Third Age Total War
HOTSEAT INSTRUCTIONS
a) What is hotseating?
b) How can I participate in Hotseat?
c) Which rules must I follow?
d) Recommendations
What on Earth is hotseating?
Well that is a question that everyone of us once asked. Third Age Total War Multiplayer subforum is the first step, if you want to join our community and enjoy playing Third Age Total War with fellow members instead of boring computer. All you need to own is Third Age Total War 3.2 submod and you are ready!
Hotseats are multiplayer campaigns, that aren’t played in the real time but with saves. First admin start a hotseat and create the first save. Since Gondor is always on the first place, it’s player must download admin’s save and puts it in Medieval II Totalwar/mods/modfolder (Third Age 3)/saves. Now the first player must start the mod and loads the save as he would load any save game.
At this moment we can mention the hotseat screen.
On this screen you can find general informations regarding the hotseat and also set your password that you will be using during the entire hotseat, so remember it or write it somewhere! You will have to type this password at the beginning of each of your turn. Once you typed your password your turn will open and you can start playing.
Now comes some very important things which are vital for hotseating. Once you finish your turn you must end it. After you done that, another hotseat screen comes up and the second player in line is ready to play. That is most often Rohan. Now you have to save the game by using the same name admin provided.
For example: YB2_Rohan_T1 (NAME OF THE HOTSEAT – NAME OF FACTION – TURN)
Once you are done with that you will have to upload your save in the hotseat thread. For saving you can use any uploading site (from MediaFire to Filedropper, 2shared and many more) because saving directly on this site by using attachments feature is not reliable and many time save won’t work. Now you must notified the next player in turn order and than he will repeat the same process.
Allright. But how can I participate in a Hotseat?
This is also a very important question which will soon be answered. First you will have to visit Third Age Total War Multiplayer subforum, that you can find here and then check all available hotseats. If they are searching for a new player in one that already runs or a new hotseat has been just opened, you should simply write in this hotseat thread that you want to join.
Hotseats are hoasted mostly by Gaming Staff members and experienced players so you shouldn’t start a new hotseat unless you have already found players or ask one of the Gaming Staff members for a permission.
Joining hotseat is a very easy job but with that come also responsibilities that are part of every hotseat. You must know that hotseats can be played for a long time which you must bear in mind when joining one because it can easily takes many months of gameplay for one game to come to an end. You must also visit this site at least once a day since most hotseats have a 24h rule and turns can come and go very quickly. If you cannot promise to do that it is better that you don’t join any hotseat.
Rules, rules, rules. Why I must always obey rules?
Because otherwise there would be a chaos like in real life. Every hotseat has its rules which are similar and must be respected all the time, from the beginning till the end. This rules included cheating and bugs, which are often described in the opening post. You must always read the rules and stick to it or you will be punished. There are many punishments, from small ones like taking some money or troops from your faction to big ones, like banning from hotseat or even entire community. So think twice before you have some ill intentions on your mind. If you think that somebody has broken a rules you must always contact admin via pm and not announce this in public until he decide what to do. Hotseat admin must always be respected and you must trust in his decisions.
Some small tips are always useful
- It is very important to communicate with other players in hotseat because you are playing with real peoples after all. Establishing relationships and making deals is very exciting and the best way to do it is via pm or ingame messages (to send that you must open a diplomatic tab and clicking the faction’s banner in game)
- Some Third Age hotseats are created as good vs evil while others are not. In the first ones you cannot make pacts with evil factions and betray other good factions while in the second ones that is possible.
- Some factions are harder and other easier. If you want to play a hard hotseat campaign pick Eriador, Gondor or Dale, but if you want to play more comfort you should pick factions which have more secure position, better recruitment options or stronger units like High Elves, Mordor, Dwarves or Rhun for example.
- Know that Third Age Total War hotseats aren’t balanced which means that some factions will always defeat others in battle despite the same strenght. To prevent that play carefully and avoid openly attacking factions with many units and good generals (Mordor and Isengard) or factions with strong units (Dwarves). Wait for them to attack first and make a good strategy how to surprise them in battle.
- Make yourself a goal before start playing in one hotseat. What you want to achieve in it?
- Use spies to investigate the area and act only when you are sure where are enemy troops.
- Make sure that you are the attacker as their position seems to be better in hotseats. However do not attack straight powerful factions like Mordor, Isengard and Dwarves because it is better if you split their armies first by luring them in different locations and weaken them as the same time.
- Build watchtower and forts if they are available.
- Be prepared to lose your first 2 or 3 hotseats.
- Play many hotseats to become more experienced.
- Build building which will bring you the most money like paved roads, ports and mines + military building which will allow you to recruit more and better units + buildings to increase your own culture. Avoid building unnecessary buildings which won’t help you in hotseats like farms and markets.
Hotseat guide for beginners
