Another new official screenshot! (2 May)

[Vlad The Impala]

The page for this screenie has been up for a couple ofdays already, but for some reason the image itself hasn't been working properly, until now.



Egyptians vs. English, in the desert. Militiamen (or something like it) and light cavalry in the front of the shot, heavy cavalry in the middle, and a lot of weird projectiles flying... somewhere.

Enjoy!
Vlad

[TB666]

Looks very nice.

[econ21]

Beautiful sky - I don't recall RTWs sky being so dramatic.

[Lord Adherbal]

me is slightly worried about the range of bows

[Dutch_guy]

The terrain looks a little better than in Rome, looks like it has more detail.

Which is a good thing.

And As Econ said, the skies look great - much more detail in there too.

So all in all, I think it looks good

[Duke John]

Sky looks better, although I will still stick to NTW2 The self-shadowing on the units looks very good though. The terrain looks the same as what could be done with R:TW, but we might be looking at a custom made map.

[edyzmedieval]

Reminds me that I need to go shopping for a new computer or improve my existing one.

@Adherbal

Idem. The ranges are a bit too much.

[Brighdaasa]

Maybe it's some kind of artillery fire? It doesn't look much like arrows anyway. This also offers an explanation for the apparently huge projectile range.

[Vlad The Impala]

True, but what kind of artillery launches this much projectiles? (Yeah, Stalin Organs, but I doubt they had those in medieval times. ;)) There are easily fifty missiles visible in the screenie...

[Dutch_guy]

I think the flying object are simply arrows.

And since the screenie features the English versus the Egyptians I'd say the ones firing the missles would be English longbowmen, that would explain the range.

[Prince Cobra]

Beautiful sky - I don't recall RTWs sky being so dramatic.

I like it too. I feel somehow ... inspired. Maybe that will result in a new thread in the Mead hall. I don't know...

[Orda Khan]

Look like arrows to me, but I am not overly impressed with either the sky or the terrain. I played STW a few nights ago, the skies there are just as dramatic but done in a far more subtle way and the terrain is equally good. This looks like either dusk or dawn, I hope we are not going to be showered with screen shots of dark skies and flaming arrows, after RTW I do not want to see another flaming arrow.
Am I the only one who has noticed there is nothing in the distance? The horizon stops abruptly and is just as clear as the foreground

.......Orda

[Mikeus Caesar]

Am I the only one who has noticed there is nothing in the distance? The horizon stops abruptly and is just as clear as the foreground

Just like old MTW. Maybe they got rid of the annoying red boundary line?

[Divine Wind]

The sky looks great, and the terrain also gets a thumbs up!

Worried about the arrows/artillery though, looks as if they have small fluffy animals attached. Killer rabbits maybe...

Now wheres that holy hand grenade?

[Lord Adherbal]

aren't those brown horse HUGE compared to the rider ? the horse head is like two arm lengths away from the rider, and their legs don't even reach below the horse's belly.

[Duke John]

It seems that the shadows are being cast in the wrong direction (look at the 2 axemen on the right). The sun is in front of you but the shadows are being cast in the direction of the sun. They are also relatively short compared to the low standing of the sun.

Or are we looking at a distant nuclear explosion?

This is starting to get embarrasing

[Furious Mental]

Axes? Are the militia sergeants making a return?

[Geoffrey S]

The English army looks in fine shape, tight formation and the like. But what the hell are the Egyptians doing? It looks worryingly similar to the godawful formations the RTW AI would create; one big jumble, with the general out at the front.

[ivoignob]

Do you see the towers in the midst of the english army? Are they seige towers? There is no city, so what are they?

[TB666]

Do you see the towers in the midst of the english army? Are they seige towers? There is no city, so what are they?

Catapults or trebutches(sp??)

[Orda Khan]

Another element that has become too popular.....trebuchets in field battles

......Orda

[TB666]

Well you have always had that in TW.

[Zenicetus]

Do you see the towers in the midst of the english army? Are they seige towers? There is no city, so what are they?

After zooming in, it looks like that whole second line in the English army might be mixed artillery, which could explain the number of projectiles (and range). It's maybe not all that unrealistic, if the army is in a field battle on the way to taking a major city, or fighting an Egyptian sally from the city?

The Egyptian infantry in the foreground is using some kind of axe.

[ivoignob]

These things on the left flank look like catapults, the towers in the middle may be trebuchets then, but they still look like towers to me :-)

[Puzz3D]

Well you have always had that in TW.

STW didn't have it, and neither does STWmod.

[TB666]

STW didn't have it, and neither does STWmod.

STW didn't have seige weapons

[Orda Khan]

STW didn't have seige weapons

Seige craft were introduced in MTW. My point was aimed more at the fact that the AI will bring seige craft onto the battlefield and this idea is being perpetuated with endless screenshots of them. For sure, they look nice but let's see them being used appropriately, as in a seige. Batu used catapults to re-take the bridge at Sajo but there are few other examples of seigecraft featuring in field battles

............Orda

[Rodion Romanovich]

I agree, siege weapons in field battles make it too easy for the human player, the AI can very seldom handle them properly. You can always do things such as a cavalry raid vs enemy artillery, then use own arty freely against them, or pick high ground and destroy their art from a higher position, then rain arty freely over them etc. and the AI usually stands still, or if it tries to attack gets so demoralized by the artillery that it's unfair. Artillery wasn't really a regular part of field battles until the late Medieval period (French at the end of hundred years war, the hussite war waggons, and so on), but there were a few armies (mostly steppe armies) that invented fairly mobile artillery quite early, but even then, artillery hardly ever killed more than 1 percent or so of the enemy force, acting more to demoralize than to kill. Before the medieval period the romans also had mobile field artillery in their carroballistae, but they were mobile on the strategic level (mule carts) but hardly any mobile at all once the battle started, and they too were quite ineffective. No, I think artillery should be very restricted, and have very little ammunition for field battles if they are included in those too.

[Martok]

I hope the ones with axes are Gazi Infantry; I miss those guys!

I think the screenshot might be a bit heavy on the palm trees (yeah, I know a fair number grow along the Nile, but still), and I too am puzzled by what the projectiles are supposed to be. That said, however, overall I still think it looks pretty good. As for the artillery, my guess is CA set up a custom battle and just wanted to show them off. Of course, as Zenicetus pointed out, the English could simply have brought siege weapons with to take whatever city they're intending to conquer; and that the Egyptians dispatched an army to intercept them before they reached their destination.

[Puzz3D]

STW didn't have seige weapons

Then don't say total war has always had it. Siege weapons have been introduced into an AI that doesn't know how to handle them, and doesn't know when it was appropriate to bring them.