Vigilant Walrus
Member
I really only enjoy Empire. I'm almost finished with my third campaign with them, where I basically auto-resolved every battle. It's fun solving problems with diplomacy. As I try to stay "trustworthy" and deal with cuntish splinter factions I have to stay sharp and make sure I'm not hypocritical.
In my second playthrough I gave up. I was 15 hours into it, it was going well, I had almost wiped out the Vampire Factions and had 1/3 of the map, and then I made the mistake of signing a peace treaty with a human faction I had squared with once before. As I pressed end turn, I went from having 10 allies to having everyone distrust me and declaring war on me. For being a pacifist.
One thing I miss in this game is that the campaigns starting locations is way to samey. Due to Empires position I always have to befriend the dwarfs and do piece-by-piece as I expand slowly with one army. I wish there was a level of randomization on the map creation everytime you started a new campaign so the conditions would always be fresh.
Secondly, the way I progress through the technology trees and talent trees for my general is becoming way to similar. I think most of generals were built and specced the same way, and that killed their sense of uniqueness I think.
I miss the marriages, the family trees and bloodlins from earlier titles. I think tere is something lost that I cannot get a wrench from Britonnia to marry and bed Karl Franz to make new heirs.
And I think the way your generals just can be put back into the game after dying takes away a bit of the gravity of losing them. I just reign franz in a 20/20 into danger, because I know he is back after 5 turns.
I also miss sieges. Sieges as defending the walls really misses. It would be an excellent addition to the main campaign.
The one mechanic I've not liked since Medieval 2 is the agents / heroes. I hate dealing with them. I think their failure chance and the way you micro manage them from faraway distances as they eat up upkeep per turn makes them a pain in the ass. I also hate how they stay in the top of the pane of my armies. I don't like sending a guy to damage a front gate with 33% succes chance or try and assassinate some general. It feels like a gimmick and something that has outstayed its welcome.
I like the followers your generals can gain, and I think they should be active on the battlefield and have agent/hero functions. Like, keep the agents attached as a part of the armies to keep micro management more fun.
At late game stages when Ihave over 50 provinces there is so much to keep track of its just exhausting micro managing the small stuff.
This is a great game. I was one of those who thought this would be unsatisfying like Rome 2, but I am glad I was wrong. The game is beautiful, it is responsive. I stil think Shogun 2 is the smoothest of all of them, and I still think Medieval 2 / Kingdoms is the most epic, but this has been so much fun. And like Xcom 2, I'm seriously like- Just give me more. Just give me more stuff to make me go back and play the campaigns again. New stuff, and stuff that enhances the core game.
This game is also the one to get into if you're new to the series. The AI is so much easier to deal with. I feel in this one, I just start a battle and then I do things adhoc without pausing. I just go between real time and fast forward and the AI does what I want a lot more than in the other games.
What can I say besides that this is a major achievement for British game development? I was really worried that Rome 2 was going to be the cross CA would decide to sellout on. Glad they didn't.
In my second playthrough I gave up. I was 15 hours into it, it was going well, I had almost wiped out the Vampire Factions and had 1/3 of the map, and then I made the mistake of signing a peace treaty with a human faction I had squared with once before. As I pressed end turn, I went from having 10 allies to having everyone distrust me and declaring war on me. For being a pacifist.
One thing I miss in this game is that the campaigns starting locations is way to samey. Due to Empires position I always have to befriend the dwarfs and do piece-by-piece as I expand slowly with one army. I wish there was a level of randomization on the map creation everytime you started a new campaign so the conditions would always be fresh.
Secondly, the way I progress through the technology trees and talent trees for my general is becoming way to similar. I think most of generals were built and specced the same way, and that killed their sense of uniqueness I think.
I miss the marriages, the family trees and bloodlins from earlier titles. I think tere is something lost that I cannot get a wrench from Britonnia to marry and bed Karl Franz to make new heirs.
And I think the way your generals just can be put back into the game after dying takes away a bit of the gravity of losing them. I just reign franz in a 20/20 into danger, because I know he is back after 5 turns.
I also miss sieges. Sieges as defending the walls really misses. It would be an excellent addition to the main campaign.
The one mechanic I've not liked since Medieval 2 is the agents / heroes. I hate dealing with them. I think their failure chance and the way you micro manage them from faraway distances as they eat up upkeep per turn makes them a pain in the ass. I also hate how they stay in the top of the pane of my armies. I don't like sending a guy to damage a front gate with 33% succes chance or try and assassinate some general. It feels like a gimmick and something that has outstayed its welcome.
I like the followers your generals can gain, and I think they should be active on the battlefield and have agent/hero functions. Like, keep the agents attached as a part of the armies to keep micro management more fun.
At late game stages when Ihave over 50 provinces there is so much to keep track of its just exhausting micro managing the small stuff.
This is a great game. I was one of those who thought this would be unsatisfying like Rome 2, but I am glad I was wrong. The game is beautiful, it is responsive. I stil think Shogun 2 is the smoothest of all of them, and I still think Medieval 2 / Kingdoms is the most epic, but this has been so much fun. And like Xcom 2, I'm seriously like- Just give me more. Just give me more stuff to make me go back and play the campaigns again. New stuff, and stuff that enhances the core game.
This game is also the one to get into if you're new to the series. The AI is so much easier to deal with. I feel in this one, I just start a battle and then I do things adhoc without pausing. I just go between real time and fast forward and the AI does what I want a lot more than in the other games.
What can I say besides that this is a major achievement for British game development? I was really worried that Rome 2 was going to be the cross CA would decide to sellout on. Glad they didn't.
