CA's Total War: The Celtic-Han-Lizardmen alliance that never was

[Toth]

Grah. Now I have to adjust to the Elves playstyle and its downsides. I only did two battles so far against the Lizardmen starter foe. The first one was just taking a settlement and I lost exactly one swordsman. The second one was a messy and confusing Close Victory that left me completely baffled. I was marching onto the capital of the lizardmen and was attacked on the march by an army double my size, which is okay, I'm being the elves after all. The army was pure melee infantry that absolutely swarmed me. I made two grave mistakes by not having a hero grab the enemy's attention like always did with Repanse, so they actually connected with my infantry, which would be fine if at that point both my infantry and my archers didn't completely stop fighting back if I wasn't micromanaging them. I could understand the archers not daring to risk hitting friendlies, but there were plenty of lizardmen forces in their reserves that needed getting riddled with arrows. When I took a closer look the archers looked like they were having a seizure, being bugged between locking onto a target and going back to idling. Even when I ordered them to run a bit back or placed two units behind the enemy they wouldn't fire at will, they only fired when I ordered them specifically to. I never had this much trouble with my peasant archers...

Just as baffling was the infantry. My starting units were fine, but the Lothern Seaguard I hired because I heard they were good also completely froze up when the enemy charged them until I clicked on melee mode and ordered them manually to fight back. Until I figured all that out I already lost a good third of my army because the lizardmen kept rallying, coming back and then going into a frenzy, even after I killed their Slann.

*sigh* It seems I can't escape the micromanagement, can't I?

[Jon AS]

Were your archers and Seaguard set to skirmish mode? I'd recommend switching that off for foot archers, or at the very least for hybrid infantry like Seaguard.

[Toth]

11 minutes ago, Jon AS said:

Were your archers and Seaguard set to skirmish mode? I'd recommend switching that off for foot archers, or at the very least for hybrid infantry like Seaguard.

No, I didn't change a thing in between playthroughs! Skirmish mode was off and Fire at Will was on! The only thing that I could imagine was blocking the Seaguard was that melee mode was off, but even then when they are being completely swarmed by lizards I'd think it wouldn't be too much to ask for them to fight back...

The only thing I can think of is that my army totally bugged out because it was fighting in a dense forest.

[The Winged Shadow]

Lizardmen infantry is no joke. I am sure they were fighting but just not doing any damage as saurus warriors have lots of armour and Lothern Sea Guard and Archers don't have a lot of armor piercing damage. So if you are used to melting skellies, Lizards will feel a lot slower.

Also, because LSG are also spear units with charge defense, they 'brace' for charge when the enemy attack to negate the charge bonus. Could be why they stopped. Once in melee i am sure they actually fight, but are probably losing because Saurus Warriors are some of the best infantry in the game.

[Corvinus85]

5 hours ago, Toth said:

*sigh* It seems I can't escape the micromanagement, can't I?

No. You need to work for your victories. 

[Toth]

6 hours ago, The Winged Shadow said:

Lizardmen infantry is no joke. I am sure they were fighting but just not doing any damage as saurus warriors have lots of armour and Lothern Sea Guard and Archers don't have a lot of armor piercing damage. So if you are used to melting skellies, Lizards will feel a lot slower.

Well, I spent the majority of my Repanse playthrough fighting Skaven and my infantry sucked against just about everything, so my perception might indeed be a little skewered. Though I did fight the Last Defenders occasionally and they weren't difficult to beat at all.

6 hours ago, The Winged Shadow said:

Also, because LSG are also spear units with charge defense, they 'brace' for charge when the enemy attack to negate the charge bonus. Could be why they stopped. Once in melee i am sure they actually fight, but are probably losing because Saurus Warriors are some of the best infantry in the game.

Weird, when I zoomed into them the lizardmen had already engaged while the Seagard were standing around with their bows out. If they were fighting back, the animations weren't showing it. And once again, the moment I ordered them to fight back and my archers to shoot, the battle was turned around quite swiftly. It just then became super messy as my frontlines completely crumbled as everyone was running after fleeing troops and then got engaged again in skirmishes as the lizards rallied again.

No, by now I'm pretty certain it was my pathfinding curse striking again, this time involving the trees. From Medieval 2 onwards I always managed to get units to freeze up and die somehow, which is the main reason why I mostly played Rome until now. In Medieval 2 I managed to get three units of cavalry murdered through a single clipping error involving a trebuchet I stupidly tried to take from the front. Not to mention archers getting stuck traversing through towers and getting slaughtered for it. And I'm not even starting on how my cavalry in Empire managed to kill itself when the animation for riding down fleeing units bugged out or how Indian fortresses are to this day my worst enemy when defending them... I always trip over these things in Total War games...

