Empire: Total War

[Tigranes]

I abandoned the Dutch game and started a Prussian one at H/H. After about 10 years of building up (difficult because of lack of funds despite my Indiaman marathon) I decided to declare war on Poland-Lithuania. The problem is, I could only afford to upkeep 2 armies, and one was stuck in the West because Saxony would hit me if I moved. That left Denmark free to blockade my port (too busy making indiamen to make a navy) and bleeding my economy dry. On the East I managed to take Gdansk and Warsaw after a struggle and quickly force a peace with Poland and Russia, but the minor nations won't stop and Courland kept attacking. My by-now 7 star general nearly got himself killed chasing them too far up North (was outnumbered 3:1 with no retreat option and had to enter battle then run like hell), and now Warsaw is rebelling. And my Western army STILL can't move as Saxony is checking it.

 

Darthmod 0.2 over at twcenter appears to have made SOME naval invasions possible, along with a host of other fixes/changes including longer-range, less accurate muskets, more aggressive / dynamic major faction behaviour and such. I am skeptical about a fwe of the changes but will try later when I get off work.

[Tigranes]

OK, screw Darthmod - others seem to love it but it does nothing but destroy the battle AI for me. Back to that Prussia campaign.

 

There's a patch out with some technical fixes - I don't really want to turn Steam online unless I have to so I'll skip, but might be good news for some.

[Calax]

OK, screw Darthmod - others seem to love it but it does nothing but destroy the battle AI for me. Back to that Prussia campaign.

 

There's a patch out with some technical fixes - I don't really want to turn Steam online unless I have to so I'll skip, but might be good news for some.

*checks the update* looks like they primairly fixed crashes, but I do wonder why they limited saves to 1000 slots.

[Tigranes]

Probably so that less tech-savvy people just end up with a huge number of saves and find their hard drives got full - what with ETW's save naming system.

[Kaftan Barlast]

They released ANOTHER patch just like 20min ago. Which was necessary because I kept getting "out of video memory" crash errors.. on a card with 1gb memory

[Calax]

They released ANOTHER patch just like 20min ago. Which was necessary because I kept getting "out of video memory" crash errors.. on a card with 1gb memory

the new one just dealt with deleted saves I think.

[Gorgon]

The soundmixing somehow got worse. It's like a couple of channels are missing. Don't think the musket sounds were that good to begin with, also I was trying out the Austrians and after the patch I lost the ability to recruit Grenziers, which are like the creme de la creme of light infantry.

 

 

This game has a lot of promise, but I think it would have been better if they had limited it more. Or separated the theaters like they did in their last release. One unique campaign for crusades, one for Americas, one for the Teutons, etc.

 

Still annoying is the lag on fleet movement. Just clicking on one of my ports instigates a 4-5 second pause sometimes.

[Kaftan Barlast]

The latest patch fixed my sound problems again after the last one screwed them up. The musketfire just looped like crazy, but its good again.

 

 

 

..but they still havent fixed the misplaced stats on the ships. 2nd rates are still completely useless while light galleons have amazing firepower

[Tigranes]

It was meant to be a sound/CTD/etc tech 'hotfix'. Though I'd consider the ship stats a 'hotfix'....

 

We'll see exactly what they deliver on that next 'content' patch. Naval invasions, AI, Ship stats, artillery not listening to orders, freaking reinforcements, etc.

 

In my Prussian campaign I found that as usual, you can NEVER make peace with a 1-state minor if that minor garrisons his entire army. Victory means annexation; doing nothing means they think they're strong enough to resist. Go CA.

[Kaftan Barlast]

I have no idea how the AI reasons when it comes to peace negotioations. I managed to get a peacy treaty with the russians after I took Moscow but thats the only time an AI has agreed to peace. Denmark is isolated out on iceland with no money and no army but they absolutely refuse peace or any other offer I bring.

 

 

 

The amphibious invasions are strange, could they do that in previous TW games or is this something CA has never succeeded to implement?

[Tigranes]

It definitely takes the proximity and relative size of your armed forces, the strength of your and their alliances, the current diplomatic relations and the progress of the war so far (in terms of won/lost battles and regions) into account. e.g. Allies will refuse to join you if the opposing alliance is deemed to be significantly stronger; state gifts can pave the way for peace more effectively than paying $ in return for peace can; having bigger armies on the border does have an effect.

 

However, the way majors and minors think seem a little different, since majors often act prudently as per above parameters (sometimes TOO prudent; e.g. you can basically grab flanders then immediately peace with Spain as the dutch), but minors will accept nothing unless they are truly left with nothing.

 

The amphibious invasions are strange, could they do that in previous TW games or is this something CA has never succeeded to implement?

 

They utterly failed to implement it in RTW and MTW2; and it took one game a months-late patch, and another one the expansion pack, to put it in the game (and even then not very robust). Which, along with the bugged landbridge in vanilla RTW, meant... utter tripe.

[Gorgon]

I recommend trying out the hardest campaign difficulty and playing a mainland nation. I'm playing as France and had no choice but to invade England after they declared war and blocked the channel, it's been 10 or so turns back and forth with every battle mattering. I now hold Scotland and the British navy has been sufficiently reduced to allow reinforcements and trade income some turns as well. Two of the minor nations around Italy have taken advantage and are on the attack, only one stack left to hold them off in Italy, if I lost it they are going to raid all my buildings in France and I'll go bankrupt.

[Calax]

well I went back and did about 10 turns as sweden again. my tech level (other than infantry) is WAY behind everyone elses, but I've got a "terrifying" military presence. I'm working on a war with poland/lithuania and russia Currently the Ruskies I think are having trouble economically because at best they're sending one and two unit stacks to attack my north (while I sent a pair of 3/4 stacks to start sacking their territories) Poland however is husbanding their forces (I sent a similar stack to the ones in Russia, after Vilnus and it got DEMOLISHED by a full stack of units). So right now I've just decided to hold the line with Poland (which is fairly easy) while I'm working russia over.

 

I had my first heroic victory (a 9 stack of line infantry and grenadiers attacked a single unit of line infantry... I lost two people to their 115) and promptly crashed to desktop. I was pissed.

[Gorgon]

The musketfire comes and go goes and half the battles end in crashes. Not to mention massive lag on the campaign map once you have a lot of regions and a lot of trade routes. Every time you click on your capital or on any ships in the same theater there is a 4 second lag. They said they fixed the boarding bug that would cause a crash, and I just had to reboot because my computer froze when I ordered a ship to board.

 

I'm going to shelf this for the time being.

Edited March 28, 2009 by Gorgon

[Moatilliatta]

If there is anyone left who haven't left the game because it's a buggy mess then they should think about downloading this Royal Family Mod. I don't think it enables any actual gamplay but it gives information that could be usefull.

 

I hope thy'll be able to do more with it in the future.

[Kaftan Barlast]

Rubbish! Its not a buggy mess, its just as stable as any other game out there and Im still having great fun playing it. It is a fantasticly entertaining strategy game and you have to get it if you like TW.

[Moatilliatta]

Why don't you just admit that you're really Volourn?

 

I didn't actually mean it like that and it was mostly a commentary on how most people seemed to have stopped playing. Now that you've gotten me started I'l say that the AI building troops for amphibious landings that it is incapable of making makes it both buggy and pretty stupid.

[Hurlshort]

Great mod!

 

The TW games are the kind that I get super into for a couple weeks, then drop for months, and then eventually drift back to. That is what I find great about them.

[Niten_Ryu]

Empire TW is a buggy mess but major bugs don't bother me much. Maybe it's sign that I've played PC games too long and have way too high tolerance for bugs

 

Worst gameplay bug has to be the fact that enemies don't use ships to move troops. This means you only need about 3 full stacks at max in any point of the game, as you can leave most of your land undefended. This leads to huge gold reserves and thus make the whole game easier. In my latest campaign, world domination vh / vh, by the year 1745 I had reach the target of 40 areas. I still can't do naval battes, unless I have huge advantage but I haven't lost land battle in long time. Especially after you get "Fire by Rank", as it's so powerful that it should have been base talent for all.

[Tigranes]

The TW games are the kind that I get super into for a couple weeks, then drop for months, and then eventually drift back to. That is what I find great about them.

 

Same. It does testify to what great games they are, but also to how critically flawed they are.

 

I wouldn't mind so much if they were actually trying to fix that. I love how they've unlocked the royal family though, the modders - if they can restore full functionality it would be amazing.

[Morgoth]

I'm going so far and say from the little I've played that ETW is total trash. This game needs another year of patches before I even consider playing it.

[Monte Carlo]

Morgoth speaks with much wisdom.

 

I'm playing MTW2 a couple of years after release, modded and expansion-packed by fans with pro tech skillz.

 

Result? The game I'd like to have played on release. It's utterly awesome.

 

I have no doubt, whatsoever, that it'll be the same with E:TW in about 18 months from now. This is why I'm happy not buying it yet.

 

Cheers

MC

[Calax]

My swede's now have control of everything north east of Warsaw except for Courland. I managed to make what remained of Poland into my protectorate (apparently taking Saxony's protectorship from them too). Now I'm left with a choice, take on Russia and keep moving south (into Turkish territory) or head West and kill prussia (taking the last few victory conditions). I'm leaning towards prussia but finishing off Russia sounds fun too.

 

Btw is there anyway to look of a census of Troop numbers and populations of your territories?

[Kaftan Barlast]

MY Swedes have invaded America and are about to go to India, but Im having problem with cities. What differentiates a fully buildable city from one where you can just have a goverment building and walls? It cant be population, Christiania has a pop of 1.5 million, but I cant build anything there. And

[Tigranes]

It's what type of building you start with. If you take over many native cities they will be limited. Simply demolish & rebuild (esp. with native farms).