Total War: WARHAMMER III — Patch 8.1 Now Live

Hi everyone,

Patch 8.1 has now arrived in Total War: WARHAMMER III, with a primary focus on Campaign AI improvements, as well as introducing some new Landmarks, Technologies, and a swathe of bug fixes and adjustments across the board.

As always, should you run into any new issues after updating to 8.1, don’t hesitate to report it over in our dedicated bug reporting sub-forum.

See you on the battlefield!

— Steve Coleman // Senior Community Manager

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1. Campaign AI Improvements

With Patch 8.1 a number of Campaign AI changes and improvements have been added to the game:

**Campaign AI Prioritisation **

What did we change?

There are certain Campaign AI tasks that lead to its armies clustering and idling e.g. focusing on defending key regions therefore, we’ve added a new mechanism that allows us to control exactly what the Campaign AI prioritises, depending on how many turns have passed since campaign start. Using this new mechanism we’ve de-prioritised tasks e.g. defending key regions in the late game, as contextually they are not that useful at this stage of a campaign anyway.

How will this change affect you in-game?

We expect this to solve a number of cases where Campaign AI armies are clustered and idle around settlements, and the mechanism we’ve developed make this tweak also allows us to more easily solve similar Campaign AI behaviour issues in the future.

Campaign AI End Game Scenario Balance Update

What did we change?

Utilising the mechanism above defensive tasks for end game factions have had their priority decreased, making the late game more dynamic and much more interesting to play as the Campaign AI will seek to expand and compete instead of turtling up and behaving reactively. The priority of tasks that target enemy forces is increased slightly.

How will this change affect you in-game?

End game factions should be less prone to idling and clumping around a settlement, and situations where multiple end game factions end up in a stalemate (not attacking each other, only defending) should decrease.

Campaign AI Known Issues

There are a series of AI related issues that we are working on solving, including:

• End game factions spawning before turn 40 are more likely to both exhibit and cause clumping behavior.

• Multiple end game scenarios triggering at the same time can cause, regular factions bordering end game factions to clump up around their settlements.

• End game factions bordering other end game factions clumping around settlements or near region borders (this can occur regardless of whether the factions are at war).

• End game factions at war with other end game factions that share a border or fight over a contested province can form pockets of armies locked in a standoff (usually this manifests as one side encamping around a settlement, and the other - raiding in the same region). The chance this occurs is proportional to the autoresolve result - the more evenly matched the armies are in auto resolve, the higher the chance this will happen.

• End game factions bordering a human of similar or superior strength ranking may fall back to owned regions and clump up.

2. New Landmarks

Patch 8.1 adds 4 new landmarks focused in Cathay to add additional buffs and benefits when conquering in the east:

[table equalcells="1" colwidth=",,,"]

Settlement

Tier

Building Effects

Name / Brief

Village of the Tigermen

III

Recruitment cost: -15% for all Tiger Warrior units (factionwide)

• Ability cooldown: -20% for innate abilities Guiding Strike, Master Strike and Predatory Instincts of Sawai lords (factionwide)

• Spell intensity +10% for all Clawspeakers (factionwide)

• Wound recovery time: -2 turns for Sawai and Clawspeaker

Monument of the White Tiger

[table equalcells="1" colwidth=",,,"]

Shang-Yang

III

Income: +500 per turn

• Unlocks hero recruitment: Alchemist

• Hero capacity: +2 for Alchemists

• Hero recruit rank: +2 for Alchemists (factionwide)

• Ability cooldown: -20% for abilities “Alchemist’s Elixir of Puissance”, “Alchemist’s Elixir of Iron Skin” and “Potion of Healing” for Alchemists (factionwide)

House of Secrets

[table equalcells="1" colwidth=",,,"]

Nan-Gau

IV

Unlock recruitment of Terracotta Sentinels

• Upkeep: -10% for Terracotta Sentinels (factionwide)

