Empire: Total War review - experience thread

[weemadando]

I finally started the Grand Campaign as Sweden after being throroughly bored with the insta-respawn Indians of irritation in the Road to Independence.

Man, there's a lot to manage. Distributing the resource sites across the provinces is a good idea, but not still having them centrally managed is a pain. There's just so damn much to keep an eye on and my god - there needs to be a better speed move. I've had to adopt my Silent Hunter approach to gaming and have a novel with me while I play this just to make it through the AI turns.

[GuppyShark]

Some of the new stuff I quite like:

Infantry can use ropes to climb fortress walls.

The way troops operate around cover is really nice to see. I was just highly entertained by watching a unit of cavalry jump their horses over a fence.

[weemadando]

Some of the new stuff I quite like:

Infantry can use ropes to climb fortress walls.

The way troops operate around cover is really nice to see. I was just highly entertained by watching a unit of cavalry jump their horses over a fence.

I've been massively frustrated by having my units get ordered into cover, and then decide to face ALONG the fence with half the unit on either side.

And the fact that limbered artillery can still just happily pass STRAIGHT THROUGH a stone fence.

Sure, minor quibbles really, but I would have liked the terrain to be a touch more meaningful. And what's with only being able to occupy certain buildings?

[defanatic]

Still having lots of fun with this. Just took spain. Where do you get firelock armed infantry? My opponents (currently france and spain) have them in spades.

Also, I found a little bug on one of the maps in Spain, where the fence appears to support itself above the ground. An impressive feat of engineering, no doubt, but it doesn't keep the wildlife out.

(Link, because it's a big picture, and no one likes having a scrollbar at the bottom of their forum window):
The Great Hanging Wall of Madrid

Also, I was in a defence mission, and I waited out the timer (being in a good position and also being low on ammunition), and lost the battle. Working as intended?

[Vympel]

The use of lots of towns and villages in each province also creates a micromanagement headache for when the enemy just sends single units into your provinces and you have to chase them down. It also makes for annoying small engagements - the amount of times I've had to attack single Swedish Pikemen with Line Infantry or Cossacks in just 10 turns of play has just been really tedious. At least 5 times.

As for plug bayonets, that's actually historical, AFAIK. There's a reason they developed better types of bayonet attachments, after all. Taking out the plug was a pain in the arse.

[Thanas]

Siege fortifications are worthless due to the many units that can scale the fortresses. What's the use in building starforts when you need a full stack of units to hold them anyway? Because anything less and you just get overwhelmed by tons of infantry. The walls merely keep them away for 2 seconds, nothing more.

[Minischoles]

I gave up expanding at around 20 provinces, at which point i was spending roughly an hour purely going around and making sure everything was managed properly and that people were happy, i was collecting taxes etc. Thats not even taking into account chasing down the single melee units the enemy sends into you, every single damn turn. I don't mind more micro management, but not making it centrally controlled is a huge problem, since you have to individually check every single tiny little town and city.

[InnocentBystander]

I must be missing a huge part of the game, because all I ever do with the towns is upgrade them when I see the upgrade symbol...

[weemadando]

Siege fortifications are worthless due to the many units that can scale the fortresses. What's the use in building starforts when you need a full stack of units to hold them anyway? Because anything less and you just get overwhelmed by tons of infantry. The walls merely keep them away for 2 seconds, nothing more.

Yeah, and not being able to place guns on my fort walls? What the fuck?

I want to be able to have my fucking cannon somewhere safe, where they can fire at will, but not get immediately overwhelmed by cavalry.

I've seen the AI use the "built in" cannons in the forts, but my forces never seem to. Is there a secret to it?

[Vympel]

In Medieval II your built-in defences wouldn't fire unless you had troops manning them *shrug*

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Good lord, the Road to Independence crap is tedious and dull - I got bored at the start of "episode 2" and just edited the registry entry (ugh) to say I'd completed it. Once thus unlocked, the American campaign is much more interesting. 24 pdr frigates are pretty beefy... I just wish the regular 5th rates didn't suck so much (or have two decks for some reason).

[GuppyShark]

Some tips that may help some of the previous posters:

Micromanaging Settlements: In your Government screen, you can allow the regional ministers to automanage taxes and production. Automanaged taxes have been in the series since Rome, I do it in every game.

Wall guns require a unit be manned on the wall to fire, they do not come with crews. Just station a unit on the wall and they will automatically use the wall guns when the enemy is in range.

