Your gripes, loves, mysteries, mods...post them all here on Total War :coolsmiley:
ohhh shiny
You are awesome Gusington, Thanks for the topic, Ok guys I want to introduce a great mod for middle earth lovers, Divide and Conquer. Divide and Conquer is a submod for Third Age Total War, itself a mod for Medieval Total War II. You can choose a lot of factions in the game, for example, Gondor, Mordor, Dwarves of Erebor, Orcs of Gundabad... I'm playing Woodland Realm led by Thranduil 8), if you interested you can find more information in moddb: https://www.moddb.com/mods/divide-and-conquer
(Sorry for my bad English guys, My English is not good, but you know I really like to communicate with other people around the world ;D)
^Reads fine to me, especially when you say I am awesome.
Are you one of the creators of that above mod?
I've been playing Thrones of Britannia with a number of mods installed, and it's definitely improved my enjoyment of an already-fun game. Some of them change/improve the campaign, a couple affect combat, and others are just immersion packs, but they've all made the playing experience more interesting/fun in one way or another.
Here's the list of mods I'm currently using, along with my impressions/assessments of them:
1.) ToB Enhanced Campaign: Changes include unlimited governors, technologies no longer require certain conditions as pre-reqs, all factions can confederate & loot, auto-resolve is more accurate, and more. Verdict: Favorable. While admittedly a bit less realistic, I find it's more than offset by the improvement in both campaign pacing, and reduced frustration in managing my kingdom. This mod may not appeal to those who prefer a slower and/or more historical campaign start.
2.) Minor Town Garrisons: Pretty self-explanatory, minor settlements receive an automatic garrison of levy-tier units. Garrison size ranges from 2 to 6 units, depending on the town's upgrade level. Verdict: Marginally favorable. It helps level the playing field for the AI somewhat (it's not as good as human players at invading unoccupied minor settlements), plus it feels a bit more realistic; however, it also slows down the campaign pacing. Honestly, this one is pretty much a toss-up; it's really going to depend on what is more important to you.
3.) M's Tenacious Skill Points Britannia: When leveling up, your characters now gain 2 skill points instead of 1. Verdict: Very favorable. Given how relatively short a time your characters (ruler, generals, governors, etc.) live, gaining only one skill point per level has long been a critique among even the most ardent fans of this game. Now all the major characters in your kingdom are more powerful, impactful, and just all-around useful. I already can't imagine playing ToB without this fantastic little mod. Give this one a miss if you're a masochist, and/or enjoy combating frustration (along with the perfidious foe) in your games.
4.) Seasonal Effects: Affects income, food, movement, replenishment, morale, supplies and public order. Also includes "unseasonable" events, both good & bad (mild winters, summer droughts, etc.). Verdict: Mostly favorable. The unseasonable events seem to happen a bit too frequently to be realistic (or at least believable), but otherwise I like that it now matters more what season it is. Not a "must-have" mod, but it mildly improves both gameplay and immersion.
5.) Historical Cities and Landmarks: Gives you interesting informational pop-ups when clicking on major settlements, and any settlements near visible landmarks (once you've captured it). Verdict: Favorable. For those who like more atmosphere/immersion in their games, and/or wish to learn a little more about the early medieval history of the British Isles, this mod is for you. It's also pure "flavor"; if you're only interested in mods that improve gameplay, then you should pass on this one.
6.) ToB Enhanced Battles: Makes battles longer and more tactical, mainly by reducing weapons damage and/or accuracy to a more realistic level. Unit speeds have been decreased as well (less "sprinting" across the map). Verdict: Tentatively favorable. I've played only a small handful of battles so far with the mod installed, so I'm withholding my full judgment for now. That being said, combat does appear to be more of a proper "grind", especially between shield-walls (as it should be). Those who prefer more fast-paced battles should give this mod a miss.
7.) Better Camera Mod: Let's you both zoom in closer and further away during battles. Verdict: Moderately favorable. It's a neat little mod that enhances one's viewing pleasure (the "spectacle" of battle). If you're mostly just interested in the tactical aspect of battles, then this mod isn't really necessary.
8.) Immersive Shields and Armies: Another immersion mod, this one improves unit appearance, especially those with shields (obviously), although clothing & armor receive some TLC as well. Verdict: Favorable. An easy "recommend" for those who want their armies looking a little more authentic. The Saxon and Viking factions appear to have received a bit more attention, so those who prefer Celtic and/or Gaelic factions may feel slighted. :P
Rome Total War was the game that lead me to computer wargaming.
