Total War: Warhammer 3 review – Shadows of Change – an expansion full of changes

The Shadows of Change expansion for Total War: Warhammer 3 was heavily criticized due to its higher price. Therefore, I decided to take a good look at her teeth, because the presented trailer has not impressed me in a long time as in this case. How things are in the end, I will tell in the next lines of our review.

• Platform: PC
• Publication date: 08/31/2022
• Manufacturer: Creative Assembly
• Genre: Strategy
• Czech localization: Yes
• Multiplayer: Yes
• Download data: 120 GB
• Game time: 30 hours+
• Price: 612 crowns (Xzone)

Mother Ostakya controls forest creatures in Total War: Warhammer 3

I didn’t start my first campaign as Kataj or Tzeentch. I was more impressed with the new legendary character Kislev. Mother Ostakya attracted attention from the very beginning. From the very beginning, he does not have the traditional units of this faction at his disposal. Instead, it lasts for a few rounds and only features woodland creatures, monsters, and witches riding sleds pulled by creatures you really don’t want to encounter while walking around the battlefield. Therefore, it seemed to me to play for her not only interesting, but also relatively difficult. She also stood up to the dark elves, whom I hate with all my heart because of the way they wage war. But very quickly, I managed to discover the beauty of evil animals and strange monsters from the depths of the forest. I was often successful in ambushing, so the Witch King also tested his version of the Teutoburg Forest.”

Her starting position in the Total War: Warhammer 3 – Immortal Empires campaign makes her an interesting regional player to counter the Dark Elves, but she can actively partner with the nobles to make a decent profit. These are great businessmen. Her unique ability, Witch’s Hut, resembles the giant cauldron of the overgrown goblin leader Gromm. Like him, this character also creates various spells and curses with raw materials found after certain conditions are met, greatly reducing her enemies’ stats. At first glance, this may not seem like much, but when fighting in combat with cursed sups, it is quite noticeable on them due to the reduction in armor, attack efficiency, or a significant slowdown. I found pulling to be quite fun, but at times relatively difficult.

Another dragon in Total War: Warhammer 3 brings a number of new features

Another character that I really liked was the jade dragon Yuan Bo, whose starting position is nowhere other than Lustria, which is not far from where Mother Ostakya starts. However, there is more to the mansion than just a haunted witch. From the very beginning, he has two cities in Lustria and one metropolis in Cathay, which at first glance may seem like a victory, but when you only have one army at hand, it’s not that much fun. Rather, it is, up to a certain point, quite a decent hell, from which you can normally get out only after a certain number of rounds. It is also not completely out of the question that you will simply lose one of the cities in the name of peace and more efficient expansion, or simply “sell” it.

Compared to his Kislev counterpart, Yuan Bo doesn’t bring many new warriors to the battlefield in Total War: Warhammer 3. However, he is a very interesting factor on his own, as he can destroy enemy units. And when I say “do,” I mean literally. When their health is significantly reduced, you focus it on them and he will send the enemy commander or other prominent figure to hell with one blow. His faction’s specialty is ‘Matters of State’, which is very similar to the use of slaves on the Chaos Dwarfs, but on a much larger scale. Thus, you will not only speed up the construction of buildings, but also the hiring of units. In some steps, you can even gain diplomatic advantages, allied troops, or townspeople willing to take up arms for you temporarily. Abilities are very useful and will help you grow faster more than once.

Anyone can be a werewolf in Total War: Warhammer 3.

The last thing that caught my attention was the demonic servant of the god Tzeentch, the mysterious Changeling. Or maybe it was a mistake, because as a result, after several hours of playing, he seemed to me the most interesting of the proposed characters. Unlike them, he does not actually build, but rather creates cults of the god Tzeentch in the settlements he attacks, acting on the same principle as in the case of the Skaven underground cities. However, the set of features in them is much more diverse than in the basic version from Total War: Warhammer 3, so if you have more or less one format for Rats, then there are several options for cults. One works as a recruiter, others are more focused on spreading their influence and generating funds. The nice thing is that they can randomly spread around the neighborhood.

In terms of units, I didn’t find the Changeling as interesting as, say, Mother Ostaqya, which doesn’t make it too different from Yuan Bo’s Jade Dragon. Like his opponent, this “hero” relies more on the special abilities he possesses. His trump card is the ability to transform into almost any leader of the Total War: Warhammer 3 game world. At the beginning, this is only an appearance, but as you progress through the campaign, special attacks and spells open up for you, so if you take the form of the mage Gelt, for example, you You can deal decent damage to your enemies. His goal is the realization of the Great Plan, which in itself is also good entertainment.

Through Shadows of Change, the creators are decently expanding the base

Shadows of Change brings a number of interesting new features to Total War: Warhammer 3, thanks to which I will not hesitate to call this expansion one of the most important. At its core, its main idea is quite close to the concept of faction DLC, thanks to which it is able to justify its price, at least from my point of view. Three fresh leaders, history, new units and mechanisms, that’s what it’s all about. From myself I will say that this data disk is definitely worth paying attention to. That is basically assuming you like one of the factions that is expanding.