History YMMV / TotalWarWarhammerII

* EvilIsSexy: Dark Elven women wear very little, especially considering [[ExposedToTheElements where they live]]. [[TheVamp Morathi]] is the best example, but Witch Elves, Sisters of Slaughter, and Sorceresses all share this aesthetic. Even the game's depiction of Hellebron [[AdaptationalAttractiveness isn't exactly unattractive]].

** The Beastmen, following their rework with ''The Silence and the Fury''. even discounting [[ItsSoEasyItSucks Taurox]]'s "Rampage", every Beastmen faction are incredibly powerful, with good units that can eb made much stronger very quickly, and are generally seen as being too easy to be fun.

* HighTierScrappy: Clan Skryre. Their Forbidden Workshop mechanic is criticized by many players not just for how good it is but for having no real cost. Skryre gets the resources they need for the Forbidden Workshop just by doing the same things every other faction does and there's no penalty if they don't use it since they'd still be just as good as every other Skaven faction. They're also generally blamed for the PowerCreep present in the unique mechanics of nearly every DLC faction that followed, especially other Skaven.

** "Peclis" for Teclis on his Arcane Phoenix mount.

** The factions introduced in this game are considered this to the first game's expansion factions. The Warriors of Chaos and Beastmen are widely seen as failures, being TierInducedScrappy incarnate only saved by some cheesy strategies. The Wood Elves and Bretonnians are seen as a step in the right direction, but also struggle immensely with design flaws (in the case of the Wood Elves and their counter-intuitive Amber mechanic) or a lack of troop variation (with the Bretonnians focus on cavalry), with Norsca being the only faction that made it out unscathed. Contrast this to the High Elves, Dark Elves, Lizardmen and Skaven, all of whom have massively varied rosters, incredible variation in tactics and campaign abilities, and tons of unique flavor given to make them feel distinct. Also relevant are the Tomb Kings, a faithful recreation of one of the tabletop's EnsembleDarkhorse factions, and the introduction of the Vampire Coast, who have been applauded for their creativity as a mostly-original faction from tabletop fluff.

** From the perspective of the tabletop game, many of the units are this. Some units such as Tomb Kings' sphynxes and empire Demigryphs Knights were hated for not fitting in, and several units like Scourge-runner chariots were TierInducedScrappy. The former catagory of units are often iconic in the game, and the latter are often much more deadly than in the tabletop.

