I would disagree with Empire being "best at nothing". Both their artillery and elite cavalry is hellagood (artillery is on par with dwarfs and their elite cavalry is on par with brettonia). They just have very mediocre infantry (kinda bad melee infantry, mediocre missile infantry), no flyers except their generals and their chariots aren't good for what other factions use theirs for. With the exception of Franz their lords aren't very powerful either.
Their artillery is... both very good and very average. And even though i like their artillery the best* mortars are not better than grudgethrowers, trebuchets, or doom diver catapults, let alone plague claw. Cannons are cannons** and while the empire cannons have the best stats this goes away as soon as you talk about campaign value. Volley guns are definitely the best empire artilery in the campaign and can maybe take the position of best artillery in the game... but that reauires campaign skills and the result you get isnt so much better than a base organ gun that its really worth considering.
Their elite cavalry is not even close to on par with Bretonia. Like... demigryph halberds are 32/30/52+25. Which is really good. But RPKs are 42/30/61+12 and fly(only 24 units so not quite as killy as DK’s but still better) oh and they have perfect vigor. Grail guardians are 60 units with 56 MD, perfect vigour, and bonus physical resist. Grail knights have 80 charge bonus and perfect vigor. With a wedge they can cycle charge and more or less keep up enough charge bonus that if they had zero other stats would still make them some of the strongest cavalry in the game.
Bretonia’s cavalry is the best at everything that isnt skirmish. Their cavalry is a better line than your line. Their cavalry Is better anti-large and it flies. Its better vs heroes and it flies. It swarms better, charges better, and survives better. DKs are pretty good. But theyre not RPKs or Hippogryphs
*in the campaign vollleyguns are amazing. Without dmg buffs theyre butt though.
I guess I just love the fact that with the empire I have a huge selection of differently functioning artillery pieces.
The mortars aren't great (except in a siege), but while Dwarf artillery seems like endless variations of lobby or cannon-y artillery the empire has mortars, hellstorm rocket batteries, volleyguns, steam tanks, Luminarks etc...and even more variety with RoRs like the War wagon volleyguns.
Ergo. Regardless of the enemy faction I always have an artillerypiece that is excellent for this situation in particular.
Fiendishrabbit on
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Yea theold dwarven tactic of “have the hero solo the army please dont pay any attention to the flamethrowers behind the screen” is very effective
+5
Options
SpectrumArcher of InfernoChaldea Rec RoomRegistered Userregular
Finished off my Hellebron campaign finally, managed to ally Eshin and pick up the rest of the capitals I needed.
Highest in-battle kill count was 1250 on Hellebron, with Morathi adding on another 700 or so by dumping Pit of Shades onto her head. Hellebron ended the battle at full HP and with 3500 of her regen cap left, so I suspect if I had grinded it out and had enough time to do so, I might have gotten a full 2k kills on her.
Haven’t played a total war since the original Rome, playing warhammer 2 now, is there a way to examine your cities in peacetime? Like manually? And do the buildings you built appear in the cities in this one like they did in Rome?
0
Options
That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
I love Poison wind mortars but am puzzled I've never tried that. It sounds amazing as entertainment at least.
Oh no! Looks like it's time for another Ikit campaign.
It's kind of bonkers how fast even elite cavalry will melt in the glorious poison wind. Their DPS vastly outclasses anything else in the game. Indirect fire and a large area of effect means almost every volly will do something. Poison Wind Mortars can even take out powerful single entity units if they hold still like in a siege battle.
So turns out an entire army of elf shields guys dies to an entire army of cavalry grenadiers and rocket launchers. Good to know! I mean I should’ve suspected, but good to have it confirmed in thousands of my poor elf dudes dead
I love Poison wind mortars but am puzzled I've never tried that. It sounds amazing as entertainment at least.
Oh no! Looks like it's time for another Ikit campaign.
It's kind of bonkers how fast even elite cavalry will melt in the glorious poison wind. Their DPS vastly outclasses anything else in the game. Indirect fire and a large area of effect means almost every volly will do something. Poison Wind Mortars can even take out powerful single entity units if they hold still like in a siege battle.
Cavalry only have between 1.5 to 2x the raw HP of infantry, They're still going to melt under intense AoE. Their main advantage vs AoE is that they're half as dense as infantry
Haven’t played a total war since the original Rome, playing warhammer 2 now, is there a way to examine your cities in peacetime? Like manually? And do the buildings you built appear in the cities in this one like they did in Rome?
Sadly no, but most are pretty generic.
Cities and the sieging of them is something I hope they work on for total warhammer 3
I love Poison wind mortars but am puzzled I've never tried that. It sounds amazing as entertainment at least.
Oh no! Looks like it's time for another Ikit campaign.
You can basically do that anyway with Doomflayers instead and they'll be faster and have better armor. (Doomwheels are a trap)
Are doomflayers better than wheels? Honestly, I've mostly used the former, because they were the first thing upgraded in the Workshop
Doomwheels are a trap because they don't heal for shit after a fight because they're a single model unit, which is nonideal for the units taking the brunt of incoming damage. Doomflayers are multiunit and don't have that problem.
Definitely going to have to restart my campaign. My armies are just too weak to deal with all the shit going on. Might try the warhammer 1 campaign instead. I’m playing on normal and starting with an easy elf starting position, and about 60 turns in I just can’t win, even evenly matched enemies seem to just devastate me
Also Im guessing chaos are like whipping boys at least early on? I’m getting my ass kicked by pirates and fellow elf kin, then the chaos showed up cos of my ritual and I’m like oh man I’m screwed. But every army they’ve sent I’ve utterly destroyed. They’ve provided desperately needed murder fun
Also Im guessing chaos are like whipping boys at least early on? I’m getting my ass kicked by pirates and fellow elf kin, then the chaos showed up cos of my ritual and I’m like oh man I’m screwed. But every army they’ve sent I’ve utterly destroyed. They’ve provided desperately needed murder fun
Those early chaos armies are indeed intended to be relatively easy to deal with.
As for winning fights. Generally, if you lead the battle yourself, you should be able to beat armies significantly tougher than you.
Just some early tips are:
1. Use "P" to pause to issue orders. Doesn't work in multiplayer, but I like it in singleplayer.
2. "R" swaps between walking and running. Walk if you can. Only run for the last short distance if possible (like, once the enemy archers open up). Try to make the enemy run as much as possible (as tired units fight worse). So provoking enemies into running using artillery or ranged cavalry/infantry (just make sure you're fast enough that their fastest units can't catch you) means you have a huge advantage over them.
3. Use the terrain. WH1/WH2 has the problem that a lot of maps are very flat, but even a slight advantage in height can give you a huge advantage as not only do you receive a damage bonus, but any charge uphill is less powerful and any charge downhill is more powerful (note, Units with Strider, like spiders and many other guerilla troops, don't give a fuck about uphill). Chokepoint maps are also hugely useful if you have archers/artillery or magic that causes large area damage (you can target artillery to strike terrain by holding down ALT as you give the attack command).
4. Always have enough melee units. Cheese tactics often rely on few "lord/hero" melee units and lots of ranged. But for normal and for a less skilled player at least 6-8 units should have decent melee defence stats (or just be huge punching bags if you're for example clanrats or zombies) and at least 12 units should be melee capable.
5. Magic, especially wind spells, can be insane if you can rake the enemy line or drop a blast into a tightly packed blob of enemies. Most lores have at least some good damage spells. Those that don't tend to have good support spells.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
+3
Options
BethrynUnhappiness is MandatoryRegistered Userregular
Empire has the Grenade Launcher Outriders and Helstorm Rocket Battery and thus have the best artillery in the game. This is not up for debate.
They might not be the most powerful. But they are, without doubt, the best.
Teaching up early to GL Outriders while you're still fighting the Undead and watching them go to town on skeletons is incredibly enjoyable.
Which is why Reikland should make conquering Marienburg their first priority (to get their hands on GL outrider state troops). Their enemies will normally be Orcs, Norsca and Vampires. All of those factions have rather limited means of countering outriders. Although norscan missile cavalry is a thing to be reckoned with in cavalry vs cavalry encounters.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I'm currently going through and rating the maps for multiplayer skirmish, some of the Warhammer maps are quite boring. I suspect they are from WH1? Just, flat, open, no interesting terrain and barely any trees. What's even the point? And don't get me started on maps that are essentially duplicates like the sea battles. You can't just change the look of the trees and call it a day, it's the same map! The fake diversity is worse!
