At Digital Tech Explorer, we focus on strategy games that do more than simply look good on the box. In this review, TechTalesLeo explains why Total War: Warhammer 3 – Lords of the End Times is one of the most interesting expansions in the series. It turns one of Warhammer Fantasy‘s most debated eras into a player-driven finale while building on Immortal Empires, the shared campaign that combines content from all three games and features 110 legendary lords and factions.
If I’d been told 10 years ago that this trilogy would reach The End Times, I wouldn’t have believed you. But here we are: three games, 110 legendary lords and factions later, Immortal Empires has successfully sliced and diced the best bits of Warhammer Fantasy into one big, delicious campaign.
At $9 (£7.49), the Lords of the End Times Steam bundle now provides access through any of the expansion characters, including Boris Todbringer, Thanquol, Nagash, or The Glottkin. Originally, you had to own all three games. That requirement was later softened to just the third instalment, and now all you need is one of these lords. This version does not unlock every lord, but it offers the largest and most ambitious campaign Creative Assembly has attempted in the Total War: Warhammer series.
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Lords Of The End Times Lets Players Subvert Warhammer Fantasy Lore
The End Times were a desirable era for a strategy game about bringing chaos to the world, yet they were supremely unpopular in Warhammer Fantasy. How do you end a setting with 30 years of characters and lore? The answer is not well. Besides inconsistencies and u-turns in established lore, so many beloved figures ended up dying off screen or were reduced to mere mentions summarizing where they were when the world literally tore itself apart — like a tick-list of who’s dead. Spoilers: it’s everyone.
But that’s the genius part of the expansion’s fantasy: you can rewrite the whole thing. One of my first campaigns was playing as the Fay Enchantress — effectively Warhammer Fantasy‘s version of the Lady in the Lake — who was sacrificed to resurrect Nagash in the original lore. Instead, I fought my way to his Black Pyramid in the Land of the Dead and crushed him in a climactic final battle. Revenge is sweet.
Players can alter the fates of established figures across the trilogy, including Volkmar, Balthasar Gelt, Karl Franz, Grimgor, Archaon, and Mannfred. Maybe you want Karl Franz to win against The Glottkin? Or maybe Grimgor beats Archaon in this timeline?
Maybe you just want to kill Mannfred over and over, and over again (I know I do). The appeal is not simply portraying the end of Warhammer Fantasy; it is creating a repeatable, player-controlled version of The End Times. It’s officially the end of The End Times.
Total War: Warhammer 3 Endgame Scenarios Add A New Apocalyptic Pressure
The Lords of the End Times expansion adds the long-awaited endgame scenarios. After 10 years, Archaon finally has a proper Chaos invasion, and having played it, I can confirm it’s quite scary. The Everchosen rallies every Chaos-aligned lord behind him and is functionally immortal until players destroy his invasion fortresses and weaken his Chaos host.
Every settlement he razes devastates provinces and stays razed until you defeat him, meaning you’re on the clock to stop the world from being transformed into a hellscape. The update also includes the Great Ritual of Nagash and the Skaven Vermintide, if you prefer your apocalypse undead or rat-flavoured. Hell, you can have them all active at once for the most loreful version of The End Times. You can even become the endgame yourself by playing as Archaon, activating the Chaos invasion when you grow powerful enough.
Creative Assembly Is Still Expanding Total War: Warhammer
It really is the cherry on top of the mouth-watering cake that is Immortal Empires, and the Lords of the End Times release is not the end of Total War: Warhammer. Creative Assembly is still working on campaign AI, and factions such as Bretonnia still need a rework to catch up with the broader Immortal Empires experience.
With the promise of more characters, units, and campaign support, the $9 entry point is a strong value option. As someone with 3,212 hours in this trilogy, it’s the greatest rendition of Warhammer Fantasy‘s world put to code in the Total War: Warhammer trilogy.
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