5 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

No. You need to work for your victories. 

I'm a dwarf at heart.

[Slurktan]

11 hours ago, Toth said:

Well, I spent the majority of my Repanse playthrough fighting Skaven and my infantry sucked against just about everything, so my perception might indeed be a little skewered. Though I did fight the Last Defenders occasionally and they weren't difficult to beat at all.

Weird, when I zoomed into them the lizardmen had already engaged while the Seagard were standing around with their bows out. If they were fighting back, the animations weren't showing it. And once again, the moment I ordered them to fight back and my archers to shoot, the battle was turned around quite swiftly. It just then became super messy as my frontlines completely crumbled as everyone was running after fleeing troops and then got engaged again in skirmishes as the lizards rallied again.

No, by now I'm pretty certain it was my pathfinding curse striking again, this time involving the trees. From Medieval 2 onwards I always managed to get units to freeze up and die somehow, which is the main reason why I mostly played Rome until now. In Medieval 2 I managed to get three units of cavalry murdered through a single clipping error involving a trebuchet I stupidly tried to take from the front. Not to mention archers getting stuck traversing through towers and getting slaughtered for it. And I'm not even starting on how my cavalry in Empire managed to kill itself when the animation for riding down fleeing units bugged out or how Indian fortresses are to this day my worst enemy when defending them... I always trip over these things in Total War games...

I'm a dwarf at heart.

Sounds like they got stuck in skirmish mode.  As far as I know, skirmish mode is always on unless you specifically turn it off that battle.  And then have to do so every battle.

[Toth]

18 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

Sounds like they got stuck in skirmish mode.  As far as I know, skirmish mode is always on unless you specifically turn it off that battle.  And then have to do so every battle.

 No, there is an option in the gameplay menu where you can set whether it is on by default or not! I definitely have it turned off!

To make the case for whether it really were the trees I followed their army and attacked it again with my severely damaged army against them and the garrison of their capital. This time I had a rather free space, in fact having been able to wedge my army in between two cliffs to secure my flanks. The result was a Heroic Victory (even though I ran out of ammunition at the end, what with the game strangely thinking arrows are people). I guess it was useful that I had Teclis and my phoenix fully healed at the end of the battle after they started it with like 3 hitpoints altogether.

So I managed to advance quite a lot today. It is a lot more sluggish than Repanse's campaign, but I guess that's because you don't get those early confederations handed to you and marching through swamps and jungles with just one army takes quite some time. It doesn't help that there aren't any port towns on the mainland, making embarking nonviable. At the same time as I am rapidly expanding I am in the strange position that countless factions on the other side of the world have declared war on me out of the blue. First the Last Defenders, then Luthor Harkon, then Malekith with all his allies. I'm also in a war with Clan Pestilence because they attacked the allied Elven outpost at the edge of Lustria. Unfortunately they walzed in with a giant as stack smashing both their stacks at once and I had to confederate them to prevent them from being absolutely taken over. It's kinda insane that the rats are already this strong.

At the same time I have started my first ritual and am... deeply confused. I saw that the Chaos armies spawned to my east in Defenders of the Great Plan territory, so I placed Teclis at the city where they are the most likely to make an entrance from. But then one Chaos army came out of Orc territory in the far north and torched one of my villages. I only have a general with a single unit there to block it. This leaves me in a very strange situation now with Teclis and my main army sitting in the middle of my territory doing nothing while I would really, REALLY need him either in the north repelling Chaos or in the East culling Clan Pestilence. But I am too afraid that once I go with Teclis into either direction I leave my Vortex Rite sites wide open and the remaining Chaos armies I saw come marching in through the mountain path in the North East. Gaaaaagh...

Ah, but there was one extremely funny thing: I had a Rogue army with 15 units attack a Tier 2 city. My garrison units repelled them. Somewhere Repanse is watching in awe thinking "What? Garrison units can actually defend a city?!? How?!?"

[Slurktan]

26 minutes ago, Toth said:

 No, there is an option in the gameplay menu where you can set whether it is on by default or not! I definitely have it turned off!

To make the case for whether it really were the trees I followed their army and attacked it again with my severely damaged army against them and the garrison of their capital. This time I had a rather free space, in fact having been able to wedge my army in between two cliffs to secure my flanks. The result was a Heroic Victory (even though I ran out of ammunition at the end, what with the game strangely thinking arrows are people). I guess it was useful that I had Teclis and my phoenix fully healed at the end of the battle after they started it with like 3 hitpoints altogether.

