Who do you want to play as?

[Sheogorath]

Well, hopefully they don't consider it a *playable faction*, it's hard to tell.

Given the choice of Portugal or Venice I'd prefer Venice.

I know Portugal is far more influential in the given time, but I fear Portugal and Spain would be to similiar and not offer something quite as unique (remeber portugal and spain in MTW2? yea....)

I think Venice would be nice, with a unique flavor.

If the game was to be historically accurate, Venice really wouldn't be able to do much at all. By this point the Venetians were so poor and had so little respect international that the Ottomans could basically do as they pleased with their remaining colonies. Trade in the Mediterranean just barely kept them afloat, if heavily in debt, and their army...well...if I recall rightly, they didn't provide much (if any) resistance when the Austrians marched in.

Portugal, though, I think, is a bit more different from Spain than they're given credit for. My general impression is that the Portuguese went for the 'small, professional' model army, against Spain's 'just put as many people in uniform as you can' approach. This was at home, of course. I'm not sure about the Brazilian army or other colonial forces.

Later, against Napoleon, the British helped train their army as well, giving them a British-modeled force.

So many. I prefer fine light infantry with rifles, good artillery and fine cavalry: Prussia , Austria and possible Britain ought to be my first choices.

Russia has two of the three :P
Best artillery corps in the world, and cavalry generally described as reliable, if not as flashy as other nations.
But don't mind me ;)

[Ignoramus]

I'd like to play as Bavaria or a small German state. It's true that they won't be nearly as polished as the other 12, but with the number of factions, it would be wrong not to play as them.

[Polemists]

Not really sure there's going to be that many different forms of infantry.

I mean you figure you'll have your riflemen, your next level of that, and your third level of that. I mean what else really is there? Pikes are gone to best of my knowledge early on, charging peasants don't have much point. I guess you could have skirmishers but isn't this the time of unison armies, all looking alike?

I mean sure there will be local forces, colonial forces, guriellas, etc, etc. But by and large i'd think your infantry would just be made up of row, after row, after row of guys wearing the same uniforms and carrying the same musket.

[Sheogorath]

Well, NTW got a pretty decent variety. The major NTW factions generally had something like this:

Lifeguard unit (Highly elite grenadier-type units, Lieb Guard for the Russians, Footguard for the Brits, Old Guard for the French)
Elite grenadiers (Better than regular grenadiers, Pavlovsk Grenadiers for the Russians, Middle Guard for the French)
Grenadiers (Pretty much all the factions got a generic '(Faction name) Grenadiers')

Riflemen (Elite skirmishers who fire further and more accurately than regular light infantry, but reload a lot slower. Prussian Guard Jaegers, British Rifles, Portuguese Cacodores)
Elite Light Infantry (Basically guys with slightly longer range who were a bit more accurate. British Kings German Legion lights, French Chaussers)
Regular light infantry (Usually '(Faction name) jaegers/light infantry'

Then your line infantry, typically '(Faction name) line' or '(Faction name) fusiliers'.

And a lot of the factions had unique units as well. The British got Highlanders (which were sort of half-way between regular line and grenadiers), the French got the Young Guard (who were basically combined skirmishers and regular line infantry), the Russians had Cossacks (insanely cheap, but rather poor, cavalry lancers).


And there were quite a few different types of cavalry, although most factions had the basic 'hussar, lancer, dragoon, curiassier' setup.

On top of that, it seems that ETW is going to have a nice variety of artillery units, judging by the presence of a 24lb howitzer. NTW just went with a '6lb cannon, 12lb cannon, howitzer' setup for most armies (Although Spain had 4lb cannons, and the British and Portuguese got 9lbers instead of 12lbers.)

While it is somewhat true that most soldiers got the same basic musket (unless we're talking about the Russians, who typically got muskets from anywhere they could find them), there was a great deal of variety in the training and application of infantry types. Even going with the most utterly basic formula, ETW should feature at least three types per faction, light infantry (good at shooting, poor at melee, generally), line (a cheap, balanced sort) and grenadiers (elite infantry with good melee skills. And they'll probably have them throwing grenades everywhere too). So, three infantry types, four cavalry, a couple of artillery units. I think we can safely assume between 8-12 units, minimum, for each European faction. Not including ships.

