Total War: WARHAMMER - Official anounced

[Derah]

how much different is this from WH1 ? except for obvious new races, were any drastic changes made to the game ? i invested a lot into WH1 with all the DLCs (except for norsca)

This is a hard question to tackle all at once.

But I guess I can get started.

The biggest and largest plus is the combined Mortal Empires Campaign. It essentially mixes the maps of both games to create one large MEGA CAMPAIGN.


All the races you bought in the first game are also playable in this campaign (except norsca. Due to a lot of reasons that are hard to summarize, they wont be playable or even implemented until May 2018)

Apart from this, the game has a lot of improvements.

The UI is far better, specially the notification system, but its a lot of little things. Just to name a few of the UI improvements I liked: Better representation of your standing with other factions on the diplomacy screen, you can actually see when enemy units are broken or shattered without having to mouse over them, you can set which factions you want to see display of their moves when you end your turn (Unlike the first game, where you either see them all, or disable them all. Here you can pick and choose which ones you want to see or not)

You can now change the direction of spells

You can capture and occupy any settlement in the map like in previous Total War games (In the first one, you could only capture certain settlements as certain races, for example, Dwarves can only capture dwarf cities and orc cities. This was replaced by a climate system, where certain climates are more suitable to your race, and settlements in those climates confer certain bonuses, while settlements in unsuitable climate confer several penalties, but all settlements are capturable)

You can also engage in treasure hunts when exploring ruined settlements. They're nice little RP scenarios that can give you rewards or punishments depending on what choices you pick. You can also engage in treasure hunts at sea, where random mini-isles and sea creatures spawn, and upon going to them, you get a choice of rewards.

Speaking of the sea, there's a weather system in place at sea, where at random, segments of the seas become more tumultuous and raging (With tsunamis, and wicked storms) or calmed and soothing (with extra wind speed), which makes planning your sea routes a necessity, specially when you get caught up in a random storm.

There's also Rogue Armies. These are kind of like mercenaries. They're horde mini-factions with some pretty wacky compositions (One example of a rogue army is a group of fallen bretonnian knights, along with vampiric blood knights. Another is a 20stack army made entirely of rocket batteries, gyrocopters, and steam tanks). They're mini-factions that can be friends or foes, their goal is to try and take a settlement, set down roots and become actual factions in their own right. They can spawn at random at any point, and there's over 50 different combinations of them (my favorite one, is a group of lightning worshipers made of Lizardmen Kroxigors, and Dragon Ogres from the Warriors of Chaos. This group can seriously kick ass)

The main campaign of Warhammer 2 (Called Vortex Campaign) is the first time I can think of, that a Total War game has an actual plot. With cutscenes, characters, plot twists, and such.

WAY better combat animations. Seriously, they look cool as fuck. Including custom animations for the more badass creatures for when they fight other monsters. Such as a dragon suplexing a T-rex, or a hydra tearing the shit out of a poor soldier. The animations look even more sick with the blood and gore DLC.

There's more map variety. As much as I loved WH1, the maps were very samey. There's a hell of a lot more variety in terrain and topography this time around. Including choke-point/bridge defense maps, which were sorely missed on the last few Total Wars.

4v4 free for all multiplayer is back.

A new mode called "The Laboratory" is incoming. Watch the trailer on youtube, its fucking stupid, and awesome, and I can't wait to play it.

The second game is just better.

It took all the best parts of the first game, improved on a lot of its flaws, and added quite a lot of polish. Plus the new races are insanely cool. All of them. And I wholly recommend you to get it ASAP.

[I Push Buttons]

Intel: "Whoops"

[Gorsameth]

Intel: "Whoops"

Because there was someone left in the world who didn't know Tomb Kings were coming.

[Jastall]

Because there was someone left in the world who didn't know Tomb Kings were coming.

You could say CA has been appropriately cryptic about their incoming appearance, which hasn't kept a lid on the speculation.

[Verdugo]

You could say CA has been appropriately cryptic about their incoming appearance, which hasn't kept a lid on the speculation.

Definitely intentional, just like that boxart mistake that showed Queek.

[Deleted]

May the Based Kings come as soon as possible.

[Derah]

OH MAH GAWD HYPE!!!!!!!!!!!



- - - Updated - - -

Still no "official" confirmation of Tomb Kings, but come on, that image is as close to them saying "Tomb Kings are next" without actually saying "Tomb Kings are next".

[Verdugo]

Here they come.

More info here.

[Jastall]

Their roster looks absolutely sick. Makes poor Beastmen look even more sad now, but oh well.

I'm interested in the bit that says the campaign culminates in a final battle at the Black Pyramid. Nagash hype?

