Omens of Destruction Review! Sotek's Thoughts on New TWW DLC

[@loremasterofsotek]

For transparency, please be aware that Creative Assembly provided me with a copy of Omens of Destruction though that does not impact my opinions presented here. OMENS OF DESTRUCTION LINKS ARE HERE! Please use the following links to support the channel while saving yourself some money! Full DLC: www.fanatical.com/en/dlc/total-war-warhammer-iii-omens-of-destruction?ref=lsotek Gorbad only: www.fanatical.com/en/dlc/total-war-warhammer-iii-gorbad-omens-of-destruction?ref=lsotek Golgfag only: www.fanatical.com/en/dlc/total-war-warhammer-iii-golgfag-omens-of-destruction?ref=lsotek ....for some reason they don't have Skulltaker yet!

[@robbefertein2918]

So are you going to do a video about Gorbad's blog and gameplay video, because you did the other 2 and my ocd drives me nuts about only having 2 out of 3. Also you did that with both of the previous DLC. You skipped Mother Ostankya with Shadows of Change and Malakai Makaisson with Thrones of Decay.

[@fallenswan1670]

Damn Fanatical! If they do not add the DLCs to their pages soon...I could send Finnish food to them - but aren't they British? If they are, they would not understand that such of gift is crime against humanity (since British food is as horrible too), and considering horrible economic situation in British isles, they could even see it as a food aid! :^/ And unfortunately I do not have anything else threatening to send them, than Finnish food... Damn Brits! Why Nurgle loves them so much???!?

[@AlifZabidi]

I'll be picking up all three Lords from Omens on your fanatical link as soon as they're available. Hopefully it'll be soon! I'm dying to play Golgfag and the refreshed Ogres.

[@blazindragon1833]

is the link broken? Nvm I figured it out and purchased with your link :) I hope it helps :D

[@darkness_visible7227]

As a Lorebunny, I've always favoured running thematic armies over doomstacks. Having a campaign mechanic that actively rewards me for doing that is *chefs kiss*

[@JeffCaplan313]

I concur. 👍 Creating a thematic and immersive campaign with a "good" feeling power curve should be the goal of every DLC lord added to this game.

[@noradrenalin8062]

"Lorebunny" is the best word I've ever heard for someone deep into the story of a fantasy franchise :D

[@Arbaaltheundefeated]

Homestly it works so well that I'd say I have an issue with it now... That it's a mechanic that every faction in the game should have. Because it would work for all of them, and improve the playing experience for all of them. Same as I've felt since the introduction of the 'scrap upgrades' mechanic when it was improving individual units, that every faction really would benefit from some variant of that mechanic.

[@LinkLegend0]

You're a bunny?

[@Druyn]

does lorebunny mean something specific or is it just a fun play on lorebeard? i love it

[@Stilltyping-st4rx]

I beat skulltakers campaign in like 2 hours. He’s sooo easy. Every battle I just basically turned my brain off made my entire army a control group and told them to attack while I made myself some tea

[@jacobtrost5048]

I ONLY ever run thematic armies, so I'm very excited for Gorbad

[@Legion12Centurion]

He is very fun to play in the DLC.

[@Shimatzu95]

I realy hope the eventual mangler squig nerf is centered on their explosion and they keep their other stats mostly intact.

[@joshuagardner3789]

This is so great to wake up to first thing in the morning can’t wait to finally play this for myself later today!

[@SpiceCh]

I almost can't wait, but I'll postpone my purchase until Sotek's link goes live.

[@sassyviking6003]

It is funny to me that in 3 of 3 monogod DLCs, the most impactful anf for ke most exciting unit is just the marked gor. In all 3 instances it has been a unit that is super good for beastmen and really shores up one of their weaknesses while also providing a new niche to the monogod roster that meaningfully impacts their playstyle as just a good mid tier unit which does something the roster could not do prior.

[@fadedjem]

I guess that comes down to the monogod mortals and demons being so hyperbolic - Khorne isn't just a strong melee focused faction, his roster must exemplify melee. Likewise for Nurgle with tankiness and renewal, or Tzeentch with magic. Slaanesh gets to be a little more flexible and varied, though his DLC will come with its own design challenges which will mostly revolve around taste and tone. Designing units for a roster like Khorne is a brutal ask from a game dev perspective - there's just not all that much you can do that's new. Sometimes great ideas like the Bloodspeaker come through that combine thematic flavour with a genuinely useful and fresh functionality, but most of what you add for Khorne is either going to be inferior to the options he already has, or be notable superior (and accused of powercreep). Without substantially more complicated melee combat mechanics than the current TW engine uses that's hard to get away from with any one-note faction. Beastmen get away from this because expectations are lower. Beastmen are not favoured by the chaos gods, which gives more flexibility for marked gors to do things a little differently to the warriors and demons of their god, and to be intentionally mid-tier, budget options.

