Total War: Warhammer

[tgb]

^Sure. I am going to play the Vampire Counts first (when I finally cave) and will be reading the Vampire Omnibus first. There's of course other stuff out there but it can be a chore to pour through everything if you are not that familiar with WH, like me.

Also, resist the urge to get almost anything from the Black Library, it's typically very overpriced and everything there can be found for less money.

Better decide to cave before Tuesday morning; the last chance for getting the Chaos DLC free. 

Judging by how well received TWW has been, I doubt it will be on sale for awhile.

Wait.  So this Chaos Bight or whatever it's called is DLC that they've been giving early adapters for free?  Does that mean if I wait and purchase after Tuesday it won't happen in my games?

[Grim.Reaper]

^Sure. I am going to play the Vampire Counts first (when I finally cave) and will be reading the Vampire Omnibus first. There's of course other stuff out there but it can be a chore to pour through everything if you are not that familiar with WH, like me.

Also, resist the urge to get almost anything from the Black Library, it's typically very overpriced and everything there can be found for less money.

Better decide to cave before Tuesday morning; the last chance for getting the Chaos DLC free. 

Judging by how well received TWW has been, I doubt it will be on sale for awhile.

Wait.  So this Chaos Bight or whatever it's called is DLC that they've been giving early adapters for free?  Does that mean if I wait and purchase after Tuesday it won't happen in my games?

Pretty sure the DLC was to make them playable...I believe they would still be in the game as non-playable without the DLC.

[jomni]

I had no intention of getting this but the videos look really fun.  Fantasy stuff does add some interesting elements not found in other TW titles.

[Fetrik]

Like i said. This is the best TW out of the box since like forever.

[SirAndrewD]

I bit the bullet and got it for the long weekend. 

Actually lost my first campaign as the Empire when Marienburg declared war on me on turn 7 and walked a 20 stack army loaded with Pistoleers and cannon right up to Altdorf. 

This absolutely kicks it up a notch.

[Ubercat]

Isn't Marienburg part of the Empire?

[SirAndrewD]

Isn't Marienburg part of the Empire?

They're independent.  The game fractures the Empire at the start (per the lore Marienburg is secessionist anyway), so only Altdorf is actually the Empire.  The player has to immediately go to war with Empire secessionists and some of the other Elector counts can, and apparently do join in right at the start.

Second game in I managed to keep most of the counts happy, but still had a rebellion in the south that took Karl Franz and his army away from Marienburg, which led to a two pronged invasion by Greenskins, that had just razed Middenland, and Marienburger's pretty well instantly.  So second game was over fast too.

I'm sure there's a sweet spot to hit, but it's pretty interesting that the AI takes full advantage of weakness and is not behaving stupidly.  It wants to win and does. 

[mikeck]

Well I have always been a total war fan. I have bought them all, played them all and love them all. I was a fan of Rome 2 when everyone else was hating on it. So I don't criticize the franchise lightly because I understand what it's meant to do and how it does it. 

Speaking of the tactical AI:  Looking only at the newer engines from empire on down to the newest release, I think the game consistently has problems dealing with firearms or at least the mass use of firearms. When units are Melee units it seems to do very well. Traditionally everyony agrees that Shogun 2 and Warhammer seem to have great tactical AI. I will tell you that Rome 2 and Attila had Tactical AI just as good when units are melee units. My point is that people see what they want to see. People hated Rome 2.  The problem was rarely with the  tactical  AI.  It was a hatred for the larger game design decisions.  Once you've decided that you don't like the game as a whole, every little minor thing becomes huge and evidence of a horrible AI. There were big bugs I admit but the dislike was larger.

So I am loving this newest version but to me it's just as good as all of them since Rome 2... Or at least that game after if you weeks of patches.

[Gusington]

To make Chaos playable after this Tuesday will cost 7.99.

Still holding out! I have a couple of Attila campaigns planned for the summer that will keep me entertained, and I want to play another Crusades and Teutonic campaign in M2 also.

All of which will distract me from the new shiny game lurking...always lurking 😀

[Freyland]

Despite preordering the game, I have yet to play it. I have, however, loaded up the game guide twice from the main menu. The second time I did this, all the red text, which are links, had red strikethroughs on them. Anyone know about this?

[jomni]

Found a bug. Happened twice during siege defense scenario. I wasn't able to select units via the unit cards. Have to look for them on the map to select.

Also, I have this habit of keeping generals at the rear. Looks like this game demands putting generals in harms way.

[Great Ajax]

I've put in some serious time in this one since release and I am absolutely loving it as my favorite Total War yet.

