Matrix Games Forums

I am thinking of buying EE, but am wondering what has changed since I played the original.

I played CoG a great deal (I was even a beta tester), and I enjoyed it immensely. At one point I stopped playing because one thing was just nagging the hell out of me; after awhile europe just looked like a patchwork quilt. This is especially true if France would stumble out of the gate. This country would war with that country and after a number of years the map just looked a bit silly.

Another thing was the detailed battle AI. While it was competent to some degree, it lacked overall coordination and therefore could be beaten routinely. Is the detailed battle AI smarter now? If I remember correctly, it was all about piecemeal attacks.

So what is the current state of the game?

The patchwork quilt affect is definitely gone.  With a few small exceptions, you can't take provinces that aren't attached to your current provinces.  Thus you tend to see borders expand in more realistic ways.
 
For the battle AI.  I'm a beta-tester like you were thus know the ends and outs of the AI pretty well.  I do think it is smarter but can't promise you you won't figure it out eventually.  I'll let other people respond more on that point.  Will point out that there is now detailed battle for the naval war.  It adds an entirely new dimension to the game if you use it.

Not having played COG, I suspect you'd find the detail battle AI initially fairly challenging, but decreasingly so as time went on. I learned the engine in FoF, and I got to a point where, playing on mid-high difficulty (Sarge Major in that game) I could pretty much beat the AI in any battle where he did not have me outnumred more than 1.5 to 1. If he DID have me outnumbered by that much or gain surprise or something, then he could still challenge me a lot.
 
I've got rusty, and never have mastered the CoGEE detailed battles to the same degree as FoF so it remains fairly fun when I (rarely these days) play the AI.
 
In sum: don't expect a Kasparov like opponent, but I think if you are reasonable in playing in a 'non-gamey' way, and putting constraints on yourself in detailed battle that reflect historicism, then the AI in detailed battles has a lot of chance to challenge you and give you a lot of fun for a long time.
 
BTW, there is a thread here with ideas for 'self-imposed rules' for how to get the most out of detailed battles against the AI. Will see if I can find it for you . . .

Here ya go, Helping the AI to Challenge you in CoG:EE

EE has a lot of other improvements, additions, and  changes as well.  The advanced economy (the one from COG) has had a face lift and works a little differently, and there are a lot of improvements to strategic play.  Overall, it's a much more historical game.  For example, hoards of Turks no longer appear on the gates of Paris, and there aren't wandering all over the place cossacks anymore.  There are several new scenarios that actually make EE several different games.  The map is larger and much more attractive, and there are many more provinces which regularize movement and make the economy function somewhat differently, especially for Austria, Russia, and Turkey.  The suppy rules have been enhanced and refined, and as Joram says, the detailed naval engagements are quite good.
 
The AI is quite a bit better, I think.  In COG it was very easy to smash the other guy and walk away.  But, with the will to fight rules in HW, the strategic attacker must move quickly and decisively, or he will find himself losing the battle.  The feel of HW seems to be more like a Napoleonic battle than in COG, which, as you say, was a series of unrelated piecemeal affairs.  I find myself preparing flanking maneuvers, movements to the rear of the enemy, etc., far more than I ever did in COG.  Since the ability to capture large numbers of troops in the "rout" phase has been eliminated, the battle results seem much better, too.
 
It's a significant improvement to COG, especially regarding historical faithfulness.  COG is a strategy game set in the period (but could easily have been anywhere, and almost any time, IMO).  EE is a Napoleonic era strategy game.  (Get the subtle difference?)
 
You'll find it very familiar, yet much different.  It's a great game.

Just want to second everything BJM said. It is a really great game, very challenging. I honestly have yet to win! [:D]

Thanks everyone, that does help. It is good to hear the game has improved in many ways and sports many new features. I have almost made a decision.