Total War: Warhammer II

Total War: Warhammer II builds on the first game and moves the series from historical battlefields into the Warhammer fantasy world, where four factions vie for control of the continent of Ulthuan: the High Elves, Dark Elves, Skaven, and Lizardmen. Each side has its own playstyle, units, and story campaign built around collecting magical artifacts and a final ritual that decides victory. Compared to the series' historical entries, this game adds magic, heroes with unique abilities, and monsters like dragons or giant rat abominations, making battles feel wilder and more visually spectacular than classic clashes of legions.

The game combines a turn-based strategic map, where the player manages economy, diplomacy, and research, with real-time battles decided by unit positioning, terrain, and morale. In Warhammer II, The Creative Assembly refined the factional mechanics from the first game and added deeper, RPG-style progression for legendary lords. A major step came after release, when the studio merged the maps of both games into the massive Mortal Empires campaign, encompassing dozens of factions and hundreds of hours of content; for many players, this combined campaign became the main reason to buy the game.

This brought the series a new audience among fans of the Warhammer Fantasy Battles tabletop game as well as strategy players who appreciated the boldness of leaving purely historical settings behind. A third game later concluded the trilogy, and all three were eventually merged into one vast whole, making Warhammer II more of a transitional but indispensable link in the series.

Why play it: For fans of turn-based strategy and the Warhammer fantasy world who will appreciate dozens to hundreds of hours in the Mortal Empires campaign, full of diverse factions, heroes, and epic battles.