Total War: Warhammer

[Gusington]

Not sure if the official announcement trailer for 2 has been posted above:

[Destraex]

I love these trailers... they are great.. but I generally find the game to be a real grind. Mainly because the games tactical battles bore me to tears most times. I find that it's just a blob fest because you cannot really command your troops to do anything much apart from magical buffing. They stripped any real formations out of the game for infantry etc etc.
I played until I had seen all of the empire units and then found I did not like the game enough to continue. Part of the reason was that I felt I just had no real affect on the campaign map. No matter what you do you are countered by the AI and campaign mechanics to "keep things interesting".

Could it be because I like playing heroic human factions vs the monsters??? Perhaps monster factions would seem more interesting because you would expect the blob.

[jomni]

Other factions play differently. I kinda liked the Dwarf campaign.  No cavalry.
But actually the campaign is 10x more interesting than tactical battles. Interesting situations and objectives.

[Destraex]

Jomni, I meant that the campaign was not worth playing because tactical battles (which are the icing for me) are meaningless blobs.
But yes I realise other factions play differently, but because I don't see any value in doing anything but blobbing. I don't know whether to bother. The high elves were the only other warhammer faction I liked... but to buy a whole expansion and be bored with the rock paper scissors style gameplay...

[jomni]

Jomni, I meant that the campaign was not worth playing because tactical battles (which are the icing for me) are meaningless blobs.

No worries.  I guess it is a "glass half empty or half full" thing.  I endured the blob because the campaign gave me that "just one more turn" itch.    For you, the blob deterred you from enjoying the campaign.

[Nefaro]

Total War games always end up with "blobbing" in the tactical battles IMO.

I always thought the individual unit formation buttons were just more extra twitchery that didn't add much to the Tac battles other than more work load.  Was actually happy not to have them anymore, so I could focus more on moving the 20+ units around instead of making sure each ones' button stayed toggled on. 

Would've been better served, in the older historical TWs, by having each unit automatically drop into it's preferred "shield wall" type formations when they're stopped, or walking, and lose that toggle when double-clicked to double-time/run.  Instead, you had to manually fiddle with each units' extra formation button, on top of the rest, every time they slowed down.  Or stop them from pursuing an enemy, at a run, and re-toggle them.  Extra UI clickery we didn't really need.



My biggest complaint about the Tac battles is similar to the rest of the TW series; the speed at which many units move.  They're like large units of professional sprinters, organized into old style military lines.  Running to any point in the battle in little time, changing direction in very little time, and spreading out along the way.  Which is also a major contributor to TW tactical battles becoming such messy blobs since each blob can just sprint around corners so quickly.  Phalanx sports cars.

[FlickJax]

I reckon its because all young gamers are impatient and want instant action.

[Destraex]

Does anybody have an easy way of wading through all this modifier and stat stuff in warhammer. I want to know how to work out the actual damage done after all the silly add ons are applied. So I can see what values I am actually looking at vs particular units.

[jomni]

I reckon its because all young gamers are impatient and want instant action.

And also to actually finish a campaign.  Takes to long if a battle takes hours.

[Martok]

Aside from the Norsca race pack, there's a massive content and balance update (the "Foundation Update") coming to the Old World: 

List of changes/additions (and it's quite the list!) can be found here. 


Might be time to pull this one out again...  :D 

[Gusington]

Norsca and this update are getting me to finally load this up - for the first time. Looks nicely fleshed out now.

[bboyer66]

Well I just started playing this game a few days ago, and I was suprised how much I am enjoying it. The main reason I am having so much fun is that it is actually challenging.

My first game as the Empire I started in Hard mode, my usual setting in Total War games to make up for the brain dead AI. But to my pleasant surprise, the AI was pretty damn good.  I was finding it difficult just taking on the Empire seccesionists.

My 2nd game I dialed the difficulty back to Normal. This time I actually took back my Province from the seccesionists. But then hit a brick wall in the form of the Vampire Counts who thrashed me.

3rd game I was doing much better. Had a strong Army , kicking ass, making decent money, then the Chaos and Northern tribes came down from the North and treated me like their bitch.

I'm now playing my 4th game  and using everything I have learned to make a pretty good go of it. The Northern tribes and Chaos have not attacked yet, but this time I will be much more ready.

I'm finding the AI in the startegic screen to be very good. If you give them any type of opening, the AI will exploit it. Ungarrisoned city, or low manpower Army, the AI will make you pay every time. In the tactical battles, the AI is actually doing flank attacks and gets in my rear areas taking out my arty.  The AI is surprisingly competent. I've had to figure out tactics to best employ my combined force armies, because if you do not position all your troops in the correct areas, you will get steamrolled. Half the battle in this game is city management, and figuring out how to get the most out each city you own. If you don't learn this, you will really be hampered later in the game. 

So this version of Total War far exceeded my expectations. Have not really played around with the other factions yet, as I still have not even come close to winning with the Empire as of yet.

[Nefaro]

Well I just started playing this game a few days ago, and I was suprised how much I am enjoying it. The main reason I am having so much fun is that it is actually challenging.

My first game as the Empire I started in Hard mode, my usual setting in Total War games to make up for the brain dead AI. But to my pleasant surprise, the AI was pretty damn good.  I was finding it difficult just taking on the Empire seccesionists.

My 2nd game I dialed the difficulty back to Normal. This time I actually took back my Province from the seccesionists. But then hit a brick wall in the form of the Vampire Counts who thrashed me.

3rd game I was doing much better. Had a strong Army , kicking ass, making decent money, then the Chaos and Northern tribes came down from the North and treated me like their bitch.

I'm now playing my 4th game  and using everything I have learned to make a pretty good go of it. The Northern tribes and Chaos have not attacked yet, but this time I will be much more ready.

I'm finding the AI in the startegic screen to be very good. If you give them any type of opening, the AI will exploit it. Ungarrisoned city, or low manpower Army, the AI will make you pay every time. In the tactical battles, the AI is actually doing flank attacks and gets in my rear areas taking out my arty.  The AI is surprisingly competent. I've had to figure out tactics to best employ my combined force armies, because if you do not position all your troops in the correct areas, you will get steamrolled. Half the battle in this game is city management, and figuring out how to get the most out each city you own. If you don't learn this, you will really be hampered later in the game. 

So this version of Total War far exceeded my expectations. Have not really played around with the other factions yet, as I still have not even come close to winning with the Empire as of yet.

:bd:

That's been my impression with the AI as well.  The campaign is pretty challenging, even on Normal.

I think the easiest TW:W faction is the Dwarves.  Just because they're so damn tough.  Armored steamrollers.  But they're also a bit slow, and have no cavalry.  So they gotta be wary of getting flanked by high speed or flying enemy units that get into their rear.

[Martok]

Yeah, I've not even bothered to play the game on higher than Normal difficulty, as it's already a challenge at that level.  I don't doubt that the AI cheats, but it's still gotta be the best the franchise has seen since at least Shogun 2, and possibly even my beloved MTW/VI. 

Dwarfs remain my favorite race to play as, but I really gotta see about getting in more time with The Empire and Bretonnia as well (especially with the Foundation update coming out). 



Incidentally... 

[bboyer66]

Just had a great gaming moment.

Chaos armies finally descended on my Empire lands. The problem was that my main Army was sieging the green skins at their main city. So I had pretty much 1 Army to go up against 4 chaos Armies, including the one with the big lizard dude who annihilates everyone with his warhammer.

  Chaos attacks and destroys one of my largest cities, even though it was maxed out with the largest walls and a big garrison. Could not get an army to the city quick enough to help defend it.  The defenders put up a valiant defense, but 2  chaos armies was just too much.

I however defeat a lone chaos army at 1/2 strength that attacked my secondary army outside a city. 

Finally my main army gets close to 2 chaos armies that are getting ready to overrun  one of my smaller towns that has a small garrison. Even though this is my best army, 2 chaos armies should be able to destroy it.  So as I await certain doom, all of a sudden an Army from Brettonia comes down and attacks the 2 Chaos armies. Of course I join in and the huge battle begins.

The Brettonian army is very cool with large amounts of Knights and peasant infantry, heck they even brought along a Trebuchet. The first part of the battle is awesome as the Bretonnians (controlled by the AI) pretty much charge across and take the battle to the Chaos army. They really do a lot of damage at first, but start to take heavy losses as the other Chaos army attacks the Bretonnians flank. Finally whats left of the Bretonnian army is leaving the battlefield and the Chaos armies turn their attention to my army. The Chaos troops however are pretty torn up thanks to the Bretonnians, and are attacking me in a piecemeal fashion. My artillery and rifle troops beat the hell out of them as they attack me, and my Demigryph Cavalry (yes they ride on Gryphons) smashes into the Chaos flank chasing them off the battlefield. 

A great moment as just before the Bretonnian Army attacked, I was wondering if my Allies would send me any help?