You may remember me from a few years ago being quite active on here and posting my tabletop YouTube videos on beginner info for primarily Warhammer Fantasy but also other gaming systems. I then joined Creative Assembly in 2013 and have been working towards the announce of TW:WARHAMMER which has now been announced!
I'll be able to answer any questions any of you have as the community coordinator for this title if anyone has any
In Total War: WARHAMMER you’ll have four races to choose from, Greenskins, The Empire, Dwarfs and Vampire Counts. Each race has a legendary lord character , who is the leader of a faction within your chosen race
Will it be freeform across the Old World or a section of it, linear or limited in anyway?
]There will be a number of legendary Lords from the Warhammer world available to play as in the game. These will act as both your leader and the principle general of one of your many armies, though they work somewhat differently to previous Total War games. First of all, these are Lords of near-mythical power, and make a tremendous impact on the battlefield. They’ll also be able to undertake multi-stage quests which lead to epic set-piece battles, the outcome of which may bestow them with legendary items, armour or weapons.
Each legendary character has a quest arc, unique abilities, armour, weapons and in some cases, access to mounts. Each race will play very differently from each other; to master them all will require massive variation in campaign and battle strategy. Greenskins aren’t going to behave the same way as the Empire for example, and will have access to different playstyles and features.
Not to attack you or creative assembly, but this game is published by Sega. From my experience, this does not bode well.
Expect to pay full retail price and then some (read: a lot) more for day 1 DLC, ballance-relevant DLC (you'll need to be competetive) and cosmetic DLC (if you so choose) at completely stupefying rates.
Examples from my experience include campaign-only units that will be later sold to you for use in multiplayer (also a form of day 1 dlc), mission-packs or mini-campaigns or similar at completely absurd prices (especially considering that they were made from existing, just reused maps). Skins that cost you 12 bucks and work only on half the maps... stuff like that.
Again, nothing against you or Creative Assembly, but I won't touch anything with Sega on it for more than enough reasons.
Will it be freeform across the Old World or a section of it, linear or limited in anyway?
There will be a number of legendary Lords from the Warhammer world available to play as in the game. These will act as both your leader and the principle general of one of your many armies, though they work somewhat differently to previous Total War games. First of all, these are Lords of near-mythical power, and make a tremendous impact on the battlefield. They’ll also be able to undertake multi-stage quests which lead to epic set-piece battles, the outcome of which may bestow them with legendary items, armour or weapons.
Each legendary character has a quest arc, unique abilities, armour, weapons and in some cases, access to mounts. Each race will play very differently from each other; to master them all will require massive variation in campaign and battle strategy. Greenskins aren’t going to behave the same way as the Empire for example, and will have access to different playstyles and features.
Will it be freeform across the Old World or a section of it, linear or limited in anyway?
Spoiler:
There will be a number of legendary Lords from the Warhammer world available to play as in the game. These will act as both your leader and the principle general of one of your many armies, though they work somewhat differently to previous Total War games. First of all, these are Lords of near-mythical power, and make a tremendous impact on the battlefield. They’ll also be able to undertake multi-stage quests which lead to epic set-piece battles, the outcome of which may bestow them with legendary items, armour or weapons.
Each legendary character has a quest arc, unique abilities, armour, weapons and in some cases, access to mounts. Each race will play very differently from each other; to master them all will require massive variation in campaign and battle strategy. Greenskins aren’t going to behave the same way as the Empire for example, and will have access to different playstyles and features.
Thanks Joey. So in broad terms it will be based upon a large map and you can pick your own battles ala Empire TW (the last one I played )
Not sure about the Legendary Lords side of things, this could go either way. I'm no fan of Hero Hammer where they take most of an Army single handed. Powerful individuals sure but ones that can be isolated or overwhelmed if foolishly committed.
Magic items is good. Are there items available for Units/other leaders, Like standards or Flaming Swords that shot fireballs? (Nothing wrong with a bit of Dark Omen nostalgia. )
The trailer for this looks awesome...never played Total War but will give this a go! Added bonus gettin to use Undead, Orcs & Gobllins and particularly Dwarfs!! I presume that this is set before the End Times plot??
You may remember me from a few years ago being quite active on here and posting my tabletop YouTube videos on beginner info for primarily Warhammer Fantasy but also other gaming systems. I then joined Creative Assembly in 2013 and have been working towards the announce of TW:WARHAMMER which has now been announced!
Lt. Donomar StubbornBull wrote: The trailer for this looks awesome...never played Total War but will give this a go! Added bonus gettin to use Undead, Orcs & Gobllins and particularly Dwarfs!! I presume that this is set before the End Times plot??
There won’t be a family tree in Total War: Warhammer as it wouldn’t fit the lore or the game, your Lords don’t age as such, and they won’t be succeeded by their offspring. However, each character you control in the game has an extensive RPG-like progression system and, in the case of playable Lords, will have narrative branching quest chains, unique items, weapons and armour they can obtain, and you’ll find this will provide plenty of customisation options and attachment to your more treasured generals.
Lt. Donomar StubbornBull wrote: The trailer for this looks awesome...never played Total War but will give this a go! Added bonus gettin to use Undead, Orcs & Gobllins and particularly Dwarfs!! I presume that this is set before the End Times plot??
How will Total Warhammer compare with Total War: Attila? With only 4 playable factions, will there be settlements, rebellions, food, currency or sub factions?
I'm worried that this will be a Total War lite, which I don't think anybody wants.
Looking forward to this a lot, CA and SEGA got my attention with the excellent Alien Isolation.
However i have been burned by swish trailers for Fantasy games before, however CA and the Total War series have normally been very good. Though last TW game i played was Shogun hehe.
Shame No elves in first go though, ill make do with VC
Davylove21 wrote: How will Total Warhammer compare with Total War: Attila? With only 4 playable factions, will there be settlements, rebellions, food, currency or sub factions?
I'm worried that this will be a Total War lite, which I don't think anybody wants.
Some official wording on how it will all work;
We’re planning full game follow-ups, DLC content packs and Free-LC to follow the main release. These will include new playable Lords, units, races and more. We’ll talk about these in time, but for now, our focus is on crafting a deep, rich and content-heavy main game.
Future instalments of the trilogy will expand the world-map, bringing unique new terrain and introducing new playable Lords and their races. We’re planning these to be massive standalone follow-ups to the main game (like ATTILA to ROME II).
You’ll be able to get just these and play them on their own if you like or, if you have the main game too, you’ll eventually be able to play across an expanded campaign map that includes all available areas of the Old World. These follow-ups combined with the main game will create the biggest single Total War experience ever.
Davylove21 wrote: How will Total Warhammer compare with Total War: Attila? With only 4 playable factions, will there be settlements, rebellions, food, currency or sub factions?
I'm worried that this will be a Total War lite, which I don't think anybody wants.
Some official wording on how it will all work;
We’re planning full game follow-ups, DLC content packs and Free-LC to follow the main release. These will include new playable Lords, units, races and more. We’ll talk about these in time, but for now, our focus is on crafting a deep, rich and content-heavy main game.
Future instalments of the trilogy will expand the world-map, bringing unique new terrain and introducing new playable Lords and their races. We’re planning these to be massive standalone follow-ups to the main game (like ATTILA to ROME II).
You’ll be able to get just these and play them on their own if you like or, if you have the main game too, you’ll eventually be able to play across an expanded campaign map that includes all available areas of the Old World. These follow-ups combined with the main game will create the biggest single Total War experience ever.
What you are saying is basically reinforcing my assumption that you'll pay full price for the game and then will have to spend a lot of extra cash on stuff that was probably partially finished before the game was released and will cost you a lot more in the end than a proper expansion used to cost. A new faction? Sure, 20 bucks. Oh, you want a campaign for them too? Well, that's another 40. Some extra skins? Sure thing. And before you know it, you have spent more on the DLC than on the initial game, yet one included a lot of work on the game engine, structure, faction design, network code etc, while the other reuses existing content. This is not automatically a big deal, but giving Sega's pricing policy, it definitely put me off their games.
Will there be research like in Empire? What agents will we have? How will magic and air units work? How big is the world? Will there be different theatres, like in Empire, or will it only be around the Old World, like how Medieval Total War was only in Europe? Will there be Lizardmen and tomb kings?
Davylove21 wrote: How will Total Warhammer compare with Total War: Attila? With only 4 playable factions, will there be settlements, rebellions, food, currency or sub factions?
I'm worried that this will be a Total War lite, which I don't think anybody wants.
Some official wording on how it will all work;
We’re planning full game follow-ups, DLC content packs and Free-LC to follow the main release. These will include new playable Lords, units, races and more. We’ll talk about these in time, but for now, our focus is on crafting a deep, rich and content-heavy main game.
Future instalments of the trilogy will expand the world-map, bringing unique new terrain and introducing new playable Lords and their races. We’re planning these to be massive standalone follow-ups to the main game (like ATTILA to ROME II).
You’ll be able to get just these and play them on their own if you like or, if you have the main game too, you’ll eventually be able to play across an expanded campaign map that includes all available areas of the Old World. These follow-ups combined with the main game will create the biggest single Total War experience ever.
What you are saying is basically reinforcing my assumption that you'll pay full price for the game and then will have to spend a lot of extra cash on stuff that was probably partially finished before the game was released and will cost you a lot more in the end than a proper expansion used to cost. A new faction? Sure, 20 bucks. Oh, you want a campaign for them too? Well, that's another 40. Some extra skins? Sure thing. And before you know it, you have spent more on the DLC than on the initial game, yet one included a lot of work on the game engine, structure, faction design, network code etc, while the other reuses existing content. This is not automatically a big deal, but giving Sega's pricing policy, it definitely put me off their games.
Welcome to the future. This is hardly unique to Sega and is unfortunately the way things are. Heck, we have day 1 DLC with games workshop now!
Davylove21 wrote: How will Total Warhammer compare with Total War: Attila? With only 4 playable factions, will there be settlements, rebellions, food, currency or sub factions?
I'm worried that this will be a Total War lite, which I don't think anybody wants.
Some official wording on how it will all work;
We’re planning full game follow-ups, DLC content packs and Free-LC to follow the main release. These will include new playable Lords, units, races and more. We’ll talk about these in time, but for now, our focus is on crafting a deep, rich and content-heavy main game.
Future instalments of the trilogy will expand the world-map, bringing unique new terrain and introducing new playable Lords and their races. We’re planning these to be massive standalone follow-ups to the main game (like ATTILA to ROME II).
You’ll be able to get just these and play them on their own if you like or, if you have the main game too, you’ll eventually be able to play across an expanded campaign map that includes all available areas of the Old World. These follow-ups combined with the main game will create the biggest single Total War experience ever.
What you are saying is basically reinforcing my assumption that you'll pay full price for the game and then will have to spend a lot of extra cash on stuff that was probably partially finished before the game was released and will cost you a lot more in the end than a proper expansion used to cost. A new faction? Sure, 20 bucks. Oh, you want a campaign for them too? Well, that's another 40. Some extra skins? Sure thing. And before you know it, you have spent more on the DLC than on the initial game, yet one included a lot of work on the game engine, structure, faction design, network code etc, while the other reuses existing content. This is not automatically a big deal, but giving Sega's pricing policy, it definitely put me off their games.
That’s OK, we strongly recommend you don’t buy things you don’t think you will like or agree with but I hope to change your mind obviously
Hey, long time no post. I was wondering what happened to your youtube channel post Adepticon a few years ago. Your avatar pic has changed as well; did you move to the coast of New Jersey? Any announcements regarding additional platforms like consoles?
TBH the DLC moaning will die out soon, as its only our current generation of gamers (25-40 Y.O now) who remember the days of a full game coming out, and expansions were about £15 (about £23 now) for basically another half size campaign.
But with the internet speed as it is now and younger gamers expecting stuff to come later and cost a bit, its just how it is. I dont have an issue with DLC if its an actual expansion, i.e. more than 4 extra missions for £15. Things like skins, mpas etc i never get but if its for more actual content (especially for single players Note to publishers, we dont all want to play CoD online) then i am happy to pay for it.
Who wants to take bets on the release DLC faction being Elves? The only other faction I could see them doing is chaos, so I'll take 50/50 odds on that and 11.5% odds on it being the both of them.
My bets will be Elves for writing my signature (within forum rules) for my next 100 posts.
Sounds awesome , I have always been a big fan of total war games, I have them all and now I am really looking forward to what will possibly be the best yet !
I only really have a problem with DLC if it comes at release or early on and could have been included at the start.
warboss wrote: Hey, long time no post. I was wondering what happened to your youtube channel post Adepticon a few years ago. Your avatar pic has changed as well; did you move to the coast of New Jersey? Any announcements regarding additional platforms like consoles?
Im guessing due to it being a Total War game its exclusive to the glorious PC master race
I will be buying it for sure. Hopefully my poor computer can hadle it, though. Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat and Dark Omen have been a pair of games that I hold in particular dear, so I hope this will live up to that.
Reading it will it be closser to total war style games or the Warhammer battle march style with a single leader and a linear (with some branching) story? Or (hopfully) a vast map that allows my Orcs to greet all new settlements with a friendly kick to the nads.
I have no problem with DLC/expansion packs so long as they add something that I find to be a good value for the price. Total War games tend to do pretty well, even if some of those packs (like the blood DLC for Rome II) are a bit superfluous.
That being said, this seems like the single most sensible thing GW has had a part in in the last ten years. I'm incredibly excited about this!
Brother SRM wrote: I have no problem with DLC/expansion packs so long as they add something that I find to be a good value for the price. Total War games tend to do pretty well, even if some of those packs (like the blood DLC for Rome II) are a bit superfluous.
