Total War: WARHAMMER III News

Hello Total War: WARHAMMER fans! Welcome to the latest instalment of the Immortal Empires blog series. This week, we’ll be focusing on start positions! More notably, we’ll use this opportunity to kick off a gradual reveal over the coming weeks of where each of your favorite races will begin their conquest within the vast and unforgiving landscape of Immortal Empires.


As war-hardened veterans, you’re (likely) already aware that start positions are more than where your campaign begins; they set the tone for what you experience and the level of difficulty you'll encounter due to a variety of factors: from the number of enemy factions surrounding your settlements to the availability of resources and type of terrain (or corruption) that envelops your land.

While the starting positions for most of our Legendary Lords will be unchanged in Immortal Empires, we’ve altered where 29 factions begin their journey based on a variety of factors.

The key reasons for these changes? While some were made to be more lore-friendly, add racial diversity to certain regions, or to spice up your familiar battles, it's worth remembering that authenticity is key! So, you won’t be seeing any crazy or drastic changes: such as Karl Franz starting in the middle of Lustria-bowl (even if that would be fun to watch...).


There are few better races to kick off this set of reveals than The Empire.

The poster-boys of the original Total War: WARHAMMER, The Empire is the largest and most important Human race in The Old World (don’t tell Kislev) and have been fighting all forms of foul beasts encroaching upon its borders for millennia.

• KARL FRANZ: It wouldn‘t be the Empire without an Emperor; Karl Franz continues his ambitions to unite the Elector Counts from the starting settlement of Altdorf.
  
  
• BALTHASAR GELT: The Supreme Patriarch of the Colleges of Magic continues his own fascination with alchemy from the starting settlement of Pfeildorf.
  
  
• MARKUS WULFHART: Leading his motley crew of warriors known as ‘Wuflhart’s Hunters’, the Huntsmaster continues his expeditions within the dangerous jungles of Lustria, starting in the settlement of The Creeping Jungle.
  
  
• VOLKMAR THE GRIM: The Grand Theogonist for the Church of Sigmar has abandoned the petty squabbles of the Elector Counts in favor of a zealous crusade within the Southern Realms. His starting settlement will be Sudenberg, where rumor has it that he’s hellbent on finding certain dark artifacts...
  

To provide context for WARHAMMER III’s starting positions, we should also include the locations of the game’s poster daemons. That’s right: the hellspawn of the Chaos Gods will all enjoy new starting positions in Immortal Empires:

• N’KARI: Defeated by the High Elves of Ulthuan long ago, N’kari has returned to the Shrine of Kurnous where he seeks his vengeance after waiting for an eternity.
  
  
• KAIROS FATEWEAVER: The Oracle of Tzeentch has invaded from the Southern Wastes and conquered the Fortress of Dawn, though his designs are an unknowable as ever.
  
  
• SKARBRAND: Driven by his endless rage and bloodlust, Skarbrand wages war against the Savage Orcs in the Badlands: collecting and piling their skulls in Deff Gorge.
  
  
• KU’GATH PLAGUEFATHER: Kugath has sailed from the southern wastes, drawn by the putrid sludge near the mouth of the River Ruin, settling nearby in Dragon Fang Mount within the Dragon Isles.
  
  
• DAEMON PRINCE: The Daemon Prince moves to the Forest of Decay in the northern Chaos Wastes, allowing him to compete for the ultimate leadership of Chaos.
  

That’s all the starting positions we’ll be unveiling today, but we’ll be revealing the starting locations of all 86 Legendary Lords on our social channels over the coming weeks. While some of these will have relatively minor (but exciting) changes like The Empire, others will see several factions jumping to entirely new pastures:

1. Lizardmen
2. Norsca
3. Kislev
4. High Elves
5. Bretonnia
6. Grand Cathay
7. Skaven
8. Greenskins
9. Ogre Kingdoms
10. Beastmen
11. Tomb Kings
12. Wood Elves
13. Vampire Coast
14. Dwarfs
15. Dark Elves
16. Vampire Counts
17. Warriors of Chaos

Next week, we’re offering an inside look at Be’lakor and the other new dedicated factions coming to Immortal Empires! Watch for more news (including the rest of the starting positions) on our social channels, and we’ll see you on the battlefield this August!