• Recruitment rank: +2 for Terracotta Sentinels (factionwide)

• Defensive supplies: +200 for all settlements factionwide

• Defensive supplies: +50 per turn when under siege (factionwide)

Terracotta Road

[table equalcells="1" colwidth=",,,"]

Shi-Wu

V

All armies ignore movement cost when embarking or disembarking from ships

• Sea Lane movement: -1 turn

Grand Maritime Lift

3. New Technologies

8.1 also introduces two new technologies for the Tiger Warriors faction, focused on reducing upkeep while increasing recruitment rank, speed and damage output across the roster:

Tiger's Call:

• Upkeep: -10% for Tiger Warrior Stalker units

• Recruitment cost: -10% for all Tiger Warrior Units

• Base missile damage: +2 for Tiger Warrior Stalker units

Honed Senses:

• Upkeep: -10% for Tiger Warrior (Dual Axes) and Iron Claw Tiger Warrior units

• Recruitment rank: +2 for all Tiger Warrior units

• Speed: +10% for Tiger Warrior (Dual Axes) and Iron Claw Tiger Warrior units

4. Additional Campaign-side Updates

• Goblin Big Boss, Goblin Great Shaman and Orc Warboss now have access to Chariot mounts in Campaign

• Dragon-blooded Shugengan Lords (Yin and Yang) now have personalised skill lines.

Onwards to the full patch notes!

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PATCH 8.1.0

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Campaign

General

• Fixed an issue with Zhao Ming’s goals triggering for Bhashiva around the Chaos Invasions.

• Fixed bug where, upon meeting the maximum capacity in the Garden of Morr panel, removing one location does not cause available locations to repopulate.

• Fixed an issue with Dragonship armies, causing them to not grant Settled Grudges or Iron Favour. Note that this fix will not affect saved games, only newly started campaigns.

• When playing as Lizardmen, the main buildings of Itza and Hexoatl should now provide the same Control effect as the regular settlement main buildings.

• Hotkeys have now been disabled during Realms of Chaos narrative event messages, to prevent other UI panels opening that can cause issues with other on-screen panels.

• The building "Sanctum of Quintex" should now provide its Growth effect factionwide, instead of only for the local province.

• Changed the effects of Rampaging Oak Landmark, which now provides:

• Immediately causes wall breaches when besieging (Be'lakor's army)

• Attribute: Siege Attacker (all characters factionwide)

• The minor faction Ss'ildra Tor should no longer get Tzeentch corruption from an unknown source.

• Astromancy stance will no longer take 25 campaign moment range on each turn, and will now only take that cost when entering the stance, as intended.

• The following new Landmarks, exclusive to Grand Cathay factions have been added:

• Monument of the White Tiger in Village of the Tigermen (exclusive for owners of Character Pack: Bhashiva)

• House of Secrets in Shang-Yang

• Grand Maritime Lift in Shi-Wu

• When an enemy occupies a settlement with a Purple Hand, the unusual location foreign slot no longer shows building slots (if any were originally present).

• Fixed script error when starting Taurox quest battle Heart of the Dark.

• The Orthodoxy and Ice Court building chains should no longer remain in Kislev settlements after they've been conquered by another faction.

• Fixed an issue where the title "Slayer of Champions" for the Warriors of Chaos wasn't unlocked upon completing the requirement.

• The effect bundle "Raise the Banners" should now decrease cost and increase recruitment rank of Warband Recruitment units.

• Lords will no longer lose Action Points mid turn by changing mounts or ancillaries. Those bonuses will be properly changed on turn start only.

• Fixed issue with re-allocation of AP when switching between stances.

• Fixed instances where recruiting a saved character would initiate a dilemma allowing stacking Names of Power buffs.

• The settlement Massif Orcal should now have 10 construction slots available instead of 8 when playing as Greenskins or Bretonnia.

• Lords will no longer lose Health or other stats when changing mounts in the same turn.

