Total War: Warhammer II’s latest DLC has been announced. The Queen and The Crone is a Lords pack in the style of the original game’s The King and The Warlord – accordingly, it will add two new legendary lords, several new units, and some new quests centred around Alarielle, Everqueen of the High Elves, and Crone Hellebron, of the Dark Elves.
The DLC will launch on May 31 along with a long-awaited update that will add Norsca – from the original Total War: Warhammer – to the Mortal Empires combined campaign.
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Update: according to the blog post that accompanies this announcement, Alith Anar “will be a new, free Legendary Lord coming alongside the Queen and the Crone, as well as his personal Shadow Walker unit.” Alith Anar is a near-mythical High Elf Lord who led a group of elite guerilla fighters during the first civil war against the Dark Elves. That makes him thousands of years old. Expect a start position in his native Nagarythe, the seedbed for the Dark Elf rebellion.
You can get a taste of the DLC in this new in-engine trailer. It looks like Hellebron is invading Ulthuan with the aim of stealing Widowmaker, the Sword of Khaine – so perhaps its resting place, the Blighted Island, is one of her objectives (it’d be super-exciting if Widowmaker can be wielded in the game, but maybe I’m assuming too much there).
Several new units are also on show. Looks like The Dark Elves get Doomfire Warlocks, Sisters of Slaughter, and maybe a unit of Dark Pegasus riders (Dark Pegasi were only ever character mounts in the tabletop game). For her part, Alarielle can seemingly animate forest spirits much like the Wood Elves, and is also reinforced by Shadow Warriors and the Sisters of Avelorn, who ought to be a fearsome ranged unit.
The Queen and The Crone will be playable in both Mortal Empires and Eye of the Vortex. It should now be available to pre-order on Steam here, and doing so will get you a 10% discount.
Incidentally, this news comes just one day after we (okay,I)put out a video trying to predict the next Warhammer II DLC. I figured it’d be Dark Elves vs High Elves, but was betting on Malus Darkblade making an appearance due to his popularity. In my defence I guessed Hellebron vs Alarielle was also a possibility, but, yeah, I got it wrong. I still say Malus Darkblade has to come sooner or later, so you can learn about him, and bask in my humiliation, here: