Total War: Do not cycle charge Lu Bu!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Total War: Do not cycle charge Lu Bu!

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Mindey Tyrone posted:

Is there a Let's Play of Shogun? I can't beat the last tutorial battle because I am a terrible gamer.

If you mean the campaign, I literally just took until 1585 and auto-resolved everything on the way... although a bunch of that was both maxing out all Arts available in the campaign and farming the last Miyoshi army of in Settsu for ninja and monk EXP (the monk eventually got caught and executed trying to demoralize a Bessho army, the ninja maxed out and wounded the Miyoshi general), then I showed up and just crushed them and their castle entirely.

If you mean Sekigahara 1600... I still haven't figured out that one, Kobayakawa gets me every time :argh:

although when I deliberately started marching my "behind enemy lines" units away ASAP, it became a closer run thing than before.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2012 10:54

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 01:46

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

The first of the Total War: Three Kingdoms playable faction leaders after three big three... is Ma Teng.
https://twitter.com/totalwar/status/1060909939571548161
In addition to the above he starts the game allied with Dong Zhuo, his son Ma Chao comes of age in a few years, and:

quote:

Ma Teng’s faction can also construct the unique Xiliang Supply Lines building chain – one of the few food-production chains that can be built in Commandery capitals. This chain also institutes regional cavalry patrols, which improve the military supplies for armies in adjacent commanderies and depletes the military supplies of any invading forces. Ma Teng also benefits from his close connection to the Silk Road, gaining increased income from silk and spice.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2018 21:05

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Medieval II, Empire, and Napoleon have all been converted to game+DLC 'Definitive Edition' bundles on Steam, and anyone who already had any of the three now gets all of that game's DLCs as well.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2018 06:37

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Both Total War: Three Kingdoms' second diplomacy devblog/video and the next playable faction leader reveal of Yuan Shao released yesterday.

Diplomatic highlights:

Coalitions and military alliances exist as blocs which can be sorted within the diplomatic faction list instead of informally-via-individual-treaties, with voting on major actions "such as taking it as a whole to war with another alliance, or inviting another faction to join for example" and attitudes between members depending on the outcome, plus members' territories count as friendly for the purposes of gathering military supplies and campaign line-of-sight.
Coalitions need only "moderate" diplomatic standing with another faction to form and members gain diplomatic standing with one another over time (while lowering the diplomatic standing of factions at war with members thereof) but don't have a mutual-aid requirement, so factions can declare war on individual member factions instead of the whole coalition
Military alliances need more diplomatic standing than coalitions and at least a faction rank of Marquis to form -- unless formed by Yuan Shao or Yuan Shu -- but once formed factions of any rank may be invited in or request entry and then be voted on, and in addition to said aforementioned diplomatic standing a member targeted by a war declaration can call on the whole alliance members to join in

Yuan Shao highlights:

Starts in the vicinity of Wei commandery with Yan Liang and Wen Chou on his roster, and a rivalry with Yuan Shu due to disputed lineage
Can recruit retinues led by a captain instead of a general, and as long as he leads the faction such captain retinues cost 50% less to recruit and upkeep
Has a Lineage meter (0-100) which accumulates when he's in alliances/coalitions or leads armies in the field, degrades over time, and can be expended for actions like recruiting characters or the Secure settlement-occupation option ("Increased replenishment and military supply gain after successful occupation"); the current Lineage amount provides a bonus to replenishment and lower recruitment cost for captain retinues
Is one of the only two warlords who can form military alliances from the start of the campaign while below Marquis
Has a faction initial dilemma of either improving diplomatic standing with Gongsun Zan by aiding his attack against Han Fu, or lowering it by confederating Han Fu's faction

Chortles fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Dec 2, 2018

# ¿ Dec 2, 2018 01:37

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Btw, on Twitter the official Total War account tweeted out Yuan Shao's abilities poster which includes both Stone Bulwark and Unyielding Earth like Sun Quan and Liu Biao but instead of Nature's Ally, he instead has Distant Courage with which "Yuan Shao directs and empowers his forces from a... safer distance."

# ¿ Dec 3, 2018 11:11

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

-Dethstryk- posted:

I think starting with the Warhammer games messed me up a bit, because there is a big variety of units. Thrones being scaled down and human-on-human let me get the basics down easier and I can't wait to go gently caress up some orcs now.

I'm also pumped as hell for Three Kingdoms. I'm starting to understand the Total War series and the game is in one of my favorite settings with an emphasis on the stuff I love in these games. Hope it doesn't end up delayed from the March release!

I don't know how many Total War: Three Kingdoms videos you've watched so far but there's seemingly a bunch of gameplay variety despite human-on-human, both campaign-level (some of the playable warlords get a 'meter with faction-specific means of filling/spending/bonuses based on current amount' mechanic, others get unique building) and tactical (example: one heavy spear infantry unit with a 'spears in front, the rear rows pull out bows' Mixed Missile static formation and both standard and fire arrows [more base damage, less against armor, slower to reload, but can cause both buildings and vegetation to catch fire and can deplete Morale], while a different one gets both Hollowed Square and Spear Wall formations). How are you liking the retinue system for armies?

# ¿ Dec 3, 2018 20:07

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Blooming Brilliant posted:

From what quick searching I've done, she's basically a footnote in RotTK.

She appears in the historical record on which Classic Mode is based; CA's Grace Carroll said that they believe that "Zheng Jiang" was two different women, but they gave the name to one and named the other Lu Zheng.

Blooming Brilliant posted:

Also her in-game quest has her being subservient to Zhang Yan, who I would have pegged for being playable with the Black Mountain Bandits. Historically and fictionally, he's the period's most infamous bandit lord who basically established his own rogue state.

Zhang Yan is playable and starts in Yanmen commandery, while He Yi is from the Yellow Turban Rebellion DLC.

Blooming Brilliant posted:

Taking a guess, I'd say Liu Zhang and probably Zhang Lu. Maybe Gongsun Zan or Yuan Shu but think they're somewhat confirmed unplayable.

People have been saying the latter two based on them having square flags along with Dong Zhuo and for some reason Kong Rong (who also got titled "Mercantile Master").

In other important news, "You can have Mandarin VO with English text".

Chortles fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Dec 5, 2018

# ¿ Dec 4, 2018 19:16

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Edgar Allen Ho posted:

Liu Bei?? Same. Benevolence.

His gauge is Unity, which appears to be based on his characters' satisfaction level and can mean "with faster progression through the faction ranks and better government capabilities, such as fielding extra armies and assigning more governors" (I don't know if this is describing the regular faction ranks benefits or on top of them) and by spending Unity "he can claim territory under the control of the Han Empire without a fight."

# ¿ Dec 5, 2018 00:42

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Bloodly posted:

It'll depend on the troops selection. I mean, there's obviously going to be some shared troops, possibly many. But I imagine each leader will bring some unique troops beyond themselves. Will lighter bandit troops be a plus or a minus?

We've already seen terrain-related speed bonuses/penalties; Zhang Yan "grants a speed bonus to troops loyal to his faction when moving through forests", while conversely the TwitchCon build of Ambush of Sun Ren had a forest mouseover tooltip with a speed penalty for medium/heavy infantry.

It looks like we'll get faction-specific units (Xu Huang's reinforcements in that battle included a pair of Heavy Tiger & Leopard Cavalry units) but based on the EGX 2018 video the highest-tier units of a given unit type are exclusive to the corresponding Hero class; for Zheng Jiang (Champion) that's spear infantry, and if Lu Zheng's a Strategist (she has the generic-Strategist pose and blue robe) then for her it's archers.

-Dethstryk- posted:

Also I need to play as this bandit queen in Three Kingdoms right now, please

In which case I hope you like campaign-level zerging!

Blooming Brilliant posted:

Yellow Turbans are pre-order, even then they're a remnants force since the game starts at the Coalition against Dong Zhuo.