Before, I had been a board wargamer.
In 1980, I went from Groningen to Nijmegen for a graduation project in physics. The professor there, an American, introduced me and a Hungarian PHD student to wargaming through a fantasy hex board game https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/23/divine-right (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/23/divine-right). I had never seen such games before, but it reminded me of a game I had made myself as a teenager: it had a large map with a grid, mountains and other terrain, units and towed artillery.
After finishing my study in Groningen I got a research job with that professor in Nijmegen, probably because that way he would have a wargame opponent :-)
There was a gaming club in Nijmegen where we played massive games with teams: Terrible Swift Sword, and giant Wooden Sips & Iron Men naval battles with miniatures, like the full Trafalgar battle and the Raid on the Medway, with special rules for the Royal Marines. We had also a great multiplayer campaign in the office in the evenings with Hell's Highway.
And I had my wargame partner with who I had a weekly gaming evening. We played ASL, Richard Berg games, Strategy & Tactics games, The Gamers series American Civil War and their tactical WWII series. The lot.
Until I had to return to Groningen in an emergency family situation in 1994. I tried to keep up the wargaming through the emerging internet. I made a couple of modules for the pre-Vassal software of Aide de Camp. Nevertheless, I was kind of isolated in Groningen. There was a miniature table top community, but no boardgamers. So it my wargaming kind of died, apart from some incidental trips to my old friends in Nijmegen.
I did keep in touch with the hobby through a very active mailing list. I forgot the name.
But then my son showed me this game Rome: Total War. That drew my attention, and I bought a 3D card for this game.
It made me search for other wargames, and I found two games: Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich and Combat Mission.
And so my wargame renaissance began in 2004.
My comment would be about when we are getting a successor to total war that is both historical and had more major new features. I want clearer graphics at a distance, better sieges and siege mechanics and I want more strategy layers. I want to be able to move units on a scourge of war sized battlefield or at least once that has proper skirmish and init arrival mechanics.
Alas hollywood (ca snd sega) give us either fantasy or semi historical in romance and troy or warhammer. Taking the series further into repetitive blurry muck.
I used to enjoy the total war series. I really did. I was excited about unlocking the next unit in medieval2. After shogun II I cannot stand to loom at it. Its too repetitive and too boring. I don't know why. Injust lost my passion for this gamr. Perhaps it was the online encyclopedia, which Is too darned slow to load. Perhaps it was the new engine, perhaps the battles are just too darned big for me to enjoy getting to know my units. Perhaps when I finally get a new PC!
I've liked Total War off and on for the last decade or so. Medieval 2 was great, but Empire and Napoleon were not so great. I was giving up on the series, but Shogun II and Rome II are two of my favorite games of all time. The Rise of the Republic campaign is a masterpiece. After that...not so much...I've drifted into a downward spiral of simulations, multiplayer shoot-em ups and even just plain austere arcade games like Hell Let Loose. I think the boardgame Hoplite kinda wrecked my interest in mass battle things like Total War or even Field of Glory...though Rise of the Republic does have some moderately convincing hoplites. Maybe some austere arcade Hoplite games will come along.
On a perhaps slightly funny aside...in the steam discussions of HLL, people are complaining that the battle lines are not well defined and the enemy can attack from anywhere at any time. I wonder what kind of war at the fire team level they are imagining. Sure, on maps, when a front is not very active, you have pretty definite front lines and back lines, but in an active battle when tanks and infantry are committed to attack, on a scale of one soldier to a soldier from minute to minute on a battlefield of less than three square km -- there's going to be a lot of turmoil and confusion and attacks coming from all directions and HLL reflects this pretty well.
Quote from: Gusington on January 26, 2020, 04:44:39 PM
^Reads fine to me, especially when you say I am awesome.
Are you one of the creators of that above mod?
No, I'm not a one of the creator, I wanted to let you know about this mod O0, For me, the middle earth world is interesting because you can choose one the faction from lord of the rings movie or hobbit and play against Sauron or other evil faction
Playing Rome Total War multiplayer with my COD clan mates and watching their armies die in their droves when they attacked my defensive formations time after time... they never learned :)
Total War...Total War never changes.
Has anybody tried-out the Three Kingdoms TW? I've seen almost nothing here about it so I figure it's probably not the game I was hoping a Chinese TW I've always dreamed of would be. Reviews at the forum are good but I trust the Grog-pinions above them.
