Empire: total War

[Andy3536]

Havn't encoutered as many CTD as you chuchskull but the few times it did happen it's really annoying as you don't know when the last auto save is

I did have a CTD every time i hit end turn on about turn 12 which i got through by pressing space bar and having the cpu moves done slowly. (it took a few minutes to watch it all though)

Havn't encountered the disembark bug though, it's been fine all the time's i've used it although it's different from previous games where you would get the disembark order when selecting a move order for the ships, where as now you have to take the ship close, select the army and then disembark. The change seems rather odd and was much more fluid before.

For some reason though the artillery limber/unlimber is bugged with certain guns on my game. The horse drawn guns all unlimber themselves as soon as they've limbered up and there's nothing that can be done. Also the 24lb foot howitzer has the same issue so i tend to just go with the 12lb foot cannon as it doesn't seem to be bugged if i want to move them in battle.

Some of the cannons have trouble stopping firing aswell, you tell them to stop and they just start firing again. I can tell them to fire at ground and then tell them to stop but if the're firing at a unit they won't take the order.

Still probably the most adictive game i've ever played but hoping they'll get fixed soon.

[jim]

Just a quick couple of questions for those who've played ETW

Firstly, I've been told that the game is a total shambles and way too buggy to bother with - is it worth getting it now or is it better just to wait for patching?

Secondly, the last TW game I played was Rome - is it worth playing Medieval II or should I just jump straight through to Empire? I know there's no progressive storyline or anything to follow, just wondering if there were any particular reasons to hold off for the moment.

[chuckskull]

Just a quick couple of questions for those who've played ETW

Firstly, I've been told that the game is a total shambles and way too buggy to bother with - is it worth getting it now or is it better just to wait for patching?

Secondly, the last TW game I played was Rome - is it worth playing Medieval II or should I just jump straight through to Empire? I know there's no progressive storyline or anything to follow, just wondering if there were any particular reasons to hold off for the moment.

It is very buggy at the moment, but on steam there is a big total war pack, that includes empire and medieval 2 + expansions for only a fiver more than empire by itself. Might be worth looking at that. Both are excellent games, empire just needs a patch tbh.

[Andy3536]

Looking at the Total war forums the first of a series of updates is due some time today.

http://store.steampowered.com/news/2329/)

@ snooty jim. It's certainly worth buying the game in my opinion, it's still a great game and there are annoying bugs but no real game killing bugs.
Medieval might be worth a try, can be found very cheap now.

[maxwilson]

Looks like Its hit the top of the charts who said pc gaming was dead! lol.

http://www.totalwar.com/empire/gameinfo/news.php?n=3096

These bugs are really annoying me though, in one turn i was able to lift a siege by trying to break it then deciding not to - withdraw, then I had to take Denmark otherwise i would most likely lose Sweden - being Prussia sucks lol, - but whats this? despite there being one of those crossable sea arrow thingys i cannot get to Copenhagen... ooops just noticed that patch, hopefully it will help - doh!

Still taking to much of my life away though...

[kopite]

I got the game delivered to work today and I`m now installing it via Steam on my home pc

[AledJ]

That patch worked for some the of the bugs i had. When any unit from any nation moved that bar showing the no. of units had a small bit of the background it had just been on. Also a line that appeared in the main menu at the top has gone.

[YorkieBen]

I've reinstalled and so far it seems pretty stable. Enjoying it, although the implementation of start forts etc is pants. Your troops are crap at defending them

[kopite]

I`ve installed them and done the tutorials but Feel a bit overwhelmed when i start the main campaign. Havent really go a clue what I should be doing so I guess I`ll have to read the manual lol

[Andy3536]

I`ve installed them and done the tutorials but Feel a bit overwhelmed when i start the main campaign. Havent really go a clue what I should be doing so I guess I`ll have to read the manual lol

There's not much of use in the manual, it's pretty poor to be honest.

Best bet if your playing as GB is to send all your Navy out and plant one ship over as many trade points as you can, untill you can get your indiamen on them and you'll have more than half there is available.
Also as soon as you start destroy Oxford which for some reason starts as a church school and build a college like Cambridge so you can develop quicker than others.
Found it very usefull to take on the small rebel islands and regions on the top of south America and the islands around it. No Pirates in the Caribean after that.

The further the game goes the better it gets, skirmishers and riflemen give you another level in battles and the later arty ammunition is pretty devestating.
Gonna have to play the Marathas next for thier 64lb gun

[chuckskull]

The road to independence campaign is a very good tutourial for the grand campaign.

Also 64lb guns, might have to try those out

[Andy3536]

Another patch out today.


