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Perhaps of interest to anyone still playing Total War, but it looks like CA is revising how they structure their DLC. Remains to be seen if it'd work out to be more expensive, but I do like the option of just purchasing shit that I care about (Empire), and not having to also get shit I don't (Dwarf, Nurgle).
I can see them just going back to lord vs lord DLC packs going forward for the sake of cost-benefit, reducing price, and appearing as going back to their roots. 3 faction expansions is clearly too much time and cost for them nowadays.
 
Can't wait to watch 100 space marines rub their face against a gate until it breaks open, then suddenly decide to march forward in a conga line to the enemy. Maybe they'll tactically deploy ladders from their asses to scale walls, too.
 
Gonna be fun to see how they shove in more female LLs/LHs after Elspeth.
Elspeth isn't even all that interesting. She's your stereotypical "Lol I am creepy gothic death mage" woman. She probably buys all her robes at whatever the Warhammer equivalent of Hot Topic is. She'll probably get her Carmine Dragon mount but Franz will be stuck with Deathclaw and not the Imperial Dragon, despite it being canon that he's quite capable of riding it, even if nobody else in the Empire is.

Shame the Southern Realms are so neglected because Lucrezzia Belladonna would be a far more fun choice considering her love of poisons on top of her ability to use both Shadow and Death magic.
 
Back in the day I would've been confident that CA could make a great WWI game, the most modern conflict covered is in Fall of the Samurai and it's really good, the naval battles especially are the best in the series. [CURRENT YEAR] CA on the other hand? I wonder how shit it's gonna be lmao. I wonder if they're gonna go full retard and have "Culture Groups" as the nations and generals as the factions. I can't wait to play the Douglas Haig faction which gains some dumb faction resource that you spend on worthless bullshit the more casualties you have.
 
Elspeth isn't even all that interesting. She's your stereotypical "Lol I am creepy gothic death mage" woman. She probably buys all her robes at whatever the Warhammer equivalent of Hot Topic is. She'll probably get her Carmine Dragon mount but Franz will be stuck with Deathclaw and not the Imperial Dragon, despite it being canon that he's quite capable of riding it, even if nobody else in the Empire is.

Shame the Southern Realms are so neglected because Lucrezzia Belladonna would be a far more fun choice considering her love of poisons on top of her ability to use both Shadow and Death magic.
There's still the rumoured "Dogs of War" DLC that should cover the Southern Realms. I wouldn't even mind if they reskinned Empire troops for them because that part of the Old World has been criminally neglected.

It's a damned shame GW is so steadfastly against Araby appearing in any form. Magic djinns, Ottoman/Mamluk-era infantry and camel cavalry is just such a good aesthetic.
 
It's a damned shame GW is so steadfastly against Araby appearing in any form. Magic djinns, Ottoman/Mamluk-era infantry and camel cavalry is just such a good aesthetic.
Can't have people going SIGMAR LO VULT in Current Year, even though Empire and Bretonnia both frequently engage in crusades against Araby.

Then again, pretty sure the Arabyans engage in nasty stuff like slavery and piracy, and we can't have Arab slave traders and pirates either in Current Year.

Really, canonical places like Araby, Ind, and Nippon would be excellent places to expand with new factions. Nippon especially considering how beloved Shogun 2 is still. A Nippon army in TWW would be fun as hell considering you'd have samurai, war monks, and plenty of gunpowder weapons. Plus there'd be plenty of females for CA to add considering the onna-musha existed, both as soldiers and leaders. And we can't forget the kunoichi that were trained by Mochizuki Chiyome. For heroes you've got sword saints, monks, shrine maidens, Taoist sorcerers, said hot female ninja assassins... There'd also be no end of possible RoR units with guys like the Red Devils.
 
Empire 2 would have been the best.

The only way Total War: World War I makes any sense at all is if they've learned (actually, gone back to) having non-formation units that can shape themselves to fit things like a trench line. And even then, you still have to ask, why? The Great War: Western Front tried, but it also didn't play quite like a Total War game in terms of scope or expectation. People play these things with an emphasis on big field battles.

What are good settings for Total War games? I've shilled some before, but I've come to realize that there's a specific set of features that all Total War settings have in common. They all involve:
A great power scenario...
With a built-in justification for blobbing...
In which some great powers grew massively...
And some were wiped off the map
 
Do none of you play with mods?