[@dan7564]

I still wish that at least the Khorne gor was a bestigor. Makes sense they'd be top of the pack when it came to fighting.

[@SpiceCh]

I'm gonna buy it for two reasons: because I think the campaign content looks great (can't wait to play with the new savage orc shaman and the refreshed Ogres), and because I want CA to keep developing for this franchise for as long as possible. I love the concept and the vast majority of the execution of the game, and I think it still has a lot of exciting potential for the future.

[@PhillipPenningon]

I really hope we can get another couple of years of support for this game I want to see many more dlc’s coming out I want it to be as fleshed out as possible

[@SpiceCh]

@PhillipPenningon from what has supposedly been leaked last summer, they've drafted blueprints for dlc content for the next 3 ish years - so far.

[@PhillipPenningon]

@@SpiceCh I fucking hope so that would be awesome 🤩

[@DamenJoost]

I'm mostly hyped for Arbaal and Gorfang. Not the most busted lords but still strong. Skulltaker startposition and mechanics interest me slightly less. Nice thing about this DLC is that Valkia and Skarbrand, Skragg and Greasus, even Grimgor, become worth another try. Not just the new factions.

[@draugr121]

Y i am most interested in Skrag for this reason, i always tried to play him but Ogres were kinda terrible and his starting position is whatever, now that the faction is stronger i am truly excited to play him first!

[@thepiousskull]

Arbaal's campaign is absolutely busted as hell if you've watched enough gameplay and, much to my dismay, I think the same is largely true of the other Khorne LLs now with the changes they made to the tech tree, skills, and resource buildings

[@mindfulinventor3595]

Arbaal campaign is fun as hell although legendary very hard max ai cheats is very needed since he is absurdly strong.

[@Reyvinn92]

I was torn between Golgfag and Gorbad, thanks for helping me decide ❤

[@CiceroSolo]

Fag is probably the more exciting one

[@xHarra81x]

Thanks for your input.

[@zodrickzheioh7318]

the new arachnorok looks like it's a little bio-luminescent, which is kinda cool, it definitely feels a bit alien, which I think is a good thing

[@StevenWhite-j9m]

Looks good for the Greenskins. I still want to see a plain Orc Boss one day...Great weapon or Dual weapon hero could be very nice indeed!

[@calimerohnir3311]

Now we wait for the bretonnia update

[@igorwisniewski9412]

Apparently there is something weird with splash damage, so probably hot fix incoming soon. I got this DLC day 1, but decided to play Kislev RoC campaign first so CA have time to squash bugs and fix any potential problems with new content.

[@newyakkocity8267]

I own every total war and every dlc, thousands of hours in game. This is first time I didn’t buy first day. The fact that narrative campaign was cut so basically less production cost, but the purchase cost was the same, ehh it’s made me hold off for the first time ever till sale. That said, green skins are the main one that appeals to me out of this pack, but still, for the first time since tww launch, I’m waiting on this one. Still love the guys at CA and the game, but yeah this one missed it for me somewhere.

[@klocks2543]

I was excited for ogres but now I’m hyped. Ive enjoyed playing orcs ever since the waaagh mechanic, but now I’m tempted to get that part of the dlc sooner.. thrilled about the quality of this dlc when it could have been phoned in with the proposed factions.

[@tunencio7288]

I totally agree...all of them are super-duper FUN...100% recomended DLC

[@Vikingskog]

Could you do a video on what DLC's you think we will get and what you would hope we would get? If they are spending 8 months for each DLC now, it seems unlikely we'll get more than 3 or 4 more dlc's.

[@JeffCaplan313]

Much depends on if/when the other studios start releasing good AAA games, again. But I expect *at least* 3 more good DLCs (nkaari + elves, monkey king + ind/kureesh, dogs of war + nagaash) 🤞

[@JeffCaplan313]

Ah, and then on top of those 3, there should be one final end game/chaos invasion major update, but that may come with nagaash...

