Empire: Total War

[Calax]

Trying to eliminate the pirates but the mobs at Antigua actually drove me back - my line infantry had to go from building to building and I don't know what's the best way to storm them. If you have too many units rush in there'll be no room; if you have some shoot from the outside it seems to have minimal effect (~1 death per 50 shots). As it is my last units routed at the last building and my general beat a sad retreat from a city that was all but taken. Also found I was still at war with Bavaria as they were a Spanish protectorate. I bargained for military access with Westphalia (2k gold) and now saved just before a big even battle.

simple, have one unit stand outside plinking away as a distraction, set the next unit to melee and have them bum rush the building to get inside. Usually that works for me.

 

I think that CA has been resting on it's laurals. I mean you look at the AI and it seems like they would do just as well on any of the other games... like they'd just took the R:TW AI and said "I'll do" when they should have revamped the entire thing to make up for the (almost) entirely ranged combat.

[Tigranes]

Im thinking about just how mad one can go strategywise in ETW. I successfully invaded America with Sweden, and now Im thinking about going after those nasty Turks and whatnot in Araby. To avenge what they did to Byzantium back in 1453

 

Yep, to make up for the AI I'm going to be pretty weird with the Dutch. Going to take chunks of Mexico/Paraguay, Morocco/Tunisia, Venice/Milan, Constantinople, South India and such.

[Moatilliatta]

Why is it that CA always releases its games with the same forking game breaking bugs? And why don't reviewers ever notice these bugs?

I finally found a review for you without actually looking for one: Tom Chick - Crispy Gamer.

 

Some choice quotes:

It is also a terrible mess from start to finish that makes me wonder if developer Creative Assembly has contempt for its fan base and utter disregard for everyone else.

The tooltips are moderately helpful at laying bare some of the game's mechanics, but they shuffle of their own accord between information and flavor text. Did Creative Assembly really think we wanted to hover the cursor over something to get flavor text?

There's no reason people should be puzzling out on Internet forums vital parts of the game like trade and diplomacy and the efficacy of various troop formations.

Hi, we're from Europa Unversalis, but with less documentation.

 

And the one you've wished for:

Perhaps the most glaring omission is that the AI can't move armies across water, which makes life as the British Empire particularly easy.

[Pidesco]

Tom Chick has always been a proper reviewer.

[Rosbjerg]

I started a new campaign and went as Russia, they are actually pretty good fun - I got into a war on two fronts almost immediatly against Ottoman + the two smaller muslim countries along my border and Sweden. It's really hard to hold everyone off at once, but a great way to get better (they aren't attacking me in full force, but are harrassing me by attack unprotected farmlands etc).

 

My big problem here is the balance of troops, I don't really understand the stats on some of the units. Russia have Cossack units, both mounted and infantry - the line infantry version is really cool, they have swords, so they don't need bayonets - but the cavalry only has 45 in one unit and has the exact same stats and price as a Dragoon, which has 60. So why should I choose the Cossacks? Then I have Hussars, who has worse stats than the Regiment of Horse, but are more expensive. Seems a little stupid to me.

[Kaftan Barlast]

Maybe they have som abilities that the regular troops lack? Still, being able to hide in woodland or whatever, isnt really worth paying extra for.

[Rosbjerg]

Maybe they have som abilities that the regular troops lack? Still, being able to hide in woodland or whatever, isnt really worth paying extra for.

 

I could understand if they just had better attack or more troops or something.. but yeah, if it's just because they can hide behind a bush I don't want an extra upkeep of 100.

 

Besides, Monty Python pretty much proved how futile that is.

[Gorgon]

I have been playing as the Indians and have thrown all western colonizing forces out and united the country, now Afghanistan and Kashmir are rebelling at the same time, sound familiar...

 

I am about to lose patience in dealing with a land purchase proposal every single turn from at least 5 powers though. I'm tempted to declare war on them all just to shut them up.

