An Argonaut
Banned
posted 31 May 2008 13:31
EDT (US)
1 / 23
I love MTWI! I'm actually playing it right now (Well, MTW Viking Invasion)
My favorite faction tends to go by period:
Early is definitely Byzantine, with Alexios Komnenos as your awesome faction leader and really good troops you are forced to make advances early. Holding onto Italy, driving into Europe, crushing the heretics in the east! And then your faction slowly descends into trouble as generation after generation becomes more indolent and perverse.
High is France, I love trying to fend off the Muslims in the Holy land, in fact, right now I'm doing a Frnech high campaign where I'm basically focusing only on the Holy Land and not making any advances in Europe.
I like the Germans in Late, going after Mongols, Poles, Hungarians, Italians, Danes and Frenchman in quick succession is quite the rush.
Sicily and Italy are close runner up for every age, as well as the Alomohads and the Egyptions.
I did indeed beat them in Khazar once, but it was a smaller horde than usually comes (in the campaign I'm doing right now, a truly monstrous force came. Thank God I'm not the Russians) The key is lots of spears in the woods.
An Argonaut
Banned
posted 02 June 2008 16:35
EDT (US)
4 / 23
Yea, the Almo Urban Militia along with Muwahid infantry basically dominate anything they come up against.
That being said, what I love about MTWI is seeing my elite armies finally getting trounced when I least expect it, because my general dies or something like that.
I did a Russian campaign this last weekend, High period in Viking Invasion, I basically just did it to withstand the Mongol Invasion.
What I did is occupied all the provinces except Crimea, Ryazan, Volga Bulgaria, and Khazar. Most of my defenses rested on the rivers.
Anyhow, after some twenty years, the death of one of my excellent generals, and the disgrace of another, I had broken Mongolian power and finally destroyed them.
The key is keeping infantry that are good against cavalry in the woods (Armored spears and Halbrediers for the most part) This negates the effect of arrows and really helps you trounce their heavy cavalry.
In one battle, I literally had to stretch my lines from one end of the field to the other in order to finally crush their Horse archers.
Andalus
Legionary
posted 04 June 2008 06:33
EDT (US)
5 / 23
Yes, great to see the old games still played. I still play them from time to time, unfortunately mainly when RTW/M2TW aren't working, or just for nostalgia.
Does anyone still play Shogun? It was probably the best TW game relatively, but it's just so outdated now it's hard to get back into it.
You know, Argonaut, you're right, there was something strangely refreshing about actually being beaten for once.
I remember holding the Mongol armies on the river in Kiev for many years as the Russians, before they were finally so weakened I just marched in right over them. I think I once managed to almost beat the Mongols in Khazar in 1231, I killed about a 1/3, maybe even 1/2 of them, and was about 15 minutes from winning because of the time-limit, but they finally broke me, and my army was defeated. It did make it a lot easier to beat them later though.
The English are a good faction in the early period, they don't have Longbows or Billmen, but they have access to a lot of great regional units. They can recruit cheap, effective troops in Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and once you take Scandinavia, you have the heavy Viking troops. Carls are good as they are beasically the same as Feudal MAAs, but cheaper. I took the entire map before the High period even started as the English once.
I always lamented not being able to play as Novgorod in the early period, access to those Rus Spearmen would have been great, it surprised me that Novgorod always got walked over.
It's strange watching replays from my old battles, and being amazed at the great tactics and strategy used, I suppose I was just a lot more fluent with the controls then, I've got so used to RTW/M2TW controls, I'm nowhere near as good as I was then.
Most memorable moment...hmmm... I'm not sure there is one, just all the great epic battles on a faction's last province. Or when it's just you and another superpower left, the first strike in a long war.
Andalus
Legionary
posted 06 June 2008 11:06
EDT (US)
12 / 23
I think Shogun was by far the better game, that was the first I played, back in the day...
After your comment, Jax, I decided to throw myself back into Shogun with a will last night, and, playing a Uesugi Campaign on expert, found it a great change. Yes, still perfectly playable, everybody.
An Argonaut
Banned
posted 06 June 2008 16:04
EDT (US)
14 / 23
I always do Hard for MTWI, mostly because I don't remember how much they stunt you in Very Hard.
Has anyone tried any of the Ancient Total War modifications off of MTW? Any good?
Pike and Musket Total War is pretty impressive, especially playing as the Swedes and getting their sweet troops.
An Argonaut
Banned
posted 14 June 2008 17:37
EDT (US)
18 / 23
It did and it didn't. To be honest, I think one of the best parts of the 2D map is that it makes rebellions and such far more realistic. Like when the peasants revolt you fight a battle, instead of simply having your troops evicted.
The AI certainly does think, and they always take up good positions. I've seen them form up a bunch of cavalry units into a column to march on a road that cut through a forest, so that they wouldn't find themselves hampered by the trees.
edebosdari
Legionary
posted 10 August 2008 09:37
EDT (US)
19 / 23
Ahh, to be sure, Shogun's AI had an agressive slant that seemed to be diluted by Rome. Even in BI (btw I only play on max difficulty - a childhood status thing that never left me), the hordes were like big blunding cows that swerved into traps and were easily outmanouvered. Shogun's denser map gave less room to move and so made cunning strategy far more important. As for the battles, the computer had a certain togetherness in Shogun. I almost always found it laughably easy to divide and conquer units in Rome, especially when they were defending in an open battle.
I doubt that i'll get an Empire ready computer until some time after it comes out, so i'll probably still be playing a spot of the old Shogun when Empire 2 is on the cards......