Superior Tactics 2-NEW VIDEO

[Lusitani]

Hmm am i the only one getting tired of watching others playing ETW? lol

And I want different coloured horses in each unit :P


V.

[Greyblades]

Im just glad the infantry squares look like infantry squares and not like that drawing of the tactic, at the official site, or that... thing in imperial glory.

[Tully Bascombe]

Hmmmm.... The squares weren't as "dense" as they should be historically. To me it looked like the cavalry actually did quite well attacking the square. They plunged into the first few lines. Actually the whole point of the square was to present the horses with such a dense mass of people that they would refuse to charge into it, but instead run through the gaps between the squares. The point of putting gunners and cavalry on the inside was to keep them out of harms way.

Cavalry attacking infantry would generally advance at a walk until coming within a few hundred yards, at which point they would speed up to a trot. At 50 to 100 yards they would break into a full gallop. Properly positioned infantry squares would have a few cannons placed beween squares. The cannons would be fired as the cavalry approached, infantry would open fire and the remaining cavalry would be chaneled into the gaps between squares where they would be raked by the infantry on the sides of the squares. It was often very difficult to stop cavlary once they were in full charge mode. After breaking through the lines they might continue to run for a mile or more, by which time their cohesion was so badly broken that it would take hours to reform into an effective fighting force. The square was an effective countermeasure against cavalry most of the time.

A smart guy like Napoleon would turn the enemy's squares against him. Closely following the cavalry would be the horse artillery, which could be driven up to within a few hundred yards of the enemy squares, unlimbered, loaded and aimed before the cavalry withdrew. Before the enemy could reform lines the horse artillery would fire grapeshot into the densely packed squares, often with horrific results. Close behind the horse artillery would be advancing columns of infantry. If the cavalry and horse artillery did their jobs the enemy would not be able to get off volleys of aimed shots against the French infantry columns, and their thined out lines would be easily overrun by the mass of french infantry.

IF ETW lets me co-ordinate an attack like that I'll be very impressed.

[Megas Methuselah]

It doesn't sound too difficult... Now you got me all riled up to try that out!

[Decker]

Yes a square got broken, but what's a battle without a little excitement?

[Sheogorath]

Tully, that'd be time not spent detailing the grenadier's 'staches. What's more important to you, a fine growth of facial hair, or accurate horse charges?

[Fisherking]

Some of the terms used here are misleading!

The Cavalry breeched a line of the square, they didn’t brake the square. Braking would be a rout and they held. To think they wouldn’t take casualties is a little over optimistic.

[Sir Beane]

Tully, that'd be time not spent detailing the grenadier's 'staches. What's more important to you, a fine growth of facial hair, or accurate horse charges?

I don't think anyone could possibly think that modelling correct facial hair isn't the most important part of the game. Without a decent moustache the world world of the 18th century would have been in ruins, ruins I say!

[Fisherking]

I don't think anyone could possibly think that modelling correct facial hair isn't the most important part of the game. Without a decent moustache the world world of the 18th century would have been in ruins, ruins I say!

Where was it that I read they removed some of it because someone complained they didn’t have the correct wax at the time…

I guess they got a shave. There was something about removing hay stacks too…but that would be totally silly…haystacks were made long before modern harvesting machines. A scythe works on grass and then you pile it high…

They are touchy about some things and others go right over their heads…

Back to topic

Great Job Jack, way to go!

[Owen Glyndwr]

Well, just watched the video, my thoughts:

1. Graphics looked amazing, as many have said, the clothing looks a little more faded and realistic in this video as opposed to the really bright uniforms of the previous video.

2. I really liked the clip showing the men arranging into squares; my experiences in previous total war games consisted of me giving an order and my men just mulling around for a couple minutes before actually doing anything (Of course I don't really know how responsive the order was as the video was quite edited.)

2. I liked that the ensuing melee of the battle maintained the disciplined line you'd expect rather than either a.) a massed blob as was common in previous games and the previous video, or b.) separated mini-battles of 2 batallions vs 2 batallions or so spaced out all over the map which happened to me a lot.

3. I also like that it appeared to me that the AI was organized enough to initiate a mass charge, as in previous games one of the largest downfalls for AI on the attack was their attacks were disunified and largely were them throwing batallions at you one at a time until they all break. (Which is actually really entertaining when you have a lot of missile troops)

Ok now for some things I didn't like:

1. I didn't like the amount of editing that went into this video. I know, I know, it makes the battle more "action packed", but the point of the video is to give prospective players insight into the game, and I really don't think that zooming in on Jack's hand holding a mouse gives very much insight into the game other than the fact that the game requires a mouse to play.

2. This is added on to the above statement. I wish that we could just see a full battle with just the screen showing what the designer is doing completely uncut. i.e. we see everything he would see, rather than a short clip showing units arranging into a square followed by a zoomed out picture followed by a clip of the Hussars charging the line. Basically what I'm trying to say is that it's really cool that you are explaining all these things the AI are doing, but it's really hard to visualize and comprehend these things when the camera is cutting back and forth to these zoomed in shots. Yes the graphics are lovely, but I want to see the bloody tactics/AI decisions form a position where I can actually make sense of them.

3. Video's too short I want to see more.

And finally, just odd observations, and comments made previously:

1. Jack's scarf: It was really distracting, especially from the angle on the side of his face. The scarf made it look like he was grabbing his throat, so throughout the video I kept asking myself why he was grabbing his throat. Weird I know, so sue me.

2. In regards to the comment Jack made about Cavalry smashing right through his line: The point was that Jack aligned his line down to two files to maximize firepower, and he was saying that since his line was so thin under that formation, it's really suceptible (spelled wrong, I know) to cavalry charge, especially given the outstanding Polish Winged Hussars (which looked awesome by the way. They'd certainly scare the hell out of me). In my mind, he was just informing the viewer that each formation you make use of has its advantages and weaknesses, and you really have to be mindful of them when you're fighting or they could hurt you in a big way.

3. The infantry "glitch" during the Hussar charge. I don't think it was a glitch at all. As others have said, it happens quite often in both M2 and R. The problem with it is that the defending lineman is getting pushed by a horse, and neither of them are dying. In reality I imagine that either the man would get trampled by the horse, the man wouldstab the horse, and maybe get pushed back a little (not to that extent), or the horse would turn away from the pointy piece of steel pointed in its face.
However, I imagine that that would be a little much to ask for, and the image we saw will be fairly commonplace in the game


In conclusion, I liked what I did see, but I wish I could see more of the battle uncut, and from a different angle so as to better discern the strategic elements the programmers have been telling us the AI will implement and leverage. Additionally, I wish that both of these guys wouldn't mumble so much, it's at times very difficult to understand what they're saying.
However, don't get me down, I'm not griping at the game, it looks excellent. I'm more just griping at not getting to see enough of it!