"Empire: Total War"

Really enjoying it aswell, even though the same old total war bugs are there. AI pathing in sieges and that, annoying shit. Taken paris already, france has gone bankrupt heh :D

Holy hell, a turn takes ages!

Brain dribbling out ears.

Im far to used to small scale skirmishes and using unit abilitys to the best not just lining them up on a hill and leaving them for 30 minutes as they stand and shoot at one another.

So many many little guys.

Heh, yes - I was constantly tempted to reach for the assault jump button.

I thought I'd waltz through the native americans but while I was organising something I realised all the bastards had charged right at me from the off, there's too my of them!

Its exactly that, or clicking a grenade icon or I dunno something other than go here, shoot these guys. Ok line up. Now shoot these guys.

My only real complaint is the pretty flimsy manual. I was expecting a chunky book to work my way through, instead I get a little pamphlet. I might read my trusty old Civ 3 manual tonight, just to comfort myself with unit stats.

Someone told az that this was called Empire: Total Warhammer, didn't they?

Very disappointed to hear about the shitty manual, though. >:(

I was tempted when i saw this was coming out. Now looking at all this steam hassle (I dont use steam) I will probably be giving this game a wide bearth. Note to Game Companies: People don't like being forced to use additional programs. It's why i hate ipods. Rant cease

Meh, your loss

First impressions after a few hours:

The campaign map and everything that has to do with it is great, to a degree that I think it will be hard to go back to earlier TW games. Things like income, taxes, etc., are, while not that much different, easier to understand. Easier to get an overview over diplomatic relations, too, and the tech tree is a nice addition. Very, very impressed so far.

As for the battles: it's too early to say. A bit like absolutezero has said, at the moment I am lining up my troops , then go and make a cup of tea while everyone stands there shooting at each other. The good thing is that it's easier to have an overview over a battle because there simply isn't as much chaos on the battlefield.



Quick question: is there a "chase cam" for the cannons as there was for arrows in the other TW games? I tried the usual Insert/Delete etc. keys, but while they focus on my unites or follow them around when they move, I haven't seen a "cannonballcam" yet.

Am also fighting my way through the Independence campaign - next task (this evening) is to take Montreal and Quebec.

Really impressed so far, but Lou's right about the weirdness of seeing natives braves in military formation, but I suppose the same could be said for the highlanders and gallic berserkers in previous games. My artillery seem to behave weirdly at times and refuse to limber and unlimber at my command, preferring to fire on my own men - I guess I am playing as the Americans at the moment, so that could be why ;)

Agree entirely that this is a marked improvement, although I am biassed, as I love the period. I'm already excited about potential mods and expansion packs - my money is on a dedicated 'Napoleonic Wars' expansion (similar to Kingdoms/Alexander) and I think the engine could handle an American Civil War expansion pack as well, which would sell a load over in the colonies. Other theatres I think could be modded - Crimean, Zulu War, possibly up to the Boer War?

It's so inconvenient having to work today - at midnight I stopped playing, and I had one army north of Montreal and one to the south, ready to drive the French out. Must get back to fighting!

I tend to stand there shooting whilst another unit maneuvers in to attack their flank whilst they're under fire. Failing that, shoot for a bit to whittle the numbers down, then charge in with melee whilst they're reloading. Tends to work quite well, quicker and less casualties than just standing there shooting until one side keels over.

played it last night, enjoyed it up until the BSOD during naval battle. Suspect old video drivers, but it was late so will try driver upgrade tonight.

Need to shove more memory in my laptop too, currently 1 gb not enough i noticed as empire.exe was using a shed load of ram (600mb+).

Though am happy mem hack works in the campain mode to boost coinage (yeah i'm a cheater but i don't care).

Thoroughly impressed, though the map navigation is going to take a little while to used to. I do like the streamlined interface for managing recruitment / buildings etc, much better.

Well after all my bullshit of trying to get the game installed - I finally got it running last night. Major thanks to the pope (the EG one) for all the advice.

