The best Total War: Warhammer mods

Visual enhancements

Better Camera

the best total war: warhammer mods: better camera

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Zooming right in to see soldiers leaping into the air as they attack or tumble dramatically to the ground as they're hit by a charge is one of the joys of Total War: Warhammer, and with Better Camera you can zoom in further than before. It also also lets you zoom out further without triggering that bar that fills up before opening the tactical overview.

Olympian Campaign Camera - WAAAGH Edition

the best total war: warhammer mods: olympian campaign camera - waaagh edition

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If you want more camera control on the world map as well as the battlefield, Olympian Campaign Camera lets you pull out and zoom in there as well. While getting down to ground level on battle maps can sometimes highlight graphical deficiencies (there's a lot of grass clipping through people), the campaign map looks great at any height. 

Better, Thicker Smoke

the best total war: warhammer mods: better, thicker smoke

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Arrows in Total War: Warhammer leave bright white trails behind them (unless you turn that off in the options) and compared to that the flare of blackpowder weapons can seem a bit understated. The Empire and Dwarf armies both have massed units of matchlock-toting soldiers as well as gunpowder artillery, and with this mod they'll be offset nicely by clouds of acrid smoke billowing over the battlefield.

Disable Buff Effects

the best total war: warhammer mods: disable buff effects

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The most effective spells in Total War: Warhammer are often the ones that enhance your units, boosting their leadership and charge bonuses and so on. That comes at a cost, however: really goofy particle effects hovering over their heads like shimmering cellophane. This mod gets rid of those.

Vampire Night Battles

the best total war: warhammer mods: vampire night battles

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The armies of the undead usually go to war under the cover of magical stormclouds if not actual night-time, which Vampire Night Battles simulates. It's not kidding about the darkness, either. You'll have to take a minute to adjust to how black it is. 

Improved Borders / Border Colors

the best total war: warhammer mods: improved borders/border colors

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Change the plain yellow lines that mark your borders into green ones for your own territory, red for enemies, and blue for neutrals so you can quickly assess who to worry about next without pressing tab and going to the overview. 

Chaos Water

the best total war: warhammer mods: chaos water

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Turn the water around Norsca and the Chaos Wastes blood red, add a greenish hue to the water around Skavenblight, and just generally darken and pretty up the oceans all round. The Dark Water mod does the latter while leaving out the more outlandish color changes.

Better State Shields

the best total war: warhammer mods: better state shields

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The swordsmen, knights, and upgraded spearmen of the Empire all carry great big shields and you'll get used to seeing the same five designs repeated on them over and over. Better State Shields bumps that number up to 25 designs. The modder has plans to do the same for the other factions down the line, starting with the Bretonnians.

Dwarven Shields – Gold and Silver

the best total war: warhammer mods: dwarven shields - gold and silver

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While we're making shields look all pretty there are a couple of mods to enhance the metallic shields the more cautious Dwarfs carry with them. Gold and silver is a strong look.

UI Unit Markers

the best total war: warhammer mods: UI unit markers

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Those yellow arrowhead-shaped markers that appear underneath units when they're highlighted are a little pale, and can sometimes fade into the background on certain maps. This mod fills them in with a dark gray centre that pops a little more, especially on snow-covered ground.

Page 1: New units
Page 2: Unit reskins
Page 3: Rule tweaks and changes
Page 4: Visual Enhancements 

Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.