Warhammer Total War: Warhammer 2

[Great Deceiver]

How does this compare to TWW1?

 

[Ventidius]

How does this compare to TWW1?

I think it boils down to whether you prefer the Vortex victory condition and its concomitant ritual mechanic, or the Chaos invasion at the end. I personally prefer the new mechanic. Chaos felt a lot like a rehash of the Mongol invasion from M2TW (mechanically speaking, and leaving aside how lore-appropiate it was).

In general, I appreciate that CA tries to add challenge to their games through endgame crises, but it often does it in a wrong-headed way that feels disconnected from how you played the campaign and really feels like the game just punishes you for winning in a very crude manner (throwing doomstacks at you).

On the other hand, the Vortex mechanic plays out in a way that feels organically embedded in the campaign: there is no single endgame crisis (though there is The Final Battle, which is more like a climax), but rather a competitive race between the major factions to control the Vortex, that goes through many mini-crises (the rituals) that get progressively harder, and more importantly, the factions can sabotage each other's rituals through the intervention mechanic. This means that the way you handle the campaign and its pace have a direct effect on how you are able to handle the endgame beyond simply being prepared with your own doomstacks. In a sense it reminds me of the RTW endgame crisis, which, leaving aside how retarded the color-coded Roman factions were historically speaking, was probably the best done crisis in the series gameplay-wise, since at least it was a sort of competition between the Roman factions and how efficient you were in your conquests had an effect on how easy or hard the endgame would be.

Of course, the downside to this is that it arguably makes the campaign more railroaded, which IMO it does, however, that is the price you pay for a more challenging strategic layer, which also translates into a more challenging tactical layer BTW as the odds will not be in your favor as often as they'd be if you were left alone to snowball as you saw fit (see: Empire). That said, you can win the old-fashioned way by conquering provinces and taking out the other Legendary Lords, but considering how large the map is, that seems impractical.

 

[Ventidius]

I do have a complaint though, and that is that the spawn locations of the Chaos forces that attack you while you perform the rituals seem to be unpredictable. Intuitively, one might think they will simply spawn close to ritual cities, but when I garrison them well with one of my armies, they spawn elsewhere.

This is rather annoying when it is time to prepare your positioning for a ritual, and especially if you have built a large empire and it takes you a few turns to move your troops from one end to the other. Perhaps this is meant to encourage Wall upgrades, as they become quite powerful in higher level settlements.

 

[Raghar]

How does this compare to TWW1?

They made siege combat even worse. Now there are weird blind spots so an army with artillery can shoot at impunity, and they added hero into default garrison. Which basically feel very unrealistic, how can they have SOOOO many heroes? And when a leader of a garrison was just a part of strongest infantry unit, it felt kickass.

From what I seen on video, Skaven don't feel very Skaven.
1. theirs warmashines don't explode spontaneously.
2. there is no simulation of Skaven backstabbing politic.
3. they made wrong Skaven rattle speech.
4. No RATtling guns.
5. 13 spell was nerfed.
6. they don't simulate Lizardmen populations, thus the whole bubonicus attack at west feels lackluster.

WH2 feels empty with only 4 races and 8 starting positions and leaders.

Actually I have an additional complain. Campaigns in WH2 feel extremely easy, with possible exception of HE. That's difficulty level asian. Perhaps they would correct in in patches or expansions.

 

[Fedora Master]

Two or three Shades can shoot apart a unit of ASPIRING CHAMPIONS. Fuck me.

 

[Stavrophore]

If i liked rome total war/ medieval 2 total war would this one suit me? I disliked Rome 2 and Shogun.

 

[LizardWizard]

Dino auto-resolve in particular seems fucked. Overwhelming victories with a lord + the basic 5 lizard garrison against two full stacks Skaven

How does this compare to TWW1?

I think it boils down to whether you prefer the Vortex victory condition and its concomitant ritual mechanic, or the Chaos invasion at the end. I personally prefer the new mechanic. Chaos felt a lot like a rehash of the Mongol invasion from M2TW (mechanically speaking, and leaving aside how lore-appropiate it was).

In general, I appreciate that CA tries to add challenge to their games through endgame crises, but it often does it in a wrong-headed way that feels disconnected from how you played the campaign and really feels like the game just punishes you for winning in a very crude manner (throwing doomstacks at you).

Problem is nothing actually matters as you can just win the final battle and thus the campaign while completely ignoring the Vortex.

 

[Raghar]

If i liked rome total war/ medieval 2 total war would this one suit me? I disliked Rome 2 and Shogun.

How can you dislike Shogun 2? Either you liked WH 1, or you will not get into WH 2 as well.

 

[Stavrophore]

Either you liked WH 1

Haven't played either.

 

[janior]

using auto-resolve? lol why u even play these games

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

using auto-resolve? lol why u even play this games

The battles are a sort of novelty that wears off after a few unless your composition changes dramatically. They can be fun when you're up against a well matched army or even something stronger for challenge but holy shit they can take like an hour to complete which is absolutely ridiculous considering how many battles you fight throughout a campaign.

That said, the game outside of battles isn't particularly great either which is why I guess I end up abandoning all of my games a few hours in.

 

[Lone Wolf]

and they added hero into default garrison. Which basically feel very unrealistic, how can they have SOOOO many heroes? And when a leader of a garrison was just a part of strongest infantry unit, it felt kickass.

They added it because of player complaints about how easy besieging a settlement was.

2. there is no simulation of Skaven backstabbing politic.

Well, there is the loyalty mechanic.

4. No RATtling guns.

The missing Skryre units will be in a Skaven/Lizardmen lord pack DLC - probably the first DLC for TW2.

Campaigns in WH2 feel extremely easy, with possible exception of HE.

That's really strange, considering I'd put HE - by some distance - as #1 in terms of how easy the campaign is.

 

[Ventidius]

Dino auto-resolve in particular seems fucked. Overwhelming victories with a lord + the basic 5 lizard garrison against two full stacks Skaven

How does this compare to TWW1?

I think it boils down to whether you prefer the Vortex victory condition and its concomitant ritual mechanic, or the Chaos invasion at the end. I personally prefer the new mechanic. Chaos felt a lot like a rehash of the Mongol invasion from M2TW (mechanically speaking, and leaving aside how lore-appropiate it was).

In general, I appreciate that CA tries to add challenge to their games through endgame crises, but it often does it in a wrong-headed way that feels disconnected from how you played the campaign and really feels like the game just punishes you for winning in a very crude manner (throwing doomstacks at you).

Problem is nothing actually matters as you can just win the final battle and thus the campaign while completely ignoring the Vortex.

Yeah, I suppose CA were reluctant to go all the way with the mechanic, as they knew a lot of people play these games for the sandbox element. That said, I believe winning the final battle only prevents the defeated faction from winning, it doesn't result in campaign victory, does it? From what I have seen, you have to fulfill either the Domination clause or the Vortex clause to win.

 

[fantadomat]

using auto-resolve? lol why u even play this games

The battles are a sort of novelty that wears off after a few unless your composition changes dramatically. They can be fun when you're up against a well matched army or even something stronger for challenge but holy shit they can take like an hour to complete which is absolutely ridiculous considering how many battles you fight throughout a campaign.

That said, the game outside of battles isn't particularly great either which is why I guess I end up abandoning all of my games a few hours in.

I fully agree with this statement.I couldn't even finish a whole campaign on the main game,and ended up deleting it.I did go for quick combat unless it was some major battle.The biggest problem for me was how long and boring the sieges were,and how boring the game is outside of combat.

 

[thesheeep]

In the first game's campaign I was able to finish the Empire, Wood Elves, Goblins (well, technically Orcs, but...) and almost the Van Carstein one.
But I burned out during the vampire campaign.
However, that was after more than 70 hours and I'm pretty sure I'll come back to play the others (except the horde ones, I have no interest without any buildings) at some point, so it was definitely worth the ~50 for the whole package.

What about difficulty statements in this one?
In the first game, it presented the Empire as the easiest but from my plays it was definitely the hardest by far - being under constant pressure from all sides non-stop and except late-game artillery you just don't have any particularly great units.

 

[fantadomat]

In the first game's campaign I was able to finish the Empire, Wood Elves, Goblins (well, technically Orcs, but...) and almost the Van Carstein one.
But I burned out during the vampire campaign.
However, that was after more than 70 hours and I'm pretty sure I'll come back to play the others (except the horde ones, I have no interest without any buildings) at some point, so it was definitely worth the ~50 for the whole package.

What about difficulty statements in this one?
In the first game, it presented the Empire as the easiest but from my plays it was definitely the hardest by far - being under constant pressure from all sides non-stop and except late-game artillery you just don't have any particularly great units.

I played with the Frenchy on normal and found it very boring.There was nothing to do really just expand and from time to time combine two armies to kill a chaos asshole.Diplomacy was fucked beyond believe and the ai was annoying.Also this:

 

[razvedchiki]

Is there any mod that removes the overpowered lords and their special abilities?just like they were in medieval 2.

 

[razvedchiki]

Link plz?

 

[Seethe]

I've played the shit out of this game over the last 24 hours, or so. Probably more than is healthy. Thank god for understanding wives...

Anyway, for those interested in having a crack:

The High Elves are easy mode with Tyrion. He starts in a very safe position, which lets you approach the campaign however you want to. The only enemies you have are those you decide to have, with the possible exception of Caledor. Ulthuan, once conquered/confederated is super wealthy and super defensible. Great starter faction.

Next down the list are the Lizardmen - Mazdamundi, in particular. His capital has gold deposits, which helps defuse the early game money squeeze. Around said capital you have a constellation of settlements (six, if I remember correctly) within 1-1.5 turns distance. Take your pick and have a good time, because things won't get hard for a while. That said, eventually there'll be some overstretch and the distances start to get onerous. You have to keep an eye on both the north and the south - and the latter will be a slog if the Skaven have been successful against the minors.

