Total War, as a franchise, has dominated PC gaming for over twenty-five years since the release of Shogun: Total War in 2000. Ever since then, Creative Assembly has significantly expanded the franchise with ambitious results. Shortly after the release of Total War: Warhammer, it achieved unprecedented success with its foray into fantasy. 

To commemorate the anniversary, a new set of lords was released as part of the Total War: Warhammer III: Tides of Torment expansion. Additionally, the update enabled the function to play Immortal Lords using ownership of previous entries. This allows the roster from previous entries to be played within Total War: Warhammer III.

Each new lord added in this expansion brings significant changes to their respective races, along with providing their own different systems. As a new player of this long-spanning franchise, some of the lords are very beginner-friendly, but others aren’t so simple. They bring different complexities through their races, economies, and armies, as they individualize in later turns. 

Denied No Longer as Torment Reigns

Dechala, The Denied One’s campaign is basically pure ecstasy as she provides the easiest experience. The primary means of spreading corruption is by establishing thrall camps, tormentor’s holds for recruitment, and pleasure palaces to generate decadence. Dechala’s economy relies on establishing these settlements, and their required maintenance can be tricky, as thrall generation can decrease over time. Balancing the economy by conquest is completely fun, as Dechala makes her name after being denied for so long.

Decadence allows for the purchase of multiple items that provide buffs during battle, equipable enhancements, and permanent buffs. Marks of Vindictiveness allow for spendable passive or active benefits that are spent during battle with simply clicking and dragging; it’ll enhance any lord or marauder. Purchasing an Opulent Gift provides a new equipable enhancement that can give different effects to any lord or hero. Exquisite spoils of one-time use that empower Pleasure Palaces and give permanent buffs towards the armies. This becomes available after the ninth turn, which can feel like a breeze with Dechala’s violent pace.

When Dechala enters battle, her aggressive battle style is entirely self-indulgent. Each ability she unlocks allows for more opportunities for attacks as she eradicates anything in her wake. Whenever she leads her army of tormentors to battle, it feels exhilarating as she presses on further with her growing army. With the use of thralls, she can easily replenish her army, as they are replaceable. She’s as forgiving with the difficulty, even though she’s completely irredeemable as a character, which made me love her more.

The Faithless of the Norscan Front

A new intruder enters the Norscan border as Sayl the Faithless brings deception in his wake. An arch-sorcerer of the Dolgan tribe, he was born blind; however, that doesn’t stop his ambitions of domination. Through pillaging and razing, Sayl acquires spoils that allow for research-specific technologies. Additionally, through pillaging, he also acquires temporary lords who can colonize, growing his presence. Sayl is a surprising twist, as he doesn’t follow a chaos lord but instead embraces his own ambitions.

Creating the Dark Ritual is the main objective of Sayl’s campaign, by way of creating chaos altars. With each new altar built, it fills the chaos meter that’s located at the top of the screen. Additionally, Sayl also has spells of manipulation that can grant buffs to his army or debuffs to other warring factions. Deception is the key to obtaining each territory in the nearby continents. He’s another evil character that provides a level of fun through leaving a wake of destruction with his army and ogre hero.

In the Court of the Phoenix King

Driven by ambition, Sea Lord Aisilinn prides himself on leading Ulthuan’s navy against any opposition. Residing within his dragonship, it’s capable of making port instantly within range through the Mist Landing stance. In the heat of battle, Aisilinn is a capable strategist and fighter who plows through the frontline. Followed by his fleet, the first available hero provides flanking support through his mist magic. Along with the elementals, Aisilinn’s army comprises elementals and monsters for a unique spin, yet his starting abilities are barely valuable for specific battles.

Diplomatic relations between the Ulthuan factions can be facilitated through the Patron of the Realms. Easily allowing the placement of different lords onto Ulthuan’s factions, developing favor for the Phoenix King. By establishing different outposts for these factions instead, he’s able to gain further favor and rewards. Additionally, he’s able to establish trading colonies for the generation of dragonship parts. This all comes together in his faction-specific tree, Asur Domination, which showcases his priorities to unlock more dragonship lords.

Sea Lord Aisilinn was initially hard to get into and to understand the intricacies of a Total War game. Beginning with his technologies, he’s capable of contacting the other factions at the start of the second turn. This branch immediately opens the capacity to negotiate with the high elf factions or other race factions in the campaign. Of course, there’s a caveat to this technology branch: negotiations with chaos-aligned factions are heavily penalized. There’s always a cause and effect, and Aisilinn is capable of tipping the scales in favor of the Asur through rigorous combat. 

Dancing with Desire

With the release of the update alongside the expansion, a new FreeLC character was added with the Masque of Slaanesh. She desires to regain favor after being cast aside by her liege lord, and dances through every battle with a terrifying performance. The eternal dance is her core mechanic, providing different sets of abilities that are purchased with Tempo. Motivating aggression in her conquest, as every victory generates tempo and unlocks more abilities through the selected mask. However, without cutscenes and her lore being flavor text, she’s fine as a free character, especially with experimental mechanics.

The Roaring of the Seas

These lords relish in conquest, furthering their ambitions through leading their respective armies in battle. Each feels great in its own way, and I end up getting glued to hour-long sessions. However, Aisilinn’s systems tend to get confusing without proper navigation of the Asur Domination window; he ends up providing an enjoyable time without pushing much of the politics.

Dechala and Sayl are more beginner-friendly with their individual systems, reliant on the domination of other factions. Relying on being evil, as their economies depend on the subjugation and pillaging of settlements. But overall, Total War: Warhammer III: Tides of Torment‘s lords allow for the expression and experimentation of selfish ambitions through every battle. 

Disclaimer: SEGA provided a PC (Steam) copy of Total War: Warhammer III – Tides of Torment for review purposes.