Empire: Total War

[Sky]

Hay guyz thanx 4 the halp.

 

[JWIV]

After MTW2 failed to get my motor running, I figured I'd just take a pass on this.  But now it sounds like they managed to finally deliver something incredibly awesome. 

Crap.  I need to play this.  And SoaSE:Entrenchment and a billion other things. AUGH GAME OVERLOAD.

[Merusk]

Download the demo via Steam first.  It sounded awesome to me as well, but I'd rather spend a few hours finding out before I drop $50 on it.

From my 20 mins of dinking around this morning the ship combat was pretty damn fun (and holy shit they model down to the individual sailors!?)   But I can see it getting really out of hand if I have to manage 5-10 ships in a combat.

[HaemishM]

Played a bit more with the game last night. Cavalry, at least in the early period, is pretty crap against infantry. Even flanking won't get you much of anywhere against infantry unless that infantry is already a bit demoralized or chewed up. I managed to get a unit of Hussars (Hungarian style skrimishers), a unit of Uhlans (lance wielding fuckers) and Caribineers (carbine shooting missle cavalry). They all died to infantry in one battle. Granted I was outnumbered almost 2:1 in that battle, and most of the infantry I faced was Prussian line infantry, which apparently has good morale. I tried to flank, but unlike Medieval 2, the infantry doesn't just sit there and let itself be flanked. It turns the formation and fires or even charges the cav. And this is before anyone has discovered square formation yet. Cavalry is most definitely NOT the hammer blow it was in past TW games.

Get your economy down first. In fact, I'd suggest researching things to get your farming and your colleges going quickly, then worry about the military. Also, watch your flanks in battle REAL HARD. I've had a number of battles where big ass line infantry units managed to flank around and get to the rear of my artillery.

Sky, were you asking if the game will run in 1280 x 720? I'll check tonight if that's what you needed.

[Big Gulp]

Played a bit more with the game last night. Cavalry, at least in the early period, is pretty crap against infantry. Even flanking won't get you much of anywhere against infantry unless that infantry is already a bit demoralized or chewed up. I managed to get a unit of Hussars (Hungarian style skrimishers), a unit of Uhlans (lance wielding fuckers) and Caribineers (carbine shooting missle cavalry). They all died to infantry in one battle. Granted I was outnumbered almost 2:1 in that battle, and most of the infantry I faced was Prussian line infantry, which apparently has good morale. I tried to flank, but unlike Medieval 2, the infantry doesn't just sit there and let itself be flanked. It turns the formation and fires or even charges the cav. And this is before anyone has discovered square formation yet. Cavalry is most definitely NOT the hammer blow it was in past TW games.

Get your economy down first. In fact, I'd suggest researching things to get your farming and your colleges going quickly, then worry about the military. Also, watch your flanks in battle REAL HARD. I've had a number of battles where big ass line infantry units managed to flank around and get to the rear of my artillery.

Sky, were you asking if the game will run in 1280 x 720? I'll check tonight if that's what you needed.

Yeah, I use my cavalry mainly to run down routing units.  Pikemen are surprisingly effective, but I mainly just keep one around to babysit my artillery.

I second going for education/farm production early in the game.  Most of my military stuff I've been able to steal with my gentlemen.

[Sky]

Sky, were you asking if the game will run in 1280 x 720? I'll check tonight if that's what you needed.

Thanks, Haem. If it won't show up due to your monitor or whatever, I could just get the demo, I guess. I'm curious because the fiancee /really/ wanted me to play M2, but it looked like crap stretched. I won't bitch about UI elements at the edge of the overscan, or schild might smite me.

[Paelos]

Well shit, from what yall are saying it sounds like I'll have to check out the demo for my specs now. The campaign map situation sounds like they cleaned up most if not all of my beefs with Medieval 2. Thanks for the update.

[HaemishM]

It really is almost a completely different (and better) game from Medieval 2 at the campaign level.

[Tmon]

Sky the only option I get for 1280 is 1280x1024 which is the only one my monitor allows.  If that helps any.

[bhodikhan]

Sky the only option I get for 1280 is 1280x1024 which is the only one my monitor allows.  If that helps any.

On my HDMI equipped laptop I see both 1280x800 and 1280x720 as available resolutions. My guess if that if your card supports 1280x720 resolution the game will as well.

[Paelos]

I downloaded the demo and turned down the settings. I had no gameplay issues at all, but the load times seemed long. What's your average time per battle starting? I was at about 1m40s on the ship one.

[HaemishM]

The load times between the demo and the final game were different. The final game was much shorter, even with higher settings. It was still a bit longer than I'd prefer, but better than the demo would lead you to believe.

EDIT: Yes, Sky, if your monitor supports 1280x720, the game will run in that resolution. It was on my list.

Also, if you need an idea of what to tweak to get some better performance, here's a good discussion of what the options do.