Quote from: Sir Slash on January 27, 2020, 11:26:00 AM
Has anybody tried-out the Three Kingdoms TW? I've seen almost nothing here about it so I figure it's probably not the game I was hoping a Chinese TW I've always dreamed of would be. Reviews at the forum are good but I trust the Grog-pinions above them.
It didn't grab me, but this is more because I'm not so interested in the source material. To my knowledge, it has been regarded as one of the best Total War games from a technical perspective in terms of systems, mechanics, AI, splendor, graphics, etc.
I love the look and the setting but I haven't been really grabbed by a TW title since FotS. Plus the it's still pretty pricey.
I bought Three Kingdoms TW over the weekend. Normally I wait for much deeper discounts before buying a game but I am a big Romance of the Three Kingdoms Koei fanboy and I finally broke down and bought it.
Haven't tried it yet but I will soon and post my thoughts.
In the meantime I'm giving ToB a second chance even though I initially got bored with it really fast. I'm beginning to realize it's not that bad and plays a little different than other TW titles.
I actually haven't bought Three Kingdoms yet because I am also not that familiar with Chinese history and myth, and I am also waiting for a sale or some 'ultimate edition' pack to be released with all the dlc, or both.
I aim to finally play Thrones of Britannia in the next few months once I mod it with some of Martok's suggestions.
In the meantime I am going to start a modded FotS campaign this week...still my favorite TW of all time.
Quote from: Gusington on January 27, 2020, 12:55:15 PM
I am also waiting for a sale or some 'ultimate edition' pack to be released with all the dlc, or both.
Same here. I especially am waiting on a larger/deeper sale price, as I'm quite certain my machine is only going to be able to run the game on the lowest settings (this computer has really turned out to be a disappointment). But perhaps by the time a "complete/ultimate" edition is available, I'll have upgraded again. Here's hoping!
I definitely want to get 3K eventually, though. I'm interested in the time period, and as
Jarhead mentioned, it's generally considered the best all-around TW title in a long time (perhaps ever).
Quote from: Gusington on January 27, 2020, 12:55:15 PM
I aim to finally play Thrones of Britannia in the next few months once I mod it with some of Martok's suggestions.
Cheers,
Gus. O0 I'll be playing the game more as well, and so can hopefully firm up my impressions of the mods I'm using.
I own a couple of the TW series. The only one I have played is Medieval II. And I think I play it very differently than any of you. I don't play the battles. Just build big enough armies and auto resolve. Works out fine for me. And I am sure most of you will tell me I am missing the point. And I am ok with that. Anybody else just auto resolve?
I guess I'm in the unique position of having pretty much a perfect game for me in warhammer 2...... from the age of 12 I wanted to play WHFB but none of my friends did, time passed, I bought a few figures and painted them but without ever placing them in a game I soon lost interest, time passed, I painted and binned more figures, and then GW blew up the lore and the game with age of sigmar and then the pc game came out - there before me was every character and figure I wanted to paint and play with but in the world of my favourite PC genre - the excitement of recruiting and putting into battle all those figures of my childhood will never leave
Quote from: MetalDog on January 27, 2020, 02:15:08 PM
...Anybody else just auto resolve?
I do both, auto resolve and manually play the battles. When it looks like I have a 75% or more chance of winning I'll auto resolve. Otherwise I'll play the battles manually.
@undercovergeek
I think Total Warhammer 1&2 is probably the best TW game simply because of the many interesting game play mechanics. This might change for me however once I give Three Kingdoms some decent playtime.
A lot of mechanics from WH were brought into the Three Kingdoms game, including a more Chinese fantasy themed version of the game.
Quote from: Gusington on January 27, 2020, 02:29:12 PM
A lot of mechanics from WH were brought into the Three Kingdoms game, including a more Chinese fantasy themed version of the game.
Skaven, high elves, tomb kings - there is no contest 🤪
Quote from: MetalDog on January 27, 2020, 02:15:08 PM
I own a couple of the TW series. The only one I have played is Medieval II. And I think I play it very differently than any of you. I don't play the battles. Just build big enough armies and auto resolve. Works out fine for me. And I am sure most of you will tell me I am missing the point. And I am ok with that. Anybody else just auto resolve?
Similar to
W8taminute, I generally auto-resolve whenever the odds are clearly in my favor. I manually fight the battles when the odds are fairly close, the results of a battle are especially crucial, and/or I have a cool new unit I particularly want to see in action. (Not surprisingly, the latter happens more often in WH1 & WH2 than in other TW games.)
I would say that on the whole, I manually fight around 20% of my battles, and auto-resolve the rest.
^ That's pretty much how I play it.
