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I've been replaying Three Kingdoms for the last week and currently a decent way into a Liu Bei campaign. I migrated West after occupying most of the eastern area and let Cao Cao take my original lands. I unified with Liu Zhang after a bit and am now fighting off Namman incursions. Was surprised to see Sun Ce not really get anywhere for the first 30 turns and Yan Baihu held most of the south but is now getting slammed by Sun Ce and Liu Biao. Currently the big players are Duchies of Shu, Wei, Song, Chu and Wu which feels very fitting but it's been a hell of a journey so far. This game is so good.
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Dec 18, 2023 23:16
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| # ? May 21, 2024 00:38 |
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Dual question: How important are the DLCs for Rome 2? Do Rome 2's mods make the game worth paying for? (as opposed to playing a version without workshop access) Considering buying Rome 2 at -75% discount for the base game, but the complete bundle with all DLCs is still pretty expensive at almost €50.
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Dec 25, 2023 21:33
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Base Rome is good now. Limited faction selection I suppose but tbh only the DLCs that add mini campaigns (mainly Caesar in Gaul) are worth it DEI is the big uber nerd mod. Don't know if you need DLC to play it
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Dec 25, 2023 22:17
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DaysBefore posted:Base Rome is good now. Limited faction selection I suppose but tbh only the DLCs that add mini campaigns (mainly Caesar in Gaul) are worth it Looks like DEI can be played without DLC. DEI does change DLC stuff too, if you have them, but isn't dependent on any of them. So I might go for Rome 2 on sale, no DLCs, add a bunch of mods, maybe play DEI. Unless there's some other TW experience that's better. The Warhammer universe never appealed to me though. RTW and M2 were my favorites back in the day, but they feel a bit dated now.
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Dec 26, 2023 09:08
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Three Kingdoms is by far the best historical TW game, so go for that one if you don't care about Warhammer. Otherwise, it's a toss up between WH2 and 3K
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Dec 26, 2023 10:14
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Azran posted:Three Kingdoms is by far the best historical TW game, so go for that one if you don't care about Warhammer. Otherwise, it's a toss up between WH2 and 3K Historical you say.  I thought Three Kingdoms was part fantasy. Seems like its user score/steam reviews took a beating after CA stopped supporting it? Is that something to be concerned about, or just gamer bitterness? Did they leave any glaring holes in the game when they abandoned it?
PirateBob fucked around with this message at 10:24 on Dec 26, 2023 |
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Dec 26, 2023 10:21
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The actual three kingdoms era is Kinda Eh in the way the most total war late games are, which is more disappointing than usual given it's, you know, a three kingdoms game, but if you go into it with the right expectation (which, to be clear, that right expectation is "this didn't fix the flaw shared by every single total war game") it is really really good. As to the fantasy question, it does have a fully historical mode, and even otherwise the fantasy aspect is still more "generals are cinematic war movie badasses who can mow down hundreds on their own"
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Dec 26, 2023 10:51
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3K is fantasy in the sense that generals are single entity units that can tackle whole units of soldiers. That's on Romance mode though, in Records mode they become heavy cavalry units in case you want a strictly historical ruleset. As for its current review rating, it's 100% gamer bitterness over a expansion they said they were planning on doing but got cancelled. Personally the game's in a great place - the only glaring issue I can think of is that one of the characters (Cao Cao) has a special mechanic that can cripple the player if he goes all out against you. Also the title Three Kingdoms is a misnomer - it takes place almost entirely during the shuffling of power immediately after the collapse of the Han which IMO is the most interesting period but YMMV. Azran fucked around with this message at 10:55 on Dec 26, 2023 |
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Dec 26, 2023 10:51
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Azran posted:Also the title Three Kingdoms is a misnomer - it takes place almost entirely during the shuffling of power immediately after the collapse of the Han which IMO is the most interesting period but YMMV. So does the Romance tbh
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Dec 26, 2023 11:34
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Looking at R2 and 3K on youtube, and drat, those loving cliffs in R2 bother me. Pretty much all the land in R2 is blocked off from naval landing with steep cliffs where IRL there often are none. I assume they did it in some desperate attempt to make the AI less lovely.
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Dec 26, 2023 12:29
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Records mode in 3K is still not historical, even compared to your usual TW fare. I like it but ymmv
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Dec 26, 2023 13:29
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There's "Records mode" which is the historical mode for 3K and it's the best mode imo
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Dec 26, 2023 13:41
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3k is the best total war IMHO. The diplomacy system has so much life into it.
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Dec 26, 2023 14:25
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I think I still prefer Shogun 2/FOTS overall but yeah the diplomacy in 3K is the absolute best it's ever been in the series and it should be the standard going forward. I also really like the ditching of agents for spies, although the specific way it's handled in 3K probably wouldn't fit nicely into every historical setting since it does kind of rely on that broader framework of generals being pseudo-free agents moving around and serving various warlords.
