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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   3751 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for December 8, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Been playing the Divide and Conquer Medieval Total War II mod (https://www.moddb.com/mods/divide-and-conquer) and it is just spectacular. Full conversion mod that starts a few decades before the War of the Ring, has a ton of playable civs both lore accurate and a bit of a stretch, but it's just tremendous fun to charge your Dol Amroth Knights into Haradrim or mow down Goblins with your Elven archers.

And the first time Mumakil appeared on a battle map was legitimately a top 3 gaming moment of all time for me. Just complete shock and awe.

Reminded me of the claim that the true spiritual successor to Fallout: New Vegas is some insane Hearts of Iron mod about uniting post-apocalyptic America.

I’ve been playing that religiously over the last week or so. My flair comes from a beautiful moment in the Texas Brotherhood of Steel campaign. After wiping out several bayou and biker gangs, the Brotherhood now borders a community of New Orleans lawmen. But in recent years, the latter has grown corrupt and extorts the people they once protected. The Brotherhood isn’t supposed to be here to nation-build, but we’ve stumbled into this mess, and we’re not going to stand for these second-rate gangbangers. Hence the only available response to this event: a button that declares war, labeled “Texas is freedom land.”

It’s actually only the second best moment in the Texas campaign. If you succeed in uniting the civilizations of the region and forming a new provisional Texas republic, you get a triumphant pop up as “Yellow Rose of Texas” starts to play. For the entire fucking map. And then you get to start drafting a constitution for your fledgling state. It was incredible.

While the mod has predictable issues with polish, it’s unbelievably vast, nails the tone, and brings the style and philosophy of the wasteland into a new genre. I often can’t tell whether a story or faction is canon or original. So yes, a spiritual successor indeed.

Screw it, I'm buying it. You don't need any DLCs for the mod, right?

Together For Victory (which is the first dlc I think), adds the Spearhead button, better lend lease, tech sharing and autonomy system.

Death or Dishonour adds equipment conversion and licensing.

Waking the Tiger, which is the first big DLC adds General Traits and Abilities, decisions, ability to send attaches and sending Air volunteers.

Man the Guns adds ship designing, admiral traits and abilities, Governments in exile, convoy route controlling, naval mines and Amphibious landing vehicles.

La Resistance adds espionage, collaboration governments, code cracking, and recon units like scout planes.

Battle for the Bosphorus adds nothing in terms of gameplay mechanics.

No Step back adds tank designing, railway guns, Scorched Earth tactics, floating harbors, special supply units, army traits, officer corps.

Okay. Is there really no spying in the base game if you don't pay €10 to Paradox ?

Once more I'm in awe of Paradox business model. Make a bare bones game and milk the customers via a thousand cut DLCs.

Nice!

Nope, no DLCs required. The only reason I got into this game was cause of a free-to-keep promotion, and I probably had 100 hours in before I bothered to look at DLC. Or even install mods, really. It's not like Total War DLC where the enemy factions will use all this stuff against you. It just won't be in your playthroughs. Mods adapt accordingly, somehow.

Espionage isn't in the base game. Intelligence is, in the form of tech progression, radar coverage, and the usual strategy-game elements like fog of war. If you want to send out Mata Hari to blow up supply depots, I guess you need the DLC, but I can't say for sure, since I never bothered to get it. To this day I only have Man the Guns (because I like botes) and Waking the Tiger (since it adds some really important alt-history options).

So it is peak Paradox bullshit, but I also think there's more than enough to chew on for a new player.

Speaking of which--normally I'd recommend playing some minor third-world power. WWII is too much to handle at first. Watch it unfold as you get a feel for development, recruitment and the interface. Maybe fight your Middle East or South American neighbors, in which case you'll also learn a lot about the supply system.

But if you're diving right in to Old World Blues, that kind of solves itself. The mod effectively throws quests at you, and they'll usually give you a natural route to fighting your neighbors instead of the planet. Just don't play the NCR or Caesar's Legion your first time around.

Good luck!

So there's no way to steal tech in the mod if you don't have the DLC?

So it is peak Paradox bullshit, but I also think there's more than enough to chew on for a new player.

Yeah, these games seem fairly complex, but I feel like a lot of the complexity is not that deep. Fiddling around with modifiers.

But I want a Fallout fix too and Todd Howard is not going to deliver, so..

Correct on all counts.

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