Total War Warhammer III - 2022

[Captain Kelsten]

Yes, there’s another Total War Warhammer game on the way and no, they’ve still not just called it “Total Warhammer”. 
 

Total Warhammer 3 is the third and presumably final Warhammer game from Creative Assembly. Once again it introduces new factions and races, warlords and battlefields. 
 

The races confirmed so far are:

 

Kislev

Khorne

Nurgle

Tzeentch

Slaanesh

Cathay

 

Which aren’t just random collections of letters, but actual races in the Warhammer universe! The Kislev are analogous to Russia and come with ice magic and rideable polar bears! Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch and Slaanesh are the daemons chaos, each feeding off a different emotion and their factions hopefully playing very differently as a result. Cathay, announced today, are basically imperial China but with guns and hot air balloons and giant terracotta armies and dragons! I had to google all of these as I know very little about Warhammer! There’s one more race yet to be announced, current thinking is that it will be the ogres. 

 

But that’s not all! Total Warhammer 3 - Manchester United 0 will bring together every race, every warlord from all three games into one humongous game spanning the entire world! It’s Warhammer on a hitherto unprecedented scale! 
 

Speaking of scale, the campaign is apparently twice the size of the vortex campaign from number 2. 
 

Other new features include survival battles and settlement battles. Also sieges are being reworked.

 

9 Legendary Lords are confirmed for launch. 
 

Oh, and it’s just been delayed until early next year. Surprise! 
 

Launch trailer

 

 

Cathay announce trailer

I have no interest in historical Total War games and very little interest in Warhammer but, for some reason, smashing the two together is just 

 

 

I own the first two games and almost all of the DLC and I love the idea of the game, even if actually playing it mostly just leaves me confused and frustrated. The new races don’t interest me anywhere near as much as pirate vampires, Egyptian mummies and freaking dinosaurs did with the second, but nevertheless I’m looking forward to adding the third to the list!

[Wiper]

While the armies aren't as immediately exciting for me as Best Boys the lizardmen were, I'm still looking forward to them. Cathay's an interesting one, as (to my knowledge) they're a faction that's only ever existed as flavour-text (or 'lore', if you prefer); CA may well have had a fair bit of freedom in designing them here, both aesthetically and mechanically speaking. Really not sure what to expect of them, because of that. Meanwhile, having the discrete Chaos Daemon armies to play as should be fun; Khorne's always a bit boring, but I love the other three visually, and there's a lot you could do with them mechanically.

 

(Kislev I have no interest in whatsoever, so naturally they're who the campaign/advertising seem to be focussed on)

 

As for the game proper, I'm not sure I want the campaign to be super-long, but I'm interested to see what core mechanic(s) they centre this one around. Unless they completely balls the whole thing up I'll be three for three on Total Warhammer games!

[Captain Kelsten]

Based on the IGN quick play (below), it seems some missions will be centred around you assaulting the demon world itself, pushing your army onward, taking key positions (and having to decide whether to leave a rear guard to keep them or risk demons coming up on your rear) before tackling a massive boss. You’ll have to manage your units and resources carefully to ensure they’re not depleted and exhausted by the time the boss spawns. 

 

 

 

[b00dles]

I never really got into warhammer past the original space crusade board game and then a few of the games like space hulk (AZRAEL!) but I do enjoy a bit of total war (I have shogun 1&2, Rome 2, 3 kingdoms and I think another one I can't remember now). It seems like @Doctor Sharkyou aren't a big fan of the property but enjoy it too, soooo, is it worth giving them a go?

 

Pirate vampires and dinos sound up my street, so 2 is presumably better than going back to 1 for various reasons?

[Scruff]

1200+ hours in TW2 

Gutted they've delayed it but it'll give me more time to take over the (Warhammer) world with Thorek Ironbrow and his ridiculously overpowered Quarrellers (with a few Organ Cannons for good measure).

 

Also counting down till the Chaos Dwarfs get introduced into 3 

[Captain Kelsten]

29 minutes ago, Wiper said:

While the armies aren't as immediately exciting for me as Best Boys the lizardmen were,

 

2 minutes ago, b00dles said:

I never really got into warhammer past the original space crusade board game and then a few of the games like space hulk (AZRAEL!) but I do enjoy a bit of total war (I have shogun 1&2, Rome 2, 3 kingdoms and I think another one I can't remember now). It seems like @Doctor Sharkyou aren't a big fan of the property but enjoy it too, soooo, is it worth giving them a go?

 

Pirate vampires and dinos sound up my street, so 2 is presumably better than going back to 1 for various reasons?

The only total war I played prior to Warhammer was shogun 2 which I enjoyed but didn’t really “get” and didn’t put much time into. The Warhammer versions are the perfect match for me, theme wise: grand battles, strategy, fantasy, bloody massive crabs with cannons on their back being ridden by pirate vampires. 
 

