Not sure I agree. First, how could you tell if a faction was missing in Shogun 2? They were basically all the same as far as I could tell. Second, I'm not really familiar with the WH universe, but even I know the Chaos are a massive part of the conflict. Leaving them out would be like leaving the Prussians out of Empire or Carthage out of Rome2.
They are a massive part of A conflict. Not the story in the base game. Just because a car company sells a car doesn't mean you get all the options for free. Chaos is not the transmission.
If it was just a DLC then it wouldn't be a problem. Making it a preorder bonus makes people feel like they're missing out on something if they don't put the money up early. It gives me the impression they know something is wrong with the game and they want to ensure they get as many orders as possible before the reviews come out. And the fact that the content will be complete on launch day means it was planned to be finished at release and they chopped it out of the game to get some extra cash from the suckers who don't preorder.
Think of it this way... If it was WH40k and the four playable factions were the Imperial Guard, Orks, Ultramarines, and Eldar.... but then had Chaos Marines as DLC preorder bonus crap. its basically the same but with WH fantasy. you don't take a main faction and then be yeah that's DLC now.
chances are very good that Chaos will be available as a DLC after launch, they're just giving people an option to get them as a bonus for supporting the game before it's release. It's basically a digital port of the same mentality they've used for the tabletop game forever. When you buy the box set you get 2 armies, if you want to play anything beyond those two armies you gotta buy more pieces and codex. be glad you're getting more than 2 armies with the game Also, having access to the Chaos army does not necessarily imply that you have to have access to them in order to play the game -against- them, if they're part of the story, you'll get to fight them, just not necessarily fight -for- them.
Honestly CA has been doing this much further back then Shogun, it's just instead of selling individual unit packs that had all of the unique units in them (as well as factions in the case of Empire) they moved onto full fledged fleshed out faction packs. I have heard a lot of people talk about "well all the units in Shogun were the same" they were not, each of the released factions actually had a different stylistic feel and new unit options to match that is until Fall of the Samurai were it literally was one unit and a new starting location on the map. In Rome II they went a step further with the "faction packs" specifically Greek's, Balts, and so forth, these packs included multiple factions with individual units unique to each factions including very well fleshed out tactical changes. So when they announced Total Warhammer (I don't care this is what is should have been called) I wasn't shocked to hear "4 races" and even called that the Chaos warriors specifically would be the first DLC (their in the goddamn announcement trailer). The fact is CA/Relic games are both going DLC heavy because they are still trying to produce a AAA strategy games exclusively for PC in a niche market that is actually quite saturated. SEGA is going to make them milk every penny out of this game, even if it kills them. That said, CA games are on sale on steam all the time, so if you are not happy with the starting price point/DLC wait two months for the steam summer sale and get them for 50% off.
I want to pre-order it via a hard copy, So i can cover myself in baby oil and gently caress myself with the cover..
If I recall correctly, all the semi-exclusive/pre-order/etc. factions in previous Total War games could be bought after-the-fact... they were just not available as day 1 launch dlc (best example was the Hattori ninja faction from Shogun 2). Personally, I'm okay with that. After a point, adding "a bajillion" extra factions does cost money. If you get a pre-order, you get the reward of using those extra factions from the start, but if you don't, you have to wait a bit. It seems reasonable to me.
A video of the orc campaign map with actual detail on racial differences and research and hero progression and magic...I really liked what I saw.
Also I am totally cool with Chaos being DLC. They are almost a force of nature and the big bad (even in comparison to orcs.) The biggest 'issue' I have is the unit list you fight is actually different if you dont get the dlc. I will probably preorder and I understand the business of games. The fact price inflation has barely happened in 20 years means that they had to find other ways to make money. When fans make assumptions like "SEGA AND CA ARE ROLLING IN CASH AND DONT NEED THIS MONEY" I think is erroneous (you guys didnt say that but I heard it from a total war youtuber.) Companies like THQ show us that strong looking game companies are just normal companies and can be weaker than we think. If its good dlc buy it, and if its not, dont. Its like Attlia, if you dont like the factions, dont buy the dlc. I will buy all of them in Warhammer... Voting with my dollars baby.
So I realized in all of this hype with the campaign and so forth this got overlooked.... my personal army NIGHT GOBLINS!