Creative Assembly's Total War Series

[Navy_Pete]

Same; I tried playing Shogun 2 again a while back, and after TW WH found it hard to go back to.

The races all play completely differently, and the various corruption mechanics make it pretty interesting. Between chaos, vampiric and skaven corruption, adds an extra degree of challenge for the humans or dwarves that butt up against them.  WH 2 also just came out with a big patch as part of it's recent DLC, and it's really sped up the turns, which was my only complaint about going with the giant Mortal Empires campaign.

Really looking forward to WH 3; being able to rampage around as the demons and giants would be pretty awesome, and Kislev would be a nice alternative to the Empire. I also enjoy how the legendary heroes have their own quests that overlay with the game, and that's something they have a lot more freedom with the fantasy setting.

Will eventually give 3 Kingdoms a go, but probably after it's had a while to fully develop, as well as for some of the modders to work their magic.

 

[Underway]

WH 2 also just came out with a big patch as part of it's recent DLC, and it's really sped up the turns, which was my only complaint about going with the giant Mortal Empires campaign.

Yes.  That patch has made the game playable again.  Now all I need is a solid state hard drive on my laptop to speed up loading battles and I'll be a happy gamer.  Not to mention as a WH miniature Dark Elf player from way back (Dark Elf Update playtester and playtester for the Storm of Chaos campaign for those folks who remember 6th edition), loved that Malus Darkblade and the Medusi made it into a DLC.

Really looking forward to WH 3; being able to rampage around as the demons and giants would be pretty awesome, and Kislev would be a nice alternative to the Empire. I also enjoy how the legendary heroes have their own quests that overlay with the game, and that's something they have a lot more freedom with the fantasy setting.

Agreed.  I am mostly looking forward to playing Chaos Dwarves at this point.

 

[brihard]

I got back into Medieval 2 over the holiday in a big way, with The Long Road mood to massively expand the map and stretch the campaign. So much better than vanilla M2TW. I’m currently playing as Milan; holding the North half of Italy and slowly worked my way through most of France, kicked the Moors out of Iberia after they killed off the Spanish, and I’m consolidating on basically that for a bit to make sure the economy can sustain the multiple military frontiers. I suspect I’m about to face serious challenges from the North...

 

[Navy_Pete]

Good luck with that! Some of the most fun campaigns I had in the TW series were ones like that which ended up going horribly badly for me. I would take over an area, but then someone else would roll through the fog of war and steamroll me. Even with having agents out for advanced warning, sometimes didn't really matter as I couldn't relocate/build up fast enough. Still, going into a battle massively overwhelmed and coming out with a valiant defeat can be pretty fun.

Tried out the Malus in the Vortex campaign; really interesting choice at the beginning. You can keep your main city on one corner of the map (NW) while your armies are down in the SE corner, or sell it for 20k gold and focus on the SE. Completely changes how you approach things, and effectively gives you two totally different options. It's a pretty hard playthrough, but the possession mechanic for the main character is pretty fun, so have had a few unsuccessful but fun run throughs. Think I'll bump the difficulty down to easy and try again, but so far it's the best value out of all the DLCs for WH2. Plus it's much more playable with the patch; previously I ran it in a window so I could browse the news or whatever each time it took 2-5 minutes each turn. Not too bad if you are doing something, but pretty tedious when you are recovering and building up.

 

[tomahawk6]

A good cheat for money also makes the game more fun as you concentrate on the military side.  8)

 

[Underway]

Good luck with that! Some of the most fun campaigns I had in the TW series were ones like that which ended up going horribly badly for me. I would take over an area, but then someone else would roll through the fog of war and steamroll me. Even with having agents out for advanced warning, sometimes didn't really matter as I couldn't relocate/build up fast enough. Still, going into a battle massively overwhelmed and coming out with a valiant defeat can be pretty fun.

Tried out the Malus in the Vortex campaign; really interesting choice at the beginning. You can keep your main city on one corner of the map (NW) while your armies are down in the SE corner, or sell it for 20k gold and focus on the SE. Completely changes how you approach things, and effectively gives you two totally different options. It's a pretty hard playthrough, but the possession mechanic for the main character is pretty fun, so have had a few unsuccessful but fun run throughs. Think I'll bump the difficulty down to easy and try again, but so far it's the best value out of all the DLCs for WH2. Plus it's much more playable with the patch; previously I ran it in a window so I could browse the news or whatever each time it took 2-5 minutes each turn. Not too bad if you are doing something, but pretty tedious when you are recovering and building up.
[/quote

I have found if you don't sell Har Ganeth, in the beginning, the playthrough is brutal.  It's important to keep Naggaroth as an ally while you hold that city and use Malus as a money driver through upgraded Black Ark to get your economy going.  Its tough. 

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

Good luck with that! Some of the most fun campaigns I had in the TW series were ones like that which ended up going horribly badly for me. I would take over an area, but then someone else would roll through the fog of war and steamroll me. Even with having agents out for advanced warning, sometimes didn't really matter as I couldn't relocate/build up fast enough. Still, going into a battle massively overwhelmed and coming out with a valiant defeat can be pretty fun.

Tried out the Malus in the Vortex campaign; really interesting choice at the beginning. You can keep your main city on one corner of the map (NW) while your armies are down in the SE corner, or sell it for 20k gold and focus on the SE. Completely changes how you approach things, and effectively gives you two totally different options. It's a pretty hard playthrough, but the possession mechanic for the main character is pretty fun, so have had a few unsuccessful but fun run throughs. Think I'll bump the difficulty down to easy and try again, but so far it's the best value out of all the DLCs for WH2. Plus it's much more playable with the patch; previously I ran it in a window so I could browse the news or whatever each time it took 2-5 minutes each turn. Not too bad if you are doing something, but pretty tedious when you are recovering and building up.
[/quote

I have found if you don't sell Har Ganeth, in the beginning, the playthrough is brutal.  It's important to keep Naggaroth as an ally while you hold that city and use Malus as a money driver through upgraded Black Ark to get your economy going.  Its tough.

I caved and bought both WH1 & WH2 so I could get the combined Mortal Empires Map.  Playing as Reikland again and am having some success.  I don't know what the half the stuff is but the game plays fairly similar to other Total Wars so am making progress. 

I just had a massive war with Middenland and wiped them out and am now going after their allies Norland who are a little stronger.  Lets see if I can make a large Confederation  ;D

 

[Underway]

Beware.  Chaos is coming...  Also make allies with the Dwarfs ASAP as they will become a big blue juggernaut shortly.  The trade money you get with them is amazing.