MUST ... KILL ... REDCOATS!! aka The very unofficial Empire: Total War thread

[Krynn72]

I think you meant to say, "the only problem is that I will fail this paper i was supposed to write tonight"

 

[Ennui]

As the download percentage slowly increments (although 16gb at like 1.2mpbs current speed is going to take a while) I am more and more inclined to think you may be correct D:

 

[Ren.182]

Ren, you are a prince among men. That did the trick. It's installing from the discs atm.

Glad that helped

Playing through the road to independance campaign at the moment, almost at the end of the second chapter. But I'm really enjoying it at the moment. Cannons have mental range, just love bombarding the enemy from the other side of the map

I like the navy battles, but they can be a bit of a handful and pretty tough to micromanage. Sure I'll get the hang of it. So far great pourchase

 

[Mr Stabby]

I gave up on my Britain campaign as it was too easy, I very quickly got more money than I could spend. I've started again as Austria and it's much more challenging.

I've noticed unit wise most factions are almost identical.

 

[Lucid]

Screenshots people, SCREENSHOTS!

 

[Raziaar]

I gave up on my Britain campaign as it was too easy, I very quickly got more money than I could spend. I've started again as Austria and it's much more challenging.

I've noticed unit wise most factions are almost identical.

What do you expect? It's the boring age of tactics. The only difference is the garish uniforms!

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Swe-den! Swe-den! Swe-den!

Loving the new strategy map with the little villages growing all over, lovely addition. And of course it's effin' gorgeous!

 

[Sulkdodds]

Just played the demo.

Some people I know found the naval battle difficult, yet I can't see how - maybe I'm missing something, or maybe I was lucky, but with my fairly rudimentary tactic of lining up shoulder to shoulder with the French line and giving them hell (and, later, fussing over a confused mess), I downed all of them but one, and lost no ships of my own.

As for the land battle, it was very much fun. My strategy, unfortunately, was somewhat stupid. I planned to use a few buffer and harassing forces to keep Washington interested on the right, while I took my main force way around to the left, through forest, over rivers, and finally into their rear. Of course, my holding force, consisting mainly of some skirmishers, horse artillery and the three Hessian units (foreigners - expendable), was not very adequate, and I sent them in too quickly, making it necessary for me to sign their death warrants in return for just a little more time. For time was what I needed; the main force was taking far too long to flank from the west (the skirmishers, though, did actually take out an enemy artillery unit by shooting over the river).

By the time the army was crossing the river, fronted by elite troops and with muskets lined up along the bank to cover with the advance, the enemy had somehow figured out my movements. Small units of Colonial infantry were now moving down towards the river. However, they apparently hadn't counted on my covering fire: advancing down the opposite bank, they received volleys from across the water, and got the same treatment when Grenadier bombardment forced them to fall back along the same route. I crossed the river easily enough.

However, when I sent Hussars ahead to chase down running units, they spied more bloody rebels trooping out of a forest; I had to turn them back immediately. And as I pressed forward, canny Washington kept surprising me with hidden units, or long-rifle ambushes, or hardy garrisons. The advance became a patchwork of small-scale infantry tactics. I came off well in these fights. It turns out I'm good at minute direction. Making good use of foreists, I was able to consistently surround, trap, or outgun the Americans, while still keeping most of my units fairly close together, so that firepower could be shifted easily from front to front. Dragoons and grenadiers were especially useful; in one particularly delicious moment, an unseen band of Minutement suddenly materialised from a forest, and began firing down on a troop of line infantry that was just seeing off another unit. As the two exchanged volleys, I snuck mounted dragoons round the back of the forest, dismounted them, and dashed up behind. The Minutemen found themselves fired on from front and back, and then bayonetted from behind. The modern army is an incredibly powerful tool; if you do it right, it's like commanding a single organism with many limbs.

But all this kerfuffle was taking too long. And by the time I was in sight of Washington's main army, my own holding force had evaporated, leaving their horse artillery to train on me. Luckily, after all the protracted forest skirmishes, there just wasn't much left of the enemy. A farmhouse put up a tough fight, until surrounded, and soon I was free to march my still-numerous forces slowly towards the dug-in Colonials, who ended up routing across the very same river over which they'd previously driven my holding force.

The minutae of infantry warfare - just sublime. However, defeating the yanks piecemeal was, if satisfying, disappointing. Tomorrow I think I shall attempt a direct frontal attack. Just let the bastard try and stop me. I'll have his Laurie-bothering ass for breakfast.

Interested to know how other people handled the Battle of Brandywine. Or any similar dust-ups!

 

[Raziaar]

Demo keeps glitching on my computer. I upgraded my video drivers and it worked the first time, quite well. But started it again later, and it doesn't work anymore. All my other 3d games work just fine.

Had this ****ing issue with darkfall and this game... not sure why either.

 

[Krynn72]

Interested to know how other people handled the Battle of Brandywine. Or any similar dust-ups!

My tactic was very much the same as yours, though mine turned out a bit better. I left three units of artillery behind to harass their own while all of my infantry and the remains of my artillery support moved around to the left.

The harassing artillery was positioned in a ditch and behind a small mountain that was to the left of our starting formation. From there I could conceal them from fire coming from anyone except for those whom we were firing upon. I managed to take out 70% of their fire support by taking one aim at one unit at a time, firing at them until they were taken out, moving slightly to get another line of sight, and repeating that process. By the end of the battle they were pretty battered, one whole unit was killed, one fled, and the other was at half its strength, but they did their job and saved a lot of infantry lives.

Meanwhile, the enemy caught wind of my movements pretty early on, and sent three skirmishing squads to meet my army and slow them. The rest of their army was manuvering quite slowly, so I decided it was safe to halt my advance and prepare for the attack. They didnt stand a chance. Their three regiments came up against my eight or so on the other side of the river. They took several volleys and lost many men with each one. When they began to waver, I fixed bayonets and charged them with my skirmishers. It was too much for them and they broke nearly instantly. As my horsemen gave chase, I double timed my infantry into battle formation on large field by the enemy flank. At this point the enemy army had assembled into a respectable force and was marching to meet my own. My remaining artillery was brought up front, and they shot large holes into the advancing army. It was due to the heroic efforts of the units left behind that we were able to avoid return artillery fire. As their lines approached, several of my artillerymen were slain due to a game bug where they would pack up, and immediately unpack again, making it impossible to move them.

Me being the heavy hearted general I am, wanted to save these poor saps, even though it was their own damn faults. So I moved my lines forward prematurely to cover them and draw fire. The ensuing battle went pretty much how one would expect. Large formations of men shooting at each other, with people dropping like flies on either side. However, my own forces won out due to having superior numbers. Their forces folded, and retreated back to their original positions, with my soldiers hot on their tail. All it took to put this chapter to a close was a little unconventional warfare to mop up.


I liked the game a lot, but I think i'll hold off until Steam has a sale before getting it.

 

[Ennui]

Been playing through the American Independence campaign, currently in the second chapter. This game is kickass. I'll take / post some screenshots tomorrow.

 

[Raziaar]

Anybody have any ideas on why my graphics keep messing up on this game, and pretty much no other?

I don't understand it. I don't know how to fix it. I have latest graphics drivers and everything.

I really want to play this game... but there's no point in me getting it if the demo doesn't run for me with these graphics glitches. It HAS worked, but mostly it doesn't.

 

[Shakermaker]

Are you using the latest Nvidia drivers, released earlier this week? If so, that is your problem. Revert to the drivers released in january and you'll be fine.

 

[Raziaar]

Are you using the latest Nvidia drivers, released earlier this week? If so, that is your problem. Revert to the drivers released in january and you'll be fine.

I am using ATI drivers... 9.2

I have an x1950 Pro 512mb AGP card.

This is the type of shit I'm experiencing. Not to mention it goes INCREDIBLY choppy while it's doing this. Even with graphics settings all the way down.

Imagine that there are triangles like the ones you see, some skinny, some fat... all flashing on the screen and moving around from the center of the screen in a chaotic geometric light show.

On the left side is another print screen I took that was different in appearance. It had sort of horizontal bars moving across the screen... mostly it's the triangles radiating from the center.

Other games, like world in conflict and more graphically intense games work just fine. No issues. I've only seen this issue with Darkfall and this game.

 

[Shakermaker]

Hmm, I saw some posts on the official boards of people having problems with Nvidia drivers, not Ati. Sorry.

 

[Mr Stabby]

I've noticed in naval battles grapeshot is useless and even with a larger crew the attacker almost always loses at boarding. Pirates get too powerful ships at the start of the game.

Also found an annoying bug in which when sending an agent out of a city it will often send the garrison instead.

 

[Shift]

I too had a wierd graphic glitch on the soldier models, then steam did a game update, I replayed it and it was fine.

I am now on the second chapter of the independence missions, loving it so far. Will post screenshots of my travels.

 

[Sulkdodds]

I think that if I can, I'm going to play the Grand Campaign as India, undergo a revolution, and then conquer Britain to bring it under Republican rule.

Me being the heavy hearted general I am, wanted to save these poor saps, even though it was their own damn faults.

Yeah, I have this problem. They're resources, damnit! Not people! They're a tool!

I'm interested to know precisely where you positioned your artillery. It might be useful in the frontal assault which I mentioned I was going to attempt.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

I'm a little disappointed buildings and such don't get visibly damaged by artillery fire, they just crubmle into dust.

 

[Ren.182]

I'm a little disappointed buildings and such don't get visibly damaged by artillery fire, they just crubmle into dust.

Yea it surprised me they just disintergrated. I was expecting something like Age of Empires 3 where at least chunks would come flying off.

On the third chapter of the independance campaign now. I reckon its going to be pretty tough from here on in D:

 

[Ennui]

I've noticed a few major bugs so far. Sometimes in naval battles with grouped units, the movement arrow goes all wonky and can't be fixed. I also ran into a completely gamebreaking bug one battle - all of my dudes were running REALLY slowly, like in slow motion, and all got stuck together in a big mass. The enemy's units were doing it too. Game speed was normal. Totally ruined my chances of winning that battle though.

Also, occasionally I go to battle and it skips the deployment phase (so my dudes are just lined up). Is this supposed to mean I got ambushed/taken off guard, or is it a bug? Not sure but it possibly only happens while sieging a city when they come out of the city to attack you.

 

[Shakermaker]

Also, occasionally I go to battle and it skips the deployment phase (so my dudes are just lined up). Is this supposed to mean I got ambushed/taken off guard, or is it a bug? Not sure but it possibly only happens while sieging a city when they come out of the city to attack you.

That's no bug. When the enemy sallies out of his stronghold, you can't deploy your troops. This was the same in the earlier TW games.

 

[Deleted member 56031]

I planned on picking this up I've spent too much money on pc games I still haven't played so I'm letting this slide the now.

Doesn't help that the special edition was freakin 40 quid O_O game will have let go of my pre order by now anyway and I haven't seen another copy of that since.

 

[Shift]

Ok this game is annoying me, I have everything on low yet I still get a bad FPS.

I have ATI Radeon 4800 Series, 3GB RAM and a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core CPU. Surely hardware like that should run this game perfectly on medium settings at least. The auto settings puts pretty much everything on high.

 

[Eejit]

Driver shizzle?

 

[Shift]

Drivers are up-to-date.

 

[Mr Stabby]

The AI seems more aggressive than M2TW, but I've noticed that once they get behind cover they'll stay there if flanked, oblivous to any troops you put behind them.

 

[Ren.182]

I've noticed a few major bugs so far. Sometimes in naval battles with grouped units, the movement arrow goes all wonky and can't be fixed. I also ran into a completely gamebreaking bug one battle - all of my dudes were running REALLY slowly, like in slow motion, and all got stuck together in a big mass. The enemy's units were doing it too. Game speed was normal. Totally ruined my chances of winning that battle though.

I had something like this happen to me. Was this while attacking one of the French strongholds in the independance campaign?

My men were all moving in slow motion, but the enemy weren't, I was next to the sea at the bottom of a hill the enemy were at the top, as soon as my men started to ascend the hill though they started to move at the normal speed. I just assumed I was in some kind of bog/wetland or something?

 

[AJ Rimmer]

The AI seems more aggressive than M2TW, but I've noticed that once they get behind cover they'll stay there if flanked, oblivous to any troops you put behind them.

