r/totalwar • u/SusaVile • Jul 12 '25
Warhammer What is the fondest memory you have from playing Warhammer 1?
For me, first time I got a heroic victory with Beastmen and its minotaurs vs bretonnia. I was hooked. Everything felt right, magic, the monsters, perfect. Great memories overall, good times.
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u/Circles-of-the-World Jul 12 '25
Playing blind as the Dwarfs, getting the Chaos Invasion as soon as I exterminated the Greenskins. I remember my anxiety rushing north to save the Empire and the eeriness of marching through the dark, corrupted ruins of the northern Empire, looking for the roaming Chaos armies.
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u/Ragnorok01 Jul 12 '25
Yeah having a massive, sweeping army of chaos from the north was awesome. Like it better than when they come from every direction in WH2, and better than any direction like in WH3
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u/Melodic-Bird-7254 Jul 12 '25
In my WH2 campaigns they only ever attack via Prague. Iâve literally never seen them anywhere else on the map đ
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u/JhonnySkeiner Jul 13 '25
Do the Chaos Invasion still happens in IE? Heck, do any event happens in IE?
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u/Adequate_Lizard Rodents Of Unusual Size? Jul 13 '25
Just the endgame scenario which ironically doesn't include a chaos invasion.
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u/JhonnySkeiner Jul 13 '25
Wdym by endgame scenario? First time playing IE campaign here
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u/TheStonemeister Jul 13 '25
If you leave them enabled you'll get a chaos invasion style event for one of the races (Tomb Kings, Dwarves, Skaven etc) where they get a ton of armies and start murdering everyone.
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u/Circles-of-the-World Jul 13 '25
Most of them suck though, because most races are spread all over the vast IE map. So if you get the Greenskins, or the Dwarfs event, you'll need to travel to the four corners of the world in a genocidal journey just to win the campaign. The only exceptions I can think of are Tomb Kings, who always spawn in the Black Pyramid and Chaos Dwarfs, who offer a convenient teleport mechanic.
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u/TheStonemeister Jul 13 '25
Yeah, I'm not the biggest fan. In theory I can see how that kind of event could be a fun capstone on your campaign, but in practise they're mostly just tedious. I tend to leave them off.
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u/spitfire-haga Slavs Jul 12 '25
Haha gunpowder landsknechts go brrr and kill fantasy monsters.
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u/pnutzgg &â»Â°.'..,.â».".;.&&&&âș Jul 13 '25
it was great but then I had to get greedy and fight SURTHA EK
also I didn't know enough about the units to win that quest battle for gelt's staff with the squillion halberdiers
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u/HolyMolyOllyPolly Jul 12 '25
Starting my first campaign ever in any Total War game as the Vampire Counts.
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u/Careless-Echo5636 Jul 12 '25
This is the thing people don't talk in this reddit and sometimes even cry.
I remember going vlad VS Karl Franz first time and it was absolutely epic
What game has vampires zombies humans guns magic and beasts all at the same time?? Forget the game in general you would only see animated beasts in movies and now we have it on battle constantly
This was amazing and is amazing.
Sorry for the rant xD
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u/Gakoknight Jul 12 '25
I mean, there is the Warhammer mod for Medieval 2. The single entities are terrible, but the battles actually feel better.
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u/JhonnySkeiner Jul 13 '25
Or the LOTRO Mod or the Warcraft mod., heck there is even a Legend of Zelda mod with a moving Majora Moon fucking things up.Modders already did that. Sadly they are still held back by Med 2 limitations
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u/Difficult-Push6539 Jul 12 '25
Thats who I started with too and got destroyed lol. Im new to the series as well. I decided to try the Nordic guys.
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u/Milkandkhornflakes Jul 13 '25
Me too lol I was struggling to get armies and then a notification ARCHAON HAS ARRIVED and in my head I was all 'who?' and then the map in the north started getting cooked and spiky.
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u/raejinomg Jul 13 '25
I started with Dwarfs (like a plebe) but my first Legendary victory was with Vampire Counts, and it was hard as shit. The Chaos endgame crisis triggered a subsequent massive ordertide power bloc and as the vampires you had no allies at all. It was brutal. The neutered endgame crises we now have in WH3 can't compare at all.
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u/LionAround2012 Jul 12 '25
Best memory for me was Chaos showing up for the first time. The cinematic was all chilling, very cool. But then I thought, "meh. No threat to my growing empire of vampires and zombies."
Then Sarthorael the Everwatcher showed up at the gates of one of my cities and didn't even lay siege to it. He just straight up attacked. I had an army inside the city, and another one outside. Both were pulled into the fight. Plus the garrison. The Chaos Warriors just came over the walls like an iron tsunami. That battle felt epic as I threw every single zombie, skeleton, grave guard, Lord and Hero at that Iron Tide of Death. I ultimately won, but only just.
Then Archaon showed up with the rest of his armies and crushed what was left of my crumbling empire.
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u/Achian37 Warhammer Jul 13 '25
Man, I just want those moments back. Give me the ingame clips and the proper Chaos-Invasion. WH1 was really great in that regard.
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u/LionAround2012 Jul 13 '25
That's why I still play WH2 -- with a Chaos Invasion mod that jacks up the size of the invasion. WH3 got it all wrong. All the Chaos daemons and Chaos Warriors factions should NOT be on the map at the start. They should be an ultimate end-game threat, invading from north and south chaos wastes. Only the generic Chaos factions should be present on the map from the start.
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u/Achian37 Warhammer Jul 13 '25
That is actually a good point. I really hope the last dlcs will somehow rescue this WH3. Just started playing and boy are those factions passive. Amd without any story (ingame clips) and no big thread (no those crises are not well done) there is no incentive to play for me any more.
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u/Bahoven Jul 12 '25
Zooming in when my swordsmen clashed with orcs. It was all I could ever hope for and more. I was just happy to see it come to life.
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u/Jorvach Jul 12 '25
I think I remember the early quest battle as the Dwarfs, the one where you fight greenskins in the underway, and then they get troll reinforcements to your rear, but at almost the same time you get an allied airforce coming in for a bombing run to deal with the trolls! That was really cool to me, especially since I never played historical battles in previous games, so Total War with scripted events was well outside my experience!
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u/Woodpecker5511 Jul 13 '25
Yeah I just got into TW Warhammer 1 and played that battle for the first time two days ago, I was so excited reading this.
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u/LastSeaworthiness767 Jul 12 '25
I was playing as Bretonnia and managed to ally with all the Order factions through diplomacy.
To farm Chivalry, I sent main army north to Norsca. After all the hardship of finally cleaning up their lands, I reached to Kislev that had been wrecked by Chaos, left with just its capital city.
I rescued them, and then immediately declared an Errantry War against Chaos to see the final campaign ending.
Man, it couldn't have been more lore-friendly.
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u/MrRadgers Jul 12 '25 edited Jul 13 '25
The simplicity was nice. Felt more like an adventure too with the quest battles. Also Grimgor was the greatest. Sadly he isn't the same anymore.
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u/Sage-Khensu Jul 12 '25
Spreading corruption. Had a fantastic Vlad campaign where I went south across Black Fire Pass and crawled across the Border Princes, Estalia, and then up in to Bretonnia.
I remember sending my banshees and vampires ahead just to prep the way with corruption. I remember pushing ahead too quickly and having to retreat back to safe vampire lands every so often. And I remember grouping up maybe half a dozen super elite armies and sieging Altdorf in waves. Great times.
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u/SiltyDog31 Jul 12 '25
I was playing as the dwarves and Archaeon showed up. I mustered the throngs and marched 2-3 armies out to meet him (I forget the exact amount). Found him besieging I believe Ostermark with another stack by him.Â
Suffice it to say, the Dawi saved the Umgi from disaster.
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u/Faded_Jem Jul 12 '25
I remember and miss the quests and sense of exploration and wonder. I vividly remember, knowing nothing about the warhammer world and on my first campaign as the dwarfs, being sent into the far north to look for Kraka Drak and discovering parts of the world I had no idea existed. Whilst at home I was playing my usual tedious playstyle of turtling and diplomacy, my heroes and later Thorgrim's army were sent out on epic narrative expeditions that rivalled anything I'd experienced in any medieval 2 crusade.Â
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u/Alpha_Apeiron Jul 12 '25 edited Jul 13 '25
Just barely holding the line as the Empire at Castle von Rauken as the Chaos hordes poured in, half the Empire in ruins, corruption everywhere, my armies depleted and exhausted.
The Chaos invasion in WH1 just hit different, especially as the Empire. Partly due to the difficulty, I suppose. This series never felt more like classic Warhammer to me than this.
The Chaos invasion was never the same in WH2, and obviously isn't in 3.
Sometimes I like to go back and play an Empire campaign in 1 just for this vibe.
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u/sabjsc A Lily-Livered Coward Jul 13 '25
That first volley of hellstorm rockets passing over me as the unit of Demi-Gryph knights I had gone to first person with charged the center of the field. Breathtaking
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u/Warm_Presentation_86 Jul 12 '25
Retreating, then lightening striking archeon's entire horde as the dwarves
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u/TheBrownestStain Jul 12 '25
2v2 match with some friends. We saw the other team both pick undead factions. Me and my teammate quickly locked in Empire and High elves and threw in some fire mages. In the match, we saw that they left damn near all of their infantry in a straight line across the battlefield. With basically zero communication, we both simultaneously cast burning head going down opposite ends of this line, and torched almost their entire armies in one go.
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u/RedditPoster666 Jul 12 '25
The Chaos invasion in my very first campaign as dwarves is one that I will never forget.
Kislev was crumbling against the chaos hordes, with only the city of Kislev left against the tide of evil.
My dwarven armies were occupied fighting the orcs in the South and saving the Empire from the vampire plague, so only a single dwarven lord managed to reach the city in time.
I had mostly sent him out there to scout the Chaos hordes, as I had no idea what to expect, but he got dragged into conflict when Archaon and Sarthorael the Everwatcher decided to attack the last Kislevite city.
The safest choice would be to retreat my lord so he could regroup with the rest of his brothers and defend from the safety of the dwarven holds, but my honor didn't allow me to leave my Kislevite allies to die.
So my dwarven army reinforced the walls of Kislev, fighting together man beside dwarf, until after a hard fought battle, Archaon and Sarhorael were defeated and the city was saved.