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Dec 26, 2023 15:36
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My ideal game would be FOTS but with a lot of the newer mechanics and qol features. The naval combat is good dammit it just needs to have some limits so the AI will actually mass a fleet instead of sending out wooden gunboats to die in groups of 2!
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Dec 26, 2023 15:48
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Agean90 posted:My ideal game would be FOTS but with a lot of the newer mechanics and qol features. The naval combat is good dammit it just needs to have some limits so the AI will actually mass a fleet instead of sending out wooden gunboats to die in groups of 2! If you protect your coasts with military ports and sea blockades then the AI will start grouping together fleets to push past them. They use the little wooden boats when that’s all they need to accomplish their goals.
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Dec 26, 2023 16:02
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PirateBob posted:Historical you say. As mentioned, records mode makes your general a whole heavy cav unit rather than being a one-person blood plow like they are in romance mode. There aren't like wizards or magic or anything otherwise, and can largely be treated as a regular historical title from there. Fair warning: shock cav kind of run the show for a lot of your time playing 3k. They are ruinously effective at relegating whole armies to the past tense in seconds. A lot of army comps are going to revolve around either utilizing your own well, or shutting down the enemies. Keep them away from spears and ji infantry but otherwise a lot of combat will revolve around getting them angles to run down literally everything else.
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Dec 26, 2023 19:27
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Agean90 posted:My ideal game would be FOTS but with a lot of the newer mechanics and qol features. The naval combat is good dammit it just needs to have some limits so the AI will actually mass a fleet instead of sending out wooden gunboats to die in groups of 2! 
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Dec 26, 2023 19:31
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DeathSandwich posted:As mentioned, records mode makes your general a whole heavy cav unit rather than being a one-person blood plow like they are in romance mode. There aren't like wizards or magic or anything otherwise, and can largely be treated as a regular historical title from there. Effective cavalry sounds good to me. That's what I liked most about the earlier games. A *charge* from heavy cavalry is supposed to be absolutely brutal to bodies and minds. Send the first dozen fuckers flying and trample or impale the rest.     Not some weak rear end run into + engage in regular melee BS. I decided to try FOTS. Had some trouble getting a larger font mod to work, and after a half hour of loving around, I got it working and started a campaign. Seemed fun, but then in my first battle, after zooming in on an enemy unit, the game froze and crashed to desktop. Edit: tried again with DX9, same battle didn't crash now... Is DX9 the way to go? It makes the game less pretty. 
PirateBob fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Dec 26, 2023 |
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Dec 26, 2023 20:16
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Gaius Marius posted:So does the Romance tbh extremely wrong. liu bei conpletes his conquest of shu by chapter 65, forming the final of the three kingdoms. there's still 55 chapters left after that.
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Dec 26, 2023 21:30
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Yeah but the back half of the book is boring as hell. Supposed greatest tactician of all time fails to invade Wei five times, dies like a bitch. Sima clan did nothing wrong.
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Dec 26, 2023 21:53
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Gaius Marius posted:Yeah but the back half of the book is boring as hell. Supposed greatest tactician of all time fails to invade Wei five times, dies like a bitch. Sima clan did nothing wrong. Wrong, the Northern Expedition chapters are great. Ur right about the Sima though.
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Dec 26, 2023 22:09
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Gaius Marius posted:Yeah but the back half of the book is boring as hell. Supposed greatest tactician of all time fails to invade Wei five times, dies like a bitch.
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Dec 26, 2023 22:33
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Been playing Napoleon (while listening to a podcast about Napoleon.) Really liked the Italian Campaign but the Egyptian Campaign feels like a bit of a slog of constant raids and rebellions. The battles though are like Empire but better. I'm looking forward to trying a proper European campaign.
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Dec 26, 2023 22:46
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Dudes do I need to keep using DirectX 9 to avoid crashes in FOTS
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Dec 26, 2023 22:52
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Terrible Opinions posted:Sima Yi never invaded Wei I said supposed best tactician not actual best tactician.
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Dec 26, 2023 22:53
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PirateBob posted:Dudes I’ve never needed to do that. I’d suggest trying to run it unmodified and make sure that it’s stable. A font mod sounds like trouble to me, since it could easily break some tables.
