Those who buy the strategy game “Total War: Warhammer 3” on Steam with all available expansions have to shell out 272 euros and 35 cents – and this is already significantly reduced in the current sale. MyMMO author Schuhmann has spent 80 hours with the megaton in recent weeks and says: The best campaign costs nothing. But you have to play as a contaminated green demon.
Why is Total War: Warhammer 3 so incredibly expensive? Total War: Warhammer 3 is a DLC nightmare from the perspective of players who have never had anything to do with the series. This is due to a special mechanic:
- The game mode “Immortal Empires” has 24 different factions with 100 different heroes (Legendary Lords). The mode is played on a massive world map with around 280 cities and regions.
- However, if you only buy the base game “Total War: Warhammer 3”, you only have access to a fraction of these factions and heroes.
- If you want to play more heroes and factions, you need to own the two older parts of Total War: Warhammer and the numerous expansions that have come out over the last 8 years for the strategy games. That adds up to quite a lot.
An over 8-year-long modular system makes Warhammer 3 so expensive
How much does it cost if you want to have Total War: Warhammer 3 completely? Currently, if you want to own all content for Total War: Warhammer 3 on sale on Steam, you’ll pay 272 euros and 35 cents:
- 94.02 € for the “trilogy” with the 3 Warhammer titles
- 178.33 € for the 26 DLCs for Total War Warhammer 1, 2, and 3
- Only a few days ago, 3 new lords were released for Total War: Warhammer 3 – each one costs 8.99 €
The fact that Total War: Warhammer 3 is now so expensive has a certain irony: The tabletop game Warhammer has also been accused of being simply too expensive for decades.
Do you have to buy all DLCs? No, it is a modular system. Generally, players recommend picking only the DLCs you “need” and feel like.
However, some factions are considered practically “unplayable” without the DLCs because they lack important units or the starting position is unfavorable.
Moreover, the new lords have particularly exciting mechanics that make their campaigns more thrilling and enjoyable than “old, normal lords”: For example, the newest dwarf lord has his own airship with which he travels, along with many unique battles and missions.
For classic heroes, these battles are limited to just one to three battles where you can earn special epic items.
A demon offers you the best gaming experience
Which campaign is so good, yet costs nothing? I was disappointed with the release of Warhammer 3 in 2022 because at that time this mega mode did not yet exist and the original campaign with its factions seemed very meager compared to the then already refined and expanded Total War: Warhammer 2.
However, in the past two weeks, I have been intensively dealing with Warhammer 3 and played many campaigns. One campaign impressed me the most, and it is actually free.
It concerns the lord “Epidemius” of the faction “Nurgle”. You unlock the campaign when you connect your Steam account with the account at Creative Assembly – that’s 2 clicks. Directly in the game, a menu guides you to the correct page where you connect your account. It is enough to connect the accounts to unlock Epidemius – no further action is necessary.
But make sure to connect the right Steam account. I connected the wrong one and then had to contact support, who could only delete the account – you can save yourself that if you don’t do it at 3:00 AM but with a clear mind.
What makes the campaign so good? Nurgle is the ideal faction for patient strategy players; it rewards a methodical approach:
- You primarily build two buildings in your cities, one for infections and one for a steady income stream.
- Additionally, you only build the first levels of military buildings, as they become “stronger by themselves” by rotating through various cycles, unlocking new units as they do so.
- You do not recruit these units; instead, you summon them so they appear immediately, albeit with half health points.
As a special gimmick of the faction, at level 16, you will be offered to replace your “normal lord” with a higher demon of Nurgle.
Nurgle’s playstyle is unusual but scales excellently
How does the faction differ: “Normally,” in Total War: Warhammer 3, you only build military buildings in one city, usually the capital, recruit all units for an army here, and then move this army to wherever you want it to be. One building of a type is enough to recruit unlimited types of a unit.
With Nurgle, it works differently: Each military building only unlocks a limited number of units. Therefore, at the beginning of a campaign, you have only a few units and cannot field “full armies” of 20 units from thin air; instead, you can recruit about 3-5 from one military building, wait about 4 turns, and then recruit another 3-5.
However, you can recruit the units anywhere, so it is worthwhile to build military buildings not just in the capital but spread out everywhere. The further the game progresses, the more military buildings Nurgle has, and the more powerful the armies become: Nurgle scales excellently as a faction. You will become significantly stronger over the course of a game.
In battle, Nurgle plays pleasantly because the units are tough melee fighters, endure a lot, and forgive mistakes. They wear down the opponent, and battles progress slowly and understandably.
The specific hero Epidemius starts off in a remote part of the northern map and plays carelessly because he can only focus on one enemy and spreads slowly across the map while growing in power. An additional plague mechanic ensures that over the course of the game, you continuously have powerful buffs on your units and cities while the enemies have to deal with debuffs.
The plagues spread automatically; ultimately, you only need to tend to the plagues vigorously every 3 turns.
Currently, Total War: Warhammer 3 is on sale for €24 on Steam
Total War: Warhammer 3 currently costs €24 on sale on Steam, and the Epidemius campaign is free – but a warning must be issued. It could be that you buy way too many puzzle pieces in the DLC shop once you get a taste for it.
I was very annoyed in 2022 about the purchase of Total War: Warhammer 3 – but it has indeed turned around, as I have realized in recent weeks, thanks to my friend, the plague lord: Two years ago, I wasted €60 on a game on Steam: Now it should finally be good