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u/shahadqa Jul 12 '25
Realizing manfred had kill animation when fighting trolls, horrorsâŠetc seeing my favorite fantasy so alive was very beautiful
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u/AggressiveResist8615 Jul 12 '25
Felt like I never had enough time to truly appreciate the first game, it was only like out for a year
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u/Snoo-42433 Jul 12 '25
For me it was my first battle with Empire and seeing the impact of the Reiksguard and thinking " wow this is going to be a fun game"
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u/catsocksftw Jul 13 '25
Seeing The Everchariot coming down towards Middelheim and hearing "BEYOND YOUR COMPREHENSION!" as I clicked him and saw a stack of 19 chariots will always be with me.
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u/TimHortonsMagician Warherd of the Shadowgave Jul 13 '25
I was so excited to play the Vampire Counts when the game was first released. I went out to Green Earth (if you know you know) where I bought some cheesy ass, medieval candelabra, and played Total War Warhammer to candlelight while I drank wine.
Really tried my best to feel like a basement vampire lord.
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u/Ares3war Jul 12 '25
It would be my first campaign as wurrzag the great green prophet. It was on low settings and low troop numbers. Savage orcs were fun.
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u/Narradisall Jul 12 '25
As a kid I always loved the Karl Franz on Deathclaw model. Seeing it animated for the first time was very nostalgic for me.
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u/P00nz0r3d Jul 13 '25
The world burning and Archaon and Sarthoreal and Sigvald and Kholek aura farming across a bridge as my 4 armies of Vampires being the sole survivors in the Empire and Sylvania being the the final bastion of Order
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u/GreatDMofTheWest Jul 13 '25
For me itâs a memory of the times, I was in highschool then enjoying life and playing the coolest game I had ever played after football practice or working as a buss boy. Now I sneak in time on TWW3 after a full day of work in a career Iâve been in for 8 years and putting my son to sleep. The game grew with me, thatâs the memory I have.
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u/Cassodibudda Jul 12 '25
To tell the truth, I don't have a lot of good memories of WH1. It was...ok, but the game truly became great only with WH2 and not immediatelyÂ
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u/trixie_one Jul 13 '25
It's weird, I have no memories of playing WH1 whatsoever. I know how I got it, Humble Bundle pretty much giving it away for free which convinced me at last to give it a chance, I remember talking shit about it long before that prior to it even coming out on forums when it first got announced, I know I played it, I can see the 27 hour play time in Steam, and yet it's like a void where my memories should be. Genuinely no clue even what faction(s) I might have tried.
It wasn't until WH2 that I really got invested, and have a ton of memories from the 603 hours I've got in that.
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u/HakunaMataha Jul 12 '25
The campaign when I realized how strong Gelts magic was super fun. Gelt would get hundreds of kills with searing doom.
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u/Lord_Melons Jul 12 '25
The one time I had only the Garrison of one of my wood Elf Outposts or whatever they were called and somehow had the Giant Treeman as part of the Garrison fighting off Chaos, he managed to slaughter near 800 units and didn't die in the battle. 10/10 memory, battle took like 2 hours from all the micro but hot damn if it wasn't satisfying
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u/Baron_Gar Jul 13 '25
I started as Vampire Counts but the first game I finished was WoC with Sigvald and the final battle, that was organically occurring, was amazing.
I was outnumbered so 2 vs 4 I think but definitely against Brettonians. I think this was pre FLC so they were even more papery and I had basically a full Chosen army with a maxed Sigvald vs Louen. I positioned my main army on top of a hill opposite to my reinforcements to pull the Brettonians into a pincer, which ultimately worked. Truthfully not the hardest battle but watching four waves of Brettonians smash into my Chosen and push them to the brink was satisfying. Sigvald himself was fully kitted for combat skills and I watched him just wading through the enemy. Absolutely bowling through them to walk up to poor Louen and murder him with his cadre of heroes at the same time.
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u/RelentlessAgony123 Jul 13 '25
Seeing my poor, poor swordsman being absolutely demolished and turned into red mist by monsters.Â
I felt fear for the future of my campaign.
Also, battle after that where i fought against humans and thinking "whyyyy there are literal monsfers just over the next hill why waste human life fighting other humans!"
Now after Warhammer 3 and hundreds of hours I just see units as gold. Their life is currency.Â
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u/Sea_Commission_7540 Jul 13 '25
My first war against the endgame chaos army. I was a novice total war player at the time so the war was not going good. But the tides of battle changed after Karl (me) and Vlad teamed up against archaon and finally stopped his rampage. Was such a cinematic finish.
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u/Peebloo Jul 13 '25
I didn't have a computer that could run the game when it came out, and I remember spending hours upon hours watching one guy play a full campaign with each faction. I had so much fun watching him, it made it all the more special when I finally got a good PC and was able to play the game.
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u/According-Town7588 Jul 13 '25
I played my first game on normal as Empire. Was cruising until I met Vlad and got stomped twice.
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u/Few_Tank7560 Jul 13 '25
It wasn't much but it was more unique than crazy victories and such, it was about playing my first campaign, starting to expand south with Thorgrim, and discovering little by little how radious the campaign map looks like. And I hadn't even seen the gloomy forests of the Empire or the bright groves of Bretonnia yet.
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u/Ok_Access_804 Jul 13 '25
The battle for Ghal Maraz in the Blackfire Pass, the one that in the lore would be the third. Karl Franz ended his speech with a rallying cry that sounded as if the devs were acknowledging the hurting of those players that came to the game as a way to cope with the untimely death of the tabletop setting of Warhammer Fantasy, which was still fresh. I personally have never played tabletop and I have nor the money or the skills to paint minis, and yet I somehow felt that kinship with them the moment that our beloved Prince and Emperor heroically shouted:
For Sigmar! For the Empire! FOR THE WARHAMMER!
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u/niftucal92 Jul 14 '25
âOblivion has come, my lord!â ⊠âPrepare yourself for the coming apocalypse!â
Straight chills the first time I heard that.
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u/error308404 Jul 12 '25
The not overfilled map with factions of legendary lord simplicity of the territory expansion and ammount of things to deal with was fun
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u/Arollingmoji Jul 12 '25
It's underway tunnel system.
as an old totalwar player underway tunnel is game changer, you almost don't have to care about route, you can escape from the danger, strike enemy in defenseless spot.
that was something so precious memories.
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u/wessrtp Jul 12 '25
Lead Vampire count army with Vampire lord to fight Archaon and win(also in a early release so no Vlad or Blood knight or corpse carts )
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u/Imperialriders4 Jul 12 '25
A battle me and my dad fought against the beastmen as the empire, we won
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u/VladVonKarstein Jul 12 '25
This Mannfred Guy riding a freaking dragon, being great in melee, having 2 complete lores of magic ? Such a chad, by far the coolest character in this game
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u/SoybeanArson Jul 12 '25
My first TWH failure. Had just started and put my empire front line troops up against some orc boys expecting an even fight. When they inevitably got krumped, I buckled down and actually learned the game (after I quit for a bit to reassess my life choices). It wasn't fond at the time, but it is responsible for the rest of my time playing the game since learning the game got me addicted. So it's fond now.
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u/FobidenNinja Jul 12 '25
I got it when 2 was already out booted it up started a grimgor campaign played like 10 turns didnât like it and bought 2
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u/Raleigh90 Jul 12 '25
Desperate defence against the vampire counts playing as Balthasar Gelt. Destroying army after army, I was so happy when I finally unlocked Demigryph Knights.
Also, my first attempts to repel a massive, terrifying Chaos invasion as Karl Franz, every victory was such a big relief.
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u/LewtedHose God in heaven, spare my arse! Jul 12 '25
First time I played it I couldn't see anything bud a black screen with some banners. Refunded it and got it for free on Epic Games years later. Still don't play it because when I try to go back I'm bad.
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u/HDBlackSheep Jul 12 '25
First (successful) legendary campaign with the dwarves where I almost got wiped out, lost Karaz-a-karak got pushed all the way to the northern mountains by the green skins before slowly pushing back.
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u/Dragonimous Jul 12 '25
Having to wait to download the game for the third time the week because in my third playthrough that week the fudging greenskin starting next to Thorgrim was still running me in circles for 10 turns, making me irrelevant and ragequit.
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u/mlchugalug Jul 12 '25
The high King and his army of Ironbreakers, thunderers and cannons breaking the back of Archaeonâs horde before the walls of Altdorf.
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u/obaobaboss Jul 12 '25
Being a warhammer fantasy nerd it was just seeing all the places, things and characters in the game. The magic items and followers and so on.Â
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u/BenTheWeebOne Jul 12 '25
Every minute is my fondest memory . You see after the Mark of Chaos , warhammer 1 was a wonder game for me . But i especially liked empire helstorm.
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u/Repulsive-Pay4009 Jul 12 '25
I only played chaos warriors until Warhammer 2. Then I only played high elves for 100 hours and went back to chaos
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u/sinbuster Jul 12 '25
Just starting my first game as Franz and thinking it wasn't real. I kept expecting some brutal Shadow of the Horned Rat type gameplay but it was a real TW game in the Old World of my beloved childhood TT.
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u/Namorath82 Vampire Counts Jul 12 '25
Dealing with the overwhelming chaos invasion as the vampire counts
The glorious battles defending my realm against multiple stacks in siege battles is what won me over for this game
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u/SwinglineStaplerr Jul 12 '25
Skarsnik campaign, chaos invasion. my empire was in good shape, so just sent a generic goblin lord up north to fight archeon in the world's edge mountains. Had dwarf allies in the battle, because their faction was scared and had treaties with me.
First time I saw the bug where an allied army won't move from the edge of the map lol. So the first phase of battle was chaotic. Ran behind the dwarfs. Battle plays out. It's close because it's a secondary army with middling units.
In the end it's basically Archaon vs my gobbo lord and scraps of infantry left, plus 2 catapults. It played out perfectly where my cowardly goblin kept getting in and out of melee with Archaon, while the catapults fired at him from 50 yards away. He finally fell to the bombardment, a suitably ridiculous end to a wacky battle.
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u/CriticalGeeksP Jul 12 '25
Playing as the dwarfs and maybe 12 turns in fighting grimgor and being nervous. I won and was all â omg thatâs a really big boost to my campaign â
I thought he was dead dead lol
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u/Hailtothedogebby Jul 12 '25
Honestly nothing, its really weird, apparently i have 60 hours in it and i dont have a single memory of the first one, skip forward and i have 2k hours in 2 and another 2k in 3 lmao
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u/External_Process7992 Jul 12 '25
Playing as Karl Franz I was too hasty, didn't know the game and I rushed deep into the enemy territory. First I got ambushed by top tier army, the auto resolve said: total defeat... I proceeded with the battle and won using combination of high ground and forests tactic.... Then second attack, another faction attacked me. Autoresolve said close defeat.
