Hi Guys,
I've got interests in the period of history and the area (reading Chris Wickham's books, actually) and it was why I'd bought the Thrones. I've played it and you know my review, so I won't elaborate.
What I want to share is that after a game in ToB I have taken up the TLK mod for Medieval and it have a feeling of having much more understanding why things happen, and also that they happen in a "realistic", sometimes "historical" way. I don't know if it's because I understand the engine, or the M2TW is better programmed, or just because the ToB has it's oddities... (I do tweak the parameters and do some modding, so it may be that me having a kind of "control" of the game gives this feeling).
On the battlefield it's similar: I have a certain feeling for the units in M2, but in Warscape the soldiers, are just points on the battlefield (with the fast pace of the battles I don't have much time to look into the units...). The main advantage is that you can have a nice replay after the battle and see what was happening.
Anyway, I'm still unsure what to think about the ToB.
JoC
EDIT: I've played a few hours Gwynedd in ToB and:
- the pre-set (in terms of production) villages really lower the experience: you don't choose, you just get what was pre-cooked;
- the whole food mechanics feels very gamey: if you're not blessed with many farms, then you are screwed; furthermore, it makes the real limit, not money. Hmm, I prefer the M2TW recruitment pools, to be frank (
I've described the ideal recruitment system here).
- I still don't know why certain generals get certain traits, why they do require estates etc. (it seems that they start longing for the estates only after I got hold on an estate).
- AI still (as in the ATW) recruits 20-unit armies and you need to have similar ones to face it;
- yeah, battles are so straightforward: just go and then run towards the enemy... nothing like M2TW-SS battles, not to mention the long EBII. I basically don't pay attention to the data of the units. I've seen a clip with a Warhammer II competitive battle and this looks so differently paced: the player timely decisions seem to have clear impact.