 

 

The army is fun to play with, although it takes too long to get the elephant musketeers and the big cannons and siege mortars that somewhat make up for the lack of long range infantry. Dedicated melee units with swords like Sikh warriors can make a huge difference kept behind the lines ready to pounce once the enemy engages with bayonets. The general's bodyguard is a small unit of Elephant musketeers, so providing you have the funds you can spawn up to the maximum number of generals and bolster a weak army with elephant tanks wherever needed.

Edited March 20, 2009 by Gorgon

[Enoch]

Yeah, I think I'm going to put this one on the shelf for a little while and see if it ripens. I really don't have the time or patience to figure all the undocumented basic gameplay elements out for myself. I'll take another stab at it once there have been a few patches and once there's a good online reference for all the information that should be in the manual (or, even better, in the game itself).

[Rosbjerg]

Yeah, I think I'm going to put this one on the shelf for a little while and see if it ripens. I really don't have the time or patience to figure all the undocumented basic gameplay elements out for myself. I'll take another stab at it once there have been a few patches and once there's a good online reference for all the information that should be in the manual (or, even better, in the game itself).

 

Might be a good idea - also there's gonna be some cool mods that will make the gameplay tighter and better, but personally I want to have a good grasp at the basics before I jump that wagon.

[Pidesco]

Sad, pathetic thing about Tom Chick's review on Crispy Gamer: Every time someone posts a link to it in CA's official forums it gets deleted. Furthermore, the board's administrator came out and said the review was nothing more than a rant and almost devoid of any information about the game.

[Gorgon]

It really does boggle the mind that they didn't 'cheat' and script some enemy fleet landings knowing that the AI couldn't do it alone.

 

It worked fine with the old engine, Vikings and Saxons landing in England etc.

[Enoch]

Sad, pathetic thing about Tom Chick's review on Crispy Gamer: Every time someone posts a link to it in CA's official forums it gets deleted. Furthermore, the board's administrator came out and said the review was nothing more than a rant and almost devoid of any information about the game.

I've always found the totalwar.org fora to be more useful than the official ones.

[Pidesco]

Yes, the official forums are a bit useless, really. I actually found out about this through a thread on TWCenter.

[Tigranes]

The official forums have very strict moderating under their own rules. But then, I've faded out of TWC a long time ago because when you get a community that big, I find I don't really enjoy the discussions anymore.

 

Really good to see a lot of people chugging away trying to unravel ETW's all-wrapped-up files for modding though (real smart move).

 

So my Dutch campaign is going haywire. Savoy declared war on me and wouldn't quit blocking my routes, so I decided to send a full stack army and half-stack navy over to destroy them. Only the bloody Morocco ships were sitting in the Straits blocking everything, even after I negotiated military access! (Again, broken design) I had no option other than to declare war and destroy Morocco in one fell blow. Then I thought what the heck, it only makes sense to secure the perimeter, and destroyed the Barbary States (that's what you get for refusing outrageous peace offers, you bastards).

 

I've given over the easternmost province to my protectorate, Knights of St. John, to create a buffer so the Ottomans don't feel threatened. Spain seemed to really like Morocco as well, so I decided to trade it for Naples. Perhaps a silly move, given now I"ll probably get stuck in the Straits again, but I like the idea of building up that area of influence in central mediterranean. Having finally destroyed Savoy, I'm looking in the direction of Genoa - should let me bulid up some good trade routes there.

[Kaftan Barlast]

I decided to test how much the Swedish Empire can withstand and thus Im now at war with.. everyone. And the AI decided it had to prove the reviewers wrong and so France laucnhed a devastating attack on the Netherland and destroyed them completely in just a few turns. Awesome.

[Tigranes]

The AI does do well sometimes. No sooner than I moved my armies out of Savoy did Genoa declare war and destroy my small garrison, leaving me hurtin'. The Italian States did the same to Naples. I decided the latter was more important and got back in there... it's just a pity that they keep leaving their only city completely empty while they raid my towns. I don't want to annex and get all the bad rep though, so I'm trying to goad them into protectorateship.

