Total War Warhammer

[Dong Zhou]

New race has been revealed

Beastmen. Don't recall much of them to be honest

for DLC

Currently my empire is facing the big chaos bad but now get vampire and dwarfs (as well as the northern raiders) at war with me, could be tricky. Rich and powerful armies but all my alliances have collapsed sadly

[Gray Riders]

Maybe it's just me but artillery seems stronger after the last patch. I know a few were mentioned in the changelog as being buffed but basic cannons and catapults seem deadlier too from what I can tell. Could be useful since if you're really careful with ground attack you can fire into melee with artillery fairly safely, though cannon and field guns need to fire from an angle.

New Race:

I'm hoping we can play as Middenland in the Beastman mini-campaign but it doesn't look like it so far. There's a lot of complaints that iconic Beastman units are missing despite the high DLC price, but perhaps they simply haven't been announced. They look like Warriors of Chaos (but without the infighting that helps make the WOC campaign so hated) with Greenskin Waaaghs bolted on. It seems they'll also pretty much confirm that rule 1 is to build walls everywhere. Yes, even that minor settlement four provinces away from the front line.

For people annoyed with how weak most magic is, I've been testing and liking Cataph_Molay's Magic on the steam workshop. Magic is much better but doesn't seem OP, at least on Ultra unit size. Gives more reasons to play as Balthasar Gelt over Karl Franz.
*

Currently my empire is facing the big chaos bad but now get vampire and dwarfs (as well as the northern raiders) at war with me, could be tricky. Rich and powerful armies but all my alliances have collapsed sadly

The poor Empire has so much that can and often does go wrong in the early game compared to most of the other factions.
The random personalities of Kislev and the Electors can greatly change what you need to do, while most of the other factions seem more stable in who your friends and enemies will be--I've never had Zhufar or Barak Varr unfriendly to Dwarfs, and the Vampire Counts and Greenskins are basically surrounded by enemies regardless.
One major potential annoyance is that Kislev usually seems to be either Passive or Defensive; if it's Defensive you can get trade on turn 1 and even have them pay a bit. If they're passive they won't trade with you, which can make a big difference once you have some trade goods available. They seem to be passive less often on Very Hard but it could be luck.

I have no idea why but the two dwarf clans in the mountains between Reikland and Bretonnia always seem to go berserk and break non-aggression treaties so they can declare war--they get into fights with the minor Bretonnian factions all the time, too. They often sit around than ask for peace a few turns later if you have walls (since they're small and can't get big enough armies to take your settlements), but it seems to trigger everyone to want a piece of you. Supposedly if you take a detour to beat up the non-hostile Orc clan in the south right after you take Grunburg it'll make them more reliable partners. After several games the only thing I can say for sure is that you want to reunite Reikland very quickly and either take Marienburg or invade Bretonnia.

Fun Greenskin trick I read on reddit than tested and confirmed:
*On turn 1, attack the Red Fang army. Smash it as badly as possible but minimize casualties as much as you can. Fall back to your territory (but just a little) and recruit. On the Red Fang's turn they'll bring the Iron Rock army and whatever is left to attack you. Kill them. This trick is much harder with Azhag since CA hates him and gave him a terrible starting army and terrible stats (Goblin Archers compared to a Doom Diver. Really?); with Grimgor it's not hard even on VH since you have Boar Boyz for flanking and Black Orcs rip apart anything (except Warbosses but Grimgor can slaughter them) that the early Greenskin enemies can throw at you.
*On your second turn, follow up and destroy one of the Red Fang's armies. Now, you can ask for peace (you might have to pay for it). At that point you can confederate with them with the "Green" success chance. It apparently works every time, even on Legendary, and Confederating Red Fangs gives you several level 2 settlements in the south...on turn 2.

A stupid dwarf trick I came up with mysel and tested (require Thorgrimm):
*On turn 1 attack the orc army. Try to wipe it out with a followup attack if you can but it's not required. If you don't they can raid your city and generate a grudge. Start researching the Include Related Families tech. Build the Gem Mines and upgrade your barracks; you want some quarellers in your army.
*Fall back after wiping the enemy army; do NOT take Pillars of Grungi or Mt Squighorn. Start recruiting instead.
*Once you have a big army, start tunneling past Silver Road and head north to Gunbad; also dismantle the barracks and build a hostelry in Karaz a Karak. You can arrive fairly quickly at Gunbad if you tunnel past the mountains in the east part of Silver Road.
*Thanks to the artillery you can attack Gunbad immediately; with a near full stack you can win with autoresolve, or use your favorite AI abusing siege tactics in manual control.
*Take Grom Peak; get treaties with the other dwarfs nearby.
*Use the +Growth commandmant to upgrade Grom Peak, then build a hostelry. Now switch to the Public Order commandmant--it should be safe from riots if you're not on Legendary. You can march south now and take the rest of Silver Road.

You can now trade your gem surplus with Zhufbar and Karak Kadrin, and your new cities are secure once Karak Kadrin pushes the greenskins out of that settlement in their starting province. You have the absurd wealth of Gunbad to help finance a push south to Black Crag; once it falls you have more or less won the war in the south.

