History VideoGame / TotalWarWarhammerII

*** Sylvania now starts with unique Wight King hero named Kevin von Lloydstein named after deciesed CA member Kevin Lloyd with unique trait [[Main/DueToTheDead Memoriam Mortus]].

*** Lastly, Oxyotl starts with the named Skink Oracle hero Orcale of the Sacred Plaque with unique skill Loremaster and named troglodon mount Chloe. It is a shout-out to a long-time CA partner Loremaster of Sotek (Warhammer streamer and author of Warhammer lore videos), who is a big Lizardmen fan. The mount was named after his family dog.

*** Sylvania now starts with unique Wight King hero named Kevin von Lloydstein named after deciesed CA member Kevin Lloyd witgh unique trait [[Main/DueToTheDead Memoriam Mortus]].
*** Karaz-a-Karak have a unique Master Engeneer Tom Phillipson named after (thankfully still alive) development team member Tom Phillip. He starts with a double-barrel artifact and unique skill Engineer's cipher.
*** Lastly, Oxyotl starts with the named Skink Oracle hero Orcale of the Sacred Plaque with unique skill Loremaster and named troglodon mount Chloe. It is a shout-out to a long-time CA partner Loremaster of Sotek, Warhammer streamer and author of Warhammer lore videos, who is a big Lizardmen fan. The mount was named after his family dog.

** Three similar unique heroes were added were added with ''The Silence and the Fury'':

** Three similar unique heroes were added were added with '''The Silence and the Fury''':

** And Rakarth's Thousand Maws faction starts with a Beast sorceress named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudica Boudicca]] as a reference to the fact that he starts on the Warhammer equivalent of Britain. To bad she cannot get a chariot.

** The Tomb Kings are the most altered faction so far. Creative Assembly created two homebrew units: the Nehekhara Warriors (Skilled soldiers dual-wielding two Khopeshes that serve as aggressive medium infantry), and the Nehekhara Horsemen (Riders who are more well-armored than the fragile Skeleton Horsemen) who fulfill the role of medium-tier infantry and cavalry, respectively. The monstrous Hierotitans, and the Legendary Lord Khatep, had rules but never had models, which Creative Assembly fixed.

** The overview for the units introduced in ''The Silence and the Fury'' described the Jabberslythe as "worth as much as a Charlemagne", referencing how in an infamous statement regarding its omission in theearlier ''Call of the Beastmen'' DLC for[[VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammer the first game]] as due it "costing more than the entire art budget for the ''Age of Charlemagne'' DLC for ''VideoGame/TotalWarAttila''."

** The Khepra Guard, a Regiment of Renown for the Tomb Kings who dual-wield swords. While it is true that they deal quite a lot of damage and are more durable than Nehekaran warriors, they do not have any shields, which is a great part as to what makes the Tomb Guards so durable during long fights, making them very vulnerable compared to many other late-game units available for the Tomb Kings.

** The High Elf Princess, Red Crested Skink Chief, Warlock Master, Huntsman General and Ancient Kroxigor are original Lord choices by CA.

*** The Clan Skyre subfaction arguably qualifies as a GameBreaker faction in the campaign. Their collection of weapon teams completely outmatch anything their neighbors can throw at them, and they receive reduced upkeeps for them to boot. With the economy up and running from the easy headstart, Skyre players can then build multiple armies comprised of multiple weapon teams protected by a solid frontline of Stormvermins. Such a combination is pretty much unbeatable by most A.I-controlled armies. Since the A.I is programmed to charge when they are being attacked by something out of range, which the Skavens have plenty of, it's laughably easy to lure the entire enemy army into your ranged firing field. If the Skaven army isn't strong enough for you, their ability to spawn Clanrats everywhere gives them an easy counter to enemy ranged and artillery units. If even that's not enough, Skavens also have access to literal nukes that can obliterate several units with a well-placed shot. Fortunately, an A.I-controlled Skyre faction don't know how to make use of these cheesy tactics, so they are still manageable by human players.

* TheMagnificent: Many of the game's legendary lords have epithets describing their past heroic deeds. Taken literally by Sigvald the Magnificent, and to absurd lengths by Settra's full list of titles: the Imperishable, the King of Kings, High King of Nehekhara, Lord of the Earth, Monarch of the Sky, Ruler of the Four Horizons, Mighty Lion of the Infinite Desert, Great Hawk of the Heavens, Majestic Emperor of the Shifting Sands, and Eternal Sovereign of Khemri's legions.
* MassiveRaceSelection: Mortal Empires and Custom Battles have fourteen races available (Empire of Man, Dwarfs, Vampire Counts, Greenskins, Bretonnia, Wood Elves, Beastmen, Warriors of Chaos, Skaven, High Elves, Dark Elves, Lizardmen, Tomb Kings and Vampire Coast) each with at least two subfactions, some of which play radically differently from the main faction. While all the races are featured in some capacity in the Vortex Campaign, only those introduced in the second game are playable in it (which still means six different options to pick from), with the exception of Markus Wulfhart's Empire faction, Repanse de Lyonesse's Bretonnian faction, Grom the Paunch's Greenskin faction and the Sisters of Twilight's Wood Elf faction.