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Dec 26, 2023 22:58
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Replaying Napoleon and it’s surprising how much better Warhammer is on a mechanical level. Garrisons being anything at all, the UI demonstrating net income, public order being cumulative, even the camera settings. It makes me a bit more appreciative However, artillery is incredibly powerful and meaty in a much cooler way. The cannonball firing loudly, flying fast as hell, launching dudes and piercing through them before bouncing past them? Amazing. Cavalry being slice-and-dice and devastating but also very fragile, infantry having to be one rank deep to maximize guns, etc., all coordinate to make fights fun as hell. The limbering/unlimbering of artillery is loving annoying though. jokes fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Dec 27, 2023 |
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Dec 27, 2023 00:28
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You were supposed to pay for units without a general to garrison towns in old total war
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Dec 27, 2023 08:22
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M2 had a cool mechanic where a couple units garrisoning the city were free/had upkeep paid by the city. I wish we could use that system in further games, give me a choice of quality vs quantity and ability to go above the limit and pay extra while not having a proper mobile army. Maybe make the upkeep lower but just allow the garrison to act within the province.
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Dec 27, 2023 12:53
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Buschmaki posted:You were supposed to pay for units without a general to garrison towns in old total war Yeah, and it sucked!
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Dec 27, 2023 14:04
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alex314 posted:M2 had a cool mechanic where a couple units garrisoning the city were free/had upkeep paid by the city. I wish we could use that system in further games, give me a choice of quality vs quantity and ability to go above the limit and pay extra while not having a proper mobile army. Maybe make the upkeep lower but just allow the garrison to act within the province. This was the best solution. Getting a big, capable garrison just popping into existence to defend a town for free is lame. Is Shogun 2 diplomacy just not supposed to work? FOTS: A clan attacked my ally. I joined the war on the side of my ally, naturally. The enemy sent their full stack towards me instead, and my ally wiped them out by capturing the nearly empty capital. Now I'm no longer allied to this clan and I have a fat diplomacy penalty for breaking an alliance? Wtf did I do wrong?
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Dec 27, 2023 16:01
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The M2 ai loved to send all their units away from their castles when you have a full stack a turn away for some reason, so it's pretty understandable why they moved to fixed, always there garrisons.
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Dec 27, 2023 16:26
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PirateBob posted:Is Shogun 2 diplomacy just not supposed to work? FOTS: A clan attacked my ally. I joined the war on the side of my ally, naturally. The enemy sent their full stack towards me instead, and my ally wiped them out by capturing the nearly empty capital. I’m not sure from your description whether they declared war on you, or you accidentally broke faith with them. Clans in Shogun 2 are rated on their reliability, and you can do a few things to improve your own standing (like maintaining your honor and fulfilling deals). An ally will appreciate you supporting their war declaration, but they’ll also notice if doing so violated your treaties with that other faction - because it indicates that you aren’t reliable. You two will also have lots of diplomatic penalties with each other after any mutual war declaration, regardless of who started it. That being said, everyone is a rival until after the Realm Divide - it’s very normal for them to stab allies in the back if they think it will be to their advantage. One of the classic causes of war is working together with an ally to eliminate all the neighboring enemies - leaving betrayal as the only way forward for them to expand. Another common issue is when you don’t garrison your borders with your allies, or don’t invest enough in your armies overall, making you appear weak. If your strength rating is low (often because you’re relying on an allied military while you invest in your economy) then other clans will often attack. My suggestion is to check your event history and your diplomacy modifiers to better understand the situation, or rewind to a save from before the declaration and see exactly what happened. Kaal fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Dec 27, 2023 |
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Dec 27, 2023 16:33
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WrightOfWay posted:The M2 ai loved to send all their units away from their castles when you have a full stack a turn away for some reason, so it's pretty understandable why they moved to fixed, always there garrisons. That's just a crutch for terrible AI though, it doesn't mean that Magic Garrison is a *good* solution. Kaal posted:I’m not sure from your description whether they declared war on you, or you accidentally broke faith with them. Neither. We were at war together after they were attacked and I joined the war on my ally's side. We won the war when my ally conquered the enemy. Suddenly, no longer allied, diplomatic penalty.
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Dec 27, 2023 16:42
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PirateBob posted:Neither. We were at war together after they were attacked. We won when the ally conquered the enemy. Suddenly, no longer allied, diplomatic penalty. I’d review that, since someone declared war. From your description, they probably just betrayed you. Maybe you violated a trade deal or truce with that last enemy and became unreliable, or maybe they just thought you were weak. Kaal fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Dec 27, 2023 |
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Dec 27, 2023 16:44
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jokes posted:Replaying Napoleon and it’s surprising how much better Warhammer is on a mechanical level. Yeah this is what I feel like playing shogun 2 too And sorta how I feel playing 3k compared to warhams
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Dec 27, 2023 22:35
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You garrison fans probably enjoy automatic replenishment too 
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Dec 28, 2023 12:43
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PirateBob posted:You garrison fans probably enjoy automatic replenishment too Ok Grandpa.
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Dec 30, 2023 17:57
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WrightOfWay posted:The M2 ai loved to send all their units away from their castles when you have a full stack a turn away for some reason, so it's pretty understandable why they moved to fixed, always there garrisons.
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Dec 30, 2023 23:30
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