Empire: Total Wars fans, of which I consider myself, have been waiting for what seems an eternity for the 1.3 patch. The wait is over. Creative Assembly has finally released a huge patch that fixes a bazillion things, adds a ton of new things, and pumps up the graphics support by finally utilizing multi-thread technology.

Full list of fixes and additions after the break.

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Sound loading has been made asynchronous, so heavy disc access is reduced to a minimum. This makes loading times faster and reduces any instances of ’stuttering’. Unit group sounds have also been improved, for more realistic group movement. The primary sound library (Miles DLL) has been updated to stop occasional clicking. And they’ve added more sound variation for unit deaths and musket fire.

Campaign:

Prussian Grenadiers: Wearing a distinctive brass fronted mitre cap, the Prussian Grenadiers are an explosive force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.
Spanish Guardias De Infateria: These elite guard infantry are charged with protecting the monarch and are a potent force on the battlefield.
Swedish Lifeguard Horse: This cavalry regiment forms part of the monarchs’ household guard. Superbly drilled, they act as a shock force on the battlefield.
Holland Horse Guard: Armed with heavy cavalry sabres, these disciplined cavalrymen represent the elite of the army.
Prussian Garde Du Corp: The Prussian Garde Du Corp are a replacement for the Prussian standard Household cavalry. These heavy horse shock troops are best used to break enemy lines and overrun enemy positions. With a strong charge and fearsome attack, these riders make short work of those who would oppose a Prussian monarch.
Prussian Life guard: The Prussian life guards are equipped similarly to line infantrymen. However their uniforms are altogether more splendid, marking them out as a superior force, in arrogance if nothing else. They do a good job as garrison troops and are dedicated to the crown.
Russian Grenadiers: This new Russian unit is great for assaults and their grenades pack a mighty punch!
Spanish Guardias De Corp: The Spanish Guardias De Corp replace household cavalry for Spain. With almost unbreakable morale, on the charge they are almost unstoppable.
Spanish Grenadiers: These are a replacement for the standard Spanish Grenadiers with a distinctive bearskin hat to mark them out as exemplary on the battlefield.
Swedish Lifeguards Of Foot: These are a highly trained replacement for the standard Swedish guard. They are often used as a force in a system that defends a monarchy and can be relied upon for utter loyalty and deadly accuracy in the field. Their professionalism is reflected in their fearsome battle reputation.
Holland Guard: The Holland Guards from the United Provinces are superior line infantry units. Carrying smoothbore muskets, they were traditionally chosen to protect the royal family and have an incredibly high morale, often making them the last troops to break in a fight.
Scots: The Scots are a Highland ex-patriate infantry used by the United Provinces, renowned for their deadly charge.
Swiss Infantry: Very disciplined infantry of the United Provinces with quick reload and excellent marksmanship.
Mamelukes: Mamelukes are fearless light horsemen, deadly when deployed against a broken or unsupported enemy.Additionally the Spanish nation has had a new uniform design to better reflect its historical look.
Audio:

Several crash bug fixes in saves, movement, agents and logic.Various optimisations have been made to AI and path systems to reduce the campaign map turn times.
When the pirates are destroyed and re-emerge they now maintain a status of at war with all and are unable to enter into diplomatic negotiations.
Added small ships on domestic trade routes from the trade nodes to home regions moving in the correct direction, i.e. with the flow of trade.
The AI should now no longer repeatedly sign a diplomatic agreement and then break it the next turn. Treaties are more valuable and adhered to.
We’ve fixed some border trade agreements allowing greater numbers of bordering factions to properly trade with one another.
Movement arrows now reflect the range of the selected units, not the whole army/navy.
AI will no longer counter-offer and ask for more money than the player has available.
Fixed commerce raiding taking money from blockaded trade routes.
Fixed navies getting stuck when forced to retreat from ports (tactial retreat).
Fixed rare inability to attack certain ports.
Fixed middle mouse button camera drag stopping working occasionally.
Made emergent factions be at war with the faction they emerged against if that faction is human.
Fixed various movement extent crashes.
Changed background income for minor factions.
Fixed diplomatic relations with emergent factions.
Tactical withdrawal will now always leave armies on the landmass containing the settlement of a region.
Changed war score system to make the AI more likely to accept peace.
Fixed crash when embarking and disembarking armies at ports.
Fixed trade ships not being correctly registered in trade nodes after splitting forces.
Fixed government change diplomatic effect.
Improved commerce raiding display on trade screen.
Faction specific text is now used in diplomacy.
Prevent players canceling the movement of fleeing agents.
Balance Changes:

Units:
Charge bonus generally increased across the board for all units and melee defence reduced.
Greater diversification of stats between different unit types designed to emphasise differences and improve balance.
Redone costs for all units for multiplayer to improve game balance which better reflects the actual battlefield worth of each unit.
Mob formation added in for Native American, irregular and some skirmisher units.
Spot distance for light infantry, skirmishers, irregulars, light cavalry and missile cavalry increased allowing them to spot hidden units at longer distances.
Russian line infantry stats have been boosted to allow them to compete more with other faction’s line infantry.
Movement speed of all unit types reduced by 10%.
Ammo for light infantry increased to 20, line to 15.

Land Battle Morale:
Charge morale bonus reduced from 10 to 4.
Recent casualties, extended casualties and total casualties morale penalties increased slightly for higher percentages.
Rear and flank exposed morale penalties increased.

Fatigue:
Fatigue penalty for melee reduced from 18 per tick to 10.
Running fatigue penalty for heavy and light cavalry reduced from -3/-2 to -2/-1.

Artillery Changes:
Calibration area for cannons and howitzers reduced. Accuracy of non-round shot shot types reduced to compensate.
Muzzle velocity of round shot for cannons increased to make them fire lower and bounce more, accuracy also increased.
Lethality of shrapnel pieces reduced to match canister shot, range also reduced to 350.
Load time for special shot types for howitzers increased slightly, and range reduced to 350.
Calibration area for mortars increased, accuracy of round shot increased to compensate. Reload time increased slightly.
Accuracy of 18 lbr horse guard artillery restored to 65.
Hit points of gun trains increased to 50, all guns and caissons to 25.

General Fixes:

