Best moments in Total War: Warhammer

**Chromium** · May 31, 2016, 12:28 PM

This thread can be a repository for everyone's best moments while playing TW Warhammer. I suppose we can all agree that this has been a solid release by CA: wonderfully optimized and balanced, extremely immersive, and tones of fun. I personally don't remember having enjoyed a TW release so much since Shogun 2.

Put down your best campaign stories and battle reports here. Should be fun and informative.

**AlliedZero** · May 31, 2016, 02:39 PM

I think my favourite situation was my very first campaign. Playing as the Empire I finally had a massive holding. All of the human and Vampire realms were mine. The Rooskies still had their land since I wanted a buffer between me and Chaos. Upon receiving the "Chaos are coming" Triggers I started fielding more powerful armies. Each with two steam tanks, some helfire rockets and a ton of Greatswords. Each with semi maxed out wizards, etc. I began moving East. I got to the bridge just south of Prague (??? I really don't know the names quite like I do with the more Historical Titles) I began setting up my "Anti-Chaos Line" Each division consisted of two armies next to eachother for support and each division spread out to not allow Chaos to enter my lands, 3 divisions, 6 armies...2 of which were just fodder armies. I see the Lord of Time, the giant kholek suneater with a full stack, the prince, etc the entire Chaos gang was all there.
I hit end turn thinking that on the next turn I would use all 6 armies and completely encircle and attack...thinking the AI would be like Attila, I figured I had time. Nope. Dead wrong. Next turn Kholek, Lord of Time, Princ Narcissism and the Three-Eyed Fire Man all bypassed my fodder divison and went Straight into my Karl Franz/Gelt division. Two v. Four...first time fighting Chaos units.
I accept there challenge because I thought it would be a bridge battle...because I was deployed on a bridge. I found out the hard way that CA left out bridges...

So no bridge, outnumbered but not outgunned. I fielded 4 steam tanks, 3 wizards, Karl Franz, like 15 Great Swords, a few halbediers, a Handgunner line, 5 Demi Gryphs and a great Helfire Rocket Battery. I got the chance to deploy somewhat on a hill, defense in Depth with my flank shielded by a statue/shrine and the other by a dense forest full of Halbediers.
They attack outright, Chaos Giants, Chosen, Knights, Chaos Spawn, Mini-Kholeks, the whole roster of Chaos came ever closer. Luckily my artillery far outmatched theirs and my steam tanks were all spread evenly to give my great swords a chance. One giant died before it even got close, entire ranks dead.
That's when I made my first mistake. My demigryphs had flanked to take out their hellcannons...only to encounter the third army just marching through the forest, hidden. Those Demigryphs were surrounded and the only relief I could send was the form of a Pegasus riding wizard and an Empire Officer. They...surprisingly...tanked that entire third army. I lost maybe 15 Gryphs per unit and was eventually able to relive them with three great swords and a steam tank. Completely destroying the third army. That was the day I learned to fear the Demigryph knights. Op? very.

The other two armies clashed with my main line, after a decently long battle Kholek died and Karl killed the Lord of Time, my wizards were spamming Firestorms and Ruststorms wherever the enemy clumped. My defense in depth worked and my gunner line each got a few hundred kills to their name.

Chaos retreated and was utterly destroyed. Turn 140 or so. I had them contained to the chaos wastes and finally wiped out.

I had never had anything quite as epic happen in other total war games. I know I, as I am sure others, always played the Eastern Roman Empire in the anticipation of an amazingly epic Constantinople siege...to no avail. So this was my time.
Plus knowing nothing of the warhammer lore really hyped up the whole Chaos invasion and the...stress? that came with knowing I needed to go East ASAP to contain/destroy that which I knew nothing about.
I felt like I was Rohan going to Minas Tirith...only to suddenly get that "Oh

theres like 5 million more than I anticipated...well here goes nothing." feeling.

Much to my dismay though, in the same campaign I wiped out the VC without anything specatular happening. Whoever they had been fighting throughout the campaign must have been winning because my upper-tier armies fought against mid-low tier armies, no terrorgheist/varghulf...just a few hex wraiths and the bigger-than-the-normal-bats Bats.

**Archimonday** · May 31, 2016, 02:58 PM

So far my favorite moment happened playing as the Dwarves.

