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Alongside the release of the highly-anticipated Tomb Kings, a small free update to one of the main Old World races will be added to the game. In this article, Senior Designer Eva Jobse will tell you all about it –

At Creative Assembly, we’re constantly evaluating our old content, and with Mortal Empires it is important to us to evaluate Warhammer 1 factions as well. With the release of Warhammer II, the Vampire Counts saw a massive overhaul to their building tree, the Empire gained some additional buildings and three new technologies, the Greenskins and Wood Elves got new buildings, and most races got access to a few more legendary buildings. The Reprisal Update added the Legendary Lord skills and campaign bonuses from Warhammer 1’s Foundation Update, and gave all Old World lords and heroes access to the desirable immortality skill from Warhammer II. Bretonnia felt a little left out however, so this small update specifically affects them.

One thing that was very noticeable is that the Bretonnian tech tree relies heavily on race-specific upgrades, and all the targets of these technologies were Old World factions only. With the New World adding many new races, it was only fitting to add some technologies specific to these new races. In addition, we noticed that Bretonnia doesn’t have many unit upgrades in the technology tree, making them fall behind a bit when other races start to unlock their general unit upgrades in the middle game. We addressed this issue by adding a whole new section to the end of the tech tree that mostly includes unit upgrades for men-at-arms, archers and knights of all sorts.

Let’s take a look how all of this comes together:

As you can see, the Bretonnian tech tree has been seriously beefed up, with 20 additional technologies added on top of the existing 32. Quite handy with the extended campaign length of Mortal Empires. Five of the new techs focus on the New World races in some way. On the far right side, a whole new section has been added as well, which contains a mix of unit buffs and buffs specific to certain types of buildings.

Let’s take a look at some of these new techs in detail…

It seems the awakening of the Tomb Kings has not gone unnoticed in fair Bretonnia, and King Louen will not suffer their shenanigans for much longer…

Other technologies are not so specific, but rather improve the stats on various types of units:

…Such as Steel Furnaces, part of a series of techs upgrading all Knight units.

Additional economy and building upgrades are also present and aren’t exclusive to Farms and Industry buildings anymore…

The Hay Stores upgrade, for example, makes it much easier and faster to set up a base of operations in newly conquered lands.

On the character side, we’re very happy that the unique lord skills of the Warhammer II Legendary Lords were well-received. The Reprisal Update added some for most Old World races already, but Bretonnia was one of the factions still left out. As much as we wanted to change a lot of the skill trees to make them unique, we had to be careful here, as moving or changing existing skills will break people’s save-games and make spent skillpoints disappear. So in the end, we decided to add 4 new skills for each of the Bretonnian Legendary Lords on top of what they already have. Each are specific to the areas the characters are famous for. Here’s a quick peek at Louen’s batch:

But that’s not all. One frequent bit of praise for Warhammer II is that there’s legendary buildings almost everywhere, making each province unique. We already added a few of these to the Old World with the release of Mortal Empires, such as a certain famous brewery near Blackfire Pass, the Blood Keep in Nuln and the Fortress of Merovech in Moussilon, but there’s always more we’d like to add. So with this update we added 4 more legendary buildings to the Old World. These are:

Peaks of Parravon (different versions for Bretonnia, Wood Elves and High Elves). Parravon is a mountainous dukedom famous for its Pegasi and other roosts of various flying creatures, and this building provides a boost to these kinds of units.

The Forest of Laurelorn (different versions for Wood Elves, High Elves, Dark Elves, Empire and Bretonnia), in Salzenmund. This ancient enclave of Elves has been holding out in the deep forests of the Empire since the War of the Beard, providing a potential source of warriors for Elf races, or a potential trading asset for the human races.

Oathgold Mine (different versions for Dwarfs, Greenskins and Skaven) in Galbaraz. A source of the purest gold lies deep beneath the Badlands and Dwarfs go to great length to recover it. Other deep-dwelling races may beat them to it, however.

Ruins of Mourkain (different versions for Vampire Counts and a certain Tomb King faction) in Galbaraz. Mourkain was the capital an ancient kingdom that practiced Necromancy, later usurped by what we now know as the the Strigoi vampires. It once occupied most of the Badlands. Some ominous ruined crypts still exist…

We hope you’ll enjoy everything the new release has to offer and will continue working hard to make Mortal Empires the best grand strategy experience out there.

TOMB KINGS UPDATE

After millennia sleeping beneath the sands of Nehekhara, Settra and the Tomb Kings rise again, to rebuild their empire anew! Those who don’t own the Rise of the Tomb Kings campaign pack will of course encounter them under AI control over the course of their Eye of the Vortex and Mortal Empires campaigns.

Also available is Tretch Craventail, Warhammer II’s first free Legendary Lord. He exemplifies the Skaven qualities of underhandedness, furtiveness and sublime guile, and he occupies a unique starting position up in Naggaroth. You can download him free from Steam’s Warhammer II page extra content listings.

To accompany Settra, Arkhan, Khalida, Khatep and Tretch, we’ve made a number of overhauls to many campaign and battle features in Warhammer II, including many battle and campaign rebalancing changes to improve the Mortal Empires experience.

In addition, Bretonnia has seen an extensive overhaul, with new skills for their Legendary Lords, a plethora of new technologies, and legendary buildings in specific settlements to more closely integrate their lands into Mortal Empires.

