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Thread: Battles and magic?

  1. #1

    Default Battles and magic?

    I was a big fan of Warhammer back in the 80s when I was a kid (born 1970). I remember that it served much the same purpose as Total war currently does for me in that it had differing factions, politics, big battles etc but I'm a little worried at how magic is going to intergrate into the Total War system.
    I mean, imagine all your carefully laid battle plans going up in smoke (green smoke probably) because out of the enemy lines, a wizard or some such performs a spell which drops your entire front line. Will magic be kept at the level of an average field artillery weapon do you think, or are they really going to ham it up?

  2. #2
    HigoChumbo's Avatar Definitely not Jom.
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    Default Re: Battles and magic?

    Quote Originally Posted by Baldwin of Jerusalem View Post
    I was a big fan of Warhammer back in the 80s
    Well, respect.


    (born 1970)
    I fell ya man.


    I'm a little worried at how magic is going to intergrate into the Total War system.
    Well, there is nothing known so far, save for the hints in the trailer at some kind of targetted spells (the mage casting a fireball) and summons (the other mage calling in a Chaos Lord of Change). Many other forum members have also expressed their concern about the magic system, with its huge potential for fun and overall epicness, ending up as just a slighty modified version of the current, underwhelming ability system.


    I mean, imagine all your carefully laid battle plans going up in smoke (green smoke probably) because out of the enemy lines, a wizard or some such performs a spell which drops your entire front line.
    Well, I think that's fun. I believe the problem is that people don't see that it wouldn't be just an overpowered addition, but a feature that could add a completelly new strategical layer to the game. What I mean with this is... if knowing that they have a bombastic wizard in their army the player deploys his/her troops in a way that allows that wizard to blow them up with a single spell, then it would be the players fault, and I could only say that he or she just hadn't laid the battle plan as carefully as he/she thought. (damn it English language, fix the s/he thing already ¬¬). A countermagic/dispel system (which as far as I'm concerned is already present in the tabletop game) would also deal with this, and make every battle feel like a really tense chess match.

    Also, as some other people have pointed out, magic is not a completelly controllable force in Warhammer, when a mage casts a spell, the more powerful it is (and the less skillful the mage), the higher the chance of of getting a miscast, which could translate in that very expensive mage blowing himself up alongside half of his own army, that way the most powrful spells woudln't be spammable abilities that you cast as soon as the coldown is gone, you would instead use them as a last resource when everything seems to be lost and you have no other option but to gamble.


    As far as every unit has a counterplay I don't mind if there are some really powerful units available (and with counterplay I don't mean minutely balanced to the point where powerful units end up being underwhelming. Power asymmetry is fun in my humble opinion)


    Will magic be kept at the level of an average field artillery weapon?
    Well, as you probably have already concluded given my previous words, I sure hope not



    By the way, I imagine this thread will be an interesting read for you: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...tal-War-Armies
    Last edited by HigoChumbo; May 24, 2015 at 06:58 PM.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Battles and magic?

    We're not really sure yet since nobody is going to see any gameplay at all until E3 in June, but obviously there are a couple of ways that they could make sure Magic isn't too hideously OP (Like Sycthed Chariots). Obviously they could just make it a fancy looking artillery unit on par with like armstrong guns. They could also make it a risk reward system with the chance of spells fizzling or backfiring being something you need to take into account. They could also simply make mages very rare and very expensive. OR they could make it so mages can dispel other mages. We don't really know how its going to go though, so probably CA will cock it up at launch then overhaul it later.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Battles and magic?

    Thanks for your opinions guys. I guess we'll have to just wait and see!

  5. #5
    Påsan's Avatar Hva i helvete?
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    Default Re: Battles and magic?

    Yeah dispelling is a huge part of warhammer tabletop so I it should be included.

    Also don't forget that mages are not purely offensive. They should be far more versatile than just a glorified siege engine.

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