This week, Sega and Creative Assembly launch the Total War: Warhammer 3 Omens of Destruction DLC, bringing multiple new Legendary Lords to the game as centerpieces for new campaigns. Skulltaker joins the demonic armies of Khorne in search of challenging opponents, Golgfag Maneater brings an opportunistic mercenary approach, and Gorbad invents and blends tactics on the fly as a brilliant strategist. These three are joined by new stories, units, mechanics, and more as they increase the already packed faction list of TW: Warhammer 3.
The new ways of WAAAGH!
As you might glean from the name of the DLC package, the new faction leaders in Omens of Destruction are incredibly destructive forces, but each in their own unique way. Skulltaker is a proud cleaver of mighty foes with a cloak made of the skulls of his most legendary adversaries in service of the Khorne faction. With each infamous kill, Skulltaker adds a skull to his cloak and gains unique powers to fuel his combat prowess and the might of his armies.
Meanwhile, Golgfag Maneater is one of the most famous mercenaries among the Ogre Kingdoms faction. He swears allegiance to nothing but feasts and coin, and he has an insatiable appetite for both. Golgfag makes his way through the campaign by taking contracts from other factions and going to war with their enemies. If he causes enough mayhem, his client will reward him with riches and other prizes for his future conquests. Finally, Gorbad Ironclaw brings a more strategic approach to the Greenskins than an Orc and Goblin enthusiast might expect. Through war and challenges, Gorbad can come up with tactics and formations via Da’ Plan that can route his foes via clever strategies and formations.
Each of these three might be very aggression-hungry, but I was highly amused by how differently each of them approach battle and conquest. Skulltaker has Khorne’s trademark bloodlust and you can gain battle bonuses for him by remaining active in conquest, but his biggest feature is his Cloak of Skulls. By defeating other Lords or Legendary Lords in battle, he can harvest skulls to activate the powers of nine legendary hero skulls in his cloak. They do everything from raising his ability to lead and the morale of his troops to raising his personal threat on the battlefield as a combatant to overworld bonuses like movement extension and Khorne corruption spread. Basically, the more Lords you target with Skulltaker, the more of an unstoppable force he will become.
Golgfag Maneater feels like the hardest to play among the new faction Lords, but he’s still fun. As a legendary mercenary among the Ogre Kingdoms, Golgfag has access to Mercenary Contracts. If he’s not currently on a contract, Golgfag can take a contract from a nearby faction as an invitation to join in their war against an enemy. If Maneater can do enough battle, raiding, razing, and general ruckus against his client’s enemy within a set of turns, he’ll fulfill the contract and gain meat and money to bolster his armies for the next battle. Maybe the most dangerous aspect of Golgfag is once he takes a contract, he can teleport directly to the client’s main settlement and begin his march from there, making it far easier to keep marching and stacking kills, meat, and riches.
Gorbad Ironclaw might be my favorite of the three. I like the composition of Orc and Goblin armies anyways, but Gorbad brings an awesome twist to them as the most capable Orc strategist. Gorbad has access to the unique Da’ Plan mechanic. It’s a menu of strategies and formations that can be unlocked by meeting certain conditions (such as killing enemies with arrows or trolls, recruiting a certain unit, or unlocking a certain technology, just to name a few). Then he can equip those tactics to bolster his forces with unique bonuses.
For instance, Squig Herds are cheap beast units, but also pretty unreliable because they can be distracted and dispersed with ease, but with ‘Erd Mentality, they become more difficult to break and route, and gain melee and damage resistance that stacks based on how many of them are grouped. That can turn a set of Squig Herds into a solid set of shock troops for flanking soft-bodied archers and distracted combatants. There are tons of other strategies you can unlock and you only need to have a certain collection of units in your army to equip a tactic. It makes Gorbad a standout faction leader if you like changing your formations and tactics and want to be rewarded for it.
Skulls for the Skull Throne
As if Total War: Warhammer 3 didn’t have enough to do already, the Omens of Destruction DLC adds a wealth of aggressive fun to the faction list. They also each get an influx of new units, regiments, and Lords under their control. Gorbad definitely gave me my favorite moments, but Skulltaker and Golgfag have some very interesting twists on their playstyle that I want to explore further as well. Either way, if you’re a fan of aggressive campaign play and conquest in Total War: Warhammer 3, each of these faction leaders is a solid pickup for your holiday Warhammering.
These impressions are based on an early release version of the Total War: Warhammer 3 Omens of Destruction DLC. Each faction will come to the game as DLC on December 12, 2024 for either $8.99 per faction, or bundled at a discount.
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replyTJ Denzer posted a new article, Total War: Warhammer 3 Omens of Destruction DLC adds exciting new ways to tame the world
