tell me I can shapeshift into a dragon,
I’m going to shapeshift into a dragon
and then stay that way.
It might not be as out-there as the
Daemons of Chaos, but I’m pretty
smitten with the Ogre Kingdoms.
The big lads have been served up as
pre-order DLC, but I expect we’ll see
them sold separately later. I
recommend picking them up when
that happens, because
these hungry boys have
a lot going on,
including rapidly
expanding camps that
can be deployed in
enemy territory, the
strongest economy in
the game, and a passion
for meat that’s both a
curse and a superpower.
RAGS TO RICHES
That brings us to the economy. I
know, not quite as exciting as
daemons fighting elemental bears.
And that’s always been a problem for
Total War: the economic side of
things is typically an obligation rather
than a system you actively want to
engage with. Warhammer III doesn’t
have a perfect solution, but it does
improve things at a faction level.
While it’s easy to get rich as the
Ogre Kingdoms, meat is even more
important than gold. Without a
constant supply of it, ogre armies
turn to cannibalism. Now this
technically happens in a less
flavourful way with gold: when you
run out, your troops start leaving. But
with meat, this all happens locally.
Each army has its own supply, and
rather than getting meat from a large
pool, it gets it from the local area,
either from a camp or through battle.
This pushes you to be extremely
aggressive, constantly getting into
fights and gobbling up new
settlements to keep everyone’s belly
full, but also tasks you with
essentially creating a supply line to
keep the troops fed. It’s not a
complicated logistical challenge, but
it is more engaging than earning gold.
Grand Cathay’s Ivory Road trading
system is very different but similarly
benefits from being designed with
Cathay’s narrative
identity in mind. While
most trading in Total
War involves just
chatting to other
leaders and striking a
deal, the Ivory Road
lets Cathay dispatch
caravans to distant
lands, selecting the
value of the cargo and the route.
During the journey your caravan
might be attacked or face other
crises, matching the potentially huge
rewards with some equally big risks.
For Cathay, then, trade is an
interactive adventure.
Diplomacy, like the economy, has
moved closer to the heart of what
Total War does, but can still feel like
an ancillary feature that doesn’t get
enough attention. Three Kingdoms
made some big leaps here, and while
Warhammer III doesn’t include the
personal diplomacy that Three
Kingdoms introduced, it has
borrowed the quick deal option,
which makes figuring out what you
can do and with whom much easier.
The headline feature, though, is
brand-new: outposts. When you forge
an alliance with another faction, you
both get the option of constructing an
outpost, which adds your troops to
their garrison and, more importantly,
lets you recruit troops from their
roster. The most obvious benefit of
this is being able to fill in gaps in yourroster, but its true value is the third
set of recruitment slots, letting you
recruit units even if you’ve maxed out
your global and local allotment.
Diplomacy rewards you with
incredible flexibility, which in turn
encourages you to deal with your
neighbours more often. Allied
reinforcements cost Allegiance,
which is earned by completing quests
for the faction you’re trying to sway,
tasking you with defeating armies
they have beef with, bringing the
whole thing back to conflict.
After hundreds of hours of
Warhammer II, the little quality of
life improvements feel just as
impactful, particularly the inclusion
of simultaneous turns in multiplayer
and simultaneous movement in both
modes. You already know where your
army is going, so why should you
have to wait around and watch them
do it before commanding the next
one? You shouldn’t, and now you
don’t need to bother.
I’ve already sunk nearly 100 hours
into Warhammer III, which should
give you an inkling of how much I’m
digging it. And while I’m no longer as
eager to go through the Realm of
Chaos campaign again, that’s only a
slice of what Warhammer III is.
There’s a whole other domination
campaign after you defeat Be’lakor,
where you get to swallow up the rest
of the world, helped by some special
post-campaign rewards. And though
I might bristle a bit at the idea of
sending my leader off to his second
job at inconvenient moments before
that point, it’s honestly just so much
fun to play with these factions and
create dream armies that I can put
up with the hurdle.
While this would have been a
fitting conclusion to what’s been an
ambitious trilogy, it’s not done yet.
There will be more factions,
expansions and another campaign,
combining the factions and maps
across the whole trilogy, nicknamed
‘Immortal Empires’. Total War:
Warhammer III is already brilliant
regardless of what comes next, but
the prospect of six years worth of
factions fighting over one map has
me more excited than an ogre in an
abattoir. The future looks bloody.90
Total War: Warhammer III
is a brilliant final act to
the series and has the
most inventive and
unusual factions yet.VERDICTThe headline
feature,
though, is
brand-new:
outpostsHOLIDAY IN HELL
How to conquer the Realm of ChaosStarting on the 30th turn,
rifts start appearing
periodically, spitting out
daemons and allowing
you to travel to the Realm
of Chaos.Only leaders and their
armies can enter, and each
domain has specific
challenges, for example
Nurgle’s domain will give
you a nasty dose of poison.In each map, you’ll find
points of interest that make
the journey easier. You’ll be
able to get unique weapons,
and get hints about where
you should head next.Once your objectives are
fulfilled, you can head to the
survival battle, unique to
the Realm of Chaos, where
you’ll need to murder your
way to the boss.Total War: Warhammer III
REVIEW