To me having to go to their page and redeem the code isn’t a big deal, I mean you don’t even need to use the same email you set up with Steam to do it, so I just used my dump email for it, signed up and boom, 30 free ROR units! Easy peasy. I documented my Total War access password so next time something like this comes up the only annoyance will be for the 30th time having to use my 2-factor on the web page version of Steam despite clicking “remember me on this PC”. :)
Yeah, I’m always kind of comforted by how vigilant Steams 2-factor verfication is. Popped for me too, even if I’m on a remembered computer. Reading about folks who get their Steam account hacked and they have to go through all the trouble to get them back, I’m kind of mostly OK with their system requiring that 2-factor passcode so often.
Yeah well, my main problem with this is it’s not done to enhance customer experience, this is no different in my eyes than their switch to web based help in-game. That’s all about making their lives easier not their customer, I can pull up help instantaneously in Shogun 2 because it’s localized, not so with every game since then, which you have to click on and then wait for quite awhile for it to come up.
I do think this is worth complaining about. I hate that I have to wait for a “web page” to load when I right click on a unit. Annoying. I don’t even get the benefit to CA by hosting this instead of pushing it out as a local file. Someone has to maintain it’s content regardless, right? Why not just make it an update that gets pushed out when changes are made to it, like any other game file? I don’t get it. Bugs me.
On the other hand, I guess one thing that’s cool is I can read it at work without having the game running? But then, couldn’t they just maintain a local copy as well as the web based copy?
I’m just disappointed whenever changes feel like they weren’t customer focused, and as you said, not even sure why you’d push help away from being localized.
So, who are you going to play first in your next campaign?
@ShivaX and I are starting up a new co-op campaign after I get off work this afternoon. The initial plan is to both play as Norsca factions (we are fairly confident this is an option) and he’ll do Wulfric and I wanted the Troll King. Though he’s by far the better player and I see the Troll is “Hard” so… we’ll see how that works out. I may try my hand at a solo-Vampire Court campaign, I’ve never played them much but I really like them and they got some cool buffs/units since I last tried them (at launch).
I’ve always found Vampire Counts to be fairly easy but boring. They reward slow patient play. Their top-tier buildings give huge boosts economically so for VC more than anyone else is really pays to take the time to develop core provinces all the way.
Thematically that’s probably dead-on for immortal undead, but it does lead to a campaign that can have boring stretches.
Since they’re new and likely have a few unique twists to game play I went with the Norscan faction Wintertooth. Suspect my beasties and I will go marauding around in the snow before headed for greener pastures to cause some mischief with the empire.
That’s who I went with in a co-op campaign, and so far I’m really pleased with this Legendary Lord and his skills and play style. I’m leaning hard into his Troll and Ice Troll skills and research options, so my troll have 70(!) leadership and big buffs to defense and attack scores. Just as I’d finished building the structure needed to recruit them, I got a random event that gave all recruited trolls +4 experience levels for 10 turns! Half my army is level 4 trolls with massive buffs right now.
You’ve been busy today! I’ve only gotten a couple turns in and I’m already reminded why I like TW: Warhammer, it’s real strength for me as compared to the historical works by CA is the freedom it gives them to have truly unique races that play differently. And it’s not just that they have different units, but there is that, it’s that the game mechanics of what you do with them are different, what they’re required to do to win is different, etc it’s all pretty uniquely designed. Take these guys, you clearly have to play them as marauders. Which is nothing like empire, who are nothing like the orcs. This is really where you have to think CA are really enjoying themselves being free from the constraints of reality.
Btw, w/in about a turn one of my neighbors attacked me, as they no doubt attacked you. I defeated and killed their leader and went into diplomacy and confederated them. I just love that.
While this won’t change the fact that I care nothing for the warhammer universe and much prefer the historical works, it doesn’t mean I’m not going to enjoy it for what it is and look forward to seeing how the merged map turns out (that’s the piece that really intrigues me, seeing all of this woven together into one map after the 3rd one releases, I’d really like to play a co-op with someone on that huge map).
That I think is what makes this such a great game. Lots of other 4x games have different factions/races to play, but they generally differentiate them with statistical modifiers. They are all playing the exact same game, just some of them are a little bit better at aspect X or aspect Y. In this game the different factions are playing by different rules and it does make for some glorious variation and lots of replayability.
All I can say is that I disagree with this emphatically. I’ve beaten the VC campaign on turn 94 on legendary, the only campaign I’ve won faster was as Chaos. Using their faction ability to create large grave markers intentionally, which is absurdly easy to do from the earliest turns by throwing thousands of practically cost-free zombies to their death, you can create massive and high tech armies instantly with Raise Dead. A smaller secondary (and eventually third) army can fight off the rebellions that will inevitably spawn as your deathball conquers one city every turn or two.
If you’ve got the Grim and the Grave it’s even easier because of the regiments of renown. Just start with Vlad or Manfred so you don’t have to wait a turn for sieges. Vlad has siege skill and Manny starts with a Fatbat with siege skill.
Rather than rewarding slow gameplay, I find they are best used as a blitzing zerg-like force.
Interesting, I never would have considered trying a VC blitz or deliberately racking up zombie casualties to maximize raise dead opportunities. How did you manage defense? Vampires always seem to be unpopular and one of the dangers is all the dwarves surrounding you that can get pissy, declare war, and swoop in to start flattening settlements. That was a nuisance for me playing vampires until I just decided to raze everything dwarfy that bordered me.
