Warhammer Total War: Warhammer III

[Jorus]

They finally uploaded the damn thing

 

[Jorus]

Valkia blog + the pricing revealed

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TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER III – INTRODUCING VALKIA THE BLOODY​

TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER III

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CA Evangelos
August 9 2022

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Hello Total War: WARHAMMER community! Today we’re revealing the final Legendary Lord joining the Champions of Chaos Lords pack—Valkia the Bloody—coming to Total War: WARHAMMER III on August 23rd.
Valkia the Bloody is the cruel and daemonic consort of Khorne: returned from the dead to further the work of her diabolic paramour. Once a fell queen of a great northern tribe, the Blood God reawakened her as a form more pleasing to himself. The followers of Khorne fight all the harder in her presence, for it is said His gaze always lingers around her.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=0p5AQJ2HaQc

ON THE BATTLEFIELD…​

The winged warrior-queen is one of the most skilled combatants in both the mortal and immortal realms—with melee stats to rival even those of Skarbrand. She has a range of powerful abilities, including Daemonshield, which grants invulnerability for a short period, Spear of Slaupnir which causes the ground to erupt in a straight line, and her Gaze of Khorne passive ability, which increases the base weapon damage, armour-piercing, and leadership of warriors in her area of influence.

FACTION EFFECTS​

• Has access to Bloodletting
• Campaign movement range: +20% after winning a battle (all characters)
• Souls gained from sacrificing captives: +50%
• Vassals gain Frenzy and spread Khorne’s corruption

LORD EFFECTS​

• Passive ability: The Gaze of Khorne
• Campaign movement range +35% after enemy retreats from battle

PRE-ORDER NOW!​

Azazel, Festus, Vilitch, and Valkia join the battlefield in the Champions of Chaos DLC, coming alongside the release of Immortal Empires on August 23rd. Pre-orders are available now on all stores now—and you’ll even score a 10% discount if you pick them up before August 30th!

• Total War: WARHAMMER III – Champions of Chaos on the Microsoft Store
• Total War: WARHAMMER III – Champions of Chaos on Steam
• Total War: WARHAMMER III – Champions of Chaos on the Epic Store

UP NEXT​

We’ll be sharing an even more in-depth look at Valkia in a Let’s Play video coming TOMORROW, so look for that over on the official Total War YouTube channel. Then, keep your eyes on our social channels for more news about Immortal Empires and the Champions of Chaos, both coming this August 23rd!

 

[thesheeep]

Yeah, I'm totally gonna pre-order another CA product

Tbf, I did that with WH3, but that was for 50% off...

 

[Lagole Gon]

They finally uploaded the damn thing

Man, this Slaaneshi lord reveal looks pretty cool. His army totally pwned that flying red bitch.

 

[copebot]

I just finished a Nurgle campaign and I think the popular sentiment that he's the weakest faction in WH3 campaign is just off-base. He's the weakest faction before you get Black Plague, which boosts your sacking/looting income by 250%, but after that he becomes the strongest faction after Khorne. The fact that you can global recruit a full doomstack from anywhere on the map shouldn't be underestimated. The fact that he gets to build up soul grinders with a basic military building is possibly an oversight but is also quite powerful. Tie that up with the fact that he gets one of the best winds of magic and he's definitely not weak.

The other mistake that people make is thinking that it's a defensive faction. His building income is pretty bad, especially compared to something like Cathay or Demons of Chaos. The key thing is just to beeline to Black Plague, start sacking, and then to never stop. You build up your core provinces and just ignore the provinces at your periphery. If you lose an empty settlement, it just doesn't matter, and you can easily recruit a full stack in any province that matters if it ever comes under threat. The other thing is that people underrate the plagues. You can perma-attrition dangerous armies, debuff anything, buff yourself with extra physical resist, and more. The infection costs stop mattering at a certain point. Past the midgame, I destroyed Cathay and Kislev at the same time while running out the clock on the soul race.

The only unit that I would rate as mostly useless is the Nurgle forsaken, which just can't compete with plaguebearers because of the super-common -20% upkeep to plaguebearers ancillary. They're not a terrible unit, but they don't really work well at the same time as plaguebearers, and they can't really justify being more expensive. I also think that the regular heralds of Nurgle are better than the exalted variants just because it's so useful to have a 90 speed caster on a flying mount. Another downside is that Nurgle is dogshit in autoresolve, so if you want to keep offensive momentum, you have to manually fight most things.

 

[Jaedar]

You can perma-attrition dangerous armies,

Are you playing on normal perhaps? The only potential benefit to attrition on higher difficulties is that it makes the enemy use raid stance, slowing them slightly.

