Total War: WARHAMMER – The Battle of Black Fire Pass Developer Walkthrough

This spectacular scripted battle taken from pre-alpha game code, formed the basis for this year’s Total War: WARHAMMER E3 press demo and depicts a mighty clash between the forces of the Empire led by Emperor Karl Franz and a Greenskin horde led by Orc Warboss Grimgor Ironhide. This full and unedited capture of the demo, accompanied by developer commentary, offers an early glimpse at some of the fantastical battlefield units, spells, war machines, and monstrous creatures that will appear in the final game.

The Battle of Black Fire Pass will feature in Total War: WARHAMMER as a Quest Battle, available specifically to Karl Franz, and is just one of the many unique missions you can undertake as you progress through the Grand Campaign.

Total War: Warhammer Gets More Details About Emperor Karl Franz

The first gameplay trailer for Total War: Warhammer is supposed to arrive in less than 24 hours, and in the meantime, the development team at The Creative Assembly and publisher SEGA are offering more information about one of the major characters of the strategy game, Karl Franz the Legendary Lord.

The Emperor has managed to mostly unite the small human principalities that make up the Empire and seems determined to prove that his forces can overcome the threats around it to dominate the fantasy world.

The Creative Assembly states on the official forums that "Soaring aloft on Deathclaw, most ferocious of the Imperial Griffons, and wielding Ghal Maraz, the fabled hammer once held by Sigmar himself, Karl Franz inspires the men he leads to feats of courage and heroism. A military genius and the greatest statesmen the Old World has ever seen, he is the Empire’s greatest hope for survival in a brutal, war-torn world."

Karl Franz is one of the few Legendary Lords in Total War: Warhammer, which means that his special abilities are very powerful and he can wield magic items that no other units can use.

Narrative quest chains are associated with each of his weapons and armors in the Grand Campaign of the title, with a massive battle required to secure them from enemy forces and increase the power of the Empire.

Total War: Warhammer will also feature lower lords

Presumably, each of the factions included in the strategy game will have access to a limited number of Legendary Lords, and most of the armies featured will be led by lesser generals.

They will also have skill trees and solid strategic abilities but will never be able to control the battlefield as their more powerful superior can.

Total War: Warhammer will use the fantasy universe created by Games Workshop to deliver a new take on the classic mechanics of the series.

The Creative Assembly has promised both sandbox modes and a narrative-driven Grand Campaign.

Each of the included races will have different ways to recruit armies and to develop their holdings, and the tactical battles will offer more variety, with asymmetric units and a wide range of magic powers that can turn the tide of combat if they are deployed correctly.

Total War: Warhammer will be offered on the PC and does not yet have a launch window.

Total War: WARHAMMER - In-Engine Trailer: Karl Franz of the Empire [ESRB]

Published on Jul 17, 2015

This release is the first in a series of cinematic trailers rendered in-engine, that will introduce the Legendary Lords of Total War: WARHAMMER.

These renowned characters from the Warhammer Fantasy Battles world can be selected in-game to lead the charge of conquest. Each has a unique range of special abilities, weapons, armour, mounts and their own distinct narrative quest chain.

In this trailer we meet Emperor Karl Franz, the revered leader of the Empire, as he rallies his army of men and deadly imperial artillery in a famed battle against a ravening horde of ferocious Greenskins.

The Battle of Black Fire Pass is one of Karl Franz’ unique quest battles in Total War: WARHAMMER, and also formed the basis for this year’s E3 demo. You’ll be able to watch the battle in its entirety, along with a developer walkthrough in just two weeks’ time on Thursday 30th July.

The setting-Age of Sigmar

When the Old World was destroyed during the End Times, Sigmar clung to the core of the world and escaped the Chaos somehow. On his journey, he met the Great Drake Dracothion, who showed him the way to the Mortal Realms, and the Age of Myth began. It's a world made up of eight realms/sub-worlds, each one aligned to one of the eight winds of magic, connected by so-called realm gates.

There he ruled along with the other gods, mentioned are Gorkamork, Tyrion and Grungnir. But as the gods eventually became at strife, Chaos gained a footprint in the Mortal Realms, and enslaved all the sub-worlds except for Azyr, the Celestial Realm. There Sigmar barricaded himself with the refugees of the Old World, rallying his strength in its capital Azyrheim. He created the Stormhost Eternals, warriors filled to the brim with the holy magic of heaven. Immortal and of super-human strength and build, they are clad in armour of Sigmarite and capable of shooting lighting bolts with their magical weapons. His army of Eternals is said to be vast, and now the time has come to free the other realms from Chaos once and for all.

Of the other races, little is known yet. There are four great alliances.

Order – Sigmar and his forces, the Duardin (Dwarfs), the mercenary Red Slayers (Dwarf Slayers?), Aelfs (Elves) and the mysterious Seraphon (Lizardmen?). Empire and Brettonia are not mentioned, apart from the "refugees of the Old World" wink before.

Chaos – Warriors and Daemons of Chaos, as well as "brayheards" (Beastmen) and Skaven.

Death – Deathrattlers and Deathwalkers are mentioned (Skeleton Warriors and Zombies?), as well as Soulblight Vampires and Nagash himself.

Destruction – Orruks (Orcs), Grots (Goblins) and Ogors (Ogres), also hints about all sorts of other beasties.

Age of Sigmar Post Test Game Thoughts - Warhammer

Games Workshop Reinvents Warhammer

by Matt Miller on July 04, 2015

Warhammer has always had an imposing barrier to entry. The long-running miniatures property has been around since the early 1980s, with a seemingly endless flow of new figures, rules, and lore to comprehend. And yet, the quality of those intricate figures and the strength of a thoughtfully fostered community of gamers has kept the franchise alive for decades, broadening out into novels, video games, and more. At Games Workshop, after all these years, the game’s creators recently took a dramatic step, destroying the very world the game is based on. I recently visited with Games Workshop to learn what comes next, and the ways in which Warhammer is seeing its biggest reinvention ever in the Age of Sigmar.

I have a special perspective on Warhammer, but not one that is unique. As a longtime video game and tabletop game player, I’ve brushed against knowledge of Warhammer for years, but I’ve never fully embraced the title. I play other miniature-based experiences, and I’ve had my fair share of time running around in video game versions of the Warhammer universe. But like many fellow gamers, Warhammer has always seemed prohibitive. The long history of the fiction seems convoluted, the rules require a deep dedication, and the craft involved in preparing and painting the unpainted models is incredibly time and money intensive.

Games Workshop has a big challenge in front of it if it hopes to draw in players like myself, while simultaneously maintaining the enthusiasm of its devoted community of fans. The studio’s proposed solution is on the way later this month, with pre-orders opening today. Warhammer: Age of Sigmar represents the biggest fundamental change to the fantasy miniatures wargame that its creators have ever attempted.

While Age of Sigmar is a fresh jumping on point, it has its roots in the game’s most recent major storyline, The End Times. Within novels and game supplements, and over the course of many months, Games Workshop unfolded the apocalypse of its own world. Massive armies collided, magic was unleashed, and in the end, the Warhammer world was utterly destroyed.

