How does this Compare to Total War: Rome 2?

[RTX 5080 FE(Mr Happy)]

Mechanic wise, is this the same game but different units and a fantasy settings? Or what changes are different? Thanks

[Hav0k]

Its quite similar in terms of mechanics and gameplay, but its set in an fantasy universe with a veriety of different factions all completley different to eatchother instead of rome 2 where most factions are very similar apart from greeks romans barbarians and eastern factions.

Overall its one of the best total wars to date, the battles are extremley fun and the campaigns are really good too, definitley worth a purchase even more so its on sale for very cheap.

[Wyvern]

Similar in the core mechanic sense, it is a total war game after all. That said, campaign mechanics are kinda simpler but faction diversity is far better and battles are a lot more in-depth.

[RED /(Weber)\]

It doesn't look ugly. There's no artificial difficulty. There's no Pontus.

[Harmania]

Originally posted by RED Floyd /(Weber)\:

It doesn't look ugly. There's no artificial difficulty. There's no Pontus.

There's a large amount of artificial difficulty.

[TVMAN]

Originally posted by Innocent Harmania:

There's a large amount of artificial difficulty.

lol it's a video game everything about it is artificial

[RTX 5080 FE(Mr Happy)]

Appreciate the info, Still considering it waiting to see if a sale hits in the spring. But I am definitely on the ropes.

[bwc153]

There's a significant variety in units and mechanics over Rome 2, but the basics are still the same. Due to the supernatural nature of everything, units typically have more special abilities, or special attributes. There are also hero units (Generals, and the agents from previous which now can fight when part of an army), and there is magic which some factions are heavily reliant upon.

In addition to this, every single race has unique mechanics and playstyles on the campaign map, and many in the battlemap, to make them different, which for me is a great change of pace over previous TW games, in which many of the games all the factions are effectively reskins with a unique unit or two and minor bonuses on the strategic map.

There's also a "habitability" rating for all territories, and factions have different preferences. In WH1 factions could not settle unhabitable territory at all, but that was.


As a longtime fan of the series, with my first game being Empire, WH:TW is my favorite of the series. I've never been a Warhammer guy, and I was initially opposed to the fantasy setting, but when I got WH1 on the Humble Bundle a few years ago I was blown away by it. WH2 has been an improvement over WH1.

[Androschemes]

Originally posted by SurvivalJunkie:

Appreciate the info, Still considering it waiting to see if a sale hits in the spring. But I am definitely on the ropes.

This one is on its historical best sale for game and dlc right now. The first game only got a better discount than that about a year after this one came out, but it’s at 50% atm for dlc and base game won’t go meaningfully lower anywhere else

[Overread]

There's a few key differences to other TW games including:

1) Formations are mostly gone. Units still have basic rank and file but there's no open and closed order and formations such are limited too - though a few armies (Eg Bretonnians) still have things like wedge formation for cavalry. Angles of attack are, of course, still important - get hit from behind and its crippling; whilst if you charge cavalry head long into spearmen then its going to go bad for the horses.

The difference is that the micro has shifted a bit away from formation aspects and into special abilities. Many units have one special ability, some are passive, some are limited in number of activations and some even require quite accurate timing (eg a handful of air units have a bomb like ability that you have to time over targets to trigger).
Meanwhile mages and heroes can have over 10 abilities and spells - these can be anything from buffs through to powerful spells that summon rats or fire out fireballs and death magic or heal troops.

So the micro during battles is still there, its just shifted around a bit.

2) Heroes (leaders/generals) are very powerful. Whilst in most TW games you keep your general out of battle as much as you can; in TW most are ready to get stuck into combat, indeed they have to as they are powerful units in their own right. Warriors and dragon riders want to be in the thick of the fight - though archer and mage heroes might not want to get right into the middle, but do want to be on the front lines. They are strong, but still not invulnerable so you have to keep an eye on them - the key difference is now they are in the thick of the fight not skirting the edges.

3) Sea battles are gone - this is mostly a resources issue since each faction is 100% unique in Warhammer the development of armies alone is already a major feat (each one is basically ground up custom made - a huge difference to many other GW games where many factions are simply minor adjustments to existing core factions). However this meant that CA just did not have the resources to do sea as well - they've also made it a clear choice to focus on the land battles (emulation of the land battles in the tabletop game).
Note that with Warhammer2 the recent Vampire Coast updated has added "island battles" as an option for sea fights. In the past sea fights were auto resolve only (because no sea models); however it was never popular nor ideal (autoresolve never is but CA have put a lot of work into the Warhammer one); but now you can auto resolve or fight on land (island map) like a regular battle.

4) Many maps are smaller - they are far from tiny, but there's far less moving around for ten mins or more at the start of a fight. Indeed the AI is far more aggressive in this game and more apt to attack then just draw lines and wait for you to advance.

5) Sieges are totally reworked and instead of huge city maps you get a length of wall to attack. This might sound like a step back; but in actuality its quite a smart move. It cuts out a huge amount of time lost moving units around; plus it makes it far easier to make an AI that will siege and defend. This makes them far more bloody and aggressive fights that cut out the chaff of moving around and focus on the meat of the fighting itself.
It's one of the more stricking mechanical differences, but it works really well in this game.

6) Each army is very unique in mechanics and style. Some are similar, but there's a lot of difference going on.
High Elves have strong rank and file spearmen and archers; whilst an army like skaven has pretty weak and cowardly regular troops but excellent specialist units to back them up.
This adds huge amount of replayability, because each race has its own quirks to master.


Overall this is a highly diverse and fantastic fantasy wargame. It does change a few things in the formula, but in my view the changes help the game along.


Note to date this is the RTS (in battles) game with the most custom factions in 3D that I can ever recall seeing. Most cap out at 3, TW Warhammer has 4 in each base game (actually 4 in Warhammer 1 with the free DLC of Bretonnia) and then adds multiple more factions in DLC. It's a really epic fantasy game and really worth playing in my view.

Note 2 the game is essentially a game in 3 stand alone parts. For this reason CA carries over the content forwards. So all the DLC (including blood) And core game factions that you own for Warhammer 1 (on the same steam account - but does not have to be installed) carry over into Warhammer 2 and all from 1 and 2 wil carry over to Warhammer 3 when it comes out.

This makes for what can appear to be an expensive game; but it goes on discount fairly often, plus the prices are in line with regular game prices for this level of content. (most of the faction DLC is actually cheaper than expansion packs were way back when Starcraft 1, Homeworld etc... were coming out. Plus each time they release a paid DLC there's also a Free DLC that goes out too.

[RED /(Weber)\]

Originally posted by Innocent Harmania:

Originally posted by RED Floyd /(Weber)\:

It doesn't look ugly. There's no artificial difficulty. There's no Pontus.

There's a large amount of artificial difficulty.

Correction: Manageable, enjoyable, artificial difficulty, in TWW2.

The stuff in Rome 2 ranged from annoying to hairpulling.

[Pharaoh]

Originally posted by RED Floyd /(Weber)\:

It doesn't look ugly. There's no artificial difficulty. There's no Pontus.

Well time to mod pontus in then

[revanchrist]

Post 9 by Overread sums it up really well. Warhammer 2 Mortal Empire campaign is the best Total War game to date. It has improved QoL features, improved graphics and unique gameplay for each factions compared to other Total War games. That is, if you don't mind the fantasy settings. If you only interested in realistic historical settings Total War, then your only option is Rome 2 and Attila, or wait for Three Kingdoms. If Chinese history settings is not up to your taste, then you'll have to wait till 2022 probably. Because the next Total War game after Three Kingdoms and its standalone expansion will be Warhammer 3, ie the last title of the Total War Warhammer Saga.

[RED /(Weber)\]

Originally posted by Pharaoh:

Originally posted by RED Floyd /(Weber)\:

It doesn't look ugly. There's no artificial difficulty. There's no Pontus.

Well time to mod pontus in then

But-but I don't want to play as Pontus.

I DON'T WANT TO PLAY AS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ PONTUS!!!!!!

[A.Pot]

Total War Warhammer has overall worse sieges than the historicals but one absolutely massive thing it has over Rome II is that like Attila, you are not forced to capture settlements. I cannot express how much I hated that part of the game.