Shadows of Change - Does it Still SUCK?

[@cloveroverdover7318]

he is blakeing these takes so hard

[@BlakesTakes420]

Blake me up Scotty

[@kapitankapital6580]

It's Blakein' Time

[@Jefrejtor]

Hella blaked up

[@BlakesTakes420]

​@@Jefrejtor Blaked and red-pilled

[@Blakenblitz]

Take my Blake. Take it.

[@40kVallin]

I...just learned that flying units can attack settlement towers... As always, love your videos.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Glad to be of service sir 🫶

[@Chris-ty7fw]

My God how have you been playing ;-) Seriously that's kind of a major thing to do an they seem to not rebuild now. Also its nice the towers seem unable to attack you when in melee

[@choronos]

@@Chris-ty7fw I'm so happy they don't rebuild now. It really broke immersion for me that the towers used to just re-materialize out of thin air.

[@Grivehn]

@@choronos Same. Towers are sort of tolerable now. Since I just attack a small portion of a city anyway (like in WH2) its enough to clear out a few of them. Also their range is reduced I think... maybe thats just an SFO thing, not sure.

[@wiciu4073]

lul

[@Dinoman9877]

The siege rework will need so much more than magic ladders removed. On top of ladders needing to be built like in previous Total Wars, towers and rams (along with the ladders) need to become the only way of getting into the settlement for ground based units outside of an obvious siege weapon like a catapult, and you certainly shouldn't be able to just throw your infantry at the gate and poke it with spears until it breaks.

[@michaelmorton6566]

Totally agree

[@Phoenix-sc6di]

And then you would also need an AI that can handle the fact it can't just mash it's troops against walls/into gates anymore if no siege equipment is present. I don't see that happening anymore to be honest, the current AI is barely functional as it is.

[@danielgloyd4529]

​@Phoenix-sc6di The AI already is more than happy to try to siege a settlement with an army in it until attrition kills them. All I see happening if they remove butt ladders is people cheesing the AI super hard. If the AI attacks, they can easily get focused down with towers and ranged units. If the AI sieges it then you just bring in an emergency army filled up in 1 turn with all your RoR units to kill the sieging army.

[@BlakesTakes420]

The whole thing needs a top to bottom review. Defensive sieges where you can actually win are so infrequent due to AI loving the attrition. The maps themselves are all too similar, garrisons are poor, there's just a big list of issues. Maybe I'll make a video on it.

[@warbossbonesmasha3751]

On top of this if the ai isn’t reworked you can still just stand outside of the gates and cast spells to nuke the enemies army

[@oscarshepherd6098]

lore of hags has mostly harm / heal changes for its normal cast and overcast versions and the frost worm is really good when its used as a skirmish unit similar to a brood horror and when it charges through units its damage is amazing :)

[@dangbar200]

Yes as I understood it, the overcast version is supposed to be buffs for your units

[@jamesespinosa690]

The problem with the frost wyrm is that compared to almost every other giant monster, it underperforms at it's cost. I think it was a silly addition to the faction. They already have the Ice Bear.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thanks for this, I found the old wyrm got pinned very easily and would get stuck in infantry, then again they've done two hot fixes since I played the campaigns (which is great) so there'll likely have been changes to it already.

[@artje90]

well CA has admitted that the lore of hags has bugged spells that are doing way more damage then it should

[@zakunick1]

@@jamesespinosa690I agree that Kislev feels like the type of people to kill giant monsters, not use them. Celestial Bear aside.

[@Slyslug]

So i know the changling has like turn 4 access to a portal token to go anywhere but i REALLY think the changling should be able to choose which theater to start in.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I think that would be a great idea to implement

[@igunn8632]

in multiplayer the changeling has something like that but stupider, as they start entirely randomly

[@meivenheaven]

If you try to beat the 5 schemes as fast as possible to win the campaign is actually really fun. Just forget about expanding the trickster cults, they don't matter that much. Playing it as a blitz campaign or speedrun is even replayable.

[@mediocresetup]

Finally a youtuber complains about the lack of culture change on the settlements. I wish I could like your video more than once

[@Phoenix-sc6di]

There is a great mod for that, if you crave it.

[@mediocresetup]

@@Phoenix-sc6di it's not that great. I used it, I might still use it but it has big issues like missing models for some settlements, overlaps where you can see the old ones. Also the siege maps don't change. Regardless, "there is a mod for it" is irrelevant and a big cop out for the decrease in quality of the total war games. Bullets that behave like arrows, no reloading animations, no formation los and I could go on for missing details that add up to a mediocre game that grows stale for all the surface replayability it offers.

[@BlakesTakes420]

@@mediocresetup well said. Whilst I appreciate all the tireless work that goes into modding, it's not something I have a particular interest in (stability of the game, mods breaking etc.) We use to have these features in older total war games where buildings built were reflective of the culture occupying it, and I think it's a massive shame it's been put out to pasture.

[@Phoenix-sc6di]

@@mediocresetupI am not arguing that CA should not fix those issues themselves! But realistically, it's not going to happen. I am fairly sure there won't be any major changes anymore. CA as a whole is weakened, there is a huge tech debt, and if 40k is a thing that's coming, most resources will go there - not into fixes that don't directly generate money.

[@Phoenix-sc6di]

@@BlakesTakes420Whilst I totally understand the need for fixes with the vanilla game, there are many great and stable mods that one can try once the game gets stale! Would heartily recommend giving some of them a shot.

[@Nirual86]

Giving Ostankya a Dark Elf looking settlement when she starts in the middle of Dark Elf Territory actually seems kinda sensible to me, although its still weird they moved her over there in the first place. Yuan Bo is actually almost the opposite, it felt strange in RoC that all the Astromantic Relays get attacked by Lizardmen when two of them are in Cathay and one in Ork territory. Only one is in a Lizardman settlement, the only one even on the map. As for the Changeling, yeah, I see that campaign as a similar style as Vampire Coast (especially Noctilus) where you just go around doing stuff unrelated to empire building... except in their case the campaign victory objectives still include the usual occupy, sack or raze x settlements in WH3. The 3 DLC lords actually retain their unique objectives as part of their short and long objectives and I really hope they'll do the same for previous special mechanic factions. Currently it seems like some of the final battle objectives are either missing or severely bugged. Those that aren't, often feel undermined when you're done but then still have to get another 30-40 settlements to actually score the long victory.

[@BlakesTakes420]

If you play ku gath on immortal empires you never get to fight a defensive siege in a Nurgle themed settlement.

[@Nirual86]

@@BlakesTakes420 yeah Ku'gath really suffers in Immortal Empires too. He's got quite a few technologies that don't make much sense there, like the order in which you get access to climate bonuses or against certain races and just the tempo issues in general.

[@Nerazmus]

@@Nirual86 As AI maybe. As player Kugath is one of the strongest starts since you start right next to the infinite XP farm of zombie daddy.

[@pedrogrande0889]

Personally, I quite enjoy what the changeling brought to me and brought me a breath of fresh air from the general map painting of most empires. I certainly see how it can be seen as boring from the mechanics but the refresh gives me the liking to them.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Yeah that's fair. I'm just too British and love an empire.

[@pedrogrande0889]

I think another think that brings a liking to the changeling for me is how charming some of his dialogue is like how he comments on his prior schemes that brought Nurgle and Slaneesh to fight.

[@simpleman3898]

​@pedrogrande0889 yes game is based off of variety. Some factions you'll done more then others

[@dustrockblues7567]

I think it's good to have it here for the few people that like it.... but they had better not make any more like it. One is good enough probably.

[@rtristan8572]

7:57 There's a mod for that. Just like in the good old Warhammer 1.

[@princeofrance]

What's it called ??

[@sindri8]

Personally the Changeling's campaign is still my favotite of the three but I am admittedly biassed towards anything Tzeentch. I will agree that I wish they made some changes to his mechanics or made the campaign a bit tougher. At least now there are ways to actually find his cults.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I love Tzeentch as well which is why I was devastated when I just couldn't get into the changelings campaign. Glad you're enjoying it though 🫶

[@gillmsnfillman1691]

The fun thing for me as the Changeling is to set up the corruption building and just watch everything rot, with public order issues and chaos rebellions that cause the ai problems on very hard campaign at least. If I’m really bored I upgrade the building in multiple settlements to spawn hostile chaos armies and just watch the madness.

[@Drakenn100]

just like playing god mode in a simcity game and watching a whole city being swept by 8 tornados

[@Drakenn100]

@roidrager8579 A big problem with the changeling, even aside from his gameplay is the fact that his existence doesn't help other tzeench factions. The unholy manifestation mecanic only really works if the campaign map has multiple good god aligned factions. the changeling as an IA is literraly non-existent, making kairos campaign as bad with him as it was before he was implemented...

[@JarmamStuff]

@@Drakenn100 That sounds like peak Tzeentch to me

[@Papadragon18]

I rather like the Frost Wyrm: Sure, it won't smash through the enemy ranks as one might expect, but they're reliable for being where you need them to be when you need them to be there. I use them mostly for map control, or to tie down enemy units, either on the far flanks, or to blob up the main line for spells and the like. Love your take, as always.

[@oscarshepherd6098]

much love blake I love your takes

[@BlakesTakes420]

🫶

[@Faroh145]

I quite enjoy the changeling campaign. But I don’t play it like any other. I see him as more of a puppet master, propping up and dragging down whichever factions I see fit to paint the world how I will.

[@artje90]

the flying flamers just make the regular ones obsolete. they do not have LoS issues with the same unit count, ammo and healthpoints. with more speed and in the air so not threated by 90% of melee units and will win vs almost all ranged units duel. but that is the issue with SoC. new units don't really feel like cool additions we haven't seen or are not blatant powercreep. best example was old mutilant vortex beast which really was jack of all trades master of them all. the tier 0 pikemen should not have been tier 0 when they preform like a tier 2-3 unit, again powercreep (just compare them to skavenslaves, bretonia peasants as tier 0 units). i think the DLC only has 2 good additions: the cathay gate guard and the exalted hero of tzeentch.

[@jshadowhunter]

And now we wait for April... and pray to Sigmar that the Empire's Imperial System problems get fixed.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I'm sure thrones of decay will touch up the authority system.

[@antagonistes_]

​@@BlakesTakes420 I'm sure that it will BUT... only available to the new Legendary Lord, lol. I might sound pessimistic but that's the kind of shit CA is capable of pulling, and somewhat what they already did in Shadows of Change. Yuan Bo is steamrolling Lustria with the new (and slightly overpowered) Matters of State mechanic while Miao Ying is stuck babysitting three settlements for an entire campaign and Zhao Ming can't even pretend to have a unique mechanic to his faction.

[@BlakesTakes420]

@@antagonistes_ hahaha, they'd be asking for trouble if they did that. Then again, you're right, I wouldn't put it past them.

[@somedudewithaface3336]

Changeling should've been given the ability to impersonate other lords in the diplomacy screen instead of the turn into other lord on the battle map

[@alistairo314]

I actually really liked the Changeling. The lack of direction is, to me, a good thing to have from time to time. I like being able to Sandbox and wack whatever enemies I want building whatever army composition I want... Fighting as whatever lord I want. Except without their mounts, haha. I just wish they knew that was what they wanted to go for, a sandbox Tzeentch experience, so the feedback and goals for the minor schemes would feel better or he'd have more ways to recruit units from other factions.

[@ZCid47]

Like you say, it's not a robbery like it was at lunch and now its a decent pack of units if you like play any of the factions or you are a big fan of all the chaos factions in orden to have all the posible units

[@BlakesTakes420]

It's much better value than it was and I appreciate CA's "mea culpa" on it.