A remnant force is in the base game as well surrounding Liu Bei's starting position, and Zhang Yan's Black Mountain Hideout gives his faction the exclusive ability to engage in diplomacy with them. The DLC adds faction leaders/hero classes with a rule-of-three going on:

He Yi = Healer class, domain of People, virtue of Compassion, fields veteran Yellow Turbans and berserkers, has a Healer's Lodge building chain (+ population growth, + replenishment, and medicine sales income)
Gong Du = Veteran class, domain of Land, virtue of Frugality, fields former soldiers/guardsmen/converted nobles, has a Hidden Fort building chain ("helps supply the Yellow Turban armies and increases the amount of spoils they can carry off after a battle")
Huang Shao = Scholar class, domain of Heaven, virtue of Humility, fields religious fanatics/spiritual martial artists/scholars, has a Gardens unique building (sounds like it boosts public order and character satisfaction).

They also have a threefold tech tree, while progressing through their faction ranks has players "verses in the Book of Great Peace, construct religious building in their settlements and improve the virtuous characteristics of the characters under their control."

# ¿ Dec 5, 2018 04:39

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Rockopolis posted:

Yellow Turbans are definitely a faction that would be a good fit with something like the Shogun II Ikko-Ikki faction's rebellion mechanic.

Until the game's out the chances of that are still greater than zero.

Moonshine Rhyme posted:

drat I can't stand preordering games though. Oh well, Love me some Dynasty Warriors, even if this is insanely different.

I'm pretty sure it's a 'pre-order and we throw it in, or buy it later if you like the base game' deal, which is what happened with the Royal Scots Greys for GameStop's Napoleon preorders.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2018 05:10

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Koramei posted:

I'd trust CA to do it respectfully more than lots of other companies, but I don't think there's any way to do it where it won't just turn into the next neo nazi magnet.

Pretty much my problem with any Scramble for Africa videogame depiction.

Edgar Allen Ho posted:

I don't wanna get too political in the TW thread but there is a bit of a difference. In 2018 we still have people who think black people are inferior to whites and that colonialism was good. We don't have roman patricians conquering places for political power or perso-hellenic supremacists executing latins in the streets.

On the other hand said people in 2018 are/have been deliberately invoking Roman mythos/iconography, not just in their social media bot avatars but in person.

underage at the vape shop posted:

I definitely think there's a tasteful, acceptable way to do it. Theres no outrage about all the fps games set in the recent middle eastern conflicts, csgo is even an esport, and the fighting there is still a current event.

The original CS however predates 9/11 so it was able to carry on via momentum, and there has in fact been multiple critiques of the first over the years... hell I vaguely remember "brown-tinted shooter fatigue" being part of why AAA first-person shooter games went sci-fi for a time.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2018 18:19

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Mantis42 posted:

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/what-the-teams-are-working-on-november-2018

Or just skip all of that with the Imperial Seal and get steamrolled. Still, interesting to see that it takes three self-proclamations before Xian abdicates, while controlling him isn't a formal requirement for any of the three... and while someone could control Xian without self-proclaiming and go to war 'on Xian's behalf' with the self-proclaimed emperors, is there an endgame for someone who doesn't self-proclaim?

# ¿ Dec 7, 2018 00:25

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Vlex posted:

This has probably been asked before but can anyone recommend a version/translation of ROTK for someone who has never, ever seriously engaged with Chinese history or folklore? As accessible as possible.

Besides the recommended TV show from 2010 -- I specify this to differentiate from a much more novel-faithful 1994 show -- and the unabridged Moss Roberts translation linked by Mantis42, a CA dev recommended this completed podcast (YouTube version here) for the novel. Note that if you go with that podcast the 2010 TV show starts roughly in the vicinity of podcast episodes 4-5, while Total War: Three Kingdoms begins later at podcast episode 9 (the game's Sun Jian trailer is set during podcast episode 8).

Have a a provincial map for the sake of getting where the hell are people talking about, and here's some other 2010 vs. 1994 show talk.

(Addendum: Starting on page 137 of this PDF is some 'history' vs. novel differences.)

Chortles fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Dec 7, 2018

# ¿ Dec 7, 2018 19:20

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Mantis42 posted:

Kong Rong is the next warlord. A trade focused turtling lord with a boring initial decision (why would you ever trade a commander for an ally?)

I've seen at least one Redditor speculate that maybe if you choose the latter then "Taishi Ci will leave for a certain amount of turns, then re-appear with a fairly sizable army", to which I add 'large/strong enough to outweigh whatever he as your subordinate could have recruited in those turns?'

Mantis42 posted:

Maybe Dong Zhuo is considered too powerful, since he starts with the Emperor vassalized? I could see this being balanced out with everyone being hostile to you

Not true, Ma Teng is his (only playable) ally at the start of the game.

Mantis42 posted:

and the initial dilemma being over keeping Dong or letting Lu Bu overthrow him, resetting relations but losing your position.

Part of the question here is whether here Lü Bu would get to have any unique campaign/faction mechanics or just directly inherits those that don't require that Dong Zhuo be faction leader (e.g. Liu Bei's free militia upkeep and Yuan Shao's reduced recruitment/upkeep costs for captain revenues). As for 'unplayable, AI-only Dong Zhuo' -- I'm seeing comparisons to Attila's Western Roman Empire -- that doesn't preclude one from trying to turn Lü Bu, perhaps via the 'Support Independence' diplomatic offer if he's a vassal or regular entice-to-defect if he's a direct subordinate?

# ¿ Dec 8, 2018 07:08

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Taishi Ci's official portrait is up; turns out he's a Sentinel like Huang Zhong so their associated troop type is melee infantry and the associated attribute is Expertise. Unlike Dynasty Warriors (twin rods/batons) or the novel (twin ji) Taishi Ci has a Composite Bow (same flavor text as Huang Zhong's Heirloom Bow of Huang) plus for abilities he has Hail of Arrows ("A flurry of shafts slows the enemy advance"), Quickfire ("Taishi Ci fires and fires, faster and faster, never relenting"), and he and Huang Zhong both have Adamant Resolve ("Determination and grit allow all attacks to be dodged").

# ¿ Dec 10, 2018 07:38

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Agean90 posted:

Lu bu's got a four bladed glaive and buttrock starts blasting whenever he's in combat

'Unfortunately' we've already seen his double-sided halberd.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2018 18:47

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Zyla posted:

YOU SHOULDNT HAVE TOLD ME THERE WAS ONE

DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY DIFFERENT TRANSLATIONS OF THE NOVEL I HAVE???

Poor you!

Oh, and make that one playable warlord to go now that Yuan Shu is in; here's the most recent map of the playable warlords' starting positions.

Mechanics-wise his main gimmick is a Legitimacy gauge; both he and Yuan Shao spend theirs to recruit characters but higher Legitimacy instead grants Yuan Shu more income and prestige, the latter of which helps him advance up the faction ranks to culminate in trying to self-proclaim himself emperor, and he can further accrue Legitimacy by successfully demanding that another faction leader support his claim(s). As a faction leader he grants a bonus to commerce and industry incomes, and "Characters in Yuan Shu’s faction also have access to a unique assignment that requires some financial investment up front but then provides a significant bonus to income over time."

Difficulty-wise, as a faction leader Creative Assembly didn't see fit to highlight any positive relationships, even with his wife, and his starting position of Nanyang commandery borders both Liu Biao west of him in Xiangyang and Cao Cao east of him in Chen, and he's next door to Luoyang which doesn't give him much room from Dong Zhuo. Finally, his initial dilemma is the other side of Liu Biao and Sun Jian's respective dilemmas, whether to back Sun Jian against Liu Biao or not.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2018 04:34

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

TheFlyingLlama posted:

there's gonna be what, one more starting faction, right? If it isn't Liu Yan, there's a lot of land for Ma Teng/ the Liang warlords to fight for.

Mind you the same goes for Sun Jian with the southeast where there's seemingly even more room for him to expand without running into one of the other playable warlords; I'd also add that the campaign starts with Ma Teng allied to Dong Zhuo.

TheFlyingLlama posted:

and if the last one is Liu Yan poor Gongsun Zan lol

It's been looking like it comes down to Gongsun Zan or Dong Zhuo, but the latter has an Intimidation mechanic.

