BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
The only problem with War of the Chosen is just how much shit they throw at you in the first ~5 hours.
Like starting off a new game is sorta crazy if you've never played any XCOM stuff before. There are just so many things they introduce to you in terms of managing your squad, actually picking missions, getting supply, keeping the council happy, upgrading / defending the Avenger, being introduced to the Chosen, meeting the three new factions, new zombie missions, the need to research/interrogate aliens for tech, plus the alien ruler missions, all sorta happening at the same time and with not a whole lot of context for what you should be focusing on first.
Yes I played this about a year ago while it was in its Early Access release.
At the time it seemed like it had potential, but there were a lot of rough edges - animations missing, incomplete tutorials, a few placeholder skills on characters.
Seems like the last year has added quite a bit of polish to it, so now you do have a pretty decent looking fantasy XCOM like. The big thing about this game is that you're using physics for a lot of interactions. You can use a kick/grappling hook to push/pull enemies, you can make fire that will spread along certain tiles, and some telekinesis to move/topple taller objects. Some of the physics interactions require a bit of getting used to, since you're on a square-grid system and that means some objects will snap to a cardinal direction when interacted with.
The game also has a pretty decent sense of humour, and the colourful art style is pretty well done and scales nicely on my micro-laptop.
I haven't played a huge amount of it (had to restart for the full launch), so I'm not sure how the overworld stuff works yet. It seems to have some promise though, so I'd recommend checking it out if XCOM but Fantasy Humour is in your wheelhouse.
Quick, Brolo, use your release date powers! Repost all the release dates now to lock the timeline down!
I ate an engineer
+2
Options
Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
There should've been a quest in Fallout 4 where you actually try to put on a for real baseball game after telling the swatter salesman in Diamond City that his idea of the game is all wrong. Recruit two teams of players, find a venue etc. Imagine the references you could put in there!
In my COVID-19 stay at homeathon, I dug into my backlog and checked out Gone Home next. This is a clever little game and does some interesting stuff with how it unveils the narrative. There were probably a few too many random notes crumpled up in garbage cans, but overall the game did a good job of having explanations as to why things were the way they appeared to be at the start of the game. There's also some neat reveals that change the tone of previous reveals so they become more or less sinister in different points of the game. A fairly short experience, but one worth playing through for sure.
+9
Options
Shortytouching the meatIntergalactic Cool CourtRegistered Userregular
There should've been a quest in Fallout 4 where you actually try to put on a for real baseball game after telling the swatter salesman in Diamond City that his idea of the game is all wrong. Recruit two teams of players, find a venue etc. Imagine the references you could put in there!
that game couldn't put forty people in the same area at once
+7
Options
Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
Well obviously you'd have your star recruited players show up, and then be attacked by raiders and only have baseball equipment and pitching machines to combat them.
+1
Options
Olivawgood name, isn't it?the foot of mt fujiRegistered Userregular
I just downloaded total war: warhammer 2 for the free weekend and I'm watching some videos, but all I can say is I'm way over my head here.
That is pretty normal, it's not an easy game to just jump into. That being said, some factions are easier than others. I would generally suggest Kroq-gar for the Lizardmen or Tyrion for the High Elves as good starting campaigns. Kroq-gar can get Saurus Warriors pretty cheap, and they make up the bulk of your lizardmen forces for a lot of the game. They also completely dumpster most of the nearby faction's early game units. Also you can put Kroq-gar on a t-rex (named grymloq, transformer fans). Tyrion has one of the absolute safest and easiest positions in the game, and high elves have a lot of units but they aren't too complex to play. Spearman form your core, archers shoot over them, and you can eventually get Lothern Seaguard which do both at the same time. You have a bunch of other units you can get fancy with, but your core for a long time will likely be Spearmen and Archers. Tyrion can also become a complete one-man army.
Other suggestions I will make:
DO NOT FORM DEFENSIVE OR MILITARY ALLIANCES. DO NOT. It can beneficial on rare occasions, but it's absolutely much safer to just not do it until you have more of a handle on things. If you do it, odds are your allies are gonna drag you into a lot of conflicts and then frequently do jack and shit to help.
Make sure to try and establish trade. It can be good reliable income. If you don't do it with anyone else, the Tomb Kings will almost always like you if you're doing well in the campaign (they respect power).
Do not trust Greenskins or Beastmen diplomatically. They are not rational actors.
Watch out for corruption! Chaos races, vampires, and skaven all spread corruption which can cause your public order to drop (potentially inciting rebellions) and chaos/vampiric corruption will cause other armies to take damage if it gets high enough. You can build structures to fight off corruption, but it's generally easier to fight the disease than treat the symptoms.
Skaven settlements appear to be ruins until you reveal them and Skaven can ambush you when they attack you. This makes fighting skaven very dangerous, so tread carefully and try and make sure you don't leave your armies outside settlements if you can help it when you're at war with the skaven and they're nearby.
Probably some others I can think of, but that's it for the moment.
Depends on the army really, but especially early on you do want growth. Growth is good because it helps you tech up to higher tier units, which while more expensive are frequently well worth the price. Public Order is not paramount unless you're having a lot of issues with it, and even then a rebellion or two won't hurt if you have your army nearby (free experience!). Additionally, it's generally easier to have certain provinces dedicated to building units, others more for economy, etc, depending on what resources or landmarks are available in a location. Like if a place has a gold mine? You generally want that for the income.
As far as higher tier units go, some of the veterans for the game can help you figure out what might be good options to aim for depending on what race you are playing.
Edit: Oh, and as for how many armies you want, I would generally suggest one large on early on. Each new army increases the overall upkeep of your others, so until you've got a more booming economy it can be hard to support another army. I would say you generally want in the area of 2000 or so gold a turn or better if you can get it. It's not a hard rule (and depending on race that's quite easy to do better after the early game), but that should help you determine if a new army is worth it.
Oh, I forgot one other nice tip for new players to Total War: Warhammer 2. Grab the free DLC! There's quite a few free lords, including Repanse who adds Brettonia from Game 1 onto the Game 2 map. Some might not make good starting campaigns mind, but still, free! Gor-Rok for the Lizardmen is also pretty simple to use, though his position is a bit more precarious (he kind of starts in the dead middle of a continent, with a lot of nearby enemies) but he also starts with Lord Kroak, an undead frog wizard that is absurdly powerful. Kroak's Deliverance of Itza spell will be able to nuke masses of infantry, and can't even hurt your own units so it's super easy to get value from. Gor-Rok himself is just a brick that can take a lot of punishment. Lohkir Felheart is also probably the simplest Dark Elf campaign I find.
Plus bonus opinions on the Various DLC since they are back on sale.
With the free Total Warhammer 2 weekend ongoing and a bunch of sales on it’s DLC, I hope people don’t mind if I repost my recommendations on DLC for it.
In case any of the Total Warhammer 2 DLC goes on sale again when they have the free week coming up, this is kind of my tier list of DLC.
1) Rise of the Tomb Kings. Tomb Kings are one of the most unique factions in the game and have a bunch of really cool construct units like a giant scorpion statue or a giant statue of a man with laser eyes. In the campaign their units don't cost upkeep or money to recruit (they're reclaiming them), so instead it just costs money to build (unearth) the buildings to produce them and they have caps on how many they can get based off how many recruitment structures they have. All four of their legendary lords are pretty rad in their own right, too.
2) Curse of the Vampire Coast. The Vampire Coast is a really cool faction thematically, as Karoz mentions you have an undead pirate crew armed with all sorts of fun gunpowder weapons as well as giant zombie crabs, giant golems made from ship hulls with cannon arms, zombie snipers as heroes, etc. Campaign-wise they can eschew holding land to instead go around being pirates, or can decide to take and hold ground. Or just do both, whichever you feel like. I will say their legendary lords aren't quite as rad as Tomb Kings. Luthor Harkon is pretty awesome and becomes a fucking total unit once you have him upgraded and Noctilus has one of the coolest campaign positions in addition to being a fantastic spell caster and a very tanky bastard (and he can ride one of those golems I mentioned), but I'm not as much of a fan of the other two lords. Cylostra is neat, pretty potent spellcaster with some unique abilities and a unique hero, but her starting position kind of blows. Aranessa has a cool starting position (though not as rad as Noctilus), but is a living person so she doesn't get vampiric regeneration, or necromancy, or even a cool mount like the others. Thematically this is my favorite DLC, but I think it's a weaker overall package than the Tomb Kings.
