Total War: Warhammer 2

Soldato
Joined
22 Nov 2009
Posts
13,252
Location
Under the hot sun.
There are some major problems with the game, namely the vortex mechanic being a bit rubbish, intervention armies being useless or unfair, battle AI being crap, and AI army compositions being silly to name some of the biggest. If you read the official forums you will get details. :)

Vortex mechanic, doesn't matter you can bypass it. That includes intervention armies, depends what they hit. Skaven are easier to beat to with 10,000 gold army, the rest are tougher.

Battle AI have you set it up to VH difficulty on battle AI? (thats a hidden slider behind the button on the screen you set up the campaign difficulty)
AI army compositions, yes is a known issue and has to do with the "power weight" of the units, and the AI ignores the templates. But that easy to fix.

However AI is generally vastly improved over before, and especially over TWW1.
 
Caporegime
Joined
8 Sep 2005
Posts
27,421
Location
Utopia
Vortex mechanic, doesn't matter you can bypass it. That includes intervention armies, depends what they hit. Skaven are easier to beat to with 10,000 gold army, the rest are tougher.

Battle AI have you set it up to VH difficulty on battle AI? (thats a hidden slider behind the button on the screen you set up the campaign difficulty)
AI army compositions, yes is a known issue and has to do with the "power weight" of the units, and the AI ignores the templates. But that easy to fix.

However AI is generally vastly improved over before, and especially over TWW1.
We shall have to agree to disagree over those not being seen as issues. And the AI blobs more than WTW1 in battles even on very hard.
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Jun 2006
Posts
5,225
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
I'm really enjoying it. Dark Elves were fun, but I moved over to Lizardmen after some comments by my brother. I'm not a big fan of skirmishers, though - and so the skinks annoy me. Finding myself with a Saurus/Dinosaur heavy army. That's just my style, I guess. I might try the skink hero though (as per above posts).

Have to agree on the Vortex thing - it just seems a bit dull and lifeless - like they added something on to make it more exciting - but it doesn't work for me. I'm pleased it gives me a few missions but they could have flavoured them another way and it would have made little difference.

After 60 turns with HE to begin with, I've moved on to others, primarily as I love the standard Inf/Cav/Arc/Art builds they have - and I love their look. I'll be using them once the combined map comes out.

Also, the Workshop is up - and Radious is already out. They must have had some serious headstart time to get that done already!
 
Soldato
Joined
8 Jan 2007
Posts
3,288
Location
Cognac, France
I'm about 80 turns into High Elves and really enjoying it! I agree on the vortex thing being a bit crap, I'm sure it'll change with a patch or mod.

One instance of dumb AI I've noticed is the Pyrotechnics faction hasn't moved from the west of the isle (whatever the elven land is called) and I've managed to level a noble agent to 24 by constantly attacking them.

I'm about to wipe out/confederate the other elves and then go to another continent once the isle is secure. Not sure where to go though, I may go for the lizardmen.
 
Caporegime
Joined
8 Sep 2005
Posts
27,421
Location
Utopia
Also, the Workshop is up - and Radious is already out. They must have had some serious headstart time to get that done already!
Yeah, I have Steel Faith II running along with a few UI and graphical mods and it's a definite improvement, however I am rapidly losing interest in even playing the game in anything less than custom battles until Mortal Empires and the other empires are released. I still stand by my view that even though CA told us ME would come later, it made what should have been a great release a complete disappointment given how weak the Vortex mechanic really is.

If only they had focused on the ME map and campaign from the start, and released the game with the combined map and all races, it would have been a triumphant release. Until then, I can't help but feel like I am playing half the game I paid for.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Aug 2007
Posts
29,077
I really didnt get on with the Vortex campaign at all, just seemed like a very poorly thought out campaign, a placeholder almost. To be fair though, I bought it mainly for the ME map and thats the one I will wait for, until then I will shelve the game whilst I play through a couple of other titles that I have on the go.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Jan 2007
Posts
4,223
Location
Returning video tapes
I bought this mainly as a heavy duty stress test for my system, as it's the only game I currently play that isn't modded to the eyeballs and as such I could rule it out as the cause of my systems occasional instability. That's still an ongoing investigation, but at least the WH2 is turning out to be quite enjoyable.

After 60 turns of the High Elves to get a feel of things, I gave in to temptation and indulged my inner Dark Elf and now I'm going full ham and carving up the icy wastes of Naggaroth.

With all the extra features, I'm certainly looking forward to the revamping of the Old World and the Mortal Empires DLC.
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Oct 2004
Posts
13,378
Yeah I'm not a big fan of the vortex campaign, you don't even need to race to the end, just beat the final battles the other races get to and that's it. Still enjoying the game and once all the dlc and mods are more finalised it'll be great.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 May 2010
Posts
22,376
Location
London
Still on the fence with this. I love strategy games and the Total War series seems to be up my street but didn't enjoy Rome 2 or Shogun 2.

Just felt the game was aimless. :confused: You campaign once then what? Do it again?

Is this tighter? I.e it has a distinct story line?

It's probably just me being neurotic but the total War series seems to be like a single player 'multiplayer game'.

What I mean by that is a game like BF1, you have years of online play ahead of you.

The total War series is a similar premise but you are always playing single player campaigns with different factions.... (I know there is online too)

I just need a strategy game with a tighter start and finish.

I'll probably still get it as it looks good, just hope I don't regret it.

I'm planing to start with the first one, just because. Play through each races campaign and then move on to two.