# ¿ Dec 12, 2018 07:43

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Bloodly posted:

https://the-archlich.tumblr.com/post/160910433962

… I was not ready for the concept of swolebro xia Yuan Shu. :staredog:

I gotta say, with how much that Tumblr and Wikipedia emphasized that Sun Jian and in particular Sun Ce were Yuan Shu's subordinates, in the latter case even throughout his "Little Conqueror" years all the way up until the self-proclamation of emperor, I'm kinda wondering (hoping?) if Classic Mode will reflect this via a different campaign start and relationships (both between factions and characters), e.g. Sun Jian/Ce being Yuan Shu's vassal despite the major faction thing instead of being independent warlords as in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms titles.

Mantis42 posted:

Honestly you can know who almost every character and reference shown so far in this game just by reading the first 10 or so chapters of Rot3K. The book moves at a fairly quick pace.

Or as previously mentioned, the podcast! Like I said, the current campaign start is set at about podcast episode 9.

Hunt11 posted:

Maybe it is just me but I am looking forward to three kingdoms just for a chance to wreck shu for being a bunch of self righteous assholes in the dynasty warrior games.

… what would you say if I told you that the Peach Garden Oath brothers don't actually hold any commanderies at the start of the campaign and appear to be a Warhammer 2-style horde?

# ¿ Dec 13, 2018 07:13

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

ninjahedgehog posted:

E: only if Liu Bei gets to dual-wield swords like he does in the novel, though

Possibly? In Romance Mode he's got the swords but Zhuge Liang has the fan even though he as a Strategist can't accept or issue duelist's challenges.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2018 20:23

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Azran posted:

I assume characters can fight even out of duels so it would make sense to give strategists a weapon.

Poorly afaik relative to the other four classes; I think I saw Jia Xu manage to get killed in an Ambush of Sun Ren video when the player charged Sun Ren and her shock cavalry at Jia Xu's flank (he was with a pair of Archer Militia in/behind the treeline) only for the AI to plunge Jia Xu towards/into the roadside melee where Sun Quan had already thwarted his infantry charge.

# ¿ Dec 13, 2018 22:21

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

The siege or the ambush?

# ¿ Dec 13, 2018 22:27

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Hentai Jihadist posted:

Hordes are the funnest factions by far. Nothing but non stop battles and loot

Mind you the horde aspect may not last long; besides regular conquering Liu Bei can spend some of the Unity gauge/meter to claim Han Empire-held territory, and if you helped out Tao Qian against Cao Cao's Xu province campaign then "When Tao Qian dies (he is a rather old man already at the start of the game), his followers will offer to join Liu Bei, which will effectively confederate Tao Qian with Liu Bei."

# ¿ Dec 14, 2018 18:33

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Some clarification/confirmation from CA about the Total War: Three Kingdoms base game hero classes:

quote:

Champion: Duelists. These guys excel at taking out enemy heroes.

Vanguard: These are your unit killers, they're great at cutting their way through tons of normal soldiers.

Strategist: Not great in combat but can debuff enemies and provide extra formations for your troops. They also provide a bonus to ranged units.

Commander: Your more 'classic' general, they can fight competently (though not as well as Champions,Vanguards and Sentinels) and are great for buffing your own troops.

Sentinel: These guys are your best bet when it comes to tying down enemies, they can last for ages in combat with either regular troops, or heroes.

Also managed to find this useful reference:

# ¿ Dec 24, 2018 03:32

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

There's also speculation about the depth of the Three Kingdoms strategic layer, especially when combined with the emphasis on characters.

# ¿ Dec 25, 2018 04:03

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Zane posted:

sword dudes beat spear dudes as a rule.

This is still the case in Three Kingdoms as of EGX 2018's 'rule of five' presentation.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2019 00:40

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

That, and the Yellow Turban Rebellion DLC is actually a first-week-buyer/key-activation bonus, not a preorder bonus; I'm not aware of any digital-only preorder bonuses as opposed to preordering the Limited or Collector's Editions.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2019 00:29

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

On the other hand, we're supposed to get spies video next week.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2019 17:10

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Blooming Brilliant posted:

It depends how "aggressive" the AI is in its attempts to sabotage you. If every AI you meet tries to undermine you, I can see it getting tiresome real fast.

