I would add, that has far as i know (been playing since Rome 1), only Medieval 2 had unit "uniform" change based on the level of the armorer of the city/castle, which to me, is still the best feature EVER in a Total War.
Absolutely. It is amazing when you compare the early spear militia, which are basically peasants with pointy sticks to the late game spear militia with their long spears and heavy mail
Top 5 Identity Crisis Units. Basically the units that feel like they're meant for a specific role but they're very poor at it compared to other units for the same or lesser cost. This idea comes from the Razordons added to TW; WH2. They feel like worse Salamanders but aren't cheaper so lack an identity to be used. There have to be other units out there like them in the TW franchise too.
Attila is littered with them. My current playthrough with the Alamans and their Chnodomar’s Raiders are a case in point. The only reason I can think off to choose the Raiders over Germanic Mounted Brigands is 13 missile vs 6 missiles. But the price is 925 vs 475, so you pay 450 for 7 additional missiles. What the hell? Why not just buy 2 Mounted Brigands instead of 1 Raiders? Also: Germanic Pikes vs Levy, the only thing Pikes have going for them is Shield Defence being 30 instead of 18 and being able to Pike Wall. it is supposed to be this defensive entry-level unit and yet it is worse than spears unless someone is stupid enough to run straight into them before easily scattering them with ranged units, since their morale and missile defence is woeful. And dont even get me started on the Taifali Cavalry and Gothic Falxmen...
Yari samurai, for their cost worse anti-cav than yari Ashigaru, not as good for anti-infantry as their sword counterpart in the katana samurai, and their sprint ability does kinda help with opportunistic charges and running people down but light cav does that better
@@chryasor9254 How about we take it up a level with the Bulletproof samurai for the Date? Basically uparmored, but slower Yari samurai meant to be resistant to ranged units, you know, the thing that you can already get with Naginata samurai....
@@kill4monney213 oh, true. I think the big issue with them us that you can only have 4, if you could have more they would be a good upgrade of the naginata samurai
Top 5 worst battlefield mechanics. There's nothing worse than when the AI attacks and you cant see anything due to the FOG! or the map is full of trees, etc..
And this is one of the main reasons why Medieval 2 is still the best. It feels impactful to destroy an army or to lose a few elite archers to cavalry when you weren't paying attention. It could seriously screw up your plans. The later total wars seemed to be getting worse and worse in this regard, I destroy an army, look, theres another one just like it. Add to that the lack of diversity in units in Three Kingdoms and I was bored out of my mind in 2-3 hours. It's just the same turn after turn. The recruitment system from Medieval 2, the replenishment system from the later games coupled with factions (or just the regions they inhabit) having wildly different units in looks and stats and I'm happy. Add economy and diplomacy systems that get the right balance between actually meaningful but not overcomplicated and I might have a new favourite. But I doubt it'll happen. Total War appears to be going the way of Michael Bay - a few explosions here and there are nice but the later Transformers movies hurt my brain so much I stopped watching. Stop dumbing everything down!
If you play it modded, with stuff like Stainless Steel, or Third Age, that impact gets even bigger. Nothing hurts more than loosing your flamethrower troops as the Byzantines early, or in Third Age, having a unit of Trolls, or Swan Knights get cut/shot down. The time and effort it is going to be to recruit new units, then have them travel to the front lines means you actually might not want to commit your elite armies to major battles, you may want to throw a more expendable army in first to soften the enemy up, and maybe take down a few key units, such as spearmen or a unit of powerful archers, before sending in your elite army.
@@theshadowling1 I play both of those mods :D I absolutely love that aspect of the battles where you hold back your elites because they cannot be replaced, and you only throw them into the fray when necessary or to mop up. Sometimes fighting a battle against a full stack of Mordor and not using my elite heavy dwarves even once :D That's another problem with the newer games. The newer maps look nice but how many mods had their own strategy maps since Shogun 2?
@theshadowling1 i recenty played a gondor campaign in third age and losing the starting fountain guard and ithilien rangers was so painfull. And when i finally unlocked the gondor infantry and spearmen i treated them like fucking gold because they were the only ones i could get in a lot of turns. Also at one point i had to use some archer militia as infantry because i lost almost all my infantry in one giant battle and i wasn't able to recruit more. I beated mordor and harad eventually though, easily the best and funniest campaign i have ever had in any total war. Much better than actual games were "oh, i just lost a dragon, well, i will recruit 5 more".
I love this one form Medieval 2 "it is said that that the French are better lovers then they are fighters. This is true lads ask any goat, pig and any other farmyard animal"-English speech
@@legio1942 I think when it comes to recruitment it's great, however when it comes to replenishment it's the worst in the series and the least forgiving to new players. Having to march your best units all the way back to your nearest huge city with a barracks, or the nearest citadel with the right stables, is tedious and boring.
@@TheDirtysouthfan thats the point, in real life you could not recruit or replenish knight units from a village or town. You needed to go back to a major city or citadel to replenish your men or hire mercenaries on your way to your target.
@@mermaidman7069 No, you would not, they would ask for reinforcements, and the towns would send them. You are not seriously thinking armies stop in every village and town for reinforcements, do you?
@@mermaidman7069 Medieval's replenishment system made no fucking sense. Marching an entire army back to a town to replenish units? Being into your own territory is enough since reinforcement used to get sent to an army.
@@Smaug2b there isn't any, you recruit an army to garison your city or castle, and I'm fine with that. Edit : in m2tw a certain number units garrisoned in cities don't pay upkeep so there's that.
Always felt like army recruitment has been one of the most important aspects of Total War games that always seems overlooked and streamlined. It's the main reason why I consider Tomb Kangs to be the best designed faction in TW:WH2.
