Total Warhammer?

[TinCow]

So, in somewhat unexpected news, it has been announced that CA have obtained the license to Games Workshop's Warhammer IP and will be creating a Warhammer game. Relevant articles:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012...orkshop-games/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...warhammer-deal
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/1...p#.UMJhy4Ox98E

To be clear, this is the original Warhammer IP, not the (more popular and more well-known) Warhammer 40k IP. What that means, essentially, is that it's an IP for a classic fantasy strategy game, pitting humans against elves against dwarves against orcs, etc. However, Warhammer (both the original and 40k) are hard core strategy games and mesh well with CA's strategy background. While there have been some action oriented Warhammer 40k games in the past, I suspect CA will be working on a strategy game.

In any case, what are your thoughts about this? Good? Bad? Sign of the Mayan Apocalypse?

As far as I am concerned, this is welcome news. I've long hoped for a non-real world IP for the Total War series. While I love the historical titles, there are many limitations in factions, units, geography, etc. that are inherent in historical scenarios. Fictitious settings have no such limitations and are far easier to balance for strategy purposes. While Warhammer is an existing universe which CA will likely be obliged to represent (rather than making up something new), it's also a very well-balanced universe and was built from the ground up for multi-faction competitive strategy. So, it's got a lot of promise. While there's no guarantee that this will be a Total War game, I'm hopeful. While I'm sure many people will be concerned about CA straying away from historical strategy, the articles make clear that this game is being developed by a separate team than the one that's working on Rome 2. As such, it seems more likely to me that CA will continue development of historical TW games in parallel with any future projects, rather than instead of.

Also, I'd like suggest an official unofficial name for the game until we hear otherwise: Total Warhammer.