Total War: Warhammer
HIGH FANTASY STRATEGY MAKES A FRESH START IN THE END TIMES.
WE COULD START this review with anecdotes about bold knights battling huge spiders, or the time vampires accidentally saved an empire. Instead, let’s get to the point with the directness of a dwarven diplomat: this is the Warhammer game you’ve been waiting for. If you’ve ever ocked a base, read an army book or urged your miniatures across a tabletop, it o ers a wondrous representation of a world previously only glimpsed in stats and backstory.
It’s a strategy game set in a fantasy world, and it features the most compelling, urgent campaign in any Total War — an embroidered magical throw, constructed from years of Warhammer u , which delivers a constant feeling of biting enmity between rival factions. It’s not enough to tell you that dwarfs hate orcs. Play as the grumbling mountain beardos and you’ll understand why, as greenskins relentlessly attack, exploiting your own shattered dwarven underways to ambush you. Likewise, as the Empire, seeing the land you spent hours uniting get razed by a Chaos horde hurts in a way few games can match.
ere’s a real sense of place and peril. When a powerful force starts sweeping the land, you can’t help but check the map and calculate how long it’ll be before they reach you, timidly preparing yourself for inevitable con ict. Because there’s a narrative end goal, it builds to a desperate crescendo. Our rst Long Campaign nished with a sigh, not a cheer — Chaos turned back at great cost, leaving the world charred and changed — but it felt real. It’s even more pleasing when you realise it’ll be di erent every time, especially given the variety between factions.
If you’re new to both Warhammer and Total War, it’s a sturdier door to open. Warhammer is simple enough to comprehend — Chaos bad, Empire good, dwarfs grumpy — and the game does a ne job of explaining the history and motivation of each faction. Understanding Total War, however, is more di cult. e systems make sense a er a few hours, but they’re initially tricky. It doesn’t help that the campaign screen is full of scrolls, tabs, buttons, and dials — an intimidating sight for new players. If you were ever going to learn a Total War game, though, this is the one.
Campaign AI is sharp, forcing you to stay alert by constantly probing your weak spots. is is the rst Total War game we’ve played where we rarely felt safe. Diplomacy is more nuanced and, because of the stern campaign, necessary. Factions can expand quickly by making other factions join their coalitions — via balanced statesmanship for the Empire and dwarfs, or duress for the greenskins. is system is the best it’s ever been.
It’s everything you imagined in the tabletop game brought to life.