Total War: WARHAMMER II – The Hammers & Herdstones update

Welcome to the latest patch for Total War: WARHAMMER II – version 1.12, Hammers & Herdstones. As well as support for our various DLC and FLC offerings coming out tomorrow, this update has plenty of new bits and pieces to get your teeth into, be they beastly fangs or dwarfen denchers.

中文版请在我们的Bilibili专栏查看

Updated 14/07: Removed erroneous entries and added some missing minor balance changes, added details for new auto-resolve functionality and updated skill trees for various Lords.

This automatic update arrives alongside The Silence & The Fury Lords Pack, bringing with it many content revisions, balances, bug fixes, and quality of life improvements to the Eye of the Vortex and Mortal Empires campaigns. There is also a batch of Free-LC available with this update – the Great Bray Shaman and Ogre Mercenaries via Total War Access and Thorek Ironbrow via Steam.

Even if you haven’t purchased The Silence & The Fury, Taurox and Oxyotl and their attendant factions will appear in your campaigns under AI control.

Alongside a huge number of fixes, quality-of-life improvements and unit balance-changes, both the Beastmen and the Dwarfs have had substantial updates to bring their campaign experiences in line with newer content.

Please note, this update may affect your current campaigns and make any mods you’re using unstable. We’ve released an opt-in beta for the previous version of the game to enable you to finish any current campaign saves you have on the go:

When you want to get the current version, simply opt back out of the beta and your client will auto-update.

We want to highlight that this patch is dedicated to the memory of Kevin Lloyd, QA Functionality Tester. He will be immortalised in-game with a starting hero for the Vampire Counts (Sylvania factions) named Kevon Lloydstein, with some special traits that represent the man himself. This dedication comes from his family:

“For Kevin, a loving husband, father, son and brother. We will always remember how you followed your dreams in life and work, your passion for games and Warhammer. So happy you found your place. You will be forever missed.”

To Kevin!

The Silence and the Fury DLC and accompanying content tackles a lot of areas that have been long requested for a do-over by our community. So a big shout-out to to the fantastic modding community, who’ve provided some awesome options for players in the meantime. In particular:

Emboldened by the rampaging of Taurox, the Beastmen explode from the shadows to wreak HAVOC! The Beastmen have undergone some ferocious faction furtling in order to make their campaigns more fun, engaging and lore-thentic in execution. Their new features, systems and resources focus on high mobility, with rewards and progression gained through expanding levels of bestial destruction.

Dread is a new resource for Beastmen and is gained through completing missions, razing settlements and winning battles, where higher casualties bring greater rewards. Dread can be spent invoking the favour of the Dark Gods using the new Rewards of Dread panel, where many elements of your faction’s progression are unlocked. These rewards unlock Legendary Lords and heroes for use, grant new magic items and upgrade many aspects of your faction. Upkeep costs have also been removed from all Beastmen units, so unit caps are now the chief limiting factor for armies, and these can also be expanded via The Rewards of Dread.

The Beastmen can select regions of the map and turn them into their own personal playgrounds for slaughter and mayhem. These are known as Bloodgrounds.

A Bloodground is created when the player wins a settlement battle and erects a Herdstone in the settlement’s place. This converts the region, plus nearby regions, into a Bloodground. As the player engages in destructive activities within the Bloodground, such as raiding, winning battles and razing settlements, its Devastation level rises. Certain technologies, Herdstone buildings, and skills can further increase these Devastation gains. When enough Devastation has been generated, the player can perform a Ritual of Ruin.

Performing a Ritual of Ruin changes the Bloodground into a Devastated Bloodground. All generated Devastation is converted into Marks of Ruination, a key progression resource, and increases the player’s Herdstone cap by one.

Ruination is tracked at the top of the campaign screen. When certain Ruination thresholds are met, key bonuses are granted, including increased unit and army caps, reduced construction costs and further Herdstone Shards.

