Deathmaster Snikch Start Position Revealed for Total War: Warhammer 2
The Shadow and The Blade, the next Lord Pack DLC for Total War: Warhammer 2, is due to release on the 12th of December. As usual for a Lord Pack, it will be adding a host of new units for two factions, along with a new Legendary Lord for each, and this time the featured factions are the Dark Elves and Skaven. While the Dark Elves get Malus Darkblade, the Skaven will be getting Deathmaster Snikch to lead Clan Eshin. Now, Creative Assembly has revealed what Snikch’s traits and start positions will be.
Deathmaster Snikch – Total War: Warhammer 2 Faction and Lord Effects
Deathmaster Snikch has a unique style of campaign gameplay which grants him access to a mechanic called Shadowy Dealings. These are effectively special Hero and Lord actions which function with an 100% chance of success, but which cause the character to be unusable for several turns. Additionally, Snikch has access to Greater Clan Contracts, which relate to one of his Faction Effects; all of Snikch’s armies recruit non-Eshin units at +200% normal recruitment cost. While this might sound extreme, the Greater Clan Contracts allow Snikch to do missions for the other Skaven Great Clans in order to reduce the recruitment costs of their associated units. For example, he could complete a contract for Clan Skryre to reduce the recruitment cost of Doom-Flayers.
Clan Eshin has two further Faction Effects. Firstly, Eshin Lords will never defect, unlike the Lords of other Skaven factions. Secondly, the Night Runner and Gutter Runner units of Clan Eshin use special projectiles which are both armour-piercing and infused with Warpstone, making them more effective. When it comes to Lord Effects, Snikch’s army benefits from a +25% ambush success chance; a very powerful effect for a Skaven Lord. Plus, Heroes embedded in Snikch’s army get +8 melee attack, while Snikch gets access to Concealment Bombs. While he doesn’t have any mount options, he does have two unique quest items; The Cloak of Shadows and Whirl of Weeping Blades.
Deathmaster Snikch – Total War: Warhammer 2 Start Position
In the Eye of the Vortex campaign, Deathmaster Snikch starts in the Southlands. Although he starts close to where Clan Eshin have been until now, he doesn’t start in the exact same place. Until now, Clan Eshin have been an NPC faction which starts in the westernmost region of The Great Desert, next to Cobra Pass. However, the DLC moves Clan Eshin one region south into El Kalabad, the city region of The Land of The Dervishes. Here, Snikch will have access to a new unique building.
The Clan Eshin start position on the Mortal Empires map, however, is much more unusual. Creative Assembly are actually extending the Mortal Empires campaign map significantly in The Shadow and The Blade, adding new regions east of the Badlands, along the southern coats of the Darklands (which is currently unavailable in the game). Clan Eshin will start in one of the regions of Gnoblar Country, the easternmost of the new map areas. This puts Snikch relatively close to Malus Darkblade, who will start in the Dragon Isles.