Total War: WARHAMMER III – Update 1.3.0
Happy release day WARHAMMER fans! Welcome to UPDATE 1.3!
Like its predecessors, today’s update focuses on fixes and features identified and prioritized by our players in these early months of Total War: WARHAMMER III. While the list of changes is shorter than 1.1 or 1.2, there are still a hefty number of important adjustments to key systems throughout the game, new features to continue expanding the tools in your arsenal, and critical updates as we lay the groundwork for the massive 2.0 update coming in August.
If you’re looking for the short list of the most important notes, here’s the tl;dr summary of what’s coming in 1.3:
- Regiments of Renown II introduces a whole new set of elite troops to all seven factions—this time with a focus on mounted units!
- Land Battles have joined the ranked matchmaking queue!
- Miao Ying can now (properly) use her Eye of the Storm ability in combat
- Additional character trait reworks and skill tree updates for the Legendary Lords
- Several adjustments to make the Realm of Chaos less punishing or tedious
- Much-needed adjustments to how the AI Tzeentch faction utilizes Changing of the Ways
- Improvements to the Cathayan Formation Attack ability
- Fixes to the Kurgan Warband spawn rates during the Grand Cathay campaign
- Numerous improvements to unit responsiveness to orders and movement commands in battle
- AI improvements to their battle strategy, as well as fixes to prevent them from abusing skills and abilities
- Various fixes for player-reported issues and feedback notes
- …and more!
You can read through the full list of changes below, and then take the time to jump in and try them out in the latest build. Then, we invite you to visit any one of our official feedback channels to share your thoughts!
DISCUSS: Total War: WARHAMMER III on the official Forums
CHAT: The Total War Official Discord
UP NEXT: The team is already hard at work on Update 2.0, which will bring a load of new features, DLC, and (of course) the debut of the highly anticipated Immortal Empires game mode. We have a load of new information coming your way in the weeks to come, so stay tuned and keep the love for WARHAMMER III coming!
See you on the battlefield!
— The Total War Team
? Download on the Microsoft Store
Remember that you’ll need to update your game in the Microsoft Store:
- Open the Microsoft Store.
- Click the [∙ ∙ ∙] symbol next to your profile picture.
- Select Downloads and updates.
- Press the Get updates button to automatically detect, download, and install the latest changes to your game!
- Open the game. The title screen should show you on Update 1.3.0.
If you are unable to launch the game after downloading the update, make sure you add (or re-add) the Total War: WARHAMMER III client or folder as an exception to your firewall and antivirus program.
? Download on Steam
Remember that you’ll need to update your game in Steam:
- Open Steam.
- Click on Library to see your games list.
- Click Downloads at the bottom of the Library window.
- [If the new build does not download automatically,] click the Download Now button to manually download the new update.
- Open the game. The title screen should show you on Update 1.3.0.
If you encounter any issues downloading or playing the game, you can verify the integrity of the Steam files to correct any download or installation errors.
? Download on Epic
Remember that you’ll need to update your game in Epic:
- Open the Epic games launcher.
- Click your profile portrait in the upper right corner of the client window.
- Select ‘Settings’ from the navigation page
- Click Downloads at the bottom of the Library window.
- Scroll to the Manage Games section and check the Allow Auto-Updates
- Expand the menu for Total War: WARHAMMER III and open the game Options.
- Select the “Auto-update” box and let the game update.
- Open the game. The title screen should show you on Update 1.3.0.
If you encounter any issues downloading or playing the game, make sure you verify your game files to correct any download or installation errors.
? Having trouble? Visit our support site!
Update 1.3.0
Jump to:
Daemons of Chaos ⬥ Grand Cathay ⬥ Khorne ⬥ Kislev ⬥ Nurgle ⬥ Ogre Kingdoms ⬥ Slaanesh ⬥ Tzeentch
RELEASE SPOTLIGHT
Check out the highlights of today’s update!
Regiments of Renown II
In Update 1.3, we’re introducing our second REGIMENTS OF RENOWN unit pack as a free upgrade to the game. This month, the focus is on cavalry! We’ve taken some of the best cavalry units from each faction and amped them up to create their elite counterparts—now available in both the Campaign and Battle settings!
