Last year Total War: Warhammer 3 received two DLC add-ons. The beta of Immortal Empires was a free expansion of expansive size, while Champions of Chaos was a paid expansion with four legendary lords leading Warriors of Chaos factions and a snappier campaign. Fans have been rabidly awaiting news of more, especially after data miners found voice files suggesting Chaos Dwarfs were on the way.
In a video message posted to the Total War Twitter feed, game director Rich Aldridge gave an update on what’s planned for 2023 and why it’s taken longer than planned.
“We knew that we needed to get Immortal Empires to you in the best possible state,” Aldridge said, “and that’s where we focused all of our efforts last year. Making sure that we’ve got a great foundation going forward through Immortal Empires, but also in patching Warhammer 3 itself and getting it to the state we need it to be to add new content and experiences later this year and beyond.”
Though Aldridge didn’t clarify what those “new content and experiences” will be, he did confirm when the first one is scheduled for release. “We’ll be able to share that with you come April,” he said, describing it as a “passion project” that the team wanted to get “just right” before putting it out. As for the rest of 2023, “We aim to deliver two more exciting experiences also later this year, so one in summer and one in the winter.”
That is, however, “not a concrete plan” and work will also continue on patches throughout the year. “A lot of steps are needed in creating a DLC,” Aldridge said, “and I’m sure you’re aware of that. Starting with the creative spark, development, but much goes on behind the scenes. Everything that we need to get looking and feeling just right before we can showcase and release it to you all.”
Players have been vocal about the absence of news from Creative Assembly regarding its DLC plans for Total War: Warhammer 3, and Aldridge addressed that. “We want to be as concrete as possible but in doing so,” he said, “we need to be in that position before we can communicate it to you. We don’t want to disappoint, we want to excite. We’re passionate about what we make and we want to make great content for you to enjoy for years to come, and we’re moving as quickly as we can on this, so please do bear with us even if it doesn’t always look that way at times. I’d really appreciate that.”
The tone of commentary from fans on Reddit and other places regarding Total War: Warhammer 3 and the lack of DLC news has become pretty hostile. While this will go a long way to mollifying that, it would also be nice if fandom cooled its jets one time instead of hassling community managers because players demand to be updated every second of the day rather than just having a little patience.
Anyway, while Chaos Dwarfs seem likely for one of these three add-ons, the other two are an open question. Lord packs adding new leaders for Cathay, Kislev, and the Daemons of Chaos? Revamps of existing factions from the first games, maybe updating the Vampire Counts to add Neferata and Nagash as legendary lords? New mercenaries based on the tabletop Dogs of War army? Whatever they turn out to be, we can probably forget about Ind, Nippon, and Khuresh.