Total War Warhammer 3 overhauls mod manager, so you'll no longer have to fight Chaos before even starting the game

It’s imperative to mod Total War Warhammer 3 for the best experience. The strategy game is an impressive beast even if you just play vanilla, but a handful of crucial mods make things feel a lot smoother. The only problem is, installing and managing these mods is a bit of a faff, especially when you get carried away and start modding your Skaven to have lore-accurate eyes and to give the Empire access to Grand Cathay’s caravans because it feels fair. Thankfully, developer Creative Assembly has tackled this problem head-on, making big changes to the game’s mod manager.

The update comes in response to player feedback and internal testing, and should make everything easier to manage. Total War Warhammer 3 launched the new-look mod manager late in 2025, which was a solid first step towards improving the system. However, there were some teething issues.

The new update improves performance, mod ordering, searches, tooltips, and the UI. So, pretty much everything. You could already select the best Total War Warhammer 3 mods as a ‘mod profile’ to be applied to the game automatically, but now it’ll be easier to find and pick up specific, more niche mods to apply to any given campaign.

Modding often snowballs. It starts with a small Victory Conditions Overhaul and the Community Bug Fix mod, then levels up to the Simply Fun Overhaul: Grimhammer 3. Before you know it, you’re tweaking the smallest things and fixing the tiniest annoyances. It’s at this point you need a robust mod manager, otherwise the simple act of starting a new campaign becomes more tedious than playing vanilla.

For those of you who want the specifics, you can check out the full blog post here. However, I’ll summarize the best bits. Firstly, mass mod activation should be faster, even for players with “very large mod lists,” and startup time has been reduced for players with “hundreds of mods” installed (looking at you).

Search filters now match against the mod title, the pack file name, and the Steam Workshop mod ID, which will help when trying to find something specific. Tooltips should also be clearer, and Creative Assembly has fixed a bunch of edge cases surrounding subscribed and unsubscribed mods. It has also fixed a bug with the mod profile display and made text more legible throughout.

All in all, these changes sound positive. However, the only way to know for sure is by trying it out for yourself, seeing what works and what doesn’t, and feeding that back to the developer. Creative Assembly has shown that it’s willing to listen to players on this, and that shouldn’t be taken for granted. Not all developers are so amiable or implement feedback for the most hardcore fans.

It’s also a great excuse to install a bunch of new mods and see where your next campaign takes you. I might try increasing all the unit sizes by three and then dropping Skarbrand in the middle of the Empire with ‘change starting location’. That should prove suitably cinematic.