Be patient till the full version comes out. What's so awesome about it, is that you can pack up your entire civilization and bring it to Rome's doorstep.

Maybe as AI improvement they'll add a harder setting, above very hard, something like uber hard.

horde feature is actualy quite useful...and it will add longevity to the main campaign.

the only way to experience the AI at its best is if you play the game on the hardest difficulty. anything lower then the AI has been restricted

dont knock it till u try it ^.-

Maybe it's designed more for use by the AI?
So that as the Romans for example, you have great waves of barbarians turn up trying to flee from another horde.

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Not really, it just seems to cheat.

hell why wouldnt it be a good feature. just imagine your bored of managing your cities and money is just comming i too slow. you turn your faction into a horde and go rampaging around the map looting and pillaging everything u come across getting crap loads of money.... then to cap it all off you select a already established city (probably Rome) and take that as your capital

another idea would be to forcefully turn enemy factions into a horde and let them rampage through faction you dont want to waste your resources fighting. then bring in your army to mop up whats left

it would be hilariously fun... but can be annoying when u actualy want to destroy a faction

The only way the horde feature is going to work for the germanic tribes is that they are all going to have 1 or 2 cities. The Huns are going to start with nothing but horde armies when the arrive off the steppe (and boy will they be tired and irretable).

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No, that was Medieval.

RTW AI just cheats at VH. It does not improve.

One of the reasons I have so long avoided visiting any RTW related forums is that every time I take a look at one, I'm shocked by how negative people are.

I'm curious as to what "AI cheating" entails. Even if the strategy the AI uses is not more complicated or effective, doesn't mean other things can't be changed.

There are variables in the morale system that make the game more difficult at the higher levels. Something that might break the enemy immediatly at medium won't do anything at very hard.

Variables are available to make the game more difficult. I really would love to see what kind of ass backwards AI we would end up with if it was programmed by a bunch of inexperianced gamers instead of skilled developers.

Just play the game and enjoy it. Once the AI becomes too easy, stop playing. Chances are, you've already gotten your money out of it.

Anyways, as to the actual topic, at least it will add some variety to the game for people who get bored easily. You can start out the game and fight your way accross half the map before even settling down. Sounsd fun to me.

umm, because in vanilla trying to force a migration from carthage to britania was too long and hard. (anyone else try that besides me?)

this will make moving to more lucrative areas easier.

We'll have to find those areas first. They might not be entirely where we expect :-)

A couple of people may have rushed to judgement on the 'suckiness' of hordes. How about giving it a try before declaring it's tosh?

Hordes are an interesting way of simulating the movements of the many tribes and peoples that were going on during the time period. The Huns arrive as a horde, and need to conquer a territory quickly so that they can start developing as a conventional power. This often kicks other factions into horde mode in the process, either because the Huns have moved through and laid waste to their lands or because the Huns have moved in and stayed.

Becoming a horde is something that a player can choose to do when reduced to his last settlement - it's a desperate roll of the dice to take all your people in search of something better. Mostly, though, it's something that's forced on a faction when it flees before an aggressor.

While in horde mode a faction has to fight on a come-as-you-are basis. It can't recruit, can't build, and will only get weaker unless it manages to find another base. If it loses too many of its people - the last settlement's population is converted into troops - it won't have the resources to successfully resettle.

And btw, you'll find that BI is a more brutal game than the original RTW.

In my last campaign as the Romans, I crushed the Gaul, but noticed their faction was still shown as active, i assumed one of their armies must have escaped, took me a couple of turns but i found them in the ocean and attacked their ship without being able to destroy it they went all the way over to Greece, where they then attacked and took a city....

kinda like they took their civilization and moved away from Rome before I killed them all to start fresh.. This was good fun, so i look forward to the horde feature, chasing down a faction all over Europe will be great!

It does sound like it will be quite usefull for the smaller barbarian factions.

I get the feeling from our VIP's comments that CA has pulled out all the stops to make you feel attacked from all sides in this expansion.

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Which is all well and good, except that a lot of players want a different strategy at harder levels.

Personally, I don't find the prospect of having to face an AI which can spawn troops, with my own men quivering cowards as a fun challenge, but rather a frustrating experience.

If the AI used new battles tactics, was more aggressive, and gained more cunning on the campaign map; this is what I would hope to find at harder levels.

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Who exactly do you think those skilled developers once were?

This is exactly the kind of response which takes your argument too far. Why is it we are not allowed to want certain things in a game? Obviously we've bought it, so we clearly like it, but why is it a bad thing to have criticisms?

Without gamers who are constantly wanting better and fresher experiences, and aren't afraid to voice those desires, no game would ever improve.

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See above. Yes, some people are entirely TOO negative, but clearly they still like the game, or else they would not be wanting improvement, they'd be wanting a whole new game.

This is a case specific to one game, obviously. This particular board is smaller and much more polite than most, which is why I like it.

My rant wasn't really aimed at you, since most of the really negative comments can be seen on the official boards.

I think the game is excellent, I thought it was excellent out of the box. It's one of the best games I've ever played. I have a great deal of trouble even understanding some of the complaints I've read.

There is certainly no problem with voicing suggestions. I'm just sick of reading the "AI IS RETARDED" sort of comments.

Anyways, it just seems like the idea of the AI "cheating" is a bit of an oversimplification. If the intent of the programmer is the outcome we see, it isn't really cheating. But I get your point.

And I do love a challenge. For me, though, the challenge in this game is to engage a force twice my size and send them running with almost no casualties. That's challenge enough for me.

Ans it looks like the expansion is intended to be a bit more challenging.

Mike and the other CA staff have said a few time that the game will be more "brutal" this time around. So there should be lots of outnumbered, outgunned battles for me to enjoy.

[This message has been edited by IzmirtheAstarach (edited 08-16-2005 @ 05:49 PM).]

I'm looking forward to the horde feature. I suspect that being able to pack up and move your civiliaztion when surrounded by foes will prove both fun, and interesting.

What I'm hoping for in BI is an experience much like playing patched MTW as the Russians or Polish on Hard or Very Hard.

Sure, you 'might' beat the Mongols, but it's going to be pretty damned challenging, and it actually makes losing fun.

I recall playing as Poland one of my favourite experiences; trying to come up with tactics to beat the superior morale and tactics of the Mongols hordes.

I also wish the Celts had the ability to horde, and I'm a tad vexed that they don't. Hopefully this will be moddable, as the Celts had some of the most well-known cases of civilizations just packing up and moving (e.g. the Helveti).

[This message has been edited by Stormraider (edited 08-16-2005 @ 09:03 PM).]

one of my exploits is I had thousands of troops ready for the Mongols in MTW and when they arived I took their leader down, stopped the battle, and bribed the ENTIRE Mongol army into my faction. It was easy after that

I suppose technically that's not an exploit. Call it "prudent planning".

I'm really wondering what the Celts and the Romano-British are going to contribute, since they're both non-playable. I was pissed to hear that. And then they made it worse by letting me play the them in the demo.

I guess we'll have wait and see.

No faction is really unplayable, grasshopper.

Well, of course not. Had a good chuckle reading some of the newbie posts on the CA forums, wherin people say "where can I get the mod that unlocks them".

Wasn't it like a few days after that someone figured out that it just requires simple text editing?

People knew it was just text editing from the days of M:TW (and quite possibly Shogun).

We shall see if text editing will do. In reading through the answers to all my questions in today's FAQ update, I have doubts.

It sound like the Romano-British won't exist untill coded event triggers create them.

as was mentioned by CA... the game is much more brutal... especialy on harder difficulty.. they have done really great things with the AI.

as for the celts and the romano british not being able to horde....where are they gonna horde to???

CA have pulled out all the stops in BI. me personaly a fan of the series (ever since shogun ^^) love it to bits

i havent disclosed any information so dont sue me!!!