Total War: WARHAMMER III News

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Happy release day WARHAMMER fans! Welcome to UPDATE 1.3!

Like its predecessors, today's update focuses on fixes and features identified and prioritized by our players in these early months of Total War: WARHAMMER III. While the list of changes is shorter than 1.1 or 1.2, there are still a hefty number of important adjustments to key systems throughout the game, new features to continue expanding the tools in your arsenal, and critical updates as we lay the groundwork for the massive 2.0 update coming in August.

If you're looking for the short list of the most important notes, here's the tl;dr summary of what's coming in 1.3:

• Regiments of Renown II introduces a whole new set of elite troops to all seven factions—this time with a focus on mounted units!
  
• Land Battles have joined the ranked matchmaking queue!
  
• Miao Ying can now (properly) use her Eye of the Storm ability in combat
  
• Additional character trait reworks and skill tree updates for the Legendary Lords
  
• Several adjustments to make the Realm of Chaos less punishing or tedious
  
• Much-needed adjustments to how the AI Tzeentch faction utilizes Changing of the Ways
• Improvements to the Cathayan Formation Attack ability
  
• Fixes to the Kurgan Warband spawn rates during the Grand Cathay campaign
  
• Numerous improvements to unit responsiveness to orders and movement commands in battle
  
• AI improvements to their battle strategy, as well as fixes to prevent them from abusing skills and abilities
  
• Various fixes for player-reported issues and feedback notes
  
• ...and more!

You can read through the full list of changes below, and then take the time to jump in and try them out in the latest build:

[h3]📜 Read the Full Update 1.3 Release Notes...[/h3]

The team is already hard at work on Update 2.0, which will bring a load of new features, DLC, and (of course) the debut of the highly anticipated Immortal Empires game mode. We have a load of new information coming your way in the weeks to come, so stay tuned and keep the hype rolling!

We hope you enjoy Update 1.3! Remember to let us know if you encounter any issues and to follow our social channels (below) for more information and news about Total War: WARHAMMER III.

See you on the battlefield!

— The Total War Team

For the latest news and announcements, don't forget to visit our official social channels.

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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!