Warhammer: Total War

Gunmonkey

Seems a bit....lacking for a pre-order just to get Moulder. Got Chaos Warriors for TW1 and Norsca for TW2, so a new faction in the current map would be closer to what they might offer. Maybe if they were part of a Lord pack of 3 or 4 extra Lords for the existing factions. That or something like Araby (never had much of a miniature line, just a sprinkling of Warmaster stuff), Tilea (even less, just Empire but with more pikes!) and possibly Dogs of War (probably a horde faction, would look crazy with all the varied unit types but could be good for a laugh). And Clan Eshin exist ingame, one of the small factions you "bully" at the start to claim land, somewhere between Teclis and Tehenuain in the Mortal Empires map....but suppose they could be dropped near Cathay and Sknich drawn up as another Skaven Lord.

Though I do hope they add more than just the corner by Kislev, could imagine the whole East side being fleshed out. Would open up Dwarfs a bit, not just marching south-west every time to fight Greenskins. You have Nagashizaar east of Karak-8-Peaks, which I imagine would play a very important part if Nagash is in any way part of TW3. And Lybaras is meant to be a huge port city, but the ocan by them is cut off so its inland, mainly as they traded constantly with Cathay, so one goes with the other. And then maybe Kroq-Gar would actually do anything in my games (he just sits there in his home province, peaced out with Teotiqua for over 100 turns every time). Same for Khalida; its either north and greenskins or south and Queek.

Gbear

Gunmonkey wrote: »

Seems a bit....lacking for a pre-order just to get Moulder. Got Chaos Warriors for TW1 and Norsca for TW2, so a new faction in the current map would be closer to what they might offer. Maybe if they were part of a Lord pack of 3 or 4 extra Lords for the existing factions. That or something like Araby (never had much of a miniature line, just a sprinkling of Warmaster stuff), Tilea (even less, just Empire but with more pikes!) and possibly Dogs of War (probably a horde faction, would look crazy with all the varied unit types but could be good for a laugh). And Clan Eshin exist ingame, one of the small factions you "bully" at the start to claim land, somewhere between Teclis and Tehenuain in the Mortal Empires map....but suppose they could be dropped near Cathay and Sknich drawn up as another Skaven Lord.

Though I do hope they add more than just the corner by Kislev, could imagine the whole East side being fleshed out. Would open up Dwarfs a bit, not just marching south-west every time to fight Greenskins. You have Nagashizaar east of Karak-8-Peaks, which I imagine would play a very important part if Nagash is in any way part of TW3. And Lybaras is meant to be a huge port city, but the ocan by them is cut off so its inland, mainly as they traded constantly with Cathay, so one goes with the other. And then maybe Kroq-Gar would actually do anything in my games (he just sits there in his home province, peaced out with Teotiqua for over 100 turns every time). Same for Khalida; its either north and greenskins or south and Queek.

I was thinking a Moulder/Beastmen match up, maybe?

They're short a Minotaur Lord. I think the main named one would be Taurox?

It'd be a good way to refresh them, and then roll the Beastmen and Chaos Warrior updates that are being planned for game 3 into game 2 (obviously without the god aligned factions and units, which I'd imagine will be central to game 3).

Gunmonkey

Could see Chaos Warriors held back for TW3 and changed to more incorporate the Daemons and themed Cult Lords. Beastmen dont really factor much for the Daemon side of Chaos, even though they badly need a rework (the changes to hordes made by Vampire Coast and now Nakai bodes well for some interesting mechanics brought in). Plus, the Beasties/Wood Elves/Norsca/Chaos all still need to be bumped up to a full 4 Lege Lords at some stage; but since they are paid DLC factions, seems better for CA to do the original games faction reworks first (so can expect Greenskins to get some love sooner than later).

As for bonuses for buying TW3, best thing CA could do thats not a pre-order gift (so something everyone who buys TW3 gets) is give the original game for free as soon as they place the pre-order. Even make it the Dark Gods version so everyone who owns TW3 will have Chaos Warriors and a rework as part of its launch patch will benefit everyone that owns it. Also solves the problem of the potential TW3 factions being a bit....lacking in terms of wow factor: current opinion seems to be Daemons, Ogres, Chaos Dwarfs and then Cathay/Kislev. If you include Kislev, cut straight south and it drags in a lot of old factions on the map (2 Dwarf starts, Vampire Counts starting point, probably Black Crag) so opens up the game to have more diversity of potential factions out of the gate. plus, it solves the conundrum of players with only TW2 and TW3 having no way to "Mortal Empires" their two maps; TW3 will just have its regular Daklands plus the East side of the original map mode and its ME mode with all the 3 maps splooged together.

Gbear

Gunmonkey wrote: »

Could see Chaos Warriors held back for TW3 and changed to more incorporate the Daemons and themed Cult Lords. Beastmen dont really factor much for the Daemon side of Chaos, even though they badly need a rework (the changes to hordes made by Vampire Coast and now Nakai bodes well for some interesting mechanics brought in). Plus, the Beasties/Wood Elves/Norsca/Chaos all still need to be bumped up to a full 4 Lege Lords at some stage; but since they are paid DLC factions, seems better for CA to do the original games faction reworks first (so can expect Greenskins to get some love sooner than later).

Beastmen can be Chaos-god-aligned can't they? They have Slaangors, Pestigors, Tzaangors and Khorngors, although I'm not sure are they beastmen or Chaos units per se.
They might trial some of the new god-alignment and chaos corruption mechanics with them, as well as giving them some of the updated Horde mechanics.

One thing I'd like to see with them is another approach to razing cities and controlling territory. Nakai's system works for Lizardmen, but not for Chaos, I don't think. I think they should be able to occupy settlements, but more like wood elf outposts. Contiguous areas of territory would provide bonuses to you and maluses to non-chaos factions. If they do something interesting with the Waagh mechanic and vassalised armies, maybe they could implement that there. Bray herds are as annoying and useless as Waagh armies are currently.

I definitely think Greenskins are next in line, with Eltharion vs Grom the Paunch being the obvious avenue. And the High Elves do still need a little love. They're missing one or two units like White Lion Chariots, and they need more lores of magic and a Lord-level Mage, generic version of Teclis sort of thing.

The Greenskins are a **** show. A bloated roster full of useless goblins. Nowhere near enough varied and interesting infantry that you actually want to use. They need probably 2 or 3 new infantry units, more monsters of some sort (Trolls perhaps), a couple of heroes, like savage and black orc bosses, and generic Shaman and Black orc lords. Maybe a feral Wyvern as well.

Gunmonkey wrote: »

As for bonuses for buying TW3, best thing CA could do thats not a pre-order gift (so something everyone who buys TW3 gets) is give the original game for free as soon as they place the pre-order. Even make it the Dark Gods version so everyone who owns TW3 will have Chaos Warriors and a rework as part of its launch patch will benefit everyone that owns it.

That'd be a good move to try to unite the playerbase. It'd probably pay off long term.

Gunmonkey wrote: »

Also solves the problem of the potential TW3 factions being a bit....lacking in terms of wow factor: current opinion seems to be Daemons, Ogres, Chaos Dwarfs and then Cathay/Kislev. If you include Kislev, cut straight south and it drags in a lot of old factions on the map (2 Dwarf starts, Vampire Counts starting point, probably Black Crag) so opens up the game to have more diversity of potential factions out of the gate. plus, it solves the conundrum of players with only TW2 and TW3 having no way to "Mortal Empires" their two maps; TW3 will just have its regular Daklands plus the East side of the original map mode and its ME mode with all the 3 maps splooged together.

They sound pretty wow to me. Ogres - a full roster of monstrous units, Daemons, well they're cool enough on their own, Chaos Dwarves are like Dwarves but cooler. That sounds more interesting than the default races for the other two games in my book.

They don't need the map to be proportioned the same way as ME or WH1 is.
As you can see in the Vortex, they mess around with geography to make it fit the different maps.

They could warp it a bit so that Kislev is in the West, with Hell Pit, a bit of Norsca and the Chaos Wastes to the North of it, but the Worlds edge mountains, starting East of Kislev, bend down towards the Southwest corner of the map, cutting out most of the Badlands, Sylvania and so on.

It's a question of priorities. I think they'd be mad not to include Cathay. There's a guy on Reddit who does mockups of Cathay units from scratch and I'd love to see that kind of aesthetic in the game. But Cathay would need to be squeezed in, even id worlf you put it on the very far East of the map, and that might squeeze out the Old World.

Remouad

Gunmonkey wrote: »

As for bonuses for buying TW3, best thing CA could do thats not a pre-order gift (so something everyone who buys TW3 gets) is give the original game for free as soon as they place the pre-order.

That's a brilliant idea except that it doesn't do anything for existing players as most will already own the first 2 games.
First game is basically the best bang-for-buck DLC you can get for Warhammer 2.

killanena

Give them a gift copy of the first game if already owned to get that friend you wanted to play with a step into the series or to trade with other steam users. What id like to see personally is a decent discount for WH3 if you own the first 2 games and all the DLC.

I really hope for an army painter or something in the third game. Something similar to what you could do in Shogun 2 without the unit buffsin multiplayer balance for purposes. Id also like to see something like random events such as a warpstone meteorite razing a random city for the rest of the game but also allows all factions to gather the stone for whatever purpose it would serve them or weather changing throughout regions which can be manipulated by power magic users etc. I think this would add even more replay-ability to campaigns.

Remouad

Felix and Gotrek!!!

Looks like I'll be starting up a new dwarf campaign!
(Although they're available for Empire and Bretonnia too.)

killanena

Nice , Glad they are giving it to everyone a month later. Id hate if it was only available to white dwarf subscribers even though I was one when I was younger.

Remouad

They got Brian Blessed to voice Gotrek

Tony EH

Warhammer II is on Steam sale with 66% off, if anyone's interested.

Remouad

DLC is 50% off too (except the latest one)

ancapailldorcha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sPbjHEnSDE

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war-warhammer-ii-the-shadow-the-blade-faq/

Gbear

Supposedly, part of the QOL upgrade is to reduce the Mortal Empires load times by 60%.

If true, that's a massive improvement.

ancapailldorcha

Gbear wrote: »

Supposedly, part of the QOL upgrade is to reduce the Mortal Empires load times by 60%.

If true, that's a massive improvement.

I'm currently mired in a Crooked Moon campaign at the moment. Was really hoping for a Greenskins update!

Dave_The_Sheep

Gbear wrote: »

Supposedly, part of the QOL upgrade is to reduce the Mortal Empires load times by 60%.

If true, that's a massive improvement.

That would be huge. Turn times can be a killer for interest.

Gbear

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I'm currently mired in a Crooked Moon campaign at the moment. Was really hoping for a Greenskins update!

Not until March kinda time apparently, but they're definitely next on the agenda for CA.
QOL was always their plan for this update.

They're the only race I haven't played with yet, because their campaign mechanics are so rubbish.

ancapailldorcha

Gbear wrote: »

Not until March kinda time apparently, but they're definitely next on the agenda for CA.
QOL was always their plan for this update.

They're the only race I haven't played with yet, because their campaign mechanics are so rubbish.

I felt like bumping up the difficulty and then figured that CM was the most difficult faction. I was right. Mad thing is that I have a decent amount of territory and Karak-8-Peaks. The issue is that my Waaghs die and I lose all reliability.

Haven't seen the trailer yet. Doesn't matter as I'll just buy it anyway.

Remouad

I started a new dwarf campaign after the Felix and Gotrek DLC/Patch.
Might be just me but battle loading seems to have improved a lot.

Gunmonkey

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

That would be huge. Turn times can be a killer for interest.

If it persists into the 3rd game (whenever they get round to announcing it) could alleviate some of the hesitation over rolling even more lands into the Mortal Empire style hooooge map that will come with it.

Also, not mentioned much but the free update will bring Brettonians their 4th LL in Repanse De Lyonesse, a Joan of Arc style figure ( a shepherdess who during a Chaos invasion saw a vision of the Lady, armoured up from some dead knights gear and rides round with a huge banner on a lance)
https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Repanse_de_Lyonesse

Gbear

One of the more interesting minor changes is the expansion to the Mortal Empires map.

Perhaps because of the improvements to turn times, they've been able to make some strides towards fleshing the map out in the direction of where it'll be in game 3, and the first addition is the area around the Desolation of Nagash and the "Indian Ocean" area of the Warhammer world.

It's going to really spice up the ME experience for the likes of Kroq Gar and Khalida.

Also, with the addition of Nagashizzar, perhaps we'll see Nagash before game 3? Him and Neferata as a sort of Vampire Coast/Tomb Kings combo?

The only thing puzzling me, is that if that's where Darkblade starts, will he be able to transport his Black Ark out of there, because there's presumably only going to be 5 or 6 port cities down there at most.

Shiminay

I thought I read that they were going to make part 3 be more akin to Age of Sigmar - i.e. post whatever apocalyptic cataclysmic event caused the world to blow up that I know has torn the community in 2 I could be quite wrong though!

ancapailldorcha

A post on the Reddit is alleging end turn times of 14 seconds:

https://old.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/e65i8v/new_me_loading_times_14_seconds/

I have no idea how they pulled it off. Even if this is an exaggeration, cutting it significantly must have required some serious creating thinking.

