I’d agree … on Legendary. On lower levels of difficulty, I’ve never seen the need (and never take it), because it’s easy enough to outmaneuver the AI. Until I had to face down a major waagh in the World edge mountains, that is.
Agreed. Playing on normal the lightning strike skill is a nice-to-have in most situations. It is very useful if one is going to tackle a late game Empire that has grown out of control and has roving packs of three to four full stacks ready to pounce. Or, as already mentioned, stopping a nasty Waaugh from a big ork faction.
ShivaX
2866
Lightning Strike is a big reason the game isn’t better imo.
It’s a rotting 2x4 that keeps a lot of shit propped up.
That said, sometimes you just HAVE to use it because the AI can shit out so many stacks and a lot of factions can’t win a 3v1 army battle. It’s not especially fun to get, the blue line isn’t generally that interesting (especially for WH1 factions, where +1 untainted is often the “best” choice), but throwing away 7 points into said blue line is still almost always worth it at the end of the day (well 5, the first point in the blue line is always good, because movement is movement and LS itself).
Ah, I’m not sure I’d agree it is that bad. The game AI in general isn’t all that good - LS is just one of many ways that one can break the game. But honestly, I don’t really mind that much - TWH is one of those games where half the fun lies in finding new and inventive ways to break the system. I try to build my Lords in order to have fun with them (currently trying to build a Fire Drake/Flame Cannon/Iron Breaker army with Lords with fire resistance armor/items, and it’s hilarious), not necessarily what is the most optimal build.
It’s a game that needs to deliver fun battles, and I think it succeeds well enough at that (though some factions better than others… doesn’t surprise me that Vampires and Beastmen are unpopular, because their battles tend to be extremely boring). TBH, I feel Dwarves can be a bit in that direction too - though especially in the early-mid game; late game they gain some entertaining units.
Also, ending my run of Belegar, I just have to point out one other reason I love this game series so much: they just keep adding to the game in fantastic ways. And not just in adding new lords, units, and game mechanics, but also adding to the map.
This is my first Mortal Empires campaign in quite a while, and I’m just astounded by how much the map has changed since my last ME campaign - all those new Wood Elf enclaves, as well as new factions placed in different places. I’m thinking I’ll have to try an Empire campaign as Karl Franz in my next attempt - looks like it will be a wholly different game than my last game with them.
Enidigm
2868
The Empire campaign isn’t nearly as terrible as it was day 1 of Warhammer 1. That was… pretty horrible. I think i spent 50 turns just trying to unify my starting province, because there was no way to defend both ends of it at the same time and they had scripted multiple stacks of Orcs popping into existence and attacking from multiple directions.
I am glad I have the camera mod that lets me tune who I have to watch during the AI turns. I sat there for many turns watching Malus debark near some vampire city, take attrition, next turn get back on his boat, sail away, repeat ad nauseum before I remembered to set the camera for his faction to Off.
ShivaX
2870
Don’t need a mod for that, it’s a thing in the vanilla game.
Of course the game doesn’t remember your settings so you get to play with it every time you start a campaign, but it’s there.
I usually put all neutrals and allies to ‘Off’ because I really don’t care what they’re doing and watching them wander aimlessly through my Fog of War is pointless. Myself on Fast and my enemies on Fast or Fastest.
Allies are worst since you always see all their stuff. Playing Malus even once makes you learn it quick unless you like your camera flying literally across the planet to watch him get his ass kicked by random Skaven or whatever nonsense Malekith gets up to.
There is a mod that remembers your camera settings so you specifically don’t have to do that each time you play! If you or anyone else was unaware. I highly recommend it because those camera settings are a very nice QoL feature but you have to reset them each game without the mod. And yes, you absolutely need to turn allies off or your end turns will take twice as long.
Along the same lines, this is just a general tip for anyone who doesn’t have a bazillion hours or doesn’t micro-inspect the UI, but there is a wheel/cog in the bottom right of the end turn button that lets you toggle your notifications. At a certain point of the game you will absolutely want to turn off level up notifications if nothing else cause there are just too many heroes and lords. You can level them before they go into battle.
Yeah, as @MisterMourning clarifies, it’s the mod to save that setting.
Excellent tip.
I dislike being drowned by notifications.
Strato
2874
I could have sworn in a recent CA patch they allowed the camera settings to be saved. Might have been the Grom and Paunch update. I know in the games I’ve played recently the camera settings are held at skip everything.
DeepT
2875
Can anyone tell me a good army compostion for early-mid game for Vampire coast? My armies keep getting crushed. From what I have read that the melee units suck and do not even bother. I have tried a few melee monster / troops to hold the line, but that has not worked out.
I also have tried various forms from ranged units and still get crushed. Any ideas?
Research free skeletons
Bring 2 armies filled with skeletons
Have heroes do all the killing with AOE spells.
A few units to kill like vargs or knights, cycle charge.
If you are Isabella, vampire heroes are godlike later. Flying immortal wizard-warriors.
Edit: Oops you wrote coast my bad!
You do need some melee early on to hold stuff down. You can’t not have melee unless you have incredible DPS that can kill stuff before it reaches your lines. That said, the rotting mobhands kinda sorta work as a tarpit in a pinch.
DeepT
2877
I was not aware that vampires had skelletons at all, let alone free ones.
One of the videos I saw on each faction’s worst units pretty much slagged every giant-type unit in the game.
One advantage of ranged units is you can focus fire 4-5 of them into the same target, quickly routing it. In an otherwise-identical army you can turn the tide that way. Ideally you pick the most dangerous enemy unit as well. Large units (such as giants) are easy to hit with missiles.
Enidigm
2880
Man i have no idea how the Chaos campaign is supposed to work. On turn 70 i have two stacks - if they approach each other about 1/3 of the stack dies. Finally i get quad teamed, lose an entire stack and are down to about 6 units. I guess… rebuild for another 30 turns?
DeepT
2881
Hmm, I do not recall that happening at all in my Chaos campaign.
Enidigm
2882
I mean there’s a lot of weird, unspoken “thought process” that’s going on in the Chaos campaign logic. So i guess the answers are something like 1) never use Marauders, because Marauders suck because of the stacking effect, and 2) create a “feeder” stack that has all the buildings and transfer troops from the feeder stack after they’re built.
Early vampire coast is all about gunlines. You want the zombies with rifles. Yes they have accuracy issues but there’s a ridiculous number of them per unit and those guns do pretty good armor piercing damage. A full barrage into an enemy unit will put a hurt on anything. So basically an early vampire coast army is a cool lord and a hero or two, plus a bunch of chaff zombies that will die a lot pinning down enemies while your gunline shreds people.
I tend to just wander around raising the dead to get the cheap chaff and I don’t bother trying to heal them. Combine units and dismiss units that are 25% hp or less. Recruit new ones and keep on sacking.
Once artillery becomes available, which should be a priority for vampire coast players, thee or four mortars can replace a number of the gunner units. You’ll still want some gunners but it’s much less of a priority. And you might be looking at tougher chaff units. The giant undead crab things, with or wihout riders, are great for this. They aren’t particularly mean but they have a dispersed enough formation that they don’t block line of sight for your shooters as easily as a mass of infantry does.
Late game Vampire Coast has a number of intriguing possibilities. Depth guard, even more artillery, maybe some fliers to rush enemy artillery, etc. For maximum funsies I generally give into the temptation (especially if playing Noctilus) and just make an all necrofex colossus army. Well, maybe I mix a hero or two in there so someone can cast the healing spells.