The best maps tend to be quest battle maps. Great design, interesting terrain and battlefield. But those tend to be 1v1 only.
Started raiding the desert coast to sack cities to keep my money up, but I’d just spent too long getting used to everything and a few of the other elf factions just got way too big and powerful, so I’ll have to start again. The narrative in my head of an elf faction forced to abandon its homeland and raid foreign coasts felt awesome though. I don’t mind starting again knowing what I know now tho.
Started raiding the desert coast to sack cities to keep my money up, but I’d just spent too long getting used to everything and a few of the other elf factions just got way too big and powerful, so I’ll have to start again. The narrative in my head of an elf faction forced to abandon its homeland and raid foreign coasts felt awesome though. I don’t mind starting again knowing what I know now tho.
Also note that if you're a high elf you have excellent opportunities at confederating people. As Eataine (Lothern) you have several factions on your east that are quite willing to confederate (while Saphery, to your north, tend to declare war on everyone. So they're a prime target for conquest).
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Started raiding the desert coast to sack cities to keep my money up, but I’d just spent too long getting used to everything and a few of the other elf factions just got way too big and powerful, so I’ll have to start again. The narrative in my head of an elf faction forced to abandon its homeland and raid foreign coasts felt awesome though. I don’t mind starting again knowing what I know now tho.
Also note that if you're a high elf you have excellent opportunities at confederating people. As Eataine (Lothern) you have several factions on your east that are quite willing to confederate (while Saphery, to your north, tend to declare war on everyone. So they're a prime target for conquest).
Yeah I got that impression tho a little too late, I’d spread out my influence points too thinly and not curried favour with the factions most suitable for confederations, cos basically all the systems were new to me so I was just kind of pressing buttons. I knew it would basically be a test run first campaign tho so it’s all good. I probably could’ve fought on and get better footing and maybe recover but I kind of want to start again knowing the systems more anyway
Tried another Empire campaign as Gelt but man these children won't stop bickering.
Given I didn't want to take the penalties of confederating with Averland for all of one province but then they're moving their doomstack into Wissenland after I had to conquer them. Urrrrrgh.
Maybe I'll just try a Morathi campaign.
Edit: Tried to start it up but then the game crashed when I went to recruit a lord...maybe that campaign is screwed up and all for the better. Lesson learned, go ahead and confederate early. Vamps are dicks.
Not that I needed to learn that latter. It just needed reemphasizing.
Man, I have been trying the Lui Bei MoH start and its not kidding around about it being a hard start. My best run so far has been getting the commandery around pingyaun, but then basically losing 8 turns after cause I cant get my income up above due to the yellow turbans constantly sending doomstacks at me.
I guess I could just abandon the north and move south ignoring the quests but that seems like a cop out.
Some more High Elf advice: your killing power will be mostly in archers for early game. Spearman are great for holding but take forever to kill things.
When you look at a unit's stat block, if they have a shield you will see a shield symbol next to the Armor bar. If you mouse over it will tell you exactly what percentage of incoming missiles it will block (not all shields are the same). Spearman shields are very good, so they are good for absorbing ranged fire. But shields do not block artillery fire.
Once you have access to Silver Helms with shields, put a few of them into your army. Use your Spearmen to block while your Archers do their work, and have your cav circle around and take out enemy ranged units. Silver Helms aren't amazing at fighting other cav but on lower difficulty they'll do okay. Once the enemy archers are dead, charge your cav into the back of the enemy infantry line. This should start making the enemy line crumble very shortly.
It would probably be a good idea to get a Bolt Thrower or two in your army. Put them on the anti-infantry mode and they'll do a fair amount of damage across units to soften them up before they get to you. They'll also encourage armies to come to you, which is easier for you.
