Total War: Warhammer II
Total War: Warhammer II is the second game of the Total War: Warhammer Trilogy and technically the first expansion of Total War: Warhammer. It will feature the Dark Elves, High Elves, Lizardmen and Skaven. Whereas the most played faction in the first game was the Empire followed by the Vampire Counts, thus resulting in Karl Franz catapulting himself into becoming a fountain of memes the likes of which Warhammer has never before seen from a single character (he doesn't count, he's from 40K); so far it seems that interest is pretty evenly divided between the four starting factions with perhaps the Lizardmen and the rodents who don't exist being a bit more eagerly anticipated than the Elves due to being rather different than anything currently offered by Total War Warhammer. Promotional material seems to be focusing the most on the Lizardmen, which may indicate that rather surprisingly they're going to be the Empire equivalent of this game instead of the High Elves. Though subsequent pieces of promotional art have alternated between the 3 announced races, casting this theory into doubt.
Setting
Like its' predecessor Total War: Warhammer 2 takes place in the classic Warhammer Fantasy universe. Unlike the first game however, which focused on the old world, the sequel is instead set in the Warhammer world's 'not America' or 'The New World'. Locations such as Lustria, Naggaroth, Ulthuan and even the Southlands are confirmed to appear.
Gameplay
CA has confirmed that the mega-campaign map that will be released post-launch will feature the entirety of the old world with no reduction in provinces, but will simply shave off a few provinces at the extreme south end of Lustria and the Southlands. Limited regional occupation has been replaced with a new system where certain provinces can never be fully developed by a faction that's not considered native to that kind of terrain. It remains to be seen whether this entails tiny wood elf style outposts, secondary province cities, or will allow full province capitals that simply aren't allowed to be developed to level five. This is likely to deal with the issues of trying to figure out even more kinds of regional occupations (like whether high elves should be able to occupy human/vampire territory and vice versa or where the Lizardmen fit into this or creating further subdivisions on the map) and also making it easier to engage in wars in provinces not considered native to your faction, as beforehand a Vampire or Human army in dwarf/greenskin territory or vice versa would basically be faced with constant attrition and having to wheel all the way back to your home territory to replenish losses. Which is tedious but manageable now but could easily prove insanity inducing when the map more than doubles in size in terms of provinces and settlements and would also have to account for the added hassle of needing to ship troops back and forth across the ocean.
So far the confirmed legendary lords are Tyrion, Teclis, Malekith, Morathi, Kroq-Gar, and Mazdamundi. All bets are off as to who the fourth factions' legendary lords will be but odds are better than even that Thanquol will be one of them.
In acknowledgement of one of the most frequent requests in the first game, all the legendary lords (or at least the starting two) in this game will have different starting positions, thus allowing players to play co-op campaigns as the same faction for all total war warhammer II factions. It remains to be seen whether this will carry over to the mega-campaign as well; giving the Empire and Warriors of Chaos in particular this much desired ability, as well as actually letting Ungrim Ironfist rule from Karak Kadrin rather than crashing on Thorgrim's couch. CA has also promised that it will be designing the legendary lords for this game more in the style of the much more fondly regarded post-release Legendary lords than the starting two in the first game. Which is going to be a godsend for Caster Lords in particular as anyone can tell you about how Gelt and Kemmler compare to not just fighty or multi-purpose lords but also to post-release caster lords like Ghorst and Wurrzzag. Hopefully magic will also get a rehaul to be more impressive without being outright cheese as well, to properly get the feel of the kind of power that Slann or Elven mages can unleash.
