Now Playing: Rise of the Tomb Kings (DLC)

The Tomb Kings are the first, but presumably not the last, DLC race to be incorporated into Total War: Warhammer 2. With the release of the recent Mortal Empires overhaul patch, it seemed an appropriate time to return to Warhammer 2 and give these undead Egyptians a spin.

I’ve probably said before that I don’t know jack about Warhammer, so whenever one of these races are released, it’s always a cool surprise to see what kind of units they have. And the Tomb Kings have what may be the coolest unit selection in the game. Their army roster is diverse and extensive. And from what I’ve seen people say online, it may be one of, if not the most ‘complete’ of the currently released races.

The unit models are fantastic with a high level of detail and some neat animations. They have a wonderful selection of monstrous units, including monstrous infantry, ranged, cavalry and artillery. The Tomb Kings also get 4 Legendary Lords to play as, each with their own unique boosts and starting locations.

As far as their army roster goes, the Tomb Kings are a fantastic addition to the game. The only problem I really have with the Tomb Kings DLC, is that I just didn’t find them that interesting to actually play. I chose to play as the Tomb Kings in the Vortex Campaign, not Mortal Empires. I also chose to play as the Legendary Lord Settra. It’s important to point this out, because my enjoyment – or lack thereof – probably stemmed from these initial choices.

I like that the Tomb Kings couldn’t give two shits about the Vortex and instead have their own objective to complete – to collect 5 magical books. These books are tied to either settlements or rogue armies. Once you have 5 books you can initiate a final quest battle to win the campaign.

The problem is, it’s too damn easy. Sure, Settra may be listed as having an ‘easy’ start, but once I’d dealt with the early threat of some pesky savage orcs – which was pretty tough when you can only field lots of trash skeleton units – I had pretty much zero challenge for the rest of the campaign.

I thought the other Tomb King factions would be competing with me to collect the books, but they don’t seem interested in them at all. It would have been great if I’d been fighting them to secure the books, but because they just ignored them, there was never any real risk I might lose.

In fact, once I’d secured my home regions, I didn’t really have anyone to fight. Because you’re not invested in the Vortex race, the other main races are happy to ignore you or just trade with you. And the other Tomb Kings, as I’ve said, don’t seem to care about the books. At least, the other factions in my campaign didn’t. So I could just sit back, relax, and collect each book in turn.

I got 3 of the books from rogue armies, but these didn’t even move around the map – they just remained in one spot the entire time as if they were waiting for me to come get them. But I must admit, the rogue army fights were fun with their odd mix of units.

I had no real competitor. I had no real enemies to fight. It was a race against myself to see how quickly I could collect the books and I had them all barely 60 or so turns into the campaign. And that was taking my sweet time building up my settlements so I could unlock the cooler, higher level monstrous units. The final quest battle was a lot of fun – although it might kill your frame rate – but I didn’t feel any real sense of achievement by the end of it. The campaign was just too damn short and too damn easy.

Which brings me back to those initial choices of campaign and Lord. I do wonder if I’d played as a different Lord with a different starting location if I’d have enjoyed this campaign more. I also wonder if I’d have enjoyed playing as the Tomb Kings more in the Mortal Empires campaign and focused primarily on conquest. I think there’s a good chance I probably would.

But this review is of the campaign I did play – Settra in the Vortex Campaign – and I found it to be a little lacklustre. Not bad, just not as exciting as I’d hoped given the fantastic roster. I’d probably give the campaign a 6 and the roster an 8 – maybe a 9 – so I’ll drop a final score somewhere in the middle.

7/10