A Devastated Bloodground is a chaos-tainted, corpse-strewn hellhole which is very difficult for any non-Beastmen factions to function within. As long as a Herdstone remains standing, other factions cannot colonise any ruined regions in its associated Bloodground. The Herdstone can be removed by attacking and destroying it like any other settlement.

The Dark Moon feature has been updated! Now Beastmen receive constant effects based on the state of the Moon, and there are no longer downsides associated with the Full Moon dilemmas.

All existing Beastmen lords now lead their own, separate factions on the campaign map.

Additionally, all Beastmen Legendary Lords and generic characters have received revamped faction and lord effects. Some of the highlights:

…Oh, and Malagor can also fly now.

Look at him go!

With the arrival of Thorek Ironbrow (and his intense frown of disapproval), we had no choice but to grant the redoubtable Dawi the same love and attention that other Old World races have received. This overhaul touches nearly all aspects of the Dwarf factions’ shared mechanics, not least Grudges and Runecrafting.

The Grudge bar has been expanded with more tiers and more significant effects granted at each tier. Clearing Grudges is now more attainable, making the system more balanced and rewarding. Your Legendary Lord’s Grudge level grants increasing stat boosts, and influences how many Wandering Slayers he can recruit.

Slayers may still be recruited in settlements as normal. However, they will also become available in the Regiments of Renown recruitment pool, in direct relation to your faction’s Grudge level:

Some post-battle options for Dwarfs have been altered to improve them thematically, given the Dawi’s relationships with and attitudes towards specific races. These can grant bonuses for defensive play, and provide a valid new source of Oathgold:

Victory VS Dwarfs:

Victory VS hated races (EG Greenskins, Skaven, Vampire Counts, Chaos etc):

Victory VS not-so-hated races (EG Humans, Elves etc):

As High King of the Dwarfs, all of Thorgrim’s provincial commandments are now more powerful. Thorgrim also gains additional bonuses from settling Grudges, with four unique follow-up incidents for all grudge missions:

Lord Effects:

Grombrinal now begins with a Master Engineer Hero

Thane Heroes now have three new skills:

The Engineer skill tree has been reworked, allowing you to specialise a character as a long-range sniper or a close-quarters, shotgun-wielding bruiser.

Runesmiths now have a new skill tree to reflect the changes to Rune Magic (see below), and can now unlock two special embedded army actions: Harden Armour and Sharpen Weapons.

The Runecrafting system has been much expanded, with the goal of allowing players to create Rune combos for characters in order to customise them with interesting, varied, and powerful upgrades.

Rune Magic has had an overhaul to bring its effectiveness and tactical flexibility in battle into line with the Lores of Magic wielded by other races, whilst still very pointedly being NOT MAGIC.

There are six Runes of Magic which can be used by Runelords, Runesmiths and Thorek. There are also six Master Runes of Magic – more powerful versions with longer cooldowns, which can only be used by Runelords and Thorek Ironbrow. When a Rune is used in battle, it puts all that character’s Runes into a shared cooldown period.

Several Legendary Lords have had major updates to their unique skill trees! Here are which lords to take a look at if you want something new to play with, we’ll leave you to discover the specifics in-game: 

In addition, with the ever-growing complexity of the game, it can be hard to find exactly the bonus you’re looking for when perusing skill and tech trees. We’ve added a searchable field in the top right of these menus which will highlight all tech and skill nodes that contain any words you enter. For example, search ‘Untainted’ to find all skills that improve the untainted stat!

We’ve vastly improved how auto-resolve works, giving you more information. Now you can better decide when to auto-resolve, and when you think you can out-fight an algorithm to keep key troops alive, devastate your enemies more spectacularly, or simply watch the arrows fly. 

For almost five years, the Crowfather has been waiting for the right moment to take to the skies. With the Beastmen rework now in full effect, the time has come to spread his wings…

Malagor now flies by default but works like any other flying unit in the sense that he must land to fight enemies on the ground. While flying he can still cast spells, which opens up a whole realm of possibilities for Beastmen spell-focused gameplay.