Faction Mechanics

• Added Vampires and Dark Elves to the Iron Favour targeted cultures for Bhashiva.

• Added a price cap to all actions within the Armies of Shang Yang. Costs are now capped to 10x their original value.

• Treasury and Iron Favour rewards are now fixed to the mission type:

• Scaling for destroy faction missions tweaked to better reflect the faction size.

• Slightly improved Iron Favour from culture targeting missions.

• Fixed issue where Armies of Shang Yang would sometimes get more than 3 Zhao Ming’s Goals.

• Increased Gold rewards from Zhao Ming’s Goals, and increased Gold and Favour rewards scaling based on the target difficulty.

• Added building buff to Tiger Den when playing as Yuan Bo in Fortress settlements.

• The Lord limit in Bhashiva’s Armies of Shang Yang no longer counts armies borrowed from allied factions.

• Fixed an issue where Caravan rewards were not updating properly.

• Caravan encounters with Chaos Dwarfs now resolve correctly, without unforeseen wars.

• Fixed an issue where the "Capture Settlement" target in Zhao Ming’s Goals would repeat with the same settlement.

• ‘Da Plan’ scripted tour no longer breaks when triggered.

• Fixed an issue where the Oath activation requirements could be bypassed.

• Fixed an issue where missions under Zhao Ming’s Goals are hidden if they have not been accepted but have had their requirements met, preventing new missions from repopulating.

• Changed ‘Raise Dead’ recruitment panel to include pending recruitment costs in its calculations so that it is no longer possible to queue up more units than you can afford.

• Changed the effects for the ritual "Mistwalker Reinforcements" in Tyrion's Champion of Ulthuan mechanic.

• Removed the effects targeting only Mistwalker units.

• Removed the Vigour loss reduction effect.

• Added an effect providing the army ability "Envelop in Mist".

• Added an effect granting all units in the army the passive ability "Grim Discipline", replacing "Martial Mastery" and "Martial Prowess".

• The ritual "Blessed Cold One Spears" in Nakai's Temples of the Old Ones should now state the correct amount of Spawning Sequence it grants.

• Cults for the Masque and Dechala have received the following updates:

• The building "Charm Offensive" has been added for the Masque with adjusted effects for her.

• The building "Ritual of Excess" has been updated for the Masque. It now has a cost in Favour and provides a large amount of Devotees to the Masque upon building construction.

• The building "Ritual of Excess" has been added for Dechala's Magus Cults with effects and costs adjusted for Dechala.

• When playing as Slaanesh, Daemon Prince of Slaanesh lords should now have the Devour Captives post-battle option.

• Changed the logic of Sayl's Blind War; it will now cause the target to declare war on all factions it knows, except for Sayl, his human allies or any of their vassals.

• Caravans can no longer be dispatched before starting the scripted tour for Cathay caravans.

• Fixed issue where Elspeth was able to construct more than 5 Gardens of Morr.

• Scripted tour for Pleasure Palace no longer triggers when the user selects and deselects a settlement.

• The Boar Meat ingredient for Grom's Cauldron should now unlock when a Savage Orc Shaman unlocks his War Boar mount, Wurrzag unlocks Spleenrippa or Gorbad unlocks Gnarla.

• The Spider Egg Yolk ingredient for Grom's Cauldron should now properly unlock after recruiting an Arachnarok Spider (Flinger).

• The Deeps foreign slots should now be removed if the settlement is traded to another faction. (Note that this fix will not affect existing saves and will only be applied to new campaigns.)

• Ritual of Pestilence and Ritual of Plague now correctly increase Epidemius' tally mechanic.

• Dark Elves should now get the same Income from Ports benefit that High Elves receive from the main building in Ancient Elven Colony settlements.

• Establishing a colony in the Shrine of Khaine's ruins, as Aislinn, no longer requires colony availability points and it doesn't cost colony availability points when ending the turn.

