Empire: Total War Chapter 4/5 - Road To Independence



This post has been edited by frags: Dec 18 2008, 03:38 PM

Special Edition...availability here...not sure...
http://www.sega.co.uk/games/?g=563

Breaking News! A polish site has uploaded actual in game footage. Video capture!!! Why read preview about other people playing the game when you can see it for yourself! I'm not sure if CA will force the link down...so watch it as soon as you can.

http://malaysian-gamer.blogspot.com/2008/1...capture-of.html

This post has been edited by frags: Dec 19 2008, 12:13 PM

Faction Feature

Spain

The Spanish have a long been conquerors and colonisers in distant parts. Indeed, the Spanish and Portuguese signed a treaty in 1494 that neatly divided the world between themselves. The Spanish went conquering “for God, Spain and to get rich”. They succeeded, to a great degree, in all three aims.

Spain is a staunchly Catholic country, and the Church and the fearsome Spanish Inquisition still have their hold over men’s hearts. This partly explains why, for all its wealth, Spain is economically backward: the Church sees usury (money lending) as sinful. This may be so, but this lack of credit does not help the merchant classes. Economic growth is also not helped when it is beneath the dignity of any hidalgo gentleman to earn money or work. But a gentleman’s honour is worth defending and a nation’s glory is worth winning, so courage is not in short supply. Indeed, Spain is blessed with courageous men on both land and sea.

That Spain will need defending, and soon, is self-evident to many. Charles II, “El Hechizado” or “the Bewitched” is a feeble-minded and pathetic figure, a shadow of his Hapsburg ancestors, and childless. Spain has suffered from his weakness of mind and government, but Charles cannot live forever. When he dies, what forces will shape the destiny of the Empire? Will Spain once again face its Protestant rivals down? Will new there be a new generation of conquistadores to plant the Spanish flag on distant shores? His successor will have much to ponder, but a brave nation to lead back to greatness!




This post has been edited by frags: Dec 23 2008, 01:46 PM

Statement by Creative Assembly about the leaked footages:
http://malaysian-gamer.blogspot.com/2008/1...atement-on.html

Also an X-Play Hands On Preview Video:
http://malaysian-gamer.blogspot.com/2008/1...r-hands-on.html

More news from a Gamespy preview...apparently CA are mulling releasing downloadable new content. New campaigns etc...like the Alexander campaign for Rome....for a fee.

http://malaysian-gamer.blogspot.com/2008/1...adable-new.html

New Technology Feature


Fougasse

This defensive weapon is a landmine constructed by military engineers and fired by the defenders lighting a fuse.

A fougasse consists of a pit, sometimes dug at an angle, with gunpowder packed into the bottom and suitably wrapped to keep it dry. The hole is then backfilled with rubble and stones, taking care not to break the fuse, creating a huge “canister shot” weapon. Any enemies caught by the explosion are blown to smithereens by the blast. Damp, of course, will cause the fougasse to misfire, like any other gunpowder weapon.

Historically, a later and nastier, refinement used a flintlock mechanism to fire the charge. As well as making the explosion more reliable, this allowed military engineers to turn the fougasse into a booby trap. A piece of twine tied to the trigger acted as a tripwire: an unfortunate booby then stumbled and fired the device into himself and his nearby comrades.

During the 20th Century, the fougasse was refined into a flamethrower by burying oil drums on top of the explosives. And at the time of writing, the fougasse remains in use, as only one of the IEDs (improvised explosive device) used by insurgents against occupying forces in Iraq.

Recommended specs aren't out yet...but as you can see...very low

2009 is the year to become an RTS freak You couldn't have picked a better year...

Faction Feature


Prussia

Prussia itself has only been “German” since the 13th Century, when the Teutonic Knights carved out a new Christian state on the Baltic coast. The present Kingdom of Prussia is a new state, the result of a union between the duchies of Brandenburg and Prussia, and it is a Kingdom only because the current ruler, Elector Frederick III has decided to improve his status to that of King! In doing so, however, he has been careful not to offend the Holy Roman Emperor, the Archduke of Austria, and calls himself the King “in” Prussia, not the King “of” Prussia. The form of words is a fig leaf: Frederick is King. And he is the king of a potentially powerful and influential Protestant nation, a centre of gravity within “the Germanies” for all those who would look elsewhere for a lead than Catholic Austria.