@@legio1942 why? It allows for a lot of different playstyles with tthe different cultures at the time, wonderful escalation with armour and weapons getting better overtime all the way to the invention of the cannon, as well as both massive, medium and small size campaign maps. If its done well, its an amazing time period, just because it covers so much, from the dark ages to early reinassance. If done poorly, its the next majorly "Eh" total war game to come out, like 3K
We need to face the reality that there will never be any more good total war games. M3 would be terrible, it'd be too arcadey like the later total wars, and it'd be chopped up and over monetized, it'd be too "cinematic" you just have guys locked in 1v1 kill animations all over the battlefield.
Top 5 historical eras/regions you personally would like to see in future titles and what kind of features from previous games you would implement that would suit them the best. Can include revisits (like Medieval III or Napoleon 2) if you can detail what you'd add, change or remove from the preceding title(s). edit: and you can always go through your older lists to see if any of them might need revisiting in general.
A mix of diplomacy system from Shogun 2 and the recruitment system from Medieval 2, and the general battles from 3 Kingdoms, and the agency system from Med 2 and Shogun 2 would be perfection.
I actually like the fact that you need to bring back units to replenish them in medieval 2, at least in Third Age: DAC, the fact that you need to retreat your armies once in a while really add depth and challenge to it, and it makes you value your elite units while still keeping a reason to recruit militia and other lower-tier units.
Urban colhort in rome 1 (if we count the 3 playable and 1 nonplyable roman factions as 1 (literally 1 unit difference and slightly different temple buildings))
Also amazing about MedII is that you see upgrades like armor and weapons on units, while those upgrades also make early game units more viable in the lategame.
I just played Medieval 2 and I must say you are totally right, this system is amazing and fixes population depletion from Rome 1, I played Europa Barbarorum 2 also. It allows you get you elite units but only in small numbers and allows for interesting armies, that mixed with really hard replenishment reallly makes this stand out as you usually just won't recruit another stack but replenish old one, so you can't really spam elite units and I love that. To be honest, now when I tried out this "hardscore" replenish system I just love it... (I am new to Rome 1 and Medieval 2) automatic replenishment is so lame compared to that. I really want put importance on that replenish system, because it goes hand in hand with recruitment system. Thanks to this you won't eventually end up with full 1 type army (unless you don't fight any battles or take any losses) which if you don't abuse the AI, is really not possible.
Honorable mention : "People of Rome" mod for Rome II (which was integrated to DEI) . Best recruitment system in Total War ever ! * Basically 4 classes that both impact what the player can recruit and his income (economy from types of buildings). * The population builds up depends on buildings and recruitment of those units depends on the buildings available. * Lower tier or unique local troops can be foreign but proper troops need higher tier of population. * Replenishment is based the population as well so the player needs to care for his good troops and not auto resolve his way to victory * Counters spam armies , counters instant replenishment, encourages smart player , gives more depth to building chains , losing settlements have a cost, home regions as recruitment platforms for high quality armies. * And all of this is combined with research ! the only problem is that CA is a bit retarded and didn't see this mod and said - hmm lets integrate it cause even modders do better than we do and because its a mod things don't work perfectly (population resets after losing settlements/gaining even for one turn).
Top5 mods u must play with to improve your experience in any total war (darthmod for NTW & ETW make these both TW comeback at the top of all TWs, despite vanilla versions was highly disappointing, both deserve a place in top5 imo)
Top 5 (and Flop 5) units in a Total War game. To elaborate: how much a late game unit (e.g.: Black Dragon for Dark Elves in TWW2 or Venetian Heavy Infantry for Venice in Med2) impacts on the game both into battles (for raw strength, resilience and utility) and into strategic maps (for things like recruitment cost or upkeep). It can also be based on a game in particular (e.g.: top 5 for TWW2, top 5 for Med2) or even include mods (e.g.: Third Age for Med2).
Think for me the best personally is the one for Europa barborum for rtw, had a great system that made it so that you could only get your local units at home provinces and were made to recruit native units in far away places depending on what system you used for those provinces.
Great video as always! For the next Top 5 - how about the Top 5 Most Versatile Factions? So factions who have a really flexible roster of units, so that no matter who they end up fighting they can build an army which is well-suited to it and aren't stuck with just a handful of viable battlefield tactics. So stuff like the WRE in Attila, whose units are near-universally garbage but who can always bring the right kind of garbage to counter whoever they're fighting.
Top 5 Total War Strongest Late Game Factions (or early game, up to you): this is about what faction can win based on its early game overal situation (economy, armies, etc) or its late game situation
Another great recruitmentsystem is the one of the DeI mod for Rome 2 with divides the population in 3 or 4 groups and which each unit will be taken from another populationgroup (elite units from the aristocrats, foreign units from the barbaroi,...). Which makes it impossible to recruit your cultural units directly in new conquered land. Love the realism!
Bring back mod review you used to get shit loads of views on them and there are a lot of new mods coming out all the time and u could probably do a top 5 total war mods as well
An idea for recruitment : you can hire units normally, or you can hire AT THE SAME COST the same units at half strength and no veterancy, but it takes one less turn... Either you hire a competent, well trained army, or you need troops NOW ! And pick whoever showed up at the booth ;7
The Medieval 2 System (At least in Stainless Steel: Titanium, (who even plays vanilla anymore?)) Is really immersive when it comes to playing a small faction, because no matter how good you are with money and and combat, the long timers to recruit units really give you the feeling of being running out of manpower, and having to scrap the barrel, thus giving you a reason to train weaker units and have peasant levies making up the bulk of your army even by the mid game instead of just spamming the strongest bois available and steamrolling everyone.
Rome I and Medieval II mixed would be great, you recruit based on buildings and unit limits, but also draw from the population. Perhaps they could also add a resources system. Rather than requiring say a military camp and a smith to recruit heavy spearmen, those secondary buildings allow for the generation of certain materials that are required for recruiting those units. This would allow for you to decide whether you want to have a building that creates military resources or civic resources, and allow for settlements with natural abundance to be more valuable, also resulting in the geography affecting the sort of armies that you are able to recruit. This would have been an especially useful mechanic for Three Kingdoms, where armies all use more or less the same units but it would allow for a closer approximation of the historical unit variety.
