Total War Series, Shogun, Medieval, Rome, Empire, Napoleon, etc... Options

[Acadian]

Looks like lots to keep track of at once!

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Looks like lots to keep track of at once!

Well if it's like the other Total War games, you don't control each individual unit (the heros in this game seemingly the exception here). The units you control are grouped together into divisions of varying numbers (for instance one division may have 80 men while another more powerful division may have 60). So once you get onto the battlefield, it's not that difficult.

[SubRosa]

The undead army looks like it would be a lot of fun to play.

Your Runelord cleaned house on those skellies.

But no one wants to get close to that Banshee!

[hazmick]

Another update.

Good news from the south - Grimgor Ironhide's faction of Greenskins has been destroyed! There's only one tribe left, a group of Savage Orcs (less advanced than regular Orcs, but tougher in melee combat) that I'm dealing with quite quickly. Only two more settlements to go before the Badlands are fully controlled by Dwarfs.

To the north, the undead have fallen back in the face of a large Dwarven assault. Myself and my ally at Zhufbar have each sent two armies into Vampire territory, and destroyed one of their capital settlements. We can't move very far or very quickly due to the vampiric corruption, but with two armies I should be able to keep both Vampire factions on the back foot.

Even further north, I can now see the armies of Chaos. They're obliterating every human settlement they encounter, and Chaos corruption is spreading throughout the land. As much as the Vampires are my enemy, their corruption has done a good job at blocking Chaos for the most part.

Some shots of a battle against savage Orcs:

Savage Orcs

Steadfast Dwarfs

My Slayers and Longbeards have to fight hard

Thorgrim gives chase to the fleeing Orc Warboss

Victory!

Chaos corruption on the campaign map - formerly a land of rolling green hills and lush forests.

[SubRosa]

So what happens to Grimgor now that his faction is destroyed? Does that kill him for good as well?

Wow, that Chaos corruption just ruins everything.

[hazmick]

Yep, with his faction destroyed, Grimgor is gone for good. I've been really lucky in this campaign to have him respawn within striking distance - if he gets to a high level he becomes really powerful.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Ok it's official: as soon as this game goes on Steam sale, Khajiit is getting it.

[hazmick]

Had a busy day in the Warhammer world today.

Started off by destroying the last Greenskin faction in the southern Badlands, then confederating the southern Dwarf faction into my own. With the entire Badlands under my control, I set about stabilising the public order and getting lots of mines built. I'll need to leave a couple of armies in the area to keep an eye on things, but it's pretty much secure now.

After that I headed north and finished off both vampire factions. It was slow going, and their corruption might be permanent, but there'll be no more undead lurking around. There was a little complication when the Zhufbar Dwarfs declared war on me (they actually declared against my human ally, who I sided with) but they accepted a peace treaty after I captured all of the settlements in the Zhufbar region. I hope to confederate them soon, but they're being stubborn.

The Chaos invasion turned its evil eye towards the Dwarfs of Karak Kadrin, who managed to defeat Archaon the Everchosen and destroy the Warriors of Chaos faction. Karak Kadrin joined my faction soon after that, so I now own all of the eastern mountains. This also allowed me to recruit another legendary lord - Ungrim Ironfist, king of the slayers. Ungrim's skills make him ideal for fighting Chaos, so I've dispatched him to the northern edge of the world to secure the ruins of a Dwarven faction up there (we were too late to save them) and destroy the Chaos Norsemen.

While Ungrim heads north, Throgrim is leading an army west. We've found another Greenskin faction (potentially equal in strength to Grimgor) and also learned that another Dwarf faction is still fighting the good fight. Just before logging off today I unlocked and recruited the Dwarf's final legendary lord - Grombrindal - who is an incredibly powerful fighter and leader. He'll lead an army just behind Thorgrim to fight these Greenskins.

Screenies from today, first from the final battle against the vampires:

Isabella von Carstein, last of the vampires

My shiny new Organ Guns - they have less range than a cannon, but their 4 barrels are devastating to big groups like undead and goblins.