Gunmonkey

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

A post on the Reddit is alleging end turn times of 14 seconds:

https://old.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/e65i8v/new_me_loading_times_14_seconds/

I have no idea how they pulled it off. Even if this is an exaggeration, cutting it significantly must have required some serious creating thinking.

Possibly making use of multi cores, have each faction processing turns on seperate cores so it speeds through them fast?

Really hope they stretch the map out a bit more to the south in a potential Warhammer 3 map alongside the Darklands to the East, get the actual cape of the Southlands back and the Towers of Dusk and Dawn.

ancapailldorcha

Gunmonkey wrote: »

Possibly making use of multi cores, have each faction processing turns on seperate cores so it speeds through them fast?

Really hope they stretch the map out a bit more to the south in a potential Warhammer 3 map alongside the Darklands to the East, get the actual cape of the Southlands back and the Towers of Dusk and Dawn.

There's quite a bit missing from the map. Don't get me wrong, Mortal Empires is an incredible achievement but adding the last third doesn't seem feasible given the limits that are already there.

Gbear

New DLC has been released. Currently downloading.

Possibly lookingforward to this more than anything previously, as much forthe QoL updates as anything else.

ancapailldorcha

Gbear wrote: »

New DLC has been released. Currently downloading.

Possibly lookingforward to this more than anything previously, as much forthe QoL updates as anything else.

I'm annoyed that I can't quite get all of my Crooked Moon campaign's victory criteria but I might start with a new faction. Really want to see how much the turn times have improved. Like the look of Repanse more than the premium lords as well.

Remouad

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I'm annoyed that I can't quite get all of my Crooked Moon campaign's victory criteria but I might start with a new faction. Really want to see how much the turn times have improved. Like the look of Repanse more than the premium lords as well.

Do you have to restart to get the turn time improvements?

ancapailldorcha

Remouad wrote: »

Do you have to restart to get the turn time improvements?

I'm not restarting. Took ages to get this far and I'm just a bit depressed now. I've found that the improvements do affect my older saves oddly. Anything short of new factions at any rate.

I think the Greenskins, Beastmen and Wood Elves badly need a rework.

Dave_The_Sheep

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

A post on the Reddit is alleging end turn times of 14 seconds:

My average from turn 2 is about 15 seconds. i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz, 32gb ram, unsure which it uses.

They've absolutely excelled here. This is a total game changer for Total War, particularly Mortal Empire campaigns.

Remouad

Thinking of starting a high elves campaign.
Is "The Queen and the Crone" decent?
Wondering if I should get it before I start.

ancapailldorcha

Remouad wrote: »

Thinking of starting a high elves campaign.
Is "The Queen and the Crone" decent?
Wondering if I should get it before I start.

I think so. Sisters of Avelorn are an excellent unit and I like Alarielle. Never played the Dark Elves though.

Gbear

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I think so. Sisters of Avelorn are an excellent unit and I like Alarielle. Never played the Dark Elves though.

Sisters of Avelorn are arguably the most powerful unit in the game. They're incredible.


And Alarielle gets them a tier early for cheaper with more damage. And she's probably one of the top 5 most powerful lords.


And she has easy access to the sword of Khaine, and hoo boy is she a handful with that.


I do tend to savescum when I start a new campaign with her, to make sure the Handmaiden of Avelorn hero gets the best trait (Incendiary - 20% bonus damage, fire damage, +70 charge bonus). Makes her an absolute steam train.




The Dark Elves are great, but they take a little figuring out with their slave economy. Malekith has by a distance the most powerful economy in the game - he has some outrageously powerful unique skills that benefit the slave economy. You can easily get 15k+ per province in his starting province, Hag Graef and Grond.


They've a really fun roster, especially with the new DLC.




I've started a Malus playthrough and it's quite interesting. Again, you're trying to juggle uprisings with collecting enough slaves, and also keeping Sniktch at bay. I'm undecided how much I like his unique mechanic with Tzarkan and the possession meter.


I've particularly loved the scourge-runner chariot and the medusa.

ancapailldorcha

Gbear wrote: »

Sisters of Avelorn are arguably the most powerful unit in the game. They're incredible.


And Alarielle gets them a tier early for cheaper with more damage. And she's probably one of the top 5 most powerful lords.


And she has easy access to the sword of Khaine, and hoo boy is she a handful with that.


I do tend to savescum when I start a new campaign with her, to make sure the Handmaiden of Avelorn hero gets the best trait (Incendiary - 20% bonus damage, fire damage, +70 charge bonus). Makes her an absolute steam train.




The Dark Elves are great, but they take a little figuring out with their slave economy. Malekith has by a distance the most powerful economy in the game - he has some outrageously powerful unique skills that benefit the slave economy. You can easily get 15k+ per province in his starting province, Hag Graef and Grond.


They've a really fun roster, especially with the new DLC.




I've started a Malus playthrough and it's quite interesting. Again, you're trying to juggle uprisings with collecting enough slaves, and also keeping Sniktch at bay. I'm undecided how much I like his unique mechanic with Tzarkan and the possession meter.


I've particularly loved the scourge-runner chariot and the medusa.

I'd disagree regarding the High Elves economy and the Sisters of Avelorn.

I now think that the Necrofex Colossus outclasses them. It's an artillery unit and a pretty strong melee combatant. It's an absurdly powerful unit if spammed and Count Noctilus can buff them further and strip a turn off their recruitment time. He can bring down further to one (2:55):

Regarding the High Elves, I saw Legendoftotalwar break their economy by spamming agents with the Entrepreneur trait (8:40):

I'm awful for buying the DLC for this game and never playing as any of the new LL's. I lost my first final campaign battle last night as Markus Wulfheart. It doesn't let you deploy so my artillery is at the front and I just tanked it.

Ended up starting a campaign with Isabella Von Carstein. Dear God but what have they done to the turn times. It's... beyond words.

Gbear

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I'd disagree regarding the High Elves economy and the Sisters of Avelorn.

I now think that the Necrofex Colossus outclasses them. It's an artillery unit and a pretty strong melee combatant. It's an absurdly powerful unit if spammed and Count Noctilus can buff them further and strip a turn off their recruitment time. He can bring down further to one (2:55):

Regarding the High Elves, I saw Legendoftotalwar break their economy by spamming agents with the Entrepreneur trait (8:40):

I'm awful for buying the DLC for this game and never playing as any of the new LL's. I lost my first final campaign battle last night as Markus Wulfheart. It doesn't let you deploy so my artillery is at the front and I just tanked it.

Ended up starting a campaign with Isabella Von Carstein. Dear God but what have they done to the turn times. It's... beyond words.

I'd kinda forgotten about entrepreneur spam. Their economy is quite strong already so I never bothered. It's annoying enough having to skip through all your agents as it is, so I don't like to have many lurking around doing nothing.


Necrofex colossus are definitely great, but the AI doesn't know how to use them effectively and they never pose a threat. They're extremely vulnerable units to a sapient person who knows about things like focus firing and they're only middling in melee, and get mulched by anti-large units.



Sisters of Avelorn are always a pain in the arse though. A single volley feels like it can nuke any infantry unit in the game. A half a dozen of them can kill most of an army before it even closes to melee.
Before heroes, spellcasters, dragons or anything else, they're always priority number one for me to take out in an enemy HElves army.



I love playing Isabella with half her army as Vampires.
You end up with infinite casting, access to two powerful lores for weakening and dealing damage (Shadows and Death), as well as Isabella's lore of vampires, 10 super-fast flying heroes with huge charge bonuses, incredible attack and defence stats and about 800 weapon strength once they're maxed out and given weapons.


She's much better than Vlad to start with, because Vlad's best traits are siege attacker and vanguard deployment and they're Lord rather than faction traits.


I do find their economy a bit tedious to manage. It's great having free chaff armies, but it seems like other factions get huge spikes in income, while they're linearly incrementing. That'd be fine, except your armies increase in cost non-linearly.
They're so far from the sea, I always find it tricky to set up trade. I might beeline for Kislev next time I play them and try to get some trade deals with the Dark Elves and other bad guy races in the west.

ancapailldorcha

Gbear wrote: »

I'd kinda forgotten about entrepreneur spam. Their economy is quite strong already so I never bothered. It's annoying enough having to skip through all your agents as it is, so I don't like to have many lurking around doing nothing.

True but with the Dark Elves, you have to work out the slavery mechanic. I've never played them so don't know how it works.

Gbear wrote: »

Necrofex colossus are definitely great, but the AI doesn't know how to use them effectively and they never pose a threat. They're extremely vulnerable units to a sapient person who knows about things like focus firing and they're only middling in melee, and get mulched by anti-large units.

I saw Luthor Harkon with almost a full stack of them last night. He lost a battle and ended up with 6. I decided to take the chance and eliminated him and his faction from the map. Their range, being an artillery unit and a monster makes them such a pain to deal with.

Gbear wrote: »

Sisters of Avelorn are always a pain in the arse though. A single volley feels like it can nuke any infantry unit in the game. A half a dozen of them can kill most of an army before it even closes to melee.
Before heroes, spellcasters, dragons or anything else, they're always priority number one for me to take out in an enemy HElves army.

Oh, I do love the Sisters of Avelorn. I enjoy watching missiles devastate the enemy and they're hands down the best missile infantry. They can fight in melee if necessary as well. I'm not sure how I'd counter a full stack to be honest.

Gbear wrote: »

I love playing Isabella with half her army as Vampires.
You end up with infinite casting, access to two powerful lores for weakening and dealing damage (Shadows and Death), as well as Isabella's lore of vampires, 10 super-fast flying heroes with huge charge bonuses, incredible attack and defence stats and about 800 weapon strength once they're maxed out and given weapons.

She's much better than Vlad to start with, because Vlad's best traits are siege attacker and vanguard deployment and they're Lord rather than faction traits.

I do find their economy a bit tedious to manage. It's great having free chaff armies, but it seems like other factions get huge spikes in income, while they're linearly incrementing. That'd be fine, except your armies increase in cost non-linearly.
They're so far from the sea, I always find it tricky to set up trade. I might beeline for Kislev next time I play them and try to get some trade deals with the Dark Elves and other bad guy races in the west.

I'm having a lot of fun. They've the best magic and I do enjoy using my trash armies. I've not built a single recruitment building yet either. I got the tech for free skeleton units and am just spamming those.

All Vlad really has is a 5% buff to army movement so Isabella is always the smart pick. Vlad is otherwise a beast. His experience per tun buff is incredible. My skellies are almost at rank 9.

By the way, have you tried the reworked Bretonnia yet? I've no idea how the vows work and am thinking of giving a Repanse campaign a go.

Gbear

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

True but with the Dark Elves, you have to work out the slavery mechanic. I've never played them so don't know how it works.



I saw Luthor Harkon with almost a full stack of them last night. He lost a battle and ended up with 6. I decided to take the chance and eliminated him and his faction from the map. Their range, being an artillery unit and a monster makes them such a pain to deal with.



Oh, I do love the Sisters of Avelorn. I enjoy watching missiles devastate the enemy and they're hands down the best missile infantry. They can fight in melee if necessary as well. I'm not sure how I'd counter a full stack to be honest.



I'm having a lot of fun. They've the best magic and I do enjoy using my trash armies. I've not built a single recruitment building yet either. I got the tech for free skeleton units and am just spamming those.

All Vlad really has is a 5% buff to army movement so Isabella is always the smart pick. Vlad is otherwise a beast. His experience per tun buff is incredible. My skellies are almost at rank 9.

By the way, have you tried the reworked Bretonnia yet? I've no idea how the vows work and am thinking of giving a Repanse campaign a go.

I was a little underwhelmed. It's better than it was but still feels like the FLC faction bolted on. It's far from the scale of improvements we saw with, say, the empire, or the Skaven.


Their units are still great.
The vow thing is really straightforward, and actually quite a lot better than the old skill tree version. For one, it means all lords can get immortality and perfect vigour (the grail vow), and paladins also get those buffs.
You have mostly fairly straightforward vows to select in a unique menu adjacent to the skill tree and weapons loadout screens of your characters.


You pick one of three options for each vow and complete it to get the vow. Eg, the first vow is grow 5 levels, research 5 techs or build 5 buildings in different regions that the hero is in. The 2nd is win a battle at sea, or win a battle in the jungle or desert, or defeat a Legendary Lord of the Beastmen, Greenskins or Norsca. The final one is defeat 5 Lords, defeat a Legendary Chaos Lord or something else.


You can beeline them early on for pretty strong buffs.


Apparently Repanse herself is an absolute monster in battle, and her location will make her a little bit refreshing than the same Bretonnian campaign we've been playing for 2 years. I'm looking forward to it, but she's about 9th on my current to do list, after Malus, Sniktch, Skrolk, Tehenauin (both of whom have been buffed), Alith Anar, Isabella, Nakai (the worst thing about him was that hordes + long turn times is hateful), Throgg, and maybe I'll even give Chaos another go.


I've put over 1000 hours into this game now and Im still itching for more.

ancapailldorcha

Might give her a go. I find her more interesting than Malus or Snikch to be honest.

CA really did knock it out of the park with this. I'm still praying for reworks for the Greenskins, Beastmen and Wood Elves as the Greenskins in particular feel quite weak although I've been playing Crooked Moon which has restricted access to Orcs.

Dave_The_Sheep

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Might give her a go. I find her more interesting than Malus or Snikch to be honest.

She's a beast in battle, her bro-in-arms the legendary hero Herni is even better. The man just slays.



I was looking at this auto resolve result saying holy **** repanse, until someone else pointed out he has twice the kills. Beasts both.

Economy is very easy with her, so many regions around her start with trading resources, so many factions willing to trade. A fully confederated Louen was ok confederating with me after about 50 turns. It was stupid easy.

Tony EH

So, started a Chaos campaign in Warhammer II and it's a pain in the arse. Fielding armies means you're always in the red and you can never get decent stacks.

Plus any city you raze is taken over in the next turn.

It's like a game of uber frustrating whack-a-mole.

Any tips?

Gbear

Tony EH wrote: »

So, started a Chaos campaign in Warhammer II and it's a pain in the arse. Fielding armies means you're always in the red and you can never get decent stacks.

Plus any city you raze is taken over in the next turn.

It's like a game of uber frustrating whack-a-mole.

Any tips?

Don't play Chaos tbh.

It's a half-baked faction and they're not going to fix it until game 3 comes out, or just before.

Another alternative is have a look around online for mods that will make it playable.

That was the first DLC made by Creative Assembly released at launch, it was released on launch day, and has never been up to snuff.

To be fair to them, they've learned since then and the DLC has gotten better and better.

ancapailldorcha

Gbear wrote: »

Don't play Chaos tbh.

It's a half-baked faction and they're not going to fix it until game 3 comes out, or just before.

Another alternative is have a look around online for mods that will make it playable.

That was the first DLC made by Creative Assembly released at launch, it was released on launch day, and has never been up to snuff.

To be fair to them, they've learned since then and the DLC has gotten better and better.

Agreed. Modern Chaos just shatter when they hit Kislev and/or the Empire. I saw only a tiny fragment of a single stack in Sylvania in my last ME campaign.

Tony EH

I nuked the original save game as it was just pointless. But started up a new one and managed to get Norsca and Wintertooth to form a large confederation and keep the Reich busy. But, I am again still stuck around the Kislev area running from town to town and trying to "re-chaos" places constantly, although that particular faction is brown bread.

I can only assume that CA didn't really think this one through. It's a real pity because playing as Chaos is potentially quite a lot of fun.

It's queer though, because Chaos in the original Warhammer game were a right pain in the arse and could sweep the map pretty effortlessly.

I also didn't expect to have to fight Chaos while actually being Chaos, which happens at turn 100 or so. That particular mechanic sucks absolute balls.

Gbear

Game 3 is likely going to be heavily focused on Chaos, with the current Chaos Warriors factions drastically improved, and Sigvald one of the Lords for 4 chaos-god-aligned factions, and the new map featuring the Chaos wastes and the East of the Warhammer world heavily.

Unfortunately we're just going to have to wait until probably 2021 for that.

Still, there's lots of other great factions to play. And there's mods, although I haven't bothered with any yet.
I think SFO (steel and faith overhaul) is one of the most comprehensive mods and might be worth a look.

Norsca are much more rounded and fun to play, if you've an itch to play the baddies (although still not perfect, and will hopefully, along with Beastmen and Wood Elves, get a serious looking at to bring them up to the standard of the other factions).

If you wanted to try something a little different, maybe choose Kholek and beeline for Ulthuan. Grab the Sword of Khaine (you'll have to defeat whoever is holding it once it's claimed), and then you'll be an absolute monster.

ancapailldorcha

As far as I know, the Greenskins are getting the next rework and not before time I might add.

Tony EH

Gbear wrote: »

Game 3 is likely going to be heavily focused on Chaos, with the current Chaos Warriors factions drastically improved, and Sigvald one of the Lords for 4 chaos-god-aligned factions, and the new map featuring the Chaos wastes and the East of the Warhammer world heavily.

Unfortunately we're just going to have to wait until probably 2021 for that.

Still, there's lots of other great factions to play. And there's mods, although I haven't bothered with any yet.
I think SFO (steel and faith overhaul) is one of the most comprehensive mods and might be worth a look.

Norsca are much more rounded and fun to play, if you've an itch to play the baddies (although still not perfect, and will hopefully, along with Beastmen and Wood Elves, get a serious looking at to bring them up to the standard of the other factions).

If you wanted to try something a little different, maybe choose Kholek and beeline for Ulthuan. Grab the Sword of Khaine (you'll have to defeat whoever is holding it once it's claimed), and then you'll be an absolute monster.

Haven't bothered with any mods for WHII yet except for a camera mod. I have only just started the game after getting it cheap on Steam and when straight to Mortal Empires. Might see if there's a mod that limits the whack-a-mole aspect of the Chaos campaign.

As for playing the baddies, that's where the most fun is. Love the Crooked Moon goblins too. The voice acting for them is some of the funniest I've heard in any Total War game.

Tried playing the Reich once or twice, but they become boring quickly. But Franz saying "Summon the Elector Counts" always brings a smile to my face for some reason. I have no idea what he's on about though.

ancapailldorcha

Have to say that I'm really enjoying Repanse. Don't like fighting the Tomb Kings (They always seem to like me no matter which race I play). She's an absolute monster as is Henri.

Tony EH

Um, so my current Chaos campaign went much better this time, probably cos I kept throwing money at my Norsca allies, who kept the coastal regions busy. I also kept Middenheim (or somebody) onside with a few quid now and then. But they later declared war on Norsca, dragging me into it. :rolleyes:

I knocked the Reich back to about 4 settlements and killed all the rat people, who were stinking up my lovely corruption with their nonsense.

Then the Reich went gangbusters spamming units at my lads and that was it.

I ended up completely corrupting Kislev and on to a bit in the west, but by that time the whole of the Empire were at war with me and the Dwarves too, with the Vamps getting narky as well. So better results than my first attempt, for sure, but always doomed to failure I spose.

Chaos is definitely a "broken" campaign, but I have to say it's been one of the most challenging Total War campaigns I've played. But I'd say trying to win a Mortal Empires game with them is nigh on impossible.

Gbear

Tony EH wrote: »

Um, so my current Chaos campaign went much better this time, probably cos I kept throwing money at my Norsca allies, who kept the coastal regions busy. I also kept Middenheim (or somebody) onside with a few quid now and then. But they later declared war on Norsca, dragging me into it. :rolleyes:

I knocked the Reich back to about 4 settlements and killed all the rat people, who were stinking up my lovely corruption with their nonsense.

Then the Reich went gangbusters spamming units at my lads and that was it.

I ended up completely corrupting Kislev and on to a bit in the west, but by that time the whole of the Empire were at war with me and the Dwarves too, with the Vamps getting narky as well. So better results than my first attempt, for sure, but always doomed to failure I spose.

Chaos is definitely a "broken" campaign, but I have to say it's been one of the most challenging Total War campaigns I've played. But I'd say trying to win a Mortal Empires game with them is nigh on impossible.

I can see why you keep going back to it because the Chaos roster, as limited as it is without Daemons or god-aligned units, is still phenomenal, and Archaon and Kholek are devastating. Even Sigvald might be a bit better now with the repeated buffs to foot lords.

In SFO he has like 80-70 A/D and a gold shield, as well as regen on his armour, so hopefully we'll start to see that kind of thing when they get their lick of paint.

One of my favourite challenges is fighting off the Chaos invasion of Lustria in Mortal Empires with Tehenauin and his skink-boys. Chosen vs skinks is quite a test, but I've found you can make a pod of skirmishers that do quite well, with Chameleon Skinks alongside Salamanders or Razordons.

Tony EH

Gbear wrote: »

I can see why you keep going back to it because the Chaos roster, as limited as it is without Daemons or god-aligned units, is still phenomenal, and Archaon and Kholek are devastating. Even Sigvald might be a bit better now with the repeated buffs to foot lords.

In SFO he has like 80-70 A/D and a gold shield, as well as regen on his armour, so hopefully we'll start to see that kind of thing when they get their lick of paint.

Sigvald is a beast. He's the Lord I started with. I managed to defeat three 20 stacks of Reich units with my 20 stack of Chosen under him. I couldn't believe it. I was in a crap state at the end though. I've been trying to unlock Archeon, but have been mistakenly hitting the "slaughter" captives button instead of the "sacrifice" button, so he's still greyed out. :rolleyes:

Haven't looked at SFO yet. I've only just started on the vanilla game.

Gbear

Tony EH wrote: »

Sigvald is a beast. He's the Lord I started with. I managed to defeat three 20 stacks of Reich units with my 20 stack of Chosen under him. I couldn't believe it. I was in a crap state at the end though. I've been trying to unlock Archeon, but have been mistakenly hitting the "slaughter" captives button instead of the "sacrifice" button, so he's still greyed out. :rolleyes:

Haven't looked at SFO yet. I've only just started on the vanilla game.

I suppose the main thing with foot lords is getting around the place in pitched battles and getting run over by mounted units and monsters, but once they're in combat against other infantry the likes of Grombrindal, Ungrim, Grimgor and Sigvald absolutely wreck the gaf.