After a long dispute with the community, Total War: Warhammer 3 is doing really well on Steam again. Now an update with new content has arrived. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus has played the latest DLC and is absolutely in love.
I must confess: Yes, I play Empire. For a long time, I resisted it, thinking all the other factions were better – even Bretonnia. But since April 30, I have succumbed to the Sigmar fanatics.
The reason? The new “Thrones of Decay” DLC. I’ve been looking forward to this for ages, and before the release, I predicted: I will play hundreds of hours of Warhammer again and ignore Manor Lords for it. I have already filled the first 30 hours and finished the first campaign.
By the way, I’m not the only one who feels this way. Total War: Warhammer 3 is currently doing as well as it hasn’t in ages:
- On Steam, Total War: Warhammer 3 has 74,000 players, the most it has had in 2 years (via steamcharts).
- The ratings have shot back up to 85% (via Steam). Just before, they were due to a dispute at a miserable 19%.
- The 3 new lords, available separately as DLC or as a package, all have approval ratings between 88 and 92%. That’s a lot for paid content in Total War.
I bought and tried all the DLCs right at release. But even if I had stuck with the free update, I would have had my fun. Developer Creative Assembly really delivered here.
Free Update & new Paid Content – Everything fits
Thrones of Decay was released in two parts on April 30: once in the form of the 3 DLCs, once as a free update 5.0. The free update is already substantial:
- Balance adjustments for almost all factions
- Reworks of various systems, such as the Grolle for the Dwarves
- a free new lord for Nurgle
I usually don’t play Dwarves, but with the new book, there’s the opportunity to recruit other legendary lords in the campaign through confederation. This gives the whole game a completely new dynamic.
Nevertheless, the DLCs are the main attraction for me, especially Elspeth von Draken. The new Empire commander combines magic with artillery and builds accordingly on strong spells and gunpowder. She is absolutely insane:
- She can teleport across the Empire through the Gardens of Morr and really hit opponents hard. Through the Gardens, she can even recruit units.
- Elspeth rides a Crimson Dragon, which can wipe out entire units with the press of a button.
- The commander herself casts death magic, one of the best types of spells for killing enemy heroes and leaders.
- Her faction, Whisenland & Nuln, has access to special amethyst units – these are magic-enhanced gunpowder units like Iron Men and rocket platforms. Gunpowder units have been a strength of the Empire even before.
- All units that work with gunpowder receive an additional boost from the artillery school. Essentially an additional research tree just for Elspeth.
But the best part is the new unit: land ships. And yes, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds. A battleship to which a few wheels have simply been attached, armed with heavy artillery, thick armor, and spears, just plowing through the battlefield. Quite literally.
Normally, I play the megalomaniacal Chaos Dwarves, but just for these land ships, I have now devoted myself to the Empire. I haven’t had this much fun in live battles in ages.
Here you can see the gameplay showcase for Elspeth:
Manor Lords will stay on the sidelines for now – Until it’s finished
Just to make it clear: I don’t want to bash Manor Lords here. The game is fantastic, and rightly so, colleague Maurice Weber finds it to be THE building game of the future. What’s in it is just not enough for me for long-term motivation.
Sure, building villages is cool, and the battles are entertaining. But after about 10-20 hours, I’ve seen everything. The content is extremely limited, no building can be upgraded beyond tier 3, and the tech trees aren’t even halfway finished.
Manor Lords will be great when it’s fully complete. The building game is no competition to Total War, says the head himself. Nevertheless, both games appeal to a very similar target audience. Like me, for example. And I’ll stick with Total War until Manor Lords has more content.
Total War is doing really well again after a nasty dispute
Total War had major problems recently. In 2023, there was a huge dispute with the community due to various price increases while the quality was lacking. That’s also what caused the nasty crash of reviews on Steam.
Creative Assembly made a turnaround at the end of the year and bowed to the community – including apologies and gifts:
- The “overpriced” DLC Shadows of Change has been massively expanded for free.
- Total War: Pharaoh subsequently received a price reduction, buyers simply got back 20 €.
Personally, I didn’t find the DLC for Warhammer back then to be that bad, but I was apparently quite alone in that opinion. Now, with Thrones of Decay, the developers have certainly done everything right. Even MeinMMO author Schuhmann wants to take another look at Total War: Warhammer 3:
The latest installment, Pharaoh, still doesn’t fare well with few players and mediocre ratings. Here, however, there was now a complete extension simply given away, something that fans did not expect at all. So something might happen here as well.
And now… I never thought I would say this, but… excuse me, I must go unite the Empire and lead it to power.
That Total War: Warhammer 3 engages me like this is actually strange. The series has never interested me, but Warhammer is my absolute favorite universe. All that’s left is to finally announce what has long been overdue: In a perfect world, the biggest MMORPG today would be World of Warhammer (and yes, I know I had a beard back then – Thanks!)
