We Talk 'Warhammer,' 'No Man's Sky,' More 'Uncharted' on Waypoint Radio

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If you let Austin talk about 'No Man's Sky' for a minute, he'll talk for 10.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/d33d3x/we-talk-warhammer-no-mans-sky-more-uncharted-on-waypoint-radio
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In the radio show Austin talks about how good the squad based combat is in PUBG custom and wants to try it on a larger scale with commanders talking to each other on commander chat and then relaying orders with their squad. I remember playing planetside (the original one) with an organised ‘guild’ and that was what it was like with times assaults coming down in drop ships and rolling a tank squad in at the right time after the initial assault squad take out the anti tank weapons. It’s a shame that planetside 2 doesn’t seem to be this but you could try it out as it has squads and platoons that may prove interesting and is free to play.

Thanks for the great show.
Peace
Arron

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As another one of the odd fellows who enjoys No Man’s Sky, I too experienced the “Portal” scene Austin describes this ep over the weekend - but mine was reasonably different! Don’t know if this has been discussed in other spaces, or if Austin is aware, but, from what I’m picking up from Austin’s account of the scene, I think there may be more proc-gen involved than Austin thinks.

For example, I wouldn’t describe the world I was teleported to as being “made of living glass”. Mine was much more organic looking, with pulsating naval mine looking things floating in the air and resting on the ground. I didn’t see any sentinels on that side, and I don’t remember any notable planetary objects filling the skyline. Felt like a scene from Terminator in its bareness.

Really wish now I’d recorded the experience so I could share how it looked. Either those new alien worlds are even more procedural than we think, or I’m misremembering things (it was 3am… man I love this game).

Thanks for the awesome pods!

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On a related note to the Battlegrounds discussion, where Austin talked about larger scale battles, check out Stonemountain64 on. He did a 50 v 50 costum match with his subscribers with which utilized a dicord chat for team wide orders from the commander and proximity voice chat for communications between squads. It is fucking wild how much strategy and tactics is utilized when the game is played on such a large scale with loot squads and lookouts and sniper groups… It’s one of the coolest things I’ve seen anyone do with that damn game.

Edit: Match starts at 18:40 or round about there.

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Y’all realize, what Austin is describing when he talks about what No Man’s Sky could have been and could be, he’s describing what Michel Ancel said Beyond Good and Evil 2 is going to be? Like, literally exactly.

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I’m curious to know whether or not it is worth my time to try and get back in to Total Warhammer now, when Total Warhammer 2 is just around the corner.

I bought the game at launch and as a Total War noob I found it super challenging. I played one short campaign as Empire and a few of the battles then put it away. I’ve followed Total War from afar for quite some time and have always wanted to invest the time to learn it. SInce then I have watched the DLC and tweaks come out very regularly and have always wanted to get back into it. I work full time and am studying for a professional designation so I keep putting it off for “when I have more time” and enjoying simpler easier to consume gaming morcels.

Now that the end of my busy period is in sight Total Warhammer is near the top of my list of games to play since I barely played enough of it to even start grocking its systems. Is there any real reason why I should spend a bunch of cash to upgrade my vanilla Total Warhammer when the sequel is right around the corner?

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So, the game doesn’t ~require~ you to buy all the DLC to get your game to be like Rob is describing. All the factions exist in the game regardless, you just can’t play as a faction you haven’t bought. So for example, the Beastmen will be around fucking everyone’s shit up even if you don’t buy the Beastmen pack, you just can’t be the Beastmen. The ghost dwarves Rob talks about are on the map, too, you just can’t play as them. So if you want to check the game out, go do it. All the new bells and whistles will be there, you’re just going to be limited to playing Empire, Dwarves, Orcs, and Vampire Counts. I think you should start up a new campaign and see how it feels, and make any further decisions afterwards.

Edit: Oh right Brettonia is a free faction so you can play as them too!

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Yeah Total Warhammer 1 is great right now regardless of what the sequel is doing. There’s been a ton of ‘Free-LC’ (worst marketing gobbledegook ever) as well as regular DLC. Just pick up what you’re interested playing as - as Forrest said the rest of it will be in the game anyway for you to play against. The Grim and the Grave DLC is good if you want to play Empire or VCs.

Really happy Rob has come back to the light of TW1 after his poor initial experience when it was released. It really is a magnificent game.

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Thanks for the replies and encouragement. Can you recommend any resources for learning the ins and outs of total war? Youtubers, guides? Etc? I have shogun 2 but have never played it and at some point I downloaded a CRAZY guide for it and have it kind o scared me off.

