Welcome to our list of best Total War: Warhammer mods. All of the Total War games have rich modding scenes that offer a range of useful tweaks, balance changes and total overhauls. I've gathered a collection of mods that enhance the game rather than alter it significantly. 

To install them, head to the linked Steam Workshop, sign in using your Steam details, and click the 'subscribe' button. Naturally mods can be a little unpredictable and updates/incompatibility clashes can occur. If a mod is causing you trouble you can turn it off in the Total War: Warhammer 2 launcher. Obligatory warning: installing mods in the middle of a campaign can create inconsistencies and weird effects, so be careful with that.

Better Camera mod

Get it on the Steam Workshop.

So simple, but so useful. This mod lets you break Total War: Warhammer 2's zoom limits and zoom freely around the map. This allows you to pull right back and see TW:W2's battlefields in their entirety. You can also get much closer to your units so you can look a High Elf spearman right in the eye as you order a hundred rats to go and eat him. For a similar effect on the campaign map, get Better Campaign Camera.

GCCM: Unique Faction Capitals

Get it on the Steam Workshop.

A pack of unique cities that make your favourite faction's capital city look as important as it is. These 3D models grow and change as the city levels up. Altdorf's farmlands spread into the surrounding area; Naggarond gets a bunch of extra towers, and The Lizardmen get a cool floating blue glowy thing. Altdorf, Drakenhof, Couronne, Hexoatl, Itza, Naggarond and Kislev are included with the download, and Black Crag, Eight Peaks, Khemri, Lahmia, Lothern and Miragliano are on the to-do list.

Spectator Mode II

Get it on the Steam Workshop.

Press Shift-F9 before battle and this mod opens up a new menu that lets you set the AI to autopilot. Spectator Mode II basically lets you watch an autoresolve battle play out. Combined with the Better Camera mod, you can get some great angles on your forces. You can also choose to set your army to autopilot and only control your lord, or you can give the AI control of any reinforcements you have coming. If you want more detailed control over which units the AI handles, consider AI General II instead.

Brighter Borders

Get it on the Steam Workshop.

A dead simple fix that makes it easier to identify borders on Total War: Warhammer 2's world map. It's particularly useful for pale areas of the map like deserts and the icy scene above.

Dryrain's Reskin Overhauls

Get them on the Steam Workshop.

If you're looking for some quality texture mods that stay true to The Creative Assembly and Games Workshop's original vision, get Dryrain's collection downloaded. It's split into four parts to get around the 1GB Steam Workshop limit, but it's worth the bandwidth to add variety to Total War: Warhammer 2's units. Look at all those different Empire soldiers in the unit above. Note that you have to set unit detail to 'ultra' for the mod to work fully.

Improved Arrow Trails

Get it on the Steam Workshop.

Total War: Warhammer 2 really wants you to know where arrows are going in a battle. They leave bright white trails as they arc through the air, obscuring units beneath them. Improved Arrow Trails replaces that effect with a more respectful shimmer. Arrow fire is still readable, but much less garish.

Tabletop enhancements

I'll bundle a few together here as they are essentially working towards the same aim: to improve the authenticity of Total War: Warhammer 2's UI. Let's start with Tabletop Loading Screens, which gives you classic army book art to enjoy as you wait for the game to load. Immersive Battle Banners adds more eloborate and themey banner art to each army. The Tabletop Banners collection is also good for this. All in One UI tweaks user interface colours to suit the faction you're playing as.

Shader tools

Shader tools like SweetFX, GemFX, Reshade use custom postprocessing presets to alter the way games look. They are more technical to apply than standard Steam Workshop mods and can hit your framerate, but if you want to dramatically change the colour balance of Total War: Warhammer 2 then there are worthwhile presets. Legionairre's Cinematic FX turns up the contrast and slightly washes out the colour to create a more realistic tone, for example. If you would like the game to look darker, there are Steam Workshop options like Darker Grand Campaigns.

Last week, Tom explored Total War: Warhammer 2's Tomb Kings and described them as the "weirdest faction yet". Creative Assembly has now shown off 11 minutes of the incoming DLC's campaign, where Settra the Imperishable faces off against "the Liche King himself" Arkhan the Black. 

Everything from raising the dead, to treasure-plundering at sea and striking trade deals with neighbouring dwarfs is demonstrated in the footage below, as the two eccentric armies lock horns. Have a gander:

Alongside that, Creative Assembly has also unveiled the Tomb Kings' roster—whose Legendary Lords also include Grand Hierophant Khatep and High Queen Khalida, beyond the two stalwarts featured above. Elsewhere, mounts include Skeletal Steeds, Chariots of the Gods, Warsphinxs (warsphinges?), while monsters like the Hierotitan and Tomb Scorpion look terrifying. 

My favourite of the full roster on name alone is the Screaming Skull Catapult, which I'm sure will cause chaos out on the field. 

Total War: Warhammer 2's Tomb Kings DLC is due January 23, 2018. Again, here's Tom's early impressions.