Total War: General discussion.

I'm back to old school Total War. I just got the Medieval II bundle on Steam so I have Kingdoms too. It's still fun after all these years. I'm playing the HRE, and kicking Venice's ass with very few units. I wiped out two armies with just a couple generals and a couple town militia units.

Milan and Venice are super easy to curbstomp, because they're among the first European factions to declare war on the Pope. Like, in a hard campaign, by turn thirty or so. Allying with the Papal States and joining a crusade against them is basically free papal favor.

edited 8th Sep '15 5:45:06 AM by CrimsonZephyr

The HRE is pretty much going to be at war with Venice and Milan for much of its campaign, unless you don't accept their peace treaties.

I was hoping to forestall that war long enough to wipe out Denmark and secure the North, but it's fine. I simply turned around my Denmark invasion force and am going to use it to secure a border with the Byzzies instead. As for now, I just got done playing two hours as England. Took everything but Caernarvon, and will secure that soon enough. Bringing longbows into Ireland was a good move, since they were able to cripple the Gallowglasses before they could be too much of a threat.

I remember during my first HRE game I once tried to be clever and make an entirely gunpowder army to invade Ireland with. Unfortunately gunpowder and cannons has nothing compared to sheer Irish fury xD

Yeah . . . this game comes before gunpowder weaponry was refined enough to actually run an entire army. You won't get that until repeaters and machine guns are invented. Even into the Civil War they were still coming to blows with bayonets and cavalry sabers more often than not.

Yeah. The earliest (timewise) game you can make a viable all-gunpowder army is Shogun 2.

Yeah, because if you do Matchlock Samurai you can have a relatively balanced force since they're just as good in melee as they are at range.

Matchlock Samurai are the front line. I'm talking about Hojo Fire Rockets.

Empire can be won with all-gunpowder armies, you just have to have the right bayonets and carbines.

I did mention that Shogun 2 was the earliest "timewise." Should have been more specific - I meant Shogun 2 was in the 1500s. Empire's set in the 1700s.

(And of course, going rifle-and-gatling in Fall of the Samurai is expected.)

Oh no, I know what you meant. I was just saying it's also possible in Empire, with the right tech.

What's everyone's favorite Kingdoms campaign? Mine's probably Americas, though I definitely love elements of every one of them.

Teutonic one.

It's a shame most computers are probably too good for Medieval II nowadays. I'd like to play it again.

I got it on Steam. It doesn't matter what MOST computers are too good for. It just matters what your specific system can run. And mine has no issue running it, despite only being a couple of years old.

I like the New World. I split my time between Spanish conquering and Apache expansion. But I'm currently on a Teutonic run as the Teutonic Order, and having fun breaking Lithuania. Mangonels are awesome when they actually hit.

I wish creative assembly would change the rules for what's considered a pyrrhic victory.

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edited 16th Sep '15 4:46:26 AM by Kzickas

You did lose more than half your men though.

I think you get close victory if your losses are 25%-49% iirc.

While this◊ is how you get a decisive victory.

I know, and I know that the actual Pyrrhus quote is about not being able to afford another such victory. But connotationally the term doesn't really fit a desperate last stand where any victory is a miracle. And that's the only situation I ever see it come up. I wish they'd add a requirment that the winning side should not have started much weaker than the loser in order to get it.

So yesterday I was playing the Great War Mod for NTW. I was laying siege to Brussels when a tiny cavalry regiment attacked me, forcing me to attack both it and the massive German force I was besieging. The cavalrymen were annihilated by my mortar fire, but then, the main army showed up to the side. Marching in the closest thing TW would allow for column formation. In close order.

That day, the German Empire learned what the French Empire had learned on the battlefields of Waterloo. But with bolt-action rifles.

And he'll shed the blood of the Saxon Men.

That reminds me, I need to actually try and get through an Atilla campaign. I've got too many games to play xD

Sounds like they're really trying to compete with Paradox. First they incorporate features more like Paradox's grand strategy games, now they're covering the same time frame as the second to last major expansion to CK 2.

I'd grab Attila but I don't like when the time limits are so small.

Well thanks to Sabaton I have a new favourite faction in ETW.

I prefer Prussia, myself.

edited 9th Mar '16 5:13:17 PM by theLibrarian

I love how Britain can win the main campaign in ETW without really having to set foot on Europe that much. Just conquer India (easy) and America (easy) and build up that cash from trade and then zerg the fuck out of Spain and France — boom, 45 territories.

Prussia has Magikarp Power — amazing army, but like one trade port, two noncontiguous territories, and enemies in every direction. Plus, fucking Britain is never willing to trade those intellectualism techs that you have to forgo researching because your army needs to be badass.

EDIT: Also, earlier discussion. Favorite Medieval II campaign is Kingdoms, playing as either Ireland or England.

edited 9th Mar '16 5:59:36 PM by CrimsonZephyr