Absolutely love the game. The design of the maps, the soundtrack, the characters. You’ve captured the old world perfectly. The one thing I think is lacking though is the amount of Skaven variations
The Stormfiend is modelled beautifully and would be a great place to start for adding more boss variations seeing as there are multiple variations from the tabletop to draw inspiration from and we already have Rasknitt’s Stormfiend “Deathrattler”. A variation of him would be the “Rattlefiend”, twin rattling gun wielding stormfiend.
Another variation could be the “Doomfiend”, wielding two Doomflayer Gauntlets. Basically a supercharged, melee only stormfiend with spinning maces/blades instead of hands(paws?). This could maybe be changed with inspiration from Boneripper by giving it Warpfire Braziers, so that it’s attacks could to warpfire damage. Slam attack triggering limited AoE warpfire damage. So basically an armoured Rat Ogre minus the leap.
Plague Monks - Plague Censer-Bearer. Large two handed flail like weapon that does additional bile AoE Damage.
Plague Priest - Boosts health of plague monks. Dies leaving a pool of bile. Increases attack speed of Skaven within certain radius. Can begin to spawn once a Grimoire has been picked up.
Warlock - Wizard enemy. Uses a watered down version (one shot, less damage) of Lightning Flurry. Explodes dealing damage over time. Can begin to spawn once a Tome has been picked up.
These choices were based on mostly established assets in the game but it’d be interesting to hear what others think. Do we need more ratmen variations, what would you add? Are you happy with the current ratty roster?
I wouldn’t mind seeing more Skaven varities. I wouldn’t even mind us taking on a new clan with some crazy scheme in the works. One of my friends wondered how there could be Clan Fester rats left by now, and I am also wondering if perhaps a new Skaven clan should be introduced to keep the U5 busy?
EDITED: With this I mean primary story-wise and to explain why new stuff is added to the rooster.
Even a dying clan like Fester, with their broodmothers dead, dying or infertile, would have hundreds of thousands, to perhaps millions of rats to draw upon. That is what makes the skaven so truly terrifying and near impossible to wipe out, they’re simply innumerable.
To my knowledge there are not that many clans that actually have numbers in the millions. So while I agree that the Skaven as a race are innumerable, no single clan can draw on more than a part of that strength and certainly no Warlord Clan like Clan Fester.
Furthermore I am less concerned about the number of Skaven killed by the U5 which can surely number in the thousands but shouldn’t be more dangerous than a serious battle with Dwarfs, Greenskins or whoever. Instead I think mostly on that Clan Fester has suffered two bouts of civil war in a short time and without replacements its stretching my belief in how Clan Fester can remain capable of fielding much strength for any more serious project or remain as a, relatively, unified force.
This is something I would be happy if Fatshark could clear up what the deal is at present in the story.
Well the game has a set Story and I doubt that the U5 really decimated the clans, considering they are doing their own thing outwith of this particular tale. Also we must remember that we’re continually repeating the same events in the story, rather than revisiting places.
I’m hopeful that some kind of avoidance of the End Time can happen, seeing as Games Workshop is bringing back the Old World in some capacity.
Also, somewhat related but does anybody know the name of the track that plays when the Stormfiend appears? I can’t for the life of me find it!
Hardly any of the clans can muster that many but they don’t need to in the timeline we are speaking of: the Plague-Monks are agents sent from Clan Pestilens, as they are the masters of the Plague-Bearers; the Warpfire-Throwers/Jezzails/Stormfiends/Globadiers are all products of Clan Skryre, as they are the tech-magic specialists; the Gutter-Runners are cloaked warriors of Clan Eshin, sent to dispatch the higher-priority foes before the vermin-tide can wash the rest away.
The only major Clan not present in the fight with the Uber-Doober 5 is Clan Moulder, and that’s likely because animating anything coming from Clan Moulder would be a nightmare
We might be fighting Clan Fester, sure… but we are not fighting just Clan Fester. These are the End-Times; every Skaven Clan is sending out all of their hordes to herald the coming Chaos. They are fighting the human lands not to utterly destroy them, but to soften them for the Ever-Chosen and his cronies. Chances are, we are also fighting large throngs of troops sent by other Clans to try and support Rasknitt’s ambitious endeavor to bring n Aspiring Champion of Chaos to the heart of the Reikland with all of his horde.
In short: I think that the Skaven have survived fighting the Orks, Dwarfs, Humies, Brets, Vampires, Elves, and even the Lizard-Bois for many years now… having one more big rush of battle isn’t exactly improbable for them; they’re stronger at the kick-off of the End-Times than they’d been in a while.
Wait, I thought the Stormfiend was a creation of Clan Skryre? Additionally, I thought the Packmaster was just a more regular thing each of the clans used to control their slave population and that the Rat-Ogre was half-grown and half-stitched as a combined effort of Skryre and Moulder.