I have to say the trouble seems to have been worth it. I can see this being as big a time sink for me as Rome was. Rome is my most played game of all time.

Still not got it working and it appears to have disabled my DVD-RW somehow. It will no longer read any DVDs just cds.

Fucked off somewhat.

El_MUERkO wrote:

samk wrote:
So, let me get this nice and crystal clear: despite me inserting disc one and choosing to install from that, it's trying to download the entire bloody thing from the Steam servers? What the fuck??

people were saying they had to click reinstall to make it install from the disk

This (reinsert disc one and choose 'reinstall' from the menu) worked for me, cheers.

Christ knows why it didn't simply install from the discs in the first place, but anyway.

Didn't get a chance to play much last night, but started on Road to Independence and it's pretty good from first impressions.

This is starting to get really epic already!! super awesome!

I sent a missionary into a Native American's village and began to spread the good word - they took this badly and sent thousands of braves to my only, small colony in the area.

I fought a superb pitched battle against them where my ill trained militia held out on a hill and won despite the odds. It was really thrilling. I just loved watching my rifles standing behind cover and puffs of smoke belching out their guns.

I have responded my sending an army of well drilled regulars from England. I hope my colony can hold out until they arrive. My response will be punitive! What savages!

Magic Panda wrote:
Still not got it working and it appears to have disabled my DVD-RW somehow. It will no longer read any DVDs just cds.

Fucked off somewhat.

I seriously doubt there's a copy protection on the disc beyond Steam, so to speak. Probably just bad timing with your drive giving up the ghost.

Did you not download it overnight with your key, though? It's not like you need the disc, anyway.

There is a steam free version of this, right?

Gah! WHHHYYYYY!

My copy was dispatched yesterday so should be with me tomorrow.

I have a half day tomorrow.

My internet connection has just died.

Sky can't get an engineer out until next week.

I need it because of fucking Steam.

Bollocks.

:(

Gah, apparantly no steam-free version. That's a deal-breaker - I'll wait until it's free from the clutches of craptitude.

UncleLou wrote:

Magic Panda wrote:
Still not got it working and it appears to have disabled my DVD-RW somehow. It will no longer read any DVDs just cds.

Fucked off somewhat.

I seriously doubt there's a copy protection on the disc beyond Steam, so to speak. Probably just bad timing with your drive giving up the ghost.

Did you not download it overnight with your key, though? It's not like you need the disc, anyway.

Yeah its downloading now.

It is very odd that the DVDRW drive was working fine right up until I put the ETW dvd in. Seems I'm not the only one experiencing the problem either.

StarchildHypocrethes wrote:
Gah! WHHHYYYYY!

My copy was dispatched yesterday so should be with me tomorrow.

I have a half day tomorrow.

My internet connection has just died.

Sky can't get an engineer out until next week.

I need it because of fucking Steam.

Bollocks.

:(

Whip your PC round to a mates house, activate E:TW, install, take it home, play.

Hassle, but better than waiting a week. :)

@Truk

I don't like the fact I can't play my shiny new game because I don't have a working internet connection.

Edited by StarchildHypocrethes at 11:41:51 05-03-2009

thedaveeyres wrote:
Whip your PC round to a mates house, activate E:TW, install, take it home, play.

Hassle, but better than waiting a week. :)

Hmmm, that could be a plan...

Might ask one of the neighbours.

The fact that games I have paid for can (and have) been rendered inoperable whenever Steam is having one of its 'moments' and the fact that it's slow as fuck. Not to mention all the d-o-w-n-l-o-a-d-i-n-g you have to do.

I like total war, but I don't like it enough to put up with that shit - I'll wait for the steam-free version if it ever occurs.

MetalDog wrote:
I'll wait for the steam-free version if it ever occurs.

It won't. The entire online side of it is fully integrated with Steamworks. Releasing a non-steam version would mean you couldn't play with anyone with the steam version (which would be the majority of players).

*shrug* Then they'll never get my cash.

MetalDog wrote:
*shrug* Then they'll never get my cash.

Same here.