As far as I can tell, the AI uses a few metrics to decide when to attack you, which as you pointed out, can be relevant with the VC and various Dwarf factions. There is a “how much they like you” metric, but even at full hate, this is not enough for a war declaration. The other important ones are your trustworthiness and how easily the AI feels it could sack one of your settlements.
First off, cancel all your non-aggression pacts with the various Empire factions right away. You’ll be at war with them soon enough if you blitz, and this way you won’t take a massive trustworthy hit that will inspire war declarations. Even though it’s somewhat un-intuitive, the trust metric is a very large factor in the AI’s decision making. Once the NA pacts are cancelled, there is still a window of time where you will take a trust hit (5-7 turn-ish I think) if you declare, so cancelling earlier is better than later.
Second, build level 2 walls in all minor settlements, build them right away, and without exception. While the walls are still constructing, keep a low upkeep 2nd army of zombies/skells garrisoned in newly captured settlements.
The dwarves should essentially leave you alone after that. Worst case scenario you have to stop your advance on the Empire for a few turns to raze a minor Dwarf faction. I don’t think I’ve ever had the primary Dwarf faction declare on me as VC, and they shouldn’t have a reason to as long as you as don’t break treaties and keep your settlements near their borders walled.
I gave it a try yesterday, started a new Von Carstein campaign to try this approach. I can’t seem to rack up the casualties to really get big raise dead piles. Just accumulating a full stack of zombie/skeleton crap early on let me roll the rest of the vampire factions by turn 9 no problem, but it only yielded me one smallish dead pile. I was able to get a black knight out of that and some hounds, but nothing really impressive. I think there’s a detailed knowledge of how to exploit the dead pile mechanics that I’m lacking to really make this approach work.
Last night @ShivaX and I played some more Warhammer and it was a blast. I decided to try out a “hunt” which is one of the unlockable activities the Norsca can under take. My Troll King legendary lord, leading an army of mixed marauder berserkers, javelin throwers, ice and non-ice trolls, a few packs of wolves, and a sorcerer versed in metal magicks were led by rumor and myth to a massive battle with a vast, larger than normal ice dragon known as the Ice Void. The battle was incredible - this thing was summoning vortexes of ice, and breathing a corrupted wave of frost that hurt even my ice trolls and wolves. His presence on the field protected his own army by giving them a 36% physical resist, though he takes himself 40% more damage from fire… but none of us had any sort of thing as “fire”. Hell, half my troops are just as weak to it as he is! We lost most of the non-troll units (since they don’t regenerate; weaklings) save some of the berserkers and the sorcerer was use fairly useless as his spells tend to hit areas and this fight was against a massive dragon and his two smaller (normal) ice dragons as well as a few trolls which fled before me almost immediately (my own trolls, as mentioned before, have a huge advantage in terms of stats and Leadership/morale over the common/standard troll). We did fell the beast and were rewarded with a whopping 10,000 gold (much needed funds) and a legendary artifact called the Ancient Ice-Wyrm Scale, which when equipped grants +20 armor, makes my Troll King’s normal attacks deal Frostbite (a nasty debuff effect), and allows for the use of an ability called “Ancient Frost-Wyrm Scale” which is the aforementioned ice vortex spell (I assume, I haven’t been in a battle yet since I equipped it).
Most importantly, however, it allowed me to then recruit the very legendary dragon I had just bested in battle! He’s actually in my army now, granting that same physical protection to my own troops! So a worthwhile venture. Also, I was able to devout the hunt to the God of Hounds, the God I’ve been making offerings to because his level 1 rewards is an across the board 10% bonus to weapon attack ratings for all my troops! I am very close to that first reward now!
However, while playing around with the hunt, to the north the Dwarf settlement of Kraka Drak decided to send a full army of filthy dwarves to my east most settlement, Winter Pyre. My allies to the further east (a minor Norsca tribe controlled by the AI) assisted me by laying siege to the dwarf keep, forcing the dwarf commander to bring his troops back and relive his garrison. This gave me the few turns I needed in order to get up and take on the dwarf army. Now, I was down several stacks of units from the Frost Wyrm fight, but I still had all my trolls and wolves, several javelins and berserkers, and of course, a massive, legendary dragon lord. I got into his territory … and the dwarf army had destroyed the Norsca army laying siege to its keep. It had only a few wounded left after what must have been a massive battle at its gates. I strolled in and the few remaining dwarf forces weren’t even worth fighting the battle out, so an auto-resolve later I had sacked the city and then, after sacking it, I razed it to the ground in the name of the God of Hounds.
You’d think I’d have been more grateful to the minor Norsca faction, but I’m the Troll King and all I know is maintaining a half dozen high level troll armies and a legendary dragon lord is more than my coffers can bear, even with their little trade agreement. And they are so very depleted from the Dwarf siege. So I marched… against the now very weakened and depleted Norsca faction that aided me. My trade partners from early in the game, I descended upon their settlements with impunity. I occupied their streets, made their economy my own, and now I control the other half of the northern map that ShivaX doesn’t control! A successful evening of gaming indeed.
Awesome stuff!
So… uh. This is a thing.
Apparently a bug of some sort with Brayherds and Waaaghs.
With my history of burning out on total war long before a campaign is over, would I be better off trying one of those faction specific campaigns? I think I have all of the DLC except for beastmen and norsca. Anyone have a favorite to recommend?
One question. The only other time I played was as the dwarves and I felt like I was playing whack a mole against the goblins. Could I avoid that if I used the stances / under ground stuff correctly? If so, how does that work? Are the dwarves more prone to whack a mole than other races?
Thanks
Stances help a lot, intercept an army in the underway and win the battle and it’s lights out for their whole force. Also, use sacking and do not attempt to build where you cannot defend.