In the recent Update 1.3 release, we implemented a change to improve ranged units' ability to fire on their enemies when a friendly squad is positioned between them and their target—even if the ranged units seem to have a clear line of sight (LOS) on the enemy. The change involved treating two overlapping units as a single "combined" unit, which would allow the ranged soldiers to carry out their fire orders more reliably.
Unfortunately, the fix was a bit overzealous... Not only did it address the LOS issue, but it allowed ranged units to stack and fire in a way that largely negates the importance of positioning your troops—a critical mechanic to the depth of the gameplay in Battles.
We are backing out that change in today's hotfix, though we plan to revisit the original issue in the future—so watch for less extreme changes in a future update!
As always, the team is continuing to read through your feedback and take notes to help guide our development, so remember to visit one of our official discussion forums to talk about the changes you want to see:
That's it for now! Keep your eye on our socials for more about Immortal Empires and Update 2.0 coming this August.
See you on the battlefield!
— The Total War Team
📃 HOTFIX 1.3.1
Reverted the following change:
To prevent instances where ranged units hold their fire because a friendly unit is in their line of fire, overlapping units are now considered (by the game as) part of the same unit. This should ensure that ranged units can more consistently carry out firing orders.
Total War: WARHAMMER III – Immortal Empires Dedicated Factions
Welcome back, Total War: WARHAMMER fans, to another instalment of the Immortal Empires blog series. This week, we’re taking a closer look at the changes coming to some of the Legendary Lords in Total War: WARHAMMER III: particularly those who previously shared their factions with other Lords in WARHAMMER I and II, but will now enjoy a force of their own on the Immortal Empires battlefield.
To kick things off, we’d like to introduce you to the one and only Be’Lakor: a key character joining the WARHAMMER III line-up as a fully-playable Legendary Lord.
BE’LAKOR
When talking about immortal beings within the WARHAMMER pantheon, few come close to the power or infamy of the first daemon prince of Chaos: Be’lakor. First introduced to Total War: WARHAMMER III as the moody antagonist of the Realm of Chaos campaign, his liberation from the Chaos God’s shackles left the Legendary Lord free to roam the Mortal Realms alongside the Warriors of Chaos.
As an undivided Daemon Prince, Be’lakor kneels to no specific god; instead, he leverages the power of all four to become a versatile fighting machine bestowed with powerful gifts from each. Those of you who have conquered the Realm of Chaos campaign will already know that he is a behemoth on the battlefield—capable of taking on almost any challenger. He is particularly unique amongst the Warriors of Chaos Legendary Lords in that he has access to the widest selection of Chaos Daemons, allowing him to assemble entire armies of daemonic might without the need for petty mortals.
Within the campaign, Be’lakor begins in the settlement of the Isle of Wight in Albion, where he has but one aim: to embark on a crusade of destruction. While the rest of his campaign mechanics will be revealed alongside the eagerly-anticipated Warriors of Chaos update, here are a couple of his key features to look forward to:
Unholy Manifestations: Like the Daemon factions, Be’lakor has access to four powerful Unholy Manifestations. Each of Be’lakor’s abilities is aligned with one of the four Chaos Gods and can be unlocked by defeating an army aligned with a specific god or through sacrificing Souls (a new resource shared by all Warriors of Chaos). They offer powerful and unique benefits: for example, the Tzeentch-aligned manifestation grants the ability to spawn a unique shadow rift in the local province that Be’lakor’s forces can use to teleport across the mortal plain. In addition, every Unholy Manifestation used grants additional Daemonic reinforcements for his forces.
Be’lakor’s Shadow: Be’lakor has the unholy ability to corrupt those who stand against him. When he defeats a human Lord in battle, he can mark them with Chaos: slowly corrupting their soul and eventually converting them into a Daemon Prince to reinforce the ranks of his army.
Chaos Gifts: Dedication to the Dark Gods (or remaining Undivided) is sacrosanct to the forces of Chaos, and through their battlefield exploits, their warriors are bestowed with unholy gifts. By offering defeated souls to the Gods, Warriors of Chaos can unlock powerful (but limited) rewards which boost their proficiency in battle or grant daemonic reinforcements.
We look forward to sharing more about Be’lakor when he joins the Immortal Empires battlefield, so keep an eye out for more information as August approaches!
