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On January 25 2018 22:52 FeyFey wrote:It didnt, otherwise you wouldn't have found it.  QA are the ones that buy on day 1. I like that one can throw away units as TK and that you can play them differently. Show nested quote +On January 25 2018 04:22 Archeon wrote:
Started a dwarven campaign and can tell you all about it. Staring out at war with 5 factions and having no valuable allies to speak of (or trade with) is quite the task, especially because t2 doesn't do a lot and I can't lean back on wizardry or cav. To boot three of the orc factions have no problem fielding multiple tier 2 armies around turn 10.
And despite having amazing stats Dwarven warriors don't trade that well with orc boys actually.
Dwarfen campaign really depends on how well Zhufbar does against the Vampires and how Orcs internal war goes. Crossbows are just to strong vs early Orcs. So the only important part is pathfinding and giving orcs the opportunity to fight each other.
Yeah I was under the impression that Xbows were weaker than they actually are and wanted to skip XBows for thunderers, which turned out to be a mistake.
Orc civil war never actually happened but I managed to preserve my armies through 3 close battles vs Orcs and peace out 2 of their factions early. The hostile dwarves decided that war was actually a bad idea and peaced out as well. So now I'm finishing the Orcs to the north and fighting Greenskins again, who after loosing 2 armies and a region to me still confederated 2 other factions.
On January 26 2018 16:20 B.I.G. wrote:
Did skaven get buffed?
They buffed their autofight, which should make a major difference to the AI. Else they got slightly nerfed
Doomwheel: +50 mp cost, – charge speed, -3 MA, +10 regular damage, -20 AP damage, collision attack tweaks Night Runners & Gutter Runners (Throwing Stars): No longer ignore shields Stormvermin (Both): +1 HP All artillery crew: +3 HP from https://www.totalwar.com/blog/tomb-kings-patch-notes
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On January 26 2018 20:56 Biff The Understudy wrote:Show nested quote +On January 26 2018 10:06 xDaunt wrote:
I like how the Tomb Kings factions are friendlier to you the more powerful that you become.
Also, it seems like CA has changed the AI scripting such that some of the factions are passive for a certain number of turns or until other criteria are met. Wood Elves already had something like this, but I think that other factions may have it too.
EDIT: Wow, Teclis just confederated Tyrion. Never ever though I'd see that happen. I started a Morathi campaign and those tomb king fuckers in Ulthuan send me a doomstack every three turns. We are not even neighbours, but they hate my guts for some reason. I tried to tell them I'm a nice guy, but they are really, really angry at me apparently. Amazing startpo Morathi has, by the way. I am praying every turn that the lizardmen, norscans and skaven on the south don't just decide that north looks juicy, and that he high elves don't go on a crusade while I try to secure some lands in Naggaroth. I'd like at least 3 or 4 provinces before turning my eyes to Ulthuan. I'm also not so interested in central not america because I have a nice bottleneck where I started and climate immediately becomes orange. Can't wait to have enough money to raid the hell out of the old world with an army and a black arc btw.
What difficulty are you on? I've been trying to start a Morathi campaign as well (on VH) but I can't seem to get past my first province without getting torn appart. It feels like I need two full stacks, one to deal with the TK and skaven in the south and another to deal with DE and skaven (Trench) in the north, and I just can't afford it. I've restarted twice and it's making me want to go back to hard.
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Was just about to post these two thoughts. Books are random, which I'm sure will lead to some interesting challenge runs with a million restarts for the right book arrangement.
And red line seems far more important than for most factions. Khalida's unusual trait in particular can allow a pretty distinctive playstyle if you spec into it.
That said, earlygame is the struggles. Which is shared with some factions with similar problems (low armor, low AP, vs. high armour, high weapon damage opponents).
I'm enjoying my start with Khalida on VH. Her start position is interesting but not overtly challenging. It only gets out of hand if you let the silver host run amok. I sieged them up at Lahmia by turn 2 or 3 where you get a few extra units and before they build a garrison. After that its an easy crush down to Rasetra and move on from there. Both Lizardmen factions are friendly so going west is easy. I took them out though hate that clutter
I put a good amount of archers in my army get the red line skills for your infantry and some of Khalidas juicy unique traits. A death liche priest makes short work of the high armour factions, combined with some scary archers Khalida can run. I haven't had much trouble with the Dwarves or lizardmen, though they haven't fielded anything higher tier than Cold one cavalry. Maybe I got lucky with my books, the closest one in Lost Plateau was the extra army +5 tomb gaurd etc pretty helpful early on to beef up your front lines.
