Patch 4.1.0

Patch 4.1.0 is a patch for Total War: Warhammer III, released on 21 November 2023. The previous update was Update 4.0. A hotfix for this patch, Hotfix 4.1.1 released on 23 November 2023. A second hotfix, Hotfix 4.1.2 released on 30 November 2023. A third hotfix, Hotfix 4.1.3 released on 12 December 2023. The final hotfix, Hotfix 4.1.4 released on 23 January 2024. This Patch was replaced by Patch 4.2.0 on 22 February 2024.
== Release Spotlight ==
=== Skill Point Reset ===
We’ve added a button to allow you to reset Skill Points. When clicked, this will wound the character for 3 turns, and will clear all skills. Once the character returns, their skills can be redistributed! Use this to switch up your playstyle on the fly, or adapt to a campaign that might’ve swung in a new direction so you remain on top.
=== Settlement & Siege Battle Update ===
The goal of this patch is to improve your experience with the current settlement battle gameplay and the features within it. While adjustments have been made to interactions with settlements on the campaign map, the bulk of the changes can be seen within the battles themselves.
We’ll look at the intent of the changes, how we’re striving towards that intent, and how it will alter your settlement battle strategies moving forward. Let’s roll!
=== Linked Capture Points ===
Intent: to add more depth to gameplay when using stealthy units to exploit the score-based victory objective. An example being players using stealthy units to capture the Tier 5 Zharr Naggrund settlement early on in the campaign.
*The major capture point has been fairly exposed to stalker units and should be more of a final fall back location when defending your settlement.
**This change also pairs with the 4.0 update, where we removed victory tickets from the key building point.
*You will now find that the major capture location is locked by the key building location, and to gain access to the major location as the attacker you will have to capture the key building point to unlock it.
*This has been done to promote more of the desired fall back gameplay and to make capturing a key point a little harder in the early game with the use of stalker units.
=== Settlement Vision Abilities ===
Intent: is to add further gameplay depth when using stealthy units to exploit the score-based victory objective. Currently, stalker or other stealth units can walk freely throughout a settlement without being spotted.
*Buildable settlement towers now have an ability that grants vision of stalker units in the nearby area. This is to aid in finding those sneaky units who run through your streets unseen on their way to the capture points.
*Destroying the building will disable the ability to allow you to freely roam the settlement.
=== Additional Barricade Positions ===
Intent: is to add more battle flow control options to players in both major and minor settlement battles. An example being some of the minor settlements having split paths with a barricade in one path but not the other.
*We have gone though each of the settlement maps and added in more barricade placement options where possible, Some maps have more options than others that make use of the space within the settlement.
*Barricades have been strategically placed to face outward from their connected capture locations, effectively bolstering the defences of these key points. While some of the barricade placements may appear unconventional at first glance, they have been carefully designed to address various angles of attack in settlements with multiple entrances. Our aim was to create a more balanced and challenging siege experience for all players.
=== Weapon Damage vs Buildings Rebalance ===
Intent: is to increase the overall time it takes for units to destroy buildings. This will come alongside a building health rebalance, which we’ll get to in a moment, as the current sentiment is that buildings are destroyed too quickly to be effective during defence.
*The building damage modifiers for melee and missile weapons have all been rebalanced to make sure that units feel like they’re doing the kind of damage you would expect when attacking various buildings in battle.
**Some units, such as the Skaven Warp Grinders or the Dwarf Miners and artillery, are more themed towards the destruction of buildings and this will be shown in their greater ability to bring them down in battle!
*Units with fire type attacks or the Wallbreaker attribute will get increased bonus values for this modifier when attacking buildings, and, both of these additional bonuses stack.
*We now display this information on the unit info panel within the Weapon or Missile Strength tooltips.
**NOTE: This is only displayed for units that can attack walls.
=== Buildings Health Rebalance & Progression ===
Intent: is to add more incentives and usefulness to upgrading the Wall building and increase the overall time it takes for units to destroy the walls in battle. This will work in tandem with the weapon building damage modifier rebalance mentioned above.
*We have added more functionality to the defensive building chains on campaign.
