I went back to Warhammer 1 to compare. Fun QoL changes you might have forgotten about!
I was pretty hyped for Immortal Empies, but as I not a content creator I knew I wasn't getting early access. But with it approaching, I did want to play Total War. I returned to the first game to hunt for old achievements I missed. So I could say I completed the game to my liking and uninstall knowing how the series progressed.
At this time, I have finished both Season of Revelation and Eye for an Eye mini-campaigns. Remember those? An interesting idea; they're not bad, but focusing on more units in later DLCs was the proper choice.
I have completed a Grand campaign on Very Hard (Legendary for Chaos) for everyone except Empire. Empire will be my final campaign, which I think is fitting for a game about surviving Chaos.
So as we now compare Mortal Empires to Immortal Empires, what long added QoL additions have we forgotten about from game 1?
1) Heroes used to have to be specifically deployed. It wasn't enough to be present in a province, you had to click the deploy button.
2)Mounts. In game 3 the mounts are given for free upon achieving the appropriate level. In game 2, you had to spend a skill point. In game 1, you had to buy them in order, no skipping. If they had 3 mounts, that meant that end mount cost a total of 3 skill points. 10% of your skill points as the max level was 30.
3) No immortal talent on heroes. There was a trait to reduce wound times if they were killed by agent action, but a death in battle meant that hero was GONE.
4) No difficulty split between campaigns and battles. You only had the single unified option that affected both. The AI battle buffs were even hard coded and could not be removed by mods.
5) No climates. You simply could, or could not settle a place, and there was no UI indication other than attempting to do so.
6) Razing did not provide gold.
7) Spells could not be rotated. You could aim them, but their direction was always directly away from the spell caster.
8) The battle flags showed a lot less info. There was no little box showing vigor, you had to mouse over the unit. There was also no little icon to indicate if a unit was retreating or shattered.
9) End of turn notifications are different. You didn't click the end turn button repeatedly to move past them 1 by 1, instead trying to end turn would bring up a box with a list of things. This box did NOT include: a hero or army that hasn't moved or buildings/settlements ready to upgrade.
10) The AI is a lot more obnoxious in knowing exactly the limit of your movement, and standing as far out of it as a sibling repeating the phrase "I'm not touching you."
11) The AI does not settle ruins all that often. That really changes the feeling of the Chaos invasion that often reaches the southern mountains of Karak Hirn. The northern area is often a wasteland after Archaeon is defeated, and unless you're a faction that settles the plains, it will remain that way.
12) There is a -lot- fewer cities. The northern Empire is full of empty space. Gorrsel goes all the way up the coast. No Massif Orcal in Brettonia unless in the Wood Elf special campaign.
13) No wandering armies, but the same 3 factions of Beastmen and 2 roaming orc clans will keep reappearing over and over. They will never end.
That about ends the list off the top of my head. Honestly going back to game 1 has been somewhat frustrating, but it's good to see how far the series has come. After I take a steamtank and blast Sarthoreal one last time, I can uninstall Total War: Warhammer 1 for the final time.