I'm at about 1750. I lied about my income, right after I got done writing my last reply I looked and it was 16k. I was able to massacre the inuit with cannon fire (I had 50 some casualties vs 1000 or more, gotta love scattershot). Just before I was done last night I took berlin from the Prussians since they wont make peace. I tried to buy georgia from the cherokee but they refused. Not a good thing to do when their already at war with Spain. I always fight my naval battles regardless. I auto resolved once and it was 5 v 3 and I ended up losing 3 ships to their 2 with 1 escaping. The AI turns aren't that bad, at least not to me, maybe a minute or two.

I got my Russian campaign going the other day.  its about 1735 and i have a revenue of 18k, but my army upkeep is 17k , I know ridiculous.  My fleet still consists of two sloops, since navy really isn't important right now because my southern ports are blockaded in by the ottomans  .   But yes I have 4 full armies, fully equipped and at least 2-3 milita guys in each citie for defense, I really hate the AI who sends 1 guy to raid your back side, as russia its not fun since you have a real big backside.

I recently just took out sweden so maybe i'll use that northern port for making a fleet.  I do have a question for you guys, how are you guys handling the unrest in your captured cities?  Im trying everything to lower the dissent but i still keep getting rebel armies forming.

Haha

Yeah I'm making like +34000 a turn. I"m not sure what my total income is but my army upkeep is around 27k and my naval is only about 5k.

With the Iroquois down, I'm not on the edge of US-held NY and i need to defend there. So the now 1700 Veterans who wiped our Hurons, Plains People, Quebec and the Iroquois will now face the more powerful Cheerokee so if I destroy them, the 13 Colonies will join me and it will increase my empire by about seven regions or so and give me access to a few island and plenty of ports for trade. 

What I find amazing kinda is that Inuit Territory that can easily be overlooked, makes me 8400 a turn.  That's awesome for a once native settlement lol.

-Phalnax

I'm at 1761 now. I was able to utterly destroy the cherokee so I accomplished the mission. The colonies are mine now. I took another prussian province and then they decided they wanted peace. Poland keeps trying to get me to give them to them but thats not gonna happen. I took algiers from barbary pirates, traded it to france for upper louisiana, yet somehow the pirates got it back, so I just re-took it. Gonna try to trade it again for lower louisiana . The Iroquois just went to war with me, I have no idea why, the turn before it I sent them a state present and made them very friendly, but oh well, this means more land. I think france is getting gang banged by sweden and United Provinces. I gave them a gift and offered them a trade route and they accepted it. Last time I looked I'm making 23k, not sure about naval or army costs though. Got about 5-6 almost full armies (I dont fill them so I can still get the militia once I capture). For some reason the Martha Confed (the oj one in india) went to war with my ally so I sent a army down there. Was having a great time just bombing the hell out of one of their cities with arty, but ran out of time so I (guess) lost that battle. Been really getting my navy going down there though, they keep raiding my trade. I was able to defeat 4-5 sloops with 1 sloop and 3 galleys ( all of which I had captured from the Prussians).

Something is weird with galleys. They seem to have knack for one shotting ships. Twice now I've seen ships that are practically full health get hit by a galley and just completly explode. Anyone else seen this?

I normally exempt the region I just captured from taxes for a while, this seems to help, plus I wont leave the city until I have at least one militia unit.

Haha nice, i haven't had a chance to play it. I'm going thru withdrawal lol.  Yeah I'm planning to hit either India or Barbary States soon while hitting the cherokee.  Should be a fun decade of war ahead of my empire lol.  I still can't get France to trade so next time I play it's going to be a focus. Probably a state gift of 2500 each turn lol if I remember

I noticed Galleys have like 250 Firepower and only have 4 guns so those must be some strong guns...

One last thought, do you have an online account for Empire: Total War?  We should def play that online mulitplayer campaign if it is released sometime soon !!

I have also seen a ship 'just explode.' My guess would be a good ol' cannonball up the exhaust po... er, gunpowder storage room. That is a problem in ships of the era... wood + flamable materials for coating the wood + room full of gunpowder = mild fire hazard.

Oh, and Phalnax, of course he has an account to play online with! After all, the game requires a Steam account to install.

Yeah, I thought of that alway, but it happens so much more often using galleys then with reg ships with more guns that I gotta wonder. I dont have one set up other then steam obviously.

Yeah i realized that lol. what I sorta meant was 'do you play online?' i don't play online lol but it'd be cool i guess, i suck though haha

I haven't played any of the total war games online. I remember looking into M2TW for online play, but from what I read on the forums people would either just use siege weapons or calvary entirely. Supposedly there's a 1v1 campaign with empire, but I wonder how that works...theres only 2 nations in the whole game? Or is it just like a grand campaign with 2 humans controlling different nations? The manual doesn't really clarify it, or much of anything for that matter.

They are probably special homing cannonballs then! Or magnetized so the gunpowder attracts them like in Indiana Jones!

ok so is empire total war good? im thinking of getting it

Nah i read on their website its in Beta form so it's probably buggy or at least not fully functional.  Its two players, different nations.  They vie for world domination with all the others.  They are not sure yet if it will be that if one player gets into a battle, the other fights it no matter who they are.  I wouldn't really want that. Waste, everything should be autoresovle except Human v Human battles. It sounds good though and good work with 2 players and no more

Right now in my Brits campaign, it is 1766, i have 42 regions and the 13 Colonies turned on me when they were Very Friendly.  They are now down to 1 region, Newfoundland and an army is en route.  The Barbary States are no more as well as the United States (SORRY!!!!).  Most of the world hates me but is probably too afraid to challenge me.  My prestige is around 2400 I think and my income is lesser now with the armies I had to form to take on the Barbary States and the US.  the 13 Colonies fell victim to two of my experienced armies and i mean experienced.

Just cliking on a port freezes the game for a minute.  The Portsmouth, England port does this for some reason and maybe a bug, idk. But its real annoying cuz i'm making First Rates there and i need to click on it sometime lol.

-Phalnax

Yes get it, it's awesome.  Some reviews rip some things apart but still give it like a 9/10 or A- or something.

Be warned that if you hate bugs there are still a few in it (some people are complaining of CTDs and the like, although I haven't experienced this).  CA are releasing frequent patches, so they should be sorted out in a few weeks.

Oh and naval battles are hard to master.  Some reviews criticized them a lot but I think that they are probably about as good as they could be, and are easy to handle once you get the hang of them.  Also if you don't have a great rig, turning the resolution down a notch does wonders for performance.

Ahhh ok, yeah I just read that ppl are thinking it will come as a patch. I think its the best TW yet, (but of course this is one of my favorite periods).

lol bugs sins has more bugs in it than you could count at one time they have fixed most of them

The biggest problem I have encountered in ETW is the AI of soldiers in tactical battles. I had one battle where I marched my army into their blasted apart fort, expecting heavy resistance from the occupants (about 4 groups of units), only to find the enemy not fighting back. Not just not firing, but totally not acknowledging my troops presence. I marched my units within about 4 feet of theirs and they still just stood there. They even had their backs turned. It was more of a firing squad than a battle. I also had that happen to my troops during a battle. I was using the Maratha camel riders with guns (the name escapes me at the moment), and after ordering them over a fence to attack enemies, I realized camels take a LONG time to cross a fence. At that point, I ordered them back to their starting point. Rather than going back, about half continued to try and cross another fence to get to the enemy, a quarter just stood where they were, and a quarter went back. As soon as the half that was going for the enemy got within range, they just stood there, not even firing back. Needless to say, they were slaughtered.

They improved the UI and the graphics, but somehow the gameplay sucks. It just does not suck me in like previous TW titles, and I am not the only one who somehow cannot love the game.

Yes still bugs, still slow loading, some random crashes.  Patches are being rolled out, so if you can stand it, wait a month maybe?  Maybe by then the price may even go down?

Or wait for the expansion.

Haha.

I have 55 regions now and its 1782. I'm at war with Denmark, Russia, and Venice lol.  It just exited out on me mid-naval battle. So gonna have to load the autosave next time I start up. I have 500,000+ credits or money units whatever they use. Florins?

I don't think I will be playing much more ETW until they patch the AI on units. Tactical battles, especially seiges, are just silly. Any movement or attack order involving going anywhere near a wall, fence, or other building, especially when it involves moving over/through something makes the AI go nuts. For example, in one seige I was playing, I told my soldiers to attack enemies on the other side of a wall which had been breached. Rather than going through the breach and firing like I had expected, they ran back and fourth along the length of breached wall and went absolutely nowhere. The units just plain feel like they need babysitting.

Hey guys, been a while...

I'm on a roll with Sweden!!! I kinda abanoned my Brits campaign due to the laggyness...I have 14 territories with the Swedes. I'm allies with Russia but they may be planning an attack.  Almost all major powers are friendly or indifferent.  Its only 1726ish and my eco is great. The Polish have been wiped out, so have Denmark and the Inuits by me

Good times.

FearlessDefiance, you still on your Brits campaign?

Hmmmm Best Buy has it on sale for $40   to buy or not to buy.....

awolf

If you like this kind of game, then it's well worth it. It does require a bit of a rig on the higher settings, and I think the majority of crashes are related to running out of virtual memory. I started getting more of them as my game goes on longer and it's trying to load the biggest battles. But the devs did an interview on IGN saying they're working on performance, so it'll get there.

There's a demo but that only shows you the combat, you don't get any of the TBS stuff in there.