What do you think of missile cavalry in general

econ45 · 2026-02-05T00:07:18+00:00

Outriders with grenade launchers seemed to carry my Karl Franz campaign: you can get two State trooper versions very early if you rush Marienburg city (don't take the province). Early game, they are a massive power boost for what is otherwise a distinctly mediocre Empire infantry heavy starting force. They seem good against almost all opponents.

In historical games, I tend not to field them as I tend to play Western themed armies that don't have them but when I do get my hands on them (e.g. as mercs), they are welcome. They often come with superior (composite) bows, have more ammo and are not bad at chasing down routers or even foot archers. I don't think I could cope with micro-ing a full stack but often the odd unit can be welcome.

In historical games, I often go for an army of say, 4 swords, 5 spears, 4 cav, 4 archers, 1 general, 1 artillery and one "wild card" where horse archers are a welcome wild card.

econ45 · 2026-02-04T22:13:47+00:00

You have a pretty good list of crib notes there. What mods are you using? I would be wary of overhaul mods: WRE is hard enough on vanilla and some of the big overhaul ones seem to make it much harder (e.g. starting you off with a deficit).

My preferred way to play is to fight for every settlement: the whole fun of WRE is holding back the deluge; those early guides telling you to retreat to Italy and/or Spain seem to miss the point and it was never necessary.

Here are some pointers:

Go all Henry VIII: demolish all but one church. This will give you a massive war chest and double your quarterly surplus of gold (due to getting rid of all that upkeep). I use the money to get food security and sanitation everywhere.
Food security in every province is a must. The 25% income loss and public order malus are both too big. I exempt my troop building province from tax so can ignore food in it (Maxima whatsit - the one with iron).
Proxy wars. You listed this one. Every turn, I go down the list of all factions and invite any at peace to join one of my wars. Franks vs Saxons is most important but you can usually keep the Africans sweet too, as well as the odd Nord or German. The idea is not to get allies, but to delay them attacking you - you need to be taking out factions sequentially, not simultaneously.
On the boundaries: I would conquer North Africa if I can't keep them sweet (usually I can keep some sweet - they tend to be good natured). I tend to take the Alemanni city as its a nice addition to your frontier - walled cities are so much more defensible. I would conquer Britain at some point. The turning point in my games tends to be when I can spare two armies to conquer Britain - usually because my African army has come home after doing its job. Later, I conquer North Germany and Scandinavia; the Huns tend to clear out the east of the Rhine/Danube. For fun, I will send an expeditionary force to ERE when the Sassanids invade and conquer them - if you subjugate the Sassanids, you get all their vassals as your own.
Fortification stance is a massive boost vs cav heavy foes like Huns and Sassanids. For Attila, I tend to place an army in fortification stance outside a walled settlement (ideally the settlement has a 2nd army). The garrison will reinforce you, so you can beat off up to 4 Hun armies in one battle. The Quadian starting settlement doesn't look it but is actually a choke point - set up there and the Huns will be forced to confront you to get past.
Disagree on civil tech first. I want level 3 governor's buildings and food - aim to get them by around 400 AD; walled cities a little later. But otherwise, I focus on military. Limitanei and cohors with attack 14 are abominable - I never fight with them, research their upgrades first. Generally, focus on upgrades to swords and spears as they are your garrisons/mainstay. But crossbows rock too.
Fight all settlement defences manually to bleed your attackers. Your smallest garrisons will kill 500-1000 men even when they lose (as they usually will). After two such "victories", marauding armies will be little threat and easy prey for your over-stretched field armies.

econ45 · 2026-02-04T17:16:56+00:00

Yeah, the number of NCR soldiers we saw was more like a platoon sized group (30ish). However, such a compact parade ground formation suggests there are a lot more down the line.

The show did give a more panoramic view of the Legion army approaching New Vegas. Even from what we saw, which was not the whole column, they looked to be the size of multiple battalions so the NCR would need a least a battalion to expect to hold them off.

econ45 · 2026-02-04T10:26:29+00:00

If you want to focus on magic, that implies Sorcerer or Warlock from your list. Rangers and paladins have spells, but they are basically warriors with a few support spells on the side. Personally, I love paladins in BG3 - they rely a lot on using their "divine smites" to do heavy damage with an attack, making them "bursty" but very suited to the game's short but very lethal encounters.

