Immortal Empires is the thing that the entire Total War Warhammer trilogy has been building to. Combining the maps of all three Total War Warhammer games, the upcoming expansion was a topic of fan discussion long before Total War Warhammer 3 was even announced. And while some fans felt the latest installment didn’t meet the standards set by other Total War games, Immortal Empires may be enough to make it worthwhile for some.
Creative Assembly’s promise will soon become a reality, with the studio releasing the first teaser trailer for Total War Warhammer 3's Immortal Empires expansion. The teaser also announced the open beta launching in the third quarter of 2020. Unfortunately, Sega and Creative Assembly aren’t ready to reveal a full release date just yet.
Immortal Empire’s teaser brings back some fan-favorite factions and characters as it showcases different battles across the combined world map. Veteran players can even tell which kinds of in-game battle each scene represents. The trailer opens with a Cathayan Sky Junk descending on a battlefield where a Vampire leads her undead host against the armies of Grand Cathay and the Ogre Kingdoms. After a map transition, viewers watch a combined force of Skaven and Nurgle daemons assaulting a castle in the medieval-inspired Kingdom of Bretonnia. In the third scene, a column of Imperial soldiers scrambling to repel a Dark-Elven ambush is seen.
The final scene shows a visibly unhappy Emperor Karl Franz looking over the map with two of his generals. Then, after the screen cuts to black, viewers can hear him shout, “Summon the Elector Counts!” That final line is a bit of a nod to the Total War Warhammer fans. It’s one of Karl Franz’s more common lines and something of a meme in the fan community. Most of the other on-screen characters seem to be generic members of each faction, though viewers can catch brief glimpses of Henri le Massif and Malekith the Witch King from Total War Warhammer 2.
As stated above, Immortal Empires will combine the maps of all three Total War Warhammer games. It’s a follow-up to the Mortal Empires expansion for Total Warhammer 2. Notably, Mortal Empires was not a perfect translation of the first and second game’s maps into a single world. While every faction unit and named character from both games was present, sections of both maps were altered or removed for performance and gameplay reasons. The second game’s map in particular had large chunks hacked off to make room.
It’s unclear how closely the western parts of Immortal Empires will resemble the maps from the first two games. While some fans are undoubtedly hoping for a perfect 1-to-1 recreation of all three games, that may or may not be feasible. Hopefully, Total War Warhammer 3 fans will get a better look between now and when the beta launches later this year.
Total War Warhammer 3 is available on Mac, Linux, and Windows PC.