The stellar gates which the Old Ones used to enter the world collapsed, leading to a flood of Chaos that was held at bay by the Lizardmen. The Old Ones, powerful godlike beings, created races in the Warhammer world to fight the forces of Chaos. The campaign can also be played online with another player in co-operative or head-to-head modes. Mortal Empires must be downloaded manually from Steam, but is free for players who own both games. In addition, players who own both Total War: Warhammer and Total War: Warhammer II have access to a huge combined campaign called Mortal Empires, which is more of a sandbox experience. It is a narrative-focused campaign where each of the playable races has its own story and cutscenes. The main campaign of the game is called Eye of the Vortex.

The Tomb Kings and Vampire Coast (a faction of undead pirates) debuted later as paid downloadable content factions. The game's announced races in the campaign include the Lizardmen, High Elves, Dark Elves and Skaven. Those who own races from the first game will have the same races unlocked for multiplayer in the second game. The game also has a custom battles mode where players can create customised real-time battles, as well as online multiplayer battles. When armies meet, they battle in real-time. Players engage in diplomacy with, and fight against, AI-controlled factions. In the campaign, players move armies around the map and manage settlements in a turn-based manner. Total War: Warhammer II features turn-based strategy and real-time tactics gameplay similar to other games in the Total War series.

The game requires a Steam account to play. Feral Interactive released the game on macOS and Linux on 20 November 2018. The game was released for Microsoft Windows-based PCs on 28 September 2017. The game is set in Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy fictional universe. It is part of the Total War series and the sequel to 2016's Total War: Warhammer. Total War: Warhammer II is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics video game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega.

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