Total War: Warhammer

The World Of Warhammer has evolved beyond the subterranean gaming halls of yonder, and finally in a direction that fans of the original tabletop series can get excited about.

Developers Creative Assembly have once again teamed up with Sega to forge what can only be described as a masterpiece of modern gaming; the depth of the Warhammer world blended with the scale and empire-manageability of the renown Total War series.

Total War: Warhammer is essentially a turn-based strategy game blended with real-time battles, selecting from Empire, Dwarves, Greenskins and Vampire Counts. The player builds a city in which to recruit armies to wage war, or a far more likely scenario; hide in your castle and defend yourself against a merciless onslaught of Orcs and Undead.

The Total War series prides itself on the dependence on tactics and civil strength to win battles and the choices made by the player in those departments are essential in remaining competitive; and it’s not easy. Managing the finances of a kingdom, the needs of your people and fighting a war on multiple fronts is a tough juggle at the best of times and in 2016, the computer AI will quite happily tear your army to shreds on account of minor tactical blunders. Resorting to a saved game several turns previous to undo bad decisions or unforeseen catastrophes is a fairly common result as the learning-curve or TWW is fairly steep.

Mouth-watering graphics and a cinematic score accompany your army as you ride into battle, and the vast landscapes of the battle contain plenty of space to split and flank. The variation between races is finally a strong point of a Total War game with four factions currently available and DLC no doubt in the oven. The races at ship feel fully-baked but the game does feel like it is missing a large chunk of the Warhammer Universe without Skaven, Elves or Chaos so the DLC is where things will get really interesting for long term fans.

The key the game is to fortify one edge of your empire and press deeply into as the computer has a nasty habit of accumulating massive armies that drop out of the sky. The story is loose in campaign mode; amounting to roughly ‘it’s all fun and games until Chaos arrive’ at which point you can consider passing on that fortress upgrade a fatal mistake.

Total War: Warhammer is a solid hit, with countless hours of immersive gameplay awaiting. The blend of tech trees, experience, civic duty and large scales wars takes elements from multiple masterpieces and blends them together to create a wargame that will shed as many tears as it does fists in the air. Throw out the D12 and bury yourselves in the immense world of Total War: Warhammer.