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Total War Warhammer 2 |OT| Of Mice and Ratmen

Well, my one tip so far is that, as Dark Elves, slaves are key. Increasing captive amount-post battle gives incredible replenishment boosts when enslaving, allowing a single, Lightning Strike army to weave bloody murder through multiple weaker armies. It's kind of amazing--it turned around a moment I thought I'd be defeated recently.

And that's without getting into the economic benefits of slavery. (I can't beleive I just typed that. Oh, video games.)


Also, Malekith is a boss. If you choose him you've already won half the battle.
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Edit: Forgot about the other bug I've noticed: media hotkeys (to pause/resume music) don't work at all while the game is fullscreen, you have to alt-tab out. It worked fine in TWWH1. The last game I've experienced this issue in is Star Wars: the Old Republic.

I hope CA fixes this immediately 'cause TWWH is my podcast game and alt-tabbing out all the time is a bummer.
Made a start with the Dark Elves campaign, it's still odd the adviser for most campaigns is still that old dude which doesn't make much sense, at least have a character fitting your faction. Those Cold Ones Raptor squads are awesome.

I noticed it still has that issue that units just vanish into the scenery when walking into the shadows or dark areas since there isn't much color on them, it's mostly brown and when Skaven and Dark Elves clash I have a hard time telling units apart because it just turns into a brown blob.

They actually explain who he is during TWWH1's Chaos campaign, believe it or not. I'll spoiler it because it is genuinely surprising:

You know Sartorael the Ever-Watcher who materialises out of thin air during Chaos' invasion? That's, uh, him. You see a little cinematic of him transforming when player-led Chaos reaches the final legs of their victory, and then get attacked by him because player-led Chosen is always surrounded by envious Chaos, rather than obedient Chaos.

It turns out he's been fomenting war, and thus the end-times, hence his friendly guidance to every faction.
 

Ravelle

Member
Oh, I never did the chaos campaign because it was DLC that wasn't really received that well. That's pretty cool though.
 

Lord Phol

Member
They actually explain who he is during TWWH1's Chaos campaign, believe it or not. I'll spoiler it because it is genuinely surprising:

You know Sartorael the Ever-Watcher who materialises out of thin air during Chaos' invasion? That's, uh, him. You see a little cinematic of him transforming when player-led Chaos reaches the final legs of their victory, and then get attacked by him because player-led Chosen is always surrounded by envious Chaos, rather than obedient Chaos.

It turns out he's been fomenting war, and thus the end-times, hence his friendly guidance to every faction.

Almost correct, he's
a servant of Tzeentch, but gets betrayed by his master in the end.
The Ever-Watcher is actually the Raven on his shoulder who devores him and transforms. You can see it in the following cinematic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaMaUFCJVCA&ab_channel=junkoenoshima
 
Does each faction have their own music? I've been loving the Dark Elves "we're in Mordor now"-style music.


Also remembered the third bug I encountered:
You know how sometimes armies do warcries as an idle on the campaign map?

Well, Malekith with his first mount (Cold One) gets in loops where all he does are war cries.
So it's all,
Malekith said:
Malekith said:
Malekith said:
Malekith said:
Malekith said:
forever

At least until you move him again.
Almost correct, he's
a servant of Tzeentch, but gets betrayed by his master in the end.
The Ever-Watcher is actually the Raven on his shoulder who devores him and transforms. You can see it in the following cinematic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaMaUFCJVCA&ab_channel=junkoenoshima

Whoops, thanks!

I, uh, assumed
they just merged or something. I was going off memory.
 

Keasar

Member
Yes, Summoning a Black Ark is one of their strategic spells. It's sort of like a naval horde army, in that you can recruit and build there a la hordes. But it also gives support to land units in range--replenishment, recruitment, and in-battle spells. It seems very powerful for far-off targets.

Neat.

Still a shame we don't get naval warfare ala Shogun 2 with this, must be due to that annoying Man'o'War license.
 

cripterion

Member
Was gonna complain that I'm getting less framerates in this benchmark than in the original one but realized they changed the original benchmark too. Respectively 56 fps and 48 fps average for Warhammer II and Warhammer I.

1440p, max settings except for shadows on Ultra. Original defaults to x4 MSAA and the sequel is set to FXAA though.
 

Bizazedo

Member
Oh, I never did the chaos campaign because it was DLC that wasn't really received that well. That's pretty cool though.

The last patch basically made Chaos fun to play. The lessons they learned over the course of Warhammer 1 were evident.
 
The last patch basically made Chaos fun to play. The lessons they learned over the course of Warhammer 1 were evident.

Yeah, the UI improvements are great (although I'm still struggling with the diplomacy map changes) and the skill trees are incredible this time around--super varied and interesting, both thematically and strategically.