Myself and three other Dawi nations had been fighting a slow, bloody war with the Greenskins and other Orc Tribes. Originally pushed back, we were finally beginning to gain ground against them. Primarily by me issuing war coordination targets to the AI, and using my Army as a reserve to reinforce the gaps formed in our operations. I thought for sure that we had the war won once we destroyed the massive force of Ork's at Black Crag. With Black Crag in hand, and the most significant contingent of the Ork's defeated, we began to march across the Badlands almost unopposed. However, one major even threw all of our victories into disarray: the arrival of the Chaos.

From the moment the first campaign message popped up, I knew that it would be necessary to immediately begin building defenses around Karaz-A-Karak to defend against the Chaos hordes now running a scorched earth campaign over the Empire and the Vampire counts. As a result, I was forced to retreat the High King and his experienced Army away from the Greenskins in an attempt to force march back to Karaz-A-Karak to defend it. This inevitably gave the Ork's the breathing room they needed, and in just a few short turns they had regained almost all of the territory they had lost, including Black Crag and some of the other major fortresses. They even destroyed one of my Dawi allies completely.

Luckily, with defenses now completed at Mount Squigborn, and with two full stacks with competent lords, I was more than confident we could hold. It took only five turns before four full Chaos stacks, led by a number of high level lords and wizards marched out of the North and began climbing the mountain towards Karaz-A-Karak. Simultaneously, the now newly reinvigorated Greenskin Armies under the command of Ahzag the Slaughterer besieged Mount Squigborn. With Four Chaos stacks now attacking Karaz-A-Karak, and another three Greenskin stacks besieging Mount Squigborn, I thought for sure this was the end of a hard fought campaign.

Bless the gods however, in two spectacularly close victories both at Karaz-A-Karak and Mount Squigborn, my outnumbered and beleaguered forces managed to crush the enemy armies. The Dawi were saved.

**Mysticforce** · May 31, 2016, 04:08 PM

So far my most memorable game was my very first game, playing Vampire Counts.

I was running around conquering and corrupting human territories all of early game as a byproduct of trying to find somebody to fight in the field to test out each higher tier unit I unlocked. I had built all of Sylvania entirely for corruption and economy, and was rich enough to field 4 armies (two of which were fodder armies) that overran Stirland, Weissland, Ostland, and half the Empire as I went north and west.

Then, the Greenskins that had been content in fighting the Dwarfs declared war and attacked in the same turn...in retrospect the AI acted entirely Human-like. This prompted me to scramble two armies, then three (leaving 1 fodder up north to hold the humans at bay), down south. The Greenskins had fled after sacking two of my fully developed townships - this demanded retribution. I saw some messages about Chaos, but ignored them - this is no time for omens! It's time to teach the Greenskins a lesson or 15...

I marched south, into Border Princes territory, and just as Manfred was about to crush some Greenskins a goblin (level 18!) ambushed him, presumably by digging a hole, waiting for him to fall in, and then drop a boulder on him - how else do you wound a Vampire anyway? This fueled my hatred for the Greenskin even more, so I brought my last army down South and began a campaign of sacking and razing throughout the South for 20 turns. As I pushed deeper, filled with glee for the destruction of Greenskin settlements, Chaos struck my holdings in Ostland.

I was blindsided since this was my first game, and entirely out of position, with my 4 full stacks deep in the Badlands each needing 8+ turns just to reach Sylvania. As a desperate measure, I disbanded all of my armies (suddenly getting 12k dark magic per turn is very nice), hired two lords, and created two full stacks of zombies and skeletons.

For the next 10-12 turns, while Manfred lounged around recreating a high tiered doomstack, I sent disposable army after army of zombies and skeletons against the Chaos horde - and played each and every battle. Battles get very interesting when all tactics go out the window and are replaced by rank upon rank of slow shuffling zombies and immaculately marching skeleton. Who needs unit counters when you out number the enemy 5 to 1? I had created a literal endless wave of undead - unflinching and relentless...but as it turned out, quite stoppable.

In battle after battle oceans of undead would try to drown out the Chaos elite. Tides of zombies would break against the rocks that were Chaos Giants, Chosen, and Chaos Knights. Each battle would end with 3000+ dead for me, and less than 100 for Chaos. The good news is it's very easy to surround everything when you out number the enemy, so units like Hellcannons fell easily...but Giants tend to stick around. I would lose battle after battle, and Ostland burned, but Chaos was invariably worn down - much more so by the attrition rather than the battles, I would wager. By the time Manfred made it to the front lines, I crushed all remaining Chaos stacks in a single spectacular battle. Terrogeists feasted on giantflesh, Vargheists blackened the skies, and Varghulf punted Chosen everywhere while zombies and skeletons (well, grave guards) rolled across the battlefield swallowing everything in their path.

