Total War WARHAMMER II |OT| The age of dwarf is over. The time of the Waagh! has come!

[Maledict]

I really wish the cult of sotek didn't start in southern lustria. I really want to play them, but they have the hardest start in the game bar none and there's just WAY too many other Lords in that area. It's too grindy and you spend so long having to slowly turtle, which seems the opposite of the gameplay style they were going for with him.

 

[Hella]

are y'all finding the AI skaven to be utilising the under-empire well?

as clan skryre i've been far from my fellow skaven, too far to tell if they're doing anything with the system. as a player it's a lifesafer tho. 1/3 to 1/2 of my economy is via the under-empire--it's basically let me field more armies than normal while also keeping infrastructure going.

 

[Wunder]

I honestly can't tell if it's under-empire stuff or just the fog of war in the jungle but rats keep popping out of no where and fucking my shit up.

I had a really stable economy heading into the third ritual but I got a little cocky and confederated with Southern Sentinels. This tanked my economy even after disbanding most of their units and I just lost a huge battle to Harkon who fielded 5 Colossi and obliterated my main army. I've lost most of the progress I made in northern Lustria with the Dreadfleet, Skaven and Greenskins coming in to have a piece of the pie.

 

[Hella]

yeah tbh i kinda hated fighting skaven, even before this patch. you have to be so careful against them, and their penchant for ambushes throws traditional army comps out the window. then you need a hero scouting for you, and... yeah. it's a lot.

lizardmen can at least avoid ambushes pretty well via their special stance.

 

[benj]

i have somehow fallen into some kind of twisted perpetual motion machine in my Noctilus campaign where i am constantly defending Caledor from Lothern, then going to deal with an uprising, then beginning to try to get my big strong army off Ulthuarn just as someone else comes into take Tor Sethai, then just as I'm dealing with that, Lothern is back at Caledor's Repose

I have fought the exact same fight 4 times at Caledor's Repose in the last...20? 30? turns

while all this is happening I managed to raise one other army in my capital with a Legendary Admiral, but he got smeared by Ikrit immediately, so i waited, rehired him, and am now raising another army

i think im having fun? but it mostly feels like...work

e: wait, no, i thought about it and I'm not having fun

i feel like this would be way more fun if i already had the entire map memorized and could go "okay i bet Quagg's Barrow is unguarded at this point in the game, i should be able to make it there in three turns and could handle whatever is garrisoned there" but not really know the layout of the world makes for a kind of guesswork that really doesn't benefit the rest of the game, i think

 

[Anno]

Eh I think you should just leave Lothern behind (sack it one more time to leave behind a cove) and go elsewhere. Vampirates are probably the best faction in the game at just uprooting and going somewhere else to find something more fun when you get bogged down.

 

[Hella]

i've figured out how to beat wood elves as skaven. simply throw so many bodies at their defenses that they run out of arrows before they can rout your armies. it's a horrible, bloody meatgrinder... but it works. only problem is durthu and his dryad legions--really gotta split those up to have a chance.

i should really have remade my army comps a bit.

also i didnt realise vermintides were permanent. that's awesome and completely changes the game.

Eh I think you should just leave Lothern behind (sack it one more time to leave behind a cove) and go elsewhere. Vampirates are probably the best faction in the game at just uprooting and going somewhere else to find something more fun when you get bogged down.

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i'd agree with this. ulthuan's a really all-or-nothing place, much like the wood elf forest and norsca lands. you're either going all in, or you're inconveniencing yourself as you spend time annoying them and inevitably losing to their retaliation.

conquering those areas takes a lot of logistical dedication. it will only drag you down if you're not committed. for empire-limited factions like vampirates, it will likely demand more than you can give. because every region added to your empire will demand a defense army at some point.

 

[benj]

yeah, that makes sense! and it's sort of what i mean—i'm a total goon for abacus games but trying to figure out what the opportunity cost of holding a territory is without a lot of experience in the game feels like trying to read a street sign through a cup of coffee. the process of learning to play a game is usually my favorite part, but i really wish i just already knew everything about this one

feeling aimless on the campaign map is probably on me for not playing a paint-the-map faction though. i still want to try a ME campaign but i'm ~80 turns into vortex and turn resolution still takes about a minute, it's a real drag

 

[benj]

all that said, finishing fights against high elves with zero casualties lost because big bess, carronades, and two necrofex's have finished the fight before their infantry have hit my slog of dorks is satisfying enough for me to run the same exact fight on 1x speed every time. but it'd also be neat if autoresolve wouldn't put the balance of power as 60% against me and resolve that same fight as a "close defeat". bad autoresolve!

after playing as the gunline/tarpit lords i'm probably gonna be in the mood for (A) fast glass-cannon archer/cavalry elites or (B) dgaf heavy infantry who can take endless hits. what're the big factions in those genres?

