I didn’t write it specifically before but I’m liking this game a lot. I know I’m ‘late’ in this case, but… (impressions)
There is some streamlining in the campaign map (no naval action, no seasons, no squalor, no families) but it feels good, I think I’m actually more focused on the strategy because of the limited choices: fewer agents, limited building slots, harsher limits of number of armies makes me think twice where to invest my money or where to move to. I’m also putting more attention to the geography itself of the map.
I had some tough choices, where in a turn I had to try to stop a new waaagh! in the South before started, or conquer a settlement in the East and that way ‘complete’ a province owned by me, or stop a wild horde which was crossing an ally territory and aiming for my valuable harbor, and i loved it.
Dividing the map in lots of smallish factions (instead of just having one of each race like many fantasy games do) was a brilliant idea, first it allows the early game to be focused on conquering smallish kingdoms or having possible allies since the start, second it gives you a breather before the Greenskins and other factions like that start projecting force to the ‘outside world’, as they usually are fighting between themselves, third it allows for a more dynamic and interesting diplomacy, and fourth it’s pretty cool theme-wise, it makes more sense when your story is about uniting a fractured kingdom and defeating your enemy, instead about ‘conquering the whole world’.
There are some cool mechanics like army stances that I know aren’t really new but they come from Rome2 / Attila, but for me it adds up to the novelty and possibilities. Also more customization for the heroes, with individual items, banners to assign to units, spells, etc.
Of course the star of the show is the faction differentiation. They made a better job than a jaded gamer like myself believed at first. Not only they have armies with more different stats than in previous TW (say, dwarves are slower than other infantry, but they have innate magic res., and are tougher and have better leadership than average), as they have totally different combat philosophies (one without ranged fire, another without cavalry, one doesn’t rout, the other doesn’t have magic, etc), but also different geographic locations and now it feels it matters more where you are and who are your neighbors, different feeling in the overall progression, unique campaign mechanics (horde, underground tunnels, raise dead, grudges, waaaghs!, vamp/chaos corruption, etc), unique tech trees, unique buildings, unique skill trees for heroes/lords, unique monsters or spells, etc.
They also made a great job translating to the game new features like Winds of Magic. They didn’t slap a mana pool to use and that’s it, no, they respected the original idea, and you can see how the magic varies in strength in different territories, and it affects the gameplay in more interesting ways.
The AI playing in Normal is doing a fine job. I’m winning, which isn’t surprising as I played several TW before, but I’ve seen nifty plays both in the strategic map and in battle, and in some turns the enemy had good comebacks. In hard/hard it should be a sufficiently challenging game.
Finally the UI and help system is great, I usually have almost all the information I need at hand without being overwhelming, and it feels organized and well thought.