Total War: WARHAMMER III - The Glottkin – Lords of the End Times Review Summary

The Glottkin and new units are fun and legendary heroes excel, but pervasive game-breaking bugs, shallow tactics, and boring faction mechanics hold this DLC back.

Glottkin are strong and fun: The Glottkin are described as incredibly tanky, nearly unkillable, and capable of soloing entire armies, making them a beast on the battlefield. Their playstyle as a slow steamroller is enjoyable and faithful to the lore.

New units are fun: The new units are consistently described as cool, useful, and enjoyable to use, with a selection that ranges from okay to great. They are a highlight of the DLC.

Legendary heroes are excellent: The four new legendary heroes—Gutrot Spume, Morbidex Twiceborn, Bloab Rotspawned, and Orghotts Daemonspew—are well-designed and offer diverse, powerful strategies. They provide strong buffs, summons, and combat abilities that enhance the faction.

DLC praised as excellent: Many reviewers consider the DLC to be among the best they have ever made, with high-quality content and great potential. It is described as fun, cool, and a strong addition overall.

Narrative and atmosphere strong: The campaign narrative is solid, with a compelling revenge story against the Empire that motivates players and creates a sense of purpose each turn. The story moments land well without slowing the pace, and the soundtrack enhances the grimdark atmosphere.

Pervasive Game-Breaking Bugs: The game is plagued with numerous bugs, including game-breaking issues that prevent progression and cause crashes. Players report that many bugs were shipped without proper testing and remain unresolved.

DLC Lacks Tactical Depth: The DLC is considered tedious, weak, and lacking tactical challenge, with lazy and uninspired design. Players find the new content fails to deliver engaging gameplay.

Boring Faction Mechanics: Faction mechanics are described as insanely boring, long, drawn out, and weak, offering little enjoyment or depth. This makes the associated factions unfun to play.

Glottkin Faction Placement Issue: The Glottkin are placed under Warriors of Chaos instead of Nurgle, wasting the most anticipated Nurgle character. This faction assignment disappoints players expecting a Nurgle-themed faction.

AI Army Stacking Bug: The Empire AI stacks multiple armies on its capital and leaves them idle for many turns, breaking the strategic challenge. This passive behavior undermines the campaign experience.

Warriors of Chaos assignment: The faction is a Warriors of Chaos faction dedicated to a specific chaos god, not a Nurgle faction.

DLC adds cross-faction units: The DLC adds new units that are usable across multiple factions.

Nurgle faction mechanics: The Gardens of Nurgle provide buffs for heroes, access to all Nurgle units, and can be placed in settlements.

Maggoth Riders questline: Includes a multi-step questline for Maggoth Riders with specific completion conditions.

Cinematic battles with autoresolve: Battles are cinematic and support auto-resolve, which is effective for most battles.

Game Crashes When Ending Turn: Players report crashes to desktop when ending turns, with one specific case preventing play past turn 10 and another freezing on loading from turn 78 to 79. These issues require restarting the game and block progression.

Free Update Improves Performance: A free update brought noticeable performance and graphics improvements, enhancing the overall experience for players.

Fatal Crash Fixed by Update: A fatal crash that occurred after release was later resolved through an update, indicating active post-launch support.

Only for Nurgle and Chaos fans: Reviewers repeatedly recommend the DLC only to players who enjoy Nurgle, Warriors of Chaos, Beastmen, or evil factions. Those who dislike these races are told to skip it.

Strongly negative purchase regret: Some reviewers express complete regret and advise against buying the DLC or the developer's products. They feel the money could be better spent elsewhere.

Not worth full price: Some players regret buying the DLC and advise spending money elsewhere. Others say there is no reason to get both this and Tamurkhan unless you are a completionist.

Units worth buying separately: Several reviewers say the units, such as Putrid Blightkings and legendary heroes, justify the purchase by themselves. However, they caution that buying for units alone only makes sense if you do not plan to play Nurgle.

Recommended for Warriors of Chaos players: Reviewers familiar with Warriors of Chaos or Champions of Chaos campaigns recommend this DLC for those who already enjoy that playstyle. They note it fits well for players who like moving south early.

Community fair range: $20.00 - $40.00.

Reports lean toward fun immediately, with players citing nearly instant strong armies and overall Glottkin enjoyment. Tedious objectives, cooldowns, late hero unlocks, bugs, and some boring-mechanics reports create significant friction and conflicting late-campaign sentiment.

Friction: Tedious objectives requiring specific units to reach experience levels; Long cooldowns on major gifts and boons; Legendary Heroes unlock only in the midgame; Unlocking the trio of Legendary Heroes becomes tedious when the campaign derails; Bugged confederation quest and Empire AI army stacking; Narrative/final battles missing in multiplayer/co-op.

Unlock drivers: Turning marauders into putrid blightkings makes progression fun; Flayerkin provide a useful early-game slashing unit; Basilisk and giant warhound strengthen the mid-to-late roster; Strong units can be obtained quickly to address late-game weakness; Late midgame and endgame objectives provide direction; Norscan subjugation and vassal invasion of the Empire create appeal.

Chaos Faction Loyalist: Plays Chaos and Nurgle campaigns and judges new lords against existing Warriors of Chaos factions. Motivation: To play more campaigns for the Nurgle and Warriors of Chaos fantasy and see how the new lord fits the race. Stance: buy.

Veteran DLC Completionist: Runs long-term campaigns across all owned DLC and expects stable, bug-free battles and progression. Motivation: To keep a complete, stable DLC collection and enjoy new Lords of the End Times content without game-breaking bugs. Stance: no buy.

Newcomer Nurgle Curious: Learns the campaign through first battles and a first Nurgle run, valuing accessibility over advanced optimization. Motivation: To try Nurgle through an approachable, beginner-friendly legendary lord. Stance: buy.

Monetization: The reviews focus on a paid DLC: price/value complaints, access issues, and gameplay content. No review provides direct evidence of in-game purchases, real-money gacha, loot boxes, paid power, paid convenience, battle passes, or currency obfuscation. The monetization profile is therefore traditional DLC/one-time purchase rather than predatory microtransaction design.

Mixed DLC quality assessments: The DLC is described as among the best DLCs the developers have made and the best Warhammer III DLC by some, but others call it the least favorite of the End Times or an absolute mess. The reviewer considers it not bad and better than Borys.

Comparisons to Nagash unfavorably: The lord's campaign is considered easier than Nagash's, and the faction's growth is still growing in strength by turn 100 like Nagash's. The faction's economic problems are also compared to Nagash, though its economy is described as better than Nagash's terrible economy.

DLC includes units and lords: The DLC adds four new lords, 55 units, and provides Lords, heroes, and units from the three major End Times invasions. It also adds new units to the Nurgle roster.

Early access for streamers criticized: Streamers are given early access to play before release, which some reviewers view negatively. Pre-orders do not include advance access to the DLC.

Warriors of Chaos faction mechanics: The DLC adds units and mechanics as part of the Warriors of Chaos faction, and the faction is a Chaos Warrior faction rather than a Nurgle faction. Mechanics differ from other Warriors of Chaos factions, and they rarely thrive unless surrounded by weak enemies.