Video Games

Total War: Warhammer 3 – Thrones of Decay: all new units and mechanics

Here’s what the DLC brings to the table

Marco Wutz

Creative Assembly / Sega

It’s a happy day for fans of Total War: Warhammer 3 – the highly anticipated Thrones of Decay DLC has been officially revealed. Elspeth von Draken, Tamurhkhan, and Malakai Makaisson will lead the forces of the Empire, Nurgle, and Dwarves into battle.

For the first time in Total War: Warhammer 3 history, players will not only be able to purchase all new content as a bundle, but can purchase each faction’s content separately. Naturally, you’ll be interested to know what each Legendary Lord brings to the battlefield in the wars to come.

Combining all official information and trailer observations, here’s an overview of all new units and mechanics in Total War: Warhammer 3 – Thrones of Decay.

TW: WH3 – Thrones of Decay: Elspeth von Draken

  • Faction: Empire
  • Legendary Lord: Elspeth von Draken
  • Legendary Hero: Theodore Bruckner
  • Mechanic: Imperial Gunnery School – research special unit upgrades by earning Schematics from the damage your experimental units cause in battle
  • Mechanic: Amethyst Armory – purchasing exclusive and powerful units
  • Mechanic: Gardens of Morr – teleport between friendly settlements
  • Generic Lord Type: Master Engineer
  • Generic Hero Type: Engineer
  • Five Units and Three Regiments of Renown – including Marienburg Landship, Steam Tank Volley Gun, Nuln Ironsides, Hochland Rifles, and Knights of the Black Rose
Total War: Warhammer 3 Thrones of Decay screenshot of Elspeth von Draken.
Elspeth von Draken leads the defense of Nuln. / Creative Assembly / Sega

Elspeth herself is a powerful magic caster riding a Carmine Dragon. She wields Death Magic with such great effectiveness that rumors about her being a Vampire are running rampant.

She’s a great patron of technological research, which combines the might of gunpowder with magic to create powerful Amethyst units.

TW: WH3 – Thrones of Decay: Tamurkhan

  • Faction: Daemons of Nurgle
  • Legendary Lord: Tamurkhan
  • Legendary Hero: Kayzk the Befouled
  • Mechanic: Warlord of Nurgle – unite chieftains from all over the world under your banner
  • Generic Lord Type: Chaos Lord of Nurgle
  • Generic Hero Type: Chaos Sorcerer of Nurgle
  • Five Units: Plague Ogres, Toad Dragons, Rot Knights, Pestigors, and Bile Trolls
  • Three Regiments of Renown: The Rotting Riders (Rot Knights), The Angels of Decay (Plague Drones – Death's Heads), and Noxbringer (Soul Grinder of Nurgle)
Total War: Warhammer 3 Thrones of Decay screenshot of Tamurkhan.
Tamurkhan seeks to bring the Empire down. / Creative Assembly / Sega

The Maggot Lord is a fearsome melee combatant in the field and can tank massive amounts of damage, continuing the fight thanks to a near limitless pool of stamina. He, too, has a mount to charge into battle on: Bubebolos, a unique Toad Dragon. Should Tamurkhan fall in battle, he’ll sap the lifeforce of surrounding units to keep him going.

Tamurkhan collects devoted Chieftains during his campaigns, recruiting those who he defeated into his own ranks to prepare for the final crusade against the forces of good.

Learn more about Tamurkhan's mechanics and the Nurgle faction rework coming with Thrones of Decay in the linked overview.

TW: WH3 – Thrones of Decay: Malakai Makaisson

  • Faction: Dwarves
  • Legendary Lord: Malakai Makaisson
  • Legendary Hero: Garagrim Ironfist
  • Mechanic: Spirit of Grungni – mobile workshop and transport vessel
  • Mechanic: Malakai’s Adventures – seek out powerful foes to test and improve your newest inventions
  • Generic Lord Type: Daemonslayer
  • Generic Hero Type: Dragonslayer
  • Five Units and Three Regiments of Renown – including Doomseekers, Goblin Hewer, Thunderbarge, Grudge Raker Thunderers, and Slayer Pirates
Total War: Warhammer 3 Thrones of Decay screenshot of a Thunderbarge.
A Thunderbarge brings massive airborne firepower to the table. / Creative Assembly / Sega

Malakai, a Slayer-Engineer, is a ranged support character on the battlefield – he whittles down the enemy with all sorts of munitions and missiles.

Like all Slayers, Malakai seeks a worthy death in battle, looking for the most powerful enemies to face. However, as an Engineer he also seeks to learn new tricks and improve his equipment as much as he can.

All three factions – Elspeth, Tamurkhan, and Malakai – will get their own campaign goals in the Realms of Chaos scenario, acting independently of the base game’s Ursun storyline.

Free content in Update 5.0 includes a Legendary Lord, a Legendary Hero, campaign reworks for the Empire, Nurgle, and Dwarves, and the Nemesis Crown campaign mechanic.

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Marco Wutz

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg