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[Xater]

So now that I have a nice gaming PC I started playing this game. I got it for cheap some time ago. I think I enjoy it, but I am also struggling. I don't really know what to do with agents, not sure when it is a good time to get annother commander, or how much I should expand.

I mostly just plan to play this to get familiar with it mechanically and then really dive into TW Warhammer 2. That one has more armies I enjoy. Well I actually really like Chaos, but the game says that they are hard, so probably not a good idea for me to play them right now.

 

[Goldfishking]

So now that I have a nice gaming PC I started playing this game. I got it for cheap some time ago. I think I enjoy it, but I am also struggling. I don't really know what to do with agents, not sure when it is a good time to get annother commander, or how much I should expand.

I mostly just plan to play this to get familiar with it mechanically and then really dive into TW Warhammer 2. That one has more armies I enjoy. Well I actually really like Chaos, but the game says that they are hard, so probably not a good idea for me to play them right now.

Agents aren't too essential on lower difficulties, just puto them in an army and enjoy them in battle until you get used to them.

In terms of money it is something you will need to get used to. Try to keep in profit to make sure your empire grows.

Edit: Also chaos isn't too difficult, I'd say as long as it's not your first play through you should be fine.

 

[ShadowSwordmaster]

The agents can be in armies and can be used to assassinate, sabotage builds, and modifiers for regions depending on what the modifiers are.

 

[Xater]

Agents aren't too essential on lower difficulties, just puto them in an army and enjoy them in battle until you get used to them.

In terms of money it is something you will need to get used to. Try to keep in profit to make sure your empire grows.

Edit: Also chaos isn't too difficult, I'd say as long as it's not your first play through you should be fine.

I have yet to play past turn 50. I feel like I have been hitting a wall every time around then.

 

[LurkerPrime]

The Von Carsteins have completely messed up the Vampire Counts' game. In my current one as Skarsnik, Templehof and Von Carsteins dominate their area of the map, and I don't even know where the VCs are hiding right now.

That's right, Templehof is not only alive, but thriving. This is about 60-70 turns in. They have at least six provinces and are about on equal footing with the Von Carseins. Last I checked, VCs had 1 province. It's absolute madness.

I have yet to play past turn 50. I feel like I have been hitting a wall every time around then.

As Chaos? You'll want to vassalise Norsca as your first priority--they will give you support as you invade the Old World and distract the Old World armies, spreading Chaos corruption and destruction along the coasts of Bretonnian and Imperial lands.

So, I haven't played new Chaos yet, but the Dwarves, Empire, and Wood Elves will probably be your biggest threats. Dwarves are naturally strong and will, generally, conquer everything they can making them de facto strongest faction; Empire can confederate and rapidly expand; and Wood Elves will be preternaturally strong thanks to their fortified location, lack of natural enemies, and seemingly infinite economy.

Everyone in the Old World will be against you, so it's important to avoid getting cornered or worn down--gotta keep momentum up. As a horde faction, you'll have an ebb and flow of razing cities for loot--you'll always need your eye on the next target to sustain your armies. So try to plan ahead and leave non-essential factions alive to rebuild, for future razing. Keep the engine of destruction going and you'll be able to get additional armies and speed up the process. Most AI don't field defensive armies, so for sprawling factions you'll be able to wreak havoc by getting into the heart of their lands, so long as you can outmaneuver any pursuers.


In terms of battle map strategies, I can't help much. I autoresolve 95% of the battles. Just know that siege weapons and ranged units are deadly, and great targets for flying units, cavalry, or spells. And never underestimate the power of flanking.

 

[Xater]

The Von Carsteins have completely messed up the Vampire Counts' game. In my current one as Skarsnik, Templehof and Von Carsteins dominate their area of the map, and I don't even know where the VCs are hiding right now.

That's right, Templehof is not only alive, but thriving. This is about 60-70 turns in. They have at least six provinces and are about on equal footing with the Von Carseins. Last I checked, VCs had 1 province. It's absolute madness.


As Chaos? You'll want to vassalise Norsca as your first priority--they will give you support as you invade the Old World and distract the Old World armies, spreading Chaos corruption and destruction along the coasts of Bretonnian and Imperial lands.

So, I haven't played new Chaos yet, but the Dwarves, Empire, and Wood Elves will probably be your biggest threats. Dwarves are naturally strong and will, generally, conquer everything they can making them de facto strongest faction; Empire can confederate and rapidly expand; and Wood Elves will be preternaturally strong thanks to their fortified location, lack of natural enemies, and seemingly infinite economy.

