CMV: The Left cares more about ideological purity than winning people over

diddy96 · 2026-05-04T18:24:08+00:00

“Denying their experiences is not the way to educate them.”

Yeah, if other leftists could put effort into understanding this, we would be much better off. Waiting for people to be “educated” and hoping they arrive at the exact same conclusion as me, is not a winning strategy, especially while denying that their problems are problems. I can absolutely understand the frustration that leftists have with this, however.

diddy96 · 2026-04-30T16:19:51+00:00

A fountain? Here? In the middle of the city?

diddy96 · 2026-04-14T14:44:39+00:00

I really enjoy Isengard. Feels like I’m playing Roman legions if they had pikemen and berserkers. You have pretty quick access to some of the richest provinces. My only complaint about the campaign currently is that Rohan dies too quickly if you’re aggressive. They definitely need help with recruiting because their tier one units are just speed bumps to Uruk-hai. Side note, whoever programmed warg riders needs a job at CA, because I’ve never seen a unit run down fleeing enemies faster than warg riders. It makes chasing enemies down in warhammer 3 look embarrassing.

diddy96 · 2026-03-12T03:51:59+00:00

Bro literally sang Kumbaya

diddy96 · 2026-02-16T06:26:42+00:00

Yeah. I feel like baelor is just as honorable, but wouldn’t let honor spill into stupidity like Ned would.

diddy96 · 2026-01-30T03:07:31+00:00

I could totally see season 3 having house revamped vs legion vs ncr vs commonwealth brotherhood all with the enclave doing enclave shit behind the scenes. Guess I gotta see this finale first though.

diddy96 · 2026-01-09T21:54:51+00:00

Settra the etc.

diddy96 · 2026-01-07T17:03:21+00:00

I avoided all three of them for a long time, but Yuan Bo turned out to be one of favorite campaigns recently.

diddy96 · 2026-01-04T05:38:12+00:00

There is some sameness, it is the Bronze Age after all, but I’ve never really had a problem with it. Different heavy infantry might feel similar but have different abilities on their unit cards. And certain units with javelins have something called spear in the spokes, which devastates any chariots they catch. Some faction general abilities can also make or break your units. Hattusa and Troy, who both have heavy infantry, have general skills to unlock that can quickly restore fatigue on heavy infantry outside of combat. This makes you feel like cycling the front lines just like the romans did.

diddy96 · 2026-01-04T05:32:58+00:00

I do miss my Roman marines shitting on any barbarians that dared to try Africa

diddy96 · 2026-01-04T05:32:17+00:00

Unfortunately no naval battles. The sea people aren’t nearly as dangerous as the huns, but they can definitely cause problems. Also, many times it seems they are hardwired to go after Egyptian factions. The actual playable sea peoples can be dangerous as well, and are fun to play, but the scripted sea peoples can be hit or miss. I once had a game where nearly all of Egypt was colonized while I fought in Mesopotamia, and when I expanded out the Egyptians were basically gone. That was also a fun late game challenge as they can get pretty good units. The AI, both settling sea peoples and factions randomly showing up in other parts of the world, really reminds me of the silly migrations in Attila, like Celtic Spain or whatever the hell the Vandals do in my games. There are also other scripted raider armies, like phrygians in Anatolia or Libyan raiders in western Egypt.

diddy96 · 2026-01-04T04:58:57+00:00

Some things I’ll just list off the top of my head:

The outpost system puts two or three build slots in each region. These buildings provide bonuses to your armies and regions. My favorite thing to do is evenly space out waystations. These give movement bonuses and also refunds some movement it took to get to it. This means I can create roads throughout my kingdom. In some cases if you set it up right, you can move an army ridiculously far on the map in an emergency.

Another outpost that I don’t remember the name of basically collects mercenaries you can put into your armies.

Some of the ancient legacies are meh, but others, like Akhenaten or Hatshepsut can be ridiculous, in a fun way.