The unique traits are particularly amazing.

e.g. Have you ever wanted to live forever? Well... now you can:
On a Dark Elf Sorceress.
 

LTWheels

Member
For the grand campaign cross game have they said if you need to have the first game actually installed on the pc, or just having ownership in steam enough?
 

loki0wn

Member
For the grand campaign cross game have they said if you need to have the first game actually installed on the pc, or just having ownership in steam enough?

Just ownership, they'll bring the rest of the assets over. Only reason to have TW1 installed is for those campaigns.

Great OT! Looking forward to jumping in later today, still haven't decided who to start with! Probably use a d8 to help decide.
 
Just ownership, they'll bring the rest of the assets over. Only reason to have TW1 installed is for those campaigns.

Great OT! Looking forward to jumping in later today, still haven't decided who to start with! Probably use a d8 to help decide.

Word?

my SSD will be forever thankful if so
 

Ravelle

Member
A game over within an hour or so because one of my leaders got ambushed by Skaven, then after retreating they just attacked me again and finished me off and Malekith just got outnumbered by a random enemy around my base and killed of and my capitol got encircled with no means to defend myself and while I was being drained a beastmen army came in and killed my lord without an army within my encircled castle.

What use is retreating in battle you get killed a second later anyways. :(
 
It can put you out of range of the enemy force. They must have been close by. It also could put you in a more favorable position if you had a settlement or other army near by.

Yeah, the UI improvements are great (although I'm still struggling with the diplomacy map changes) and the skill trees are incredible this time around--super varied and interesting, both thematically and strategically.


The unique traits are particularly amazing.

e.g. Have you ever wanted to live forever? Well... now you can:

On a Dark Elf Sorceress.


Those were some of my biggest areas to improve. Glad they took a look. I shouldn't even be in this thread, it'll just make the wait worse.
 
Cant wait to jump on this this afternoon. My son is out of school early today. I think we are going to run a high elf campaign first (I tend to go "good" first).

Lizardmen second!!
 

FlyinJ

Douchebag. Yes, me.
Pre release streamers have commented that the game runs better than TW1.

Is CA bringing these optimizations into TW1?

I just started playing TW1 about 2 weeks ago, and would like to have the improvements of TW2 in the TW1 campaign. Can I play the original TW1 campaign in TW2, or is it just the massive new "grand campaign" that uses the TW1 assets?
 

Nezzhil

Member
Is CA bringing these optimizations into TW1?

I just started playing TW1 about 2 weeks ago, and would like to have the improvements of TW2 in the TW1 campaign. Can I play the original TW1 campaign in TW2, or is it just the massive new "grand campaign" that uses the TW1 assets?
They only talked about the second. I don't think that they will continue giving a big support of the 1st one.
 

Ravelle

Member
Really enjoying the Dark Elves.

Stone Cold Killerrrs

Murderrrrr!

And Malekith's complains he hates snow is hilarious.
 
As Dark Elves (malekith), how am I supposed to get rid of chaos corruption?

The Witch Hag-producing building will fight against it via untainted. Tier 3 = 6; Tier 4 = 9; Tier 5 = 12.

It will take a while. (Also, Morathi loves Chaos so good luck confederating with her.)
 

Lord Phol

Member
The other factions are getting close to fulfilling their first ritual resource requirements while I've barely filled up half the bar. I chose to try and ally myself with the other lizardmen instead of just straight up attacking them and taking their ritual resource site, which lost me a lot of time and potential resources. Couldn't get them to confederate but I managed to get the site after it was overrun by an undead faction.

I've only been fighting Skaven and undead so far, both with weaker units but I feel like Lizardmen in general are pretty damn tough. Even with mostly basic units and being highly outnumbered I tend to win without much of an issue. Feels like it takes forever to kill stuff though, maybe that's what balances them out.
 
Playing as the High Elves for my first run. I lost my phoenix in the first non-tutorial battle. RIP bird.

So far it's good though, a lot of improvements over the original. Better performance, UI, and QoL changes.
 

Lord Phol

Member
Yeah I noticed that as well. Played TW1 without any AA, but there's just way too much aliasing in this game for that to be viable. Usually tend to stay away from FXAA but I found it to be the best option for me here. Fortunately it's pretty decent and doesn't look nearly as blurry as it can do in a lot of other games.
 

Mathi

Member
Queek Headtaker has some hilarious talent names: Make Examples!, Life is Very Cheap, Violent Rise to Power

I remember reading somewhere that they increased the max level for Lords, did I imagine that or is that actually true?
 