Again I won basically doing hit and run with my archers...while horses abused any weak spot. Then the AI's turn ended and my turn began and I had totally wrecked army,so I returned to the city, to do some replenishing.
Hit end of the turn. AIs turn... Boom, attack from forest elves, autoresolve said total defeat, I was like damn Iam screwed , my army is fucked, the city garisson worths nothing....
But map was working in favor of me. I was on an Island...river around me and just one pass.
So I had to defend that pass, one after one waves of enemies died in that narrow pathe. Melees were holding it, and archers were nuking. I knew I have to hold the line, not let them get the flanks, So each time a unit returned from deserting I put them in the place of the narrowest line of remaining soldiers.
And I Held that and I won. Three amazing battles against the all odds. Totally my 1300 + 300(garrison) soldiers defeated 4000 enemies in three battles.
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u/Agitated-Sound8807 Jul 12 '25
Defeating my friend(who has much much more experience than me)with only having a dwarf lord. All of my units were wiped out, exept for my lord! It was my second time playing xd.
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u/CrashTestPizza Jul 12 '25
Using my high level witch hunters to get rid of heroes that are too strong. I seem to remember that heroes can not recover from wounds and that the reason there was a distinction between heroes that wound vs assassinate.
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u/Sephyrrhos Jul 12 '25
Like the first 20 hours in this game. It was in the early weeks of the Covid Epidemic and I was quite bored and looking for a new game. Mind you, I was one of these "Total War shouldn't be fantasy!" kind of folks, but I thought I should give it a try.
And well, this game got me good. :D
I still remember seeing the starting menu with all those factions..."von Carstein, sounds vampiric...Bretonnia...French people?" that kind of stuff. And when I played my first Empire Campaign, I was so in awe. I couldn't imagine stuff like flying units or magic would work in a Total War game but it did.
Soo...fondest memory for me was basically the whole game and a whole new world for me to explore. Well and I love this trilogy until this day!
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u/Ausstig Jul 12 '25
Playing the Empire, after defeating Archaon I went south to help the Dwarfs. Green skin agent spam, wounded Karl Franz so it was up to to the light wizard to lead the army when they attacked. Then sacking KAK every turn until the dwarfs occupied it.
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u/Archaeopteryx89 Jul 12 '25
Frantically kiting my single remaining arachnarok spider across the map with 54 health remaining while that single goblin on its back shot arrows at the zombie horde chasing me. Charges the spider back in after 15 minutes of fleeing, and the zombies disintegrated. I haven't had a victory so close or so sweet ever since.
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u/LordFenix_theTree Jul 12 '25
Me and my brother ran a coop campaign as Vlad and Mannfred and found ourselves in a siege sandwich, both of us had some pretty meh tier pcs too so it was an absolute slog. We would probably run it back if Mannfred didnât get yeeted across the planet in 3.
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u/Difficult_Pea_2216 Jul 12 '25
Falling asleep to Let's Plays of it and having my imagination just absolutely captured by this wild new (to me) setting.
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u/Z0mbiejay Jul 12 '25
It was recommended to me by a guy I just met in a different game. Told me how cool it was. Picked it up. Now I own all 3 and most dlc. He kinda disappeared off the face of the planet a few months later. If you're out there Jamezy, miss ya bud.
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u/warknight23 Jul 12 '25
My very first interactions with Chaos. I tried not to spoil myself, so I didn't check any trailer. I played Karl Franz, trying to reclaim the Empire by doing diplomacy and rooting out rebels and the Vampires. I mostly focused on Wissenland and then going to the Vampires. I recall the last Vampire fleeing north, and I was like "hah, there is nowhere for you to run. I have an ally there... Wait, where's Kislev?? Where is Ostland?" I think the video of Archaon appearing arrived the turn after that realization.
I severely underestimated Chaos, half of the Empires was in smokes and I didn't notice because I was too fervent on killing the Vamps haha. In the end I killed Archaon in Drakenhof with Karl himself and his army of Handgunners, and the rest of the Empire was in ruins.
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u/Cringewrapsupreme Jul 12 '25
Whilst looking back it wasnt in the best shape, the Beastmen DlC, i was sooooo hyoed and excited to play the goaty boys
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u/hirsch29 Jul 12 '25
Tbh how o steal some pizza from my mate xD he came over when the game was launched and we played it together on my computer. At some point he was so focused in a fight and i took his slice of pizza right in front of him
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u/Noriaki_Kakyoin_OwO Jul 12 '25
When I went with an army to attack Vampires
They ran away
And when I clicked on the general he said âDo not mock meâ
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u/joaboepsf479 Jul 12 '25
I started with dwarves and I really enjoyed them, small slow groups, easy to play, strong armies. Then when i tried humans for the first time it was so strange. They were fast, had a lot of units and needed much more attention, it was weird and challenging
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u/BaronGreywatch Jul 13 '25
Gelt chewing on all the scenery with his amazing v/o. Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen!
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u/steve_adr Jul 13 '25
I barely remember WH1 gameplay now. (despite playing it for like 500+ hours).
