The Festag Beta Update: Updated!

This update contains a variety of skill changes and additions to specific Legendary Lords in the Mortal Empires campaign that didn’t make the original Festag Beta Update in December 2018. The update also includes some changes to buildings, a range of bugfixes and a number of Race, Character, Item and Unit balance changes. The balance changes listed below show all balance changes since Curse of the Vampire Coast launched.

Instructions – Read Me!

It is highly recommended that you start a new game after opting into the beta. Since a large number of skills have been reworked, any points invested in skills before the update are likely to be lost on an existing save game.

Since we already have an existing beta named “public_beta”, to avoid confusion we will rename this and have two betas that can be selected from:

• “norsca_beta” – This is for those that want to stay on the most recent update prior to Vampire Coast to continue with multiplayer save games, which would no longer be compatible post-Vampire Coast release. This beta was previously known as “public_beta”.
• “coast_beta” – This is for the Festag Update patch – the update will give you all the content and fixes listed below.

Instructions for opting into and downloading the update are as follows:

• In Steam games library, right-click “Total War: WARHAMMER II” and select “Properties”.
• In the Properties window, select the “BETAS” tab.
• Select “coast_beta” from the list.
• Total War: WARHAMMER II will update to the Festag Update patch.

General and Miscellaneous Fixes

• Fixed an exploit where clicking on a hidden Skaven Settlement would show movement range of any garrisoned army.
• The camera can now be panned in the diplomacy screen.
• Lokhir Fellheart can now complete the Final Battle Vortex victory objective (will require a new Campaign to take effect)
• Fixed encounters at sea occasionally spawning Dark Elf armies containing Vampire Coast units
• Fixed Alith Anar assassination missions generating targets further away from the player than intended
• Fixed Alith Anar assassination missions resetting incorrectly under certain circumstances
• Fixed Norsca Marauder Chieftains having two Rage abilities simultaneously
• Fixed several magic items not dropping after battle, or dropping when they were not supposed to
• Fixed the Scroll of Lykos magic item expiring and disappearing
• Added missing Walls building chain in Wurtbad for Greenskins
• Added missing Troll Lair building in Karak Kadrin for Greenskins
• Fixed duplicate Beast Lairz building for Greenskins in Karak Angazhar
• Fixed Wood Elves not being able to trade with Tomb Kings & Vampire Coast after assigning the correct council seat
• Wood Elves technology / Office effects that provide armour no longer state that it increases by a % but by a flat amount
• Old Grumblers, Warriors (Great Weapons) and Longbeards (Great Weapons) no longer have the one-handed technology effect apply to them

Skill Changes

Grombrindal

• Reimplemented the missing Flash Bomb ability (now in Character skills section)
• Reimplemented the missing Mighty Beard of Defence skill (now in Character skills section)

Isabella Von Carstein

New skills:

• Fell bats: At Dawn They Sleep

+12 Melee attack

+12 melee defence

• Dire Wolves: Release the Hounds

+12 Melee attack

+12 melee defence

• Vargheist: The Ravening Beast

+12 melee attack

+25 armour

• Varghulf: Time of Arising

+12 Leadership

+12 Melee attack

• Terrorghesist: Midnight’s Children

+12 Leadership

+12 melee attack

Throgg

• Changed “Cyclopean Fiends” skill to “Monstrous Fiends”
• Added effects that buff all Trolls units to the following skills:
• +12 Leadership (King of Trolls)
• +15 Melee Attack (Monstrous Fiends)
• +15 Melee defence (Monstrous Fiends)
• +20% missile resist (Mutant Regeneration)

Alberic

• Added the missing Protector of the Realm effects to the skill Champions of Bordeleaux

Beastlord

• Replaced the duplicate Bloodlust skill from the Personal Combat chain with Deadly Onslaught

Volkmar

• Reimplemented the missing Second Nature skill

Vampire Coast Tech and Female Vampire Coast Lords

• Replaced remaining 3 tier Personal Combat chain skills with 2 tier variants

Red Duke

• Red Duke now has the same mount in Battle and Campaign when using the Hellsteed and Barded Nightmare mounts

Settra

• Restless Minions skill now also applies to the Khepra Guard Regiment of Renown

Bloodline Strigoi

• Monstrosities of Morr no longer stacks accross multiple Lords resulting in Crypt Horrors being unrecruitable