Khetep looks interesting too and im glad they threw the new Skaven lord up there, Naggarond was a bit one dimensional before.
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On January 27 2018 10:32 Sbrubbles wrote:Show nested quote +On January 26 2018 20:56 Biff The Understudy wrote:On January 26 2018 10:06 xDaunt wrote:
I like how the Tomb Kings factions are friendlier to you the more powerful that you become.
Also, it seems like CA has changed the AI scripting such that some of the factions are passive for a certain number of turns or until other criteria are met. Wood Elves already had something like this, but I think that other factions may have it too.
EDIT: Wow, Teclis just confederated Tyrion. Never ever though I'd see that happen. I started a Morathi campaign and those tomb king fuckers in Ulthuan send me a doomstack every three turns. We are not even neighbours, but they hate my guts for some reason. I tried to tell them I'm a nice guy, but they are really, really angry at me apparently. Amazing startpo Morathi has, by the way. I am praying every turn that the lizardmen, norscans and skaven on the south don't just decide that north looks juicy, and that he high elves don't go on a crusade while I try to secure some lands in Naggaroth. I'd like at least 3 or 4 provinces before turning my eyes to Ulthuan. I'm also not so interested in central not america because I have a nice bottleneck where I started and climate immediately becomes orange. Can't wait to have enough money to raid the hell out of the old world with an army and a black arc btw. What difficulty are you on? I've been trying to start a Morathi campaign as well (on VH) but I can't seem to get past my first province without getting torn appart. It feels like I need two full stacks, one to deal with the TK and skaven in the south and another to deal with DE and skaven (Trench) in the north, and I just can't afford it. I've restarted twice and it's making me want to go back to hard.
Played VH Morathi pre-TK, so take it with a grain of salt. But in return Muzmungi and 2 HE factions all got invited within the first two weeks, so it might have been harder actually.
From what you describe it sounds like you DoWed the northern DEs. On VH you imo want to ignore your own race as much as possible to reduce the number of countries you are in war with. There are enough other haters who don't give you trade agreements and non-aggression-pacts to lead war against.
Morathi gets opinion-boni for DEs so there isn't any need to deal with DEs outside of your starting province. Just checked the start and Karond is neutral enough to take a Non-aggression for 2300 despite being the hater-DEs. I'd prolly take the risk and wait until I kicked the HEs from the neighbor-province and see how much they want then.
So I recommend taking back your province, kick those HE fucks to the east and then pacify your direct south. Skaven don't fight back until they got machinery so they are first on the list, if Muzmungi gives you a Non-Aggression pact great, if not kill him too (he was extremely hostile back then). It sounds like there's a tomb king there, but if you don't have to split up your forces there aren't a lot of armies that can go head to head with DEs t1 army and I'd bet that TK isn't one of them. Mass Saurus is prolly the only one before Ulthuan. Skip t2 unit buildings until you are close to t3 and put your money into production and army.
My southern neighbors after Muzmungi didn't want to go to war with me back then so I just set out for Ulthuan, because Ulthuan is full of hostile dickheads with great land and the south is full of jungle and orcs who celebrated that I killed Jabba.
If you need power in your battles, morathi's tier 1 spells are both good. But I just rushed the upkeep reduction, because getting that second army out usually wins you the game.
It might be good to delete the witch elves, you usually only need one troop chasing and they are overpriced (and just got nerfed). I kept them for pretty long, but I'm fairly sure it's not optimal.
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On January 27 2018 10:32 Sbrubbles wrote:Show nested quote +On January 26 2018 20:56 Biff The Understudy wrote:On January 26 2018 10:06 xDaunt wrote:
I like how the Tomb Kings factions are friendlier to you the more powerful that you become.
Also, it seems like CA has changed the AI scripting such that some of the factions are passive for a certain number of turns or until other criteria are met. Wood Elves already had something like this, but I think that other factions may have it too.
EDIT: Wow, Teclis just confederated Tyrion. Never ever though I'd see that happen. I started a Morathi campaign and those tomb king fuckers in Ulthuan send me a doomstack every three turns. We are not even neighbours, but they hate my guts for some reason. I tried to tell them I'm a nice guy, but they are really, really angry at me apparently. Amazing startpo Morathi has, by the way. I am praying every turn that the lizardmen, norscans and skaven on the south don't just decide that north looks juicy, and that he high elves don't go on a crusade while I try to secure some lands in Naggaroth. I'd like at least 3 or 4 provinces before turning my eyes to Ulthuan. I'm also not so interested in central not america because I have a nice bottleneck where I started and climate immediately becomes orange. Can't wait to have enough money to raid the hell out of the old world with an army and a black arc btw. What difficulty are you on? I've been trying to start a Morathi campaign as well (on VH) but I can't seem to get past my first province without getting torn appart. It feels like I need two full stacks, one to deal with the TK and skaven in the south and another to deal with DE and skaven (Trench) in the north, and I just can't afford it. I've restarted twice and it's making me want to go back to hard.
