So what's the verdict on this game? Well executed???
Thanks Umiman for the magic mods
Magic in vanilla is kinda weak unless you lower the unit size. I never play total war on anything but the biggest
As for the quoted post...
I really enjoy it so far. I haven't gotten too far into any campaign, mostly doing custom battles for practice and learning. However, I LOVE the vampires in the campaign. They can be played slow, taking the time for corruption and building up. Or they can be offensive, which works okay too. Every faction is really unique, which I like a lot. Even though only 5 factions, each one is unique in its own way.
The AI also seems really good. At least, its definitely a lot harder. A big part is because of the heroes/lords. Even on normal battle mode, I often get surprised by how bad I do against AI. Rome 2, I just pwned all the time, way too easy. Get a bunch of elephants and win every battle and siege lol. Attila was a bit harder, but mostly cause of immortal stupid unrealistic, very gamey unhistorical attila. I didn't like total war attila either if you can tell by that
Chaos is similar to Huns if you played Attila but not so bullshit, at least they (and the other lords) make sense they are OP and immortal, lore wise.
Game map already feels pretty good sized, I was kinda worried it feel small with only 5 playable factions. And they are gonna add a lot more than what is already available. The game map that is available now, it looks AMAZING. At least to me it does. They did a good job on the campaign map.
As I see it, vast improvement over Rome 2 and massive improvement over Attila (attila total war for me was worse than rome 2). I haven't run into any noticeable bugs, things feel great, its a lot of fun and AI is a lot harder in battles. Medieval 2 total war was actually my previous favorite total war, and I actually like this just as much, but might edge out just a bit as "fantasy" opens up to a lot more possibilities than historical stuff (like magic and flying units etc).
Oh, and it performs great too. Rome 2 lagged for me, Attila played pretty good...but it performs better than both for me.
Only a couple things I have an issue with
Agents. Holy shit are those as bullshit as Attila is in Attila Total War. At least mods fix that
But they need to balance agents
And some units seem like they need balancing. Some feel kinda useless. Like...the black chariot I think its called for the vampires. It doesn't do anything as far as i can tell and dies quick. Its supposed to get stronger as it kills things, but a waste of resources when all my other units are way better. maybe I just don't use their chariots properly, dunno, but they seem like a lackluster unit. It doesn't seem to even charge through units, like chariots did in Rome 2 when playing as egypt or do anything as far as I could see.
Plus, magic needs to be buffed. Mods are coming out for that now, but it should be buffed without mods. Haven't fully tested the ones Umiman recommended. But my mages actually kill stuff now when I tried Empire.