Everyone in the Old World will be against you, so it's important to avoid getting cornered or worn down--gotta keep momentum up. As a horde faction, you'll have an ebb and flow of razing cities for loot--you'll always need your eye on the next target to sustain your armies. So try to plan ahead and leave non-essential factions alive to rebuild, for future razing. Keep the engine of destruction going and you'll be able to get additional armies and speed up the process. Most AI don't field defensive armies, so for sprawling factions you'll be able to wreak havoc by getting into the heart of their lands, so long as you can outmaneuver any pursuers.


In terms of battle map strategies, I can't help much. I autoresolve 95% of the battles. Just know that siege weapons and ranged units are deadly, and great targets for flying units, cavalry, or spells. And never underestimate the power of flanking.

I meant in general. The furthes I got so far was probably with the Vampire Counts. Problem was I just coulkdn't take the Carsteins. So I had the Empire, Dwarves and them hasseling me.

 

[Violet_0]

I only use agents on the battlefield, and very occasionally detach them to catch a running army or assassinate a particularly annoying enemy agent. Keep the spice flowing with a strong economy and sacking cities and you don't need to care too much about the micromanagment. You can easily complete a campaign without ever recruiting any agents, I just did so with the Norsca. It's just fun to level them up

the Chaos campaign isn't great. You're mostly just evading enemy armies and loot unprotected cities until you hit critical mass, and then run from city to city and raze them to fullfill your victory conditions. Growth is of extreme importance early game, get that army general ability asap

one more thing, get a giant-sized unit into your army to brute-force sieges and autoresolve those

 

[ShadowSwordmaster]

The Von Cartsteins became a vassal in my empire game for some reason.

 

[Gorger]

I am really liking the information for warhammer 2. It is starting to feel more like a sequel then an expansion. Have you guys seen the animations between the hellpit abomination and the carnasour?



I just want to add that you don't *need* to buy the DLC. Let's look at the beastmen, if you don't buy that DLC there will still beastmen for you to fight on the campaign. You only need the DLC if you want to play with that race.
CA has also not given much information on the mega campaign map, i'll just add that CA has said that the map is coming weeks after the release of warhammer 2.

Lastly i want to say that the DLC for warhammer 1 is already benefiting game 2; game 2 has all races added by warhammer 1 DLC as enemies. Again you don't need any DLC to play against said faction.

That's good to know. I still bought them as they look interesting to play as, there was a 7 hour deal on Bundle Stars where all the DLC where around 30% off. Now I just need to find a good deal for Warhammer 2 before 28 september so I can get the preorder Norsca dlc pack.

 

[F!ReW!Re]

So guys, I'm looking at building a new desktop and although I don't have the cash at the moment to go all out and buy a Intel 7700 + 1080TI, what video card would I need to run warhammer 1 totally smooth at highest settings?

(Sorry for the random question, but I really can't wait to finally get my hands on this game).

 

[Xater]

So guys, I'm looking at building a new desktop and although I don't have the cash at the moment to go all out and buy a Intel 7700 + 1080TI, what video card would I need to run warhammer 1 totally smooth at highest settings?

(Sorry for the random question, but I really can't wait to finally get my hands on this game).

I just bought a new PC and I can run it on Ultra with my 1070. Benchmark gives me 85 fps on average. I also have a Ryzen R5 1600X in there.

 

[F!ReW!Re]

I just bought a new PC and I can run it on Ultra with my 1070. Benchmark gives me 85 fps on average. I also have a Ryzen R5 1600X in there.

Awesome!
That helps a lot, thank you!

 

[karnage10]

So now that I have a nice gaming PC I started playing this game. I got it for cheap some time ago. I think I enjoy it, but I am also struggling. I don't really know what to do with agents, not sure when it is a good time to get annother commander, or how much I should expand.

I mostly just plan to play this to get familiar with it mechanically and then really dive into TW Warhammer 2. That one has more armies I enjoy. Well I actually really like Chaos, but the game says that they are hard, so probably not a good idea for me to play them right now.

Feel free to add me on steam if you want to chat with me on the game, i can even use steam broadcast to help you if you need.

That said i'm going to assume you are not a total war veteran.
For the first game the easiest races are the vampire counts (easiest battles) and the dwarfs (easiest campaign).

For the dwarfs:
-On the campaign the dwarves get a lot of money thanks to their buildings and tech, so the strategy is to conquer your home province and the province on the upper left (city of gundrak). After this you turtle until you have walls on every settlement and all the money buildings done; then you attack and control another province (i'd recomend barak var on the left of your home province) and do the same. As long as you have walls + a strong economy you can field a lot of armies; GS barely have AP damage so even your low tier armies will probably be enough to win.

