Napoleon: Total War (Not an Expansion for Empire)

[grumbler]

I still play R:TW on occasion. I usually tire of it when I have too many battles, which take a lot of time (I don't usually like using auto-battles). But still, fun game and good variety to it.

Agreed, but what you can do is just play out those battles involving the faction head and heir, and allow the rest to auto-resolve.  That gives a nice role-play feel to the game, and allows AI nations to stick around longer.

[Octavian]

I still play R:TW on occasion. I usually tire of it when I have too many battles, which take a lot of time (I don't usually like using auto-battles). But still, fun game and good variety to it.

Agreed, but what you can do is just play out those battles involving the faction head and heir, and allow the rest to auto-resolve.  That gives a nice role-play feel to the game, and allows AI nations to stick around longer.

That's what I do (except for the heir part as I auto-resolve him as well).

I'm also auto managing cities except the one my leader is governing.

[DGuller]

You can't auto-resolve M2TW Stainless Steel battles.  The strategic AI is so juiced up that you need the human touch to defeat their armies.  If you try to keep up quantity-wise so that you can win auto-resolves, you'll tank your economy in no time.

[Viking]

You can't auto-resolve M2TW Stainless Steel battles.  The strategic AI is so juiced up that you need the human touch to defeat their armies.  If you try to keep up quantity-wise so that you can win auto-resolves, you'll tank your economy in no time.

I don't have any problem autoresolving in SS6.1. You do need to have a chance of winning. I usually autoresolve easy victories, definite losses and rebel squashing. I usually only end up fighting the decisive battles in a war since they are the only ones which matter in the outcome.

As with all TW games, what really really matters if you are playing against the A.I. is to get good cashflow so you can fund your building program while maintaining sufficient armies to keep your enemies at bay while building up.

In M2TW the AI will keep peace with you. Having friends can work in that game, not any other, but only in that game. But if you are having problems I have a few suggestions.

1) Merchant stacking. place a one card army on top of a valuable trade resource and add 20 merchants to the army, all merchants produce. Good for gold, amber and ivory.

2) Catapult storm troopers. Build a small army with one catapult supported by sufficient swordsmen and archers, put them on a boat and then land and immediately assault and take a town defended by a minimal garrison. Then either burn the city and withdraw, or retreat the catapult to find more support troops while the swordsmen and archers defend the city.

3) Bridge Fighting. well, doh.

4) Attack excommunicated factions. Just remember to not let the king of that faction die before you have taken what you want.

[Caliga]

 

So this will be a new game (and I assume at a new game price) covering basically the same era?  That's unacceptable.

[DGuller]

You can't auto-resolve M2TW Stainless Steel battles.  The strategic AI is so juiced up that you need the human touch to defeat their armies.  If you try to keep up quantity-wise so that you can win auto-resolves, you'll tank your economy in no time.

I don't have any problem autoresolving in SS6.1. You do need to have a chance of winning. I usually autoresolve easy victories, definite losses and rebel squashing. I usually only end up fighting the decisive battles in a war since they are the only ones which matter in the outcome.

As with all TW games, what really really matters if you are playing against the A.I. is to get good cashflow so you can fund your building program while maintaining sufficient armies to keep your enemies at bay while building up.

In M2TW the AI will keep peace with you. Having friends can work in that game, not any other, but only in that game. But if you are having problems I have a few suggestions.

1) Merchant stacking. place a one card army on top of a valuable trade resource and add 20 merchants to the army, all merchants produce. Good for gold, amber and ivory.

2) Catapult storm troopers. Build a small army with one catapult supported by sufficient swordsmen and archers, put them on a boat and then land and immediately assault and take a town defended by a minimal garrison. Then either burn the city and withdraw, or retreat the catapult to find more support troops while the swordsmen and archers defend the city.

3) Bridge Fighting. well, doh.

4) Attack excommunicated factions. Just remember to not let the king of that faction die before you have taken what you want.

I have SS 6.2 RC4, not SS 6.1.  SS 6.2 nixed a lot of the exploits, and also kicks some cash to AI every turn for every territory they own.  That makes a big difference. 

It's also actually very hard to keep peace in 6.2, because you're forced to have a much smaller army than the AI, and thus look like an easy target.  You'll be DOWed easily, and you'll have a hard time making peace (although it's possible in some cases).

I also hate burning cities, and in fact my whole strategy revolves around getting them to grow very quickly.  Nothing is more annoying than being stock with a frontier city that's way behind the curve.  I actually go full chivalry, doing anything within reason to turn my every general into a saint, so that my cities and castles would grow like mushrooms.

[Kleves]

If it's full price, I'll pass, but if it's cheaper, I'll probably pick it up.

[Caliga]

Am I the only person who has Empire and actually likes it? 

[Valmy]

Am I the only person who has Empire and actually likes it? 

I bought it for my dad.  It doesn't work.

[Caliga]

 

[Vince]

Am I the only person who has Empire and actually likes it? 

If they fix the AI and random crashes I would like it.

[DGuller]

Am I the only person who has Empire and actually likes it? 

If they fix the AI and random crashes I would like it.

But then it would be a completely different game.

[Caliga]

Oh, but the reviews were phenomenal! 

[Vince]

Oh, but the reviews were phenomenal! 

And yet it still took a 50% off sale on Steam for us to buy it.   

[Caliga]

 

My point is basically that game reviews are utterly worthless and it's painfully obvious they slant them in order to keep their advertisers (who are producing the very games they review) happy.

I think the movie critic industry has some sort of self-policing to avoid this situation, and it needs to be adopted by the game review community.