Honestly, 3 kingdoms would be best used with something like RTW system, since that type of system is perfect for the Asian kingdoms as it fits with the historical structure of those kingdom. M2 isn't gonna work well.
Top 5 hidden legendary quest items for legendary lords in Warhammer :). Basically they are quest items that have been made by CA/Devs but they for some reason didn't put in a quest battle and instead just hid them in the game. You have to trigger something in order to start the quest. ItalianSparatacus made a short video on it so he can explain it better then me. But I am just giving you a idea for a top 5 video.
A great video with some nice argument for unit pool and its balancing effect in gameplay. How about a top 5 video of morale systems throughout the series? I was genuinely surprised when I had a go with Medieval 1 some time ago - man the morale matters in that game. If your army is routed you can still rally your units to have another go and try to take advantage of enemy spreading its forces too thin in pursuit. The battle maps were often so large that the battle would commonly then degenerate into smaller fights where victory hangs on a sword's edge. The game has admittedly dated, especially the battle controls feel clunky after playing newer titles, but its morale system stands the test of time. "If only those 21 feudal men-at-arms would have lasted a minute longer my neigh-exhausted royal knights could have saved the day..." :P
Top 5 Features LegendofTotalWar has changed his position on. It's been confusing and perversely interesting to see how you've evolved on auto-replenishment.
You could always rank the legendary Lord's from best to worse for each race in Warhammer. It's not a top 5, but seems like it's be easy enough for you and people seem to like seeing that type of thing
I probably liked ToBs recruitment most of all. It was hamstrung by a lack of actual population and that you could recruit anywhere and not just in lands you have held onto for a while already, but the idea was fantastic. I guess it is the overall theme of ToB, to have some really cool ideas that just werent thought all the way through. It was genuinely a game I was disappointed by, unlike 3k, where we all knew where it was heading.
Thank you Legend, I am so happy someone is finally talking about the ATROCIOUS recruiting system in Total War 3 Kingdoms. That problem, combined with the tiny ass UI and font, is the reason I uninstalled the game after merely 26 hours of playing, these two problems just kill the experience for me. Medieval 2 is damn near perfect in every way, which is why I have over 500 hours of playtime, and I still play it time to time.
Top 5 toughest Hunic/Mongolian factions They're in these games: Shogun 1 (Expansion), Medieval 1, Rome 1 (Expansion), Medieval 2, and Attila. Can't remember if there's one in Rome 2.
I wanted to unleash pure rage, when I didn't see M2 on 1 st place (just kidding, was slightly dissapointed), I'm really thinking it's really well developed recruitment system (they could add turning population into military as Legend mentioned). But, if you're playing SS mod for M2 this is really coming brilliant, because you also gain access to local troops, you need to wait more to replenish your troops pool and that way you're beginning to value these troops. For example, I can remember that you can train tampliers almost immediatly, if you build their dwelling for 1000 gold in 1 turn. BUT, you need to wait 12 turns to get another, so you need to take care of these elite unit.
I hope they're going to make Medieval 3 at some point. It was my favorite historical setting for TW game. Greatest possible variety of units, tactics, diplomacy. At least potentially.
top 5 subtle details/mechanics that improve gameplay the most. eg i really like rome1s population mechanic because of the fact that recruiting costs population. it means spamming units mindlessly hurts your economy in a bigger way than just upkeep cost and rewards skill since every soldier you save can be disbanded and the pop returned to the city. I just wish it was balanced in a way where it mattered abit more while having less pop growth and each pop giving alot more money.
Yeah Medievals System is so great! It just makes you care about your troops so much more if they for example are an elite unit that you only have very little of these. I dont really play Med2 any more exept DaC but in that mod it is even more visible!
Top 5 total war mods: Third age (medieval 2) Stainless steel historical improvement project (medieval 2) Divide et impera (rome 2) Darth mod (shogun 2) Europa barbarorum (Rome 1)
@@settratheimperishable4093 i heard ya, the only ones i played in my list was stainless and divide et impera, i was poor when i started total war... so i dont know all the mods, but yeah i heard darth mod for napoleon is the shit also! i think would be a nice video by legendoftotalwar. PS: have you ever seen he's videos BEFORE HE HAD BALLS MAN???? holy shit bro that was funny and cringe! look it up, "Medieval 2 Total War Peasant Challenge Part 1 - The Byzantines Declare War - /watch?v=nCLjAMEGo4k&t" lmao
I agree with the medieval 2 being the best, it makes losing units acutally mattering, in rome 2 and the newer ones i just didnt care in losing one or 2 units because you can get them back too easily and it is so easy to spam, hope they revisit the idea of limiting recruitment caps and timers agian, expecially for historical games
id say rome 1 is better than med 2 even though the a.i cant handle it and id say empire deserves a mention, the way technology and recruitment works in empire is second to none imo
I am actually kind of surprised they didn't implement the Warhammer fantasy limits for army building from the tabletop to the game. Would make tier I and II units have a roll, as well as unlocking 'core' troops based on the general
personally I don't like unit limits because if you have the provinces and you have money why couldn't you have as many of that units that you want? of course if it's timed limit such as one each turn or something like that I don't really care.
I have mixed feelings on unit caps as well but they're kinda from a time when TW had population but no classes within the population. Med 2 for example Spear Sergeants are basically peasants while Mailed Knights are part of the nobility. There are WAY more peasants then nobility, so capping the number of Mailed Knights makes sense in that regard.
Dude the ntw3 mod for napoleon total war would be a a great addition I know it’s a mod but the system pretty much is based solely of historical units so you will have army’s made of historical units it’s great
You've said many times that the three prime components of an effective army in Warhammer II were "Magic, Missiles, and Monsters" because of the way the game works. You've done Top Five Magic schools. Why not do "Top Five Warhammer II Missile Troops" and "Top Five Warhammer II Monster Units"? You could even do "Top Five Warhammer II Racial Artillery" (I actually wonder who gets the top spot there - and if it overlaps with "Monsters").
