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Thread: Tips for new Warhammer players?

  1. #1
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Tips for new Warhammer players?

    Warhammer I & II are on sale until 1 June, so there may be some new Warhammer players around and I wonder if experienced Warhammer players would be willing to share tips. I'm familar with previous Total War games, and I've enjoyed stories and films in fantasy settings such as Middle-earth, but Warhammer's setting is new to me. I'm excited about exploring an unfamiliar campaign map and seeing what the factions offer.

    There may be other Total War players, who are familiar with selecting the right unit for the task (swords against spears, spears against cavalry) and tactics such as cycle-charging cavalry and flank attacks, but who (like me) are wondering how to handle magic, monsters and corruption.

    If you've played Warhammer for long enough to pass on some tips, I'd like to read them.

  2. #2
    Steph's Avatar Maréchal de France
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    Default Re: Tips for new Warhammer players?

    It's a big vague to just give tips out of the blue, you have lots of video on youtube giving some interesting tips.

    But I could try to give more specific tips if you have a narrower topic in mind.

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    Souron's Avatar Civis
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    Default Re: Tips for new Warhammer players?

    - One thing i always seemed to learnt he ard way - Legendary lords are far from invinsable. in my opinion they can be as leveled up as you like but if you let them get swarmed on thier own its gg.
    - Units with the effect Anti-large units are the ones you want to take if you are at war with a race that takes a bunch of big monster sype units I.e Giants
    - try not to have too many mages per army. they all pull from the same "winds of magic" pool so it will run out fast if your not careful.

    its been a while so this all i got!

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  4. #4
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: Tips for new Warhammer players?

    Quote Originally Posted by Steph View Post
    It's a big vague to just give tips out of the blue, you have lots of video on youtube giving some interesting tips.

    But I could try to give more specific tips if you have a narrower topic in mind.
    Thanks for offering. Are there any Warhamer video-makers you'd recommend for learning Warhammer game mechanics and battle tactics? (In Rome II for example - for learning game mechanics I recommend Maximus Decimus Meridius' videos; for learning battle tactics, I recommend Maximus's tournament commentaries and Heir of Carthage's battle videos).

    Magic, monsters and corruption are new mechanics for me, so any tips on how to deal with them are welcome. I've been offered a quest battle for the first time, this is a new mechanic for me - am I supposed to send an army immediately, does it matter if I wait? As the Empire, I've been raided by a Greenskin faction and I've discovered that I can't occupy their settlements, should I raze them or is there a better way to deal with them?

    Quote Originally Posted by Souron View Post
    - One thing i always seemed to learnt he ard way - Legendary lords are far from invinsable. in my opinion they can be as leveled up as you like but if you let them get swarmed on thier own its gg.
    - Units with the effect Anti-large units are the ones you want to take if you are at war with a race that takes a bunch of big monster sype units I.e Giants
    - try not to have too many mages per army. they all pull from the same "winds of magic" pool so it will run out fast if your not careful.

    its been a while so this all i got!
    Thanks, these look helpful. I nearly got Karl Franz swamped yesterday, I'll remember to avoid that in future. It sounds like monsters in Warhammer are somewhat similar to elephants in Rome II - they do a lot of damage and can take a lot of damage, spearmen are useful against them. I'll remember your tip about mages too.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Tips for new Warhammer players?

    Many tips depend on the difficulty. The harder the difficulty is set the less flexible you must be in your army composition. You should also invest in archers and monsters, because melee infantry and cavalry are quite weak, even in easier settings. Then, every faction has its advantages and weaknesses: The lizards (and the Tomb Kings) should rely on dinosaurs (and constructs) and health magic, so they can immediately restore the health of their damaged monsters. High elves, on the other hand, depend more on archers (some of them locked behind paywall, unfortunately), because dragons, although much deadlier, are also incredibly expensive. Thirdly (or fourthly), the most efficient strategy for vampires is a focus on cheap skeleton warriors and the amazingly over-powered magic of their necromancers (Winds of Death etc.), while for Empire and the Dwarfs, their army composition should usually be a more realistic balance between infantry, archers and artillery.

    Generally speaking, single-entity units are very strong, especially in smaller scale settings, because Creative Assembly failed to adequately curtail their power in a proportionate manner. They halved their hit-points, but forgot to do the same for their attack strength, which presents us with the following hypothetical paradox: On huge settings, a hydra will have 400 p. in damage-delivering and 4.000 points in health, while a unit of paladins will have 80 men each with 5 and 50 p. respectively in damage-delivering and health for a total of of 400 and 4.000. On medium settings, however, the hydra will have 2.000 health points, but will retain its 400 p. in attack, while each entity of the paladins will keep its points, but their number will fall to 40 men for a total of 200 and 2.000 p. in attack and health respectively.

