Warhammer: Total War?

This is getting to be a bit of a hobby focussed week, isn't it? Well, I'm on holiday in January so I'm basically locked in my flat building Orks, that's where my head's at right now and next week I'll be back at work and we can talk about comics and Doctor Who and other stuff.

Anyway, the other day the Escapist reported that Creative Assembly have added a Warhammer game to their Total War slate. A Warhammer Fantasy game, by the way. I used to love the Total War games back at university, we all played them. I sucked at them but they were fun and possibilities of a Warhammer version intrigues me.

Will you be able to build underground strongholds as Skaven? Will Bretonnian cavalry be grotesquely overpowered (please)? Who will win an artillery duel: Empire or Dwarfs? How will Beastmen ambushes work? Will Estalia and Tilea be places you can invade? Cathay? What will Lizardmen be like and how long will it take to “build” Stegadons? Will there be underground maps for Dwarfs, Night Goblins and Skaven? Will special characters from the tabletop game be usable to buff your army?

I am being optimistic but, ultimately, once its out I will wait for reviews because I hear too many stories these days about micro-transactions and DLC; about games being released with enormous bugs (*cough* Assassins' Creed: Unity *cough*); early access and Kickstarter scams; and always online DRM. Why I don't own a current gen system? Because I want to buy a game, play it without spending extra money on it, play it without worrying about my internet going down and destroying my progress, I want the game to be complete and I want to actually own it and dispose of it however I please.

So when this comes out you can be damn sure I will wait to make sure none of that bollocks is in it and then I will try to conquer the Warhammer World using Bretonnia (if they're an option) and prove the superiority of mass cavalry over mass artillery.

Squishy superiority. Let's face it, I'm basically choosing an automatic Ultimate Hard Mode but I am a Bretonnia fanboy without shame.