**EMPIRE TOTAL WAR**

Ive conquered the world and had to endure countless CTDs. Im now playing through again on the hardest settings. Since starting a new campaign after the patches came out, it seems a whole lot smoother and im getting far few crashes.

Yep same experience here, won a grand campaign as Sweden that was terrible in terms of stability and have now just completed Road to Independence with only 1 crash that did not occur when i reloaded, compared to the other crashes that happened on every single reload.
 
any1 care to explain how u play this game?i dont wanna call it **** cuz its most likely ont. i just dont understand it 1 single bit.
 
any1 care to explain how u play this game?i dont wanna call it **** cuz its most likely ont. i just dont understand it 1 single bit.

What about it dont you understand?

Its kind of an involved game to try explaining it all here, but perhaps if you give us a few specifics on aspects that you dont understand we can explain them.

Essentially it has a turn based component which is a little bit like Civilization and then a realtime battle component when fighting.
 
im gonna give it up, i have no experience in any of these games.
Give it a chance!

Have you tried playing the Road to Independence? That's a good way to learn the basics of the game.

Basically, it's split into two parts. The campaign map, where you controls your armies and non-military units and the battle map, where you fight against the enemy.

Which part is confusing you?
 
love a strategy game, i know what your saying but its so hard to understand .

Which bits do you need help with? Think of the campaign section of the game as Civilization, play it pretty much as you would the Civ games, buy buildings for your towns, buy units for your armies. Then think of the battle sections as a bit like a realtime strategy game, move your units about , shoot at the enemy, perform flanking moves etc.

Thats pretty much the basics, theres more to it of course, but it depends which things you are finding hard to understand.
 
I was blown aback too when I first entered the campaign map, and I've played the others TWs :| Just give it some more time and try to understand it. Just click on things and see what happens... cos you can't get a refund.
 
Also as Luw says try the Road to Independance campaign, it introduces some of the game concepts to you nicely, and for the battles do the battle tutorials as they will help you understand how to move and order your units. Dont jump straight into one of the grand campaigns, especially if you havent played a total war game before, otherwise you will indeed be overwhelmed.
 
Finally got round to installing, but haven't managed to play it yet but my brother has and lots good. And yeah i went through the demo tutorials and then is working on the Road to Independence campaign but does look awesome.
 
how do i build stuff?

Just click on the town and you will see the buildings in the central window at the bottom. Click on the building to build it (providing you have enough money and the required technology (which is indicated by a little symbol in the corner of the building image), it will take x number of turns to complete building.

To build new military units, just click on the recruitment tab on the town and click on the unit to build (providing you have enough money)

This might help as well, its a fairly decent guide to the game - http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/48849/t/Spraetter-39-s-Guide-to-Empire-Total-War.html
 
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loving this game :D, especially with the mods mentioned earlier, i began playing it vanilla for about 3 years (12 turns) before getting a bit bored and thinking it wasn't what i thought it would be, but whack the mods on and it's just about perfect!
 
Played more at the weekend, and one thing that is seriously annoying me is not being able to tell how powerfull an army (or how shot to pieces) is on campaign map as the bar next to the flag represents number of units.

Also, what the hell is with re-inforcements in battle? The entrance of the enemy and your own re-inforcements bears no resemblance to their starting positions on the campaign map pre-battle. Its not right their second army coming in from behind your position, when on the campaign map it is 2 v 2 armies meeting from north/south in the small passes of the Spannish/French Pyrenees! Like, seriously!
 
Also, what the hell is with re-inforcements in battle? The entrance of the enemy and your own re-inforcements bears no resemblance to their starting positions on the campaign map pre-battle. Its not right their second army coming in from behind your position, when on the campaign map it is 2 v 2 armies meeting from north/south in the small passes of the Spannish/French Pyrenees! Like, seriously!

I know exactly what you mean! That really messes the battle up. Or the re-enforcements for your army come in right behind the enemy lines and because each group of units comes out one at a time they get picked of by the entire enemy army.