In the wake of that conflagration, the energies unleashed produce the beginnings of a new universe. Eight mortal realms emerged, interconnected by a series of gates, as well as a ninth realm of chaos. The forces of Chaos in this new universe once again began their assault, and eventually overtook much of the mortal realms. The re-emergent god, Sigmar, withdrew into a signal celestial realm to consolidate his forces, and from here, he plans to strike back at Chaos and retake the realms.
Right from the start, the storyline of Age of Sigmar turns expectations around. Traditionally, the invading forces of Chaos must be repelled by the “good guys.” In the new game, Sigmar sends forth armies of newly forged immortal heroes, drawn from the detritus of the conquered realms, and aims to retake ground held by the rampaging forces of Chaos. The storyline is built to be an easy-to-understand story for newcomers, but one that draws on the old fiction, heroes, and gods for longtime players.

Perhaps more importantly, Age of Sigmar represents Games Workshop’s goal to tell a more robust ongoing story. Sigmar’s initial assault sends his army of Stormcast Eternals down to retake the Realm of Fire from the Khorne Bloodbound army. From this starting conflict, Games Workshop hopes to unfold an evolving tale with greater narrative direction and depth than they’ve previously included. In fact, I’m told that the first full year of storylines is already clearly planned out.

As a longtime member of various fan communities, I recognize the challenge that Games Workshop faces in attempting such a broad-reaching reinvention of its signature property. As a rule, established fans are suspicious of change, and they are often even more wary if that change is a move towards what seems like simplification. As an outside observer to the devoted Warhammer fan community, I can’t speak to whether Age of Sigmar maintains what fans love about the franchise. But my perspective also tells me that this is the first time in a long time that I feel like I could join in on the fun and share in the hobby. Moreover, the new game seems tactically engaging, narrative-rich, and visually striking. I’m thrilled to see Games Workshop take such a brave leap; now it only remains to be seen whether its community will also make the jump.

READ MORE

 

Total War: Warhammer's battle designer on blood and badass magic

Wes Fenlon

On the final day of E3, I had a chance to watch one of the show’s most exciting demos: a scripted run-through of a Total War: Warhammer battle. Orc shamans called down giant comets to crush whole units of troops. Giants stomped across the battlefield. Goblins rode on spindly war spiders. The battle was just a taste of the whole Warhammer package—I didn’t get to see any of the world map strategy layer or skill trees or politics—but Warhammer is first and foremost about battles, and these battles look like a blast.

After the demo, I chatted with Creative Assembly’s Simon Mann, Total War: Warhammer’s battle designer. It was the most enthusiastic conversation I’ve had about orcs since my days of memorizing every bit of lore in Blizzard’s Warcraft II manuals.

PCG: So, we just got to see the demo and the first question I asked, which maybe you can’t answer, is where’s all the blood?

Simon Mann, battle designer: I mean, it’s been quite traditional in previous Total War games that we don’t strictly release with all the blood and gore in there, and it’s largely age ratings. It’s something we always explore and we’re always looking into, but I think you’ll find it will be similar to the previous Total Wars, where it’s something that's an option and it's something that you’re able to bring into the game.

PCG: I was trying to remember, because I’ve played a lot of Shogun and a lot of Rome, and I thought that was in there by default, but maybe it’s a thing I’ve always check-boxed.

Mann: Actually, it was a pack that you would download, so you get the blood and gore DLC packs like in Rome 2 and Shogun 2.

PCG: Clearly, it’s just instinct for me.

Mann: I think you just got it straight away and went, ‘Yeaaaaah!’

PCG: I just want to see the gladiators just chopping dudes’ heads off.
 
Mann: I find it more fun, I have to [turn it on].

PCG: So, what we saw looked great. I loved all the animation that he mentioned had to all be hand-done, because you can’t mo-cap a giant spider and stuff like that.

Mann: No, they’re really, really tempermental to mo-cap. 

PCG: It seemed like there's a pretty big variety of units.

Mann: It’s huge! I mean, seriously, you look at previous Total War titles and it’s very much man versus man. Even though different factions would be quite unique themselves, you’ve still got a lot of commonality between them for the unit types that you would see in battle. Now, that commonality is gone. The Warhammer world embraces the differences between all the units. You look at the models and all things are different shapes and sizes and styles. We’ve really been trying to bring that to life in the game and literally the amount of animations that’s required, the amount of new animation skeletons—the skeletal rigs for the different creatures—all new in ways that we’ve never done before. As you said, an eight legged spider, that’s not something we’ve ever done before.

PCG: What are the factions that are going to be in the game?
 
Mann: So the four races that we have available in the tentpole release are going to be the Vampire Counts, the Dwarves, the Greenskins, and the Empire. This is the start of a trilogy for us, so this is the first game and there’s going to be two more expansions. The idea is that they’re all standalone, but you can kind of bring them all together, so if you own all three it’ll be increasing the size of the world, the races you get, and things like that. And we’re also going to be releasing DLCs and free DLCs to come along with it. We started small so we can concentrate, and as you saw the amount of detail and work we’ve gone into with each of these races basically means, with these four, we can give them that depth, that kind of attention, but then as we continue we’ll expand out and get larger.

READ MORE

Total War: Warhammer E3 impressions

Tim Clark

Why send a single writer to see the most hotly-anticipated strategy game on PC, when you could send two (with wildly differing background knowledge) instead. Hardware editor Wes Fenlon is a long-standing fan of the Total War series, whereas old man global editor-in-chief Tim Clark grew up playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle on a converted ping pong table in his bedroom. (And once got headbutted at a Games Day in the Birmingham NEC over a rules dispute, but that’s another story.)

At E3 they had the chance to see a choreographed demo of Total War: Warhammer, in which the Orc horde clashed with Karl Franz’s Empire forces. Here, Wes and Tim give their impressions of that in the form of a cosy fireside chat. Roll the brandy around ostentatiously in your glass and let’s begin…

Wes: I’m going to be a downer and start with the bad first: a scripted flythrough of a Total War battle, with perfectly constructed armies carrying out their coolest attacks right when the camera is on them, isn’t quite indicative of the experience of playing a Total War game. I would’ve loved to see the world map, politics, construction, planning… all the stuff that goes into making Total War a 4X series.

Okay, now that that little dose of reality is out of the way—my god, this looked cool. It’s the kind of perfect, dream franchise mash-up that makes so much sense it seemingly never happens. I could almost feel the liberated creativity bursting out of the artists and animators as they finally got to drop historically accurate archers and legionnaires for orcs and gryphons and goblins riding on really creepy spiders. I didn’t care about Warhammer as a setting before this demo, and I’m now really psyched for it as the playground for the next Total War.

Tim: Damn you, Wes, and damn your reality check. For me, seeing the camera zoom (okay, yes, suspiciously cinematically) over the warring armies was the realisation of the dream I’ve had since it sunk in that, no, I probably wasn’t ever actually going to finish painting the two dozen heavy cavalry which I’d persuaded mother to buy me for Christmas. I’ve waited patiently for over two decades to see a decent video game version of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, (hell I even sunk hours into Warhammer: Dark Omen), and given Creative Assembly’s heritage I’m confident that Total Warhammer is going to be a lot better than decent.

