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Voss wrote:

Another video and constellation will be coming.
Though not necessarily tomorrow since the line at the end is apparently 'We _shan't_ see the third constellation tomorrow, I'm sure of it.' But then again, this astronomer seems to be a bit of an idiot.

I got the impression that his comment was more a stubborn insistence that nothing important was going on, and that the stars weren't saying anything important. Or in other words, deep down, he already knows what the third constellation will be. But he's refusing to admit that the things he's seeing are in any way significant.

Anyway, we'll find out shortly!

Another video with another 2 star signs...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfzbKB8W6_I

The Drummer is maybe Slaanesh?

Rhya's Cauldron is mercy/death/creation.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

Eumerin wrote:
Anything's possible, and my sample locations might have been skewed. But I'll also note that TW wasn't the first time someone attempted to bring Warhammer mass combat to the computer. There were the two games with you playing an Empire mercenary commander, and a later game with you playing as a chaos champion (iirc). Neither of those games had the same level of success the Total War version has had.

You mean Mark of Chaos? I'd say it wasn't a great game. The single player wasn't really mass battle, nor was it terribly good, the multiplayer had potential but I only ever played it LAN with a mate, I don't even remember if you could play it over the internet. It's the sort of game that would struggle to reach a critical mass to be a good multiplayer option.

Obviously I'd say a game needs to not suck in addition to being Warhammer to really take off, lol. Also I don’t think those games received a whole lot of advertising, if you want to draw on the decades of Warhammer fans that aren’t actively buying models anymore, they do need to know about the game’s existence.

You know, if this does turn out to be a lead up to a warhammer 3 announcement, I hope they're smart enough not to give a hard date. They had a lot of problems getting three kingdoms out, and the up industry in general and the state of the world just isn't conducive to meeting arbitrary dates anymore.

---
And another already:
'Ursunn, the God-Bear'. So... seriously Kislev (shock!).

All this on Geheimnisnacht Eve, huh? [For those that don't know, Geheimnisnacht is basically Halloween, and Morrsleib (the warpstone moon) is usually in ascendance and crazy things and rituals are afoot all over]

Something Evil tomorrow.

Maybe it's just a chaos update and they're putting in kislev as the other lord pack. That would be damn sweet.

 Olthannon wrote:
Maybe it's just a chaos update and they're putting in kislev as the other lord pack. That would be damn sweet.

Warhammer 3 will be focused on the Chaos Powers. Given that, I would be very surprised if the very last release before Warhammer 3 had a Chaos focus.

Very excited for this game, I have an unnatural number of hours put into TWW2 and I am sure that the new one will far surpass it.

Oddly enough I am not all that interested in the races that we will end up seeing, Chaos Demons never really caught my attention, Kislev and Chaos Dwarves could be fun though.

I am most interested in seeing a complete world map (CA would be crazy not to have that), siege battles will hopefully have a good rework, and I wouldn't say no to a more robust diplomacy system with some bits taken from Three Kingdoms as I have heard great stuff about it.

Also even if this is going to be the last Warhammer game from CA I would predict that it would have an incredibly long life and so many updates for years to come. Heck, TWW2 is still going strong and the modding community have blown it out of the park and will undoubtedly do the same for the next installment.

Warhammer TW 2 has the entire RTS fantasy market to itself. The last big fantasy RTS game was Warcraft 3, which was freaking decades ago now. Since then RTS has been on a general decline and there haven't been any big fantasy games in that period to really shake things up. Sci-fi has a few good ones in that period, but fantasy has slipped.

Right now CA has that market entirely to itself and they've produced an RTS with the most diverse factions and number of factions that you won't see until you go way back to 2d sprites and the likes of Warlords Battlecry.

It's very much a landmark series of games and the completed 1-2-3 game is going to be VAST in scope and likely remain unbeaten for content in a very very very long time.


I think this is why, of all their games, Warhammer 2 (and 1 before that) has maintained such a high volume of active players. Even if Three Kingdoms outsold it vastly at speed; it still maintains less concurrent players - heck I suspect in part because it has more competition; even in the west there's several 3kingdoms games of various kinds and in the Chinese market even more. Even if they aren't "better" they still compete and have fanbases of their own.

Right now Warhammer 2 is competing with - basically nothing in the fantasy RTS market. Blizzard could have unseated it a bit if their Warcraft 3 remaster hadn't basically overpromised and underdelivered and also shot the feet out from the classic versions modding community.





That said I don't think we'll have a full map; not unless CA is going to go full on and make Araby (could be done as they did have a warmaster army); Cathay, Nippon, Amazons, and the others that I forget. Basically there's a lot of land still untouched that GW never got too. CA could stretch into those regions - but I wouldn't bet on it. If we are lucky we might get one like they did the Vampire Pirates for Warhammer 2

 Olthannon wrote:
Maybe it's just a chaos update and they're putting in kislev as the other lord pack. That would be damn sweet.

Kislev would be a race pack, and they've stated that they aren't doing any more of those for 2.

Commander Cain wrote:I am most interested in seeing a complete world map (CA would be crazy not to have that), siege battles will hopefully have a good rework, and I wouldn't say no to a more robust diplomacy system with some bits taken from Three Kingdoms as I have heard great stuff about it.

A complete world map is really unlikely. It would honestly be crazy to do it- just too big with too much dead space and too many factions to fill in that were never really done for Warhammer ever (beyond a unit or two that went away with 3rd edition). A couple non-GW factions with lots of dead space that can barely interact with the others just isn't worthwhile. Likely they'll just go north from the current mortal empires border (eshin and the dragon isles) and stick to the Dark Lands, the edge of the Ogre Kingdoms and into the chaos wastes past where the current chaos invasion spawns. That corner pocket is currently so far away its already hard for factions down there to interact with the main areas of interest. Going further east is a non-starter.

Revised siege battles are a maybe.

The most likely is revised diplomacy, built on both 3K and Troy.

It Comes!!

Far beyond the world and its petty wars there exists a dimension of pure, malevolent magic: The Realm of Chaos. It is a terrible place, incomprehensible to the mortal mind. It whispers promises of power, but to behold it is to be seduced by it. To relinquish your soul to it. To become it.

The four Ruinous Powers rule over this place, ever seeking to slip their bonds and engulf the world in a tide of daemonic corruption. Nurgle, the plague god; Slaanesh, the lord of excess; Tzeentch, the changer of ways; and Khorne, the god of blood and slaughter.

On the border between the worlds, two mighty kingdoms stand sentinel: the stern warriors of Kislev and the vast empire of Grand Cathay. But each is beset by its own trials, and now both have cause to cross the threshold and send their armies into the Realm of Chaos.

The world stands on a precipice. A single push will plunge it into cataclysm.

And there is one who schemes to achieve just that, an ancient figure who desires nothing less than to wield supreme power. But to succeed, he will need a champion…

The coming conflict will engulf all. Will you conquer your daemons? Or command them?

Warhammer 3 it is and man I am excited for it.

I'd like to see naval battles similar to Rome 2 but better.


I'm extremely keen to play as Kislev.

Just need to find out more.

Holly molly the animators must've worked overtime!

Just added a marketing quote too - CATHAY is a launch faction!!! That is faction in the core warhammer 3 game

Cathay is completely unexpected, at least as a launch faction, but no Ogre Kingdoms and Chaos Dwarfs makes me sand. I don't really give two figs for Kislev or Chaos Daemons unless Valkia the Bloody is a LL (or if Norsca gets a rework as part of the WH3 launch).

Well cathay, ogres kingdoms, kislev and chaos daemons might aswell be core, i'd hope for Chaos dwarfs aswell but alas.

Awesome, didn't expect Cathay to be a base faction, I thought they would come much later so I am pleasantly surprised!

I would assume that either ogre kingdoms or chaos dwarves would be the pre order incentive now we know more with chaos dwarves being more likely given that CA already have animations for them courtesy of the regular dwarves.

Just saw on WarCom about Cathay and the fact that they fed the artwork for Kislev to CA from the the new Old World game.

