Released 28 Sep 2017
Creative Assembly’s latest foray into the Warhammer universe is less of an expansion on the first game, and more of a sidestep into other areas of the world. There are remnants of Old World factions, but the vast majority of the game deals with new races and locations not seen in Total War: Warhammer, all while keeping the focus on fantasy battles. And what fantastic battles they are.
The sequel of 2016’s critical acclaimed title, Total War: Warhammer II doubles down on lore and goes even more niche than the first instalment. Unlike the Old World, with its expansive landmass full of humans, orcs, and dwarves, the new region of Lustria is features a collection of islands and small continents connected by massive seas.
A truly gigantic map, Lustria is beautifully executed with a decidedly tropical tone. The world map offers breathtaking views of mountains, beaches, and cliffs, among a dozen other geographical features ranging from common canyons and plains to unique volcanos and magical structures. It continues the graphical fidelity standard set by Rome II, and turns the strategic map into a true work of art.
Even the cities -- with their unique visual representation -- are a wonder to behold, although there is disappointingly little variation between settlements of the same race. I expected cities to visually change and grow with each upgrade and expansion, like they did in the latest Total War historical games, but instead we got the same stale depiction of the previous Warhammer and Total War games of old.
The top east corner of the map features the island of Ulthuan, home continent of the High Elves and which center holds the epicentre of the Great Vortex. The beautiful world map serves as the background for Warhammer II’s main campaign, which revolves around the struggle between different factions to attain control of the Great Vortex: a massive swirl of blue energy and raw magic. A staple of Warhammer lore, the Vortex was recently destabilised by the passage of a comet, and nearby races all rush to either heal it in order to maintain the status quo, or corrupt it in order to further their own interests.
Those races are the noble High Elves, the savage Lizardmen, the corruptive Skaven, and the chaotic Dark Elves -- all of the playable factions in Total War: Warhammer II’s campaign. The sequel continues its predecessor penchant for making each race a truly unique experience, from buildings and units to mechanics and abilities. Historical Total Wars often have two gameplay styles: begin with a flagship empire, or struggle to superiority with an underdog. In the Warhammer franchise, Creative Assembly has embraced what makes each fantasy race unique, and the game is all better for it.
Of all the factions, my favourite was without doubt the High Elves -- not only because they are the only good guys, fighting for the good of the world -- but because their set of units and culture strongly appeals to me on a personal level. Aside from Elven archers and white horsed cavalries, they possess a healthy selection of aerial units in the shapes of phoenixes and dragons. As much as I love ground battles, having good dragons in any army is an instant way to get my attention.
However, I didn’t really click with battles in Warhammer II. Ever since Attila, the ground combat seems to be tweaked to be more fast-paced, which is a terrible proposition in a tactical game. Shogun II and Rome II had wonderful battles that could at times grind and stale as evenly matched armies would hack at each other, giving you time to manoeuvre a cavalry or shock troops behind enemy lines and crash into their flanks, breaking the line. But like its predecessor before it, Warhammer II prefers to take a more immediate approach to damage, to the point that you can easily kill most of the enemy army with ranged attacks before they get within melee range of your infantry.
Even when locked in combat, the units just dwindle very quickly -- there's none of that grinding and back and forth, and whole units break and route in a matter of seconds. I rarely had the chance to perform a proper pincer move, and often had to rush an intended backline attack into a side flank incursion, lest the battle be over by the time my troops were in position. As I got latter in the campaign, that was less important -- large units, heroes, and flying creatures change the flow of battles, and magic starts to play a bigger role. However, it is still a worrisome sign -- the strategy layer has improved with every new release, but the tactical layer is getting more and more rushed. One just needs to look at Dawn of War III to see a similar shift.
Even though battles are at times lacking, they look utterly fantastic. Each unit is rendered in high resolution with a very detailed geometry, and clash against each other with tremendous effect. Heroes send several soldiers flying with each strike, while artillery pieces down dozens of enemy units with a passion. The terrain itself also looks utterly amazing, with geographical variations and multiple set dressings such as towers, statues, and buildings littering the landscape and background. As beautiful as it is, everything besides the terrain itself serve serve only as a backdrop to battles -- even settlements play no tactical part in it, as the enemy army will face you in the field.
Unfortunately, the sound design is a bit lacking. Battles do not sound particularly interesting from an auditory standpoint, but the campaign map has it worse: Heroes constantly utter catchphrases in the campaign map, which doesn’t take long to become annoying, and diplomacy is distractingly disconnected from the actual circumstances -- someone whose opinion of you is just one point below neutral will scream at you in rage and call you a traitor, while people who barely know you will proclaim how much of a trusted ally and friend you’ve been to their people. Similarly, the soundtrack is utterly forgettable. Coming from Shogun II’s brilliant feudal melodies to Rome II’s latin music and Attila’s terrific throat singing, Warhammer II’s OST leaves a lot to be desired. Is not that the music is bad, per se, it’s just that it is ordinary -- unlike the often praised scores of historical Total Wars, Warhammer II’s soundtrack fails to stand out.
