Total War: Warhammer

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GreenGoo
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by GreenGoo »

GreenGoo wrote: Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:13 pm 3) Instead of taking on the dwarfs directly, I've gone after one of the dwarf factions not confederated yet. They have the Black Mountains and the Vaults and then something farther south that I can't reach easily. I think there are 5 settlements in the Vaults/Black Mountains, and I've sacked and razed 3 of them with relative ease. The dwarfs faction did not get involved, so I'll seriously weaken a potential confederate target with little risk. I believe after I clear the Vaults/Black Mountains, they will have 3-4 settlements down south. I'll consider that a success.
Buggers confederated with the dwarfs while I was seiging 2 of their settlements. I was only waiting 1 or 2 turns to get a couple of siege towers to speed things up during battle. Plan is now to retreat and start chipping away at the Empire, assuming Dwarfs leave me alone.

I have no idea what Chaos looks like. There are a pile of Norsca factions that look Chaos-y, but I have yet to find the faction listed as Warriors of Chaos as seen in the diplo screen. Strength-wise, I'm #1, Dwarfs are #2, Wood Elves are #3 (so few settlements though) and Chaos is #4 now.

I have 100k in the bank and an income of 7500 or so. Hopefully it's enough when the time comes.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by Zenn7 »

GreenGoo wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2019 12:50 am Thanks for the input guys.

Looks like the current price is the cheapest TW:WHII has ever been.
Yes. I $25.99 from Humble over xmas - and that was w/ their 10% discount and a $1 credit.

As for the DLC, I think some of it may have got 60-66%, but for the most part, 50% is as cheap as it gets.

The different lords/heroes just let you start with a different lord/hero (you can see when you start a game that some of your factions have some different options for who the starting lord is which gives different start positions, different start units and different bonuses for the lords - maybe some other little differences). But overall, it's the factions are basically the same. Getting new factions can change things up. I bought the Wood Elves, didn't get far with them, but they are not out to fight Chaos like everyone else. They are trying to build a tree or something.

If you plan on playing tons, the different lords might be worth while (or at least the ones that go with the factions you enjoy the most). For myself, I thought the DLC's would be better. Warning - I've read bad things about the Chaos DLC (I'm to lazy to read through this whole thread right now, but there's a good chance I read it here as this is where I get the bulk of my game info) - very difficult in a not fun way faction. Research these things a bit before you buy them.

I should play TW:WH2. I did the tutorial, barely started 1 game, think I stopped after first or second turn. Problem is I am loving BattleTech too much right now! (It's a great problem to have!)
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Blackhawk
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by Blackhawk »

Just expect lots of armor and some nasty artillery.
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GreenGoo
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

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Blackhawk wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2019 1:39 am Just expect lots of armor and some nasty artillery.
I think Zenn is talking about the playable faction? Assuming there is one.

I've spotted the Chaos armies in the NE In Kislev territory, finally. I'm moving towards them now. I'll have to trespass and I will probably have to run in raid stance so Kislev is going to be pissed. I doubt they will be able to do anything about it though since Chaos is eating them. I'll rescue them (if I can) and eat them later. What's the point of the fire saving you from the frying pan? Well, the horse may learn to sing (how's that for confusing?), I guess. Probably not though.

I've recruited a 4th leader and started on his army. Things are getting expensive and I can't handle bribing everyone I want to, not even every second turn. I've put some money into Greenskins and another orc faction, and am keeping wissenburg happy. The Elves aren't too impressed. I've abandoned Estalia, as they seem unlikely to leave their province no matter how pissed they are at me.

Cash reserves are down to 85k and 5500 income and the 4th army isn't complete yet. Still though, assuming no one moves against me I should be able to smash Chaos if I can reach them. Most of my settlements are sporting walls/increased garrison, so I might be able to slow down anyone who tries to take advantage of my armies being out of position. We'll see.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by Freyland »

Fyi, I think 10 or maybe 15 thousand is the most I ever had in the bank. 85 to 100K is unfathomable to me. I do use overhaul mods, though. Anyways, that sort of money should give you some serious flexibility!

