Although I was an remain quite a fan of the Total War series, there are a variety of things that Creative Assemblies managed to horribly execute in their most recent AAA release, that being Empire: Total War.  Not least among their errs was, at times, horrendous AI and pathing; even after the first major patch to the game, enemy (NPC) armies still could not transport an army over a passage over water and then disembark on the other shore.  This was a particularly strange problem as I have a very clear memory of losing the British Isles to the Spanish during a prolonged game of Medieval II (the predecessor to Empire), so it surprised me to see something so fundamental to the game – especially when, historically speaking, disembarking an army on a shore was the most militarily significant thing a nation could do – to be completely non-present when dealing with enemy, computer-controlled armies.  I, as a player, was fully able to do just that – and indeed, it’s about the only way to conquer far-flung regions.

Stranger and more jarring perhaps was an issue that seems to have gone unfixed in this new DLC/update/whatever the current buzz word is; that of Native American combat.  The 18th century was, for much of the European and even Asian world, a time of heavily-regimented, trained, and organized foot soldiers.  Lines of men three ranks deep, all firing muskets and mounting bayonets for a charge, wasn’t an uncommon sight – for Europeans and Asians.  But for the Native Americans?  Even in the video posted above, legions of them swarm over open ground to close with European musket-lines; are you kidding me?  That sort of regimented combat style took a century of learning, combined with the technology of the musket, in order to produce results.  Even Rome, that obscenely powerful military empire, took several hundred years before it had perfected its system of phalanx and legion.  

What the Eurasian powers of the 18 century and the Roman legions just prior to AD 0 have in common is that they were organized and designed around principles of intimidation, discipline, and an implacable power.  This is why the Romans prevailed over many, many native tribes – a phalanx, with each man armed with a shield a gladius (a short sword), and a few javelins – is going to be nearly-invincible to tribal warriors without armor, light shields, and hatchets.  Incidentally, this is also why the US was able to prevail against the western planes Indians; regimented discipline, historically speaking, almost always prevails over guerilla-style, tribal warfare tactics.  (Note that Rome fell to those tactics – they’re cheaper to keep going over longer periods of time, and have the tendency to slowly bleed the enemy dry.)

What’s genuinely bizarre about Empire is that fighting any tribal group – whether they’re a small sect in India or the Americas – is that they fight in the same regimented, rank-and-file formation of the Europeans.  Sure, this was probably due to game engine considerations – the entire game is built around this type of fighting – but is that really the best that Creative Assemblies could do?  Even the Native Americans, when armed with bow and arrow, stand three men deep and fifteen across while showering the enemy with missiles.  Their melee troops, armed with tomahawk, charge in as a giant unit, 60 men strong.

No bleeding into the forests, no ambushes from swamps with only five men, no quick-and-dirty hatchet work at the rear flank where the cannons are; just march-march-march-SHOOT-reload, repeat.  Which isn’t a problem – Empire makes this process wonderfully and perhaps strangely entertaining (I found this era of warfare dull until playing Empire), but just the same, it’s .. jarring, and almost painful as a student of history, to see Native Americans marching about as if they had uniforms and muskets.

So it will be interesting to see what Creative Assemblies musters for this new DLC-thing: with the focus of the thing to be the natives, I imagine a great many changes are in the pipes for the faction-type as a whole.  But will the engine adapt – will the game itself adapt – to a more Native American and unconventional model of warfare?  It’s hard to say – the video certainly doesn’t look terribly promising.