[@p.p.wienersson]

YOO that bandit faction idea sounds awesome

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you friend!

[@jacquesdube6294]

I found the hag lore of magic quite interesting and fun personally. Overcasting spells (those I’ve seen so far) don’t actually buff the effect of the spells like others lores, it CHANGES them. The cauldron do poison damage to enemies. Overcasting gives buff and heal your own units. The spirit spell deal lots of damages to enemies, but overcasting is for when you cast it on yourself. It deal damage to you, but buff your wind of magic recovery (to be fair, haven’t tried it on myself yet).So far with what I did with this lore - cast normally to target enemies and debuff, overcast to target yourself and get buffs. It’s even more funny for me since I only RECENTLY, after around 700h in this game, discovered how to overcast… I initially thought that the overcast effect was triggered by casting the same spell multiple times in a row… Let’s just say it changed my gaming experience (especially with vampire counts)…😅

[@iielysiumx5811]

I feel like the changlings campaign is fun to play once, but once you’ve seen and done it, it’s not worth touching again

[@BlakesTakes420]

Agree it's very lacklustre

[@andrewsmith6776]

Imo the dark elf settlement for ostankya makes sense. It's a dark elf settlement she took over, it would be like swapping alith anar's starting settlement to be high elf. Imo cylostra's starting settlement should be dark elf as it's a traditionally dark elf location

[@BlakesTakes420]

I disagree, I miss cities being converted into other cultures.

[@FrankHarrison12]

@@BlakesTakes420 I disagree with your disagreement. It makes no sense for the appearance of a settlement to swap back and forth each turn as its being occupied. If you're going to convert cities appearances it should be a slow process, attached to a high tier building, or something that just takes time.

[@BlakesTakes420]

@@FrankHarrison12 yep, and that doesn't exist in the game. If I play as Kugath plague father in immortal empires I will never fight a siege in a Nurgle themed settlement. It really sucks.

[@FrankHarrison12]

@@BlakesTakes420 That much I can agree with, but thats also more of a function of the map layout than needing settlements to change appearance. I've played with the mod that changes them instantly when you occupy and its not a solution that feels particularly good for my immersion either. I'll also point out that settlements never changing appearance feels the worse with corruption based factions like demons and vampires.. nothing looks weirder than a pristine elf settlement in the middle of blighted 100% Nurgle corrupted lands. There has to be some middle ground.

[@Zayl1016]

The thing I hate is that the devs working on the DLCs are clearly very talented, it's just they're victims to CA fuckery. Given a skeleton crew to man the DLC future, they're spread disastrously thin between fixing the game while having to work on DLC. They're not responsible for pricing or schedule, and so when CA fucks up with pricing, they basically have to put their asses into overdrive to make SoC more worth the price while simultaneously making sure ToD has updated content, and getting the groundworks for future dlc... All while having to bugfix and balance one of the biggest strategy games ever made. I really wish CA would invest more into it, as it clearly is very popular with a ton of fans hungry for more of it.

[@SolidSteak01]

I know it should really be a feature of the base game by now but for the Settlement-Issue theres a really neat mod imo called "Dynamic Settlenments". Mods obviously are out of CA's jurisdiction and dont rectify any problems the game already present. But for everybody who would like captured settlements to fit their factions culture id urge you to check it out ^^

[@BlakesTakes420]

Whilst I appreciate the tireless work the modding community do for the accessibility of the game, I don't have interest in modding my game due to stability and audience accessibility.

[@jamesespinosa690]

Problems with: The Changling - His spawn location and or a lack of mape wide travel. After the first 30/40 turns, you lose the ability to complete roughly half your questions because of factions dying. The Changlings campaign is supposed to be about choice, but it's almost impossible to alter your early game in any meaningful way. He would have really benefitted from being able to choose different spawn locations. Mother Ostankya - Shitty spawn location gives us a boring campaign. I was hoping she would be a Kislev horde faction that maybe replaced the Kossars with Mauraders with a Kislev skin and army rules. Theyve really missed an opportunity to introduce the 'order horde' so to speak. Her campaign mechanic is also pretty boring. The Green Dragon - Since my computer no longer has space to update the game these last few months, I haven't been able to play him. But in all honesty. I have very little interest. I do not like his spawn location. I wish he would have stared in Cathay, had to help is his siblings fortify their domain, and then he could have gone out into the rest of the world with his siblings to capture the points. I really don't like CA's "forced diversity of gameplay" design philosophy. It would be better if they gave us the option to pick our spawn location.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Green dragon does start in Cathay as well as Lustria, give him a go he's got a fun campaign!

[@jamesespinosa690]

@@BlakesTakes420 Uhhhh. What are you talking about? The Lord literally spawns in Lustria..... I am aware that he has a settlement in Cathay. But the Lord is on another continent. I don't want to be there at the beginning of my game. It's boring. It being the edge of the map is also a big turn off to be fair.

[@TopazTiger2000]

⁠you can take the sea lanes, wait 2 turns and poof, you’re back in Cathay. give up on Lustria and fulfill your wishes of defending the Great Bastion!

[@Nirual86]

yeah the schemes randomly failing because the related factions get killed off isn't fun. Like the one time Grimgor got taken out at all was the time I really didn't want to see that happening... nevermind so early that I couldn't have possibly done anything to prevent it.

[@BlakesTakes420]

@@TopazTiger2000 this.

[@ryangallant1886]

I remember Mandalore Gaming making the suggestion before about adding army abilities to be "constructed" in addition to the siege equipment. Example being the doom diver barrages in the Grom vs Eltharion siege. I also remember that one was enjoyable for me to play when I first played that using SFO, at least when I was defending as the High Elves. A combination of elevations, choke points and smart positioning can go a long way. For the time being, it may just be easier to make good siege maps rather than do anything for the potentially flawed systems their built on. Some mods recently have showcased some excellent looking siege maps, but I bet they suffer from AI pathfinding and the like. I don't have any experience with other TW games, but I have played a lot of Mount and Blade Bannerlord. The sieges in that game feature forts and castles that may share similar design philosophies, but still have their own unique aesthetics both structurally and culturally. I typically enjoy defending more than attacking myself since assaulting can lead to many casualties (which is something realistically expected tbf). As it stands in Warhammer, I am mostly apathetic towards settlement/siege battles. Hopefully they can change for the better however that may be. Oh yeah, also I do appreciate the work done for the DLC. I probably agree with most of the reviews I've seen on the store page though: wait for sale.

[@damien3738]

The reason the challenge specifies sacking the settlement is because the alternative victory condition ALREADY involves non-militarily establishing a cult and building it up to a certain level. The ONLY way for changeling to sack a settlement is to establish a cult by military force. It's not an achievement to do it with a trickster cultist, it's basically free. Your options are military force or hero action and then building it up correctly.

[@BlakesTakes420]

there is no option to sack a settlement as the changeling when you win a siege. You can either establish a cult or raze the settlement. I know that that's how you do it having played it, but my point is it's poorly written. If a new player had picked this game up they wouldn't know what to do.

[@damien3738]

@@BlakesTakes420If you mouse over the establish cult action it says you sack the settlement as part of doing so. Your options are to sack and establish or raze. I don't think "Sack Settlement and Establish Parasitic Trickster Cult" would fit on the bar. If you're like me, you saw that and were confused, and then immediately understood when I moused over the button. It's not ideal, and maybe they can reword it to say "Establish a cult through battle" or something, but there's a reason it's set up like that.

[@BlakesTakes420]

It should say sack and establish cult then.

[@Tuck213]

I actually think the Changeling campaign is very fun and creative. The versatility of picking other characters to transform into changes up the gameplay as much as you like. I also like undercities, pirate coves and herdstones, so I guess if you enjoy leeching off other factions this campaign is for you. And the schemes you pull off make a difference on the world map! You can destroy entire empires by completing them, combined with your Tzeentch abilities to have allies declare war on eachother.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I'm glad you enjoy it, and don't let me detract from that enjoyment. The campaign fell a bit flat for me mainly because the objectives aren't interesting, but I don't *hate* his campaign, I still enjoyed parts of it, just not as much as the other two which is strange because I'm normally far more partial to chaos.

[@Tuck213]

I do agree with you that some of these objectives are ridiculous, yeah

[@Decon7]

I must say, feel the seem about changling, but I did have a great time doing a co-op campaign with him, basically using him to boost my ally to ludicrous wealth and power and a little rp of Gelt falling to the whispers of changling

[@LedThomsen]

Good video! I’m 100% in agreement with the point, that we need more polish on core gameplay and less shiny units and lords. I autoresolve ALL sieges basically. Defensive and offensive. It used to be my favorite part of ttw games. Now I just can’t be bothered. That’s probably 30% of the entire experience we’re missing out on. And I 100% agree that they need to work on the culture details of settlements. Iirc we used to have settlements turn culture when captured?! It breaks immersion when the culture design is off - and immersion is everything to this game.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I'm really hoping they get a rework because sieges in their current state are janky and unfun. we'll have to see.

[@sam_overthinks9931]

The many issues in the base game and unit mechanics, as well as the terrible Sieges is why I dropped the game a while back. I agree that they should focus on making the game more stable & smooth. Back when I stopped, it sorta felt like as many new issues were being introduced as was getting fixed in any given patch

[@BlakesTakes420]

Yeah depending on when you shelved it you could be waiting months for patches too. The game is a lot more stable now though. Still a heap of issues, but still fun in my opinion.

[@valeclaw1697]

My main hope going forward is that Thrones of Decay does a lot more on a faction mechanics side than just the units, both things i think the empire, Dwarfs and Nurgle need as much as Kislev kind of did to keep up with things now.

[@sonofangron2969]

4:54 - *Ghorros Warhoof approves* (Please CA; we need more Beastmen Lords and factions in the far north, east and south, with their animations improved and I want to cosplay my centaur-Genghis Khan fantasies! 😭)

[@skinless333x2]

I totally agree with you and what you said about the changeling, i was bored of the campaign within 10 turns. Probably shouldn't have bought it but well, it is too late now. Seems like I am moving on to other games and will still watch your content as that is more interesting then playing warhammer 3. Oh and unfortunately I think you are right when you say it like it (w3) will never have the level of detail one wants it to have. I spent too much time being mad about it.

[@vahlen5281]

25 bucks is still way too expensive when it comes to a DLC for my taste, and slapping in a few new, mostly redundant units simply doesn't cut it for me. Might pick it up with a hefty discount one day, but certainly not full price.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Not a bad strategy.

[@dontgankmebruv7273]

13:09 I also noticed that attacking towers with any lord or hero has been wonky recently as I would have to baby them by spam clicking the tower as they would just hit it once and then float

[@BlakesTakes420]

yeah I think I have the same

[@HiQueenJenn]

IMO the changling needs two changes to be fun. Only the changlings personal army should be invisible. The forms should also have more utility on the campaign map. (Ie: causes diplomatic penalties between Changling Franz and the owner of who he raids).

[@BlakesTakes420]

Nice suggestions, but I think your armies would get dumpstered in the early game sitting around in full view. Maybe a hidden encampment stance like the Beastmen?

[@TheRewasder97]

I also wish for a real siege rework, removing the assladders and making the walls worth holding.

[@ChartreuseDan]

Thanks for the take, Blake

[@BlakesTakes420]

You're very welcome sir.

[@JanneBernards]

You forgot the best addition to Kislev! Katarin's sled. That thing is OP and a lot of fun. Yea, the real problem with this DLC was the half assed way they developed the campaign mechanics of the LL, especially Ostankya and the Changeling. And this update to the DLC doesn't really change that. It added more value in terms of stuff you get, but not in terms of better gameplay.

[@BlakesTakes420]

The Sled was FLC, so not in scope for this video.

[@SpicyMediaReal]

Saytang was a tad tedious for me to unlock since I don't use the base game constructs, and I was at a point in my RoC campaign where the borders were stabilized so it was rough getting the kills needed to complete the first quest without angering the Chorfs. Although Cathay had the Magistrate for melee, you really shouldn't put him into melee with someone like Grimgor unless your Celestial Guard got mulched by something like black orks and you need something to keep Ironhide in place for your Crane Gunners to pick apart. The Celestial General is always a fun wakeup call to give enemy lords when they decide to close for melee. He has repeatedly won battles against legendaries at higher levels than him when properly supported.

[@JinxBfjv]

I finaly bought it last week. I tried Changelling first then Ostankya, and now Im with Yuan bo but not finished yet (turn 30). I find the Changelling boring and really tedious. In the early first turns, I was blown up on how it was annoying to deal with some of the scheme missions especially the fight 10 battles plain in the empire, a situation that it's rare to be seen if the ennemies stay cowardly into their settlements, and also the ambush doesn't count for that. Then, I found the mid game somewhat interresting, I basically declare wars to everyone and do my things, especially spread my cults. Then, I realized that spreading the cults was really tedious thing to do. I like to build an empire but the cult empire is really dull to build. Build 1 or 2 eco buildings, and a spread 1, delete the spread 1 if next regions is spread. When you have hundred of cults spread among 30 different province and more if you go everywhere in the world, it become quickly annoying to do. So, I basically ended my campaign after completing the great scheme. I try to advance over mini-scheme, but some of them just erased themself without any reason, like sack raze Nehekara colonies, that just go to the trash, no way to accomplish it but the settlements are still there with Settra number 2 in strengh faction, just a silly exemple among a large list of bug I have encounter with this campaign. Ostankya next, is so far the best experience between the 3. But a bit too OP. The chauldron mechanic is less funny than the grom's ones, I sometimes forget to do my mix of ingredients at end of the turn, so I lost time progressing to my objectives. The quest battles are a bit painful to do, I rather prefer doing the changelling ones. What I really enjoy, is the overall totalwar campaign. I did a legendary campaign and with a slight boost of AI aggression and intelligence through a mod. So, I had to deal with Malekith early, and he was strong. But just when I achieved to take him out. The warrior of chaos Valkia and the high elves declared war on me, so I had mutiple fronts to handle. Sigvald joins the feud some turns after, at one point I have build more in the Malekith places, that I was feeling just that I replaced it and become the new witch king, or else witch queen I would say. SO I basically invade Ulthuan, And also I have confederate early with KISLEV both Katarina and Kostaltyn, so I had to deal with Archaon, Norsca, Azazel and Astragoth, and so more fronts to fight at the same time. Overall, I enjoy the campaign more for her unusual starting location even if its bad lorewise, than her actual mechanics. I have few experience with Yuan bo, but overall It's not really my taste. Cathay in general are not really my taste, I found their early game ultra boring. I have 4 armies, 2 in the lustria, 2 in the Cathay but there are all crapstacks, I need to deal with Vilitch, Zhatan and Lokhir joined forces in the East, and in the West Mazdamundi who was buff too much by my AI mod that he is really annoying to deal with at the moment. I don't really like Yuan bo mechanics so far, I rather find them dull, but maybe im too early to say that. WE WILL SEE. I also in parallel redo a Kairos campaign, and he is now far more enjoyable and so I had to face a big order tide in Lustria while invading the southlands, it becomes really challenging (not changelling lol).

[@Bazeingstone]

Hey man, I love your channel, keep making great content!

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you so much 🫶

[@isthianlyon1706]

It's up to ~$15 worth of content now IMO - like you said the underlying mediocrity seriously undercuts my willingness to pay top dollar for additional installments. I saw a note sea events were partially fixed - something I've been complaining about since IE dropped and so far no issues. Problem is - without the new content hit there's no renewed interest and I barely lasted a couple hours before returning to superior games with better support.

[@BlakesTakes420]

sadly, I think you're spot on with regards to value.

[@DYNB]

I kinda like the open nature of the changeling campaign. It's more sandbox than the usual campaigns, which kinda always follow the same pattern.

[@LinkLegend0]

The frost wyrm dominates infantry, it just takes alot of micro and charging through. I think it's fine since no other large entity has that kind of effectiveness vs infantry so it's fine that it can't duel other large entities. I just wish they explain it better so folks don't get frustrated with it.

[@BlakesTakes420]

When I last tested it it really didn't have the mass to charge through infantry. Unless that's been a changed in a hotfix, Id have to disagree with it being good against infantry.

[@LinkLegend0]

@@BlakesTakes420 it's not using the mass to charge through, but using the charge animation to do damage and get through the inf to cycle the animation again. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZXFpZuIrZp6d7Msi=OdJlXCK_xbGK9NeU Legend has a demo of it.

[@JarmamStuff]

You can do that with most SEMs with mass. The Tomb Scorpion is superior in this way. Ironically they ended up making the Wyrn an anti-large specialist, as this ability is fairly generic to SEMs that arent Hierotitan levels of trash

[@KrytoRift]

I believe an overcasted version of ostankias spell actually will heal your troops.

[@senti5468]

"Passable" is a perfect description. At half the price it would be an average old DLC.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Exactly this. It's no longer offensively bad (which is good) but for the price, it's not something I can say is great value either.

[@axios4702]

It may not be interesting, but seeing Ostankya stack a mountain of debuffs on your forces and buffs on hers will put the fear of witches in you. I will never forget seeing my beastman shaman immediately going berserk and charging headfirst into a pack of hungry balewolves while my forces panick and scatter and my Brass bull taking out some spiders only to see them turn into a giant f*cking bear. I didn't win that fight.

