factions?special units? Strategies?

[woad&fangs]

Just wondering what everyone thinks the factions will be. I know the CA site said that England, Spain, America, France, Prussia, and America are all playable but I was wondering what other factions you think they will include. Also, what do you think each factions special units/strengths and weaknesses will be. It's a pretty safe assumption to say that England will have a great navy but what else sets the countries apart? Also, I will admit I don't know a great deal about the strategies of warfare at this time. I am assuming there was a lot more strategy involved than I realize or else CA wouldn't bother making the game. Does anyone know what kind of strategies were comman at this time? I know the Prussians would overload one flank and then try to encircle the other flank.(Modern Version of Alexander's tactic.) One last question, does anyone know which faction will make the most use of dragoons? I think they will be a lot of fun to play with based on how they're used.

[Furious Mental]

They said Charles XII of Sweden is in the game so one would rather expect Sweden to be in the game.

[Nikos_Rouvelas]

The ottomans

[Warluster]

You mentioned America twice.

Well all mentioned, Russia, The Ottomans, proably some Algerian Faction, Austria, Saxony,Bavaria(Y'know, German States) The Italian States (Pope, Venice,etc) Scotland and ireland maybe, Portugal, The Netherlands, India, Some Asian States, Some Indian Tribes, Mexico.

Thats all I can thnik of.

[Ignoramus]

Mexico won't be in; they only gained independence in the 1820's.

[Warluster]

Maybe New Spain instead?

[Mikeus Caesar]

You mentioned America twice.

Well all mentioned, Russia, The Ottomans, proably some Algerian Faction, Austria, Saxony,Bavaria(Y'know, German States) The Italian States (Pope, Venice,etc) Scotland and ireland maybe, Portugal, The Netherlands, India, Some Asian States, Some Indian Tribes, Mexico.

Thats all I can thnik of.

I'm not so sure about Scotland...

After all, Scotland and England ceased to exist as seperate independent countries in 1707 when they merged to form the United Kingdom.

[Freedom Onanist]

Well, I thought this had already been established?

The press release said of the 10 playable factions, there would be:

Britain
France
Spain
Prussia
America
Ottoman Empire
Russia (reference to Peter the Great)
Sweden (reference of Charles XII)

So 2 are missing. Chances are that one of those has got to be Austro Hungary. The other one could be The Netherlands (though in decline throughout the period), Portugal? Maybe Mughal India?

[Warluster]

Ah, those are playable ones but we were, or I was under the impression, we were talking about playable AND non playable factions.

[Rakker]

I seriously hope that the Habsburg empire (Austria-Hungary) is in the game, it`s a mayor player on the continent in that era. It has fought numerous wars against France and Prussia. And it has probably a nice choice of units ranging from german line troops to the swift hungarian skirmishers and hussars

[Torin XII]

What about Denmark-Norway? If Sweden is in they should be as well. Poland likewise.

I'm wondering over the 3 continents, is is Africa or Asia that is the third? Europe and America seems pretty clear.

[anders]

If you look to colonization and the overseas trade race, portugal and the dutch definitely have their rightful places as playable factions. if you look to the napoleonic wars austria-hungary has a very central role and must be in. and denmark-norway, while not a big power player, actually has something of a role in both.

doubt any non-western factions will be in, they historically lack the capability to be global powers.

so i think they should all be in. btw 10 factions arent exactly a lot, must be the least of any tw game yet?

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Coming from a Dutchman this may sound suspect and overly patriotic but you would expect the Dutch to be a shoe in for inclusion. In the early 1700s they were one of the major world powers and at the forefront of military development. Hard to believe nowadays, such a tiny country.

Would be interesting to see them in a Total War environment though. The survival of The Netherlands historically was because no other major land power would except another to occupy them, to preserve the balance of power. Whoever was attacking the Dutch tended to soon have an alliance arranged against them. Hard to see this happening in a Total War context. I'm expecting the Dutch to be quickly overrun, TBH.

[NagatsukaShumi]

As we know, unlocking factions to play with is relatively simple on TW games and even though CA didn't intend you to play with them, they mostly work fine when you do unlock them, with only a few requiring a tweaking.

I would entirely expect an Indian faction of some kind to certainly be involved, likely the Mughals. Dependant on just how this map works, there may well be a African continent too so I would expect some African tribes to appear should that be the case. Indians may well make an appearance to cause a nuisance in America, after all the War of Independence doesn't happen until late on into the game.

There is a big choice of people to include, who will find their way into the game is another matter and really we can't speculate entirely until we see a map of the area actually involved, as I'm not really sure on that one yet.

Besides, the modding community will probably already be setting the wheels turning in their heads (or is that just me?) for what to do, not in any depth of course but I am sure it will continue to thrive.

[BoyarPunk]

Better have Russians or I'll be boiling mad

[Praxil]

Yeah, it was kind of strange not to mention that the Russia is playable faction, when at that same time Peter the Great is one of the heroes in the game. I hope for the sake of gameplay and sense that these heroes will be only passive characters to add persona to factions. Bring different passive elements like better training for troops or better trade etc.

