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#4419009 - 05/03/18 10:11 PM TW Saga: Thrones of Britannia  
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saghen Offline
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Thrones of Britannia got released today. Who's got it?

How do you like it? I was eyeing the pre-order, but held off. I've barely played Rome 2 and Attila and want to play that some more first.

Early impressions/battle screenshots?

Inline advert (2nd and 3rd post)

#4419086 - 05/04/18 12:58 PM Re: TW Saga: Thrones of Britannia [Re: saghen]  
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PanzerMeyer Online centaurian
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PanzerMeyer  Online Centaurian
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I pre-ordered it and played about 3 hours of it yesterday.


I really like it a lot but be prepared to learn a lot of new things. There are several major game-play changes compared to Rome 2 and Attila.


How come you've barely touched Rome 2 and Attila? If that's the case then hold off on Britannia. Why have another TW title gathering dust so to speak?


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4419135 - 05/04/18 05:16 PM Re: TW Saga: Thrones of Britannia [Re: saghen]  
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I've put in about 4 hours so far, but haven't gone very far in the game because I was pretty much stumbling around trying to learn all the differences of how to play between Thrones and the previous Attila. I've restarted a Wessex campaign as Alfred several times after watching some "let's play" Youtube video just to pick up on some strategic features, I had overlooked.


The game appears to run a bit smoother on my system and the UI is quite attractive and polished. However, I agree with Panzer that if you've hardly played the previous two games, it might be a waste of money right now to get Britannia.

The only thing I miss so far are agents. The've been part and parcel in every TW game to date in one form or another and I've come to rely on them as part of the game play--as much for simple counter intelligence as their offensive capabilities.

Some people complain about them, but it's just like any other game feature, one learns how to best use theirs and contend with those used by the A.I. I hope their removal is not permanent.

Cheers


Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.
#4419141 - 05/04/18 05:36 PM Re: TW Saga: Thrones of Britannia [Re: saghen]  
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PanzerMeyer Online centaurian
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PanzerMeyer  Online Centaurian
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Honestly I really don't miss the agents too much especially since I feel that the agents in Rome 2 were far too effective at stopping entire armies dead in their tracks. The agents in Attila though were significantly scaled back in effectiveness which was nice.


It took me a while to realize that the entire trade system between factions has been totally changed in Brittania. I kept wondering why I couldn't see the TRADE option when I would initiate diplomacy with a another faction. DOH!

I also noticed that the "forced march"/extended march stance for armies is no longer available. You now just have the raiding and fortify stances.

A few more changes and features I noticed:


To recruit units your army must be inside a settlement or it has to be in fortify stance.

Make sure to assign estates to all of your nobles or their loyalty will drop a LOT. I learned this lesson the hard way after one of my nobles rebelled and then I had to wipe him and his army out.

Be wary of constant Viking armies that come in from the sea to attack settlements. Don't ignore your coastlines!

Your army capacity is no longer based on imperium but is now based on your food supply and how many settlements you have. You can exceed the unit limit but you get severe public order and food penalties.


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4419442 - 05/07/18 10:35 AM Re: TW Saga: Thrones of Britannia [Re: saghen]  
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PanzerMeyer Online centaurian
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PanzerMeyer  Online Centaurian
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I finished my first campaign as Alfred (West Seaxe) and I have to say that I really enjoy the new campaign mechanics. Those dastardly Normans tried to land several invasion fleets on my southern shore late in the campaign but they were pushed back out into the sea after 5 turns or so.


Last edited by PanzerMeyer; 05/07/18 10:35 AM.

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4419481 - 05/07/18 05:12 PM Re: TW Saga: Thrones of Britannia [Re: saghen]  
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Forward Observer Offline
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Forward Observer  Offline
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I finished the short campaign requirements Saturday morning, but had to take a break due to some other priorities for the weekend. I'll be working on finishing up the long campaign today. One of my vassals rebelled in the extreme Southwestern corner of the island, so it's taken me a year and a half to move an army down there. I'm not sure removing the "forced march" stance was such a good idea. Overall though, I still enjoyed the game also and can appreciate the experiments they are trying to give the strategic game play a new feel. However, I still miss my agents.

