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[Mech#4]

It's been a while since anything substantial has come out but a new in game trailer showcasing the Lizardmen and High Elves has just been released.

We get a good look at some terradons, bastiladons, Krok'gar and Mazdamundi as well as Eagle Claw bolt throwers, High Elf archers, spearmens and there's some Swordmasters of Hoeth in there along with a mage.



While I was waiting there was a number of releases of concept art. I didn't think it would be worth posting for each one so I'll link them now:

High Elf Silver Helms. (Cavalry unit. Probably my favorite High Elf unit)
High Elf Princess
High Elf White Lions of Chrace.

Dark Elf Cold One armour.
Dark Elf Witch Elves
Legendary Lord Malakith the Witch King.

Slann Lord Mazdamundi.
Grymloq. (Mount of Legendary Lord Kroq'gar. The same one that was in the trailer above.)
Bastiladon with Engine of the Gods howdah.


There was also this letter posted a few days ago addressed to Finubar the Phoenix King of the High Elves.


I might have missed some concept art. Not all of it was posted to the official forums and I don't tend to check Twitter, Facebook or the like that often.

[Tack]

Thank you for the delicious shares.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Oh, Total War: Warhammer has come to Mac... Hello.

[Mech#4]

The unit roster for the Lizardmen has been put up, having been revealed in a stream and viewable in the linked blog.


An interesting thing to note is that apparently several of the lizardmen units like the Cold Ones and various feral units will have control. I assume this may be like berserking or how you can lose control of elephants in Rome 2.

[Neonivek]

So has the original series ever tried to justify why some units who have no chance of losing... Would route due to morale failure?

Does it represent them getting bored? Or them finding the enemies endless?

[umiman]

The unit roster for the Lizardmen has been put up, having been revealed in a stream and viewable in the linked blog.


An interesting thing to note is that apparently several of the lizardmen units like the Cold Ones and various feral units will have control. I assume this may be like berserking or how you can lose control of elephants in Rome 2.

It sounds like they're making Slann magepriests just slightly better mages than what mages are now. That doesn't bode well for all the "supermages" of the new world.

[sambojin]

Which is fair enough from a gameplay perspective. In theory, Archon is meant to be an unstoppable killing machine, and the Supreme Patriarch the greatest human magician that is alive. In lore at least.

Yet they get stopped or outmagicked several times a week in TW:W mechanics, by merely competent generals and wizards.


It wouldn't be much fun otherwise. Sure, special characters can be powerful. But not too powerful, or it's just a race to get the super unit (or starting with the super unit to begin with).

[Urist McScoopbeard]

so I've been kind of on the fence about buying TW:W for a while now... is it worth the hefty price tag?

[Neonivek]

Which is fair enough from a gameplay perspective. In theory, Archon is meant to be an unstoppable killing machine, and the Supreme Patriarch the greatest human magician that is alive. In lore at least.

Yet they get stopped or outmagicked several times a week in TW:W mechanics, by merely competent generals and wizards.


It wouldn't be much fun otherwise. Sure, special characters can be powerful. But not too powerful, or it's just a race to get the super unit (or starting with the super unit to begin with).

I wish that this actually was true and was explained that it is because they aren't specialized in direct confrontational battles

But as with most settings magic exists only to shoot pew pews out of your fingers and make people die.

[Mech#4]

Lore and gameplay have always had this at odds bit. In lore Lord Kroak could wipe out armies of daemons but in the game you could kill him with a single, well placed cannonball. It was disappointing to read a rulebook build up a lord as being some kind of one man army, only to lose them in the first round of combat to lucky dice rolls but that was just how things went. I like Konrad von Carstein but he's really not that survivable, only having +5 armour and 3 wounds with no ward saves. He has about 3 attacks but his survivability is reliant on being in combat and killing anyone who'd hit him. Even then his attacks aren't really good enough to deal with anything above basic human strength units.


