How to not suck?

[Springtheme]

I am new to Total War and grand strategy in general honestly. Throughout my attempts to get into the franchise I have somehow collected all 3 entries. I'm having fun playing IE in this game, but I am real bad at it. What are some good resources to get better? Namely get better at the battles themselves because that's my weakest point.

[SBA77]

Youtube is your friend here. I find Zerkovitch's guides are pretty useful for learning basics like hotkeys and advanced techniques that the game doesn't normally tell you, but really there are tons of good tutorials out there for you to find. Legend of Total War has some guides for what you should do on the first 20 turns, and Quill18 has made some beginner's guides as well. Perhaps ParyElite has beginner's guides too, but I can't recall if he does for TWW3.

[Carson]

Reading the various buffs and the such on your troops will help alot. You can have the best cav in game struggle to stand toe to toe with mid anti large units.

Magic is also an amazing edge to utilize over the AI because they tend to not dodge super well. Beyond that, try palying a super well rounded faction, the High Elves are probably the best to learn due to their flexibility, you can learn most troop types, their strengths etc.

Also do not ignore lord army buff trees, I ignored them for a while not noticing that maxing some of those skills can make or break your advantage over end game armies.

Lastly certain lords are better with certain troop types, a good example is Ghorst, who quite literally turns zombies into nearly free and practically unkillable sponges, so reading your lord effects and the buffs they have to certain troop types can help as well.

[A.Pot]

Practice. You can look at all the youtube videos, read the guides and whatnot but at the end of the day, it is on you. Play custom battles or do the campaign on easy and just practice your ability to plan, strategize and react.

[Basarab Laiota]

play beyond turn 8 and you will realize how easy the game is

[cernodan]

Set difficulty to easy and play as High Elves.
Use Lord + Mage + 6 cav + 6 spears + 6 archers.
Spears in front, archers behind, 3 cav on each side.
You need to learn basic stuff like flanking, keeping your flanks safe, hammer and anvil etc
After you get better using this formula, you can change a bit the composition and formation, then you can raise the difficulty.
Don't watch youtubers, don't read guides, don't ever visit sh*tholes like r*ddit.
Simply play more and try more often and you'll become better by your own efforts and the feeling of accomplishment will also be greater.

[Jarmam]

Explore. Experiment. Find a faction or two whose mechanics and units sit well with you, and try a few short campaigns on the easier settings. Once you start getting comfortable, challenge yourself to think of ways you can do something better, and up the diff one notch to test it. Perhaps buffing units with a caster is the missing piece, perhaps the building order can be improved etc

As long as you are having fun while playing around, you will naturally improve

[Bloodyboo12]

It doesnt matter what you do, the game is designed to make you lose more than it is designed to follow any logical path. Alliances that dont make sense will be formed to hurt you. Enemies will never be punished for sending all of their armies at you and leaving their back open. Its not you versus immediate enemies, its you versus all enemies at once, but some just arent ready yet. People with 3000 hours complain that the game is simple because they use cheese mechanics so the devs made the game suck

[RandomDude]

Originally posted by Springtheme:

I am new to Total War and grand strategy in general honestly. Throughout my attempts to get into the franchise I have somehow collected all 3 entries. I'm having fun playing IE in this game, but I am real bad at it. What are some good resources to get better? Namely get better at the battles themselves because that's my weakest point.

Pause a lot.

You can take as much time as you like to assess what's going on and what to do.
While paused, pay attention to which units are weak/strong against what (click your units and move the mouse over the enemy to see)
Shooting an enemy from the sides/rear is very effective, but don't risk your ranged to enemy charges.

The ai will tend to group up, so as long as you have some units that can hold them (high armour and not weak to most of the enemies?), you send other units (high damagers) into their rear, and try to focus on taking out the enemy units that are near to breaking.

The more enemy units that are routing, the more chance of causing other enemy units to also flee, like a cascade.

You can also keep 1-2 fast moving units on hand to chase units that are fleeing but not yet routed otherwise they might come back to fight.

Wait until most/all of the ai is engaged before you do rear flanks, unless you can be sure of getting your flankers out safely.

If you're also shooting them in the rest be careful you don't shoot your own guys.

That's how I play mostly - hammer and anvil. You have to adapt to the race you have and who you're fighting sometimes but in general I always do hammer and anvil.

[Ant Ra]

Twitch. I actually recommend twitch. If you find a decent player, and there are quite a few, you can watch everything live and ask live questions that are usually answered. Questions about the live game, questions about your own attempts that may have gone wrong.

Also usually the stream chat also responds and so come plenty of answers, tips and quick help. if you ever find a numb nut in this way, it does not matter. There's always a bit of shrinkage, and the next stream is helpful again.

[.]

Originally posted by Springtheme:

I am new to Total War and grand strategy in general honestly. Throughout my attempts to get into the franchise I have somehow collected all 3 entries. I'm having fun playing IE in this game, but I am real bad at it. What are some good resources to get better? Namely get better at the battles themselves because that's my weakest point.

One very simple rule - conquer only what you can defend + build garrisons. If you expand too fast you will be a treat to others. Before conquering a territory try to get some pact with neighbouring faction to that territory and if they refuse make sure you match their army or use strategy to defeat them easily either by ambush or good battle map.
Perhaps try skaven Ikit Claw. He has possibly the strongest positon and is pretty strong and rich + under empire can give you immense wealth that will outmatch even Dwarfs or Vampire Coast. After few hundred turns (having just starting position and Estalia) you will find out how to play.

[Ant Ra]

Several factions, if not all, have scripted situations that are triggered in every case when certain conditions are met. There are almost always declarations of war. You can see this very well when a faction that has been friends for a long time switches from green+ to red- in a few turns. The faction menu that could explain this behavior is then no longer conclusive. These scripts are triggered by other factions entering territory, bartering, a certain number of settlements or armies, approval of an act of war by the faction that becomes hostile upon approval of its own proposal. Etc, etc.... unfortunately, many situations are scripted and inevitable.

[Kōizumi Seishiro]

I try to make good use of all the agents I get. Initially its agent actions even if insignificant to quickly lvl them up, then they are embedded with armies. I feel like 4 full stack (pun intended) combined armed (when applicable) armies are sweet spot in this game for me.

Politics-wise it looks like at least in WH3 the usual WHFB racial dispositions are somewhat more reliable (it felt very symbolic in the first WH:TW game or WH2). So if you play a race that usually has friends and want allies in the game - go to war with their enemies. Over the time attitude will improve and they can become your staunch allies. It probably won't be forever in IE, but it definitely works in Realm of Chaos(WH3) and Vortex(WH2) campaigns, where the plot is something more complex than FFA. In IE it looks like the developers wanted to give a player a feel of WHFB ladder tournaments, so yes, it quickly goes south to FFA with WE fighting BR, DW fighting EMP etc.

If possible try to fight thorugh battles manually, even if some garrison fights seem tedious and doomed. B/c autoresolution is always worse, and in human-controlled combat you can inflict more casualties on that doomstack that is rolling through your realm.

[Jack Greedy]

Just don't give up and as other said play your own way. You will get better with each campaign.