Tulkas' FATW Let's Play!

[webba84]

I'm assuming MoN is referring to an add on the youtube webpage, not in the video itself (at least, that's what I see). And I have seen some Med2 adds - the game is still on sale in steam, after all, and targeted advertising is pretty sophisticated these days.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Interesting. Maybe it's a non-American thing.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Oh, now I see what you were talking about. You must've gotten the new update a week before I did, I didn't have the picture of Med2 before.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Rejoice! So I may or may not have been able to convince one of my little buddies (~700 subs) to join me in glorious battle! We'll see whether or not it pans out, but in case it does I was wondering if ya'll have any ideas for good match-ups to play in multiplayer. Like, obviously there's the cliched RK v Adunabar and Elves v Dwarves fights, but I don't really know enough about the rosters to see which factions offer good counterplay to other factions. And apparently he hasn't played any Total War game since Med1 in 2000. Bet he still beats me. It really is rather sad just how bad I am at video games... So I guess the question is, which factions would ya'll like to see two derpy fellows flail at each other with? I feel like my writing style on this forum just gets more and more convoluted. Waaaah why can't I be an eloquent genius like CountMRVHS no fair

[webba84]

Hmm...

Dale vs Rhun
Harad vs RK/Adun
Rohan vs Adun
Dunland vs Tharbad
Dorwinion vs North Rhun

Any of those would be reaaasonably balanced (its primarily a single player mod after all).

Note that for custom battles to have the same unit balance as you see in the campaign you do need to add a certain amount of xp and often weapon upgrades to the various units. You can find this information on the custom battle unit upgrade tooltips.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Thanks! Well, that is complicated. Thanks for letting me know.

[webba84]

It's not that complicated, exact information in visible on the custom battles page (where you choose the armies). In any case, you don't have to do it. Just be aware that some units will be more or less powerful than they are in the campaign, otherwise its quite balanced.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

No, I saw. It's just that, well... things that are not complicated for the almighty webba84 are probably much more so for Tulkasthevaliant.

[webba84]

Now now, don't undersell yourself, I'm sure once you set up 1 or 2 custom games it will become so easy as to be automatic.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Baruk Khazâd! So, I'd always assumed for whatever reason that it would be frowned upon for me to post more than the occasional update video in this thread, but I just messaged the mods and apparently I'm allowed to post as much as I want. Tulkaspam, AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

And so we continue, in media res as it were, with episode 31 of my LP of the Dwarven Kingdom. To sum up the campaign so far- I have found that the dwarves (spellcheck tells me that dwarves is spelled incorrectly. I propose we boycott everything until this is rectified) are extremely potent when they're able face an enemy in a chokepoint, but when attacking they are liable to be surrounded and suffer relatively catastrophic losses. Therefore, my strategy has consisted largely of advancing slowly and steadily, waiting to consolidate my hold fully before progressing. At this point, my win condition is less to win myself than it is to prevent other factions from winning before me. Thus, I have made forays to attempt to seize settlements necessary for the victory of other factions, all the while beating off the incessant attacks of the Easterlings. My conquests in my own neighborhood have been centered around my two cities capable of producing mithril armor: Narag-zigil and Moria. Most notably, I have been forced to take Caras Galadhon, after the elves declared war on me because eight dwarves trundling past Mithlond were apparently a threat to the survival of their species. Also Dwarven Wain Bows are the most fun I've had in eons. Happy times.

In this episode we consolidate our hold over Caras Galadhon, launch an offensive against the Beornings living to the north of Lothlorien, and dispatch an army to try to take Minas Anor to prevent Harad from pushing the Reunited Kingdom into the sea. Because if there's one thing that everyone loved from our RK playthrough, it's the never-ending defense of MA... Why I wrote this paragraph in the first person plural the world may never know.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19JqfxeoR8

Also, as a note to the devs... I've noticed that in 3.1 there seems to be an issue where siege equipment doesn't spawn. I was forced to autoresolve my MA siege (spoilers!) because the siege towers disappeared and I had no way into the city. I think I've seen the problem with the AI, too.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Baruk Khazâd! And welcome back to episode 32 of the Dwarven Kingdom LP. In this episode, one army blunders about Osgiliath, amazed that the Reunited Kingdom managed to mount a comeback from what seemed certain defeat, while the other army decides to engage the Beorning turncoats on their own turf.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ-fPdTd7XE

[Wambat]

I just finished watching episodes 15 - 33. i have a few pointers for your game:


1) Appropriate use of "Do not pursue" button: I notice you use this on almost all your units all the time. This is really hampering your offensive capabilities, and making you work more than necessary. You should never order units to charge/attack with "Do not pursue" activated. Use of this feature on your ranged units will prevent them from re-positioning themselves to continue firing when their target moves out of range. This is sometimes desirable, but the way you seem to typically use your Wain Bows in open battlefields is only hampered by setting them to guard all the time. In particular, a unit set to "Do not pursue" will not effectively chase down routing units.


For infantry, unless it is essential to keep your units from moving at all; like you have very specific fields of fire you need to keep clear; keeping your units on "Do not pursue" beyond the initial charge of the enemy is not advantageous once your enemy has become exhausted.


2) Strategic troop production: I am not seeing you investing in Hireling troop production. This is essential for success in a Dwarven campaign as, as you have already seen, you will run out of Dwarves to recruit. Hirelings cannot be counted on to take out opposition in frontal combat, as you have been relying upon your Dwarves to do; you must use them to hold a line, but then use shock troops or ranged units to flank the engaged enemy.


3) Be more aggressive: Several of your neighbors have the capacity to send endless stacks at you to wear you down if you try to play defensively. Instead make punitive expeditions into their heartlands, sell all their infrastructure, and then leave them to revolt. This will give you the breathing room to secure your exposed provinces.


4) Make use of forward forts/camps: Having your settlements constantly under siege is ruining your trade income. Make forward camps on the approaches to your settlements so that they are getting besieged instead of your settlements.


5) Tactical use of ranged units: Try not to use up your ammunition on frontal attacks. Instead, let the enemy meet your line, then send your ranged units (like the Axe Throwers) around behind the enemy to attack from the rear. Your ammunition will be far more effective, and you will break units rapidly. This advice does not apply to your heavy artillery, including the Wain Bows.

6) Use "Fire flaming ammo" with your Catapults when using them against enemy troops.

7) Pay attention to your king's authority: If you do not make sure your king has good authority your other generals will begin to become ineffective and you will start having problems with income and happiness.


8) Don't go to war with the Elves.


9) Do you think you could make a a playlist of your Dwarven campaign like you have for RK?


10) There are a lot of diplomacy pointers I could offer, but I am going to channel that energy into finishing the Diplomacy Guide that has been dormant for over a month now.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Woah, this is brilliant! Thanks so much!

1. Aaaaah. I see. The thing is that the Dwarves are so incredibly potent when facing enemies in a line that I'm always paranoid that they'll break formation and get themselves all killed. Or get like three of them killed, which I still consider a catastrophe. It seems that my beloved shield wall-type tactics that work so well in defense aren't really adequate for field battles. Still learning core game mechanics after a decade, like a boss...

2. Running out of dwarves doesn't seem to be a problem for me at the moment- Moria, Erebor, and Narag-zigil seem to have plenty. The problem I suppose is that my all-dwarf armies lack flexibility, and using dwarves to garrison cities that aren't under immediate threat is a bit wasteful. So I guess I'll start the transition.

3. The issue that I've run into is that my current unit composition is extremely powerful on defense, but rather weak on offense. For example, if a full-stack army of Rhun attacks my city I might kill every single soldier in it without losing a single dwarf, whereas if I were to attack that army then my dwarves would likely end up surrounded and take unnecessary losses. Which I suppose is caused by not having hirelings... yea. So if I send out, say, ten units to take and then raze a city, I might end up losing eight of those units, whereas if I spent that time just soullessly defending then I might lose only one or two units. So I'm afraid I have to disagree with you on this one, at least while I focus my energies in areas besides the Rhovanion front. But only because the Dwarves are so incredibly powerful.

4. And I'm not entirely sure about this one, either. Currently my only cities that are actually under siege often are in Rhovanion, where there aren't really any chokepoints to defend. If I make a camp then I'll just have one giant army siege it and the other army attack the city, which defeats the point of the camp, especially when I have so few units (again, hirelings...). And even in Rhovanion, the only city that is actually often under siege is the one directly to the west of NZ, which doesn't comprise a massive part of my trade income. Honestly, if I could I'd tear down the walls of all my Rhovanion cities so they could just be attacked and have done with it, but yeah... as long as my trade routes with Caras Galadhon and Dale are intact I reckon I'm more or less fine. Of course, both of those trade routes are severed at the moment (spoilers!) but that's another issue entirely.

5. To be honest, I see the Axe Throwers more as heavy infantry than as ranged units. When I'm defending my current setup works perfectly, and when I'm attacking my units are the ones getting surrounded, not the other way around! This isn't Cannae, and I'm no Hannibal. Again, hirelings, but even with hirelings I'd prefer to use my Axe Throwers to hold the line as you recommended. But I'm sure that there will be situations where I'll be able to use the Axe Throwers in that way in the future, so I'll bear your advice in mind.

6. Alrighty!

7. Thanks for the reminder. I was good about checking up on that during my RK playthrough but I've forgotten about it more recently. I'll get on that.

8. Well, I hardly thought that they would see my eight dwarves bouncing past Mithlond as a massive threat! After all, dwarves go through elven lands on the time on the way to the Blue Mountains! I think. But yeah, I shouldn't have entered their lands, I know... I sorta figured that the super-alliance you have us in (the one that causes the side-effect of granting us vision over the other factions) would be strong enough to keep them from declaring war on me. Oh well, silly Tulkas... too late now I suppose.

9. Sure! My concern with that has been that I'll forget to keep it updated, but I suppose it's possible to automate playlists. I'll have to check into that.

10. Yeah, I read the fancy diplomacy thread you had on here a few months ago and was surprised by just how complex it was. I think that one of my big failings during the RK campaign was my failure to demand tribute from Harad in exchange for ceasefire. I'm sure I could do a much better job of it, but just about every faction left in the game demands my annihilation so ho hum. Plus diplomacy isn't very good video. Yea.

Thanks so much for this! I'm sorta surprised that I actually have people consistently watching my videos. Neat. I've already pre-recorded about ten episodes ahead of time (in the past I've tried to keep that number lower so I could incorporate viewer feedback, but I've just been having so much fun...) so it'll take me awhile to implement your suggestions, but I reckon they'll help a lot in my current predicament. I'm sure my videos could benefit with having less turtling going on, but I've been trying to get better about cutting out the boring battles and, after the disaster that was my RK campaign, I'm just focused on the ol' slow-and-steady-wins-the-race thing. Yippie!

[Tulkasthevaliant]

I've been avoiding the auto-playlist function for a year now, and it took me less than a minute to complete. Hooray for Tulkas.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...ZsXcf-SlYsvukW

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Baruk Khazâd! Sooo, a month or so ago I declared that I was gonna post every single video in my FATW series here, in a grand attempt to promote community engagement and discussion. That, uh, evidently did not happen (#goodYouTuber), but I come before you once again today to share Dwarven Kingdom Episode 56! Behold!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk_bOMKi9AY

This episode is special in that it represents the turning point in my campaign as, faced with the inevitability of the Haradrian war machine, I am forced to make a last-ditch effort to expand outwards and achieve my victory conditions before Harad crushes all resistance. For this reason, I reckon that episode 56 would be a good place to start to get a "tl;dr" of my series. So yay! Sorry if this isn't the most coherent post, been feeling a bit under the weather today.

[CountMRVHS]

Thanks for posting, Tulkas!

Great idea to give us a heads-up about the campaign progress. Good luck with Harad! My current way of dealing with them is to create buffer states between us in the hopes that I don't have to fight them or conquer them. (Well, as RK I would probably try to conquer them.)

[webba84]

Y'know, I think we ought to nerf Harad just a touch in the next patch. Right now they win 100% of the time in the south, regardless of campaign and ideally it would be good to see Harondor or Far Harad have a (slim) chance of coming out on top down there.

[Wambat]

The way I dealt with Harad was getting some plague and repeatedly infecting their (and Harondor's) cities repeatedly. This reduced both of their manpower pools sufficiently to prevent them steamrolling their neighbors. Use of agents is extremely valuable in warfare; for example: using rogues to continuously damage the infrastructure of enemy factions can seriously drain their financial resources and prevent troop production.

[CountMRVHS]

I always, always forget to use rogues for that purpose. Feel up to writing an agent guide Wambat? :

Webba, I agree - I've never seen any other southern faction pull ahead of Harad in the long term.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Yeah, Harad is def the most overpowered faction in the mod. I feel like, without player intervention, Harad will end up controlling the entire map every single time. In my campaign, I've only been able to stop Harad from winning so far by holding MA- ain't nothing like seeing nine full-stack armies camped out in Osgiliath! Also, contrary to what I was told, the Othram only seems to destroy one out of every six or seven battering rams sent against it. Also I've already finished my campaign, for good or ill, so the advice doesn't really help me. But thanks anyway! I used agents a ton in vanilla, but vanilla was so much easier that it was just mucking around for the most part.