Lashley

Why does he wear the mask!?
Yeah I noticed that as well. Played TW1 without any AA, but there's just way too much aliasing in this game for that to be viable. Usually tend to stay away from FXAA but I found it to be the best option for me here. Fortunately it's pretty decent and doesn't look nearly as blurry as it can do in a lot of other games.

AA was disabled, FXAA fixes it? I'll enable it now
 

Vaporak

Member
Played for a few hours after the unlock last night and it's really good so far. On Very Hard difficulty it seemed to me over the two starts I had that the early enemies are less "tutorial pushovers" than the starting enemies most factions had in the first game. Good change imo.

Should I play the first one, or just jump straight into this?

Overall mechanically and in faction design I think Creative Assembly have done a better job with TW2 than with TW1; but the answer I think would more depend on your interest in the different races and the Vortex campaign. Total Warhammer 2 isn't designed to require experience with the first, so if you're interested in say, dinosaurs riding bigger dinosaurs killing ratmen, then just jump on in to TW2.
 

Anno

Member
Have CA talked about going back and giving some love to the races in TW1? Or have they already? I haven't played for a long time but it would be nice if they got some work before the mega map is rolled out.
 
DX12 Beta. Should it be used or is DX11 still preferable?
I looked at 4K and Ultra on Campaign map and yeah, around 35 - 45 fps which isn't too bad as 60 fps isn't really a requirement. However 1440p and Ultra and MSAAx2 was 60fps and looked very decent. However yet to actually play as I've been very busy. But looking forward to some lizard on rat action!
 

ElyrionX

Member
About nine hours in with Teclis, the map is massive and somewhat daunting. HE economy snowballs pretty hard once you get the trade buildings and trade agreements up.
 

loki0wn

Member
Have CA talked about going back and giving some love to the races in TW1? Or have they already? I haven't played for a long time but it would be nice if they got some work before the mega map is rolled out.

TW1 is done. They released an update a weeks ago that had balance changes now all the DLC is finished. Likely some maintanence down the line, but TW2 is the new platform.

They've said that the TW1 races will be reviewed and changed before they are brought over to TW2. Not sure to what extent.
 

Anno

Member
TW1 is done. They released an update a weeks ago that had balance changes now all the DLC is finished. Likely some maintanence down the line, but TW2 is the new platform.

They've said that the TW1 races will be reviewed and changed before they are brought over to TW2. Not sure to what extent.

Okay cool. I guess that's more what I meant, getting them up to par a bit in terms of uniqueness in the TW2 world. People seem very happy with how varied the new races, skill trees etc. are.
 

loki0wn

Member
Should I play the first one, or just jump straight into this?

Skip TW1 for now. Quality of life changes in TW2 are great, races are more interesting, and you'll be on the new platform.

When the megamap comes out, you'll be able to buy TW1 on sale and get them all on the same map.
 

Lord Phol

Member
Just played my first map with chokepoints and it was a lifesaver. Besieged by two chaos armies while preparing the ritual. We were about even in numbers but they had higher leveled lords and a lot more high tier units. I clogged up both of the chokepoints, they assaulted one with the majority of their forces and the other with a small band of useless fodder. I cleaned up the fodder, charged into their backs and won without even loosing a single unit. Good times!
 
Ok so, the game runs like dogsh## for me. Im getting about 50 fps on thw campaign map with gtx 1080 and 7700k. Like seriously? Also my frametimes seem to jump around like a rubber ball. Feels almost broken. But yeah good game none the less.
 

Mrbob

Member
I've only played a couple hours of the first game but I'm hopping on two right away for the dark elves and high elves.

Just wait for the combined map to come out then you can use the races for the first game and then get all the game improvements for part two included (as long as you own the first game).
 

Ravelle

Member
Sändersson;250338227 said:
Ok so, the game runs like dogsh## for me. Im getting about 50 fps on thw campaign map with gtx 1080 and 7700k. Like seriously? Also my frametimes seem to jump around like a rubber ball. Feels almost broken. But yeah good game none the less.

That doesn't sound right, I'm running it also on a 1080, 1440p with a CPU below that of yours and it runs perfectly.

how the hell do you keep public order up? jesus

Which faction? With Dark Elves it's rituals, buildings that give order.
 
Sändersson;250338227 said:
Ok so, the game runs like dogsh## for me. Im getting about 50 fps on thw campaign map with gtx 1080 and 7700k. Like seriously? Also my frametimes seem to jump around like a rubber ball. Feels almost broken. But yeah good game none the less.

are you playing in 4k with ultra settings?
 

Kard8p3

Member
That doesn't sound right, I'm running it also on a 1080, 1440p with a CPU below that of yours and it runs perfectly.



Which faction? With Dark Elves it's rituals, buildings that give order.

Lizardbros. I do have a DE save file too though.
 
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