I play on hard. The AI is not trying to gut you at any price and i started my second army immediately.
I don’t like VH yet, but then again I am completely new to TW and I am a veeeeeery casual player.
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On January 27 2018 14:25 Archeon wrote:Show nested quote +On January 27 2018 10:32 Sbrubbles wrote:On January 26 2018 20:56 Biff The Understudy wrote:On January 26 2018 10:06 xDaunt wrote:
I like how the Tomb Kings factions are friendlier to you the more powerful that you become.
Also, it seems like CA has changed the AI scripting such that some of the factions are passive for a certain number of turns or until other criteria are met. Wood Elves already had something like this, but I think that other factions may have it too.
EDIT: Wow, Teclis just confederated Tyrion. Never ever though I'd see that happen. I started a Morathi campaign and those tomb king fuckers in Ulthuan send me a doomstack every three turns. We are not even neighbours, but they hate my guts for some reason. I tried to tell them I'm a nice guy, but they are really, really angry at me apparently. Amazing startpo Morathi has, by the way. I am praying every turn that the lizardmen, norscans and skaven on the south don't just decide that north looks juicy, and that he high elves don't go on a crusade while I try to secure some lands in Naggaroth. I'd like at least 3 or 4 provinces before turning my eyes to Ulthuan. I'm also not so interested in central not america because I have a nice bottleneck where I started and climate immediately becomes orange. Can't wait to have enough money to raid the hell out of the old world with an army and a black arc btw. What difficulty are you on? I've been trying to start a Morathi campaign as well (on VH) but I can't seem to get past my first province without getting torn appart. It feels like I need two full stacks, one to deal with the TK and skaven in the south and another to deal with DE and skaven (Trench) in the north, and I just can't afford it. I've restarted twice and it's making me want to go back to hard. Played VH Morathi pre-TK, so take it with a grain of salt. But in return Muzmungi and 2 HE factions all got invited within the first two weeks, so it might have been harder actually. From what you describe it sounds like you DoWed the northern DEs. On VH you imo want to ignore your own race as much as possible to reduce the number of countries you are in war with. There are enough other haters who don't give you trade agreements and non-aggression-pacts to lead war against. Morathi gets opinion-boni for DEs so there isn't any need to deal with DEs outside of your starting province. Just checked the start and Karond is neutral enough to take a Non-aggression for 2300 despite being the hater-DEs. I'd prolly take the risk and wait until I kicked the HEs from the neighbor-province and see how much they want then. So I recommend taking back your province, kick those HE fucks to the east and then pacify your direct south. Skaven don't fight back until they got machinery so they are first on the list, if Muzmungi gives you a Non-Aggression pact great, if not kill him too (he was extremely hostile back then). It sounds like there's a tomb king there, but if you don't have to split up your forces there aren't a lot of armies that can go head to head with DEs t1 army and I'd bet that TK isn't one of them. Mass Saurus is prolly the only one before Ulthuan. Skip t2 unit buildings until you are close to t3 and put your money into production and army. My southern neighbors after Muzmungi didn't want to go to war with me back then so I just set out for Ulthuan, because Ulthuan is full of hostile dickheads with great land and the south is full of jungle and orcs who celebrated that I killed Jabba. If you need power in your battles, morathi's tier 1 spells are both good. But I just rushed the upkeep reduction, because getting that second army out usually wins you the game. It might be good to delete the witch elves, you usually only need one troop chasing and they are overpriced (and just got nerfed). I kept them for pretty long, but I'm fairly sure it's not optimal.
Thanks for the tips. I'm playing the vortex campaign, so I really want that northeast city with the ritual currency asap. I'm gonna give another go at beeling for it then try to peace out before the TK sends his stacks at me. Maybe by not breaking any treaties I can get peace with everyone up there.
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Imo Eco>>>>>ritual currency, especially early when things are tight, but that's your call. Rituals slowed expansion so much down for me that by the time I get the resource bonus I'd prolly have a region more.