This update is applied via Steam auto-update to your Total War: WARHAMMER II client when Rise of the Tomb Kings launches.

Bretonnia additions:

New skills for Louen Leoncoeur: Fount of Honour, Respected by All, Clarion Calls and Exemplary Conduct

New skills for Alberic de Bordeleaux: Lead from the Front, Coastal Expansion, Shipping Lanes, Appoint Reeves

New skills for the Fay Enchantress: Beacon of Devotion, Sacred Duty, Lady of the Land, Secrets of the Otherworld

New Bretonnia technology: Secure Shores Decree

New Bretonnia technology: Sewer Cleaning Decree

New Bretonnia technology: Desert Purge Decree

New Bretonnia technology: Overseas Diplomacy

New Bretonnia technology: Support Religious Errantry

New Bretonnia technology: Encourage Fanaticism

New Bretonnia technology: Temple Tithes

New Bretonnia technology: Commission Carpenters

New Bretonnia technology: Longer Spears

New Bretonnia technology: Professional Fletchers

New Bretonnia technology: Siege Engineering

New Bretonnia technology: Registered Draft

New Bretonnia technology: Hay Stores

New Bretonnia technology: Farriers

New Bretonnia technology: Blinker Hoods

New Bretonnia technology: Improved Smelters

New Bretonnia technology: Glazing Kilns

New Bretonnia technology: Steel Furnaces

New Bretonnia technology: Master Swordsmiths

New Bretonnia technology: Regular Tournaments

New legendary building in Parravon for Bretonnia, High Elves, Wood Elves: Peaks of Parravon

New legendary building in Salzenmund for Bretonnia, Empire, Wood Elves, High Elves, Dark Elves: Forest of Laurelorn

New legendary building in Galbaraz for Dwarfs, Greenskins, Skaven: Oathgold Mine

New legendary building in Galbaraz for Vampire Counts and a Tomb Kings faction: Ruins of Mourkain

Old World Legendary Lord Trait Updates:

Karl Franz: +10 diplomatic relations with Empire Provinces +2 Leadership

Azhag: +15% Leadership Aura Size +8 Leadership Aura Effect

Grimgor: +6 Leadership for Black Orcs in the army +5 Armour for Black Orcs in the army

Thorgrim: +15% Leadership Aura Size +8 Leadership Aura Effect

Archaon: +10% Physical Resist for Chaos Knight units in the army +25% Razing income



Bug Fixes and Improvements

Headline improvements:

Rebalanced the Grand and Vortex campaigns to reduce Dwarf supremacy.

Improved ‘Dropped Orders’/units responsiveness during battles.

Improved Skaven units in auto-resolve.

Added a check-box to the army panel in campaign, so when end-turn notifications are disabled, the notifications for the selected army will still be enabled.

Battle AI is now less inclined to use deep unit formations (e.g. 5 units deep) and will use more varied and wider formations where appropriate.

Campaign Battle difficulty modifiers are now applied to the AI correctly.

Battle AI is now less likely to clump when attacking a high Combat Potential unit or Lord, which used to make them easy to kill with ranged units or by flanking the clumped army.

Improved the Battle AI outflank analyser to check the number of entities currently in the unit, rather than the initial number. This will prevent the Battle AI from attempting to outflank an already engaged unit and surround single entity units under certain conditions.

Old World Legendary Lords traits and Bretonnia updates, see above for details.

Technical and Performance improvements

General

Fixed a bug where the Campaign Map would flicker when the player minimized the game with ALT+TAB while changing graphics settings. Fixed a crash when switching between maximum graphics settings and the “out of the box” “high” settings on AMD RX-480 GPU while running the game in DirectX12 (BETA). Improved compatibility with the GTX 690 card, removing flickering, black terrain and low performance. Fixed a crash that occurs on some AMD graphics cards when changing all graphics settings to their highest, then changing back to recommended settings. Added recommended graphics settings for the GT 740 M card.



Campaign technical improvements:

Fixed a rare end turn crash when an agent was left as the only unit in a force, and dies of attrition at the end of the round. FPS performance has been improved when zooming out to max distance on the Campaign Map on some configurations. Fixed a Multiplayer Campaign desync in the end turn cycle caused by Campaign script. Fixed a Head to Head Multiplayer Campaign crash in the Vortex Campaign which was caused by the Event Feed. Fixed a Mortal Empires campaign crash during the End Turn cycle for the Lizardmen faction. Fixed a DirectX 12 bug for SLI users, where the diplomacy colours map overlay and storm seas would flicker in campaign modes. Fixed a crash that could occur when alt-tabbing out during load screens. Fixed a rare crash that would occur when removing units from an army on an AI faction during the end turn sequence. Fixed a crash when a Lord is disbanded after a hero is given the command to embed in the army. Fixed an end-turn crash when a lord died and the only other unit left in the army was a hero.



