Total War: Warhammer II – The Warden & The Paunch DLC
Creative Assembly / Sega
Goodness gracious, have the good folks over at Creative Assembly been busy; constantly outdoing themselves when I didn’t think the Total War: Warhammer DLC couldn’t get any better. I’d thought we’d finally reached the apex of DLC for the series with Rise of the Tomb Kings—boy, was I wrong. They just keep getting better and better.
Their latest DLC, Total War: Warhammer II – The Warden & The Paunch, is set on the misty eastern coasts of the High Elf homeland (island) of Ulthuan. Tor Yvresses to be exact. The dingy hordes of Greenskins, led by Grom the Paunch, washed over its capital city like a massive green tide.
As they sieged the mighty Elvin citadel, they also destroyed most of the magical waystones in the process that keep the place guarded. If they had succeeded in obliterating all of them, it would have been equivalent to San Francisco falling into the Pacific Ocean. Elven Captain Eltharion arrived just in the nick of time to combat the grubby interlopers; he even managed to behead Grom’s right-hand man. The Elvin hero beat the green tide all the way back to the Old World.
So sets the stage for The Warden & The Paunch; with bloated warlord Grom licking his wounds and preparing for another, even more devastating attack, and Elvin golden boy Eltharion doing his best to repair the damaged citadel before they return.
As Eltharion’s forces repair Tor Yvresse and its secret underground counterpart, Athel Tamarha, the Elvin warden can fight battles against his foes. If he bests their heroes in battle, he gains a unique resource called Warden’s Supplies. With this, he can upgrade Athel Tamarha and grant powerful bonuses to his army and the fortress. As the province’s power surges, a protective mist will begin to shroud the entire area, protecting it from invaders (this place keeps sounding more and more like San Fran).
As far as power levels go, as both a magic-caster and warrior, Eltharion is up there with the best of them. Backing he and his wondrous griffon, Stormwing, up, are the new Elven Archmages. These magic-casters are seriously OP (well, at least to me) since they have access to all 8 Winds of Magic.
Other new army units include the badass dual-wielding Rangers, the heavy spear-carrying Silverin Guard, and probably my new favorite animal units: The mighty War Lions of Chrace. These little battle kitties are so nasty on the battlefield that they can rip into whole battle lines with their claws and fangs, knocking them back on their butts. They’re all about earning their bags of Friskies.
On Grom’s side of the equation, the big-bellied Goblin leader gets access to a gigantic cauldron. He can traverse the lands near and far, acquiring the ingredients he needs (along with a few heads) to craft special recipes. In essence, he can brew up some mighty fine grub that can bolster not only his personal stats, but also those of his gathering armies.
Grom’s army consists of the usual Greenskins line-up, bolstered by new units such as the River and Stone Trolls, the cute little Pump Wagons, and the show-stopper: the immense Rogue Idol, which resembles a golem-like recreation of one of the two Orc gods.
In conclusion, Total War: Warhammer II – The Warden & The Paunch is not only a fantastic, content-laden DLC, it also deepens the faction pool and introduces a couple of the most interesting Legendary Lords, to date. If you’re a Total War: Warhammer fan, you really can’t go wrong with this expansion.
SCORE: 86%
Total War: Warhammer II – The Warden & The Paunch DLC has some pretty good looking graphics that make its strategy combat gameplay truly shine. However, you want to have a pretty beefy gaming PC or gaming laptop in order to play it at a decent framerate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:
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