 

[Hella]

where you expand depends a lot on your location, but primarily you'll want to prioritise (A) conquering or eliminating your natural enemies to reduce pressure on you and (B) acquiring high-value settlements (like major ports or landmarks) to strengthen your economy.

lothern and avelorn, for example, want to unify ulthuan, so expelling the dark elves and vampirates is a first step. avoid going to war with fellow high elves when possible (tho some will be natural enemies), and ally up with lizardmen and bretonnia as opportunities present themselves. "good" factions will benefit a lot from trade with friendly factions, so making trade routes (contiguous regions from the capital to a port or border) is a good side objective.

and keep in mind that when you fight, it's best to elminate enemy factions fully, because if they survive they'll be super aggrieved by your hostilities and will inevitably go to war again. this is bad because they may invite other factions that dislike you, but don't necessarily have a reason to fight (so, e.g. as lothern an enemy could drag in norsca or moussillon). this can be really troublesome because far-away factions sometimes do send an army to fight you, which can hit a vulnerable area that you don't generally need to protect. and it will be difficult to attack them without splitting your attention on enemies that matter.

your ultimate goal in expanding is to protect the rest of your territory and reduce the fronts you're fighting on. so for lothern, with a unified ulthuan you will have a solid barrier and only be directly threatened by the dark elves and vampirates.

all that said, finishing fights against high elves with zero casualties lost because big bess, carronades, and two necrofex's have finished the fight before their infantry have hit my slog of dorks is satisfying enough for me to run the same exact fight on 1x speed every time. but it'd also be neat if autoresolve wouldn't put the balance of power as 60% against me and resolve that same fight as a "close defeat". bad autoresolve!

after playing as the gunline/tarpit lords i'm probably gonna be in the mood for (A) fast glass-cannon archer/cavalry elites or (B) dgaf heavy infantry who can take endless hits. what're the big factions in those genres?

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for (A) you'll probably love wood elves. they're all about cavalry, archery, and ambushes. ideally they will strike an enemy at their most vulnerable and walk away with minimal losses. bretonnia might also work, though they're more cavalry-focused and traditional in terms of gameplay.

for (B), dwarves. their whole faction is about enduring everything an enemy can throw at you and winning in spite of the odds. they're slow but powerful.

 

[Megasoum]

Hey guys so if I'm a complete noob and never played a Total War game... What would I actually need to grab?

Any essential DLC?

What's up with that TWW1 and 2 combined stuff or whatever... Should I also grab the first game just to get that stuff in the second one?

 

[Skade]

Hey guys so if I'm a complete noob and never played a Total War game... What would I actually need to grab?

Any essential DLC?

What's up with that TWW1 and 2 combined stuff or whatever... Should I also grab the first game just to get that stuff in the second one?

Click to shrink...

The combined thing is that all races you have access to in TWW1 (by default or via dlcs) are then unlocked in TWW2. And it will be the same for TWW3 when released : all races you have unlocked for 1 and/or 2 will be available for you in 3.

In the end, what you grab is ultimately up to you depending what you want to play. If you only want to play Dark Elves, you can just stick with 2. If you want to kill Dark Elves with humans, you'll need 1 and 2. If you want to play mummies, you'll need 2 and the DLC that adds the mummies, etc etc.

There isn't really any DLC that is "essential". The only essential thing to me is probably to have both games. Mostly because i tend to prefer playing Mortal Empires and that's a campaign that is only available for those who have both games. After that, you pick what you want (and there's a bunch of free DLCs for both games, so no need to think for that).

 

[Megasoum]

The combined thing is that all races you have access to in TWW1 (by default or via dlcs) are then unlocked in TWW2. And it will be the same for TWW3 when released : all races you have unlocked for 1 and/or 2 will be available for you in 3.

