A redditor has done a great work compiling infos about TW:W2, good read. credits to /u/tw_mahgah.
"There's a lot of info out there, and while each video/article/etc. shares a similar overlapping body of information, there's a few details scattered here and there that some didn't talk about.
The info is scattered across a lot of sources, so I won't be citing everything but if you want to know where the info is from I guess comment and I can point you towards the source? If anyone sees a correction that should be made, just let me know.
Campaign information
Map features
-New settlement type: fortress gates. Will require ownership or alliance to pass through, otherwise a siege battle will be required.
For example, a fortress gate controls passage between inner and outer kingdoms of Ulthuan, if you lose ownership of it you won't be able to pass through without a fortress gate battle.
-Treasure hunting: ruins can now be treasure hunted in addition to settled.
Treasure hunting will bring up a choose-your-own-adventure style menu, upon which you can gain benefits (like treasure or recruits) or take a hit (such as army damage or Chaos corruption). Armies embarked at sea will be able to treasure hunt at sunken ships.
Treasure hunting CYOA are pre-generated, so eventually they will repeat for the player (and you'll know the end result), but there's planned to be a large amount of them.
-Bridge battles - have been added.
-Ocean hazards - will be present, such as randomly moving storms and reefs.
-TW:W2 map size - is roughly same as first game's map (not including ocean, I assume).
-No regional occupation limits: factions can settle anywhere.
Factions instead will have preferred climates. Settling in an environment that your faction isn't good with will lead to penalties such as increased build times, reduced growth and public order, and so on.
-Settlement slot changes: Major settlements now all have 8 slots, minor settlements now all have 6 slots.
This will apply to TW:W1 factions/buildings on the combined map. Old factions will also receive new buildings, including new unique buildings.
This should help the AI as they won't fill up their slots with as many useless buildings now.
-No settlement gifting.
-Bretonnian trait system - will now apply to all TW:W2 races.
-Vortex objectives
A progress bar shows the player how far along other factions are towards completing their objectives.
If an AI faction completes theirs before yours, you don't lose right away. Instead, you're teleported into the final quest battle, where you'll be disadvantaged against the enemy, but you do have the opportunity to outplay them and still win.
-Equipment changes won't be visible on Lords.
There will be campaign cinematics.- Thanks to /u/TynShouldHaveLived.
"AlignCenter" Rites
This is still a bit unclear, as details on how rites are performed and the exact process haven't been released. The benefits may be temporary, or permanent, and factions appear to have to use them for Vortex objectives.
Lizardmen Map features
-Temple Cities level up - as you connect more to the geomantic web.
Conquering points on the web will contribute towards Temple City upgrades, but connecting cities through the web will grant the biggest bonuses.
Cities will be tiered in levels, i.e. level 1 city, level 2 city and so on.
This will grant bonuses to city output and stats, but also grant access to higher tiered commandments that are more powerful than the typical +public order or +growth commandments.
Other bonuses not related to Temple Cities might also be provided from capturing more of the geomantic web.
Upgrading a building chain in a temple city could strengthen connected temple cities.
Other factions can conquer Lizardmen territory to power down their cities.
-Lizardmen have special spawning - events triggered by various events or conditions on the map.
This will grant special units, such as Sauruses with certain markings from the lore, but is an aesthetic difference only.
-Slann lords must be awakened - through rites for recruitment (generic Slann, not necessarily Mazdamundi).
High Elf Map features
-LL start positions: Tyrion starts in Ulthuan, but Teclis starts on Lustria in the Turtle Islands. Thanks to /u/TynShouldHaveLived.
-Unique Resource: Influence
High elves can use influence in diplomancy. For example, they can use influence to manipulate two other factions into warring with each other.
Generic High Elf lords must be recruited through influence. Lords will have various tiers of usefulness/power levels.
Bold"
-Trade agreements: High Elves gain shared vision with any faction they gain a trade agreement with. Normally a defensive pact or alliance is required.
-Lore: High Elves are messing around in Lustria because they believe they can summon the Old Ones to help with the Vortex.
Other Faction features
-Dark Elves will have a slavery mechanic. Thanks to /u/TynShouldHaveLived.
-An unnamed faction will have advantages at sea. May be High Elves.
Combined Map
-Open beta will be released for the combined map before its final release as free DLC.
-TW:W1 factions will gain TW:W2 new features on the combined map (unlikely to carry over to the TW:W1 standalone grand campaign)
Bretonnian trait system will be expanded to old factions, i.e. you will get notifications telling you why this or that Lord has a trait.
Dragons will receive breath attacks.
Settlement slot expansion to 8-Major and 6-Minor.
Old factions will be able to settle anywhere. Turn Lustria into a new Vampire haven, or rekindle the golden age of the Dawi by reconquering Karak Zorn, the legendary Dwarven hold deep in the heart of the Southlands.
-AI will not be scripted--sandbox randomness is supported, so one game the High Elves might dominate, the next game they might be wiped out before you even make contact.
-Co-op - doable on combined map.
Faction Information
-Rogue Armies: rogue armies are armies that start out on the map without any initially conquered territories, i.e. hordes.
Rogue armies will have unique themes, such as mercenaries or a goblin beast master who controls various beasts from squigs to feral bastilidons.
Rogue armies can be interacted with via diplomacy.
Rogue armies can conquer cities and become a sedentary faction.
Rogue armies taken from deepest corners of lore
-Old World races and factions - will be present in TW:W2, though unplayable (except on combined map).
-Skeggi and Vampire Counts - confirmed for Lustria. Human factions confirmed as well, although unclear which ones (besides Skeggi of course).
Vampire Coast exists, but unclear whether this will be a generic Vampire faction, or if it will be a faction tailored towards Luthor Harkon. You can learn about the mad vampire pirate here.
- Southlands- will have 10 factions vying for control upon release.
-CA is allowed to create non-codex factions and outdated codex factions.
This means less fleshed out factions, or factions that had rosters in old editions like Kislev or Araby can be used by CA as a main faction. This gives them freedom to create their own units as well.
Battle Information
Battle Maps
-New Battle Map types: bridge battles, fortress gate sieges
AI has been reworked to handle choke points better
-Fortress Gate sieges - will be unique in that siege equipment won't be allowed. So no easy way over those walls.
-Town battles will not be in, although battles next to settlements will show a town/settlement in the background.
Some buildings from the settlement may be in the playable area, but the town itself won't.
-Focus on larger battle map variety.
Magic
-Skill trees have been reworked.
In TW:W1, the first skill point grants the spell, the second reduces cooldown. In TW:W2, the first point grants the spell, the second grants the overcast, and the third grants a Winds of Magic cost reduction.
-Magic is being rebalanced across the board, though no specifics have been released.
-Mazdamundi will have unique mechanics - though what those mechanics are is unclear at this point.
-Teclis will have access to - all lores including High Magic</del> 8 attributes (passives) of magic and High Magic. - Thanks to /u/milkandcookiesTW.
Teclis is more likely to have a selection of spells from different lores, rather than full access to 8 lores.
Confirmed High Magic Spell: Fiery Convocation, like Winds of Death but with a fiery phoenix animation instead.
-All Dragons have a ranged breath attack.- This will be applied to TW:W1 dragons as well (Undead, Forest and Chaos dragons) but only if you own TW:W2.
Each dragon has a unique breath attack animation. A Sun Dragon would breathe fire but a Forest Dragon wouldn't.
Breath is a castable ability.
Breath attacks are not confirmed for any other monster unit (such as Hydras or Terrorgheists) Conflicting information. Terrorgheists MAY have their scream/breath.
Army Abilities
-Army abilities acquired in various ways.
Sometimes an army ability can be acquired by performing a rite before battle. An example of an ability granted in such a way is the ability to summon Feral Cold Ones on a charge. In this screenshot, you can see the army ability on the right side of the screen.
Some army abilities can be had through certain conditions. For example, if a certain building chain is upgraded on a High Elf fortress gate, they'll have the ability to summon eagles on defense.
-High Elf Army Ability: Vaul's Hammer.
The conditions for this ability aren't clear yet, but this army ability can bring a giant hammer down onto a siege wall and blow it open. Possibly acquired via rite.
Rosters
-Confirmed High Elf units:
Eagle Claw Bolt Throwers
White Lions of Chrace
Swordmasters of Hoeth
Ellyrian Reaver (lance and ranged variations)
Silver Helm Knights
Sun Dragon
-CA couldn't get Ark of Sotek working quite yet, so in the meantime they added the <b class="Bold">Bastilidon: Revivification Crystal.</b> Approved by GW of course.
Revivification Crystal will give a constant healing aura bonus.
Lizardmen Battle Mechanics
-Kroq-Gar - has an ability similar to Kholek's Lord of the Storm, though unclear if this is from his Hand of Gods artifact or not.
Grymloq, Kroq-Gar's carnosaur mount, has several kill animations. He can throw units into the air then crush them with his jaws. If he gets the killing blow on a dragon, he'll tackle it to the ground and bite into the dragon's neck as it struggles to get out of his grip.
-Bastilidons, including feral ones, are slow, best used to hold down units or act as a damage soak.
-Stegadons - are faster and reportedly have an adorable running animation.
- Skinks - are faster than most other infantry units.
- Solar Engine - doesn't deal as much damage as the Luminark of Hysh, but Bastilidons are more resilient. Fires faster than Luminark as well.
- Rampaging units - can eventually recover their senses.
Multiplayer
-No army painter or banner customization - planned for release for TW:W2. This will likely not be implemented for TW:W2.
-No avatar conquest.
-TW:W1-only players won't be able to play multiplayer versus TW:W2 players.
-All factions (game 1 and 2) - will be available in multiplayer for players who own both games.
- Co-op- is still 2-player only.
This is something CA want to expand, but requires a lot of work and isn't something they can quite dedicate themselves to at the moment.
-Free-For-All
Free-for-all will be an available mode in TW:W2
-Only playable with 4 players</b> so 3-player FFA won't be doable at release. CA is focusing on getting the system balanced for 4 players first.
-Winner decided not on last man standing - but rather based on a scoring system.
Points are largely scored based on kills acquired and damage dealt.
Damage dealt against weaker/lower tier units will give you less points than damage dealt against higher tier or stronger units. For example, damage against zombies or peasant mobs will probably give negligible score versus damage against a hero or elite cavalry.
Friendly fire does not give points to the enemy, nor does it take points from you. This means you can kill your own units to deny the enemy points.
Direct damage spells such as Life Leech don't count as damage, because the system counts them as HP removal which is a different mechanic. This means they won't add to your score.
-Only specific maps can be played via FFA.
-CA uncertain if Custom Maps will be supported at launch for FFA.
It's worth noting that the map editor does let you put starting zones for up to 8 teams, so it's possible that modders will find a workaround before CA is able to officially implement support.
-No Quickmatch for FFA - so FFA games must be played through Custom lobbies.
I encourage anyone interested in multiplayer to browse custom lobbies, as people often run non-competitive games like high funds or themed battles there.
-FFA is playable with humans only. Confirmed by /u/SamM_CA.
Misc
-DLC
-DLCs in the vein of King and the Warlord - are planned, where CA will add Lords and units they couldn't fit in by release. Ark of Sotek for example is a liklihood.
- CA pleased with Regiment of Renown reception, so this is likely to be included in DLC.
-Factions that can't be fit in at release are likely to be added as DLC.
Tomb Kings will likely be POST RELEASE DLC. This my own conjecture, nothing stated by CA. Tomb Kings have a lot of unique assets that need to be created for them, even if they're a race of skeletons, and between the 4 factions already planned for release that's a lot of work cut out for them already in addition to new gameplay mechanics.
How will this be handled on the Campaign map? Just like how Athel Loren was inaccessible in the Old World Map, Nehekara can be similarly inaccessible in the Southlands until Tomb Kings are put in. Maybe something like a magical, eternal sandstorm that makes it impossible to enter.
More reasons why a faction probably won't be PRE-ORDER DLC is because CA has acknowledged multiple times that they regret how they handled Warriors of Chaos, and have just about all but said the pre-order DLC won't be as big as a faction. Have some faith in CA, despite what some people seem to think about them, they're not a greedy money grubbing entity. They listen to their fans, and just like any game there can be improvements but honestly they're better than most of the companies out there.
-Historical Campaigns: CA would like to do "historical" Warhammer campaigns, such as War of the Beard, but this isn't something they can really think about until the trilogy has been complete.
Modding
-Mod tools should be released shortly after release of the game.
-Mod tools won't be expanded at the moment, but CA will be watching how the modding community reacts to the game release and are open to accommodating their needs."</blockquote>