[@Vikingskog]

@@JeffCaplan313 doubt we'll be getting monkey king AND a race pack in one dlc. My personal pessimistic guess is that we get 3 more dlcs and that the two next dlc's is a race pack for Dogs of war(or Ind) and a lord-pack with slaanesh, monkey king + norsca or vampire counts. And then a end times DLC as a huge last dlc which will include Thanquol and Nagash, a bunch of legendary heroes (Valten, Canto, Luthor Huss, Gregor Martak ++), they could also sneak in Boris Todbringer in this one and units and updates for several of the main end times factions. A Empire religion/knight-focused update would be great. My optimistic guess, which i think is less likely unless they manage to reduce their production time with 3-4 months or plan on supporting the game way longer than they usually do, is the same as above but with both Dogs of War and Ind as race packs, and one additional lord-pack to cover the older factions that most need it. My ideal unrealistic wish would be that they could also add Araby, Nippon and Hobgoblin khanate. The time is the main issue, once their next big game is done, especially if its WH40K, probably all or most of the current people working on WH3 will be moved to making content for the new game instead. Though it might be that they plan on having CA Sofia to focus on WH3 a bit longer, and move the rest of the manpower.

[@SpiceCh]

That's doomer talk. If the leaks from this summer are to be believed (not the Cathay conspiracy), then they have drafted plans for at least the next 7 DLC already and nobody is saying they couldn't make more. For all we know, the game could be receiving updates into 2030 and beyond if it's still popular and CA haven't already exhausted every single roster and fully filled the map by then. I don't know who told you we were only getting 3-4 more dlc's, but whoever did it sounds like they have an agenda against the game, or has their information from someone who does.

[@Vikingskog]

@@SpiceCh i dont think so, look at all their other games and how long they supported those and its almost guaranteed that a Total war 40K and/or a big historical title is coming within 2 years, meaning they'll need to move a lot of manpower to those, and those games will steal from WH3's playerbase and thus dlc-customers. The company has had to fire a lot of people several times now, so their manpower has been decreasing a lot. 7 more dlc's at this speed would mean they will support the game for 5 more years, assuming they keep up the 8 month dlc-production time. Unless the dlc's are much smaller than what we recently have had, i doubt that. Its more likely that the dev-team for WH3 will shrink and they'll have to scope things down. A drafted plan for 7 DLC's might be true but its not very reliable since these things change so rapidly and is dependent on so many factors. I hope im wrong of course, 7 dlc's would be great, although hopefully at a quicker release schedule.

[@forloveofthepage2361]

11:51 Doesn't Skardad get to lvl 50 by turn 10?

[@nathanspreitzer6738]

Could also just play Malus as well lol

[@PhillipPenningon]

Gorbad for me is the best campaign of this dlc not really a greenskin fan but I’ve had a blast doing his campaign ❤

[@redactedlemons6817]

Are the missing chariot mounts in campaign now? They were mentioned in the patch notes.

[@CT.Bartebly]

After the small map expansion, do you still have hope of proper map expansions for "Korea" and the Eastern Steppes?

[@mccwick]

Hey sotek as someone who currently cant afford the DLC which of the campaign would you say has changed the most from this update?

[@BFTBGSFTST]

Fanatical still doesn't have the link up. I don't mind waiting since today is my bday and I'm busy. Are you sure they're actually releasing this DLC there?

[@brandor763]

Sotek, why did CA not give the Beastmen the Khornataurs??

[@hood4200]

the interface and UI for the beastman for them to add the khornators would be too much involved. They will do it eventutally it's more or a UI and other adjustments which CA said take time. Though they will do it eventually

[@brandor763]

@@hood4200 I hope so

[@ryanjones6384]

I can't help but be disappointed that Greenskins didn't get touched up the way the Empire did. If Empire never gets touched again, even being a favorite, I'd still feel good about it. But if Greenskins are done? Azhag, Grimgor, and some of the heroes need a pass.

[@SpiceCh]

It's more than possible they'll get a touch up in a future free update. Faction reworks are always FLC.

[@LinkLegend0]

They have a separate team to only focus on old content now. Different company structure than the empire rework era.

[@SoulessTwo]

Ogres are finally fun! I'am overjoyed! 🥰

[@jonathonnorden4859]

Hey sotek! Heard what you said about khorne being done with dlc. Do you think if the end times dlc comes we could see something new for them whether it just new characters or units too? Seems like the end times would just be a huge love letter to chaos.

[@austenmoydell4357]

I'm super glad the Ogre campaign turned out well. That is by far the one I am most interested in.

[@LightninPanda69]

This is one of the few times I feel like I'm only buying the dlc for the units, rather than being genuinely interested in the Legendary Lords

[@nathanspreitzer6738]

Arbaal looks more fun than all 3 of these dlc lords lol

[@austinprevette474]

I want them to release a dlc adding boar or goat riding dwarves and have that as a LL mount option along with twirly wirlys and dwarf spears. Also a LL woodelf with a bow and maybe dual swords on foot and the other mounts

[@danletko]

Just say you want a Total War: Peter Jackson's LOTR 😂

[@austinprevette474]

@danletko that won't happen so this the closest it gets

[@danletko]

@@austinprevette474 We can dream. Honestly I'm surprised that there are no LOTR mods for TW: Warhammer

[@fidelcashflow4940]

I won't lie, as someone who enjoys multiplayer, the Mono-god factions keep feeling like they are getting the short end of the stick when it comes to units that make a big impact on the roster aside from the marked gors (Rot Knights are a lot better now though) but it's unfortunate to see Khorne get mostly redundant units that almost don't even really have a home on the roster

[@SpiceCh]

In fairness, they have a home in campaigns. As for "mono gods" feeling shafted for multi-player, that's inevitable when the warriors and demons of chaos get to pick and choose whatever they want from the roster. The only advantage to playing mono god is the army abilities and a few lord options - the overall roster will always be strictly worse

[@fidelcashflow4940]

@SpiceCh well, I'm speaking purely from a perspective of "the needle didn't move much after their DLC" for their faction, regardless of who else had access to their units

[@SpiceCh]

@@fidelcashflow4940 lore-wise, the needle moved a lot. We got end-times units, and the absolute peak infantry units that the faction has access to at that. At this point, the Khorne roster is pretty much exhausted. I don't think any units they could've added in place of what we got would've "moved the needle" in the way you wanted - they would've had to invent completely new units if that were the case, and I don't think that was the design goal here, nor do I like the idea of them doing things like that before every other option is exhausted.

[@thepiousskull]

Yeah, the new infantry are basically either worse Chosen Dual Weapons or worse Warrior Dual Weapons and the Slaughterbrute is a worse Bloodthirster (which is already pretty bad). The Bloodspeaker is interesting but extremely niche at the least and probably not worth ever bringing.

[@MrEddieLomax]

I play lizardmen - is OoD worth buying? My answer so far I have seen zero content that interests me, I like new enemies but I already have plenty and worse - its exactly the same game. CA could add a vast amount of gameplay by modifying the start positions for hard/legendary, adding a few more basic trooper types and a upgrade system.

[@jerrydelguercio5462]

gorbad looks like his mechanic can be a micromanage headache after u have 3 or more armies. always having to buff or rearrange your armies for the plan. surprised not one user mentioned this except colonel damneders.

[@SpiceCh]

Different people want different things out of the game. Some want the Empire building to be more nitty gritty, which is how the micromanaging of Chaos Dwarf resources became a thing, while others pretty much prefer the settlements to build themselves, which is how we got Nakai. Both groups can never be satisfied at the same time.

[@forloveofthepage2361]

Damn it. I bought and downloaded it while listening to this.

[@gregoryshinn9805]

Thanks for the video

[@g0ogol]

I think the DLC is clear on its own and you should definitely treat yourself to it as a fan. Free updates are also solid, but I was just hoping for more replay value from the Greenskins. The older orcs would have at least deserved a small mechanic that stood on their own. Grimgork specifically for the Black Orcs and maybe a Lordkill mechanic (infinity/better traits?), and there is no Black Orc with a shield in his starting army. Azhag something with the crown and undead units? Skarsnik and Wurzag also with things for their special solutions for wild orcs and goblins. An additional building is rather unsatisfactory... What I find much more annoying is that we still can't build fully thematic armies and only get bits and pieces. The wild orcs are missing a hero, the black orcs are missing a commander. At least from my point of view, they are important units. I hope this comes for free. Greetings

[@burricat9615]

The DLC is not for me but it is an interesting one. I wish they would add something to the Slaaneshi factions and Bretonnians next.

[@SpiceCh]

If they're sticking to the original plan, Slaanesh will feature in the next dlc, and I think it's likely that we'll see High Elves alongside them. Bretonnia has been exclusively FLC so far, so I imagine a bunch of people would be very salty if they had to pay for an update to the roster.