* TierInducedScrappy:
** Gotrek and Felix. While loved for their appearance and canon role in the world, their implementation often means they don't live up to it. You only get them for 20 turns, after which they disappear and have to be found again. They also can't gain levels. They do spread out the experience they would have gained but it has a different downside for each of them. Gotrek can't gain abilities, nor can he use items or banners, meaning even a mid-game generic Lord will eventually make a better leader. Felix is incredibly useful, but he's stuck at what is effectively level 0, and since hostile agent actions gain an additional 1% chance of success per level they are above their target this makes him incredibly easy for an enemy agent to wound. Expect that to happen a lot, knocking him out of action for several of those 20 turns.
** Greenskins in ''Mortal Empires'', before the ''Warden and the Paunch'' DLC updated the faction. They went without an update to their mechanics since the first game, unlike most of their contemporaries, and it showed. They had a disorganized research tree, no rites or rituals, boring and generally weak units, bland lords, and minimal campaign diversity since they all wanted to be in the same place fighting the same enemies. They were also the most prominent victims of PowerCreep because all the factions surrounding their home territory had either received significant tune-ups (Dwarfs, Empire) or were new factions (Skaven, Tomb Kings) with significantly better and more diverse units and mechanics. This was fixed by the Total Waaagh! update, which scrapped and rebuilt their entire research tree, overhauled their Waaagh! mechanic, added new units to their roster, and generally gave them an all-around patch-up. Even Skarsnik, considered the hardest of all the Greenskin campaigns, is now easier to play with the updates. They're generally considered one of the stronger races now, especially in multiplayer.
** Clan Rictus. Already in the bottom half of Skaven lords due to not having any of the unique mechanics that Skryre, Moulder, and Eshin get, Rictus is also in a worse spot than Mors and Pestilens due to their bonuses applying to less-effective units, a much weaker Legendary Lord, and a ''significantly'' worse starting location, especially in Mortal Empires which puts them smack in the middle of the Dark Elf homelands.
** Clan Skryre. In a reversal of what usually happens, Clan Skryre is disliked for being ''too strong.'' Their Forbidden Workshop mechanic is criticized by many players not just for how good it is but for having no real cost. Skryre gets the resources they need for the Forbidden Workshop just by doing the same things every other faction does and there's no penalty if they don't use it since they'd still be just as good as every other Skaven faction. They're also generally blamed for the PowerCreep present in the unique mechanics of nearly every DLC faction that followed, especially other Skaven.
** The Wood Elf update's addition of Drycha turned Sylvania into this for the Vampire Counts. Though the faction already had problems in the forms of universally unfavorable autoresolve odds, a generally weak unit roster, disjointed and scattershot recruitment buildings, most of their units coming at higher recruitment tiers than their equivalents in other factions, and a complete absence of ranged units or artillery, they at least had a chance against their Empire neighbors and could hold on long enough to get the units they needed to thrive. If Drycha decides to attack, though - and she will due to a large relationship penalty and Sylvania's starting province nearly bordering theirs - then the Vampires will find themselves on the wrong end of heavily-armored monstrous units that they have no effective way to defeat at ''any'' point in the game let alone at Turn 10 or so. Von Carstein has slightly better odds due to starting with the ability to recruit Vargheists and Vlad himself being a better early duelist, but it's still a close-run thing.
** Arkhan the Black is considered the worst of the Tomb Kings faction from a campaign angle. Arkhan is a decent MagicKnight with some good spells and the ability to recruit some Vampire Count units to bolster his army, but he also has a poor starting location with a powerful Bretonnia faction in front of him that can easily crush his weak army, and has several gaping holes in his territory that allow other factions to attack from. Not only that, but being the TokenEvilTeammate for the Tomb Kings means he naturally will be targeted by other factions, and most of the other Tomb Kings will never even bother to treat with you, and while you get bonuses to diplomacy with the Vampire Coast and Counts (on the Mortal Empires), good luck expecting their aid when you're so far away. Plus, being unaffected by Vampire Corruption isn't really helpful when there are no Vampires nearby to spread it, and the few units from the Vampire Counts he gets are really weak once you get past the first few turns, with Hexwraiths being the only one of note later on, and his campaign goal of getting the Books of Nagash is very hard when all of the books are located in hard to fight to areas such as against Dwarfs. As a result, many see him as the worst faction for the Tomb Kings and hope that he gets buffed, or at least gets more unique units.
** The Warriors of Chaos. Widely considered to be the worst campaign faction in the game now that the Beastmen aren't filling that spot anymore, they have almost nothing going for them. They're currently the only horde faction in the game that has no mechanism to stop ruin-dwelling, meaning they struggle to wipe out factions for good since that faction can just settle behind them. They're also about as bad as the Vampire Counts at dealing with ranged enemies, having one artillery unit and a smattering of skirmishing cavalry as their only non-melee options but lacking the cheap hordes or powerful magic of the Vampire Counts. On top of all this their elite units are also ''incredibly'' slow, giving ranged enemies ample time to shoot them or faster enemies the ability to just avoid them. This was a problem for them in the previous game, but this one made it worse - Of the new factions, ''all'' of them, except maybe the Tomb Kings, have readily-available units that can mercilessly abuse Chaos armies and they tend to recruit them in droves. They also get brutally punished by playing on higher difficulty settings, since they have no economy to offset the increased unit upkeep and the 'AI cheats' on higher battle difficulties punish melee-heavy factions like Chaos the most.
** The Dwarfs, unfortunately for their many fans, are one of the weakest races in the game as of its final update. Their problems are many, require a fair bit of explanation, and extend to both the campaign and to multiplayer, resulting in a faction that is difficult to play, slow to get moving, tedious to gain ground with, and still generally considered boring. It's no surprise that they are one of the most heavily-modded factions in the game on Steam Workshop.
*** Their unit roster is very limited in terms of roles their units fill, lacking monsters and cavalry alike and having 'mold-breaking' units (gyrocopters and slayers) that aren't good enough to build armies around without playing much of a role in a conventional Dwarf army either. This greatly limits the strategies a Dwarf player can effectively employ, giving them a very 'samey' feel on the battlefield and making them notoriously easy to counter in multiplayer if picked first.
*** Their units rely very heavily on Armor to keep them safe, which is easily countered by Armor-Piercing. Units with Armor-Piercing are more common in the second game than they were in the first, making this a bigger problem, and most elite units have Armor-Piercing as standard. Multiplayer opponents who see someone playing Dwarfs are guaranteed to load up on armor-piercing.
*** Dwarfs in the campaign used to be able to rely on their strong-but-expensive low-tier units and powerful garrisons to hold the line for them, but update cycle power creep (particularly the Greenskin update) means their low-tier units aren't worth the extra expense, causing them to underperform in battle.
*** Most Dwarf factions have bad starting locations. Karaz-a-Karak is surrounded by Greenskin factions that are all at war with them and thus extremely vulnerable to being overwhelmed by endless tides of armies in a province that is notoriously hard to defend due to its shape. Karak Kadrin trades fewer immediate wars for fewer expansion opportunities and a front seat to the Chaos invasion while Clan Angrund needs to leave their starting area to move to Karak Eight Peaks, putting them in a similar situation to Karaz-a-Karak. Ironbrow's Expedition is the only one that doesn't suffer much for their start location as long as they kill Clan Mors quickly and don't wind up at war with the Last Defenders.
*** The Dwarfs have the slowest growth of any faction in the game, forcing them to stick with their lower-tier units longer than other factions and meaning those other factions get access to their Dwarf-killing units before the Dwarf military can fully come online. They're also frequently up against two of the fastest-growing races, the Greenskins and the Skaven.
*** Dwarfs also don't get any Winds of Magic whatsoever, instead getting rune magic, which while unlimited in use still has lengthy cooldowns that exceed those of most spells and have effects are generally worse than even the worst lores of magic. This puts Runesmiths in the opposite position of mages - While one mage is powerful and multiple mages see diminishing returns due to all drawing from the same resource, incentivizing you to have only one or two, Runesmiths are almost useless alone but get stronger the more of them you have. Unfortunately this means Runesmiths are of little value until later in the campaign when you can get a lot of them.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** CA revealed they were getting rid of the highly controversial Regional Occupation system in the second game, and would do away with it in the first game eventually.
** The Old World races got an overhaul in the May Patch (alongside, finally, a much more complete Mortal Empires and fully restored Norsca). It was also when the much anticipated DLC released.
** After many people reacted negatively to CA releasing the blood and gore as a separate DLC (for several games in a row), while that same DLC is present in the sequel, players who bought it for the first game automatically receive it for free in the second game. And speaking of DLC, CA have also stated that they would not continue adding the much disliked Mini-Campaigns (such as those from the Wood Elf and Beastmen DLC) to further race-packs and instead focus on delivering more complete rosters (as with the Norsca DLC), thus leading to lower prices.
** On a more meta-level, there are hints in the game that the alternate universe of the ''Total War'' series will not include some of the most hated aspects of ''The End Times''. In particular, Malekith managing to seize control of the Shrine of Asuryan results in the Shrine being corrupted, suggesting he is not [[spoiler:the true Phoenix King like he was in ''The End Times'']]. Malekith in general has received this, always being a controversial figure in Warhammer lore, which was later taken up to eleven with all the changes to him during ''The End Times''. The game portrays him as how he originally was, an egotistical, revenge consumed fiend, who does display a [[PetTheDog softer side]] occasionally, and is more of a NobleDemon than a downright villain. He also tends to [[IGaveMyWord keep his word]], and treat his underlings decently, as long as they serve him well...
** After a ''full year'' of people complaining about how unfair, and unfun, auto resolve naval battles were, Creative Assembly finally added the option to manually fight naval battles in the "Aye Aye!" patch, which involves the two forces disembarking off their ships to fight on tropical islands. This also applies to the defense of Black Arks, though in this case the "island" is actually the craggy flank of the utterly gargantuan vessel.
** Aranessa Saltspite's Sartosa Free Company units were mocked for not looking piratey enough and for wielding just boarding axes (which people then mockingly nicknamed them "lumberjacks"). CA eventually changed them to dual wielding swords and sword-&-pistol variants, which was met positively.
** ''The Prophet and the Warlock'' did much to content Skaven and Lizardmen fans, who felt that their factions had been neglected by the game for too long. Additionally, the accompanying ''Doomsayers'' update carried a bunch of positively-received adjustments, most notably a new mechanic for Bretonnia and the previously-[[TheGenericGuy generic]] Legendary Lord Alberic de Bordeleaux ''finally'' wielding his iconic Trident of Manaan on his in-game model.
** ''The Empire Undivided'' update brought with it a massive rework for the Empire campaign, giving it diplomatic mechanics similar to those used by the High Elves (though only usable on other Empire provinces) and encouraging the player to unite the Empire through diplomacy and politicking rather than military conquest (alleviating the problem of the player fighting nothing but Empire troops for most of the early game). Balthasar Gelt receiving his own faction was icing on the cake, as up to that point, the Empire only had a single starting position.
** ''The Potion of Speed'' update brought with it a major performance update which dealt with the much maligned turn times problem which plagued the game since Mortal Empires came out. Early access footage shows turn times which once lasted over a full minute now going through all factions in a matter of ''seconds'', and this holds up in-game.
** The Sisters of Twilight's initial gameplay showcase in the leadup to ''The Twisted and the Twilight'' release drew massive ire from the fanbase for how barebones their special mechanic looked (being viewed by many as being nothing more than a slightly tweaked High Elf Invocation of Vaul rite) , especially compared to Throt's. When the DLC launched, the Sisters' specific items were given extremely potent buffs, and the Forge of Daith was reworked in the following months (while some argue that it still is less elaborate/impressive than Throt's Flesh Laboratory, everyone agrees that it is a massive improvement).
** A fair number of fans felt that the Dawi lagged behind other factions towards the end of ''Warhammer II'''s lifecycle. So as part of the same update that reworked the long-neglected Beastmen, the Dwarfs received a fair number of changes, most notably to their characters (adding a number of skills) and redesigning runes to function more akin to normal magic (albeit with enough differences to make it very distinct).

** [[CrazyIsCool Luthor Harkon]] and his band of merry Zombie Pirates very quickly became a fan favourite.
** [[JeanneDArchetype Repanse de Lyonesse]] has proved quite popular when announced, easily reaching Malus's and Snikch's popularity.

** The release of the ''Warden and the Paunch'' DLC saw a sizeable [=FreeLC=] update for the Greenskins. Before the update, the Greenskins were widely lambasted as one of the worst factions in the game, with weak units, a weak mechanic in the Fightiness bar that actively hindered the player using it (Waaagh! armies spawned by it wouldn't listen to the player, often suicidally attacking anyone nearby or not following the player's army), and some decisions regarding their tech tree that were absurd [[note]] For instance, some of their units were only accessible after research, which no other faction in the game requires[[/note]]. The result was the Greenskins being shameless victims of PowerCreep, neglected as other Old World factions like the Empire and the Vampire Counts got cool new upgrades to keep the pace with the New World factions' Rites, leaving the Greenskins in the dust. The rework did away with numerous old features and completely rebalanced the Greenskins into a terrifying horde army, buffing a number of their units and turning their previously clunky PowerUpLetDown Waaagh! mechanic into a powerful tool for sieging and controlling the map by effectively ''doubling'' your army size ''for free'' while it's on. Couple this with the fact that every single controllable army gets their own Waaagh! sub-army when the Waagh! bar reaches its peak and the Greenskin factions preserve momentum if they succeed at a Waaagh!, and the Orcs have completely morphed from "underpowered horde army" to being the vertiable Greentide that they're meant to be.