That lack of identity, however, is not present in the tackling of the setting. Thanks to the unique characterisation and gameplay mechanics, the game at times almost feels partly RPG, vesting you with interest in the happenings of the world and of your particular culture. As I previously mentioned, I loved playing as the High Elves -- their unique Influence mechanic allows them to manipulate the diplomacy of far countries from afar, and they really feel like aristocratic stuck up snots, ruling the world from their ivory towers. However, the game does take the plunge into the deep end of lore at times, and as a result it is utterly unwelcoming to newcomers.
Pretending to see it from the lenses of a newcomer, this is what happens: the campaign starts with a cutscene that throws a dozen names around, mentioning brothers, places, and murders, none of which meant absolutely nothing to me. Shamefully, the game took 80 minutes to tell me who the hell my race actually was, and it did so by showing me a one paragraph tooltip about the High Elves. Instead of giving me an overview of the culture during the prologue, like most Total Wars do, Warhammer II forced me to spend an hour and a half with a race I knew nothing about to achieve things I had no interest in for people I didn’t cared for. It was a shameful introduction, and I am certain a lot of players unfamiliar with the setting will be put off by it.
In the end, however, Creative Assembly’s latest foray into the Warhammer universe is once more a success. It's wonderful animations and fantastic visual identity deliver an immersive and enjoyable experience for anyone with even a passing interest in the fantasy genre. It is both a capable Total War game and a satisfactory Warhammer title, and it manages to unite both of them without losing sight of either. The world is in desperate need of a Total War: Lord of the Rings title, but until then, Total War: Warhammer II is your best fantasy choice.
A capable Total War game and a great Warhammer title combine to deliver one of the best fantasy strategy games around.
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05 Jun 20198Total War: Warhammer 2 is great. The Creative Assembly has elegantly streamlined the game, introduced an excellent new campaign structure and done a tremendous job of realising four exciting factions from the OTT world of Warhammer. We like it so much we gave it 92 in our review.
For new players the game explains itself better than any other Total War to date, through detailed tooltips and sensible campaign introduction tutorials. It is a complicated game, however, and some systems (I'm looking at you, corruption) can pop up and disrupt your campaign out of nowhere. I've addressed a few of these elements below with brand new players in mind.
Learn your army in custom battle
You do need a short winning streak of battles to get a campaign off the ground. If you struggle to take your first province, or do so too slowly, you risk falling behind in the grand race to control the vortex. Total War: Warhammer 2 is forgiving during the opening stretch, but a campaign isn't the best place to learn an army and experiment. Plus, how are you supposed to know what to build if you don't know how the units you're unlocking really function?
So, jump into skirmish against the computer in custom battle mode and get used to your army's units right away. Just how tough are those High Elf spearmen really? Can a dinosaur with a laser cannon on its back tank a hundred clan rats? I have found it useful to focus on a few core units that work efficiently to form the backbone of an army. Then I like to find a few high level units I like so I can later aim for them in the campaign.
There are some cool story scenarios to play too. These are a good way to learn the controls, and they show you what a balanced force can look like. There's no substitute for picking your own units if you're trying to learn a force. A few hours of experimentation in custom games could save you many hours during a campaign.
Look past a campaign's starting difficulty
In typical Total War fashion each campaign has a difficulty rank to let you know how tough that faction's starting position is on the world map. It's tempting to jump into the easiest starting position, but there is more to the choice than this. Though it's wise not to opt for a hard campaign straight away, it's worth bearing in mind each faction's tricks and play style before you choose.
If you play as High Elves in Teclis' 'easy' starting position you find yourself in the heart of the High Elf island of Ulthuan. It's a beautiful land of rainbows, huge magical vortexes and fortresses positioned in easily defended mountain passes. As starting positions go, this is as good as it gets. However the High Elves are an elite army that relies on a relatively small number of vulnerable units that can deal a lot of damage. Their research tree is the most complicated of the set. Plus their special ability to manipulate enemies through trade is also more abstract than, say, Skaven, who can bring up units from beneath the earth in corrupted territories, or the Dark Elves, who can spawn enormous black arks to harass distant enemies.
If you have played Total War games before then the organised blocks of infantry in a High Elf army will feel nice and familiar, but I would be tempted to recommend the Lord Mazdamundi Lizardmen campaign and even, perhaps controversially, the Squeek Skaven campaign. Mazdamundi's starting position is very friendly to the Lizardmen. Once you've seized your province you can ally with the cheerful human faction south of you and then raid the weak Dark Elf forces to the north. Lizardmen units are more fun than Elves because they have dinosaurs and giant frogs that cast magic. This is a fact even though Jody will fight me over it.
