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Thread: *Large* battles, do you enjoy them?

  1. #1

    Default *Large* battles, do you enjoy them?

    By large I mean with 2 or more full (or almost full) stacks for each side.

    Compared to previous games (hello Takeda from Shogun 2), I find them rather common in both Attila and Rome 2, possibly more than half of the battles I fight through a campaign.

    My opinion is mixed though.

    The battle gameplay is still heavily based on the traditional 20 vs 20; from the battle deployment, to the size of the units, the size of the maps, the UI (controlling 40 units feels uncomfortable). Only sieges saw a major improvement to work with more units. The AI regularly loses 5-6 of them around when controlling 40-60, which leads to me having to waste another 5 minutes after the main action to find whatever units the AI has scattered around the map.

    In my experience, large battles tend to go in one of these 3 ways:

    -the ''merging'' battles: both me and the AI prefer to wait for the reinforcements before engaging, which leads to merged, 40 units armies then meeting in battle; those tend to be good, even if a bit hard to control, part due to my lack of experience with 40 units, partly because of the above mentioned gameply limits; nonetheless not bad and I see potential in this even though my tactical maneuvering hasn't been great compared to a standard 20 vs 20 one.

    -the ''rush to reinfornce'' battles: here the AI makes all its units run towards the center of the map where the battle takes place, they arrive tired and get beaten back because I beat the initial army, then withdraw towards my reinforcing one which didn't run and is fresh; I don't enjoy this kind of battles as they tend to break away from any tactic and they are simply a mass brawl; cavalry units from the AI also arrive much earlier than the infantry, meaning the get slaughtered;

    -the ''overwhelming numbers'' battles: retreat or auto-resolve depending on whether I'm the one with the big numbers or not; game killer.


    The main issue here is that the type of large battles I find the most enjoyable happens the least, while I get mostly the last one. So I was wondering what kind of experience do you have with them?

  2. #2

    Default Re: *Large* battles, do you enjoy them?

    I love the classic set-piece 40 vs 40 (or even more) when the AI waits for its reinforcements, or extra reinforcements arrive from opposite sides, and the terrain is relatively level. There's a lot more scope for maneuver. Those battles tend to happen a lot in the eastern side of the campaign map. Possibly my most thrilling TW experience was an 80 vs 80 (24,500 men!*) set-piece near Nisibis against the Sassanians (I played ERE). The game only allows maximum 80 units on the battlefield, so reinforcements arrived throughout the engagement from opposite sides and kept the attacks and melees going continuously. It took 3/4 of an hour to fight and was in doubt until the last few minutes, and left some 16,000 dead on the field. Holy moly that was a buzz.

    It also depends on the type of army you employ. I tend to play the Romans and prefer working with grouped infantry and cavalry blocks, which are quite manageable.

    I don't really like fighting the Huns amongst trees and hills with reinforcements appearing all over the place. Those are some of the few battles where I use pause and slow mo. The AI's a bit too well-coordinated to fight in real time. These tend to be the "rush to reinforce" type battles you described. But they're Huns so the usual rules don't apply to their op units which don't die, so I usually lose those battles. If it's not against Huns, I still don't really enjoy those battles. They feel a bit too much like the AI cheats by being able to coordinate several simultaneous attacks from opposite sides.



    *Don't ask about frame rates, some things are best left unsaid.

  3. #3
    The Noble Lord's Avatar Holy Arab Nation
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    Default Re: *Large* battles, do you enjoy them?

    Yes, of course. The large battles are still very much enjoyable. Only on TW you can have those large battle and still be able to fully enjoy them!
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