Questions about Empire for CA?

[Incongruous]

How are they going to recreate the seriously different mode of warfare during the Napoleonic Wars? I know there are unit reforms but there' more to it then that.
A seperate campaign would be better.

[Darkarbiter]

How are they going to recreate the seriously different mode of warfare during the Napoleonic Wars? I know there are unit reforms but there' more to it then that.
A seperate campaign would be better.

Napoleonic changes just like any other reform will probably be dynamic or random. Due to the fact that they are dynamic they might just skip Napoleonic wars if needs be... after all historical dates aren't enacted exactly when playing TW games.

[Adrian II]

Napoleonic changes just like any other reform will probably be dynamic or random. Due to the fact that they are dynamic they might just skip Napoleonic wars if needs be... after all historical dates aren't enacted exactly when playing TW games.

Skip. the. Napoleonic. Wars?

My friend, I believe you seriously underestimate the likes of Captain Fishpants and their prepossession for historic detail and accuracy. Of course Sid Meier's motto still holds -- "When fun and realism clash, fun wins" -- but playing for or against Nappy is precisely the sort of fun that no TW player or developer would be deprived of. Timelines may be mixed up, borders may be totally different from 1796-1815. Heck, Bonaparte might even be British for all we know, and he may meet his 'Waterloo' somewhere in Spain whilst Nelson meets his 'Trafalgar' somewhere off Sicily. But the Napoleonic Wars are going to be part and parcel of this game or my name is Doofus Dietermeyer.

[pevergreen]

Australia wont be in this game. They said 3 continents. America, Europe, N Africa. part of Asia.

Australia is too far out of the way

[Bijo]

Australia wont be in this game. They said 3 continents. America, Europe, N Africa. part of Asia.

Australia is too far out of the way

I don't find that too bad, though if it would be included I wouldn't mind either.

[ninjahboy]

will there be like a drummer corps or what ever theyre called?
a drumline would be cool leading the troops to battle - the sound of the snare drum and piccolo :D

[geala]

An impudent question: will cavalry combat be like real cavalry combat or similar as in the previous TW games?

[TosaInu]

Australia wont be in this game. They said 3 continents. America, Europe, N Africa. part of Asia.

Australia is too far out of the way

Hello pevergreen,

Wasn't Australia 'just' a British penal colony during those days? That and Aboriginals living their lives in a huge continent. Sorry, I don't know that much.

[Furious Mental]

Yes. Pretty pointless really.

[Vuk]

Hey,
Got some questions/suggestions that I really don't think E:TW could be a worthy game w/out. :)

Since naval combat was such an important part of Imperial warfare, it would be treason not to fully encompass the dynamic of naval strategy...that is, to leave essential things out, like the ability to bombard cities and forts with your warships during a land battle, and the inclusion of marines.

Marines may not have been as heavy as line infantry, but they had a darned good reputation. It would be awesome to (as you attack with your main land force) strategically land Marines in key locations.

This was the main way of warfare in several Imperial Wars, including the War of 1812.

One way I was thinking that you could include the ability to commad both naval and land units at the same time is to allow the player to scroll through different panels (you know, the panel that the unit cards are on). This way he could "command reinforcement armies" just like regular ones, and could command both naval and land units.
Hope you take some of this into consideration.
Vuk

[ninjahboy]

Hello pevergreen,

Wasn't Australia 'just' a British penal colony during those days? That and Aboriginals living their lives in a huge continent. Sorry, I don't know that much.

Despite the fact that it was just used as a penal colony, the brits found it a really good place to get rescources and really really really really cheap labor and of course more resources. it wouldnt exactly have a very important role in terms of the military (may can be used as a staging area for an invasion of Indonesia) but it would definitely be a place with economic benefits.
Then again, Australia isnt in it anyways so meh
i wish is was though :(

[TosaInu]

Hello ninjahboy,

Which resources? Was it a resupply base in the Empire?

[Fisherking]

@ Bopa the Magyar
Do you think so?

Formations have always been controllable and always had an effect on the outcome of combat.

Most of the weapons themselves go back to the 15 or 1600s and it was just discovering novel way to use them...combined arms and better command and control. The use of field artillery in support of infantry assault... We have been doing it since Rome.

The socket bayonet began to be issued about 1704 in British units and German ones but was later for the French.

These things come along over time and then just all get put together in an innovative way by someone. It is not so much the units as the way of using them. It ultimately wound up in trench warfare and was countered by the tank...the tank developed blitzkrieg warfare which is just heavy cavalry in a new form...with combined arms support.

The thing I have been missing so long in these games is mounted infantry. You were not able to dismount hobblers to act as a spear wall and move like cavalry. We will see if you can hide your dragoons in the woods to ambush an infantry column or fight dismounted in combat but move like horse.

[Incongruous]

Ok.
The weapons in use were not from the 1600's, you wouldn't call a rifle from today the same as one in WW1/2.

The way warfare was conducted was a direct result of the French Revolution. It was just that, revolutionary. The levee en masse, wiped the floor with its opponents. Warfare was re-born.
I know about the bayonet, as you can see from my posts in the What is this game? thread.

It just seems like such a waste of a good opportunity for the expansion.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Of course such things can always be done with scripted events... Otherwise there's the option of making it develop as a consequence of political decisions that the player makes. Well, tbh I hadn't thought about that when I suggested 1820...

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

How are they going to recreate the seriously different mode of warfare during the Napoleonic Wars?

Make new units recruitable: Post-Revolution Infantry and Post-Revolution Tirailleurs and what not... with higher morale and the ability to form columns and regroup as lines. But they already stated "columns beat lines", what will royally screw battle tactics I guess.

[ratbarf]

Mr. CA guy. Will there be gatling guns? Oh please let there be gatling guns.

[Fisherking]

That is just a bit beyond the scope and time line of this game.

They are ending it just short of the percussion cap and revolvers. The fixed cartridge comes a bit after that.

In this game it is still flintlocks and not fighting in the rain.

[Nobunaga]

Nice to see CA active in the forum again

[Daveybaby]

Mr. CA guy. Will there be gatling guns? Oh please let there be gatling guns.

And nukes!

[Vuk]

As far as modabillity, not so much a question as a request. Will support for Medieval mods or flying creatures/machines by implemented?

Thanks much,
General Vukahltor

[Nelson]

I would like to know if field music will play a larger role in Empire than it has in former Total War offerings. I’m talking fifes and drums while the men move about or advance with the musicians portrayed in the unit. There were many military bandsmen in the 18th century and it would be great to hear pieces like the “pas de charge” at the outset of a bayonet assault. Perhaps a band could be a unit itself that adds to morale when ordered to play in much the same way as a commander’s rally ability is used currently. Much of the actual music still exists for the nations depicted in the game. The atmosphere and emersion during a battle couldn’t help but be enhanced with the sound of “British Grenadiers”!

[pevergreen]

Yes, check the summary thread.

[Vuk]

Will Australia be in? I have seen nothing confirming that it will, but also nothing confirming that it won't. Australia is kinda important to the whole colonising thing. ;)

Vuk

[Divinus Arma]

I would like to know if field music will play a larger role in Empire than it has in former Total War offerings. I’m talking fifes and drums while the men move about or advance with the musicians portrayed in the unit. There were many military bandsmen in the 18th century and it would be great to hear pieces like the “pas de charge” at the outset of a bayonet assault. Perhaps a band could be a unit itself that adds to morale when ordered to play in much the same way as a commander’s rally ability is used currently. Much of the actual music still exists for the nations depicted in the game. The atmosphere and emersion during a battle couldn’t help but be enhanced with the sound of “British Grenadiers”!

Great Question. I second that and would expound upon it:

More of a request than a question- CA, please, will you expand the music score beyond previous titles? This period, more than any you have covered thus far, was filled with some of the most glorious music in human history. The Campaign Map could be filled with classics, whilst the battle map could be filled with the sounds of real battle music as Nelson has suggested.

Perhaps a combination of the two on the battlefield is possible, whereby the outset of battle is injected with a tension-building soundtrack and replaced by the sounds of battle and the traditional field music of the day?

This I Pray. Please make it so.

[Colonel-Commissar Gaunt]

Do you plan to make the graphics more feasible this time or are they still to be outrageously demanding?