- Added multithreading support.
- Fixed sound loading to reduce choppiness.
- Fixed sound load times, increasing speed.
- Added 14 replacement units.
- Changes to store Rebel data in their regions as well as armies.
- Reduced prestige bonus for getting technology fist in culture.
- Refined mountain terrain.
- Fixed excessive invasion request loop.
- Fixed diplomatic analysis AI now stores honourable war information.
- Fixed how music cycles in battle, added tweaks to sound files.
- Fixed unit group speed matching changes.
- Fixed various UI bugs.
- Fixed intermittent audio crash.
- Fixed ‘double sided’ mountains and errors in some settlements.
- Removed duplicate script entries.
- Fixed a crash caused by having volumetric effects disabled.
- Fixed breaks in audio packs.
- Fixed bug for retreating AI army with artillery.
- Fixed spelling error on internal variable.
- Fixed reload animation to keep rod inside musket.
- Fixed multiplayer bug where language dependent files were improperly checked.
- Fixed particle effects shader using correct depth for scene.
- Fixed reinforcing armies ‘empty cards’ bug.
- Fixed captured admirals ships now have the same name after capture.
- Fixed Battle AI withdrawing immediately if it doesn’t have artillery in a siege.
- Fixed campaign AI crash caused by military_force function.
- Fixed sound crash caused by environment variables.
- Fixed sound fades in unit group audio.
- Fixed campaign AI start position regeneration problem.
- Changed firing arc colours for portside firing.
- Fixed commerce raiding taking money from blockaded trade routes.
- Fixed navies tactically retreating from ports getting stuck.
- Fixed inability to attack ports occasionally.
- Fixed camera lock not clearing occasionally.
- Fixed two rare pathfinding crash bugs.
- Exposed diplomatic dishonourable treaty breaking counter for AI.
- Fixed display of commodity volumes produced by buildings to include slot quality multiplier.
- Made emergent factions be at war with the faction they emerged against if that faction is human.
- Fixed error when trying to dissolve non-existant trade agreements on loss of regions.
- Fixed episodic campaign ‘cannot advance’ after battle.
- Fixed unit group position on halt.
- Fixed crash caused by ‘empty strings’ during memory allocation.
- Fixed selection audio only played when a unit is actually selected.
- Fixed bad deployment formations from AI.
- Fixed audio spamming and wrong sounds playing during melee.
- Changed Agent subterfuge chances of success.
- Updated Miles Audio from 7.2e 7.2g to fix low pass problems.
- Fixed crash caused by merging besieging army with another army nearby.
- Fixed ‘opportunity to intercept’ dismiss button disappearing.
- Fixed ’siege begun’ message notification.
- Fixed particle shader now interact properly with animation.
- Fixed crash bug on campaign map.
- Fixed issue in unit selection after multi-promotion.
- Fixed senior character is leading a force after trait application.
- Fixed UI being notified of trait application for trait refresh.
- Fixed platform list crash.
- Fixed default use of hardware shadows as not all cards were supportive.
- Fixed audio no longer plays snow ambience when raining.
- Fixed forts on campaign map.
- Fixed crashes loading 1.2 save games and earlier under new optimised pathfinding code.
- Fixed various movement extent crashes.
- Fixed rare ship group crash.
- Fixed withdrawal direction changes.
- Fixed AI item selection at end of turn.
- Fixed audio bug on large sails unfurling.
- Fixed anchor sound playing when game is paused.
- Fixed wind gust sound not playing on ship sails.
- Fixed rare crash caused by having sound disabled.
- Changed bankruptcy notification.
- Fixed faction death on turn calling AI and causing crash.
- Fixed crash caused by transporting navy to wilderness region.
- Fixed campaign middle-mouse button scrolling stopping responding sometimes.
- Fixed background income for minor factions.
- Fixed (disabled) broadside firing when ship has been grappled.
- Fixed ‘double hits’ on buildings going through destruction animations.
- Added pathfinding optimisations.
- Fixed out-of-memory crash to do with movement extents.
- Fixed trade agreement diplomatic bonus being applied when trade agreements are not available due to lack of routes.
- Added after load characters now show multi-turn action arrows.
- Fixed tactical withdrawal will now always leave armies on the landmass containing the settlement of a region.
- Added assert in UI code if it tries to get spying information for a non-existant army.
- Fix for disembarking at region boundaries sometimes disembarking into the wrong region.
- Changed war score system to make the AI more likely to accept peace.
- Changed RTI – Episode 2 rebalanced.
- Fixed AI firing behaviour.
- Fixed deployment areas no longer block weather effects.
- Fixed conflict between terrain and sea underlay.
- Fixed crash when embarking / disembarking armies on ports.
- Fixed musicians not stopping with rest of unit.
- Fixed certain traded techs not being calculated.
- Fixed missing fort cannons.
- Fixed crash in pending battle stage.
- Fixed a problem with recently units required for unhapiness mitigation.
- Fixed taking units required for unhapiness when pulling forces away for invasions.
- Fixed crash when right clicking on fort upgrade after multiple construction message.
- Fixed armies attacking garrisons owned by own faction after battle.
- Fixed forts effect on prestige now counted.
- Fixed crash in campaign when messages aren’t cleared in battle
- Fixed small bug with message icons overlapping the minimal hud in battle
- Fixed player agents not appearing in the spying tab on an enemy slot.
- Fixed stealing technology messages.
- Changed AI recruitment, defence and invasion calculations.
- Fixed commerce raiding display on trade screen.
- Fixed town wealth growth pips showing up in wrong tracks.
- Fixed multiplayer joining after incorrect password.
- Changed grass responds more to wind and less to snow.
- Fixed shader model 2 trees now render with fog.
- Fixed shader model 2 grass rendering with fog correctly.
- Changed AI to reduce propensity for reforming during formed attack movements.
- Fixed incorrect fire arcs for artillery during deployment.
- Fixed cross technology theft crash.
- Fixed Battle AI melee bug.
- Fixed Movement arrows now reflect the range of the selected units, not the whole army/navy.
- Fixed AI will no longer counter-offer and ask for more money than the player has available.
- Fixed commerce raiding taking money from blockaded trade routes.
- Fixed navies getting stuck when forced to retreat from ports (tactial retreat).
- Fixed rare inability to attack certain ports.
- Fixed middle mouse button camera drag stopping working occasionally.
- Fixed various movement extent crashes.
- Changed background income for minor factions.
- Fixed government change diplomatic effect.
- Fixed faction specific text is now used in diplomacy.