Seven new units are available to unlock:
RIGHTEOUS LANCES OF WEI-JIN – Great Longma Riders
GRAND CATHAY
These formidable lances are the guardians of Grand Cathay’s Sky Fleet. These elite bodyguards protect and serve as the bodyguards of the lords of the skies: cutting through the thickest armour with their master-crafted weapons.
- ABILITY: Guardian: Reduces damage taken by lords/heroes that are close to this unit.
- ATTRIBUTE: Immune to Psychology
- DAMAGE MODIFIER: Armour-Piercing Attacks
HERALDS OF KHORNE’S FURY – Bloodcrushers of Khorne
KHORNE
Riding into battle with the heat of Khorne’s fury, the Heralds make kindling of all that would challenge them on the battlefield. They wield some of the most ravenous of Khorne’s cursed blades, and take very little to enrage the spirits possessing them with a fiery wrath.
- ABILITY: Mantle of Immolation (Passive): Confers weakness to fire on all enemy units within the area of effect.
OATH-BROTHERS OF TOR – War Bear Riders
KISLEV
Lighting ripples across the weapons and armour of the Oath-Brothers—gifts from their patron god Tor (the Kislev god of Thunder)—allowing them to deliver cutting magic attacks to their foes.
- ABILITY: Call of Tor (Active): Bombards all enemies surrounding the unit with lightning strikes, applying the ‘Blinded’ contact effect to affected enemies. (Limited use)
- DAMAGE MODIFIER: Magic Attacks
BARONS OF THE BOG – Pox Riders of Nurgle
NURGLE
To be near the Barons is to suffer from the Wasting Sickness, a weakening aura that weakens the sword arms of nearby opponents. At the same time, their vile steeds revitalize nearby daemons of Nurgle with their foetid gases.
- ABILITY: Miasma of Rot (Passive): Restores vigour to nearby allied units.
- ABILITY: The Wasting Sickness (Passive): Reduces the potency of enemy weapons and mass of units caught within the area of effect. This is only active when the unit is engaged in melee.
- STAT ADJUSTMENT: Increased Armour
SKY-STRIDERS – Crushers (Great Weapons)
OGRE KINGDOMS
These unstoppable riders call the peaks of the long-lost Titans their home, where they explore the mountaintops and fashion the forgotten steel of the Sky-Titans into crude armour and weapons—adding to their potency in battle.
- CONTACT EFFECT: Frostbite: Reduces the speed of enemies struck in melee by this unit.
- STAT ADJUSTMENT: Increased Weapon Damage
- STAT ADJUSTMENT: Missile Resistance
ETERNAL ENTOURAGE – Heartseekers of Slaanesh
SLAANESH
The presence of the Eternal Entourage empowers nearby champions to new heights: their worship filling their chosen idol with strength and prowess.
- ABILITY: Obsessive Adoration (Passive): Empowers the Melee Attack and Weapon Strength of all friendly lords/heroes within the area of effect.
- ATTRIBUTE: Perfect Vigour
KNIGHTS OF IMMOLATION – Doom Knights of Tzeentch
TZEENTCH
Wielding lances imbued with Tzeentchian fire, the Knights of Immolation ride into battle on particularly spiteful discs of Tzeentch: spewing fire on their enemies below. (We know they might not look like your traditional mounts, but don’t let that fool you; these elite cavalry are nonetheless deadly.)
- ABILITY: Searing Torrent (Active): Bombards enemies directly below with fire damage; also confers the ‘Warpflame’ contact effect. Carries more uses than normal, but the ability only recharges once the unit is in melee combat. (Limited use)
- DAMAGE MODIFIER: Magic Attacks
- DAMAGE MODIFIER: Flaming Attacks
Land Battles Join Ranked Matchmaking
Land Battles are now available in the ranked matchmaking pool alongside the existing Domination Battle. Participants now have a 50/50 chance to enter a Land or Domination battle when they queue up for a match.
