I started a new VC game and am playing around with the corruption mechanics more. I wiped out the border princes solely through rebellions which was neat. I probably could have done it in a third of the time with an army though. It also only seems to really work on provinces with no military presence. Once they have armies nearby it's not possible any more.
New units seem fun, but I haven't used them much. The buffs/debuffs seem pretty useful. I'm just getting to the point where I transition from playing as a spammer faction to an elitist one, at which point I can't imagine they make a big difference.
Okay so... I've had the same problem with both XCOM 2 and Total War:hammer. Neither were terribly satisfying.
Both smacked me around with near-random events at the beginning, both in a manner so outside my control that it just felt like chance whether or not I was in a survivable situation.
Then, both capitulated so suddenly, and so entirely, that the endgame was a sprawling, idle cakewalk. In WH I ended up just killing absolutely everyone else rather than putting up will bullshit caprice from Border Princes etc (Empire being wiped out by Chaos), and X2 my guys were so perfected a team that Flawless rating (ie not even taking damage) was relatively common.
The difficulty curves on both seem totally out of whack. Given that I'm in the Warhammer thread, is this a common complaint here? Feels like increasing difficult will just make the beginning harder and even less fun.
I'm not in the mood for barely-winnable slugfests; I just want something in the middle where good tactics have a chance of working and sides are relatively even.
I would say yes, this is exactly the type of game where I get to a point that I say 'yes, my victory in this campaign is inevitable, but it will take another 3-10 hours to actually finish'.
It's something I find fairly common in strategy games/4X. Which isn't too surprising because it's one of the harder aspects to design and balance well.
I suggest giving SteamWorld Heist a try, it's difficulty curve is pretty good and it's a lot of fun.
Steam / Xbox Live: WSDX NNID: W-S-D-X 3DS FC: 2637-9461-8549
It's at least better than the opposite.
"I am now 12 hours into the game. I just arrived at the encounter where I realise that my build was all wrong, I can't win this encounter and I'd have to replay the game to have a frickin chance"
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Okay so... I've had the same problem with both XCOM 2 and Total War:hammer. Neither were terribly satisfying.
Both smacked me around with near-random events at the beginning, both in a manner so outside my control that it just felt like chance whether or not I was in a survivable situation.
Then, both capitulated so suddenly, and so entirely, that the endgame was a sprawling, idle cakewalk. In WH I ended up just killing absolutely everyone else rather than putting up will bullshit caprice from Border Princes etc (Empire being wiped out by Chaos), and X2 my guys were so perfected a team that Flawless rating (ie not even taking damage) was relatively common.
The difficulty curves on both seem totally out of whack. Given that I'm in the Warhammer thread, is this a common complaint here? Feels like increasing difficult will just make the beginning harder and even less fun.
I'm not in the mood for barely-winnable slugfests; I just want something in the middle where good tactics have a chance of working and sides are relatively even.
Yeah, it's a common problem with most Total War games; at a certain point you've basically won, nothing can do more than annoy you, and all that's really left is completing the objectives for victory and/or conquering everything you can conquer.
IMO Warhammer is actually a bit better than that than some of the previous titles; Warriors of Chaos/Norsca can be a pretty big threat, especially for Empire and Vampire Counts when most of the territory you need for victory is right on the front line... Though even then, it's more because Varg and Skaeling are pumping out stacks of cheap WoC units waaay faster than you can, much less be able to afford, which is more or less fixed by making sure any settlement north of Empire's starting province has walls. Hopefully it's something CA continues to tweak as they do updates; Last I heard they were planning two stand-alone xpacs that would combine with the main game, as well as more races for the Grand Campaign (Wood Elves are all but certain to be the next paid one, and if they stick close to the lore they will play VERY different on the campaign map than pretty much any other playable Total War faction we have ever seen) That should give them a lot of time to come up with a balance/new threats to keep the game interesting until the very end.
They should add last stand quest battles for each of the races that you can fight if you've managed to take over their capitol province for a certain number of turns. So if you beat that battle then that race is considered defeated and their remaining forces and regions become rebels.
My VC game is going real well. Chaos had their shortest run yet, being wiped out around three turns from when I first saw them. I haven't engaged the Empire at all yet, but it's on the horizon. Varg have sued for peace and Skaeling are mostly unable to face me. I'm leaving both alive on the assumption they'll be more of a problem to the Empire than me.
Greenskins wiped out the dwarfs, and I've been bribing them for a long time hoping to push them into an eventual alliance. I have about half of the map, but need to move into Bretonnia fast because the Empire is eating their lunch.
