Empire Total War Random Question Thread
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ArneHD
Just a little bit mad
Thank you, I didn't realise that.
Anyone is doing okay in naval battles? I'm really failing at them (well, granted I only did like 4-5 up to now). I tried attacking a bunch of pirates with equal number of ships and they pretty much owned me. I reloaded and let the computer resolve the fight (automatic resolution), the result was that I only lost one ship but I sank all the pirates plus stole one of their best ships. Uhh... Wow. I tried practicing just sea battles, but I don't know what to do really. I try to keep them in range of my canons as best as I can, but I just don't seem to do damage. Am I really supposed to micromanage every single ship to deliver those "focused volleys"? That seems tedious. I do it a bit... but eh...
Kan' Sharuminar
Fluffy
I found grouping my fleet into separate squadrons (about 3 ships apiece) really helps - each group will follow the lead ship in a line, which means less micromanaging individual ships. I still suffer the odd collision, but that's more my own ineptitude 
Yeah, what Kan' said, actually. Smaller groups help a lot. Originally I went with Nelsonian 'let everyone do their own ship-to-ship thing' but that didn't work out as well as I had hoped. Keeping tabs on multiple small groups does work reasonably well. Grouping units is still somewhat broken in this Total War game though, just like the other ones. 
Yeah I tried grouping them, there are different formations you can use for your groups, is the "line" one the only useful one? And then I'm not sure what to do with my 2 or 3 lines of ships. My last battle I tried to flank the enemy line on both sides but I realized some of the cannon balls that would miss the enemy would then proceed to friendly fire my other line on the other side, hehe.
BurnEmDown
Emperor
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It doesn't always happen, most of the cannonballs that miss hit the water really close to the target, so if you're "flanking" the enemy with ships at both sides do not worry about friendly fire (though I would suggest not using chain shot as this shot is aimed higher thus having a better chance of hitting your ship on the other side of the enemy).
Oh here's another question that I can't answer looking at the manual... What decides when an enemy unit is destroyed?
Most of the time, I don't completely annihilate the enemy's regiments, they just rout and reach the end of the screen. So sometimes they are still on the campaign map after the battle and the AI immediately starts replenishing the unit, but other times they seem to be destroyed and the opponent's army needs to buy a new unit completely. Am I dreaming this or what? I'm not sure when a unit is destroyed, or when it will still be on the campaign map. Given the ability of an army to replenish itself on the field OR just buy new units right there, does this even have an important part to play?
Most of the time, I don't completely annihilate the enemy's regiments, they just rout and reach the end of the screen. So sometimes they are still on the campaign map after the battle and the AI immediately starts replenishing the unit, but other times they seem to be destroyed and the opponent's army needs to buy a new unit completely. Am I dreaming this or what? I'm not sure when a unit is destroyed, or when it will still be on the campaign map. Given the ability of an army to replenish itself on the field OR just buy new units right there, does this even have an important part to play?
germanicus12
First Citizen of Rome
An army or unit is completely destroyed when you kill off every single man in the army, or at least when the army as a whole suffers 90% casualties then the entire army disappears. (scatters into the woods never to return in fear of you) This happens more often against Native American Indians.
But if your question is concerning the replenishing of armies on the field, I found this very helpful for my my troops, already I started with 3 British armies in America, now all of them have Indian/American units commanded by a British General. Though I still have some crack unit of British redcoats that survived the campaigns.
But if your question is concerning the replenishing of armies on the field, I found this very helpful for my my troops, already I started with 3 British armies in America, now all of them have Indian/American units commanded by a British General. Though I still have some crack unit of British redcoats that survived the campaigns.
So basically... Two armies clash, one of them retreats, the two of them mend their wounds for 2 turns (refill their battered (but not destroyed) regiments) and they clash again as if nothing had ever happened two turns before...
I guess I'm really a noob at this. What about forts, can't you just walk around them?
