Total War: Warhammer

[bob48]

Not yet, old chap. I'm made of sterner stuff y'know.

...plus I'm over my budget having just brought a copy of GMT's 'Saints in Armor' - one of the Musket and Pike series.

[jomni]

My dwarf empire expanded rapidly through negotiation. We were able to assimilate many smaller Dwarf factions. My latest acquisition's territory is quite far from my core and they are getting hammered by the Greenskins. In hindsight, they would have been better kept as independent allies. The grudges are piling up and my people are getting discontent as I am not achieving them. My relationship with other dwarves is also taking a hit because of this. They say I'm a sissy king who doesn't not take revenge.

I also need to get used to their lack of cavalry.

[Gusington]

Ok Bawb...I'm counting on you as a bulwark!

[Great Ajax]

Man, I thought defeating Chaos was the end game but the Empire continues to defend its expanding borders against the tide of the Green Skins.

After a grueling campaign, the Skaelings and Varg have been wiped out.  The Green Skins have a massive Waaagh working in Sylvanian Vampire lands and the time has come to hold off the Orks.  The plan is to expand the borders of the Empire by reclaiming the devastated cities in Stirland and Averland and building up their fortifications and then to move into the Vampire lands of the Ostermark and Western Sylvania.  If I can take these regions and fortify them, I can have excellent defenses from which to weather the tide.  Four armies are sent around Sylvania in an attempt to resurrect these ancient fortifications and contain the Ork threat. Balthasar is regrouping in Nuln while Karl Franz is just returning from the Norsca lands to regroup.  Meanwhile, the Top Knotz Ork Clain is feeling its way from the Southern Badlands and infiltrating into my southern borders into Wissenland.  The dwarves of Karak Hirn do not seem interested in holding their mountain passes to stop these incursions.  Balthasar and Karl Franz are pressed once again to hold the southern borders while expansions continue to the east to start closing off the mountain passes in Sylvania that allows the Green Skins access to the Empire.  I decide to let the Vampire Lords to live for the moment since their vampiric corruption drains the Green Skin forces trying to move out the Zhufbar Mountains.

I can't hold off both the Green Skins and the Top Knotz at the same time so an offensive campaign is started to destroy the Top Knotz and hold off the Green Skins around Sylvania.  The Green Skins are definitely stronger and I am not ready to dig them out of their mountain fortresses yet.  Karl Franz heads out alone due south through the desolated lands of the Western Border Princes on his way to strike the Top Knotz strongholds in the Southern Badlands.  A new army is reinforced outside of Bordeaux with the intent to have this army colonize the southern portions of the Western Border Princes to provide a base of operation from which Karl Franz can regroup if needed.  Meanwhile, Balthasar and a companion army head east to Averland, traverse the mountain passes and enter the Eastern Border Princes.  These two armies work their way south and west into the Blood River Valley and the Western Badlands razing Ork settlements.  The Top Knotz are down to their last few settlements but I have yet to locate them.

Meanwhile, the Green Skins are getting bored with the Vampire Lords and move against Essen in southern section of Ostermark - the fortifications are not ready.  Five Ork Armies assault one Imperial Army with reinforcements from the small garrison of Essen in a seemingly hopeless battle.  With the help of musket fire and heavy cannon, the Imperial forces miraculously hold off the onslaught in an epic and chaotic battle but they are utterly spent and the veteran commander is gravely wounded in the fighting.  The Orks push one final army by initiating a fresh fight and the worn Imperial forces are lost to a man and Essen is sacked.  A reinforcing army was sent to try and help Essen but was too far out of range to help in the valorous fight.  The next turn, this army wiped out the shattered Ork armies and shut down the Waagh but at great cost.  This army also destroys the last remaining Vampire Lord army that was kicked out of its last stronghold by the Greenskins.  One last rampaging Ork razes another Imperial garrison before it is soundly defeated.

As the war stands now, three armies led by Franz and Balthasar are scouring the Southern Badlands in an attempt to destroy the Top Notz Clan.  Another Army is restoring the Eastern and Western Border Princes with garrisons that have long since been razed by marauding Ork armies.  Two armies, fresh from defeating the Green Skins and Vampire Lords in Sylvania, now have to decide whether to try to hold their current fortresses or push further into Sylvania and attempt to build more fortifications closer to the mountain border passes to channelize the Ork forces.  So far, the human and dwarven alliances are holding.

Trey

[jomni]

Humans can't capture ork lands right? So how do you eliminate them?  Since they are not an end goal I guess humans can only weaken them through raiding and razing settlements to the point of security and focus on other factions. It's a nice gameplay mechanic actually. Which means Orc will still continue to be a pain on the backside.

Side note, just found out agents can also participate in battle aside from espionage. That's cool!

[Nefaro]

Humans can't capture ork lands right? So how do you eliminate them?  Since they are not an end goal I guess humans can only weaken them through raiding and razing settlements to the point of security and focus on other factions. It's a nice gameplay mechanic actually. Which means Orc will still continue to be a pain on the backside.

Raze their settlements.