DEDICATED FACTIONS
If you’re a veteran of Mortal Empires, you likely know that a few of the iconic Legendary Lords at your disposal currently share factions and starting positions with other Lords, so we’re taking the opportunity to give several of them a role of their own:
⬥ ⬥ ⬥
Volkmar the Grim – The Cult of Sigmar: Embarking on a pilgrimage of zealousness by abandoning the petty squabbles of the Elector Counts in favor of sealing away the abominable Books of Nagash, Volkmar now resides in the lower Southlands. Unlike the Tomb Kings and Mannfred Von Carstein, it’s not the books themselves that offer individual effects; rather, the act of sealing books away increases his Zeal, strengthening the boons and power granted to Volkmar.
⬥ ⬥ ⬥
Grombrindal – The Ancestral Throng: Known for his hatred of the sadistic Dark Elves following Malekith’s instigation of the War of the Beards, Grombrindal moved to Naggaroth. There, he stages his armies to enact revenge upon the Witch King.
⬥ ⬥ ⬥
Helman Ghorst – Caravan of Blue Roses: Ever clinging to the hope of discovering necromancies that could bring his brothers back to life, Helman Ghorst has moved eastwards in order to be closer to the coveted Nagashizzar fortress.
⬥ ⬥ ⬥
Vlad and Isabella Von Carstein – Sylvania: Unlike the other Legendary Lords, this power couple will be staying together in undead matrimony, but will be playable within the same campaign. If you choose Vlad as your Legendary Lord, Isabella will be automatically unlocked as a hero and vice versa.
⬥ ⬥ ⬥
Sigvald The Magnificent – The Decadent Host: Armed with his disturbing yet angelic beauty, Prince Sigvald is now a force unto himself within the Warriors of Chaos. He reclines in pleasure in the Northwestern Chaos Wastes, and has been bestowed with some tantalizing new features such as the ability to Seduce units, use Seductive Influence, and has access to Slaanesh’s daemonic breed.
⬥ ⬥ ⬥
Kholek Suneater – Heralds of the Tempest: The ancient Dragon Ogre now resides north of the Mountains of Mourn, keen to seek out a monolithic settlement for his own dark designs.
UP NEXT!
Next week, we’ll be answering the questions you asked last month in a special interview with the developers; you won’t want to miss it! We’ll also be sharing details about another bit of content coming with Immortal Empires next week, so check back for more as we continue our march to August!
Total War: WARHAMMER III - Update 1.3.0
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:
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!
HAVE FUN!
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.
Total War: WARHAMMER III – Immortal Empires Starting Positions (A Prologue)
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.
WHAT’S IN A STARTING POSITION?
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...).
A BUSTLING BATTLEFIELD...
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.
...JOINED BY FAMILIAR FACES
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:
Lizardmen
Norsca
Kislev
High Elves
Bretonnia
Grand Cathay
Skaven
Greenskins
Ogre Kingdoms
Beastmen
Tomb Kings
Wood Elves
Vampire Coast
Dwarfs
Dark Elves
Vampire Counts
Warriors of Chaos
UP NEXT!
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!
Developer Diary: A Preview of Update 1.3
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!
UPDATE 1.3 PREVIEW
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:
REGIMENTS OF RENOWN II
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.)
CHARACTER TRAIT & SKILL TREE REWORKS
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!
REALM OF CHAOS
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.
AI USE OF ‘CHANGING OF THE WAYS’
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.
CATHAYAN FORMATION ATTACK
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.
KURGAN SPAWN RATES
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.
MIAO YING NOW HAS “EYE OF THE STORM”
A much-requested fix, Miao Ying will now be able to access her Eye of the Storm ability when in dragon form, as intended!
UNIT RESPONSIVENESS
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.
AI FOCUS ON THE BACK LINE
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.
AI USING ABILITIES WHEN THEY SHOULD NOT
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.
PLAGUE ATTRITION
Plagues have been noted as exceptionally difficult to deal with, so we’re making some adjustments to the duration and strength of attrition effects.
LAND & DOMINATION BATTLES ARE NOW IN RANKED
Matchmaking will now allow for both Land and Domination battles in ranked: more variety to test your skills!
MOVED FROM 1.3
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:
INCREASING THE FREQUENCY OF FIELD BATTLES (CAMPAIGN)
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.
COMING JUNE 30!
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!
Total War: WARHAMMER III – The Immortal Empires Map
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 BATTLEFIELD
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*.
