TW: Warhammer Noob Questions

Started by FarAway Sooner, August 10, 2017, 12:41:31 AM

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FarAway Sooner

So, I haven't played any of the TW series since Rome: TW, which I enjoyed but I found the battles just too monotonous.  I picked up TW: Warhammer during the Summer sale, and am now pulling my hair out as the Empire.  Having read 4 or 5 different strategy guides, and finding that I'm still clueless, I thought I'd ask one or two basic questions here and hope somebody will take pity on me without deluging me with spoilers. 

It's Turn 9.  I'm making a little Gold, but if I want to invest in Reikland's economy, I can't buy many more units.  I have built one full-size army (19 out of 20 troops) and it's killing everything I fight.  But I can only be one place at once. 

I have Beastmen that go rampaging through my countryside every 2 or 3 turns.  I have a Rebellion breaking out in one of my provinces, even though my Order is -24 (and improving by 7/turn).  And my plans to wage war on Greenskins or conquer those weenies in nearby Mariensberg mean my whole countryside gets raped.

Am I intended to hire a 2nd Lord and have smaller stacks in the early game?

Nefaro

#1
Quote from: FarAway Sooner on August 10, 2017, 12:41:31 AM


Am I intended to hire a 2nd Lord and have smaller stacks in the early game?

It would give more flexibility, but also entice you to buy more units.  On top of paying more for the extra leader. 

You are going to need a full-size army, before long, in order to take cities with a partial army garrisoned inside.  If you have two, or more, armies needing to combine for such an assault, you will have to learn how to position them for mutual support in doing so.  Same for keeping them together when fighting a larger enemy force.

At some point in the future, you will need more than one army commander.  The question is... is the extra cost warranted yet?  You can get away with little income for a short time if picking up that new general is needed to quickly take heavily defended cities; when you need to expand your number of troops past 20 to do so.  Since, after capturing said cities, your income should go up.

I try to use a main (full) army, with many of my better troop types, as an offensive one.  Eventually getting a new general, with a smaller & less capable army, as a mobile garrison force for defending my frontier cities.  When an enemy army is near enough to threaten one of my cities in the next turn or two, I'll send that smaller army to my nearest city and park it within the city's garrison support zone.  Which means if either the city or army is attacked, they will both have their troops in the ensuing battle (the garrison plus the small army).  If your defending army is decent sized, it can often be enough to dissuade them from invading that city, and they'll wander around elsewhere while you keep interceding with it like that.  Or they'll attack and you'll have a challenging open field battle, which is the most fun in any TW.

Then, when if you need more than one full army to assault a city, move that spare army over to support your main one in doing so.  Hopefully you can do it quick enough before the circling AI vulture armies notice your other cities have nobody to defend them other than a weak garrison.

Most of the building construction in TW:W is focused on unlocking troop types.  It doesn't have as much economic focus.  So that means income is rather important, and more difficult to get via construction, compared to previous TWs.  So you really don't have much to construct in that sense. and they don't upgrade very far in the long run.  But nice to have in a place you own for a long time.

I've never played the Empire faction in TW:W, therefore I don't know what their quests/missions grant you, as far as rewards go.  One may eventually give you a general for finishing.. no idea.  But that probably wouldn't be until later anyway.

bboyer66

Things I have learned playing Empire.

Take out the Empire seccesionists quickly.

Build a second lower quality army to garrison cities and support your main Army when up against large enemy forces.

Do not expand too quickly. Build up your initial cities and make gold production your number one priority.

Build walls around your towns. This increases the garrison and gives you some time to bring your armies in to fight whoever is besieging them.

Have your capital city concentrate on buildings that produce units that are important. Like the cavalry, armory, gunsmith, tech tree, Leave the gold, wheat and tavern production to your smaller towns.

In tactical battles put your cavalry and swordsman to the flanks. Steam tanks and your leader in the front middle spaced apart. Then handgunners behind them to supprt the tanks as the enemy gets stalled trying to encircle them. Arty should be in the rear except for helblaster volley guns which do the same supporting job as handgunners.

My optimal Army has 1 Leader, 1 Wizard, 4 greatswordsmen, 2 Halberdiers, 4 Demigryph Knights (2 with Halbreds to take on the Big Fuckin Monsters), 3 handgunners, 3 tanks,  2 Helstorm batteries.  It's ok to lose 1 knight or halberdier and put a Heleblaster volley Gun or an Outrider in its place. 

