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[Mech#4]

The DLC and patch are out and I've been enjoying an Empire campaign as Karl Franz.

I'm liking the new Empire and Elector Count mechanics so far. The political events are kind of the usual side with faction A or faction B, however, sometimes there's ones about sending aid to one of the Elector Counts to help combat an attack. To my suprise these are more than just an event box, rather, the game actually spawns an army of the enemy faction to attack the Empire province and if you support them in the attack you get to take part in the battle with a small number of troops (about 7).
So far I've had a siege defence with Hochland against Norsca where the handgunners I was given were instrumental with dealing with two feral mammoths and a land battle with Wissenland against some Greenskins.

War Wagons have been fun to use. They don't have that much speed but their high armour is nice along with their multiple repeating rifles.

[Mech#4]

Time has passed and the next DLC has been announced, coming out on the 12th of December.

"The Shadow and the Blade" feature Malus Darkblade of the Dark Elves and Deathmaster Snikch of Clan Eshin.

Spoiler:  DLC Added Units, Lords and Heroes (click to show/hide)

New units: Dark Elves
Malus Darkblade
High Beastmaster (Lord)
Master (Hero)
Scourgerunner Chariot
Bloodwrack Medusa
Bloodwrack Shrine

Regiments of Renown:
The Siren of Red Ruin (Bloodwrack Medusa)
Ravagers of Rakarth (Scorgerunner Chariot)
The Crows of Khaine (Harpies)

Skaven:
Deathmaster Snikch
Master Assassin (Lord)
Eshin Sorcerer (Hero)
Eshin Triads (alternative to clanrats and stormvermin)
Poisoned-Wind Mortar
Warp-Grinder Weapon Teams

Regiments of Renown:
The Avalanche Mortar (Death Globe Mortars)
Viskrin's Death Squad (Death Runner)
Ishka's Triads (Eshin Triads)

Personally, it's quite neat to see Deathmaster Snikch (Also: He's got red claws!). I'm also suprised to see the Warpgrinder though it seems to be implemented in an interesting way, being able to destroy walls and gates as well as some AoE abilities.
I would have liked to see giant rats, though if we do get Throt the Unclean in the future they're still possible there.

The Medusa is neat as well. I don't know much of anything about Malus, having never read the books, so I don't really have an opinion there.

The mechanics Creative Assembly are talking about for Malus and Snikch sound quite interesting. With Malus struggling with the daemon and Clan Eshin getting contracts from other clans and 100% success chance "Shadowy Dealings" that pay with losing the agent for a few turns afterwards.


Oh yes, also, the free Legendary Lord has been announced to be Rapanse de Lyonesse, a new legendary lord for Bretonnia. No further details about that yet other than the mention in the F.A.Q.

[Teneb]

Oh yes, also, the free Legendary Lord has been announced to be Rapanse de Lyonesse, a new legendary lord for Bretonnia. No further details about that yet other than the mention in the F.A.Q.

It's been confirmed on reddit by CA's community manager that she'll be playable in Vortex. So I imagine it'll be an Araby start.

I think that, named characters aside, the Dark Elf roster is now 100% complete.

[Mech#4]

Some more information and gameplay has been released.

Gameplay of Malus Darkblade.

We see some of the mechanics of Malus, how he has to stave off the daemonic possession or succumb to it for bonuses and negatives either way. Also how he works for Malekith in finding scrolls for the vortex campaign in exchange for elixers that help against the possession. Malus also gets quests given to him by the daemon which give nice bonues but also increase possession levels.


There's also apparently a change for the Black Arks where they can now attack coastal settlements which is nice, and new portraits for lords in the porthole image.

Apparently another quality of life change is that turn times have been reduced by about 60% in the Mortal Empires campaign which is really good to see.

[Teneb]

I'm a bit wary about the bonuses and maluses (heh) of going pure or possessed, especially given the bullshit bonuses the AI gets in combat (and the maluses (heh) that players get slapped with in the campaign) in high difficulties.

Now, if you're like me and run mods to take out that bullshit then you're fine... but they're blanacing it for vanilla and, well... it's got me a mite worried.

I like the Black Ark stuff though.

[Tack]

There's also apparently a change for the Black Arks where they can now attack coastal settlements which is nice, and new portraits for lords in the porthole image.

YES

[Mech#4]

Some more information has been released. A blog post covering the two legendary lords and their abilities and start positions is up.
We see that in the Vortex Campaign, Deathmaster Snikch starts in El-Kalabad in Araby while Malus Darkblade starts near the Tower of the Sun on the islands in the south-east corner while also holding Hag Graef in Naggarond.

Also, most interestingly, in the Mortal Empires campaign, both Snikch and Malus start in a newly expanded part of the campaign map. The map has been expanded eastwards along the coast north of Lamia with Deathmaster Snikch starting in Flayed Rock and Malus starting in the Dragon Isles.