The big difference for me this time was constantly using heroes, moving them into new provinces and spreading corruption wherever possible. It's been incredibly peaceful
I'm going around the different factions but I think VC is my favorite overall. I am liking the sheer variety of units that empire gets, but as a faction vc just clicks. Corruption is just too good for defense, which gives me all the time I could want to prepare my stacks and make a big push. Sure, no ranged units is sad, but instead you send happy flying bat friends in!
I'm going around the different factions but I think VC is my favorite overall. I am liking the sheer variety of units that empire gets, but as a faction vc just clicks. Corruption is just too good for defense, which gives me all the time I could want to prepare my stacks and make a big push. Sure, no ranged units is sad, but instead you send happy flying bat friends in!
Thematically, I like that they have a goal that transcends surviving the Chaos invasion or destroying man/dwarves/orcs. They consider themselves the true heirs to the Empire and are making their play for the throne. I'm hoping to see more of this from future factions.
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KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
edited September 2016
I like their horde gameplay, in the battle sense, not the Horde campaign sense. It feels like I really am sending an army of darkness on doomed humanity with these masses of zambamboes, skellies, and other shit that be freaky at regular soldiers.
Edit: I just wished Mannfred or Vlad would look SOTN Dracula pretty, even if their nosferatu look apparently arose from legal troubles.
Edit 2: like, who would humans like to rule over them more
Well, your first mistake is letting the mortals choose! Also, Dracula is killed repeatedly by a family of vampire hunters.
To Mannfred, he's just another Vlad waiting to be replaced with a true leader. Subjects of the Von Carsteins would die for them, and do! Repeatedly....
But yes, some not-nosferatu vamps would be neat to have.
Neferata, the first Vampire, still alive(ish) for Total War: Warhammer's time period. Technically she has 8th ed rules, so she could still be in (some people think she might still be added around the time the Tomb Kings are, since she and her Tomb King cousin Khalida have a... complicated relationship) though IIRC they were for End Times, and CA doesn't seem to want to go there.
I like their horde gameplay, in the battle sense, not the Horde campaign sense. It feels like I really am sending an army of darkness on doomed humanity with these masses of zambamboes, skellies, and other shit that be freaky at regular soldiers.
Edit: I just wished Mannfred or Vlad would look SOTN Dracula pretty, even if their nosferatu look apparently arose from legal troubles.
Edit 2: like, who would humans like to rule over them more
This
Or this
Just get him out of that armor and into a wig, and we're good to go.
Or he could use a human puppet of some sort, I guess.
I think how the vampires look in the game and also on the table top is supposed their appearance in battle when they don't give a shit about any glamour to fool some mortal.
I'm going around the different factions but I think VC is my favorite overall. I am liking the sheer variety of units that empire gets, but as a faction vc just clicks. Corruption is just too good for defense, which gives me all the time I could want to prepare my stacks and make a big push. Sure, no ranged units is sad, but instead you send happy flying bat friends in!
What I love about the VC compared to the other factions:
They significantly change gameplay from early to mid game. They start as a spammer faction and become an elitist faction. Starting out with hordes of shambling fuckwits that envelop your foes and working up to a terrifying juggernaut of elite wights, bizarre monsters and ghostly cavalry gives a superb feeling of progression. Some people use zombies all the way to the end game I guess! I am not one of them.
They have some of the weirdest units in the game but they're all super cool and thematic. The Chaos units are weird, but mostly in a 90s badass kind of way. I never get bored of vargheists swooping onto walls, or a cavalry charge of ghostly spectres, and the mortis engine is just fantastic to look at.
The corruption mechanic means that you have a real effect on the world. Seeing things change due to your presence is really cool, and being able to spread corruption to neighbouring provinces and watch them choke is super satisfying
They have, hands down, the best moops. Giants and shoggoths are cool, but terrorgheists and varghulfs are just so primal and monstrous. The fear and terror element of the VC armies makes perfect sense
When you take enough territory the AI starts freaking out. Watching Greenskins and Varg try and war on each other when they can't get across a horrific Vampire wasteland is super funso.
They have great QOL because everything replenishes really quickly. This is especially true coming off of a Chaos runthrough, which goes Battle > 5 turns rest > Battle > 5 turns rest. VC armies are constantly on the move.
They don't have any glaring weakspots (aside from ranged) but manage not to be as dull as the other generalist factions
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I saw a kid get handed a JB poster by who I presume was his parents outside my store today....he tore it in half infront of his horrified parents.....There's hope for our youth yet!
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Golden YakBurnished BovineThe sunny beaches of CanadaRegistered Userregular
edited September 2016
Just stumbled across the Artstation site for the artist Tom Parker who worked on Total Warhammer.