I’m rusty on my Skaven lore, so help me out and forgive me if I biff it
EDIT: It appears @KaelusVonSestiaf is lore-accurate again (damn): the Rat-Ogre is a product of Moulder. The Storm-Fiend is a Moulder pet that was equipped by Skryre. Also, the Pack-Masters of Moulder are, apparently, infamous for being so Pack-Master-y. Who even wants to know Skaven lore anyways? Oh wait, it’s me and Saltzy.
Rare cooperation between Skryre and Moulder. On creation they promised to keep this creation only between themselves. This agreement got broken when both of the clans immediately started selling their new creation to everyone they could. It’s apparently a very popular and deadly product, despite them being the easiest monster to fight in-game. I need to expand my vocabulary.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
-Sun Tzu
Clearly we should all know Skaven lore to ensure the survival of the Empire.
*Dabs*
As for pack masters, they’re even more than that. They’re the handlers that come with a pack of rat ogres or a pack of stormfiends.
As in, when you’re some random skaven clan and you buy a pack of a dozen rat ogres, they come with a single pack master to lead them and keep them in line. They’re also fierce warriors on their own.
I’m not entirely sure if the pack comes with 1 packmaster or several, but I do know that sometimes skaven clans that don’t fully trust clan moulder train up their own packmasters, but they’re nowhere near as strong as Moulder’s. And, since Moulder’s creations are trained from birth to follow the lead of a specific pack master, they’re also not as good at their job.
Coughs I mean
I got really, REALLY into it when Ikit Claw came out on Total war warhammer…
Beastmen roster needs to be increased more before even thinking about adding more Skaven enemy types. 1 more elite, 1-2 more specials and another monster. F “horde based” excuses.
I’d also say that Norsca could use another special.
Horde based isn’t even a valid excuse in any case since what makes hordes tough is a mix of infantry and elites, which beastmen lack. If beastmen had access to large amounts of common berserkers and shielded enemies like gors or ungors, it would make them a lot more interesting and challenging to deal with. Shields would greatly reduce cleave and berserkers would add a lot of punch and danger in beastmen hordes, which would actually greatly help them be a more dangerous ‘horde’ faction if that’s what Fatshark really wants to do. I still think that this Beastmen unit suggestions topic that I made is still pretty good. It’s a bit outdated but the unit suggestions I still stand by.
Oh I know it isn’t a valid excuse but it’s the excuse that Fatshark fanboys and the devs use to validate a clearly incomplete enemy faction for what is said to be an “expansion”.
If they were indeed horde based the hordes would also include shielded enemies perhaps even a shield bearing Bestigor without the charge but perhaps a shield shove or something. As is the current case in reality we just had some poorly designed, buggy, glitched beastmen who’s attack animations, spawns, audio sounds, general balance was just half backed and rushed out too early much like the rest of Wallets out Minions.
As a full faction I agree. Gors with shields as another base enemy type and either Bestigor Berserkers for a more tougher opponent or Gor Berserkers for having a higher density of this unit spawn would be interesting. Instead of dual wielding like the other two I would like to see either a 2 handed weapon or a 1 handed weapon with perhaps a knife or punch to go with the attack animations.
For a monster since I doubt we’ll ever see Bipedal enemies like Chaos Hounds or flying enemies perhaps an alternate Chaos Spawn or Minotaur with a different skin, attack animation set, weaponry and such. Giant / Cygor are probably too large and the other enemy types would be a bit too complex imo or simply not fit with all the game’s environments (flying enemies + underground environs).
Specials I’d like to see a Bray Shaman caster with delayed magical attacks. Your scream suggestion in the link you provide is a good one, something like entangling roots or a delayed lightning strike (which is already in the game) could also work. Another possibility would be a more specialized Ungor Archer (maybe spawn in pairs) who has more accurate hard hitting attacks with perhaps less attack speed + a damage over time poison that debuffs those that are hit (less stamina regen, dodge capability reduced and such, perhaps less movement speed).
It would be, but I could imagine a lot of problems with such an enemy. Ledges, rigging, animations, level design, programming, skeleton/rigging and so on. I suppose Chaos Spawn, Rot Ogre and to some extent Bile Troll all have quadruped movement animations so perhaps Fatshark wouldn’t be averse to tackling a challenge that isn’t biped.
I think the biggest issue for a Centigor is going up ledges; the monsters you mentioned all take every cliff in a single leap/movement but it would be absolutely comedy-worthy footage to watch a centigor jump 20 meters vertically and land gracefully on a cliffside.
I agree with @ArkBlanc that it’d be rad to see them (Centaur are, after all, the coolest of the fantasy races second only to D&D’s Aasimar and Tieflings) but I doubt they’d be added for complications of creation, as you mentioned, and also because any of the classic fighting styles that Centigors would use to fight in Warhammer would enrage the community in a heartbeat… if they were added without the ability to swing from behind allies and perform drive-by attacks with lances I’d be sorta disappointed.