The first game, to me, is a bit more standard fantasy: humans, elves, dwarves, orcs. The only real standouts are the vampires cus they’re freaking cool. Maybe the beast men, too. It’s definitely worth getting if you find it cheap as it integrates with the second game, adding a separate campaign with all the races available which for many is actually the preferred way to play. 
 

The second game is where they cranked it up to eleven and added dinosaurs who ride dinosaurs so you can dinosaur whilst you dinosaur, mummy armies with massive walking statues to smash stuff and pirate vampires cus the only thing cooler than vampires are pirate vampires. 
 

Having said all that, I’ve only a passing interest in Warhammer as a property - mostly I just like fantasy stuff - and as I said, the more historical settings for the total war games don’t really interest me and yes this is because in the Warhammer ones you have dragons and giant bats and t-rexes and other massive monsters scrapping it out on the battlefield and who doesn’t want that?!?

 

My main issue with the games is more that I’m rubbish at them, have never put much time into learning them and quickly go find something else to do. But if there was one type of game, one franchise I would love to be properly into, to be really good at, it’d be this one. 

[b00dles]

Cheers for that, I think I'll give it a go. I often put the total war games on auto battle as otherwise the campaigns can take a ludicrous amount of time but actual battles with dinosaurs on dinosaurs.... might have to do the tactics properly after all

[Captain Kelsten]

3 minutes ago, b00dles said:

Cheers for that, I think I'll give it a go. I often put the total war games on auto battle as otherwise the campaigns can take a ludicrous amount of time but actual battles with dinosaurs on dinosaurs.... might have to do the tactics properly after all

Oh it’s also worth saying the different factions play in hugely different ways to one another, with different mechanics and tactics. The vampires have no ranged units, and have to spread fear and corruption across the land. The tomb kings get basic units for free and they’ll never rout, but are fragile and will disintegrate. The skaven are all about the numbers games and have no cavalry units. 
 

I don’t know how differently, if at all, historical total war factions play from one another but I guarantee it’s not as much as the Warhammer ones!

 

Also we’re the opposite: I want to skip all the campaign, Civilization-lite map stuff and just do battles

[Scruff]

Stop calling Vampire Coast vampire pirates Sharky. They're Vampirates  

[b00dles]

4 minutes ago, Doctor Shark said:

Oh it’s also worth saying the different factions play in hugely different ways to one another, with different mechanics and tactics. The vampires have no ranged units, and have to spread fear and corruption across the land. The tomb kings get basic units for free and they’ll never rout, but are fragile and will disintegrate. The skaven are all about the numbers games and have no cavalry units. 
 

I don’t know how differently, if at all, historical total war factions play from one another but I guarantee it’s not as much as the Warhammer ones!

 

Also we’re the opposite: I want to skip all the campaign, Civilization-lite map stuff and just do battles

I really enjoy the battles but I end up taking bloody ages doing them so the overall campaign takes donkeys. I often just pick and choose certain ones to save time or I'll never get any of the campaigns done. 

[Captain Kelsten]

6 minutes ago, b00dles said:

I really enjoy the battles but I end up taking bloody ages doing them so the overall campaign takes donkeys. I often just pick and choose certain ones to save time or I'll never get any of the campaigns done. 

Watch this. If this doesn’t convince you that you need to own these games, I don’t know what will.

 

 

 

 

Word of caution though, as cool as the pirate vampires - sorry - vampirates - are, they’re actually a paid DLC, much like the Tomb Kings. 

 

10 minutes ago, Scruff said:

Stop calling Vampire Coast vampire pirates Sharky. They're Vampirates  

Yes sir, sorry sir. 

[Erik]

I'm looking forward to improved siege battles and AI. Not the least because in my opinion those are the 2 weakest areas of TWWH I & II and unimproveable with mods.

[Captain Novaforce]

I hope that CA and games workshop come up with a deal to make models of those vampire pirates.

 

They new Cathay trailer is epic too 

[moosegrinder]

Are the Vampirates not an army you can buy then?

[revlob]

I haven't played any of the Total War games, but I do have TW: Warhammer (the first one) in my library. If I wanted to give the series a go, is it worth starting at the beginning, or am I better off jumping into the sequel?

[Scruff]

2 is miles better than the first and you have the added bonus that if you have the first, then you get the Mortal Empires campaign which covers the (known up to #3) Warhammer world and something I prefer to the Vortex campaign as you have access to all lords (the ones you own anyway).

[ScouserInExile]

On 14/09/2021 at 20:01, Wiper said:

Cathay's an interesting one, as (to my knowledge) they're a faction that's only ever existed as flavour-text

I think there was a Cathay army list in the Warhammer Armies book that accompanied Third Edition. I definitely remember seeing one that had ninjas and samurai type warriors... 

[phillv85]

On 15/09/2021 at 17:47, moosegrinder said:

Are the Vampirates not an army you can buy then?

