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badgertaco Hi, I'm Talos from The Imperial Throne Since: Jun, 2010
Hi, I'm Talos
#226: Feb 11th 2011 at 3:11:09 PM

Well of course Egypt was defeated by the Rebels. Egypt has no good heavy infantry.

TALOSTALOSTALOSTALOSTALOSTALOS
theLibrarian Since: Jul, 2009
#227: Feb 11th 2011 at 4:39:47 PM

And then there was that cavalry fiasco...

Wagrid Bang bang! from England Since: Jun, 2010
Bang bang!
#228: Feb 11th 2011 at 4:45:05 PM

My current game as England may swiftly become untenable. My military is huge, but scattered, by economy is also huge but fragile and Poland has established itself as a great power but I can't deal with it due to wars in Spain and Italy. I could manage all these problems but my empire has almost no infrastructure because I have never had chance to consolidate my gains. Of course it doesn't help that the AI always refuses ceasfires. In addition, the game simply won't let me establish a credible navy and I'm so busy pumping out troops to garrison cities I have no time for diplomats.

Spain and Sicily I should be able to drop without issue but Poland is a problem. I don't want to take any of their settlements because frankly I don't want to get involved in Eastern Europe. On the bright side, the Pope is now on my side, which means I'm able to open up diplomacy again, thank God. Aside, has anybody ever lost due to bad AI? Like defending in a siege and the enemy just sitting their meaning the battle goes on forever. I also get that in pitched battles, the army attacking me just sits still. I just rage quit a huge battle with Spain because of this.

edited 11th Feb '11 4:59:57 PM by Wagrid

I have a podcast! I think that you should listen to it.
Colonial1.1 Purveyor of Obscurity from The Marvelous River City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Purveyor of Obscurity
#229: Feb 11th 2011 at 5:16:35 PM

The Senate Has A New Mission For You: Establish Diplomatic Relations With This New Democratic Egypt.

"He could not know it. For it was not all a joke."
theLibrarian Since: Jul, 2009
#230: Feb 11th 2011 at 6:57:23 PM

In return, your reputation with the preferati and proletariat will increase.

GameChainsaw The Shadows Devour You. from sunshine and rainbows! Since: Oct, 2010
The Shadows Devour You.
#231: Feb 12th 2011 at 7:07:15 AM

^^^Try abusing it and going right round their back in siege battles. You can go right round without them responding if you take a long arc, and then charge into them with cavalry repeatedly. After your bodyguard have slammed into the back of their footmen a few dozen times using the cavalry cycle (they just chase you a bit before returning to normal) the massive enemy army will be a few terrified individuals.

Of course, you need your cavalry to be stronger than their cavalry for this to work. Missiles (particularly crossbows) can also ruin your day.

EDIT: As for your original question, no, I've never had the AI do this to me. Except for sally battles where I force the AI inside the walls and they never come out again.

edited 12th Feb '11 7:08:11 AM by GameChainsaw

The term "Great Man" is disturbingly interchangeable with "mass murderer" in history books.
Wagrid Bang bang! from England Since: Jun, 2010
Bang bang!
#232: Feb 12th 2011 at 7:45:03 AM

I don't field cavalry. I base my armies of off the English in the 100 Years War: lots of archers with a back bone of men-at-arms.

I have a podcast! I think that you should listen to it.
JAF1970 Jonah Falcon from New York Since: Jan, 2001
Jonah Falcon
#233: Feb 12th 2011 at 8:08:16 AM

Opening cinematic of Shogun 2.

Jonah Falcon
GameChainsaw The Shadows Devour You. from sunshine and rainbows! Since: Oct, 2010
The Shadows Devour You.
#234: Feb 12th 2011 at 9:03:33 AM

Well, its a nice movie, but it tells us frustratingly little about the actual gameplay. (There's been frustratingly little about the actual gameplay, outside those two battles.)

I might wait until some decent reviews are out, at least by the major reviewers. I like to see some amateur reviews as well; they're not under any pressure to be nice.

The term "Great Man" is disturbingly interchangeable with "mass murderer" in history books.
IniquitusTheThird Laugh into the rain. from Wossname. Since: Dec, 2010
Laugh into the rain.
#235: Feb 12th 2011 at 3:07:57 PM

Oops. Wrong thread.

