The Absolute State of Total War in 2020

When you come back to Total War after a five year hiatus and it's rebooted itself into an arcade game and you casually point it out, here's what happens.
The video where I describe the melee slog misery of modern TW:
• The Disintegration of ...
The video on Warhammer 2 combat modifiers from difficulty, mirroring my complaints:
• What CHANGES with DIFF...
Showing single entities in Troy are ridiculous:
• 4 LOSSES in Achilles' ...
The video showing that medical science and stem cell tech has achieved spinal regeneration:
• Video
The Manor Lords infantry charge and collision:
• Box Spearmen vs Box Po...
The one person that called it as it was on Troy, and called time:
• Video
The podcast episode from 2014 where we called time:
• Podcast Ep.10 - "Glutt...
The playlist for this video series:
• Total Decline: A Total...
The Reddit thread for this video series:
/ ideas_for_future_total...
The stickied post documenting the misconduct of /r/totalwar:
www.reddit.com...
#dontcarelookscool #totalwar #volound
Thanks to @Total War CAT for the thumbnail once again, these are hilarious!
Best way to support me and what I do:
/ volound
❤️ Thanks to all supporters ❤️
My complete gaming setup:
www.amazon.co....
Join my Discord server and elevate those sons of bitches:
/ discord
My FB Page for ranty longposts:
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My Twitter shitterings:
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[@Volound]

never forget that i would much rather be spending all of my time pushing well designed total war games to their limits and discovering and creating meaningful gameplay, but modern total war games are designed to have none. i was doing that (pushing the games) with shogun 2 until rome 2 arrived in 2013 and ruined it. i was starting to do it with three kingdoms until their patching became ineffective and broke save files, and their DLC started to be spammed and meaningless.. i also noticed the gameplay was becoming increasingly shallow. i started trying to do it with troy during early access until i noticed it was even more of a joke of a game than 3K was, and could easily be reduced to absurdity before i even gained real familiarity - was still in early access and breaking it in 100 different ways. but here is my ongoing total war gameplay exploration project, it will never stop: kzbin.info/aero/PLlmEEm6A0j5Amf0UnaDdWzvarY0pKI2cM analyzing these games instead of playing them gives me insights into gameplay that playing them could never provide, so that is why this is being done instead. if it can produce better total wars (or competition) in the future - even better.

[@neilcaezar306]

Y'know Volound ,Its like i am waiting for you to snap and make your own recreation of Tw games ,hiring devs , making fund raisers , fixing everything CA did wrong but keeping the main premise .Its sad how if that actually happens you'd get sued instantly P.S. Love your Shogun 2 Impossible battles videos ,keep it up.

[@masonmiller7991]

You said that people lied about you in order to discredit your complaints about CA. Then in the next sentence you spout the party line that a person who also has complained about CA is discredited because of his horrible politics. Am I missing something or are you just ignoring that hypocrisy?

[@Volound]

@@masonmiller7991 im interested. please explain.

[@user-qx4in2rq1z]

Volound will Cat translate this or other videos?

[@masonmiller7991]

@@Volound Ok, Arch reviews and talks about a wide range of games and it seems to me that he brings the same honesty to them all that you bring to total war specifically. The problem seems to be that the fact he isnt far left has been used to smear him and discredit him, at least that's what I got from your brief aside about him here. So i do not know if this was the totality of your opinion about him, but if it is it's coming from incomplete information.

[@PixelatedApollo1]

I no longer have a working relationship with CA. They were very nice (shutout to Josh at CA) to me and said that if I ever wanted to return they would add me back to the program. It was more my choice to walk away from CA. I feel the community is too far gone, and total war will never be what it once was. I honestly think Total War will never make an epic return, and games like Manor Lords will be my new beacon of hope. I used to be pretty upset about Total War and where it was headed, but I just don't care. Total War died with Total War: Rome 2 and it's time to move on. What we have now is some sick money making perversion of Total War. I don't even enjoy being classified as a Total War KZbinr, i'm just a guy that enjoys History through Video games and Total War is just not the place for that anymore. I still play the old ones, but I don't follow anything CA does and have completely giving up on the franchise. The community is super toxic and I am just glad reedit people don't know who I am. I am sure I would be constantly harassed as well. I always had a mind set to keep my head down and do what I enjoy. I never cared about being the "Worlds Largest Total War youtuber" I know that's important to some people in the KZbin Community, so maybe that's why i speak my mind and others don't. I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees. Anyways I enjoy this series and hope you keep it up!

[@DragonHeart1791]

Well said man. 100% agree with you.

[@theforeigner5821]

Hey apollo at this point I associate you with excellent multiplayer games

[@fetusdeletus5117]

Awesome to see that PA is a man of principle as well. Keep fighting the good fight mate.

[@JordanR]

Never fear, modders keep the spirit of the old games alive.

[@v_artra5399]

oh hey, it's my favorite historical game youtuber!

[@Skoogplay125]

11:50 "I'm a historian in training so I actually know what history looks like" -AdmiralPrice No honest historian would ever say that. That statement is just pure hubris. Nobody knows nearly enough about history to be able to make that statement with honesty. One of the most common statements historians make is "we really don't know".

[@loveless8241]

@@szymonrozanski6938 this comment is also full of hubris.

[@matthiuskoenig3378]

@Anti Tengu those scientists don't know whether the observations recorded everything or are accurate, they can judge if its reliable based on how mutch the experiment has been repeated. but, like historians, they were not there and thus their perspective and knowledge on the experiment is going to be limited. there is a reason why we divide sources into primary, secondary and tertiary. history is often even worse, as we lack records from multiple sources for a specific event/s. imagine a scientist is writing about an experiment based on notes from a single person's notes (who often didn't see the experiment themselves). how mutch can you really trust the writing of that scientist to be reliable? that is what most pre-printing press history is like (and sometimes even post-printing press history) edit: a good historian or scientist will reference their sources anyway, and will provide possible falsification from those sources too. and will claim to know very little with any certainty.

[@matthiuskoenig3378]

that said we know certain things for sure, due to archeological evidence, but even that is limited to the extent.

[@STRZB001]

I’m high too.

[@slubbergully9231]

​@Anti Tengu That's a good question! It seems dubious that a "triangle" is even a sensible, material thing. Can I really go out and look at a single triangle? I've seen things that are triangular, i.e., they in some sense resemble and therefore remind me of a "triangle," but I don't think I've ever seen a "triangle." It seems to me the triangle is something which properly-speaking belongs to the soul and, as-such, does not belong to the sense-organs. It is present to us via memory and not by sight. The nature of the sensible is that of the irreducibility of the particular generated in and comprehended by the universal. The empirical configuration of the scientific method-observation, experimentation, and the cataloguing thereof-already pre-supposes this and relies upon the concrete reality of an underlying structure of forms. But an understanding of the surface without rational speculation of what's beneath the surface remains incomplete. Thus the scientist should believe every triangle has three sides provided there are scientific demonstrations, syllogistic proofs, I mean, which have that as their conclusion. Anyway, I'm going to stop Platoposting in Volound's comments section now.

[@LuizAlexPhoenix]

Longstory short: Volound might be a toxic type when you get him going, but that doesn't mean he is wrong. It also doesn't mean that CA is right to do any of the shit they do.

[@jhonmarston1040]

Total war is now like the movies where you play the bad guys who use tactics but the good guys who just charge in and are predetermined to win

[@francoish4538]

Talking about modern total war AI and using the word « using tactics » in the same phrase feels strange

[@Bruh-hq1hx]

@Zoomer Waffen don't worry we have a you and i are not so different speech

[@francoish4538]

@@camulodunon touch grass 👌

[@DragonballBlack]

Yo Sun Jetzu here. I’m alive! I actually left Total War around the same time you did because I saw the writing on the wall. Warhammer had just come out and I could see fantasy was the direction they were going. Victoria Total War or WW1 Total War would never happen. At least not before they bankrolled everything fantasy. I tried to get into Warhammer and make videos about it but the community was extremely toxic to newcomers. If you didn’t know xy and z about Warhammer you were berated and harassed with negative comments. On top of all this CA’s creator program began favoring KZbinrs that focused on Warhammer and ignored ones that played the original games. Such as POM and myself for example. Channels were being promoted not based on quality but on shilling and it killed my enjoyment of Total War for YEARS. Which sucked since Total War was my favorite game series of all time. Didn’t even play Warhammer 2 or Three Kingdoms until years after they released. I can find fun in them more specifically Three Kingdoms Records Mode but Troy kinda left a bad taste in my mouth. Now when I play I use the gameplay footage on my second channel SunScape (shameless plug 😩 lol). Leaving Total War was the best decision I made because it made me reevaluate what kinda KZbinr I wanted to be and I decided Dragon Ball which has been very good to me. All in all I’m glad I found your channel again and happy to see this video. Here’s hoping we get a non-arcady/ non-broken Medieval 3 in the future. Cheers!

