Total War: Warhammer 3 Realm of Chaos Campaign Review

[@gamingrambles]

Is it a coincidence that Legend hates Markus Wulfhart's Campaign and the Realm of Chaos? NO! Both of these campaigns brutally punish the player for progressing through the game. Great Review

[@Equim991]

some campaigns are not really meant to be expansonist. E.g. Markus Wulfhart - and its worth mentioning that his biggest issue is that even if lizardmen are extinct, the agrometer goes up. But that is only in ME. In vortex, after a certain point, they no longer come. Huntmarshal expedition was one of my favourite campaigns on in Wh2 (again, on vortex)

[@Lones555]

Wulfhart is one of the easier legendary campaigns to beat imo, Lizards can't cope with huntsmen and taking the entire continent is your only victory condition (some other races have ludicrous victory conditions like destroying Eshin which on ME map is not even the same continent). The only hard part is if you try to keep your starting province which is plain awful. I focus on moving all my forces to the bottom left province as it's easy to defend and seems to be where nearly all the random spawn armies appear.

[@PsychRN84]

I hated Markus because he’d say his name so many times during campaign.

[@blackkray1168]

@@PsychRN84 MARKUS Wulfhart

[@naboost9485]

In my Markus campaign, I wiped out the lustrian made it a province of the empire for Karl Franz, then when I finally came back to announce my great succes, Karl declared war on me.

[@elmertsai1312]

0:00 Introduction 2:23 Land battles 3:44 Minor settlements 6:37 Siege battles 12:22 Overall battle summary 13:21 Campaign map - 17:40 Diplomacy - 22:49 Faction specific mechanics - 24:52 Overall campaign experience 26:14 Narrative (Spoiler alert) 46:40 Visual and sound design 47:30 Warhamer 3 Rating and Summary (GRAPH!)

[@elmertsai1312]

Oh... Legend added the timestamps while I was making this..... leaving it here anyway xD

[@MassiveBreaker]

Graf

[@gryphon0468]

@@elmertsai1312 yours is more comprehensive. All good.

[@ThatFeelBr0]

Just a small correction. Legend's description of the outpost and the allied units recruitment is only for the tier 1 outpost building. Tier 2 allows you to recruit from the global recruitment pool of your ally. The tier 2 description says: "Provides allied recruitment of a selection of units from the faction's *global* recruitment" The tier 1 says local recruitment.

[@LegendofTotalWar]

Yes this is correct.

[@1234cm1]

lmfao at RIFT CLOSER "What is my purpose?" "You close rifts." "Oh my god"

[@Bassmanfro]

Thank you Legend, we all appreciate the hundreds of hours of work you put into early access!

[@taladon6420]

True, it was one hell of a ride

[@Afro1234321]

I don’t

[@swolium]

@@Afro1234321 no one asked you

[@michalurbanec5882]

@@Afro1234321 :D :D

[@Criddy420]

@@swolium correction. Bassmanfro said "we all", suggesting everyone. sorry youre wrong bud

[@PPKinguin]

I watched yours and Mandalores review and appreciate the effort you have put into this.

[@Sir_Bucket]

Mandalore is always a mix of great comprehensive adivces and chaotic gremlin shenanighans, especially in the Please Stop Talking podcast I will never forget the time Mandy told us how to get rid of a body, what a good teacher

[@vadenpadgett5202]

I feel like there should be traits for winning the campaign: Like Kairos gets some combat stat boosts and maybe some faction/campaign bonuses bc he can now see the present. Skarbrand gets khorne’s favor and some nice faction effects and more combat steroids. Kugath gets the ability to create a super plague that really messes up the other factions or something and so on… I think that could make finishing the story at least somewhat worthwhile Edit: legend mentioned a pretty similar case so I guess this comment is a little redundant

[@shadowmage661]

Kairos can see the past and future, with the eyes he sees the present, give him a huge buff to melee defense, melee attack, and maybe some resistance as arrows/magic miss him. You already won, now is the time to stomp for the lolz.

[@urieelSEptim]

imagine a flying skarbrand with renewed wings!

[@EnragedTurkey]

Skarbrand getting his wings back would be nuts. Kairos getting turned into a duelist would be amazing. Not sure what N'Kari should get, but Ku'gath should totally get access to a permanent plague type or something.

[@Xarx42]

That was already my problem with Total War Warhammer 2. You win the campaign, apparently you manipulated the vortex in your way and have access to the tremendous power... but nothing happens except of a little video.

[@argeltal9090]

Not really a problem for me since i stop playing the campaign once i finish it anyway.

[@fabiz8602]

What annoys me about city defenses in the wh series is that they don't feel like the're designed to give me an significant advantage over the attacker. They seem to be designed to make the battle fair, which is the opposite of what castles should be for.

[@MarktheRude]

It's been a problem ever since they switched to warscape engine. AI can't handle walls at all, and because of it every warscape total war game has assladders allowing the AI to act like there are no walls at all.

[@xplodrox]

they are just lazy as fuck.

[@OriginalRAB]

Pierces better seiges mod was, for me, a considerable improvement over the vanilla experience by significantly increasing the danger outside the walls for attackers and the resistance of gates but also drastically improving the speed at which seige equipment was created for balance.

[@XMysticHerox]

@@MarktheRude "It's been a problem ever since they switched to warscape engine." Nope. Not remotely to the degree of wh. Sieges definitely became less slanted but not to the extreme degree that happened with the wh series.

[@XMysticHerox]

@@xplodrox CA is definitely forcing the devs to do just what is necessary to make something that can be called a game. Sadly common in recent AAA games.

[@musclegeek1991]

I know you were worried your review was “Ranty”, but honestly you did a great job. It’s clear that you love the game because you started by focusing on what you like. And your explanation of why you dislike the campaign mechanic is very well reasoned. Especially considering that you don’t consider yourself a review channel and you didn’t really want to do this, it’s very well done. Much better than you gave yourself credit for. Good job!

[@lowkey_Ioki]

Seeing those 700+ hours on steam really made me appreciate all the work you've done to give us an honest and informed review of this game.