That being said, this seems like the single most sensible thing GW has had a part in in the last ten years. I'm incredibly excited about this!
I agree with both of these things.
I'm a bit worried about the prospect of invincible and undying heroes though. I'm also worried that this will be closer to Napoleon: Total War's Napoleonic Campaign, which did not follow the standard Total War format due to the presence of these "Quests and character progression". That hints to me that there will be things that will occur without the players "consent". If this resembles the Mongolian and Timurid invasions from Medieval II, or the reforms of Marius in Rome, then great. If it more forcibly requires that the player move from one prescripted battle to the next then oh-no.
Total War for me is just as much about the dynamism of the campaign map and interactions as it is commanding units of 100 men into battle.
Rick_1138 wrote: TBH the DLC moaning will die out soon, as its only our current generation of gamers (25-40 Y.O now) who remember the days of a full game coming out, and expansions were about £15 (about £23 now) for basically another half size campaign.
But with the internet speed as it is now and younger gamers expecting stuff to come later and cost a bit, its just how it is. I dont have an issue with DLC if its an actual expansion, i.e. more than 4 extra missions for £15. Things like skins, mpas etc i never get but if its for more actual content (especially for single players Note to publishers, we dont all want to play CoD online) then i am happy to pay for it.
Anyway, as you were.
The way I look at DLC is that games, like **everything else** have gotten more expensive. $4 movies on Tuesdays seems a distant memory from another galaxy, much less cheaper than that. $10 for a hardcover book used to be expensive!
Now, all DLC does is allow the publisher to sell a stripped down game for you to make sure you like for $50, when the entire price of the game is actually $100. As an alternative, they would be selling every copy for $80.
Hopefully, your salary has kept up with the inflation...
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Brother SRM wrote: I have no problem with DLC/expansion packs so long as they add something that I find to be a good value for the price. Total War games tend to do pretty well, even if some of those packs (like the blood DLC for Rome II) are a bit superfluous.
That being said, this seems like the single most sensible thing GW has had a part in in the last ten years. I'm incredibly excited about this!
Yes, out of every video game that has been made in the Fantasy/40k IP, this one looks like it has the most potential! Armageddon wasn't bad, but the large games got really long and clunky. Reminded me of playing 4,000 point 40k games, without any of the things that makes 40k great.
Complaining about DLC in todays gaming environment is about as useful as the 40k players complaining about eldar in the 40k threads. It is what it is. You either adapt and buy the DLC that you want, or you don't and play the game without it. Its entirely up to you.
I for one don't mind DLC unless it is something STUPID like the horse armor in Elder Scrolls, which I also bought and then laughed at myself. I try to just buy DLC now if I feel like it adds value to the game proportionate to the cost. It is a great way for developers to extend the life and enjoyability of a game.
TheJoeyberry wrote: In Total War: WARHAMMER you’ll have four races to choose from, Greenskins, The Empire, Dwarfs and Vampire Counts. Each race has a legendary lord character , who is the leader of a faction within your chosen race
I'd be very interested in learning how long I will have to wait for my favorite faction, chaos. The video seems to imply Tzeentch being a factor in the opening game, the character in the video seems very much like egrimm van horstmann, could we be expecting the old chaos dragon riding sorcerer lord to be making an appearance?
So my question/ concern is more in regards to the multiplayer content. In shogun 2 you guys had some of the best multiplayer availability in that I could gain control of a map through battles and thus open available units for hire. Even more so some of my units progressed and gained individual abilities, as well as increase cost but that's ok, thus making for a more personal battle. Plus all of the fun I upgrading the lord. Then though Rome 2 came out and you guys dropped this Factor and same with Attila. Also no longer are we able to say angle the units and such to fit our formation as we wish. From Rome 2 and on we couldn't have a line then have our fans units at xy angle. Instead it's all linear and opens the player up to getting raped in combat from flank attacks. Are they fixing these problems or just adding to them?
As a long fan of TW games (though enthusiasm kinda suffered with the last ones...), i'm deffinitely looking forward. For once, i'll propably actually care for expansions/DLC since it won't just be more of the same stuff. I couldnt be bothered to have some different barbaric tribe, or dog units (srly?). But a new warhammer race? gak yes. And instead of just play 2-3 factions i would certainly want to try out everyone of them, because they are just so much different in visual style and feeling (well hopefully).
Q: Will the game still have the same focus on city/ territory development and building, or will the focus shift alot more to the armies, generals and combat? I hope buildings won't get neglected
A lot of mention has been made about the legendary characters leading factions - are there more generic characters as well? Will I be able to have a host of orc and goblin bosses backing up Grimgor by leading his other armies around during the Waaagh?
Also, what happens if/when the character dies? I got Grimgor killed by a Witch Hunter in the Medieval 2 Warhammer mod...he was probably quite proud until the boars ran him over. It was amusing and I'd be interested to know if I can do that again.
I saw arachnaroks. Please tell me there will be lots and lots of spidery forest goblin goodness?
Love to see the high production value of the trailer, hopefully the gameplay videos that follow it will be of a comparable quality.
This is extremely exciting thought, as a fan of RTS, Warhammer and Total War I am besides myself with joy.
Please, please, please do not disappoint us.
My questions:
1) What's the likely release quarter for this?
2) What sort of diplomacy mechanics exist?
3) To echo Spinner's question: Will there be any customization of your character in the game other than wargear? Will you be able to create a generic warlord or will you only be able to play the default heroes?
That’s OK, we strongly recommend you don’t buy things you don’t think you will like or agree with but I hope to change your mind obviously
Oh, I hope so too. I love strategy games and the warhammer setting. Just do opposite of what has been done with company of heroes 2 and you should be fine.
Its nice that there is finally some info about tw: warhammer.. however it is pretty much infomation that is equal to something like the new star wars battlefront only being set on 4 planets..
ONLY 4 factions??? For a total war game thats had years of time to work it seems like the extreme dlc approch is taken. TW games since shogun 2 have been heavy on the dlc (some of it worth the coin) but in warhammer there are alot of heros...ALOT! Please do not tell me your going to dlc most of the warhammer world because i will not take part in it.
ps - also no skaven?? They are also iconic to fantasy these day.
Just jumped on Attila for the first time in a while and in the news section of the launcher it has the trailer and some text.
"In the turn based campaign game, players will find the Old World an unforgiving and treacherous place, filled with endless war and cunning alliances alike. Whichever race you choose to play as and however you seek conquest, you will be faced with a conflict that threatens to tear the very fabric of reality asunder.
The first in an epic trilogy of titles, Total War: Warhammer will deliver hundreds of hours of absorbing gameplay. It will combine with two further standalone instalments and additional content packs to create the single largest Total War experience ever."
In light of the big announcement for Total War: WARHAMMER,Creative Assembly are running a very special prize draw on Twitter!
Hidden in the trailer is a cryptic prophecy. Find, decipher and tweet it, with a link to the trailer and hashtag #MakeMeAnOrc, for your chance to win the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be immortalised in Total War: WARHAMMER.
In case you’ve been deep in a Dwarfen hold and haven’t seen the trailer yet, check it out here.
The winner will get a trip to CA headquarters in the UK for themselves and a friend with accommodation and travel expenses. You will be taken on a tour of the studio, then set up in our motion capture studio. Using your mo-capped data, CA will create character animations that will eventually be used in Total War: WARHAMMER. You’ll then get a session in the audio studio to record character sound effects. To commemorate your day CA will send you a video clip of your animations and sound effects put to use in-engine. The competition will run until 12:00 GMT on Monday 27th of April!
For the full information and to enter the competition check out the Twitter page. Twitter page-https://twitter.com/totalwar
I get the feeling it was the dwarven runes on the statue just before it got smashed. If somebody could translate it (i think the dwarven language was somewhere in the dwarf army book) then perhaps they'd figure it out.
"In case you’ve been deep in a Dwarfen hold and haven’t seen the trailer yet, check it out here."
That bit seems to hint that it might be in the dwarfen hold bit.
Pause the trailer at around the 1:25 mark out of 4:02.
First line:
Z/Zh A/I N
U/W N L/Ul O N
Second line:
Z/Zh A/I R R
U/W N K/Kh A/I Z/Zh Z/I K/Kh
Third line:
D U/W N T N U/W
-------
Not sure if i'm on track or way off here. Might be a reveal of something at least.
--------
K well this contest was almost over when it was posted up here. I translated about half of it and got a bit of the runes wrong (one is very similar to another).
What i translated was:
Blood and ------
fire and war
----- 10 at this time.
Lt. Donomar StubbornBull wrote: The trailer for this looks awesome...never played Total War but will give this a go! Added bonus gettin to use Undead, Orcs & Gobllins and particularly Dwarfs!! I presume that this is set before the End Times plot??
SO, this will play like the other total war games? You get an army, play it out on the world map, and then take the area?
How will you handle special issues, such as a dragon, or a vermin tide assaults, or an rascal Necromancer with a Wight that hangs out with him that wants to set up in the mountains and set up in a forgotten valley?
Will the cities be having the old school adventures in there, or the side stories that come up in Mighty Empires?
Will there be mercenary regiments, such as the Border Princes, and also will there be a Lustria/ Tomb Kings/ Northern Wastes add ons?
Good to see Joey in on this, it adds a serious amount of legitimacy to the project.
there’s one thing that’s striking about Total War: Warhammer, it’s impact. The way Empire handgunners scatter when a Wyvern glides into them. The way that Orc Boyz Waaagh and leap apelike as they charge into the enemy ranks, filled with irrepressible energy. The way that Demigryph Knights bound like birds as they overrun howling Savage Orc Boar Boyz. The way that a Goblin Doom Diver gibbers as it ploughs into the ground head first, almost incidentally crushing a line of spearmen. It’s got an unreal energy unlike any previous Total War game, but exactly like I always imagined Warhammer: Fantasy Battle.
The Battle of Blackfire Pass is the subject of the demo The Creative Assembly showed me at their studio in rural Horsham. The Empire and Orcs & Goblins battle for control of a crucial lava-dotted canyon that’s traditionally the only thoroughfare between the two factions' kingdoms in Warhammer’s Old World. The battle type is new to Total War, but will be familiar to players of Endless Legend—it’s a quest battle. Every character in your army has an chain of quests to follow that unlock new items, abilities and mounts. Blackfire Pass is the final battle for the leader of the human faction, Emperor Karl Franz.
If the player chooses to pursue this chain and wins this fight, the Emperor gets to wield the legendary Hammer of Sigmar. But that’s a big ‘if’. Though the Empire has brought its finest troops and (more importantly) war machines and wizards, the Greenskin army dwarfs it.
Beyond the hard-as-nails Boyz, Savage Orcs and Black Orcs, and soft-as-jelly Goblins—variously mounted on boars, wolves, and spiders—the Greenskin army is notable for its wide range of monstrous units. Large units like Trolls do area attacks, leaping to smash Empire swordsmen aside or vomiting on them lugubriously. Giants pick up halberdiers and snack on them pensively, and the enormous Arachnarok spiders, topped by a small contingent of goblin archers, meander across the battlefield. The Empire’s more traditional cannons, Steam Tanks and rockets level swathes of the enemy but struggle against this onslaught.
“There’s a lot of work we’ve done on the animations, to make the combat seem more dynamic and responsive.” says Roxburgh. “The sheer amount of animations is huge—even down to the amount of different skeletons, 30 types as opposed to 5 or 6 in previous total war games
Just above the foot troops, Wyverns ridden by Orc Warbosses dogfight with Karl Franz and his Griffon, Deathclaw. This is the first time Total War has had flying creatures and though it’s fluid, it’s very much a work in progress—“Air-to-air is obviously something we’re still working on”, says Roxburgh.
There are orc Heroes on the ground too, like Grimgor Ironhide the troll-sized Black Orc general, and Witch Hunters and Warrior Priests on the Empire side. The real power lies with the shamans and wizards, who obliterate entire units, summoning giant feet or luminous moons to crush their enemies, or using delicate war machines like the Luminark of Hysh to topple giants. Indeed, the battle is ended by a Celestial Wizard calling down the Comet of Casandora to obliterate the field’s centre. Thankfully, the Winds of Magic that power spells are concentrated in certain areas and not others, and randomised before each battle, so that wizardly-dominance can’t be relied upon.
I've only seen battles in this alpha. The team tell the campaign map is more up-in-the-air. Here heroes and Lords appear as traditional Total War agents, with campaign-level powers—but attach them to an army, and they’ll appear in battle. Be careful though, while named heroes like Karl Franz only ever get injured in battle, your newly levelled-up Wizard Lord can just die.
Some traditional Total War elements—city-building, diplomacy, unit-building—will work the normal way, for the Empire at least. Other campaign elements are unique to Warhammer and unique to each faction. For example, the Greenskins will have their own system of Waaagh, which pushes them on faster when they’re fighting but penalises them heavily for peace.
“You’ve got this balance between building up this momentum, keeping the battles going, keeping the Boyz excited, or suffering animosity.” say Roxburgh. Every faction is similarly differentiated. “We’re playing with each of the races like it’s an individual Total War game in its own right.” says Simon Mann, TW:W’s Battle Designer. “They are so diverse, we want to revel in that.”
Playing Warhammer this way should save hundreds of pounds in figures and hundreds of hours in painting—and crucially, it’s the easiest, quickest and best-looking way to play huge fantasy battles. That might be the reason it’s taken Games Workshop this long to approve it—but I’m betting they won’t regret it.
Creative Assembly isn’t talking about the dwarf or undead armies yet, and definitely not the much-hinted at Chaos army. The most I could get out of Ian Roxburgh, Project Lead, was “There’s a smattering of other minor races, which we’re not talking about yet, but they occupy the world as well. There’s not just four different races and that’s all.
Automatically Appended Next Post: I have some questions that we've gathered from around the web- some of which apply to the questions here but I thought they're worth sharing.
Diplomacy between certain races in warhammer barely happens. Will alliances between certain factions be prohibited because of this? Total War is fundamentally a sandbox game – and this is sacrosanct to us. Accordingly, we’re loathe to place too many restrictions on the player’s ability to affect the world and forge agreements and alliances in whatever manner they choose. Having said that, there are some hard barriers (there are some alliances that you’d rightly think are just impossible, for example). We’re also heavily weighting diplomatic options and attitudes between races to reflect the IP (eg Dwarfs and Greenskins will hate each other) but, in a sandbox environment, if Dwarf players desperately want to reach a non-aggression pact with Orcs it shouldn’t necessarily be impossible – just very, very hard.
Will special events occur so the story will correspond with tabletop events and heroes there ? Fundamentally this is still a sandbox game. The player’s story will unravel as they play through the campaign in their own way as is usual with a TW game. However, TW:WH will draw from the rich Warhammer lore and introduce more narrative and storyline than previous games in a few ways. One such example is with the new feature we call ‘quest battles’. Basically, Legendary characters (Karl Franz, Grimgor Ironhide etc) will be able to unlock quests to gain their special unique magic items and mounts through their skills trees. Unlocking these quests will involve a narrative-driven series of missions that draw heavily from the lore and that culminate in a cool set-piece bespoke battle. Of course, players don’t have to undertake and complete these quests in order to win the game. In this way, the cool stories and histories of these characters can be told without breaking the sandbox nature of a TW game.
Will there be special movement ways such as army teleport on the world map depending on hero ? Certain armies will have unique ways to move across the map to reflect their character and race.
Can you force a religion onto different factions or your own cities, like in sid meirs civ 5?
No.
I’m a huge fan of the Total War series and I really want to know how the different factions will work on the campaign map -- will all of the races be run in the same way? Each race will give you a unique campaign experience. We’ll be talking about all of them as we get closer to release.
Naval combat? Naval will be map based- the focus of the game is massive epic battles and fantastical terrain.
Will standalone expansions integrate with the first game similarly as FotS did with Shogun2? Expansions will integrate with the main game to create the biggest Total War experience ever
Story based campaign (possibly in cooperation with Black Library authors) or will the game feature a more traditional TW sandbox campaign? It’s a sandbox campaign interwoven with story elements and quests which will in turn develop your army and Lords and Heroes.
Will there be an attachment option ? Meaning will players be able to recruit champions and attach them to a unit squad apart from generals for example an option added to unit like the way you can upgrade weapons and armor in rome 2 ? No, afraid not.
If you have any follow up questions please note it may take a while for me to get answers but when I can say something I will
Super excited. Now to find a way to get a new computer for the new specs without the wife knowing. I'm thinking keep the tower and put in new guts lol.
TheJoeyberry wrote: In Total War: WARHAMMER you’ll have four races to choose from, Greenskins, The Empire, Dwarfs and Vampire Counts. Each race has a legendary lord character , who is the leader of a faction within your chosen race
As this is being released by sega, will it be like CoH2 where only half the stuff available comes with the game, the rest will be DLC?
Oh yeah, will be buying this game. Who knows, it might even be better than Shadows of the Horned Rat (although, that game is a bit nostalgia, so i doubt any WH game will get close to it! )
Given the amount of work it would require to implement even a single faction (considering this is not like Rome or something where "animation of guy with sword" works for 40% of all unit types), I am not at all surprised that they are limiting their scope to the WHFB staples. And if they do a solid Tomb Kings (or maybe even Kislev) add-on several months later, I would not begeudge them the extra dough. Better than wait for them to implement Skaven, three different kinds of Elves, Lizard people.... etc
I was hoping they would put in magical items that could be found on certain maps like with Shadows of the Horned Rat. My dad and I worked on that old dang computer for days before it loaded right and I could play lol.
Graphics looked good, but I have zero interest in any of those four factions, so I'll take a pass and hope one of the future expansions adds in the stuff I enjoy.
Can't see this posted anywhere so thought I'd update the thread. Angry Joe's interview from E3.
The most positive thing I take from this is just how excited and fan-boyish Simon Mann seems, like a little kid in a toy shop. Maybe he's just got the sales patter down, but I think he's genuinely passionate about the IP, the setting and the lore. Always a good sign if the lead designers are as big a fan of the content as the gamers.
Yup, if they're genuinely putting that level of enthusiasm and care for the source material into the whole game and the standalone expansions/sequels that will broaden the world map with each, I'll be happy. At least the real Warhammer will live on in this, providing GW keep their dirty fingers out of it.
MaxT wrote: I wonder how pissed are they that the setting they're busy creating doesn't exist and isn't supported anymore by GW ?
I'd think they should be overjoyed with the scenario. Any brand recognition GW's Warhammer brand would bring would reference the pre End Times events. It would be far worse if GW made them create the game in the new Bubbleverse.
GW has gone from not properly leveraging their IP (No Blood Ravens support with promotional figures and offers for minis during DoW's heyday) To now having a completely different setting and game to the one you are licensing out.
I wonder how the dwarfs will play with their Anti-Magic in the game. Do they get to drain their enemies pool of wind of magic, is there going to be abilities to lessen or out right stop magic spells from going forward? IDK but I am interested in finding out.
Also I hope to heaven sakes that GW can see that people love the old world more so then Regalia and I hope some how it is remade. If only through forge world with a Age of Legends series to iron out a lot of kinks of the original time line.
Apparently a more in-depth trailer is due this Friday. After the recent change in art direction for Fantasy, it is good to touch base with the old HRE aesthetic once again
Starting to get really excited for this now, I hope we get an elf expansion sooner rather than later. Still of the four Warhammer armies I own two of them are in the starting line up so can't complain too much.
Alpharius wrote: I'll definitely be picking this game up at launch to show some support to the Old Game!
Yeah don't. Really, really don't.
It's a Creative Assembly game, and it's being published by Sega. This means that:
1. It won't be complete at launch.
2. It will be riddled with bugs that will take them several patches to iron out.
3. Sections of the game will be cut and turned into pre-order/Day 1 DLC.
You shouldn't buy PC games at launch to begin with, but if it's this creative duo, you definitely should not be buying at launch.
Alpharius wrote: I'll definitely be picking this game up at launch to show some support to the Old Game!
Yeah don't. Really, really don't.
It's a Creative Assembly game, and it's being published by Sega. This means that:
1. It won't be complete at launch.
2. It will be riddled with bugs that will take them several patches to iron out.
3. Sections of the game will be cut and turned into pre-order/Day 1 DLC.
You shouldn't buy PC games at launch to begin with, but if it's this creative duo, you definitely should not be buying at launch.
.
Mostly to conclude: Its not CD Project Red, who are famous for making great ports to the PC. because that is their home.
Kirasu wrote: That one trailer alone is better than all the awful fluff in Age of Sigmar.
Looks like this will be the protector of the Old World.
So, so, so much this. The starting monologue pretty much lays out word for word why WHF as a setting worked so well, and the massed ranks of men facing down the bestial horror of the Orcs is far cooler looking than a wee troupe of Land Marines in their gleaming MK2 Awesomeium Armour crushing everything without effort(because they're Land Marines, so we know already that they'll only ever lose as a plot device in a storyline where they eventually win).
Goddamnit GW, I just don't get it. People are saying they're marketing geniuses for eradicating the old setting as a way to get people talking about the product, but I'm willing to bet that the eventual positive, money-producing outcomes of that strategy will pale in comparison to what they could have achieved by an incremental refinement of the core WHFB rules, coupled with a new skirmish-sized fast-playing additional game with the same fluff, all tied in to a joint marketing campaign with TW:W - more folk will be talking about Warhammer as a result of this game than AoS, and just think how many folk came to 40K thanks to the Dawn of War games. Now people who buy TW:W and want to jump into WHF will find a completely alien setting and no prospect of being able to buy their favourite force from the computer game in the long term since GW are phasing out large parts of the existing model range. It's mental - TW:W must surely have been in development for at least as long as it's taken them to devise and implement the End Times/AoS debacle, so did they just not think of the potential of this game to revitalise the tabletop?
If they didn't do this reboot they probably wouldn't have given the rights for this Total War. They'd view it as competition rather than cross promotion.
My thoughts exactly Yodhrin. GW are so worried about their IP (even though they steal ideas from other IP's constantly) and make such bad decisions that this game which could've put GW back on top of things will instead do nothing for the company. Nice job being stupid GW and evil of course. I mean Total War is a big freaking brand. This is the game warhammer fantasy players were waiting forever for and youtube commenters sound excited if you just read the comments. Basically hourly views with excitement and possibly already about 100k views on some trailers. GW has no business sense and it's sad.
Anyway i agree on all of Yodhrin's points. I will add i didn't hate End Times too bad except the balance and ending and Age of Sigmar is something that should've been a small specialist game or additional fantasy setting for warhammer fantasy models.
Alpharius wrote: I'll definitely be picking this game up at launch to show some support to the Old Game!
Yeah don't. Really, really don't.
It's a Creative Assembly game, and it's being published by Sega. This means that:
1. It won't be complete at launch.
2. It will be riddled with bugs that will take them several patches to iron out.
3. Sections of the game will be cut and turned into pre-order/Day 1 DLC.
You shouldn't buy PC games at launch to begin with, but if it's this creative duo, you definitely should not be buying at launch.
.
Mostly to conclude: Its not CD Project Red, who are famous for making great ports to the PC. because that is their home.
I'll third this sentiment. Day-one PC game purchases are usually a crap shoot unless the dev/publisher has a good track record.
Alpharius wrote: I'll definitely be picking this game up at launch to show some support to the Old Game!
Yeah don't. Really, really don't.
It's a Creative Assembly game, and it's being published by Sega. This means that:
1. It won't be complete at launch.
2. It will be riddled with bugs that will take them several patches to iron out.
3. Sections of the game will be cut and turned into pre-order/Day 1 DLC.
You shouldn't buy PC games at launch to begin with, but if it's this creative duo, you definitely should not be buying at launch.
.
Mostly to conclude: Its not CD Project Red, who are famous for making great ports to the PC. because that is their home.
I'll third this sentiment. Day-one PC game purchases are usually a crap shoot unless the dev/publisher has a good track record.
To be fair, we're now in the age of Steam refunds. Look at the Arkham series; the last time an Arkham game was seriously broken at launch, they made a few half-hearted attempted fixes and then essentially put out a press release saying "feth you, we're off to make DLC, maybe if you buy enough of that we'll get around to fixing the game"; this time they took the game off sale and borderline grovelled to people, because if your game is a broken pile of crap customers can get their money back without any hassle.
The cynic in me thinks companies will respond by simply making sure the first two hours or so of the game run flawlessly so you run down the trial period, but you never know, we might be about to see a drastic reduction in the number of "feth it, we'll patch it later" games coming out on PC.
Published on 29 Jul 2015
You won’t have seen this in a Total War game before. For the second in our new “Total War: WARHAMMER – Introducing…” series, we’re bringing you an exclusive look at one of the most fascinating, and beautiful, units in the Empire’s arsenal: The Luminark of Hysh.
The Luminark of Hysh is a magical war machine created by the Wizards of the College of Light Magic. Housing a rare, sorcerous orb, it’s capable of casting Solheim’s Bolt of Illumination, a devastating light spell. This bolt is focussed through a series of arcane lenses before leaping across the battlefield to tear the enemy asunder.
So don’t stand in front of it, basically, because it won’t end well for you.
I haven't played Fantasy in years, but this looks like a beautiful game that's really faithful to the setting.It would be almost tragically funny if a WFB video game does really well and spawns multiple xpacks like DoW, all after the holder of the IP gutted the actual tabletop version.
In a strange way AoS was a great boon for fans of Warhammer who aren't invested in the wargame.
GW probably doesn't give them the license for TW if AoS isn't planned. Foolishly seeing it as competition for the tabletop not a marketing opportunity.
Well, the empire is based off Germany so would make more sense its German. However, yes it is a "fantasy" world so I suppose he could be British? Although why take all German names then?
I guess the whole Germanic thing that the Empire is based upon didn't include accents (but does include naming conventions)
Everyone in the 40k universe has English accents, even the aliens. Why wouldn't that be the same for the Fantasy world? I bet you even the Slann will have really posh accents.
I guess the whole Germanic thing that the Empire is based upon didn't include accents (but does include naming conventions)
Or, more likely, they didn't want people pissing themselves laughing at supposedly serious scenes because of English-speaking VA putting on fething terrible 'Allo 'Allo-style German accents(which seems to be the only style American/British actors can do). Mehn ov ze Empiah, foawahd, fur ZEEGMAR! etc
I guess the whole Germanic thing that the Empire is based upon didn't include accents (but does include naming conventions)
Everyone in the 40k universe has English accents, even the aliens. Why wouldn't that be the same for the Fantasy world? I bet you even the Slann will have really posh accents.
Of course the Slaan won't.
All his dialogue will be spoken through his Skink attendant.
That gameplay footage looked fantastic. Nice to see that CA seem to be acknowledging parts that still need improvement such as cavalry impacts and whatnot. The fact that the release date is still far away gives me hope that it is not going to be rushed out like Rome 2 was.
Did anyone else find themselves twisting their head to follow the goblin doomdiver? Seems like a cool little addition to the new cinematic experience that we have seen in the last few TW games.
