Total War: Warhammer III
We weren’t expecting to fall in love with a plague god after two years of COVID, yet there’s no denying the charms of Nurgle, one of the demon faction leaders from this absurdly busy third entry in The Creative Assembly’s magnum opus. What distinguishes Nurgle is that he’s something of a gardener. True, he enjoys trashing cities and enemy armies – particularly those of his scheming wizard brother Tzeentch – but he sees the world more as an ecosystem to nurture than territory to conquer.
Consider his laissez-faire approach to settlements: once seeded, Nurgle structures sprout, decay and regrow in a steady cycle, automatically altering your income and recruitment options over time. His minions, from bubbling cadavers to colossal toads and flies, follow similarly organic loops, spawned instantly but taking a few turns to mature; during clashes, the lifeforce of the slain can be piped back into your wilting army, like fertiliser. And then there are his plagues, brewed from an expanding library of symptoms and transmitted between units and cities on the campaign map. It turns a strategy game into viral pinball. How far will your wonderful diseases travel? With the right poxes, you can even see through the eyes of those you infect.