[@Alepizzaa]

Gonna be honest with you, I consider this a very good review. It was not a rant at all, and to be honest you don't have to have a very flashy super edited video for a review of the game. Hell, Totalbiscuit (may he rest in peace) had one of the best reviews at the time and none of his reviews were edited. Appreciate your feedback on the game and can't wait to get my hands on it and gather my own opinions on the game.

[@johnvictor7568]

hes dead?

[@Alepizzaa]

@@johnvictor7568 Yup, around 5 years ago now, in 2018

[@weaponizedlizardmen360]

@@johnvictor7568 where have you been?

[@mandu6665]

It's fucking WILD that Cathay and Kislev would be all, "Y'know what. I would like to control a daemon." Like the other Order factions would be fine with that and the Lizardmen wouldn't be coming over to get in that ass. Especially Kislev since he bearnapped one of their patron gods! They should have had it where Cathay and Kislev destroy Be'lakor forever, the Ogres feed him to the Great Maw, etc. CA always makes some of the weirdest, boneheaded decisions.

[@TheLagiacrus1]

Kislev and Cathay: "Let's use the power of Belakor for our own gain!" Lord Kroak: *"I'm sorry, your free trial of existence has expired."*

[@Naeron66]

In which case players from those factions who don't really care that much about the lore would complain that they were missing out on the reward for winning. Not everyone cares that much about adhering to the lore but likes the setting. Lets face facts, early games allowed alliances and confederations that would never truly fit with the lore.

[@lenkagamine4145]

@@Naeron66 They could've easily just made an alternative reward for them. Something just as powerful.

[@dzemroz]

They do because thousands of mindless consumers are going to give them money for it anyway. So why put in effort?

[@alittledeath2817]

@@dzemroz lol, as if anyone plays total war for plot

[@Justsomeguy445]

Love the review, thanks Legend!! One thing that Mandalore said in his review is talking about the UI color changes... the moment I saw that every single faction is red, and that the yellow/red/blue lines in the character level screen are all red, I had to agree. I've been watching your streams but I have to say, the constant red UI actually tires out my eyes. I much MUCH prefer TW WH2's aesthetic. Hopefully some modders will go through and do a recolor mod. I have about 2300 hours in TWWH2 myself (nothing like your 13K hours... lol), so I'm still preordering this, still super stoked for it, but I would also agree with you on the campaign mechanic... it seems super annoying, especially having to keep closing rifts even after you finish the story.

[@andrewschaus4981]

I have no proof besides a hunch on observations but CA received a lot of grief on color blind issues in Warhammer 2. Every time they fixed an issue in 2, a new complaint popped up. Red-Green is the most common followed by Blue-Yellow. To prove this, I'd have to see if the rest of the color were removed too (buffs and debuffs etc).

[@joealtona2532]

Another color change is that green line around selected objects. Looks really disgusting. 🤢

[@tjbonzai87]

You can take out the green outline in options

[@andrewschaus4981]

@@tjbonzai87 I said UI

[@ValasHune]

@@andrewschaus4981 If this was the case I wonder why they would not just put in a CB mode instead of making the changes for everyone.

[@jerondiovis6128]

In some regards, I can understand what they did in Realms of Chaos - it's just not intended to build and develop an empire there. You have the goal - you rush for it, it's not a place to stay and play around. I don't think it's bad on it's own. But also, I believe there is some high-up and very angry person in CA, who is responsible specifically for not giving player rewards. They did it in Vortex - every ritual only makes your diplomacy worse and worse, and they did it again here - only punishment for whatever progression you do. If they won't fix it with patches or at least DLC's - well... I'll be just playing mortal empires, until people like Venris and other great modders will do it right.

[@MinscS2]

"Players didn't like to do it in TW2, let's force them to do it TW3!"

[@firebird4491]

Once the immortal empires campaign is released everyone is just gonna play that. Same thing that happened with the vortex campaign.

[@EnragedTurkey]

I feel like a reward for winning would really help. Give Skarbrand his wings back. Give Kairos melee skills. Make it feel worth and thematic. Bonuses for each of the souls would probably make them more tempting to grab too.

[@Dhakhar]

I recently finished an Oxyotl campaign on the vortex and was frustrated to discover that upon winning my final battle, I got the same reward that vortex-participating factions receive, which includes -100 relations with all other factions. So the high elves who I had been helping all campaign long fighting against the dark elves, suddenly hated me because I killed Taurox and stopped a chaos invasion. Didn't feel rewarding or lore accurate.

[@stefan1360]

But SFO is based on punishment if the player does lmao

[@MinscS2]

Jumped straight to the "conclusion"-part. I had a sneaky suspicion from watching him play these last couple of days that he enjoys it, but considers the Realm of Chaos-campaign to be worse than the current state of the Vortex-campaign, with the potential for TW3:ME to be better than TW2:ME. Sounds pretty much what I imagine I will think after a few weeks with the game as well: "This game is fun but now I'm gonna wait for Mortal Empires".

[@Rafael_Fuchs]

That's what I expected to happen as well. I like the idea of WH3 coming out, but I'm not interested in its launch at all. Can't wait for that new version of ME though. It'll be fantastic to see all the old and new races mingling on the same map, and getting war declared on me from literally the opposite corner of the map. Maybe we'll get a new Vagabond Vlad going. Lol

[@thenoblepoptart]

@@Rafael_Fuchs get it now, you get the ogres for free. It’s unlikely it will go on sale for too much when ME comes out anyway, and a price drop would be unheard of (all the warhammer games are $60)

[@Rafael_Fuchs]

@@thenoblepoptart Ogres just aren't my style. they're tied with greenskins for being my least favorite of the WH fantasy races. I'm not too concerned if and when they get split off into a different DLC later down the line. I do give props to CA for them making their preorder race not Norscan quality though.

[@thenoblepoptart]

@@Rafael_Fuchs fair enough, if you don’t like ogres might as well wait for the BIG PLANET OF WAR

[@Rafael_Fuchs]

@@thenoblepoptart I'm super interested in seeing what GW is up to. I want to see them churn out a new army book for chaos, since they've been much more invested in game 3. Their roster is good for undivided, but mono-God realms could be flushed out...

