Civ + Total War

[maltz]

Civilization is an excellent game, yet inevitably I feel the combats quite boring. Stack them up, pillage, bombard, one unit run into another and let a random number table to decide the outcome.

Although highly unlikely, I would love to play out CIv battles in the form of Total War (TM) games. Many of you also played some total war games before, so you know what I mean. If you haven't played, it is like 20 units vs. 20 units at once, real time, real battlefield, with morale, fatique, flanking actions, while you need to exhibit some skills and talents to beat your opponent. It would be nice to commend an army that we spent so many turns to build. Phalanx no longer eat horse archers alive --- they got eaten. This is common knowledge (as phalanx are slow, they can never catch up!), but somehow got messed up in Civ.

As a major battle would last maybe 20 minutes or more, the game would last significantly longer, but you of course would have an option to auto-calc, similar to the way in current Civ battles.

Certainlly the Civ AI needs a few improvements to make them better at a Total War (tm), or more realistic battles. CIv AIs love to have small stacks and pillage forces, while this would make a RTW-style fighting much easier. In TW games (or real life), a battle with 1:1 odds probably result in a heavy loss on both sides, while an 3:1 battle will probably only inflict a very minor damage on the larger side. Therefore, while the AI splits up forces, they are actually waiting to be beaten without inflicting any damage.

When I played R:TW, the castle sieges were a little lame, as you can shoot down everybody inside with arrows. Actually you can shoot down everything with arrows. The TW engine also needs to improve here and there.

Just some ideas here for a future war strategy game.

 

[Snerk]

Yeah, i have thought this to myself before. A little more advanced battle system, although mayby not as advanced as total war, as i cant really see how it would fit in civ iv. But yes, I definitly see what you mean!

 

[IowaStateCy]

I really liked Total War at first...bit found it tedious after a few months...does not have that addictive quality like CIV.....good game though

 

[Albatoonoe]

How about it's all turned based, but you can send a unit to this real time battle, and you can command a squad of units in real time, based on what was in a stack or something, in a mini battle arena, based on the tiles the troops were on. What do you think of that?

 

[maltz]

Yes, the game is still turn based. When a battle takes place, it switches to the battlefield mode (as in Total War), and everything becomes real time. After the battle, you return to the same turn with the battle outcome.

It is basically a Civ game, with the war component REPLACED by total war engine. That would be my perfect strategy game, really.

 

[Tee Kay]

Hmm...it would be nice. I mean, don't you hate it when you send tanks vs a lone spearman and the latter won?

And how long would a game take?
Say it's a 400 turns game, you take 1 minutes to pass from one turn to the next, you engage in, um, 180 battles, and you are on the battlefield for 15 minutes each time.

400+180x15=3100 minutes=around 51 hours

 

[maltz]

As I mentioned, you can auto-calc a battle if it is obvious. This feature is also in Total Wars since Shogun.

 

[flippy]

i like this idea coz im a fan of real time battles but i enjoy the strategy in turn based so this is a good idea perhaps there could be a battlefield of say 25 squares (5 by 5) and all ur units take on all their units in that battlefield in a real time battle the battle wouldn't last longer than a minute unless theres huge stacks involved. all units in a stack will be in a formation (heres an area for expansion) in the battlefield in that squares perametres and u can of course move them around manually to attack small formations of enemy troops before the enemy can move them into a larger stacks formation. the ussual outcomes can apply still for unit vs unit battles (or not) but there will be multiple battles going on, on the one battlefield. perhaps even 2 vs 1 unit battleswith new outcomes... "subject to change"

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

I think it would be realy cool!! I think you should be able to choose every battle auto or RTS

 

[warpstorm]

I found RTW to be fun for a couple of weeks and haven't touched it since, so count me out.

 

[Veteranewbie]

What I think is, you can send units to attack the enemy, but the battle wouldn't be decided till the next turn? (instead of immediately like now)