Total War: Warhammer video introduces Night Goblins

Few creatures are as dangerous to their comrades as Night Goblins, the elite special forces of the Goblin hordes. Special forces normally demand tough training regimes, but in this case all you need is an aversion to sunlight and a brutal 'shroom habit to don the Night Goblin cowl.

The maddest, 'shroomiest Night Goblins become Fanatics, armed with a huge ball and chain. These fellas have been a big part of both the tabletop game and previous Warhammer fantasy RTS games. In Shadow of the Horned Rat you could hide them in Night Goblin units and then shove them toward the enemy at the most tactically advantageous point. Like almost everything the Orcs and Goblins do, this can backfire horribly in the tabletop game. Night Goblin fanatics can kill themselves with their own weapon or, worse randomly change direction and plough into friendlies—a very violent anti-drugs message.

Total War: Warhammer is due out next year but you can watch fifteen minutes of footage right now showing an underground tussle between an Orc and Goblin force and some Dwarves. But what's it like to actually play? Let Dan Gril tell you in our Total War: Warhammer preview.

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.