Total war warhammer 2 what is the latest version. Jungle warfare and elves in the trees

Beginner's Guide. How to win the campaign Total War: WARHAMMER 2 (II).

NOW IN RUSSIAN! Text version and voiced video. All for beginners))

Welcome to this video guide that will teach you to understand what is happening on the battlefield and help you win. We will talk about different units and their characteristics.

Let's start of course with the Lord - this is the most important piece on the board. They range from light mages in togas to huge armored monsters.
Their main task is to lead the army, so you must protect them and not let them die in battle. The greatest danger to the lord is the enemy lords. Try to keep away from them.

Heroes as well as lords can be very different in any case, they are your best choice if you need to destroy enemy characters or dangerous troops.
Mages should not be thrown into hand-to-hand combat, because their main strength is in magic - damaging and weakening the enemy, strengthening and healing your troops. They can do anything, but most mages are weakly armored and not very good at melee, so they need to be carefully protected and protected.
Melee infantry is your main killing force, great against all types of infantry but they are quite vulnerable to monsters and cavalry so they need to be avoided.
Polearm melee infantry is essential on the battlefield to deal with large targets. Basically, these are spears that can be used against monsters, cavalry and flying units and other large infantry. But they are vulnerable to any foot melee with different swords and axes.
Missile infantry can have many different uses on the battlefield. They can deal damage to any kind of units but they are also vulnerable to any melee units and need to be covered from attacks, especially from enemy cavalry which is very effective against them.
Cavalry is the highly mobile part of your army. They can protect their troops and attack the enemy. Flank and rear strikes, the destruction of shooters and artillery servants are especially effective. The main threat to them is the infantry with polearms - spearmen, halberdiers and so on. Stay away from them.
Monsters can come in all sorts of forms - small groups, single huge creatures, agile flying units, but they are all very dangerous. They easily chop up your infantry, but you should try to keep them away from polearm infantry. Arrows, bullets and projectiles are also very effective for fighting monsters.
Artillery deals great damage to the enemy long before he enters the battle. It is capable of hitting any target, but is most effective at firing at large concentrations of infantry, but be on the lookout - gunners cannot defend themselves in hand-to-hand combat, so be prepared to defend them.
So what makes units what they are and how they fit together.
Information about the unit is written in the information panel - the number in the squad, the number of hit points, as well as various characteristics and abilities. you need to understand what they mean in order to play Total War effectively.
Hitpoints determine the amount of so-called health - how much damage a unit can take. They can be added or taken away by buffs and debuffs.
Armor determines the degree to which a unit is protected from damage. The higher it is, the less damage the unit will receive from enemy attacks.
Morale determines how persistent a unit's morale is and how persistently it will take a hit. If the morale is low, then the unit can run from the battlefield.
Speed ​​- determines how fast the unit moves across the battlefield. Accordingly, the more armored the unit, the slower it is.
Melee attack determines the unit's chance to deal damage to the enemy in hand-to-hand combat, the chance to hit the enemy. The higher it is, the more damage the enemy will receive because his defense will be broken more often.
Melee defense determines a unit's chance to dodge or block an opponent's attack. Accordingly, units with a high stat will take less damage and can fight much longer.
Another important indicator is Weapon Strength. This indicator will determine the amount of damage inflicted on the enemy with a successful hit, i.e. breaking through his defenses in close combat. The indicator is summed up from the base damage and armor-piercing damage.
Onslaught or charge - a bonus that adds damage during a quick attack, so to speak "on the run". However, it only works if this condition is met. For example, a detachment of knights can be repeatedly withdrawn and launched into an attack with lowered lances. But when the knights stop after hitting, subsequent weapon strikes do not have this bonus.
Now you know what the characteristics of units mean in battle
Now let's talk about the importance of armor-piercing weapons.
A unit's weapon armor-piercing can be determined by the cuirass icon next to the weapon's Strength number. If you hover over it, then in the drop-down window you can see exactly how many units of base damage and armor-piercing it includes.
Units with high armor penetration are the best choice for dealing with highly armored opponents, because despite the powerful armor, the enemy will receive more damage for each successful hit. In this case, the base damage will not fully penetrate under the armor and cause damage.
You can see many more symbols when viewing a block of information about a unit - you can hover over them yourself to read in the drop-down tips what they mean and think about how it can be used on the battlefield. dare!
now when you know what it all means and understand the strengths and weaknesses of each unit, you can start the battle.
As a result, each of your units will collide with the enemy, you can use a hint comparing the strength of your and enemy units.
So my White Lions went out to fight against the executioners of Har-ganet. I highlighted my Lions and hovered over the executioners. You can see that tabs have appeared in the information panel that show the advantages and disadvantages of my squad compared to the enemy. green is what the enemy excels in, and red is inferior in what.
We see that the executioners have more armor, morale, weapon power and onslaught. Lions are superior only in speed and hand-to-hand attack. The melee defense of both units is the same.
From this data, I can predict that the executioners will defeat the lions, and so it happens.
It should be noted that the executioners are more expensive and this is a good indicator of the quality of the unit, but this does not mean that the more expensive unit always wins. If I used some auxiliary units on the battlefield, the Lions could well come out victorious.
So you need to understand which units are best to use in a given situation, how, when and where to place them. You should also remember about the features of the faction with which you will have to fight,
For example, if I'm going to fight lizardmen, then I just need to take with me more polearm units with a bonus against large enemies. Because they have many such large and strong lizards.
If I run into high elves, I know they have a lot of long range archers so I need something to neutralize them with.
The skaven tend to push the numbers, so I'll need a lot of cheap infantry to be able to hold back this avalanche.
The dark elves have a lot of powerful melee infantry, so I will have a better chance of success if I hire more cavalry for flanking and rear attacks.
In general, as you already understood, you need to be flexible in the formation of armies, depending on the theater of operations and the alleged enemy.
Finally, let's take a look at the basic building and the concept behind it.
The army can conditionally be divided into several parts.
The main body forms the front line in the center of your position. They are usually polearm warriors or swordsmen ideal for holding the front. Their task is to create a monolithic line into which the enemy cannot break through.
the left flank should be protected by more mobile units that, if necessary, can defeat or repulse a flank attack or simply hold back the flank from the onslaught of the enemy.
The right flank has the same function. It usually makes sense to place spearmen and cavalry on the flanks.
Behind the backs of the warriors holding the center, shooters and everything that needs protection should be placed. Of course, it's safer here than in the front. A little further, it is necessary to place detachments to protect the shooters and reserves that will quickly respond to flank and rear attacks.
This is a basic formation and you need to understand the place of each unit in the formation, in support of each other.
After all, the morale of the soldiers depends greatly on whether the rear and flanks are covered. You must always remember this.
After all, the beauty of Total War is that you can hire a variety of units, form a variety of armies and try different strategies on the battlefield.
So don't be afraid to be creative and experiment.

(turn-based)
Platform: PC (Win/Mac)
Language: Russian text, English voice acting

Minimum:
OS: Windows 7 x64
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 3.0Ghz
RAM: 5GB RAM
video card: (DirectX 11) NVIDIA GTX 460 1GB / AMD Radeon HD 5770 1GB / Intel HD4000 @720p
Disk space: 60 GB

Featured:
OS: Windows 7/8.1/10 64Bit
CPU:Intel® Core i5-4570 3.20GHz
RAM: 8GB RAM
video card: (DirectX 11) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 4GB / AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB @1080p
Disk space: 60 GB

As usual, the gameplay will be based on two modes: turn-based strategic campaign, with city building, diplomacy and trade; and tactical battle your armies on the battlefield. Whelps, robbers, freak swordsmen, witches and lizards will gladly accept your commands to cut each other to pieces.

Four factions are available in the release version: High Elves, Lizardmen, Dark Elves and Skaven Ratmen. As is often the case in dark fantasy, there are no good-natured people among them. Each race pursues its own interest, which consists in seizing as much power as possible in the New World and spoiling rivals. And the reasons and the plot are no longer so important. If only there was a reason to fight.

High Elves are very stubborn and proud, wear funny skirts and love intrigue. Fortunately, the main intrigue is not to determine what the elf has under her skirt. Dark elves are as belligerent as possible, vain and wear revealing armor that clearly shows the gender of their owner. They love intrigue no less, betrayal more, and kill and enslave even more. In short, the same High Elves, only less restrained. With fire guys.

Lizardmen are not so interesting, alas. Ugly, mysterious, they love animals, they have a connection with the earth. The most interesting part of their race is the name. What is the correct name to call them? Lizardmen? Lizardmen? Lizardmen? Another manifestation of the halo of secrets around these cute creatures. But with another animal race, the Skaven, everything is much more interesting. This, for a moment, is the people who came out of the Matrix and destroyed it. But in this time period, it is still just a horde of unique, crazy, inventive creatures, the likes of which have not yet been. They bring filth into every home, crush the crowd and delightfully squeak after a successful stab in the back.

The map is not limited to four factions, on it you will meet people, and orcs, and beastmen, and the undead, and all the other freaks from the first part. In addition, there will be a campaign that combines both parts of the game. And we are waiting for hundreds of different DLC, without them it is impossible.

We must not forget about another important component - a huge number of schools of magic. If in the first part it was not enough and it did not work well, then in the second part the magic system was notably shaken up, relying on the experience of add-ons, and made it truly dangerous.

Network part, as is usual for a series, is also divided into two parts. Either you play with friends in a full-fledged campaign with sieges, diplomacy and a global map, or you fight in regular and ranked matches, choosing your own army roster for the match.

As a result, we were presented with an AAA+ class product that increased the fantasy meat, fixed gameplay flaws and found new interesting mechanics. Total War: Warhammer II is the game that many expected to see back in 2016. Almost the whole universe fit in it, and we are not only interested in studying its history, but also living in it, commanding armies and countries.

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Where they found out that the game is highly commendable, and also sorted out its pros and cons. One of the positives is that we wrote well-designed new races. In this article, we will take a closer look at them and give some tips for playing them.

Proud High Elves

The most balanced race of all the new ones. All types of troops are present, but there is only one siege weapon, and that is not very powerful. Don't expect powerful ranged units like the Wood Elves. At the same time, there are several types of dragons, which adds to the power of your army.

However, in the early stages of the campaign, you will not have monsters. What then? Then we would recommend focusing on the standard deployment - melee infantry with a small number of "ranged", and on the flanks (preferably to ambush them) cavalry support.

In the campaign, the race's goal is to support the "Magic Whirlwind", whose work was disrupted by a passing two-tailed comet and which sucks out excess magic, preventing the demonic hordes of Chaos from enslaving the whole world.

The features of the race are: Intrigue, Espionage and Military prowess. Intrigue, is the most interesting of them. It consists in the fact that your faction "needs to pull the political blanket over to its side", and this in turn will give you influence points that can be spent on court intrigues or hiring more powerful lords and heroes.

Espionage allows High Elf factions to spy on their trading partners, completely exposing their lands to you. And Martial Prowess gives you an advantage in close combat if your army enters it at full strength.

Ferocious Lizardmen

This race is characterized by its "Many Beasts". It completely lacks cavalry, instead of which the cavalry is represented by riders on Cold-Blooded - bipedal lizards resembling dinosaurs. The race does not have siege weapons, but they are more than compensated by a powerful army of monsters. Most units of the race can fall into a kind of frenzy, which is both good and bad. On the one hand, they become completely uncontrollable, but on the other hand, they do not actually lose morale and are capable of inflicting huge damage even on superior forces before they turn to flight.

