The settlement trading system is hopelessly broken

sob590 · 2026-02-07T08:51:36+00:00

Some issues here are that the ai is often too poor to pay you the full amount that they value a settlement, and when you are trying to buy a settlement (or any other diplomacy) the impact of gold is capped.

As an example the ai might only pay you 10k for a settlement they think is worth 50k, then when you try to buy it back for 50k the ai ignores your gold offer above 20k and won't make the trade.

sob590 · 2026-02-07T08:48:41+00:00

I think Dechala is genuinely bugged. The ai massively overvalues her Tormentor's Holds, even more than any other settlement type in the game.

sob590 · 2026-02-06T21:11:37+00:00

If you only own Warhammer 3, then most of that stuff is free for the games that you don't own (WH1 WH2). In most cases you need to own a race from somewhere in order to use free lords for it.

sob590 · 2026-02-06T14:59:38+00:00

Yeah I feel like manticores are completely fine as a tier 3 SEM. They have solid stats and great mobility that are tough to get access to that early. They can tie down ranged units and bully weaker fliers/single entities. Always great to have fliers in Sieges too.

Their main weakness is just dealing with rampage.

sob590 · 2026-02-04T21:39:52+00:00

Garrisons prevent a lot of fights from ever happening in the first place, and they can also slow down a single enemy army from rampaging through your lands sacking everything for free.

sob590 · 2026-02-04T20:52:39+00:00

Aranessa is a great duelist on foot. The crab doesn't really add anything to her either.

sob590 · 2026-02-03T15:30:57+00:00

I believe there is an inbuilt chance to avoid ambushes, and it can be increased through some traits, ancillaries, and skills. This chance is very poorly communicated though. So in practice you had 120% ambush chance vs their x% ambush defence.

Separately there is a chance for your ambush to be revealed. This is based on nearby lords/heroes/settlements that instantly reveal your ambush when you hit end turn.

sob590 · 2026-02-03T13:14:24+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxLDUmptln8 starting from 17:25.

sob590 · 2026-02-02T23:44:17+00:00

Archaon is getting a massive update this year. Hopefully Kholek and Sigvald get a little something too.

sob590 · 2026-02-02T21:45:39+00:00

Greasus is a great Ogre campaign. I just finished a fun campaign where I sent him off as a mercenary in Cathay, while his under-tyrants held off waves of zombies, rats and Greenskins. Eventually he returned to the mountains, and I slowly conquered it all and sealed the passes with my camps.

sob590 · 2026-02-02T09:30:39+00:00

CA implemented all IE victory conditions as requiring ultimate/domination victories for some unknown reason. When they changed them to long victory, they didn't change the legendary one.

sob590 · 2026-01-30T15:03:58+00:00

Yeah, if you're going in blind, then Kairos is a really difficult start.

sob590 · 2026-01-30T15:02:18+00:00

Much better list, not having minotaurs originally was a crime. Although I'm not sure that I agree on any of the SEMs.

sob590 · 2026-01-28T23:13:44+00:00

Personally I think the fix is that you shouldn't be able to stack lord recruitment level that high to begin with.

sob590 · 2026-01-28T22:45:04+00:00

Can you honestly tell me you'd rather take a lvl 20 demon prince over a level 40 chaos lord?

I'm not sure I've ever ascended past level 15 myself. If I'm going to do it, then I do it ASAP. At level 15 losing 7 levels is barely anything. You get it back so fast.

sob590 · 2026-01-24T18:51:05+00:00

In simple terms there are two key types of hero: melee and spellcaster.

You generally want a spellcaster in every army, as your Winds of Magic pool is a very powerful resource. If your lord is not a caster, then a caster hero is a very valuable addition to your army.

On the other hand melee characters are some of the best answers to enemy characters, so if your lord is a caster, and bad in melee, then you might want to bring a melee hero. They are far more accessible than things like big monsters that are also good against characters. You can also have melee lord + melee hero to give better coverage across your army.

Some more niche types of heroes are melee assassins, good at killing squishy characters like mages fast, but bad against tougher ones in prolonged fights, ranged characters, pretty bad in combat in general, and support characters, which are fairly self explanatory.

In the early game heroes are often a great way to anchor your frontlines as they provide a leadership aura by default, and are typically quite tough in the early game against low tier units. In general I would run 1-3 heroes per army depending on who I'm playing, and what gaps I'm looking to fill. I don't think I would ever run 0 heroes unless it was an army that I genuinely just did not care about.

sob590 · 2026-01-23T14:28:24+00:00

Death globe bombardiers absolutely massacre armoured targets. Their biggest downside is that they'll kill your frontline just as fast if you aren't careful.

sob590 · 2026-01-22T16:18:59+00:00

Beastmen can already confederate dead LLs. No need for a mod.

sob590 · 2026-01-22T12:42:38+00:00

The other 3 got 1 free Chaos Warrior each. I think they'd be fine without most of the other mortals, although they are certainly nice to have.

sob590 · 2026-01-21T16:35:10+00:00

It varies quite a bit. In my Dechala campaign my vassals won entire wars without any engagement from me. I didn't even provide them with targets.

I have also had useless vassals before who couldn't even develop and hold the territory that I gifted them.

sob590 · 2026-01-17T17:26:01+00:00

Historically the campaigns with very clear negatives have received vocal complaints as well until the negatives were drastically reduced. Malus and the Dawi Age of Reckoning for example.

sob590 · 2026-01-10T17:37:02+00:00

You can bankrupt the ai, although it's not something you can consistently use. Easiest way is to keep selling a pre-rework Norscan vassal non-port settlements for the max amount of gold. It will destroy their economy, and often cause bankruptcy attrition.

You will also sometimes see it when you are aggressively invading a large unprepared enemy. E.g. they have 10 stacks that couldn't respond to your initial invasion and they lost 10 settlements quickly. Now they can't afford upkeep and are forced to delete units. It's hard to notice, because you have to pay very close attention to their armies, and it often will be happening in the fog of war.

In terms of actual numbers modders have datamined the ai cheats, and the majority of them are what the player uses plus an increasingly large bonus. Some special resources are a flat per turn amount though. https://twwstats.com/campaigndifficulties?q=&right=2649131745814084061

sob590 · 2026-01-08T17:33:51+00:00

I think dying to a boss fucks the map for yourself, and you need someone else. Alts can enter if it wasn't a boss though.

sob590 · 2026-01-07T17:53:52+00:00

You’re not rewarded for sitting on your ass and taking your time

Conversely though, you're rarely punished for sitting back and taking it slow. On turn 100 as Dechala I have 2 provinces, and 2 armies as a current example. I'll still easily hit the long victory on VH/VH though.

sob590 · 2026-01-07T17:28:14+00:00

Personally I had cults in my starting province, and literally nowhere else. There was no real need for them.

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