Gameplay Improvements

Campaign:

Campaign AI is now more likely to correctly deploy agents in regions owned by a different subculture, in order to apply their negative effects. Wood Elf rebels no longer suffer from undead attrition. The lake on the Campaign map at Tor Finu has been visually improved. In the Eye of the Vortex campaign, the Campaign AI now prioritises attacking closer ritual locations if they can. It is no longer possible to ask allied factions to join wars against Intervention Armies and Chaos/Skaven armies which are spawned when performing a ritual. The “Load a save game” option is no longer available after failing to stop the AI from winning the Vortex Campaign on Legendary Difficulty. The skills affecting stats for Saurus Temple Guards now also applies to Blessed Temple Guards. Added new traits to the Bretonnian Damsel hero unit. The “Night of Khaine” mission has a button which will now correctly take you to the Hero Vraneth location. The “Blood Drinker” Quest is no longer cancelled when gaining a Defensive Alliance with the faction that owns Essen while the quest is active. “Box of Eerie Noises” can no longer be collected from sea encounters, because it is meant to be crafted only. Hero traits for some newly recruited units (e.g. “Lore Keeper” for the Vampire Counts) will now affect the local region where they are recruited as intended. Corrected the requirements for the “Marital Prowess” mission. The “Greenskin Filth” mission reward has been fixed. Fixed a loyalty gain exploit when adding and removing followers to a character. The Black Ark can now return to Full Speed stance after moving and switching stance. Added a “Hall of Oaths” building chain to the Mount Gunbad settlement in Rib Peaks province. Garrison armies no longer gain experience from special buildings, rites and lord abilities Malekith’s “Seditious or Sanguine” skill now provides the correct effects. Chaos incursion armies are now more likely to recruit additional units. Fixed the effect gained from doing the Treasure hunt event “Undead Sentinels”. Fixed the requirements for unlocking the secondary skills in the Beastmen Gorebull skill tree. The Greenskins and Wurrzag can now build more resource buildings. The visualisation for Storms at Sea on the water surface is no longer offset. Fixed a bug where the Income and Public Order would not change / update if the player unticks the “Tax Province” feature while on the Building Browser. Fixed cases where construction of buildings in campaign would take less time in harsh climates, rather than more time. Queek’s objective to “Control Karak Eight Peaks” can no longer be achieved by forming a military alliance with the faction that controls it. He needs to own the settlement himself. When capturing Wurtbad as Clan Angrund, the city no longer has two identical “Defence” building chains. When Vlad uses Lightning Strike ability, Isabella will no longer be able to reinforce him in battle. Removed some construction cost reduction buffs from common buildings to fix an exploit. Improved cases where AI factions would offer a non-aggression pact on one turn, and end the pact on the next for no apparent reason. The Silver Host faction wont recruit so many corpse carts anymore. Added some missing animations for the Reaper Bolt Throwers units in the Black Creek Raiders rogue army. The Beastmen “For Gore & Glory” mission has been fixed, so can no longer be completed by recruiting the wrong unit type. Skaven corruption will now give extra “Menace Below” charges when intended. Fixed an issue where after the Top Knotz faction became a migrating horde, they were no longer able to have any buildings or recruit new units. When the Campaign AI Captures Karak Eight Peaks and then allies with Clan Angrund, you will no longer see Belegar Ironhammer travel to stand outside of the settlement indefinitely. Fixed some instances where the balance of power would be further in the enemies favour when reinforcements were used compared to without. Khazrak the One-Eye’s recruitment cost reduction for Bestigor units has been improved and is now -30%. Queek Headtaker’s “Make It-It Better!” mission can now be completed when taking control of a settlement with a Lair already constructed. Fixed an issue where the Dragon Cloak of Fryskar could be completed when raiding with an army other than Ungrim’s. Research rate is now low-capped at zero and will no longer go negative. Disbanded Black Arks no longer count towards victory objectives. Reiksfort can now be constructed in Marienburg. Fixed an issue where Waywatchers did not get armour-piercing missile damage bonus from the Hawkish Precision ability. Skaven will now have the “Great Power” diplomatic penalty. When conversing with Settra in diplomacy, players must verbally address him using his entire title-train, regardless of any embarrassment this may cause due to the presence of family members. Luminark of Hysh can now be recruited in Saphery and Ghrond. Garrisons that exceed 20 units should now prioritise units of higher tier when considering what units to take into battle. Improved balance of power calculations for complex battles. Added some missing Greenskin garrison hero characters. Wurrzag can once again construct his special Savage Orc building chain Savage Orcs resource added to the Floating Pyramid settlement in both the Vortex and Mortal Empires campaigns



