Empire: Total War

[Karnak]

Great info Sard thank you.

What I meant by guns is more or less that if you have the option to equip the hulls with different gun types of your choosing. As in, rather than a 5th rate being loaded with 24 6lb cannons I'd rather give them 6 17lb cannons because their range advantage would be much more useful to me than 24 smaller guns of much shorter range.

I'm off to buy it today then .. I like what I see

Smaller ships really didn't have the structural strength to handle the recoil of the bigger guns.

[Tac]

Well bit the nails and got it.

Did the Road to Independence first before trying out the campaign.

The very first thing that almost made me regret buying this game was evident by the 20th turn: AI building massive, unbelievably massive armies when they had zero resources to do so. That issue has been around since Shogun: Total War... the enemy is down to just 1 province and you owned the rest of the map and yet, somehow, they manage to pay,upkeep and build ten times the armed forces you can. *sigh*.

Combat is much improved from the other TW series.. though I was dissapointed in seeing the native american forces fighting in formations like the europeans (c'mon now...). Naval combat is real good and definitely better than Pirates of the Burning Seas.

One thing that upsets me is that you cant have ships provide cannon support when your troops fight by the ocean.. you can see the frigate in the water and the longboats your troops got out of (which I thought was neat as hell!) but... breaks me heart to see the ship and it not shoot in my support .

Artillery is awesome to use. Most of my armies are composed of 12 guns , 8 line infantry and some rangers... in one battle I almost literally vaporized an infantry line in 3 rounds from max range 

Tech tree is very interesting but what's up with being able to research just one technology at a time? should be 3 techs at a time , one per discipline imo.

Still cant figure out how to use Rakes (or why) since AI generals die to the first round of my artillery anyway 

so far i give this a 7/10 . loses 3 points for that stupid infinite army crap the AI is still pulling off ><

[Motherland]

Tech tree is very interesting but what's up with being able to research just one technology at a time? should be 3 techs at a time , one per discipline imo.

It's one technology per school (or college etc). So... build more schools
The 'clamor for reform' can get really bad if you build too many schools in one region, though.

[Treize69]

I really enjoy it, but then I don't do the naval battles and usually keep my armies small and fast. I don't get into the frramerate-sucking slugfests. Dragoons, light infantry and horse artillery.

I aslo enjoy the whole empire-building aspect more than the battles. Very challenging. Especially as one of the small nations, like Prussia and the Dutch. Managing a global empire owned by a single-province nation can cause all kinds of troubles.

[thrila]

In my first campaign i didn't realise you had select each school from the research panel and select what you wish to be researched.  I had 5 or 6 schools but was only researching 1 thing at a time.

Cannons and infantry become stonger as the game progresses, with cavalry being relegated to harrassing and mopping up.  In my latest battle i had some heavy cavalry charged some line infantry and as they were hacking away the infantry had formed square, leading to the annhilation of my cavalry.  24-lber cannons and howitzers later in the game are fantastic, especially if you have researched shrapnel shot for the cannon. 

My typical army is 8 line infantry, 2 cannon, 2 howitzers, 2 cavalry, 2 grenadiers and 2 light/rifle infantry.  It used to be 6 line, but i'm currently fighting on the european mainland and 6 line infantry just wasn't enough.

[Apeotomy]

I play the Imperial Splendor mod now... Much improves gameplay! I usually roll with 20 or so guns and 5 elite infantry units and then I usually put my militia units off to the side so that they can swarm in if they decinde to charge my line. 

[Tac]

It's one technology per school (or college etc). So... build more schools
The 'clamor for reform' can get really bad if you build too many schools in one region, though.

Erm.. how?

Also, the indiamen ships .. i've not been able to figure out their use. The one bad thing of buying the game off steam is that there is no manual ><

[Vudak]

Erm.. how?

Also, the indiamen ships .. i've not been able to figure out their use. The one bad thing of buying the game off steam is that there is no manual ><

You send those over to the trade ports (Brazil, West & East Africa, East Indies) and establish trade routes with them...  Sail them onto one of the anchor symbols that is not already controlled by another country.

[TheBug]

There is a down-loadable manual from Steam, not quite as easy as a hard copy to read but it's something.

http://store.steampowered.com/manual/10500/

[MrMeanie]

i do have the game to.. but what i like about it is the land combat i think that is just Great not so big on the naval part of the game i think it takes to long..and for my copy of the game i have a russian copy... and i dont know were to get patches for that game. so i have no online play or steam showing that i have the game... i think its time to buy the us version

[thrila]

Erm.. how?

Also, the indiamen ships .. i've not been able to figure out their use. The one bad thing of buying the game off steam is that there is no manual ><

When a territory population grows above a certain size a new town emerges.  You have the option of building a school, church, public house? or industry in it.  The lower your taxes the sooner new towns emerge, so you have to strike a balance between income and growth.  I tend to have low taxes on colonies because the money lost on income will be replaced if you select industry for a new town.  I generally only build schools on large colonies, that way i can build a church and public house to offset the unhappiness schools bring to a territory.

[Tac]

thrila:

i had no idea. New towns as in completely new or as in small towns growing into cities?

Will try the indiamen now. trade income =

[thrila]

Completely new towns.

Every province has a capital and towns, when they emerge.  If they're a coastal town you have the option of making it into a dockyard to make warships, a merchant port for extra trade routes or a fishing port for more money.   There's a limit to how many towns a province can have, some small provinces call only have 2 or 3 towns.  England on the other hand has lots, more than ten i think.

Investing in a navy is very wise, being reduced to an income of 0 because another nation is pirating a trade route or blockading a port is an absolute pain.  And you can use your navy to do the same when it's not protecting your trade lanes.

[ChickenHawk]

I paid full price when it first came out and suffered through the bugs waiting for the patches.  I still think it was worth it.

It was quite satisfying to finish the American campaign and conquer North America while also vanquishing the Barbary states and bringing the Royal Navy to its knees.  The navel engagement with Briton was expensive and difficult (first rates are not easy to bring down) but well worth the effort in the end, leaching all their trade routes with impunity.

Could it have been more polished? Sure, but it's a lot of fun just the way it is.

[Tac]

Manual isnt very detailed either sadly (unlike Shogun's.. oh well).. but its good info. Benefiting lots from the indiamen trade routes now

still havent seen a new town pop up though. lowered taxes to minimum, tech'd farms and stuff of +pop growth.. nuthin'.

is there a way to steal enemy tech achievements? my rakes only seem to be able to blow stuff up or duel.