f13.net

New TW game set in the Warhammer IP is being released this September.  Confirmed races so far are High Elves, Dark Elves and Lizardmen with a yet unannounced 4th race (Skaven maybe? :Love_Letters:).  I liked the first one but I'm not really into elves of any kind and Lizardmen are kind of...meh.

http://www.pcgamer.com/total-war-warhammer-2-due-out-on-september-28/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXxe897bW-A

Running out of time to pre-order and get the free Norsca DLC ($9).

Game opens 9/28.

I'm such a sucker... I really dislike the entire implementation of the campaign on the original game... but, but... High Elves!

Sucker signing in as well. I got it just for the combined map of both games, but I must admit, I have really enjoyed Norsca and their different playstyle. There army roosters with mammoths are a bit OP against empire.

Skaven will be my first playthrough, but the elven factions look really great too!

Waaaaaaagh (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUAh_fvnPLs)

:rock:

They've put some insane sharpening filter on everything that reacts badly either with some systems, or with some eyeballs idk.

Anyway, game looks hideous to me. There are growing threads on CA and steam forums reassuring me that I'm not going insane.

Hoping someone finds a mod, a bug fix, or finds the settings to fix this - because aside from unplayably bad graphics, it looks great!

I'm still waiting for them to open up the Steam Workshop.  I got way too used to extra skill points and tier 4 minor settlements in the first game to ever go back.

Workshop is open and there are a handful of useful mods right out of the gate.

Yeah I grapped the better cam and provincial road mods straight away. What else is good out there?

How is this as a first total war game? I’ve never actually played any in the genre, and this being fantasy is more appealing than the prior games. I kinda wrote the first total Warhammer off as niche.

If you into Warhammer, this is definitely money well spend.

It got a terrific atmosphere and setting. The gameplay mechanics are sound and diverse for each factions, making them interesting. And there is alot of help and guidance for new players in game, so all in all I would say it's a good enough for a first timer :).

The first warhammer with all the DLC is still better in my opinion, and it also plays out in the part of the universe which is a bit more interesting. Although that comes down to personal taste.

The tutorial dosn't cover everything, but it's a pretty good one. It's the best TW game too.

I'm a total war fanboy and am enjoying this one more than Total War Warhammer I. The midgame to endgame feels more compelling than previous versions of the TW franchise (so far) (on Legendary). The AI factions are still very dangerous and more than capable of kicking my ass late into the Vortex campaign.

Extra skill points for sure.  I also like the Home Region Movement Bonus mod to make it easier to chase invading armies and AI Passive Agents if the enemy spams assassins too frequently for your tastes.

I was also a fan of Better Artifacts in the first game, but I think it needs some debugging on this one.

E: Apparently there is a mod to double unit size. (https://i.imgur.com/H4zt4rC.jpg)

Those two, plus I always get a mod that disables Enemy Agents... I don't mind them in Armies as "hero" troops... but if I could, I'd steal all the toys and throw them into a fetid swamp of whatever developer/designer it was who introduced them as Agents.

I'm also trying to find a mod (that works) which eliminates the tax on Lords; the mid-/end-game requires lords in every region just to defend the auto-magic Chaos spawns... the tax is contrary to required game-play. {This is also a Stack of Doom / Garrison sub-issue}

Ultimately I still hate the campaign... I want to like it... but I hate it... I like the idea... but I hate the implementation... I wish I could like it... but I can't.

And, while I'm frothing... the one thing that would make their campaign better?  Hexagonal Movement... fixes most of their Army movement problems.  Or bigger ZOC, or ZOC that grows with Cavalry, light-cavalry, and/or Flying troops.  {They would still have a Stack of Doom problem, but countering would at least be mitigated by movement hexes}

Basically I just play start games and play them until I unlock a few top tier armies, then I quit... mid-/end-game is such a fucking slog with no payoff.

Comprehensive guide on the battles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dQ-y4Xomdw&list=PLwVftHdWAdHNOJ-PMquSZMVVAGWIq2TVQ

Thanks! I'm getting my ass handed to me every time I play, apparently I'm a terrible tactician.

I could use some good hints or a strategy for playing Queek on legendary. The many many declaration of wars from  so many different factions and the armies spawned by rituals, is a huge pain.

I simply cant muster enough armies to defend against so many multiple enemies at once.  Maybe if I improve my economy considerable somehow, but I dont know how, except maybe utilizing my trade ressources. Have any of you had success in sending an agent to e.g. clan pestilence to establish commercial ties?