According to the above analysis, we can advise several options for the deployment of troops in the battle. A cheaper but less powerful option would be to focus on melee infantry. Due to their power, the Lizardmen's "closest" ones can easily defeat similar squads of other races, even in a frontal attack. But at the same time, cavalry support is still recommended to attack the enemy from the flanks.

A more powerful option, but also more expensive, would be to focus on monstrous units. It is enough to add one creature of each type to the army so that your army becomes virtually indestructible.

In the campaign, it is rather a positive race and helps to keep the "Magic Whirlwind" working. Overall, however, their goals remain a mystery and are revealed as the story progresses.

Race traits include: Geomantic Web and Blessed Broods. The geomantic network connects all the settlements of the Lidozards and strengthening it in certain provinces, allows you to increase the effectiveness of decrees issued in it.
Blessed Broods is a feature that gives you quests for completing which you can get elite squads of warriors.

Brutal dark elves

The race is based more on powerful magic, although all types of units are present. Especially for them, a new school of magic was added - Darkness. The siege weapon is again only one and not too powerful. There are not many monsters either, and only two of them are strong. Things are better with melee and ranged infantry. Interestingly, some "long-range" ones can also show themselves well in hand-to-hand combat, sending a surprised opponent to a knockout.

In the early stages, a strong expansion is not recommended, since the units on which you can build a formation will open a little later. The most profitable will be the arrangement with a good number of magicians, but at the same time, not without the protection of melee infantry. For attacks from the flanks, use the same "ranged" ones that are excellent in close combat, since they also have the ability to "forward deployment", which means that you can easily attack the enemy from the rear with powerful units.

In the campaign, the goal of the race is revenge on their Higher brethren for the exile and capture of the "Magic Whirlwind" for their dark and not too good deeds.

The features of the race are: Black Arks, Slaves and Bloody prowess. Black Arks are mobile fortresses where your lords can recruit troops and make up for their losses. In addition, arks provide artillery support for your troops on the march.

Slaves your armies will capture in their campaigns. An increase in their number will increase income, but at the same time, lower public order. Slaves can also be sacrificed to perform rituals.

Blood Prowess is a buff that is given to all your troops in battle if they destroy a certain number of enemies. Well, I would like to note that the Lords of the Dark Elfs have inconsistent loyalty and can betray you, which means you need to carefully monitor them.

Insidious Skaven

Skaven, or ratmen, have numerous infantry and very strong siege weapons. Among the siege weapons, I would like to highlight the Wheel of Doom, which without any problems can deal with superior enemy forces. Skaven infantry, for all their numbers, has a low level of morale and quickly flees from the battlefield. The cavalry of this race is completely absent, and there are only two types of monsters. But it should be noted that one of them is the most powerful unit in the entire game. And of course, two new skaven schools of magic should be noted - Plague and Destruction.

The only true tactic for this race would be to focus on a huge amount of infantry. And so on, until you open powerful siege machines. Then, it will be possible to reduce the number of infantry by adding these same vehicles and increasing the number of magicians
in your army, who, thanks to the ability to call for reinforcements from underground, will make an excellent guard for them.

The Skaven are servants of Chaos, which means it's not hard to guess that their role in the campaign is far from positive. They want to kill all other races and plunder their cities, and use the Magic Whirlwind to return the world to the dominion of their Dark Gods.

In a new blog, the developers talked about Total War: WARHAMMER 2.

A short interview will answer the most common questions.

The game

What is Total War: WARHAMMER II?

Total War: WARHAMMER 2 is the second part of the trilogy, which began with the cult game Total War: WARHAMMER. In it, players will find a new exciting campaign "The Great Whirlwind", which takes place on the vast continents of Lustria, Ulthuan, Naggaroth and the Southlands. As the story progresses, its action becomes more and more intense, in order to eventually reach an epic finale, the likes of which have not yet been seen in the Total War series.

