Everyone is talking about this reveal trailer

I don't know that I've ever played a Total War game (I want to say maybe I did a quick look for one?). I've gotten away from the ponderous computer strategy games over the years, myself, but I know people have a fondness for Warhammer. I think my love for the franchise insofar as it comes to computer games was stressed to the breaking point by one of the Dawn of War games which I wasn't a fan of, but hey! Games are being announced! Nature is healing.

This is the most interesting game series I'll never have the time for. I tried the demo on Steam for Total War: Warhammer II and was floored by how awesome it was (if you like tactical strategy games). But it's so rich in content and depth I figured I've never have time to justify buying it yet.

Don't they also have some grand campaign that spans the two (soon to be three?) games?

THIS IS ALREADY MY MOST ANTICIPATED GAME! FUCK ME UP!
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

A distinct lack of power armor, chainswords and bolters in that trailer.

I really wish the monetization of these games were better because I'd have less of an issue just getting really into them. I do love a good cinematic trailer though.

I'm like 99% sure you're baiting the "but this is original Warhammer, not 40K" post.

I was convinced to try out Total War Warhammer II by the hour and 20 minute Mandaloregaming review, so I bought it and haven't actually played it. It's the kind of thing I need "the right Saturday/Sunday" for, just a good solid empty day where I can just dump a few hours into learning whatever the hell I'm doing. I talked to someone on Discord a lot about it earlier today and I might play it this weekend, maybe, I don't know, it's such a massive game that figuring out when I'm going to dedicate time to learning it is sort of a stressful thought in and of itself.

I sorta fell off the Total Warhammer train eventually after burning out on doing Siege battles. The combat has a ton of potential, but the constant Sieges you're forced into in campaign remove 90% of the depth. Seeing how this one is gonna be all Chaos against Chaos I'm crossing my fingers it's gonna be all about field battles. Although on the other hand I'd hate for the settlement aspect to be diminished. Hopefully they've conjured up some clever solutions.

As far as the actually announcement itself, I'm pretty excited. One of the best things about these games are all the crazy and diverse units, and it can't really get any crazier than all four Gods getting full unique army rosters. I'm no Warhammer fanatic, so I have no pre-conceptions about what to come, but the potential here is outstanding.

@straylightzero: Essentially there's two campaigns in 2, one is the story campaign that takes place on the new map they created for 2 and you use the new races and the other incorporates the entire map from 1 and 2 and you can use all the races including the previous games if you own them. It's massive. 3 is doing the same I'm pretty sure.

I can't wait for this. TW2 was somehow the game I played the most last year other than Iceborne. Once you get your head around it, its incredibly fun and there's SO MUCH game there, especially if you bring in the content from the first game. The campaign map is going to be enormous. It is an investment though, it took a few tries and watching some youtube tutorials before I figured out what I was doing. Totally worth it though.

I wish I was better at the real time part battles in total war... then I might enjoy the games.

@visariloyalist: I dropped the real time aspect of the series around the time of Medieval 2. Since then they've been map based auto resolve games for me and I've enjoyed them much more.

Except Warhammer 2, funnily enough. I feel it's autoresolve could be very... erratic.

It's described as the end of a trilogy on its Steam page. Is there on going story through the previous 2 games?

@infantpipoc: If you own Total Warhammer 1 and 2 you gain access to a mode that combines both maps and all the races from both games. Supposedly they're doing the same if you own all three.

I'm curious how they'll handle Cathay without it becoming a kind of racist caricature like in FaBa. Cathay has extreme potential if they get rid of the orientalist parts.

@infantpipoc: kinda sorta, there isn't really a narrative outside of "chaos sucks and the end times are coming" individual lords have their own stories. Like the grudge match between Eltharion and Grom that you get in their individual campaigns.

Tldr you can start with 3 without missing much.

@creepingdeath0: Yeah. I mostly fell off of total war around medieval 2 as I had felt that I have done every single siege known to mankind (and the napoleonic ones were weird and jank) but like total warhammer for collecting DLC, periodic short abandoned campaigns, and just lots of screwing around with sandbox battles

I suspect the reason auto-resolve gets weird is because there is a lot more unit variety and whatever is being used to derive their scores and counters is pretty detailed. Traditionally in total war that is less of an issue because, at a glance, you know that heavy armor is better than light and the (simplifying) unit triangle. In total warhammer that is less immediately obvious and your fat stacks might not actually be sufficient.

