Total War: Warhammer III — Beginner's Guide

Total War: Warhammer III — Beginner’s Guide

Total War: Warhammer III is a grand strategy game combining turn-based campaign management with real-time battles set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe. It is widely considered one of the greatest strategy games ever made, offering dozens of playable races and legendary lords, a massive combined campaign map, and real-time battles featuring thousands of units including monsters, magic, and legendary heroes.

What Is Total War: Warhammer III?

Total War Warhammer III is the third and final instalment in Creative Assembly’s Total War Warhammer trilogy. Released in February 2022, it combines the turn-based empire management of the Total War series with the rich fantasy setting of Warhammer’s Old World and beyond.

The game operates on two levels. On the campaign map, you manage your faction’s cities, economy, diplomacy, research, and armies in a turn-based format similar to Civilization. When armies meet in battle, the game switches to a real-time tactical view where you command thousands of individual soldiers, cavalry, monsters, artillery, and heroes across detailed 3D battlefields.

What makes Total War Warhammer III special is its Immortal Empires campaign — a combined mega-campaign that uses content from all three games in the trilogy, creating the largest and most diverse strategy game ever made.

What Is Immortal Empires?

Immortal Empires is the definitive way to play Total War Warhammer III. It is a free update that combines the campaign maps, factions, and content from all three Total War Warhammer games into one enormous sandbox campaign.

The Immortal Empires map spans the entire Warhammer Fantasy world, from the frozen wastes of Norsca and Kislev in the north to the jungles of Lustria and the Southlands. It includes every playable faction from all three games — over 80 legendary lords as of 2025 — each with unique campaign mechanics, units, and objectives.

To access Immortal Empires, you need to own Total War Warhammer III as the base game. Owning the first two games and their DLC unlocks the additional factions from those games within Immortal Empires. All three base games frequently go on sale for 75 percent off, making the complete package remarkably good value for the hundreds of hours of content it provides.

What Factions Can You Play in Total War: Warhammer III?

Total War Warhammer III features an extraordinary number of playable factions, each with completely unique unit rosters, mechanics, and playstyles. Here are the major faction categories.

The Empire

The human faction of the Old World, combining disciplined infantry, cavalry, artillery, and war machines. The Empire plays as a balanced, adaptable faction with strong ranged firepower and an electoral system that lets you confederate other Empire provinces. Best for players who enjoy combined-arms tactics.

Greenskins (Orcs and Goblins)

A horde-oriented faction focused on aggressive melee combat. The WAAAGH! mechanic rewards constant warfare, and their roster includes trolls, giants, and squigs alongside massed infantry. Fun, chaotic, and built for players who love offensive play.

Dwarfs

A defensive faction with the best ranged firepower and artillery in the game. Dwarfs have no cavalry or magic but compensate with unbreakable infantry, devastating ranged units, and a grudge system that drives their campaign goals. Perfect for players who enjoy holding the line and punishing enemies at range.

High Elves

An elite faction with excellent magic, strong ranged units, powerful cavalry, and versatile infantry. High Elves have an influence mechanic for manipulating diplomacy. Their balanced roster makes them one of the most flexible factions in the game.

Dark Elves

An aggressive elite faction focused on offensive power. Dark Elves combine strong melee troops, deadly ranged units (Darkshards, Shades), powerful magic, and slave economy mechanics. They reward aggressive expansion and are excellent for players who enjoy offensive strategies.

Lizardmen

A faction built around powerful dinosaur monsters supported by expendable skink infantry. Lizardmen can field some of the most devastating monster units in the game, including Stegadons, Carnosaurs, and Dread Saurians. The Geomantic Web provides campaign bonuses, and their magic is among the strongest available.

Skaven

A unique faction of rat-men with completely distinct mechanics. Skaven cities are hidden on the campaign map, their armies use expendable slave rats backed by devastating weapons teams and artillery, and their under-empire mechanic lets them spread corruption beneath other factions’ cities. One of the most distinctive and entertaining factions to play.

Chaos Factions

Multiple Chaos factions represent the four Dark Gods. Khorne focuses on melee bloodshed, Nurgle on resilience and attrition, Tzeentch on magic and ranged combat, and Slaanesh on speed and flanking. Each plays completely differently and offers a unique campaign experience.

Kislev

A human faction based on Slavic and Russian themes, with hybrid infantry that can switch between melee and ranged combat, powerful bear cavalry, and ice magic. Kislev serves as a bulwark against Chaos and plays as a defensive but versatile faction.

Cathay

A human faction inspired by ancient China, featuring harmony mechanics that reward balancing yin and yang unit types. Cathay has strong ranged options, powerful flying units (sky junks and dragon lords), and a Great Bastion mechanic that mirrors the Great Wall.