[@Volound]

oh man its been a while! nice to see you managed to horizontal out. it says a lot that youve found so much success elsewhere. that grass is so much greener. i had similar success when i dropped total war like a hot potato and started uploading dishonored and far cry in 2014 (just after rome 2). i no longer consider myself to be a total war youtuber (honestly, i never truly did), but a general gameplay-oriented youtuber and a metagamer (this was always my motivation). i only play and think about total war out of a pure gameplay connoiseurship motivation, and i only analyze it now like this out of an objective, journalistic, "ludologistic" interest and curiosity. i am not remotely aligned with the direction of the franchise or its degenerating fanbase, but i still (and always will) have an affinity for these kinds of games. i was taking apart troy with ludicrous ease even before launch, to the extent that i thought it was one big joke, the game was ridiculous and left a similarly bad taste. its what started me off recently with analyzing the problems these games have. and thanks for being frank about the state of the developers and the community, it means a lot. there are only so many people in the position to be able to attest to these things, so every one that speaks out is invaluable to me. just subscribed to your second channel and started listening to your video about CA. keep it up with DBZ. glad to see youre killing it over there. cheers! P.S. just dug this out: gyazo.com/8ba64e52be7a75f131bc1841c565faa3 and it looks like its me that has to be asking for youtube tips from you now. good job man, you made it.

[@DragonballBlack]

@@Volound WHERE DID YOU FIND THAT???LOL??? I was once upon a time a new KZbinr who was asking other people for advice through the comment sections. This old comment was such a blast from the past and I cherish it lol. I never thought I would find success after Total War. I jumped into something else I had been passionate for and knew I would never lose passion for. Although DBZ has its own issues its an environment that you can freely grow in. No CA promoting and growing your channel for you. Troy was cool in theory because I loved the movie but it has got to be one of the easiest games CA has ever made. Its a snoozefest. Glad I got it for free. I unfortunately did think of myself as a Total War KZbinr only to find out that I got into it a few years too late. If only I had started a channel when Shogun 2 dropped instead of just watching the videos. There a re a few of us that have had issues with CA but alot don't come out and say anything in fear of losing the almighty early access which really leaves a sour taste in my mouth tbh. I appreciate your video's and have watched almost half of them that criticize Total War. Its extremely eye opening to see how much they cut out and how much they've gotten wrong. I don't think I can look at gun powder weapons in Warhammer the same way again! It has honestly been a highlight of 2021 speaking with you again. If you ever need anything don't hesitate to ask. And thanks for subscribing to the spiritual successor to Sun Jetzu! It really means the world to me. Also I gave you a plug in my newest video. Hope you like it! kzbin.info/www/bejne/boeynpamgMd8pLc

[@maxmustermann-zx9yq]

WW1 was all trenches and not really line infantry, the "meta" back then was already stale

[@monishvj5172]

@@maxmustermann-zx9yq xD

[@eggmin8967]

I am sad to say but it is there is no way in heeel that it is not non-arcady or buggy cus the last one for me to possibly have good high quality was homeworld 3 and look how that turned out ;w;

[@nomercy8989]

"Stop objectively criticising a game I like!" People these days... But I guess it's no different than religion and basically anything else that people can disagree on.

[@CBRN-115]

We need ww3 to curb this kind of shit. People are too comfortable these days

[@ishitrealbad3039]

When people become ideologically possessed by an idea, product or anything else it becomes a religion. Just look at how religious iphone users are and their loyalty to the apple brand. If you camp outside a store for a couple of days, you're religious. "Everything you act out is predicated on your implicit axioms, and the system of implicit axioms that you hold as primary IS your religious belief system." JBP

[@95onimusha]

Well, at the end objectivity it's what really matters when you play. The community attitude it's toxic but i can understand their point

[@philipkelly7369]

"muh objectivism"

[@95onimusha]

@@philipkelly7369 i don't even know if it's the correct word, my english really sucks XD

[@SaradominRecksYou]

My only point of contention with your video is that I think the Ultimate General series of games and Grand Tactician: Civil War are two examples of other game devs beginning to encroach on traditional CA territory. The real time battles are very fluid and fun, and the strategic maps are continually being improved upon. Besides the devs having very obvious passion for the American Civil War and the Age of Sail, I think these devs are making headway in those periods of history because the CA titles are so comparatively weak in the European Early Modern Age. Antiquity, the Medieval Era, and now fantasy are still considered CA stomping grounds regardless of the quality of newer games just through historical strength of catalog and large player bases. I am very confident in the coming years that CA will have real competition in every period of history.

[@pignosis354]

Yep. Literally everyone would abandon ship if an actual competitor existed :/ to think since my first TW game I played, Rome 1 2004. Battles are still 20 units, units are still scaled at 120, maps have gotten smaller, reload/basic animations are gone, shields/armor are irrelevant for health bars, formations are flat out gone literally no loose formation or phalanx or anything in warhammer, the diplomacy is even less than it was in 2004 you can’t even trade cities or bribe generals anymore, there is literally no improvement or addition to the series in SIXTEEN YEARS.

[@baggelis_aikaterinis]

SaradominWrecksYou Ultimate General=Darth Vader=Darthmods for totalwar oldbutgold

[@gabbo7101]

I wish there were more games that take place in the 18th and 19th century. Napoleon was pretty good, but no-one seems to like touching on this era (except for fps games and mods, for some reason)

[@natedlc854]

@@panzermaus664 ehhhh I liked civil war... like a lot. Its not perfect but to say only Gettysburg is worth your time is unfair.

[@natedlc854]

@@panzermaus664 fair enough.

[@GOTHICxLEPRICON]

"The absolute state of the Total War community in 2020" There fixed your title for you.

[@Volound]

thanks it was in a state of disrepair and i was meaning to call someone

[@cyllananassan9159]

2021 didnt get any better......warhammer 3 stinks

[@kingcolyx3671]

The Total War community's just being replaced by the Warhammer community at this point to be honest.

[@dertobio8114]

"The Absolute State of Total War in 2020" is pretty misleading. When I saw the title and the length I was expecting a kind of overview of the mechanical and technical issues or something about the marketing and development of the franchise. But this is (without any judgement) mainly about your personal problems with parts of the community. Maybe you should add "community" to the title.

[@loveless8241]

Agree.

[@musicninja98]

Indeed. It is very misleading.

[@21Arrozito]

Thanks for this comment, I got 10 minutes into this and wondered when he was going to start talking about the games or developers. Thanks for saving me 20 minutes. Volund is basically right about everything but this fixation on the community drama is just so uninteresting IMO.

[@MasonDixonAutistic]

'The absolute state of something' is an idiom, not to be taken literally. My state is that I am tired after a long day, but 'the absolute state' of me is that I have poor motivation and fitness, leading me to get more tired than I should after having what is the kind of day that happens frequently. The absolute state of Total War is whatever points to the most paramount cause of the ordinary, non-absolute state of it; which is of course about people and their decisions. Volound has done videos addressing mechanics and design, but the state of those is directly relevant to choices that have been made by people. He's only briefly touched on this before, when talking about the testuedo in comparison to Rome 2's awful battle-map capture-points on release: CA's course was corrected by a strong backlash in regards to the capture-points, but the failure of any similar pressure regarding testuedo meant CA could carry on making it worse.

[@calumdeighton]

While I agree adding in the title, "Community" would be appropriate for the video in general. I'm a bit. Yeah, I don't want to get technical about it.

[@goshbrindal]

We need a top 10 crossbow/bow sound tier list, when?

[@Maurinusa]

I love Total War: Warhammer but still appreciate and agree with most of your criticisms of the series. There should be a place for mythical and historical total war games. Sadly, as we've seen with Three Kingdoms and Troy, CA has been blending them together.

[@christopherlane467]

I've been a fan of both TWWH and the old games (mainly medieval 1 and 2) and I absolutely agree. They need to separate historical and fantastical. If I want to play badass heroes fighting huge armies, I'll boot up TWWH. If I want to play tactics and good ol' sword on steel, I'll play TWM2.

[@TobyIKanoby]

Yeah exactly what I was thinking a while ago, they should split up the fantasy and history. And I am pretty sure if they manage to make a good Medieval 3 loads of people will play it.

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

@@TobyIKanoby only if they update or make an engine similiar to the rome 1/medieval 2 one, because otherwise the same issues will largely persist.

[@TobyIKanoby]

@@boarfaceswinejaw4516 yeah you are, lots of work there

[@TotalWarKS]

I would not put three kingdoms and Troy together , 3k has the best campaign map gameplay out of all totalwars

[@AB-bg7os]

When reddit hates you, you know that you are right

[@ishitrealbad3039]

I recently asked on a game subreddit why someone would use an SKS over an AKM, I literally got downvoted by a mob of like 20+ people....

[@the4thindustrialrevolution225]

Reddit is cringe

[@simpbeforeusleep]

It’s an emotional leftist cesspool. The two go hand on hand really. Also full of a lot of kids.

[@samblackstone3400]

Reddit: where 14 year olds with a surface level understanding of something get your detailed post on a question deleted because they replied to you with more snark.

[@RTSG_Prism]

@@simpbeforeusleep Lol reddit is soy liberal garbage website, not leftist. Leftists get censored and taken down all the time by soy liberal reddit mods alongside conservatives.

