this game is rather REALLY confusing..

[MAD MAX V1 スタンド]

i been playing this for an hour and i am starting to lose more and more hope into putting myself to understand all this infromation, is there easier way to learn them or does any of it even matter

[Enelith]

You most likely can't learn everything in one run, it takes time.
You could watch people playing it on internet, check the Guides section on Steam, or wait for someone else providing you an insane explanation.

Regardless, you may start to mention which race you're interested in playing with.

[SoULLeSs]

Nope, this game has quite a steep learning curve, but once you figure it out...you will be amazed. Watch youtube, guides and stuff that can help you understand the game

[DasaKamov]

If you've played a Total War game before, the mechanics should be at least somewhat familiar to you. The Empire factions would be the easiest to start with simply because their units are pretty familiar to most people - dudes with swords, dudes with spears, dudes with crossbows and blackpowder guns, knights, cannons and so on.

The Steam Guides that Enelith mentioned are a good resource. You may also want to watch "Let's Play" videos to see some hands-on play; I suggest PartyElite's "Beginner's Guide" series of videos. Although they're for the first game, the fundamentals remain the same:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dQ-y4Xomdw&list=PLwVftHdWAdHNOJ-PMquSZMVVAGWIq2TVQ

[PhilkIced]

Just try not to worry about doing mistakes and keep on playing, it's too much information at first so better get used to stuff without hurry.

I do recomend you look for tutorials on controls though, so many keys to do so much stuff and the game doesn't tell you any of it, specially ctrl and alt are both keys that help so much in so many ways when controlling your army.

[Rack]

It took me like 10 hours to understand the most basic ♥♥♥♥. After that it was something like 70 hours to understand unit tiers, public order, growth and So on. And then probably 100 hours for each faction to fully understand it and master its basic ♥♥♥♥.

My first was with Dwarfs, i had to restart 3 times becouse i was Always losing. Then i somehow killed Greenskins and prepared for chaos invasion. It was scary af. Chaos destroyed every good faction in the old world. Then i met them. I had 3 armies and they also had 3. I won with massive casualties but i won the campaign.

I didnt know about unit tiers, i didnt know about magic. I didnt know about heroes.
I didnt know what each unit should supposed to do. But i won and i was happy. Then i started watching YouTube videos for tips and so on.

Now i have about 600 hours in the game. I play on hard/hard and i have mastered few factions to play + basic ♥♥♥♥ for every other faction.

Its not easy game for newcomers. I had to think about everything at the start. Now i can play the game asleep and play good.

Youtube and guides are your best bet for learning the game. I personaly would go with High Elves ( Tyrion ) as first faction. They are very strong in battles and in campaign

[MAD MAX V1 スタンド]

Originally posted by PhilkIced:

Just try not to worry about doing mistakes and keep on playing, it's too much information at first so better get used to stuff without hurry.

I do recomend you look for tutorials on controls though, so many keys to do so much stuff and the game doesn't tell you any of it, specially ctrl and alt are both keys that help so much in so many ways when controlling your army.

i have tried to look into it, and i have tried to understand which is more inportant but its all mixture of bags, rather its not very understanding for me at least, lot words make no sense in what it doesn but at the same time i feel like this game might not be for me due to complex side of it, as much as i want to understand it it pains me to say that its too complex

[THE_RaBiD_CanuK]

I would give yourself at least 10 hours to learn. Doesn't have to be miserable, just do your best and you'll figure it out. Might lose your first campaign.
I recommend playing some custom battles where you can contruct different armies to play against. Start with small armies of 4 units, and experiment with different things. You'll get a sense of it after a few matches.
There's a lot of basic army guides out there, so I suggest having a quick look through those.

Essentially you have infantry, archers, cavalry, and artillery. They all do a different job, and most if not every unit in the game can be put into one of those roles. For example, in many ways a dragon just functions like cavalry.
Don't worry about learning powers/magic at first, that'll over whelm you.
The high elves are probably the most straight forward or at least the most comparable to a traditional army.

Anyway, try and find a basic army guide.

[MAD MAX V1 スタンド]

Originally posted by Rack:

It took me like 10 hours to understand the most basic ♥♥♥♥. After that it was something like 70 hours to understand unit tiers, public order, growth and So on. And then probably 100 hours for each faction to fully understand it and master its basic ♥♥♥♥.

My first was with Dwarfs, i had to restart 3 times becouse i was Always losing. Then i somehow killed Greenskins and prepared for chaos invasion. It was scary af. Chaos destroyed every good faction in the old world. Then i met them. I had 3 armies and they also had 3. I won with massive casualties but i won the campaign.

I didnt know about unit tiers, i didnt know about magic. I didnt know about heroes.
I didnt know what each unit should supposed to do. But i won and i was happy. Then i started watching YouTube videos for tips and so on.

Now i have about 600 hours in the game. I play on hard/hard and i have mastered few factions to play + basic ♥♥♥♥ for every other faction.

Its not easy game for newcomers. I had to think about everything at the start. Now i can play the game asleep and play good.

Youtube and guides are your best bet for learning the game. I personaly would go with High Elves ( Tyrion ) as first faction. They are very strong in battles and in campaign

respect to you sir

i just personally felt over whelemed by it and personally i trying to learn the basic and languge they using but at the same time its like, "where do i find this infromation" or like what am i meant to do now knowing the outcome or even what leads me to where, cause all i am doing is random pressing

[MAD MAX V1 スタンド]

Originally posted by THE_RaBiD_CanuK:

I would give yourself at least 10 hours to learn. Doesn't have to be miserable, just do your best and you'll figure it out. Might lose your first campaign.
I recommend playing some custom battles where you can contruct different armies to play against. Start with small armies of 4 units, and experiment with different things. You'll get a sense of it after a few matches.
There's a lot of basic army guides out there, so I suggest having a quick look through those.

