Creative Assembly have just detailed Total War: Warhammer 3’s first character pack, these being “smaller, focused content drops built around a single character with their own unique feature, supported by a handful of exciting new units”, priced (in this case) at £3.99, $4.99 or €4.99 apiece.

Yes, it’s Creative Assembly once again nosing at the shards of your smashed piggy bank, but the developers have, in theory, pre-empted any rancour over DLC nickel-and-diming by making the character pack cat-themed. Everybody loves cats! Even when they cost as much as a medium oatmilk latte. Especially cats like Bhashiva – an entirely new Warhammer character – and her company of Tiger Warriors. Look at her ickle grumpy face! Look at her ickle flaming twin katara! ARGH get it off me get it off me get it off me, etcetera.

Bhashiva and her feline gangsters will form part of the Grand Cathay faction, though sadly not, it seems, because some Creative Assembly designer spotted an obvious pun and was immediately assigned £100,000. The pack’s paid contents are one Legendary Lord, one Lord, three regular units, and a “Unique Campaign Feature, Final Battle, Quest Battle etc”.

What manner of combatant is Bhashiva, then? She’s a stealthy wrecking ball, equipped with incendiary weapons and a Heaven’s Gate blink-style ability. “Each strike not only scorches her victims but weakens their resistance to flame, letting her plough through fights the moment she commits,” enthuses a blog post on CA’s site. “Her agility is at the core of her playstyle; she darts between threats, repositions effortlessly, and uses her mastery of stealth to pick the perfect moment to appear.”

Battle designer Josh King adds that “she’s the quiet dread in the back of your mind”. How very unlike my family’s own moggy, best summarised as “the quiet shitter in the back of the bedroom cupboard”.

As for the Tiger Warriors, they’re a gang of nippy ambushers and so, relatively exotic among the boxy formations of regular Grand Cathay. Their Clawspeaker spellcasters are vanguard units equipped with a mix of healing, beast and shadow lore, making them an “incredibly versatile force multiplier.”

If you don’t already own the Grand Cathay DLC, buying the Tiger Warrior character pack includes access to “the core Grand Cathay roster to ensure you get a complete experience”. We can expect more details down the line. Also down the line: the release of Total War: Warhammer 3’s Lords of the End Times expansion, which is chock full of necromancers. And sometime after that, the release of Total War: Warhammer 40,000 – one of Julian’s most anticipated games of 2026. And sometime after that, a long time probably, the release of Total War: Medieval 3.