Total War: Warhammer 2 has been a high-water mark for the Total War series. I have played most of them and, frankly, Warhammer 2 kinda ruined all of the rest. It is hard to play with only swords and muskets when Warhammer 2 gives you spells and flying things and whatnot.
While maybe not my favorite games of all time they are up there and, if I could only pick one game to take to a desert island, it would be this game. It is incredibly replayable.
So, I am eager for Warhammer 3 which releases about a month from now (Feb. 17, 2022). The publisher has let YouTubers start playing and showing videos of the gameplay which is encouraging. There seem to be a lot of QoL improvements which are welcome.
I will say though…I am not keen on playing chaos. I totally get why Creative Assembly went there for this. It makes complete sense. I just like elves and dwarves and vampires. Festering Nurgle armies do not intrigue me. The whole aesthetic of chaos is not great. Don’t get me wrong, I will happily play this. Just a preference thing of mine.
Here is one YouTube video showing the game. There are loads more:
I’m looking forward to it, and Total War Warhammer II is my favorite in the Total War series. The combat is more fun, and the armies are more varied. My main complaint is that it’s a bit barebones at times in some aspects of the campaign map compared to the Historical titles, especially in aspects like Diplomacy. They seem to be implementing some improvements for diplomacy that I’m excited about.
I’m also more interested in fighting chaos demons than playing as them.
Pre-ordered the day it was announced, and currently my excitement level is “fever-pitch”. The sheer number of quality-of-life improvements coming to the series is absolutely staggering, and I will be taking February 17th as a personal day to just sink into it. And I was absolutely amazed at the addition of 8-player simultaneous-turn coop; a significant portion of my 1200 hours of Warhammer 2 has been in coop campaigns, and we hoped they would increase the cap to at least four…
I feel like I’ve barely spent time with WH2 so I’m going to be a late buyer to Warhammer 3. That it is launching on GamePass might get me to check it out a bit while waiting for a sale so I can consolidate everything on steam.
For anybody interested, Fanatical currently has TW: WH3 for sale for $47.39 right now; that’s likely cheaper than any steam sales will be for some time after release (and by purchasing early/within the first week of release, you get the Ogres race pack for free).
Here is a video of me rambling earlier tonight while playing TW: Warhammer 2, if you want to see some gameplay. Since I can’t figure out how to link a specific timestamp from my phone, I recommend skipping ahead to the 8 minute mark; I’m trying to get my streaming stuff set up to stream the new game when it comes out, so there is a lot of… Dead air and fumbling for the first part. Not that that’s any worse than the rest
I’ve been playing 1 and 2 together in Mortal Empires mode almost exclusively for the past couple of years; does anyone know if the new game will be able to join in?
Yes, as long as you have all three on the same portal (steam, epic, GamePass). It won’t be immediately though; there will be a delay between release and the new (Im)Mortal Empires map.
ETA: In fact, the devs are already playing on the combined map in-house; several screenshots they’ve released during the hype train have shown selection screens with game 1 & 2 factions included.
I am not sure but I think it can. Indeed, it may present a bit of a problem. Not game-breaking or anything. Just, not ideal.
The video below notes that the Mortal Empires map is so big now that, because the map is not round (a globe) some factions cannot realistically fight each other. It’d be like London attacking New York but having to travel east to do so because they cannot travel west.
Again, this is NOT a game breaker at all. But it is something that would be great if they fixed (and the video suggests the mechanism to do this is already programmed into the game).
Yeah, if they used like a special “teleportation zone” on the edge of the map using basically the new Rift system in Warhammer 3 (also similar to Khorne’s mechanics, or Oxyotl/Wood Elves in Warhammer 2), giving you a choice to set sail across the ocean. I would certainly prefer it if they could do a seamless east/west transition on the map, simulating a cylinder; I think the biggest problem would be pathfinding/decision-making trees for the AI.
My concern is that the WH games will be too outlandish for me. I like the constraints of the historical games, especially the ones with the naval battles.
Definitely no naval battles in this; and some do find the fantasy aspect hard to get around.
The benefit, though, is that battles are not symmetrical. It’s not Shogun 2, where every battle is fought by similar armies, and everything has the same feel; you have to consider TONS of factors in each battle. Who are you fighting? What are their strengths, and how can you defend against them? What are their weaknesses, and how can you exploit them?
So the dawi (dwarves) have no cavalry, no monsters of any kind, and NO SPEED. Short dwarf legs don’t move fast. But you have access to massively armored, nearly impossible to break, stubborn little bastards with access to TONS of ranged weaponry and artillery. And helicopters. And flamethrowers. So they tend to turtle up and just melt oncoming armies, and outlast them when the finally engage. So to fight them, you have to account for heavy armor, so you need plenty of armor-piercing capability; you need high damage output, and you also want to try to use speed to find an opening and get in to destroy their artillery advantage. Some armies have options to handle that; some really don’t, so to win those fights requires tactical creativity. And every faction has different strengths or weaknesses.
It’s still possible to enjoy both styles of play (historical and Warhammer), but speaking for myself, it is VERY difficult to enjoy a historical title any longer. After a few battles in Three Kingdoms, or Shogun 2, I just feel a bit bored, and want to shoot the hell out of people with an army of heavily-armed Vampire Pirates…
ETA: Tangentially related, if anybody is bored for an hour and a half or so… every TW: WH trailer.
It is worth noting that every faction is also pretty well balanced. It’s not perfect, there is a meta for multiplayer that favors some factions and a few never quite got all of the love from the devs they needed but, mostly, each faction is totally playable. Dwarves have advantages and disadvantages. As do Elves (more than one type), Vampires (more than one type), Mummies, Lizards and so on. Each with their own strengths and weaknesses. There are many options available to suit most playstyles. Stealthy? Armored? Fast? Magic? Ranged? Melee? Flying?
Take your pick (and then combos of the above). It is outlandish but in a great way (addressing @madmonk28 's comment).
But yeah, zero sea battles in Warhammer (if two ship meet you have a land battle…I guess they all agree to go fight on some little nearby island).
Also, the armies all just look so much more interesting than soldier #58 with a different tunic color.