It's amazing that so much detail goes into these characters and creatures, I admit I don't notice it as much when they're all crashing into each other in a huge scrum.
Dark elves get all the snazzy stuff. Hydras, Witch Elves, Cold one Riders (elven heavy cavalry riding dinosaurs), repeating ballistas and Black Arks (floating fortresses).
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
maybe it's too much to ask, but I'd prefer a pack with all three elf races than three individual ones. They seem like they could share a ton of units
Except they're all very distinct. Example: They all have quality ranged units. However, Dark Elven archers (spiky repeating crossbow users) are not like High elven archers (well-trained tightly packed longbow archers) who are not like Wood Elf archers (lightly armored skirmishers with longbows).
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
AFAIK Wood Elves are the only Elf races that's really "Lots and lots of archers!" and they still have Dryads, Treekin and Treemen (infantry-sized, troll-sized and Giant-sized tree people) Warhawk Riders (flying missile cavalry) Giant Eagles and Forest Dragons.
Woodelves also have wardancers, who at least used to be absolute terrors.
Fiendishrabbit on
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
edited September 2016
It would be cool if Woodelves had a secret alliance or could direct Brettonia activities in secret. Like Crusades in earlier games, mayne the Fay Enchantress could call for a holy war "For the Lady" and Brettonians listen.
Brettonia are chumps. Faith, Steel, and Gunpowder for life
That's the million dollar question, as the Wood Elves are not know for even attempting to invade and conquer anyone (while it never upsetted the status quo, Bretonnia, the Empire, and Vampire Counts have tried to invade and/or kill each other off over the centuries, same with Dwarfs and Greenskins fighting over the holds). Wild Hunts, yes, but nothing along the lines of "I claim this land for Athel Loren!"
When High/Dark Elves show up though, I expect them to have their own settlement type to fight over. Maybe Athel Loren can be made it's own map ala Empire Total War and give something substantial in the Old World for all the elves to conquer?
That's the million dollar question, as the Wood Elves are not know for even attempting to invade and conquer anyone (while it never upsetted the status quo, Bretonnia, the Empire, and Vampire Counts have tried to invade and/or kill each other off over the centuries, same with Dwarfs and Greenskins fighting over the holds). Wild Hunts, yes, but nothing along the lines of "I claim this land for Athel Loren!"
When High/Dark Elves show up though, I expect them to have their own settlement type to fight over. Maybe Athel Loren can be made it's own map ala Empire Total War and give something substantial in the Old World for all the elves to conquer?
You could tie it into the various corruption mechanics. Not settlements, but some sort of horde-type campaign around preserving the land from vampiric/chaos corruption.
Originally I believe the plan was to have lizardpeople and DE in a single expansion, a new-world/Lustria expansion of sorts. That could have changed, since they said their DLC plans have been altered by the success of TWW.
I am incredibly curious what type of settlement style WE will use. I'm not sure how I would do it. They're just not the conquering the world type.
Also, I keep telling myself to not start a new game until there is new DLC, because I'll have to restart anyways. But damn, this is difficult.
Originally I believe the plan was to have lizardpeople and DE in a single expansion, a new-world/Lustria expansion of sorts. That could have changed, since they said their DLC plans have been altered by the success of TWW.
I am incredibly curious what type of settlement style WE will use. I'm not sure how I would do it. They're just not the conquering the world type.
Also, I keep telling myself to not start a new game until there is new DLC, because I'll have to restart anyways. But damn, this is difficult.
I could see the wood elves being a playing tall faction. Or maybe they launch raids out of their woods to "purify" the world.
Posts
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=758528836&searchtext=vlad
New units seem fun, but I haven't used them much. The buffs/debuffs seem pretty useful. I'm just getting to the point where I transition from playing as a spammer faction to an elitist one, at which point I can't imagine they make a big difference.
Both smacked me around with near-random events at the beginning, both in a manner so outside my control that it just felt like chance whether or not I was in a survivable situation.
Then, both capitulated so suddenly, and so entirely, that the endgame was a sprawling, idle cakewalk. In WH I ended up just killing absolutely everyone else rather than putting up will bullshit caprice from Border Princes etc (Empire being wiped out by Chaos), and X2 my guys were so perfected a team that Flawless rating (ie not even taking damage) was relatively common.
The difficulty curves on both seem totally out of whack. Given that I'm in the Warhammer thread, is this a common complaint here? Feels like increasing difficult will just make the beginning harder and even less fun.
I'm not in the mood for barely-winnable slugfests; I just want something in the middle where good tactics have a chance of working and sides are relatively even.
It's something I find fairly common in strategy games/4X. Which isn't too surprising because it's one of the harder aspects to design and balance well.