[@kevinpiche9783]

I think that there is a relatively "simple" way to at least partially fix the campaign. When you obtain one of the chaos souls, you gain the following benefits: - -5 chaos corruption factionwide for that god -all cults of factions for that god in your territory are destroyed and new ones cannot be built - -25% rate of rifts opening in your territory (this should let you expand with fewer penalties) In addition each soul would grant immunity to that gods unique faction mechanics: -Nurgle: Immunity to plagues -Tzeentch: Immunity to the changing of ways -Slaanesh: Immunity to seduction and influence -Khorne: This one is trickier, maybe reduced movement rate, or can't move after a siege or create bloodhosts? Or maybe can't replenish in your territory and bloodhosts take massive attrition.

[@TheRedAzuki]

That would make the fights as the demon factions a lot more painful though.

[@TheSuperappelflap]

@@TheRedAzuki the chaos factions should then get an option to intercept armies that attempt to claim the soul of their god. just remove fog of war from the corresponding chaos realm for each faction and give them a portal to it in their capital region so that they can keep track of who goes into the realm of their chaos god and send an army to intercept. shouldnt have to be the faction leaders army, and they can get some campaign movement range buffs while in there so they can catch up to the other factions armies. or maybe portals dont take away your movement when you pass through it. this would make the chaos realms more interactive.

[@averagebuoy3211]

That doesn't make sense at all. Why would playable chaos factions be punished for you winning games? You just crippling other faction mechanics of factions that are doing the same quest as you. Just give rewards for each daemon prince soul: Nurgle: health, anti-attrition and resistance buffs and items, growth Tzeentch: + maximum winds. magical items, speel cost reduction Khorne: will let you keep his items, dmg and armor buffs or items, public order would work Slaanesh: has already fleshed out the realm but for the daemon prince soul you can get additional speed buffs and economy buffs For defeating Bel'Akor you would get any buffs that fit lords desired goal as it is in the story. Bel'akor as lord should also be insanely OP with unique items, trait and better skill tree. The availability to call your own rift if needed would be also good (but that would be just detail). To summarise, I feel its just unfinished as these things would make chaos realms better than Vortex and it shouldn't be hard to implement this.

[@lilporky8565]

What if Kairos' reward just removes all fog of war and he could see everything on the entire map at all times? That'd be pretty op, but considering that you'd have to beat the whole ass game first I don't really see why not.

[@RevocerGM]

This is great. It simultaneously makes me excited to play, while managing my expectations. The review is candid and honest, and you take different perspectives into play. It's a clear signify of how much you care about this community

[@cletcher]

Because of your content, I bought Warhammer I and II and all the expansions plus Warhammer III. You continue to inspire me to take on this epic series. I wish CA would acknowledge the vast contribution that your honest participation brings.

[@TheSuperappelflap]

how much did that cost, like 500 euro/US dollar?

[@averagebuoy3211]

The chaos realm narrative and the “reward” feels rushed and unfinished, but otherwise I’m really hyped. Maybe walled-sieges could use a bit of work but minor settlements look rly fun.

[@khankhomrad8855]

It does feel like someone at CA saw the reception to The Vortex, dislike how players how try to avoid dealing with the race for the Vortex and designed W 3 in a way that the race would be unavoidable. That and the End-game section of the campaign doesn't seem to be there yet. Almost as if it is unfinished.

[@fabiz8602]

I'll never understand why they won't simply give us the choice before starting a new campaign wether we want to play the narrative campaigm

[@MinscS2]

@@khankhomrad8855 CA: "Players try to avoid this part of the game because they find it unfun. Let's force them to do it, that will surely make them enjoy it!"

[@Grivehn]

@@khankhomrad8855 They saw the reactions to Vortex, but they apparently havent seen that SFO gave you permanent bonuses when you beat the campaign. Even in ME by the end. Even if not for SFO, from which they borrowed some ideas anyway, I dont see why rewarding the player is not the first thing they think of. Unless the devs think like the drones at EAvil or Antivision and hate players and want them to feel miserable while playing, not having fun.

[@khankhomrad8855]

@@Grivehn The Vortex does give you perma-buffs for completing it.

[@velation]

When you beat a chaos realm you should get a big reward and the bad trait taken away. Also from that point on if a portal of that realm would open up in your territory it should be rendered inactive.

[@HeavyMetalGamingHD]

Oh holy shit. 500 hours of playtime before release.

[@warrenloving1141]

Thanks for your hard work and the thought you put into this review.

[@Pers0n97]

Laughing my ass off at the walls still blocking your own archers How to fix it in 7.5 seconds : Literally reuse the system they have added to forest, and have projectiles ignore collisions for a certain distance while docked on walls. I'll take my fee in bitcoin CA, thanks

[@Grivehn]

This should go higher. 'Take gun teams to walls now'. Yeah sure, its just not even regular gunner units can shoot off walls well, let alone the likes of Ratlings.

[@gregorybrouckaert3858]

I'd love them to have a system where if your ranged units were docked they'd fire less projectiles but fire them much quicker and have an animation showing the solders handing guns to the front line or moving from the front to the back to reload. The animation could hardly be more difficult to make 5han the nurglings

[@solarboy48]

I've had early access for a couple weeks now (not as long as you), I've racked up 100 hours so far, and I'm 100% with you on the narrative side of things. I find the chaos portals disruptive to my sandbox experience -- I never have enough hero capacity, and I can never financially support enough armies to close them, and I hate, hate, HATE the survival battles at this point. Fun for the first campaign or two... Tedious as fuck after.

[@619morrisonextreme]

Dam how did you get early access

[@hctim1]

How in the hell did you get early access?

[@Wolfarior]

@@619morrisonextreme There are testers for a game, that are not streamers and influencers. I suspect anyone can become one, if you have sufficient track record. For Example, if you have 5000 hours on Warhammer 2, you are active on forums, helping people, offering constructive criticism for years. You might be contacted by CA and get early access for testing purposes. You might never hear about these people because you don't visit forums they do and because they are not a public person. That's what I think is a way they got early access.

[@sokar_rostau]

@@hctim1 Excellent question.

