Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia

[MengJiao]

Nice.

  One good thing about the Viking-influenced Anglo-Saxon armies (though Northhumbria actually had a significant Old North British Component in reality all along as well), is that the commanders get big dismounted units, which I think work much better than the small mounted command units that Gwined and Strathclyle get.  You can see the command unit as a block of men in gray fur at the top center background.  They came through the whole battle with 75 men and inflicted some critical attacks.  Try that with a Old British-style mounted command unit!

[Gusington]

Not sure who I want to play as first...I am always drawn to the Welsh but they are always marked as a hard faction to play as.

[MengJiao]

Not sure who I want to play as first...I am always drawn to the Welsh but they are always marked as a hard faction to play as.

  I played both Gwined and Strathclyde on Easy easy and they were pretty hard.  Fortunately on defense, their archers do well and eventually most battles went: a) set up spears and archers on a hill, dismounted Commander and swords and axes in the center, all the horse go harass the enemy.  On the attack, they did not do so well.
   Northhumbria is politically tricky (the Viking Army and the English Gentry), but I think even on Normal Normal they are easier to survive with than the Welsh as long as you kill off the revolts very quickly.

[Gusington]

Still difficult on easy/easy? Crap.

[MengJiao]

Still difficult on easy/easy? Crap.

  Gwined was the first faction I played.  All kinds of nautical and viking raid disasters happened.  Strathclyde was easier on easy/easy and once I got watermills going and defeated some neighbors to the south, things went okay.  Best of all, tech was taking only 3 turns to get researched and once you have enough food (watermills help) you can build up armies pretty fast

[Gusington]

Hmm maybe I will try them. Have you won a campaign?

[MengJiao]

Hmm maybe I will try them. Have you won a campaign?

   I got to a Short Victory as Normal Strathclyde (having played easy/easy before gotten that far).  The name of the Kingdom Changes to Yr Hen Ogledd (the Old North?  Men of the North being the doomed happy crew commemorated in Anerin's Gododdin poem riding down to disaster at Catreth in the late 6th century and traditionally the earliest mention of King Arthur)..."Hen" is old as in "Coel Hen" (Old King Cole who was a merry old soul as the nursery rhyme says).  At the moment I'm trying to do the same for Northhumbria but the required victory for them seems a bit more complex.

[Hofstadter]

I won Strat clut kingdom victory on VH. Your biggest difficulty is taking out the main southern armies. Once that's done it's steamroll

[Gusington]

I am contractually obligated to earn only short victories.

[MengJiao]

I am contractually obligated to earn only short victories.

  I had been losing interest after getting a short (fame) victory BUT apparently if you win the BIG victory you get invaded.  So I'm taking the Normal Wessexians on the long haul and hoping to defeat the Norman Conquest (well it would be the Norman Non-Conquest if I beat them).  If you take say Normal Strathclyde you have to defeat a big Danish invasion if you win the Big Victory and so on.

[MengJiao]

I won Strat clut kingdom victory on VH. Your biggest difficulty is taking out the main southern armies. Once that's done it's steamroll

That sounds very hard!

[Gusington]

Invaded a la Realm Divide in Shogun 2?

[MengJiao]

Invaded a la Realm Divide in Shogun 2?

  it must be kinda horrible.  Nobody talks about it much.  As Wessex, I get to face the morale equivalent of William the Conquerer as the Morale equivalent of Harold Wodenson (PS -- or better Godwinson, I think -- must look this up) with the Housekarls and Fyrd and whatnot versus every cutthroat adventurer and mercenary, Warrior Bishop (yes, I'm looking at you Odo) and Papal Banner Enthusiast in NW Europe.

[Gusington]

That actually does sound kind of awesome...to me anyway. And I say that as someone who was a hair's breadth away from winning a game of Fall of the Samurai when Realm Divide destroyed my empire :/

[W8taminute]

just submitted my request for a refund even though I've got 3 hours clocked and bought the game over 14 days ago.  let's see what they say.