[@RepublicOfPlay]

You need to let the series go man. It's a video game, that **for some people** was once better than it is and **for some other people**, has gotten better over time. It sells better pretty much each time they make new content, people are playing and enjoying it, and they're never going back to the old style because they just don't care to or need to financially. Every time they make money, they put it into other projects, like ARENA / Kingdom / Elysium and their new FPS game because they have basically maxed out the market they can reach with Total War, so instead they just increase volume rather than quality. A couple facts as well: Their AI has always used stats bonuses in all their games. Their AI never gets smarter or dumber with difficulty. For multiplayer, Over 90% of S2 players never played Avatar conquest, and these days it's something like 95% of people **never even click** the multiplayer button in the menu, even just to check it out. Since phasing out better modding support, their games have only sold better. Their blood pack makes them millions. We are in the minority for most of the stuff we want, so complaining about it over and over, while it may get good views, is a dead end. In my opinion it's better to direct your energy and support the things that are good as best as you can, rather than dump on the stuff that others enjoy.

[@Volound]

when real competition arrives, i will be the first to redirect all of my attention. it doesnt yet exist, but its only a matter of time. in the meantime, im just continuing to do what ive always been doing - thinking about games and how they work and what good gameplay involves and how to find it, and when games deny it by their very design. im usually only motivated by gameplay and ideas. the views are nearly irrelevant to me, just another guage on the robustness of my ideas. if i really wanted views, i probably wouldve kept playing FPS games and making planned runs. this particular video is only really necessary because ive been subjected to (pretty much as soon as i started complaining about troy) persistent corporate cyberstalking, which is what produced all of the described knock-on effects and fallout. even now, you can google my name and one of the first results is the smear thread.

[@pignosis354]

Kinda shallow to look at it like that don’t you think? Just because a product sells better doesn’t mean it’s a better products. That’s like saying the new star wars trilogy is better than the OT because it sold better. Your absolutely correct CA is making more money now than ever, but gaming, especually pc gaming is much more mainstream now than it was even a decade ago, Ofcourse it will sell better. And sure maybe a lot of people didn’t touch multiplayer, but imo 10% is a lot. What if CA makes 1,000,000 but because they ignore the 10% multiplayer fan base they only make 900,000? 10% is still a lotta money. I wouldn’t be shocked if at some point people just collectively stopped buying their games, I know I have, warhhammer 2 was my last folly, and I’m not giving the series another chance until a lot of the criticisms I see in both your reviews and volound are addressed.

[@kielweiss3606]

Cyberpunk has become the best selling game of 2020. Sales doesn't mean a game is good, it can still have issues and there is nothing wrong with pointing out those issues.

[@WAAAAAAGH]

From time to time when i sit down and play some game from yesteryear i wonder how different things would have been if actual contempt was shown instead of just jokes and a concentrated effort from a community that couldnt really gather back in those days pushed back when things like horse armor and day one dlc came out. Now we have microtransactions, season passes that are more than the games themselves, dlcs that reach in the hundreds within the first year of a game being out, and more. Maybe...some things need to be dumped on because they make things worse down the line if left uncriticized.

[@Lolm3ist3r]

You shouldn't care what a redditor has to say.

[@AAhmou]

@Zoomer Waffen All it takes is confronting them outside the chicken pen that is reddit.

[@steazymccheesy2649]

@Zoomer Waffen Lol dont be a facist and just talk and discuss with people, just have a laugh a the keyboard warriors of reddit, they just have nothing better to do i'm afraid

[@SoRAnubis]

@Zoomer Waffen Snowflake.

[@steazymccheesy2649]

@Zoomer Waffen Oh didn't even notice your cool profile picture there. I'm sorry you got bullied in school but that's still no reason to act like hitler is the man okay

[@steazymccheesy2649]

@Zoomer Waffen Nope not really , who wants all that fascist social media in their lives right?

[@slinkerdeer]

Your experience with the blind diehard fanboys of Total War is both unpleasant and cringe to look at. The sheer amount of denial and aggressive behaviour just because of legitimate criticism is disgusting. Props to you for sticking to your guns and upholding the truth even when it negatively impacts your "reputation" thanks to smear campaigns. I am one sub that will never leave.

[@JordanR]

Problem seems to be that people don't care as much about the criticism as much as they care about personally liking the source of said criticism. Unfortunate really :/

[@Ellimanist15]

No matter what cause they defend, I will always respect someone who sticks to their guns and doesn't back down during a brigade.

[@MrAsh1100]

One fanboy tried to defend saying Warhammer is a good competitive game. All you do is spam powers and abilities, how is that good? Tactics? Using the map? Idk.... something?!?!? Also the stupid big units and lords doesn't help. Like...what happened to the old general and elite units? You can use em, right? And the big units? They can be sort of a weird cav....maybe...idk.... I'm done....I just can't take him too seriously

[@David_Brinkerhoff93]

Dont ever apologize to these low lifes, Volound. You do good work exposing this decadent franchise.

[@iopklmification]

History is funny. CA's decadence started with Rome 2, a game named after a city so well known for its own.

[@samultaneous9615]

I've been saying "I want a Medieval III, an Empire II, a TTW Victoria and a Shogun III game so bad" for many years, having loved the previous total war games but also realizing the older engines and limited amount of possibilities have their limit in replayability.. But after Warhammer, I'm really not so sure if I want CA to be the company to actually produce those games. I know it's their thing and all, but they've screwed up more than once, more than twice, more than thrice now. And I'd much rather see them screw up Warhammer over Empire II, so I'm glad they didn't make Empire II yet, but I don't know if I actually ever want them to XD

[@Volound]

the people that made the good games dont work there any more - turnover is immense. the medieval 3 of the imagination can never be real.

[@samultaneous9615]

@@Volound I'm just so afraid that CA has turned into an EA kind of company. The DLC policy, just like that of Paradox interactive, is incredibly capitalist, almost like microtransactions. I mean, the Blood and Gore DLC is a mere example of how much extortion of would-be players has climbed through the years. I don't want that kind of a company to deliver me any kind of total war game if I'm honest. Especially a much desired title like empire 2 or medieval 3.

[@samultaneous9615]

@Huon Sainsbury Yeah.. But they gave us something we didn't like, you know, want xD

[@samultaneous9615]

@@hellomynameisjoao hah yeah DLC is basically legal theft though. Should all be in the base game. Especially when a game is already priced a ridiculous 60 bucks or more.

[@BlueGamingRage]

The fact that all of these people dismiss you on grounds of character rather than the points you raise speaks volumes.

[@Danymok]

Dude, AdmiralPrice was being very reasonable. Bruh.

[@captain-chair]

Look at the Paradox community for comparison, when they launched Imperator: Rome the community was very vocal about the issues, because Paradox is the only competition in Grand Strategy, and we wanted to keep them in line, and they listened to the community, the customers have power, if they are willing to realize it, the entire strategy genre has this issue of niche monoplization, Civilization, Paradox, and Total War all have gross dlc polices cause they are the only dealer in town, and if you want the goods you need to go to them.

[@Danymok]

Why is the Total War community so toxic? Including you Volound. Everyone. I just want everyone to be able to enjoy whatever they want. If you like older total war games, cool. If you like Warhammer, cool. There doesn't need to be drama.

[@GAMA830]

its more that we a disappointed where the series has gone and there isnt really an alternative to what we used to have. they arent ambitious any more, they jsut want to milk the cash cow. i've been playing the ultimate general series made by an ex total war modder and ive been pretty happy with those games though there is no real campaign map, the battles are great tho

[@Danymok]

@@GAMA830 but many people like the direction of the new total war games. I personally don't, but many do. So we shouldn't get mad about it. Just don't play the new total war games then.

[@GAMA830]

@@Danymok ik people like the newers ones despite them being lazy, theres nowhere for people that like good games to go. ca has a monopoly on this type of game which is why people want to change total war. if i didnt like the direction minecraft was going i could just move to one of the million minecraft clones. but for this type of game theres no real alternative and no i dont play the newer total wars, i tried but all it boils down to is chasing single entitys across the map. when i first played warhammer 2 i couldnt put my finger on why i didnt like it but volounds vids made me realize why its trash

[@Danymok]

@@GAMA830 I'm pretty sure all Minecraft clones are universally disrespected lol. The clones suck. In that case look for a Total War clone. But I get what you're saying. But the old games are still there for you to play and enjoy. I still play Rome 1 and I love it. Tbh, that means you don't need to waste money on a new game lol. You can always play Mount and Blade instead.

[@A-Rather-Dubious-Character]

@@Danymok Then by that logic we should be fine with ever game that deviates from what was established in earlier titles of a franchise. Regardless of its harm to the original piece. (Battlefield 5 is a good example.) Completely fucked over history for a fake woke message about women and it sacrificed the majority of its fan base for it. We shouldn't settle for a cheap and lame answer such as "just don't buy anymore (insert title here)!" That's basically saying, "Hey guys! Completely ruin a series for whatever you want regardless of how much it sacrificed! Because we sure as shit won't contest you!" That mindset just doesn't work and makes people content with anything.

[@gundulf5686]

Why did you attack Arch? Why would he be obliged to defend you? Other than that I agree with you.

[@ubc.student]

Idk maybe cus Arch is a racist fuck towards Asians, calling calligraphic languages for stupid people...

[@alynthequestseeker3017]

@@ubc.student that doesn't explain why arch should be obliged to defend him even if it was true. Try again.

[@bunkersketches1238]

@@ubc.student "Arch is a racist fuck" aaaand you lost me there.

[@biglenin7306]

@@ubc.student how is that racist to asians? Sounds like he is biased in favor of languages he is familiar with. To the shock horror of everyone im sure

[@ishitrealbad3039]

@@ubc.student I'm asian and have nothing agaisnt Arch, and Arch is not racist against asians. Get your head out of your ass.

[@Rokiriko]

We need direct competition to Total War, and just another franchise but multitude of them, so they can sap CA's income and finally force them to do something more than re-skin DLCs that r/TotalWar lose their mind like its Jesus every time.

[@StigEtDump]

A glorious rant, criticism well deserved. Go Volund.

[@calumdeighton]

Here here!

[@MauriceTarantulas]

@@Krindig How about the truth?

[@camilomayo3855]

@@Krindig Completely ignorant of volound´s arguments, and a cringy urge to harass him because CA said so. How bout you shut up and try being a regular 14 yo?

[@ravenseeker8267]

Arch, said his piece decent time ago, he rather focuses on Warhammer 40k lore series and stuff which is his main focus. He usually just reviews a game when it releases and leaves it there then. And yes, i do agree that Arch is awful at games, but that's not really what people come there for, the lets plays are more for the algorithm than anything, his Lore vids are the main draw and attraction. As to politics, he is rather milktoast when it comes to that. He just likes edgy and absurd humor and certain kind of people brand him a beautiful sleugh of words because of that.

[@PythonicMethod]

It's spelled "milquetoast" but I'm only getting on your ass because that's a fucking dynamite word you chose.

[@socratesjohnson980]

I can see how one could say arch hasn't been harping on the TW: WH series as much as it deserves, but he has nothing but outright derision for CA's business practices and has done several videos on how shit every decision surrounding the development and marketing of Troy has been. Otherwise, good job on stirring up the reddit hivemind, they'll unfortunately use your for rage wank material for as long as they can, but that doesn't mean you are wrong at all

[@slubbergully9231]

"Humor."

[@madijeis4320]

Ehi man, I used to think like that. That people like Arch were just edgy. I no longer think that's the case. Sure, Arch might be too much of a little crybaby bitch to ever be open about it, but he's not too far from being a nazi. I agree that he wasn't always this way. If you want, I can write down why I think that.

[@gabbo7101]

@@madijeis4320 define, a nazi? I assume you mean fascist, and not a literal member of the german national socialist party. In that case, define fascist. Now, I stopped being a conservative about 2 years ago (give or take), so things might have changed since I last remember; but from what I remember, arch and his sempai, sargon, are just really conservative. I recall very few of what they have said mirroing that of national socialism. I might be wrong, as I havent watched any of those clowns in ages, but still.

[@darkranger116]

This aged like fine wine now that wh3 is out

[@JordanR]

You mean the game that major TW youtubers are dropping because of how poorly put together it is?

[@gingergenius9523]

Hello Volound, I am a Warhammer fanboy but I dislike CA's business practices and hatred of people who disagree with them. I appreciate your analysis of total war and I learn a lot, and I agree that CA is far too trigger happy when it comes to attacking content creators and many of them have decided that it is just easier to hype up CA's lack of effort. There has been backlash to CA most notably in 2018 by LegendofTotalWar who was blacklisted for more than a year because his criticism of Thrones of Britannia cost CA much income and killed that game's fanbase before it even formed. CA has continued to make money by giving small concessions and occasionally releasing a good DLC.

[@DaBestEmperor]

I'm not sure what you are trying to say with the segment on Arch. He has consistently criticized CA and modern total war games. Just because he has not made dedicated videos on the topic recently does not mean he is just sitting around not doing anything. He isn't a dedicated total war youtuber after all. He has other priorities such as Warhammer lore. (Plus, I'm not sure if he has even seen your videos he is incredibly inactive on social media.) And so what if he covers politics? Unfortunately the corporate world, popular culture, and the video games industry as a whole has been filled with politics for many years now, and I fail to see how that is Sargon's fault somehow, if so please enlighten men. As far as I can see, I think the reason you dislike him is due to the fact that you disagree with him on politics and that has muddied the waters unfortunately. Which is strange since I'm sure you two would agree on more things than not. Anyway as a fan of both you and Arch I hope you can both get in touch and make it up to each other, being hostile won't solve anything, and having allies in this cause for the betterment of Total War is ultimately a good thing.

[@GAMA830]

he dislikes arch cause they disagree on politics? look at arch warhammers leaked discord logs, the dude is an actual racist who tf wouldnt dislike someone like that, oh and the email campaign. holy fk that was cringe

[@byzantinehoney3384]

@@GAMA830 you are anti white

[@dragonforks93]

@@GAMA830 What kinda stuff was in the discord logs? Not being a dick Im genuinely curious

[@DaBestEmperor]

@@dragonforks93 According to Arch, some spicy out of context jokes. To his political opponents damning evidence of him being alt-right, racist, etc.

[@GAMA830]

theres a whole thread with all arch warhamers bs in it. if u want proof and receipts thats the place to go just look up arch warhamer alt right. i used to watch this guy until i saw his christchurch shooting video he can get fucked also the dude thinks that the imperium of man is something to attain irl as if its a good society. its cringe

[@Nekodias]

This is just real sad to see, man I'm sorry. To see this kind of "discussion" is just really frustrating. Nevertheless I wish you and all the other people out there a Merry Christmas

[@andrewshaw1571]

Wish reynold sanity still made videos about it.

[@pignosis354]

That dude was hilarious... but like a smart person, he left us as soon as WoC was announced as pre order :/

[@jeck988]

Same man I miss that funny bastard

[@kieranjordan2655]

Every point you have made in your videos showing the decline of total war has been on point absolutely correct, and I have been playing since Rome 1, don't get how people can refute that

[@micahmackinnon99]

I've played Starcraft 1, Warcraft 3, AOE 1, AOE 2-3, and every Total War game since Shogun II (my dad was a Nobunaga's Ambition fanatic). I'm well acquainted with development teams trading depth, immersion, and dynamicism for easily marketable (and annoyingly difficult) contentless add-ons.

[@chris63952]

I have only played medieval 2 and still play it, how is napoleon?

[@kieranjordan2655]

@@chris63952 never played napoleon, played empire an awful lot though, and even though it has major pathing issues it's still one of the best simply because of the time period and how much of the world is available. Alot of people say napoleon is just a better version of empire so I might give it a go when it goes on sale again

[@chris63952]

@@kieranjordan2655 thanks for the reply It is on sale now, you can get the definitive edition for like 7 bucks

[@afriendlycadian9857]

@@chris63952 its fun especially if you use ntw 3 mod which makes it very very realistic

[@clockner]

Looks like the title of this video couldn't have been more appropriate, fuck me sideways... These shady business practices that CA is apparently doing (basically controlling freedom of speach of the game's subreddit for instance) are downright pathetic. From the looks of it they're doing this to keep critique almost entirely away from their game to maintain a playerbase of completely braindead knobheads that just happily take any shit state of a game CA throws at them without even thinking of critiquing it for just a second. That's pretty much as fucked up as it could get and tells me quite a lot about their priorities. Lowest possible efforts, biggest and fastest possible returns. That's always when shit starts to get nasty real quick. On a positive Note, it makes me happy to see that your videos of this series finally inspired a bunch of other chaps to rethink a couple of things to eventually come to way more legitimate conclusions. Also, nice job on the editing in this one. Some well edited funny as fuck moments in there pal.

[@Volound]

yep, this is what happens when short term profit is the sole motive and overrides player experience and customer friendliness. unethical at every level, and from every angle. subsumed by pure greed. thought you would appreciate those ;)

[@Sujad]

So did you reach out to Arch for help or did you magically expect him to jump to your defence? Does he even know who you are? Does he follow the TW subreddits enough to have noticed this drama?

[@smurfsmurf10]

I'm fairly certain that Arch doesn't frequent the TW subreddit, to the point someone had to tell him of the hate circlejerk there. Don't quote me on that tho.

[@Chad1836]

He seems to have a hate boner for Arch and Sargon's politics so I think he just used it as and excuse to cry about it.

[@peterruf1462]

Wasn't it about the many things wrong with total war and arch not talking about them?

[@DaBestEmperor]

@@Chad1836 Based on Volund's twitter that is also the conclusion that I came to. Maybe he doesn't like the idea that he has to agree with his political opponents?

