In the year 2000, Creative Assembly brought to market Shogun: Total War, one of the titles that would help redefine the concept of strategy games (also known as RTS) and take them to such a massive and unexplored scale that it would become the leading franchise of conquest games, the Total War franchise.

Among the multiple time periods that were present in Total War, we saw how the famous Warhammer universe entered this saga and brought out 3 amazing and legendary titles that would combine the power of commanding massive armies, controlling and managing cities and entering the dark and powerful fantasy world of Warhammer. Today we will tell you about the incredible opportunity we had to try the most recent expansion of Total War: Warhammer 3 – Omens of Destruction, in which we will have an experience that presses the accelerator in the aspects of war and combat and gives us 3 LíderThey are legendary, each with their own technique in the art of war.

What's new in this Total War: Warhammer 3 expansion?

As we mentioned before, this expansion will allow us to play with 3 legendary Lords: Gorbad Ironclaw, an orc who is extremely unique to his species, as he favors strategy and tactics instead of the senseless destruction that is common to his species. Then we have Skulltaker, a demon of Khorne (The God of Blood) who takes his name very seriously, as he has his collection of trophies taken from the bodies of his enemies. Lastly we have the legendary mercenary Golfag Maneater, who will make sure that your gold chests are always full for your campaign.

This expansion offers the possibility of obtaining each new leader either in a complete bundle or by purchasing them separately from the Steam store. This flexibility, highly valued by the community, has been maintained in all the expansions of the title. To access the new content, you have to create a new campaign, choose the factions that receive the content and finally the Lord of your choice. This new expansion also brings us new units and a free general update that delivers important reworks for the 3 main races of the expansion (Greenskins, Khorne and Ogre Kingdoms) and a new Legendary Lord of Khorne, Arbal the Undefeated, who has the particular characteristic of giving you a total defeat in your campaign if he falls in combat... Since his title would no longer be "He who does not lose"

Get ready to manage more aggressive battle campaigns

One of the first things you can immediately appreciate is that this is an expansion that relies heavily on aggressive gameplay, which is represented in different ways by our 3 main Lords. Remember that Total War, apart from its massive combats, also has its gameplay in the management of fortresses and cities, its economy and politics, as well as its technological advances, which is why I was surprised how even the details of city management always led me back to the creation of larger armies, skills, and dark magic that would give me an advantage in combat… Even the economic advantages that Golfag granted me were being used almost exclusively in its technological advances in war.

Omens of Destruction immerses us in frenetic battles and epic sieges. The stories of the three new Lords are so original that they make this expansion one of the most entertaining in Warhammer.

In my various campaigns I found a particular pleasure in each character, but I think my favourite has to be Gorbad Ironclaw for how intriguing it is to play with an Orc with such a complex and intelligent personality, remember that Warhammer orcs are known for building whatever they want, destroying whatever they want and constantly shouting ""WAAAGHHH!!» As his well-known slogan goes, Gorbad could easily be called an emperor, as he possesses command skills that allow you to organize your troops in a very efficient manner on the battlefield. His most important mechanic is Da'Plan, a Tactics system that allows you to generate improvements to your troops in exchange for Planz which we will receive every time we win a battle. This mechanic will open up endless alternatives when facing enemies on the war map.

Challenging campaigns with new mechanics

From the legions of Khorne, the Blood God, we have Skulltaker, who also brings us the first Chaos Daemons campaign in Lustria. I have to admit that this is the Lord whose campaign is the most challenging of the expansion and in the best way, because Skulltaker’s victory conditions are aimed at crushing victories in combat and not map control, which gives us a new experience moving around the map without having to worry about the progress of our strongholds.

Skulltaker's special mechanic is his Cloak of Skulls, a system that gives him constant upgrades every time he faces strong enemies. In fact, the bigger and more difficult the enemy, the higher the priority we will have to give them on the map thanks to the XP boot and rewards they will give to our Lord.

The factor that makes this campaign very challenging is that enemies on the map will constantly start to flee from Skulltaker the stronger he gets, forcing us to make resource-consuming runs across the map, but Skulltaker has a trick up his sleeve. One of the Cloak of Skulls' enhanced abilities allows him to teleport to any enemy that is in sight range on the map, provided they have enough Champion Essence, which will give us the necessary advantage to corner our cowardly enemies.

Omens of Destruction introduces new perfectly balanced troops

Last but not least we have Golfag Maneater, a mercenary Lord who brings to the table a very unusual play style, as our victory condition will be determined by the bar of Hunger of our troops, which will depend on receiving Meat throughout the campaign to survive and win. Golfag, as a good mercenary, is not a conqueror; he fights for other factions in exchange for huge rewards of gold and Meat, a mechanic that will give us double the rewards, but which also presents us with a challenge by not taking settlements that generate resources for us passively, making us run into deficit most of the time.

Golfag has a well-equipped army of colossal, fast-acting units, whose movement on the map and battlefield will be essential to catch our enemies off guard. Golfag’s mercenary mechanic allows him to loot twice as many resources during fortress sieges, but I admit that the constant and increasingly exhausting hunger bar of my troops was a challenge that had me thinking quickly about my next turn… Either I died on the battlefield or I starved to death.

Conclusion

Omens of Destruction is one of the best expansions that Total War: Warhammer 3 has had in our rating. After a successful launch of the Throne of Decay expansion, Creative Assembly knew how to take advantage of the momentum and gave us an experience of destruction, chaos and action that gives us hours of fun and adrenaline.

This expansion is not very friendly for players who have just entered the title and do not have a basic knowledge of the game mechanics, we suggest that they take a walk through the prologue campaign of Total War: Warhammer 3, in order to further boost the experience of the new expansion.

This expansion delivers on its promise of action-packed campaigns focused on highly aggressive gameplay in every detail. Characters have unique personalities that are extremely entertaining, and new mechanics help expand the hours of gameplay even further.