​Hey folks,

First up, I wanted to thank you all for your positivity around Mother Ostankya’s new starting position option coming in 6.1 that we revealed last week – Mama’s comin’ home!

Patch 6.1 is on track for its intended release date of March 25th, and I’ll be passing over to William Håkestad further down this post to share the full list of Release Notes with you. Alongside the content and changes coming to the game, the release of this patch will also coincide with a change in how you can purchase the Shadows of Change DLC, splitting it into three individually purchasable content packs. If you already own Shadows of Change, you won’t need to do anything and you’ll still have access to all the content. You can find more info about this in our FAQ.

I’d also like to thank you all once again for your feedback during our recent Campaign AI Beta. You will notice in the Release Notes that we’ve already implemented one change from the Beta into the Live game, and as of Patch 6.1 the AI will no longer treat enemy agents in the same way as enemy armies. There’s much more in the pipeline on this topic, and we’re currently putting together a blog post to share more about our key focus points for Campaign AI ahead of a 2nd Beta round starting in the weeks following 6.1’s release, so watch this space!

Without further ado, allow me to hand the mic over to Will.

— Steve Coleman // Senior Community Manager

If you're looking for the full list of battle balance changes, we've split them out into their own dedicated forum post.

​Greetings!

William Håkestad, Game Designer here. Patch 6.1 arrives tomorrow, March 25th, bringing new content and a wealth of bug fixes, balance changes and quality of life improvements to Total War: WARHAMMER III. Kislev is our headliner, sporting a broad faction rework and uplift, followed by a rework for Tzeentch focusing on Kairos Fateweaver and a pinch of spice for Cathay including a new unit and a new rotund friend(?) on the IE campaign map.

For additional insight into we’ve been working on please check out preceding dev blog here. Otherwise, lets crack on.

New units!

We have two new free units for you in this patch, available to owners of Cathay and Ogre Kingdoms respectively.

Nan-Gau Grenadiers

Equipped with Grenades, Hand Weapons and a single use Stun Bomb, these specialist troops can scatter packed infantry and are somewhat capable in melee. Using their Stun Bomb they can turn the tide of battle by deploying a significant melee combat debuff on enemy units in a large area.

Gnoblar Flingers

​Equipped with slings and hand weapons, these malicious runts can pelt vulnerable targets from afar, adding a cheap (if inaccurate) ranged option for the Ogre Kingdoms.

Also you'll find that a few Gnoblar Flingers have made their way into the garrison forces of the Ogre Kingdoms - these are entirely additional forces, meaning they don't replace existing garrison units (as we also felt Ogre Kingdom garrisons were a tiny bit weak so a couple of additional ranged units was an appropriate change).

Shoutout to Mixu & Lost2Insanity for their work modding in a Gnoblar Flinger!

Campaign

Tzeentch

Kairos Fragments of Sorcery

We have replaced the old fragments of sorcery system, where Kairos would gain special ancillaries on his skill tree that he could use to replace specific subsets of spells with a new freeform spell lore building system available in the "fragments of sorcery" tab on his character details panel.

​Kairos starts the campaign with two slots for common spells. Every five levels, he unlocks a further slot, with his final rare spell slot unlocking automatically at level 20.

Each slot starts with the lore of Tzeentch spell set, and can be freely swapped to it's equivalent spell from the following 8 lores of magic.

​

​There are no limitations on how often you can change your spell loadout, allowing you to reach into your magic murder bag and retrieve just the right tool for every battle.

New skills on the skill tree replace the benefits normally given as part of a standard magic skill line, allowing Kairos significant discounts, an overwhelming array of lore passives and high levels of spell intensity.

Tzeentch building and unit availability rework

• The first two levels of the Secret Society chain have moved from T3 – t4 to t2 – t3.

  • This allows access to Tzeentch Cultist heroes at tier 2, with capacity at tier 3.

• Chaos sorcerers have moved from tier 4 to tier 3 in the mortal servants chain, capacity for chaos sorcerers has moved from tier 5 to tier 4.

  • Chaos sorcerers (alongside exalted champions) are exceptionally powerful heroes, but access at T4 was prohibitive, especially for a faction with magic as a core strength.

• Adjustments to capital unit availabilities

  • Tzeentch has access to two separate capital chains, one representing powerful keeps, and the other rifts through which Daemons pour.

    • The Keep chain now offers both standard and spear marauders of tzeentch starting at tier 1.

    • The rift chain now offers blue horrors and chaos furies starting at tier 1.

