Total War: WARHAMMER II – The Twisted & The Twilight FAQ
Total War: WARHAMMER II
Ella McConnell
November 19 2020
The Twisted & The Twilight is the latest Legendary Lords Pack for Total War: WARHAMMER II, and introduces two rival Legendary Lords from the world of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, each with their own factions, objectives, mechanics, units and playstyle, for use in both the Eye of the Vortex and Mortal Empires campaigns as well as custom and multiplayer battles.
Throt the Unclean, Master Mutator of Clan Moulder, has grown ravenously hungry following a lifetime of mutating experiments, believing that consuming the magic of Ariel, Queen of the Wood Elves, can save him from his eternal starvation. He is opposed by the Sisters of Twilight, Elven twins who were once a single being before being split into two bodies by the Weave. Together they must complete their mission to prepare the glade for Ariel’s ritual, which will heal the rift in the world.
The Twisted & The Twilight includes:
Two unique Legendary Lords leading their own factions:
Throt the Unclean, Master Mutator of Clan Moulder and one of the nine Lords of Hell Pit
The Sisters of Twilight Naestra and Arahan, Emissaries of Queen Ariel
Powerful new units and Heroes for both the Skaven and the Wood Elves, including:
Brood Horrors, Mutant Rat Ogres, Packmasters, Wolf Rats, and the terrifying Ghoritch for the Skaven
Zoats, Great Stag Knights, Bladesingers, Spellweavers, and Queen Ariel of Athel Loren herself for the Wood Elves
An Old World Update for the Wood Elves
For full details on The Twisted & The Twilight, including the full unit rosters for both Legendary Lords, head over to the Steam page to read more as well as get 10% off the launch price if you pre-order. FAQ
When will The Twisted & The Twilight be released?
The Twisted & The Twilight will be released on the 3rd of December 2020. Is there a pre-purchase discount?
You’ll get a 10% discount if you pre-purchase The Twisted & The Twilight on Steam before release. Do I need to start a new campaign?
If you want to make the most of the recent plethora of changes then yes, we’d advise that you do start a new campaign. Can I keep my mods?
We advise that you remove all mods until their respective creators have updated them in alignment with the update. Steam is not installing the DLC or the free-LC – what’s happening?
Be patient. If there’s an issue with the DLC, we will communicate this via our official social channels. If you don’t see anything there, you should clear your cache and restart Steam. Will the new Legendary Lords be available in both the Eye of the Vortex and Mortal Empires campaign?
Yes, The Twisted & The Twilight will be available to play in both the Eye of the Vortex and Mortal Empires Campaign, and can also be used in campaign, custom, and battle modes. What new units will be available in The Twisted & The Twilight?
The Twisted & The Twilight introduces the following new units for the Skaven: Ghoritch (Legendary Hero), Brood Horrors, Mutant Rat Ogres, Packmasters, and Wolf Rats.
It also includes the following new units for the Wood Elves: Ariel (Legendary Hero), Zoats, Great Stag Knights, Bladesingers, and Spellweavers. What new mechanics will Throt the Unclean bring to The Twisted & The Twilight?
The new campaign mechanic for Throt the Unclean is The Flesh Laboratory.
When playing as Throt the Unclean, you gain access to his personal Flesh Laboratory. Here you can grow new monsters or augment existing ones to create new horrific abominations.
Shape and customise your units with augments that can be stacked to create different combinations of effects
Augmenting a unit too much can make them unstable and lead them to slowly mutate, gaining negative traits
Units can be “recycled” for raw materials, so even defective units still have a purpose
Recycled units can also be replaced by monsters grown in the Growth Vat
The more Growth Juice in the Growth Vat, the better the quality of monster that comes out
What new mechanics will the Sisters of Twilight bring to The Twisted & The Twilight?
The new campaign mechanic for the Sisters of Twilight is The Forge of Daith.
During a Sisters of Twilight campaign, the Sisters will gain a series of incidents and dilemmas that will grant them access to unique items crafted by Daith, the master smith of Vaul’s Anvil.