FarAway Sooner

Good stuff, guys.  Most of the marauding AI armies I've faced are 5 or 6 units, so I don't think I need total maintenance costs more than about 550 Gold (including 225 for my leader) to be able to whoop him.  The challenge I'm facing early on is that my cities haven't even leveled up to Lvl 2, so they're still fodder for little marauding Beastman hordes (or Secessionist armies).

Replacing a razed settlement costs a lot more than 550 Gold per turn, and I'll take the chance to start leveling up a 2nd Lord a little faster.  I have an AI hero that I got early from one of my quests.  He's been good as Artillery but might need to park with my 2nd Lord to give that Army the extra firepower (and I can Deploy him in my Province for reduced Construction costs when he's not embedded in an Army).

What I'm really hearing from you guys is that the primary money maker in this game is my Army, because it's able to capture additional provinces.  That's a little different for the Empire, who relies a little more on early Diplomacy than some factions, but I've left Middenland in my crosshairs and ought to be able to start peeling away provinces there soon.  I hope!  It's just a matter of protecting my homeland while I get things above a certain level.

I hope.

Nefaro

#4
Quote from: FarAway Sooner on August 10, 2017, 10:33:41 AM
Good stuff, guys.  Most of the marauding AI armies I've faced are 5 or 6 units, so I don't think I need total maintenance costs more than about 550 Gold (including 225 for my leader) to be able to whoop him.  The challenge I'm facing early on is that my cities haven't even leveled up to Lvl 2, so they're still fodder for little marauding Beastman hordes (or Secessionist armies).

Replacing a razed settlement costs a lot more than 550 Gold per turn, and I'll take the chance to start leveling up a 2nd Lord a little faster.  I have an AI hero that I got early from one of my quests.  He's been good as Artillery but might need to park with my 2nd Lord to give that Army the extra firepower (and I can Deploy him in my Province for reduced Construction costs when he's not embedded in an Army).

What I'm really hearing from you guys is that the primary money maker in this game is my Army, because it's able to capture additional provinces.  That's a little different for the Empire, who relies a little more on early Diplomacy than some factions, but I've left Middenland in my crosshairs and ought to be able to start peeling away provinces there soon.  I hope!  It's just a matter of protecting my homeland while I get things above a certain level.

I hope.




In TW: Warhammer, and only that one of the TW series, I tend to buy the garrison upgrade for my small border towns which are too far way from my active armies & under threat.  The one that gives extra & better troops for the garrison.

That tends to stop those small hostile armies from constantly attacking them. 

Will still have problems if a large enemy army invades, but at least I don't have to play whack-a-mole with the small ones or have to regularly retake them.  If the small city in question is the only one on that border, with said enemy, the AI tends to start looking around at it's other neighbors for easy pickings instead of marching, long distance, further into your territory.



EDIT:  the older (historical) TW games have small garrison upgrades that come with the main building upgrade of a city.   TW Warhammer is rather different from previous ones, so you have to unlearn some old habits, and get accustomed to some new ones, if you're an old TW veteran.

FarAway Sooner

TW Warhammer has those upgrades as well.

Lvl 1:  3 x Spearmen, 2 x Swordsmen
Lvl 2:  3 x Spearmen, 2 x Crossbowmen
Lvl 3:  3  x Spearmen, 2 x Swordsmen (I think), 2 x Crossbowmen

Nefaro

Quote from: FarAway Sooner on August 10, 2017, 08:15:29 PM
TW Warhammer has those upgrades as well.

Lvl 1:  3 x Spearmen, 2 x Swordsmen
Lvl 2:  3 x Spearmen, 2 x Crossbowmen
Lvl 3:  3  x Spearmen, 2 x Swordsmen (I think), 2 x Crossbowmen


Oh.. yeah.  For the main settlement building upgrade.

I often get the one that goes in the extra slot & provides improved troop types.  In my distant cities that will likely be harassed by it's AI neighbors. 

TW:W definitely has fewer economic settlement options than the historical TWs.  I kinda enjoyed the city management in those, and miss it in Warhammer.  But it's a trade-off, having more focus on the heroes/generals than before.