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r/totalwar • … • u/pocket_sand_expert

The absolute state of Norsca

I'll preface this by saying that I'm under no illusion of being a good TWW player, H/H being my difficulty level of choice. So far I have been able to relatively comfortably finish every campaign I started, including WoC and Beastmen, until I tried Norsca.

And failed.

Tried something different, and failed again. And again, and again.

Not the battles, mind you - those aren't the problem. The problem is that everything - mechanics, location, enemies, allies or lack thereof - works against you, until it grinds you down. It makes Beastmen gameplay look like Sisters of Twilight, it's that bad.

Confederated the entire Norscan peninsula? Enjoy literally every faction you meet declaring war, sending stack after stack to your territory, which happens to be completely indefensible.

Stuck to a single province instead, and angered only the empire factions? Doesn't matter, the AI just sends stack after stack to your only province which is undefended because you're their only enemy, and your army is out raiding and sacking since you have no income otherwise.

Managed to capture a coastal settlement? Well too bad, the AI retakes it as soon as you move. Raze it instead? It gets recolonized immediately. Destroy a minor empire faction? It'll pop out again and declare war after a few turns.

Go obliterate Couronne instead? Doesn't matter, capital outposts don't have walls, and Artois will just declare war and take Louen's place as soon as you go back to deal with the lovely constant empire stacks.

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The core mechanics themselves are terrible:

1. No walls in any settlement, including capital outposts, with crappy garrisons makes holding territory extremely difficult 2. Inability to capture land settlements aside from capitals 3. You just captured a level 5 capital? Too bad. Outpost buildings aside from the main one don't convert, you have to build them from scratch. Hope you like burning that money you don't have. It's not like it'll get recaptured the moment you move your army. 4. You think Beastmen dark moon mechanic is bad? How about being constantly bombarded with penalty and debuff events that last 10 turns, sometimes you even get them several turns in a row. The ones that flat out take your money, in addition to debuffs are super common as well. 5. Inability to take the replenishment option after battle 6. Want some money from razing? Nope, waste the turn sacking the town first 7. 5+ turn global recruitment. Why? Just why? You lost a few units in a tough battle, or you want to update your army? Go back north, dumbass! Supposedly capturing capitals reduces it , but good luck actually holding on to those.

They have the worst aspects of both conquest and horde factions without the benefit of either. Crappy economy, indefensible territory, inability to properly expand, constant whack-a-mole... Meanwhile you have no freedom of the hordes, while being (usually) the single enemy of the ordertide.

How is any of this better than Beastmen? I feel like people who talk about how bad Beastmen are never actually tried Norsca in ME. I can't be the only one that feels that Norsca is worse by far. And this is only on Hard difficulty. I can't even begin to imagine the truckloads of shit the game shovels in your face on VH/L.

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TL:DR Norsca is worse than Beastmen, and they should have rework priority. This is the hill I choose to die on.

Thanks and sorry to those who actually did read my shitty rant.

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