[@alynthequestseeker3017]

@@EmanGameplay hi eman! I think he just dislikes arch cause of his politics and wanted an excuse to attack him. Rather ironic tbh considering the subject of the video

[@andrewp8284]

“Even game journalists were in a race to the bottom” - that’s basically what video game “journalism” is these days.

[@davidbodor1762]

To be fair there's more to it than just CA paying them off, not so long ago rabid fanboys were sending seizure inducing images to a journalist that reported on Cyberpunk 2077 giving her a seizure...which is a literal criminal offense in most countries. Journalists get shat on by the community and paid off by the corporations, things have to change from ground up in this godforsaken industry.

[@CatWithAHat2HD]

Not that I particularly like Arch, but I don't think your callout of him is reasoned. Legend mentionned you in a livestream, so it makes sense you talk about that, but Arch (as far as I know) has just remained on the sidelines of this issue. Probably because, as you say, what he has to say about TW isn't really gameplay-related as much as it is vague politics related. In depth analisis of the failings of TW's gameplay is really not his cup of tea, s'all... Just like talking politics on YT is not yours. Different niches rly...

[@iopklmification]

Actually i think you can learn a lot about politics by following that whole affair Volund is having with CA. Because if you think this is dirty, well I have bad news for you.

[@CatWithAHat2HD]

@Zoomer Waffen Dude, I haven't wached a vid of his in like 2 years... All I'm saying is that what Volund does seems to be a different niche to what Arch is normally doing (or at the very least what he was doing back then). S'all.

[@drivernephi5629]

@Zoomer Waffen srrrgn of applebees ohhh I miss metokur and his videos

[@praisetheomnissiah4475]

@@drivernephi5629 More Dopamine!!!!

[@ingold1470]

I think that's the most paranoid part of this vid. Volound has apparently got it in his head that Arch is a paid jobber for CA, hired to delegitimise criticisms of their games similar to those made by Volound, rather than just some Warhammer tuber with an edgy sense of humour who streams WH2 occasionally because it's a Warhammer game. He must think that he lives rent-free in CA's heads (though with all of the reddit bullshit highlighted in this video it's hard to blame him).

[@texasbrony3995]

The problem with the criticism on Arch is that his “bullshit politics” are actually affecting the Total War games. The female Roman and Greek leaders change comes to mind. I’m just confused as to why you say he hasn’t said anything lately? He’s constantly shat on Creative Assembly in most of his Total War videos. So what if he’s not as mechanically good as you? I’m not as good at the game as you and yet I know not to buy the modern games cause they’re shit. But man, CA is just like any other company about this nonsense. They talk shit to you criticizers and censor you so they can make money. It’s always disheartening to see.

[@musicninja98]

I like Volound's criticisms of the dumbing down of mechanics. Arch has criticized that dumbing down endlessly on his various lets plays. Additionally, the criticism leveled against Volound about focusing in on sound aesthetic when Total War mechanics have devolved quite seriously on a fundamental level is valid. Does the pathetic twang of crossbows break immersion? Sure, but there are severe mechanical issues that should be addressed first. I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that on a technical level Volound is very well versed and understands what he is talking about. But as a person in essence he is a bit of an elitist snob.

[@tastycookiechip]

You can't get female generals as Greece or Rome tho. I know its not historically accurate but i was looking forward to having women generals as rome and Greece mostly so I can actually use a lot of my female family members that do nothing the whole campaign 😂

[@DaBestEmperor]

@Mario Bros Yes, lol. Just look how they treated Volound.

[@yoloswaggins7121]

Except you can't recruit female generals as Rom or Greek factions.

[@yoloswaggins7121]

@Mario Bros These quasi conservative anti sjw free speech warriors are all far right radicals.

[@cobrates7832]

You know you're right above the target when you get a lot of flak. If your criticism wasn't on point you wouldn't have triggered the reaction you've got. So all I have to say is well done mate, continue with what you're doing, and ignore the whiners. I really appreciate these kind of videos, and hopefully some of it gets through to CA so they can make better TW games in the future (doubt it, but one can still hope). Cheers!

[@australiananarchist480]

@Darth Revan or offer actual criticism

[@dessertfox5995]

Im not defending the reddit neckbeards here but this is a really bad arguement. You could say this about trump supporters or anti vaxers. "Im getting a lot of flak about the dems stealing the election, therefore the dems stole the election." Sometimes there are good reasons why there is flak there in the first place.

[@cobrates7832]

@@dessertfox5995 I can't speak for anyone else, but my observations and experiences are that when one makes a ridiculous argument I (and most people I know and have observed) don't even bother to react. We laugh and go on with whatever we were doing. But when the reactions become very hostile, when they start attacking the messenger personally instead of the message then there usually is truth in the message / argument. A truth people rather don't want to see because it hurts their feelings or worldview or whatever (hence the hostile reactions). If what Volound said was total nonsense they wouldn't have treated him the way they did. Liars and deceivers will first try to ignore the one that shines light on their con. If that doesn't work they start to ridicule him, and if that doesn't work they start personal attacks. It's the best method to spot liars and deceivers, and you don't even have to understand what's it all about. Honest people will never react in such a way.

[@dessertfox5995]

@@cobrates7832 Yeah i understand that and agree with the sentiment, but simply saying your right because you get flak for it is kinda circular reasoning was my point. Idk why i posted that comment because its probably very obvious that you were saying that as an act of solidarity rather than an argument. Idk sometimes its 4 in the morning your ADHD pills effects ran out hours ago your binge watching total war content and you see a comment of solidarity and you think oh thats a bad argument imma write a comment under his comment about how its a bad argument, not realizing of course that its not an argument but an act of solidarity. Oh well what are you going to do?

[@cobrates7832]

@@dessertfox5995 You are using circular reasoning right there. And you haven't addressed anything I said. And you try to imply that I am some kind of lunatic without knowing anything about me. Well done!

[@karollatocha3244]

Idk if you covered the feeling of units weight(?) , I mean in Medieval2 in order to successfully defend the gate you actually have to put up about 1/3 of enemy's units, otherwise they will just push through. Not even the pikes can hold against the horde of enemies and I think that's cool, but in Rome2 single pike unit (or any other unit) can hold chokepoint and they are just simply waiting and not pushing at all and the same situation is in every next title (you actually can do pushing through enemy lines via right click spam but AI never does that). I think thats dumb that 120 men can hold like 2000 without any problems and with almost no casualties

[@dgray3771]

Is that a good or bad thing though? Mass only exists in ancient battles with dense formations like phalanx or shieldwall formations. Realistically cavalry doesn't even charge onto pike in reality yet the AI suicides them. In reality if a wall of pike is holding a gate not tenthousand men could breach the position. You'd have to go around or use ranged weapons. Even if the older mass system worked nicely on simply melee units and cavalry I think it is ridiculous to expect mass to push away a pike formation.

[@bigtimetelevision4585]

Step 1: I'm seething! We gotta cancel him! Step 2: Listen, I'm not trying to defend him, but on this one point, he's not lying that much... Step 3: Yeah, refund me, I'm never buying a CA title ever again, they've been ruining it for years - I was there when my boy Volound was ripping them, and they still haven't changed!

[@tubberspicefactory2825]

I dont think its fair to throw Arch under the bus like this. He doesn't do total war as a main show on his channel. He does LORE videos of all Warhammer on his channel as his main show. And him playing games is the filler between his main videos. He's been working hard for months behind the scenes on his latest seriers, the Bedab war. Which takes time to make. Yeah he's voiced his opinion on total war before because he loves the series and hates what it became. But he is not YOUR channel, and what you do. So it may seem likes hes "hiding" but hes honestly been working on what he does best, which is Warhammer 40k lore videos. Idk if you actually watch his total videos, but in one of his shogun 2 campaign videos. He talks about how AI will never get better, its the scripts that need to get better. Like he talks about it, just not in your format. He literally works with robotics and programming them in the real life outside youtube, he semi knows what he's talking about. I like your videos, but calling him out is not fair when his total war stuff is "filler" to his lore videos.

[@majora4prez543]

It is always fair to throw fash under the bus.

[@tubberspicefactory2825]

@@majora4prez543 wow you're sooooo original, did you stay up all night thinking of that reply? Now wanna add anything constructive or you just gonna regurgitate that hes a FaSh like you actually believe it?

[@majora4prez543]

@@tubberspicefactory2825 cope

[@tubberspicefactory2825]

@@majora4prez543 lmao, yall never can have good discussions, thanks for proving me right bro.

[@majora4prez543]

@@tubberspicefactory2825 seething

[@slinkerdeer]

For me the best Total War experience is Medieval 2 with the Lands To Conquer mod, including the LTC Gold submod. It adds loads of well chosen and created new units, tweaks the campaign to be better but still very much vanilla. And fixes two handed bug and pikemen bug. Billmen are actually scary in melee combat

[@lt3746]

Didn’t know that was a thing, I’ll have to check it out.

[@ilitree6267]

Unpopular opinion: don’t play games you don’t like just because they are the next in line of your favorite game I still play RTW, without the remaster. I love it. I still play AoM. I love it. I still play HOMM4, I love it.

