G’day Total War: WARHAMMER III fans! We hope you’ve been enjoying the first few weeks of Immortal Empires news coming your way! That said, there’s PLENTY more to come before August, including the NEXT actual release coming to WARHAMMER III: UPDATE 1.3—which is what we’ll be talking about today!
UPDATE 1.3 PREVIEW
Compared to its predecessors, Update 1.3 is going to be smaller than what Update 1.1 or 1.2 introduced to the game. As most of our development resources (and QA time) are focused on getting Immortal Empires (and the rest of Update 2.0) prepped and ready for its debut, 1.3 is aimed at addressing a variety of outstanding issues, player-reported frustrations, and other areas that will help lay the foundation for the release of the major update coming this August.
Here’s a *brief* (and far from complete) look at some of the key features—many of which are based on player feedback—coming to 1.3:
REGIMENTS OF RENOWN II
Seven new Regiments of Renown units are joining the roster in our second official unit pack. Like the first, units will be joining each of the game’s core races to provide new, elite variants for any army you field.
(We’ll take a closer look at each when 1.3 arrives. In the meantime, we welcome your guesses as to what units you’d like to see in the coming release.)
CHARACTER TRAIT & SKILL TREE REWORKS
A popular topic since the launch of WARHAMMER III: the traits received upon defeating Legendary Lords will be seeing some adjustments to feel more rewarding when you stomp a big baddie.
Several skill trees will also be seeing updates. This should not only improve the efficacy of your Lords and Legendary Lords, but will help factions who have historically struggled with replenishing their armies. We’ll share the specific changes in the 1.3 release notes, so watch for them then!
REALM OF CHAOS
As we continue to tweak the Realm of Chaos campaign, several new changes are being implemented to address some of the more frustrating aspects identified by players:
- When an AI teleports to the Forge of Souls, players will now be prompted to teleport and confront them (if they are in a position to do so). This should counteract the need to proactively camp the Forge of Souls until the AI appears.
- The final encounter with Be’lakor has been adjusted to be less time-consuming and punishing.
Several tweaks are also coming to Tzeentch’s realm, specifically:
- Sigils will now be revealed when the player enters/exits a teleport locus.
- Action points used to move and position your armies will no longer be lost by interacting with a point of interest.
- The AI now must teleport eight times before accessing the final area.
AI USE OF ‘CHANGING OF THE WAYS’
The AI’s use of Changing of the Ways (Tzeentch) has been a notable pain point since the launch of the game. As such, two key changes are being made:
- Minor Tzeentch factions will no longer be able to use Changing of the Ways.
- The cooldown is being increased to prevent it from being abused by AI factions.
CATHAYAN FORMATION ATTACK
As promised earlier in the year, adjustments have been made to improve Cathay’s Formation Attack ability: both by adding additional melee defence and by updating the entity behaviour so that soldiers will more actively seek out engagements.
KURGAN SPAWN RATES
Several changes are being made to prevent Kurgan Warband armies from spawning continuously—offering vigilant Cathayan players a chance to enjoy some well-earned moments of peace.
MIAO YING NOW HAS “EYE OF THE STORM”
A much-requested fix, Miao Ying will now be able to access her Eye of the Storm ability when in dragon form, as intended!
UNIT RESPONSIVENESS
Several changes have been made to improve unit responsiveness in the game: from how units navigate settlement entrances and react to retreat orders, as well as how large units and heroes interact via synced animations.
AI FOCUS ON THE BACK LINE
An issue where AI armies would focus (almost exclusively) on backline units is being addressed to encourage more meaningful tactics on the battlefield. This should also address an issue during Siege Battles which would compel the AI to scale walls and march through defending units to enter the city.
AI USING ABILITIES WHEN THEY SHOULD NOT
There are a handful of instances where the AI would utilize abilities where the player could not; that is not intended, so we’re ensuring that abilities are limited in the same way as they are for the player.
PLAGUE ATTRITION
Plagues have been noted as exceptionally difficult to deal with, so we’re making some adjustments to the duration and strength of attrition effects.
LAND & DOMINATION BATTLES ARE NOW IN RANKED
Matchmaking will now allow for both Land and Domination battles in ranked: more variety to test your skills!
MOVED FROM 1.3
While there is plenty more fixes and features coming with 1.3 (all of which will be captured in the release notes) there’s one project noted previously which has been bumped from the release. As with any project, we will continue to work on developing, testing, and implementing it as soon and safely as possible:
INCREASING THE FREQUENCY OF FIELD BATTLES (CAMPAIGN)
We still want to ensure that there is a healthy mix of land, siege, and minor settlement battles as you play through the campaign—particularly based on player feedback about the number of siege and settlement battles. This will be fixed in a future update, and we’ll let you know when we have an updated timeline as to when it will be ready.
COMING JUNE 30!
Finally, it’s time to address the big question: when can you expect Update 1.3?
We promised that it would be kicking off Q3, and we are going to do just that: releasing it next Thursday, June 30th to usher in the new quarter!
Don’t worry: we still have plenty of news about Immortal Empires even as we prepare and release 1.3. We hope you enjoy these latest additions to Total War: WARHAMMER III as you wait, and we’ll see you next week as we share more about both Immortal Empires and Update 1.3!