Total War: Warhammer 3 - Release date, races, legendary lords, campaign map, units, and more

Over the last two decades, the Total War franchise has established itself as one of the most beloved real-time strategy series, particularly popular among history buffs, as Total War has been exploring various historical eras through different regions of the world.

And yet, it was Total War: Warhammer, the first fantasy-themed Total War game, that has become the biggest and most successful entry in the franchise. 

Aside from the fact that it has attracted armies of Warhammer fans, the introduction of fantasy elements into the Total War formula has allowed for almost unlimited freedom in terms of units design, abilities, and other gameplay elements.

This was due to the fact that designers were not restricted with historically accurate factions grounded in reality, which often didn't leave much space for diversity and creativity.

The original Total War: Warhammer was released in May 2016, and now, almost 6 years later, we patiently await the final game of the trilogy to conclude this strategic masterpiece.

Here's everything we know about Total War: Warhammer 3.

Total War: Warhammer 3 release date

The game was originally planned to be released in 2021, but due to working from home conditions and other unforeseen hiccups, the launch has been pushed to 2022, and now we have a new release date - 17th February 2022.

All confirmed playable races and factions

Just like the previous game in the trilogy, Total War: Warhammer 3 will add a slew of new and fan-favourite races from the Warhammer universe.

At the time of writing, these are 7 confirmed playable races and their factions:

• Kislev (full roster)
  • The Ice Court
  • The Great Orthodoxy
• Grand Cathay (full roster)
  • The Northern Provinces
  • The Western Provinces
• Khorne (full roster)
  • Exiles of Khorne
• Tzeentch (full roster)
  • Oracles of Tzeentch
• Slaanesh (full roster)
• Nurgle (full roster)
• Ogre Kingdoms (full roster)
  • Goldtooth
    Disciples of the Maw

Selecting any of the "full roster" links will lead you to the official Total War blog post with a full breakdown of units available for that race.

Creative Assembly, the game's developers, confirmed that their plan is to eventually add all playable races from Warhammer Fantasy into Total War: Warhammer, so even if some missing races don't come at launch, they will be added as DLCs.

Legendary Lords

Each of the currently announced factions has only one Legendary Lord. While there is a possibility for some of these factions to get multiple Legendary Lords, currently only five factions from previous games have multiple LLs: Reikland, Karaz-a-Karak, Sylvania, Von Carstein, and Warriors of Chaos.

Confirmed Legendary Lords in Total War: Warhammer 3 are:

• Tzarina Katarin, The Ice Court
• Supreme Patriarch Kostaltyn, The Great Orthodoxy
• Miao Ying, The Northern Provinces
• Zhao Ming, The Western Provinces
• Skarbrand, Exiles of Khorne
• Kairos Fateweaver, Oracles of Tzeentch
• N'Kari, Slaanesh
• Nurgle, Ku'gath Plaguefather
• Greasus Goldtooth, Goldtooth
• Skrag the Slaughterer, Disciples of the Maw

You can find more information about each individual Legendary Lord by following the corresponding "full roster" links above.

Total War: Warhammer 3 campaign map

As with the previous two games in the trilogy, Total War: Warhammer 3 is a stand-alone game, which will have its own story and can be played independently of other games.

It will have its own self-contained main campaign, which developers describe as "roughly twice the size" of Eye of the Vortex, the campaign map from the previous game.

For now, we don't know much about either the map or the story, but we do know that the Far East and the Realm of Chaos will be featured as regions.

Developers still have plans to eventually create one massive campaign map for those players who own all three games, currently named "A Very Big Campaign" as a working title, which will have all the campaigns combined into one.

New gameplay, battles, and multiplayer features 

When it comes to the campaign, Total War: Warhammer 3 will introduce two new types of battles.

In the campaign, there are Survival battles in the Realm of Chaos, where players will be tasked with completing multiple objectives to win across several stages.

We don't have many details yet about these new campaign missions, but we know that players will be able to salvage resources and use them to summon reinforcements, and some tasks will include holding a strategic position for a certain amount of time.

There's also a massive rework of how siege battles will work, as they are largely considered one of the weakest points in previous games.

Multiplayer will receive at least one new battle type called "Domination" which will work very similarly to the Survival battles in the campaign. Players will need to capture and hold certain points in order to win and will be able to call for reinforcements.

Total War: Warhammer 3 pre-order bonus

Total War: Warhammer 3 is now available for pre-purchasing on Steam, Epic Games Store and Windows Store for  $59.99 / £49.99, and anyone who pre-orders the game will receive the Ogre Kingdoms race pack DLC for free.

As an early adopter incentive, the Ogre Kingdoms will also be available for free for anyone who buys the game during the first week after launch.

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Featured image courtesy of SEGA.