So I managed to advance quite a lot today. It is a lot more sluggish than Repanse's campaign, but I guess that's because you don't get those early confederations handed to you and marching through swamps and jungles with just one army takes quite some time. It doesn't help that there aren't any port towns on the mainland, making embarking nonviable. At the same time as I am rapidly expanding I am in the strange position that countless factions on the other side of the world have declared war on me out of the blue. First the Last Defenders, then Luthor Harkon, then Malekith with all his allies. I'm also in a war with Clan Pestilence because they attacked the allied Elven outpost at the edge of Lustria. Unfortunately they walzed in with a giant as stack smashing both their stacks at once and I had to confederate them to prevent them from being absolutely taken over. It's kinda insane that the rats are already this strong.

At the same time I have started my first ritual and am... deeply confused. I saw that the Chaos armies spawned to my east in Defenders of the Great Plan territory, so I placed Teclis at the city where they are the most likely to make an entrance from. But then one Chaos army came out of Orc territory in the far north and torched one of my villages. I only have a general with a single unit there to block it. This leaves me in a very strange situation now with Teclis and my main army sitting in the middle of my territory doing nothing while I would really, REALLY need him either in the north repelling Chaos or in the East culling Clan Pestilence. But I am too afraid that once I go with Teclis into either direction I leave my Vortex Rite sites wide open and the remaining Chaos armies I saw come marching in through the mountain path in the North East. Gaaaaagh...

Ah, but there was one extremely funny thing: I had a Rogue army with 15 units attack a Tier 2 city. My garrison units repelled them. Somewhere Repanse is watching in awe thinking "What? Garrison units can actually defend a city?!? How?!?"

If you have walls on tier 2 cities that should be good enough to beat the chaos armies for the first couple rituals.  Go hog wild on the rats.  There is more where they came from.  I think there is 3 clans in Lustria.  Also Luthor Harkon is also on Lustria so not quite as far as he might appear.  Hag Graef in all my vortex games seems to skip fake Africa and go that way too.  Plus the DE's that start in SE Lustria.

[Heartofice]

It’s worth noting that Teclis’ campaign starts pretty slowly and it makes a lot of sense to sit on your two provinces until you have built them up, and only hit the ritual button when you have walls everywhere.

Your settlements have low growth and you have very little income for quite some time, you might only have one army for quite a bit. 
 

It’s better to Turtle Isle up IMO, certainly don’t go south. When you are ready you can try and take a second Way Fragment settlement in the middle of the continent, but don’t rush.

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, Toth said:

 No, there is an option in the gameplay menu where you can set whether it is on by default or not! I definitely have it turned off!

To make the case for whether it really were the trees I followed their army and attacked it again with my severely damaged army against them and the garrison of their capital. This time I had a rather free space, in fact having been able to wedge my army in between two cliffs to secure my flanks. The result was a Heroic Victory (even though I ran out of ammunition at the end, what with the game strangely thinking arrows are people). I guess it was useful that I had Teclis and my phoenix fully healed at the end of the battle after they started it with like 3 hitpoints altogether.

So I managed to advance quite a lot today. It is a lot more sluggish than Repanse's campaign, but I guess that's because you don't get those early confederations handed to you and marching through swamps and jungles with just one army takes quite some time. It doesn't help that there aren't any port towns on the mainland, making embarking nonviable. At the same time as I am rapidly expanding I am in the strange position that countless factions on the other side of the world have declared war on me out of the blue. First the Last Defenders, then Luthor Harkon, then Malekith with all his allies. I'm also in a war with Clan Pestilence because they attacked the allied Elven outpost at the edge of Lustria. Unfortunately they walzed in with a giant as stack smashing both their stacks at once and I had to confederate them to prevent them from being absolutely taken over. It's kinda insane that the rats are already this strong.

At the same time I have started my first ritual and am... deeply confused. I saw that the Chaos armies spawned to my east in Defenders of the Great Plan territory, so I placed Teclis at the city where they are the most likely to make an entrance from. But then one Chaos army came out of Orc territory in the far north and torched one of my villages. I only have a general with a single unit there to block it. This leaves me in a very strange situation now with Teclis and my main army sitting in the middle of my territory doing nothing while I would really, REALLY need him either in the north repelling Chaos or in the East culling Clan Pestilence. But I am too afraid that once I go with Teclis into either direction I leave my Vortex Rite sites wide open and the remaining Chaos armies I saw come marching in through the mountain path in the North East. Gaaaaagh...