    About skills, you should usually orientate towards replenishment, upkeep reduction and lightning strike, while allows you to deny the enemy army any reinforcements that could normally support it. The latter is an extremely useful skill, because it basically negates the numerical superiority of your always numerous adversaries. Finally, the most preferred tactic is to initially harass your opponent with your lord and wizards, whose speed should always be greater or at least equal to that of their faster units. Then, when the enemy approaches you in a disrupted formation, you should deploy your infantry and lords as distractions, while your archers and artillery massacre their soldiers unperturbed. Finally, in what concerns magic, you should not waste it. In fact, preferably you should spend it only when it reaches the maximum of 30 points, although that requirement is obviously impossible for the total duration of the battle.

    Campaign-wise, there's not much to be told, because it has been rather simplified. Refrain from aggressive expansion, invest on the economy and public order, maintain your diplomatic reliability, remember that the sword of Khaine is a trap, unless you play as a horde, fight as many battles as you can with your legendary hero, in order to level him up and, for god's sake, never explore the world! Due to how the diplomacy works, bullying is heavily encouraged. The more factions you discover, the more probable is that some obscure tribe will declare war on you, which will then lead to your international reputation suffering, which will then provoke even more hostilities, in a classic vicious circle scheme.
    Quote Originally Posted by Alwyn View Post
    Thanks for offering. Are there any Warhamer video-makers you'd recommend for learning Warhammer game mechanics and battle tactics? (In Rome II for example - for learning game mechanics I recommend Maximus Decimus Meridius' videos; for learning battle tactics, I recommend Maximus's tournament commentaries and Heir of Carthage's battle videos).
    Legend of Total War is the way to go. On Thursday, for instance, he uploaded a nice, explanatory video about the benefits of the checkerboard formation.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Last edited by Abdülmecid I; May 31, 2020 at 04:54 AM. Reason: Reply to Alwyn added.

  6. #6
    Daruwind's Avatar Citizen
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    Default Re: Tips for new Warhammer players?

    Magic and magic items. For magic there is already quite large guide https://totalwarwarhammer.gamepedia....c#Bound_Spells Basically we have various "lores" of magic providing various spells, having some spellcasters in battle is beneficial, having only them...well magic in battle is as well finite resource so a few casters is good, having many is bad. I would focus at start how magic works (Power meter/reserve bar), how many points you get in battle and gambling with Ranald. After that Miscast (chance that spell will fail) and Overcast (casting costier improved version) and having idea that there are a few types of spell/different areas of effects and some of them are able to wipe your stuff as well...(keep eye for items, skill, techs, buildings improving various aspects in long run)

    Bound spells/abilities are spells granted via various items, skill tree and other means, free of mana cost so it is great to use them Plus as variety of characters is bigger, paying attention from time to time to equipped items (and skills) is good idea. Swap them around. Get right stuff for right man...Legendary Leaders usually can get unique stuff via quests and are immortal, various mount options at various levels and even ordinary heroes/leaders can get skill to become immortal as well. Legendary Lord with full item set, Sword of Khaine or casters like Teclis, Mazdamundi, Lord Kroak are terror on battlefield but as I said above, keep eye for items, skills, techs....because after all, everyone starts at level 1 :-)

    Corruption(s) - there is a few variants. Corruption is often across border slow spread which can be make worse by various events, skaven undercities, active characters arounds...to combat that you have usually ability to build specific buildings, province commandments, research tech, search for undercities or remove certain faction so their corruption will slowly diseapper. (like chaos corruption slowly builds up, after defeating chaos, it will fall down...) It is basically equivalent of culture from previous title. High corruption is bad for public order, you will get attrition in your own regions....Corruption is long term effort so keep eye on it, in time try to get means to combat it because once it spiraled out of control, it will cost a lot to get back in normal...

    Some factions (bad ones) actually are thriving in such conditions - Vampires, Skavens, Cult of Pleasure..For example Vampires get attrition in region with low vampiric corruption si their spread is somewhat slowed down..

    Monsters, there is wide variety of monsters. Some just better bigger infantry...up to Mammoths, Dragons and other oh monsters. Simple guide is that cavalry, monsters are large so keep away from any anti-large unit like pikes, spears, lances...Plus in combination with magic, single entity units has advantage as whole health pool is in single unit. It can be easily healed up while units with multiple entities often lose models, this part of health is then usually lost for future healing. (just a few spells, allows raising dead models). Variety of monsters is large so generic guide is hard to write...some are capable of breaking front lines, some are better for flanking, some flying are great to destroy artillery pieces and get away...As every faction is little different, monsters in it play little different role. Sometimes hammer, sometimes anvil, sometimes hit and run tactics...Endgame doomstacks like LL with 19 Mammoths, Dragons will role over anything..

    Overall rule is that against various factions, various monsters, tactics, units will be better or worse..even magic, charcters.
    DMR: (R2) (Attila) (ToB) (Wh1/2) (3K) (Troy)

  7. #7
    Daruwind's Avatar Citizen
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    Default Re: Tips for new Warhammer players?

