Total War: Warhammer 40k's siege reset is one of the things I'm looking forward to most

A couple of months back I was playing Bhashiva for the first time in Total War: Warhammer 3, having a wild time mauling enemy armies with my tiger horde. But then I fought a siege battle. Not only had siege pathfinding somehow gotten even worse with the update, but despite having spent over 3,000 hours in this series, I was seeing a new gate bug, effectively bricking my unit by perma-freezing them in a destroyed gateway.

Total War's sieges have always been the buggiest component of the games. Hell, the infamous "gate bug", where an enemy unit opens it, splitting your unit in-half, has followed the series through multiple titles and settings at this point. Siege pathfinding is also notoriously poor. I basically never direct more than one unit through a gate at a time, because I know they'll inexplicably decide to climb the walls instead if I do.

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Written by

Sean Martin

I rarely rage in games, but on the few occasions Total War: Warhammer's siege bugs have cost me entire battles, I've been... displeased. The game may still be wanting for its long-requested siege rework, but at least with Total War: 40k and its new engine, there's a chance to revitalise Total War's siege system, and do away with previous games' pain points.

(Image credit: Creative Assembly)

And good luck getting those units off the wall. You'll likely instruct them to fight an enemy below, and return two minutes later to see they haven't moved a muscle. I've even seen heroes and lords fall through walls and out of existence while climbing them, which as you'd expect, is pretty detrimental to the war effort. Thank god that bug doesn't seem to exist anymore.

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All of which is to say, I've grown accustomed to Total War's buggy sieges over the years, and I still love the series in spite of them, but goddamn am I excited to play a game without gates, or at least with gates so gigantic no unit is ever going to get trapped inside them*.* Though we haven't seen any of Total War: Warhammer 40k's sieges yet, I'm inclined to think that there probably aren't siege battles, at least not in the more traditional sense we've come to expect from Total War: Warhammer.

Warhammer 40k's sieges are usually of a monumental scale, with giant hive or fortress gates and bastion walls barring the way. There are even entire Space Marine legions who specialise in siegecraft, such as the Imperial Fists and the Iron Warriors, who focus on defense and offense, respectively.

However, once those walls are breached it's more street-to-street urban conflict, relying on positioning, cover, and chokepoints. We already got to see the importance of those elements in the first Alpha Strike livestream, but in a setting with no traditional siege towers, ladder escalades, and where sapping is somewhat redundant, I could see siege maps not having walls at all, and honestly, I wouldn't mind that.

Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000 - Alpha Strike Livestream: Ranged Combat - YouTube

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We can likely bid farewell to some of the siege niggles that have impacted battles for over a decade.

Walls have become a bit of a crutch for Total War's sieges. You feel an obligation to defend them, but the truth is, overreliance often makes for boring battles. The most fun and tactically diverse parts of a siege are when you're in the streets, chokepointing, protecting command points, and cleverly cutting off the tide of enemies slowly filling your settlement. In fact, the only thing I personally enjoy about walls is occupying them with my missile units to turn fire against defenders.

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If Total War: Warhammer 40k does have walls, it will make for some of the most punishing sieges in the series, considering the vital importance of cover when most units are range-focused. With airstrikes and orbital lances at our disposal, it would also be relatively easy to breach them (unless they're super tanky). More than likely, the lion's share of the fighting will take place in the streets and districts beyond the walls, which is what makes me suspect Creative Assembly might do away with them entirely.

Either way, it's unlikely that any of Total War: Warhammer's siege bugs will find their way into 40k, especially when the game is using the brand new War Core engine. Will there be new game-breaking bugs to contend with instead? Of course there will. At least, though, we can likely bid farewell to some of the siege niggles that have impacted battles for over a decade.