Some times this will work but in most cases it does not.There is no reason to have to make excuses for the poor game play in Anno 1401, you take a great game and screw it up.
Look who made the game. When Sunflower had it the games and forum were great. I might be wrong but I think that nobody from this English speaking forum played the beta. It was mostly from the German side and from the Settlers forum. What I find that is really bad about this game is the military.
I agree that it's nearly impossible to beat the hard AI anymore, but I have to disagree with the complaints about how the military works. This is a city/civilization builder with some combat thrown in, not a true RTS, and you can't expect to find the same sort of tactial control you would get with something like company of heroes.
Maybe it's just because I'm already familiar with the game line ( I played 1701 for about 6 months) so I knew what to expect, but thinking back I can't name a single game of this type where the combat wasn't totally rudimentary. How many of you played Sid Meiers Civilization IV and got annoyed as heck when your modern tanks lost an attack to a bunch of defenders with muskets? At least in this game you CAN stack the odds in your favor to the point where you know you're going to win. Take any of the generals and put them on an island with another special item (armor or weapon) that increases your troops abilities and your going to tear the computer up without even trying as long as the numbers are anywhere close to even. You can also spend your honor to upgrade your troops abilities, so you have plenty of ways to get an advantage on the AI.
In the end, this is a building game, not a combat game. If what you're looking for is combat strategy you're a lot better off with Company of Heroes, Dawn of War or any of the true tactical RTS games then you will be with anything that tries to mix the genres (note: The single exception I can think of is the "Total War" series of games, but those sacrifice the building side of the game to improve combat).
I have to disagree with you on the combat part. You tell the AI it isn't a combat game. When all three are attacking you at the same time. Just say guys this is just a building game not a combat game. When you are getting you butt beat. I have been playing all the anno series games and this is the worse when it comes to combat and military. I played 1701 from the beginning and all I ever played was on the hard level. In 1701 you could still keep and eye on you city. But in this game you spending to much time trying not to lose to them.
What I'm saying is that the focus of this game is supposed to be building, not combat. Yes, the AI is a bit over the top when it comes to attacking, but it's still obvious that combat wasn't what the designers were focusing on when they developed the game.
If the game were focused on combat you would have a lot more troops types and tactics available to use. What we actually have is a simple combat system that's totally numbers based. You can't get combat bonuses for using terrain, hitting from the flanks, etc, and in the end it all comes down to unit A had a strength of 8 so it beats unit B with a strength of 7. That is NOT the kind of system you find in a game where the designers intended combat to be the main focus of the game. You only see that sort of system in games like this, black and white, etc, where the real focus is on building your cities and combat is supposed to be a sideshow.
I'm not arguing that the AI is attacking way too often and is focusing on combat too much, especially on the hard settings. My argument is that the game is not supposed to revolve around combat in the first place, and that's why our ability to counter the AI militarily is so limited in the early to mid game. They never built the counters in because they never expected them to be needed.
I agree that this is a city building game and is about 80% of the game. But if they wanted to have combat in the game not go back ten years on the design of the units that are using. Everything else looks really nice and they could have come up with something better. You know that the 1701 add-on was not design from Ubisoft. They had very little do with that. Most of it was done but a company that was doing things with Sunflower. "Aspyr Media" it has teamed with Ubisoft to bring 1701 A.D. Gold Edition to the PC.
