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Buy Total War: WARHAMMER - Call of the Beastmen as a Steam Key.
Total War: WARHAMMER – Call Of The Beastmen Campaign Pack
- New Beastmen Race in the Grand Campaign
- Two New Playable Legendary Lords
- New 'An Eye For An Eye' Story Campaign
- Hordes of New Unique Units, Monsters, Heroes, Magic and Game Features
Something stirs in the deep dark forests of The Old World. Between the twisted trunks, the Beastlords grow restless with an all-consuming battle-thirst. They gather to them great Warherds of barbarous, bestial fiends, forged in the Time of Chaos; dark amalgams of human intelligence, animal cunning and raw, reckless ferocity.
As The Beastmen emerge from their woodland lairs, ten thousand hooves stamp in agitated union, and a foetid musk arises from the sea of matted fur. The bray of the battle-horns pierces the gloom, and beyond: from Bordeleaux to Ostermark, the Call Of The Beastmen will be heard across The Old World!
The Call of The Beastmen Campaign Pack introduces the Beastmen as a playable race to Total War: WARHAMMER. A feral, Chaos-tainted horde race, they move like a plague across The Old World, fielding half-human aberrations and colossal beasts in battle, many of which feature unique abilities. The Beastmen are playable in the Grand Campaign, custom and multiplayer battles, and in their very own Story Campaign, An Eye For An Eye.
An Eye For An Eye
An Eye For An Eye is a compact Story Campaign that pits the Beastmen in a berserk guerrilla war against mankind. The theatre of conflict is a bespoke campaign map representing the densely forested landmass stretching from The Reikland Channel in the West to Hochland in the east. The player assumes the role of Legendary Beast-Lord Khazrak The One Eye as he lays waste to the lands of men and attempts to slay his nemesis Boris Todbringer, the Graf of Middenheim. Yamaha psr s550 tabla styles free download. Other Beastmen tribes lurk in the wild woodlands however, and a great show of arms will be required to secure their loyalty…
Campaign playstyle
Horde gameplay
The Beastmen offer a uniquely aggressive horde-style campaign game, carrying their infrastructure as they travel and never settling in the conventional fashion. Unlike Chaos Warrior hordes however, all Beastmen units bear the Resilience passive ability. This makes them immune to the attrition caused by infighting when two or more hordes stand in close proximity, and promotes a more collaborative approach between hordes.
Chaos Corruption
The Beastmen also spread Chaos Corruption wherever they go, destabilising provinces and causing attrition to enemy forces. With unique Heroes, building chains, tech trees, recruitment options, Lord and Hero skill-trees, and an exclusive Lore of Magic (The Lore of The Wild), they offer a new and feral way to play Total War: WARHAMMER.
Bestial Rage
Each army led by a Beastmen Lord has a Bestial Rage meter. As the army raids or engages in battle, this meter rises until a new Brayherd is summoned – an AI controlled Beastmen horde that can be directed by the player to specific targets, or support the parent army as it moves. If any army's Bestial Rage falls too low, it may begin infighting, leading to loss of troops and, in the worst instances, mutiny.
Unique army stances
The Beastmen playstyle is also characterised through their unique army stances. Beastmen Ambush is their standard mode of campaign map movement and enables the army to ambush enemy forces on the move.
The Hidden Encampment stance lets the army melt into the shadows and focus on their infrastructure and recruitment, invisible to all but the keenest-eyed enemy Lords.
Beast-Paths enables the army to ignore impassable terrain by following the secret paths known only to their kind. If an army is attacked in this stance, the ensuing battle will take place in one of the atmospheric new Beast Path battle-maps.
Like other races, The Beastmen can also enter the Raiding stance to harvest income, increase Bestial Rage and sow public disorder in enemy territory.
Unique post-battle options
When a Beastmen army conquers an enemy settlement, the player gets two new post-battle options. Raze and Loot harvests income from the settlement before destroying it, while Raze and Defile razes the settlement and erects a blasphemous monument in its place. This generates major Chaos Corruption in the province and confers a large Population Growth bonus upon the horde.
