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Encyclopedia about Immortal Empires and a few tips

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[Work in progress]

A gathering of very basic informations about Factions, Lords and Races as well as a few humble tips for their campaigns.

It will be updated over time, some parts might be outdated or empty, please deal with it

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Overzicht

A few opening words

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The Empire

Reikland

The Cult of Sigmar

Solland

The Huntsmarshal's Expedition

Wissenland and Nuln

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Dwarfs

Karaz-a-Karak

The Ancestral Throng

Clan Angrund

Karak Kadrin

Ironbrow's Expedition

Masters of Innovation

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Greenskins

Grimgor's 'Ardboyz

The Crooked Moon

The Bloody Handz

Broken Axe

Bonerattlaz

Ironclaw Orcs

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Vampire Counts

Drakenhof conclave

Caravan of Blue Roses

Sylvania

The Barrow Legion

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Norsca

World Walkers

Wintertooth

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Bretonnia

Couronne

Bordeleaux Errant

Carcassonne

Chevaliers de Lyonesse

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Wood Elves

Talsyn

Argwylon

Heralds of Ariel

Wargrove of Woe

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Beastmen

Warherd of the One-Eye

Harbinger of Disaster

Warherd of the Shadowgave

Slaughterhorn Tribe

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Warriors of Chaos

Warhost of the Apocalypse

Heralds of the Tempest

The Decadent Host

Shadow Legion

The Ecstatic Legions

The Fecundities

Puppets of Misrule

Legion of the Gorequeen

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High Elves

Eataine

Order of Loremasters

Avelorn

Nagarythe

Yvresse

Knights of Caledor

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Lizardmen

Hexoatl

The Last Defenders

Tlaqua

Cult of Sotek

Itza

Spirit of the Jungle

Ghosts of Pahuax

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Dark Elves

Naggarond

Cult of Pleasure

Har Ganeth

The Blessed Dread

Hag Graef

The Thousand Maws

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Skaven

Clan Mors

Clan Pestilens

Clan Rictus

Clan Skryre

Clan Eshin

Clan Moulder

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Vampire Coast

The Awakened

The Dreadfleet

Pirates of Sartosa

The Drowned

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Tomb Kings

Khemri

Court of Lybaras

Exiles of Nehek

Followers of Nagash

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Kislev

The Ice Court

The Great Orthodoxy

Ursun Revivalists

Daughters of the Forest

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Grand Cathay

The Northern Provinces

The Western Provinces

The Jade Court

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Daemons of Chaos

Legion of Chaos

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Khorne

Exiles of Khorne

Blooded Wanderers

Challengers of Khorne

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Nurgle

Poxmasters of Nurgle

The Maggot Host

Tallymen of Pestilence

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Tzeentch

Oracles of Tzeentch

The Deceivers

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Slaanesh

Seducers of Slaanesh

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Ogre Kingdoms

Goldtooth

Disciples of the Maw

The Maneaters

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Chaos Dwarfs

Disciples of Hashut

The Legion of Azgorh

The Warhost of Zharr

Extra ressources

Final thoughts

Updates

Reacties

A few opening words

Welcome everyone to this guide about Total War: Warhammer 3, focusing on the campaign mode called Immortal Empires.

Bellow, you will find for each playable factions and lords:

A description of every specifities of the Race
Legendary Lord Effects
Faction Effects
Starting Army
A few tips for that specific faction
Victory conditions
Main difficulties of that very campaign
Overall strategy and a few tips you should keep in mind

Two things to consider; firstly this guide is not pretending to be a bible for legendary hardcore players, i just like the game and wish to summarize very basic informations for quick access.

If you deem that an advice i wrote isn't good or viable in game, discuss with politeness, i will take your experience in account.

Take strategies with a grain of salt.

Secondly, i don't play every factions every week, sometime CA actually updates or changes something, leading to parts of this guide not always being up to date. Sometimes i also just don't feel like playing Total War.

Thank you for reading this, make sure to use the summary tab on the right for quick browsing, use PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN or even CTRL + F on your keyboard.

All of this obviously took a tremendous amount of time so please consider Awarding / Rating / Favoriting whatever.

Credit to https://totalwarwarhammer.fandom.com/wiki/Total_War:_Warhammer_Wiki for some informations, the rest comes from the game

Also thanks to u/KingsYakuzi on reddit for the above hand made map https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/y78bsh/v22_all_faction_starting_position_immortal/

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The Empire

The Empire is the most classical faction of Total War Warhammer: it has a diverse frontline infantry and flanking cavalry as well as very powerful shooters and artillery units. it also has access to a lot of different Lore of Magic.

Elector Count Fealty: Each region of the Empire is at the beginning controlled by a sub faction, your call is to unite them. Sometimes, dilemnas will pop and you will be asked to favor one over the other. I will cost you either Treasury, Fealty of an Elector or Prestige (a special currency earned througth war and actions.)

The important part of all of this comes with the following points, avoid at all cost to let the fealty of an elector count to drop to 0. He would declare war on you, leading you towards a spiral of events difficult to escape.

The second point is that, whatever you do, try to keep a minimum of 1000 Prestige. One of the possible dilemna is that an Elector Count declares war on you unless you pay a 1000 Prestige. For the other dilemnas, i would recommend using whatever currency you have the most between money and prestige. Follow the rule of the previous paragraph, you can still afford to loose Fealty to economize your currencies.

If by any bad luck of events, one (or several) elector counts declare war on you, you can "exploit" an issue in the diplomacy screen. If you had a very high relation with a faction that declared war on you and you open in the same turn the diplomacy screen, they will be very favorable for a peace treaty, non agression, military pact etc. This is why you should have as much pacts as possible with the Empire subfactions.

Once you control the capital city of a Region of the Empire, you can elect one of your Lords to become the new Elector count, giving you a Special Unit of renown, a weapon item and his army a few benefits.
Imperial Authority: A very important value to keep high, it gives you decent bonus for being positive (Growth and Income) and the equivalent in penalties bellow 0 down to -7. If it reaches -10 however, all the elector counts declare war on you.

This wide scale rebellion is a terrible event to happen to your campaign, your goals of confederations will move further away each turn and violence will be the only way. Avoid this

Some dilemnas will offer you +1 Authority in exchange for -1000 Prestige, a very good choice. (Remember to keep at least 1000 for an eventual secession attempt)

Also, keep in mind that confederating other Elector Counts will only be possible with random dilemnas and cost you -3 Imperial Authority.

Another good way of increasing Authority is by reinstating destroyed Elector count factions by attacking cities / ruins of their previous homeland.

Reikland

Karl Franz

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Reikland enjoys very general buffs towards diplomacy and movement range as well as increased recruit rank for new lords. These are mostly aimed to help you unite the Empire as you should and help defend all its frontiers.

Beginning with the capital city of Altdorf, your starting province of Reikland will be a very solid start much needed to defend against all your foes.

Karl Franz himself has a buffs for Reiksguards knights and (since Warhammer 3) Greatswords, added to a few unique skills buffing other various aspects of your armies / battle efficiency.

But where the MAN himself shine the most is in battle; Karl Franz is a very strong fighter especially with his end game mount, the Griffon Death Claw. He can fight amongst his men, with very wide attacks to crush ennemies and buff his lines, as well as quickly reaching important targets (Lords, Heroes ...) to duel the ♥♥♥♥ out of them. He isn't a magic caster however, so his battle abilities will be his only boon in fight.

Being the Elector Count of Reikland, you will start with a few extra buffs, nothing too sizeable however.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlements
Destroy the factions of The Empire Secessionists, The Barrow Legion and Sylvania

Long Victory:

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 70 different settlements
Control all provinces of the Empire either by direct ownership or diplomatic treaties: Nordland, Ostland, Hochland, Middenland, Talabecland, Ostermark, Reikland, Stirland, Averland, Wissenland, The Wasteland, Northern Sylvania, Southern Sylvania

Main difficulties you might face:

Uniting the Empire - Unforeseen secessionists, fratricidal wars between elector counts ...
Von Carstein's dinasty in the East
Daemons of all size, colors and smells in the North (And Bel'Akor in the West)
Other vampires, Greenskins and eventually even WoodElves in the South (West to East)

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Similar to Mortal Empires, your very first goal will be to conquer the entirety of the province of Reikland - Trade carefully and you will be able to get rid of the Empire Secessionists minor faction very rapidly.
Build fast and high in your province, you must make sure it will provide you both decent units and a good enough economy to actually expand and sustain war.

From now on, you can choose many different directions. The thing is a lot of factions are just waiting to declare war to you (or your elector counts), so you will most likely have to destroy them all anyways.

Keep in mind that, yes you could choose to stay in Reikland and build up your strengths, but each time an elector count is detroyed you will loose Imperial Authority, reducing income, public order and other vital things.

Either try to focus on destroying the Sylvania of the Von Carstein in the East (Securing for a good time your eastern flank), or the Fecundites of Festus the Leachlord (A Northern ennemy sitting in the middle of your Empire).

After those two immediate threats comes the second wave. In the far north, Kislev will most likely fall, letting Norscan tribes, Throgg, Azazel and Clan Moulder spilling towards you. Bel'Akor in the West might declare war as well, attacking you from the Western Coast.

The main difficulty will be to duplicate armies to answer to those wars, focusing on one ennemy at the temporary expanse of one front might be the best answer to get rid of them.

Make sure to sign trade agreements to boost your economy. Some people liked invading Marienburg very early in the campaign, to enjoy the income provided by the settlement, but i would not recommend it for the moment for various reasons.

Marienburg income has been reduced to decent level
Waging war against Marienburg will bring negative diplomatic relations with Couronne, and Bretonnia is NOT someone you want to join your war list.

The Cult of Sigmar

Volkmar the Grim

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Since he left for the sands of the South, Volkmar has a more interesting campaign. The Culf of Sigmar provides you bonuses towards early / mid game units. You are invited to play a lot around WitchHunters and Battle Priests with a few buffs for them as well. The most unique point of this campaign is that Volkmar is one of the few factions racing to gather all the Books of Nagash; they will be located around the world and each of them will provide you bonuses as well as the Empire troops of the Elector counts.

As an Empire faction, the Cult of Sigmar is pretty strong and can keep diplomatic ties with a lot of the Order-aligned factions of the world.

Finally, Volkmar is on his own a kill-machine; not the best in the game but pretty strong nonetheless. He has access to a few Battle prayers that are effectively, free spells, providing battle boosts or dealing damage to your foes. On his war altar, Moustache man becomes even more resistant.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 30 different settlements
Destroy the following factions: Oracles of Tzeentch, The Drakenhof Conclave

Long victory:

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 70 different settlements
Control all provinces of the Empire either by direct ownership or diplomatic treaties: Nordland, Ostland, Hochland, Middenland, Talabecland, Ostermark, Reikland, Stirland, Averland, Wissenland, The Wasteland, Northern Sylvania, Southern Sylvania

Main difficulties you might face:

Vampires of Mannfred von Carstein and that very angry guy called Skarbrand
If careless about diplomacy, Tomb Kings
All factions seeking to destroy the Empire; Festus, Vlad von Carstein, Azazel, Archaon and all the others ...

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Early on you should make sure to focus entirely on securing your intial borders and getting rid of Mannfred. If the Vampire seems a bit too strong yet, wage war North-West to the Followers of Nagash until you join borders with Repanse. This new territory will help you fund your war against Mannfred. Skarbrand will eventually declare war on you very early on, so make sure to take this opportunity to destroy his faction as well.

In case you conquer settlements you don't want (i'm thinking the marshes near Skarbrand for instance), keep in mind that you can sell them to the Dwarfs or Tomb Kings for extra cash and diplomatic bonus.

Next logical step would be to go for Kairos, he should not have expanded too much by then and he is surrounded by good guys; Teclis and Lizardmen. Make sure not to anger the not-so-friendly Lizardmen on the way tho.

You could also choose to not push too much on wars and problems and grow strong; make sure you have visibility on the Empire's mainland; if the Reik suffers too much, you could land yourself an easy Confederation, boosting even more your economy. You will have to conquer the Empire for the long win, try to do it yourself as soon as possible, or trust the sons of Altdorf to survive while you kick the Oracles of Tzeentch rear meanwhile.

If you have enough treasury, dedicate a part of it to a strong full stack army ready to roam the Earth; a few of the Books of Nagash are held by neutral roaming armies; pretty easy to get close to them, declare war and in the same turn destroy them.

Once you have settled / confederated your way to the Reikland, the same difficulties as the campaign of Karl Franz will apply. Foes from all directions will harass you and your best way is to clear them one by one. Festus and Vlad are the most direct ones.

Solland

Balthasar Gelt

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Balthasar Gelt can become a very strong caster in the lore of metal, he is also a very decent fighter and can mount a fast Pegasus, allowing him to quickly relocate during battles. Make sure to abuse his spells as those from the lore of metal will cost less winds of magic. Gelt can win sieges almost by his own if played properly.

He provides a few generic buffs to Battle Wizards to be used in armies or the campaign map; but more importantly, his armies has a fat +10 Armour factionwide, as well as a damage boost to all Artillery units.

Additionnaly, starting as the Elector Count of Solland, your Lord's army will have Vanguard Deployment and receive a slight upkeep reduction for Crossbowmen and Spearmen.

Campaign objectives:

Short Victory

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 30 different settlements
Destroy the following faction: Sylvania

Long Campaign Victory

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 70 different settlements
Control all provinces of the Empire either by direct ownership or diplomatic treaties:Nordland, Ostland, Hochland, Middenland, Talabecland, Ostermark, Reikland, Stirland, Averland, Wissenland, The Wasteland, Northern Sylvania, Southern Sylvania

Main difficulties you might face:
- Vlad and Isabelle von Carstein
- Drycha, Festus, Beastmen, maybe even Skaven
- Greenskins from the South
- Elector Counts, Imperial authority and Public Order
- Chaos from the north
Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

The start can be quite tricky as you might end up fighting a few wars at the same time while being able to afford only one army. Make sure to use Gelt as much as possible in battle to make your life easier. As i said above, he has very powerful spells with reduced casting costs.

Sylvania appears to be slightly less aggressive than Mannfred von Carstein used to be in Wh2, but they should be your main target anyways. Even if you don't end up at war with them, vampiric corruption will cripple your settlements. They can be tough to defeat early on but your ability to focus their army leader will be very valuable.

Have a lot of Crossbowmen and Spearmen early to abuse their upkeep reduction and try to get higher tier units as soon as possible, especially Handgunners and Artillery units. Fort Soll will be a very valuable settlement to protect your back.

I would recommend to not accept any confederation at first hand, otherwise you might have to add your neighbors ennemies to your list as well as even more public order penalties. Karl Franz AI seems slightly weaker compared to his wh2 performances, but he should still grow decently fast and wage war better than you would at first, let him unite the Empire for you.

Drycha, Festus and their beastmen pals might destroy elector counts pretty fast, crippling your authority; make sure to focus those monsters if necessary. Don't hesitate to revive Elector Counts if you lack authority.

Keep in mind that dangers from the southern realms, eastern mountains and northen wastes will eventually knock at the Empire's door so pay attention at incoming threats.

Early on you can attack the Skaven minor faction south of solland in the mountains, to sell the settlements to nearby dwarves. Quite an early bonus in income.

The Huntsmarshal's Expedition

Markus Wulfhart

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province :

Leader and Faction specificities

The Huntsmarshal's Expedition is a much more difficult Empire faction to play with. Indeed, at the beginning, you will only have access to basic units, no Gunpowders, no Artillery units, no elite armored infranty and cavalry. Their respective buildings will be unlocked by progressing in a special bar called Emperor's Mandate. It will be filled by capturing colonies or upgrading docks. Each levels will also increase the rank of reinforcements the Empire send you as well as adding negative diplomatic relations with the Lizardmen.

Keep also in mind that you can loose levels by loosing colonies or armies
Every x turns, the Empire will send you detachment of elite units you are not capable of training yourself called Imperial Supplies. You will be prompt to choose between Elite melee infrantry, cavalry, missile units or even artillery units. Once received, those reinforcements can be recruited instantly for free (there is only the upkeep to pay)
Additionally, the more you capture colonies and trouble the ennemy factions, the more a second bar, called Hostility, will fill. The higher that value is, the more the inhabitants of Lustria perceive you as a threat, adding public order penalties or even ennemy damage bonus.
If the bar is completed, a large ennemy army will appear somewhere in your region after 2 turns (the location will be announced beforehand), and the value will come back to 0 after the army is dealt with.
Loosing territories or simply waiting will reduce the perceived threat. Also remember that, as absurd as it may sound, capturing a Skaven settlement will anger the Lizardmen and raise your threat bar ...

Also note that, the higher the Hostility is, the faster you will be sent Imperial Supplies.
You will also have access to 4 unique heroes called Wulfhart Hunters. They are unlocked and buffed thanks to 4 multi-step quests. A Witch-hunter, a Wood Elf huntress, a dwarf engineer and a bretonnian knight.

Markus' boosts really pushes you to play his army with Hunters or Archers, the former being very good at killing large targets. In battle he is a good sniper unit despite poor fighting efficiency in melee. He can fire while moving so make sure he stays out of trouble.

The boosts towards the Ambush stance is very good, especially in the Jungles of Lustria. This can always be abused towards AI factions.

Yuan Bo of Cathay has been added to your Northern side and Alberick from Bretonnia starts in the South east. These will be humans allies against Dark Elves, Skaven and Lizardmen occupying the regions around.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 30 different settlements
Destroy the factions of Hexoatl, Itza, Clan Pestilens, The Awakened and The Dreadfleet
Have 100 Acclaim (Emperor's Mandate)

Long Victory (Same as short with the addition of:)

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 70 different settlements
Control all provinces of Lustria either by direct ownership or through vassals and military alliances

Main difficulties you might face:

Initially Tehenhauin and Rakarth
Factions of Itza, Cult of Sotek and Clan Pestilens will most likely be threats
Eventually from the South, Ghosts of Pahuax or Oracles of Tzeentch and from the North Hexoatl or Cult of Pleasure (if Yuan Bo dies)

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Try to reinforce your army as soon as possible to conquer Spectazuma, a tier V settlement.
Also, when getting your first Imperial Supply, mind taking the Great Canon + Outriders (Grenade Launchers); the latter are very good to micro manage your way towards a won battle.

Try to get quickly Wulfhart's hunters, almost all of them can be acquired by just walking in a particular province. Continuing their quest is up to you.

Eventually another Lizardmen faction will wage war on you, Tehenhauin or Gor-Rok in the south most likely; they are your target anyway. Some people would attack Luthor Harkon's faction in the east, because they are a threat and generates corruption, i dislike doing that however because of the attrition you will suffer and because The Awakening (Their settlement) has a very solid garrison, even without an army inside.

Decent plans should be to focus West and South, not going too deep to let Gor-Rok fight with Skrolk from Clan Pestilens, try to fight other factions one by one before attacking Itza.

Also the minor Dark Elves faction and Rakarth faction from the West will try to expand towards you.

Sign diplomatic agreements with High Elves, Empire Colonies, Alberic and Dwarfs in Lustria if you can. You should also send a lone hero towards the Old World and sign treaties with old bros, Couronne, Reikland, etc ..

Make sure to not get low reliability otherwise the donut island people might declare war on you.

Don't hesitate to use Imperial Supply units

Wissenland and Nuln

Elspeth von Draken

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[ ]

Starting Province:

[ ]

Leader and Faction specificities

Nuln is a faction focused on artillery and ranged units with firearms. Centered around a large and unique technology-tree, Nuln can grow quickly and uses its economic wealth to recruit large and expensive armies faster than other factions. Its focus on artillery and long range units allows a low casualty and highly simplified combat. The only exception are the regular imperial cavalry units and the Knights of the Black Rose.

Elspeth von Draken is a wizard-lord with decent melee capabilities.With her unique mount, the carmine dragon, she can deal with many units on the field. Keep in mind, she is a wizard not a melee combat specialised hero. She can keep up in combat, but will lose to highly armored and hard hitting enemies such as Grimgor or Manfred von Carstein. Her magic skills are an upgraded version of the regular Lore of Death. This allows her to compensate her mediocre melee combat capabilities with high single- and multi-target damage magic skills such as Spirit Leech.

Due to the (currently) very overpowered nature of the unique faction mechanics of Nuln, they are an easy to play and easy to win faction without many trouble. Upgrading tanks and artillery to devastating nearly invincible units in an early stage of the campaign, Nuln has an enormous strategic advantage. Sieges do not need preparation due to the abilities of the imperial artillery units, especially mortars.

As part of the empire you'll be able of recruiting a bunch of legendary heroes (Felix and Gotrek ex.) who will help you crushing your enemies.

The imperial unit roster is a well balanced and highly mechanised and amored choice which is especially for newer players a good choice to learn the machanics and understand the game.

Endgame high tier infantry and tanks can be used as sturdy frontline without the need of worrying routing and running units while you hit your adversary with your ranged units, artillery and high damage cavalry. The devastating damage capabilites of imperial artillery units gives the opportunity to wipe whole units off the battlefield even befire they reach your frontline.

Campaign objectives:

Short Victory:

Destroy the following factions: Sylvania, The Fecundites
Complete Tier 2 in the Imperial Gunnery School
Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlements

Reward: Heros capacity +3

Long Victory:

Achieve short victory
Occupy, loot, raze or sack 70 different settlements
Control all provinces of the Empire either by conquering, confederating, vasallising or through forming allies

Reward: Heros recruitment rank +10

Main difficulties you might face:

Vampire Counts on your borders in the East (especially Legendary Lords such as Vlad or Manfred)
Chaos factions (Festus,...] and Skaven in northern and western areas
Eventually Wood Elves (Argwylon)

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips
The campaign starts slow and without many enemies on your borders. The only early game threat that should be quickly dealt with are the [Vampire Counts]. Vampire armies commanded by legendary lords and their ability to summon mighty heroes can get you into trouble if not avoided early. Use your ranged units and artillery to eliminate all Undead threats in your range until Sylvania is completely under imperial control.

As an imperial faction you can expand your territory through confederating and forming allies with Karl Franz and the Dwarves. Be aware that Wood Elves will likely try to fight you as you befriend with the Dwarves, so reinforce your borders in the west.

Chaos factions have access to heavily armored units and can easily damage your defenses through spreading corruption and attacking your settlements. Festus in the North, Skaven in the West and Undead in the East will give you certain corruption issues to deal with. Festus owns only one settlement of value in the north, so dealing with him after conquering Sylvania and eliminating Vlad and Manfred should be targeted.

Once you got rid of Festus and Vlad your campaign shouldn't be endangered anymore and you can conquer and roam freely.

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Dwarfs

Dwarfs are a sturdier version of the Empire. What they lack in mobility and magic they compensate with strong armors and leaderships as well as rune caster lords. Their main battle strategies revolve on holding a strong line of ruthless axes and shields, until the ennemy dies or exhaust under a rain of projectiles.

The Underway:

On the campaign map, they have access to the Underway, a special stance for armies to move regardless of the terrain, usefull to move across mountains or avoid attrition. Armies can be intercepted in the tunnels however so be careful when you use it.
Grudges:

As Dwarves you have acces to the grudges- mechanic. This gives you acces to the Age of Grudges which gives you helpfull economical and military buffs when entering the later ages. Through the ages you get access to the really powerfull Grudge Settler units which can make the difference in many battles. They are expensive but really strong. In the Book of GRudges you gain access to legendary grudges. Those will give you active and passive abilities for your armies and buffs for your faction. You also have the possibility to confederate other legendary (the playable factions) Dwarves through the Grudges mechanic. Therefore you have to collect a specific amount of Grudges (usually it has to be more than the faction to confederate + specific amount).

Grudges will gain in severity if they stay for too long in the Book, so mind that too.
The Deeps:
With access to the Deeps you get the possibility to build a specific building in your settlement (preferring capitals and legendary settlements) granting you acces to the Deeps. Those Deeps give you access to build a settlement under the settlement adding new building slots and new unique and specific buildings only buildeable in those deeps-slots.
Oathgold and the Forge:

Finally, some buildings, lords and a variety of actions will gather Oathgold, a special currency used,, in combination with trade goods, to craft a wide list of Weapons, Armors, Trinkets and Runes, usable by Lords and Heroes. This is detailed in the special menu of The Forge.
Dwarfs suffer low Growth, however they have typically access to a variety of Mines and Special buildings in their mountain cities, providing you a good amount of both income and Trading goods. Make sure to sign trade aggreements to exports a much as possible, boosting your income to wild amounts.

Karaz-a-Karak

Thorgrim Grudgebearer

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Thorgrim gives a good boost to elite dwarf frontline support (Longbeard) and damage dealer (Hammerers), he also gives a lot of Leadership around him to Dwarfs with already high Leadership stats.
In combat Thorgrim will mostly act as a tanky support to his army, providing debuffs to enemies. He really emphasize the Dwarfs playstyle of holding the line as a sturdy grumpy iron wall. With his abilities to support his troops and weaken his adversary armies with defuss he is a viable legendary lord for holding the line and supporting units in longer and more intense fights. His big disadvantage is his weakness in duels against stronger and more specialised lords.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Complete 2 Legendary Grudges
Destroy the following factions: Crooked Moon
Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlement(s).
Eliminate the leaders of Chaos once the invasion begins (Archaon, Kholek and Sigvald)

Long Victory:

Same as short victory except:

Complete 4 Legendary Grudges
Occupy, loot, raze or sack 70 different settlements

Main difficulties you might face:

Grimgor, Grimgor and GRIMGOR
Skavens of Clan Eshin
Other Greenskin tribes
Chaos invasion

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Greenskins and Skaven are going to represent your main threat for a good time of the campaign, once you successfully got rid of both in your area, it will be much easier. Not an easy task however, In the north you have primarily Skarsnik spamming armies and in the south and eats you have minor Greenskins, Chaos Dwarves and Kugath (if he is able to deal with Imrik etc) in the east and Grimgor, the Bloody Hand and others in the south. In the north you have to deal with Vampires if your dwarven neighbours aren't able to hold the line. Don't underestimate the aggression of Skarsnik and other Greenskins in the early game if you want to deal with Skaven first All in all, your starting position is quite solid but still pretty difficult if you're a new player. Move with great care and don't overdo yourself with overstretching distances between your armies.

Dwarfs have a very good income, especially with trades and mines, you should be able to fill up a full stack and afford a second army to protect your starting province.

It is possible to get rid of Skarsnik's and Grimgor's capital city pretty early in the campaign. Make sure to use the Tunnel stance very carefully as the Greenskins can use them too. This stances gives you a high mobility on the map but will be your end if used without caution.

Greenskins will have the advantage of the Waaagh! increasing the power very fast, try to get a few Grudge Settlers and Gyrocopters they are very usefull to make a difference in battle. Quarrelers and Thunderers are also handy as shooters and can make up a decent, although not excellent fight in melee.

The empire will be a good friend of yours despite being completely useless to help you with your vermin problems. Confederating as soon as possible other Dwarfholds might give you extra opportunities as well. Your capabilities to confederate quickly will be extremely helpfull, projecting your power in your area early and continuously while fighting your enemies.

The Ancestral Throng

Grombrindal the White Dwarf

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

OUTDATED

Quite like Volkmar, i found myself prefering much more Grombrindal than the first choice of Thorgrim, as i think he outperforms him in several aspect.

Only his damage bonus against elves is useless as you will probably never have the luxury to decide, yeah let's go settle some grudges on the donut island.

On the campaign, his main strength is the ability to call upon the power of the Ancestor Gods. Every 20-25 turns, you will have the same dilemna between 4 choices, with large buffs towards a certain aspect. It can boosts for the province Grombrindal is in, Upkeep reduction / recruitment costs for his army and research faction wide, battle boosts to Grombrindal or to his army.

His leadership bonus is much better than Thorgrim as it applies on all the army, no matter the distance.

In battle, the White Dwarf is very good at holding ennemies for your army, less tanky than Throgrim he is very decent nontheless.

Campaign objectives:

Essentially detailed in the part "Thorgrim Grudgebearer - Karaz-a-Karak"

Main difficulties you might face:

Essentially detailed in the part "Thorgrim Grudgebearer - Karaz-a-Karak"

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Essentially detailed in the part "Thorgrim Grudgebearer - Karaz-a-Karak"

Clan Angrund

Belegar Ironhammer

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

OUTDATED

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

As faction of the Dwarves, you will probably encoutner the same issues in fight as Karaz a Karak.
They are too slow and do not own an effectice cavalry.
Belegar does not have his own unique skills and with his lack of amour piercing damage, he is pretty low against lords like Grimgork. You will need massive support to get him trough these fights.

On the campaign map Karaz-a-Karak will confederate with probably every potential dwarven ally, so you have to be fast or you should focus on other factions as allies. Every little decision in your camapign will have a big impact on your progression in the camapig, so it is highly recommended to take them wisely without rushing.

Skarsnik and other Skaven can be a relly dangerous threat to your kingdom, so try to kill them fast as possible.

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Karak Kadrin

Ungrim Ironfist

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Ironbrow's Expedition

Thorek Ironbrow

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Ironbrow's Expedition receives buffs around the Forge system and Rune-casting, encouraging you to spend the Oathgold you receive much faster to craft specific equipments for your leaders and armies. You also have a new list of unique and very powerful items that require you to find specific objects to craft them. You empire will begin in a corridor like valley that is usually pretty defendable.

You will begin with a very good frontline with Longbeards and Ironbreakers. Thorek on the other hand, will be a powerful caster and fighter for your army; centered around free spells called Runes. He will also provide boosts to other runecasters as well as some for the artillery and projectile units. He can also give Frenzy to his entire Army, assuring Ironbrow's Expedition to be a decent faction.

You will also be offered during your campaign to confederate with Karak Azul, a minor Dwarf faction located between Clan Mors, Mutinous Gits from Karak Eight Peaks and Imrik. They are usually in trouble by the time they offer you to confederate.

Campaign objectives:

Short Campaign Victory

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 30 different settlements
Reforge at least 5 Artefacts via the Forge

Long Campaign Victory]/b]

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 70 different settlements
Ensure that the severity of grudges in the Great Book of Grudges is no greater than 9

Main difficulties you might face:

GRUDGES
Skaven from Clan Mors, Skarbrand from Exiles of Khorne
Depending on their lunatic behaviors; Last defenders or Tomb Kings

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Usually consider easier than a few other Dwarfs factions, Ironbrow's Expedition is surrounded by ennemies that are considered pretty weak early in the campaign. The minor greenskin factions you're at war with can be dealt with pretty rapidly; Skarbrand up north might declare war on you very soon but he is a bit far to begin with.

Tombkings in the West or East might attack you but they also have their own problems. Only bitter problem i had was Last Defenders in the South; they are close yet separated by the map and you would tend to leave them there; until you realize they came all the way to raid your main settlement. invest in diplomatic relations tech to prevent that.

The major faction of Mannfred in the West usually dies off pretty rapidly, so only Skarbrand and Skaven from the North might become problematic.

Focus on retrieving the runic pieces necessary to craft the Artefacts from Thorek's faction otherwise they will become very impactful grudges, crippling your faction.

Masters of Innovation

Malakai Makaisson

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

------------------------------------------

Greenskins

Greenskins are a fun race to play with, your army has a large list of dangerous infantry, fast cavalry and angry monsters. A few missile units and artillery but they are not your biggest strength. On the campaign map they are good at raiding and overwhelming ennemy lands.

The Underway: Similar to the Dwarfs and Skaven, Greenskins have access to the underway, a special stance allowing for movement on any terrain, usefull for crossing mountains for instance. Armies can be intercepted in the tunnels though.
WAAAGH! (campaign map): Winning battles and razing settlements will fill up a bar, giving you various bonuses such as cost reduction and leadership. Once the bar is full, you can choose a faction (and declare war against them if it isn't the case yet), giving all your army a second list of units in the command of the same lords.

These second armies will grow each turn as Greenskins gather, giving you the same amount of units that the initial armies had when called the Waaagh. Thus, it's better to wait for full stack armies.

The Waaagh gives you as a target the Capital city of the faction you used Waaagh! on, giving you bonuses depending on the race of that faction, if you manage to possess the city by the end of the Waaagh! (20 turns). The stronger the faction is, the bigger the bonuses will be, ranging from "Big", "Bigga" and "Biggest" trophies.

You can definitely choose not to summon a Waaagh to profit from the bonuses of the filled up bar.
WAAAGH! (battle map): Separately of all of the above, all greenskins lords have access in battle to an army ability called "Waaagh!". In order to use it during battle, a bar must be filled first. Points are generated by every units engaged in melee combat. The generic Waaagh! ability will provide the following boost to the entire army for 18 seconds: +24 Melee attack, Immunity to Psychology, +25% Base Weapon damage and +25% Armour piercing weapon damage
Each Greenskin legendary lords have a specific Waaagh! ability replacing the default one.
Scrap: After battles and settlement razing, you will also receive a side currency called Scrap. They are mainly used to unlock some Researches at first, those allowing you to upgrade each individual units in your armies by spending Scrap.

I would recommend saving Scraps to advance in your Technology Tree first and spending them very carefully on units, for instance only on your Legendary Lord Army. That being said, some bonuses are very FAT and might be very advantageous in battle.
Savage Orcs: Greenskins can build special buildings allowing for recruitment of Savage Orcs units, on settlements marked with the ressource "Savage Orcs". (Red skull)

Each equivalent units of Savage Orcs have higher attack stats and got a lower defense in exchange of physical damage resistance.
Tribal Confederation: Greenskins live in a brutal but simple society. Yes you can confederate other gitz with diplomacy. You can also kill in a battle the leader of a Greenskin faction to confederate him. Da boyz alwayz on for a good krumpin'

Grimgor's 'Ardboyz

Grimgor Ironhide

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Grimgor is a stubborn and very strong fighter, amongst the most devastating lords in duel. He is able to kill almost any other Legendary lord by himself as well as holding himself against a few ennemy units. His only downside is that he has neither any spells nor an available mount.

Grimgors' Ardboyz is a very solid greenskin faction as their elite melee infantry, the Black Orcs, receive delicious boosts to their combat efficiency as well as their cost. Black Orcs can also appear in a Waaagh! army and you are pushed to play around Black Orc Big Boss heroes.

The boost in movement range and post-battle loot encourages you to play aggressively on the campaign map, to keep fightin' n' krumpin'.

Now located in the very big mountain range between Cathay and the Dark Lands, Grimgor starts is squeezed between Ogres, Cathay and Chaos and Chaos Dwarfs. The diplomacy of the axe is about to unfold.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 30 different settlements
Control five of the following settlements: Great Hall of Greasus, Black Crag, Crookback Mountain, Nan-Gau, Karak Eight Peaks, Karaz-a-Karak, Castle Drakenhof, Kislev, Hell Pit, Khazid Irkulaz, Hanyu Port, The Fortress of Vorag, The Tower of Torment, The Challenge Stone

Long Victory:

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 75 different settlements
Destroy the following factions: Black Venom, Bloody Spearz, Broken Nose, Crooked Moon Mutinous Gits, Red Eye, Red Fangs, Scabby Eye, Skullsmasherz, Teef Snatchaz, Top Knotz

Main difficulties you might face:

A mixed flavor of Chaos Dwarfs in the West and Kholek in the North
Later on; Cathay in the East, Daddy Archaon in the North west and Greassus in the South

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips
Somewhat an easy campaign, Grimgor's faction can be snowballing into a rampaging powerhouse quite rapidly, even if multiple factions declare war on you, you should be able to roll on them with your aggressive economy and Waaaagh! ability.

Begin by securing your starting province then murder your neighbor one by one. Some people pointed out that razing chaos dwarfs soon is a good strategy.
Personnally i went for Kholek before he (and his vassal) become too strong. The closest Chaos Dwarfs were the Tower of Zharr and they had a huge garrison for early game so that wasn't an option for me.

Afterwards, rampaging can go either east and ruin the lands of Cathay, or west and get krumpin' all the way to estalia.

Don't hesitate to abuse your Raidin' camp stance, providing you health replenishment as well as income.

The Crooked Moon

Skarsnik

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

OUTDATED

Campaign objectives:

Take back control of one of your most prized possession: Karak Eight Peaks
Destroy the 12 Greenskins factions of the old world + Grimgors' Ardboyz and Clan Angrund

Main difficulties you might face:

Clan Angrund led by Belegar IronHammer
Reclaiming Karak Eight Peak
Eventually Couronne, Karaz-a-Karak and Reikland

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Skarsnik's biggest existential threat is located a few settlements south to his starting province, i'm talking about the dwarves of Clan Angrund. You should focus on destroying them at all cost as soon as possible because they should quickly come at you with a lot of power.

Belegar Ironhammer's army will have a few special heros in his army, ghosts of ancestors, pretty dangerous and very resistant to physical attacks. Also his armies will not suffer proper upkeep so he might get large armies soon.

Make use of Skarsnik Quick Attack and Arachnorok Spider as early game dwarfes will have very few armour piercing units. Try to produce Trolls very quickly and spam as much goblins as possible. Remember that you could lure the ennemy with a small army just standing there, while Skarsnik is preparing an ambush in the front.