Battle

Queek Headtaker can now use his “Menace Below” ability when entering the battle as a reinforcement. Magic missiles, such as High / Dark elf arrows will steer more aggressively towards their targets. Improved how large groups of multiple units navigate through destroyed gates in siege battles, in some cases. The Skink Cohort (melee unit) will no longer use the wrong idle animation when standing on a wall. Army Abilities can now target and be used directly on a Unit Card. Improved the Skaven routing in the prelude battle. The enemy AI no longer recovers from routing and stands around idle. After winning a battle, when the player chooses to run down the enemy rather than “End Battle”, the battle music will no longer stop playing when using the tactical map. Improved Artillery pathfinding in the corners of the playable battle area. Reduced the likelihood of the Battle AI sending units one-by-one to attack siege gates. The Siege Defenders’ reinforcing AI is now less likely to hold its ground when entering the battle. Added collision to a large rock at the edge of the infield in a Lizardmen battle map (lzd_hills_infield_a catchment 04). Improved the matched fatal-attack animations for the High Elf Sun Dragon. Improved Cold Ones matched combat animations, which could cause certain units to warp around when attacked by them. Improved Terradon Riders matched combat animations being misaligned, when attacking certain units e.g. Chaos Warriors or Goblin Nasty Skulkers. Improved the animation when the Blessed Carnosaur eats enemy units. Added more exit points to some battle maps so units rout in a better direction. Routing units are no longer able to attack their pursuers. Improved how the “Soul Stealer” special ability miscasts. Fixed a bug where Hell Cannons would shoot over the top of their target with certain map topography. Improved cases in Chokepoint battles, where the Battle AI would approach the choke point but not engage with the enemy on the other side of it, or stand still on the other side of the choke point and receive missile damage. Improved the responsiveness to attacking enemy units on walls when defending a siege battle. Improved the Battle AI in the situation where a sieging army has breached a wall with towers, and then attempted to exit the settlement back down the siege towers when a gate was closer / more accessible. Fixed a bug where the Steam Tank fatigue would continue to rise when it sat idle. Alastair: The White Lion can no longer be dismembered (because he’s a unique Hero). Removed the wind-up time from the Wand of Kharaidon spell. Units will now more easily rout from The Abyss battle map. Fixed a bug where, in some cases, rampaging units could follow routing units outside the playable area. Fixed the Black Fire Pass map, where some elements would pop in too obviously. Tidied up the collision in the Roq’Ato Free-For-All Battle Map. Improved the collision on the Alluvail Plain Chokepoint battle map. Removed an unnecessary impassable area on the Bladewind Pass Chokepoint map. Tidied up the trees in the Blight Water Chokepoint battle map. The “Cannot Move” effect of Net of Amyntok now correctly stops Skirmishers from pursuing their target with an attack order. Added collision to an outcrop of rocks across the river in the Frigid Ford Chokepoint Battle Map. Improved Terradon movement during melee animations. Improved the chances of Eagle / Phoenix units using matched combat animations when melee attacking humanoid units. Fixed the speed buff on The “Cavalryman” skill. When in dispute with a hirsute brute, apply the boot with a firm DOOT DOOT. Improved the collision on the Squiggly Beasts battle map and fixed some floating rocks. Speeded up the Helblaster fire animation. Fixed a bug where the player could put a unit into “Rampage” during a battle, but then break the command by issuing a movement order before they rampage. Fixed cases where Rogue Army Great Cannons couldn’t fire in battles. Improved the accuracy of Chaos Hellcanons. Added collision to the fallen Dwarf statue in the middle of the East side of the Death Pass Deep Battle Map. Movement speed is no longer capped in Laboratory mode. Fixed some instances where Battle AI would not attack when it was clearly in their favour to do so. Fixed a floating water plane in Hel Fenn battle map. Fixed an issue where some Wood Elves projectiles would always fall short of their target within Laboratory mode. Fixed an issue where an army could stand on top of mountains when sieging Mount Arachnos. The Corrupter of the Shadowgrave effect will now correctly die out when the enemy Beastlord Lord has been killed in the Horn of the Wild Quest Battle. The enemy Beastmen Lord will now show correctly within the Horn of the Wild Quest Battle. Units can no longer be deployed inside a cliff on The Night Glens map. Units can no longer be deployed inside a cliff on the Glade of the Lost map. Units can no longer be deployed inside a cliff on the Erengrad Siege map when attacking. Units can no longer be deployed inside a cliff on the Zoishenk Siege map when attacking.



Usability Improvements

General

Removed the incorrectly listed “Life-Leeching” skill from the “Loremaster of Hoeth” unit page in the Game Guide. Traditional Chinese subtitles now work with UI scaling above 100%. Fixed some instances of inconsistent voice acting. Fixed the preview images for user generated Custom Battle maps. Fixed the tool-tip on the SSAO option in the Advanced Graphics settings. Brightness and Gamma sliders can now be seen to take affect in the game’s front end. Fixed a typo in Czech in the Dragon Cloak of Fyrskar quest description.



Campaign

In Multiplayer head to head Vortex Campaign, when both players gain ritual currency at the same time, the currency “Gained this turn” value on the ritual bar tool-tip will no longer be doubled (/ won’t show both players currency gained). The text for Epilogue and Event will no longer appear too long to fit on the screen in certain resolutions, and will scroll when necessary. Fixed the subtitles in the Empire factions’ Grand Campaign intro movie in Turkish. The name of the Chrace region of Ulthuan is now localized in Spanish (called “Cracia”). One of the positive effects of the Temple of Mist (reduces the movement range of local enemy armies by 20%) is now correctly coloured green instead of red. Fixed the “Know More” link on the Menace Below ability, when mentioned by the advisor. Fixed the localisation for some Vortex Campaign regions in Czech. When multiple campaign cutscenes are queued to play subsequently, pressing [Esc] will now skip all of the cutscenes rather than just the first one. Legendary Lord conversational voice over is no longer positioned in 3D space, so it can always be heard, if the player moves the camera. In Multiplayer Campaign, when one player attacks a settlement and opened the pre-battle panel, and another player re-enforced them, the first players pre-battle panel would reset. This has been fixed. Fixed a harsh edge in the snow texture, displayed in the pre-battle screen in The Palace of Ruin region. Fixed a lighting issue where a shadow was being cast in the northern area of the Qatar region without an obvious caster. Fixed an inconsistency with the trade icon for “Known Factions” between the Diplomacy panel and the drop-down list on the right of the campaign HUD. Corrected some mistakes in the Polish advisor voice over during fly-bys. Predicted income now updates when, for example, disbanding a general to remove his upkeep cost. Improved how text wraps / fits on the Quest Panel. Fixed a link on the “How They Play” text for Vlad von Carstein The movement range display (indicating how far an enemy lord at sea is able to attack) is now more accurate. The Start and End battle options for Queek Headtaker are now displayed the in correct colour (blue). The Reward for completing the “Stave of Ruinous Corruption” quest is no longer repeated on the “Quest Successful!” message. Hero and army unit icons no longer remain on land once the army has embarked into the sea. The Fay Enchantress (Bretonnia) doesn’t bob around so much in the campaign porthole. The “Attitude” displayed during the campaign End Turn sequence now correctly represents the players’ attitude towards the faction instead of the faction’s attitude towards the player. Fixed where the text in the Rites window said that the player didn’t have enough warpstone to perform a Rite, which costs zero warpstone. The amount of warpstone on the Settlement information tool-tip when playing as Skaven is now more frequently updated. Fixed the technologies listed in the Mortal Empires objectives panel in Co-op mode. When starting the Mortal Empires campaign as Skarsnik of Crooked Moon, or Wurrzag of The Bloody Handz, the correct Greenskins loading screen will now show up instead of the Dwarfs Loading screen. Corrected the tooltip description for enemy territory rite attrition from “Great Incantation of Khsar”. Fixed a Multiplayer Campaign bug where the number of turns played would sometimes be displayed incorrectly when loading a saved game. When a player in a Multiplayer Campaign is in the building browser and the other player, who is using a Horde faction, moves a lord the game will no longer show a broken version of the other players’ Horde building browser. Stopped the Grey Seer lord from moving around so much on the campaign map when placed into Raid Stance. Fixed an issue when a previously loaded race’s music could play when loading a save from another race. Improved some areas of the shroud on the Vortex map which were incorrectly removing terrain. Karl Franz’s idle animation on the campaign map has been visually improved. Fixed some instances where tooltips were not displaying correctly for some buildings within the “Damage Buildings” panel. A war declared event message is now displayed when an enemy’s ally joins the enemy in war against the player. Changed an incorrect reference to Morale to Leadership in one of the Dwarven naval traits. Fixed a typo in a Dwarven greeting in diplomacy. Grudge narrowly avoided. Phew. Fixed a typo in Heinrich Kemmler’s Loremaster, Lord of Vampires skill description. Fixed a gap in the terrain on the Vortex map within the Shifting Sands province. The Gorebull skill tree should now use the correct icons. Fixed a typo in Balthasar Gelt’s Metal to Gold to Magic skill description. Fixed a typo in Helman Ghorst’s Unnatural Toughness skill description. The text in the “How They Play” screen for Clan Angrund should now display correctly. Fixed a typo in Thorgrim Grudgebearer’s Grudge Against the Elves skill description.



Battle

Fixed a bug that caused unit portholes to sometime become silhouettes when changing graphics settings during a battle. Added cast animations while Dark Elf Sorceress units on Dark Pegasus are flying. Fixed the unit portholes in battle when playing with Eyefinity, which weren’t displaying correctly at some resolutions. Fixed a bug which changed the fog and lighting in subterranean battles, when the player used the zoom key (“N” by default). Fixed the Amber Wizard voice over on the battlefield (he was previously silent in some cases). Fixed a typo in the High Elf Princess “Loose!” ability in English. Softened the edges of shadows in the far distance on battle maps. The intro for the “War Crown of Saphery” Quest battle will no longer be cut off abruptly when loaded through the campaign. Improved the melee sound effects when two Squig Herds attack each other. Removed some terrain that would appear and disappear depending on camera angle from the Crooked Fang Fort map. Fixed an issue with text alignment in Russian and Czech on The Laboratory screen. Exiting the Steam overlay will no longer un-pause the game when in battle. Corrected a broken texture on Kholek Suneater’s tail. Fixed some missing textures on the Orc Boyz’s teeth and hair. Female Glade Lords should now play an animation when firing whilst moving. Adjusted lava visuals to remove extremes that caused lava to show as either too dark or too bright. Lords with long names should now fit correctly in the text box within the post-battle screen. Fixed some black textures on some of the Warriors of Dragonfire Pass (RoR) Dwarf units.



General AI changes:

AI to respect climates a little more when making an occupation decision

AI to use normal personalities on normal difficulty (not easy variants)

Increased AI priority to attack forces

Defensive personalities behave slightly more defensive

Minor improvements to general AI strategic behaviour

AI switch from early to mid-game behaviour earlier (makes AI more active on map and diplomacy)

AI more likely to declare war on factions that own victory condition regions

Added AI victory condition regions for a few Mortal Empire factions

Reduced chance of AI using Request and Offer Join War diplomatic action

Skaven now included in Great Power mechanic

Greenskins:

Steady low increase of fightiness for AI Greenskins Increased recruitment capabilities for Greenskins Minor improvements to construction and recruitment



Norsca:

Reduced income Reduced financial budget in the early game



Auto-Resolver changes:

Auto-Resolver damage output now constant

Fixed Auto-Resolver producing invincible units in very rare cases

Fixed Auto-Resolver not counting reinforcements correctly in some cases

Difficulty changes:

Reduced upkeep bonus for AI Removed economy bonus for AI (reduced late game scaling of AI economies) Increased recruitment capacity for AI based on difficulty Reduced construction and recruitment cost for AI based on difficulty Removed free technologies for AI and scaled based on difficulty Research rate reduced for AI based on difficulty.