The following maps are available in the Land Battle pool:
- Death Pass
- Arnheim
- Battle for Itza
- Broken Leg Gully
- The Silver Spire
- Blasted Lands
- Darkland Crater
- The Flats of Kislev – Kislev Troll Country
- Floating Farms – Cathay Farmland
- Wastes of Slaanesh – Slaanesh Wastelands
GAME
Below are changes to the systems that support and enhance the gameplay of Total War: WARHAMMER III.
Stability & Performance
DEV NOTE:
“Thanks to the amazing work of one of our community modders, Spartan VI, and their ‘UI Performance Patch’ mod, a stuttering issue was brought to our attention when hovering over components of the UI—particularly when you have multiple mods installed.
The root issue was caused when the game searches for UI modifications that are supposed to overwrite the base look of the UI. The stuttering occurs when the game cannot find a modified file in the manifest for the retail game data, at which point it broadens its search to search through the rest of the mod folders on the disk. The more mods you have installed, the more folders it has to explore and the more stuttering you experience as it does!
The workaround offered by the ‘UI Performance Patch’ was to duplicate the mod files in the initial search location—thus negating the need for additional searching and improving performance at the cost of duplicating data. The fix we’re implementing today goes one step further: creating a persistent reference of whether a modification exists in the initial file that gets searched. You’ll still experience stuttering the *first* time you encounter a new UI component, but it should only happen once and dodges the duplication of data in the game files.
This initial stuttering is something we’ll continue to work on in the future, so watch for those improvements later on! And thanks, again, to Spartan VI for helping others enjoy the game to its fullest potential!”
- Improved how UI assets are loaded over extended sessions in an effort to reduce stuttering and frame drops. We will continue to investigate performance optimizations when navigating the UI to address alongside future updates while also empowering the use of UI skins and mods created by the community.
- Disabled the cursor in benchmarks to prevent results from being skewed by highlighting onscreen elements.
- Fixed an issue where certain character resources were being loaded during campaign gameplay, causing framerate spikes.
- Fixed a rare crash triggered by the AI when defending in battle.
Graphics
- Fixed the alpha fade-out at death for Blue Horrors to ensure their bodies are cleared from the battlefield upon their death.
UI
- Fixed several instances where the descriptive text of buildings failed to account for the latest balance changes.
- Fixed the descriptive text and iconography of the Ogre Monsters building chain of settlements to match the version built in camps.
- Removed the white bar displayed on the top panel upon entering a Battle where Dark Elf units were included in the army of a different faction (such as when seduced to join the army).
Several changes have been made to the Character Details panel:
- The list of characters at the top of the Character Details panel now uses the same sorting as the Lords & Heroes dropdown: Lords are displayed first alongside their embedded heroes, and then the rest of the heroes are included at the end of the list.
- Lords are now displayed with a different frame to differentiate them from heroes.
- Embedded heroes are now displayed with smaller icons and lines drawn to the Lord they serve.
GAMEPLAY
Below are changes made to the gameplay rules, AI, and other mechanics that dictate how the game is played.
General
- To prevent instances where ranged units hold their fire because a friendly unit is in their line of fire, overlapping units are now considered (by the game as) part of the same unit. This should ensure that ranged units can more consistently carry out firing orders.
- Small or multiple-entity artillery and chariot units will no longer have collision when killed. This will help alleviate issues where larger entities (such as the Ogre Mournfang Cavalry) were having trouble pathing around destroyed artillery pieces.
- The Tzeentch, Nurgle and Slaanesh technologies which previously provided lore passive abilities to Greater Daemon units now (instead) provide additional uses of the bound spells granted by other technologies.
- Armies fleeing from Bastion gates are now prevented from making attacks of opportunity. This also prevents a progression-blocking bug that could occur during Battles.
- Autonomous riders and other entities are now properly reset after resurrection. This allows Burning Chariots to continue shooting where they were previously prevented from doing so.
- Fixed a bug where matched combat was not triggering for infantry units.
- Fixed a bug which would prevent certain items from expanding the Winds of Magic reserve.
- Fixed a bug which caused some entities in flying cavalry units (such as Great Long-Ma Riders) to remain airborne after the unit previously charged an enemy ground unit.
- Fixed a bug where flying units would wander aimlessly after abandoning melee combat.
- Fixed a bug where units would refuse to enter settlements until issued multiple attack orders.
- When ordered to attack, groups of units which include ranged units will now move to a valid position where the ranged units can fire on the enemy rather than to a position in the same zone but too far away from the target.
The attrition from plagues could become very frustrating to deal with in the game, so we’ve made some adjustments to make it less burdening:
- Nurgle: Reduced the base duration of the Ague plague from 3 to 2
- Nurgle: Replaced the attrition effect of The Flux with an increase in the casualties from attrition.
- Daemon Prince: Removed the attrition effect from Bowelsteep and increased the Nurgle corruption it provides.
- Daemon Prince: Replaced the attrition effect from The Red Ague with an increase in casualties from attrition.
We noticed that the Tzeentch AI factions’ use of Changing of the Ways could become quite irritating. As such, two changes are being made:
- Minor Tzeentch factions can no longer use Changing of the Ways in the Realm of Chaos campaign.
- Increased the cooldown applied to AI factions using the ability by ~70%.
AI
- Improved how the AI scouts forests to generate more informed and decisive AI actions.
- Improved how the AI utilizes summoned units in Battles.
- Fixed several issues which allowed the AI to use abilities when it shouldn’t, including after the conclusion of a Battle.
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-controlled units will no longer try to push through frontline units just to attack a back line unit.
Spells
- Direct damage spells now deal magical (non-physical) damage, meaning that Physical Resistance will no longer serve as a layer of defence as it did previously.
Exploit Fixes
- Mana reserve effects (such as those provided by the Jade Amulet) are now correctly applied, preventing an issue which could result in infinite magic reserves.
FACTIONS & BALANCE
General Updates
- We’ve increased the power of the Legendary Lords’ innate character traits based on feedback from the community.
We’ve also made changes to the traits granted upon defeating a Legendary Lord:
- Upon defeating The Daemon Prince: The Attrition effect now applies to all forms of attrition
- Upon defeating Katarin: Enables Frostbite attacks for the victorious Lord
- Upon defeating Kostaltyn: Enables Flaming attacks for the victorious Lord
- Upon defeating Ku’gath: Further reduces the ability of a plague to spread from -20% to -80%; Increases Growth from +10 to +30
- Upon defeating Skarbrand: Charge and Weapon Strength trait bonuses now also apply to the Lord’s whole army
- Upon defeating Greasus Goldtooth: Increases the Income from all buildings to +20%
- Upon defeating Skrag the Slaughterer: Replaces the “Winds of Magic increases when changing” trait with “Winds of Magic power reserve capacity: +8”
- Upon defeating N’kari: Added: “Speed: +6% for Lord’s army”
- Upon defeating Kairos: Added: “Winds of Magic power reserve capacity: +5”; Removed the “When fighting Tzeentchian factions” context from spell
Skills
- Plague Troopers: Replaced the charge bonus effect with: “Up to Melee defence: +6 for Nurglings, Plaguebearers of Nurgle, Exalted Plaguebearers of Nurgle, and Forsaken of Nurgle units”
DEV NOTE:
In Update 1.3, we wanted to provide a solution for Cathay when it comes to their ability to hold the line in infantry combat. As a ranged-focused faction, this is a critical element of their gameplay, which is why we’re making Harmony more potent for melee units by adding melee attack stats to Yang, and adding a less impactful benefit of speed to Yin—as we’re generally content with the current performance of ranged units. Other than this, we are partially rolling back the projectile penetration strength of Crane Gunners, as we went somewhat overboard in Update 1.2. We are also aware of Cathay’s struggles in the competitive battle space, so we’re introducing cost changes to further stabilize Cathay’s position.
Units
- Crane Gunner: Reduced bullet penetration from 2 to 1 (originally 0 before Update 1.2)
- Crane Gunner: Multiplayer cost reduced from 1200 to 1000 gold
- Fire Rain Rocket: Increased range increased from 360 to 400
- Fire Rain Rocket: Multiplayer cost reduced from 1200 to 1100 gold
- Sky Lantern: Increased hit points from 5048 to 6048
- Sky Lantern: Multiplayer cost reduced from 900 to 800 gold
- Zhao Ming: Multiplayer cost reduced from 2000 to 1800 gold
Abilities
- Fixed an issue which prevented Miao Ying from using her Eye of the Storm ability in combat.
- Formation Attack: Soldiers who have activated the ability will now more actively seek out combat, making it far more effective in frontal engagements.
- Yang Harmony: Now provides Melee Attack (+4 to +8)
- Yin Harmony: Now provides Speed (+6% to +12%)
The following changes have been made to the Lord Magistrate’s abilities:
- Inspired Defence, Inspired Marksmanship, and Inspired Assault are no longer mutually exclusive; all three abilities can now be selected at the same time.
Added two new mutually exclusive abilities to the Lord Magistrate’s arsenal:
- Excellent Administrator: Control: +2 (local province), Income from all buildings: +15% (local region)
- Astute General: Unit experience gain per turn: +100 (Lord’s army), Recruit rank: +1 (Lord’s army)
Skills
- Blades of the Bastion: Replaced the charge bonus effect with: “Melee defence: +5 for Peasant Long Spearmen, Celestial Dragon Guard, Jade Warriors, and Jade Warriors (Halberds) units (Rank 7 and above)”
- Blades of the Bastion: Added: “Spell resistance: 10% for Peasant Long Spearmen, Celestial Dragon Guard, Jade Warriors, and Jade Warriors (Halberds) units (Rank 7 and above)”
- Caravan Master: Fixed the ordering of skills in the first line that resulted in the Immortality skill being hidden.
- Fast Hands: Added: “Missile strength: +6% for Peasant Archers, Celestial Dragon Crossbowmen, Jade Warrior Crossbowmen, Iron Hail Gunners, Crane Gunners, Grand Cannon, and Fire Rain Rocket units (Rank 7 and above)”
- Looming Lanterns: Added: “Range: +15% for Sky Lantern and Sky-junk units (Rank 7 and above)”
- Unified Charge: Added: “Melee attack: +5 for Peasant Horsemen, Jade Lancers, Great Longma Riders, Terracotta Sentinel, and Wu Xing War Compass units (Rank 7 and above)”
The following changes have been made to Miao Ying’s skills:
- Harmonius: Increased the diplomatic relations with Cathay from +20 to +40
- Persistent Fire: No longer applies its effects twice.
The following changes have been made to Zhao Ming’s skills:
- Desert Armour: Now applies +10 armour to melee units in Zhao Ming’s army in addition to Zhao Ming himself
- Lord of Shang-Yang: Added: “Diplomatic relations with Cathay: +20”
Technology
- The Cathayan technologies Dragon Fleet Aegis and Sea Dragon’s Edict now apply to the faction’s capital rather than Hanyu Port, specifically.
- Harmonic Balance – Yang: Reduced the income effect from 40% to 15%
Items
- Shield of the Nan-Gau: No longer requires the “grounded” state.
- Alchemist’s Elixir of Puissance: Increased the number of uses from 1 to 2
- Alchemist’s Elixir of Iron Skin: Increased the number of uses from 1 to 2
DEV NOTE:
We are overall happy with Khorne’s battle balance at the moment. The only exception are Cultists, who (across the board) will now need to be in melee to recharge the initial cooldown of their summon abilities. We’re making an adjustment to avoid scenarios where a large number of Cultists can be used to trivialize battles.
Units
- Bloodreaper: Multiplayer cost reduced from 800 to 700 gold
- Flesh Hounds of Khorne: Multiplayer cost increased from 700 to 750 gold
Abilities
- Gate of Khorne: Now starts with a 60 second cooldown that will only count down when in melee combat.
- Greater Gate of Khorne: Now starts with a 120 second cooldown that will only count down when in melee combat.
Skills
- Khorne’s Chosen: Replaced the leadership effect with: “Melee attack: +5 for Bloodletters of Khorne, Exalted Bloodletters of Khorne, and Chaos Warriors of Khorne units (Rank 7 and above)”
DEV NOTE:
We are making a handful of delicate tweaks to Kislev as we focus on their mid-tier and high-tier units’ performance. Of particular note are the Elemental Bears and Ice Guard; we want to ensure that both are presented in a slightly more character-rich way. The Elemental Bear already has the visual effects of a cold aura, so we’re giving them the Chilling Aura passive ability, which will slow down nearby enemies and stack with Frostbite attacks and Kislev’s spells. As for the Ice Guard, we’re emphasizing their magic armour by granting them a natural spell resistance.