[@princeniccolo8299]

The Total War series definitely needs some competition and more widespread criticism. I love the Warhammer games, but god damn there are some absolutely unacceptable issues and missing features.

[@HipsterCthulhu]

Same! It hurts because they introduced a TON of really cool new features in the Warhammer games... but on the other hand, stripped away BASIC FRAKKING CONCEPTS that should have been at the heart of every TW game. Its such a shame. In the words of Nick Hodges from History Buffs: Is it too much to ask for both?

[@emergenciest]

I've sank God knows how much time into the original shogun same medieval, and I still can't believe that modern total war games have such blatant issues as elevation not affecting ranged units. This isn't the series of games I fell in love with.

[@lt.danicecream]

Its a shell of itself. Ive played since medieval tw, I dont play anymore as the current iterations are hollow and boring.

[@dommynation7349]

I like the video, I just disagree with the Arch part. Otherwise I think that you hit the nail on the head. Keep it up dude!

[@roguewasbanned4746]

Lol I like the criticism on Arch though. That was pretty funny, and I would love to see him do some similar content lol, but idk if he’s willing to get under the heat again as KZbin is very trigger happy on bans these days

[@dommynation7349]

@@roguewasbanned4746 I find it pretty funny as well, I just disagree with it. And I hope that he does it again, in spite of KZbin being so trigger happy.

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

@Zoomer Waffen Except his focus is Warhammer, thus he focuses on warhammer games. be it Mordheim, Titanicus or Necromunda. He doesnt make a lot of videos discussing total war because he likes total war warhammer and everything beyond that is secondary outside of some of the politics behind the scenes.

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

@Zoomer Waffen When did he shill exactly? because last i checked he has always been pretty damn critical of the games he checks out.

[@thelonehuntsman1153]

Interesting that you were talking about DICE getting sued over BF4. It was a wake up call in a way as they pulled their finger out fixing it and imo Battlefield 4 is probably the best recent BF.

[@sephikong8323]

I mean, yes if you count the modern ones then it's better than the rest, but I still think the classic games are way better

[@jacobsmith2577]

I’m still surprised by the quality of the old games and occasionally find a mechanic I didn’t know about before. Like Rome we are witnessing the decline of total war. Soon the barbaric indie developers will conquer them and out do them. Soon new games will rise!

[@AgamemnonTWC]

Funny enough, I actually *did* say in 2010 that I only found European history interesting, when explaining why I wasn't interested in Shogun II. I was also literally 13 years old at the time, on TWC. Since then I've both become much more interested in history of places besides Europe, and fallen in love with Shogun II as a game.

[@rokutaro]

I'm liking the analytical explanations in your videos. It's all proven by you and it objectively makes the game bad. Mad respect for all the work you put into the videos. Kinda sad how other people handle criticism. I started with Shogun 2 which I played a lot but only played the following Total War games for bit or not at all. I didn't like them but also didn't bother to look as much into the problems as you did. In the end it was all the stuff you stated and even more which made me lose interest in the franchise and finally drop it.

[@nimai7074]

Don't worry, there are competitors coming up slowly, but surely. You can look at Manor Lords, an upcoming city building / Real time battle game and the progress that the sole developer made in such a short time, implementing features that CA wasn't able to in years just in the matter of days or weeks. And he is not the only one. Just like Blizzard, CA has gone fully onto the capitalistic route, which is essentially a self destructive path. If the next historical game will be set in Europe, it might as well be the end of CA, if they don't magically change their ways after more than 6 years.

[@neilcaezar306]

True,we may see the demise of TW if they dont take a 180 away from the things they are doing right now .Let CA watch as their own implementations chip away the foundation of what originally Shogun Total war did 20 years ago

[@nimai7074]

@@cabbagedestroyer1693 I'm talking about excessive monetization like can be seen with Rockstar, pushing out games that attract the wide audience that won't stay with the game for a long time but will buy it. Along with pushing out the "Saga" games every year with little improvement, just a different setting. This also combines with a lot of mediocre DLC, that is much much smaller than DLCs like Fall of The Samurai in Shogun 2 and other ones. In short, putting capital as a higher priority than a good game.

[@matthiuskoenig3378]

@@nimai7074 yeah but both approaches (satisfying the customer, quality, and pushing out as many games and DLCs as possible, quantity) are capitalistic, capitalistic is just profit-seeking, which can be made with a variety of methods. so arguably your use of capitalistic route was misleading. in this case, due to a lack of competition, they went with the quantity method but selling it as if it were quality. CA has an effective monopoly on their style of game. and that is the issue, not their profit-seeking. i would argue you would have gotten your point across better if you had said 'monopolistic' rather than capitalistic.

[@camilomayo3855]

Anyone going to talk about the 600 dislikes? Thats way less than the "why total war´s success was 8 years ago". I wonder why....

[@Volound]

exactly. well observed.

[@sovereign6445]

When you literally have to resort to winning battles With your general units while your army gets decimated in the background you know somethings wrong.

[@ishitrealbad3039]

LegendOfTotalWar literally started using 1 man armies to defeat hordes of full stacked armies.... Just one stupid rat that's hiding, spamming spells and than retreat to do it again in the next turn..... total war is broken....

[@worganfreeman2694]

The mona lisa dlc meme hits home the main point so well it actually hurts having played from Mtw1 through to current day total war games. Thus, words cannot justify how much I appreciate the modding community.

[@Taterazay95]

I have been trying to work out why I simply do not enjoy Total War like I used to - you've hit the nail square on the head and enlightened me as to why: the immersion is gone and strategy or thought is no longer required, as it comes down to who has the bigger stick (which is always the AI). As you said with the hidden modifiers in an earlier video, it completely removes the strategy from the game - I had a battle recently in Attila, where I took a full "standard" imperial legion (1x General, 9 Legio, 4 Ballistarii, 2 Equites Dalmatii, 4 Contarii) up against a basic Germanic horde (basically 20 units of levy) and they wiped my arse front and centre because my Legio would break and run after being reduced to about half the unit size by the "ferocious" levy spearmen - not giving my flank archers and cavalry time enough to get stuck into the rear! All I want is my Avatar Campaign back, is that too much to ask!?

[@doellison]

Every game community could use a smart guy like you being honest and critical, even if the criticism is harshly negative sometimes. You always do a good job explaining the factors the formulate your views and opinions.

[@crispymormon5977]

The community will keep creeping towards the conclusion volound has made, but they will never acknowledge that he reached it before the rest of them. To admit he reached it first would be admitting to have no critical thinking, and being blindmen leading the blind towards a cliff. Never forget who planted the vines that strangled this castle wall to rubble. Volound, the fool god who called it as it was.

[@zac3473]

I just miss Shogun 2. Even patched Rome 2/Atilla is better than these newer games. The battles just dont feel as heavy, missiles are like pebbles and have no impact. Plus the emphasis on these high fantasy and unrealistic settings really annoy me. All we want is medieval 3.

[@matthewaskins664]

@@cabbagedestroyer1693 the feel of the missiles tho, they just don’t feel the same as they used to. Volund did a whole vid on this, you should watch it

[@10Tabris01]

Manorlord - when it comes out - seems to be in that direction

[@joelmaynard5590]

Arch is a warhammer channel with politics, his total war stuff is tertiary at best. A little uncalled for m8. The games have been getting shit since rome1. med 2 took a good system and added unneeded hurdles that were never added in future titles. Warscape is a horrible engine for anything that is not two lines of guys shooting guns at eachother. Total war won't be good again until they ditch the engine entirely. The amount of shills and warhammer apologists are sickening, there was a med2 mod that did almost everything warhammer 1 did but better and it was free.

[@Pekopekope]

Yeah this is the biggest thing for me. I am old enough to remember the UT total conversion competitions back in the day, the 18yr olds buying the flashiest shit now have absolutely no idea about how little value for money they get from DLCs in comparison to - basically - entirely new games built by small teams of 1 or 2 people for fucking free. They just have no idea whatsoever that some of the worlds most popular games today started out as mods or conversions.

[@Mr_D_OG]

in fact the mod is still out there and it was released years before warhammer 1 and had far more content than warhammer 1 on release,finally the last update for the mod was last year,i ve been telling people for years go play the mod instead but NOOOOO, i wann play the licensed game,fuck i hate modern total war apologists

[@VargVikernes1488]

Calling Rome and Medieval 2 shit is just you being hipster, at this point.

[@prdalien0]

The William Wallace chad vs the CA simps

[@hazzardalsohazzard2624]

In the case of Arch, I think he's moving away from Warhammer and Total War after Games Workshop got litigious about the name and made Wargaming stop making deals with him. Criticism could potentially harm him in court.

[@blahmarduk]

this channel has a level of fully earned pride that reminds me of how the ancient greeks spurned false humility, I love it. only total war content I can truly enjoy as someone who's been playing since I picked up viking invasion with 2 months of allowance money from a target at 10 years old.

[@poppytales8347]

This isn't just Total War and CA, this is game industry in a nutshell. Bunch of as*holes in suits telling us how we should play and what is acceptable standard for any game coming from well renowned publishers for products worth of 60 € (160 for Warhammer II and all it's crap, just lol). Thanks for all your work sir! Please keep on doing it. It helped me understand which way my own game design needs to go. I also love how you can hurt some butholes on the internet with simple logic and facts. Love the content.

[@sulivansfishandchips9697]

This may not relate to the topic of the video but I was watching a TV series about the three kingdoms era from 10 years ago and I realised that some of the sound effects in total war three kingdoms where exactly the same as the TV series. It seems that they took the sound effects from the TV series instead of making their own

[@thegoondockswarcouncil9543]

I’m 7:00 minutes in, and I still have not heard anything about your titled thesis. Instead, it’s just rehashing beef with the Reddit forum and other you tubers. This is not what I clicked on the video to hear.

[@Farathriel]

I thought I'd never see anybody saying nearly the exact same things I've been thinking about for a while. TW series was with me for a long time, at least since Rome Total War, when I was old enough to understand the basics of such games and somehow play it. Anyway, I got the sensation that the further one looks into the characteristics of these games, the worse it gets by the time of new releases past Shogun 2. Here, let me give you a few examples: WH2 is, according to my experience, the pinnacle of professionally acclaimed and recognized cheese. It's so cheesy, I could easily bake my homemade pizza a few times and I'd still have a bit of parmegiano left. Overuse of magic, constant corner of the map camping, ranged units spam, single-entity units overuse, AI trollfest. I've seen people bragging how they got through legendary difficulty in WH2. If somebody likes it that way, fine, I don't care. But I will never believe in that kind of BS, that WH2 is intended to be played on legendary, nor even on very hard. It's that kind of elitism or snobism that trigger me timbers harshly. There's barely any merit to playing it on aforementioned difficulties. Let's say you play humans and are being attacked by hordes of greenskins. As long as you'll keep all of your units near the central plaza, far away from the walls, you'll be fine. Put some archers atop the plaza, let the artillery and ranged boys shoot the lord. All you'll have to do is simply hold the green masses away from the flag and let them rot being reduced to ash after fusterclucking itself near your units and being bombarded. There's more than that. The issue is that once you'll grasp those cheesy tactics, there's no way to stop using them no matter the difficulty. You stop feeling like "holding the line", "repositioning", "ambushing the enemy". Nope. You'll pick up your lord on the flying mount, spam some magicks (Yes, I'm looking at you Balthasar Gelt) and let the AI empty their quivers while you'll be watching as they burn alive, doing nothing viable to prevent it. I dunno what's the drama truly about and I don't feel like this is my business. You seem to be a victim of a smear campaign so I feel like you have every right to defend yourself. Anyway, I will never believe that it's a part of tactics and profound strategy to troll the enemy by emptying their quivers, luring them into obviously cramped spaces or forcibly searching for any bridge or water crossing only to glitch the enemy AI. And, unfortunately that's also what some of TW "pros" were advocating for. They speak about tactics and the skill and I can only hear "that's how you cheese through it, boi". Don't get me wrong, WH2 is a good game, hence it's success and popularity. Unfortunately, I don't think it's a great TW game. It's just a good game with it's own "ways" of approaching things. PS. regarding toxic community - people need to stop thinking they're the center of the universe. Perhaps in cosmology Earth is the center of the universe but in human culture things work differently. I've been a victim to that kind of toxicity multiple times. It can be easily summed up as "How dare you disagree with me and how dare you dislike what I like?!". These people don't think in terms of merit but rather according to their feelings and recognition of what's good and what's bad. You disagreeing with them, triggers their aggressive response because they subconsciously evaluated your very existence as morally wrong. They confuse the merit of the discussion with the morality of actions, thus the vitriolic reaction.

[@Angelina9240-1]

I've always had a deep feeling in my heart, that the gaming industry is just fucked by Monopoly Companies like CA, EA, Paradox, and etc. Soaking us up with shitty cheap games and 30$ DLCs.

[@fox0088]

I was a big fan of Total War games for the larger part of my 28 year old life as I grew up with them. But since a few years, not any longer. The last one I enjoyed was Atilla (not the most popular opinion) and this was also the last one I bought. The games were never perfect, most annoyingly for me aside from many bugs was the crappy AI and very superficial auto-resolving mechanics forcing you to battle it out everytime against that crappy AI. And the problems were never fixed and always returned in next installments. There was absolutely no progression anymore, especially with regards to AI, and the franchise became more simplistic with every game. Fans were annoyed with how easy and short battles and campaigns became, but it just kept evolving in the wrong direction in my opinion. Their response was always to give the AI many unfair advantages, up to the point that I never even touched anything beyond the hard difficulty setting anymore. What finally finished off my passion for TW was the absolute lack of any noteworthy TW with a historical setting after Atilla. I am still massively disappointed when I think of the Rome II Siege of Carthage gameplay trailer. It quite sums up the feeling I get of the franchise now, which is a shame because I did have fun with TW.

[@TyProductionsfull]

Truly the only total war youtuber with unbreakable morale, keep fighting the good fight!

[@picklefathernurgle2719]

He must be getting buffs from very hard difficulty......

[@Rossbuckle1]

Do you know what, given everything that you have had to deal with in the past year, I'd say you've got through it quite well. I found your channel about 10 months ago now and personally I absolutely love it, the gameplay videos and the discussion videos. I've watched your videos discussing the state of the TA games and honestly, I couldn't agree with you more, your spot on with everything you say and your only saying it because, like with most people who love gaming, you want the game to be challenging and just in general be a good, meaningful, well structured, well thought out game that isn't lazy with its gameplay. And your impossible battles series is fucking ace hahahaha! I watched loads of them back to back in the first lock down and ended up buying shogun 2 because of it hahah. Keep it up anyway Volound, your brilliant at what you do!

[@harlek1149]

Reminds me of that song, how does it go? Never go on Reddit - never go on Reddit! Never go on Reddit, never go on Reddit. Never go on Reddit - never go on Reddit, NEVER GO ON REDDIT

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

reddit can be fun if the community is well run and its mostly civil.

[@ishitrealbad3039]

Reddit is fine as long as you don't go to any subreddit about products, franchises or politics. For example i'm following enough gun, tactical and war pictures subreddits that don't have any toxicity at all.

[@omperial9870]

@@boarfaceswinejaw4516 which normally they aren't unless they appeal to a niche. Brigading is a social norm of Reddit, whether or not it is accepted, and from personal experience it shows the immaturity of Reddit that it has become widespread.

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

@@omperial9870 Echo Chambers and hug boxes are shit, but at the same time a lot of people prefer reddit style authoritarianism over the "no holds barred" nature of something like 4chan, where trying to discuss a hobby on a 4chan thread always runs the risk of contacting a case of the /pol/acks, here to shit in people's cereal by calling everyone n-words and trying to orient what might have started out as a history thread around something "more important" like how sexy trump is. In the end, internet forums are like a baboon's asshole. Split, colorful, but with a tendency to squeeze out turds. You could blame the baboon for its scatalogical tendencies, but personally I'll blame the fucknugget who decided to cram his face into the ass to begin with. Getting tired of people pretending these forums are in any substantial way different when the human behaviour on display is just repeats.

[@SgtSpecOps1]

I was intruduced by a friend to Total War Shogun 2 about a year ago. Never played such a satisfing strategy game like that before. Im about to hit around 400 hours on it and I still feel like theres so much more to do, experience and experiment with! The game really is enjoyable and I love its dynamic and emergent battles that force you to think and act accordingly. I few months after that I found your channel and watched nearly all your videos (especially the ones about the state of more modern total war titles) and I just recently got myself Total War Medival 2 after watching you talk about it in comparinsons with other more modern titles. Loving the game and cant wait to push it to the limits. Your videos are incredible, objective and aimed at improving experiences, and I just wanted to let you know that. Good vid, man. (A late) Merry Christmas and heres hoping for a happy New Year to ya man.

[@IconiaAngelos]

The fact this video is exactly 30:00 makes me feel a bit tingly and warm inside.

[@thelonehuntsman1153]

Ahhh I miss the old podcasts with cosmic. It sucks how complacent CA has gotten, they know that even if they keep putting out subpar games that people will just gush over it in order to get special goodboy points on echo chambers.

[@petercrowley453]

@Volound Christopher Hitchens. My goodness, you don’t stop going up in my estimations. Loving it brother. Keep fighting the good fight!

[@MasonDixonAutistic]

Is anyone else actually enjoying Shogun 2 a lot more since Volound started doing these videos?

[@davio7031]

You’re totally right, this is an issue effecting the entire gaming industry, Shogun 2 is better than anything they’ve made since. You’re far from alone but I’m afraid nothing short of a boycott would change anything.

[@dgray3771]

Shogun2 is my favorite total war game but far from flawless. Inherent problems that existed since Empire were never solved. And resurfaced with vengeance with Rome 2. What Shogun 2 has is immersion. It is the best game to feel like you are in feudal japan. But just because the rock paper scissors works in Shogun 2 doesn't mean it is great. With Rome2 and it's tweeks on AI it became more obvious that you are looking at individual units making moves rather than a unit. Unlike with Rome/Medieval 2. And that 1 on 1 system makes most your unit static as fk. Can go into detail. But it just looks weird.

