The looming excitement that might be TW warhammer II

[Canas]

I guess that happens to every software at some point. It is like a Jenga Tower. You add more and more stuff until it becomes inefficient and eventually falls apart.

no no, it never falls apart, just stick some more bandaids on it and laugh at the poor sod that's going to have to fix it 10 years down the line

 

[Aginor]

no no, it never falls apart, just stick some more bandaids on it and laugh at the poor sod that's going to have to fix it 10 years down the line

I've been at the short end of that stick a bit too often, so yeah that could be a nice revenge against the world.

 

[Canas]

I've been at the short end of that stick a bit too often, so yeah that could be a nice revenge against the world.

Better the world, be that first developer to not screw over his succesor

 

[Aginor]

Better the world, be that first developer to not screw over his succesor

I am working on it. But man, it is hard sometimes.

 

[Paradoxical Pacifism]

I pretty much finally downloaded the game. It's at 98%, so it's pretty much finished.

 

[Aginor]

I played a few hours now, and while the campaign isn't bad I feel... rushed.
Normally I would expand way more cautiously, but the need to gather those damn ritual resources and finish the rituals made me spread thin. I have too many settlements and too few armies, and I am still behind the other factions in ritual resources.
I have won a few very close battles against the Skaven and it isn't getting better. And all the allies I have are basically where I should go and/or will eventually declare war since they are high elves. That sucks since right now we coexist well.
I confederated with one Lizardmen faction already but that made the problem only more severe as they were basically broke.

 

[Captaniser]

I played a few hours now, and while the campaign isn't bad I feel... rushed.
Normally I would expand way more cautiously, but the need to gather those damn ritual resources and finish the rituals made me spread thin. I have too many settlements and too few armies, and I am still behind the other factions in ritual resources.
I have won a few very close battles against the Skaven and it isn't getting better. And all the allies I have are basically where I should go and/or will eventually declare war since they are high elves. That sucks since right now we coexist well.
I confederated with one Lizardmen faction already but that made the problem only more severe as they were basically broke.

My advice would be, that you should focus more on your own empire and ignore the ritual for a while. Not to spoil anything, but it isn't the end of the game of you allow the others to complete a ritual or 2.

 

[Canas]

I played a few hours now, and while the campaign isn't bad I feel... rushed.
Normally I would expand way more cautiously, but the need to gather those damn ritual resources and finish the rituals made me spread thin. I have too many settlements and too few armies, and I am still behind the other factions in ritual resources.
I have won a few very close battles against the Skaven and it isn't getting better. And all the allies I have are basically where I should go and/or will eventually declare war since they are high elves. That sucks since right now we coexist well.
I confederated with one Lizardmen faction already but that made the problem only more severe as they were basically broke.

The vortex compaign is indeed.. problematic at times. Especially cuz races like the high elves start confederating and then have a billion ritual things per turn unless you burn all their stuff. I used mods to block the AI from doing rituals so I could take my sweet time. Also, try the mortal empires campaign, it doesn't have the vortex.

Also, even CA seems to think the vortex mechanic is somewhat flawed, none of the newer factions pay any attention to it.

Beyond that, the vortex campaign has some issues with the economy. Some of factions have rather problematic starting positions & with the rushing caused by the vortex mechanic this can leave you spread thin and poor very quickly. which is especially "fun" when one of those chaos armies that spawns with a ritual spawns inside your empire beyond the lines of your armies guarding the borders... Unfortunatly I haven't really found a solution for that yet.

And lastly, TW warhammer suffers from the lack of a clear unit progression. There's no hastati becoming principes becoming legionaires like in rome. Which can mean your army composition can be very unbalanced at times if you don't pay very close attention to what you're building and further aggrevates the issues caused by the rushed feeling & strained economy.

