Kevin's Watch

So, mentioned the other day that I picked this up for 25% off on a Steam sale. Also got the "Blood & Burning" DLC because blood.

Didn't bother with the faction packs yet, will wait 'til they go on sale, because I only really want to play the Huns right now (and will probably only get the Celtic and Viking culture packs anyway).

But damn, playing them is tough. Spent the whole long weekend playing on "normal" which is supposed to be for people unfamiliar with TW and still struggled. Not in the battles obviously, but my economy and development.

The new Horde mechanics took me a while to get used to. Ran my first campaign into the ground in less than 30 turns, and abandoned my second in less than 50.

About 50 or so turns into my 3rd, (Attila is about 10 years old) and I'm finally getting the hang of it. 4 Turns per year, seasonal effects, etc.

No real problems, runs smoothly on mid to high graphics on my GTX 550Ti.

1 crash, which happened last night right after a 35 minute battle between 1,000 of my Hunnic Horse Archers and 5,000 odd Legionaries of the Eastern Roman Empire.

I would have beat them except for running out of ammo.

Overall, I'm enjoying it. A nice change of pace from Rome II and a different focus, which is pretty fun. Worth getting if you're a fan of the series (Which just celebrated 15 years since Shogun: Total War) but unless you're a serious fan, you can probably wait for the summer or Christmas sale.

Diplomacy is still pretty limited, but the family tree is back and intra-faction politics have quite a few options.

The Huns are the only faction that can't settle (all other hordes can take over settlements) and money, food and growth are a bit difficult to get right.

Climate change also has an impact, and as well as sacking settlements, you now have the option to raze the region, burning it and any settlement in it to the ground, for a growth bonus to the razing Horde.

If it's the last city of a faction, you can subjugate them to create tributary states, but they usually hate you, so don't ask any of them to join in a war.

Unit replenishment only in allied regions or when encamped as a horde. Have to be encamped to build anything, but can pick up and move your encampment and entire army somewhere else, and just carry on building where you left off next time you encamp.

Mods are still a bit limited, but no doubt they'll come.

Overall, I'm enjoying it.

--A

3 short years later and I've gone from razing the cities of the Eastern Roman Empire and a Sassinid alliance to sprinting, tail between legs, back to the hinterlands of a desolate Scythia to try and rebuild my strength. Down from 5 Hordes to just 2 and everything from my economy to my military is in the tank.

Damn Sassinids brought 4 full stacks against my two eastern hordes, and the ERE and their allies brought 5 against my 3 western hordes.

Now those 4 Sassinid stacks are chasing my hordes across the steppes, and the high upkeep of my better units means I can barely afford to maintain an army.

I might be screwed here.

--A

And I was. Played it out, but was completely wiped out within a few years of the above.

Restored back to the foundation of my 5 Hordes, and things are going better now. Destroyed the Sassanids.

High upkeep of the better units for the Huns is killing me.

Tier 1 light mounted archers, 129 upkeep per unit. Tier 2 light mounted archers, 299 upkeep.

Eventually did the upgrade research, and upgraded 3 of my stacks...total army upkeep went to more than 20,000 per turn.

Just operating on the ragged edge here. Losing one horde could ruin me.

--A

Hi Av - Just the man I want to speak to. My computer is pretty defunct and I'm going to spring for a new one - and one of the things I've always wanted to do was to play some 'war-games', as in replaying some of histories classic battles such as Waterloo, Trafalgar etc. It seems that the Total War series gives some options to do just this, as well as offering the more conventional games involving the building up of your country, empire's etc. This sounds the ideal thing for me - but the problem is I know **** about what kind of computer is best for this type of use and to get the best from the games. I'm somewhat limited on budget here - but will go the extra mile if it's really going to pay dividends on the gaming front. I'd prefer to stick with a laptop that I can then connect across to a TV for a grate big armchair battle experience. Any advice so that I don't get done up like a kipper by the hard-headed salespeople in the shop?

