Total Warhammer tips and tricks anyone?

[W8taminute]

Ok I broke down and finally bought the game however I'm asking myself just what did I get myself into?

This game is easy and difficult all at the same time.  Playing as the Orcs I go from rags to riches to rags again in the blink of an eye.  Just when I've reach my height of power an army, whether it be chaos or dwarf, appears out of no where and rapidly destroys my empire.  What makes matters worse is once you start on that spiral death dive you can't get out of it.  Rebellions start up and on top of the hordes of standard enemies knocking at your door you have to deal with independent rebel forces taking your cities away.  Your once friendly non-aggression partners turn on you and more enemies are killing you. 

So before I rage quit and smash my PC with a baseball bat has anyone got any good tips for just staying alive in this game?  I really don't like games that kill your empire in the blink of an eye with no chance to claw your way back so I must be missing something with this game. 

So my main problem seems to be the dwarfs.  How do you kill these annoying runts?  They seem to wear impenetrable armor and every battle I fight I end up losing 1500 men and succeed in killing a whopping average of 30 of their men. 

The easy part of this game is in the beginning where you can really grab a lot of land fast all while killing the initial opponent(s).  It's the early mid game when the unlimited hordes come out to play that's my problem.

I want to like this game.  I'm even tempted to get some of the DLC even though I was against this policy when I first heard what Sega was doing.  If this game however is hopeless to win because of unlimited hordes then I will never buy another Total War product again. 

[jomni]

Dwarves don't have cavalry. Their weakness is their slowness.
That said I only played the dwarves and finished the campaign with them.
I have no experience against them but I'm annoyed when faced with fast flanking maneuvered.

[Micha]

I had the same experience with "Pike and shoot ". A game with an outstanding optic. But even though i"ve playd in the lowest difficulty level i have lost almost every game. I have studyd the manual againe and againe, tryd different tactics but no chance. Sometimes i really wonder whats going on in the minds of some scenariomakers. Maybe they have an competition, who can make the hardest scenario. As i asked an scenariomaker from pike and shoot why the scenarios are so extremely hard he answered" If a scenario isnt hard you dont need to play."
I think in the lowest difficulty level every scenario should be winnable even if the player is a beginner to motivate him to stay in the game. After learning the game he can raise the level step by step.
For my part i"m totally frustrated from pike and shoot and dont touch it anymore.

[W8taminute]

jomni,


Interesting you mention the dwarves are slow.  I experimented a little last night changing my tactics a bit.  In the early game when unit types are few I found that catapults and light cavalry are what is required to stop the dwarves.  The challenge of fielding armies numerous enough to keep up with the ai still remains but I think I'm figuring that out.


Micha,

I agree with you.  There is no reason why new players (including hardcore strategy veterans) should be subjected to brutal punishment because some game creator thinks no one will like the game if he doesn't make it hard enough.  The problem is if you make the game impossible, even at the easy setting, you turn off your customers.  It seems to me that game creators have given up on making an ai that is smart and instead use tricks to make the game look hard.  Like setting the ai's units to have 4.5X10²⁰⁰¹ defense factor and give you weapons that have -100000 attack factor.  They then proudly boast that come play my game because you hardcore nerds will like it due to it's difficulty. 

[jomni]

That's why there are difficulty settings.  If you think normal is too hard, just lower it.  Nothing shamfur!  But that Pike and Shot is something.  Really hard scenarios. Good thing there's skirmish and that's all I play.
That's why we lowered the difficulty in Sengoku Jidai.

[Gusington]

What difficulty level do you play Sengoku Judai at Jomni?

[jomni]

What difficulty level do you play Sengoku Judai at Jomni?

Daimyo (fourth out of six).  This is roughly equivalent to the Major General (three out of five) in Pike and Shot.  This means we added another notch on the easy side.

[Gusington]

I figure I should probably not play on the same difficulty as you.

[jomni]

I figure I should probably not play on the same difficulty as you.

Yes play lower. There's no shame.
I'm now playing a tournament on P&S. lost all battles so far.

[Nefaro]

jomni,


Interesting you mention the dwarves are slow.  I experimented a little last night changing my tactics a bit.  In the early game when unit types are few I found that catapults and light cavalry are what is required to stop the dwarves.  The challenge of fielding armies numerous enough to keep up with the ai still remains but I think I'm figuring that out.

NOW you're starting to feel out the Dwarves' weakness.    :bd:

They're a damn tough, but slow, wrecking ball when you take them head-on.  But they're so slow that you can send in your own beefcakes, to hold them up for a short time, while sending everything you can around their flanks - attacking from the rear.  Which will make their "Leadership" drop much faster while fighting flanked, causing them to route earlier.  Win by maneuver vs dwarves or they'll chew you up.   ;)


If you're playing Greenskins, which isn't the easiest in the campaign IMO, then your biggest strength is the possible numbers you can put into the field at certain times.  When you get a WAAAAGH going, you'll get a whole 'nutha army of greenskins that will follow the original spawning army around.  They're a bit of a pain in the ass, getting the timing down right for attacks, because you basically issue a targeting order to it and the AI marches it around during your off-turn.  So it's difficult getting that down, especially against moving enemy armies.

Each faction has it's own strengths & weaknesses.  More so than previous Total Wars since it is high fantasy.  You know the "play to your.." drill.  \m/


You're still playing a relatively difficult campaign, though, running the Greenskins.  They take more finesse to maneuver their WAAAGH armies around on the map, and their biggest enemies are the Dwarf factions which have very tough infantry (mostly infantry, even).  So get around, or over, their flanks with your faster & flying troops and charge into their dwarf rears!  :arr:



As for revolts.. managing your newly conquered city's happiness ratings has always been a big thing in the Total War series.   Some buildings, research, and general/hero abilities will provide bonuses.  I always put a high priority on reducing city unrest because when you conquer and occupy an enemy city, it will start off low and have a big penalty that slowly ticks down over the next 20 turns.  With the proper resources & research, along with keeping a large army garrisoned there for awhile after conquering (it reduces unrest rating), you can get by without armies popping up. 

Just gotta keep your army there for awhile.. and especially don't immediately conquer another enemy city in the same province or the unrest penalties for the whole province will further plummet before the previous penalties are gone.

[Gusington]

Stay away from my dwarf rear.

[Nefaro]

Stay away from my dwarf rear.

I've already commanded the cavalry to penetrate the dwarf rear.

You're too late!  *evil laugh*

[jomni]

While playing Dwarf, the Greenskins actually do more pain on the strategic map than tactical.  Maybe a smart Geenskin player should actually aim to not directly fight in battles but slowly weaken the economy of the Dwarves first before a major confrontation with the main force.  i.e. Raid / capture settlements where the limited mobile armies are not present.  Though that's just my theory.