Warhammer Total War: Warhammer 2

[MediantSamuel]

Mortal Empires map + start pos:

Shame they gutted the fuck out of Lustria & the Southlands. When CA promised a huge map spanning the Old & New Worlds I was expecting a bit more than this..

 

[kris]

Mortal Empires map + start pos:

Shame they gutted the fuck out of Lustria & the Southlands. When CA promised a huge map spanning the Old & New Worlds I was expecting a bit more than this..

The problem is that the old world is so shock full of factions, but comparably in small size. i see no Norsca on that map.

 

[kris]

I did play WH:TW 2 a bit, but I wasn't in favour of it in my two short starts. I might just be tired of it and the factions didn't draw me in enough.

 

[Lone Wolf]

They said some time ago that Norsca won't be in the initial release of ME. It will come in a patch a short while later.

 

[Maculo]

Finished Teclis, the final battle is...meh. I enjoyed the lead up, although I wish there was more pressure to finish the Vortex. Once you figure out where the Chaos Spawn appear, you can lock it down easily. Perhaps in addition to the spawning Chaos stacks, all the rogue armies and Norsca factions get a boost. At least on normal (that could be the reason), the rogue armies and norsca factions did nothing.

Started up a Morathi playthrough soon after, and she is surprisingly fun. She can give 45% upkeep reduction and the province nearby had a building that gives an additional 10% reduction. i have had good results pairing Motathi's debuff spell with the assassin or using power of darkness to feed my fire sorceress. Plus, her province alone produces 10k+ income with only 35% slave capacity last I checked.

One thing that pisses me off is how easily enemy agents can wound/assassinate my heroes. I had a level 6-7 noble wound my level 20+ Death hag and on the very next turn wound my level 30 Khainite assassin.

 

[Seethe]

Finished Teclis, the final battle is...meh. I enjoyed the lead up, although I wish there was more pressure to finish the Vortex. Once you figure out where the Chaos Spawn appear, you can lock it down easily. Perhaps in addition to the spawning Chaos stacks, all the rogue armies and Norsca factions get a boost. At least on normal (that could be the reason), the rogue armies and norsca factions did nothing.

Started up a Morathi playthrough soon after, and she is surprisingly fun. She can give 45% upkeep reduction and the province nearby had a building that gives an additional 10% reduction. i have had good results pairing Motathi's debuff spell with the assassin or using power of darkness to feed my fire sorceress. Plus, her province alone produces 10k+ income with only 35% slave capacity last I checked.

One thing that pisses me off is how easily enemy agents can wound/assassinate my heroes. I had a level 6-7 noble wound my level 20+ Death hag and on the very next turn wound my level 30 Khainite assassin.

Did you play the first one? They could do that to your fucking lords, not just heroes. Thank god they removed that. I killed Sigvad with a Damsel as Bretonnia, and the Chaos invasion ended.


P.S: Yeah it's a shame they gutted the map, but it's still ginormous. On the other hand, the naval battle + autoresolve shenanigans are so bullshit I'm glad they removed a lot of the water.

Other than the Warhammer setting it's all been done before and far better. I don't think the addition of naval battles (since Empire) added anything worthy of note - if anything they remind me of the floating bathtubs from Age of Empires 3.

All? You mean like magic, flying units, large/monster units, items, unit variety and factions that aren't the same copy pasted/crap over and over again? No, not all. Also unit replenishment is not a really Warhammer thing, because it was in Attila as well last I checked. I have no idea when they added replenishment, probably Rome 2, but definitely not Warhammer. I agree though, replenishment is shit. Warhammer sieges are also unbelievably retarded.

They should make treasure hunting on land not shit, and treasure hunting on water more various, and that's also another good extra thing compared to the previous installments.

 

[mwnn85]

Other than the Warhammer setting it's all been done before and far better. I don't think the addition of naval battles (since Empire) added anything worthy of note - if anything they remind me of the floating bathtubs from Age of Empires 3.