First play through I played as the Undead Counts and the introduction and campaign are just enthralling and very entertaining.  I like the story telling aspect of setting up these campaigns as they certainly help add immersion.  After playing about 50 turns, I just wasn't feeling like I was where I needed to be so a restart with a different faction was in order.  Kicking off a new campaign as the Dwarves was fun but then I quickly got over my head fighting orks and I thought m high king was killed so I quit.  I later learned that your leaders can't be killed, just severely wounded.  So after two abortive starts, I was thinking that this game may be too hard.

So then I try the Empire and it was quickly looking like it was going to be your typical total war slog with constantly being at war with everyone.  I managed to capture the provinces immediately to the north and south of the Reiksland through some wars with neighboring humans.  I focus my economy on building up the Reiksland and the newly conquered provinces are just on maintenance.  The dwarves to my west declare war and sack several cities in my south and I can see the Vampires are pushing west and its only a matter of time before they are at my doorstep.  I struggle to maintain two armies while I pay back the dwarves for their treachery by razing one of their settlements to the ground and destroying two of their armies.  The good news is that Karl Franz is developing into a straight up bad ass.  Finally the dwarves relent with a peace treaty and quickly followed by a non-aggression pact.  I pick up a couple of human allies to the east and the Vamps are now on full campaign mode on my neighbors.  I can still only manage two armies so one stays to guards against the dwarves and Karl moves on the Vamps besieging an Allies' castle with a two stack army led by von Carstein.  I decide to attack the two stack army with just Karl Franz's army and an epic battle ensues with the Empire utterly routing Carstein's forces.  They withdraw and I haven't seen them stir much from their lands since.

Then Chaos stirs and this is the point that I think that I am about to quit because I can't do it.  The Skaelings come strong from the north and sack Middleburg (I think) and then start raiding all along the coast and  I can see Chaos and the Varg coming to Ostland with stacks and all I can afford is two armies so I head north to try to hold off the Skaelings.  I have to leave one army at Wurzbad to guard against the Vamps while Karl Franz and his grizzled vets head north to beat off the Skaelings.  My entire economy switches to fortifying the north against the raiders by building gates and rebuilding my sacked cities.  It takes awhile, but I re-secure the fortress at Middleburg and a cat and mouse game persists with the Skaelings continuing to raid and sack my cities but when I catch them, they are destroyed.  As this campaign continues, I start picking up more and more allies and the situation is still looking hopeless as I am struggling to defend my borders, my economy is crap, I can't build more armies and I can't expand my Empire. 

Then I try to offer Confederate and they start joining just as soon as I can offer.  Marienburg, Ostland and a few others immediately join.  Bretonia joins my defensive alliance as do all of the dwarves.  Now I find myself with seven armies and a huge kingdom and the game changes immediately.  With my new armies, Karl is relieved of having to perform border defense duties to the north.  Wurzbad is now sufficiently garrisoned and the Vamps are quiet so I decide to move Franz and my eastern army to Ostland (One of my allies) where Chaos is besieging.  My new army at Marienburg now moves north to guard against Skaeling raiding along the coast while a new army is raised at Middleburg as a northern bulwark to guard against future invasions.  Karl and his second army break the siege at Ostland in another epic battle and send Chaos fleeing.  Two more human allies join the Empire Confederation and I start assigning war coordination points to the dwarves and my remaining human allies.  The Chaos armies re-align their strategy and they start moving to west and look like they are going to try to re-invade via my newly fortified Middleburg.  Franz is re-deployed to Middleburg and his army combined with the army at Middleburg destroy the Armies of Chaos for good. 

Now the revenge campaign is in full swing. Five armies are now sweeping the northlands and razing all of the Varg and Skaeling settlements in raiding mode.  Chaos corruption is almost completely wiped from my lands and new settlements have been colonized from their ruins and I am sporting over 5K in funds each turn.  The Vamps are still quiet but they are alive and have asked for a peace treaty which implies weakness.  They should be next on my list for destruction and then I hear of an Ork Waaaghh way to the south.   

So now I have two armies scouring the norsca lands razing the last remaining settlements of the Varg and Skaeling.  These two armies are led by Karl Franz and Balthasar and they are utterly unstoppable as Franz is now level 31 and can almost solo entire armies by himself.  He has achieved in my eyes the name of 'God-Emperor', the true defender of the realm.  Three more armies have just returned from the revenge campaign and I do not intend to send them back.  They are rebuilding along the northern coast with one of them set to receive the new siege tank.  My plan was to use them to conquer the Vamps but now I can see an Ork Waaagh heading towards my land and they must be stopped.  I have no armies in the immediate vicinity and an army is hastily created to stem another tide ...

Trey     

[Gusington]

Damn you.

[bob48]

And double-damn you from my credit card :-((

[Gusington]

You didn't Bawb...did you?