Creative Assembly has been rolling out an onslaught of Total War: Warhammer III news this past couple of weeks. Starting with Grand Cathay’s official reveal, we’ve had everything from lore drops, to Cathay’s campaign mechanics, to details on the long-awaited rework to siege battles. Today, the studio has officially revealed the second Chaos faction – Tzeentch.
We’ve known about these duplicitous demons for a while now, considering they’re the primary enemies in all of Cathay’s trailers so far, but now Creative Assembly is shining the spotlight on the faction specifically. We’ve been given insight into not only how Tzeentch factions work, but also how the different Chaos factions will work together in the campaign more generally.
You may have noticed our use of the plural ‘factions’ – each Chaos god in Warhammer III will launch with a single legendary lord, but the details revealed today concern mechanics that only apply to Tzeentch as a whole. Kairos Fateweaver will be representing the Changer of Ways at launch, and will get a dedicated breakdown at a later date. Creative Assembly plans to release more legendary lords for each god. “Future DLC and FLC that aligns itself to Tzeentch will use some or all these mechanics,” the blog post reads, “as well as that legendary lord’s specifics.”
Before we continue, check out the Tzeentch trailer. There’s a lot of purple:
Tzeentch factions will interact with a new quasi-resource called Grimoires. As a deity concerned with knowledge and how it can be used to manipulate the world, Tzeentch will want you to seek out and hoard this wealth wherever possible. It can be generated by things like buildings and fighting battles – and can then be spent using a lot of literally game-changing actions collectively known as Changing of the Ways.
This modest list contains everything from manipulating the winds of magic, to trading settlements between any two factions (including your own), or even forcing two factions to go to war. Tzeentch armies can even teleport across the map, straight into ambush battles if they want, and there’s a whole host of other unique mechanics besides.
Generally speaking, Chaos corruption has been reworked to include four additional types of corruption, one for each Chaos god. Regions with high corruption will also now spawn ‘cults’, which will let the player take action to subvert the established order. On top of this, there’s going to be a new mechanic called The Great Game.
While the four Chaos gods are technically all on the same side, they’re constantly competing against each other to see who can be on top. This is determined by how much of a god’s corruption has spread across the map, and if they are considered the ‘ascendant’ deity, they can make use of new, free abilities – four in total, with the stronger options unlocking as more corruption spreads throughout the land.
There’s honestly a lot to unpack from today’s announcement, so we highly suggest you read the update for the full overview. Further deep-dives into Kairos Fateweaver, and other general mechanics mentioned today will be coming at a later date.
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Total War: Warhammer III is due out on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store in early 2022, and pre-orders are live.