Total War: Warhammer 3 anti-player bias may get a fix soon, no Hobgoblin Khanate for now

A summary of the latest Q&A with the developers

Total War: Warhammer 3 Game Director Rich Aldridge and Lead Designer Sean Macdonald held a Q&A session on the game’s Discord server on March 31, 2023, answering questions from the community – a lot of questions, actually. Players asked some really interesting stuff and the two developers had some juicy responses regarding their plans for the upcoming Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs DLC, its accompanying update 3.0, and the future.

Here are the most important pieces of information from the Total War: Warhammer 3 developer Q&A session in case you missed it.

Total War: Warhammer 3 anti-player bias may get a fix

AI factions bee-lining towards the players, ignoring threats toward their own interests along the way, and being a general pain in the butt is nothing new in Total War: Warhammer. However, it may be that these dark times will be left behind us in the not-so-distant future: “We found some interesting things with regard to anti-player bias recently in the code base,” the developers stated. “So we are now actively looking to make some positive changes here for you all.” While these changes won’t be ready to go out in time with update 3.0, the team is looking to push them out in “an update(s) thereafter.”

Some adjustments to the AI will be made in update 3.0 already, however, which should tune its behavior to be a bit more interesting for players.

Total War: Warhammer 3 campaign map changes in update 3.0

The Realms of Chaos campaign map will get an additional seven regions with Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs, the Immortal Empires gets five new regions. The developers have added a few new landmarks as well, which won’t just have bonuses for the Chaos Dwarfs in store.

The Immortal Empires map will feature a new Sea Lane as well, which connects the River Ruin with the Frozen Sea in the north. The River Ruin will become traversable by ship with Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs, which is going to be great for Drazhoath the Ashen in particular, as he starts in the south of the darklands.

Two NPC Chaos Dwarf factions will be added to the map as well, dwelling in the center of the darklands.

Other Total War: Warhammer 3 update 3.0 contents

The developers confirmed a few other changes coming to update 3.0 as well:

• Nested tooltips.
• Daemon Prince gifts filter.
• Searchable locations and landmarks on the campaign map.
• Unit card tooltips.
• Lore of Fire rework.

Total War: Warhammer 3 won’t get Hobgoblin Khanate any time soon

Asked whether players could expect more from the Eastern Steppes soon, where the Hobgoblin Khanate is located in the lore, the developers said that we should not “expect any more characters or units from this part of the world for now.” While that is not a final “no” regarding a future addition of the Khanate, it seems like Creative Assembly’s gaze will wander elsewhere for now. We know that some Grand Cathay content is on the way, for example.

The Hobgoblin Khanate joins the Halfling and some other of the more obscure factions in the “maybe one day” department. Nagash is another character the developers would love to add.

Total War: Warhammer 3 confirms that Boris Todbringer will get his day

Things were a little more concrete when the developers were asked about Boris Todbringer, one of the Empire’s most prolific Elector Counts and badasses. “Toddy”, as the community calls him, has been one of the most-requested lords for a while now and the developers confirmed that “he has a bigger role to play down the road and will eventually have his day!”

That’s a win for the Toddy fans. Ghorth the Cruel, a prominent Chaos Dwarf character, “for the time being absolutely dwells in the background,” however, so you win some and you lose some.

Total War: Warhammer 3 Dwarfs might also get access to relic mechanic

The developers are aware of the fact that the venerable Dwarfs will require a rework sooner rather than later, and one piece of that will likely be that they’ll be given access to the Chaos Dwarfs’ relic collection mechanic.

It was confirmed that the Chaos Dwarfs would be able to collect ancient Dwarfen relics related to the ancestor gods in Immortal Empires despite the absence of the Drill of Hashut in that game mode, and the developers have plans to make these available to the regular Dwarfs as well.

Things the devs have plans for in Total War: Warhammer 3

Here are some things the developers are looking to address in future updates:

• Overhauling the Dark Elves Slave mechanics, especially in light of the Chaos Dwarfs mechanics regarding Laborers.
• Including more items with huge impacts on campaigns like the Sword of Khaine.
• Overhauling all the older factions over the course of Total War: Warhammer 3’s lifetime.
• Bringing unique campaign mechanics and battles from Total War: Warhammer 2’s Vortex campaign into Immortal Empires.
• Reworking Gotrek, as the current implementation is not satisfying the developers.
• Fixing the Chaos corruption visuals on the campaign map.

Things the devs currently have no plans for in Total War: Warhammer 3

Here are some things the developers currently are not actively planning for (note that this doesn’t mean these things will never come to the game):

• Releasing additional Regiments of Renown for the Chaos Dwarfs as free DLC like for the base factions of Total War: Warhammer 3.
• Adding standard bearers to units.
• Adding the Siege Giant to the Chaos Dwarfs’ roster.

That’s about it for the most important points brought up during the Q&A session. Some other interesting tidbits concern the Chaos Dwarfs, who speak their own language specifically made for the game and who can confederate each other through the Tower of Zharr even if factions have gone extinct in the meantime, just like how Beastmen confederations work.

Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs releases on April 13, 2023, and adds a trio of playable factions with their own campaign goals and mechanics into the game. And let’s be honest, who wouldn’t be excited about a faction that’s able to field a literal pain train from its unit roster? You'll still need to contain your enthusiasm for a little bit, though. Until then, check the best Total War: Warhammer 3 mods to keep yourself occupied.