[@BlakesTakes420]

She is evil to fight for sure when she's been stockpiling charms.

[@ZingFreelancer]

You have to set your own goals with the changeling, everything else are means to achieve them. For example, obtain as many legendary lords forms and their traits. Ensure the weak factions that get eliminated easily survive and dominate by boosting their economy and crippling economy of their enemies through cults. Change the fate of the mortal empire by manipulating chaos factions into killing each other until Kislen steamrolls them all.

[@Tbri85]

Great vidéo ! I can't agree more about the sieges. I see what they wanted to do with the depth defence and barricade but it realy bother me that the walls are so useless. And the ass carried magical ladders are just kicking me of of immersion every time. When i play to old historical total war, when i defend a siege, i defend the wall, then the inside. And when i attack a minor or a major citie it does matter because i do have to wait to build my ladders and ram to be able to attack it propely when I attack the later. I really think to that this is one of the real problem about the game and it would really be impactfull if they touch it. And thank again for your vids, I really think that you deserve to be known more

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you for your kind words sir 🫶

[@ApsisApocynthion]

You can actually semi-empire build as the changeling by just razing everything since you can make cults in the ruins and the non-parasitic option gives you a flat income. I enjoyed the campaign much more after I started doing that. It just didn’t feel right that I had such powerful armies just trolling the AI when I could straight up conquer the world.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I'll have to give it a whirl.

[@UncrushableHope]

"we're all sick to death of bear mounts" Speak for yourself sir, we need more bears across the board.

[@EveloGrave]

The DLC is much better now. I still hate Ostankya but the addition of Frost Wyrms as mounts to the Frost Maiden heroes is awesome and the tier 0 units feel great. Katarin feels even better now. I tried the Changeling multiple times and every time I just lost interest. My friend really enjoys it though and always plays it in multiplayer ro boost me up and weaken the enemies. He has fun and that makes it worth it for me. The Tzaangors are amaxing and super welcome to Kairos as it makes his early game less of a slog. The new Centigors ai enjoy when playing Beastmen. I have always loved Centigors so just getting more makes me happy. Yuan Bo is definitely the highlight of the DLC. His Stone and Jade options are neat and with all of Cathay had thost Military or Commercial districts. The rework to the global harmony to make it provincial feels pretty bad to me, but maybe I just dont get it. My biggest issue with Yuan Bo is the compass still feels kind of useless. The Moon birds are my favorite unit from the DLC on Cathay's side. Their unique ability moon storm is awesome at clearing infantry. Having Astromancers use them as mounts is also great since I can use powerful Heavens Magic while flying. Since 4.2.0 I think the DLC is worth picking up if you like any of the 3 factions. Though I agree Yuan Bo's campaign is the most fun.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Glad you're enjoying it my friend! 🫶

[@Hunko115]

The Changeling is the perfect example of Lore before gameplay. The idea of him sounds pretty fun on paper. But his campaign did not stick the landing. I think characters in games that basically breaks / bends all types of rules presented in a game is really boring. I think a much cooler idea for the Changeling would be to make him a Diplomatic Ruiner. He wouldn't be able to switch in to anyone on the battlefield. However he is able to do it on the campaign map. This would mean he could pose as a faction leader and ruin relationships between them, by doing actions on the campaign map. The Changeling could mask himself as a dwarf and attack a dwarf faction to ruin their treaties. He could trespass as faction leader to rile up a war, etc etc. This would incentivice you to go out and interact with the world rather than just hiding away like he does now. I also think he should have normal settlements aswell.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Well said.

[@ianmielke6754]

I really enjoyed the cauldron element of mother O’s gameplay. Being able to make almost an entire enemy army lost 75% of its health? Broken overpowered. Allowed my garrisons to actually defend with small numbers.

[@inductivegrunt94]

The fires may be doused, but the ground is still scorched. I'm glad so much was added in the update, Cathay is a lot more fun, Kislev now feels fuller, Tzeentch was okay but done nicely. Hopefully Thrones of Decay carries on this trend of giving us quite a bit and not sink back into what happened when Shadows of Change first released.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I hope thrones is good, but I'd love to see that siege rework.

[@inductivegrunt94]

@BlakesTakes420 Maybe the siege rework will come with Thrones. That honestly sounds really nice, if a bit too good to be true.

[@BlakesTakes420]

@@inductivegrunt94 that'd be the dream.

[@MrBacon4321]

Actually when it comes to sacking the settlement I found out that if you put a parasitic cult in there and not a symbiotic it counts as sacking it at least it did when the game first released the DLC but give it a try

[@retnuHDJ]

I managed to get this DLC recently for about £14. The price it should have been in the first place

[@BlakesTakes420]

Agreed.

[@Azraiel213]

Those hexes are extremely irritating to oppose, to be honest. Even the AI can use them effectively to nullify your most essential units or just kill half your army at the start of the battle.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Yeah they're so unfun to fight against.

[@Vlix223]

aren't her hexes broken? or were they changed? i saw on a video ger stopping armies for FIVE turns, Teleporting armies literally across the world and her having a hex where it gives armies massive artrition. I don't have the dlc so i haven't tested it myself but that's what i saw on youtube. And what's holding this game back, besides the common bug of unit movement or some other machanic not working as is, is just attention to detail and QoL imo. Like the settlements changing looks when caputed and upgraded by that faction. But then i thought that if the settlement changes then the map you fight it on changes as well and we don't have siege map variety as it is, maybe. I don't know maybe the layout of the city remains the same no matter the faction that takes it but the buildings change? it's a slippery slope imo. There's a lot of "minor" things that could be put in, like when your units are upgraded with orcs they would actually change their gear slightly or smth etc. But like i don't think CA is run by pasionate people but by number crunchers so i don't think we'll get that level of immersive QoL ever.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Yeah I didn't say they weren't strong. Just not interesting. Giving my units one time use buffs or enemies massive single use debuffs doesn't really tickle my pickle.