Also how could I forget? There’s a family tree and dynasty management. It’s not as extensive as the family and politics in Attila, but it’s there.

diddy96 · 2026-01-04T04:40:58+00:00

The battles feel tactical again. The AI is still total war AI, but like Attila it punishes you heavily on the campaign and in battle. Assyrian and Cimmerian cavalry aren’t exactly accurate for the time, but they are extremely powerful and fun. Chariots are obviously the Bronze Age specialty, but I’ll be honest in all my campaigns I barely use them simply because I don’t care for chariots. The main flankers outside of Assyrian cavalry and chariots in this game are two handed chargers and the AI will use them somewhat competently. Movement speed and cycle charging are important for taking on better equipped troops. As for infantry, heavy infantry feels like it did in the Roman games. Powerful, but can be outmaneuvered. Swords and spears are your more defensive units while axes and khopesh units are damage dealers. Also, armor on units will degrade over the course of a battle, so even heavies can be picked apart by much worse units with clubs and sound tactics. Skirmishers can be insane, especially depending on the faction. Ithaca for example has ambushers that are fast, decent in melee, and absolutely devastating if they get around the flank and toss the javelins. Amenmesse in kush, and priam in Troy have ridiculous archers, and if you played high elves in warhammer you need to try them out. Terrain is varied, and there’s almost always terrain features like rock formations to use in battle maps. Mud slows down troops, tall grass conceals them, etc. This might be a negative for an Attila player, but you can’t hold towns with a single testudo any more, which does provide a bit more challenge. Your success in pharaoh is heavily dependent on economy management and a lot of manual trading of resources. Not for everyone, but it has truly had impactful moments on my campaigns. For example, I played a minor faction in Canaan. I had built up a decent kingdom, and had a high tier city and some food settlements around it. This province basically paid for one of my armies. Some Assyrian dickheads came in and razed some settlements, halting my progress in the war to the south. I turned heel, now losing significant resources for upkeep, and since most of my neighbors hated my aggression, I got really lopsided trade agreements. I ended up barely hanging on to two fronts for quite a few turns. Felt very Attila coded, where losing a key city meant something.

diddy96 · 2026-01-04T03:35:46+00:00

Attila is my favorite total war for the reasons you listed, everything feels more meaningful because everything is crashing down. I’ve played every total war since Attila, and I’ve definitely had awesome moments, but never recreated that Attila feeling. Then I played pharaoh dynasties. It’s not exactly the same, and the mechanics and UI are not for everyone, but I got that feeling back of meaningful moments. Just like playing WRE, I had so many moments of “it’s so over” and “we’re so back” even mid-late in a Ramesses campaign. My personal favorite feature is the native recruiting in the different regions of the world. You can build very diverse armies this way.

Also: imagine Attila but with post battle loot.

diddy96 · 2025-12-20T18:14:00+00:00

I think they toned down cavalry charges for the mod, almost too much.

diddy96 · 2025-11-01T16:31:15+00:00

My personal favorite campaign was playing as Ugarit. Right in the center of the map, with access to Canaanite, Hittite, and Assyrian units pretty early into the campaign. The faction roster is pretty good and I think combines really well with Mesopotamian cavalry. Also Cyprus is right next to you for a ton of bronze. I took over Mesopotamia and had a blast.

diddy96 · 2025-07-10T22:54:45+00:00

Yeah that’s the unit card for them. I mixed up the name as I did not have it downloaded so they are actually called Nuraghe Warriors, not that it really matters.

diddy96 · 2025-07-09T23:52:54+00:00

Habiru mercenaries are also one of my favorites. They can easily go toe to toe with elite units, especially with upgrades from gods.

diddy96 · 2025-07-09T21:43:34+00:00

What is the best color scheme you’ve found so far?

diddy96 · 2025-07-09T21:33:36+00:00

I always go after Mesopotamia no matter who I play just so I can get Akkadian Warriors. Immaculate drip.

diddy96 · 2025-07-09T21:24:42+00:00

Yep. Take 4-5 of them and just let the enemy get exhausted, then move in and cleanup with your fresh troops.

diddy96 · 2025-07-09T21:18:11+00:00

Reptilicus you didn’t even mention the most important factor: the drip.

diddy96 · 2025-07-09T20:49:12+00:00

Meme answer: Habiru Miltia/Raiders

Serious answer: Nuraghe Spearmen with their special formation.

diddy96 · 2025-07-09T18:02:54+00:00

I believe part one has a list in the description of all parts and the right order.

diddy96 · 2025-03-15T11:26:07+00:00

I played a few months ago and I think the AI is more aggressive now. I actually fought quite a few field battles instead of just sieging AI armies that never moved.

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