How many races and lords will there be?
There will be four playable races with two legendary lords each, for a total of eight individual starting positions.
Featured: High Elves, Dark Elves, lizardmen and a fourth race to appear (ed. note: Skaven).
Each race is unique and will be very different in the game. Each has unique and iconic units, characters, monsters, war machines, and tactical advantages on the battlefield. On the campaign map, each of them has a unique mechanism based on the history and plot of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. In short, each race offers a very different play style.

What is the Great Vortex in the announcement video?
The Great Vortex is a huge magical vortex that unfolds over the Isle of the Dead in the center of Ulthuan, the home continent of the High Elves. The whirlwind was forged in a past age by the summoning of the High Elf mages to extinguish the Fairy Winds of the world, and push back the vast demonic invasion back to the Realm of Chaos from whence it came. It is a significant part of the Warhammer Fantasy Battles world, a unique feature that underpins the Total War: WARHAMMER II campaign map.

How is the Total War: WARHAMMER II campaign different from the first game?
Due to the twin-tail comet Sotek making its recent journey across the sky, the Great Vortex has become dangerously erratic. Each of the four races has their own goal in regards to this: some want to heal the Great Vortex and avert the calamity. Others want to break it. However, none of the races have the same goals, and they will have to fulfill them in their own way.
Thus, the campaign is a race for control of the Great Vortex, culminating in a disastrous series of events at the end of the game. This is the first TW game where the AI ​​can beat you at the end of the game (ed. note: Shaw? Again?)
But the race for the Great Vortex is not all or nothing. Along with a unique race mechanic and missions that define your campaign, you'll still have to build and manage your empire, negotiate and betray your allies, research technology, upgrade settlements, do all the usual Total War utility stuff. You still need to achieve your goals, but you also need to pay more attention to the campaign by creating obstacles or vice versa by supporting other races in their goals.

How big is the Total War: WARHAMMER II campaign map?
The Great Vortex campaign map is about the same physical size as the first one. Although the campaign map in WH2 has about a third more regions to conquer than in WH1. They are located on four continents separated by dangerous seas.

What other new features are there?
There are many new gameplay features, some tied to the specific story theme of the Great Whirlwind campaign and some related to the unified huge campaign (see below). We'll be detailing all of this over the coming months.

Do I need the original version of the game to play Total War: WARHAMMER II?
No, you don't need the first game in the trilogy to play WARHAMMER II. However, if you own the first game as well as WARHAMMER II, you will be able to select the game on the new unified campaign map (see below). So owners of both games will have three large and different campaign maps to choose from.

Trilogy!

What do I get if I have both WARHAMMER I and WARHAMMER II
If you have both games, you get 3 huge campaign cards; the original one featuring the Old World, the new one featuring the New World and the Vortex, and a combined campaign map that combines both of these areas. If you own any DLC or Free-LC for WARHAMMER I (such as Chaos Warriors, Wood Elves and Beastmen, or Lord Packs), you will have access to their unique narrative campaigns, and will be able to play like the campaigns in the Old Light, and in the new Combined Campaign.

What's going on with the mega combo campaign you talked about earlier?
For owners of WARHAMMER I and WARHAMMER II, our first content release shortly after the game's launch (free of course) will be a massive combined campaign map representing the geographic areas of both games on the same map. This will allow you to start epic campaigns for the races you own (including all of your DLC races). This will be shortly after the game launches, will take weeks rather than months, and will be our very first DLC release.

Why won't the co-op campaign be available right after launch?
The Great Vortex campaign, with its original storytelling, unique features, mechanics and taste, is a standalone project. The combined campaign will be truly huge. Each of them requires significant testing and balancing. This is the most complex Total War campaign we'll release to date. We would like to schedule a short open beta testing period just prior to its release, which requires WARHAMMER II to be in the game and players to be familiar with all the new races and features.

How will the third game be added?
We will inform you in due time.

Other matters

Will there be naval battles?
Only on autobahn. Warhammer Fantasy Battles is primarily a game about land warfare, so we decided to focus our efforts on a full simulation of land battles. There are a few new features for the sea map that we will look at in detail in the future.