Additional Factions

Dozens of additional factions are available through the base games and DLC, including Vampire Counts, Tomb Kings, Vampire Coast, Wood Elves, Beastmen, Warriors of Chaos, Norsca, Bretonnia, and Ogre Kingdoms. Each has a fully unique roster and campaign mechanics.

What Is the Best Faction for Beginners?

If you are new to Total War Warhammer, some factions are significantly easier to learn than others.

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Best starter faction: High Elves (Tyrion). Tyrion’s Lothern campaign starts in a defensible position with a strong economy. High Elves have a balanced roster that teaches you all aspects of combat — infantry, ranged, cavalry, magic, and monsters. Tyrion himself is a powerful combat lord who can carry early battles.

Second best: The Empire (Karl Franz). The Empire plays like a classic Total War faction with combined-arms tactics. Karl Franz is a strong leader, and the Reikland start is relatively safe. The political system adds flavour without being overwhelming.

Third best: Cathay (Miao Ying). Cathay’s harmony mechanics are intuitive, and the Great Bastion provides a clear early-game objective. Strong ranged units make battles forgiving for new players.

Avoid Skaven, Chaos factions, and Vampire Counts as your first campaign. These factions have unique mechanics that are easier to understand once you have mastered the basics with a more conventional faction.

What DLC Should You Buy?

The Total War Warhammer trilogy has extensive DLC. Here is a guide to prioritising your purchases.

Essential Purchases

Total War Warhammer I and II base games are essential for Immortal Empires. Wait for sales when they drop to 75 percent off. These unlock all base-game factions from both previous titles in the combined campaign.

Best DLC Value

The Tomb Kings DLC for Warhammer II adds one of the most unique and entertaining factions. The Prophet and the Warlock DLC makes Skaven significantly more fun with Ikit Claw’s workshop mechanic. The Silence and the Fury adds excellent content for both Lizardmen and Beastmen.

Skip Unless On Sale

Blood for the Blood God is a cosmetic DLC that adds blood effects — notably sold separately from the base game. It is inexpensive but feels like it should be included. Most race packs are worth buying on sale if you enjoy their faction but not at full price.

What Are the System Requirements?

Total War Warhammer III is demanding on hardware, especially in the Immortal Empires campaign where turn times scale with the number of factions.

The official minimum requirements are an Intel i3 or Ryzen 3 CPU, 6GB RAM and a GTX 900-series or RX 400-series GPU. The recommended specification is an Intel i5 or Ryzen 5 CPU, 8GB RAM and a GTX 1660 Ti or RX 5600 XT. For the best experience with large battles and fast turn times, a modern 8-core CPU, 32GB RAM, and an RTX 3070 or better are ideal. An SSD is strongly recommended as load times on an HDD are significantly longer.

Is Total War: Warhammer III Worth It?

Total War Warhammer III with Immortal Empires is one of the best strategy games ever made. It offers hundreds of hours of content across dozens of factions, each with genuinely unique gameplay. The real-time battles are visually spectacular and tactically deep. The campaign provides endless replayability as each faction tells a different story.

For Warhammer Fantasy fans, it is the most comprehensive interactive version of the setting ever created. For strategy game fans, it represents the pinnacle of the Total War formula. And for newcomers to both Warhammer and strategy gaming, it is an excellent entry point that will likely hook you on both.

The only downside is the investment required for the full experience. While the base game alone is excellent, Immortal Empires requires owning all three base games plus whichever DLC factions interest you. Buying everything at once is expensive, but purchasing during sales over time makes it very reasonable for the sheer volume of content you receive.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you start playing Total War: Warhammer III as a beginner?

Start with the prologue campaign, which follows Prince Yuri of Kislev and teaches the campaign map, recruitment and real-time battles step by step. After that, pick a forgiving faction such as Tyrion’s High Elves or Karl Franz’s Empire and begin a campaign on normal difficulty, ideally in Immortal Empires if you own the earlier games.

Should beginners play Realm of Chaos or Immortal Empires?

Most players recommend Immortal Empires once you have finished the prologue. The Realm of Chaos story campaign, built around the captive bear-god Ursun, pulls you through Chaos rifts into the realms of the four gods, which can interrupt your empire building. Immortal Empires is an open sandbox where you expand at your own pace, which suits learning the systems.

What are the best campaign tips for Total War: Warhammer III?

Build your economy early, keep public order and corruption under control before expanding, and never leave your home provinces undefended while your main army is away. Make peace or trade deals with neighbours you aren’t ready to fight, fight close battles manually rather than trusting auto-resolve, and invest in your lords and heroes, whose skills carry a campaign.

Total War: Warhammer III — Beginner’s Guide