Total War: WARHAMMER III News

Welcome to the FAQ for the Immortal Empires release (Update 2.0.0) for Total War: WARHAMMER III. Here, you’ll find a hefty amount of information and answers to important questions regarding the release of the new game mode.

If you experience technical issues, we recommend that you verify the integrity of your files to ensure they’ve all downloaded properly. If you continue to experience issues after that, our Support Team is always available to work with you one-on-one to figure out the problem.

[h4]🛠 Contact the SEGA Support Team[/h4]

For game issues, we recommend visiting one of our official spaces to post or contribute to a thread. We will be collecting reports and working fixes into our development schedule.

[h4]🐞 Bugs: Total War: WARHAMMER III – Game Bug Reports (Steam)[/h4]
[h4]🐞 Bugs: Total War: WARHAMMER III Support Forum (Official Forum)[/h4]

Thank you, as always, for your support; we’ll see you on the battlefield!

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[h3]WHAT IS IMMORTAL EMPIRES?[/h3]


Immortal Empires is a new grand-scale campaign mode for Total War: WARHAMMER III available for free to owners of all three Total War: WARHAMMER titles. It combines the landmasses, Legendary Lords, war units, and more from the series into one colossal mode spread across the vast Warhammer World. It is the most complete and definitive Warhammer strategy experience ever conceived.

For more information, read about it here:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1142710/view/3324233322418110931
[h3]WHEN DOES THE IMMORTAL EMPIRES BETA RELEASE?[/h3]
Immortal Empires will release on the 23rd of August.



For more time zones: Time to the Total War: WARHAMMER III Immortal Empires Beta (redirects to timeanddate.com)

[h3]IF I OWN ALL THREE GAMES, DOES THIS MEAN I HAVE ACCESS TO ALL OF THE CONTENT/RACES/FACTIONS/ETC. IN IMMORTAL EMPIRES?[/h3]
Owning the base games of all three Total War: WARHAMMER titles will only grant you access to the set selection of Races and Legendary Lords available in those given games. You will need to purchase the DLC for those games to access the respective races and factions in Immortal Empires.

For example, if you wish to play with the Vampire Coast or Tomb Kings, you will need to own their respective products.

[h3]HOW DO I DOWNLOAD AND PLAY IMMORTAL EMPIRES?[/h3]
Immortal Empires will download automatically along with the release of Update 2.0 on August 23rd. No additional download or opt-in is required to play if you meet the requirements.

[h3]WILL IMMORTAL EMPIRES HAVE THE SAME MINIMUM AND RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS?[/h3]
Yes; Immortal Empires will have the same minimum and recommended specifications as Total War: WARHAMMER III.

[h3]HOW BIG IS THE DOWNLOAD SIZE?[/h3]
The download size for Total War: WARHAMMER III and Immortal Empires has been reduced from 120GB to ~104GB.

[h3]DO I NEED TO INSTALL ALL THREE GAMES TO PLAY?[/h3]
No; as long as the other games are in your library, you only need to have Total War: WARHAMMER III installed to access Immortal Empires.

[h3]WILL IMMORTAL EMPIRES SUPPORT CROSS OWNERSHIP?[/h3]
Immortal Empires will not support cross-platform ownership. Like previous Total War games, players should own all of the required content on a single store in order to access it in-game.

[h3]WILL IMMORTAL EMPIRES SUPPORT CROSS-PLAY?[/h3]
Yes, Immortal Empires will support cross play. Like Total War: WARHAMMER III, players can join and play with each other across the Microsoft, Steam, and Epic platforms.

[h3]ARE THE REALM OF CHAOS OR EYE OF THE VORTEX MECHANICS ACTIVE IN THIS?[/h3]
No; Immortal Empires does not feature the Realm of Chaos (WARHAMMER III) or Eye of the Vortex (WARHAMMER II) campaign mechanics. It is a sandbox experience first and foremost, though each race will still have their own unique victory conditions for the campaign.

[h3]HOW MANY PLAYERS DOES MULTIPLAYER SUPPORT?[/h3]
Like Total War: WARHAMMER III, Immortal Empires will support up to eight players in multiplayer campaign or battles.

