Total War: Warhammer Interview

Ok so what is the book of Grudges?

The Book of Grudges is essentially Thorgrim Grudgebearer's checklist. Things that have happened to the Dwarves which he is really not happy about. So that may be the Ork and goblins took a number of dwarven holds over the years, which is true of the Warhammer lore, and he needs to basically correct that.

So he's after particular tribes, he wants to stop them from doing any more damage. A few of those are prescribed from the start of the battle based on the lore, but as the campaign unfolds, new grudges will be in play. So maybe if an army dies, or you lose a territory, or you're raided upon, new grudges will form, and you will have to accordingly complete those grudges to finish your victory conditions of the campaign.


So I take it each race has very different victory conditions?

That's one of the nice things, they don't all have the exact same end goal. And I think that will really become apparent as [players] play through, and say "Wow, not only do they have different units and different buildings, but they have different motives and things." The Dwarves are heavily focussed on smashing up the Orks and vice-verse, whereas the Empire's all about unifying the elector counts. Some of the elector counts absolutely hate Karl Franz, some of them are more open to a little bribe, and then there's that impending threat of Chaos.


So there's more of a subterfuge aspect in this Total War, because it's something you experimented a little bit in Rome II?

Yeah, well, we looked at "What have we already got, and what of those things fit those races? You know, and we decided. Well, you know the Emprie, yeah they should have a smattering of buildings and techs and they should definitely be heavy on diplomacy and agents and working things out, either through combat or money or a show of good faith. But other races, it wasn't that way at all. Orks, for example, they don't give a monkey's about who did something nice, it's all about "I'm da big Warboss, I'm smashing this, right you're gonna follow me or I'm gonna smash you." So we deliberately move somewhat away from that. They can still do it, but it's not the core focus of their game. Dwarves on the other hand, they're known for all their elaborate techs, they've got gyrocopters and bombers and all their amazing bits of artillery, so we placed a big emphasis on making their tech tree really good. So it's all about what's fitting for that. Race


Last question, do you have a favourite unit you've designed?

Oooh, there's so many good ones. I do like the Hexwraiths. They're pretty awesome. So they're ethereal cavalry of the Vampire Counts, they've got Vanguard deployment, so they can position themselves outside of the regular deployment zone. They're pretty good in their initial charge, they can certainly hold their own in combat. Because they're ethereal you need magical weapons to attack them back. I recommend those.

Thank you for your time.