Total War: Warhammer III - Thrones of Decay
released on Dec 31, 2023
DLC for Total War: Warhammer III
This DLC will add three Legendary Lords (1 for each race), a Legendary Hero and new units.
Reviews View More
For the first time I'm glad IGDB is dated and behind the times because it means I can review every pack within this DLC collectively rather than individually.
Despite being a mere DLC pack, there was a lot riding on Thrones of Decay. Creative Assembly haven't had a very good run lately, with Total Warhammer 3 taking two years to become a competent product and TW Pharaoh launching to all the fanfare of accidentally-swallowed toothpaste. The last TWWH3 DLC drew a lot of ire - even if I ended up liking it - for having a relatively poor price:content ratio.
Further adding to TWWH3's first Giles Corey is that the three races involved in ToD - Nurgle, the Empire, and the Dwarfs - have been in need of a rework for ages now. The latter two especially are deeply beloved by the franchise, with the Empire being one of three factions the game nudges new players towards.
This isn't even getting into the legion of shit CA themselves have suffered, with Pharaoh being a financial bomb and their attempt at yet another competitive FPS game having been executed by SEGA - whether out of mercy or cruelty is up to the viewer's discretion. Mentioning the staff turnover and investigation by UK employment authorities is probably pushing it.
ToD, then, does not have the luxury of just merely being good like Champions Of Chaos or Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs. It had to be fucking phenomenal. Targeted at a fanbase who're a near-permanent state of "it's so over", ToD had to tick the counter up to "we're so back" or it's all over.
Did it succeed?
Well...
Truthfully this is rather hard to discuss, because we're in an age where developers have wisely realized that launching a substantial free update alongside paid content will make both of them look better.
Reviewing is, after all, the act of transcribing one's feelings into words. Feelings dominate the profession so much that the idea of any one review being "objective" is a deeply laughable concept. Even those who sincerely believe they're objective are being silently puppeted by a million biases, preferences, deep-rooted emotional reactions and all manner of influences.
This is a problem for me.
I loved my time spent with the ToD DLCs, I really did. Hell, the game is open on my other monitor at present while I write this - it, Library of Ruina and Granblue Fantasy are devouring my free time.
But it's deeply hard to disconnect my feelings for the associated free update and its myriad reworks/fixes from the actual content I paid for.
The Empire is somewhat notorious among TWWH fans for how misleading it is. All three games posit it as a noob-friendly and welcoming campaign, a suggestion which has simultaneously become more untrue as time goes on. TWWH3 really exposed all the cracks in their foundation; they're fun when you're used to them, but before the rework they were definitely a campaign for people used to the series - the High Elves and their tutorial island were to the West if newbie wanted a safe zone.
After the rework, they're now on par with and perhaps better than any TWWH3 faction not named the Chaos Dwarfs. Franz now has a bevy of unique summons, spells/declarations and mechanics that seem overwhelming at first but ultimately manage to both fulfill the fantasy of being PRINCE AND EMPEROR and also a good starting point for newbies. Also they gave him an extra starting settlement, which ultimately benefits the AI more than the player because it means AI Franz doesn't die super fast.
Gelt has taken a vacation to Grand Cathay, gaining access to the College of Wizards which really plays into the fantasy of being an arch wizard. Yeah, it's honestly kind of overpowered that you can just transmute lead into gold and get the TWWH2 cataclysm spells for a pittance of investment, but I don't think any Lord deserved it more than Gelt. Plus it's just refreshing to have new enemies to fight as the Empire without having to do an insane detour through 4-5 other factions.
Everyone in the Empire received a significant rework to buildings and unit recruitment, removing the need for an auxiliary building to get cavalry/artillery/handgunners and bumping most units down a tier. Elector State Troops are no longer something you get 100 turns into a campaign, but acquired via a researchable technology and also some special buildings. The end result is that they're now very useful army fillers that can be summoned on a whim, or in an emergency. Whoa, cool integration of lore and gameplay in a Warhammer game? That's a first.
The Dwarfs received much the same treatment. While each Lord didn't get quite as grand a rework as Franz and Gelt, the race as a whole got access to a cool new Age of Reckoning mechanic that adds some dynamics to their campaign play and also disincentivizes sitting in the mountains for 100 turns. Restoring the Karaz Ankor is now an actual thing one can do, and doing so unlocks fast travel points - helpful, for a race so fucking slow all the time.
Like Elector State Troops, the gaudy old "sometimes get slayers if you fuck up too much" mechanic has been turned into Grudge Settlers; your performance in an Age of Reckoning affects how many units get added to the Grudge Settler pool, and they follow the same insta-recruit rules.
Similar to the Empire buildings, Dwarf recruitment has been both simplified and knocked down a tier, with some changes to how flame cannons and aerial units work really helping them against factions they struggled against.
