Total War: Warhammer 3 removes a controversial ability from your units. You will soon be able to test how that feels.
What ability is it about? The developers call it “pocket ladders”, but the community has nicknamed them “ass ladders”. These are the ladders that your infantry automatically takes into every siege battle to climb the enemy walls. They are called that because units pull them out of thin air – essentially, “pulling them out of their ass”.
Here you can see the latest teaser for the upcoming DLC Tides of Torment:
These ladders have been a staple of the Warhammer trilogy since part 1 and are quite hated by the community:
- They make it far too easy for attackers to overwhelm enemy settlements. The walls pose almost no obstacle, allowing you to easily penetrate the settlement from all sides, with a numerically inferior garrison being unable to do anything.
- As defenders, you have the opposite problem. Currently, it is hardly worth holding the walls, as they can be climbed far too easily. Therefore, the better tactic is often to ignore them and defend chokepoints within the settlement.
Both as defenders and attackers, the biggest feature of siege battles is lost – namely the defending or strategically overcoming the walls. Moreover, ladders that appear out of nowhere are not exactly immersive.
Developers let you play without the hated ladders
The developers are now reacting: And you will soon be able to test the result yourself. On July 24, 2025, the “Siege Proving Grounds” will go live – a beta where the developers will test some changes to sieges with the help of the community.
The hated ladders are now gone, but only at your request. If you want, you can enable them in the options at will. This can also be done within a campaign, but not during a battle.
If you disable the automatic ladders, you can build them as siege equipment. These are slower and more fragile than siege towers, but are produced faster. Additionally, you will not suffer heavy losses if the enemy destroys your ladders on the way to the wall.
The current model of the siege ladders in the beta is, by the way, just a placeholder. The various factions do not yet have unique designs for their ladders. However, if they are incorporated into the finished game, they will receive their own designs.
- A summary of all the new features in the beta can be found in the corresponding blog post at community.creative-assembly.com.
The beta runs from July 24 to August 7, so two weeks long. To sign up for it, right-click on your game, then go to “Properties” and finally “Betas”. There you can select the Siege Proving Grounds under “Beta Participation”.
About 2 weeks ago, the team behind the game announced that they would postpone the release of the latest DLC. However, they teased a series of exciting new content and the possible arrival of a fan-favorite. You can read more about it in this article: Total War: Warhammer 3 plans huge DLC for the summer, wants to spice up 2 factions, now has to postpone everything