 

[copebot]

You can perma-attrition dangerous armies,

Are you playing on normal perhaps? The only potential benefit to attrition on higher difficulties is that it makes the enemy use raid stance, slowing them slightly.

No, on VH. It does attrition through raiding stance, encamp, or in garrison. You kind of have to use the +50% attrition symptom to have Ague do much of anything, but at minimum it prevents replenishment.

 

[Average Manatee]

How well does it spread? I can see it working but the problem is you need it like 10-20 turns ahead of your armies to really get the attrition to set in by the time you arrive.

The Black Plague buff for looting does look pretty good.

 

[Fedora Master]

The problem with Nurgle isn't just the campaign, it's the shit roster with zero tactical options.

 

[thesheeep]

I just finished a Nurgle campaign and I think the popular sentiment that he's the weakest faction in WH3 campaign is just off-base.

It is off-base, indeed.
Nurgle is one of the strongest factions IN BATTLE (and thus, in MP) for a reason.
The combination of high HP, good resistances, lots of regen and poison everywhere is just pretty insane. Not OP, but, you know, up there.

But yes, Nurgle gets shafted hard in campaign for reasons you listed.
Terrible autoresolve (autoresolve doesn't seem to take poison into account at all), terrible growth*, terrible replenishment, gets bum-rushed by ordertide from the get-go.
It's on par with how bad VCoast was in WH2, especially Cylostra.

* Seriously, Is it anyhow possible to get T5 building before turn 70 or so?
I have large amounts of cash in campaign, but nothing to spend them on
That growth is so absurdly slow.

Meanwhile, Kislev goes for me with full elemental bear stacks...
I'm not losing, don't get me wrong. But it's so weird to be assaulted by highest-tier stacks while I'm not even close to that.

The problem with Nurgle isn't just the campaign, it's the shit roster with zero tactical options.

Bullshit.

The only thing Nurgle lacks in battle is proper anti-large in lower tiers.
Toads actually do have anti-large damage, but it's not that strong.
Drones can wreck monsters and cavalry, but get wrecked by everything as well, they are just way too squishy. I once sent a bunch of drones into cavalry surrounded by my own units, and 30 seconds later the drones were wiped. It's absurd. Maybe a leadership boost would suffice, not sure.

You do have options with Nurgle. And not THAT few.
But not as many as some other factions, that's true.

Even Forsaken can be used effectively, just not as a replacement for Plaguebearers.

 

[tabacila]

There's a -25% offer for CoC lovers on Fanatical btw:
https://www.fanatical.com/en/dlc/total-war-warhammer-iii-champions-of-chaos

 

[Maculo]

I thought this was a nice touch, although I wish the map looked that alive. I wasn't expecting CA to throw in Daniel reference.

 

[Sunri]

Did they say anything about siege battles? This tower defense shit is horrible.

 

[razvedchiki]

whose daniel?

 

[Sunri]

whose daniel?

Daemon prince that leads Daemons of Chaos

 

[thesheeep]

whose daniel?

Daemon prince that leads Daemons of Chaos

I always called him John. John Chaos.
But I guess Daniel is fine as well.

 

[Caim]

whose daniel?

Daemon prince that leads Daemons of Chaos

I always called him John. John Chaos.
But I guess Daniel is fine as well.

Dan the Chaos Man

Chaos Dan

 

[copebot]

I just finished a Nurgle campaign and I think the popular sentiment that he's the weakest faction in WH3 campaign is just off-base.

It is off-base, indeed.
Nurgle is one of the strongest factions IN BATTLE (and thus, in MP) for a reason.
The combination of high HP, good resistances, lots of regen and poison everywhere is just pretty insane. Not OP, but, you know, up there.

But yes, Nurgle gets shafted hard in campaign for reasons you listed.
Terrible autoresolve (autoresolve doesn't seem to take poison into account at all), terrible growth*, terrible replenishment, gets bum-rushed by ordertide from the get-go.
It's on par with how bad VCoast was in WH2, especially Cylostra.

* Seriously, Is it anyhow possible to get T5 building before turn 70 or so?
I have large amounts of cash in campaign, but nothing to spend them on
That growth is so absurdly slow.

Meanwhile, Kislev goes for me with full elemental bear stacks...
I'm not losing, don't get me wrong. But it's so weird to be assaulted by highest-tier stacks while I'm not even close to that.