• Marauder horsemen: T3 -> T2

• Chaos Warriors with halberds: T4 -> T3

• Chosen and chosen with halberds: T5 -> T4

• Chaos spawn: T3 mortal servants -> T3 Forges of change

• Economy chain changes

  • T1 base income 100 -> 150

  • T2 base income 150 -> 200

  • T3 base income 200 -> 250

  • All buildings now produce an additional bonus of income when the local winds of magic are tempestuous, equal to the bonus provided by Strong winds of magic.

Skill trees

• Revamped Skill tree for Kairos Fateweaver.

• New unique skills for Herald of Tzeentch

• New unique skills for Exalted Lord of Change

Kairos Lord Trait

• Kairos has had a few improvements to his, previously fairly bland, lord and faction effects - these include spell cooldown and barrier battle effects as well as a major buff to construction time - because of course if you can see the future you can optimize such things!

Starting Cults for Kairos

• Kairos Plots have grown, and he now begins campaigns with two cults already in operation. One at his old stomping grounds of Montfort, a long forgotten reminder of the Year of Woe. And another in the Crystal Spires, far to the north where the veil is thin. The bud of a great cult network? Or the prelude to a ritual that would summon the Fateweaver himself to distant lands to start a grand machination?

Just a quick shoutout to our modding friends who tackled some of these changes in some way, including:

Thunder | Imminent | JediMasterDraco | Advice

Kislev

Boris Ursus Character Unlock

• All existing requirements to unlock Boris Ursus have been removed, meaning you no longer are required to complete the relevant quest battle in the Realms of Chaos campaign to unlock and play with him in Immortal Empires campaign. Now all owners of Warhammer 3 will have instant access to Boris Ursus right away.

The supporter race

Is gone!

This feature has been entirely supplanted by the Court & Orthodoxy feature outlined below.

As a consequence

• Invocations of the motherland have been moved out of the panel and are now found on forces and settlements, more details below!

• Standard confederation is now available to Kislev

• There are no restrictions to declaring war between Kislev factions

Court & Orthodoxy

Court and Orthodoxy is a new shared feature available to all Kislevite factions (including Mother Ostankya!)

​As you play campaigns as any Kislev faction, you will accrue support with the Ice Court and the Great Orthodoxy through various means, such as construction of aligned buildings, fighting their enemies and dedicating your Atamans to their cause. For every 100 points of support with a faction you accrue, you permanently increase that factions support tier by 1, and gain a faction specific Boon token.

Boon tokens can be spent in the Court Orthodoxy panel (accessed in the top of the UI hud) for a variety of permanent, powerful upgrades.

​Be wary however, if you show undue favour to one side, the overall stability of Kislev will be threatened and you will suffer escalating penalties.

Various sources can improve how much you stretch this imbalance, such as controlling their relevant faction leaders. Allowing you to tilt the balance more to your favoured cause.

Devotion

Devotion has replaced Control for all Kislev factions.

• Devotion has a separate set of benefits to Control

  • Recruitment and growth are not affected by high nor low devotion

  • Devotion above 50 allows the usage of invocations of the motherland for both local forces and settlements

  • 75+ devotion allows a settlement to nullify climate penalties

  • Devotion below 0 will grant increasing experience to Atamans deployed to quell the situation

  • If devotion reaches -100, a chaos incursion will occur

• Previously it was the case that declaring war on another Kislev faction gave a -100 Devotion penalty - this is now instead a -10 Devotion penalty to all provinces

Army Invocations

Previously found within the Motherland panel, these Invocations are now available in two new forms.

Both require that you own the territory you wish to invoke them in, and that it has at least 50 devotion. 50 devotion will be expended when you invoke them, take care that if you relied on devotion to nullify a bad climate!

Force invocations

Found in the army holder on the bottom of the screen, invoking these will grant powerful but temporary boosts to the invoking army. Invoke them in a high devotion border province before pushing into enemy territory to capitalize!

Settlement invocations

Found on the provincial display. These invoke powerful temporary boons on the selected settlement, they again require and spend 50 devotion!

Atamans

Atamans have had a significant overhaul, so here are the cliff notes.

• Atamans no longer progress via random dilemmas.

  • Atamans instead have a brand new fleshed out skill tree, including a completely unique blue line and several unique skills.

  • Atamans now gain experience while deployed, which can be further improved by deploying them in low devotion provinces, areas with key resource buildings, constructing walls and, if haste of the essence, by constructing the unique Ataman Abode in one of the three Kislev capitals.

