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

[Corvinus85]

15 hours ago, Slurktan said:

You don't get entrepeneur lords, you get them as hero mages.  They all stack without increasing upkeep.  You can have like 40 sitting in Lothern making a million a turn like LegendofTotalWar does.

The Archmage can have that trait, and the Mage hero now also adds a tax bonus, too.

I decided to stop the Imrik campaign because the grind was becoming too much, and the Greenskins weren't cracking.

[Heartofice]

15 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

The Archmage can have that trait, and the Mage hero now also adds a tax bonus, too.

I decided to stop the Imrik campaign because the grind was becoming too much, and the Greenskins weren't cracking.

Which campaigns don’t become a grind? Asking for a friend 

[Slurktan]

34 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Which campaigns don’t become a grind? Asking for a friend 

Wood Elves.

[Heartofice]

2 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

Wood Elves.

Which one? I’m even finding sisters of twilight a little grindy. Certainly far better than most other campaigns, but there is still an element of slog about it

[Corvinus85]

Yes, they all have slog, but in some cases it's ok, especially when you can see the goals in sight. 

[Slurktan]

4 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Which one? I’m even finding sisters of twilight a little grindy. Certainly far better than most other campaigns, but there is still an element of slog about it

Well the slog with WE is if you cause it to be a slog.  IE picking fights with big powers.  Don't do that and it's not a slog at all.  There's a reason their new tech tree has such significant diplomatic bonuses.

The sisters probably the least grindy as there is nothing really around you so you can get all the surrounding provinces easy and quick without provoking fights.  Durthu and Orion have to deal with Ikit claw but you can snuff him out pretty quick if you want.  The sloggiest I'd guess is lady tree as you can't confederate the others except Durthu plus you deal with VC immediately and likely Empire or Greenskins after.

[Heartofice]

Started yet another Teclis campaign despite my rage at the game the other day.

This time however I think I’ve come to a realisation. The biggest issue hurting me before was the Clan Pestilens is simply overwhelming me. I just couldn’t cope with their numbers and ability to keep puking out top tier units.  The issue was that by the time I’d got 2 or 3 provinces they’d taken over Lustria and came for me.

This time what I’m doing differently is actually using diplomacy more. Something I never put too much time into before before but now it’s making a big difference.

Getting defensive alliances with factions not doing the Vortex is helping me out , but mostly it’s setting war targets. Now I’m sending Huntsmarshall and Tomb Kings and Lizardmen against the Skaven while I sit at home. It’s really pushed them back a bit and given me some breathing room.

I did over extend that principal however, declared war on Naggarond and set my high elf alliances against them, but for some reason Malus turned up on my doorstep with his black ark and 2 stacks. God knows what caused him to come all the way to me. Beat him back but it was quite a shock.

[Toth]

1 hour ago, Heartofice said:

but for some reason Malus turned up on my doorstep with his black ark and 2 stacks. God knows what caused him to come all the way to me. Beat him back but it was quite a shock.

Well, at least you were able to beat him on the battlefield and he wasn't running around all over your place like the coward he is.

I only managed to play a couple of turns yesterday night. I'm still in the fourth ritual, but Hexoatl finished theirs and celebrated their success by confederating Itza and then declaring war on me. Aside Clan Mors, so now I'm at war with all Vortex factions and am actually fighting them all at the same time. The majority of my forces are fighting Hexoatl in Lustria, with Imrik I'm fighting Clan Mors in the Southlands, with Alith Anar I'm fighting Clan Rictus and Naggaroth in Naggarond and because it's too funny not to I just had to recruit an army in Ulthuan to fight Clan Moulder because Alarielle is bafflingly confused with her armies running around all over Naggarond while four Skaven stacks have breached the gates of Ulthuan...

Meanwhile I'm wondering whether I should play around with the Entrepreneur cheese just for fun. Unfortunately I'm lacking both the influence and the buildings that increase your number of mages.

[Heartofice]

Have to admit I tried to do the Entrepreneurial cheese but it’s actually quite hard to do at the beginning until you have a few archives built up, think it really takes affect in the mid to late game.

I am rather scared that Itza will confederate with Hexoatl in my campaign as that will mean I’ll need to take them out, right now they are my rear guard against the Skaven.

The confederations kill me a bit. Naggarond can pretty much take over half the map within 50 turns, they are so often totally OP in my games.

[Toth]

19 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

The confederations kill me a bit. Naggarond can pretty much take over half the map within 50 turns, they are so often totally OP in my games.

They were extremely OP in my first game as well, but right now I'm just very amused watching them struggle against Clan Moulder and Khatep. And my elven Allies. And Hexoatl. Like I said, Naggarond is a cluserfuck with all kinds of factions having created beachheads and fighting Malekith back.

[Heartofice]

Yeah I think the introduction of clan moulder has screwed the dark elves quite heavily, Har Ganeth tend to get wiped out quickly when I play. I think Skaven ability to spam units makes it really hard for other factions to cope 

[Corvinus85]

56 minutes ago, Toth said:

Well, at least you were able to beat him on the battlefield and he wasn't running around all over your place like the coward he is.

