1.03 game-play praise. Some good words for CA for a change.

[Prussian to the Iron]

well, the enemy almost always uses the same combo: 1 big ship, 2 crappy ships. it then curves them around, whiile i try to 'cross the T'.then it degenerates into a micro-manage fest. since the wind is almost always against me, i sometimes try making a line. then the enemy doesnt attack. honestly it gets quite annoying.....

[Slaists]

well, the enemy almost always uses the same combo: 1 big ship, 2 crappy ships. it then curves them around, whiile i try to 'cross the T'.then it degenerates into a micro-manage fest. since the wind is almost always against me, i sometimes try making a line. then the enemy doesnt attack. honestly it gets quite annoying.....

The most annoying feature of the ETW naval engine (as balanced by CA) is that AI's ships can sail directly against the wind and do it faster than my ships sailing with the wind blowing right in their backs...

Darth-mod has done some wonders with this though. It has considerably slowed down ships across the board and the simply CANNOT sail against the wind. In his mod, the AI diligently does 'zig-zag' manouvers across the wind-line to move against wind. So, making the sailing work as it is supposed to is doable even with the current ETW engine and AI. For some reason CA just would not do it...

[hoof]

Strange. I've never noticed any difference between AI ship sailing capability and mine, at least at normal difficulty. Since hard/very-hard gives the AI cheats, it wouldn't surprise me if the naval side had some cheats too (like sailing against the wind). Are you sure you aren't playing at hard/very-hard tactical difficulty?

I verified these cheats in the land-side. Swordsmen vs swordsmen (same type, I forget which), level field, each side having 1 unit. Only on Normal did my side *ever* win. It was more dramatic with line infantry. I set up british infantry vs british infantry, 1 unit each. On hard and above, the AI would consistently finish reloading before I did, up to a few seconds on hard. Only on normal did the AI finish reloading at the same time as me.

CA used to make their Empire games w/o cheats in the tactical game up to at least Hard (don't remember if RTW's AI got cheats at VH in battle). The idea was that the AI's battle tactics would improve. Apparently there's new management at CA, because now they cheat again. I *really* hope that Normal battle difficulty gives us the full-blown tactical AI, because I *hate* cheating AI, and it would be sad that in order to get the better tactical AI, I have to accept cheats too.

[Prussian to the Iron]

in land battles, i always do VH battle difficult, and easy with naval battles.

[Slaists]

in land battles, i always do VH battle difficult, and easy with naval battles.

I guess, you can do it with custom battles. In campaign battles though you're stuck with whatever difficulty you selected at the start of the campaign.

[Prussian to the Iron]

no..........

right before you go ino the battle, press 'esc' to bring up the in-game menu. then, go to 'options', 'game options'. tere it should say 'battle difficulty'. al the way to the left is easy,all the way to the right is very hard.

you cannot change the campaign difficulty, but you can with th ebattle difficulty.

[Hooahguy]

no..........

right before you go ino the battle, press 'esc' to bring up the in-game menu. then, go to 'options', 'game options'. tere it should say 'battle difficulty'. al the way to the left is easy,all the way to the right is very hard.

you cannot change the campaign difficulty, but you can with the battle difficulty.

really? i didnt know that! maybe now i can actually win some naval battles!

also, i have some really good praise for ETW.

the AI is actually not as bad as everyone says it is.
today i attacked Copenhagen, i was playing as Sweden (H/H). i used a full force, 2 cannon, 4 cav, a general, and 13 infantry, as well as 2 cav, 4 infantry as reinforcements.

the enemy had used those anti-cavalry stakes (the ones shaped like big X's) at the strategic points on the battlefield, blocking access for my cavalry, and making moving my infantry around a royal pain.

the first phase of the battle went well, besides the fact that my cannons couldnt reach the enemy. i split my army into 3 groups: left, right, and middle, 5 units of line infantry on each flank, 3 in the middle.
i was pushing back the enemy on all fronts. i sent my cav around to take out the cannon emplacements on both sides, as well as rout the skirmishers around them. we were pushing them back, and i thought "this wasnt so hard."

but then 2 things happened:
1) enemy cavalry ambushed my cavalry, making all but one of my cav units rout, as well as scare my infantry.
2) the remaining infantry went into buildings throughout the town, and since my arty wasnt in range, i had to take them down with my troops. but i didnt realize that there were garrisoned enemies around until i investigated why my men were taking casualties when there werent any enemies around at first glance. i lost about 250 before i realized. i sent my men into the buildings in waves. id let them tire in fighting, then pull them out, then replace them.
but what was concerning was that the average unit size at that time was 50-70, a few had 120. my reinforcements hadnt come yet, and i had to win. win or go bankrupt. so i kept sending my men to their deaths, with the song "Disposable Heroes" (by Metallica) going through my head:

Back to the front
you will do what I say, when I say
Back to the front
you will die when I say, you must die
Back to the front
you coward
you servant
you blindman

eventually a few of my units routed. i didnt care. they only had about 30 men, and they would make way for fresh units of line infantry to come. sure enough, they came. just like in the movies, as my men were wavering, the 4 units of line infantry came and reinforced my other units.

the sight of 4 new Swedish units broke the spirit of the danish, who lost their general in a volley from my line infantry a bit back. researching fire by rank REALLY helped.

as the enemy fled the garrisoned buildings, i sent everyone to give chase, and not a single Danish soldier remained.
pity i forgot to turn FRAPS on.
heres a pic of the battlefield and its progression as i remembered it:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

wow. this battle taught me a lot, especially to research mortars ASAP. but i was so impressed with the enemy AI, the people who say its still dumb clearly havent had an experience like i did.
and im no bad infantry commander. i recently beat a russian force 3 times my size on the battlefield. pity that im a horrible admiral.

[Slaists]

no..........

right before you go ino the battle, press 'esc' to bring up the in-game menu. then, go to 'options', 'game options'. tere it should say 'battle difficulty'. al the way to the left is easy,all the way to the right is very hard.

you cannot change the campaign difficulty, but you can with th ebattle difficulty.

Oh, hehe. That's great. I had no idea about this feature. Thanks!

Not that I find medium naval battles too hard. But this leaves room for adjusting battle difficulty up for some of the more boring encounters.