General Updates
- Fixed an issue which prevented Ataman bonuses from applying the turn they came into effect.
Units
- Boris Ursus: Now deals Frostbite attacks.
- Armoured Kossars (Great Weapons): Increased their charge bonus from 16 to 20
- Armoured Kossars (Great Weapons): Increased their melee defence from 30 to 32
- Dazh’s Hearth-Blades (Tzar Guards Great Weapons): Increased fire resistance from 20% to 40%
- Elemental Bear: Are now granted the Chilling Aura passive ability
- Elemental Bear: Multiplayer cost reduced from 2000 to 1900 gold
- Ice Guard (both variants): Are now granted 15% spell resistance
- Ice Guard (both variants): Increased armour from 40 to 50
- Ice Guard (Glaives): Multiplayer cost reduced from 1200 to 1150 gold
- Winged Lancers: Increased the charge bonus from 60 to 70
Skills
- Skills in the first group now only offer one effect at level 1, thus matching the format of skills provided to other races. Higher skill levels still provide multiple effects, as before.
- Skirmisher Traditions: The missile resistance effect now properly affects Rank 7 units and above.
Technology
- Breechloaders: No longer applies its benefits to the basic and spear versions of Kossars, only Armored Kossars and Streltsi.
Items
- Dazh’s Brazier: Multiplayer cost increased from 100 to 150 gold
DEV NOTE:
Nurgle has been performing much better in battles since Update 1.2; aside from the Cultist summon tweaks, we’re only making slight multiplayer cost adjustments this time around.
Units
- Festering Stooges (Exalted Plaguebearers of Nurgle): Multiplayer cost increased from 1450 to 1550 gold
- Plague Drones of Nurgle: Multiplayer cost decreased from 1200 to 1100 gold
Abilities
- Gate of Nurgle: Now starts with a 30 second cooldown that will only count down when below 75% hit points.
- Greater Gate of Nurgle: Now starts with a 60 second cooldown that will only count down when below 50% hit points.
Skills
- Airborne Agues: Added: “Melee attack: +5 for Chaos Furies, Rot Flies, and Plague Drones of Nurgle units (Rank 7 and above)”
- Armour of Malady: Fixed an issue which would prevent the melee defence benefit from being applied to Plaguebearers of Nurgle.
- Cankerous Spread: Added: “Melee defence: +5 for Pox Riders of Nurgle, Plague Toads of Nurgle, and Spawn of Nurgle units (Rank 7 and above)”
- Putrid Resistance: Added: “Missile resistance: 15% for Beast of Nurgle, Soul Grinder, and Great Unclean One units (Rank 7 and above)”
- Virulent Contagion: Added: “Speed: +10% for Nurglings, Plaguebearers of Nurgle, Exalted Plaguebearers of Nurgle, and Forsaken of Nurgle units (Rank 7 and above)”
Technology
- Locus of Virulence: Now also grants +100% ammo to Soul Grinders of Nurgle
DEV NOTE:
We are currently content with the state of the Ogre Kingdoms in battles, but will continue to keep an eye on them moving forward.
Campaign
We’re increasing the rewards granted by Ogre Kingdoms contracts:
- All three missions now offer a bonus reward: meat, growth from camps, or a rare magic item.
- Roughly doubled the amount of gold granted by treasury rewards.
- Increased the minimum reward from 500 to 1500 gold. The exact amount is determined by the issuing faction’s treasury.
Battles
- Modified the splash attacks of Ironguts and Maneaters to hit smaller entities more consistently.
Units
- Stonehorn: Reduced their missile resistance from 35% to 20%
Skills
- The combat skills for Greasus Goldtooth and Tyrants now only have two levels as opposed to three, as is the case with other Lords. The first level is equivalent to the second level of other characters.
- Skills in the first group now only offer one effect at level 1, thus matching the format of skills provided to other races. Higher skill levels still provide multiple effects, as before.