  • You can quickly access an Ataman's skill tree by clicking on his portrait, which appears on the banners of the capital he governs.

• Atamans can no longer be recruited as a standard field lord to control an army on the map.

  • We felt this diluted their gameplay purpose as defensive governors and restricting this allowed us to tailor their skillset much more tightly to their intended role.

• Atamans have a brand new battle loadout, going into battle equipped with pistol, axe and shield to suit their staunch and defensive nature.

• Atamans now enable a new behaviour called a "Garrison Sally Attack" for all settlements in their controlled province.
  
  

  • To perform a Sally Attack, select an eligible settlement, and you will see a movement range, similar to selecting an army. Then simply right click any enemy forces within that radius, as if you were ordering a regular army. This will cause the Garrison to engage that target.

    • The garrison will return to the settlement after the battle.

  • This range can be improved by spending skill points on specific skills in the Ataman's skill tree.

Mother Ostankya - Teleport Dilemma

We've heard your feedback surrounding Mother Ostankya's starting position in Naggaroth and while we understand there are those who want a full start position move back to Kislev for her, we also need to remember the reason she was put there in the first place - namely start position variety when playing as her (being able to play as Kislev in a unique location) and when playing against her (being able to fight against Kislev forces when playing as someone else near her). As such we think a good middleground is to allow her to teleport back to Kislev very early on when playing as her (or of course she can stay in Naggaroth). If you do decide to teleport her new start position will see her taking up residence in Plesk, in Kislev's Eastern Oblast - be aware however that this is a more difficult start location, owing in part to the expanded Norscan presence if you do decide to move. We also heard your concerns on Ostankya's beloved Hut landmark, so we've made it that she can construct her landmark Hut either in Bleak Fortress or Volksgrad, but of course only in one place at any given time.

​Note for modders: While we did internally discuss allowing AI controlled Mother Ostankya to also utilize the teleport functionality, we ultimately decided against this. However the implementation for this is still present and any modder can reenable this functionality by setting the "mother_ostankya_features.chance_to_teleport_home" script variable above zero to provide a chance for her to teleport to Kislev.

Mother Ostankya - Purification Hex Improvement

We've given Mother Ostankya the ability to cure plagues, this gives her Purification Chant more utility later in the campaign when Corruption might be less of an issue. If only she was with us in 2020...

Ice Court Training

Overall the Ice Court Training system was too slow to produce characters, the random nature of the dilemmas was a cause of frustration if you were seeking a particular character build and the overall impact of the feature was low. The following changes have been made to tackle these issues:

• Training time has been reduced by half

• Training dilemmas are no longer random - You will still get 3 training dilemmas, however they now occur one turn after another, and have 4 trait choices instead of 2 per dilemma

• Multiple traits have combined their effects - meaning overall characters from the feature are stronger

• Increased the cost slightly given the above power increase - but there are more places where the cost can be reduced (particularly for Katarin)

Building Tree

• [UPDATED] Reduced the construction cost of Kislev's income buildings by half - the Kislev economy struggled, particularly in the early game, due to having a higher than average return on investment from their economy buildings. Reduced the construction cost of Kislev's income buildings by half - the Kislev economy struggled, particularly in the early game, due to having a lower than average return on investment from their economy buildings.

• There is a new Ataman centric building available in the Kislev capital cities that allows dedicated levelling of Ataman characters at a large cost.

  • Ataman's trained at these locations have the chance to gain a powerful unique trait.

• Renamed all of the Kislev landmarks that had numbered upgrade names - these now have loreful names in line with our approach to building naming across the game.

• Added a 5th tier to the Bokha Palace landmark.

• Improved the effects of the Imperial Embassy landmark.

• In line with the Court & Orthodoxy feature Kislev now has access to a new Ice Court infrastructure building chain to go along with the existing Orthodoxy chain.

  • Both the Orthodoxy and Ice Court chain has branching building options, including unique options when built within the key Kislev cities.

Technology

The Kislev Tech tree has been remade from the ground up, with techs reshuffled to fit a new 3 tab structure. The changes are too comprehensive to list in a patch note, but you'll find new effects, removed effects, retuned numbers and completely new nodes alike.

• Ostankya's unique section of the tech tree is unchanged, and is found in "The Land" tab in the new layout when playing as Mother Ostankya.

Skill trees

• Completely new skill tree for Atamans.

• Revamped unique skills for Tzarina Katarin

• Revamped unique skills for Boris Ursus

• Revamped unique skills for Kostaltyn

• New unique skills for Boyars

Other

• Kislev previously had access to a unique commandment when all regions in a province were chaotic wasteland,  this commandment has now been replaced with “By Order of The Tzar”, which is unique to Boris Ursus and significantly slows down the local economy in exchange for supercharging local devotion and purging corruption. The perfect tool to conquer the wastelands.

Cathay

New Ogre Camp

After perilous journey from the Mountains of Mourn, the Stoneshatter Tribe has arrived in the Wastelands of Jinshen, just south of Zhao Ming. With their camp settled on the banks of the Great River, they offer mercenaries to all nearby factions.

Miao Ying Lord Trait

Miao Ying's Lord and Faction effects were pretty bare bones, especially when compared with other Lords, and so we've added extra effects for her including bonuses to Nan-Gau themed units (including of course the new Nan-Gau Grenadiers) as well as some Bastion themed campaign effects.

And here, we wanted to thank our modding community who tweaked around the various aspects of Kislev addressed in 6.1, including:

Dead Baron | No. 213 | Acephelos | Serj Targarien | Porkenstein

UI

Improved Ability Display List

We saw a lot of feedback recently surrounding the UI for the unit ability list and how it has become difficult to view when the presence of a large number of abilities caused the UI to compress the list together - definitely a fair point! As such we've adjusted the UI slightly so it will now display abilities on more rows instead of just the one. A small change but a big quality of life fix, you can see the before and after below:

​

Before	After

​We'd like to give a huge shoutout to modder sudkks who's mod has solved this until now. Fantastic work on this quality of life fix, we liked your solution so much we thought it should be this way in the game for everyone!

RACES & BALANCE

Battle

Complex Stat Changes

Horse Cavalry Turn Changes

It was brought to our attention that cavalry turn speeds have been fairly inconsistent since the Thrones of Decay DLC, so with this in mind we’ve taken a look at raising the turn speeds of cavalry to be a bit more comparable. High Elves and Bretonnia (who have some of the finest steeds in the old world), were particularly suffering with a lower turn speed than most other comparable horse cavalry units. We’ve rectified this by increasing the bulk of horse cavalry turn speeds from 100°/s to 120°/s where it makes sense (Mostly High Elf + Bretonnian Cavalry). Skeletal Steeds are still relatively slow at turning on the virtue of being a bit… well… dead.

We hope this change serves to make the affected cavalry units a bit more responsive when turning, allowing for more flexibility when cycle charging into the side and rear of enemy infantry formations.

To view the full list of battle balance changes, split by Faction, click here.

BUG FIXES

PERFORMANCE

• Fixed a potential crash in Malakai's Adventure Quest Battle 'Dragonsbane'. 

• Fixed a potential game freeze that could occur when pressing Esc while dragging UI elements. 

• Fixed excessive CPU usage on certain Intel processors. 

• Fixed a potential crash that could occur when loading a siege battle. 

CAMPAIGN

GENERAL/GAMEPLAY

• The options for Offer to the Great Maw should now appear consistently for all Ogre Kingdoms lords. 

• Fixed an issue where Tyrant's Demands could target Ogre camps. 

• Fixed an issue where the Bribe option of Tyrant's Demands was available for armies with only 1 unit. 

• Fixed a bug where when attacking port settlements from the sea, armies would land nearby rather then landing adjacently

• Fixed a bug where Chaos and Empire could raise factions from occupation immune settlements.

• Fixed an issue where an Ogre Kingdom effect was applying across the entire game reducing all factions mercenary recruitment costs by 50%.

• Fixed a desync in Multiplayer battles where the game would fail to agree on the contact effect a weapon has.

UI/UX

• Fixed the ‘Load Lord’ confirm button not closing the panel and not making the lords inactive after recruitment. 

• Fixed a persistent overlap issue when switching between panels. 

• Fixed the stance button appearing when switching from the missions panel to The Skull Throne panel. 

ANIMATIONS 

• Fixed a bug where Skulltaker was clipping through his Juggernaut mount during movement on the campaign map.

• Fixed Noctilus walking on water during his idle animation on the campaign map. 

• Fixed a bug where the Ogre Hunter's weapon would shake during idle animations on the campaign map. 

• Fixed a bug where Chaos Sorcerers wouldn’t show animations when mounted on steeds or Manticores. 

• Fixed a bug where Volkmar on the War Altar of Sigmar had a floating cape during the pre-battle animation. 

• Fixed a bug where Ikit Claw appeared to be missing a leg in his Character Details view. 

• Fixed a bug where the Glade Captain’s cape would clip through their right arm on the character details screen. 

• Fixed a bug where the Gunnery Wight's gun would stretch when the hero moved. 

• Fixed a bug where the Mounted Boyar's hands remained open during all campaign animations. 

• Fixed a bug with an animation issue involving Eglixus's staff in the Character Details view. 

• Fixed a bug where Grom remained in an idle animation after winning an auto-resolved battle against another army.

BATTLE

GENERAL/GAMEPLAY

• Fixed some issues where chariots and some other entities were being hit by the same projectile multiple times, resulting in excessive damage. 

• Fix a possible crash when there are too many projectiles slowly sliding/rolling on the ground.

• Fixed issues with ranged unit's 'Fire at Will' stance by increasing the number of checks units make to start firing. They will now also prioritise firing over maintaining positional unit cohesion (We are working through fixing as many instances of this bug as possible so if you run into any further issues after the update is live please do report them through the link at the bottom of this blog).

AI 

• Fixed a bug where, if most of the player's units were hidden, the AI units would remain in formation instead of rushing forward. 

• Updated the rout and morale rules so that when the defending reinforcements are destroyed, the original defending army inside the settlement won’t rout without a fight. 

• Fixed a bug in Gorbad Ironclaw's campaign where, during the first battle, positioning the majority of the army on the left side while flanking with cavalry caused the enemy Giant to become stuck, repeatedly spamming two orders without moving. 

• Resolved an issue where retreating missile units, when ordered to shoot, would move toward the enemy instead of choosing a better position to regroup. 

• Fixed a bug where the AI would attempt to capture gates that had already been destroyed. 

• Fixed issues where units that broke the gate would remain idle instead of entering the settlement. 

• Fixed an issue where the AI would force path through archers on walls and then get stuck between re-engaging and reaching a point. 

• Resolved an issue where units on the extreme flank would remain idle after reaching their designated location in land battles if no enemy was present. 

• In Conquest battle mode, if the AI chooses to defend, it will now attempt to hold a line at the Capture Point instead of remaining idle on the sidelines.

ANIMATIONS

• Fixed a bug where the Regiment of Renown Swords of Ulric’s shields would glitch during turn animations. 

• Fixed a bug where Skeleton Archers were missing their swords in all aim and fire animations. 

• Fixed a bug where Tyrion had no sync kill animation when fighting a Bloodletters of Khorne unit. 

• Fixed a bug where Malekith wouldn’t perform sync kill animations against units from Total War: WARHAMMER III. 

• Fixed a bug where the Glade Captain’s right hand would look all kinds of strange when getting up after being knocked down. 

• Fixed multiple clipping issues with Chaos Spawn units. 

• Fixed casting issues for the Alluress (Slaanesh) while moving. 

• Fixed a bug where Ruglud's Armoured Orcs had their axe positioned next to their body during certain aiming animations when it should not be present. 

• Fixed a bug where The Khepra Guard (Tomb Guard RoR) and Nehekharan Warriors units had their swords clipping through their skulls during certain idle animations. 

• Fixed a bug where Throt the Unclean would brandish the wrong item during his idle animation. 

• Fixed a bug where the Druchii Sorceress’ skirt would clip through her leg after dying. 

• Fixed a bug where Lothern Sea Guard (Shileds) units had severe clipping issues with their shields. 

• Fixed a bug where a Tomb King mounted on a steed had a shield that would fly away from the model and then snap back when transitioning between hit reactions and standing. 

• Fixed a bug where Volkmar the Grim's staff would glitch during combat. 

• Fixed a bug where the High Elf Princess’ limbs would contort when riding her Eagle Mount. 

• Fixed a bug where Teclis’ cloak would be stuck in a high wind when mounted on his Arcane Phoenix. 

• Fixed a bug where, during their charge attack, Khorngors had their weapons positioned outside of their hands. 

• Fixed a bug where the Asur Mage would visibly snap between idle and casting animations. 

• Fixed a bug where White Lions of Chrace’s cloaks would visibly snap on move or halt orders. 

• Fixed a bug where Blessed Saurus Warriors' shields would snap while under ranged fire. 

• Fixed a bug where the Druchii War Hydra wouldn’t perform kill sync animations against units from Total War: WARHAMMER III. 

• Fixed a bug where the platforms on the Dread Saurian’s back would clip through each other. 