Essentially you have infantry, archers, cavalry, and artillery. They all do a different job, and most if not every unit in the game can be put into one of those roles. For example, in many ways a dragon just functions like cavalry.
Don't worry about learning powers/magic at first, that'll over whelm you.
The high elves are probably the most straight forward or at least the most comparable to a traditional army.

Anyway, try and find a basic army guide.

fairs, i want to like this game i just really felt over whelemed by it, even before starting i did watch a lot yt guides and stuff but when i started it,

too
much
infromation

if i put my time on this, will i really learn or am i gonna just button mash lol, i honestly need to try somthing diffrent if its not working

[Green Raven]

Hmm... one costly solution would be to play Shogun 2; lots of similiar mechanics but much more streamlined.
Its also a wonderful game in its own right

[THE_RaBiD_CanuK]

Originally posted by Geralt of NVIDIA:

Originally posted by THE_RaBiD_CanuK:

I would give yourself at least 10 hours to learn. Doesn't have to be miserable, just do your best and you'll figure it out. Might lose your first campaign.
I recommend playing some custom battles where you can contruct different armies to play against. Start with small armies of 4 units, and experiment with different things. You'll get a sense of it after a few matches.
There's a lot of basic army guides out there, so I suggest having a quick look through those.

Essentially you have infantry, archers, cavalry, and artillery. They all do a different job, and most if not every unit in the game can be put into one of those roles. For example, in many ways a dragon just functions like cavalry.
Don't worry about learning powers/magic at first, that'll over whelm you.
The high elves are probably the most straight forward or at least the most comparable to a traditional army.

Anyway, try and find a basic army guide.

fairs, i want to like this game i just really felt over whelemed by it, even before starting i did watch a lot yt guides and stuff but when i started it,

too
much
infromation

if i put my time on this, will i really learn or am i gonna just button mash lol, i honestly need to try somthing diffrent if its not working

Trust me, we've all been there. It's a slow start, but you'll get better. Once you learn one total war game, they all kind of play the same way.

Start learning a few things at a time. Look over character stats. The numbers don't matter, just look at abilities. If something is good vs. large, then use it against horses and monsters etc.
If something is armored, then you'll need a unit that is armor piercing.
Don't try to learn every army at once, start by learning 1 or 2.
There is a lot to learn. It's not incredibly hard, it just takes time to absorb all the information. You'll get there. Just start with really simple things like camera controls.
I played a bunch of custom battles when I was first learning.

[Tanaka Khan]

I have over 1700 hours played, yet I still find a few nuggets of information about this game I was never aware of. Interesting little nuggets of gold that still wow me. Honestly, if you invest the time into learning the basics, you'll be greatly rewarded in a game that you'll find yourself returning too again and again...trying many different factions, different play styles, different difficulties. Just take your time, and have fun. You'll lose more than you win, but every loss is a lesson!

[Hieronymous]

OP, I have been playing total war games since I was a teenager. I'm in my 30's now. I am still learning about the game. In part that's because it's fairly complex, in part because CA seems to be content to give you a general idea about game mechanics and let you explore them yourself.

As you can infer from the fact that I've been playing total war titles for most of my life,

It's worth your while to learn it, in my opinion.

I do agree with the above posts regarding starting with the historical titles, and shogun 2 is a good choice. It's far easier to understand what's happening since it's more common sense and relatable. If shock troops beat spearmen, and spearmen beat calvary, thats easier to learn.

It's a bit harder to sort out when dragons are dropping down on zombies engaged with chariots pulled by giant monsters, with a tyrannosaurus in the middle.

[James Howlette]

Don't be at all ashamed to set it to easy and use the pause and slow mo options while you figure out the basic mechanics. There's a lot going on in this game and even normal is a stretch if you don't know how anything works.

The bright side is that despite each race offering a few unique mechanics, the vast majority of the campaign side of things is fairly consistent across the board. Once you figure out the basics of public order, growth, research, recruiting, general unit match ups, etc it'll be fairly easy to adapt that to different races.

If you're having issues in specific areas or with specific races you should elaborate a bit. It's a little hard to offer advice (or at least advice that isn't the length of a small book) without more context.

[EvilVictor]

Here are a couple of quick hints so you don't feel so bad about not getting it right away (an hour in this game is nothing really) :)

1. Get used to losing a lot of units. In fact, embrace the idea! Some units are just meant to be slaughtered so your better units can do some slaughtering of their own.

2. It's OK to lose battles, settlements, lords and heroes. If you can inflict serious casualties on your opponent, preferably eliminating some of their tougher elite units, a loss is only temporary. You don't have to station an army at ever settlement, just accept that they may change hands a few times and that's fine.

3. Auto-resolve is not your friend, even if the odds are in your favor. Seriously, play the battle, it's the best part of the game and you'll almost always do better than the auto resolved results. You may even manage to pull off some surprising victories when you expected to lose.

4. Have fun! Sometimes I'll start a easy/easy campaign just because I feel like wrecking stuff for a few hours. I even learn some new tricks when I do since I try crazy **** in the battles that I wouldn't normally dream of.