[@Snowi3a11]

I will always value the points and voice you give very effectively and succinctly to the issues plaguing this franchise, and how blatantly you can point out the differences that your average layman would likely miss, and how those small details can have a big influence on the experience as a whole; I genuinely appreciate how successful you've been in this aspect. I would very much advise caution with the political jabs towards others however, because that is a Pandora's box that shouldn't be anywhere near the topics you cover, much less opened for the hell of it. Likely a perspective that will fall on deaf ears, but I've come to expect that from most content creators in this overly polarized and politicized world we now find ourselves in, and can't escape. Leave the political shit flinging to the channels who sell themselves on that, that sort of thinking. I don't know if there's much point to this comment by that logic, but I just felt like I should say something rather than nothing.

[@mattdarwin3978]

The only total war game I've played and love is warhammer 2, i saw it on sale and figured i would buy it since i love the setting and after 400+ hours of playing it, buying the first game for mortal empires, blood for the blood god, and buying more dlc i can say that there are so many things that are to be desired after watching your videos; seeing formations, terrain being a factor, actual tactics needing to be used , etc. It has opened my eyes to what total war games should be and honestly after playing it so much before and after watching your vids I've always noticed these little or big things that would make the game so much more enjoyable but i wasn't able to really define it at the time but your videos really do explain what these newer games are missing or have lost because of CA being lazy. I thank you for being able to explain and define these issues clearly for many to see and i hope someone heading the new games will recognize and mend these issues so total war will be back to its prime and possibly even ascend to new heights hopefully. Edit: Got Shogun 2 because of your vids on it and I'm not disappointed still suck at it but man when you win a siege against 2-1 odds it was so satisfying still gotta learn and improve though, but playing it actually makes me a bit sad thinking about what warhammer 2 could be, thanks @Volound

[@magtegi2]

"And not the words of one who kneels" I did it my way By Frank sinatra. Our thoughts our words not theirs not their words But the truth

[@Volound]

i simply respect the gameplay. the gameplay must be respected.

[@pakornwattanavrangkul2550]

I remember arch talking on the dlcs a while back but I think he got tired of total war post tombkings and took a long break from it. Also his is primarily warhammer lore channel, not a total war channel.

[@zac3473]

13:12 lmao bravo on the edit xD

[@mootedtols4865]

Just want to say, I really appreciate what you're doing. There's a lot of denial around as well, I hear "wait till there's a new historical game, there hasn't been one since Attila" Watched most of your series now, as a near 20 year TW vet myself (started on medieval) - you articulate everything I would like to. Keep doing what you're doing. Fuck the reddit trolls.

[@beetheimmortal]

What they are doing is despicable. I'm so glad I'm just a casual Total War enjoyer and have nothing, and I mean NOTHING to do with this community. It's a disgrace.

[@lt.danicecream]

The age of silencing voices of a different opinion....and the masses love it

[@CommieCat]

I feel like I got clickbaited....this should be called the state of my internet drama.

[@svensonsen1572]

True

[@ArxStrategy]

You know what I find tragic? The fact that not buying the games will not change the course of these predatory dlc practices. The executives so out of touch with the customer and the subtle metrics of their market will shut down the whole studio before admitting their gutting of content and changing the product to suit a market that is already tapped is wrong. What will happen if we stop buying is what EA and Activision did, they will shut down the studio and blame it on everything else but their business practices, jumping from a ship, stripping it for timber and then when it inevitably sinks, jump on to the next one.

[@mazdrpan4099]

About lord and faction DLCs: Im not a programmer or a graphic designer. It took me 2 afternoons, about 6 hours of work in total, to polish up rosters of Ardiaei, Massilia, Cimmeria, Pergamon and Numidia (before they were added in desert DLC) for Rome 2, with over 20 new land units as well as a dozen naval units. I also added couple dozen new models for some units that were just bland and uninteresting. 6 hours of work to design, implement and balance test, thematically friendly units, that should have been in the game from the start. Things like all 3 tiers of cavalry for Ardiaei, as well as some basic missile units like archers and peltasts, both land and marine versions. Celtohellenic and Scythohellenic units for Massilia and Cimmeria as well as some more spears and melee infantry for Odryssians. Did a similar thing by unlocking all elector counts for Warhammer 2 ME campaign. It took a couple hours and most of that time was spent researching how to actually do it, rather than implementing it. Reason Im saying this is for you to understand how criminal charging 10$ for a DLC truly is. And people are still buying it smh.

[@zissimus8462]

Brutal man. I have a question though. What about their discord claim? That you kept banning them.

[@SwordCunt]

Deliberate trolling from a few specific guys, he explained this in his last video.

[@zissimus8462]

@@SwordCunt Oh, sorry, thanks.

[@zissimus8462]

@@cabbagedestroyer1693 OK, that is kinda.... bad.

[@JordanR]

@@cabbagedestroyer1693 I don't like how he goes zero to 100 on people either. Maybe I'm too fucking Canadian for my own good, but that's not how you get people to listen to you in my experience. I can however appreciate the frustration he must feel when spending time and effort making critiques and getting that kind of feedback in return. You were shitposting tbh. Lots of people liking something, or playing a game doesn't suddenly erase all of it's flaws or make them unimportant. If that's your only argument then you're wasting his time because I guarantee he's heard and responded to it in kind far too many times, as has anyone who's ever publicly criticized CA's golden child in any real, sustained way.

[@czechpatriot2230]

@@cabbagedestroyer1693 Can you post screenshot of that? Just want to know what exactly happened in that thread.

[@FoodDipFan]

You and Cosmic Contrarian should team back up and start shitting on contemporary total war games like Warhammer, Troy, etc. Those co-op campaigns from 2013 were so hilarious and also very on point. I discovered you from those videos back then but have only recently subscribed to your channel.

[@STRZB001]

Dude, at this point, I wouldn’t even worry about these children. Who honestly gives a fuck? The people who love you will keep loving you, like myself. I know it sucks having people give you a constant hard time (I’m a fucking Ginger), but these guys that give you a hard time don’t know from left to right. They’re so far up CA’s ass because they started when Rome II came out, hated it and then thought WHII was a godsend. Pathetic. I love your stuff Volound, real TW gamers love your stuff. Keep doing you man. Your true fans support you. Forget about those children. This is not a comment about me asking you to stop defending yourself against these fucking twats. You deserve to be doing this. But don’t even get hung up with them. Don’t stoop to their “you did bad, are bad” level. Love ya man. Can’t wait for the next video.

[@nikolozgilles]

i'll be honest no matter what you feel the sentence "a 40 minute lecture on the sound of crossbows" gave me a good chuckle

[@TheBenoit99999]

I'm glad you've put into words something that was bothering me for a long time in your videos, which is why it makes me sad to see you're taking such a hit for. I've kept playing Rome1 and Medieval2 for a long time since Rome 2 and forgot about the latest titles, only to see it kept going down when I tried Warhammer 2 last year.

[@neilcaezar306]

Great video once again ,redditors suckk. I miss Good TW games ,You are leading a good cause Volound

[@suinsarbayev2191]

Reddit clown: a guy once told me in 2010 that shogun 2 is a good game Shogun 2: Released in 2011

[@antonslavic1892]

I get it that you gotta defend yourself and all that but the last thing i expected to see from a vid with a "state of total war" in its title was a drama ranting about who did what, say what where etc etc Honestly i expected a rant about apsurd pricing on half finished games or basicly anithing that made the tw games go down the shiter. So am calling ur title a click bait man, waste of my time tbh.

[@leeionicatlas6461]

Uh... I think ya dinnt watch the vidya. He talks about a lot of the issues with the playerbase, developers, and overall community, while games have degraded for almost 7 years.

[@svensonsen1572]

@@leeionicatlas6461 I watched the video and 90% of it was ranting about Reddit. A platform where any decent man wouldn't go.

[@MrAsh1100]

He's talking about the entire state of total war. And as you know, the community is the most important part. The developers? Not so much since game stays relevant via the community and how much the devs can milk money from em

[@antonslavic1892]

@@MrAsh1100 fair enough but the community hasnt changed for one bit, as all things go when humans are involved there will be always someone that ends up on the wrong side of the stick at any time. Nothing new there tbh.

[@MrAsh1100]

@@antonslavic1892 Fair. But again, Volound did made over a few videos laser focused in the issues of modern TW. So yeah. I can see why some would take it wrongly when they haven't watched the rest. I've watched all of his videos, the ones that laser focused down the problems so that's why I probably don't feel.... what's that? Click-baited?

[@inbox57111]

(1:06) Reddit once again surpassing itself at being gay.

[@loveless8241]

I can't wait when lawyers finally get involved.

[@zero0hex]

Reddit has been a sack of shit for years now. Social media is dead.

[@kieranmelville5451]

Love these videos, still like Total war: Warhammer. The nostalgia for Warhammer fantasy is still there in my heart