Some thoughtful commentary on Total War

**Huberto** · November 25, 2020, 07:54 PM

I am going to recommend Volound's You Tube Channel, he's recently uploaded a bunch of in depth reviews of battles in Troy, 3K, and Warhammer Total War and has some compelling criticism about where CA has taken the series.

https://www.youtube.com/user/volound

**Daruwind** · November 26, 2020, 12:48 AM

Yeah, great personal opinions but hardly reviews...you know from somobody who admitted to never actually played Warhammer at least... for example. Not sure about Troy and 3K but when I want a review, I want it from somebody with actual experience, else it is just personal opinion and for that I don´t need random guy on internet..

**Huberto** · November 26, 2020, 09:43 AM

Originally Posted by Daruwind

Yeah, great personal opinions but hardly reviews...you know from somobody who admitted to never actually played Warhammer at least... for example. Not sure about Troy and 3K but when I want a review, I want it from somebody with actual experience, else it is just personal opinion and for that I don´t need random guy on internet..

Reviews are personal opinions of course, and they are worth something when they are well drawn. That includes aspects of WH battles which he clearly documents with ample video evidence along with other titles including TWR2. Let me put it another way, his work saved me from having to waste any time playing Troy ATWS. He's done something valuable here, opinionated sure, but hardly "random guy on internet."

**Daruwind** · November 26, 2020, 07:44 PM

I got the same info about Troy from others as well...

I know I forgot something. The name was little familiar to me...
https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/co..._100k_subs_is/
I even like Legend despite a few lows in my book of grudges but reading even his thread on reddit on matter, pure gold.
https://www.reddit.com/r/LegendofTot...lqt8g/volound/
Okey. Fair enough, suit yourself. Surely there are people who might be dicks personally but are quite good reviewers buuuuuut I won´t waste more time here.

**CommodusV** · December 10, 2020, 06:02 AM

He makes incidentally good points at least as food for thought, and it isn't that he hasn't played 3K or Troy - unless you don't believe him, as he stated in one of the latest videos I took a gander at.

The attitude and the drama are an utter disservice to his online credibility, though. Anyone who tells a fan that politely says they enjoy his work but he should reconsider his position in the drama "I don't know who you are, stay the hell away from me" has issues. Perhaps people would stay away if he wasn't persistently lighting fires.

All to be taken for a grain of salt, perhaps there's some merit if specific points of his and the evidence for them were leveled in-thread.

**0riflamme** · December 15, 2020, 09:35 AM

I don't follow the youtubes or gaming gossip as a rule, but I don't need to if I want to review the series' trajectory, or comment on what I've seen that's kept me aloof since Rome 2 dropped. New CA clearly shifted to style over substance and want little to do with classic TW. After all, the vast majority of TW gamers*, those who've come in through Total Warhammer, are what you call fans. These are a class of human that form consumer-tribes around fetishes called trademarks. Total Warham fans play strategy games for fanservices like fluff and ebin fantasy, which have nothing at all to do with classic Total War's roots and philosophy (outside 2000's marketing jargon). These new Total Warriors are notoriously faithful, and they make up the overwhelming majority of likely subscribers to youtubes, so color me astonished when the Sigmar Stasi descend on a youtube who is vocally critical of the new paradigm, and that youtube, bitter over a changed trademark he had formed his own loyalty toward, vents his spleen on random, faceless commentators. Tis the Way of the WWW from time immemorial.

*These gamers will get burned too, because in captain Ahab's industry of AAA gaming, the white whale are the millions of untapped fortnite players, who haven't bought your game on dad's credit card yet.

**Sint** · December 24, 2020, 04:23 PM

are what you call fans.

Fanboys to be specific and they are part of the reason why I stopped paying attention to the TW fandom after Rome 2 released.

unless you don't believe him, as he stated in one of the latest videos I took a gander at.

Weird I just watched one of his recent ones and he clearly mentioned that he did play it....

**CommodusV** · December 25, 2020, 05:30 AM

Originally Posted by Sint

Weird I just watched one of his recent ones and he clearly mentioned that he did play it....

Aye, though 'it' is a little nebulous - I only saw it for Troy/3K myself (I didn't stick along nearly enough for that to have been 'research'), so if he played Warhammer as well you'll have to correct me.

**0riflamme** · December 30, 2020, 03:18 PM

Originally Posted by Sint

Fanboys to be specific and they are part of the reason why I stopped paying attention to the TW fandom after Rome 2 released.

Yes. The Rome 2 hypetrain passed warp and went to plaid, but Warham is a full-blown death cult all to itself. The fans of GW properties are something all together stranger than fiction.

I just watched one of Voulond's videos. He makes some great points that anybody with the hours of gameplay or PFM can verify, particularly about arbitrary bonuses and maluses with no grounding in gameplay. I noticed this with squalor from agriculture in Rome 2. I don't remember how Rome does it, but I do remember Rome had population mechanics whereas R2 doesn't. Agriculture just adds squalor, Rome allows you to do something about it, by resetting population.