Nurgle's rework was not quite as indepth, but still impactful. In-battle spells are now charged up via spreading poison or other contact effects, massively increasing the rate at which they can be used and no longer necessitating you get your troops halfway to death just to fire off a healing spell.
Plagues were reworked entirely to be a ~web~ of effects, with your available options being decided by the starting node.
Units spawn with much more health and the cyclical process of Nurgle's military buildings is sped up - with some buildings being made static so the faction's economy doesn't shit the bed early on.
It's all great, right?
But all of this is free.
The actual paid content is fine.
Dwarfs get an extra gun unit, a lot of extra Slayers, and the beloved Thunderbarge. The Lord/Hero additions are, naturally, Slayers.
The Empire get some more rifles, a nice Sword/Shield cavalry unit, the Land Ship (it is EXACTLY what you're picturing) and another Steam Tank variant alongside an Engineer Lord and Hero.
Nurgle's additions are, with the exception of Rot Knights, slow moving and high health entities that're exceptional at killing infantry units. Rather embarassingly, the Nurgle Chaos Lord is a reskin of the last DLC's Tzeentch Chaos Lord with a new helmet and effects. The Nurgle Chaos Sorcerer does look cool, though, and they have access to the coveted Lore of Death.
This time, the theming of the Legendary Lords (and their additions, too) is derived from the novel Tamurkhan: The Throne of Chaos - one of the few good Warhammer novels! Elspeth shows up alongside Theodore Bruckner, Malakai Makaisson is there with Gotrek & Felix (not part of this DLC, they were free in TWWH2) while Garagrim Ironfist shows up to add another Slayer to the roster, and of course the mighty Tamurkhan shows up with Kazyk the Befouled and a whole host (literally) of unique heroes.
They're all very nice, well animated and incredibly useful, especially once they gain their unique mounts. Tamurkhan looks phenomenal, too; they even rendered the hole where his worm form burrowed into the current host body! To say nothing of what happens if he and Theodore Bruckner have a fatal clash...
But honestly, this DLC being fine is a welcome relief. Shadows of Change was nice, but it was a pure cheats DLC. ToD is a much more balanced - Malakai aside - reticient affair and purchasing it honestly benefits the other members of the respective factions more than the included lords. Ungrim Ironfist, a Dwarf lord from the first game, benefits the most given Slayers are his shtick. Garagrim is also his son, so.
Despite everything I'm still giving this DLC a 5/5 because, as I alluded to up above, we are in fact so back. The mere fact that Cavalry units finally work is enough to rate it highly.
10/10 Be'lakor, the Dark Master wins for the fourth DLC in a row.
Despite being a mere DLC pack, there was a lot riding on Thrones of Decay. Creative Assembly haven't had a very good run lately, with Total Warhammer 3 taking two years to become a competent product and TW Pharaoh launching to all the fanfare of accidentally-swallowed toothpaste. The last TWWH3 DLC drew a lot of ire - even if I ended up liking it - for having a relatively poor price:content ratio.
Further adding to TWWH3's first Giles Corey is that the three races involved in ToD - Nurgle, the Empire, and the Dwarfs - have been in need of a rework for ages now. The latter two especially are deeply beloved by the franchise, with the Empire being one of three factions the game nudges new players towards.
This isn't even getting into the legion of shit CA themselves have suffered, with Pharaoh being a financial bomb and their attempt at yet another competitive FPS game having been executed by SEGA - whether out of mercy or cruelty is up to the viewer's discretion. Mentioning the staff turnover and investigation by UK employment authorities is probably pushing it.
ToD, then, does not have the luxury of just merely being good like Champions Of Chaos or Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs. It had to be fucking phenomenal. Targeted at a fanbase who're a near-permanent state of "it's so over", ToD had to tick the counter up to "we're so back" or it's all over.
Did it succeed?
Well...
Truthfully this is rather hard to discuss, because we're in an age where developers have wisely realized that launching a substantial free update alongside paid content will make both of them look better.
Reviewing is, after all, the act of transcribing one's feelings into words. Feelings dominate the profession so much that the idea of any one review being "objective" is a deeply laughable concept. Even those who sincerely believe they're objective are being silently puppeted by a million biases, preferences, deep-rooted emotional reactions and all manner of influences.
This is a problem for me.
I loved my time spent with the ToD DLCs, I really did. Hell, the game is open on my other monitor at present while I write this - it, Library of Ruina and Granblue Fantasy are devouring my free time.
But it's deeply hard to disconnect my feelings for the associated free update and its myriad reworks/fixes from the actual content I paid for.
The Empire is somewhat notorious among TWWH fans for how misleading it is. All three games posit it as a noob-friendly and welcoming campaign, a suggestion which has simultaneously become more untrue as time goes on. TWWH3 really exposed all the cracks in their foundation; they're fun when you're used to them, but before the rework they were definitely a campaign for people used to the series - the High Elves and their tutorial island were to the West if newbie wanted a safe zone.
