Total War: WARHAMMER - Official anounced

[Maximus Testiculos]

Boris is here. As a legendary lord.

[Corvus]

Just about to mention that.

Via CA on Discord, unlock method is play as either of the Kislev Legendary Lords (Kostaltyn or Katarin). If you capture and hold the three major Kislevite cities of Praag, Kislev and Erengrad for 10 turns, a quest battle triggers that you need to complete

Watching some of the early stuff out - man Boris is amazing and the buffs he can give to the bear riders is insane.

[Easo]

And of course Okoii has the 20 stack bear rider video out.

[Jastall]

Looking at those Kislev videos tempts me to play them first. They have a strong, varied roster, good campaigns mechanics without going overboard into the OP and a fun start position with potential allies but loads of Chaos enemies as one might expect.

Boris is just a neat bow on the package, really.

[Tommy T]

And of course Okoii has the 20 stack bear rider video out.

He truly is a magnificent person

[Corvus]

I'd been sitting on the fence about getting it until I saw two factions in actions - Nurgle and Kislev. The rest didn't interest me much, though Ogres were a nice bonus. I'd stick them third (until the glorious hats of the Chaos Dwarves arrive.) Slaanesh, Tzeentch, Cathay? No interest. Maybe a little in Khorne but only a little. Nurgle and Kislev were the ones that really interested me.

Nurgle turned out okay. Mechanics look fun and all, but the battle side looks a little underwhelming.

Kislev though, they nailed it. They look amazing in combat and out. Being able to get Boris on top is just even better. The hybrid infantry model backed up by fast cav and plenty of slowing abilities via spells and frostbite weapons (and the slows stack) works better than I had hoped.

[Jastall]

I'd been sitting on the fence about getting it until I saw two factions in actions - Nurgle and Kislev. The rest didn't interest me much, though Ogres were a nice bonus. I'd stick them third (until the glorious hats of the Chaos Dwarves arrive.) Slaanesh, Tzeentch, Cathay? No interest. Maybe a little in Khorne but only a little. Nurgle and Kislev were the ones that really interested me.

Nurgle turned out okay. Mechanics look fun and all, but the battle side looks a little underwhelming.

Kislev though, they nailed it. They look amazing in combat and out. Being able to get Boris on top is just even better. The hybrid infantry model backed up by fast cav and plenty of slowing abilities via spells and frostbite weapons (and the slows stack) works better than I had hoped.

Kislev's playstyle really does sound plenty fun. Pretty much all your units are either quite mobile or hybrids -often both- and there's room for various builds; heavy ranged with Strelkys and Ice Guard, bear+ sled bumrush, an arty + cheap ranged wall flanked by light cav, they have perhaps the most multidimensional roster. Only downside is literally every character having horse + bear as mount. Compared to the wide range of options Cathay characters get it's a letdown. Frost Maidens should have been limited to horses (maybe an ice horse?), and Ice Witches and Katarin should have gotten sleds. The latter's pulled by snow leopards because hell yeah.

On the looks department, eh, I think it's good but not great. Most units look great, especially the War Bears, Gryphon Legion, Ice Guard and Elemental, but the Armored Kossars and Tsar Guards sharing an IMO mediocre model isn't very inspiring, and I still really dislike the ice under the sleds and Little Grom, to the point I might mod it out.

All that said, I'm still stoked to play them. Even the narrative prologue campaign looks fun, it tells the story of how Yuri became Daniel the Daemon Prince and it seems pretty well done.

[Zmagoslav]

I'm really stoked for Kislev.

Now the only thing they can top it off with is some buffs to the Empire in the ME map.
Give Karl Franz some ability like the Boyar bombardment (like he had in the lore, with lightning) and some decent faction-wide effects (+8 leadership doesn't really do much) and i'll love the game.

[Corvus]

In an interview with Andy Wall (lead writer of Warhammer Total War), he said that CA has no plans, long or short, for Nippon, Ind or Kuresh. So those races are dead, despite the easter eggs being dropped about them. Sad, but not totally unexpected.

