The long-running Total War series comes to a magnificent finale in Total War: Warhammer 3. This dark fantasy take on the medieval-flavored strategy game was well-loved by fans, with its first game being the fastest-selling Total War game ever.
We'll see the last Warhammer Total War game by tomorrow, so let's round up everything we know about it.
Here's the Total War: Warhammer 3 announcement trailer:
There are two settings for Warhammer 3: The Lands of the East and the Realms of Chaos. The Lands of the East are patterned after medieval China and Russia, through with fantastical elements such as dragons, orcs, and floating islands.
The Realms of Chaos are a whole different matter. It is a formless land shaped by thoughts and emotions, where the Four Chaos Gods dwell: Khorne, god of war and bloodshed; Tzeentch, god of change; Nurgle, god of disease and pestilence; and Slaanesh, god of excess and hedonism.
The seven factions featured in Warhammer 3 are the Grand Cathay, the Kislev, and the five factions based on the Four Gods of Chaos. Another faction is the Ogre Kingdoms, available to those who pre-order the game.
In the past, the god Ursun would bring forth the start of summer with his roar. However, he has disappeared, causing an unending winter in Kislev. The Barkov Brothers, Yuri and Gelrik, soon discover that the god is imprisoned in the Howling Citadel in the Chaos Wastes.
The brothers form an army to rescue the god, but before long, the corruption of the Wastes drives Yuri to madness. He slaughters his brother and offers up Gelrik's skull to Khorne, calling forth a portal to the Realm of Chaos.
There, he finds the imprisoned Ursun, along with the first of the Daemon Princes, Be'lakor. Be'lakor tempts Yuri to kill Urun and take the god's power for himself. Though Yuri tries shooting Ursun in the heart, the backlash hurls him back to the Material Plane. Dying, Yuri calls to the Chaos Gods for aid. In turn, they transform him into a Daemon Prince.
Following this prologue, it is revealed that Ursun is still Be'lakor's prisoner. The Daemon Prince wants to use Ursun to get vengeance on the Chaos Gods for taking away his power.
Meanwhile, the human kingdoms of Kislev and Grand Cathay both seek to free Ursun from imprisonment. At the same time, a being known as the Advisor seeks a drop of Ursun's blood to free himself from enslavement to the Tome of Fates. He has been seeking factions to help him with his quest.
The Daemons of Chaos seek Ursun for their own evil ends. Khorne's faction wishes Ursun's skull to win back favor from the Blood God. Tzeentch's faction seeks Ursun's eyes to gain farsight, Nurgle's faction seeks to use Ursun's corpse to create a divine disease, and Slaanesh's faction seeks to devour Ursun's sorrow. Finally, Yuri and his own daemonic faction, Chaos Undivided, desire to punish Be'lakor and destroy Ursun once and for all.
The action stretches between the mortal lands and the Realms of Chaos. In the material world are the nations of Kislev (based on medieval Russia) and Grand Cathay (based on Chinese mythology).
Meanwhile, the Realms of Chaos symbolizes the personality of their Chaos God. Khorne's realm is filled with daemon armies you must fight through. Nurgle's realm is a poisonous land where your armies take continuous damage. Slaanesh's realm features a series of portals—every time you walk through one, Slaanesh invites you to leave without your prize in exchange for gifts. Tzeentch's realm is composed of floating isles that form a maze you need to pass to get to your goal.
Total War: Warhammer 3 is still a turn-based strategy game with a real-time combat feature. In the combat phase, you can command thousands of units in grand tactical battles.
Total War: Warhammer 3 has an unusual style of campaign: you can still conquer the whole map but it isn't the main objective—as explained in the lore, you must reach Ursun. Periodically, portals appear on the campaign map and the daemon armies invade. At the same time, these portals provide the faction a chance to enter the Realms of Chaos to take the fight to a daemon prince. Winning gets you the prince's soul. If you manage to collect four, you can reach Ursun and win the game.
This can lead to some interesting strategies. You can have alliances with various factions, but since you're all after the same thing, at some point, someone will have to betray the other.
Each faction also has its special units in the form of Legendary Lords. These Lords confer benefits in both campaign mode and battles where they participate.
The Kislev and Grand Cathay factions each have two Legendary Lords, with the former having a secret unlockable one.
For Kislev, the Lords include Tzarina Katarin, a stern and cold ruler who has mastered Ice Magic, and Supreme Patriarch Kostaltyn, a furious wild-haired zealot who inspires holy fervor among his followers. Both may use a warhorse or warbear as mounts. A third Legendary Lord is Boris Ursus, the greatest and most fearsome Tzar of Kislev.
For the Cathay Faction, there are two lords who can turn into dragons at will. The first is Miao Ying, the arrogant and powerful Storm Dragon. Her brother is Zhao Ming, the down-to-earth and charismatic Iron Dragon. Both are spellcasters and masters of the Elemental Winds.
The Chaos factions have one lord each.
For Khorne's faction, their lord is Skarbrand the Bloodthirster. A former Daemon of Khorne, he made the mistake of attempting to usurp the Blood God and now seeks to redeem himself. He is an incredible force on the battlefield in terms of direct combat.
For Tzeentch's faction, there's Kairos Fateweaver, a two-headed lord who can see the past and future but not the present. He increases the faction's defense against ambushes and lowers the success chance of enemy heroes.
For Slaanesh's side, they have N'Kari, Keeper of Secrets. He seeks the ultimate sensation of Ursun's tears. He can increase tribute amounts and relations with other factions while lowering the cost of seducing enemy units.
Ku'gath Plaguefather leads the Nurgle faction. He aims to create the perfect plague. He lowers infection costs while raising the chance of a plague occurring in a province.
Finally, the Daemon Prince leads the Legion of Chaos. You can name this Lord and his abilities are customizable depending on which Chaos God you choose to serve.
The Ogre Kingdoms have two lords for their two factions.
The Goldtooth faction is led by Greasus Goldtooth. Apart from helpful effects to his ogre faction, he gains more income from raiding and sacking settlements and has lower upkeep costs for Ironguts units.
The Disciples of the Maw have Skrag the Slaughterer, whose abilities include summoning and supporting his special Gorgers unit.
Total War: Warhammer 3 has made several improvements to its gameplay over its previous iterations. According to the Battle Designer for the game, James Martin, "It's a lot of quality-of-life stuff. We've gone over every spell type we've got, checking how they work under the hood, making sure they're doing what people are expecting. Lots of small things we've tweaked and fixed, making the system a lot healthier and cleaner so it's more predictable what's going to happen."
Single units like Lords, dragons, and specific monsters can now have a 'wounded' state. When they've taken on too much damage, their damage output and stats get lower until they get healed.
As for multiplayer, you have a choice of three campaigns: the Realm of Chaos, or the historical campaigns of either Grand Cathay and Kislev. Only the Realms of Chaos and Cathay can have eight players; the Kislev campaign only has room for three.
Even more improvements are detailed in the Total War: Warhammer 3 blog.
Here are the minimum and recommended specs for the game:
Minimum
Recommended
Total War: Warhammer 3 is launching on February 17, 2022. You can preload the game on February 15 from Steam, Microsoft Store, and PC Game Pass, but not through Epic Games, though it is available for purchase there. Pre-order and get the Ogre Kingdoms race pack for free as an incentive. Get a Total War: Warhammer 3 PC code with our comparator today.
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