On Tuesday, Creative Assembly dropped a teeny tiny teaser video hinting at what Total War: Warhammer 3 fans can expect from the firm's 25th Anniversary showcase, along with the message "He's back! Do you dare to face him?" We're willing to bet folding money that the trailer foretells that the next Total War: Warhammer 3 DLC will focus on the return of Nagash, Supreme Lord of Undeath, the biggest and baddest Necromancer ever to stalk the Warhammer world - and if Nagash is back, the End Times can't be far behind.
The most immediately obvious part of the trailer is a colossal vortex of blue green energy spiralling up from some kind of magic ritual site - flashy, but also not that unusual in the Old World. But squint close enough and you can see High Elves clashing with zombies in the foreground, and daemonic statues surrounding the base of the ritual site. If you know your Warhammer lore, that makes it a dead cert - this is the battle of Nine Daemons, when the lich Arkhan the Black performed the fell sacrifices necessary to resurrect his ancient master Nagash.
Nagash is unfeasibly powerful, functionally a god of death, and he's going to be an utter monster in Total War: Warhammer 3. It's kind of hard to comprehend how powerful he's going to be - when he returned to tabletop Warhammer in 2014, it cost 1,000 points to field him in an army, fully half of the budget for a regular army, and literally the most expensive unit in the game.
Nagash also heralds something even more explosive - the End Times. From 2014 to 2015 Games Workshop released five supplements for Warhammer Fantasy Battles, starting with The Return of Nagash. This was the literal apocalypse for the Warhammer World, which added a whole host of new units for different armies, including several more colossal heroes, like Grey Seer Thanquol riding an utterly massive new version of his rat ogre Boneripper, or the herald of the apocalypse himself, Archaon the Everchosen, riding a flying, three-headed, kaiju-sized version of his steed Dorghar.
Are the End Times upon us, then? It would certainly make sense for Creative Assembly to release a cycle of five DLC for Total War: Warhammer 3 based on the original End Times supplements, adding new Legendary Lords - and maybe some new End Times campaigns for older characters, too? All of which raises the specter of Total War: Warhammer Age of Sigmar at some point in the future…
We'll find out the truth on Thursday December 4, during Creative Assembly's 25th Anniversary Showcase. Come and join the friendly gang in the Wargamer Discord community to chat about the reveals. And to keep up to date with all the latest news about Warhammer, of both the Total War and tabletop varieties, make sure you subscribe to the Wargamer newsletter.