Regiments of Renown
Let’s talk about new stuff. We announced way back in our future content blog that we have a bunch of different types of DLC coming up for Total War: WARHAMMER, offering different kinds of content at different prices, and we figured you’d be interested in some more specific info about what’s next on the agenda. So first off, we have our first Lords Pack in the pipeline (more on that Quite Soon™. Spoilers: it’s somewhat… Grim) accompanied of course with a new chunk of Free-LC.
The meat of the Lords Packs is kind of in the name, but one of the bonus extras you also get are a selection of Regiments of Renown. These are elite, mercenary variants of existing units; reverently-named squads, batteries and other troops who have distinguished themselves in past conflicts. The first Lords Pack will ship with 18 of them – nine for one of the core playable races, and nine for another.
This is just a short blog to explain a bit more about what they are, and hopefully to prompt modders to check out the new feature.
While these Regiments are by no means the main event of the forthcoming DLC, we thought they’d be really flavourful extras to supplement your armies and give character to your force compositions. The Warhammer Lore is dense with these famous (and infamous!) regiments and we’ll be paying attention to what you think and your suggestions and recommendations for future regiment releases.
In the Grand Campaign, these grizzled vets are recruited instantly into an army (rather like mercenaries in previous Total War games) from the new Regiments of Renown recruitment menu. That said, they won’t hire out to inexperienced commanders – the recruiting Lord needs to achieve a certain rank before Regiments become available for hire.
Right out of the box, they’re considerably better at what they do than regulars, boasting enhanced combat stats and an increased initial experience level for the unit they’re based on. They’ll be available in custom and multiplayer battles too – at an appropriate price-hike over their standard unit-roster counterparts, of course.
Each regiment is inspired by the time we’ve spent pawing through the many rule, army and campaign books from 8th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles, so table top players especially may see some familiar names in there.
On the battlefield, the unit will look very similar to the base unit it comes from, but will usually be differently coloured, textured, sized or in some cases have different weapons or armour to mark them out as different from the norm. Perhaps a mix of some or all of those differences, though ensuring readability in the heat of battle is still important.
This is the sort of thing that modders can have a go at too. The new Regiments of Renown recruitment system and interface is open to modding, so it’ll be interesting to see how people make use of it – not just for adding other more famous units, but other possibilities too perhaps.
Each regiment also gets one or more special abilities that its standard counterpart does not. The number varies according to the unit – most just have one, though a small number have two, three or even four. Here’s a couple of examples.
The Royal Altdorf Gryphites are the finest of the Knightly Orders’ inner-circle of cavalrymen, and may be familiar to those of you who’ve read the Black Library novel (or played TT campaigns based on) Sigmar’s Blood. Elite Demigryph units, they cause terror (and therefore fear as well), and are distinguishable on the battlefield by their snow-leopard colouring and blue-tinged armour.
Also from Sigmar’s Blood, The Hammer of the Witches is an elite artillery regiment, employing the last surviving Great Cannon from Fort Oberstyre before it succumbed to those Sylvanian rotters. The regiment got its name in the defence of the town of Gortansford, where it blew The Grey Hag to smithereens after being hastily stuffed with a muzzle-load of horseshoes. The unit is distinguished by its resplendent golden barrels, plus its enhanced physical resistance and the fact that its shells cause magical damage alongside the normal armour-piercing damage. (It doesn’t fire horseshoes though, sorry!)