Empire Total War.

[Vic]

Such ironclad logic is often lost on others, way too simple, not complicated enough.

[Deepcrush]

[Deepcrush]

Haven't played as much lately since I've been busy, but as of last night. I'm up to 900 Infantry Regiments of which all are Line Infantry or Elites, 160 Artillery Regiments and 15 Calvary Regiments. I've also disbanded some of my fleet but I kept 80 Heavy (aka, only big guns rather then mixed) First Rate Ships of the Line and about 200ish Second and Third rate ships.

Everywhere in the Union is just perfect... except that everyone left in the eastern half of Europe where I haven't taken over yet continues to pick fights with me. Austria and Prussia are the most guilty of this. They have a habit of building a few armies then attacking me and sometimes they make minor gains... but normally not and in the end they always lose and lose their armies in the process.

Example, Prussia's last attack they came at me with about 15,000 men (or 60 units if you have your settings lower). The area they attacked was defended by Elite/Fortified troops... of which I had about 60,000 men. My men were divided into Divisions of 5000 men each and each had a fort or town to defend. In a single turn I scored ~12,000 kills with only a third the losses.

For the Austrians its even worse. They just send wave after wave of militia and conscripts at me. They get cut to pieces during their charge and can't even hope to stand up to my guys in either Line Fire or melee. Most of those fights I kill about five to one though its been as high as ten to one more then once.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Did you ever played Europea Universalis? The computer is better at trying to bring you down if you become too powerful.

Which means you have to fake being the weakling long ennough to gather allies to gang up the big guy on the block, and you use that opportunity to annex his territory, and have fun gobbling your vassals.

[Deepcrush]

Did you ever played Europea Universalis? The computer is better at trying to bring you down if you become too powerful.

Which means you have to fake being the weakling long ennough to gather allies to gang up the big guy on the block, and you use that opportunity to annex his territory, and have fun gobbling your vassals.

No, I haven't played that Mode but I'm playing as the United States so everyone already hates me. I spent the first hundred turns pretty much still locked in eastern half of the modern US. The French and English both hated me to start would at times skip on attacking each other to attack me.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Oh.. I wasn't talking about a mod, but about the game itself. Europa Universalis, from Paradox.

If you haven't, don't bother then. It's pretty less adrenaline-rushing than TW

[Captain Seafort]

everyone left in the eastern half of Europe where I haven't taken over yet continues to pick fights with me. Austria and Prussia are the most guilty of this. They have a habit of building a few armies then attacking me and sometimes they make minor gains... but normally not and in the end they always lose and lose their armies in the process.

Sounds familiar - Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, Wagram.

Then Leipzig.

[Deepcrush]

[Deepcrush]

Update...

Prussia, finally fell after their 4th war with me. I'll give those Germans serious credit though, they made me pay for that final victory. They made a final push towards the Rhine and also sent a trio of armies into the territory of former Poland and the west half of Russia that belongs to me. That and a bunch of raiding groups caused me all kinds of hell in a place that was still very unstable.

Austria, started another war against me. I think this one was their 6th unless I forgot one somewhere. I didn't take anything from them... other then capturing their Flagship and sinking twelve other ships of the line. I may have also destroyed eight of their armies which left them at less then 1/3rd strength. After two years, I offered them peace and they took it... and asked to be my allies. I accepted just because it means they are less likely to attack me right away. Gives me time to refresh my armies around their border.

Russia, is also allied to me now. In fact they've maintained good relations and have given me passage rights through their territory. Which means I can move troops over land to reinforce my Eastern European armies from India and the Middle East much easier. Armies that have been packed in Arabia and India are now marching on those roads I paid so much money for.

Everyone else, is just leaving me alone right now. Which is good in that I'm not having to spread out my armies out and bad in that no one is trading with me so I'm losing money on that.

Army, I've reached the 1000 (1040 really) regiment mark and I've begun disbanding all of my lesser troops and even a lot of my regulars. I've started replacing them with elite Legion troops equipped with rifled muskets. The only problem with Legion troops is that the Units can only be founded in North America. Lucky me that they can at least be refreshed anywhere. I've also standardized my armies into Artillery/Infantry only. 15 elite infantry regiments supported by 5 artillery regiments. So far its a really strong design. Enemy infantry has a horrible time standing up to rifled fire, cavalry has trouble even reaching the lines as they have to suck up one or two volleys before they make contact and enemy artillery is rarely able to cause enough damage to my ranks with my artillery raining down on them. Most of my battles involve me forming up and then just waiting while my artillery just slams the enemy. They can either sit there an take it or come to me and try to push me back. Even when I attack enemy armies I just use the same formula so either they can retreat, get shelled standing still or get shelled on the firing line.

Navy, I've disbanded all but one of my 2nd RSotL with the only exception being the Austrian's former flagship. They had a 1st RSotL but I wasn't able to capture her due to her powder mags exploding... Next battle I chain-shot their new flagship and then used two 1st RSotL to board her and capture her. So it was a duo of major navel wins for me with a couple of minor ones and no losses. As to the rest of my fleet I've keep forty 1st RSotL in squadrons of four which will be my remaining navel assets as I'm not being challenged anywhere else on the oceans. This was two parts, one being I just didn't need a 300 ship navy and two being that it was really really really expensive!