In the end, what you grab is ultimately up to you depending what you want to play. If you only want to play Dark Elves, you can just stick with 2. If you want to kill Dark Elves with humans, you'll need 1 and 2. If you want to play mummies, you'll need 2 and the DLC that adds the mummies, etc etc.

There isn't really any DLC that is "essential". The only essential thing to me is probably to have both games. Mostly because i tend to prefer playing Mortal Empires and that's a campaign that is only available for those who have both games. After that, you pick what you want (and there's a bunch of free DLCs for both games, so no need to think for that).

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All right, thanks!

 

[Kaffeemann]

Hey guys so if I'm a complete noob and never played a Total War game... What would I actually need to grab?

Any essential DLC?

What's up with that TWW1 and 2 combined stuff or whatever... Should I also grab the first game just to get that stuff in the second one?

Click to shrink...

I recommend getting only Total War: Warhammer 2 on a sale. There's no point buying DLC when you don't know if you like the base game or not.
If you end up liking it then they're lots of ways to add more content.

 

[Lorcain]

yeah, that makes sense! and it's sort of what i mean—i'm a total goon for abacus games but trying to figure out what the opportunity cost of holding a territory is without a lot of experience in the game feels like trying to read a street sign through a cup of coffee. the process of learning to play a game is usually my favorite part, but i really wish i just already knew everything about this one

feeling aimless on the campaign map is probably on me for not playing a paint-the-map faction though. i still want to try a ME campaign but i'm ~80 turns into vortex and turn resolution still takes about a minute, it's a real drag

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I wouldn't beat yourself up about the direction of your 1st Vampirates Vortex campaign. The game does the Count Noctilus player a disservice giving them a starting quest to attack (and settle?) one of the Southern Ulthuan towns. I wish that initial quest required the player to sack and then raze the city, with 2 or 3 follow up quests guiding the player to do more of the same. Basically teach the new Count Noctilus player to conquer-sack-raze non port towns, and to conquer-sack and establish pirate coves in the port towns.

The Count Noctilus vortex campaign is one of the safest imo because anytime you start to feel the heat from your inland excursions, you just high tail it back to sea and move on. Don't hold on to any territory. Just keep moving around the map, sacking-razing and establishing pirate coves when you can. The only time any army ever traveled to Galleon's Graveyard during my campaign was during the higher tier scripted Infamy quests, and that's just a few times. So you can pirate and plunder to your heart's content knowing your homebase will be safe.

Ulthuan is a freaking hornets nest though. Nothing unites the High Elves faster than a common enemy mucking around Ulthuan. I did that, but I had to keep moving and then head SW to pirate and plunder the southern continent. You can actually get a really good appreciation of the overall map as you explore new lands and coastal towns to sack.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention that after you defeat a non-port garrison you want to sack it for the money, and then on the next turn burn it to the ground. Leave a swath of ruins in your path. If the pressure is hot and army stacks are headed your way, retreat back to sea and sack and raze on the way out. Basically if it's a non-port town, plunder it and burn that shit to the ground :)

 

[benj]

thanks for the advice, guys! wood elves seem like a good fit, i was already eyeing them. love antlers on my dragons

and yeah, i probably should've been sacking/razing more stuff. i did a bit in my trip around ulthuan but was putting pirate coves on a lot of stuff, too. my income feels pretty good—enough to field two large armies—but so many of my unit-recruitment buildings are on Noctilus himself that my alternate army's composition is a little plain-jane

that said, rotting leviathan is a total beast. i dont think ive even really seem him take damage yet

 

[Lorcain]

I love the art style of the Wood Elves. The artists and designers did an amazing job on their units. I just finished their WH1 scenario campaign (I had never played it). They play different from any army I've tried. It took me many battles before I got the hang of splitting up their forces into smaller skirmishing teams and kiting the AI to death. My natural playstyle is to line up my front line of infantry flanked by spears, with cav on the far flanks, ranged units out front or pulled back to the middle, and reserves in the middle rear. The WE can do that too, but they're so much better pulling apart armies and skirmishing them. Or pulling them apart, weakening them, and then pulling them into your main WE force.

The amount of micro was more than what I was used to doing. It's not really difficult, just a different way to play. But man when I figured it out, it was a lot of fun. I'm not a fan of their amber requirement and draw for their tier 5 upgrades and non-faction elite units. That said, it wasn't too much of a hindrance once I sorted out my economy and amber draw...until each time I confederated.

They really are a fun army to battle with. Enjoy!

