TapTap

Games worth discovering

iconicon
Total War: WARHAMMER III
icon
Total War: Warhammer 3’s Chaos Dwarfs are the worst of the worst - and they’re lots of fun

Total War: Warhammer 3’s Chaos Dwarfs are the worst of the worst - and they’re lots of fun

2K View2023-04-13
TapTap
The Total War: Warhammer series has been engaged in a long-running experiment, the purpose of which is to find the secret formula that marries strategy gameplay with the Warhammer universe’s “fluff”—the tomes of complex lore that form the backdrop for its fantasy battles. For the past week, I’ve been playing around with the new Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs DLC for Total War: Warhammer III, and I think this is as close as Creative Assembly has ever come to cracking the code.
Unlike many traditional fantasy settings, Warhammer isn’t divided up into “good guys” and “bad guys.” Instead, the Old World is populated by bad guys and worse guys, and the Chaos Dwarfs are in the running for top of the pack in the “worse guys” division. Hated by just about everyone (save for the similarly reviled Skaven), the Chaos Dwarfs are cruel industrial autocrats, enslaving anyone they can get their hands on to put them to work in their mines and factories, which produce the exotic and powerful weaponry the Chaos Dwarf warriors wield on the battlefield.
Creative Assembly has done a marvelous job of bringing this brutal system to life in the Chaos Dwarfs’ economy. Playing as a Chaos Dwarf sorcerer-prophet Drazhoath the Ashen, I have quite a bit of bookkeeping to look after: First, I’ll need labor to work in my mines and on my production lines. Labor is indicated by a ball and chain icon—the Chaos Dwarfs aren’t wasting time looking for volunteers, mind you.
I need a constant supply of new labor in my settlements, because, you see, the Chaos Dwarfs also aren’t big on things like worker safety or well-being. Buildings usually take a couple turns to complete in Total War games, but the Chaos Dwarfs can finish them instantly by paying from the labor pool—in other words, rushing the job and knowingly killing workers in the process.
TapTap
The constant workforce pinch sends me searching for additional labor beyond my borders. There are two main avenues to pursue here, namely slave caravans and war. Caravans work much the same way as they do in other Total Warhammer 3 factions: I recruit a caravan leader who comes with their own little army of bodyguards, and it acts more or less autonomously as it makes its way from my capital city to a far-flung trade outpost, only interrupting me when a big decision or battle pops up.
Meanwhile, I’ve got Drazhoath tramping around ogre country up in the Mountains of Mourne, picking fights with Greasus Goldtooth and the Evil Sunz greenskins. After each battle, I have the option to send captives back to my capital, where they’ll be distributed throughout whichever provinces I have set to accept new labor.
TapTap
War is, in other words, made necessary by the economy I’m building in my territory. Each new settlement I capture is going to need more labor, and whenever I want fancier guns, shinier armor, or any of the really powerful special abilities my Chaos Dwarfs can use on the battlefield, it creates new demands for additional labor. The Chaos Dwarfs go to war so they can go to war, in other words. Nothing else matters to them, and it creates real incentives to do astonishingly evil things, such as pillaging whole towns just to carry off as many slaves as possible.
It’s grim stuff, certainly, but it’s rare that a piece of Total War DLC has managed this kind of synthesis of lore and mechanical design. It’s a system that pulls me straight into Warhammer’s roots as a grimdark cartoon reaction to the Thatcherite England of the 1980s. It’s all here in Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs: capital’s need and utter contempt for labor, the hostility and suspicion toward international neighbors, and the construction of ever-more-elaborate military equipment. The growth of the security state is even included: As my labor pool gets bigger and bigger, control in my provinces gets increasingly unstable. It’s not long before I need to start instituting draconian policies and stationing my meanest generals in my own provinces just to make sure order doesn’t break down and threaten my weapons production.
Even apart from this remarkably clever socioeconomic commentary, Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs is one of the better pieces of Total Warhammer DLC I’ve seen in recent memory, and it’s one that I’d recommend as a must-buy for any fan of the series.
Mentioned games
Related Posts
Total War: Warhammer III Will Let Players Build Their Own Daemon Prince
[i]Johnson Ge Total War: Warhammer III[/i] will be the final title of the strategy game Total War: Warhammer trilogy. Before the release, we got the invitation from Sega to join a media presentation, and that gave us the chance to have a better view of the upcoming game. Creative Assembly, the developer of the game, showed us intense new additions like the lore of the single-player campaign, new information regarding multiplayer, revealed the eighth and last faction: Daemon of Chaos and gave us a closer look at the Grand Cathay.
Superpixel7K2022-01-21
TapTap
Clash Island - Save the Dwarves Early Access Gameplay - A Unique Tower Defence Game (Android, iOS)
➡️Clash Island - Save the Dwarves is now available for Android devices as early access and coming soon for iOS devices ➡️Android: ➡️iOS: if you enjoyed the video, drop a like &  Subscribe Thanks for your support ❤️ ➡️About this Game Clash on the island - Break into islands to save Dwarves from Orcs Clash Island: Save the Dwarves is a unique 3D strategy game. In the game, you will use the strategy of breaking into the island to confront the dangers of the Ocrs to rescue the dwarf prisoners.
ANDROOSGAMEPLAY 4032024-04-16
TapTap
Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader is a thrilling, colorful journey into the heart of grim-darkness
SHOULD I PLAY WARHAMMER 40K: ROGUE TRADER? Absolutely play this game if you’re a Warhammer 40K fan or you’re chasing the high of Baldur’s Gate 3’s crunchy tactical battles. Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader isn’t as visually lavish as Larian’s magnum opus, but it’s packed with all the Warhammer 40K goodness a fan could ever want, and it’s set in a wild and unpredictable landscape of frontier worlds that provide some much-needed variety to the usual buffet of cookie-cutter space marines.
Ian Boudreau3K2023-12-07
TapTap
Upcoming
Nine Sols
Get icon
Codename: Arrival
Get
Soul Knight Prequel
Get iconicon
Lethal Company
Get icon
Lost Future
Get iconicon
iconView desktop site

TapTap looks better

on the app love-tato

Open with TapTap