Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum, Creative Assembly released an army roster for fun! And what an army it is that will comprise the Curse of the Vampire Coast DLC forces in Total War: Warhammer 2. As mentioned in a previous article, we already know who the four legendary lords are. Luthor Harkon, Count Noctilus, Aranessa Saltspite, and Cylostra Direfin — an original creation — will plunder the seas. These are the damned that sail alongside them:
Lords And Ladies: The Lore Of The Deeps
- Vampire Fleet Admiral (Male) Generic Lord
- Vampire Fleet Admiral (Female) Generic Lord
- Vampire Fleet Captain (Female) Generic Hero
Note: All three units will have access to the Lore of Vampires, Lore of Death, and Lore of the Deeps. The last one is especially intriguing. That’s because, in the Warhammer Fantasy Battles tabletop, there was no such thing as the Lore of the Deeps. That was actually added in for Age of Sigmar which was the successor to Warhammer Fantasy. The Lore of the Deeps is wielded by wizards among the Idoneth Deepkin or Sea Elves (err, Aelves!)
So yes, seeing Creative Assembly use a Lore of Magic that’s not part of the official Warhammer Fantasy Battles canon is very intriguing, to say the least. Like Cylostra Direfin, they’re coming up with new and original additions to the established… well… lore (for lack of a better term).
Send In The Crabalry!
Something that many Total War players are sure to find amusing: giant crabs! The Curse of the Vampire Coast DLC for Total War: Warhammer 2 will have several variations of these crabby mounts:
- Rotting Prometheans
- Rotting Prometheans with Gunnery Mob
- Rotting Leviathan
These crusty crustaceans will serve as your heavy cavalry or crabalry. They tend to be fairly slow but they are heavily armored. And, of course, like any crabalry, you will want to control your forces properly so you can trap your opponent in a pincer maneuver. Heh!
(Author’s Note: Yes, I am a dad. Pardon the dad jokes.)
Necrofex Colossus: Haunted Transformers!
Good Lord! We cannot tell you how amazing it is to see these gargantuan monstrosities in a Total War game. The Necrofex Colossus is, essentially, an undead construct made of wood, sails, and rotting corpses. Best of all, they’ve got cannons for hands! Yes, cannon-hands! Like haunted Transformers!
Deck Droppers
This unit comes in two flavors:
- Regular Deck Droppers
- Deck Droppers (Bombers)
What makes them hilarious is how they look. They’re basically giant vampire bats carrying pirates armed with rifles or bombs. You just don’t see that sort of creativity (and wackiness) outside of Warhammer Fantasy. I mean, come on, did we ever see Frodo and Sam snipe Uruks while carried by eagle lords? Nope. At most, we saw Merry and Pippin throw pebbles while riding atop Tolkien’s Necrofex Colossi, Treebeard.
Queen Bess: Luthor Harkon’s pride and joy, and an absolutely devastating unit to go up against in the tabletop.
Vampires Coast-To-Coast
Outside of these featured units, you’ll have your assortment of rank-and-file troops comprised of Zombie Pirates. These have multiple variations but they’re mostly, well, cannon fodder. An upgrade would be the Depth Guard troops. We’ll also have Fell Bats, Scurvy Dogs, the Carronade artillery, Bloated Corpses, Mournguls (seen in the featured image up top), and many more.
It’s quite a treat to see these Curse of the Vampire Coast DLC units surface from the depths of obscurity given that they only appeared in a White Dwarf supplemental over a decade ago. Likewise, many of these units did not have official Games Workshop models. Instead, they were released via ForgeWorld, a Games Workshop subsidiary that sells top-of-the-line units. Think of these as “really expensive expansion packs.”
Long-time Warhammer fans are sure to be ecstatic given that Creative Assembly is thinking outside the box and bringing in factions that aren’t part of the core tabletop game. You can check out the full list of units here from the official website. As usual, PC Invasion will keep you landlubbers updated with more developments.