[@deadlyydude5522]

@@Wolfarior yeah, or he’s just lying lol

[@Ghost_Hybrid]

Love the review Legend. Thank you for all you do for the TW community.

[@CrazyYurie]

Excellent review. I pretty much learned everything I was hoping to find out in regards to gameplay changes and getting a general idea of the experience. Based on what was said, I can totally see why the Realm of Chaos would be annoying - especially with the lack of reward or resolution at the end. Still I hope to be able to play through things myself to see how it is. I was never not going to pick up WH3. Also CA most likely will be fixing stuff up before too long, as they have a decent track record of doing that with past TW games. Rome II early on was a mess but it eventually got a bit better. Given a few months, I imagine and hope that many issues that WH3 might have will be smoothed over. Even so it still sounds like I'm going to be having some fun with the game and I'm most certainly looking forward to starting it up! :D Now I just have to decide *who* to play as. I've been wrestling with that one for sometime. Before more gameplay info was released... when we were just getting lots of trailers for WH3, I was interested in Kislev, Khorne, and Nurgle mainly. As for the present though? Tzeench has been added to that list and Slaanesh (who I was the least interested in) looks much better to me. But... this really is moot because I expect that, like Legend, i'll be going for 100% achievements before long as I did with WH2. Also that I imagine that WH3's Mortal Empires will be where the real adventures will get going. I can't wait to see how that will be! :3 Again, a great review!

[@steeltrap3800]

Sadly game companies rely on the fact they can release fairly dull, buggy and less than finished products and gamers will lap them up anyway. While it continues to be true, why would they spend the extra time and money doing the job 'properly'? Not that I mean this to be critical of YOU, not at all. It's just an unfortunate truth as I see it. Cheers

[@CrazyYurie]

@@steeltrap3800 Oh I agree, and there are several major game publishers who I refuse to buy games from at launch because they have proven to be untrustworthy. But in regards to TW games they've always been a little buggy at launch, but get cleaned up more over time with updates. That pattern has not changed even if game companies these days have become increasingly obnoxious.

[@redwings13400]

It seems like a lot of the negatives here are pretty fixable. Walls and dockable areas suck, so just make it so archers fire on them more. The realm of chaos is pretty frustrating, so create better rewards for progressing the campaign, and maybe tweak the portal system so its less of a pain to continuously close them. Change up the way the souls work a bit. Fix some of the pathfinding. I dunno if CA is going to do any of this, mind you, but at the very least these things seem like issues that could be somewhat easily moddable very quickly. The core concept looks solid, its just some of the implementation thats a bit weird, which seems very patchable. A few relatively small changes here and there and we could have a great game on our hands.

[@alexscholz3438]

Agreed. Seeing CA's support in the past for TWW as a series gives me pretty high hopes. These issues all felt fixable, it might take some time, but I have no doubt that it can be done. If not CA, then modders have proved they can do all of this before.

[@trantrungnam612]

The problem should have been addressed by CA themselves and not fixed by the modding community when the game released. The developments seems too rushed, even with the delayed release date.

[@steeltrap3800]

The problem is CA has proven utterly incapable or not to give a fuck about doing a PROPER job with the computer players' routines. That pathfinding etc remain a problem when it's been true for as long as TW has existed (it was notoriously and disastrously shite in TW: Empire, but then so much of that train wreck of a release highlighted everything I do NOT like about CA and TW as it speaks of a contempt for their customers).

[@redwings13400]

@@steeltrap3800 that's true. The pathfinding in this game is like if you could only control groups of 12 dragoons at a time in the original StarCraft, then added more ramps in to the game just to screw with them more. It's very bad. CA also has a tendency from what I can tell to focus on the forest while ignoring the trees when it comes to fixing their game. The siege rework went way further than anyone asked for but didn't seem to fix some very simple core issues that were present and super obvious in wh2. Some of these changes seem really simple and obvious but I honestly have no idea if CA is going to implement them. At the very least some of it should be simple for modders to fix.

[@steeltrap3800]

@@redwings13400 Hi, I agree with your conclusions. I've written a fairly long post of my own throwing out some thoughts that I suspect a lot of uncritical fans won't accept or like, but would be interested in your opinion on it. I'm very much of the view CA doesn't fix these things because it takes more work than they're prepared to spend the $$ on plus, most importantly, they have next to zero reason to do so because most gamers are like substance abusers and all they care about is their next hit. Sadly, most big game companies know this and rely on it. Who's to say they're incorrect in their assessment? Cheers

[@mikapinktails1823]

Well done Legend, keep up the great content!

[@phelanlawson1995]

i know during your stream you said you werent super happy with this but I enjoyed it and value your opinions. Thanks for taking the time to make this

[@garethryecroft8661]

Hey legend - thanks for the review. Excitement for this is high now, can’t wait!

[@AngSco30]

I know you aren't a reviewer usually, but very glad when you do make a review. Always very clear, concise and constructively critical.

[@Fampini]

Thanks Legend. As a player who enjoys turtling up to a mid sized empire I really don't like the idea of having to defend my interior from repeated portals. As I like to take my time, being forced into competing with the other factions for souls and dealing with the stacking bad traits / chaos realms seems a bit stressful and will force me to play more aggressively. Some of those full stack chaos armies look really painful to deal with. Hopefully that portal mechanic doesn't leak into WH3 Immortal empires in exactly the same form but I suspect it will to enable cross map travel. Does the AI suffer the same debuffs for hanging out in the chaos realm?

[@marcgw496]

I think he mentioned in a stream that the AI doesn’t suffer penalties from being in the chaos realms too long. Typical total war AI lol

[@nebuchadneszar]

Ayyyy the review is out! Thanks Legend for all the time that went into this!

[@JohnRoads]

742 hours is almost 31 days and it have been 35 days since you got the game. Even with 550 hours (23 days) you have still spend more than half your time in the game since you got it. I hope you got something good for the wife today as she can't have seen much of you this last month.

[@RatBagDad]

13:50 I love that the Ogre's reason for going after Ursun is that they just want to eat god meat.

