Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/43epgy/what_is_warhammer_an_explanation/
I know most of you probably already know all about Warhammer, but since this is to my knowledge the first non-historical Total War game I thought some of you in this subreddit might not really know much about Warhammer. I decided to make a little summary guide, if nobody finds this helpful I'll stop, if it is helpful I'll make more with information about each faction, the lore, ect..
What is Warhammer?
There are two popular miniature games named Warhammer, there's Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WFB) which the upcoming Total War game is based on, and there's Warhammer 40,000 (40k) which is not what the Total War game is based on.
Both Warhammers are made by Games Workshop, WFB came out in 1983 and 40k in 1987. In the UK and Europe both games are popular, in the US and Australia 40k is overwhelmingly more popular than WFB.
The games are played by purchasing, assembling and painting miniatures, and rolling dice to determine success or failure. Each individual model has a point value, which can be icreased with upgrades. Points are cumulative across your army, so when you and your opponent agree to a 2000 point game, the total score of every model in your army can't exceed 2000 points. The scale of WFB is typically larger than in 40k, with armies averaging ~120-150 models, though that dramatically increases or decreases by faction.
The Current State of Warhammer
It's not good right now. Warmachine has become especially popular in the US and is often out competing Warhammer, it's hit 40k much harder though. Tabletop gamers consider Games Workshop to be similar to companies like Comcast or EA, the prices are high and are known to dramatically increase without warning, and they are known for not taking their fans seriously.
One interesting thing that Games Workshop does do is give the license to make games out of their Warhammer properties almost to anyone. That's why if you go on Steam you'll see dozens of Warhammer franchised games. Games Workshop believes that if people play and enjoy a Warhammer video game they will be interested in and take up the Warhammer tabletop game.
Age of Sigmar
Like game patches, tabletop games have edition changes that function like a patch, it changes some rules, makes some updates, and can dramatically re-balance a faction. In 2010 WFB got an 8th edition. The expectation was for a 9th edition in 2014-2015, but instead Games Workshop released Age of Sigmar
Age of Sigmar is the most drastic change that's occured to any tabletop game, it completely discarded points and any balancing system, and the games were based fundamentally on putting together opposing armies that you and your opponent agreed would be fair. Age of Sigmar is not 9th edition. Age of Sigmar is an attempt of a reboot of WFB.
Basics
Armies
There is every indication that Total War Warhammer takes place in WFB 8th edition. As such there are 16 factions within the world of Warhammer at this point
Humor
This is a hilarious yet accurate overall story about Warhammer Fantasy and the various armies.
With almost 40 years of lore to catch up on, there is a lot to look at and study up on. If you're coming over from Celtic Heroes like I am, then I wish you luck. There's going to be a lot to learn...