What are your plans for multiplayer?
Each of the races in TWW II will be playable in single player and online campaigns, plus custom and online battles. Since the two Legendary Lords for each race have their own unique starting positions, you will be able to play a two-player co-op campaign in the same race. If you own both parts 1 and 2, you will be able to play multiplayer as any of your races.

What will be the bonuses for the collector's edition or for the first owners of the game?
Over time, we will report on all this news.

When is the release date of the game?
Later in 2017. We will announce the exact release date in due course.

Will there be modding support from release?
As with WARHAMMER 1, both toolbox modding and Steam Workshop support will be available immediately upon launch.

Will the game be released for Mac and Linux at launch?
Plans for Mac and Linux versions will be announced later this year.

Possibly the best game in the world of Warhammer.

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The universe of the Warhammer (not the one where the God-Emperor, but where Sigmar) is famous for its harsh gloom. There are almost no heroes here, and an ordinary person lives day by day with the understanding that at any moment one and a half meter rats can crawl out of the sewers and ruin the whole day. And, most likely, a very short remaining life.

game mechanics total war brought to perfection many, many projects ago. Total War: Warhammer occupies an honorable place in this series. It was a great, thoughtful game - a real find for fans of global strategies. Also in the famous fantasy setting!

Therefore, when the second part appeared on the horizon, the fans basically rallied around one simple motto: "Don't break it!" They didn't break.

Official trailer.

Not so "Old" World

A two-tailed comet split the sky and weakened the magic of the Great Vortex. It means that the time of prophecy, the time of war, has come. This time we are fighting on the territory of the "New" world: Lustria and the Southern lands (that is, in America and Africa, if we refer to real continents). And the factions available to us are more "exotic": skaven ratmen, lizardfolk, dark elves and high elves. As usual, each nation has its own set of units, style of warfare, its own management features on the global map - and sometimes even a unique resource.

Now all races start in exactly opposite corners of the world, which encourages a slightly more relaxed playstyle. Each faction slowly clears its quarter of the map - and then the war of cool high-tech armies of top units with pumped generals begins. In addition, in addition to the “general” victory of the “take out everyone” type, a quest-based victory was added to the campaign. This is if you manage to complete the ritual for which you, in fact, entered the war. More on this below.

But do not think that the world of the game is inhabited only by non-humans. A pleasant surprise: all the nations of the last game are present on the field as small (sometimes with gigantic territories) factions with a full set of units and their own diplomacy logic. They are not yet playable, but their very presence allows us to hope that with the additions, the number of playable factions will gradually grow to the size of a full tabletop Warhammer roster.

For connoisseurs of the Hammer of War, there will be offensive moments. Factions such as Arabia and Khemri, unfortunately, have been replaced with... analogues. Instead of Necro-Egyptians, we are met by vampire armies (in the sunny desert!), instead of armies of Bedouins and Assassins - ordinary tanned guys from the Empire. We hope that, as in the first part, unique factions will appear here over time.

Jungle warfare and elves in the trees

Whether you've played the first game or any Total War game, you'll immediately feel right at home. Familiar system of armies, familiar system of provinces. Construction, heroes, war, technology tree - everything is as we are used to. The developers took the path of "don't fix what's not broken", and for this we thank them very much.

However, there are also innovations.

The tactical combat map is no longer flat and boring. The game finally fully takes into account the difference in height, climatic preferences and the influence of vegetation on shooting accuracy. Now it is quite possible to arrange a fight like "300 elves against a horde of ratmen" in a narrow passage. It is logical that from this the tactical part has become much more epic.

Also, more units are displayed on the battlefield, and there is a completely different level of animation and elaboration of models of fighters (there is no comparison at all with the Imperial Pinocchio infantrymen of the first patch of the last part).

