My take on NTW

I have just completed the Italian and Egyptian campaigns and thought I'd share some of my thoughts with you.


Pros

Love the graphics both on the battle and campaign maps - this game has all the atmosphere that Empire lacked. The battles have a much darker, gritier feel, and all in all feels more real.

The CAI is improved. It knows how to consolidate its forces, and is more aggressive. It also seems to generate more balanced armies and actually makes use of its agents this time round. I havn't tried the diplomacy yet so I can't comment.

I like the attrition and supply systems - it adds another strategic dimension to the game, and forces you to plan your assualts more carefully.

The game is much more stable and there are not nearly so many bugs, although you would expect this with a standalone expansion.

Cons

The BAI is still pretty weak. Although it can sometimes put up a fight it is predictable and sometimes plane stupid. The BAI still cannot form lines easily, and there is far too much 'milling' and indecision. I have also seen the dreaded chicken dance on many occasions, and there is still too much tendancy to melee. Generals remain suicidal, cavalry continues to run in front of the enemy lines getting shot to pieces in the process. Line units don't know how to form square against cavarly (seldome anyway)

I think CA need to have a serious sit down and get to grips with their BAI because its letting this entire series down, big time. And I believe multiplayer should not be the easy way out.

I find the pace of battles also too quick, to the point it feel too arcadey. troops move to quickly, reload too quickly and die too quickly!

Campaign battles also feel too small scale, and not 'epic' enough for this period. I think CA should find a way to increase the unit slots to 40. I admit this is hard to micromanage, so they should improve the interface design, and also make it hard to support a 40 stack army so larger battles are less frequent. There needs to be a distinction between small engagements, and major battles that are really significant and can turn the tide of wars, just like Waterloo.

The pace of the campaign is also too quick, with a lack of 'peacetime' periods. I like to slowly build up armies and plan few but meaningful campaigns. At the momment its all a bit smash and grab, and it soon becomes monotonous.

The campaign maps are too small. I really miss the size and epic feel of Empire. If they could combine NTW's polish with Empire's scale, now that would be a game.

I also miss the sandbox nature of Empire. NTW is too linear. Don't we all play Total way games so we can rewrite our own history?

Final comments.

Overall I find the game really fun and engaging, but not remarkable. I can see myself getting tired of it pretty quickly. I think CA need to make some changes to the more entrenched mechanics of the game, and the first change needs to be the size of the battles. We've had 20 unit stacks from day one, its time to up the stakes. The whole selling point of the original TW games was the epic battles, but in ten years CA have not moved on.

I think the CAI is better but the BAI is still below par. I like the drop in feature, but I don't think this should be a replacement for a decent AI. I know thre Ai will never be perfect, but there is much room for improvement.

I agree with you on many of your points especially the battle sizes.

I would definately sacrifice some of the graphics for much larger battles seeing as how battles like Austerlitz was about 160,000 men total war feels very small.

And i would prefer if CA spent time improving the bai and a host of other things rather than adding men falling off horses and being dragged, infact how often do people spend time zoomed right in to appreciate most of the fancy mocap fighting ?

I'm there with you Shay. Just imagine commanding an army of 100,000!! And I agree, I think CA could sacrifice some of the flashy graphics for more troops and bigger battle maps. It would be too much to have large battrles for every engagement, but there must be some way of minimising them so they only occur at strategic points of the game. i.e the Ai faction defending its last city, or an important region.

Moved to NTW Reviews.

I think the next major step for the Total War series, in order to keep the game relevant and fresh, should be to increase the number of units allowed on the battlefield. I don't care what they have to sacrifice in order to achieve this. Even if they made it work somehow with a more efficient reinforcement system, it needs to happen. Good point.

Originally Posted by M2TWRocks

I think the next major step for the Total War series, in order to keep the game relevant and fresh, should be to increase the number of units allowed on the battlefield. I don't care what they have to sacrifice in order to achieve this. Even if they made it work somehow with a more efficient reinforcement system, it needs to happen. Good point.

The only problem with this Is the commander is one person. In terms of a modern Military, You are a general, Battalion commander, company commander, platoon leader platoon sergeant all in one.

Directing a battle with almost a half a million units on screen total would be an unmanageable (assuming both sides say have about 160k soldiers nightmare. The Author of a battle plan isnt micro managing every unit in the field, It would be impossible.

What would the army break downs be? Company sized at 200? platoon sized at 30-50? If they were broken up into platoon sized elements imagine having imagine having 3200 individual platoons you have to directly control, It would be humanly impossible In this case the AI would actually own for once, because we simply couldnt respond to changing battle situations.

so what break it down to company sized elements? your still dealing with 800 individual groups. Battalion sized? ok now we have about 30-40 battalions a little more manageable, but then you are dealing with a single group that moves in unison of 2-5k soldiers. Again, thats an un wieldy force to issue single commands to.

This is why most games dealing with realistic army sizes are turn based with no realtime component, or focus on small engagements of particular battles.

hi to all..