[ParanoiD84]

Oh baby cant wait to play with the Tomb Kings.

[Derah]

I am extraordinarily hyped for it, but the price tag has deflated my enthusiasm a little. 19 bucks? for a race pack? really? This time they don't have the excuse of "This has a mini-campaign attached to it, so it has to cost that much".

Come on, 10 bucks is a reasonable price range for this, same as the norsca DLC.

I'll pay it anyways (because dammit, how the fuck can I say no to THIS!?!?!?) but I'm not happy about it.

[Verdugo]

I am extraordinarily hyped for it, but the price tag has deflated my enthusiasm a little. 19 bucks? for a race pack? really? This time they don't have the excuse of "This has a mini-campaign attached to it, so it has to cost that much"..

Well it kinda has a mini-campaign, it just happens to be on the same map as the vortex campaign. They also get 4 legendary lords and quite large roster of units.

[Derah]

Well it kinda has a mini-campaign, it just happens to be on the same map as the vortex campaign.

That's not a mini-campaign. That's "having different victory objectives on the main campaign". Like Norsca, or Bretonnia who have entirely different rules to win over the grand campaign compared to most other races, yet that doesn't mean they have a mini-campaign either.

I still think 20 bucks is too much money for a single faction, even if the faction is awesome as fuck. I thought the whole point behind doing away with the mini-campaigns was precisely to lower the price range of these things.

As I said before, I already pre-ordered it and everything (because how in heaven's name am I supposed to say no to this shit!?!?) but I'm NOT happy about it.

Anyways, I hope they at least make them as awesome as they are in the lore, because for more than one fan of WHF, the Tomb Kings are easily one of the most beloved factions.

On a side-note: Looking at some of the screenshots, it seems like Araby may not come after all. One of the screenshots shows one of the settlements in the land of assassin's under the control of the Tomb Kings.

So not only are the obviously place-holder factions of undead "Strygos Empire" "Necrarch Brotherhood" "The Silver Host" and maybe "Vampire Coast" going away, but so will the placeholder bretonnian factions "Knights of Origo" "Knights of the Flame" and "Teagan's Crusaders" who are currently occupying the Arabyan lands.

[Gorsameth]

That's not a mini-campaign. That's "having different victory objectives on the main campaign". Like Norsca, or Bretonnia who have entirely different rules to win over the grand campaign compared to most other races, yet that doesn't mean they have a mini-campaign either.

I still think 20 bucks is too much money for a single faction, even if the faction is awesome as fuck. I thought the whole point behind doing away with the mini-campaigns was precisely to lower the price range of these things.

As I said before, I already pre-ordered it and everything (because how in heaven's name am I supposed to say no to this shit!?!?) but I'm NOT happy about it.

Anyways, I hope they at least make them as awesome as they are in the lore, because for more than one fan of WHF, the Tomb Kings are easily one of the most beloved factions.

On a side-note: Looking at some of the screenshots, it seems like Araby may not come after all. One of the screenshots shows one of the settlements in the land of assassin's under the control of the Tomb Kings.

So not only are the obviously place-holder factions of undead "Strygos Empire" "Necrarch Brotherhood" "The Silver Host" and maybe "Vampire Coast" going away, but so will the placeholder bretonnian factions "Knights of Origo" "Knights of the Flame" and "Teagan's Crusaders" who are currently occupying the Arabyan lands.

Matches up with Araby having no tabletop army to copy. Tho it does leave WH:2 lacking factions to add as DLC.

[Beazy]

So what else could be added after TK?

Are Necrons 40k only?

[Derah]

Tho it does leave WH:2 lacking factions to add as DLC.

Well, they added four on WH1 (I don't count Warriors of Chaos, they were a baseline race that was chopped up and sold separately at the last minute).

So assuming they plan to add four on WH2 what does that leave us left with? There's the amazons, and Araby.

Maybe they could repurpose some of the nonplayable factions from the first game. I mean, in the lore, Estalia, Tilea, and Kislev are their own nations with their own culture, units, architecture, and inspiration in real-life civilizations (Estalia being Spain, Tilea being Italy, and Kislev being Russia). But in the game they're merely palette swaps of the empire, and use the exact same units as the empire of sigmar. Maybe they "could" repurpose one of those and make it an actual unique faction? Unlikely, but not impossible.

Matches up with Araby having no tabletop army to copy.

Well, neither had Norsca (they were background lore fluff for the warriors of chaos) and yet they still added them as their own individual faction. So really, the sky is the only limit. They can take many of the factions with no actual tabletop army (Cathay, Nippon, Kislev, Estalia, Tilea, Amazons, Araby, and many more) and straight up invent them new stuff.

- - - Updated - - -

So what else could be added after TK?

Are Necrons 40k only?