** The Lizardmen Stagadon, for much the same reasons as the Necrofex Colossus. It's a dinosaur with a ballista mounted on it, functioning both as a big stompy monster and the primary Lizardmen artillery unit. While it doesn't spawn its own distraction when its health starts dropping it makes up for this by being easier to recruit, as it's a Tier 4 unit rather than a Tier 5 one.

** For their own, the High Elves can field three kinds (technically all the same kind just at different stages in life). They dwell primarily in the Dragon's Spine in the Kingdom of Caeledor, and the majority of them are in a state of deep hibernation, and can only be roused with great effort. In ascending order of strength, they are the red and hot-tempered Sun Dragons, the yellow and experienced Moon Dragons, and the blue and ancient Star Dragons; all are capable of breathing fire in some form or fashion. They can be independent units or ridden by Elven Princes and Princesses, with Imrik having his own unique dragon mount.
** The Dark Elves field twisted Black Dragons, which are hatched from eggs stolen from Ulthuan. While not as monstrous or vile as Chaos or Undead Dragons, they are still as cruel and malicious as their masters. Instead of breathing fire, they breath a corrosive poison. They are used as mounts by Dreddlords, and Malekith and Lokir both have their own personal dragons.

** The Vampire Coast has access to the Lore of the Deep, a brand new lore that did not exist in the original tabletop game in any form. Being a cross between Necromancery and MurderWater, this school of magic is all about using the deepest horrors of the sea along with ghost and zombies to flush away the enemy through cold waters or undead might.
* OurOgresAreHungrier : The Vampire Coast has Animated Hulks, zombified ogres that have parts of sea creatures sewn into their corpses. They mark the first appearance of ogres in the trilogy. The updates that came with ''The Silence and the Fury'' introduced Ogre mercenaries. Both of these appearances serve as [[EarlyBirdCameo Early-bird cameos]] for the Ogres in [[VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammerIII the third game]].

* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Dogs of War finally appear in some capacity, after being absent in the first game. Mostly as Rogue Armies (Such as Mengil's Manflayers, a famous Dark Elf Dog of War crossbow regiment) but the "Intervention Armies" are also described as "mercenaries".

The second of the trilogy is set in the New World and focuses on the factions of the setting warring against each other for control over the Vortex, as well as to further their own various goals. Playable Factions include the High Elves, the Dark Elves, the Lizardmen, and the Skaven. Two paid expansions added the Tomb Kings and the Vampire Coast to the setting, while other expansions and a free add-on re-introduced special subfactions of the Empire of Man, the Kingdom of Bretonnia, the Greenskins, the Wood Elves, and the Beastmen to the setting.

* OurOgresAreHungrier : The Vampire Coast has Animated Hulks, zombified ogres that have parts of sea creatures sewn into their corpses. They mark the first appearance of ogres in the trilogy.

** Craven by Name (Tretch Craventail) grants the lord extra speed and leadership for its army during subterrain intercept battles.
** A 'Fitting' End? (Ikit Claw) gives increased Winds of Magic reserve as well as an icnrease to research rate.
** Deathmaster by Nature (Deathmaster Snikch) increase the odds of hero action suceeding as well as giving the Lord "Stalk".

** Twilight Extinguished (Sisters of twilight) grants increased casualty replenishment to the whole army and, if your Lord has a ranged attack, increased missile strength.

** Dark Elf Dark Shards use repeater crossbows that have unimpressive range but allow them to put out a tremendous amount of armor piercing damage even in the early game.

* AnotherSideAnotherStory: ''The Hunter and The Beast'' has it's Vortex campaign work like this when playing as Nakai. While in normal campaigns Markus Wulfheart has just arrived in Lustria and only occupies part of the Scorpion Coast, when playing as Nakai the Huntsmarshals expedition occupies a number of settlements all across Lustria.
* AntiCavalry: As is the norm for a Total War game most units equipped with spears, halberds, and pikes will be fairly efficient at killing mounted units, though to shake things up any unit with the "Anti-Large" trait will do well against cavalry as well as monsters. Units that brace will also be able to withstand frontal cavalry charges much better. However Monstrous Cavalry, such as the Tomb King Necropolis Knights, will be significantly harder to take down even by dedicated anti-large units.

''Total War: Warhammer II'' is the sequel to ''[[VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammer Total War: Warhammer]]'' and the second game in the planned trilogy. The game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXxe897bW-A was announced on March 31 2017]], confirmed for release later that year with the introduction of the Dark Elves, High Elves, Lizardmen and Skaven. It is to take place in the New World, Ulthuan and the Southlands, and will focus one the Vortex in Ulthuan, a maelstrom of arcane energies created by High Elf mages to drain excess magic and Chaos influence from the material world, and the playable races' struggle to control both it and the LeyLine network in Lustria. Players who own both games, as well as individual DLC packs, will have the option of playing them separately or as a single combined campaign map, the massive ''Mortal Empires'' campaign.