• Fixed a bug where the Daemon Prince of Nurgle’s club would disappear after being dropped during his flying death animation. 

• Fixed a bug where the Chaos Lord’s (Warriors of Chaos) cloak had multiple snapping issues. 

• Fixed a bug where the Druchii Dreadlord (Sword & Crossbow // Cold One Mount) and Empire Arch Lector (Barded Warhorse Mount) would wrongly show the shield up animation. 

• Fixed a bug where the Supreme Sorceress (Dark) units' arm would clip through the saddle/throne of the Black Dragon mount. 

• Fixed a bug where Orc Labourers wouldn’t have their weapons positioned in their hands correctly. 

• Fixed a bug where the Chaos Sorcerer Lord's staff clips through the Chaos Dragon mount’s right neck during its idle animation. 

• Fixed a Bug where the secondary gunner for the Rotting Promethean Gunnery Mob unit would clip through the mount’s shell on low settings. 

• Fixed a bug where Thorek Ironbrow was positioned too far forward during some attack animations while mounted on the Anvil of Doom. 

• Fixed a bug where the Paymaster's arm would twist during various animations. 

• Fixed a bug where the Paymaster's cloak clipped through the model during various animations. 

• Fixed a bug where Marauder Hunters were missing one of their weapons in certain animations. 

• Fixed a bug where Skarr Bloodwrath's waist flap moved excessively in one of the animations. 

• Fixed an issue where Leadbelchers had a stretching texture when ordered to move with melee mode toggled on. 

• Fixed a bug where Amethyst Outriders had the wrong attack pose animation during combat while still wielding their swords. 

• Fixed a bug where the Prince's cape would clip through his armour during run animations. 

• Fixed a bug where the Scions of Mathlann had a shield snapping animation when transitioning to the attack animation from any other. 

• Fixed a bug where Wulfrik the Wanderer was levitating above his mount when seated on a War Mammoth. 

• Fixed a bug where the Khepra Guard (Tomb Guard) appeared to be holding their weapons with open hands. 

• Fixed a bug where the Glade Captain's bow would disappear during her shooting animation, leaving only an afterglow. 

• Fixed a bug where the Demigryph Knights (Halberds) would lose their weapon during the knockback animation sequence in battle. 

• Fixed a bug where the Hero Master would slide too far up onto the neck of the Dark Steed mount during a rider attack animation sequence. 

• Fixed a bug where the Hero Engineer's sword would remain attached to his gun and be drawn along with it when shooting. 

• Fixed an issue where the Arachnarok's charge animation played in slow motion during battle. 

• Fixed a bug where Arkhan the Black's staff would rotate out of his hand while mounted on his Skeletal Steed in battle. 

• Fixed a bug where the Necrosphinx 3D porthole had a visual glitch during deployment and movement. 

• Fixed a bug where the Ushabti-Great Bow and their RoR variant did not properly hold their swords during their attack animation sequence in battle. 

• Fixed a bug where the Fire Rain Rocket unit's sword would move from the hand to the entity's side without an animation. 

• Fixed a bug where the Savage Orc Boar Boyz model would stutter when transitioning from running to walking animations. 

• Fixed a bug where Skarbrand's right arm and axe would jitter during his idle animation on the map when changing his stance to Combat Trials or Raid. 

• Fixed a bug where Sigvald's cape had various issues during movement and idle animations. 

• Fixed a bug where, during their knockdown animation in battle, the Men-at-Arms (Polearm) and Beastslayers of Bastonne's weapons would shift from their hands to their backs when hitting the ground. 

• Fixed a bug where the Spearmen-at-Arms unit's spear would drift away from their closed hand during some idle stand and idle combat animation sequences. 

• Fixed a bug where the Centigor's shield arm would stutter during the running animation. 

• Fixed a bug where the Skullcrusher's weapon did not remain docked during various animations. 

• Fixed a bug where the Skullcrusher's hand did not properly clasp the weapon during various animations. 

• Fixed a bug where the Slayer Pirate's weapon docking was incorrect. 

• Fixed a bug where the Cultist of Nurgle (Chaos Steed) had legs clipping through the robe while moving on the mount. 

• Fixed a bug where the limbs on the back of the Chaos Spawn entity would snap to a new position upon death. 

• Fixed a bug where the Swordmasters of Hoeth's shoulders would clip into the shoulder armor pads when moving. 

• Fixed a bug where the Warrior Priest's book would clip into the unit's arm when running. 

