The expansion is being released as three separate packs, each focusing on a different Legendary Lord for a specific faction. This include the Elspeth pack featuring the Legendary Lord Elspeth Von Draken for the Empire, the Malakai pack featuring Malakai Makaisson for the Dwarfs, and the Tamurkhan pack featuring Tamurkhan the Maggot Lord for Nurgle.

These Legendary Lords can be used in both the Total War: Warhammer 3 Realm of Chaos campaign, as well as the Immortal Empire campaign that spans a combined, gigantic map featuring factions from all three Total War: Warhammer games.

The new Legendary Lords will feature their own unique mechanics, as well as a host of new units that players can make use of throughout their campaigns.

The release of Thrones of Decay is part of Creative Assembly’s attempts to do better with its expansions when it comes to quality, quantity of content, and price. The studio had revealed plans to improve DLC offerings for the game in a blog post back in December last year.

“It has been a difficult few months, and we recognize that we have made mistakes when it comes to our relationship with you all,” says the statement. “It’s been a constant conversation internally on how we can get back to solid ground. What’s clear is that it won’t be easy and that it will take time and effort.”

“We see the confusion, the frustration, and the distrust of us across the community and honestly, it breaks our hearts. We make games to bring you joy, to inspire a love of history, of fantasy, and strategy games. Total War is our everything, we care about it as deeply as you. Recently, it’s clear that we have failed to demonstrate that in our actions.”

As part of its plans going forward, Creative Assembly has announced that Total War: PHARAOH players on Steam will notice a partial refund having been processed, with funds being added to players’ Steam Wallet. This is due to Total War: PHARAOH getting a price cut down to $39.99. The first planned DLC for the game will also be released for free in early 2024.

Going forward, Total War: PHARAOH will also see incremental updates. Plans regarding these updates, which will bring in new features like expanded campaign map size and new factions, will be revealed once the new year rolls in.

Total War: Warhammer 3, on the other hand, will see an ongoing series of updates. With complaints having stemmed from the last DLC for the game, Shadows of Change, being considered not worth its asking price because of a lack of content, the studio has announced a major update for the DLC. Slated for release in February 2024, the update will flesh out the Shadows of Change DLC.

This also means that the planned Thrones of Decay DLC, originally set for a Winter 2023 release window, will now instead be released in April 2024. The studio says that it wants to ensure that Thrones of Decay doesn’t repeat the mistakes of Shadows of Change.

“Where we make mistakes in this next part of our journey, we’ll work hard to act faster to address them, to iterate whilst we learn from those moments, and to always be taking steps in the right directions,” says the studio. “We hope that you can find patience for us as we find our footing again, and we hope in the coming months we can prove to you with actions along with words.”

Total War: PHARAOH and Total War: Warhammer 3 are both available on PC.

Players have taken two the game’s Steam reviews and discussions forums to complain about the pricing, with some calling the new pricing policy for the DLC a “complete rip-off”

Responding to these criticisms, chief product officer at Creative Assembly, Rob Bartholomew, has stated that DLC prices are increasing because the studio’s costs have risen.

“To get right into it: our costs are up,” Bartholomew said in a post on the Total War website. “Unfortunately, that means that prices have to rise. We know any increase is going to be tough, which is why our prices have remained fairly stable over the past few years. The downside is that any increase today is going to be more noticeable.”

Bartholomew goes on to call for the game’s playerbase to stop harassing developers working at Creative Assembly, acknowledging that some players might wait for deep discounts before buying the more expensive DLC releases.

“Finally, we need to ask you again to stop directing abuse at individual team members,” said Bartholomew. “Frustrated as you may get, these are human beings who spend many hours representing you and your voices within the studio. All of our work gets easier when they are treated with respect.”

The Shadows of Change DLC for Total War: Warhammer 3 is slated for release on August 31.

Shadows of Change is bringing a host of new content to Total War: Warhammer 3, including 3 new Legendary Lords—the Changeling for Tzeentch, Yuan Bo for Grand Cathay, and Mother Ostankya for Kislev. The DLC is also bringing with it new campaign mechanics, new units, and new abilities for use in battles.

Alongside the release of the DLC, Total War: Warhammer 3 is also getting free content in the form of legendary hero Aekold Helbrass—a hero pursued to the edge of the chaos wastes and now reborn as a Champion of Tzeentch. The update will also bring with it more general improvements to the AI in campaign mode, garrisons, and new landmarks.

The Shadows of Change DLC is one of two releases slated for 2023, which will also see the release of the Thrones of Decay DLC focusing on Nurgle, the Empire, and Dwarfs in winter.

The studio plans on bringing achievements specific to Total War: Warhammer 3‘s Immortal Empires mode as a way for players to track progress in the expansive game mode. Every race from Total War: Warhammer and Total War: Warhammer 2, as well as Chaos Dwarfs, will be getting two achievements—one for completing an Immortal Empires campaign and another for completing the campaign on Very Hard or Legendary difficulty.