[@Nikolai508]

One of the most popular mods on steam deactivates the narrative stuff. The problem is that you can't just ignore it. If you just ignore it you will game over when an AI gets 4 souls. It wouldn't be too bad to have the portals opening up and having to deal with the demons coming through, the problem is the fact that you are forced to constantly stop the AI majors from winning to be able to keep playing.

[@tear4442]

Which is exactly why everyone wants immortal empires. No more narrative and all the old factions.

[@AshenVictor]

I think a good analogy is that the sandbox campaign is like going for a run outside, you get to see different places and the more you do it the easier it gets. Meanwhile the Warhammer 3 narrative campaign as designed (get just enough defensible terrain and do the objectives from it) is like running on a treadmill while someone forcefeeds you cake. You put in the same effort, don't get to go anywhere and the more you do it the more difficult it gets because you can never outrun the cake.

[@IndiscrimenantPerson]

Thank you for an honest opinion and perspective, i feel like i never expected this campaign to be why i played warhammer 3 anyway, i always just wait for the big map and conquer the globe. Realizing building small to move the narrative more effectively probably saved me a lot of unhappiness playing this until we get the mortal empires warhammer 3 edition in. I would love reviews of the co op campaigns as well if you ever feel so inclined but just this one has made warhammer 3 a better experience for me im pretty sure and its not even out yet. Cheese for the cheese god. Also cant wait for you to vampire counts into an ogre army and see if skeleton spam plus magic really can solve all problems lol

[@marceror]

Thanks for getting this out so quickly. I know this has not been an easy, or likely, fun endeavor for you. Looking forward to watching later today!

[@Nangot888]

Thank you for your hard work legend,hope you can get some good rest after all this beta-testing stress

[@alphaspartan]

Appreciate you taking the time to make this review. Great insight!

[@poodlemeister22314]

Just finished Mandalore's review, this is timely!

[@Metalton95]

..and, for what it's worth, IGN also just dropped their review (TWW3 content is TWW3 content, no?)

[@a.j.4076]

@@Metalton95 Let me guess: IGN 2/10, not enough gender representation in Khrone faction?

[@mattlievens3573]

@@a.j.4076 9.1/10 actually

[@willsalen8370]

@@a.j.4076 I'm pretty sure they are more than happy with Slaanesh lol

[@warlockengineer407]

@@a.j.4076 The IGN reviewer actually played 130 hours and did an AMA on reddit so people could ask about it. Good reviewer.

[@Plagues677]

legend pls make acheesement guides. stoked to finally see ur review

[@PowerPuffSoldier]

Great to hear it's at least overall good. But yeah, I expected the main story would be a problem. CA is far better off making individualized narrative campaigns like they did for the DLCs.

[@zebedee5158]

Know you say you're not a review channel but that was really nicely done for getting to the nitty gritty seen from experience.

[@erensametkaratas6593]

1:19 Acheesements? Seems about right.

[@raygott5712]

It was so awesome of you to include the warning to that spoiler section. TY for that.

[@Warpedlogical]

Today has been a big day for reviews, it is very important to have these honest takes

[@deadlyydude5522]

Yeah between Legend, Cody Bonds, and Mandalore’s reviews, I’m definitely going into this game with some lowered expectations

[@Abrioso]

@@deadlyydude5522 if you liked the previous 2 you will love this one, most of the issues will be fixed eventually and thats ok considering I will have at least 500hrs in this game probably even more

[@deadlyydude5522]

@@Abrioso oh I’m going to play the hell out of it. I have 1800 hours in warhammer 2, and game 3 is probably the most excited I’ve ever been for a game. Also I think a lot of the issues will be fixed, and once mortal empires map comes out I’ll be playing this game until I die

[@TheMorninGlory23]

Love you Legend thanks for the well thought out thoughts!

[@nellioclark7571]

Great review and thank you for all the time and effort that you put into this and even doing the time stamps! I always enjoy your content. And I believe your right that they'll fix the chaos realm system soon, I feel like as they start implementing the other dlc factions and adding current factions other LLs they'll start to get that part right. I feel like maybe they started feeling the pressure when they started pushing the game back and maybe that was an area that really suffered from it, the ramifications from Covid have messed quite a lot of games and many other things up. But I like a lot of the new mechanics that they've added. I've asked this question b4 in one of Zurk's vids in regards to the outpost mechanic, but are there any repercussions to the instances when an ally that you share an outpost w/ declares war on you? Like do you lose all those units you recruited or do they suffer attrition after the fact?

[@alistairo314]

Review for your bell curve purposes: My first campaign was Kislev and I tried out the Tzeentchian realm first when the opportunity arose. I failed because Cathay killed the Daemon before me. Fair enough, I went in a bit late because I was figuring it all out. I thought "I'll get em next time!" I tried it again the next round through, the Daemon armies having gotten more powerful while I only added a few more powerful units to Katarin'd army. "Uh oh." So I was slow because I fought to reveal the portals (as intended) and got the replenishment bonuses every 4 armies or so because I was fighting a lot. That's 2-3 turns per platform. 1 to kill the armies, 1 to replenish, 1 to use a portal. Greasus stole it from me the second time. It takes so dang long to move around, and Mannfred was hitting me while Katarin was in the warp. Does not feel good having nothing to show for it. Took the wind out of my sails on my first campaign for sure. Cool narrative, really compelling, but the gameplay side of the narrative doesn't help it. I like the playing tall aspect that it forces you into because it compliments the fact that alliances are more useful. Real good for a light roleplayer like myself, provided I make enough money donestically (I did not on this campaign). It's narrative plus gameplay. I just think the realms of chaos need toning down and some rewards. I want Kairos to get melee stats when he kills Ursun. Stuff like that. At least, I want those things now. But while actually playing it I just wanted Immortal Empires, haha.

[@wowvidz030]

It's finally here, unrestricted opinions. Thanks for all the great content!

[@4xikzm9qcw12]

Man I can tell you were really working hard while doing this review, inbetween the streaming and the regular videos. Good job.

