Total War: Warhammer 3 Patch 6.3.2 Fixes AI, Breaks Free Units — Players Deserve Better

Why This Caught My Attention

Patch 6.3.2 for Total War: Warhammer III is a classic Creative Assembly two-step: fix one fire, spark another. The hotfix finally resolves a nasty campaign AI bug that left Tomb Kings and Lizardmen acting like they forgot how to Warhammer, but it also introduced a fresh headache by locking some previously free units behind ownership checks for older titles. If you only own Warhammer III, you might now be staring at “additional content required” warnings for stuff you had yesterday. CA says this was not intentional and is investigating. Good. But this pattern is getting old.

Key Takeaways

• AI recruitment for Tomb Kings and Lizardmen is fixed in 6.3.2, restoring campaign viability.
• A new bug flags certain “FreeLC” units as locked unless you own older Total War: Warhammer titles/DLC.
• CA acknowledges it’s inadvertent and is working on a fix, but player trust is taking another hit.
• This is another reminder that the game’s entitlement/web-of-DLC systems need sturdier QA and public testing.

Breaking Down the Patch: One Fix, One Regression

The big win first: last week’s snafu had the AI-especially for the freshly updated Tomb Kings and Lizardmen-failing to recruit properly. That breaks everything downstream: fewer armies, slower expansion, limp defense, collapsed challenge. 6.3.2 corrects that, and campaigns should flow more like they’re supposed to. If you bounced off an Immortal Empires run because Settra forgot how to click “recruit,” it’s safe to dive back in.

Now the new problem. Players are seeing pop-ups like: “Additional content required. To unlock Great Bray-Shaman (Beasts) you must own all products listed in one of the following collections: ‘Total War Warhammer 2: Call of the Beastmen’ or ‘Total War Warhammer 2: The Silence and The Fury.’” Similar messages reference the need for a registered copy of Warhammer I. These were units previously distributed as free add-ons tied to expansions, and they’ve been playable for folks who only own Warhammer III-until now.

CA community manager Adam Freeman says, “This is an inadvertent change and not an intentional one. We’re looking into this one.” That tracks with how these entitlement systems are wired; touch the wrong flag while cleaning up something else, and suddenly free content looks premium. But “not intentional” doesn’t make it less annoying for players mid-campaign who suddenly can’t recruit a unit their army comp relies on.

Context: A Gigantic Game Held Together by Fragile Plumbing

Warhammer III is a behemoth stitching together three mainline games, years of DLC, and a buffet of free content. Since Immortal Empires was opened up to Warhammer III owners who don’t own I and II, CA’s entitlement logic has been juggling an absurd matrix: who owns which base game, which race packs, which Lords, and which FreeLC bundles that piggybacked on DLC releases. It’s a brittle system, and every patch risks shaking loose something obscure.

But here’s the rub: we’ve been here before. Shadows of Change’s pricing drama, frequent hotfixes that fix A while breaking B, and the community’s repeated calls for broader pre-release testing—it’s a pattern. Last week I spoke with prominent modder “Dead Baron,” who nailed what a lot of long-timers feel: the bugs aren’t just random; they’re chronic. Players on CA’s forums say the quiet part out loud: more QA, and bring back proper betas for patches like this. We’ve seen public betas smooth over big updates in the past; this one didn’t get that buffer, and we’re living the consequences.

What This Means If You Only Own Warhammer III

If you came to the party with only Warhammer III—and that’s increasingly common with Immortal Empires now open—this FreeLC lockout hits hardest. You might find Lord or hero variants greyed out, or certain units marked as off-limits in the recruit panel. It’s not a balance issue; it’s an access issue. That messes with faction variety and buildcraft, especially for players experimenting with rosters they could use last week.

What to do right now? Don’t buy older titles or DLC to “fix” it. CA has already said the lock is unintentional, so a hotfix is the right move, not a trip to checkout. If you’re knee-deep in a campaign, consider parking it on the turn you’re on and spinning up a low-stakes run, or take a break to avoid save desync weirdness if the unit suddenly unlocks mid-campaign. If you use mods, keep in mind that many entitlement-related issues don’t play nicely with mod managers until the base game is patched.

Looking Ahead: Tides of Torment Needs Calm Waters

CA’s gearing up to show more of the Tides of Torment expansion, and I want to be hyped. New content is why many of us stick with Total Warhammer for thousands of hours. But the live-service reality is stark: feature trailers don’t matter if the foundation keeps wobbling. The fix for this FreeLC lock needs to land quickly, with clear patch notes explaining what changed, why it broke, and how CA will prevent entitlement regressions going forward. Automated checks, public beta branches, and a slower, more transparent patch cadence would go a long way.

Total War: Warhammer III remains one of the most ambitious strategy games ever. That’s exactly why these stumbles sting—because the ceiling is so high. 6.3.2 gets the AI back on the field. Now CA needs to get players’ units back on the roster, and keep them there.

TL;DR

Patch 6.3.2 fixes the AI recruitment bug for Tomb Kings and Lizardmen but accidentally locks some previously free units behind old-game/DLC ownership checks. CA says it’s unintentional and is working on a fix—don’t buy anything to work around it. Great patch energy on AI, but the pipeline needs sturdier QA before the next expansion drops.