Total War: Warhammer 3 Update 5.0 patch notes: Steam Tank overhaul

Here’s what players can expect from the next update

Creative Assembly / Sega

Update 5.0 for Total War: Warhammer 3 will arrive on April 30, 2024, alongside the Thrones of Decay DLC, bringing free Legendary Lord Epidemius, reworks for the Empire, Dwarfs, and the Daemons of Nurgle, as well as sweeping balance changes and fixes to the game.

Steam Tanks are getting a big overhaul as part of the update. Being one of the oldest units in the game as they were originally made for Warhammer 1 in 2016, their model and functionality didn’t quite impress anymore, which is why they’ve gotten a refresher in Update 5.0. Their shiny model features a commander looking out of the turret and forgoes the awkward ramming attacks in a melee in favor of letting off some steam. Like, it will release hot steam to burn nearby enemies.

They will also benefit from a new rule regarding missile block, named Directional Shield. From the front, a unit with Directional Shield will benefit from its full chance to block missiles, but shots from the side or back will meet much less resistance, making positioning very important – just like for real armored vehicles. I’m not calling this a hint at a World War 1 or Warhammer 40,000 game coming to Total War, but that sure seems like a feature you’d want for those settings.

Since Empire, Dwarfs, and Nurgle got reworked as part of the update, Creative Assembly took the opportunity to do some work on their unit rosters, which is especially apparent for Dwarfs.

An important change was made to homing projectiles, which are used by many spells: Instead of all targeting the same entity and achieving little results against larger formations, they’ll randomly get assigned different targets, spreading destruction over an entire unit.

Pursuing units that are running from the battlefield should prove more effective as well, since the developers found and corrected an issue that prevented over two thirds of a chasing unit from attacking the fleeing enemies. This should give a reason to add some lighter cavalry units to your armies from now on, since riding down routing enemies will be of value once more.

There’s some great UI changes included as well, such as the split of passives, attributes, and resistances in unit cards – deciphering what’s what had become really difficult previously.

You can find the full Total War: Warhammer 3 Update 5.0 patch notes on the official website.