While Norsca and its accompanying 30 new Regiments of Renown will not be making their way to Total War: Warhammer 2 until May due to technical problems, I am very glad to say that most of the final Total War: Warhammer 1 balance changes have now made their way to the sequel as well. In other words, the Warriros of Chaos have received a bit of a redesign, the Wood Elves now have new followers, most oldschool Legendary Lords have new skill trees and campaign effects, Helman Ghorst is no longer completely useless, and the list goes on for a while. If you're interested in all of the details, of which there are a ton, you should head on over to the official website.
Besides a whole bunch of balance changes and tweaks, this update has also brought with it a very, very interesting new game mode - the Laboratory. As you would expect given the name, the Laboratory allows you to mess around with 16 different sliders in order to drastically affect the course of battle. You can ramp up the number of models per each unit in order to create a true Vermintide, lower gravity so that each charge sends units flying, amplify the power and range of spells to unleash true carnage, increase the size and strength of units, and the list goes on for a while.
Since trying to explain this sort of game mode through words alone is a bit of a pointless venture, allow me to share with you the recently posted trailer featuring the Skaven Scribe as our narrator. Have a look, its quite the video:
Right now the Laboratory is limited to custom battles only, but I can only hope that Creative Assembly will one day introduce these sliders into the campaign as well. It would be a perfect way to give players an ability to adjust the difficulty settings, as well as make the whole campaign a lot more flavorful. I mean, wouldn't it be awesome if there were three times as many Skaven in each army, all skittering forward in an endless tide teeth, claws, and terrible body odor?
Fanciful musings aside, you can learn more about the Laboratory and its effects on your PC over at the recent developer blog. Have fun summoning Doom Wheels!