*The buildings health now scales up as you improve your settlement Wall defence building in campaign, and provides you with a more entrenched defensive location to hold off your foes.
**The primary focus for these changes are the outer walls, the outer perimeter towers and the gates.
**Note that the unique settlements (like for example Altdorf) have these increased unlocked by the main campaign buildings chain, rather than the walls.
*Each time you upgrade the walls of your major settlement, we now increase the building health in the battle, you will now benefit from increased health values for your walls, towers and gatehouses that scale up with the building levels.
**The overall health of an outside wall has been approximately doubled.
=== Walled Towers & Buildable Towers Range Split ===
Intent: is to create a difference between the projectile ranges of the wall towers and the built towers.
*We have now split the ranges between the settlement wall towers and the buildable towers within the settlement.
*The wall based towers have retained their longer range as they’re built in to the settlement whereas the buildable towers have a much reduced range as they’re role is to be more of a reactionary solution to enemies attacking a specific area within your settlement.
=== New Backgrounds ===
We’re delighted to enhance your Total War: WARHAMMER III experience with a touch of nostalgia and added personalisation. We’ve reintroduced the main menu themes from Total War: WARHAMMER I and Total War: WARHAMMER II, offering more ways to customise your experience.
Indulge in the nine classic images from the first instalment. Or breathe life into your menu with the ten animated backgrounds from the sequel, all alongside the existing Total War: WARHAMMER III themes.
To change the background, simply hover your mouse over the main menu to reveal the ‘<‘ and ‘>’ icons and click through to select your preferred backdrop.
== Patch Notes ==
=== Stability & Performance ===
*Fixed a rare crash that could occur when a Legendary Hero would spawn for the AI.
*Changing the difficulty from another difficulty to Legendary and back to another difficulty will now make the Realism checkbox value revert to the previous value.
*Fixed the Battle Realism checkbox in campaign options showing the setting from the preference file instead of the settings from the save file, which caused it to sometimes look as if it was inverted.
*Fixed a rare pathfinding crash.
*Fixed a Multiplayer crash when two or more people try to teleport to a Quest Battle at the same time.
*Fixed a rare soft-lock when playing as Slaanesh and ending your turn after summoning the disciple army for the first time.
=== Gameplay ===
==== Rules & Systems ====
*Reworked homing projectiles to be far more aggressive and accurate in their homing, enabling them to hit their targets more consistently.
*Fixed pending Diplomacy offers not being interactable if they were received when the Diplomacy panel was already open.
*Spellcasters, without Snipe, are now revealed, for example while hiding in forests or while casting spells.
*Fixed an issue where the Warriors of Chaos / Norsca Enslave Captives option would sometimes appear for other races post-battle, rather than just between the Warriors of Chaos and Norsca.
*Ambush withdraw zones have been moved from behind the ambushed army to a harder to reach location.
*Siege capture points now use sticky tooltips and contain relevant information about capture point behaviour.
*An alert has also been added for attackers when they are losing control of a location that unlocks another.
*Fixed a number of Lord recruitment rank technologies that were not increasing said rank when replacing a Lord, only when recruiting a fresh one.
*Certain buildings that applied corruption faction-wide were applying it to every region, and so it would combine in provinces with multiple regions. Now, it applies per province.
*Fixed some instances where, when a settlement building was damaged, the settlement would lose its walls.
==== AI Rules & Logic ====
*Fixed an issue where AI flying units remained idle after deploying with the attacker’s reinforcing army in a walled settlement battle.
*Fixed an issue causing AI reinforcing units to remain idle once they deploy on the map when a nearby ally unit group is attacking the settlement walls.
*Garrisons will now correctly enter the battlefield under control of the AI when delegated to the AI.
*Improvements have been to made ensure AI defenders in settlement battles are not pulling back too aggressively from enemy units, as it was leading to them becoming idle and not engaging enemy units.
*Improved the position of AI archer units to allow them to pull back from settlement walls when the attacking army has entered the settlement.
*Reduced the frequency of ground-based AI melee units attempting to engage flying enemy units and idling underneath them instead.
*In siege battles, defending AI can now construct deployables when reinforced by a player army.
*On easy and normal difficulty settings, the attacking AI’s will no longer form up and wait outside a settlement for missile/artillery units to attack buildings before storming in. This means that the AI won’t wait for missile/artillery to destroy settlement towers before moving in, allowing the towers to do their job a lot more effectively.
*Fixed an AI issue where units were being grouped together incorrectly when issued orders to assault walls in Siege Battles, leading to units attempting to assault walls that are too far from them.
==== Exploit Fixes ====
*Fixed an exploit where casters mounted on War Beasts could cast a magic missile spell, and then move to avoid paying the Winds of Magic cost for it.
==== Immortal Empires Achievment Unlock Conditions ====
We’ve adjusted the unlock requirements for campaign completion achievements to include the Long Victory type in Immortal Empires (alongside the current domination and ultimate victory types!).
Achievements can not be granted retroactively, but can be earned on existing saves that complete the long victory after the patch!
=== Battle Adjustments ===
==== Single Entity Knockdown Reactions ====
We’ve adjusted the behaviour of units targeting a single entity that’s been knocked down in combat. This can be broken down into two different cases:
When a Unit with multiple Entities knocks down a single entity target, previously they would engage in a charge behaviour where they’d charge across and around the knocked down entity until they stood back up. Under the new system, they have two new cases they can employ depending on the state of the knocked down entity.
If the knocked down entity lands outside the Squad’s OBB, (a concept where we draw an invisible box around a cluster of the unit to determine the rough space it controls and observes for entity level behaviour) the unit will move to place their formation over the fallen entity, then wait for it to get up.
If the knocked down entity lands inside the Squad’s OBB, they will remain stationary and simply wait for their target to stand back up, maintaining their surround in most cases.
For single entity vs single entity matchups, once the target is knocked down, the attacking entity will move towards them and place themselves near their fallen foe, in position to attack them once they stand back up.
Be aware, that these cases do not apply when pursuing routing targets.
==== Projectile Home 2.0 ====
It’s in the name!
We’ve refactored how the game handles homing behaviour for projectiles, making them significantly more reliable, and opening up space to create a variety of low and high power homing profiles. Projectiles prior to this change could not correct their course vertically and were bound by a lot of limitations, but now we’ve unlocked the power to create truly frightening cruise missiles.
As part of this change, we’ve rebalanced existing homing profiles to account for the most aggressive implementation, but on average expect homing projectiles to be more effective at hitting the mark in general.
Here is a quick before and after on Count Noctlius’ Wraith Storm Ability. Notice how the projectile turning circle is a lot more aggressive now.
BEFORE
AFTER
Here is a list of the units and abilities that have been affected by this change:
Units
*Orion
*Sisters of Twilight
*Glade Lord (Both)
*Glade Captain
*Ulrika Magdova
*Waystalker
*Luminark of Hysh
*Templehof Luminark (Luminark of Hysh)
*Doom Diver Catapults
*Hellcannon
*The Soul of Damnation (Hellcannon)
*The Ice-Forged Legion
*Soul Grinder (Tzeentch)
Abilities
*Goggly Glare
*Volley of Dark Arrows
*Volley of High Arrows
*Crippling Throw
*Ice Shard
*Dart of Doom
*Eagle Quiver
*Rod of Torment
*Wraith Storm
*Quiver of Aqshy
*Executioner
*Arrow of Aqshy
*Focused Shot
*Spirit Bear
*Dire Spirit Bear
*Lesser Doombolt
*Warp-Fireball
*Warp Stars
*Warp Stars Upgraded
*Gaze of Nagash
*Hand of Gods
*Tome of Furion
*Wand of the Kharaidon
*Doombolt
*Doombolt Upgraded
*Soul Quench
*Soul Quench Upgraded
*Blue Fire of Tzeentch
*Blue Fire of Tzeentch Upgraded
*The Amber Spear
*The Amber Spear Upgraded
*Gaze of Mork
*Gaze of Mork Upgraded
*Warp-Fireball
*Fireball
*Fireball Upgraded
*Shem’s Burning Gaze
*Shem’s Burning Gaze Upgraded
*Vindictive Glare
*Vindictive Glare Upgraded
*Gaze of Nagash
*Gaze of Nagash Upgraded
*Cinderblast Shell
*Arrow of Kurnous
*Volley of Kurnous
*The Venom Staff
*Amber Bow
*Bow of the Seafarer
*Wolf’s Howl
*Hunting Spear
*Spear of Kurnous (ability)
*Skarsnik's Prodder
Army Abilities
*Wraith Storm
*Doom Diver Strike
*Bolt of Spite
*Bolt of Change
=== Races & Balance ===
==== General ====
*The embedded Hero action “Training” now increases experience gained for units within the army, rather than a flat amount per turn.
