Warhammer Total War: Warhammer III

[thesheeep]

The basic tier 1 units are enough to win the game, unit caps don't tackle that because you can have an unlimited amount. If you haven't won the game by turn 15 with the vast majority of factions, you are doing something wrong.

Even on Easy, even if just talking about Short Victory (which is what I usually do) that's not even theoretically possible. I don't think there's a tightly enough settled area on the map even if you never stopped for recruiting/healing - but that, too, is impossible due to the game ending your movement if you occupy or raze.
Other than with Taurox, I think, and his movement thing after victory - but I feel like that was fixed/nerfed a while ago.

Or are we talking about some victory condition you just define for yourself to feel good about "winning" by turn 12?

 

[Lacrymas]

The basic tier 1 units are enough to win the game, unit caps don't tackle that because you can have an unlimited amount. If you haven't won the game by turn 15 with the vast majority of factions, you are doing something wrong.

Even on Easy, even if just talking about Short Victory (which is what I usually do) that's not even theoretically possible. I don't think there's a tightly enough settled area on the map even if you never stopped for recruiting/healing - but that, too, is impossible due to the game ending your movement if you occupy or raze.
Other than with Taurox, I think, and his movement thing after victory - but I feel like that was fixed/nerfed a while ago.

Or are we talking about some victory condition you just define for yourself to feel good about "winning" by turn 12?

I mean getting to a situation where you can't lose unless you try to and it's just a mop up job that is never engaging. This can be done in the first 15 turns for the majority of factions.

 

[Fedora Master]

That's the case in every TW you hyperbolic hysteric.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

There will come a day when people realize every game can be trivialized and striving for things like "teh balance" at the cost of fun is nonsensical and usually downright detrimental. But today is not that day.

Today, you can stop and think if you actually discover the meta by yourself or are you just a poseur.

I'm talking in general of course, not about TW which is banal and boring af.

 

[thesheeep]

I mean getting to a situation where you can't lose unless you try to and it's just a mop up job that is never engaging.

That's the case in every TW you hyperbolic hysteric.

Yes, exactly.

It is really difficult to actually lose a TW campaign. It can become very difficult to win, in the sense of becoming an extreme slog to make a "comeback" to pick up steam if you end up in that "it's turn 12 and all my neighbors DoWd me for some reason". That's generally when people just restart instead.

But actually losing a campaign in the way of seeing a game over screen has always been an extremely rare thing in Total War games, moreso in the Warhammer ones. I don't know if I ever actually saw the game's game over screen.

I can understand Lacrymas and some other people in saying that's not engaging to them. But... that has always been the Total War experience - and that of many other larger scale strategy titles, btw.
It's not great, one wishes it'd be better, but at this point it is simply a fact of the series and picking that out to criticize just seems a VERY strange thing and lost cause.
You know what you are getting into with these games. Mods can improve it, SFO for example now includes a more aggressive and "focused" campaign AI mod, but nothing can ever fully fix it.

Now here's a valid criticism, the AI is really damn bad in Total War games, especially on campaign. It varies wildly between bee-lining the player, destroying itself in the process (cause now its backdoor is open to its other enemies, which will wreck it while its busy with you) or .... just not doing anything with the player despite being at war.

But you know it's never going to change as it is an inherent genre issue that would require a very different and "auteur" approach to campaign AI - think like the Vermintide or L4D games, which have a "narrator/dungeon master AI" in the background that will throw obstacles your way specifically to tune your moment-to-moment experience.
The Total War (and similar) games instead have a simulation running (and no "dungeon master AI" on top), which makes that more linear experience of having a real threat of losing the game instead of "just" not winning it almost impossible.

 

[InspectorRumpole]

and striving for things like "teh balance" at the cost of fun is nonsensical and usually downright detrimental.

Balance is not that important in single player games.

But being able to plow through any competition is not my idea of fun. Reminds me of an old friend I had, who enjoyed using cheat codes for black dragons in HoMM 3.

When the AI frequently suicides his armies into mine, something is inheritantly wrong with it.

 

[Hydro]

Uhm, it’s pretty easy to lose a Legendary* campaign




*the only proper way to play this game.

If you can’t or “don’t find it fun” you just suck.

 

[Lacrymas]

While iron man is the proper way to play, the technical state of the game makes it a slog due to it autosaving at every possibility, making the already laborious end turn process even more miserable.

 

[Average Manatee]

Saves should take around 1s if you're on a modern SSD. It's like 5-10% of the end turn time.

 

[Seethe]

I watched youtube video of this, and since when this game got respec for lords?

Around a year ago, mostly because one time respec mod was super popular and people were crying about it all over the reddits and other sites.

Mostly because you confederated AI lords and AI spent those points like a total fucking idiot.

 

[Elttharion]