What do you think of Empire TW?

[germanicus12]

I seem to think the new patch is working great for me.... I am in my 20th turn as Great Britain and I have conquered the Cherokee Tribes, Huron Tribes and the 13 Colonies joined me, and I am at war with most of Europe but they fear my navy too much to block my trade routes. I have 5 full fleets of 4th rate warships in the European Theater, 3 Fleets in the American Theater, after taking Cuba and the Carribean islands, I need the protection from Spain, (who sent a fleet with an army. ) No more will I be surprised.

I have 6 Trade ships in India protected by an entire fleet. All in all, my economy is flourishing (5,000 a turn or more), and not once does another nation attempt to wrong me, save for Spain and the occasional threat from France on America.

BTW: I am playing on Hard. Both battle and campaign.

 

[CivRulesAll]

Will ETW play on my computer? It is:
Windows Vista
1729 MHZ of Processor speed
Processor:x86 family 6 Model 14 Stepping 12
Operating System:* , Service Pack 1 (6.0.6001)
Physical Memory:1013 MB
Accelerator in Use:Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family
I can't seem to find the graphics card.

 

[LightSpectra]

Everything I could possibly say has has already been summarized here.

 

[Elta]

Will ETW play on my computer? It is:
Windows Vista
1729 MHZ of Processor speed
Processor:x86 family 6 Model 14 Stepping 12
Operating System:* , Service Pack 1 (6.0.6001)
Physical Memory:1013 MB
Accelerator in Use:Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family
I can't seem to find the graphics card.

I doubt it

 

[Maniacal]

Everything I could possibly say has has already been summarized here.

Wow, an unencyclepedia article that is correct! Nice.

 

[Harbringer]

So I recently downloaded the demo to check this game out becuase I might get it, and I got the feeling that the battles were a wee bit stiff. In RTW, it was all melee, so the dynamics of constant flanking and attacking from various sides always came into play, but becuase its mostly rifles now.....It felt as if you were just standing there shooting eachother. My calvalry as well got slaughtered pretty much immediately, which Im so used to being my backbone in RTW. Any tips?

 

[CivRulesAll]

You COULD send your dudes in for a melee attack.

 

[Maniacal]

You have to be much more careful with your cavalry in ETW than previous games. It's also not just standing there shooting, you want to unleash a few vollies and then charge with bayonets if you can get the upper hand,.

 

[CivRulesAll]

That's what I meant.

 

[Harbringer]

You have to be much more careful with your cavalry in ETW than previous games. It's also not just standing there shooting, you want to unleash a few vollies and then charge with bayonets if you can get the upper hand,.

But why though? Whats the advantage? And the whole cavalry getting annihilated thing is totally uncomfy for me....they WERE my force in RTW, I always used infantry as the catalyst to shape my enemies into chargeable formations.

 

[cephalo]

But why though? Whats the advantage? And the whole cavalry getting annihilated thing is totally uncomfy for me....they WERE my force in RTW, I always used infantry as the catalyst to shape my enemies into chargeable formations.

Cavalry still rocks if you have an enemy that's already engaged in melee. If you have an advantage in firepower, stand there and shoot. If not, try to get someone engaged in melee so you can rout them safely with your cavalry. Easier said than done of course.

 

[Harbringer]

Ya after playing around some more I think Ive got the gist of it, Ive found that the dragoons are extremely versatile in most situations. Im wondering though, is there friendly fire in this game?

 

[cephalo]

Ya after playing around some more I think Ive got the gist of it, Ive found that the dragoons are extremely versatile in most situations. Im wondering though, is there friendly fire in this game?

In previous TWs, friendly fire was absolutely brutal. Lately I find that your troops will not fire so much into a melee. You will get some friendly fire but I think the main effect of have friendlies in the way is that your firepower is greatly diminished.

 

[MajKira]

its not bad and better than the tws before and therefore i find it rather good
but its getting bad with buggs doin cdt I had 5 patches and was still doin ctd in midst of gamin
it could have the whole world in one and not separated parts of earth
and steam ofc, for what steamed
lol was full annoyin ctds after 5 patches lol
and it was very slow when doin AI moves
all in all disappointin becuz game mechanic was good

 

[Maniacal]

But why though? Whats the advantage? And the whole cavalry getting annihilated thing is totally uncomfy for me....they WERE my force in RTW, I always used infantry as the catalyst to shape my enemies into chargeable formations.

Cavalry was just a bit OP in Rome and Medieval 2, but it was a powerful force, by the 1700s however its importance had waned and the game reflects that. You have to be strategic with your use of cavalry, they are excellent for flanking and taking out enemy artillery, weak units, crushing the rear and flanks of an enemy unit that is engaging your troops (though watch out for friendly fire). My horse cavalry is also proving incredibly useful against enemy cavalry as well.

And of course, to run down the fleeing enemies so you don't have a stupid ragtag army of barely-manned units running around being annoying.

 

[ecuwins]

LOL, I've been playing ETW since its release and just realized there is a Total War sub forum here.

Re: ETW - I like it. It was my first Total War game though. I'm skipping NTW but look forward to picking up Shogun 2.

 

[cephalo]

LOL, I've been playing ETW since its release and just realized there is a Total War sub forum here.

Re: ETW - I like it. It was my first Total War game though. I'm skipping NTW but look forward to picking up Shogun 2.

If you like ETW, I think you'll like NTW alot better. Its very similar but much more polished and enjoyable. Also you don't wanna miss RTW. That's a definate classic.

 

[Bugfatty300]

I got Empire while back but haven't played it until recently.

Some of the stuff I've noticed so far:

Annoying bugs:

1. My light infantry will continue to shoot into the ground at a fleeing enemy even after they are half away across the map.

Annoying game play

Units will not fire until every man is in place which makes rapid responses to flanking impossible.

1. Infantry units will only fire in one mode and have no command for alternating between them. Sometimes volley fire is needed, sometimes individual fire could be useful.

2. There is no way to disable platoon firing!!! As far as I'm concerned elite infantry that are locked in platoon firing mode are basically useless and not worth the cost to build and maintain. You'd think with hundreds of crazed Hindu swordsmen closing in fast that one last mass volley before a melee would be preferable but no!

3. Depressingly limited number of units. Some special units that can be recruited on the campaign map but can't be used in custom battle so that's annoying.

4. Limited variety of terrain and battle maps.

5. Strange and silly reloading animations. In Empire soldiers just pump the ramrod over and over which looks kind of weird. WTH is up with that?

I don't get it because the the reloading animations were great in M:TW.

6. No prisoners?

Some stuff that they didn't change from M:TW which left me shaking my head...

1. Units will still mindlessly mow down friendly units who happen to get between them and the enemy.

2. Men will still mindlessly walk in front of firing artillery.

Cool stuff that I liked

1. In one battle my cavalry was mopping up some routed enemy units. Some soldiers of a fleeing infantry unit seemed to form a rear guard that killed a number of my charging horsemen while the rest of the unit retreated. I don't know if that was fluke or a real tactic but I liked it.

2. Certain regions spawning new countries or resurrection of dead ones. Fabulous.

 

[shadowplay]

Man, the text in this game is so blurry!

 

[Maniacal]

Man, the text in this game is so blurry!

I'm almost willing to bet money you haven't checked the options and changed your resolution to match your monitor's. Either that or you need glasses.