Battle changes

Minor reduction to MD gain from unit rank increases.

Minor cost increase to unit rank increases.

Bracing bonus now caps at 6 ranks, previously 7.

Tower firing rates increased.

Minor increase in vigour recovery when idle.

All breath attack cooldown times increased to 60s and damage reduced or shifted from single-target damage to area of effect damage.

Note that most accuracy changes below are very minor adjustments.

Reduced the attack rate of chariots when repeatedly colliding with the same target.

Infantry characters should now be knocked around less frequently than before.

Flammable units now only -25% flame weakness.

Category caps: max 9 for missile inf, monsters & beasts, cavalry & chariots. Doomwheels limited to max 2 in Quick Battle.

Unit Balancing

Beastmen

Bestigor: +50 mp cost, -1 MD

Ungor Herd: -1 leadership, +1 CB

Ungor Spearmen Herd: -1 HP

Ungor Spearmen Herd (Shields): -1 leadership, -1 HP, -25 cost

Gor Herd: +1 MD, +2 speed, +50 mp cost

Gor Herd (Shields): +1 MA, +2 speed, +50 mp cost

Centigors (all): -2 HP

Centigors Great Weapons: removed splash attacks (reduces inconsistent power spikes in some matchups), +2 CB

Razorgor Herd: +6 HP, +3 leadership

Manticore: -0.4 attack interval

Cygor: -10 marksmanship

Giant: +410 HP

Khazrak: -50 cost.

Bretonnia

Most melee infantry: +1 to 2 HP

Spearmen-at-Arms (Shields): -25 mp cost

Men-at-Arms (Shields): -25 mp cost

Men-at-Arms (Polearm): -25 mp cost

Foot Squires: +1 speed

Peasant Bowmen (Fire Arrows): -50 cost, -2 regular projectile damage, +1 AP damage

Peasant Bowmen (Pox Arrows): -50 cost

Knights Errant: +3 HP, +2 CB

Questing Knights: -6 CB, +2 MA, +1 base damage, +2 ap damage, +0.1 attack interval,

Grail Guardians: -3 regular damage, +4 AP damage, +1 MA, +2 CB, +2 HP, -5 speed, +50 mp cost

Grail Knights: -3 regular damage, +3 AP damage, -2 MA, -2 CB

Mounted Yeomen Archers: Minor accuracy buff

Pegasus Knights: + mass, +4 CB,

Pegasi (all): +10 ground speed

Royal Hippogryph Knights: +2 MD, -4 regular damage, +9 AP damage

Trebuchet: + accuracy, + 10 explosion damage, +5 explosion AP damage

All artillery crew: +3 HP

Green Knight: Now armour-piercing. -150 base damage, +120 ap damage. -40 armour. Dolourous Blade redesigned synergise with AP damage profile. -50 cost.

Louen – Hippogryph +100 cost.

Alberic: +3 melee attack

Brt Paladin: -25 cost reduction. -75 cost for Pegasus.

Chaos

Chaos Warriors: +2 MA

Chosen (all): +1 HP

Chosen GW: +2 MA, +2 MD, +2 AP damage, +50 mp cost

Chosen Halberds: +1 HP (in addition to the +1 above)

Marauder Horsemen (Jav & Axe): Minor buffs to mobility

Marauder Horsemen: -25 mp cost, +2 MD

Chaos Knights (all): +2 HP

Chaos Knights (Lances): -1 regular damage, +1 AP damage

Gorebeast Chariot: +2 MA, +2 MD

Hellcannon: Reworked homing missile parameters (higher accuracy), -15 ammo, roughly -20% reload time and damage

(The inconsistent damage output of this weapon was very fitting for the faction, but not the most fun to play with. More shots per minute, higher accuracy and less damage make it a bit more predictable while reducing the benefit of using manual fire mode.)

Manticore: -100 cost, +5 regular damage, +10 AP damage, -0.4 attack interval (the latter applied to all mount variants too)

Dragon Ogres: +2 Leadership, +2 MD

Kholek & Dragon Ogre Shaggoth: -2 CB

Kholek Suneater: +100 cost

Giant: +410 HP

Dragon mounts: +100 cost

Archaon (foot): +15 base damage, +35 ap damage, +2 max splash attack targets.

Archaon – Dorghar: +15 base damage, +35 ap damage, +2 max splash attack targets. +328 health.

Sigvald: +40 base damage, +20 ap damage. +248 health. +100 cost

Chaos Lords (Foot, Chaos Steed, Manticore): +20 base damage, +20 ap damage, +5% health. +100 cost.

Dark Elves

Black Ark Corsairs: +50 cost

Shades: +50 cost

Shades (DS & GW): +2 CB

Witch Elves: poison speed debuff reduced to -20%, duration reduced by 1s, -3 Leadership

Reaper Bolt Thrower: +2 speed, +10 range

Cold One Dread Knights: +4 MD

War Hydra: +100 HP & Another Takes Its Place +1 max use.

Dreadlords: Dark Pegasus mount cost reduced by 50.

Morathi: Sulephet mount cost reduced by 50.

Malekith – Seraphon: +150 cost.

