Mid term reviews thread...

[econ21]

I want to play some more myself before I comment again in detail....

I know - that's the problem with this thread. It's still a bit soon for most of us with busy lives.

My view of RTW really only changed into my second full campaign. My first Julii campaign was like a whirlwind romance - I was swept off my feet. My second campaign was like a messy 6 week old marriage ending in abruptly in disillusionment and a quickie divorce[1].

I'd be really interested to hear from people who have actually finished a long M2TW campaign. And even - bearing in mind my personal experience with RTW - people have made a serious effort at a second one.

At this time, that's asking a bit much but it would be good if anyone posting "second impressions" here could indicate:

1. How far in their campaign(s) they are.
2. Which faction(s) they have played.
3. What difficulty level(s) they have played.

Eg I am just turn 90 of England on VH/VH and think that disqualifies me from giving a genuine "second opinion" on the game.






[1]There was a happy ending, though, as a few months later, my ex got an RTR-makeover and we've been head over heels ever since, as you can see from our happy, bounching children, the Will of the Senate PBM threads in the Throne Room:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=64989

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=65721

[Barry Fitzgerald]

Well it may be a tad early for some...and of course with a patch due..it could make a significant difference to people's view of things.

But knowing some TW players as I do..I can imagine lots of coffee cups collecting on the desk.! lol

[Vuk]

No ones finished a campaign YET!!!!!!!! WOW, you guys...

[Lord Condormanius]

But knowing some TW players as I do..I can imagine lots of coffee cups collecting on the desk.! lol

I have two ashtrays that are so full they are overflowing.

[afrit]

Still on my first France H/H campaign, turn 54. May need the XMas break to get it finished...

So far much better than RTW...

[IRONxMortlock]

I abandoned my first campaign as the French around turn 80. At first, I really wasn't impressed with the game and I wasn't eager to click on the M2TW icon on the desktop when I'd sit down at my computer. Sure the graphics were nice but I was finding it difficult to figure out what was going on and on the battlefield I couldn't get my troops to do what I wanted like I was able to with RTW. In short, I had no idea what I was doing.

I'm now at about turn 65 of an English campaign and I'm enjoying the game much more! I was able to make good decisions and develop good strategies on the campaign map from the start and I've worked out how to control my troops properly on the battlefield.

I think the problem I initially had with the game was starting as the French. Too many borders put too much on my plate at a time when I was still learning how to play.

To sum up, the game has definitely grown on me and I look forward to trying other factions in the future.

[GFX707]

Right now I just abandoned my second campaign as Scotland as it was bogged down in the way RTW got on VH in the campaign, i.e stack after stack besieging your cities resulting in endless, boring repelling of AI assaults only to have the next AI country declare war on you, then another, then another.

I really enjoyed the game at first, but that was probably just because of the differences between M2TW and RTW....then I began to see that the campaign was still much the same - try to achieve something while opponent after opponent breaks alliances with you to commit suicide by declaring war on you....wars the country in question has no chance of winning because they are already at war and your country is twice the size of theirs....sigh.

If it's not that it's the hour-long 3fps city assaults where the AI tries to insert its entire army simultaneously onto 1 siege tower or ladder and you basically have the choice of waiting 2 hours for the battle to end, or just quitting the game. Fun.

As someone who has played since Shogun I am still finding the TW series going downhill. I think it's just that 3D campaign map, it just doesn't really work. If it went realtime in the next one that might solve the problem, but I am so sick of having to babysit my 10000 agents past the "path blocked" spam or watch the same animation of an army/agent walking at a ridiculously low speed backwards, only to lose my place if I try to right click it to speed it up, or have to wait for the diplomat animation to play every turn when they are standing outside one of my cities....it just adds up.

There is still one battle every once in a while that makes it worth it, but most of the time it's just the first few battles of a campaign that feel exciting and challenging, like you're actually achieving something, and then you realise you're just going to be in for more of the same suicidal AI and moronic decision making by the computer. In my current Moors campaign I am watching the Spanish walk around on the map with about 10 1-unit stacks while at war with me, and garrison their cities with 1 general's unit, etc. etc.

Not to mention the completely pointless alliance option. That's probably the number one annoyance in the TW series.

[PaulTa]

I abandoned my first campaign as the French around turn 80. At first, I really wasn't impressed with the game and I wasn't eager to click on the M2TW icon on the desktop when I'd sit down at my computer. Sure the graphics were nice but I was finding it difficult to figure out what was going on and on the battlefield I couldn't get my troops to do what I wanted like I was able to with RTW. In short, I had no idea what I was doing.

I'm now at about turn 65 of an English campaign and I'm enjoying the game much more! I was able to make good decisions and develop good strategies on the campaign map from the start and I've worked out how to control my troops properly on the battlefield.

I think the problem I initially had with the game was starting as the French. Too many borders put too much on my plate at a time when I was still learning how to play.

To sum up, the game has definitely grown on me and I look forward to trying other factions in the future.

If you can't handle the fire, don't touch HRE.

[IRONxMortlock]

If you can't handle the fire, don't touch HRE.

Oh I like the fire all right but when you're trying to learn this game it makes to so confusing it just isn't fun.