All? You mean like magic, flying units, large/monster units, items, unit variety and factions that aren't the same copy pasted/crap over and over again? No, not all.
Also unit replenishment is not a really Warhammer thing, because it was in Attila as well last I checked. I have no idea when they added replenishment, probably Rome 2, but definitely not Warhammer. I agree though, replenishment is shit. Warhammer sieges are also unbelievably retarded.

I admit you've got lots of Warhammer fluff to play with.
As far as flying units are concerned I ultimately use them just as you would any other cavalry unit, hitting into a flank.
I didn't feel as though I had to fight the battles in a radically different way from the earlier games.

(Free) Auto replenishment got added in Napoleon Total War.
Empire Total War allowed you to retrain units outside of cities for a cost - it'd take a turn or two for the replacements to arrive but they didn't appear on the map.
I think units still had to be retrained in a city in Medieval 2 (?)

Sieges haven't really improved in any significant way since Medieval 2.
I've always thought that counter-siege battles should be fought on the city map - with the defenders having to come out.

But really the thing what annoys me the most about the newer titles is chasing down half stacks on the 3D strategy map.
I think if you kill the general (or most of the general's unit) and the majority of his force in a battle - the stack should disappear.
The depleted armies have the annoying tendency to keep retreating right across the map.
I have to chase them about - benny hill style - to stop them from raiding, etc.
This is where Shogun & Medieval had the edge - the stacks would be pushed into an adjacent tile or outright destroyed.
Shogun 1 can be extremely difficult when several ronin stacks link up together.

 

[Maculo]

Finished Teclis, the final battle is...meh. I enjoyed the lead up, although I wish there was more pressure to finish the Vortex. Once you figure out where the Chaos Spawn appear, you can lock it down easily. Perhaps in addition to the spawning Chaos stacks, all the rogue armies and Norsca factions get a boost. At least on normal (that could be the reason), the rogue armies and norsca factions did nothing.

Started up a Morathi playthrough soon after, and she is surprisingly fun. She can give 45% upkeep reduction and the province nearby had a building that gives an additional 10% reduction. i have had good results pairing Motathi's debuff spell with the assassin or using power of darkness to feed my fire sorceress. Plus, her province alone produces 10k+ income with only 35% slave capacity last I checked.

One thing that pisses me off is how easily enemy agents can wound/assassinate my heroes. I had a level 6-7 noble wound my level 20+ Death hag and on the very next turn wound my level 30 Khainite assassin.

Did you play the first one? They could do that to your fucking lords, not just heroes. Thank god they removed that. I killed Sigvad with a Damsel as Bretonnia, and the Chaos invasion ended.


P.S: Yeah it's a shame they gutted the map, but it's still ginormous. On the other hand, the naval battle + autoresolve shenanigans are so bullshit I'm glad they removed a lot of the water.

Other than the Warhammer setting it's all been done before and far better. I don't think the addition of naval battles (since Empire) added anything worthy of note - if anything they remind me of the floating bathtubs from Age of Empires 3.

All? You mean like magic, flying units, large/monster units, items, unit variety and factions that aren't the same copy pasted/crap over and over again? No, not all. Also unit replenishment is not a really Warhammer thing, because it was in Attila as well last I checked. I have no idea when they added replenishment, probably Rome 2, but definitely not Warhammer. I agree though, replenishment is shit. Warhammer sieges are also unbelievably retarded.

They should make treasure hunting on land not shit, and treasure hunting on water more various, and that's also another good extra thing compared to the previous installments.

I do not remember it being that bad though. Or, I am just having a streak of bad luck. In the first game, I remember assassinations getting harder as lords/heroes leveled up, especially if it was a low level hero against a near max level hero/lord. In this game, I have lowbie heroes wounding my lords/heroes, destroying walls, and assaulting garrisons all over the place.

Total Warhammer 2 has some nice ideas, but they could have gone farther with some, such as the chaos spawn or the treasure hunts.

 

[Raghar]

I forgot to post this 2 months ago.

Of course it's old version, but you can see provinces.

 

[Brinko]

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/mortal-empires-patch-notes

New patch notes for Mortal Empires. Disappointed the foundational update for older Legendary characters didn't get in and CA's "later in a follow up patch" doesn't bring confidence since they only drop patches when new DLC hits.