*Added missing garrison units to Empire forts, High Elf gates and the Great Bastion when occupied by Ogre Kingdoms or Wood Elves.
*Fixed an issue that would allow units with Stalk and Fire While Moving, but not Snipe, to fire without being revealed.
==== Spells (General) ====
*BANISHMENT
**Vortex Speed 3 → 2
*CURSE OF DA BAD MOON
**Vortex Speed 4 → 3
*CURSE OF DA BAD MOON (OVERCAST)
**Vortex Speed 3 → 2
*TZEENTCH FIRESTORM & OVERCAST VERSION
**Vortex Speed 4 → 2
*CHAIN LIGHTNING
**Vortex Speed 4 → 2
*GEHENNA’S GOLDEN HOUNDS
**Vortex Speed 3 → 2
*SAKHMET’S INCANTATION OF THE SKULLSTORM & OVERCAST VERSION
**Vortex Speed 3 → 2
*HAWKS OF MISKA (AND OVERCAST VERSION)
**Vortex Speed 4 → 2
*LIFE BLOOM
**Duration 5 → 4
*CHILDREN OF NURGLE
**Duration 5 → 4
*RESTLESS DEAD
**Duration 7 → 6
*TROLL GUTS
**Duration 40 → 35
*TROLL GUTS (OVERCAST)
**Duration 80 → 70
*SOUL STEALER
**Self Phase heal 1% → 0.8%
*RUNE OF DOOM
**Effect Range: Map Wide → 55
*FIREBALL
**Altered Fireball so that it should more reliably explode in the centre of enemy units instead of penetrate through a unit entirely
**Penetration: Medium 10 → Medium 3
***The number represents the number of entities that the projectile can penetrate before exploding)
*Explosion Radius 3 → 5
==== Skills (General) ====
*Fixed a large number of red line skills that apply to rank 7 and above units, but were not applying to the relevant Regiments of Renown units.
==== Traits (General) ====
*Added character traits for when fighting battles and using hero actions against the Chaos Dwarfs.
==== Items and Ancillaries ====
*The “Student” and “Archivist” followers will now drop when a character ranks up on the same turn as when the faction has completed researching a technology – rather than when the faction was not researching any technology. (Thank you to G4rliky from Reddit for drawing attention to this!)
*Fixed a number of issues with the Sword of Khaine:
**It will no longer be awarded to quest battle factions, or non-standard armies (e.g. caravans, disciple armies, ogre camps).
**It will correctly return to the Shrine of Khaine when the owner is defeated by an army that is not able to equip it.
*We’ve added ancillary set bonuses for the following Lords and their unique ancillaries
**Mother Ostankya (Cauldron of Power, Crown of Claws)
**Miao Ying (Vambraces of Yin, Storm Wind Coronal)
**Zhao Ming (Horns of Shang-Yang, Burning Vambraces)
**Yuan Bo (Armour of the Dragon’s Gaze, The Dragon’s Fang)
==== Beastmen ====
===== General Updates =====
*Added missing corruption effects to the unique herdstones found in Lothern and the Oak of Ages.
*Added unique Herdstone buildings in Kislev, Zharr-Naggrund and Wei-Jin.
===== Campaign =====
*Fixed some cases of events appearing for Beastmen that would modify unit recruitment cost, despite them having 0 recruitment cost.
*Beastmen will no longer receive events that affect growth in a province, as their herdstones do not use it.
*Beastmen factions will no longer receive missions to control provinces or gain income.
*Fixed a rare instance where after fighting the Beastmen final battle, identical imposters of Karl Franz and/or Louen Leoncoeur’s would appear on the campaign map.
