I've been an avid fan of the Total War games since the original Rome Total War, and a fan of the Warhammer universe so this is naturally the best Total War game in the series, period. The fantastic thing is, this isn’t just my internal bias because this really is the best Total War game, and it wholeheartedly deserves that title even if you are neither of those things.

The atmosphere, mechanics, faction diversity, replayability, character development are all exceptional. Every race is distinctive and intuitively different in a way that corresponds to their aesthetic. The Dwarves are slow, tough and technologically advanced. The Wood Elves are mobile, fragile and deal heavy damage at range. The Empire are a strong jack of all trades, whilst the Vampires rely on infantry supported by a host of powerful casters and monsters etc. This leads to wonderfully unique battles depending on the factions in play, and gives you a genuine motivation to play the campaign of each faction as each play through will be very different to the last, because many of them have specific win conditions or campaign mechanics to explore as well.

The introduction of heroes, magic and monsters creates an extra dimension to the gameplay on top of the swords, spears, bows, cavalry elements you expect from a Total War game. It’s refreshing, and it gives you all kinds of diverse tactical options to employ. Legendary characters from the lore level up, get new abilities that affect both the campaign and battle maps, obtain magical items and weapons and personality traits. It’s a step back towards the kind of character connections you would have in Rome or Medieval II, you actually care about who your leaders are again, which I felt has been missing from many of the later entries. The battle pacing is also much more to my taste than that Rome II and Attila.

The diplomacy options aren’t fantastic and often limited by predetermined faction relations, but at the same time they play into the atmosphere and lore of the world as well, so I don’t have much of a gripe with them. Siege battles are also somewhat lacking at this point, but the recent introduction of the modding kit and the steam workshop in general is going to rectify this swiftly. Indeed, many of the small gripes (and they are very small in the grand scheme of things) are alleviated in little modifications on the workshop, and enable this game to be the genuine 10/10 game that it is.

If you’ve never bought a Total War game, this is where you should start. If you have, buy this one, it is exceptional.

I've been an avid fan of the Total War games since the original Rome Total War, and a fan of the Warhammer universe so this is naturally the best Total War game in the series, period. The fantastic thing is, this isn’t just my internal bias because this really is the best Total War game, and it wholeheartedly deserves that title even if you are neither of those things. The atmosphere, mechanics, faction diversity, replayability, character development are all exceptional. Every race is distinctive and intuitively different in a way that corresponds to their aesthetic. The Dwarves are slow, tough and technologically advanced. The Wood Elves are mobile, fragile and deal heavy damage at range. The Empire are a strong jack of all trades, whilst the Vampires rely on infantry supported by a host of powerful casters and monsters etc. This leads to wonderfully unique battles depending on the factions in play, and gives you a genuine motivation to play the campaign of each faction as each play through will be very different to the last, because many of them have specific win conditions or campaign mechanics to explore as well. The introduction of heroes, magic and monsters creates an extra dimension to the gameplay on top of the swords, spears, bows, cavalry elements you expect from a Total War game. It’s refreshing, and it gives you all kinds of diverse tactical options to employ. Legendary characters from the lore level up, get new abilities that affect both the campaign and battle maps, obtain magical items and weapons and personality traits. It’s a step back towards the kind of character connections you would have in Rome or Medieval II, you actually care about who your leaders are again, which I felt has been missing from many of the later entries. The battle pacing is also much more to my taste than that Rome II and Attila. The diplomacy options aren’t fantastic and often limited by predetermined faction relations, but at the same time they play into the atmosphere and lore of the world as well, so I don’t have much of a gripe with them. Siege battles are also somewhat lacking at this point, but the recent introduction of the modding kit and the steam workshop in general is going to rectify this swiftly. Indeed, many of the small gripes (and they are very small in the grand scheme of things) are alleviated in little modifications on the workshop, and enable this game to be the genuine 10/10 game that it is. If you’ve never bought a Total War game, this is where you should start. If you have, buy this one, it is exceptional.