tldr: UNREWARDING

long(er) version
the game isn't bad or wouldn't be if it was WH1, it's just disappointing in most aspects, especially so in comparison to WH2.

The good:
- new mechanics, different for each faction
- lords heroes lvl cap increased to 50

The mixed:
- settlement sieges - towers are everywhere!! and they hit like a truck, except when you're defending.... it devolved into tower defense game with poor unit pathing
- some mechanics are not well explained or have some weird quirks
- time gated campaign forced upon the player... I get it, some people like it, but I have no option to turn it off; Vortex is fun to play in comparison
- winds of magic rework - it's now army specific, not general
- still no skill reset in game - the most requested feature - why does anyone care if I use it in my single player campaign? just make it an option for those who would appreciate that

The bad:
- bugs, and a lot of them, some of them were fixed in WH2, but still made it to WH3
- many people have performance problems even on high-end rigs; my 5 year old rig runs it fine enough, but I don't care about fps and run it in 1080p
- autoresolve designed to punish player and force him to play more battles, thus making campaign needlessly longer
- alt tabbing makes the menus unclickable for many people (me too) - no alt tabbing allowed!
- bland and lackluster tech trees 9/10... it's +1 here -1% there, nothing significant, no tech you would like to get, to the point many people take any tech just for the reminder to disappear; also many useless (redundant) and out of place techs, like buffs for lvl 1 unit at the end of tech tree..... why?
- bland and lackluster lord/hero traits - all bonuses are dropped by half compared to WH2... not much flavour either; rewards for defeating legendary lords are pitiful and mostly useless e.g. terror when fighting against said faction - really? when I almost killed them?
- bland and lackluster items..... especially legendary ones*
- campaign requires some serious effort and is tedious at worst, but gives pitiful rewards, if any

Overall the game has this big sign: UNREWARDING all over it... nothing epic, no big fun battles, no killing machine legendary lords or heroes after they finally get to lvl 50. Your effort is completely not rewarded, no jaw dropping loots, nothing of value.

*as for items (and defeat traits), this is not rocket science, just divide it in tiers, then mix and match, for example:
tier 1
- HP regen
- best resistances: ward save, physical
- melee defence
- some top effect abilities 1-2x per battle (nuke like)?
tier 2
- +HP
- other resistances: magic, missile, fire (come out with others? maybe some matching enemy mechanics? poison resistance when?)
- melee attack, weapon effects/damage
- medium effect abilities?
tier 3
other less significant stat boosts (armour, charge bonus etc.) and abilities.

I cannot honestly recommend the game at release state, I should have waited for 50% discount and whole map campaign, also stuff getting fixed. I should have known better than to preorder.

edit: post launch service aka support is barely existent and after over a year major bugs are ignored, even if all it takes is single line of code to fix.... the game is barely on life support, yet constantly pushing DLCs... no hotfixing, no regular patches.... as such it feels almost abandoned, if not for DLCs aka customer milking

tldr: UNREWARDING long(er) version the game isn't bad or wouldn't be if it was WH1, it's just disappointing in most aspects, especially so in comparison to WH2. The good: - new mechanics, different for each faction - lords heroes lvl cap increased to 50 The mixed: - settlement sieges - towers are everywhere!! and they hit like a truck, except when you're defending.... it devolved into tower defense game with poor unit pathing - some mechanics are not well explained or have some weird quirks - time gated campaign forced upon the player... I get it, some people like it, but I have no option to turn it off; Vortex is fun to play in comparison - winds of magic rework - it's now army specific, not general - still no skill reset in game - the most requested feature - why does anyone care if I use it in my single player campaign? just make it an option for those who would appreciate that The bad: - bugs, and a lot of them, some of them were fixed in WH2, but still made it to WH3 - many people have performance problems even on high-end rigs; my 5 year old rig runs it fine enough, but I don't care about fps and run it in 1080p - autoresolve designed to punish player and force him to play more battles, thus making campaign needlessly longer - alt tabbing makes the menus unclickable for many people (me too) - no alt tabbing allowed! - bland and lackluster tech trees 9/10... it's +1 here -1% there, nothing significant, no tech you would like to get, to the point many people take any tech just for the reminder to disappear; also many useless (redundant) and out of place techs, like buffs for lvl 1 unit at the end of tech tree..... why? - bland and lackluster lord/hero traits - all bonuses are dropped by half compared to WH2... not much flavour either; rewards for defeating legendary lords are pitiful and mostly useless e.g. terror when fighting against said faction - really? when I almost killed them? - bland and lackluster items..... especially legendary ones* - campaign requires some serious effort and is tedious at worst, but gives pitiful rewards, if any Overall the game has this big sign: UNREWARDING all over it... nothing epic, no big fun battles, no killing machine legendary lords or heroes after they finally get to lvl 50. Your effort is completely not rewarded, no jaw dropping loots, nothing of value. *as for items (and defeat traits), this is not rocket science, just divide it in tiers, then mix and match, for example: tier 1 - HP regen - best resistances: ward save, physical - melee defence - some top effect abilities 1-2x per battle (nuke like)? tier 2 - +HP - other resistances: magic, missile, fire (come out with others? maybe some matching enemy mechanics? poison resistance when?) - melee attack, weapon effects/damage - medium effect abilities? tier 3 other less significant stat boosts (armour, charge bonus etc.) and abilities. I cannot honestly recommend the game at release state, I should have waited for 50% discount and whole map campaign, also stuff getting fixed. I should have known better than to preorder. edit: post launch service aka support is barely existent and after over a year major bugs are ignored, even if all it takes is single line of code to fix.... the game is barely on life support, yet constantly pushing DLCs... no hotfixing, no regular patches.... as such it feels almost abandoned, if not for DLCs aka customer milking