But AI is now frankly vile (other words, alas, you will not pick up). No, he didn't get smarter. It's just that the game does not even try to hide that the AI ​​sees and hears everything and therefore instantly reacts to any change on the field. Instantly. It is very annoying when a cunning plan (for example, to hit the enemy artillery on the flank with horsemen hidden in the forest) breaks off exactly at the moment when the units become visible.

Who is who

Lizardmen- natives of Lustria and the oldest race of the world of the Warhammer. The self-proclaimed "defenders of peace" in this war are playing the role of heavyweights. There are many durable and powerful units, good sorcerers, and combat dinosaurs (yes! lizards riding dinosaurs!) are simply universal fighters with frightening damage indicators. Naturally, this means that almost all units are extremely expensive (although you can get free enhanced versions of them for quests).

Skaven are the rat people of the Under-Empire that extends under the entire known world. Rats have the weakest troops in the game. Even Monsters and Wheels of Doom are relatively weak in encounters against similar units from other factions.

The strength of the skaven lies elsewhere: there are an infinite number of them. Their troops make up for losses incredibly quickly, and cities develop instantly. What is one opportunity to immediately populate cities up to the fifth degree of development! With an equal balance of power, they will, of course, lose. But there are always five or even ten times more skaven.

high elves- The most balanced faction and a good choice for beginners. These ancient warriors who call themselves Azura protect the world from the forces of chaos and destruction. The elves are reminiscent of the troops of the Empire from the first part. They are above average in everything, but they are incredibly good at only one thing - magic and magical creatures. Also, high elves open the map during trade and can influence the diplomatic relations of other factions. These proud ones prefer to pit enemies against each other - and strike only where necessary.

Dark elves Traitors and ruthless killers led by the Witch-king Malekith. Dark elves destroy opponents with swift and deadly attacks. In their arsenal - heavy cavalry, monsters, as well as squads of speedy assassins. In addition, the dark elf black arks are real sea cities where you can hire heroes with lords and recruit armies, which provides Malekith's troops with complete supremacy on the water. The legendary lord trait allows him to give some of the experience to other commanders, but be careful. If an ordinary commander becomes stronger than a legendary lord, he may well go to the betrayal typical of the dark elves!

Each faction has a unique resource needed to progress towards a story victory. Important: each side of the conflict sees only its own resource, but the key cities are the same for everyone. In other words, in a location where the skaven see warpstone, lizardmen, for example, will find solar tablets. From here, a simple and wonderful conclusion: in the second part, key cities and fortresses can fall under the control of any of the main factions!

I love the smell of warpstone in the morning!

Resources are mainly needed to perform rituals that allow you to skip the painfully long stage of conquering all the provinces of each opponent. Five of these rituals must be completed to win, and their cost in terms of resources and time increases with each success. There is a lot of work to be done towards the end, especially considering that the game regularly creates neutral armies in the campaign, which increase in strength as the factions move towards victory. Of course, these armies usually appear somewhere in the deepest rear.

Purely mechanically, the ritual works as follows. If you have the right amount of the resource, you will activate three of your cities (randomly, of course). For ten turns, these cities are seen by everyone, and the loss of any of them cancels the ritual, and you lose the right to retry for a few more turns. Even worse, any faction for a certain amount can create an instant "invasion army" ... right on the lands of the player conducting the ritual. AI loves this option very much and sends out two or three top armies as soon as the player is on the way to victory.

However, even if the AI ​​is weak and they have no money, the game, in addition to other troubles, immediately creates from three to eight (!!!) armies of Chaos or skaven. Who begin to burn and destroy everything they see. Bored, you say? Hold.

From the unpleasant: there are classic sins of the TW series. AI in the global war makes unforgivable mistakes, the game takes a long time to load and can crash after a tactical battle (and when the battle lasts half an hour, this is very, very disappointing). As a fan of the Hammer of War, I can not help but note one more point: the admissibility of absolutely impossible situations (for example, when noble dwarves ask for mercy from ratmen) that can jar the fans of the universe.