G’day Total War: WARHAMMER III fans! We hope you’ve been enjoying the first few weeks of Immortal Empires news coming your way! That said, there’s PLENTY more to come before August, including the NEXT actual release coming to WARHAMMER III: UPDATE 1.3—which is what we’ll be talking about today!


Compared to its predecessors, Update 1.3 is going to be smaller than what Update 1.1 or 1.2 introduced to the game. As most of our development resources (and QA time) are focused on getting Immortal Empires (and the rest of Update 2.0) prepped and ready for its debut, 1.3 is aimed at addressing a variety of outstanding issues, player-reported frustrations, and other areas that will help lay the foundation for the release of the major update coming this August.

Here’s a *brief* (and far from complete) look at some of the key features—many of which are based on player feedback—coming to 1.3:

[h3]REGIMENTS OF RENOWN II[/h3]
Seven new Regiments of Renown units are joining the roster in our second official unit pack. Like the first, units will be joining each of the game’s core races to provide new, elite variants for any army you field.

(We’ll take a closer look at each when 1.3 arrives. In the meantime, we welcome your guesses as to what units you’d like to see in the coming release.)

[h3]CHARACTER TRAIT & SKILL TREE REWORKS[/h3]
A popular topic since the launch of WARHAMMER III: the traits received upon defeating Legendary Lords will be seeing some adjustments to feel more rewarding when you stomp a big baddie.

Several skill trees will also be seeing updates. This should not only improve the efficacy of your Lords and Legendary Lords, but will help factions who have historically struggled with replenishing their armies. We’ll share the specific changes in the 1.3 release notes, so watch for them then!

[h3]REALM OF CHAOS[/h3]
As we continue to tweak the Realm of Chaos campaign, several new changes are being implemented to address some of the more frustrating aspects identified by players:

• When an AI teleports to the Forge of Souls, players will now be prompted to teleport and confront them (if they are in a position to do so). This should counteract the need to proactively camp the Forge of Souls until the AI appears.
  
• The final encounter with Be’lakor has been adjusted to be less time-consuming and punishing.
  

Several tweaks are also coming to Tzeentch’s realm, specifically:

• Sigils will now be revealed when the player enters/exits a teleport locus.
  
• Action points used to move and position your armies will no longer be lost by interacting with a point of interest.
  
• The AI now must teleport eight times before accessing the final area.
  

[h3]AI USE OF ‘CHANGING OF THE WAYS’[/h3]
The AI’s use of Changing of the Ways (Tzeentch) has been a notable pain point since the launch of the game. As such, two key changes are being made:

• Minor Tzeentch factions will no longer be able to use Changing of the Ways.
  
• The cooldown is being increased to prevent it from being abused by AI factions.
  

[h3]CATHAYAN FORMATION ATTACK[/h3]
As promised earlier in the year, adjustments have been made to improve Cathay’s Formation Attack ability: both by adding additional melee defence and by updating the entity behaviour so that soldiers will more actively seek out engagements.

[h3]KURGAN SPAWN RATES[/h3]
Several changes are being made to prevent Kurgan Warband armies from spawning continuously—offering vigilant Cathayan players a chance to enjoy some well-earned moments of peace.

[h3]MIAO YING NOW HAS “EYE OF THE STORM”[/h3]
A much-requested fix, Miao Ying will now be able to access her Eye of the Storm ability when in dragon form, as intended!

[h3]UNIT RESPONSIVENESS[/h3]
Several changes have been made to improve unit responsiveness in the game: from how units navigate settlement entrances and react to retreat orders, as well as how large units and heroes interact via synced animations.

[h3]AI FOCUS ON THE BACK LINE[/h3]
An issue where AI armies would focus (almost exclusively) on backline units is being addressed to encourage more meaningful tactics on the battlefield. This should also address an issue during Siege Battles which would compel the AI to scale walls and march through defending units to enter the city.