These dilemmas will enable the creation of new items or the upgrade of existing items made by Daith. What’s the free content that will be released alongside the DLC?
The Twisted & The Twilight will be accompanied by the release of the Skaven Chieftain Hero and the malevolent Legendary Lord Drycha – more information will be released soon. What’s in the free Old World update that will be released alongside the DLC?
The Twisted & The Twilight will be released alongside an update of the Wood Elves faction. This includes: AMBER AND TECHNOLOGY REWORK
Amber is no longer required for units or buildings, and all technologies that previously cost Amber have had the cost removed and been reworked
Eight new technologies have been added – these are the only things that will now cost Amber
Amber is no longer gained from controlling territory, and is instead awarded for healing Forests
HEALING THE FORESTS
In Mortal Empires, the Wood Elves still need to heal Athel Loren and restore the Oak of Ages. However, to do so they now need to travel the world and heal special Forest regions spread around the map. Each healed Forest will provide unique bonuses
A Forest’s health can be built up over time through various actions, such by securing its borders and building certain buildings. Once sufficiently restored, a Ritual can be performed to permanently heal the Forest
Every Forest also has unique Forest Encounters – interactable markers that provide narrative choices and let the player shape how they heal the Forest
As part of this system, new regions have been added to the campaign – four to Mortal Empires, and two to Vortex – giving the Wood Elves a presence on every part of the map
TRAVELLING THE DEEPROOTS
Wood Elves can now instantly transport their armies between Forest regions using the new Travel Deeproots ability (this ability comes with a cooldown)
When will the free content be available?
On the release day of The Twisted & The Twilight – the 3rd of December 2020.
This Lords Pack for Total War: WARHAMMER II introduces two new Legendary lords for the Skaven and the Wood Elves. Each leads their own faction and features new characters, units, unique gameplay mechanics and narrative objectives.
The wild energies of the Great Vortex have torn a rift in the Dreaming Woods. Could this form the site of a Daemonic invasion? Sensing great peril, Queen Ariel of Athel Loren dispatches her trusted emissaries, the Sisters of Twilight, to prepare the way for a ritual of closure.
Catching wind of Ariel’s plan, Throt the Unclean scents opportunity. If he can defeat the Sisters and capture the Elven queen while she is vulnerable, perhaps he can harness her essence and cure the eternal pangs of starvation caused by his Warpstone-infused metabolism…Legendary lords
Wood Elves: The Sisters of Twilight
Once a single being, divided into siblings by The Weave, Naestra and Arahan are two sides of the same coin. They work together in the service of queen Ariel, marshalling the woodland warriors at her command, and cannot be slain unless both fall in battle. The Twilight Sisters must prepare the glade for Ariel’s arrival and protect her as she performs the ritual.
Forge of Daith:
Daith, the master smith of Vaul’s Anvil, will forge and upgrade unique items for the Sister of Twilight. These items are crafted through incidents and dilemmas which appear through the course of a Sisters of Twilight campaign.
Units:
Ariel: The Queen of Athel Loren is recruitable as a Legendary Hero. She is a powerful spellcaster who is more than capable in melee combat too
Spellweaver: Spellcaster Lord who can be recruited to wield the Lores of Life/Beasts/Shadow/Dark/High magic
Zoats: Powerful Monstrous Beasts who have access to bound Lore of Life spells
Great Stag Knights: heavy Wood Elf cavalry used to penetrate infantry lines and decimate lighter cavalry
Bladesingers: Elite, sword-wielding Wardancers
Regiments of Renown:
Wraiths of the Frozen Heart: Particularly effective for preventing cavalry from cycle charging, or stopping a missile unit from retreating.
Lost Sylvan Knights: Equipped with significant physical resistance.
Enigmas of Ghyran: Elite Zoats with more powerful spells from the Lore of Life.
Skaven: Throt the Unclean
An eternal hunger gnaws at Throt, the Master Mutator of Clan Moulder. A lifetime of auto-experimentation has made him powerful, but his vastly enhanced metabolism means he must feed constantly to maintain himself. He is hell-bent on reducing the Wood Elf queen to a magical pulp, which he will consume to satiate himself at long last.