[h3]HAVE THE FACTIONS FROM THE PREVIOUS GAMES BEEN BALANCED AGAINST THOSE FROM WARHAMMER III?[/h3]
As Immortal Empires is launching in BETA, balancing is still work-in-progress.

However, we have made a concerted effort to ensure that Total War: WARHAMMER I and II factions are able to compete with their WARHAMMER III counterparts.

Norsca, Lizardmen, Dark Elves, and the Vampire Counts have received the largest updates so far. More information regarding them can be found on the Total War blog here:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1142710/view/4972554042134301101
[h3]WILL IMMORTAL EMPIRES BE LOCALISED?[/h3]
Yes, Immortal Empires has been localised in the same set of languages available to Total War: WARHAMMER III.

[h3]WILL IMMORTAL EMPIRES BE MODDABLE?[/h3]
With an all-new game mode, we know there’s a huge community ready to start implementing their own spin and style to what the game has to offer. Much like Total War: WARHAMMER III, players will be able to load mods that change how Immortal Empires plays. The final piece of the puzzle is the Total War Assembly Kit, which we will be releasing alongside a future update.

[h3]WHAT’S NEW IN IMMORTAL EMPIRES?[/h3]


Immortal Empires has a range of new features and improvements ready to be experienced on August 23rd. These include; Be’Lakor as a playable Legendary Lord, an all-new ‘Sea Lanes’ mechanic to help circumnavigate the map, updated mechanics and playstyles for factions introduced in WARHAMMER I and II, fresh lore-inspired victory conditions for the campaign, new end-game scenarios, and much more.

For more information, please visit the Total War blog:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1142710/view/3324233322418110931
[h3]WHY ARE YOU RELEASING IMMORTAL EMPIRES AS A BETA?[/h3]
Immortal Empires is the most ambitious project we’ve ever attempted, combining the content of three massive games into one world-spanning mode. This means that it has also been one of the most technically challenging and there is still some work to do as we collect feedback, monitor the gameplay, and update it over time to address balance concerns and bugs. This is still the full Immortal Empires experience, but the beta tag helps us set expectations as we continue to make it the best it can be.

Visit the Immortal Empires introductory blog for more information:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1142710/view/3324233322418110931

Hello Total War: WARHAMMER community! Today we’re revealing the final Legendary Lord joining the Champions of Chaos Lords pack—Valkia the Bloody—coming to Total War: WARHAMMER III on August 23rd.

Valkia the Bloody is the cruel and daemonic consort of Khorne: returned from the dead to further the work of her diabolic paramour. Once a fell queen of a great northern tribe, the Blood God reawakened her as a form more pleasing to himself. The followers of Khorne fight all the harder in her presence, for it is said His gaze always lingers around her.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


The winged warrior-queen is one of the most skilled combatants in both the mortal and immortal realms—with melee stats to rival even those of Skarbrand. She has a range of powerful abilities, including Daemonshield, which grants invulnerability for a short period, Spear of Slaupnir which causes the ground to erupt in a straight line, and her Gaze of Khorne passive ability, which increases the base weapon damage, armour-piercing, and leadership of warriors in her area of influence.

[h3]FACTION EFFECTS[/h3]

• Has access to Bloodletting
  
• Campaign movement range: +20% after winning a battle (all characters)
  
• Souls gained from sacrificing captives: +50%
  
• Vassals gain Frenzy and spread Khorne’s corruption
  

[h3]LORD EFFECTS[/h3]

• Passive ability: The Gaze of Khorne
  
• Campaign movement range +35% after enemy retreats from battle
  

Azazel, Festus, Vilitch, and Valkia join the battlefield in the Champions of Chaos DLC, coming alongside the release of Immortal Empires on August 23rd. Pre-orders are available now on all stores now—and you’ll even score a 10% discount if you pick them up before August 30th!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1824060/Total_War_Warhammer_III__Champions_of_Chaos/


We’ll be sharing an even more in-depth look at Valkia in a Let’s Play video coming TOMORROW, so look for that over on the official Total War YouTube channel. Then, keep your eyes on our social channels for more news about Immortal Empires and the Champions of Chaos, both coming this August 23rd!