[@LG-jn5fx]

I played a couple of Vortex campaigns in WH2 before I moved onto ME and played that obsessively for many years. It looks like I will not play very many Realms of Chaos campaigns in WH3 and bide my time for the updated ME to come out. Mortal Empires is where it is at and where most of the fun is. With the vastly improved alliance and diplomancy options it is going to be so much fun. Getting Ironbreakers for the Empire will be amazing and of course all other factions will want Hellstorm rockets I am very disappointed that they have made the campaign so unrewarding and annoying to progress. They really should have learned their lesson by now.

[@Lissiedi]

I just got to say this. I am a fan of the game and your channel but somehow I always watch your channel whenever i need to calm down my stress anxiety or nervousness.

[@MagicznyCysiu]

Thanks for the review Legend. The "end game" doesn't sound that great (possibility of loosing is a Double-edged sword for me, as in Vortex it was just point and click to teleport and smash the AI with doomstack), but no reward for doing narrative is bad. Even the rituals from Vortex gave some nice buffs for the its duration.

[@OMoanaigh]

I know on stream you said you don't like making this type of content, but I think you did a fairly good job within your style. you laid out some good critiques and how the could build upon it.

[@mikmikmikmijtheshy8577]

Great review, as always Legend. My two cents: The worst aspect of the Vortex campaign in WH2 is its limited replayability. Doing the vortex rituals is fun once, maybe twice or three times. But then it gets real old, real fast. From what Legend has said, CA has made the same mistake here. Going into the Realms of Chaos might be fun the first time even if it is painful. But why would I ever want to replay that pain? This is what Mortal Empires is supposed to be for. Mortal Empires is more of a sandbox and allows you to just do what you want to do. But guess what? You don’t get Mortal Empires until later, because they want to force everybody to buy the previous games. Money for the money gods. This raises the question, why would I pay $60 for a campaign I will only want to play through once? I appreciate the art and the dedication CA put into this game, but if the game has no replay value, is that my fault, or theirs? In my opinion, their decision not to release Mortal Empires first is primarily financial. They want to force new players to buy the previous games before they get the full experience. But this also means NONE of us, even the older players, get a full experience at launch. I guess I’ll wait for a steam sale for this one.

[@Arkanic]

Thanks so much for the effort you put into this, it's really appreciated. Let's hope CA hear it and work on some of these issues sooner rather than later. I know you must be on a hell of a grind for content, especially seeing that play time lol. I've "only" got 200 hours in TW:W2 but I'm really looking forward to playing Tzeentch, Kislev, and Cathay.

[@saxapwn1842]

Your streams have been fantastic with WH3 legend, keep it up and don't forget Nurglings dance in poo

[@rebelkide]

great review Legend, hope we all can see the twwh3 we all want in the future with mortal empires and all this issues fixed! hypeee

[@atomicgandhi8718]

From a Board Game design perspective, IMO the Realm Of Chaos mechanic is designed well in the sense that you want to wait until the last possible moment to actually get the souls, since it triggers a difficulty increase. This should have been advertised, however. I think the main change should be that ALL the chaos gods should offer tempting rewards like Slaanesh does, so you're encouraged to pillage the chaos realm for resources/unique bonuses, then run back to save your empire, before eventually going there one final time to wreck the chaos realms for good. Rewards Should be (in addition to Belakor): Kislev: -100% upkeep for all bear units. (URSUN UNLEASHED) Cathay: -90% upkeep and Perfect Vigor for all units while in perfect Ying/Yang (Elder Dragon Saved) Ogres: 1% Regeneration per second for all Units FactionWide (Tasty Bear), Unlimited Food. Nurgle: All Plagues are now Permanent and cannot be cured. (Plague of the Bear) Khorne: 10* Melee Damage for all units (faction wide) (SKULL OF THE BEAR) Tzeentch: Unlimited WInds of Magic Reserve (factionwide). (EYES OF THE BEAR) Slaanesh: -90% upkeep for all units (IDK lol), all units are Unbreakable. (sorrow of the Bear) Etc, Fairly easy to implement but flavorful bonuses that ensure you will win the campaign by abusing them afterward.

[@EnragedTurkey]

Skarbrand should get his wings back too

[@swagmund_freud9952]

43:33 "you got Be'lakor" *"BE'LAKOR!!!"* "yeah, Be'lakor..."

[@rhagos5562]

Altdorf looks pretty underwhelming considering its the capital of the Empire, it looks more like a small town that would be nearby Altdorf

[@houndofculann1793]

Not to mention that Altdorf should have a river big enough to house a harbour running through it

[@hedonistic_ambition9060]

Well thought out and put together review, thanks for taking the time to do this legend

[@HummingbirdSound]

If at least the "less expanding, more rushing the plot" mechanic could stop the two more powerful AI factions to take over the whole map by turn 60 like they usually do in Warhammer 2 on high difficulties, I would say there is a silver lining. But my guess is that on those difficulties, we will have to deal with both unending portals to close, but also with both Dark Elves and Skaven constantly and relentlessly sandwiching us from all sides...

[@therealikitclaw8124]

There are no dark elves in this campaign and from what I've seen skaven are really passive

[@HummingbirdSound]

@@therealikitclaw8124 That wasn't my point. My point was that usually the two most powerful factions on the map always end up colonizing all provinces and make the game into a unwinnable (or very unfun) slug. Whoever those factions will be in this game, I simply said it would be nice if the AI could play the campaign plot and spend more time closing rifts than expanding aggressively. It's the only way the player can catch a breather in the end game on very difficult or legendary difficulties. Because if the AI only bothers conquering everything and the player has to fight off rifts more than expanding, then LegendofTotalWar is right, the campaign mechanics will be a total pain and the campaign will end up being way less enjoyable than the Vortex one. At least, on the Vortex map (which is my absolute favorite Total War map ever, there are many dlc lords who don't have to play the Vortex, but rather have their own victory conditions, and that made the Vortex map really good and varied. In Warhammer 3, no matter what lords will come out in the future, rifts will spawn all around the map for everybody and the player will always have to play the "closing the rifts" campaign by design, which is a shame.

