Maybe it's just me but artillery seems stronger after the last patch. I know a few were mentioned in the changelog as being buffed but basic cannons and catapults seem deadlier too from what I can tell. Could be useful since if you're really careful with ground attack you can fire into melee with artillery fairly safely, though cannon and field guns need to fire from an angle.
New Race:
For people annoyed with how weak most magic is, I've been testing and liking Cataph_Molay's Magic on the steam workshop. Magic is much better but doesn't seem OP, at least on Ultra unit size. Gives more reasons to play as Balthasar Gelt over Karl Franz.
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Dong Zhou wrote:Currently my empire is facing the big chaos bad but now get vampire and dwarfs (as well as the northern raiders) at war with me, could be tricky. Rich and powerful armies but all my alliances have collapsed sadly
The poor Empire has so much that can and often does go wrong in the early game compared to most of the other factions.
The random personalities of Kislev and the Electors can greatly change what you need to do, while most of the other factions seem more stable in who your friends and enemies will be--I've never had Zhufar or Barak Varr unfriendly to Dwarfs, and the Vampire Counts and Greenskins are basically surrounded by enemies regardless.
One major potential annoyance is that Kislev usually seems to be either Passive or Defensive; if it's Defensive you can get trade on turn 1 and even have them pay a bit. If they're passive they won't trade with you, which can make a
big difference once you have some trade goods available. They seem to be passive less often on Very Hard but it could be luck.
I have no idea why but the two dwarf clans in the mountains between Reikland and Bretonnia always seem to go berserk and break non-aggression treaties so they can declare war--they get into fights with the minor Bretonnian factions all the time, too. They often sit around than ask for peace a few turns later if you have walls (since they're small and can't get big enough armies to take your settlements), but it seems to trigger everyone to want a piece of you. Supposedly if you take a detour to beat up the non-hostile Orc clan in the south right after you take Grunburg it'll make them more reliable partners. After several games the only thing I can say for sure is that you want to reunite Reikland very quickly and either take Marienburg or invade Bretonnia.
Fun Greenskin trick I read on reddit than tested and confirmed:
*On turn 1, attack the Red Fang army. Smash it as badly as possible but minimize casualties as much as you can. Fall back to your territory (but just a little) and recruit. On the Red Fang's turn they'll bring the Iron Rock army and whatever is left to attack you. Kill them. This trick is much harder with Azhag since CA hates him and gave him a terrible starting army and terrible stats (Goblin Archers compared to a Doom Diver. Really?); with Grimgor it's not hard even on VH since you have Boar Boyz for flanking and Black Orcs rip apart anything (except Warbosses but Grimgor can slaughter them) that the early Greenskin enemies can throw at you.
*On your second turn, follow up and destroy one of the Red Fang's armies. Now, you can ask for peace (you might have to pay for it). At that point you can confederate with them with the "Green" success chance. It apparently works every time, even on Legendary, and Confederating Red Fangs gives you several level 2 settlements in the south...
on turn 2.
A stupid dwarf trick I came up with mysel and tested (require Thorgrimm):
*On turn 1 attack the orc army. Try to wipe it out with a followup attack if you can but it's not required. If you don't they can raid your city and generate a grudge. Start researching the Include Related Families tech. Build the Gem Mines and upgrade your barracks; you want some quarellers in your army.
*Fall back after wiping the enemy army; do NOT take Pillars of Grungi or Mt Squighorn. Start recruiting instead.
*Once you have a big army, start tunneling past Silver Road and head north to Gunbad; also dismantle the barracks and build a hostelry in Karaz a Karak. You can arrive fairly quickly at Gunbad if you tunnel past the mountains in the east part of Silver Road.
*Thanks to the artillery you can attack Gunbad immediately; with a near full stack you can win with autoresolve, or use your favorite AI abusing siege tactics in manual control.
*Take Grom Peak; get treaties with the other dwarfs nearby.
*Use the +Growth commandmant to upgrade Grom Peak, then build a hostelry. Now switch to the Public Order commandmant--it should be safe from riots if you're not on Legendary. You can march south now and take the rest of Silver Road.
You can now trade your gem surplus with Zhufbar and Karak Kadrin, and your new cities are secure once Karak Kadrin pushes the greenskins out of that settlement in their starting province. You have the absurd wealth of Gunbad to help finance a push south to Black Crag; once it falls you have more or less won the war in the south.
A lot of players take Silver Road than push to Gunbad, but if you go too early you can expect a Greenskin party to invade your undefended settlements. If you wait until you have have walls you risk the Greenskins overrunning back Barak Varr, or Zhufbar taking the Rib Peaks before you can; since Dwarfs have such low province growth compared to everyone else it can take some time to get those walls up until you build barley everywhere.
Edit: Lots of people angry after this Q/A about the new race/campaign pack:
https://forums.totalwar.com/discussion/ ... n/p1?new=1Personally
I am glad we're getting Amber Wizards for the Empire (for free); my first Warhammer experience was Shadow of the Horned Rat so I have a fondness for that magic type.
Edit2:
Sorry to double post, but I thought this was interesting: CA put up a blog post for what will be added in the free patch:
http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Upcoming_Free_Content_UpdateAside from the Amber Wizard, the most interesting is the ability to customize characters in custom and multiplayer with magic items and to choose which skills for them to have. In addition
will be usable in custom/multiplayer after a unnamed achievementis gained.