[@magnuspuck-nebendahl5131]

I picked the game up a few months ago and still have a lot of fun with it. But personally i think the map is stupid. Yeah fine i start with a few legendary lords nearby, but you can destroy them pretty quick. And then... there is not really a massiv threat incoming. For example the cathay area. The fight for the inner basin is really neat and fun, but the danger from outside the bastion is laughable. There is pratically no land for chaos to build up, collect forces for a suprise attack or have space to recover from an cathay invasion. I think a map for each region in more detail would be great. The old world mod makes this pretty apparent.

[@KhorneFlakes9]

Sadly it still does. Cool new units but lack any substantial fixing on core mechanics.

[@BlakesTakes420]

💯

[@jonesy1323]

Coming from tabletop type games I am a tzeentch player and loved seeing a new lord to play as. And the MVB as a unit had me excited along with tzangors. But the changeling is a disappointment because its just not a challenge. And the tzangors are a reskin of beastmen and on tabletop and the new trailer for the new edition of sigmar. They are big walking bird people. Happy to see my favorite faction getting things but sad to see it be mediocre in the long run

[@BlakesTakes420]

I'm sure there'll be more cool Lords in the future

[@enricocappi3171]

Changeling is literally the do whatever you want with the factions of the world; you technically can support anyone and no one, but ultimately you are just aiming to the final battle and after that there is not too much reason to go on. I've actually speculated a bit of going full support character in coop, spread my cults around the territories of my friends and increase their money-making capacity; half of the objectives are actually against the "evil" side of factions after all.

[@JarmamStuff]

I dont understand why the Changeling wouldn't be the perfect candidate for a faction like this. It is beyond Tzeentch'ian to just fuck with whoever you feel like for no reason other than banter. The campaign has issues (its too easy, you can avoid fights when detected etc) but if this is the kind of campaign CA wants to try to make, the Changeling seems like the perfect fit for it

[@iqbalpakaya3217]

Yes the additional units is nice but without any race changes and some boring mechanic for the new lord i'd say buy this dlc when on discount or if u already play the 3 faction and u want new units to play

[@doctorlolchicken7478]

Anyone who’s every worked for any large company can confirm that you can have objectives and still be directionless.

[@freyrTV]

Good take, Blake! Polishing a turd will only get you so far. Problem is you can't monetize a siege rework like you can flashy new units.

[@BlakesTakes420]

"Would you care for another glass of piss with your polished turd, sir?" 🤵🏻 You're absolutely right about the monetization part. Thing is if they don't rework sieges they'll never reach the games potential, and will never sell anywhere near as much DLC as what could have been. But good luck trying to explain that to management.

[@Vating4498]

The Frost Wyrm depresses me because it looks so cool but it sucks so bad

[@rtristan8572]

Yes. Should be 15 euros. SoC does in no way, shape or form come close to adding as much content, specially interesting one, as the Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs, and even that DLC wasn't worth the 25 euros.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Agreed

[@Yaco_the_Warrior]

I agree with everything said but I'd like to add 2 things. 1st about Moonbird. Moonbird is okay not good not bad but okay. It's like a weaker phoenix. Its special attack has a bit of a cast time so it's not good to use when it is moving or it can overshoot. However, Cathay's armies are built so that you never need that bird. Even as a mount, I found war compas better because of bound spells and buffs to magic. 2nd thing is about Ostenkya's curses. They are extremely overpowered. I once debuffed a whole enemy army sieging my settlement and they died before they got to the final capture point and I barely even fought them. The annoying thing is that you need to make them every single turn and some of them are mutually exclusive so later on it's quite boring and repetitive.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Cathay are extremely oppressive in campaign, I agree. Great economy, easy confederations, excellent unit varieties. Such a strong all rounder.

[@stevehalliday9061]

But.... are there Canopic Jar's? 🤔

[@colossusslayer1234]

Personally, my thoughts is $34CDN before tax is way too much for 1 DLC. That's almost half the base game's price. Even if you gave me enough content to justify it (which they probably didn't) that's just so much to be dropping. Especially in a game with this much DLC/previous game content. The smaller, more fair lord packs of WH2 were much more digestable. Also probably much easier and faster to make, thus keeping the dev cycle moving at a better pace.

[@Nerazmus]

Asking whether it still sucks is weird. It implies that it sucked before, which it didn't.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I mean, CA literally apologised for it, so I think it's safe to say the majority of people thought it did, myself included. It's opinion though, so nobody is wrong.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Also it's spelt erroneous. There's a delicious irony in you spelling a term for "wrong" incorrectly.

[@clipcastshows]

The changing is only good as a practice battle campaign, if you have never played successful campaign and want to practice to get better. No other reason I can see its use for

[@decadunce9205]

Frot wyrm still massively underpeforms when compared to other monsters

[@ninjapirate47]

I was looking forward to totes warhamster 3: revelations but despite the demon factions (cathy, cafe, coffee just don't float my boat and kislev are meh to me) it never gripped me by the balls the way 2 did. It just seemed like a more focused game and the map, while big, wasn't absurdly big.

[@BlakesTakes420]

That's a good way of putting it.

[@NewWorldSinner]

The ai's frost worm stack basically decimated my chorf army it was irritating

[@mrsnikeersneerph4nt0m13]

Fingers crossed they do rework sieges at some point I've started playing on lower battle difficulties just so I can auto resolve them as much as possible cause they ruin my enjoyment literally every time I fight them lol

[@Enzo_honey]

They should rename the changeling to the Blakeling,

[@BlakesTakes420]

Patent pending

[@Phangmaster]

Everyone complains about the sieges, nobody has a solution.

