Total War: Warhammer 2 – The Warden & The Paunch DLC Pits War Lions Against Obese Goblins
WAAAAGH!!! Anyone that knows me knows I play a simply ludicrous amount of Total War. I’m currently at the 1,000-hour mark in Total War: Warhammer 2. And that’s just the newest game. Each new DLC drop comes with a mandatory week of isolation as I descend into my cave and play close to 16 hours a day. And any fan can tell you that we’ve been waiting for a Greenskin update for a long time. Not as long as the Jabberslythe. But a long time. And with the unveiling of The Warden & The Paunch, we finally get it.
In this newest Lord Pack, goblin thicc boi Grom the Paunch squares off against elvish pretty boi Eltharion, Prince of Yvresse. The two factions both promise radically different playstyles. Eltharion is mostly focused on defending Ulthuan from his base in Tor Yvresse, Athel Tamarha. Both fortress and prison, Eltharion can capture enemy heroes and lords. You can then either indoctrinate or vanquish them, which I’m assuming leads to something like new followers or faction buffs. Alongside Eltharion are a host of new units, including the fan-favorite War Lions of Chrace. Not to be confused with the White Lions of Charce, which are elves.
On the other side of the battlefield is the main man, Grom the Paunch. Grom is a big fat gobbo that just wants to eat things. And the new world is full of all sorts of tasty things. His campaign mechanic revolves around Grom’s Cauldron, which allows him to hunt down new ingredients to give himself and his army permanent buffs. He’s also got the head of a shaman named Blacktoof, who’s still alive and giving super great advice (for a Greenskin). Grom comes with his own host of new units, including new trolls, the gigantic Rogue Idol, and some Snotling Pump Wagons.
The real big change in The Warden & The Paunch comes from the Greenskin Old World update. The WAAAGH! is getting revamped. You will now gain WAAAGH! points during combat that can be used to give your army a large boost. WAAAGH! will also accumulate in the campaign map and can be used to selectively spawn armies to attack specific settlements. This replaces the previous WAAAGH! system, which basically just spawned extra armies whenever you got enough fightiness. More interestingly is the new Scrap system. Greenskins will now gain a resource called Scrap that can be used to upgrade units in their armies. This is done through a new upgrade window, which allows you to apply specific upgrades to each unit. This is a new feature for Total War: Warhammer 2, and could lay the groundwork for some serious changes in the rosters for existing/future armies.
If you’re like me, the question isn’t if you will be getting The Warden & The Paunch, but when. Luckily, it isn’t far off. The Warden & The Paunch will be available on May 21st for $9. Please note you need to have Total War: Warhammer II for this DLC to work. If you want to learn more, including all the new units, you can find out on the DLC’s Steam store page here.