I love these games.

I'm not much of a Warhammer person myself, but didn't I remember hearing that they essentially nuked that version of the fantasy world and re-booted it somehow? I have some friends who are really into Warhammer and I remember them complaining about how terrible the new version was. Like, "I spent 100s of hours painting these miniatures but this is so terrible I'm dumping them and swapping to 40k" bad.

Did they just backtrack on that reboot or what? This clearly has the backing of Games Workshop, so this feels like a tacit admission that they messed up?

In other news - I really wish I could get back into Total War again. I had good times in college with Medieval 2, but my computer is currently ancient and can't really run anything past about 2012. Plus, I'd need to find a place for it and my only desk space is taken up with work equipment since working from home.

Rorie, you should totally try one of the more modern Total War games. Since they got into the Warhammer stuff they've gotten better at adding flavor and style to their more historic titles.

its kind of closer to 20 'campaigns' if you get the DLC, although a lot of them are the same end goal, just played with a different faction story. But you do have things like the new wood elf/skaven lords that are distinctive stories in the vortex with a totally different set of goals and win conditions.

and i second the youtube tutorial idea and i actually think its extra helpful if you're already a total war fan- the combat works quite a bit differently, especially when it comes to unit composition and what they are capable of, then in the other games. it took me a bit to figure out why my highest priced units were getting creamed by stuff that on paper looked like cannon fodder because i was very much thinking in a the traditional 'buy fancier lads, beat everyone up' mindset of something like rome and completely ignoring things like armor piercing, fear and anti-large statuses. serves me right for just going 'i know how to play total war, i don't need to examine these tooltips and do tutorials'

@therealturk: Been kind of out of it for years but Warhammer Fantasy Battle (FB) had an "End Times" global event that eventually led to the world being destroyed and being reborn (sort of) which simplified things down more toward factions than specific armies.

Oversimplifying and didn't do a too deep drive, but it looked like an attempt to solve the FB equivalent of the Imperial Guard problem. IG armies tend to be VERY expensive because you need a LOT of the cheap guys AND a few of the really expensive guys. Being able to supplement that with other factions increases customization and makes it easier to play with your favorite units rather than just buy a few squads, paint them, and never play because a full army would be like 5x the price.

Games like Vermintide and (I think) Total Warhammer are still set in the End Times storyline. The world is ending and shit is popping off everywhere.

There was a LOT of controversy about that and it reeked of streamlining. But I also feel that people kind of forgot that this is just how these tabletop games/worlds work. Rules will be geared toward post-end times for a while but that doesn't stop people from buying supplements or playing an older version to stay in thetimeline they like. 40k tried that with 30k/Horus Heresy but that never really picked up outside of fluff... and are trying it again with Papa Smurf being a little bitch and coming back to usurp the throne/hospital bed. Or how D&D basically rebooted the universe to the point that Drizzt and co might be gods now?

My first attempt at playing a Total War game was Three Kingdoms and I was completely and utterly useless at it. I was just confused as hell as to what to do. Are the Warhammer ones less forgiving in terms of a learning curve?

@gundato: I would go as far to say that Age of Sigmar is a completely different setting. While it canonically exists as a result of the FaBa apocalypse, it's an entirely different beast. Warhammer Fantasy as a setting was (much like 40k) satire that people missed the satire in which lead into the setting message being completely muddled. Age of Sigmar on the other hand is actually trying to make heroic mythology. The worlds itself are very much based on viking mythology, but they've gone completely hogwild. It's fucking WEIRD in points. In addition, most everything is completely changed: Dwarves now use jetpacks and gigantic flying things, elves don't exist (but are coming back? or came back?), factions are divided into four meta-factions, they live in the branches of a giant world tree. All sorts of stuff like that.

As a setting it's incredibly imaginative... and as such, a lot of people haven't really known what to do with it.