Probably the greatest scenario of BC.

[Arto]

An epic battle in Anatolia.

Now or never.

[Emperor of The Great Unknown]

screenshots? is this a scam?

edit: but you lost? i replayed it 5 times and you lost

[Faris ad Din]

Can you give us a synopsis in words for our reading benefit? Much appreciated!

[Emperor of The Great Unknown]

replays are bugged in MTW2 they are useless screens and discriptions are muc hbetter.

[Faris ad Din]

Exactly. Replays worked up to Rome: Total War - they worked amazingly well in Shogun and Medieval - but in M2:TW they are about as random as starting a new battle and playing it yourself. They don't work on the same mechanics, I believe that the game only records the actual commands sent to units. The terrain changes, the fighting changes. Chances are, if you're playing a ferociously close-fought or heroically-won victory, most of the replays result in losses. The human responds best to emergencies and comes up with the best situations to a unit wavering, or rescuing a general about to be killed. The computer doesn't.

The disparity probably even gets worse as the battle drags on - instead of ordering a unit with 50 remaining men into a fight, you're ordering only 40, because the battle replay had them lose more than originally lost in that unit's previous clash in the battle, and because of that it actually routs, and then that causes a liability for other units still - the battle starts to look really ridiculous with the most ridiculous maneuvers being made like charging cavalry into well-formed spearmen or horse archers not running away from being chased and hunted down.

Please post a description - I think you don't have any screenshots for it - but I also think that if the battle was a significant one, you'll remember most of the juicy details.

[Emperor of The Great Unknown]

Exactly. Replays worked up to Rome: Total War - they worked amazingly well in Shogun and Medieval - but in M2:TW they are about as random as starting a new battle and playing it yourself. They don't work on the same mechanics, I believe that the game only records the actual commands sent to units. The terrain changes, the fighting changes. Chances are, if you're playing a ferociously close-fought or heroically-won victory, most of the replays result in losses. The human responds best to emergencies and comes up with the best situations to a unit wavering, or rescuing a general about to be killed. The computer doesn't.

The disparity probably even gets worse as the battle drags on - instead of ordering a unit with 50 remaining men into a fight, you're ordering only 40, because the battle replay had them lose more than originally lost in that unit's previous clash in the battle, and because of that it actually routs, and then that causes a liability for other units still - the battle starts to look really ridiculous with the most ridiculous maneuvers being made like charging cavalry into well-formed spearmen or horse archers not running away from being chased and hunted down.

Amen to that

[Achilla]

I find replays to play out almost exactly as original battle if the replay was recorded within the same game version and identical files as the viewing user. I believe it makes replays size smaller since they don't contain information of all files such as EDU, projectiles etc. ... just orders and commands. Even the battle AI you are using causes a difference in how replay might play out.

[Emperor of The Great Unknown]

not true its still werid even with vinillia maybe its a diffrence between start and load?

[Faris ad Din]

Thanks for the praise, Emperor O.T.G.U.!

It is weird even in vanilla. The battles are MOSTLY the same but I'm a sharp observer - I remember most of the battles I've played and campaign decisions I've made and events I've witnessed. Given that, I've seen some pretty funny stuff happen in replayed battles from custom battle - in vanilla. Same version. Played right after I finished the battle. It happens especially when timing and positioning was crucial in an order.

Namely, instead of my cavalry units deftly skirting around enemy units to outflank them cleanly, in the replay, the side of the unit clips enemy units, and it gets scattered and slowed down like a flock of sheep that partially ran over a tar/mud field and started getting stuck. That ruined the chances for an effective formed charge to the enemy's rear - the cavalry unit is now engaged in melee. The battle, in the same game version and computer and identical files, spirals downhill from there.

I think Achilla was just lucky in what he saw!

Battle descriptions and choice screenshots are almost always better, not to mention accessible on the forums, and convey most of the benefit. They also frame the battle account in the eyes of the commander, who EXPLAINS from his viewpoint, WHY each part is important, and what the parts are, what he was thinking, and feeling moreover!

Instead of a plop, here's a file, watch it, have fun... but to me, that's less fun. Juicy details, please.

And the reduced file size is not really a godsend. Battle replays in Shogun and M2:TW took only a few kilobytes, even huge drawn-out battles, while the campaigns which seemed simpler 2D affairs always took around 1.5 MB! At that, the battles, even complex ones, seemed to observably be consistent to a sharp critical eye and memory. It's just amazing. It may not actually be the exact same, but we can blame it on the mechanics. STW and M1:TW and even RTW were very predictable. M2:TW changed all that with new animation jimbo limbo.

[Emperor of The Great Unknown]

when your doign a replay your basiclly pitting AI vs AI.

[Faris ad Din]

when your doign a replay your basiclly pitting AI vs AI.

No, you're basically just having the units follow the same set of orders - there is no artificial intelligence. They're just following a script that was recorded while you played the battle. Sometimes it gives similar results, often it doesn't.