We hope that this long-requested change elicits a raucous chorus of mooing amongst Beastmen players.

The Beastmen can now recruit Feral Manticores in both Campaign and Battle.

We have taken on board the community feedback regarding the unit cards from the past two DLC releases and we are pleased to announce that alongside the new Unit cards in The Silence & the Fury, the unit cards from both Warden & Paunch and Twisted & Twilight have been remade to a higher quality. We hope you enjoy them!

For the Wood Elves:

The Greenskins:

The High Elves:

And the Skaven:

Previously it was difficult gauging the performance of units such as the Black Coach, which has passive abilities that require charging up in combat before they are activated. These abilities simply would not appear in the bottom section of the unit info panel until they had been activated.

To alleviate this problem, any passive ability that is currently recharging is now displayed on the unit info panel in the same area that abilities currently affecting a unit are displayed. When a recharging ability is hovered over, the recharge time and recharge context are displayed. In the case of the Black Coach for example, the UI will communicate the time needed to recharge the ability and that the Coach needs to be in melee combat in order to recharge it. Once the context has been met and the Coach is in melee, the tooltip will feature a dynamic countdown as well, so players can see exactly how much time is left before the ability kicks in.

The recharge contexts and recharge times are also displayed in the tooltips for Active Abilities as well. This is a change that exposes more information to players using these abilities, that we hope will aid in tactical decision making.

The way active and recharging abilities were displayed in the past was fairly unintuitive, so we have changed this behaviour.

Abilities had either a red or green ring around the icon when they were active based on if they had negative debuff effects (red) or positive buff effects (green). Also the way that the shaded radial timer on the ability icon displayed the same regardless of whether the ability was active or recharging. All in all, it was tricky to figure out whether an ability was recharging at a glance.

Now, when an ability is active, it has a green ring around the icon and the shaded radial display on the button fills up.

When an ability is recharging, it will now have a red ring around the icon and the shaded radial display on the button gradually un-fills.

This shaded radial and icon ring colour behaviour is now also true for passive abilities that are currently in effect or recharging as well.

Our aim was to enable players to quickly tell what abilities are currently active and what is currently recharging, even if they were reading it from a static screenshot of the game. Achieving this before was a lot trickier, but now the interaction is easier to follow.

Tl;dr:

Precursor missile weapons have been improved. Although this only applies to the Chameleon Stalkers unit right now, we thought it would be worth mentioning what the interactions are, since it is a type of missile weapon that has existed for a while in the database.

Here are the details of how it interacts now, based on whether Fire-At-Will is enabled or not:

The Chameleon Stalkers also have a new bullet point on their unit info panel that explains this as well.

The soft collision volumes on the Tuskgor Chariot, Razorgor chariot, and Orc Boar Chariots have been optimised. Here is a quick explanation:

In WARHAMMER II, chariots have collision volumes that cover each of the three elements that the unit consists of: the draught animals, the articulation point (the point at which the chariot bends) and the chariot itself.

We discovered that the collision volume on the articulation point was typically a lot longer than it needed to be, so when the chariot made a turn, a whole bunch of collision would be sticking out of the side of the unit.

When enemy units are bunched up against your chariot unit’s collision volume, it slows them down exponentially based on how many entities are touching the collision volumes. You can now imagine that a turning chariot with massive collision on it’s articulation point would expose a lot of additional collision for enemies to bunch up against and slow the chariot down.

The collision on the articulation point has now been re-configured to an appropriate size, which has significantly increased to collision attack performance and lessened the “stickiness” of these chariots (Razorgors in particular).

The Lizardmen roster has undergone a noticeable change this time around.

A lot of monstrous units have been moved around into more appropriate categories that make the roster feel a lot more intuitive to access.

All of the single entity Lizardmen monsters have their own bespoke Unit Category Icons now, from the mighty Dread Saurian right down to the spiny Razordons. This way players should be able to tell the difference between these units at a glance.

Manticores also have their own unique unit category icon now!