@@kill4monney213 I wonder whether top Racial Artillery would be Dwarf Organ Guns or Skaven Catapults (excellent anti-infantry) and Lightning Cannons (excellent anti-monster/structure).
@@ANonymous-bh1un I think Organ guns would still take the spot still because of their versatility. They can decimate regiments of infantry, or pretty much any large units whereas the skaven ones are much more specialized in that regard.
@@kill4monney213 Maybe, but there's an argument to be made that two plague claws do better than three organ guns since they can reach over intervening obstacles and have much greater range, while a single lightning cannon does something similar - while still having three artillery pieces in an army compared to Dwarves. I think it could go either way.
Cool idea to just expand on this video alone do a top 5 recruitment system and mechanics on Total War WH2, as you mention there are so many in the game already that are different and unique.
I agree with you on Thrones of Brittania, I really like it from a campaign stand point but I don't enjoy in the long term, often it just feels like it delays major battles in the early game.
I don't mind 3Ks recruitment system because I think a modified version would be a cool idea for a potential Med 3: generals/lords are assigned a title for a province (like in Med 1) and can only recruit troops into their retinue from the province they are title to. Good video though, Thrones was so bad I never really paid attention to how good/bad the recruitment was, a combination of Thrones and Med 2 recruitment with Rome 1 population would be cool.
Maybe top 5 niche units? Like units that are amazingly useful but only if you use them with specific heavy micro/very specific tactics/in heavy synergy with other units.
I would add, that has far as i know (been playing since Rome 1), only Medieval 2 had unit "uniform" change based on the level of the armorer of the city/castle, which to me, is still the best feature EVER in a Total War.
Absolutely. It is amazing when you compare the early spear militia, which are basically peasants with pointy sticks to the late game spear militia with their long spears and heavy mail
yessir
Legend, how about doing a Top 5 Doom Stacks in TW games?
Edit: Thanks for all of the Likes! Hopefully Legend can make a video of this!
Yes do this
What he said
i was just coming here to say this. still going to. volume...
Place 1: necrofex
Place 2: necrofex
Place 3: necrofex
Place 4: necrofex
Place 5: peasants
that would be great!
Top 5 Campaign packs (Wrath of Sparta, The Last Roman, etc)
This
Didn't he include stuff like that in the top 5 DLC video last year?
He already did that. He did the 5 best and worst i think
WowTholyn Yes there has been some could content added.
Warpath is absolutely the best campaing in any past and future total wars
Top 5 Ice Creams to eat while playing Total War!
It's salted caramel :) It's sweet when you're doing well, and salty when all your archers get run over by a flanking cavalry.
Mines gotta be Neapolitan ice cream, the name reminds me of Napoleon which gives me great strength to defeat thy enemies.
Who am I? Vanilla with m&ms in it.
Who am I? Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough Ice Cream
It´s Stracciatella for sure.
Top 5 Identity Crisis Units. Basically the units that feel like they're meant for a specific role but they're very poor at it compared to other units for the same or lesser cost. This idea comes from the Razordons added to TW; WH2. They feel like worse Salamanders but aren't cheaper so lack an identity to be used. There have to be other units out there like them in the TW franchise too.
The War Wagons are probably going to be on the list, especially considering this is the Empire who have access to pistoliers, and outriders.
Attila is littered with them. My current playthrough with the Alamans and their Chnodomar’s Raiders are a case in point. The only reason I can think off to choose the Raiders over Germanic Mounted Brigands is 13 missile vs 6 missiles. But the price is 925 vs 475, so you pay 450 for 7 additional missiles. What the hell? Why not just buy 2 Mounted Brigands instead of 1 Raiders? Also: Germanic Pikes vs Levy, the only thing Pikes have going for them is Shield Defence being 30 instead of 18 and being able to Pike Wall. it is supposed to be this defensive entry-level unit and yet it is worse than spears unless someone is stupid enough to run straight into them before easily scattering them with ranged units, since their morale and missile defence is woeful. And dont even get me started on the Taifali Cavalry and Gothic Falxmen...
Yari samurai, for their cost worse anti-cav than yari Ashigaru, not as good for anti-infantry as their sword counterpart in the katana samurai, and their sprint ability does kinda help with opportunistic charges and running people down but light cav does that better
@@chryasor9254 How about we take it up a level with the Bulletproof samurai for the Date? Basically uparmored, but slower Yari samurai meant to be resistant to ranged units, you know, the thing that you can already get with Naginata samurai....
@@kill4monney213 oh, true. I think the big issue with them us that you can only have 4, if you could have more they would be a good upgrade of the naginata samurai
Top 5 worst battlefield mechanics. There's nothing worse than when the AI attacks and you cant see anything due to the FOG! or the map is full of trees, etc..
Fighting skirm. armies in rome 2
especially in medieval 2
@Jah P I really like Forest Battles, especially in Attila. When I fight as a barbarian faction you really have that immerison when ambushing romans.
How about it medieval 2 where you might get a HUGE mountain that automatically makes the faction at the bottom end lose for obvious reasons
Number 1 has to be the flag capture points in pitched battles when Rome 2 initially released... like what in the name of fuck were they thinking
Top 5 Artillery already
yes please
Why? We all know that superior wood cannons are all you need for arty
We already know Puckle Guns are the best units in any TW game
I would say the best artillery is mortar from warhammer, that shit is deadly to attacking siege armies
Goblobber, Goblobber, Goblobber, Goblobber, aannnd... Goblobber
And this is one of the main reasons why Medieval 2 is still the best. It feels impactful to destroy an army or to lose a few elite archers to cavalry when you weren't paying attention. It could seriously screw up your plans. The later total wars seemed to be getting worse and worse in this regard, I destroy an army, look, theres another one just like it. Add to that the lack of diversity in units in Three Kingdoms and I was bored out of my mind in 2-3 hours. It's just the same turn after turn.
