New Total War Warhammer 3 DLC Omens of Destruction is out today, and it marks the conclusion of a rollercoaster year for Creative Assembly. The studio came into 2024 recoiling from negative feedback around the price and value of its Shadows of Change DLC. Since then, it’s spent the year winning back player sentiment with free updates and its Thrones of Decay expansion. Now it’s looking to continue that resurgence in Omens of Destruction, which delivers three paid legendary lords alongside a free one. Ahead of its release, I sat down with senior game director Rich Aldridge to ask how the team picks its next factions to update, and what lies ahead for the series.
“It’s been a real journey,” Aldridge says of the past year. Look on Steam, and you’ll see Total War Warhammer 3 reviews are back in the blue, with a ‘mostly positive’ overall rating. Recent scores are soaring – 91% of reviews in the past 30 days recommend the Warhammer game. “Our community let us back into that conversation.” Thrones of Decay made a big change by allowing players to buy each of its leaders separately, a trend Omens of Destruction continues, and Aldridge is pleased that putting the choice into players’ hands has proved popular.
Total War Warhammer 3 Omens of Destruction will introduce three new legendary lords – Skulltaker, Golgfag Maneater, and Gorbad Ironclaw – alongside free arrival Arbaal the Undefeated. With two Khorne champions on the way, and the recent arrival of Karanak for free, it’s been a real winner of a year for demon lovers. Aldridge says this was something the players were “really calling for” following updates for Nurgle and Tzeentch – “Sorry Slaanesh, we’ll get to you I’m sure,” he adds.
Karanak allowed the team to “lay the groundwork,” Aldridge explains, and then when it came to picking a legendary lord, “two really stood out to us in Arbaal and Skulltaker. So we thought, why not just do both? Because they’re both equally cool for different reasons. Hopefully Khorne fans will be really happy with all the characters and content that we’ve put into this one.”
This also includes some additions that come from outside of Warhammer’s eighth edition, such as Skaar Bloodwrath from the end times. “We’d broken the demonic factions up into four and needed to find content that would work for them, and that end time content for Khorne seemed like a good opportunity to bring some really iconic units and characters in,” Aldridge explains. The team also digs back in time for options such as the Bloodbeast, an older, named Chaos Spawn.
“It’s all about bringing across that roleplaying element,” he says. “We were always aware of that, but our players really called us out for that in Shadows of Change with some of the content for Kislev. We wanted to make sure that we reacted to that and got it right.” The Bloodspeaker is a welcome addition, he says, offering a more supportive option to Khorne alongside its face-smashing favorites and “rounding out the group” in a satisfying way.
Gorbad is another addition that allows CA to “mix and match” its roster a little more, Aldridge remarks. The iconic commander brings together all manner of Orcs, Goblins, Squigs, Wolf Riders, and other such units. “We’re all big fans of the [Warhammer] lore, but we’re also history fans – so a Napoleonic orc felt quite interesting.”
Golgfag, meanwhile, was about “getting the Ogres back where they should be.” We’ve already seen a preparatory rework to contracts in Total War Warhammer 3 patch 5.3, and the new Golgfag’s Contracts system builds on that further. You can stick to what you know, or you can venture out to the likes of Grand Cathay or the jungles of Lustria to seek your next payday. “He is more nomadic, he’s not about taking settlements and looking after them for himself, it’s for him to pick and choose when those moments are to double-cross.”
The new additions bring the total number of Legendary Lords in TWW3 to the triple-digit mark. So with 100 to choose from, which are Aldridge’s favorites? Repanse of Bretonnia is a personal pick, he says. “I really enjoyed her campaign, it’s not too fancy or flashy, but being able to experience a different part of the world on that crusade.” A long-time Lizardman fan, he also mentions Tiktaq’to as another highlight.
Both Bretonnia and the Lizardmen are factions that Aldridge would like to return to in the future, although he doesn’t know quite when they might fall. “The Geomantic Web [the Lizardmen’s interconnecting magical network] is not where we’d like it to be and that’s something [we want to improve] – but we’ll have to wait and see.” He says the current DLC model works well, along with the regular, smaller updates and additions included in the free patches.
Of course, with the sheer scale of the Warhammer universe, there’s always someone else to please. “I say that, and players go, ‘What about my Slaanesh content? What about my Norsca content?” Aldridge notes that “it’s very easy to focus on one faction, but that faction might not resonate with you, or the person you play with.” This is where the patch features and polishing can come in.
As we move into 2025, then, what does the future hold for Total War’s Warhammer adventures? Might we see a fourth game, or even a branch into the future world of Warhammer 40k? For now, Aldridge seems content with what the team has built in TWW3 and with Immortal Empires in particular. “This was our goal, our vision, to create the Warhammer world – we’re at a point now where we’ve got that playground to play in, and it’s our job to build on that.”
Likewise, the thought of a Total War take on 40k seems to be far from his mind. “We’ve got this beloved IP to work on. We know that there’s more stuff to work on, more characters to add – I want to get my [Halfling] Hot Pot in one day,” he smiles. “That’s my focus, that’s where we’re at for the moment.” The diminutive faction is one Aldridge has long spoken about wanting to build on – “They’re just something I grew up with. Maybe at some point.”
To close out, I ask about the foley work that has gone into the new expansion, which includes the use of actual bones for Skulltaker’s cloak and someone chewing on porridge to emulate the Colossal Squigs. “It’s a real specialist art,” Aldridge says, “the team on the sound design and the audio do an incredible job. It really makes the experience so much more immersive.” He adds that one of his favorite memories from the sound design team was someone running a comb down a piece of cord to create the iconic roar of the Lizardmen.
Given how much of Warhammer takes place in books and on tabletops, getting those audio elements to feel believable is a tough task, and something Aldridge calls “one of the trickier bits when we come to build out [new] packs. That’s a 30-year-old metal miniature – I’m not sure what that sounds like. We have to all come together.” You’ll even hear Aldridge, community manager Steve Coleman, and other devs shouting their hearts out among some of the Ogre and Khorne unit yells. “We couldn’t talk for much of the next day,” he says.
Total War Warhammer 3 Omens of Destruction is out now, with all three of its paid legendary lords – Gorbad Ironclaw, Golgfag Maneater, and Skulltaker – available to buy separately. Abaal the Undefeated also joins the ranks as a free DLC. Head here to take a look at the newest expansion offering.
Don’t start your next campaign until you’ve rounded up the best Total War Warhammer 3 mods, of course. And if that’s still not enough to tickle your tactical tastes, here are the best grand strategy games on PC in 2024.