Total War: WARHAMMER II - The Twisted & The Twilight

I've spent enough hours in Mortal Empires to have a strong opinion about which Warhammer II lord packs pull their weight and which coast on novelty. The Twisted and the Twilight lands somewhere in the middle, but the gap between its two halves is wide enough to matter depending on what faction you care about. Start with the reason most people buy this pack: Throt the Unclean. The Master Mutator of Clan Moulder runs the Flesh Laboratory, a unique campaign mechanic that lets you infuse Skaven units with mutations and buffs between turns. There is a meaningful RNG element baked in, because unstable mutations can saddle units with penalties that are genuinely hard to offset, which forces you to think carefully about which roster slots you gamble on. It gives Clan Moulder a playstyle that is mechanically distinct from Clan Pestilens' plague focus or Clan Skryre's artillery-and-weapons-team toolkit. Throt also gets Ghoritch as a recruitable legendary hero after his quest battle, a Norscan berserker whose brain has been transplanted into a rat ogre body, which is exactly as entertaining on the battlefield as it sounds. The monster-heavy army composition this all enables is genuinely different, and it holds up across a full Mortal Empires campaign run. The Sisters of Twilight are trickier to evaluate. Naestra and Arahan function as a single lord unit, starting on a Great Eagle and eventually upgrading to the forest dragon Ceithin-Har through a quest chain. Their Forge of Daith mechanic triggers every ten turns, letting you choose which sister receives a blessing that either upgrades an item's rarity or converts it into a unique piece. It is fine. The sisters themselves are great in battle, with strong ranged output and high mobility from the flying mounts, and the sisterly back-and-forth dialogue between the two characters is well-acted. But the campaign mechanic feels thin compared to the depth Throt gets, and veteran Wood Elf players may find the new faction loop less transformative than the patch notes implied. The Vortex campaign for the sisters in particular reads more like an extended tutorial than a proper standalone arc. What saves the Wood Elves side is the faction overhaul that shipped alongside this pack. The old amber-gathering Wild Hunt model has been replaced by a heathland control and magical forest healing system. You now claim settlements surrounding key forest locations to restore them, then perform rituals to close a Chaos portal. The worldroots mechanic also lets you fast-travel between forest realms on the campaign map, which dramatically changes how you approach expansion. Ariel herself can be awakened as a legendary hero, functioning as a powerful spellcaster and melee presence. These changes make Wood Elves feel more cohesive strategically, even if the Sisters' personal mechanics do not match the ambition of the rework underneath them. If you own the Realm of the Wood Elves DLC, Drycha also unlocks as a free legendary lord alongside this pack. She leads an army of hostile tree spirits and despises both the Elves and most of the world, giving her a faction that operates under a fundamentally different set of alliances and internal penalties. Her presence adds genuine replay value that the Sisters alone would not. On 93% positive Steam reviews across over 121,000 players and an 87 on Metacritic, this is a well-regarded pack, but critical consensus is consistent: Throt is the star, and the Wood Elf campaign mechanics are functional rather than outstanding. If you are a Skaven player, this is the easiest yes in the DLC lineup. If you primarily care about Wood Elves, the faction overhaul alone makes owning this pack worthwhile even if the Sisters' specific loop underwhelms. Strategy players who want meaningful decision-making in the campaign layer will find more of it on the ratman side of the divide.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

Be the first to comment on Total War: WARHAMMER II - The Twisted & The Twilight.