f13.net

Warhammer 3 trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAr7yUlM0Po

Below is the pre-trailer hype.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UbDOcQK3tg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIqv6Yrd7TE

So very hyped!

https://youtu.be/zfzbKB8W6_I

https://youtu.be/k0d9h9E0dSI

I don't care about constellations, just show me some ogres brawling with chaos demons!

I spent $2502957297579 on the first two and have maybe 20 hours played, so this is terrible news!

(https://i.redd.it/hzp47yz0l1f61.jpg)

Close enough, might not be Warhammer 3 but I haven't seen this before, possibly its The Old World artwork, that's still a little bit away though.

Really intrigued to see how they set this up.

They are down to the.... less popular factions. So if the core box looks like wh1&2, a regional campaign with 4 core races, they are stuck with less popular factions and locations as the core product offering to attract new players on the final product on the IP that they likely hope sell DLC for at least 5 years.

Making this a product based on Kislev, Chaos Dwarfs, Ogres, and chaos beasts having a fight over a boring mix of plains and tundra with a few mountains around the edge seems..... brave.

They can pick and choose a few from each of I and II to include since you'll still be forced to own the older games if you want all the races available for the "grand campaign".

The real selling point is getting the game 3 unites in Mortal Empires and overrunning the maps from the first two games with tides of Ogres, Demons or Chaos Dwarves.

Plus, you know, bear cavalry?

Why on Earth would it be brave?

The original intention was to have all races in a trilogy from the very beginning. Plus you aren't going to attract non-tabletop players with the same. Plus people like Chaos and enjoy playing as the antagonists, you aren't going to attract Empire players without the full list of their opponents. They may be less popular for you but people enjoy trying different things and I want my Dawi-Zharr goddamit.

Kislev.

People talk about chaos and the antagonists a lot. The stats say they play Empire and High Elves.

Like every game ever.

As a player, I'm looking forward to Chaos Dwarfs and have all the DLC so will be able to play everytging. But if I were selling this product I'd be a little more nervous.

I'm not sure they're that worried about attracting new customers now so much as converting existing customers from WH 1/2 to 3.  That's a pretty solid playerbase already, and it's still doing better than any of the recent historical titles.

https://youtu.be/HAr7yUlM0Po

Races are Chaos, Kislev, and HOLY SHIT CATHAY.

One more preorder bonus race TBA. I'd guess chaos dwarf.

9 legendary lords. Which is a weird number.

Not 100% clear if chaos is four separate chaos god races or not. But with 9 lords total, my guess is single race, at least four lords each assigned to a god.

Release '2021'.

Gotta pander to the China market :why_so_serious: No, but seriously, I’m not sure how they are going to get some of that stuff past the game censors.

FAQ implies Chaos will be separate races since the total number of starting races is > 4. So 4 Chaos plus Kislav and Grand Cathay will be 6.

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war-warhammer-iii-faq/

So for Lords it would seem like 2 each for Kislav and Grand Cathay , 1 each for each Chaos plus 1 Chaos Lord that is shared.

Edit: or maybe they are counting the DLC/preorder Lord as the 9th

The 9th could be Archaon the Everchosen.

I expect Ogres for the pre-order bonus.

WHII pre-order bonus was Nosrca, which was playable in WHI

They recently expanded the map to where the Ogre Kingdoms go so that seems like an easy pre-order bonus

Pretty pointless since he is already in the game and is not a daemon.

Its obviously Be'lakor.

There will be a wailing and a gnashing of teeth if they are counting any WH1&2 lords in the 9.

My only hesitation about Be'lakor is it seems he'd have to be a separate 'race' again to the other chaos 4, if they are doing different rosters for each one.

And if I were CA I'd be saving him for a DLC when they'll have time for extra wacky mechanics.

Yeah, this is pretty much me.  I don't know why, but these games never really clicked with me.  They seem like something I'd really like, and I don't have any specific problems with them (aside from maddeningly long load times before and after every single battle I don't autoresolve) but I just never got to that point where I was able to move beyond "Everyone get in a big ball and run at the enemy" level strategies.