Hello Total War: WARHAMMER community! Today we’re revealing the third Legendary Lord joining the Champions of Chaos Lords pack—Vilitch the Curseling—coming to Total War: WARHAMMER III on August 23rd.

The malformed sorcerer-twin known as Vilitch the Curseling is a living manifestation of Tzeentch’s twisted delight in anarchy. The Great Sorcerer fused the frail runt with their warrior brother: granting Vilitch both baleful abilities and control of their autonomous sibling’s diabolic strength. Now, as they ruthlessly plot to further their own power, their enemies fear the disturbing creature known as the Twisted Twin!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


The chaotic fusion of warrior and wizard makes Vilitch a force to be reckoned with upon the battlefields of The Old World, as they are both a formidable melee and spellcasting Lord of Tzeentch. Their passive ability, The Twisted Twin, increasingly raises their spell mastery, melee defence, and melee attack the longer they're in close combat or casting spells.

[h3]FACTION EFFECTS[/h3]

• Vassals gain increased barrier hit points and spread Tzeentch’s corruption
  
• Has access to Changing of the Ways
  
• Forces receive benefits for having high Winds of Magic
  
• Converts a portion of own battle casualties into Souls
  
• Has access to the Tzeentch teleport stance
  

[h3]LORD EFFECTS[/h3]

• Steal +15% of the experience earned by other Lords
  
• Passive ability: The Twisted Twin
  
• Teleport stance usage cost: -25% Winds of Magic (Lord’s Army)
  

We’ll be sharing an even more in-depth look at Vilitch in a Let’s Play video coming TOMORROW, so look for that over on the official Total War YouTube channel. Then, prepare yourself for more news about the final Legendary Lord joining the Champions of Chaos next week!

Hello Total War: WARHAMMER fans! Over the past few weeks, months, and even YEARS, there's been a healthy debate within the community as to how we approach the implementation of certain races in the Total War: WARHAMMER games. Nowhere has that been more apparent than the split between the Warriors of Chaos, the Daemons of Chaos, and the “Monogod” races (Tzeentch, Slaanesh, Khorne, and Nurgle).

With that discussion rising to the forefront following the reveal of the Champions of Chaos, we wanted to take a moment to sit down with our design team and get their thoughts on the process behind it. So today, we’re here to provide you with a clear picture of what, why, and how we’ve split the Lords of Chaos, as well as the role it will play in our forthcoming DLC!

(You ready for a super deep dive? Let’s go!)


[h3]WHY ARE THE FOUR NEW LEGENDARY LORDS CONSIDERED "WARRIORS OF CHAOS?"[/h3]
With this being the first Warriors of Chaos Lords Pack since 2015, we wanted to reintroduce this iconic race in a way that was befitting of their infamous world-ending reputation. To that end, introducing four Legendary Lords—each of whom is aligned with one of the four Chaos Gods—was a flavorful way to start, particularly given that we already have two Undivided Lords in the form of Archaon and Kholek.

Beyond the flavor that each Champion could bring to this Lord’s Pack, we found that several design elements aligned exceptionally well with the revamped Warriors of Chaos mechanics. For instance, the vision for Azazel was that he’s been sent out into the world to find and lure promising Undivided champions into devoting themselves to Slaanesh. He’s basically an evil talent scout—a role implied as far back as Morkar the Uniter, who may have been persuaded along his path to become the first Everchosen way back in the days of Sigmar.



For some characters, it would have been very hard to find a niche for them in the Monogods roster. Festus is a good example here; he’s a durable Lore of Nurgle spellcaster who’s a master of brewing plagues...but how do you make him interesting alongside Ku’gath, who’s better at all those things in addition to throwing exploding Nurglings? The answer: put Festus in the Warriors and you’ve *immediately* got a combination of features that’s entirely unique!

Finally, this approach allowed us to push the quality of the pack far higher than we could have otherwise. Having the whole team laser-focused on a shared feature-set meant that every single playtest, improvement, and bug fix benefited all the characters rather than one.

It needs to be stressed, though, that even in this context, our goal was to create four Warriors of Chaos experiences that feel like Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch—much in the same way that Wulfhart and the new Volkmar feel like Empire factions even though they don’t share the same mechanics as Karl Franz. These are true hybrids: drawing a ton of flavour and gameplay from their relevant Dark God. They’ll be fully capable of running armies that will look very much like the ones you’d see when playing as the relevant God-specific race...but with Dragon Ogres!

[h3]WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE THE ‘MONOGOD’ RACES OF KHORNE, SLAANESH, NURGLE, AND TZEENTCH?[/h3]
It’s important to state: the new DLC characters existing within the Warriors of Chaos race DOES NOT prevent us from adding mortal characters to the Monogod rosters.

This is something we confront on a DLC-by-DLC basis. In some instances, mortal characters might fit better alongside a Daemon-focused roster or the Monogod mechanics; in others, the roster might end up with wildly different, bespoke feature-sets more appropriate to the given faction. Don’t worry; there are plenty of exciting characters who will be joining the Monogods in the future....

It’s also worth stressing that this pack will still massively transform the Monogod playstyle. In some cases, their rosters are almost doubling in size, with each God gaining a new hero and two lords to lead their armies, topped off by the ability to convert Mortal Lords into Daemon Princes. Even older heroes are getting updated: with Cultists now riding the new Warshrines into battle as mounts. Combined with a ton of balance changes and the new Immortal Empires starting positions, we’re pretty sure the Monogods will offer a ton of fresh, new experiences.

[h3]WHY ARE THERE TWO SLAANESH LEGENDARY LORDS IN THE WARRIORS OF CHAOS?[/h3]
With hindsight, everything is much clearer...

It's fair to say that if Sigvald hadn’t already been in the game since 2016, he would have (undoubtedly) been the Slaanesh Champion in Azazel’s place. Beyond that, we wanted to ensure that all four of the Dark Gods had representation within this pack in order to provide you with a larger variety of Legendary Lords to play at launch. Plus, we really like the Swiss Army Knife dynamism that Azazel brings to the roster!



Ultimately, our aim has been to ensure that both Slaaneshi Lords offer a distinct playstyle. As Azazel is a Daemon Prince, he has a narrower choice of units to recruit from, solely focusing on Undivided and Slaaneshi units, whilst Sigvald has the potential to branch out into units from all four pantheons and Undivided. That’s not to say you’ll see Sigvald leading armies of screaming Khornate berserkers or festering Nurgle-worshipers: due to the Dark Authority system (see below) Sigvald’s own personal retinue will maintain a distinctly Slaanesh flavour and he’ll need to do some delegation to others to efficiently maintain units devoted to other Gods. So, even though there’s only one Lord in the Slaanesh race, you’ve got three *very* different ways to play a Slaanesh-themed campaign.

[h3]HOW DO THE UNIT ROSTERS WORK IN A CAMPAIGN?[/h3]
While the Warriors of Chaos can eventually access a truly vast array of mortal and daemonic units, it’s not just a case of constructing specific buildings and spewing out multicoloured units... Much like the lore, you’ll have to work hard to amass the forces of multiple Gods, and certain characters will find it easier (or more difficult) than others.



Every unit in the roster is treated as either a “Warband” unit or a “Gifted” unit. Warband units are your bread and butter: consisting of Mortal humans as well as the bulk of the Undivided monstrous units. Almost all of them can be “Marked”—an act that devotes them to a specific God and turns them into a new unit with new visuals, stats, and even new voice lines—though you can’t necessarily Mark a unit right from the start.

Gifted units are primarily Daemons accompanied by a few specialist, non-Daemonic units—such as Hellcannons and Shaggoths—and are recruited by spending Souls on Chaos Gifts (hence the name) or via certain special events. The catch? There’s a cap on the number of these “Gifted” units you can have in any given army; that is, unless you’re Be’lakor, who can recruit as many as he likes! Like Marks, these options aren’t necessarily available from the very start of your Campaign.

