Matrix Games Forums

I am interested in buying this game and hve been looking on Youtube for videos of tactical battles from this game.

All I cold find are "lets play' videos that don't show tactical battles or 1 minute snippets from trailers.

Can anyone point me to a video or two or if possible maybe upload one? Pretty please [;)]

I would but i don't know how to make a video for free.

Thanks man. How do you find the combat? Is it too messy? Which game would you compare it with?

The whole way the TBS/RTS mix is set up reminds me a lot of the original Medieval: Total War. While that's generally a good thing, I think the clunkiness of the battles is another thing they have in common.

Actually, i think it looks fairly like the battles in MOO2 but in real-time. You can change the view but it's easier to control the battle from above. Battles don't last very long (around 3 minutes). The game allows you also to play battles only if you wish so (i am very bad at it or the AI is too good). An interesting aspect is that you control also the ground invasion at the same time...space marines can take out important defense systems located on the planet.

Battles is indeed not the greatest aspect of the game but i have yet to master it.


This trailer has a lot of actual view from the battle screens...
original trailer

Actually i've found a battle video but it wasn't in english. He's pausing the game a lot though:

Turn off the sound as it doesn't add anything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-SiqczJM6U

Thanks. The battle looks a bit messy .

Can you flank during the battles? What kind of tactics can you use? Is it a case of just have a huge number of ships and just send them at the enemies?

ORIGINAL: HectorOfTroy

Thanks. The battle looks a bit messy .

Can you flank during the battles? What kind of tactics can you use? Is it a case of just have a huge number of ships and just send them at the enemies?

There's a lot of tactics involved as far as which ships should attack which other kinds of ships. There's not much room for slick flanking actions or anything like that, but you will get your butt whipped by the battle AI until you figure out how the different match-ups are supposed to work.

Cool. Do you have an option to set up your own fleet formations prior to battle?
Eg. put light ships up front to harass and draw fire and torpedo and long-range cannon ships in the front. Or maybe large, well-shielded ships in the front and long range in the back, etc, etc.

And do these formations make a difference?

ORIGINAL: HectorOfTroy

Cool. Do you have an option to set up your own fleet formations prior to battle?
Eg. put light ships up front to harass and draw fire and torpedo and long-range cannon ships in the front. Or maybe large, well-shielded ships in the front and long range in the back, etc, etc.

And do these formations make a difference?

They can make a difference. Depends on your style of play. Having the right composition is way more imoportant than having the right twitch skills. But knowing which ships should attack which other ships is pretty important.

But yeah, you set up the formations similar to like in the Total War games. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say the entire game engine was lifted from one of the Total War games. The lead designer was part of Medieval, or Medieval II I forget which.

ORIGINAL: Gelatinous Cube
But yeah, you set up the formations similar to like in the Total War games. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say the entire game engine was lifted from one of the Total War games. The lead designer was part of Medieval, or Medieval II I forget which.

The battle in the video is a bit messy...too bad he didn't record from the start.

I am not mistaken, he was one of the lead designers from Shogun to Medieval II (all games). So yes, he's kept the set of formation.

Flanking is also an option.

But as Gelantinous Cube says, it requires a good knowledge of the ships in order to master the battles.

A nice thing is that during battle, you can set a group of ships on Auto, so you can focus on some of your major ships.

Cheers