September 12, 2022 A former Creative Assembly developer has clarified that this change would only apply to Domination multiplayer battles.
The big Total War: Warhammer Immortal Empires beta is out in the wild now, and Creative Assembly still has plenty planned for the strategy game. Update 2.1 added the Total War: Warhammer 3 assembly kit, giving modders a whole new set of tools for creating Total War: Warhammer 3 mods. More changes are in store for Total War: Warhammer update 2.2, due out in October, including a potential rules change that would permanently remove units killed on the battlefield.
Nothing is set in stone for update 2.2 just yet, but Creative Assembly shared some possibilities for the patch in the notes for a recent hotfix, which updates Total Warhammer 3 to version 2.1.1. The studio says it’s considering a change that “would result in killed units remaining dead” after battles, which has some significant implications for battle tactics.
Units killed in battle would be impossible to re-summon with this rule in effect, but you’d be able to ‘regenerate’ any units that you had successfully withdrawn – and these could then be summoned back into battle later. Creative Assembly says the idea here is to “increase the importance of clean micromanagement” on the Warhammer battlefield.
“We believe these changes would result in an overall advantage to ranged factions, who will now have the time to use up most/all of their ammunition,” the studio explains in the update post. These ‘spent’ ranged units could then be withdrawn to gain a supply refund.
Creative Assembly says 2.2 will be the first update in which it will be able to incorporate player feedback, and that it’s looking into ways to improve settlement battles, as lead designer Mitch Heastie shared with us at Gamescom.
“Unfortunately, this is a complicated matter to untangle and fix, so we will be looking at what incremental changes can be made in 2.2 as we work on larger changes for future releases,” the studio says.