Creative Assembly have mentioned the geomantic web in relation to the Lizardmen. Perhaps the greater powers of the Slann will be represented through that somehow? I thought they could perhaps influence the winds of magic around the world once per turn (increase it in one location, reduce it in another). From what I understand, the Slann in the tabletop had access to all the winds of magic as well as High Magic (What the High Elves also use). They may have also had a reduced chance to miscast and a few more power dice but not much more to differentiate them from other casters.
The Slann also had a high caster level (I think 4) which meant they could take 4 spells.
Since mages can learn all spells through levelling up this mechanic doesn't have much of a place in Warhammer: Total War. I'm fine with that because it allows heroes to have more roleplaying attached to them as they progress through a campaign.

[Thexor]

There was a brief mention of the Geomantic Web in PCGamer. Apparently, the Web will link through specific settlements on the map, and you'll get some kind of reward for owning them (no specifics). The intent is to give the Lizardmen an alien, unknown purpose; they'll be targeting cities that seem totally random and arbitrary to everyone else, because nobody else can see the Web or get any benefits from owning its settlements. Which, all things considered, sounds like a pretty neat mechanic; makes sense from the lore, and hopefully will inspire gameplay that's reminiscent of the lore as well.

And yeah, separation of lore and gameplay is a GW signature. In Fantasy, the Slann have literally rearranged the continents because of an interpretation of the Great Plan, causing a massive disaster for the Dwarfs. Powerful mages in the Fantasy lore can literally wipe armies with a single gesture. And then you get into a TT battle, and magic is suddenly fair and balanced at a small scale. Or look at 40K, where Space Marines are portrayed in lore as one-man armies, a single squad of them able to change the course of a planet-scale war... and then you jump into a game, and a handful of Ork Boyz will gun your marine down in a hail of dakka. Single individuals having massive influence on the course of events makes sense in a story, but it'd be ridiculously imbalanced in an actual game, so there's more than a little power scaling applied in practice.

[Neonivek]

nd then you jump into a game, and a handful of Ork Boyz will gun your marine down in a hail of dakka.

In their defense you cannot use the bulk of the armies for the majority of the factions, They don't let you use their lowest tiers most of the time.

THAT and the game has a huge tendency to write in both myth and actuality interchangeably... As well as not splitting between "Heroic example" and "typical example"

Or rather reading 40k is absolutely terrible because you can't trust anything is true at anytime.

---

Mind you what I said doesn't apply to the LATEST version where they finally just went "Fudge it!" and completely threw the power curve out the window... then stomped the power curve... then lit it on fire... then stomped it again... then threw it into a blender. So now the game is entirely arbitrary to the lore.

it'd be ridiculously imbalanced in an actual game, so there's more than a little power scaling applied in practice.

It reminds me of the Halo lore.

If you actually read the lore then Masterchief is completely broken of a character and it makes a LOT of his feats seem really odd in retrospect (For example Plasma grenades? Can't hurt Master Chief to my knowledge) as well even the terrible weapons in the game end up having some sort of ridiculous super science behind it. (Yeah you think flipping a tank was odd? Yeah MC can actually do that)

And just like them both the games came first. I have NO idea why as a creator you would want to completely contradict your story and gameplay on purpose.

[umiman]

By the way, it should be worth pointing out that Sega published their financial statements recently and out of all their game holdings, they specifically only mentioned two games which they thought performed well and not a word about anything else. (Though their games divisions apparently all did really well)

Total War Warhammer and Persona 5.

TWW's sales were just that good. Bodes well.

I don't think I would like to live in a world where Total War had to shut down, which they nearly had to after Rome 2.

I just hope all this dlc fuckery doesn't ruin the future sales.

[Tack]

I didn't buy Attilla because it just seemed like a repackaged Rome 2, but people are saying that it was apparently great.

Warhammer Total War for me then was kind of faith restored in CA - but Sega and their rushed development, DLC policy and crushing budget will never really make me happy.

[Teneb]

I didn't buy Attilla because it just seemed like a repackaged Rome 2, but people are saying that it was apparently great.

It very much isn't. It might also be the hardest Total War to date.