Is the game any good without the tactical battles

[jj.denver]

Hello, I've never liked tactical battles in total war since the first total war was launched. However I am interested in the strategic layer. Is this series any good to play without the tactical battles? Just using the strategic layer? Will the battles resolve somewhat realistically or are they always slanted one way or the other (i.e. always against you so it's really not possible to play, or always for you making it too easy to win the campaigns)? I'm not interested in multiplayer at all. Only single player campaigns.

I already own Warhammer 1 but haven't tried it with strategic-only yet (I tried with tactical battles and since I hate those I only made it to about the 3rd battle before quitting). So same question applies to Warhammer 1 also.

Thank you!

[Acastian]

I would say yes, because there are so many mods that can tweak settings. The hardest part will be finding them, I suggest looking in the collections area for made vanilla lists and searching auto resolve in workshop

[Xaphnir]

If all you're going to do is auto-resolve every battle, I'd recommend against it.

[A.Pot]

You will both be missing out on a lot and will regularly run into situations that may go badly for your troops if you do not manually fight it with a degree of competence.

[thorha]

Yup. Play it like any other turn based strategy game plus avoid certain factions and you´re fine. Only advice - avoid the higher difficulties because there you absolutely need tactical battles.

Regards,
Thorsten

[Souvlaki]

You could always hand your units over to the AI and just observe the tactical battles. Or just hand over everything but your lord or mages. There's a mod for that.

[Testikles]

You can play it without the battles, but you may want to consider a few things:

1: The game is build around those battles, and they are the highlight of it. Everything you do on the campaign map is basically a means to an end for the next battle. In not playing them you are missing out on a lot.

2: You can improve the battle result drastically by playing manual. This can make a huge difference in many situations. You may be able to win battles the game calls unwinnable, ad to keep your losses and gains in check much better overall.

3: Without going into detail: Autoresolve kind of follows it's own rules since it only takes the mere value of a unit into account, not the strategic possibilities you have with that unit. To play autoresolve only you need to understand that and build armies which are good in autoresolve (as opposed to armies being good in a manual battle - there can be quite some differences).

Overall, while it is possible to AR yourself through the game I would not recommend it. Learning to play manual is possible, and extremely rewarding once you get a feeling for it. Also, it is where the game truly shines, so why miss out on it? :- )

[jj.denver]

Thanks for the replies so far. My default assumption was that AR wouldn't work to play the campaign. I've wanted to AR my way through all of the TW series since they launched. So I keep buying them, trying the tactical battles, getting put off by those, trying to AR and it doesn't work well so I stop playing. However hope springs eternal and the milieu and story of each new TW games seems so interesting that eventually I buy the next one and repeat the cycle again. So much money wasted.

There are a lot of things I don't like about the tactical battles but I think basically I don't like trying to always fiddle with the camera, I don't like trying to get the unit frontage and facing exactly right as that gets really fiddly, and I don't like constantly pausing/un-pausing but I'm not an RTS fan so pausing/un-pausing is mandatory for me since I think slowly and act slowly. ty for the advice so far. Happy to hear more opinions to keep me from wasting even more money on useless TW games. :)

[Father Ribs]

Been here since Shogun 1 as well; this one is the most micro-intensive of all TW games, espeically since there is an emphasis on spellcasters and heros that have multiple abilities. I don't think of pausing/unpausing as being a bad thing; just think of it as turn-based but each turn is when you hit pause. ;)

The camera isn't an issue once you've played enough. The majority of battles I don't have to rotate camera and you can fight facing in the same direction the whole battle. If it's a matter of fat-fingering keys or pushing the wrong buttons, you can always change the keyboard setup (ie: I used to go crazy going from TW to WoW and back, with camera controls different on each).

Everyone plays the way they want to, but I think if you don't play the battles, you're missing out on 75% of what TW is all about. Especially in these games, the battles are very cinematic with all the giant monsters and artillery and spells.

Of course, you can always play on easy setting...makes both tactical battles easy as pie, and should make AR also much easier if you go that route.

[Basarab Laiota]

If you don't like strategy then you could just do what I do and play Lizardmen. Their idea of battle isn't tactical at all, you just waddle your dinosaurs in and watch them eat everything.

[Black Hammer]

As a long-time TW player, I think you'd be better off looking for a 4x style game focused entirely on those elements, rather than playing TWW2. That being said, you can autoresolve your way through an entire campaign in TWW2 (also in Three Kingdoms), particularly since TWW2's replenishment rates are extremely forgiving.

[funkmonster7]

Total War games without the tactical battles = Civilizations series.

[grognardgary]

Originally posted by A.Pot:

You will both be missing out on a lot and will regularly run into situations that may go badly for your troops if you do not manually fight it with a degree of competence.

There are also quest battles that cannot be auto resolved they happen fairly early for both dwarf and Empire, haven't played enough of the other factions to say with certainty that they also do, but I would be surprised if every faction doesn't have at least one quest battle. Another few turns and I will be fielding my most expensive empire army ever. Two regiments of Renown 5 steam tanks five handgunners five mortars a fire wizard and a lord. No Idea how well it will work but hey It'll be the nearest I can get to an armored corps.

[grognardgary]

Originally posted by funkmonster7:

Total War games without the tactical battles = Civilizations series.

Yep. Me I love the tactical battles but then I can usually Do one or two levels better than the auto resolve And sometimes three.

[The Wriggler]

If you want just the strategic part and still want to play Warhammer then I'd suggest checking out Gladius on Steam. It sounds more like what you're interested in, and it has mods as well.

[grognardgary]

Originally posted by jj.denver:

Hello, I've never liked tactical battles in total war since the first total war was launched. However I am interested in the strategic layer. Is this series any good to play without the tactical battles? Just using the strategic layer? Will the battles resolve somewhat realistically or are they always slanted one way or the other (i.e. always against you so it's really not possible to play, or always for you making it too easy to win the campaigns)? I'm not interested in multiplayer at all. Only single player campaigns.

I already own Warhammer 1 but haven't tried it with strategic-only yet (I tried with tactical battles and since I hate those I only made it to about the 3rd battle before quitting). So same question applies to Warhammer 1 also.

Thank you!

Sir with all due respect if you don't care for the tactical battles I would honestly say this probable isn't the game for you. 1st you will have to fight at least one with at least two factions and likely all of them. 2nd auto resolve will lose you battles you would otherwise win especially sieges because they seem to grossly under rate fire power.