[@alexc5243]

I still have fun getting to play with new factions. I really like playing as Kislev and Khorne but I have to agree that having the rifts spawn all over the place is a major nuisance. It makes conquering the map so much more of a pain. I feel like I’m always too busy putting out fires around the campaign map to even want to go into each of the demon realms. With Vortex campaign, you at least had the option of ignoring the vortex campaign and just focusing on conquering the map and stopping others from completing the vortex. With Realm of Chaos, you don’t get the choice, those rifts are gonna pop up all over the place and unless you actually go through with the quest, they’ll always come back.

[@L0RDLUK]

Minor settlement battles are engaging? It's either a one-click battle where you send all your melee infantry into the center or a neverending, agony-inducing shitstorm. The maps themselves are good, but they would play a LOT BETTER without the new defence-building system. I think that entire mechanic only adds frustration. I'd much rather have the towers work the way they do in WH2, where you destroy them once and they stay destroyed.

[@justinmkraken]

I have a theory as to why Belakor is the way he is and I could be very wrong im just optimistic. What if the reason he feels like a shell is because he is? I mean why can't he be an unlockable legendary lord similarly to how Boris is but you can only use Belakor in the Immortal Empires campaign and they just are waiting to flesh Belakor out until the release of the immortal empires? For most people, at least new players in my opinion, Belakor is just another big baddy so there's no reason to really play with him right now. But if you wait to flesh him out until immortal empires comes out and he's a powerhouse of a character like he's supposed to be, it would incentive players to buy previous Warhammer games to play Belakor in the combined campaign. This all makes sense in my head but I'd love to hear what y'all think!

[@maxmagnus3793]

Thanks for the review, seems like you covered both positive and negative aspects. I'm a bit surprised that they botched the Realm of Chaos campaign so badly. I would not have thought it possible to make something so much worse than the Vortex campaign with its randomly spawning full stacks of Chaos. Seems like it should have been quite obvious that the system they ended up with is unsatisfying for the player

[@Grivehn]

That is often the method which by devs go. They create a horrible system, which nearly nobody enjoys. They hear the uproar, but instead of listening to feedback, they create yet another horrible system, which is different, but still bad. Maybe even worse.

[@kubka4]

Funny is that I find it so much more interesting than Vortex race to be honest. I guess it depends on personal taste.

[@kirevkizrepnav572]

Maybe it seems interesting because you haven't played with it yet. It seems like the kinda thing that feels worse every time you play with it. Ofc could also just be taste who knows

[@attila2246]

@@kirevkizrepnav572 Yeah I think first couple times might be fun but forcing you to play a certain way every time or lose doesn't sound great

[@kubka4]

@@kirevkizrepnav572 At least the theme and mechanics are somewhat interesting. Unlike just picking some tablets by doing normal things in vortex... Plus for sandbox we'll have "mortal empires". I won't be able to finish more than few campaigns before it will likely be released anyway.

[@TheJacktor]

I think Tzeentch would be proud of your solution to his realm.

[@arkadefire5909]

Oh yes please, do a video on the achievements that you can cheese. That's the thing I'm most willing to cheese the fuck out ahahah

[@fridgeking6014]

The Kislev settlement system needs to be adopted for the Dark Elves too. A few very large cities with nothing but tiny villages in between.

[@MrSpartanspud]

I feel like in a couple of years this will be the best total war game. For now I don't even feel tempted to buy it.

[@mglkeiser1532]

Nhaa Med 2 will always be the best

[@MrSpartanspud]

@@mglkeiser1532 It's nice to go back to. It was one of the reasons I got a gaming PC. But it's not the best anymore. If it wasn't for the mods it probably wouldn't have been since Shogun 2.

[@ash12181987]

I find it funny that were CA not to have reversed your black list they would of nuked the most glowing review of TWWH3 I've seen today Gold star to you and Mandalore for the legwork put in. Ty for continuing to provide quality work

[@Orisha1990]

Well, at least the bad parts aren't fundamental. Can't be too hard to give players incentive to progress the narrative. A little bit bummed that all you get is Belakor after winning. Individual faction reward would be cool as well, like a trait even.

[@Havic1137]

Lack of Ammanar in Vampire Coast campaign. Never forget.

[@Foerster44v2]

I've got a small correction to add, there's a little error in your graph because differently from your statement at 47:55, Total War: Warhammer I actually released in May 2016. And thanks for the review, I know you're not terribly keen to make them but I really appreciate these kinds of videos :-)

[@myballsgetlikt1313]

For the past 35 days, the game has been running for 21 hours and 12 minutes a day every single day. Holy shit

[@Carpatheon.]

First mod we need is one to disable the realm of chaos stuff!!

[@alastairbell7206]

Really interesting and helpful review. Thanks for taking the time on this.

[@arthanor9631]

So, on the mod todo list: - Disable rifts after campaign victory (when you get Belakor) (Apparently already the case) - Give a generic red line to Belakor (buffs to melee infantry, buffs to cavalry, etc. The categories already exist, so it would be super easy to implement)

[@ForgottenNoble]

Great review, thank you for the information! I am looking forward to playing on launch day!

[@Brazilian134]

Thank you for review. Solidified my opinion to wait for Mortal Empires at the least. Some of the UI changes look to be weird as hell and unnecessary but some other changes look great like diplomacy and alliances being worth it.

[@marcgw496]

@@kennethdavidson6508 I don’t think he’s talking about the price necessarily, just that this realm of chaos campaign seems like an annoyance to play through.

[@Brazilian134]

@@kennethdavidson6508 I don't know but really I said that because I played WH2( a few thousand hours) mainly because of ME by a mile. So while the campaign and the changes and all that good stuff does look good. It personally does not justify for me full price yet. Once ME comes out though I'll buy it in a hearbeat full price or not. Unless they somehow ruined the game by then.

[@michaelfielding6666]

Both you and Mando have done a excellent review of this game. Good to see that after 2 games the siege maps finally got some love.

[@lordfenix17]

The review I’ve been waiting for.

[@jacobm.2614]

Great review!! Thank you for your input and experiences! I am still looking forward to playing the game. And I look forward to the cheese that the cheese king brings.