 

[AcademicSaucer]

I love the art style of the Wood Elves. The artists and designers did an amazing job on their units. I just finished their WH1 scenario campaign (I had never played it). They play different from any army I've tried. It took me many battles before I got the hang of splitting up their forces into smaller skirmishing teams and kiting the AI to death. My natural playstyle is to line up my front line of infantry flanked by spears, with cav on the far flanks, ranged units out front or pulled back to the middle, and reserves in the middle rear. The WE can do that too, but they're so much better pulling apart armies and skirmishing them. Or pulling them apart, weakening them, and then pulling them into your main WE force.

The amount of micro was more than what I was used to doing. It's not really difficult, just a different way to play. But man when I figured it out, it was a lot of fun. I'm not a fan of their amber requirement and draw for their tier 5 upgrades and non-faction elite units. That said, it wasn't too much of a hindrance once I sorted out my economy and amber draw...until each time I confederated.

They really are a fun army to battle with. Enjoy!

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I really hate the amber mechanic too, especially if you are playing as the the tree hero.

 

[Patapuf]

I doubt it'll happen before WH3 (if at all) but imo the Amber mechanic is the worst campain mechanic in the game and the one in most need of change. It doesn't even promote an isolationist playstyle. Which would be fine if it was fun but it isn't.

 

[Maledict]

They have said specifically they want to rework both the Amber mechanic and the way the wood elves play the campaign map because it doesn't work, so fingers crossed it happens at some point. Issue is they are a dlc for game 1 that don't even have much of a presence on the vortex map so can't imagine it's a priority. Presumably would come after Empire and Greenskins.

 

[Patapuf]

Yeah, i doubt they are in a hurry to fix it. Which is a shame because the wood elves have really fun units.

looking back, it's really striking how much better CA has gotten at coming up with mechanics for DLC factions and integrating them into the campaign. A lot of WH1 stuff looks really "simple" compared to how they modified stuff for 2.

 

[Kaffeemann]

Yeah, even the WH1 races that got their updates feel dated. It's unfortunate that they will never get to WH2 levels of polish and features but that's just the way it is.

 

[Hella]

ca has gotten a lot more bold in how divergent total warhammer is vs. traditional total war. even for how different twwh1 was, it was still very conservative in its changes, in hindsight. the vampire coast or updated skaven could never have happened back then.

it's easy to forget that at one point, a major faction's legendary lords were all contained in one faction, quests & quest battles were a big thing, and microcampaigns were a selling point.

really glad they're going all out in twwh2. it bodes well for game 3.

 

[Wunder]

what even is a microcampaign

 

[ShadowSwordmaster]

what even is a microcampaign

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Stuff like Eye for an Eye.

 

[Hella]

what even is a microcampaign

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the beastmen and wood elves had special, small-scale campaigns as part of their DLC. it had unique rules, geography, and victory conditions.

 

[Wunder]

Oooh right, thanks. I only played like 5 hours of vanilla WH1 so I don't know if I even saw that option or if it was just greyed out

 

[Hella]

iirc, after feedback ca decided to double down on alternate starts for lords and soup up the faction itself, instead of offering alternate campaigns. they also started splitting off lords from existing factions. i think the most profound example of this is the vampire counts who, as of the second last patch in twwh2, got fully split from the Vampire Counts faction. (except the paid DLC lord.) there was a long time where the von carsteins' and barrow legion's legendary lords were under vampire counts.

i'd expect balthasar gelt of the empire and azhag the slaughterer of greenskins to get split out when they're updated. the new empire lands and maybe massif orcal (though some area South of Greenskins would make just as much sense) would be cool starting positions.


i'm still hoping the empire gets some power consolidation. in my current game, they've spent most of the campaign down to altdorf, barely surviving next to bretonnia and the greenskins. (as of the last patch, minor greenskin factions have caused havoc in empire lands and lustria.) i just want them to survive as a monolith until chaos arrives. give me the ultimate battle of ultimate history, as the lore demands

 

[Lorcain]

Having just gone back and played the Wood Elves and Beastmen mini-campaigns, I don't miss not having them in WH2. I'd rather they continue to focus on strengthening the main campaign for that particular game, like the Vortex Campaign, and further enhance and expand the ME campaign.