There's a great border princes mod, Araby mod and there's a map expansion mod that people are working on ind and nippon submods for

Tbh the additional campaign mechanics that they add each expansion are increasingly hackneyed so at this stage I'd rather see a mod of nippon than a ca attempt
 
Do none of you play with mods?

There's a great border princes mod, Araby mod and there's a map expansion mod that people are working on ind and nippon submods for

Tbh the additional campaign mechanics that they add each expansion are increasingly hackneyed so at this stage I'd rather see a mod of nippon than a ca attempt
I absolutely do play with mods. The mod for IEE that adds landmarks to the Far East is as broken as it is fun once you get some, and the descriptions to them are great. I tend to stay away from those faction mods though because I've got nine billion different roster and lord mods and so they just come off as gimped, unfortunately. Absolutely needs to be a modern mod that gives Miao Ying some actual storm magic though. She's supposedly all about the lighting and shit but can't even call down a single bolt to save her life.

Do wish there was a solid mod that added some more high-end units to the Empire that aren't blatantly broken. Sadly Grand Order of the Reiksguard is a bit old and the unit lists aren't quite set up correctly for skill and tech buffs because it scratches that itch quite well otherwise. Nothing quite like a bunch of 110 armor halberdiers getting turned into Ubermenschen by Franz's unique skill buffs. The Reiksguard Handgunners are a bit much at times though considering they can pull double duty as sword inf against even mid-weight melee infantry.

Did enjoy Guns of the Empire but spamming Hakbutschutzen to win every fight with ease got boring.
 
Do wish there was a solid mod that added some more high-end units to the Empire that aren't blatantly broken. Sadly Grand Order of the Reiksguard is a bit old and the unit lists aren't quite set up correctly for skill and tech buffs because it scratches that itch quite well otherwise. Nothing quite like a bunch of 110 armor halberdiers getting turned into Ubermenschen by Franz's unique skill buffs. The Reiksguard Handgunners are a bit much at times though considering they can pull double duty as sword inf against even mid-weight melee infantr
CA's apparently going to add some new high-end units for the Empire in the upcoming DLC, so your wish might be granted here. (Already confirmed: Landship, Steam Tank w/ volley guns, Hochland's Long Riflemen (apparently jezzail like), Nuln's own handgunners, and engineer lords/heroes). And a generic gold wizard.
EDIT: also some new Knights of Morr that isn't the state troop version too.
 
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Did enjoy Guns of the Empire but spamming Hakbutschutzen to win every fight with ease got boring.
Yep, unleashing 20th century time travellers on the renaisance-level old world would be a cakewalk.

I'm liking a lot of the buzz around the upcoming DLC, hopefully CA have learnt their lesson.
 
CA's apparently going to add some new high-end units for the Empire in the upcoming DLC, so your wish might be granted here. (Already confirmed: Landship, Steam Tank w/ volley guns, Hochland's Long Riflemen (apparently jezzail like), Nuln's own handgunners, and engineer lords/heroes). And a generic gold wizard.
EDIT: also some new Knights of Morr that isn't the state troop version too.
Unfortunately it looks like CA has restricted that stuff to Elspeth. Speaking of that DLC...
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She's a titless uggo. I had low expectations for how she was going to look but Jesus CA, you went even lower.
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And yeah, Elspeth gets invisible fucking mortars capable of disrupting and slowing the enemy. The power creep is fucking real.
Yep, unleashing 20th century time travellers on the renaisance-level old world would be a cakewalk.

I'm liking a lot of the buzz around the upcoming DLC, hopefully CA have learnt their lesson.
Aside from the Bombard artillery that modern stuff is gimmicky and of limited usefulness. But you'd be surprised what 18th Century troops can do with such powerful tactics as deploying stakes and fixing sword bayonets.

EDIT: CA has at least realized the gimmicky Imperial Authority mechanic is a hindrance, not a help, so that's a positive. And here, have a meme that refuses to die.
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The IEE guys need to add some VC down in Indocathay for Gelt to hunt down.
 
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Gelt is going to be my first playthrough with TOD just for the memes. Joining up with the Kuomintang Iron Dragon to smash some Commie slant eyes Chaos worshippers with the power of napalm? I'm already rock hard.