[h3]AI USING ABILITIES WHEN THEY SHOULD NOT[/h3]
There are a handful of instances where the AI would utilize abilities where the player could not; that is not intended, so we’re ensuring that abilities are limited in the same way as they are for the player.

[h3]PLAGUE ATTRITION[/h3]
Plagues have been noted as exceptionally difficult to deal with, so we’re making some adjustments to the duration and strength of attrition effects.

[h3]LAND & DOMINATION BATTLES ARE NOW IN RANKED[/h3]
Matchmaking will now allow for both Land and Domination battles in ranked: more variety to test your skills!


While there is plenty more fixes and features coming with 1.3 (all of which will be captured in the release notes) there’s one project noted previously which has been bumped from the release. As with any project, we will continue to work on developing, testing, and implementing it as soon and safely as possible:

[h3]INCREASING THE FREQUENCY OF FIELD BATTLES (CAMPAIGN)[/h3]
We still want to ensure that there is a healthy mix of land, siege, and minor settlement battles as you play through the campaign—particularly based on player feedback about the number of siege and settlement battles. This will be fixed in a future update, and we’ll let you know when we have an updated timeline as to when it will be ready.



Finally, it’s time to address the big question: when can you expect Update 1.3?

We promised that it would be kicking off Q3, and we are going to do just that: releasing it next Thursday, June 30th to usher in the new quarter!

Don’t worry: we still have plenty of news about Immortal Empires even as we prepare and release 1.3. We hope you enjoy these latest additions to Total War: WARHAMMER III as you wait, and we’ll see you next week as we share more about both Immortal Empires and Update 1.3!

Hello, Total War: WARHAMMER fans. In last week's blog, we not only offered our first look at Immortal Empires, but noted that the new game mode “represents the world-spanning vision that we’ve been driving towards” since first beginning our work on the trilogy nearly a decade ago. Nowhere is that better represented than the campaign map: the massive battlefield where your armies will be fighting, raiding, sacking, and conquering in search of immortal glory.

This is the quintessential sandbox experience of the Total War: WARHAMMER campaign; and today, we’re excited to not only offer a sneak peek at the beta version of the map, but provide a first look at the new Sea Lanes feature being introduced along with Immortal Empires!



The Immortal Empires map is MASSIVE: the biggest map any Total War game has featured to date, and nearly twice as large as the Mortal Empires map first introduced in 2017 to Total War: WARHAMMER II. For perspective, the number of settlements has not only increased from 401 to 554*, but the number of starting factions has also increased from 183 to 278*.

* Note: These figures may change as we receive beta feedback

We’ve long said that the release of Total War: WARHAMMER III is only the beginning of the journey; to that end, you can expect the number of playable Legendary Lords and Races to continue growing as we release new DLC and free content to the game. This means that there will always be fresh new ways to approach Immortal Empires in the months and years to come as new forces join the battlefield.

While we won’t dive into the intricacies of start positions quite yet (...look for those soon...), you can also expect a variety of nifty changes which make the experience fresher, more challenging, and even more reverent to the Warhammer lore. You may just find a certain Krakenlord pillaging Grand Cathay...or a stealthy Skink taking the fight right to Chaos’ front door...



With the scale of the Immortal Empires map in mind, Sea Lanes have been introduced to add flexibility to your globe-trotting adventures. Interacting with them will provide the option to travel from the East of the map to the West and vice versa (with the exception of the Underworld Sea, which connects the Sea of Malice to the Boiling Sea), allowing for more exotic confrontations to be had, new allegiances to be formed, and unique roleplaying opportunities when once-distant factions meet for the first time. Any Lord or Hero will be able to move into the Sea Lane markers, allowing them to set sail and reach their destination after being at sea for a few turns.