Guess I'm not as weird as I thought ;)
^Yeah sure.
For the Warhammer TW's, the tactical battles always felt a little too fast and chaotic for me and I could never really utilize spell powers and magic as much as I wanted to
My favorite battles are in Fall of the Samurai. The mix of melee and pseudo-modern firearms is always fun for me. And the ability to shell targets or areas from ironclads off shore is super awesome.
Agreed. One of the great joys of my lifetime was calling in Naval Bombardments on those damned Deathtrap Castles in FotS and blowing the snot out of them before I attack. :notworthy:
'greatly satisfying'
I'm generally not a fan of RTS titles, but I played the original Rome: Total War as much as any RTS game in my life.
Although I've not been a WH devotee, I was very interested in the subject matter, and tried the original Warhammer: Total War, based in large part on the reviews it got on this forum. Sadly, I was underwhelmed. In particular, I found the UI utterly unintuitive. I suspect it was made for folks who had already grokked the inner workings of the system.
I'm fine with a game where unexpected surprises happen, but the rules were simply too vague for me. Putting slower units in my army slows it down on the strategic map, but how much? 10%? 50%? Cohesion is important, but how does it really affect things, compared to the other values?
I never got the hang of the strategic map. Maybe I'm just getting old and uninterested in learning new game systems, but I found playing the game became a chore, with 4 hours of play undone by a couple events that I couldn't understand why they happened.
The system is gorgeous, but I just never found the game play that satisfying.
Quote from: Sir Slash on January 28, 2020, 09:29:41 AM
Agreed. One of the great joys of my lifetime was calling in Naval Bombardments on those damned Deathtrap Castles in FotS and blowing the snot out of them before I attack. :notworthy:
So true. I miss all that in my new HLL life of death in the hedgerows in "over-gamed Overlord" ( a near quote from a steam discussion).
WH2 is beautiful, abysmally documented and has a grossly simplified and implausible tactical system with regard to formations and troop movement. Still fun, yummy but not filling.
OK...interesting thread I've been following even though I'm not a Total War enthusiast (but have dabbled in some of them). What game is the acronym FotS...?
Quote from: Rayfer on January 28, 2020, 01:07:03 PM
OK...interesting thread I've been following even though I'm not a Total War enthusiast (but have dabbled in some of them). What game is the acronym FotS...?
Fall Of The Samurai - it's the closest colonial/pre-WW1 you're going to get with the Total War series short of a mod.
And it's delicious.
But you're hungry again an hour later?
Hahaha oh you
Some more Total War goodness to talk about.
At one point I had Napoleon Total War on my rig but it stopped working. I thought it had to do with Windows 10 but now I believe it may have been related to the game getting corrupted by a mod. Was chatting with Tuna last night about this issue and he brought up a good point that I wanted to share with all of us. He said you probably have a corrupt game because he has never had any issues running the game on his Win10 machine.
So what I did was re-install NTW on my second hard drive which is not where I had the game installed. I had already tried many times in the past re-installing the game but always on the same hard drive. Well it turns out I got the game to run with no issues right off the bat once the download was complete when I installed it on the second drive.
Now to install that mod again and see if I can play without any issues.
:bd:
Which mod?
I hope they re-do Empire properly some day! Those sea battles were a treat to look at!
Me too. Loved the Empire battles but the campaign was pretty bad. I found NTW to be much more challenging.
Quote from: Yskonyn on February 08, 2020, 04:45:37 AM
I hope they re-do Empire properly some day! Those sea battles were a treat to look at!
I do too. Aside from Medieval 3, Empire 2 is probably the historical Total War title I most want to see next.
ETW was crap, but I loved the naval battles as well. They just need to execute better on the next one, and include an AI that doesn't make you pull your hair out.
I remember the first time I had a battle against one of the Indian factions, seeing the Tomahawk-wielding warriors advancing against my troops, marching in perfect step together like High School band, I nearly peed my pants laughing. :2funny:
Quote from: Gusington on February 07, 2020, 07:40:02 PM
Which mod?
The Great War mod. It's already a bit buggy so I'm not surprised it corrupted my game.
I so looked forward to it and was so disappointed by it when I finally tried it out :/
I feel your pain. I so wanted that mod to work but in the end it turned out to be too buggy.
It does look like some guy over at TWCenter is working on updating the mod though. I'm keeping my eyes open and will report here if I see a re-release of The Great War. ;)
IIRC that original Great War team worked on it for years :(
So after hearing good things about it for years, I finally decided to install the "Divide et Imperia" mod for Rome II and give it a spin. (I checked out the Radious mod as well, but DEI looked to be the one that was better suited to me.)