The Flesh Laboratory:
Moulding muscle and bone like living clay, Throt can use his Flesh Laboratory to fashion hideous new abominations for the battlefield. Numerous augmentations can be stacked to make existing units perform in horrifying new ways, but flesh can only bear so much torment before the subject becomes unstable. Even such aberrations have a use though, as they can be rendered down for valuable materials. More Growth Juice for the vats, Yes-yes!
Units:
Ghoritch: A former general of Archaon the Everchosen, once ignored his commander’s orders and was sent to Hell Pit as punishment. There Throt transplanted his brain into the body of a Rat Ogre, creating an aberration of incredible speed, strength and intelligence. Ghoritch is recruitable as a Legendary Hero.
Packmaster: This Hero unit performs a support role with AoE and targeted buffs, summons Wolf Rats to the thick of battle, and may be mounted on a Brood Horror
Wolf Rats: Highly mobile pack-beasts which come in poisonous and armour-piercing varieties
Mutant Rat Ogre: a large single-entity monster adept at brawling.
Brood Horror: A huge, fast-moving monster adept at punching through infantry lines. Can also be chosen as a mount for Throt the Unclean and Packmaster Heroes.
Regiments of Renown:
Pit Fighters of Hell's Deep: Comes with the Beserk ability and can be used to effectively combat terror units.
Morskittar's Hellion: Capable of summoning a localized bombardment of warp lightning.
The Thing Thing: Has the ability to buff melee attack and weapon strength but rampages self in process.
3 FLCs coming as well
-FLC Skaven Chieftain Hero for all Wh2 owners
-TW Access FLC Glade Captain
-FLC LL for Wh1 WE DLC owners - Drycha (+Coedill) - not lot info so far
***
+lots improvements and new stuff
-Foot lords are fixed to be no longer constantly knocked down
-New regions. Especially 2 full provincies to the East. Silver Pinnacle
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
-Some new factions around. Especially Lahmian Sisterhood
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
-Totally 6 new characters - Sisters, Drycha, Throt LLs... Ariel, Coedill, Gorritch as LHs
Last edited by Daruwind; November 21, 2020 at 03:57 PM.
“It’s something very new to Total War, and really opens up the world in a way we’ve not seen before”: Exploring the Wood Elves Rework
Total War: WARHAMMER II
Ella McConnell
December 1 2020
As you may already know, the Wood Elves faction will be getting a substantial rework as part of the Old World Update being released alongside the latest Total War: WARHAMMER II DLC – The Twisted & The Twilight.
Join us as we chat with Will Wright, a designer on the WARHAMMER new content team, about the changes being made to Wood Elves as part of The Twisted & The Twilight Old World Update including Amber, Forest Encounters, and the brand-new travelling the Deeproots mechanic. CA: Hi there! First of all, could you please introduce yourself? Will Wright: Hi! I’m Will Wright, and I’m a designer on the WARHAMMER new content team. For this DLC, I was the primary designer for the Wood Elves rework. CA: What was the rationale behind the Wood Elves reworks included as part of the latest Old World Update? Will Wright: The key thing we wanted to preserve was the sense that the Wood Elves aren’t out there to paint the map green. They’re not complete isolationists, but they try to avoid interacting with the outside world when they can. In fact, a lot of their time is spent trying to stop the forest spreading too far!
This is a bit of a challenge as most Total War games are all about expansion – and in WARHAMMER, fighting various cultures is a core part of the appeal. How do you make a faction that, on the surface, pulls against those tendencies fun and enjoyable?
As a result, we really had to go back and rethink pretty much everything about the faction: how their economy works, their victory conditions, even the way they move around the map. It’s a pretty fundamental rethink of the whole race – much more extensive than any previous reworks. CA: Tell us more about the changes to Amber and the Wood Elves technology rework. Will Wright: Amber was originally intended to do two things: to give you a way to progress without conquering the map, and to help distinguish between the Tree Spirit and Wood Elf parts of the roster.
The problem was that, in practice, it meant if you wanted to get access to all the cool toys in your roster, you had to go out and conquer lots of land. And, as much of the rest of the faction was designed in such a way that it didn’t support conquest (not having walled settlements, for example), it resulted in a frustrating experience.
As a result, we’ve massively stripped back the role of Amber. It’s now something much rarer and more unique, and used just for some specific, powerful technologies. CA: Tell us about healing the forests – how does this new mechanic affect the Wood Elves overall? Will Wright: In each campaign, there’ll be certain settlements – four in Vortex and eight in Mortal Empires – that are marked out as the core of a “Magical Forest”. Your primary goal in the campaign is to heal these forests, which you do mostly by securing their surrounding “Heathland” regions by razing them, conquering them, or allying with their owner.
One cool effect of this is that it means the Wood Elves see the map in a different way – they don’t care about the normal province boundaries, and instead have their own agendas. It’s very true to the spirit of the faction.
It also encourages you to think about territorial control differently. Normally in Total War, losing territory means you’re losing the campaign – but, for the Wood Elves, a razed or allied Heathland is as good as a controlled one. A lot of the time you’ll actually want to cultivate a strong ally to act as your buffer, as they’ll actually be better placed to defend those regions than you. And, once you’ve healed the Forest, those Heathlands become much less important – you might even choose to abandon them yourself, using the new Abandon Settlement feature that’s available to all factions. CA: What about Forest Encounters? Will Wright: This is a similar concept to the existing Encounters at Sea – go to marker, get a dilemma and potentially a battle. But the Forest Encounters are more bespoke: each one is unique and ties into the narratives of the local region, with much more diverse outcomes.
The goal of them is to capture that “defender of the forest” feeling that’s so crucial to the Wood Elf fantasy. One of the most interesting parts about the Wood Elves is their unpredictability – sometimes they’ll emerge from nowhere to help someone turn the tide of a hopeless battle, sometimes they’ll savagely murder you for wandering into the wrong place.
Forest Encounters are intended to represent those decisions – do you ruthlessly police the forest borders against any interlopers, regardless how innocent they are, or do you try a more outward-facing, diplomatic approach? CA: Explain the reasoning behind the introduction of the new travelling the Deeproots mechanic. Will Wright: It became apparent very quickly that, if we wanted players to interact with the distant forests, we’d need to give them a way to get there without trudging across the whole map. And we knew a lot of players were asking for teleportation of some sort as it’s a core part of the Wood Elf lore.
We’d actually wanted to do it back in the original DLC, but there are a lot of very complicated considerations that have to made with regard to things like AI, so it just wasn’t feasible. Even now, with all the resource and tech we have, it’s something we’ve had to put limitations on: you can only teleport from Forest to Forest, and there’s a cooldown on it.
But even with those restrictions it’s something very new to Total War, and really opens up the world in a way we’ve not seen before. It’s very exciting. CA: What can you tell us about Drycha, the free Legendary Lord available to owners of Realm of the Wood Elves? Will Wright: Drycha was an interesting challenge: how do you make a Wood Elf faction without Elves? Her hatred of Elvenkind is so central to her character that it would have felt wrong for her to be running round with full stacks of Waywatchers. There’s some lore about Elves sometimes being bewitched by the forest spirits which we felt justified her having access to some Elf units – though they will be a little weaker due to the magic clouding their minds – but there’s still a few tools you won’t get.
But we didn’t want her to be defined just by what she didn’t get – which is where the Wild Beasts come in. Drycha can instantly recruit all kinds of gribbly beasties from the local region, such as wolves, bats, and spiders. These big hordes of fast, disposable units are perfect for hunting down pesky Wood Elf skirmishers. It makes her play very, very differently to what you’d expect for a Wood Elf faction.
Her other big selling point is Coeddil, her unique legendary hero. He’s an absolute beast, and the quest battle to unlock him is one of the most unique we’ve done yet. CA: Is there anything else new and noteworthy for the Wood Elves in this Old World Update? Will Wright: Pretty much every single part of the faction has been updated – the economy, the skill trees, even the original Defence of the Oak final battle has had a bit of a touch up.