Cavalry charge - you can't really tell on the screenie, but this hill was so steep that my Thunderers could fire over the Longbeard's heads as the cavalry approached

Now some from my first battle against the new Greenskin faction, the Crooked Moon:

Goblin Chief Skarsnik and his pet squig, Gobbla

some Night Goblins are introduced to Dwarven rifles


Map - as you can see, there's a large colourless portion of the map. That used to be human lands, which were destroyed by chaos. The surviving humans are slowly resettling them, but it'll take a long time.

This post has been edited by hazmick: Aug 24 2017, 09:43 PM

[ghastley]

Isabella's outfit looks almost Skyrim.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Seeing Haz play this game make Khajiit want a First Era set TES strategy game soooo bad! Well, Khajiit has wanted that for a while actually, but still!

[SubRosa]

Those bats look really neat.

That squig has one big mouth!

[hazmick]

Made good progress today, defeating Skarsnik and his Greenskins. That's the last Greenskin faction in this campaign (though more can pop up as random events) so I can focus on other things now.

I went to war with the Zhufbar Dwarfs again, and this time I completely defeated them, meaning that I now control all of the mountains on the east side of the map. The Dwarf faction that I went to look for in the west is still alive and well, so I immediately got a defensive alliance going.

There's a minor faction of vampires in the west that Thorgrim can deal with, and the Wood Elves have declared war on me so I might have to fight them too. Thorgrim himself has done some quest battles and unlocked some of his unique items, so he's quite powerful now.

Up north, Ungrim Ironfist made good progress against the Norscans, and resettled the Dwarf hold of Kraka Drak. Unfortunately, after being weakened while helping a human ally, Ungrim was wounded and his army destroyed by Wulfrik the Wanderer, Norscan Chief. As soon as Ungrim is back on his feet I'll send him back up there to carry on the fight. Hopefully the settlement's defense forces can hold out by themselves for a while.

First, some screenies from a quest battle; The Battle of Black Fire Pass:

Black Fire Pass

Orc Warchiefs can get wyvern mounts

Thunderers

My human allies arrive to help

Arachnarok


Next, some shots from a battle against Chaos:

Magic and monsters

Dwarven ranks are battered by spells

Wolf-kin vs Slayers

The bigger they are...


Bonus screenie of Grombrindal fighting Skarsnik & Gobbla

Map

[hazmick]

Spent most of my time today waiting for Ungrim to come back and build up his forces. Once that was sorted I did his first quest battle and unlocked one of his unique items - the Slayer Crown. Now he should be well equipped to get revenge on the Norscans and settle some grudges.

Thorgrim also did a quest battle, and unlocked his final unique item - the Great Book of Grudges. He's now moving to engage Mousillon, the last remaining vampire faction who make their home on the west coast. They're not as powerful as their eastern brethren, so Thorgrim shouldn't have any trouble.

Lastly, I defeated the Wood Elf king in battle, and they agreed to a peace treaty. I then confederated the Dwarf faction on the Elves' border, which gave me another legendary lord - Belegar Ironhammer. There are only two Dwarven factions remaining, though they are stubbornly resisting confederation. I might just be able to win the campaign by making military alliances with them, but I'll have to double check.

First some shots from Ungrim's quest battle, against a Necromancer conducting a mysterious ritual:

Ungrim Ironfist

Wraiths

The ritual complete, enemy reinforcements join the fray

The Vampire Lord and his undead dragon punch straight through Dwarven lines

but they are no match for the Slayer King

Next from Thorgrim's quest battle, more undead:

Shot from the cutscene, shortly before the Dwarfs are ambushed

Gyrobombers deliver their payload

A retreating Gyrobomber is swarmed by giant bats


Map

[SubRosa]

It's cool to see the airborne units. The TW games have evolved a lot.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Spent most of my time today waiting for Ungrim to come back and build up his forces. Once that was sorted I did his first quest battle and unlocked one of his unique items - the Slayer Crown. Now he should be well equipped to get revenge on the Norscans and settle some grudges.