Probably going to get #3 anyways, though.

The load times and end turn times have improved. And a modern ssd makes a big difference to load times in particular.

Can relate to the bit about grokking battles though.

The army diversity means working out how to use them is far less obvious than in prior games.

That's the least hyped I've ever been after watching a new total warhammer trailer. Wtf was that supposed to be and why did it need four videos of absolutely nothing? :insert this meeting should have been an email meme:

Are you talking about the wizard videos? They are the teasers that were hinting at the factions. If you weren't prehyped they weren't aimed at you.

The trailer is here.

https://youtu.be/HAr7yUlM0Po

Yeah, I didn't find them particularly interesting either.  Apparently, they tease the four Chaos gods which we knew were coming anyway.  The biggest announcement was that Cathay would be part of the initial launch, when people weren't sure they would even be included at all.

Ok that's much better.

Did they ever develop Cathay as an army in tabletop at all?  I know Ogres fought with them in Lore, but that's about it.  Maybe a random unit in Dogs of War.

Would love to see Ogres for this.

Nope. CA is working with GW to design the army (i think there is one coming)

Nice that they already have a ton of assets to work with and modify from Three Kingdoms.  I should give that one another play through.

I'm trying three kingdoms again at the moment.

I like how fluid the battles are and love the diplomacy upgrades. But I find the region building and character development stuff utterly impenetrable.

More trailer.

https://youtu.be/8JWqlDxEQps

Absolutely sold on this one. But I am a fan of the lore and feel of the previous games. Giant snowbear will be great fun!

Kislev.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxe4C2kX_mU

i dont get this, it looks like basically the exact game as the last 2, but presumably you lose most of the armies that were in those games + dlc's and have to rebuy them eventually as dlc's again?

Yes just like II was I with a different campaign map and set of base races, III will have a different campaign map and set of base races. And if you own the other two games you'll get a special "grand campaign" map that includes starting territories for all the races like what II had "merging" (with changes) the I and II campaign maps together.

Edit: will

The WH1 and 2 DLCs work in WH3, you don't rebuy them. WH1 and 2 themselves also act as very large DLCs for this game.

If you own everything you end up with 20 races and 80 different campaigns to play in WH3.

WH3 adds 7 races (admittedly 4 are Chaos variations) , and a bunch of gameplay improvements - supposedly including siege and diplomacy updates, though we don't have details.

You can see how the multi-game approach has given them space to make this more ambitious than other total wars, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if they announced they were planning to do Medieval 3 the same way, with one game for each continent or something.

An updated Medieval 3 with this graphics engine and the refinements to the game engine they've made would be fucking awesome.

Do people really want Medieval 3 or a remastered Medieval 2 and the Lord of the Rings mod the way they just remastered Rome?

I really don't want remastered anything.

CA have broadly got better at this with every iteration and as good as it was at the time, I don't have any interest in playing M2 again.

I'd play the shit out of a Medieval 3.

Skarbrand is in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur05W5lxzAM

Kislev Roster Reveal:

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war-warhammer-3-kislev-roster-reveal/

That Elemental Bear is huge!

(https://content.totalwar.com/total-war/com.totalwar.www2019/uploads/2021/06/04114041/kislev-roster-reveal-elemental-bear-improved-1024x576.jpg)

The DLC'd to the gills rosters on existing factions do make it look a little bland, but not going to complain about any roster full of dudes welding guns that are also axes.

Two new schools of magic is pretty nice, too.

Khorne Roster Reveal:

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war-warhammer-3-khorne-roster-reveal/

Yes it s Soul Grinder and I agree when people say it doesn't really fit Fantasy being just a 40K model so I also agree when I say it needs some alterations.

