Are you waiting for AoS 4.0 but still want to crash armies against each other? Either grab yourself a copy of Total War Warhammer 3 and jump in or read on and I’ll try to convince you that it’s worth a whirl!

If you do want to give it a whirl, why not purchase a copy of Warhammer Total War 3 using our affiliate link?

Why I play Total War Warhammer games

Total War Warhammer is my guilty pleasure game and one of the hardest to say game titles I’ve ever played. I’ve been jumping in and out of it since the 1^st one dropped and I’ve started to lose count of all the campaigns I’ve played, Khemri, Dwarves, Empire, Undead, Lizardmen, Vampire Coast, Skryre (because they are definitely the best clan, so says my 2000 pt pure Skryre AoS army), more Khemri, more Vampire Coast, more Dwarves, and a little bit more Khemri. Playing the campaigns multiplayer has been one of the highlights (shoutout to my mate Samwise who is much better at the game than I am).

Looking at the list of the factions I tend to take is also one of the reasons why I come recommending TWWH3, the games bring me a nostalgia hit which I don’t get from any other games (don’t tell Games Workshop but when I thought I was going to start with the Old World minis… I just loaded TWWH3 again instead). Playing on the computer with those armies and those units which I looked at hungrily in the White Dwarfs of old is one of the draw cards. As with each game and DLC before, it expands on the roster available and with some real treats this time around. All the chaos gods are finally represented along with Ogors and a couple of new factions.

Getting started with TWWH3

I went into it thinking I would be starting up a Slaanesh campaign… and I started the tutorial then thinking that Kislev would be an interesting option too. Kislev is a really interesting faction being built upon a few of the units from Empire of old and some of the lore but then really pushing it out into a fleshed out faction that feels like it has always existed that way in the Warhammer universe.

When I came to start up a new campaign though, I found myself drawn to the Jade Empire, Grand Cathay. I hadn’t expected that from the previews but looking at some of the units available and the starting map, I could see a faction that really vibed with how I like to play my armies and campaigns in Total War Warhammer.

That was a lot of waffle to start but I wanted to make sure I covered some of that reflection from the tabletop gamers’ side of things. I’ll keep rambling on and give you some of my experience getting into the meat of the campaign (the good and the bad)….

Finding an army that fits to you makes the game much more enjoyable

Cathay is army that really lends into building up combinations of units that allowed me to adapt tactics and to focus certain armies towards different builds. I loved the look and the feel of Cathay (which to me is probably the most important thing when it comes to an army on the tabletop or in a Total War game). Trying to reflect a little, I had been a bit dubious that this would feel like a Warhammer army within TWWH3… but the inclusion of the massive constructs and a general who can turn into a dragon when you want helped prop that end up.

I remember the days when lizardmen and Lustria were coming into the Old World, Cathay riffs on a different vibe of being a land on the edge of the world… something that has always been there and interacted with the Old World but is also apart and has its own strong identity. The campaign with Cathay was also a blast… although I didn’t feel like the story was woven deeply enough into the campaign mechanics and I would really like to know more about that story. Mechanically, it took me a while to get to grips with the Ying-Yang mechanic but once I had it figured out, it was easily controlled by recruiting the correct heroes. The combination of the mechanics and feel of Cathay was a hit for me.

The stuff I didn’t really like

This is where I want to get down into the “bad” part of TWWH3, the campaign mechanics can be a bit annoying, in the sense that it forces you to start tending your lands to stop the daemonic incursions in a way which feels more like housework than enjoying a wargame. The fact that these mechanics and the camapign end goals are effectively the same across all of the starter factions was also a real bummer. After being treated to varied and interesting campaign goals across the other games and DLCs this was a real let down.

I finished up my Cathay adventure (or so I’d thought) and I more or less immediately went back to the new campaign screen to try and choose my next faction (maybe Slaanesh). However because of the lack of variety in the campaign I just didn’t feel it and in the end didn’t start a new one. You know what? I think that’s a real shame, it feels like a lot of love and development work went into that map and I hope with the future expansions we’ll be given reasons to go back to it (I still need to do a Kislev campaign… those bears and beards look great).

Getting on with it…

Well, that didn’t last long and later that day I was booting it up to jump into Immortal Empires instead and for the first time ever I jumped back in with the same faction I’d just played (and won with) and got stuck into a grand campaign with Cathay. For TWWH3, Immortal Empires is really where its at, there are a series of quality of life improvements in regards to victory conditions making it feel a bit more like I had some concrete goals and could happily finish a campaign with a Long Victory instead of feeling like I needed to grind and grind to get towards a final victory. I don’t know how they did it but I’ve felt much happier jumping into Immortal Empires in TWWH3 than with the earlier games.

I’ve gotta start wrapping up this review so I can’t get into too many details but I’ve had fun popping in and out of TWWH3. I’ve played a bit of Ogres and lot of Chaos Dwarves since (I won’t get into Chaos Dwarves in detail yet but if you like their vibe, the DLC is worth it at full price. I actually mean that. It is a vastly different faction with in-depth mechanics that feel like they work and the campaign is *chef’s kiss*. Also, hobgoblins and evil dwarves in big hats, and bull centaurs)

How does it play?

Oh, you came here for an actual review and managed to read through all those long sentences up above! The game runs pretty nicely on my 6 year old computer (don’t ask me for the specs). The performance actually felt better than in the earlier entries, I didn’t feel like I was waiting overly long for the transitions from campaign map to battlefield (as has been a problem before for me). The graphics weren’t glitchy (as I’ve also had a problem with) and this really helped keep me immersed.

The small campaign map felt “personal” I really started to form a rivalry with my fellow Cathay empire below me and the threat of chaos trying to break through and wreak havoc felt right. Later on in the campaign, I started to really want to get to grips with the slippery Tzeentch forces.

Immortal Empires gave me this too but on the grander scale that comes with it. When you get into these bigger longer campaigns, in this iteration (and the earlier entries), I really find myself going after personal goals rather than the ones imposed by the game but I never felt I was being penalised or pushed towards doing it differently.

I haven’t tried out the Multiplayer with TWWH3 but have had a blast in earlier versions. Now it’s upgraded to let you play a campaign with up to 8 players and they even made two special campaigns focussed on multiplayer. I’ve heard though that stability is an issue and you’ll want to check out dedicated server options if you want to go down that road.

Onwards and upwards

It’s been a while since my last foray into the “Old World” of Warhammer and I’m getting that itch again. My sincerest condolences to Slaanesh though, you’re going to have to wait a bit longer. Next campaign, I’ll be jumping into Thrones of Decay… Dwarven Engineer with a deathwish, pirate slayers, a war zeppelin… I’ll be back soon with a review of the DLC from the perspective of Malakai!

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