Dragon Princes are basically better Silver Helms, so swap them over when you can afford it. Likewise, have your actual Dragons fly over to a flank and breathe some fire on a tough unit, then drop down and start wrecking. Just keep in mind that things like spears and halberds have bonuses to Large units like Dragons and cavalry, so you don't want to leave those units in battle against them. Once you've done some damage, pull your cav back and charge them back in to deal the most damage.
Timely use of magic can turn an unwinnable battle into a cakewalk. Every army needs a caster. For High Elves, that's either a Mage Hero or an Archmage General. The first few spells they get usually aren't great and they aren'tgood in melee, but their later spells can be devastating. Get a Fire Mage and teach her Flaming Skull. Time it right, and she'll rack up hundreds of kills each fight. But remember that the Winds of Magic to cast those spells are finite, so try not to waste them.
High Elf tip: For a second army my recommendation would be that once you get 60 influence (use a noble and steal it from enemy cities) you look through Lore of Fire, Lore of Heavens and Lore of Shadow for an Archmage with the "Incendary" trait.
Early on he'll be acting as a spellcaster lord (and all three lores have great abilities in that area). But once you get a dragon...then he's a spellcaster on a dragon with a huge charge bonus.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I'd throw in that Empire lines are great if they are supported by a warrior priest with battle prayers.
I've had some close battles and my lines have held with that tactic!
Throw in a fire wizard and you're cooking with gas.
Thinking of starting a new run with skaven but I find it hard to play the none human looking races, never one much for monsters. But the sweet sweet gatling guns are calling and the snipers as well....
SFO just updated as well so it might be a good time!
canuckont on
I saw a kid get handed a JB poster by who I presume was his parents outside my store today....he tore it in half infront of his horrified parents.....There's hope for our youth yet!
Eesh, Morathi ME run did not go well. Secured the province well enough but the shadow walker high elf units are just stupidly dangerous and so I can't crush off the last of them.
Course after their third successful raid into my lands Lizardmen to the south declare war. I'm already not making great money, maybe I should have just gone after the lizardmen first even with unpleasant climate.
Edit: I don't think I have the best handle on Dark Elves either. Their front line seems lacking but units are pricier than Empire though I know their crossbows have a lot of killing power if you keep them safe. A good fire breath from the hydra can be devastating but early on they don't feel great. I kinda feel like I should invest more in magic with Morathi early on then the red tree but that's a problem I have with caster LLs.
Eesh, Morathi ME run did not go well. Secured the province well enough but the shadow walker high elf units are just stupidly dangerous and so I can't crush off the last of them.
Course after their third successful raid into my lands Lizardmen to the south declare war. I'm already not making great money, maybe I should have just gone after the lizardmen first even with unpleasant climate.
Edit: I don't think I have the best handle on Dark Elves either. Their front line seems lacking but units are pricier than Empire though I know their crossbows have a lot of killing power if you keep them safe. A good fire breath from the hydra can be devastating but early on they don't feel great. I kinda feel like I should invest more in magic with Morathi early on then the red tree but that's a problem I have with caster LLs.
If you're going to learn the ways of Dark Elves. Don't start with Morathi. Start with Malekith. While Morathis province is one of the best in the game it requires tons of investment to get good and her special mechanic makes her tougher to play. Malekith on the other hand has an awesome city (with a lot of great cities nearby featuring special buildings), enemies that less annoying than high-elves and he's one of the best lords in the game.
They do well against melee focused enemies (though maybe you shouldn't try to go 1v1 against Saurus infantry), partially because their ranged units are mobile and have high AP damage, but strong ranged units (especially high elves) can be troublesome.
My best suggestion against high-elf AI is to use a decoy unit of a few spearmen and repeater bolt throwers, then lure them close to a forest and go "SURPRISE BITCHES! DARK ELVES IN THE TREES!" and hit them with your hidden force of infantry, darkshards w/shields or possibly hitting them from the forest with melee infantry and then from the other side you open up with your hidden Shades that pump crossbow bolts into their backs.
Stuff like that.
P.S: Dark Elves gain a ton of good toys from their DLCs. From the Crone DLC the Sisters of Slaugher are the highlight with their insane melee defence and trial of blades ability. Doomfire warlocks are also good. Kharybdiss is a great monsterkiller (but maybe not worth it over the regular hydra since it lacks regen). All suffer from a vulnerability to missile fire. From the Shadow&Blade DLC there is the Master Hero (an excellent bodyguard for any general), Scourge runner chariots (awesome skirmish unit) and Bloodwrack medusa which serve as close support artillery monsters.