But yeah, I play mostly ME and my Morathi campaign was ME.
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Have RoR been changed somehow? I was able to recruit second Khepra Guard with Settra... Always thought that RoR were unique.
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Just finished my first long campaign victory. For some reason it didn't get boring at the usual time, I think maybe because I was operating in a lot of theatres at once with forces that were competitive, not overwhelming, for the locals.
I basically did a Khalida RP-run, just aiming to snuff out vampires with no particular objective beyond that. Ended up with a strange patchwork empire basically wherever vamps or greenskins (they kept getting in the way) had originally been. Settra and Karak Azul (largest dwarf faction, with about half of the World's Edge Mountains) were loyal allies the whole way through. Made it through the whole game without declaring on a "good" or even "neutral" faction.
The silliest drama was the little dwarf faction that starts near you. I expand early, cutting him off from the Lizardmen. Apparently he contacted them anyway enough to declare war, and both sides kept asking for my military access to fight each other, which I kept denying. Eventually the dwarf faction declares on me to go through. My armies are forever and a day away and I can't quickly raise a disposable stack because Lord limit. So I just ignore him, periodically fending off an attack on the nearest settlement with the garrison.
I ignored it for so long apparently he not only made peace with the Lizardmen, but had actually become defensive allies. I only realized at the end of the game, when he sued for peace and I checked his relations with nearby powers. A few turns after I let him peace out, and he knocks on my door asking for a defensive alliance. Silly dwarfs.
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Morathi run, everything was smooth when the high elves decided to stop fighting and send me all their armies instead while i was busy finishing the tomb kings. Those guys are really not fun to face with their stacks of seaguards. God I hate playing against seaguards. Will have to survive until thier five and my executionners I guess.
Super challenging campaign I have to say.
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Lothern is a total powerhouse. They always seem to secure Ulthuan really quickly, and then the game is just stay on their good side as most factions (especially since there's little profit in taking their land unless you're an elf.
I think about DE campaigns as mostly being about getting in as good a position as you can for the war with the HE which will inevitably come and usually see you heavily outnumbered. (This from playing CoP in Vortex and ME on VH. Haven't done Malekith yet b/c waiting on Norsca update for trying out northern factions).
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On January 31 2018 05:20 Yoav wrote:
Lothern is a total powerhouse. They always seem to secure Ulthuan really quickly, and then the game is just stay on their good side as most factions (especially since there's little profit in taking their land unless you're an elf.
I think about DE campaigns as mostly being about getting in as good a position as you can for the war with the HE which will inevitably come and usually see you heavily outnumbered. (This from playing CoP in Vortex and ME on VH. Haven't done Malekith yet b/c waiting on Norsca update for trying out northern factions).
Yup I have the distinct feeling I’m gonna suffer. If I survive long enough to get a couple of elite stacks, I’ll probably lightning strike them into oblivion though.
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On January 31 2018 05:34 Biff The Understudy wrote:Show nested quote +On January 31 2018 05:20 Yoav wrote:
Lothern is a total powerhouse. They always seem to secure Ulthuan really quickly, and then the game is just stay on their good side as most factions (especially since there's little profit in taking their land unless you're an elf.
I think about DE campaigns as mostly being about getting in as good a position as you can for the war with the HE which will inevitably come and usually see you heavily outnumbered. (This from playing CoP in Vortex and ME on VH. Haven't done Malekith yet b/c waiting on Norsca update for trying out northern factions). Yup I have the distinct feeling I’m gonna suffer. If I survive long enough to get a couple of elite stacks, I’ll probably lightning strike them into oblivion though.
Imo DE's midgame timing is good enough to push. Shades and bolt throwers murder HE and archer corsairs are mostly decent against them. Well shades murder everything. But a t1 base army with 3 bolt throwers will still beat most HE stacks even without shades.
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DE only is hard if you self restrict yourself on using no black arks and no shades. Since Lothern feeds you army after army the moment you enter Ulthuan otherwise. Especially if you burn down a settlement.
I really wish the AI would consider if a giant artillery ship is in range or not. Or be less insane with their settling habits.
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Imo the biggest weakness of the AI is their inability to keep their armies together. I've stopped counting how often I beat factions that would have crushed me if they moved around as a deathball. If I can take out Lothern's armies one by one it's really inconsequential that they have nine of them.
And yeah that longrange wizard aka Black Arc is useful especially early on, it is very good at taking out artillery and once the brawl starts it's also decent at killing stacks.
