Total War: General discussion.

Veering away from the topic of DLC and microtransactions, is anyone still playing Rome: Total War via Steam? I got a question for ya:

• Can you still access the "RomeShell" console via the tilde (~) key and input cheats, or does that trigger Valve's Anti-Cheat system?

Just tried it. Can confirm that the Rome shell still functions. Once I remembered the money code I gave myself 40000 extra denarii at the start of a Julii campaign.

Nice... Back when I had a non-Steam version of Rome, I remember starting a Brutii game for kicks and input money and insta-build cheats, allowing me to build up the starter cities to their highest levels on the first turn ("Editor" title for your family members aside), and then unlock the Marian units next turn. Plus, they also had veterancy upgrades thanks to the max-level temples of Mars (+3 chevrons) and Juno (+2 chevrons), IIRC.

However, if you manually edit the text file that controls what factions are unlocked, does that trigger VAC instead? (As I recall, that triggers if certain critical game files are changed.)

New game announced

Of course it's an April's Fools joke.

ToB's full list of unit roster names.

Just pre-ordered it today, along with buying Empire Divided.

I think for the next few weeks I'm going to go through the entire history of the Roman Empire. I'll do the Grand Campaign first, taking a break at some point to play Caesar in Gaul, then Hannibal at the Gates, then after the Marian Reforms proc I'll do the Imperator Augustus campaign, then after I beat the base Grand Campaign I'll play Empire Divided.

Following that, I'll start a WRE campaign in...Attila.

That's a lot of Rome...

Be sure to start by pledging Senātus Populusque Rōmānus and end it with yelling Roma Invicta!

@theLibrarian: Lemme guess... You're finally getting the "complete experience" from Rome II and Attila after paying (arguably) exorbitant amounts of money for their DLCs. (Sorry, that's the "Jimquisitor" side of me speaking. Also, the lack of events where DLCs are sold at a discount reeks of avarice.)

Well, I've also done a restarted version of my old Julii campaign, as I have a habit of making a save file first every time I start a campaign. Originally meant as a patch 18 interim game while I waited for some mods to update to patch 19, the mod updates were fairly swift and it has since become a patch 19 game—with upgrades for that patch's titular Desert Kingdoms.

Currently, the Masaesyli (Numidia) are conquering the Libyan faction in Africa after liberating Carthage at Iol from the Gaetuli. (That's after I took the city of Carthage from the OG Carthaginians and Thapsus from Syracuse. Side note: Also unified Magna Graecia as well.)

Perhaps now I could get that "Pontifex Maximus" achievement, which I didn't get in my first Roman playthrough (despite building a Pantheon) because it was apparently bugged.

...Hannibal At The Gates is...odd to play, really. All the client states make things weird, not to mention the other barbarian tribes that are already fighting both Carthage and I.

I've gotten the hang of three-way wars back when I was playing as the Seleucids, with the other two enemies being Rome and the Boii. Granted, I was using a game mod that allowed me to field 250 armies (and I haven't even maxed that out), had another game mod that increased income and reduced upkeep + food consumption, and the Boii were losing bad to Rome, but still. However, I wouldn't do a three-way war in vanilla since the Imperium limits, reduced income and political intrigue feels like playing with your hands tied.

On the bright side, I just love getting unique levied units from client states/satrapies that I know can complement my faction's army builds. Like long-range archers or slingers complementing Roman legions. (Well, Rome could get auxiliary troops if they conquer a region, but they stand to lose out on some useful unique units that could be levied if they vassalized the rival faction instead.) On the downside, newly-created vassals can rebel at a drop of a hat whenever another faction sneezes on you.

As for declaring war on a vassal without dragging in its "big brother," find another faction that's already at war with said vassal and offer to "join the war" against that vassal. (With a request for payment if you're feeling extra cheeky. However, forego that if you just want the deal to be accepted.) Congratulations, you are now at war with that vassal without its "big brother" declaring war on you (at least for a turn or two).

Also, the only reason why I would want to get Hannibal at the Gates is to get a much-needed official roster expansion for Carthage in the Grand Campaign. I've observed that the poor buggers always get their arse handed to them by the Syracuseans since the latter get pike units much earlier than Carthage. (Pikemen is Tier II, African Pikemen is Tier III.) I'm guessing the Mercenary Scutarii and Mercenary Scutarii Cavalry even the playing field against Syracusean pikes.

edited 8th Apr '18 11:22:27 PM by IncognitoNinja

The Vikings have landed! Thrones of Brittania has released!

ARGH I downloaded it but can't play it until later tonight.

Well be sure to tell me what you think, the reviews make it sound seriously skub.

...Skub?