P.P.S: Morathi REALLY benefits from having the Shadow&Blade DLC since a master makes her a lot tougher and able to use her offensive abilities.
Fiendishrabbit on
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
+2
Options
SpectrumArcher of InfernoChaldea Rec RoomRegistered Userregular
Dark Elves early are actually very strong because Darkshards w/ Shields are nuts. Yeah, their range is a little shorter but you push your line up after contact and it's fine. They murder everything that tries to close and win ranged duels because of the shields.
Now, Higher tier HE armies will start to give you fits if you get Phoenix/Dragon mobbed before you can get your own flyers to stop them from just divebombing your blobs but you shouldn't fight those for awhile.
I have never played a total war game, but I played a ton of classic RTS (starcraft/warcraft mostly). I appreciate that won't help me much, though I've also played a ton of 4X games, which might?
Regardless, I'm downloading TW: Warhammer I and II and the big DLC for them (not all the DLC). What should I know going in? Places online to look? What faction should I play first? Can I plausibly stumble myself through things, knowing I might lose and have to restart?
Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
I have never played a total war game, but I played a ton of classic RTS (starcraft/warcraft mostly). I appreciate that won't help me much, though I've also played a ton of 4X games, which might?
Regardless, I'm downloading TW: Warhammer I and II and the big DLC for them (not all the DLC). What should I know going in? Places online to look? What faction should I play first? Can I plausibly stumble myself through things, knowing I might lose and have to restart?
Tips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogToJNXblho
Note that the Hit chance formula is 40+Your Melee attack-Their melee defence (Min-Max = 10%-90% hit chance). So if they have a melee defence that's 30 higher than your melee attack you're pretty much fucked. There are also a couple of artifacts (like helmet of discord) and units (like river trolls) that can lower enemy melee attack inside its aura of effect...which can be huge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG863qx5U3k
Note that climbing ladders will make your units tired (which will drasticly lower its attack, defense and armor) while feeding them piecemeal into whatever is defending. Ladders is a last resort, while either not going over walls (by either breaking them or going through the gate) or using siege towers is the way to go.
In addition there are a few really nice buttons (beyond those the "10 things I wish I knew").
Alt-RMB will allow your artillery to target ground (especially good for catapults/mortars so that you don't kill your own troops)
R will toggle walk/run
P will pause (not usable on legendary, but otherwise very useful). You can issue orders when paused
Space will reveal auras, missile ranges and your units move target
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I have never played a total war game, but I played a ton of classic RTS (starcraft/warcraft mostly). I appreciate that won't help me much, though I've also played a ton of 4X games, which might?
Regardless, I'm downloading TW: Warhammer I and II and the big DLC for them (not all the DLC). What should I know going in? Places online to look? What faction should I play first? Can I plausibly stumble myself through things, knowing I might lose and have to restart?
Tips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogToJNXblho
Note that the Hit chance formula is 40+Your Melee attack-Their melee defence (Min-Max = 10%-90% hit chance). So if they have a melee defence that's 30 higher than your melee attack you're pretty much fucked. There are also a couple of artifacts (like helmet of discord) and units (like river trolls) that can lower enemy melee attack inside its aura of effect...which can be huge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG863qx5U3k
Note that climbing ladders will make your units tired (which will drasticly lower its attack, defense and armor) while feeding them piecemeal into whatever is defending. Ladders is a last resort, while either not going over walls (by either breaking them or going through the gate) or using siege towers is the way to go.
In addition there are a few really nice buttons (beyond those the "10 things I wish I knew").
Alt-RMB will allow your artillery to target ground (especially good for catapults/mortars so that you don't kill your own troops)
R will toggle walk/run
P will pause (not usable on legendary, but otherwise very useful). You can issue orders when paused
Space will reveal auras, missile ranges and your units move target
This is a lot of what i had in mind, thanks. I finally appear to have installed the free DLC on top of the DLC I bought and am about to start a campaign. What difficulty should I be starting at? I don't mind fucking up and having to start over in the first few hours.
Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
I'm honestly thinking of going down to Easy/Easy. I got totally demolished in a way that makes me think I made my mistakes hours before I realized I was losing. I'm not sure if this game has an immense learning curve or if I'm just really not suited for strategy combat.
edit: One thing I'm unclear on is if my preference for sieging is holding me back. I've opted to siege each opposing settlement I want to occupy or raze up until I have an overwhelming advantage. However, I observed that other warring factions were trading settlements at a brisk pace. I wonder if I should be going in just long enough to build a couple of siege weapons and then go to town. I really could use some monsters too, I'm sure.
Posts
Their elite cavalry is not even close to on par with Bretonia. Like... demigryph halberds are 32/30/52+25. Which is really good. But RPKs are 42/30/61+12 and fly(only 24 units so not quite as killy as DK’s but still better) oh and they have perfect vigor. Grail guardians are 60 units with 56 MD, perfect vigour, and bonus physical resist. Grail knights have 80 charge bonus and perfect vigor. With a wedge they can cycle charge and more or less keep up enough charge bonus that if they had zero other stats would still make them some of the strongest cavalry in the game.
Bretonia’s cavalry is the best at everything that isnt skirmish. Their cavalry is a better line than your line. Their cavalry Is better anti-large and it flies. Its better vs heroes and it flies. It swarms better, charges better, and survives better. DKs are pretty good. But theyre not RPKs or Hippogryphs
*in the campaign vollleyguns are amazing. Without dmg buffs theyre butt though.
**warp lightning is the exception.
The mortars aren't great (except in a siege), but while Dwarf artillery seems like endless variations of lobby or cannon-y artillery the empire has mortars, hellstorm rocket batteries, volleyguns, steam tanks, Luminarks etc...and even more variety with RoRs like the War wagon volleyguns.
Ergo. Regardless of the enemy faction I always have an artillerypiece that is excellent for this situation in particular.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Highest in-battle kill count was 1250 on Hellebron, with Morathi adding on another 700 or so by dumping Pit of Shades onto her head. Hellebron ended the battle at full HP and with 3500 of her regen cap left, so I suspect if I had grinded it out and had enough time to do so, I might have gotten a full 2k kills on her.
Oh no! Looks like it's time for another Ikit campaign.
It's kind of bonkers how fast even elite cavalry will melt in the glorious poison wind. Their DPS vastly outclasses anything else in the game. Indirect fire and a large area of effect means almost every volly will do something. Poison Wind Mortars can even take out powerful single entity units if they hold still like in a siege battle.
Are doomflayers better than wheels? Honestly, I've mostly used the former, because they were the first thing upgraded in the Workshop
Cavalry only have between 1.5 to 2x the raw HP of infantry, They're still going to melt under intense AoE. Their main advantage vs AoE is that they're half as dense as infantry
Sadly no, but most are pretty generic.
Cities and the sieging of them is something I hope they work on for total warhammer 3
They might not be the most powerful. But they are, without doubt, the best.
Those early chaos armies are indeed intended to be relatively easy to deal with.
As for winning fights. Generally, if you lead the battle yourself, you should be able to beat armies significantly tougher than you.
Just some early tips are:
1. Use "P" to pause to issue orders. Doesn't work in multiplayer, but I like it in singleplayer.
2. "R" swaps between walking and running. Walk if you can. Only run for the last short distance if possible (like, once the enemy archers open up). Try to make the enemy run as much as possible (as tired units fight worse). So provoking enemies into running using artillery or ranged cavalry/infantry (just make sure you're fast enough that their fastest units can't catch you) means you have a huge advantage over them.
3. Use the terrain. WH1/WH2 has the problem that a lot of maps are very flat, but even a slight advantage in height can give you a huge advantage as not only do you receive a damage bonus, but any charge uphill is less powerful and any charge downhill is more powerful (note, Units with Strider, like spiders and many other guerilla troops, don't give a fuck about uphill). Chokepoint maps are also hugely useful if you have archers/artillery or magic that causes large area damage (you can target artillery to strike terrain by holding down ALT as you give the attack command).