Ignore me!

edited 12th Feb '11 3:08:30 PM by IniquitusTheThird

Storm and trouble won't make you make you lose your way. (Tits might, though.)
Carbonpillow Writer Since: Jul, 2010
#236: Feb 12th 2011 at 10:18:54 PM

I applaud the intro for the surprisingly realistic fight scene (for a video game).

Two things I absolutely demand is better pathfinding in sieges and more realistic formations. It's silly watching a bunch of peasants chase down an enemy in formation, or routing in formation because they were chasing down heavy calvary. Now that Shogun is bragging about it's tech specs, I want these.

The Blood God's design consultant.
GameChainsaw The Shadows Devour You. from sunshine and rainbows! Since: Oct, 2010
The Shadows Devour You.
#237: Feb 13th 2011 at 4:25:42 PM

Urrgh...

Fight for eastern Europe continues. Finally taken the whole of central Europe, starting to extend fingers east towards Thorn and Krakow. Cold War with the Papacy (Hot war for the Sicilians.) Repelled a Venetian assault on Naples via the Rome militia sneaking down behind their backs and killing them with the help of a very badly timed Sicilian charge into their superior but severely weakened armoured sargeants while my archers, the one remaining unit on the field, ran round their flanks, spooking the Venetians. Also effortlessly repelled a German assault upon Venice. Idiots got themselves excommunicated; again. Other than that, some brutal fighting around Prague; a unit of knights running back to Magdeburg, my new Central European stronghold, for retraining, after I'd already had to send a bunch of beaten up merchants, knights and infantrymen back there and to Staufen for retraining due to the bloody Polish cavalry. (Polish nobles are nasty fighters!) Gained a new respect for Poland after this.

The Scots betrayed me (predictable, they'd been hovering outside York with a massive army for the best part of eight turns.) My smaller but more elite army stationed in York ages ago just for such an emergency beat them off at the cost of most of my cavalry, leaving me to lead an army of dismounted feudal knights and yeomen longbowmen north to tackle Edinburgh. Took the capital with ease after catching the routers from the last battle outside its walls; brief siege after left me in control of the city a mere 4 turns into the war. After that I got lucky, drawing the Scottish king out of Inverness and killing him and most of his remaining army, a handful of dismounted feudal bastards and two units of knights templar(!). Now its just a case of crushing the rebels of Inverness, and I'll be free to lead my Nottingham-trained army east to join in the fun!

Meanwhile the French have decided I'm not fighting enough people, and have dragged me into a war with Portugal. Meh, water off a ducks back, gives me the excuse to help my Moorish allies against my former allies who snubbed me in favour of the now dead Spanish. Boy did they pick the wrong side. Already got a bunch of knights outside Cordoba; just got to get infantry up to the walls now and then it'll be off to finish the Portuguese off in their capital, seeing as the French have obligingly started by going after Portugals northern castle.

One group I don't want to tangle with is the French. I have them almost completely surrounded, but they have some seriously nasty armies and might actually manage to take one town before they get pushed onto the defensive permanently. Fighting my supposed overlords (I actually stayed true to the idea that the Duke of Normandy and thus my French lands were technically under the banner of the French king) is liable to be a bloody and brutal fight, one I could frankly do without. Besides, at the moment the idea of my Europe-spanning empire being subservient to the French king is in practice laughable; the French king might be my overlord on paper, but in practice I pretty much let the French king do what he wants, support him when he goes to war, and grab more land than he does anyway, and otherwise concentrate on the actual business of running Western and Central Europe and keeping the whole shebang from falling apart.

On the plus side, the Sicilians seem set to retake Ajaccio and thus Corsica. That'd leave the Pope with only Sardinia, so I think I can rest assured that the Sicilians have finally got their acts together, and are actually going to not need bailing out anymore. (With the exception of the occasional Venetian invasion.)

Another faction I don't want to get into the woods of is Hungary. They've remained stubbornly neutral to everyone so far, and the idea of having to fight yet another fresh kingdom so soon after subduing Polands western possessions isn't one that appeals. So, France and Hungary are the ones to watch for me. But I've recovered, it seems, from the shaky part of my campaign (the Poles threw me off guard) and domination, if not outright conquest of Europe, seems like a realistic and perfectly justified option for me now.

edited 13th Feb '11 4:46:23 PM by GameChainsaw

The term "Great Man" is disturbingly interchangeable with "mass murderer" in history books.
theLibrarian Since: Jul, 2009
#238: Feb 13th 2011 at 4:52:45 PM

I wonder how the siege battles are going to be now...apparently they're in multiple stages as you fight your way up the castle, but how? I also applaud the return to undeniable close-quarters focused fighting. Long-distance stuff didn't really appeal to me after Empire.