I suggest giving SteamWorld Heist a try, it's difficulty curve is pretty good and it's a lot of fun.
"I am now 12 hours into the game. I just arrived at the encounter where I realise that my build was all wrong, I can't win this encounter and I'd have to replay the game to have a frickin chance"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Yeah, it's a common problem with most Total War games; at a certain point you've basically won, nothing can do more than annoy you, and all that's really left is completing the objectives for victory and/or conquering everything you can conquer.
IMO Warhammer is actually a bit better than that than some of the previous titles; Warriors of Chaos/Norsca can be a pretty big threat, especially for Empire and Vampire Counts when most of the territory you need for victory is right on the front line... Though even then, it's more because Varg and Skaeling are pumping out stacks of cheap WoC units waaay faster than you can, much less be able to afford, which is more or less fixed by making sure any settlement north of Empire's starting province has walls. Hopefully it's something CA continues to tweak as they do updates; Last I heard they were planning two stand-alone xpacs that would combine with the main game, as well as more races for the Grand Campaign (Wood Elves are all but certain to be the next paid one, and if they stick close to the lore they will play VERY different on the campaign map than pretty much any other playable Total War faction we have ever seen) That should give them a lot of time to come up with a balance/new threats to keep the game interesting until the very end.
Greenskins wiped out the dwarfs, and I've been bribing them for a long time hoping to push them into an eventual alliance. I have about half of the map, but need to move into Bretonnia fast because the Empire is eating their lunch.
The big difference for me this time was constantly using heroes, moving them into new provinces and spreading corruption wherever possible. It's been incredibly peaceful
Thematically, I like that they have a goal that transcends surviving the Chaos invasion or destroying man/dwarves/orcs. They consider themselves the true heirs to the Empire and are making their play for the throne. I'm hoping to see more of this from future factions.
Edit: I just wished Mannfred or Vlad would look SOTN Dracula pretty, even if their nosferatu look apparently arose from legal troubles.
Edit 2: like, who would humans like to rule over them more
This
Or this
To Mannfred, he's just another Vlad waiting to be replaced with a true leader. Subjects of the Von Carsteins would die for them, and do! Repeatedly....
But yes, some not-nosferatu vamps would be neat to have.
Neferata, the first Vampire, still alive(ish) for Total War: Warhammer's time period. Technically she has 8th ed rules, so she could still be in (some people think she might still be added around the time the Tomb Kings are, since she and her Tomb King cousin Khalida have a... complicated relationship) though IIRC they were for End Times, and CA doesn't seem to want to go there.
Just get him out of that armor and into a wig, and we're good to go.
Or he could use a human puppet of some sort, I guess.
What I love about the VC compared to the other factions:
It's not just you.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
https://www.artstation.com/artist/crazyfool
He made Archaon!
And look at these precious babbies!
It's amazing that so much detail goes into these characters and creatures, I admit I don't notice it as much when they're all crashing into each other in a huge scrum.
is a sentence I didn't think I'd ever say
Wood Elves - Treants
High Elves - Dragons, Phoenix, Great Eagles, Griffons
Probably some other stuff. You'll probably like Dark Elves, at least.
edit: you might get whatever nightmare this is https://eternalhunt.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/dark-elves-release-121.jpg
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Except they're all very distinct. Example: They all have quality ranged units. However, Dark Elven archers (spiky repeating crossbow users) are not like High elven archers (well-trained tightly packed longbow archers) who are not like Wood Elf archers (lightly armored skirmishers with longbows).
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Brettonia are chumps. Faith, Steel, and Gunpowder for life
That's the million dollar question, as the Wood Elves are not know for even attempting to invade and conquer anyone (while it never upsetted the status quo, Bretonnia, the Empire, and Vampire Counts have tried to invade and/or kill each other off over the centuries, same with Dwarfs and Greenskins fighting over the holds). Wild Hunts, yes, but nothing along the lines of "I claim this land for Athel Loren!"
When High/Dark Elves show up though, I expect them to have their own settlement type to fight over. Maybe Athel Loren can be made it's own map ala Empire Total War and give something substantial in the Old World for all the elves to conquer?
You could tie it into the various corruption mechanics. Not settlements, but some sort of horde-type campaign around preserving the land from vampiric/chaos corruption.
I am incredibly curious what type of settlement style WE will use. I'm not sure how I would do it. They're just not the conquering the world type.
Also, I keep telling myself to not start a new game until there is new DLC, because I'll have to restart anyways. But damn, this is difficult.
I could see the wood elves being a playing tall faction. Or maybe they launch raids out of their woods to "purify" the world.