If it's something akin to Attila's influence system, where every 15-20 turns or so you have some noble attempting to subvert you, then that's reasonable enough and should be alright.

For what it's worth I see balancing factors in spies being gated (a faction's spy slots are unlocked by its rank, its Reforms, and whether its faction leader provides any) and in them being exclusively undercover moles, so you won't risk a minor faction being able to spam spies, unlike prior games they can't rank up in their agent actions proficiency/odds, and in the course of them keeping their cover you can even make some use of characters that you suspect to be spies. For example, there's no mid-battle spy actions so if their faction doesn't recall them from your army before you attack an army/settlement, they're yours for the duration of the battle.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2019 11:11

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Azran posted:

Couldn't the AI recruit your spy as a general and then lose him in an crappy autoresolve?

In theory yes, which I understand is one of the tradeoffs against player spy 'spam' (e.g. you could send a spy with lower stats but they're less likely to be hired than one with higher stats ). Speaking of spies, if you have one leading one of another faction's armies, the Military Revolt action (in this video 35 Undercover Network points and 50 Cover points) will "Turn direct command of this spy's retinue over to you, forcing any other generals to undeploy and granting you a new active army in the field."
https://twitter.com/totalwar/status/1088089000466935808
This video also has units now having their rank displayed as a Roman numeral (instead of counting rods) over a background colored according to the unit type's corresponding element, a few unit overviews, and a troop count for the generals indicating that this is our first glimpse of Classic Mode.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2019 20:08

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Davincie posted:

that said, combat animations don't look great, i dislike the unit cards (even if they're fitting art style wise, they are hard to keep apart and look ugly) and there seems to be no indication there's anything but han chinese playable or on the map, i see no nanman, no vietnam, no korea, no nomadic tribes etc. also all but 1 lord seems to start in the north, making the southern half of the map a void for dlc

There's been suspicion about DLC for Vietnam/Korea/Nanman, but in the case of tribes today's video linked on the previous page showed that his faction gets (early?) access to Qiang cavalry -- archer, melee, and shock -- with Ma Teng himself providing a (factionwide-since-he's-leading) -30% upkeep cost to them.

Blooming Brilliant posted:

The reported fact that the AI never turns down duels and will beeline towards your hero (and more specifically, head first into your spear wall) seems like a pretty big problem.

The whole duel system, while thematically appropriate and cool, is a horrible idea in practice since it effectively makes general-sniping a mechanic and looks very abusable.

Sounds mainly like an AI problem, although one possibility could have been the AI weighing (overly considering Liu Bei's faction characters being deliberately overpowered) the fact that the general that the game deems 'advantaged' only gets a temporary morale buff from winning quickly enough, while in AngoryTom's video the nominally-disadvantaged general can instead 'go the distance Rocky-style' and disengage after the timer expires, getting multiple temporary buffs plus a permanent morale buff for their unit... and in one video I saw an AI general actually run out the clock against deliberately-overpowered Guan Yu or Zhang Fei only to get defeated when they didn't disengage right afterward.

(Addendum: CA has said that you can buff/debuff the duelists without causing an interruption, which along with having the right ancillaries equipped can help with evening out the odds in a duel.)

Mantis42 posted:

Good news then: you're limited to 3 generals and 18 units to a stack this time.

For what it's worth I think Yuan Shao -- but him alone(?) -- is able to represent the old-style 'full stack with only one general' via the army having a character's full retinue plus two captain retinues, since (from what I'd already seen in the influencer Liu Bei campaign build) captains themselves are 'full size' infantry units instead of being individual or 'general+bodyguards' units.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2019 22:14

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

For what it's worth so far we've seen unit recruitment start at half strength, it's possible to accrue quicker replenishment, as far as I know there's no more availability-RNG/cooldown as in ToB, and Sun Jian's faction has a building chain that unlocks mercenary recruiting -- the units cost more but deploy at full strength -- for whoever holds the building.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2019 00:36

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Gay Horney posted:

it looks like you can only have three armies? am I crazy?

