Warhammer Total War: Warhammer III

[Lacrymas]

Ghorst has the best faction effects from all the VCs. If you want to min-max you always pick him and unlock Mannfred later.

Isn't it the other way around? Start with Mannfred and then get Ghorst?

 

[Tyrr]

Isn't it the other way around? Start with Mannfred and then get Ghorst?

+20% replenishment and research (VC research is important) is way better than generic +10% movement. Mannfred is the better lord in battle, but not that hard to get a few turns in.

 

[Lacrymas]

Mmmm, +10% movement is better and is relevant throughout the campaign. Shaving off a turn for research early-game is not that important.

 

[Average Manatee]

Ghorst gets +20% replenishment which is godly.

 

[MuckMan]

I have the feeling the IE launch is more akin to a relaunch, but we will see in August. If it releases in August, all of over favourite shills will have early access in maybe July?

 

[Fedora Master]

I have the feeling the IE launch is more akin to a relaunch, but we will see in August. If it releases in August, all of over favourite shills will have early access in maybe July?

I don't think they're going to do early access this time because they are genuinely scrambling to get it ready. Hence also the disclaimer "IT'S A BETA", to prevent people from complaining too much about the inevitably awful quality.

 

[Lacrymas]

It's going to be semi-stable a year after its initial release, mark my words.

 

[tabacila]

I have the feeling the IE launch is more akin to a relaunch, but we will see in August. If it releases in August, all of over favourite shills will have early access in maybe July?

I can't be anything other than a relaunch. There's no hope for WH3 without the sandbox campaign working really well.
TW streamers will probably get some early footage, but since this a beta it will probably only a few days/a week in advance.

 

[Mazisky]

Yes, it will be a relaunch and I am pretty confident that blood and first DLC were delayed to be launched paired with IE for a big-marketing relaunch

 

[Maculo]

Decent announcement. Happy CA are finally implementing mid and end game crisis events and revising victory conditions. Revised victory conditions are long overdue. Also, I am hopeful Nakai, Malus, and the prophet Lizard LL get some touch ups.

 

[Average Manatee]

Decent announcement. Happy CA are finally implementing mid and end game crisis events and revising victory conditions. Revised victory conditions are long overdue. Also, I am hopeful Nakai, Malus, and the prophet Lizard LL get some touch ups.

I'd hope so as well. I can't imagine Malus not getting at least a few tweaks. I think Tehenuin is fine? The Great Skaven Purge is kind of a unique fun mechanic, I assume that's what you are talking about?

Nakai though... he's 100% unique and has a lot of custom shit. He needs an update the most but it'd be way more work than any other LL in the game to get right. Way harder than just slightly changing the starting situation and tweaking some numbers.

 

[Maculo]

Yep, Tehenuin, can never remember the spelling. Similar to Malus, he is not bad, just had the bad luck of being released opposite to a Skaven DLC lord.

I think it would be fitting if Malus started at or near the Chaos Wastes. Also, a change to his short-campaign victory would be nice, as I never understood the reasoning behind 10 provinces.

Further change to his possession mechanic would be amazing, but I doubt CA would go that far for a DLC character. I can’t think of any DLC character that CA drastically changed.

Another mechanic that would be cool, but not a necessity, are more legendary heroes akin to Allariele or the Green Knight. There are a lot of fun secondary characters.

 

[Lacrymas]

I can’t think of any DLC character that CA drastically changed.

It depends on what you mean by "drastically". Sisters of Twilight's forging got completely redesigned for example. I also love the fact they are reworking both Volkmar and Ghorst because theoretically that DLC is totally up my alley - a necromancer and a fanatical cleric - but they are the worst DLC lords lol.

 

[Average Manatee]

Yep, Tehenuin, can never remember the spelling. Similar to Malus, he is not bad, just had the bad luck of being released opposite to a Skaven DLC lord.

Tehenuin (I'm pretty sure I'm not spelling it right) has a huge tree of bonus, at least two of them being gamebreakingly powerful spells that you can keep up permanently as free casts for every battle you fight once unlocked (one is at the first level), a few others that give substantial buffs that arguably make him the best lizardman lord on their own even without the spells, and the summonable followers can stack huge bonuses like -15% unit upkeep for armies (on multiple heroes and the lord on the army, so like -45% to 60% total) along with -100% building cost (literally lets you build buildings and then destroy them for profit).

IMO he's the strongest and most well developed non-skaven lord and arguably comparable to skaven. His start position does suck though, one of the worst and least defensible in the lustriabowl.

 

[Maculo]

I can’t think of any DLC character that CA drastically changed.

It depends on what you mean by "drastically". Sisters of Twilight's forging got completely redesigned for example.

You are right, although I didn’t try Sisters of Twilight until after CA changed forging, and so I can’t speak to how much that changed.

Balancing and budget considerations aside, Malus’ potion mechanic seemed the least interesting part of his lore and not all that accurate. If I recall correctly, he took the potion to awaken Tzarkan and not resist him. While CA can take liberties with lore and mechanics, I found the direction odd.