The fact that Cathay are a base faction is fascinating. I'm very much looking forward to how they go about it.

EEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Neat! The announcement trailer for the third game! And Cathay! Wow! I did not expect that! Looking forward to it! I do wonder if its appearence is due to Three Kingdoms - both the fact that there's been research by CA on Chinese troops, and the fact that Three Kingdoms got a lot of attention in China? Either way, I'm looking forward to it!

I'm also curious how Kislev is going to be handled. In both Warhammer 1 and Mortal Empires, Kislev is a speed bump whose fall is all but guaranteed (or else there wouldn't be much of a Chaos invasion). Given that, I wonder how it will be treated in the full three game version of Mortal Empires?

On another note, since there's apparently one more Warhammer 2 DLC left to go and it still hasn't been announced yet, I wonder if it will be a pre-order bonus for Warhammer 3 like Norsca was for 2?

"Regular readers of Warhammer Community will know that the Games Workshop creative studio is hard at work on Warhammer The Old World, a project that will see the return of the world-that-was to the tabletop, and their designs have fed directly into the development of Total War: Warhammer III."

HAHAHA I knew it

Okay, well back to my TW2 campaign....got to get ready for this!

Come on Chaos Dwarfs!

OK, I was apparently utterly wrong about Cathay, still shocked by that. [The cynic in me is wondering if its about trying to capture some of the Three Kingdoms buyers and/or the Chinese market, and signs are pointing to yes, since the languages listed are just English and Chinese]

There is a map (and a creepy guy) in the trailer at 2:49. Three figures- one for chaos, one kislev, one cathay, and the map shows some of the Cathay provinces in the game's campaign map style. Shows Nan-Gau, Shang-Yang and a few other things. The Kislev figure is sitting on top of words- '<something> Skulls'

It looks far more North than Cathay used to on old Warhammer world maps, pushed into where the eastern steppes used to be above the Ogre Kingdoms.

Anyway. Given that Skullcrushers are promenient in the trailer I wonder if they're actually doing Kislev, Cathay, Daemons and Mortal Chaos as the 'four factions' for the base game. Three feels like it would be disappointing, and I can't see six (with a distinct faction for each god). FAQ suggests they're doing exactly this. Basically two human factions and 4 god factions.

---
FAQ:
https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war-warhammer-iii-faq/

There is an unrevealed early adopter bonus (currently planned: a race pack)
Languages are just English and Chinese
There will be a combined map as DLC. My guess now is it will be the current TW2 ME map, and cut North East from the Dragon Isles, avoiding Ind, Khuresh, and a chunk of Cathay (or they shifted the whole country north)
Definitely steam and epic, but mortal empires and stuff from 1 and 2 are not cross platform compatible.

WHAT RACES WILL BE AVAILABLE IN TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER III AT LAUNCH?
We are excited to be able to confirm that Total War: WARHAMMER III contains a wider selection of individual races than any previous Total War: WARHAMMER core title.

Deep within the realms of Chaos the four Ruinous Powers of Nurgle, Slaanesh, Tzeentch, and Khorne prepare for war and two mighty kingdoms stand sentinel: the stern warriors of Kislev and the vast empire of Grand Cathay.

We can’t wait to start introducing you to the nine playable Legendary Lords that will lead these races into battle!

9 seems low if they're breaking chaos into 4 factions. 3 for kislev, 2 for cathay, 1 for each god?

Also: This is explicitly _NOT_ the End Times. Its still set around the reign of Karl Franz.

IS TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER III GOING TO BE SET DURING THE END TIMES AND FEATURE STUFF FROM AGE OF SIGMAR?
No, as with Total War: WARHAMMER and Total War: WARHAMMER II, Total War: WARHAMMER III is set around the reign of Karl Franz. Our primary source is Warhammer Fantasy Battles 8th Edition, although we have and will continue to use older editions for inspiration where appropriate.

There is another Warhammer 2 DLC coming

It sounds like Chaos will be 1 faction with 4 god themes. It remains to be seen if that's 1 per campaign or if you can mix and match the gods - with the likely cost being that cities have to be dedicated to one or the other (so it will likely take a fair while to get 4 fully developed cities, one to each god).

