This game is fantastic. Utterly brilliant bit of Unity programming.
So I started my team of Venetians (they have fast horses, skillful drivers, and swift chariots)--which feels like cheating--in Egypt.
The Egypt Class I track is like restrictor plate racing in NASCAR. Not a ton of collisions, everyone gets moving so fast that there's often just a single file line of chariots going around the far outside. Turns out that Class I track has fairly tight turns, so that's why everyone hugs the outside lane. It eventually got predictable, but I was able to pick up some needed cash and improvements.
There are two Class II tracks in Egypt. Both are a little more "fair" to less speed-merchant type teams. The turns are a little wider, and I started seeing (and having to do this myself) teams really cutting turns well, tactical passing, and the like. I found myself adjusting and learning better to drive and working to come up with some good tactics like knowing to set up for the turns long before getting there.
Then there's the Class III track in Egypt. Nothing in the game so far prepared me for it. It is NASCAR's famous/infamous Bristol race track--short straightaways, tight turns...and oh yeah, 12-16 chariots lined up 2-deep at the start line, and oh yeah, after the first turn you can engage in offensive maneuvers. In every race I've run there the track is littered with broken chariots, dead bodies of horses and drivers, dropped whips, you name it. It is Death Race 2000 there.
I realized that my team of speedballs would be doomed there, and decided to see if there were any better tracks. I ended up in Syria, at one of their Class III tracks.
Wow. Here's what the game does that's holding my interest. In Syria, this Class III track has these beautiful (if your team is based on zoomzoomzoom anyway) wide, sweeping turns. I can be going flat out right up to the turn and still easily negotiate the third track from the outside without having to touch the brakes or even take the chariot under heavy reigns for control.
So.
Teams matter. Certain factions do certain things really well, and it's not window-dressing for show.
Tracks matter. I've seen short straightaways, hairpin turns, straights that looked like the final stretch at Saratoga (long, in other words), turns that looked like Belmont (really wide). The key to doing well is matching the way you build your team to the tracks.
That's not to say I don't really want to go back to that gonzo demolition derby track in Egypt with a murder team, though...
"It's my manner, sir. It looks insubordinate, but it isn't, really."
.
) is that as you can see, Jeriah's horses are beaten all to crap, while Joash's horses are fine. As I passed them, Joash was beating on Jerish's horses. Now what I think happened is that Joash has been stuck there because he's been beating on Jeriah so much that Jerish's horses are all used up. Certainly it isn't from Jeriah pushing his horses that much since I've got a lap on him as we enter the last turn before the finish straight. Which means that it is apparently possible for an AI auriga to get so focused on beating up an opponent that he lets the race go by him just so he can beat on this one poor guy.