[Modern Angel]

I've not had the bad crash bugs that most people have had but I did lose a save game. I had a great game going as Britain after several starts and stops. Unfortunately, immediate CTD every time I loaded it or the autosave associated with it. I was sad.

[Engels]

Well, I managed to get George Washington killed by the French of all people, trying to take Fort Niagara.

So far, I like this game, despite some problems.

What I like:

The graphics are gorgeous. They make my video card scream for mercy (its an 8800GT), but toning them down some makes the game doable.

The historical detail is wonderful. I don't know how accurate it is, but I don't care. There's a sense of immersion that's really nice.


My pete peves are largely to do with troop movements and commands on the battlefield. Firstly, the 'AI' that makes your troops move to a certain location is borked. The path they take is entirely bizarre. Also, the the command that you make for a group to line up in a certain area by right-clicking and seeing a pattern show up and then releasing doesn't seem to work half the time. Furthermore, commands to attack seem a bit fuzzy too. I asked my two cavalry groups to rush into the woods to take out the cannon teams, and the danged idiots ran to the edge of the woods and just stood there. Only after repeatedly insinting that they run into the wood and attack did they do so. Otherwise they would have just stood there in the line of fire. This sorta problem has always plagued the Total War series, and it seems they didn't improve it much this time around. If anything, its a bit more borked than in the past. I'm hoping some patches will fix this.

Other than that, I'm planning on wasting a good part of the day today playing this :)

[Big Gulp]

Yeah, they never really have fixed borked cavalry pathing.  If a unit is really scattered and I tell my cavalry to chase it they'll go off in bizarre directions.  Best I've come up with is to make them run to a spot that just happens to intersect with the routing unit I want attacked.

Oh, and try to keep at least one of your colleges on the military track working towards ranked firing.  If you get it early before other nations do it's almost like cheating.

[Big Gulp]

Sorry for the double post, but you know what I really, really love about this game?

No "rebels".  I hated how the earlier Total War games just assigned every small, unaligned province to generic rebels.  I love how now they're just small nations who usually ally with bigger ones so you don't have what amounts to a free pass in your expansion early in the game.  You now actually have to piss someone off if you want to expand, it's not like land is just up for grabs by anyone.  Even if one of your provinces rebel those rebels at least now have an allegiance to their former country.  This is small stuff, but it makes a big difference to me.

[Paelos]

What's the importance of generals in the game? Are they still simply "buff aura" units like in previous games, or do they have a higher purpose/use?

[Big Gulp]

What's the importance of generals in the game? Are they still simply "buff aura" units like in previous games, or do they have a higher purpose/use?

That's pretty much it, but if you lack a general in one of your armies you can promote someone in a unit to general and then level them up as usual.  I got sick of managing my family tree, so this is a nice little reform.

[Big Gulp]

Anyone else have a revolution on their hands yet?  It would seem that my peasant scum, err humble subjects, have gotten some fancy book learning in their heads about equality, freedom, not being enserfed, etc. and have turned against their glorious Kaiser.  I've been busy for the past 5 or 6 turns showing them the error of their ways.

God, I fucking love this game.   

[HaemishM]

I'm only 14 years into mine. No revolutions yet, but I've been kind of flip-flopping between the three tech tree branches. The more philosophy you give them, the more likely they are to revolt. According to the manual, you can manipulate the revolution situation to either change your form of government or secure your throne more. You appear to be doing the latter - shocked, I am. 

I'm finally getting the hang of the troops I have. I just can't seem to get enough traction to counter attack Prussia.

[Modern Angel]

Prussia is a fucking beast. Highly deceptive for a two territory nation.

[Engels]

Anyone else getting random crashes in Vista with an Nvidia card?

[Venkman]

I finally downloaded the demo on Steam. Odd thing that demo. Here's a ground assault on a Spanish stronghold with about 80 units and only three types. Then here's the ship tutorial that has you up against two ships (and most of these mechanics you learned in PotBS already).

Oh, you want to have a taste of the game? Sure! Here's 7,240 units, twelve different types, and not a one did you use in the tutorial, up against a slightly smaller force that has no problem kicking your noob ass back to San Salvador.

Last Total War game I played was the first one (Shogun), and I sucked at that. Is the learning curve better in the full version of this game? I've spent $100 on games in the last week but only enjoying $50 of it (man I wish I waited for the Endwar demo). I'd rather not drop another $50 unless someone here can tell me the live game eases you into things better than the tutorial.

[Engels]

If anything the live game leaves you more in the dark than the demo. I've played all 3 versions and this one has the weakest 'tutorial' and advisor stuff of all 4.

[calapine]

If anything the live game leaves you more in the dark than the demo. I've played all 3 versions and this one has the weakest 'tutorial' and advisor stuff of all 4.

The real tutorial in the game is the 'Road to Independence' campaign (play as American colonists/settlers/rebels). It starts off simple with a few units and gradually unlocks more and more game features without throwing you into the deep water right away as the grand campaign does. Plus its a good appetizer for the real game.