Just wondering if anyone here has played it before, and/or if are there are any useful tips or tricks I should know about before diving in. It looks pretty sweet. :D
I think Sir Slash is a big fan.
FYI I just bought Three Kingdoms, finally.
Looking for good companion reading if anyone can recommend, besides the ROTK.
Has anyone considers the new RTK14 or are most peoples opinion that it's not a war game?
Quote from: mbar on March 02, 2020, 10:27:40 AM
Has anyone considers the new RTK14 or are most peoples opinion that it's not a war game?
I'm going to check it out when it comes out. Unless it's already out. Gonna have to google it!
The thing is with all of the recent Koei strategy titles is that they've dumbed down the games from what they originally were. I really like RTK8 and 10. These games might not be considered wargames however they are deep turn based fun and that's good enough for me.
Quote from: MengJiao on January 28, 2020, 09:54:15 AM
Quote from: Sir Slash on January 28, 2020, 09:29:41 AM
Agreed. One of the great joys of my lifetime was calling in Naval Bombardments on those damned Deathtrap Castles in FotS and blowing the snot out of them before I attack. :notworthy:
So true. I miss all that in my new HLL life of death in the hedgerows in "over-gamed Overlord" ( a near quote from a steam discussion).
The Attila 1212AD mod seems pretty fun. Of course, I'll be getting back to the hedgerows as soon as Patch 9 for HLL comes out. A little novelty always helps even in the hedgerows.
I use the DEI Mod for Rome 2 and liked it more than the Radious Mod, though that's a good one too. DEI Changes the game a lot with an Area of Recruitment system based on your population and citizen classes for instance, cav. comes from the upper classes so you can't build any in a city that doesn't have that class of citizens. Nor can your units receive replacements after a battle unless your army is in a region that possesses the required type of citizen population. It sounds more complex than it is really and usually as your pop. grows you will have whatever you need. But you can tweek the system however you like in many ways.
The armies and fleets have a supply mechanic that causes attrition anytime they're outside your territory or not at least close. This means you can't sail all over the world and land anywhere you want without running-out of supply eventually and dying because of attrition. However the correct building chains will allow you to build 'Supply Units' land and sea, that allow you to carry supply with you. And fleets with a Supply Ship can supply an army if they are close to each other. Pretty neat.
The pace is slower with 4 seasons per year and growth is slower as well. The AI is very good, campaign and battle and is very similar or the same one The Ancient Empires uses that places more emphasis on units become exhausted in prolonged combat and needing to be relieved by fresh units. And there's a shit-ton of new units for all factions. Also some scripted events such as Carthage was my BFF until I took Syracuse then they declared war on me (Rome). But I was warned of this before it happened in a scripted message.
I really like it but it's probably not for everybody. With the slower pace you probably won't be able to conquer the whole world before the game ends. But the factions play very different so it's fun to re-play. It's also been kept up with since it first came out with new improvements, a big plus. O0
Thanks, Sir Slash! That matches up with what I myself have read about the DEI mod, and was pretty much why I chose it over the Radious mod. :)
You're welcome Martok. I'd like to hear what you think of it when you take it out for a spin.
Quote from: Gusington on March 02, 2020, 09:42:39 AM
I think Sir Slash is a big fan.
FYI I just bought Three Kingdoms, finally.
Looking for good companion reading if anyone can recommend, besides the ROTK.
Well there's the series if you look on You Tube you might be able to find it (and if you can handle subtitled). Also there's John Yoo's Red Cliff, and Kings and Generals did some episodes on their You Tube Channel.
Quote from: Sir Slash on March 02, 2020, 07:29:03 PM
You're welcome Martok. I'd like to hear what you think of it when you take it out for a spin.
Will do. Not sure when that's going to be now, though. RL has suddenly gone a little bonkers this week, plus I'm supposed to head over to Wisconsin this weekend.
Thanks for the leads CJ.
Quote from: CJReich46 on March 03, 2020, 09:33:03 PM
Quote from: Gusington on March 02, 2020, 09:42:39 AM
I think Sir Slash is a big fan.
FYI I just bought Three Kingdoms, finally.
Looking for good companion reading if anyone can recommend, besides the ROTK.
Well there's the series if you look on You Tube you might be able to find it (and if you can handle subtitled). Also there's John Yoo's Red Cliff, and Kings and Generals did some episodes on their You Tube Channel.
Red Cliff is an awesome movie covering the time period.