Total War: WARHAMMER III News

50 turns as Cathay in Total War: Warhammer 3's campaign

I wouldn't say it's the best feeling, to watch a dozen portals to hell burst into existence across the green pastures of Grand Cathay, the site of my steadily growing empire in Total War: Warhammer III.

Not that it's supposed to be, but I'm especially sensitive to this sort of thing. I like to build and beautify; I've been known to build unnecessary parade grounds in Command & Conquer rather than finish missions just because I thought them thematic. My biggest gripe with Total War: Warhammer II was that it would drop hostile armies into my territory as soon as I started a Vortex ritual; they always seemed to appear whenever my own troops were absent, so that no matter how I prepared, I was powerless to prevent the destruction of several carefully tended cities.

So you can imagine how I felt when these rifts into the Realm of Chaos burst upon my territory like acne before a first date. Warhammer's infamously grimdark lore is all about the fact that even the most redoubtable city is only a Skaven orgy away from drowning in a tide of rats, but look, it's not just me: "It felt a bit contrived that you can't control the fact there's going to be a few stacks coming in and attacking you," game director Ian Roxburgh tells us, reflecting on player feedback from Warhammer II.

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Total Warhammer 3 devs unveil a generous look at Grand Cathay gameplay

Creative Assembly has shared a generous look at some new Total War: Warhammer III gameplay ahead of the strategy game's arrival next month. In a new clip (below), we get to see an eight-and-a-half-minute chunk of campaign action as Grand Cathay Legendary Lord Miao Ying leads her Northern Provinces faction to stave off the Chaos hordes threatening the Great Bastion and map beyond.

Starting off with a successful flanking at Gunpowder Road to "sandwich" rebels between the faction's cavalry and other forces, the battle kicks off in earnest. The faction uses its Sky-Junk (essentially armed air balloons) and "superior ranged capabilities" to defeat the defecting rebels. The clip then shows us what could be some of the big focal points of battles around the Great Bastion: its three entrypoint gates, embedded in the walls. "When Chaos invasions come, it's these locations that take the brunt of the attacks," the narrator explains.

Elsewhere, we see tactics such as the Storm Dragon's Edict Commandment deployed, which is used to suppress corruption, bolster defences, and dial down enemies' movement range. We also get to see the Northern Provinces make use of the Ivory Road - a mechanic which helps the faction bring in additional funds to support its growing army. It seems you can dispatch a caravan to trade with cultures based far away, but there's a catch. "Caravans come with plenty of risk," the narrator warns, though "the potential rewards are more than worth it".

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"We're killing a god" - how Total Warhammer 3 is going all-in on story

With just over two months to go until the release of Total War: Warhammer 3, developer Creative Assembly is shovelling coal into the hype train at an unprecedented rate. The studio has not only revealed all the launch races, but gone into greater depth about their mechanics than we've ever seen at this stage. It's a bottom-up approach to hype - red meat for the core fans who can tell from these fiddly details just how radical and ambitious the game will be in its design.

But for many fans - and certainly for me - the macro stuff is a big part of the anticipation too. Previous Warhammer entries have done more than any other Total War game to try to tell a story in the series' traditional sandbox setting. When CA is emphasising at every turn just how big Warhammer III will be, what does that look like?

CA has stated that it won't recreate the End Times, the in-universe apocalypse with which publisher Games Workshop pulled the plug on the Warhammer Fantasy tabletop game back in 2015. But with such a sense of escalation behind it as the crescendo in a trilogy, one which also stars the Chaos Gods who were behind the End Times, it's an understandable guess for some fans to have made. Exactly how wide of the mark were they?

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The "real villain" of Total Warhammer 3 isn't the Chaos Gods

If you've been keeping a close eye on Total War: Warhammer 3 news, you'll have seen the Chaos God reveals pouring out over the past few months like daemonic Nurgle slime, ahead of the strategy game's arrival in February next year. We've seen the Nurgle, Slaansesh, Tzeentch, and Khorne factions make their gruesome pre-launch debuts - but it seems they won't be the chief architects of the game's chaos (heh). Instead, the "real villain" will be some mysterious other being.

That's according to principal writer Andy Hall, who we spoke to about the game's narrative and lore now that the veil's been lifted on the four main Chaos Gods. As long-time fans of the tabletop game will know, these gods rallied behind their 'Everchosen', Archaon, to destroy the setting on which Total Warhammer is based in a big event called the End Times. Since we know Warhammer III will also feature the gods, fans have been wondering if it'll tell a similar story - Creative Assembly has been clear that it isn't doing the End Times, but has kept other details under wraps. We took the chance to probe Andy about the key differences.

"Well, the End Times was the grand design of the Chaos Gods and their direct scions," he tells us. "For once they stopped playing the Great Game against each other and focussed their servants on all-out annihilation.

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Ogre Kingdoms vs Exiles of Khorne Battle Gameplay

[h3]As Khorne travels across the mountains, travelling through a desert and Warpstone curiosities, they discover something... ravenous.

They have wandered into the Mountains of Mourn, the homeland of the Ogre Kingdoms.

Check out the full battle: [/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]