You probably want to take a look at the victory conditions as well. You can certainly win the game by turning the Old World into a smouldering desert of non-dwarf bones, but you don’t actually HAVE to.
I had the same issue playing the game as the Dwarves: master of everything I survey, unbeatable armies wandering around and… nothing happening. Turns out I just needed to raid one province somewhere. Once I did that, victory screen!
The worst part of the Dwarfs and Greenskins is needing to reclaim those stupid holds in the North.
Thanks for the replies guys, I will have to look into the structures. I have a couple Thanes wandering around, putting down Chaos influence, will have to look closer at the corruption aspect.
This is on normal,but I guess I should start going after Chaos. They are just on the other side of the mountains, anyways…
If you can get Chaos armies to go into the mountain corridor up, you can ambush them using the deep ways and (is you win) completely destroy their armies. That was crucial for me being able to trap their armies.
But yes, if you let them destroy everybody else, that can be a very thought battle (at least in VH). But if the Vampires are still alive you seem to be doing fine.
Hey guys, I think I finally got over my hurdle with Total War games. I’ve tried them several times but bounced off hard. I tried this particular one around release but ended up returning it in the 2-hour window.
In any case, I’m a sucker for punishment I guess because I decided to give it another shot, but I’ve finally gotten over the hump and I’m liking the game. If this continues, I was just wondering if there’s any DLC recommendations or DLC one would be best to stay away from. Note that since I’m a Total War noob, criticisms that certain races mechanics are “recycled” from other games isn’t a negative for me.
Thanks!
They are all good, but the blood DLC is strictly optional, and the Chaos campaign structure is disliked by many for various reasons. If you just want to try out a horde army, the beastmen are a much better choice, but if you just like the flavor of the chaos troops they are worth a shot.
Congrats @KevinC. Glad you got passed that hump, this is my favorite game of 2016!
Here’s my opinion of the DLC (I’m a Warhammer fanboy and I’ve purchased all of it [Edit after seeing Mark_L’s post I realized I lied, I haven’t purchased the blood DLC]):
Race Packs: “Realm of the Wood Elves”, “Call of the Beastmen”, and "Chaos Warriors"
I’ve played quite a bit of Wood Elves, and messed around with the Beastmen. Have not played Chaos.
I would say if you’re interested in the race, and they are in the right price range for your financial situation, these are very solid. The Wood Elves play very differently on both the strategic map and the tactical map. If you like Elves, you’ll probably enjoy this DLC. Beastmen play quite differently from the original four factions (not sure how they compare to Chaos), so as with Wood Elves, a very different experience than you’ll get with the starter factions.
Lord Packs – “King and the Warlord” and "Grim and the Grave"
Lord Packs provide two new Legendary Lords (i.e., rulers), six new units, plus a bunch of “Regiments of Renown” which are basically palette swaps of regular units who start of with xp maxed out and have some special abilities.
The new Legendary Lords are going to be most useful to you if you really like a race and want to replay them but want a different challenge. I can’t speak to the “Grim and Grave” which provides new starting Lords, but use the same original starting positions for the Empire (not sure about the Vampires), but the “King and Warlord” Dwarf and Goblin Legendary Lords new starting positions seem to be quite tough (I’ve only played around with them a bit). They’ve also got special rules and will give you a quite different experience than playing that race with the standard starting position and rulers.
I really like the new units. It’s always fun to have more toys to play with.
The Regiments of Renown, I’m not all that excited about. They feel like a bit of a cheat – you can recruit them instantly once unlocked, regardless of your location, so you get around normal recruiting restrictions – instant high level units. Also I agree with the complaints of those that haven’t purchased them that they can mess up the campaign, since the bad guys get them but unless you’ve paid for the DLC you don’t (fortunately now modded out).
I’d say get these if you like Warhammer, just want to have more stuff to mess around with, and aren’t concerned with the price point. Also “The King and the Warlord” is a particularly good purchase if say you really want to play Dwarves or Orcs again, but want a different experience.
Thanks guys!
If you don’t mind, I have a basic Total War 101 kind of question, in regards to how melee units are handled. Say I have a couple units of swordsmen engaged in melee with the opponent’s troops. I notice that units start to get tired as the battle wears on, but when the melee is engaged I’m not sure what I should be doing about that. Should I be keeping units in reserve, and then swapping them in? Is there a way to disengage and try to rest up? Or do I just realize they’re exhausted and deal with it until that particular melee is resolved?
I’m not sure if this is a good answer for this, but I try to hold some troops in reserve when I can, and then supplement where needed. I don’t know if withdrawing exhausted troops is really a good idea - rather keep their morale up with your lord and other moral boosting units (and magic, when available) and let them keep being the meat shield they are while your arty and missiles make the enemy pay. Melee just needs to hold the line.