Hmm... I find that I have no source material to refer to when I want to understand game concepts better. The game manual is quite useless, the in-game tips are kind of repetitive. The Empire Total War wiki is pretty much empty. I just feel like I don't understand basic stuff about the economy and research in this game. Like, where should I stick my gentlemen? In my best university? Wait, can you send them to foreign universities? Why?... What does "+2 research" even mean, +2 what? Where's the counter? Sometimes some guy in my team gets a new "trait", but I can't even find him, he's not an agent, he's not a politician in my cabinet, he's not a general or admiral, where is he?! AHHHH.
Also, damn pirates.
Also, damn pirates.
germanicus12
First Citizen of Rome
That is generally what happens. As for forts, you can bypass them but you have to take a long way around, because if you stop in the red section of the forts line of sight, you will be attacked.
When you end your battle, if you have cavalry try continuing the battle and killing as many units as you can, an enemy that spends more on replenishing the ranks have far less to spend on other aspects of the empire leaving them prone to rebellions or money issues. Or do what I do, I have one large national army and a smaller army of mostly local mercs, and when my large army defeats the enemy but not exactly crushed the enemy, have the smaller army move in for the kill before the ranks are replenished. (meaning before the turn ends)
_alphaBeta_
King
I remember the manual saying that you are open to being ambushed if you pass into the red section of a ship, army or fort, but it doesn't always happen, correct? I'm still playing through the "Road To Independence" and have never played a Total War game, so there's a bit of a learning curve. (I could really use a civlopedia right about now.) During this campaign, there's a fort in the ohio valley that you can't walk around at all. You actually have to get in it, and then you can walk on the other side. Not all forts behave like this. Was this a special fort for the scenario?
Stupid interface questions that I'm going crazy over.
1. On the campaign view, I figured that the yellow bars next to an army's flag means how many cards are in the stack. What does the dark grey bars mean that are sometimes under the yellow bars? It only seems to be there when armies are in a capital or fort.
2. When you mouseover a capital, a popup shows up under it. The first icon is wealth, but what are the rest? The next one usually shows whether population is going up or down via an arrow, but then there's this to the right of it: <0.1M What on earth does that mean? I imagine the icons after that are whether the different classes are happy or not, correct? Finally, there's some religion information.
3. During battle, some of the troop cards have vertical green bars next to them. What do they mean? Ammo? I imagine when a missle unit is out of ammo, they can only melee?
General battle question: Only the front line seems to fire in my battles. The rest of the troops seems to be there for show. Should I be thinning the lines to allow more troops to shoot and inflict more damage? Does it matter? I imagine it works both ways - thinner lines means more troops firing, but presents more of a target for the enemy. Does the game consider all of this?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
vs.
xxxxx <-- animation-wise, only these would be firing
xxxxx
xxxxx
germanicus12
First Citizen of Rome
The red areas are ambush locations, but it is up to the AI to choose whether they want to ambush you or not, they being the inept AI it is almost always will attack, so just be sure to march through with a relatively large army. Or at least try to get a military access pact (or whatever they are called).
As for your other questions:
1. I believe the gray bars represent agents or government officials. On this one I am not sure and I really did not care.
2. I believe the <0.1M represents the amount of people residing in said city and whether it is growing or not (in the example provided, it is at 100,000 and growing). As for the rest you are correct.
3. Ammo reserves. When it empties, your troops can only do melee combat.
And finally, yes only the front lines fire, after all you do not want the ranks behind the front lines firing into your troops.
You can thin them out, but that leaves the possibility of your line breaking easier. I tend to leave them as they are and when my front ranks start running low on ammo, I simply order them to retreat (manual of course) and once they reach the rear of the lines I stop them and the 2nd ranks take up position and continue the battle with fresh numbers and ammo.
As for your other questions:
1. I believe the gray bars represent agents or government officials. On this one I am not sure and I really did not care.
2. I believe the <0.1M represents the amount of people residing in said city and whether it is growing or not (in the example provided, it is at 100,000 and growing). As for the rest you are correct.
3. Ammo reserves. When it empties, your troops can only do melee combat.
And finally, yes only the front lines fire, after all you do not want the ranks behind the front lines firing into your troops.