A lot of players take Silver Road than push to Gunbad, but if you go too early you can expect a Greenskin party to invade your undefended settlements. If you wait until you have have walls you risk the Greenskins overrunning back Barak Varr, or Zhufbar taking the Rib Peaks before you can; since Dwarfs have such low province growth compared to everyone else it can take some time to get those walls up until you build barley everywhere.

Edit: Lots of people angry after this Q/A about the new race/campaign pack:
https://forums.totalwar.com/discussion/ ... n/p1?new=1

Personally

I do think missing such unique units really hurts the value of the pack. I'm just not interesting in a 1 race only mini-campaign, so that leaves paying quite a lot for a race missing some major units and a campaign I'd only play once, if at all.

I am glad we're getting Amber Wizards for the Empire (for free); my first Warhammer experience was Shadow of the Horned Rat so I have a fondness for that magic type.

Edit2:
Sorry to double post, but I thought this was interesting: CA put up a blog post for what will be added in the free patch:
http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Upcoming_Free_Content_Update

Aside from the Amber Wizard, the most interesting is the ability to customize characters in custom and multiplayer with magic items and to choose which skills for them to have. In addition

the Lord of Change

will be usable in custom/multiplayer after a unnamed achievementis gained.

[Dong Zhou]

How many armies do people tend to have? I have 4 17-20 unit Empire armies and 9 provinces and it still takes a lot of my income

[Gray Riders]

Patch notes are out for update 2.
http://wiki.totalwar.com/w/Total_War_WARHAMMER_Update_2
A post on reddit suggests the reinforcements bug may be fixed for update 3. Frankly that bug can be so bad I'd be happy with a temporary hotfix making reinforcements always spawn behind the army it's reinforcing and ignore direction.

Making Black Orcs cheaper seems silly, but someone claimed it was a mistake and they actually went up to 1,100. Mostly decent looking changes, and I like that they're trying to fix artillery. Don't agree with making Slayers slower though.
*
Started a Vampire Counts campaign. Having trouble adjusting to my units start crumbling so absurdly fast on Very Hard (hopefully it'll go better when I have Grave Guard) so I lose tons of men per battle, but lots of them seem to come back after. The Hexwraiths (I started with Kemmler) are really good, though not as good as Grimgor's starting Black Orcs and Doom Diver.

*

How many armies do people tend to have? I have 4 17-20 unit Empire armies and 9 provinces and it still takes a lot of my income

Are the armies elite units or mostly State Troops?

I've haven't played late-game campaign much thanks to multiple stack battles still being bugged, but my early and mid-game experience is that I tend to lean towards walls everywhere (I expect everyone will when the Beastmen arrive) and a small number of strategically placed armies to relieve any sieges my defenses can't handle.

Edit: Not having an easy time as VC. The AI gets huge bonuses in close combat on VH and I have no way to wear the enemy down at a distance to level the playing field.

[Dong Zhou]

Mostly state troops, two armies conquering Bretons and the west, two dealing with revolts/holding east against chaos

[Gray Riders]

I find I'm usually not bringing in huge amounts each turn--I'm generally satisified midgame with 3-4K each. There's a bit of luck involved (I've previously mentioned how Kislev's starting personality's randomization can make a difference) in getting trade agreements to supplement the booming imperial clothing industry so income can vary a lot. It's not surprising your income is being hurt since each of those armies is raising every units upkeep by up to 4 or 5 percent. Luckily I think there's good money in Bretonnia.

*
In one of my games I remember checking the Vampire Counts and noticing that they had no trade partners but still kept building and upgrading trade good structures.

It made me sad. You usually only need a single level 1 or 2 trade building to provide all the goods you can sell. I can't figure out why they made the AI in Warhammer hates trading so much.

[greencactaur]

I never played warhammer table top, but i plan on buying this game when I have more money. I love Total war series, but I never really got into it before.

[Dong Zhou]

Latest DLC was Grim and the Grave: Volkam the Grim and religious units for Empires vs Vampire lord Helman Ghorst and the ghoul kings

I like that some of the religious units are weak unless Volkam is around but not been able to recruit Volkam in my camapign (arch lectors appear as potential lords but not him). Will he not appear?

[Gray Riders]

Latest DLC was Grim and the Grave: Volkam the Grim and religious units for Empires vs Vampire lord Helman Ghorst and the ghoul kings

I like that some of the religious units are weak unless Volkam is around but not been able to recruit Volkam in my camapign (arch lectors appear as potential lords but not him). Will he not appear?

They won't appear in an old campaign; you have to start a new game to use them.
*
I was so happy to see the Blazing Sun in the game.

I'm less happy to see how OP both new Vampire Count lords are. Kemmler is basically worthless now since he doesn't even have the advantage of unlocking Mannfred quickly, since Vlad can do it even faster thanks to how strong he is.

Helman seems to be kind of a nobody Lore-wise so being so powerful is weird.

I was a bit surprised we didn't get Carroburg Greatswords but the DLC is apparently themed after a specific campaign.

All around really happy with the price value. Unfortunately the major overhaul mod I've been working on since day 1 broke again, so I have to get that fixed and finished before I can really play any.

[Dong Zhou]

They won't appear in an old campaign; you have to start a new game to use them.

Blast, I like the mini build up to the quest battles but not sure I want to start a new camapign for that

All around really happy with the price value. Unfortunately the major overhaul mod I've been working on since day 1 broke again, so I have to get that fixed and finished before I can really play any.

Sorry that happened to you