For me, the most interesting parts are Aspects. These are special upgrades that Durthu and Drycha’s factions can apply to their tree spirit units. In that sense, they’re similar to the Scrap Upgrades we introduced in the Greenskins update. But, unlike Scrap Upgrades, you can actually switch between Aspects for a small cost. You might take the Armour-Piercing-granting Birch Aspect while fighting Dwarfs, then flip your army over to the anti-infantry Willow Aspect to chew through the undead hordes of the Vampire Counts. It adds a flexibility and adaptability to the units which is really interesting. CA: Thank you for your time! Any parting words? Will Wright: The original Wood Elf DLC came out before I even joined CA – I remember theorycrafting how the faction would work on the forums before they were even announced! And they were one of my favourite tabletop factions, so it’s been an absolute dream come true to actually get to work on this revamp.
A lot of what we’ve done has been quite risky and experimental – I won’t pretend we’ve made something perfect, but I hope we’ve got a lot close to capturing what makes the Wood Elves an interesting and unique race, and it’s an exciting platform for us to continue to build on in the future.
Returning to Athel Loren: Realm of the Wood Elves Anniversary Interview
Total War: WARHAMMER
Ella McConnell
December 8 2020
Today marks the fourth anniversary of the release of the Total War: WARHAMMER DLC Realm of the Wood Elves!
To celebrate, we chatted with members of the Total War: WARHAMMER team who worked on the DLC about their memories of the development process, the rationale behind Realm of the Wood Elves, and how it helped pave the way for many of the Total War: WARHAMMER series’ subsequent features.
CA: What did you work on for Realm of the Wood Elves? Richard Aldridge: As the lead designer back then, basically a bit of everything. But my “main areas”, if you like, were the defining the core game mechanics for the team to work on, along with the narrative of the campaign and the tricky task of deciding what would make the cut for the Wood Elf army roster. Michael Beirne: I was development manager for Realm of the Wood Elves, and looked after the day-to-day running of the team and their tasks to make sure everything was on track for its release. Oscar Andersson: Realm of the Wood Elves was the first project I worked on as a designer on the WARHAMMER team. I designed a couple of maps and helped out with balancing Wardancers, Wildwood Rangers, Glade Guards, Deepwood Scouts, Waywatchers, Waystalkers, and Glade Lords. Baj Singh: At the time, I was the lead character artist on the Realm of the Wood Elves DLC.
My primary responsibilities were managing and mentoring the developers responsible for creating the 3D character art (as well as approving the concept art to ensure it fit within the team’s specifications).
CA: What were the key aims behind Realm of the Wood Elves when it was first conceived? Richard Aldridge: Very much to play up their ideals and philosophies from the lore of the tabletop – a fairly insular faction that build tall and deep, but not wide like a standard Total War faction, which looks to paint the entire map in their colour. Quite the challenge, really, when you think of how Total War works. The Wood Elves feel at times almost anti Total War in their outlooks.
Another strong idea was to highlight to the player that the Wood Elves are not purely Elves at all, and in fact roughly half of their army is made up from magical creatures of the forests, like Treemen and Dryads. This was in part why we chose the characters that we did to create this split, which looking back is why we’ve made some of the changes in The Twisted & The Twilight as this was too much of a split and a disadvantage.
I also wanted their campaign to have a strong narrative element. We had received lots of positive feedback for the Beastmen campaign, which had a climactic end battle, and I wanted to try and expand on this further by making the Oak of Ages the centrepiece. This, of course, got me and the team thinking about how to structure the campaign around the Oak and create gates essentially for you the player to pass through, which led us to Amber (which I will talk about more in a bit). Michael Beirne: Wood Elves were always a popular and highly demanded faction, and as we’d previously made a Beastmen DLC we wanted them and their biggest faction rivals the Wood Elves to do battle.
The Wood Elves have some iconic units like the Eagle Riders and Treemen, which draw parallels with classic fantasy but with their own unique flair.