The past couple of weeks have been a WH1&2 renaissance for me. I haven't played them since WH2 first launched. They're such well crafted games. I'm eager to see the level of attention and creativity they give Chaos in WH3. I hope they throw caution to the wind implementing units and play styles for the chaos factions. Build on everything they've learned from WH1&2.

 

[Hella]

omg in my ME campaign, order of loremasters just got lothern to confederate with them.

this ai update is wiiillldddd

 

[Anno]

There's currently a province in my ME game controlled by a random savage orc tribe and two different skaven rebellions. It's great.

 

[Wunder]

Lothern has been razed to the ground in my game, and there's only a tiny contingent of High Elves that are eking out a living somewhere in Saphery.

 

[HaNotsri]

In 15 turns all wood elf regions will be nuked. Nice.

 

[Hella]

i think the "no walls" on ulthuan gates bug is still happening. i had an extremely lopsided autoresolve strength--like 95%--as skaven assaulting a high elf held, level 5 gate. it's like the game thinks i'm ambushing them instead of sieging a walled settlement.

iirc this happened a while ago. i made a post about it then, too; but never checked to see if the fix worked. (iirc it was patched though.)

it's also weird that you can make undercities in ulthuan, but cannot use underway stance. it'd make more sense if it was consistent.

 

[Kaffeemann]

i think the "no walls" on ulthuan gates bug is still happening. i had an extremely lopsided autoresolve strength--like 95%--as skaven assaulting a high elf held, level 5 gate. it's like the game thinks i'm ambushing them instead of sieging a walled settlement.

iirc this happened a while ago. i made a post about it then, too; but never checked to see if the fix worked. (iirc it was patched though.)

it's also weird that you can make undercities in ulthuan, but cannot use underway stance. it'd make more sense if it was consistent.

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In the AMA the devs said that's there's no pre-existing underground network in Ulthuan but it doesn't mean that building new under-cities is impossible. I guess that's why there's no underway stance.

Fortress gates won't show as a settlement battle in the pre-battle screen because it's not a regular walled settlement. The auto-resolve might be so far in your favor because the High Elf garrisons in the fortress gates are the weakest out of all races.

 

[Maledict]

In the AMA the devs said that's there's no pre-existing underground network in Ulthuan but it doesn't mean that building new under-cities is impossible. I guess that's why there's no underway stance.

Fortress gates won't show as a settlement battle in the pre-battle screen because it's not a regular walled settlement. The auto-resolve might be so far in your favor because the High Elf garrisons in the fortress gates are the weakest out of all races.

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That is actually correct, lore wise. There is no underground network in Ulthuan because the warding stones and spells prevent one, but high elf cities presumably still have sewers and cellars that the Skaven can use to build undercitiee.

 

[vastag]

Anyone else find the AI turns in mortal empires too long? Is kinda killing my enjoyment. Man, I have to plan for a new rig for the third game.

 

[Kaffeemann]

The turn times are really long and getting longer with every update. Faster hardware can only help so much.

 

[Hella]

yeah it's a wall bug.


here's a screen from my current game as ikit claw, assaulting a level 5 high elf gate:

ikit has my best troops in a bit of a makeshift build. and while i don't doubt that i could beat it, pretty cleanly (aside from mass clanrat losses) the autoresolve is giving me way too much credit.

it's considered unwalled (it shouldn't be) and an ambush, too. in a straight, non-ambush fight, a force like that would be evenly matched in autoresolve, thanks to how insignificant clanrats are in the calculation.

buggg


Edit: oh and another thing. an undercity's vermintide (which destroys the undercity, spawns an army, and declares war on the settlement owner) bypasses alliances. i'm not clear on whether it's intentional or not, but it lets skaven effectively declare war on any one faction they want. very handy for engaging entrenched superpowers, or when eliminating smaller factions.

 

[Patapuf]

I find the undercity bombs super fun.

Is there a strong regional faction you want to eventually take over but taking that capital is a PITA?

Raze it to the ground an feast on the carcass. Bonus points if they have their main army there.

I've also noticed it's kind of important to have a handfull of undercities giving food if you want to maintain a large empire. Food seems super scarce if you don't fight constantly.

 

[Wunder]

Just finished my Tehenhauin campaign. I didn't really get to grips with the army as well as I thought near the end, but the final battle ended up being really easy with the insane vortex powers. Kroxigors didn't seem amazingly strong, but I also didn't want to leave my Red Crested Skinks behind so my final comp was a bit messier than the other two campaigns, where I definitely knew which units were unequivocally the best late-game.

