Recent reviews by The Context Crusader

All they had to do was release a mostly bug free release and keep pumping out good DLC, same as they had with
TWWH 1&2 and they would still have the goodwill and faith of the community and more importantly raked in Billions in revenue........

TLDR New DLC Pricing is a rip off and makes this game a pass until it and all dlc are 50-75% off

The first Total War Warhammer game was a expensive but great game that was good enough to justify even the price of the multitudes of DLC, the second game built on the first and soared to new heights especially after opening up and massively improving the modding potential which allowed for an entire sea of mods, many of which had better mechanics and quality than the official DLC (especially Mixus lords, some of which were legit better than CAs versions of the same lords) despite the amazing modding community the countless still expensive but great DLC were still worth it and sold like hot cakes.

by the time they left development of the second game Ca had an mountain of good will and faith from the community despite individuals like me having had to spend in the high hundreds of dollars on the series so far to enjoy the full experience.
All of which they somehow burnt up in smoke, TWWHIII on release was a mess, I will gloss over the countless major bugs that we seem to expect these days from AAA, the only map had countless mechanical issues and campaign design was terrible for many factions, they overhauled Multiplayer and improved much of the previously painful experience, yet they still left many of the old issues like in custom battles being very restricted on number of sides and configuration of players between each. also faction DLC on release, really? just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ manipulating gamers perception to make more money is not a good start to the game.

despite all these issues and countless more most people including me still had faith that with time and DLC the game would fix itself and soar to even greater heights than any before. all they had to do was devote devs to the game and it would print money faster than a american national bank.
Instead development was painfully slow and seemingly put on the back burner by CA, eventually bugs went away and we got Immortal empires that passed over many of the issues with the old map and things seemed to be looking uphill, then Chaos Dwarves happened, or more its price did, probably the best DLC in the series yet but at a massively marked up price (half price of the full game WTF) which wouldn't have been as painful if it was the only DLC, but in top of the $$$ most people already have invested in this franchise its just way too much but at least it was a great faction and had an excuse.

But the insanity that broke the hydras back is the latest DLC the Shadows of Change for the same already high price as one of the best factions yet we get 3 lords 11 units and 9 regiments of renown which is an absolute rip off, a team of a dozen modders could do that in just over a week, and they charge half the price of the full AAA game, WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL!!!
and the worst of it is future DLC will probably be the same price or more, if this is what 3 lords costs what will a faction cost in the future? and bear in mind being the final game in the series if they dont drive away the rest of the consumers it could have 20-30 such DLC, were talking potentially in the thousands of $$$, not to mention the already massive investments in the previous games.

If you made it this far then you have my condolences. and ♥♥♥♥ CA, there treatment of this game has turned the same as every other AAA developer

*if they weren't too lazy to balance boarding (official reason)

The Short
GREAT! game almost no flaws. Is one of the few games I would advise buying at full price.
well worth it just to support Devs like Bronze. in the vain hope that AAA and others will learn something.
Join the Discord, Unlike most other game discords it is welcoming and pleasant, without most the cancer that plagues other game discords. It is also how you quickly learn anything that you are unsure about.

Very polished with most major content already in the game, Bronze seems to be onto the polishing phase of adding the fiddly extra little somethings.
This is one of the few games that I will rack up into the 1000+ hours and never get bord.

it would be easier to somehow place the game files in-place of all the above text however i don't think that possible.

The Only Dev
Bronze is the best DEv to have ever graced a .exe file.
He REALLY cares for and takes pride in his game!
He brings frequent Updates that unlike the Sea of Thieves Updates actually add something new and interesting instead of a brainless grind of 10s of hours.
Is great at communicating with the playerbase and if there is something that isn't in the game, there's normally a very good and practical reason which he will explain.
As a Modder is it good to see that unlike every other game maker he actually makes new assets for his updates and content rather than lazily reusing the same assets for everything.