** The Dark Elves are loosely based on Ancient Sparta (which contrasts very well to the High Elves Athens), with tinges of the Pirate based Barbary Coast.
** The Lizardmen are obviously inspired by the Ancient Mayans, with obsidian tipped war clubs, and HumanSacrifice aplenty.
** The Skaven are ThoseWackyNazis, but rats, and the technological level of the German Empire around World War I .

The second of the trilogy is set in the New World and focuses on the factions of the setting warring against each other for control over the Vortex, as well as to further their own various goals. Playable Factions include the High Elves, the Dark Elves, the Lizardmen, and the Skaven. Two paid expansions added the Tomb Kings and the Vampire Coast to the setting, while other expansions and a free add-on re-introduced special subfactions of the Empire of Man, the Kingdom of Bretonnia, the Greenskins and the Wood Elves to the setting.

** For DLC: Blood for the Blood God 2.0, Rise of the Tomb Kings, The Queen and the Crone, Curse of The Vampire Coast, The Prophet and the Warlock, The Hunter and the Beast, The Shadow and the Blade, The Warden and the Paunch.

* PowerUpLetDown: The majority of horse mount upgrades decrease a character's combat ability in exchange for the speed and charge bonuses they grant, coming with Leadership, Melee Attack, or Melee Defense penalties (and sometimes all of them). They also make the character sitting on them a much easier target for massed ranged fire, which is already the fastest and most effective way to kill them, and Anti-Large weapons, a staple of most late-game armies. Thye relegates them to only being used for spellcasters who don't want to be in combat. Chariot mounts have it worse due to having all the same problems, only moreso.

{{Irony}}: Bretonnia is the only major player to really dip into foreign campaigning, having four factions that start in foreign territory to most other factions' one. You'd expect them to be amazing at campaigning, but they're actually well-known from the first game for having the ''worst'' campaign skills, having almost no options for casualty replenishment or upkeep reduction.

** Factions will like you if you attack their enemies. Factions that like you can offer and will accept treaties. While factions that naturally dislike each other have an Aversion stat, this is usually not very large and can usually be easily overwhelmed if you're in a prolonged war with their enemy or if you're performing a ton of hero actions against that enemy. This can lead to weird situations where archenemies (Greenskins and Dwarfs, High Elves and Dark Elves, Norsca and the Empire) can become close allies.

** The FlavorText for one of Ariel's skills, "Terrible & Beautiful" reads, "[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing All shall love me, and despair.]]"

* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Rodrik L'Anguille's story of being stranded on Lustria, which took place several centuries before Karl Franz's coronation, has been changed so that he arrived only a few months before the Huntsmarshal's expedition. As it turns out, his father, Duke Tudual, is also alive, as well as Rodrik's younger brother, whom his father wants as his successor. The story doesn't elaborate if Tudual has been made Duke of L'Anguille in the ''Total War'' games or if Taubert de L'Anguille, who's the duke of L'Anguille during Franz's reign in the source material, is the current duke.

* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Rodrik L'Anguille's story of being stranded on Lustria, which took place several centuries before Karl Franz's coronation, has been changed so that he arrived only a few months before the Huntsmarshal's expedition. As it turns out, his father, Duke Tudual, is also alive, as well as Rodrik's younger brother, whom his father wants as his successor. The story doesn't elaborate if Tudual has been made Duke of L'Anguille in the ''Total War'' games or if Taubert de L'Anguille, who's the duke of L'Anguille during Franz's reign, is the current duke.

*** ''The Prophet and the Warlock'' trailer's opening scene is taken almost verbatim from '' Film/{{Predator}}'' .

** And Rakart's Thousand Maws faction starts with a Beast sorceress named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudica Boudicca]] as a reference to the fact that he starts on Warhammer equivalent of Britain. To bad she cannot get a chariot.

** And Rakart's Thousend Maws faction starts with a Beast sorceress named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudica Boudicca]] as a reference to the fact that he starts on Warhammer equivalent of Britain. To bad she cannot get a chariot.

** To avoid the pitfall of enemy armies suffering so much damage from attrition that fighting them becomes always trivial (and because enemy armies are extremely bad at fighting attrition in general), AI gets massive reduction to the damage they take from attrition, even on the lowest difficulties. It has the flipside of making attrition (and, by extension, Chaos and Vampire corruption) almost useless for the player.

** After the Empire overhaul, Reikland and The Golden Order can no longer confederate Marienburg, but they forgot to remove the AI's ability to do this.

** To avoid the pitfall of enemy armies suffering so much damage from attrition that fighting them becomes always trivial (and because enemy armies are extremely bad at fighting attrition in general), AI gets massive reduction to the damage they take from attrition, even on the lowest difficulties. It has the flipside of making attrition almost useless for the player.