Overall quite a fun campaign for my first lizardmen run, the start was absolute hell but I'm glad I managed to climb out of the mire and get to grips with a few provinces. I never quite fully stabilised with both Dreadfleet and Vampire Coast terrorising my fringe cities, with Harkon cutting a swathe through the jungle in a desperate bid to escape my hounding armies. Dude killed Tehenhauin at two different points, but I managed to catch him eventually.

Thinking about trying to go back to Sartosa next, but I'm also intrigued with Bretonnia or Vampire Counts. Suggestions?

 

[Patapuf]

I'm a fan of Bretonnia because it's a faction that's all in on mobility and cav. It's one of the few factions that has highly mobile units that can fight in sustained combat. Also, pegasi and hypogryphs are cool.

Vampirates on the other hand have giant crabs, walking zombie ships with canons as arms, gigantic artillery pieces and ghosts of the drowned hungry for living things. You can also use your lord as mobile settlment.

I'm not the biggest fan of VC. They do have a good starting position though. Lots of different armies nearby. They tend to be really lord-centric armies in that your general and big monsters do most of the damage while the chaff holds things in place.

 

[Hella]

Vampire Counts are in a pretty unique situation in Mortal Empires, because they're one of the only factions that takes the full brunt of Chaos' attacks. The initial Chaos attacks will hit their lands, and then the Warriors of Chaos will move through the same path. So that could be an interesting challenge in a way that the other factions aren't.

They're also the only one of the three that I've played for any real time.

 

[Wunder]

Bleh, started a Sartosa campaign and I'm still running into the bug where selecting the fight on certain sea treasures won't trigger the fight and the treasure disappears. Really annoying when you spend a few turns going out of your way for it and really need the gold. Doesn't seem like there's a fix for it other than just reloading and trying different angles, so I might just give up and try another faction.

 

[Hella]

Bleh, started a Sartosa campaign and I'm still running into the bug where selecting the fight on certain sea treasures won't trigger the fight and the treasure disappears. Really annoying when you spend a few turns going out of your way for it and really need the gold. Doesn't seem like there's a fix for it other than just reloading and trying different angles, so I might just give up and try another faction.

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it also happens if you're in march stance (and can't initiate a fight), iirc. robbed myself of quite a bit of gold doing that without thinking.

 

[BrutalInsane]

Quick question . . . any mod you guys recommend that slows down combat a good amount, but doesn't affect any stats and keeps it balanced? Ever since Shogun 2, it seems like battles in all Total War games play out too fast and don't give you enough time to make decisions in real time. I'm looking for something a little closer to Divide Et Impera, but maybe half as slow.

Anyone else find the AI turns in mortal empires too long? Is kinda killing my enjoyment. Man, I have to plan for a new rig for the third game.

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Look for a mod called 'ME Turn-Time Destroyer.' Been using it, it cuts down the time between turns from about 1m30s to about 45s for me.

 

[Frozen Viper]

Tehenhauin is a horrific vortex campaign start. Finally have a strat down where I can sort of survive the first 15 turns, but it's a real slog and almost unwinnable if you don't do it perfectly. The worst is how the first skaven faction you fight, if you don't run them down within 15ish turns they'll start churning out stormvermin and warplock engineers with warpfire throwers really quick, and without Saurus to hold the line Skinks get carved through really quickly on hard let alone a harder difficulty. Luckily Plague rat and Ikit got into their own civil war or else I don't think I could go past turn 30 as my two Lizardmen neighbors to the north are wiped out and the purple lizardman faction is playing settlement tag with Teclis.

I'll echo the earlier sentiments though, I'm partial to Croq's, Ikit's, and Grimgor's starts in mortal empire, but goodness turn times of 2 minutes even on a SSD are a killjoy. I'll try the above mentioned mod

 

[karnage10]

I haven't been active as i have not been home. For give me for the "old" posts.

My impression of DLC
Lizardmen- The prophet and the new skink lord which allow a skink army feel great. It adds a new layer to the lizardmen. The new units are a mixed bag to me. Salamanders and the ancient variant as well as the red crest skinks are really nice additions to the roster while the ark of sotek and the engine of the gods feel a bit too weak to my taste. These 2 last units feel like they perform much worse then the "other" variants like the revifications cristal and ancient stegadon. Maybe i am missing something. The unique mechanic for little Teh feels very imersive, specially in mortal empires.