3) The Prophet and the Warlock. Ikit Claw is a fucking radical mad scientist ratman with power armor and a flamethrower that can build nuclear armaments to utilize against the fucking renaissance era enemies you're fighting. Also he comes with gattling guns, snipers, and motorcycles. Tehenhauin is a much weaker package, but is still pretty rad (and they've done some buffing for him) but that's kind of a common theme with the lord packs, so I think this is still the best. Tehenhaiun is also kind of a challenge campaign where as Ikit just kind of crushes the competition. Also he does come with triceratops that can call down orbital lasers.
4) The Hunter and the Beast. Despite being a lord pack, this adds the Empire for the first game to the second, and also completely changes their campaign gameplay. Wulfhart has a real fun campaign where you recruit a fucking D&D party to help the empire's fledgling colony survive, and has some fairly unique mechanics in terms of recruitment. Nakai is a horde faction for Lizardmen, but once again his campaign needed a bit more time in the oven. It's not bad, but it's very simplistic. You do get a giant fuck off crocodile and a bunch of crocodile men though, so once again, kind of rad.
5) The Queen and the Crone. Alarielle is a strong addition, she is a powerful support spellcaster and offers a unique start position on Ulthuan that's a bit more challenging than Tyrion's. She has to try and keep Ulthuan free of non-elves and is weakened by corruption, being the incarnation of the elven nature goddess. She also gets access to the Wood Elves' treemen units, which are very fun, and she brings some very strong archers to the High Elves. Hellebron is the loser for this lord pack. She starts very close to Malekith, and while she has a unique mechanic there's no interesting choices you make with it, so it kind of becomes more of a tax. She does bring some nice units like sisters of slaughter, as well as the unique Doomfire Warlocks (cavalry with some spellcasting), and in combat she's very cool since she's an absolute blender that you can put on a manticore. It's just her campaign doesn't bring much to the table compared to just playing Malekith. Both these lords do suffer a bit in that they also released free lords that are quite competitive with them. You can get Alith Anar free for the high elves and he has a drastically unique and interesting campaign (he can ambush when attacking like Skaven and gets unique assassination missions), and for the Dark Elves Lohkir Felheart is free and he at least has a unique starting position and a mechanic that actually matters (When he takes a major port, he gets to recruit a Black Ark, sort of a floating pirate city that Dark Elves use to support their armies abroad).
6) The Shadow and the Blade: This DLC may honestly go higher on the list depending on what races you prefer. The Skaven side is once again amazing. You get Snikch, a badass ninja rat, a new type of spellcasting, and some fun new weapon teams, and Master Assassin Lords who are very cool. His campaign is also very unique, having a fun mechanic where you can dispatch Eshin characters on assignments for special effects and extra levels. The units of other skaven clans you can recruit are limited so at first so you need to make due with Eshin's ninja bullshit (which is much buffed under Snikch). This creates a very different playstyle than other Skaven, which is quite refreshing. On the other side, Malus has some unique mechanics (you start with two holdings, but can abandon one for buffs), but his main campaign mechanic is a bit half-baked and mainly serves to prevent you from using his big cool feature, being able to go super saiyan and become possessed by a demon. He does get some fairly rad new units, like Beastmasters and Gorgons, but overall I'm kind of waiting for them to make some changes to make his campaign more interesting. As is it feels deathly afraid of letting me use his cool bullshit.
Oh, also buying the first game sort of acts like a DLC for 2? Unlocks a new sandbox campaign mode with a gigantic map where you can use all the factions from both games. Some people prefer this mode, though personally I like the second game's more compact map.
Edit: Wrote this very quickly before work, so I went back and made some edits and added a bit in.
I can also try and keep an eye here in case people have questions. Though I should disclose, I’m not like an absolute amazing player, but I’ve been playing Total Warhammer enough that I’ve got a good understanding of the basics.
I consider myself a pretty die hard Total War guy, having owned pretty much every game since Rome (except Napoleon, somehow?) but I am not a multiplayer guy, and I am also pretty sure I'm actually trash at the game since I never play above normal difficulty and play Warhammer in particular on easy campaigns only because I feel like I'm straight up bad at the campaign management
So if anyone has any tips for someone who loves these games but is also a complete dingus, I'll take 'em
Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
Also Bethesda would be stupid as hell to not just steal the idea for Sim Settlements for their titles in the works, if they keep using a settlement building type mechanic.
I just downloaded total war: warhammer 2 for the free weekend and I'm watching some videos, but all I can say is I'm way over my head here.
That is pretty normal, it's not an easy game to just jump into. That being said, some factions are easier than others. I would generally suggest Kroq-gar for the Lizardmen or Tyrion for the High Elves as good starting campaigns. Kroq-gar can get Saurus Warriors pretty cheap, and they make up the bulk of your lizardmen forces for a lot of the game. They also completely dumpster most of the nearby faction's early game units. Also you can put Kroq-gar on a t-rex (named grymloq, transformer fans). Tyrion has one of the absolute safest and easiest positions in the game, and high elves have a lot of units but they aren't too complex to play. Spearman form your core, archers shoot over them, and you can eventually get Lothern Seaguard which do both at the same time. You have a bunch of other units you can get fancy with, but your core for a long time will likely be Spearmen and Archers. Tyrion can also become a complete one-man army.
Other suggestions I will make:
DO NOT FORM DEFENSIVE OR MILITARY ALLIANCES. DO NOT. It can beneficial on rare occasions, but it's absolutely much safer to just not do it until you have more of a handle on things. If you do it, odds are your allies are gonna drag you into a lot of conflicts and then frequently do jack and shit to help.
Make sure to try and establish trade. It can be good reliable income. If you don't do it with anyone else, the Tomb Kings will almost always like you if you're doing well in the campaign (they respect power).
Do not trust Greenskins or Beastmen diplomatically. They are not rational actors.
Watch out for corruption! Chaos races, vampires, and skaven all spread corruption which can cause your public order to drop (potentially inciting rebellions) and chaos/vampiric corruption will cause other armies to take damage if it gets high enough. You can build structures to fight off corruption, but it's generally easier to fight the disease than treat the symptoms.
Skaven settlements appear to be ruins until you reveal them and Skaven can ambush you when they attack you. This makes fighting skaven very dangerous, so tread carefully and try and make sure you don't leave your armies outside settlements if you can help it when you're at war with the skaven and they're nearby.
Probably some others I can think of, but that's it for the moment.
Depends on the army really, but especially early on you do want growth. Growth is good because it helps you tech up to higher tier units, which while more expensive are frequently well worth the price. Public Order is not paramount unless you're having a lot of issues with it, and even then a rebellion or two won't hurt if you have your army nearby (free experience!). Additionally, it's generally easier to have certain provinces dedicated to building units, others more for economy, etc, depending on what resources or landmarks are available in a location. Like if a place has a gold mine? You generally want that for the income.
As far as higher tier units go, some of the veterans for the game can help you figure out what might be good options to aim for depending on what race you are playing.
Edit: Oh, and as for how many armies you want, I would generally suggest one large on early on. Each new army increases the overall upkeep of your others, so until you've got a more booming economy it can be hard to support another army. I would say you generally want in the area of 2000 or so gold a turn or better if you can get it. It's not a hard rule (and depending on race that's quite easy to do better after the early game), but that should help you determine if a new army is worth it.
Oh, I forgot one other nice tip for new players to Total War: Warhammer 2. Grab the free DLC! There's quite a few free lords, including Repanse who adds Brettonia from Game 1 onto the Game 2 map. Some might not make good starting campaigns mind, but still, free! Gor-Rok for the Lizardmen is also pretty simple to use, though his position is a bit more precarious (he kind of starts in the dead middle of a continent, with a lot of nearby enemies) but he also starts with Lord Kroak, an undead frog wizard that is absurdly powerful. Kroak's Deliverance of Itza spell will be able to nuke masses of infantry, and can't even hurt your own units so it's super easy to get value from. Gor-Rok himself is just a brick that can take a lot of punishment. Lohkir Felheart is also probably the simplest Dark Elf campaign I find.
Plus bonus opinions on the Various DLC since they are back on sale.
With the free Total Warhammer 2 weekend ongoing and a bunch of sales on it’s DLC, I hope people don’t mind if I repost my recommendations on DLC for it.
In case any of the Total Warhammer 2 DLC goes on sale again when they have the free week coming up, this is kind of my tier list of DLC.
1) Rise of the Tomb Kings. Tomb Kings are one of the most unique factions in the game and have a bunch of really cool construct units like a giant scorpion statue or a giant statue of a man with laser eyes. In the campaign their units don't cost upkeep or money to recruit (they're reclaiming them), so instead it just costs money to build (unearth) the buildings to produce them and they have caps on how many they can get based off how many recruitment structures they have. All four of their legendary lords are pretty rad in their own right, too.
2) Curse of the Vampire Coast. The Vampire Coast is a really cool faction thematically, as Karoz mentions you have an undead pirate crew armed with all sorts of fun gunpowder weapons as well as giant zombie crabs, giant golems made from ship hulls with cannon arms, zombie snipers as heroes, etc. Campaign-wise they can eschew holding land to instead go around being pirates, or can decide to take and hold ground. Or just do both, whichever you feel like. I will say their legendary lords aren't quite as rad as Tomb Kings. Luthor Harkon is pretty awesome and becomes a fucking total unit once you have him upgraded and Noctilus has one of the coolest campaign positions in addition to being a fantastic spell caster and a very tanky bastard (and he can ride one of those golems I mentioned), but I'm not as much of a fan of the other two lords. Cylostra is neat, pretty potent spellcaster with some unique abilities and a unique hero, but her starting position kind of blows. Aranessa has a cool starting position (though not as rad as Noctilus), but is a living person so she doesn't get vampiric regeneration, or necromancy, or even a cool mount like the others. Thematically this is my favorite DLC, but I think it's a weaker overall package than the Tomb Kings.
3) The Prophet and the Warlock. Ikit Claw is a fucking radical mad scientist ratman with power armor and a flamethrower that can build nuclear armaments to utilize against the fucking renaissance era enemies you're fighting. Also he comes with gattling guns, snipers, and motorcycles. Tehenhauin is a much weaker package, but is still pretty rad (and they've done some buffing for him) but that's kind of a common theme with the lord packs, so I think this is still the best. Tehenhaiun is also kind of a challenge campaign where as Ikit just kind of crushes the competition. Also he does come with triceratops that can call down orbital lasers.
4) The Hunter and the Beast. Despite being a lord pack, this adds the Empire for the first game to the second, and also completely changes their campaign gameplay. Wulfhart has a real fun campaign where you recruit a fucking D&D party to help the empire's fledgling colony survive, and has some fairly unique mechanics in terms of recruitment. Nakai is a horde faction for Lizardmen, but once again his campaign needed a bit more time in the oven. It's not bad, but it's very simplistic. You do get a giant fuck off crocodile and a bunch of crocodile men though, so once again, kind of rad.
5) The Queen and the Crone. Alarielle is a strong addition, she is a powerful support spellcaster and offers a unique start position on Ulthuan that's a bit more challenging than Tyrion's. She has to try and keep Ulthuan free of non-elves and is weakened by corruption, being the incarnation of the elven nature goddess. She also gets access to the Wood Elves' treemen units, which are very fun, and she brings some very strong archers to the High Elves. Hellebron is the loser for this lord pack. She starts very close to Malekith, and while she has a unique mechanic there's no interesting choices you make with it, so it kind of becomes more of a tax. She does bring some nice units like sisters of slaughter, as well as the unique Doomfire Warlocks (cavalry with some spellcasting), and in combat she's very cool since she's an absolute blender that you can put on a manticore. It's just her campaign doesn't bring much to the table compared to just playing Malekith. Both these lords do suffer a bit in that they also released free lords that are quite competitive with them. You can get Alith Anar free for the high elves and he has a drastically unique and interesting campaign (he can ambush when attacking like Skaven and gets unique assassination missions), and for the Dark Elves Lohkir Felheart is free and he at least has a unique starting position and a mechanic that actually matters (When he takes a major port, he gets to recruit a Black Ark, sort of a floating pirate city that Dark Elves use to support their armies abroad).
6) The Shadow and the Blade: This DLC may honestly go higher on the list depending on what races you prefer. The Skaven side is once again amazing. You get Snikch, a badass ninja rat, a new type of spellcasting, and some fun new weapon teams, and Master Assassin Lords who are very cool. His campaign is also very unique, having a fun mechanic where you can dispatch Eshin characters on assignments for special effects and extra levels. The units of other skaven clans you can recruit are limited so at first so you need to make due with Eshin's ninja bullshit (which is much buffed under Snikch). This creates a very different playstyle than other Skaven, which is quite refreshing. On the other side, Malus has some unique mechanics (you start with two holdings, but can abandon one for buffs), but his main campaign mechanic is a bit half-baked and mainly serves to prevent you from using his big cool feature, being able to go super saiyan and become possessed by a demon. He does get some fairly rad new units, like Beastmasters and Gorgons, but overall I'm kind of waiting for them to make some changes to make his campaign more interesting. As is it feels deathly afraid of letting me use his cool bullshit.
Oh, also buying the first game sort of acts like a DLC for 2? Unlocks a new sandbox campaign mode with a gigantic map where you can use all the factions from both games. Some people prefer this mode, though personally I like the second game's more compact map.
Edit: Wrote this very quickly before work, so I went back and made some edits and added a bit in.
I can also try and keep an eye here in case people have questions. Though I should disclose, I’m not like an absolute amazing player, but I’ve been playing Total Warhammer enough that I’ve got a good understanding of the basics.
I consider myself a pretty die hard Total War guy, having owned pretty much every game since Rome (except Napoleon, somehow?) but I am not a multiplayer guy, and I am also pretty sure I'm actually trash at the game since I never play above normal difficulty and play Warhammer in particular on easy campaigns only because I feel like I'm straight up bad at the campaign management
So if anyone has any tips for someone who loves these games but is also a complete dingus, I'll take 'em
Some factions are atypical but this is the general thrust of the battlefield side of the game.
Micro is for cavalry and heroes. Otherwise, form your line, leave it alone, and watch for places where it is faltering. Keep some units in reserve.
When you see part of your line wavering, reinforce it with reserves, hit the strong units in the back with cavalry to take off the pressure or hit a weak unit in the back to rout it so that the units fighting them can reinforce the line elsewhere.
Artillery and archers are good, but they also hit your units when they collide. Leave them alone to take out the approaching army then use them to focus on major threats.
Send some cavalry behind enemy lines to harrass their archers and artillery. Expect them to do the same.
Use your heroes to bolster weak points, take on monsters, heal and cast damage spells, etc. Like cavalry, they should be focused on the weak parts of the line and target dangerous enemies like large monsters and enemy heroes and leaders.
Get to know what to expect from each faction. Learn which units are good at fighting large monsters, armored foes, stopping cavalry, etc. Use that knowledge to build specialized armies on the border with enemies.
Keep upgrading your army. While your units level up and some stay useful, you want to stay on the curve leading toward at least one army of endgame unit bolstered by cheaper armies of early game units. The ultimate point of your economy is to allow you to build and maintain this force.
Magic and hero abilities usually won’t win a battle for you, but it can turn the tide and allow weaker armies to beat stronger ones. Don’t depend on it but don’t forget about it either.
Sometimes you’ll meet a faction that just fucks you up (Skaven are good at this), and you need to figure out how to rebuild your army to counter them.
I always roll with at least two armies. The other factions usually do, as well.
Phillishere on
+5
Options
Shortytouching the meatIntergalactic Cool CourtRegistered Userregular
Also Bethesda would be stupid as hell to not just steal the idea for Sim Settlements for their titles in the works, if they keep using a settlement building type mechanic.
I hope they don't because that entire aspect of the game was a broken mess in fallout 4
+1
Options
PiptheFairFrequently not in boats.Registered Userregular
I just downloaded total war: warhammer 2 for the free weekend and I'm watching some videos, but all I can say is I'm way over my head here.
That is pretty normal, it's not an easy game to just jump into. That being said, some factions are easier than others. I would generally suggest Kroq-gar for the Lizardmen or Tyrion for the High Elves as good starting campaigns. Kroq-gar can get Saurus Warriors pretty cheap, and they make up the bulk of your lizardmen forces for a lot of the game. They also completely dumpster most of the nearby faction's early game units. Also you can put Kroq-gar on a t-rex (named grymloq, transformer fans). Tyrion has one of the absolute safest and easiest positions in the game, and high elves have a lot of units but they aren't too complex to play. Spearman form your core, archers shoot over them, and you can eventually get Lothern Seaguard which do both at the same time. You have a bunch of other units you can get fancy with, but your core for a long time will likely be Spearmen and Archers. Tyrion can also become a complete one-man army.
Other suggestions I will make:
DO NOT FORM DEFENSIVE OR MILITARY ALLIANCES. DO NOT. It can beneficial on rare occasions, but it's absolutely much safer to just not do it until you have more of a handle on things. If you do it, odds are your allies are gonna drag you into a lot of conflicts and then frequently do jack and shit to help.
Make sure to try and establish trade. It can be good reliable income. If you don't do it with anyone else, the Tomb Kings will almost always like you if you're doing well in the campaign (they respect power).
Do not trust Greenskins or Beastmen diplomatically. They are not rational actors.
Watch out for corruption! Chaos races, vampires, and skaven all spread corruption which can cause your public order to drop (potentially inciting rebellions) and chaos/vampiric corruption will cause other armies to take damage if it gets high enough. You can build structures to fight off corruption, but it's generally easier to fight the disease than treat the symptoms.
Skaven settlements appear to be ruins until you reveal them and Skaven can ambush you when they attack you. This makes fighting skaven very dangerous, so tread carefully and try and make sure you don't leave your armies outside settlements if you can help it when you're at war with the skaven and they're nearby.
Probably some others I can think of, but that's it for the moment.
Depends on the army really, but especially early on you do want growth. Growth is good because it helps you tech up to higher tier units, which while more expensive are frequently well worth the price. Public Order is not paramount unless you're having a lot of issues with it, and even then a rebellion or two won't hurt if you have your army nearby (free experience!). Additionally, it's generally easier to have certain provinces dedicated to building units, others more for economy, etc, depending on what resources or landmarks are available in a location. Like if a place has a gold mine? You generally want that for the income.
As far as higher tier units go, some of the veterans for the game can help you figure out what might be good options to aim for depending on what race you are playing.
Edit: Oh, and as for how many armies you want, I would generally suggest one large on early on. Each new army increases the overall upkeep of your others, so until you've got a more booming economy it can be hard to support another army. I would say you generally want in the area of 2000 or so gold a turn or better if you can get it. It's not a hard rule (and depending on race that's quite easy to do better after the early game), but that should help you determine if a new army is worth it.
Oh, I forgot one other nice tip for new players to Total War: Warhammer 2. Grab the free DLC! There's quite a few free lords, including Repanse who adds Brettonia from Game 1 onto the Game 2 map. Some might not make good starting campaigns mind, but still, free! Gor-Rok for the Lizardmen is also pretty simple to use, though his position is a bit more precarious (he kind of starts in the dead middle of a continent, with a lot of nearby enemies) but he also starts with Lord Kroak, an undead frog wizard that is absurdly powerful. Kroak's Deliverance of Itza spell will be able to nuke masses of infantry, and can't even hurt your own units so it's super easy to get value from. Gor-Rok himself is just a brick that can take a lot of punishment. Lohkir Felheart is also probably the simplest Dark Elf campaign I find.
Plus bonus opinions on the Various DLC since they are back on sale.
With the free Total Warhammer 2 weekend ongoing and a bunch of sales on it’s DLC, I hope people don’t mind if I repost my recommendations on DLC for it.
In case any of the Total Warhammer 2 DLC goes on sale again when they have the free week coming up, this is kind of my tier list of DLC.
1) Rise of the Tomb Kings. Tomb Kings are one of the most unique factions in the game and have a bunch of really cool construct units like a giant scorpion statue or a giant statue of a man with laser eyes. In the campaign their units don't cost upkeep or money to recruit (they're reclaiming them), so instead it just costs money to build (unearth) the buildings to produce them and they have caps on how many they can get based off how many recruitment structures they have. All four of their legendary lords are pretty rad in their own right, too.
2) Curse of the Vampire Coast. The Vampire Coast is a really cool faction thematically, as Karoz mentions you have an undead pirate crew armed with all sorts of fun gunpowder weapons as well as giant zombie crabs, giant golems made from ship hulls with cannon arms, zombie snipers as heroes, etc. Campaign-wise they can eschew holding land to instead go around being pirates, or can decide to take and hold ground. Or just do both, whichever you feel like. I will say their legendary lords aren't quite as rad as Tomb Kings. Luthor Harkon is pretty awesome and becomes a fucking total unit once you have him upgraded and Noctilus has one of the coolest campaign positions in addition to being a fantastic spell caster and a very tanky bastard (and he can ride one of those golems I mentioned), but I'm not as much of a fan of the other two lords. Cylostra is neat, pretty potent spellcaster with some unique abilities and a unique hero, but her starting position kind of blows. Aranessa has a cool starting position (though not as rad as Noctilus), but is a living person so she doesn't get vampiric regeneration, or necromancy, or even a cool mount like the others. Thematically this is my favorite DLC, but I think it's a weaker overall package than the Tomb Kings.
3) The Prophet and the Warlock. Ikit Claw is a fucking radical mad scientist ratman with power armor and a flamethrower that can build nuclear armaments to utilize against the fucking renaissance era enemies you're fighting. Also he comes with gattling guns, snipers, and motorcycles. Tehenhauin is a much weaker package, but is still pretty rad (and they've done some buffing for him) but that's kind of a common theme with the lord packs, so I think this is still the best. Tehenhaiun is also kind of a challenge campaign where as Ikit just kind of crushes the competition. Also he does come with triceratops that can call down orbital lasers.
4) The Hunter and the Beast. Despite being a lord pack, this adds the Empire for the first game to the second, and also completely changes their campaign gameplay. Wulfhart has a real fun campaign where you recruit a fucking D&D party to help the empire's fledgling colony survive, and has some fairly unique mechanics in terms of recruitment. Nakai is a horde faction for Lizardmen, but once again his campaign needed a bit more time in the oven. It's not bad, but it's very simplistic. You do get a giant fuck off crocodile and a bunch of crocodile men though, so once again, kind of rad.
5) The Queen and the Crone. Alarielle is a strong addition, she is a powerful support spellcaster and offers a unique start position on Ulthuan that's a bit more challenging than Tyrion's. She has to try and keep Ulthuan free of non-elves and is weakened by corruption, being the incarnation of the elven nature goddess. She also gets access to the Wood Elves' treemen units, which are very fun, and she brings some very strong archers to the High Elves. Hellebron is the loser for this lord pack. She starts very close to Malekith, and while she has a unique mechanic there's no interesting choices you make with it, so it kind of becomes more of a tax. She does bring some nice units like sisters of slaughter, as well as the unique Doomfire Warlocks (cavalry with some spellcasting), and in combat she's very cool since she's an absolute blender that you can put on a manticore. It's just her campaign doesn't bring much to the table compared to just playing Malekith. Both these lords do suffer a bit in that they also released free lords that are quite competitive with them. You can get Alith Anar free for the high elves and he has a drastically unique and interesting campaign (he can ambush when attacking like Skaven and gets unique assassination missions), and for the Dark Elves Lohkir Felheart is free and he at least has a unique starting position and a mechanic that actually matters (When he takes a major port, he gets to recruit a Black Ark, sort of a floating pirate city that Dark Elves use to support their armies abroad).
6) The Shadow and the Blade: This DLC may honestly go higher on the list depending on what races you prefer. The Skaven side is once again amazing. You get Snikch, a badass ninja rat, a new type of spellcasting, and some fun new weapon teams, and Master Assassin Lords who are very cool. His campaign is also very unique, having a fun mechanic where you can dispatch Eshin characters on assignments for special effects and extra levels. The units of other skaven clans you can recruit are limited so at first so you need to make due with Eshin's ninja bullshit (which is much buffed under Snikch). This creates a very different playstyle than other Skaven, which is quite refreshing. On the other side, Malus has some unique mechanics (you start with two holdings, but can abandon one for buffs), but his main campaign mechanic is a bit half-baked and mainly serves to prevent you from using his big cool feature, being able to go super saiyan and become possessed by a demon. He does get some fairly rad new units, like Beastmasters and Gorgons, but overall I'm kind of waiting for them to make some changes to make his campaign more interesting. As is it feels deathly afraid of letting me use his cool bullshit.
Oh, also buying the first game sort of acts like a DLC for 2? Unlocks a new sandbox campaign mode with a gigantic map where you can use all the factions from both games. Some people prefer this mode, though personally I like the second game's more compact map.
Edit: Wrote this very quickly before work, so I went back and made some edits and added a bit in.
I can also try and keep an eye here in case people have questions. Though I should disclose, I’m not like an absolute amazing player, but I’ve been playing Total Warhammer enough that I’ve got a good understanding of the basics.
I consider myself a pretty die hard Total War guy, having owned pretty much every game since Rome (except Napoleon, somehow?) but I am not a multiplayer guy, and I am also pretty sure I'm actually trash at the game since I never play above normal difficulty and play Warhammer in particular on easy campaigns only because I feel like I'm straight up bad at the campaign management
So if anyone has any tips for someone who loves these games but is also a complete dingus, I'll take 'em
A lot of campaign management will honestly depend on which faction you're playing as, but there are some general suggestions I can probably give (aside from the ones that Iolo was kind enough to transpose).
Learning what factions you want to fight is a big thing. Like a lot of factions really don't wanna take on Dwarfs early. Thankfully in the game 2 map they're not particularly aggressive, but if you want to take their shit you need to make sure you have some strong armor-piercing units. High Elves are also generally pretty miserable to fight with a lot of factions, ESPECIALLY if they have a good economy, so unless you're driven by pure spite to do so (which I have been before to be fair) it's sometimes best to just ignore Ulthuan. Lizardmen can also be rough to fight early on with the factions that rely a lot on weak chaff (like Skaven or Tomb Kings) until you get their stronger specialized units.
Artillery and most monstrous units will let you skip building siege equipment when sieging a walled settlement. Depending on your faction this can be pretty vital. Like with Skaven, Poison Wind Mortars or Plagueclaw Catapults will soften up the enemies waiting on the walls pretty heavily so you can move in. Not to mention the utter slaughter the Vampire Coast can inflict with Queen Bess. Keep this in mind if your enemy has left their capital underdefended and you wanna move up and steal it quick.
Learn how your economy works for each faction. High Elves rely very heavily on trade, so you wanna be finding good reliable trade partners (once again, Tomb Kings are a good choice again, they'll probably respect your power, they tend to like trade partners, and you don't need to worry about them confederating) and taking buffs to your trade income. Dark Elves wanna take high-income provinces (ones with gold mines or landmarks that give a lot of money, like Hag Graef) and focus all their slaves there, and stop slaves from going to their other provinces, then work on collecting slaves. Particularly if you have a Black Ark nearby with the proper upgrades, Dark Elves can gain mass amounts of money and slaves by sacking settlements. Skaven economy was kind of brain-dead previously, but now you wanna set up under cities in high-income cities like Lothern, Naggarond, etc, and steal away that sweet delicious loot. Lizardmen don't have anything too crazy to boost their economy, but their lands tend to be dotted with a lot of high-value landmarks and natural resources. Vampire Coast wants to do the same as Skaven, and set up pirate coves in high-income ports (once again, Lothern and Naggarond are prime choices) and spend time setting up smaller pirate coves in ports you know are unlikely to really fight back. Tomb Kings... don't really have anything to make their economy too crazy, it's their big limiting factor, but they also don't have unit costs or upkeep.
Try to avoid going to war with too many factions at once unless you absolutely don't consider some factions a threat to you. Early on it really helps to focus on one enemy, eliminate them, then decide on a new enemy to focus on for expansion. Especially if you know some nice landmarks or resources you might want nearby. This is also why I advise against making defensive or military alliances. They'll just drag you into needless conflicts and occasionally snipe prime real-estate from you.
Be opportunistic. If you see someone leave their land undefended or getting pressed in by an enemy, and they're not like a hard ally or trade partner or anything like that, and it won't hurt you diplomatically... then take their shit.
There's often encounters in the ocean that can give you extra money and loot. Some can require a fight for the bulk of the money, so save before grabbing them until you learn how hard each type tends to be. You can either grab a small amount and run, or kill some enemies for experience and a heftier prize.
Take Route Marcher on pretty much every lord. Extra movement is super good. In fact, if you're having trouble with enemies fielding multiple armies against you, another good blue-line skill is lightning strike. It's kind of busted really, lets you isolate armies and prevent them from receiving reinforcements.
While we're talking skills, red-line skills are REAL good, especially if you know what your go-to units are. Like, yellow-line can be very fun, but red-line makes your army much stronger.
if you're new to the game, dwarfs and high elves are probably the two races that you should try first
Note that Dwarves (and Empire--though I wonder with the Hunter and the Beast DLC for 2, Vampire Counts, Greenskins, Bretonnians?) are only available if you own Total Warhammer 1, Total Warhammer 2 comes with 2 has High Elves, Dark Elves, Skaven, Lizardmen.
While I recommend only picking up factions you are personally interested in, those factions additional DLC seems like a must only because the AI won't hesitate to throw those units at you in the game which is honestly my biggest complaint when it comes to DLC.
It seems like a lot, but there is a bunch of Free DLC they've included that makes me not balk as much as I do against say Crusader Kings 2.
Got around to AC: Odyssey - Legacy of the First Blade. Well the first two chapters anyway.
I knew the kid was going to happen, and I remember the hullabaloo when the DLC first released. What I wasn't expecting was the absolute half-ass attempt at said railroad for Kassandra. Like, Darius' son just kind of looked like a kicked puppy most of the time, especially when he was talking about being around people he liked, and Kassandra either outright dismissed him or had some mealy-mouthed stuff about friendship. Like, the only time you can choose something remotely romantic or flirty is when the two dudes go to leave! There wasn't a single dialog option before that where there was an attempt at love (or even lust) that I noticed, which is the opposite of every other serious interaction in the base game.
+2
Options
Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
I'm terrible at videogames so my advice is always to download mods that make the game a little easier if you're finding it a bit daunting, and don't be afraid to play on lower difficulty settings to really get your feet on the ground if you wanna raise the difficulty later and at least get your fundamentals sound. Plus, playing on easier difficulties or with mods that give the player a little boost or whatever allows you to dig into a faction's tech and troop tree without making a massive time commitment, and without the worry of one bad battle or shitty turn screwing your whole campaign.
JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
I'm playing yet another XCOM 2 campaign before Chimera Squad comes out. It's still really, really good.