** ''The Silence and the Fury'' made the same for the long-time memetic loosers Beastmen. With all of their mechanics reworked, herdstones now actully serving as pseudo-settlements and ability to prevent ruin-dwelling unless the herdstone is destroyed and hire troops for free similar to Tomb Kings, Bestmen are now not only the best horde faction but, in the hands of the player, can be stronger than many settled races.

*** Autoresolve has serious issues with range, speed, and accuracy, often to the point of straight-up ignoring them. This led to a bug where any ranged unit attacked would be considered able to return fire regardless of range difference, resulting in head-scratching victories where the winning army would lose artillery units and nothing else due to 'return fire' from units that shouldn't be able to reach them. This bug was so subtle it escaped notice for ''three years,'' only being detected and patched as of the Twisted and the Twilight.

* TaintedByThePreview: The Sisters of Twilight's "Gift from Lord Daith" mechanic was horribly received after its showcase, due to looking extremely basic (using the exact same "choose one of two choices" dilemma that ''every single race in the game'' gets regularly as part of a normal game), effects being apparently underwhelming (getting a rare item or a purple one temporarily) and generally seeming like a worse Invocation of Vaul in every single way despite being supposed to be the Sisters' equivalent to Throt's Flesh Lab, which had a custom interface, many more effects, and player agency.

** Present in the campaign in the form of "Doomstacks," where a player simply recruits armies consisting mostly or entirely of their single strongest unit - often a powerful monster, like Stegadons, Dread Saurians, Necrofex Colossi, or Dragons. However, regular units like Sisters of Avelorn can also be doomstacked. In adddition to being incredibly powerful, they are also generally incredibly easy to use. Anything that is not itself a doomstack will invariably be bulldozed by a doomstack. The only downside is that they are incredibly expensive to recruit and maintain, but by the time the player can recruit them they probably have enough money to afford it anyway.

** Present in the campaign in the form of "Doomstacks," where a player simply recruits armies consisting mostly or entirely of their single strongest unit - often a single powerful monster, like Stegadons, Dread Saurians, Necrofex Colossi, or Dragons. However, regular units like Sisters of Avelorn can also be doomstacked. In adddition to being incredibly powerful, they are also generally incredibly easy to use. Anything that is not itself a doomstack will invariably be bulldozed by a doomstack. The only downside is that they are incredibly expensive to recruit and maintain, but by the time the player can recruit them they probably have enough money to afford it anyway.

** Despite having no unique lines, [[EliteMooks Alastar the White Lion]], is ''extremely'' popular. It might because he's an Elven Warrior wielding a [[AnAxeToGrind a massive axe]], or the fact he has an entirely unique skill tree, but it seems that a large part of his appeal is how [[MrFanservice handsome he is.]]

** Among the generic lord characters, the [[https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/007/523/261/large/danny-sweeney-dannys-def-femaledreadlord-portrait-c.jpg?1506707009 female Dark Elf Dreadlord]] with the CoolMask and ponytail is by far the most popular and recognizable. Her likeness was even added to ''VideoGame/Vermintide2'' as a DLC costume, [[ActorAllusion since the female dreadlord shares a voice actress with Kerillian]].