Though included within the map, not all landmasses and oceans will be traversable at the launch of Immortal Empires, such as Khuresh and Ind. Our focus for the Total War: WARHAMMER trilogy has always been on the races of Eighth Edition (with some exceptions such as Grand Cathay, Norsca, and Kislev), and the areas where these races reside remain our immediate design priority.

It’s also worth remembering that the Immortal Empires campaign map isn’t a simple ‘stitch and fit’ job. The Old World, Eye of the Vortex, and Realms of Chaos campaign maps are designed to be unique, standalone experiences. Simply put: they’re different shapes and sizes that don’t ‘fit together’ like a jigsaw puzzle. This is a sandbox mode first and foremost, so mechanics such as the Eye of the Vortex and Realms of Chaos invasion also won’t be present here.


That’s all for today’s post, but as a teaser for our next news drop:

Now that the map of the world has been revealed, it seems like the perfect time to start pinning where each Legendary Lord begins their journey for conquest and glory. That's right: we're talking starting positions in the next blog, so stay tuned for more!

Immortal Empires is easily the most anticipated game mode coming to Total War: WARHAMMER III, and represents the world-encompassing vision we’ve been working towards since first partnering with Games Workshop nearly a decade ago. The combined battlefield brings everything we've built throughout the Total War: WARHAMMER series into WARHAMMER III: including the Races, factions, units, and Legendary Lords, all of which will find their home on a massive battlefield that spans the Warhammer world. In every respect, it’s the most ambitious project—and hands-down the most complicated one—we’ve ever attempted, and we're thrilled to begin sharing more about the game mode now and in the weeks to come.

For all of you looking to get your hands on immortal Empires, we're aiming to roll out the beta version of the game mode this August. Don't worry; we'll explain exactly what we mean by "beta" further below, but first, we want to spotlight some of what it'll be bringing to Total War: WARHAMMER III.


Immortal Empires is much more than the sum of each game’s content smashed together into a larger map. Rather, the new game mode offers a variety of new features and approaches to the combined battlefield:

• Access all 86 Legendary Lords from all three Total War: WARHAMMER titles.
  
• Be’Lakor is now a Legendary Lord with his own faction.
  
• Dedicated factions for a number of the older Legendary Lords, including: Grombrindal, Helman Ghorst, and Volkmar the Grim.
  
• New starting locations for 29 of the older Legendary Lords.
  
• Improved personal faction mechanics for a selection of the older Legendary Lords (such as Volkmar the Grim).
  
• A new ‘Sea Lanes’ feature, which allow you to move armies between distant lands and continents—from one side of the map to the other—without leapfrogging them all the way across the map.
  
• New dynamic end-game scenarios: randomised mid- to late-game challenges we’re introducing to challenge the late-game steamroll—where the player is so powerful that there’s little-to-no challenge left and less of a reason to complete the campaign. Think Greenskin invasions or resurgences of the undead, as a few examples…
  
• Revamped victory conditions. Most players don’t end up finishing campaigns, and we want to give them better reasons—and a greater level of satisfaction—for doing so. As such, we’ve simplified the victory requirements into more meaningful objectives while avoiding any arbitrary playstyle requirements.
  
• Corruption rework. Players will have new tools for spreading (or reducing) corruption through more active usage of their armies. Small amounts of natural reduction will also be available to uncorrupted factions.
  
• 8-player multiplayer campaigns. And as a bonus, only the host of an Immortal Empires multiplayer campaign needs to own all three games. Friends who only own WARHAMMER III will still be able to join the campaign, though their Legendary Lord choices will (naturally) be limited to the ones they own.
  

As you can see, on top of the enormous collection of content, there are plenty of new features and improvements on the way, including a new lease on life for many of the older Legendary Lords! (We'll be talking about each of these points in the weeks to come, so watch out for more deep dives into them in the future.)


When Immortal Empires arrives this August, you'll notice that it initially appears with a BETA tag until such time as we feel it no longer applies. When we first mentioned this earlier this year, we noted some of the concerns being raised within the community about the decision:

Will Immortal Empires be "finished" when it launches? Will it be implemented in smaller parts over time? How long do we have to wait until it's *fully* playable?

