Empire: Total War

[Pidesco]

I'm really not liking the decreased number of provinces in Empire. M2TW already had too few provinces, as it was.

 

 

Also, the number of playable factions is really, really limited, especially for such a large number of existing factions.

[Kaftan Barlast]

The numbers of provinces arent decreased, its just that theyre spread out unevenly. Like central europe is absolutely cramped, while France is a single province. And since you have also America and India to play with, ETW has the most provinces of all TW games.

[Musopticon?]

Could someone actually count the provinces on the maps in ETW? I'm interested in hearing about mod potential, heh. IIRC, Rome had an absolute maximum limit of 199 provinces(+sea, which was one province), but you could circumvent the limit by merging unneeded provinces(such as all desert areas which didn't see any habitation in that period) into one big province spread out over the map in various locations and freeing province space for more interesting places. Then if you were to hide the province's city in an unreachable place, the AI would ignore the deserts entirely. In fact, in Rome and Medieval 2, the sea actually had a "capital", an invisible and unconquerable one, but still a capital. ^_^ Yeah, for r'lyeh.

[Tigranes]

I like fewer provinces, so that it doesn't become a siege/micro fest. They did need to divide Spain and France into two, though.

 

I just hit that disillusionment point. In 1768 I built up a lot of armies and planned meticulously for a three-front invasion into French/Spanish territory in Europe and the Americas. Well, I was hoping for some big battles, and I got them, but the most important ones ended up being autoresolved because they would be about 3 full stacks v. 3 full stacks. I have no problem with THEM having 3 stacks, but I hate the way your own trickle into the battlefield at the stupidest places and you need to sit there adn manage them all day.

 

Even worse, after I took Flanders, Alsace-Lorraine, and ~3-4 American colonies from both France and Spain, I started marching towards Paris to try and get a peace agreement... when I noticed with my rakes that Spain had 5 full stacks in the middle of Spain (not even attacking Gibraltar!!!). Moronic "AI can't do amphibious" bug strikes again. The Ai probably wanted to attack my Netherlands, but couldn't get Military Access with France (WHY NOT?!?!) and... decided not to attack Gibraltar which is just below them. --;; So I won the war and now I'm getting 50k+ a turn, with 40 provinces and only needing Hindustan for the prestige victory.

 

The early game was really fun, but when you all get multiple stacks the amphibious bug (heh, 'bug', it's really a feature spanning THREE DOODLY GAMES CA YOU ARE WORSE THAN A POO PUDDING) and the bad reinforcements system really stands out.

[Gorgon]

Yeah, island real estate is a good catch, you will never have to defend it.

 

I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in artillery. All it seems to be able to do is to alter the AI response a little, and take down buildings. The most you can hope for is a handful of enemy casualties even if you have concentrations to aim at.

 

One time I had massed 3 of those short range anti infantry pucker guns aimed at an approaching enemy mele unit, pirates I believe. A great clamor of smoke and noise ensued and I mouse over the enemy unit to see how many of them could be left. 5 casualties, 5.... The pucker guns were then summarily overrun and destroyed. Not worth the upkeep or the slow campaign movement.

 

Naval warfare is fun, except that it takes way too long, ships seem to be able to withstand 20 or 30 broadsides before anything drastic happens. I'm hoping that improves once I can field first and second rate ships of the line. It also gets overly complicated with more than 4 or 5 ships total.

Edited March 14, 2009 by Gorgon

[Tigranes]

All it seems to be able to do is to alter the AI response a little, and take down buildings.

 

I was defending a star fort from the French retaliation, and had two rockets in the centre firing at them. They began climbing the walls en masse at one concentrated position and broke through, which I was pleasantly surprised with... until they ALL ran past my remaining forces, down the steps, and all ran at the artillery. Which let my remaining forces regroup and close in on them shooting from all sides. The AI seems very sensitive to where your artillery is or where your general is, but so much so that it doesn't think about the rest of your forces.

 

I don't get naval battles anymore because they all stay in their ports, and if I blockade they never fight back. Hell even if I let them be they don't really come to you. The AI is *seriously* broken on the water and it always has been; CA is just rubbish at it. I would in fact be happier with a mod with some setting where the entire map is land with lakes and rivers, but with very detailed and rough topography.