[Calax]

I started a long game as sweden... thus far I've managed to take out a tiny country (it had one province) on the baltic, but ended up trading it to prussia for east prussia and a stack of tech (They're offering me stupid amounts of tech and money for it back now ), got bored and attacked Netherlands, managed to wipe out their european presance (they've still got iceland) and have been driven insane by russia and lituania as they both are sending gentlemen and single unit armies through my northern territories. Right now my main thrust is aimed at Russia while I've got a couple armies holding the larger forces at bay at choke points but my eastern flank is just to open to catch everything. Fortunately I'm earning close to 10k a turn so I'm working on bringing my western armies back up to full (did you know that when you run out of money they automatically cut all your troop numbers in HALF to reduce upkeep?)

 

The AI is pretty easy to exploit. I managed to take a fort with about equal forces and no seige equipment by splitting my army into three pieces two of them (most of my soldiers) I had run up and throw up ladders to the walls (drawing most of the ai's army to those points) then run away, the AI just kinda stood there staring at my soldiers and throwing the odd cannon ball. Meanwhile on the other side of the fort, three regiments of line infantry scaled the wall and quickly got into the fort proper. they fought off the enemy general and a unit of militia and took the center of the fort (starting the victory countdown). In order to prevent the forces on the walls from going down, I simply set the units I'd used to attract their attention to head up the walls. One actually did pretty succesfully and managed to wipe out two units on the wall because one regiment scaled on either side of the two enemy regiments. The others managed to hold their own long enough for the countdown to finish and for me to take the place. (I think I was retaking St. Petersburg actually).

 

Funniest thing I've ever had happen is I had 3 squads of flintlock infantry hold a town (walled) against a line unit. It was pretty hard (pesants SUCK) but I was able to make them scale the damn wall like four times before they started fighting. One of the interesting things I was able to figure out by trial and error was that I was able to change my ministers so that I had the best ministers overall in position to run my government (simply go to the ministers tab and then drag the guy with more stars from below over the one with less stars above instead of just selecting the current minister and hitting the kick button and hoping for the best).

[Rosbjerg]

on Ministers: It's more important what traits they have imo - because most of them are tied to specific positions.

[Calax]

on Ministers: It's more important what traits they have imo - because most of them are tied to specific positions.

problem is that they don't tell you the traits when you're able to look at them down below, I found that if I booted one in favor of a better one (like 3->7 stars) the bonus's were the same thing but the amount of the bonus leap up

[Rosbjerg]

on Ministers: It's more important what traits they have imo - because most of them are tied to specific positions.

problem is that they don't tell you the traits when you're able to look at them down below, I found that if I booted one in favor of a better one (like 3->7 stars) the bonus's were the same thing but the amount of the bonus leap up

 

Yeah they do, you can right click on them just like the ministers.

[Enoch]

I think that your flexibility in replacing ministers depends on what type of government you're in. In an absolute monarchy, you can click-and-drag like Calax described. But in a Constitutional Monarchy, the row of politicians at the bottom represents the opposition party, who can't just be subbed-in one at a time. You either have to do the "boot and pray" method, or call an election that the incumbent party loses (in which case, all your ministers are replaced en masse by the opposition candidates. I haven't played a Republic yet, but I assume it's similar to the Constitutional Monarchy setup.

 

Anyhow, despite my earlier comment about giving the game a rest, I was bored this weekend and played for a while. Played as the Brits, and I really liked how my opening moves worked out. I focused on the American theater-- immediately raising/gathering an army in Jamaica/Bahamas to attack the Cherokee in Georgia, and taking the forces I had in Britain and sending them off to attack the Pirates in the Antilles/Trinidad. Both areas fell quickly (although the pirates have some nasty melee units and took a big bite out of my forces), and I worked on bringing the Antilles army over to North America. While that was going on, the Cherokee, seeing my sizeable army garrisoning Georgia, attacked the Colonies instead, taking both Carolina and Virginia. I grabbed Carolina from them, but left VA to fend for itself. It did-- the United States emerged there, taking territory from the Cherokee while I was moving my two armies inland to take the other two Cherokee territories. Once my forces were done with the natives, one quick strike and the American Revolution was over before it could really begin. (Unless "emergent" factions can emerge more than once. Anyone know if this is the case?)

