Well, got it installed in about two hours, and I'm loving the art direction that they've gone with for unit plates/map and videos. Graphics are a step up from Empire, but I wouldn't say massively - however the battlefields are a lot more varied from what I've seen, including lovely lovely narow bridges to kill on. Sieges are... Interesting. AI seems clueless about how to defend effectively, but may change with difficulty settings or whatnot. Big castles are awesome though! Thumbs up so far. FYI, rig in my signature is running maxed out at 1080p.
BTW, I changed my download server location to Czech Republic and it's going at 3MB/s (maxing my connection).
I can't get my head around the Historical battle... although admittedly i didn't play the tutorial (i have played both Rome and Medieval 1/2 though so i roughly know my way around the battlefield). I can take their first (suicidal) Calvary charge, and then take the small force that's directly ahead of your General. However i can't take it when the main force starts assaulting (roughly around or after you're told the Green Allies won't be joining the fight). I can hold them off for a while, even leading the enemy troops into the Greens as cover, but then once your White allies betray you, then the outnumbering gets out of hand for me. I'm sure it's possible, since i'm only playing on Normal, but i don't exactly want to do it the stupid way and reposition all my troops in one place (so i'm not spread out) just because i know what will happen, i.e. i'll be betrayed on my right flank.
I just hope they have improved the A.I. I still remember playing Rome sieges and getting numerous troops stuck in stasis on the ramparts apparently fighting ghosts "to the death".
Well, the demo battle is bloomin' hard! The game runs smooth as anything on my rig though. I think I will be keeping my pre-order on this one - looks like fun.
The game looks great I played a bit of the campaign tutorial and that was good, then played the demo battle. And as Jedra says, it's pretty hard! I played it on easy and struggled (mind you, I did make a couple of tactical mess-ups). Looks a good game though for sure. As far as performance and graphics goes - it's pretty good. My rig isn't too powerful but on 1920x1080 with full graphical settings (sans AA) it handled it fine overall (average of 35 FPS). It did drop too much (to about 15) once or twice, but it's not really surprising considering I tried it out on full graphics. With some tweaking I think getting ~45 average FPS and ~25 min FPS shouldn't be difficult on my rig.
Looks like absolute crap on mine and runs very badly, but I found that was the problem with the Empire demo too and the final game ran much better on my PC.
Finally beat the historical battle Although only on normal... and the end engagement only consisted of: My General, 4 Archers, 2 Calvary (~50% Health), 2 Flanking Cavalry (~80% Health) Against: 1 General, 3 Naginata, 4 Katana Samurai (2 at 40% HP), 1 Spearmen, 1 Bowmen, 2 Matchlocks Ultimately it was around 600 on my side and ~1400 on theirs. Their General broke through my rather feeble Cavalry blockade and rushed my Archers and tried to flank with the rest of the Infantry force, however by doing that, he forced my Cavalry+General to aid and create a frontline between my Archers and his own force, completely ruining his flanking attempt. I then had to rely on my weakened Cavalry+General to hold the frontline (they started to rout, but i had my General rally them) whlist my flanking Cavalry caught up to the battle (they were across the map after having been set to assassinate the other enemy General). They soon caught up and then trampled through the rear Archers + Matchlock Samurai and then hit the rear end of the rest of the Melee Infantry which must have shocked them quite a bit since they instantly routed despite having superior numbers and being anti-cavalry troops. Ultimately i lost my General and the Cavalry that were holding the frontline with him, but they lasted long enough to win me the battle .
I'll echo the historical battle being hard! Only given it one go so far. I wiped the floor with the enemy on the left flank, but that engagement took time and cost me units. Dealt with the cavalry charge by simply smacking them with my own cavalry, and those units carried on smashing the main force's attack in to my centre. Basically fell apart when the losers changed sides. I re-formed in front of the green guys, but my units had all taken damage and were limping to a greater or lesser extent. Still had a decent amount of cavalry though, but nowhere near enough archers. The traitors then just smacked in to my line with full-health units, and despite bring my general and his two remaining archers over to the fight I got routed Greens just sat there until the last second when they made a futile charge. Next time I'll probably base my line around them, and rely on them getting annoyed and hence bringing 3 fresh cavalry units in when they're needed most. Overall fun, but still missing the fun of artillery and squares! I'll look forward to the release.
Had a few cracks at the scenario on Easy, and its hard! The demo looks great tho, the battles are very intense
Oh, has anybody found the rotate units button/move forward? Dragging out where I want a unit to be all the time is tedious and inefficient for larger numbers.
I find the spearmen (Yari Ashigaru) to be brutally effective against the initial Cavalry charge, just set them up at the very front and turn on the "Spear Wall" option and the charge ends up being rather suicidal. You can usually route both the Cavalry units before their backup even arrives and not lose many men. I assume you're not talking about just right clicking on a spot so they move in formation ? Not to mention you can always just pause the game with "P" and then plan out orders in advance.
Just played the tutorial so far! Seems good! I can't wait to get involved in some of the bigger battles!
Must say, it's just more of the same really. I love the strategy of the overview map, but the actual RTS? Boring tbh.
Loved the demo, would have liked a look at the proper battle ai not only scripted but I know even if there are problems they will be modded out in a few months. Historic battle wasn't that tough, same old pin with spears and kill with cavalry tactics work fine. Cant wait for this game to arrive.
