New Total War fantasy and historical project announcements are coming this December, alongside Warhammer’s Tides of Torment DLC

If you are fond of snake ladies, sea snakes and staffs that look like snakes, you’ll likely be hypnotised by Total War: Warhammer 3’s Tides of Torment DLC, which adds three Legendary Lords representing the High Elves, Slaanesh and Norsca.

Creative Assembly and Sega have just slapped a release date atop this serpentine assembly – 4th December. (PSA: Do not slap anything on real-life serpentine assemblies, unless you are a trained zoologist.) On that very same day, they’re hosting a 25th anniversary showcase “unveiling what’s next for the franchise”.

Expect “new fantasy and historical project announcements, alongside commentary from the development teams shaping the future of Total War.” Hopefully, one of the announcements will be that they’ve finally fixed Twarhammer 3’s currently rather broken AI. No point adding snake ladies if they space out whenever they have to recruit people.

While Tides of Torment will demand a few of your moneybucks, the pack will land alongside some free tweakage and a new campaign for noted demon sexpest Slaanesh. The latter introduces a pirouetting Legendary Lord who once danced at Slaanesh in a sort of sarcastic way, and was accordingly cursed to jig and caper for all eternity. I wasn’t aware it was possible to dance sarcastically. I wish I’d known this as a teen.

“Coming free as part of Patch 7.0 is the Masque of Slaanesh Legendary Lord, providing a brand-new campaign experience for the excess-driven forces of Slaanesh,” Sega explain in their press release. “Alongside her arrival, the High Elves, Slaanesh and Norsca will receive new legacy updates, allowing players to return to past campaigns and experience a host of new gameplay improvements.”

Total War turning 25! It feels like only yesterday that I was defending Mikawa province against three factions simultaneously in the original Total War: Shogun. I’m not sure Twarhammer 3 players are in the mood for celebrating – the hitherto-popular strategy game’s Steam user rating is still Mixed to Mostly Negative, as reviewers rage about everything from DLC pricing through the AI problems to Creative Assembly’s communication. Still, perhaps we can fit in a hymn to the glory days alongside some criticism of the missteps.