The Dark Moon rises!
The Beastmen share a dark bond with Morrslieb, the Chaos Moon. As it waxes in the night sky, they are given to feats of drunken bacchanalia and ghastly sacrifice beneath its sickly gaze. When a periodic Full Moon event occurs in the Beastmen campaign game, the player must direct his Warherds in which twisted act to perform. There is often a price to be paid for such dark celebrations, but Morrslieb always rewards the faithful!
Legendary Lords
A Beastmen Grand Campaign may be led by one of two Legendary Lords: the fearsome Beastlord Khazrak The One Eye, or the blasphemous Bray-Shaman, Malagor The Dark Omen.
Each has their own skill trees, abilities, quest-chains, legendary items, and Grand Campaign start positions. Khazrak begins the Grand Campaign in the Tobaro Region of Estalia, while Malagor begins play in The Marshes of Madness, deep in the Badlands.
Khazrak The One Eye
The bestial intelligence that seethes behind Khazrak's one good eye makes him the paragon of Beastlords. Gifted with the patience and strategic shrewdness of the most accomplished generals, Khazrak wages the perfect guerrilla war, striking hard and fast where the enemy is weakest, then melting into the shadows to plan the next blow. The only Lord of men ever to best him is Boris Todbringer of Middenheim, who deprived him of an eye with a slash of his Runefang blade.
Now Khazrak is on the offensive once more. Warherd in tow, he stalks his nemesis through the twisted bowers of Drakland, intending to repay the courtesy in full. An eye for an eye!
As well as a Beastlord, Khazrak The One Eye is a powerful melee warrior with two quest-chains, rewarding him with the unique items Scourge and The Dark Mail.
Scourge is a vicious, barbed whip, wrapped in the bitter curses of countless generations of Bray-Shamans. In battle, Scourge improves Khazrak's Melee Attack and Weapon Strength characteristics; on the Campaign Map, it reduces recruitment costs for Khazrak's horde, intensifies the Chaos Corruption he generates and increases Khazrak's post-battle loot amount.
The Dark Mail is an ancient coat of magical armour that enhances Khazrak's Armour and Magical Resistance characteristics.
Khazrak has the abilities Missile Resistance (15%), Resilience, Encourage, Hide (Forest) and Primal Rage (see Unique Abilities below for details).
If you choose Khazrak The One Eye as your starting Legendary Lord, your race gains +10% income from Raiding and +5 leadership when fighting humans.
Malagor The Dark Omen
To the Beastmen – and indeed, to the inhabitants of The Empire – Malagor is the fleshly incarnation of mankind's demise. Unsurpassed in his grasp of The Lore of The Wild, the rites he performs are iniquitous enough to quail even the foulest of Bray-Shamans. When Malagor and his hordes descend upon a human settlement, he delights in sacrificing priests on the very altars they served. No act of blasphemy is too abhorrent, no desecration too foul, for Malagor The Dark Omen.
Malagor has a single quest-chain which rewards him with a unique item, The Icons of Vilification. This filth-encrusted collection of blasphemous relics – the skulls of dead priests, branches torn from the hallowed trees of Athel Loren, and more – reduces the recruitment cost and increases the rank of lesser Bray-Shamans. In battle, The Icons emit an aura that increases the damage output of those around Malagor.
Malagor has the abilities Missile Resistance (15%), Resilience, Encourage, Hide (Forest) and Primal Rage (see Unique Abilities below for details). Malagor can also unlock a unique skill at level 15: Something Wicked This Way Comes. This confers a permanent Hex spell on Malagor, causing -4 Leadership to nearby enemy units in battle and -3 Leadership to enemy armies in Malagor's campaign map region.
If you choose Malagor The Dark Omen as your starting Legendary Lord, your faction can field +1 Bray-Shaman, and all your characters gain +5% movement range.
Heroes
The Beastmen can recruit and field two unique Hero types.
Gorebull
Gorebulls are hulking, twin-horned melee specialists – the very mightiest examples of Minotaurs. Combat prowess aside, they also boast newly-configured skill-trees offering strong specialisation options. These culminate in powerful passive and active support skills, which enhance the campaign and battle capabilities of any horde they join.
Bray-Shaman
Bray-Shamans are spellcaster Heroes, capable of employing The Lore of Death, The Lore of Beasts, or the bestial school of magic known only to The Beastmen, The Lore of The Wild. This Lore boasts a variety of unique Hexes, Augments and Magic Missiles, but arguably its most powerful spell is Savage Dominion, which enables the Bray-Shaman to summon a Cygor directly into the thick of battle!
Battlefield units
Unique Abilities
Units in the Beastmen roster benefit from some unique passive abilities which confer benefits in combat. These are as follows.
Resilience
An ability common to all units in the Beastmen roster, Resilience prevents the attrition caused by infighting between hordes in close proximity on the Campaign map.
Primal Fury
Many Gor units (Ungors, Gors, Bestigors and Centigors) have the Primal Fury ability, which brings a constant active buff to their Speed, Charge Bonus and Melee Attack characteristics.
Rowdy
Centigors are emboldened when fighting, drinking and feasting together, although such ‘bravery' is only temporary at best. In battle, they gain immunity to vigour-loss and a leadership bonus. If their morale begins to waver however, the Rowdy effect is lost.BloodgreedThe Minotaurs' Bloodgreed makes them vicious combatants, and brings buffs to their Charge Bonus, Speed, Weapon Damage and Melee Attack characteristics.
Soul Eater
The towering bipedal Cygor feasts on the souls of wizards. Any spellcasters within range of a Cygor's aura suffer an increased chance to miscast.
Thunderous Charge
The porcine, tusky bulk of the Razorgor makes for a Thunderous Charge, granting buffs to its Charge Speed and Charge Bonus characteristics.
Vanguard Deployment
While this ability is not unique to The Beastmen, the majority of units in the Beastmen roster have it. This means that large swathes of the army may be deployed outside the normal deployment zone and deep in the field, ready to close with the enemy and strike in very short order.
Tier 1 units
Ungor Raiders: T1 missile infantry, bowAbilities: Stalk, Resilience, Vanguard Deployment, Primal Fury
Ungor Spearmen herd: T1 melee infantry, spearAbilities: Resilience, Hide, Primal Fury, Vanguard Deployment
Chaos Warhounds: T1 melee beasts, very fastAbilities: Missile Resistance, Resilience, Hide
Tier 2 units
Ungor Herd (shields): T2 melee infantry, axe and shieldAbilities: Stalk, Resilience, Vanguard Deployment, Primal Fury
Ungor Spearmen herd (Shields): T2 melee infantry, axe and shieldAbilities: Resilience, Hide, Primal Fury, Vanguard Deployment
Chaos Warhounds (poison): T2 melee beasts, very fastAbilities: Missile Resistance, Resilience, Hide, Poison Attacks
Tier 3 units
Centigors: T3 melee monstrous cavalry, very fast, vanguard deploymentAbilities: Resilience, Vanguard Deployment, Primal Fury, Drunken
Gor Herd: T3 melee infantry, axeAbilities: Resilience, Hide, Primal Fury
Gor Herd (shields): T3 melee infantry, axeAbilities: Resilience, Hide, Primal Fury
Razorgor Herd: T3 melee monstrous beast, armour-piercingAbilities: Resilience, Causes Fear, Thunderous Charge
Minotaurs: T3 melee monstrous infantry, armouredAbilities: Resilience, Causes Fear, Bloodgreed
Tier 4 units
Bestigor Herd: T4 melee infantry, great axe (armour piercing)Abilities: Resilience, Primal Fury, Hide
Chaos Spawn: T4 melee monstrous InfantryAbilities: Resilience, Causes Fear, Unbreakable
Centigors (throwing axes): T4 monstrous missile cavalry, armour piercing, shielded, very fast,Abilities: Resilience, Vanguard Deployment, Primal Fury, Drunken
Razorgor Chariot: T4 chariot, armoured, armour piercing,Abilities: Resilience, Causes Fear, Thunderous Charge, Primal Fury
Minotaurs (shields): T4 melee monstrous infantry, armoured and shieldedAbilities: Resilience, Causes Fear, Bloodgreed