In battle make sure to manoeuvre to flank lines and get missile units. Units can be upgraded with Vanguard and Skarsnik himself has an ability giving temporary stealth to units around
him.

Once your main thorn in the foot is removed, your focus should be to strengthen your relations with other Greenskins and even more, get Karak Eight Peak back. Quite a brutal but working plan is to send a full stack led by Skarsnik and declare war to whatever Skaven Clan is currently occupying the Dwarfhold.

If it is a major faction like Clan Mors or Clan Eshin, it should not be a problem either because they are usually at war with Grimgor already, and they are threats to you anyways. I would recommend cleaning the south east corner of the map (Clan Mors / Last Defenders) before shifting towards the old world and the Empire.

Keep in mind that in order to confederat Grimgor, you do not need him to like you, just find his army and surprise him with war and an unwinnable battle. His entire faction will end up yours.

You could also let him be for now, as long as he likes you. Grimgor as an AI is quite overpowered, managing to kick ass to multiple factions at the same time. Just make sure to know where he is and not lost him in the fog of war for a hundred turns. (No, that didn't happen to me, why would it have happened to me ?)

TL;DR:

Fight your way towards the destruction of Clan Angrund (Abuse Trolls, Arachnorok Spiders, Heros on the world map and Goblin spells)
Rush Karak Eight Peaks as soon as possible and declare Waaagh on whoever is sitting there. Build high and shift the center of your empire there
Get rid of Skaven / Lizardmen south as rats will almost inevitably turn on you
Confederate Grimgor and wage war against Factions holding the cities you need to win
Make sure the Empire takes its toll when the Chaos indiscreminaly come in the Old World

The Bloody Handz

Wurrzag Da Great Green Prophet

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Broken Axe

Grom the Paunch

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Bonerattlaz

Azhag the Slaughterer

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

A decent fighter, Azhag gets even better when leveling because he unlocks Wyvern mount, effectively becoming a force to be reckon with. He is also a powerful spellcaster of the lore of Death that can rain magic from the air. He starts with two basic spells but to unlock the rest, you must complete a specific Quest where he regains a unique magical item. During battle Azhag can buff basic Orc and Big'Uns infantry as well as providing large Leadership bonus or even the Vanguard ability.

Finally, Azhag's Waaagh! ability gives his army Fear, Terror and melee weapon damage and attack.

About the Bonerattlaz faction, you receive decent sacking and research buffs. You are encouraged to have pacts with Vampiric factions as well as other Greenskins. Finally, your Waaagh! armies will have a chance to get special flying unit, a Wyvern.

Your starting position is quite safe, located in the maze of the World's edge mountains, this area is easily defended as most of the time it's just corridors. You'll have two potential front at first, Kislev/ Empire to the West and Dwarfs to the South.

Campaign objectives:

Short Victory:

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 30 different settlements
Control the following provinces either directly or through vassals and military alliances: Northern World's Edge Mountains, Ostermark, River Urskoy, Ostland, Peak Pass

Long Victory:

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 75 different settlements
Destroy the following factions: Black Venom, Bloody Spearz, Broken Nose, Crooked Moon Mutinous Gits, Red Eye, Red Fangs, Scabby Eye, Skullsmasherz, Teef Snatchaz, Top Knotz

Main difficulties you might face:

DWARFS, a lot
Empire / Kislev or Chaos depending on who wins the war in the West
Possibly Chaos Dwarfs

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

As stated earlier, you will have two main targets. Humans in the West side and Dwarfs in the East side. After you conquered your main province back from the minor Ogre factions, it's up to you to choose who to attack, but i've had more success in focusing Karak Kadrin and later on Karaz-a-Karak in the South.
Kislev and the Empire will be busy with Chaos, Norsca etc, while Dwarfs only have minor threats at first (except maybe Wurrzag ?) and unlike the Humans, they will probably come for you anyways.
Expand carefully in the mountains and try to get rid of them one dwarf at a time. Once the mountain range is fully secured, you can safely turn your gaze and strength towards the region you are supposed to control in the Empire.

Ironclaw Orcs

Gorbad Ironclaw

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

------------------------------------------

Vampire Counts

Vampire counts are a slightly different faction to play, your army roster is composed of melee units almost exclusively, wether it is infantry, cavalry or monster (especially flying monsters). A lot of your starting units are mostly canon fodder intended to slow down and keep your ennemy busy, while you hit him with much stronger units or spells.

Undead: Your units being already dead, they will not rout when suffering from low / negative leadership. They will however crumble and take damage as your magic leaves them.

Protecting your Lord is even more important as your army can fade away very quickly if a wide spread negative leadership hits you.
Raise the Dead: Vampire counts armies have an additionnal menu to recruit units on the campaign map, Dead can be raised instantly at a cost, usually weak units, but it can be medium and even elite units if large battle occured in the region or specific buildings have been built.

Do not fear casualties especially on early units as you will be able to instantly replace them after a battle, sometimes even in defeat a few units are automatically raised back.
Vampiric Corruption: Vampires are relying on Vampiric corruption to sustain their units and provinces. Any non vampire army entering a region with high vampiric corruption will suffer attrition, adding an extra layer of defense to your empire.

The opposite is however true too, if your armies march through territories without vampiric corruption, they will suffer attrition. Either take casualties or make sure to spread corruption before attacking other lands.
Bloodlines: Vampire counts have access to a special currency called Blood Kisses, earned when defeating faction leaders, assassinating heroes, etc ..

Blood Kisses can be spent to unlock special Lords distributed in 5 different bloodlines, with each their bonuses depending on how much Blood kisses you spent.

Drakenhof conclave

Mannfred von Carstein

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

OUTDATED

Campaign objectives:

Short Victory:

Control 12 provinces by direct ownership, through vassals or military alliance
Destroy the faction of Reikland
Defend against the invasion of Chaos and defeat the leaders (Archaon, Kholek and Sigvald)

Long Victory:

Control 20 provinces by direct ownership, through vassals or military alliance
Destroy the faction of Reikland, Couronne and Karaz-a-Karak
Defend against the invasion of Chaos and defeat the leaders (Archaon, Kholek and Sigvald)

Main difficulties you might face:

The Empire growing unstoppable, confederating more and more counts and looking angrily at you.
The Chaos Invasion
Bretonnians, Dwarves and even Greenskins eventually declaring war. (The latter is less likely)

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

As said above, the main problem is letting the Reikland play and grow as they want. An overall good strategy is to get control over your starting province and then directly head towards Reikland to kill the future threat quickly. You will have to play smart and manually fight your battles; the bad root of Reikland might still spread while you're at war, with random confederations, but this is a good way to get rid of the problem.

It is also possible to quickly attack and get rid of Elector Counts, they are much weaker factions and it reduces Reikland's options to grow stronger. Don't take too much time however because they will sign more and more treaties binding them to eventually large factions.

The seemingly safest strategy of simply, staying in your corner and grow strong without wars, is probably not viable at all in higher difficulties, because no matter how fast your grow, Karl Franz will develop faster.

A very commonly known strategy is to rush a technology named "Defiler of the Ancient Barrows", reducing the upkeep of Skeleton Warriors and Skeleton Spearmen by 100%. This will essentially allow to maintain entire armies for very few upkeep, allowing you to conquer undefended cities or provide backup to other armies to overwhelm your foes. With the "Raise the Dead" mechanic, you will be able up to raise very quickly cheap large armies. Just make sure they will struggle against high tier ennemy stacks (Such as Karl Franz Army, Chosen of Chaos, etc)

Vampires, Banshees, Revenants and Necromancers are the 4 different type of Heroes available and you should incorporate a few of them in the armies. Revenants are also very strong on the campaign map to assassinate heroes and weaken armies; farming up blood kisses. Your caster lords and heroes can be enough to deal damage when properly used in an army of skeletons.

Make sure to build at least in the province capitals the building spreading Vampiric Corruption, this will make your war go easier around your lands. Keep also in mind to spread Garrison

Caravan of Blue Roses

Helman Ghorst

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Sylvania

Vlad von Carstein

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

First of all, Vlad von Carstein himself is a stronger duelist with insane regeneration. In most cases, he is close to be effectively unkillable and army loss is his greatest weakness. He also has access to a wide variety of spells, but lacks any mount.

His faction bonuses of increased campaign movement range, siege attacker and vanguard for his army makes him very aggressive.

You'll start with Isabella von Carstein as a legendary hero, i would place her in Vlad's army to enjoy the bonuses to the max.

Campaign objectives:

Short Victory:

Maintain control of the following 2 province(s), either by direct ownership or through vassal and military allies: Northern Sylvania, Southern Sylvania
Control the following settlement either by direct ownership or through vassals and military allies:
Altdorf
Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlement

Long Victory:

Achieve the Short Victory conditions.
Occupy, loot, raze or sack 75 different settlements
Control all provinces of the Empire either by direct ownership or through
Destroy the following faction Reikland

Main difficulties you might face:

EMPIRE as whole
Empire's buddies; dwarfs, bretonnia and probably Kislev
Surrounding Wood Elves or Chaos will sometimes strongly dislike you

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

My first campaign in Immortal Empire with Vlad started very weirdly because i played to be everyone's best friend. I allied with ORDER factions eventually turning them pretty early into Vassals. This was thanks to offering help with foreign wars or stolen settlements.

In a more normal play tho, your goal should be to focus the Empire as fast as possible. Don't let Reikland unite everyone and help his numerous foes.

Don't forget the the Dwarfs from behind your start or Bretonnia might hate you in return. Your ability to raise the dead into fully fledged army will be of great help.

Also make sure to use a lot of Vampire heros to get those Blood Kiss bonuses going

Sylvania

Isabella von Carstein

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

The Barrow Legion

Heinrich Kemmler

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

------------------------------------------

Norsca

Norsca is a faction made up of barbaric tribes fighting everyday to survive in the harsh landscape of the northern wilds, as well as mutants, monsters and chaotic worshippers. They have access to a couple lore of magic and their army roster will be mostly comprised of melee infantry and all-sized monsters. Very few projectile units.

In the third game they can now establish themselves in settlements like any other normal race would, with a few bonuses around costal cities and special technologies once a racial capital has been occupied. Norsca tend to be very fun campaigns because you are encouraged to roam anywhere and wage war against any major race.

Each time you achieve victory over a settlement, you have the choice to raze it in the name of one of the Norscan ruinous gods (Actually, they are the Chaos 4.) Each time you raze for a god, you will receive 6 points and loose 2 points for the others. Several milestones are available for each gods, the more you give yourself to them. Once the third milestone of a god is reached, a stronger reward is obtained and your progression is locked.

(The Hound is Khorne; the Crow is Nurgle, the Eagle is Tzeentch, the Serpent is Slaanesh)

Similar to Greenskins, Norsca can achieve automatic confederation with other norsca factions by beating it's Faction lord in a battle.

Finally, Norsca can unlock and progress in various quests grouped in a book called Monstrous Arcanum. The trope is that you will have to hunt a special Monster, find and defeat it in battle, to unlock a special Monster unit for your armies.

World Walkers

Wulfrik the Wanderer

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

The World Walkers faction provides buffs to Marauders infantry (Cool, they might be 50% of your armies) as well as to one of your end game monster, the Mammoths. You will start your campaign in a decently large settlement mostly in the heart of western Norsca (Previously it was on the coast).

Your legendary lord, Wulfrik the Wanderer, is another very strong duelist that is best at destroying ennemy lords or heroes. At some level, Wulfrik will unlock a War Mammoth as a mount, allowing him to be good against armies as well.

A few goods buffs for his army and personnal martial prowess as well as active debuffs for the ennemy around him makes his skill tree interesting. On top of that, he begins with an ability allowing him to summon a magic ship in a line, damaging infantry rapidly - "Sea Fang"

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 35 different settlements
Attain Level 2 Allegiance with any God

Long Victory:

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 80 different settlements
Attain Level 3 Allegiance with any God
Defeat all of the Challengers sent against you

Main difficulties you might face:

Pacifying your norscan neighbors
Empires - Kislev - Bretonnia depending on your actions
Malus Darkblade backstab
High Elves, WoodElves and eventually Greenskins

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

First of all i think you don't have any existential threats early on, depiste a few angry Norscan neighbors than can be dealt with quite rapidly.

The point of this campaign is that you are not in danger. You are the danger.

Once your immediate space is calmed, you can choose to bring pillage and carnage where you want, mostly towards one of the good guys realm next to you. Either Kislev, Empire or Bretonnia. Personnally i like attacking medieval france the most and then coming back to the Reikland etc.

After having invested some time in the tech tree you will access researches giving you large combat buffs against one specific race and then if you occupy their capital city you will receive race specific faction wide buffs. You might wanna work on the heads of the kingdoms you attack, conquer and fortify the capital city then raze everything around to progress in the Gods worshipping bar.

No matter who you decide to ruin, make sure to abuse the norscan specific stance for your lords that is the Pillage-camp. You will receive replenishement and the ability to recruit as well as largely reduicing your upkeep cost and pillaging, all in the same time.

As long as you make sure to still developp your homeland, attacking an order faction early on might be easier than you think. Real problems might accumulate later on if some other strong factions declare war on you, like High-Elves, Wood-Elves, Dwarves or even Dark elves (Malus seems to love backstabbing). You might have a war declaration, laugh a good time and then a dozen turn later notice an Elven army in Norsca coming from who knows where.

By that moment however you should be able to afford 4, 5, ... armies and having seized Couronne and Altdorf, or a large amount of Treasury in pillage.

I played in a coop with a friend playing Archaon so i had some diplomatic boosts with demonic factions; so as a disclaimer be careful not to upset Festus/Azazel/Thrott/Throgg and the other badguys. No idea if that could happen in solo, i'm just saying.)

Wintertooth

Throgg

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Winthertooth is another take on the Norsca race, this time no buffs will be given for Marauders / Mortals but instead it will favor armies of Trolls, wolves and fimirs. Add to this, benefits coming from Throgg skill tree and your Trolls will receive large buffs to upkeep cost, regeneration, defense and power stats.

On his own, Throgg is a large unit good at punching lines of infantry with Sledgehammer or vomit. Apparently missile units have difficulties to target him so you can cheese battles with him.

Throgg army is also immune to all attrition sources. Combined to the fact that he is a Siege Attacker, your main army will be a force of nature.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 35 different settlements
Destroy the following factions: Kraka Drak, Ropsmenn Clan, The Ice Court, The Great Orthodoxy

Long Victory:

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 80 different settlements
Attain Level 3 Allegiance with any God
Defeat all of the Challengers sent against you

Main difficulties you might face:

Dwarves of Kraka Drak
Malus Darkblade hates you a lot of people and he lives very close to you.
The land of Kislev (Ice Court and Orthodoxy)
Eventual war declaration from the Empire / Bretonnia / Dwarfs

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

First of all, don't forget that uniting Norsca is not a necessary step here, first of all its quite spread out and can prove difficult to protect and secondly because all you need to do to confederate is slaying the leader in a battle. You should focus on the Order faction around Kislev.

Your very early problem will be the minor Dwarf faction of Kraka Drak. You might actually find yourself winning the war but stuck with the inability to finish them off as their main settlement will host a sturdy garrison with an army just sitting inside.

Use multiple armies if you can afford or try to bait them out with an ambush stance on your main army. Make sure to secure your relations with other chaos factions and why not with Maluls Darkblade. Also becareful not to piss Archaeon. This way you can shift your attention completely towards Kislev.

You might have the initiative against the kislevites early but be careful to not be overwhelmed by their armies, you might have to ambush or play smart. The pro of the situation is that only a corridor in the mountains will link your two empires.

Make sure to use the Raiding stance because it reduces upkeep by 30% and it's op, Raiding camp requires movement to be used but reduces upkeep by 20% while enabling replenishment.

Rats of Clan Moulder might give you a hand.

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Bretonnia

Bretonnia is a strong faction heavily focused on cavalry of all qualities and roles. Their army roster is mostly separated in two; noble knights (expansive elites) and peasant infantries (expandable supports). They also have access to a few lore of magic as well as buff providing support units.

As they rely mostly on cavalry, it is a faction that will require you a bit more of micro-managment; the ability to give focused orders to specific units.

Peasant economy:

One of your burden will be to manage your subjects; recruiting cheap units for your army means that fewer peasants will actually work for your economy. A limit of 8 peasants is given to begin with, increasing by 2 for each settlements you own.

If you are at or under your limit; you will receive the following buffs faction-wide:
- -100 % upkeep for peasant mobs
- -10 % upkeep for non Knight units
If your amount of peasants is in excess, you will loose the above buff and suffer the following:
- -10 % income from Fields, Farm and Landed Estate buildings
Vows and Troths

Each Bretonnian Lord and Paladin can completed three Vows to obtain permanent bonuses.

Each of these Vows will proposed you three different campaign objectives; giving you different bonus upon completion.

Troths are the exact same mechanic but for Bretonnian Prophetesses.
Chivalry:

Chivalry repsents a sort of currency that you will have to manage while playing Bretonnia; you will earn Chivalry after winning battles, with specific buildings, research or traits.

On the other hand you will loose some when doing things a gentleman would never do, such as Raiding or Sacking.

You will be able to reach several milestones with specific amounts of Chivalry, each of them providing you greater and greater bonuses; mostly related to Leadership, Recruitment buffs and experience gain.

Each milestone will also let you summon for a few turns, a legendary hero called the Green Knight. Once the maximum amount of Chivalry is reached, the Green knight can be summoned an unlimited amount of time (Still for a limited amount of turns)
Lance formation

This is a very small feature but still; a few cavalry units from the Bretonnian roster are able to enable a "Lance formation".

The models of this unit will form a triangle instead of the classical rectangle shape every other units have; as well as buffs such as accelaration, charge speed and charge bonus.

Effectively, this will allow them to locally pierce through ennemy line.

Bretonnia is an Order faction, with time and especially with the Chaos invasion, you will probably be friend with the Good Guys.

Couronne

King Louen Leoncoeur

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Bordeleaux Errant

Alberic de Bordeleaux

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Carcassonne

Fay Enchantress

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Chevaliers de Lyonesse

Repanse de Lyonesse

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

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Wood Elves

Wood Elves armies are mostly composed of light armored elven infantry and cavalry on one side, and of magical monsters on the other. (Treemen, Dragons)

They also have very strong missile units, despite lacking any artillery units.

You will also have access to very good lores of magic.

Wood elves are an isolationist faction on the campaign map. Their starting settlements are ancestral magical forests; Tier V cities taking the role of a province by themselves. They are very strong to defend and can provide you with any building you need.

Outside of that, Wood Elves can only build minor outposts in regular settlements.

