Im HAPPY about this game

[Kscott]

Ok, I see alot of posts complaining about game saying they won't buy it, which I find kinda strange.

The latest patches have done some work for the AI and I find that BI can be pretty enjoyable. The only problem is poorly done units and a boring time period really. Alexander presents us with atleat three really cool new factions and we have some very exoctic units. Not to mention, the skins don't look half bad. Im looking foward to a very exciting to feel. Yes its the same "game", but I dont see people complaining about that to mods. Yes mods are free, but really $10 isn't that draining on anyone's wallet. So anyone with me and ready for an exicting new expansion?

[therussian]

Not me, that's for sure.

[Kscott]

Why?

[RZZZA]

I'll probably not buy it, I'm really not an ancient world fan, and the prospect of still more phalanx battles makes me groan. MTW, MTWII, Chivalry total war and ancient Japan mods for me!

Besides, Alexander total war, y'know what that means? Big factions taking on other big factions. Yuck, I'd much rather start the game with lots of little factions an have to slowly conquer my way city by city and province by province. Not start with all of greece already under my control, or all of Eurasia and beyond under my control, like you tend to do it BI and RTW. Thats a big place where they messed the game up for me, too many ginormous factions, gauls, egyptians, seleucids...too big...too many cities...too many seige battles...not fun. Boring and repetitive.

[Kscott]

I'll probably not buy it, I'm really not an ancient world fan, and the prospect of still more phalanx battles makes me groan. MTW, MTWII, Chivalry total war and ancient Japan mods for me!

To be fair, only one of the factions has the phalanx

Besides, Alexander total war, y'know what that means? Big factions taking on other big factions. Yuck, I'd much rather start the game with lots of little factions an have to slowly conquer my way city by city and province by province. Not start with all of greece already under my control, or all of Eurasia and beyond under my control, like you tend to do it BI and RTW. Thats a big place where they messed the game up for me, too many ginormous factions, gauls, egyptians, seleucids...too big...too many cities...too many seige battles...not fun. Boring and repetitive

Actually comparitivly all of the factions are small, but persia. Yes Macedon owns greece, but what this will mean like 4 provinces? I harldy see that as small, You really wont see anything different in MTW 2...

[RZZZA]

I dont even know what kinds of factions there will be besides the greek city states and persia, like I said I dont know much about the ancient world and even less about pre-roman times, or the REALLY ancient world as I call it. I'm a fan of medieval times only, pretty much. I can imagine boring units though, they didnt have much armor then did they? And this was before horses became prominent (since Alexander was the one who made them prominent), so we have infantry which look like peasants, bare breasted and having pretty much only a small shield and a sword or spear, missle troops are people with slings, and horses are used only as scouts or skirmishers or to chase routers...meh...lacks any of the flash and pizazz and excitement of the medieval world, imo.

I bought BI and was dissapointed, I wont be taken again, especially since the modders in this community (may allah rain blessing and countenance upon them) offer up MORE content than CA ever does. I remember Viking Invasion, I remember BI, how little variety in units they offered. In viking invasion, the ONLY new horsemen in the entire new campaign were horsemen(a unit just called 'Horsemen'), weak light horse. Then mounted nobles, like light early knights. And the Irish dartmen. The horsemen and mounted nobles were shared units between mutiple factions. As were the standard beserkers, the standard fyrdmen were shared between the englih factions...it was really pretty pathetic, to CA unit variety means little. And same with BI, a lot of units were shared, there were few unique units, and the game just had an atmosphere of "blah".

[therussian]

And this was before horses became prominent (since Alexander was the one who did so),

I'd just like to point out that it wasn't Alexander, it was his father Phillip

[RZZZA]

Ah yes youre right, thank you, well its safe to say Alexander was the one to put his heavy horse on the map, even though he was not the one to actually create the unit.

[Kscott]

I dont even know what kinds of factions there will be besides the greek city states and persia, like I said I dont know much about the ancient world and even less about pre-roman times, or the REALLY ancient world as I call it. I'm a fan of medieval times only, pretty much. I can imagine boring units though, they didnt have much armor then did they? And this was before horses became prominent (since Alexander was the one who made them prominent), so we have infantry which look like peasants, bare breasted and having pretty much only a small shield and a sword or spear, missle troops are people with slings, and horses are used only as scouts or skirmishers or to chase routers...meh...lacks any of the flash and pizazz and excitement of the medieval world, imo.

We have Macedon which will be a great variety of Horse and Pike. This Hammer anvail tactics are what made Macedon so potent. Persia will have alot of cheap infantry, but some excellent in the form of Imortals. Then they have outstanding cavalry, kinda like Parthia of RTW. The coolest faction will be India which I imagine will be extremely exotic. Epephaunts would be a mainstay of the army.

