[Update #2]: The latest gameplay preview offers a closer look at a siege battle between Tzeentch (attackers) and Cathay (defenders).

[Update]: Creative Assembly has now detailed the Tzeentch faction and its crazy campaign mechanics.

While Total War: Warhammer is a brilliant series, and one that has devoured more of my free time than I'm willing to admit, it has always had one major issue dragging it down - siege battles. Despite being the most numerous battles past the first 100 turns, sieges are overly simplistic and monotonous, as well as extremely easy to trivialize due to the weak AI.

Thankfully, this won't be a problem for much longer as Total War: Warhammer 3 will bring with it a major rework of sieges as a whole! Rather than babble on, allow me to share with you the recently posted preview as it highlights exactly what Creative Assembly is doing in order to make sieges more interesting, strategic, and most importantly of all, fun. Have a little peek:

With layered defenses, the ability to build extra fortifications and plenty of high ground for artillery, sieges should be a much more involved and interesting affair. So besides the absurdity of Tzeentch's abominations using wooden ladders to scale walls, Total War: Warhammer 3's sieges seem like a massive improvement over the ones we have right now!

That said, there is one thing that worries me greatly, and that is the AI. The arrival of more complicated maps and strategies is great for players as it gives us all more toys to play around with, but that does also mean that the already struggling AI now has even more variables to deal with. In Total War: Warhammer 2 the AI can barely defend a straight wall without falling over face-first, so trying to imagine it in Total War: Warhammer 3's multi-level siege battles doesn't conjure up a pretty image.

Creative Assembly is no doubt aware of this and has developed some sort of solution, but it remains to be seen how effective it'll be once players start putting serious hours into the game. Personally I'm optimistic as Total War: Warhammer 3 represents nearly a decade of work and progress, so I'm fully expecting Creative Assembly to send the series off with quite an impressive bang!

Whatever the case may be, I'll make sure to let you know once Total War: Warhammer 3 launches in early 2022. Until then, you can read a little bit more about the siege rework over at the Total War website.