Boris Todbringer and Thanquol Reveal Opposing Campaign Styles in Lords of the End Times

Creative Assembly has released another campaign overview for Total War: WARHAMMER III – Lords of the End Times, this time focusing on Boris Todbringer and Thanquol. The two Legendary Lords represent dramatically different approaches to conquest: one fights openly beneath the banner of Ulric, while the other manipulates events through secret armies, stolen resources and increasingly unstable schemes.

Boris leads Middenland from the fortified city of Middenheim, using victories to strengthen the Great Temple of Ulric and prepare the Empire’s northern territories for war. Thanquol, meanwhile, delegates his work to expendable Skaven underlings who execute Masterplans on his behalf. These operations can undermine settlements, steal resources, invoke dangerous rites or assemble armies behind enemy lines.

Both campaigns will arrive with Lords of the End Times on September 24, 2026. Boris and Thanquol will be available as individual character packs as well as through the complete expansion bundle, which also includes Nagash and the Glottkin.

Boris Todbringer Finally Takes Command of Middenland

Boris Todbringer has existed in the Total War: WARHAMMER trilogy for years, but Lords of the End Times transforms the Elector Count into a fully developed playable Legendary Lord with his own faction, units, characters and campaign mechanics.

As ruler of Middenland and Graf of Middenheim, Boris occupies one of the most important defensive positions in the northern Empire. His territory is threatened by Beastmen emerging from the Drakwald, Skaven infestations, Greenskin invasions, Norscan raiders and the advancing forces of Chaos.

His campaign reflects that pressure. Rather than remaining behind Middenheim’s walls and waiting for another invasion, Boris is designed to take the fight directly to anything threatening the Empire. This makes his faction more aggressive than the traditional defensive and diplomatic style associated with several other Imperial campaigns.

Reikland, Stirland, Wissenland and Nuln provide potential allies nearby, but Boris will have no shortage of enemies. His position appears intended to create a campaign in which cooperation with other Imperial provinces remains valuable without removing the need for rapid military action.

The long-running rivalry between Boris and Khazrak One-Eye also plays an important role. During the campaign, players will receive reports about Brayherd movements and potential Beastmen threats. These warnings can apparently be ignored, but pursuing them offers Boris opportunities to confront the enemies of Middenland and eventually settle his personal vendetta against Khazrak.

Fervour Powers the Cult of Ulric

The central resource in Boris Todbringer’s campaign is Fervour, representing the devotion of Middenland’s people to Ulric, the Empire’s ancient god of war, winter and wolves.

Fervour can be generated in several ways, although defeating Middenland’s enemies is its principal source. This naturally encourages the player to maintain an active military campaign rather than building an economy while avoiding major conflicts.

Accumulated Fervour is invested into the Great Temple of Ulric in Middenheim. The temple contains six sacred Sanctuaries, including locations such as the Statue of the White Wolf and the Hall of the Eternal Flame. Each Sanctuary can be developed through four stages, gradually unlocking stronger benefits.

These improvements are not limited to combat modifiers. Creative Assembly says the Sanctuaries can influence Boris’s economy, military development and diplomatic capabilities, while also strengthening the new Ulrican units accompanying his faction.

Completing the Sanctuaries also causes the Sacred Flame of Ulric to burn more brightly. Its progression provides additional benefits to Boris’s Winter Rites and Ulric-themed warriors, creating a direct connection between activity on the campaign map and the performance of his armies.

The system gives Boris a clearly defined long-term objective: fight to accumulate Fervour, decide which areas of the temple should be prioritised and use the resulting bonuses to support further expansion.

However, its strategic depth will ultimately depend on the rate at which Fervour is earned and the relative value of the different Sanctuaries. If the resource becomes abundant too quickly, development could turn into a straightforward sequence of upgrades. If Fervour remains limited, choosing between economic, diplomatic and military benefits should produce more meaningful campaign decisions.

An Empire Army Built for Aggressive Melee Combat

Boris retains access to a broad selection of conventional Empire troops, allowing him to field artillery, cavalry, missile infantry and combined-arms formations. His personal specialities, however, favour aggressive melee armies built around the followers of Ulric.

Teutogen Guard provide the heavily armoured centre of that roster. Their armour-piercing attacks, armour-sundering capabilities and expert charge defence allow them to absorb attacks from dangerous opponents before grinding through armoured formations.

Warriors of Ulric function as dependable dual-weapon infantry intended to fight enemy foot soldiers, while the lightly protected Wolf-Kin carry great axes and provide inexpensive armour-piercing damage. Knights of the White Wolf supply heavy cavalry support that can remain in sustained melee instead of relying exclusively on repeated cycle charges.

Hunting Hounds add speed, forest concealment and flanking potential, while the Knights Panther offer a more conventional heavy shock-cavalry option. Boris can also field the Celestial Hurricanum, an arcane artillery platform capable of attacking with lightning, meteors and disruptive tornadoes.

The overall battlefield identity is therefore more nuanced than simply charging every available unit into melee. Boris’s strongest armies appear designed around a durable advancing line, infantry that can punish armoured or lightly protected targets, and mobile units capable of exploiting openings.

Boris himself is an armoured melee specialist carrying Legbiter, the Middenland Runefang. The sword improves his offensive capabilities, while the Talisman of Ulric gives him a method of regenerating health after suffering damage. His unique skills reinforce melee troops, supporting his role as a front-line commander rather than a general who remains safely behind the formation.

