Total War: WARHAMMER - Norsca Impressions - Pillaging with a Viking Flair

Published: August 8, 2017 1:00 PM /

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Every time I think about Total War: WARHAMMER, two thoughts have crossed my mind. The first is, “Why didn't they just call it 'Total Warhammer'? The second is “When will I get more Norscan tribesmen? Well, it seems that Creative Assembly has at least addressed the latter question with the release of the Norsca race pack, which comes with the Norsca humans and the Wintertooth trolls. The Norsca is a heavily Viking themed race, with a big focus on pillaging and sacking provinces to erect massive monuments to the Chaos Gods. While the Warriors of Chaos are a mix of humans, Ogres, and daemons, the Norsca are focused on Trolls, Wolves, humans, and even mighty mammoths.

These two races look different thematically but still function much the same way. What sets the Warriors of Chaos and Norsca apart are what happens behind the scenes of battle. The Norsca have three unique hero types to choose from to craft your perfect servant of Chaos as well as new berserk and rage abilities to use in battle. Like I said, while the Warriors of Chaos are thematically like the Germanic hordes of the Roman era, the Norsca are very clearly Vikings.

In battle they are heavily focused on their strength in melee combat, their ranged units have only about half the range of a typical ranged unit. It's obvious that the best way to claim victory in battle is to charge your enemy head on and watch as the battlefield becomes a bloodbath. The Norsca tribe also comes with two new heroes to choose from depending on which of the two Norsca races you play as Norsca or Wintertooth.

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Mammoths are one of the several new, unique units that the Norsca use in their conquest of the world

Unfortunately, this led me rather dislike the combat aspect of the race. While I do love the theme of the Norsca, honestly, it is probably my favorite race addition so far. I am quite fond of running massive armies with a vast number of ranged units to decimate my enemies before they even reach my melee units. This is offset by being surrounded by only other Norsca races which means that battles are going to be fought face-to-face for quite some time before you have to worry about being outranged. It took me seventy turns before I turned my gaze south and began my campaign to demolish the Empire, and I was pretty confident in my ability to send endless waves of berserkers and marauders into battle to overwhelm my opponent. Still, something felt missing from my units. There is nothing more satisfying in a Total War game than setting up four regiments of archers to unleash their arrows on a marching enemy, zooming the camera down to ground level, and just watching the chaos unfold.

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Surrounded by other Norsca, Trolls, Beastman, and Warriors of Chaos, you will find yourself surrounded by individuals who are just as bloodthirsty as you

Where I come to a crossroads is when I try to decide whether or not I want to recommend buying this DLC as of right now. Total Warhammer's race DLC's have always felt a little light on new content, but there is a silver-lining in the combination of DLCs from Total War: Warhammer working in Total War: Warhammer 2 shortly after the game's launch. So it becomes an easier pill to swallow, knowing that you are not just buying a DLC for a single game, but a DLC for two games. If you are a fan of Total War or Warhammer, I do not think I can persuade you from buying this DLC, if you're someone who is more on the fence and already owns the Warriors of Chaos, you could wait until a sale to pick it up without missing much.

Total War: WARHAMMER - Norsca was played on PC via Steam with a code provided by the publisher.

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tyler valle techraptor
| Past Author

Tyler is a former author at TechRaptor, with a focus on Video Content.

More Info About This Game
Learn more about Total War: Warhammer
Developer
Creative Assembly
Publisher
SEGA
Platforms
PC
Release Date
May 24, 2016 (Calendar)
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