Total War: WARHAMMER II - The Queen & The Crone preview

Only in times of the grave peril does Alarielle the Everqueen, the living embodiment of Isha, take to the battlefield. Her eternal duty is to defend Ulthuan and its residents from the depredations of the impure. With a rallying cry, she is joined by the Handmaidens, the Sisters of Averlorn, and the spirits of the woods themselves.

Over in Naggaroth, the evil Crone Hellebron stirs in Har Ganeth, and calls a Blood Night - where the slaves are released upon the streets and slaughtered in their thousands. Bathing in the rivers of spilled blood, Hellebron’s powers are magnified beyond belief, with Doomfire Warlocks and Sisters of Slaughter flocking to her banner. The Asur will pay for their eternal treachery.

The regiments of Renown offers both the High Elves and the Dark Elves unique units, abilities, perks and bonuses in combat. Depending on which side you choose will result in what regiments you will have control over.

Averlorn (Alaraielle)

• The Scions of Mathlann (Spearmen)
• ‘Aura of Protection’ passive ability (applies a ward save to nearby units whilst mana > 50%)
• Expert Charge Defence
• The Puremane Company (White Lions of Chrace)
• ‘Guardian’ passive ability
• ‘Sunder Armour’ contact effect
• Keepers of the Flame (Phoenix Guard)
• Magic Attacks
• Mark of Asuryan (Entities will burst in to flames upon death and deal damage to any nearby enemies i.e. New interpretation of the Dwarf Slayer ‘Death Blow’ trait)
• The Storm Riders (Lothern Sea Guard)
• Cause Fear
• Vanguard Deployment
• Fire Whilst Moving
• The Grey (Shadow Warriors)
• ‘Loec’s Shroud’ ability (Increases speed and reduces the detection range significantly for enemies to spot them for the duration of the ability)
• Snipe attribute (able to fire and remain hidden)
• Everqueen’s Court Guard (Sisters of Avelorn)
• Encourage
• ‘Banner of Avelorn’ ability (Increases Winds of Magic recharge rate)
• The Fireborn (Dragon Princes)
• Bonus vs Large
• Fire Attacks
• Heralds of the Wind (Ellyrian Reavers – Bows)
• Increased speed
• Superior melee stats

Har Ganeth (Hellebron)

• The Hellebroni (Dreadspears)
• Poison Attacks
• Expert Charge Defence
• Sisters of the Singing Doom (Witch Elves)
• Cause Terror
• Blades of the Blood Queen (Har Ganeth Executioners)
• ‘Guardian’ passive ability
• ‘Frenzy’ passive ability
• The Bolt-fiends (Darkshards – Shielded)
• ‘Shieldbreaker’ contact effect (missile hits from this unit reduce missile block chance of target)
• Additional range
• Slaanesh’s Harvesters (Doomfire Warlocks)
• ‘Word of Pain’ bound spell
• ‘Soul Stealer’ bound spell
• Knights of the Ebon Claw (Dread Knights)
• Does not Rampage like other Cold One units
• Murderous Prowess upgraded to Murderous Mastery
• Chill of Sontar (War Hydra)
• ‘Frostbite’ Contact Effect
• ‘Fire Breath’ with ‘Frost Breath’ which deals more damage and applies the ‘Frostbite’ contact effect
• Raven Heralds (Dark Riders)
• Mounted on Dark Pegasi

Here are details on the unique units appearing in the DLC:

Sisters of Averlorn (Alarielle)
Among Alarielle’s most loyal warriors, the Sisters of Averlorn are dual-role combatants, skilled with both blade and bow. Their Bows of Averlorn deal Magical Flaming attacks, and like many High Elf units, they are subject to Martial Prowess.

Shadow Warriors (Alarielle)
The first (and often last!) clue a foe gets to the presence of the Shadow Warriors is a ravaging hail of arrows tearing into their ranks. With Vanguard Deployment, Stalk, and long-range bows, they can remain undetected while raining death from afar. They are also Master Ambushers, enabling them to stay hidden on the move, in any terrain, while firing in any direction.

Sisters of Slaughter (Hellebron)
These murderous gladiators of death wield cruel lash-whips dealing poisonous attacks. They also cause Fear, are subject to Murderous Mastery, and can trigger the Trial of Blades augment when losing in melee, improving their combat abilities.

Doomfire Warlocks (Hellebron)
These elite, magical cavalry are very fast moving, and deal both Magical and Poisonous attacks in melee. They are subject to Murderous Prowess, and may cast two Bound Spells: Soulblight and Lesser Doombolt.

Unique Hero: Handmaiden (Alarielle)
Handmaidens act as the right hand of Alarielle. They have several unique specialisations available in their skill trees, enabling them to influence diplomacy, trade and influence, to bolster their resilience in battle, and to make them peerless archers.

Unique Lord: Supreme Sorceress (Hellebron)
Hellebron can field new caster Lords to lead her armies. Supreme Sorceresses may be recruited to wield the lores of Fire, Dark, Shadows, Beasts and Death. They can be given Names of Power to grant them new abilities, and upgraded to ride a range of mounts, from the Dark Steed to the Cold One, Dark Pegasus, Manticore and the mighty Black Dragon.

The Queen & The Crone DLC requires the Total War: WARHAMMER II base game to play. The DLC content is available to use in the Eye of the Vortex and Mortal Empires campaigns.

Minimum:

OS: Windows 7 64Bit

Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 3.0Ghz

Memory: 5 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 460 1GB | AMD Radeon HD 5770 1GB | Intel HD4000 @720p

DirectX: Version 11

Storage: 60 GB available space

Recommended:

OS: Windows 7 / 8 (8.1)/ 10 64Bit

Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-4570 3.20GHz

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 4GB | AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB @1080p

DirectX: Version 11

Storage: 60 GB available space