I think what I liked most about the demo we saw was the diversity of units on show. If I’d been making a shopping list of what a greenskin army ought to include, trolls, boar and wolf riders, a wild-eyed shaman, plus a giant boss on a wyvern would have all been high on the list. Maybe more importantly, the creature models are packed with detail and don’t feel too cartoony. I would place the art style between the colorfulness of World of Warcraft and the ‘realism’ of Shadow of Mordor. (I know orcs aren’t real. Stop ruining this.) I guess my concern, though, is whether coming in relatively cold to the series, I’m going to be overwhelmed by trying to manage an army of this size on the fly. Does it look significantly different to previous Total Wars in terms of systems? I guess magic is the major addition…

READ MORE

Mordheim: City of the Damned - Lore and Gameplay

LORE

The game is set in the Empire city of Mordheim, from Imperial Year 1999, some 500 years before the present day in the Warhammer World time line. The Empire was a place torn: it had been in civil war for years – there was no Emperor sitting on the throne, and various powers were vying for control. In the Imperial year 1999, a great comet was sighted in the sky – a twin tailed comet, the sign of Sigmar.

Astronomers predicted that it would fall in the city of Mordheim, where his convent of Sisters stood. It was believed that it would herald the return of Sigmar, which he would restore the land to its former glory and usher in a new golden age. Everybody traveled to Mordheim, filling the city well beyond its capacity. Such were the times that lawlessness soon grew out of hand. The citizens of Mordheim quickly degenerated to moral debauchery, giving themselves over to their own worldly temptations, living in an increasing state of anarchy.

As time drew closer to the comet’s arrival, more and more people made the journey to Mordheim, and the situation became unbearably worse. As people gave in to acts of depravity, demons walked the streets like men, the seeds of Chaos and corruption long since having claimed the souls of the pitiful thousands who now called Mordheim their own.

The comet fell on the first day of the new era, but it was not to be the coming of Sigmar as predicted. It smashed into the city, instantly killing those who had gathered around it. Word got out that Sigmar had passed his judgment, that he had smote those who he deemed unworthy. The place of Mordheim became a place of fear and paranoia. Soon after, word spread of a mysterious stone that lay scattered about the city, known as Wyrdstone, which had all manner of reputed qualities. It was discovered that factions would pay incredible amounts for this precious stone, whatever their motivation. So Warbands began traveling to Mordheim, now dubbed The City of the Damned, hoping to find this precious stone and make their quick fortunes...

GAMEPLAY

Choices decide your fate

Your first step in the game will be to pick a Warband from classic Warbands (Reikland Mercenaries, the ninja like rat specie of the Skaven clan Eshin, the corrupted Cult of the Possessed and the all-female warband of the Sisters of Sigmar). Then, configuring your Warband by selecting a mix of classes and attributes will allow you to tweak it to whatever play-style you choose. You could maybe need a band specialized in range combat, melee combat or have a balanced strategy!
More than the choice of every unit composing your roster, the choice of the warband itself will be decisive. Each warband has got their own strengths and weaknesses, so do not underestimate the importance of getting prepared before you get through the streets of Mordheim.

A truly dynamic turn based world to explore and conquer

Unlike many traditional turn-based tactical games, Mordheim features an intuitive initiative ladder, which controls the order by which units will be able to act, depending on their initiative ratio. Turns are not taken in their entirety team by team, so much as through the initiative ladder per unit, dictated by the amount of initiative points each unit have.

Units initiative points are determined in part by the unit type, how you configure them (weapons, armors and skill points investments...) and are affected by certain stances they can take on the battlefield. For instance, a swiftly configured Skaven will have the initiative ratio required to get a head start on the initiative ladder, to the detriment of their strength, or toughness.
The initiative ladder system allows you to strategically alter yours and your opponents’ position on the ladder using one of many skills, such as changing your stance, or tossing out a dirty trick.
In Mordheim, your units are not fixed to a grid. Take control of your units to explore the map, searching for Wyrdstones and enemies, with more freedom than any tactical game out there.

Manage, customize and hire mercenaries to fight merciless battles!

Recruit new units, equip them with better gear and customize your squad in order to have the most optimized tactics. Use the experience points you've won in the battlefield to improve your mercenaries. Form your perfect warband by handpicking each unit. Make your strategy your best ally and use every unit's skills to perfection. But proceed carefully though, if some units are being put “out of action”, they might lose a limb or even die. Keep in mind that in Mordheim: City of the Damned, a dead unit is lost forever!

Exploit tactical approaches in varied and strategically designed maps

Explore each corner of the legendary city. Unveil its treasures and put your hands on powerful artefacts. Take advantage of building structures, ruins and back alleys to give your troops a step ahead. While the procedural maps will ensure your multiplayer games incredible variety, you'll enjoy discovering passionately crafted iconic locations of the city like the Temple of Sigmar. Set up ambushes to spread apart the enemy forces or focus your fire power on the most deadly target in your opponent's crew to claim the victory! Setting up a flawless strategy is almost as important as having some luck during the battle's key moments.

Do you have what it takes to relentlessly harvest the mysterious Wyrdstones whilst avoiding the dangers of one of the most risky place in the entire Warhammer World?

Mordheim: City of the Damned

Mordheim: City of the Damned is the first video game adaptation of Games Workshop's cult classic tabletop game Mordheim. Set in the Warhammer World's decimated Empire city, Mordheim: City of the Damned is a turn-based tactical game where you lead warbands into bloody and lethal skirmishes. The game blends RPG elements, fast-paced tactical combat and intricate unit customization in a time wrought by chaos and rivalry where only the strongest survive.

After a twin tailed comet crashed on Mordheim, the City of Damned turned into a terrifying battlefield where rival warbands fight fiercely for the control of key neighborhoods, looking for glory and fortune by acquiring the very valuable Wyrdstone fragments.

Mordheim: City of the Damned is the first video game adaptation of Games Workshop's cult classic tabletop game Mordheim. Set in the Warhammer World's decimated Empire city, Mordheim: City of the Damned is a turn-based tactical game where you lead warbands into bloody and lethal skirmishes. The game blends RPG elements, fast-paced tactical combat and intricate unit customization in a time wrought by chaos and rivalry where only the strongest survive.

After a twin tailed comet crashed on Mordheim, the City of Damned turned into a terrifying battlefield where rival warbands fight fiercely for the control of key neighborhoods, looking for glory and fortune by acquiring the very valuable Wyrdstone fragments.

Choose from iconic Mordheim warbands - Sisters of Sigmar, the Cult of the Possessed, Skaven, Mercenaries from the Empire (Reiklanders) - and lead your troops to battle. Recruit new units, equip them with enhanced gear. Evolve and customize your warband with the experience gained from each successful mission, transforming them into a terrifying force on the battlefield.

Devise the best strategy to annihilate your rivals. If you fail, some of your units might lose a limb... or worse. Keep in mind that in Mordheim: City of the Damned, a dead unit is lost forever! Consider the environment when formulating your battle strategy, exploiting the unique buildings, ruins or the layout of the streets. Deploy your troops carefully and anticipate the actions of your adversaries to set up ambushes! Organize ingenious battle plans where the talents of your units will be as important as your own luck during key moments of combat.

Loot items and weapons hidden in the ruins, or steal those of fallen opponents. Survive the dangers that abound in the City of the Damned and collect as many Wyrdstones as you can, but remain ever vigilant. Mordheim is one of the most treacherous places in the Warhammer World!

In these epic battles where fame and glory await, your strategy will definitely be your best ally! Visit the four corners of the City of the Damned to complete multiple missions in the solo campaign, or challenge other players in enthralling multiplayer modes.

Fully customize your Warbands
Choose from a multitude of classes with unique abilities to create unique strategies
Take your troops to battle and test their synergy on the field
Gain experience to unlock Player's special abilities
Spend the Wyrdstones to acquire powerful items and unlock more choices and features
Face other Player's Warbands in head to head skirmishes and compete to own the leaderboards

Factions like Skaven and Tombkings on the campaign map - how to make them fit into the concept and technical limitations of human empires

The purpose of this thread is to discuss the inevitable problems which occur when trying to depict non-human races as a faction on the TW campaign map.

I want to begin with the Skaven, but the discussion is open for any kind of input.


ISSUES (gameplay-relevant differences to human societies)

1. Skaven do not generally live on the surface and build or maintain settlements above ground
2. Skaven maintain extensive underground networks and espionage which allow them to see without beeing seen
3. Skaven have no diplomatic dealings with other races, temporary alliances of convenience at most
4. Skaven do not peacefully trade with other races and have no monetised economy
5. Skaven soldiers are not payed, they fight because they are dominated by stronger Skaven or because they lust for plunder and murder
6. Skaven hardly have any use for industrial products or luxury goods besides what can be eaten or made into weapons
7. Skaven reproduce a lot faster than humans and don't really need housing
8. Skaven are hardly affected by plagues due to their short lifespan, high reproductive cycle and general resistance, but carry plagues everywhere they go

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

1. Possible motivation to hold cities after conquering them: Using the inhabitants as slaves. Upon a successful siege, Skaven should not have the option to "occupy", only to "plunder" and "exterminate". They should keep civil order through fear alone, maybe have the option to "sacrifice" (read: massacre) inhabitants to restore order
2. Skaven could be able to recruit spies at (almost) no cost and receive huge bonuses for them, maybe even disable FOW completely for them?
3. Make it impossible for Skaven to have alliances
4. Make it impossible for Skaven to maintain trade agreements. If possible, restrict trade to Skaven settlements
5. No idea yet
6. If possible, restrict trade to raw materials and basic food
7. Use an "underground colony" building which can be upgraded and radically improves pop-growth
8. Give all Skaven characters traits which increase their chance to become infected. Make Skaven settlements immune to plague effects or counter them by balancing them with higher pop-growth.

[1] The Sundering: Rise of the Witch King - Sons o - Mod DB

The Sundering: Rise of the Witch King

The Sundering: Rise of the Witch King is a mod for Medieval 2: Kingdoms and based around the fantasy world of Games Workshop's Warhammer universe during the civil war between the Elves.

The mod's campaign opens with the Death of Bel Shanaar in -2751 IC. It features completely new units never before seen in a Medieval 2: Kingdoms mod, includen noble Griffon Riders, vile Hydras, and even the all powerful Dragon Princes of Caledor. Alongside these mystical creatures will be the Elves themselves, from the lowliest Elven Spear unit to the powerful Phoenix Guard, and from deranged Cultist to the Knights of Anlec.

Also included is a new strategic map of Ulthuan, the homeland of the Elves, including new models for Elven cities, generals, and monuments (such the Shrine of Asuryan). The campaign is an unscripted and epic journey through almost fifty years of the war that shattered the Elves forever, featuring new custom messages to fully immerse the player in the lore and culture of the Elves. Will you lead Nagarythe forward in it's bid to conquer Ulthuan and install Malekith as the new Phoenix King? Or will you lead one of the other nine Elven Kingdoms in their battle to protect their homelands? Or perhaps you will follow neither path and forge a new destiny for your people! The kingdom is yours to command, whether it be rich maritime Eataine or the martial powess of Caledor and its dragons. And while you forge a new empire for your people, you must be wary of the all corrupting influence of the Cults of Pleasure and Excess who would seek to undermine your position, though perhaps the Cults could be used to your own advantage if you play your cards right!
This is the most pivotal moment in Elven History, and one of the most destructive wars that the Warhammer universe has ever witnessed. You are now part of that history! Will you change that history for better or worse? That is for you to decide...

Official Campaign Rules – Dark Tide

This thread is for up to date Campaign rules only. If you have rules questions, post them here. No battle reports or requests to join are to be put here. Let keep this thread for rules discussion only.

Welcome to the Dark Tide online campaign! Below, you will find the "House Rules" we have set forth to ensure fair, and fun gameplay! The campaign will run for 8 weeks. During this time each side will attempt to destroy or defend the Kingdom of Kislev.

Precampaign: Participants sign up for the Campaign. Each must choose an army type. This army type will define which side you will fight for. Evil: Chaos, Skaven, Greenskins Good: Empire, Elves, Dwarves Once all generals have been given a side to fight for, they will be split into Eastern and Western contingents. Eastern is for Europeans, etc. Western is for the America's, etc. This will help make scheduling games easier.

At the beginning of the Campaign, each general is assigned a starting city. For the Good side in the east, it is Praag. For the Good side in the west it is Velsk. Evil is located in the encampments. Eastern Evil side may attack Chazask or Volkologsk. Western Evil side may attack Krovask or Murmagrad. Neither side is required to have a Commander. It will be totally voluntary for Generals to work together and have a leader. None will be assigned.

Each General has one attack action and one defend action per week.

Attacking: You may attack any city that is linked to the city you are currently in. If the city you attack is taken at the end of the week, it becomes your new assigned city. If it is not taken, you retreat to your previous city. If your previous city is now in the hands of the enemy, you may choose a linked friendly city.

Defending: You may defend any city linked to the city you are currently in. If the city you are currently assigned to is lost, you may choose a linked friendly city to move to.

Once all attacks are announced, then the defend actions can be announced.

As you can see, only by attacking, or losing the city you are currently in, will you move to another city. There is only one exception to this rule. If you do not Attack at all during the week, you may instead move to a linked city. You may still Defend any city linked to your current city that week. It is assumed you meet your attackers enroute to your new city. It is possible for generals to be all over the map, depending on how the war goes.


Army Composition: No more than 20% of your army gold can be spent on heroes. This can change if certain battle sites are taken. No Siege Engines, unless the battle site calls for it. When it does allow Siege Engines, only 25% of your gold can be spent on them. Also you cannot have more than 2 of any one type of siege unit. No more than two flying units. This does count any flying Hero units. Lastly, no more than one unit of allies may be taken. This unit cannot be a hero. For example, Chaos can have one orc unit, but not the orc hero, etc.

"Cheese" armies will not be tolerated. The restrictions above are so that we can somewhat balance the armies. Unfortunately, we cannot guess at all the army set ups, so personal honor is expected. Play
fairly, and others will also!