I'm doing a Commander-difficulty Honest Iron Man playthrough (I don't have the actual Iron Man option enabled, but I don't reload unless the interface doesn't do what I told it to.) I've just finished the first Retaliation mission and all my squaddies are still alive. However, I took my Ranger and Grenadier along despite the fact that they were tired, and now they both have a crippling fear of missed shots.
It's going to be a long, stupid road to getting the infirmary built.
+2
Options
Indie Winterdie KräheRudi Hurzlmeier (German, b. 1952)Registered Userregular
edited April 2020
hey ya'll, I want to talk a little about Disco Elysium
specifically, the implications of games in the context of its metanarrative
I know the game has had its "time in the spotlight" last year, as it were, but what can I say, it's still got me thinking about it
this is going to be a long and spoilery one, so be warned, ye who so clicketh here
before I lay out my theory, I gotta go through a few things
first of all, have any of you read David Eddings' Belgariad series? it's pretty shlocky 80s fantasy fiction, but it's near and dear to my heart as one of the series I discovered and veraciously read through in middle school. Key to the plot of these books are two cosmic consciousness', each representing a different destiny for the universe, playing a million year old game culminating in the actions of several main characters to determine the final outcome of reality
and that kept coming up for me throughout various points in Disco Elysium:
1) the entirely optional, entirely missable long-ass convo tree surrounding the board game you can buy at the book store and play against kim; the tactics you can use there to "win", being broadly socialistic communalism or capitalistic consumption, that each player could use whichever strategy they desired at any given time; and that the winner of the game was not measured through any on-the-board indicator, but rather through abstract "victory points" that can't be perceived within the game proper
2) the conversation with Noid, and his explanation of moralism as an equation to "make the number go higher", the pigs-and-wheat equation, to generate more people as units of labour
3) the conversation with the Pale stricken truck driver who ominously says she is not on "our side", but rather on "the antagonist's"
4) the videogame studio; and more specifically, the d&d analog it based itself on and the concept of 'welkins', elves basically - and how Harrier muses about different kinds of welkins before meeting his projection of Dolores
5) the text for the cabinet memories The Precarious World and Cleaning Out The Rooms
ok, so, now I've given the basic content locations, here's my thought
what if world of disco elysium isn't so much a world as it is
a campaign setting
but a competitive one
and the board itself is a way of keeping score
so, let's say there are two players - player one going "for" the world existing and player 2 going "against"
and the way the world gets to exist, or not, is through human conception of the world - its viability, the hope they have for tomorrow, that there's reason to be alive beyond the fear of death; to believe, abstractly or literally, that the sun will still rise in the morning, and that it will be worth it to see it rise
and the way the players interact with the world is through inserting avatars into it, quite literally like a ttrpg - with each isola basically being both a points marker for the "pro-world" player and a specific location for an "adventurer" to exist in the world; and the "pale" is the score of the other player, human despair and manifestation of perceived entropy, the longing for what is forever lost in the past through the mists of linear time and the denial of the possibility of the future, any future, to compare
but player 1, the "protagonist", isn't on the side of humanity - they're not sympathetic to us, they're not nice or kind or just, our human standards are another system they can use for their ends. we're a combo of units to be moved and a number to determine who wins.
so player 1 thinks "ok, this world is tough and challenging for humans; they don't know if they'll have enough food to make it through a bad winter. let's ensure that they do, and that'll be my path to winning!"
they know just a hero can't change the course of a species, so they spend centuries building up infrastructure, the concept of god and the framework of church and state through which the word of god can be enacted, and then they insert their key player, the Innocence Dolores Dei
now, let's hypothetically jump into player one's mind when they 'create this character': this is supposed to be big, right? the leader of world, the foundation of faith, their Big Play. So, why not make her OP? "yeah let's make everyone love her, and she's beautiful, and maybe even has magic powers??? or at least they think she does, and yeah she can have a husband so I can get her into court but I don't have to dump any stats into him once I get through that level cap"
basically a min-maxed character, an avatar made to look like us, but not quite. a welkin, and elf, a fable come to life, created to win a game. and it worked! a whole new isola sprang out of the Pale, brought on through faith and mental fortitude. maybe Dolores Dei could have secured the rest of reality, but player 1 miscalculated. "it should have been done by us!" yelled the man who killed her; player 1 discounted humanity's... humanity, the one we see so clearly in Harrier's struggles: the addictive and abusive nature of love, the struggle for and with agency. Dolores Dei dies, and with her the winning move is foiled
"FUCK", thinks player 1, ferociously angry. "I didn't even see that shit coming! well fuck this then, they don't want divine guidance, they don't get it anymore." And there are no more Innocences that are truly 'divinely' inspired, the role remains but hollowed of its purpose.
player 1 is still in the game though. "ok, so that failed but the principle is sound. they want to do it on their own? I'll give it to them". fast forward through a few more centuries of prepping the ground and enter the second avatar Karl Marzov, the father of scientific communism
now, a side track for a second. I don't know if Dolores knew she was a puppet in a game, I don't know if Karl knew either. but they're both linked by their sudden appearance in the world during critical moments, much like we don't follow the ttrpg characters we make from the moment they're born, only from when they become relevant to the plot
and Karl tries to Do it himself - all for himself. no faith in higher power, in moralist values or godly words. it's all materialism, objective reality, empirical and repeatable - there's a reason it's Scientific communism he inspired
but working without faith is hard. monumentally so. When the world turns on you, when it feels like you're a child trying to fight the tide, when reality tells you the forces you're going against are too powerful, that to resist them successfully would be a miracle, it's hard to go on when the sky is empty, when the impossible is out of reach, when hope is unrealistic, inconceivable, unempirically proven. and so, in the midst of a counter-revolutionary siege, tied up in another endless meeting, Karl surrenders to despair and puts a bullet in his head. now both the system used by player 1 are spinning out of control, capitalism and communism alike, the equation continues to churn out pigs and wheat but not to derive an optimal result for the board, but rather those randomly in charge of the variables
"fucking hell", thinks player 1, "these fucking people. they don't want divine leadership, they can't handle scientific self-sufficiency. how the hell am I supposed to win using these tools?! what do they fucking want from me?!"
so they look down at the board, see everything they have to move around
and their eye focuses, and maybe for the first time, player 1 thinks
"maybe I should just ask them"
so they go around, looking at every piece they have, their possible utility, their usefulness - now they've tried a queen, that didn't work; and also one of the Rooks and that flunked too
so they focus on a Pawn
"hey, Pawn," says player 1, "what can you do?"
"me?" says the Pawn, "well, I can move like This, and take other pieces like That, and just at the start I can move like So, and also there's this thing called En Passant that no one understands-"
"yeah yeah yeah, sure," player 1 responds, "but what would you like to do?"
"like... to do?" the Pawn puzzles
"yeah. if you can move any way you want to, how would you win the game?"
"I... don't understand what you're talking about here, my man"
"look, you're here to get the big win for your side, right? hope for the future and all that. you're a Pawn, non of the big dogs are going to give you a second glance, you can get to all kinds of stuff right under their noses. and if you can reach the end of the board, you can do anything. So let's say you had your druthers, the world's your oyster - how would you like to move?"
"buddy, listen, you've got the wrong idea here" the Pawn says, "I'm a Pawn. I move the way I move, I act the way I act. It's the only way to act! The only way I CAN act! countless Pawns acted like this before, every other Pawn around me acts like that, every unit on every side knows I have to act like that! everything I know, everything that led me to this point, everything I am , means this is the only way I could, possibly, act!!"
player 1 pauses for a second, and says,
"well alright then, let's take that away for a while and see what happens"
"wha-" says the Pawn
and Harrier DuBois wakes up in a motel
Indie Winter on
+2
Options
Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
All these suckers using lockdown time to learn new skills and pursue dream projects. Today I spent 2 hours in Cities Skylines creating a replica of the park across my street. Now who's living a life of no regrets?
