Total War has always been a series which has attracted modders, and the Warhammer 2 mod scene is thriving as a result of this long legacy. It’s also benefit from the fact that in Total Warhammer, Creative Assembly committed to a single consecutive series of games rather than individual games from select time periods. Not to mention supporting that idea through their inter-game (and biggest ever) grand campaign, Mortal Empires.
This represents a unique opportunity for modders, who can now create ongoing content spanning a whole trilogy, as well as drawing from the extensive lore of Warhammer Fantasy to introduce game elements that CA may never have the chance to due to time, money etc.
Total War: Warhammer 2’s modding community is, at its heart, a collaborative effort, as creators work together, adding hundreds of hours of replayability to the series, while also working to realise the in-game fantasy world. Below, we’ve assembled a list of our favourite mods. Some add simple quality of life changes, while some – like the massive SFO – are drastic overhauls that affect nearly every aspect of the game.
TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER 2 MODS
These are the best Total War: Warhammer 2 mods:
- Expanded Roster – Kislev Reborn
- Crynsos Faction Unlocker+
- Battle Chants
- Dryrain Reskins
- Totally Random Total War Generator
- Chaos Invasion Choice
- GCCM: Settlement Packs
- Mixu’s Legendary Lords
- Cataph’s Kraka Drak: the Norse Dwarfs 2.0
- SFO: Grimhammer II
Expanded Roster – Kislev Reborn
If like us you’re very excited for Total War: Warhammer III, then this mod might just give you the fix you need while you wait. Kislev Reborn which massively expands the Kislev unit roster in Warhammer II to be more up-to-date with current lore and sourcebooks. It introduces new lords, five heroes, as well as 30+ units and eight Regiments of Renown.
You’ll need Mixu’s Unlocker to actually be able to play as this faction and enjoy the new units, although according to the creator the AI is also capable of recruiting the new options as well. Kislev is one of the confirmed Warhammer 3 races, and there’s a sub-mod for this that will make it compatible with SFO’s overhaul mod, mentioned below.
CRYNSOS FACTION UNLOCKER+ BY CRYNSOS
Do you remember back when simply defeating a faction in Total War would let you play as them? The first time I played Rome I, finally defeating the Gauls after a sloggish offensive, I was astounded to discover I could step into their shoes. Admittedly, recent games do seem to be bringing this feature back (In Three Kingdom’s you have to defeat Dong Zhuo to play as him) but no such feature exists in Total War: Warhammer II.
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However with Crynsos Faction Unlocker you can play as any faction in both Mortal Empires and the Vortex Campaign. With Warhammer’s far spread races, this really does allow for unique start positions, whether a Wood Elf desert campaign from Oreon’s camp, or a Dwarf jungle campaign on the Spine of Sotek.
Battle Chants
In the vanilla game, a unit can start chanting if it successfully routs or destroys an enemy unit. For some, like Boo!, this isn’t enough. Battle Chants is a simple mod that increases the frequency of the various chanting sound effects, as well as idle chatter.
That’s it. That’s the mod. It won’t blow the lid off your next Warhammer 2 run, but these kind of lower-level ambient tweaks can really help with the immersion in the tactical space.
DRYRAIN RESKINS BY HOOVERIC
Visual variety in units is far less of a problem in fantasy games than it is in historical. It’s easier to get bored of a generic barbarian faction, in a game with many generic barbarian factions, than it is in a game with giant spiders, killer bats, undead wolves, walking shipwrecks and exploding corpses etc. But a touch extra variety never hurt anyone. The Dryrain Reskins by Hooveric are a beautiful, yet subtle series of visual enhancements for units, lords and heroes, focusing on ‘lore-friendly realism’, adding another layer of depth to an already deep game.