Tough one. I'm not a laptop person at all, and as far as I know, a laptop capable of running it will be a lot more expensive than a desktop.

Also depends which TW games you want to run. Older ones are considerably more forgiving than newer ones.

Sounds like you want at least Napoleon: Total War and the Peninsular Campaign expansion, and maybe Empire: Total War.

Really the criteria are the best CPU you can afford, the best graphics card you can afford, and the most RAM you can afford.

Minimum specs for Napoleon are:

CPU Speed: 2.3 GHz CPU with SSE2
RAM: 1 GB RAM (XP), 2 GB RAM (Vista®/Windows® 7)
OS: Microsoft® Windows Vista®/XP®/Windows® 7
Video Card: 256 MB DirectX® 9.0c shader model 2b compatible GPU
DirectX version: DirectX® 9.0c
Free Disk Space: 15 GB free space

To run it well, double the RAM and the screen card, and get a slightly fast CPU (3GHz+) and you should be fine.

The minimum specs for Rome II are:

CPU: 2 GHz Intel Dual Core processor / 2.6 GHz Intel Single Core processor
RAM: 2 GB
OS: Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8
Video Card: 512 MB Direct 9.0c compatible card (shader model 3)
Sound Card: Yes
Free Disk Space: 35 GB

That will run RII at low settings. Not sure what laptops have at least those specs (but preferably better).

I run RII (and Attila) just fine on desktop with an i3 CPU, 8 GB RAM and a 1GB screen card.

Dunno how helpful that was, but if you have any other questions, shout and I'll do my best.

--A

Thanks Av; now at least I've got some figures to arm myself with when I go on the hunt!

I intend to win Waterloo for Napoleon by the way; I've studied the battle a bit in recent days and taken on board what some of the analysts think were his [and Ney's and Grouchy's] worst errors. Have you any idea how much these simulations mirror the actual 'reality' of genuine battlefield conditions [in terms of losses etc]. Would they score higher than say conventional table-top 'war-gaming' [that I believe the Army used to use to test out putative battle strategies etc]?

What, going to take La Haye Sante and Hougoumont fast huh?

Hmmm, if anything, I would guess they might be lower, but that's just a gut feeling. Also keep in mind that they're pretty scaled down. The historical battle of Waterloo available in TW:N has considerably fewer troops and a smaller area than the reality.

(Trafalgar is pretty good though.)

They're as accurate as they can be without sacrificing too much game play, but what I love is the feel of that sort of warfare in the TW games. They really do capture it well.

Nothing like sending your Galloper guns bouncing across the field to deploy on high ground, with a company of the Scots Greys running interference and canon balls bouncing past...

--A

Rest assured Av, I have no plans toward total world domination...........yet! Mouahahahah.............


Sounds great! I'm going for it!

Awesome. There are threads for most of the games, so let us know how you do and what you're playing.

--A

Will do Av. It'll take a while for me to get up and running, but when I do I'll get posting.

Cool.

(Huh, I see there's no thread for Napoleon. You can start one if you get it.)

(Also, the Peninsula Campaign expansion is a must if you do. I prefer it to the main campaign, but that's because of my interest in the Peninsula Wars.)

--A

Have you heard about the next Total War? They're moving from history to licensed properties, with Total War: Warhammer.

Yeah, I saw.

I don't think I'm going to bother much...never been a Warhammer fan anyway. Will pick it up one day on sale no doubt, but I prefer the historical perspective.

Think I will pick up the Charlemagne campaign on the winter sale though. And maybe the desert culture pack...maybe.

--A

They're really missing an opportunity to call it Total Warhammer.

--A

Got Age of Charlemagne and the Desert Culture pack. See the latest update included a couple free factions.

Charlemagne is pretty good...smaller map, fewer factions, but 3 that I'll want to do a play-through with: Emirate of Cordoba, Danes, and the Avars.

Very small unit rosters though.

--A