Yes, you can get to T5 before turn 70. Looking through my save files, I hit T5 at turn 61. I could have hit it faster with more scrupulous use of Pox:

The more powerful unlockable, Green Pox, is even better:

You spam that out on all the cities that you're trying to grow, and you will get to T5 much faster than you would otherwise be able to. On a 4-settlement province, it comes out to an extra +200 growth. In the late game, your bad replenishment gets made up for by the fact that you can global recruit endless units from everywhere and that you can heal up all your single entities after every fight with Nurgle magic. My biggest struggle re: bum rushing was a visit from this rogue army asshole while Ku'gath was far up to the northeast. The two stacks in garrison are just nurgling garbage plus seven plaguebearers.

Not pictured is this busted AI faction's other full-strength stack identical to this one roaming around in the province to the north. This rogue army was much more of a challenge to deal with on the map than any other enemy including the two factions of 22-settlement Cathay and the fully confederated Kiselv just because his AI has no financial constraints and doesn't need to build buildings to push out elite units. I had to ague-spam this one and the other one down and then drown the survivors in nurgling pus. It is indeed not fun to have your jaw busted in by doomstacks with multiple soulgrinders while your main army is far away, but plague gives you the means to handle even the worst possible situations.

Granted, by this point, many of the other factions will already be in much financially and territorially stronger states, it's just that Nurgle's infected snowball is a much bigger snowball than most other factions towards the end of the game. He will be really good in IE because that campaign will probably not really have the time pressure element that this one does.

 

[Average Manatee]

Generally speaking how do you efficienctly deal with towers in settlements defended by a reasonably sized AI army?

 

[razvedchiki]

with them artillery batteries.

 

[Average Manatee]

You run out of artillery ammo pretty quickly and Nurgle is all about being slow as fuck and grinding the enemy down over time.

 

[thesheeep]

I just finished a Nurgle campaign and I think the popular sentiment that he's the weakest faction in WH3 campaign is just off-base.

It is off-base, indeed.
Nurgle is one of the strongest factions IN BATTLE (and thus, in MP) for a reason.
The combination of high HP, good resistances, lots of regen and poison everywhere is just pretty insane. Not OP, but, you know, up there.

But yes, Nurgle gets shafted hard in campaign for reasons you listed.
Terrible autoresolve (autoresolve doesn't seem to take poison into account at all), terrible growth*, terrible replenishment, gets bum-rushed by ordertide from the get-go.
It's on par with how bad VCoast was in WH2, especially Cylostra.

* Seriously, Is it anyhow possible to get T5 building before turn 70 or so?
I have large amounts of cash in campaign, but nothing to spend them on
That growth is so absurdly slow.

Meanwhile, Kislev goes for me with full elemental bear stacks...
I'm not losing, don't get me wrong. But it's so weird to be assaulted by highest-tier stacks while I'm not even close to that.

Yes, you can get to T5 before turn 70. Looking through my save files, I hit T5 at turn 61. I could have hit it faster with more scrupulous use of Pox:

Yeah, I was thinking I probably didn't use plagues to full efficiency.

One thing I noticed to help a lot at the start of the game was this:
The starting war with the Ogre faction is a trap. Only take your initial province from them, don't spend any of the money you get, and then use that money (around 10k) to make peace with the Ogre faction.
That basically makes sure the Ogres will leave you in peace for a very long time, and might even become friendly. So then you "only" have to deal with the ordertide.

The biggest mistake you can make is chase the Ogres east, causing the other Ogre factions to slowly turn more and more aggressive towards you. You don't want that.

My biggest struggle re: bum rushing was a visit from this rogue army asshole while Ku'gath was far up to the northeast. The two stacks in garrison are just nurgling garbage plus seven plaguebearers.

I had similar things happen, but with the dwarven factions. At around turn 15 or so, a stack full of T2 Dwarves around your capital is no joke.
Thankfully, Nurgle towers are awesome and dwarves are slow...

Generally speaking how do you efficienctly deal with towers in settlements defended by a reasonably sized AI army?

As Nurgle?
Plagues. There's this one effect that gives garrisons attrition. Launch that at a city 2-3 turns before your army gets there. Much easier to deal with.
You'll still lose troops, of course. But you're Nurgle, you don't really care if you lose anything that isn't high tier.

You can also do a normal siege for 1-2 turns to build some siege equipment, in that time the garrison will dwindle even quicker.
All of that means their army losses penalty will trigger a lot faster, meaning you'll get shot at for a shorter duration, losing less troops.

Alternatively, you can cheese-win settlement battles with fast troops. Lure enemies with a main force, while taking victory points with the fast ones.
Okay, "fast" ones for Nurgle.

One thing to note is that while the solution to everything with Nurgle seems to be plagues, your income of infections will be VERY low at the start of the game. So, yeah, while you can solve everything with plagues in theory, you'll need to pick your targets carefully to begin with.
And very likely, most of the early plagues will go into your own growth.