Do missile troops behind a line of swordsman have to deal with friendly fire kinds of issues? Can I position my ranged units behind the front line, or should they be engaging from the flanks once the melee ensues?
Sorry for all the noob questions!
No, these are the very questions I tackled as this was also my first earnest attempt at figuring out this type of RTS, so you’re in good company (if not competent company) with me, fwiw.
It depends if the missile troops arc. Crossbows and longbows arc, so you can position them behind a line of your melee and let them cut loose (though you want to be aware you will likely hit your own melee if you are targetting enemy melee currently engaged with your own, I believe). When it comes to straight-line units such as the rifle-firing Thunderers or pistol-armed Empire units (or Cannons) you don’t want them shooting through your troops - I try to keep those units on the flanks and behind a melee line, so they can swing around after the melee line forms up and start shooting enemy engaged troops from the back.
Some of this is entirely dependent on what you face. That specific tactics isn’t a good idea if the enemy has a lot of cavalry, like dire wolves, because it’s really easy for such a unit to tackle your unprotected thunderers and etc.
I’m not an expert, but the expert commentary I’ve seen suggests letting exhausted troops rest before throwing them back in the battle again. So I think it’s less a matter of trying to get them to withdraw and more a matter of, after they finish their current fight, giving them a bit of a breather before throwing them into a new grinder.
As far as missile troops go, there definitely is friendly fire, there are also different types of missile trajectories. So some weapons are better than others at arching over your troops. From what I’ve seen the general recommendation is if you can pull your missile troops to the side of a melee and strike the enemy from the side or back, that will be much more effective.
One thing that’s helped me have a better understanding of tactics, is YouTuber PartyElite has a series where players submit battles to him, and then he replays them while commenting on their tactics. You can find it here:
Also he has a massive 40 video Beginner’s Guide to Warhammer series:
Here you go, here’s a short video from PartyElite specifically on fatigue:
Thanks, guys, I appreciate the help in getting me up to speed!
Another thing: one great way to relieve engaged troops is to get a flank, or partial flank, by bringing another unit to engage. Often in total war I’ll do this, make sure that they engage fully, then pull back the original unit to regroup/ recharge. Then send them back in with flanking since the unit is now engaged with your reserve force.
If you can get a unit engaged with multiple units from different directions it makes it easier to disengage without heavy losses.
Or straight up break them by turning them with a charge from the rear using cavalry. That’s always my favorite.
So I tend to load my units deep in the center, thinner at the outsides, and try and roll one flank, and turn in from there. Adjust for forces and terrain as needed. By going deeper lines in the middle it does tend to reduce morale shocks and fatigue in the center, due to lower percentages of a force being engaged at a time. Their role is to ‘pin’ the enemy units. And heaven help the enemy if I can get heavy cavalry behind their lines, I’ll break the center, then use those dense units to spread to the wings, leaving one unit behind to keep from exposing my flanks.
I’ve been in the same boat as you Kevin. What helped you get over the hump? My main problem is the repetitiveness of the battles. I’m interested in hearing what changed your mind.
This is very specifically a me thing, but hearing that you can play the campaign co-op and they can control parts of your army (even if they’re not in the battle) gave me some extra enthusiasm to try to get over the hurdle.
One of my friends had been eyeballing the game for a while, so he took the plunge and we were able to mess around for a couple hours.Really enjoyed splitting up the forces in battle and working together to try to turn a flank, or setting things up for a cavalry charge, etc. Oftentimes tactical battles in games can start to feel… tedious to me, with all the units to control, so that made it more enjoyable for me I think.
Due to that, I was able to get in a little bit of time with the game and was able to start digging into it to the point where I’m enjoying it in single player now as well.
Sorry, probably not much help to most people here, but that’s what did it for me. :)
Keeping one unit in reserve isn’t a terrible idea but only when you have “saturated” the enemies front line and there is no more room for another unit to fit in. Generally both armies get worn out st the same rate and the effect cancels itself out.
Vs human players battles tend to have two or three phases generally around the first meeting engagement, when you commit your lead general and his/her crew, and the “second” wind phase when routed units get wrangled back for one more push.
Unlike in previous Total War games and because this is fantasy there is no liner a direct relationship with unit model count and health. There are spells and forms of damage which deplete health but leave most of the unit models behind. Yet it is unit models that provide the firepower. A high model count but low HP unit like a damaged unit of cavalry can turn a late game rebound into victory with a timely charge more than their HP might let on.
In all Total War games including this one rear attacks are the de facto strategy for every unit and every situation. Getting rear charges is measurably better than keeping a unit’s fatigue green. OTOH morale is a much more important factor and there are many different races with different morale levels. But again, rear charges shatter morale. Rear charges with units that cause fear and/or terror (they are different) are even more effective.
Phobos rules the battlefield.
I can’t recommend this mode enough, it’s really fun and well thought out.