Warhammer: Total War

Remouad

Breakdown by Party elite.

Both upcoming titles are looking really good but think I'll be going for thrones of Britannia first.

Apparently there are siege battle improvements which will hopefully carry over to the warhammer games

Shiminay

I've been properly stuck into the Tomb Kings DLC this last couple of days (also, finally shifted the game over to an SSD so it's actually playable and I don't have a 5 minute wait time for fights to load). Started around ten last night, suddenly it was 8am... (obviously I'm off work atm ) Game still suffers with a bit of annoyances, can't keep it in "Fast Forward" mode and clicking on the arrow crashed the game just now. Really enjoying the Tomb Kings stuff though, their mechanics are quite an interesting rejig on the established systems.

Outkast_IRE

Playing Tomb Kings for the last week.

As someone who previously played, Elfs, dwarves, empire, lizards i find the new mechanics with the Tomb Kings interesting and results in some interesting game strategies. For some reasons the wood elfs are really friendly with my tomb king faction. Standard units are nothing more than meat for the grinder, the chariots and monsters are what makes the tomb king army workable. I still struggled with them against greenskins when the army was mostly high level attack units.

Shiminay

I've got 8 armies stomping around - 2 up in the North taking out Elven cities, 3 in the South starting to make inroads into the newly formed gigantic Lizardman alliance and 3 more on their way to fight what I believe is the last mission at the Black Pyramid. Naturally, everyone has declared war on me except Clan Mors for some reason, so I'm helping them with their newly found lizard infestations. It's been very enjoyable though, gonna start a full map playthrough after this

Generic Dreadhead

Look at Mr. Moneybags over here...

Dave_The_Sheep

Generic Dreadhead wrote: »

Look at Mr. Moneybags over here...

No upkeep / recruitment cost for armies for Tomb Kings. They are dead after all.

Shiminay

What need have I for money when the remains of thousands of years of servants litter the sands as far as the eye can see But yea, there's no army upkeep for the Tomb Kings (and conversely, you make money much more slowly and its only spent on building settlements).

I finished the campaign last night, annoyed I could only have one of the 3 armies I brought to the fight, but the AI provided 2 allied armies which it controlled to help.

Generic Dreadhead

But my Vampire Counts dudes are undead and I have to pay them wages. F**king Von Carstein Union Reps

Shiminay

The Von Carsteins didn't run a quarter of the planet some thousands of years ago and leave a limitless supply of servants waiting to be reanimated :P

srsly78

Shiminay wrote: »

I've been properly stuck into the Tomb Kings DLC this last couple of days (also, finally shifted the game over to an SSD so it's actually playable and I don't have a 5 minute wait time for fights to load). Started around ten last night, suddenly it was 8am... (obviously I'm off work atm ) Game still suffers with a bit of annoyances, can't keep it in "Fast Forward" mode and clicking on the arrow crashed the game just now. Really enjoying the Tomb Kings stuff though, their mechanics are quite an interesting rejig on the established systems.

Ignore fast forward mode, instead click on camera settings and set all factions to fast. Set the ones you actually want to see (certain enemies maybe) to normal.

Remouad

Make War not love is back.

They're giving away the grim and the grave free tomorrow.
I had to sign up using my steam Id so might redeem directly.

ancapailldorcha

I'm a little bit bored of Rome 2. It seems a bit lifeless. Might pick this up in the evening.

Outkast_IRE

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I'm a little bit bored of Rome 2. It seems a bit lifeless. Might pick this up in the evening.

Rome 2 is tough to play after warhammer 1 or 2.

ancapailldorcha

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Rome 2 is tough to play after warhammer 1 or 2.

Is Warhammer quite tough then?

Outkast_IRE

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Is Warhammer quite tough then?

No i just mean if you go back to the older total war games after playing warhammer, they feel really unpolished and you will miss a lot of the improvements.

The skill trees for the lords and units in warhammer is excellent . The building tree works really well too. You can have some really interesting and fun battles compared to rome 2.

ancapailldorcha

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

No i just mean if you go back to the older total war games after playing warhammer, they feel really unpolished and you will miss a lot of the improvements.

The skill trees for the lords and units in warhammer is excellent . The building tree works really well too. You can have some really interesting and fun battles compared to rome 2.

Ahhh...

