Total War: Warhammer 3, first released in 2022, is now a hulking strategy behemoth that lets you command two dozen different Warhammer fantasy armies to victory, across a vast, intercontinental map. It’s easily the biggest Warhammer videogame there is, and arguably the best, too. This guide records the final Total Warhammer 3 release date, and all the key info from the game’s arrival in 2022.
With the game now long since fully released and expanded, you can get more info from our full Total War Warhammer 3 review, or our guide to all the Total War Warhammer 3 factions.
If you want to learn more about Total War Warhammer 3‘s surrounding lore, read our guide to Warhammer: The Old World, Games Workshop’s new miniature wargame that brings the classic Warhammer Fantasy setting back to the tabletop.
Total War: Warhammer 3 release date
Total War: Warhammer 3 was released for PC on February 17, 2022. The game was later released on Mac on May 5, 2022. You can buy it for PC on Steam and other digital stores now.
It was also available via Microsoft Game Pass on release – though it has since left the service.
Although originally scheduled to release in “late 2021”, Creative Assembly delayed the game in September 2021, saying the extra development time would make for a stronger release.
Total War: Warhammer 3 trailers
Creative Assembly kicked off Total War: Warhammer 3 with a bang, revealing a tantalising announcement trailer back in February 2021, showing the forces of Kislev and Khorne. Another cinematic trailer soon followed, giving us a further glimpse of the nordic army clashing with Khorne’s daemonic spawn, and hinting at the game’s storytelling direction.
We got a better view of Total War: Warhammer 3 when a gameplay trailer released in May, previewing the game’s new ‘Survival Battle’ mode. An objective-based game mode, it adds some light base-building elements to the RTS battles and real-time upgrade options that let you buff and replenish your troops when they need a second wind.
Then, on October 1, 2021, Creative Assembly released a choreographed, in-engine trailer titled ‘Enter the World of Grand Cathay’, showing off various units and animations for the Grand Cathay and Tzeentch Daemons factions, and narrated by Zhao Ming, the Iron Dragon – one of Grand Cathay’s two playable Legendary Lords at launch.
Before that, in September 2020, CA shared the Grand Cathay reveal trailer, unveiling the elusive army for the very first time. Giving us the most substantial look at the faction we’ve ever seen – across both videogames and the Warhammer tabletop games – it revealed many of the units and heroes from the army. It also showed that Cathay wears its Imperial China inspiration on its sleeve, with plenty of dragons, Terracotta Sentinels, and Chinese-esque architecture to boot (some of which just happens to be levitating).
At the time, fans of tabletop fantasy wargames had even more to be excited about, with Games Workshop’s confirmation that it had created full tabletop rules for all Cathay’s units to aid in TW3 development.
Our hopes were kindled that Grand Cathay might feature as one of the main Warhammer The Old World factions, as these were still the halcyon days when the renewed version of Warhammer Fantasy Battles was still a mysterious twinkle in GW’s eye.
Those hopes were eventually dashed in February 2024, when – after releasing the wargame with Tomb Kings and Bretonnia starter sets – GW confirmed there were no plans to add either Cathay or Kislev to The Old World “for the foreseeable future”.