As the first Campaign Pack we made for Total War: WARHAMMER, we wanted unique campaign mechanics, and came up with the Oak of Ages system as a unique way for the Wood Elves to defend their home region while simultaneously looking to expand their empire. We had a unique Amber currency and a climactic custom siege battle at the end of the Season of Revelations campaign. Baj Singh: From the art point of view, it was an opportunity to help bring an interesting diversity of characters into the WARHAMMER roster, ensuring that they stood out as unique against the existing races.
CA: What are your main memories of working on Realm of the Wood Elves? Richard Aldridge: Amber is a funny one, really, as in many ways it opened the door greatly for what we can now do in the WARHAMMER trilogy. It essentially set the tone for multiple currencies or resources if you like to be on the table for a faction. Without Amber, you wouldn’t have had Canopic Jars, Vortex Currency, Blood Kisses – you name it really.
It was a challenge back then to convince the wider team that the faction needed another resource in the game to collect other than just Gold and Growth – it’s mad really when you think about it and where we are now.
Now I know Amber didn’t quite work out as I or the team had intended it to (we have since changed it in The Twisted & The Twilight), but for me it was pivotal in both setting the Wood Elves apart from all the other races at the time of the DLC’s release and, more importantly, being the basis and foundation for most of our mechanics since. Without this granddaddy of a feature, we wouldn’t have the DLC we have now. Michael Beirne: On Total War: WARHAMMER, the DLC designers worked in parallel with the core game designers – the DLC designers were ambitious and wanted to push the boat out on each DLC. Wood Elves was an elaborate undertaking, and the first Campaign Pack for Total War: WARHAMMER. With the relatively new DLC team striving to make standout content, there were doubts along the way from the core team – especially about the unique Amber currency. There were some heated debates on that feature. We weighed up scrapping the Amber currency altogether a few times!
I also remember the flair of the Wood Elves on the battlefield – the weapon trails and unique arrow types looked like a firework display!
Oscar Andersson: It was very much a learning process for me. There was a lot to take in and I made my fair share of mistakes that resulted in valuable learnings. Baj Singh: From my time on that project, it was great seeing how the team tackled all of the art and animation involved, particularly in the cases of the Treemen and Great Eagle Rider units as these were quite unique to our game in terms of their mechanics at the time.
CA: Do you have any particularly interesting and/or funny stories about the development process? Richard Aldridge: This may not what you’re expecting me to say, but I remember at the time the feedback that we were receiving from the previous DLCs that we’d released was really starting to build more and more confidence in the team to try and push our designs and ambitions.
This might seem a little odd now with where we are today, but back on WARHAMMER I we were still very conscious of trying to keep WARHAMMER a Total War game that our classic fanbase would enjoy playing and to not go too wild to start with and damage the core essence of a Total War game. But after Beastmen and the two subsequent Lord Packs, we knew that the sky was the ceiling based on what people were saying and to just go for it.
That’s why we saw the multiple starting locations, the split skill trees, 360 firing arcs, new currencies to play with, etc., so thank you for pushing us – it’s made the team what it is now. Michael Beirne: I don’t know if someone still has a picture of this, but our brand manager Joey was obsessed with Wood Elves! She even came into work dressed as one (I think it was for Halloween? Or a live stream?). Oscar Andersson: Wood Elves were a first in Total War history to feature missile infantry that could both fire on the move and fire in every direction while moving. Previously we’d only done missile cavalry with similar characteristics, so this was new unit design space as missile infantry would have a lot more firepower.
I remember the team was anxious about how that would translate into gameplay and how powerful that mechanic could be, and we had a lot of iteration on the balance of these new units. In the end we erred on the side of caution, and the Wood Elf Deepwood Scouts and Waywatchers turned out to be underpowered on release as a result. It just goes to show how hard it can be to judge how strong radically new units are. Baj Singh: I think the Treekin unit proved to be quite a unique conversation within the team. It was introduced into the roster quite late, and so there was very little time from an animation point of view to really make them stand out.
I can’t remember who it was, but someone suggested that we look at the Chaos Spawn animation rig and see if we could repurpose that in a meaningful way – an idea which was originally scoffed at – but in retrospect it was definitely the right way to go.