Carbonpillow Writer Since: Jul, 2010
#239: Feb 13th 2011 at 7:28:34 PM

[up]Actually, from what've I've seen they're similar to Citadel battles in Medieval 2.

I see the AI pathfinding is indeed better, but only because the demo stage was just open space :/

The Blood God's design consultant.
IniquitusTheThird Laugh into the rain. from Wossname. Since: Dec, 2010
Laugh into the rain.
#240: Feb 13th 2011 at 8:37:39 PM

Well folks, after dicking around for far too much time and lurking like a boss on the Total War Center forums, I decided to sack up and try a mod. Everyone seems to have a high opinion of Stainless Steel, so I got it off the megaupload site, and installed it, and now I'm about to fire it up for the first time.

Wish me luck!

I think England's gonna be a solid choice for my first shot at Stainless Steel 6.3...

Storm and trouble won't make you make you lose your way. (Tits might, though.)
Carbonpillow Writer Since: Jul, 2010
#241: Feb 13th 2011 at 8:52:58 PM

England has one of, if not the, best starting position on the campaign.

Also, true story. So I was sieging a city and I hit a unit of pikemen inside the walls. On a whim I decided to zoom down and see how they were doing.

They were cyclopes. Not kidding. Each trooper in the entire unit only had one eye in the center of their face, no nose, no mouth.

I was severely freaked out and quickly ordered them out of the city and to one of my priests to examine.

edited 13th Feb '11 10:29:19 PM by Carbonpillow

The Blood God's design consultant.
IniquitusTheThird Laugh into the rain. from Wossname. Since: Dec, 2010
Laugh into the rain.
#242: Feb 13th 2011 at 10:38:54 PM

Right. Progress report!

After selecting a couple of details in the setup box (Savage AI, early period, free watchtowers and disable Real Recruitment, whatever those mean), It's into the game I go! The dude glowering at me on the title screen scared me a bit, being used to the background shapes for title screen stuff. After adjusting the resolution, I hit Single Player!

Holy crap, there are a lot of factions. Thankfully, the English flag is unchanged from vanilla Medieval 2, so I got it on my fourth click. I clicked around a bit more, and saw that they changed up how Spain and the Nordic areas are divided up (Kingdoms of Castille and Aragon?), and I notice that the map now stretches far further east than before (Why hello there, Caspian Sea). Also... Khwarzarimian? Khawarzarimonian? Something along those lines? And who the hell are the Cumans? Damn, have I got a lot to learn about the factions. Also, namechanges galore! And where are the Milanese gone? Now there's just the Genoan Republic.

Right. Starting off with thre- seven provinces? And the lands are split up differently, too. Hmm. The whole thing looks a lot like the normal map at something like 130% magnification, and changed settlements. Also, peeps can apparently move far further than in vanilla (to compensate for the larger map?). Let's check who's in charge. Hang on, 1100AD starting point? I get the son of the Conqueror as the king? Eh, I can roll with it. Building spree tiems! grin

...Okay, apparently it takes one more turn for everything to be built. This is more realistic, I suppose, but come on. Three freaking turns for a freaking piddly Grain Exchange? Eh. Building orders given for stuff across the board (mainly ports and economic buildings), and let's go press-gang us an army!

What the eff? What are 'Fyrd Spearmen' supposed to be, my mainline infantry until I spend five turns building a tier-three military building? They cost less to recruit than freaking Spear Militia, for Bob's sake! Oh hey, cavalry get free upkeep in castles now though. There's still a lot of chages to churn through. Also I get 'Miles' heavy cavalry, which I'm going to call 'Knight Wannabes' from now on. And since when can castles recruit freaking Militia units? My diplomat and merchant exploit the movement system to sail across the channel, though, so yay I guess. End turn, bring it on, haggis-munchers!

Oh hey, there's international announcements of princesses coming of age. Why do I get the feeling that Chris Hanson wants a chat with the populace for celebrating when the age of consent is reached? Also, whoa, there's a hell of a lot of titles getting handed out to my nobility. Not to mention my economy. Seriously, I spent something like 5000 paying for construction, and I didn't even drop below my starting figure! By-the-by, a fairly good dude is up for adoption into my clan of homies, so why not. He turns up in London and takes most of the men out to squish the rebel scum who just spawned here. For England! (Addendum: Mercenaries slapped with a 50% off tag. Oh...kay.)

So, we're fighting on a bridge. Bring it, Rebel Scum!

WHERE THE HELL DID THEY GET LONGBOWMEN? And dismounted Knights, too! Ohhh, this is going to be messy.

Charge for the glory of England, bizzarely-named cavalrymen! Yes, scatter the archers before you! No, don't get half your number butchered by dismounted kni- alright, fall back. Time for some massive frontal charges, cannon fodder Fyrd Spearmen!

Long story short, the grinding match eventually broke the rebels and they were run down, with the Miles dudes doing damn well and killing a few hundred as they ran, while the cannon fodder Fyrd Spearmen were butchered horrifically after a few seconds in combat. And these people are the ones I'm relying on for the heavy lifting? (Also, the Miles dudes healed each and every last one of their casualties after the battle. Have I recruited zombies by accident? 'Cause that'd be pretty freaking awesome!)

Okay, Francois d'Aquitaine (or something) wins a Heroic (if slightly pyrrhic) Victory, and is glorified with a trait called Great Victor which does... nothing.

I'm not entirely sold on the mod as of yet, but it's growing pretty damn fast on me. Update on my progress whenever I have the time to do so!

Storm and trouble won't make you make you lose your way. (Tits might, though.)
Vanitas Since: Jan, 2013
#243: Feb 13th 2011 at 11:14:59 PM

[up] What difficulty are you doing this on

IniquitusTheThird Laugh into the rain. from Wossname. Since: Dec, 2010
Laugh into the rain.
#244: Feb 13th 2011 at 11:16:58 PM

I left it on Medium, seeing as it's my first ever go at SS6.3.

Storm and trouble won't make you make you lose your way. (Tits might, though.)
GameChainsaw The Shadows Devour You. from sunshine and rainbows! Since: Oct, 2010
theLibrarian Since: Jul, 2009
#246: Feb 14th 2011 at 5:42:56 AM

I want to try The Third Age, but only when I get my own laptop that I can download it to. I use my family computer for most of my computer stuff and my regular computer is not only broken, but also not connected to the internet.

GameChainsaw The Shadows Devour You. from sunshine and rainbows! Since: Oct, 2010
The Shadows Devour You.
#247: Feb 14th 2011 at 12:36:05 PM

Phew... it takes a long time to download Stainless Steel!

Can you still play the original campaign?

edited 14th Feb '11 12:36:27 PM by GameChainsaw

The term "Great Man" is disturbingly interchangeable with "mass murderer" in history books.
IniquitusTheThird Laugh into the rain. from Wossname. Since: Dec, 2010
Laugh into the rain.
#248: Feb 14th 2011 at 2:12:06 PM

The vanilla campaign? Yeah, it's still playable. Don't know why you'd want to, though. I actually started a game as the Mongols as well, jut to check them out.

Oh great, only one city- holy crap, that is a lot of money. Wait, silver experience full-stack of units guarding it? Four (FOUR!) other stacks ready to siege the crap out of nearby cities? Trebuchets? FACTION LEADER GENGHIS MOTHERF*CKING KHAN?!

I...

I think I came a little.

Storm and trouble won't make you make you lose your way. (Tits might, though.)
GameChainsaw The Shadows Devour You. from sunshine and rainbows! Since: Oct, 2010
The Shadows Devour You.
#249: Feb 14th 2011 at 2:18:14 PM

I'm just rather fond of my current empire, thats all.

EDIT: I decided to use the torrent. Is it normal for it to take ages to seed the thing after its downloaded?

edited 14th Feb '11 4:01:56 PM by GameChainsaw

The term "Great Man" is disturbingly interchangeable with "mass murderer" in history books.
theLibrarian Since: Jul, 2009
#250: Feb 14th 2011 at 4:04:14 PM

Anybody else kind of on the fence about the naval battles in Shogun? It looks like they're rowing-powered instead of wind-powered now, but after the way Empire did them I'm kind of iffy.


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