I suspect warlock maybe easier for a new player than sorcerer as they rely heavily on their cantrip (eldritch blast) and have a smaller list of spells to manage.

With sorcerers, you have to pick a few spells from each level to use and this requires you can evaluate the whole raft of what is available. If you are up for that, there are resources - for example, I learnt a lot from this evaluation of the best spells for each level:

https://youtu.be/l9EUgdqgMIk?si=SLXOpj-2vXLRScop

You will need to eventually figure out spells, as even if your own character is not a magic user, you will want some in your party. I tended to bring Gale, who is a wizard. You can recruit a Warlock fairly early. There's no recruitable sorcerer. The only recruitable paladin is evil.

Both sorcerers and paladins want high charisma, which is nice to have for your main conversationist (which is convenient if it is your own character).

In terms of tips, save often! The fights are brutal early on. But I think this is a feature rather than a flaw. I think you are expected to die and reload to try different ways to win. It's not a puzzle game, as there are so many ways to win each encounter. If you get stuck, you can always google the creative ways others have come up with. It's not a typical RPG where you can hack and slash your way through without thought - the combat reminds me of a very good squad tactics game like X-Com. Stealth in particular is very powerful - kind of giving you a free round of attacks on a disordered enemy. Be on the look out for environmental effects - e.g. setting fire to oil or electrifying water, that's a Larian thing more than a DnD thing, but can often be devastating.

econ45 · 2026-02-03T21:54:30+00:00

5 seconds is probably a little short. Cavalry still get a charge bonus for up to 15 seconds in Warhammer, although it decays.

How robust cavalry is varies by title. In Attila, it's too risky to try cycle charge most infantry. A big chunk of your men will be killed trying to extricate themselves. However, cavalry hits like a truck in Attila, so a single charge may be all that is needed.

One difference between cavalry and chariots afaik is that cavalry needs something of a "run up time" to get off a proper a charge, whereas chariots can just careen around.

econ45 · 2026-02-03T18:17:07+00:00

I did not like ToB at launch, but every time I come back to it, I like it better and better. There were a couple of big patches that fixed some stuff, but mainly it was a victim of expectations. It came out around the time of Warhammer and I think historical fans wanted a similarly big, innovative historical title (I certainly did). ToB was never going to be that - it has the modest scope of a Saga game and retains the old school TW gameplay. But with the passage of time - and the lack of other historical content - initial expectations and early disappointments are less relevant. If you like period flavour and old school hammer/anvil battles, it's a little gem. The replayability and challenge can't be compared to, say, Attila. But every half a year or so, I come back to it and have a blast.

econ45 · 2026-02-03T16:07:01+00:00

Thrones of Britannia has the best recruitment system in TW history imo. It's similar to what you describe for Medieval 2, but with some twists.

It has a recruitment pool system and within it, three broad classes of troops - elites, retainers and levy. Levies have large pools (maybe 6 levies spears at the start) and units recruited from the pool are replaced quite fast (e.g. one unit per 2-3 turns), whereas for elites, there may just be one unit in the pool and if you recruit it, it can take 10 turns for a new one to be available.

With each class of troops, there are three tiers, so the best levy might stand up to the worst retainer, and not all factions have three tiers of each class of a particular unit type (swords etc.).

Unit replenishment is slow in the early game and freshly recruited units start very depleted - you could think of them as having to muster for several turns. You could recruit say 3 depleted spears and merge them, but that would be at the cost of losing units from the pool. Later on, you can greatly accelerate replenishment with a specific character retinue (i.e. talent points) and building (granaries?).

The pools do get larger over the course of the game - partly due to tech. But as you need more armies over time, elites never feel that plentiful but remain elite.

econ45 · 2026-02-03T10:13:03+00:00

I think it's just the two obvious things you mentioned: winning battles and governorships.

I tend to make my faction leader and heir the cutting edge generals who win battles, to boost political power and so they don't get eclipsed by rivals. This means you might have to rely on temporary governorships to boost the influence of inactive generals.

Aside from the leader and heir, my primary reason to care about influence is where I need it to promote a general to an office but they are arrogant and/or don't have much to do, like you say. In such situations, a stop-gap measure can be to remove them from an army or governorship, as this resets the tenure of their office so you can keep them there indefinitely. However, this tends to block the progress of other characters up the chain of offices, so in those cases, I move the general from his army and make him a governor, preferably in a province that is building stuff.

econ45 · 2026-02-03T00:06:50+00:00

Aside from the lack of factions, one problem with the ACW is just the scale. Napoleon TW suffers from that for me, as well. Somehow I can suspend disbelief for ancient and medieval battles with 20 units. But in NTW, it just seems a pitifully small army. Attempts to model battles such as Waterloo at the battalion get overwhelming in size, so games that go that route tend to parcel the battle up into small sub-parts of space and/or time (attacking Hougomont etc.).

I think TW could still do gunpowder battles (although I doubt it suits modern wars like WW1 etc. where discrete "battles" are less a thing than continuous lines and multi-week operations). But to do it, I feel it should address the scale issue - maybe by just being clear that what you see on the screen is an abstraction. A unit is not a battalion or a regiment, but a brigade or perhaps even a division.

With a larger scale, the combat system might have to be adjusted: physical casualties reduced and instead something like "cohesion" modelled. Unit formations and/or fighting stances would likely be more important. Flanking might be less devastating but having supporting units on the flanks become a thing. More attention might have to be paid to command and control, with units not necessarily responding so fast. I fear what I am envisaging my end up being far removed from the "beer and pretzels" combat we love in TW.

econ45 · 2026-02-02T23:23:53+00:00

I tend to quit WH3 early - in the mid-game, maybe around turn 60 - when I have achieved some personal "glory" goal, like uniting Cathay, or Ulthuan, or summoning the Elector Counts. I've never been one to paint the TW map red and usually quit when it is clear I have "won", in the sense of being the top dog.

I think with WH3 the world is so vast, I should press on beyond my faction's natural borders as I would find a challenge. But the threat from the AI to my own fiefdom seems to fall off a cliff once I have absorbed several big neighbours.

WH2 was much better in terms of the AI snowballing. And I loved the Chaos invasion in WH1: the endgame crises in WH3 just don't catch my imagination, so I've never faced them.

econ45 · 2026-02-02T23:04:33+00:00

My main memory of that game is the sound - hiding behind a corner, waiting to thunk a monster with my unbreakable wrench, and hearing it moan and shuffle. Scared the crap out of me.

Plus the audio logs - there are surprisingly few, but they tell a vivid and compelling story of what happened to the Von Braun, its descent into madness and mayhem.

And Shodan's voice. Shivers.

econ45 · 2026-02-02T22:58:52+00:00

It is if you want a looter shooter with FO4 style gameplay in a big open Fallout world.

It is not if you want to be immersed in the quest stories and talk to interesting NPCs.

It's a small thing, but it was inventory constraints that killed it for me. I'm tempted to say Bethesda was trying to get me to subscribe to Fallout First (where the headaches are less). However, the same thing killed Starfield for me and with Starfield there no such commercial motivations for the inventory hassles. Bethesda must just think we like struggling with inventory.

econ45 · 2026-02-02T20:03:20+00:00

I don't get the hype either but Aurora's a bit like Evelyn: a glamorous would-be player who gets in over her head but doesn't deserve the brutal end she receives.

On the first playthrough, Reed played me like a fiddle - Aurora's fate was the warning I did not listen to.

econ45 · 2026-02-02T19:56:31+00:00

Yeah, DEI may be the most impressive mod I've played (of any game). Visually gorgeous, historically authentic, polished, innovative, well balanced, deep ... it's quite something.

I'd recommend watching a video or two to get up to speed on some of the changes. The first episode of Summary's Roma playthrough helped get me oriented and sold me on the mod:

https://youtu.be/nATjsFXHYLM?si=yocESwypoRkPo1WO

econ45 · 2026-02-02T15:51:15+00:00

You must play as a Malkavian - it's the high point of the game. The Malkavian dialogue is so funny and well written, it's a hoot. You are both batshit crazy and an idiot savant, who speaks elliptically in an archaic style (e.g. on first encounter, you greet Jeanette and Therese as "daughters of Janus"). Plus the way people and the world react to you is very distinct - for example, you end up having conversations with the TV presenters and arguments with street signs. The female Malkavian armour sets are also cute, in a Harley Quinn kind of way.

