Total War: Warhammer 3 hotfix 6.3.4 targets idle armies and Chaos Dwarf bugs

The hotfix Total War players actually need

This caught my attention because it tackles the stuff that ruins Total War: Warhammer III campaigns from the inside out. Creative Assembly’s hotfix 6.3.4 is aiming straight at the AI malaise we’ve all seen: armies loitering outside settlements, recruitment logic tying factions in knots, and a supposedly legendary lord (Golgfag Maneater) playing tourist instead of terror. It’s tentatively targeting November 6, and while that’s soon, the real headline is that the big gains will show up mainly in new campaigns. If your current save is already “cooked,” don’t expect miracles.

Key Takeaways

• Hotfix 6.3.4 focuses on reducing idle armies, fixing Chaos Dwarf recruitment issues, and making Golgfag actually expand and fight.
• Some AI behaviors (like “cowardly” diplomacy when not at war) may slip past this hotfix.
• Improvements will be most visible in new campaigns; existing saves may keep bad AI habits.
• CA is softly targeting November 6 for the hotfix; Tides of Torment DLC is slated for December 4.

Breaking down the hotfix: idle armies and recruitment tangles

“Idle armies” sounds simple, but it’s a knot of interlocking systems. CA says campaign AI has been over-prioritizing defensive tasks, which explains why you keep seeing stacks park around minor settlements and pass turns like it’s a union coffee break. Layer on top faction-specific snafus-Vampire Counts getting stuck in odd recruitment loops (echoing the Lizardmen and Tomb Kings nonsense from earlier), and Chaos Dwarfs failing to build up properly-and you get a map that looks busy but plays boring.

What matters for players: CA isn’t promising a magic bullet. They expect to “significantly reduce” idle behavior, not erase it. That’s sensible. Good Total War AI needs a mix of courage and caution; if you whack the dial too far either way, you get doomstack lemmings or passive turtles. I like that they’re calling out “cowardly diplomacy AI” explicitly-factions that sit around when not at war—though that bit might not make it into 6.3.4. Naming the problem is step one; shipping a fix that doesn’t break three others is step two.

The Chaos Dwarf recruitment issues sound like they’re trending positive in internal tests, but CA is keeping the “we need more data” caveat. Good. After the past year’s bug pile-ups, no one wants a victory lap before the patch notes land. The strategy crowd can smell overpromising from a mile away.

Golgfag Maneater: from spectator to scourge

Golgfag arrived with Omens of Destruction and then… mostly hung out. That’s not what you want from a headline Ogre lord. CA says early testing has him “properly attacking and expanding his territory,” with a warning that he might “megabonk” into menace territory. Honestly? I’ll take it. A passive legendary lord warps the campaign because nearby factions don’t get the pressure they’re designed to face. If Golgfag wakes up and starts throwing his weight around, it should spice up that region’s mid-game and force more interesting alliances and border shuffles.

The risk is obvious: overtune him and you replace a wet noodle with a steamroller. But this is exactly the kind of knob that should get regular tuning—legendaries should feel legendary. I’d rather see CA adjust him over a few patches than keep the status quo.

Saves, restarts, and the reality of campaign AI

Here’s the bitter pill: CA says the improvements are most reliable in new campaigns because existing saves can “struggle to resolve away from bad behaviors.” If you’ve played Total War long enough, you’ve felt this—once the CAI’s priorities get tangled, it can keep rolling bad habits forever. So, if you’re 150 turns into Immortal Empires and hoping this patch magically unfreezes your neighbors, temper expectations.

My advice: keep your save, patch up, and play 10-15 turns to see if anything unsticks. If not, start fresh to feel the full effect. It’s not what anyone wants to hear, but it’s more honest than pretending live-surgery on entrenched AI states will always work.

The bigger picture: trust, testing, and timing

Creative Assembly calls this a response to “a frustrating year,” and that tracks. Between messy updates and communication misfires, the studio’s goodwill with strategy diehards has taken hits. This update reads less like hype and more like a dev team trying to rebuild trust with clear targets and cautious language. I’m into that. Saying “we’ll reduce it, not remove it” and warning that diplomacy fixes may slip shows someone in the room learned the right lesson.

The tentative date—November 6—is fine, and if they need extra testing time, take it. Bad AI patches do more damage than delayed ones. The headline content drop is still the Tides of Torment DLC on December 4, but honestly, these systemic fixes are the meal; DLC is dessert. If 6.3.4 really gets AI off the couch and Golgfag off the bench, the whole campaign sandbox gets healthier.

TL;DR

Hotfix 6.3.4 goes after the campaign-killers: idle armies, broken recruitment (especially for Chaos Dwarfs), and a snoozing Golgfag. It’s tentatively set for November 6, but expect the best results in new campaigns. If CA lands this, Tides of Torment in December arrives on a steadier foundation—and that’s the win the game needs.