This looks awesome! This will probably warrant another Gfx card
They have said this is the first of 3 games and they will all link together, so I imagine each expansion will add new races and maps etc with their own campaign. Fingers crossed we get to see a sort of world map by then end in a similar way to Empire TW
Holy fething gak that looks amazing. I had vibes that translates into "I want to make a GW orc army".
It's really a missed opportunity for GW that they blew up the Old World. Think of the new Fantasy players who would be excited to have miniatures because of this game (kinda like how Dawn of War pulled new 40k players), only to be disappointed because AoS is definitely not what they're looking for.
I am looking REALLY forward to this. Hope the Age of Sigmar nonsense doesn't detract from it... the timing seems odd.
Regarding accents, 40K and Warhammer are created by English companies and therefore they'll have English accents. How many Hollywood films do you see where all the main cast have non-American accents?
For me, anything historical or olde-worlde with American accents is an immediate fail... which is ironic, considering the English accent from pre-American days was supposed to be similar to the modern day US accent.
Alpharius wrote: I'll definitely be picking this game up at launch to show some support to the Old Game!
Yeah don't. Really, really don't.
It's a Creative Assembly game, and it's being published by Sega. This means that:
1. It won't be complete at launch.
2. It will be riddled with bugs that will take them several patches to iron out.
3. Sections of the game will be cut and turned into pre-order/Day 1 DLC.
You shouldn't buy PC games at launch to begin with, but if it's this creative duo, you definitely should not be buying at launch.
Have you played the games from Creative Assembly? Shogun, etc? Because that's not what they do. There is some DLC that comes later, and that' s part of life. But the other stuff= NOPE.
Alpharius wrote: I'll definitely be picking this game up at launch to show some support to the Old Game!
Yeah don't. Really, really don't.
It's a Creative Assembly game, and it's being published by Sega. This means that:
1. It won't be complete at launch.
2. It will be riddled with bugs that will take them several patches to iron out.
3. Sections of the game will be cut and turned into pre-order/Day 1 DLC.
You shouldn't buy PC games at launch to begin with, but if it's this creative duo, you definitely should not be buying at launch.
Have you played the games from Creative Assembly? Shogun, etc? Because that's not what they do. There is some DLC that comes later, and that' s part of life. But the other stuff= NOPE.
Can confirm that it is what they do now. Rome 2 onwards especially. Blood and gore pack? Races packs? They can't wait for a beastmen pack or something.
I'll still buy it because I'm shallow and unprincipled and the game itself looks amazing. CA.
And yet, Alien Isolation was a solid PC release that was a complete experience where nothing of the main story was cut or locked away behind pay walls.
Moopy wrote: Have you played the games from Creative Assembly? Shogun, etc? Because that's not what they do. There is some DLC that comes later, and that' s part of life. But the other stuff= NOPE.
That's not what they do. It's what SEGA does, the publisher. They control the release of the game.
And Shogun? That came out in 2000. That's a long time before DLC took a crippling hold of the gaming industry.
As for the rest, going backwards:
Total War Attila - 5 DLC packs so far. Rome II - Has USD$90 worth of DLC. Shogun II - Has USD$50 worth of DLC + a full expansion which itself has USD$15 worth of DLC. Napoleon - The DLC for this came currently costs more than the game itself. Empire - This game came out 2009 and still has over USD$20 worth of DLC.
Some of this stuff is pre-order, some of it is store-specific, and all of it now is generic as most of these games have been out long enough that the exclusivity part of the DLC has faded away. It still happened, though. But it's only when we hit Medieval II, a game that's almost 10 years old, do we find ourselves free of the endlessly increasing DLC.
So yeah, this does happen quite a bit.
But by all means, pre-order the game. You'll get what you paid for.
BrookM wrote: And yet, Alien Isolation was a solid PC release that was a complete experience where nothing of the main story was cut or locked away behind pay walls.
And yet still has DLC that costs almost as much as the game itself does (USD$47 vs USD$49).
SEGA is the problem here when it comes to anti-consumer practices. Creative Assembly's problem is actually finishing the game before it gets released.
heartserenade wrote: Holy fething gak that looks amazing. I had vibes that translates into "I want to make a GW orc army".
It's really a missed opportunity for GW that they blew up the Old World. Think of the new Fantasy players who would be excited to have miniatures because of this game (kinda like how Dawn of War pulled new 40k players), only to be disappointed because AoS is definitely not what they're looking for.
Yep - this will be a great recruitment tool for a game that doesn't exist anymore.
jcrone2 wrote: I think this game will sell a lot of copies. Anyone know how the core total war fans are receiving this title ?
Alot of the hooting and hollaring is because its not Medieval 3, which is what some people wanted. CA said on their facebook page that they have another team doing early work on an as yet unnamed historical game in the Total War series. Speculation is that is indeed Medieval.
I'm pumped for this game, as I am for all Total War games, especially after they knocked it out of the park with Attila. Its gotta be my favorite TW game so far. Another thing I'm looking forward to is the possibilities that the Warhammer game will open. The engine that allows massive spells, crazy warmachines and flying monsters makes me wonder if they could pull off a WW1 game... Early tanks, apocalyptic artillery and rudimentary flying attacks could easily transfer over maybe.
Part of me is pumped by this, part of me remembers that total War 'in game videos' are about as honest as the bikini clad fantasy girls promising high graphics browser games.
Will it look like what we see, I hope so, but very likely not.
Sorry Creative Assembly, but you have to prove to us this is not another Rome II of empty promises. You will definitely get the chance to do so though, the floor is yours.
Moopy wrote: Have you played the games from Creative Assembly? Shogun, etc? Because that's not what they do. There is some DLC that comes later, and that' s part of life. But the other stuff= NOPE.
That's not what they do. It's what SEGA does, the publisher. They control the release of the game.
And Shogun? That came out in 2000. That's a long time before DLC took a crippling hold of the gaming industry.
As for the rest, going backwards:
Total War Attila - 5 DLC packs so far.
Rome II - Has USD$90 worth of DLC.
Shogun II - Has USD$50 worth of DLC + a full expansion which itself has USD$15 worth of DLC.
Napoleon - The DLC for this came currently costs more than the game itself.
Empire - This game came out 2009 and still has over USD$20 worth of DLC.
Some of this stuff is pre-order, some of it is store-specific, and all of it now is generic as most of these games have been out long enough that the exclusivity part of the DLC has faded away. It still happened, though. But it's only when we hit Medieval II, a game that's almost 10 years old, do we find ourselves free of the endlessly increasing DLC.
So yeah, this does happen quite a bit.
But by all means, pre-order the game. You'll get what you paid for.
Yes, Shogun was an example, not the exact time reference. It was a signature brand.
DLC is here to stay, in just about every game that there is, and has been for years now. Outside of Day-1 DLC (content that should have been in the game but greed made it separate), it's time to move on past it. Time to get over the idea that everything MUST BE in the main game and anything new must be free even though people got paid to make it. It doesn't, and it helps studios keep adding extra content into a game to give it legs. What CA doesn't do, which seems to have gotten over as soon as DLC was mentioned, is put out incredibly buggy games with no testing. Yes SEGA is the producer and as a video game artist I know their role well, but that hasn't stopped CA from putting out well crafted games up to this point.
Oh and pointing to how one guy didn't like a game and saying it's bad because of that review, isn't good logic. ROME 2 got 4/5 on Metacritc and Mostly Positive on Steam. But your milage may vary.
Moopy wrote: Oh and pointing to how one guy didn't like a game and saying it's bad because of that review, isn't good logic. ROME 2 got 4/5 on Metacritc and Mostly Positive on Steam. But your milage may vary.
I assume you didn't watch it. He never said he didn't like the game - he said the bugs that have been around for over a decade, which were fixed in the previous game and then returned for the next, are unforgiveable these days. And he's right.
I'm going to admit that I didn't watch the all of it. However you don't make a 43 minute video complaining loudly and bitterly about a game you love with examples of how "broken" it is. He didn't like it and that part was obvious. He's got a youtube channel where his purpose is to entertain people. Being subdued about something isn't going be interesting. All of the graphic errors he showed in his video, I never encountered; my friend and I played Rome: 2 the day it came out in MP and saw none of it. I can't take that part seriously since something was wrong local to him. Unsupported card? Old driver? So he's mad- got it. Users with unpowered graphics cards, or a host of other things, can post about how bad something is even if some of that was on their shoulders.
I didn't care for Rome 2 because I didn't like how the units rolls were structured, but that was my personal preference on how I like to play these types of games, not because the units sucked or didn't work right.
I'm very excited about TW:W because it looks like units have very specific rolls (medium infantry, heavy infantry, missile units, siege weapons, etc...) the way Shogun 1&2 had them. Even though all the animations weren't in the pre-alpha this still gave a very strong sense of gameplay. Can't wait!
BrookM wrote: And yet, Alien Isolation was a solid PC release that was a complete experience where nothing of the main story was cut or locked away behind pay walls.
About This Content
Buy the Alien: Isolation Season Pass and get five add on packs to download. All Season Pass content is now available. Alien: Isolation game required; sold separately.
That also doesn't include the pre-order DLC, Crew Expendable and Last Survivor, which were story missions set during the first movie. Those are now available as separate downloads but not part of the season pass.
I have been a fan of total war since the start, bought all of them up until Rome 2, realised that the last few were just the same game (with the same bugs), re skinned and gave up.
I hear Attila was better, but i refused to go back to them, however, I would totally be up for this game even is it is just he usual total war re skin for WFB, being the sucker I am.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Although I am no a fan of DLC, I can bear with it, its the way games are headed, I only refuse to buy those that have DLC at release if possible, that really is daylight robbery.
Total War: Warhammer might be the most natural pairing in all of games, bringing Games Workshop's huge Warhammer fantasy universe into contact with Creative Assembly's franchise of massive scale war games. Its time was less so, coming just before a major reboot to the tabletop game that moved the universe into a new continuity call the Age of Sigmar. Jeremy sat down with CA's Andy Hall to ask what that meant for the game.
"The way I see it is, we've always been a historical war-game maker [laughs] and that's exactly what we're doing, it's just this one's based in fantasy. Our game's very much based in the age of Karl Franz, which is 2502 [when] he became the emperor. That's pretty much where we're staying. 8th edition, so to speak."
So definitely still a classic-Warhammer game, then. However, Andy didn't totally close the door on expanding, "Saying that, Age of Sigmar looks great, I've got a copy of it already and the minatures are fantastic. So I'm sure we'll be keeping an eye on that in the future."
The relationship between Games Workshop and Creative Assembly is obviously only just beginning, but if the game does well, clearly there's hope for it to continue. I myself have my heart set on a Total War in the galactic sphere of Warhammer 40,000, perhaps starting as a game about the Great Crusade and running you all the way through to the end of the Horus Heresy. Just imagining that game gets me salivating, so seeing what CA and GW actually come up with will be fascinating.
We just have to hope this first game is good and does well. We've had some hands-on time in Germany and will have an in-depth preview for you soon. While you're waiting here's the latest trailer, featuring dive-bombing goblins.
The idea of having a fantastical entry in the Total War series isn’t a new one. It’s been around for years, in fact, but a number of factors have conspired to keep Creative Assembly from ever truly being able to commit to such an idea. The studio’s commitment to putting out a purely historical title every three years coupled with resources always meant such a concept looked set to remain a pipe dream. Until, that is, Games Workshop came knocking back in 2012.
Sitting down with Andy Hall, lead writer for the upcoming Total War: Warhammer, it’s clear Creative Assembly isn’t taking the prospect of finally realising one of its dreams lightly. The added attention brought about by a massive license like Warhammer would daunt many but, thankfully, CA seems to be taking this in its stride. A prime example of this is in the hiring of Hall himself, who spent the last 15 years at Games Workshop writing the lore books now being used by the team as reference.
Of course, the benefit of having so many years to mull over just what could be done if a fantasy Total War title was to happen means there’s no shortage of ideas now it’s actually on the cards. And let’s just say, Creative Assembly isn’t afraid of a little ambition.
“This is Part One of the Trilogy,” explains Hall. “Each game will be a standalone game, but the map of the second one, for example, will slot into the first one like a jigsaw. So you can play it on its own, but if you have the first one then they’ll slot together to create a bigger map. The third one will do the same and by the end of it we’ll have the largest Total War campaign there’s ever been.”
The scale of this undertaking is something we keep coming back to throughout the course of our interview. Where Rome: Total War featured eight different animation rigs for its horses, Warhammer will feature more than 30 thanks to the extreme diversity of the steeds on show.
It’s an interesting fact, considering the initial reaction that met the game’s initial reveal. Upon announcement of the game’s four Races – Humans, Orcs, Dwarves and Vampires – some Total War veterans were slightly miffed. Considering how previous games were overflowing with different Factions at launch, some felt short changed. According to Hall however, there’s actually more content in the first game alone than franchise fans have ever seen.
“What you’re getting in effect is four Total War experiences in one game - their Campaigns are totally different with their own agendas, aims and value systems,” he says.” The Empire for instance is probably the most traditional for Total War players – they’re still human, they still collect taxes, they still like organisation and Karl Franz wants to unify them and get them under control. It’s traditional but heightened.
“The Orcs on the other hand aren’t going to take a human settlement and start policing it or put on some half-moon spectacles and start looking at tax receipts -they’re Orcs! They have totally different gameplay – they’re all about momentum and they have to keep conquering. If you don’t keep moving forward or if you can’t because of enemies or a landmass then the Orcs start to turn in on themselves and fight each other.
