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[Mr Gump]

In multiplayer games is there any base building? Managing your economy? My friend told me there wasnt and this would turn me off the game completely as i play these games for multiplayer only. Is my friend full of shit?

P.S I have never played a total war game.

 

[teepo]

none.

 

[Mr Gump]

Ugh, that sucks. A lot.

How are multiplayer games even supposed to be fun then?

 

[Mrbob]

http://www.3dgamers.com/news/more/1093247079/

 

[Mr Gump]

The demo i have tried. Single player campaigns dont give you the options of base building like in a multiplayer game. Starting with an army in that demo, i just assumed that was how the campaign level played out.

 

[xabre]

No idea.

 

[B-B-Bomba!]

I don't really know, having only played Medieval, and that only single-player. The Total War games aren't RTS' in the traditional C+C sense of real-time battlefield resource management, beyond directing the troops you start with around the place, or calling for such reinforcements as you might have available. You don't mine things, or seek ways to create units on the spot - you get what you take with you, but in single-player that definitely depends upon your own choices.

At least 50% of the game takes place off the battlefield, and I'd be surprised if the only multiplayer options available in Rome were to challenge one another in pre-defined battle scenarios. The turn-based nature of the back-end - the global strategy end of the game -might not be ideally suited to net-play ... but on the other hand it might! - and could easily be done.

In this back-end mode, the bases you build are your countries: they define the shape and nature of your empire, as well as what resources you have available to fund and defend it. When a region is attacked, or when you go on the offensive, you take those resources into battle. So management does come into things in this regard.

Sorry if this explanation isn't particularly clear, and as I say I'm afraid I have no idea how this translates into multiplayer. All I can say is I'd be surprised if half the game was missing. What I must stress is the sheer brilliance of the battlefield tactics! When you move on from the phase of either winning by sheer numbers, or losing by plain stupidity, there is real joy to be had in planning and executing a successful strategy. Getting to grips with shih and hsing, even in the crude digital form of Medieval Total War, is something RTS fan are born to enjoy. Sadly, getting to grips with the controls of your perspective is a battle in itself ...

Why not pick up Medieval for cheap, see how you go?

 

[Sinatar]

The fun comes from out strategizing your opponent. Not out producing, not having a better build order, but from purely being smarter and more skilled at controlling your troops then your opponent is.

 

[xabre]

Unfortunately the multiplayer is pretty fucked up right now as it keeps crashing to desktop upon launch but I did manage to have a few good battles last night.

One that I ultimately got brutalised in started out interestingly enough, the guy immediately brought his cavalry around to my right flank, I moved my cav over in that direction to guard against this and also brought my onagers forward to target his troops. This lead to two things, one is he brought his onagers forward which I took out with mine, and then he charged my onagers with his cav which I largely killed with archer fire. He then brought his archers forward which I ran down with my cav and then a stand off ensured. Up to this point I'd been edging my main force forward (about six units of legionary), but my opponent had slightly retreated to an area with a few trees which was due to my onager fire. He had set his units up in a smart formation, about six units of spearmen in phalanx formation with his last remaining unit of archers directly behind and remaining cav off to their left flank.

There's no way I could break through this formation with my legionaries, they'd be mincemeat as soon as they hit the enemy formation. So since my onagers had just ran out of ammo and my archers were way out of range I figured I'd try and draw his troops out, I sent my cav charging forward to entice him to break his lines and move forward to engage them but that turned out to be a big mistake. His archers decimating my cav which barely limped home and since the guy was quite content to hold back and make me come to him I had little choice but to send my legionaries forward. As I was pushing forward I began to come in range of his archers so I switched my legionaries to testudo formation to protect from archer fire and sent my few remaining cav all the way around to the rear of his army. I charged his archers to which he brought around his remaining cav to defend and due to a combination of an enemy cav charge and a rain of arrows my cav got practically wiped out and routed. Knowing it was pretty hopeless at this point I moved my legionaries all the way forward, right to within a few meters of the enemy lines of spearmen. Still he did not break formation and brought his remaining cavalry to the rear of my legionaries and as soon as I did charge my poor troops got smashed to bits when they hit his wall of spearmen as well as the crushing cav charge from the rear.

So that's what makes this game so good, positioning, formations and tactics. This isn't a shitty AOE clone twitch fest RTS, it's a deep and completely rewarding strategy game.