Battle Time Length?

[IlDuce]

You guys play too fast for me. I'm a pause button wuss. If I can play a battle in under an hour I'm happy. My wife's not, but I am.

I don't think of this as cheating. The computer knows where everything is and has perfect command and control. When the computer has to play based on what the general sees, then I will too.

SG

Total pause button wuss as well here. I enjoy it as something akin to a game of chess. Sure it might drag on but I just enjoy maximising strategy and minimising me having to micromanage 20 units.

And definitely agree with the earlier posts about how it's more fun making unusual events happen and playing with the balance of power. One of my favourite things to do is to invade an entire large faction with lots of neghbours, then abandon it to rebels and see who steps in to fill the void, started quite large wars this way. Or giving away some adjoining provinces to a faction that are well away from where the rest of their provinces are and see how long they last.

With the improved diplomacy system it looks like there's tons of fun to be had with this style. I'm going to try and create a complex web of alliances then start WWI early.

[Polemists]

Should be alot of fun.

I like pausing it helps with the game length.


One thing I enjoyed doing was pausing, ordering all my units, then zooming into my general to see him raise his sword and all the units scatter about to do thier thing. After Shogun and MTW1 it was so nice to see that little animation.

Not sure if they will still do that in ETW but I'm hoping for a trumpet or something

[Durango]

A 20 minute average seems reasonable to me, not too long and not too short.

Reasonable perhaps, but ideally the game would be so moddable that you could have 5 hour battles if one so pleased. I want to fear going to battle again

Total pause button wuss as well here. I enjoy it as something akin to a game of chess. Sure it might drag on but I just enjoy maximising strategy and minimising me having to micromanage 20 units.

I see...I too enjoy a slower game of maneuvering, akin to chess.

But the pause button? No way man. Might as well have your mommy bring you milk and cookies while the AI does their turns

And definitely agree with the earlier posts about how it's more fun making unusual events happen and playing with the balance of power. One of my favourite things to do is to invade an entire large faction with lots of neghbours, then abandon it to rebels and see who steps in to fill the void, started quite large wars this way. Or giving away some adjoining provinces to a faction that are well away from where the rest of their provinces are and see how long they last.

Or try to survive limiting yourself to only a maximum of three provinces no matter what. Anything other than destroying everyone as fast as you can. I don't want to kill all my neighbours, they're my friends!
Unless they cross me, then I'll bury them.

With the improved diplomacy system it looks like there's tons of fun to be had with this style. I'm going to try and create a complex web of alliances then start WWI early.

Grand Coalitions, yes. With me in the shadows, profiting, orchestrating, scheming, and turning friends against foes only to satisfy my dark desires of chaos and disruption.

"Some men aren't looking for anything logical....some men just want to watch the world burn."

[Polemists]

I see...I too enjoy a slower game of maneuvering, akin to chess.

But the pause button? No way man. Might as well have your mommy bring you milk and cookies while the AI does their turns

The only way I know to slow the game is the pause button, you can increase speed and decrease it but by default it starts at 1.0.

I enjoy pausing and issuing orders at the start, then seeing where things go from there.

Some people enjoy to just skip deployment and not even pause to issue orders, just push it forward in real time from go.

I prefer though the speech, the deployment, then issuing orders and watching it play out. Then I can always hit pause again if need or play the rest in real time.

It's one of the joys of Total War over other RTS, it's turn based and real time :) everyone happy.

[Discoman]

Just judging from the screen shots I'd think most battles will take 10-20 minutes. Also the video in the "Musket Volley" thread is of Bunker Hill and it was like 15 minutes. Considering there are significantly less cities on the World Map and less turns I think we'll see less armies marching around. Then again who knows? We haven't played a full campaign yet and until then we'll never get our answer. (Unless there's a DEMO)

[Durango]

Some people enjoy to just skip deployment and not even pause to issue orders, just push it forward in real time from go.

I prefer though the speech, the deployment, then issuing orders and watching it play out. Then I can always hit pause again if need or play the rest in real time.

It's one of the joys of Total War over other RTS, it's turn based and real time :) everyone happy.

The deployment is definately one of the best phases, when you get to arrange the troops in heroic formations. I'm big on formations. They make life better, everything looks more ordered in formations. Even shoes, toothpicks, cars and cats. Formations rule, man

But the AI should have the benefit of being able to issue orders simultaneously, while I must do my best controlling the action. The AI needs to have the advantage here.

[Sir Beane]

The deployment is definately one of the best phases, when you get to arrange the troops in heroic formations. I'm big on formations. They make life better, everything looks more ordered in formations. Even shoes, toothpicks, cars and cats. Formations rule, man

But the AI should have the benefit of being able to issue orders simultaneously, while I must do my best controlling the action. The AI needs to have the advantage here.

The AI does have several advantages over the player in terms of how quickly it can martial its troops and respond to threats. The AI sees all, knows all and can control all simultaneously. This is something the player can only replicate using the pause function.

Sadly the AI uses its omniscience in the worst way possible, because it's as thick as two very short planks.

I too love formations. I often spend several minutes or more in the deployment phase setting up needlessly elaborate formations in order to beat opponents I often outnumber or outclass anway.

It's a shame your nice neat formations always go to pot as soon as you issue any sort of order to your troops. Moving does tend to ruin everything. Mass movement of soldiers and pathfinding are two things that CA haven't managed to nail since Medieval.

[Durango]

The AI does have several advantages over the player in terms of how quickly it can martial its troops and respond to threats. The AI sees all, knows all and can control all simultaneously. This is something the player can only replicate using the pause function.

Sadly the AI uses its omniscience in the worst way possible, because it's as thick as two very short planks.

I've never used the pause button. It's more exciting to have no choice but to squander your horse archers in the heat of battle due to being busy with the knights

But maybe ETW will have an additional difficulty level called Monty Python mode. On this special level, the AI gets air balloons that drop pianos on your general, elephants that explode into smaller elephants and give a -67 morale penalty, and traps on the battlefield that your units fall into randomly. Filled with lava, of course.

I too love formations. I often spend several minutes or more in the deployment phase setting up needlessly elaborate formations in order to beat opponents I often outnumber or outclass anway.

It's a shame your nice neat formations always go to pot as soon as you issue any sort of order to your troops. Moving does tend to ruin everything. Mass movement of soldiers and pathfinding are two things that CA haven't managed to nail since Medieval.

Formations are one of the things that I love most about the 18th century, as well. I hope that ETW will include a multitude of researchable formations that are also very advantageous to use. When bringing up MTW, remember how the wedge was actually useful? And the way you could form units into a single rank (like the Highlanders at the battle of Balaklava 1854).

I want the following:

• Single rank line
• Column (confirmed)
• Square (confirmed)
• Wedge for cavalry
• Pikewall for the pikemen still around
• Skirmish dispersal for light infantry

Plus additional firing drills. I'm glad that individual stats for units has been expanded upon, with naming them a possibility as well.

[Sir Beane]

I've never used the pause button. It's more exciting to have no choice but to squander your horse archers in the heat of battle due to being busy with the knights

But maybe ETW will have an additional difficulty level called Monty Python mode. On this special level, the AI gets air balloons that drop pianos on your general, elephants that explode into smaller elephants and give a -67 morale penalty, and traps on the battlefield that your units fall into randomly. Filled with lava, of course.

I really, REALLY hope someone at CA sees this suggestion and makes it happen. It would be the perfect reward for defeating the campaign. It would be even better if all the unit descriptions and dialogue changed to become rife with Monty Python references .



Formations are one of the things that I love most about the 18th century, as well. I hope that ETW will include a multitude of researchable formations that are also very advantageous to use. When bringing up MTW, remember how the wedge was actually useful? And the way you could form units into a single rank (like the Highlanders at the battle of Balaklava 1854).

I want the following:

• Single rank line
• Column (confirmed)
• Square (confirmed)
• Wedge for cavalry
• Pikewall for the pikemen still around
• Skirmish dispersal for light infantry

Plus additional firing drills. I'm glad that individual stats for units has been expanded upon, with naming them a possibility as well.[/QUOTE]

Single rank has also been confirmed, and skirmish dispersal is almost a certainty. I imagine there's a good chance of wedge formation and pike wall formation being in to.