Warhammer: Total War

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Looks like Orion needs Amber to recruit Forest Spirits while Durthu needs it for elven units. Decisions, decisions...

I think the only elven one you'd miss are the waywatchers which, granted, are the best archers in the game, but in return you get Forest Dragons and Treemen.

Also, he gets half upkeep for Dryads, Tree Kin and possibly Tree Men.
You can field a very tanky army on the cheap and max out Durthu's army very early on, and Deepwood scouts or glade guard are still very good early game.

It's only really late game that you miss the piercing of the waywatcher.

They're both fun, but Durthu being able to attack without siege equipment, cheaper, tougher armies, no attrition for his army make it more flexible and allows you to get more aggressive earlier. Ther'es a bit in the middle where you can't get really overpowered archers, but then later on, you'll have enough amber to max out your army anyway you like.

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I love archers. On the Vortex campaign, I had so much fun watching the Sisters of Avelorn melt Chaos units.

But yeah, think I might go with Durthu. Have you touched the mini-campaigns from the first game?

Never did bother with them. If you want piercing with Durthu you can still get the glade guard with Starfire shafts.

Because you'll have limited slots until you unlock confederation (Tree of eternity level 3) you'll probably want to plan out what you want to build. Maybe emphasise economy and don't build all your recruitment buildings in your starting settlement.

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Thanks Gbear. Sound advice.

What difficulty do you play on? I usually go H/H. Was thinking of bumping both up but not to keen on being drowned in AI doomstacks with extra buffs.

VH/N

I find the buffs they get in battle to just be obnoxious.

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I've not really noticed on hard battles. I find the game gets quite easy once you pass a certain points.

I save scum a fair bit but I might try an ME campaign with no scumming.

I mostly role play to be honest.

I enjoy a challenge well enough, but I don't like to be taken out of the game just for the sake of it.

So VH pits you against farily hefty opposition who have much stronger forces than they would ordinarily, but Normal battles means you can get to feel really powerful and dominant in battle and seemingly pull off massive victories.

I'm not really interested in losing a campaign I put maybe 30+ hours into.
I don't see the appeal.

The Everchosen Spring Invitational is on, being casted from Total War's youtube channel.

Was tempted by a Kroq-Gar campaign the other day. Dinos. 'Nuff said but might wait for the DLC. I thought I'd have ditched the Vortex by now but I've three campaigns to wrap up.

Somewhat disappointingly, the FLC Lord for Lizardmen has been announced as Tiqtak'To (yes, his name is like naughts and crosses).

He's going to be a flying-focused Lord for a faction with only 1 flying unit available by default (the other being added by the new DLC).

Total War Reddit is in meltdown, given that they wanted one of the more established characters.

I'm looking forward to trying him, but he's way down list.

Yeah have to say CA dropped the ball a bit with the Skaven and Lizzies LL. TicTac (one of the only LM heroes I know) is a bit...out there and doesnt sound massively interesting. And Tretch for the Skaven is a bit...."really!" with so many great characters to choose from.

And the layout of new starting spots in Mortal Empires...Tennehuani stuffed into an already crowded region right beside the Vampire Coast when so much of the Lustrian continent is AI Lizardmen in a big splodge with no unique factions to break them up until Skrolk snowballs. And TicTac starting out in the southern Tomb Kings turf...ok....I guess...

killanena wrote: »

Regarding the Bretonnia update, while being my favourite faction don't need the update as much as Chaos IMO. Sure Bretonnia campaign factions could do with some buffs for the AI and maybe a few new units but in multi player I find them to be fairly competent.

I think it was probably easier to sort this out and produce something of higher quality than it would've been with, for example, Greenskins, who I think need a an absolute bucket of work.

They'll have them boxed off and can move on. Not entirely sure why they picked them over the Empire, who surely aren't that far off either - a new start position for one or both of Gelt and Volkmar and a few tweaks to their systems would probably be grand. They could even add Toddy in without too much hassle you'd think. Hopefully that's what we see over the summer.

They're one of my favourites as well and I'm interested to see what they do.

They've added a new region in the mountains next to Carcassone and Parravon according to the new maps they've released, so they might have a new Orc faction there, or possibly Skaven.

There's actually still quite a lot of empty space on the map, that should benefit from either being compressed for Mortal Empires in game 3 to allow more eastern content, or the addition of new settlements. They've pushed up some of the jungle/savanna for Tictaq'To into the bottom of the Arabian desert as well.

It's also been suggested on reddit that new settlements have been added to Talabecland (the region to the North of the Vampire Counts), although I can't make them out as clearly as the other additions they've added to the map.

killanena wrote: »

Chaos don't feel like chaos at all. I find they're campaign to be the most boring and they are not viable in multi player due to the high tier cost of their mid tier units.

But I think they might be saving the big Chaos changes for the 3rd game.

