla MTW and RTW, IMO,

Campaign Map:
MTW has low room for error.
RTW has large room for error.

Battle Map:
MTW has high room for error.
RTW has low room for error.

In STW, both the Campaign and Battle map has low room for error. :)

Room for error, meaning, you can make mistakes and make corrections without severe repercussions.

In MTW, if you are meticulous, it is a breeze. In RTW, if you are meticulous, it doesn't really make much of a difference in the Campaign Map (aside from gaining you a ton of florins). Edit: denari rather.