All Spells and Abilities that affect Movement Speed have had their values adjusted. The previous standard for the vast majority of abilities was 24%, 48% and 72%; this has been changed to 25%, 45% and 60%. This affects both positive and negative effects.

This change should now make it easier to calculate the speed changes for units on-the-fly during a battle.

Speed increases beyond a certain threshold for units do not always increase their speed (due to animation limitations and ensuring unit cohesion when moving as a group), so this change brings the number displayed closer to reality of the speed the unit will move at.

The more dramatic reduction of 72% to 60% also serves as a balancing tweak to abilities that previously felt too punishing.

All Spells and Abilities that affect the various types of Resistances (Physical, Magic, Flame, Missile, Ward Save) have had their values adjusted. The previous standard for the vast majority of abilities was 22%, 44%, and 66%; this has been changed to 20%, 40% and 60%. This affects both positive and negative effects.

This change should now make it easier to calculate changes in damage mitigation for units on-the-fly during a battle.

Khazrak (Razorgor Chariot)

Beastlord (Razorgor Chariot)

Malagor

Morghur

Bray Shaman (Razorgor Chariot)

Gorebull

Razorgor Chariot

Minotaurs

Minotaurs (Shield)

Minotaurs (Great Weapon)

Butchers of Kalkengard (Minotaurs – Shields)

Manticore

Cygor

The Eye of Morrslieb (Cygor)

Chaos Warhounds (Poison)

Destroyers of the Drakwald (Ungor Spearmen Herd – Shields)

Defenders of the Fleur-de-lis (Knight Errant)

Battle Pilgrims

The Holy Wardens of La Maisontaal (Battle Pilgrims)

Grail Reliquae

Blessed Field Trebuchet

Hellebron

Hellebron (Dark Steed)

Hellebron (Cauldron of Blood)

Hellebron (Manticore)

Death Hag

Death Hag (Cauldron of Blood)

Hellebronai (Dreadspears)

Witch Elves

Sisters of the Singing Doom (Witch Elves)

Bloodwrack Medusa

Doomfire Warlocks

Slaanesh Harversters (Doomfire Warlocks)

War Hydra

Chill of Sontar (War Hydra)

Kharibdyss

Sisters of Slaughter

Ravagers of Rakarth (Scourgerunner Chariot)

Thorgrim Grudgebearer

Grombrindal

Rune Lord (Anvil of Doom)

Runesmith

Runesmith (Ghost)

Master Engineer

Master Engineer (Ghost)

Norgrimlings Ironbreakers

Peak Gate Guard (Hammerers)

Hammerers

Ironbreakers

Ekrund Miners (Miners with Blasting Charges)

Gyrocopters

Gyrobombers

Flagellants

The Tattersouls (Flagellants)

Wurrzag

Wurrzag (Boar)

Grom

Black Orc Big Boss (Boar)

Orc Shaman (Boar)

Orc Warboss (Boar)

Snotling Pump Wagon Flappas

Snotling Pump Wagon Roller

Savage Orc Boar Boy Big ‘Uns

Savage Orc Boar Boyz

Savage Orc Arrer Boyz

Savage Orc Big ‘Uns

Savage Orcs

Orc Boar Boy Big ‘Uns

Broken Tusks Mob (Orc Boar Boy Big ‘Uns)

Orc Boar Boyz

Orc Boar Chariot

Goblin Wolf Rider Archers

Mogrubb’s Mangy Marauders (Goblin Wolf Rider Archers)

Forest Goblin Spider Riders

Forest Goblin Spider Rider Archers

Deff Creepers (Forest Goblin Spider Rider Archers)

Mistwalkers Faithbearers

Nakai

Tehenhauin

Tehenhauin (Horned One)

Tehenhauin (Ripperdactyl)

Tehenhauin (Ancient Stegadon)

Kroq Gar (Grymloq)

Tiktaq’to

Mazdamundi (Zlaaq)

Ancient Kroxigor

Saurus Old Blood (Carnosaur)

