First Impressions

[AussieGiant]

I remember saying this a bloody long time ago many many games ago.

Before anyone start hammering the AI, make sure you are playing on VH/VH...otherwise it MIGHT be by actual DESIGN that you are winning.

Crapping on the AI while on M/M is like a Polar Bear complaining that Australia is too hot in summer.

[andrewt]

I'm not familiar with this time period, but I'm a bit disappinted that the unit rosters are very similar. Then again, MTW2's isn't that great, either. They mostly just had different names for essentially the same units. I kinda miss MTW where almost every faction has 1-2 specialized units that nobody else has that gives it an advantage.

It seems towns and units are harder to spot in the campaign map as well. And there's no option to see stuff like income permanently on the game map. You have to mouse over the town name. Other than that, the new campaign map looks really promising.

[Sir Beane]

I'm not familiar with this time period, but I'm a bit disappinted that the unit rosters are very similar. Then again, MTW2's isn't that great, either. They mostly just had different names for essentially the same units. I kinda miss MTW where almost every faction has 1-2 specialized units that nobody else has that gives it an advantage.

It seems towns and units are harder to spot in the campaign map as well. And there's no option to see stuff like income permanently on the game map. You have to mouse over the town name. Other than that, the new campaign map looks really promising.

It's historical. During the 18th century everyone used more or less the same units, with uniform and technology being the only variations. It makes the game more balanced at least .

I'd like to see more variety though, and hopefully the moders can help us there .

[ArtillerySmoke]

It's historical. During the 18th century everyone used more or less the same units, with uniform and technology being the only variations. It makes the game more balanced at least .

I'd like to see more variety though, and hopefully the moders can help us there .

You guys are crazy lol. The game's out 1 day and we're already talking about mods.

[Sir Beane]

You guys are crazy lol. The game's out 1 day and we're already talking about mods.

We were talking about mods month before the game even came out . Although sadly at the moment mods are completely impossible.

[AussieGiant]

Holy Royal Mail Batman!!!!

It's arrived!! And 4 days earlier than expected!!!

The weekend has been destroyed!!!

[Belid Hagen]

im not all that impressed with the "new" AI. So far I've only lost one battle, and that was my half stack army of americans, with all units at half strenght. against two half stack armies of brits / natives with full strenght units. so about 1:4 in numbers. and i did just as much damage as i recived before the continued defense became impossible, and I withdrawing in an orderly fasion.

[andrewt]

It's historical. During the 18th century everyone used more or less the same units, with uniform and technology being the only variations. It makes the game more balanced at least .

I'd like to see more variety though, and hopefully the moders can help us there .

Yeah, I took a look at all the unit rosters using the play battle mode. It looked at first like France has a lot of unique units, then I compared their roster to Britain's, and it seems like CA just gave them their French names in the English version to sound "different".

I'm still deciding which faction I want to start as. United Provinces looks like they have a nice starting position but I don't think there's another faction with a more vanilla roster. I might just start with Road to Independence to get used to this period's tactics.

Oh, and I didn't know the U.S. would only be playable on the RTI campaign. That's more historically accurate, though.

[Sir Beane]

Yeah, I took a look at all the unit rosters using the play battle mode. It looked at first like France has a lot of unique units, then I compared their roster to Britain's, and it seems like CA just gave them their French names in the English version to sound "different".

I'm still deciding which faction I want to start as. United Provinces looks like they have a nice starting position but I don't think there's another faction with a more vanilla roster. I might just start with Road to Independence to get used to this period's tactics.

Oh, and I didn't know the U.S. would only be playable on the RTI campaign. That's more historically accurate, though.

Great Britain has the most unique units I think, especially if you have Special Forces. Other than that the Maratha have some interesting units like Elephant General's bodyguard.

[Sol Invictus]

I have only finished Ch. 1 of RtI; lol; but my initial impressions are great because after hearing of the problems some people are having with Steam, I am just happy to have had a seemless installation and was able to start without a crash. Game looks nice and runs well on High with my mediocre system. I am dieing to jump into the GC, but I am going to complete RtI as soon as I can first. I hope my good fortune continues this eve.

[ArtillerySmoke]

I have only finished Ch. 1 of RtI; lol; but my initial impressions are great because after hearing of the problems some people are having with Steam, I am just happy to have had a seemless installation and was able to start without a crash. Game looks nice and runs well on High with my mediocre system. I am dieing to jump into the GC, but I am going to complete RtI as soon as I can first. I hope my good fortune continues this eve.

Don't see any reason that they won't.

I love how RtI is in the game. It's a great introduction to things without getting too deeply involved in a GC.

I'll be installing later on and ...I can barely contain my excitement lol. I saw some Napoleonic battles portrayed on the Military Channel the other night and was just like "I cannot believe I'll be commanding battles like this soon".

[Melvish]

Yeah, I took a look at all the unit rosters using the play battle mode. It looked at first like France has a lot of unique units, then I compared their roster to Britain's, and it seems like CA just gave them their French names in the English version to sound "different".

Yes it is a vaillaint effort from CA but some of those french name made me laugh. It is not Coureur de bois" but "Coureur DES bois". Also "Bataillion de petit-vieux"? I was like lol!! a Regiment a cripple old men!

It is nice that the unit properly use their native language properly this time, i like my game with Prussia where the orders are actually bark out in German, quite immersive. It really add up to the game play.

[ArtillerySmoke]

I remember saying this a bloody long time ago many many games ago.

Before anyone start hammering the AI, make sure you are playing on VH/VH...otherwise it MIGHT be the by actual DESIGN that you are winning.

Crapping on the AI while on M/M is like a Polar Bear complaining that Australia is too hot in summer.

I've seen posts about M2TW with people complaining that the AI is "too easy" on the easiest difficulties, but yet it never occurred to them that they're playing on sandbox mode.

The AI is supposed to be dumb as rocks on the easiest difficulties.

[AussieGiant]

I've seen posts about M2TW with people complaining that the AI is "too easy" on the easiest difficulties, but yet it never occurred to them that they're playing on sandbox mode.

The AI is supposed to be dumb as rocks on the easiest difficulties.

Exactly!!

[DEY123]

I have been playing the TW games since the first MTW (I lost my log in and created a new one). I would say that so far that AI seems vastly improved over RTW and M2TW. With MTW I think some things were a bit scripted since there was a limit on the number of battlefields the computer was forced to fight on...

Anyhow I find that on H/H The computer is a reasponable opponent on land and on Sea I get torn to pieces but I am guessing that is because my tactics suck there. There are of course the occasional oddities like the danes sending single line infantry units to take my port even though I have a much larger stack in the way. If not for my stack this would be a very smart move...Anyhow as with all games I'm sure the AI has some big weaknesses but at least unlike RTW and even more so M2TW I can't just send a unit around the flank and cause the enemy to go into a mass route..


All in all I'm liking E:TW, but still working on all the new campaign details (which is great as the campaign in M2TW was too similar to RTW in my opinion).

Anyhow I'm very glad I got this game. I am playing with most things set to High (except grass and sea as I recall Grass slowing stuff down). Additionally I have no anti-aliasing set up and am playing 1280 x 1024. I do have smoke and Haze turned on I use Fraps and have yet to see the FPS dip below 18 and normally on the battles in the 20s (largest battle was probably 15 on 15).

My PC is a decent rig ( I paid about $200 recently to upgrade my CPU from a 3800+ and my GPU from a 7600GT)

Win XP
AMD X2 6000+ (overclocked by about 5%)
2GB of RAM (4-4-4-12 running above 800MHz)
512MB 9800GT (paid like $120 at tiger direct)

Anyhow back to playing.