As a long-time enthusiast of strategic depth in gaming, few things captivate me more than the intricate details found within a settlement in Total War: Warhammer 3. There’s a particular satisfaction in conquering new territory and discovering a special building that can be constructed, offering unique faction-wide bonuses. While many provide a welcome buff and a rich tidbit of lore, some can entirely reshape playstyles, much like Cathay’s Temple of Elemental Winds allowing Gelt to unleash a wizard doomstack.
Creative Assembly has consistently experimented with settlement mechanics since *Total War: Warhammer 2*. We’ve seen Skaven Undercities, hidden Pirate Coves, allied outposts, and even settlements within settlements such as the Dwarf Deeps, Elspeth Von Draken’s Gardens of Morr, or Oxyotl’s Silent Sanctums. This layered approach culminated in the introduction of one of the series’ most intriguing features: Unusual Locations.
These randomly appearing landmarks can manifest in your settlements, bestowing a range of bonuses or detriments. While many are purely beneficial, a significant number present a classic ‘devil’s bargain’—forcing you to weigh negative aspects against the possibility of unique items, powerful lord traits, or impactful events. Now, Creative Assembly has pushed this concept even further in patch 6.3 (currently in beta), introducing new Unusual Locations designed to affect not just your current campaign, but potentially all future playthroughs.
The upcoming patch adds 20 new Unusual Locations that can potentially spawn in one of your settlements, though you can toggle off the four most campaign-altering ones in the game settings:
- Carnival of Chaos
- Warpstone Meteor Impact
- Dwarf Construction Company
- Abandoned Forge of Hashut
- Ogre Mercenary Camp
- Unearthed Tomb
- Primordial Spawning Pools
- Covenant of the Crimson Plague
- Sartosan Vault
- Cathayan Merchants
- Peg Street Pawnbroker
- Purple Hand Cult
- Underworld Sea Entrance
- Faulty Doomsphere
- A Dark Gift
- Unstable Chaos Portal
- Cult of the Crimson Skull
- Cult of Pleasure
- The Cabal
- Elven Enclave
Many of these additions truly embody the ‘devil’s bargain’ concept. During my time with the beta, I encountered this firsthand with the Purple Hand Cult. They offered significant riches if I allowed them to corrupt my province and spread across the world to nine new locations. It seemed like a favourable deal until I realized their spreading cults could appear in my other settlements, becoming almost impossible to remove without fulfilling very specific criteria.
Another tricky scenario involves the Faulty Doomsphere, which essentially installs one of Ikit Claw’s infamous Skaven nukes beneath a settlement, leaving you to manage the volatile consequences. Transforming these locations into metaphorical ‘monkey paws’ is very much in keeping with the dark and twisted lore of the Warhammer universe.
Out of all twenty locations, two in particular stand out as truly game-altering: The Covenant of the Crimson Plague and The Cabal. The former, a Nurgle Cult, provides potent bonuses but carries the chilling potential to unleash a world-ending plague. The latter, a Tzeentch cult, promises powerful benefits that extend across *all future campaigns*—a truly innovative twist that will intrigue any seasoned strategist.
Causing a Pandemic with The Covenant of the Crimson Plague
Our first deep dive is into The Covenant of the Crimson Plague, a Nurgle laboratory brewing potent plagues and pestilences. If this Unusal Location takes root in your territory, it offers compelling benefits, including:
- Immunity to all non-plague attrition for all of your armies
- Reduced Winds of Magic costs for all spells for your armies
- Increased replenish rate for your armies, as well as allowing all your forces to replenish even inside foreign territory
As Principal Live Designer, Mitchell Heastie, comments, that last buff is “really powerful.” However, the cult’s presence comes with notable risks. First off, the lab will corrupt the land with +20 Nurgle corruption. More critically, there are three different plagues that can potentially break containment into the wider world each turn:
- The Crimson Fever (5% chance): This plague will infect the region the lab is located in, causing attrition, reducing unit stats, as well as region income and growth.
- The Crimson Pox (1% chance): This plague will infect your entire faction with the same debuffs as above.
- The Crimson Plague (0.01% chance): Now this is the world-ender. The Crimson Plague is worldwide, disabling replenishment for all armies infected with it, as well as a 50% chance each turn to destroy a unit in said armies. Massive corruption strikes infected regions and there is a 30% chance per turn for a building to be destroyed. Settlements with no remaining buildings will, themselves, be destroyed.
“If the Crimson Plague does ever seep out from the lab into the world then your campaign changes completely, changing from one of expansion into simply trying to be the last to survive,” says Heastie. Since the plague’s transmission is via armies, he wisely suggests that you “defend your borders like your life depends on it, because it likely does.”
Time Traveling with The Cabal
For those familiar with the lore, The Cabal needs little introduction – they are the most powerful Tzeentchian Chaos cult, though Egrimm Van Horstmann, their infamous leader, has yet to make an in-game appearance. If the all-powerful Tower of The Cabal manifests in your territory, you’ll be presented with a unique task to complete, aimed at strengthening the cult and unlocking powerful, campaign-persistent buffs (as one might expect from a Tzeentchian faction).
“The Cabal is one of the most unique features we’ve ever done in Warhammer 3,” says Heastie. “A Chaos Cult that empowers itself is not unique, but this one does it across the span of multiple campaigns. Essentially, they will remember you.” If you complete The Cabal’s task (such as acquiring 20 legendary lord traits for example), their cult will disappear. However, upon future encounters, they’ll be stronger, potentially unlocking benefits like:
- At 30% power level the Cult provides the “Expedited Schemes” effect: Each time you destroy an enemy faction you gain an effect, lasting one turn, that provides near-instance recruitment and construction
- At 50% power level the Cult provides the “Flawless Machinations” ability: After losing a settlement to an enemy there is a chance the invading force will be destroyed and the settlement returned to you
- At 70% power level the Cult provides the “Inevitable Consequences” ability: After conquering a region there is a chance you will automatically occupy the entire province
- Finally, at 90% power level the Cult provides the “Impossible Outcomes” ability: There is a (very) small chance that each turn that one of your enemies will have their faction be utterly destroyed
Empowering The Cabal would require multiple playthroughs, but as evidenced, their cumulative effects are potentially game-altering, which likely explains the cautionary warning in campaign settings. Heastie also warns of unintended consequences: “This is a Tzeentch Cult after all, so while on the surface this may look like a deal too good to ever refuse, do remember these master schemers have grand plans for world domination, and through you with enough power they may just gain exactly that.” Potentially there’s more to The Cabal than meets the eye, but it’s going to take dedicated campaigns to truly uncover its full scope.
Patch 6.3 is currently in Steam beta due to an AMD compatibility issue, but for those eager to explore these groundbreaking new Unusual Locations, it’s expected to go live properly this week on Digital Tech Explorer.com.