“Dwarves are all about getting back old glories. They had what’s called The Doom and now they’re in the Age of Reckoning where they almost need to start again and link up their disparate outposts. They also slight easily and have their Book of Grudges, so there may very well be a grudge mechanic in there… Vampires I can’t really talk about but you can imagine they need a lot of corpses, so maybe there’s something to do with making sure they kill enough people to sustain their armies? Who knows!
“They’re all totally different so you can imagine when - or if - we get to the Elves and the Skaven, it’ll be different again. So it’s more than just different colour armour, not to be disparaging to the history titles.”
This whole mantra of ‘bigger and better’ continues with Creative Assembly’s refusal to simply adapt the features of the historical games for its new fantasy property. Instead, the team is completely revamping the Political System (with a reveal planned for the near future) and adding over 400 new Traits for characters. One of the biggest changes coming, however, is the decision to shift away from the dynastic models that made up so much of the Total War experience until now – with both dying of old age and family trees getting the chop in the upcoming game. As you can imagine, this really frees Creative Assembly up to innovate and mix up features that have been pretty static since the series’ launch.
“While your characters aren’t immortal – take them into battle and get their skulls caved in, they’re dead – they won’t die of old age,” Hall explains. “This also means we don’t need the family tree mechanic. So instead, you’re going to get these massive levels of customisation. You’ll have more than 30 levels of skill trees and deep customisations.
“What this does is, because these characters are with the player so long, you grow very attached to them. But then the kicker is you have this powerful lord – or even an agent, as while agents in the past stayed on the Campaign map, this time they can be pulled into the battlefield itself. So the Warrior Priest and Witch Hunter in the case of the Empire, Big Bosses, Shamen in the case of Orcs and Goblins. Once they’re on the battlefield they’re a great tool, but if they die… that’s 30 levels of progress gone.”
There’s still a lot we don’t know about Total War: Warhammer – yet – but increasingly it seems Creative Assembly is looking to push the boundaries. With the historical Total War team still working on titles to maintain its three-year release cadence, the Total War: Warhammer team has the time to make sure it gets this project right. This may be the realisation of more than a decade of dreaming, but Creative Assembly shows no signs of sleepwalking.
Orlanth wrote: DLC makes this a a game with an effective release date one year after the formal one.
So it looks like I will be playing Warhammer Total War late 2017 then.
Dont understand this mentality to computer games, would you consider it to be an unfinished game if they never released the future content?
Yes, when they make a game and willingly remove parts of the game to sell back to you and they are on the disc, that's essentially holding me to ransom for content I've already paid for, now if they release a 20+ hour dlc and add loads of content a few months after release and it's a gig download or something, I'm fine with that.
A little worrisome that they haven't nailed down what the Dwarves and Vampires actually do yet. A year out and half the factions' main mechanics are not settled on thematically, much less mechanically balanced? It seems like that should be done already if this is going to be shipped in a functioning package.
Wehrkind wrote: A little worrisome that they haven't nailed down what the Dwarves and Vampires actually do yet. A year out and half the factions' main mechanics are not settled on thematically, much less mechanically balanced? It seems like that should be done already if this is going to be shipped in a functioning package.
I think it's more that they don't want to reveal them yet and the wording on that isn't great. With how long games take to develop, integral things like that are nailed down early in game development because if they aren't, there'll be a lot of wasted time for a lot of expensive people.
Wehrkind wrote: A little worrisome that they haven't nailed down what the Dwarves and Vampires actually do yet. A year out and half the factions' main mechanics are not settled on thematically, much less mechanically balanced? It seems like that should be done already if this is going to be shipped in a functioning package.
I think it's more that they don't want to reveal them yet and the wording on that isn't great. With how long games take to develop, integral things like that are nailed down early in game development because if they aren't, there'll be a lot of wasted time for a lot of expensive people.
That's exactly my concern... hopefully he just failed at words really badly, and things are much more organized and set in the background. If not, things might be a mess, with some serious patches after launch to make it work. Something the Total War series has had issues with lately.
One has been the preeminent tabletop war game for the last few decades, the other, a series of grand strategy that blends turn-based campaigning with real time battles. A game to combine the two properties has felt like an obvious move for a long time, and yet it’s only now that Warhammer and Total War are uniting under the same banner.
There’s been a steady drip feed of new information about how this alliance will pan out over the last few months, from hero characters to magic powers, flying beasts and more. In fact, the Dwarves and their underground battles have been revealed in the last few weeks, but we spoke to Andy Hall, the game’s lead writer, and Al Bickham, Creative Assembly’s communications manager closer to the initial gameplay reveal of a classic showdown between the Empire and the Orcs at the Battle of Black Fire Pass.
TSA: This merging of Total War and Warhammer is a bit of a match made in heaven, isn’t it?
Andy Hall: Funnily enough, that’s the exact term that we’ve been using!
TSA: It does feel like such an obvious match, to be fair, but how did it come about? Was it a long and arduous process to get this to come together, or was it just a very easy fit?
Andy: I’m on the other side of the fence now; I worked at Games Workshop for 16 years, so I know the two companies have been talking to each other for pretty much a decade now. I guess the stars finally aligned, where Creative Assembly was in a place where there was capacity – we’re not slowing down our production of historical war games – and Games Workshop was in a phase where they were looking to license the Warhammer brand out.
I think they’ve been friends in arms for a long time. When the contract negotiations were going on, I was still at Workshop and we were saying, “We’ve got to make this work! We’ve got to make this work!” From what I gather, it was the same at the Sega end. Eventually, contracts were signed and here we are!
Al Bickham: I think there’s a lot of philosophical similarities between our companies, you know? We’re both sort of cottage grown, English gaming businesses that sort of sprouted up at about the same time, really.
TSA: I think one interesting point is just how much Games Workshop are currently experimenting with licensed video games. Focus Interactive are publishing four or five different games alone, which is kind of crazy!
Andy: Obviously I don’t want to talk too much about Workshop, because I can’t speak for them anymore, but I think there was a desire after a very conservative period to start to leverage these quite valuable IPs.
TSA: Bringing the world of Warhammer to the Total War style of gameplay you’ve had to come up with some interesting ways of handling magic, aerial combat, and things like that? But how have you reconciled those elements with the existing battle systems?
Al: Well I guess the guiding light is balance. We’ve got things like big spells and big monsters, and if we did it a certain way they could easily dominate the battlefield. That would kill the gameplay that we’ve been designing for 15 years, with its ideas of rock, paper, scissors on the battlefield, troop movements, and effective and smart manoeuvres winning you the day.
We want those big, cool, fun, interesting, explosive crazy things to be tools in your armoury rather than things that dominate a battle. So magic’s a good example, and in this Battle of Black Fire Pass gameplay demo we’ve got three or four very high tier spells that go off, but in most games you’d be lucky to pull even one of those off, because you have limited mana, they need to recharge…
It’s based on the Winds of Magic system which is in the table top game, but our interpretation of that is that it’s variable. The amount of magic floating around in the air that you can use is variable at the start of the battle, and that also depends on where you are in the world as well…
Andy: Yeah, that’s because the Winds blow from the north, coming from the open Chaos gates. But it blows hot and cold, so sometimes it will blow a tempest, other times it will be a trickle.
For a start you’ve got to have wizard who is levelled high enough to unlock these powerful spells, and having enough mana from the Winds of Magic, and being in the right position – some of these spells have ranges as well – and being in a good place to cast the spell at the right time. There’s a lot of prerequisites that you need in order to get what’s effectively a nuke off.
If you do, it’s going to be a game winning strategy, but you’ve got to spend most of your battle alive as the wizard for a start, and that’s kind of hard to do…
Al: Yeah, they’re powerful, but they’re also very weak and you can’t hide them in a unit. They don’t attach to other units, they are their own unit.
TSA: I think that’s another interesting new addition, because this is the first time that you’ve really had individuals and hero units on the battlefield, like Emperor Karl Franz.
Andy: Yeah, we’ve got these legendary people and obviously each race will have their own mighty and special characters.
Al: Yeah, but we’ve had agents in previous Total War games and they’ve always been ways of altering your campaign game for the better. So, assassinating a general, causing riots in cities, sabotaging the gates…
Agents can now join armies and they may provide that army with a buff, but they can also appear in battle now. They’ll have their own magical or combat skill trees, which dictate what they can do in battle as well. So again, it’s another nice way that we’ve moved Total War on a bit and advanced the systems that we do have; we’ve taken agents and made them feature in battles.
Andy: At the same time, doing that also puts them at risk. You have deep skill trees for them, but effectively we’re not moving the timeline on. In a historical game, if you want to get to those historical battles, the timeline has to move, people might die of old age…
TSA: That would be such an ignominious end for some of these characters!
Al: Yeah, he just got a bit too old!
Andy: Because we’re in this heightened reality and we’re not moving the timeline on like that, we can have a much deeper skill tree and you as the player can tinker and custom build. Of course, that means you get attached to him as well, as they get very powerful, but bringing him into a battle also means there’s a risk, because if he dies, he dies.
Al: There’s a bit of risk-reward there, but this is, you know, the first Total War game where you really want to be throwing your generals into the fight with your troops.
Previous Total War games, he’s been useful, especially if you want to put the enemy army down – he’s still a cavalry unit – but you want to use him towards the end when there’s less risk. Here, they’re going to have sweet combat skills and spells.
TSA: They are also some of the most powerful units in the tabletop game, so you have to represent that, but they’re also giving you more of a focus on story. As opposed to following historical events, there’s a fictional narrative which you can tell.
Andy: One of the design pillars from the very first PowerPoint presentation was to bring a lot of narrative in. The Warhammer world has had thirty years of development into this IP, there’s literally hundreds of novels out there now, the army books themselves are crammed full of stories and stuff that we want to emulate. So our way of doing that is the quest battles.
Fundamentally, this is still a Total War game and a sandbox experience, but if you want to, you can take Karl Franz on a series of quest chains, which is a story and will feature choices to do one thing or fight here, and you play these very bespoke battle experiences. They’re not necessarily just a pitched battle, so they could be that you’ve got to hold on while a dragon is summoned, that you fight near a creature’s lair or chase a vampire through a fen.
So you still get that real time battle experience but in a very bespoke… I don’t want to say ‘scripted’…
Al: Crafted?
Andy: Crafted. Brilliant, that’s the perfect word.
If you’re successful, you get a little bit more of that story and you also unlock a very specific magic artefact that’s famous for being used by them. So Karl Franz, for instance, might unlock the Runefang of Reikland in one battle, but if he finishes Black Fire Pass then he would unlock Ghal Maraz, the warhammer itself. But you’re not forced as a player to do it.
TSA: And I guess you have to accept that some people are going to fail to win these battles?
Al: Well, you’ll be able to go back and have another go at them. They’re there as an outstanding event so you can always go back, but you might go up to it and think there’s not a chance of completing it with your current army, so you’ll go away, build up your army and come back later.
Andy: In fact, it’s a kind of alternative history, just like the historical games are. If you wanted to see if you were as good as Napoleon, you’d play Total War: Napoleon, and it’s the same here. Karl-Franz was a very successful emperor in the Warhammer IP, but you might not be! You might decide to sod uniting the Empire and head straight for Archaon.
TSA: A major advance in recent Total War games has been a much greater focus on diplomacy. Is that something that you’ve been able to bring forward to Warhammer?
Andy: There’s definitely a lot of diplomacy and, in fact, I’ve had a lot of fun writing those diplomacy arcs, because it is like, “What does Karl Franz say to an Orc?” [laughs]
There’s a lot of “Greenskin scum”…
TSA: I mean, you’re not going to be able to make a lasting federation of peace between the Empire and the Orcs, are you?
Andy: No. Warhammer is very heavily designed from the tabletop origins to give people reasons to fight and have wars, and that is definitely carried through with us.
Saying that, there will be times when you can maybe placate the Orcs for a few game turns? There are even instances in the fiction of Karl Franz addressing Archaon, but achieving peace with Chaos is going to be really, really hard.
Al: But there’s also domestic diplomacy as well. If you play as the Empire, you start with Reikland basically, and there’s all these other regions around you under the rule of the Elector Counts. So uniting the Empire is going to be a challenge to do diplomatically.
Andy: Yeah, that’s pretty much your first job, really.
Al: Exactly, and it’s the same with the Greenskins as well; can you unite the tribes through diplomacy? Diplomacy isn’t just between races, but it’s between factions as well.
Andy: It really plays into that, because the way the Empire works in the IP is that they’re not one happy nation, by any means. It’s a massive sprawling empire, and most of the time, the emperor himself is just a far off name, a status symbol almost.
Al: And all the other Elector Counts are jumping on each other’s backs to get ahead.
Andy: They’re playing the game of thrones, stabbing each other in the back and having petty wars.
TSA: Well, that sounds like an IP to attempt at a different time…
Orlanth wrote: DLC makes this a a game with an effective release date one year after the formal one.
So it looks like I will be playing Warhammer Total War late 2017 then.
Dont understand this mentality to computer games, would you consider it to be an unfinished game if they never released the future content?
Yes, when they make a game and willingly remove parts of the game to sell back to you and they are on the disc...
Ok, yea, that's crappy. Day 1 DLC is bad DLC.
But we're not talking about that. We're talking about something that happens months down the line.
The idea that the game is some how flawed or the publishers are Greedy McBadPersons if they add in content down the line is flawed. Claiming that "it should have already been in the game" is also bad, because it wasn't designed to be in the first release to begin with. Games have a window of time to get created due to financial constraints and if you're going to do it well, then you can't have everything under the sun in there. So, you figure out what you CAN get in that window of time (and deliver it well) and ship it. Once the sales money comes in, you use to to keep paying your staff and make additions to the game, which gives the game a longer shelf life. Claiming that this is wrong or bad is just nonsense.
