Total War: WARHAMMER III - Update 5.0.0

Greetings!

Thrones of Decay is OUT NOW - pick up the bundle on Steam.

Decay has arrived in the world of Total War: WARHAMMER III with brand new additions to Nurgle, the Empire, and the Dwarfs.

For a deep dive into everything arriving in Thrones of Decay, including a heap of FreeLC content, be sure to swing by the links below to catch up on anything you may have missed!

Introducing Tamurkhan, the Maggot Lord	Introducing Elspeth von Draken	Introducing Malakai Makaisson

But if you're short on time, here are some of the highlights for Update 5.0:

• Tamurkhan, The Maggot Lord, Elspeth Von Draken, and Malakai Makaisson arrive in WARHAMMER III with Thrones of Decay!
• Keep a tally of the countless plagues spread in Nurgle's name as Epidemius, a new FLC Legendary Lord for Nurgle.
• Tackle campaigns reborn with revitalisation reworks and tweaks to Nurgle, the Empire, and the Dwarfs. 
• Obtain a powerful artifact, or seal away its corruption, with the Nemesis Crown.   

RELEASE SPOTLIGHT

Total War: WARHAMMER III - Thrones of Decay

The Thrones of Decay pack introduces 3 new Legendary Lords, for Nurgle, the Empire, and the Dwarfs, usable in both the Realm of Chaos and Immortal Empires campaigns.   

Embrace conflict, ingenuity, and decay with a new suite of Legendary Lords, Heroes, Units, and Mechanics to enhance your campaign roster on and off the battlefield. Tamurkhan the Maggot Lord, Elspeth von Draken, and Malakai Makaisson arrive in Total War: WARHAMMER III. They bring unique campaign mechanics to their respective races, with a brand-new objective in Realm of Chaos independent from the Ursun storyline, plus new Units and Legendary Heroes to help them achieve total victory and secure the Nemesis Crown.

• 3 new Legendary Lords join the battle. 
• Gather Chieftains from powerful factions across the known world and become the ultimate Warlord of Nurgle as Tamurkhan, The Maggot Lord. 
• Embrace the strengths of magic and gunpowder with Nuln’s Imperial Gunnery School, serving Elspeth von Draken. 
• Seek a glorious death, reap the rewards, and test your latest innovations as Malakai Makaisson. 
• Improve your odds with 3 new Legendary Heroes, 15 Units, 3 Lords, 3 Heroes, and a further 9 Regiments of Renown.  

Epidemius - FreeLC

Epidemius is the epicentre of his army, and excels at being a support specialist, blessing the grotesque gifts of the Urfather upon his troops to enhance their combat prowess. Should he wish to examine potential experimental candidates up close, his Nurgling-hoisted Palanquin will transport him into battle, whilst his disease-imbued rusty sword will rip the enemy ranks limb from limb.

As Nurgle’s Tallyman, Epidemius must oversee his master’s domination of the world through the spreading and cataloguing of plagues. As these plagues spread far and wide between non-Nurgle victims, they contribute to his Tally of Pestilence, greatly increasing his power.

The Tally of Pestilence system counts the number of non-Nurgle armies and settlements currently infected by Epidemius’ plagues. The greater the number of infected targets, the greater the gifts Epidemius has access to, including campaign bonuses and unique abilities. However, the Tally of Pestilence can both increase and decrease as plagues heighten and wane, so you’ll want to ensure some degree of momentum.

Within the Immortal Empires campaign, Epidemius ventures forth from the Forest of Decay.

Available tomorrow as a free addition to Nurgle to all CA Account holders, alongside the launch of Update 5.0 and Thrones of Decay. Be sure to create an account of your own! There's more info about CA Accounts here.

UPDATE 5.0.0

Amendments:

• Hotfix 5.0.1 [03/05/24]
• Hotfix 5.0.2 [07/05/24]
• Hotfix 5.0.3 [14/05/24]

Stability & Performance

• Fixed a rare crash when opening the Vampire Coast's RoR pool.
• Greatly reduced the temporary freeze that can occur when Ultimate Crisis mode fires every end game at once.
• Pressing escape while dragging ancillaries in the Character Details panel no longer freezes them in that place indefinitely.
• Fixed a softlock that could occur when AI Katarin or AI Kostaltyn won the followers race.

Gameplay

Below are changes made to the gameplay systems, AI, and other mechanics that define how the game is played.

Rules & Systems

• Fixed Settlement building costs showing the unmodified value on not yet unlocked buildings (higher tiers).
• Gifting a region to another faction no longer incurs control penalties.
• Special Heroes that come from rites (Ptra's Necrotect, Pestilent Scheme Priest and the DOOOOM! Engineer) can no longer equip magic items, as they would be lost as soon as the Hero performed their action.
• Fixed an issue where recruiting units from a horde army was not possible when the horde army was within a settlement.
• Fixed Action Points not updating correctly when re-recruiting a lord after convalescing. 
• Units with the Always Flying attribute can no longer melee attack buildings (gates, walls, constructible defences).
• The UI now informs the player why recruitment is unavailable, when it's because they cannot change stance.
• Added a tooltip to character trait choices in dilemmas.
• Changing the battle difficulty when on the pre-battle screen now correctly updates the auto-resolve result.
• Fixed effect range in ability tooltips not showing correctly in campaign when it has been modified by effects.
• Fixed an issue that was stopping abilities from correctly decreasing reload speed.

AI Rules & Logic

• Addressed issues of AI units moving indecisively when attempting to enter settlements.

Exploit Fixes

• Fixed a UI exploit that allowed banners to be assigned to units that shouldn't be able to equip them.

Battle Highlights

Lore of Life Visual & Audio Overhaul

All of the Spells in the Lore of Life have had a visual and audio overhaul.

Here are the new visual effects for Regrowth:

Nurgle Army Ability Point Generation

The way that Nurgle generates points for army abilities has been changed, as we felt it was a bit un-engaging and out of the Nurgle player's control in some cases.

Nurgle units no long have to take damage to gain points to use on army abilities, instead army ability points are now gained based on how many hexes are affecting enemy units. A hex is a negative debuff or contact effect like Poison.

