07-22-2016, 06:58 PM
So Creative Assembly has revealed some info about the new Total Warhammer DLC and how it will work. Some thoughts.
The new DLC is, for those who don't follow Total Warhammer, the Beastmen faction. No the Beastmen are not the sort of werewolves and otherwise magical creatures that we make yiff jokes about, this is fucking Warhammer. The Beastmen are a race of Chaos worshiping minotaur-like abominations, they're incredibly agile and vicious but lack for industry and science, which I predict will show in a lack of anti-armor units, high end missile units, and generally a hard fall-off in the late game where many factions start to really blossom. Much like Archaeon and his Warriors of Chaos the Beastmen are a nomadic faction, with all the usual infrastructure to train and support units being attached to each individual army rather than a city, however unlike Chaos the Beastmen don't start flaying each other if there are two herds anywhere near one another, and what's more they have a "bestial rage" mechanic similar to the orks' "fightiness" and after enough military success an AI brayherd spawns alongside your horde to beat people up for you.
Let's pause for a second here and focus on them taking the defining features of two races and mashing them together until you have the best of both worlds, orks are fucking outstanding at blobbing into crushing numbers but are prone to running away, hopefully the Beastmen will follow in that as they need some sort of drawback, and Chaos excels at long campaigns of death and destruction because they never have to "pull back" and reinforce, but the drawback is that they can't blob like other factions, so of course the Beastmen are all about blobbing. Generally speaking the game is balanced pretty well between the strategy and tactical layers, races that kind of sag on one excel at the other, so I can only hope the Beastmen are fucking piss at the tactical level because this shit is bonkers.
Back to mechanics, the Beastmen, like every faction, have a unique tech tree, very similar to Chaos they can exchange favor for support from the dark gods, in this case in the form of research speed, which offsets the fact that every "normal" tech they research increases the cost of all others. In army movement the Beastmen are also all new and all unique, whenever initiating combat the Beastmen have a chance to ambush the enemy, as their default movement stance is ambush, when encamped they are invisible to most enemy armies save those close enough, and they have their own version of the underway which they can use to bypass terrain obstacles at the risk of being intercepted. The Beastmen are also prone to infighting if not at war with somebody or worse, if allied to somebody.
Okay what the fuck, I feel like the only recourse against the Beastmen is going to be hunkering in your settlements and hoping for the best since they just automatically fucking ambush anyone they catch in the open. The research tree looks nice, I appreciate how every faction has unique research mechanics and it looks like the Beastmen will have to pick and choose what techs they want to research early, decide what bonuses matter most and which can be put off, although when you have momentum behind you as a horde faction favor can roll in mighty fast. The diplomacy is a slightly odd choice though, Chaos has basically no chance of allying with anyone because they're godamn Chaos, the Beastmen likely don't need an incentive to attack everyone they see, and I feel that pressuring them to be at war with multiple empires at once will do little to mitigate how fast they skullfuck lone armies and un-garrisoned settlements. Of course there is a lot that hasn't been revealed yet, and as they say the devil is in the details so the Beastmen may or may not roflstomp the entire old world.
The new DLC is, for those who don't follow Total Warhammer, the Beastmen faction. No the Beastmen are not the sort of werewolves and otherwise magical creatures that we make yiff jokes about, this is fucking Warhammer. The Beastmen are a race of Chaos worshiping minotaur-like abominations, they're incredibly agile and vicious but lack for industry and science, which I predict will show in a lack of anti-armor units, high end missile units, and generally a hard fall-off in the late game where many factions start to really blossom. Much like Archaeon and his Warriors of Chaos the Beastmen are a nomadic faction, with all the usual infrastructure to train and support units being attached to each individual army rather than a city, however unlike Chaos the Beastmen don't start flaying each other if there are two herds anywhere near one another, and what's more they have a "bestial rage" mechanic similar to the orks' "fightiness" and after enough military success an AI brayherd spawns alongside your horde to beat people up for you.
Let's pause for a second here and focus on them taking the defining features of two races and mashing them together until you have the best of both worlds, orks are fucking outstanding at blobbing into crushing numbers but are prone to running away, hopefully the Beastmen will follow in that as they need some sort of drawback, and Chaos excels at long campaigns of death and destruction because they never have to "pull back" and reinforce, but the drawback is that they can't blob like other factions, so of course the Beastmen are all about blobbing. Generally speaking the game is balanced pretty well between the strategy and tactical layers, races that kind of sag on one excel at the other, so I can only hope the Beastmen are fucking piss at the tactical level because this shit is bonkers.
Back to mechanics, the Beastmen, like every faction, have a unique tech tree, very similar to Chaos they can exchange favor for support from the dark gods, in this case in the form of research speed, which offsets the fact that every "normal" tech they research increases the cost of all others. In army movement the Beastmen are also all new and all unique, whenever initiating combat the Beastmen have a chance to ambush the enemy, as their default movement stance is ambush, when encamped they are invisible to most enemy armies save those close enough, and they have their own version of the underway which they can use to bypass terrain obstacles at the risk of being intercepted. The Beastmen are also prone to infighting if not at war with somebody or worse, if allied to somebody.
Okay what the fuck, I feel like the only recourse against the Beastmen is going to be hunkering in your settlements and hoping for the best since they just automatically fucking ambush anyone they catch in the open. The research tree looks nice, I appreciate how every faction has unique research mechanics and it looks like the Beastmen will have to pick and choose what techs they want to research early, decide what bonuses matter most and which can be put off, although when you have momentum behind you as a horde faction favor can roll in mighty fast. The diplomacy is a slightly odd choice though, Chaos has basically no chance of allying with anyone because they're godamn Chaos, the Beastmen likely don't need an incentive to attack everyone they see, and I feel that pressuring them to be at war with multiple empires at once will do little to mitigate how fast they skullfuck lone armies and un-garrisoned settlements. Of course there is a lot that hasn't been revealed yet, and as they say the devil is in the details so the Beastmen may or may not roflstomp the entire old world.
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I answer questions. snark provided free of charge.
Most hated member of the nexus, irritation and/or ragequit guaranteed or your money back.
"IF I DO NOT RETURN INFORM MY HUMAN COHABITANTS THAT I FEEL STRONGLY FOR THEM"