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[chiliboy]

I dunno, Empire is the most standard faction with nothing locked off, so in that regard it's easier to start the game with them... Buuut every faction has their own unique playstyle and learning curve. Even the Empire. So, whoever you're most interested in is a fine starting place.

It may take a few restarts, but once you've got the basic mechanics you'll be off.

Ok I just stuck with dwarf for now, I like them.

So I try to use a C formation with miners on the flanks, warriors and hammerers front + lord and then ranged in the middle + artillery in the back - is that OK?
How do I deal with enemy ranged as dwarf? Seems my losses comes from enemy ranged pelting us

 

[tuna_love]

nasty skulkers

 

[LurkerPrime]

Is there some in-game way to speed up Empire research? I have, like, 600 turns worth of pursuits and my campaign will be over by turn 300 or less... it's rather ridiculous.

Ok I just stuck with dwarf for now, I like them.

So I try to use a C formation with miners on the flanks, warriors and hammerers front + lord and then ranged in the middle + artillery in the back - is that OK?
How do I deal with enemy ranged as dwarf? Seems my losses comes from enemy ranged pelting us

It depends on exactly what you're facing, but for standard infantry/ranged/cavalry/artillery mixes, yeah, that will do. Go for a wall ---- or slight wedge /\ formation, just leave a unit or two behind with the soft units to protect them from flankers, unless you really need them on the front lines. Dwarves really aren't great at speed, so let them come to you whenever possible. (And general tip: Keep your lord in the fray if they're a warrior, or at least close to the front lines if they're not--the leadership aura they have is nothing to scoff at. Also, do not underestimate their strength--one hero or lord can easily take on a unit of standard soldiers.)

Because you have so many melee units, you can generally flank their ranks. Use this to attack their ranged units directly, or make their melee flanks crumble faster.

Use artillery to soften ranged units first, and use your ranged units to soften them further once they're in range. Focusing could rout them, or at least reduce their threat. Try to target unshielded units with your ranged (non-artillery), because those will die faster.

Also for artillery, keep in mind what they're good against. If it's a cannon, it's probably better against large units, while catapults and stuff are more anti-infantry. They can do massive damage, but are essentially defenseless against anything that attacks them. Also, while they're better on high ground, sometimes you may need to move or reposition them for maximum effect.

Compared to other factions, Dwarves have incredibly high durability--high armour, plenty of shielded units, and very high leadership. And great ranged/artillery options. Aside from maybe the Wood Elves, they're some of the strongest individual units in the game. But they're slow and entirely without cavalry, which gives lots of room for the enemy to surround them, exploit their formation, and ultimately overcome them. The key is to predict their angle of attack and prevent it from happening.

 

[AlanOC91]

I've been wanting to pick this up for ages but a few things have been putting me off..

I love the setting and I love the thought of having a bajillion units on the battlefield but does the game still do stuff like this from previous TW games:

- Units can take ages to do simple things like turn around or move and flank someone attacking you. Units seemed "sluggish" in most of them and slow to react.

- Almost everything is rock, paper, scissors counter to the point where X unit will never beat Y unit because it counters it.

- Chasing down enemies being extremely tedious.

- Extremely long over-world load times for faction turns (although since last playing a TW game my PC specs have improved massively).

 

[Nordicus]

And general tip: Keep your lord in the fray if they're a warrior, or at least close to the front lines if they're not--the leadership aura they have is nothing to scoff at. Also, do not underestimate their strength--one hero or lord can easily take on a unit of standard soldiers.

I had trouble wrapping my mind around this but seeing videos of semi-competitive multiplayer fights got me to play lords more aggressively.

In the beginning of my first playthrough as Greenskins, I was keeping my lord out of battle way too much and probably lost a fight or two because of it. I kept Grimgor fucking Ironhide, probably the strongest fighter lord in game, from wiping out entire units of mediocre infantry by himself.

 

[chiliboy]

Is there some in-game way to speed up Empire research? I have, like, 600 turns worth of pursuits and my campaign will be over by turn 300 or less... it's rather ridiculous.


It depends on exactly what you're facing, but for standard infantry/ranged/cavalry/artillery mixes, yeah, that will do. Go for a wall ---- or slight wedge /\ formation, just leave a unit or two behind with the soft units to protect them from flankers, unless you really need them on the front lines. Dwarves really aren't great at speed, so let them come to you whenever possible. (And general tip: Keep your lord in the fray if they're a warrior, or at least close to the front lines if they're not--the leadership aura they have is nothing to scoff at. Also, do not underestimate their strength--one hero or lord can easily take on a unit of standard soldiers.)

Because you have so many melee units, you can generally flank their ranks. Use this to attack their ranged units directly, or make their melee flanks crumble faster.

Use artillery to soften ranged units first, and use your ranged units to soften them further once they're in range. Focusing could rout them, or at least reduce their threat. Try to target unshielded units with your ranged (non-artillery), because those will die faster.

Also for artillery, keep in mind what they're good against. If it's a cannon, it's probably better against large units, while catapults and stuff are more anti-infantry. They can do massive damage, but are essentially defenseless against anything that attacks them. Also, while they're better on high ground, sometimes you may need to move or reposition them for maximum effect.

Compared to other factions, Dwarves have incredibly high durability--high armour, plenty of shielded units, and very high leadership. And great ranged/artillery options. Aside from maybe the Wood Elves, they're some of the strongest individual units in the game. But they're slow and entirely without cavalry, which gives lots of room for the enemy to surround them, exploit their formation, and ultimately overcome them. The key is to predict their angle of attack and prevent it from happening.

Woah, great tips! Thank you, makes much more sense now
Any good visual guides you can recommend on the game in general? or on the dwarves?

What skill points are good to go for the legendary lord in the beginning?
Which technologies? like in what order?

Also - you mention keeping a unit or two near ranged to intercept enemies trying to flank ranged or artillery - should they just do nothing in the battle? just guard them?

 

[Nordicus]

Also - you mention keeping a unit or two near ranged to intercept enemies trying to flank ranged or artillery - should they just do nothing in the battle? just guard them?

If you see even a hint of cavalry in your enemy's ranks, or you haven't tied up every unit you see, then yes, guarding your ranged units' flanks is #1 priority for 1-2 of your defensive units because the AI will 100% try a flanking maneuver.

Cavalry isn't as great in prolonged fights as it is in cycle-charging or ambushing your ranged units, and the AI plays accordingly. Generally they won't try to bust through the infantry in your front unless maybe if it's a chariot unit and you spread your infantry too wide, letting them bust right through (for defense, the more rows, the better defense against knockback from charging)

 

[chiliboy]

If you see even a hint of cavalry in your enemy's ranks, or you haven't tied up every unit you see, then yes, guarding your ranged units' flanks is #1 priority for 1-2 of your defensive units because the AI will 100% try a flanking maneuver.

Cavalry isn't as great in prolonged fights as it is in cycle-charging or ambushing your ranged units, and the AI plays accordingly. Generally they won't try to bust through the infantry in your front unless maybe if it's a chariot unit and you spread your infantry too wide, letting them bust right through (for defense, the more rows, the better defense against knockback from charging)

That makes sense! thank you so much

 

[johancruijff]

Shielded units in the front (little shield near the armor stat, bronze 25%,silver 50%,gold 75% I think) to absorb all the ranged fire

Anti large on the flanks to cover yourself from cavalry

Quarrelers and rangers behind the melee line

Thunderers need clear line of sight, so you can use them to skirmish at the start, or decimate their cavalry, when the melee lines are clamped move them to the flanks and behind the enemy to let them shoot

Artillery covered by 1 or 2 unit, you can send them in the pack if there's no more danger

If you have any, slayers against monster, they have no armor so keep them far from enemy ranged

Thorgrim is a tank use him to keep the melee line solid and/or crush flanking units (his buff for his soldiers are good)

Press P to pause the battle, asses the situation and micro accordingly

Press the space bar to highlight every unit and their status

When you unlock gyro you can use them to destroy their artillery

This works for orcs, VC and Chaos don't have ranged units

 

[chiliboy]

Shielded units in the front (little shield near the armor stat, bronze 25%,silver 50%,gold 75% I think) to absorb all the ranged fire

Anti large on the flanks to cover yourself from cavalry

Quarrelers and rangers behind the melee line

Thunderers need clear line of sight, so you can use them to skirmish at the start, or decimate their cavalry, when the melee lines are clamped move them to the flanks and behind the enemy to let them shoot

Artillery covered by 1 or 2 unit, you can send them in the pack if there's no more danger

Press P to pause the battle, asses the situation and micro accordingly

Press the space bar to highlight every unit and their status

When you unlock gyro you can use them to destroy their artillery

This works for orcs, VC and Chaos don't have ranged units

oh that is very helpful thank you! I feel ready to jump back into the campaign now, think I will restart my dwarf campaign and try all of the new tips.

The pause with P one is golden, thanks!

Does the regular warriors of dwarves have shields? how do you get golden shielded ones?

 

[Pyros_Eien]

oh that is very helpful thank you! I feel ready to jump back into the campaign now, think I will restart my dwarf campaign and try all of the new tips.

The pause with P one is golden, thanks!

Does the regular warriors of dwarves have shields? how do you get golden shielded ones?

Just depends on the units, the shield is just an icon that signifies how much missile resistance they have. Only a few units in the entire game have gold, maybe Ironbreakers do, or the regiment of reknown ones.

Regular warriors do have shields. Most units that don't have 2H weapons tend to have shields with them, and for dwarfs even ranged units like quarellers have shields, making them stupid in 1on1 trades with other ranged units(they'll pretty much always win if the enemy doesn't have crazy buffs).

Dwarf combat strategy is very much as explained, you kinda turtle and get stuff to come to you, strong walls of warriors/ironbreakers, a few hammerers to kill heavily armored stuff, a siege weapon to force the enemy to come due to the large range and some ranged units inside the "box" to shoot at stuff.

You can also put your missile units in front of your army on deployment, so they shoot earlier at the enemy, and just before the enemy gets into charge range, you move them back and move the warriors/ironbreakers up to block the charge.

Then you adjust your missile units by moving them to the sides to fire at the flanks of the enemy or if quareller/terrain allows, you just fire at their ranged units. Firing into your own ranks either blocks line of sight or kill your own units, not a great idea.

Against real players they'll cycle charges and use flyers to disrupt your lines and stuff like that but against the AI the box strat works fine so you just need to work on engaging every enemy units with your fodder, then you can work on killing everything with missile/gyros/hammerers.

 

[johancruijff]

Dwarf warriors and quarrelers yes, not their great weapon version though

Can't remember about the golden shield, maybe it was a mod

 

[LurkerPrime]

Re: lord skills for Dwarves, you want to get the bottom skill tree (giving a +10% movement boost and so on) up until Lightning Strike in the fourth tier. It is required if you're fighting Greenskins--their waaaghs essentially double their numbers and are difficult to beat otherwise. (Just make sure you fight their main stack, not the waaagh, and you'll likely cause the waaagh to disband afterwards.)

And the battle AI is very good. So as mentioned, be ready for it to exploit everything it can. It will flank, reposition itself, take the high ground, etc. It's downright clever at times.

I had trouble wrapping my mind around this but seeing videos of semi-competitive multiplayer fights got me to play lords more aggressively.

In the beginning of my first playthrough as Greenskins, I was keeping my lord out of battle way too much and probably lost a fight or two because of it. I kept Grimgor fucking Ironhide, probably the strongest fighter lord in game, from wiping out entire units of mediocre infantry by himself.

lmao, yeah Grimgor is a beast. Only Durthu might beat him at this point, but I think Grimgor still has a speed advantage that puts him ahead. He can take sooooo much punishment, and is one of the few main lords I wouldn't bother speccing with lightning strike.

Like, he's about as strong as two or three units last I saw, patches ago. Combat-focused, he tears through units, lords, and heroes--everything--like nobody's business. It's insane.


IIRC it's very different from previous Total Wars, when hereoes and lords were more in-line with regular units and could die easily. The overall feel of Total Warhammer is much more gamey in a way that plays a lot better I think, more like a real-time RPG than a wargame.

I've been wanting to pick this up for ages but a few things have been putting me off..

I love the setting and I love the thought of having a bajillion units on the battlefield but does the game still do stuff like this from previous TW games:

- Units can take ages to do simple things like turn around or move and flank someone attacking you. Units seemed "sluggish" in most of them and slow to react.

- Almost everything is rock, paper, scissors counter to the point where X unit will never beat Y unit because it counters it.

- Chasing down enemies being extremely tedious.

- Extremely long over-world load times for faction turns (although since last playing a TW game my PC specs have improved massively).

In battle, units get entangled during engagement still, so it's not like an RTS where you have perfect control at all times. Otherwise it's pretty good, like you won't have problems creating a formation for them or anything.

Re: direct counters, there's still a lot of that. A unit of archers will never beat a unit of cavalry 1-on-1. It's much more about the interplay of units, their formations, and how they all engage eachother. Like, you can have poor matchups that you win because you outmaneuver the enemy and rout them before they can dismantle you.
Put another way, there's always two paths to victory: attacking their HP, or attacking their morale. The latter is always more efficient than the former.

Chasing down enemies, eh, it happens still. Ranged cavalry is a massive pain to chase, and flying units can be troublesome, though there are safeguards to prevent endless matches whereby the army surrenders at a certain point, when routing or losses are too great.

And re: loads, not sure. The initial load into a game is pretty beefy for me, and some battles have 20-30 seconds loads, but all campaign map stuff has been breezy. (Campaign turns are actually the longest at the beginning, when there's many splinter factions on the map taking their turns.)

 

[Pyros_Eien]

lmao, yeah Grimgor is a beast. Only Durthu might beat him at this point, but I think Grimgor still has a speed advantage that puts him ahead. He can take sooooo much punishment, and is one of the few main lords I wouldn't bother speccing with lightning strike.

Like, he's about as strong as two or three units last I saw, patches ago. Combat-focused, he tears through units, lords, and heroes--everything--like nobody's business. It's insane

Durthu is also a caster though, which makes him so much more powerful than Grimgor overall in a battle, especially early game when you don't necessarily have the funds to have another real caster. And he has a pretty potent magic missile ability that's free ranged kills, so yeah, Durthu is really stupidly strong. The only downside is fighting against lore of fire buffed stuff.

 

[johancruijff]

Just realized that I 've never finished a VH campaign with the dawi...

Time to start again to unlock that achievement

 

[phazedplasma]

hoping for some DLC steam sales!

 

[Palmer_v1]

For the new Dwarf player, it's probably been covered, but you want anti-large on flanks, with shielded/armored people more central. Slayers are the only melee unit I never put on front line. It's better to let something else absorb the charges, than send Slayers in to mop up.

Your artillery should be slightly behind your front line. Use it to soften up any anti-armor units on the approach. The more elite, the better.

Keep archers just in front of your main line to shoot at troops as they close. I focus enemy archers > cavalry > anti-armor > whatever is in range. Your quarrelers and handcannon dudes will beat any other ranged unit in the game 1v1. Once the enemy starts to get close, retreat them behind your melee and keep focus firing. Remember that your ranged units are still decent in melee too, so if you happen to use up all of your ammo, feel free to start using them to flank. If cavalry gets near my artillery, I'll also use a ranged units to body block while an anti-large unit catches up.

You'll eventually get flying units. Generally, you'll start by bombing the crap out of a pack of their best troops. After that, I'll usually melee attack other flying units > then archers > then shoot at melee stuff on the ground.

For Lords, I like to keep them off center a bit. Once the lines engage, he'll charge into one end and slowly work down the line as enemies break and flee. For skills, I tend to go for Lightning Strike in blue, then go for personal combat ability. I rarely take the red at all.

For heroes, I like to put the engineer guy into armies cause he'll really boost your ranged capabilities, which your Lords can't really do. The other two, you can do whatever you want.

I usually aim for around 10 melee units, including lords and heroes. 1/3 should be your toughest units to hold the center. Another 1/3 should be anti-large. Final 1/3 anti-armor. I almost always had two artillery per army, and 4-6 ranged units, which includes the flying units. The rest can be used to somewhat specialize the army.

Most battles, you'll sit and wait for the enemy to come to you while your artillery hits them. It's rare that you're the one charging at the other army.

 

[chiliboy]

For the new Dwarf player, it's probably been covered, but you want anti-large on flanks, with shielded/armored people more central. Slayers are the only melee unit I never put on front line. It's better to let something else absorb the charges, than send Slayers in to mop up.

Your artillery should be slightly behind your front line. Use it to soften up any anti-armor units on the approach. The more elite, the better.

Keep archers just in front of your main line to shoot at troops as they close. I focus enemy archers > cavalry > anti-armor > whatever is in range. Your quarrelers and handcannon dudes will beat any other ranged unit in the game 1v1. Once the enemy starts to get close, retreat them behind your melee and keep focus firing. Remember that your ranged units are still decent in melee too, so if you happen to use up all of your ammo, feel free to start using them to flank. If cavalry gets near my artillery, I'll also use a ranged units to body block while an anti-large unit catches up.

You'll eventually get flying units. Generally, you'll start by bombing the crap out of a pack of their best troops. After that, I'll usually melee attack other flying units > then archers > then shoot at melee stuff on the ground.

For Lords, I like to keep them off center a bit. Once the lines engage, he'll charge into one end and slowly work down the line as enemies break and flee. For skills, I tend to go for Lightning Strike in blue, then go for personal combat ability. I rarely take the red at all.

For heroes, I like to put the engineer guy into armies cause he'll really boost your ranged capabilities, which your Lords can't really do. The other two, you can do whatever you want.

I usually aim for around 10 melee units, including lords and heroes. 1/3 should be your toughest units to hold the center. Another 1/3 should be anti-large. Final 1/3 anti-armor. I almost always had two artillery per army, and 4-6 ranged units, which includes the flying units. The rest can be used to somewhat specialize the army.

Most battles, you'll sit and wait for the enemy to come to you while your artillery hits them. It's rare that you're the one charging at the other army.

Re: lord skills for Dwarves, you want to get the bottom skill tree (giving a +10% movement boost and so on) up until Lightning Strike in the fourth tier. It is required if you're fighting Greenskins--their waaaghs essentially double their numbers and are difficult to beat otherwise. (Just make sure you fight their main stack, not the waaagh, and you'll likely cause the waaagh to disband afterwards.)

And the battle AI is very good. So as mentioned, be ready for it to exploit everything it can. It will flank, reposition itself, take the high ground, etc. It's downright clever at times.


lmao, yeah Grimgor is a beast. Only Durthu might beat him at this point, but I think Grimgor still has a speed advantage that puts him ahead. He can take sooooo much punishment, and is one of the few main lords I wouldn't bother speccing with lightning strike.

Like, he's about as strong as two or three units last I saw, patches ago. Combat-focused, he tears through units, lords, and heroes--everything--like nobody's business. It's insane.


IIRC it's very different from previous Total Wars, when hereoes and lords were more in-line with regular units and could die easily. The overall feel of Total Warhammer is much more gamey in a way that plays a lot better I think, more like a real-time RPG than a wargame.

In battle, units get entangled during engagement still, so it's not like an RTS where you have perfect control at all times. Otherwise it's pretty good, like you won't have problems creating a formation for them or anything.

Re: direct counters, there's still a lot of that. A unit of archers will never beat a unit of cavalry 1-on-1. It's much more about the interplay of units, their formations, and how they all engage eachother. Like, you can have poor matchups that you win because you outmaneuver the enemy and rout them before they can dismantle you.
Put another way, there's always two paths to victory: attacking their HP, or attacking their morale. The latter is always more efficient than the former.

Chasing down enemies, eh, it happens still. Ranged cavalry is a massive pain to chase, and flying units can be troublesome, though there are safeguards to prevent endless matches whereby the army surrenders at a certain point, when routing or losses are too great.

And re: loads, not sure. The initial load into a game is pretty beefy for me, and some battles have 20-30 seconds loads, but all campaign map stuff has been breezy. (Campaign turns are actually the longest at the beginning, when there's many splinter factions on the map taking their turns.)

Thank you guys for taking your time to explain all of this! It makes so much more sense now! Busy couple of days but gonna jump back into my campaign during christmas downtime!

So the composition of your army, how many units of ex. miners, warriors, quarrelers do you take? I saw your composition but I still do not know the names and properties of each unit

btw - when you want to recruit armies to your lords, is it best to do it when they are in one of your settlements or is being in your province enough?

also - how do you "abuse" the stances for your lord on the map?

 

[Alessandro]

I see Chaos Warriors pack and others have negative\mixed reviews while Wood Elves has positive on Steam.

Any recommendations on DLCs?

 

[Llyranor]

Finally picked up the vanilla game on sale (none of the DLC is ). I've heard the AI can still use the DLC races in the campaign, but only a limited roster. Is this true?

I see Chaos Warriors pack and others have negative\mixed reviews while Wood Elves has positive on Steam.

Any recommendations on DLCs?

I bet a bunch of the Chaos negative reviews are because of the preorder DLC practice.

 

[barybll]

I see Chaos Warriors pack and others have negative\mixed reviews while Wood Elves has positive on Steam.

Any recommendations on DLCs?

Total war reviews are usually tainted by DLC practice complaining and is not a good sign of quality.

For recommendations, I would personally say, king and warlord and Wood Elves.

Grim and Grave is nice, but a bit overpriced for what is essentially a unit pack.

Beastmen is an easy campaign, but sure, get it if you want to play as a horde faction and minotaurs are a fun unit.

Chaos imo, isn't worth it, the campaign is not fun.

 

[ShadowSwordmaster]

Finally picked up the vanilla game on sale (none of the DLC is ). I've heard the AI can still use the DLC races in the campaign, but only a limited roster. Is this true?

Yes. If you don't have the DLC, you do not get to play those races/units, but the DLC stuff is controlled by the A.I. even though you don't have the DLC.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Alright, picked this up in the sale and have been playing around with it for a couple days now. Already on Empire Campaign number... 5? I keep screwing up, lol. Part of that is on the game for not having more easily accessible tooltips, but part of it's on me. Like, newest start, I just about lost the first battle (yes, that very first one), because for some reason their Lord kicked the shit out of Karl Franz and a unit of Halberdiers without getting so much as scratched. That was unpleasant. Gotta figure out how Charge works and how to best exploit it. Really wish there was a .5 time and a way to set custom formations...

 

[chiliboy]

Alright, picked this up in the sale and have been playing around with it for a couple days now. Already on Empire Campaign number... 5? I keep screwing up, lol. Part of that is on the game for not having more easily accessible tooltips, but part of it's on me. Like, newest start, I just about lost the first battle (yes, that very first one), because for some reason their Lord kicked the shit out of Karl Franz and a unit of Halberdiers without getting so much as scratched. That was unpleasant. Gotta figure out how Charge works and how to best exploit it. Really wish there was a .5 time and a way to set custom formations...

Im also new to the game (and the Total War games) and it is really overwhelming! I can recommend the 40 part beginner guide series by PartyElite on Youtube though! It is so great, Im having a blast watching all of his videos. Search Total War Warhammer beginner guide on youtube and select PartyElites 40 part series Enjoy!

 

[Poodlestrike]

Alright, take 6 is going much better. I got some input from friends on how to spec out my lords and towns, and changing how I use the Reiksguard Karl Franz starts with has dramatically improved my tactical games; I was wasting them using them to chase down archers, should've been holding them off and crashing them into the back of enemy melee during the press.

Im also new to the game (and the Total War games) and it is really overwhelming! I can recommend the 40 part beginner guide series by PartyElite on Youtube though! It is so great, Im having a blast watching all of his videos. Search Total War Warhammer beginner guide on youtube and select PartyElites 40 part series Enjoy!

thanks for the rec! I don't generally do video guides, but I might check it out.

 

[Nordicus]

Alright, take 6 is going much better. I got some input from friends on how to spec out my lords and towns, and changing how I use the Reiksguard Karl Franz starts with has dramatically improved my tactical games; I was wasting them using them to chase down archers, should've been holding them off and crashing them into the back of enemy melee during the press.

Chasing down archers isn't the worst use ever (although reiksguard might be bit too valuable for that), but my fights improved significantly when I started not initiating cavalry too early into a fight either way. They do much better when the different battlegrounds have been set.

 

[barybll]

Alright, picked this up in the sale and have been playing around with it for a couple days now. Already on Empire Campaign number... 5? I keep screwing up, lol. Part of that is on the game for not having more easily accessible tooltips, but part of it's on me. Like, newest start, I just about lost the first battle (yes, that very first one), because for some reason their Lord kicked the shit out of Karl Franz and a unit of Halberdiers without getting so much as scratched. That was unpleasant. Gotta figure out how Charge works and how to best exploit it. Really wish there was a .5 time and a way to set custom formations...

You can control time with the buttons on the top right corner of the screen

 

[karnage10]

I see Chaos Warriors pack and others have negative\mixed reviews while Wood Elves has positive on Steam.

Any recommendations on DLCs?

IMO every DLC is worth the price as long as you want to play with their races. Let say you want to do a rerun of an empire/VC campaign you should buy the grim and the grave for more variety; you get the idea of when buying the DLC.
From an "objective" content perspective i feel warlord DLC is the best because it had 2 minor factions that play very differently from their parent factions which allow for more roleplay (for example with skarsnik faction you can only play with goblin only armies until you take karak eight peak which is a lot of fun).
Both beastmen and wood elves are also pretty good DLC because they add entirely new rosters that play very differently from the rest of the factions.
G&G adds more stuff for empire/VC but no "new" mechanics.
I'd say WoC is the only that is kinda average, it feels an afterthought shoehorned it so that people don't say that you couldn't play chaos but they were in the game. You are probably thinbking but what's the problem with the chaos? the answer lies in 3 things: your hordes get atrition if they are close to each other so you "must" have solitary armies, your horde growth is very slow and as such the number of hordes you can have is rather small and lastly the AI focus on defeating the player instead of "playing to win" and that leads to stupid situations like haveing a faction from the other side of the map going through several countries just to pick a fight with your hordes.

Thank you guys for taking your time to explain all of this! It makes so much more sense now! Busy couple of days but gonna jump back into my campaign during christmas downtime!

So the composition of your army, how many units of ex. miners, warriors, quarrelers do you take? I saw your composition but I still do not know the names and properties of each unit

btw - when you want to recruit armies to your lords, is it best to do it when they are in one of your settlements or is being in your province enough?

also - how do you "abuse" the stances for your lord on the map?

when we say "abuse" if for you to rarely use the normal "walking" stance. If you are in your territory you should use quick march, when transversing difficult terrain use underway/beast-paths/old-roots and when in the enemy territory opt for using ambush unless there's no enemy army in sight (the best use of the ambush stance is not for ambushing; it's for tricking the AI into not seeing your army until you can take the city.

Finally picked up the vanilla game on sale (none of the DLC is ). I've heard the AI can still use the DLC races in the campaign, but only a limited roster. Is this true?



I bet a bunch of the Chaos negative reviews are because of the preorder DLC practice.

AI has the full roster except with the WoC which have a few units locked behind the DLC.

 

[LurkerPrime]

One way to abuse stances is to, say, move and attack an army and then switch to marching to make it back. Useful if you're just out of range of a settlement or friendly territory, or just need to get close to a reinforcing army.

The technique has been kind of inconsistent, IIRC. I think the only time it doesn't work is if you conquer a city (no moving afterwards) but I could be wrong. It is very handy.


And re: charging, I'd definitely go for ranged units first. Particularly with heavy cavalry, you'll nearly rout the unit, they offer little-to-no resistance, and it (generally) puts you in a good position to charge the rear of the enemy's front lines. Only issue is that it's tough to get a good formation after the first charge, but the sheer damage they deal makes up for it. The only better target is artillery.

But be warned: charging and immediately retreating is a good way to lose soldiers. Best to charge once and finish it if at all possible.

 

[chiliboy]

IMO every DLC is worth the price as long as you want to play with their races. Let say you want to do a rerun of an empire/VC campaign you should buy the grim and the grave for more variety; you get the idea of when buying the DLC.
From an "objective" content perspective i feel warlord DLC is the best because it had 2 minor factions that play very differently from their parent factions which allow for more roleplay (for example with skarsnik faction you can only play with goblin only armies until you take karak eight peak which is a lot of fun).
Both beastmen and wood elves are also pretty good DLC because they add entirely new rosters that play very differently from the rest of the factions.
G&G adds more stuff for empire/VC but no "new" mechanics.
I'd say WoC is the only that is kinda average, it feels an afterthought shoehorned it so that people don't say that you couldn't play chaos but they were in the game. You are probably thinbking but what's the problem with the chaos? the answer lies in 3 things: your hordes get atrition if they are close to each other so you "must" have solitary armies, your horde growth is very slow and as such the number of hordes you can have is rather small and lastly the AI focus on defeating the player instead of "playing to win" and that leads to stupid situations like haveing a faction from the other side of the map going through several countries just to pick a fight with your hordes.


when we say "abuse" if for you to rarely use the normal "walking" stance. If you are in your territory you should use quick march, when transversing difficult terrain use underway/beast-paths/old-roots and when in the enemy territory opt for using ambush unless there's no enemy army in sight (the best use of the ambush stance is not for ambushing; it's for tricking the AI into not seeing your army until you can take the city.


AI has the full roster except with the WoC which have a few units locked behind the DLC.

One way to abuse stances is to, say, move and attack an army and then switch to marching to make it back. Useful if you're just out of range of a settlement or friendly territory, or just need to get close to a reinforcing army.

The technique has been kind of inconsistent, IIRC. I think the only time it doesn't work is if you conquer a city (no moving afterwards) but I could be wrong. It is very handy.


And re: charging, I'd definitely go for ranged units first. Particularly with heavy cavalry, you'll nearly rout the unit, they offer little-to-no resistance, and it (generally) puts you in a good position to charge the rear of the enemy's front lines. Only issue is that it's tough to get a good formation after the first charge, but the sheer damage they deal makes up for it. The only better target is artillery.

But be warned: charging and immediately retreating is a good way to lose soldiers. Best to charge once and finish it if at all possible.

Gotcha! Will look into stances more!

any good dwarf guides out there? video or written? Ive only found overviews and basic info when googling, no in depth guides and tactics :O

 

[karnage10]

Gotcha! Will look into stances more!

any good dwarf guides out there? video or written? Ive only found overviews and basic info when googling, no in depth guides and tactics :O

dwarfs are a really "easy" race to play with because their tactics are very simple. I play on VH and while i don't play for the best efficiency i just use 1 tactic -> shoot the enemy until they rout.
In the battle side The dwarfs have the best ranged troops and some of the best morale and armour, you really only need to have a line of troops and then either move your archers to the flank or have your line full of holes so that your ranged troops can shoot easily at the enemy. In a practical sense use units like this quarrellers/rangers are better for unarmoured targets while thunderers are better for armoured targets; dwarf warriors/longbears/ironbreakers are what makes the line; slayers and/or any unit with GW and/or chopters can serve as flankers/cavalry; grudge throwers are great for infantry and cannons are great for elite large units (cavalry, LL, giants, arachanarok);agents are OP, runesmith can buff your units while also killing low tier infantry, thane is the melee hero (which means only powerfull LL/creatures can take him 1 on 1) and the master engineer will heavily buff your artillery; the rest of the roster is more situational and might not be worth bringing until you learn the game (for example every fire wielding unit is completely "useless" unless you are facing wood elves trees)
On the campaign side the dwarfs have the best income buildings but the slowest growth rate which means that you should always play it safe until you have high enough buildings to field "endless" armies.
I'm only talking SP and if you want me to explain more or just answer some questions about mechanics feel free to add me on steam. If you want help for the multiplayer, i'm probably useless there.

 

[karnage10]

One way to abuse stances is to, say, move and attack an army and then switch to marching to make it back. Useful if you're just out of range of a settlement or friendly territory, or just need to get close to a reinforcing army.

The technique has been kind of inconsistent, IIRC. I think the only time it doesn't work is if you conquer a city (no moving afterwards) but I could be wrong. It is very handy.


And re: charging, I'd definitely go for ranged units first. Particularly with heavy cavalry, you'll nearly rout the unit, they offer little-to-no resistance, and it (generally) puts you in a good position to charge the rear of the enemy's front lines. Only issue is that it's tough to get a good formation after the first charge, but the sheer damage they deal makes up for it. The only better target is artillery.

But be warned: charging and immediately retreating is a good way to lose soldiers. Best to charge once and finish it if at all possible.

I just want to say something for the bold. Whenever you charge you get a bonus to your unit stats (melee attack and weapon strength), according to reddit and some "youtubers" that bonus is significant for 10 secs. In short i just want to add that when you charge you should always wait at least 10 secs to fully use that bonus before retreating.

 

[LurkerPrime]

omg. That feeling when you finally figure out how to use gunpowder units. The enemy crumbled in the first volley--everything afterwards was clean-up. It was glorious.

Putting them in front of everything works wonders for their effectiveness. I don't think I used them properly in my entire Dwarf campaign, and now, only in the twilight of my Empire one, am I really figuring it out.

I just want to say something for the bold. Whenever you charge you get a bonus to your unit stats (melee attack and weapon strength), according to reddit and some "youtubers" that bonus is significant for 10 secs. In short i just want to add that when you charge you should always wait at least 10 secs to fully use that bonus before retreating.

Good info, I had no idea. I figured it was some kind of damage boost. (The visuals make it pretty clear how effective it is.)

 

[Camp Freddie]

I'm no dwarf expert, but they're all about their ranged units and their armour. You really want to be able to out-shoot the enemy.

Use your ranged units to target enemy armour piercing units and cavalry. The 2-handed weapon guys are usually armour piercing and have no shields so they are weak to ranged.

Don't waste your shots on infantry 'grunts' (spearmen, orc boys, etc.). They are no threat to the peerless dwarf infantry.

I've more experience fighting dwarves, which is about massed cavalry charge cycling into their ranged units, then exploiting their low mobility to take them out piece by piece and running away before they can react.

They're one of my most hated opponents as orcs, since you can't beat dwarves with sheer numbers and most orc units are not armour piercing.

Oh, and use pause and half-speed. A lot.

 

[Alessandro]

DLC suggestions

DLC suggestions

Thanks!

 

[chiliboy]

dwarfs are a really "easy" race to play with because their tactics are very simple. I play on VH and while i don't play for the best efficiency i just use 1 tactic -> shoot the enemy until they rout.
In the battle side The dwarfs have the best ranged troops and some of the best morale and armour, you really only need to have a line of troops and then either move your archers to the flank or have your line full of holes so that your ranged troops can shoot easily at the enemy. In a practical sense use units like this quarrellers/rangers are better for unarmoured targets while thunderers are better for armoured targets; dwarf warriors/longbears/ironbreakers are what makes the line; slayers and/or any unit with GW and/or chopters can serve as flankers/cavalry; grudge throwers are great for infantry and cannons are great for elite large units (cavalry, LL, giants, arachanarok);agents are OP, runesmith can buff your units while also killing low tier infantry, thane is the melee hero (which means only powerfull LL/creatures can take him 1 on 1) and the master engineer will heavily buff your artillery; the rest of the roster is more situational and might not be worth bringing until you learn the game (for example every fire wielding unit is completely "useless" unless you are facing wood elves trees)
On the campaign side the dwarfs have the best income buildings but the slowest growth rate which means that you should always play it safe until you have high enough buildings to field "endless" armies.
I'm only talking SP and if you want me to explain more or just answer some questions about mechanics feel free to add me on steam. If you want help for the multiplayer, i'm probably useless there.

I'm no dwarf expert, but they're all about their ranged units and their armour. You really want to be able to out-shoot the enemy.

Use your ranged units to target enemy armour piercing units and cavalry. The 2-handed weapon guys are usually armour piercing and have no shields so they are weak to ranged.

Don't waste your shots on infantry 'grunts' (spearmen, orc boys, etc.). They are no threat to the peerless dwarf infantry.

I've more experience fighting dwarves, which is about massed cavalry charge cycling into their ranged units, then exploiting their low mobility to take them out piece by piece and running away before they can react.

They're one of my most hated opponents as orcs, since you can't beat dwarves with sheer numbers and most orc units are not armour piercing.

Oh, and use pause and half-speed. A lot.

So many good tips!! thank you!

Karnage what is your steam id?

 

[karnage10]

it's karnage10. Everyone is free to add me.

 

[chiliboy]

it's karnage10. Everyone is free to add me.

added chiliboy is mine!

 

[Palmer_v1]

I never updated, but my Durthu game where I went aggro on the other WE groups went extremely well. I could have won before turn 100, but decided to keep playing to conquer the known world. I eventually got bored with that around turn 150, when it was just me, the Dwarves, and a few chaos armies left.

So the upside to immediately cannibalizing the WE factions is your economy gets going very quickly, and you can end up with multiple stacks far faster.

The downside is you need amber pretty quickly, and you won't be able to recruit Orion later on since you're killing him instead of confederating.

 

[chiliboy]

Is there any way to quickly select forces garrisoned inside a settlement or do you need to go "forces" tab and select your lord?

 

[LurkerPrime]

Is there any way to quickly select forces garrisoned inside a settlement or do you need to go "forces" tab and select your lord?

You mean for a lord's army? Click the army's flag on the campaign map or through the armies tab on the top right UI.

I didn't even know you could select them through the settlement interface.

 

[Danneee]

Any good deals on this around?

 

[chiliboy]

You mean for a lord's army? Click the army's flag on the campaign map or through the armies tab on the top right UI.

I didn't even know you could select them through the settlement interface.

That is what Im asking, if you can select em through settlement interface somehow

 

[Aztechnology]

So me and my buddy had a refund from Kiling Floor 2 and decided to pick up the two smaller $8.99 DLC packs (King and Warlord, Grim and Grave) I'm a little underwhelmed by the additions. It seems generally there's mods our there already that added even more (even some of the same additional units) for free.

I like that it adds some more Lord variety, the renown units are interesting enough and lore wise it's interesting but they generally just feel a little barren for the price. The two packs are equivalent in cost to an expansion, but nowhere near the same content.

 

[Pyros_Eien]

So me and my buddy had a refund from Kiling Floor 2 and decided to pick up the two smaller $8.99 DLC packs (King and Warlord, Grim and Grave) I'm a little underwhelmed by the additions. It seems generally there's mods our there already that added even more (even some of the same additional units) for free.

I like that it adds some more Lord variety, the renown units are interesting enough and lore wise it's interesting but they generally just feel a little barren for the price. The two packs are equivalent in cost to an expansion, but nowhere near the same content.

King and Warlord was interesting imo, had the 2 campaigns with different lords that had different objectives/faction, so it made a new experience for those 2 factions, especially Skarsnik and the goblin focused army. The older Grim and Grave not as much. I bought King and Warlord and felt it was worth the money overall, but didn't buy Grim and Grave cause I thought it wouldn't be. That's a bit of the issue with all the DLCs, they're not really worth all the same. Chaos Warriors for example is definitely not worth the price compared to Beastmen and especially compared to Wood Elves.

 

[Aztechnology]

King and Warlord was interesting imo, had the 2 campaigns with different lords that had different objectives/faction, so it made a new experience for those 2 factions, especially Skarsnik and the goblin focused army. The older Grim and Grave not as much. I bought King and Warlord and felt it was worth the money overall, but didn't buy Grim and Grave cause I thought it wouldn't be. That's a bit of the issue with all the DLCs, they're not really worth all the same. Chaos Warriors for example is definitely not worth the price compared to Beastmen and especially compared to Wood Elves.

I think my perspective is a bit different because I'm primarily focused on Co-Op campaigns. I've only beaten the Dwarf, Beastmen and Elves campaign solo.

Thankfully I had bought it on release at a great price $38 or something and it came with chaos so I didn't have to deal with that. I'm thinking I'll just supplement extra imperial units, chaos and dwarves in (balanced as I can of course) with some mods. As you said Beastmen and Elves especially have been great though.

Elves units, particularly their bread and butter units like the eternal guard with shields are a bit brokenly strong though. I definitely need to be playing on higher difficulties than hard, but I hate the -/+ public order debuff for us and buff for AI at higher difficulties. Me and my buddy started doing Very hard and got a mod to disable them and even the playing field in that regard, but that doesn't really feel right either. Gotta keep exploring mods to get that fine tuned ezperience, but I love it!

 

[Vic_Viper]

Pretty sure I saw a screenshot of someone using the Space Marines as a playable army. Are they a DLC or something?

Any good deals on this around?

Also wondering this. Just found out about this game last night after watching Angry Joe's top 10 video. Seems like the lowest prices I've seen are like $35-$40 but they're not very trusted sites.

 

[Evolution of Metal]

Pretty sure I saw a screenshot of someone using the Space Marines as a playable army. Are they a DLC or something?

Also wondering this. Just found out about this game last night after watching Angry Joe's top 10 video. Seems like the lowest prices I've seen are like $35-$40 but they're not very trusted sites.

Game supports mods, so that is how you can see something whacky.

Just buy it from cdkeys, will total to $33.3.

Does anyone have any white dwarf codes? If someone goes to that kind of shops/events, maybe you could take me one code.

 

[Palmer_v1]

Game supports mods, so that is how you can see something whacky.

Just buy it from cdkeys, will total to $33.3.

Does anyone have any white dwarf codes? If someone goes to that kind of shops/events, maybe you could take me one code.

Is there a new white dwarf code or is this still for the dwarf lord?

 

[Evolution of Metal]

Is there a new white dwarf code or is this still for the dwarf lord?

Same stinky grombal or something like that. Nothing new.