Getting back to a golden age of Total War combat

[Son of Horus]

You were correct first time. For me, the timeline has stuck at the minute to midnight that was during the spring of 2004, where the old world stood aligned one way or another.

The Empire sheltering refugees from Kislev and moving its armies north under the command of the Grand Theogonist Volkmar knowing they are only going to be sacrificial speed bumps, while the important garrisons at Middenhim and Brass Keep are reinforced. The High Elf Navy under the Sea Lord Aislinn protecting the northern colonies,while attempting to fight off the Black Arks and Reavers, the Dwarf Slayers heading north while Garagrim the War Mourner, son of Ungrim seeks to end the curse of being both a Slayer and King for his father by dying before he has to take the throne, while fighting Vardek Crom, the Herald. Crom heads through the mountains,,and attempts to hit middenheim from behind, but the undead of Mannfred bar their path, fighting each other to a stand still.

As Archaon begins to siege the city, the skies darken, and Belakor arrives with his Daemonic Host, with a Banner made from the shattered by still living body of the Grand Theogonist.

Now THAT was Warhammer. Not 'everybody dies lol, lets make a new world'. If you've ever played D&D this is 'rocks fall everybody dies roll up a new character'.

[Carl Jung was right]

I beg to disagree. WTW is a fantasy game, thus all considerations for realism should only take secondary priority. I don't care if griffon cavalry tears through 10 ranks of pike like hot knife through butter. What I want is epic battles, thus:

- Over the top 1 vs. 1 animations, which looks way more impressive than "thrust-into-thin-air" system of old RTW
- Aside from pikemen, any type of formation should dissolve immediately after coming into melee => Epic Hollywood battle
- Intermittent cutscenes during battles (e.g. execution moves)
- Rock-paper-scissor combat system that proves beneficial for both competitive multiplayer as well as AI programming (Shogun 2' AI is the best!)

I have a nagging fear that out of all the constructive advice and criticism contained in pages of topics here, this is the only one CA will end up listening to.

Haha's aside, while Warhammer TW is a fantasy game, I still wish to see the combat mechanics to be on the side of common sense. Since we don't have any other model than actual history of our world to tell us what large scale battles would look like, it makes sense to at least have some link with real-world plausibility. Keep in mind that lore writers of Warhammer rulebooks didn't shy from this, especially in Forge World narratives, and their "realism" was largely limited not so much by artistic license but rather lack of requisite knowledge.

[Garensterz]

I have a nagging fear that out of all the constructive advice and criticism contained in pages of topics here, this is the only one CA will end up listening to

. Well CA already made all those wishes come true since Rome 2 came out. Then everything feels downgraded after that.

[Twido]

I beg to disagree. WTW is a fantasy game, thus all considerations for realism should only take secondary priority. I don't care if griffon cavalry tears through 10 ranks of pike like hot knife through butter. What I want is epic battles, thus:

- Over the top 1 vs. 1 animations, which looks way more impressive than "thrust-into-thin-air" system of old RTW
- Aside from pikemen, any type of formation should dissolve immediately after coming into melee => Epic Hollywood battle
- Intermittent cutscenes during battles (e.g. execution moves)
- Rock-paper-scissor combat system that proves beneficial for both competitive multiplayer as well as AI programming (Shogun 2' AI is the best!)

No offense friend, but I want almost the opposite of what you want!
For me the golden age of TW combat was related to the combat speed. I much preferred the slower more tactical approach of the earlier titles than the arcadey, unrealistic later ones. I understand that this makes it more difficult for the AI though.

The best thing they could do is give us options to customise how the game plays from somewhat realistic to a more "gamey" type of game. I don't think it can be so hard to implement and would broaden the appeal.

[Riekopo]

Has anyone compared the recent Warhammer previews with the suggestions in this thread?

[Dalakh]

LO AND BEHOLD. My friends it's happening. It took orcs, goblins, dwarfs, dragons and giants spiders but FINALLY they did it they are GETTING RID OF THE MATCHED COMBAT GARBAGE. This is the best thing that could ever happen to the Total War franchise and the best news I've heard since the release of the Kingdoms expansion. No more horrible blobbing, no more sliding and mini teleporting around the battlefield, no more stuttered combat. We are finally back to teh glory days of a simple yet extremely effective system, both good on the eye and effiecient in term of mechanics.

[Påsan]

Yeah it more like medieval 2 now with only occasional kill moves. Still I dont know about combat speed though.