He can also fight alongside Ar-Ulric Emil Vargeir, the legendary high priest of the Cult of Ulric. Emil combines melee power with support abilities and provides additional combat bonuses to units such as the Teutogen Guard and Knights of the White Wolf.

Thanquol Turns Treachery into a Campaign System

Thanquol’s campaign moves in the opposite direction. Rather than openly confronting every opponent, the Grey Seer develops Masterplans and orders his subordinates to perform the dangerous work.

These underlings are specialised Skaven lords operating behind the scenes. They gain experience by completing Masterplans and possess individual skill trees that improve their ability to execute military, economic or magical operations.

Military Masterplans target a settlement and spend several turns secretly raising an army nearby. The player decides when the hidden force is sufficiently powerful and can then order a surprise attack. Existing armies can be positioned to support the assault, potentially creating a coordinated offensive without openly assembling the entire invasion force along the border.

Economic Masterplans are built around theft. Underlings infiltrate settlements to steal money, food and Warpstone, allowing Thanquol to exploit wealthy territories without immediately occupying them.

Magical Masterplans invoke rites with more destructive or supernatural outcomes. Confirmed possibilities include summoning a Verminlord and calling down a meteor capable of devastating a targeted province.

These three categories allow the system to address several campaign problems. A player short on food can organise a targeted heist, while someone preparing an invasion can create an additional army behind the enemy’s defences. Magical plans offer direct access to powerful effects when conventional expansion is not the best answer.

Every Masterplan Can Develop Complications

Masterplans are not simple actions that immediately produce a predetermined result. They unfold across multiple turns and can be modified as the operation develops.

Each underling possesses a collection of Schemes. New Schemes are added randomly to an active Masterplan every turn, potentially providing more troops for an attack, increasing the resources available to steal or supplying ingredients required for a magical rite.

Waiting can therefore make a Masterplan considerably stronger. Unfortunately for Thanquol, additional preparation also increases the possibility of Complications.

Settlement guards might discover part of a military operation and eliminate some of its hidden units. Other Complications can reduce a plan’s effectiveness or increase its chance of failure, forcing the player to decide whether to continue preparing or activate the operation before the situation deteriorates.

Thanquol can spend Warpstone to acquire additional Schemes and Tricks from other Skaven clans. These additions can counter Complications, reinforce secret armies or improve the probability of success.

The mechanic resembles a strategic push-your-luck system. Allowing a plan to develop creates more opportunities to improve its final reward, but every additional turn gives something else an opportunity to go wrong. That is particularly appropriate for Thanquol, whose elaborate operations in Warhammer fiction regularly descend into chaos before he claims that everything occurred exactly as intended.

It also gives his campaign a board-game-like layer that exists alongside conventional Skaven settlement management, food consumption, corruption and the Under-Empire.

Boneripper Transforms Thanquol into a Front-Line Threat

Thanquol may prefer assigning dangerous tasks to his underlings, but he is far from helpless in battle. He is a hybrid melee and spellcasting Legendary Lord who combines magic from the Lores of Plague and Ruin.

He can eventually unlock the Dreaded Thirteenth Spell, summoning Stormvermin directly onto the battlefield, and can consume Warpstone Tokens to strengthen his spellcasting. His most substantial transformation comes from gaining access to Boneripper, his enormous bio-engineered Rat Ogre mount.

Boneripper gives Thanquol greater survivability and allows him to engage enemies much more aggressively. Players can equip the creature with Warpfire Braziers for brutal close-range combat or Warpfire Projectors capable of burning enemy formations with magical flames.

Thanquol also gains access to Skreech Verminking as a Legendary Hero and can recruit four types of Verminlord as army commanders. Corruptors specialise in plague and battlefield disruption, Warpseers emphasise destructive magic, Warbringers focus on direct combat, and Deceivers use stealth, ranged weapons and poisoned attacks.

Combined with melee and ranged variants of the Stormfiends, Thanquol’s roster adds powerful elite options without abandoning the classic Skaven strategy of overwhelming opponents with expendable bodies while more valuable units inflict the decisive damage.

Team Wolf and Team Rat Offer Two Different Campaign Experiences

Boris and Thanquol are not merely two new characters attached to existing factions. Their mechanics encourage opposing strategic behaviours.

Boris is the more direct choice. His progression is tied to defeating enemies, accumulating Fervour and rebuilding the Great Temple of Ulric. His campaign rewards visible territorial expansion and aggressive armies capable of meeting the enemies of Middenland head-on.

Thanquol is built around interference, delayed operations and calculated risk. His strongest campaign tools can operate beyond his borders, allowing him to steal resources, create hidden armies and damage provinces without beginning with a traditional declaration of conquest.

Players looking for a martial Empire campaign with a strong thematic roster will probably find Boris more immediately approachable. Those who enjoy manipulating the campaign map and managing interconnected systems are likely to find greater complexity in Thanquol’s Masterplans.

The actual balance of both campaigns will depend on factors that cannot be judged from their descriptions alone. Fervour generation must remain restrictive enough to make the temple upgrades meaningful, while Masterplans will need consequences severe enough to prevent players from solving every strategic problem through remote operations.

Their foundations are nevertheless distinct. One asks players to strengthen Middenheim through faith and war; the other turns Skaven incompetence, treachery and improvisation into an entire strategic framework.

Total War: WARHAMMER III – Lords of the End Times launches for PC on September 24, 2026. Purchasing the complete bundle or any of its individual character packs will also grant access to Immortal Empires without requiring ownership of a previous Total War: WARHAMMER game, although additional factions and Legendary Lords will still require their corresponding content.