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K added you. Let me know when you want a co-op game.

I would put out my Steam Name for Total War, but I'm awful at the game.

is It just me, or are things like the Zombie Dragon mount way too high up there in levels to be fun? basically i'm asking if they should be unlocked at like lvl 16 or something.

I've been playing the game and while it's fun it feels incomplete to me. Also I wish for the smaller battles the auto-result wasn't so damned skewed to crush your army.

 Hulksmash wrote:
I've been playing the game and while it's fun it feels incomplete to me. Also I wish for the smaller battles the auto-result wasn't so damned skewed to crush your army.

you can dl the mod for more fair auto reslove battles, It seems pretty good. You do not auto win any fights or anything and when it is grossly in your favour....... You actually win lol.

 Hulksmash wrote:
I've been playing the game and while it's fun it feels incomplete to me. Also I wish for the smaller battles the auto-result wasn't so damned skewed to crush your army.

Auto-resolve has been broken in TW games for as long as I remember. It's ridiculously easy to influence, but those armies will not be balanced for manual fighting. Single-number/low-number units also suffer horrifically from auto-resolving, taking unreasonable amounts of damage. Wizards regularly take 90% damage just resolving a basic fight against a low-tier village garrison using a full 20-stack army, and I've had several just randomly die from resolving fights I more than handily won.

The only times I use it are when the battle would take longer than it's worth spending on it, and there aren't any embedded heroes/non-legendary lords that aren't on full health in my army.

 Hulksmash wrote:
I've been playing the game and while it's fun it feels incomplete to me.

I feel the same, while I love this game, I've played it heavily since launch, I miss unit abilities, like shieldwall and such, and Army Traditions, where the armies built experience and became unique entities to themselves. The siege battles feel half done as well. Besieging Karaz-a-karak feels the same as a siege on a Tier 3 minor settlement.

With that said, this is my second favorite Total War game, after Total War: Attila.

Having completed the game both with the Chaos and Dwarf factions, I am slogging through as the Empire. For my play-through with the Dwarves, I used several mods including the 'settle anywhere' one, the 'unit experience matters' one, the 'Hero's aren't annoying' one (no actions at all; makes finishing some quests/missions impossible), the '2 skill points per level' one and a couple other cosmetic mods. For the Empire, I am using the 'unit experience matters', 'Heros aren't annoying', 'mounts for everyone' and '2 skill points per level' mods. I was using 'settle anywhere', during my first attempt at the Empire, but it was actually detrimental as the Dwarves expanded rapidly into human territory, complicating later play.

What game-play affecting mods are you using?

Empire of Sigma, Karl Franz army is pretty much nothing but mounted and dismounted Reiksguard with crossbow support, plus it adds my beloved Carroburg Greatswords.

Mods I'm using are the reduced-effectiveness experience matters one, the fixed unit experience norse building mod, enemy agents can't do any actions but player agents can--not that it matters; I can count all my successes on my fingers--and the increased skill points per level mod.

What there is not a enemys cant fight back mod for you guys? Lol

OgreChubbs wrote:
What there is not a enemys cant fight back mod for you guys? Lol

Its a mod that makes it so Enemy Agents on the campaign map can't do their thing. In the unmodded game, the AI just spams them and has an endless limit to them. They also seem to almost always succeed, where player agents always have little to no chance to succeed, or aren't at a proper level to even do any actions. I just tend to put them into armies, so I don't have to micromanage every assassination/raid etc and forget about them.

 nels1031 wrote:

OgreChubbs wrote:
What there is not a enemys cant fight back mod for you guys? Lol

Its a mod that makes it so Enemy Agents on the campaign map can't do their thing. In the unmodded game, the AI just spams them and has an endless limit to them. They also seem to almost always succeed, where player agents always have little to no chance to succeed, or aren't at a proper level to even do any actions. I just tend to put them into armies, so I don't have to micromanage every assassination/raid etc and forget about them.

Pretty much. You get sick of seeing "XYZ was wounded in an assassination attempt" or "your army was hindered by some dwarven bloke" every turn, when your own heroes can barely scrape successes on basic actions. A Dwarf thane, Empire captain etc. can assault an entire army, causing not insignificant amounts of casualties to every unit in it. If you're trying to siege a settlement, just one of these agents can walk up to you and basically force you to retreat to replenish. A single thane lost me a Chaos playthrough because my horde got trapped besieging a dwarf settlement when a group of Chaos rebels appeared behind them, and the dwarves had a thane next to me. Two turns of assaulting the army later and the settlement's garrison of longbeards sallied and wiped me. That was the point I got that agent mod.

I know about the spam but thats why you keep 2 heroes in your warband.