So, basically, I don't see unit variety as being a problem unless CA is desperately uncreative. Which would contradict both their company name and past reputation :P

[Mikhal]

Hmm, looks like we Swedes will have to deal with those Dutch before they top us

[Pinxit]

Hmm, looks like we Swedes will have to deal with those Dutch before they top us

[Sorry, but you need to stick to English. -- Martok]

You will all kiss the blue and yellow in february, one way or another, no doubt about it.

[Sheogorath]

You will all kiss the blue and yellow in february, one way or another, no doubt about it.

What can I say but...

GREEN IS DA BEST! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
...
I mean...URAAAAAH!

[Fisherking]

Do you think that the game will model the Sweeds rotar system? It should give them a large military and economic advantage so long as they don‘t have the same losses that Charles the XII had.

[Ituralde]

Could be one of those special research things that only certain factions have that gives you a bonus on the replenishment of your recruitment pools. If recruitment works similar to MII:TW that is.

[General SupaCrunk]

Why i can't vote? I would vote for Courland, because i live in Latvia :)

[Megas Methuselah]

Junior members can't vote. You'll be promoted to a member very quickly, don't worry. Just take part in the community's discussions.

Anyways, I still don't understand what Courland is...

[General SupaCrunk]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courland

Hope this helps :)

[Martok]

Why i can't vote? I would vote for Courland, because i live in Latvia :)

Welcome to the Org, GSC!

I too am curious to try out the Duchy of Courland. I look forward to the mod that makes it playable.

[General SupaCrunk]

I read Latvian moders will make mod where Courland can be playable

[Sheogorath]

I read Latvian moders will make mod where Courland can be playable

Making it playable will probably be a 2-second copy/paste job. It hardly requires a mod team :P

Unless you mean 'make it better' which would be awesome. Given CA's tendency to skimp on the non-major factions fairly often, I'm hoping we can get plenty of national mod teams out there improving their countries.
Then combine all those mods into a single mega-mod to rule them all. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Seriously, though, that would be epic win x10.

Welcome to the Org, GSC!

I too am curious to try out the Duchy of Courland. I look forward to the mod that makes it playable.

I, personally, look forward to the day when Andorra becomes playable ;)

[Megas Methuselah]

Making it playable will probably be a 2-second copy/paste job. It hardly requires a mod team :P

Unless you mean 'make it better' which would be awesome. Given CA's tendency to skimp on the non-major factions fairly often, I'm hoping we can get plenty of national mod teams out there improving their countries.
Then combine all those mods into a single mega-mod to rule them all. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Seriously, though, that would be epic win x10.

Provided it's all balanced and historically accurate, RIGHT ON!!!!! WOOT!!!

[seireikhaan]

Well, if CA ever found a good method of allowing for guerilla warfare, I'd love to give the Shawnee or Iriquois(since I'm assuming that CA will start them as 'central' state, despite actually being an alliance of tribes ) a shot. Darn guns.

However, for the purposes of the poll, I went with the Barbary states.

[Megas Methuselah]

Yeah, I'm still scared of how CA will be portraying guerilla warefare. Btw, it wasn't an alliance. It was a confederation.

[seireikhaan]

Definition of confederation, according to Merriam-Webster:

1 : An act of confederating: A state of being confederated: ALLIANCE

2: League

[Megas Methuselah]

[Martok]

Incidentally, I also look forward to the mod that unlocks Venice as a playable faction. I'd love to take a shot at reviving their mercantile empire.

In addition, I wouldn't mind a chance to play as Denmark-Norway. Given my familial affiliation with both countries, I'd be curious to give them a try as well.

[Pinxit]

Incidentally, I also look forward to the mod that unlocks Venice as a playable faction. I'd love to take a shot at reviving their mercantile empire.

In addition, I wouldn't mind a chance to play as Denmark-Norway. Given my familial affiliation with both countries, I'd be curious to give them a try as well.

Treason! If Total War ever enables an online campaign I will certainly destroy you with my proud Swedish troops and their mighty skills in . All in the name of with the help of a and a crazy .