[@indrickboreale7381]

"This is truly based" - Legendoftotalwar 2022

[@pavro_w0t719]

Just finished my first campaign (it was Kairos) and I 100000% agree with you in the narrative side of things. I also thought the final battle was a mess.

[@jones877]

Things CA can add to the chaos realms to reward players. Nurgle realm rewards: -global casualty replenishment rate -immunity from plagues -lords get hp regen and higher hp cap Tzeentch realm rewards: - global winds of magic power reserve -global winds of magic power recharge rate -access to mages with different lores of magic And make it so getting the soul from each realm stops chaos rifts from that god opening. Or make it so that chaos rifts only occur at major settlements. Completing the campaign should give Belakor as a starting legendary lord. Completing the campaign gives buffs to each faction according to what they wanted to obtain from Ursun in the story to begin with. That would fix most of the problems.

[@SilentHotdog28]

Hey Legend, I really enjoyed this review and it was really insightful. I know you don't like doing reviews, but just know that you did a really good job and it is appreciated by not only me but a lot of your viewers. You do you mate. On a side note, I really wanted to watch your streams leading up to the release, but I didn't want to be spoiled haha. But now I can watch them and enjoying the Cathay one. Take care.

[@jeffreymilliman2306]

I'm also pretty disappointed with the Realm of Chaos campaign; I'd much prefer a campaign that involves repeatable forays into the Chaos realms that grant a significant edge over your opponents, but aren't necessary to beat the campaign (i.e. completing Nurgle's realm could grant increased replenishment or growth for a while). That way, you could choose to divert resources into Chaos Realm runs for the bonuses, but wouldn't feel obligated to do so. The frantic nature of the current game is a huge turn-off for me, but I'm enjoying the mechanics of the factions that I've tried so far.

[@themightyruler1319]

Agreed it’s unnecessarily frantic, it sucks not knowing when we’ll get the immortal empires map.

[@Aredel]

It redefines the term "breackneck"

[@BrinkofArt]

I mean, I haven‘t played Warhammer 3 yet, but I definitely feel and agree on what you had to say about the minor settlements. Previously, I would‘ve never really bothered actually watching you besiege a minor settlement in WH2, but now -with the exciting new maps- I find myself skipping through your recorded streams JUST to watch the minor settlement battles.^^ It definitely is a shame about the dockable areas, but I think we can expect a patch to be there quite soon. Looking really forward to more of your streams!

[@obi-wan3916]

You do yourself a disservice mate comparing your review to other content creators. Once you got going I thought this was an excellent review, especially when focusing on campaign mechanics. The demon is in the detail (pun intended) and you nailed that.

[@Omega068]

Good stuff! Seems overall like I will be having a pretty good time in a few days. Thanks for your thoughts!

[@BlackDeej]

Thanks for the review Legend, I know it must have been a ballache to do well - and I think you did a real good job showcasing a load of WH3. Nothing to say about the magic system though? From what I gather that is going to really limit those WH2 factions that rely heavily on magic for their strengths (VC for example, but even the pointy-ears or ratties, for that matter). Personally Im pretty disappointed; the Realm of Chaos stuff just looks totally unremarkable gameplay-wise... been waiting for ages for WH3 and tbh I can't see any reason to switch from WH2, based on the game at release - I'm hoping that it improves into something really worth playing when they get around to the Mortal Empires mega-campaign. They didn't fix sieges, they broke the magic system (which is what makes WH different from the historical games) and the endgame looks even less fun than the Vortex.

[@RicardoSanchez-es5wl]

Luckily (hopefully) mods should make Warhammer 3 basically warhammer 2 with new factions

[@TheSuperappelflap]

they might raise the winds cap for mortal empires. wouldnt make sense to have a late game spellcaster hero stack with only 100 maximum winds. maybe a seperate cap for each factions depending on how in tune they are with the winds, with lizardmen, high elves getting the highest cap, then vampire counts a little bit less, etc.

[@odycaptain]

Personally, I am really into the factions and characters of the Warhammer3(Chaos in particular) so that is why I cant wait to play it even with all its problems. Perhaps you are not that much of a fan lore wise and that is perfectly fine. Give it some time and if you ever see it in a sale grab it. Ideally Warhammer games become the full package after the mortal empires introduction.

[@nikolaosboukouvalas449]

To those who join the game now, please give Realm of Chaos a chance: There have been many patches since release: you can prevent most rifts from spawning now and auto-intercept any army that threatens to complete the race before you. Plus the Chaos Realms mini games and kinda amusing and the Survival Battles can also be really fun.

[@justinmatos4267]

Legend has more hours in Warhammer 3 before launch then I have all time in Warhammer 2. Much respect and great vid.

[@blanck7457]

And he has probably a lot of cheese strategies

[@greencheek]

Hey fuzkers, As a 1,100 hours player who found the game/entire total war franchise in the last year, I wanna say some stuff: 1: holy shit have I learned a lot. I’ve defaulted by just pulling up your most recent play through live streams and any daily content (gelt never shined so bright before he defeated the main vamps and even trait farmed them, to boot!.) 2: Shit, It took me over 100 hours before I could win one on “easy.” And even then, there were a many few hours of researching the game, the mechanics, the “why’s.” 3: I’ve never tried “legendary” but I believe I could. For a lot of reasons; beyond my teachings from you. So, I say all of this because I want legend to know he’s the dood. He’s the guy thousands, even millions of us have found who helped us fall in love with this game. We have only been prioritizing your opinion over all others because of all the disaster battles and campaigns, the tier lists and the reviews, the new DLCs and the play throughs. We’ve watched hours of your content. We trust you. That’s why we ask. (Pesky as we may be.) So when whenever it happens that you, legend, start not seeing right through a game, we will call it a day. But until then, we will be cheering you on and asking your opinion cuz we can’t help but look to you for guidance.

[@letsplaysvonaja1714]

So the reward is the same as on vortex You get a relatively weak payment, but no bonus that would actually help you conquering the rest of the map Same as the banner of kings that beastmen get XD

[@Sebatticus]

thank you legend, been looking forward to this one for awhile, will have to donate for all your hard work.. you deserve a cold beverage and a break after 700 hours toiling the TWW3 soil.