Total War Warhammer II review strategy game brings the Warhammer universe to life. The Creative Assemblys new strategy game, Total War Warhammer II, debuted last week as the latest release in a series that combines turn based strategic war, real time tactical combat, and the fantasy lore of Games Workshops Warhammer universe. It is a massive game that seeks to lure fans in from both the richly detailed Warhammer world and the ancient warfare of the Total War games. Sega announced Thrones of Britannia today, a new strategy game and the first in a new Total War series, A Total War Saga, that will focus on specific historical eras. Rome Total War is set in the Roman Republic. This was the first game to encompass what would become one of the most fundamental additions to the Total War series. Total War is a series of strategy games developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. Kim Tae Yeon Lies 1998. The series combines TurnBased Strategy with RealTime. The Warhammer theme was a risk for the Total War studio when it did Total War Warhammer in 2. It was the first time in 1. But the Sega owned studio in the United Kingdom did its homework, and in the newest game, it came up with a campaign game that pits four Warhammer factions against each other in a race for a single minded task Conducting five rituals to gain control of the Great Vortex, a magical maelstrom at the center of the strategic map. It turned out the bet was a good one. The first was the best selling Total War game ever, and it topped more than 1. Steam. Spy. Check out our Reviews Vault for past game reviews. Above A High Elven Mage in Warhammer II. Features news, forums, game lists, screen shots, and links. Image Credit SegaCreative Assembly. I come at this game like many do, as a big fan of the Total War historical games. Total War Attila, which came out in 2. What Is The New Total War Game Going To Be' title='What Is The New Total War Game Going To Be' />Steam. I loved the challenge of defending the crumbling Roman empire against the hordes of barbarians closing in from all directions in that game. Ive put in about 4. By contrast, I know very little about the Warhammer universe. I tried playing the first game, but I couldnt get it to run on my computer. So I came into Warhammer II as a fresh fan might. And Im happy to report that the burden of learning the Warhammer lore is fairly light. In fact, it helped a lot that I was already familiar with how the Total War games worked on both a tactical and a strategic level. But I found the basic story and tutorial to easy enough to follow. It lured me in, and all I really had to understand was that I couldnt let the races get to the finish line ahead of me. Above Total War Warhammer IIs action focuses on the continent around the Vortex. Image Credit Sega. Beautiful graphics and sound. Total War has always distinguished itself as a strategy game on its graphics. It has colorful terrain on its strategic maps, which you can view in 3. D from any angle. And you can also dive into a given battle scene and fight a battle in full 3. D. You can zoom in on a single soldier, or zoom out to see the panoramic battlefield. You can get both the rats eye view and the dragons eye view. Thousands of soldiers can fight in each battle, and the sound design is awesome as well with creaking catapults and ambient battle cries. The narration is great, and the whole effect is that the game brings the Warhammer universe to life. You can jump right in. The game is kind of a sequel to the first one, but all you have to know here is that you have to beat the others by controlling the Vortex. You can ultimately connect the campaign map of Total War Warhammer to that of Total War Warhammer II. But that takes place later, after you fight the campaign in Warhammer II. The game has a lot of cinematics that tell you about each race and help you understand what is driving your faction. I chose the High Elves, and all I needed to know is that they hated the Dark Elves, the Skaven, the Lizardmen, and the forces of Chaos, which serve the role of wandering barbarians in this game. You can play this Total War without knowing a thing about the Warhammer universe. Your faction has an adviser who can relate what is happening to you, and he will give you advice about what to do next. You simply build your cities, recruit your armies, and then move them around on the grand strategic map. When two opposing armies meet on the map, they go into a tactical battle, rendered in beautiful 3. D. You fight it out, and the consequences are reflected in the armies on the strategic map. You can also choose to skip the battle and take a gamble on an automatically resolved battle. As the High Elves, I started with a few cities, and I had to deal with an invasion by the Dark Elves. I had a few cities, but the Dark Elves had taken a couple of them from me. I had to take them back. I did so one battle at a time. The tutorial showed me how to deploy my troops and to think about tactics in the rock paper scissors gameplay. The cavalry could scatter the archers, but the spearmen could halt the cavalry. The woods are great for hiding ambushing troops, and high ground makes your archers into a force to be reckoned with. But once you get something like a dragon or an eagle in the picture, these troops could melt away in a state of panic. Above A cut scene from Total War Warhammer II. Image Credit Sega. Sql Server 2008 Log Shipping Pdf. The Vortex gives the game a narrative and a deadline. The map has a central continent in the shape of a donut. In the middle is a sea, and in its center is the Great Vortex. The High Elves are in an excellent position to expand across the continent and control the whole donut. The other races start off in continents that are separated by a great ocean. That ocean is quite hard and time consuming to cross. But each race cant be content to control one continent and leave the others be. In Warhammer II, you cant just conquer your neighbors and settle in for a long siege. You have to conquer enough territories and build the right structures to complete all five rituals that you must perform to control The Great Vortex. If you dont do these rituals, the competing races will get to the task first, and that will be bad for you. The need to do those rituals prompted me to wage a civil war against my fellow High Elves allies. In any case, the designers force you to be aggressive and take risks. And this makes for a more dramatic story. The battles are intense and unpredictable. If you have standard cavalry, spear, and archer units, you can turn them into a formidable veteran army over time. But at some point, you have to add special units, like Great Eagles or dragons. These can strike terror in the battlefield, forcing enemies to flee. But theyre not all powerful, as theyre a magnet for attackers, and you can find that the tide of battle changes when your great beasts get shot down. You have to pay close attention to each skirmish, as it isnt easy to tell which units are strong. If you have a veteran unit with strong combat skills and a good position, youll do well against a weaker enemy. I attacked The Phoenix Gate, the last stronghold of the Dark Elves, with a full 2. But I lost because the Dark Elves had a couple of dragons that terrified my troops. If you dont have special units, youll be doomed to lose. Thats not something you can fix easily, and if you find yourself in a technological mismatch, you could easily lose a war. The fun thing about Total War is that you can never really predict which way a battle is going to go, particularly when you have thousands of soldiers whose courage can turn the tide or fail at any given moment. Above The Great Vortex is the object of contention in Total War Warhammer II. Image Credit Sega. The strategic game is a lot of fun. The strategic game is so long and fun by itself that I found myself automating the results for the tactical battles more often than I did in Total War Attila. Its a beautiful map, with colors allowing you to easily figure out what is going on.