These are all fair questions in the absence of the proper context, so we want to take a moment to explain why we made this choice and what you can expect from Immortal Empires when it actually arrives later this year.



To begin, we need to talk a little about how Immortal Empires is built...

In order to create the game mode, the development team had to collect and combine the content, features, mechanics, systems, and code from three different codebases into a single mega-campaign. Now, taking big chunks of content, data, and code from one game and porting them into another is always a challenge—speaking from experience in this regard—and takes a significant amount of time and tailoring to get all the pieces to play nice with each other and work properly. Even after the technical implementations are done, there are still bugs to find and fix, as well as a significant amount of playtesting to ensure that (as an example) one race isn’t ridiculously under- or over-powered or that each race’s unique features and mechanics are working as intended.

In short: Immortal Empires isn’t just a "port" of content from one game to another; it’s a mountain of phenomenally change-sensitive, technical work. Here are a few examples of what's still being done as we speak:

• Lighting across battle maps is more advanced in WARHAMMER III, so it takes time to get all the older environments re-authored to meet the same current standards.
  
• Achieving parity across other details—such as the UI, character models, VFX, audio, and general game balance—will be a gradual process that continues over time.
  
• Corruption is also a biggie. We changed how it works quite fundamentally in WARHAMMER III, and we’re doing even more to improve it in Immortal Empires. It’s a game system that touches every playable race: regarding how they exploit, react to, or suffer from corruption, so it's a system that will continue to evolve until it settles in a good place.
  

These are just a few of the more visible items that we have to contend with, and there are many, MANY more that could be a blog (or, frankly, a novel) of their own. We’re determined to get Immortal Empires into your hands, but we want to be realistic: it won’t be the "final," finished product on day one—just as Mortal Empires wasn’t at its launch in WARHAMMER II. Ultimately, this entire three-game project won’t truly be complete for years to come, which is why we're initially launching it under the banner of a "BETA."

It’s worth noting that it WON'T be an opt-in beta; we’ll add it right into the main game for WARHAMMER III, which means it won't divide the player-base across separate versions of the game or harm the multiplayer experience if you want to dive into the new mode.


So, what will Immortal Empires be like come August?

At present, our aim is for the mode to be fully "content-complete" in terms of the available Races, factions, Legendary Lords, units, and geography, as well as all the extra features and improvements noted in the "What's New" section, above. You’ll be able to start a full sandbox campaign to play and conquer however you wish, use any Legendary Lord accessible (based on your game ownership) from any of the three games, or experiment with the older Legendary Lords benefiting from their revamp (especially Ghorst, *ho ho*).

Given the sheer scale of the project, there are bound to be some visual and technical bugs, and we’ll be providing a known issues list when Immortal Empires does go live. Nevertheless, we're confident that game mode will be massive, packed with content, functional, and fun on day one!


The moment the Immortal Empires beta goes live, its life truly begins! In the years to come, we'll continue honing and improving it, adding new features and improving existing ones, and introducing new content to help it grow over time.

Throughout this process, we'll want to hear from you about what you like and (yes) what you don't! We want to understand your impressions on things like the balance between factions, trends you’re spotting across the campaigns you play, or anything that just rubs you the wrong way. We’ll set up dedicated feedback channels for you to provide your thoughts and will also be keeping a keen eye on the popular community hangouts like the Total War subreddit.



Major patches will still arrive alongside new content packs as they did in WARHAMMER II, but we’ll also be releasing interim patches between the content packs, as well. When we start seeing trends around certain topics and features in Immortal Empires, we’ll bring those items to the forefront of the queue and react to your feedback as quickly and efficiently as we're able.

With all that in mind: when the Immortal Empires beta goes live, the best approach is to consider this "Phase 1." It’ll be the most enormous and varied strategic sandbox we’ve ever created—with all the content you expect and more—and we know it'll only get better over time.

More to come, so stay tuned for more about Immortal Empires and all the cool stuff coming to Total War: WARHAMMER III!