Help is appreciated!

I watched a couple of those videos and had to plunk down my $66. Now I have to learn how to play...

One interesting thing is that the ritual race ultimately isn't that important.  You can spend some money to send armies to interrupt other groups that attempt them, and apparently you can just kick their ass if they get to the last one in a relatively easy battle and take them out of the ritual game entirely.  Don't start on those until you're ready to commit.

Really like the tactical maps.

The WH1 maps were basically all flat and featureless, here they've made them a lot more interesting, but not so extreme that you end up cheesing victories out of map geometry.

One piece of advice if you're new to warhammer and/or TW would be to play elves.

Elves operate pretty much how you'd expect them to. Everyone else needs you either recognise units from tabletop - or trudge through stats to know what units are good at and whether they are decent value.

Free dlc is now available so if you have warhammer 1 and 2, you can play on a fuck-huge map of the old world plus new world as any race in either game except Norse.

I'll probably pkay that way for any new campaign because I don't think the vortex rituals add much.

1 is on sale through Halloween on Steam for $30. I bought it so I could play all the races and so it all fits together when 3 comes out.

Ever wanted zero gravity total war, or total war with tactical nuclear weapons, or giant chariots...

https://youtu.be/qLSezK6_N5w

(gamemode with sliders that let you fuck with the engine)

That was much more mental then expected! If my hardware can handle those extreme armies, that would be awesome.


Also did you read that the next expansion will focus on the Tomb kings? This brings back memories of Dark Omen.

They're also releasing a new lord for one of the races alongside Tomb Kings, not sure which one.

Settra, Arkhan or just maybe Queen Neferata of Lahmia could also be unique lord for the Tomb Kings. Would be pretty awesome to have Settra battling the Von Carsteins.

https://youtu.be/IpWqKme-g_4 (https://youtu.be/IpWqKme-g_4)

Oh my.. The Tomb Kings dlc is coming out on January 23! I am predicting massive chariot spam.

I also read that TK units won't cost upkeep. The number of armies is tied to research in some way. Now that will be interesting.

Just got a copy of this from a friend; is it worth buying the first one too (since its on sale for $20) to play on the combined campaign map?

Yes, but not just because of the combined campaign map.  If you like Total War: Warhammer 2 you'll also like the first game, and it has completely different factions.  Both games use the same engine, but because the sides and campaigns are very different it is worth it to own and play both.

There also some decent mods out there that make the combined maps quite good. Steel faith 2 does alot to make the gameplay interesting and fresh after having played some normal campaigns.

Skaven and Lizardmen dlc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi2eHPKjW9k

Nice Predator homage there.

I thought skaven and lizardmen were already in.

They are. The DLC is for new heroes/factions/units/regiments of renown

WH2 is now 50% off and WH1 (effectively a huge DLC for WH2) is 66% off.

CA have done a good job of updating this, so if you don't have it and don't hate total war you should get this.

It´s worth it. As long you have a pc that can run it well enough.

I've not really played a Total War game before.  Of the two, should I buy 1 or 2 to try it out?

What about DLC?

Buy 2 first.  If you like it, buy 1 and you can use the WH1 races on the combined map.  There's a ton of FreeLC for both games, and each DLC pack adds a ton of content.  If you don't want to splash for all the DLC, find the races you like playing in the base game and then purchase the DLC that adds extra lords and units for that faction.  Curse of the Vampire Coast, Queen and the Crone, and Prophet & Warlock are all great.  I haven't spent much time with The Hunter & The Beast yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sPbjHEnSDE

Malus Darkblade versus Deathmaster Sniktch.

Some Brettonian mare no-one has ever really heard of is the FLC.

Back playing this and they've fixed one of my biggest gripes, the AI turns used to take far too long, they are now much quicker. They seem to have sped up loading times as well.

The big campaign now has over 50 Lords to play as and over 40 starting locations. Over time they've added a tonne of variety to the early and mid game with specific lord and faction mechanics (though admittedly if you play to the bitter end it does get similar).

I've been playing this off and on over the Christmas holidays. After the patch/DLC that added Malus Darkblade and Sniktch, the turn times are miniscule in comparison. I haven't noticed a significant drop in load times but yeah the campaign is much smoother now. Also, Sniktch's early game campaign is SIGNIFICANTLY easier than say a Dark Elf commander like Malekith.

The new Brettonian campaign is crazy fun, too.  Running around the desert, wrecking Tomb King and Vampire armies is the best time I've had with this game in a long time.