*Fixed an issue where if Beastmen characters were being recruited at rank 15 or higher (due to a Reward of Dread being unlocked), the challenge *The Strong Survives was no longer possible to unlock. Now, it will progress when characters are recruited at rank 15 or higher.
===== Units =====
*Added Multiplayer caps on Tzaangors. 
*Malagor the Dark Omen
**Can no longer capture points in Domination Mode
*Tzaangors
**Multiplayer Cost 700 → 800
**Tzaangors now follow the unit cap precedents set by Champions of Chaos
**Tzaangors now count towards the Gor Herd (Shields) unit cap
**Tzaangors have an additional cap of 4 due to being a unit that has a mark of Chaos
*Ungor Herd
**Multiplayer Cost 400 → 375
*Ungor Spearmen Herd
**Multiplayer Cost 350 → 325
*Ungor Spearmen Herd (Shields)
**Multiplayer Cost 400 → 375
*Butchers of Kalkengard (Minotaurs - Shields)
**Multiplayer Cost 1,500 → 1,600
**Upkeep 375 → 400
*Razorgor Herd
**Capture: Domination Infantry → Domination Cavalry
**Removed the Razorgor Chariot MP Cap from this unit
===== Skills =====
*Added the Incarnate Elemental of Beasts to the Beastmen redline skills “Bestial Butchers” and “Freakish Mutations.”
*Taurox the Brass Bull’s “Titans of the Deep Forest” skill now also applies to the Incarnate Elemental of Beasts units.
*Fixed Khazrak the One-Eye’s skill “Houndmaster” not applying both effects to Feral Manticores.
*Morghur’s skill “Abstraction of Tzeentch” now also applies to Tzanngors.
==== Bretonnia ====
===== Campaign =====
*Fixed Bretonnia not being able to sack or raze Beastmen Herdstones.
*Fixed the Estalian Diestro follower being available to Bretonnia when it was intended to be Empire only.
==== Chaos Dwarfs ====
===== Campaign =====
*Heroes can no longer be embedded into Chaos Dwarf convoys.
*Fixed an issue where certain buildings could not be constructed in the Tancred Castle settlement in the Realms of Chaos campaign.
===== Units =====
*Hobgoblin Cutthroats
**Recruitment Cost 425 → 400
**Multiplayer Cost 425 → 400
**Upkeep Cost 106 → 100
*Hobgoblin Sneaky Gits
**Multiplayer Cost 575 → 500
*Chaos Dwarf Warriors
**Recruitment Cost 650 → 625
**Multiplayer Cost 650 → 625
**Upkeep 162 → 156
*Chaos Dwarf Warriors (Great Weapons)
**Recruitment Cost 700 → 650
**Multiplayer Cost 700 → 650
**Upkeep 175 → 162
*Hashut's Dark Ravagers (Bull Centaur Renders)
**Removed from the “Units with 360 Degree Firing Arc” MP cap
*Great Taurus, Bale Taurus & Cinderbreath
**Entity Size: Large → Very Large
===== Traits =====
*Fixed a number of innate Traits that were not functioning for Chaos Dwarf characters.
===== Technology =====
*Fixed some missing tooltips in the Chaos Dwarfs technology tree when mousing over the resource costs.
*The “Unilateral Agreements” technology now functions correctly. 
===== Items =====
*Fixed some magic items not dropping via the Tower of Zharr seat.
*Chaos Dwarf specific magic items will now also drop after battle victories, not just via the Tower of Zharr mechanic.
==== Daemons of Chaos ====
===== Campaign =====
*The Shrine of the Widowmaker landmark now provides the favoured corruption of the faction that owns the settlement.
*The Daemon Prince now recruits the god-specific versions of the Chaos Furies units, depending on which god the settlement is dedicated to.
*Fixed some instances where landmark buildings were not appearing for the Daemon Prince.
*Removed the “Research Technologies” mission from the Daemon Prince as Daniel can’t complete it. 
===== Units =====
*Added the Blue Scribes to the Daemons of Chaos Skirmish vs. AI roster.
*Daemon Prince
**Base Daemon Prince has now been included in the Rare Single Entity Cap
Category:Patches