A word about Maps:

You may use any map that the participants agree upon. Under no circumstance should you take a reinforcement area, or buy reinforcements during a game. There are no restrictions on maps, except the siege maps. Siege is obviously for the towns where siege engines are allowed.

You MAY use refill areas to heal your troops! These are considered places of power. Both participants must agree on the map chosen.

DWARVES

Dwarves are now able to use siege engines in any battle they wish. They must still follow the rules for siege engines.

As a temporary fix to people having different forum and game names, the MoC Other channel will be our Official channel. Once you set up a time to meet, meet there.

Example Battle report

Battle Report (Match time 5:30CST)
Location: Krovas
Winner: Ironwarrior51 (Evil) Score: (23090)
Loser: Shard (good) Score: (18640)

The battle group of elves silently creeps through the forests surrounding Krovas. Ahead heading through a narrow valley is a chaos warband walking right into the elves ambush. With archers perched above the cliffs the signal is given to wait till the enemy comes into range. All of a sudden the army stops and a lone spellcasters ventures forward to investigate.

"He can sense us" whispers Elriron "archers ready your bows"

Slowly the chaos spellcaster comes closer to the elves location, then, with a gasp he realizes what is before him. It is that very moment that more then 2 dozen arrows fly from the shadows as well as a devastating magical assault. Moments later the spellcasters lies dead pierced by no less then a dozen arrows. The army is at first stunned and no one moves for a moment. Then with a great cry the warband charges the elves position.

"Leave behind a rear guard to fend them off, this battle will not be won this day." says Elthiron

With that much of the elven army flees into the night awhile a few brave and surely doomed souls hold back the tides of chaos.

On the "Other" side of Krovas...

Clementus: Dark Runners: 40345
Azztec123: High Elf Defenders: 24530

"Snikk snikk.. thats how you do it!" the burly rat states as he finishes chewing on the large femur while he caresses the bone with his tail.

"Elven prince think he good. Thinks he clever! But we has Kraftit! He cleverer He is!"

"That Elven prince.. he move quick but our sneaky runners sees him they do and we get behind hims. Jezzails is shoot shooting the pointy ears as the elves move into position on hill hill"

The rat turns throwing the bone onto a large pile of bones amidst a burning bonfire. An elf screams as the fire licks up at his ankles and cries out to his gods to take his soul.

The rat stops for a second and winces before removing an arrow lodged in his shoulder..

"Elves's on hill was not nice! they shoots us and shoots us good. We was lucky that Kraftits warpstone shield protected the globe throwers we was and they lead us into a charge on the pointies! Then we had fun fun.. Die Die! elfies and ratties in big fight!"

"But princey ran! he wanteds to recover he dids but we got him! I keel him! Die Die! he did! Die Die!"

(Good game though sheer numbers proved the winner and managing to catch the elves rear as they moved meaning archers could be picked off)

Worth us saving Replays btw? got mine and can host it if people care.

Gamespot Review: Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Battle March

By Brett Todd

A new campaign featuring orcs and dark elves is the only noteworthy addition in this expansion for Warhammer: Mark of Chaos.

The Good

• Broad story includes new races like orcs and dark elves  
• Mostly accurate depiction of units from the tabletop game  
• New World Domination multiplayer mode is a step in the right direction.

The Bad

• Merely recycles the original Mark of Chaos campaign  
• Linear campaign loaded with many dull missions.

Do you like orcs? That's the main question you need to ask when contemplating a purchase of Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Battle March, as this expansion-plus-original-game combo package includes no extra content except for one new campaign featuring everybody's favorite green-skinned goons. You get the exact same real-time strategy take on the dark Warhammer fantasy universe released back at the end of 2006, along with an additional dozen or so hours of play tacked on to fill out an epic saga about a war between the religious fanatics of the Empire and the evil Hordes of Chaos. Still, you would expect a little more than just a single new campaign from an add-on hitting store shelves a full two years down the line, and hope for more serious work to address some of the original game's shortcomings.

The biggest issue with the Empire and Chaos campaigns in the original Mark of Chaos was the linear nature of everything. Both army management and the missions themselves were big-time blah and practically played themselves. The Empire's noble troops and Chaos' evil monsters followed a straight path through the text-told (aside from the amazing opening cinematic showing an Empire patrol being waylaid by Chaos warriors) storyline, going from one battle to another on a tactical map screen so dark that you could barely make out the terrain. Strategic depth was almost nonexistent when it came to building your armies. Because there were no resources to gather or bases to build, all you did was fight and make the occasional pit stop to buy supplies, buff armies with new weapons and armor, and pick up magical doodads for your heroes. Intense battlefield combat based on a superb re-creation of the Warhammer tabletop game's units and brutally gothic atmosphere made up for some of these shortcomings, although the missions themselves played out on linear maps striped with narrow paths that led you by the hand to each goal. Soldiers themselves were easy to lead as well, as all you had to worry about was keeping their morale up, choosing from a couple of basic formations and dealing with the usual rock-paper-scissors formula to determine what units worked best against others. You sure didn't need to do a whole lot of thinking, which tied the game to an anchor that you got bored with lugging around after seven or eight missions.

So you can understand how adding more of the same to that could be seen as disappointing. The new campaign, which throws a greenskin army of orcs and goblins being manipulated by the dark elves into the original two-sided tale of a Chaos invasion of the Empire, is a straight-up rehash of its two predecessors. It plays and feels a lot like the original game's Chaos campaign, with the same focus on the bad guys and a lot of very similar, if not identical, units. You might find it a little hard to get jazzed up about leading orc and goblin armies, since parts of both were already present in the original Mark of Chaos campaigns as greenskin mercenaries. Of course, you now also get the dark elves and a memorable new lead character in the orc war boss hero Gorbash. But the sunscreen-loving elves don't show up in the campaign right away, so for a good while you'll be left feeling as if you've played this game before. Also, Gorbash's repetitive "Me smash!" Cockney musings will get on your nerves after a half hour or so.

Even more annoying is the repetitive design of the battle scenarios. If anything, the new orc campaign in Battle March is more linear than its predecessors. Every map requires you to guide your forces down a narrow pathway to mission goals, battling ever-growing enemy battalions along the way in what soon turns into a battle of attrition. Early scraps are always cakewalks, although you'll generally take just enough losses in each one that you'll find yourself running low on manpower by the time you reach the inevitable big fight at each scenario's conclusion. Along with being pretty tedious, this sort of structure can also totally screw you in the overall campaign progress. It's very, very easy to survive a mission with just a handful of troops, leaving you unable to take on the next assignment with even the faintest hope of success. Buying reinforcements is always possible between battles, of course, but you don't earn enough gold during fights to afford to completely replace units lost if your casualties were relatively high. You can't save during missions, either, which means that you often get to the very end of the road and then discover that you don't have a chance of winning or finishing with enough troops to continue on. Big fun.