Point generation also has a tiered hierarchy, each subsequent tier of point generation overrides the previous:

• Contact phase effects yield the least amount of points
• Passive abilities yield a moderate amount of points
• Active abilities yield the most amount of points.

This incentivises Nurgle players to spread as much disease throughout the battlefield as possible to gain access to Curse of the Slug, Fecundity and Rot, Glorious Rot.

Homing Projectile Refinement

You can call it homing 2.1 if you want!

We've returned to the table to take one more crack at one of the big gaps left in our updated homing implementation from 4.1.0. While we were generally happy with how the change worked against single entities, we felt like there was more work to be done.

Previously, when assigning a homing behaviour to a projectile, it would be passed a target entity. And all homing projectiles fired by the same entity or unit would be given the same target. Leading to excessive overkill and poor performance vs multi entity units, even when firing many projectiles.

Under the new system, we randomly assign each individual projectile a target, roughly evenly spreading the homing targets out across all the entities in the target unit.

To help us demonstrate, Hawk ICBMS:

We'll be keeping a close eye on the various multi-projectile magic missiles in the game in the coming patches to gauge the impact of this, and possibly make some more number adjustments.

Pursuit Behaviour

While investigating unit pursuit behaviour at the start of the Thrones of Decay (that's when Unit A is chasing Unit B off the battlefield after Unit B has routed), we interrogated a limitation where only 35% of the chasing unit was allowed to initiate an attack. We have now removed this limitation, which should make pursuing units more responsive, but also enable units to keep the pressure applied to a target once it has broken.

New Unit Attributes

Slayer - New for Thrones of Decay and applied to all Slayer-type units, the Slayer attribute makes the unit count as a Slayer for ability targeting and also makes the unit immune to reductions in Weapon Strength.

Directional Shield - Units with the Directional Shield attribute have 360 degree missile block, but the unit's base missile block is multiplied as follows:

• 1.0x from the front
• 0.5x from the sides
• 0.1x from the rear

The Steam Tank has this attribute, which means that it is important to keep it facing towards any incoming missiles.

Ballistic Plating - If the unit has a Missile Block Chance, it may now apply to all types of projectiles, apart from Magic Missiles or Spell-based Bombardments.

Invulnerable - Units with the Invulnerable attribute don't take damage from any sources.

Cannot Die - Units with the Cannot Die attribute can take damage but entities cannot be killed.

The eagle-eyed among you may notice some of these aren't entirely new functionality, but we've broken the "cannot die" and "Invulnerable" behaviours into attributes, giving us better control over how we apply it and a tooltip for you to read when facing against it!

Battle UI Updates

Regeneration Rate & Healing Power Tooltip

We've now expanded the health bar tooltip so that it now displays the following info:

• Health Regeneration Rate
• Healing Cap (when applied)
• Healing Power
• Barrier Regeneration Rate
• Barrier Cap (when applied)
• Barrier Recharge Delay

We've also updated the health bar to display the amount of barrier points without hovering the tooltip!

Healing power will automatically adjust as it is raised and lowered by effects.

There are still a couple of bugs to iron out with the system in order to get it to work correctly with Intensity-based abilities and numbers with two decimal places, but we hope to address these in a patch.

Lazy Health Bars

Health bars now have a "lazy" effect where you are temporarily able to visualise how much damage a unit has taken recently. It's tricky to make out on the gif below where we've used our debug cannon(tm) to throw a ton of rocks onto these poor unsuspecting Marauders of Tzeentch, but as their health goes down you can see a portion of the bar becomes red for a moment, before ticking down smoothly.

Separation of Passive Abilities, Unit Attributes and Resistances

In the unit info panel, we've separated Passive Abilities, Unit Attributes and Resistances into their own respective categories.

Spell Mastery is also listed on any units which can cast true spells (bound spells don't count!), and will adjust as Spell Mastery is increased or reduced.

Domination Mode Changes

Gameplay Changes

Following community feedback, we have removed the unlock timer on capture points to allow them to be contested as soon as the match begins.

Ticket Limit is now configurable in custom lobbies.

Removed Maps

The following maps have been removed from the Quickmatch pool following community feedback:

• The Silver Spire
• The Eye in the North
• Galleon's Cove
• Grove of Slaughter
• Crossing the Sea of Claws

Races & Balance

General

• Fixed an issue where The Black Pit only had access to minor settlement buildings.
• Technology research time now updates after a hero uses steal technology that turn.
• Completed destroy faction(s) mission objectives no longer lose their progression ticks when loading a save.
• Boris Todbringer and Red Duke can now be recruited after confederation by only owning Warhammer I; no longer requiring Beastmen and Wood Elves DLC respectively
• Replaced effects that increased hit points with melee defence instead on certain items and item sets, as hit points cannot be increased via items. 

Items (General)

• Removed the melee defence effect from the Shield of Ptolos item to better suit its rarity and description.

Abilities

Army Abilities

Shard of Tzeentch

• Spell Mastery: 10% → 15%

Character Abilities

Greater Arcane Conduit

• Spell Mastery: 10% → 15%

Watched by the Watcher

• Number of Uses: -1 → 3

Arcane Flight

• Spell Mastery: 10% → 15%

Mistwalkers’ Barrage

• Number of Projectiles: 15 → 50
• Launch Source: this will attempt to spawn projectiles above the target → Offset the launch position towards deployment zone by projectile range
• Can Damage Allies: true → false
• Effective Range: 180 → 200

The Twisted Twin

• Spell Mastery: 20% → 30%

Extremely Daring Deathblow

• Melee Attack: 0 →10
• Physical Resistance: 30% → 15%

Determined Deathblow

• Melee Attack: 0 →10
• Weapon Damage: 25% → 30%
• Armour Piercing Weapon Damage: 25% → 30%

Deathblow

• Weapon Damage: 18% → 20%
• Armour Piercing Weapon Damage: 18% → 20%

Master of the Black Arts

• Active Time (Seconds): 18s → 15s
• Spell Mastery: 25% → 60%

Ballistics Calibration

• Ballistics Calibration can now be targeted on a friendly unit from distance
• Active Time (Seconds): 32s → 22s
• Effect Range: 35m → 55m
• Target Intercept Range: 0 → 55
• Effect Duration: 32 → 22
• Accuracy: 60 → 0
  • Accuracy wasn't really doing anything meaningful in this particular example, so we removed it from the ability.

