Leaked Total War: Warhammer 3 DLC factions confirmed as the Champions of Chaos

Last week, an update on the upcoming Immortal Empires campaign for Total War: Warhammer 3 accidentally leaked a DLC adding four factions with wonderfully Warhammer names to the Chaos race's roster. They're called the Ecstatic Legions, the Fecundites, Legion of the Gorequeen, and Puppets of Misrule. (I'm pretty sure I used to own a Metallica EP with a live version of Puppets of Misrule on it.) Creative Assembly has confirmed the leak was accurate, announcing the Champions of Chaos Lords Pack.

Total War: Warhammer 3 already has plenty of Chaos in it, what with being the focus of its Realm of Chaos campaign, so as well as adding four legendary lords and their factions the DLC will come with a new campaign to add some variety. The Champions campaign is all about fighting your way to the ancient ruined city of Zanbaijin to find the Altar of Battle, dedicating souls to your chosen Chaos god along the way.

It comes with new mechanics like Dark Fortresses, strongholds that can be claimed to turn an NPC faction into your vassals as long as you hold them, and Gifts of Chaos, which can be purchased by spending souls earned in battle. You can also spend souls to promote lords to daemon princes. Some of the Gifts of Chaos let you recruit units, and in the Champions campaign any recruited units will join your warband instantly, no hanging around.

The unit roster will get various new additions, including “marked” versions of the basic heroes and lords that differ based on which god they're dedicated to, and four unique Regiments of Renown. Tzeentch gets halberdiers called The Severed Claw, Khorne gets the axe-wielding Knights of the Brazen Throne, Nurgle gets the Chaos giant Bilious Thunderguff, and Slaanesh gets chariots called The Sibilant Slaughtercade. Really, A+ work naming those last two.

Of the four legendary lords in the pack, only Azazel of the Ecstatic Legion has been detailed so far. Creative Assembly calls him “the Swiss Army Knife of Slaanesh” because he's multi-purpose, with a Temptator ability that reflects damage for tanking and a set of spells like Phantasmagoria and Lash of Slaanesh that make him decent in support. Like the base game's Slaanesh faction he can seduce enemy units before battle, and Azael can seduce units from the Empire, Brettonia, Catha, and Kislev for a lower price. The other three lords will be detailed in Creative Assembly's next news posts, and based on the names of their factions expect them to be Festus the Leechlord, Vilitch the Curseling, and the Gorequeen Valkia the Bloody.

Also releasing alongside the DLC will be an update for the Warriors of Chaos race, who were originally introduced as DLC for the first Total War: Warhammer, bringing them in-line with the new Chaos mechanics if you want to play them in Immortal Empires. A free DLC called Marked Chaos Warriors will also give the Warriors of Chaos three variant units: halberds for Tzeentch, hellscourges for Slaanesh, and great weapons for Nurgle.

Loreheads will recognize some of these details, like the Fallen City of Zanbaijin, from a campaign book for Warhammer Fantasy Battle called Tamurkhan: The Throne of Chaos, published in 2011. That book included rules for Chaos Dwarfs, and since data miners found voice files for them in Total War: Warhammer 3, that's one more reason to suspect they might be the next race pack DLC.

The Champions of Chaos Lords Pack, as well as the free Marked Chaos Warriors DLC and the Warriors of Chaos update, will be released at the same time as the beta of the Immortal Empires campaign on August 23.