[Pope]

I'm hearing from many people that Empire is good, but not as fun as previous TW games. What are you guys' thoughts on this?

[Kaftan Barlast]

They're full of ***, ETW is just more of the same TW stuff we all love. With naval battles and some small changes and improvements. The fun level is the same as with any other TW game (except shogun, which sucks because ninjas are gay)

 

 

 

the situation is like this: there is a minority of people who are extremely loud with their whining on forums etc. but the other 99% who have no problems or complaints are too busy playing the game. There was a massive "thankyou this game is great" thread on the steam forums but the angry "ETW wont run on my 13 year old pentium 2, it sucks!!!" threads drowned it out.

Edited March 14, 2009 by Kaftan Barlast

[Pidesco]

Well, the game is at aleast as good as previous Total Wars but, again, it is seriously let down by the AI. I mean, it's like, again, they didn't do any work whaqtsoever on the AI, which in a grand strategy game such as this one is pretty unforgivable.

[Morgoth]

From the little bit I've played, ETW is just Rome with slightly updated graphics. And more bugs.

[Hurlshort]

I miss the family lineage tree stuff a bit.

[Pope]

Well, whatever people say about it, I really want to play this game. But the problem is that my gaming pc has no internet connection (nor do I want it to be connected), so activating and patching it through Steam is quite impossible.

 

 

 

Ah well, I had to skip M2TW because of a lack of pc that could run it at the time, so I might as well play that one. Any recommended mods for it?

Edited March 14, 2009 by Pope

[Gorgon]

All it seems to be able to do is to alter the AI response a little, and take down buildings.

 

I was defending a star fort from the French retaliation, and had two rockets in the centre firing at them. They began climbing the walls en masse at one concentrated position and broke through, which I was pleasantly surprised with... until they ALL ran past my remaining forces, down the steps, and all ran at the artillery. Which let my remaining forces regroup and close in on them shooting from all sides. The AI seems very sensitive to where your artillery is or where your general is, but so much so that it doesn't think about the rest of your forces.

 

I don't get naval battles anymore because they all stay in their ports, and if I blockade they never fight back. Hell even if I let them be they don't really come to you. The AI is *seriously* broken on the water and it always has been; CA is just rubbish at it. I would in fact be happier with a mod with some setting where the entire map is land with lakes and rivers, but with very detailed and rough topography.

If you take the port with infantry it forces the naval battle, the ports aren't usually garrisoned so you just need one unit of anything to force a naval battle while blockading a port.

[Rosbjerg]

Ah well, I had to skip M2TW because of a lack of pc that could run it at the time, so I might as well play that one. Any recommended mods for it?

 

Medieval II mods:

Broken Crescent - Moves the entire campaign to the Arabian/Persian lands.. I've always enjoyed playing the Muslim factions, so this is a favorite for me.

 

Kingdoms Expansion mods:

Stainless Steel - Makes some massive changes, including an upcoming AOR recruitment based on the cultural area of the settlements.

 

Grand Campaign Mod - My favorite! includes all the factions and units from the Kingom Campaigns into the vanilla campaign, with a much larger map and better AI. Including a garrison script (causes settlements to recieve free units when besieged, so you can't steamroll the bigger nations anymore)

[Pope]

Great, thx a lot.

 

Keep in mind that I will be starting as a noob, so are there any of those mods I should avoid for now? I reckon some of them would be made for hardcore players.

[Rosbjerg]

No not really - most of them are made so that they are the most challenging on VH/VH - but if you play on Medium or Hard it's just like the vanilla.

[Calax]

well it's 1732 and I managed to take out the french (as the brits) I'm technically at war with prussia, the huron confederacy and I think one more group that doesn't start as an enemy, but they haven't really moved against me. I was frustrated when Spain kept popping up offering me 4 territories around the globe in return for france. I usually said no, but at one point i hit the wrong button and gave france to spain... oh well, I'll just have to kick their ass from here to portugal. I"m allied with the united colonies who've been fighting with prussia, and sweden for most of the game (thats the other guy, sweden!) but in general they've been keeping things at status quo. Right now I'm trying to keep all my territories updated (which isn't exactly an easy thing to do when they're spread all over the freaking map) so most of my money is gone for a while.