TOTALLY RANDOM TOTAL WAR GENERATOR BY KRUBERMORGEN
Start positions have long been a gripe for the Total War: Warhammer community — it took years for us to get a unique start position for Ungrim Ironfist, and only in the last Empire update did Balthazar Gelt finally receive his own (a mere three years after the release of the first game). With one of my favourite Total War mods, the wonderfully named Totally Random Total War Generator, your start position worries are a thing of the past.
Or actually it would be more accurate to say they are a very real worry of the present, as the mod changes every faction start position in the game. As you might expect from Lizardmen suddenly teleported into the middle of Norsca, the results are often violent and unpredictable, as the AI tries to comprehend what’s happening. It’s a wonderful time.
CHAOS INVASION CHOICE BY CRYNSOS
There’s nothing more annoying than being in the middle of a gripping campaign, but then having to drop everything for the Chaos Invasion. While I love a challenge, and sending heretics howling back into the Warp, I don’t always feel like putting my campaign on hold for a good thirty or so turns while I deal with it. Chaos Invasion Choice by Crynsos does exactly that, prompting you at the start of a campaign as to when (or if) you want a Chaos invasion at any point in your campaign.
GCCM: SETTLEMENT PACKS BY GCCM
You may be thinking, what is a settlement map overhaul doing in the quality of life section? Hear me out. One of the most consistent complaints about the Total War: Warhammer series are the repetitive siege battles, which can often feel like a bit of a chore. In the background you spy an expansive city, with streets and alleyways, places for chokepoints and layered defences, but you can only ever access a small portion of the map.
The GCCM: Settlement Packs are compilation mods bringing together creations from some of the most prominent Total War: Warhammer map modders. They add a huge amount of variety to your in-game experience, allowing you to battle on siege maps more akin to Medieval II — multi-layered and filled with possibility, as well as granting the Warhammer locations the epic feel they deserve.
MIXU’S LEGENDARY LORDS BY MIXU
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say Mixu’s Legendary Lords 1 and 2, represent the peak of lord modding in Warhammer. They add a huge variety of unique lords and heroes to the game — both characters we were likely never to see, such as Elspeth Von Draken (and her Carmine Dragon) and those long requested, such as Taurox the Brass Bull. These characters come with special abilities, mounts, and a level of professional polish, that in some cases, often makes you question whether they are actually the real thing.
They also often fill a gap in terms of campaign playstyle — I played a fantastic cavalry-focused Tomb Kings campaign with King Tutankhanut from Legendary Lords 2.
CATAPH’S KRAKA DRAK: THE NORSE DWARFS 2.0 BY CATAPH
While Cataph’s Southern Realms mod is also great, I think Kraka Drak: the Norse Dwarfs 2.0 demonstrates something brilliant that Total War: Warhammer modders are doing. The mod essentially allows you to play as Kraka Drak, the Dwarf faction which exists in Norsca, with both unique units and unique lords. But the Games Workshop lore surrounding the Norse Dwarfs didn’t go so far as expanding on characters or units, so Cataph created them — in a similar fashion to what CA did for the Vampire Coast, creating new units, and a new lord in Cylostra Direfinn.
This mod features a range of units, technologies, and building chains that make for a distinctive campaign experience. Not to mention that Kraka Drak, in my opinion, is one of the most interesting, yet unavailable, start positions in the vanilla game.
SFO: GRIMHAMMER II BY THE SFO MOD TEAM
In terms of mods that change every aspect of the vanilla game, you owe it to yourself to look up SFO: Grimhammer II. Focusing on a player experience ‘closer to the lore and Warhammer universe’, the SFO team is made up of 10 community modders, each with their own speciality, united by their love of Warhammer Fantasy. They have created a collaborative vision of Total War: Warhammer, compiling some of the best mods to create a version of the game which is distinctive in its own right — with new units, factions, buildings, and visuals.
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If you need any indicator of how extensive the changes are, a full 54 page summary can be found on their Steam page. The scale and success of SFO really is a testament to the continued drive and passion of the Warhammer modding community. There is also an impressive sub-mod collection you can browse here.
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