The Oak of Ages:

The Oak of Ages is a special settlement that you start with while playing the factions of Talsyn or Argwylon, providing you large bonuses. If the Oak is destroyed, your campaign will be over.
Amber:

Amber is a currency spent to unlock Wood Elves researches. It is obtained by healing magical forests.
Magical Forests:

Each magical forest settlements that you conquer must be healed to unlock Amber and progress through your campaign. It is symbolized by a meter that you must fill.

To heal a Forest, you have various actions at your range such as; conquering adjacent settlements or fighting quest battles labeled "Intruders".
Deep Roots:

With an Oak of Ages under control, you get acces to the Deep Roots. This system allows you to teleport from your forest to another realm connected with the Deep Roots. It is marked as a branch icon.

Talsyn

Orion

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

OUTDATED

Orion as legendary Lord as well as faction has a bonus on cavalry. In addition, Orion is in general an effective warrior in battle. The best way to fully use his potential is to skill the army-support skill tree. His buffs are extremely useful for the whole army and buffs it to nearly invincibility. As long as you keep him in aura range of your units they get the buffs and can deal the maximal amount of damage.

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Tremendously low income
Inability to maintain more than a few armies at the same time
Isolationist faction: Only settlements in the magic forests have many building slots.

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

For Orion you have a bonus on cavalry, so using cavalry in your armies will be cheaper and more effective ( Wood elves cavalry is the weakest part of their roster, but still really effective, if used properly) , than for other Wood Elf factions.

As usual the more aggressive you play, the better your military position in the game will be. Conquer every settlement with a resource, stack your outposts and conquer some ports to establish a few trade routes. Be aware of the low economy and don't be afraid of a negative income as long as you keep fighting and plundering other factions.

Take also care of Clan Skryre, they can be very annoying while playing a faction of Aethel Loren, so just kill them as quickly as possible.
As a Wood Elf it is important to precisely only declare war on factions you can handle with because you cannot maintain many armies.

As first steps in the campaign, taking out the goblins and Skaven is a good start to strengthen your position. Confederation with other Wood Elf factions will help you, building your empire, but be careful: Your economy is going to be really weak and you will not be able to maintain many armies at the same time.

Argwylon

Durthu

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

With his special abilities, traits and the fact he is a Treeman, Durthu is a terrifying adversary to pretty much every faction you can face on the map.

Like the other Wood Elf factions, you have to deal with massive economical issues.

Durthu is focused on the heavy monstrous units like Treekin. This makes him in fact to a good Lord to have heavy front lines.

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Essentially detailed in the part : Orion - Talsyn

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

As Durthu (Like Orion) you will start in Aethel Loren a forest surrounded by Orcs, Skaven, Bretonnia and some other factions.

During the game you will face massive economical issues. To avoid bankruptcy, declaring war to other factions and plundering their settlements (like you do with Archaon in WH2) is a good way to have a steady income that keeps you in the game. Declaring war on Bretonnia, plundering and destroying their settlements give you a good income through battles and plunder. Conquering their ports and settlements with resources is a nice way to enable a solid trade with other factions like the High Elves of Ulthuan.

To push your military, you can stack the effects of outpost buildings. This will make your units nearly invincible.

As the WE units are really powerful in battle, you will not really face a dangerous enemy. I recommend to annihilate Skaven on your borders. These little rats continuously spawn cheap full stack armies, and you cannot maintain many armies at the same time because of the upkeep, you have to pay for your units.

In battle it is recommended using Treekin as front line, NOT infantry. In addition to the Treekin you can recruit some Branchwraiths to support and heal Durthu and the other Treemen. This will make it even harder to kill them.

Heralds of Ariel

Sisters of Twilight

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

The sisters of Twilight own a unique mechanic: The Forge of Daith. The Forge is the Wood Elf equivalent to the Tomb King mortuary cult, so you can create special items through using specific resources. Settling the heathlands will heal your forest and razing, plundering and fighting will enable you to have a steady income.

In battle, the Sisters of Twilight are ranged legendary units, who can act very agile. This gives you the possibility to be more flexible in battles. As always they can buff their units and bring them almost to invincibility with stacking outposts.

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Tremendously low income
Inability to maintain more than a few armies at the same time
Isolationist faction: Only settlements in the magic forests have many building slots.
Hostility of the Dark Elves

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

As Dark Elfs are very hostile, they will probably declare war on you, so you should be prepared and try to get a non aggression pact with Alith Anar. Theres is a possibility to get a non aggression pact with Morathi too, but it is more than likely, that Malekith will confederate and the pact will be passé.

To compensate the lack of income, I recommend conquering ports, resource settlements and battle income as much as possible. Razing and plundering is as always a good income for Wood Elves. try to conquer the heathlands (Or let an ally settle there) to heal your forest.

As the WE units are really powerful, you don't need to Doomstack your armies with elite units, so you can massively economize your money through the reduction of upkeep costs. In battle, the sisters are ranged units. They are pretty weak in melee combat. Therefore, it is highly advised to have a few Hawk Riders in your army. Focus on immediately annihilating any unit that can catch your missile units.

Wargrove of Woe

Drycha

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Drycha leads her Wood Elves faction with a heavy focus on forest spirits units instead of elves.Dryads, Treekins and Ancient Treemen will be their Malevolent version with Frenzy (Armour piercing buff when high in leadership) and receive various other buffs. Between Drycha's natural bonuses and skills you can unlock, her army of Trees can become devastatingly strong and resistant.

On the other hand, high tier elven units will be locked and all elves will be under the effect of "Glamoured" - hypnotized by Drycha, reducing their combat performances and making them expendable.

In combat your legendary lord will be a decent fighter and spellcaster, with a special ability allowing you to summon units of Dryad.

Starting the campaign with 1 Amber allows you to get one of a few very valuable researches sooner. You will also be able to recruit another legendary Lord, Coeddil, after completing Drycha's questline. He is a powerful caster.

Finally as a second drawback, you will suffer a large -40 in diplomatic relations with the other Wood Elves factions. Not terrible as you start alone in the Empire, however if you intend to meet with other elves for your campaign objectives, it will be a thorn in your tree foot.

Campaign objectives:

Short Victory:

Control directly or through alliances the 5 provinces around the Oak of Ages of the Wood Elves.
Occupy or Raze 30 settlements

Reward: Hero capacity +3 for all heroes

Long Victory:

Achieve short victory
Occupy or Raze 70 settlements
Win the following battle: Defence of the Oak
Perform the following rite: Rite of Rebirth
Perform the following ritual on 8 different forests: Worldroots healing

Main difficulties you might face:

Pretty early on Azhag's Bonerattlaz and Vlad Von Carstein' Sylvania
Any major factions around the forests you choose to heal; Festus's Fecundites, High Elves of Ulthuan, etc ...

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Your very immediate goals should be to build high in your starting settlement and eventually work towards healing the forest. This means clearing ennemies in the area.

If possible, i would avoid warmongering too much on empire elector counts and try to befriend with Karl Franz and his pals. Doing this will lead you to war with Azhag and Vlad von Carstein but you will be able to overcome them with proper tree armies. Make sure to recruit from the forest spirits pool, avoid as much as possible to train elves and go instead for the trinity; Dryads, Treekin, Treemen. Zoats are also very good choices.

Perhaps doing the opposite and befriending with the ugly two is possible instead, but if the EMPIRE declares war, you will have less time to work towards healing magical forests across the world.

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Beastmen

A race of warmongering forest monsters, Beastmen's armies are composed of strong hitting melee units and monsters, suffering lower armor and leadership.

Horde: Unlike the majority of races, Beastmen are played as a Horde. They can not develop settlements like other factions, instead their armies will encamp and set up their equivalent of buildings. Once done, the army can move again, with the upgrade "buildings" following it and providing bonuses and new recruitments like standard buildings.

Also, each army has a value called Bestial Rage, increasing with every fights and decreasing with inactivity. Providing growth bonuses all the way down to casualties.
Army Stances Two unique stances are available to the Beastmen army, the default one merges the basic stance with Ambush, providing a chance that every attacked ennemy is ambushed.

They also have access to a stance called Beast-Paths, working as the Tunnel stance some other races can have. Effectively allowing shorter movement range, but accross difficult terrains and even mountain ranges.
The Dark Moon: Every 7 turns, when the Moon is Full, a special dilemna will pop, proposing you increased battle efficiency, army replenishement, recruitment bonuses, ...
Herdstones and Blood-Grounds: Beastmen can not occupy settlement the regular way, the only way to do so is by spending a special currency called Herdstone Shards

Once a Herdstone shard has been used on a settlement, cities aroud it will be marked as Bloodgrounds, preventing any faction to colonize them if they are ruins.

If a city marked as BloodGround is razed, a value linked to this very Herdstone called Devastation will raise. When the value of Devastation is above 10, Beastmen can accomplish an instantaneous ritual, transforming the Devastation value into Marks of Ruination. It will also give one Herdstone shard back.
Marks of Ruination: Beastmen units do not pay upkeep, however they are strictly limited in quality and numbers by two progression, the first one being Marks of Ruination.

Marks of Ruination obtained as detailed above, by accomplishing rituals near devastated colonies, will fill up a bar. Each of the milestones will unlock he recruitment of units more and more advanced, as well as a few other bonuses. You are restrained to basic units in the begining of the campaign.
Dread: The other currency limiting your army progression is Dread. Dread is obtained by many ways: Winning battles, technologies, Lord skill ... It can be spent in a special menu to increase your limits for each specific units you may recruit.

In the beginning of the campaign, almost everything will be blocked in terms of quality and quantity. Marks of ruination will increase the QUALITY of your units, Dread will increase the QUANTITY of your units.
Razing settlements: Despite being able to raise a Herdstone, you can simply decide to Raze a settlement target, either for replenishement or a higher money gain. Anyways, your army will earn in return a percentage of it's mobility, allowing you to engage in more combats.

Warherd of the One-Eye

Khazrak the One-Eye

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

OUTDATED

The Herd of the One Eye faction is the most basic take on the Beastmen race. Khazrak himself is an almost generic melee legendary lords, having decent martial prowess and a few buffs to Ungor Archers (Basic missile units) and Bestigors (Elite infantry).

Himself and his faction also provide buffs to help you play more strategically and cunningly, such as higher chance to escape with Beat-paths and higher Ambush success chances. This faction also enjoys lower cost in Dread currency, allowing you to improve your armies a bit quicker.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Destroy the majority of the Human factions of the Old-World (Including Reikland, Couronne, Elector Counts, ...)
Raze 40 colonies
Obtain 10.000 treasury from raids
Win the battle "The fall of Men" (Quest battle unlocked once all of the above Human factions are destroyed)

Long victory:

Destroy the previously mentionned factions with the addition of Karaz-a-Karak
Raze 40 70 colonies
Obtain 10.000 20.000 treasury from raids
Win the battle "The fall of Men" (Quest battle unlocked once all of the above Human factions are destroyed)

Main difficulties you might face:

Order Tide

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

As the One-Eye, your main goal is to destroy Reikland and Bretonnia as hard as possible. As a Chaos-aligned faction, you must weaken those two, otherwise they might really well destroy Archaon's happy party when he comes, leaving you as a much likely target for the Order tide.

At the beginning you can choose to destroy Estalia during the early turns, or head directly towards Bretonnia. Sometimes, Magritta can be tricky to occupy / raze, so focus on Bilbali first. Clan Skryre next to you will be more than happy to help you.

Make sure to place Herdstone Shards when you know you can get enough Devastation to perform the ritual, improving your Marks of Ruination count.

Your plan will be to get rid of Bretonnia's minor factions one by one until you can destroy Couronne. Make sure to join wars instead of declaring war, if any alliances are standing in your way.

By the time i arrived in the Empire, It was really shakened by Dark Elves, Vampire Counts and the beginning of Chaos. You should have an easy time getting rid of Reikland. If not, make sure to claim settlements by settlements, using bloodgrounds to deny any recolonization.

Usually Grimgor takes over the Dwarfs kingdom so this is a threat removed as well. At some points you will have very strong wandering armies and a lot of grounds completely denied to any factions, allowing you to be at war with multiple powerful facctions.

Once Chaos comes, no special dilemna will concern you. You can sign treaties with them or simply ignore the invasion.

Harbinger of Disaster

Malagor the Dark Omen

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Warherd of the Shadowgave

Morghur the Shadowgave

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Slaughterhorn Tribe

Taurox the Brass Bull

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

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Warriors of Chaos

The Warriors of Chaos factions are strong fighters with a roster focused on melee units. The lack of missile units or artillery will sometimes be hard to deal with. Their melee units are incredibly strong and can deal with pretty much everything you will meet on the battlefield.

Their economy is the biggest issue. They don't have many financial means to maintain armies. They fully rely on an income generated by buildings and their economical buffs. Trade is a little bonus, but is not a reliable option.

Warbands:

Since the release of the Warriors of Chaos DLC, the WH2 system of the Chaos factions got a complete overhaul. The recruitment system will probably be the greatest challenge to deal with.

Any army can now recruit units, regardless of their positions on the map. Recruitable units are not all defined by the buildings in your settlement, but they are affected by the regional climate and geography. For example, in the northern wastes you can recruit units you are not going to find in the southern provinces. With buildings you can add some new units like Chaos Warriors or Chaos Knights. You will not be able to add every unit to your accessible roster and there's the next big innovation.
Warband Upgrades:

During the campaign your units get ranks (playing battles and some traits collect XP). On specific ranks you can upgrade your units to better versions. Chaos Barbarians for example can be upgraded to Chaos or Barbarians of Khorne can be upgraded to Warriors of Khorne. You can also upgrade your lords and champions (Not legendary Characters) to Demon Princes or other upgraded versions. It is also possible to switch from specific infantry units to cavalry units or monstrous infantry.
Gifts of Chaos:

During the game you will earn souls. These souls can be sacrificed to the chaos gods in exchange for special traits you can activate. These Gifts of Chaos can give you a bonus on income through vassal factions or they can grant you gifted units from specific chaos gods. This enables you to recruit Demons of Chaos (like Skarbrands roster) units. The more gifts you get and the more souls you sacrifice the more powerful these gifts get.

Warhost of the Apocalypse

Archaon the Everchosen

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Archaon the Everchosen is one of the strongest legendary lord in the game. Blessed by the four chaos gods to be their champion, Archaon is a very strong melee fighter from the beginning of the campaign and can become a caster of fire spells, burning armies to the ground. He can unlock very powerful unique items as quest rewards.

He also provides buffs to Chaos Warriors units wether on foot or on mounts, as well as benefits to Undivided Chaos units and gifts.

The faction itself, Warhost of the Apocalypse, provides the means to ally and vassalize more easily with other Chaos factions as well as maintaining the benefits of Undivided Chaos gifts.

Campaign objectives:

Short Campaign Victory

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 35 different settlements
Control the following provinces either directly or through vassals and military alliances: The Blood Marshes, The Skull Road
Destroy the following factions: The Ice Court

Long Campaign Victory

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 80 different settlements
Destroy the following factions: The Ice Court, Reikland, Karaz-a-Karak, Couronne, Talysn, Hexoatl, Eataine, The Northern Provinces

Main difficulties you might face:

Boris Ursus from Ursun Revivalists

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Actually a very easy campaign, you will very rarely take risks with the Warhost of the Apocalypse, only Boris Ursun's faction might give your trouble in the beginning. Your main advantage is that they are mostly surrounded by other chaos aligned factions that you can mobilize to help you.

Focus on improving the quality of Archaon's army, experience is the key to reach Aspiring champions and Chaos Chosen. Your armies will either be made of very armored units or demons having physical resistances. You will have very strong melee infantry and monstrous units who will obliterate the ennemy army often if they can catch up to them.

Exalted Heros should be mandatory as they will be strong addition to your armies. Also, try to give Archaon his quest items as soon as possible because they will make sure your army is exceptionally strong.

Don't hesitate to send heros around the world to reach potential minions such as Be'lakor, Villitch, Festus, Azazel, Valkia, Sigvald or Kholek. Add Norsca, Skaven and Chaos Dwarfs and you might find many ways to recruit units to fill the gap the you might feel in your Warrio of Chaos armies.

Heralds of the Tempest

Kholek Suneater

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

The Decadent Host

Sigvald the Magnificent

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Shadow Legion

Bel'akor

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

The Ecstatic Legions

Azazel

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

The Fecundities

Festus the Leechlord

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Puppets of Misrule

Vilitch the Curseling

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Quite a specific take on the Warriors of Chaos race, the Puppets of Misrule represent Tzeentch while still having access to Undivided Chaos units. As such, they benefit from the mecanics unique to Tzeentch such as Changing of the Ways (tho much different and less impactful than those you can use as a regular Tzeentchian faction such as Kairos Fateweaver) and having barriers to all their units. You also have access to a pretty usefull Teleport stance with a reduced cost.

The army of the Puppets of Misrule behave like the regular Warriors of Chaos army roster in the way that elite units can't easily be recruited. You will have to gather fodder units that will be able to evolve into more advanced units when reaching specific experience ranks. A Marauder can transform at a certain rank in a Chaos Warrior, himself having to wait further to transform into the elite Chosen units. On the other side, units recruited are limited in number, they all end up in a list of available units. Some more elite units can be recruited by they will have lower % of chance at each turn to end up in the unit pool. This is called the Warband mecanic.

Finally, Villitch the Curseling himself is a pretty strong Lord, he has access to a strong array of Tzeentchian spells while benefiting from the physical and martial strengths of his big brother Thomin. Melting people in combat and with spells, Villitch enjoys a passive ability buffing him even more in both aspects while enduring combat. He passively attracts a part of the other Lords EXP so he can be very powerful a bit faster.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Occupy, Loot, Raze or Sack 35 different settlements
Control 13 of the following settlements either directly or through vassals and military alliances: Black Rock, Bloodwind Keep, Daemon's Gate, Doomkeep, Fortress of the Damned, Ironfrost, Karak Dum, Karak Vlag, Monolith of Borkhil the Bloody Handed, Mount Athull, Okkam's Forever Maze, Zanbaijin, Red Fortress, Temple of Heimkel, The Challenge Stone, The Crystal Spires, The Forbidden Citadel, The Frozen City, The Howling Citadel, The Lost Palace, The Monolith of Katam, The Silvered Tower of Sorcerers, The Tower of Khrakk, The Twisted Towers, The Writing Fortress

Long Victory:

Complete short victory
Occupy, Loot, Raze or Sack 80 different settlements
Destroy the following factions: The Ice Court, Reikland, Karaz-a-Karak, Couronne, Talysn, Hexoatl, Eataine, The Northern Provinces

Main difficulties you might face:

Cathay
Unlikely but a backstab from Kholek or Clan Eshin
Making your way through the entire WORLD

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

The long victory campaign is actually time consuming as you will have to doom the world by making sure all major good factions are destroyed, The Empire, Bretonnia, High Elves, Wood Elves, Dwarves, Cathay, Kislev, Lizardmen ...