I kind of like the new tech tree system, but it has it's disadvantages too. I like to build my armies with a couple of siege engines as soon as possible. With this game, one has to complete 5 walled siege assaults before the siege tech branch is even unlocked and then it's another 20 turns just to unlock the recruitment of a catapult plus doing so at the exclusion of any other tech research.

I'm 75 turns in and have already met the short campaign requirements, but am at least 16 turns away from being able to recruit a catapult. Since there are other equally important techs to research, most likely I will compete the long campaign requirement having never unlocked the catapults. That makes no sense to me. Usually someone mods the tech tree times, but that tends to have the effect of making the game a bit too easy, so it's damned if you do--damned if you don't.

I also spotted a bug. On the province details page for each province, there is a tick box that can be un-checked to allow one to suspend taxes for that particular province. It comes in handy to temporarily manage public order for a recently conquered province. Unfortunately, it's not working.

Un-checking it stops any income, but it has no effect on public order, which is the only reason to have such an option in the first place. I did report it in the bug section of the official forum, but I found it surprising that the game's been out for four days now and nobody else had reported it. I can't believe I'm the only one who makes use of that tool. It's been in every TW game starting with Empire--since that was the first TW game to have a tax rate that could only be set on a national level.

I guess I'll play another faction or two to see how they play out. The beauty of most of the TW games, for me, is that even if the particular game is not my favorite, I still get in enough hours on each release to get my money's worth.

Cheers


Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.
#4419483 - 05/07/18 05:20 PM Re: TW Saga: Thrones of Britannia [Re: saghen]  
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PanzerMeyer Online centaurian
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PanzerMeyer  Online Centaurian
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I totally agree with you on the catapult unlocking issue. I didn't recruit my first catapult unit until well after I had gotten a short campaign victory and just a few turns before I met one of the long campaign victory objectives! There was actually one civil tech branch that I never touched because I never met the requirements for unlocking the first tech in the branch.


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4419521 - 05/07/18 10:55 PM Re: TW Saga: Thrones of Britannia [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Originally Posted by PanzerMeyer
I totally agree with you on the catapult unlocking issue. I didn't recruit my first catapult unit until well after I had gotten a short campaign victory and just a few turns before I met one of the long campaign victory objectives! There was actually one civil tech branch that I never touched because I never met the requirements for unlocking the first tech in the branch.


If you are talking about the one tech branch called the "community" which can only be unlocked after completing the monastery chain, I read on one of the forums that the only monasteries are in Ireland, so unless one starts as one of the Irish factions, they have little chance of unlocking that tech branch until they invade Ireland.

The other hard one is a military tech branch called "recruitment" which is only unlocked by acquiring the last tech in the sword melee tech branch.

One thing I overlooked in the game was that there was one building in one of my provinces early on called a court school. I built the level one version and forgot about it. It turns out that level 2 and 3 give increasing percentages of tech research up to an extra 30% plus a healthy dose of corruption reduction.

Oh, well at least I guess next campaign, I'll know about some of this stuff.

Cheers


Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.
#4419553 - 05/08/18 10:48 AM Re: TW Saga: Thrones of Britannia [Re: Forward Observer]  
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PanzerMeyer Online centaurian
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PanzerMeyer  Online Centaurian
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Originally Posted by Forward Observer

If you are talking about the one tech branch called the "community" which can only be unlocked after completing the monastery chain, I read on one of the forums that the only monasteries are in Ireland, so unless one starts as one of the Irish factions, they have little chance of unlocking that tech branch until they invade Ireland.



Cheers



Yes, that's the one! I had no clue that it is only available to the Irish factions at the start of the campaign. I noticed that research branch has some really good research bonus technologies and it would have been nice to have them! I'm used to having my research rates in the 250% or more range. smile


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4420135 - 05/10/18 10:05 PM Re: TW Saga: Thrones of Britannia [Re: saghen]  
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VMIalpha454 Offline
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VMIalpha454  Offline
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I am excited to give this a try...


"I have only two men out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold."
1stLt. Clifton B. Cates, USMC
in Belleau Wood, 19 July 1918
#4420191 - 05/11/18 10:53 AM Re: TW Saga: Thrones of Britannia [Re: VMIalpha454]  
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PanzerMeyer Online centaurian
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PanzerMeyer  Online Centaurian
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Originally Posted by VMIalpha454
I am excited to give this a try...



If you liked the "Age of Charlemagne" DLC for Attila you will love Britannia.


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4420351 - 05/12/18 06:49 AM Re: TW Saga: Thrones of Britannia [Re: saghen]  
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Forward Observer  Offline
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Finally achieved all the long campaign goals for Wessex, but lacked a few settlements getting all of the Scotland. I'm told there's a monastery somewhere up there in addition to Ireland.

Anyway, I moved on to a Mercia campaign which has a normal start as opposed to the easy start for Wessex. it was significantly harder to get started.

Lot's of settlements and two armies--one only 4 units and the other 6. Unfriendly factions to the east, west, and north with only Wessex to cozy up to on the south. Maybe 10 or 15 turns in, the two main Welsh factions declare war on me. I'm at turn 40 or so now and have eliminated both warring factions, so I've added a lot territory, I'm still 2nd fiddle to Wessex, but will eventually have to break relations and take them on--I think.

I haven't found anything yet to give me a bonus to my tech research, so I'm stuck at 4 turns per tech. However, I did get my 5 required siege assaults much quicker to unlock the siege tech branch.

I noticed by the end of my Wessex campaign that Alfred's unit card showed him aging and when I checked him out in a battle, sure enough his once all black beard was now peppered with gray. That's a neat little touch.

Young Alfred
[Linked Image]

Older Alfred
[Linked Image]

Cheers


Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.
#4420452 - 05/12/18 10:42 PM Re: TW Saga: Thrones of Britannia [Re: saghen]  
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VMIalpha454 Offline
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VMIalpha454  Offline
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Cool update, FO. Man, it is hard to believe the graphics are so good in TW titles now. I remember thinking how good Rome I was...but it was primitive compared to this. Now the graphics could pass for a first person perspective. Incredible.


"I have only two men out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold."
1stLt. Clifton B. Cates, USMC
in Belleau Wood, 19 July 1918
#4420552 - 05/13/18 03:04 PM Re: TW Saga: Thrones of Britannia [Re: saghen]  
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PanzerMeyer Online centaurian
Pro-Consul of Florida
PanzerMeyer  Online Centaurian
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King Crimson - SimHQ's Top Poster

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Miami, FL USA
Those are stunning screenshots. How do you get rid of the UI?


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4420580 - 05/13/18 07:46 PM Re: TW Saga: Thrones of Britannia [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Forward Observer  Offline
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Originally Posted by PanzerMeyer
Those are stunning screenshots. How do you get rid of the UI?


Thanks. Just hit the 'K' key. It turns the UI off and on. It works both for battles and for viewing battle replays if you have saved any. It has been in the game since Shogun II. With as good as graphics are now, I wish all games came with this feature.

By the way, the shield that Alfred is carrying is copied after the replica of the famous Sutton Hoo shield. Sutton Hoo in England is the site of one of the most complete Anglo Saxon burial sites ever discovered. The Sutton Hoo helmet is the more well known and CA used it for the Saxon faction in the Charlemagne
DLC for Attila. The shield is a reconstruction from gold artifacts found at the burial site. They assume that such a shield adorned with gold would have only been used by royalty.

Here's a picture of the reconstructed shield and original helmet at the British museum

http://www.britishmuseum.org/visiting/galleries/europe/room_41_europe_ad_300-1100.aspx

Here's the wiki entry that gives an overview of the burial site and all that was found there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton_Hoo

Cheers



Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.
#4420681 - 05/14/18 12:42 PM Re: TW Saga: Thrones of Britannia [Re: saghen]  
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 121,390
PanzerMeyer Online centaurian
Pro-Consul of Florida
PanzerMeyer  Online Centaurian
Pro-Consul of Florida
King Crimson - SimHQ's Top Poster

Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 121,390
Miami, FL USA
Thanks for that info FO! I can't believe I didn't know that after putting in so many hundreds of hours into the TW titles. biggrin

I'm currently playing as Sundreyar and man, it's a tough start. It's tough not because I'm fighting too many factions but because you start off with a tiny economy so it has taken me a while to generate enough food and wealth to support a full stack army.

Last edited by PanzerMeyer; 05/14/18 12:42 PM.

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”

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