Ancient Empires: Naval Invasion Sneak Peek + WIP Carthage siege screens + Brand new CARTHAGE SIEGE VIDEO TEASER

[The_Blank97]

Hello there!
Those of you following the AE late campaign know I hinted at siege previews. I wanted them to be videos but just a few more updates are needed.
So in the meantime, I took the initiative by at least showing you guys a sneak peek at port assaults, focusing on the naval aspect. Your eyes are not fooling you, these are multiple ships per unit!

Professional naval units have only one ship. It is only the transport ships that are more numerous. AE brings more depth to the naval aspect of combined battles where you have three main sections to your unit composition:
- Land units of course to challenge the opponent on land
- Transport units to land in key locations at key opportunities. They have as much men as the land units (which is usually 240 men)
- Naval units, which have less men than the transport units and one ship but are more powerful and efficient at sea: Their prime role is to protect the transports and escort them to their landing.

We hope this brings more depth and more variety in roles for your different unit classes. I hope you love this sneak peek; till the next preview!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

New Carthage (with siege escalation) sneak peak (still WIP to make it even better)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Look at this new Carthage siege on escalation 2. Map is still WIP to make it more amazing - but you can still enjoy it. Bear in mind this is a 40vs40 battle and my PC is not the best...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxpI...ature=youtu.be

- failed at posting it here so kindly proceed to youtube.

[The_Blank97]

One quick statement regarding playability of transport ships:

I have tested it several times and all seems to be good, with a few disadvantages. Here are my notes:
- Transports are responsive at sea. If you tell them to attack a ship and one of the ships of that unit engages then you tell the unit to attack another ship before the other two engage too, they free ships will engage that second unit as ordered.
- When landing, transport ships need all three ships to have landed to initiate the disembarking of troops. If two land and the third is lagging behind or busy fighting, you will have to wait till that third ship either wins and lands or is defeated.

[zonks40]

Can't you set max men per ship to 240 so it only uses one ship per unit?

[The_Blank97]

Can't you set max men per ship to 240 so it only uses one ship per unit?

Besides the fact that we wanted to revive this feature that was shown in E3 that people got excited for but CA did not deliver, we wanted to increase the scale of the naval aspect of the game. Previously you had largely empty waters with just a few ships around. Now there is a great deal more happening at sea.

Additionally, since transport ships are weaker by default, one single artillery strike causes it to burn. At least here not the entire unit will be destroyed by one lucky shot. Only a part of it is.

Furthermore, making it 240 men on a single ship means we need to get a bigger ship. Getting a bigger ship means it has to be stronger otherwise it will not make sense. Making it stronger will make normal naval units useless as then they will have less men per ship. We need normal naval units to still have some importance. Simply making stronger one-ship transports would make the gameplay so much more shallow. Frankly I do not know why anyone would want one ship per transport unit if the option to have multiple ships per unit is available and balanced :/

[LordKainES]

For future updates just hope you will follow improving all the cities... the images I´ve seen of Carthage... I have no words... You are amazing guys, and thank you for what you´ve achieved with this gem of yours!!!

Cannot wait to play the Rome II CA promised us many years ago but never gave us... and this time, a better version!

[The_Blank97]

For future updates just hope you will follow improving all the cities... the images I´ve seen of Carthage... I have no words... You are amazing guys, and thank you for what you´ve achieved with this gem of yours!!!

Cannot wait to play the Rome II CA promised us many years ago but never gave us... and this time, a better version!

Worry not - UMC plans to create lots of custom cities! Also, thank you for your positive feedback!

[zonks40]

Frankly I do not know why anyone would want one ship per transport unit if the option to have multiple ships per unit is available and balanced :/

The only reason would be to reduce the chance of it causing issues, the fact that the ships in Attila pull away from the shore after delivering troops is already a big plus over Rome 2, but I suppose you guys have tested 3 ships per unit extensively, so we will see how it plays, soon

[The_Blank97]

The only reason would be to reduce the chance of it causing issues, the fact that the ships in Attila pull away from the shore after delivering troops is already a big plus over Rome 2, but I suppose you guys have tested 3 ships per unit extensively, so we will see how it plays, soon

There is one real issue at the moment that we are trying to fix, but even this can have a workaround. It's that when selecting a transport unit and ordering a landing, 3 slots are allocated which is good, but if you select multiple units, only one slot is allocated per unit. Just reported and trying to see if a modder can fix it, but as for now it can be worked around by microing a bit more by individually assigning units to landing areas

[shireknight]

Brilliant innovation team, thanks for this The_Blank97

[The Wandering Storyteller]

Thank you UM and Blank! And the rest of the team. I'll ask if it's possible to add catapults for the AI? The E3 vid showed the catapults on the hills - I wonder if there's any way you could add them into the city so that when you launch the ships and attack, you instantly get attacked by flaming catapults.

But this is my fav screenie

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Also, there's a mod for Rome 2 which increases the lighting to the alpha version. It's close to the alpha version depicted. Here's a screenshot I took:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=1333375258

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[The_Blank97]

Brilliant innovation team, thanks for this The_Blank97

very welcome

[The_Blank97]

Thank you UM and Blank! And the rest of the team. I'll ask if it's possible to add catapults for the AI? The E3 vid showed the catapults on the hills - I wonder if there's any way you could add them into the city so that when you launch the ships and attack, you instantly get attacked by flaming catapults.

But this is my fav screenie

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Also, there's a mod for Rome 2 which increases the lighting to the alpha version. It's close to the alpha version depicted. Here's a screenshot I took:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil...?id=1333375258

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

@San Felipe add me http://steamcommunity.com/id/The_Blaaank/home for something good

[Semper Fi or Die]

3 ships per transport is going to be such a monumental disaster, specially in the hands of the AI. Bound to induce a lot of laughter for sure.

[Totalknight]

In the new Carthage map, can the units go all the way to the top like they are suppose to? and not have a wall blocking them??? thanks

[LordKainES]

Wow!!! Is just like in that epic demo... you make me very happy today!!!