After the rework, they're now on par with and perhaps better than any TWWH3 faction not named the Chaos Dwarfs. Franz now has a bevy of unique summons, spells/declarations and mechanics that seem overwhelming at first but ultimately manage to both fulfill the fantasy of being PRINCE AND EMPEROR and also a good starting point for newbies. Also they gave him an extra starting settlement, which ultimately benefits the AI more than the player because it means AI Franz doesn't die super fast.
Gelt has taken a vacation to Grand Cathay, gaining access to the College of Wizards which really plays into the fantasy of being an arch wizard. Yeah, it's honestly kind of overpowered that you can just transmute lead into gold and get the TWWH2 cataclysm spells for a pittance of investment, but I don't think any Lord deserved it more than Gelt. Plus it's just refreshing to have new enemies to fight as the Empire without having to do an insane detour through 4-5 other factions.
Everyone in the Empire received a significant rework to buildings and unit recruitment, removing the need for an auxiliary building to get cavalry/artillery/handgunners and bumping most units down a tier. Elector State Troops are no longer something you get 100 turns into a campaign, but acquired via a researchable technology and also some special buildings. The end result is that they're now very useful army fillers that can be summoned on a whim, or in an emergency. Whoa, cool integration of lore and gameplay in a Warhammer game? That's a first.
The Dwarfs received much the same treatment. While each Lord didn't get quite as grand a rework as Franz and Gelt, the race as a whole got access to a cool new Age of Reckoning mechanic that adds some dynamics to their campaign play and also disincentivizes sitting in the mountains for 100 turns. Restoring the Karaz Ankor is now an actual thing one can do, and doing so unlocks fast travel points - helpful, for a race so fucking slow all the time.
Like Elector State Troops, the gaudy old "sometimes get slayers if you fuck up too much" mechanic has been turned into Grudge Settlers; your performance in an Age of Reckoning affects how many units get added to the Grudge Settler pool, and they follow the same insta-recruit rules.
Similar to the Empire buildings, Dwarf recruitment has been both simplified and knocked down a tier, with some changes to how flame cannons and aerial units work really helping them against factions they struggled against.
Nurgle's rework was not quite as indepth, but still impactful. In-battle spells are now charged up via spreading poison or other contact effects, massively increasing the rate at which they can be used and no longer necessitating you get your troops halfway to death just to fire off a healing spell.
Plagues were reworked entirely to be a ~web~ of effects, with your available options being decided by the starting node.
Units spawn with much more health and the cyclical process of Nurgle's military buildings is sped up - with some buildings being made static so the faction's economy doesn't shit the bed early on.
It's all great, right?
But all of this is free.
The actual paid content is fine.
Dwarfs get an extra gun unit, a lot of extra Slayers, and the beloved Thunderbarge. The Lord/Hero additions are, naturally, Slayers.
The Empire get some more rifles, a nice Sword/Shield cavalry unit, the Land Ship (it is EXACTLY what you're picturing) and another Steam Tank variant alongside an Engineer Lord and Hero.
Nurgle's additions are, with the exception of Rot Knights, slow moving and high health entities that're exceptional at killing infantry units. Rather embarassingly, the Nurgle Chaos Lord is a reskin of the last DLC's Tzeentch Chaos Lord with a new helmet and effects. The Nurgle Chaos Sorcerer does look cool, though, and they have access to the coveted Lore of Death.
This time, the theming of the Legendary Lords (and their additions, too) is derived from the novel Tamurkhan: The Throne of Chaos - one of the few good Warhammer novels! Elspeth shows up alongside Theodore Bruckner, Malakai Makaisson is there with Gotrek & Felix (not part of this DLC, they were free in TWWH2) while Garagrim Ironfist shows up to add another Slayer to the roster, and of course the mighty Tamurkhan shows up with Kazyk the Befouled and a whole host (literally) of unique heroes.
They're all very nice, well animated and incredibly useful, especially once they gain their unique mounts. Tamurkhan looks phenomenal, too; they even rendered the hole where his worm form burrowed into the current host body! To say nothing of what happens if he and Theodore Bruckner have a fatal clash...
But honestly, this DLC being fine is a welcome relief. Shadows of Change was nice, but it was a pure cheats DLC. ToD is a much more balanced - Malakai aside - reticient affair and purchasing it honestly benefits the other members of the respective factions more than the included lords. Ungrim Ironfist, a Dwarf lord from the first game, benefits the most given Slayers are his shtick. Garagrim is also his son, so.
Despite everything I'm still giving this DLC a 5/5 because, as I alluded to up above, we are in fact so back. The mere fact that Cavalry units finally work is enough to rate it highly.
10/10 Be'lakor, the Dark Master wins for the fourth DLC in a row.