Tier 5 units
Centigors (Great Weapons): T5 monstrous melee cavalry, armour piercing, very fastAbilities: Resilience, Vanguard Deployment, Primal Fury, Drunken
Minotaurs (Great Weapons): T5 melee monstrous infantry, armoured, armour-piercingAbilities: Resilience, Causes Fear, Bloodgreed
Cygor: T5 monstrous artillery, special ranged weapon, very long range, causes terrorAbilities: Resilience, Causes Fear, Causes Terror, Soul Eater
Chaos Giant: T5 monster, armour piercingAbilities: Resilience, Causes Fear, Causes Terror
Creative Assembly's Total War: Warhammer franchise has seemed to be quiet recently (apart from a shout-out from Witcher star Henry Cavill). Its last new faction expansion, which is arguably the most newsworthy postrelease addition for a strategy game, was over a year ago. But a year of quieter additions, such as new playable lords for existing factions and major patches, has actually shifted the entire focus of how Total Warhammer works — in significantly better ways.
The net effect of the changes is this: the Mortal Empires mega-campaign that combines both games and every faction in the series is no longer a frustrating curiosity, but instead, it's the best way to play Total Warhammer.
Putting the pieces together
How this happened is a bit complicated, because Total Warhammer is a complicated set of games. The first full entry in the series has a campaign that was kind of the story of the world: various factions fight each other until Chaos invades, defeat (or join) the Chaos invasion, and then control the world that's leftover. The second game in the series has a more specific, slightly smaller-scale campaign, with an entirely different set of factions on a different map.
The promise of the series, however, was a full combination of all these (and a potential third installment) was that they'd all fit together into one super-campaign, with the entire map and set of factions of the Warhammer Fantasy world all in one place. That came out as a free expansion a few months after Total Warhammer 2's release, called Mortal Empires, which was largely the addition of the TW2 factions to the first Total Warhammer's campaign structure.
The Hidden Encampment stance lets the army melt into the shadows and focus on their infrastructure and recruitment, invisible to all but the keenest-eyed enemy Lords.
Beast-Paths enables the army to ignore impassable terrain by following the secret paths known only to their kind. If an army is attacked in this stance, the ensuing battle will take place in one of the atmospheric new Beast Path battle-maps.
Like other races, The Beastmen can also enter the Raiding stance to harvest income, increase Bestial Rage and sow public disorder in enemy territory.
Unique post-battle options
When a Beastmen army conquers an enemy settlement, the player gets two new post-battle options. Raze and Loot harvests income from the settlement before destroying it, while Raze and Defile razes the settlement and erects a blasphemous monument in its place. This generates major Chaos Corruption in the province and confers a large Population Growth bonus upon the horde.
The Dark Moon rises!
The Beastmen share a dark bond with Morrslieb, the Chaos Moon. As it waxes in the night sky, they are given to feats of drunken bacchanalia and ghastly sacrifice beneath its sickly gaze. When a periodic Full Moon event occurs in the Beastmen campaign game, the player must direct his Warherds in which twisted act to perform. There is often a price to be paid for such dark celebrations, but Morrslieb always rewards the faithful!
Legendary Lords
A Beastmen Grand Campaign may be led by one of two Legendary Lords: the fearsome Beastlord Khazrak The One Eye, or the blasphemous Bray-Shaman, Malagor The Dark Omen.
Each has their own skill trees, abilities, quest-chains, legendary items, and Grand Campaign start positions. Khazrak begins the Grand Campaign in the Tobaro Region of Estalia, while Malagor begins play in The Marshes of Madness, deep in the Badlands.
Khazrak The One Eye
The bestial intelligence that seethes behind Khazrak's one good eye makes him the paragon of Beastlords. Gifted with the patience and strategic shrewdness of the most accomplished generals, Khazrak wages the perfect guerrilla war, striking hard and fast where the enemy is weakest, then melting into the shadows to plan the next blow. The only Lord of men ever to best him is Boris Todbringer of Middenheim, who deprived him of an eye with a slash of his Runefang blade.
Now Khazrak is on the offensive once more. Warherd in tow, he stalks his nemesis through the twisted bowers of Drakland, intending to repay the courtesy in full. An eye for an eye!
As well as a Beastlord, Khazrak The One Eye is a powerful melee warrior with two quest-chains, rewarding him with the unique items Scourge and The Dark Mail.
Scourge is a vicious, barbed whip, wrapped in the bitter curses of countless generations of Bray-Shamans. In battle, Scourge improves Khazrak's Melee Attack and Weapon Strength characteristics; on the Campaign Map, it reduces recruitment costs for Khazrak's horde, intensifies the Chaos Corruption he generates and increases Khazrak's post-battle loot amount.
The Dark Mail is an ancient coat of magical armour that enhances Khazrak's Armour and Magical Resistance characteristics.
Khazrak has the abilities Missile Resistance (15%), Resilience, Encourage, Hide (Forest) and Primal Rage (see Unique Abilities below for details).
If you choose Khazrak The One Eye as your starting Legendary Lord, your race gains +10% income from Raiding and +5 leadership when fighting humans.
Malagor The Dark Omen
To the Beastmen – and indeed, to the inhabitants of The Empire – Malagor is the fleshly incarnation of mankind's demise. Unsurpassed in his grasp of The Lore of The Wild, the rites he performs are iniquitous enough to quail even the foulest of Bray-Shamans. When Malagor and his hordes descend upon a human settlement, he delights in sacrificing priests on the very altars they served. No act of blasphemy is too abhorrent, no desecration too foul, for Malagor The Dark Omen.
Malagor has a single quest-chain which rewards him with a unique item, The Icons of Vilification. This filth-encrusted collection of blasphemous relics – the skulls of dead priests, branches torn from the hallowed trees of Athel Loren, and more – reduces the recruitment cost and increases the rank of lesser Bray-Shamans. In battle, The Icons emit an aura that increases the damage output of those around Malagor.
Malagor has the abilities Missile Resistance (15%), Resilience, Encourage, Hide (Forest) and Primal Rage (see Unique Abilities below for details). Malagor can also unlock a unique skill at level 15: Something Wicked This Way Comes. This confers a permanent Hex spell on Malagor, causing -4 Leadership to nearby enemy units in battle and -3 Leadership to enemy armies in Malagor's campaign map region.
If you choose Malagor The Dark Omen as your starting Legendary Lord, your faction can field +1 Bray-Shaman, and all your characters gain +5% movement range.
Heroes
The Beastmen can recruit and field two unique Hero types.
Gorebull
Gorebulls are hulking, twin-horned melee specialists – the very mightiest examples of Minotaurs. Combat prowess aside, they also boast newly-configured skill-trees offering strong specialisation options. These culminate in powerful passive and active support skills, which enhance the campaign and battle capabilities of any horde they join.
Bray-Shaman
Bray-Shamans are spellcaster Heroes, capable of employing The Lore of Death, The Lore of Beasts, or the bestial school of magic known only to The Beastmen, The Lore of The Wild. This Lore boasts a variety of unique Hexes, Augments and Magic Missiles, but arguably its most powerful spell is Savage Dominion, which enables the Bray-Shaman to summon a Cygor directly into the thick of battle!
Battlefield units
Unique Abilities
Units in the Beastmen roster benefit from some unique passive abilities which confer benefits in combat. These are as follows.
Resilience
An ability common to all units in the Beastmen roster, Resilience prevents the attrition caused by infighting between hordes in close proximity on the Campaign map.
Primal Fury
Many Gor units (Ungors, Gors, Bestigors and Centigors) have the Primal Fury ability, which brings a constant active buff to their Speed, Charge Bonus and Melee Attack characteristics.
Rowdy
Centigors are emboldened when fighting, drinking and feasting together, although such ‘bravery' is only temporary at best. In battle, they gain immunity to vigour-loss and a leadership bonus. If their morale begins to waver however, the Rowdy effect is lost.BloodgreedThe Minotaurs' Bloodgreed makes them vicious combatants, and brings buffs to their Charge Bonus, Speed, Weapon Damage and Melee Attack characteristics.
Soul Eater
The towering bipedal Cygor feasts on the souls of wizards. Any spellcasters within range of a Cygor's aura suffer an increased chance to miscast.
Thunderous Charge
The porcine, tusky bulk of the Razorgor makes for a Thunderous Charge, granting buffs to its Charge Speed and Charge Bonus characteristics.
Vanguard Deployment
While this ability is not unique to The Beastmen, the majority of units in the Beastmen roster have it. This means that large swathes of the army may be deployed outside the normal deployment zone and deep in the field, ready to close with the enemy and strike in very short order.
Tier 1 units
Ungor Raiders: T1 missile infantry, bowAbilities: Stalk, Resilience, Vanguard Deployment, Primal Fury
Ungor Spearmen herd: T1 melee infantry, spearAbilities: Resilience, Hide, Primal Fury, Vanguard Deployment
Chaos Warhounds: T1 melee beasts, very fastAbilities: Missile Resistance, Resilience, Hide
Tier 2 units
Ungor Herd (shields): T2 melee infantry, axe and shieldAbilities: Stalk, Resilience, Vanguard Deployment, Primal Fury
Ungor Spearmen herd (Shields): T2 melee infantry, axe and shieldAbilities: Resilience, Hide, Primal Fury, Vanguard Deployment
Chaos Warhounds (poison): T2 melee beasts, very fastAbilities: Missile Resistance, Resilience, Hide, Poison Attacks
Tier 3 units
Centigors: T3 melee monstrous cavalry, very fast, vanguard deploymentAbilities: Resilience, Vanguard Deployment, Primal Fury, Drunken
Gor Herd: T3 melee infantry, axeAbilities: Resilience, Hide, Primal Fury
Gor Herd (shields): T3 melee infantry, axeAbilities: Resilience, Hide, Primal Fury
Razorgor Herd: T3 melee monstrous beast, armour-piercingAbilities: Resilience, Causes Fear, Thunderous Charge
Minotaurs: T3 melee monstrous infantry, armouredAbilities: Resilience, Causes Fear, Bloodgreed
Tier 4 units
Bestigor Herd: T4 melee infantry, great axe (armour piercing)Abilities: Resilience, Primal Fury, Hide
Chaos Spawn: T4 melee monstrous InfantryAbilities: Resilience, Causes Fear, Unbreakable
Centigors (throwing axes): T4 monstrous missile cavalry, armour piercing, shielded, very fast,Abilities: Resilience, Vanguard Deployment, Primal Fury, Drunken
Razorgor Chariot: T4 chariot, armoured, armour piercing,Abilities: Resilience, Causes Fear, Thunderous Charge, Primal Fury
Minotaurs (shields): T4 melee monstrous infantry, armoured and shieldedAbilities: Resilience, Causes Fear, Bloodgreed
Tier 5 units
Centigors (Great Weapons): T5 monstrous melee cavalry, armour piercing, very fastAbilities: Resilience, Vanguard Deployment, Primal Fury, Drunken
Minotaurs (Great Weapons): T5 melee monstrous infantry, armoured, armour-piercingAbilities: Resilience, Causes Fear, Bloodgreed
Cygor: T5 monstrous artillery, special ranged weapon, very long range, causes terrorAbilities: Resilience, Causes Fear, Causes Terror, Soul Eater
Chaos Giant: T5 monster, armour piercingAbilities: Resilience, Causes Fear, Causes Terror
Creative Assembly's Total War: Warhammer franchise has seemed to be quiet recently (apart from a shout-out from Witcher star Henry Cavill). Its last new faction expansion, which is arguably the most newsworthy postrelease addition for a strategy game, was over a year ago. But a year of quieter additions, such as new playable lords for existing factions and major patches, has actually shifted the entire focus of how Total Warhammer works — in significantly better ways.
The net effect of the changes is this: the Mortal Empires mega-campaign that combines both games and every faction in the series is no longer a frustrating curiosity, but instead, it's the best way to play Total Warhammer.
Putting the pieces together
How this happened is a bit complicated, because Total Warhammer is a complicated set of games. The first full entry in the series has a campaign that was kind of the story of the world: various factions fight each other until Chaos invades, defeat (or join) the Chaos invasion, and then control the world that's leftover. The second game in the series has a more specific, slightly smaller-scale campaign, with an entirely different set of factions on a different map.
The promise of the series, however, was a full combination of all these (and a potential third installment) was that they'd all fit together into one super-campaign, with the entire map and set of factions of the Warhammer Fantasy world all in one place. That came out as a free expansion a few months after Total Warhammer 2's release, called Mortal Empires, which was largely the addition of the TW2 factions to the first Total Warhammer's campaign structure.
Too-Mortal Empires
See, Mortal Empires has largely been a mess since its release. It's been a curiosity that I've wanted to like as much as I've liked the main games, but always missing something. (It also created major technical headaches for Creative Assembly, and it took it months to add the final faction from the first Total Warhammer, Norsca, as functional in Mortal Empires.)
The two biggest problems were that the Chaos invasions, the centerpiece of the fantastic campaign of the first Total Warhammer, were basically nonfunctional, either focusing entire on the player to the point of absurdity, or barely being noticeable. The latter problem is still present, but it's not a deal-breaker on its own.
The second major issue was that with its huge map and well over a hundred different factions, Mortal Empires was just slow as hell. Early in the game, you'd spend 15 seconds moving an army, press end turn, and then wait for 2-3 minutes, with different waits in the late game. The patch attached to the recent release of The Shadow & The Blade add-on, however, adds a massive technical improvement, making the game infinitely more playable.
I'm not sure I've ever seen a game that needed this kind of optimization so much receive it so successfully, except perhaps Crusader Kings' famous castration bug. We should commend Creative Assembly for their commitment to improving a years-old game in ways that didn't seem possible.
Filling in the map
The last major improvement, and the one that justifies Creative Assembly's more subtle expansion release this year, is that the releases of legendary lords for existing factions allows them to diversify the map. For example, when I played early this year as the Lizardman faction Hexoatl, I was swiftly able to dominate Lustria, the continent I was on. But the summer release of 'The Hunter and the Beast' added Markus Wulfhart, an Empire legendary lord, to that continent, enabling for both different factions to run into one another early in a campaign, and also more of a challenge on that continent.
Above: Total Warhammer's expansions have put Lizardmen and Empire in conflict
Total War Warhammer 2 Repack
These little touches have been added across the board. In addition to 'The Shadow and The Blade' adding a new Skaven and Dark Elf faction on the far southeast section of the campaign map, a new Bretonnian faction has been added in the southern desert, in the midst of the Lizardmen and Tomb Kings there. I live in hope of playable Dwarfs or Greenskins showing up in Naggaroth, but even without that yet, it seems like every part of Moral Empires campaign has been given a fun new dash of difference both aesthetically and strategically.
Fulfilling a promise
It's hard to see, with the few remaining factions and sections of the map available to Creative Assembly, how exactly they'll manage to make a third installment in the series. But their success at making Total War: Warhammer a living, improving game means that for me, as much as I'd like to see Chaos Dwarfs, this feels like a full, completed game, a fulfillment of the promise made at the start of the franchise.
Total War Warhammer 2 Skidrow