I struggle with brettonia as soon as I start having to siege people.

Love the chivalry and peasant mechanics, but having to charge horses through a door into walls of spears is less fun.

I assume they get better later on with flying cav.

Playing vampire pirates at the moment, surprised how different they are from vampire counts. I have a ridiculous pile of gold from low scale raiding and establishing pirate coves, but Tyrion is starting to snowball - I think I need to switch to full invasion mode and break him before he becomes unstoppable.

Flying knights rear-charging the wall of spears before your regular horse knights charge through the gates.  Or rear charge the wall while your peasants are dealing with whatever's up there, followed by lining the wall with archers and raining down on everything in front of the gate.  Or you can clear it out with a Lore of Heavens bombardment.

Try having an army of trebuchets to follow along with your knights.

Otherwise its Royal Pegasus Knights to clean up and ignore the walls

I can certainly see that.

My pirates do a similar thing in that they attack with an artillery army reinforced by a second army of giant crabs.

The artillery turns the walls to rubble and the crabs just stroll in.

How much do you need to control the real time battles to enjoy this? I'm mostly keen on the TBS side.

Do you mean how much do need to control them at all, or how much can you avoid micro within them?

Tbh there are better games if you want to auto resolve everything.

But if you just mean you want to avoid heavy micro, then just don't play something heavily dependent on cavalry or chariots.

Not much but you will do better controlling the battles. You can also pause the battles whenever you want in order to not have micro issues. The battles are the main draw of the game and i don't think it would be that great without them.

Starting a second skaven campaign with Eshin after a first one with Skrye and I just love how different they've managed to make it.

So I stumbled into the solution to my hatred of the battle UI controls in the Total War franchise: play an army that doesn't need to move around much, aka the Dwarfs. Currently playing them in the first one (wanted to play on the original, non-compressed/truncated Old World map) and against the Orcs and Goblins (and one random Beastmen army), at least, I don't really need to move my units around much, if any, and they are so tanky I don't need to pay much attention to what they are doing, keeping the micro down to a minimum. As a bonus they are too slow to chase routing units so I don't even need to bother with that.

As for the original question you can auto-resolve battles if want to avoid that part of the game but just know that you will be taking more losses compared to controlling your armies yourself unless your forces are way stronger than the enemy. Depending the difficulty setting, you might have trouble playing as some of the races / factions with harder starting positions if you aren't doing the battles yourself.

I've started on this but run into a problem, not sure what it's with but applying DLC to this (and 1) seems to be a complete crapshoot. I've downloaded them in Steam and they show as in my library, some of the free ones show up in the TW launcher but most don't and clicking on DLC there just takes me to the Steam webpage that links back to Steam. In the game itself it looks like half the free DLCs I have give me a 'click here to access this' (including Mortal Empires) that just sticks me in a looping circle of Steam app> TW launcher > Steam web page > Steam app.

Which is generally fine but not being able to open a Mortal Empires campaign is kind of annoying.

Seems to be a common problem given the number of discussions that pop up when you Google this problem. This Steam one seems to explain the differences between “DLC” and “FLC” the best including a comment by the dev at the end on the fact that the system for activating FLC was broken on their end recently.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/594570/discussions/0/1744478429691703407/

New DLC! Greenskin rework, adds them to the vortex campaign. They get Grom the Paunch as a new legendary lord, bunch of new units - including idols of gork (or mork), new Waaaargh mechanic that doesn't sound much better than the old one, and a new research tree that is fuelled by battle scrap to encourage fighting.

Oh, high elves also get 2 more no name lords nobody cares about, and another wizard or something.

https://youtu.be/dQM-h3M4BZc

You're not excited for chariots being pulled by giant lions?  Weirdo.

Honestly, the new High Elf mechanic sounds interesting and very in-line with how I like to play these games.  I'm looking forward to both factions.

Tbh chariots are always a hard pass for me in TW.

Even Grom's chariot will likely put be off playing as him.

The shaman orc guy looks like he'll benefit from the new trolls though, and the savage orc dude has always been on my long list to play.

Wonder if Wurrzag's Waaagh gets a chance for Rogue Idols.

He may well do, Azhag gets Wyverns so why not.

The big deal for Wurzzag is that he gives his army magical danage and strips all magic resistance in the opposing army.

So fuck you dwarfs.

Edit : Also, YouTube types are reporting end turn times have dropped even further.

Edit : end turn times are now so fast I occasionally hesitate over whether I really pressed the end turn button.

