what is the point in playing a M2TW battle...

**Alcorr** · 01-12-2007, 04:34

Originally Posted by Goofball

I'm inclined to agree more with The Stranger on this one.

People can poo-poo all they want, but there is a shield bug. And a 2-hander bug. And a problem with cantabrian circle. And a bug with towers. And a bug with cavalry being unable to properly chase and engage routers. And a pike bug. And a gunpowder reforming bug.

My point is, I still like playing the game, but I'd be a lot happier if, when I was deciding what units to train, I didn't have to run through my ever-expanding list of "this unit doesn't work like it's supposed to."

As to cavalry charges, yes, it is possible to get good charges. But it requires a huge amount of micromanaging. I'm by no means a TW or gaming noob, but the only time I manage really good cavalry charges is in small battles, where I can devote a lot of attention to my cavalry units. In full stack vs. full stack battles, I simply don't have the time to do it.

Maybe some of you out there are gaming gods who can get a perfect cavalry charge while eating a sandwich and reading the paper, but some of us aren't. The fact that they take so much time and effort to bring off perfectly takes a lot of fun out of it for me.

I had a big battle last night where I thought "w00t! I'm finally going to get a good cavalry charge!"

I was defending a siege and managed to take a unit of Christian Guards out the side gate and sneak them up behind a unit of Pavise Crossbowment who were stationary and firing at my wall defenders, oblivious to the threat behind them.

I lined up my cavalry in extended double line well behind the x-bows, waited until the entire unit had come to a complete stop and were all facing straight at the target (like so, where C is Cavalry, X is crossbow, and V indicates direction each unit is facing):

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

I single right clicked on the x-bows, and my cavalry began their stately walk toward the target, maintaining perfect formation. Then, as soon as they got within the charge radius, the horn sounded and my cavalry troopers became a herd of cats. Three or four of them broke formation and charged ahead, and the rest of them continued meandering. The few that had sped up plowed into the x-boxs and caused about 6 or seven casualties, then drew swords. This apparently caused all of the remaining knights to abandon lances and draw swords as well. The latter then walked slowly up to the x-bows, who, by now had turned to face my knights, and killed the first few who had been brave enought to charge in like men. I watched, stunned, as the x-bows (in melee mode) killed over half of my knights and took only about 5 more casualties themselves before I commanded my knights to turn tale and run.

But you guys are right. There's nothing wrong with cavalry charges.

The rest of us just aren't doing it right.

Agreed 100%. This is my first time on this forum and ived played mtw2 about 3 weeks now (after coming from rome and the original mtw) and I noticed all of these things pretty quickly.

And the thing that pisses me off the most is the messed up cavalry pursuing bug. They run right up the the routing enemy, and then stop...wait a while...and then scatter...come back together...and repeat until enemy gets away.

**baron_Leo** · 01-12-2007, 05:13

to answer the topic-question: to have fun. It is simple as that. I never ever recognized a lot of bugs in the game as long as I havent seen them here. But i still enjoy it. Pretty much. Gonna fail lots'a exams because of the game. That is the greatest bug.

**The Stranger** · 01-12-2007, 09:04

my cav charges work quite oke... i usually have great charges... but seeing my varangian guard getting slaughter by javelinmen totally messed up my will to play my great byzantine campaign or start a new one... cuz whats the point in playing byzw ithout varangian guard

i usually just automanage because the battles are far from a challenge... their usually soooooo boring...

**The Stranger** · 01-12-2007, 09:06

oh and i dont know if some of you have noticed... but some units can be retrained for eternity... the game just wont noticed that i already upgraded them for 1000 times...

**Sheogorath** · 01-12-2007, 09:34

I dont have any problem with cavy chasing routers, you just order them to move THROUGH the runners, not attack them. As they ride by those dudes on the horses reach out and smash some heads.

Trust me, there is no sight quite as heartwarming as 40 peasants doing the syncronized dance of 'blarg im ded'.

**Ar7** · 01-12-2007, 09:38

I hope that when they will work on the next Total War game they will leave the graphics engine as it is and work on gameplay. I don't know about others, but I don't care much about the graphics any longer, I hardly notice them because I am zoomed out most of the time. So I hope to read "The Best AI and diplomacy ever" in the next preview instead of "The Units now have better shield graphics"

I had the game for weeks, but I can't get into it and have any fun, because not a single thing works the way it's supposed to, this is also empowered by an incredibly stupid AI. I guess I will try a few campaigns and then go back to Europa Universalis II (and soon III !!!), because that game is a true example of the fact that in strategy games gameplay matters and graphics are secondary, CA must have confused Total War with a first person shooter.

**Neoncat** · 01-12-2007, 10:49

Overall the whole game is badly bugged and I don't find funny to buy a new car which gasolin meter won't function properly. Or if I would refer to mtw2 you can drive that car, but nothing else really work the way they are ment. Unfortunately you can see same trend with all new games. At least I am waiting for next patch and not 'enjoying' this faulty product. Whatever you say, there are too many bugs that kill the enjoying part in this game.

**invalidopcode** · 01-12-2007, 14:31

I am in total agreement with the original poster.

I find myself more and more auto resolving the battles because trying to get the broken units to fight correctly is very frustrating. Hopefully the patches will fix the issues... *crosses fingers*. I have dabbled with the user mods to fix some of the issues but it is making my head spin trying to keep track of them all.

With that said, I still enjoy playing the game. My one complaint is that 90% of the battles are now sieges which kind of sucks with the city/castle-related bugs (i.e. pathfinding, towers, etc).

If they ever fix these basic problems this game *should* go down in history as one of the best games of all time.