Total War: WARHAMMER

I've tracked every Total War release since Rome, and the first game in the Warhammer trilogy is still the one I point newcomers toward when they ask where to start. Released in 2016, it grafts the series' familiar hybrid formula, turn-based grand strategy on a campaign map, real-time tactical battles when armies clash, onto the Old World of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and the combination unlocks things that a decade of historical settings couldn't. Flying units, corruption mechanics that rot enemy territory from within, hero characters who can duel opposing lords or assassinate them between battles, and magic systems that can flip the outcome of a fight in seconds. These aren't cosmetic additions. They restructure how you think at every layer of play. The faction design is where the game earns its reputation. The Empire plays like a conventional combined-arms force, balancing infantry, artillery like the Helblaster Volley Gun, and cavalry. Dwarfs lean on resilient gunpowder lines and runic technology but expand slowly and can confederate with other Dwarf holds to snowball. Greenskins run on a resource called Waagh energy: keep them raiding and fighting or watch Animosity tear your own ranks apart, the internal chaos mechanic is genuinely punishing if ignored. Vampire Counts field undead armies that replenish mid-battle by raising fresh corpses, immune to morale but slow and corruption-spreading on the campaign map. Lords are no longer fragile generals to park behind the line; they are frontline monsters, chess queens who can solo entire flanks, and losing one mid-battle reshapes the whole engagement. Magic augments this further, from a life-sapping Vampiric curse on an enemy lord to area spells that break infantry formations wide open. For strategy players worried about the learning curve: the city management has been intentionally streamlined compared to older Total War entries, with cleaner building chains and a more legible tech tree. The in-game advisor, lore-appropriate and competently voiced, is actually useful rather than an annoyance. A new player picking the Empire gets a fairly forgiving starting position and a clear sense of what to build toward. The real difficulty isn't the interface, it's learning that strategies working against the Greenskins will get you destroyed against the Vampire Counts, whose territory drains the life from your troops as a passive effect. That asymmetry forces genuine replay value across all five factions (four base plus the Warriors of Chaos, a horde faction with no settlement mechanics). The criticism worth flagging is campaign pacing. The front half of each campaign pushes hard events and crises at you quickly, which is exciting, but once the major threat is handled the back half can drag into routine auto-resolve cleanup. The AI in open-field battles handles basic maneuver adequately but struggles against spells and flying units, which experienced players learn to exploit. Siege battles were a structural weak point in this first entry. The mod ecosystem through the Steam Workshop is healthy, with overhaul mods addressing most of these issues if you want to extend the experience. Buying this entry in 2025 also means buying into a trilogy with context: Total War: Warhammer II and III expand the scope massively, and owning the first game unlocks access to its races in the larger Immortal Empires campaign in the third. The first game stands on its own as a complete, replayable grand-strategy experience, but its longer-term value is as a foundation. If you have never touched a Total War game, the Warhammer setting handles the tutorial work better than most, the spectacle keeps you engaged while the mechanics layer in. If you are a lapsed Total War player who drifted off after the historical entries started feeling repetitive, this is what brought a lot of us back.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

Be the first to comment on Total War: WARHAMMER.