+25
Options
BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
All these suckers using lockdown time to learn new skills and pursue dream projects. Today I spent 2 hours in Cities Skylines creating a replica of the park across my street. Now who's living a life of no regrets?
Well, at the very least, you should share your creation to get Internet points.
"Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
+1
Options
BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
All these suckers using lockdown time to learn new skills and pursue dream projects. Today I spent 2 hours in Cities Skylines creating a replica of the park across my street. Now who's living a life of no regrets?
Games run nicely with (mostly) maxed settings at 1440p on this thing, I like it
It can't QUITE do 4K but maybe if I turned some stuff down it could - but at the same time, I can barely tell the difference between 1440p and 4k so I'm not too bothered by it
Posts
Like starting off a new game is sorta crazy if you've never played any XCOM stuff before. There are just so many things they introduce to you in terms of managing your squad, actually picking missions, getting supply, keeping the council happy, upgrading / defending the Avenger, being introduced to the Chosen, meeting the three new factions, new zombie missions, the need to research/interrogate aliens for tech, plus the alien ruler missions, all sorta happening at the same time and with not a whole lot of context for what you should be focusing on first.
oh fuck
fuck
thank god
If anyone else is eyeing Fort Triumph, it's 20% off ($20 USD) on Nuuvem for a Steam key.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Quick, Brolo, use your release date powers! Repost all the release dates now to lock the timeline down!
that game couldn't put forty people in the same area at once
I consider myself a pretty die hard Total War guy, having owned pretty much every game since Rome (except Napoleon, somehow?) but I am not a multiplayer guy, and I am also pretty sure I'm actually trash at the game since I never play above normal difficulty and play Warhammer in particular on easy campaigns only because I feel like I'm straight up bad at the campaign management
So if anyone has any tips for someone who loves these games but is also a complete dingus, I'll take 'em
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Some factions are atypical but this is the general thrust of the battlefield side of the game.
Micro is for cavalry and heroes. Otherwise, form your line, leave it alone, and watch for places where it is faltering. Keep some units in reserve.
When you see part of your line wavering, reinforce it with reserves, hit the strong units in the back with cavalry to take off the pressure or hit a weak unit in the back to rout it so that the units fighting them can reinforce the line elsewhere.
Artillery and archers are good, but they also hit your units when they collide. Leave them alone to take out the approaching army then use them to focus on major threats.
Send some cavalry behind enemy lines to harrass their archers and artillery. Expect them to do the same.
Use your heroes to bolster weak points, take on monsters, heal and cast damage spells, etc. Like cavalry, they should be focused on the weak parts of the line and target dangerous enemies like large monsters and enemy heroes and leaders.
Get to know what to expect from each faction. Learn which units are good at fighting large monsters, armored foes, stopping cavalry, etc. Use that knowledge to build specialized armies on the border with enemies.
Keep upgrading your army. While your units level up and some stay useful, you want to stay on the curve leading toward at least one army of endgame unit bolstered by cheaper armies of early game units. The ultimate point of your economy is to allow you to build and maintain this force.
Magic and hero abilities usually won’t win a battle for you, but it can turn the tide and allow weaker armies to beat stronger ones. Don’t depend on it but don’t forget about it either.
Sometimes you’ll meet a faction that just fucks you up (Skaven are good at this), and you need to figure out how to rebuild your army to counter them.
I always roll with at least two armies. The other factions usually do, as well.
I hope they don't because that entire aspect of the game was a broken mess in fallout 4
with ya so far
A lot of campaign management will honestly depend on which faction you're playing as, but there are some general suggestions I can probably give (aside from the ones that Iolo was kind enough to transpose).
Learning what factions you want to fight is a big thing. Like a lot of factions really don't wanna take on Dwarfs early. Thankfully in the game 2 map they're not particularly aggressive, but if you want to take their shit you need to make sure you have some strong armor-piercing units. High Elves are also generally pretty miserable to fight with a lot of factions, ESPECIALLY if they have a good economy, so unless you're driven by pure spite to do so (which I have been before to be fair) it's sometimes best to just ignore Ulthuan. Lizardmen can also be rough to fight early on with the factions that rely a lot on weak chaff (like Skaven or Tomb Kings) until you get their stronger specialized units.
Artillery and most monstrous units will let you skip building siege equipment when sieging a walled settlement. Depending on your faction this can be pretty vital. Like with Skaven, Poison Wind Mortars or Plagueclaw Catapults will soften up the enemies waiting on the walls pretty heavily so you can move in. Not to mention the utter slaughter the Vampire Coast can inflict with Queen Bess. Keep this in mind if your enemy has left their capital underdefended and you wanna move up and steal it quick.
Learn how your economy works for each faction. High Elves rely very heavily on trade, so you wanna be finding good reliable trade partners (once again, Tomb Kings are a good choice again, they'll probably respect your power, they tend to like trade partners, and you don't need to worry about them confederating) and taking buffs to your trade income. Dark Elves wanna take high-income provinces (ones with gold mines or landmarks that give a lot of money, like Hag Graef) and focus all their slaves there, and stop slaves from going to their other provinces, then work on collecting slaves. Particularly if you have a Black Ark nearby with the proper upgrades, Dark Elves can gain mass amounts of money and slaves by sacking settlements. Skaven economy was kind of brain-dead previously, but now you wanna set up under cities in high-income cities like Lothern, Naggarond, etc, and steal away that sweet delicious loot. Lizardmen don't have anything too crazy to boost their economy, but their lands tend to be dotted with a lot of high-value landmarks and natural resources. Vampire Coast wants to do the same as Skaven, and set up pirate coves in high-income ports (once again, Lothern and Naggarond are prime choices) and spend time setting up smaller pirate coves in ports you know are unlikely to really fight back. Tomb Kings... don't really have anything to make their economy too crazy, it's their big limiting factor, but they also don't have unit costs or upkeep.
Try to avoid going to war with too many factions at once unless you absolutely don't consider some factions a threat to you. Early on it really helps to focus on one enemy, eliminate them, then decide on a new enemy to focus on for expansion. Especially if you know some nice landmarks or resources you might want nearby. This is also why I advise against making defensive or military alliances. They'll just drag you into needless conflicts and occasionally snipe prime real-estate from you.
Be opportunistic. If you see someone leave their land undefended or getting pressed in by an enemy, and they're not like a hard ally or trade partner or anything like that, and it won't hurt you diplomatically... then take their shit.
There's often encounters in the ocean that can give you extra money and loot. Some can require a fight for the bulk of the money, so save before grabbing them until you learn how hard each type tends to be. You can either grab a small amount and run, or kill some enemies for experience and a heftier prize.
Take Route Marcher on pretty much every lord. Extra movement is super good. In fact, if you're having trouble with enemies fielding multiple armies against you, another good blue-line skill is lightning strike. It's kind of busted really, lets you isolate armies and prevent them from receiving reinforcements.
While we're talking skills, red-line skills are REAL good, especially if you know what your go-to units are. Like, yellow-line can be very fun, but red-line makes your army much stronger.
Nine years.
where did the time go
Time doesn't stop for anyone and if you ask me that's really rude.
Note that Dwarves (and Empire--though I wonder with the Hunter and the Beast DLC for 2, Vampire Counts, Greenskins, Bretonnians?) are only available if you own Total Warhammer 1, Total Warhammer 2 comes with 2 has High Elves, Dark Elves, Skaven, Lizardmen.
DLC factions:
TW1: Chaos, Beastmen, Wood Elves, Norsca
TW2: Tomb Kings, Vampire Coast
While I recommend only picking up factions you are personally interested in, those factions additional DLC seems like a must only because the AI won't hesitate to throw those units at you in the game which is honestly my biggest complaint when it comes to DLC.
It seems like a lot, but there is a bunch of Free DLC they've included that makes me not balk as much as I do against say Crusader Kings 2.
