STACK May 2016 Issue 139

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T otal War: Warhammer (which we will
be calling Total Warhammer because
it’s obviously the better name) has
been begging to exist for years. Developers
tried and tried again to make a RTS Warhammer
game work, and time and time again, they
failed. They lacked finesse. Passion.
Understanding. Warhammer isn’t a title you can
slap on a can of beans – it’s a world, a universe
that you have to understand in order to recreate
the magic.
It was a task perfectly suited for Creative
Assembly.
The famed UK developers aren’t just game-
makers – they’re hardcore researchers. People
who want to understand the real world to the
point where they can craft a digital one that’s
just as meaningful. It turns out their skill isn’t
just useful for capturing the world of Samurai
and Knights – they used it to perfectly craft the
Old World.
“We started off with a very similar process to
the historical games,” said James Winston, Total
Warhammer campaign designer, “so when we
do those we have a long pre-production period
where we just read up about
that historical period, the units,
the political set up and political
factions. It was the same this
time around, except this time we
were researching the history of
the Old World, which is equally
as deep as the world’s history.
That’s thousands of years,
fifteen different army books,
a massive main manual. We
spent a couple of weeks going
through those, and all the factions.”
Their dedication and research is
immediately apparent. There isn’t a
Warhammer fan breathing (breathing
pretty heavily, too heavily) that can’t
appreciate the immense of amount
of detail and effort CA has brought
to play.
Looking down on the map of
the Old World, a map that eclipses
every previous TW release in terms
of detail, structure, and beauty,
it is painfully obvious that the
team understands more than just
‘where the factions are’. They’ve
taken the time to craft the actual
geography of the world.
The level of minutiae would make someone
with OCD a little uncomfortable. It goes further
than the names of places and legendary lords
– clans and rivals that may have only graced a
byline at the bottom of an army book can be
found in the game. It’s almost counterintuitive
to have added the kind of depth only the
biggest of tabletop nerds will be able to gawp
at, as according to Winston, they’re just one-
third of the market they’re trying to target.
“We wanted to make it very accessible to
new players. We’re aware there are going to
be Warhammer players who have never played
a Total War before who will be joining, but we
don’t want to alienate our existing players in
any way. It is a total war game at its core, it just
has Warhammer content, so it’s a complete
sandbox environment with that juicy layer
sitting on top. Then there’s that third group who
might be into fantasy, or are attracted to the
sheer spectacle. It’s about making it appeal to
all groups and making it accessible to all the
newcomers who are going to be coming in to
this sort of thing. “
On the campaign map, Winston is absolutely
right – it is accessible. Anyone can jump in and
Mark Ankucic gets his hands on the best franchise collision since Scooby
Doo met Superman, and speaks to campaign designer JohnWinston
about how Creative Assembly captured theWarhammer magic.
Xxxxxx
It’s about making it appeal
to all groups and making
it accessible to all the
newcomers...
visit GAMES FEATURE
60 MAY 2016
GAMES
Total
Warhammer