Increasing your survival rate is very difficult, too. Some maps are laid out like puzzles. Take one turn and you head off to certain death, but take another and you'll run into gangs of orc boyz eager to join up with your main army. There is rarely any way to tell which way to go, as all routes look the same. A tip occasionally pops up onscreen letting you know that a certain part of the map would be worth taking a look at, although this generally directs you to hero items and other loot--not the smartest way to proceed through the scenario. You often wind up playing campaign maps two or three times to learn them before having a chance to beat them. Battle March battles are also very fast, and as with the original game there's no way to turn down the speed settings or even pause the action to dish out orders. It is just about impossible to assume full tactical control over units during larger-scale battles; all you can do is aim your battalions in the right direction and hope that you come out on the other side of the fight with as few corpses to bury as possible. Battlefields are also narrow and confined for the most part, and this sure doesn't help with army control. Unless you're dealing with just a few units, engagements inevitably turn into chaotic mash-ups where it is hard to tell what's going on, let alone make any orders to turn the tide or complete the vanquishing of a foe. Heroes are the only units that you can really focus on managing, due to their lone-star status on battlefields, nifty ability with spells and various sorts of arcane artifacts, and their solo presence in the man-to-man duels with enemy heroes that can figure into many missions.
 

One thing Battle March does have going for it is charisma. Lots of charisma. Like its big brother Mark of Chaos, the re-creation of the Warhammer tabletop game here is pretty much stellar. While the game isn't a hardcore wargame and so lacks the tactical depth of its 1:64-scale cousin, units look as though they've been painted by a miniatures master. It is very hard for a Games Workshop fan to suppress glee at seeing orc boyz, dark elf cold ones, witch elves, half-naked dark elf sorceresses, and the like shedding blood for "real" here. Backgrounds are suitably bleak, a perfect fit for this infamously harsh fantasy setting that is all war, all the time. All that said, there is nothing here that looks good enough to warrant the absurdly long level loading times. That little problem from the original Mark of Chaos is back in Battle March, and it's just as bad as ever. The soundtrack by leading game composer Jeremy Soule also returns in all its glory, adding a martial intensity to the battlefield that serves as a terrific counterpart to the clashing of swords and shields.

Multiplayer further evokes traditional Warhammer battles, thanks in large part to the core game's Create Army option. Being able to custom-outfit any one of the game's six factions (Empire, Chaos, high elf, dark elf, orcs and goblins, and skaven) and go online for duels with other human players gets right to the heart of what Warhammer is all about. This expansion doesn't add a great deal in this regard, however. The new world domination mode of play is a nice amenity where you battle it out for control of multiple domains on a tactical map, but it really amounts to nothing more than fighting through a linked series of skirmishes and gets monotonous fairly fast. It does at least offer bonuses that add some strategic depth to the tactical screen, as you receive faction boosts like enhanced gold production and buffed morale for troops when conquering certain territories.

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Battle March is for dedicated fans only. Its depiction of the sinister Warhammer Old World fantasy setting is remarkably true to the tabletop game, but the gameplay feels a little past its best-by date due to the continuing disappointment of the bland campaign structure and mission design.

Strategy Informer Review: We play Warhammer: Mark of Chaos...

By Simon Priest

Defend the Empires lands from the unrelenting, leaderless hordes of chaos or thrust your dark will and serve the Chaos gods themselves.

 It's your standard good guys vs. the bad guys setup, a lot of nasty words were traded with oceans of blood too, and now you're responsible for sorting out this mess. So what makes Mark of Chaos anything special then? The answer is simply: thunderous battle.

As the game opens you're treated to one of the best salivating intro movies a game could offer with plenty of sword, axe and blood. The detail is brilliant and the animators having everything to be proud of, it sets the tone for the entire game and doesn't disappoint.

You have the usual suspect of configuration settings at your disposal, whacking as many as high as you can get away with really doesn't transform the experience of the game. I don't have too meaty a machine, turning off shadows and the bloom effect was enough to pump out a nice frame rate leaving me with many other fine eye candy options switched on.

The game is gorgeous for its battlefield environments, playable units and a brilliant user interface. From the preview version I noticed that every model within a unit was identical, this has changed and a greater variety is given. While not entirely free of clones the units when you zoom up close for some action vary in their equipment such as helmet, shield banner etc.

Detailing of more unique units such as giants or trolls really stands out, though it's probably more tactical to stay zoomed out, take a close look at these beasts and recognise a great artwork department. Battle maps and even the campaign map are impressive enough without even having men and orcs marching across them. While the campaign view may feel like you've stepped into Lord of the Rings for a second, the way it plays out is very different.

Aside from multiplayer which I'll go into later, you'll be able to choose from two campaigns. The first is to serve the Empire and the second, you've guessed it, fight for the hordes of chaos. Each campaign is then split into chapters which consist of the player traversing a campaign map with various stopping points, both mandatory and optional.

Mark of Chaos is unique in that it is a real-time strategy game at heart but it also delivers a fantastic light role-playing element - it's actually been done before yes but this game blows them away. The reason for this 0wnge? Well there are three categories you can level up your heroes into, so the more death they deal the more experience they'll rake in. The first is more of general combat against foes; the second is for duelling against other heroes, and the third aiding attached units.

Hero duels are a fantastic little feature; you can charge one of your great heroes and make them challenge another. They'll fight to the death, no other unit can interfere with the duel, an enforced honour ethic protection barrier forms around them. If things look bad then you can always use the option to flee but your troop's morale will take a hit.

 Your units themselves too can go up in experience, so when you combine a powerful hero with a veteran swordsman group you can bet there's going to be a lot of dark red liquid sloshing about the place. You can also outfit your heroes with dropped or purchased booty, better armour, weapons like sword or staff, a decent pair of slippers etc. This applies to troops as well, except they get standard upgrade gear from a town's armoury. Sadly you can't trade items between heroes from retail version, but a recent patch fixes this issue.

Yes the campaign maps does more then let you play the route and conquer your way to the next chapter. It's also where you get to spend your gold, recruit your army and outfit your shiny trinkets. You use towns to access places like a temple which will provide blessing bonuses for the next battle as well as replace fallen comrades. An armoury will let you gear up the troops with better weapons, armour, siege equipment, banner carriers etc. A barracks lets your enlist fresh faced units to swell your numbers and an alchemist offers potions and is where you can sell unwanted junk.

Of course this doesn't happen out of charity, gold is all important in Mark of Chaos and it isn't easy flowing so watch the purse strings. It's almost critical then to watch out for your current troops, as they gain experience and have better equipment they'll be worth far more than to enlist a new unit as replacement. Experience cannot be bought like cheap wine, fight with your brain on and you'll really do yourself a favour later on financially.

After a battle you'll also get a sum of pillaged monies, a nice little incentive to storm over optional battles. In the actual battle themselves enemy units can also drop gold so don't leave dropped items behind. Another drawback is that you can't explore battlefields after objectives have been met so any bounty left on the floor will be lost. As you recruit and outfit your army on the campaign map you don't do so whilst in battle. You can't build more troops like many other traditional RTS titles, you choose your units and heroes before the conflict and then deal with what you've got.

It's a great way to remind everyone it's not just a numbers game; you have a maximum you can take into the field so you have to choose wisely, you could also select the option so the computer chooses for you. This is a great way to jump into battle as it will pick a variety of units to help you deal with what lies ahead.

