Total War: General discussion.

tri-A-ri-I

You don't even need to be Greek; just pick up mercenaries from the Hellenic areas.

Get some mercenary hoplites and Cretan archers and you're good to go.

So, if you're familiar with TW: Attila, then the Medieval Kingdoms: 1212 AD mod Open Alpha released on the 12th, and I've thought about giving it a shot. Just a question from anyone familiar with the mod: Which faction would be the best/easiest to start with?

No idea, but gonna jump into it this weekend. Just choose the one whose aesthetics fit you best.

Alright, I'm 50 turns in as the County of Toulouse, and here are my impressions so far:

• The faction selection screen is a bit messy. Wonder what happened to the one they showed in the videos. The faction flags are the coolest things ever, though.
• The papal favour system is neat, but the deadlines are juuust a bit unreasonable. Three turns to construct a religious building while all my cities are under siege? Ten turns to take Cairo? Still, it's an amazing achievement on the modders' part, and I can't wait for other stuff like the HRE electoral system to be implemented.
• My frontline of Spear Serjeants, in spear wall formation, got completely demolished by a frontal charge from French knights on my very first battle. Either something's up with the balance, or they really, really hated Catharism.
  • Thematically, though, I don't really mind. Cavalry charges were historically a psychological tactic meant to unnerve the enemy into running before the actual impact, so it might be the best way we could model that dynamic with lower-tier infantry.
• There seem to be no campaign objectives yet other than the Fifth Crusade and the papal errands, so it's mostly just about painting the map for now.
  • Diplomacy with the other Catholic states get super easy once you join a crusade, even though you're supposed to be filthy Cathars and a crusade target yourself. Not sure whether I want that to change.
• I also really like the way each region now acts as a full-fledged province. It mirrors the decentralised nature of power in western Eurasia during the period, and allows you to develop each one to their full potential.
• I'm a tiny bit weirded out by the way some faction names use loanwords with direct English translations ("Knyazate" instead of "Princedom", "Malikate" instead of "Kingdom"), but it adds to the flavour, I guess.

Scotland, Sweden, Norway and Saxony seem to have incomplete rosters at the moment, so I'm hoping that they'll get fleshed out in future updates. And I can't wait to give the steppe factions a try - Volga Bulgaria have some of the coolest-looking units in the game, even if they have to face the Mongol invasion right at the beginning of the campaign.

Honestly, I'm pretty sure CA totally could try to model cavalry so it's a lot more often a rear-charge alone from them breaks infantry before the charge ever connects. The game's already got morale bonuses/penalties from having allies/enemies up a unit's flanks, so it shouldn't be too hard for them to also add in a big morale penalty "Rear being charged by cavalry/shock cavalry", but they obviously haven't been interested in doing so.

Man if they could program in a toggle for cavalry harassing infantry units via continuously circling and striking at them instead of just getting stuck in like any old melee unit...*drools*

Guess we'll have to wait for skirmish mode to work consistently first >_>

Edited by VutherA on Dec 21st 2019 at 4:29:56 AM

For the first time, I've finished a campaign in Rome 2 Total War◊!

The glorious Macedonian Republic stretches from the deserts of Northern Africa to the mountains of Iran. Our state has managed to unite the disparate interests of many peoples and elite families in a system that will no doubt last many centuries to come. Through force of arms and the structure of our laws, Pax Macedonia will reign eternal!

The Sons of Alexander rule once more.

Press F for Pancratius, was a year off from seeing the glory of Alexander be reclaimed

That reminds me, I’ve wanted to do a Macedonia campaign of my own at some point.

The S.P.Q.R.'s blunder in my Rome 1 Greek campaign gave me my quickest victory in a grand campaign yet. Won in 233 BC (so around 75 turns) when it usually takes me at least 20 years longer.

Edited by Resileafs on Dec 24th 2019 at 9:58:31 AM

All right so you all of course know about how running from the battlefield is a SHAMEFUR DISPRAY!

Well it turns out his voice actor that I didn't even know the name of until now probably knows how popular that was because he's got it in a dedicated clip for it in his voice demos. Everything else is at least 30 seconds long, but declaring that AWAH MEN ARE RUNNING FROM DA BATTLEFIELD! SHAMEFUR DISPRAY! only needs 5.

Give it a listen if you got a second, less than 60 listens!? That's!...well, you know.

Edited by VutherA on Jan 6th 2020 at 4:43:05 AM

Currently having my toughest campaignin Rome 1 yet, playing as Carthage. I think I took over Rome too early and should have went up the boot instead of going for the big city first, as I keep getting full stack Julii armies trying to take over (even got bribed once. I have never been so angry at an AI than when that happened) with no chance to replenish my numbers between attacks. I finally have my Sacred Bands into play though, so I think I'm no longer in any danger.

Iberia's a different matter though. I don't have access to my elites there, and the Gauls are putting on a fierce fight, sending some pretty massive armies my way. Thankfully their cities have such poor growth I doubt they can keep that up for long.

Interestingly, the Macedonians have taken over the Balkans, completely dominating the Romans there. I've never fought a strong Macedonia AI army before, so I'm pretty eager to see what they're going to be able to do when we clash.

China is a place plenty big enough for more mechanics! (and militia + ranged units nerfs)

Edited by VutherA on Jan 14th 2020 at 1:25:46 PM

Nice changes. The Empire changes are particularly interesting, and should make becoming emperor a much more involved affair.

Hell yeah. The indirect rule system is going to give "tall" factions like Kong Rong a much more interesting endgame.

Yeah, fits with historical China too where regional governors could basically just do whatever.

Man R2's Iberian Swordsmen are hilarious flankers. You don't need great melee attack when you have 600 javelins

The Iberians are pretty flexible and have good offense, their problem is that they can’t hold their ground too much, even with their Scutari.

I wish there was a Greek-Iberian faction in R2 like Massalia and Cimmeria.

Why need anvil when hammer kills enemy fine and anvil too heavy to lift anyway?

Cimmeria is part of the Black Sea Colonies DLC, and it's Greco-Scythian rather than Greco-Iberian. Its native roster isn't very big, but it's pretty cool to field high-end hoplites alongside horse archers.

I’m aware, Massalia is Greco-Gallic like Cimmeria is Greco-Scythian, hence the comparison.

Edited by raziel365 on Jan 26th 2020 at 2:30:27 AM

Ah, gotcha - thought you were labelling Massilia as Greco-Iberian for whatever reason.

Gotta admit that the Iberian factions have always been the least appealing to me, but that's probably because the Romans ripped off so much of their aesthetics that they no longer seemed that cool to me (plus I've never been good with ambush/guerrilla factions). DeI gives them some amazing reskin, though.

There is a visceral pleasure in rolling over an entire Roman army with a group of chariots in Rome 1. The chain rout that happens is incredibly cathartic.