If you're talking about the composition of a stack, that's three generals plus six units each. If you're instead talking about seeing 'armies 1/3' from the Empire Building video when deploying Ma Lanli, a faction's army cap depends on a combination of their faction rank, Reforms enacted (the famously literal 'tech' tree), and whether your faction leader, heir, and/or prime minister have a factionwide-when-in-those-ranks bonus (from their background or granted by an equipped ancillary or a skill) that raises the army cap.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2019 17:39

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Hallucinogenic Toreador posted:

Two hour twitch stream here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/376071859

Also here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PI51Mcg74Q

Nice to finally have some numbers for a bunch of Yuan Shao's faction specifics:

instead of paying out gold/cash Yuan Shao players pay 10 lineage (out of 100) to recruit characters
we got to see what Yuan Shao's Secure occupation option does: -15 Lineage but no Population reduction, 25 faction support instead of Occupy's 10, +30 military supplies instead of Occupy's +10, no settlement level reduction, and +20% replenishment for the local army and for garrisons)
Yuan Shao's initial dilemma means either you get +40 diplomatic standing with Gongsun Zan for not interfering with Gongsun Zan's attack on Han Fu or war is declared with Gongsun Zan but you gain not only Anping commandery (small city and farmland) but also all of his family members and his deployed generals, which in this video included Zhang He (a generic portrait-but-still-Legendary vanguard)
Wen Chou's Binding Fury does 'only' 10K splash damage with a 60s cooldown vs. Liu Bei-campaign-build-Guan Yu's 75K splash damage for God of War (once per battle), while a mouseover of Zhang He's Flames of the Phoenix showed only 5K splash damage for that but only 30s cooldown
Yuan Shao's faction-specific units are the Warriors of Ye (medium spear infantry) and Defenders of Hebei (heavy spear infantry, character rank 3 required to unlock), and his faction-specific building chain is the Yuan Administration Office (+ income from all sources, + public order, + lineage)
an example event, Disciplined General, gave Wen Chou a five-turn buff of Drill Master: "+1 starting rank for all recruits (this army)" and "+10 bonus experience for units per season (own army)"
for the Yellow Turbans the Scholar class "Excels at engaging enemy heroes and highly-skilled foes but easily overwhelmed", while the Veteran "Excels at holding out against many enemies but susceptible to armour-piercing damage", we get our first look at ranged cavalry stats in the Horseback Huntsmen (light, guerrilla deployment, 33 Morale, 33 Melee Toughness, 30 Ranged Toughness, 11 Melee Power, 100 Ranged Power), and there's even a support unit called Chanters (light melee infantry) who "encourage allies"
you can recruit/deploy a character-and-retinue right from the army deployment screen instead of having to do these separately, e.g. the devs picking up the sentinel Congqian by paying out 10 lineage (for the character) plus 671 gold to add him and his retinue (two Axe Bands and two medium Crossbowmen units) right to an existing army, albeit with mustering time required as in regular unit recruiting

Hallucinogenic Toreador posted:

There's a nice feature in the recruitment system where if you swap out an existing unit the replacement retains some of the old units strength.

That was nice, though I imagine that the units being able to rank up is why they didn't allow merging units (avoids the question of how to handle a rank differential).

Hallucinogenic Toreador posted:

Characters seem a little weaker than at the press event, in one battle generals lose most of their health fighting low tier units.

Not so surprising when (if I'm guessing correctly you're thinking of the Siege of Henei, City) the two characters were Yuan Shao (commander) and Wen Chou (champion) whose classes are officially suboptimal to vanguards for directly fighting units, e.g. I swear that Binding Fury missed at least once in the opening duel, plus in both his case and Guan Yu's with God of War they had from-what-I-could-tell minimal immediate effect against units.

Chortles fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Feb 7, 2019

# ¿ Feb 7, 2019 00:38

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Arbite posted:

Watching that Yuan Shao stream, they need to have a way to speed up duels after the battle's ended around them.