Maybe bribe Slaanesh to just call things off? A nice butt plug, perhaps?
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Blackhawk
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by Blackhawk »

GreenGoo wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2019 2:11 am
Blackhawk wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2019 1:39 am Just expect lots of armor and some nasty artillery.
I think Zenn is talking about the playable faction? Assuming there is one.
We near-simulposted. The reply was to you having not actually seen Chaos yet.
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NickAragua
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by NickAragua »

Freyland wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2019 3:27 am Fyi, I think 10 or maybe 15 thousand is the most I ever had in the bank. 85 to 100K is unfathomable to me.
Yeah, if I've got more than 10k in the bank at the end of a turn, it means I'm either a) saving up for some ultra-expensive structure or b) my armies just got crushed and I need to rebuild ASAP.

Re: Chaos
There are actually two different types of Chaos guys you'll be seeing coming out of the north: the actual Chaos guys, who are, as Blackhawk said, heavily armored badasses with a good amount of nasty artillery plus cavalry and fliers. They basically just move south and raze everything in their way. There are the various northmen, who do take over cities. They're a lot less tough than the chaos guys, at least their lower-tier units.

Just remember: Kill Achaon the Everchosen (or whoever the Chaos champion is) three times. That's it.
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Blackhawk
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

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Too bad you can't just bait a six-stack into the Dwarven lands.
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GreenGoo
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by GreenGoo »

There is a 3 stack of Chaos razing its way south. Took Mannfred in solo (army) using a lightning attack and while I won, I had almost nothing left. On Chaos' turn then wiped him. So I reloaded. I then brought in reinforcements which took forever (6+ turns) and used a banshee to slow 1 of the stacks down long enough that the other 2 stacks moved out of reinforcement range. I Brought in Mannfred (again, for the first time. Save scummed, remember) with Himmler to support, having booted most of my zombies and skeletons for Grave Guard or better. I got everyone down to about 50% before my reinforcements were close enough to fight, and then Chaos broke. They had already retreated once on the campaign map, so routing on the battlefield resulted in the army being wiped.

Huzzah.

2 more full Chaos armies left that I'm aware of. Probably more somewhere else. Wissenburg asked me to help with Talawhatever, so I'm going to grab Ostermark and build up some corruption buildings. Ostermark is 83% Vampire corruption, but Kislev is only 23%, and Chaos is in Kislev. I need to get some more corruption going asap. Plus, I'm down to about 2300 income and dropping lower as I bring online a 5th army. Admittedly one of those armies is almost pure skeletons who I didn't have the heart to disband, as they had some combat experience. Still, 4 armies if grave guards and higher is pretty solid still with a positive income.

So far so good.

Zombies and skeletons are *not* going to cut it as a front line against Chaos. Lesson learned.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

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The 2 Chaos armies have retreated to the North. I've moved into Southern and Eastern Oblast and am resettling. I realize this is risky as they will be back, and in greater numbers, plus my income is down to +500-2000 and I can't afford to start building entirely new settlements from the ground up. Well, I can afford it, just barely, but I'm down past 50K reserves and if I get pushed back and these settlements get razed, I'll have wasted thousands.

A lesser dwarf faction and a lesser ork faction have both asked for non-aggression pacts, which I've granted them, even at some expense to myself. I assume because of my good work against Chaos.

I also took a Talabecland settlement using nothing but zombies and skeletons, and 2 units of bats. Just to show my complete contempt for them.

Both my Banshees are lvl 20+. It's going to really suck if someone gets a lucky assassination off on one of them.

Anyway, the Vampires doggedly pursue Chaos northward.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

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Over extended, lost 2 main armies including Mannfred, and the zombie/skeleton army got destroyed by an Talabec army that should have been holding back Wissenburg.

When I lost the first army I was going to eat it and keep going. Now, save scum time. The first army lost was an epic battle for the ages. Was an amazing fight. 1 on 1 the main units of Chaos have the edge, and with it being 1 army vs 1 army, attrition was slowly grinding down my front line. I didn't have an answer for an elite cavalry unit of theirs, not even blood knights could stand up to them despite repeated cycling charges from 2 of mine. Those guys were tough, and only 24 in the unit.

I knew it was a risk and I knew I was over extending, but I didn't have a good feel for what the ai was like, so I risked it. reloading. Hopefully lesson learned.
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Max Peck
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by Max Peck »

When your heroes hit level 20+, that should unlock the immortality ability. Once they are immortal, anything that would normally kill them will wound them instead.
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GreenGoo
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

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Max Peck wrote: Sat Mar 16, 2019 2:50 pm When your heroes hit level 20+, that should unlock the immortality ability. Once they are immortal, anything that would normally kill them will wound them instead.
Ah, ok.

edit: Not seeing it on my lvl 22 Banshee. Nothing in the skill tree and no trait that I can tell.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by Blackhawk »

Also, if you haven't stumbled upon it (or figure it out), anti-large bonuses also apply against cavalry. I didn't grasp that for the longest time.