Thorgrim also did a quest battle, and unlocked his final unique item - the Great Book of Grudges. He's now moving to engage Mousillon, the last remaining vampire faction who make their home on the west coast. They're not as powerful as their eastern brethren, so Thorgrim shouldn't have any trouble.

Lastly, I defeated the Wood Elf king in battle, and they agreed to a peace treaty. I then confederated the Dwarf faction on the Elves' border, which gave me another legendary lord - Belegar Ironhammer. There are only two Dwarven factions remaining, though they are stubbornly resisting confederation. I might just be able to win the campaign by making military alliances with them, but I'll have to double check.

First some shots from Ungrim's quest battle, against a Necromancer conducting a mysterious ritual:

Ungrim Ironfist

Wraiths

The ritual complete, enemy reinforcements join the fray

The Vampire Lord and his undead dragon punch straight through Dwarven lines

but they are no match for the Slayer King

Next from Thorgrim's quest battle, more undead:

Shot from the cutscene, shortly before the Dwarfs are ambushed

Gyrobombers deliver their payload

A retreating Gyrobomber is swarmed by giant bats


Map

Undead dragon?!!! Khajiit wants one!

[hazmick]

SubRosa - The airborne units add a whole new element to the battlefield, especially during siege battles or against artillery. Lots of lord and hero units can unlock flying mounts, which makes them extra formidable.



Victory! I just finished up the campaign. All I had left to do was take the remaining Dwarf holds (took some through confederation and the others through war) and clear all of the grudges from my book. I've been keeping on top of all my grudges throughout the campaign, so the only one that remained was to defeat Wulfrik the Wanderer.

Ungrim Ironfist's army had a tough fight against Wulfrik's Norscan tribesmen and monsters, but the Dwarfs won the day.


As always, here's the map. The human factions were continuing to retake old land, and even moved into the lands formerly owned by vampires. This all helped reduce corruption, and much of the world is back to being green, healthy, and not on fire.

I could keep playing the campaign, but I have all the settlements that I can capture. Besides, factions tend to start fighting amongst themselves when they run out of goblins, undead, or chaos to fight.


I'll be starting a new campaign, but I can't decide who to play as. It'll either be Wood Elves or Beastmen.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

I'll be starting a new campaign, but I can't decide who to play as. It'll either be Wood Elves or Beastmen.

Khajiit votes Beastmen!

[SubRosa]

Congrats!

I concur with the cat. The Beastmen sound like they would have more exotic units for us to see!

[hazmick]

Beastmen it is! I'll start tomorrow. I must admit, they're one of my favourite factions to play as.

Beastmen roster is, as the name suggests, entirely monster-based. They're a Chaos faction, so there'll be no alliances or diplomacy - Beastmen exist purely to fight and spread Chaos. They have no artillery to speak of, and very few ranged units (only 1, I think) so very much the opposite of the Dwarfs. Units such as Minotaurs and Centaurs will be the elite of my armies, backed up by powerful lords and mages.

Beastmen are also a horde faction, so no settlements to worry about. They share a rare trait with the Greenskins - Bestial Rage. Each army has a 'Bestial Rage' gauge, which increases when you raid and fight, and decreases when you're idle or lose a battle. When it gets high enough, a smaller AI controlled army (called a Brayherd) will spawn and attach itself to the main force. You have limited control of the army, just telling it to follow you or attack certain settlements, and can't choose what units it is made up of. At low Rage, your army will suffer from attrition as the Beastmen begin fighting one another. It's a really cool system.

We'll primarily be fighting humans and Wood Elves. The Wood Elves have a surprising amount of non-elven units, about half their army is made of tree-kin, dryads, etc which should prove a good challenge for the Beastmen.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Sounds good! For the horde!!!...

... oh, wrong game,