Historian & Armor Expert Reacts to Total War: Warhammer 3

Getting to make TWO Warhammer videos BACK TO BACK? Say it ain't so! In all seriousness, as a huge fan of Warhammer I love making this kind of stuff, and I'd like to extend another thank you to Toby for joining us on the video! If you want to see us break down more of the Warhammer universes, make sure to like the video and all that good stuff! ❤️

I love how excited he was when he heard a unit had slings. Very underrepresented fantasy weapon. Extremely practical.

18:45 "Oh, like a hamster wheel?" I hate the fact that I NEVER noticed that the Skaven Doomwheel is literally just a hamster wheel.

My favorite aspect of Warhammer Fantasy has always been how these various depictions of human cultures merge with their mythologies to do battle with your classic high fantasy dwarfs, elves, orcs, demons, and undead. It keeps a very fantastical setting grounded and makes it feel very lived in while still having dragons and magic.

The historical accuracy can be largely credited to Perry twins who designed and sculpted miniatures for Warhammer for over 35 years and are nuts about historical reenactment (one of them lost an arm while loading up a reproduction of a medieval cannon during a recreation of Battle of Crecy).

Regarding Tobais's statements about how Warhammer doesn't bug him for having all this wild ornamentation and stuff: it's not just committing to the bit. It's about committing to being *fantastical*. Designs are meant to be reminiscent of real world history/armor, but real history doesn't have giant half-dragon half-ogres wielding clubs the size of minivans, so it's good to go all the way and embrace being a Heavy Metal album cover.

This feels a little bit like a kid showing his favourite toys to his cool uncle.

Regarding the the gyrocopters: I recall from the Grudge of Drong campaign pack in the nineties that only Dwarf Brewmasters know how to make the fuel for gyrocopters, which would seem to indicate that it's alcoholic in some way. That said, oil is also a thing in Warhammer, as shown in the Gotrek and Felix series, but it's not very well understood, and only Dwarfs use it in any way.

Gotta love when the experts can break down the realism but also understand what fantasy is.

25:20 pretty sure those are Royal Pegasus Knights of Bretonnia, the reasons why they specifically don't carry bombs is because it goes against their troths and oaths and the knights consider ranged weaponry to be something only peasents use

I feel like I could watch Tobias talk about all the factions for well over an hour or two. He grasps the parallels and the understanding of necessary design without even seeing the cause for the effect; axe on a musket being needed when you are shooting at literal charging demons that can sometimes shrug off a round but are less receptive to an axe wound.

13:52 “Especially from cavalry” Gets run over by a ship on land. What a great timing

The vampire counts are indeed modelled as basically dead Empire (Germanic) soldiers of various kinds. I have often wished they could get different models when they raise dead in different cultures. No need for a stat change just Bretonnian or Kislevite clothes/armour.

Anything with Dr. Capwell in is going to be an instant watch from me, he is such a fantastic source of info.

The best part about Tobias as an expert is he's not just critiquing the arms and armor from a historical perspective, he's putting it in context of a fantasy video game setting and taking that into account. It's so great to see.

"There are no half measures. Everything is as far as it can go." Yup. That's warhammer and why we love it so much.

Wow, I think Tobias finally captured what has bothered me about Age of Sigmar all this time. Old Warhammer Fantasy was of course fantasy, but it felt plausible. Age of Sigmar goes all in on the fantasy aspect and just doesnt feel quite as plausible anymore. The AoS models all look fantastic, but its just too much.

A lot of the older minis were sculpted by people who were into historical war games, especially Michael and Alan Perry (who now run Perry Miniatures). They were known for making things "historical" even when they were asked to make something more fantasy. The reason that the chaos dwarves are the way they are is that they were told, repeatedly to not make the hats historical. Make it more fantasy. And boy did they. I think the influence they've had on the aesthetic has carried over to things they never touched like Cathay and Kislev.

Took Dr. Capwell pointing out the Skaven shield shape being non-human for me to think why they'd be that shape and they remind me of one of the Skaven symbols from Vermintide which might explain it

I am super glad you have someone who knows the game side of the game explain the things happening on the screen, so that the professional is not confused.