Total War: Viking Invasion

[Brian Rucker]

I've been looking at the box (stacked up next to Port Royale) on my 'to play' shelf. Has anyone played this yet? How is it? Please let me live vicariously through someone here. Been pressed for time lately. Thanks!

[triggercut]

Just started it last week. Actually, after trying to "get" M:TW for nearly a year, last week the heavens cleared and I finally understood what the heck I was supposed to do in the campaign game...and I've been playing pretty rabidly since.

Anyhoo, picked up the Vikings expansion a day or two ago since I had some EB trade $ on a card. I like it a lot. The new units are cool, the new Viking campaign (set on Britain) is fun, if difficult, and the two new factions (the Aragonese and Hungarians) are a challenge (the Hungarians are much easier than the poor Aragons, who are stuck between three tough opponents.) I'd say that if you really enjoy M:TW, the expansion is a very good one, but if the original game didn't do it for you, there's little in the expansion that will change your mind.

[Woolen Horde]

I love MTW and played the hell out of it. The Viking Invasion expansion is also very good... the England campaign is on a map a lot smaller than the Grand Campaign, so it makes for a very cuthroat game quickly, as all the factions are at each other's throats pretty much from the get go.

[Nathan Phoenix]

I would love to pick it up, but I still feel like I was robbed by MTW, which does not run on my computer at all, for no reason that I have been able to discern. STW and it's expansion ran fine.

I think the game sounds awesome, but I'm not going to drop cash on a game that I doubt will work.

[MajorFreak]

there are some pretty harsh things said about the needed fixes to the expansion over on the "unofficial" forums...
Unfortunatelly, it's true. All your reinforcements will be cavalry first. What can I say, the pre-battle screen was the feature that I was looking forward to the most...

A slight workarounds:
- choose all infantry army at first, since you'll get the cavalry anyway
- choose cavalry in first 16, withdraw the ones you won't need to get infantry
- adjust the stack composition; either use a single stack only, or lower the amount of cavalry in the army, so you cycle through them more quickly
- cycle through reinforcements before the battle starts; either stop once the unit you want to show up is next, or "weave" the cavalry with infantry in the way you want them to appear; this is a hassle to do, it takes a long time, and I haven't tried it in VI yet, but it used to work in the original MTW; I don't know whather the order will be correct in VI

The way it stands now, pre-battle screen is useful for choosing you starting 16, and the cavalry bug is predictable, and therefore has a minor advantage, just like the predictability of death at 56 has. There are some other weirdnesses with reinforcements and generals, which I wrote about in the thread I started recently....
I think VI is an excellent effort. Yes, your kings all die at 56. So what?! It hasn't cost me a single campaign. I am more attentive and I might even send my king into a certain death battle, but it works fine. As to the other bugs, well except for the reinforcement bug which I rarely see, I haven't had a single crash, EVER. I have played all factions in VI and some in MTW and the game is great. Count me as a happy camper (I would be happier with a patch, but).

*shrug* i'm not going to buy VI even though i'm a huge TotalWar fan...i'm saving my cash for Rome...*drooool*

http://www.mindphyre.com/UMEC/PIC/IMG/Rome-TW.jpg