Each major point in a chapter has ingame cut scenes done rather well; while not as divine as the intro movies quality it is more than enough to move the plot forward. The voice acting is spot-on with everyone feeling human, or orc, and you're not reminded this guys in some booth waiting for his pay check. Kudos as many gamers (me included) fear wretched acting, spoiling our whole virtual experience. If only the lip-synching were better timed then it would be perfect.

Mark of Chaos is a linear campaign experience, does this hurt? No. While it's no Total War or Lord of the Rings for freedom on the campaign map, this game is out to tell a story in its rich universe. It brings new features to an old style of storytelling RTS, the days of Command&Conquer for example. Non-linear isn't always better and often sacrifices a great story and experience for throwing countless options at players. Mark of Chaos is about blood drenched battle, and I'm glad that they get straight to it effectively.

For the dedicated Warhammer fans out there, the army creator awaits your command. Multiplayer is designed to cater for the true underlying flair of the Warhammer franchise, big armies in big battles, usually accompanied by big egos. You get to choose what units you'll have, their colour scheme, banner etc everything that will help you personalise an army.

Modes you can choose from are a death-match style where you simply bash each others troops till one emerges victorious. Reinforcement battles actually let you earn gold and then buy additional troops to call in, understandably these battles can last a while.

It would seem the practicality of an online match is disappointing with a number of hitches in the works; patches have been forth-coming so make sure to grab them as soon as you can. They also address a number of bugs and crashes.

 There is so much going for Warhammer: Mark of Chaos and while it's beset with lingering technical woes, underneath it has the right stuff and would be well deserved of your attention.

Top Game Moment: Inspecting the massacred remains of my fallen foes, bloodlust isn't a bad thing it's just been misinterpreted.

It’s Time: Total War – Warhammer Confirmed

By Adam Smith

Total War: Warhammer is coming. Confirmation comes in the form of a single line in the upcoming Art of Total War book. Mike Simpson, the creative director of the series, is discussing the future of Total War and after writing about Total War: Arena’s exploration of multiplayer, he lands the hammer blow.

“…taking the series to a fantasy setting with Total War: Warhammer.”

It might not be called Total Warhammer but at least it has a name. The artbook is officially released on 23rd Jan but the quote was plucked out by StormOfRazors, a TWCenter poster who received an early copy. Thoughts below.


I love historical strategy dearly but ever since the Total War series arrived on the scene, I’ve been unable to squash the visions of enormous fantastical armies clashing on those wonderful maps that Creative Assembly have been adding bells and whistles to for the last fifteen years. When the studio signed a deal with Games Workshop back in 2012, we learned that they’d be concentrating on the Fantasy side of Warhammer rather than the grimdarkness of 40K, and the license seemed a natural fit with Total War. But everything went quiet. Well, apart from the Romans and the very audible sound of screaming in space.

Whether it’ll be relevant to this project or not, Alien shows that at least one team in Creative Assembly knows how to treat a license. Even the game’s harshest critics must find something to admire in the art design and recreation of the film’s aesthetic.

It seems likely that we’ll find out more either when the artbook is released and the name is officially out in the wild, or even beforehand now that the news is spreading. Of course, we already sort of definitely knew this would be happening because Creative Assembly + Warhammer = Total Warhammer, but knowing that the next in the series after Attila is likely to contain skellingtons, necromancers and Chaos Magic is quite the thing.

About Rock, Paper, Shotgun

 

The Making Of Warhammer: Total War (THE MOD)

By Rob Zacny

Until Total War: Warhammer comes along from Creative Assembly, the most ambitious and comprehensive Warhammer fantasy strategy game is a colossal mod for Rome: Total War called Warhammer: Total War – A Call to Arms. Over the course of five years, a high school student and a handful of volunteers tortured and twisted the aging Rome: Total War engine into becoming a full-fledged Warhammer game.

Powered by an obsolete engine even when the final version was released a couple years back, and soon overshadowed by the news the Sega had acquired the rights to make a Warhammer fantasy game on PC, A Call to Arms could be seen as a classically quixotic modding effort. But if you look past the dated graphics, you’ll find that A Call to Arms might just be the most faithful adaptation Warhammer fantasy will ever receive on PC. It is a sprawling, ambitious, and scarcely-coherent effort to bring every ounce of Warhammer fantasy lore to life as a Total War game – and in doing so it captures the spirit of the old Warhammer fantasy universe better than official games might ever dare.

A Youth Well-Wasted

Warhammer: A Call to Arms creator James Baillie is a nerd polymath. He’s an inveterate game modder and aspiring board game designer, as well as the founder of Exilian.co.uk, a forum where strategy fans and history buffs collide.

Somehow, in the midst of a busy career of passion projects, he’s also found time to to excel at academics: he’s currently finishing his degree in history at Cambridge, where he focuses on Byzantine and Eastern Mediterranean medieval history.

But of course he’s not just a history major. His historical interest is narrow and specialized even by the standards of Classical and medieval studies. He explain it like this: “I’m sort of this odd mishmash, because I’m sort of specializing in the Classical bits of history — which tend to be the preserve of language-based people — but what I do is a lot more mathematically based history. I’m quite into quantitative methods and that kind of stuff.”

In other words, Baillie aspires to be an expert on how ancient and medieval civilizations did math. If you were wondering, this is just the kind of person who devotes his teenage years to taking a game engine that’s as creaky and tumbledown as the Byzantine Empire and turning it into a Warhammer game.

For Baillie, what sets Warhammer Fantasy apart is that it’s a complete mess. The messiness was baked-into its DNA when Games Workshop created it.

“It was being built up in the 90s as a world where Games Workshop could throw in every fantasy trope you could possibly imagine and shove it into one world,” he explains. “It means there’s a huge amount that you can then do with that. Because it’s designed to be almost infinitely flexible. So the background is very broad, you can come up with lots of sort of interesting scenarios within it. So I think that gives it a lot of replay value that you wouldn’t get from some other settings.”

At least, this is how Warhammer fantasy used to be. But since its inception, the unhinged lore of Warhammer has undergone a gradual process of consolidation and retconning by Games Workshop. What was once a universe that was almost gleeful in its ridiculousness has become something a little more familiar: a Manichean struggle between good guys (or good-ish guys – this is still Warhammer, after all) and bad guys.

Retcons are always controversial among fans, and Baillie is no different in his cool reception of them.

“I’ve adapted to a lot of changes by ignoring them. Digging into what I was looking at when I was building up Warhammer Total War, I was often digging into background stuff that was pretty old, or was being retconned as I was modding. Because I think that works better with the Total War engine,” he says.

“The older versions of the setting, you had something that was supposed to be more [reflective of] medieval Europe. Much less of a good guy/bad guy, fitting everybody into two teams. Which works much better when you’re trying to do something that runs with this Total War engine.”
Playing A Call to Arms, it definitely plays out more like old-school Warhammer fantasy. Everyone hates everybody else. There are no racial affinities or alliances to be trusted.
Everybody is out for themselves, and the politics make no sense at all. It’s a mod of endless, “Who’d win in a fight?” battles between homicidal fantasy stereotypes.