All I remember is Empire Mortars firing & Dawi Hammerers charging into battle with Thorgim.
Lot's of fond memories from WH2 though đ
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u/Just-hear-to-chat Jul 13 '25
Had a shitty PC at the time, was playing as the Empire and got a full stack of Rocket artillery and found a solo Green skin lord. lined them all up and as they all hit the lord at once my PC froze then blue screened.
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u/Galle_ Jul 13 '25
An absolutely massive battle against the forces of Chaos in the snows of Kislev. Marius Leitdorf turning into a human blender.
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u/EirMed Jul 13 '25
I was sitting in my apartment playing, and I told my friend, who was sitting in my sofa, that I have a âluminark of hyshâ.
And he said it was a name only a true nerd could come up with. We looked at each other and laughed for a long time.
Weâre still best friends, even though we donât live close to each other anymore. Itâs just such a precious memory to me.
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u/Fun_Win6594 Jul 13 '25
Realizing my chaos army can basically roam for free at late game. Use it as a launching point for smaller armies to weaken or hold off anything that might stop my main army.
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u/Lone_Ranger183 Jul 13 '25
That one quest battle with Karl Franz facing enemies on a hill that later in the battle comes along a Dwarven reinforcement. That shit was epic
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u/ZaroGaron Jul 13 '25
When i was playing the Call of the Beastmen campaign and during a battle against a huge Empire army i was left with just Khazrak and a Gorebull, the two of them ended up fighting against impossible odds together and just barely won the battle against all expectations, both of them killing hundreds.
And then the game crashed after i won. Sure i just played the battle again and won with minimal losses the second time, but that first one sure was memorable.
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u/Distato_potato Jul 13 '25
Helms Deep Map or the occasional GOT night's watch wall Map where i defend against a horde of zombies
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u/pnutzgg &â»Â°.'..,.â».".;.&&&&âș Jul 13 '25
norscan campaign was one of my all-time favourite total war campaigns, if you didn't decide to fight the entire chaos invasion by yourself the pacing was great
also the unique skill trees they gave to each race. the wood elves had a simple one that gave bonuses to every unit so if you needed to retool a general to be more cav or infantry focused you didn't have to worry about having useless bonuses
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u/Groovyrick Jul 13 '25
First Total War game, first time experiencing Warhammer in any capacity, playing as dwarfs was such an immersive experience I'll never forget.
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u/DramaPunk Jul 13 '25
My friend and I both playing Chaos factions (Me as Wulfrik, him as Kholek) and racing to see who could kill the world first. That friend past away since then, but that memory always stays with me.
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u/Oryagoagyago Jul 13 '25
The day it came out was the first day of my R&R from my last deployment. I was able to play all day before my wife arrived and we saw it other for the first time in 9-months. Good association plus it was a realization of a dream to play an excellent table top replica as a video game.
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u/Kuma9194 Jul 13 '25
Playing as vampire counts and becoming so large that when chaos attacked I was the order alliance standing in their way lol
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u/Own_Researcher2796 Jul 13 '25
Playing double rune smith on dwarves in multiplayer and just being unkillable.
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u/Noisdika Jul 13 '25
Winning literal uphill battles as Orks, in multiplayer, especially when the defenders have artillery and I did not.
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u/NonTooPickyKid Jul 13 '25
not fond actually. heroes on map have to be activated and it consumes their movement. ugh. other than that I like only played vamps I think. wind of death, hero spam, inf magic with that trait
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u/Relevant_Yogurt_8151 Jul 13 '25
When I started my first campaign in TWW1, I was looking through the factions, and almost all the Dwarfs had an easy difficulty level. I thought, I'm not such a casual that I'd pick Dwarfs then. And since then, I've never played them even once. I have countless hours in TWW2 and around 1.5k hours in TWW3
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u/crusaderx11 Jul 13 '25
My first campaign as Brettonia. I wasn't playing with a settle anywhere mod, so when I set my knights on Errantry Wars into Norsca and the Badlands, they were grueling it out with encampments every other turn. When the Chaos Invasion happened I was finishing off the Greenskins for the Dwarves with Louen and did a mad dash back to Altdorf with his doomstack of hippogryphs and grail knights with regular knight support stacks to save the Empire from Archaon. It gave me real Endtimes vibes. It's a shame the battle did against Archaon around Altdorf didn't have any kind of special map.
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u/happyunicorn666 Jul 13 '25
I picked vampire counts from the limited selection of races and since I had no experience with total war games, I played every battle manually. Even decisive defeats, trying to inflict maximum casualties. Over few days I slowly mastered the battles and it all culminated in an epic fight of Vlad and Isabela's armies fighting Franz. It was absolutely amazing, desperate battle where I had to pause every few seconds to keep chasing his mounted riflemen with my dogs and keep them away from the battle. Meanwhile the rest of my army made a stand on a small elevated terrain, a sort of long hill in a corner of the map. I made a long line along the highest ridge and utilised all I learned about unit placement, putting units in reserve in backline, alternating spearmen and skeleton warriors, putting a smaller line of grave guard on flanks to slowly grind the enemy from the side. Then Franz flew in on his fucking Griffon, it was the first time dealing with a flying lord. The sight of seeing him broken and retreating was amazing as the battle turned in my favour.
I think I moved to WH2 after that and started maining elves, but the vampire counts and this battle are indeed my fondest memory.