Characters

• Fixed softlock when Aislinn is declaring war on The Awakened and Clan Spittel and both of them are vassals or allies to the player.

• Adjusted the effect of "The Fruits of Torment" after completing all narrative missions as Dechala. It will now increase the unit capacity and replenishment rate in Daemonic Attraction recruitment.

• Nakai should now keep his horde buildings after he gets confederated by another Lizardmen faction.

• Repanse de Lyonesse will now start her campaign with a Peace Treaty and Military Access agreement with the faction Lyonesse.

Units

• Fixed an issue where Saytang the Watcher was ignored by some skill benefits affecting Heroes.

• Fixed the Gifts of Slaanesh not being applied to Generals when they are wounded or have a hero action applied to them.

• Fixed and issue where the Daemonsmith Sorcerer with the Lore of Hashut didn't have the Hide (Forest) attribute.

• In Rewards of Dread the cost to increase unit capacity of Chimera and Preyton should now correctly increase each time you purchase it.

• Increased the recruit time of the Chimera to 2 turns, to be equal to all other T4 Monsters.

• When playing with a Tomb Kings faction, the Salt Mine building should now increase the recruitment rank of Liche Priests as intended.

• Dragon-blooded Shugengan Lord (Yin and Yang) now have personalised skill lines.

Balance

• Miao Ying’s starting army buffed to help her early campaign experience.

• Increased number of Stalkers given in Ivory Road dilemmas. Reduced the price of units in one of the choices when units are given through an Ivory Road event.

• Some ancillary balancing:

• Dragon’s Gaze: Armour +15, Enemy Hero action success chance -15%

• Horns of Shang Yang - Armour +15, Spell Resistance +30

• Storm Wind Coronal - Armour +15, physical resistance replaced with Ward Save +12

• Vambraces of Yin - Melee Attack and Melee Defense +6

• Burning Vambraces: Melee Attack and Melee Defense +6

• Dragon’s Fang: Melee Attack +12

Events & Missions

• Styrkaar the Sortsvinaer should now appear for Azazel after finishing his missions.

• When playing as the Beastmen, completing the mission "Fall of Man" should now properly trigger the event "The Fall of Men" granting the ancillary "Banner of Fallen Kings".

• When playing as Grom the Paunch, all versions of the mission "Cook for the Hag" should now properly complete when the correct recipe and ingredients are cooked.

• Fixed a script error that occurred when completing a Shanty mission.

• The Gotrek and Felix quest battle now triggers for Bhashiva.

• Fixed a bug where daemon invasion forces in Bhashiva's quest line do nothing.

Items

• Fixed new Cathayan ancillaries not properly being generated from ancillary drops.

• Fixed an issue where fusing two green arcane items as Valkia was destroying the items but wasn't producing a blue one. Valkia should now receive a blue arcane item when fusing green ones.

Technologies

• The technology ‘Service Great and Small' should now appropriately reduce the cost and build time of Bhashiva's military buildings. Note that the ‘Peasant Huts’ and 'Peasant Stables’ won't be affected by this technology as they're not considered military buildings.

• Added bespoke Technologies for Tiger Warriors in the Cathay Technology tree.

• Fixed Celestial Dragon Guard and Celestial Dragon Crossbow benefits to provide their benefits to the appropriate units and their RoR versions.

Skills, Abilities & Traits

• Changed Traditions of Fortitude to now affect all Tiger Warrior units. Also changed how the Tiger Warrior Sawaii benefits are displayed to be consistent with other skills in the tree.

• Caravans now possess a new skill, allowing them to reduce or become immune to attrition.

• Fixed issue where Norscan Provincial actions effects were applying to player armies instead of enemy armies.

• Drycha's skill "The Natural Order" should now increase the recruitment rank of Branchwraiths as intended.

• Fixed an issue that caused the Mentor skill to occasionally not be visible for Celestial General Lords.

• ‘Dr