Total War: Warhammer 3’s upcoming Thrones of Decay expansion gets huge pricing change

Thrones of Decay, the upcoming expansion for strategy game Total War: Warhammer 3, will now be available to purchase as either three separate faction packs, or as a bundle at a discount. So, if you don’t fancy shelling out the full £19.10 for all three factions, you can grab new bits for either Nurgle, the Empire, or the Dwarfs for £7.49. If you do buy just one to start off with - say, to get a feel for the quality of Thrones of Decay as a package - you’ll get a 15% discount on the remaining two packs in the future.

The move is the latest from developer Creative Assembly in a bid to regain trust with its community after a disappointing DLC release in Shadows of Change and a series of PR blunders. Staff at CA, it should be noted, were evidently under enormous pressure at the time. Hyenas, Sega’s most expensive game to date, was shuttered before even seeing release.

In terms of Total Warhammer, this is CA’s second (quite classy, imo) mea culpa in recent months. Warham’s Shadows of Change expansion saw a ton of new units added in February, following criticism that the content of this new DLC format for the series simply didn’t live up to the expectations set by its price increase. CA also reduced the price of Total War: Pharaoh, bringing it more in line with my objectively correct assessment, and refunded players who had purchased the game at full price.

The post also makes mention of the recent SEGA layoffs, if only briefly and to reaffirm commitment to the fans and series.

Right, let’s drop the objective newsy voice for a bit. I’m tempted to use an adult phrase like ‘cautiously optimistic’, but who am I kidding? I am ravenous for Thrones of Decay. All rumours point to Tamurkhan, a chaos maggot burrowed in the body of an ogre chieftain riding a giant toad dragon, as the headlining Nurgle lord. That’s like, three cool things in one dude! Tamurkhan was the star of one of Warhammer Fantasy’s most legendary supplement books, The Throne of Chaos. The maggot’s main rival was Elspeth Von Draken, a dragon-riding spellcaster, and almost certainly the Empire’s new legendary lord.

Also, more dwarfs! Maybe a thunderbarge! Maybe slayer engineer Malakai Makaisson on a thunderbarge! Maybe a halfling hot pot from some reason! I feel like a kid, honestly. If this pricing structure had come out for a different expansion, I might have considered it. But, thematically speaking at least, there are no weak links here.

Thrones of Decay itself is set for release sometime this month, although any definitive date does seem to have been shuffled around what with all the issues at the studio. If you’re already burnt out on Total War, however, you might want to keep an eye on Manor Lords if you’re not already. It’s a mix of city builder and TW style battles, and it's also out later this month, on both Steam and PC Game Pass.