The new area includes provinces Desolation of Nagash, Broken Teeth, The Wolf Lands, Gnoblar Country and the Dragon Isles. It looks like Crookback Mountain is added as well in the Wolf Lands.

This should do a lot to make the starts with Khalida and Kroq'gar more interesting.


I don't think there's any other changes to the map after a brief look over but this addition is pretty big.

[Jopax]

TBH the biggest thing for me is going to be the ME performance improvements. Lately I've been playing around with some of the old world stuff and it's kinda shitty that none of the QOL and other improvements weren't ported back to WH1. So you either get the inferior overall expirience of WH1 or you get a bunch of wasted time with playing ME even tho you don't care for the majority of the world map.

The faction and lord stuff itself, eh, the DE units are cool but I've never cared much for them. As for the Skaven, while I love them as a faction, none of the units are particularly exciting, especially in terms of laughing madly as you decimate your enemy with horrible hell-contraptions, but that's just me I guess.

[Persus13]

I'm not a huge fan of WH1 not being updated, but given how long it took them to port Norsca over from 1 to 2, it sounds like it would be even more difficult to implement the mortal empires changes to WH1.

[Tack]

As for the Skaven, while I love them as a faction, none of the units are particularly exciting, especially in terms of laughing madly as you decimate your enemy with horrible hell-contraptions, but that's just me I guess.

Unless the ratling gunners have gotten a nerf, I'd care to argue that point.

Also, yeah Warhammer 1 is dead software at this point. If we're very, very lucky maybe WH3 will have old and new world maps available to game owners

[umiman]

As for the Skaven, while I love them as a faction, none of the units are particularly exciting, especially in terms of laughing madly as you decimate your enemy with horrible hell-contraptions, but that's just me I guess.

Unless the ratling gunners have gotten a nerf, I'd care to argue that point.

Also, yeah Warhammer 1 is dead software at this point. If we're very, very lucky maybe WH3 will have old and new world maps available to game owners

I kinda think of it as a way to fund this ridiculously massive project that will culminate in game 3's gigantisaur map with infinity features. Don't think all these features and polish could have happened without them draining our wallets dry.

That being said I never really feel shafted for the DLCs that I buy. CA's DLC policy for Total Warhammer 2 has been pretty good in my book. Each DLC has a huge chunk of features that continually improve the game. In Total Warhammer 1 they had some hits and misses, but looks like they've figured out what we like with the second game.

On the other hand, Three Kingdoms they went back to silly DLC nobody asked for.

[Jopax]

As for the Skaven, while I love them as a faction, none of the units are particularly exciting, especially in terms of laughing madly as you decimate your enemy with horrible hell-contraptions, but that's just me I guess.

Unless the ratling gunners have gotten a nerf, I'd care to argue that point.

Also, yeah Warhammer 1 is dead software at this point. If we're very, very lucky maybe WH3 will have old and new world maps available to game owners

I meant in terms of new units the upcoming DLC brings. Everything they have so far is pretty damn great in terms of dumb, overwhelming firepower that falls apart the moment something looks at it funny. New DLC brings in mortars I guess, but they're just longer range globadiers so eh.

[Tack]

For now they've mostly got tabletop units, so I'm okay with it.

[Mech#4]

As for the Skaven, while I love them as a faction, none of the units are particularly exciting, especially in terms of laughing madly as you decimate your enemy with horrible hell-contraptions, but that's just me I guess.

Unless the ratling gunners have gotten a nerf, I'd care to argue that point.

Also, yeah Warhammer 1 is dead software at this point. If we're very, very lucky maybe WH3 will have old and new world maps available to game owners

I meant in terms of new units the upcoming DLC brings. Everything they have so far is pretty damn great in terms of dumb, overwhelming firepower that falls apart the moment something looks at it funny. New DLC brings in mortars I guess, but they're just longer range globadiers so eh.

I believe the normal mortars have a damage over time effect that lingers in the area the globe lands. Quite different from how the Avalanche RoR unit works with shot which splits and deals damage on impact only, like the globadiers.


Also: The character sheet for Repanse de Lyonesse has been released. Highlighting several of her abilities like buffing infantry, giving units flaming attacks when facing undead and reducing building costs.

She also starts in Copher I believe it's called in Araby in both the Vortex campaign and the Mortal Empires campaign.

[EnigmaticHat]

I'm a bit wary about the bonuses and maluses (heh) of going pure or possessed, especially given the bullshit bonuses the AI gets in combat (and the maluses (heh) that players get slapped with in the campaign) in high difficulties.

Now, if you're like me and run mods to take out that bullshit then you're fine... but they're blanacing it for vanilla and, well... it's got me a mite worried.

I like the Black Ark stuff though.

Normal combat difficulty + harder campaign difficulty is how I manage that.  Puts you up against harder odds but (AFAIK) all units behave according to their stats.

I don’t know the numbers but the changes on higher combat difficulties seem to disproportionately impact weaker units.  While your elites feel at about the same power level as before.  I don’t like it.