I'd a rough start as Sparta but now I have quite a few provinces and am able to steamroller pretty much anything. I feel like Warhammer could be a breath of fresh air.

Potatoeman

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Ahhh...

I'd a rough start as Sparta but now I have quite a few provinces and am able to steamroller pretty much anything. I feel like Warhammer could be a breath of fresh air.

Some things are not explained very well though. The empire’s income building looks like it loses money when you upgrade it but it actually stacks. You lose standing with factions that are allies if you make peace with their enemies. Merge orc armies and you lose massive fightyness. You need to keep an eye on slaves as dark elves as it will lower public order. The tips are a bit OTT and don’t highlight some of the more important things. You can be pretty far along before you realize some of these are an issue.

Outkast_IRE

Having played the tomb kings a bit more now. I find their campaign is a big pile of meh !!

Because you are the only one really pursing the objective it feels like whats happening elsewhere in the world means very little to you, only your immediate neighbours take an interest in you. Very detached feeling compared to the normal campaign.

I like the new units and how they play a bit different with regards to campaign mechanics.

ancapailldorcha

Unfortunately, I gave up games for lent...

Kiith

I think i'd rather walk through the desert for 40 days than give up games :P

ancapailldorcha

Kiith wrote: »

I think i'd rather walk through the desert for 40 days than give up games :P

It's... trying...

Samuel T. Cogley

What's holding Warhammer II back for me? I'm running a 1080@2Ghz, 4790K at stock (can't OC it anymore) 16GB 1600Mhz RAM and sometimes it will just die in terms of frame rates - running with ultra unit sized and high detail.

ancapailldorcha

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

What's holding Warhammer II back for me? I'm running a 1080@2Ghz, 4790K at stock (can't OC it anymore) 16GB 1600Mhz RAM and sometimes it will just die in terms of frame rates - running with ultra unit sized and high detail.

I recently discovered that disabling V-Sync dramatically improves framerate.

Outkast_IRE

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

What's holding Warhammer II back for me? I'm running a 1080@2Ghz, 4790K at stock (can't OC it anymore) 16GB 1600Mhz RAM and sometimes it will just die in terms of frame rates - running with ultra unit sized and high detail.

For me installing it to an SSD has helped in general gameplay alot, so much so that they should nearly make it a requirement !

Samuel T. Cogley

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

For me installing it to an SSD has helped in general gameplay alot, so much so that they should nearly make it a requirement !

Oh yes learnt that from previous iterations and going to make a cuppa while it loaded

Gunmonkey

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

For me installing it to an SSD has helped in general gameplay alot, so much so that they should nearly make it a requirement !

Yup, going from 2 minutes of loading to 15 seconds per battle is a Chaos God-send.

Samuel T. Cogley

Any more tips on frame rates?

killanena

I get 60+ fps with 8gb ram, a RX480 4gb and a fx 8350 4.8ghz installed on an ssd with med / high settings at 1080p

killanena

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Any more tips on frame rates?

The 3D portholes, disable them, saves like 10-15 fps. I find the debug camera is nice when fighting massive battles because you can zoom out far enough that you can see what's going on and not have massive lag because there isn't as much detail to render, but you can still zoom in for some of that slow mo cinematic clips

Oasis1974

Just got this from cdkeys for €23 very disappointed in the graphics optimization. Seems like a few gremlins under the bonnet. Down to 2d porthole also lost shadow detail completely even low setting drops frames turned SSAO off couple of other things off as well. FFXA is the preferred AA I read. Even going from ultra to high in some settings. On a Ryzen 1700 32g DDR4 32000mhz Gtx 1080 running at 27" 2k resolution albeit. Forum's are moaning about issues as well which I was unaware of when I bought it

killanena

Oasis1974 wrote: »

Just got this from cdkeys for €23 very disappointed in the graphics optimization. Seems like a few gremlins under the bonnet. Down to 2d porthole also lost shadow detail completely even low setting drops frames turned SSAO off couple of other things off as well. FFXA is the preferred AA I read. Even going from ultra to high in some settings. On a Ryzen 1700 32g DDR4 32000mhz Gtx 1080 running at 27" 2k resolution albeit. Forum's are moaning about issues as well which I was unaware of when I bought it

Are you using dx12? I had issues with it myself if you are, on dx11 i get 60+ fps easily in big battles on high / ultra although im playing at 1080p

Oasis1974

Think DX12 runs better with AMD cards had no joy switching when I did try. Vsync off actually was a performance downgrade aswell. Only thing I would say the game still looks very sharp and detailed even with all the bells and whistles off. Even AA is off now lol. Now the real hard part becoming good at the game

Remouad

So I've (finally) finished my Lizardmen vortex campaign.

