Gaming Empire: Total War hands-on preview

Not a clue I'm afraid. The PCs running the sea battle I played were using 620W Corsair PSUs (that red sticker is a giveaway!) but then we had to play in windowed mode, and you could easily run a quad-core CPU and hefty graphics card from one of those anyway. I'm guessing it'll be fairly tough to run just because every other Total War games have been at launch. I'd guees it'll be CPU-hungry as well as GPU but this is all conjecture based on previous games. Probably wont see system specs until after Christmas as the game is due beginning of Feb.

 

Hi Veles
yes, the formations have an impact on firing rifles. Only the first 2 rows can fire safely simultanously in a deep formation. The rest of the men cannot fire and have to wait until their time as come to do so.
But if you build a 2 (max 2-3) line formation ALL of your men can fire simultanously. Maximum concentration of firepower = fire superiority (to reach this is the goal of any commander on the field). Devastating for deep formations in firerange.

Thats how Napoleons first infantry attack waves have been beaten and pushed back by Wellingtons 2 row rifle lines on the hill by Waterloo. The weak spot in 2 Line Formations is that they cannot withstand long in close combat. Soldiers needed a special training to be able to successfully use this formation. The English loved it. They were trained to stay where they were and fight and die there.

Very deep formations had also a big psychologic effect on the enemy, lowering the moral, thus weakening will and resistance (for example the 150 man x 20 rows deep formation that Napoleon used in Waterloo in his first attack wave) while the own soldiers felt more protected and comfortable.

I'm looking forward to imply all this tactics and formations in Empire Total War This will be a great game for sure. CA is an amazing game developer, innovativ and highly skilled and experienced. And they are listening to the feedback of their customers.

Greeting from Switzerland, Andi

 

The graphics look straight-up amazing. Can't wait for it to come out.