- In battles the dwarfs are weird because they have 0 cavalry, this means the AI will always succeed in encircling you however you have the best ranged troops, some of the morale and you are heavily armored. This means that you want an engagement to last as much as possible so you can rain your shots on the enemy. Your line should have quite a bit of depth, you should keep a high number of reserves to "stop" the flanking of the AI (4 units) and your quarrelers and artillery should focus the enemy on this order ranged-> cavalry-> flankers-> line.


For the vampire counts:
-On the campaign the VC have at the surface level a bad economy, the reason being is that you need agents to be able to make money on this faction. Both necromancer and banshee boost the incomes of your province so you want those deployed near drakenhoff. Normally the plan is to conquer both sylvanias and fortify them, west sylvania is used for money while east sylvania is the military province. The low tier armies of the VC are really really weak, so you only want to expand beyond sylvanias when you can at least have graveguard, vargheist and black knights. On the tech side you want to get the diplomatic relation boost ASAP, the AI will DoW if you have poor relations so having that tech decreases the chance to have unwanted wars.

-In battle the VC have 0 ranged however they don't rout. This means VC are a very aggressive faction that only loses if they either lose their Lord or their army is heavily beat down. This means that you can win most battles just by grinding down the enemy with your troops however the VC have the best flankers in the whole game which means that if you can out smart the AI you will win against even much superior armies. When you take too much morale damage your units instead of fleeing they take health damage; this means that you don't want to be flanked at all or be attacked in the back. The plan is having a line slightly bigger then the enemy line and keep all other melee slow units in reserve. You should have a lot of flankers which you can use to attack the enemy ranged units and the enemy flankers units; after beating those you attack the enemy line on the back. One important thing to know is that your basic magic lore spell (called invocation of nehek) when overcasted (double click on the spell) heals in an area; by using this spell you can keep regenerating the damage you are taking; always use the overcast, if the enemy line is small you can heal 6-10 groups with one use.

That's good to know. I still bought them as they look interesting to play as, there was a 7 hour deal on Bundle Stars where all the DLC where around 30% off. Now I just need to find a good deal for Warhammer 2 before 28 september so I can get the preorder Norsca dlc pack.

the site 2game had warhammer 2 relatively cheap. you can use the site isthereanydeal to find the current cheapest site.

So guys, I'm looking at building a new desktop and although I don't have the cash at the moment to go all out and buy a Intel 7700 + 1080TI, what video card would I need to run warhammer 1 totally smooth at highest settings?

(Sorry for the random question, but I really can't wait to finally get my hands on this game).

I have an I7-6700k and an 1070 asus stryx and i can run the game at 60FPS on most situations. I have had HUGE battles (around 10000 troops) where zooming in went below 60 fps but for 99% of my playtime it has been very smooth

 

[ShogunDarius]

does anyone else get low frame rates on the FMVs?

 

[Violet_0]

For the vampire counts:
-On the campaign the VC have at the surface level a bad economy

I don't remember how strong the economy boost is from their tier 5 buildings, but iirc it's quite substantial. I'm pretty sure even the normal towns are comparable to Empire settlements

The low tier armies of the VC are really really weak, so you only want to expand beyond sylvanias when you can at least have graveguard, vargheist and black knights.

Skeleton Spearmen, Ghouls and Crypt Horrors (which you can unlock very early) with a vampire general can take care of most things early to mid-game. Throw in the RoR (need the DLC) and you'll have an easy time. The Direpack and The Devils of Schwartzhafen are your warmachine and ranged unit hunters. Dire Wolves in general can also tear apart low-tier infantry when attacking a unit already in combat and Vargheists are you're all-purpose flankers for everything up to and including knights. GG are very nice sturdy grindy anvils for midgame, the Horrors are both anvil and hammer, more useful when the rest of the army is just skeletons imo

the hardest part of the VC campaign is keeping an eye out on those damn Dwarfes while fighting various Empire factions

 

[karnage10]

does anyone else get low frame rates on the FMVs?

So i went to nvidia experience and activated the frame rate. I also have no idea if this method is trustworthy.
Most of the videos are rock solid 30 FPS (videos) or 45FPS(in game pans). I skip them a lot (seeing them once is enough for me) so those numbers are from a small sample.
back to topic, i guess FMV have low frame rates (if we count half as low). what are you getting?

 

[LurkerPrime]

Skarsnik's upkeep reduction on goblin units is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay stronger than I ever would've guessed. You can amass huge armies of gobbo-only armies; with decent lords (boosting the gobbos' attack and leadership) and back-up gobbo heroes (to take out strong single targets) they are quite powerful, indeed. They make a great counter to the wood elves, being so nearby.