Ah, okay. So it's good.

edited 3rd May '18 5:34:31 PM by theLibrarian

No, it's an metaphor for things that are very divisive...probably oddly.

I'm not sure if this is a real screenshot◊

edited 3rd May '18 5:57:24 PM by VutherA

So, played a few hours of this. Some things:

The loyalty mechanic is super annoying, as is the lack of a garrison for most minor settlements, though it still means that you have to focus more on destroying your enemy's armies rather than taking their settlements.

The estates mechanic is also rather obtuse, especially since you start off with most of them already in other people's hands and you don't even know what they do when they belong to your ruler.

Politically, having to deal with so many vassals as Wessex is also rather irritating. There's four of them at the start and you have to keep up with all of them, which is made even more difficult when you can't control what they do in a war.

On the upside I do enjoy the battles. The shield castle is quite helpful as a force multiplier, and even when I was drastically outnumbered in a losing battle I was still able to inflict a lot of damage. At the same time, however, the game seems to drag because you have to let your units actually build up to their full strength.

I'll probably be able to form more opinions as I start over again, possibly somewhere that isn't Wessex. Maybe Mercia.

edited 3rd May '18 10:24:22 PM by theLibrarian

Started my first campaign as Suðreyar and I get the feeling I did something wrong - while Dublin (the other Sea King faction) got to vassalise/annex the other Irish Norse via events, I'm still bordered by two Norse neighbours I started next to and made alliances with early on.

Turns out that diplomatic vassalisation seems to be even more broken than confederating in previous titles.

So at some point I just said "screw it" and am now slowly annexing former allies, one at a time.

I also reached the endgame, having gotten every victory type except Ultimate Victory - well, guess who just came knocking.

That's gonna be fun.

Blah, Blah, Blah... Hoping to see a sale for the other historical Total War titles and their DLC to coincide with the release of Thrones of Britannia. Blah, Blah, Blah... There's none.

Blah Blah Blah... I'm not mad, just disappointed.

Anyway, what's the word on the street? Compared to Rome II's day-one release, is Thrones of Britannia less buggy?

Only bug I’ve seen is a bit of a delay in the front ranks when you give the Shield Castle order but other than that everything seems good so far.

Post-launch plans for ToB.

Gist of it is making the game harder, basically.

Once more, the quintessential question comes at the fore:

Is Thrones of Britannia worth it or not?

edited 11th May '18 1:50:27 PM by raziel365

I played it for a few hours one night and hen got distracted by Battletech, so I’m not really the sort of person to decide that.

Pros:

• Fantastic art direction, easily the equal of Shogun 2. The music, UI and use of period-accurate names really bring the setting alive. The new sound design makes the battles feel so real that I'm now actually weirded out by how quiet they are in the previous titles.
• The new recruitment system is a touch of brilliance. You have a limited recruitment pool for each unit type, and each one recruited starts out at a fraction of its full strength and must be mustered over several turns. This really gives the battles a real hard-edged quality to them, since more often than not you'll have to fight with whatever ragtag force you could scrounge up instead of the elite doomstacks you'd find in the other games.
• The new minor settlement and food system forces you to field your troops strategically and gives you a lot of options in waging an economic war against your foes. This, alongside the new recruitment system, colours your conflicts with a good mixture of small-scale skirmishes and raiding actions instead of the same old pitched battles.
• Siege maps are bigger and feel properly lived-in.
• The family tree and skill lines for your characters feel right. I'm not sure how to compare it to the previous titles, but it just does.
• All the factions feel different and unique, both in battle and on the campaign map.
• Very well-optimised, runs much better than Attila (though not as good as WH1)

Cons:

• No proper tutorial, so even though the game is relatively easy overall, the initial learning curve is pretty steep.
• The AI is slightly dumber than usual, for some reason.
• Your lands are divided into estates, which can be increased with special buildings. Estates belong to your king by default, giving him influence points. Every time a general or governor dips in loyalty, you assign them an estate for a few points' increase. I find this a pretty shallow and tedious approximation of the feudal system.
• It's too easy. Diplomacy is pretty simple for most factions, buildings and upgrades are really cheap, stat debuffs tend to be weak, and enemies generally lack the aggression to really threaten your position. There's an endgame event where your kingdom gets invaded by the Norse or the Normans (think of the Huns in Attila or the Chaos invasion in WH1), but even then it's only a handful of stacks made up of relatively green units.

YMMV on whether it's worth the full price, but I've been thoroughly enjoying it so far, and I plan to play all of the factions eventually. If you're just not that interested in the setting, wait till the next sale.

Not to mention that vassalisation is just as opaque as confederating in other titles was.

I wish confederating was still a thing here. I’m always annoyed not having places under my direct control for ease of organization.