Item Abilities

Dragon Slayer’s Axe

• Weapon Damage: 18% → 10%
• Armour Piercing Weapon Damage: 18% → 10%

Dragon Slayer’s Fang

• Ward Save: 0% → 10%
• Armour: 23 → 0

Blood Statuette of Spite

• Number of Uses: 4 → 2

Daemonspite Crucible

• Spell Mastery: 20% → 60%

Maw Shard

• Spell Mastery: 40% → 60%

Prismatic Amplifier

• Power Recharge Rate: 16% → 160%

Skull of Katam

• Active Time (Seconds): 27s → 13s
• Direct Damage Amount: 33 → 66
• Spell Mastery: 40% → 120%

Mark of the Sorcerer

• Spell Mastery: 10% → 15%

Blood Shard

• Spell Mastery: 20% → 60%

Accusation

• Physical Resistance: -22% → -20%

Ancestor Rune

• Number of Uses: 1 → -1
• Active Time (Seconds): 25 → -1
• Effect Range: 0 → 35
• Number of Effected Friendly Units: 1 → -1 Phase Stats:
• Effect Duration: 25 → -1
• Fatigue Modifier %: 0 → -0.1

Rune of Courage

• Effect Range: 0 → 35
• Number of Effected Friendly Units: 1 → -1

Rune of Stoicism

• Effect Range: 0 → 35
• Number of Effected Friendly Units: 1 → -1

Spells

Flames of Azgorh

• May now damage siege vehicles

Blessing of the Ancient Witch

• Recharge Time (Seconds): 24s → 35s

Malediction of Madness

• Recharge Time (Seconds): 46s → 45s

Incantation of Mania

• Recharge Time (Seconds): 46s → 45s

Vengeance of Spirits

Vengeance of Spirits has been corrected to use the "strong vs multi-entity units" damage profile that it was intended to have.

• Direct Damage Amount: 133 → 5
• Max Affected Entities per Damage Frequency: 1 → 25

Omen of Spirits

• Recharge Time (Seconds): 39s → 40s
• Spell Mastery: 40% → 60%

Witchbrew

• Recharge Time (Seconds): 29s → 30s

Miasma of Pestilence Upgraded

• Effect Range: 35 → 0
• Added Spreading to 6 units within a 30m radius

Blue Fire of Tzeentch

• Penetration: Stopped By Large → Stopped By Medium
• Shockwave Radius: 0.3m → 0.25m
• Homing Improved to distribute projectiles randomly amongst entities within multi-entity units
• Explosion Radius: 3 → 1

Blue Fire of Tzeentch Upgraded

• Penetration: Stopped By Large → Stopped By Medium
• Shockwave Radius: 0.3m → 0.25m
• Homing Improved to distribute projectiles randomly amongst entities within multi-entity units
• Explosion Radius: 3m → 1m

The Dwellers Below & The Dwellers Below Upgraded

• The damage profile of Dwellers Below has changed so that each individual branch emerging from the ground it it's own zone of damage.
• Previously Dwellers was one large single zone of damage which meant that the branches emerging from the ground did not impart physical force on nearby units
• Now every branch should knock units around appropriately (as well as dealing a load of damage).
• Let us know how you get on with it and where we need to make adjustments in the future.

Murderous Mastery

• Armour Piercing Missile Damage: 0% → 20%

Cataclysm Spells

Ashes & Dust

• Initial Recharge Time (Seconds): 120s → 60s

Gehenna’s Golden Globe

• Armour Piercing Vortex Damage: 36 → 100
• Radius: 7 → 8
• Movement Speed: 18m/s → 14m/s
• Random Movement has been removed

Magma Storm

• Magma Storm now fires 60 projectiles from it's centre, similar to the Flames of Azgorh Spell

Merciw’s Monstrous Regiment

• Active Time (Seconds): 26s → 120s
• Physical Resistance: 22% → 20%

Storm of Renewal

• Active Time (Seconds): 21s → 20s

Time Amok

• Active Time (Seconds): 21s → 45s
• Effect Range: 55m → Infinite
• Effect Duration: 21 → 45
• Vs Enemies
  • All enemy units on the battlefield cannot move
• Vs Allies
  • Movement Speed: 25% → 40%
  • Charge Bonus: 0% → 20%
  • Melee Attack: 24 → 0
  • Reload Skill: 40 → 0

Dance of Despair

• Active Time (Seconds): 21s → 45s
• Leadership: -8 → -24
• Dance of Despair now temporarily removes all attributes in the game that would make a unit unbreakable:
  • Unbreakable
  • Undead
  • Construct
  • Daemonic
  • Elemental
• Melee Attack: -24 → 0
• Melee Defence: -24 → 0

Unit Abilities

Giver of Arcane Glory

• Spell Mastery: 20% → 30%

By Our Blood

• Active Time (Seconds): 30 → 25 Phase Stats:

Entropous

• Spell Mastery: -20% → -30%

Gyrocopter Bomb

• Gyrocopter and & Gyrobomber bombs have been re-worked to work with the new increased unit sizes.
  • They now share a similar damage profile, with the Gyrobomber being better in the sense that it has a larger Explosion Radius and more bombs that it can drop.
• Number of Projectiles: 5 → 12
• Base Missile Damage: 40 → 0
• Armour Piercing Missile Damage: 40 → 0
• Base Explosion Damage: 264 → 25
• Armour Piercing Explosion Damage: 66 → 25
• Explosion Radius: 3 → 4

Gyrobomber Bomb

• Number of Projectiles: 1 → 4
• Base Explosion Damage: 30 → 25
• Armour Piercing Explosion Damage: 70 → 25
• Explosion Radius: 6 → 5

Skyhammer Bomb

• Base Explosion Damage: 30 → 25
• Armour Piercing Explosion Damage: 70 → 25
• Explosion Radius: 6 → 5

Campaign

• Taurox's Rune Tortured Axes quest mission can no longer be cancelled.
• The Beastmen herdstone buildings now display how many slots they will provide with each level.
• Removed the effect causing a second type of attrition on non-Chaos armies from the Beastmen's "Plague of the Crow"

Units

• Added MP Units: Pestigors 

Traits

• Beastmen characters can now gain the "Lone Wolf" trait.