I don't think I've ever had a TW game with this many failed saves cuz of all that. It's still one of the best TW I've played, especially in terms of actual combat and how different the races feel. But there's some very clear flaws in it

 

[Paradoxical Pacifism]

Hey, i installed some mods, and i'm able to play the Tomb Kings even though i haven't i paid for the Tomb Kings DLC o_0

I can only use the Mods' lords, though and not the DLC's lords (settra, Khatep, etc)

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

I played a few hours now, and while the campaign isn't bad I feel... rushed.
Normally I would expand way more cautiously, but the need to gather those damn ritual resources and finish the rituals made me spread thin. I have too many settlements and too few armies, and I am still behind the other factions in ritual resources.
I have won a few very close battles against the Skaven and it isn't getting better. And all the allies I have are basically where I should go and/or will eventually declare war since they are high elves. That sucks since right now we coexist well.
I confederated with one Lizardmen faction already but that made the problem only more severe as they were basically broke.

Are there difficulty settings in the game?

Also, even CA seems to think the vortex mechanic is somewhat flawed, none of the newer factions pay any attention to it.

Tomb Kings... We do not serve, we rule!

 

[Canas]

Hey, i installed some mods, and i'm able to play the Tomb Kings even though i haven't i paid for the Tomb Kings DLC o_0

I can only use the Mods' lords, though and not the DLC's lords (settra, Khatep, etc)

then you have a faction unlocker mod. Though potentially one that CA isn't happy with. There's also some faction unlockers that allow you to play kislev and such which they don't mind as long as the specific faction isn't something they've released as DLC.

Are there difficulty settings in the game?

There are, but they're iffy as with all TW games as there are quite a lot of factors involved in difficulty. For example we currently have 2 difficulty sliders; 1 for the campaign and 1 for battles. However, if you set the campaign to easy and the battles to very hard the battles will still be relativly easy. Why? Cuz an easy campaign AI will simply field less armies and their armies will be less elite. But due to the hard battle difficulty they will get some bonusses while in actuall combat (e.g. a morale bonus). All in all it can make the difficulty very weird as the setting that makes an annoying mechanic manageable is liable to make a fun mechanic too easy for you.

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

There are, but they're iffy as with all TW games as there are quite a lot of factors involved in difficulty. For example we currently have 2 difficulty sliders; 1 for the campaign and 1 for battles. However, if you set the campaign to easy and the battles to very hard the battles will still be relativly easy. Why? Cuz an easy campaign AI will simply field less armies and their armies will be less elite. But due to the hard battle difficulty they will get some bonusses while in actuall combat (e.g. a morale bonus). All in all it can make the difficulty very weird as the setting that makes an annoying mechanic manageable is liable to make a fun mechanic too easy for you.

So does that mean that you would suggest sticking with the baseline setting? Is that what you use?

 

[Canas]

So does that mean that you would suggest sticking with the baseline setting? Is that what you use?

I usually have the battle difficulty at hard or very hard and the campaign difficulty 1 or 2 levels below it. Eventually getting them equal again if I can find a mod that fixes the economics (haven't found a good one in TW warhammer yet…) as the economics is what I usually struggle with and also don't find all that interesting as it tends to be too limiting in what we build. I wish we had the old mechanics from Rome I where everything could be build in a city eventually. It made balancing economic and military buildings a lot easier as you only really needed 1 city to get going, even if it'd take a century to actually get anywhere like that, and with 2-3 cities you could actually have a decent economy and military complex going at any point in the game. Now with the provinces and limited slots you need 2-3 provinces (or 6-9 cities) before it really gets anywhere.

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

I usually have the battle difficulty at hard or very hard and the campaign difficulty 1 or 2 levels below it. Eventually getting them equal again if I can find a mod that fixes the economics (haven't found a good one in TW warhammer yet…) as the economics is what I usually struggle with and also don't find all that interesting as it tends to be too limiting in what we build. I wish we had the old mechanics from Rome I where everything could be build in a city eventually. It made balancing economic and military buildings a lot easier as you only really needed 1 city to get going, even if it'd take a century to actually get anywhere like that, and with 2-3 cities you could actually have a decent economy and military complex going at any point in the game. Now with the provinces and limited slots you need 2-3 provinces (or 6-9 cities) before it really gets anywhere.