You see a hero coming you detacth and attack and then reattach. If you do your tend to get to level 20 pretty quick.

After turn 90 some you never really end up with any hero dead.

But on a side note I am just pickin it is a single player game mod away boys enjoy

I got two mods on legend mounts and better auto resolve. If you armies are = you lose but if you have a 75% increase you win.... Mostly... Lol

But I started a dwarf campaign I hate them so much that I just ended up using only auto because I hated them on the battle field so much. Had to keep 2 armies maxed together all game some times 3 and to take out the vamps home 4 but so far it is working lol. Dwarfs need a nerf the money is just insane i get an average of 2000 gold a turn. I am at 729000 since turn 120 ish

That's 2 slots that could be taken up by actual units, though. Even with my attempts to keep heroes nearby I still fail 9/10 attempts to do literally anything, whilst enemy heroes manage to counter me at every opportunity. That Thane killed over half my 20-stack army over 2 turns, just by poking it. For comparison, my chaos sorcerer failed every attempt at anything that entire run. I wish I was embellishing the truth here, but I'm not; he spent half that run wounded or otherwise chasing things around trying to do stuff to them and failing miserably.

Over all my runs, I've never had an overall agent success chance of more than perhaps 10-15%.

I have been on the verge of buying this game for a while. I love me some Total War. Would you recommend it?

Yes, without a doubt. Biggest change is that factions are unique, no more "this faction has SLIGHTLY better archers, but everything else is the same!" type of gameplay. i.e. dwarves have no calvary and as such are generally slow as feth, or Vampire Counts, where everything inspires fear, and instead of breaking they start taking more (and constant) damage instead. Ork's have a "fightness" meter, Chaos has a horde mechanic where they don't capture towns, but instead each army functions as a town.

 Wolfblade wrote:
Yes, without a doubt. Biggest change is that factions are unique, no more "this faction has SLIGHTLY better archers, but everything else is the same!" type of gameplay. i.e. dwarves have no calvary and as such are generally slow as feth, or Vampire Counts, where everything inspires fear, and instead of breaking they start taking more (and constant) damage instead. Ork's have a "fightness" meter, Chaos has a horde mechanic where they don't capture towns, but instead each army functions as a town.

horde for chaos also means they take damage when 2 armies are near each other. So it can be a problem late game. Also you take damage for being up north if ur not chaos and damage for being in undead landsmd for being in the waste.

 Ashiraya wrote:
I have been on the verge of buying this game for a while. I love me some Total War. Would you recommend it?

Yes.

It may take a long time if you're not used to it (first game i had took 300+ turns) but later i've been claiming land at an incredible rate. Most factions have very good confederation abilities (empire, dwarfs, greenskins) but vampires seem to crap out fairly easily in confederation. Basically confederation allows you to assimilate another faction into your own. You have to be the same faction type (empire can only assimilate other empire factions so no bretons or others). If you are unsure check the diplomacy on factions. Each faction has there own list like tilea and estalia are the southern realms while undead are all the vampire factions.

It's a complicated game and i'd suggest you read some of the rules. There's a very easy advanced controls list that tells you some things. For instance if you press and hold 'Left ALT' and then hold the left mouse button and move your move back and forth you can keep your units in the same formation to the area you want to go. Let go of the left mouse button when you have the highlighted units where you want them to go in that formation.

Each faction does play different. As they said vampires have their own morale and raise dead abilities which are kinda cool. If you want undead to really crap out the best choice is lots of flanking and rear charges against their units. Once their morale hits the crapper they tend to start disintegrating on their own. This faction has no shooting so make sure you look at the speeds of all the units and always get some of the fastest so you can engage all enemies (usually wolves are the fastest).

Greenskins need to fight a lot with the armies they have. Some fun units but i got kinda bored with them. I oddly disliked spider riders and i thought i'd love them. Waaagh! armies are generally the same type of army generated for free each time but they are a great boon. When you have like 2-3 of them generated you really start doing well.

Empire is very gun and artillery heavy. Quite a lot of early confederation options. I'm actually having a bit of a rough time against dwarfs from time to time which changed a bit when i made greatswords. Those irondrakes (elite gun unit) and similar though are just sick. Seriously those things are no joke to fight (i think it looks like they chuck bombs at you so a lot like miners with charges but scarier).

With diplomacy i suggest you kiss a lot of ***. If you want to get anywhere the easiest way is just to gift other factions with money. Do it enough and they'll want to have your babies. It helps in confederation options. That said winning battles esp. against their enemies works too but giving gifts of money helps the most. Basically later on trade and open borders treaties and such as well as alliances help make the faction in question like you but often if you want to go anywhere easily and fast just gift them like 5k gold. It works well for confederation too.

If you play Empire, just conquer everything Marienburg, French and Estalia. If you do it right you can probably do it by turn 100.

Build economy in this area, since your chances of being attacked are extremely low in those areas, especially if you pay off Tilea. The dwarves on the area will usually be happy with you taking out the Bretonnians and Estalians, especially since the Estalians in my experience are fairly aggressive.

Use the fat cash you are reaping to fund armies out of Altdorf, and use it to fend off chaos. Confederate yourself a path to Sylvania, take out the Vampire counts.

Generally, having two armies of swords/crossbows/one or two artillery are better than death stacks filled with Greatswords, Demigryphs and tanks. This probably goes for any fsction that doesn't have Chosen. I'm not saying don't have any death stacks, just keep multiple armies of cheaper dudes, and have one (maybe two or three if you control most of the empire and all of the south) while had in five or six cheaper stacks.

There is a second Marienburg-esque port in Troll Country, take it when you start expanding northward. You can't confederate Kislev, so if Kislev is somehow holding on at this point, you might want to consider just taking it. The Kislev capital isn't a bad take, either.

Try to do the Reikland Runefang quest sooner rather than later. The extra public order is pretty swank.

Don't forget to use the Advisor system, especially the treasurer.

Oh, and wizards speced for income improvement are literally worth a province in gold if they are positioned at Altdorf/Marienburg.

Went Vampire Counts.

Looking good so far.

 Ashiraya wrote:
Went Vampire Counts.

Looking good so far.

everyone hates you, you have no friends and no matter how much you pay them they have I think it is -30 aversion.

 Crazyterran wrote:

Generally, having two armies of swords/crossbows/one or two artillery are better than death stacks filled with Greatswords, Demigryphs and tanks. This probably goes for any fsction that doesn't have Chosen. I'm not saying don't have any death stacks, just keep multiple armies of cheaper dudes, and have one (maybe two or three if you control most of the empire and all of the south) while had in five or six cheaper stacks.

I agree with Crossbowmen, but I feel like Greatswords completely replace the swordsmen eventually, I keep a few Halberdiers around instead. And with mods I have a deathstack army of Reiksguard, but they're also supported by Crossbowmen

Spearmen with shields and crossbow-men make up most of my armies; takes so long to build up to elite units. I like to haul a couple cannons around so I can just walk up to a walled city and roll over it. Sieges suck.

Finished my first play-through with the Empire the other day, took an extra dozen turns while I chased the Suneater and Sigvald all over the place. For this go around, I took out the Empire Rebels and then made a bee-line for Vampland, making sure to play nice with everyone else. At around turn 100, everyone gets real friendly when you-know-who shows up, so confederating is a breeze. And in the mean-time I manage 4 armies and try to spend gold as fast as I make it (before I had my 4th army, it was over 4000 per turn).

Fun!

OgreChubbs wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:
Went Vampire Counts.

Looking good so far.

everyone hates you, you have no friends and no matter how much you pay them they have I think it is -30 aversion.

Yeah she took a rough route. That was my first start. Spreading vampiric corruption is also a pain. Vampires help spread vampiric corruption but if you really want to spread vampiric corruption get plenty of lords with the vampire corruption level going around. It helps a ton. Otherwise prepare yourself for the most annoying attrition you've ever experienced outside of buildings. You will generally be forced to move out with it.

Also i found myself loving hexwraiths and crypt horrors and hating black coaches. I also loved fellbats and to an extent vargheists for tangling up enemy ranged units. Expendable and they will usually die but doing that can save a battle-line somewhat.

Just as a word of advice is that i don't think vampires have any siege units (i heard black coach is technically one) so if you want a turn one assault on enemy castles with walls you may want to sabotage the walls with a banshee hero. It will save you so much time and headache.

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I'd also suggest if you have to settle a destroyed town you may want to build an army with garbage, expendable, spammable units that can be replaced quickly. Scout ahead for them if possible and maybe take an army of actual fighting units to help in the fight. Alternatively a couple factions can heal units really quickly an absolute must if you want to repair an entirely destroyed army in 2 turns or so depending on skill points and they might even stack if you have 2 in an army. Empire has priests and i can't remember what vampires have but i think it was hero level vampires.

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I oddly find greatswords to be amazing myself. Their armor is infinitely better than most basic empire infantry. I'd also say handgunners are pretty good. They're probably better vs armored units though whereas crossbows are better vs light armored hordes probably.

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Some factions have a lot of large units like trolls and such (chaos, greenskins and vampire counts are known for this). If you have to face them go into woods and hide. They have to come in and it gives extreme debuffs to troll sized units, cavalry and chariots which is something dwarfs and empire are happy to take advantage of. If you don't have any forests on the map it might be a really hard road for you if you have to face chariots, cavalry and wolves though which is why halberdiers are good vs chariot and cavalry armies. Infantry that can shoot are better than cavalry that can shoot though and will always win those fights if you force the enemy into them.

