Observations after playing the tutorial

[Janh]

Looks promising what Norb & Team have achieved. I really am impressed by the courier system, and I find it a nice requirement to integrate this as well as HITS at higher difficulty levels.

But I have also some suggestions, of course I do. Free in the spirit of Lee ordering Hood Texans forward, I would despite the need to use the courier system be able to order and move units in my direct vicinity myself.

First, having no sign on the minimap at historic difficulty level is nice, but now I would like to be able to scribble some own notes and markings on there... that would be really cool!

It also would be really nice if you could order units and formations to certain spots/coordinates on the map (or alternatively "50, 100, 150... yards south of X) rather than only "named locations". As mentioned in the forum earlier, I concur that being able to select and path units on the minimap, and a zoom feature would really bring the HITS & courier concept to fruition.
I image from my TC2M experience with scenarios of corps or army level (especially open play), the combination of an imperfect AI (the attack vs. hold issue, lack of artillery positing itself well etc) and HITS is a pain as you would have to micromanage these large formations when they come onto the map first.

But it seems AI has received better brains this time (how much of that scenario is fixed scripting, how much dynamic AI?). From my quick try I cannot quite gather it, but some posts here would support that assumption. However, others bring up memories of TC2M, so I guess when we get to play larger scenarios and sandbox ourselves, we can test the AI down to its heart.

One issue I have observed though I only tested briefly... suicidal enemy commanders...
And one question: Do routed units now disappear magically again as they did in TC2M, or do they stay at some safeplace/edge of map etc with a chance of long-term rally?

[kich20]

First, thanks to Norb and the rest of the team! The brigade tutorial ran flawlessly, and I especially loved the "flank left/right" commands, which removed a HUGE TC2M tactical headache.

Here's an observation, though: when redeploying my brigade to form a new line, I noticed that most individual regiments don't column march to the new location (same as TC2M), meaning that I have to manually command them.

Is there some way to get individual regiments to redeploy quickly without having to manually change their en-route formation? Thanks!

[IronBMike]

Game looks great! Haven't gotten into mp yet but I'll do so in a bit. My only issues with it so far are:

- The sound quirks, like other people have mentioned
- Units running. Or, the animation of units running. They don't really bounce up and down like in TC2M. Something just doesn't look right/natural about the sprites when they're running.

But other than that, it's a a blast.

[uxbridge]

Having played the tutorial briefly, my first impressions are that this is a worthy successor to SMG, and looks as though it could be one of the finest games of its type. The scenery is superb, and the manual is beautifully presented and full of useful info.

Only one tiny little gripe - Please could we have the first tutorial available? I found it hard going to start commanding a brigade in combat. I need time training with my regiments on basic drill first.

[RDBoles]

Wow! What an experience! I played twice and fumbled my way through to win both times. Handling the new controls was a bit clumsey at first but once you get used to them it goes alot better. The scenery is most excellent, The best yet and far exceeds what I imagined it would be. The troop movements are great and respond well. Even when I gave bad orders and directions, it seemed like a real person turned around and said. Well which is it go forward or turn right? :laugh :cheer:
Richard:

[RDBoles]

Got to go to Church now and then dinner at some friends house after So after I get the kids down I'll be back!!!!

[CPHarrison]

First off, thanks to the entire developememt team. Great job. My only regret is that we didn't have this a year ago, but now that we do have it it is fantastic.

While you are collecting up bugs to look at. It has happened on several occations, especially during battles, where I would tell a unit to move and it would form up and move in the opposit direction. I would dirict the unit to go again and on the second attemp it would move to where I wanted it. The moves didn't have to be far moves. A couple time it would happen it I moved a few yards forward. I did not notice this bug if I advanced, but the advance doesn't work if I am not under fire at that moment. It only appears to happem if I move in a line fomations, so far.

Hope to get a chance to purchase it tonight and try out the full game.

[Silver Fox]

What can i say. well played Norb and the team......great stuff.

Love the topography the terrain and whole character and artwork has a real rangy feel best put as "big sky country"..wonderful mate

Love the rat tat tat tat of the musketry and heavier cannon.

Love the dirt tracks of the main drag..real country feel, and looking across the moorland type hardcore is IMO precise, if it where Cornwall bang on, stone walling, stone housing excellent.

Played through a few battles on the tutorial and maneuvered a highly successful pincer movement against the rebel artillery and troop with the 76th NY 84th NY 95th NY and 7th Indiana...so successful what looked like hundreds if not thousands just raised the white flag

Most Most of all there is a real crafted hand made feel to this and that for me says lots of care and attention has been given.

Not going into bugs or stuff, not going there, leave that in your capable hands as your eye is definitely in on this.

Cheers mate.

[Nikolaj]

Having just played the demo, I can say that I'm very satisfied with how it turned out.

However, I was somewhat confused about what I was supposed to do, most of the time. After defeating the first two regiments, I was told to move to the left of the the friendly artillery position (I can't recall the name of the commander) and face south. Shortly afterwards I was told to not engage the enemy, but at that point I was in a full battle with the brigade positioned between my starting position and the artillery position.

By the time that was over the rebels were advancing on the artillery position, so I hurried my guys over there to help out. I pushed the rebels back towards their artillery, and suddenly the battle ended with a major victory.

I've played 2nd Manassas, so I'm used to the confusion, but I can't help but feel that there wasn't much tutorial about the tutorial. I also suspect that I did something I wasn't supposed to, since I received no more messages after the one that told me to not engage the enemy.

Still, I had a lot of fun, and I can't wait to try out the full version. Good job!

[Taiaha]

Posted a few observations based on the demo in the bug reporting forum. Just a couple of other observations that aren't related to glitches.

Really love the look of the battlefield, it is very immersive. The only exception to this was the stream running through Devil's Den. I've been to the battlefield many times but I'd completely forgotten that there is a stream there. As a result, I spent some time wondering why some of my men were standing thigh deep in a road. Now I'm guessing the intent here was to make the stream appear brackish in the way that it may have looked at the height of summer. However it basically looks just like the roads. Not a game-breaker, obviously, but maybe something for a future patch or for modders?

I like some aspects of the UI a lot. The morale and fatigue display is great, as is having easy access to information on how much ammo the men have, etc. But I'm not a fan of the overall look. It doesn't have that "historical" feel of the TC2M interface. It seems overly modern and utilitarian to me. The new commands are great, however.

OK, back to playing. . .