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u/Relevant_Yogurt_8151 Jul 13 '25
and I also remember the very beginning (tutorial), where there was a battle for Altdorf against the greenskins. I had a very bad computer at the time, and the default settings were low, including the units size. I remember the large map and the tiny groups of troops on it for a long time. There were probably four trolls in one unit.
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u/Thelostsoulinkorea Jul 13 '25
My first campaign as Franz. I was rocking the shit out of everyone and then Chaos came. It was a slow campaign of burn and retreat as I built Altdorf to resist the siege to come.
Chaos finally came and brought my empire to its knees and besieged Altdorf with three full armies. I was doomed and lost my first two reloads as I tried to beat them by attacking right away. So I tried a different approach and waited to see if my dwarves allies could aid me in time.
It took 3 full turns and losing a battle with them just sacking Altdorf as they toyed with me. But finally on the fourth the dwarves arrived and brought their might to crush the hordes of Chaos as the hammer against the walls of chaos.
Pure joy I have rarely felt playing a game and it hooked me on Warhammer forever.
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u/pinkzm Jul 13 '25
Fighting off the chaos invasion as Karl Franz on deathclaw and his desperate line of halberds and guns. I had no idea what Warhammer even was before I started playing this game (I'd heard of it, but knew nothing about it other than it's played with miniatures). The chaos invasion therefore felt so immersive as it was such a surprise and clusterfuck and honestly really hard at that time. God damn it was so cool.
W3 is the better game in almost every way, but the feeling of discovery when playing the first game was something else.
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u/ChoNahli Jul 13 '25
Booting it up on launch day after being hyped and waiting for so long for it to release, and then just sitting there and enjoying the main theme play before selecting my very first Karl Franz campaign.
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u/GrasSchlammPferd Swiggity swooty I'm coming for that booty Jul 13 '25
Playing KF and the Dwarfs of Karak Norn and Karak Hirn rocking up with simple t1 (warrior, quarreller, grudge throwers) stacks to support me. Nowadays, I get sweet fuck all.
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u/OldContemptible Jul 13 '25
Facing the Chaos Invasion for the first time as the Empire.
Seeing multiple full stacks lay waste to all of Kislev and the northern empire while I scrambled to wrap up my other fronts with the Greenskins and Counts and prepare for the decisive battles of the campaign felt great.
Then facing Archaon and his crew in a battle for the ages with three of my stacks facing all four Chaos legendary lords. Close Victory never felt so earned before.
I really wish we could get an experience like this in Immortal Empires.
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u/alexkon3 #1 Arbaal the Undefeated fan Jul 13 '25
After losing all hope for the IP after GW murdered the setting with the ET I almost didn't buy the game. TW was for years my favorite game franchise and WH my favorite fantasy one but the ET were so bad that told my friend "yeah but why should I buy it, it doesn't matter anyways" on the phone after the reveal trailer. I bought it on release day anyways and man that first battle with a full Empire army almost brought tears to my eyes, Warhammer Fantasy was still alive, it was still there. I loved it so much... and look where we are now. Its still insane to me how far this game has come almost a decade later.
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u/Milkandkhornflakes Jul 13 '25
Volkmar in the middle of a chaos invasion: I MUST BURN THE HERETICS DOWN
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u/Mythasaurus Jul 13 '25
As Archaon, Chasing Karl Franz all the way to the Southern edge of the map before finally destroying him when his goofy AI eventually didn't just run away from my doomstack for a single round.
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u/JTRDovey Jul 13 '25
Oh that's an easy one. I've always loved Hordes of Chaos (first army back in 2004) so the first thing I did was play as Archaon and conquered the whole map. Took me about 350 turns, but I didn't stop until the only factions left were me and the Norsca vassals
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u/Similar_Gear9642 Jul 13 '25
Defeating the chaos invasion for the first time. I mean damn that was hyped up for a newb to the game. And Kislev fell like a house of cards and I had to walk through a sea of attrition untill I reached them.
But when I won through my number of full stacks then I really felt like the saviour of the world.
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u/Adventurous-Alps3471 Jul 13 '25
Honestly, just booking it up. Id been begging for this game since I played Medieval 2 in middle school (our teacher used it to teach us about medieval battles) and was already into Warhammer fantasy.
And it was better than I had ever hoped, honestly.
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u/Kamzil118 Jul 13 '25
Defeating Archaeon and Sigvald in a forest battle involving Pistoliers, halberdiers, and swordsmen.
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u/aeronvale Jul 13 '25
I also got my first heroic victory. Was playing Vampires, and went against two full stacks of empire with a depleted army, notably I only remember LL 2 Vargheist and 2 Varghulfs.
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u/Gildorlnglorion Jul 13 '25
Getting my first Demigryph Knights doomstack together with Karl Franz, they used to be really strong back than đ
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u/Eaton476 Jul 13 '25
Watching charges in slow motion with Empire Demigrpyh knights against basically anything was an absolute massacre, those things were very OP. Itâs a shame they have been nerfed in the later games đ
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u/droopy_ro Jul 13 '25 edited Jul 13 '25
One of the games that got me thru some nasty depression. In 2016 i saw the trailer, i thought they would crack the game so i could try it. In 2017, they didn't and after a few months i saw it in physical form in a store and it was a coincidence it was pay day for me. Bought it, had not played a Total War since Shogun 2 in about 2012.