(https://content.totalwar.com/total-war/com.totalwar.www2019/uploads/2021/06/16104823/khorne-roster-reveal-soul-grinder-of-khorne-1024x576.jpg)

Flesh hounds are good though - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7q0Ms7ej7A

Changes to existing Battle types and the new Survival Battle type:

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war-warhammer-3-survival-battles-battle-changes

The single entity wounds system seems sensible and I like to autoresolve change (it will now show the result before decide whether to take it).

The survival battle stuff is getting way too much attention. It is just an over engineered quest battle that is going to take much too long to play when you arrive with a campaign army far too strong to have any difficulty.

Delayed till "early 2022": https://twitter.com/totalwar/status/1437415775518826499

Grand Cathay reveal tomorrow, September 14th.

New game engine trailer.

https://youtu.be/033FWxL22A0

Looks nice. First time I can ever remember WHFB chaos not looking rubbish for one thing.

I love the design and feel! Cathay will be a worthy addition to the lore and univers.

Siege Rework: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i4u03F7PYg

Blog post with more details: https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war-warhammer-3-siege-rework/

I'm only moderately excited about the siege changes.

 - Adding the new currency with which you build towers and walls feels likely to slow the game down. There are too many sieges in a campaign for this to be an unalloyed good.

 - The bigger maps look like that have some good ideas, but again nervous about time.

 - They also claim to have upgraded the AI to be similar to the 3K one, which is definitely better at sieges. This is certainly good news.

I just want organ guns on the walls, man.

Enter the World of Tzeentch (cinematic trailer, no gameplay):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52zuk_GcGUI

Edit: blog post: https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war-warhammer-3-tzeentch-campaign-mechanics/

The trailer is just the usual chaos tentacle monsters, but blog that goes with it suggests some interesting campaign mechanics around manipulating other factions into wars with each other. Like the high elf influence mechanic, but turned up to 11.

Enter The World Of Kislev (in-game engine army teaser / cinematic): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxe4C2kX_mU

Campaign mechanics: https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war-warhammer-3-kislev-campaign-mechanics/

I think this is Cao Cao's mechanic in Three Kingdoms if you want to see how it works in practice.

Grand Cathay vs Tzeentch Great Bastion Battle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2muTpEXIg9E

Man, I can't even begin to imagine how confusing that map would be in game.

I don't think it is much different to a Troy or 3k map.

Trailer makes it look confusing because it is all shot at street level, which you'll only experience when you decide you want to take a look at your tiny dudes animations for funsies.

Like every TW you'll actually play the game with the camera looking down from the highest possible setting. Ideally you have the better camera mod installed so you can go even higher than that.

Yet another trailer. This one with Ogres.

Also release date! 17th Feb.

https://youtu.be/5Bbp98oMsjA

Oh snap!  Was really hoping they'd add in Ogres.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xj30Wm0YDQ

Nurgle and Slaanesh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnIEzBpsfDE

This game has *way* too many trailers.

But this is possibly my favourite so far.

https://youtu.be/ZJkimP-u1Oo

Enter the World of Nurgle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGf5q_4Jxhs

Enter the World of Slaanesh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqjZzwAg3dU

Chaos Undivided

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uebto73ZUFQ

It's out already for "special" people for some reason if you want to watch it being streamed:

https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Total%20War%3A%20Warhammer%20III

I'm not that excited by the demons of chaos undivided reveal.

The build your own demon concept is a fun trick, but only really affects one specific lord. It seems like losing the faction mechanics of a specific god, is going to make the campaigns less unique than anything you gain from being able to mix and match units.

However, there is a lot of good news in the videos today. Diplomacy has been significantly improved, region trading is in, the 3k quick deal system is in, you can ask allies to lend you armies, and build outposts in ally settlements which give you access to their unit types. Also you can tell trespassers and raiders to fuck off, and if they don't then you don't lose reliability for attacking them.

Ambushes now have an escape zone a la 3K.

There also seem to be some significant AI improvements. The AI no longer wastes all it's artillery ammo trying to hit a single flying dude.

