Alpha Update 1 - Greenskins Introduction - Ep 1
Hello everyone welcome to the world of Total War: Warhammer! In today’s update we are introduced to the Greenskins, the Orcs and the Goblins. They are widely known for their ways of never-ending warfare and raids upon all who would share borders with them. For a Legendary Lord we have decided upon Azhag the Slaughterer. He’s competent in melee but later on will be more of a caster. Let’s take a closer look at Azhag.
Azhag the Slaughterer
While not as powerful as the other Greenskins leader, Azhag is still a potent leader. Early on his melee stats are pretty good but they’ll drop off in time to favor his magical abilities. To unlock those we need to find his crown. This Orc will wear a crown containing a spirit that will speak to him, helping him lead and make decisions. Azhag is likely where Warcraft got the idea for the Lich King, though in that case it was the reverse. A human with the spirit of an Orc leading them.
Azhag is sturdy and is good as far as his aura of leadership goes which is mightily important for the Greenskins.
We cover a lot in today’s episode as many things are introduced. Let’s go over a few of them here.
Building
Building
In the campaign you are able to construct buildings in your settlements. Buildings cost your faction’s currency, the most common one being gold. It takes an allotted amount of time for buildings to construct, with more important ones taking longer and simpler ones taking less time. Some buildings unlock technologies, generate money, allow you to recruit units, have military, social, or economic influences, etc.
Recruitment
Recruitment
Each army can recruit up to twenty units if you include the Lord leading it. Heroes may not command armies and specifically Lords are required to do so. With one Lord per army that leaves nineteen slots for units and Heroes. You are able to recruit locally and globally. Local recruitment uses the buildings of the province you are in to determine what you can recruit. The default amount of units you can recruit per turn is three, but research, upgrades, skills, and buildings, can all increase that number.
Global recruitment can draw from any of your provinces for units, but costs extra money and extra time. This also starts with three slots, and you can recruit both locally and globally at the same time, they do not share slots. When recruiting a unit has a base cost to recruit and then an upkeep. The upkeep is their cost per turn and is a major factor in determining the kind of army you can field.
Movement and Stances
Movement and Stances
On the campaign map you can move about a certain distance per turn. Heroes and armies(Led by a Lord) can move a determined amount. These distances can be influenced by stances. Stances are what your army’s movement mainly, and whether they can move or not. Most stances reduce movement distance except for March. But March leaves your troops tired if you enter battle and you cannot attack while in March stance. None stance is the basic one that you can do most things in. Encamp stance negates attrition but takes up fifty percent of your movement to enter, it also allows global recruitment. Raiding stance makes you move shorter distances but you raid the province you are in, lowering order and stealing money. Route Marcher is a basic skill most Lords can have that is highly useful which improves campaign movement by ten percent. You almost always want to take it to move further.
Skills
Skills
Since I brought them up, Heroes and Lords have skills that you can choose as they level up. These skills can increase stats, give them new abilities, mounts, etc. Route Marcher is one of the most important upgrades to get, it follows the campaign path of upgrades. It is nearly always a must take. Other things skills can do is influence an army, yours or the enemy’s, influence units, increase combat abilities, gain spells or abilities. Lords have different skill paths and typically follow four main paths, Campaign, Leadership, Combat, and Spells. Azhag I will be leveling mainly to be a leader for his troops then when available I’ll take him down the magic path to gain powerful and terrifying spells.
Map
Map
That’s pretty empty. Isn’t it? This game has a Fog of War, essentially we can only see what our armies and settlements can see. For the time being we are small, but as we grow more and more of the map will be revealed. It is a very large map containing over forty factions that have their own territories, armies, and diplomatic borders and goals.
Diplomacy
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is very complicated in Total War: Warhammer. Nearly everything you do influences how others see you. Your military might, attitudes towards other factions, and events highly influence diplomacy. As well when powerful factions arise you may find smaller ones more willing to work with you to deal with them, and vice versa if you are said powerful faction. Who you ally with, trade with, and treaty with will influence things as well. If the Bloody Hands hate the Crooked Moons, and you befriend the Crooked Moons, then the Bloody Hands will like you less.
As for what you can do with diplomacy, you can work out deals with other factions. Starting trade routes with other factions increases the money per turn of both, so it is generally mutually beneficial. Non-Aggression pacts are the lowest form of diplomacy and allow factions to not be too worried about the one they sign a pact with suddenly attacking. It should be noted if you go against your word every faction in the game will distrust or even hate you, and consider you untrustworthy.
