It sounds like what could make this game interesting is the asymmetry between the sides. If it was a multiplayer game, it would be quite hard to balance (see Dow/Dow2), but in a more-single player style game that’s not as necessary - different races could act as different handicaps, or race A might be strong against B/C but weak against D.
It sounds like what could make this game interesting is the asymmetry between the sides. If it was a multiplayer game, it would be quite hard to balance (see Dow/Dow2).
A good thing Games Workshop have been doing it for 30 years!
Depending on your understanding of balance. I’m more familiar with 40k, but balance in that game is terrible!
True balance is overrated. As long as each faction has a way to be competitive, and a way to at least not be completely outclassed by another, it doesn’t matter that things are ‘balanced’. At least that’s my view.
I wonder if it will be The End Times. For those that don’t know, Warhammer is currently in the End Times, and in a very non-GW way, the lore and world has had some major changes to the plot lines and major races.
and I mean major.
The Empire, pretty much gone, the Emperor, dead, Sigmar (possibly) reborn. Archaon and chaos in full ascendancy with chaos and demon armies pretty much a size a magnitude above previous invasion. Kislev, gone.
The Elves reunited under Malekith, the Phoenix King, with opposing faction lead by Tyrion reborn as the Avatar of Khaine. Uluthan is pretty much gone, with the survivors relocated to Athel Loren. Bretonnia has a handful of cities left under Giles Le Breton, then new King.
The Skaven in ascendancy under the Horned Rat, and they’ve wiped out Tilea and Estalia, and they’ve pretty much wiped out the lands of Lustria, with lizardmen wiped out and the Slann facing leaving the planet. The last of the Dwarven holds face extinction.
Nagash is reborn and more powerful than ever, with tomb kingdoms gone or in thrall to Nagash. Vlad Von Carstein back in charge of the vampires.
It’s all been fascinating so far, can’t wait to see where it goes.
As ever, 1d4chan summarise it better than I can.
I always tell myself I’m done with CA, and then get swept up in the hype machine and buy the next game anyway. So la-la-la-la I can’t hear you.
Interesting lore. I haven’t paid attention to the official fluff for decades, so I’m still mentally stuck in the years when The Empire was the default human faction, the Skaven were kind of a joke, and the undead were aimless.
That all sounds pretty awesome. But being that my favorite armies were always Empire, Dwarfs and Lizardmen, it does make me kinda sad. Ouch.
The Dwarves were always doomed, but I expected The Empire to continue down the road of technology to become the premier power.
Anyway, the End Times is likely to sees a reason for every major race present in the remains of Empire for a final showdown, so that would fit in with a reason to include them all in a game, well, a reason better than the weak everybody-on-one-planet campaigns in DOW/run in shops.
Of course, just as Storm of Chaos is now non-canon, whatever comes after the End Times might well reset the clock, especially with commercial decisions influencing lore. Either way, it’s nice to see such bold changes in a brand that’s always been fairly static.
Could be great, or could be Rome 2 at launch…
Well, given that Rome 2 is now fine, I don’t care. I have CA filed under the same folder as pre CK2 Paradox. Buying the game is more like getting a Early Access release. But they eventually get great.
Oh, Hell no. Why should I pay full price at launch for a buggy game when I can wait the year for them to sort it out and pick it up and some DLC for around 50% off?
That’s also a valid option. Certain games and genres I support in an illogical way!
I’m definitely with Telefrog. Except my behavior is completely counter to that so I’m really with Juan.
Immovable Object: I am determined to never again pre-order a CA game. They’re inconsistent.
Irresistible Force: You know Skaven will be a pre-order exclusive.
Aaaargh! (Alternately, Waaaa… argh?)
Still won’t get immediate access to Rat Ogres. Buy the “exclusive to owners of the pre-order exclusive” DLC pack for that.
I know what I will field:
Infantry: Slayers.
Cavalry: running Slayers
Ranged: Slayers throwing axes
A horde of angry dwarves with orange mohawks and one command, charge.
I only ‘got into’ Warhammer from the Relic games. Both seem to have somewhat gotten more serious compared to where they were 20 years ago; Orks in Spaaaace makes literally no sense at all yet somehow the 40k universe has emerged as being more grimdark. Probably because in Warhammer, Chaos just doesn’t seem as threatening and the Humans don’t seem as hopelessly lost. 40k Humans are a hypothetical future of an aesthetic like the day after Hitler killed himself, the alt-universe Germans fought everyone to a standstill and have been fighting ever since for 10,000 years - and noone must know that Hitler is really dead.
Warhammer humans are just sort of Holy Roman Empire Germans fighting off the Swedes and Maygars… and occasionally rats, vampires, snakes, and other misc. traditional monsters. Because it’s stuck on one planet nothing can ever really ‘change’ in the Warhammer fiction. Here is a tremendous crusade of massive armies clashing and nothing has been seen like it since the beginning of time and… nothing really changed, did it? Nope. In 40k otoh, you can almost always assume everyone is going to die, because there’s a galaxy’s worth of planets to kill.
Awww. :( All that End Times stuff makes me sad. On one hand I think it is cool that GW looks like they’re mixing it up a bit, but on the other, much larger hand, I really enjoyed Warhammer Fantasy lore the way it was. I don’t like the speculation that they might be dropping it altogether in favor of 40k and LotR.
while i love me some total war, i dont find fantasy settings interesting