Skaven and Dark Elves are the more challenging factions to play. The former primarily due to their incredibly shitty initial troops and the extent to which auto-resolve isn't going to like you. The latter mainly because of an awkward starting position. Malekith, for example, is being nudged by the game to go west (Altar of Darkness etc) - but is way better off not getting tied down to a province that will need to have its hand held for a long, long time. Ghond or bust, in other words. And enemies are everywhere. The Mung/Aghol will come from the north, the east an the west, while Beastmen and even HE will be making house calls. Your fellow Druchii like you quite a lot, but you need to go to war with them early and often to secure an economic base. Oh, and I don't like the loyalty mechanic.

On the other hand, the DE roster is amazing. Darkshards are very nice (AP crossbows that don't need direct line of sight?), while Hydra + Black Dragon > Sun/Moon/Star Dragon, Giant Eagle and Frost/Fire Phoenix. And they've got two major advantages over the HE. Firstly, they've actually got AP cavalry (and very good AP cavalry, at that). Secondly, they've also got versatile medium infantry in Corsairs, Shades and Witches. While the top tier infantry are basically analogues of one another, there are about six DE infantry variants in that middle tier, compared with the HE's... White Lions of Chrace. That's it. Yes, you could count the Lothern Sea Guard (which I love, deeply), but they're essentially slightly upgraded Spearmen, who can shoot a bow. Only the White Lions qualify for that 70-90 armor medium infantry role on the HE roster.

The auto resolve bar is as broken as always. Not only are clanrats better than what they seem, you have Menace from Below, and for some reason that doesn't affect the auto-resolve bar. I've won countless battles as Skaven with losing only like 50-100 troops because all I did was to use Skrolk's Vermintide and the Menace from Below to soak up all the damage.

 

[Raghar]

Hellpit abomination is BUGGED. It acts as duelist instead of massacring indiscriminately everything around it.

 

[thesheeep]

Hellpit abomination is BUGGED. It acts as duelist instead of massacring indiscriminately everything around it.

It just has some honor.

 

[Raghar]

and they added hero into default garrison. Which basically feel very unrealistic, how can they have SOOOO many heroes? And when a leader of a garrison was just a part of strongest infantry unit, it felt kickass.

They added it because of player complaints about how easy besieging a settlement was.

So they added a lord to make defending theirs own settlement even easier. Without paying 800 gold as normally. And killing suspension of disbelief by not making heroes rare.

2. there is no simulation of Skaven backstabbing politic.

Well, there is the loyalty mechanic.

As opposed by simulating all these agreement, underhanded behavior, and various cowardice that screws the main leader...
Stuff like interaction between Skaven and rest of the world, not all interaction was harmful. Well Skaven might use it for theirs goals, but it helped other species immensely as well.

Remember Skaven that's not coward is extremely rare, perhaps only majority of council 13 AND surprisingly Queek Headtaker. Who is somehow a weird island of honesty in the middle of Skavens. He's interested more in killing his opponents than backstabbing, and who backstabs him is dead. Well ultimately it works well together.
Basically there are about 15 honest being in whole Skaven kingdom, at least when you count these in lead.


The worse thing is they didn't bothered even with Attila system.

4. No RATtling guns.

The missing Skryre units will be in a Skaven/Lizardmen lord pack DLC - probably the first DLC for TW2.

With or without a weapon of mass destruction threatening to blow up whole old world?

Campaigns in WH2 feel extremely easy, with possible exception of HE.

That's really strange, considering I'd put HE - by some distance - as #1 in terms of how easy the campaign is.

That depends if Norsca kills your trading partners, and if someone besieges your capital. Then income is MUCH lower and you'd be quite hard pressed to accomplish anything.

 

[bonescraper]

I quit this goddamn game.

I started the third ritual, or whatever it's called. Some chaos spawned, ok. Then, one turn later a full goddamn stack of Lizardmen (who i almost annihitated) and High Elves (who are being invaded by Malekith) just appear out of nowhere right in front of my capital. I'm pretty sure those armies didn't even exist before. Fuck this gay earth. Jesus fuck, how can you put this kind of shit in your game? I mean, i can fucking kill them, but this is bullshit.

 

[Dwarvophile]

Yes, this teleporting mercenary or chaos spawn whatever thing right on your doorstep is stupid. Why not instead make a crusade systeml like in M2TW and let the players and AI set proper expeditions. Well, maybe because it would require the player to use his brain and the AI to actually have one????

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Agree 100%. The game also still has this infuriating strategic "AI" where one of your allies asks you to join war against some random beastmen herd and when you accept, the only stack of said herd immediately beelines for your nearest undefended settlement from across the entire map while ignoring and being ignored by everything else just to burn it and then starts playing cat and mouse with your armies for no fucking reason. The game has some quality of life improvements over TW1, but the "strategic" layer is yet again complete shambles that's in no way fun and just drags the entire game down.