[table] [tr] [th] [th]MORTAL EMPIRES[/th] [th]IMMORTAL EMPIRES[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]SETTLEMENTS[/td] [td]401[/td] [td]554*[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]STARTING FACTIONS[/td] [td]183[/td] [td]278*[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]LEGENDARY LORDS[/td] [td]74[/td] [td]86[/td] [/tr] [/table] * 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...
INTRODUCING: SEA LANES!
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.
BORDERS OF THE KNOWN WORLD
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.
UP NEXT
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!
An Introduction to Immortal Empires
Immortal Empires is easily the most anticipated game mode coming to Total War: WARHAMMER III, and represents the world-encompassing vision we’ve been working towards since first partnering with Games Workshop nearly a decade ago. The combined battlefield brings everything we've built throughout the Total War: WARHAMMER series into WARHAMMER III: including the Races, factions, units, and Legendary Lords, all of which will find their home on a massive battlefield that spans the Warhammer world. In every respect, it’s the most ambitious project—and hands-down the most complicated one—we’ve ever attempted, and we're thrilled to begin sharing more about the game mode now and in the weeks to come.
For all of you looking to get your hands on immortal Empires, we're aiming to roll out the beta version of the game mode this August. Don't worry; we'll explain exactly what we mean by "beta" further below, but first, we want to spotlight some of what it'll be bringing to Total War: WARHAMMER III.
WHAT'S NEW IN IMMORTAL EMPIRES?
Immortal Empires is much more than the sum of each game’s content smashed together into a larger map. Rather, the new game mode offers a variety of new features and approaches to the combined battlefield:
Access all 86 Legendary Lords from all three Total War: WARHAMMER titles.
Be’Lakor is now a Legendary Lord with his own faction.
Dedicated factions for a number of the older Legendary Lords, including: Grombrindal, Helman Ghorst, and Volkmar the Grim.
New starting locations for 29 of the older Legendary Lords.
Improved personal faction mechanics for a selection of the older Legendary Lords (such as Volkmar the Grim).
A new ‘Sea Lanes’ feature, which allow you to move armies between distant lands and continents—from one side of the map to the other—without leapfrogging them all the way across the map.
New dynamic end-game scenarios: randomised mid- to late-game challenges we’re introducing to challenge the late-game steamroll—where the player is so powerful that there’s little-to-no challenge left and less of a reason to complete the campaign. Think Greenskin invasions or resurgences of the undead, as a few examples…
Revamped victory conditions. Most players don’t end up finishing campaigns, and we want to give them better reasons—and a greater level of satisfaction—for doing so. As such, we’ve simplified the victory requirements into more meaningful objectives while avoiding any arbitrary playstyle requirements.
Corruption rework. Players will have new tools for spreading (or reducing) corruption through more active usage of their armies. Small amounts of natural reduction will also be available to uncorrupted factions.
8-player multiplayer campaigns. And as a bonus, only the host of an Immortal Empires multiplayer campaign needs to own all three games. Friends who only own WARHAMMER III will still be able to join the campaign, though their Legendary Lord choices will (naturally) be limited to the ones they own.
As you can see, on top of the enormous collection of content, there are plenty of new features and improvements on the way, including a new lease on life for many of the older Legendary Lords! (We'll be talking about each of these points in the weeks to come, so watch out for more deep dives into them in the future.)
WHY WE'RE CALLING IT A "BETA"
When Immortal Empires arrives this August, you'll notice that it initially appears with a BETA tag until such time as we feel it no longer applies. When we first mentioned this earlier this year, we noted some of the concerns being raised within the community about the decision:
Will Immortal Empires be "finished" when it launches? Will it be implemented in smaller parts over time? How long do we have to wait until it's *fully* playable?
These are all fair questions in the absence of the proper context, so we want to take a moment to explain why we made this choice and what you can expect from Immortal Empires when it actually arrives later this year.
To begin, we need to talk a little about how Immortal Empires is built...
In order to create the game mode, the development team had to collect and combine the content, features, mechanics, systems, and code from three different codebases into a single mega-campaign. Now, taking big chunks of content, data, and code from one game and porting them into another is always a challenge—speaking from experience in this regard—and takes a significant amount of time and tailoring to get all the pieces to play nice with each other and work properly. Even after the technical implementations are done, there are still bugs to find and fix, as well as a significant amount of playtesting to ensure that (as an example) one race isn’t ridiculously under- or over-powered or that each race’s unique features and mechanics are working as intended.
In short: Immortal Empires isn’t just a "port" of content from one game to another; it’s a mountain of phenomenally change-sensitive, technical work. Here are a few examples of what's still being done as we speak:
Lighting across battle maps is more advanced in WARHAMMER III, so it takes time to get all the older environments re-authored to meet the same current standards.
Achieving parity across other details—such as the UI, character models, VFX, audio, and general game balance—will be a gradual process that continues over time.
Corruption is also a biggie. We changed how it works quite fundamentally in WARHAMMER III, and we’re doing even more to improve it in Immortal Empires. It’s a game system that touches every playable race: regarding how they exploit, react to, or suffer from corruption, so it's a system that will continue to evolve until it settles in a good place.
These are just a few of the more visible items that we have to contend with, and there are many, MANY more that could be a blog (or, frankly, a novel) of their own. We’re determined to get Immortal Empires into your hands, but we want to be realistic: it won’t be the "final," finished product on day one—just as Mortal Empires wasn’t at its launch in WARHAMMER II. Ultimately, this entire three-game project won’t truly be complete for years to come, which is why we're initially launching it under the banner of a "BETA."
It’s worth noting that it WON'T be an opt-in beta; we’ll add it right into the main game for WARHAMMER III, which means it won't divide the player-base across separate versions of the game or harm the multiplayer experience if you want to dive into the new mode.
IMMORTAL EMPIRES: DAY 1
So, what will Immortal Empires be like come August?
At present, our aim is for the mode to be fully "content-complete" in terms of the available Races, factions, Legendary Lords, units, and geography, as well as all the extra features and improvements noted in the "What's New" section, above. You’ll be able to start a full sandbox campaign to play and conquer however you wish, use any Legendary Lord accessible (based on your game ownership) from any of the three games, or experiment with the older Legendary Lords benefiting from their revamp (especially Ghorst, *ho ho*).
Given the sheer scale of the project, there are bound to be some visual and technical bugs, and we’ll be providing a known issues list when Immortal Empires does go live. Nevertheless, we're confident that game mode will be massive, packed with content, functional, and fun on day one!
THE EVOLUTION OF IMMORTAL EMPIRES
The moment the Immortal Empires beta goes live, its life truly begins! In the years to come, we'll continue honing and improving it, adding new features and improving existing ones, and introducing new content to help it grow over time.
Throughout this process, we'll want to hear from you about what you like and (yes) what you don't! We want to understand your impressions on things like the balance between factions, trends you’re spotting across the campaigns you play, or anything that just rubs you the wrong way. We’ll set up dedicated feedback channels for you to provide your thoughts and will also be keeping a keen eye on the popular community hangouts like the Total War subreddit.
Major patches will still arrive alongside new content packs as they did in WARHAMMER II, but we’ll also be releasing interim patches between the content packs, as well. When we start seeing trends around certain topics and features in Immortal Empires, we’ll bring those items to the forefront of the queue and react to your feedback as quickly and efficiently as we're able.
With all that in mind: when the Immortal Empires beta goes live, the best approach is to consider this "Phase 1." It’ll be the most enormous and varied strategic sandbox we’ve ever created—with all the content you expect and more—and we know it'll only get better over time.
More to come, so stay tuned for more about Immortal Empires and all the cool stuff coming to Total War: WARHAMMER III!
Total War: WARHAMMER III - Immortal Empires teaser trailer
Did you catch the Immortal Empires teaser during SKULLS? We have LOTS to talk about for the Immortal Empires beta—available to owners of all three Total War: WARHAMMER titles—and we'll be kicking off a series of info posts starting June 14th! Join us then for more!
Get up to 75% off the Total War: WARHAMMER trilogy
Hello everyone! Today's hotfix comes with a small adjustment for an issue that popped up following Update 1.2: a problem where the click-and-drag behavior was disrupting the ability to effectively position troops on the battlefield.
As always, the team is continuing to read through your feedback and take notes to help guide our development, so remember to visit one of our official discussion forums to talk about the changes you want to see:
That's it for now! We'll talk more about what's on the way in Update 1.3 next month, and will let you know when to expect it as we get closer to the date!
See you on the battlefield!
— The Total War Team
📃 HOTFIX 1.2
Fixed an issue which caused the unit formation orders (issued by right-clicking and dragging) to feel cumbersome and unresponsive.