Current stance and future plans, its currently 2006AD and I'm hoping for five or ten years of peace so that I can focus on internal improvements and deployment of superior troops to front line areas. My economy is still extremely strong with an average tax rate of 8.6% world wide and my commercial and industrial outputs are nearly maxed out for my population. Denmark and Hanover are damned tough so I may at some point just have to suck up the hurt. They only have 60 or 80 regiments between them but its in such a small and well fortified area that its going to hurt like hell to dig them out. Russia has maybe 50 regiments and Austria has about 100 regiments so... no matter what they can't take me out but they can deal me some nasty hurt.

Overall the I'm just counting the days until the whole planet belongs to me.

[Deepcrush]

So my US game is about over.

I crushed the Rhineland states. I was surprised how easy it was. They had about 80 regiments in total but only once against 20 of them did I have to fight against their defenses. Other then that they rushed out to meet me in battle which is new for them.

Austria fell after I got tired of them raiding my borders and I declared war. I walked them with 200+ regiments and while they faired well for the first year, they quickly fell apart the following year. Athens was their last hold out by year three which required two assaults to take and fell in year four. The seventh US/Austrian war ended up being their last. Their population is so cut up by the losses over the years that they were happy the fighting was over and haven't even bothered with resistance.

The Eastern half of Russia is all that is left now. I'm hoping their forces haven't become to strong over the last thirty years of peace. Just in case though I'm moving a trio of army groups to face them. Army group north, at Kostal, has 80 regiments. Army group center, at Moscow, has 100 regiments. Army group south, coming from Romania, has 240 regiments as I'm expecting the hardest fighting there. I'm also moving forward a reserve force of 20 1RSotL as transport/escort for 200 regiments that can be deployed through the Black Sea. With a second reserve force still on its way from the Americas of 12 1RSotL and 160 regiments to support Army groups North and Center.

In total as of now, I'm deploying 32 1RSotL and 780 Regiments of infantry and artillery. However I am considering adding about 400 more regiments to my forces just to make sure that I steamroll the Russians.

[Deepcrush]

Forgot to mention, but back in June I finished off the Russians in my US game. The whole world now flies under the Union Flag and for the amount of time I got out of the game. It was totally worth the price tag on it. I still have several other games going (Prussia, Huron, and restarted Great Britain) but I don't think I'll play them out to the same extreme as the US.

In the end, I would say this is a must have game for anyone into Military History, Strategy or Tactical play. Even the casual gamer can just turn the difficulty settings way down and then just have a run with it.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Deep, have you sinked your teeth into Shogun 2 yet?

[Tsukiyumi]

I think it's about time I got around to playing this.

[Deepcrush]

Deep, have you sinked your teeth into Shogun 2 yet?

I have, just bought it. The campaign map is lagging for me and i'm not sure at all as to why. However, the battles run very very smoothly... and as of now I fail horribly at them. I'm so used to playing European fashioned Line Infantry battles that my Feudal style fighting is off game. Doesn't help that I can't field any shield units as the Japanese don't like using them.

I think it's about time I got around to playing this.

I would say so. I just started two new campaigns being the UK and Ottoman Empire. The UK started rough, but once I took France and Spain, their overall empires began to fall apart. Now that I control the whole of the New World, the Mugal are my allies and control all of India (and Iceland somehow) I'm just in a position that no one can really challenge me. Best part is its only turn 170. I just sit and click "end turn" over and over and watch the money grow.

My Ottoman game isn't quite as smooth but is still going well. Tough to start but I had to get used to having poor line infantry options but good melee. So fighting in open fields isn't much good but I'm well sent for attacking forts. PLUS, I get to use the Organ Cannon, which is a cannon with NINE barrels. Can't hit anything but buildings but when it hits it destroys!

[SolkaTruesilver]

Deep, have you sinked your teeth into Shogun 2 yet?

I have, just bought it. The campaign map is lagging for me and i'm not sure at all as to why. However, the battles run very very smoothly... and as of now I fail horribly at them. I'm so used to playing European fashioned Line Infantry battles that my Feudal style fighting is off game. Doesn't help that I can't field any shield units as the Japanese don't like using them.

Indeed. Shogun 2 plays a bit differently. Don't hesitate to mobilise armies of ashigaru if you need be. Properly used, they are a force to reckon with. Having a few key samurai shocktrooper divisions might always be a good idea (Naginata Samurai are the single most non-hero unit of the game. Tough cookies, and they fight very well against both infantry and cavalry).

Also, Cavalry is definetly not what it used to be. Be careful when playing with your General. You ain't in Medieval Europe anymore


(Finally, if you should ever reach a moment when you feel relatively secured, take the time to take control of the various trade nodes around Japan, and stack 10 trade ships on them. Specially the western ones, they might each be worth an income of 3000+ koku/turn) (outside trade will also expose you to Nanban trade)