New Total War game: Warhammer

[Rahdulan]

At least they officially confirmed GOTYs are off the table.

 

[A horse of course]

At least they officially confirmed GOTYs are off the table.

They're not going to announce a GOTY edition for a game that's still got two years of expansions and DLC.

 

[kris]

At least they officially confirmed GOTYs are off the table.

it is called "postponed"

 

[Aothan]

where does this place Wood Elves, sometime next year ?

 

[A horse of course]

where does this place Wood Elves, sometime next year ?

They said next DLC is before Christmas.

 

[Frusciante]

Wood Elves announcement incoming

 

[Aothan]

appended message wasn't really necessary, what is the "Mother's Kiss" pox a reference to, Nurgle ?

 

[A horse of course]

Possibly just a reference to Bretonnia being wracked by various epidemics. The early Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay material portrayed everyone in Bretonnia rotting away from some disease or other.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...cal-total-war-is-an-era-we-havent-tackled-yet

The next historical Total War is "an era we haven't tackled yet"
Creative Assembly on the future of its strategy series.

We've known that Creative Assembly has been working on a new historical Total War game for a while now, but many had assumed the studio would be returning to a familiar setting. It's been 10 years since Medieval II: Total War. Just saying.

Not yet.

However, during a roundtable discussion on the future of the Total War franchise, brand director Rob Bartholomew told Eurogamer that the team were in fact working on "an era we haven't tackled yet."

This means the next historical game won't be set in feudal Japan, the Roman republic or medieval Europe. Nor will we see a return to the Napoleonic Wars or the fight for American independence.

"Did he? That's interesting of him," added creative director Mike Simpson when pressed for further details on Bartholomew's comment. "Yes, it's a brand new era. It's not something we've done before."

The game's currently in pre-production and we're yet to hear anything regarding a release date.

But, obviously, it's the perfect time to start speculating as to which time period they're looking at. My money's on China during the Three Kingdoms period - think Dynasty Warriors without the romance.

There's plenty more going on at Creative Assembly these days too, with the studio housing at least five separate development teams at present.

Total War: Warhammer has proven incredibly popular with fans and seen plenty of support from CA as a result. Today's announcement that the Wood Elves will be arriving as DLC is the latest in a fairly regular update schedule, including a bunch of paid-for and free content.

"It's certainly the biggest DLC we'll do before the next release," confirmed Bartholomew. "But there's still more things to come. Wood Elves won't quite be the last, but it'll be the biggest."

I played a couple of battles with the Wood Elves earlier this week and continue to be impressed by how distinct each of Total War: Warhammer's races ends up being, both in battle and on the campaign map. This isn't just about introducing a new roster of units, but rather, an entirely new playstyle.

"I think there's a good chance this will become a feature of Total War," said Simpson. "It's perhaps harder to do that in the historical games, but it's not impossible. We've always had faction differences, they've just not been as pronounced as Warhammer allows."

"Almost everyone said this is what they really, really enjoyed about Warhammer," agreed game director, Ian Roxburgh. "This feeling, this difference in the races. It will certainly feed into everything we do."

The biggest team at Creative Assembly, however, is working on the next Total War: Warhammer game. This is where things begin to get a little more complicated. For a start, what will they even call it? I'm not sure that title can afford another syllable.

Regardless, the goalposts have shifted slightly given the accomplishments of the first game.

"We always planned to do a trilogy of titles," Bartholomew. "But with the success of that first title backing us up and the way that the DLC has been so well received, it gives us the confidence on the commercial side to go: well, great, we can afford to go bigger and better."

The second game will be equivalent in size to its predecessor, if not bigger, offering four playable races from day one. Additionally, we can expect a similar amount of paid/free DLC, introducing new legendary lords and race packs as we've seen with this first title.

But if you already own the first game, this trilogy is about more than just new races and locations. Although each Warhammer game will be playable as a standalone title, Creative Assembly has also promised that these three games will somehow slot together, forming a single, all-encompassing grand campaign.

"Now the technical way of doing that is a bit fiddly," said Roxburgh. "But ultimately it's been something we've been determined to do right from the start. We don't want to break it up. We want that massive map, right at the end, and we want everything in it."