For the early game tho you will enjoy a steady approach to get rid of Cathay as soon as possible. Take your time and vassalize as much as possible, make sure your warband drinks experience from minor factions before going head to head with the big ones.

I have found that getting rid of the Northern factions (including Miao Ying) of Cathay ins't that difficult once you play smart and slow, you are in the corner of the map and can enjoy life without too much wars. Also a few other ennemies of Cathay will help you. Zhao Ming might be a bigger problem.

Once cathay is getting out of the equation, you are free to choose wich good guy is the next one. Mind that a sealane isn't far away if you want to aim for Lizardmen.

Try to ally with the baddies and vassalize everyone you go at war with, and play the long term game.

For the High Elves for instance, you only have to destroy Eataine right, but this might piss a lot of people as well, so the campaign might end up in a campaign against Order.

Legion of the Gorequeen

Valkya the Bloody

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Valkia the Bloody is an impressively strong faction leader with many possible tactics in battle. With her reduced upkeep for ranged units, she has a trait that does not really change the game. Nonetheless, she has to focus on large melee infantry front lines with powerful flanks and heavy armoured cavalry flanking the enemy.

As Demon Lord she is dedicated to Khorne, so you have access to the Khorne Warrior of Chaos unit roster and to the Demons of Khorne (Skarbrand) roster through the Gifts of Chaos. With the traits that brings a Khorne faction with, Valkia is a frightening enemy, who can even fly and fall in the back of the opponent units.

Due to the authority of your armies you have to balance your armies with Undivided Chaos and Khorne units. Valkia will probably have more Khorne authority than undivided. The authority grants you some buffs like reduced upkeep for specific units.

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Starting position in the north of Naggarond can be tricky
Dark Elves are really strong and their unit roster enables many counter tactics to the WoC unit roster
Absurdly low income through trade. Income is mostly generated through your own settlements (Dark Fortresses)
Recruitment system limits you on only a few units of your roster. To get a strong army, you have to upgrade units, when they reach the needed rank. ( most important ranks are probably 3;5;6 and 7)

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

As mentioned, Valkia starts in the north of Naggarond, so your first enemies will probably be Naggarond and Hag Graef (faction of Malus). With Malus as one of the first hostile factions declaring war, you have to face an opponent, who is probably ten times stronger than any other legendary Lord in the game. He can easily kill 600 men in a battle or more. Even in auto resolved battles he can easily annihilate your army and bring you to the brink of despair with a minimum of units in his army. It is highly advised to play the battles against Malus and use "Hit and Run" tactics. Try to avoid the transformation into Tz'Arkan.

Naggarond will also be a dangerous enemy if you don't defeat them as early as possible. Malekith is not as strong as Malus, but he is still a legendary lord with many capabilities of killing Valkia in the early game.
The low income through trade will force you to conquer many Dark fortresses to get access to the needed buildings. In the east you can find Sigvald with his Legion of Decadence. He can be a nice ally or an easy conquered territory for your empire. You will probably get a better income through vassals than through trade, so gifting provinces can upgrade your income. Conquer Dark Fortresses, revive and vassalize the Norsca tribes and give them a territory to reign and generate income for you.

Valkia is focused on playing an aggressive play style. You have to fight as many battles as possible and earn as many experience points for your units as possible. Try to upgrade your armies as quickly as possible and you will not have many real threats on the map. To get the upgrades faster, you can raid settlements and continuously attack these.

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High Elves

High Elves is a very flexible faction meant to be easily played by newcomers, yet it has a balanced solid roster of army and can quickly turn into an economic powerhouse.

Lines of spears, swords, archers; Cavalry; Chariots; Artillery units and Dragons, the High elves are also formidable spellcasters.

Martial Prowess:

High-Elves are experts in their domain in the lore, this is represented in game with a boost of combat statistics if a unit enters a battle at full health. The bonuses are lost once the unit hits 50% health.
Influence:

A special currency High-Elves can gather with hero actions, specific buildings or dilemnas event.

Influence will be required in some of the random dilemnas proposed to you (Leading to beneficial outcomes), to recruit Lords and Heros having positive traits (The ones costing money will mostly have negative traits), or to be spent in the menu "Intrigue at the Court"
Intrigue at the Court:

Another tool available to High-Elves is the "Intrigue at the Court", a unique menu where you can pay with Influence, to raise or lower the diplomatic relations between two selected factions, amongst those you have met. You can affect your own faction relations.
Espionage and Trade:

I wrote in the introduction that High-Elves can become an economic Powerhouse, it is mainly due to this specificty called Espionage and Trade.

Every time you will sign a Trade Agreement with another faction, all their territories will be revealed behind the fog of war. Just like true friends. A friend you spy all day long.

The other passive specifity of the High-Elves is that Trade Agreements usually involve higher income than any other race would receive. Money.
Rites:
Finally, as a Game 2 base race, the High-Elves have access to 4 rites. In exchange of treasury, a faction-wide buff will be receive. They depend of the Elven faction you play as.

Eataine

Tyrion

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Tyrion is an easy start for people discovering Total war Warhammer. His starting army is pretty powerful and his position is strategically easy to hold. As High Elf of Ulthuan he has access to the intrigues mechanic, as well as diplomatic boost towards other high elves, so he can easily confederate other factions. Tyrion has reduced upkeep cost for ranged units, Silverhelms and some other early/mid-tier units, so you can quickly raise some armies. This enables a pretty aggressive play-style, as much as a strategy of building high in your provinces.

Tyrion on his own is a very powerful duelist with unique tree line skills; some turning him into an army general with recruitment boosts, incomen, diplomatic relations; some turning him into a destructive force in battle. He is restricted to a horse as a mount but in the late game he will be a fast, very powerful and very sturdy lord to be reckon with.

Campaign objectives:

Short Victory:

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 30 different settlements
Destroy the following factions: Naggarond, Cult of Pleasure

Long Victory:

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 70 different settlements
Control all provinces of Ulthuan either by direct ownership or through vassals and military allies: Eataine, Northern Yvresse, Southern Yvresse, Saphery, Cothique, Avelorn, Chrace, Nagarythe, Ellyrion, Tiranoc, Caledor, Eagle Gate, Griffon Gate, Unicorn Gate, Phoenix Gate
Destroy the following factions: Naggarond, Cult of Pleasure, Hag Graef, The Blessed Dread, The Thousand Maws

Main difficulties you might face:

Count Noctilus is a potential threat
Grom has been moved but Orcs are still to your right flank
N'Kari in the North of Ulthuan can be annoying with his corruption
Hostility of Dark Elves from Nagarythe
Random kids like Be'lakor and Norsca

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

As Tyrion is pretty easy to play, you will not face many threats in the early game. First destroy the Dark Elf faction you are at war with at the beginning of the game. Try to annihilate Count Noctilus as quickly as possible. He is not an existential threat but he will often declare war then peace on you; he is not reliable.

Be aware of the Orcs on your right side, they will likely declare war on you. So try to get these provinces (Caledor and the Greenskin province) and you will have a good start. As High Elves confederating is one of your main tactics to grow your empire, so just make sure you don't allow N'Kari to destroy Avelorn and you can quickly get best friends with Alarielle. She will be a good ally in the future. In some campaigns however, other high-elves will get rid of the greenskins and N'kari themselves.

In battle, Tyrion is an excellent duelist and can destroy most of the enemy units. He is a tremendously powerful legendary lord and has probably no threat on the battlefield. HE have a well-balanced unit roster, so you can play whatever you want. I advise to recruit armies with a solid front line (Swordmasters of Hoeth or Lions of Chrace in early game) and a large ranged regiment (Archers, Sisters of Avelorn as high tier) Dragons are the Elves nonplus ultra, they are extremely strong and can take out whole units, but take care of them. They will not be a good choice for prolonged combat. Use Dragons like you do with cavalry and you will be good.

In the longer run, try to have diplomatic (Commercial) ties with all good factions of the Order, Empire, Bretonnia, Dwarfs, Cathay ... High-elves have one of the best economy in the game so make sure that the treasury is flowing back to Ulthuan. Be careful tho about defense or military alliances, you can end up at war with potential allies, like if a war broke out between your High-elf military ally and your Lizardmen friend. Hopefully the Influence mecanic helps you ... nudge things .. in a particular direction.

Dark Elves will declare war and war on you, i'm thinking about the three major factions located in Nagarythe; Naggarond, Cult of Pleasure and Har Ganeth. Too bad for them, your goal is to destroy them anyways.

Order of Loremasters

Teclis

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Since the Update 2.2, Teclis and Kairos starting positions have been changed

Leader and Faction specificities

Teclis is one of the best Spell caster Legendary Lord in the game, He has multiple ways to buff his winds of magic reserve and spell cost. Even more funny to play with, he has access to all major Lore of Magic passive abilities; passive buffs during battle triggered each time you cast a spell.
With his high tier mount being a Phoenix, he can deal massive damage to armies by himself if played correctly. He also has access to a Fireball ability (to understand, free to cast)

On the campaign map, Teclis provides buff to Mages and Loremasters of Hoeth, pushing to play with these heroes.

His faction on the other hand is a bit less impactful; you will enjoy a bonus in diplomatic relations with all order races, reduction in ally military recruitment as well as cost reduction for high-tier Swordsmen and Phoenix units.

Starting in the Fortress of Dawn, Teclis can decide to set sail towards Ulthuan or Imrik for easy alliances.

Campaign objectives:

Short Victory:

Occupy, Loot, Raze or Sack 30 different settlements
Destroy the following factions: Sarthorael's Watchers, Clan Morbidus, Oracles of Tzeentch, Bubonic Swarm

Reward: Hero capacity: +3 for all heroes

Long Victory:

Occupy, Loot, Raze or Sack 70 different settlements
Control at least six of the following provinces either by direct ownership or through vassals and military allies: Fortress of Dawn, Tower of the Sun, Tower of the Stars, Tor Elasor, Gronti Mingol, Citadel of Dusk, The Star Tower, Great Turtle Isle, Arnheim

Main difficulties you might face:

Skaven minor clan will be a minor threat but it can turn into an attrition war
Kairos Fateweaver, your hateful neighbor from the South
Very few threats but eventually northern foes such as Mannfred, Clan Mors or weirdly enough Tiktaq'to

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Get rid of Sarthorael and settle in your starting provinces.

Kairos in the South hates you and will wage war against you as soon as possible. However, two things are to be considered first. Before that, he should be at war with Oxyotl located on the Western side of the Wastes where Kairos starts, he will wait before Oxyotl is destroyed (or pushed back) to look at you.
On the other hand, Clan Morbidus, a minor Skaven faction located on your North-eastern side will probably try to stab you.
The ideal situation is to get rid of the Skaven asap so you can shift attention to the South. If you decide to rush Kairos, the Skaven might declare war out of nowhere.

After those threats are dealt with, your campaign should be quite chill. You are free to invade wherever you want and sail to collect diplomatic relations around the world.

Why not stuff dwarven or imperial units in your armies ? They are cheaper !

Avelorn

Alarielle the Radiant

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Nagarythe

Alith Anar

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Yvresse

Eltharion

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Knights of Caledor

Imrik

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Caledor has the ability to recruit unique and tremendously strong dragon single entity units through specific battles. These battles will appear as quests during the campaign. Imrik is the only High Elf who starts in the Old World.

As a Legendary Lord Imrik is a really good tank and damage dealer.

Campaign objectives:

Short Victory:

Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlements.
Destroy the following factions: Clan Rictus, Poxmakers of Nurgle
Encounter 2 Legendary Dragons

Long Victory:

Occupy, loot, raze or sack 70 different settlements.
Destroy the following factions: Clan Mors, The Bloody Handz, Exiles of Khorne
Encounter 5 legendary dragons

Main difficulties you might face:

Astronomicaly high upkeep costs for elite units and dragons
Probably one the hardest starting positions in the game
Skaven and Orcs are going to be an incredible threat, if they are not defeated as quickly as possible
Chaos Dwarves might become an angry powerhouse next to you
Quest battles for the unique dragons are really hard to fight in early game

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

As the starting position of Imrik is one of the hardest in the game, you are going to face difficult situations. It will make the game easier if you annihilate the Skaven first ,then go for killing the Orcs. Try to keep the dragon, you got at the beginning of the game, as long as possible.

Dragons are really useful and strong units if used properly (Use them in combination with cavalry: Charge your cavalry into ranged units and then land your dragon, don't use them for prolonged fights). To get the unique dragons it is advised to play their quests during the mid-game, because of the difficulty, these battles bring with.

With the ability to use the High Elf building roster, you have access to a high income.

Eventually the Chaos Dwarves will become a problem as well as the Orcs. However, you could try to rush the Ogres minor faction in the East and seize their two settlements. This will give you extra income for the war to come.

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Lizardmen

A gathering of various cold-blooded races, the Lizardmen represents a strong line of warriors, large feral monsters of the jungle supported by powerful spellcasters and flying units.

Astromancy stance:

Armies can enter a special stance called Astromancy, reducing slightly the movement range but increasing the campaign vision and chance to defend against ambushes.
Blessed Spawnings:

Completed quests or dilemnas will grant you blessed forms of specific units. They are similar to regiments of renown, upgraded version of a specific unit, recruitable instantaneously.
Geomantic Web:

Lizardmen-controlled provinces and settlements are linked by a web of energy. The strongest this energy field is, the more efficient your provinces commandments will be. It requires a specific chain of building to strengthen the web.
Lord Kroak:

Lizardmen factions can participate in a quest to recruit Lord Kroak, a unique hero and an extremely powerful spellcaster.
Rampage:

A small uniqueness of Lizardmen is that they tend to suffer "Rampage" during a battle, removing your control over them for a limited amount of time. They however have higher leadership in general.

Also to cope with that, all characters will receive an ability providing Leadership to one unit and cessing their rampage.
Rites:

Similar to High and Dark elves and Skaven, Lizardmen have access to 4 different rites, providing bonuses in exchange of a set price and for a limited amount of time.

Hexoatl

Lord Mazdamundi

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

The Last Defenders

Kroq-Gar

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Kroq-Gar is another very solid melee fighter, especially with his endgame mount, a unique Carnosaur, giving him anti-large bonuses. Later in the campaign, he can take on units as well as characters easily. One of his quest items allows him to shoot magical projectiles, otherwise he has to be on the frontline.

The Last Defenders faction enjoys a lot of buff and upkeep reduction for Saurus infantry units, Veteran heros as well as armies led by Saurus Old Blood lords. This allows you to perform really well in all situations as you will always have Saurus frontline and a Saurus agent in your armies.
Kroq-gar has extra upkeep and experience buff for those units as well as cold-one riders.

Overall a very good and simple faction, focusing on a sturdy frontline You also have increased Ambush success chance, usefull especially early game as you will fight against a Skaven minor faction.

Campaign objectives:

Short Victory:

Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 settlements
Destroy the following factions: Clan Morbidus, Oracles of Tzeentch

Long Victory:

Occupy, loot, raze or sack 70 settlements
Make sure that at least five of the following provinces are in safe hands, either directly or through vassals and military alliances: The Golden Pass, Western Jungles, Central Jungles, Southern Jungles, The Jungles of the Gods, Kingdom of Beasts, The Dragon Isles
Destroy the following factions: The Drakenhof Conclave, Clan Mors, Exiles of Khorne, The Bloody Handz, Harbinger of Disaster, Oracles of Tzeentch, Poxwalkers of Nurgle

Main difficulties you might face:

Minor Skaven clans North and South
Everyone else in this continent at war (Mostly Kairos, Mannfred, Skarbrand]
Further away, Queek and Ku'Gath are also on the list of ennemies

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

You will begin your game with a minor settlement, with a very valuable unique landmark building, but a minor settlement nontheless. You must push very early on towards two minor Skaven factions North and South to conquer a vital land for your campaign.

A lot of factions will be located in this continent of the world but you actually have ennemies and allies alike. Teclis on the very South or Volkmar on the far West for instance can become decisive allies against Tzeentch and Vampire count factions.

A bigger issue however is that Kroq-Gar doesn't start in the corner of the map anymore, so your eastern coast is not safe, especially as there is Ku'Gath located up North-East, only looking to wage war one turn or another.

Make sure to focus on elite infantry frontlines and bank on the buffs given by Saurus Old bloods for your armies. Monsters are always very good in general so make sure to recruit some.

Defend harshly your territory, there are a lot of jungles and canyons, buffing your already buffed ambush succes chances.

A funny strategy i experimented is to not keep any settlements you conquer past your initial provinces. There are a few possible ally faction in the area (Volkmar, Thorek, Repanse), each time you capture a new settlement on the frontline, sell it to one of the neighboring factions, they will be very happy to pay more than 10.000 for a recently captured minor settlement. This will boost your economy, relations and avoid ahving undefendable cities vulnerable to counter attacks.

Tlaqua

Tiktaq'To

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Cult of Sotek

Tehenhauin

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Itza

Gor-Rok

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Gor-rok, the white lizard, is a strong anvil and will resist waves of ennemies like Rok. Quite like Queek-Headtaker, he suffers the lack of mounting options, but the fact that he is more used as a tanky Lord makes it less detrimental. With him, you can block lines of units while your army (or Spellcasters) do the damage.

Itza is a very strong faction for the lizardmen, enjoying many bonuses and almost no drawbacks. They receive a magical barrier as well as increased quantities of supply during siege defences, and Itza has access to a specific ritual empowering defensive skills of Saurus or Temple guards.

Besides this, you will start with two very important things;

The city of Itza, a major settlement with a lot of building opportunities

Lord Kroak, one of (if you not the) strongest spell caster in the game (Lord Kroak isn't unique to Itza, but other Lizardmen factions must complete a quest line to recruit him)

[bThe Lizardmen roster[/b]is composed of tremendously strong monstrous units. As Itza you have a Bastiladon (Revivification Crystal) in your starting army, letting you reduce early game casualties.

As dinosaurs and monstrous units like Kroxigors are your major capital, you should think about using Slann Mage Priests (Lore of Life) to support them. This enables you to start a battle with a half-life army and end with a full-healed stack of frightening dinos.

Campaign objectives:

Short Victory:

Destroy the following factions: Clan Pestilens, Clan Spittel, Pallid Nurslings, Blood Keepers
Occupy or raze 30 settlements

Reward: Hero capacity: +3 for all heroes

Long Victory:

Achieve short victory
Occupy or raze 70 settlements
Control directly or through alliances all the provinces of Lustria

Reward: Heros recruitment rank +10

Main difficulties you might face:

Lord Skrolk leading Clan Pestilens
Getting rid of Markus Wulfhart without upsetting the Order factions
Eventually Dark elves from Naggaroth or Cult of Pleasure

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

You will start the campaign pretty quietly as the minor Nurgle faction will be dealt with pretty rapidly. Trade carefully however as you are surrounded by potential hostiles (Khorne, Skavens, Vampirates, Beastmen) and if one of them declares war, they usually follow in number.