Ah, but there was one extremely funny thing: I had a Rogue army with 15 units attack a Tier 2 city. My garrison units repelled them. Somewhere Repanse is watching in awe thinking "What? Garrison units can actually defend a city?!? How?!?"

Luthor Harkon is not on the other side of the world. He's near you.

[Toth]

13 hours ago, Slurktan said:

If you have walls on tier 2 cities that should be good enough to beat the chaos armies for the first couple rituals.

Not if they still manage to raze my villages, which is exactly what they did as they ignored my ritual sites and attacked random settlements in the north. I raised a third army to defeat them and had Teclis intercept one coming out of a mountain path, succeeded the first ritual at the same time as everyone else and that seems to have put a stop to the incursions for now.

Weirdly enough I am very confused about how High Elves can defend minor settlements. There is only one building in the defence category which is a Watchtower and the building card doesn't say anything about adding walls to the settlement. And yet I googled around and people say I should build that one in Vortex because it adds walls. For real?

13 hours ago, Slurktan said:

Go hog wild on the rats.  There is more where they came from.  I think there is 3 clans in Lustria.

Yes, a second clan just declared war on me, but I don't see where they are yet. And Clan Pestilence is still extremely annoying. Their doomstack got defeated by the Sotek follower lizardmen, meaning I could take back a few settlements, but their half stack is still wandering around tunneling beneath the mountains razing minor settlements and my army is too slow to catch them. It's frustrating as hell. This brought my advance upon them to a screeching halt... and as I am writing this a second Clan Pestilence army comes in from the north threatening to take back their territory.

I wanted for Teclis to join the fight, but he takes forever to get anywhere. Why the hell is moving through the water just as slow as crawling through the jungles? And I have to use the water way to sneak up on the Skaven from the south because any other way is blocked by mountains or neutral factions. Why can't you get military access with the Defenders of the Great Plan?

13 hours ago, Slurktan said:

Also Luthor Harkon is also on Lustria so not quite as far as he might appear.

 

13 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

Luthor Harkon is not on the other side of the world. He's near you.

Well, he's on the other side of Lustria, counts as far enough away from me... well, nearly. I did indeed get into battle with him twice now. I apparently conquered a ludicrously narrow path straight through the jungle to reach me, colonizing one of the villages the Chaos attackers razed. Amusingly, I still get the fealing that outside of their monsters Vampire Pirate armies suck horribly, as my small freshly recruited army of only archers and spearmen managed to effortlessly beat them.

13 hours ago, Slurktan said:

Hag Graef in all my vortex games seems to skip fake Africa and go that way too.  Plus the DE's that start in SE Lustria.

Hag Graef is Malus Darkblade's faction, isn't it? Yeah, they took over the poor Fortress of Dawn. I guess I'm going to face them soon enough.

14 hours ago, Heartofice said:

It’s worth noting that Teclis’ campaign starts pretty slowly and it makes a lot of sense to sit on your two provinces until you have built them up, and only hit the ritual button when you have walls everywhere.

Your settlements have low growth and you have very little income for quite some time, you might only have one army for quite a bit.

It’s better to Turtle Isle up IMO, certainly don’t go south. When you are ready you can try and take a second Way Fragment settlement in the middle of the continent, but don’t rush.

Ah, yeah, I guess it's too late for that. I mean, yeah, it is turn 49 and last I checked I only have three whole provinces. But at the same time I am right now building my fourth army since I'm sick of those annoying enemies running circles around my two armies as I'm trying to defend large swathes of the south of Lustria. I'm only making 1600 gold per turn though, don't have a city higher than Tier 3, have exactly two heroes and can only fight with basic infantry. Yeah, the slow growth and therefore the very limited space for buildings is very frustrating for me, but hey, at least unlike with Repanse my basic units are actually capable of holding their own in a fact, so I can expand while I'm waiting for my cities to catch up.

[The Winged Shadow]

26 minutes ago, Toth said:

Weirdly enough I am very confused about how High Elves can defend minor settlements. There is only one building in the defence category which is a Watchtower and the building card doesn't say anything about adding walls to the settlement. And yet I googled around and people say I should build that one in Vortex because it adds walls. For real?

It think it could be that Tier 3 settlement upgrade adds the walls and tier2/3 defense building just increases garrison size.