Units will hunker up behind battlefield terrain pieces but you have to click-drag to assign the front rank of the unit to be aligned with the terrain piece, you can't just click on the wall/fence/whatever. You can tell when this is successful due to the animation of the front rank.

[Thanas]

Wall guns require a unit be manned on the wall to fire, they do not come with crews. Just station a unit on the wall and they will automatically use the wall guns when the enemy is in range.

Of course, this will only work if your unit is set on fire at will.

[weemadando]

Some tips that may help some of the previous posters:

Micromanaging Settlements: In your Government screen, you can allow the regional ministers to automanage taxes and production. Automanaged taxes have been in the series since Rome, I do it in every game.

Wall guns require a unit be manned on the wall to fire, they do not come with crews. Just station a unit on the wall and they will automatically use the wall guns when the enemy is in range.

Units will hunker up behind battlefield terrain pieces but you have to click-drag to assign the front rank of the unit to be aligned with the terrain piece, you can't just click on the wall/fence/whatever. You can tell when this is successful due to the animation of the front rank.

Oh I know, and there's the special icon for it and all, but half the time when I tell them to do that, they decide to instead go and do something completely different like stand half each side of a different section of the wall.

[GuppyShark]

I haven't experienced what you're describing then.

Unfortunately, one thing I have just experienced is my first crash to desktop.

EDIT: Heh, and it took that save with it. If you click Next Turn, the screen goes white halfway through and crashes.

[CmdrWilkens]

The use of lots of towns and villages in each province also creates a micromanagement headache for when the enemy just sends single units into your provinces and you have to chase them down. It also makes for annoying small engagements - the amount of times I've had to attack single Swedish Pikemen with Line Infantry or Cossacks in just 10 turns of play has just been really tedious. At least 5 times.

Dude I just started stationing 1 or 2 units of Line Infantry out at my perimiter towns, they serve as a trap door both protecting the town itself and preventing units from bypassing it wihtout at least giving me the chance to engage them.

[ray245]

Just a side note, has anyone tried playing multi-player yet?

[GuppyShark]

FFS there seems to be a shortcut or something for "End Turn", that's twice the game has gone and finished my turn while I've been dicking about with navies.

[wautd]

Wall guns require a unit be manned on the wall to fire, they do not come with crews. Just station a unit on the wall and they will automatically use the wall guns when the enemy is in range.

I like how it is done. At adds a lot more to the atmosphere instead of the "tower with flag on it will shoot".

Just a shame that those wall guns have the accuracy of a blind leper trying a longbow for the first time.

[GuppyShark]

Second white screen of death, this time after a very very long naval engagement.

I am starting to think maybe the tactical naval engine isn't reporting the ship status results to the strategic engine properly, as in one engagement I successfully boarded two enemy ships and there were no routing enemy ships, yet no prizes appeared in post.

In the second I sank numerous enemy vessels but they only lost one.

[Thanas]

I am starting to think maybe the tactical naval engine isn't reporting the ship status results to the strategic engine properly, as in one engagement I successfully boarded two enemy ships and there were no routing enemy ships, yet no prizes appeared in post.

Yeah, same thing happens to me.

[GuppyShark]

Still, although I've reported all the weird stuff I'm encountering, I think I'll be playing this game for a good while to come, especially if the modders can figure out how to unlock the playable factions, since it's not as easy as modifying a text file anymore.

[ray245]

Still, although I've reported all the weird stuff I'm encountering, I think I'll be playing this game for a good while to come, especially if the modders can figure out how to unlock the playable factions, since it's not as easy as modifying a text file anymore.

This make make you happy for a while.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=234011

Although It's going to take them a few more days to figure out how to unlock all faction in the campaign map.

[Vympel]

Ok, what the fuck? Between Sunday and Saturday something has happened to my game to make it run like fucking ass. All of a sudden, it takes much longer for the game to start up (it lingers on the splash screen before the cutscene for a lot longer, it takes longer to load the campaign from the main menu, and longer to load battles) and the performance on both the campaign and tactical map has gone fucked - the screen continually lags and my PC does audible work as I scroll the mouse (or use the keys) to move my map around? It's really fucking annoying.

Has anyone else experienced this?

[defanatic]

Organising light infantry in light infantry mode seems quite buggy. They don't align properly (instead stay facing the direction they were moving once they have reached their location), and sometimes just stand there twiddling their thumbs when given an attack order.

Also, I deployed a bunch of Puckle guns (which my friend points is not as cool a name as Shrapnel), and then put them behind those box things, and didn't like that (because the guns were just floating in the air), switched them back, and then it got weird.