You can thin them out, but that leaves the possibility of your line breaking easier. I tend to leave them as they are and when my front ranks start running low on ammo, I simply order them to retreat (manual of course) and once they reach the rear of the lines I stop them and the 2nd ranks take up position and continue the battle with fresh numbers and ammo.If you're ambushed by walking close to a fort, does the battle happen at the fort anyway? If not, fort battles would only happen when you directly attack the fort, which I don't really see a point for as of yet. I guess I haven't dealt with many forts yet, I can't remember how wide the red area is.
Also, I find it hard to know which side the enemy will come from. Did the following yesterday... On the campaign map I (ME) attacked a Huron stack (HS), there was another bigger badder Huron stack behind the one I was attacking. It looked like this...
HS1 HS2 <--- ME
Yet, on the battle field, when I clicked "end deployment", expecting the two stacks to come from the front, the second bigger badder stack (considered "reinforcement") just spawned in two separate groups right in my back. I was suddenly in the middle of a triangle of bad guys. What?!
..............................HS1.....
HS2............ME..................
...........................HS1........
Also, I find it hard to know which side the enemy will come from. Did the following yesterday... On the campaign map I (ME) attacked a Huron stack (HS), there was another bigger badder Huron stack behind the one I was attacking. It looked like this...
HS1 HS2 <--- ME
Yet, on the battle field, when I clicked "end deployment", expecting the two stacks to come from the front, the second bigger badder stack (considered "reinforcement") just spawned in two separate groups right in my back. I was suddenly in the middle of a triangle of bad guys. What?!
..............................HS1.....
HS2............ME..................
...........................HS1........
germanicus12
First Citizen of Rome
The fort battle will happen outside the fort if the enemy is ambushing you, unless you are close, then the enemy will stay in the fort and just use cannons to blow you to pieces. I only fought 7 fort ambushes, and only once did the enemy choose to stay inside.
As for your last question, that is a bit strange, the reinforcements should have entered right behind their lines rather than behind yours. I do not know what to say, hopefully someone else can answer this better than I can.
As for your last question, that is a bit strange, the reinforcements should have entered right behind their lines rather than behind yours. I do not know what to say, hopefully someone else can answer this better than I can.
_alphaBeta_
King
I haven't seen a siege yet (I think).
Every time I siege a city. they always wind up attacking me. Wouldn't it make more sense to stay in the fort? If my siege victim decided not to come out and attack me, what would happen after the two turns? Do they automatically lose? What's the point then? Am I only ever going to have a siege battle if I attack the city directly without waiting?
Every time I siege a city. they always wind up attacking me. Wouldn't it make more sense to stay in the fort? If my siege victim decided not to come out and attack me, what would happen after the two turns? Do they automatically lose? What's the point then? Am I only ever going to have a siege battle if I attack the city directly without waiting?
germanicus12
First Citizen of Rome
I have seen numerous sieges out till the end. Almost every time the siege is close to ending (last turn), the AI attacks. Always, for me at least.
But if the AI chooses not to attack then the city falls to you without firing a single shot.
But if the AI chooses not to attack then the city falls to you without firing a single shot.
_alphaBeta_
King
So the only time that a siege will be fought is if an army attacks a city and chooses not to wait and attacks immediately, right?
I've seen the AI attack my siege army, and the fort was on the battlefield. The AI chose not to go inside though, which I thought was a little odd. I read later about the battle clock and the fact that the attacker needs to defeat the defender before the time runs out. Since I was technically the defender, the garrison needed to stay outside and engage or the battle clock would tick to zero and I would win anyway. So that explained that at least.
I guess I won't be seeing too many sieges then. I think the "time to surrender" needs to be longer though. Why would you ever attack immediately when you could just wait two turns and fight the battle outside of the fort? Now if the "time to surrender" was more like 5 or 6 turns, that would make it worth attacking immediately.
BurnEmDown
Emperor
- Joined
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Sometimes it is 5 or 6 turns, it depends on the fort or city. It seems the bigger the city the more time they can wait before surrendering.