Units

King Louen Leoncoeur [Mount: Beaquis ] 

• Hit Points: 6916 → 6640

King Louen Leoncoeur [Mount: Hippogryph]

• Hit Points: 6504 → 6404

Lord [Mount: Hippogryph]

• Hit Points: 6504 → 6304

Henri le Massif [Mount: Hippogryph]

• Armour: 85 → 90

Grail Guardians

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1850 → 1900
• Recruitment Cost (SP): 1850 → 1900
• Upkeep Cost: 462 → 475

Royal Hippogryph Knights

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 2100 → 2200
• Recruitment Cost (SP): 2100 → 2200
• Upkeep Cost: 525 → 550

Grail Knights

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1800 → 1850
• Recruitment Cost (SP): 1800 → 1850
• Upkeep Cost: 450 → 462

Skills

• Added a Barded Warhorse skill to Louen Leoncoeur which he starts with automatically unlocked.

General Updates

• The Black Ark Aristocracy building chain now displays correctly in the Advanced Military building category.
• Black Ark buildings now display the scope of the upkeep reducing effects (just to units that are in the Black Ark army).

Units

• Blade of the Blood Queen (Har Ganeth Executioners) now have Immune to Psychology like the regular Har Ganeth Executioners unit.

• Blades of the Blood Queen (Har Ganeth Executioners)

  • Added Attribute(s): Immune to Psychology

Dwarfs have gotten a pretty hefty amount of changes this time around, the highlights being the introduction of the Slayer attribute across all Slayer units, rebalanced Trollhammer Torpedos, rebalanced Gyrocopters and bombers, as well as a rebalanced Flame Cannon that is now more accurate to it's tabletop incarnation.

Campaign

• Reduced spawn rate of Archivist follower for dwarves & the Student follower no longer drops when lords level up as they can only be equipped by heroes.
• Recycling items for Oathgold now correctly updates the state of other items in the Forge panel.

Units

• Replaced Fire Whilst Moving Attribute for Gyrocopters (Brimstone Gun) with Causes Fear gained from the Interchangeable Parts technology.

Lord

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 900 → 800

Master Engineer

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 600 → 550

Giant Slayers

• Additional Hit Points: 110 → 122

Dragonback Slayers (Slayers)

• Recruitment Cost (SP): 1200 → 1150

Irondrakes (Trollhammer Torpedoes)

Trollhammer Torpedos have received a range and velocity buff, making them more proficient in dealing with large armoured targets at longer ranges.

• Base Missile Damage: 28 → 20
• Armour Piercing Missile Damage: 116 → 75
• Bonus vs. Large: 24 → 20
• Enabled Flaming Attacks
• Effective Range: 90 → 170
• Projectile Velocity: 35 → 80

Gyrocopters

The full might of the Dawi air-force has now arrived, so Gyrocopters have been rebalanced to include more entities. Their weapons have also had a bit of an overhaul, with the Steam Gun on the regular Gyrocopter being adept at damaging armoured targets.

• Number of Entities: 4 → 12
• Added Attribute (s): Fire Whilst Moving
• Ammo of Primary Missile Weapon: 22 → 40
• Base Missile Damage: 12 → 6
• Armour Piercing Missile Damage: 4 → 16
• Effective Range: 75 → 100
• Projectile Velocity: 45 → 60
• Base Reload Time (Seconds): 9 → 8
• Base Explosion Damage: 37 → 4
• Armour Piercing Explosion Damage: 8 → 6
• Explosion Radius: 5 → 3

Gyrocopters (Brimstone Guns)

• Brimstone Guns have undergone a vast transformation to become more accurate to their tabletop incarnation. The Brimstone Gun now fires a stream of hot fire at the enemy, much like an Irondrake would.
• The intention here is that the Brimstone Guns can now be used to hose down lightly armoured enemy infantry with fire, whilst the regular Gyrocopters pepper larger, more armoured targets with their AP Steam Gun.

Gyrobombers & Skyhammer (Gyrobomber)

Both the Gyrobomber and the Skyhammer have also been updated with the arrival of the Thunderbarge. Gyrobombers now come with 4 entities by default and have been rebalanced to reflect this.

• Number of Entities: 1 → 4
• Base Missile Damage: 11 → 4
• Armour Piercing Missile Damage: 31 → 16
• Effective Range: 125 → 130
• Projectile Velocity: 100 → 120
• Base Reload Time (Seconds): 5 → 6
• Base Explosion Damage: 8 → 14
• Armour Piercing Explosion Damage: 16 → 4
• Explosion Radius: 1 → 3

Flame Cannons

We've made some changes to the Flame Cannon to make it more accurate to the Tabletop rules from the 8th edition dwarf army book. The unit felt like it didn't capture the fantasy as well as it could have so we have updated it to better match it's core identity. The individual shots of the Flame Cannon deal less damage per shot than it used to, but the number of shots that it fires equates to more damage overall than it's previous incarnation.

• Shots Per Volley: 1 → 6
• Base Missile Damage: 260 → 45
• Armour Piercing Missile Damage: 140 → 25
• Effective Range: 280 → 200
• Base Explosion Damage: 70 → 12
• Armour Piercing Explosion Damage: 30 → 5

Abilities

Skills

• Wulfhart's Hunter, Jorek Grimm, has had his skill tree updated.
• Belegar's - Age of Reconquest skill 
  • Construction cost for all settlement buildings -50% > 30%
  • Reasoning: frequently would make settlement buildings free when combined with the updated technology and building effects for Dwarfs.
• Rebalanced Oath of Forging and Master of the Force skill effects to be in line with updated Oathgold generation.

Units

• The Gate Master Hero now correctly has +25% harmony amplification.

Jade Warriors

• Armour: 80 → 70

Jade Warriors (Halberds)

• Armour: 80 → 70

Jade Warrior Crossbowmen

• Armour: 80 → 70

Jade Warrior Crossbowmen (Shields)

• Armour: 80 → 70

Campaign

• Fixed issue where Skarsnik and Wurrzag could end up with multiple primary building chains in special settlements.