[Heartofice]

2 hours ago, Toth said:

Ah, yeah, I guess it's too late for that. I mean, yeah, it is turn 49 and last I checked I only have three whole provinces. But at the same time I am right now building my fourth army since I'm sick of those annoying enemies running circles around my two armies as I'm trying to defend large swathes of the south of Lustria. I'm only making 1600 gold per turn though, don't have a city higher than Tier 3, have exactly two heroes and can only fight with basic infantry. Yeah, the slow growth and therefore the very limited space for buildings is very frustrating for me, but hey, at least unlike with Repanse my basic units are actually capable of holding their own in a fact, so I can expand while I'm waiting for my cities to catch up.

I've attempted the Teclis campaign dozens of times, it's the one that I was determined to finish the vortex campaign with as it seemed the most flavoursome and Tyrions campaign is stupidly easy. 

Depending on what your third province is I'd consider abandoning it and just moving back home for a bit. If it's the islands off to the west then you could keep those as they can be used to make money and are almost never targeted by the AI. If you took the mountainous province next to the Ritual site location (not the one with the dwarves) then I'd say ditch it because it will be attacked continuously. 

The way I played the campaign was to have two stacks. One to defend my initial province, but also to sail around hoovering up all the treasure locations. If you fight the major battles that come up sometimes in those you can get yourself 20,000 gold in one go, which can be game changing, and those battles aren't very hard if you have enough archers and know how to use them.

Then with Tyrion I mainly just hang around defending the ritual sites and fighting odd battles. If I get enough money I make sure to send intervention armies, but only at the right time. 

I could have completed this campaign a number of times, but I tend to lose focus and start doing something else. Vortex can get a little repetitive.

[Corvinus85]

2 hours ago, Toth said:

Well, he's on the other side of Lustria, counts as far enough away from me... well, nearly. I did indeed get into battle with him twice now. I apparently conquered a ludicrously narrow path straight through the jungle to reach me, colonizing one of the villages the Chaos attackers razed. Amusingly, I still get the fealing that outside of their monsters Vampire Pirate armies suck horribly, as my small freshly recruited army of only archers and spearmen managed to effortlessly beat them.

Yeah, they have some decent range units and artillery. One of their rites allows them to recruit a powerful artillery unit. But have little mobility, without cavalry. IMO, they are one of the factions that could really benefit from incorporating actual naval units and battles in the game, considering their play style.

[Slurktan]

4 hours ago, Toth said:

Not if they still manage to raze my villages, which is exactly what they did as they ignored my ritual sites and attacked random settlements in the north. I raised a third army to defeat them and had Teclis intercept one coming out of a mountain path, succeeded the first ritual at the same time as everyone else and that seems to have put a stop to the incursions for now.

Weirdly enough I am very confused about how High Elves can defend minor settlements. There is only one building in the defence category which is a Watchtower and the building card doesn't say anything about adding walls to the settlement. And yet I googled around and people say I should build that one in Vortex because it adds walls. For real?

Yes, a second clan just declared war on me, but I don't see where they are yet. And Clan Pestilence is still extremely annoying. Their doomstack got defeated by the Sotek follower lizardmen, meaning I could take back a few settlements, but their half stack is still wandering around tunneling beneath the mountains razing minor settlements and my army is too slow to catch them. It's frustrating as hell. This brought my advance upon them to a screeching halt... and as I am writing this a second Clan Pestilence army comes in from the north threatening to take back their territory.

I wanted for Teclis to join the fight, but he takes forever to get anywhere. Why the hell is moving through the water just as slow as crawling through the jungles? And I have to use the water way to sneak up on the Skaven from the south because any other way is blocked by mountains or neutral factions. Why can't you get military access with the Defenders of the Great Plan?

 

Well, he's on the other side of Lustria, counts as far enough away from me... well, nearly. I did indeed get into battle with him twice now. I apparently conquered a ludicrously narrow path straight through the jungle to reach me, colonizing one of the villages the Chaos attackers razed. Amusingly, I still get the fealing that outside of their monsters Vampire Pirate armies suck horribly, as my small freshly recruited army of only archers and spearmen managed to effortlessly beat them.

Hag Graef is Malus Darkblade's faction, isn't it? Yeah, they took over the poor Fortress of Dawn. I guess I'm going to face them soon enough.

Ah, yeah, I guess it's too late for that. I mean, yeah, it is turn 49 and last I checked I only have three whole provinces. But at the same time I am right now building my fourth army since I'm sick of those annoying enemies running circles around my two armies as I'm trying to defend large swathes of the south of Lustria. I'm only making 1600 gold per turn though, don't have a city higher than Tier 3, have exactly two heroes and can only fight with basic infantry. Yeah, the slow growth and therefore the very limited space for buildings is very frustrating for me, but hey, at least unlike with Repanse my basic units are actually capable of holding their own in a fact, so I can expand while I'm waiting for my cities to catch up.

