Total War: Warhammer 3 fans love the Thrones of Decay changes

“We are so back”

Creative Assembly / Sega

Comebacks have been all the rage in gaming these days – for better or worse, as the avoidance of bad decisions wouldn’t make them necessary in the first place. Much has been said about Cyberpunk 2077’s recovery or the slow and steady rise of No Man’s Sky, but with Thrones of Decay, the newest DLC for Total War: Warhammer 3, shaping up to be one of the hottest expansions Creative Assembly has ever released, the British developer deserves to enter the conversation.

After the last-minute cancellation of Hyenas, weak commercial reception of Total War: Pharaoh, and disastrous launch of the Shadows of Change DLC for Total War: Warhammer 3, the studio is firing from all cylinders for Thrones of Decay. Not only does it include a ton of meaty content, fans can choose to buy only the portion of the DLC they are personally interested in thanks to a new pricing scheme adopted by Creative Assembly.

It also seems like a massive amount of fan feedback has informed the decisions made around the faction reworks for Nurgle, the Empire, and the Dwarfs coming to the game for free with the DLC – it’s like the developers had a look at online discussions and transformed them into a to-do list to check items off of.

Hell, we’re getting the bromance between Balthasar Gelt and Zhao Ming teased in the Immortal Empires trailer in the game thanks to Gelt’s new start position, which includes a meme-worthy in-game event with a temporary buff called My Alchemical Romance. You even get the option to return to more familiar lands, so you can still get the old “Welcome to Estalia”-flavor of Gelt.

These devs are loving their job. / Creative Assembly / Sega

Gotrek and Felix finally get the love they deserve and will be made into Legendary Heroes, so we can have a proper team-up between them and Ulrika Magdova under someone’s banner.

Then there are the free Legendary Lord Epidemius, free Gold Wizard hero, and the brand-new Nemesis Crown campaign mechanic to spice up everyone’s playthroughs.

“Can’t cope with all these wins, sorry. Feel dizzy,” one redditor commented. Another one said: “CA is on fire (in the good way this time).” 

Similarly joyous expressions are found everywhere else in the Total War community – it’s as if the shadow of recent disappointments on players finally has been lifted for good. It feels good once again to be a Total War fan.

Of course, a major obstacle remains: Creative Assembly needs to assure that Thrones of Decay remains without large technical hiccups. It has done a lot of work over the last couple of months when it comes to fixing issues with the game and it’d be a shame if the DLC introduced new bugs that plague players – if the final remaining reveals about the Dwarfs are received as well as those for Nurgle and the Empire, Thrones of Decay has the chance of undoing the damage Creative Assembly did to itself last year and that is no small feat.