New title: Musket & Pike : The Renaissance

Lowlander · 03-16-2009, 12:32 AM,

I've just ordered this as the large number of different battles throughout this period and five campaigns which are included is tremendous value. But alas I've not informed my better half !!!.

I also am a great fan of 3D but as the uniforms were so varied no doubt the time and cost might have been prohibitive.
But as a suggestion maybe using the 3D counters instead of figures would be acceptable as this would reflect the formations in use during this time period.

Have also seen smaller scale figures for the ACW games which sadly havn't taken off, as I thought these were much much better than the large figures included with these games.
Have replaced ALL my Napoleonic games with the wonderful small figure mods which are readily available, so much better.
OK I'm on a roll so what about 3D in the Naval Campaign games using the 3D ship models from the Panzer Campaign series.

rahamy · 03-31-2009, 11:58 AM,

Mr. Cobb has submitted a review over at the Wargamer:

http://www.wargamer.com/article/2684/hps's-renaissance-

Jolly Roger · 04-01-2009, 02:44 AM,

Hi folks,

this is definetely one of the best all time releases of HPS.
It´s covering an era, familiar to the community of Total War series fans only. Strategy and tactics of this era are very challenging and
the game mimics this very accurate. But I really miss 3 D views of
battlefield and units, as I usually don´t play in 2 D. :hissy:

Cheers, Klaus aka Jolly Roger

crsutton · 04-03-2009, 01:27 AM,

I just got this game and have only played with it briefly. All aspects of it look to be excellent and I am excited about going head to head with my friend who just got it as well. There will be a learning curve but it really has tremendous potential.

That said, the graphics are not too good. Truth is, I gave up on 3D graphics when Tiller moved away from the custom drawn maps of his old Talonsoft Napolenoic and CW titles. The HPS campaign series just offers such pitiful 3D graphics that I went back to 2D. It is OK with me because I understand that you can't offer the variety of maps and battles and provide custom drawn maps. The games are way better and as an old wargamer, I am comfortable with 2D. My major gripe is that the 2D in Musket and Pike leaves something to be desired as well. It is tough on my eyes and there is not enough graphical information. The diversity of the units and poor representation causes me to be contsantly clicking on the units to see what they are in the left hand screen. This takes time and begins to get tedious. They are going to have to come up with a zoom in scale that double the visual size of the hexes and units and put some better visual markers on the units themselves. Such as "s" markers for skirmishers, and some sort of basic weapon marker for each unit as there is just too much diversity to keep track of them all

As it stands now, it is just hard enough for me to make out cavalry and infantry at a glance and that is really annoying. This has got to improve.

Otherwise, every aspect of this game is excellent and I am sure it will get better.

eugene · (This post was last modified: 04-03-2009, 04:47 AM by eugene.)

I would second what crsutton said above. This game has a fantastic array of troop types, all of which show up graphically as infantry, cavalry or artillery. Even the "camp followers" show up as plain infantry. (Btw they throw rocks and such when they have to fight).

I was counting up the unit type symbols for TOAW, and there are perhaps 20 different symbols for infantry, 11 different symbols for armor etc. Something similiar could be adapted for Musket and Pike.

Contrast could also be improved. Print charachters and sometimes units become tough to see if there is not enough contrast. Jim Cobb's review covers this, as well as some other issues.

A fantastic game, despite these basic problems. You can fight battle with Ottomans, Persians, Mamelukes, Spaniards, Dutchmen, Landsknechts, Reiters etc. etc. Wow!

rahamy · 04-11-2009, 04:53 AM,

The contrast issues will be addressed in the first update and work has begun on 3D for the game.

As far as altering the 2D info...that's going to be pretty hard on the small counters we have to work with. We'll look at it, but I can't promise too much...that's the whole point of the Info Area with the greater detail. Someone suggested Nato style counters, but for me that wouldn't "feel" right as its a totally different time period.

Anyway, the point is your comments have been heard and we're doing what we can to address them.