The Realm of Chaos vs Immortal Empires

Which campaign should you choose?

For a first sandbox campaign, choose Immortal Empires after the Prologue. You can learn one region and pursue your faction’s objectives while encountering races from across the trilogy. If you want the Ursun story attached to the original Warhammer III factions, choose The Realm of Chaos.

The Prologue is the tutorial. The Realm of Chaos is a full campaign with its own strategic demands, so entering it first is a story preference rather than a necessary training step.

Campaign access and lord ownership

Owners of Warhammer I or Warhammer II receive IE and The Lost God in the Warhammer III application. Their entry route does not include The Realm of Chaos; the Warhammer III Upgrade Pack adds that campaign and the associated Warhammer III content.

A Lords of the End Times purchase also opens IE. It gives you that pack’s playable content rather than every lord on the map. Keep your purchases on the same storefront when combining content.

The Ursun story and DLC campaigns

The original Realm of Chaos story centres on Ursun and the Chaos realms. That premise does not describe every DLC campaign on the same map. Thrones of Decay introduced its own objectives separate from the Ursun storyline.

Read the selected lord’s campaign introduction and objectives. A guide about the original story race can give the wrong priorities for a DLC lord. Likewise, the presence of an Empire lord in a DLC campaign does not make Karl Franz a selectable Realm of Chaos leader.

The same lord can need a different plan

A character’s battlefield identity can carry across modes while their strategic situation changes. Katarin still leads Kislev with Ice magic, and Miao Ying still supports Cathayan combined arms. Their surrounding settlements, routes and objectives belong to the selected campaign.

When using an opening guide, match the mode before following its map advice. Then compare the starting army and nearby threats with your own save. A route that leaves a border safe on one map can expose it on another.

• Katarin’s faction and battlefield role
• Miao Ying’s faction and battlefield role

Set a useful first-session goal

In IE, aim to understand your home province, keep a field army supplied and learn a repeatable battle formation. Check the victory panel rather than treating every distant rival as an immediate target. You can expand the goal once those pieces work together.

In The Realm of Chaos, inspect the story objective alongside your ordinary territory management. Before sending a key army away, look at what remains to defend home and how that army will return. The narrative provides direction, but the settlements and troops still need attention.

Choose the mode for the experience you want to keep playing. A lost battle or a difficult neighbour can be a reason to revise a plan; it need not mean that you chose the wrong campaign.