The whole Greenskin style of gameplay is way different han I remember. (It was the first faction I ever played.) I didn't realise just how quickly they could recruit, or build a capable army, and had forgotten how quickly they build up momentum with waaagh. Most other factions take a dozen turns to fully recruit an army, but Greenskins can do it in half that time. The tradeoff of poor infrastructure and research seems like nothing when the units are so strong to begin with.

And the ability rework is great. One of Grimgor's skills, Hatred(?), boosts his attack power by 15%... and also, without mentioning it, seems to boost his health by a similar amount. An OP Grimgor is a happy LurkerPrime.

 

[karnage10]

Skarsnik's upkeep reduction on goblin units is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay stronger than I ever would've guessed. You can amass huge armies of gobbo-only armies; with decent lords (boosting the gobbos' attack and leadership) and back-up gobbo heroes (to take out strong single targets) they are quite powerful, indeed. They make a great counter to the wood elves, being so nearby.

The whole Greenskin style of gameplay is way different han I remember. (It was the first faction I ever played.) I didn't realise just how quickly they could recruit, or build a capable army, and had forgotten how quickly they build up momentum with waaagh. Most other factions take a dozen turns to fully recruit an army, but Greenskins can do it in half that time. The tradeoff of poor infrastructure and research seems like nothing when the units are so strong to begin with.

And the ability rework is great. One of Grimgor's skills, Hatred(?), boosts his attack power by 15%... and also, without mentioning it, seems to boost his health by a similar amount. An OP Grimgor is a happy LurkerPrime.

LOL, I also started a skarknik campaign; it was the only faction i haven't finished in VH.

Wait grimgor got a rework? and CA gave him damage and health? WTH?

 

[LurkerPrime]

LOL, I also started a skarknik campaign; it was the only faction i haven't finished in VH.

Wait grimgor got a rework? and CA gave him damage and health? WTH?

It's just one of his new skills, from the Foundation Update changes to launch LLs. Boosts damage (and, unlisted, health) by about +15%, locked until some level in the teens. It's one of those special top-line skills, where mounts and stuff are for other Lords.

And it's not totally OP, because Grimgor used to have two (yes, two!) +30% damage buffs in his personal skill tree. Now it's just +45%, including Hatred IIRC. Old Grimgor could max out the damage stat on his skill tree, at about 800-900 damage if I'm remembering right; not sure where it's at now, haven't gotten him high-level.

I didn't look closely over his other skills, but they're more useful overall IMO, in-line with what newer heroes have. Feels much more interesting than before. And hopefully made him stronger than ever.

Spoiler

Strong Grimgor is best Grimgor. He will waaagh away the New World in the Mega Grand Campaign, just you watch.

 

[Violet_0]

my custom battle goblin-only army used to be the strongest AI-controlled army before Norsca showed up. Nasty Skulkers are up there with Berserkers for the best cost-efficient mid-level infantry unit, Squig Herd is scary, they got some very good RoR that makes their ranged units actually useful because of armor piercing. Arachnarok Queen is just hands-down the best unit in the game

 

[ShogunDarius]

So i went to nvidia experience and activated the frame rate. I also have no idea if this method is trustworthy.
Most of the videos are rock solid 30 FPS (videos) or 45FPS(in game pans). I skip them a lot (seeing them once is enough for me) so those numbers are from a small sample.
back to topic, i guess FMV have low frame rates (if we count half as low). what are you getting?

lets use the vampire one as an example, 30 usually until there is a bit of movement then it dips to 20s and when he causes that explosion is dips massively to single digits.

i have a 1080 btw with 16gb of ram

 

[LurkerPrime]

Norsca hotfix patch is live, 122MB on Steam:

