Total War: Warhammer 2

Games
2173

There are a few mods out there that add unit caps in various ways to prevent/limit the single monster doomstacks, though I haven’t tried any of them. Generally when you start to encounter stack cheese you have the capability of your own to cheese them back (apparently a few exceptions like early game lizardmen rites)

Some use the TK global unit cap based on number of buildings mechanic
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1957318361
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1289035219

Others use scripts to manage things, e.g. by cost or count on a per army basis
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1456828999
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1723390103

I believe the latter are generally more compatible with other mods since they are script based and don’t change database entries.

2174

Another game down the tubes. This time, I am still playing the elves. I am doing so much better than my first game. I have my capitol fully upgraded, and have a bunch of star dragons and other top tier troops.

So then my armies are pushing around the ring of the elven area, pushing back the pirates. I am destroying them easily.

Then, next to my capitol, all of the sudden a marauding army appears and then some other faction (undead guys I think). The undead guys are in a boat next to my capitol. The maruaders hit a town and steal like 12000 gold. my income goes from +2500 a turn to -3600 a turn. I have 1500 in the bank and my armies are far away. The very next turn the undead dudes, capture my capitol, and pretty much destroy all the structures I had.

Sure, maybe I can comback and capture it again but its going to take forever to build up again.

I think Ill buy the undead lords DLC and play them instead.

Do you always keep an army at your capitol for such an emergency?

2175

I’ve only got a game under my belt as he dwarfs, so I haven’t played the high elves and I’m not sure what the best way to deal with security on that island since people can probably land pretty much anywhere.

I tended to keep a stack near my capitol province until the wildlands were firmly under control by myself or allies.

2176

Were you auto-resolving the capital battle? The AI is notoriously awful at sieges and a t5 Lothern has an insane garrison even if you didn’t upgrade the walls.

But it sounds like you might want to invest more in walls and a defensive army in general. A defensive army and walls both discourage the AI from attacking and war declaring, because it looks for nearby battles it can win in auto-resolve.

You don’t need to go all Star Dragons in the defensive stack, just cheap archers and some spearmen. A 20 stack of that behind a city wall should be able to beat anything the AI will ever throw at you unless you are playing Very Hard or Legendary which I can only presume (and hope) you aren’t doing.

As you play the game a bit you’ll get a sense of which factions are most likely to attack you and make sure you have a defensive army near their territory and the nearby towns are walled. In fact if you are new to the game, I recommend you build walls in every settlement, especially the minor ones.

2177

I didn’t have a defensive army, at least near my capitol. The capitol had a decent garrison, but the power difference was very big. I am also not sure why the undead dude didn’t have to spend several turns seiging it. He went on land next to my city, to battle the next turn. Maybe they had siege units in the army already, so kind of monster unit maybe.

I did auto resolve it because of just the power difference was crazy, like 80% in its favor. It seemed hopeless.

2178

Always build up any defensive buildings you have available in vulnerable cities. Given the elves’ central location on the map and the fact every army can take to the sea, this means all cities along the outer ring need max defense. What’s more, when you see an army approach always assume it has siege-capable weapons (they only need to lay siege and wait turns to build them if they didn’t bring their own). Don’t be afraid to throw together a quick army or two (probably with a cheap general if you don’t plan on keeping it) as they come if you can’t get another there in time. You can always disband it afterwards if needed for the savings.

As an aside, some heroes have the ability to slow an army down (Block Army ability - for you, Mages can do it), so if one is nearby this can help stave off disaster while you’re bringing in reinforcements. That said, Block Army doesn’t totally stop them and if you don’t see them coming quick enough then it’s likely not going to buy you much time; more of a “if such a hero happens to be in the area” kind of thing.

2179

Wait till you get to endgame Vortex spawned stacks if you’re playing that campaign.

(From 1.5 years ago)

1920×1200 1.55 MB

Surprise!

Anyway, a few notes - you should play out those disfavored battles manually. Depending on the actual units involved you can win, and even if you don’t win, causing more casualties = easier time cleanup later. It’s also practice on learning how to abuse the AI xD

2180

That sucks, I only played High Elf before the Vampire Coast, so I’m guessing Noctilus has managed to secure a big win. I do encourage saving and having a buffer of money/loot for moments like this. And much as siege battles annoy me, I do play them out, even if it means doing as much damage as possible to ensure I can recapture against a weakened army.

Vampire Coast are fun, but early game is difficult. Their tier 1 and 2 units are generally trash. Their firepower comes from ranged gunpowder units and siege. If you do play them, get mortars asap and when positioning handgunners, bear in mind they need direct line of sight. No lobbing arrows over your troops anymore, you have to set up actual firing lines to get the shots in. It’s is potentially a challenging faction to play but have some fun sailing the seas looting and plundering. Less about map painting.

Generally not. On the harder difficulties, it is not good having an army playing baby sitting duties for an extended period of time because they are so costly. With the vortex, knowing what’s coming with the rites, I would when they fire, but that’s about it. A fully upgraded capital should be able to take on a stack of 20 and repel them. Especially Lothern. If it is a 40 or 60 stack, then it gets much more difficult.

2181

So --uh – just tried to play “the slayer king” dwarven faction in ME. Got my army up --went east … attacked that silly little baby dwarven town… and low and behold, its a level 3 town full of skaken.

