This is pretty damn fun

NTW is definately what Empire coulda/shoulda been. I wont waste your time by going through every minute battle detail. What others had posted holds true for me as well. What they didnt hit on amazes me. Calvary is ing back. Its not like sending an unresponsive brick down the hill. They can get from point a to point b with ease now. Fences, trees, rocks, etc no longer stops them now they pass over it seamlessly. And here is the best part they actually ing disengage! Its difficult to explain, in short you can now control your Calvary again which is wonderful. Also it would be worth noting that all those little nuances that made Total War, Total War are back for the most part. You get those in battle movies, you have that guy who tells you if victory is close at hand etc, etc. no pre-battle speeches though, the generals have portraits and such again its hard to explain, it just feels like a Total War game. Definitley worth the $40, while im sure there will be stuff I find that I dont like, still its great fun. Now too bad that they couldn't retro fit Empire with this, the whole package wouldve been a super mega monster hit. Oh well its good to have Total War back.

OK here's a question, can gun cavalry fire while moving again?

Originally Posted by the_mango55

OK here's a question, can gun cavalry fire while moving again?

They sure can. Played a battle lastnight, unit of Chausseurs a Cheval vs 1 Austrian Fusilier regiment.

I charged in with the cavalry, unleashed a volley (inflicted around 10-15 casualties and took 9 in return fire) then withdrew, swung around the flank, charged again and shot again, then paused it, selected melee and disabled fire at will (sometimes units will keep firing when charging into melee and accidentally hit members of their own unit) and sent the cavalry into the infantry (who had pivoted to meet me the whole way) and finally routed them off the map with massive casualties on their side.

Originally Posted by the_mango55

OK here's a question, can gun cavalry fire while moving again?

Yep and they do it well, what Dizoakius Maximus said is true. I have been using mine to cover my flanks and i run them up for hit and run volleys, also out of curiosity I sent them head on at some Hussars trying to flank my big guns, as they charged they fired taking out 10-25% of the enemy they finished the rest off by sabre, my own unit lost 2 people when it was all said and done. Its very hard to describe how well you can control the armies this time around whatever the hell they did to fix it worked.

Yes the game has alot more charachter now, I especially like the "THE ENEMY GENERAL HAS BEEN SLAIN!" returning.

Originally Posted by Harperbry

Oh well its good to have Total War back.

Your damn right it is.

I'll go out on a limb and say that this is the best TW game that I've played!

Well that's good to know.

It's one of the things that bugged me most about empire. If I charged a unit of light dragoons around behind an enemy, it was almost certain that one of them would get stuck on a fence and the rest would just stand there and get slaughtered without firing back until the last guy finally got in formation.