Though they were the first race to get their own trailer, the Lizardmen are the last in Total War: Warhammer II to get a campaign preview (so High Elf fans can stop whining about being overlooked, you’re already OP on the tabletop). Devs Creative Assembly have now remedied the situation, showing off the Lizardmen’s campaign mechanics.
We begin with a look at Lord Mazdamundi, one of the Lizardmen leaders. He gets unique skill trees that grant him the best spells from multiple lores, as well as two bound spells of his own, one of which is the tabletop-famous Ruination of Cities (three damaging rifts spread outwards in random directions, causing probably huge damage to multiple units).
The key Lizardmen mechanic is the Geomantic Web. You can review this via a button in the UI, which overlays the screen with cool, colour-coded leylines, indicating the strength of the web’s connections. These can be improved by upgrading the geomantic spire building chain in a settlement – if you do this, and a neighbouring settlement has a spire of equal or greater level, both will get the benefits from the strengthened connection.
Those benefits are buffs to provincial commandments. The Lizardmen get three of their own: the Alignments of Monuments, Order, and War. Monuments strengthens magic and research; Order helps resist enemy tinkering through plagues, corruption and hero action; and War strengthens your armies in combat, recruitment, and leadership.
Among the Lizardmen’s lesser tricks are Blessed Spawnings and the Astromancy Stance. In the lore, Lizardmen are periodically spawned from ancient pools, and sometimes a particular batch is marked for greatness. These Blessed Spawnings are recognised in the game as elite versions of existing Lizardmen units – somewhat like Regiments of Renown – which will become available by completing special missions.
