Total War: Warhammer III’s tagline asks players to “conquer your daemons,” but it’ll also offer a chance to join them and lead them into battle. Today’s Warhammer Skulls showcase featured a first look at the upcoming strategy game’s Daemons of Khorne, and at their first leader: the Exiled One, the daemon lord Skarbrand.
The new trailer is about as metal as any of these reveals has ever been. It begins with a daemonic voice reading off a list of Skarbrand’s titles: the Lord of Rage, savagery incarnate, the epitome of brutality – you get the picture. Skarbrand is not a friendly fellow, and in the Warhammer lore he’s piled mountains’ worth of skulls for Khorne’s infamous Skull Throne.
“Enact the wrath of the Blood God,” the voice beckons monstrously, as daemonic bloodletters, flesh hounds, and Chaos warriors rush across the blasted landscape. They’re backed by massive skull cannons, which grind up hapless foes as they press across the battlefield, igniting their skulls with Khorne’s own rage and firing them forward into the ranks of the enemy.
Whether you’re commanding them or facing off against them as Kislev, Khorne’s daemons look like fearsome adversaries, particularly with Skarbrand leading the charge.
Khorne’s daemons skip magic in favour of quickly closing the distance to the enemy to get straight into high-impact melee combat. “The longer these skull-craving warriors remain in the thick of combat, the more proficient they become at fighting as battle bonuses unlock,” Creative Assembly explains.
The Skulls showcase also revealed the final DLC for Total War: Warhammer II, which is at long last going to give the poor old Beastmen a bit of a glow-up.
The Total War: Warhammer III release date will be later this year.