I would imagine so. They're missing an enormous amount of content and flavour, as well as the new developments made to Horde factions that leave them feeling woefully underdeveloped.
Hopefully Beastmen get a lick of paint then as well, because they're garbage in campaign.

Maybe they'll roll some of the new systems live in advance of game 3 being released, but I don't think they're going to be actually doing the work and adding, for example, new god-aligned units like Daemons or Pestigors for Beastmen until game 3.

The new DLC has been released.

Patch notes here.

Remouad wrote: »

With the new update I decided to give Bretonnia a spin.

Not enjoying the start at all.
Peasant Economy is bad enough but that -20 order penalty for the Ork incursion is vicious.
Also with the Calvary focus makes sieges completely different to any other race.

Hoping it gets better in the later game.

All of this was there pre-patch. The Greenskin incursions are there to give you something to do while you research the confederation technologies.

So I've shelved the Bretonnia campaign for now.

Decided to start a Von Carstein campaign instead and having way more fun with it.

Think infantry and monsters are more my style.

Remouad wrote: »

So I've shelved the Bretonnia campaign for now.

Decided to start a Von Carstein campaign instead and having way more fun with it.

Think infantry and monsters are more my style.

I just started one recently as well.

I think they've tweaked the AI a bit and I'm snowballing less.
Because the minor Empire factions are a lot more stable now, I'm getting more meaningful wars against them.

I used to routinely have control of most of the Empire by around turn 50 but now I'm just conquering the provinces adjacent to Sylvania and really don't want to take on Karl just yet.

On the whole, after a fair bit of rumination I like the game now better than before, but there's still work to be done.

Bretonnia has become too easy. Whereas before you had to fight to stablise, now you can confederate the whole of Bretonnia by turn 50 easily, and the Dreadfleet, Kemmler, Mousillion and the Beastmen are far less of a threat (because they struggle to win early engagements and gain any momentum).
Ikit Claw can't be leveraged half as well by the AI as by a human player, so he mostly seems to be getting killed by Estalia.

I've really enjoyed playing as Ikit Claw. It's like a weird twist on playing as Space Marines vs hordes of monsters, except you're the monsters and you have the guns, and the hordes are of desperate humans getting mowed down in neat ranks.

I've been surprised to find that Tehenhauin has been the most disappointing to play. It's challenging, but the skinks aren't really that entertaining to play with. That said the engine of the gods is a good addition, as is the ancient salamander, and Lord Kroak is an absolute god. Good heavens. I nuked half a chaos army with him in one shot and it didn't so much as singe an eyebrow of of one of my lizard bois.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not, Tiktaqto has apparently been quite a big success, although I haven't played him yet. Dropping rocks is surprisingly effective, and he can do it twice, and his rocks are on fire.

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Are you going to confederate Manfred?

Yep. Confederated with Manfred. was available really early on so just went for it.

About 40 turns in now and I've also confederated with the barrow legion.
They only had one region and are miles away from my other provinces but the challenge will be craic.

Was interested to see that Heinrich Kemmler was still available even though he was wounded.

Gbear wrote: »

I just started one recently as well.

I think they've tweaked the AI a bit and I'm snowballing less.
Because the minor Empire factions are a lot more stable now, I'm getting more meaningful wars against them.

I used to routinely have control of most of the Empire by around turn 50 but now I'm just conquering the provinces adjacent to Sylvania and really don't want to take on Karl just yet.

Seeing similar.
Quite happy consolidating my position and slowly expanding.
Dwarf and Empire factions are starting to confederate now so going to have to get a move on taking out the smaller factions.

Loving the End turn times.
Once I click that end turn button I have enough time to make a cup of tea, get the dishwasher on, do some gardening, read a book on Greek philosophy and prepare a 6 course meal all before my next turn.:rolleyes:

Remouad wrote: »

Yep. Confederated with Manfred. was available really early on so just went for it.

About 40 turns in now and I've also confederated with the barrow legion.
They only had one region and are miles away from my other provinces but the challenge will be craic.

Was interested to see that Heinrich Kemmler was still available even though he was wounded.

Was there any difficulty confederating with Mannfred? I've never played the VC's. I was thinking of upping my difficulty to VH/VH but I'm not very keen on the AI getting insane combat bonuses.

Twenty Grand wrote: »

Tried playing as Brettonia.

Honestly can't get over how crap their infantry is.

Tried to take over Mousillon early but I can't stop the lads routing at the first sign of the Red Duke and a Vargulf.

Hard to watch an entire army just run away while the Lord and Paladin fight on.

I'd be churning out lots and lots of archers if I were you. Your Knights of the Realm should fare well against the Varghulf with its poor leadership.

You could try supporting your infantry with a Grail Reliquae which confers +16 leadership and an immunity to psychology to nearby units.