New thing I'm going to start doing here. Whenever I'm done with something I'll write a quick review of it for anyone who cares. Today it's Total War: Warhammer II's first DLC race pack.

Anyone who personally knows me, or at least is my Steam friend, knows Total War: Warhammer is my heroin. I turn that game on and I'll lose days to it. And they just released the first race pack to 2, bumping the race count up to 13, 14 when they finally patch Norsca back into the game. On top of that the DLC pack comes with 4 new legendary lords for the new faction and a new skaven lord as free DLC, bringing the total number of usable legendary lords up to a whopping 40 (42 counting Norsca). This gives an absurd amount of variety and replay-ability to the game, considering each lord gives a faction-wide bonus if they are your starting lord in addition to the army-wide bonus to whatever army they command.

For those who don't know Total War is a long running real-time strategy franchise build around semi-realistic battles. Meaning no base building or resource management on the battle field. Once fighting starts both sides have their armies and that's (typically) all they're going to get. These games are all about being tactical and thinking on your feed, using old school battle tactics such as formations and flanking.

Total War: Warhammer takes the long-running Total War formula and applies it to the Warhammer fantasy world. The sequel plays more like a giant expansion pack to the first, adding new campaign maps and factions, but keeping the fundamental gameplay he same. It is a stand alone game, but the factions in the first game are only playable in the second if you own both games.

Now with all that said, let's talk about the DLC. First and foremost Creative Assembly, the devs behind the game, tend to drop patches with their DLC and this one comes with a very nice performance update that makes the AI turns speed by much faster than before. Nice quality of life update, considering before I'd have my laptop of phone on hand to keep me entertained during AI turns. Plus we have a new Skaven lord, Tretch Craventail of Clan Rictus. He's a blast to play in campaign, starting up north to bother the elves and a faction ability to give all of his units Vanguard, making him nuts as a rushdown general. Plus he starts with a Doomwheel, which is insane in the early game. Otherwise he's a more defensive Queek, lower melee damage but higher defense.

Then there's the Tomb Kings. They are the alternative flavor of undead in the Warhammer world. Ancient tyrants who live in the deserts of the Southlands, naught but bone and mummies now, brought to life by ancient magics of the first necromancer and stirred to action by the weakening Votex. These long buried kings arise with their skeletal legions to reclaim their former glory. Basically a bunch of Egyptian skeleton warriors backed up by animated statues. They share a lot in common with the Vampire Counts from game 1; most of their units cause fear, they don't run but if their leadership drops too low they start to fall apart, and pound for pound they tend to be weaker than comparable units from living factions, save for their constructs. Unlike the Vampire Counts, who's undead are mostly puppets, the Tomb Kings skeletons are all autonomous, which is the excuse they use to give them bows. Tomb Kings have a wide selection of ranged units that allow them to play more like Empire than the rush-down of Vampire Counts. The downside is they don't have a lot in the way of armor piecing, especially in the ranged department. They do have their own lore of magic, but it is very different from the lore of vampires. No wind spell, no group healing, but a ton of good buffs and debuffs. Instead the faction relies on a mechanic similar to the Dark Elves that triggers after so many deaths happen on the battlefield. Unlike Murderous Prowess, which is difficult to control when it pops and not threatening to anyone who can micro, Realm of Souls gives an army wide health boost, which is always welcome in a grind.

In single player they play very differently to any other faction. In campaign I'd call them the anti-Chaos. Their units are free to recruit and have no upkeep cost, but aside from the disposable skeleton warriors you have a faction wide limit to how many of any given unit you can recruit. These limits are based on the buildings you build in your settlements. So not only does a building unlock a unit to be recruited in that region or from the global pool, building them increases how many of that unit you can field anywhere. So there's a big incentive to expanding out and it makes you think like a true tyrant. Skeleton warriors are disposable, as they're easily recruited anywhere, for free, with no downside.

The unique resource the Tomb Kings are about are jars. These jars can be traded in for magic items or bonus units or the cost for new technologies. Jars can be generated by certain buildings or characters, but the main way to get them is from taking other cities or completing quests. Another incentive to play aggressively in campaign.

Lastly, in the Vortex campaign, the Tomb Kings completely ignore the Vortex. They do not perform any rites or rituals and do not have to deal with waves of Chaos armies spawning in their territory. Instead they hunt for the Books of Nagash, the first tomes of necromancy scattered across the world. Each one gives a different faction wide bonus and cannot be lost once obtained. They're held in key cities, usually far from the starting point, or held by marauding armies that have high tier stacks. Collect 5 of the Nine to unlock the final battle at the Black Pyramid of Nagash in the deserts of the Southlands.

Overall this faction is a lot of fun. At its core its more Total Warhammer, which I'll always recommend to RTS players who are tired to base building or MOBAs, and they play differently enough to stand out. They're a versatile faction with a cool look and a campaign that rewards conquest and expansion.