Do I need to buy DLC's?

[Umgee]

I have Warhammer 1 & 2, but honestly I barely played 2-3 hours of them both combined, simply because I never had time.

I have played a couple dozen hours of Attila campaign, Shogun and Medieval (back in the day), so I'm not new to Total War games.

I have just bought Warhammer 3. Should I/do I need to buy DLC's to get the full experience for the campaign? And if do, which DLC's? All of them?

I can't figure out if DLC's just allow you to play certain races or if they also add them to the campaign (meaning, would I need the DLC to even play vs them in the campaign?)

[Elitewrecker PT]

DLC only unlocks new races or content for the base races. Everything is there as AI

[Cryten]

No, but there is often quite useful tools and more interesting campaign mechanics behind the dlc's. However since you do not seem to bear that much interest in total war titles, I cannot recommend you purchase them just for some try outs.

After you try for a bit, IF you enjoy yourself, perhaps you could try "The Prophet and the Warlock" for the fun skaven gun toting faction or try out buying an individual segement of "The throne of Decay" to try out either the Dwarf adventuring thunderbarges or the human artillery experience. Though my biggest recommendation would be to try the Warriors of Chaos "Champions of Chaos" DLC for a different style of play using Warbands.

But all of those are no pressure optional. You absolutely should trial the game to get a feel for what you like.

[Ashley]

You can't use anything you don't own. Everything however carries over for what you bought.

[BirdDinosaur]

no. you can still fight them if you don't own them though which is nice

[abyssalfury]

DLC only unlocks it for the player, everything is always there for the AI.

It's essentially 'buy what you want to play', there's no universal mechanics or anything locked behind DLC, and racial mechanics are usually updated along side the DLCs but don't need them.

There is a few DLC I'd seriously consider for certain factions:
Skaven - Prophet and the Warlock
High/Dark Elves (to a degree)- Queen and the Crone
Lizardmen/Beastmen - Silence and the Fury
Warriors of Chaos/Monogod factions - Champions of Chaos
Nurgle - Thrones of Decay

The above are basically because the faction has a major hole in the roster that the DLC fills. Obviously all DLCs will add more units, but a lot of the time they simply offer you a different options. The above have units that I'd consider 'important' to have, rather than 'nice to have'.

Note Nurgle is a bit of an exception, because of how their recruitment works not having DLC is a direct nerf to their ability to recruit units (essentially they fill up a pool of recruitable units over time, but there's no compensation if you don't have access to a particular unit). Hopefully this is something CA looks at patching in the future though.

[Sigvuld]

NO.

I will say this again for anyone finding this post down the line after seeing how many DLCs there are and googling it: NO, YOU DO NOT NEED TO OWN ALL DLCs TO HAVE A "COMPLETE" EXPERIENCE.

The DLC peeps are IN THE GAME regardless of whether or not you purchase them, so you can fight against or alongside them just fine if they're somebody that you don't want to play or have no interest in playing! ONLY buy DLCs for someone you're interested in playing!

I'm just cursed to buy them all because I happen to enjoy every single faction in the game and thus every new DLC is of interest to me lmfao god help me

[Sigvuld]

Originally posted by abyssalfury:

DLC only unlocks it for the player, everything is always there for the AI.

It's essentially 'buy what you want to play', there's no universal mechanics or anything locked behind DLC, and racial mechanics are usually updated along side the DLCs but don't need them.

There is a few DLC I'd seriously consider for certain factions:
Skaven - Prophet and the Warlock
High/Dark Elves (to a degree)- Queen and the Crone
Lizardmen/Beastmen - Silence and the Fury
Warriors of Chaos/Monogod factions - Champions of Chaos
Nurgle - Thrones of Decay

The above are basically because the faction has a major hole in the roster that the DLC fills. Obviously all DLCs will add more units, but a lot of the time they simply offer you a different options. The above have units that I'd consider 'important' to have, rather than 'nice to have'.

Note Nurgle is a bit of an exception, because of how their recruitment works not having DLC is a direct nerf to their ability to recruit units (essentially they fill up a pool of recruitable units over time, but there's no compensation if you don't have access to a particular unit). Hopefully this is something CA looks at patching in the future though.

Great breakdown right here!

[Umgee]

Thanks for the responses. Very helpful and insightful.

[Sigvuld]

Glad it helped! I'm gonna slap this down because this thread is probably gonna show up in google searches asking the same question, and I want to clear the waters for people doing that.

SO!

When you buy the base game for 1, 2, and 3 (which will be cheap as HELL every time a sale hits - there's a bundle for the base games all together!), you get... (and please pardon if a couple of these are incorrect, I believe this is accurate as far as memory goes! A couple of these are probably FreeLCs and I forgot to mark them.)

[Warhammer 1 Base Game]

-The Empire-
Emperor Karl Franz
Balthazar Gelt

-The Greenskins-
Grimgor Ironhide
Wurrzhag Da Great Green Prophet (Free DLC)
Azhag the Slaughterer

-Brettonia-
King Louen Leoncoeur
Alberic de Bordeleaux
The Fay Enchantress
Repanse de Lyoness (Free DLC)

-Dwarfs-
High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer
Ungrim Ironfist the Slayer King
Grombrindal (Free DLC)

-The Vampire Counts-
Mannfred von Carstein
Vlad von Carstein
Isabella von Carstein
Heinrich Kemmler

[Warhammer 2 Base Game]

-High Elves-
Tyrion the Phoenix King
High Loremaster Teclis
Alith Anar (Free DLC)
Prince Imrik (Free DLC)

-Dark Elves-
Malekith
Morathi
Lokhir Fellheart (Free DLC)
Rakarth (Free DLC)

-Lizardmen-
Lord Mazdamundi
Kroq-Gar
Tiktaq'to (Free DLC)
Gor-Rok (Free DLC)

-Skaven-
Queek Headtaker
Lord Skrolk
Tretch Craventail (Free DLC)

[Warhammer 3 Base Game]

-Daemons of Chaos-
The Daemon Prince

-Grand Cathay-
Miao Ying the Storm Dragon
Zhao Ming the Iron Dragon

-Khorne-
Skarbrand the Exiled

-Kislev-
Tzarina Katarin
Kostalytn
Boris Ursus (requires special mission done as Katarin/Kostalytn, can bypass with mod)

-Nurgle-
Ku'gath Plaguefather
Epidemius (Free DLC)

-Slaanesh-
N'Kari

-Tzeentch-
Kairos Fateweaver

I could be remembering a bit wrong, but you get so, so much with the base games alone!

Complaining about there being the amount of DLCs there are isn't half the slam dunk people seem to think it is when you actually remember that Total Warhammer's a whole-ass trilogy, not one game, and each one has been supported for years with supplementary (yes, supplementary, as in not required to enjoy the game and have plenty to play with as-is) DLCs and even FreeLCs.

Yeah, of course there's lots of DLCs, and the idea of someone buying the base game and going "oh no! I can't enjoy this because it's incomplete, I have to buy ALL THIS?!" goes out the window the second you acknowledge that every single paid DLC character just gets added onto the map for you to interact with and fight / fight alongside regardless of whether or not you buy it - you only really would be buying the ones you're interested in personally playing, because otherwise, you gain little from them aside from access to certain units on similar lords, with certain packs.

I'm no CA shill, far from it, but Paradox CA is not.