Sweet mercy. It is ON.

(yes I will re-try). Changes happen with frequency in this crazy game.

2182

I really like how all these little changes over the patches can make old campaigns feel fresh in unexpected ways.

2183

So there’s this one ruined settlement in the middle of the jungle being ignored by its neighbors. I figure it must be a Skaven town, so as I just finished up with the vampires on the coast, I send an army down there. While it’s led by a Slann, it’s an old army, basically my third stringers. How hard can it be?

We’re one turn out (fortunately not on the march), and Craventail himself pops out to attack us, and gets the ambush. As soon as the “cinematic” finishes and the ratling guns in the trees open up on us, I get the “enemy reinforcements” notification–turns out it’s two full stacks. Oh boy.

I split the skinks, sending the chameleons into the forest and the skirmishers and javelins to screen the reinforcements. The two cold one units charge from the rear into the ratling guns, jezzails, warpfire throwers, and bombardiers in the forest (maybe six units–unclear). The saurus form up on the mass of rats swarming out of the trees and the dinos start rampaging (literally and figuratively) through anyone they can find (but there are tons of halberdiers and those other weird elite polearm rats). My skink chief looks for the Craven himself.

The Slann starts laying down apotheosis as fast as he (it?) can. Then I see that, surprisingly, there’s a decent battle line formed up, and out comes the fiery convocation, upgraded, and there is much wailing and gnashing of rat-teeth. The dinos then charge home (again) and the line breaks.

By this point the reinforcements have reached the top of the hill overlooking the battle, and a catapult unit opens up. My cold ones have basically finished their first mission in the trees and have ended up on the other side of the hill, so they slam into the catapult. The rest of the army, beleaguered, forms up on the slope.

Fortunately, shortly after receiving the downhill charge, another (unupgradred) fiery convocation and dino charge sets the (lesser quality) reinforcements scurrying, already dismayed as they were by the rout of their ambushing friends. Then it’s just a matter of cleaning up the enemy skirmishers.

Heroic victory! Welcome to the jungle, baby.

(I was greatly helped by the AI’s foolish deployment of their expensive ranged and artillery units deep enough in the forest that trees blocked most of their shots. Also, the AI doesn’t do a great job handling chaotic situations. Oh yeah, and I paused a ton.)

2184

Is there a way to force a unit to move somewhere? IE: Do not stop to engage troops. Just fucking go, no matter what, do not stop to fight, just fucking move…

So many times, I tell a unit to go somewhere and it just stops to fight. For example, right now I have some chariots running from a few squads of infantry. If I tell to move somewhere, it will start to go, then stop and start meleeing. Right now I am just spamming the move button over and over to actually get the unit to stop fighting and save itself from certain death.

2185

Not really, no. Different units have different “mass” so if a chariot gets stuck in the middle of some infantry it can have a hard time getting out. Your best option is to pull out back the way you came in.

If it were too easy to get cavalry/chariots/generals/monsters through, then those units would be basically unstoppable.

2186

My units are not getting stuck in the middle of other units. They just start moving, and then get attacked from the rear or side, and then stop going where I told them to, and engage.

IE: I have some flying bird things. They can not be blocked by some unit. I tell them to fly across the map, and then later I noticed that they made it half way and are now half dead because they are on the ground fighting something.

2187

It’s just something you kind of need to account for in your gameplay, sadly. Flyers suffer from this the most, particularly flyers with large numbers of models in a unit. If even a few of the units can’t escape because they are trapped by enemy troop mass, the entire squad will start fighting again after a few seconds.

Unfortunately the best way to deal with this problem is just to try and avoid it. Otherwise the best thing you can do is “force move” the unit away from the enemy by repeatedly giving it a move command every few seconds. It makes Chariots and the more fragile flyers extremely micro-management intensive. But as ooomalley mentioned if Chariots were any harder to stop they’d just flatly be invincible in the hands of someone willing to micro them.

2188

I will tell you hard. Play slayer king… just try… and try taking that small baby town to the east.

I have 4 tries with an assortment of mixes. Man that’s hard.

(Slayer king is a dwarven faction that lets you run with slayers cheaper and better – environment: snow).

I tried some catapults… hmmm. Those skaven are dug in deep in that hole. And if you happen t win? Good luck – a pyrrhic victory will just let those orcs kill you.

Good heavens I’ve hardly ever seen a spot so hard in this game. I love it!

2189

Flyers should not end up on the ground without an order to attack an enemy (in melee). What unit are they? If they’re ranged, they may have skirmish on, which can play havoc with move orders, but shouldn’t put them on the ground. They only way I can imagine a flyer grounding without an order is rampage. I don’t think any spells would do it (maybe net?).

2190

Usually the AI will chase down fliers with ranged and murder them, but yeah, they shouldn’t be on the ground unless you gave them an attack order.

Also getting far away from your troops can result in morale issues since they’re “surrounded” by powerful enemies, even if said enemies are dudes on the ground that can’t touch them. If those units are undead, that means they could start crumbling without having been engaged by anything.

2191

I am replying to myself on that campaign (slayer king dwarves/me)

I figured it out… Not a puzzley thing just a strategic thing…

Now I aim to cause trouble…

2192

Hammer Not The Anvil! (when thingy too hard to take, don’t take it.)