We asked about some of those obvious technical challenges, like, for example, how the team intends to cope with the extra memory demands this will require, or how they'll counter the longer waiting times between turns on the campaign map. For now, at least, they remain tight-lipped.

"It's probably the hardest thing we've ever tried to do," said Simpson.

"It's going to be something that people lose their s*** over," said Bartholomew.

It's difficult to imagine exactly how this will work, as it's such new ground for the Total War franchise. We've seen standalone campaigns added to games at a later date, but this will be the first time that entire campaign maps have been bolted together. It sounds ambitious.

But Creative Assembly is an increasingly ambitious studio. There's almost 500 people working there right now, making them one of the largest teams in UK games development. Alongside the Warhammer and historical titles, they're working on the multiplayer-focused Total War: Arena, now being published by free-to-play specialist Wargaming, and of course, Halo Wars 2 is expected at the start of next year.

It's hard not to get carried away at this stage, thinking about the size of these teams and the immediate success of this partnership between Total War and Warhammer. Where could this franchise go next? Which worlds are left to conquer?

"We have a list of things we'd like to do and we keep adding to that," said Simpson. "Everything you can possibly imagine is on it and we only ever argue about the order in which we're going to get to them."

Well I've been imagining Total War: Westeros for about a decade now, Creative Assembly. It better be on the damned list.

 

[Echo Mirage]

The Wood Elves are now up on steam for Pre-order.

 

[A horse of course]

(Warning: Eurocucker)

You can spot Morghur in the EG preview as well. FLC I guess (if you have Beastmen).

 

[Aothan]

looks like a good start, I was anticipating different commanders but they could be added later, not really sure if that is a Green dragon but also a suitable addition to this type of army

the video mentioned the Beastmen faction 'being a mistake', something I've heard before about their release in this game, is there a reason for that on a strategic or gameplay level ?

 

[oscar]

Man early edition Warhammer lore used to be so good (the Arthurian Lawful Good stuff isn't terrible, but the Renaissance/Pre-Revolutionary France vibe is much more intriguing)

http://malpy.free.fr/bretonnie/sourcebook.html

 

[muds_animal_friend]

The Steam page states that the Woodelves can conquer anywhere in the main campaign. Lorewise, the woodelves shouldn't be doing anything expect sitting around in Athel Loren acting all emo. CA is awfully selective when it comes to the lore in this game. Sometimes it's been used as an excuse not to do stuff, and sometime it's completely disregarded. Normally I wouldn't be that bothered (this is the company that brought us flaming pigs after all), but the whole point of playing Warhammer is the setting and the Woodelf conquest of Altdorf doesn't really do it for me.

 

[vonAchdorf]

sitting around in Athel Loren acting all emo.

Sitting in Athen Loren yes, emo not really. I think the trailer was quite good at depicting the Warhammer Wood Elves, which aren't your standard tree hugging goody two shoes.

 

[A horse of course]

Technically they just build outposts in those areas outside AL, but yes it's completely retarded that WE can build up areas of Norsca whilst Dwarfs can't settle in Nuln.

Man early edition Warhammer lore used to be so good (the Arthurian Lawful Good stuff isn't terrible, but the Renaissance/Pre-Revolutionary France vibe is much more intriguing)

http://malpy.free.fr/bretonnie/sourcebook.html

Whilst I like the old lore for a lot of stuff, the "everything is shit" Bretonnia from WFRP can be just as dull as muh Grail. The other problem with old Warhammer lore is that it sometimes became too self-indulgent with the ol' wink-and-nudge, such as Jack Yeovil's final Altdorf novel degenerating entirely into parody. I'm not interested in settings that can't take themselves seriously.

 

[oscar]

I thought it was fairly balanced overall. Bretonnia's trade with the New World and Albion is flourishing, it possesses the best quality navy in the setting, a slowly but steadily rising middle class, is on a similar technological level to the Empire (slightly behind in artillery manufacture but produces better quality muskets) and has some genuinely prosperous towns and regions but also has a lot of deep social and financial problems due to overpopulation/poverty, corruption and inability to tax nobility and church (similar to irl 18th century France which was on paper by far the strongest power in Europe but struggled under the internal contradiction of being a centralised government unable to tax its richest). This was an interesting passage and in general the feel I got was Bretonnia could definitely escape its situation under a competent and energetic monarch (what Charles III is unfortunately not).