Sega clearly did some major restructuring at CA to get such a DLC out of them, which has me half-expecting the one after will be a return to form.
 
Do none of you play with mods?

There's a great border princes mod, Araby mod and there's a map expansion mod that people are working on ind and nippon submods for
I played a bunch of the Closer to Tabletop rebalancing mod towards the end of TWW2's dev cycle in addition to faction/character mods that were compatible with it. Looks like the modder hasn't remade it in TWW3 yet, hopefully he does because CA's balancing sucks.
 
Cautiously optimistic about ToD and 5.0. I just hope we have roughly 3 years of good support for WH3, so the game ends with most of the missing content added and in a good state.
 
I just finished an IE campaign with Vlad in legendary and I feel like it took like 10 years out of my lifespan. I'm thinking of maybe playing my next campaign on legendary but without all the ridiculous AI battle bonuses. Don't they get some insane shit like 12+ leadership on ALL units?

There were some battles, specially agaisnt dwarfs, that would have me facepalming seeing the lowliest dwarven warriors hold the line down to where they were only 4-5 left in a 100 strong unit, even when flanked, attacked/charged from behind and/or getting decimated with vortex spells. I like a challenge but I feel that legendary battle difficulty with all the insane bonuses is much more tedious than fun. I was starting to get really annoyed the last 50 turns or so of the campaign but I was like "hell I'm this far lets just finish it".

In other rts's I really like, like W3 or AOE2, afaik, the AI gets some big economic bonuses so they can field bigger armies faster, but as soon as the battle starts, they don't get any other battle bonuses outside of what the player itself can also get.

Maybe I'm just bad at the game but at the end of the day I really didn't have fun in the latter stages of the campaign, it really took the impetus out of me to try another race and I shutter to think of decimating skaven slaves to the last rat with tier 5 units because CA can't be bothered to make good battle AI outside of "LETS JUST CRANK ALL THEIR STATS TO 9000 AND MAKE BATTLES MUCH, MUCH MORE ANNOYING" but I feel that if I'm not playing the game at the "hardest" difficulty, I'm selling myself short.
 
I just finished an IE campaign with Vlad in legendary and I feel like it took like 10 years out of my lifespan. I'm thinking of maybe playing my next campaign on legendary but without all the ridiculous AI battle bonuses. Don't they get some insane shit like 12+ leadership on ALL units?

There were some battles, specially agaisnt dwarfs, that would have me facepalming seeing the lowliest dwarven warriors hold the line down to where they were only 4-5 left in a 100 strong unit, even when flanked, attacked/charged from behind and/or getting decimated with vortex spells. I like a challenge but I feel that legendary battle difficulty with all the insane bonuses is much more tedious than fun. I was starting to get really annoyed the last 50 turns or so of the campaign but I was like "hell I'm this far lets just finish it".

In other rts's I really like, like W3 or AOE2, afaik, the AI gets some big economic bonuses so they can field bigger armies faster, but as soon as the battle starts, they don't get any other battle bonuses outside of what the player itself can also get.

Maybe I'm just bad at the game but at the end of the day I really didn't have fun in the latter stages of the campaign, it really took the impetus out of me to try another race and I shutter to think of decimating skaven slaves to the last rat with tier 5 units because CA can't be bothered to make good battle AI outside of "LETS JUST CRANK ALL THEIR STATS TO 9000 AND MAKE BATTLES MUCH, MUCH MORE ANNOYING" but I feel that if I'm not playing the game at the "hardest" difficulty, I'm selling myself short.
I think the battle difficulty bonuses the ai gets and the maluses(?) you get is only fair if you do extremely cheesy shit, like kiting for half an hour with a single lord or abusing AI target/pathfinding to take potshots, retreating to instantly replenish ammo, shit like that. Again, it is entirely possible I am just dogshit at the game but to me using 'reasonable' tactics and not minmaxing the everliving shit out of everything doesn't get you past very hard battle difficulty in a lot of cases.
The only issue: I do believe that the AI also behaves differently on higher battle difficulties. There's mods I'm fairly sure that makes the AI behave as if it was higher battle difficulty without it getting stats for free.

I do like my campaign difficulty high though, it feels more fair that the AI compensates for being retarded with fielding say twice as many armies as I do as opposed to their goblins fighting down to the last man.
 
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