I'm curious what you are building. Do you not build the +growth buildings?

[Toth]

3 hours ago, The Winged Shadow said:

It think it could be that Tier 3 settlement upgrade adds the walls and tier2/3 defense building just increases garrison size.

I looked at the wiki and it could be that you are right. The wiki says it adds walls as a hidden feature, but it says it does so for... Roman and Eastern cultures? Looks like they reused some Attila assets. In any case, the tooltip in the game doesn't say anything about walls. -.-

And given how few lvl 3 settlements I got it's difficult to get those walls anyway. But for later I should probably make it a priority when I'm having less of a money problem.

1 hour ago, Heartofice said:

I've attempted the Teclis campaign dozens of times, it's the one that I was determined to finish the vortex campaign with as it seemed the most flavoursome and Tyrions campaign is stupidly easy. 

Depending on what your third province is I'd consider abandoning it and just moving back home for a bit. If it's the islands off to the west then you could keep those as they can be used to make money and are almost never targeted by the AI. If you took the mountainous province next to the Ritual site location (not the one with the dwarves) then I'd say ditch it because it will be attacked continuously. 

Yes, it's the islands in the west. I haven't gone into mainland lustria yet, only have the territory west of the not-Andes and the Southern area, though as I am encroaching into Clan Pestilence territory I'm kinda opening myself up to attacks from that front.

1 hour ago, Corvinus85 said:

IMO, they are one of the factions that could really benefit from incorporating actual naval units and battles in the game, considering their play style.

I feel like the entire game could need some Empire style naval battles. Sea battles as they are are peak stupid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTgoEz5r9XM

 

24 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

I'm curious what you are building. Do you not build the +growth buildings?

That's actually my build order right now: Homestead (for growth) -> Plaza (for public order) -> Craftsman/Resource (for trade). That combined with my plethora of trade partners is responsible for how I can field so many troops, but am crippled when it comes to unit variety.

[Slurktan]

59 minutes ago, Toth said:

I looked at the wiki and it could be that you are right. The wiki says it adds walls as a hidden feature, but it says it does so for... Roman and Eastern cultures? Looks like they reused some Attila assets. In any case, the tooltip in the game doesn't say anything about walls. -.-

And given how few lvl 3 settlements I got it's difficult to get those walls anyway. But for later I should probably make it a priority when I'm having less of a money problem.

Yes, it's the islands in the west. I haven't gone into mainland lustria yet, only have the territory west of the not-Andes and the Southern area, though as I am encroaching into Clan Pestilence territory I'm kinda opening myself up to attacks from that front.

I feel like the entire game could need some Empire style naval battles. Sea battles as they are are peak stupid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTgoEz5r9XM

 

That's actually my build order right now: Homestead (for growth) -> Plaza (for public order) -> Craftsman/Resource (for trade). That combined with my plethora of trade partners is responsible for how I can field so many troops, but am crippled when it comes to unit variety.

The second tier watchtower building called "Royal Garrison" adds walls to a minor settlement, it is not hidden it says it directly on the tooltip when you hover over it.  Settlement needs to be at tier 3 though. 

[Toth]

15 hours ago, Slurktan said:

The second tier watchtower building called "Royal Garrison" adds walls to a minor settlement, it is not hidden it says it directly on the tooltip when you hover over it.  Settlement needs to be at tier 3 though. 

Okay, yes it does... huh... kinda weird when you think that the small villages are the ones in most dire need of defense...

Here btw is the state of my campaign: https://s12.directupload.net/images/201230/sz7xf95d.jpg

Also you guys weren't kidding about Malus Darkblade becoming an issue. The last thing that happened yesterday was him arriving with 4 stacks at the tip of Lustria the turn before Teclis finally arrived there. What the hell, game?!?

[Slurktan]

7 hours ago, Toth said:

Also you guys weren't kidding about Malus Darkblade becoming an issue. The last thing that happened yesterday was him arriving with 4 stacks at the tip of Lustria the turn before Teclis finally arrived there. What the hell, game?!?

Told ya. I'm pretty sure the ai is like hard coded for him to take the island in between fake Africa and fake SA and then just go wherever the player is. Try and take that and hopefully Kroq'gar deals with fake Madagascar.