4. Always have enough melee units. Cheese tactics often rely on few "lord/hero" melee units and lots of ranged. But for normal and for a less skilled player at least 6-8 units should have decent melee defence stats (or just be huge punching bags if you're for example clanrats or zombies) and at least 12 units should be melee capable.
5. Magic, especially wind spells, can be insane if you can rake the enemy line or drop a blast into a tightly packed blob of enemies. Most lores have at least some good damage spells. Those that don't tend to have good support spells.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Which is why Reikland should make conquering Marienburg their first priority (to get their hands on GL outrider state troops). Their enemies will normally be Orcs, Norsca and Vampires. All of those factions have rather limited means of countering outriders. Although norscan missile cavalry is a thing to be reckoned with in cavalry vs cavalry encounters.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
The best maps tend to be quest battle maps. Great design, interesting terrain and battlefield. But those tend to be 1v1 only.
Also note that if you're a high elf you have excellent opportunities at confederating people. As Eataine (Lothern) you have several factions on your east that are quite willing to confederate (while Saphery, to your north, tend to declare war on everyone. So they're a prime target for conquest).
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Yeah I got that impression tho a little too late, I’d spread out my influence points too thinly and not curried favour with the factions most suitable for confederations, cos basically all the systems were new to me so I was just kind of pressing buttons. I knew it would basically be a test run first campaign tho so it’s all good. I probably could’ve fought on and get better footing and maybe recover but I kind of want to start again knowing the systems more anyway
Given I didn't want to take the penalties of confederating with Averland for all of one province but then they're moving their doomstack into Wissenland after I had to conquer them. Urrrrrgh.
Maybe I'll just try a Morathi campaign.
Edit: Tried to start it up but then the game crashed when I went to recruit a lord...maybe that campaign is screwed up and all for the better. Lesson learned, go ahead and confederate early. Vamps are dicks.
Not that I needed to learn that latter. It just needed reemphasizing.
I guess I could just abandon the north and move south ignoring the quests but that seems like a cop out.
Some more High Elf advice: your killing power will be mostly in archers for early game. Spearman are great for holding but take forever to kill things.
When you look at a unit's stat block, if they have a shield you will see a shield symbol next to the Armor bar. If you mouse over it will tell you exactly what percentage of incoming missiles it will block (not all shields are the same). Spearman shields are very good, so they are good for absorbing ranged fire. But shields do not block artillery fire.
Once you have access to Silver Helms with shields, put a few of them into your army. Use your Spearmen to block while your Archers do their work, and have your cav circle around and take out enemy ranged units. Silver Helms aren't amazing at fighting other cav but on lower difficulty they'll do okay. Once the enemy archers are dead, charge your cav into the back of the enemy infantry line. This should start making the enemy line crumble very shortly.
It would probably be a good idea to get a Bolt Thrower or two in your army. Put them on the anti-infantry mode and they'll do a fair amount of damage across units to soften them up before they get to you. They'll also encourage armies to come to you, which is easier for you.
Dragon Princes are basically better Silver Helms, so swap them over when you can afford it. Likewise, have your actual Dragons fly over to a flank and breathe some fire on a tough unit, then drop down and start wrecking. Just keep in mind that things like spears and halberds have bonuses to Large units like Dragons and cavalry, so you don't want to leave those units in battle against them. Once you've done some damage, pull your cav back and charge them back in to deal the most damage.
Timely use of magic can turn an unwinnable battle into a cakewalk. Every army needs a caster. For High Elves, that's either a Mage Hero or an Archmage General. The first few spells they get usually aren't great and they aren'tgood in melee, but their later spells can be devastating. Get a Fire Mage and teach her Flaming Skull. Time it right, and she'll rack up hundreds of kills each fight. But remember that the Winds of Magic to cast those spells are finite, so try not to waste them.
Early on he'll be acting as a spellcaster lord (and all three lores have great abilities in that area). But once you get a dragon...then he's a spellcaster on a dragon with a huge charge bonus.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I've had some close battles and my lines have held with that tactic!
Throw in a fire wizard and you're cooking with gas.
Thinking of starting a new run with skaven but I find it hard to play the none human looking races, never one much for monsters. But the sweet sweet gatling guns are calling and the snipers as well....
SFO just updated as well so it might be a good time!
Course after their third successful raid into my lands Lizardmen to the south declare war. I'm already not making great money, maybe I should have just gone after the lizardmen first even with unpleasant climate.
Edit: I don't think I have the best handle on Dark Elves either. Their front line seems lacking but units are pricier than Empire though I know their crossbows have a lot of killing power if you keep them safe. A good fire breath from the hydra can be devastating but early on they don't feel great. I kinda feel like I should invest more in magic with Morathi early on then the red tree but that's a problem I have with caster LLs.
If you're going to learn the ways of Dark Elves. Don't start with Morathi. Start with Malekith. While Morathis province is one of the best in the game it requires tons of investment to get good and her special mechanic makes her tougher to play. Malekith on the other hand has an awesome city (with a lot of great cities nearby featuring special buildings), enemies that less annoying than high-elves and he's one of the best lords in the game.
They do well against melee focused enemies (though maybe you shouldn't try to go 1v1 against Saurus infantry), partially because their ranged units are mobile and have high AP damage, but strong ranged units (especially high elves) can be troublesome.
My best suggestion against high-elf AI is to use a decoy unit of a few spearmen and repeater bolt throwers, then lure them close to a forest and go "SURPRISE BITCHES! DARK ELVES IN THE TREES!" and hit them with your hidden force of infantry, darkshards w/shields or possibly hitting them from the forest with melee infantry and then from the other side you open up with your hidden Shades that pump crossbow bolts into their backs.
Stuff like that.
P.S: Dark Elves gain a ton of good toys from their DLCs. From the Crone DLC the Sisters of Slaugher are the highlight with their insane melee defence and trial of blades ability. Doomfire warlocks are also good. Kharybdiss is a great monsterkiller (but maybe not worth it over the regular hydra since it lacks regen). All suffer from a vulnerability to missile fire. From the Shadow&Blade DLC there is the Master Hero (an excellent bodyguard for any general), Scourge runner chariots (awesome skirmish unit) and Bloodwrack medusa which serve as close support artillery monsters.
P.P.S: Morathi REALLY benefits from having the Shadow&Blade DLC since a master makes her a lot tougher and able to use her offensive abilities.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Now, Higher tier HE armies will start to give you fits if you get Phoenix/Dragon mobbed before you can get your own flyers to stop them from just divebombing your blobs but you shouldn't fight those for awhile.
Regardless, I'm downloading TW: Warhammer I and II and the big DLC for them (not all the DLC). What should I know going in? Places online to look? What faction should I play first? Can I plausibly stumble myself through things, knowing I might lose and have to restart?
Tips
Note that the Hit chance formula is 40+Your Melee attack-Their melee defence (Min-Max = 10%-90% hit chance). So if they have a melee defence that's 30 higher than your melee attack you're pretty much fucked. There are also a couple of artifacts (like helmet of discord) and units (like river trolls) that can lower enemy melee attack inside its aura of effect...which can be huge.
Note that climbing ladders will make your units tired (which will drasticly lower its attack, defense and armor) while feeding them piecemeal into whatever is defending. Ladders is a last resort, while either not going over walls (by either breaking them or going through the gate) or using siege towers is the way to go.
In addition there are a few really nice buttons (beyond those the "10 things I wish I knew").
Alt-RMB will allow your artillery to target ground (especially good for catapults/mortars so that you don't kill your own troops)
R will toggle walk/run
P will pause (not usable on legendary, but otherwise very useful). You can issue orders when paused
Space will reveal auras, missile ranges and your units move target
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
This is a lot of what i had in mind, thanks. I finally appear to have installed the free DLC on top of the DLC I bought and am about to start a campaign. What difficulty should I be starting at? I don't mind fucking up and having to start over in the first few hours.
edit: One thing I'm unclear on is if my preference for sieging is holding me back. I've opted to siege each opposing settlement I want to occupy or raze up until I have an overwhelming advantage. However, I observed that other warring factions were trading settlements at a brisk pace. I wonder if I should be going in just long enough to build a couple of siege weapons and then go to town. I really could use some monsters too, I'm sure.