"While not as good as Total War: Warhammer I & III, Total War: Warhammer II is one of the best Total War games ever made, and without doubt one of the greatest Warhammer games on the market."
Singleplayer.
Co-op Multiplayer.
PvP Multiplayer.
Total War Games are very combat-heavy, and the Warhammer universe is similarly war-torn, and combining them results in campaigns that are some of the most memorable of any I have ever played.
More importantly, after much trial and error, The Creative Assembly finally developed a functional diplomacy system, and alliances can be maintained throughout the entire campaign.
This makes Total War: Warhammer II feel far more immersive than Total War: Warhammer did at launch, where even traditional allies, such as The Empire and the Dwarves, would eventually go to war for no apparent reason.
In a recent campaign, when playing as Bretonia, I allied myself with the Dwarfs, many Elf factions, and Lizards. Together, we fought against Vampires, Dark Elves, Tomb Kings and more.
For a while, it looked like our happy alliance would never end.
Unfortunately, the Dwarves became greedy, and I was forced to choose between siding with my second-oldest allies (Elves) or the Dwarves (of whom a faction was my first allies). I would have liked to side with the High Elves, but the recently confederated elf kingdoms refused to ally with me, despite having been allied with almost every elf faction on the map.
As a result, I was forced to throw in with the Lizard/Dwarf alliance and take part in a joint invasion of the High Elf lands.
Unlike in Total War: Warhammer in which the AI factions often became bogged down with their troubles and rarely made it to the frontline, Lizard and Dwarf armies swarmed across the sea, making our joint conquest much easier than it would have otherwise have been, including Dwarf and Lizard armies on more than one occasion breaking sieges of my less defended outposts, while my armies were laying siege to more heavily fortified Elvish cities.
One issue I have with Total War: Warhammer II is how unbalanced some of the confederated factions are, with Naggarond in particular often confederating to such a degree that they are essentially unbeatable, able to field over a dozen armies at once, and lay waste to entire factions in only a few turns.
In a recent playthrough, I played it too safe, and did not go on the offensive against the southern Dark elf factions, which allowed them to confederate and attack my faction and allies from all directions, I witnessed the largest faction in the game crumble from 46 settlements to less than a dozen in less than 20 turns of open warfare, only to be eradicated in less than 50.
While the High Elves fought valiantly to hold the last few settlements, with Naggarond able to field multiple legendary lords with maxed-out tier 3 units, there was little the High Elves could do but die with honour.
At the same time, the northern armies of Naggarond were laying waste to the elves, while confederated southern forces were slaughtering everything in their path, despite fierce resistance from my Bretonia armies, as well as my dwarf, elf, and lizard armies.
Eventually, after seeing Naggarond take over most of the map, I was forced to concede, as while I could hold out for a while, eventually their superior economy overwhelmed my own, by sending waves of doomstack armies against my coastal cities, while I was already struggling to fund my army after losing the bulk of my trade partners to Naggarond invasion.
While this was not the happiest ending, it was certainly memorable, and one of the reasons why I have enjoyed playing Total War games so much for the past 20 years.
For players who do not wish to undertake a full campaign, Total War: Warhammer II allows them to access the quest battles for every faction and leader they own from the main menu, including heroes and quests from the original Total War: Warhammer for every faction the player owns.
This provides a huge amount of excellent scenario-based content, which offers players a glimpse into the world’s Lore while allowing them to complete a series of “mini-campaigns,” each focused on a single character or faction.
While these battles can, and are best completed during a campaign, its not always easy to spare the forces to do so, and being able to avoid missing out on content that enriches the world is a not only a very consumer friendly move, but a great way to explore more of the Warhammer universe, without being forced to play through the game as every single faction and leader in effort to experience the full list of scenarios available.
While core mechanics are shared between action factions, each faction and legendary lord play differently enough that playing multiple campaigns back to back feels as unique as playing a new game set in the same world.
For example, playing as The Empire, Dwarves, and Bretonia would result in three very different campaigns, with distinct goals, unique threats, and, most importantly, different units and tactics required to progress.
When playing as the Empire or Dwarves, I could sack first and then raze every enemy inhospitable settlement, and become very wealthy doing so, and suffered no penalty for doing so; however, when playing as Bretonia, such actions would result in a loss of chivalry, which would make leaders less efficient, and in some cases make final victory less likely or in extreme cases impossible.
And this is not taking into account factions with multiple Lords, which in turn introduce unique mechanics and objectives.
With war, economics, and technological progression, objectives and narrative being dependent on which faction/leader you choose, Total War: Warhammer II is the type of game you could easily invest 1000 hours into, and still find new ways to play and secrets to discover after all that time.
This extreme replayability makes Total War: Warhammer DLC such an excellent value for money.
Each faction and leader offers players potentially dozens of hours of enjoyment. In addition, the same factions and leaders can be played in the Mortal Empires mode, which was first released for Total War: Warhammer II and expanded upon in Total War: Warhammer III.
Total War: Warhammer II introduced players to the Mortal Empires campaign, a first of its kind mode for the Total War franchise, which allowed players to play as all factions from both Total War: Warhammer and Total War: Warhammer II, while having access to all of the quests and objectives from each character’s respective campaigns.
In addition, this mode allowed players to play with or against every faction from both games on one massive map.
Being able to inhabit a world which includes every major and minor faction from both games, while having access to each faction and legendary lord’s unique mechanics and objectives, is frankly ground-breaking.
Due to the sheer number of settlements and factions, wars on all fronts are now more possible than ever, and diplomacy and war are equally valid tools when it comes to both conquest and empire management.
As someone who loves narrative campaigns, I must admit the sandbox nature of Mortal Empires at first did not appeal to me; however, once I saw that I could enjoy those same narratives as part of a large and vibrant world, I must admit that The Creative Assembly has won me over.
Mortal Empires was the best way to play Total War: Warhammer I & II, and while Total War: Warhammer III’s Immortal Empire has rendered Mortal Empires partially obsolete, for those without access to Total War: Warhammer III or those who dislike the factions introduced by it, there is no better way of going to war in the Warhammer universe than Mortal Empires.
Total War: Warhammer II is a 4x strategy video game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by SEGA, it was released on 28 September 2017 and retails for $59.99.
Total War: Warhammer II is available exclusively on PC.
Total War: Warhammer II supports the following peripherals:
Total War: Warhammer II is rated PEGI 16+ and contains:
I love Total War: Warhammer II; it took Total War: Warhammer I and expanded upon it in many areas, particularly when it comes to the Mortal Empire Campaign, one of the best Total War campaigns of all time.
While Mortal Empires would eventually be made semi-obsolete by the release of the Immortal Empires Campaign from Total War: Warhammer III, it is still very much worth playing today, and while the Eye of the Vortex campaign is not as enjoyable as campaigns from Total War: Warhammer I, it is still really fun to play, and many of the faction specific goals introduced as paid and free DLC improve upon it immensely.
Ultimately, Total War: Warhammer II is an integral part of the Total War: Warhammer Trilogy, and a huge component of Total War: Warhammer III’s Immortal Empires, and for that reason, I fully recommend it, despite being a bigger fan of the first and third entries in the series.
We found Total War: Warhammer II to be a great game, meaning it delivers a memorable experience with only minor imperfections that don't detract from the overall enjoyment of the game.
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