Creative Assembly has finally made official what everyone was expecting. Total War: Warhammer 3 will be released – and soon. We have the first info for you and analyse the trailer.
Blood for the blood god! And no, this time this exclamation does not refer to a paid DLC that adds even more red soup and severed body parts to Total War: Warhammer. Or about a new oneliner for the industry representative. But it’s actually about the aforementioned blood god himself. And that’s almost even better than blood and murders. Almost.
Because Sega and Creative Assembly have finally announced Warhammer 3, immediately opening the gates to the terrible realm of chaos.
- Content
- The Release
- The Fractions
- The Gameplay
- The Map
- The DLC
Table of Contents
The Release: When and where will Warhammer 3 be released?
The strategy game will be released across all platforms on 17 February 2022, including Steam, the Epic Games Store and (somewhat surprisingly) Windows Game Pass. So if you have a subscription with Microsoft, you can play Warhammer 3 from day one at no extra cost.
If you pre-order Warhammer 3, you will also get the first races DLC with the Ogre Kingdoms for free. However, as always, we do not recommend pre-ordering a game blindly.
The factions: Which races are new?
Total War: Warhammer 3 already brings more new factions directly at release than the second part. Back then, the selection was expanded to include the High Elves, Dark Elves, Skaven and Lizardmen. In Warhammer 3, you can choose from six different races right from the start – including four Chaos factions and a big surprise. In the following, we will go into detail about the confirmed factions and reveal what makes them special.
1. Khorne – God of War
Here we have him, the much talked about blood god. This chaos god embodies brute force, aggression and murder. No wonder, then, that this god enjoys such popularity in a war-torn world like that of Warhammer. Especially since he draws his power through every act of violence around the world. When a murder occurs anywhere in the world, it strengthens the god of war. But on the other hand, Khorne also represents honourable ideals. Apart from violence and blood, he also stands for bravery and honourable fighting.
Nurgle – god of pestilence
Probably the oldest of all the dark gods, for Nurgle represents not only disease and pestilence but also the passing of all life. Yet Nurgle is only worshipped by a few tribes of the North – who likes to worship disease? Yet Nurgle is the only one of the Chaos Gods who cares about his worshippers. Besides decay and disease, Nurgle stands on the positive side for the will to survive and rebirth.
3. Slaanesh – God of excess
Of all the gods, the god of excess probably sounds the most seductive. After all, this entity personifies decadence, gluttony and obsessive lust above all. However, Slaanesh ultimately tempts his worshippers to sacrifice all morals and thoughts of the well-being of others to their own selfish urges. Among the positive aspects of this chaos god are romantic passion and creativity.
4. Tzeentch – God of Witchcraft
No other of the dark gods embodies chaos in its purest form quite like Tzeentch. The god of change and magic spreads distrust and sows the seeds of betrayal in the hearts of mortals. He stands for eternal change, but also for lies and deceit. His followers strive for knowledge and magic, but often give up their sanity to do so.
5. Kislev
The first trailer takes us to the icy north and there we encounter a faction that many players have been anticipating. Kislev will finally be playable and most likely completely reworked. Actually, this nation has existed as a small nation since the first Total War: Warhammer, but there they led troops of the Empire into battle.
The faction actually has its own identity. The nation was strongly influenced by Eastern European nations such as Russia, Poland and Hungary. As the first bulwark against the troops of Chaos, the Empire is on the front line.
6th Grand Imperial Empire of Cathay
The final playable faction in Warhammer 3 is a pretty big surprise. Because before that, we knew next to nothing about the Cathayans. They are a people very much inspired by the Chinese culture. The empire lies far to the east and is protected from chaos by the Great Bastion. The people are very large and are led by a god-like dragon. His children are also dragons, but they also appear as humans and the sub-faction leaders. In battle, Cathay relies on strong long-range fighters, a good defence, magic and some technical marvels such as flying ships.
The gameplay: How does it play?
The basic gameplay doesn’t change in Warhammer 3, at least during the big mass battles. Warhammer 3 runs in the same engine as Warhammer 1 and 2 and remains compatible with both games. However, there are at least the six new factions that can be distinguished from the existing ones.
In addition, there will be a new battle type. The so-called Survival Battles depict the final battle for the Empire of Chaos.
If you’d rather get a moving picture of these battles instead, you can also check out the gameplay trailer for Warhammer 3:
The Map: Where is it all set?
With Warhammer and Warhammer 2, we already have a pretty massive game map at our disposal. But what about Warhammer 3? There is no official image of the entire game map yet. In addition, the playable factions here raise two important questions.
What about the Empire of Chaos?
We already know that four of the total six playable races represent the demons and followers of the Chaos gods. Chaos is known to invade the mortal realm with the help of dark portals in the north of the world, but it is not only there that fighting could take place. The gods are also fighting among themselves for supremacy over the realm of Chaos.
An independent dimension, in other words, in which, to make matters worse, no laws of nature apply and even dreams become reality. According to the press release, in Warhammer 3 we will experience a journey through this nightmarish world. It may be possible to switch back and forth between the mortal realm and the chaos dimension. This offers a lot of exciting gameplay options, as the chaos realm also changes depending on which god is in control at the time.
Total War: Warhammer 3 – A lot is already known about the campaign
What does the new map look like?
We already got a little taste of the map in the mortal world in a trailer:
The DLCs: Is there anything for pre-orderers?
Those interested in Warhammer 3 can pre-order the game right now on Steam or the Epic Store. If you do so, you will receive a free DLC as with both predecessors. In Warhammer 3, this is the Ogre Kingdoms.
So there’s an exclusive race pack again, for which the first Warhammer was actually criticised very harshly. With Warhammer 3, there has been no strong headwind so far.
Summary of the first announcement
Yeah, I know you’re not supposed to get too hyped by first trailers – but damn, I’m only human! And separate races for each chaos god? AND Cathay? That’s everything I wanted from Total War: Warhammer 3! Everything! Already confirmed with the first trailer! And after the two previous parts were both great, I don’t expect Creative Assembly to mess up the implementation too dramatically for now.
I rather wonder the other way round: How far will they reach for the stars? So how fancy will the mechanics be for the chaos realms, the four gods? How big will the world map around Cathay be? There’s a lot of potential here, and I hope the developers will really go all out! In any case, I can’t wait to have my first interview with them and pull just this information out of their noses.
