Total War: Warhammer
Monty Python French knights join Creative Assembly’s first Warhammer game.
With its latest free add-on, Total War: Warhammer is complete. But as any Games Workshop customer will tell you, Warhammer games are never really finished. While The Creative Assembly has moved on, what it’s moved on to is more Warhammer—the second game is out later this year, and previewed earlier this issue. While we’re all waiting for that, I’ve been playing this final DLC, which makes the NPC faction of Bretonnia playable.
These humans differentiate themselves from the Empire with semi-French accents and feudalism. While their Imperial neighbors march into the Renaissance, all gunpowder and middle class, Bretonnians stay medieval thanks to a goddess who keeps their dated ideas about nobility sacrosanct. In Bretonnia the divine right of kings isn’t hypothetical: The Lady of the Lake gives magic powers to royals. Make your own Monty Python joke.
Though I’ve tested mods that made Bretonnia accessible, this DLC goes above and beyond. There are three new legendary lords leading subfactions, new units, tech, buildings, events, and quest battles (defending a beach from Norse invaders was a highlight of those, reminding me of a public quest from Warhammer Online). There are also new game mechanics for chivalry and a peasant economy to juggle.
The knights are great, offering different flavors for different situations. Heavily armored questing knights are ideal for getting stuck into elite infantry, while grail knights in lance formation make better shock troops, charging in then pulling back to charge again. The peasant units are better than expected too, although if you recruit too many no one is left to work the farms and your finances suffer. The cheapest of these, the peasant mob, costs less to recruit than to maintain. I hire them the turn before a battle as cannon fodder, then disband them afterwards. With low morale they flee fast, but there are plenty of leadership buffs in both the tech and skill trees, if needed.
Instead of public order, Bretonnia has “control”. When it gets too low—as it does early on, thanks to an event that lowers it by 20 points for the first 20 turns—an incursion happens. Rather than a peasant uprising, it’s always an army of outsiders who appear and need to be put down. Usually they’re Greenskins. It’s like the workers express their dissatisfaction by passive-aggressively leaving the back gate open for Ugboot Snotlicker and his mates to get in.
maximum chivalry
Chivalry increases when I’m heroic, though the Bretonnians have odd ideas about what that means. Razing settlements belonging to humans earns chivalry penalties, but razing non-human land earns bonuses. Each time chivalry goes up a tier I unlock the ability to summon the Green Knight, a legendary hero, for another 15 turns. As the kind of player who finishes games with an inventory full of unused potions I only summoned him once.
At maximum chivalry the Errantry War is announced, leading to a final quest battle. It’s a better climax than other factions have— most campaigns end with a trek to hunt down one last settlement to cross off the list, long after the big battles that should cap things off. The Errantry War lets you pick whether to announce a crusade against the Greenskins or Chaos, then march across the map to a final massive battle with them.
It makes for the best ending of any campaign, and thus a solid ending for Total War: Warhammer itself. It’s accompanied by a slew of general improvements, such as improved confederation, and traits gained for specific actions. Spending too much time in one settlement makes one general a Procrastinator, coming to an ally’s aid earns another attack bonuses. It feels designed by a team who’ve learned a lot about their own game. The next Warhammer could be even better.
the peasant mob costs less to recruit than to maintain. I hire them as cannon fodder