Remember in the Old World Chaos Demons is one army not 4 like it is in AoS and for a greater part of Old World history Chaos Demons were mostly allies to Chaos armies (ergo what we now call Slaves to Darkness).




As for Cathay yes I can see GW and CA wanting to make more inroads to China, its a vast market. I suspect if Old World had hung around GW would eventually have done Cathay

Lots of awesomness in that trailer

The Tzarina doing her best angry Elsa
Bear Cavalry
Deamons of Khorne

and.... Cathay -

Also the music.
And the Winged Hussars (not on bears). And the Skull Crushers.
And the Great Unclean One was not a sight I needed while eating lunch
The bloodletters were great too. Actually something to be afraid of.

You know, it will be interesting to see how they handle LLs and lords in general for chaos. On the one hand, restricting greater daemons to a generic lord would be awful, but... who are going to be commanding them? Legendary Lords aren't an issue, but generic ones would be.

It is a good day

Also there are wallpapers of the kislev vs khorne picture (from the old world thread) on Total War access (where various special unit downloads have lived over the years). A variety of crops in different sizes, most centering on the Tzarina vs the Bloodthirster.

Cathay is a genuine surprise. Guess Three Kingdoms gave them a good base to build fantasy focused units from.

Tzarina looks like a badass. Not a fan of splitting up the Chaos rosters by god but we'll see how they implement it. Cathay is a welcome surprise.

Here’s the announcement: https://www.creative-assembly.com/blog/total-war-warhammer-iii-announced

Races will be:
Khorne
Nurgle
Slaanesh
Tzeentch
Kislev
Cathay
+one more unspecified pre-order race.

So last one could be chaos dwarfs, Ogre kingdoms, Hogogoblins, ind or Nippon I guess. I suppose it could also be Araby but that would be very surprising and strange.

Summary from the steam page:

Pre-purchase to get an additional free Race Pack for Total War: WARHAMMER III.
More details coming soon.

Far beyond the world and its petty wars there exists a dimension of pure, malevolent magic: The Realm of Chaos. It is a terrible place, incomprehensible to the mortal mind. It whispers promises of power, but to behold it is to be seduced by it. To relinquish your soul to it. To become it.

The four Ruinous Powers rule over this place, ever seeking to slip their bonds and engulf the world in a tide of daemonic corruption. Nurgle, the plague god; Slaanesh, the lord of excess; Tzeentch, the changer of ways; and Khorne, the god of blood and slaughter.

On the border between the worlds, two mighty kingdoms stand sentinel: the stern warriors of Kislev and the vast empire of Grand Cathay. But each is beset by its own trials, and now both have cause to cross the threshold and send their armies into the Realm of Chaos.

The world stands on a precipice. A single push will plunge it into cataclysm.

And there is one who schemes to achieve just that, an ancient figure who desires nothing less than to wield supreme power. But to succeed, he will need a champion…

The coming conflict will engulf all. Will you conquer your daemons? Or command them?

Ancient one who schemes: Be'lakor?

----

FAQ also specifies that the 'pre-order' race pack is also 'early adopter'

As with our previous Early Adopter bonuses, it will also be gifted to anyone who pre orders or buys the game in the first week after release, so you will still be able to claim the Early Adopter bonus for free up to a week after the game has launched.

So you can still get the bonus after reviews and they'll drop embargos on reviews and lets plays before launch.

WILL TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER III REVIEWS LAND BEFORE THE GAME IS RELEASED?
Yes – as with all recent Total War titles, our review embargo will drop before launch, allowing you time to decide whether to pre order and get the Early Adopter bonus if you’d like.

I'd give odds to the early adopter race pack being Ogres. They're right there in the middle, on the map.

Tzeentch?

Interesting...this would be like the first time Cathay has been actually delved into in detail. Wonder which era(s) of China they will be borrowing the most from, and where the fantasy elements will come in. I wonder too whether there will be any official retrofitting of Cathayan rules into GW's Warhammer or AOS.