The campaign (not the mega-campaign) for Total Warhammer II revolves around the Vortex of Magic at Ulthuan. Namely that it's destabilizing and the factions all need to do something about it. The High Elves are looking around Naggaroth, Lustria, and the Southlands for the tools and rituals they need to repair the Vortex and thus stabilize the winds of magic and weaken the Chaos Gods while also preventing Ulthuan from sinking. The Lizardmen also want to do this, but they want to make sure it's done right, I.E their way; with the Elves' cooperation on this not being required. The Dark Elves want to ensure the Vortex destabilizes completely in such a way that doesn't let Chaos swallow the world but still empowers the Dark Elves and destroys Ulthuan, completing Malekith's vengeance against the hated Phoenix Kingdom. This campaign is said to contain more narrative elements than the last one, but is still said to be sandboxy in that while it is a victory condition it is not the only/sole victory condition. The Combined Campaign will be a sandbox similar to the first game and not feature the Vortex victory conditions. While the Chaos Invasion will occur similarly to game one, it is not known to what extent, whether all other races will receive diplomatic bonuses during, or if the Druchii will also have to defend the northern border.
Free-For-All is making a return, in which 4 armies can battle each other. It is unknown if a team FFA will also be implemented.
A few new features for both the Vortex and the Mega campaigns that have been confirmed are ruins and shipwrecks that can be explored in a choose-your-own-adventure fashion (though these are not randomized other than where they appear, so you'll eventually be able to game the system) and rogue armies wandering around the army in search of loot and fights that can ignore usual factional restrictions to provide thematic armies like a goblin leading an army of nothing but squig herds.
A livestream showcasing the Norsca roster confirms that the game will feature more cinematics such as during quest battles and during campaign victories. These will likely carry over the first game, eventually.
Factions
Lizardmen
Counting on the various types of lizardmen, natural armour, dinosaurs, and dinosaurs riding dinosaurs, the Lizardmen are the masters of Lustria and seek to complete the plan of the Old Ones. What is known of their mechanics so far is that settlements are part of a "ley-line" network that can only be seen by them, causing some otherwise ignorable cities to become prime targets.
Their roster: https://www.totalwar.com/blog/lizardmen-army-roster/
High Elves
Counting with a balanced roster, a host of magical options and dragons, the High Elves are looking like the Empire's equivalent in the game. Their main distinction is that setting up trade agreements also provides them with a network of spies in the lands of their trading partners.
Their roster: https://www.totalwar.com/blog/high-elf-army-roster/
Dark Elves
Like their High Elf adversaries the Dark Elves field a versatile and well rounded roster of troops. The key difference between them and their foes is that the Druchii focus on offense over defence like the Asur do. As such they are noted to be less resilient on the whole than the High Elves, with some units like the Witch Elves falling squarely under the definition of glass cannon. However this is balanced out by a number of heavily armoured or otherwise resilient units such as the Corsairs, Black guard, War Hydras, and Cold One Dread Knights, who are described by CA as being dinosaur riding cataphracts. They can also field Black Dragons, both as a mount option and a standalone unit. In addition the Dark Elves have a battlefield mechanic which gives them an army wide offensive buff once a certain number of units (from either army on the field) have been killed. Their campaign objectives haven't been elaborated on much at this point, other than the fact that Malekith seeks to channel the energy of the vortex into himself and use it to achieve his ambitions of conquest. Their starting legendary lords (predictably) are Malekith and Morathi.
Their roster: https://www.totalwar.com/blog/dark-elf-army-roster/
Just a Rat
IT IS JUST A RAT.
Confirmed by a leak
Nothing to see here man-thing, move-move along.
And the rest...
It has been confirmed that a large number of factions from Total War Warhammer will be in the sequel, mostly acting as minor NPC factions (though a quick faction unlocker will fix that). Considering the lore, every faction, (even the nominally stuck in Athel Loren wood elves could appear since treemen will appear in Lustria and worldroots allow the elves to be potentially anywhere), even dwarves and beastmen if you stretch things a little and do the lore equivalent of squinting really hard. The Vortex Campaign map shows Tomb Kings and Araby suspiciously absent from the map, while Wood Elves get Oreon in the Southlands, Vampire Counts get the Vampire Coast, Dwarfs get Karak Zorn, Bretonnia gets crusader states, Empire gets Sundenburg, and Norsca get Skeggi.
Gallery
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FOR THE OLD ONES!
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DEATH TO THE ASUR!
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THE VERMINHORDE MARCHES!
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