Controlling the Great Vortex | Campaign Map Gameplay Total War: Warhammer II Guide
Last update: 02 October 2017
The main aim of the Warhammer II campaign is to gain control of the Great Vortex, which is located on the Isle of the Dead within Ulthuan. The methods of realizing this goal are identical for every race. This chapter contains advice on the struggle for the Great Vortex.
- Ritual resources
- Triggering the Rituals and defending settlements
- Other races' Ritual progress and intervening
Ritual resources
In order to control the Great Vortex, each race has to perform five rituals - to be able to do that they have to control a certain amount of the resource. Even though these resources have different names in every race (Way fragments for High Elves, Scrolls of Hekarti for Dark Elves, Warpstone for the Skaven and Ancient Tablets for Lizardmen), they all work the same. You get 1 point every turn for every province you're controlling; then you can get some more for completing missions (and this is the best reason to finish them). Above that, the campaign map contains eight places of ritual resources (two for each continent). These are settlements, where you can construct a special building that will yield a considerable boost to the ritual resource. You can check their locations on the map above. It's important to gain control of one of these provinces during the initial turns, and then quickly try to conquer the other one. If you'll be finishing missions along the way, you should feel a noticeable boost.
See the bar at the top of the screen to see how much points you have; hover over it to check how much you gain in each turn.
Triggering the Rituals and defending settlements
Each Ritual will be performed in three settlements at once - one of them will be your main city. The ritual takes a certain amount of turns to finish - if any of the settlements falls, it will mean a failure. That's why you need to be well prepared:
- Reinforce the defenses of the three settlements - construct defensive buildings, build walls, etc.
- Secure the settlements with armies - either add them to the garrison or just keep them around to allow a quick counterattack.
- You can also reinforce the neighboring settlements since they can also be targeted.
Same as in case of starting a war, you should stabilize the economy and public order first.
When you begin a ritual, the forces of Chaos will start pouring into the world, trying to prevent you from finishing the Ritual. With the first Ritual, the forces of Chaos won't be too great and you should be able to get rid of them without problems. With each subsequent Ritual, however, the forces of Chaos will be greater. They will not only attack the settlements, in which you're performing the Ritual, but any town and village that stands in their way. That's why - if you have considerable forces - you should try to meet them in a field battle, before they attack any of your settlements. When the Chaos forces get more severe during the latter Rituals, however, it's better to take advantage of strong city walls.
Apart from the forces of Chaos, the other races will also try to obstruct the Ritual - keep your eyes peeled for other armies, and destroy them as soon as you're able to.
Other races' Ritual progress and intervening
The remaining races will also try to gain control of the Vortex. They also need to collect enough resources to be able to do that. You can hamper their attempts in two ways: either send in an army (which won't always be possible) or pay an amount of money to Intervene.
The intervening parties are controlled by the computer and they just appear on the territory of the hostile faction that's performing the Ritual. Their goal is obviously to break the Ritual by capturing one of the ritual settlements. The strength of such army is dependant on the amount of money you're willing to pay. Although they're basically separate factions, you have to declare a war to the nation you're intervening with anyway. Computer-controlled factions can also use interventions.
The bar at the top also contains information on the other races' progress in gaining control of the Vortex. The arrows below your progress bar shows you the progress of other races (how many Ritual points they have). If any of the races should begin a Ritual, you will be informed about this. Remember that other factions have some advantage over you at the beginning of the game. Don't worry about this - just focus on conquering more territory, and especially on capturing the key settlements, which will yield the most points. Don't forget about the quests, which will also give you some precious points. When you do that, switch to trying to complete the Rituals and preventing others from doing them. It's crucial that no other race should finish the last Ritual before you.
It's also important to remember that only one faction from every race takes part in the race for the Vortex.