The first campaign I did was as the Dwarfs, who now may be my favorite faction in the Warhammer games. That alone would be worth $15, right? With more than a little trepidation, I bought the game and downloaded it to my Steam library. But for $15? Even if the world-building was kind of stupid, surely I could get two or three good campaigns out of it. Okay, so maybe it didn’t look like the most appealing game. What about this game could possibly entice someone to put hundreds of hours into it?Ī few weeks ago, every Total War game went on sale for 75% off. Everything in its universe was either ripped wholesale from Tolkien (Dwarfs, Greenskins, High/Wood Elves), or a crude parody of a real (if, in some cases, extinct) human culture (Lizardmen, Tomb Kings, Norsca), or else just a worn-out trope that has been trotted out again and again in nearly every single fantasy universe (Vampire Counts, Dark Elves). Were they the same sweaty men from my childhood?Īs I learned more about what Warhammer was actually about, I got more and more turned off. I didn’t understand what these people were on about. So when I went on Internet forums focused on Total War, trying to find discussion of one of my new favorite games, I was surprised (and irritated) to discover that almost every post centered instead on the Total War: Warhammer titles. The latter title may not be quite as polished or flashy, but it is nearly perfect in its mechanics, the epitome of what a historical Total War title should be. Much later on, I got into the Total War games with Total War: Three Kingdoms, which was an incredibly fun experience that led me to also pick up Total War: Shogun 2. Weren’t plastic toys for kids, not sweaty adult men? Their behavior was, to me, so bizarre that they were like animals in a zoo. We would usually stop to look at the people inside. When I would get my hair cut as a kid, my sister, my dad and I would go first, and then when it was my mom’s turn, we would go on a short walk around the neighborhood that would always pass a game store specializing in Warhammer. My misconceptions about the Warhammer games were, in fact, long-running.

The fantasy universe it took place in seemed hacked-together, and I couldn’t imagine how a non-historical Total War game could really match the satisfaction of conquering a real historical location. I was once pretty reluctant to get into Creative Assembly’s Total War: Warhammer. Okay, this isn’t Warhammer, but you try finding these stock images. Three words: Innovation, innovation, innovation

Total war warhammer lord of change