In fact, the specific conditions for unlocking these options is one of the key ways we’re differentiating the individual factions. For example:

• Be’lakor can recruit a whole bunch of Gifted units from Turn 1 onward, but must unlock the ability to Mark mortals in his skill tree.
  
• Sigvald can recruit Slaanesh mortals and Daemons from Turn 1 onward, but must wait to unlock other God’s forces. (Though he might struggle to keep Khornate units in check...)
  
• Archaon can unlock the ability to recruit God-specific units and is best-suited to access and lead forces that mix-and-match with a bit of everything.
  
• Kholek will have the hardest time getting access to God-specific units, but has easier access to Dragon Ogres and Dragon Ogre Shaggoths.

On top of these special conditions, a “Dark Authority” system restricts which units you can include in any given army. God-specific units won’t simply follow anyone... For example, if you want Nurgle followers or Daemons in your army, you’ll need a Nurgle lord or hero in the army to keep them in line; otherwise they’ll suffer from increased upkeep and reduced replenishment. And if you try and put Khorne units in an army with Slaanesh characters or (Gods forbid) a wizard, you’ll need to make sure there’s a proper Khornate character present to balance things out. We really want to sell the idea that these “Warbands” are perilous coalitions of rivals, forcing you (the player) to think carefully about how you organize your armies.

[h3]WHAT’S SPECIAL ABOUT THE NEW DLC LORDS?[/h3]
Comparatively, the four new DLC Lords are almost akin to a sub-race within the Warriors: Lords who are more closely aligned to their specific God, and thus limited in their access to the full suite of Marked units in lieu of their patron God’s specific units alongside the Undivided. To accommodate this sacrifice, they instead gain a variety of specialist advantages:

• They can start Marking Mortals and recruiting Daemons from Turn 1 and will find it both easier and cheaper to do so.
  
• They share a uniquely structured tech tree—about half of which is built for their particular faction—that allows for more specialization in God-specific units and mechanics.
  
• They spread (and benefit more from) their own God’s corruption, but are actively penalized by the corruption of an opposing God.
  
• They get access to their God’s battle mechanics and army abilities.
  
• They each get versions of certain Campaign features belonging to the main Daemon faction; for example: Festus can brew and spread plagues, but they have slightly different effects to Ku’gath’s.

There’s also a ton of other variations we’ve made where appropriate; for example, vassals belonging to the DLC lords will take on certain attributes from their masters: spreading their favoured corruption and gaining thematic bonuses in battle. They’ve even got unique ways to keep their troops in line; Festus, as an example, can get more Nurgle Authority by bestowing his armies with plagues, making it easier for him to put Nurgle troops in Undivided-led forces.



All in all, we’ve tried to make these four Champions feel different from the rest of the Warriors of Chaos. Our dialogue engineers have even gone so far as to ensure that units in these characters’ armies use different voice lines when led by one of the characters; you’ll hear Marauders and Warriors and Chosen in Azazel’s army shouting about their allegiance—not just to Slaanesh, but to Azazel himself!

On top of all that, they also participate in a brand-new Campaign set on the Realms of Chaos map, which offers a dramatic narrative following the main game’s Ursun storyline. It’s a nifty, alternate take on the Rifts system: one with more control in the leadup to a truly epic finale.

[h3]WHAT ABOUT CONFEDERATION?[/h3]
Initially, the team were aiming for Archaon (at minimum) to be able to confederate all the Warriors of Chaos. However, there were some significant technical and balance issues that we were unable to resolve in the time we had to implement the rest of their feature overhauls. Given the technical issues, we were concerned that launching with confederation enabled could jeopardize the core experience of the Warriors of Chaos; as such, we chose to disable the option for the initial release of Immortal Empires.

With that said, we know that this is important to you, and will be looking to enable some form of confederation for the Warriors in a post-release patch. We'll talk more about how we'll aim to accomplish that feat in the future!




We hope this offers clarity into our design process and helps you understand where our four newest Legendary Lords are landing in the WARHAMMER III roster! As mentioned before, there’s still room for adjustments and changes, so we look forward to hearing what you think when you get your hands on them this August.

Check back next week for another look at an upcoming Champion, as well as more details about Immortal Empires!