magic number 24

[Oaty]

Shogun and MTW had 16 units, RTW and MTW 2 had 20, so will empire and MTW 3 have 24 units?

or will they break the chain

[Rhyfelwyr]

I'd guess with the improvements in graphics and the demand will have on PC's, 20 will stay the magic number, it probably won't be reduced as that would upset too many people.

Also I think CA said in naval battles the number of ships allowed would be the same as for units - 20.

EDIT: Also what do you mean MTW3?

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Though an interesting (and I guess slightly more realistic) move might be to increase unit sizes (something off the wall like 300 or 400 guys) but let you control fewer units (10 - 15). I know in the American Civil War (which is far too late for Empires but it's the only period I have information on this) USA regiments were supposed to have 1000 soldiers, and usually had less than half of those ready to fight at any one time. If the numbers for regiments are similar in the time of Empires, I wouldn't mind losing in numbers of units for a gain in soldiers per unit.

[Raz]

But then you'd have less variety in soldiers.

[Furious Mental]

I don't see why we can't just have larger armies. Computing technology is improving after all.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

But then you'd have less variety in soldiers.

Yes and no. I have a feeling that variety of footsoldiers in Empires will be cosmetic and a few number tweaks. But the bread and butter of your army will be guys who stand in a line and shoot off muskets - line infranty. There's only so many ways you can skin that cat - there aren't the same diversity of weapons or purpose that say Medieval 2 had, with swordsmen, spearmen, and archers filling different niches. I'm simplifiying the Empires battlefield - ignoring light infantry and grenadiers, especially the latter since I'm not sure where they fit in historically.

Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is that variety is only worth so much if the only difference is the color hats of the units or how one it +2 morale versus another. If Empires had a system for creating and tracking unique regiments, variety really could matter. But if I'm training a whole bunch of line units and some are "plain old line units" and the others are "plain old line units that can only be recruited here so they get +1 stamina" the lost variety really doesn't matter a whole lot.

Anyway, my ramblings. I hope someone can point out the differences in Empires era infantry, or even better CA could let me in on their plans for the ground battles.

@Furious Mental - we could if they left graphics at Medieval 2 levels. That won't fly if they use better graphics (and that's where a lot of the appeal in gaming seems to be these days; can you add more bloom to your game than the other guys do). And from the little promo material I've read, they are going to make the game even better graphically. I'm all for that, unless it sacrifices gameplay.

[Furious Mental]

Well if it was an fps maybe there would be a big incentive to make everything look better to stand out from competition, but it isn't. Total War games are essentially unique; the probability of ETW coming out and then another company doing a similar game in the same production cycle which looks better is zero. As far as I'm concerned M2TW already looks great; I'd rather keep the graphics at the same level and get bigger battles on bigger maps. At the very least they should give us the option of much larger unit sizes or numbers so that if we want to trade off some graphical features for bigger battles we can.

Personally I'm not bothered by the transition to musket warfare. The variety of units in European armies will arguably be reduced (though if you don't like that there are plenty of other factions) but they'll be capable of doing alot more on the battlefield.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I don't mind the probable lack of variety at all - I just kinda wish there were individual regiments and the like - more immersion is a good thing.

[Forlorn Hope]

Yeah it would be brilliant if they could find some way of including individual regiments like the 79th, Coldstreamers, Scots Greys etc.
I don't hold much hope for that though :/

[Caerfanan]

I don't mind the probable lack of variety at all - I just kinda wish there were individual regiments and the like - more immersion is a good thing.

I do agree, but that would mean retraining and upgrading instead of creating. A very intersting view (especially when considering the organization of the armies at this time period), but that would change the way of managng units.