The same goes for the survival
battle at the end of each of them. The
wave-based assaults and tower
defence elements, which let you
spend resources earned in battle on
various walls and towers, as well as
reinforcements, give these battles
such a different feel that I
immediately found them compelling,
but by my second campaign I started
to see past the novelty.
Sure, the vast scale
of them continues to
impress me, but the
tower defence
elements are a bit on
the thin side. You get
access to four types of
towers and walls, and a
few specific locations
where you’re allowed to build them.
Think they’d be more effective
elsewhere? Tough. And even with
Creative Assembly trying to create
lanes, everything is just too big, too
wide, and you never get that sense
that you’re manipulating the
battlefield like you do in dedicated
tower defence affairs.
While the survival battles start to
lose their lustre after a campaign or
two, new modes are very welcome,
and the experiment does have a
pay-off. Siege battles and the
returning minor settlement fights
also get these fortifications. These
maps typically have a much more
elaborate layout than the straight line
of survival battles, with bridges and
underpasses, plenty of elevation, and
loads of places to create chokepoints.
There are more ways for them to play
out, and while you’re still limited to
building on predetermined spots, the
more dynamic nature of these fightsmeans that the choice of where and
what to build next feels tactical
rather than arbitrary.WILD BUNCH
The bulk of the campaign still takes
place on the more conventional
sandbox map, some parts of which
you’ll recognise from the first game- but thanks to Warhammer III’s
unusual factions,
overfamiliarity
shouldn’t be a problem.
The highlight is the
Daemons of Chaos
faction. Each of the
Chaos gods have their
own crews, but the
Daemons of Chaos, led
by the aforementioned
corrupted Kislev prince – now a
daemon prince – is a united front,
letting you recruit units from the
entire pantheon and use each army’s
unique abilities. The prince’s new
form is malleable, letting you replace
his limbs with new ones earned by
dedicating your achievements to
specific gods, or to all Chaos.
The prince is also the subject of
Warhammer III’s excellent prologue
and has the most personal connection
to the campaign. Between the
narrative structure and the
astonishing variety of limbs and
weapons you can equip him with,
playing the Daemons of Chaos is
almost like playing a Total War RPG.
The story of a heroic knight
becoming his land’s worst nightmare
is also extremely evocative of Arthas’
fall in Warcraft III, a story that’s still
one of my favourites, so it had a rapt
audience. It’s the most I’ve enjoyed a
single Total War campaign.
With the Daemons of Chaos
boasting all this flexibility, it does
slightly dilute the impact of all the
other daemonic factions. But they
still have unique characters, starting
locations, and objectives that make
them distinct enough to be worth
taking for a spin. And while they all
serve Chaos, they do so in very
different ways, from Khorne’s
take-no-prisoners approach, to
Slaanesh’s sneaky, seductive ways.
Over time, the presence of these
factions, along with the daemonic
incursions from the Realm of Chaos,
warps the mortal world. Chaos
corruption exists in the other games,
too, but there’s a lot more Chaos in
Warhammer III, and specific flavours
this time. These god-specific brands
of corruption all have different
effects, slowly choking the lands they
spread through, and eventually they
start to resemble the domain of the
god corrupting them. One day you’re
ruling over lovely green fields and
snow-capped mountains, and the
next you’ve got toxic lakes and
hill-sized cysts appearing
everywhere, or everything’s covered
in ash and lava.
When you’re playing a Chaos
faction, you feel like a force of nature- especially if you’re one of Nurgle’s
lot, since you can spread a variety of
very nasty plagues on top of Nurgle’s
brand of Chaos corruption. And
you’re an existential threat to the
mortal factions, which is why – with
the exception of Chaos-followers like
the norscans and skaven – you’re in a
perpetual state of war with them.
Siding with Chaos is very
tempting, then, but their opponents
are also a fascinating and varied
bunch. With Kislev and Grand
Cathay you’ve got two armies that, at
the moment, are unique to Total War.
Both exist in the periphery and lore
of the tabletop game, and until
Games Workshop finishes its
upcoming Kislev army, this is the
only way to get your fix.
Kislev is all about bears and ice
magic. Grand Cathay has dragons and
trade. I might be underselling them a
little bit. I definitely should have
mentioned that some of those bears
are giant magic bears that tower over
everything. And maybe that the
aforementioned dragons are actually
Grand Cathay’s leaders, who can
shapeshift in the middle of battle.
You’re meant to pick your moments
and switch between your forms
depending on the situation, but if you
COME FOR THE CHAOS
Who are the Chaos gods?KHORNE
Khorne is obsessed
with blood and
violence, and his
followers like to get
drunk on rage and
gore, increasing in
ferocity with each
battle won.NURGLE
The most grotesque
of the Chaos gods, ol’
Nurgle and his
followers love
nothing more than
spreading plagues
and making everyone
vomit up their lunch.SLAANESH
The horniest of all
the Chaos gods,
Slaanesh is a
seductive force,
tempting mortals
and keeping S&M
shops in business.
Don’t trust their lies.TZEENTCH
The god of bird
watchers and weird
magic, Tzeentch
drives people
bonkers with his hard
to pronounce name
and his army of
chittering horrors.When you’re
playing a Chaos
faction, you feel
like a force of
natureTotal War: Warhammer III
REVIEW