When the new unifying map games out to join the first and second games are we talking new campaigns?
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
13 May 2007
Posts
8,209
Location
London
When the new unifying map games out to join the first and second games are we talking new campaigns?

There aren't multiple campaigns per se. The wood elves (dlc faction) in the first one have their own smaller campaign but otherwise it's the grand campaign (i.e. conquest sandbox) with each factions unique playstyles (i.e. beastmen nomadic horde).

Warhammer 2 has a more focused campaign storyline but you can still get away without doing it (and it's nothing to write home about). Total war strength has always been its sandbox nature of the campaign. I'd suggest based on what you've said you might not enjoy it.
 
Caporegime
Joined
20 May 2007
Posts
39,701
Location
Surrey
Personally, I am really enjoying this. I even think the vortex thing is quite good. Doesn't really hinder you playing it the normal way really.

I am playing dark elves for this and I think they are a great faction what with the slaves mechanic and black arc etc.

Looking forward to the Mortal Empires release as well.

My only gripe really (and this goes for the whole of the total war series) is that I WISH they would one day solve the framerate bogging down when zooming in on large amounts of units fighting. No doubt it is difficult as that sort of thing is hugely cpu intensive but I live in hope that one day you will be able to play a total war game and zoom in and out on as large a battles as you like and stay at 60fps.

It is a shame as my 1080Ti is barely breaking a sweat in battles all maxed at 1440p (except for AA which just totally destroys performance). Without the cpu bottleneck, I would be easily staying at 60fps with this card.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 May 2010
Posts
22,376
Location
London
I bought the first one and initial impressions are it's fun.

Opening battle as the dwarfs I had to exit and do again as the game ground to a halt (I could still pan around and the game was still playing audio) but the units had frozen for some reason.)

Playing at default ultra settings at 1440p I'm getting 85fps in the benchmark so it isn't performance.

One thing I dislike is the amount of paid DLC buttons there are.... :o
 
Soldato
Joined
28 Jun 2006
Posts
5,225
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
So, what mods are people running in their games, if any?

Despite my love for the Team Radious mods, I've not installed them yet. I want to try the game as the developers have intended first - and I'll mod it later. At the moment, I'm running a mod which gives a movement boost in your own region, and a skill point boost for bosses, but otherwise it's the basic game.

Also, the more I read about the Mortal Empires map, the happier I get. It sounds absolutely massive - almost double the number of cities and factions compared to WH1!
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Nov 2007
Posts
5,613
Location
England
So, what mods are people running in their games, if any?

Despite my love for the Team Radious mods, I've not installed them yet. I want to try the game as the developers have intended first - and I'll mod it later. At the moment, I'm running a mod which gives a movement boost in your own region, and a skill point boost for bosses, but otherwise it's the basic game.

Also, the more I read about the Mortal Empires map, the happier I get. It sounds absolutely massive - almost double the number of cities and factions compared to WH1!

I'm so hyped waiting for it. Hope it comes out before the end of November but the sooner the better.
 
Caporegime
Joined
8 Sep 2005
Posts
27,421
Location
Utopia
Soldato
Joined
28 Jun 2006
Posts
5,225
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
This is a cool PC Gamer article about the new combined campaign. It also talks about release date which to summarise is basically very soon.

http://www.pcgamer.com/how-total-wa...s-campaign-plans-to-glue-both-games-together/
That was an interesting article, thanks for the link.

Between that and the announcement I found yesterday, I'm happy to wait. Interested to see how they've contorted the world to make it more playable on such a large map - since I'm no die hard WH fan, I'm not overly bothered about whether it's accurate or not - just whether it plays well. In all fairness, I think the WH2 map is just about right, but the size of it still has a few areas of issue with regards to distance between settlements. The southern continent with the Last Defenders on it has one particularly nasty area of jungle which is a pain to navigate - yes, I know it's jungle, but it's a pain - even to those who live there. I think I've solved my issues there by just taking over anywhere nearby.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Nov 2007
Posts
5,613
Location
England
I really love how CA have spun this as a "free update" when it was always the integral planned feature of the series all along, without it the series would be a dud. They have some good marketing guys.

If I were being completely honest I still would have bought Total War: Warhammer 2 even if there wasn't going to be a patch combining the two games. The thing with most Total War games is they generally get a lot better as DLC is added to them.

Having said that I still go back and play the early games from time to time.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 May 2010
Posts
22,376
Location
London
Well I'm only playing the first game on easy as the Dwarves but this is the first total War game I am actually enjoying.

Taking my time to learn the mechanics of the game. Even on easy I am getting my butt handed to me ever now and then.

I win maybe 8/10 fights, but then there are occasions where I am getting attacked and I cant retaliate as I'm too far away and chaos are harassing me, so it's by no means easy.

Easy helps when the fights are balanced or I am slightly outnumbered I can probably pull off a win but I'm learning so I don't mind.

---

Things I've learnt regrading the campaign and empire management. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

I put my main recruitment buildings in my capital so I can upgrade them beyond tier 3 except for the barracks as you can only upgrade that up to tier 3 any way. I put things like siege workshop, armoury, etc in capital and use the other provinces for cash and growth.

---

As I am am still learning I am trying diffident things like gyrocopters, slayers basically any unit I haven't tried, but I realise that the way the provinces are organised there isn't enough space to get everything.

There seems to be a lot of different unit types!

---

Games are long tho. According to steam I have 13hrs on the clock and I am only on turn 100 I think. I am still trying to take the south of the map.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom