Tulkas' FATW Let's Play!

[webba84]

Hey Tulkas, no announcement for your new series?

[Tulkasthevaliant]

I've been stretched a bit thin with finals. Just like how I was stretched thin with Adunabar, I suppose. Obviously it only takes like five mins to type up an announcement, but I have to go catch a bus back to Indiana so bye! Thank you for noticing wheeeeeee

[webba84]

Of course mate! Well, I'll just go and put a direct link to the first episode in the compilation thread then.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Better late than never, eh? After a quite dismal showing with the Kingdom of Adunabar, wherein I realized I was losing and waited to record for a month to get some feedback, only to get roflstomped the instant I got back into the game, I have decided to play as the Elven Realms. Or is it singular? I can never figure that one out. But fortunately the faction seems to be extremely easy so far (perhaps owing to the fact that the unit size is set to normal... look, it's called "normal" for a reason. Because it's normal. So there.), although that's what I always say before I get surrounded and snuffed out. So we're trying to avoid that. Yay!

Episode 1 in the series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwCM-0YgDVc

The Elven Realm playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...APh9fg_Ay-5ALX

Also, I've been thinking about focusing my channel into a niche of either mods for Rome/Med II or Tolkien mods for other games. The problem with that is, of course, that all that installing stuff takes some technical know-how that I decidedly lack. And also every other mod will probs feel like a step down after FATW. But maybe TATW will happen someday? Yay?

[Saul Tyre]

I would gladly help you with any mod install tech know-how Talkas..go for it valiant one...I have 14 mods installed on my PC so you could say I have a bit of experience

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Very kind of you! And I know my other YouTubing buddies would be happy to help. But I feel silly mooching off of people... meh.

[Saul Tyre]

[QUOTE=Tulkasthevaliant;15200830]Very kind of you! And I know my other YouTubing buddies would be happy to help. But I feel silly mooching off of people... meh.

Not at all young man, it's not silly, how else do you learn? what is a forum for lad? Q&A is all part of it surely? so any time you like my friend, if I know the answer to any problems you have with install or dl etc I will help, you can "mooch" away as much as you like

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Yippie! Scotlandlove!

[gasas]

Tulkas your LP are no challenging at all for one reason - small unit size, when I saw your dwarven videos with that size I was just thinking "what the hell?" Change it to recommended and you will see the difference

[Tulkasthevaliant]

I changed the unit size to normal for this exact reason. I experienced some problems during my RK playthrough when I had the unit size set to large, which is why I changed it in the first place. I would change it now if I could, but oh well. I don't think having the unit size set to normal is gamebreaking, though- none of the Elven cities are really isolated from mannish settlements that can ferry over men.

[gasas]

Maybe not gamebreaking but it have huge influence on gameplay, you already have superior troops and with lower unit size you can recruit it just more. Imagine battle vs Beornings, you are a winner even before the battle start. On the west maybe it doesn't have much influence but on East it have huge impact especially for AI. In your first elves episode I saw comments that you didn't know that there is an option to manage all settlements, when you start as elves or dwarves it didn't appear but in mannish campaign you will see it, anyway that option is still in game menu where you can change other things too. You should know game better if you are recording it, just a tip.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

You should know game better if you are recording it, just a tip.

I dunno about that. Clearly I'll never be as skillful as Saul Tyre or Wambat, but I'm not trying to be. Even if the game is a little unbalanced with units at normal size- is that really so bad? I want to have enough of a challenge to keep it interesting and have a real threat of defeat in the campaign, but at the end of the day my first priority is to make interesting video content, not to win a competition. If people want super happy derpy times then they can watch my content, if they want super skillful tryhard genius then they can watch Webba or Wambat. Even with the unit size set to small I still had a lot of difficulty with the Dwarves campaign, so I don't think I'll suddenly become stupidly overpowered or summat. I can definitely see why someone would favor a more serious style of play over my own clumsier methods, but I can only be what I am, and what I am is derp. I dunno, maybe for my campaign I could make a rule that I'm not allowed to redistribute population to elven settlements manually by disbanding units...

