Total War: Warhammer III will be the final title of the strategy game Total War: Warhammer trilogy. Before the release, we got the invitation from Sega to join a media presentation, and that gave us the chance to have a better view of the upcoming game.
Creative Assembly, the developer of the game, showed us intense new additions like the lore of the single-player campaign, new information regarding multiplayer, revealed the eighth and last faction: Daemon of Chaos and gave us a closer look at the Grand Cathay.
Gameplay
The single-player campaign in Warhammer III is called “The Realm of Chaos”. It takes from the similar concept in the Vortex campaign in Warhammer II, of every faction sharing a similar goal, in this case, Challenging the first Daemon Prince Be’Lakor in the Realm of Chaos and retrieving the dying bear god Ursun as the reward.
This goal will motivate players to lead their army into the Chaos territory and experience the newly revealed feature: Survival Battle. It will be a fierce battle combining a siege attack and defense against the Daemons.
Speaking of siege, some may already know that sieges have been reworked in Warhammer III. Even the battlefield in a minor settlement is well designed. We tried to attack several settlements in our playtest, and each battle was unique and fun. There were a variety of battlefields for each settlement, and we did not find recurring settlements designs during our playthrough.
Though our army was far stronger than the garrison, the battles were still challenging. Defenders built barricades, towers and traps to stop our forces. A small army could block larger forces in narrow chokepoints (which were easy to find) to offset its opponent’s military advantage. This will encourage the player to divide their army and strike the settlement flexibly instead of with a simple head-on assault.
The changes in Warhammer III will also give skillful players the chance to defeat stronger enemies while defending their settlements. These new settlement defenses have much in common with the mechanics in Survival Battles, giving you a taste of that dessert to the Warhammer III meal.
Another improved feature is the Multiplayer. Creative Assembly showed us the latest Multiplayer campaign that allows up to eight players to join in a campaign and conquer the map with simultaneous turns; a feature people have wanted for some time. “The Realm of Chaos” campaign will be an eight-player version of the single-player campaign. “Something Rotten in Kislev” and “Darkness & Disharmony” will have a smaller but tighter map that can be finished in one night. In addition, whenever a player engages in a battle, other players can also take part in the battle. They may choose to control parts of their friend’s army or to lead the enemy forces.
Daemons of Chaos
One faction open to us was the recently revealed Daemons of Chaos. Players will play one specific Daemon Prince, originally a prince of Kislev that betrayed Ursun. The player will attempt to gather a daemon army from all four Chaos factions and seek revenge on Be’Lakor.
That’s right, the Daemons of Chaos faction can mix the forces of all the Chaos Gods. It makes the faction fully customizable by players themselves and unpredictable. Players can make an army combining each Chaos faction's advantages or simply make ‘doomstacks’ of all four kinds of Soul Grinder for fun.
There isn’t a fixed form for the Daemon Prince in the lore, which is also the case in Warhammer III. The game provides the chance to customize Daemon Prince from head to toe. According to the developer, over 500 billion body parts combinations are possible. They will not only change the appearance: a Daemon Prince with Tzeentch body parts will gain barriers and improved magic skills. On the other hand, Khorne body parts will provide more strength in melee combat.
Players themselves also decide the Daemon Prince’s name. It will not surprise us if someone conquers the world with a Daemon Prince named “Peppa”.
The Daemons of Chaos faction have something called Daemonic Glory to replace the tech tree to unlock those body parts and units. This is an all-in-one progression tree divided into five flavors. One is for each of the Chaos Gods, and the last is undivided glory. Players can gain different flavors of glory by making a choice after they defeat an enemy, conquer a city, build specific structures etc. The playstyle is versatile; players can focus on one specific Chaos God to unlock higher-tier stuff faster or mix them up to get a more balanced style.
The Daemons of Chaos campaign will provide a unique and immersive RPG-style experience for players.
Grand Cathay
Right after we finished our closed test, Creative Assembly launched a gameplay trailer of Grand Cathay and showcased most of the gameplay elements. However, there are still a few details we want to go through.
Miao Ying, the legendary lord of Grand Cathay and the guardian of the Great Bastion, is not going to have an easy day. Players who choose Miao Ying will get their hands full at the start: the Great Bastion is already breached, rebels all around, chaos tribes focused on raiding and running, and Chi'an Chi, who is planning another assault on the Great Bastion.
There is a ‘threat level’ to the Great Bastion in the game, and a strong hostile army will appear and attack the land of Cathay. It means Miao Ying must deal with all the existing problems in her hands and be prepared for an even more significant challenge at the same time.
However, players will be supported by Cathay’s unique mechanics: Harmony, the Ivory Road, and the Wu Xing Compass.
A perfect balance of Yin and Yang will result in the state of Harmony to the players’ faction, providing an enormous bonus to economy and diplomacy. With the reworked diplomacy system, players can build outposts in an allied territory and recruit their units to form up a stronger army.
Caravans can be sent along the Ivory Road to earn extra gold. Each caravan is well protected with an escorting army and will keep moving on the route selected by the player. Players do not need to micro-manage this or divide their army to defend them until random events come up and ask players to decide which units to recruit or whether to sacrifice units as a“toll” to the Ogres.
If players feel it challenging to defend the Great Bastion, the Wu Xing Compass can provide help from the Dragon Emperor himself. While pointing the compass in the direction of the Great Bastion, it can slow the threat level growth and buff the garrison forces, effectively buying more time for the player. The other directions will provide different effects like enhancing the economy or unleashing the ultimate wrath of the Dragon Emperor.
Total War: Warhammer III will be released on Feb 12, 2022. Subscribe to us if you want to hear more about Total War: Warhammer III.