 

[Blaine]

I'm tempted by the presence of skaven and lizardmen, but then I think back on Shogun II and Total Warhammer I and remember the campaign AI cheating so often and atrociously that it will, for example, transmogrify a lone scout that just passed into the fog of war into a large battle unit. Hell, I'm pretty sure I caught the AI awarding itself stacks for free—in TW:W, I distinctly recall leaving the vicinity of a faction's last remaining pissant village for two or three turns, then returning to find that it had suddenly miracled up not one but two sizable stacks, possibly from a genie in a lamp.

This ruins any possibility of anticipating your opponent's movements and/or meaningfully gauging their capabilities, since they can just award themselves shit for free in ways I can't even imagine or catalogue. Certainly doesn't mean you can't WIN, but then the campaign just becomes mindless busywork.

I'm not going to ask if the campaign AI cheats that badly in Total Warhammer II. I know it does, because it's been the same shit for at least the past handful of TW games.

 

[Fedora Master]

Shit's online, yo.

 

[Fedora Master]

I'm tempted by the presence of skaven and lizardmen, but then I think back on Shogun II and Total Warhammer I and remember the campaign AI cheating so often and atrociously that it will, for example, transmogrify a lone scout that just passed into the fog of war into a large battle unit. Hell, I'm pretty sure I caught the AI awarding itself stacks for free—in TW:W, I distinctly recall leaving the vicinity of a faction's last remaining pissant village for two or three turns, then returning to find that it had suddenly miracled up not one but two sizable stacks, possibly from a genie in a lamp.

This ruins any possibility of anticipating your opponent's movements and/or meaningfully gauging their capabilities, since they can just award themselves shit for free in ways I can't even imagine or catalogue. Certainly doesn't mean you can't WIN, but then the campaign just becomes mindless busywork.

I'm not going to ask if the campaign AI cheats that badly in Total Warhammer II. I know it does, because it's been the same shit for at least the past handful of TW games.

It cheats, yes, but it doesn't upgrade stacks anymore. Partially because there are no straight "Yari Ashigaru -> Yari Samurai" upgrades.

e: You could always pirate it and see how you like it, it was cracked almost right after launch.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

"Doesn't upgrade" don't mean much when one-town factions can still raise and support a full stack or two.

 

[Blaine]

What about agent spam? That's ALWAYS been an issue.

The AI, with its hidden bonuses and the benefit of a computer processing unit capable of near-infinite micromanagement in place of the sluggish mushy human brain, can and will create 4,356,745 agents with which to endlessly peck away at all your shit. This never aggravated me as much as it did some people who post on the CA forums and elsewhere, but it was still annoying.

This same phenomenon can be seen in some space 4X games, wherein the AI will create dozens or hundreds of small fleets that zip around everywhere. Sheer tedium prevents human players from doing the same.

I'm just curious about this one.

 

[rashiakas]

Games still relatively easy and if the ai wouldnt recieve these bonuses there would be no difficulty at all. As for agent spam, I hate that as well, but at least that is easy fixable with a small mod.

 

[Blaine]

Games still relatively easy and if the ai wouldnt recieve these bonuses there would be no difficulty at all.

Yeah, but I've played many strategy games over the years, and TW far and away stands out as the cheatingest bastard of the lot.

On the other hand, does anyone know how the multiplayer works? It occurs to me I never bothered with it. Player vs. player vs. AI factions would be p. gud, and I know some people who might want to play.

 

[Maculo]

I'm tempted by the presence of skaven and lizardmen, but then I think back on Shogun II and Total Warhammer I and remember the campaign AI cheating so often and atrociously that it will, for example, transmogrify a lone scout that just passed into the fog of war into a large battle unit. Hell, I'm pretty sure I caught the AI awarding itself stacks for free—in TW:W, I distinctly recall leaving the vicinity of a faction's last remaining pissant village for two or three turns, then returning to find that it had suddenly miracled up not one but two sizable stacks, possibly from a genie in a lamp.

