Some early Notes on the Kingdoms Expansion Pack

[Gaius Baltar]

Wandered over the the GameStop across the street and picked up a copy of Total War - Kingdoms. No waiting in line or anything like that, in fact, there were plenty of copies on the shelf.

Installation process was delayed because there was some sticky gunk on the edge of disk1, took me a few mintues to figure it out. After cleaning off the disk, installation process went smoothly, though it was somewhat lengthly, about an hour or so. I closed all other programs so Im not sure why that was an issue. Maybe an archive process or something that was invisible.

Opened a Britannia campaign. Working as Norway at H/H settings. First impression when looking at the map...MUCH better..plently of cities and islands to work with, and the new "permanent forts". Overall, pleasantly surprised.

First battle was against rebels holding one of the island forts, Skye. Was able to egt into the fort and eventually take the town squre, after losing my general and having to rally routing troops several times. Overall, the battle was very similar to MTW II battles. A few issues here;

1. Pathfinding on the walls. My merc Gallogliech unit used ladders to mount the wall, and then just stood there at the top of the ladders. I had to click them a distance down the wall (nearby enemy archer unit) to get them to actually move onto the wall.


Standing on top of the ladder.

2. During combat, only a few individuals in the front line will engage in combat, and the rest seem to "run in place", giving an illusion of movement when they are actually not moving at all.


This large mass of men was actually "running in place", and not actually mving. While a few individuals in the front line engaged in combat.

3. Passive battle AI - Several enemy units just stood there while fierce combat occured right in front of them. Noticed the generals unit taking a break while axemen kill his infantry.
My archeres were shooting at them too, but lets not get into that yet.


The general doesnt want to get involved.

So, my evaluation after 5 turns and 1 battle.

Campaign map = A+, great job, plenty of space and cities and forts to work with.

Battle AI = D, pathfinding is an issue, as is rank to rank combat, and it appears there is more passive AI. Ill look closer at this in the days to come.

Overall = B, Im encouraged by the campaign map and the new features, such as the permanent forts. Looks like an interesting campaign ahead.

[snuggans]

i think you will come to terms with the AI as you participate in more battles. sieges have always been glitchy..

[LordsofDefence]

It's easy to get the other ranks involved in the melee - order the unit to run to a point a little behind the enemy unit, then stop them when you are happy with their positioning.

That way you have the option to commit your men fully if you feel the time is right - or allow the unit to hang back a little.

It's common knowledge that in any battle only 10% of soldiers actually contribute to the action - the rest panic, hide, stop to catch their breath, 'help a wounded comrade back to camp', stop to loot, etc.

[DrJambo]

I've been finding the AI in Kingdoms to be far superior. In terms of the campaign AI I've been playing a VH/VH Britannia campaign and it started very easy and I retook Ireland (as Ireland) without breaking any real sweat. Then I invaded the mainland and the same scenario was going on, until the AI got itself into gear and started building some seriously nasty stacks. It seems there may be some clever scripting in the campaign files to increase the difficulty as the game progresses but nevertheless I'm now losing cities and being forced into a proper campaign; one where I have to think carefully from turn to turn.

In terms of the battle AI, this kind of went hand in hand. If the campaign AI can throw tough stacks, the battle AI does comparatively much better. I should note that I play with a few personalised modifications to increase the challenge, but overall Kingdoms is a far cry away from the rather mediocre AI in Med II. The AI will flank with it units, can use pikes and halberds and will use its cav to a much more devastating level. Generally, it seems to get the basics right.