I think it could be an idea to have the AI races get stronger in a more natural way rather than just having conquering and confederation being the name of the game.

Like, instead of all Orc factions just becoming Grimgor and him owning half the map, keep the minor Orc factions as allies with each other that grow in strength together. Or instead of the Empire just becoming Reikland, it could stay as allied separate factions.

Part of the problem with Confederation is it actually seems to make things worse for the AI. There are fewer threats running about and the map becomes far less interesting.

Partly because the AI 'economy' is weird and fake, and they tend to drift towards a set number of armies.
An Empire or Orc 'vassal-swarm' would probably be far scarier.

It doesn't help that AI tends to confederate when the 'main faction' is losing, so they drag other subfactions into doom with them (and artificially extend a war you're already winning).

Given the AI isn't terribly smart, I think a bit of scripting wouldn't hurt (with some random number generators thrown in so the player gets a somewhat unique experience each time).

The Total War AI is a long way away from smart and the only way they compete with the player is through cheating, so I think it'd be a good compromise.

It's not like it's terribly fluffy for all these different races to snowball simultaneously anyway.

Pretty much most AI in most video games "cheat". Things like economy management are really hard to code for because they rely on planning your actions out in advance and the AI just isn't really doing that.

Doing pre-set structures can work and a lot of RTS AI build their base based upon a pre-constructed set of instructions/instances. OF course the downside is that means after a while even poor quality players are "trained" to the AI's expansion speed and style. And it also means the AI can lack an element of random variety.


Heck for me the TW Warhammer AI already wins points over osme of their other instances because its a more aggressive AI in general. In a lot of the other games I've seen the AI retreat and retreat and draw lines and then retreat again and draw lines. Medieval 2 would often initiate a siege and then abandon its siege equipment and draw lines. Which is honestly quite fun the first time it happens because it is different - then it gets annoying because you're never getting to fight a "siege" attacking your walls.


Which is another thing - players often want the AI To do "fun" but tactically unsound things.

I don't really mind that the AI cheat (well, except when it's obvious and unbalancing, like the melee buffs the AI gets on higher difficulties).

My point was more that since the AI has to cheat anyway, might as well throw a bit of scripting to make them behave a bit more realistically/fluffy. Or maybe it doesn't even need scripting, maybe it just needs tweaking the way the AI handles conquering and confederating vs working together.

Random variety and scripting aren't mutually exclusive, you can throw some RNG in with the scripting to create a variety of actions that aren't predictable.

Finished a Malagor campaign and in my opinion it was a massive let down. On Legendary/Vhard it was a cake walk. I auto resolved most of the battles and must have personally controlled less than 20. The old beastman campaign was broken as there was no way to stop the endless waves of upset computer forces coming at you, but this is too far in the other direction. A real disappointment.

Started my first ME campaign. Eltharion. Things were very touch and go for a while, trying to put out fires whilst all the Ork clans came after me at once, before eventually being subsumed by Grom. The "catch and release" thing that apparently gives you LOS of where they are wasn't working for me - no idea why - but eventually the Orks were beaten down time and time again. I had even worked out what the Dreadfleet wanted with me, and had a Donut Defence Force in place to see him off.

Then in the space of about a turn I went to Sartosa for the fun of it, had both my armies take a beating, had one of them lose half their number to an opportunistic pirate attack, at the same time the Dreadfleet hit the donut with the biggest force to date, Eshin declared war on me, and a rogue Ork army showed up in the centre of the Donut and took all of Alarielle's territory (who I had just confederated).

Soooooo... I've started my second ME campaign. Tyrion. I've confederated most of the donut + Imrik. A joint Tyrion/Eltharion strike force wiped the Dreadfleet off the map. I had to subdue Cothique as they went to war with Yvresse and I was allied with both of them. I may have let Cothique take Tor Yvresse first before taking it back... simplest way to get that settlement.

Then a random bloody Northman army showed up and took one of my top-most settlements. I quickly raised an emergency army - ROR and whatever I could recruit in a turn, mostly Lothern Sea Guard - and went to take it back, but Alarielle took it before I could! Very annoying. So I confederated her next turn.

I just got the main settlement to Level 5, I'm building the gates and the court of the Phoenix king. I will soon be able to pump out Sisters of Avelorn and Dragons like nobody's business.

I started to play a quick game on Hard as Thorek Ironbrow with a vortex campaign. Quite an easy start so far, I've yet to auto a battle but I do like the new UI for that. I also appreciate that it shows you which of your units will get destroyed. I purposefully had to play a battle just so I didn't lose my low strength hammerers regiment.

I had a good time rapidly wiping out Clan Pestilens and Lokhir as I near turn 30. I scored a neat little heroic victory against Lokhir by retreating from a siege. He promptly chased me with a smaller army backed by his larger Lokhir army who had force marched. His exhausted troops were easy pickings for my grudgethrower unit, which got 162 kills.

He went from strength 17 on the table all the way down to 70. Take that Elgi scum!

I played a hard game with Barrow Legion to see the rework, but I'm calling it quits at turn 130~. The short campaign objectives are absurd and the starting location is bad for dealing with the Chaos Invasion. Archaon hasn't even shown up yet.

Taking over the local region and crushing Reikland proved easy enough since Mannfred conquered most of the east and then promptly got curbstomped by the Chaos vanguard and I had to go put out that fire while fending off and eventually invading Ulthuan. Now I've got like 15 armies and I'm too spread out for it to be anything but a chore.

However, I do like the changes that I've seen so far to the Vampire Counts. Hemmler turns Hexwraiths and the scythe guys (I forget their name) into actually useful units and he casts Winds of Death for next to nothing. With his full quest kit he's also a decent tank. Absurdly cheap Necromancers is nice as well.

I swear they've changed Isabella's skills as well. I don't recall her giving Fel Bats and Dire Wolves The Hunger.

Cathay unit roster

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war-warhammer-3-grand-cathay-roster-reveal/

Kinda weird that all the Cathay Lords have 'War Bear' as a mount option, just like Kislev...

Their roster looks so much better than Kislev to me.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Kinda weird that all the Cathay Lords have 'War Bear' as a mount option, just like Kislev...

Maybe they're pandas?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Kinda weird that all the Cathay Lords have 'War Bear' as a mount option, just like Kislev...

I can see Warhorse, Sky Lantern, Wu Xing War Compass or Jade Longma

Looking forward to the Imrk/Miao Ying novel.

 Mr Morden wrote:
I can see Warhorse, Sky Lantern, Wu Xing War Compass or Jade Longma

That whooshing noise you're hearing isn't a Longma flying over your head, but rather the joke you missed.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Mr Morden wrote:
I can see Warhorse, Sky Lantern, Wu Xing War Compass or Jade Longma

That whooshing noise you're hearing isn't a Longma flying over your head, but rather the joke you missed.

Ok....

Having played a wider variety of LLs now on VH.

Lokhir Felheart has the easiest start of everyone that I've played by far.


Morathi is strong still OFC. I had her starting province north of 40k g/turn before turn 100, but her start is so much harder than Lokhir's and you absolutely have to fight battles manually or you will get stomped right out of the gate.

Alith Anar is the best High Elf faction leader IMO. Even with Lothern not being preferred climate I was still getting over 35k g/turn out of it. Should have used Quintex instead, but I'm dumb. Ambush attacks and a better underway stance turn the High Elves into gods. Imrik and Tyrion deleted the Legendary Chaos Invasion in the east in about three turns just by chain ambushing.

Alarielle is an inferior spellcaster to generic Life Archmages. Tempest is too situational. Banishment is not good. Earthblood proccing Life Bloom and Shield of Saphery is nice. 1 turn recruitment for Sisters of Avelorn is whatever IMO. She's better off leading a stack of Treemen since she works best as a healer. I think she works better as a confederated LL than as a faction leader.

I'm 20 turns into an Empire campaign and I'm not sure if i've missed something along the way, but i and I can't figure out if I can confederate Marienburg or not? They're an Empire Province for all intents and purposes, but without the option. Is there a trick to getting Emil on board the Unification bandwagon or do I just have to wipe him out and forgo having him as an Elector?

 Snrub wrote:
I'm 20 turns into an Empire campaign and I'm not sure if i've missed something along the way, but i and I can't figure out if I can confederate Marienburg or not? They're an Empire Province for all intents and purposes, but without the option. Is there a trick to getting Emil on board the Unification bandwagon or do I just have to wipe him out and forgo having him as an Elector?

Nope marienburg as far as i know requiers you to seize violently.

Not Online!!! wrote:
Nope marienburg as far as i know requiers you to seize violently.

Bollocks. That scuttles my vision of a glorious united Empire with all the named Electors Counts.

Okay, so I've been slowly trying to get every achievement in the game. That of course means I gotta beat each campaign on Very Hard/Legendary. Which is fine as I have always played Total War games on Very Hard anyway as the AI is dumb and its the only way it is moderately challenging.

I decided to spin up a Norsca campaign and give it a go....

Never again! My god what a terrible campaign and faction. It really does need a whole re-work and I hope they get one early in WH3.

Now I'm on to Vampire Counts. While the campaign is easier, the fact I cant auto resolve some fights because the way the game weights the value of Skeletons vs enemies regular troops is annoying as hell.

Norsca is more doable now that The Thousand Maws have been added in since they frequently take out Couronne and Marienburg for you. Sometimes even Reikland. Moulder is more of a threat from the north as well.

You want to blitz Altdorf as soon as you have the tech ready to research. 25% weapon strength is such a huge early buff.

Played Thorek Ironbrow in Vortex VH/N for the first time. Final battle is very atmospheric. Overall it's better than the ME campaign. I got 7/8 artifacts forged by turn 85. The Underway makes moving around Lustria easy. No Ordertide to screw things up. I've recently been seeing a lot of Dwarftide just dominate by turn 80-90 ME, to the point where the game is essentially over.