Now Playing: The Vampire Coast (DLC)

The Vampire Coast is another enjoyable addition to Total War: Warhammer 2. Introduced in this DLC is a new, pirate themed faction comprised of four Legendary Lords (each with a unique starting location), an extensive and varied army roster, and several new campaign mechanics.

Before I get stuck into this review, however, it’s important to note the context – I played as Count Noctilus in the Vortex campaign and focused upon following the narrative quest chain rather than pure conquest. As we saw with the Tomb Kings DLC, your experience with the Vampire Coast will vary depending upon which Lord and Campaign you choose to play.

 

The Vampire Coast are a hybrid faction, capable of both ‘horde’ style play and the more conventional territorial expansion. I decided to play more as a horde, roaming the seas and sacking coastal settlements like a good pirate should. Your chosen Lord can upgrade their ship like a mobile city, allowing you to not only recruit new units, but to improve your movement range and replenishment rate.

And that’s how I spent a lot of my campaign – roaming the seas with Count Noctilus, raiding and sacking coastal settlements and improving my ship. When you sack a settlement you also get the option to establish a ‘pirate cove’ which allows you to leech money from the settlement.

But you’re not the only pirate sailing the seas, and this DLC introduces a dozen other pirate ‘rogue armies’ to the map, most of which you’ll end up in conflict with as you compete to become the most infamous – and ‘infamy’ is key to progressing through the narrative based quest chain. It’s a fun – if short – narrative campaign which culminates in one of the best quest battles in the game.

 

The Vampire Coast also get access to unique ‘Treasure Maps’, but I can’t say I really bothered with them. I much preferred collecting the ‘Pieces of Eight’ by defeating other pirates and unlocking new Regiments of Renown. This DLC also overhauls some existing campaign mechanics in the form of Treasure Hunts when exploring ruined settlements or shipwrecks.

You’ll now have to solve a simple puzzle to claim your prize, whilst shipwrecks will sometimes give you the option of fighting a Vampire Coast army to receive a greater reward. Another general improvement is the introduction of ‘island battles’ when two armies meet at sea. It may not be the naval battles some hope for, but it’s far preferable to a dodgy auto-resolve.

As you might expect, The Vampire Coast also get access to a unique technology tree and Rites. But the real star of this DLC is the new army roster, which is one of the most varied within the game. Whilst there’s a strong focus on ranged combat and artillery, it’s possible to construct very different army builds in support of this focus.

 

With a good selection of infantry, monsters and flying units, you can put together some very unique army compositions, and it’s pretty fun experimenting with different builds to see which is the most effective. Although I don’t think the roster is quite as interesting as the Tomb Kings, the Vampire Coast do get access to zombies with guns riding on the backs of giant crabs so it’s still pretty damn cool.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my Vampire Coast campaign from beginning to end. But once again, let’s keep in mind the context. Because if I’d tried playing another Lord and focused purely on territorial expansion, I don’t think I’d have had quite such a good time. But I’m certainly going to give one of the other Lords a spin, probably in the Mortal Empires campaign, to see how the experience compares.

7/10