Total War: WARHAMMER II

Total War: WARHAMMER II PC is a fantasy grand strategy game that combines a turn-based campaign with real-time tactical battles. Its current storefront name remains Total War: WARHAMMER II on Steam and Epic, with no verified rebrand or replacement edition. Creative Assembly developed the game, while SEGA publishes it for Windows PC.

The campaign moves between empire management and battlefield command. You expand across the New World, negotiate with rival factions, develop settlements, recruit armies, and then take direct control when war begins. The result is a strategy game built for players who enjoy long campaigns, faction experimentation, and battles where positioning matters as much as raw numbers.

Two Layers of Total War Strategy

The strategic layer is a turn-based open-world campaign covering Ulthuan, Naggaroth, Lustria, and the Southlands. Armies and characters move across a regional map, while settlements provide income, recruitment, public order, defenses, and infrastructure. Every turn creates competing priorities: expand your borders, secure resources, protect vulnerable provinces, or delay a rival until your economy can support another army.

Diplomacy, trade agreements, alliances, raiding, ambushes, and corruption all influence how quickly a faction can grow. The campaign is not limited to direct conquest. You can use agents, terrain, settlement defenses, and faction-specific abilities to create advantages before the armies meet.

When opposing forces engage, the game switches to real-time tactical battles. Infantry holds the line, cavalry exploits exposed flanks, missile units punish slow formations, and monsters or flying units can disrupt the entire battlefield. Terrain, forests, elevation, morale, ammunition, fatigue, magic, and unit abilities all affect the result.

The camera uses a zoomable overhead battlefield perspective, allowing you to command individual units while also pulling back to read the larger engagement. Players can issue orders through mouse and keyboard controls, pause battles on supported difficulty settings, use formations, and rely on auto-resolve when a fight is strategically unimportant.

The Great Vortex Campaign

The signature campaign is Eye of the Vortex, in which the major races compete to control the Great Vortex above Ulthuan. Each faction gathers its own ritual currency, completes five rituals, and attempts to survive the final confrontation. Rituals are not quiet research projects: they expose key settlements to attacks from rival factions, Chaos forces, and intervention armies.

This structure gives the campaign a clear strategic rhythm without removing the sandbox elements of Total War. You can pursue the ritual race aggressively, attack another faction while it is vulnerable, or ignore the narrative objective and aim for domination through conquest. The official victory conditions also differ by race, so the same map can demand very different priorities depending on your chosen Legendary Lord.

Eye of the Vortex is also where several campaign systems become especially visible. High Elves can spend Influence to shape characters and diplomatic relationships. Dark Elves use Black Arks and a momentum-based Murderous Prowess system. Skaven rely on food, hidden settlements, and ambushes, while Lizardmen use their own geomantic and spawning-based faction tools.

Four Races, Four Strategic Identities

The base game centers on High Elves, Dark Elves, Skaven, and Lizardmen. Each race has a distinct roster, economy, campaign interface, battlefield role, and set of Legendary Lords. The differences are substantial enough that changing factions often feels like learning a different strategy game.

• High Elves combine disciplined infantry, powerful ranged units, dragons, elite characters, and Influence-driven diplomacy.
• Dark Elves favor aggressive expansion, armor-piercing units, powerful monsters, Black Arks, and an economy built around captured labor.
• Skaven use expendable infantry, dangerous weapons teams, corruption, food management, Stalking stance, and the hidden Under-Empire.
• Lizardmen field durable Saurus warriors, dinosaurs, powerful spellcasters, and a roster that rewards direct pressure and strong battlefield coordination.

The faction choice affects more than unit appearance. It changes how you recruit, how you build provinces, what counts as a safe expansion, and which enemies are most dangerous. That asymmetry is one of the game's strongest replay systems.

Legendary Lords add another layer of specialization. Their starting locations, traits, quest battles, skill trees, and faction effects alter the opening campaign, while Heroes can support armies through scouting, assassination, replenishment, spellcasting, and other campaign actions.

Battlefields, Magic, and Army Building

Army design is based on complementary battlefield roles rather than a single universal composition. Frontline units create stability, ranged units apply pressure, cavalry controls movement, artillery attacks dense formations, and monsters can break through a weak section of the enemy line. A strong army still loses if it cannot protect its flanks or maintain leadership under pressure.

Magic gives spellcasters access to area damage, buffs, debuffs, healing, movement control, and other effects governed by the Winds of Magic. Using a spell at the correct moment can turn a losing engagement into a victory, but poor timing wastes a limited battlefield resource.

Sieges, ambushes, settlement battles, naval encounters, quest battles, and battles shaped by faction abilities keep the tactical layer from becoming a simple infantry collision. Forests can conceal units, high ground improves battlefield visibility, and missile units require careful attention to line of sight and ammunition.

Players who enjoy the same campaign-to-battle structure in a historical setting may also want to compare it with classic medieval grand strategy and real-time warfare in Medieval II: Total War Collection, although WARHAMMER II replaces historical armies with monsters, magic, and asymmetrical factions.

Campaigns, DLC, and Current Ownership Details

The base game includes the Eye of the Vortex campaign, custom battles, multiplayer battles, and access to a large faction sandbox. Its content model is modular: the base purchase is separate from paid race packs, lord packs, blood effects, and other additions, while several Legendary Lords and campaign components are available as free content.

Steam currently lists 23 pieces of additional content for the game. The catalog includes paid additions such as Rise of the Tomb Kings, Curse of the Vampire Coast, The Queen & The Crone, The Prophet & The Warlock, The Hunter & The Beast, The Shadow & The Blade, The Warden & The Paunch, The Twisted & The Twilight, and The Silence & The Fury, alongside free lords and smaller content items.

Mortal Empires combines the campaign maps and playable races from the first two Total War: WARHAMMER games, but requires ownership of both games. The newer Immortal Empires campaign is the trilogy-wide sandbox. The current storefront description states that owners of either WARHAMMER I or WARHAMMER II can access Immortal Empires by launching Total War: WARHAMMER III from the same library.

Multiplayer and PC Features

Total War: WARHAMMER II supports single-player campaigns, two-player co-op campaigns, head-to-head campaigns, online PvP, LAN PvP, and LAN co-op. In co-op battles, players can coordinate armies and share control of units, making the mode more involved than simply taking turns on the campaign map.

The PC version uses Steam as its storefront and launcher ecosystem. Steam lists Steam Workshop, Steam Achievements, Steam Trading Cards, Family Sharing, and Remote Play on Tablet support. It also lists Denuvo Anti-tamper as third-party DRM and requires acceptance of a third-party EULA.

Localization includes English full audio and interface and subtitle support in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Czech, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. Other languages have interface and subtitle support without full voice audio.

Keyboard and mouse controls remain the clearest supported input method in the official manual. The storefront does not advertise full controller support, so PC players should approach WARHAMMER II as a mouse-driven strategy game rather than a controller-first experience.

Who Should Play Total War: WARHAMMER II?

WARHAMMER II is a strong fit for players who want asymmetrical factions, large-scale battles, long-form empire management, and a campaign that can be replayed from radically different starting positions. It rewards learning unit matchups, reading the campaign map, and planning several turns ahead.

It is less suitable for players seeking short matches, a linear story campaign, or a strategy game where every faction follows the same economic rules. The interface and faction mechanics can be demanding at first, but the advisor, help panels, and introductory campaign tools make the core systems more approachable.

For a game that places more emphasis on settlement construction and real-time formations than on fantasy warfare, the city-building and tactical combat mix of Manor Lords offers a narrower but related alternative.

Total War: WARHAMMER II FAQ

Is Total War: WARHAMMER II still called that on PC?

Yes. The current Steam and Epic storefront listings use the name Total War: WARHAMMER II. No verified storefront rebrand or renamed replacement edition was found.

What is the main campaign in Total War: WARHAMMER II?

The main campaign is Eye of the Vortex. Players gather faction-specific ritual currency, complete five rituals, defend ritual settlements, and fight toward a final confrontation. Domination-style victory conditions are also available for factions that prefer territorial conquest.

Which races are playable in the base game?

The four core races are High Elves, Dark Elves, Skaven, and Lizardmen. DLC adds Tomb Kings, Vampire Coast, and additional Legendary Lords and factions.

Does Total War: WARHAMMER II have co-op?

Yes. It supports two-player co-op campaigns, head-to-head campaigns, online PvP, LAN PvP, and LAN co-op. Co-op battles can include unit sharing between allied players.

Does owning WARHAMMER II provide Immortal Empires?

Ownership of WARHAMMER II grants access to Immortal Empires through Total War: WARHAMMER III, according to the current storefront description. Mortal Empires is a separate combined campaign that requires both WARHAMMER I and WARHAMMER II.

Is the DLC included with the base game?

No. The base game and its additional content are listed separately. Some Legendary Lords and smaller items are free, while major race packs, lord packs, and cosmetic or blood-effect additions may require separate purchases.