Creative Assembly detailed a new endgame structure, individual victory conditions, and a Vampire Counts rework during its latest What’s Next livestream for Total War: Warhammer 3. The studio also confirmed the Glottkin as the next legendary lord for the upcoming Lords of the End Times DLC.
The changes arrive with update 9.0, which reworks how Immortal Empires campaigns build toward their endgames. Associate design director Sean Macdonald said the current endgame crises “do not satisfy what we wanted them to do,” since most simply spawn extra enemy armies. Under the new system, those crises shift earlier into the midgame. There, they power up existing factions. Three new End Times events then act as the dramatic conclusion to a campaign.
Three new endgame crises, one built around Archaon
One crisis is an altered version of the existing Vermintide event. Another centers on the legendary lord Nagash. The third, shown during the livestream, follows Archaon. Archaon carries a ward save that makes him nearly unkillable until his lieutenants are defeated. His invasion also lets him raze regions so thoroughly that players cannot rebuild there until he is stopped. He can confederate with any Chaos faction now, rather than only the Warriors of Chaos as before. Players who reach the endgame as Archaon himself can choose to become the crisis, devastating provinces to grow more powerful on the way to victory.
Individual victory conditions replace one-size-fits-all goals
Update 9.0 also gives each legendary lord unique victory conditions built around checklists specific to their faction. Objectives might include ranking up thematically appropriate units, confederating with particular allies, or constructing famous landmarks.
What the Vampire Counts rework changes
The Vampire Counts rework changes recruitment so that Raise Dead replaces lost troops based on how many units died in a battle, with each corpse in a province becoming a potential unit. Vampires themselves become rarer and more powerful. Players must locate a lair in a settlement, then capture it or send an agent, before customizing a new vampire’s bloodline and traits. Vlad von Carstein and Isabella von Carstein can also become legendary lords for the Vampire Counts if a campaign starts with either as a hero. The faction has gone largely untouched since the Grim and the Grave DLC released in 2016.
Creative Assembly also confirmed the Glottkin as a new legendary lord for the Lords of the End Times DLC, joining Nagash and Boris Todbringer. The Glottkin are three Nurgle mutated brothers. Ghurk, the largest of the three, is big enough to carry his brothers Otto and Ethrac as a mount. The trio belongs to the Warriors of Chaos faction but brings access to Nurgle’s daemons and new units, including the Putrid Blightkings, a Basilisk, and a Chaos Siege Giant. One more Lords of the End Times character remains unannounced.