My personal review of Darth Mod Ultimate gold edition!
Darthmod Ultimate Commander Gold Edition Review by Humble Warrior.
As a kid I was well into StarWars, finding that Darth Vader was far more interesting than the annoying Rebels. So when my friends and I got the little figures they had the Rebels while I had the Empire and especially the Biker scouts, which were my favourite soldiers. Oh the fun and hilarity that ensued especially when I nicked and melted down Luke Skywalker...
Then I grew up.
So when I first heard about Darth mod for MTW2 it was with a certain amount of snobbery as I couldn`t see what this apparent obsession with Darth Vader had to do with Medievel warfare, but it didn`t matter since I was happy enough with MTW2 as it was. So I ignored Darth...
Then came Empire Total War; the strategy game of the century, the game that was going to be the Holy grail of everything. Well, it wasn`t, by a long shot. I wept because I knew then what was going to happen. I was going to turn... To the DARKSIDE....
And well ball my cat, I`m in a state of shock.
This is a Death star size of a mod coming in at over 1 gig. It was simple to get working. Once downloaded there is an installer that allows you to direct where your game is. My installer already had it figured out and I executed. It took a few minutes and installed it all perfectly. It really can`t get much simpler.
One thing I must add first that while Darth has done the most work on this humongous Mod, it also comprises a lot of effort from other talented modders too, and as we will soon see, it shows.
Getting Started.
Before even starting the game you are greeted by several campaign options screen allowing you to choose the Darthmod Ultimate commander (DMUC), Standard Campaign (which is basically vanilla with some darth stuff like bigger unit sizes, etc), Road To Independence (I have never touched RTI so no idea what changes there), Warpath (for those with that DLC) and Multiplayer.
I chose the DMUC and that`s what this review focuses on. I was met with gameplay, graphics, audio, Mods (where you can add extra mods) even diagnostics if need be- more options than you shake a light sabre at. I chose enhanced smoke, twice as much artillery and twice as long research- These options affect the AI too,ie, if you have twice as many cannons, so does he. Finally, the next screen popped me onto 2 turns a year. I started the game.
I was met with a couple of Darth Vader screens, but that was the last of his ominous visage as the Intro began. An excellent Intro that everyone should watch at least once or even five times. Everything`s revamped just on the main screen, giving a new game feel. I chose Great Britain, Domination game, Hard\Hard Difficulty. Started.
Again, I`m hit by all the aesthetic changes of which there are many, icons are changed, the period screens are excellent and I absolutely love the realistic 18th century map. Oh, and the semi-transparent HUD is a great touch.
The Campaign.
Well, on to DMUC as Great Britain, bringing tea forcefully, but politely to the world. I notice a couple of differences straight away: You`re given an extra province in India right next to one held by the French and a lot more money than in vanilla. However, that money dwindles away pretty fast and you find yourself having to work for more.
It never took long before the Iroqoius declares war on me and struck me before I was ready, kicking me out of America! Their melee units were manic; more on melee later.
Diplomacy.
Diplomacy is much better worked out and the CAI makes much more reasonable requests and exchanges. It`s also not easy to outwit them as they are fond of trying to get more from you than they give you. However, if they are at a disadvantage and very friendly, they will accept slightly less than you get, but it`s rare. Getting good techs is no easy feat, also, be careful who you betray\let down, they don`t forgive easily unless you happen to go to war with who they`re at war with and maybe not even then. But be good and they`re good to you- mostly. I am in the year 1740 and there seems to be a a two block thing going on here. I`ve been solidly allied to the Mughals and the United Provinces and we are at war with Maratha, while Maratha is allied with France and Spain. These alliances have lasted a long while and while the Mughals will sometimes make peace with Maratha for a rest, it stays allied to me when it goes to war against Maratha again. I haven`t spent much time on Europe, but they seem stuck in their own little Eurocentric wars with Austria gaining the upper hand so far, though Russia is also a powerhouse too.
