Empire Total War Random Question Thread
- Thread starter stee
- Start date
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
The AI will usually attacked you on the last turn if it is not reinforced (IE it will move a stack of 2 or 3 units and attack your main with that as a relief force of FAIL, at leat in Rome and M2).
In Rome and M2 the time ot surrender is displayed both in the city window and when you ohver the house over the city on the map.
In Rome and M2 the time ot surrender is displayed both in the city window and when you ohver the house over the city on the map.
_alphaBeta_
King
So how about friendly fire? If I leave all my units on "fire at will" will that result in a lot of people getting shot in the back? I was fighting a battle last night and some melee units charged in. They were in range of a second line of my behind the first so both lines started to fire. I would have sworn I saw a "attacked from behind" concern come up on the first line when I was mousing-over. If that's true, it looks like "fire at will" units are not smart enough to avoid friendly-fire. I guess it's also not wise for a second line to keep firing when the first is fighting in melee.
Of course all of this makes sense in real-life, just wondering how the game handles it. It looks like there's a technology for rank firing which implies that it would allow all the units of a particular group to fire by rotating who's shooting (I guess the rest duck).
That brings me to another point about military upgrades. When I research a new bayonet, I would expect all the melee statistics of all my line soldiers to increase. Is this shown anywhere quantitatively?
I take it that there's no way to control reinforcements, specifically where on the battlefield they enter? I had a battle yesterday where my reinforcements started to pour in from the side of the battlefield between the deployment zones of me and the enemy. Their calvary rushed the reinforcements before I could even take control of them. Shouldn't they stroll in behind my position?
Of course all of this makes sense in real-life, just wondering how the game handles it. It looks like there's a technology for rank firing which implies that it would allow all the units of a particular group to fire by rotating who's shooting (I guess the rest duck).
That brings me to another point about military upgrades. When I research a new bayonet, I would expect all the melee statistics of all my line soldiers to increase. Is this shown anywhere quantitatively?
I take it that there's no way to control reinforcements, specifically where on the battlefield they enter? I had a battle yesterday where my reinforcements started to pour in from the side of the battlefield between the deployment zones of me and the enemy. Their calvary rushed the reinforcements before I could even take control of them. Shouldn't they stroll in behind my position?
Friendly Fire does exist, I rarely put a regiment behind another because of that, I put them closeby for reinforcement that I can control but ugh.. Yeah. Fire at will should be able to prevent friendly fire. Be particularly wary of cannons that you may forget about... You tell cannons to shoot at a strong regiment, and you forget about it, and soon enough that targeted regiment is involved in some melee fighting with one of your regiments and your cannon balls are falling on both units' heads... Shooting canister shots with the cannon also tends to be dangerous if you have units close by... And yeah, there is a technology that allows them to figure out that they can rotate and reload at the back of the lines instead of just standing there like doofus, hehe.
I find reinforcement position really erratic. Not just mine, but the AI's too. They will appear behind me for no reason whatsoever.
Leonel
Breakfast Connoisseur
There is friendly fire. I learned this the hard way after putting my early cannons behind my line infantry on flat ground and selecting canister shot. 
Which is why I stick with either mortars or find a good hill to position on.
Which is why I stick with either mortars or find a good hill to position on.
There is friendly fire. I learned this the hard way after putting my early cannons behind my line infantry on flat ground and selecting canister shot.
It IS hilarious.
Hey, is anyone actually able to run this game with maximum graphic settings in the battle scenes? I have a quad-core with 4 gigs of RAM and an ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT and I have to put most things on medium. I keep the textures high, but I reduce grass a lot and remove pretty much all shadows for it to run smoothly. I can run it with more details but it gets choppy and annoying. In fact, even the campaign map feels a little stiff and it's not that impressive graphically.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
Well there's your problem.
LightSpectra
me autem minui
Does acquiring protectorates annoy other nations, or does only actually annexing more territory do that?
LightSpectra
me autem minui
Does anything special happen if you control the Italian States? Like, some fluctuation for your Catholic population?
I don't have answers to the two questions above, although I don't think anything special happens when you control Italian States.
Here's my own question: I have no idea what the numbers and bonus mean in this game. Like, if my general gets a new trait and has "+2 command" or "+2 morale". Sure, I know that his troops suddenly have more morale, but it's +2 out of what!? Where's the number it affects? Same goes for politicians with their "+1 happiness" that I can't locate. Is it +1 out of 10, on a number like 84? Where are these numbers?
I have no idea what the exact meaning of the stars mean. I know a general with 4 stars is better than a general with 3 stars, but I don't know what the exact effect is. And if I knew, I bet it'd be those obscure +3 on whatever.
How much faster does a gentleman with 5 stars research than one with 3 stars? How does this really affect the number of turns required to research? ... WHERE ARE THE NUMBERS.