- Continuous Volley: Added: “Speed: +10% for Gnoblar Trappers, Leadbelchers, Gnoblar Scraplauncher, and Ironblasters units (Rank 7 and above)”
- Richly Rewarded: Added: “Weapon strength: +12% for Ironguts, Gnoblars. and Ogre Bulls units (Rank 7 and above)”
- Trained Beasts: Added: “Leadership: +5 for Mournfang Cavalry, Crushers, Stonehorn, and Sabretusk Pack units (Rank 7 and above)”
- Ravenous Fighters: Added: “Missile resistance: +15% for Maneaters, Gorgers, and Giant units (Rank 7 and above)”
DEV NOTE:
For Slaanesh, we’re boosting the stats of Daemonettes, the Exalted Daemonettes, as well as the Soulscent passive. This should ensure that infantry-heavy play styles are significantly more relevant going forward! Cultists of Slaanesh will also be seeing changes to their summoning abilities which force them to commit to combat.
General Updates
- Fixed an issue which prevented Slaanesh’s Wanton Destruction ability from properly increasing the income generated by razing settlements.
- Fixed an issue which prevented Slaaneshi factions from forming pacts with Beastmen factions via diplomacy.
Units
- Daemonettes of Slaanesh: Increased the hit points per model from 65 to 68
- Daemonettes of Slaanesh: Increased the base damage from 8 to 12
- Daemonettes of Slaanesh: Increased the charge bonus from 20 to 30
- Exalted Daemonettes of Slaanesh: Increased the charge bonus from 28 to 35
- Exalted Daemonettes of Slaanesh: Increased the base damage from 10 to 15
- Exalted Daemonettes of Slaanesh: Increased armour piercing damage from 28 to 35
Abilities
- Soulscent: Increased the bonus armour-piercing damage cap from +25% to +50%
- Gate of Slaanesh: Now starts with a 15 second cooldown that will only count down when winning in melee.
- Greater Gate of Slaanesh: Now starts with a 30 second cooldown that will only count down when winning in melee.
Skills
- All Lords now have a campaign skill that increases the replenishment rates of their troops.
DEV NOTE:
In Update 1.2, we mentioned that we were considering bringing the Blue Horrors in-line with other inexpensive infantry units by reducing their available ammunition. This is a massive change to their efficacy, so to maintain their relevance in the campaign, we’re tweaking the Accursed Horrors skill effect to ensure they get a notable boost to their missile strength. This won’t quite make up for losing the ammunition, but we are already working on a new mechanic to aid in the ammunition carrying capacity of the Tzeentch roster that we’ll reveal in Update 2.0… Stay tuned for more about this soon!
Units
- Blue Horrors: Reduced their ammunition from 5 to 4
Abilities
- Gate of Tzeentch: Now starts with a 60 second cooldown that will only count down when the Winds of Magic reserve exceeds 15.
- Greater Gate of Tzeentch: Now starts with a 120 second cooldown that will only count down when the Winds of Magic reserve exceeds 15.
Skills
- All Lords now have a campaign skill that increases the replenishment rates of their troops.
- Accursed Horrors: Increased the missile strength benefit from 4/6/8% to 8/12/16% for each skill level.
Technology
- Exalted Locus of Conjuration: Now grants +25% weapon strength for Horrors rather than +6 armour-piercing damage.
Items
- Wand of Whimsy: Multiplayer cost increased from 100 to 150 gold
CAMPAIGN
Below are Campaign changes made to the overworld campaign and world mechanics.
General Updates
- Fixed an issue where non-Chaos factions would not start new campaigns at war (by default) with nearby Daemon factions—such a when playing as Miao Ying or Sarthorael’s Watchers.
The Realm of Chaos
- Fixed an issue where AI factions would continue to interact with a subset of rifts after a faction had already won the game.
Changes have been made to counteract the need to proactively camp the Forge of Souls once an AI has collected four souls and teleports to the Forge of Souls:
- When an AI teleports to the Forge of Souls, players will now be prompted to teleport and confront them. Note that this dilemma will only appear if the player’s faction leader is in a state where they can teleport.
Several changes have been made to prevent Kurgan Warband armies from continuously spawning at the Great Bastion:
- Reduced the rate at which the threat meter fills.