Maratha, my best m8- Not!
Maratha is no longer the unstoppable gargantuan force like it is in vanilla if the Player doesn`t kill him straight away. Mughal and Mysore are now actually able to take him on and give him a slap. In my first campaign, Mysore and Mughal actually destroyed Maratha then kicked me out of India. But the Marathans are not totally toothless, as in my second campaign they destroyed Mysore and even now are giving the Mughals and myself a fight. Things do get hard though when the Mughals decide to have a rest and make peace as this allows Maratha to focus everything on me. Of course, once the Mughals go to war again, the Marathan threat subsides. However, the Marathan CAI has been doing some damn smart (or reckless moves). Like when I was busy fighting them in India, they were also busy loading a large army onto a ship which they sent and attacked my Bahamas colony at Nassau! This surprise invasion was totally unexpected and the only reason I repelled them was because I`d recruited a large army to repel the French naval invasion. Yep, the French are not afraid to invade the Carribean now. Maratha is now a more realistic tough foe, not super Terminaters of India.
So expect a challenge on Hard\Hard in Darthmod.
Battles. (or Dying in Lots of Grass)
Battles are of course, the bread and butter of Total War games and here it really shines. The first thing you noticed are the huge numbers you now get on Ultra. Each unit has anything from 300 to 500 men so it doesn`t take long before you are getting what looks like a major army waiting for battle. These unit settings can be reduced down by choosing Normal (which is the equivalent of Ultra in vanilla) if you experience slowdown. My mid-range cheap PC handled the largest sizes very well, not slowing down until I ended up with a monster 12000+ and even then I was able to play to the end of the battle. Even so, I reckon reducing unit numbers or radical graphic setting changes will be required for all, but the more uptodate PCs when running over 10000 on Full graphics, especially with full smoke on.
But the battles are glorious, every unit seems to have had some kind of realistic uniform overhaul and many more units have been added to the game. I saw extra unit anaimations, for instance, on close inspection I saw the Lieutenants of military units pointing and prancing around like an 18th century snob. Cavalry and artillery horses appear more skittish. I`m no 18th century expert, but flags all appear more realistic and authentic to the times. It`s like staring into a window to the 18th century, but with the bonus of interacting with it.
Smoking`s Bad for you, if you`re on the Receiving End!
The smoke Mod, even on light adds an amazing amount of immersion, especially when the cannons fire. I upped to medium smoke and I so liked it I`m seriously tempted to go to max. Smoke bellows 30 feet ahead of the cannons, then lingers, floating realistically over the field. The smoke of shot adds to this and when in a full fledge battle, the whole battlefield is swamped in smoke with the deafening noise of cannon and shot, screams, pops of blood as men are hit and falls of the dying adding an appalling reality to the proceedings. War is truly hell, but great in a game! This immersion was what I was looking for. Disclaimer: I`m not a blood thirsty guy, I don`t revel in simulated death, I just like my wars realistic.... no, really...
BAI thinks a tad.
The BAI will tackle you in different ways, depending on your initial army setup and what it has and it can sometimes take a while planning. Sometimes it`ll attack straight away, other times it`ll take up to a couple of minutes rearranging its line to what it thinks is optimum to your line. If it has fewer troops it`ll try and force everything on one edge of your line while keeping the rest of the line a little busy. If it has more plus cavalry, it`ll attack the whole line, but will still focus heavily on your weakest left or right flank. Watch their cavalry! Cavalry is stronger now and can be a real threat if they hit your men in a charge, especially the Lancers. It`s the same with your cavalry, but use them wisely, they are not Medievel knights and the General will die very easily if you keep him in a sustained fight- as it should be. Silly squares with no cavalry near are much less of a problem as they are much rarer.
The BAI will also keep its General well out of the way unless you can get a lucky artillery shot on him. He also knows to pull back its forces and retry an attack on you again if its first try doesn`t work. Pretty tough if he does this on your weakened flank.