Skaven- Ikit claw is just an art work, from the animations to the sound design he is extremely impressive. The new skaven units are also really good, not only animation wise but also because they add new ways for the skaven to play. The new unique mechanics for ikit claw are a lot of fun and they push you towards using skryre type units. It is one of the few ingame mechancis which i wish other skaven LL had. Doom rocket, imo, is too powerful for how easy it is to manufacture it; that said it is such a satisfying sight.

FLC
Tiq tak to is a lot more fun then it seems, having one more bomb + buffs to flying units makes for an absolute madness in the battlefield.
Lord Kroak- this hero is absolute bonkers. The part of CA/games workhop that designed this monster wasn't thinking straight. At LOW level he deletes units, at high level he deletes "armies". I dread the day i have to pick up a fight with him.
Under-empire jsut makes the skaven work, No more food issues, no more being pushed into as few armies as possible with as much elites units as possible. It also makes everyone not playing as skaven paranoid as F**** when you see skaven corruption increasing by "events".

I haven't touched bretonnia rework yet.

yeah it's a wall bug.


here's a screen from my current game as ikit claw, assaulting a level 5 high elf gate:

ikit has my best troops in a bit of a makeshift build. and while i don't doubt that i could beat it, pretty cleanly (aside from mass clanrat losses) the autoresolve is giving me way too much credit.

it's considered unwalled (it shouldn't be) and an ambush, too. in a straight, non-ambush fight, a force like that would be evenly matched in autoresolve, thanks to how insignificant clanrats are in the calculation.

buggg


Edit: oh and another thing. an undercity's vermintide (which destroys the undercity, spawns an army, and declares war on the settlement owner) bypasses alliances. i'm not clear on whether it's intentional or not, but it lets skaven effectively declare war on any one faction they want. very handy for engaging entrenched superpowers, or when eliminating smaller factions.

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This is so annoying!

Just finished my Tehenhauin campaign. I didn't really get to grips with the army as well as I thought near the end, but the final battle ended up being really easy with the insane vortex powers. Kroxigors didn't seem amazingly strong, but I also didn't want to leave my Red Crested Skinks behind so my final comp was a bit messier than the other two campaigns, where I definitely knew which units were unequivocally the best late-game.

Overall quite a fun campaign for my first lizardmen run, the start was absolute hell but I'm glad I managed to climb out of the mire and get to grips with a few provinces. I never quite fully stabilised with both Dreadfleet and Vampire Coast terrorising my fringe cities, with Harkon cutting a swathe through the jungle in a desperate bid to escape my hounding armies. Dude killed Tehenhauin at two different points, but I managed to catch him eventually.

Thinking about trying to go back to Sartosa next, but I'm also intrigued with Bretonnia or Vampire Counts. Suggestions?

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personally i vote vampire counts. IMO they are one of the most fun factions in a total war game because they deleted one part of the game while supercharging the rest.
VC don't have a single ranged unit! Instead they have an extremely resilient army with some of the best flankers, air units and magic users in the game. It feels incredebly different in battle when you can't ever just hunker down and whittle the enemy from afar.
Campaignwise their mechanics push you towards a relatively slow expansion (due to needing corruption for public order) but with very expendable armies (any big battle site will reward you with a place to recruit good units instantly).


While i haven't tried the latest bretonnia rework, bretonia is kinda like a one trick faction. You use cavalry to win every engagement while hoping your peasants can hold long enough for your cavarly top do the job. Siege offences are also really hard since most of the peasant units rout far too easily to be able to breach any type of wall, thus you can only fight on wall breaches as well as in gates.

 

[Youngfossil]

Quick question . . . any mod you guys recommend that slows down combat a good amount, but doesn't affect any stats and keeps it balanced? Ever since Shogun 2, it seems like battles in all Total War games play out too fast and don't give you enough time to make decisions in real time. I'm looking for something a little closer to Divide Et Impera, but maybe half as slow.



Look for a mod called 'ME Turn-Time Destroyer.' Been using it, it cuts down the time between turns from about 1m30s to about 45s for me.

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you can slow them down without a mod

 

[BrutalInsane]

you can slow them down without a mod

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Oh I know you can slow it down with the time controls, but I want normal speed / longer battles, if that makes sense. I settled on 'Proper Combat,' it seems to do the trick.