• Fixed a bug where, during Burplesmirk Spewpit's walk animation, a nurgling would appear and disappear near the radius of his bell, and a second clapper bell would also become visible. 

• Fixed a bug where the whip of some Hellscourge units would detach from their hand during certain combat animations. 

• Fixed a bug where the Shades (Greatswords) melee weapon was not docked to the unit's back and would appear from nowhere when drawn. 

• Fixed a bug where the left sword of the Shades (Dual Weapons) would disappear during the charge animation. 

• Fixed a bug where the Darkshard's pauldron would clip into the unit during the aiming animation. 

• Fixed a bug with Malekith’s sword during walk and run animations. 

• Fixed a bug where Thorgrim's beard would go inside his body during an idle stand animation. 

• Fixed a bug where the Chaos Sorcerer of Nurgle's staff appeared docked incorrectly during the selected animation while mounted on the Rot Beast. 

• Fixed a bug with the Stormvermin (Sword & Shield) execution animation, where the weapons would disappear and reappear from nowhere after the animation cycle. 

• Fixed a bug where Be'lakor gained a whip and a rigid tail during his flying defense animations. 

• Fixed a bug where Ulrika’s arm misbehaved during a jumping attack animation when mounted. 

• Fixed a bug where the Handmaiden of the Everqueen’s bow was not pointing in the right direction during ranged attacks while mounted. 

• Fixed a bug where Tree Kin (High Elves) would glitch during their walking animations. 

• Fixed a bug where mounted Druchii Sorceresses’ legs would clip through one during walking animations when mounted (riding side saddle isn’t easy). 

• Fixed a bug where Malus Darkblade’s walking animation would glitch when restarting. 

• Fixed a bug where Rakarth’s whip would change color when performing the 3 hit combo whip attack. 

• Fixed a bug where Crone Hellebron would clip through her Dark Steed during its stagger animation when mounted. 

• Fixed a bug where in battle the Waywatchers appeared to be missing their swords when switching to melee mode and also had an issue where their bows only appeared when firing. 

• Fixed a bug where the Gold Wizard would fly in the wrong direction during knocked-down flying animations. 

• Fixed a bug where the Handmaiden of the Everqueen had various animation issues during battle, both while mounted and unmounted. 

• Fixed a bug where the Chaos Frost Dragon did not play its Kill Sync animation. 

• Fixed a bug where the Dragon Slayer's right elbow axis appeared twisted in various animations. 

• Fixed a bug where the Plague Ogre (Great Weapon) had significant clipping with his shoulder pad during various idle animations. 

• Fixed a bug where the Master Engineer's coat clipped through the barded warhorse mount. 

• Fixed a bug where the Master Engineer's forefinger remained open while mounted on the Mechanical Steed. 

• Fixed a bug where the Master Engineer's coat clipped with the Mechanical Steed during run animations. 

• Fixed a bug where the Plague Drones of Nurgle slowly shifted to the side during the deployment phase. 

• Fixed an issue where the Gate Master's skirt would twitch on the warhorse during shooting. 

• Fixed a bug where the Exalted Hero of Tzeentch had multiple clipping issues in its animations. 

• Fixed a bug where the Changebringers unit model stuttered during an idle animation. 

• Fixed a bug where the Changebringer's model did not dissolve upon death. 

• Fixed a bug where the Druchii Master desyncs from his Dark Mount during a mounted charge attack animation. 

• Fixed a bug where Har Ganeth Executioners would glitch during their charge animations. 

• Fixed a bug where Darkshard units without shields would use shield specific animations in melee combat. 

• Fixed a bug where Druchii Shades units would reset their position after executing a moving attack. 

• Fixed a bug where Miao Ying's arms (Dragon) would snap during a run animation. 

• Fixed a bug where Yuan Bo's arms (Dragon) would snap to the next position during the run animation. 

• Fixed a bug where Aekold's weapon was not properly docked during the Charge animation. 

• Fixed a bug where Shades (Greatswords) did not sheath their swords correctly. 

• Fixed a bug where Skeleton Spearmen were not holding their spears correctly. 

• Fixed a bug where Nehekharan Warriors were not holding their swords correctly, and the blades clipped during an idle animation. 

• Fixed a bug where Skeleton Warriors were not holding their swords correctly. 

• Fixed a bug where Skeleton Archers held their swords incorrectly and did not grip them by the hilt. 

• Fixed a bug where shields were not properly affixed to the arm movements of Skeleton Warriors and Spearmen when under fire from ranged attacks. 

• Fixed a bug where Malus Darkblade would hold his swords by the blade instead of the handle when mounted. Edgy. 

• Fixed a bug where the Mutalith Vortex Beast’s matched combat attack needed more victims. 

• Fixed a bug where Crane Gunners' formational positioning was inconsistent. They have now been drilled appropriately. 

• Fixed a bug where the Beast of Nurgle and its Nurgling would desync during their idle animation. 

• Fixed a bug where the Chaos Dwarf Magma Cannon would desync between animations. 

• Fixed a bug where Malus was positioned oddly on Spite during their running animation when mounted 

• Fixed a bug where Balthasar Gelt’s arm and staff would occasionally twitch when engaged in melee combat.  

• Fixed a bug where the Terradon Riders' and 'Fireleech Bolas' would clip into the ground when moving with the flying toggled off 

• Fixed a bug where Plague Drones of Nurgle (Death's Heads) would clip through the ground if the player toggled flying off while moving 

• Fixed a bug where the Vampire Lords right leg would clip through the Barded Nightmare mount when performing idle animations. 

• Fixed a bug where the Gnoblar Scrap Launcher's animations would desync when firing. 

• Fixed a bug where the Blue Scribes' quills would go haywire after being dropped during their death animation. 

• Fixed a bug where the Plague Ogre's belt texture would distort during its idle animation. 

• Fixed a bug where Mannfred Von Carstein was inside his Hellsteed instead of astride it as intended. 

• Added matched combat animations for Carnosaurs, Feral Cold Ones & Dark Elf Cold One Riders when fighting against Warhammer 3 units.

ENVIRONMENT

• Fixed an issue in the Malakai Makaisson quest battle, ‘Anger of the Forest,’ where units could pass through a rock formation. The rocks have been repositioned to prevent this. 

• Fixed an issue on the Ashmouth Volcano Land Battle map by repositioning a lava pit slightly further from the deployment line, preventing erratic initial deployment of player troops. 

• Fixed an issue where a number of rocks on the Broken Bluff Chokepoint battle were floating in the air and have now been repositioned correctly on the ground. 

• Fixed an issue by moving the sun on the first battle map at Malekith’s starting position to improve the overall lighting.

MISCELLANEOUS 

• Fixed a bug where, after ordering artillery to drop their equipment, the units 3D model would no longer fit properly into the UI porthole.

AUDIO

• Fixed a bug where Chaos Warrior units were missing the Skulltaker faction leader lines in battle. 

• Fixed a bug where Gyrocopter/Gyrobomber melee SFX wouldn’t trigger. 

• Adjusted the probability of Rakarth's roar vocalizations on the campaign map to reduce spam while in channelling stance. 

• Adjusted the probability of audio events triggering VO for Orion when in Teleport or Ambush stance to reduce spam. 

• Fixed a bug where Orion's jump and moving attacks were missing SFX.

BLOOD PACK

• Fixed displaced blood effects on various units.

KNOWN ISSUES

The following notes are issues that we are aware of and working to resolve, but didn’t make it into the 6.1 release. These fixes will arrive in the near future as part of a follow-up hotfix.

• There are some known instances where Devotion is still displayed as Control with either icons or text.

• If a settlement with an ataman is lost e.g. traded via diplomacy or abandoned the ataman will die.

• The reinforcement arrow is missing when an ataman is reinforced by an army.

• During the ‘Staff of Tomorrow’ Quest battle the enemy Lord past and future Kairos Fateweaver does not have any spells.

• Invocations in Forts and Gates become unavailable after loading a save.

• The ‘Warded’ skill does not grant the correct shield barrier as intended when activated.

We'd like to say another big thank you to everyone who's provided us with their feedback and suggestions, as well as those who have reported their bugs. If you run into any new issues after updating to 6.1, please be sure to report them using our dedicated bug reporting sub-forum.

Until next time, we'll see you on the battlefield!

—The Total War Team

⚠ IMPORTANT

If you experience any issues after downloading the update, please take a moment to Verify the integrity of the game files first to ensure there were no issues when downloading. A step-by-step guide can be found in this article. If the issues persist, please visit our support site for additional troubleshooting steps and assistance.

🧱 MOD WARNING

Please note that user-generated mods may have compatibility issues with new game updates. If you are encountering performance or stability issues following a release, is recommended that you disable any mods you're running. If you continue to experience issues, please visit our support site for additional troubleshooting steps and assistance.