CA: Were there any particularly challenging aspects or moments when working on Realm of the Wood Elves? Richard Aldridge: I think it’s fair to say that developing the mini campaigns was always quite the challenge for us, not in creating the map and decorating it but in trying to emulate the grand campaign in a much more bite-sized chunk.
We certainly tried a few things, and I remember we toyed with the idea of having the Wood Elves mini campaign very much as a survival mode for quite a while – essentially sending stacks and stacks of enemies to burn down the Oak and then recording how long you could last, with your score being recorded on a leaderboard of some sort.
As much as we enjoyed making these campaigns, by digging down deeper into one part of the world – in this case Athel Loren and seeing it in all its glory – I think we always struggled to pull in enough variation from the grand campaign that you have all come to love and enjoy (from what we’ve heard!).
I still have a soft spot for these campaigns, but we’ve moved on and taken on board the feedback that we received for them. Michael Beirne: All of it! The DLC team were ambitious with this Campaign Pack, and it was our big release for Christmas 2016 so we didn’t have much space to move the deadline. It was the first new campaign map in Total War: WARHAMMER, and also had other technical and UI challenges. We had to lay the foundations for making future Campaign Packs. Oscar Andersson: The main memory I have is trying to solve the problem of dance abilities for Wardancers. We knew the units needed to have dances represented as abilities in some way, but at the same time we wanted to avoid the problem of having dance activation be mandatory for getting the unit to perform at its intended power. In the end, we baked one of the dances into the unit stats of the Wardancers and made the other dance an optional ability that would be situationally useful. This worked in terms of gameplay, but I think it did end up falling short in terms of the unit’s fantasy. Baj Singh: I remember the Dryads being a unit that was quite difficult for the concept/character team to get their heads around. We were trying to think of a way to make the unit feel natural visually while ensuring that it was customisable by the team for variation.
In the end we settled on a socketing system, allowing us to plug in different arms and heads to allow enough visual differentiation between each individual Dryad.
CA: What were you most proud of contributing to Realm of the Wood Elves? Richard Aldridge: I think Amber for the reasons I mentioned earlier, not in its implementation within the Realm of the Wood Elves but what it has allowed us to do since. I was also super proud of showing off the entirety of Athel Loren in all of its glory in the mini campaign. Michael Beirne: I was proud of the DLC team. I was proud we managed to release such a complex DLC in our slot before Christmas. I’m proud we challenged Total War conventions with the unique mechanics. I’m proud of the artists, and how unique and interesting the characters turned out. Oscar Andersson: For me, Realm of the Wood Elves was a project where I made a lot of mistakes in terms of unit stats and I pitched many flawed unit roles. It has taken me quite some time to get the Wood Elf content to a point where I’m happy with where each unit is in terms of stats and unit role. Baj Singh: Haha, unfortunately due to management commitments I only managed to work on the Sisters of the Thorn character (which I was happy with). The rest of the team did an amazing job, and I am eternally grateful for the enthusiasm and commitment towards their craft and the project.
CA: What are you most looking forward to about the Wood Elves rework in the upcoming Old World Update? Richard Aldridge: It has to be the Deeproots mechanic. This was something we wanted to deliver in our original vision of the Wood Elves. Seeing the armies now being able to essentially teleport around the world between the various magical forests and bring the Worldroots to life is almost like having a dream come true. I guess we managed to twist enough programmer arms on this one!
I’m also super excited for us to be injecting some new life into Naggarond in the Vortex campaign with the Sisters’ new starting location to help make this a more interesting and diverse location to play in. I know it’s not quite the “Lustria Bowl” yet, though! Oscar Andersson: I’m mainly looking forward to seeing what the tweaks we’ve done to the old units and characters does to the way the Wood Elves fight battles. The season of war is here!
For more peeks behind the scenes at the Total War development process, be sure to check out the rest of the blog – and don’t forget to pick up your copy of the Total War: WARHAMMER – Realm of the Wood Elves DLC here!
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