The recruitment system from Medieval 2, the replenishment system from the later games coupled with factions (or just the regions they inhabit) having wildly different units in looks and stats and I'm happy. Add economy and diplomacy systems that get the right balance between actually meaningful but not overcomplicated and I might have a new favourite.
But I doubt it'll happen. Total War appears to be going the way of Michael Bay - a few explosions here and there are nice but the later Transformers movies hurt my brain so much I stopped watching. Stop dumbing everything down!
If you play it modded, with stuff like Stainless Steel, or Third Age, that impact gets even bigger. Nothing hurts more than loosing your flamethrower troops as the Byzantines early, or in Third Age, having a unit of Trolls, or Swan Knights get cut/shot down. The time and effort it is going to be to recruit new units, then have them travel to the front lines means you actually might not want to commit your elite armies to major battles, you may want to throw a more expendable army in first to soften the enemy up, and maybe take down a few key units, such as spearmen or a unit of powerful archers, before sending in your elite army.
@@theshadowling1 I play both of those mods :D
I absolutely love that aspect of the battles where you hold back your elites because they cannot be replaced, and you only throw them into the fray when necessary or to mop up. Sometimes fighting a battle against a full stack of Mordor and not using my elite heavy dwarves even once :D
That's another problem with the newer games. The newer maps look nice but how many mods had their own strategy maps since Shogun 2?
@@hothoploink1509 Have you played the original Medieval Total War? M2TW's recruitment system is ridiculously dumbed down compared to it.
@theshadowling1 i recenty played a gondor campaign in third age and losing the starting fountain guard and ithilien rangers was so painfull. And when i finally unlocked the gondor infantry and spearmen i treated them like fucking gold because they were the only ones i could get in a lot of turns. Also at one point i had to use some archer militia as infantry because i lost almost all my infantry in one giant battle and i wasn't able to recruit more.
I beated mordor and harad eventually though, easily the best and funniest campaign i have ever had in any total war. Much better than actual games were "oh, i just lost a dragon, well, i will recruit 5 more".
Warhammer 2 is the most replayable and diverse total war game ever
Top 5 general speeches.
Rome Total war and Medieval 2 Total War .
For Sigmar, The Empire, and The Warhammer!
I love this one form Medieval 2 "it is said that that the French are better lovers then they are fighters. This is true lads ask any goat, pig and any other farmyard animal"-English speech
THE MOON PEOPLE!!!
What's to worry you men? When courage and manliness were handed out by God's angels...our foes were last in line!
Haven't seen the full video yet, but I'm guessing Medieval 2 is number 1.
Of course, Legend has to wank off Medieval 2.
@@legio1942 I think when it comes to recruitment it's great, however when it comes to replenishment it's the worst in the series and the least forgiving to new players. Having to march your best units all the way back to your nearest huge city with a barracks, or the nearest citadel with the right stables, is tedious and boring.
@@TheDirtysouthfan thats the point, in real life you could not recruit or replenish knight units from a village or town. You needed to go back to a major city or citadel to replenish your men or hire mercenaries on your way to your target.
@@mermaidman7069 No, you would not, they would ask for reinforcements, and the towns would send them. You are not seriously thinking armies stop in every village and town for reinforcements, do you?
@@mermaidman7069 Medieval's replenishment system made no fucking sense. Marching an entire army back to a town to replenish units? Being into your own territory is enough since reinforcement used to get sent to an army.
Happy anniversary legend and mrs. Legend. I hope you enjoy your day off and each other this day.
Top 5 garrison systems
Seems to be a lot of different opinions on that one
Personally I like medieval 2 and Rome 2 DEIs system the most
Felix Andersen Great idea! Seems interesting!!
Felix Andersen sorry Felix, you don’t get a like, I only like the top ten comments!!! XD jk it’s a good suggestion I’ll give you a like tip!!!
Thanks guys!
I dont renember they were a garnison system in med 2
@@Smaug2b there isn't any, you recruit an army to garison your city or castle, and I'm fine with that.
Edit : in m2tw a certain number units garrisoned in cities don't pay upkeep so there's that.
Top five art styles? In terms of UI, unit design, animations, campaign versus battlefield design etc
Oliver Dunn Shogun 2 would be number 1.
Oliver Dunn nice idea! And yeah, shogun 2 would be number one ^^
Always felt like army recruitment has been one of the most important aspects of Total War games that always seems overlooked and streamlined. It's the main reason why I consider Tomb Kangs to be the best designed faction in TW:WH2.
Top 5 doomstacks in TW history
man..i wish they would redo medieval 2,such a great time period for a total war game
If they did I’d want them to do the 4 turns equals one year deal
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Worst time period for Total War.
@@legio1942 why? It allows for a lot of different playstyles with tthe different cultures at the time, wonderful escalation with armour and weapons getting better overtime all the way to the invention of the cannon, as well as both massive, medium and small size campaign maps.
If its done well, its an amazing time period, just because it covers so much, from the dark ages to early reinassance.
If done poorly, its the next majorly "Eh" total war game to come out, like 3K
We need to face the reality that there will never be any more good total war games. M3 would be terrible, it'd be too arcadey like the later total wars, and it'd be chopped up and over monetized, it'd be too "cinematic" you just have guys locked in 1v1 kill animations all over the battlefield.
Top 5 periods you'd most like to see a new historical Total War game set in.
“Coming in at Number One comes to Medieval 2 Total War” - Legend, Every Top 5 Video.
Well we can't very well change reality, can we?
That description seems off
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Top five attractive lords in TWW2
(Sigvald better be number 1)
You misspelled Lord Skrolk
@@sevthegamer8976 And you misspelled our thiccness king Lord Mazdamundi
@@rolewicz8891 you obviously meant Throgg
@@rolewicz8891 Karl Franz would intervene, but he must see to his men. Plural.