I'm enjoying these posts. I've wanted to play the undead, but I always rely heavily on three things in my strategies: Strong front lines, good missile units, and (to a lesser degree), artillery. The VCs are way outside my comfort zone. I should just set the sucker on easy and give it a try one of these days.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

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F**cking dwarfs declared war while Chaos is still rampaging. They must really hate blood suckers.

Here's the play. I have 2 full armies in range of 2 full Chaos armies. I have a few skeletons/1 zombie, but mostly upper tier. I'm going to lightning strike one of them. I should win with high attrition. After that I'm going to hit the other army with my second army. I should be in reinforcement range so whatever's left of my first army should be available. Not sure what will happen to the first Chaos army. Whatever happens there I'll have to retreat to help beat up on and defend from the dwarfs. Stupid dwarfs. We had a real chance to weaken Chaos, but they had to decide that second place wasn't good enough.

While that's happening, I'm moving 1.75 armies on the dwarfs. I'm going to raze a few Karaks and see if I can't get them to see things in a different light. I'm not holding out hope however. Grudges and all that.

edit: Didn't quite work. Mannfred kicked the hell out of the Chaos army but lost a unit of Blood knights to do it. My 2nd army couldn't get through the terrain to get at their second army. Physically they armies are almost touching. Game-wise, the terrain must be (almost) impassable, as it eats all my movement points before I can engage. :(

They counter attacked and Mannfred had to run for it. Now their leader has retreated and my leader has retreated, but they can reinforce closer than I can, so I have to pull back my 2nd army as well. Hurt him, but didn't finish him, now he just needs a couple of turns to replenish his units. :( Had their elite cavalry almost dead. Didn't an elite infantry squad. Almost dead is not dead, so I'll see them again soon. I did wipe out a couple of units of artillery. whoopee.
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Max Peck
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by Max Peck »

GreenGoo wrote: Sat Mar 16, 2019 3:24 pm
Max Peck wrote: Sat Mar 16, 2019 2:50 pm When your heroes hit level 20+, that should unlock the immortality ability. Once they are immortal, anything that would normally kill them will wound them instead.
Ah, ok.

edit: Not seeing it on my lvl 22 Banshee. Nothing in the skill tree and no trait that I can tell.
I keep forgetting that you're playing WH1 and I'm used to the WH2 mechanics. If you're not seeing it in the skill UI, that probably means that they added immortality in WH2.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by Freyland »

Don't disparage killing off those arty units. Very nasty, especially in auto calc. So you have helped the AI against chaos considerably.
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GreenGoo
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

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Max Peck wrote: Sat Mar 16, 2019 5:36 pm

I keep forgetting that you're playing WH1 and I'm used to the WH2 mechanics. If you're not seeing it in the skill UI, that probably means that they added immortality in WH2.
I figured it was something like that. No sweat.

The reason I'm less than enthusiastic about killing the artillery but not the elite units is that Artillery isn't a huge threat for any VC army with fliers, and if I had managed to kill the elite units they wouldn't regenerate for free over the next few turns.

I mean, I kinda wish Chaos would bring more artillery and less heavily armoured halberdiers, amongst other things.

Sacked a non-descript dwarf karak with barely any garrison. 20,000. :shock: Cha-ching.

There are campaign map movement rules I don't understand. I've been within 2 inches on an Chaos army for like 3, maybe 4 turns now, and while it moves just a little ways away, I can never engage it. We're talking a full movement bar (not in force march mode) and every time I try to engage in combat the army moves right up until both armies spheres of control overlap, but I can never quite reach the actual army. I don't get it. I've hit their army with a hero to slow them down repeatedly, and my army is unhindered, yet I can't reach them. I'm confused. And annoyed.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by Blackhawk »

You cannot enter an enemy's 'zone of control' unless you are making an attack action. IE, you have to actually click on the enemy and order an attack to move your unit into that zone. It allows armies to hold chokepoints without their enemies just walking past them.
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GreenGoo
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by GreenGoo »

Blackhawk wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2019 12:28 am You cannot enter an enemy's 'zone of control' unless you are making an attack action. IE, you have to actually click on the enemy and order an attack to move your unit into that zone. It allows armies to hold chokepoints without their enemies just walking past them.
Sure, but it's like the cost of moving the distance from the edge of their sphere of control to the army is triple the cost of just moving around on the same terrain outside the sphere. Like, I can literally move around the sphere to the opposite side of the enemy army, but if I try to engage, my movement points come up short and I end my movement at the edge of their sphere of control.

I don't really understand what's going on. I looked around the internet and anyone experiencing difficulty engaging enemies is usually missing something, like crossing a river, or difficult terrain or whatever. I'm not sure what's going on here.

I think I figured it out. It's a combination of rivers and rough terrain. 3 rivers (I could only see 1 when zoomed out, but zooming in I can see 3 river lines joining) join right there and they keep crossing one and I get stuck on the other side. Plus, the terrain seems to be extremely costly to move across. The combination is causing me some serious headaches. They have been able to avoid combat for 5+ turns doing this. Worse, they have rebuilt their armies completely, and have upgraded them too. They have more elite troops than before. I think I'm going to need at least a 1.5 to 1 advantage in numbers. Not sure I can pull it off, especially since I cannot pin these guys down due to the river/terrain dancing the ai is doing.

Grumpy making.

edit: No, something else is going on. All my movement points for 2 armies vanished after moving a few pixels towards the chaos armies. They are in raiding stance and are on a river's edge. When I tell them to cross, all their movement points disappear, BUT they don't actually cross. I could understand the crossing eating all their movement points, I guess, but in this case they move from a few pixels from the river to right next to the river, then stop. We're talking 7+ turns now trying to engage these armies in a 2 inch square area. I mean, we are literally right beside each other yet I cannot engage.

edit: Omfg. It's raiding stance that's the problem. Can you not engage while in raiding stance? I would have said I for sure have done so previously. In any case, moving into regular stance and suddenly no problem.
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GreenGoo
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by GreenGoo »

So, something strange happened. I don't remember the text, but it went something like this.

"Old world has survived Chaos. Something something, chaos retreated. Something, something, expect a new wave in the future. Something, something warherd of chaos is the wasteland".

Things that happened when this text arrived.

1) 1 of the 2 chaos armies ran back north and disappeared. They were still visible (i.e. not in the fog of war) when they disappeared. I don't know how Ambush works so maybe they entered Ambush stance?
2) 1 of the 2 chaos armies ran west. I had a quest to kill the leader of that army. Maybe it didn't disappear like the other because the quest existed? I don't know. I killed the leader then killed the army. No chaos armies are visible.
3) A new chaos faction is now visible on the diplo screen. Warherd of Chaos. The old chaos faction is still there. Warriors of Chaos. Both are ranked near the bottom of strength. Something like 26th and 25th respectively. So the old faction still exists and a new one has shown up.

Can someone explain to me what exactly is happening?

Dwarfs are raiding me to the south. They haven't attacked/sieged anything yet, but Grudgebearer is out and about. Which surprises me, because he's only got 1 army and he looks pretty vulnerable, even though his army looks tough as nails.

I have sacked another Karak. Another 19,000. $$$$ :shock:

The plan is to go south and kick Grudge's ass. Meanwhile I will continue razing Karaks to the east. So far the garrisons haven't been too bad, but the moment I find a reinforced garrison, I'm either going to stall or have to bypass it for a juicier target.

Hopefully Chaos takes awhile to regroup/build up. I'm still at war with Talabec but I'm not happy about it. Hopefully Wissenland keeps them busy.

I am not at war with Kislev, but I've been trespassing all over the place dealing with the Chaos infestation. They are unhappy. Worse, one of their settlements got razed, so I colonized it to see what the colonize mechanic was like. So now Southern Oblast is contested. I expect they will go to war to take it back. If I could do it all over again I would not colonize that settlement.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by GreenGoo »

I'm on turn 138.

Grudgebearer just attacked my weaker East Border Princes settlement. zero chance of stopping him. I wonder if he'll raze it? Probably.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by GreenGoo »

Ok, I seem to be having the event again. Here is the exact text.

Event:
Doom Time wrote: The Chaos horde has poured in, a remorseless tide scouring all in its path. Yet even the most savage flood must eventually recede, leaving battered survivors to pick through the flotsam of ravaged shores. "We are saved!" they cry, heedless of the fact that tides are certain in one respect, they will always rise again.