Building Changes

Vampire Crypt

• Varghulf now only appears once in the ‘required to unlock units’ section

Balefire

• When damaged this building will now have half the Corruption effects as when it is not damaged (previously produced more Corruption when damaged)

Dark Elf Slaves

The following settlement chains now have a Dark Elf slave capacity, allowing slaves to be sent to provinces with these settlements:

• High Elf Colony Settlement Major
• High Elf Colony Settlement Minor
• Lahmia Special Settlement

Black Arks

To rectify an issue that was causing Black Arks to recruit/replace higher level Lords than could be recruited from a province, all buildings that previously increased the Lord recruit rank in a single province have now been rebalanced to apply the effect to all provinces.

For example, the Dark Elf building Palace of Dread Knights no longer increase local Lord recruitment by 2 but increases Lord recruitment by 1 in all provinces; these effects are now intended to stack across multiple provinces.

This change is a significant buff in terms of how this building can affect late-game recruitment, so to avoid any one faction not receiving this effect we have added a Lord recruitment effect to the following buildings too:

• Vampire Counts – Necromancer’s Tower
• Brettonia – Cathedral of the Lady
• Norsca – Vikti Temple
• Vampire Coast – Pirate Wharf

Balancing Changes (includes all changes between Vampire Coast and this patch)

Units

Bretonnia

• Green Knight: Hit reactions ignore chance from 0 to 50, knock interrupts from 0 to 50, +20 ap melee damage, +10 base meleen damage.
• Pegasus Knights: increased mass from 700 to 1000, -100 cost.
• Grail Guardians: -50 mp cost
• Knights Errant: +4 charge bonus
• Defenders of Fleur-de-Lis: +4 charge bonus
• Grail Relique:  Icon of Devotion-ability’s effect range changed from 40 to 55 meters.

Dark Elves

• Kharibdyss is now aquatic.
• Raven Heralds: -100 cost

Dwarfs

• Thane: now has access to Rune of Slowness in multiplayer.
• Master Engineer: no longer has access to Rune of Slowness in multiplayer.

Empire

• Mortar: -50 cost
• Flagellants: increased Strength of the Penitent-ability’s physical resistance effect from +12% to +15%.

Greenskins

• Krimson Killerz: +20 men on Ultra, +150 cost, -5 armour, -1 health per entity, -1 charge bonus, -2 ap melee damage, +0.6 melee attack interval, tweaks to splash attack characteristics.

High Elves

• Alastair the White Lion – Dragon mounts: added siege attacker.

Lizardmen

• Bastilodon (Solar Engine): slightly improved accuracy of projectile.

Norsca

• Marauder Ice Wolf Chariots: can now run at 95 speed.
• Marauder Champions: +4 health per entity
• Marauder Champions (Great Weapons): +4 health per entity, +2 run speed.
• Kihar the Tormentor: added siege attacker
• Fimir (both): added siege attacker
• Fimir Balefiend (both): added siege attacker

Skaven

• Plague Monk Censer Bearers: +1 melee attack
• Stormvermin (Halberds): +2 melee defence.
• Queek Headtaker: -50 mp cost

Tomb Kings

• Tomb Scorpion: Hit reactions ignore chance from 0 to 40, knock interrupts from 0 to 40, mass from 3000 to 2400, -2 melee defence, -5 melee attack, +5 bonus vs infantry.  added Siege Attacker.
• Casket of Souls: -50 mp cost
• Khatep – Casket of Souls: -50 mp cost