Red Crested Skink Chief

Red Crested Skink Chief (Horned One)

Red Crested Skink Chief (Ripperdactyl)

Red Crested Skink Chief (Ancient Stegadon)

Saurus Scar Veteran (Carnosaur)

Skink Chief

Feral Carnosaur

Ripperdactyl Riders

Colossadon Hunters (Ripperdactyl Riders)

Pahuax Sentinels (Terradon Riders)

Red Crested Skinks

Cohort of Sotek (Red Crested Skinks)

Feral Stegadon

Ancient Salamander

Salamander Hunting Pack

The Umbral Tide (Salamander Hunting Pack)

Razordon Hunting Pack

Amaxon Barbs (Razordon Hunting Pack)

Bastiladon (Solar Engine)

Stegadon

The Thunderous One (Ancient Stegadon)

Chameleon Skinks

Throgg

Skin Wolf Werekin

Beasts of Tashnar (Norscan Warwhounds)

Maws of Savagery (Skin Wolves)

Skin Wolves

Skin Wolves (Armoured)

Marauder Berserkers

Brutes of the Hound (Marauder Berserkers)

Skaven Chieftain (Bonebreaker)

Ghoritch

Packmaster (Brood Horror)

Throt (Brood Horror)

Skaven Warlord (Brood Horror)

Skrolk

Plague Priest

Plague Priest (Plague Furnace)

Skaven Warlord (Bonebreaker)

Brood Horror

Mutant Rat Ogre

Morskittar’s Hellion (Mutant Rat Ogre)

Rat Ogres

Pit Fighters of Hell’s Deep (Rat Ogres)

The Thing-Thing (Hell Pit Abomination)

Plague Monk Censer Bearers

Plague Monks

Blightscab’s Plaguepack (Plague Monk Censer Bearers)

Gutter Runners (Poison)

Gutter Runners Slingers (Poison)

Settra (Chariot of the Gods)

King Nekhesh’s Scorpion Legion (Skeleton Spearmen)

Necropolis Knights

Necropolis Knights (Halberds)

Vampire Fleet Captain

The Tide of Skjold (Zombie Pirate Deckhands Mob)

Depth Guard

Depth Guard Halberds

The Bloody Reaver Deck Guard (Depth Guard)

Red Duke

Red Duke (Barded Nightmare)

Red Duke (Hellsteed)

Red Duke (Zombie Dragon)

Vampire Blood Dragon Lord

Vampire Blood Dragon Lord (Barded Nightmare)

Vampire Blood Dragon Lord (Hellsteed)

Vampire Blood Dragon Lord (Zombie Dragon)

The Konigstein Stalkers (Skeleton Warriors)

Varghiests

The Devils of Schwartzhafen (Vargheists)

Blood Knights

Crypt Horrors

Corpse Cart (All variants)

Archaon

Archaon (Dorghar)

Lord of Change

Forsaken

The Daemonspew (Forsaken)

Chaos Warhounds (Poison)

Sisters of Twilight (Ceithin-Har – Forest Dragon)

Glade Lord (Forest Dragon)

Glade Lord Female (Forest Dragon)

Durthu

Orion

Drycha

Wraiths of the Frozen Heart (Dryads)

Loec’s Tricksters (Wardancers – Asrai Spears)

Great Stag Knights

Lost Sylvan Knights (Great Stag Knights)

Glade Riders (Hagbane Tips)

Wild Riders

Wild Riders (Shields)

Wild Hunters of Kurnous (Wild Riders – Shields)

Forest Dragon

Hawk Riders

There was an inconsistency in how much damage WH2 and WH1 spell lore’s miscast explosion would do. All spells have now been unified to do the following damage:

The Dwarfs have been without a comparable magic system to Spells used by all other races. The Runic Magic system has been created to bring the Dwarfs into parity with other races while keeping their playstyle unique.

