Yesterday we finally got to see a full reveal for everything arriving in Total War: Warhammer 3‘s Lords of the End Times expansion and it’s a whole heap of content. We’ve got Nagash and his undead legions, a fully-fleshed out Boris Todbringer and Middenland, plus the Glottkin’s putrid hordes, and the greatest of Grey Seers, Thanquol and his giant rat-ogre, Boneripper.
But nestled among the reveals was also the announcement that when Lords of the End Times launches on September 24, you’ll no longer need any Total War: Warhammer games to play the huge trilogy-spanning Immortal Empires campaign, which is the best bit of the series. From the official DLC summary:
“In a series first, purchasing any of the [Lords of the End Times] content grants access to the colossal Immortal Empires campaign with no need to own any of the Total War: Warhammer games, making it a great entry point for new players.”
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The entry conditions for Immortal Empires—the grand campaign which compiles content from all three instalments— have softened over the years. You used to have to own all three Total War: Warhammer games, then it was just Total War: Warhammer 3, and from September, it’ll just be any individual Lords of the End Times character, meaning you’ll be able to unlock Immortal Empires for about $9 (£7.49) in perpetuity.
In fact, when the Lords of the End Times lords go on sale, it’ll potentially get even cheaper. Content-wise, the base version of Immortal Empires amounts to 14 different factions, and 24 legendary lords, and that’s not including all the Free-LC lords and heroes added over the years, plus entire free factions like Bretonnia, who also have multiple playable characters.
Alas, while expansion factions and lords are present in Immortal Empires, as it was previously, you’ll still have to purchase individual DLC to play those—I recommend waiting for a sale and selectively picking up any extra races you’re interested in trying after you’ve played the game for a bit.
You can currently buy Total War: Warhammer 3 for $9 in the 10th anniversary sale, but with this change in September, it’ll actually be better content value to buy Nagash, Thanquol, Todbringer, or the Glottkin for the same price. You won’t get the Realms of Chaos campaign, which is missable to be honest, but you’ll get Immortal Empires, which contains its campaign map, plus one of the new DLC lords.
The same goes for Total War: Warhammer 1 and 2. The second game’s Great Vortex campaign is a fun time, but its entire map is included in Immortal Empires. I’ve spent many hundreds of hours in every instalment in this series, but even I’ll admit there’s basically no point going back to individual games now Immortal Empires exists and collates all content.
And with its endgame rework plus all the new stuff, Lords of the End Times‘ release will be a great time to jump into Total War: Warhammer if you’ve been eyeing it for a while yet never made the leap.