I have also noticed that sometimes, enemy units are hidden? They would be on the screen one second and when you go back to where you think they were they are gone, and then if you check back they are there again. I didnt know whether that was a bug or part of the game. The units are not in trees they are in the middle of the field!

I have added the mods and seems more realistic and harder than my previous games. Which i had to stop because of CTD's. Early on they seem fine but get past turn 180 (roughly) and thats it.
 
Enemy units can hide yes, depending on the unit type. Ie, when you see the little green icon with crouching men in your units avatar then that means they are hidden in deap brush or trees (daft in redcoats if you ask me). Likewise for the enemy.

What you may notice is approaching an enemy position at start of battle, more pop up infront or along side out of no where. Only way to prevent the 'suprise' is pay attention at the start to see how many units you are facing, if there is only half on the battle map then you know some are hidden.

Also, when you line up against the enemy (face off) you may sometimes actually notice their unit(s) dissapear in and out of your view - the AI has moved it to a slightly grassier possition, however you can train your artillery on that piece of ground (just aim and click) and as shots start to rain down this disrupts the enemy and the unit should become visible again.

Or run cav along their lines, or up infront of your advancing troops and they shouldn't be that much of a suprise!

;)
 
Played more at the weekend, and one thing that is seriously annoying me is not being able to tell how powerfull an army (or how shot to pieces) is on campaign map as the bar next to the flag represents number of units.

Also, what the hell is with re-inforcements in battle? The entrance of the enemy and your own re-inforcements bears no resemblance to their starting positions on the campaign map pre-battle. Its not right their second army coming in from behind your position, when on the campaign map it is 2 v 2 armies meeting from north/south in the small passes of the Spannish/French Pyrenees! Like, seriously!

I know exactly what you mean I had 1000 men vs an oncoming assault of 800 which I promptly dispatched only to be faced by a 2800 strong reinforcement force coming up from behind me. Needless to say I taught them a lesson only losing 600 men =D.

On a side note I have yet to experience a single crash =/
 
I know exactly what you mean I had 1000 men vs an oncoming assault of 800 which I promptly dispatched only to be faced by a 2800 strong reinforcement force coming up from behind me. Needless to say I taught them a lesson only losing 600 men =D.

On a side note I have yet to experience a single crash =/

Found this in a thread in TWC....

"I presume this will not end up in the rants section as its about game play.

Incorrect deployment and its affect on game play.

The players ability to manoeuvre their armies on the campaign map is restricted by the ability of the AI to intercept those armies, the reverse is obviously true for the player. This should have a positive impact on game play and help the AI engage the players forces at critical moments in the game. However there are problems.

The tactical maps that are being generated during interceptions are deploying forces in reversed positions and for settlements the map that is generating is the city type map.
An interception by the AI from a fortified settlement is particularly damaging for the AI because it generates a map with the AI deployed within a fort. This means the AI must first exit the fort to engage the players army.

Interceptions with reinforcements create situations where the reinforcements enter the battle from behind the player. This again is caused by the game generating a tactical map with the initial forces deployed in reversed positions and the reinforcements entering the battle correctly.
Once the player is aware of this mechanic they can exploit this to defeat the AI.
Just to illustrate the bizarre nature of this, if you wish to have your reinforcements enter the tactical map on the same side as your first army you will need to have your reinforcements behind the AI on the campaign map.

Making the campaign map irrelevant. If the player deploys an army on a bridge and they are engaged by a single army the map that is generated appears to be correct and the AI will need to cross that river. However if the AI has reinforcements you will find that those reinforcements will enter from behind your army.
They have not crossed the river somewhere else what has happened is that your army had always been deployed incorrectly on the wrong side of the river but you will only notice this when the AI has reinforcements. If you wish to exploit this as a player simply approach an AI army on a bridge with two armies, your reinforcements will then enter the battle behind the AI.

I consider this to be a serious issue and needs to be fixed as a priority it may be a simple problem with the deployment instructions so hopefully CA have done this already. "

So while annoying, I may try the bridge 'idea' until it is fixed :p
 
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