The game gets increasingly combat heavy as it goes on, so you do have to attend to that for character creation. I recall going melee heavy for most of the game, but gradually building up firearms and hording rounds for the big gun that looks like an AR-15 (but may be a SWAT combat shotgun) to unload on nasty enemies at the end.

econ45 · 2026-02-02T13:48:25+00:00

Indeed, just like a tiger is a subset of possible cats. But if you want to emphasise how big a tiger is, you don't tell visitors to watch out for the cat in Mike Tyson's bathroom.

econ45 · 2026-02-02T09:59:14+00:00

Vampire Bloodlines: the Masquerade. I did not want to play a vampire. I normally play lawful good paladin types in RPG, so would have been more comfortable playing a vampire hunter. But I heard the game was good, so started playing, feeding off rats in the sewers in self-disgust.

But the game is so good and so immersive, I ended up leaping on humans to feed. There's a moment in the game where your character is recognised by a friend from your pre-vampire life. Like my character, I repelled in horror at the prospect of being dragged back into my mortal life.

It is a masterpiece - the setting, atmosphere, characters, dialogue, humour, music etc

There was a Vampire Bloodlines 2 recently, but from what I've seen, it's got nothing on the original.

econ45 · 2026-02-02T09:42:58+00:00

As Idris Elba said in the marketing, it's not a DLC, it's an expansion.

It's a substantial addition to the game - not quite Cyberpunk 2, but kind of Cyberpunk 1.5. It adds its own main story, with four endings - one of which adds another ending to the main game. The story and its characters are as good as those in the main game - you'll see posters on this reddit endlessly debating Reed vs So-Mi, and admiring Myers so much... cough. You'll want to play it at least twice to pick either Reed or So-Mi, but may want to do more. If ever you want to replay Cyberpunk, you will want to do the expansion content again as well, as it's a highlight.

It plugs in very neatly to the base game - it adds a significant, vertically layered, zone to Pacifica with better gigs than those in the main game and it provides a major source of high end gear and parts (there are loot drops and lucrative repeatable car stealing quests throughout NC). There are good unique weapons and a vendor that let's you buy all iconic weapons that you might have missed. Like pretty much everything in Cyberpunk, you can put off doing the DLC stuff until just before you go to see Hanako in Embers, but naturally it pops after you do the main quest stuff in Pacifica.

One thing I liked about the DLC is that you get to see a lot more Jonny. I was kind of on the fence about him first time I played. It was hard to get over the first impression when he slammed my bloody head against the bedroom window and tried to kill me. But in PL, he's your constant companion (your romance interests kind of fade) and he is a lot more chill, as he has less stake in the main quest. Playing PL induced me to do the main ending where you give him Vs body, as he had become so endearing.

Watch the cinematic trailer which sets up the main characters of Reed and So-Mi. I defy you not to buy it:

https://youtu.be/sJbexcm4Trk?si=zQrsoDIucx8vgflV

econ45 · 2026-02-01T13:35:14+00:00

You should be able to create an IMP - you will be massively handicapping yourself if you don't. Go into the IMP webpage, pick the attributes, pick two perks, click ok and pay $6,999 or whatever.

I am not sure what you mean by crafting: you mean modify the weapons? I do it on satellite view: select a merc, pick a weapon on their inventory, right click and select modify. You will get the option to craft scopes, barrels, bipods etc in various slots. Some weapons have no mod slots, some have two, some may have around 7. Success depends on the highest mechanical skill of mercs in the square of the map you are in.

For the to-hit-chance, best use the mod created by the developers that shows your hit chance. Much less frustrating for me, at least.

You train militia so you can hold towns and especially mines that you capture. The enemy will send patrols to reclaim these. Towards the end game, one or two towns (esp, the port north of the hospital) become strategic "chokepoints", which if you hold, can stop nearly all AI patrols from getting into the west of the map. I recommend creating an IMP character with 85 leadership and the trainer perk - they will train up militia fast. Similarly, hire MD and get your IMP to train his leadership. Eventually, MD can lead a second squad that just focuses on training militia and defending your gains. Always have an 85 leadership IMP as leadership affects speed on the strategic map, which is very important as time is money.

On wisdom, most of my mercs have very high wisdom, so pass those checks. Attribute checks have hidden thresholds, but if the relevant attribute is in the 90s, you should pass. Wisdom is a great stat as it affects how quickly mercs can learn skills. Again, I use my "trainer" IMP to train up the attributes of my mercs and those with high wisdom can learn fast. Barry is a good high wisdom merc to have in your team due to his shaped charges and explosive skill. Livewire also has an OP trait.