On the other hand, what if you were hoping to 'confirm the kill' on the dueling officer or even capture them?

Addendum note to the above Dong Zhuo reveal: Pete_CA said on Reddit that "It's bound to an achievement this time around. So as long as you're using the same steam account, Dong Zhou will remain unlocked forever once unlocked."

# ¿ Feb 8, 2019 04:41

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Hunt11 posted:

Part of the issue with that dual was that the enemy was so weak that it was easy to defeat them before the dual was concluded.

In addition, the opposing general was a sentinel which CA has described as the 'tanking' class vs. both generals and troops, and the first Binding Fury (10K splash damage, 10s duration, 60s cooldown) from Wen Chou seemed to outright miss.

EDIT: By the way, Dong Zhuo's character poster: https://twitter.com/totalwar/status/1094611949294215168

Chortles fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Feb 11, 2019

# ¿ Feb 11, 2019 00:40

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Plan Z posted:

-The duel challenges seem wonky. The AI never seems to refuse them so you could possibly job them pretty easily. Some lords in videos one-shotted others, though that may have been for journalist plebs. That, and it feels like you're walking into a problem by not bringing in a combat lord to every battle in case the AI wants to challenge you.

That was indeed the "for journalist plebs" build, things went differently in the February 6th livestream. As far player-issued challenges, strategists outright can't be challenged and according to CA (and above davincie) neither can AI generals who would refuse duels, e.g. the faction heir or a friend of your duelist.

As far as AI challenges to the player, your characters have an 'auto-decline duels' button toggle which to me doesn't make sense unless you take no morale penalty for declining challenges, and if by 'a combat lord' you mean a 1v1 specialist (champions in Three Kingdoms) they're supposed to be weaker against enemy units than vanguards (optimized vs. units instead of 1v1); the analogy I've used has been watching said livestream where the dev tried to pursue an AI strategist that was seemingly too close to the front only for the dev's pursuing champion and faction leader (a commander) to end up blocked by and losing a bunch of health to AI infantry.

P.S. It's... it's Lü Bu! https://twitter.com/totalwar/status/1095336725633736704

# ¿ Feb 13, 2019 02:56

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Did he poo poo on the premise of the game upon announcement for not being Medieval III or Rome III?

# ¿ Feb 13, 2019 07:13

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Hey look what I managed to screencap during the stream:

The stream ended in the most novel-accurate way possible: a cliffhanger with Lu Bu poised to march on ~~Luoyang and~~ Chang'an, 'but to find out how that went you have to come back next time/chapter'.

Chortles fucked around with this message at 05:25 on Feb 14, 2019

# ¿ Feb 13, 2019 18:35

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 01:46

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Plan Z posted:

Looks neat. I like the idea of having multiple officers with their own sort of squads to watch over after seeing this.

In the sense of the general+retinue system or the generals themselves being the individual-plus-bodyguards? (Sword cavalry for the sentinel -- although he himself had a spear -- and spear cavalry for presumably all three vanguards.) Note as well the lack of hero combat abilities, and how the player faction leader's general unit loses over a third of its starting strength (after having already lost just over two-fifths) and routs after charging presumably-braced/otherwise-prepared spearmen.

Plan Z posted:

There's a lot of other stuff I like, but this has me much more hopeful about Records Mode. Also noticed no raze option once the battle was over.

Did previous games have raze as separate from "Sack and Withdraw"?

Koramei posted:

They could definitely stand to be changed to differentiate types/ranks better though.

They've currently got Roman numerals for rank instead of the previous ancient Chinese counting rods, and color (this will hopefully have a colorblind alternative) for type.

Mantis42 posted:

Shu Han is not even located in the State of Shu. Literally Unplayable.

I vaguely remember reading that 'Shu-Han' only arose after the Three Kingdoms period as a way to tell it apart from the pre-Emperor Xian's-abdication Han Dynasty that it claimed to be the legitimate continuation of... but I can see the "would we recognize Liu Bei's polity if it were called anything else?" aspect.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2019 04:35

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Total War: Do not cycle charge Lu Bu!

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