The old world has survived the onslaught, yet now another wave rolls forth from the accursed Chaos Wastelands.
It should be noted that I do not believe I have killed the Chaos dude even once, whatever his name. Everchoosened. (Edit: Grammar wasn't bad enough. Worsened it)
Last edited by GreenGoo on Sun Mar 17, 2019 5:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Freyland
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by Freyland »

Basically new wave of chaos.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by GreenGoo »

Freyland wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2019 5:16 pm Basically new wave of chaos.
Ok. Do I need to go North into the wastes to find the big baddie? I didn't see him in the South with any of the armies.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by Freyland »

Have you seen the cutscene where they introduce Archeon? That plays, and then three armies show up, one led by a badass demon.
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GreenGoo
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by GreenGoo »

Freyland wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2019 6:07 pm Have you seen the cutscene where they introduce Archeon? That plays, and then three armies show up, one led by a badass demon.
Nope. At least I don't think so.

Internet says he spawns after owning 30-40 settlements. I only have 16-18.

Never mind. Internet hasn't a f**king clue what it is talking about. I've seen at least 5 other assertions regarding what triggers what. All are different. None are corroborated.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

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A lot has happened since the last I updated. I'll try to be succinct. ish.

I went on a Kazak razing spree, killing almost every settlement that bordered on my lands.

Dwarfs sued for peace but I has sieging a nearby settlement so I refused. I killed it next turn then asked for peace. Dwarfs accepted. They were around 26-28 settlements when I started, they were down to 20ish but are back up to 22, although they haven't resettled anything, so I guess they took some land from the Greenskins? Greenskins have 1 settlement left and a few independent factions.

Chaos returned, wiping out my small settlement in Southern Oblast and killing the other two as well, kicking Kislev out of S.O.

They sieged a major settlement of mine (bechafen) in Ostermark but I managed to run all the way back there from the border princes and stop them. Meanwhile a new hostile faction arrived by boat in the south, Bjornlings. 3 armies, 1 of which was raiding me and 2 were on the south side of the river in Dwarf/Ork country. I declared war and killed the one on my side then swam across the river and laid siege to stonemine tower. They sued for peace and I gave it to them. The only reason I went to war in the first place is because I couldn't afford to leave hostile armies in my rear guard.

I realized that with 2 powerful armies I could auto-resolve vs. 1 chaos army and barely take any casualties. I immediately split the 2 chaos armies and kill both, back to back. The empire kills the one Chaos Warherd stack and now there aren't any Chaos below the north lands again?

The cut scene announcing Everchoosened occurs sometime earlier.

A new Doom Tide event pops up. More chaos coming I guess.

I'm going to reclaim Southern Oblast for myself as I bring up my rear guard armies to support the province. Meanwhile I will take Kemmler and Mannfred northward to seek out this so called champion. colonizing eats a HUGE chunk of your army and while I do have a throw away army filled with mostly zombies and skeletons, it's busy recruiting and far away. Besides the time required to replenish my armies, I'm worried that I'm killing the experience of each unit because they are losing so many individuals to colonization.

That's where I'm at right now. It's turn 158.

edit: Advanced banshee scouts have spotted the everchoosened. Advisor warns me to be prepared. Ok.

edit: Forgot to mention, while kicking Chaos' ass, multiple factions initiated diplo. I have a vassal up north through no action of my own, and most of the greenskin factions are my buds now. Vassal is about to get reamed. Nothing I can do about it.

edit: Bank: 95k Income: 2k Armies: 4 full stacks, none with skeletons or below. 1 full stack of skeletons and room to shuttle higher quality units to the battlefront.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by NickAragua »

Heh, thanks a lot, Goo, you got me all pumped up for this game again, so I went out and bought the Wood Elf DLC and Total Warhammer II while I was at it. Even went through the rigamarole of registering for the total war access so I could get the regiments of renown DLC.

I cranked through the Wood Elf mini-campaign over a period of... I don't know, started it late last week. It's... different. Most factions, you have your major/minor cities, can capture some subset of towns, and can build the same set of structures everywhere, barring a few special locations. With the wood elves, you can only have actual buildings within the big forest. You can capture anything outside the forest, but can only build little outposts with one building each - you get either a faction-wide bonus or the ability to reinforce outside the wood. There's also this "amber" resource, which you use to research certain technologies, put up high-end buildings and recruit high-end units.

