The focus on combat above all else serves to highlight Warhammer's battles, which I reckon are Total War's best in terms of sheer spectacle. Your objectives are mostly simple - raze this many settlements of a certain type, or raze this many settlements total. Orks might seem to fight for the sake of fighting, but Chaos treat destruction as an end in and of itself. Perhaps that ties in to the single-minded nature of the Chaos Horde. That might work out OK if there were more than one type of snow to choose from - bring in Nurgle's gross acolytes for some of the yellow stuff maybe - but there isn't much room for experimentation in the early stages. At the beginning of the game, you're scrabbling around to find enough snow to pat into a ball though, rather than setting the thing rolling right away. As I mentioned right at the start, the Chaos strategy is all about momentum, like a snowball trundling downhill that becomes an avalanche. Now, if you're thinking that playing as Archaon the Everdamp or Kholek Drizzlespouter sounds a little bit less exciting than playing as Archaon the Everchosen or Kholek Suneater, we are of one mind. It seems a little odd to play Archaon the Everchosen, Lord of the End Times, as a patient pugilist, but think of the campaign's opening as the nascent stages of the End Times rather than the actual apocalypse. Play like a boxer rather than a piledrivin' demon straight out of hell and set yourself up by aiming a few jabs at the body and bonce of your opponents before going for the knockout punch. The horde becomes formidable quite quickly, but making a beeline for the heart of your enemies is unwise. Dismayed, I decided that my violent voyage into the south would be put on hold while I did something unthinkably unChaotic.Ĭhaos Warriors might have some puny early units but once you're recruiting Chaos Knights and monstrous units like the Chaos Giant, you're more than capable of outmatching an equivalent Imperial force. They're so surprisingly feeble that I was tricked into thinking that the entirety of the Chaos horde had been underpowered to make up for a possible strength in numbers that would evade me until later in the campaign. Against a sizable stack of human units, marauders tend to fall apart like a Nurgling's nappy, unable to take the strain. The majority of the skulls you'll gather with a tier one army belong to your own marauders. Sadly, these early units make all of your Chaos leaders talk of skulls for the skull throne feel slightly ironic. Marauders, which make up the bulk of the first tier units, are feeble compared to many of their opponents, only elevated by the mounted units who can lob weapons over short distances, performing a microcosmic version of the hit and run raiding and razing that typifies the Chaos approach to warfare. While their entire ethos is based on destruction and warfare, the armies you can recruit in the early running of a campaign are a bit naff. Compared to the Vampire Counts, whose lack of ranged units tears up the tactical playbook, dwarven troops are a cinch to manage.Ĭhaos Warriors are slightly trickier. They're a great faction for a first campaign partly because of the light hand-holding of the Grudges, and partly thanks to fairly well-rounded army composition. I've fallen for the Dwarves, whose Book of Grudges delivers a steady stream of short-term objectives that serve to guide my efforts and provide a neat narrative context for the many minor wars and disputes that arise.
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Total War: Warhammer's greatest strength lies in the diverse approaches demanded by the playable factions. I've spent some time campaigning with Khorne and co to figure out if this barebones approach to the game is effective. Playing as Chaos, the game really is Total War, with no distractions. The Old World map becomes a chain of battles and the core of any Chaos strategy is to build and maintain forward momentum as you carve your way through the factions. There are buildings to construct, but they're part of the caravan of carnage that makes up your nomadic horde, and when you lay waste to a settlement, occupation isn't on the cards. The life of a Total War: Warhammer Chaos Warrior is simple, with few diplomatic interruptions and little in the way of urban planning.