 

AI behaving oddly note: Once I took the Cherokee Territory region, France and Spain came calling every damn turn with offers to buy it off me. Techs, Territories (Gibraltar and Newfoundland were the most common offers), and gold to balance it out were posed every single time I hit "end turn," and this is with both factions at "hostile" relations. I decided not to accept any of these offers, as I was planning my war with both of these factions. (The one for Newfoundland probably would've worked out well-- retaking the Cherokee Territories would have been much easier than invading Newfoundland-- but the whole deal felt too exploit-ish.) The one trade I did make was to the Iroquois-- Trinidad & Tobago in exchange for an alliance.

 

Anyhow, after several turns of consolidating, recovering, and positioning, I was ready for war with the Franco-Spanish alliance. I had forces ready to strike all over the American theater: In northern New England, 1 turn's march from Quebec (the largest force); in the western Cherokee Territory, 1 turn's march from Upper Louisiana; in Georgia, ready to take the Spanish in Florida; and in a fleet just out of sight of New Orleans. All the battles went well, and I completed my "quest" to absorb the 13 Colonies. Follow-up targets were Ontario, Acadia, Cuba, and Hispanola. My trading suffered a bit, and the Spanish fleet in the Carribean outclassed my own rather badly, so I was constantly dodging it, but overall the war was a smashing success. I eventually made peace with Spain (mostly to protect my navies), but I'm still fighting the French. They're down to Newfoundland and Guyana as their only overseas holdings, and my Channel fleet is blocking all of their sea trade. I'm considering whether a continental invasion to finish them off would be worthwhile.

 

Oh, and somewhere in there (before the war with France & Spain), I sent a force to India and took Gujarat (the Mughal territory with the trading port on the western coast of the sub-continent).

Edited March 23, 2009 by Enoch

[Tigranes]

The wars with Savoy and Italian States were quite challenging, lots of logistical thinking and fun battles... but the AI diplomacy keeps trying to put a needle in my fun balloon. The bloody Pope wouldn't agree to any sort of reasonable peace, and the problem is if I want to reduce his armies to get him to agree, I'd have to take on the big garrison in the city... which, if I won, would eliminate that faction. Same with Savoy. So I ended up destroying Savoy and immediately offering its provinces to get Naples back and a peace.... except (a) I forgot to include peace in the deal so now they have MORE regions and we're still at war, and (b) the retarded relations count does NOT decrease "Territorial expansion" negative points if you get rid of the provinces, so everyone hates me.

 

AI behaving oddly note

 

They do the stupid offers nearly every campaign. They did in previous games as well. The stupid thing is that this shows how if the AI decides X is the best plan of action they will stop doing anything else and just sit there trying to do X for 50 years.

[Gorgon]

I really hate the way the AI sends one unit to attack and a whole stack as reserve, you can only see one enemy deployment zone, so the rest could come from anywhere, including spawning right in the middle of your massed artillery. Even worse when you have an insignificant force attacked and your stack with all your best units in reserve are fed piecemeal to the enemy with no hope of setting up a defensive position. Really poor change from the old reinforce from the rear system. You can't do anything to avoid this kind of massacre. Your army will join even if it had no movement points at the end of the turn. A simple yes/no to reinforcements would have been nice.

Edited March 24, 2009 by Gorgon

[Calax]

I really hate the way the AI sends one unit to attack and a whole stack as reserve, you can only see one enemy deployment zone, so the rest could come from anywhere, including spawning right in the middle of your massed artillery. Even worse when you have an insignificant force attacked and your stack with all your best units in reserve are fed piecemeal to the enemy with no hope of setting up a defensive position. Really poor change from the old reinforce from the rear system. You can't do anything to avoid this kind of massacre. Your army will join even if it had no movement points at the end of the turn. A simple yes/no to reinforcements would have been nice.

I've just been hating the fact that when I went to war with the ruskies they started sending single unit stacks all through my territory hitting my resource locations, I managed to hunt them down, but between those and the stupid gentlemen that the poles have turns take FOREVER to go through.