** Among the generic lord characters, the [[https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/007/523/261/large/danny-sweeney-dannys-def-femaledreadlord-portrait-c.jpg?1506707009 female Dark Elf Dreadlord]] with the CoolMask and ponytail is by far the most popular and recognizable.

** Below the doomstack, the most efficient armies tend to consist mostly or entirely of archers, artillery, and monsters (or other single entities like mages or lords). Melee infantry tends to take heavy casualties regardless of outcome, and melee cavalry is even worse. This effect only increases at higher difficulties, where the AI gets massive bonuses to their own melee stats but ranged stats are unaffected. The general consensus seems to be to bring only the bare minimum of melee infantry. The only reason to recruit them otherwise is for faction flavor.

** Among the generic lord characters, the [[https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/007/523/261/large/danny-sweeney-dannys-def-femaledreadlord-portrait-c.jpg?1506707009 female Dark Elf Dreadlord]] with the CoolMask and ponytail is by far the most popular and recognizable Dreadlord variant.

** On a more meta-level, there are hints in the game that the alternate universe of the ''Total War'' series will not include some of the most hated aspects of ''The End Times''. In particular, Malekith managing to seize control of the Shrine of Asuryan results in the Shrine being corrupted, suggesting he is not [[spoiler:the true Phoenix King like he was in ''The End Times'']]. Malekith in general has received this, always being a controversial figure in Warhammer lore, which was later taken UpToEleven with all the changes to him during ''The End Times''. The game portrays him as how he originally was, an egotistical, revenge consumed fiend, who does display a [[PetTheDog softer side]] occasionally, and is more of a NobleDemon than a downright villain. He also tends to [[IGaveMyWord keep his word]], and treat his underlings decently, as long as they serve him well...

** In ''Mortal Empires'', any of the Chaos host armies (the ones that randomly spawn, not Archaon's crew) count; imagine the ritual armies from the main Vortex campaign turned UpToEleven, resulting in multiple full stacks of high-end Chaos units spawning completely without warning and going on a rampage... as early as ''[[EarlyGameHell Turn 40.]]'' Worse, thanks to a bug, [[GangUpOnTheHuman the Chaos hosts would target the player's faction exclusively,]] which led to the hilarious-slash-horrifying sight of multiple throngs of Chaos armies spawning all over the Old and New worlds... and immediately ignoring everything to beeline for some small Lizardman or Bretonnian faction in the middle of nowhere.

** High Elves being killed in the trailers, [[UpToEleven even their own]]. [[labelnote:Note]]Except for [[AlwaysChaoticEvil the Skaven]] trailer, [[HatesEveryoneEqually surprisingly]].[[/labelnote]]

** The Skaven Plague that they can spread through the Pestilens Scheme. Save for killing the special agent before he can actually spread it (which is a LuckBasedMission due to not only needing to rely on the RandomNumberGod for the assassination to succeed, but that's even assuming you get a Hero to the agent in time AND that you need to spot the agent well in advance in the first place), there is no counter to what will reduce any city garrison and/or army unlucky enough to get it to uselessness in a few turn, and then you will need to wait for the troops to replenish. You cannot end it early, you cannot reduce the damage it does to your troops, and once infected you can only wait for the timer to end to be rid of it and pray that it does not spread to too many of your cities or that the enzmy won't take too much advantage of it.

** Below the doomstack, the most efficient armies tend to consist mostly or entirely of archers, artillery, and monsters (or other single entities like mages or lords). Melee infantry tends to take heavy casualties regardless of outcome, and melee cavalry is even worse. This effect only increases at higher difficulties, where the AI gets massive bonuses to their own melee stats but ranged stats are uneffected. The general consensus seems to be to bring only the bare minimum of melee infantry. The only reason to recruit them otherwise is for faction flavor.

* PopularWithFurries: Although fanart of them have existed beforehand, the game has skyrockted the popularity of the Lizardmen and the Skaven with the furry fandom. Especially those into the {{Bara}} fandom.

** It's also more popular than the tabletop game it's based on.