Orion is a giant motherfucker who stomps all over everything in melee, but the rest of the elves ... well, actually it depends. You can either go with the fast maneuver warfare approach (if you have Orion as the faction leader) or the slow monstrous infantry approach (if you have the big tree guy as the faction leader). I put together an army of 4x infantry (plus the leader), 6x bows, 6x cavalry, 3x cavalry archers. They ride deer, for some reason. Because deer are well-known for their valor in battle.

The elves also have access to flying archers, which are freaking amazing.

The mini-campaign was depressing as all hell, I spent more time fighting other elves than Beastmen. At the end, we got into it with some vampires, but then I triggered the last battle vs a big, fat, level 30 beastman. It would have been a cakewalk, except the final boss and his chaos spawn escort have a timed shield that's on for 60 seconds then down for 20. My cavalry archers got trapped and mauled early on by some fast cavalry, but my regular archers camped out in a forest on top of a hill (above a cliff) and rained endless death on the incoming hordes of stinking beastmen, while my infantry and Orion held the line. The 6x cavalry were used to repeatedly charge enemy infantry in the rear.

By the end of it, my archers were all out of ammo, and every bad guy on the map had routed except for three lonely chaos spawn who happened to luck out and pop the shield after we routed the leader.

Now I'm trying to decide if I should go for a Mortal Empires playthrough with the wood elves or an Old World campaign. Or maybe switch it up and do some Lizardmen or something in II.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by Blackhawk »

I also just started the Wood Elves campaign (not the mini-campaign, though.) I went with Urthu (basically an Ent.) He has the amazing ability that his troops don't suffer from attrition - anywhere. Instead of elves, who have decent armor and leadership, but awful health, I went with Tree Kin for my front line. They're really, really tough, with the Forest Spirit trait that gives them resistance to physical attacks and damages their attackers. They don't anything for damage, but put archers behind them and they'd might as well be a steel wall.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by GreenGoo »

Spinning my wheels waiting for something to happen. Turn 181. This is on Normal.

Sent Chaos packing, including Everchoosened, but the Warherd is in Empire territory. I think they have to be defeated before the next Doom Tide will start, but I can't reach them without pissing off the Empire. We're going to have it out but I don't want to start something while Chaos is still a threat. That said, I did enter Kislev way back at the start of the Tide just to get at the bad guys. Difference is Kislev had at most 6 settlements. Right now Empire is ranked #2 behind me.

So I'm re-settling as far North as I can (all the Oblasts, maybe Troll territory?) and killing any Norsca settlements I can reach. They are pretty deep in there and moving in raiding stance is a pain, so I've just been eating the attrition. They want peace, but there is no peace to be had, particularly when they were the aggressors earlier.

100k in the bank and income has slowly been climbing as I spread north. Just under 8k a turn now. Probably time for another full stack army. Current armies come in around 5100-5500 upkeep. I'd like to wait until a special event or something that gives a few extra levels to new recruits.

That's it. Waiting on Chaos. Scouted the entire Chaos Wastelands looking for something, anything, with a banshee but it was barren.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by GreenGoo »

Lots of opinions on the 'net about how terrible Black Coaches are, but I love them for smashing apart infantry formations. Hit them with the coach first, then a blood knight, then do it again on another unit.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by GreenGoo »

Do trade goods do anything if you're not trading?
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by Freyland »

Not money-wise, other than being a building that makes money itself.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by GreenGoo »

Ok, thanks.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by GreenGoo »

Got tired of waiting for Chaos to do something so I attacked the Empire. Unfortunately their dwarf allies joined in, and 1 other faction. So far everyone has been real quiet though. I'm slowly encircling the empire and taking their provinces. They've already tried to sue for peace once. I recently defeated an Norsca army containing 10 elite(ish) units with 2 bats, 1 coach, 3 barding knights and 15 skeletons (2 warriors, 13 spears). When I write that out it doesn't seem so impressive, but I had to be constantly crashing into them from behind and the sides to get them to break. In the end I only lost 1 skeleton, but most of my units were at 50% or less by the end with many 25% or below, and several skeletons were crumbling pretty hard. Was fun.

I think something is wrong with the Chaos script. There are no Chaos to be seen, and the faction list only lists the Beastherdthingy of Chaos, which is ranked really low in terms of strength, and I have no idea where it is hiding. Not in my territory that's for sure. It has been 15-20 turns I think, since the last Chaos spawning.

Anyway, still sitting around 100k, income varies between 9-14k, depending on whether newly conquered provinces are revolting or not (i.e. I turn off taxation when things are looking bleak). Have 5 fully teched armies, and the 1 skeleton army mentioned above. I have enough income for 1 more full army, but I'm holding off since I suspect the "extra army tax" to be pretty extreme. I'm already paying over 3k a turn just for the privilege of having 6 leaders. I'm simply buying everything in every settlement, or at least all upgrades. Typically it's the settlement itself, then trade buildings (Estalia initiated a trade agreement! Huzzah), then wall/fortifications, then corruption buildings, then suppression buildings. As many at once as I can. At this point I don't even think about it, I just click everything.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by NickAragua »

Been plowing through the vortex campaign in TW2 with the high elves. I'm always reluctant to discard veteran lower-tier units for higher-end stuff, but I really should. For example, ditching tier-1 spearmen for phoenix guards and cavalry for dragon princes.

At this point, I've got control over all of Ulthuan (the big circular island where the elves hang out and act snooty), plus a good chunk of the northwestern landmass. Early on in the game, while I was consolidating control locally, some of the other elf factions made some pretty good headway into dark elf territory, giving me a solid beachhead. At this point, I've got three twenty-stacks in home territory to defend against the chaos spawns and interventions that show up when I kick off a ritual, and three twenty-stacks steamrolling the dark elves. It took me some time to realize that I could pop the "rite of Isha" to completely eliminate attrition due to terrain/weather effects. Once I did, I was able to move all three of my twenty stacks north, crush Malekith and his loser minions, and lay siege to Naggarond (which, if I turned the camera the wrong way, made my computer chug). On the plus side, it was worth 50k when I sacked it. Crazy.

Next time I play, I'm going to pop the final ritual. I'm actually considering delaying briefly so I can finish wiping out the dark elves and bring at least two more twenty-stacks home - the last time I popped a ritual, no less than six twenty stacks of chaos/skaven assholes, plus a twenty stack of lizardmen showed up.

I'm also really enjoying that they gave your armies something to do during the downtime: normally, you either have it parked in a city waiting for attacks or have it moving around. Now, you can sail around and explore shipwrecks, islands and leviathan corpses, grabbing treasure and fighting undead pirates. Also, the high elves' love of enslaving their captives means I can keep my "in-the-field" armies topped off without having to constantly stop and replenish. The other thing I like about the high elves is all the dragons and Phoenix units. The dragons breathe fire, which, if you line it up just right, can really do a number on densely packed infantry. The Phoenixes, uh, poop fire. Fly it over an infantry unit, in slow-mo, then let 'er rip. They can only do it ~10 times per battle, though, which is usually enough. But still, maybe I can have my armies carry some giant bird-sized fiber bars or something.

The alternate campaign objective is to eliminate all the other major factions conducting rituals - Skaven, Dark Elves, Lizardmen. That'll probably take longer than just popping the ritual and completing the final battle, whatever that is.

Also weird, the southern-type undead (egyptian-style mummies) all love my high elves for some reason and have very lucrative trade deals. Normally, elves and undead don't get along, but... I honestly don't even want to know what's being traded. The money's good, though. In fact, I have so much money coming in (~20k per turn) that I may just raise another couple of twenty-stacks for homeland defense.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by Freyland »

I'm continually stunned when I read about the exploits of others and the amount of cash you have. Disclaimer: I use the SFO Grimhammer II mod, including the sub-mod that reduces Army upkeep a little so I can actually afford more than one army!
The dwarves have pretty badass troops right out of the gate, and quite a few economy buildings, so the two main "balancers" seem to be troop cost and decreased looting. The former makes sense to me, as I imagine developing Throngs of a very slow-growing race that are *really* well-equipped would be quite costly, and I don't think the sub-mod reduces upkeep too much. As far as sacking and looting, that ends up being pants. Generally get offered 200-500 for razing something completely, the biggest I received (by turn 51) was I think 1300 for razing Akendorf (they had it coming). Prisoner release, when appropriate to consider, is probably twice as lucrative.
Generally speaking, as Dwarves still inextorably scouring the Badlands of Orkish scum, it is rare that I would want to raze or even sack something in the first place. Unless holding it would be a major liability, I am better off occupying and developing just so I can squeeze out a bit more income. Dwarves, in this mod at least, really make you decide between "guns or butter". To finish off my wandering train of thought, I think my greatest income rate by turn 50-something was just over 3000 (briefly), and my highest cash on hand was just over 10,000-- this was only because I was saving for a mission that required 10K, and I was gifted 6000 by the game for occupying a certain number of settlements. I then promptly lost 5000, per the mission requirements, and that has been the most money on hand that I can recall. I have 2 20-stack armies right now, and an 18-stack army. Plus I have two other Lords with no armies serving other purposes. My two full stacks are all Tier 1 troops, including a few catapults and miners with explosives, while my 18-stack is chock full of Longbeards (plus crossbows, exploidy-miners, and some catapults).

Totally unrelated note: The Empire, who was once the number 1 power, is in deep doo-doo. They were already struggling against Sylvania (whose innumerable undead have been succeeding against them as well as three dwarven factions), but somehow they managed to piss off the most powerful wood elf faction, become the focus of "Wintertooth" (who have swarmed out of the North to become an early apocalypse), as well as almighty Hochland. Hochland, you say? Who are they? Why, they are the normally small, Northern Empire faction just south of Kislev, and first to fall when Chaos rises. Not today! In my game, apparently they disapprove of their intended lot in life, and first all but eliminated Kislev, then another Empire faction or two, and then decided that it really should be one of them wielding Gaul Maraz. This looks pretty damn bleak! I can't even send one of my three armies to fight Vampires, because things are really still quite out of control in the Badlands. Its going to be a long game.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by NickAragua »

Don't get me wrong, I keep my actual "cash on hand" as close to zero as possible. If I'm starting to build up a surplus, it means I could be doing more construction or putting out another army. Money sitting in the bank means people aren't working. And, also, I have a nagging memory from the original Rome: TW, where, if you have too much money, your generals would start to acquire "corrupted" traits. Which means, in the long run, it's better to have as much money as possible "in circulation", so to speak.

The incredibly high income is due to the fact that I'm at the end-game and control probably about a quarter of the map, and have trade agreements with probably about a quarter of the remaining factions. Plus, high elves get a lot of buildings which give a "+X% to trade income (faction-wide)", which stacks up quite nicely.
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Re: Total War: Warhammer

Post by GreenGoo »

Just for closure, Chaos is defeated, the coast vampires survived somehow and now we're trading. I brought the Empire down to 1 settlement but had a quest needing to sack 3 cities, so I left them alive. Somehow they came back from the dead (not literally, although Carcassonne seems to have actually re-emerged from the dead) and are punishing the coast vampires with 3 full stacks of high tech units, so I'll have to put them down for good.

I'm razing the living hell out of the dwarfs. They are down from 33 settlements to 22. I decided to take out Karaz-a-Karak, so that slowed me down some. I did lose 1 unit (I try not to lose any. First unit lost in over 100 turns, I think) in a 2 army vs 2 army siege battle but I need to return to my lands to replenish my armies.

As far as I'm concerned, it's all over but the cleanup. Killing the dwarfs is a pretty arduous task, considering they are deep in the badlands and I can't colonize to give me a base of forward operations. Not sure I'll finish them off. They did raze 2 of my settlements which were highly developed, but in fairness all my settlements are highly developed and other than the loss of face, it didn't matter. On the plus side, I was able to use my garrison only to gut 1 of his armies and severely hurt the 2nd one. In fairness, my wall towers did a TON of the work for me. They still have a number of full stack armies, but they are so far from my raze-fest that it will be turns before they can do anything about it, if then.

There are only 2 Norsca tribes left, and they have been seriously hamstrung, with most settlements razed to the ground.

I'm building the magic college at Altdorf. I think there's an achievement for doing that as the Vampires. I built Kislev's palace because what else was I gonna do with the money?

Bank is at 250-300k, income is around 25k. Obviously I would spend earlier and more often in my next game, knowing now what I didn't know when I started. I have 8 or 9 full stack armies. I guess I could bring that up to 12-15, but I don't think I could bring myself to fight that many fights per turn. I could auto-resolve but then I'd lose units. I hate that.

The game has gone from tactical to grand strategy, even though my play style hasn't changed to match.

Votes on next faction I try out? I only have the base game plus free Bretonnia faction.
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