Total War: Warhammer 2 talks characters, Vortex and that elusive rat

Following news that Creative Assembly was already hard at work on Total War: Warhammer 2, the turn-based strategy sequel teased its first trailer last month. Within, we got a glance at the Dark Elves, High Elves and Lizardmen marching to battle and, so we thought, a brief nod to The Skaven at the trailer's end.

The following Total War: Warhammer 2 trailer, named 'Into the Vortex', goes into a little more detail as to what the sequel is all about, and addresses that elusive rat cameo from the announcement short.

Here's game director Ian Roxburgh with the skinny:

"What's with the rat?" Roxburgh asks at the end of the above. "Um, it's just a rat."

Whether you believe that or not is up to you, however while it's nice to learn of each faction's raison d'etre this time round, the idea that nothing is guaranteed until the final whistle blows is intriguing.

"When we brought in the idea of the Vortex mechanic," says Roxburgh, "it was to provide an interesting climactic endgame and race that you could actually genuinely lose a game in a Total War campaign right up to the end." Roxburgh then adds that doing so will never be compulsory, though, which is good news for those of you who'd rather steam into victory as soon as possible.

Total War: Warhammer 2 is without a hard release date for now, however here's nine things we'd love to see from the sequel.