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Dig deep into Dwarves with this Total War: Warhammer 2 mod

Total Warhammer 2's dwarves get some added character with The Hammer of Grungni

After their prominent role in Total War: Warhammer, the dwarves have had to step back from the real limelight in Total War: Warhammer 2. That’s not to say they haven’t seen their share of new legendary lords, but other races have gotten more attention in the fantasy strategy game’s second outing. Not to worry, though: a new mod adds in a bunch of new mechanics to make dwarves more interesting to play in Warhammer 2.

The Hammer of Grungni adds in new unique mechanics for each of the dwarf legendary lords playable in Total War: Warhammer 2, making all them tougher against their mortal enemies the Greenskins. It also adds a new building chain that allows for the recruitment of elite Stonemasons – powerful units that draw power from the guild buildings you’ve constructed across your domain.

Using the mod, each Dwarf hold allows for the construction of a unique Stonemasons chapter, beginning as a Masonry Enclave, and upgradeable first to a Guild Hall and then to a Stonemason Chapter. These buildings increase public order but reduce growth, with the Stonemason Chapter adding a different bonus depending on the hold it’s built in.

The four dwarf legendary lords all receive new, unique mechanics for their campaigns. They’re all interesting ideas that give a focus to each lord’s goals – Belegar Ironhammer, for instance, earns new points of ‘renown’ by winning battles, and as he unlocks renown tiers, he gains new bonuses and runes to use in battle.

Ungrim Ironfist, on the other hand, now can seek to earn ‘acclaim’ by going on monster hunts – defeat the assigned army within a certain number of turns, and he’ll get the option of either permanent upgrades for Slayers or taming the beast at the head of the army and recruiting it into his own.

Modder greyTiger says the “heart and soul” of The Hammer of Grungni is the new Runeword system. All four lords can use it, although they have different bonuses while using the runeforge. You’ll click runes to create words, and these runewords will last for 10 turns and provide a different effect – and you can even unlock four hidden units by experimenting with the system.

To play The Hammer of Grungni, you’ll first need to subscribe to the UI Modding Framework. Once that’s done, you can head over the Hammer of Grungni Steam Workshop page and subscribe – Steam and the Total War launcher will take care of the rest.

It’ll tide us over for a while until we hear more about Total War: Warhammer III, which is due out later this year.