[Cornwallis]

[\Quote]Well all mentioned, Russia, The Ottomans, proably some Algerian Faction, Austria, Saxony,Bavaria(Y'know, German States) The Italian States (Pope, Venice,etc) Scotland and ireland maybe, Portugal, The Netherlands, India, Some Asian States, Some Indian Tribes, Mexico.[\Quote]


Russia yes
Ottomans certainly
Austria
Prussia
England
America
France
Spain
maybe portugal
maybe holland
sweden
but as for the rest of your ideas they would be unhistorical and ridiculous based on the infrostructure of the time

[Fate]

I would suspect that the faction list would be roughly as follows:
Britain
France
Portugal
The Throne of Spain
New Spain
Netherlands
Denmark and Norway
Sweeden
Russia
Prussia
Austria/Hungary
The Ottoman Turks
Bavarian States
Some kind of imalgimation of eastern european factions, encompassing lithuania, poland etc
America
Mahratta Princes (India)
Persians
Algerians (most likely)

I would also highly suspect emergent factions, such as Ireland, American Indian Tribes, the US (opposed to it being british america), and many other ones to shake it up some what.

[Zenicetus]

As we know, unlocking factions to play with is relatively simple on TW games and even though CA didn't intend you to play with them, they mostly work fine when you do unlock them, with only a few requiring a tweaking.

I'm wondering if that will be true with this one though, unless you just ignore sea power and the western side of the map. The choice of playable factions seems to be based on who had major force projection with navies during the period (with the curious omission of the Dutch??). That makes sense, as a showcase for the new naval combat engine, and it's probably why Russia didn't make the list.

It will be interesting to see if those other unlockable factions can actually get access to the shipyards, navigation tech, and ship types that the playable factions have, or if they're blocked out of advancement due to the tech tree... something like the situation with M2TW with the Byzantines or Scotland in the late game, with respect to gunpowder.

If they are blocked from major sea power, then maybe the modders can try their hand at an alternate history mod, where these other factions can get their ships. Or maybe the game is winnable as, say, Russia if you just ignore sea power.

[DisruptorX]

Ugh, I would have thought that CA realised that no one likes having unplayable factions. Everyone is playable in MTW 2. The worst thing about Rome was having to mod it to use like have the factions.

[Lord Winter]

The Dutch should defently be in if their starting at the War of the Spanish Succesion. Leaving out the dutch would be akin to leaving out the U.S. in WWII.

I don't know if they need a pourtagal faction, much of thier power was gone by this time, as they merly played a secondary role.

[Matt_Lane]

I'm interested in how the America's will start out. Will it be Spain, Britain and France slugging it out against each other and the indigenous population or would New Spain, New France and America be a separate entities?

Also the CA site particularly mentioned the revolutions in France and North America. Would these be represented by new emergent forces or would there be a mass rebellion within the French and British ranks?

Lastly how much will the logistics of supply come into play? Feeding and equipping far flung armies in distant lands could make or break a campaign. Foraging can alienate the local population and can be vulnerable to a scorched earth policy whilst resupply from a home base can leave dangerously extended supply lines.

[Matt_Lane]

The Dutch should defently be in if their starting at the War of the Spanish Succesion. Leaving out the dutch would be akin to leaving out the U.S. in WWII.

I don't know if they need a pourtagal faction, much of thier power was gone by this time, as they merly played a secondary role.

Could you have a Peninsular War with out Portugal?

[Rhyfelwyr]

Were the Dutch not in a union with Britain in 1700?

[Matt_Lane]

Were the Dutch not in a union with Britain in 1700?

I think there where various alliances around this this time (Grand Alliance and Triple Alliance) which the Dutch and British were both part of but Britain and the Netherlands where not in union like Scotland, Wales and England are.

[anders]

you cant have a game wich is partly about the napoleonic wars and not include russia! thats just silly.

emergent factions and some scripted rebellions would be a natural part of a game in this period, the jacobites as has been mentioned by several people here would be nice.

[Slaists]

You mentioned America twice.

Well all mentioned, Russia, The Ottomans, proably some Algerian Faction, Austria, Saxony,Bavaria(Y'know, German States) The Italian States (Pope, Venice,etc) Scotland and ireland maybe, Portugal, The Netherlands, India, Some Asian States, Some Indian Tribes, Mexico.

Thats all I can thnik of.

scotland and ireland were part of the british empire at the time, weren't they?

i'd guesstimate:

1. england
2. france
3. prussia
4. austria-hungary
5. russia
6. ottomans
7. spain
8. portugal
9. dutch
10. sweden

[Warluster]

but as for the rest of your ideas they would be unhistorical and ridiculous based on the infrostructure of the time

I guess not. German states were major then. Think War of Spanish Succesion, War of Austrian Succesion. The Italian States were still there, and definetly the Pope!

The rest are fine as well. What part do you think unhisotrical?

Ireland was not part of the British Empire then. I don't think.

[Incongruous]

Well, they said that Churchill was in, so it follows that so will Eugene. So it follows that the Holy Roman Empire will be too.

[Matt_Lane]

Ireland was not part of the British Empire then. I don't think.

England and Ireland had been linked since the Norman conquest with a series of conquests and rebellions until at the start of the 18th Century Ireland became part of Great Britain.