My review thus far (Italian campaign)
Hey guys I purchased the game yesterday but didn't get to play till late (due to dl), however I did manage to start and finish the Italian campaign. I'm running the game on a lap top with duel core P7350 both 2 GHz, 4 gigs of ram, and a Geforce 9600M GT, my OS is Windows 7. To get large units and a smooth running rate I put most settings to med.
First I'll start off saying that the presentation of the game is ALOT like Empire, same music, sound effects, menu types, advisers etc are practically the same, hell even that first shot you see when you load up the game is exactly the same, with the word "Empire" replaced with "Napoleon" in the same font. BUT we all knew that going in, its been well documented that this was originally going to be an add on but CA, realizing thestorm it had on its hands with Empire decided to overhaul the engine and release it as an entirely new game.
After playing for a number of hours I can already say with confidence that I am glad they did this. This is the "musket era" total war game you've been waiting for. I will admit I too was skeptical when I first heard they were 're-releasing' Empire but folks that game was broken, maybe even so broken that it wasn't even possible to fix. Now let me say up front that I actually enjoyed Empire (especially when IS was released), but there were alot of little bugs, CTD's, and long loading times that just made me cringe while playing, made me say "why would CA do this?", you see I've always looked fondly on CA and TW games and I think CA knows that were such suckers for history that we will play just about anything to get our fix but i've never looked at CA as the type to abuse that power. but let me tell you there were times while playing empire where I came close, and again had it not been for the modding community I might have left that game for dead.
Basically what I'm getting at is that it seems CA has ironed out most of the little inconsistencies that bothered me so much with Empire. Loading times are quick(er), towns actually surrender, the AI mounts reasonable offensives, BAI actually EXIST, and I did not experience one CTD. The game just runs smoother overall too, I think I read somewhere that it optimizes duel core processors and if that's true it shows, that or they REALLY juiced up the engine. This game runs better on my comp more than Empire ever did.
I'll also say up front that the game is not perfect, on the campaign the AI still spams small "raider" armies, and in Battle I experienced a few path finding issues with units not going where I told them and one particular time with cavalry I doubled clicked a retreating enemy unit but rather than attack the unit they just ran to where the unit was when I double clicked them. But these issues are FAR from game breakers, and will probably be fixed via patch or mods in the near future.
Now for the campaign...
The year was 1796, the place; Northern Italy, the fires of revolution burned deep in the hearts of men, and on battlefield Europe a young french general from the island of Corsica was proving himself a fierce commander...
Gotta say I had an absolute blast playing this campaign, settings were NB/VHC. First thing I noticed were the general units on the campaign map, in Empire generals seemed to have lost their personalities, In rome and ME I took time building my family trees and even got excited when certain commander went off on epic campaigns. In Empire they just seemed generic and sometimes when I was pumping out armies late game I wouldn't even include them. This is not the case with Napoleon, generals have their own portraits, and on the battlefield they make a world of difference, the sphere of influence adds a whole new tactical element as there is a certain intensity in rushing your general just behind a place in your lines where the enemy is about to bust through, I actually found myself yelling out "Napoleon" when it looked like my forces were about to collapse. fun stuff.
Speaking of battles I'll touch on whats probably on everyone's mind, the AI. Lets get it out of the way that the AI is not Hal 9000 by any stretch of the imagination, but it is LEAPS and BOUNDS ahead of Empire. When I deploy my forces I use the "kink" artillery formation, that is you line your infantry in a slope toward your artillery so if the enemy wants to take out your batteries they have to wade through a sea of lead, it looks something like this:
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So you have a line running across the field but it kinks inward near the center, this keeps the big guns out front/safe and able to use can shot when the enemy gets close. In Empire it didnt matter how big an army I faced, the AI would always throw the main of its army right in the center of my lines, as long as I had a steady few troops with art I could destroy the mightiest of foes. So going in to my first big battle I deploy my forces as such, thinking the AI would once again throw its troops needlessly into the inferno.
How pleasantly surprised I was...
At first all appeared normal, the enemy marched in a line toward my position. I even had my art selected and my cursor over canister shot, waiting for the moment. But then the enemy unveiled his true plan, just outside canister range they changed directions and threw all of his infantry onto my right flank. I was panic stricken! I never had to deal with this in empire, I took all my reserves (including the reserves on the left flank) and charged them over to meet the enemy melee. Then I rushed my general over as to stop some troops from routing, and then while all this was going on, he charged all of cavalry into my non-reinforced left flank. In one battle, the tactic I had employed over countless engagements in empire became obsolete. I was delighted.
Now I'm sure you're all wondering what happened, well I didn't lose (just barely), I made a decision earlier on that saved me later; I embarked my artillery and moved them along the flanks of the enemy infantry, and just when it looked like my line was about to collapse they got set up and let off a volley of canister which broke their ranks. on my left my troops managed to hold long enough for my own 2 cavalry units to finish off the enemy artillery and charge them from behind. But make no mistake about it, this battle could have gone either way, plus I was on the defense and I had a slight advantage in firepower. untop of this the battle effectively stopped my drive into Austrian territory. In Empire all i needed was spear head with a support army for garrisons and I could steam roll. last night I found myself merging with my support troops and holding back to lick my wounds. very, very, veryyyyyy cool.
I also want to touch briefly on attrition and supply, although I did not feel their effects too much in the Italian campaign I can foresee how great they will factor into the game. I've been saying for years how they need to elaborate more on this aspect of warfare, historically the main objective of most armies is to attack supply lines and force the enemy into a fight, and while were not quite there yet in TW its nice to see it finally head in that direction. Attrition/resupply bring a whole new logistic element never before seen to TW games and more importantly (IMO) adds to the over all historic/authentic feel.
The campaign as a whole was fantastic, at first I was afraid of losing the sandbox element of TW but I've actually grown fond of the more objective based maps. Obviously there is nothing like creating an empire and marching on to glory over many many hours in the traditional TW sense, but recently my life has thrown alot of work my way so it is a nice change of pace to have a simple objective, plus I think the AI can be worked alot better on these types of things. But I digress.
The Campaign, Italy, Napoleon! If you have not played it the objective is to conquer an Austrian territory via capital (Klagenfurt) that's on the other end of the map from where you start with a crap load of other European nations territories along the way (including some of Austria's!). Without getting into it too much I had 2 armies; one with artillery that had slightly more units overall that would advance into enemy territory and capture towns and another that would stick behind the front and meet any army that slipped in from behind/from the East. This worked well enough, and eventually I had all the Austrian cities in North Italy, my 2 armies were going strong and I had a 3rd army on the way to meet them. At this point now I was bordering (I believe) the Venice & Papal states, with the city I needed to capture beyond Venice territory/the alps.
Now, rather then go through the alps and risk attrition I payed Venice 1K to get unlimited military access, I then loaded up Napoleon with a full stack and began the march on to Klagenfurt. BUT as I did this the Papal states declared war on me, not thinking too much of it I brought my newly formed 3rd army up near their border and was attacked by nearly 3 full stacks! my troops held briefly but were eventually overcome by the Popes forces. they then laid siege to one of my cities that was defended by my thinly equipped 2nd army (I had stripped them somewhat to give Nappy a full stack for his victory march). This too was a pretty epic battle but eventually the share numbers of my enemy overtook the city.
After that it was a walk in the park for the forces of God, they took 2 more cities in the ensuing turn and began a drive into my Austrian conquered territories. At that point I just decided to go straight on for Klagenfurt to win the campaign, I had a full stack of experienced troops with 4 artillery and it was headed by Napoleon himself. What could go wrong I thought, but little did I know that 2 full stacks of Austrians awaited me.
When I met the first stack at the mountain pass I figured that was it for Austria, we fought, were at equal odds, and had a very bloody battle. Thinned out I moved on to the town only to find (much to my horror) that they had another stack in the city. My mouth almost fell out of my face, you see that was it for me guys. I only had 17 turns left in the campaign, not nearly enough time to raise another army and March through the Papal states it was do or die now and I was out numbered by the Austrians, it must have been 11 to 4.
I've spent enough time writing this and i really should get back to work so I'll just say that what ensued was one of the most epic battles in my TW career... That ended in a historic victory for me. It was funny cause even after that I only had a couple of hundred troops left and the city would not peacfully surrender so the ensuing battle against the Armed citizenry was pretty intense too. needless to say it was a late night for me, very epic campaign, with very intense battles.
And that was only the Italian campaign! I actually wanted to take some pictures for the review but I was totally immersed in the game and forgot too. Anyhow I intend to add to this as I explore the game more so maybe then.
To conclude guys, get this game, yeah I know CA eff'ed up with empire but if your a fan of startegy games and history you really shouldn't miss out on this. After all there are worst tragedy's in the universe then a bad game, so get out there and enjoy this one.
PEACE!
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