So having been out of the loop on release schedules for some time now (edge subscription lapsed ~8 years ago), was pleasantly surprised to spot that the guys at Creative Assembly have slapped a Warhammer skin on their Total War engine and will soon be releasing a new string to the series based in the WFB "universe", hence bringing together two pillars of my extreme geekdom....glory days.

Looks to be getting released in late May (24th), although reviewers/mags etc will get their mitts on copies later this month.  Reason why that's seemingly important is, one of the races (Chaos Warriors) is available from day 1, but via DLC only.  Pre-orderers get said DLC gratis (oh the lure), whilst launch day and beyond buyers have to stump up further readies to access the fifth race (the other day one races being, Empire, Greenskins, Vamps and Dwarfs).  So general plan seems to be to hold off on pre-order until early May, and slap down the cash if general consensus is that the game isn't a mutt.

The campaign map is the central spine of the warhammer world (the bit that bares a striking resemblance to Westeros in GoT....cold t'up north, warm down south..)  There also looks to be even more variation in how the various races play both in terms of battles and in the campaign than your regular total war game.  Orcs have a somewhat nomadic existence, with pressure on the player to keep the battles coming thick and fast, with limited economy beyond looting, whilst dwarfs take a more sedate conquer and chill approach.

The game also sounds like it guides players in the campaign down a story arc, which may be a positive or negative depending on if your preference is for pure open world conquest (akin to rome or medieval) or for a more narrative led campaign.

Either way, I reckon I'll probably pick this up and if there are any takers, forum games are always preferable to rage-quitters or american pre-teens.

Below are a few videos which set out the games approach to the two facets to total war, campaign and battles: