On Monday, Creative Assembly announced a new piece of mini DLC for Total War: Warhammer III which will add a brand new species to the Old World: sentient, Chaos-hating man-tigers. The upcoming character pack 'Bhashiva and The Tiger Warriors', will add the legendary lord Bhashiva the White Tiger to the Cathay faction, along with a generic lord, a spellcasting hero, three unique units, and a variant campaign. What's more, the lore explainer in Creative Assembly's announcement gives hints that we can expect models of the Tiger Warriors to appear in the Warhammer: The Old World tabletop wargame.
The Tiger Warriors character pack will retail for $4.99 / £3.99, and is due to release before some time in the run up to summer. It's badged as Total War: Warhammer III DLC, but last December Creative Assembly made some changes to the Total War: Warhammer series that let you use any DLC with any base game, provided you stick to the Immortal Empires global domination campaign mode. But enough practical stuff - what's with these new tiger men?
Here's the basics: the Tiger Warriors are one of the many (many) sentient species created by the Old Ones, originating in the mysterious subcontinent of Ind. When Chaos first tipped the Old World into ruin, their people held out thanks to their noble god Kamau. Their great champion, the White Tiger, led many of them on a long and perilous exodus deep into Cathay, where they pledged their service to Zhao Ming, the Iron Dragon and Master of the Western Provinces.
The White Tiger is not just an individual, but a champion that arises "whenever the tides of Chaos surge", leading their people "into the heart of the Everchosen's armies, driving the Tiger Warriors straight into the storm". And according to Creative Assembly's lore explainer article, this means that while the current White Tiger, Bhashiva, fought against Archaon (the Everchosen who was ultimately successful in driving the world into Chaos) an earlier incarnation fought against Archaon's predecessor Asavar Kul, the big bad for the timeline that Warhammer: The Old World takes place in.
I don't think that my prediction that these guys are coming to the tabletop at some unannounced point in the future is particularly visionary - the Cathay range has been extremely successful so far, and the popularity of buff tiger people is such that there's an entire breakfast cereal based around the concept. But seeing a lore article pointing out that the (big, marketable) special character at the head of the Tiger Warriors duelled the villain for the current edition of the game makes me even more confident.
What do you think - is this a bold prediction, baseless speculation, or just incredibly obvious? Does Cathay even need a monstrous infantry unit? Are you worried that they might be as broken as the damn balloons were before the nerf? Share your thoughts in the Wargamer Discord community. Make sure you're signed up to the Wargamer newsletter as well to get a weekly roundup of all the best stories on the site.