New Eurogamer preview!!

[rajpoot]

Perhaps Empire will finally gift the Total War series with an online campaign map mode. We certainly hope so. If it does, then there is so much both at first glance and second that Empire may do what no other in the series has: earn 10/10.

Caught my eye this did.............10/10??!! I'll give it 20/10!! It's going to break all sales records there are, if this turns out to be real!

[Monk]

Caught my eye this did.............10/10??!! I'll give it 20/10!! It's going to break all sales records there are, if this turns out to be real!

It is just speculation on Eurogamer's part. Reading the article I didn't see any mention of that aside from the end where they started to guess about the new MP modes that CA hasn't announced. Would it be fun? Sure. But Hotseats are fun too so if those stay in then I could live with no MP campaign.

[Sheogorath]

Caught my eye this did.............10/10??!! I'll give it 20/10!! It's going to break all sales records there are, if this turns out to be real!

That last bit is key.
Spore, anybody? :P

[Jack Lusted]

Agreed, whenever you make changes to the tried and true formula you have you have an AI who can understand the changes and take advantage of them. With any luck the AI's unit recognition is spot on with other parts of its development.

The AI has been coded for Empire with a lot of knowledge about how each unit type should be used(we also have a lot more unit types defined in the code instead of the old cavalry, infantry, spearmen, missiles) so it will know to use lancers differently compared to heavy cavalry for instance.

If a fleet was mixed between large and small ships, it was only due to limitations of logistics or economics. It wasn't an intentional mix for tactical purposes. That's just nuts. Every admiral would much rather have ships of the line in battle. It may not be as "fun" as mimicing land battles with flanking and skirmishing by smaller/faster ships, but the fact is that battles were won by big warships with the heaviest firepower (not to mention capacity for the largest complement of marines in case of boarding).

I think you're rather forgetting Nelsons famous quote on the matter of frigates:

"Was I to die at this moment, want of frigates would be found stamped on my heart"

Of course in a stand up fight they're no match for ships of the line, but there is a good reason to have frigates in your fleet in Empire, and it's for similar reasons for why they were wanted in real life.

[Monk]

The AI has been coded for Empire with a lot of knowledge about how each unit type should be used(we also have a lot more unit types defined in the code instead of the old cavalry, infantry, spearmen, missiles) so it will know to use lancers differently compared to heavy cavalry for instance.

Wow thanks for the response Lusted, that's great news indeed!

Honestly the more I hear the more excited I get.