It takes money & a portion of an army's soldiers (as losses) for them to re-colonize (Dwarf/Orc.. or Human/Vamp occupational pref still in effect).  You could Raze all of such an enemy faction's settlements and they'd be eliminated.  You just couldn't settle in them, so no extra spoils beyond post-battle loot and any raiding you may do while there.

In my new Vamp Lord campaign, a nearby Human city was razed (by Greenskins iirc?).  Moved my army to take it, taking half losses to all the multi-soldier units in it, for resettlement purposes.  Also cost me about 1600 wealth plus another 2k for the initial building.

Not sure if costs increase over time, or vary by race.

Side note, just found out agents can also participate in battle aside from espionage. That's cool!

Oh, yes!  They're "Heroes", so they level-up and can be equipped just like your generals.  Along with the typical Assassination, Spying, Etc of older Total War Agent types. 

Depending on their specific Hero type, you can spec them for combat.  There are melee types and Sorcerer/Shaman/Wizard types.  Each also has somewhat different campaign map action bonus skills available, if you'd prefer to use them for such things as province bonuses & discounts.  Assassination, Sabotage, Etc.  Or a mix of them.

They do take up an army slot.  So it's probably best to spec them for combat, to some extent, if you're gonna be using them as an army unit often. 




More so than other TWs, the campaign game seems very focused on improving your Unit Type buildings.  The AI is definitely focused on it.  Seeing as how the Leadership rating (aka morale) is exceptionally important, since broken units tend to rally & return to combat very easily in TW:W, it's probably best to do so. 

You'll understand what I'm talking about, regarding Leadership, when you take on Dwarf units that keep returning to the fight, battling to nearly the last Stunty, unless you commit a unit to chasing them off the map for good once they waver.  In my Greenskin campaign, I was always in need of quick or ranged units to chase the bastards away for good.


The economy is also restricted enough to limit the amount of troops you can support, at one time.  More than previous TWs.  I still expect to see some big battles, but not as many full stacks running all over the place.  Thus far, the AI factions seem to be similarly limited, so no complaints.

[Jarhead0331]

I find it interesting that the Vampire and Chaos armies have almost no projectile units. The Vampires, especially, are completely without archers/gunners, etc. and have to rely on either units that move through the air, or very fast moving cavalry/creatures to close the gap quickly in order to eliminate the advantage imposed by enemy missile troops. Magic can also be used to cause damage at range, but this is very limited overall.

I think it took courage for the developers to take a chance in creating drastically different OOBs that result in each army playing out very differently.  You have some armies that are balanced, some that are focused on melee, and some that are focused on magic. Its a really noticeable difference and if you try to use the armies in a manner that does not play up to their specialty, you are sure to meet with disaster.

[mirth]

I think it took courage for the developers to take a chance in creating drastically different OOBs that result in each army playing out very differently.  You have some armies that are balanced, some that are focused on melee, and some that are focused on magic. Its a really noticeable difference and if you try to use the armies in a manner that does not play up to their specialty, you are sure to meet with disaster.

That is noteworthy, particularly for a GW derived game.

[jomni]

yeah as mentioned before, Dwarves have no cavalry so they end up as a defensive and shooting faction.

[Nefaro]

One odd bug I've experienced:

On my desktop's GTX 760, the screen flickers after first loading up. 

After doing an ALT+TAB to my desktop & back, it's fine. 

Doesn't do that on my laptop's older crappy GT640M.    ???

[tgb]

Apparently there is an issue with screen flickering and Nvidia cards.  Turning off V-Sync and running in windowed mode seems to fix the issue (it did for me, anyway).

[Nefaro]

Apparently there is an issue with screen flickering and Nvidia cards.  Turning off V-Sync and running in windowed mode seems to fix the issue (it did for me, anyway).

I'd rather minimize it, after each load-up for the quick fix, than run a game with Vsync off these days.  Keep the video card at a lower temperature, instead of letting it try to run the thing at 180fps and fry eggs.

[Nefaro]

Admittedly, after dipping a toe back into The Old World, I began to yearn for more Warhammer Fantasy goodies.

So I managed to dig out ye olde (1986?) WFRP book, from the mists (and boxes) of time.  Been a long time! 

I always had some issues with that unruly d100 system.  They still use that damn thing in the WH40K rpgs too!       But it's Warhammer.  The setting just oozed that dark moody ultra-violence.  Was pretty damn unusual back in it's day, when twinkly D&D elves and cutesy-ass halflings were, by far, the nerd norm.  With their wee beady eyes and cookie cutter classes!  >:(


I'll get to the point now..  Decided to pick up the WFRP 3rd Edition Core Set, since FFG just did a (short?) reprint run of this latest version (with completely new mechanics). 

After being very impressed with another pair of Jay Little's recent rpg systems, I failed the resistance check and my wallet has taken maximum damage.  Also:  dice pools ftfw!  O0

Sigmar bless my bank account.

[Gusington]

Have you played it yet?

[Nefaro]

Have you played it yet?

What?  Total War?  Or WFRP 3rd?