Total War Warhammer 3’s frost wyrms are just shrinking because they’re cold, I swear, and other changes in new hotfix
The Dwarf's new grudge system now requires a little less breathless violence to appease
Thrones of Decay - the expansion for strategy game Total War: Warhammer 3 that finally made it viable to steamroll the old world with a doomstack of 20 tanks, just as Franz intended - just released around three weeks ago, but developers Creative Assembly are already on their third hotfix. This one is mainly aimed at re-balancing an overly demanding new grudge system for the Dwarfs that punished players for stopping to enjoy a swift pint of Bugman’s instead of constantly being on the offensive, but also includes so many other fixes it’s veering into larger patch territory.
The age of reckoning, as this new dwarf rework is called, would previously give you ten turns to collect as many grudge-points as you could hammer out of your foes. After the time was up, you’d either get buffed or penalised, depending on how you performed. The issue was that the target numbers would rapidly get too demanding, often leaving players in the lowest tier - known as ‘Elgi’, because the Khazalid word for ‘weak’ is the same word for ‘elf’. Now, the tiers have been reworked, so that the middling tier is more of a neutral state, and the grudge-points themselves are easier to achieve. There’s much more nuance than all this, so do have a read of the full patch notes if you’re interested. Me, I’m all for having some room for beer breaks. There is, after all, only so many times you can scream “they have wronged us!” before your throat gets dry.
The hotfix doth not cease its bounty there, though. At a glance, there’s at least an additional 30 items on the list. Of special note is a downsizing to Kislev’s frost wyrm, from roughly the size of Dread Saurian to more in-line with a carnosaur. Huge single entities may look imposing, but the bigger they are, the more missile fire they attract. Hopefully, this should make the wyrms a bit more nimble and survivable. Elsewhere in the patch, the 'channel magic' post battle option has been fixed to stop you always losing, and steam tanks now collide into foes with a more satisfying thud.
It’s been a strong month for Twarhammer, and even Total War: Pharaoh players are eating good. Thrones Of Decay was a blimpin’ good time, and Egypt recently got a massive free map update. If you’re still on the fence about diving into the Twarhammer trilogy, it’s worth holding off for at least another week. The yearly Skulls event - which traditionally sees big discounts on Steam for all Games Workshop’s licensed games - kicks off this month, May 23rd. If you want something to tide you over ‘till then, I recently chronicled my journey trying to conquer the game as a pirate with a pathological aversion to ever touching grass.