- When the threat meter is not full, Kurgan Warband armies will only spawn at each bastion gate when it is razed.
- The threat meter now reduces when ANY faction attacks and defeats a Kurgan Warband army, rather than just the Cathayan player.
- Improved visibility into when and why the threat meter is increasing or decreasing at any given time.
Several issues have been fixed in Tzeentch’s realm:
- Sigils are now revealed upon entering and exiting a teleport locus.
- Action points are no longer removed when the player interacts with a point of interest in the realm.
- AI factions must now teleport eight times before they can access the final area.
Finally, several adjustments have been made to the final encounter with Be’lakor to make it less time-consuming and punishing:
- Reduced the rate at which units enter from the base of the map.
- During the final wave, killing Be’lakor will now cause the remaining daemons to crumble and conclude the battle.
- Reduced the number of Soul Grinders that accompany Be’lakor in the final wave. Killing them is no longer required to complete the wave.
- Fixed several issues which prevented Be’lakor from utilizing all of his spells and abilities during the encounter.
Quest Battle
- Frozen Falls: Fixed several issues which would result in the battle being lost despite slaying all the mages.
BATTLES
Below are Battle-specific changes made throughout the game.
General Updates
- Damage dealt to buildings now properly considers damage modifiers to both base damage and armour-penetrating damage in its calculations.
- Fixed a bug which prevented army abilities from using the current Winds of Magic and magic reserve levels. This also addresses an issue with Arcane Surge.
- Fixed an issue which prevented towers from being built at the end of the construction timer.
- Fixed a terrain bug which prevented certain towers from firing.
- Improved articulated vehicle movements (i.e. chariots and artillery pieces) to avoid sudden deaths or areas which would float units when moving through terrain with a range of elevations.
Ambush Battles
- AI armies will no longer disregard enemy units in melee when retreating from an Ambush Battle.
Domination Battles
DEV NOTE:
We’ve heard your feedback on the Domination mode’s “comeback” mechanic. Before removing the mechanic completely, we wanted to experiment with a few iterations of the economy in the live setting to help us better understand how the game plays and evolves with different economic setups. Ultimately, we concluded (and agree) that rewarding the losing side based on victory tickets isn’t the right way to go about offsetting snowball effects.
For now, we will monitor what happens with the game mode in its most natural form. Please keep the feedback coming; as we said before, getting this mode right will be an iterative process.
Additionally, we’ve added further reinforcement points in the Battle for Itza map, which will give the defending player some options to regain their starting area in the event that they’re rushed down the middle.
- Removed the comeback mechanic from the Domination game mode.
- Battle of Itza: Added 2 additional normal reinforcement points.
Major Settlement Battles
- Updated the reinforcement lines in the Black Fortress – Greenskins settlement map to prevent attackers from spawning within the settlement.
MULTIPLAYER
General
- Fixed a bug that could prevent the multiplayer game list from refreshing.
LOOKING FORWARD
While there’s a ton of exciting stuff dropping into the game with today’s build, we wanted to highlight a few oft-requested projects which are still in the works for the future. While we don’t have an exact date when these’ll land in the game, you can watch for us to confirm their development (and release) schedule to WARHAMMER III.
HUD Colour Options
As mentioned in a recent Rally Point Interview with Rich Aldridge, the team is working to implement a variety of colour options for you to customize your in-game HUD. The aim is to release this alongside Update 2.0, at which point you’ll be able to pick whatever colour suits your fancy when conquering the world!
Settlement Battle Fatigue
One point of feedback we’re looking to address is the overwhelming number of Settlement Battles encountered throughout the campaign. While we hope the Gameplay and Battle fixes (above) improve the current playability of Settlement Battles, we will continue to work on the long-term adjustments that will result in a more varied and enjoyable experience.
Cathan Formation Attack
Originally announced in the 1.3 Preview, an important change that we’d intended to make in 1.3 involved granting units +9 melee defence upon activating the ability. Unfortunately, this particular tweak didn’t make it into this release, so we will be ensuring it is added in Update 2.0.
? NEED HELP?
If you experience any issues after downloading the update, please take a moment to visit our support site for additional troubleshooting steps and assistance.