Here's my own question: I have no idea what the numbers and bonus mean in this game. Like, if my general gets a new trait and has "+2 command" or "+2 morale". Sure, I know that his troops suddenly have more morale, but it's +2 out of what!? Where's the number it affects? Same goes for politicians with their "+1 happiness" that I can't locate. Is it +1 out of 10, on a number like 84? Where are these numbers?
I have no idea what the exact meaning of the stars mean. I know a general with 4 stars is better than a general with 3 stars, but I don't know what the exact effect is. And if I knew, I bet it'd be those obscure +3 on whatever.
How much faster does a gentleman with 5 stars research than one with 3 stars? How does this really affect the number of turns required to research? ... WHERE ARE THE NUMBERS.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
I don't see why you're having a problem, it's akways been that way.
+2 command will give him 2 more Command Stars, if you look at the character's profile you will see command and soem other stats next to the image (they have changed names in different games except for command, so I don't know what empires has).
AFAIK Command improves morale, and the more morale you have the better your units will fight and they are less likely to break and flee.
It seems that Empires does not show traits that used to be shown, previously for ever command rank the general went up, there would be a trait (some traits were replaced by an improved version, especially for assassin's and spies) that gives the corrisponding reason/explanation and bonus.
IE
Good Tactician = +2 command
Characters can be born/start with traits that give them bonuses, but they will mostly earn them through experiance, leading armies, battles, or governing cities (especially cities with schools and other centers of learning).
By default, management/influence/command/etc etc start off as 0 which provides no bonus, various traits and ancillaries (followers in Empires, I hope that can be renamed) are acquired and provide bonuses and improvements. More influence was useful for diplomacy and governing, and possibly to keep the troops in line. Mnagement was useful for governing cities. Command for battles, etc. In Medieval 2 Honour (or was it Chivalry?) was good for keeping people happy in cities and your troops too, whereas it's opposite was Cruelty or something (infamy? Can't remember) and lowered your opponent's morale in battle, but was not good for governing cities.
+2 command will give him 2 more Command Stars, if you look at the character's profile you will see command and soem other stats next to the image (they have changed names in different games except for command, so I don't know what empires has).
AFAIK Command improves morale, and the more morale you have the better your units will fight and they are less likely to break and flee.
It seems that Empires does not show traits that used to be shown, previously for ever command rank the general went up, there would be a trait (some traits were replaced by an improved version, especially for assassin's and spies) that gives the corrisponding reason/explanation and bonus.
IE
Good Tactician = +2 command
Characters can be born/start with traits that give them bonuses, but they will mostly earn them through experiance, leading armies, battles, or governing cities (especially cities with schools and other centers of learning).
By default, management/influence/command/etc etc start off as 0 which provides no bonus, various traits and ancillaries (followers in Empires, I hope that can be renamed) are acquired and provide bonuses and improvements. More influence was useful for diplomacy and governing, and possibly to keep the troops in line. Mnagement was useful for governing cities. Command for battles, etc. In Medieval 2 Honour (or was it Chivalry?) was good for keeping people happy in cities and your troops too, whereas it's opposite was Cruelty or something (infamy? Can't remember) and lowered your opponent's morale in battle, but was not good for governing cities.
Because it's the first Total War game I play. The manual is sort of small. In-game tips are alright although they are not detailed.
After looking in-game at what you say... Seems true for politicians mostly. If I over my mouse over my minister of army for instance, if he has more stars, he gets bigger bonuses (lower upkeep, lower recruitment cost, etc.). Same for other ministers. For generals however, I guess "+3 command" adds three stars to the general? I can't hover my mouse on the general and know what the effect of more command is exactly.
Same goes for spies, scholars, priests... I don't really know exactly what more stars means. I do see character traits (that can be gained and lost) and they say like "+1 research points per turn for military techs" and such, but... How many points to I need to research something, that remains a mystery to me.
So in conclusion, it's just hard to know what the real effect of these traits and bonuses are in the game, except for my ministers. Whenever I choose something in Civilization, I know exactly what it means in terms of numbers. I don't mind if Total War wants to say "this isn't about precise number micromanagement", actually I'd like that, but the thing is that they put an actual "+2" number that makes me want to know what that +2 means.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
I don't know about hovering your mouse, just select the general and right click his unit picture to see the profile.
+2 means you have +2 points towards whatver it is. +2 to unrest is bad, -2 to unrest is good. +3 command is excellent, -1 is bad. And as I said, it goes from 0-10 or something like that.
I don't know what the difference between 3 stars and 4 are in the game, I don't care, I just know that the more stars the better, and I rarely lose battles anyways. More stars the better, and it cetainly helps (a general with no command skill is not very good) but battle still relies on troops, their experiance and equipment, tactics and timing.
