Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

This is full tinfoil mode but the evidence points to Lizardmen becoming the next expansion in Total War. What do you all think, does the evidence match up or have I completely lost my mind?!

https://comingsoon.totalwar.com/

I listened to a couple of minutes of it. Not particularly impressed. He says that he thinks it's the countdown for the next expansion, and that he thinks it looks like Lustria, therefore Lizardmen.

If he's paid *any* attention to the chatter among fans, he'd know that everyone expects the second game to be elf-focused, with Lizardmen getting added as a matter of course (because if you're going to do the North America stand-in where the Dark Elves live, you might as well do the South America stand-in where the Lizardmen live). And adding "South America" without adding "North America" would be rather silly. So something that just adds Lizardmen doesn't make a lot of sense.

IMO, the most likely suspect at the moment is the mysterious "Old Friend" reference that's supposed to be the final item on the release list that CA posted a while back. It's the only thing from that list that hasn't been released so far, and CA has made it clear that the "Old Friend" is still planned.

The second most likely suspect, imo, is an announcement regarding the second game. Countdowns are typically used for *BIG* announcements, and the official announcement of the sequel/add-on to CA's best-selling game to date (by a wide margin) would definitely qualify as *BIG*.

Seriously, if this teaser image of a jungle with an Aztec/Mayan style temple in the background is going to be for the next historical and not Warhammer 2: Even Cooler, I'm going to bust a nut, like seriously

It will likely be both remaining Elves, Lizardmen and Skaven. Could be Daemons versus Lizards instead of Skaven, but I don't expect them to withhold Skaven just to give us Daemons which would fit better in an Ogre, Chaos Dwarfs/Chaos Wastes third game.
The thing I'm curious about is Tomb Kings. With the map expanding to Lustria it would make sense to counter Lustria with the Southlands opposite to it, right? Else the map will be weirdly shaped in an L shape. Or are they not going to include the Southlands but attach it with a TK dlc? They haven't added dlc main map expansion before and I will be disappointed if they are just going to give us Beastmen dlc prices for a TK dlc that just opens up an extra part of the main map.

The current fan guess is that travel between continents will involve a "move to this box on the edge of the water to go to the other continent" arrangement. If that's the case, then having an "L-shaped" world map won't be a big issue.

In any case, hacking of the files found in the game has apparently revealed that the world map is essentially already included in the game. It's just that we only have access to the "Old World" portion of it right now.

Eumerin wrote:
The current fan guess is that travel between continents will involve a "move to this box on the edge of the water to go to the other continent" arrangement. If that's the case, then having an "L-shaped" world map won't be a big issue.

In any case, hacking of the files found in the game has apparently revealed that the world map is essentially already included in the game. It's just that we only have access to the "Old World" portion of it right now.

They indeed think that is the way the map will be built, yet at the same time the data mining showed us a connected map. I'm holding off on judgement but even a boxed map would not necessarily work that well, as Lustria and Naggaroth will need to be almost twice as big as the old world, unless they put a box between them too (not a fan) or add the southlands.

I realize they already found the map in game, but with all the extra funding CA has said they made some changes, so perhaps to the map as well. But that the map might already be in game is my issue. If they put in Tomb King dlc are they going to charge extra to fill in those details on that part? Or are they going to exclude a mini campaign to keep the price on Wood Elf/Beastmen level? Preferably I would like the map expansion to be free and including a mini campaign if they insist on pricing the Tomb Kings the same as previous races.

Yeah, I figured they'd handle ocean travel like they did in Medieval 2.

I'd honestly be excited for Warhammer 2, or historical America's.

There was a leaked list of dlc, and even two major expansions. All TW games gets two major expansions these days so that isn't surprising. Leaks showed they were planning on High Elves, Dark Elves, Lizardmen, and one other faction I forget. Skaven and Ogres are likely to be in expansion 2.

Each one is said to expand the grand campaign map.

Edit
They have also said all the dlc and races purchased already will work with the expansions as well. Also they said that the games support will increase because it had better than expected sales. If it sold as well as Rome 2 (I know people hate that game but it is my second fav now that is is fully patched and has tons of dlc). Rome 2 got a tooooon of dlc and support. I think an entire extra year's worth of support compared to your average TW game. Attila got less than usual support (since it was gak and sold poorly. I know die hard TW fans get mad at me for saying this).

 Gamgee wrote:
There was a leaked list of dlc, and even two major expansions. All TW games gets two major expansions these days so that isn't surprising. Leaks showed they were planning on High Elves, Dark Elves, Lizardmen, and one other faction I forget. Skaven and Ogres are likely to be in expansion 2.

Each one is said to expand the grand campaign map.

The last part is certainly true. However, the leaked list has been outdated for a while, with releases not lining up with the list anymore. Also, CA has said they will do more than just the outdated list, because of the financial succes of the first game, so it might be a whole lot better now.

Just to note, they aren't really expansions, they are integrate-able standalone games by CA's words. The cynic in me wants to say that they aren't calling them expansions just so the word standalone can fetch another 60 euro full price. The mini-campaigns with the race dlc's seem more like the dlc/expansion style of Rome 2 and Atilla. True expansions haven't been around since Shogun 2 (price wise). That's why I'm cynical of game 2 being a full priced game instead of an expansion priced one, cause Atilla could have just as well been an expansion (same engine, models only needing reskins, same mechanics largely and it being an expansion to the first Rome etc.) but was put out as a full priced game. I really hope its expansion priced

 Gamgee wrote:
There was a leaked list of dlc, and even two major expansions. All TW games gets two major expansions these days so that isn't surprising. Leaks showed they were planning on High Elves, Dark Elves, Lizardmen, and one other faction I forget. Skaven and Ogres are likely to be in expansion 2.

Each one is said to expand the grand campaign map.

Edit
They have also said all the dlc and races purchased already will work with the expansions as well. Also they said that the games support will increase because it had better than expected sales. If it sold as well as Rome 2 (I know people hate that game but it is my second fav now that is is fully patched and has tons of dlc). Rome 2 got a tooooon of dlc and support. I think an entire extra year's worth of support compared to your average TW game. Attila got less than usual support (since it was gak and sold poorly. I know die hard TW fans get mad at me for saying this).

They also have Chaos Dwarves and Daemons to include in as well. I would expect those to be additional DLC, like Beastmen and Wood Elves were.

There's also speculation they might start making minor race packs that never had books in oldhammer. Which is excellent in my opinion. Who cares how they add to the lore at this point. Not like GW cares beyond the profit margins.

Also if other games are an indication mercenary packs.

The third game is supposed to be completely Chaos-focused. So we might not see the Chaos Daemon armies until then.