Ships
Ship Building is awesome and interesting. Coming from a practical life and experiance in construction I love being able to make my own ships.
you can build ships for many different roles within and without combat with many different styles and options.
Unlike Icarus the ability to make new ships keeps things interesting and allows a changing battlefield, although most of the core playerbase know what each others ships are like. The nature of ship building can turn into a full on arms race which keeps things rather lively.
Good ship design takes practice and experience. its mostly about good placement and efficient usage of part/mass/resources aswell as ensuring with warships that they are not too vulnerable.
Meme Ships with the likes of troll faces are easy to make and good fun.
If you don't like making ships there are plenty of great ones on the workshop.
the default ship is pretty bad and is more for the steampunk aesthetic.

Combat
Is Awesome!
Melee is fast and responsive.
Ship Combat is Epic.
Plenty of AI to fight if you aren't happy to PvP.
Like everything else its pretty balanced, although without boarding knives new players are heavily disadvantaged in melee. however the game encourages Fighting Ai at first while you learn the ropes.
Warships normally wreck cargo haulers (as they should) however bringing a massive slow Floatstoner to a unsuited warship fight and winning by accidentally sitting on the foes warship is some of the most fun i've had in this game. which is saying a lot.

Balance
Is Very good, their are some Meta's (Flack) however it is generally a nice even paper-scissors-rock battlefield.
Most weapons are for different things rather than a upgrades, however Vets will normally wreck new players, however that is more to do with good ship design and skill than with having "better" gear.

updates
Bronze releases weekly updates (often more) with fortnightly updates that add entirely new assets and content to the game.

Bugs
They exist but are culled quickly!
Due to the constant updates there is always going to be new bugs. but they are fixed sometimes instantly and normally within a week.
on the whole it leaves a pretty bug free game.

Graphics
The Graphics are actually not too bad. With the exception of there being practically no maps or decent textures which tends to let things down.
Bronze slowly seems to be improving the visuals, however due to the limits of the nature of the game, with massive ships made from hundreds of pieces there is only so much that can be done without players complaining about performance.
I am normally pretty Graphically sensitive, however I quickly came to find that the graphics have their own little charm for me.

The Playerbase
The playerbase is better than I thought was possible for a game, even for a close knit community like this.
There is only player who i would say can be cancerous, and he is in reality just a immature teen who likes to annoy people, so quite easy to ignore/deal with.
The are some Pirates who will chase Cargo Ships, however they are few and cargo ships easily outrun any Vet player with a Warship.
Most players will politely ask you if you want to fight, then meet with you at a island and then you kill each other "like civilised human beings".
Many of the Vets will actively go out of their way to help you.
Much of the day will see empty servers but they do so people on them many times of the day, with most the core playerbase on after work and school. Community Play often is when things really get interesting with often well over a dozen players on a server, sometimes more.

It is very easy to become part of the community, it is very open and welcoming. so much so that a new player thought the Dev and Vets were bots when they were spammed with greetings.

The Grind
I am in 2 minds about this, the grind is fine, however a game like this isn't really the sort that should have too much of a grind. This is coming from a Vermintide Vet who did a 1300 hour grind to 100% Okri's Challenges.
I easily completed the main grind in 100 hours, many of which was spent in ship building. you can gain a lot more from crewing experienced players though, or once you know more about the game.
on the whole i believe the grind is more part of the journey than a grind.

The Vet Players (or normally once you have unlocked all techs and joined the community) have access to infinite resources so they can mostly just PvP each other without have to keep grinding to replace lost ships.

The 700 part: limit is annoying, however having played on a server with over a dozen full size large ships, I can fully understand why it is. the ships are full destructible and so the Players CPU has to process each piece. if their is no limit to pieces then it can encourage un-optimised ships that cause a larger strain on performance.
30k Mass limit: it would be nice to have massive practically immobile battlestations. however in reality that is dumb, it would not work in balance and mechanics, although a 35k mass limit would be nice for forts. The mass limit is also limited for the same reasons as the part limit.

Get this game

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!
I've played about 60 hours between this and the base game, so i'm hardly what i would call a veteran, but then i consider a vet 600-1000+ in a good game. There's a lot to love about this game, and a lot to hate about it, namely lack of boarding, cancerous playerbase ect. I liked much of the combat and it was fun to play with 3-4 of my friends casually so i even avoided most of the *%^#%$#% of the limited playerbase, however this game lacks far too much especially content to keep one playing. my review might be somewhat different if the devs weren't too lazy to balance bard (the gist of their statement why they wont add it) boarding would add so much to this game but without it even in the best context this game has little to offer.

Now to the main reason why i dont recommend this game, simple. Airmen exists, it has everything this game needs and more including a although single very dedicated dev who consistently brings out good enjoyable content, and it is bearly affected by playerbase.

I applaud the Devs for this game for sticking with it as long as they did and trying to encourage new payers, but even giving away this game for free wasn't enough to ensnare or keep new players.

NIGH PURE FUN


FUTURE/CAVALRY ECT
I'm not fussed they said they will have Cavalry I only hope they have some survers without for those that want a straight Infantry battle and that they arn't OP (rarther than M&Bs crazy kill a 600kg charger with one thrust have them be wounded and slowed down to be come large targets whilst still slightly faster than foot).
Link to future plans http://anvilgamestudios.com/News/Post?p=1027

MELEE
Melee is often as it is easy enough to dodge shots and get in close and whilst ugly and random and skill incapacible I hope the never change it, it is fun in a beautifully horrible, random, fun and crazy way.

MAPS
Maps are VERY GOOD and VERY BAD survers only play the latest 4-5 maps (WHAT HAPPENED TO CANYON IT WAS AWSOME) but they have good tactics (apart from the snowy
plains maps they SUCK) and covor, however some maps dont suit some modes and need changing like Arandon Siege for non Regimental battles. and Siege Maps need team and number to ticket Balance I mean 42 French plus walls with Cannon and trenches and not enough people to depleat the tickits vs 37 british who all follow idiots that have half the team sniping 150m+ at 3 guys hiding behind several diferant rocks when there is to minits to capture the main point half the map away.
Coastal siege is SO MUCH FUN!!!!

NAVAL
IS very good but it is best with an captain that will Ram for fun and needs a toned down BLackwake system of when to apposing Ship are boarding the 15- 10 sec spawn is changed to 30-45 (not Blackwakes 200) to allow for boarding to have a real purpose.

BALANCE:
Balance is VERY GOOD even the more accurate Riflemen arn't OP as their shorter Hangers don't fair well against the longer Officers Sabers or Bayonets and the limit of 6 each side highly limits them to more eccurate skirmishers that kill one or two before getting slain, apart from when nobody seems to notice them and the good players manage 35+ to 3 K/D. but normally they are just powerfull until they are not. Infact the most OP thing is the flagbearers flag which is crazy in melee but is still limited by Holdfasts crazy melee.
Firearms and classes are very well balanced unlike M&B and Pistols are good but the drop is crazy but in the right hands (Me) their high rate of fire allows you to get a lot of kills at 40m.

REGIMENTS
Regiments are great, the roleplay, they crazy charges, the Camaraderie. its just finding one that works for you but its helped by the wide variety, from the disciplined and neat beautiful firing line and roleplay focused 7th Royal Marines [7thRM] (My favoured Regiment) to the many more loose and meme focused Regiments. Then there are naval vs linebattle Regiments/Crews, So plenty of options to suit. and all should be good fun.

100/10 (Would be 200/10 if the survers allowed 60 Highland Pipers to slowly march towards a wall covered with French whilst cannon balls come raining down and bullets whizz past felling Your comrads instead of 3) In short this game is so good that a few small gripes are all I can focus on for the negitive.

I will try to update/extend this review over time/updates