Warhammer Fantasy is a product you can no longer buy. Some of the big factions have been migrated to its replacement, Age of Sigmar and there is talk of Fantasy returning, but as it stands there’s no Vampirates being sold by GW. I was fucking gutted when I found out that WHFB was dead and had been replaced by AOS.

[Scruff]

44 minutes ago, phillv85 said:

Warhammer Fantasy is a product you can no longer buy. Some of the big factions have been migrated to its replacement, Age of Sigmar and there is talk of Fantasy returning, but as it stands there’s no Vampirates being sold by GW. I was fucking gutted when I found out that WHFB was dead and had been replaced by AOS.

 

Not rumoured to be returning, it is returning. Not as WHFB but as The Old World. Pretty much all the units we'll have in WH3 from Kislev and Cathy will are based off The Old World designs (or very close).

[phillv85]

Yeah that's what I meant by 'talk of'. It's coming back, but they haven't really said much for a while. At least from what I've seen, I kinda dropped off from GW a year or so ago.

[Matt Defis]

1000+ hours I've put into these games, currently finishing up a Taurox campaign who is so OP it's silly, he can take down an entire province in a single turn.

 

I pretty much play a Skaven campaign every other with Ikit Claw and his awesome weapon teams being my number one choice in the game but I'm doing a Thrott campaign after this Taurox run. 

 

I'm mostly looking forward to playing Tzeentch, Kairos Fateweaver and a whole load of magical ranged monsters is right up my street.

[drkbfhmmr]

1 hour ago, Matt Defis said:

1000+ hours I've put into these games, currently finishing up a Taurox campaign who is so OP it's silly, he can take down an entire province in a single turn.

 

I pretty much play a Skaven campaign every other with Ikit Claw and his awesome weapon teams being my number one choice in the game but I'm doing a Thrott campaign after this Taurox run. 

 

I'm mostly looking forward to playing Tzeentch, Kairos Fateweaver and a whole load of magical ranged monsters is right up my street.

Love the Ikit Claw DLC ("Prophet & Warlock") - essential for Skaven imho. The new units made them so much more fun to play.

[Scruff]

Skaven are amazing and my favourite race to play (Dawi a close second) as you have to go balls to the wall with them. All their melee are shit, just pure garbage (even their high tier Stormvermin are dog dirt) so you have to either go half an army filled with weapons teams units and loads of skavenslaves to use as fodder (breed more replacements yes, yes?) or say fuck it and have 6 ratling guns, some jezzails a couple of warpfire throwers, liberal splashes or poisonwind mortars and some plagueclaw catapults; if you can find room for the deathwind mortars (the RR version with the cluster bombs which is so ridiculously disgusting it should be banned) then all the better.

 

Keep the cav away with that set up and you're golden  

 

This is still one of the best things they've done. Can't beat the gobbo VA.

 

 

"Look at the state of 'im tho, 'ees blue!"

[Matt Defis]

I play ikit, 2 plague priest for more menace below, 6 ratling guns, 4 jezzails, 3 poison wind motars and 4 catapults, and use the priests and menace to tar everything down in front of my guns. last playthrough i took down 3 brettonnian armies on legendary in one go, I was well proud of myself. 

[Scruff]

16 minutes ago, Matt Defis said:

I play ikit, 2 plague priest for more menace below, 6 ratling guns, 4 jezzails, 3 poison wind motars and 4 catapults, and use the priests and menace to tar everything down in front of my guns. last playthrough i took down 3 brettonnian armies on legendary in one go, I was well proud of myself. 

 

Not an extra Warlock? I'm addicted to them for the added buffs to the missile units. That's good going against the Bretts tho, especially with all that bloody cavalry.

[Matt Defis]

Yeah actually 2 PWM and a warlock engineer. 

[Matt Defis]

I can't believe how easy the taurox campaign was on legendary, finished the long by turn 125, the guy is mental powerful with minotaurs.

[Scruff]

3 minutes ago, Matt Defis said:

I can't believe how easy the taurox campaign was on legendary, finished the long by turn 125, the guy is mental powerful with minotaurs.

 

Malagor is good fun. Once you get a few levels in him and you can reduce the leadership of enemy forces to virtually 0 and huge winds of magic regen, you just fly him around the battlefield  throwing out almost unlimited penumbral pendulums while the enemy cowers away  

[Matt Defis]

Thrott next then Kroq Gar for jurassic Park shenanigans.

 

Only campaigns I've given up on so far is Tyrion, it was boring as fuck and generally any of the HE campaigns that start on Ulthaun are shite, it's just an exercise in keeping the constant dark elf forces coming off the island. It's exhausting and a nightmare to expand until the eventide come in and help. 

[Scruff]

Yeah, HE are pretty shit except for Eltharion and Imrik as you start off right in the shit with those two. I like Gor-Rok for the dinos as you start with Lord Kroak and it's utterly hilarious to see the numbers he racks up when he drops a spell on a blob. I think I my highest kill count is over 2k with him when fighting Skrolk.