Reinforcements now take a couple of minutes to arrive, but when they do you can select where they arrive. Moving the entry point means they take longer to arrive.

There is now a button to tell the AI to start selecting skill points for you on specific characters. This is a fucking godsend in the mid game once characters have all the important skills.

Supply lines have been reworked, they now top out at 4% upkeep on legendary, whereas they were 15% in WH2.

Reviews are out.

In summary it is good, has many improvements over WH2, but the factions you can play are blander than the late WH2 factions, the UI is inexplicably worse, and the launch campaign is even worse than the WH2 vortex campaign.

So recommendations seem to be to buy if you are a WH2 fan and want something different, if not you could do worse than buy WH2 and wait for the full 'mortal empires' campaign to be added to WH3.

https://youtu.be/ZRJo3R3ANsw

I won’t have time to play it on release cause Forbidden West, Elden Ring, etc. but my dilemma is the preorder bonus is an entire army, the Ogres. In WH2 a new army is $19. Ogres is a bit smaller than one of those WH2 add-on armies (e.g. only 2 Lords vs 4 for WH2 add-on) so it’s unclear what it’s price will be post-launch but let’s say it’s $15.00. That means if I don’t preorder to get equal value for my money I have to wait for the game to go on sale such that the price of the game + Ogres <= $60 or at least 20% off for both or 25% off for just the base game and who knows when that will happen?

If you wait long enough it'll be cheaper but if you want to play as Ogres you might as well get it now I think.

25% off both will probably be a while.

Super long and detailed review for those who have played the previous games. Spoils some prologue / tutorial cut scenes but you can FF through them.

https://youtu.be/ZRJo3R3ANsw

Or just play the game on XGP. You won't get the Ogres, but you know... you won't have to pay for the game.

But I already have I & II on Steam (+most of the DLC) and the Xbox store doesn't have either, even for purchase. So yeah I can try out III on Game Pass or just buy it now or later on Steam since I have to have it there in any case if I want to play III's Mortal Empires.

The problem with gamepass is that you are effectively getting a big demo, not a full game.

Which is all anyone is getting on release. Until the full campaign is released the mini campaign it starts with kind of misses the point.

The whole point of this game is to play in a massively overengineered sandbox of 20 or more fully realised warhammer factions.

So the question is whether to preorder now, and get Ogres. Ahead of the full functionality coming into the game in what might be six months.

Which you can't do if your copy doesn't integrate with DLC.

One thing I do worry about with this game is that I don't think the base offering is attractive enough to new players. So as someone who would buy *a lot* of DLC for this, I kind of worry it might not attract the audience I'd like it to, to support my DLC habit.

Wot?

Has 8 factions and 12 LL's with different mechanics [more than any other Warhammer release I might add].

If you aren't attracted to that then you might just not like strategy games, in which case the scrubs can go back to whatever bandwagon they were on.

[Gee if only I could delete posts]

Ogres are fun, something I've never thought about monstrous infantry before. Their absurd mass really helps push them in/out of melee.

And the new minor settlement maps are fantastic.

I just dove into this a bit last night and agree that I'm not a fan of the new campaign.  I'm trying out Cathay because I liked the idea of their gameplay, but I don't know if I'll play it to completion.  Might also just wait for the combined campaign whenever that comes out.  My starting legendary lord doesn't seem to have any unique equipment, which I find really odd.  The new sieges are interesting, at least!

You can get ogres on XGP for free: https://www.totalwar.com/ogrekingdoms/

As for the game. Pretty great. Some UI issues. But i like the campaign a LOT better than the nexus campaign. Its kind of unobtrusive and a side thing to do, you're not really limited in how or where to do it (for a variety of reasons) and it encourages interactions between factions even if they start far away

You can actually edit the rifts out if you are willing to do a bit of jiggery pokery.

If another race gets to the Forge of Souls you can actually stop them.

I am liking the new campaign more now I'm further into it.

It really dominates your planning, but all you really need is one good army to dedicate to it, and enough territory to support that army and defend your shit.