This ruins any possibility of anticipating your opponent's movements and/or meaningfully gauging their capabilities, since they can just award themselves shit for free in ways I can't even imagine or catalogue. Certainly doesn't mean you can't WIN, but then the campaign just becomes mindless busywork.

I'm not going to ask if the campaign AI cheats that badly in Total Warhammer II. I know it does, because it's been the same shit for at least the past handful of TW games.

I wouldn't say the AI cheats in terms of instantly upgrading mass stacked units, but it does cheat. Agent spam is still there, but it is limited to attacking your garrisons or wounding other agents (i.e., won't kill, but will leave agent unavailable for several turns). Also, while I hate to use "mods will fix it" because it is bullshit, there are variety of mods that remove or add quirks to the game, whether that be to stop certain AI cheats or change replenishment.

There is multiplayer, although I have not tried it. I typically play the Steel Faith Overhaul mod with each new release, which spices up the normal campaign enough for me.

 

[rashiakas]

Cheating is not as bad as you think I believe. It was way worse in rome2/shogun. The worst problem the game has is that the AI cant handle buildings and usually builds a random mix instead of specializing, thats probably why it recieves so much bonus gold and additional recruiting capabilities. This can be fixed as well with mods, the game gets much harder when the AI can recruit better units instead of building farms in every region.

As for multiplayer, I played a multiplayer campaign about a year ago and it was a mixed experience. The good: Battles are way more exciting, because both sides are played by a human if you choose so. You could also share units with your friend in coop mode, but we found that to be boring because wining vs the ai isn't that hard to begin with.

The bad: As the game progresses, turn times become rather lenghty and it can be incredibly boring if you have to wait 10 minutes each time just to press the end turn button. There is an option to set a turn timer, but we felt that was to restrictive at times.

Anyway, it was fun, but nothing I would want to do again. The campaign is way more fun in single player, we use skirmish for multiplayer and it is good fun.

 

[muds_animal_friend]

There's a huge, non-traversable, chunk of The Darklands on the Mortal Empires campaign map. Chaos Dwarves/Ogre Kingdoms DLC in the works? It's a lot of wasted space just sitting there at the moment.

 

[MediantSamuel]

I disagree with single player being the better choice but I suppose it all comes down to one's tastes. I've multiplayer-ed pretty much every TW game from Shogun 2 onwards and it's always been my preferred way of playing - probably makes me an outlier.

Planning your expansion with a bro & helping each other out in battles whilst shooting the breeze has always been more enjoyable for me than playing alone.

 

[Blaine]

Planning your expansion with a bro & helping each other out in battles whilst shooting the breeze has always been more enjoyable for me than playing alone.

Two players against AI opponents would be mega EZ-mode, though. Doesn't mean it wouldn't be fun, but you couldn't possibly lose unless you'd had your brain scooped out with a melon baller.

 

[Parabalus]

There's a huge, non-traversable, chunk of The Darklands on the Mortal Empires campaign map. Chaos Dwarves/Ogre Kingdoms DLC in the works? It's a lot of wasted space just sitting there at the moment.

The common wisdom is that CD/OK are going to be the TW:WH 3 factions, along with Daemons, since they can't really add them as DLC to TW:WH 2 (no place on the map). First DLC coming up is def Tomb Kings.

Games still relatively easy and if the ai wouldnt recieve these bonuses there would be no difficulty at all.

Yeah, but I've played many strategy games over the years, and TW far and away stands out as the cheatingest bastard of the lot.

On the other hand, does anyone know how the multiplayer works? It occurs to me I never bothered with it. Player vs. player vs. AI factions would be p. gud, and I know some people who might want to play.

There is a "functional" ladder for quick battles if that's your thing.

 

[Blaine]

At this point, yeah, I'm strongly considering skipping the campaign and just doing battles, since that's the fun part.

TW2 will go on my list of games to potentially buy either way.

 

[SmartCheetah]

If they will work on CD/OK in TW:WH3, there is a chance that Kislev will actually become a proper faction. All in all, it's next to it.
I wonder if they would even touch Tilea/Estalia/Araby and other human nations.