Original thread:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=155934.0To sum things up: I'll be doing an Aurora 4x style let's play of Third Age Total War for Medieval 2 Total War. Not a Youtube let's play, but something with mostly screenshots and some words and then let people be certain generals and have them decide what the general does (except suiciding them...well maybe...maybe the general is crappy like a crusader kings 2 heir and its time to kill said general
Dunno, haven't thought of actual rules). I saw this done in an Aurora 4x let's play, where the person wrote a story of his game, took screenshots and let the community be involved and it was really popular. So, will try it here.
This also won't officially start until after the 16th. I leave on vacation for a week on the 12th, and I don't want to start this before that and then be gone for a week.
I'll also be using the Dagor Ennor submod for Third Age. It includes a fourth age option (or slightly before fourth age, it didn't really explain. Just said dawn of the fourth age and (quote) "begins prior to the fall of Sauron, and the restoration of the reunited kingdom""), but I'm finding its not very balanced and its a bit strange. Mordor and Harad are huge, and evil seems much stronger. Granted, maybe that is lore accurate, but I played the Fourth Age Total War mod for Rome Total War and there wasn't any Mordor at all. If it is actually lore accurate, and if people want, we can do the fourth age option (it has two additional factions), otherwise we'll do the normal Third Age option.
One bonus of the fourth age start, there is a TON more war going on between everyone and the battles are far more epic than anything in the Third Age. Seemed a lot more dynamic too, since Gondor is reformed to reunited kingdom and has actually pretty unique/strong units to go up against Mordor who are still really strong. Third age everyone knows about, fourth? before the fourth? age seems more unique. But, might not be entirely balanced. In any case, up to you guys.
We'll also be playing as Harad. There is a ton of faction choices (you can see some in the thread I linked, plus the newest posts list some additional info.) I find Harad will be a lot of fun though, plus not much is really known about Harad compared to anyone else and it'll make a good short term and long term experience. There is still of course all the normal middle earth factions, but we'll be doing Harad.
As for how someone will "be" a general. There isn't an easy way to rename generals in total war without a lot of save editing, so partakers will inherit a general and that is theirs (I'll keep track of who is who). Should be simple enough that way. Also, there will be bigger decisions empire wide, like at the start of the game what to focus on (diplomacy, war or whatever. Or who to attack/ally, since Harad has a few choices there). And then the big choice early on is how diplomacy works. There is also the option of 4 year per turn or 12 turns, but I'm doing the 12 year per turn one. Also, unless the person told me otherwise, there will likely be a 7 day waiting period for the person to respond, otherwise I'll take control of their general or/and give him to someone else.
So, some questions to those who may want to partake or just watch how it develops. All but the first question is already answered, as I've actually decided on the normal lore-accurate diplomacy, since it offers up a TON more choices. Otherwise, one is always forced to attack good as evil, and evil as good. Which might be lore accurate, but I'd rather it be more random.
-----------First is the diplomacy. Though this one is already decided upon by me (hey I am the admin in a way, mostly I'll leave it to you guys). But I'll still explain the two choices.
There are two choices:
Semi-regular diplomacy (lore-accurate), where "good" factions of middle earth can still befriend evil factions. Elves hate orcs, but like other elves and so on. But, this doesn't mean orcs or elves will go to war with each other, and some nations could potentially befriend the other (did this with Isengard).
Other choice is all evil factions will always hate good and vice versa, and all evil factions will always be allies with other evil factions (same with good).
The first is a lot better gameplay wise to me, since it offers more randomness as I said and choices. Plus the submod/mod recommends the first choice anyway.
-----------Second is a big one too, which will define the campaign we play.
Third Age or Fourth Age (read above to see benefits/cons of Fourth Age. And third age plays like most people know of middle earth)
-----------Third is more game specific. It'll decide the opening moves and diplomatic choices
We have a few choices. In either third age or fourth age we start out allied to Mordor and at war with Gondor. However, contrary to lore (it is total war where you change history itself
) I did do one game where I betrayed Mordor and took the power for myself and befriended Gondor (as an example). However, we could try to befriend the Corsairs or just outright take his land (which has a ton of trade potential, TONS of income and pretty defended area, be a hard war but he doesn't start with too much territory. And opens a path to a lot of harassment against Gondor.). Befriending Corsairs, gives us another ally to fight against Gondor.
My personal opinion to start with Harad (only played them briefly, so I don't know how they are even mid-beginning game), I find it fun to betray Mordor and backstab them, and take their stuff. It does make for a HUGE war between all three (Gondor, Mordor and Harad). Which is super epic. But, in truth, I never managed to see through as I was wanting to play/try other factions. And while one game I befriended Gondor, I found this to be rare, super hard and take a TON of money which lost me the war against mordor. So not very samey to me personally, but might make it interesting to watch. And I find double (or triple teaming) Gondor tends to make a game where one powerhouses through Middle Earth with Mordor alongside you.
But lots of choices, and leaving it up to you guys. That was just my initial experience by betraying Mordor. You guys might want to do something else, or maybe the majority of you will want to powerhouse against Gondor and everyone else.
The other choice is to take over Gondor, and backstab Mordor. That is always an option too.
Or be diplomatic/economy focused Harad and not bother too much with the war between Mordor/Gondor and focus on other places (like rebel cities/forts, corsairs and what not and kinda just slow expand and build up).
There is a lot more options, but don't want this to become a novel of choices to read. Maybe some of you will have your own.
-----------and finally some house rules
In every total war game before Rome 2 Total War (doesn't seem to be an issue there for me ever), occasionally after a battle (when it finishes) the game crashes and I rage at the PC especially if I did great at the battle and it took ages to finish and it was a super important battle. If this happens, and if the battle wasn't close and I obviously won without major losses, I'll do the auto_win attacker if I'm attacking or defender if I defended. For a while I didn't do this as that is pretty cheaty, but otherwise I get too pissed and don't play for ages again especially if it was an important battle. That is too BS for me lol. Always eventually happens in any older Total War game to me after a battle (mostly after playing a long time). Otherwise, if I barely won the battle or/and took heavy losses, I'll do the normal auto resolve and the game can decide the fate. Or just try the battle again (which is super super annoying if I already won and it crashes...)
Otherwise, no use of console, not even to turn off fog of war. If there are no spies somewhere, then obviously we can't see that place
I also don't know where a lot of towns/cities/castles are on the map (the map is pretty big), so like it happened in real life, I (or even you if you decide the general goes somewhere) may end up taking the army deep into enemy territory, lost and no idea where they are. Fun
Also, most times, even if its a main army and I/you attacked a tiny one or two troop size army, I'll probably still do manual battles. For a while, I preferred (speaking of vanilla medieval 2) auto resolving, since manually increases the chance of the stupid after-battle CTD lol. But still probably do manual since even if it does crash, not like it be hard to beat a tiny stack if its against a huge stack, and not a very important battle to crash on.
And to end. In some cases, to prevent trolling to purposely lose the game (always fun to lose, but at least with effort of winning
) I'm probably not gonna send generals or armies (even if its yours) to a needless suicide. Granted, many cases with great strategy its definitely possible to win, so most always its your decision. Though in the end, I DO get final say, but I'm not likely at all to override what you want to do. Can always give advice and what not and your reason to plan.
Of course, if no one is involved in this. It'll just be me making the choices, and doing a normal let's play (without videos)
Then people can read/see screenshots of the games progression. That is fine too.
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Topic: Semi-community Let's Play of Third Age Total War (ended) (Read 3800 times)