Moaning about developers making money off of releasing DLC further down the line, whilst also being a player of games-workshop products.... I do love some people on this forum.
Information regarding Creative Assembly’s upcoming Total War: Warhammer strategy game has been scarce, but some recently discovered comments have made it seem unlikely that the title will feature mod support of any kind.
Several months ago, the then community coordinator Will Overgard responded to fan questions about modding on the official Total War forum:
“As this isn’t just a CA game, regretfully there are no plans to support modding for Total War: Warhammer. An Assembly Kit will be available very shortly for Total War: Atilla however, and we will continue to support modding for that title and plan to for future historical Total Wars.”
The decision to remove one of the most beloved features of Total War will likely be extremely controversial, however it’s worth noting that this information was originally revealed before the latest release, Attila, had finished development, and therefore may be subject to change.
The community has been quick to condemn the decision, but blame has been directed towards Games Workshop, the owner of the Warhammer IP. This is thought to be one of many overprotective moves to prevent tampering with the licence. Games Workshop is notorious for threatening legal action against anyone they believe are infringing on their property, even going as far as to claim ownership on the term ‘space marine’.
It is unlikely that modding will be stripped from CA’s independent creations, as previous entries into the Total War series have strong modding support with release of development kits and more.
Other information discovered hints that naval combat will not take place in real time, with battle outcomes resolved automatically, and that family trees will not be included within the full release.
Total War: Warhammer is scheduled to release in 2016 for PC. For more information, check out our interview with Creative Assembly’s Rich Aldridge.
Having a game 6 months out on preorder... made me wonder why?
With so many people torrenting or stealing games because they feel like sticking it to "the man" (whichever straw man they feel like sticking), it's caused companies to push their preorders out farther in an attempt to capture as much revenue as possible before it hits the shelves. Once it's been released then it's pretty much up for free that same day, so this is a direct result that we'll see more often.
May Have been asked (may have missed it in my skimming), but is thes a WHF game (elves highelves ect) or are they launching as a AOS factions game ( Basicly without mods will i get to play as the sigmarites) .
BrookM wrote: And yet, Alien Isolation was a solid PC release that was a complete experience where nothing of the main story was cut or locked away behind pay walls.
About This Content
Buy the Alien: Isolation Season Pass and get five add on packs to download. All Season Pass content is now available. Alien: Isolation game required; sold separately.
Content included
Alien: Isolation - Corporate Lockdown
Alien: Isolation - Trauma
Alien: Isolation - Safe Haven
Alien: Isolation - Lost Contact
Alien: Isolation - The Trigger
Are we being obnoxious or stupid just for the sake of it? I fething said that the singleplayer experience is a complete one, the only thing these pieces of DLC add are challenge modes, not adding anything else to the singleplayer story.
Moopy wrote: It's completely ridiculous to think that people stealing has nothing to do with this behavior.
It's completely ridiculous to excuse this behavior in any way. All this does is make people pay more for something that's already included in the finished product, and push more people into piracy.
Moopy wrote: It's completely ridiculous to think that people stealing has nothing to do with this behavior.
It's completely ridiculous to excuse this behavior in any way. All this does is make people pay more for something that's already included in the finished product, and push more people into piracy.
There is no condoning theft. Doesn't matter if you "Feel" that the product costs too much, that's not an excuse to take it. Try doing that with a nice car and see where that lands you. Oh yea, jail.
If you don't want to pay that much, you are not entitled to take it. The idea that people can't take whatever they want seems to magically foreign to them.
Prices do NOT push people into piracy- this is a non essential luxury item. People's greed does that, and the inability to wait until it goes on sale or they save up for it.
Moopy wrote: It's completely ridiculous to think that people stealing has nothing to do with this behavior.
It's completely ridiculous to excuse this behavior in any way. All this does is make people pay more for something that's already included in the finished product, and push more people into piracy.
Video games are not a necessity. You are free to disagree with a companies policies or practices and not buy their products. But to pretend like stealing their product is some kind of righteous protest is absurd. The company released a product, you have a myriad of avenues to acquire information about that product, and decide if it's worth your hard earned money. You don't get to say "that company makes a really good product, but I don't like paying for things so I'm going to yell about their [totally legal] business practices and steal it instead".
Well apparently you do because people are doing it......
Moopy wrote: It's completely ridiculous to think that people stealing has nothing to do with this behavior.
It's completely ridiculous to excuse this behavior in any way. All this does is make people pay more for something that's already included in the finished product, and push more people into piracy.
Video games are not a necessity. You are free to disagree with a companies policies or practices and not buy their products. But to pretend like stealing their product is some kind of righteous protest is absurd. The company released a product, you have a myriad of avenues to acquire information about that product, and decide if it's worth your hard earned money. You don't get to say "that company makes a really good product, but I don't like paying for things so I'm going to yell about their [totally legal] business practices and steal it instead".
Well apparently you do because people are doing it......
Motograter wrote: Is piracy really worse than the games designers. They both do the same thing. Joke either way
Yes it is. Trivializing theft is part of the problem because you're convincing yourself you're not in the wrong or somehow "the bad men" deserve what's coming to them.
They created a game to play for fun. The game is expensive. The game is not essential to living.
Others steal that game and offer nothing but gloating and bloated self indulgence.
Oh can we pretty please not derail this thread with a piracy debate.
It is disappointing that Chaos is going to be a a preorder bonus. $50 to $60 for a new release AAA PC game has been standard for a while though, nothing new there.
As with all games I'll be waiting until closer to release to decide what I'll be doing.
There is no condoning theft. Doesn't matter if you "Feel" that the product costs too much, that's not an excuse to take it. Try doing that with a nice car and see where that lands you. Oh yea, jail.
Whilst I agree with your point, I do wish people would stop using this argument. Pirating a game is not legally the same as stealing a car - the important difference is that if you steal a game you have deprived the company of something they have built.
A far more accurate analogy would be seeing a car that you like and going out and building an exact replica of the car yourself, this is copyright infringement - taking a car is theft and when people us the 'go steal a car' argument it actually just makes their argument less valid.
Like I say, fully agree with you that piracy is wrong and people shouldn't do it - but lets call a spade a spade and not try to make it into something worse than it actually is.
It seems like its a bit overpriced but then again most of the top PC titles always are initially.
Guess I will be waiting for a steam sale before I pick it up.
thenoobbomb wrote: Ridiculous. The race is already in the game and on the disc, you just got to pre-order or buy a Day 1 DLC to be able to play it.
No wonder people pirate things.
The total war discs have just been the steam downloader and no game included on them for quite a while now, they have required an internet to play for a while now too because of the online DRM.
Rayvon wrote: It seems like its a bit overpriced but then again most of the top PC titles always are initially.
Guess I will be waiting for a steam sale before I pick it up.
thenoobbomb wrote: Ridiculous. The race is already in the game and on the disc, you just got to pre-order or buy a Day 1 DLC to be able to play it.
No wonder people pirate things.
The total war discs have just been the steam downloader and no game included on them for quite a while now, they have required an internet to play for a while now too because of the online DRM.
This pissed me off no end when I bought Mortal Kombat X. Bought the disc thinking I'd not have to download it and I get hit with a 36GB download which takes 3 days on my gak internet connection to get.
On topic: I'm very excited to hear them talk about the different campaigns and how they will function differently. I loved Shogun 2 but the different clans were pretty minor and they play with the same units. If i can get an excellent total war game with factions that play differently? Sign me up!
mazik765 wrote: If i can get an excellent total war game with factions that play differently? Sign me up!
Attlla had that, I personally thought it was excellent.
I'd imagine that some of the new mechanics in Attila will translate over, much like Total War: Napoleon introduced some mechanics that made it into Shogun 2.
Rayvon wrote: They really are dragging it out now, do we really need to be kept informed every time they design a unit ?
I actually quite enjoy the videos.
Me too, but I'd still like there to be at least some surprises. I'd like to see more of the mechanics of economy and diplomacy however, units less so.
As for the price ... I'll be waiting for a steam sale in a year or so's time, I don't know about Attila but Rome had a pretty buggy release, I'm not paying money for a pre-order just to have games released where they have skimped on the testing phase and passed that off on to the customers, bonus content or not.
Yeah the price is pretty surprising. I was going to wait a while while they fixed the bugs anyway (Rome 2 taught me not to pre order from them) so I figure that I will just wait for a package to be released with all the DLC's in a year or so after it's out.
I tend to do what I do with the Assassins Creed franchise and stay one title behind as the games are $15 instead of $80, plus there should be no bugs!
Total War: Warhammer sounds pretty exciting doesn't it? Combining the gameplay elements of the popular tabletop and online Warhammer game worlds with the tactical strategy of the Total War computer games, The Creative Assembly and Games Workshop have combined forces to create what is shaping up to be a highlight of the 2016 release schedule.
Richard Aldridge, The Creative Assembly games designer, spoke to WCCF at Paris Games Week this past weekend about Total War: Warhammer and revealed a little more about the upcoming game, including core factions and what kind of downloadable content we can expect when it releases next April.
The Core Factions & Campaigns
Regarding the various factions that appear in-game, despite earlier claims that the core factions would be comprised of Empire, Dwarves, Greenskins and Vampire Counts in Total War: Warhammer this doesn't mean that the Chaos Warriors will have fallen by the wayside.
"Chaos Warriors still got a very strong roster of units. All the factions have a sizeable roster, in fact; what we’re showing today at Paris Games Week of Dwarves and Greenskins, that’s just a small amount of what will be in the full game."
So whilst it sounds like Chaos Warriors will feature heavily, his comments do make it likely that the others may be more prevalent in-game.
Of the campaigns themselves Aldridge remained pretty tight lipped, saying only that mercenaries will feature in some form. We're going to have to wait for more information though, as campaign features will be announced by The Creative Assembly over "the next few weeks or months".
Trading Mechanics
When questioned whether for example Dwarves will be able to trade with the Vampire Counts Aldridge responded that Total War: Warhammer will feature elements typical to the Total War series such as diplomacy, trade, economy and technologies, though perhaps not in the same forms we've encountered them before. Cryptic.
He goes on to point out that the various strengths and weaknesses of the different races and factions will tie into how the diplomacy and trade elements play out in the coming game:
"Some races are more suited for certain things, such as Orcs. They’re not much of a diplomatic race, to work together they have the system of WAAGH where the Orc warlords are essentially trying to bring out Orcs and Goblins from the Badlands and form a big WAAGH to go rampaging around. Whereas the Empire is all about taking the Elector Counts from the different regions and trying to get them to work together."
Narrative & Gameplay
Something pretty interesting that came up was the specifics of the gameplay and setting, unlike some previous games Total War: Warhammer will be both a sandbox and single story based game, where the player can choose whether to complete or skip around certain quests if they don't fancy doing them.
"The great thing [is] it’s both. We do have a storyline for you to be involved with, we have the quests, you don’t have to complete them but if you do you’ll get items like Ghal Maraz, and if you’re successful you can equip Karl Franz with it."
Additionally the game will have a concrete narrative ending; though Aldridge didn't give much away it looks like there's an endgame involving Chaos and the Emperor Karl-Franz, but we're going to have to play our way through the game for more details about that.
Additionally, in keeping with previous games in the Total War series, there will be a multiplayer feature, incorporating elements of both single-battle and campaign modes.
DLC's & Lack Of Mod Support
You may know by now that there's not going to be modding support for Total War: Warhammer, something which has been subject to much contention in the fanbase. In response to why The Creative Assembly decided not to include this Aldridge explained:
"We’re working with this IP and we want to be authentic and we need to respect it."
Since Warhammer is the intellectual property of Games Workshop, not The Creative Assembly, there's a limit to how much CA can open the game up to the community, and so it doesn't look like there's going to be any scope for mods this time around, which is a shame as that's half the fun of PC.
It's not all bad though; we're still getting a bunch of DLCs, as well as some which will be free of charge for all players:
"There will be a number of DLCs and free DLCs for the community, adding content to the game over time. An example of the free ones is Wurrzag, a legendary lord for the Greenskin and everyone will get him for free. He obviously has his own quest to go on, a background story, something exciting for you to play with."
Chaos Warriors
Lastly Aldridge addressed the controversy around the fact that the Chaos Warriors were to be featured as a pre-order DLC pack rather than being incorporated as part of the game as standard.
According to Aldridge The Creative Assembly are taking all the negative feedback seriously and intend to address the problem come release date, but he was fairly cryptic about what the role of Chaos will be in Total War: Warhammer, and how the pre-order DLC fits into it:
"We understand that people expect Chaos to be in the game and Chaos will be in the game, regardless of whether you pre-purchased the DLC or not. Without giving away too much, they’re kind of the “baddies” of the game so they will feature. If you do decide to pre-purchase or maybe buy the DLC later on, that means you get additional playable legendary lords and additional units. So yeah, Chaos will be in the game, as it should be."
Hmm, whatever you say Aldridge, not sure if we're quite convinced yet.
I wasn't aware they weren't going to include modding support, but I can forsee problems with that. GW obviously won't allow modding of their game/IP (because they have no idea how games work and what the communuties are like), and I have no doubt that the plethora of mods that will eventually make their way out will quickly be "cease and desist"-ed immediately.
As a software developer, I don't really agree with this. Day 1 DLC is just a way of selling the game cheaper than you want to, and stratifying the market. An example of day 1 DLC working is Forza: a game that is excellent without spending more money, but frankly, to unlock most of the coolest day 1 cars, it's unrealistic for most people to access them without spending more money.
The truth is, if DLCs were not well-accepted, the average base price of games would simply go up, especially for good games, because the market will bear higher prices. Let's be honest... a publisher would rather sell every copy at $90 with everything in it than $45 for an initial sale with enough day one options to take it to $150.
Moopy wrote: If you want to wait the many months for that to happen.
I don't want to wait but whatever encourages a company splitting a $30 game into three $15 chunks (not real figures) is to be avoided in my book. The game will still be the same in six months but in all likelihood less buggy and you will have a better idea if it sucks.
There haven't been any cease and desist warnings for Dawn of War and their numerous mods. I'm not sure what they're expecting here. It's far more likely they simply don't have the desire/time to fully support a modding tool.
Nvs wrote: There haven't been any cease and desist warnings for Dawn of War and their numerous mods. I'm not sure what they're expecting here. It's far more likely they simply don't have the desire/time to fully support a modding tool.
To be fair GW's licencing policy in the says of Dawn of War and their licencing policy today must be VERY different.
As a software developer, I don't really agree with this. Day 1 DLC is just a way of selling the game cheaper than you want to, and stratifying the market. An example of day 1 DLC working is Forza: a game that is excellent without spending more money, but frankly, to unlock most of the coolest day 1 cars, it's unrealistic for most people to access them without spending more money.
The truth is, if DLCs were not well-accepted, the average base price of games would simply go up, especially for good games, because the market will bear higher prices. Let's be honest... a publisher would rather sell every copy at $90 with everything in it than $45 for an initial sale with enough day one options to take it to $150.
I couldn't disagree with you more.
In my mind, most DLC comes after a developer hits their minimum viable product by a deadline in development. After that, they break the rest into packaged chunks when it could be part of the game period. PS4 and XB1 are showing that no, the market does NOT want a 80$ disc sold with a game. So you get corporate talking heads that think 60$ plus DLC is a sweet ride to take. Look at Evolved. Take a game and charge a fortune for DLC. No matter how fun it seems, it falls apart. No one wants to keep getting gouged.
Day 1 "content" DLC means that those same resources could have gone into making a better base product. Instead, you hurt the base game to make another 15$ on something that should have been included anyways. Day 1 "faster unlockables" DLC or things like skins/costumes isn't so terrible I suppose.
Isnt this DLC argument, the same argument that has been happening for years now (I know it has for the past couple Total War games)? If day one DLC was really as disastrous to the Video Game market as everyone says its is, than surely that would be reflected? Which except for the odd title occasionally, it has no ill consequence.
@Thunderfrog - I understand where you are coming from, and I get the distaste for DLC from the player perspective. The fact is though, the cost of developing top notch product and meeting player expectations has steadily increased over the years, without a relative increase in price of he vase product. Plus, the risk is so high that the publisher wants revenues of hundreds of millions for a top title, or at least the potential thereof. Publishers would ideally like to sell all their games for $80-$100+, but instead settle for $50 plus $80 for optionals that could have been included.
Keep in mind I'm not talking about expansions to a game, which technically fall under DLC now, but are really a separate category.
@victor - what it's actually come down to is that the base game is what you pay if you don't really like the game that much, and the DLCs are what you buy if you really love the game. So in a way, it becomes a way to reward the publisher for writing a great game.
In the end calculus, most fans that are willing to pay for their games do not mind paying $100 or more in the life cycle of the game **if they love the game** (exclusive of major content expansions). As is evidenced by this being the normal industry practice, rather than the exception. Also, unlike hobby pricing and GW, this has been subjected to extremely rigorous focus groups, market testing, research, gradual introduction to players, etc. For fans, things like a 'Season Pass' are proven sellers.
I don't want to wait but whatever encourages a company splitting a $30 game into three $15 chunks (not real figures) is to be avoided in my book. The game will still be the same in six months but in all likelihood less buggy and you will have a better idea if it sucks.
It's interesting you put it that way, as it makes me think of Shogun 2, Rise of the Shogun and Fall of the Shogun. Those last two gave you different ways to play the game and were really entertaining. They "weren't meant to be in the game to begin with" (not your words, but ones bandied about by people who are seem to think that everything should be in the game or it's somehow magically bad or wrong), and gave it a lot of extra millage.
I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a High Elf vs Dark Elf expansion (ala Rise of the Samurai), etc.... Brits vs Tomb Kings, Skaven vs Lizardmen, whatever. Considering that every army is getting unique models, effects, dialog, economies, diplomacy, story arcs, heros, animations (+ animation rigs) and unique units... that's going to take a ton of time and a huge leap forward for CA which has just been human+ costume change till now.
As a software developer, I don't really agree with this. Day 1 DLC is just a way of selling the game cheaper than you want to, and stratifying the market. An example of day 1 DLC working is Forza: a game that is excellent without spending more money, but frankly, to unlock most of the coolest day 1 cars, it's unrealistic for most people to access them without spending more money.
The truth is, if DLCs were not well-accepted, the average base price of games would simply go up, especially for good games, because the market will bear higher prices. Let's be honest... a publisher would rather sell every copy at $90 with everything in it than $45 for an initial sale with enough day one options to take it to $150.
I'm a designer to retrained as an artist for games. Thank you for this perspective!
Talys wrote: @Thunderfrog - I understand where you are coming from, and I get the distaste for DLC from the player perspective. The fact is though, the cost of developing top notch product and meeting player expectations has steadily increased over the years, without a relative increase in price of he vase product. Plus, the risk is so high that the publisher wants revenues of hundreds of millions for a top title, or at least the potential thereof. Publishers would ideally like to sell all their games for $80-$100+, but instead settle for $50 plus $80 for optionals that could have been included.
Keep in mind I'm not talking about expansions to a game, which technically fall under DLC now, but are really a separate category.
@victor - what it's actually come down to is that the base game is what you pay if you don't really like the game that much, and the DLCs are what you buy if you really love the game. So in a way, it becomes a way to reward the publisher for writing a great game.
In the end calculus, most fans that are willing to pay for their games do not mind paying $100 or more in the life cycle of the game **if they love the game** (exclusive of major content expansions). As is evidenced by this being the normal industry practice, rather than the exception. Also, unlike hobby pricing and GW, this has been subjected to extremely rigorous focus groups, market testing, research, gradual introduction to players, etc. For fans, things like a 'Season Pass' are proven sellers.
Sorry Talys, while thinking everyone should pay higher prices for everything seems to be your thing, day 1 DLC is only accepted by the majority for the same reason broken games being released is accepted, the consumer has no choice. Thats not approval and doesn't indicate it's a popular choice.
Price of an AAA game 10 years ago = Price of an AAA game now.
Price of developing an AAA game 10 years ago < Price of developing an AAA game now.
The costs to develop a game are much higher than they used to be, but the cost of said games has stayed largely flat. DLC makes up the difference. This is why DLC will stay no matter how much players complain, because the alternative is to not afford making the games in the first place. Or in other words; the price for everything goes up over time and that includes games. If it is not worth the money to you then simply don't buy it, and if you oppose DLC on principle then make a well-reasoned argument as to why it is bad and what the developers could do instead. Otherwise it is just more of the same broken record.
Personally, the price seems justified to me as it looks like there is a huge amount of content available. And the way I see it, I have the option to get the game for less if I don't want Chaos included. If I do want Chaos, I can preorder or pay the full price by getting the DLC. I will probably end up doing the latter when I get the game sometime after release, as games these days tend to be pretty buggy at launch.
hmm, interesting, here in Australia we're always being told you have to pay more, if you don't like it don't buy it.
Perhaps it's also true that if you can't sell it cheap enough don't create it?
I purchased the saintly Transformers Devastation. I refer to it as saintly as it performed three miracles.
The price was $39 Au. That's right they managed to sell the game in Australia without tripling the price.
No day 1 patch to fix a broken game. I was actually shocked I could put in the disc and the game just started.
The only DLC was some skins. I didn't have to buy more episodes or a season pass.
3 impossible things. Excellent game. No tacked on multiplayer. No wasted multi million dollar marketing campaign. Just a good solid game I've put a hell of a lot of time into playing.
This was how they did things 10 years ago.
Joyboozer wrote: hmm, interesting, here in Australia we're always being told you have to pay more, if you don't like it don't buy it.
Perhaps it's also true that if you can't sell it cheap enough don't create it?
I purchased the saintly Transformers Devastation. I refer to it as saintly as it performed three miracles.
The price was $39 Au. That's right they managed to sell the game in Australia without tripling the price.
No day 1 patch to fix a broken game. I was actually shocked I could put in the disc and the game just started.
The only DLC was some skins. I didn't have to buy more episodes or a season pass.
3 impossible things. Excellent game. No tacked on multiplayer. No wasted multi million dollar marketing campaign. Just a good solid game I've put a hell of a lot of time into playing.
This was how they did things 10 years ago.
I'm with you on the buggy launches, I think that is a poor way to do business and has a reasonable solution (push the release back a week/do more stress testing). But in regards to the content and the price that is exactly what I am saying; a game of that length would have been $30 with all the DLC included 10 years ago. (Sidenote; looks to be $50 on Steam)
[edit] This is getting very off topic... Perhaps we should just agree to disagree.
Orlanth wrote: DLC makes this a a game with an effective release date one year after the formal one.
So it looks like I will be playing Warhammer Total War late 2017 then.
Dont understand this mentality to computer games, would you consider it to be an unfinished game if they never released the future content?
Yes, when they make a game and willingly remove parts of the game to sell back to you and they are on the disc, that's essentially holding me to ransom for content I've already paid for, now if they release a 20+ hour dlc and add loads of content a few months after release and it's a gig download or something, I'm fine with that.
This plus cost has a lot to do with it.
Most of all there are so many games out there, and I take my time with my games, especially the RPG and strategy titles. I am seldom in a hurry to get a game anywhere near release date. There are exceptions but they are rare and always for games without DLC. Creative Assembly also has a history of underdelivering at launch. Though this is Sega's fault more than Creative Assembly's.
Agreed on that. Rome didn't start out well. However, I believe that someone can learn from their mistakes and aren't damned to repeat them every time. I'll be picking up the game in the next few days. We'll find out if my trust will be rewarded in a few months.
Moopy wrote: Having a game 6 months out on preorder... made me wonder why?
With so many people torrenting or stealing games because they feel like sticking it to "the man" (whichever straw man they feel like sticking), it's caused companies to push their preorders out farther in an attempt to capture as much revenue as possible before it hits the shelves. Once it's been released then it's pretty much up for free that same day, so this is a direct result that we'll see more often.
Equine dung.
I find it genuinely sad how many consumers are willing to swallow this line being pushed by all parts of the entertainment industry to excuse every single one of their gakky anti-consumer practices; piracy is not making game companies charge £50 for a PC game, piracy is not making companies run ridiculously convoluted preorder schemes months out from release with gated content based on retailer or crowdfunder-esque "stretch goals", piracy is not at fault for companies introducing draconian always-online DRM systems, piracy is not the reason companies are dumping server-browsers and community-run servers for multiplayer games, nor is it the reason many companies dumped mod-support, and neither is it responsible for companies adopting ridiculous "fee2pay" systems for games where they charge full-price then add microtransations anyway.
You know why it's patently obvious why piracy is not responsible for those things? Because A; despite the constant bleating of the entertainment industry, they're continuing to make comically large amounts of money, and B; these companies have obvious motives for doing all of those things whether piracy existed or not.
Whether you think piracy is right or wrong morally is irrelevant, feel and express whatever view you like on that score, but getting ordinary punters like you to swallow and repeat the company line that piracy is making the poor ickle multi-million-dollar corporations do the nasty-wasty things honest *lipwobble* is the entire reason they're saying it - not because it's true, but because they hope that they can exploit your moral outrage so you and more like you will happily step in and defend their abysmal behaviour.
Prices are going up and fee2pay models are becoming more prevalent because they want more money. Preorder schemes are being expanded because they're a marketing ploy designed to exploit flaws in human thinking. Always-online DRM and the removal of server-browsers are happening because companies want control of your entire experience and most importantly the ability to end that experience when they choose to; they don't want you to keep playing the games you enjoy, they want you to buy the latest and greatest game in the series whether you need it or not. Companies dropped mod support because they don't want community content competing with their DLC, not unless they can act as gatekeepers and charge money.
And the saddest thing of all is you're only hurting yourself(and the rest of us) in the long run. Again, moral considerations aside, facts are facts; piracy can't be stopped - no encryption will stand up to crackers when the game must at some point decrypt itself in order to function, there's always a way in. Even always-online is no barrier to a determined cracker; the plethora of private servers for active MMOs and online FPS games are testament to that. So you're slowly bartering away your consumer rights and the prospects of reasonable pricing models for nothing - in the end, legitimate consumers(who have always been the real target of "anti-piracy" efforts) will pay more for less, the corporations will pocket all the extra money, and the people that pirated games will still be pirating games.
I really don't want to get dragged into a debate about piracy and DRM and all that, so here is my rather blunt take on all this:
Does Chaos being a DLC faction hurt me, the consumer?
Yes.
Will this impact my decision to buy when the time comes?
Yes.
I could not give half a crap about the why, all I care about is how much value I get for my money, and that is really all any customer should care about.
I do not plan to buy this until a few months after release. Bugs are always terrible the first few months of an EA game. DLC takes a few months to make the game complete. Price also drops considerably after a few months.
For me, the DLC news kills any hype to go out and purchase immediately.
Video game developer The Creative Assembly and publisher SEGA are delivering a new major trailer for their upcoming Total War: Warhammer, which is centered around the Ork warlord Grimgor Ironhide and offers a first look at the campaign map that gamers will be able to explore.
The game will cover a lot of fantasy ground, ranging from the Badlands to the Chaos Wastes, all of it rendered in careful detail by the development team based on the setting created by Games Workshop.