Special note:
While much of this has been optimised by Darth, some credit must be given to the Dev that programmed the late 1.6 BAI for ETW which has helped improve it somewhat.
No Queensberry Rules here.
Melee units warriors are to be feared. Melee fighting is much more chaotically mad, shakes my British soldiers and can really screw up an orderly line, tying up your men while the rest of his shooters or cavalry come round and finish you off. You do get the impression of savage warriors looking for blood. I, personally, did notice a little momentary slowdown on some of these melee battles. Several times it has been the melee units that won a battle against me. I always place melee units on my canister list priority along with cavalry every time now.
The Age of sail - and blowing each other to pieces... slowly.
Ship battles are now more like they should be. Somewhat slower, but in my Humble opinion that`s not a bad thing, I just hit speed up when nothing is happening, like travelling to the target. Once there, it`s a tactical joy as I can turn and manouever, while setting ships to fire or not or when selecting types of ammo. Each blow is resounding with smoke billowing out with each powerful blast of the cannons, covering the area in greyish white. Again, aesthetically everything looks authentic, from flags to individual troops on the mighty ships. It`s like a ballet dance of death with-er- big sailing ships! When one your fave 3rd rates explode, you NOTICE it as when I brazenly took on about 8 4th rates carelessly. It took pounding after pounding until it could take no more. You can tactically fight your battles on the sea and enjoy it. It`s not as slow as reality (that would take hours), but it`s a lot more immersive and fun than watching ships which turn on a dime against the wind like modern speedboats!
Problems?
Yes, there are some. Sometimes an odd unit of the BAI army will latch onto a wall and sit there in ground battles, in one case facing the wrong way, for the entire battle, robbing the enemy army of a unit it could`ve used. The enemy cavalry still suffers from `triggering` where you can almost make it act depending on what you tell your artillery to do. And there`s a very slight issue where charging cavalry will veer off from its target until you reassign it again, it happens rarely, but it happens...
Sieges? Well what can I say. Sieges in ETW were extremely poor and one of my greatest disappointments. A problem never truly addressed or acknowledged by CA. Darth has been unable to do much here to help. The BAI will attack, regardless of its cannons, search around and climb the wall in their thouands monkey-style. On a good point, they do search out your troops better, so hiding back and picking them off while they stand in the centre does not work so good any more, but a well placed cannon or two with canister can still win the battle with way inferior numbers. Fortunately Darth includes a `No forts` mod that goes a long way to hiding this travesty.
And of course, armies can`t retreat on the campaign map against superior odds, or rebuild destroyed Fort walls. but these are deep Empire vanilla default problems.
To sum up:
I haven`t said everything that`s in this Mod, there really is so much to it and I could write many more pages. I do give Creative Assembly some credit for making Empire, but it has taken Darth mod for me to truly enjoy it and think of it fondly like I used to do with previous vanilla TWs. It`s only now that I`ve begun to appreciate some of the work that CA put into its graphics and animations on the battlefield and some of what CAI could be, but again, only because Darth Mod has helped me regain my interest. All I want to do is convey to anyone fed up with the 70% complete vanilla version of the game and are looking for a realistic, more complete Empire, that generally observes how it was in 18th century war would do far worse than check this Mod out. For something this massive, comprehensive and FREE is quite astonishing. It really is a labour of love or faith or something. I actually feel I have what I paid for a year ago. I even strongly suspect that this mod is better than Napoleon, I lie to you not. The improvement that Darthmod has made to Empire is similar to when those 40-50 year olds find a messed up abandoned Spitfire in the mud from 1940 and bring it to its full true glory that it should have been. Or should that be a Tie Fighter?
Recommended. And it`s out in about 2 hours!
Humble Warrior.
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) you would need to manually uninstall that MOD
Originally Posted by Dodge
Re: My personal review of Darth Mod Ultimate gold edition!
