Empire Total War

[SmootsDaddy89]

I think he means the loading screen entering the battle and the one when you exit the battle back to the campaign map.

The loading times are longer than Medieval II was, but they're not too bad for me.

[CanadianCat]

man im glad to hear its that good. i can deal with loading times, my old comp sucked so i always had to wait. Buying the game tonight or tomorrow. Got kinda scared off of the steam DL.

[natty]

There are some serious flaws, but nothing that can't be fixed with patches/tweaks.

The AI on campaign mode is unable to put armies on ships and launch a naval attack. If you're playing as the UK(or just simply have control of an island) this means you'll never lose. In fact, people have report it's almost impossible to lose. One guy was able to by declaring war on every faction and not create any troops, and it still took a long time for the AI to attack him. Basically the only threat you have is your population revolting.

Fire-by-rank is a HUGE HUGE HUGE technology to have and sometimes your troops don't do it(first line fires and kneels down so the 2nd line can fire then kneel so the 3rd line can fire). I actually don't fight any army with good melee units until I have fire-by-rank(Cherokee elites will tear you up once they get in melee and one volley from your front line hardly puts a dent in them - you NEED 3 volleys to have a chance). Battle maps also have walls and things you can position your troops behind, but when you do only the first line fires(if they fire at all).

The naval battles seem pretty basic too. It really has nothing to do with tactics and is all about firepower(which I guess is realistic, but not very fun). Don't even bother making ships smaller than 4th rates because they'll get blown out of the water the first battle they're in. You'd think a smaller, faster ship could maneuver around and at least put up a fight but it's futile unless you get a lucky shot that blows up the ship.

All in all the game is great and the only game-breaker is the lack of AI naval invasions.

[SmootsDaddy89]

There are some serious flaws, but nothing that can't be fixed with patches/tweaks.

The AI on campaign mode is unable to put armies on ships and launch a naval attack. If you're playing as the UK(or just simply have control of an island) this means you'll never lose. In fact, people have report it's almost impossible to lose. One guy was able to by declaring war on every faction and not create any troops, and it still took a long time for the AI to attack him. Basically the only threat you have is your population revolting.

Fire-by-rank is a HUGE HUGE HUGE technology to have and sometimes your troops don't do it(first line fires and kneels down so the 2nd line can fire then kneel so the 3rd line can fire). I actually don't fight any army with good melee units until I have fire-by-rank(Cherokee elites will tear you up once they get in melee and one volley from your front line hardly puts a dent in them - you NEED 3 volleys to have a chance). Battle maps also have walls and things you can position your troops behind, but when you do only the first line fires(if they fire at all).

The naval battles seem pretty basic too. It really has nothing to do with tactics and is all about firepower(which I guess is realistic, but not very fun). Don't even bother making ships smaller than 4th rates because they'll get blown out of the water the first battle they're in. You'd think a smaller, faster ship could maneuver around and at least put up a fight but it's futile unless you get a lucky shot that blows up the ship.

All in all the game is great and the only game-breaker is the lack of AI naval invasions.

I haven't gotten a chance to fight any naval battles yet because I've been so busy these past two weeks (stupid midterms) but that's also basically what I've heard as being the major problem with the game. But I'm with you, I think they'll release patches fixing the most glaring problems. For their first time attempting to simulate naval combat, I think they did a pretty good job though.

Hopefully now they'll move on to air combat in the not so distant future. I'd love to see them do a full world map with a world war II era campaign. Until then I have to play cheap rip offs like War Leaders for that.

[TerriblePizza]

I finally broke down and bought it. I had to spend an hour or two at work on the wifi installing it and downloading the update.

Even though I bought the game here in Spain, when you install it it lets you chose your langauge.

This game is completely different from the rest of the TW franchise. There is so much more depth. However, what I don't like is that you can't right click anymore and make marching units move faster on the campaign map.

The game also seems to have a much slower pace. You start out with almost no military and technology takes forever to research.

I also found naval battles difficult and not all that entertaining. Like Natty said, it seems really basic.

Anyways. These are only my most basic first impressions. I've only had the game for 12 hours now.

[SmootsDaddy89]

Maybe I just haven't researched enough but the troops I can recruit seem kind of limited.

I can't wait to see what they do with DLC/expansions, hopefully they'll bring a wider troop variety.

[natty]

Hit space bar while you're moving your troops and they'll move fast.

Technology can be a little tricky to get used to. If you put gentlemen in your school research will go much faster(the more the merrier). You can also use gentlemen to steal technology from other factions, you'll get the option if you put them in another faction's school(they won't cause a war, it's like merchants in medieval 2). Just beware, other faction's schools will most likely have their own gentlemen there and they'll duel you.

It also helps with technology to research the starting social techs first. I can't remember the names, but the 2 on the top left will allow you to upgrade your school(s) and add about 15% combined to your research rate. Don't go too crazy in the social tree though because everything there will give your common population unrest, especially if your government is an absolute monarchy.

You can also tear down other buildings in towns and build schools, or build new schools as new towns emerge. Be careful though, I made the mistake of building 3 schools in the Spain region and the people got rather pissy in a short period of time. I don't put more than one school in each region now.

I usually start with the first social techs, then move to the military tree and work up to fire-by-rank, or if I'm playing one of the naval superpowers(UK, Spain, France, UP, Sweden) I'll at least get the tech to upgrade my shipwrights first(having larger ships earlier makes a huge difference).

Although the naval battles are a bit boring, it's really fun when you have one heavy 1st rate against a full stack of sloops and brigs. They'll swarm around you and chip away while you take out 2 at a time with each broadside.

[carpanfan96]

I'm kinda on the fence on this one, is it worth Buying??

[SmootsDaddy89]

I definitely believe in a few months when they've patched it to where all the glitches and AI problems and other bugs are gone that it well be well worth the money. It's definitely very playable now, but if you don't want it THAT badly I'd suggest waiting though.

[natty]

I think it's definitely worth buying. The complainers are always the loudest and the people that have no problems with it are busy...playing!

Some screenshots(non are mine, a few have been touched up in photoshop).

[natty]

poontang

[TerriblePizza]

I think it's definitely worth buying. The complainers are always the loudest and the people that have no problems with it are busy...playing!

Some screenshots(non are mine, a few have been touched up in photoshop).

Looks like theres a mushroom cloud in the background of that third one.

[PanthersFanNY]

Bumping this thread. I started playing again once I got a new computer that could actually play battles. I'm using DMUC right now and it is much better than when first released.

Anyone else still playing this?