The Empire is the most traditional of the four base factions, not counting the Chaos Warriors who are inexplicably locked behind a pre-order wall. Here, the variety of units in each faction sets them radically apart from one another. In the previous titles, each faction would play near-identically to each other with just a few small differences. The rock-paper-scissors mechanics of the previous Total War games are still in play, but abandoning reality breathes life into what was becoming a stale franchise.
This allows its real-time strategy gameplay to dramatically diverge from the traditional formula - giant bat creatures attack hordes of greenskinned orcs, while massive steam tanks blast daemons of chaos across the battlefields. While the Total War series is typically grounded in historical fact, TW: Warhammer tosses all that out the window with its fantasy setting. While Games Workshop don’t seem to care who uses their IP as long as it can turn a buck, Total War developers Creative Assembly certainly do, and it shows with the fantastic Total War: Warhammer. For every excellent Vermintide or Dawn of War, there’s a mediocre Fire Warrior. The Warhammer license is hit-or-miss when it comes to videogames.
WTF: Why are my allies fighting each other instead of the giant bird army? LOW: Chaos Warriors locked behind a pre-order paywall.
HIGH: Perfectly captures the feel of massive battles.
