14 DAY TRIAL // I said in the previous article dealing with Empire: Total War that long time players of the series made by The Creative Assembly had been asking for two gameplay elements to be improved in Empire, especially when looking at what Rome: Total War and Medieval 2: Total War offered. The two areas were the tactical Artificial Intelligence and the diplomacy of the computer controlled factions. Well, the diplomacy seems to be a bit screwed up at the moment, with the competitor nations making some outrageous trade proposals (I've got another last night from Prussia offering to give up East Prussia, which is wealthy and developed, for Courland, which I have just conquered and is ravaged by war and limited in potential).
But on the issue of the ability to compete with the player in the battles, I have to say that Empire: Total War is a clear step in the right direction. In both Rome and Medieval 2, without extensive modding, generals used to charge into pikes and get themselves killed. Not anymore. The generals know to hang back and they only enter the fray by going after cannon or chasing down routers. This means that the A.I. will not suffer a huge morale hit right from the start from the death of the leader.
The enemy also knows how to use artillery pretty well, massing them on one unit if you leave it exposed and leaving units to guard the cannon, in case you try some flanking with cavalry forces in order to take them out. It's weird that the A.I. in Empire is not sure whether it wants to kill your cannon or not, as it sometimes targets them or completely ignores them.
As far as infantry tactics go, there's certainly room for improvement. Sure, you'll see enemy units use buildings, but they apparently forget to leave them as you destroy them with cannon fire. You'll also see them taking fire behind natural barriers, but they forget to leave them if you flank them with cavalry and tear them to little (non bloody) pieces. But the big problem is that the enemy almost never manages to hold a clean line while advancing towards your forces. In the style of warfare that dominated the XVII century, holding a line and flanking is hugely important, so the fact that the enemy cannot maintain their line makes it easier for the player to kill his/her forces piecemeal. I'd like to see the A.I. even hold on to a little reserve force with which it can plug holes in the line it has formed.
So, as a conclusion, Creative Assembly did a good job in Empire: Total War, but there's still a long way to go in creating an Artificial Intelligence that can truly hold its own against human intelligence. As always with Total War, try to play the battles on Hard to see more of a challenge, without reaching the unfairness level of Very Hard.