PATCH NOTES

-Fixed some inappropriate text in the Russian localisation.
-Improved the flow of Monster Hunt chains, so players progress will no longer be blocked. This will take affect from new saves.
-Assembly Kit – fixed some errors in TERRY, which were preventing maps from being exported.
-All the Norsca agents will now give off the correct passive Chaos Corruption.
-When an ally kills a Challengers of Chaos army in the Norsca end game, the mission chain will no longer be broken, and the player will not be blocked.
-During the narration at the start of some of the Monster Hunt battles, the VO will no longer stop prematurely in German.
In the main menu, the “(modded)” notification will now only display when mods are being used.
-Fixed a rare bug where Archaon wouldn’t appear in Legendary Difficulty, when the player saved after the Campaign victory, then re-loaded.
-Fixed a Multiplayer Campaign Crash caused by 1 player selecting “Retreat” on the pre-battle screen when another player is reinforcing them.
-Fixed a rare bug where the Challengers of Chaos army in the Norsca end game would become completely stationary if the player asks another faction to Join War against them.
-Fixed a bug where in rare cases, the Waywatchers’ Hawkish Precision ability would be replaced with Unbinding.
-Corrected an inconsistency between the audio and text in Spanish when the player aligned with the Serpent god during a Norsca Campaign.
-The “In Progress” and “Completed” notifications in the Monster Arcanum book in the Norsca Campaign are will now display correctly in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Korean.
-Fixed some gaps in the Sons of Ghorros, and Butchers of Kalkengard models’ necks on low or medium unit details.
-Chaos replenishment bonuses from technologies will now work outside of allied regions.
-Norscan Marauder Chieftains are no longer missing items in custom battle mode.
-The Apocalyptic Charge ability of the Swords of Chaos Regiments of Renown has been fixed.
-Game Guide – When using the Comparison Tool to compare units in the Game Guide, the “Race” field, which shows the race icon will no longer appear blank.
-Game Guide – Fixed some placeholder icons in the Game Guide for Occupied buildings of Norsca’s special settlement which is linked with technology.
-Game Guide – The “Controlled Faction” field will no longer always remain empty on the Maps page.
-Game Guide – In Portuguese-Brazil language, the “Wintertooth” faction name will no longer have letters clipped / cut off in the “Races” list.
BALANCING CHANGES

• Increase Mammoth (all) attack interval from 3 to 3.8
• Increase cost of Marauder Hunters (Javelins) by 100
• Reduce Ammunition of Marauder Hunters (Javelins) from 16 to 12
• Increase cost of Daemonspew by 100
• Reduce cost of Mirror Guard by 100
• Increase Soul Devourer intercept range from 100m to 200m
• Reduce Werekin Melee Attack by 5
• Reduce Werekin Melee Defence by 5
• Increase Werekin cost by 100
• Increase Maws of Savagery by 200
• Increase cost of Skinwolves by 100
• Increase cost of Skinwolves Armoured by 100
• Increase cost of Companions of Quenelles by 150
• Decrease weapon damage by 2 and armour-piercing weapon damage of Battle Pilgrims by 1
• Apocalyptic Charge ability now triggered once enemy is within 70m for two seconds
• Added level cap to Krell Skills / Reduced Franz XP boost skill from 2 to 1
SKILL TREE CHANGES

– Agent cap bonus from LL chain is capped at 1, affecting following skills:
• Archaon: Distinguished Champions;
• Thorgrim: Elite Enforcer, Fire Support, Advanced Forging;
• Gelt: Renowned Scholar;
• Karl Franz: Heroic Knightly Band;
• Azhag: Insane Visions.

– Added a level requirement to LL chains for Karl Franz, Gelt, Thorgrim, Grimgor, Azhag, Archaon, Sigvald and Kholek. Now they can only be unlocked after lv12. Affecting following skills:
• A Moving Mountain
• The Grand Marshal of Chaos
• Egomaniacal
• Ancient Bloodline
• Golden Face Mask
• Best of the Empire
• Imbued by Madness
• Nevva Second Best!

– Added a progressive level requirement to Kemmler’s krell chain. Also, Kemmler starts with 1 points in “Thrall Master” and “Lord of the Scourge”.

– Removed secondary levels for Thorgrim’s skill chain.

– Removed secondary level for Gelt’s “Stronger than Steel”, now the skill has only 1 point and +9 armor army-wide.
LAUNCHER

– The launcher has been localized to Chinese (standard and traditional).

[Source]

 

[karnage10]

lets use the vampire one as an example, 30 usually until there is a bit of movement then it dips to 20s and when he causes that explosion is dips massively to single digits.

i have a 1080 btw with 16gb of ram

I'll check that a bit later when i have some free time.


here is a new video showing the campaign map in game. I have to say the map looks much better then the old world, seems much more diverse and bigger.



I normally got grimgor damage to 800. I wonder if that is still possible; but by boosting his health he can probably stay in combat longer as long as the army doesn't rout. Does he have any skill tree to buff black orcs? that would be OP as hell.

 

[ShadowSwordmaster]

I'm on my phone, but the Dark Elf campaign video is out and there is a lot of information in it.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Dark Elf Campaign Let's Play by Creative Assembly. 13 minutes long.

Features this guy:

Edit: There will be another video tomorrow, featuring the Dark Elf battle teased at the end of the video.