[@CiceroSolo]

Black orcs with shields seem out of place in the roster. I hope they're prohibitively expensive in multilayer

[@lydiardben]

didnt read anything when i clicked the fanatical link and bought a second copy of thrones of decay instead fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-

[@MidnightBlackandVictoria]

CA needs to give Khornate champions (And all other marked champions) there access to their flying mounts in a future patch. They wanted to highlight the god-touched mounts in the beginning (I get that) but they have ALWAYS had these options in the TT and Lore, and its actually immersion breaking to mark a character and have those options disappear when in the lore they risk all for a lifelong bond breaking them in. Gameplay wise, it removes essential flying tools to factions that are already severely limited in ranged and in khornes case wizards....So I hope we can bring this to their attention, seeing as how the assets are already in the game and it would be a simple thing to fix.....Or just add the Chimera at some point (The intermedary of manticores and chaos dragons) for all the marked characters maybe? Other than this, I feel everything important has been added to Khorne.

[@sagittariusa9012]

The flc lord seems to be more interesting than skulltaker.

[@SpiceCh]

For multi-player maybe but they have their own niches for campaign

[@Tinywars]

Poor DLC in my opinion. The ogres are still crap and as for the Greenskins, I don’t believe play them so I have nothing to say there. I hope the next dlc is Vampire themed.

[@Kmobful]

Unsubbed. Overly generous lies to help sell mediocrity.

[@wolloms]

Hey everyone, Soyboy of Sotek here.

[@JPereir4]

2/3 campaigns sound like auto wins with little challenge. Really disappointing.

[@johnolsson2923]

Interesting that you seem to like this system and Costin Gaming hates it because they are lackluster and mostly that they add a lot of campaign micro.. it seems like the duration for the buffs should be reworked out of the gate.. Would make more sense that they could have some sort of requirement and as long as you fulfill that you can keep it..

[@discoshrew7403]

Wow it’s almost as if people have different opinions on things… how weird

[@johnolsson2923]

@discoshrew7403 very weird that I excluded that possibility tbh. Ofc not possible for people to want to share their opinions in a comment to maybe get other viewpoints or spark a debate. How weird indeed.

[@Cyiel568]

No real narative campaign. For me it would be F, F and F. It's bad for players who are not interested by the sandbox aspect. Tamurkhan was already a let down with no final battle but they just want to go that path it's without me. So i won't buy them until they are at a lower price.

[@steviesavagery]

I dont know, nothing is exciting about this one.

[@SpiceCh]

Wholeheartedly disagree, but different strokes for different folks

[@theguardlorenzo5898]

The overall dlc looks dissapointing, the mechanics are very simple and uninteresting, sure, gorbad buffs thematic armies, but to play thematic armies i already have their thematic legendary lords, and skulltaker its just Wulfrik remaster. Golgfag seems to be the most interesting but it is for all the changues that Ogre kingdoms got at the same time. The units are not worth a damn, its all re-skins or variants that we enjoyed for years on the workshop. Months of Dev work barely amounting to modder work its not something that will get my praise. The only unique unit is the eshin ogre and its capped at 1. Its sad because they are some of my favorite factions, i will wait for a big sale to pick them if i even do so.

[@SpiceCh]

"it already exists as a mod" is a bad reason why it shouldn't be in a dlc. At that point you're literally telling CA that they should disable mod support if they want to get paid.

[@philosophyfrog2653]

I was not impressed by this DLC but you're probably right, there's not a whole lot of other directions they could have gone with it. I disagree about the mangler squigs, they look terrible. Instead of bouncing around they just constantly fly around like little toy air-planes, looks super dumb to me and it is too versatile of a unit. You can literally throw them into anything and they will win the engagement from a value perspective. Ogre campaign is completely broken and the only campaign I actually had time playing properly. It feels like the changing, there's no opposition and you have infinite food and gold. The concept is great but the execution is terrible. Khrone simply does not interest me at all but yeah I guess his mechanics are pretty decent, their units are as dull as ever but meh it's khorne so it's to be expected. I'm not sure how I feel about CA giving so many factions the teleportation ability. It's suppose to be a unique mechanic for the wood elves because of the world roots but now there's 18 LL in total with the ability to teleport around the map. The black orc ability's are just dumb. If you bring black orcs with shields you should always have the ability active or there's no reason to bring them and if you bring the great weapons you should never use the ability no matter what they engage because the trade off is terrible. What is the point of a toggle that does not actually have a proper trade-off? I's just redundant fiddling. This is probably the only DLC where I felt like I probably could have just ignored it and not miss out on anything important.