This is our last preview for NTW2. But no need to cry, that means the mod will be released in just a few days! If all goes as planned we release NTW2 on Friday the 31th of August CET(Central European Time). Until then, you can find more information here about the single-player part of the mod: the scripted historical battle of Borodino.
At the bottom of the preview we also give some further information about the multiplayer aspect of the mod.
You still can view the older previews here:
1. Infantry Preview
2. Cavalry Preview
3. Artillery & Command
4. Gameplay & Tactics
[size=5]SINGLEPLAYER[/size]
[size=3]The Concept[/size]
At some point the decision was made not to create a campaign-map for this mod. The reason is that the RTW AI is in no way capable of handling Napoleonic armies, so it simply wouldn't be challenging or enjoying to play. Instead, we focus on heavily scripted historical battles. These scripts replace most of the AI, and allow us to let the battle evolve the way we want it to.
It would be impossible to script a flexible AI that can control an entire army, and challenge the player's army. So what we did instead, is give the player a limited amount of units, spread across the battlefield. These units are reinforced by AI controlled allies. As a result, the player cannot concentrate his forces against the AI, and even if he does, he won't have enough men to defeat the enemy on his own. In order to win the battle, you need to support and cooperate with your allies.
An adviser (with actual speech) will inform you of the current situation, telling you when and were to attack.
[size=3]Phase I: Taking Borodino[/size]
The first task is rather easy: You have to take the village of Borodino. You have 2 units available nearby, and your AI teammate sends nothing more then a 6 pounder cannon to help you. The village is lightly defended and should be captured rather easily. But even if you fail and lose both units, the battle will go on to the next phase. However the consequences will be that the enemy has some additional units available for reinforcements, because they are no longer needed to defend the bridge near Borodino village.
Napol?on guides you through the battle.
[size=3]Phase II: Taking Bagration's Fletches[/size]
The next step is quite a lot more challenging: The Russians have dug in behind a redoubt, and have a 12 pounder cannon. Your allies will attack this position, and it is your job to assist them. Act too slow and the Russians may rout your allies with canister and musket fire. When that happens you'll be expected to take the redoubt on your own.
Assault against the fletches involving player and allied units.
Both the Russians and French will send counter-attacks several times, so you'll have to stay cautious.
[size=3]Phase III: Assault on Semenovskoi[/size]
When the Fletches are finally under French control, the French and Russians will redeploy most of their units, preparing for the next attack. Meanwhile the Russian artillery battery will open fire.
Russian defences at the burned village of Semenovskoi
Depending on losses taken in the previous phases, the assault on the village of Semenovskoi may turn out slightly different.
This is by far the most difficult phase of the battle, with both French and Russians throwing almost everything they got into the fray. You'll have to keep your head cool during massive cavalry charges, attacks and counter-attacks and the continuous bombardment of cannonballs and canister shot.
[size=3]Phase IV: Assault on the Great Redoubt[/size]
Before the assault on Semenovskoi has properly started, the French will mount on attack on the Great Redoubt. This is a heavily defended Russian entrenchment, loaded with 12 pounder guns. Again, your performance in the previous phases will determine how many units you and your allies can use in this attack, and how many reserves the Russians can spare in defence.
Charging the Great Redoubt
[size=3]The Outcome[/size]
Depending on circumstances, both sides may decide to commit their Guard into the final attack, and if you manage to break the last stand of the Russian Guard, victory is yours. However, if the French Guard takes too much casualties the battle will be considered as a defeat, no matter how much damage you did to the Russian army.
[size=5]MULTIPLAYER[/size]
For those who are interested in playing the mod in Multi-player, here follows some information to get you prepared. We also advice you to read the Gameplay & Tactics review before entering the fields of MP battle, so you have a better idea of what to do and expect. We certainly hope a lot of you will give this a try, if only out of respect for the immense amount of work we put in this mod. And hey, you might even like it :wink: The NTW community is generally polite and mature, so you don't have to fear much rude behaviour.
Setting up Firewall/Router
If you have never played RTW on-line before, and you have a router or firewall, you must make sure it is properly set up. It is very annoying when a game goes out of sync because of someone's router or firewall. If this does occur and/or you need some technical assistance feel free to make a post on the Lordz forum.
You can find information about what ports to open/forward in this topic.
CD key
You can find your CD key on the back of your RTW manual. If you haven't played MP before, go to the Multiplayer menu, then click "Change
CD key" and enter your key. This is case sensitive and you must press enter after inserting your key.
Hosting MP Games
The game is designed to be played on Large unit size, 10k florins, and no additional rules. Of course you do not HAVE to stick to this, but we strongly advice it. If you want to play 3v3 or 4v4 you should limit the amount of florins to 5k or 3k to prevent lag, rather then decrease the unit size. The latter will cause units like artillery to become imbalanced.
Some maps can not be played with more then 4 or 6 players. In the map selection screen there is a small information box that mentions the maximum amount of players for the selected map. Even though these maps are exceptions, you should pay attention to it.
Team I is replaced by "Attacker", team II is "Defender". If you are attacker, you do not have the right to camp (sit still) on the map, while the defender does. However, if the defender has chosen a bad position, and the attacker can deal serious damage with long range artillery fire, it is his right to do so, and he does not have to send additional units to attack until his artillery has ran out of ammo.
You can still play with more then 2 teams, but this may cause weird deployment zones on the maps (or even crash the game) and will certainly lead to imbalanced gameplay.
The new game setup menu, showing a map preview and splitting attacker and defender.
Command Games
In NTW1, "Command Games" have become quite popular. It means each player of a team takes control of one part of the army (cavalry, infantry, guard & artillery) and elects a general. This general decides about the overall strategy and plan, the rest is supposed to listen to him. A bit like the Time Commanders series, but with actual control over the units. Even if your general or allies are useless, this generally leads to epic battles :)
Notes
When the battle starts you must disable all infantry units' skirmish mode manually. If you don't do this you will certainly get in trouble when you try to charge or fire a close range volley, or when an enemy unit gets close to your units.
If you let the NTW2 installer enable Quick Chat, you can use Y to chat to all players and T to talk to your teammates. These hot-keys can be changed in the hot-keys menu. If you did not enable Quickchat you must use Y to open the chat menu, and then use the numeric keys to define who you want to talk to.
You cannot chat while others are still loading the game, or when there are connection problems. This is annoying and confusing, but we'll have to live with that. Pop ups or hitting the windows key can throw you back to windows and this will cause a "connection problem" for the other players. When you re-enter the game the map will be reloaded and this can take a while. So when facing a connection problem players should wait at least 1 or 2 minutes before kicking the player or terminating the game.
You cannot change your video setting when in a MP game, so we suggest using very low setting during your first games. If you still get a good frame rate in 3v3 games you can increase the detail. Or just test out what your PC can handle by running a 3v3 custom battle (against AI).
[size=5]THE FUTURE[/size]
We were planning to make a Waterloo pack next, similar to the current Borodino pack. But considering there are only 2 or 3 months left before the MTW2 release that might not be worth it. We still have to make a final decision, but one option is to finish the British, Dutch and maybe Prussian factions one by one, and release these as multiplayer add-ons in the coming weeks/months.
At the same time great progress is being made in designing a MP campaign around the French 1812 invasion of Russia. We hope to show you the first results soon.
Enjoy!
The Lordz