Units

Squig Herd

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 350 → 400

Orc Boar Boy Big ‘Uns

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 850 → 900

Stone Trolls

• Entity Mass: 1300 → 1500

Feral Wyvern

• Feral Wyverns are now available for the Greenskins to use in Multiplayer!
• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1500 → 1600

Skills

• Clarified some effects in Azhag the Slaughterer's skills to make it clear that they do not apply to Black Orc units - only Orc Boyz, Big 'Uns and Savage Orcs.

Units

Eltharion the Grim [Mount: Stormwing]

• Hit Points: 5385 → 6685

Prince [Mount: Griffon]

• Hit Points: 5112 → 6112

Princess [Mount: Griffon]

• Hit Points: 5112 → 6112
• Armour: 60 → 80

Skills

• The High Elf skill "Valour of Ages" now also gives weapon strength when fighting against Chaos Dwarfs.

Units

Exalted Bloodthirster

• Morale: 80 → 85

Chaos Lord of Khorne

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1150 → 1100

Chaos Lord of Khorne [Mount: Chaos Steed]

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1500 → 1300

Chaos Lord of Khorne [Mount: Gorebeast Chariot]

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1400 → 1450

Chaos Lord of Khorne [Mount: Juggernaut]

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1550 → 1500
• Melee Attack: 65 → 68
• Melee Defence: 50 → 52

Exalted Hero of Khorne

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 850 → 800

Exalted Hero of Khorne [Mount: Chaos Steed]

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1050 → 1000

Exalted Hero of Khorne [Mount: Gorebeast Chariot]

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1250 → 1150

Exalted Hero of Khorne [Mount: Juggernaut]

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1300 → 1200
• Melee Attack: 65 → 68
• Melee Defence: 40 → 42

Marauders of Khorne

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 425 → 400
• Recruitment Cost (SP): 425 → 400
• Upkeep Cost: 106 → 100

Marauders of Khorne (Dual Weapons)

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 575 → 550
• Recruitment Cost (SP): 575 → 550
• Upkeep Cost: 144 → 137

Chaos Warriors of Khorne

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 850 → 800
• Recruitment Cost (SP): 850 → 800
• Upkeep Cost: 213 → 200

Chaos Warriors of Khorne (Halberds)

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 950 → 900
• Recruitment Cost (SP): 950 → 900
• Upkeep Cost: 238 → 225

Chaos Warriors of Khorne (Dual Weapons)

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1000 → 950
• Recruitment Cost (SP): 1000 → 950
• Upkeep Cost: 250 → 237

Forsaken of Khorne

• Upkeep Cost: 213 → 200

Chosen of Khorne

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1350 → 1300
• Recruitment Cost (SP): 1350 → 1300
• Upkeep Cost: 338 → 325

Chosen of Khorne (Dual Weapons)

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1500 → 1450
• Recruitment Cost (SP): 1500 → 1450
• Upkeep Cost: 375 → 362

Bloodletters of Khorne

• Morale: 65 → 75

Bloodletters of Khorne

• Morale: 65 → 75

Exalted Bloodletters of Khorne

• Morale: 75 → 80

Hellforged Host (Exalted Bloodletters of Khorne)

• Morale: 80 → 90

Flesh Hounds of Khorne

• Can no longer Brace

Soul Grinder of Khorne

• Morale: 65 → 70

Bloodthirster

• Morale: 75 → 80

Khorne's Bloody Fist (Bloodthirster)

• Morale: 85 → 90 

Units

Kislevite Warriors

• Melee Defence: 40 → 38
• Armour Piercing Weapon Damage: 20 → 17

Armoured Kossars

• Armour Piercing Missile Damage: 7 → 5

Armoured Kossars (Great Weapons)

• Armour Piercing Missile Damage: 7 → 5

Winged Lancers

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 900 → 1000
• Recruitment Cost (SP): 900 → 1000
• Upkeep Cost: 225 → 250

The Things in the Woods

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 775 → 800

The Mordheim Balewolves (The Things in the Woods)

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1025 → 1050 

Campaign

• The Konquata settlement has been changed to Jungle climate

• Removed "Occupied" from the Konquata settlement building names when playing as Lizardmen

Units

Lord Mazdamundi

• Additional Hit Points: 7752 → 7552

Lord Kroak

• Hit Points: 7202 → 6802

Slann Mage-Priest

• Hit Points: 7552 → 6552

Skink Cohort

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 300 → 325

Skink Cohort (Javelins)

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 400 → 450

Skink Skirmishers

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 400 → 425

Feral Cold Ones

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 450 → 500
• Recruitment Cost (SP): 450 → 500
• Upkeep Cost: 113 → 125

Dread Saurian

• The spacing on all Dread Saurians has been fixed, so that they can be placed closer to other units in drag-out formations.

Abilities

• Fixed Nakai's Rite of Mastery not providing armour piercing damage to Kroxigor units. 

Units

• The Norscan Giant and War Mammoth units have had their places switched in the building tree and the Norscan Giant is now correctly labelled as a tier 4 unit rather than tier 3.

Norscan Ice Trolls

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 900 → 950
• Base Weapon Damage: 39 → 40
• Armour Piercing Weapon Damage: 81 → 80
• Entity Mass: 1300 → 1500

Skills

• Fixed the Norsca character Burplesmirk Spewpit skill "Lightning Strike" not correctly unlocking once skills had been spent in the previous group.

General Updates

• Fixed issue where some plague cultists can lose their plagues when loading.

Campaign

• Increased Plague attrition damage.
• Nurgle Plagues can now be created on armies at sea.
• Cyclical buildings now give payloads on entry instead of completion.
• Fix plagues not spreading correctly from military forces.

Units

All characters mounting a Nurgling Palanquin (Except Ku'gath)

• Added Attribute(s): Hide (Forest)

Exalted Hero of Nurgle [Mount: Chaos Chariot]

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1250 → 1200

Plaguebearers of Nurgle

• Morale: 65 → 75

Exalted Plaguebearers of Nurgle

• Morale: 70 → 80

Festering Stooges (Exalted Plaguebearers of Nurgle)

• Morale: 80 → 90

Pox Riders of Nurgle

• Morale: 65 → 75

Barons of the Bog (Pox Riders of Nurgle)

• Morale: 75 → 85

Beast of Nurgle

• Melee Attack: 32 → 42
• Charge Bonus: 18 → 22
• Added Attributes: Immune to Flanking

Soul Grinder of Nurgle

• Morale: 65 → 70

Great Unclean One

• Morale: 70 → 75

Uncle Furuncle (Great Unclean One)

• Morale: 80 → 85 

General Updates

• Fixed shadowy dealings button on the settlement panel not opening the shadowy dealings panel.

Units

Chaos Lord of Slaanesh [Mount: Chaos Chariot]

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1400 → 1350

Cultist of Slaanesh

• Added Attribute(s): Strider, Immune to Psychology

Cultist of Slaanesh [Mount: Chaos Steed]

• Added Attribute(s): Strider, Immune to Psychology

Daemonettes of Slaanesh

• Morale: 65 → 75

Exalted Daemonettes of Slaanesh

• Morale: 70 → 80

Bringers of Beguilement (Exalted Daemonettes of Slaanesh)

• Morale: 80 → 90

Daemonettes of Slaanesh

• Morale: 65 → 75

Fiends of Slaanesh

• Morale: 60 → 70

Soul Grinder of Slaanesh

• Morale: 65 → 70

Keeper of Secrets

• Morale: 75 → 80

The Marquis of Masochism (Keeper of Secrets)

• Morale: 85 → 90

General Updates

• Empire Jade and Grey wizard are now granted by default if Warhammer 1 is owned - this is to remove the need to download the FreeLC's in Balthasar Gelt's campaign.
• Added missing region group from Elector Count script which resulted in not getting dilemmas to return regions to Ostland.
• Updated empire politics script to no longer have local variables making it more mod friendly.
• Fixed issue where Elector Count invasion armies would have an upkeep and generate battle rewards that would often pay for their purchase cost.

Campaign

• Made it so you can no longer dismiss Elector Count invasion battles when opting to help them.
• Updated Beast Slayer quest battle for Karl Franz to spawn new waves as previous waves get low, rather than off set timers.
• Removed increased starting upkeep for State Troop units but reduced upkeep reduction for each Elector Count seat owned from 5% to 3%.
• Fixed issue where you would gain 1 prestige post battle upon losing.
• Fixed Elector Counts map not showing colours for some of the regions.
• The Electoral Machinations button now correctly updates its state when the panel is closed by clicking an army or settlement. 

Units

• Removed starting upkeep and recruitment cost debuff for Knights of the Blazing Sun.
• Edited Castle Reikguard, Blazing Sun Chapterhouse and Knights Pantherhouse to provide powerful bonuses to knight units!
• Additionally added a new chapterhouse landmark in Nuln for the new Knights of the Black Rose which follows the same format.

General of the Empire

• Missile Block Chance %: 35 → 55

General of the Empire [Mount: Barded Warhorse]

• Missile Block Chance %: 35 → 55

General of the Empire [Mount: Imperial Pegasus]

• Missile Block Chance %: 35 → 55

General of the Empire [Mount: Imperial Griffon]

• Hit Points: 5384 → 6384
• Armour: 85 → 90

Boris Todbringer [Mount: Imperial Griffon]

• Hit Points: 5604 → 6604
• Armour: 85 → 90

Karl Franz [Mount: Deathclaw]

• Hit Points: 5836 → 6836

Amber Wizard [Mount: Imperial Griffon]

• Hit Points: 4736 → 5736

Witch Hunter

• Added two new abilities:
  • Tools of Judgement
  • Grim Resolve

Carroburg Greatswords (Greatswords)

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1100 → 1000
• Recruitment Cost (SP): 1100 → 1000
• Upkeep Cost: 275 → 250

Nordland Mariners (Halberdiers)

• Melee Attack: 26 → 30
• Melee Defence: 42 → 46

Stir River Patrol (Crossbowmen)

• Now considered "Aquatic"

Gunderman’s Surefires (Handgunners)

• Morale: 55 → 50
• Charge Bonus: 14 → 4
• Armour: 25 → 20
• Armour Piercing Weapon Damage: 7 → 3

Knights of Morr (Empire Knights)

• Armour: 110 → 120
• Missile Block Chance %: 30 → 55

Noble Sons (Pistoliers)

• Gained Extra Reload passive

Outriders

• Ammo of Primary Missile Weapon: 20 → 116
• Base Missile Damage: 3 → 2
• Armour Piercing Missile Damage: 15 → 6
• Shots Per Volley: 1 → 6
• Effective Range: 130 → 115
• Base Reload Time (Seconds): 6 → 13
• Calibration Distance: 85 → 75
• Calibration Area: 1.6 → 5

Outriders (Grenade Launchers)

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 800 → 900
• Recruitment Cost (SP): 800 → 900
• Upkeep Cost: 200 → 225

The Bordermen (Outriders (Grenade Launchers))

• Number of Entities: 48 -> 60
• Base Explosion Damage: 12 → 15
• Armour Piercing Explosion Damage: 28 → 34

War Wagons (All Variants)

• The crew on the regular War Wagons now visually use Empire Handguns to match their firing animations.
• Armour: 90 → 80
• Run Speed: 66 → 60
• Charge Speed: 107 → 100

Steam Tank

The Steam Tank has a brand new model and the animations have been tidied up a bit. The original model was very old, being one of the very first units we created for Total War: WARHAMMER back in 2016.

We never quite found the time and resource to revisit it and bring it up to the standards we have since moved on to in 2024, but found this DLC offered the perfect opportunity to give these centrepiece units a lick of polish they deserve.

Shoutout to Chris for making this happen!

The Steam Tank has also undergone a bit of a design overhaul.

• The Steam Tank now has a wider turning arc to make it feel like a bit more of a beast of a vehicle when moving around the battlefield.
• In melee the Tank will no longer use the ram attack against enemies, instead opting to blast hot jets of steam (from the steamed tanks that we'll be having, mmm steamed tanks). 
• They may now fire on the move and an Engineer Commander sits proudly in the top, shooting at anything that comes too close. The Turret and Commander will also keep firing if the Hull Cannon runs out of ammo.
• The Tank itself also now benefits from Missile Block Chance used in conjunction with the new Directional Shield attribute, allowing it to block Missiles with varying effect, depending on which side it is shot at from.

Here are the stat changes:

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1900 → 2100
• Upkeep Cost: 475 → 525
• Melee Defence: 10 → 20
• Missile Block Chance %: 0 → 70
• Added Attribute(s): Fire Whilst Moving, Directional Shield
• Removed: Perfect Vigour
• Base Weapon Damage: 60 → 80
• Armour Piercing Weapon Damage: 140 → 220
• Melee Bonus vs. Infantry: 18 → 15
• Base Missile Damage: 88 → 95
• Armour Piercing Missile Damage: 352 → 370
• Minimum Range: 0 → 5
• Base Reload Time (Seconds): 11 → 10

The Emperor’s Wrath (Steam Tank)

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 2300 → 2400
• Recruitment Cost (SP): 2300 → 2400
• Upkeep Cost: 575 → 600
• The Emperor's Wrath also benefits from all of the changes listed for the regular Steam Tank above.

Skills

• Adjusted Strength of Hardship and Taste of Battle empire red-line skills to have more focused effects and scopes. Strength of Hardship is now a defensive skill for melee infantry, Taste of Battle is now an offensive cavalry skill.

Units

• Fixed an issue where some Tomb King Regiments of Renown had less leadership than their regular unit counterparts (when at rank 9).

Tomb Prince [Mount: Skeleton Chariot]

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 750 → 850

The Khepra Guard (Tomb Guard)

• Morale: 70 → 75

Chosen of the Gods (Ushabti - Great Bow)

• Morale: 45 → 50

The Sphinx of Usekph (Necrosphinx)

• Morale: 65 → 70

General Updates

• Fixed an issue where the Schemes panel could be closed during the scripted tour.

Units

• Fixed an issue causing flamers on the burning chariot to fly too far off the disk in ways they shouldn't. 

Chaos Lord of Tzeentch

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1150 → 1100

Chaos Lord of Tzeentch [Mount: Chaos Steed]

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1350 → 1300
• Charge Bonus: 45 → 50

Chaos Lord of Tzeentch [Mount: Chaos Chariot]

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1500 → 1400
• Corrected the lack of collision attacks

Chaos Lord of Tzeentch [Mount: Disc of Tzeentch]

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1550 → 1500

Exalted Hero of Tzeentch [Mount: Chaos Chariot]

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1200 → 1150
• Corrected the lack of collision attacks

Tzaangors

• Recruitment Cost (SP): 800 → 650

Blue Horrors of Tzeentch

• Morale: 45 → 50

The Chromatic Abominations (Blue Horrors of Tzeentch)

• Morale: 55 → 60

Pink Horrors of Tzeentch

• Morale: 60 → 75

The Sourguts (Pink Horrors of Tzeentch)

• Morale: 75 → 80

Pink Horrors of Tzeentch

• Morale: 65 → 70

Exalted Pink Horrors of Tzeentch

• Morale: 70 → 75

Blazing Squealers (Exalted Pink Horrors of Tzeentch)

• Morale: 80 → 85

Soul Grinder of Tzeentch

• Morale: 65 → 70

Lord of Change

• Morale: 70 → 75

The Golden Griffin of Theurgy (Lord of Change)

• Morale: 80 → 85

Items

• Fixed the Prismatic Amplifier item giving 16% recharge rate instead of 160% and added an effect that increases Winds of Magic capacity to better suit its rarity.

General Updates

• Fixed an issue where certain Vampire Coast missions would break alliances that the player had. This was due to the target army being spawned would automatically declare war on the player and the allies would refuse to join. The allies no longer get asked to join when the target spawns.

Campaign

• Mannfred's long victory condition has been updated to no longer target far-away Empire regions.

General Updates

• The Boon of Chaos "Unbreakable" now increases the barrier stat rather than melee defence for the Chaos Lord and Exalted Hero of Tzeentch. 

Units

• Added MP Units: Bile Trolls, Rot Knights

Sarthorael the Everwatcher

• Morale: 70 → 75

Chaos Lord [Mount: Chaos Chariot]

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 1250 → 1200

Exalted Hero [Mount: Chaos Chariot]

• Recruitment Cost (MP): 950 → 900 

Units

Orion

• Firing Arc: 60 → 360

Technology

• Wood Elf technology Cadai now correctly increases all Forests health.

Items

• The Wood Elf weapon "The Bow of Loren" can now be equipped by Glade Captains and the Sisters of Twilight.

Campaign

Below are Campaign changes made to the overworld campaign and world mechanics.

The Realm of Chaos

• Fixed an issue in the Realm of Chaos campaign where when starting a new game, the default corruption was being set before custom starting positions were set, leading to cases like Boris Ursus starting with Chaos corruption in his province.
• Fixed issue where Citadel of Lead in the RoC campaign was building minor settlement buildings rather than major.
• Added missing gold resource building to Mount Gunbad in Realms of Chaos.

BATTLES

Below are Battle-specific changes made throughout the game.

General Updates

• Ubersreik now correctly loads an Empire battle map instead of a snowy mountain
• Fixed collision issue on Beastmen Herdstone map.

Minor Settlement Battles

• Laurelorn Forest - Wood Elves, improved dressing in impassable area around barricade.

Siege Battles

• Fixed pathing around bridges in Major Skaven Settlement battles.  
• Hell Pit - removed terrain lump underneath wall.
• Adjusted collision to stop units rising into air on Zhufbar Siege Battle.

Multiplayer

General Updates

• When players are unable to ready up for a custom battle, the tooltip now shows which players are the issue.

GAME

Below are changes to the systems that support and enhance the gameplay of Total War: WARHAMMER III.

Graphics

• Fixed broken Centigor animations. 
• Adjusted cliff to be outside playable area on Lustria Mountains.
• Tehenhauin now holds his tablet correctly on Ripperdactyl.
• Witch Hunter now holds their pistol in the porthole. 
• Fixed floating assets on Empire Grasslands.
• Adjusted Herdstone dressing to work better with lighting.
• Fixed blurred assets in locked state of Elector Counts. 
• Updated dark elf river material to improve visuals.
• Fixed an issue with chaos corruption lighting loading wrong environments.
• Fixed river material on Altdorf map.
• Fixed issue with Ice Guard dual swords, bow on back in the wrong animation.
• Fixed bug with Kislev Ice guard dual swords, weapons incorrectly docking during idle animation.
• Fixed placement of Kislev Gryphon Legion Shields.
• Exalted hero of Tzeentch weapon Misaligned.
• The water planes in Uzkulak have been edited to no longer appear in the shroud.
• Adjusted water height in lizard mountains.
• Updated lods to clear up issues on lower lods and textures. 
• Fixed the issue with visible terrain hole by removing the creep prop in question.  
• Placed assets to fix visual bug for Bretonnia Campaign major cities 1 - 3.
• Shagrath Strand - fixed the alignment of Dark Elf tents across the map.
• Fixed Winds of Magic element not showing when a runesmith was in the same army as a spellcaster (such as Ulrika).
• Removed duplicate asset to cancel flickering effect.  
• Fixed issue with High Elf hero on horseback, cape is now animated correctly.
• Fixed aspect ratio of the portrait in flesh lab panel so image doesn't show squashed.
• The rock asset creating a clipping effect with the mine track animation has been moved.
• Appropriately scaled blood waterfall asset to fit scene and added campaign blood splash effect to bottom of blood waterfall.
• Edited terrain heights and textures around Shi Long settlement so it no longer appears sunken beneath the earth.
• Added extra cliff decoration to the area surrounding Elder Spire.
• Fixed the portholes for Kroxigors, specifically when playing as Nakai, being offset.
• Fixed an issue where Assasin's blade was wrong way round during the campaign run anim.
• Noticeable lod switching caused by vertex displacement active on the lod5 of the model has been fixed by removing vertex active colour.
• Nurgle Wastes - fixed some floating assets.
• Adjusted Herdstone dressing to work better with lighting.
• Fixed the campaign settlement model for level 3 Chaos Dwarf factories not displaying (it would roll back to level 1).
• Fixed an issue where if the holder of the Sword of Khaine left a settlement, the VFX would not leave the settlement and follow the character.

Audio

• Fixed some quest battle cinematic sounds being cut off when the cinematic ends.
• Fixed some instances of Dwarfs overlapping roars in idle animations.
• Fixed confidence and intimidation campaign conversational VO to trigger more consistently.
• Tagged missing vocalisations to Bale Taurus' matched combat victims.
• Fixed Chaos characters using Elf vocalisations when they are the victim in a matched animation with a Tzeentch Flamer.
• Tagged missing vocalisations to K'daii Destroyer's matched animations.
• Fixed chosen character VO actors not being consistent when entering a battle from campaign and re-recruiting for characters that use a pool of actors.
• Fixed sound leak with vortex lightning that could cause audio stuttering if too much time is spent near the vortex.
• Fixed a few quest battle SFX sweeteners not triggering.
• Fixed script triggered SFX in battle not working outside of cinematics
• Added SFX for loading screen quote buttons
• Fixed spell cast VO events not triggering when the 'Slow motion ability targeting' option is enabled

UI

• Fixed the Trespass warning visually showing even when having an agent embedded that's immune to diplomatic penalties.
• Some of the older Empire icons were revisited and polished.
• Added 2 new headers under the unit information panel expanded abilities to better group abilities. There is now a header for Unit Attributes and one for Additional Stats (previously the items under those 2 new headers would be under the Passive Ability header). This is to better distinguish between the types of abilities.
• Added missing explanation to the Cataclysm spells.
• Fixed an issue where Erengrad's unique port was duplicated in the Landmark's section.
• Fixed the spell browser ability details sometimes going slightly outside the panel.
• Fixed the unit recruitment panel overlapping with the hud resource bar in certain resolutions.
• Fixed news stories something showing more than 3 per page.
• Fixed the campaign map overlay flickering white when opening.
• Fixed aspect ratio of selected portraits in shadowy dealings panel so the portrait doesn't appear squashed.
• Replaced placeholder/white-ish background on unit cards of Gotrex and Felix.
• Improved the text of the Lizardmen dilemma "Ancient Skills" to better match the reward from choosing the option.
• Fixed the cooldown element on units not showing when you couldn't afford to recruit the unit.
• Fixed some options in ranked matchmaking not becoming greyed out when the timer is active.
• Multiplayer campaign now uses different city info bars to make the colours more clear.
• Moved various VO from the Effects volume slider into the Speech volume slider and moved some VO previously in the Speech volume slider into a new Advice volume slider.
• Added a scrollbar to the relationship window in diplomacy screen, which will make faction icons not be able to overflow from the screen (for example when at war with everyone) and should also make it easier to see the icons.
• Change hero recruitment headers to go on a second row when there's more than 4 hero headers, to be consistent with the lord recruitment and so that it's easier to see all headers at a glance.
• Building upgrade available now shows in region dropdown for hostile buildings such as cults, under-empires etc.
• Fixed Next and Previous buttons in building browser always showing active even when there's no other selection to advance to.
• Fixed the Sword of Khaine button sometimes showing the incorrect faction flag.
• Desertion attrition now updates correctly in the UI when treasury changes during a turn (Sacking settlements etc.)
• Fixed the Gifts of Chaos panel being literally unplayable - the centre two slots are now correctly centred.
• The Offer to the Great Maw and Deploy Camp buttons will now be correctly hidden when an Ogre Kingdoms army is loaned to your faction.
• Fixed contact effects showing the tooltip 'Phase name' in events instead of the proper tooltip.
• Fixed stance turn counter sometimes disappearing.
• The Raidin' Camp stance now correctly states that battles cannot be initiated while in it.
• Fixed pings not always showing for all players in battle if more than 1 players join the main army's team.
• Fixed quest tab in character details panel not resizing to fit the space in higher resolutions.
• Sea lane tooltips now update to show the travel time.
• Tech tree panels with tabs now correctly align to the centre.
• Fixed MP timer not showing for some panels.
• Fixed hidden characters sometimes appearing when in the diplomacy screen.
• Fixed buttons highlight in 'Enemy has become a vassal' popup being smaller than the buttons.
• The VFX that indicates the presence of a Book of Nagash will now only appear in multiplayer campaigns when the local player uses the Books of Nagash feature.
• Fixed overlap of interactive UI elements on the top center of campaign HUD when playing for Markus Wulfharts.