Haha, this game yo, man. What a fine piece of game this is. I can see this being my GOTY, it's pure unadulterated fan service.


From my first campaign: An Old Blood on a Carnosaur, doing his thing.



The design of settlements is superb.



Decided then on a change of pace after doing the first ritual as the Lizardmen, time to take childhood favourite Lord Skrolk out for a stroll.

The backgrounds in this game look like concept art, there'ye amazing.



Fire!



Fore!



First you drive them out of their stolen Castle, then you crush them.



Censer Bearers are neat



Turns out the Slann wanted a go



... but Skaven are the menace below.

Bastiliodon are really good single target killers, good for giants, hydras etc

When the front lines meet you absolutely should be charging him into a flank, as he'll just keep going.

Keep spamming those pictures gents, loving your work.

Time for a Total War dump!

So the Skaven that I am coming across in my Lustria campaign now have Screaming Bells, the animation for the Grey Seer that rides them is fantastic:



My battle against the warm bloods was swift and brutal, here's and Old Blood dishing out some extra violence



Elsewhere on the field one of my heroes decides to learn about actions...



... and their reactions.



Warmbloods come in many shapes but they are all puny.



Elsewhere Mazamundi is forced to force the softskin out of one of the Lizardmen's ancestral homes: 



He makes swift work of them.



His Lizardkin quickly flood their disgusting grey walls.



Savage Orcs also need forcing out too, so the Lizards attack from the trees and the hills.



A tide of scale and claw washes away the green sickness.



The warmbloods flee so quickly.



All of the ferocity angers the very trees themselves, and the fell-spirit Durthu marches on us.



He brings a dragon...





Luckily Lizards are strong, and Lizards are prepared, and they drive the Treekin home with the help of airborne raiders.



The Lizardmen are known for their unbreakable will, and the other factions refuse to co-operate, in the Jungle, this means the law of the tooth rules. Mazdamundi marches on those who stand in the way of the plan of the Old Ones.



The siege is long and bloody...



...the casualties many...



...but eventually the high ground is taken...



... and the Conduit of the Old Ones succeeds.



Some weeks later, as the Lizardmen attempt to protect the sacred grounds performing the Vortex ritual, the Skaven Ambush their reserves.



They overestimate their power however, and Mazdamundi calls upon an ancient spell which obliterates 400 ratmen in one twisting maelstrom... 



...the survivors provide a hearty meal for his Ancient Stegadon, Zlaaq.

I mean I love the Skaven, they were my second race I ever had as a kid (first were Eldar, third was 'nids). I am playing them in one campaign, but I also have to give props for the Lizardmen (who were my fourth race), who have always been great, but have been given a new lease of life by Creative Assembly, their take on the Kroxigor is amazing.

The whole game is just unbelievably good, they've taken the tabeltop faction's identities and playstyles and ran with them, carrying them closer to the fiction than they actual dicerolling, and it is amazing because of it. Everything does exactly what the short stories in the army books said they did, and the animation work they've done for the non-humanoids is stupendous.

The difference between this campaign and the previous game's is also massive, Eye of the Vortex is the first time CA have ever done a campaign like this and they seem to have nailed it, it has a proper flow and drive to it and there's no more misleading downtime before a timer arbitrarily ticks over and a super army appears on your borders. You have easily identifiable goals, and you chose when to trigger the Chaos threat with your rituals. You get to pick whether you wait until your borders are totally secure, potentially falling behind the other races on the map, or if you want to risk being overwhelmed for early gains.

It's just so damn good. Exactly the kind of thing that you just cant replicate as well on console, a series that really utilises the platform it's on.

It's much better than the first, so far.

Hmm, I dunno, interventions usually slow them down, that's their main function. I used the 5k one to stall the High Elves third level ritual whilst I caught up, it bought me a few turns.

Their battering ram is nonsense.

How are you finding Cashflow? I think Lizardmen have strong potential for huge cash - my pro-tip is that you don't really need high level units until really late on, if you do quests for blessed spawnings you can dodge the cash grind for Kroxigors and Cold Ones etc, and focus on your economy - built a Stone Tower in one secondary settlement and fill everything else with Skink Favelas. 

I had to panic-buy two extra armies, but ignoring upkeep, my income is around 20k. With armies its about 1-4k depending, but I also haven't upgraded Mazdamundi's Upkeep reduction much yet.

The stack got destroyed sandwhiched between two clan mors stacks before it even reached the ritual city.

No flyers? They're not too bad in melee against soft stuff either and cause fear.

The first nerf patch will be interesting.

Tempy wrote:

(not at all desperate to chat about this game, no sir)

Just shout into the void lads, I'm listening.

Can we have some videos with a little context for dressing? Cheers.

Tempy wrote:

Flyers are very good for taking out Artillery that sits back but skirmishers do the same job nearly as well for smaller upkeep and less of an imprint on your settlement slots. They're definitely good, but I'd keep an eye out for quests for Blessed Spawnings over the building chain for economic reasons.

Sieges m'boy SIEGES. They are great for flying over the walls and running disruption since LM skirmishers can't fire over. Flying the length of a wall and dropping rock bombs is l33t.

Can possibly do so, I am just doing some painting right now.

Messing about in battle replays for screenshots and i noticed the detail on lizmon have that reptile second eyelid when they blink.

There's dozens and dozens of unique animations going on in a unit. It's very easy to invent personal stories in your head on a freeze frame.