    And one more very useful tip is probably DLC guide
    https://totalwarwarhammer.gamepedia....adable_Content

    1) Buy Warhammer 2, then if you can, buy Warhammer 1 to get Mortal Empire campaign

    2) Tons of FLCs are on Steam, TW Access and we are speaking about 10+ LLs now, units, monsters...Grab everything as even Wh1 stuff is being transfered into Wh2 via ME campaign and you get free cookies into basically every faction

    3) Blood for Blood God...is blood DLC, just buy it once, it will work for both games if you want more bloods and gore animations...

    4) Actual DLC guide:
    a) Everything is there for AI, you pay just for Access, so there is no reason to buy everything if you have no plans to play that faction.
    b) use core factions, FLCs to learn what faction might be interesting
    c) Empire, Dwarfs, Bretonnia and High Elves are more similar experience to other TWs, however Wh2 factions being superior to WH1 in design...

    with that Wh2 stuff is on both Vortex/Me while Wh1 stuff is getting just ME part...

    Lord Packs - additional units, Regiments of Renown, LL to base game factions. If you like certain faction, get all LPs featuring that faction as it will add more LLs for confederation and extend playtime with that faction. Thus being said Skaven LPs are very good in terms of mechanics.. I would probably start with Wh2 LPs over Wh1 ones.. but ultimately I would really go with faction you want to play..
    Wh1
    Grim/Grave +
    Kings/Warlords ++

    Wh2
    Queen/Crone ++
    Warlock/Prophet +++
    Hunter/Beast ++
    Shadow/Blade +++
    Warden/Paunch ++++

    Factions Packs - those adding new factions, often without FLC LLs...there are no LPs for them, not so many FLCs as well so while they are usually one time to buy, they might in long term miss fun of base game factions with additional LPs...Anyway I would start with Wh2 faction packs over Wh1 except Norsca, which is pretty much fine as well.
    Wh1
    Warriors of Chaos ++
    Beastmen - Wh1 minicampaign +
    Wood Elves - Wh1 minicampaign ++
    Norsca +++

    Wh2
    Tomb Kings ++++
    Vampire Coast ++++
    Last edited by Daruwind; May 31, 2020 at 05:52 AM.
    DMR: (R2) (Attila) (ToB) (Wh1/2) (3K) (Troy)

  8. #8
    Anna_Gein's Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Re: Tips for new Warhammer players?

    My advice is to not over think too much when you start these games. TW Warhammer I & II are casual fun experience (in the positive sense). The core campaign gameplay is somewhat simpler than others recent TW but it is for the best.

    Just grab a faction which appears cool to you and get going. The less magical factions are a little be easier to manage imo : the Empire, the High Elves and the Dark Elves.

    Two things to keep a constant eye on the campaign map :
    - specific location buildings : There are a lot of special buildings tied to locations (especially in Warhammer II). So whenever you take control of a settlement, you should open the building panel tab and check for yourself what building are available.
    - regarding "corruption" : It works like culture/religion in previous TW games. Wathever factions you play, you can deal with it through "sort of religious" buildings (Cathedral of Sigmar, Shrine of Azura, etc). Characters can also develops that help.

  9. #9
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: Tips for new Warhammer players?

    Thank you, Abdülmecid I, Daruwind and Anna_Gein for your helpful advice, I'm excited about trying it in the game!

    I see what you mean, Abdülmecid I, about refraining from aggressive expansion and investing in building your cities instead. It's a shame that exploring is dangerous, as I'm enjoying exploring a new (to me) map. Playing as the Empire reminds me a bit of the Otomo in Shogun II. You have an effective 'pike and shot' style roster, but you're in danger from more than one direction and the best way to survive is to play defensively and build up, before expanding. I look forward to trying out the elven factions - Legend of Total War's checkerboard formation looks brilliant, I'll try that and look out for his other videos.

    Daruwind, I like the sound of bound spells, the different lores of magic and ordinary heroes becoming more similar to legendary lords by achieving immortality. These are useful ideas for playing and fighting monsters and for magic. I didn't realise that corruption can be spread by skaven undercities or that there are different kinds. The tips on DLC and getting both games are useful too - I got both Warhammer I and II in the sale, so I can try Mortal Empires in future (it sounds amazing, with the extra-large campaign map and the possible interactions between so many and such varied factions).

    Anna_Gein, thanks, I see what you mean about them being casual fun in a positive sense and about getting going with a cool faction. After the Empire, I'd like to try the elven factions you recommended and the Wood Elves (although I get the impression they're harder to play). I look forward to discovering the specific location buildings. The analogy between corruption and culture/religion is helpful, I'll experiment with buildings and characters to see what they do.
    Last edited by Alwyn; May 31, 2020 at 09:00 AM.

  10. #10

    Default Re: Tips for new Warhammer players?

    i would start with an entry faction such as the high elves, or the empire if you have warhammer 1 too(you should buy the first warhammer because when it's on sale it's basically a four faction dlc)
    the game is very hero focused, compared to the previous total war games, and heroes can't die of old age, legendary heroes can't die at all, they will be recruitable again after a few turns if you lose them in battle

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