The Prussians believe – not without reason – that their virtues as a people can carry them through any trouble: martial discipline, sacrifice, a sense of order, but this sense of duty should not be confused with ignorance or intolerance, no matter what others may say. Prussians have always had to fight, but that has made them competent, not bloodthirsty. They have the potential to become a great continental power thanks to their martial traditions, many of which can be traced back to the Teutonic Knights. These could form the basis of a truly world-beating army. Under the right guidance, they could unite the German-speaking peoples into a single entity, dominate the Baltic and, perhaps, extend their reach far beyond the confines of Central Europe.



This post has been edited by frags: Jan 8 2009, 02:39 AM

Halo Wars will not be ported to the PC anytime soon. Its Ensemble's LAST game. That means after release they close shop. That would mean Microsoft will have to decided to outsource the port IF they decide they want to port it in the first place...

And you know how Microsoft works...especially if you look at past Halo's.

RIP Ensemble...

Ermmm...

Special Forces Edition Units Revealed

I think the collectors edition is the special forces edition...This info is for the steam download...I'm not sure if the retail version will be priced the same especially when it has the other extras like soundtrack etc...

Servicable...Not great...some of the earlier ones were better(the Shogun and Medieval total war)...The new ones haven't improved AI much...but they claim this one is an overhaul in terms of AI..

Total War games have strong single player campaigns that you can play for a long time. The AI is just a small part of it. It is an empire building game too. Not just straight RTS.

Each new version was an improvement of the previous ones. Of course people will have their own favourite due to the historical time period etc...So I have no doubt Empire will improve the gameplay dynamics of the series.

What feature? You mean gun powder ah? Gun powder was available in Shogun Total War late game as Dutch expeditions set up missions in Japan and introduced Arquebusiers...well not so late game...more like mid game. You couldn't use them at all in rain...which was cool

PS : The expansion pack for Shogun was Mongol Invasion...So Mongols were there in total war games way back. They didn't have the rocket siege equipment...they had some sort of exploding grenade like thing.

EDIT : Historically a mongol invasion never happened...There was historical evidence of it being planned and even wreakages of invasion fleets of the coast of Japan...Some Japanese early writing cited intervention of the divine wind to help them stop that mongol invasions...



Source : http://www.taots.co.uk/content/view/25/30/

This post has been edited by frags: Jan 13 2009, 04:06 PM

Building Feature


European-style tenanted farms

Tenanted farms can only generate so much income from rents. With an increase in town size, and an increased demand from industry for agricultural products, it is more profitable to have herds of animals, not a gaggle of tenants. Meat and wool demand increases rapidly as towns grow. Apart from any other considerations, moving people off land also creates large areas where landowners can indulge a passion for hunting. While this generates little income, it does give social status.

The “Highland Clearances” are probably the most famous example of a forced change to land usage on a large scale. Contrary to popular belief, Highland clan leaders carried out most of the Scottish clearances, driving their own kinsmen and clans into exile. The chieftains needed to pay for the sophisticated life that they could have in Edinburgh and London by reinventing themselves as Scottish gentry. Sheep simply earned more money than the crofters did.

There was only seven different factions. All unlocked of course. The whole Unlocking factions thing started in RTW...If I'm not mistaken. The original MTW had all factions playable...of course there was the minor factions that you couldn't play...like Kingdom of Aragorn etc...

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Added on January 14, 2009, 1:52 pmYeah all yari this or yari that...but some factions had bonuses to particular units...thats about the only thing unique about them other than faction colour.

MTW brought unique units to each faction.

This post has been edited by frags: Jan 14 2009, 01:52 PM

Sorry my bad...its aragon...It was an autonomous Spanish region that rebeled against the Spanish Kings. The region covers current day Zaragoza.

This post has been edited by frags: Jan 14 2009, 03:25 PM