+2 means you have +2 points towards whatver it is. +2 to unrest is bad, -2 to unrest is good. +3 command is excellent, -1 is bad. And as I said, it goes from 0-10 or something like that.
I don't know what the difference between 3 stars and 4 are in the game, I don't care, I just know that the more stars the better, and I rarely lose battles anyways. More stars the better, and it cetainly helps (a general with no command skill is not very good) but battle still relies on troops, their experiance and equipment, tactics and timing.
This is unrelated to what we were just discussing, but I found this great article (on Total War Center) about the game's economy and I thought it might interest other n00bs like me:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=237607
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=237607
What the hell! I was playing as India, wanted to go from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy... So I engineer a revolution by removing my army from my capital region, increasing the nobility's taxes to the maximum, removing all the buildings that provide happiness... Took a while but eventually the nobility rebelled in my capital region.
So I click "side with the rebels". I take the rebel army and invade the capital. Success! Except I'm still an absolute monarchy... What?! Help!
So I click "side with the rebels". I take the rebel army and invade the capital. Success! Except I'm still an absolute monarchy... What?! Help!
LightSpectra
me autem minui
Do alliances do anything at all? The American Revolution campaign keeps bugging you to ally with France, but I don't really see the point of it.
Kan' Sharuminar
Fluffy
When war is declared allies get the option to join you, so I've found it handy to have a couple of well-placed allies. It's not much use for when you're already in a war (such as at the start of the American Revolution campaign) though.
How have people been deploying their cavalry and artillery?
I've tried putting the cannons behind my lines but Friendly fire weakens my centre too much, I placed them IN the centre which works but only really makes them effective at grapeshot.
I recently (and much to my annoyance) thought about leaving them on the flanks, you know to fire along the diagonals. You know, where the Comp usuallly deploys them at the start of the deployment phase. Does it work better though?
cavalry? flanks roll down, type of stuff? You guys withdrawing more often and recharging than you might have done in RTW or MTW2?
I've tried putting the cannons behind my lines but Friendly fire weakens my centre too much, I placed them IN the centre which works but only really makes them effective at grapeshot.
I recently (and much to my annoyance) thought about leaving them on the flanks, you know to fire along the diagonals. You know, where the Comp usuallly deploys them at the start of the deployment phase. Does it work better though?
cavalry? flanks roll down, type of stuff? You guys withdrawing more often and recharging than you might have done in RTW or MTW2?
I haven't found a very effective way to use artillery. I usually put them in the middle and put line infantry on each side to create a bottleneck of sorts. Artillery is sort of a bait to get the AI to attack sometimes... Try to put them on higher grounds. top of cliffs are good.
I like to hide my cavalry in woods close to possible AI paths. Charge from the back when the AI is engaging in melee with my infantry. I tend to withdraw yes. Especially with those that have spears like in my Maratha campaign, they have lancers; they're almost useless in melee but have a huge charge bonus.
Anyway, regarding my question about government changes from 2 days ago (see post above), I thought you could go from any of the three government types to any other government type, provided you incited the right people to revolt, but it doesn't work like that.
If you're in a monarchy:
1) Inciting the nobility replaces the current king/queen and ministers and you stay in a monarchy
2) Inciting the lower classes creates a revolution towards a republic
If you're a republic:
1) Inciting the middle class (nobility under monarch) creates a constitutional monarchy
2) Inciting the lower class... uh... Never tried but I guess it replaces the whole government and the president
If you're a constitutional monarchy:
1) Inciting the nobility creates a revolution towards a monarchy
2) Inciting the lower class... I guess it must go back to a republic.
So basically:
a) You can't go from a monarchy to a constitutional monarchy
b) You can't go from a republic to a monarchy
I like to hide my cavalry in woods close to possible AI paths. Charge from the back when the AI is engaging in melee with my infantry. I tend to withdraw yes. Especially with those that have spears like in my Maratha campaign, they have lancers; they're almost useless in melee but have a huge charge bonus.
Anyway, regarding my question about government changes from 2 days ago (see post above), I thought you could go from any of the three government types to any other government type, provided you incited the right people to revolt, but it doesn't work like that.
If you're in a monarchy:
1) Inciting the nobility replaces the current king/queen and ministers and you stay in a monarchy
2) Inciting the lower classes creates a revolution towards a republic
If you're a republic:
1) Inciting the middle class (nobility under monarch) creates a constitutional monarchy
2) Inciting the lower class... uh... Never tried but I guess it replaces the whole government and the president
If you're a constitutional monarchy:
1) Inciting the nobility creates a revolution towards a monarchy
2) Inciting the lower class... I guess it must go back to a republic.
So basically:
a) You can't go from a monarchy to a constitutional monarchy
b) You can't go from a republic to a monarchy