And on VI, I thought it improved the game by 100..

[RZZZA]

I would love to play as persia if they made it like BKB did with the almohads in his MTW mod, he turned them into two factions, the original almohads in the southeast and the Almoravids in the north, I thought this was genius, since it turned a starting game large faction into two playable factions, which felt different from eachother.

If they can do this with greece and persia, so that if you pick persia you arent just a huge unified country like the Eastern roman empire in BI, but you could choose certain mini-tribes or mini-factions within the persian faction to play as, and you can choose to cooperate with your kinsmen or war against them...then I'd reconsider and consider buying this expansion.

Its all about factions and unit variety for me, if thats done well then I'm buying it, but unfortunatly its also a kind of hard thing to measure, I'll just wait for somone who buys it to tell me.

[Farnan]

Actually, Persia used heavy cavalry for centuries, though they didn't charge in, instead threw javelins and moved into the enemy.

[Farnan]

I love this mod, because Alexander is my favorite ancient general, so I am also looking forward to it.

[rez]

"I can imagine boring units though, they didnt have much armor then did they? And this was before horses became prominent (since Alexander was the one who made them prominent), so we have infantry which look like peasants, bare breasted and having pretty much only a small shield and a sword or spear, missle troops are people with slings, and horses are used only as scouts or skirmishers or to chase routers...meh...lacks any of the flash and pizazz and excitement of the medieval world, imo."

Evidently your lack of interest in the ancient world has affected your knowledge of it. (Edit: that sounded rude, but i didnt mean it to be)

Macedonians never made cavalry prominent, they had been a decisive elment of warfare for centuries even before the Persians. Look at the Sakae, Medes and the Lydians who had mysteriously long lances which indicate possible shock value.

well armed and armoured hoplites of the hellenistic peoples, heavy horse and infantry in Lydia, Heavy everything in Babylon (suprisingly underestimated warmachine) and excluding the mass of Greek mercenaries a fine exotic collection of egyptian warriors - armoured and atop chariots occasionally. Not to mention the wonderful intricacies of the Persian military.

All of which employed armour, on a notably large scale for the Babylonians. Efficient heraldry, uniform and horn systems made sophisticated warfare possible. it was by no means a rabble of bare chested, unwashed fanatics fighting with whatever they could find. And the small shield idea is a little strange, the eastern tower shields were bigger than anything you would get in the Medieval era.

And since the most ancient of historians like to make their history an exciting tale rather they embellish their work with a poetic touch. This giving us a highly romanticised set of stories to read and be inspired by. Rather than a gruff monk recording how many unwashed peasants died of the plague out in the mud.

Indeed check out the ancient world, it rocks! I mean for heavens sake the Persian invasion of Greece is one of the greatest stories ever told! even without knowing the intricacies and failings of the historical matter.

but to make this slightly relevant - i'll buy the mod. But just to check it out. i already have rise of persia to play as my favourite people

[RZZZA]

"Evidently your lack of interest in the ancient world has affected your knowledge of it. "

More right you could not be. If only CA could make that time period come alive for me! The way you describe it is not the way I picture it, I find it hard to become excited about ancient world eurasia but if CA does a good job, that could change, and I hope it does. Judging by past expansions, and juging by the price of this expansion, I dont think itll be good though.

[rez]

Thats exactly why i want to write about the persian wars in an accesible way when im older and wiser.

Its such a fantastic epic tale but no one has really made it come alive for people who werent already interested in the ancient world.

Il be back to claim your interest when Rise of Persia is finished

[{nF}remix]

Lol, this game will have atmosphere! Brian Blessed is in it!

I think that alot of us don't expect that CA will always be delivering rather "plain" units (Chosen Axemen, etc) and it has always been up to modders to put realism into the game. So I have no problem whatsoever with CA doing that, since every single rts out there has been doing the same thing for years.

The real meat and potatoes is the the scripted campaign and the historical battles. THe units don't really look plain imo though, i mean they got some exotic units in there, judging by the screens.

[Imperator of Rome]

Even though I Alexander is one of my favorite generals and this expansion is about him against Persia,I'm not interested if it is going to be a 30dollar expansion or 10dollar online download.I'll rather wait for a unofficial mod or Mtw2 because a official mod with 4factions isn;t going to cut it.Thats my opinion until I see more of the expansion.Only I'm up for is that guy from mtw providing his voice.

[Angarah]

Its a waste of money to me. There's really no new features. Just a mod. I love Alexander's time, but this just doesn't grab me...

[Favre]

Im going to buy it, play it, and then download a good mod for it.

[Xiaodun]

Not buy it? Are you people crazy?!

new units – including the mighty Indian War Elephants, Persian immortals and Indian naked female archers[I].