Total War: General discussion.

I'm kind of strapped for money right now so I can't buy Attila yet. Thankfully I bought the other Rome II campaigns before Attila came out so I can keep playing them before I pick up Attila.

I bought Attila, but my video card doesn't seem capable of handling it. So I guess I'll just get back to it once I feel like upgrading. Problem with that is that I know really, really little about computers, and always end up feeling/being ripped off in the end. Might be a while before I feel like going through that.

In the meantime, I've been playing a Medieval 2 campaign as Milan. I took pretty much all of Arabia and Egypt, so I got into a little trouble with the Mongols. Protip: do not engage the Mongols in open field. It will not end well.

After going through a bunch of costly battles and some raging when the Mongols spawned another bunch of doomstacks, I finally got smart and just set up shop on a river they had to cross. Five heroic victories later, all I had to do wa kill the last remaining family member, and it was done.

Not looking forward to the Timurids, who are supposedly the Mongols, except with cannons, elephants, elephants carrying cannons and probably cannons that fire elephants.

Oh well, at least Milan is a pretty cool faction. I like the strong militia units you get can as Italians. Also, musketeers. Those are fun to play with.

I've played HRE on a lot of my games, and Milan and Venice were two of the enemies I fought with most.

Yeah, I also played a campaign as England, and though I was supposedly allies with Milan, they still attacked me.

Then I read online that Milan has a bit of a Chronic Backstabbing Disorder when when under control of the AI.

edited 1st Apr '15 10:58:41 AM by Kayeka

I also once tried to play Portugal.

Yes, Portugal. I unfortunately never finished it xD

I play Atilla. Despite my hatred for the warscape engine, it's fun. Cinematic enough for me to enjoy the battles, challenging enough for me to enjoy the campaign. Saxons; kill the Franks, ASAP.

I'm torn between invading England as the Saxons and recreating the Carolingian Empire as the Franks XD

After successfully carving out an Alan Kingdom in the Levant, I think I muffed the Alans game by trying to go into Aegyptus. Because that is one big-ass province area-wise, one that a single army can't cover from any starting point. And trying to disengage myself from it just opened up room for the Nobatians to break out of their OPM status and bust into Palestine. I do not like getting myself into Vietnams.

Next game, I think I'll get me some Sass(anid). The Alans were fun, though - maybe next time I try them I'll do the two-Alan-nations thing.

Or I could make a Nordic Confederation and make Scandinavia (or at least what's there on the map) mine, then invade England.

Playing Shogun II for the first time - well, I started a Chokosobe campaign as a learning experience, then went ahead with a Shimazu campaign. I control Kyushu and Shikoku, my economy is thriving thanks to holding four trade routes, I'm saving up for the last tier of farm upgrades I've just about researched, and I've got four strong armies mopping up the Mori and Otomo on the southernmost part of the mainland.

But here's my question - a Black Ship trundled along the western side of the map, and I looked at the upkeep cost and decided it wasn't worth losing a fleet trying to capture it. But then two turns later one of my soon-to-be-rivals managed to snag it. Am I screwed? Should I reload an earlier save and try to get it, even if it means a Mori navy survives to plunder my trade routes for a few turns? Or should I throw my battered fleet at the battered ship and try to capture it, starting a war with the powerful Iwagama before my forces are in position?

Well, if you're Novgorod and bring enough mounted Boyars and Kazakhs, it's possible to out-Mongol the Mongols - man, that was a hell of a fight. But yeah, much easier to put some stakes at one end of a bridge or on the other side of a gate.

Or, y'know, get Stainless Steel, deploy Byzantine flamethrowers.

If you're not at war with the current owners of the Black Ship already, then it's not worth it. Let them have their price, so that their enemies can deal with it instead of you.

You can also do what I did and make all-cavalry armies of your own.

