So, the demo...

[The historian]

I give it 3 stars for the problems with the installation i faced started at 3 pm and finished at 11 pm due to the fact that the download kept stooping got up to 1 meg then down and stop, start, stop, etc aaaaaah... well you know what i mean.
Played the tutorial seemed to easy so when i started the battle though maybe I'm just that good, so i charged though the defended forge towards the the canons with al lmy cavalry cavalry and placed the artilery in suport got slaughtered evidently, went to the other crossing with the general got him killed fast lost light infantry and grenadiers in a last charge vs guns so i thought well that was stupid the AI will surely whipe the floor with me now you'd think, i'd lost all cav the general the artilery the grenadiers and the lgiht infantry and the ai had lost 30 me, wrong!! i crossed at the other river crossing with the remainder of the infantry and held of the AI cavalry with one of the hessian's, the AI came in the same nice stupid fashio of one on one so ai cavalry all dead
advanced with the infantry to the town hall and there i placed myself defensively vs the ai not exactly in front but on the hill in the forest, what dii it do next it went around with almost all of it's infantry to attack from the rear and they came one by one till i killed them all and them charged the guns.
So the AI is the same as MTW and RTW , that is that's why i say 3 stars The AI outnumbered me 3 to 1 i lost the general the cavalry the guns and it somehow manged to lose.Other then the ai it's what i expected so i'm pleased with it wait for the game:D

[miniwally]

I give it 3 stars for the problems with the installation i faced started at 3 pm and finished at 11 pm due to the fact that the download kept stooping got up to 1 meg then down and stop, start, stop, etc aaaaaah... well you know what i mean.
Played the tutorial seemed to easy so when i started the battle though maybe I'm just that good, so i charged though the defended forge towards the the canons with al lmy cavalry cavalry and placed the artilery in suport got slaughtered evidently, went to the other crossing with the general got him killed fast lost light infantry and grenadiers in a last charge vs guns so i thought well that was stupid the AI will surely whipe the floor with me now you'd think, i'd lost all cav the general the artilery the grenadiers and the lgiht infantry and the ai had lost 30 me, wrong!! i crossed at the other river crossing with the remainder of the infantry and held of the AI cavalry with one of the hessian's, the AI came in the same nice stupid fashio of one on one so ai cavalry all dead
advanced with the infantry to the town hall and there i placed myself defensively vs the ai not exactly in front but on the hill in the forest, what dii it do next it went around with almost all of it's infantry to attack from the rear and they came one by one till i killed them all and them charged the guns.
So the AI is the same as MTW and RTW , that is that's why i say 3 stars The AI outnumbered me 3 to 1 i lost the general the cavalry the guns and it somehow manged to lose.Other then the ai it's what i expected so i'm pleased with it wait for the game:D

I thought they started from scratch with the AI i have definitely seen some improvements

[Sir Beane]

I give it 3 stars for the problems with the installation i faced started at 3 pm and finished at 11 pm due to the fact that the download kept stooping got up to 1 meg then down and stop, start, stop, etc aaaaaah... well you know what i mean.
Played the tutorial seemed to easy so when i started the battle though maybe I'm just that good, so i charged though the defended forge towards the the canons with al lmy cavalry cavalry and placed the artilery in suport got slaughtered evidently, went to the other crossing with the general got him killed fast lost light infantry and grenadiers in a last charge vs guns so i thought well that was stupid the AI will surely whipe the floor with me now you'd think, i'd lost all cav the general the artilery the grenadiers and the lgiht infantry and the ai had lost 30 me, wrong!! i crossed at the other river crossing with the remainder of the infantry and held of the AI cavalry with one of the hessian's, the AI came in the same nice stupid fashio of one on one so ai cavalry all dead
advanced with the infantry to the town hall and there i placed myself defensively vs the ai not exactly in front but on the hill in the forest, what dii it do next it went around with almost all of it's infantry to attack from the rear and they came one by one till i killed them all and them charged the guns.
So the AI is the same as MTW and RTW , that is that's why i say 3 stars The AI outnumbered me 3 to 1 i lost the general the cavalry the guns and it somehow manged to lose.Other then the ai it's what i expected so i'm pleased with it wait for the game:D

To be fair to the AI its infantry is on average is much poorer than the player's. And cavalry are pretty much worthless in that paticular battle, as they are nowhere near as powerful as in Medieval 2. The fact it is scripted probably doesn't help it either.

It would be better to wait for the actual game before condemning it, during the demo battle there brief moments were it behaved much more intelligently than the RTW or M2TW AI ever did. I think it will be better.

[Thermal]

I can't wait till mine downloads, been 3 hours, I only just realized i was downloading from germany, only on 8%, after 3 hours! moving to east coast america through advice and its already at 46% after 20 mins

[Sir Beane]

I can't wait till mine downloads, been 3 hours, I only just realized i was downloading from germany, only on 8%, after 3 hours! moving to east coast america through advice and its already at 46% after 20 mins

That East Coast server is truly a savior. I don't know how it manages it but it is getting excellent speed. I'm using it now to nab the demo for my laptop and it is twice as fast as UK/Ireland.

[The historian]

Maybe i was a little harsh with the AI, i did use better tactics to win after my initial rash approach charged weak points, used reserves, high ground and forests and othertried and tested MTW and RTW tactics. Maybe i was to harsh but this is what i see as shortcomings of the AI:
Coming at me 2 3 units at a time allowing me to destroy them one by one instead of using it's overwhelming numerical superiority to crush me; charging its general into a square; not using the artillery properly by moving it instead of having it fire at maximum range over a wooded hillside.
I'll admit ambushes were good and the AI dismounted it's cavalry and charged the square after a first unsuccessful charge, the artillery changed to grape shot as i charged and moved down the frirst wave, The AI did do some interesting things.

[Megas Methuselah]

Coming at me 2 3 units at a time allowing me to destroy them one by one instead of using it's overwhelming numerical superiority to crush me;

Agreed.

charging its general into a square;

With its general?! Are you sure?? Its entire army must have been destroyed and the AI itself acting in desperation. Can't blame it for that...

not using the artillery properly by moving it instead of having it fire at maximum range over a wooded hillside.

Agreed.

I'll admit ambushes were good and the AI dismounted it's cavalry and charged the square after a first unsuccessful charge, the artillery changed to grape shot as i charged and moved down the frirst wave, The AI did do some interesting things.

Agreed. For my part, I noticed how it pulled its Line Infantry out of a bloody melee with my highlanders, guards, and hessians in order to regroup with minutemen and long riflemen in the rear, leaving me to struggle with its dragoons and cannon crews. It came back in full force and crushed me with musketfire and bayonet charges. That's the result of me making a frontal assault across the first ford for giggles.

[Thermal]

3/5

Positive

-More Intelligent AI on land
-Great new game feel along with nice unit models
-Garrisoning buildings and destructible buildings evident
-More powerful gunpower than previous games thankfully
-New displayed unit stats, all of which intrigued me
-Fair sea battle graphics

Negative

-Slow download and even slower in game waiting times
-Increasing graphics or increasing any option mostly lead to game crashes, leaving me with disappointing graphics on land battles
-Still rather sluggish AI at sea
-Morale and formations more difficult to judge and access
-While expected as being poor, cavalry are beyond that and are completely useless
-Lack of varied in battle fighting
-Lots of micromanagement needed as units are terribly stupid on there own initiative


Tutorials

I only did the land battle tutorial, the process, while I knew most of it was very nice, a good map to fight the spanish against, it shown building fortification and the potential of the new units

Sea battle


I won my sea battle without losing a single boat! I was amazed at how easy it was, lining up in a row and turning to fire was rather good, but towards the end tiresome as I was chasing a french boat around the map at the slowest of speeds, while the AI acted foolishly, nice visuals though. Looks like I'll be more an admiral than a commander as I did abysmal on the land battle....

Land battle

I failed miserably, the terrain looked so graphically flawed because of my settings too, and I hated the river crossed map, My troops disobeyed and tactics were in short supply, I managed to send my men over the crossing in dribs and drabs and therefore hadn't the power to fight off the unbelievable large horde of the Americans, that once grouped, could take out one of my units in one shot of there packs, more intelligence in my opponent however.


Still going to buy it no doubt, a bit of a mix of thoughts from the demo though.