I’ve never been a hardcore Warhammer fan, but I’ve always found the universe fascinating. My first real exposure came from a friend I worked with at a grocery store. He introduced me to Vermintide 2, a fun and chaotic co-op horde game set in the Warhammer universe. You get five characters, each with a few subclasses and skill trees. Simple, addicting, and honestly, a great gateway into the lore.
That’s when I started going down the Warhammer rabbit hole; watching YouTube videos, learning about the lore, and slowly getting pulled into the massive world behind the IP.
A couple years later, another friend got Vermintide 2 and asked if I had it. That led to us playing together, geeking out about lore, and him eventually recommending Total War: Warhammer 3. He’d sunk a ton of hours into it and said it was worth picking up if I liked grand strategy. Around the same time, I saw a bundle sale with Warhammer 1, 2, and 3 for around $45, less than the cost of most full-price games. So I grabbed it.
🎮 My First Campaign Experience
My first campaign? Brutal. I played Be’lakor from the Shadow Legion, and my friend played Wulfrik of Norsca. We ran the Immortal Empires campaign on Very Hard/Very Hard, not a beginner-friendly setup, got pretty far into the campaign but got destroyed by Karl Franz’s giant armies.
The game has a steep learning curve. You’re managing a turn-based overworld, then diving into real-time battles with thousands of troops. It’s a lot. There are 100+ playable lords, 281+ units, and deep systems for diplomacy, recruitment, magic, sieges, and more. It’s overwhelming but incredibly satisfying once you get into it.
Now I’m 451 hours in, still not great at it, but improving (I hope). I mostly stick to long campaigns and enjoy seeing how dynamic each run can be depending on the diplomacy and enemy AI. No two campaigns play the same.
The game is essentially a turn-based campaign map with massive real-time battlefield engagements with 281+ other lords. On the campaign map, you recruit armies, manage settlements, engage in diplomacy, and expand territory in classic turn-based style. When armies clash, You can choose to auto-resolve, which auto does the battle instantly or a Real‑Time Strategy: commanding thousands of troops; infantry, cavalry, monsters, spellcasters, across varied terrain and siege scenarios with pause-and-command mechanics for strategic control
Additionally, you have diplomacy for a political layer, where you can make new allies and enemies which can drastically change how each campaign with the same lord is for more replayability.
👍 What I Love About the Game
- The unit detail is insane. Even basic troops look beautiful and detailed up close.
- The campaign replayability is top-tier.
- The diplomacy system adds real depth, your allies and enemies can totally change how a run feels.
- I’m a fan of the atmosphere and art, especially the different castle designs.
- Varied playstyles across all factions with different types of armies you can build.
- Lord skill trees give more variety to playthroughs and army compositions.
- Benefits to owning prequels, access to lords and units from owning Warhammer 1&2.
👎 What I Don’t Like
- I’m trash at siege battles, and the Grand Cathay layouts drive me nuts.
- There are too many DLCs, the base game feels incomplete without some.
- Falls into the DLC trap of locking many powerful units and lords behind DLCs.
- Older factions from Warhammer 1 & 2 feel underpowered next to newer Warhammer 3 DLC lords.
- Some AI bugs still need fixing (Creative Assembly is working on it, to be fair).
- Units occasionally get stuck, especially annoying in large battles (probably a skill issue).
- Long loading screens, lots of assets to load, many manual battles create more loading screens.
That said, the developers are still doing updates, reworks, and balance patches, so it’s a work in progress. New DLCs are released every couple months along with some free lords, not a big fan once again with how many DLCs this trilogy has.
🧾 How I Pay for All This with Beermoney
Now let’s talk about how I afford these DLCs because they add up.
I fund them using beermoney. Specifically, I earn by watching anime, playing other games, doing surveys, and tapping through ads. Even while I play Total War. There’s a ton of downtime during loading screens or between turns, so I multitask.
It’s not the most relaxing way to game (I’ve done this for years, so it’s more a habit to multi-task like this), and it’s less efficient than doing one thing at a time, but it helps me feel a little less guilty about enjoying free time, especially during a rough period in my life when I was unemployed, not in school, and unsure what I wanted to do, which is where this habit started.
Layering things like earning passive income or even learning languages while gaming helped me turn a coping habit into something that felt productive. Buying DLCs with that money kind of makes it feel like I’m gaming to fund more gaming. A little self-sustaining cycle.
You can see all my glossary pages below, including my monthly earnings and beermoney app reviews with screenshots.
✅ Final Thoughts
If you’re someone who enjoys both strategy and fantasy, Total War: Warhammer 3 is absolutely worth checking out, especially if you catch it on sale. They’re usually on sale for most if not all of the main sales Steam does for a ton of games throughout the year.
Would I have bought all the DLCs with my own money? Probably not all of them. But using beermoney makes it feel more justifiable, especially when I’m already spending time gaming anyway.
It’s not a perfect game, but it’s one of my favorites and a great example of how I turn a non-essential purchase into a business expense, content opportunity, and little life hack for mental clarity.
Below are my receipts, just to show I actually bought them
💸 Beermoney Glossary:
Curious how much money you can realistically make online from surveys, games, ads, and small tasks? Check out my Beermoney Glossary page, where I break down every app and site I’ve tried with videos, payment proof, and my personal experiences. I always recommend doing beermoney while watching shows, anime, gaming, or handling small tasks around the house.
👉 Beermoney reviews
📈 Monthly Earnings Tracker:
Want to see exactly what I cashed out every month? My Monthly Earnings Tracker has screenshots of my app cashouts, plus updates on my trading and investment accounts, all in one place, month by month.
👉 Monthly earnings
🌍 Language Learning Glossary:
Curious what languages I’m learning? Check out my Language Learning Glossary for weekly progress updates. I post short speaking videos, track my progress, share my personal study notes, and break down the rank criteria I follow.
👉 Language progress