Key differences between Spells and Rune Magic:

Notable changes between the old Rune abilities and the new Rune Magic system:

Vindictive Glare upgraded

Burning Head

Burning Head Upgraded

Aspect of the Dreadknight

Aspect of the Dreadknight Upgraded

Soulblight

Soulblight upgraded

Enfeebling Foe

Enfeebling Foe Upgraded

Smoke and Mirrors

Bestial Surge

Devolve

Devolve Upgraded

Viletide

Viletide Upgraded

Traitorkin

Traitorkin Upgraded

Mantle of Ghorok

We have also added an Upgraded version of Mantle of Ghorok.

Wyssan’s Wildform

Wyssan’s Wildform Upgraded

Pann’s Impenetrable Pelt

Pann’s Impenetrable Pelt Upgraded

Curse of Anraheir

Curse of Anraheir Upgraded

Transformation of Kadon (Manticore)

Shield of Saphery

Plague Rash

Bless with Filth

Bless with Filth Upgraded

Pestilent Birth

Toxic Rain

Forgefire

Rune of Negation

Master Rune of Negation

Rune of Oath and Steel

Master Rune of Oath and Steel

Rune of Wrath & Ruin

Master Rune of Wrath & Ruin

Locus of Power

Frenzy

Poison

The Brass Cleaver

Featherfoe Torc

Potion of Foolhardiness

Deadly Onslaught

Flammable

Evasion

Chilling Aura

Aura of Protection

Primal Fury

Bloodgreed

Slaughterer’s Call

The Unrelenting Warherd

Strength of the Land

Horn of the First Beast

Beloved Son of Bretonnia

Lance (Formation)

Fleur de Lys Banner

Aura of the Lady

Spirit of the Tempest

Heartrender and the Darksword

Enchanting Beauty

Bloodshield of Khaine

Fury of Khaine

Barbed Net

Whiplash

Helm of the Kraken

Kindle the Fury

Chillblade

The Trial of the Blades

Rune of Stoicism

Flash Bomb

Rune of Courage

Ancestor Rune

The Great Book of Grudges

Hammer of Angrund

High King

Ironwardens Shield

Ironbeards Bracer

Gate Keeper’s Helm

Gate Keeper’s Belt

Starmetal Plate

The Stirland Runefang

Kaboom!

Emergency Vent

Fleet-Footed

The White Cloak of Ulric

Da Boss’ Loons

Spinning Loons

The Loons of the Eight Peaks

Language of da Boyz

Lucky Banner

Da Great ‘Un Iz ‘Ere

Waaagh!

Warpaint of Wurrzag

Bonewood Staff

Pump Harder Ladz

Best of Da Best

Dragon Slayers Fang

War Paint

Mither

Blizzard Aura

Attuned to Magic

Star Lance

Guardian Phoenix

Sacred Incense

Ruby Guardian Phoenix

Diamond Guardian Phoenix

The Shadow Crown

Shieldstone of Isha

Swiftness of Itzl

Protection of Quetzl

Protection of Quetzl Upgraded

War Drum of Xahutec

Sunburst Standard of Hexoatl

Mask of Heavens

Ark of Sotek

Blade of the Ancient Skies

Golden Death Mask

The Horn of Kygor

Primal Instincts

Frostbite

Rage Stage Two

Stage Three

Berserk Stage One

Stage Two

Stage Three

Ruinous Flesh

Frenzied Assault

Flaming Axe of Cormac

Vicious Assault II

Warp Discharge

Strength in Numbers

Snare Net

Scurry Away

Tretch’s Raiders

Lucky Skullhelm

Duck and Weave

Pipes of Piebald

The Cloak of Shadows

Crown of Nehekhara

Magical Void

Charmed

Vambraces of the Sun

Helman’s blight

Heart Piercing

Honour or Death

Red Fury

Black Scythe

Mark of Khorne

Howl of the Forest

Horn of the Wild Hunt

Banner of the Hunter King

Banner of the Eternal Queen

Ceithin Har’s Tenacity

Twilight Helm

Dragon Mask I

Dragon Mask II

Dragon Mask III

Twilight Horn I

Twilight Horn II