Edit: Oh, and a warning. The game is still quite buggy (not as bad as MTW II on realease, but...). For anyone strong enough to resist the 'must play now!!11!' urge (I am not :/), waiting until there is another patch might be a good idea.

[HaemishM]

There's supposed to be a patch out this coming week. I just had one of the best battles EVER wiped out because I didn't save directly after the battle and it crashed to desktop. It's definitely a little buggy. I'm hoping the patch fixes the CTD's and optimizes the graphics for better performance. That battle was pure awesome. Over 2000 troops a side, with my forces split in 2, one force melts away while the other one comes in to deliver the hammer blow. A HUGE fire fight that turned into a melee fight around a low wall.

Cavalry has a use, BTW. If you've been hammering on an infantry unit with musket fire for a while, or are in combat and it looks like the unit is wavering (flag is blinking) send in the cavalry (preferably from flank or rear). They'll break in an instant.

[Big Gulp]

Cavalry has a use, BTW. If you've been hammering on an infantry unit with musket fire for a while, or are in combat and it looks like the unit is wavering (flag is blinking) send in the cavalry (preferably from flank or rear). They'll break in an instant.

Yeah, but for me they still take up valuable room that can be filled by artillery.  Have you seen what canister shot at close range can do to a formation? 

[Draegan]

I havn't had much time to play but I did manage to finish Chapter 2 of the Road to Independence.  Big battles seem tough to me.  I just end up tossing out infantry all over the place and when I try to use strategy it just takes longer.  It ends up being a zerg rush.

I might be over thinking things for this campaign. 

Edit:
Oh, how do you use rangers in battle?  Or is that just for smaller battles?

[HaemishM]

Pathing in siege battles SUCK MONKEY ASS. Both sieges I've been in, I've barely won. It's partly my own stupid fault. I'll send cavalry out one of the gates, either to take out artillery that's been left on its own or to provide some punch to units in trouble, but no matter how long the cavalry has to exit, there's always one damn horseman that gets stuck in the gate, and never exits. As a result, the damn doors are open and the enemy gets in before the gates close. Sending in units to charge units half in and half out of the fortress will sometimes send the charging unit out of the fort, compounding the problem. Just something to be aware of.

I haven't gotten to cannister shot yet. Been too busy trying to boost my economy enough to make a serious push into Prussian territory. The more countries you control to start, the harder it is to push out. Prussia almost has it easy... good economic base, decent enough troops and little territory to defend.

[Big Gulp]

Prussia almost has it easy... good economic base, decent enough troops and little territory to defend.

I'm playing Prussia, and I've been concentrating on taking provinces that have schools in them, so now I'm up to 5 different research projects going at the same time.  The problem is that I'm strung out from East Prussia to Hannover, and now Austria declared war on me.  I had a bunch of troops on the edges of my empire, mainly to keep down resistance, but the middle was hollow, and I've barely been able to hold Austria back with my flintlock armed citizens.  Thank God they haven't really attacked in force yet.

The problem is that I can't really shift substantial troops to the middle of the empire because then I'll have revolts on the fringes.  And my army is so big that I don't really have the revenue to recruit more.  I needed a breathing space after conquering Hannover, but Austria pretty much put the kibosh on that.  No worries, though, I'll whoop those pathetic wannabe Germans yet.

[Paelos]

Almost every review I've read about the game has some comment about Steam's inclusion to run the actual program. Does the inclusion hurt the game itself? Am I going to have any problems due to it? Keep in mind most of it sounded like childish ranting when I read it, and I never resell any game I buy. However, I still play the TW games like Rome that are 5 years old. I'm wondering if I'll be able to play them in the future if Steam stops supporting it.

PS - This is the first time I've used Steam and I know very little about it.

[HaemishM]

It uses Steam for activation like the original Half-Life 2 did, even on the retail version. I bought mine on Steam, so yes, Steam runs every time I load the program. I've had no problems with it, but others have (and I don't really know the nature of the problem). If I were you, I'd wait until this first patch comes out (supposed to be this week but we'll see).

As for Steam supporting it, I've yet to hear of a game that Steam has dropped support on.

[Draegan]

2nd what Haem said.

I did have an issue installing it.  It tried to download it rather than load it from the discs for some reason.

[Paelos]

2nd what Haem said.

I did have an issue installing it.  It tried to download it rather than load it from the discs for some reason.

Was that resolved quickly?

[Grand Design]

I've purchased roughly 20 games from Steam and have had one problem.  My card was charged and the game was not unlocked.  It took three emails in as many days to get a response.  The last email basically said, "refund my money or I am disputing the charges in one hour."  That got a canned response and my game was unceremoniously unlocked, but it really soured me on Steam for a while. 

I've gotten over it, mostly because I actually like the idea of not having my software tied to a CD, which is far more volatile than the company that made HL2. 

If they bother to respond, that is.