Which factions do you typically play?



What's your opinion on the Tomb Kings DLC?

 

[Aginor]

I play on Normal difficulty but I am not very good in RTS games so that's hard enough for me.

But I will need an advice:
What should I do against Skaven playing a lot of slingers and other fast skirmishers?
They need a lot of time to kill my Saurus but I can never catch them. Not even with Skinks.
What units are best to hunt them down? Cold ones maybe? Terradons might work to catch them but they are so squishy.
Ignoring them works only to a certain degree as they keep harassing me.

But it sure is fun to fight in a 1:4 ratio and still win. It feels epic to slaughter those rats with Kroxigor or Saurus, or see their morale bars drop in seconds when dropping a Comet of Cassandora on 4 units at once while charging a Stegadon right into them.

 

[Papalugy]

I use 2 mods to help with the economy issues. The 1st makes it so that growth buildings produce half the income of your standard money farm. The 2nd reduces how the Supply Lines mechanic ramps up your upkeep.
As for guarding your empire during the rituals, the only way I've found to somewhat help is to build the garrison buildings in EVERY settlement and then pull your armies back behind your borders with 1 stationed near every Ritual site.
@Aginor use Wind Blast instead of Comet it is cost less winds and does massive damage. As for the Skaven skirmishers, well the best way I've been able to kill them is to out skirmish them with Chameleons and Javelin Cohorts, the Missile Resist and shield should allow you to out trade them. If they are just Slingers than it is absolutely worth committing Cold Ones or Skinks to chasing them as they can only shoot forward so if they are running away they are not shooting.

 

[Aginor]

build the garrison buildings in EVERY settlement

Ok that's good for me since I always do that anyway.

use Wind Blast instead of Comet it is cost less winds and does massive damage.

I use both actually. I prefer windblast for the reasons you named, but its range is short so if I have to do some damage on a few huddled up units that are further away I use the comet.
"Curse of the Midnight Wind" (or a similar name, I play the game in German) is also a nice spell. If you buff your own guys with Harmonic Convergence and then debuff their enemies with the Midnight Wind then one unit of Saurus Warriors with shields can tank several Skaven units without problems. That combo has saved my army at least twice already when I was in an ambush battle and one of the flanks was in serious problems.

Javelin Cohorts

My problem with those guys is that their ammo is too limited.

If they are just Slingers than it is absolutely worth committing Cold Ones or Skinks to chasing them as they can only shoot forward so if they are running away they are not shooting.

Ah, ok. I haven't noticed that yet, I thought they could shoot on the move.

The other thing about catching them (and not only chasing them) is at the end of the battle. I'd _SO_ like to kill some more of them but none of my units can catch them. And two rounds later the Skaven army has replenished them and attacks again. I can rarely kill a whole unit.

 

[Canas]

Which factions do you typically play?

I have attempted everything apart from the dark elves. I mostly play dwarfs, lizardmen and vampire counts.

What's your opinion on the Tomb Kings DLC?

It's a good DLC though I don't like the faction much. Also I don't like how their recruitment works untill you have quite a bunch of high tier cities. Normally you build a barracks and you can now recruit say greatswords at a cost of X and the cost Y to maintain. The tomb kings don't have recruitment or maintainence cost. Instead in this example building a barracks gives you acces to 2 units of greatswords.

This creates 2 issues. For starters their economy is very weird cuz of it. They don't need as much money which is great, but it can mean it'l take ages to build the next tier of your buildings as you just don't make much either. And also, these limits on how many of a certain unit you can recruit means that at the start of the game you just have armies filled with a million skeletons. And that'l stay that way till you have a couple of cities with decent buildings and can actually reqcruit enough elites to fill all your armies with something sensible.