 

[Average Manatee]

Biggest problem with Malus's effects is that he boosts growth rates now after they updated him, but Dark Elves have virtually no need for faster growth. They build high level units at higher experience levels quicker from Black Arks, and they only care about one 4-size settlement that ideally has a good base income rate to stuff a billion slaves in, along with the tech to minimize slave decline rate. They can sack and raze every other settlement on the map if they want to up until the first is full and they need more room for slaves. Malus has the worst access to good slave settlements and nothing else. If they just went back to getting an economic bonus from his corruption and added a 4th settlement slot to the dragon isles he'd play much better (also remove the fucking alliance between him and malekith at the start, or at least degrade it to a defensive alliance).

 

[Maculo]

Malus’ campaign has a lot of separate ideas in my opinion. He is on an expedition, but plays like a normal dark elf lord. He has whisper quests and traits that entail moving across the map to fight/raze, which are paired with a sanity and potion mechanic that incentivize empire building. I suppose that means you can play him differently, but it felt as though CA had several visions of Malus that they ultimately melded together.

Good to know about Lizard Jesus. I remember a lot of people hating some component of it and finding it tedious (admittedly, not an objective measure).

 

[Average Manatee]

Tehenuin does have 3 stages to his questline, stage 2 of which forces you and the rest of the lizardmen to start the great jihad on all skaven (permanent unending war). I'd assume that that's what people complain about. It happens fairly early (2 fully owned regions) and can't otherwise be prevented if you are using his sacrifice mechanics.

Funny that all of the other lord packs are positioned as Race A vs. Race B yet there's generally next to no incentive or guidance to force them to fight like this. I'd guess CA was going to do this for future lord packs but backed off. I don't even remember which other lords were supposed to be matched up except sisters of twilight vs. clan Moulder

 

[Fedora Master]

Oh, they included the Southern(!) Chaos Wastes, that's a surprise to me.

 

[tabacila]

Here's the blog post itself:
https://www.totalwar.com/blog/tww3-the-immortal-empires-map/

Map of regions and provinces:

Spoiler

Looking at the Old World Sylvania is now split into a Southern and Northern provinces instead of east and west. Makes sense since that southern most settlement in west Sylvania wasn't accessible through the province itself.
Estalia got split into Estalia and Irana Mountains. There's yet hope for that Dogs of War/Southern Realms race pack DLC .
There seem to be some more regions that look like WE magical forests. The Haunted Forest next to the Dragon Isles and the Jungles of Chi'an in south east Cathay.
There's a new province between Hochland and Ostland, The Middle Mountains, more or less where the Brass Keep is. I guess that would be a good starting point for a Chaos faction since the keep is associated with chaos stuff as far as I know.

Don't know about the rest of the map, but I'm sure glad as fuck they didn't downsize the Empire and the Old World in general. That was my biggest fear about this whole thing.

Map of sea lanes:

Spoiler

Nice to see the Underworld sea was included, but they could have added a sea lane to connect the north and south Great Ocean.
Not only can you not go on land into Ind and Kuresh, you also can't sail the ocean around them. I guess spending turns moving passed greyed out areas would be boring. Nonetheless they keep mentioning that the lands of 8th edition races were their IMMEDIATE design priority, so I guess we could see these lands open up eventually.

 

[Tyrr]

Oh, they included the Southern(!) Chaos Wastes, that's a surprise to me.

The map looks good. The IE map removed too much in the south.
But I don't agree with the suggestions in the vid about new sea lanes, like this one:

This makes no sense. Sea lanes should simulate the globe on a flat map or make movement past uninhabitable land less boring. They are not teleporters for easy movement that shouldn't be easy.

 

[Lacrymas]

Globes don't only have east and west, though. A sealane from Khorne's starting location to Dawn's Landing isn't a terrible idea perhaps.

 

[Space Satan]

This makes no sense. Sea lanes should simulate the globe on a flat map or make movement past uninhabitable land less boring. They are not teleporters for easy movement that shouldn't be easy.

There are literally teleporter-like way to traven in WHFB - undersea. mainly used by druchii corsairs.

 

[Tyrr]

Globes don't only have east and west, though. A sealane from Khorne's starting location to Dawn's Landing isn't a terrible idea perhaps.

On world maps the west and east connect, the north and south don't. You don't come out on the south pole when you cross a world map on the north.
Unless there is a logical reason (like the Underworld Sea or uninhabitable Khuresh and Ind), sea lines should only simulate west/east crossings.

 

[Lacrymas]

Globes don't only have east and west, though. A sealane from Khorne's starting location to Dawn's Landing isn't a terrible idea perhaps.

On world maps the west and east connect, the north and south don't. You don't come out on the south pole when you cross a world map on the north.
Unless there is a logical reason (like the Underworld Sea or uninhabitable Khuresh and Ind), sea lines should only simulate west/east crossings.

It depends on what the idea for these sealanes are. If it's only to simulate connecting points, sure, but that would still leave factions that will basically never encounter each other. The distance between Khorne's starting location and Dawn's Landing is as immense as between Naggarond and Cathay.