The Creative Assembly has been largely quiet about the strategic layer mechanics of its coming Total War: Warhammer but has promised that unique elements will be offered for each faction, allowing them to express their personality.
For the Orcs, it seems that their Waaagh means that they need to be constantly engaged in combat and might suffer penalties if they fail to engage the enemy constantly.
Gamers will also be able to play as the Empire, the Vampire Counts, and the Dwarfs, with each of the races featuring their unique commanders that will shape how they approach both settlement development and actual combat.
Grimgor Ironhide is one of the most powerful Black Orcs and a capable commander with a powerful lust for combat.
The Creative Assembly states he " maintains a tough, elite retinue of Black Orc warriors around him. This is the hard-as-nails mob known as da Immortulz, a moniker earned due to their habit of surviving almost impossible battles. On the whole Grimgor much prefers Black Orcs to any other kind of greenskin, but plenty of weedier types have snuck into his camp when the steely gaze of his single eye is fixed elsewhere."
Total War: Warhammer is the first fantasy installment in the series
The Creative Assembly has long used real-world history as inspiration for its strategy titles, as seen in experiences like Rome, Medieval or Attila.
With the new Warhammer game, the studio is trying to take the fantasy universe and create a wide range of gameplay experiences around it, making sure that the resulting title is balanced and reflects the lore created by Games Workshop.
When it comes to the tactical battles, The Creative Assembly is making magic a powerful tool that can dominate certain phases of combat but comes associated with major risks for those who wield it.
Each faction will also have a variety of units to choose from, with the classic regiments of trained men and creatures joined by powerful heroes and by a range of legendary beasts that have the power to turn the tide of any engagement on their own.
Total War: Warhammer will be launched on April 28 of next year and will be offered only on the PC.
Gamers can place a pre-order so that they get access to the a playable version of the Chaos race, which will be only present as an AI controlled enemy for those who do not get the downloadable content pack that enables them.
Post-launch DLC for Total War: Warhammer will introduce more Legendary Lords and other content for gamers and SEGA and The Creative Assembly are planning to create a trilogy of titles based on the fantasy universe.
I definitely won't be pre-ordering, because I don't want to promote the anti-consumer practices that have become all too common in the gaming industry. I am excited though, and I hope that they can work their heads around a 40K Total War after this.
Formosa wrote: If this comes to consol (it won't), then they will make millions, and hopefully it will revitalise the consol strategy game genre that died years ago.
There is a massive reason why RTS games dont work on consoles....controllers are crap at being mouses.
I think the advent of consumer VR might change that - I think an immersive virtual reality view of a battlefield, that you can physically move around, combined with the hand held controllers that most VR kits seem to be using, would lend itself to RTS games perfectly...
Moopy wrote: Having a game 6 months out on preorder... made me wonder why?
With so many people torrenting or stealing games because they feel like sticking it to "the man" (whichever straw man they feel like sticking), it's caused companies to push their preorders out farther in an attempt to capture as much revenue as possible before it hits the shelves. Once it's been released then it's pretty much up for free that same day, so this is a direct result that we'll see more often.
Prices are going up and fee2pay models are becoming more prevalent because they want more money. Preorder schemes are being expanded because they're a marketing ploy designed to exploit flaws in human thinking. Always-online DRM and the removal of server-browsers are happening because companies want control of your entire experience and most importantly the ability to end that experience when they choose to; they don't want you to keep playing the games you enjoy, they want you to buy the latest and greatest game in the series whether you need it or not. Companies dropped mod support because they don't want community content competing with their DLC, not unless they can act as gatekeepers and charge money.
Oh? Prices have gone up? Really? Because the prices for games have pretty much stayed the same for the last 5+ years. Yet costs of labor, rent, utilities, software licences, etc etc etc have not. Are you expecting those people making games to take a 5+ year pay freeze? Do you expect games to have the same quality as they were 5 years ago? No? Well then expect something to make up the costs because that money isn't coming from the baseline price point, which has remained the same for a very long time.
You have it wrong on human thinking works. Our brains are wired to favor short term quick rewards instead of longer term ones. Look up that episode on the Radio Lab podcast.
The rest of your post was complete and utter drivil, or paranoid rant.
Video game developer The Creative Assembly and publisher SEGA are delivering a new major trailer for their upcoming Total War: Warhammer, which is centered around the Ork warlord Grimgor Ironhide and offers a first look at the campaign map that gamers will be able to explore.
The game will cover a lot of fantasy ground, ranging from the Badlands to the Chaos Wastes, all of it rendered in careful detail by the development team based on the setting created by Games Workshop.
The Creative Assembly has been largely quiet about the strategic layer mechanics of its coming Total War: Warhammer but has promised that unique elements will be offered for each faction, allowing them to express their personality.
For the Orcs, it seems that their Waaagh means that they need to be constantly engaged in combat and might suffer penalties if they fail to engage the enemy constantly.
Gamers will also be able to play as the Empire, the Vampire Counts, and the Dwarfs, with each of the races featuring their unique commanders that will shape how they approach both settlement development and actual combat.
Grimgor Ironhide is one of the most powerful Black Orcs and a capable commander with a powerful lust for combat.
The Creative Assembly states he " maintains a tough, elite retinue of Black Orc warriors around him. This is the hard-as-nails mob known as da Immortulz, a moniker earned due to their habit of surviving almost impossible battles. On the whole Grimgor much prefers Black Orcs to any other kind of greenskin, but plenty of weedier types have snuck into his camp when the steely gaze of his single eye is fixed elsewhere."
Total War: Warhammer is the first fantasy installment in the series
The Creative Assembly has long used real-world history as inspiration for its strategy titles, as seen in experiences like Rome, Medieval or Attila.
With the new Warhammer game, the studio is trying to take the fantasy universe and create a wide range of gameplay experiences around it, making sure that the resulting title is balanced and reflects the lore created by Games Workshop.
When it comes to the tactical battles, The Creative Assembly is making magic a powerful tool that can dominate certain phases of combat but comes associated with major risks for those who wield it.
Each faction will also have a variety of units to choose from, with the classic regiments of trained men and creatures joined by powerful heroes and by a range of legendary beasts that have the power to turn the tide of any engagement on their own.
Total War: Warhammer will be launched on April 28 of next year and will be offered only on the PC.
Gamers can place a pre-order so that they get access to the a playable version of the Chaos race, which will be only present as an AI controlled enemy for those who do not get the downloadable content pack that enables them.
Post-launch DLC for Total War: Warhammer will introduce more Legendary Lords and other content for gamers and SEGA and The Creative Assembly are planning to create a trilogy of titles based on the fantasy universe.
Looking at the ork game play video it seems like the city building (at least for the orks now that races are different) will be like the city building of Rome2.
Publisher Sega and developer The Creative Assembly have released a new gameplay video for Total War: Warhammer, which is based on Games Workshop’s fantasy series.
The footage is 12-minutes long and gives us an example of one of the game’s Quest Battles. In it, we get our first look at the AI-controlled Bretonnia faction as it faces off against the Greenskin army of Lord Azhag the Slaughterer. The gameplay depicted has been captured from a beta build and features some displays of battlefield magic as well as returning mechanics including Guard Mode.
The Bretonnians are shaping up nicely and will hopefully be available as a playable faction in a future DLC. Check them out in action in the above video.
Well, I was ready to write this off as a 'I'll enjoy it but I won't buy it until I see it on steam at like 75% off', but that video has gotten me pretty excited.
As long as they eventually bring all of the major factions to the game as playable races, I'll be happy. By the by, they had an update recently called the "Ides of March" (how original) which is pretty heavily hinting at Vampire Counts finally being revealed this month.
I've only been reading what parts of this are on the GW news app, and tidbits here and there. I'll also admit I didn't read all 9 pages of this post, just the last couple.
Has there been any information on the Vampire Counts given out yet? They are the faction that truly intrests me as Undead was the faction that I started playing Warhammer Fantasy for back in the 90s.
Nocturus wrote: I've only been reading what parts of this are on the GW news app, and tidbits here and there. I'll also admit I didn't read all 9 pages of this post, just the last couple.
Has there been any information on the Vampire Counts given out yet? They are the faction that truly intrests me as Undead was the faction that I started playing Warhammer Fantasy for back in the 90s.
We do know there will be at least four VC specific factions (only one playable).
Vampiric presence changes the environment of the lands they conquer or invade.
They have a similar tech tree to the empire where they need to build buildings.
Well, that was just awesome! Definitely looking forward to this.
The splash page at the end says "Pre-order to play as chaos warriors for free", though... does that mean most of the armies will have to be purchased separately?
The game comes with Dwarves, Humans, Undead, Orcs. Chaos comes after release and you can either pre-order to get them for free or buy after release as DLC. No news for any other races as of yet.
Well most other races are probably part of the trilogy they are creating for this which will eventually allow for all three games to be played at once from what they've said.
NewTruthNeomaxim wrote: How accessible are these games to newer players? I've never been very good at real-time strategy. :-p
Total War games tend to have a lot of moving parts (the campaign map, the empire management and the actual battle mode) and recent sequels have really only added more and more stuff on top of it. The good news is that none of these parts are particularly complicated by themselves and the game itself is pretty forgiving, especially on the lower difficulties. I would also say that it doesn't really share a tremendous amount with other RTS games which I find are all about multi-tasking. Total War tends to be somewhat more leisurely.
Tldr: it can be a lot but the learning curve is pretty gentle and it is a game that really lets you play at your own pace
Accessibility for maintstream reviewers means dumbing down.
"Games" are supposed to have a few buttons an d half a dozxen choices, there arwe whole genres beyond this which are by default not "accessible".
This isn't a bad thing, complexity attracts a different type of gamer.
While this Total War will surely destroy my social life, I think Mark of Chaos/ Battle March were a better visual representation of the Old World. Ofc the game itself was a bit flawed and animations mediocre but I felt the mood much more. Architecture, models, textures, sky, it all reeked of whfb. TWW looks a bit like a glorified mod in comparision.
Still it's a great day when we are alive and can play Total War in the Old World. Now if someone has a million to spare so I can quit my job for a few years and pay off my wife, pm please.
So what are these £1000 plus per miniature costs that the guardian article references? I cant think of anything even remotely close to this - even smaug isn't that costly.
Does that really count? Different game system and also not part of the GW main product line. Thought the article tried to sound positive but actually made it slightly off-putting for a non warhammer fan.
Finally got round to installing and playing the game. A little disappointed. The intro video and start of the campaign video got me so excited and then it got to actual gameplay and I was quite let down. Quite poor quality graphics - it actually looks much worse than my copy of Total War: Empire that runs on my Alienware laptop. Will give it a proper go later in the week.
AdamBridger wrote: Finally got round to installing and playing the game. A little disappointed. The intro video and start of the campaign video got me so excited and then it got to actual gameplay and I was quite let down. Quite poor quality graphics - it actually looks much worse than my copy of Total War: Empire that runs on my Alienware laptop. Will give it a proper go later in the week.
I agree with you chap, Atilla looks much better, I feel they wanted to get Warhammer to run on more systems and have a less realistic look. It still is a fun game mind....just rather hard.
It works so much smoother for me than any of the other ones, the AI seems noticably better as well.
It seems that they sorted out a lot of the pathing issues as well, the fortifications seem to be less buggy then they were in previous versions of the total war series.
I have really been enjoying it both multiplayer with friends and the single player campaign, my only gripe is that its easy to beat the AI after a few times, but this is the problem with AI isnt it !!
All in all I think its a solid game, I am looking forward to more races.
Plumbumbarum wrote: While this Total War will surely destroy my social life, I think Mark of Chaos/ Battle March were a better visual representation of the Old World. Ofc the game itself was a bit flawed and animations mediocre but I felt the mood much more. Architecture, models, textures, sky, it all reeked of whfb. TWW looks a bit like a glorified mod in comparision.
Still it's a great day when we are alive and can play Total War in the Old World. Now if someone has a million to spare so I can quit my job for a few years and pay off my wife, pm please.
I still love the Mark of Chaos trailer and the feel was definitely more there. That's more the issue of them talking about things (mark of chaos) rather than just hinting at them and being like 'conquer the world n' stuff' (total war). I suppose the issue is more Total War isn't really where you go for story and in a game universe that lived on its story that's some missed potential. The music for both games is great but you can't go wrong with the composer of both 'dawn of war' and 'mark of chaos'. I think his name is jeremy soule. I know he did the music for skyrim and is great with epic music.
Here's a great song from the 'mark of chaos' soundtrack.
I still love Total War: Warhammer but the lack of story at times is a bit unfortunate.
Started as chaos taking no tutorials. Game was pretty easy to learn - maybe 25 turns to get the basics down and maybe 50 more turns to figure out all the diplomatic nuances.
Was a pretty steep learning curve in the beginning, lost Archaon pretty much right away.
I managed to sweep across the north and dug up all the chaos tribes that start as military allies to chaos after you 'free' them from the faction sitting on them. Then I wiped out all the other ones.
Won't give it away but something crazy happens just after 100 turns for chaos - make sure you are powerful enough at that point and don't be sitting in the chaos wastes where your allies are.
So before begining my conquest south of the wastes I had 4 chaos tribes that allow me to direct them to attack whatever target I want - I feel that this is an important diplomatic part of the game that could be easily missed if you head south from the beginning. Especially since you cannot hold settlements yourself as chaos, this is sort of the way to hold a large territory yourself, and allows you to attack all across the south with many armies at once.
Now I'm working on turning the vampire factions into military allies.
Anyway, loving it so far and I'm playing on low graphics on my laptop.
