Total War: Warhammer 3 hotfix makes a dwarf who longs for death slightly less likely to die

Gotrek and Felix beneath a purple sky
(Image credit: Sega)

The word "iconic" is so overused it makes me wince when I see it, but in the world of Warhammer it can be fairly applied to two characters: Gotrek and Felix, who sum up the duality of the setting. Gotrek, a dwarf trollslayer with a mohawk who longs for a heroic death to erase a failure so shameful he never speaks of it, is Warhammer at its most heavy metal album cover. Felix, a poet sworn to record Gotrek's saga but terrified he'll be the one to die first, is Warhammer at its most Blackadder.

The two can be recruited in Total War: Warhammer 3 (Gotrek voiced by the perfectly cast Brian Blessed) if you win their quest battle, racing to the rescue to keep them alive when they're about to be overwhelmed by the daemonic hordes of Slaanesh. This is fairly achievable if you're fielding an army with some heavy cavalry who can charge into the middle of the battlefield in time to make a difference, but if you're playing poor stunty dwarfs—who thematically speaking, are one of the armies most likely to recruit the duo—you're kind of boned. Felix would probably break and flee, while Gotrek's suicide wish would be granted before you had time to help them.

Thank goodness for hotfix 6.0.4 then, which addresses this and many other issues. Near the bottom of a list of minor tweaks and fixes is a note that made my day: "Improved Gotrek and Felix’s initial survivability in 'The Adventures of Gotrek and Felix' quest battle (to Gotrek's dismay)."

Ogre players will also be pleased by a change that affects the DLC lord Golgfag Maneater in particular. The mercenary ogre had a playstyle built around sacking settlements rather than occupying them, then using that loot to hire mercs from ogre camps. Golgfag also has buffs that affect the unique units called regiments of renown, but since you can only recruit those in your own territory—and sacked settlements still belong to your enemies—it was a hassle to actually do so. Now, the area around ogre camps count as your territory for the purpose of recruiting regiments of renown, making them easier to add to your horde.

If you've ever experienced the bug where your AI-controlled reinforcements would bundle together in a clump when they arrived instead of actually helping you out, that's been fixed as well, alongside a host of other changes you can read in the full patch notes.

Best MMOsBest strategy gamesBest open world gamesBest survival gamesBest horror games

Best MMOs: Most massive
Best strategy games: Number crunching
Best open world games: Unlimited exploration
Best survival games: Live craft love
Best horror games: Fight or flight

TOPICS
Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.

Read more
Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3's next patch will overhaul its Kislev faction, which Creative Assembly has 'identified as the most in need of a deep review and rethink'
A space marine fighting a tzaangor on a flying disc in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 made millions for Games Workshop, and now it wants more hit videogames: "Clearly we are looking for the next one"
Gale, a wizard from Baldur's Gate 3, looks very bloodied and very sad at the player while a celestial midnight blooms behind his depressed mug.
Baldur's Gate 3's stress test update fixes heartbreaking bug that wiped out Honour Mode runs at the last possible moment
The Biovore, a beetle-like alien with an artillery cannon on its back, in a desert environment.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2's latest update leads with a fancy datavault for your battle-barge, but I'm far more interested in the new tyranid unit with a cannon on its back
Ulrika Magdova, wielding two silver blades
Turns out the reason Total War: Warhammer 3's campaign AI sometimes played too defensively was a bug that made it overreact to the presence of even a single hero
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 promo art - three Space Marines standing in formation
Space Marine 2 dev acknowledges its FOMO events are 'a source of frustration and stress for everyone', says it'll fix things and isn't trying to make 'a full live service game' by stealth
Latest in Strategy
Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the Ice Queen of Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3 rolls out a cool Kislev overhaul, changes befitting Tzeench’s magic, new projectile units and creakier skeletal horses
Civilization 7 Great Britain - Modern Civ art (via YouTube)
As Civilization 7 struggles to keep up with Civ 5 player counts, a new patch is coming tomorrow with still more UI changes and gameplay tweaks
Battle Brothers
Nearly 2 years after its last update, the excellent Battle Brothers gets 'a bucket load of fixes' and free new content
King wielding his axe against would-be assassins in Norland.
Medieval colony sim Norland is getting a 'damn big update' that completely overhauls the game's mechanics: 'We're rolling out some radical changes to the core gameplay'
Age of Empires 2
Former Age of Empires 2 dev claims Microsoft demanded its first expansion should have a Korean faction, because 'StarCraft sold 3 million copies in Korea'
Endless Legend 2 Kin faction reveal
It's turtle time: Endless Legend 2's first faction is the fortification-loving Kin of Sheredyn
Latest in News
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'