Nothing, not even Chaos, could stop the undead tide.

**Fallen851** · June 01, 2016, 02:27 AM

I'm playing a normal/normal campaign as the Vampire Counts (my least favorite faction, but I don't want to play Empire before Bretonnia, don't want to play Chaos without Elves, and don't want to play Orcs or Dwarves without Skaven), and it is the most fun TW campaign I've ever played. Also the most challenging. At the beginning I was cursing not playing a higher difficulty as I was steamrolling, quickly becoming #1 in strength rating. But then the Greenskins wrecked the Dwarves and began confederating. Even with Chaos coming, they are still #1 by quite a large margin, leaving me #3. They own 35 settlements to my 14 and I'm now at war with a massive tide of Greenskins to the south, with Chaos coming from the north. That said, I find Chaos much easier to deal with.

I've fought battles with 5 full stacks of units on the field, and I'm generally outnumbered. It's been ridiculous, I don't think I've ever seen a TW power get so strong, so fast, it is worse, way worse than the grey death the Seleucid Empire was in EB. I just played 20 back and forth turns where I initially lost territory but regained the territory I had lost. I just wounded Grimgor in a four stack battle, so I think I can go on the offensive, we'll see tomorrow.

As for my favorite moment (there is really two), when the Orcs first declared war they hit Castle Drakenhof and sieged it, Grimgor himself plus his Waagh army. Thankfully, Manfred was close with a full stack of what was my 2nd best army, and with 4000 Orcs vs 3500 Undead, The battle was back and forth and I won, but Manfred was wounded. Only a couple turns later, my best stack was defeated by Azhag the Slaughter and his Waagh army near Swartzhaven. Probably the biggest defeat I've ever suffered in Total War.

**geala** · June 01, 2016, 02:59 AM

My best moments were when I finally survived being at war at the start of my current Empire campaign (vh/n) with three Empire factions, the Greenskins near me and several rebel armies. I never had it before that so many Empire factions declared war, each with one and a half to two full stacks.

My second best moment was when I installed a mod to tone down heroes after I lost half of a stack to an attack of one of the stupidly overpowered agents.

**♘Top Hat Zebra** · June 01, 2016, 03:37 AM

I've had so many great moments.

I play with 41 unit stacks, and larger unit sizes, so my battles tend to all be rather large, especially combined with Radious upkeep reductions.

I started my first real Dwarf campaign last night. Fought off Grimgor himself in a rather large, very close battle at the Pillars. They outnumbered me, and it came very close, with me losing almost a thousand Dawi, while they lost about twice that much.

After building up a bit, I had my first full, 40 stack army. The Grudgebearer himself, a thane, a runelord, thunderers and grudge throwers and cannons. All the Dwarfen panoply of war.

Surprisingly, to me, I ended up confederating then with the Dwarf faction immediately bordering your starting lands. Can't remember exactly who they were, but they were in Blood River Valley.

After confederation, however, I found Grimgor already in Blood River Valley, with almost a full stack, plus an entire WAAAAGH!!!. He moved to attack my newly gained lands, so I hurriedly marched the High King's army through the underway to meet him. He saw us coming, and fell back to the only settlement in Blood River Valley I did not own, with a full garrison.

In a stroke of luck, I attacked his WAAAAGH troops, who just so happened to be in the underway. They had approximately eight thousand troops. I had two thousand.

I managed to set my cannons up on an elevated position, and as the gigantic tide of greenskins swarmed my lines, they absolutely destroyed the bunched up orcs. Each unit of cannons had around five hundred kills after the battle was over, and I had eight units of cannons.

I lost another 600 Dwarves that day, but by the time it was all over, Grimgor was routed once again, limping home with an army of less than 2000 orcs.

**alQamar** · June 01, 2016, 05:59 AM

Most myths tell that dwarves are insanely rich. With 9 armies at hand, controlling 9 regions and a turnbased income of 18.000 gold I feel pretty much like a dwarven high king at the moment.

So far the most epic moments I had was the battle for "Gromgipfel" (dunno the english settlement name), were more than 7700 creatures of the Vampires lost their soul in a single battle.

Another one was the siege Castle Drakenhof: 8200 orcs and dwarves fielded into in this magical and mystical place. Facing this terrifying fortification. 1600 of the Vampire faction fought hard against our invasion this day, protecting the castle till the last one.
At the end of the battle nearly every Vampire defender killed at least one of ours. A bloody day but no Vampire survived to leech the blood of the fallen.

**♘Top Hat Zebra** · June 02, 2016, 05:17 AM