God I can not wait for this game.
Aye, we’ve known about this for…about a year by now, right? Should be rather fun about half a year after it releases ;-)
The mentioned it years ago but it’s been totally dark on info. Granted, then leak doesn’t tell us much other than they’re working on it, but still, it’s a perfect marriage to me. Must work to keep my expectations in some sort of check!
It’s exciting, but Creative Assembly has taught me to not buy their Total War games at launch no matter how good they look.
I’ve been thinking about this all afternoon and I’m struggling to think of why this might be better in the Total War engine than in Relic’s Essence Engine, other than the fact we’re almost certainly never getting another Dawn of War game. I know it’s Warhammer rather than 40K, but even fantasy GW wasn’t really about massed ranks and battle lines.
I’ve been thinking about this all afternoon and I’m struggling to think of why this might be better in the Total War engine than in Relic’s Essence Engine, other than the fact we’re almost certainly never getting another Dawn of War game. I know it’s Warhammer rather than 40K, but even fantasy GW wasn’t really about massed ranks and battle lines.
Well, for one thing we’ll be fielding much larger armies in formation, instead of 10-20 units all moving in a cluster. Plus a potentially more robust turn-based game, as well. The combat modeling in TW has always been more interesting than a stock RTS. I enjoyed Dawn of War and DoW2 quite a lot, but those games are much more “arcade” than the TW games, at least to me.
Yeah, as much as I like Relic’s version of Warhammer 40K, regular Warhammer is all about formations and maneuvering which is a natural fit for Total War.
That’s an interesting point, but is that really the case? I’ve got almost no knowledge of the Warhammer universe. I’ve got a basic idea of the factions, and some idea how they work, but no knowledge of the lore. Basically all I know is knowledge absorbed by proxy from seeing the miniatures game.
That all said the battles always seemed to be about a small number of powerful units, not massed formations. The obvious reason being that with miniatures there is a finite limit to the number of units that can reasonably be played. So is the mythology more about massed formations and lines, and the miniatures game more an abstraction of that?
Basically the Relic games always seemed to me (again from a distance) to reasonably fit the universe. So is this not the case, or is this more a difference between the fantasy and 40k versions of the universe?
I can’t answer that as I’ve not played the miniatures game at all, but I can say which of those two models is the more appealing to me, personally - the one where I’ve thousands of troops and half a dozen named commanders under my command, cities and zones I’m responsible for, and research I’m conducting, and etc. (assuming stuff like that makes it in, but one would presume…)
Huge difference. The Warhammer Fantasy Battle tabletop game is all about tight boxy formations of troops. Look on Google images. You’ll find tons of images that look just like a typical Total War battle.
Miniature numbers in fantasy Warhammer is certainly bigger than in 40k. Plus, both universes have epic versions of the games (albeit not as popular) where thousanda of units can be involved. The battles in the regular games are not supposed to be huge battles but partial skirmishes.
If you Google fantasy Warhammer, you’ll see the formations and mass units.
That said, what I really want is a remake of Shadow of the Horned Rat. That is, I would prefer a more abstracted strategy segment (with maybe only one huge army under your command, but really configurable) than the standard TW treatment. But yes, thinking about the tactical battles in the total war engine makes me drool.
Plus, people won’t be able to complain about “magic abilities” this time!
Edit: ninjaed
Oh crap, this isn’t 40K? I was all ready to watch assault marines jetpack into the middle of 200 orks, launching them into the air with the engine’s exaggerated cavalry charge physics. Never mind then.
Ok, now I want this too. Little meteorites dropped into the middle of an ork formation? Yes please.
Is the Warhammer fantasy universe terribly interesting? I’m far more familiar with 40K due to the the DoW/DoW2 stuff, though I did play (and enjoy) shadow of the horned rat back in the day. Isn’t there a branch of 40K that has space ship battles? How cool would it be to have fights on planets, and naval style fights with gothic 40K space ships? That would fit the Total War games so well.
I’d say it’s about as interesting as real-life massed formation battles, but with ratmen skirmishers, goblin bombers, and the occasional dragon showing up.
There are a lot of factions, iirc, stuff like Orcs, Skaven, Undead, and etc. Would be interesting if we get many factions with their own unique units and even play-style/mechanics.
That’s what probably intrigues me the most. By necessity most of the factions in Total War games are fairly similar. There are some, mostly, superficial differences in units. Sure the horse archers of an Eastern country play differently than the heavy Gothic knights, but it’s only a minor tactical adjustment. With the fantasy setting the differences have the potential to be quite extreme.
Also thanks Telefrog and Juan, it’s neat to see that the setting does make a bigger difference.
It’s CA, so I expect the really interesting stuff to be saved for DLC. At launch, I suspect we’ll get the “standard” races like humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs. Possibly one of the more odd races like undead, skaven, or chaos to mix things up. Magic and one or two large units like ogres and drakes per race. After that, we may see the really cool units show up as DLC.
Oh, and don’t forget the Blood DLC.
Everything you typed, Telefrog, has me even MORE excited. If we can get that kind of content out of the gate, and the game is excellent, I’ll happily pay for all the DLC content they want to offer post-game (much like I do with AoW3, for example).
I know RTS games aren’t en vogue any more, but I will occasionally play my Dawn of War 2 games because they are great fun. And although I’ve had a lot of love for TW games throughout my PC gaming days, I’m finding their play style less relevant. But this… sounds exciting!