Dragon mounts: +100 cost

Dwarfs

Longbeards: -2 CB, -2HP, +40 mass

Longbeards GW (all): +1 regular damage, -1 AP damage, -2 HP, +40 mass

Warriors of Dragonfire Pass: -2 MD

Ironbreakers (all): +2 HP, +2 AP damage, +70 mass

Rangers: -2 MD, + acceleration

Bugman’s Rangers: +4 MA, +4 HP, + charge defence vs Large, + acceleration, +10 mass

Irondrakes: -100 mp cost

Gyrocopter (Brimstone): + accuracy

Gyrobomber & Gyrocopter: Lowered active duration of bomb ability, allowing rapid dropping

Gyrobomber & Skyhammer: +10 ground speed, Clattergun rebalanced, now it is a small cannon shooting small explosives, improving performance vs inf

Skyhammer: +50 cost, -5 reload, slight reduction to accuracy

Grudgethrower: + accuracy, +10 explosion damage

Organ Gun: +100 cost, – accuracy

Flame Cannon: +30 range, +10 explosion AP damage, projectile tweaks

Thane: +50 mp cost

Unless where mentioned otherwise, all Infantry and Missile Infantry apart from Rangers: +20 mass

All artillery crew: +2 HP

Runelord: +50 cost

Empire

Flagellants: +7 MA, -4 base damage, +75 cost.

Tattersouls: -6 CB, +5 MA, -2 base damage, +125 cost.

Halberdiers: +1 AP damage

Greatswords: +2 MA, +1 speed

Crossbowmen: +1 regular projectile damage

Empire Knights: -50 mp cost, +4HP, +2 MD

Reiksguard: -2 regular damage, +2 AP damage

Demigryphs Lances: -50 mp cost, +12 HP

Demigryphs Halberds & Altdorf Gryphites: +12 HP, -3 BvsL

Pistoliers: +1 missile damage, +5 HP, +2 MD

Outriders (all): slight increase to firing arc

Outriders: +1 projectile AP damage

Outrider (Grenade Launcher): +2 HP, +10 range, +1 explosion AP damage, +6 projectile damage

(Projectile damage on the grenades is a secondary factor as most of the damage comes from the explosion. The damage buff here merely improves the overall damage output against larger unarmoured targets, making the unit a bit more versatile.)

Mortar: -50 cost, -1s reload time, + accuracy

Helblaster: fire anim duration length reduced and projectile rebalanced (read: strong buff), +2 speed

Helstorm: +2 speed

Steamtank: +15 damage, +25 AP damage, -2 speed, +12 charge speed, +15m charge distance

Luminark of Hysh: -100 cost

All artillery crew: +3 HP

Empire Wizards: reduced mount costs by -100 (except for Amber Wizard Griffin)

Emp General: mount costs for warhorses and Pegasus reduced by 50.

Emp Captain: -25 cost reduction -75 cost for Pegasus.

Boris Todbringer – Pegasus: -50 cost.

Karl Franz (foot, horse, Pegasus): +40 ap base damage, -20 base damage.

Karl Franz on DeathClaw: +55 ap damage, -15 base damage.

High Elves

White Lions: +1 regular damage, -1 AP damage

Archers (all): -accuracy

Silver Helms: +1 HP

Dragon Princes: +50 mp cost

Great Eagle: -31 regular damage, +31 AP damage , +4MA, +2 MD

Great Eagle mounted characters: similar shift from regular damage to AP damage

Ithilmar Chariot: +2 MA, +2 MD

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower: +2 speed, +10 range

Dragon mounts: +100 cost

Lizardmen

Chameleon Skinks: -2 MD

Kroxigors: +2 BvsI

Horned Ones: +2 speed, +2 MD

Bastiladon Revivivification Crystal: -3 casts

Terradon: +10 ground speed

Carnosaur (all): – mass, + hitbox size, +0.2 attack interval

Skink Chief: -18 blowpipe ammo

Kroq-gar (Grymloq): Reduced missile resistance to 15%. -5 armour.

Kroq-Gar on foot & cold/horned one: +7 bonus vs large, +50 cost. +5% health.

Old Blood (Carnosaur): -5 armour.

Saurus Old Blood (Foot, Cold One): +50 cost, +5% health.

Scar-Veteran (Carnosaur): -2 charge bonus, -5 base damage, -10 ap damage, -5 armour, removed Primal Instincts.

Scar-Veteran (Cold-One): +2 charge bonus, +15 bonus vs. large, +7 base damage, +3 ap damage.

Scar-Veteran: -150 base damage, +130 ap damage, -5 bonus vs. large.

Skaven

Doomwheel: +50 mp cost, – charge speed, -3 MA, +10 regular damage, -20 AP damage, collision attack tweaks

Night Runners & Gutter Runners (Throwing Stars): No longer ignore shields

Stormvermin (Both): +1 HP

All artillery crew: +3 HP

Greenskins

Orc Boyz: +2 MA, -1 MD

Savage Orc Big Uns & Boar Boy Big Uns: +2 leadership

Arachnarok Spider: -100 mp cost, missile range increased to 100.

Giant: +410 HP

Rock Lobbers: + accuracy

All artillery crew: +3 HP

Grimgor Ironhide: +5 armour, +60 ap melee damage, -10 base damage.

Orc Shaman: -50 cost for boar mount.