Finally got around to playing Tomb Kings. Loving the alternate economy and recruitment system. Units are free and have no upkeep but are capped by the number of barracks buildings. The overall number off armies is limited by a slow research or expensive upgrades.

End result is you can't maintain consistent army comp and have to actively decide how share the best units around your armies.

Also there is less dependence on chariots than I feared.

I've been enjoying the new Greenskins update a lot, but might be due for another round with the Tomb Kings.  Their high-tier constructs are so gorgeous.

Magic damage does not make the damage AP. Armor still protects.

While that is correct, the point is dwarfs have 25% natural magic resist.

Next update will be Wood Elves versus [probably Skaven] for those concerned.

(https://i.redd.it/mp76dzpaqkg51.png)

The taboo being broken is that they have said previously they don't want to do DLC for DLC.

But this is a good plan. Wood elves  have decent but sparse roster locked behind outdated campaign mechanics.

New DLC trailer

https://youtu.be/tdu8PEeNxy0

More rats! More wood elves!

Additional info.

Ariel is a LH [legendary hero] like Kroak. Ghoritch is the same for Moulder.

FLC will be Drycha [with Coeddil] and the Skaven Chieftan. Total War Access unit is Glade Captain.

Release is 3rd December. Usual pre-order save.

They seem to be making a good attempt at turning wood elves into a tall faction which they've never really done before.

Though you tube types with access have been suggesting the campaign is tough.

Sure, but they also got what looks like some great new units.  Can't wait for it!

Drycha appears to have almost a whole new roster.

Ah I will pick it up as well. That new WE campaign looks interesting, but as a rat-man having the moulder lab available is the the true gem in this expansion. Yes-yes!

Rakarth is confirmed as the FLC LL, coming this week on the 18th.

Which means the next DLC won't have Dark Elves. Will likely be a game 1 race pack. The smart money is on VC versus Beastmen.

Which lord do you think they might add for the beastmen?

 They surely do need a rework on some of their stuff.

Taurox I imagine.

They need a few more monster units, but most of all they need better campaign mechanics. Beastmen were actually fun in WH1, but the improved AI just resettles immediately now, and unless you put chaos invasion on legendary there is no help coming from the North.

Last dlc, The Silence and the Fury.

Oxyotl versus Taurox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syIoix1i5YM

This game is 66% off at Steam until June 11, with numerous DLC also 10%-50% off.

WH1 is also 75% off. Which you need to access the full campaign, and adds 4 races.

And the 50% off DLCs are mostly the ones worth buying first. Espeicially queen and the crone, prophetvand the warlord, as well as the vampire pirates and tomb Kings race packs.

https://youtu.be/HvmDxl4YTW0

DLC trailer.

As well as the beastman update, and lizardman lord, they are also doing a dwarf update and free dwarf legendary lord.

Also adding a mercenary mechanic which we know includes Ogres. And also logically increases the odds that the WH3 preorder race is Ogres.

I spent 4 hours playing this yesterday and all I got was a headache. But I think I will go back for more...

EDIT: Another 50 hours and I have slightly more of a clue, I think.

Check out Zerkovich's Youtube channel for lots of useful guides.

I finished the vortex campaign with queek. Any have any campaigns they recommend as being especially fun?

Grom the Paunch and Vampire Coast.

e: Grom is fun in that some of his later campaign abilities are broken, such as giving goblin archers exploding or double firing arrows.  VC is just a very different campaign and you can sail around the world making pirate coves but never actually claiming territory and have a blast playing tall.  Noctilus especially since he starts in the middle of the ocean.

Since Thorek Ironbrow is a new free lord and the Dwarf's have some funky new mechanics then having him on the Vortex campaign in Lustria might be recommended.

On the vortex anything doesn't use the vortex! So tomb Kings, vampire coast, Grom, Bretonnia, empire, any of three new lords, Imrik I think?

Been trying the Lizardmen lately and either I just don't have a handle on how to use its starting troops, or they are a really tough race to play.

Load up on regular Saurus warriors and run roughshod over everyone else whose starting units don't include armor piercing.  A handful of skink skirmishers to focus down large threats as well.

At the risk of pimping out yet another DLC faction, the new Beastmen campaign is fantastic.  The mechanic to prevent ruins from being resettled is a game changer and the new units are fantastic.

I found them the hardest faction to grok.

It less obvious what the different units do and that is exacerbated by the way they present as being all about melee infantry, but melee infantry are almost always bad in TW.

As above Saurus are decent in the early game. Don't try to use their cavalry. Missile skinks aren't at all bad for skirmishing.

Skink wizards are important throughout, try to level them up quickly and increase your hero capacity often.

The best Lord will be a lore of life slann. None of the legendary lords are as good as a life slann.

By midgame you want to transfer to dinosaur armies, the base to experiment from will be regular stegadons (I think you get them at tier 3). They have bolt throwers on their back to snipe enemy heroes and single entities, then they beat the chaff in melee. They espeicially like having the life slann on hand because single entities never lose models, so work really well with healing magic. Other dinos are fun but honestly never as good.

Blessed spawns are expensive and are for emergencies only.

I started over with a different Legendary Lord (the Kroxigor next to Lord Mazamundi) and loaded my initial one big blob army with half saurus, half skink missile troops and have had much better results. The different starting position has helped, though having all the settlements near me being a LONG way away from each other is both a hindrance and a help. Not having to face Norsca as my first challenge was also a help. I got to beat up on early Skaven and their hordes of shitty troops and I think some kind of beastman army, which seemed to have less missile cavalry (which was a HUGE problem for the Mazamundi start).

Mazdamundi is a pretty hard start and lizards in general are pretty hard

Reasons:

Lizard men have the worst economy in the game. It starts terrible and end terrible and all their units are expensive. And they don’t grow well and…

Their units are good but almost to a t they are high priced. Lategame they probably have some of the strongest single armies in the game since their heroes and lords are amazing and all ride dinosaurs.. But early game they’re bad.

The trick is twofold.

1) Javelin Skink Cohorts
2) javelin skink cohorts

Mixing and matching a few DLC units is good sometimes and a few saurus early game will be nice but JSC will power most of the early game. They do the same DPS as crossbow men but have 46 speed. So you move the. Behind something you want to thump and thump them. Then they can engage in melee. And they take up a huge amount of space so it’s easy to block a line. And the red skill associated with them gives them all of their stats ranged and melee. And they have decent net HP due to their huge size.

Dealing with archers? Run them down with javelin skink cohorts.

Dealing with skirmishers? run at them with javelin skink cohorts until they run out of ammo.

Dealing with elite armored infantry? Well shit. You’re out of the early game now so I hope you grew enough for heroes and magic.

Taurox is OP AF.

Apparently there is a bug that can make rampage endless, but even without that I've reached a point where I think so long as I can find always find another fight that I can win within 900% of my campaign movement range, I will never have to end turn 23.

The only way I believe the AI can stop me is by inflicting casualties quicker than I can use battle rewards to replenish. But it is turn 23 so the AI's armies are chaff.

For anyone who hasn't been following the DLC...

Taurox has an ability called rampage that activates when he has earned enough points from winning battles. When active he can spend momentum (also gained from winning battles) to refresh his movement points. A rampage ends when you run out of momentum, or when the rampage points bar gets right to end.

The thing is, rampage points from winning each battle have a multiplier based on the number of battles won so far this turn. So once you've won enough battles in a turn - probably only 8 or 9, you can activate rampage with a single victory.

This means whenever a rampage is going to end because the bar is full, immediately before the battle that would finish it, you burn all your momentum on refreshing movement to end the rampage early, win the battle, and that will trigger an all new rampage.

Now give Tauorx the Sword of Khaine.

Suspect I'll have wiped the map long before any elf dares draw the sword though.


Weirdly, the biggest challenge I'm having right now is that not enough enemy cities have walls. I can reliably take all but the best defended walled cities with zero casualties, because the AI refuses to sally out, so if I can win with my single entity units I don't have to expose the units who can lose models.

But in a field battle, the enemy usually wants to harass my archers with cavalry - so they tend to get whittled down a bit.

Yeah enemy ai on sieges is super dumb.

It's still incredibly satisfying to bring a bunch of poison wind mortars to a siege and absolutely annihilate the entire defending army from outside the walls.

e: speaking of fun campaigns, Ikit Claw is fantastic as well.

So, eventually the rampage mechanic broke and became permanent.

Meant I could roll on to the next turn and equip all my heroes with the thingy that gives ward save, regen and perfect vigour.

Also I bought more bray shamans and gave them all the stick that summons free Cygors.

I didn't know the meaning of overpowered before. I think the items are the most broken thing in the roster. I'm tempted to disband everything in the army except the heroes.

Unlike other Total War games, the Warhammer versions really are as much about the heroes in the army as anything. Which, obviously, is very true the original source material.