I like the new AI; There's less city-fighting and alot more in the field action, which is awesome. However, all my neighbours are constantly asking me to give them one of my territories in exchange for one of theirs, which is hugely annoying, can't they get the picture after I say no ten times? I tried accepting once, and two turns later they asked to switch back!

 

[Neo_Kuja]

So in the opinion of everyone here, is Empire: Total War worth getting ?

It seems as though the reviews that are up are all indicating that the game is good, but the number of technical complaints is slightly worrying, given that it's a new game and all.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

I've heard people say it's buggy, and M2:TW was extremely buggy when it first came out, but so far I've only had that weird slow motion- movement bug, which admittedly was annoying but only happened that one time. Overall, it's a great game, and ridiculously good looking. But I would like a bit more diversity among the units, like some unique units for Sweden, Prussia, Russia etc. From what I've been told, mostly Britain and some other "major players" have unique units. I'd also like more variety in cities and fortresses on the battle map, but I understand why that would be very hard indeed. Still a big improvement from M2:TW's identical castles and cities.

 

[Gargantou]

I'm still dissappointed at the fact they haven't implemented the ability to let an AI control your battle whilst you watches.

Because some minor skirmishes are too tiresome to play by yourself, but the auto-resolve system is still shit, so it would be better if you could simply choose to have the battle actually be played out, but have the AI control both sides.

 

[Shift]

Despite my very strange FPS issues, this is a good game, however, it still not as awesome RTW when that came out. My main digs are that armies share pretty much exactly the same array of units and you can pretty much use the same tactics with everyone, whereas on RTW, since each race had very different ways of fighting with different types of units, you had to change your thinking everytime. Also the AI, although improved, still has moments of pure hilarity as you can just move multiple units behind the enemy line and cut them to pieces.

Its a good game, but not the huge step forward I was hoping for.

 

[Mr Stabby]

I've found I now use only line infantry, it's possible to envelop just about any AI controlled army with just line infantry. I only use cannons in seiges, cavalry seems unnecessary and most skirmishers are crap, and the good ones have high tech tree requirements.

 

[Ennui]

I had something like this happen to me. Was this while attacking one of the French strongholds in the independance campaign?

My men were all moving in slow motion, but the enemy weren't, I was next to the sea at the bottom of a hill the enemy were at the top, as soon as my men started to ascend the hill though they started to move at the normal speed. I just assumed I was in some kind of bog/wetland or something?

Yeah, it was on the same map you're talking about I think. My dudes also started moving normally when they hit the hill, it just took them forever to get there. I think it's a bug, if that's supposed to be a gameplay feature than it's a stupid one. The guys move in slo-mo, look absolutely retarded, bunch up and completely screw your tactics over.

 

[Ren.182]

Yeah, it was on the same map you're talking about I think. My dudes also started moving normally when they hit the hill, it just took them forever to get there. I think it's a bug, if that's supposed to be a gameplay feature than it's a stupid one. The guys move in slo-mo, look absolutely retarded, bunch up and completely screw your tactics over.

Yeah, it did look stupid (men running on the spot and stuff)

Just glad when I did the battle again the enemy didn't run down the hill to me so I had chance to get to the hill before they attacked.

 

[Combine Hybrid]

The only thing I didn't like about the Total War series is that managing city and making money was a total bitch.

I could never have a good economy and my revenue was always negative.

 

[Shift]

The only thing I didn't like about the Total War series is that managing city and making money was a total bitch.

I could never have a good economy and my revenue was always negative.

Send your diplomat off asap and start making trade agreements with everyone, also every city have and take, make sure you only build financial buildings first (markets, ports etc), get into that habit. And also make sure you loot all the normal settlements you take as that will spread slaves across your empire boosting your economy as result, and destroy any of the big cities as they will usually carry massive amounts of gold for the looting, not to mention that will destroy any chance of your new city revolting against its new rulers.

I followed this trend with my last batch in RTW and I somewhere in the region of 300,000 gold, and that was with about 6 huge armies running rampant across the globe.

 

[The Monkey]

I can't get the demo to work. It just gets to the loading screen with all the copyright information, then nothing happens. I had a similar problem with the Bioshock demo and there the solution was to enable directX 9, as directx10 wasn't working for some reason, but I forget the command for it. Anyone know what it is?

 

[Zephos]

Rome: Total War took up a year of my life.

I want this game >: (