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On January 31 2018 08:14 FeyFey wrote:
DE only is hard if you self restrict yourself on using no black arks and no shades. Since Lothern feeds you army after army the moment you enter Ulthuan otherwise. Especially if you burn down a settlement.
I really wish the AI would consider if a giant artillery ship is in range or not. Or be less insane with their settling habits.
I did really well with DE without shades or arks 
Typical army composition: lord, sorceress, hag, 8x black guard, 6x darkshards (without shields), 2x reaper bolt thrower, 1x hydra
You can of course switch around some of the black guard for executioners (6x executioners + 2x black guard would be good) but BG was working better for me against HE lategame dragons, phoenixes and cavalry everywhere.
Edit: Also, BG are really crazy with Malekith. They have like 50 melee attack and 70 defense, making them a threat for anything and being able to hold the line pretty much indefinitely.
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Dark Elves probably have the strongest roster from Tier 1 to Tier 5. There's no point where they don't have options to murder to you.
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On February 01 2018 01:05 xDaunt wrote:
Dark Elves probably have the strongest roster from Tier 1 to Tier 5. There's no point where they don't have options to murder to you.
I feel at tier one, they have no easy counter to seaguards and HE spears though. Those early HE armies are really hard to abuse if they have the numerical advantage.
Or maybe i just suck, that’s very possible too :p
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Hi guys, I caved in and bought Tomb Kings DLC
So far they are really fun! I think with the no upkeep they are a pretty good beginner faction, especially Settra's starting position.
But I'm having some problems, keep in mind I have multiple mods installed and this is not a vanilla playthrough, but I think my problems stem from a general lack of understanding this total war iteration. I have Steel Faith Overhaul, which is supposed to make the game "harder" overall for the player while making units a bit more balanced stat-wise.
I have experience in the TW series going as far back as Shogun 1 and Medieval 1, with Medievial 2 and Shogun 2 being my favourites in the series.
Anyway, I do well in battles knowing tactics and take on 2-3 armies with a single one of mine but it's on the campaign map that I get bogged down. How do you make money as Tomb Kings (Settra specifically?) Am I supposed to raid in general, raid my own territories, or enslave the prisoners or what? I usually take replenishment but maybe that is a mistake because skeletons are just meatshields? I do send 1 general on a ship to gather wrecks on the sea, but that is a short burst of cash, usually for 1-2 buildings.
When the rites cost 3-5K each, the buildings quickly cost 5K+ and the TK base income is pitifully low I just don't know how to run their economy. I trade with whomever I can but that isn't a big boost either.
I don't expect to have the income of freaking High Elves but at least I don't want to be deadbroke every other turn.
Also any other general tips would be welcome - which buildings to build (are econ buildings worth it at all for TKs?), which magic lore to choose.
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1. Money as TK is trade (lots and lots of trade) and from Endless March (release captives), which is often the best option early. Later on, you can use money structures (which double as roads) to get lots of cash flowing. But growth and public order are you construction priorities. Growth more important than a lot of factions because undeveloped provinces are more worthless lategame than for other factions (money irrelevant; high tier military structures are what you need).
Raiding/sacking can be profitable, but it's always going to be supplemental.
Some people use a spare lord to treasure hunt. I'm uncertain if this is a good use of one of your limited lord slots, but it might be if you're near the sea and are cash-strapped.
2. Replenishment after battle is situational, but is my most common choice, especially later on. It regenerates models not HP, so it doesn't help construct armies much. It is also largely an over time effect, so you can just get it once then endless march for any battles immediately following. Blue skill tree critical for replenishment in general (and matter for HP as well as models). Anytime you're sack/razing a lot of cities you'll need the battle replenishment. If occupying, your basic skellies are 1 turn recruits and won't slow down the blitz.
NB: Having lots of recruitment structures of a type reduces the global recruitment time. This can be a lifesaver for TK.
3. Rites:
-1 Casket per army is all you want because of the bonus to winds of magic. Try to time this for recruiting the army so you get the other buffs.
-Ptra's Necrotect on cooldown, use on sack/razed settlements. Pays for himself.
-Never sandstorm unless you're really struggling with Chaos. You should be fighting in other territory, not your own.
-Growth on cooldown. Growth is huge for TK.
4. And this is the main point... armies don't need to be crazy high tech. You can get enormous milage out of skeletons and chariots. Focus on economy buildings, not military. Never build basic military buildings and instead use the ones you capture, or raze them and replace with econ. By midgame you should be flush with cash and able to buy anything you want.
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EPT