The German General from Medieval II would like a word with y'all Bohemian peasants.
You got me there with 3K for a split second, i was like O-O !
Holy hell I was genuinely concerned with that last one
"Wait, how the hell did that beat Medieva- Op, never mind"
Top 5 historical eras/regions you personally would like to see in future titles and what kind of features from previous games you would implement that would suit them the best.
Can include revisits (like Medieval III or Napoleon 2) if you can detail what you'd add, change or remove from the preceding title(s).
edit: and you can always go through your older lists to see if any of them might need revisiting in general.
A mix of diplomacy system from Shogun 2 and the recruitment system from Medieval 2, and the general battles from 3 Kingdoms, and the agency system from Med 2 and Shogun 2 would be perfection.
I personaly dislike 3 kingdoms general battles. I would replace that with the ppulation system from rome 1.
Top 5 most historicly acurate nations/factions in total war games...
I actually like the fact that you need to bring back units to replenish them in medieval 2, at least in Third Age: DAC, the fact that you need to retreat your armies once in a while really add depth and challenge to it, and it makes you value your elite units while still keeping a reason to recruit militia and other lower-tier units.
Top 5 unique units in Total War. What is the best unit that single (or maybe two) Nations can recruit.
Evocati cohort in twr2.
Urban colhort in rome 1 (if we count the 3 playable and 1 nonplyable roman factions as 1 (literally 1 unit difference and slightly different temple buildings))
Poison Archers in Attila. I once killed 1500 troops with just a single unit of those, they’re simply insane.
@@Vincent_Quak what faction is that? Hun?
@@godlovesyou1995 slacvic faction DLC if I recall correctly
Total war Brittania had a great recruitment system imo, happy to see it mentioned.
You could do the top 5 bests and worses economic systems in a total war game Or the top 5 bests and worses building systems.
Building systems are easy. Rome 2 and beyond: Utterly trash. Shogun 2 and previous: Quality system.
Also amazing about MedII is that you see upgrades like armor and weapons on units, while those upgrades also make early game units more viable in the lategame.
Top 5 eras/franchises/historical sagas that they could use for an exciting new TW game.
I’m glad you included Thrones of Britannia on this list!
Yesssssssssssssss, best TW channel ever
I have never felt such disappointment and betrayal followed by such an intense "ha, fuckin knew it" moment than at 10:10
Top 5 manly strategys to intimidate ur enemy into surrendering?!??
number 1 better be to run away in fear
Shogun 2 just getting a Stand and fight general
I just played Medieval 2 and I must say you are totally right, this system is amazing and fixes population depletion from Rome 1, I played Europa Barbarorum 2 also. It allows you get you elite units but only in small numbers and allows for interesting armies, that mixed with really hard replenishment reallly makes this stand out as you usually just won't recruit another stack but replenish old one, so you can't really spam elite units and I love that. To be honest, now when I tried out this "hardscore" replenish system I just love it... (I am new to Rome 1 and Medieval 2) automatic replenishment is so lame compared to that.
I really want put importance on that replenish system, because it goes hand in hand with recruitment system. Thanks to this you won't eventually end up with full 1 type army (unless you don't fight any battles or take any losses) which if you don't abuse the AI, is really not possible.
Honorable mention : "People of Rome" mod for Rome II (which was integrated to DEI) . Best recruitment system in Total War ever !
* Basically 4 classes that both impact what the player can recruit and his income (economy from types of buildings).
* The population builds up depends on buildings and recruitment of those units depends on the buildings available.
* Lower tier or unique local troops can be foreign but proper troops need higher tier of population.
* Replenishment is based the population as well so the player needs to care for his good troops and not auto resolve his way to victory
* Counters spam armies , counters instant replenishment, encourages smart player , gives more depth to building chains , losing settlements have a cost, home regions as recruitment platforms for high quality armies.
* And all of this is combined with research !
the only problem is that CA is a bit retarded and didn't see this mod and said - hmm lets integrate it cause even modders do better than we do and because its a mod things don't work perfectly (population resets after losing settlements/gaining even for one turn).
The other thing about rome Total wars system, while only 1 unit could be trained at a time, up to 9 could be retained at the same time
This is an incredibly interesting topic who thought that something so basic unit recruitment could be so varied across one series
Great video as always @legendoftotalwar but ah man at 3:30 that music makes me itch to pick up Rome 1 again, or at least Rome 2 with music mod....
Top5 mods u must play with to improve your experience in any total war (darthmod for NTW & ETW make these both TW comeback at the top of all TWs, despite vanilla versions was highly disappointing, both deserve a place in top5 imo)
Top 5 (and Flop 5) units in a Total War game. To elaborate: how much a late game unit (e.g.: Black Dragon for Dark Elves in TWW2 or Venetian Heavy Infantry for Venice in Med2) impacts on the game both into battles (for raw strength, resilience and utility) and into strategic maps (for things like recruitment cost or upkeep).
It can also be based on a game in particular (e.g.: top 5 for TWW2, top 5 for Med2) or even include mods (e.g.: Third Age for Med2).
Top 5 Unit Formations?
I'm agred
I never even knew that i loved the recruitment system in Med 2 until i saw this comparisons :D I hope CA does a Medieval 3 soon
Think for me the best personally is the one for Europa barborum for rtw, had a great system that made it so that you could only get your local units at home provinces and were made to recruit native units in far away places depending on what system you used for those provinces.
Great video as always!
For the next Top 5 - how about the Top 5 Most Versatile Factions? So factions who have a really flexible roster of units, so that no matter who they end up fighting they can build an army which is well-suited to it and aren't stuck with just a handful of viable battlefield tactics. So stuff like the WRE in Attila, whose units are near-universally garbage but who can always bring the right kind of garbage to counter whoever they're fighting.
I don’t know why you get me every single time with the bait and switch number one mentions. Not that I’m complaining.