 

[thesheeep]

Also: Froggies!
I think the Plague Toads might be one of the most underrated units in the game. Most guides seem to put them off as the worst cavalry in the game. But that's apparently from players looking only at damage dealt and nothing else. Very short-sighted.

I think the issue comes from players using them as normal cavalry, trying some cycle charging or whatever.
Yeah, don't do that. It's a stupid idea.

Not sure where I read that, here or elsewhere, but the following is very true:
You don't do hammer & anvil as Nurgle, you do anvil & anvil.

They are in fact one of the most cost-efficient units in the game if used correctly.
First of all, they are fast... for Nurgle. The importance of that is rather obvious.
They are also VERY sturdy.
Launch them into a stack of infantry, even anti-large infantry, they'll keep that stack busy for a long while. They'll even win unless it's high tier.
Launch them into cavalry (they do have the same anti-large as they have anti-infantry bonus)! Same thing, even anti-large cav will have severe issues getting rid of the toadies.
Even high-tier cavalry/infantry, doesn't matter. Bear riders? Will beat plague toads, of course. But it will take them a LONG while, which is very much in your favor. And they'll probably be left at around 50% HP. A pretty good trade.

Plague toads have an incredibly awkward animation cycle. They jump around erratically. They have VERY high mass, pushing almost everything else around easily that isn't a monster or an ogre as they do the hippity hoppity.
What all of this means is that no unit (except ranged) can get ahold of them. Doesn't matter how much anti-large damage a unit has, if it can barely land a hit cause frogs keep on hopping around. It is extremely rare that a unit can attempt (let alone land) two hits in a row against a toad.
Every melee with frogs turns into a complete mess. Frogs don't care about enemy formations.

They basically excel at keeping stuff tied up while also dealing some damage.
Allowing you to forget about them while you focus on other things.
Cavalry that you don't need to babysit? Hell, yeah! Gimme dat!

tl;dr: Don't use toadies as a hammer. Use them as a very mobile anvil.

 

[Jaedar]

Generally speaking how do you efficienctly deal with towers in settlements defended by a reasonably sized AI army?

Generally? Flying units.

 

[copebot]

Also: Froggies!
I think the Plague Toads might be one of the most underrated units in the game. Most guides seem to put them off as the worst cavalry in the game. But that's apparently from players looking only at damage dealt and nothing else. Very short-sighted.

I think the issue comes from players using them as normal cavalry, trying some cycle charging or whatever.
Yeah, don't do that. It's a stupid idea.

Not sure where I read that, here or elsewhere, but the following is very true:
You don't do hammer & anvil as Nurgle, you do anvil & anvil.

They are in fact one of the most cost-efficient units in the game if used correctly.
First of all, they are fast... for Nurgle. The importance of that is rather obvious.
They are also VERY sturdy.
Launch them into a stack of infantry, even anti-large infantry, they'll keep that stack busy for a long while. They'll even win unless it's high tier.
Launch them into cavalry (they do have the same anti-large as they have anti-infantry bonus)! Same thing, even anti-large cav will have severe issues getting rid of the toadies.
Even high-tier cavalry/infantry, doesn't matter. Bear riders? Will beat plague toads, of course. But it will take them a LONG while, which is very much in your favor. And they'll probably be left at around 50% HP. A pretty good trade.

Plague toads have an incredibly awkward animation cycle. They jump around erratically. They have VERY high mass, pushing almost everything else around easily that isn't a monster or an ogre as they do the hippity hoppity.
What all of this means is that no unit (except ranged) can get ahold of them. Doesn't matter how much anti-large damage a unit has, if it can barely land a hit cause frogs keep on hopping around. It is extremely rare that a unit can attempt (let alone land) two hits in a row against a toad.
Every melee with frogs turns into a complete mess. Frogs don't care about enemy formations.

They basically excel at keeping stuff tied up while also dealing some damage.
Allowing you to forget about them while you focus on other things.
Cavalry that you don't need to babysit? Hell, yeah! Gimme dat!

tl;dr: Don't use toadies as a hammer. Use them as a very mobile anvil.

The bugs perform a similar role, but they're flying units. They don't do much damage, but they do make the unit they're fighting useless because of formation disruption. The big vulnerability Nurgle has is just being shot. Enough units that help take that off the table permit your death blob to win.

I agree that going into the ogre mountains is a huge waste of time as Nurgle. The tier 3 limits on the mountains plus the climate penalty just make it a waste of time, combined with how long it takes to transit because there's no underway/teleport.