Total War: Warhammer III is a turn-based strategy game crossed with real-time tactics published by Sega and developed by Creative Assembly. Like most other Total War games, it features epic full-scale battles in which you play the role of the commander, ordering your units into battle and executing your ingenious or haphazard tactics.
The gameplay is similar to other Total War games, so if you've ever played one you know what to expect. Unlike the more historical-based games, however, it features fantasy themes and units from the Warhammer universe, including magic, monsters, gods, and demons.
The game has a huge-scale plot to it, which is played out through a bunch of different perspectives using the different races. The world is always the same, but depending on which race and lord you choose to play you'll see it through a different lens - the map is so huge that some races never really need to interact with each other, instead, all playing out their own stories and goals in their own corners of the world's dramatic stage.
The game takes place in the Realm of Chaos, said to be the source of all magic in Warhammer. I won't go into the plot too much, it really has to be played to be appreciated and the writing is superb enough for me not to want to spoil it.
I will say however that the ending of the story changes depending on which of the races is successful. All of them are racing to achieve their goals, with their goals generally being pretty final and preventing the other races from achieving theirs.
The Champions of Chaos Lords Pack adds four new lords, each of them the greatest champion of one of the four Chaos Gods. They too now join the fray, hoping to reach the ancient city of Zanbaijin.
They each have some new mechanics unique to the Champions of Chaos, as well as some mechanics that they get to themselves.
Essentially, the Champions of Chaos act as a new "race", with one of each of the Lords in it being aligned with a Chaos God - Azazel, Prince of Damnation, for Slaanesh, Festus the Leechlord for Nurgle, Vilitch the Curseling for Tzeentch, and Valkia the Bloody for Khorne.
As well as the lords, the DLC adds "marked" heroes, 36 new "marked" versions of the mortal Chaos units, a new Chaos Warshrine with four "marked" variants, and a Regiment of Renown units for each Chaos God, meaning four new ones in total.
"Marked" units are essentially variants of existing ones, except they are marked for the Chaos God the Lord is aligned with. The Marauder Horsemen for example, when working for Valkia, become Marauder Horsemen of Khorne, and they get a different look and feel, as well as the potential to have throwing axes. Marauder Horsemen of Slaanesh on the other hand get javelins.
Not all marked units differ from God to God mechanically, but they do all get a unique look and feel, which adds to the theme of the game a lot.
The Champions of Chaos have a mechanic called "Chaos Gifts". Winning battles grant them the Souls of their enemies (and sometimes allies) which can be sacrificed to their Chaos God in exchange for gifts. These gifts have upkeep, but they give powerful effects or reinforcements.
There are also "Dark Fortress regions", which can be occupied by the Champion of Chaos in order to let them construct a powerful stronghold. These may also come with a Vassal in the right circumstances.
Champions of Chaos recruit their forces instantly (as opposed to other factions which can only recruit three per turn, and take a turn to arrive). They do this thanks to their "Warband" mechanic - they are granted units as Chaos Gifts, or they recruit them from local provinces. Mortal units can then be dedicated to a Chaos God by marking them.
Chaos Lords can also be promoted to Daemon Princes at the cost of souls thanks to the "Path to Glory" mechanic, and Heroes and Lord can also dedicate themselves to the Chaos Gods, marking themselves and gaining new powers and abilities.
The mechanics are fun and feel powerful - you genuinely feel like a rampaging Champion of Chaos as you march fearlessly into enemy territory and hunt down opponent armies and settlements. Thanks to the Warband mechanic you can replenish troops easily, and the Souls system rewards bloodthirst.
It doesn't just extend to enemy armies either. When you win the battle at a settlement, you can choose to occupy it, loot it, or raze it, essentially burning it to the ground. This generates a huge amount of souls that you can dedicate to your Chaos God.
The generation of souls is essentially what progresses them through the storyline, each time they hit a milestone number of souls earned they forge the path a little closer to the ancient city of Anbaijin by opening still-healing scars in the world.
The Gifts are fun, with some of them being more powerful and expensive than others. Taking them is a strategic choice since they require a certain number of Souls per turn upkeep.
This also makes hunting enemies and razing settlements suddenly a requirement - if you're too slow to generate souls, you will lose your gifts and your power will wane.
The Path to Glory is a nice touch too, it gives progression to your heroes and lords by allowing them to gradually walk the path of serving the God of Chaos and become more powerful in the process. It changes them visually and mechanically and fits with the theme of the pack beautifully.
In addition, the path comes with certain choices you have to make for them, with the choices having irreversible changes to the character's abilities. This adds a level of strategy to the Path to Glory and makes it more than just a level-up system.
The playable Lords are well designed and fun, although their difficulty is fairly low compared to some of the other races (at least in my experience).
Each is unique, and the voice lines are well written and acted, adding a serious amount of character to the Champions. Vilitch the Curseling is the best example of this - they're a malformed sorcerer-twin comprised of a sorcerer and a warrior, and they argue with each other fairly often (despite one of them being completely incoherent to anyone but the other).
Each Lord has specific faction effects as well as Lord effects which makes them play differently from the others in spite of their shared mechanics. Vilitch for example spreads Tzeentch's corruption and can convert their own battle casualties into souls as well as the enemies.
They have access to a special "teleport" stance, which lets them move through impassible terrain, and they also have a special ability called "changing of the ways", which lets them alter the fabric of reality at the expense of souls, bringing units out of nowhere or even breaking alliances between other factions.
That's not an exclusive list, and I'm not going to list all of the factions' abilities here since it's easily available on the Total War website. What I will say is that each of the factions is unique and genuinely fun to play, with its own challenges and playstyle. It really tests your skills by getting you to play in ways you might not have before, particularly with the addition of new mechanics and units.
Verdict: 5/5
Lord Packs are nothing new to Total War: Warhammer, however, they aren't always as packed with content as Champions of Chaos is.
Ignoring the question of what content should or shouldn't be included on the release, which is really a morale one rather than a financial one, when it comes to DLCs there are a few things I personally want to think about. Does it alter the original game massively? Do I get a lot of meaningful content for the price? Is the content something that is fun and interests me?
Champions of Chaos knocks it out of the park. Each of the Lords is hours of content alone, and when you put the four together you're really getting a lot of bang for your buck. In addition, it keeps true to the core game while adding enough unique mechanics to make it more than just a reskin of existing content.
If you enjoy Total War: Warhammer III and you can spare the money for this Lord Pack, I can't really see any reason not to get it. It's a wonderful addition to an already epic game.
Total War: WARHAMMER III – Champions of Chaos Lord Pack releases on 23rd August 2022 for £12.99.