In your first elves episode I saw comments that you didn't know that there is an option to manage all settlements

Ooooh that, I thought Wambat was talking about something different. I don't mind having it disabled though, if nothing else it balances the unit size a tad, and I always disable the automanagement of building and unit production.

on East it have huge impact especially for AI.

Do you mean that such factions as Rhun will struggle to produce units given the population cap?

[webba84]

...genius then they can watch Webba...

This is definitely not an accurate description of my skill level

Do you mean that such factions as Rhun will struggle to produce units given the population cap?

I think what he means is that smaller unit sizes reduce the advantages of outnumbering your opponent (a unit of 30 vs 20 has less of an advantage than a unit of 60 vs 40) and increase the value of high individual stats. So smaller unit sizes give a big advantage to factions that have small, elite units such as the Elves or Dwarves, and disadvantage factions that rely on large numbers (such as Rhun or Harad).

So, aside from the population balance issues, a lot of the faction balance on the battlemap relies on unit size being large as well. However, as I have said many times before, everyone is free to play the mod with whatever settings they want, as long as they are enjoying it. It would be a bit silly for us to dictate exactly how you should enjoy your own single player experience.

[athanaric]

I think what he means is that smaller unit sizes reduce the advantages of outnumbering your opponent (a unit of 30 vs 20 has less of an advantage than a unit of 60 vs 40) and increase the value of high individual stats.
So smaller unit sizes give a big advantage to factions that have small, elite units such as the Elves or Dwarves, and disadvantage factions that rely on large numbers (such as Rhun or Harad).

Has anyone actually done comparative tests? Would be cool to know if it really makes a difference.

Do you mean that such factions as Rhun will struggle to produce units given the population cap?

Au contraire, they start with high population and thrive on "huge" settings. Dito for Harad. Be prepared to face the Red Sea...

Personally, I play all Mannish factions on yuuge unit size, because they feel more epic and appropriate to human factions, and I can't stand these puny armies. HOWEVER, I used to play Elves and Dwarves on Huge as well, which is probably really stupid. At least, it makes the game much more difficult (and Elves are already more difficult to play than I'd like).
So for me, it's now Huge for Men and Large for everyone else. I'm not telling you to do likewise, though - playing Reunited Kingdom on Huge is quite a challenge due to Arnor - and parts of Gondor! - being underpopulated, and the constant threat from the spammer factions Harad and (Cultic) Adunabar.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Ah, I see. Righty-ho.

[Saul Tyre]

.....skillful as Saul Tyre..

[gasas]

Tulkas please don't be offended I just said that for your own good, I understand that some people are not veterans of this game, and have less knowledge or tactic skills. As webba said just enjoy your game however you want.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Oh, I wasn't offended, and I apologize if I came off as such. I was speaking more to thoughts I have about my channel as a whole than to anything that you said in particular. I do appreciate critical feedback on both video quality and gameplay, and I am always looking to get better- the Tactical Tips thread had taught me so much.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Aye, such a challenge is beyond me. Although that gets me thinking- maybe it would be interesting to try some specific challenges in FATW? Like, I know in vanilla that there was a challenge where the player tried to resettle Phoenicia as early as possible as Carthage...

[CountMRVHS]

Hmm, that's an interesting thought Tulkas... I'll have to come up with some ideas.

I've often wondered just how ridiculous a Shire campaign would be. Went so far as to make them playable - for about 5 minutes. Their VCs are to conquer every single province on the map (which is pretty funny to see on the campaign goals screen!), and they can't build or train anything, so it would be a matter of using FMs and mercs.

A fun campaign for the Dwarves involves colonizing the wealthy trade settlements - so anyplace with ivory, incense, etc. It gets you all over the map.

As for true migrations, maybe the most sensible one would be a faction like North Rhun - horde capable, with a pretty difficult position at the start anyway. North Rhun setting up in Arnor or someplace might be interesting. The biggest problem is that you wouldn't get your higher-tier native units outside your homelands...