Total War: Warhammer III (2022)

4/5

Picked this up in the middle of a bunch of great games coming out and still made huge swaths of time for it. Played two immortal empires campaigns. One as Karl Franz which was honestly frustrating but still fun to overcome. Then a longer one as Yuan Bo which was excellent - really enjoyed establishing myself in two different locations. I will say that getting towards end-game started to get way more boring and I basically stopped as soon as I got all the best units, which is a trend for me in total war games. Having said that, no-one does what total war does in these games and it's as good as ever. I look forward to another big historical total war game (I hope).

I haven't done a ton with this game since beating the main campaign. Immortal Empires dropped, I started a few campaigns, and then went back to playing RPGs lol.

I have been really interested in picking this back up though! This week I started a campaign, lets see how long I can stick with it. Grom the Paunch, the thickest of bois, 'ere we go!

Everytime I pick a lord or faction I played in Warhammer 1 and 2 I am always amazed how different they are now with the numerous balance tweaks the game has done. Orcs and Goblins was my favorite faction to play in Warhammer 1, but I haven't played them much since. WOW they are even cooler now!!!!!

Grom has some great mechanics, their roster is deeper and more varied, AND the Waagh mechanic has been improved on.

I think this will just be a short campaign, Long is always tempting for me, but there are SO many lords I want to try the investing in a long one right now doesn't make sense.

Still on my long long journey trough immortal empires (fuck the campaigns lol). My ranking till now is:

1. Worshippers of Khorne - Skarbrand the Exciled: Blood for the Blood God!!!!!

2. Chaos Warriors - Kholek Suneater: The hole eco-system of chaos warriors is somekind frustrating but Kholek as Hero pays off. It seems like everything is just there to worship Kholek. Who is nearly unbeatable in late game. However this was my longest game because Ork-Apocalypse kicked in so so hard. Tooked me over 100 turns to recover from Grimgores heavy attack-waves. But leading a hole Squad off Dragon Ogres never gets old.

3. Norsca - Trogg the Trollking: starting in the complete lost north and plundering the south was a lot of fun but Norsca lags a little bit of innovation in the late game

4. Woodelves - Sisters of Twighlight: nice Units and starting position but way too defensive gameplay for my taste, playing the baddies is always better

Before I got further, I have to admit that I am 100% biased, this is my favorite game franchise and the Warhammer series of it is the best version of it, I was never not going to like it.

What Works Well:

• Tutorial!!!! They finally have made a useful and entertaining tutorial to introduce fans to the game. For veterans of the game, this isn't a big deal, but since I have helped at introduce at least a dozen friends to this game, I have to say its amazing it took so long to get this. The tutorial is really engaging too, giving a story complete with solid cutscenes and brilliant voice work. For a franchise whose main draw is the armies clashing and the strategy, touches like this tend to be glossed over, but they are great in Warhammer 3.
• Army variety, this is something that has continually been a strength of Warhammer Total War series, each faction has a TON of variety, making playing each new faction feel like a fresh game. This gives a ton of replayability. The factions themselves are also really interesting, and I think reward a really wide range of strategies.
• Pacing, unlike some previous Total Wars, this one doesn't have the end slog where you are inevitably going to win, and you just need to keep conquering. Putting the central conflict as a race to achieve 4 goals and then jump in and fight the final battle, its satisfying, rewards planning, AND each section has cool cutscenes and lore. If I was picky, it is over just a bit too fast for my taste, but considering Immortal Empires is coming, and will be massive, that is fine.
• There are a lot of little touches that I think make the game better then previous, but I think one of the biggest is a rework to the way siege battles work, they are now cinematic, reward defenders doing more then blobbing up, and create a series of mini fights and withdraws thru the city. Amazing

What Could be Better: Nothing.... JK

• Some of the factions lack the depth of others. I started with the Daemons of Chaos faction, which is a blast. I don't quite see how the specific chaos god factions are as satisfying, because you have a far FAR smaller roster to select from. Maybe that will work well for some people, and it means you get to your big stompy end tier stuff quicker, but feels a bit lacking imo (still great and I will still play them)

There are small things, that could be better, I think the campaign is just a hair too short, there are still bugs because it is new, a few of the battles might feel repetitive to some people, but honestly this game is amazing.

I think if you are into the series, you will get this, but if you were debating, this is the perfect jumping in point for the series!!!