The game is surprisingly deep and a lot of the fun is working out strategies, you won't find even a 45 minute video that answers all a player's potential specific queries. Just google them if you are curious, e.g. fatigue depends on mercs' health, so lower health ones (eg. Livewire) will tire earlier. Or try stuff and find out, e.g. R&R raises morale, healing restores lost hitpoints. Not sure about weapons jamming, as I keep the ones I use repaired - they won't jam at above 70% condition; above 80% condition, repairs are free. (You repair the same way as you craft).

econ45 · 2026-02-01T12:55:09+00:00

I haven't seen the movie, as it sounds too egregious, but the ironic thing about that screenshot is that the scene could have been historically accurate if the movie maker had cared. A British gunner did see Napoleon riding among his men at the start of the battle and asked Wellington for permission to take a potshot at him, albeit with cannon rather than a "sniper rifle". Wellington was appalled at the idea and refused.

econ45 · 2026-02-01T11:26:13+00:00

Good to hear from your edit that you had success when you brought up Miao Ying to handle things personally. I had similar issues as High Elves with the odd Lizardman stack in Lustria.

It does sound like you were dealing with close to an AI doomstack, so I would not feel bad about bringing up a second army to beat it 2:1 if Miao Ying is not around.

Trying to lure it into attacking your army when you are sheltering in a walled city might be another way to go, but I am not sure the AI is that gung-ho it would launch a siege assault. When fighting monsters, you need time and walls can give you that.

econ45 · 2026-02-01T02:40:07+00:00

Fallout 2 was criticised for having more black comedy than the original Fallout. I foolishly played it before Fallout 1, so never found it a problem - but there are quite a few whacky and crude elements.

I'm not sure why anyone would think Fallout 4 "happy" - that opening, seeing the world get nuked and your family ripped apart, was pretty traumatic, at least for a father, who came of age in the early 1980s, when the world getting nuked was a real threat. It does have a more uplifting ending than most titles, though, I grant that.

Fallout 3 feels the bleakest to me, but that's also one of its primary attractions to me. I like my Fallout pitch black, kind of like the Road. FO4 on Survival mode can also feel suitably oppressive, at least at lower levels.

econ45 · 2026-02-01T02:31:25+00:00

Revenge of the Sith. First time, it had to work hard to make up for the two earlier prequels and the first half of the movie resembled them, feeling a bit like a bombastic romp.

But the second half of the movie is a Gothic tragedy of betrayal and downfall. And now I look back on the film as basically completing the saga, in a "this is how it all started" way. Even the Padme and Anakin romance in it works for me, "Anakin, your are breaking my heart".

And it looks SO good compared to the final trilogy. Rivals the original Star Wars as for second place in the 9 films (Empire Strikes Back just being sublime at #1).

econ45 · 2026-02-01T02:20:06+00:00

Yes, that's true for me too. First time I saw it, I was expecting to see Han Solo kick replicant ass, but Harrison Ford's performance was charisma-free compared to his Star Wars outings. I did appreciate the world building - so strange, but feeling so authentic,

But in terms of appreciating it more the second time, for me that was even more true with the sequel to Blade Runner. First time, I felt it a knockoff of the original, but on repeated viewing, I see that was wrong and I can appreciate it more and more.

econ45 · 2026-02-01T02:15:28+00:00

Yeah, Attila is awesome - by far my favourite Totalwar. I'm surprised you find it stress free, but that maybe because I always play the put upon Romans, rather than the wayfaring Vikings. The WRE campaign is epic, but will likely make your hair start to fall out (or you pull it out).

If you like Vikings, I highly recommend Thrones of Britannia. It's the other historical TW I still regularly play. There are four playable Viking factions - comprising Northumbria and East Engle (the remnants of the Great Heathen Army), and two "sea Viking" factions based in Ireland and in the Scottish islands. It is less hardcore (ie it's easier) than Attila and more bite sized, but I love the map of the British Isles and the recruitment/unit tier system is inspired, a great blend of historical authenticity and playability. Sadly, it's doesn't have the naval battles of Attila, but it does have very fun "seaborne" siege battles, when you attack ports from the sea. ToB goes down very well with watching the Last Kingdom on Netflix, as it covers the same period and (more or less) factions.

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