Prisoner of Rome

Not that Baillie had a choice in how A Call to Arms plays out. In many ways, he was trapped by Rome’s own limitations, which he inherited when he began the project. A Call to Arms was not created from scratch, but began life as a continuation of an earlier, abandoned Warhammer mod. This is why Baillie ended up working with the Rome engine at a time when it was clearly nearing the end of its useful life.

But that also forced A Call to Arms to adhere to the rules that governed Rome: Total War. When you pick a faction and jump onto the enormous campaign map (which spans the entirety of the Warhammer fantasy world), you’re likely to find yourself immediately at war with all your neighbors. Some might even send a trade agreement the same turn their armies try to mug you.

“It’s very hard to make diplomacy in Rome do anything that isn’t just ‘everybody trying to kill everybody,'” Baillie admits. “It is a system that is designed for everybody to be going out for their own advantage.”

This was always the knock against Rome and its sequel, Medieval 2. The battles looked incredible, but the strategic layer made less sense than a season of professional wrestling. This doesn’t bother Baillie.

“I quite like it like that,” he argues. “I think I would have kept it with a fairly ‘everybody fighting everybody’ focus regardless. Particularly when you look at some of the older background. The Bretonians and the Wood Elves do fight quite a bit, and the Wood Elves and the Dwarves will happily kill each other on sight.”

While all the usual Warhammer Fantasy standbys are there in A Call to Arms — the Empire, the Skaven, the Dwarves — Baillie wanted to do more than just capture the familiar tabletop armies in a computer game. He wanted to explore the periphery of the Warhammer Fantasy universe, the things that are left as a part of the canon but never fully developed.

“I knew people would want to get their favorite core units more or less as they had them on the tabletop and get them into the core engine,” he says. “But one of my favorite bits was actually when I got to explore bits that you can’t get in the tabletop, like Araby and Kislev as entire factions. But also you’ll find there are several smaller localized areas which have their own mercenaries of recruitable units. It was good to be able to dig into the lore.”

If Ballie was digging into the lore of Warhammer, however, the Rome engine certainly ensured that the soil was rocky. While Baillie explains that the firearm and gunpowder artillery units found on Warhammer battlefields were surprisingly easy to adapt to Rome, flying units were another matter entirely. Rome could not handle them at all, and Baillie had to leave them out of the mod almost entirely.
With one major exception. “In Warhammer: A Call to Arms, Araby does have flying carpets, which is done in a rather odd fashion. What you see is a flying carpet with some wizards on the top. What the game thinks is happening is that there’s sort of an entire invisible elephant happening under that.”

A Moral Victory

Baillie knows where he cut every corner. He knows where the invisible elephants are hiding, where another fantasy race is just another re-skinned Roman. And after five years of work, he only managed to have a couple games to enjoy his own mod, mostly to prove to himself that it actually worked.

“I’m both happy and unhappy with the scale of what was achieved,” he admits. “I mean, there are lots of places where it could be neater. Where it could be more polished. If I’d had a bigger team for the whole time I was working on it and more people doing models… Well, the sorts of things I would really liked to have done would have been getting more unique kinds of battle maps and cities in there. It’s not the ‘perfect conception’ that I have somewhere at the back of my head.”

“But at the same time,” he continues, “I was pleased that I’d managed to stuff the game about as full as it could be stuffed. And there was a pretty big diversity of toys that people have been able to play with. So hopefully people have enjoyed that.”

In many ways, it’s a miracle he was able to finish the mod at all. While he never heard from anyone at Creative Assembly about his work, he was happy to struggle on in anonymity. Too much attention made him nervous.

“We were always never sure, if we did hear anything, whether it would be from the friendly end of the company or the legal department. We were generally quite glad to be left alone from that perspective,” he says. “There’s still nervousness, in the back of my head! There is always wondering whether someday the email will come. But yeah. …It was always something I was quite acutely aware of.”

These days, Baillie calls A Call to Arms a “mostly-closed” chapter of his life. There are always a few more bugs he wants to fix, but he’s moved on from the project. Finishing up his studies don’t give him a lot of choice. He’s hoping that after completing his degree, he’s able to continue with academics, though funding cuts make that a chancier prospect that in it used to be.

I ask him if he’s considered a career in game development and he says, ” I have considered it. If it turns out I failed my finals, I may be considering it very seriously! But yes. Game development is something which I really enjoy doing, and which I plan on carrying on doing.”

In fact, he’s not sure he can imagine pursuing any one role to the exclusion of the others. Here at the end of his studies, and at the end of his career as a Warhammer modder, he is still the kind of person who uses history and games to help relate to the world.

“The two [interests] have grown out of each other so much that I can’t imagine one falling to one side or the other. In my head, the things I am into have never existed as… totally separate and I can’t see links between them,” he says.

“I will think about my game design and apply things which I know about from history and weave them into that. And I will take away what I know of games… and the things you get from that — about how people act and the rules of how things work — that’s a sort of key part of looking at systems in history. They just knock together so much in my mind, I can’t imagine them being separated.”

Indeed, school and game design are inextricably linked for Baillie. Among the half-dozen or so Rome: Total War mods littering his desktop right now is one called “A Game of Colleges” which is a Game of Thrones-style dynastic free-for-all between the colleges of Cambridge. It’s the Warhammer fantasy version of the UK academic universe that Baillie now inhabits.

Stolen Triumph?

Perhaps predictably, it was just as Baillie and his team were putting the finishing touches on A Call to Arms that the news broke that Sega and Creative Assembly had acquired the rights to make a PC strategy game based around Warhammer fantasy.

Baillie looses a single, ironic laugh when the topic and its timing comes up. Total War: Warhammer is something he has mixed feelings about, in part because he knows he won’t be able to avoid comparing it to A Call to Arms.

“I can’t imagine that it will come out and then I won’t get it to have a bit of a play with it. I think it’s going to be interesting to see where they go with it and where they take it. There will always be a bit of a case of not wanting to think about it too hard because you don’t want to make the comparison,” he says.

“But…I did the whole thing because I thought the Total War engine is pretty much ideal for putting a Warhammer game into. It will make it interesting when I finally am confronted with the ‘real’ Warhammer: Total War, if you like,” he explains.

“Because I guess at one end, there will be the, ‘This is so much better and more professional than what I spent however many years of my life on.’ And on the other hand, I will probably be comparing it to the concept I have in the back of my head for precisely how I feel a Warhammer: Total War ought to be done. I don’t know how close it will end up being to that. But probably not very.”

And that’s the thing about fan mods. In many ways, they’re allowed more freedom to embrace the weird and cultish aspects of their source material. Even as Games Workshop attempts to pare down the source material and turn Warhammer Fantasy into the kind of (mostly) coherent universe that Warhammer 40,000 has become, it loses some of the whimsical strangeness that made Warhammer fantasy so delightful.

But Baillie didn’t have to make any of those compromises. His Warhammer fantasy, and the Warhammer fantasy of a couple generations of tabletop gamers, is memorialized in part by a Call to Arms. It’s a little janky, and certainly kind of ugly compared to subsequent Total War games. It’s almost certainly too big, with too many factions and a nigh-incoherent storyline as it unfolds.

It’s Warhammer.

About Rock, Paper, Shotgun