That way, mate.
you remember harambe?
that was 2016 despite feeling like a fucking decade
I'm doing a Commander-difficulty Honest Iron Man playthrough (I don't have the actual Iron Man option enabled, but I don't reload unless the interface doesn't do what I told it to.) I've just finished the first Retaliation mission and all my squaddies are still alive. However, I took my Ranger and Grenadier along despite the fact that they were tired, and now they both have a crippling fear of missed shots.
It's going to be a long, stupid road to getting the infirmary built.
specifically, the implications of games in the context of its metanarrative
I know the game has had its "time in the spotlight" last year, as it were, but what can I say, it's still got me thinking about it
this is going to be a long and spoilery one, so be warned, ye who so clicketh here
first of all, have any of you read David Eddings' Belgariad series? it's pretty shlocky 80s fantasy fiction, but it's near and dear to my heart as one of the series I discovered and veraciously read through in middle school. Key to the plot of these books are two cosmic consciousness', each representing a different destiny for the universe, playing a million year old game culminating in the actions of several main characters to determine the final outcome of reality
and that kept coming up for me throughout various points in Disco Elysium:
1) the entirely optional, entirely missable long-ass convo tree surrounding the board game you can buy at the book store and play against kim; the tactics you can use there to "win", being broadly socialistic communalism or capitalistic consumption, that each player could use whichever strategy they desired at any given time; and that the winner of the game was not measured through any on-the-board indicator, but rather through abstract "victory points" that can't be perceived within the game proper
2) the conversation with Noid, and his explanation of moralism as an equation to "make the number go higher", the pigs-and-wheat equation, to generate more people as units of labour
3) the conversation with the Pale stricken truck driver who ominously says she is not on "our side", but rather on "the antagonist's"
4) the videogame studio; and more specifically, the d&d analog it based itself on and the concept of 'welkins', elves basically - and how Harrier muses about different kinds of welkins before meeting his projection of Dolores
5) the text for the cabinet memories The Precarious World and Cleaning Out The Rooms
ok, so, now I've given the basic content locations, here's my thought
what if world of disco elysium isn't so much a world as it is
a campaign setting
but a competitive one
and the board itself is a way of keeping score
so, let's say there are two players - player one going "for" the world existing and player 2 going "against"
and the way the world gets to exist, or not, is through human conception of the world - its viability, the hope they have for tomorrow, that there's reason to be alive beyond the fear of death; to believe, abstractly or literally, that the sun will still rise in the morning, and that it will be worth it to see it rise
and the way the players interact with the world is through inserting avatars into it, quite literally like a ttrpg - with each isola basically being both a points marker for the "pro-world" player and a specific location for an "adventurer" to exist in the world; and the "pale" is the score of the other player, human despair and manifestation of perceived entropy, the longing for what is forever lost in the past through the mists of linear time and the denial of the possibility of the future, any future, to compare
but player 1, the "protagonist", isn't on the side of humanity - they're not sympathetic to us, they're not nice or kind or just, our human standards are another system they can use for their ends. we're a combo of units to be moved and a number to determine who wins.
so player 1 thinks "ok, this world is tough and challenging for humans; they don't know if they'll have enough food to make it through a bad winter. let's ensure that they do, and that'll be my path to winning!"
they know just a hero can't change the course of a species, so they spend centuries building up infrastructure, the concept of god and the framework of church and state through which the word of god can be enacted, and then they insert their key player, the Innocence Dolores Dei
now, let's hypothetically jump into player one's mind when they 'create this character': this is supposed to be big, right? the leader of world, the foundation of faith, their Big Play. So, why not make her OP? "yeah let's make everyone love her, and she's beautiful, and maybe even has magic powers??? or at least they think she does, and yeah she can have a husband so I can get her into court but I don't have to dump any stats into him once I get through that level cap"
basically a min-maxed character, an avatar made to look like us, but not quite. a welkin, and elf, a fable come to life, created to win a game. and it worked! a whole new isola sprang out of the Pale, brought on through faith and mental fortitude. maybe Dolores Dei could have secured the rest of reality, but player 1 miscalculated. "it should have been done by us!" yelled the man who killed her; player 1 discounted humanity's... humanity, the one we see so clearly in Harrier's struggles: the addictive and abusive nature of love, the struggle for and with agency. Dolores Dei dies, and with her the winning move is foiled
"FUCK", thinks player 1, ferociously angry. "I didn't even see that shit coming! well fuck this then, they don't want divine guidance, they don't get it anymore." And there are no more Innocences that are truly 'divinely' inspired, the role remains but hollowed of its purpose.
player 1 is still in the game though. "ok, so that failed but the principle is sound. they want to do it on their own? I'll give it to them". fast forward through a few more centuries of prepping the ground and enter the second avatar Karl Marzov, the father of scientific communism
now, a side track for a second. I don't know if Dolores knew she was a puppet in a game, I don't know if Karl knew either. but they're both linked by their sudden appearance in the world during critical moments, much like we don't follow the ttrpg characters we make from the moment they're born, only from when they become relevant to the plot
and Karl tries to Do it himself - all for himself. no faith in higher power, in moralist values or godly words. it's all materialism, objective reality, empirical and repeatable - there's a reason it's Scientific communism he inspired
but working without faith is hard. monumentally so. When the world turns on you, when it feels like you're a child trying to fight the tide, when reality tells you the forces you're going against are too powerful, that to resist them successfully would be a miracle, it's hard to go on when the sky is empty, when the impossible is out of reach, when hope is unrealistic, inconceivable, unempirically proven. and so, in the midst of a counter-revolutionary siege, tied up in another endless meeting, Karl surrenders to despair and puts a bullet in his head. now both the system used by player 1 are spinning out of control, capitalism and communism alike, the equation continues to churn out pigs and wheat but not to derive an optimal result for the board, but rather those randomly in charge of the variables
"fucking hell", thinks player 1, "these fucking people. they don't want divine leadership, they can't handle scientific self-sufficiency. how the hell am I supposed to win using these tools?! what do they fucking want from me?!"
so they look down at the board, see everything they have to move around
and their eye focuses, and maybe for the first time, player 1 thinks
"maybe I should just ask them"
so they go around, looking at every piece they have, their possible utility, their usefulness - now they've tried a queen, that didn't work; and also one of the Rooks and that flunked too
so they focus on a Pawn
"hey, Pawn," says player 1, "what can you do?"
"me?" says the Pawn, "well, I can move like This, and take other pieces like That, and just at the start I can move like So, and also there's this thing called En Passant that no one understands-"
"yeah yeah yeah, sure," player 1 responds, "but what would you like to do?"
"like... to do?" the Pawn puzzles
"yeah. if you can move any way you want to, how would you win the game?"
"I... don't understand what you're talking about here, my man"
"look, you're here to get the big win for your side, right? hope for the future and all that. you're a Pawn, non of the big dogs are going to give you a second glance, you can get to all kinds of stuff right under their noses. and if you can reach the end of the board, you can do anything. So let's say you had your druthers, the world's your oyster - how would you like to move?"
"buddy, listen, you've got the wrong idea here" the Pawn says, "I'm a Pawn. I move the way I move, I act the way I act. It's the only way to act! The only way I CAN act! countless Pawns acted like this before, every other Pawn around me acts like that, every unit on every side knows I have to act like that! everything I know, everything that led me to this point, everything I am , means this is the only way I could, possibly, act!!"
player 1 pauses for a second, and says,
"well alright then, let's take that away for a while and see what happens"
"wha-" says the Pawn
and Harrier DuBois wakes up in a motel
man I didn't think this level of modding and crazy shit was possible in cities skyines
but this guy is really going for it
Well, at the very least, you should share your creation to get Internet points.
Thankyou for the help Mecha Junkan
PSN: Robo_Wizard1
Yeah it’s pretty embarrassing
They look like they were made to populate the stands of a next-gen podracing game.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
Games run nicely with (mostly) maxed settings at 1440p on this thing, I like it
It can't QUITE do 4K but maybe if I turned some stuff down it could - but at the same time, I can barely tell the difference between 1440p and 4k so I'm not too bothered by it