[Monk]

Treason! If Total War ever enables an online campaign I will certainly destroy you with my proud Swedish troops and their migty skills in . All in the name of migty with the help of a and a crazy .

Hey now them's fighting words. And Russia has and always will be a friend to the House of Martok!

Seriously though. Aside from my practically fanboyish fervor for Russia, I'd really love to give the Ottoman Empire a spin. Aside from destroying my target of affection, there's the fun of going head to head with Austria!

...

Is it wrong that I have no desire to play in any theater of operations than Europe? Who needs colonies when the old world is still not united!

[Pinxit]

Hey now them's fighting words. And Russia has and always will be a friend to the House of Martok!

Seriously though. Aside from my practically fanboyish fervor for Russia, I'd really love to give the Ottoman Empire a spin. Aside from destroying my target of affection, there's the fun of going head to head with Austria!

...

Is it wrong that I have no desire to play in any theater of operations than Europe? Who needs colonies when the old world is still not united!

The Ottoman Empire is most likely my second choice. They differ from the rest. As do Russia. Anyone have any idea about the power of the Ottomans compared to a country like France during this timeperiod? I know their land was vast, but is it anything more to it than that? Did the European countries fear the Ottomans or were the Ottomans more like an annoying "thing" disrupting trade in the far away wastelands?

[Sheogorath]

By 1700 the Ottomans were begging their decline. Certainly they were still fairly powerful, but issues like corruption in the Janissary corps were starting to take their toll (considering they pretty much just replaced sultans whenever they felt like it).
Essentially they'd started to stagnate, with nowhere else to expand to without running into a big scary country.
So, really, they pretty much were in the same situation as Spain. Plenty of economic and military power, but nothing to really do with it.

[Martok]

Treason! If Total War ever enables an online campaign I will certainly destroy you with my proud Swedish troops and their mighty skills in . All in the name of with the help of a and a crazy .

Then I'll see you on the field of battle. May the best Klingon Scandinavian win!

Hey now them's fighting words. And Russia has and always will be a friend to the House of Martok!

Seriously though. Aside from my practically fanboyish fervor for Russia, I'd really love to give the Ottoman Empire a spin. Aside from destroying my target of affection, there's the fun of going head to head with Austria!

I too am looking forward to seizing Vienna for the Ottomans once and for all. Also (depending on whether/how many nationalities try to declare independence and break away from the empire), it could be a fun challenge to try and keep the subject peoples in line as well. Must stamp out Greek and Serbian nationalism....

...

Is it wrong that I have no desire to play in any theater of operations than Europe? Who needs colonies when the old world is still not united!

While I do look forward to establishing some overseas holdings, I'll admit that I too intend to focus mostly on Europe. I think I just want to be able to say I fought at all the major cities like Paris, Moscow, Prague....ah, the possibilities are endless.

[Spookybear]

I wouldnt mind playin Denmark-Norway :D

But I'm disappointed that they included Sweden(so far) but not Denmark :(

Otherwise I'll problely go and play some UK or Russia (But never sweden, ever!) :)

[Sheogorath]

I wouldnt mind playin Denmark-Norway :D

But I'm disappointed that they included Sweden(so far) but not Denmark :(

Otherwise I'll problely go and play some UK or Russia (But never sweden, ever!) :)

Denmark might not get a playable slot. I mean, as far as I know their only major contribution in the era was getting their fleet blown up by the British during the Napoleonic Wars, in order to keep the Frenchies from getting their hands on the feared Danish navy. :P

Something which, I gather, has led to the Danes resenting the British even to this day.

[D-Boy]

definitely the UK . It shaped our modern world, and therefore deserves the credit to be played first among all other empires.

Then maybe i'll play the 13 colonies and fulfil my lil american dream, so to speak

[Pinxit]

Denmark might not get a playable slot. I mean, as far as I know their only major contribution in the era was getting their fleet blown up by the British during the Napoleonic Wars, in order to keep the Frenchies from getting their hands on the feared Danish navy. :P

Something which, I gather, has led to the Danes resenting the British even to this day.

Most Danes dont even know about that, but sure. And no, I see no real point of including Denmark-Norway in this era. They werent particular powerful.