Warhammer Total War: Warhammer III

[thesheeep]

Anyway.... who's hyped about playing Vampire Coast on the newer, even bigger and probably even slower Mortal Empires?

 

[BrotherFrank]

You won’t know true pain until you are playing the tw1+2+3 combined map in mp with 3 other people.

Still dunno what possesed CA to do that.

 

[Raghar]

You won’t know true pain until you are playing the tw1+2+3 combined map in mp with 3 other people.

Still dunno what possesed CA to do that.

Wow, I like that idea. And allow assassinations of lords and heroes the same as in WHI... And that would be even more awesome.

 

[Raghar]

Anyway.... who's hyped about playing Vampire Coast on the newer, even bigger and probably even slower Mortal Empires?

I'm currently playing Vampire Coast. If I could get alliance with DE with +200 relations I'd get minor victory in instant. And few turns later I'd get major victory.

The problem is they are doing confederations like permanent annexation. And that causes big major blocks who are not allies and don't have any reason to backstab each other. Thus later game is DE, instead of Nagaronth and that north faction. It's big blob or orks instead of several factions bind in an alliance.

And when you look at EU, you can get decent victory without conquering everything. But blobbing in WH2 basically says get alliance with big blob, and you are nearly finished. Blobbing in WH2 says to get your victory condition, you don't have to kill one enemy faction, you have to conquer 1/4 of world.

And as a consequence, different faction leader with different starts feels similar.

It's a problem to some extend.

 

[BrotherFrank]

Have you played total war in coop mp much? Because it’s a good idea on paper but in practice coop for warhammer has some issues:

-desync city
-massive end of turn times (and make sure you disable speedup because it increases chances of desync)
-frequent save corruption (the single biggest reason why my mp games rarely get finished)
-unlike in other total war games that have coop you can't do much when waiting on your buddies to finish their turn. In shogun 2 for example you can manage buildings and economy, level people up and do pretty much anything except actually moving your armies and agents. In total warhammer all you can do is twiddle your thumbs and swap magic items around so results in a lot of dead time staring at the screen.

Now multiply these problems by 2 and on a bigger map and yeah...that's why I'm clueless why CA decided to take on this challenge when they can't even make it work for 2 ppl.

Heartily agree with assassination, I can't remember why they changed that but was dumb.

 

[thesheeep]

I'm currently playing Vampire Coast. If I could get alliance with DE with +200 relations I'd get minor victory in instant. And few turns later I'd get major victory.

The only alliance I was ever able to get as VCoast was Skaven.
Everyone else WILL attack you sooner or later (DE usually a bit later).

The diplomacy system is crap anyway, but extra crap if you are playing an "evil" faction.

Heartily agree with assassination, I can't remember why they changed that but was dumb.

Because it is bullshit.
You spend hours and hours building up a lord and it can all be undone entirely with a single lucky roll by a single lucky hero you can't do anything about. It doesn't reward good planning and doesn't punish bad planning.
It's just a flip of a coin.

They could do away with that hero system on the map entirely and the game would be better for it.
In fact, that's what they did in Three Kingdoms and one of the many reasons that game had a vastly superior campaign.

 

[Raghar]

Heartily agree with assassination, I can't remember why they changed that but was dumb.

Because it is bullshit.
You spend hours and hours building up a lord and it can all be undone entirely with a single lucky roll by a single lucky hero you can't do anything about. It doesn't reward good planning and doesn't punish bad planning.
It's just a flip of a coin.

They could do away with that hero system on the map entirely and the game would be better for it.
In fact, that's what they did in Three Kingdoms and one of the many reasons that game had a vastly superior campaign.

That's why legendary lords were so valuable. They were able to get better after being assassinated, and well continued to tear apart enemy armies.

Preventing high ranked heroes to be assassinated caused a problem of high rank assassin returning again and again without you being able to do something against him. Wasting horrible amount of money so some of your heroes assassinated him was doable in WH I. You need to destroy the enemy faction in WH 2 to get rid of ONE assassin.

Also disposing of Kholek by assassination was funny. Collapsing a bridge under Kholek then saying "Bye Kholek".

 

[AdamReith]

Why are they making the focus on a Chinese faction when they have just released three kingdoms?

Will there be Troy style faction too?

 

[Lacrymas]

Will there be Troy style faction too?

Aren't the Tomb Kings a Troy-like faction?

 

[GreyViper]

Why are they making the focus on a Chinese faction when they have just released three kingdoms?

Will there be Troy style faction too?

Long story short, the plans they had for Western Taiwanese and other Asian markets fell through. Rumors go that they were ordered to sell all the content in one game and not milk them as DLCs like they do in west. New 3K game is in the works for that market that fits the criteria.
Troy has been doing mediocre, most of the profit came from Epic deal they had.

 

[Lacrymas]

And ironically, Troy is one of the best Total War games ever.

 

[AdamReith]

Why are they making the focus on a Chinese faction when they have just released three kingdoms?



Will there be Troy style faction too?

Long story short, the plans they had for Western Taiwanese and other Asian markets fell through. Rumors go that they were ordered to sell all the content in one game and not milk them as DLCs like they do in west. New 3K game is in the works for that market that fits the criteria.
Troy has been doing mediocre, most of the profit came from Epic deal they had.

Wow, hope we get the no-dlc 3k. Looks like government intervention did what decades of "gamer boycotts" could not.

 

[Lacrymas]

Total War pricing is cringe, yes. More specifically Warhammer. Why are there no bundle deals for the Warhammer DLCs at all?

 

[Raghar]

Total War pricing is cringe, yes. More specifically Warhammer. Why are there no bundle deals for the Warhammer DLCs at all?

Because Denuvo.

 

[Lacrymas]

Total War pricing is cringe, yes. More specifically Warhammer. Why are there no bundle deals for the Warhammer DLCs at all?

Because Denuvo.

I'm sure they realize everything has been cracked by now.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Cathay, you say? Looking forward to this game.

 

[thesheeep]

Cathay, you say? Looking forward to this game.

From what is known so far, I just wonder what the faction's "thing" will be.
Nothing I've seen so far really screams "this is unique" to me.

Except the lords transforming into dragons (I guess).

 

[Lone Wolf]

You can bet your bottom dollar it will be some kind of 'harmony' or 'alignment' mechanic. Missions from the Celestial Dragon?

Alarielle-style control of Cathay's territory? Hector/Paris-style rivalry mechanic for the Celestial throne?

 

[thesheeep]

You can bet your bottom dollar it will be some kind of 'harmony' or 'alignment' mechanic. Missions from the Celestial Dragon?

Alarielle-style control of Cathay's territory? Hector/Paris-style rivalry mechanic for the Celestial throne?

Oh, sure, something like that.

But I was more talking about the actual battle mechanics.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Slightly better infantry than Skaven, slightly worse artillery than Skaven, with stronger Legendary Lords. No real emphasis on cavalry, with interesting constructs (both terrestrial and aerial).

Compared to the Empire: probably worse infantry/cavalry/artillery, but far superior constructs/lords. Similarly emphasizing combined arms (in fact, I think I saw something mentioned about combined arms being one of their actual combat mechanics...).

 

[tabacila]

Blog post about dragon waifu in which we find that their lead writer (former GW writer) thinks Settra is a villain just like Archaon.

Spoiler

WHO IS MIAO YING, THE STORM DRAGON?
TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER III
Ben Barrett
September 23 2021

Grand Cathay is coming to Total War: WARHAMMER III, and with it comes the mighty Dragons, rulers of the Empire and powerful, shapeshifting warriors. As new additions to Warhammer, we get the particular joy of introducing you to them for the first time. To help with that, I’ve enlisted Andy Hall, our Lead Writer for Warhammer projects and overall fanatic of everything Warhammer. He helped at every stage to implement Grand Cathay into Total War: WARHAMMER III.


TW.com: Thanks for joining us, Andy. Since we haven’t spoken about Grand Cathay before, can you give us a short intro on who they are, what’s special about them, and the work you did to bring them to life?


Andy Hall: When talking with my ex-colleagues at Games Workshop we wanted Cathay to feel that it was just as rich and iterated upon as any Warhammer race, even if the players hadn’t been able to see this until now. The goal was to make them feel like a fully-fledged, 8th Edition race right out the gate, with their own roster, quirks, and spectacle.


The team at GW tapped into the design ethos of Warhammer Fantasy battle, which has been to take archetypes – both historical and mythic – then twist and push them to extremes. This has given us a deep roster to play with, with plenty of potential areas for expansion…


But, from a purely player perspective, whether it’s in Total War or on the table-top, I think the real innovation is the Dragons – that they can transform into both draconic and human aspects and each form gives players myriad tactical options in battle. That is exciting.


On to Miao Ying, the Storm Dragon – who is she?


She is the eldest daughter of the Celestial Dragon Emperor and holds many titles: Master of the Storm Winds, Castellan of the Great Bastion, Ruler of the Northern Provinces, Matriarch of Nan-Gau. She is as powerful as those honours suggest, and everything you expect and more from a Warhammer Legendary Lord. As cool a tactician and powerful a magic-user as any High Elf, but able to go toe-to-toe with a Greater Daemon in dragon form.


But what I find really engaging – and she is my favourite legendary lord, by the way – is her personality.

What makes her character so compelling?


As a writer, you look for ways to connect and emphasize with your characters. It’s not always easy to do when they’re Warhammer villains such as Settra or Archaon but even then, we must understand their drives. Powerful, aloof, celestial dragon beings could also easily fall into the same category. But the familial angle gives us a way in – she is the eldest daughter trying to prove her worth to her father against jealous siblings. That’s a very human scenario and one we can leverage and understand, especially for me as a father with a very determined older daughter!


One of the titles you gave above stands out – Matriarch of Nan-Gau. Can you elaborate?


Yes, she rules the City of Smoke, although the Lords of Nan-Gau are perhaps not as deferent to a Dragon as the ruling classes in other cities. This is because the city is home to countless forges and workshops that furnish the armies of the empire with weapons and provide countless war machines for the defence of the Great Bastion. So, the Lords are powerful, granted more independence than most and have occasionally even dared to challenge the Storm Dragon. Although she has swiftly reminded them of their true station!


How does she compare to her brother – in arms and blood – Zhao Ming, our other legendary lord?


Her vaulted position as the Commander of the Great Bastion, means she is – perhaps correctly – perceived as the favourite by the other Dragons. The Storm Dragon doesn’t help matters by lording her position over her siblings. When they meet, she often stands apart. Zhao Ming, her younger brother, is a far more gregarious character and gets especially offended by Ying’s aloofness.


Thanks, Andy.


That’s Miao Ying, the Storm Dragon. Next week we’ll also introduce you to her brother Zhao Ming, the Iron Dragon to give you a thorough overview of who’s available to align with in the Eastern Empire.

 

[Lone Wolf]

Settra is a villain just like Archaon.

I'm okay with giving them the benefit of the doubt, here. Settra is treated as a 'neutral' in-game, regardless of Hall's throw-away comparisons. Much like the Lizardmen.

And they've also got to suck the Cathay Dragons' massive dragon cocks, because how else are you going to hype a faction with no in-universe history, when the only 'personalities' to connect with will be the two Legendary Lords?

So, they'll both probably be talked about as 'these are the bestest ever motherfuckers ever, trust us', until you find out they're roughly on Malekith's level, when mounted on his dragon. Powerful, but nothing too crazy.

 

[Parabalus]

Total War pricing is cringe, yes. More specifically Warhammer. Why are there no bundle deals for the Warhammer DLCs at all?

Because Denuvo.

I'm sure they realize everything has been cracked by now.

No?

You'd be stuck with a much older patch and less DLC.

 

[Lacrymas]

Total War pricing is cringe, yes. More specifically Warhammer. Why are there no bundle deals for the Warhammer DLCs at all?

Because Denuvo.

I'm sure they realize everything has been cracked by now.

No?

You'd be stuck with a much older patch and less DLC.

I tried to pirate Warhammer 1 once, but it would always crash if I chose to fight someone. I assumed everything has been taken care of now.

 

[Space Satan]

Settra is a villain just like Archaon.

Settra is, like, the only character in WHFB setting, who refused when four Chaos Gods offered him anything he could imagine. Not to say he was among the few Tomb Kings who issued resettlement of Nehekara with living servants. This and the fact that he slew shitload of evil character alone puts him into neutral category.