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🕹️Total War Warhammer 2 Breaking Down Game Design Episode 2

🕹️Total War Warhammer 2 Breaking Down Game Design Episode 2

Game Goal: specifically for Mortal Empires take over as much of the map as possible as well as fulfill your personal character missions.

Fundamental Experience/Game Theme: feel like the ruler and general of an empire inside a fantasy world riddled with magic, monsters, and war.

Game Loop/Core Dynamic

It depends on the faction you are playing but for the most part it goes like this:

  • Battle against warring empires, gaining loot, levels, and more
  • Recruit troops locally or globally
  • Take over cities
  • Manage and grow empire by upgrading buildings, investing in research, and issuing commandments
  • Manage relations with other nations through diplomacy
  • Engage with factions unique system
  • Repeat

Game Mechanics

Campaign Map:

  • Cities can be upgraded to increase income, unlock new troops, increase growth, and more (CD2)
  • Collection Gap: Cities make up provinces which have a bonus if you control all of them (CD4, CD2)
  • Cities have obedience which give positive effects if high and negative effects if not (CD8, CD4)
  • Cities have unique resources which you can build to access (CD4)
  • Cities have barracks which can be used to defend against armies
  • Cities are built inside terrain which makes them more or less suitable to being occupied by a certain faction
  • Booster: Your troops replenish much faster inside a city
  • Factions have inherent aversions or liking to you based on the race and character you're playing (CD5)
  • You can engage in various relations with factions like organizing treaties, alliances, trade agreements, and engaging in war (CD5)
  • Every faction has different legendary characters, troops, buildings, terrain preferences, unique systems, inherent aversions and liking from other factions, and more (CD3, CD1)
  • Settling in unpreferred climates results in construction cost penalties, public order issues, and lower income (CD8)
  • Random or story-triggered events offer choices with campaign effects. Can affect diplomacy, economy, units, public order, etc (CD7, CD3)
  • Armies can adopt stances like Raiding, Encampment, Ambush, Forced March, etc. Each stance has specific pros and cons — for replenishment, speed, or concealment (CD3)
  • AI-controlled rogue armies can spawn and cause havoc (CD7)
  • Endgame chaos invasions (especially if you're playing Mortal Empires with Warhammer II or with Warhammer III's DLC) function as massive disruption mechanics and challenge pacing (CD1, CD7)
  • Recruiting multiple armies increases upkeep for all armies due to the “supply lines” mechanic (CD8)
  • Troops require upkeep to have every turn (CD8)
  • Skill Tree: You can spend turns to research in your research tree which gives bonus effects campaign wide, to troops in battle, and more (CD2)
  • Leaders and hero's gain levels through battle allowing you to upgrade them individually (CD2)
  • Battle gives troops experience which makes them more effective in subsequent battle (CD2)
  • Chaos, Vampiric, and Skaven corruption passively spread and impact obedience, public order, and attrition for non-native factions
  • Heroes can wound, assassinate, block armies, spread corruption, steal tech, etc (CD3)
  • Vision is impacted by terrain, agents, and diplomatic agreements
  • Naval movement can trigger treasure maps and sea encounters (e.g. maelstroms, shipwrecks, whirlpools) (CD7)

In Battle:

  • Can play against other players in pure battle
  • You win the battle once the entirety of the enemies troops is routed
  • The battlefield you fight in depends on where you engaged the enemy in battle on the campaign map
  • Leaders, hero's, and some troops provide leadership bonuses to troops around them
  • Leaders, Hero's and troops all have various stats on leadership, damage, speed, and more (CD3)
  • Some leaders, hero's and troops have special attributes like amor piercing, fire damage, more damage in certain terrain and more (CD3)
  • Rock, Paper, Scissors: Troops are split between infantry, archers, artillery, monsters, leaders, hero's, cavalry, flying creatures, and mixes between all of them which have advantages and disadvantages toward each other (CD3)
  • If a leader is killed our routed there is a huge leadership debuff to their troops
  • Troops routing around other troops makes them more likely to rout unless they are expendable
  • Some leaders, hero's and troops can use magic (CD3)
  • Units become tired or exhausted which can lower effectiveness
  • Heavier units (e.g. monsters, chariots, cavalry) push through lighter units
  • Terrains can have different effects on fighting like being in water on a hill or forest (CD3)
  • The beginning of a battle the winds of magic power is randomly found and you can roll the die to increase or decrease it (CD7, CD3)
  • The beginning of a battle allows you to position your troops on the allocated terrain (CD3)
  • Winning a battle lets you choose from a few post battle options (CD3)
  • Winning battles gives loot, experience (chevrons), levels, and more (CD2, CD4)

Game Elements

  • Medieval Fantasy Aesthetic
  • Story
  • Chance
  • Strategy
  • Cooperation And Competition (Multiplayer Mode)
  • Time
  • Turn based and real time
  • Rewards
  • Resources
  • Levels
  • Skill Tree
  • Map
  • Procedural Generation

Octalysis Breakdown