Woodelves

Eternal Guard: -1 HP

Dryads: -2 HP, -1 MA

Wardancers (all): -2 HP

Wardancers (Asrai Spears): + 1MD

Wildwood Rangers: +2 MD

Glade Guard Hagbane: -50 mp cost

Glade Guards (all): +2 ammo, removed magical attacks, +1 HP

Deepwood Scouts (all): +2 speed, +3 HP

Deepwood Scouts Swiftshiver: -5 range

Waywatchers: -1s reload, + projectile speed, +1 HP, +2 MA, +2 ammo, +1 CB, + acceleration

Glade Riders Hagbane: removed magical attacks

Great Eagle: -31 regular damage, +31 AP damage, +4MA, +2 MD

Great Eagle mounted characters: similar shift from regular damage to AP damage

Hawk Riders: +10 ground speed, + mass, -1s reload, +2 CB, +6 HP

Sisters of the Thorn: +8 models, -12 HP, +1 regular damage, +50 cost.

Treekin: -3 regular damage, +6 AP damage, +15% missile resist

Treeman: Charge Defense vs Large exchanged for Charge Defense vs all, -30 regular damage, +30 ap damage, +15% missile resist

Ancient Treeman: Charge Defense vs Large exchanged for Charge Defense vs all, -21 regular damage, +21 AP damage, +5 leadership, +932 HP

Durthu: +932 HP

Female Glade Lord on Forest Dragon: +10% missile resist (to fix inconsistency)

Glade Lords (all): +100 mp cost

Vampires

Cairn Wraith: +4 CB

Hellsteeds (all): +10 ground speed

Black Knights: +2 MA, -1 regular damage, +1 AP damage, -0.1 attack interval

Black Knights (L&B): -50 mp cost, +2 CB

Verek’s Reavers: +2CB

Hexwraiths: +4 speed

Vargheists: +7 ground speed, -3 regular damage, +3 AP damage

Varghulf: +20 damage, +40 ap damage, +0.6 attack interval, -5 CB, +2 MA, +4 MD, +50 mp cost

(The overall goal of these changes is for the Varghulf to be able to spend more time in combat / cost less cycle-charge micro. Fewer but stronger attacks per minute make the Varghulf less susceptible to loss of vigour.)

Corpse Cart: -100 mp cost

Grave Guard (GW): +3 CB

Terrorgheist: +15% breath attack damage

Dragon mounts: +100 cost

Abilities:

Slightly reduced durations for physical resistance buffs. Small balance tweaks to improve abilities that affect melee damage. Added wind-up times to abilities that with a damage component to give players a chance to react. Adjusted base ability recharge times to 60, 90 and 120 seconds to reduce cost effectiveness of tier 1 abilities and increase cost effectiveness of tier 3 abilities. Removed initial recharge from abilities with the exception of army abilities and abilities that rely on initial recharge for a mechanic. Rebalanced net spells and abilities: Tweaks to durations for all abilities with a can’t move effect. Net of Amyntok has had effect radius removed. Upgraded Net of Amyntok now adds 30m Effect Radius instead of doubling duration. Tempest now reduces speed by 72% rather than a can’t move effect. Tormentor Sword no longer needs to be in melee to recharge. Duration reduced considerably. Max 3 uses on Prey of Anath-Raema. Max 2 uses on Effagee of da Git. Abilities that grant Full Hide and Unspottable now last longer. Abilities that modify morale positively last longer. Cold-Blooded: doubled duration, halved healing per second to make debuff more meaningful. Flash Bomb (Grombrindal): rebalanced as a tier 2 ability. Grombrindal Has No Fear: is now free in custom and automatically on Papa Grom. Warpbomb and Dark conduit: reduced damage by 13%. Mark of KhorneFlakes: Changed to common, cost reduced to 81. Hold the Line: Changed to common, cost reduced to 81. Removed max targets 3 from Chaos Tomb Blade.



Spells:

Adjusted recharge times. Tier 1 spells have around 20% longer recharge times and tier 3 spells have 20% shorter recharge times on average.

Soulblight & Upgraded power cost -1

Dweller’s Below & Upgrade power cost -2

Piercing Bolts of Burning changed to fully armour-piercing and increased projectile damage to increase damage against high hit point entities (and overkill basic infantry). Think of the spell now as an elite-killer.

Flame Storm: increased radius to 10m. Adjusted damage down to balance vortex to new radius.

Flame Storm Upgraded: Replaced radius increase with more damage.

Fate of Bjuna: +1 power cost.

Savage Dominion: Summoned Cygor unbinds 20% faster.

Plague: -1 power cost.

Plague Upgraded: -2 power cost.

Modding

Added functionality for modders to dynamically load scripting mods to avoid mod conflicts with these types of mods. Technical Details:



You can now place a “mod” folder inside any of these 3 pack file directories:

script/campaign script/campaign/main_warhammer script/campaign/wh2_main_great_vortex



Placing a .lua script file inside a folder named “mod” in any of the above folders will have it be loaded and the game will attempt to run any function inside the script file that has the same name as the script file.

Examples:



Creating a script file in this path “script/campaign/wh2_main_great_vortex/mod/mymod.lua” will have this script file be loaded when in the Vortex campaign, the game will then execute a script function inside this file that is called “mymod” if it exists.

Creating a script file in this path “script/campaign/mod/cool_mod.lua” will have this script file be loaded when in any campaign, the game will then execute a script function inside this file that is called “cool_mod” if it exists.