Here is a complete list of fixes:

- Load time detection on trade routes to fix pathfinding crash in campaign
- Some General Sound balancing improvements
- Fixed UI Chat hang when spectator leaves unranked match with 3+ players
- Various Campaign Crash Fixes
- Some Save/Load fixes
- Boarding fix where cannon crew board order was not being deleted properly causing crash
- Fix to kill characters instantly to stop crashes in campaign on agent/general deaths.
- Save games limited to 1000
- Fix to animation glitch causing repetitive sounds when battle is launched.
- Multiplayer - can now find friends across regions

[TiG]

Has anyone completed on full difficulty Prestige victory.?

Much prefer the balance to previous games :-)

TiG

[chuckskull]

Not tried the prestige victory campaign, was playing the grand campaign but both times it wigged out on me so I never finished. Hopefully the patch will sort it.

Playing world domination on VH/VH as Britain atm reached 1770-ish, just got my 50 regions, but now the entire world is hostile to me, even my longest standing allies. They all seem to be slowly coming together against me. On the up side I control the largest army and navy, the entire Indian subcontinent and all but a couple of regions in the American theatre along with Paris and have 100k per turn profit.

A few tips, I've only played as GB in the proper campaign so far this is mostly geared toward them;

First things first, literally first turn works best, burn the church in England and swap it for another school. I personally follow a "tech like mad" approach to strategy games so go a bit further burning the workshops too. You can only build the highest end schools in England so it works well to keep your research efforts there, also if all your schools are in England all your gentlemen will be born there. Be aware after a while the clamour for reform in London will get very high. Dragoons and their repression bonus will take care of it. With this tactic you can have every tech in the game by the 40/50's then burn the schools and rebuild craft workshops(this might work very well for Prestige victory, research adds lots of prestige).

You can have multiple trade ships on a single trade spot and while they're slow to build they're relatively cheap and have the lowest upkeep of anything in the game. Each spot can produce 2000-5000 gold per turn with a full stack. If you have the bug with them getting stuck when adding extra ships onto the spot, then move all the ships off, combine and move them back rather than just adding them straight to the trade stack. Have your trade ports churning out Indiamen constantly early on.

The colonies are goldmines, India especially as there's no major European power already established there. Build a large army in London(Faster to build here and ship them out than build elsewhere early on) with some cannon(proper ones; not sakers and demi-cannons, you just need the canister shot tech) and cavalry then send via ship to India(also nice and quick). The Mughal Empire is the weaker of the two, but killing off the Marathas early can save a lot of hassle, they build up a powerful fleet quickly and have some well upgraded proper cities(rather than governors residence ones) right on the coast which make excellent beachheads and can churn out masses of units if you've got the money.

If you're planning on taking America I've found the best course is to start in Europe. Beating a nation in it's home theatre turns it's colonies into rebels or minor nations. So, buy military access from France move a big army or two right to Paris, attack and in one turn you can destroy France. Just make sure they haven't taken any of the minor nations to their east. Quebec will then be ripe for the taking, making Britain's 13 colonies mission very easy. Don't forget to buy peace with Spain until you're ready to pull the same trick again and take South America. Just be warned if a new minor nation arises while you're on it's territory your army will be ejected from it's land.

Many native(Indian and American) towns and structures are worse than the European versions. Especially farms. The worst being subsistence farms in America, burn them down and replace with proper farms. Don't forget to burn enemy church's and any superfluous schools, replace them with craft workshops to make money. Don't bother building to many of your own churches unless religious unrest really becomes a problem.

You can get rid of all pirates in the game by taking their colonies in south east of the American theatre. Use Port Royal as a staging ground, once you have the basic techs research and have upgraded it, it should be able to produce Colonial Line Infantry and 12llb foot artillery. More than enough to take down the pirates. Build loads of brigs with the 2 ports you have there and blob the pirate fleet. It takes to long and costs to much to build a ship yard and proper battleships. The Leaward islands will have a proper shipyard anyway once you capture it. Then your 2 trade ports can pump out Indiamen to send to the trade theatres and you can start plotting your invasion of south America.

Hmm this was only meant to be a short post, how'd that wall of text happen?

[TiG]

Hmm on 49 territories in 1736 :-)

Not really gone the whole trade thing but got huge industry tech's, clearing 60-70k Gold profit per turn at the moment.

I do like your plans on some of that i've not considered. Prestige at 3500 compared to spain's next nearest at 560 on VH/VH

Pirates are usually dead in my games on turn 6, usually turn my attention to Prussia/Sweden next.

Then the confederacies (huron/murthra(sp?))

By that time really do control my own destiny, and if spain or france kick off i can generally really hit them hard.

TiG

[chuckskull]

Just had a 2 hour battle with Spain for their final European region and it CTD just after I won. One was not amused.

Was a great battle though, 3000 kills for 500 losses loads of reinforcements on both sides. At one point it was just 2 lines of infantry shooting each other for a good 10 mins. Their bog standard line infantry was no match for my guards and black watch. Cannons probably helped too

Up to 64 regions now.