Thanks so much.

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My first question would be which side of the game are you struggling with (or if it’s both that’s okay!). If the battles are tough for you, I would watch some youtubers play battles, see what they do. The main basic thing to do though is have a good line of melee infantry protecting any archers or other missile weapons you have, and use cavalry to come around the sides. Warhammer adds a lot of other things to that, like monsters and chariots that can fuck up your day, but having a solid line to absorb charges is important.

If the campaign is what gives you trouble, I would again maybe watch Let’s Plays? I feel like I do okay with building my settlements well but I feel like I can’t offer actual good advice. Maybe someone else can.

Bottom line is I would figure out which part(s) you have trouble with, find some Let’s Plays, and go from there. Often you can also google things like “Empire Early game tips” or something and I think there’s wikis that can help you.

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My tips for the campaign map is just to take things slowly. Get a good stack of 15 - 20 under your starting leader and take and hold your starting region. Building walls in your settlements is a good priority because the AI loves to come in and snipe unwalled towns, burning down any advanced buildings you have painstakingly built up. Once you have a secure home region bringing in a stable income, get a second army stack going and choose a neighbour to take over. Rinse, repeat.

For battles, this will be your battle setup 99% of the time.

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Put your archers (no more than 4 units) out the front to hit the enemy as they approach. Make sure you set them to ‘skirmish mode’ so they will automatically fall back behind your main line as the lines close together.

Then just use good ol’ Hammer and Anvil tactics. Your main line will be spear and shield infantry (say 8 units). They don’t do much damage, but are good at defence and will hold the enemy in place (the anvil).

Your cavalry on the wings (4 units) can then swing around from the sides and hit the enemy line in the rear (the hammer) - all units in Total War games hate being attacked from the rear and will break quickly once this happens.

That’s 16 units thus far. The other 4 units are a mix of your hero, maybe a caster, plus a couple of special monster unit to act as a shock force in reserve.

That’s a very basic plan. Once you get into it you can look into more advanced things like Armour Piercing values and anti-large values to tweak your army depending on who you’re fighting.

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I feel like having experience with previous TW games doesn’t help in TW:WH as much as you might think. It might actually put you at something of a disadvantage, as the armies in WH are all way more specialized. Playing a different army now requires a completely different play style, and some of these styles run counter to previously universal, fundamental principles.

Some of these examples may be out of date, as I haven’t played since long before this new rebalance (and even then I wasn’t great at the game), but some quirks about certain factions:

  • As far as I know, Empire plays the most like armies in other TW games
  • Trying to micromanage Dwarves will get them killed. They’re too slow to run away from anything, but they’re also too stubborn to try. You line your little dudes up and take your hands off of the keyboard and mouse as the the enemy bashes their heads into your wall.
  • Orks are kind of the opposite. Instead of standing and fighting to the last man, Ork units that are taking damage are likely to say “screw this, I’m out of here” and run to safety. The key is accepting that this will happen and rallying to keep tactical retreats from turning into complete routs.
  • Vampire Counts are in some ways a combination of the two approaches. They have cheap, plentiful fodder units that never retreat. Skeletons and zombies aren’t there to do damage, they’re there to waste the enemy’s time and energy cutting them all down.
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Also important to note some quirks about different armies. Undead have no ranged units. They do, however, have lots of flying monsters, great for soaring over the enemy and taking out artillery, or harassing cavalry. The undead also have an important weakness in battle: if you kill their general (and maybe all other characters?) their army quickly disintegrates.

Of the four original races, orcs and undead have the most monsters, with orcs getting a giant spider and a Giant, which can royally fuck up infantry lines. There are units like halberds for the empire that are good for dealing with large monsters, so keep some around if you’re fighting those armies.

When fighting chaos marauders and warriors and orcs, be careful of chariots. They also can just run through your infantry lines and start mucking up your ranged infantry. Tie them up with cavalry. They’re seriously annoying if you let them have free reign. Infantry can’t tie them up so well.

Oh right and Dwarvs have no cavalry, but they do get Gyrocopters!

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Thanks for all of the advice. I played vanilla and started an Empire Campaign and a Vampire Counts campaign. I got bogged down with how to get economy going and what units / buildings I should invest in for the long haul.

After reading these great replies and listening to this week’s 3MA where they revisit Total Warhammer I downloaded all the free DLC and started a Dwarf Campaign. Only a couple of turns in but so far really enjoying it.

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