Anyway, yeah, the Black Ship is pretty tough to beat. I normally just waited it out, since eventually I'd get another event that the Black Ship was coming back, which I took to mean the first one was destroyed so another was being sent. While it's neutral you should just auto-resolve battles with it, since it won't heal, and when you get it down to a more manageable amount of guns and crew attack it with a big enough fleet and board it to capture it for yourself.

edited 3rd Apr '15 9:50:27 PM by theLibrarian

Gone back to Rome 2 recently, got Divide et Impera as well. Started a campaign as the Nervii, doing good, already had Brittania and most of northern Gaul, as well as western Germania. The Arverni are forced to expand southwest instead, while the Suebi are also expanding. Roma is now consolidating the Italian peninsula's northern approaches too.

Novgorod has the second best archers in the game, right behind the Mongols. Dvor archers are killers in the field.

Tried another Alan game, deciding that my old one was badly planned. Naturally, in this game I ended up blundering my way into an empire.

This time, I settled in Narbonensis (I am absolutely not playing the two-kingdoms game). Meanwhile, the Vandals had landed in Mediolanum and were cruisin' up through Gaul doing Vandal stuff. So, then I declared a petty war with a Roman revolter in Italia who had taken Florentia, because OP Ms in my fighting range are gettin' subjugated - and the Vandals dishonored their alliance.

So, I waited ten turns and just coincidentally seized part of Liguria while Italia took another part, and then when the truce expired I stole Mediolanum off the Vandals (who immediately bribed me for a peace-out - seriously, I get a lot of payola for peace). Meanwhile, the Gepids (who I had subjugated a while ago because they were there, and who the Huns razed to the ground shortly afterward) ended up in Italy for no reason I could figure out and started making themselves at home, taking Neapolis, Roma, Rhegium and Tarentum just like that.

And finally, I'd made a Defensive Alliance with some West Roman Separatists in Venetia, which lasted till they declared war on Italia. I promptly kicked them out of Venetia (they're currently doing something in Dalmatia) and they sued for peace.

So, bottom line, Rome's been kicked out of the boot (snicker). The north of Italy is Alan and the south is dominated by Alan vassals (the Ostrogoths have never settled anywhere, ironically enough) who survive so long as they buy my wine and olive oil. The Alan-Vandal alliance has collapsed, but I'm trying to work out an alliance with Britain because why not (they're the strongest power in Gaul, and after I burned the Separatists out of Venetia, they're the strongest Roman power aside from the Empires), and I'm getting ready to finally actually go after my victory conditions instead of rearranging the furniture in an abandoned house.

Stuck Attila and the blood pack into my Steam cart. I'm going to see how much it gets marked down during the summer to see if I'll buy any of the faction packs.

I see you got your priorities straight

Indeed :P Though I didn't buy it yet. I'm just waiting to see if it's on sale during the summer.

edited 12th Apr '15 8:00:24 PM by theLibrarian

The Gallic Confederation is getting bigger. The Arverni (the last remaining Gaul faction that is independent from us) eventually succumbed to the Turdetani, so I asked them to join us (after they have lost 3 of their 5 cities/towns), and they finally agreed. I then destroyed the Turdetani. So now I have 2/3s of Iberia, while only Massilia is left as not part of the Gallic Confederation in Gaul. The Suebi stupidly declared war (again) too, so they are no more and most of Germania is now ours.

Roma is an ally, but they're having some trouble with the Daorsi in Illyria (which I have a NAP with LOL). Eventually I'd have to "help" them though, i.e. get to Illyria first.

-ANTICIPATION INTENSIFIES-

So they really did go with the Total War brand, eh? Wished they'd go with Total Warhammer instead, but whatever.

The TW fan community are going to be so pissed. But, then again, "pissed" seems to be those guys' natural state, so why bother trying to appease them?

EDIT: I want to check out the Steam forums, but I'm actually kind of scared to. The whining of those dumbass "harcorezz" is going to be unbearable for days.

edited 22nd Apr '15 10:26:54 AM by Kayeka

Why are the Alans supposed to be a "hard" faction? Now that I've got the hang of them, they're so OP it isn't even funny. (Okay, maybe it's a bit gamey if you don't split the party at the very beginning.)

Idk, I'm playing the Saxons.

edited 8th May '15 9:39:01 AM by theLibrarian

Sounds cool. Are they an interesting faction to play?