I quite like the lack of a need to murder everyone on the map. Means I feel more able to experiment with the armies that are not doing the chaos expeditions.

That said, it is super unlikely I would play it again if the main map was available.

The ideal way to play the game is to run through Slaanesh's realm a bunch of times and accept all of the rewards there while ignoring the actual objectives.  If you never proceed, the rift armies will choke on a basic garrison or you can have agents run around nuking the rifts as they pop up.

To a point. You only get an opportunity to go in once every 30 turns. And you need four runs to get the souls to win.

I think the best plan is probably go into Slaanesh on the first cycle, ideally pick up the Slaanesh blade plus personal sycophant from the final portal, then start doing the souls after that. Means the campaign will run to around turn 160 even then.

If you go for Slaanesh loot more often than that you are probably going to need a domination victory and then it is probably quicker to be using the rifts to teleport to other factions so you can kill them, rather than heading into the chaos realm.

I vaguely plan to play Skarbrand that way on a second play through.

New patch/dlc announcements today.

Just incremental fix patches until at least August.

Then the main 'immortal empires' campaign by the end of Q3 (described as 'beta'), for owners of all three games.

That update will come with a lord pack - I would guess Monkey King vs Changeling, and a Chaos Warriors rework.

Then more vague undisclosed updates in q4.

The internet is a bit angry about how long it is taking but honestly this is about what was expected.

I'm surprised there was no chaos dwarf announcement - but we are where we are.

Would still recommend WH2 over this till August at least.


Edit :

New trailer for the full campaign.
https://youtu.be/eAuMUWYcSHc

Immortal Empires

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/tww3-the-immortal-empires-map/

(https://content.totalwar.com/total-war/com.totalwar.www2019/uploads/2022/06/17110402/wh3_dlc_ie_parchment_map_english.jpg?_gl=1*1uzodkg*_ga*MjA5ODg2NDc0LjE2NTU4MjU5NDM.*_ga_3VM9D0CESN*MTY1NTgyODI2My4xLjAuMTY1NTgyODI2My4w)

Look at all that territory you will never see in any one game ever.  :why_so_serious:

Total War WARHAMMER III - Champions of Chaos: Azazel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5ea7Y6ACOo

Immortal Empires Dedicated Factions - https://www.totalwar.com/blog/tww3-ie-dedicated-factions/

Introducing the Champions of Chaos - https://www.totalwar.com/blog/tww3-introducing-the-coc/

Immortal Empires Race Updates - https://www.totalwar.com/blog/twwh3-ie-race-updates/

Festus the Leechlord - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh49KKpbZxQ

Vilitch the Curseling - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0emnNGcfCM

Valkia the Bloody leaked

(https://external-preview.redd.it/qi6aU8A38LhU8o6tCx24OQ-JriBtpvRha4eZLBi-mrE.jpg?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=cb220fa64bb5acd1a17600e63afd7dcf4cd018aa)

Valkia the Bloody trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0bvDMa3_NE

Fun stuff, but this game has stopped existing for me until Immortal Empires launches later this month.

Immortal Empires First Look - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zveFDWkaTYM

I get the impression that what opens up on Aug 23rd really is beta.

Based on the you tube channels with early access, it has a lot of good ideas, but then they run into a whole 'oh yeah but this is borked'.

Norsca, Tomb Kings, and few others seem to have had some good tweaks. Vampires, Elves, and some others haven't really been adjusted to the new WH3 mechanics.

Really good to see they've replaced the tiresome chaos invasion with a random end game crisis fronted by either Orcs, Dwarfs, Vampires, TKs, or Wood Elves.

I suspect it will get there, but don't have high expectations for state of the game in a couple of weeks.

CA literally said its a beta.

Immortal Empires patch is live.  For anyone who doesn't already have the previous games, Total War: Warhammer 1 and 2 are heavily discounted on Steam right now.

I thought id get into some TW again with Warhammer 2, and get 3 down the line.

But I just find all the different units and abilities and spells etc tiring. I'd rather more straightforward tactical elements as getting your head around the rest just takes too much effort.

I assume 3 is just even more of this?

It is, but you can mitigate it by choosing a fairly normal faction until you understand it better.

High elves or empire have a little magic but mostly play like a recognisable fantasy army. Or you can play Bretonnia and only worry about horses.

And sticking to magic that just burns things keeps it fairly simple.

You may want to Google which factions of your chosen race(s) are the easiest for beginners -- there can be a pretty wide range in difficulty given the variety of starting positions and Legendary Lords. I actual just started playing II as well while I wait for Immortal Empires to get fixed up and am playing Tyrion of the High Elves (Eataine faction) who from my searches was the consensus easiest / most beginner friendly of the Vortex campaign factions with the bonus that he's a tutorial campaign as well so the Vortex mechanics are explained (a bit) as well as gameplay basics. I played the first one but that was a while ago so I don't mind the refresher.

You can also just play in "strategic" mode and have it auto-resolve battles for you if you are finding the actual battle mechanics difficult.

Yeah it's not the difficultly so much, just the prep. And I find the tactical game the real heart of the series, the strategic layer is ok, but not where most of the fun is.

I might just try some battles rather than campaigns.

As Eldaec said, Empire and High Elves (and now Cathay and Kislev in TW3) are the classic balanced factions that have a decent mix of everything and play like a classic game where you can have a line of infantry in front of archers and artillery while your cavalry runs around the flanks.

Some other straightforward factions to try are the Vampire Counts (all melee, no missiles), Dwarfs (focus on immobile blocks of infantry protecting lethal guns), or maybe Lizardmen (strong infantry, huge-ass dinosaurs).

Pro-tip for magic: at certain levels, spells can be overcast by clicking on the cast button twice during battle.  If the highlight ring brightens, it will overcast for a higher cost with added effects and a chance to backfire.

I think I've concluded magic is not nearly as central to 3 as it was in 2.

Total magic is now capped at 100. Which is pretty low be wh2 standards.

There is little point bringing more than 1 caster and even that is no longer an automatic priority.

I don't know how it'll be in Immortal Empires in 3, but I know in Mortal Empires the Dwarfs had the weird situation of being easy and fun to play, but their map position was incredibly rough for a "beginner" labeled faction. Tons of greenskins to the south and east, vampires to the west, and it was very easy to get hemmed in and locked in to their starting areas with no good avenues of breaking out.

Turtling up with the dwarfs isn't necessary a bad thing.  Take your starting province and maybe the one to the northeast for more gold, then level it up until you can field an army of ironbreakers, thunderers, and heavy artillery and you won't have trouble anywhere you decide to go.

Lab for WH3 is coming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cbNkp1YsSY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqhc3mK06r0

Immortal Empires free for anyone that owns Warhammer 3, all dlcs can be purchased separately without the need to own the corresponding game, for access within Immortal Empires. Also any free dlc can be gained without the need for the corresponding game as logn as you have access tot he race that it belongs to.

Also DAWI-ZHARR!!!

Game is in decent shape now.

And with the main campaign open to everyone you no longer have to add all the small print to a recommendation.

Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiHvsinEn58

So after the hot-mess that was Shadows of Change CA have gotten the kick up their arse and added content for Shadows of Change that actually closer represents the price of it.

SoC trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro4KbCpcXZM

And its latest update.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ_NXAkzXWY

Still not paying $25 for a race update pack for a full-price game.  I was waiting for it to hit $15, but it may be worth $18-20 at this point.

I picked it up at 30% off, I think it fills out Cathay in particular nicely.

Kislev are fine with or without the updates, and I doubt I will ever play the umpteenth chaos campaign it adds.

Thrones of Decay trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv4sOuRWIT0&t=2s

Tamurkhan gameplay showcase

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK0hu8gYpho

Can buy each race individually if you prefer for cheaper if only one or two appeal to you.