HomeNews
Total War: Warhammer 3’s Shadows of Change DLC brings three new playstylesForest hags, demon tricksters, jade lions
Forest hags, demon tricksters, jade lions
Image credit:Sega
Image credit:Sega
Sega have formallyunveiledthe next steaming helping ofTotal Warhammer 3DLC, Shadows of Change, which adds three Legendary Lords to this already-jam-packedstrategy game: the Changeling for the demonic Tzeentch faction, Yuan Bo for Grand Cathay, and Mother Ostankya for Kislev, plus a brace of new campaign mechanics, units and battlefield abilities.
I’ve been going off Total War lately - I fired up a new Lizardman game last month, having developed a hankering for dinos after reviewingExoprimal, and found myself lingering in disappointment on each faction’s reliance on rock-paper-scissors unit relationships. There’s only so many times you can do that dance of shieldwalls before it loses its charm. Still, it sounds like the new Tzeentch Lord might wash away my Total Warennui, in being one of those playstyles that is more about tricking and invading rivals than taking territory.
Total War: WARHAMMER III - Shadows of Change Announce TrailerWatch on YouTube
Total War: WARHAMMER III - Shadows of Change Announce Trailer
The Changeling also gets some tasty battlefield units for those times when cloak-and-dagger shenanigans won’t cut the mustard. The Blue Scribes are a pair of magic heroes who surf about on a sort of enchanted writing desk, the Tzaangors are hit-and-run former Beastmen who soak up power from spells cast in their vicinity, the Cockatrice is an overfed bird that spews poison and acid, and the Mutalith Vortex Beast is your classic Lovecraftian walking ball of tentacles.
The new Tzeentch units for Total War: Warhammer 3’s Shadows of Change DLC. |Image credit:Sega
The new Grand Cathay Lord, Yuan Bo, is also something of an underhand operator, able to rush construction using his influence upon matters of state, sow diplomatic discord so as to move armies through enemy territory without penalty, and turn regional corruption to his advantage in unspecified ways. He also gets some brilliant munsters to play with in the field. The Jade Lion recharges your Winds of Magic reserves while pouncing on enemies. The Jet Lion interrupts enemy spellcasting, deflects missiles back-to-sender and enhances your own mages. And the Celestial General hits people with a ruddy big hammer. My favourite of the new Grand Cathay units, however, might be the Onyx Crowmen, simply for how skittery and unpleasant they look in the trailer.
Last but not least there’s Mother Ostankya of Kislev, a nice old lady who’s out to collect forbidden Hexes, and is not-so-secretly a terrible creature born of children’s nightmares. She sounds like she’ll have the more fun in the fray than on the world map, with such units as the chariot-riding Hag Witch, the bearskin-clad Akshina Rangers, the Elemental Incarnate of Beasts - a giant avatar of Nature or at least, the bits of Nature that have horns and glowing eyes - and the skull-faced Things in the Woods.
The DLC lands on August 31st as part ofTotal War: Warhammer3’s Update 4.0. There are at leasttwo more paid expansions on the boil- Thrones Of Decay, out winter 2023, and an unnamed third expansion in spring 2024. It all sounds pretty terrific, but can it really trumpthe beardy firepower of this spring’s Chaos Dwarves?