That final battle was a bit of craic.
Didn't make up an army for it. Just took in my favourite (not legendary) lord and who ever he had with him.
Barely survived.

Trying to decide whether to go back to warhammer 1 and do the chaos campaign or do a mortal empires campaign with my little dwarf buddies.

ancapailldorcha

I was debating bumping this now that Lent has been and gone.

Started my first campaign prior to the holiday as the Empire with Karl Franz as my legendary lord and consolidated Reikland. Now I have The Wasteland, Middenheim and Talabecland alonh with Nuln. Turns out expanding North may have been a mistake as apparently Chaos emerges from there. I've built guardhouses and walls on my towns and capitals respectively though the Dwarves keep making excursion north. I'm also a tad fearful of the vampires to the east.

Shiminay

Yea, Chaos spill out of the North, expect Kislev to get rolled and you'll have some tough battles against 2 armies of fully stacked bad-ass units at a time (I think it's between 4 and 6 stacks of Chaos that rolls out when Archaeon makes his push). If you can get the Dwarves and the Vampires to tank some of the worst of it, you should be able to make some gains in their territories too.

Varik

Haven't played for a while but didn't they change it so that chaos isn't just something that just hits those north or east of the Black and grey mountains.

ancapailldorcha

Seems to be 2 waves. I've seen one with mainly half stacks in the north. I've agents spreading corruption and I can't seem to get it down.

ancapailldorcha

Getting properly kicked by Chaos. Seems to be a bug where I can't even recruit some of my units as well.

ancapailldorcha

Turns out there's a tiny scroll bar at the bottom. Sigh.

Anyway, I have to say that I'm finding this more than a bit cheap. I'm spamming auto resolve to deal with the Chaos and they keep razing my settlements.

Shiminay

The Autoresolve isn't terribly accurate and so fights the computer says you'll get trounced in are often very winnable with some luck. It over-rates chariots and monstrous creatures a fair bit and whilst it's better in WHII than I, it's still way off. Even if you think you're going to get rolled, try to concentrate on taking out some key units in the stack (Hellcannons are always my first pick) so that you're softening their cough every time you face them and they're less lethal. Don't be surprised if you need 6 or 7 stacks to deal with it if you don't have any allies.

Varik

Hellcannons

Hide you army, maybe keep a single unit out in the open somewhere as the AI cheats a bit.
Move something fast/flying into range of said cannons and let them stop to fire while you dodge (change direction of movement when they fire but they do home a bit). The rest of their army will continue to move forward separating them from the hellcannons.

large number of stacks.
Lightning Strike is a priority for your generals, allows you to to take on large number of stacks one by one.

ancapailldorcha

Thanks both. I've eliminated most of the stacks now via auto-resolve so that's now less of an issue that the corruption that I have absolutely everywhere. I'm basically moving my stacks around Reikland, the Wasteland and Nuln putting down rebellions though the Wasteland seems to be stabilising while Reikland is fine.

I think part of the problem is that the AI is better on a linear map. In Shogun 2, I lost my first campaign because I wasn't quick enough to upgrade to better units. I think I've done the same here. I was fine against the smaller factions at the start but against Chaos, my swordsmen are severely outclassed.

Shiminay

Oh yea, you need top tier units for taking onArcheon's Chaos push, but if you're trying to soak some damage, throw out a stack of any low tier units you still have hanging around. But the first time they come out, you should be ok with mid-tier stuff. The Hellcannons are the worst

ancapailldorcha

Shiminay wrote: »

Oh yea, you need top tier units for taking onArcheon's Chaos push, but if you're trying to soak some damage, throw out a stack of any low tier units you still have hanging around. But the first time they come out, you should be ok with mid-tier stuff. The Hellcannons are the worst

Cheers. Decided to revert to an older save. Managed to confederate with Wissenland and am planning to be more proactive in upgrading. I also think that building shrines to Sigmar in my Capitals would have helped more regarding the corruption.

