A fantasy strategy game in two halves
Total War: WARHAMMER II is a strategy game built around two alternating stages. You spend most of your time on a turn-based campaign map, where you move armies, capture and manage settlements, negotiate with other factions, and plan your next move at your own pace. When two armies meet, the game switches to a real-time battle in which you command thousands of soldiers, monsters, and magic across detailed terrain. Battles can be decided by formation, positioning, flanking, ambushes, or simply by overwhelming the enemy with force.
The campaign is set in the New World, across Lustria, Ulthuan, Naggaroth, and the Southlands. The central thread is the Great Vortex: a vast arcane structure forged by High Elf mages millennia ago to drain the Winds of Magic and repel Chaos. It now falters, and each race wants to either stabilise or disrupt it. You play as one of 8 Legendary Lords across 4 races — High Elves, Lizardmen, Dark Elves, and Skaven — each with a different starting position, campaign mechanics, army roster, and Lores of Magic. The campaign builds toward an endgame focused on the Vortex itself.
Playing it with your group
Every race in the game can be played in single-player, multiplayer campaign, and custom or multiplayer battles, both online and over LAN. Because the two Legendary Lords of a race each start in a different location, two players can start a co-op campaign as the same race and divide the map between themselves. If a group owns both Total War: WARHAMMER and WARHAMMER II, multiplayer play opens up to any race owned across the two games.
Groups that prefer direct competition can fight multiplayer battles with custom armies built from their favourite units. In co-op campaigns, the turn-based layer means decisions are made in sequence rather than in real time, so one player can study the map while another moves, which suits a group that likes talking through strategy between clashes.
There is also Immortal Empires, a sandbox campaign that combines the maps, races, and factions of all three Total War: WARHAMMER games into a single map. Accessing it requires the third game in the series installed alongside the first two.
Before you start
Expect a long campaign. The turn-based layer involves statecraft, diplomacy, exploration, settlement management, recruiting armies, and developing Legendary Lords and Heroes with weapons and armour, so a full run takes many sessions. Battles are separate and tactical, and there is a lot of room to change how you fight from one campaign to the next, so replaying with a different race feels meaningfully different.
Useful tools are built in: adjustable difficulty, saves that can be created at any time, custom volume controls, and colour alternatives. The game works without timed input, and there is Steam Workshop support for additional content. Achievements and trading cards are available, and Remote Play on Tablet is listed as a supported feature.
The premise is grim fantasy war: the Skaven multiply in tunnels below the surface, Dark Elves raid from Black Arks, Lizardmen march north from Lustria, and High Elves try to hold their home continent together. Whoever controls the Vortex decides the fate of the world.