The right price
Before getting into the heart of the matter, it is essential to present the context surrounding its release. On August 31, Creative Assembly released Shadows of Change, the third DLC of Total War: Warhammer III. The DLC itself was quite good, but it created a major controversy because of its price (€25), which was considered excessive. Associated with the failure of Total War: Pharaoh, this situation forced Creative Assembly to apologize. They did not lower the price of the DLC, but added at no extra cost new units within itin addition to offering a free update for all players.
The new DLC of the game, called Thrones of Decaywas therefore highly anticipated, especially since Creative Assembly has always been clear on the fact that it would be similar to Shadows of Change, in that it would integrate three Lords legendary and would have a price of the same order.
Advertisement
Upon arrival, however, there is a twist, which I already imagined at the time ofofficial announcement DLC: each lord can be purchased individually (for €9) and a bundle bringing together all three offers a 15% reduction, for a total of €23.
This compromise seems correct. By purchasing all three, there is a very slight discount compared to the previous pack. Above all, it is possible to purchase them separately, if you do not wish to play with the three new factions directly.
With that out of the way, let's move on to the essential: what do these three DLCs contain?
Three ways to play
Tamurkhan
As noted above, Thrones of Decay features three new legendary Lords: one from Nurgle, one for the Dwarves, and one for the Empire. I start with the new champion of Nurgle, who is also, on paper, the least interesting. Indeed, this DLC has the effect of making the Dwarves and the Empire playable in the main campaign of Total War: Warhammer III (these factions were previously only available in the mode Immortal Empires or in previous games), while Nurgle was already playable and had already received a new faction during the DLC dedicated to chaos deities.
Advertisement
Tamurkhan brings five new units (divided into 3 renowned regiments), a new type of lord, a new category of heroes and a legendary hero. However, let's focus on what interests us most: the campaign mechanics of his faction.
Our faction leader can recruit specific heroes. These allow you to recruit specific units and, above all, give access to missions: defeat a certain type of enemy, pillage colonies, research technologies, etc. Completing these missions allows you to gain the hero's “loyalty”, improving his bonuses and allowing him to use his specific abilities. The set ends with a quest battle for each hero.
Let's say it immediately: this mechanism does not disrupt the functioning of the faction, but brings a little more interesting. It's not bad, but for a race that already has two playable sub-factions, we could perhaps have expected a little more.
Malakai Makaisson
Malakai has two specificities. First of all, he can carry out “adventures”: a series of missions ending with a quest battle. The formula is reminiscent of Tamurkhan, but the missions are really more accomplished. To give a concrete example, the objectives of the new champion of Nurgle are infinitely repeatable: for the first hero of the game, for example, it is enough to defeat factions linked to chaos to increase his loyalty to the maximum. For the dwarf leader, on the other hand, an adventure offers six missions with really varied objectives: build a specific building, kill enemies with a type of units or win special battles.
Accomplishing them generally requires more investment, which is appreciable.
Additionally, Malakai has a mechanic reminiscent of Dark Elf hordes or arks. He can in fact construct buildings from his army window, allowing him to recruit new units. However, this functionality does not affect the other lords of the faction.
Finally, it includes the same type of content as the Lord of Worms: five new units (divided into 3 renowned regiments), a new type of lord, a new category of heroes and a legendary hero.
Elspeth von Draken
Like the other two, Elspeth adds five new units (divided into 3 renowned regiments), a new type of lord, a new category of heroes and a legendary hero.
The new witch of the Empire also has two mechanisms of her own. The first is the Imperial Artillery School. The latter allows you to improve shooting units, recruit them or even unlock powers that can be used in combat. The school has four levels, which are gradually unlocked by achieving objectives.
Additionally, she can create “Gardens of Morr” in five of her colonies or in allied colonies. It is then possible for him to teleport between these Gardens and construct a building there. This second feature, however, leaves me with a feeling of unfinished business. Indeed, as she is the only one who can use it, the benefit of teleportation is quite limited, especially since it is quite expensive and requires a cooldown (both of these can be reduced by technologies). The buildings themselves are fairly anecdotal. Finally, the limit of five is very low for a rapidly expanding empire. It is certainly possible to move a garden, but this requires a new investment and above all this encourages people to lose interest in this mechanism.
In short, it is nice to be able to play the Empire in the main campaign of Total War: Warhammer III and I quite like the Imperial artillery school, but the Gardens of Morr seem poorly finalized, while the idea of departure was interesting. However, my main problem lies elsewhere.
Let's start with a confession: for reasons of time, I'm not doing an entire campaign with every faction added by the DLC. I just do this with one of them, which I choose, and test the others for a certain number of rounds, until I think I have sufficiently understood its specifics. So there is an element of chance: maybe I got it right sometimes or maybe I got it wrong today. However, Elspeth von Draken's campaign is probably the worst I've done in a Total War: Warhammer.
First problem, I quickly had the opportunity to do the new battle allowing Gotrek and Felix to be unlocked, added with update 5.0 which accompanies the Thrones of Decay DLC. This battle is terrible. Indeed, it requires protecting the two heroes, who start in the middle of the battlefield and are very aggressive. I had to restart this confrontation a large number of times, always for the same reason: one of the two was defeated. It was super unpleasant.
Second, shortly after, the campaign asked me to complete an army's turn in a region containing “a stronghold, surrounded by mountains.” If you know what this means, I'm interested in the information, because even though I crossed half of the map, rich in mountains, I never found it. This implies that I finished the campaign in “domination”, exterminating the entire forces of chaos, but was never able to complete the final quest battles. It was frustrating.
I imagine that now it is possible to find the solution on the internet; This problem was linked to the fact that I had access to the game in advance. A privileged problem? Maybe, but I find it really problematic to block the progress of a campaign behind a cryptic clue, without the possibility of receiving additional help.
So, happy?
Is this DLC better than Shadows of Change? The question is delicate. It includes many more new units than the latter, at least at launch, but as you may have noticed from the fact that I'm sharing this information quickly: that's really not what interests me. I only have eyes for the new faction mechanics, which I hope are unique, because that's what I like most about the Total War: Warhammer franchise.
In this regard, Thrones of Decay has a significant advantage over Shadows of Change: it makes two new factions playable in the latest opus of the license, while the previous DLC focused on the factions already playable. I also really enjoyed the Malakai campaign, which I found hard to put down and will probably continue. On the other hand, I find that of Tamurkhan quite ordinary and hated that of Elspeth.
So the answer is probably different from what you expected. Indeed, on a strictly personal basis, I preferred the previous DLC. Yes, Thrones of Decay allows you to purchase lords individually and get a small discount on the bundle. Yes, it has many more new units at launch. Yes, it makes two new races playable – and that in my eyes is its main argument. However, it also gave me the most unpleasant campaign in a Total War: Warhammer and it's hard to look past.
Test carried out on PC by Alandring from a version provided by the publisher.