 

In the Americas I started with one lonely outpost that was taken by the huron because I didn't even try to break the siege (to my stupidity), I turned around and sent a fleet with 5 line infantry and 2 pikemen. I beat the huron, then pressed into their capital and haven't seen anything from them since. Interesting thing, when I took out france in europe, they were officially gone from the rest of the world, Ottowa became rebels, and Quebec became a country in it's own right (I'm debating smashing them). I'm getting some trade ships together with a fleet of 4th rate ships of the line to go smash a pirates nest and put together some trade, hopefully bringing in more money.

 

It was fun when I took the final french city in europe, They had walls which I pounded into dust on either side of the main gate while my infantry stayed well out of range of their rifles. I killed probably 120 soldiers just by taking the walls out from underneath them, and trapped most of their forces on those sections of the walls you can't attack (for whatever reason), then I used my infantry to run around to one side and get in behind them.

 

Btw, grenades are AWESOME for changing the tide of a fight. Admittedly you do have to select to use them each time, but one set of tosses and you've got a pretty casualty report in a division or two.

[Moatilliatta]

I miss the family lineage tree stuff a bit.

I seem to remember that there are files for something like that in the game and CA most likely just didn't have the time to finish it. It might get modded in if true.

[Rostere]

Well, the game is at aleast as good as previous Total Wars but, again, it is seriously let down by the AI. I mean, it's like, again, they didn't do any work whaqtsoever on the AI, which in a grand strategy game such as this one is pretty unforgivable.

 

That's completely true... I thought the Medieval 2: TW AI was bad, but this is even worse.

[Gorgon]

I'm getting some trade ships together with a fleet of 4th rate ships of the line to go smash a pirates nest and put together some trade, hopefully bringing in more money.

 

Trade is basically a mad dash for the trade theater slots in the first few turns, then eventually your cities with trade ports take over. I managed to get 8 of them in the beginning as the English, with a bit of luck and help from the pirates killing off the others, that gave me 9k in trade income every turn.

 

Of course you have to be careful not to go to war without making sure your enemies cant block the channel.

 

Now in control of most of India as well as Scandinavia, plus 3 islands in the Caribbean, research is going much faster with 4 universities, I have more money than I can spend. Not much challenge in beating the victory conditions left now.

Edited March 15, 2009 by Gorgon

[Calax]

I'm getting some trade ships together with a fleet of 4th rate ships of the line to go smash a pirates nest and put together some trade, hopefully bringing in more money.

 

Trade is basically a mad dash for the trade theater slots in the first few turns, then eventually your cities with trade ports take over. I managed to get 8 of them in the beginning as the English, with a bit of luck and help from the pirates killing off the others, that gave me 9k in trade income every turn.

 

Of course you have to be careful not to go to war without making sure your enemies cant block the channel.

 

Now in control of most of India as well as Scandinavia, plus 3 islands in the Caribbean, research is going much faster with 4 universities, I have more money than I can spend. Not much challenge in beating the victory conditions left now.

well that's the reason I've got the fleet and trade ships headed down there. I had a few posted, but a rather large pirate fleet (that's around because I haven't exterminated a pirates nest in the Caribbean) just went to the coast of brazil and mopped the floor with every trade ship down there. Meanwhile I've demolished one of the main people who was taking the other slots in the trade zones anyway so :shrugs: I should be able to clean up.

[Kaftan Barlast]

Is anyone else bothered by how easy it is for your enemy to wipe out for artillery because your artillerymen cant man the guns again after having been scared away? I had poperly guarded my art position but a single enemy horse managed to push through and scared away two gun crews, crippling my artillery. No one died, but they just stood there by their guns doing nothing for the duration of the battle.

[Tigranes]

You can select the crew then hover your cursor over the guns, and you will get a hand cursor. Click and they will man the guns again.

[Pope]

rifle smoke and drums mod:

 

[Gorgon]

You can select the crew then hover your cursor over the guns, and you will get a hand cursor. Click and they will man the guns again.

The crews have a fraction next to them, 2/4, 4/4, thats how many guns are left after the melee, the rest are assumed to be destroyed even though there is no animation for it. If there are no guns left they turn into a melee unit.

Edited March 15, 2009 by Gorgon