I only managed to play a couple of turns yesterday night. I'm still in the fourth ritual, but Hexoatl finished theirs and celebrated their success by confederating Itza and then declaring war on me. Aside Clan Mors, so now I'm at war with all Vortex factions and am actually fighting them all at the same time. The majority of my forces are fighting Hexoatl in Lustria, with Imrik I'm fighting Clan Mors in the Southlands, with Alith Anar I'm fighting Clan Rictus and Naggaroth in Naggarond and because it's too funny not to I just had to recruit an army in Ulthuan to fight Clan Moulder because Alarielle is bafflingly confused with her armies running around all over Naggarond while four Skaven stacks have breached the gates of Ulthuan...

Is Alith Anar still able to use his hop around mechanic since you confederated with him, or is he just another regular elf lord now?

[Toth]

3 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

Is Alith Anar still able to use his hop around mechanic since you confederated with him, or is he just another regular elf lord now?

This is one thing I wanted to research one of these days: No, I don't think he has any special mechanics, he's just a lvl 23 archer hero with a more tangled skill tree.

Similarly, I noted much to my irritation that Imrik of all people isn't riding a dragon either. He has the dragon unlocked in his skill tree, but it doesn't show up as a mount to choose from. That's really weird.

[Corvinus85]

1 minute ago, Toth said:

This is one thing I wanted to research one of these days: No, I don't think he has any special mechanics, he's just a lvl 23 archer hero with a more tangled skill tree.

Similarly, I noted much to my irritation that Imrik of all people isn't riding a dragon either. He has the dragon unlocked in his skill tree, but it doesn't show up as a mount to choose from. That's really weird.

Nothing to research, just look to see if his army can use the shadow realm path out of the army stance choices.

And Imrik's dragon not appearing is weird, might be a bug.

[Heartofice]

Surely if it’s a lord mechanic and not a faction mechanic then your lord should have it even if you confederate them?

[Toth]

Just made a quick google sweep, lots of people have that issue with Imrik, but still treat it as a bug. I'm assuming that quest-gated content disappears upon confederation that is what takes away his mount.

[Corvinus85]

19 minutes ago, Toth said:

Just made a quick google sweep, lots of people have that issue with Imrik, but still treat it as a bug. I'm assuming that quest-gated content disappears upon confederation that is what takes away his mount.

Quest given items don't disappear, and Imrik's dragon isn't even that, just a mount unlocked through leveling up. So it's a bug.

[Slurktan]

You have him actually riding the dragon and not his horse?

As for Alith Anar, no you don't get either of his faction wide special abilities when you confederate, the hop being significantly worse than auto ambush.  Similarly you don't get to recruit wood elf units if you confed Anarielle etc.  I've always found AA quite poor as a fighter in comparison to like Tyrion or what not but he has easily the best faction powers of the HE.

[Heartofice]

Teclis attempt #30,432

So in my last save where I had used the power of alliances to fight back against Naggarond, things reached a grind point at which the game became unplayable. Every turn became about me trying to fight off 4 stacks of Skaven attacking one settlement, while at the same time having Malus Darkblade arriving at the Mud Isle with 2 stacks and a Black Ark. ( Malus btw is impossible to kill in a single battle without some sort of debuff magic or heavy armour piercing, he single handed took out a full stack of Sea Guard without taking any damage. It was ridiculous) 

I gave up. Start yet again.

So this new save, things are much improved. I decided to do everything in a massive rush. Took first two provinces as fast as possible, then rushed to take out the dark elf island and go all the way up the west side of Lustria. 
 

That in itself seemed to work out quite well as otherwise I tend to get cock blocked by factions that I need to ally at some point. 
 

Of course, 120 turns in the situation is very familiar. While I’m doing ok in the ritual race with only one resource site, Pestilence has rushed all over Lustria wiping everyone else out and confederating with Ikit. Nobody can ever compete with them, I feel like there should be a nerf at some point because it’s a joke.

So anyway, now I finally have secured my base provinces I’m just going to take two full stacks and sack and raze every Skaven on the island. My fury at them is complete.

[Corvinus85]

I started yet another Empire campaign, because I wanted to see how challenging the slightly reworked Chaos invasion will be. I started with Karl Franz. 

Turn 51 and the Dwarfs of Kharaz-a-Kharak have been destroyed, probably by Grimgor. I have never seen either faction destroy the other so fast. The Greenskin rework really has done wonders for them, but maybe now the Dwarfs need a few more buffs to balance it out.

Of course their destruction is worrisome for me. I've recently confederated with Stirland and have started a war with the Vampires. If Grimgor starts looking north, it will be a challenge. At least I got rid of the pesky neighboring Greenskins, but to the east there are the Bonerattlaz. They've taken out Ostermark, while the Von Carsteins hold Averland, and have pushed into the Golden Order's territory. So two provinces lost temporarily sapped my Imperial Authority, but my relations with the rest are good or fairly good.