They don't talk explicitly about the new mechanics outside of some broad campaign stuff, but Dark Elves in particular seem to have a slavery mechanic that affects post-battle looting options and income, and a loyalty mechanic that might have something to do with lords or heroes(?) Plus their naval Black Arks, which can support Dark Elf armies at sea with replenishment, recruitment, or other support. They'll be a mobile terror on TWWH2's gigantic map.

 

[ShadowSwordmaster]

Black Arks sounds like something I would used a lot with an invasion force.

 

[johancruijff]

did someone talk about the performance for the new title? in line with the first one?

i was hoping to update my gpu for TW2 but the market is fucked for the foreseeable future

 

[Kaffeemann]

Total War: WARHAMMER 2 - Dark Elves Battle Let's Play

The visual upgrades look really nice. Especially the temporal anti-aliasing.

 

[Borman]

Thought you guys might like this, I dug up a prototype RTS which to me is very similar to Total Warhammer. The difference being is that it started being prototyped in the year 2000!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCyYcpZqXL0

 

[ShadowSwordmaster]

Thought you guys might like this, I dug up a prototype RTS which to me is very similar to Total Warhammer. The difference being is that it started being prototyped in the year 2000!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCyYcpZqXL0

This sounds like something I wouldn't play at all.

 

[Lockless]

did someone talk about the performance for the new title? in line with the first one?

i was hoping to update my gpu for TW2 but the market is fucked for the foreseeable future

I don't think recommended specs are official yet but it has been said it will be very similar to the first game. If you can run that well you can run this.

 

[Rygar 8 Bit]

Thought you guys might like this, I dug up a prototype RTS which to me is very similar to Total Warhammer. The difference being is that it started being prototyped in the year 2000!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCyYcpZqXL0

never seen this in real time only saw screen shots this game looked cool back then

 

[Borman]

never seen this in real time only saw screen shots this game looked cool back then

Warhammer Battles never leaked any screenshots as far as I know. Warhammer online is something else entirely.

 

[Rygar 8 Bit]

Warhammer Battles never leaked any screenshots as far as I know. Warhammer online is something else entirely.

screen shots of orc arrer boyz firing at houses from up on a hill lemme see if i can find em

 

[Borman]

screen shots of orcs archers firing at houses from up on a hill lemme see if i can find em

Probably from Warhammer Online, the MMO.

 

[Rygar 8 Bit]

ah it was from the canned mmo found em

 

[Morat]

Probably not worth making a LTTP thread, so yeah, Total Warhammer really is excellent. Not sure how it was at realease, but now with all the DLC it really stands as one of the very best Total War games in my opinion. I'm surprised by how well hero units and ridiculous OTT monsters are incorporated without completely breaking the game. Also, watching a giant get hit by a cannonball is brilliant.

 

[Shai-Tan]

Would I be missing anything by skipping straight to #2? I don't have a clear idea of what content is in this that would be missing from the new game.Don't want to spend $60 twice if I can avoid it.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Would I be missing anything by skipping straight to #2? I don't have a clear idea of what content is in this that would be missing from the new game.Don't want to spend $60 twice if I can avoid it.

You'd miss out on playing all of the Old World factions in Total Warhammer 1:

• The Empire
• Dwarves [plus one DLC subfaction]
• Greenskins and its 1 subfaction [plus one DLC subfaction]
• Bretonnia and its 2 subfactions
• Vampire Counts and its 1 subfaction
• [DLC] Chaos
• [DLC] Norsca and its 1 subfaction
• [DLC] Wood Elves and its 1 subfaction
• [DLC] Beastmen and its 2 subfactions

(Note that for the purposes of this list, subfactions are any Legendary Lord with an alternate start. There are more Legendary Lords than are listed here.)

And be unable to use the Mega Grand Campaign when it releases... I think? (IIRC, owning TWWH1 is the condition for accessing it, but I don't remember where I read that anymore.) Even if it is available to all TWWH2 owners, you'll definitely be unable to explore the Old World outside of that special campaign.

 

[Kaffeemann]

Would I be missing anything by skipping straight to #2? I don't have a clear idea of what content is in this that would be missing from the new game.Don't want to spend $60 twice if I can avoid it.

If you can only get one game I'd wait for reviews and impressions on the second one. It seems to be an improvement in almost all areas compared to the first one.

 

[ElyrionX]

Preorder bonuses for 2 will still apply in first week of 2's release right?

 

[Pyros_Eien]

Preorder bonuses for 2 will still apply in first week of 2's release right?

Yes, don't have to preorder, as long as you buy the first week, same as first one. Can wait to see what people say about the game, although tbh I wouldn't expect much, it uses the same engine and same mechanics as the first one, it's just an expansion(even though a standalone one), so pretty much everything is either the same, or better(UI, lords customization, campaign map, armies uniqueness etc).

 

[Gorger]

I am playing as the Vampire Counts now on Very Hard with the Faith Steel mod, and I must say this has been the toughest campaign yet. Not only is it very unusual to play with a rooster that has no archers or range, but the enemy is so resilient that it's almost impossible to break their spirit without both of the armies battling against each other to the death, leaving only a few survivors alive every time. In the beginning almost all my battles ended in pyrrhic victories or defeats, but it got a little better later on when I managed to upgrade my army. And don't met me get started on their early garrison which is often filled with Grave Guards and Crypt Horrors that just crushes my puny army of skeletons and zombies.

I left Vlad von Carstein alone in the hope that I would get to confederate with them later on and try out their Legendary Lords, and I did but only like 100 turns later. I had to constantly give them gifts to keep my reputation high, and wage war against his enemies cause he constantly kept attacking his neighbors.

After I had taken out my vampire rivals I focused on Reikland, and I tok it with surprisingly ease, but I think poor Karl Franz was pretty beaten down by his own wars. I got his last province Altdorf with my medium tier army and Manfred who was starting to get pretty strong with all the leadership upgrades, buffs and offensive magic that just withered down his armies. Immediately I began getting walls around the Reikland province, since it's such an invulnerable location that can be attacked from so many sides.

As I started to look north I realized Middenland was the ruling faction, but he was weak and struggling against the Norsca factions that had left most of the north desolate. I could easily just go up and colonize to expend my borders, as most of the humans were now gone. Vlad on the other hand had expanded greatly in the Southern Kingdom and we were still on good terms.

I started colonizing the North to get some buffer zones against the upcoming Chaos invasion I knew were getting close. My capital province was also starting to get pretty good with late tier upgraded units. Unfortunately it is very challenging managing happiness, and I constantly have to deal with uprisings. The happiness buildings are just bad and it takes ages for the province to be stabilized, so I have to camp a lot with my army after I have taken over the cities.

Then after a period of relative calmness except for some minor struggles with Dwarfs and Mousillon --- Chaos comes, and holy shit is this difficult. The first wave takes a lot out of me and I lose most of my Northern provinces - I can't even get allies to help me. Fortunately he splits up his army and marches south to the elves and east to the orcs and dwarves. I have 1 full army and a second one that is pretty much half full. To beat them I do have to be a bit cheap.. I use lightning strike to ignore reinforcements and autoresolve a few matches cause they are just too strong for me. Vlad is up for confederate, but after I get his armies I am on minus so I have to destroy some of them. But having Vlad and Isabella is cool.

In the end I get Archaon the Everchosen, and I think I am starting to get the advantage, but not for long cause Winter is com... I mean The End is coming again and now with a completely fresh horde of new units with Norsca and Troll lackeys to boot just to make things even more difficult. At least with me fighting Chaos for so long the other factions are really starting to like me, and I get to form several alliances with rest of the surviving factions. I do, cause this is pretty much a battle to the death and impossible to do alone. I make coordinated attack with all my allies and I see them start moving fully stacked armies into my terrain to deal with Chaos - a beautiful sight indeed.

So this is where I am at now. My last fight for the evening was my pyrrhic victory against Archaon with 3 fully stacked armies after I manage to corner him without reinforcements. All my northern cities are in Ruin, but Talabacland and Hergig are standing strong with their fully upgraded walls that are almost impossible to penetrate. When I finally beat Chaos it will be smooth sailing for the rest of the campaign, since most of the world is now just one large graveyard of ruined cities and chaos corruption.

 

[PeskyToaster]

Norsca is sweet. A real nice upgrade to the roster. I'm playing as Wintertooth. It's very easy to break early Kislev armies making their un-walled settlements tasty raiding targets. They route super easy when flanked by all these scary units. Their best counter I think is to stack crossbow men and just rain death from behind a wall of spearmen. Missile cavalry are also a major pain in the ass but what else is new in Total War and human history. I just put a groups of javelins to chase them around the map while I butcher the rest. Their swordsmen fall like leaves to trolls and marauder berserkers.

Chaos should definitely get a rework along the lines of Norsca. I'd love to see more themed monsters from different chaos gods. It seems the current roster is almost exclusively Khorne in its aesthetic besides the lord of change and maybe the chaos spawn. They could get so wild with Slaanesh, Nurgle, and Tzeentch units. Just the color difference would be cool.