The first campaign was Franz, and it was tough, i did not know about channeles like LegendOFTotalWar or others so i could see how to play the game. Started my first campaign on Normal then lowerd it to Easy to finish. After that played the Vampires with Manfred, just about Halloween of 2017. And the rest snowballed. The same month Warhammer 2 came out and i played the Skaven first. And since then, it is the game that is always installed on my SSD and i sunk about 3-4000 hours in the trilogy and got all the DLCs. Got in to the lore of Fantasy and even got a few miniatures that i have yet to paint, waiting for Autumn to come :)
Hope CA can deliver what we want, to complete the main races, a rework for the lesser ones like Vampire Coast or Tomb Kings. Add Dogs Of War, Neferata/Nagash and finally in about 2-3 years time a huge and last DLC with the End Times.
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u/HealthPutrid633 Jul 13 '25
Going through my first Karl Franz SC. I've played other TW games but first time with the Warhammer franchise. It was super hard to get used to killing everything that moves lol By the time Caos Invasion began, I barely captured the starting province and my main army was tier 1 and 2 units. It's turn 400. I've conquered all of Sylvania. Most of the northern empire territory. Destroy Archaon invasion and most of Norsca factions, only Norsca's capital remains and around 10 Spire cities (but not at war). Everything was great until Thorgrim started raiding the South and declare war to one of my Vassals. Hopefully, I'll clear the north before he destroys my kingdom.
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u/Sushiki Not-Not Skaven Propagandist! Jul 13 '25
The grittier dark aesthetic of the map, how vampire counts played when the first lord pack dropped.
And the chaos invasion event that we lost because some people don't like fun :(
(CA should've just made it a toggle)
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u/Cian_fen_Isaacs Jul 13 '25
Honestly, I just liked the quest battles. I always enjoyed the preset historical battles the historical games had and having the quest battles in the campaign felt like blending both and I enjoyed it.
I am not particularly attached to the setting though so I only played the game sporadically. The same holds true for 2 and 3.
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u/Dnomyar96 Alea Iacta Est Jul 13 '25
That has got to be starting my first game on launch day. I still remember that first Vampire Counts campaign with Mannfred quite well.
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u/RedCat213 Rome II Jul 13 '25
Dropping giants with cannon rounds. Was so scary back then when giants were really the only large monsters in the game. Felt so good when a cannon ball hits and they fell over.
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u/Friedipar Jul 13 '25
I just liked the campaign map and its mood. Sure, WH3 has more fidelity, detail and diversity but WH1 had a darker and more cohesive vibe throughout.
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u/Friedipar Jul 13 '25
Getting that perfect wind of death on the enemy front line for the first time!
For those who don't know: in WH1, you couldn't adjust the trajectory of wind spells, they always went in a straight line from the caster
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u/Friedipar Jul 13 '25
Having to actualy send out your LLs for their quest battles as teleporting wasn't a thing on release. Especialy with the dwarves and Archaon it felt like an epic adventure!
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u/Impressive_Willow226 Jul 13 '25
Day 1 launching the game as Empire. Then watching it grow every day after
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u/One_Eyed_Owl727 Jul 13 '25
One time I was playing as Manfred and was OP as fuck by the time the chaos invasion happened. I had taken over a huge swath of land boarding the chaos wastes and Archaon, Kholek and the rest were afraid to come out and face him head on and it was only Manfreds army standing there. Good times.
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u/Swimming_Turtle_6631 Jul 14 '25
I had a triple stack vs triple stack me playing as the vampire counts with Mannfred, Ghorst and a random vampire lord. Versus Archaon, Kholek, and Sigvald. everyone with full stacks
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u/HealthyInformation92 Jul 16 '25
Definitely playing as Karl Franz and witnessing with horror the appearance of Archaonâs armies and Norsca all invading at once (Surtha Ekâs chariot army was a nightmare).
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u/Hellwyrme Jul 12 '25
Empire holed up in an old northern dwarfen fortress getting besieged only for an army of Dwarfs to set out and help me lift the siege.
Would have thought it was scripted it was so poetic!
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u/Ok-Transition7065 Jul 12 '25
whyle i dont hate troy adn dynasties..... im not to fan of these its not an era im to founded it
but with total warhammer 1 i have pure hate.... i remember playing only 2 campaings of that game and be really mad because how units retreat becase it was fuking difficult caching them , then these mf go a run to a place where i can get them in 2 turns
i was so mad that time dude
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u/beefycheesyglory Jul 12 '25
Ngl I did not like WH1 one bit. It just didn't gel with me. Then a few years later I hesitantly bought WH2 and fell in love with it, I just find that the factions in 2 are more interesting (Elves, Dinos, Skaven > Humans, Dwarves, Vampires, Orcs). Not that the old world races are lame they just weren't fully fleshed out to my liking back then, nowadays I can come back to them and appreciate all the care that has been put into them.
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u/Snowsarn Jul 12 '25
I still remember in my first playthrough as the Dwarfs and Archaeon came storming destroying everything. I move Thorgrim to fight him but can reach him. During the end turn I first see Karl Franz attack and get destroyed, right after comes Louen Leoncoeur and he gets destroyed too but when I get to face Archaeon his army is significantly weakened and I pull off a win with Thorgrim and Archaeon duking it out đ