The Lizardmen go to war in a new Total War: Warhammer 2 'in-engine' trailer

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When I saw the giant floating frog leading the Lizardmen in the Total War: Warhammer 2 announcement trailer, my first thought was that this guy was obviously the game's comedy relief punching bag—a relief from the serious business of fighting the Dark Elves and High Elves. Going by today's Lizardmen in-engine trailer, however, my assessment may have been off-base.

It seems that the Lizardmen are not happy about the Elven "blasphemy" at the Cosmic Gates, and so they've taken it upon themselves to drop the hammer on everyone, "as decreed by Mazdamundi, the Lord of the Solar City." That might make sense to those of you familiar with the Warhammer mythos; for the rest of us, what we have here is literally dinosaurs riding dinosaurs, and that's pretty damn cool too.

Also, a lesson: If you want to kill a guy, just do it. Dramatic, I-hope-everyone's-watching poses are just asking for trouble.

Another interesting note about this trailer is that, as far as I can tell, the Skaven do not appear in it. A red-eyed rat showed up briefly at the end of the debut trailer, leading to speculation that the game's fourth race (which is still unannounced) would be the Skaven. Game director Ian Roxburgh later said that it was "just a rat," however, and while I personally think that's a bunch of nonsense, their absence in this trailer has me wondering if maybe those red eyes were a red herring.

Total War: Warhammer 2 is scheduled to be out later this year. Enjoy some fresh screens below.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.