Immortal Empires will also be getting a tutorial mode that gives players that might be new to the game mode, or even new to specific factions a way to get a hold on what they should be doing and how they can expand their territories from there. Currently, the tutorial features missions guiding players to attacking an enemy army, capturing an enemy settlement, and so on. Over time, the studio hopes to make these missions more bespoke for each faction, and bring in some narrative elements as well.

The studio also talks about other features coming to the game, including improved difficulty options for the game’s Battle Difficulty settings so as to allow players to fine tune how many bonuses the AI gets for specific stats. The new Battle Difficulty settings will be available in both campaign mode, as well as custom battles.

Landmark buildings are also getting some additions, with new landmark buildings being added across the campaign map These buildings add new effects to their surroundings, and the studio is currently working on fine-tuning the additions through feedback from playtesting.

Total War: Warhammer 3 is available on PC.

Alongside featuring discounted pricing on games based on various Warhammer IPs, Warhammer Skulls will also feature new details on games like Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. We can also undoubtedly expect details on new content coming to games already out, like Total War: Warhammer 3 and Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.

Games across multiple platforms will be getting discounts of up to 80%, and we’ll also be seeing new content coming to games across all platforms. Kicking things of for Warhammer Skulls is the Warhammer 40,000 in-game event currently taking place in World of Tanks: Modern Armor right now.

The next game based on Warhammer slated to come out is old-school self-proclaimed boomer shooter Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, set for release on May 23. There is also an RPG in the works—Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader—which doesn’t yet have a release date.

The studio has also revealed plans for future updates slated for later in the year. With Update 4.0 slated for summer, Total War: Warhammer 3 will also be getting its next DLC—Shadows of Change—which will explore the story of three races: Tzeentch, Cathay and Kislev. The DLC will see the addition of new Legendary Lords, a new Legendary Hero, and new units. The free update will bring with it requested features like achievements for Immortal Empires, updates to the game’s base races, and updates to AI.

The final update for 2023, update 5.0, will be released alongside the Thrones of Decay DLC. With The DLC and update will focus on Nurgle, the Empire, and the Dwarfs. The DLC will feature new Legendary Lords and campaigns for these factions, while the update will offer base-level changes and updates, bringing the older factions more in line with the current design of factions.

Rounding out the 12-month content plan is update 6.0, which is slated for release in spring 2024. The update will expand on the game’s races and introduce new Legendary Lords, a new Legendary Hero, and other improvements to the game.

Mirror of Madness will consist of two new game modes: The Trials of Fate and The Infinite Portal. Creative Assembly has detailed Mirror of Madness as part of an FAQ released on the game’s update page. Mirror of Madness can be added to your library as a free DLC once it is released on April 13.

The Trials of Fate mode is slated to be a series of survival challenges. It puts players in the role of a newly-ascended Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, as they take part in infamous battles from Warhammer’s history to ultimately break into the Realm of Tzeentch and take on Kairos Fateweaver.

Gameplay seems to be a horde mode, with endless waves of enemies that will grow in strength as the player holds out. To deal with the waves, players will have access to unique spells and abilities in The Trials of Fate. These spells and abilities can be upgraded by defending a capture point called the Shard.

The Infinite Portal will allow players to customise their forces in reality-bending ways, such as increase damage dealt by their units and spells, increase collision impact, and raise the total number of soldiers per unit and their health. The Infinite Portal is meant to be a fun game mode where players can go crazy in making as many changes as they might want to how the game works.

The Mirror of Madness is slated to launch alongside the upcoming paid DLC Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs, slated for release on April 13.

The trailer shows off how Zhatan’s faction of the Chaos Dwarfs focuses on creating siege engines through the use of facctories, and a lot of fire. The trailer also shows off how Zhatan makes use of the new Labour Economy feature to fund his battles.

The last trailer for Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs showed off gameplay for Astragoth Ironhand. The trailer showed off a variety of units available to Ironhand, including infantry and artillery.

Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs is slated for release on April 13. Those who pick up the expansion will also be able to make use of the new faction in the Immortal Empires game mode for Total War: Warhammer 3.

The video gives us a great look at the variety of different units that will be available to Chaos Dwarfs, with their main infantry, artillery, and even units that act as cannon fodder for the game’s epic battles.

Along with wanting to take over his main territories and drive back the Orc infestation, Astragoth Ironhand’s main objective in the Total War: Warhammer 3 campaign revolves around using a drill to penetrate into the Realm of Hashut, allowing the Chaos Dwarfs to win the final battle.

The Chaos Dwarfs faction is slated to be released on April 13 as part of the Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs DLC. It is worth noting that, while bearing some visual similarities to Dwarfs which have been playable since Total War: Warhammer‘s first release, Chaos Dwarfs are an entirely new faction, complete with their own units, Legendary Lords, Heroes, and special abilities.