[@BlakesTakes420]

More map variety. Make walls useful. Review AI preference to starve out than fight. Customizable garrisons. Hey, that's 4 suggestions off the top of my head.

[@Phangmaster]

all shite.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Great input.

[@TrapsterJ]

I think it will be a long time before CA attends to barebones gameplay, AI, maps etc. even though they’ve tried to make more common patches and address their unworthy dlc, I think it’s still clear what their business model is and what their priorities are. Flashy things look more appealing as an DLC to brainlets and make them the money as opposed to making the game playable and enjoyable on its own, and with their seeming lack of resources and manpower, I think it’s pretty low in the pecking order for them to fix these core issues that have been in the game since its launch and even issues from Warhammer 2 that have never been tended to either. This next DLC will be the make or break for CA because if their incompetence and greed still persists after the player base has made it clear so far, then they’ve brought it on themselves and deserve to have their reputation tarnished and game ruined, only to be saved by the community with modders.

[@le3299ify]

I feel like the new units help the core factions out but I just dont like the 3 new champains. Changling is boring, Yuan is massively op with 0 challenge and mother O runs into the warhammer 2 lustria problem of there just being to many LLs with 0 reason to be there. Like I really think a couple could do with being moved over to cathey to make that part of the map a little more intresting

[@michaelpetrovich5353]

I must admit that i am not as excited for TWW DLC's as before. The Dawi Zharr gave me a tingle and I really enjoy them but i don't feel the same as before.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I'm hoping they do a good job on the next one, but like yourself I'm not holding my breath.

[@MemeMachine-po9zo]

I loved it when he said "It's taking time!" and then Blaked all over the place.

[@BlakesTakes420]

😂😂😂

[@TheRadude]

Getting it on sale is the best way to go for this DLC

[@BlakesTakes420]

💯

[@darkdude9248]

the dlc made Kislev unfun to fight since every army you see will be 99% ambushers. don't care what they add to it, that price is way too much.

[@JasperLane]

Not enough Greenskins content. But Yuan Bo has some green on him. 3/10

[@BlakesTakes420]

Needs more Waaaagh that's for sure.

[@JasperLane]

@@BlakesTakes420 I need my Waaagh armies to stop disappearing randomly after battles. That would be a nice update

[@adrianoking9579]

Campaing-wise things are the same, yeah. Skirmish-wise tho, they did improved a lot and the DLC factions got a lot funnier to craft their armies. That said i do wonder if they were thinking about making Changeling-esque campaings for each Chaos god and now have to scrap that.

[@Nirual86]

I doubt that they were planning on the same idea for all the others. Maybe it could work for Slaneesh but their basic playstyle is already very representative of their brand of subversion. And Khorne just doesn't do that in the first place. Nurgle would easily feel like a rehash of Skaven complete with obvious signs (gee, I wonder where all those plagues are coming from).

[@adrianoking9579]

@@Nirual86 Khornate cults are a thing. they are hated by "real" Khornates but those hate everything. they are mostly cults whose every member of it is a member of the military and have the weird tendency to always attempt a fight even if they are a gate guard.

[@_ProTrax]

The actual units and content are fine, the problem is that the 3 factions are so ridiculously overpowered that you can argue that they are no longer playable, at bare minimum I don't see how anyone could ever play a changeling campaign more than once

[@SitSnacks]

Another nice and cold take from my man Blake.

[@BlakesTakes420]

a tall frosty glass of take.

[@yari4046]

the reason that the changling campaign feels directionless imo is that while you do have literal objectives these objectives are not something that you would be doing if they weren't part of your objectives. thats a bit of a weird take but basically they have no intrinsic incentive, the only reason you are doing them is because its part of a checklist that you need to finish if you want to win. Like for example if you are playing karl franz all you want to do is expand and unify the empire, that's the whole reason you are playing it and by doing that thing you are automatically improving your economy and military. Wtf is the point of playing the changeling? Be annoying? it just feels like he has no raison d'être (ik this pretentious af)

[@LandofMert76]

It didn't really fix anything. Sure it added units and changed lizard men who weren't even part of the dlc.

[@BlakesTakes420]

You will take your new units and be happy dammit.

[@LandofMert76]

@@BlakesTakes420 they tzeench ones will make fateweaver more enjoyable yes as I enjoyed it already . The kislev ones don't much improve katarin or boris's game and they needed an overhaul to the supporters and favor system I haven't played Cathay as my co op partner typically plays them. The new units seem to only slightly improve upon the crap units they got initially. Had they gotten this second set of units the first time, they would nt have needed a farther update

[@Nirual86]

pretty sure that was just part of the free update anyway but yeah they finally reworked rampage which is primarily a lizardmen mechanic. It doesn't have to be 100% focused on the key points, they probably had a few people working on that for a while and tossed it in with the rest.

[@Volper1]

I’m honestly not sure they can fix sieges at this point. I have never liked sieges. I always auto them. They’re boring, buggy, function badly and are insanely repetitive.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I really hope they have a plan for them, it'd be such a shame leaving them as they are.

[@Volper1]

@@BlakesTakes420 Warhammer 3 *was* the plan. One of the big selling points was a rework of cities and settlements. But it failed, miserably. I just don’t see them getting fixed.

[@BlakesTakes420]

@@Volper1 a very good point.

[@Zuw_1]

why this video under total war warhammer 1 ? + thank you for the update

[@BlakesTakes420]

I actually didn't set the game title. there's always so many boxes to check when uploading a video haha

[@babesinclair]

Good info, Thanks.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you!

[@aicarambaalguem]

where's the well?

[@BlakesTakes420]

gotta keep people guessing. (;

[@wakkosick6525]

She starts in Bleak Hold Fortress. Its a place. It looks like that. They aren't reusing assets and being lazy. They built the fortress where she lives.

[@jacktheripper3118]

I must agree the changing isn’t very fun but yuan bo is super funny but a bit to easy

[@BlakesTakes420]

agreed