It does make Cathay seem even more shoe-horned in, shoved into a corner with little interaction with others and the main plot. And given tehy will be getting more LLs, you have to wonder where tehy will go exactly. The threats from the south and east are no longer an issue (and there isn't any map to expand to there anyway) and the north and west already are covered, so I guess they will have to go outside of Cathay somewhere.

[Gorsameth]

Guess its connected to Warhammer The Old World where GW wants to resurrect WHFB. So they wanted CA to put Cathay into the game for promotion but have no interest in developing the rest of the factions in that corner at this time. If The Old World is successful and they want to add factions there in a few years time they don't want to be tied down to concepts designed for Total War.

[Easo]

Disappointing, but understandable.
Slaanesh NDA was dropped today and, of course, Okoii did his thing.

[Corvus]

Preload starts Tuesday.

[dlld]

I'm still not sure if my first campaign will be undivided or khorne, the lord customization looks awesome but also.. khorne. Sure you could specc for khorne as undivided but it wouldn't be the same. I'll probably go khorne just on the basis it seems less complex more straightforward which isn't bad for a first campaign.

[Zmagoslav]

I'm still not sure if my first campaign will be undivided or khorne, the lord customization looks awesome but also.. khorne. Sure you could specc for khorne as undivided but it wouldn't be the same. I'll probably go khorne just on the basis it seems less complex more straightforward which isn't bad for a first campaign.

If you intend to use the demon prince in the same way you would use Skarbrand, then you might have a very bad time.
Due to low armor he's pretty squishy and weak, and while he can also be a spellcaster it's not a very good one.

[Makabreska]

Warning, over 1h long:



Biggest issue mentioned is fucked up enemy AI during sieges. They ignore capture points too often. Also, Chaos factions being not very interesting when compared to older races who had years of development behind them. Also, lots of general bugs.

[Jastall]

The funky siege AI and UI downgrades do worry me. I expected the AI to not play ball with complex siege maps (this being the reason why siege maps are simple to begin with) but not capping points is kind of a big deal. Strangely from what I saw of Legendoftw's streams they did cap points in his games, most of the time, and not just by accident. Either way, it should be fixed.

The UI is the most puzzling. We've had three Total War games in a row with UI improvements and they just ditched it? The loss of the art on settlement capture is really confusing considering the event art is there there and looks as good as ever. The mission tab stuff is also weird. As he said himself this feels like changes not decided on by actual UI designers, or maybe the WH2 guy left in between the games or something.

Bugs I 100% expected. Every single TW release is janky and buggy as fuck, and this one is more ambitious than most. Still not as bad as WH2 release, I remember that game being jank city until the Vampire Coast patch or thereabouts.

Mandalore seemingly has pull with CA, likely because he has tons of views, so I hope they take notice of those problems. I pre-ordered the game and I know from watching streams that I'll enjoy the hell out of it so I'm secure in my decision but it doesn't mean the bad stuff doesn't have to be fixed.

[Fencers]

Am I mistaken or does the new one look more cartoony than the older games? Maybe it is the color and lighting combined.

Looking forward to it though.

[Jastall]

Am I mistaken or does the new one look more cartoony than the older games? Maybe it is the color and lighting combined.

Looking forward to it though.

You're hardly alone, a bunch of people have said that including Mandalore in his review.

Personally I think that only applies to Cathay which is kind of overly bright and cartoonish. Kislev does have a bit too much ice too but it's no big deal. Everywhere else the map looks quite suitable, the Mountains of Mourn and realms of Chaos are standouts. There's a lot of color going on, but Chaos has always been rather colorful save for Undivided forces.

If you ask me corruption visibly changing areas alone makes almost any compromise worth it. Changing the world into a blighted stinky swamp is the ultimate Nurgle fantasy.

[Eldar45]

There is definitely a more stylized look on the campaign map. Probably so it makes the Corruption affects more... viewable. I don't think the battles look much different though.

[Faldric]

The UI is the most puzzling. We've had three Total War games in a row with UI improvements and they just ditched it? The loss of the art on settlement capture is really confusing considering the event art is there there and looks as good as ever. The mission tab stuff is also weird. As he said himself this feels like changes not decided on by actual UI designers, or maybe the WH2 guy left in between the games or something.

I feel like Mandalore is spot on with this. It feels like some things where changed for the sake of changing something.