As far as I know? yeah. Honestly, other than the Amazons, I have no clue what else they could add to the second game. Because most of the missing factions (Like the ogres or the chaos dwarves) are in areas of the map that don't exist. Their addition would necessitate expanding the Mortal Empires map, and would be wholly inaccessible to the Vortex Campaign map.

[Jastall]

So what else could be added after TK?

Are Necrons 40k only?

Tough to say. Araby is a human nation that could be added, but their roster, while flavorful, isn't the most fleshed out. I can stomach paying 20$ for the Tomb King's unique lore, magic, massive monsters and 4 LLs, but that kind of price tag for yet another bunch of humans with a few actually unique units is a far harder sale.

There's also Tilea and Estalia of course, which are mostly present in Mortal Empires but could be translated over to factions like the New World Colonies in the Vortex campaign. But again, they're just another flavor of humans. They do have a fairly robust roster of unique units however.

Admittedly Norsca was also an underdeveloped faction that got fleshed out by CA, but they had room to add lots of unique stuff like Skin-wolves, Fimir and Mammoths. Araby, Tilea and Estalia can't be much more than variations of factions you could easily play in an historical Total War.

Daemons of Chaos could fit the map, but are almost certainly reserved for game 3.

And yes, Necrons are 40k only, as they're basically space Tomb Kings.

[Beazy]

Tough to say. Araby is a human nation that could be added, but their roster, while flavorful, isn't the most fleshed out. I can stomach paying 20$ for the Tomb King's unique lore, magic, massive monsters and 4 LLs, but that kind of price tag for yet another bunch of humans with a few actually unique units is a far harder sale.

There's also Tilea and Estalia of course, which are mostly present in Mortal Empires but could be translated over to factions like the New World Colonies in the Vortex campaign. But again, they're just another flavor of humans. They do have a fairly robust roster of unique units however.

Admittedly Norsca was also an underdeveloped faction that got fleshed out by CA, but they had room to add lots of unique stuff like Skin-wolves, Fimir and Mammoths. Araby, Tilea and Estalia can't be much more than variations of factions you could easily play in an historical Total War.

Daemons of Chaos could fit the map, but are almost certainly reserved for game 3.

And yes, Necrons are 40k only, as they're basically space Tomb Kings.

Nice.

I was hoping that Necrons were just 40k year old Tomb Kings. There is so much lore, and I'm barely scratching the surface now. Does 40k and Fantasy connect in any way?

[Airlick]

That's not a mini-campaign. That's "having different victory objectives on the main campaign". Like Norsca, or Bretonnia who have entirely different rules to win over the grand campaign compared to most other races, yet that doesn't mean they have a mini-campaign either.

I still think 20 bucks is too much money for a single faction, even if the faction is awesome as fuck. I thought the whole point behind doing away with the mini-campaigns was precisely to lower the price range of these things.

As I said before, I already pre-ordered it and everything (because how in heaven's name am I supposed to say no to this shit!?!?) but I'm NOT happy about it.

Well, that's because they are successful with the franchise and they must be feeling confident they can milk the game hard. Though, honestly, it all depends on how content rich the DLC is. It seems to be significantly larger than Bretonnia DLC, and that was by far the biggest one in WH1. Wood Elves DLC was piss-poor and it cost 20$ as well, as far as I recall. 4 legendary lords and half of a continent is worth 20$, I'd say, especially if they all have their own faction, which I guess they should.

I just wonder what is CA planning to add to the game, since WH1 had 2 big races and 3 sub-factions DLCs. I don't think we can count Mortal Empires as a DLC, since CA said there would be a combined campaign of the whole series eventually even before the first game launched.

I was hoping that Necrons were just 40k year old Tomb Kings. There is so much lore, and I'm barely scratching the surface now. Does 40k and Fantasy connect in any way?

They are completely separate. WH40K is sci-fi version of WHFB to an extent, but as time passed and more lore was added, they drifted apart. At best you could imagine that WHFB is one of countless undiscovered worlds of WH40K universe, but it definitely doesn't work the other way around, as WH40k is basically our own universe fast-forwarded into 40th millennium.

[Gorsameth]

Nice.

I was hoping that Necrons were just 40k year old Tomb Kings. There is so much lore, and I'm barely scratching the surface now. Does 40k and Fantasy connect in any way?

No there is no official connection between 40k and Fantasy (tho that doesn't stop fans from making them, the biggest one being that the Old Ones the Lizardman talk about are 40k Eldar and the chaos gateway on the north pole being a webway portal(again eldar)).

And Norsca, while having some 'new' marauder types actually uses mostly existing models, tho they drew from Forgeworld (skinwolves, Fimir, Mammoths).