Vampire Coast

• Deck Droppers (all): -10 flying speed, reduced turn speed.
• Deck Droppers (Handguns): -2 ammo, slightly reduced accuracy, -2 ap projectile damage, -1 base projectile damage.
• Deck Droppers (Bombers) & Salt Lord’s Scuttlers: +2 ammo
• Zombie Pirate Deckhands Mob: -2 health per entity
• Zombie Pirate Deckhands Mob (Polearms): -2 health per entity
• The Tide of Skjold (Zombie Pirate Deckhands Mob): -2 health per entity
• Zombie Gunnery Mob: -2 health per entity
• Zombie Gunnery Mob (Handguns): -2 health per entity
• The Black Spot: -2 health per entity
• Zombie Gunnery Mob (Bombers): +5 charge bonus, +2 ammo, +4 melee attack, +40 number of men (on ultra), -2 health per entity.
• Zombie Gunnery Mob (Handcannons): +50 cost, +40 number of men (on ultra), -8 base projectile damage, +7 ap projectile damage, -2 health per entity.
• Animated Hulks: +15 armour, +4 melee defence, +10 leadership
• Bloody Reaver Deck Guard: +1 melee defence
• Depth Guard (Halberds): +1 melee defence
• Gallows Giant: projectiles no longer expire before reaching max range.
• Necrofex Colossus: +100 cost
• Shadewraith Gunners: -100 cost
• Death Shriek Terrorgheist: +0.5 entity height, entity is now 57% wider, so a bigger target and harder to pull out from melee.
• Luthor Harkon – Death Shriek Terrorgheist: now uses the same entity size as the regular Death Shriek Terrorgheist (previously used a dragon-sized entity).
• Luthor Harkon (all): removed All Hands Hoay!-ability In multiplayer battles. -100 cost.
• Aranessa (all): removed Hornswaggle-ability in multiplayer battles. -100 cost
• Vampire Fleet Admirals (all): removed Hornswaggle-ability in multiplayer battles.
• Cylostra Direfin – Rotting Leviathan: Added Siege Attacker.
• Count Noctilus: +100 cost

Vampire Counts

• Terrorgheist: +0.5 entity height, entity is now 57% wider, so a bigger target and harder to pull out from melee.
• Blood Dragon Vampire Lord (all): removed Undeath Resurgent-ability in multiplayer battles.
• Blood Dragon Vampire Lord – foot: -5 armour, +100 cost
• Blood Dragon Vampire Lord – Barded Nightmare: -10 armour, +100 cost.
• Blood Dragon Vampire Lord – Hellsteed: -5 armour, +100 cost
• Blood Dragon Vampire Lord – Zombie Dragon: -8 melee defence, +100 cost
• Red Duke – foot: +100 cost, added Frenzy-ability.
• Red Duke – Barded Nightmare: +100 cost, added Frenzy-ability.
• Red Duke – Hellsteed: +10 armour, +100 cost, added Frenzy-ability.
• Red Duke – Zombie Dragon: -4 melee defence, +100 cost, added Frenzy-ability.
• Vampire (Shadows) – Hellsteed: +10 armour
• Vampire (Death) – +10 armour
• Lahmian Vampire Lord – Hellsteed: +10 armour
• Lahmian Vampire Lord – Zombie Dragon: added siege attacker.
• Necrarch Vampire Lord – Zombie Dragon: added siege attacker.
• Von Carstein Vampire Lord – Zombie Dragon: added siege attacker.
• Wight King – Skeletal Steed: +10 armour
• Isabella von Carstein – Hellsteed: +10 armour
• Mannfred von Carstein – Hellsteed: +10 armour

Wood Elves

• Treeman: Hit reactions ignore chance from 0 to 70, knock interrupts from 0 to 70.
• Orion: +10 melee defence
• Wildwood Rangers: +4 leadership
• Wardens of Cythral: +4 leadership

Abilities

General

• Helm of Discord: -10m effect range.

Dwarfs

• Red Ruin (Ungrim): changed to unlimited uses, duration from 50 to 35 seconds, +9 cost in multiplayer, added recharge in melee condition.
• Axe of Dargo (Ungrim): -16 ability duration, -90 ability recharge, added recharge in melee condition.
• Rune of Slowness: changed to -18% movement speed, removed charge bonus effect.
• Flash Bomb: -9 seconds duration.
• Rune Helm of Zhufbar: -4 leadership, removed deactivation condition.

Greenskins

• Get on Wiv’ It (Azhag): removed charge bonus effect, added +8 leadership effect instead.
• Gitsnik (Grimgor): -18 ability duration, -90 ability recharge, added recharge in melee condition.

Vampire Coast

• Captain Roth’s Moondial: -50m target range.

Wood Elves

• Horn of the Wild Hunt (Orion): +3 duration, removed speed effect, +36% charge bonus changed to +54% charge bonus.

Spells

• Denizens of the Deep: +4 seconds recharge time.
• Drowned Dead: +1 power cost.
• Drowned Dead Upgraded: +1 power cost
• Invocation of Nehek: -1 seconds duration.
• Invocation of Nehek Upgraded: -1 seconds duration.
• Vindictive Glare: +1 power cost
• Vindictive Glare Upgraded: +1 power cost