I can see why Vampire Counts is hard. Everyone is razing all my stuff!

Good. I enjoy a challenge, and I prefer a close defeat to an easy victory.

 Ashiraya wrote:
I can see why Vampire Counts is hard. Everyone is razing all my stuff!

Good. I enjoy a challenge, and I prefer a close defeat to an easy victory.

It'll just make your inevitable victory over the living that much sweeter.

It is also helped by the fact that Archaon is not the brighest tool in the shed.

His 'innumerable host', as my panicked advisor described it, is laying siege to my northernmost outpost. However, that outpost has been heavily fortified and garrisoned for that reason, and when he began the siege he tried to wait me out, allowing me to send another large army to reinforce.

Now he has finally decided to begin the siege assault and he is so hopelessly outmatched his bar is barely visible at all on the force comparison counter.

Am I supposed to be scared of this guy?

The dwarves are a 10x greater pain, except some clan in the far south which loves me for some damn reason and even proposed a military alliance with me (which I accepted - it's not like I am going down there any time soon and it's nice to have someone who doesn't hate me for once).

Cackling with glee as the Empire sues for peace after you crushed the defenses of Nuln (including the garrisoned army with Gelt himself and their reinforcement army) feels delightfully villainous. I heavily love this game.

 Ashiraya wrote:
It is also helped by the fact that Archaon is not the brighest tool in the shed.

His 'innumerable host', as my panicked advisor described it, is laying siege to my northernmost outpost. However, that outpost has been heavily fortified and garrisoned for that reason, and when he began the siege he tried to wait me out, allowing me to send another large army to reinforce.

Now he has finally decided to begin the siege assault and he is so hopelessly outmatched his bar is barely visible at all on the force comparison counter.

Am I supposed to be scared of this guy?

The dwarves are a 10x greater pain, except some clan in the far south which loves me for some damn reason and even proposed a military alliance with me (which I accepted - it's not like I am going down there any time soon and it's nice to have someone who doesn't hate me for once).

Cackling with glee as the Empire sues for peace after you crushed the defenses of Nuln (including the garrisoned army with Gelt himself and their reinforcement army) feels delightfully villainous. I heavily love this game.

First invasion of chaos or 2nd and what difficulty? For me it was tough because i had more than one enemy attacking me while fighting him. Sure they all tried to fight him but it wasn't easy. He comes with like 3-4 of his bros and depending on where you are (empire usually) those norse tribes are a pain in the butt. Empire is a mixed difficulty campaign that requires a crap ton of border area wall on all border territories. A friend joked that i was basically the Trump of the Empire with my slogan being "we're gonna build a wall" but it works. Castles are much harder for the enemy a.i. to take and the garrison is increased significantly when you build walls. Not only that but ranged armies like dwarfs and empire benefit hugely over this.

If it's one thing i noticed across all play-throughs is that greenskins form a huge army as well as the norse factions. Dwarfs get nearly wiped out if left alone (since their bros are far away whereas greenies are all in one spot mostly) and empire and bretonnia are significant in force. Oh and tilea and estalia are almost never touched by war though border princes do get hurt from time to time. Oh and kislev always gets destroyed. It's just a matter of when kislev falls. Vampires usually don't build up too much. Oddly they're one of the only bad guy factions which doesn't spread too much on its own.

Oh btw if you want hard mode play chaos. You will freak out every time your secondary army dies since your armies are your territories. You basically have to play hide and seek with the enemy at all times. You raid, raze soon after (if you can or have a 2nd army) and then run like a little *****.

Also, I noticed something really ing dumb.

The dwarf faction who hates me the most sent a massive army, rapidly marched to my most vulnerable cities and started to raze them. The closest available army I could send was Mannfred's elite army, which seemed suitable, so I sent them to intercept.

Cue a long merry goose chase as the dwarf army was tailed by Mannfred's. Their army had so much artillery and ranged weapons and the like so they destroyed small garrisons with little in the way of losses, so they razed every city they came in contact with (Nuln, the Moot, and surrounding cities) before marching to the next. Because you can't launch an attack the turn you march and you have to stay a certain distance away if you can't attack, Mannfred has only gained ground on them painfully slowly, and they have caused unbelievable amounts of destruction - including one city they razed, I started to rebuild and then they razed it again.

Mannfred only just caught the bastards and now they are doomed, but holy hell they did so much damage and to them it was most certainly worth the loss of their army.

I am not sure how they could fix this, but this is sooooo dumb...