Total War: Warhammer 3's siege rework beta is live now and runs into August, letting you have your say on pocket ladder prohibition, battle AI improvements, and more

Forces of Nurgle in Total War: Warhammer 3 — (Image credit: SEGA)

Total War: Warhammer 3's Siege Rework beta has officially begun digging its sapper's tunnels beneath the walls of the base game. Creative Assembly is currently testing numerous major changes to how sieges function, opening the overhaul up for players to try themselves and provide feedback.

"The Proving Grounds Siege Beta is now available to download on Steam!" wrote Creative Assembly in a Steam update. "This is your chance to get hands-on with the changes, share your feedback with us and help shape the future of siege warfare."

Creative Assembly detailed these changes in a blog post on its website earlier this week, chief among which is the removal of so-called "pocket ladders." These allowed most infantry units to climb up any defensive walls without constructing special equipment. Creative Assembly wants to remove these to make sieges more realistic (which the studio acknowledges is a silly thing to say about a game that lets you field armies of plague demons) but also because if any old grunt can pull a 30-foot ladder from the aether, it defeats the point of settlements having walls in the first place.

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Other changes include a siege equipment rebalance that lets players build more siege towers and battering rams, defensive tweaks so that wall towers are deadlier, but at a reduced firing range, improved battle AI that apparently fixes more than 50 issues relating to computerised siege tactics, and adjustments to some existing siege maps which should make them more fun to play.

The siege rework beta is the latest step in Creative Assembly's broader project to overhaul Total War: Warhammer 3, which has been its primary focus for the game this year. The company has already overhauled the game's Kislev faction and reattuned its magic item system. This emphasis on changing existing systems has had a knock-on effect for planned new features for the game, however, with Creative Assembly delaying the upcoming Tides of Torment DLC to later this year.

The siege rework beta will run for the next two weeks, ending on August 7. If you want to get involved, you'll need to activate the beta through the "Properties" sub-menu opened by right-clicking Total War: Warhammer 3 in Steam.

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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