The Skaven Queek campaign is a tough prospect for a newcomer, but it's a lot of fun if you don't mind taking some punishment and want to think like a Skaven warlord. Taking the starting province is dead easy because you just set up in a series of ruins, however you face constant raids from a High Elf island nearby and from treasure-hunting Lizardman fleets. There are a bunch of Skaven clans to the east that will fight hard for the warpstone source in that area of the map. It's a game of scrabbling from settlement to settlement. Raid aggressively to keep your food supplies up and smother enemy territories with corruption. This is the way of the horned rat.
The Dark Elves are interesting too. They get more powerful when more things die in battle, they have cool monsters and Malekith is a powerful general. Sadly, I find Malekith's starting position a bit dull. You're dropped into the frozen North far from the sea, surrounded by independent states and ruins plagued by Skaven. Once you do get onto the ocean Black Arks are amazing. These ominous seaborne fortresses are cities in their own right.
Check which buildings you need for research
Most of Total War: Warhammer's factions need to construct buildings to unlock paths on the technology tree. This does a neat job of tying building, tech and unit production into one interlocking system, and it gives each faction characterful approaches to R&D. Lizardmen—magical demons and masters of the universe—have loads of mystical buildings that unlock short sprints of technology. Skaven instead start learning new tech when they've built a couple of tier-three buildings (though note that you can found a settlement at rank three if you have enough food for a shortcut).
Whatever faction you decide to start with, open up their tech tree on turn one and mouse over the little red icons attached to technologies. These will tell you what you need to build to start researching that discipline. When you know your tech buildings you can plan to leave spaces for them in your provinces. If you don't want to worry about any of this, go with the Dark Elves. They can plunge straight into the research tree with a simple payment. Oracle start command. That's sorcerers for you.
Look out for corruption
![Total war warhammer 2 tips Total war warhammer 2 tips](/uploads/1/2/3/9/123934660/630363875.jpg)
Chaos and the Skaven infest the lands they occupy, changing the very nature of the Old World to suit their gods. Corruption is displayed as a percentage value in each territory and you may even notice the land changing in appearance as Chaos warps your home into a lava-strewn hellscape.
If a land becomes too corrupted your armies start to die off, public order takes a massive hit, and and you're pretty much screwed. Chaos corruption can spread very aggressively (much more quickly than the first game, it seems) and because wrangling corruption is a slow process, prevention is better than cure.
A territory's info card on the bottom left of the screen gives you a useful breakdown of all of the factors influencing corruption in that region. Your methods for dealing with corruption vary from faction to faction. Look for hero skills and buildings that improve your quotient of untainted land. Note that you can level up the same hero skill multiple times, so you can create heroes dedicated to hoovering up corruption wherever they go. Multiple hero effects stack as well, so if you have a serious corruption problem a reactive cluster of heroes might help.
Of course you might play a faction that enjoys rolling around in corruption, in which case look for buildings and heroes that spread more of the stuff. It's fun to load up Skaven heroes with pestilence and send them raiding in enemy territory where they can steal food and spread rot at the same time.
Chaos invasions become powerful quickly
In Total War: Warhammer 2 the four major factions are performing rituals to influence the roaring vortex at the centre of the map. Every time you successfully perform a ritual Chaos invades your lands. In my experience the first invasion is easy to bat away, but Chaos attacks with much greater power with each ritual performed.
I was caught out in one campaign when I decided to let my garrisons and an army of magically summoned wild dinosaurs defend my lands while my main army was marauding abroad. A collection of rampaging Chaos armies stole away several cities before my mighty Slann returned to crush them. The best defense is a strong economy that allows you to sustain multiple armies, but if you like to gamble you can build defensive structures that grow the garrisons automatically stationed at your cities.
Merge units, and be careful about raising a second army too soon
Unit upkeep costs are a big deal. Raising a second army of noteworthy strength can wipe one or two thousand gold off your incoming gold total per turn. If this puts you into the red then be prepared to disband individual units from your armies to balance your economy. This is especially painful if you're having to disband battle-tested forces that have earned veteran bonuses.
Merging units is an efficient way to cut costs. If you have two half-strength units of clan rats after a battle, consider merging them by clicking one, shift-clicking the other, and then selecting the merge command from the tiny pop-up menu. Now you're only paying for one unit rather than two. You can always hire another unit of clan rats later when you have more cash coming in.
There are lots of ways to make money. The safe way is to build a bunch of money-making buildings and spread them across your empire. If you would rather use those building slots for other things then you can be a pirate instead. To do this plunder nearby lands in raiding stance, defeat enemy armies and extort as much money as you can from the aftermath, and sack cities every so often to empty their vaults. Look out for bonuses in your hero skill trees and technology trees that increase the percentage of gold you get out of combat engagements and plundering settlements.
If you're a charismatic faction like the High Elves, trade can also bring in a lot of cash. Talk to everyone and try to establish as many trade agreements as possible.
That's enough to be getting on with for now. It is still difficult to quickly discern what minor variants on units really do in the game, but the best way to fix this is with experimentation in step one. With a bit of training you'll have control of that vortex in no time.