The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - initial impressions from an English campaign

[econ21]

I'm a little further with the campaign and am coming round to the archers. They remind me of MTW arbalesters - they seem slow firing, but they do kill. Playing as England they are my main edge over the AI. Cavalry can also provide another edge, although it's not something I rely on much. On reflection, I am happy with the balancing of cavalry and missiles.

Does the AI still show their back sides to reform it's battle line?

Occaisionally, yes. But it's not so common, it bothers me.

What is the average ratio of inf/cav/missiles per AI stack?

It varies a lot by faction and by army within a faction. The Danes came at me with an army almost exclusively made up of heavy inf (FK and Huscarls), and more generally tend to be almost all inf. I fought a French stack that was almost all cav, more often they are a mix. The Scots were also mixed. But in most cases, inf are the bulk of the mix.

To generalise, AI stacks seem mainly inf but with some cav and archers. Typically I'm fighting half stacks or so. They usually have one or two cav, and one or two missiles, sometimes more. They seem reasonable. I'm not seeing the "all archers" or "all peasant" type armies I recall from early France in MTW.

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EDIT: Martok asked me how immersive M2TW was - whether it come match the atmosphere of STW; and whether you felt you were just playing a game. This is my reply:

M2TW has a bit more chrome than RTW and MTW, but does not have the striking style of STW. Some of the voicework on the campaign map is nice - the prisoners begging for their lives; even the cheesy foreign diplomatic voices are fine by me. The music does not grab me as much as any of the earlier titles. I identify a bit more with the characters than in earlier titles, but they still don't have distinctive "characters" in an RPG sense. The pre-battle speeches don't do much for me.

I think it's pretty close to MTW in the "feel". The campaign seems pretty tense and cerebral, so presently I am caught up in stuff like (a) trying to get my crusade to the Levant before it deserts or another faction; (b) trying to fend off all three neighbouring factions who are all out to get me;(c) trying to understand why the Pope hates me when I show him nothing but love; etc etc. It's very close to MTW, so far, to be honest. Not so immersive you forget you are playing a game (I'd need to play System Shock 2 or something for that); but a good game nonetheless.