 

[Giran]

Yeah, Norsca is in my top 3 factions now. So fun to play. Still, I'm pretty disappointed with how they cut corners with their unit roster. I expect a bit more than that.

And the Chaos rework is definitely coming with the third game.

 

[Lister]

Anyone else notice the benchmark battle is now different? Features more fire effects and trees, so a slightly better representation of overall gameplay.

 

[ShogunDarius]

i need advice. i'm playing as VC as Manfred on Normal.

The dwarfs have managed to unify the south. they are able to constantly produce multiple legendary lord stacks over and over and their ally can do the same. I cant march south to attack them because attrition.
They only like to attack when I move my troops away and if i try to overpower them they run away, its REALLY annoying.
if i move all my troops south i leave my north undefended and that's risky with the empire.

is this playthrough dead?

The dwarfs are so OP whether in attack or defence against VC. The VC units move so slow that there long range units badly hurt my troops before I reach their front lines and when I do they pull those troops back behind there infantry and continue.


also the AI in this game is REALLY good at getting units to disengage and covering their flanks stopping flank attacks.


Chaos have been defeated btw. I only waited so long turn wise because the Carsteins take over 100 turns to recruit isabella and being able t confederate them.


to give a brief summary of what I was doing, i defeated Templehof fairly quickly, made alliance with the greenskiins to my NE, E and S. Waited an age for VC to recruit Isabella, then had to wait a bit more to confederate.
The dwarfs kept confederating with their kind and then Chaos arrived and destroyed the northern factions i managed to stop them, recovered then made an alliance with Wood Elves and stalia while fighting the dwarfs and empire.

 

[LurkerPrime]

For VCs against Dwarves:
On the battle map, you'll want shielded or armour piercing armies, with flying units to take care of siege weapons and ranged units. It will be difficult to win battles via routing, so focus on removing their strengths--ranged units, armor, and siege weaponry. Your superior numbers are key; swarm them.

To actually take them out, use one high-tier, elite army and a fodder army or two if necessary to fend off their attacks. Then use as many lower-tier, auxiliary armies as you can afford to slowly work through a distant part of their territory, razing their cities. (Use raiding stance to avoid attrition.) These armies'll have to move quickly and rely on summoning to keep up momentum. The VCs' superior numbers and replenishment capabilities should give you the edge you need to make progress in their lands--they'll be slow to expand with their armies focused on you.

It'll be a grueling, defensive, long war. But once you start getting them to burn through their armies and resources their attacks will slow down and you'll eventually overpower them. The first few waves will be the toughest, when they're flush with experienced, high-tier units, heroes, & regiments of renown, but as it wears on you'll be able to shift your defensive forces into offense and speed things up a bit.


They really need to improve the Greenskin AI so it can take (or at least fight evenly) the Dwarves. I haven't seen them win in ages.

 

[ShogunDarius]

going off the top of my head my usual high tier LL design is 4 Blood Knights, 1 Hex Knight, 3 of both grave guard, 2 Crypt horrors, 1 varghulf and terrorgheist and 2 or 3 of the better flying monster i cant remember the name of atm. I try to use the mortis engintoo i assume just have it near a existing fight?

is this a bad 20 build?

 

[LurkerPrime]

going off the top of my head my usual high tier LL design is 4 Blood Knights, 1 Hex Knight, 3 of both grave guard, 2 Crypt horrors, 1 varghulf and terrorgheist and 2 or 3 of the better flying monster i cant remember the name of atm. I try to use the mortis engintoo i assume just have it near a existing fight?

is this a bad 20 build?

It's been a while and I don't remember the exact stats of the VCs' units off the top of my head, but I think I mostly used monster units, a few cavalry, shielded graveguard, and the heavy flying monsters when I fought the Dwarves myself. Didn't have the VC Regiments of Renown DLC, so those were a non-option.

The key thing is armour piercing units. Dwarves are practically (entirely?) all armoured and non-armour piercing units will struggle to damage them. However, you'll also need shielded units to survive their ranged attacks, and a way to quickly dispose of their devastating siege weapons.

So entangle their front line with melee, then use the fast units to attack their ranged units, flying units to destroy their siege or flank, and close in on them from there. Mannfred should be supporting via spells or fighting the enemy Lord--fighting fodder is a waste of his power.


Oh, and I forgot the VC's big thing before: recruit Vampires! Their map skills are invaluable, and their recruitment building gives great wealth. I think it's them with the slowing ability, which can help you pin down roving armies trying to run away (particularly useful when Dwarves use the underway). If they can sabotage walls, that will make invading the Dwarves' territory quicker, also.