I always struggle with declaring war in Total War games due to a weird sense of honour for some reason. Especially if the faction is friendly.

killanena

Im currently taking a break from WH2TW, waiting on the next content patch that adds back regiment of renowned and Norsca the last Warhammer 1 patch released which I didn't play much of so it will all feel pretty new to me. I'm also not willing to give up my precious hard drive space to reinstall warhammer 1 just to play Norsca :P

What I am playing at the moment is warhammer vermintide 2, So good its like a better left for dead in the Warhammer universe. I played the first one a bit but didn't get into it as much as its squeal.
If any of your guys play it and want to party up send me a PM!

ancapailldorcha

I don't know. This just isn't fun any more. I can't fight any battles as Chaos just destroys me again. The temples and castle defenses help a bit but ultimately, there's no real strategy I can see that works against them. I'm just scurrying around auto-resolving all the time and it's just boring. I was tempted to pick up Warhammer 2 this morning but I don't think I'll bother.

eeguy

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I don't know. This just isn't fun any more. I can't fight any battles as Chaos just destroys me again. The temples and castle defenses help a bit but ultimately, there's no real strategy I can see that works against them. I'm just scurrying around auto-resolving all the time and it's just boring. I was tempted to pick up Warhammer 2 this morning but I don't think I'll bother.

Chaos are easy enough to beat if you have the right units.

They have SFA ranged units or cavalry units. Horsemen and wolves are easy to beat with most cheap infantry. Crossbows do well against both.

Their infantry is rock hard so focuson high damage armour piercing like greatswords, cannons and gunners.
Use halberds to go after chaos cavalry and large targets.

Make it a priority to have one or two cavalry or fliers to go after the hellcannons. Magic to increase defence or damage is also worthwhile. The net spell han be fantastic if you have mainly ranged units.

ancapailldorcha

eeguy wrote: »

Chaos are easy enough to beat if you have the right units.

They have SFA ranged units or cavalry units. Horsemen and wolves are easy to beat with most cheap infantry. Crossbows do well against both.

Their infantry is rock hard so focuson high damage armour piercing like greatswords, cannons and gunners.
Use halberds to go after chaos cavalry and large targets.

Make it a priority to have one or two cavalry or fliers to go after the hellcannons. Magic to increase defence or damage is also worthwhile. The net spell han be fantastic if you have mainly ranged units.

Thanks. The Empire doesn't seem to be terribly well endowed with good infantry. They have no fliers apart from lords specced out with Pegasus or a Griffon. That said, the castle walls are immensely helpful.

killanena

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I don't know. This just isn't fun any more. I can't fight any battles as Chaos just destroys me again. The temples and castle defenses help a bit but ultimately, there's no real strategy I can see that works against them. I'm just scurrying around auto-resolving all the time and it's just boring. I was tempted to pick up Warhammer 2 this morning but I don't think I'll bother.

Have you tried any mods from the workshop? Some make the game easier, Some make the AI more fair. There is one that pushes the choas invasion off for another 50 turns which I personally liked as it give time to factions to expand.

I remember my first play through when I got the first game at release was as Empire on normal difficulty and I found it quite hard to beat chaos as I didn't expand much at all.

Christy42

killanena wrote: »

Have you tried any mods from the workshop? Some make the game easier, Some make the AI more fair. There is one that pushes the choas invasion off for another 50 turns which I personally liked as it give time to factions to expand.

I remember my first play through when I got the first game at release was as Empire on normal difficulty and I found it quite hard to beat chaos as I didn't expand much at all.

I think facing Chaos as the Empire is just tough. I felt under the cosh the entire time but they are not a normal faction. You don't have to go to them to wipe them out. I really felt like I was about to be destroyed by them a few times but managed to cling on for long enough.

I went with the Zap Brannigan solution of throwing wave after wave of my own men into them. Built a few stacks and blunted (generally did not beat) and then rebuilt and went again to finish them off. In between waves I would grab back the more valuable settlements for cash as long as it was not too far from me defensively. I did not get to expand for a while but I just avoided losing too much ground till eventually they ran of warriors.

They make it easy to at least stop other factions from attacking you with diplomacy as well so you can just focus on stopping them. It probably also helped a lot that I had not expanded north beforehand so I had a few mini empire factions as buffers and was not dependent on settlements close to the north.