Have you ever tried jumping into a new game from an established series that seems cool but you have no idea what you’re doing because it’s a complex real-time strategy game with 4X elements? That’s what I went through with Total War Warhammer III.
With the release of the Omens Of Destruction DLC, and a massive free update alongside its arrival, I decided to give this game a go, having no prior experience to the Total War Warhammer, or Total War on that matter. And it’s quite enlightening.
Due to this, this review isn’t a critique of the DLC itself from an expert’s point of view. If you’re looking for that, click away. This is for folks who’s intrigued by Total War Warhammer due to being familiar with the Games Workshop IP but maybe a bit hesitant to take the step into the pool. I say, just jump in, the water’s fine, but expect to struggle for a few hours until you get your bearings on how to win wars.
Easy To Get Into
Developer Creative Assembly has made admirable efforts to onboard new players and players who need a refresher. The tutorials gently walks you through the basics without babying you too much. Though they do put subtle training wheels. The prologue campaign is a simple march northwards is a good example, it gives you glimpses of how a Total War game can grow and become complicated, without making you deal with it many intricacies just yet. A gentle ramp up as you get used to the campaign aspects where build up settlements, manage budgets, do diplomacy and moving units in the macro scale, and then command your troops on the battlefield.
But the game hasn’t siloed out the tutorial into its own thing and leave you hanging in the main campaign (Realm Of Chaos) or in the massive sandbox mode Immortal Empires. You still get some form of onboarding and tutorials should you need it.
At every start of an Immortal Empire campaign, the game throws a softball at you to get things rolling. When I start the campaign as Skulltaker, one of the new Lords in the DLC, the first thing the game asks you to do is take out a Tzeentch army that just so happens to hang out next to your starting position. As a mission. Complete that short chain of quests and you should have your first province under your control.
As someone who has no idea what to do in this mode, these missions help give me purpose. And it eases you into the many mechanics you’ll be interacting with in the campaign. Recruit more units, build up your settlements, go to war. That stuff.
Expect To Fail
That doesn’t mean it shields you from failing, however. In my first bumble through Immortal Empires, I couldn’t quite wipe out the Empire faction that dared to wage war on me and even worse, I didn’t thought to at least colonise one settlement in another province.
Look, the prompts “Blood for the Blood God” and “Skull for the Skull Throne” were right there, why wouldn’t I not pick either of them? I foolishly assume that Khorne corruption can spread to other provinces and hopefully I get to claim those settlements for free by chance, that didn’t happen. And I overextended the troops, kept on getting pyrrhic victories that are not worth it in the long run, and Skulltaker just didn’t have the strong troops to start 1v1 other Lords for those essences to upgrade their cloak, a unique mechanic for this Lord.
10 hours is not enough to grasp the game’s fundamentals.
Still, it’s quite a pleasurable time sink, Total War: Warhammer III. Don’t expect to immediately “get” it, like any good strategy game, you’ll need to sink in time before being able to adequately be competent at it. And the game does a good job in telling you what you need to know and do at any particular time should you need advice.
Oh Lords, New Mechanics
As for the DLC itself, Omens Of Destruction spreads the love to three different races, the aforementioned Khorne, the Ogre Kingdoms and Orcs and Goblins (i.e. Greenskins). Not only do these races get a new Lord (each being associated to a new faction), they come with significant reworks as well. And they all have varying playstyles to boot.
Khorne gets the most love out of the trio, as they get two new Lords (Arbaal is free, but you need to have a CA account to claim him). Worshippers of this particular Chaos god is momentum-based, as they gain bonuses for keeping a winning streak in battles. To the point that there’s an ability that lets you summon some puny Chaos force for you to take on just to not drop the combo streak.
When paired with a Lord like Skulltaker, who excels in fighting other Lords on the battlefield, then you really need to pursue war. Skulltaker can get the ability to teleport at any location of a known Lord so you can immediately 1v1 them if you so please. And each enemy Lord will reward essence, unique currency for Skulltaker to upgrade his cloak of skulls that unlocks nastier buffs, including that aforementioned teleport ability.
Skulltaker, on paper, is fun if you want to go all in and win battles, marching across the New World as you get rewarded with being even more stronger for doing so over and over. It’s all about the battle.
The other new Lord sworn to Khorne, Arbaal, also relishes in battle, but instead of going everywhere and asking “1v1 me bro!” like Skulltaker technically can do, Arbaal gets issued Challenges From Khorne- hard battles where you can get Favours (this faction’s take on currency) and other rewards.
As one of the base game factions for Warhammer III, it’s about time Khorne gets more Lords, and now they have three in total, out of the 100 Legendary Lords available to play as.
If you want a change of pace, the Ogre Kingdoms’ Goldfag Maneater has a singnificantly different playstyle. He’s essentially a mercenary for hire. You can’t form alliances, but you’re encourage to roam the lands with your horde and help others in their wars… for a price.
Ogre Kingdom armies should be razing and plundering cities often to get their supply of gold and Meat.
This is the first Lord from the Ogre Kingdoms that really sells the fantasy of playing as the roving mercenary army for hire. And it’s a refreshing new way to play.
The Orcs and Goblins’ new Lord, Gorbad Ironclaw, is a peculiar one, as this is supposed to be a master tactician.
Orcs? Smart? Apparently this one is.
Playing as Gorbad means you know very well how to use the breadth of the units available to you, as Da Plan rewards you for mix-and-matching different unit types. You can unlock more Planz through doing specific things in the battlefield, which gives him a Eureka moment. Weirdly it reminds me of Civilization VI where you are encouraged to complete a specific challenge, but instead of cheaper cost to research tech, here it’s new buffs to make your army stronger.
You can activate at most three of this at a time, and they have a cooldown. This clearly for more advanced players as my limited prowess in the RTS action means I don’t really get to feel how big of a change this is. It pushes players to have tactical adaptability—Planz don’t last forever and have cooldowns—as well as the ability to constantly tinker with your unit lineup. Something clearly not for beginners like me. Yet it’s also the most straightforward of the new mechanics from the three DLC Lords. And it’s nice to see this race, which isn’t included in Warhammer III’s base game, is still getting content and being updated.
And the new Lords don’t just come with new mechanics, the new units and heroes are charming as well. What’s not to love seeing an Ogre Kingdoms cavalry unit where a goblin is riding on another goblin? Proper silly, in a game about demons and other horrible beings slay and eat each other in ever-perpetual war.
It’s interesting that the DLC strategy for Total War: Warhammer III has pivoted. Previously, a DLC pack adds a whole new race or faction (like Chaos Dwarfs). Now, it’s spreading the love across more races. This approach has its merit. Omens Of Destruction and the new patch will affect more players across the board rather than just players of that one particular race or faction. And there’s a chance for the DLC pack to appeal to more players. Still, you can purchase any of the Lords ala carte should you wish- the DLC pack is just a bundle of three new Lords as everything else is free. So if you’re just interested in playing one of the three new DLC Lords, you still can get a good deal. I don’t think with this level of complexity the game has, anyone has the time to play all 100 Lords available in Immortal Empires. So skipping some of them seems a reasonable thing to do.
Verdict
If you’re a newcomer, should you buy the Total War: Warhammer III Omens Of Destruction? No, it’s designed for more advanced players who will very much welcome the new mechanics at play the three DLC Lords bring to the war table.
But that shouldn’t stop you from getting into Total War: Warhammer III? In its current state right now, there is so much to learn and discover that if you have a spare 100 or so hours of free time, it will consume it all. It’s an engrossing RTS, and just as compelling of a 4X game if you decide to auto-resolve battles. But try and get your eyes on the battlefield and lead those armies yourselves, just to marvel at the spectacle this fantasy war game has.
Review code provided by the publisher.