Much more of Bretonnia's international standing is built on the good organisational abilities of Hubert de la Motte than people know; thanks to him, Charles III de la Tête d'Or enjoys a reputation as the most magnificent monarch in the Old World. On the other hand, some have taken this the wrong way, and see the Bretonnian nobility as decadent and wasteful. Whether or not this is true is not Hubert's concern; he will continue to put on the best organised and most exciting parties for as long as he occupies this ministry. Yet his responsibilities do not end with diplomatic occasions; he is also charged with incoming and outgoing communications with foreign rulers. In this he displays far greater subtlety; he has a firm grasp both of Classical and of Bretonnian, as well as an advanced knowledge of Tilean, Estalian and Reikspiel; he has even learned a little Elven speech in his studies. If there is a danger attached to Hubert, it is perhaps that he is too good at what he does, and that the complex and almost illusionary base on which Bretonnia's international reputation stands (Hubert has been rather 'optimistic'in his descriptions of Bretonnian armies, fortresses and wealth) could be shattered through one or two false moves.

 

[kris]

I will be getting this one, i do after all own a Wood elf army, still mostly unpainted

 

[Lone Wolf]

It will be interesting to see how the Elves match up vs Dwarves. On paper, it's not going to be happy times. Light cavalry, glass cannon ranged vs heavily armoured, shielded infantry backed up by armoured ranged and heavy artillery.

On the other hand, if your micro-fu is good, I can imagine all sorts of hit and run shenanigans with WE units that have the Stalker ability - especially considering some of them can fire on the move. In fact, you can see them completely crushing the Dwarves, in some situations, because of that mobility.

 

[A horse of course]

Dwarfs aren't nearly as powerful defensively as they're made out to be. Without their ranged units and artillery their killing power is extremely low, and without that their units will quickly start dying as their armour rating falls. Make a Dwarf force in custom battles without high-attack units such as Crossbows or Slayers and you'll see what I mean. Wood Elves will have a number of flying options - I'm assuming Forest Dragons are late tier units that nobody uses in campaign until they've already won the game, but Eagles will probably come much sooner. Tie up Dwarf ranged units with those and there's not much they can do against your archers.

 

[Lone Wolf]

You can see how it would work both ways, which is a good thing.

With even their 'dragons' on the more fragile side, you'd want the WE to commit them very carefully. I can imagine Thunderers mincing that unit in a few volleys.

I would think that an anti-WE Dwarven army would have a 3-4 unit line (Longbeards, DW) with 7-8 Quarellers/Thunderers (probably mostly the former) and a Slayer or two. You back that up with, say, one Cannon and a few GTs, and that's not a fun game for the WE

The Dawi probably need rangers to detect the Elven archers coming in, because it wouldn't be nice having to deal with two groups of Elven archers appearing on either side of your line, enfilading it.

Interesting match-up. Meanwhile, re: the Orcs, you'd think that Boar Boyz would be pretty key, and Wolf Riders pivotal. Infantry would get sloshed pretty decisively.

 

[kris]

I really like the wolf riders after i learned to use them properly. They really are all about speed. Disrupt or take out artillery.

As for Wood elfs against dwarfs it is mostly about whether they got anything that is armour piercing. I seem to remember some of the tree folks were?

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Raghar]

That one region economy seems interesting. But the combat and other stuff feels worse than in this http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/king-arthur-the-role-playing-wargame.

If you didn't selected less deadly archers, you could really have some archer porn with brigands.

 

[Galdred]

That one region economy seems interesting. But the combat and other stuff feels worse than in this http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/king-arthur-the-role-playing-wargame.

If you didn't selected less deadly archers, you could really have some archer porn with brigands.

even with less deadly archers, you could wreak havoc on England with them.
Though archers took a backseat next to champions and sages later on.
"Economy" was poorly done, though, with enemies spawning whenever you completed specific actions in the campaign (so taking forever to build up and remove existing opponents was the best move).