Top 5 Total War Strongest Late Game Factions (or early game, up to you): this is about what faction can win based on its early game overal situation (economy, armies, etc) or its late game situation
Top five armies / stacks that you would want to recruited into. Health, wellness, casualties, lord attitude, who knows what else
Another great recruitmentsystem is the one of the DeI mod for Rome 2 with divides the population in 3 or 4 groups and which each unit will be taken from another populationgroup (elite units from the aristocrats, foreign units from the barbaroi,...). Which makes it impossible to recruit your cultural units directly in new conquered land. Love the realism!
You got me in the first half (of your joke). Playing m2tw since 2006, still waiting a similiar total war game make you feel involved.
Bring back mod review you used to get shit loads of views on them and there are a lot of new mods coming out all the time and u could probably do a top 5 total war mods as well
LOTW: Legend of total war here
Subtitles: I jumped on a wall here. 😂
An idea for recruitment : you can hire units normally, or you can hire AT THE SAME COST the same units at half strength and no veterancy, but it takes one less turn...
Either you hire a competent, well trained army, or you need troops NOW ! And pick whoever showed up at the booth ;7
Top 5 best mechanics in a total war game
e.g; trading territory, marriage, etc
Imagine if all the best ideas from all the Total War games were put into a new Total War game,but i won't hold my breath waiting for this to happen.
The Medieval 2 System (At least in Stainless Steel: Titanium, (who even plays vanilla anymore?)) Is really immersive when it comes to playing a small faction, because no matter how good you are with money and and combat, the long timers to recruit units really give you the feeling of being running out of manpower, and having to scrap the barrel, thus giving you a reason to train weaker units and have peasant levies making up the bulk of your army even by the mid game instead of just spamming the strongest bois available and steamrolling everyone.
That and recruting certain units take longer than 1 turn. Bunch byzantium units take like 3-4 turns, but they are worth it.
Hope you and the missus had a great anniversary, bud! Congratulations!
Rome I and Medieval II mixed would be great, you recruit based on buildings and unit limits, but also draw from the population. Perhaps they could also add a resources system. Rather than requiring say a military camp and a smith to recruit heavy spearmen, those secondary buildings allow for the generation of certain materials that are required for recruiting those units. This would allow for you to decide whether you want to have a building that creates military resources or civic resources, and allow for settlements with natural abundance to be more valuable, also resulting in the geography affecting the sort of armies that you are able to recruit. This would have been an especially useful mechanic for Three Kingdoms, where armies all use more or less the same units but it would allow for a closer approximation of the historical unit variety.
Honestly, 3 kingdoms would be best used with something like RTW system, since that type of system is perfect for the Asian kingdoms as it fits with the historical structure of those kingdom. M2 isn't gonna work well.
Top 5 hidden legendary quest items for legendary lords in Warhammer :). Basically they are quest items that have been made by CA/Devs but they for some reason didn't put in a quest battle and instead just hid them in the game. You have to trigger something in order to start the quest. ItalianSparatacus made a short video on it so he can explain it better then me. But I am just giving you a idea for a top 5 video.
top 5 thumbnails that you are really proud of them!
A great video with some nice argument for unit pool and its balancing effect in gameplay.
How about a top 5 video of morale systems throughout the series?
I was genuinely surprised when I had a go with Medieval 1 some time ago - man the morale matters in that game. If your army is routed you can still rally your units to have another go and try to take advantage of enemy spreading its forces too thin in pursuit. The battle maps were often so large that the battle would commonly then degenerate into smaller fights where victory hangs on a sword's edge.
The game has admittedly dated, especially the battle controls feel clunky after playing newer titles, but its morale system stands the test of time.
"If only those 21 feudal men-at-arms would have lasted a minute longer my neigh-exhausted royal knights could have saved the day..." :P
Top 5 Features LegendofTotalWar has changed his position on.
It's been confusing and perversely interesting to see how you've evolved on auto-replenishment.
You could always rank the legendary Lord's from best to worse for each race in Warhammer. It's not a top 5, but seems like it's be easy enough for you and people seem to like seeing that type of thing
Halloween: Top 5 frightening disaster campaigns so far
Top 5 hardest campaign victory conditions recommendation economic victory in Total War: Rome II
Top 5 Units with performance differances depending on wether you use autoresolve or fight them yourself.
top pre-made (historical) battles and top best tactical battles (systems idk how to say this well)
I probably liked ToBs recruitment most of all. It was hamstrung by a lack of actual population and that you could recruit anywhere and not just in lands you have held onto for a while already, but the idea was fantastic. I guess it is the overall theme of ToB, to have some really cool ideas that just werent thought all the way through. It was genuinely a game I was disappointed by, unlike 3k, where we all knew where it was heading.
Thank you Legend, I am so happy someone is finally talking about the ATROCIOUS recruiting system in Total War 3 Kingdoms. That problem, combined with the tiny ass UI and font, is the reason I uninstalled the game after merely 26 hours of playing, these two problems just kill the experience for me. Medieval 2 is damn near perfect in every way, which is why I have over 500 hours of playtime, and I still play it time to time.
Top 5 Factions for a specific TW Game, 1 top 5 for every TW game there is
rome 1 about to be:
5) Rebels
4-1) Rome (Each of the 4 factions)
@@henreyeraser3402 well, luckely there are more total war games
Could you imagine installing thrones of Britannia again before this video!?
Top 5 toughest Hunic/Mongolian factions
They're in these games: Shogun 1 (Expansion), Medieval 1, Rome 1 (Expansion), Medieval 2, and Attila.
Can't remember if there's one in Rome 2.
@an nice Same here, but I haven't played the additional campaigns yet, only GC.
I've had mini heart attack when I saw Three Kingdoms instead of Medieval 2.
I wanted to unleash pure rage, when I didn't see M2 on 1 st place (just kidding, was slightly dissapointed), I'm really thinking it's really well developed recruitment system (they could add turning population into military as Legend mentioned). But, if you're playing SS mod for M2 this is really coming brilliant, because you also gain access to local troops, you need to wait more to replenish your troops pool and that way you're beginning to value these troops. For example, I can remember that you can train tampliers almost immediatly, if you build their dwelling for 1000 gold in 1 turn. BUT, you need to wait 12 turns to get another, so you need to take care of these elite unit.
I hope they're going to make Medieval 3 at some point. It was my favorite historical setting for TW game. Greatest possible variety of units, tactics, diplomacy. At least potentially.
Yes i just want the same with better graphics, larger map, technologies and Attila style family tree system.
@@godlovesyou1995 why would you want the same cultural/army content when there's a very large amount of improvement to be done there as well?
top 5 subtle details/mechanics that improve gameplay the most.
eg i really like rome1s population mechanic because of the fact that recruiting costs population.
it means spamming units mindlessly hurts your economy in a bigger way than just upkeep cost and rewards skill since every soldier you save can be disbanded and the pop returned to the city.
I just wish it was balanced in a way where it mattered abit more while having less pop growth and each pop giving alot more money.
Yeah Medievals System is so great! It just makes you care about your troops so much more if they for example are an elite unit that you only have very little of these.
I dont really play Med2 any more exept DaC but in that mod it is even more visible!
Top 5 total war mods:
Third age (medieval 2)
Stainless steel historical improvement project (medieval 2)
Divide et impera (rome 2)
Darth mod (shogun 2)
Europa barbarorum (Rome 1)
Tbh Darth Mod for Napoleon is rly good as well
@@settratheimperishable4093 i heard ya, the only ones i played in my list was stainless and divide et impera, i was poor when i started total war... so i dont know all the mods, but yeah i heard darth mod for napoleon is the shit also! i think would be a nice video by legendoftotalwar.
PS: have you ever seen he's videos BEFORE HE HAD BALLS MAN???? holy shit bro that was funny and cringe! look it up, "Medieval 2 Total War Peasant Challenge Part 1 - The Byzantines Declare War - /watch?v=nCLjAMEGo4k&t" lmao
I agree with the medieval 2 being the best, it makes losing units acutally mattering, in rome 2 and the newer ones i just didnt care in losing one or 2 units because you can get them back too easily and it is so easy to spam, hope they revisit the idea of limiting recruitment caps and timers agian, expecially for historical games
Why are there always fucking tears in my eyes when I see footages from Rome 1 ?
Top 5 unique campaigns? Based on campaign features, maybe diversity of enemies you encounter near your starting position?
id say rome 1 is better than med 2 even though the a.i cant handle it and id say empire deserves a mention, the way technology and recruitment works in empire is second to none imo
I was a little surprised Rome 2 and/or Attila didn't make the list.
I am actually kind of surprised they didn't implement the Warhammer fantasy limits for army building from the tabletop to the game. Would make tier I and II units have a roll, as well as unlocking 'core' troops based on the general
personally I don't like unit limits because if you have the provinces and you have money why couldn't you have as many of that units that you want? of course if it's timed limit such as one each turn or something like that I don't really care.
I have mixed feelings on unit caps as well but they're kinda from a time when TW had population but no classes within the population. Med 2 for example Spear Sergeants are basically peasants while Mailed Knights are part of the nobility. There are WAY more peasants then nobility, so capping the number of Mailed Knights makes sense in that regard.
Dude the ntw3 mod for napoleon total war would be a a great addition I know it’s a mod but the system pretty much is based solely of historical units so you will have army’s made of historical units it’s great
You've said many times that the three prime components of an effective army in Warhammer II were "Magic, Missiles, and Monsters" because of the way the game works. You've done Top Five Magic schools. Why not do "Top Five Warhammer II Missile Troops" and "Top Five Warhammer II Monster Units"? You could even do "Top Five Warhammer II Racial Artillery" (I actually wonder who gets the top spot there - and if it overlaps with "Monsters").
Probably Sisters of Avelorn, War Mammoths, and Organ guns for the top slot.
@@kill4monney213 I wonder whether top Racial Artillery would be Dwarf Organ Guns or Skaven Catapults (excellent anti-infantry) and Lightning Cannons (excellent anti-monster/structure).
@@ANonymous-bh1un I think Organ guns would still take the spot still because of their versatility. They can decimate regiments of infantry, or pretty much any large units whereas the skaven ones are much more specialized in that regard.
@@kill4monney213 Maybe, but there's an argument to be made that two plague claws do better than three organ guns since they can reach over intervening obstacles and have much greater range, while a single lightning cannon does something similar - while still having three artillery pieces in an army compared to Dwarves. I think it could go either way.
Empire-TW should have made this list. The French can turn out NINE units in Paris a turn after maxing out your garrison/barracks.
Top 5 end turn sound effects.
I find it surprising the king of cheese is against recruitment systems that don't allow spam.
Top 5 Save your disaster campaigns
Top 5 alt-F4 prank answers to viewer "how to" questions
Cool idea to just expand on this video alone do a top 5 recruitment system and mechanics on Total War WH2, as you mention there are so many in the game already that are different and unique.
I agree with you on Thrones of Brittania, I really like it from a campaign stand point but I don't enjoy in the long term, often it just feels like it delays major battles in the early game.
I don't mind 3Ks recruitment system because I think a modified version would be a cool idea for a potential Med 3: generals/lords are assigned a title for a province (like in Med 1) and can only recruit troops into their retinue from the province they are title to. Good video though, Thrones was so bad I never really paid attention to how good/bad the recruitment was, a combination of Thrones and Med 2 recruitment with Rome 1 population would be cool.
I never found myself in lack of units in m2. I think the fast replenishment rate and lack of population drain kill the concept.
TOP 5 most fun Nations to play as in total war campaigns
Maybe top 5 niche units? Like units that are amazingly useful but only if you use them with specific heavy micro/very specific tactics/in heavy synergy with other units.
14:40 to be fair you could basically redo a lot of top 5 videos after the hunter and beast update