I play on Normal difficulty but I am not very good in RTS games so that's hard enough for me.

But I will need an advice:
What should I do against Skaven playing a lot of slingers and other fast skirmishers?
They need a lot of time to kill my Saurus but I can never catch them. Not even with Skinks.
What units are best to hunt them down? Cold ones maybe? Terradons might work to catch them but they are so squishy.
Ignoring them works only to a certain degree as they keep harassing me.

But it sure is fun to fight in a 1:4 ratio and still win. It feels epic to slaughter those rats with Kroxigor or Saurus, or see their morale bars drop in seconds when dropping a Comet of Cassandora on 4 units at once while charging a Stegadon right into them.

Anything that isn't a saurus on foot should outrun the various skirmishers on foot. Mounted skirmishers will outrun kroxigors and bastiladons though.
In general skink cohorts with javalins will trade favourably with enemy skirmishers. They have shields and poison and tend to be a tad better in melee. And generally a unit of skinks has enough ammo to deal with 1 unit, or at least wound it enough that they can now easily take it in melee. Especially once you have some technologies for em. Don't have skinks deal with dedicated ranged troops though, elven archers or skaven poison globes will annihilate them at range, though your skinks will probably win the melee depending on the tier of elven archers.

Don't try to trade against ranged troops with terradons though, terradons are far too squishy. So far the only use I've found for terradons is taking firebola's and having them hover above a big blob of enemies (preferably elites) and just bomb them. They're useless for pretty much anything else.

As for guarding your empire during the rituals, the only way I've found to somewhat help is to build the garrison buildings in EVERY settlement and then pull your armies back behind your borders with 1 stationed near every Ritual site.

I've had them spawn in the middle of 3 cities at which point they'd just make a beeline to whichever of the cities I haven't got an actual army stationed in and sack that. This ruined that particular save as it broke my economy beyond repair regardless of which city I tried to protect

The other thing about catching them (and not only chasing them) is at the end of the battle. I'd _SO_ like to kill some more of them but none of my units can catch them. And two rounds later the Skaven army has replenished them and attacks again. I can rarely kill a whole unit.

Try to attack armies twice in a row in the same turn. If an army gets defeated twice in a row in the same turn it disbands. Saves you a whole lot of killing

 

[Aginor]

Don't try to trade against ranged troops with terradons though, terradons are far too squishy. So far the only use I've found for terradons is taking firebola's and having them hover above a big blob of enemies (preferably elites) and just bomb them. They're useless for pretty much anything else.

I've seen a youtuber who used them rather effectively for chasing artillery. That's what I am going to try as well as soon as I have some of them.

Try to attack armies twice in a row in the same turn. If an army gets defeated twice in a row in the same turn it disbands. Saves you a whole lot of killing

Yeah, sure. I just had spent most of my move every time so that didn't work.
Maybe I have to try and ambush them...

 

[Canas]

I've seen a youtuber who used them rather effectively for chasing artillery. That's what I am going to try as well as soon as I have some of them.

Chasing artillery works provided the artillery can't aim effectivly at the terradons or if you can fight em in melee if it has a humanoid artillery crew. If the artillery can effectivly shoot at em or is crewed by something more vicious the terradons won't manage though.

Yeah, sure. I just had spent most of my move every time so that didn't work.
Maybe I have to try and ambush them...

Try driving them into a corner using 2 (or more) armies & possibly even the threat zone of a city. It can be a pain but will eventually work. Take into account the natural terrain and you should eventually manage. Skills and technologies that increase marching distance help a lot there.. Alternativly, have most of your armies guard your cities and just take his. Eventually he'l run out of money and will be forced to assault one of your heavily fortified cities and kill himself

Also, against skaven, intercepting them in the underground battles is a very effective way of getting rid of em since the loser there Always gets destroyed.