The Empire's most OTT lord finally gets his due, portrayed by a YouTuber hamming it up in Total War: Warhammer 3

The Total War Show & Tell included info on the historical games and destructible terrain in Total War: Warhammer 40,000, but a sizable chunk of its midsection was there to get us up to date on all things Total War: Warhammer 3. Including, right off the bat, game director Rich Aldridge saying to expect a patch "addressing some issues players have seen around idling AI and clustering around settlements. That will be coming very soon."

After that the focus was on upcoming update 8.1, and the previously revealed legendary lord Bhashiva, the White Tiger. Among other abilities, she'll have a teleport called Heaven's Gate that lets her bounce around the battlefield, explosively attacking everyone around her wherever she ends up. The other addition for Cathay was one we hadn't seen before, a free DLC hero called Taoyan the Merciless. Cathay's getting an overall rework at the same time, with a redone tech tree, unit buffs, and the like.

The big news was the reveal of a legendary lord who'll be joining Nagash as part of the Lords of the End Times DLC: Graf Boris Todbringer, who'll be in charge of the Ulrican faction based in Middenheim. Apparently, he'll be a touch more aggressive than the existing Imperial lords.

"Boris is much more about taking on anyone and everyone that's in the Empire right now," says associate design director Sean Macdonald. "And anyone that's even thinking about getting the Empire, he's taking the fight to them. No more defensiveness. He's embodying the god Ulric, the god of war, winter, and wolves, and he's bringing that war with him to all the foes of the Empire. He's got his claws out."

In battles you'll have the choice between Todbringer's regular campaign voice actor and YouTuber Angory Tom from the Yogscast. He's memorably cosplayed as "Toddy" in the past, and is exactly as over the top as you'd want a man who wears a castle for a hat to be.

Two new units for the Ulricans were shown, the Knights Panther and the Teutogen Guard. The latter are bodyguards for the high priest who is basically Ulric's pope, Ar-Ulric Emil Valgeir. Heavy hints were dropped that we can expect to see Ar-Ulric as well, presumably as a legendary hero, and two more units suggested in silhouette. They sure look like Hunting Hounds and the Celestial Hurricanum from tabletop Warhammer to me.

Looking ahead to the update 9.1, the siege update, we're finally getting rid of ass ladders. Sure, Creative Assembly say they're "removing pocket ladders as the default setting," but you and I both know the ladders siege attackers currently summon from nowhere are coming out of their butts. After the update, ladders will default to being tower things besieging units bring into battle with them, though if you really love ass ladders they'll remain in the menu as an option.

The Total War: Warhammer 3 section of the showcase ended with a promise that we should expect more in May, with more news about free additions specifically coming in June.