You are in Lustria however and a lot of potential allies will be there too (Lizardmen, Dwarves, Bretonnians, HighElves), so don't hesitate to forge treaties.

Playing as Itza lets you actually choose the way you want to go, your goal is to unite and conquer all the continent anyway. It will mostly depends on what wars are declared or what wars you can afford.

Up north is Markus Wulfhart, who hates Lizardmen, you will most likely have to raze his faction in order to complete the Great Plan. Be mindful of the reaction of Bretonnians, Dwarves, and High-elves on the Donut islands tho.

Once you get rid of Clan Pestilens, the campaign shouldn't be that difficult as Lizardmen settlements around here will provide good income. If they spam Slave armies, make up the same with Saurus or even Skinks. Personnally i chose to go with only one army and advanced units until i could afford another one. During these early wars, be careful about Skaven under-cities.

Favor Blessed units, Blessed Stegadon for instance becomes and angry truck in the frontline.

Spirit of the Jungle

Nakai the Wanderer

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Ghosts of Pahuax

Oxyotl

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

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Dark Elves

Dark elves are a twisted derivation of their High Elves brothers; they have similar units (Lines of spearmen and shields), cavalry, monsters and of course spellcasters. It is a very strong race with a powerful economy.

Murderous Prowess

Druchii live in a very aggressive and brutal society; in battle it is represented as a bar filling up the more your units hurt the enemies. Once full, all your units will experience a combat buff for their melee, pierce armor and charge bonuses.
Slaves:

The law of the strongest always applies with Dark Elves, they like to express their right to take slaves wherever they go. Slaves will be a special currency gathered after battles and other events, boosting your provinces economy to amazing heights. However, the more slaves you have, the higher the public order penalty will be.
Black Arks:

Dark Elves are experimented sailors, they rule over the seas thanks to their Black Arks. Giant floating fortresses acting as armies on the campaign map (but restricted to water), allowed to build and recruit just like a Horde army.
Moreover, they will display on the campaign map a large circle, providing their recruitment list to other regular armies in the area, as well as bombardement-like abilities to battles happening in their vicinity.
Black Arks numbers are restricted to the amount of major Ports your faction occupies.
Rites

Like High-Elves, Skaven and Lizardmen; Dark Elves have access to 4 different rituals, providing specific buffs for a set amount of treasury, during a fixed number of turns. They may vary depending on your Dark Elf faction.
Sword of Khaine:

Dark-Elves Lords can claim the Sword of Khaine, an extremely powerful artifact providing insane combat buffs to a Lord. The drawback is that the Sword will push your lord to crazyness, giving more and more combat buffs, but very very large campaign / factionwide debuff.
To claim it, one must conquer and build a specific building in the settlement "Shrine of Khaine" in Ulthuan.
Loyalty:

Non-Legendary Dark Elves Lords will have a value of "Loyalty", increasing or decreasing thanks to various events; random dilemnas or actions of your behalf.
High loyalty will be rewarded with dilemnas while a score of 0 will make this army rebel against you, turning it into a hostile minor faction.
Names of Power:

Non-Legendary dark elves lords can receive a specific "Name of Power"; providing them with very decent unique buffs, depending on what you chose. They are choosen from a dilemna after spending point in a specific skill; only one can be worn by each Lord.

Naggarond

Malekith

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Cult of Pleasure

Morathi

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Har Ganeth

Crone Hellebron

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

The Blessed Dread

Lokhir Fellheart

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Blessed Dread is a Dark-elves faction focused on the aspect of pillaging, corsair units and sea navigation, especially for the army of Lokhir. His army will receive upkeep reduction for all Corsair units, as well as the attribute of Fear during battles. Lokhir Fellheart's army will also be immune to attrition in High Seas, storms and every other danger that the oceans could throw at you. Pretty usefull to roam the world.

Lokhir himself is a very good duelist and infantry killer, with a Black Dragon mount unlocked with levels; he has access to even more buffs to his corsair units through his skill tree as well as an aura of increased attack.

Faction wide, Blessed Dread has a slight bonus towards slavery economy, but more importantly a unique rite providing combat buffs to Corsairs and Kharibdyss.
They also start with a Black Ark and will receive one for each major port they control. (Other dark elves factions must complete a rite to get more black arks.)

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 30 different settlements
Control 5 of the following settlement either directly or through vassals and military alliances: Shi Long, Haichai, Hanyu Port, Bridge of Heaven, Zhanshi, Li Zhu, Baichai

Long Victory:

Complete short victory
Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 75 different settlements
Control the following settlement either directly or through vassals and military alliances: Shrine of Khaine
Control the following province either directly or through vassals and military alliances: Eataine
Destroy the following factions: Eataine, Avelorn, Order of Loremasters, Yvresse, Nagarythe, Knights of Caledor

Main difficulties you might face:

Cathay's Wrath
Getting rid of High Elves major factions especially on the Donut island of Ulthuan

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

You should rely much on Corsairs especially early on, at least for the army of Lokhir Fellheart. They are pretty good early / mid game units, thriving with all the boosts they will receive with time and skills.

You will start with a Black Ark and against Vampirates; make sure to always conquer land with the support of your Ark, for replenishment, recruitment and even more for bombardments during battles.

During your early wars to raid and conquer the coast for the short victory, you might upset Cathay up North west, minor of major factions. They will be a problem so either push to get rid of them or try to harshly defend your lands. Focus on raidings and getting slaves to skyrocket your treasury.

An early quest will provide you the ability to confederate a minor Dark Elf faction, Klar Karond. (located in Naggarond, the West side of the world) This will give you another place from where you can launch raid parties to conquer the world. Take good note however that Alith Anar's faction of High Elves are pretty close.

The Cathayan problem solved or not, your goal will be to set sail to search and destroy all major High-Elves factions. Two choices should be considered, either sail West to reach Imrik's Knights of Caledor and South-West to reach Teclis and his Order of the Loremasters; Or use the newly added Sea Route located on your eastern side of the sea to "teleport" your army on the far West of the World. This will bring you very close to the 4 other High-Elves factions. This second strategy might be longer because those factions will be very close and probably ally themselves, so you better be ready to raid.

Whatever your plans are, keep gathering slaves to have a solid economy.

Continue to play around Black Arks and the unique Rite of Anath Raema, as they provide decisive support for your foreign wars.

Hag Graef

Malus Darkblade

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

The Thousand Maws

Rakarth

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

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Skaven

A self-destructive race, the Skaven are intelligent Ratmen living in their under-Empire beneath the world, backstabbing eachother for the most meager gain, creating twisted engineered machineries and mutant monsters.

Food:

The Permanent struggle for food in the Skaven empire let the weakest rats to die out while the strongest feast on what they have. This represents ingame with a value of Food decreasing each turn, providing different bonuses (or penalties) depending on how much food you have.

It is acquired by winning battles, raiding, various buildings or dilmenas.
Loyalty:

Skaven willingly betray their own family to obtain a little something, so military loyalty is difficult to obtain. All non-legendary Lords will have a value of Loyalty evolving with time and actions. If an army reaches 0, the Lord and his servents will go rogue and become a rebel army.

On a similar but different note, Skaven units have in general very few Leadership values. This means that in battle, they will very often rout away (However they will very frequently come back)
Rites:

Similar to Lizardmen, High and Dark elves, Skaven have access to 4 unique rites, providing different bonuses for a set price, during a certain amount of turns.
Skaven Corruption:

Skaven is one of the faction spreading corruption, a value similar to public order than can be raised or decreased through buildings and tech. Skaven Corruption will force penalties on the campaign map for foreign factions and spread in your provinces and neighbors.
Stalking and the underway:

Skaven have access to two unique army stances, the first one is Stalking and it replaces the default stance. It gives a small amount of chance to instead ambush the army you attack.

The second one is the Underway, similar to Dwards and Greenskins, Skaven can move through mountains and obstacles with this stance. At the price of risking interception by the ennemy near you.
The Menace bellow:

During battle, Skaven have access to a unique ability called the Menace bellow. Similar to a spell, you can summon a Clan rat unit, tunneling their way out of the selected location. This is usefull to flank the ennemy lines, surprise range units or artillery formations.

The summoned units will quickly rout away, the number of time you can use this ability can be increased by paying Food, in the pre-battle screen.

Clan Mors

Queek Headtaker

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Queek Head-Taker is a decent duelist against lords or heroes in battle, especially with his "Trophy heads" ability applying debuff to a target. However he suffers from the downside of having no mounts at all, leading to a slow lord, with difficulties to navigate through the lines.

On the campaign map, he has a few specific skill boosting the combat efficiency and recruitements of Skaven frontlines, namely slaves, clan rats and stormvermins. Paired with the upkeep reduction given by Clan Mors, you will have a very decent armed frontline of infantry.

Clan Mors also has access to a specific landmark building from the start, Clan mors Headquarters, providing various benefits; You are also encouraged to play around Chieftain heros and Warlords (Or at least not Grey seers), early on.

Your campaign objective will be to reclaim Karak-Eight-Peak, you will suffer a public order penalty in the meantime, replaced by Lords loyalty / rank boosts when you control the city. The settlement is coveted by greenskins and dwarves as well; thus you will enjoy a very generous bonus of Attack and Damage against those two races in battle.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Destroy the following factions: Crooked Moon, Crooked Moon Mutinous Git, Clan Angrund
Control the following settlement directly or through alliances: Karak Eight Peak
Occupy, sack or raze 30 settlements

Reward: Recruitment rank +3 (all armies)

Long Victory:

Reach short victory conditions
Occupy, raze or sack 75 settlements
Control at least 7 settlements of a specific list, directly or through alliances

Reward -> Global recruitment capacity +2 (Faction wide)

Main difficulties you might face:

I see Greenskins. Jesus that's a lot of Greenskins.
Karaz-a-Karak (North), Knights of Caledor (East) and Ironbrow's Expedition (South)
GRAND Cathay's angry crusade

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Your global first objective should be, as said above, to reclaim Karak-Eight-Peaks. While the penalty of 2 in authority doesn't seem much, you will notice that as a Skaven faction, you will struggle to have high authority (mostyl due to your own corruption).

Two Greenskins minor factions and one Dwarf minor faction are in your way, even though the Dwarves are not at war with you to begin with. Be mindful because one of those 2 greenskins faction; Crooked Moon Mutinous Gits, is controlling Karak-Eight-Peak and they usually have very early on one or two full stack armies around.

Conquer carefully because you will only have access to Clan rats or Slaves early on, try to not loose your Stormvermins and Plague catapult.

Another difficulty comes from the fact that your starting settlement only has 4 slots in total (1 taken by the city itself and another taken by Clan Mors Headquarters). Your province capital next to you is held by the other Greenskins faction, Red Fangs, so you'll have to (carefully) conquer if you want to breathe)

You will start the campaign with an under-Empire city under Karak-Eight-Peak.

Keep an eye on other factions around that could possibly attack you, from the most probable to the least; Wurrzag's Bloody Handz northwest, Ghoul King's vampire minor faction westward, Skarbrand's Exiles of Khorne southwest, Khalida's court of Lybaras southeast.

Once Karak-Eight-Peak is taken, fortify it and shift your empire's heart there. Next steps are up to you; remember that Grand Cathay will eventually spew from your eastern front.

Clan Pestilens

Lord Skrolk

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Clan Pestilens doesn't incarnate any particular unique playstyle. You are slightly encouraged to play around plagues, plagues monks, plague catapults and spread Corruption. The downside is that currently, Pestilens (And Lord Skrolk) have actually very few interesting bonuses to play what they should be strong with.

Skaven plague provides provincial bonuses to your settlements (and penalties to foreign settlements), they also heal your afflicted armies wich is very cool. Plague monks are easier to train and keep around; good infantry but they are very weak, they are mostly berserkers compared to Stormvermins that are sturdier. Plague catapults on the other hand are very effective at killing infantry.

Lord Skrolk has many flaws and is difficult to play. Firstly, he can not have a mount, he is a tiny skaven, so if he is locked down inside a melee he will struggle to runaway-scurry. He has acess to multiple yellow line; one for his martial prowess, one for his spells of Skaven plague.
His unique line of skill however provides nothing meaningful; Terror effect for himself, Corruption, Diplomatic relations, recruitment rank, leadership; only an area of effect debuff for melee attack saves it a bit.

Legendary Lord, you will find yourself loosing Skrolk very early if you think he is sturdy enough to fight, you must be careful playing him. Against another lord like Gor-rok (wich you will fight soon enough), Skrolk has absolutely no chance in a duel.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlements
Control the following settlements either directly or through vassals and military alliances: Itza, Hexoatl, Tlaxtlan, Xlanhuapec

Long Victory:

Occupy, loot, raze or sack 75 different settlements
Control seven of the following settlements either directly or through vassals and military alliances: Karag Orrud, Karak Eight Peaks, Skavenblight, Nagashizzar, Crookback Mountain, Hell Pit, Altdorf, Mount Gunbad, Iron Rock, Altar of the Horned Rat, Oyxl, Galbaraz, Karak Izor

Main difficulties you might face:

L-I-Z-A-R-D-M-E-N
Dwarfs and Man-things of Markus and Alberic

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

As of April 2023, Clan Pestilens is a very difficult and unpleasant campaign. Except a few minor factions of Skaven Tomb Kings, Nurgle and Khornate worshippers, you are the only major faction of bad guy in the heart of Lustria. Trust me, all these small bands will quickly be crushed by the good guys.

Your starting points is surrounded by Lizardmen (Itza of Gor-rok, Cult of Sotek of Tehenhauin, Southern Sentinels,Wardens of the Living pool), a minor faction of Dwarfs to the West, in the North beyond Itza stands two other potential Major ennemies of the Empire and Bretonnia (The Huntsmarshal's expedition and Bordeleaux errants). If unlucky, even Luthor Harkon's dead armies will come to bully you.

All these joyful people deeply hate you to different degrees, once one war is declared things might escalate quickly. Two and even three fronts can be opened towards you very early on and Itza is a very powerful neighbor.

Even if it seems pointless at first, try to spread as much as possible the plague around your empire and towards the ennemies. I found it actually pretty usefull to create an Under-city bellow Itza and rush the Grand Plague Cauldron. It will spew plague every turn, spreading in provinces and armies around. Itza ended up detecting my Under-City, yet it took him at least 10 turns to destroy it so, keep the strategy in mind.

Try to upgrade your army building fast so you'll have access to elite armies; it sounds obvious but very important here as your armies of Slaves or Clan rats will struggle against Saurus units. They are mostly fodder and anvil, but if you don't have hammer to get rid of the foes you won't go far. Weapon teams such as Ratlinguns or Death Globe Bombardiers or Poisoned Wind Mortars are delightful to penetrate Lizard armor.

If you manage to hold up your empire long enough, you might see the Oracles of Tzeentch pushing lizardmen from the South of Lustria, tho by this point you might already be struggling with Lizardmen and Humans from the north. Keep in mind that there is only war up-North, all the way to Hexoatl.

Make sure to set up garrisons and under-cities in the long run but that is a very general Skaven tip.

Clan Rictus

Tretch Craventail

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Clan rictus is a faction directed towards skavenslaves, clan rats, stormvermin units, raiding and ambushes. You will receive different stat boosts for the said infantry wether it is cost, combat effectiveness or even more gains from leveling up those units.

During battles, your units will have twice their charge bonus when flanking foes; you will also enjoy melee attack bonuses after retreating or during ambushes. Added to the fact that you receive various joyful gains upon declaring war, Clan Rictus has become a decent faction to play. Also, they now start very close to the chaos dwarf-things yes-yes.

Tretch on his own is a decent skaven fighter; he suffers like his previous equivalents of lacking a mount, but he has an ability (Verminous Valor) helping him to leave dangerous situations in order to relocate smarter. He also can provide Stalk and Unspottable to conduct a secret scheming party during a battle.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlements
Destroy the following factions: Moon Howlerz, Knights of Caledor

Long Victory:

Occupy, loot, raze or sack 75 different settlements
Control seven of the following settlements either directly or through vassals and military alliances: Karag Orrud, Karak Eight Peaks, Skavenblight, Nagashizzar, Crookback Mountain, Hell Pit, Altdorf, Mount Gunbad, Iron Rock, Altar of the Horned Rat, Oyxl, Galbaraz, Karak Izor.

Main difficulties you might face:

The Legion of Azgorh (Chaos Dwarfs)
High-Elves of Imrik
On the longer run you will possibly clash with Dwarfs / Grand Cathay / Grimgor

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Actually a moderately difficult campaign; the main source of early faillure might be in your upcoming rivalry with Drazoath the Ashen; the Chaos Dwarf major faction starting nearby. Make sure to use and use skaven gun teams, stormvermins or if noone available Skaven warp-grinders. I always discarded this unit until this very situation where i needed as much armor penetration as possible; they are actually good at holding / shredding down Chaos Dwarfs.

If you are ahead and war is not declared yet; keep in mind that you have the possibility to set up under-cities to boost your economy or provide bonus during the upcoming war in the region.

Once dealt with; your North side will mostly be Ogres, Greenskins and minor Chaos Dwarfs. War might come from here, might not. Two possible ennemies are living West and South however; a minor dwarf faction and a major High-elf faction (Imrik). They might not be gazing towards you because they might be at war with Clan Mors; but you should definitely scheme towards them.

From then, you will already have a powerful proto-empire; turn your gaze towards campaign victory (controlling skaven / dwarfen hold) or towards your next victims. (Either Cathay or the Badlands.)

Clan Skryre

Ikit Claw

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Clan Skryre is a faction specialized on the funniest aspect of the Skaven race, namely all the gun teams and artillery units they have. With a unique menu called the Forbidden Workshop, you can spend currency to upgrade a large variety of units with very strong bonuses.

Wether you like to thin down ennemies from afar with Ratling gunners and Warplock Jezzails or if you are more into mowing them down in melee with Doomflayers and Doomwheels, Clan Skryre is for you. You even have access to Doomrockets, the Warhammer fantasy Atomic Bomb. Throw your expandable slaves warriors in the frontline while the fireworks behind them shoot in the general direction of the menace.

Ikit Claw will be your polyvalent leader; a spell caster, decently armored for fights and equipped with his flamethrower on the wrist, he will later on ride a Doomwheel to wreck havoc in battle. His skill tree by boosting your other Warplock engineers lords and heros, as well as artillery and missile units.

A very fun faction to play.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlements
Level up the Forbidden Workshop to rank 3 - Warptech Lab
Destroy the following factions: Estalia, Tilea, Carcassone

Long Victory:

Occupy, loot, raze or sack 75 different settlements
Control seven of the following settlements either directly or through vassals and military alliances: Karag Orrud, Karak Eight Peaks, Skavenblight, Nagashizzar, Crookback Mountain, Hell Pit, Altdorf, Mount Gunbad, Iron Rock, Altar of the Horned Rat, Oyxl, Galbaraz, Karak Izor.

Main difficulties you might face:

Tricky start with a few potential foes nearby

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Despite starting with a major settlement like Skavenblight, the start can be tricky. Estalia and Tilea in the West and East will crumble very fast letting their destroyers knock at your door and seemingly having 50% chance to decide you're next or not. They are respectively Morghur Shadowgave and Aranessa Saltspite, the former being slightly more difficult to beat in battle in early campaign as your slaves will be very weak and weapon teams very few. You could however quite easily convince one of them to sign a non aggression treaty while you take on the other/

Try to focus on building your weapon teams recruitment building, most likely the Warpstone Telescope / TractorBeam because you will need damage dealers in your armies.
Don't forget to spend your currencies in the Workshop, especially if you intend to use Nukes regularly.

After a few tens of turns you might end up clashing with Belegar Ironhammer in the north-east and / or Fay Enchantress from the North. They are both more dangerous foes than your two initial neighbors so be prepared.

Once 2 to 3 of these factions are dealt with, your campaign should be pretty smooth. Your weapon teams and wheel units will become very strong.

Clan Eshin

Deathmaster Snikch

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Clan Moulder

Throt the Unclean

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

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Vampire Coast

A faction made up of worthless undead pirates with fire arms up to giant sea monsters and other ghosts, Vampire Coast armies focus a lot on missile units in number with only a few higher quality troops in support. Large artillery cannons and monsters to break ennemy lines effectively.

Lords are decent spellcasters just like vampire counts, they even have access to a unique lore of magic, Lore of the deep.

Undead units will not rout when suffering negative leadership but will instead crumble with time.

On the campaign map, Vampirates are a versatile faction very capable of leaving their kingdom to go and plunder the oceans.

Pirate Coves:

Like the Skaven, Vampire Coast can discretely set up sub-cities in ennemy settlements to generate goods. It will be possible in the post battle screen after attacking a settlement or using a specific hero type (Fleet Captain).

Pirate coves can not be detected by the owner of the settlement and only destroyed by razing the city. Vampire coast factions can decide to keep the cove for themselves when capturing the city.

The main drawback however is that pirate coves can only bet built in settlements with a port.
Flagship:

Lords sail their own ships that can be upgraded just like the Dark Elves arks. A Horde-like building menu will allow you to construct upgrades for your lords in his naval adventures.
Fleet Offices:

Lords can be nominated to various titles, providing them various benefits for the battle or campaign map. This can be as wide as reload time , ammunition, melee defense for specific units to global recruitment and upkeep.
Loyalty:

Similar to Dark Elves and Skaven lords, Vampirate non-legendary vampire lords have a value of Loyalty evolving with your actions. If the value goes to 0, the lord will leave your faction and be a rebel force trying to attack you.
Pieces of Eight:

Quests to find 8 hidden coins protected by guardian armies, claiming them will unlock a powerful Regiment of Renown unit for your Vampire coast faction.
Raise the dead:

Just like Vampire Counts, Vampire coast can resurrect units instantaneously in the vicinities of previous battles. Depending on the size of the battle, the Lord can resurrect higher tier of units.
Treasure Maps:

Hidden treasures can be uncovered by following a riddle-quest leading you to the rough location of the secret. Markers can be obtained after winning battles.
Vampiric corruption:

Just like Vampire counts, Vampire coast does spred vampiric corruption through buildings or actions. Corrupted regions will provide bonus to vampire factions and penalties for ennemy settlements and armies.
Rites:

A game 2 race, vampire coast has access to 4 rites providing you various bonuses for a limited time, in exchange for an amount of money. They are as various as providing you higher income, unlocking the recruitment of a special unit, raising a fog enforce attrition on ennemy armies or improving public order.

The Awakened

Luthor Harkon

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

The Dreadfleet

Count Noctilus

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Count Noctilus is a decent pick in battle. He is a low defense high damage legendary lord with the ability to cast really powerful spells. With his anti large trait, he can face some large units without help of other units. With his abilities and traits, he is an excellent choice for Necrofex doomstacks and horde play style.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

More than 8000 infamy
Occupy, sack or raze 30 settlements

Reward: +15% Replenishment (all armies)

Long Victory:

Reach short victory conditions
Occupy, raze or sack 75 settlements
More than 25 000 Infamy

Reward -> Reservecapacity for winds of magic +35 (all armies)

Main difficulties you might face:

Hard starting situation
High Elves as one of the first enemies
Low Income from buildings except Smuggler's Coves

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Due to the lack of income through settlements, Count Noctilus is not a faction conquering land is advised. Try to attack as many ports as possible and build Smuggle Coves to get your money.

It is helpful to sail around and raid everything you can. DO NOT RAZE, plunder the cities.

With Noctilus horde mechanics, you have the possibility to be very flexible in strategic maneuvering. Running away is sometimes not the worst thing to do (especially against High Elves with Dragons, etc)

Pirates of Sartosa

Aranessa Saltspite

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

The Drowned

Cylostra Direfin

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

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Tomb Kings

A very versatile race set in the arid deserts of the warhammer world, tomb kings play slightly different than other undead factions. Instead of regular recruitment, their unit types are limited to set numbers that can be expanded with tech and building. On the bright side, their units do not cost anything for recruitment nor upkeep.

Their roster is composed of lines of skeleton soldiers with a bit of cavalry supported by a wide variety of monsters.

Canopic Jars:

A unique ressource collected through missions, buildings or post-battle screens. They are used mostly in the Mortuary Cult menu for various benefits. (detailed bellow)
Day of Awakening:

A simple mechanic described above, Tomb kings units do not cost treasury or upkeep, however they are limited in numbers (Units and armies) until buildings or technologies help with to expand on that matter.
Dynasties:

The tech tree of the Tomb kings is separated in different Dynasties, each being longer and longer to unlock, but providing you with unique followers and Lords.
Entombed beneath the Sands:

A special stance accessible to all Tomb King armies, replace the classical Encamp. Added to the classical replenishment and recruitment options, it provides vanguard and a unique ability in case of a battle.
Mortuary Cult:

A place where you can spend Canopic Jarsin exchange of powerful weapons or items for your lords, as well as resurrecting Legions of Legend. (An equivalent to regiments of renown; slightly upgraded and unique version of a base unit.)
Rites:

Similar to all Warhammer 2 races, Tomb kings have access to 4 unique rites providing various time limited bonuses in exchange of a set price.

It can provide recruitment buffs to an army, unlock a special hero unit, provide defensive buff for your region or development bonuses for your empire.
Tomb Heralds:

Unique followers obtained through the tech tree of the Tomb kings race. They provide bonus to specific units for your selected army, such as armor for Tomb Guards.
Finally, Tomb kings are undead mostly because of a civil war. Fast forward to now, Khemri cannot make peace with Followers of Nagash, the latter cannot even discuss diplomacy with any other tomb king factions. No confederation is possible between any of them.

Khemri

Settra the Imperishable

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

With his bonus on growth and public order, Settra can nicely support the development of your provinces and gives you an advantage in time on the campaign map. As faction you dont have a high income, but you dont need it. Recruiting units is free and there is no upkeep to pay. The only thing to keep in mind is the limit of specific units. Every unit has a limited number you can recruit, so it is necessary to plan and manage the amount of higher tier units in the army. The limit can be raised by specific buildings.

With is magic skills Settra can be used as a melee combat mage with high survivability. His skills belong to the lore of nehekara, so he can heal and support his units in combat. His anti large trait makes him very viable against large foes like ogres or arachnarok spiders.

As tombking you have acces to the canopic jars mechanic that allows to use the mortuary cult, where you can raise your army limit or recruit special regiments in exchange of the jars.

Tombkings cannot confederate. A friendly way to grow your empire isn't possible.

Campaign objectives:

Short Campaign

Build 5 special pyramid buildings (ex. Great Pyramid of Settra)
Hold the Black Pyramid of Nagash
Eliminate the Followers of Nagash
Maintain a total of 3 Khemrian Warsphinxes
Control any 8 of the following settlements either by direct ownership or through vassals and
military allies:
Khemri, Wizard Caliph's Palace, Black Tower of Arkhan, Al-Haikk, Numas, Ka-Sabar,
Galbaraz, Karag Orrud, Lahmia, Rasetra

Long Campaign

Build 7 special pyramid buildings (ex. Great Pyramid of Settra)
Hold the Black Pyramid of Nagash
Eliminate the Followers of Nagash
Maintain a total of 10 Khemrian Warsphinxes, Hierotitans or Necrosphinxes
Control any 17 of the following settlements either by direct ownership or through vassals and
military allies:
Khemri, Wizard Caliph's Palace, Black Tower of Arkhan, Al-Haikk, Numas, Ka-Sabar,
Galbaraz, Karag Orrud, Karak Zorn, Lahmia, Rasetra, Teotiqua, Temple of Skulls, Karak
Azgal, Karak Eight Peaks, Karak Azul, Ekrund, Barak Varr, Akendorf, Myrmidens, Black Crag

Main difficulties you might face:

Standard infantry has only low armour and often low melee defense, so porlonged combat is a fundamental weakness in the Tomb King roster
Unit limitations through buildings, Legions of Legends and the mortuary cult
Limitation of armies and heroes
Recruiting units in cities, where the infrastructure is existing causes long distances to overcome

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Due to the high costs of the mortuary cult, it will be wise to skill the canopic jars skill of your lords and heroes.

Books of Nagash will give you many bonuses and allow you to raise the army limit, so it is highly advised to get the books as quickly as possible.

It is highly advised to use balanced armies and evade creating doom-stacks of higher tier units because of the unit limit.

It is useful to have a good relationship to other Tomb King factions like Numas or Rakaph. These factions will support you if needed. When you don't have any use for them just annihilate them or do whatever you like to.

To avoid struggle during the campaign, try to avoid an open conflict with the Orcs and try to expand in the west. Conquer the settlements and provinces of Lyonesse and Arkhan the Black. Especially Arkhan is a potential threat. The troops of Lyonesse often come to marauder through your lands, so eliminate them to avoid any annoying escapades.

Court of Lybaras

High Queen Khalida

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Exiles of Nehek

Grand Hierophant Khatep

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Followers of Nagash

Arkhan the Black

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

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Kislev

Kislev represents a more classical faction, in the same spirit of the Empire or High-Elves. A decent starting point to learn the game at your pace.

Their army roster is kinda balanced towards multi-role infantry units supported by cavalry and artillery. It is really common to see front-line melee soldiers having secondary pistols, or the opposite; handgunners with secret AXES up their sleeve. Their magic casters are few but focused on two lore of magic.

On the campaign map Kislev suffer low income from minor provinces, their large settlements such as Kislev, Praag or Erengrad however will really drive your economy at start. They will also unlock a few valuable researches.

Devotion:

A special currency earned from fighting / defeating demons and chaos related foes or generated by buildings; on the other hand, devotion will decrease when battling with Kislevite cousins.

Some higher tier buildings will demand devotion to be constructed, this currency is also required in order to activate The Motherland rites
The Motherland - Rites:

In exchange of Devotion, Kislev factions can choose to honor one out of 4 Kislev gods, providing temporary bonuses. Ursun (Buffs to defend your territory); Dazh (Buffs to your economy); Tor (Buffs for your battle performances); Salyak (Buffs to your settlements)
Followers:

The factions of the Ice Court and the Great Orthodoxy compete during the campaign to who has the higher number of followers.

Followers are mainly earned by defeating chaos armies and executing prisonners. Payments in treasury or in devotion can be made to decrease the number of followers of your rival; buildings and Motherland rites also provide more and more followers.

The race has multiple milestones, giving the winner different degrees of diplomatic buffs, public order, leadership and speed. If the player finishes the race before his opponent, a confederation will be proposed.

The player can not loose the race and be confederated into a game over
Ursun Revivalist joins the side of the Ice Court.
Atamans:

Every 2 provinces you own, you will be prompted to select one Ataman to govern a province, each giving you different bonuses. With time, you will be asked dilemnas to improve their statistics over the region they manage.
They can be recruited as Lords leading armies.
Ice Court:

Ice Witches and Frost Maiden (Lord and Hero magic caster) are recruitable only through the Ice Court mecanic: After payment, the selected Lord / Hero will begin training for a few turns. Each turn, a dilemna will be available giving your recruit one benefit between two. It can be towards campaign, units, battle etc.

Once all the dilemnas are solved, the Lord / Hero is available to recruitment like you would normal recruit them.

The Ice Court

Tzarina Katarin

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

The Ice court is the Kislevite faction with the best starting situation for now (or the least terrible ?), you will begin the campaign in the large city of Kislev, making it's own province, and granting you access to a large selection of buildings.

Factionwise you will be encouraged to play more around Frostmaiden than Patriarchs, you will also receive cost reduction for Ice guards and through Katarin, buffs for Tsar Guards.

Katarin herself is a powerful spell caster and a decent fighter once she has her bear mount. She can quickly relocate on the ground to cast her spells. She has access to the lore of Ice and can really master it.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Have 600 followers
Occupy or raze 30 settlements

Reward: Recruitable heroes + 3 for all heroes

Long Victory:

Reach short victory
Occupy or raze 70 settlement
Destroy the following factions: The Ecstatic legion, Legion of Chaos, Warhost of the Apocalypse

Reward: Hero recruitment rank +10 (all provinces)

Main difficulties you might face:

C-H-A-O-S : You are the bulwark the world relies on
Also, Clan Moulder
Azhag's Bonerattlaz, Beastmen minor faction, Drycha's Wargrove of Woe

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

A large amount of Chaos factions will inevitably declare war on you and attack from different fronts, so your goal is to prepare yourself. Archaon (NorthEast), Norscan tribes (North) ,Throgg, Azazel (NorthWest), Festus (SouthWest) even Bel'akor and Wulfrick eventually (West).

Before their arrival, focus on eliminating earlier threats like that Norse tribe you're at war with in the beginning, and probably Clan Moulder and the Beastmen herd. If your devotion is low, also be mindful of incursions of rebels.

Make sure to fortify Kislev (and eventually Praag and Erengrad) as they will be the hearts of your economy and army.

Avoid unnecessary conflicts at all cost (such as Kislevite or Imperials) because Chaos and friends will wage war at you in all cases.

Kostaltyn's Great Orthodoxy will be a rival in the religious race but he is susceptible to destruction sooner than you. Diplomacy is helpful as an Order faction, the Empire next to you is full of friends and Cathay will soon visit you with Caravans.

Eventually you will have to get rid of the deamons and bring the fight up north.

The Great Orthodoxy

Kostaltyn

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Ursun Revivalists

Boris Ursus

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Daughters of the Forest

Mother Ostankya

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

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Grand Cathay

Cathay is the Chinese equivalent of the Warhammer universe. In WH3 it has a balanced roster with focus on ranged units and special missile units. Cathay has an issue with its melee infantry. They should hold the line, but they are easy to kill with charges due to their bad formation system in the game.

Harmony:

Cathay has a unique system called 'Harmony'. Every building, Lord and unit of your faction has a special trait (Yin and Yang). It can be Yin or Yang. Both of these two traits give you a few buffs or even debuffs if one orientation is dominant. In Balance they give you some really cool and also sometimes really important buffs for your armies and your economy. In battle it is even more important to have a well-balanced army to be able to kill your opponent.
Wu Xing Compass:

With the compass mechanic you get the opportunity to reinforce some parts of your campaign. These reinforcements can be used to develop your faction faster, to get a defence boost for the Great Bastion and more. Every 8 rounds, you can change the direction (and also the reinforcements) of the compass.
Ivory Road:

As Cathayan faction you will be able to send caravans in foreign countries and trade with their resident factions. It will give you an incredibly large bonus to your economy and represents one of the main pillars of your factions economy and game mechanics. Every caravan has an army, which grows slowly during the game, while traveling on the trade routes. You can choose between many routes all over the map, but be aware: Some of them are dangerous, some not. It can also change your diplomatic position during the game. The caravans give you a diplomatic bonus with factions you trade on the Ivory Road. On the way to your target faction, you will sometimes encounter some dilemmas. You can encounter bandits, a lost caravan and more. These dilemmas give you the ability to reinforce your caravan.
Great Bastion:

Cathays most important buildings is the Great Bastion. That building protects their lands from floods of chaos threats. It is your mission to hold the line and protect the bastion. If chaos was able to conquer the gates you can slow the threat through reinforcing the bastion with the Wu Xing system.

The Northern Provinces

Miao Ying

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

The Western Provinces

Zhao Ming

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Long Victory:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

[/list]

The Jade Court

Yuan Bo

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

------------------------------------------

Daemons of Chaos

The Daemons of Chaos is probably the most unique race of Total War Warhammer 3, your units come from every Chaos race and your armies and legendary leader will evolve depending on your action in the campaign.

Demonic Glory:

Every time you conquer a settlement or win a battle, you will be asked to choose which Chaos God you want to honor, earning Glory to him. Each of the Chaos god will reward you with more and more units of his army roster, as well as bonuses and gifts.

Gathering enough Glory towards one God and you will have the opportunity to fully give yourself and dedicate to one demonic deity. This will give you the final and more elite units of the God you choose and remove the capicity to get elite units of the other gods.

You will also have the fifth path of the Chaos Undivided, receiving no additionnal units until you fully devote to the Undivided path; granting you elite units of the 4 Chaos Gods.
Deamon Prince

Your Legendary Lord will also be affected by what ruinous God you decide to honor. The more Glory you earn, the more Gifts you receive. They will be Heads, Arms, Tails, Weapons etc, giving your lord various buffs and changing his apperance.

You want to go with a very resistant Daemon Prince ? Nurgle will have wings or torsos for you; Want to be a flying spell caster ? Tzeentch is your way.
Reign of Chaos:

Quite a minor aspect but dealing damage during a battle will fill up a bar, allowing you to use various army spells that you will unlock prior to this with the Glory dedicated to the gods.

Legion of Chaos

The Daemon Prince

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

A quite unique faction to play with as strengths and weaknesses will vary depending on the path you decide to take ( Which Chaos God you decide to serve) ; this important but alterable decision will impact both your lord and your armies.

Concerning armies you are mostly restricted to Demons from any of the ruinous powers, the more you serve one God, the more you will unlock stronger Warriors and Demonic servants. If you finally give yourself to one God you will not be allowed progress through the other's Glory, but you will be able to unlock the more Elite units of the god you gave your soul to.

If you decide to honor neither gods and choose to embrace Chaos Undivided, all the gods will progressively offer you their Elite units; They will however not offer you units for a loooooong time before that; so undivided is more rewarding only in the end.

All paths also reward your lord with "Gifts"; Different heads, torsos, arms, legs, weapons ... to completely chance the face, smell and skills of your legendary lord. The Daemon Prince can be tanky, fast, brutal, magicaly powerful, whatever.

Each time you conquer a settlement, you must choose one of the gods to honour with it. This will restrict the type of buildings in your settlement to, for instance, Khorne buildings. (Boosting Khorne things or unlocking Khorne's units)

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Long Victory:

Main difficulties you might face:

No big trouble early on, Boris and a few minor factions
Archaon and Malus Darkblade's factions as well as Kislev aren't far away
Getting rid of all the other Chaos Factions (War or Vassalized)
Eventually the good guys (Grand Cathay, HighElves ...)

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

------------------------------------------

Khorne

Khorne. The strongest and mightiest of the 4 Chaos god. It represents the Bestiality of War, Carnage, Slaughter and Rage, but also Courage, Honor and Death in battle. Thus, his army list is completely melee focused, shredding everything in a bloody melee. Lots of armoured units as well, except for demons.

Skulls:

A unique currency gathered from buildings, dilemnas and of course battles. They can be used for Khorne's unholy manifestations or in the research tree.

Once you invade a settlement, you are required to pay skulls to settle it directly.
Drawn to destruction:

Settlements are automatically settled by your faction after you razed it down to rubbles. If you wish to settle it faster, you will have to pay skulls.
Cults:

Just like other Chaos races, your god's philosophy will shine across the world; allowing for cults to randomly appear in foreign territory, allowing you to build different buildings; providing skulls or even teleporting your faction leader.
Unholy Manifestation:

Khorne corruption will unlock 4 different rituals, spawning a small Khornate army to fight your own (and earn exp, treasury, etc ...), giving more campaign movement, more skulls and even the capacity to raze a targeted settlement.
Bloodletting:

Your armies have rage and frenzy towards battle and death; thus, they will receive temporary bonuses if they wage often battle, even spawn a temporary controlable army. Skulls for the skull throne, Blood for the blood god.

Exiles of Khorne

Skarbrand the Exiled

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Skarbrand is one of the strongest fighting lord in the game, this giant bloodthirster is a war machine in battles. He will mow down pretty easily anything you ask him to, a regiment, a monster or a lord.
His skill tree allows to buff even more his combat statistics. Skarbrand's quest battle rewards with a specific weapon, providing more damage during battle depending on the amount of kills made by Skarbrand. Blood for the blood god

The faction of Exiles of Khorne is pretty strong and straightforward, you will receive campaign movement range as long as you fight battles and raze cities, allowing you to push more and more towards ennemy territory. This is paired with the fact that you will heal and recruit cheaper in ennemy territory, allowing you to wage war for a very long time without having to actually retreat. Skulls for the skull throne.

The only 2 real drawback of the Exiles of Khorne faction is that you have very limited access to ranged attack units. Also, you will have a negative diplomatic value with all Khornate factions due to your legendary lord backstory. This will isolate you even more on the world scene, neither good nor bad guys will like you. Except a few.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Complete the quest battle Slaughter and Carnage
Occupy, loot, sack or raze 35 settlements

Reward: Winds of Magic reserve + 30 per turn (all armies)

Long Victory:

Complete the short victory
Occupy, loot, sack or raze 80 settlements
Destroy the following factions: Seducers of Slaanesh, Poxmakers of Nurgle, Oracles of Tzeentch, Legion of Chaos, Warhost of the Apocalypse, Heralds of the Tempest, The Decadent Host, Puppets of Misrule, The Ecstatic Legions, The Fecundites

Reward:

Main difficulties you might face:

You start your campaign in a very crowded area (Skaven, Greenskins, Dwarves, Empire, Vampire, Lizardmen, Tomb Kings are all within reach)

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

The Exiles of Khorne campaign shouldn't be much of a problem. You can definitely choose the direction where you release your wrath upon, Skarbrand is extremely strong during all the campaign so make sure to play battles.

One important point to remember is that you shouldn't stand in your empire, trying to build cities and wait to get stronger, doing diplomacy with your neighbors etc. You are a servant of the God of War, Carnage and death in the battle; you will receive tons of money with battle, each victory will give you more opportunities to stomp even more on your ennemies. Don't be afraid to wage wars, just make sure to destroy your ennemies when doing so.

You will quickly find yourself rich, rich enough to summon Blood Hosts and sustain those temporary armies to wage even more carnage to neighbors. Don't hesitate to capture only one settlement per province, and let your passive racial ability "Drawn to Destruction" to conquer the rest.

Strong factions like Empire, High Elves, Cathay etc might declare war on you pretty quickly in the late game but by then, your red tide of death will easily deal with whoever hates you, because SKARBRAND HATES THEM EVEN MORE.

Long campaign victory will ask you to destroy all Chaos factions ( except Khorne factions like Valkia), some will be destroyed by others with time, you will have to perform the rest of the slaughter.

Make sure to spread cults in the world, one of the building will summon your Faction Leader after one turn. Pretty good at beheading ennemy empires, good guys or your campaign demonic targets.

Blooded Wanderers

Skulltaker

Challengers of Khorne

Arbaal the Undefeated

------------------------------------------

Nurgle

Nurgle is one of the four chaos deity of the warhammer world, it represents the idea of Growth, Death and Rebirth. The army roster is generally very slow, uncaring to damage as much as you could imagine. The daemons (and few mortals) will resist until the ennemy army is exhausted and die out. The main drawback, besides the fact that everyone ressembles a living buboes, is that you won't have good mobility.

Infection:

Infection is a special currency obtained from buildings, dilemnas, characters or post battle events; they are used in the Plague Cauldron menu detailed below.
Plague Cauldron:

Life and ultimately death are linked to disease, so Nurgle factions have become experts in brewing the deadliest plagues. A random tree list of effects appear in a window, you can select one of these and then two different symptoms linked to the first by paths in the symptoms tree. Each symptoms will provide buffs to Nurgle armies and debuff to Non-Nurgle armies. Some symptoms are blessed, increasing their effect. This will cost you a set amount of Infections, depending on the target and the mean of innoculation. The resulted plagues can do various positive boosts to your army or provinces and the opposite debuff to your ennemies. Pretty usefull.
Growth, life, death and rebirth:

Your buildings are living made out of living matter, thus their behavior will be different. Such buildings cost Infections instead of Favor to be built, but you do this only once. After a set amount of turn, it will evolve, into a better version. The higher tier the building is in, the more benefits it will provide you; once the final version is built, it will "die out" and evolve into the first tier of the building once again. The cycle begins a new. You can also pay Infection to speed up the process.
Recruitment:

Nurgle recruits his units differently. It is instantaneous and it comes from a pool of available units. Each time a recruitment building hits a new tier, a new unit (or several depending on what you build) will join that list and will be available to join your armies.

Positively; you can recruit full stacks of units in one turn, for their cost in Favor.
Negatively; if your pool is empty, it's empty. You won't find anything to recruit.
Cults:

Just like other chaos races, your god Nurgle can inspire people all around the world; creating cults. These under-settlements will provide you one slots to build a specific cult; providing Infections or a random plague. They can be random or[[/strike]/b] established by a Chaos cultist hero. Errata but i think since cult rework in 5.2, cults can't appear out of nowhere anymore. It must be created by a cultist hero manually now.
Unholy Manifestation:

Depending on the total amount of Nurgle corruption currently spreading around the world,, you will have access to up to 4 Unholy manifestations; rituals providing buffs or debuffs: Increased replenishment to an army, chances to spread a plague, growth in a province while reducing recruitment costs and finally give to every army and settlements in a province a random plague.

Poxmasters of Nurgle

Ku'gath Plaguefather

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Campaign objectives:

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

The Maggot Host

Tamurkhan the Maggotlord

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Tallymen of Pestilence

Epidemius

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

------------------------------------------

Tzeentch

Tzeentch is one of the four ruinous deity of the Warhammer World; it is the chaos god of Sorcery, Evolution and Manipulation. This race army roster is mostly split in two with mortals on one side and demons on the other side. They have different behaviors in battle, the most significant is that demons will not rout when leadership is negative, instead they will crumble while still able to fight.

Barrier:

All units enjoy a second bar of health acting as an energy shield, incoming damage will not reduce health until there is no more shield. The barriers depend on the remaining health points of the unit and will recharge after a time without taking damage during a battle.
Grimoires:

Tzeentch favors knowledge, grimoires will represent a unique special currency; it is obtained from many different actions (Battle, dilemnas, buildings ...). Grimoires are used as a payment for the "Changing of the Ways" mechanic.
Changing of the Ways:

As a Tzeentch faction, you will have access to a very powerful ability called "Changing of the Ways". By spending Grimoires, you will be able to forcefully influence the other factions.

The available actions are unlocked from the research tree. They can vary from force a rebellion in a selected settlement, force a war between two factions, force two factions to break an agreement, freeze or track all armies of a selected faction or even peacefully change the owner of a settlement.
Winds of Magic manipulation:

Tzeentch is also the Chaos god of Magic, so it can change the winds of magic in a region, to give yourself more energy for spells during battles. It will require you to reduced magic in a province, to increase it in another one.
Unholy Manifestations:

Like other Chaos god races, you will have access to 4 rituals, unlocked with the spread of your god's corruption in the world.

They will provide grimoires, enable attrition on a target, boost a friendly army or give Corruption and Control debuffs in an ennemy province.
Cults:

Once your god's corruption is dominant in a foreign region, a cult might appear. It will be a one slot secret place working exactly like a skaven under-city. 4 buildings can be built, to generate grimoires, income or boost winds of Magic in a province.
Teleportation:

Unlocked through the research tree, Tzeentch armies can use a special stance called Teleportation. At the price of a few Winds of Magic points, the army is allowed to move completely free of all impassible terrain in the path. It can also be used to ambush a targeted army.

Oracles of Tzeentch

Kairos Fateweaver

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Since the Update 2.2, Teclis Starting position has been changed

Leader and Faction specificities

Oracles of Tzeentch are a pretty decent faction, their bonuses focus on giving you an edge on the campaign map, avoiding ambushes and hero actions. Combined with the changing of the ways, you should always have an extra move on your foes.

You have no specific bonuses for units, but your leader Kairos does improve army barriers, winds of magic and Iridescent horrors (Hero). Kairos on his behalf is a monstrous spellcaster that can melt armies down while flying above the battlefield. He is vulnerable to missiles, but his barrier allows for some tanking. It will be common for you to start a battle with an insane amount of magic energy as well as spells to regain some.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Occupy, loot, raze or sack 35 different settlements
Destroy the factions of Zlatlan, Order of Loremasters, Last Defenders and Fortress of Dawn

Long Victory:

Occupy, loot, raze, or sack 80 different settlements
Destroy the factions of Poxmasters of Nurgler and Bubonic Swarms

Main difficulties you might face:

High-Elves led by Teclis (North) and Ghosts of Pahuax
LizardMEN from Last Defenders, Cult of Sotek and even Itza

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

You will initially be at war with a Nurgle subfaction to regain control of your main province. Your Western side is covered by a Tzeentch subfaction while on the east stands a Slaanesh subfaction. I would try to get a non aggression pact with the later because it tends to declare war otherwise, but they will gladly respect this treaty.
They are not a great menace but from the 3 attemps i played, in the first 20 turns, either Teclis (North), Oxyotl (West) or both will declare war on you. They are not to be fooled around and will have already more manpower than you, Teclis just has to cross the sea to reach your settlements while Oxyotl has to walk his way to you. Across the land of the Tzeentchian subfaction that will probably be destroyed very soon.
The best plan would be to secure the first province and eastern front, then push quickly against Oxyotl.
Saurus and Skinks will give you a harsh but necessary war. Always keep in mind tho that Teclis can declare war at any time. Also be careful because the more you push into Oxyotl's empire, the closer you are to be at war with the Lizardmen from Lustria: Cult of Sotek and Itza.

One thing i found to be saving, was to use the Changing of Ways mecanic to antagonize Lizardmen and High Elves. if you could force Last Defenders and Order of the Loremasters to enter war, two very strong ennemies of you will be directly fighting eachother (clearing your eastern / north side safe by the way). The same thing was pretty usefull when i turned Itza and Cult of Sotek against eachother, when i pushed to Lustria.

Campaign objectives demand you to get rid of the faction of Ku'gath, he is pretty far away from you and Cathay may be a powerhouse by the time you are ready to fight the Poxwalkers. Usually they are still at fight with Ghorst and pretty limited so it should not be a harsh task, if not already dealt with by the AI. Be careful about diseases if you fight the war yourself.

Generally, try to use as much as possible the Changing of Ways mecanic. Stop an angry Lizardmen faction you're at war with, instigate rebellion on the front, make sure your ennemy is suddenly at war with another neighbor.
Also, keep in mind that you can transfer yourself a settlement, even a far away one (for instance next to Cathay), to immediately sell it to another faction (for instance, Cathay) for a tremendous amount of money and diplomatic boost.

The Deceivers

The Changeling

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

------------------------------------------

Slaanesh

Slaanesh is the Chaos god of pleasure, excess, obesssion and pain, a demonic race excelling in blitzkrieg battles and subjugating their ennemies.

Just like other major Chaos races, Slaanesh's army list will mostly be made of demons (they will not retreat once leadership is negative) and a few mortal servants. Most of your units will be fast, with very little armour and good damage values.

It demands a good micromanagement in battles as your strongest units will have to be relocated often to quickly strike where it hurts the most and avoid suffering high casualties.

On the campaign map, Slaanesh is able to initiate diplomacy (unlike the other Chaos gods) with other regular factions; allowing you to subjugate them and in the end vassalize their pitiful souls.

Devotees:

A specific "currency" unique to Slaanesh, devotees are gained through buildings, battles, dilemnas etc ... In return, they can be spent to unlock various benefits detailed bellow.
Pleasurable acts:

Each Slaanesh-controlled province will have the ability to activate one of three different "Pleasurable acts". For a cost in Devotees, you will be able to receive a boost in income, military recruitment or growth, for a few turns.
Cults of Chaos:

Secretive cults can be established under foreign settlements through hero action, or randomly in highly corrupted regions. Those cults will behave as small cities under the affected settlement, allowing you to build one out of four specific buildings.

Those cult buildings will give you either devotees, seductive influence, temporary diplomacy bonus or even spawn an army of cultists.
Create Vassal:

As a unique post-battle / settlement choice, Slaanesh races can resurrect vanquished factions to come back as a vassalized friend. Neat.
Disciple army:

Armies of at least 10 units can pay a tribute in Devotees, in Slaaneshi corrupted provinces, to summon an extra army of units. The size of the summon will depend of the size of the summoning army, their lord's level and the amount of corruption in the province. The disciple army will take attrition in provinces with less than 100 Slaanesh corruption and their units cannot be transferred.

This is a very strong ability, allowing you to be very aggressive as your disciple army will take the casualties for you.
Gifts of Slaanesh:

Any time you defeat an ennemy army as Slaanesh, the defeated Lord will receive a trait called Gift of Slaanesh, providing boons to the victor. This can be removed if the affected Lord takes a victory against the Slaaneshi army.
Proliferate cults:

A unique ability on the campaign map, randomly establishing Slaanesh cults in 3 settlements, at the cost of a few Devotees.
Seduction:

Right before a battle starts, when the opposing armies are shown and you are prompted with Battling, Auto-resolving or Retreating, Slaanesh races can pay Divine Favor (treasury) to temporarily recruit units from the ennemy armies, in order to command them during the battle. They will deploy on your side of the map and disband after the battle.

The more advanced will a unit be, the more it will cost you to seduce.
Seductive Influence:

She-who-thirsts can influence more than anyone else factions in diplomacy. An independant value called Seductive Influence will increase or decrease every time a faction interacts with your Slaanesh race. Many different actions can modify this value from 0% to 100 %.

The important part is that, the more you press your Seductive Influence on a faction, the easier your war against them will be. They will have reduced Leadership, suffer Slaaneshi Corruption, bonus diplomacy with Slaanesh races. Once the bar is at 100%, the faction can be forcefully vassalized (at the price of a few devotees).

Reminder; Vassals are factions "enslaved" to another; they are military allies to their master and pay them tributes every turn. They are not free of any diplomatic decision because every diplomatic is managed by the master faction. The more vassals you have as Slaanesh, the better it is.
Unholy Manifestation:

The more you spread Slaanesh corruption, the more you unlock 4 different rituals called "Unholy manifestation". They will provide campaign range and battle bonuses to an army, a gain in devotees and less growth for the ennemy province targeted, a large discount in the seduction budget for ennemy units and finally the summoning of a disciple army.

Seducers of Slaanesh

N'Kari

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Seducers of Slaanesh are for the moment the only Slaaneshi playable faction so they are most likely gonna be a balanced vanilla way to play this race. Your faction buffs will be focused on diplomacy and getting as much vassalized slave as possible, as well as getting the most out of them; Lord's buff on the other hand are slightly less interesting, only the reduced cost for seduction gives you a good edge on the battle screen.

Talking about the Lord, N'Kari will be a very powerful and funny tool to use; he is fast, has access to a lot of spells and abilities and is very good a destroying another lord or hero in melee. Use him to quickly reach an important enemy unit or hero, shut them down and quickly relocated out of danger.

Your Slaanesh army will be very very mobile with very few slow units, they will be used as precision strikes and quickly overwhelm the ennemy. Almost all of them however (Even N'Kari) will have very few armor, making them vulnerable in extended fights, especially against projectiles.

Campaign objectives:

Short victory:

Destroy the following factions: Avelorn, Eataine, Yvresse
Control the following settlement directly or through ally / vassal: The shrine of Asuryan
Occupy, loot, raze or sack 35 settlements

Reward: Winds of Magic power reserve: + 30 per turn (all armies)

Long Victory:

Reach short victory
Destroy the following factions: Poxmakers of Nurgle, Exiles of Khorne, Oracles of Tzeentch, Legion of Chaos, Warhost of the Apocalypse, Heralds of the Tempest, The Decadent Host, The Fecundites, Legion of the Gorequeen, Puppets of Misrule

Reward: Lord recruitment rank +10 (all provinces)

Main difficulties you might face:

Elves Elves and Elves
Actually getting to wherever the other demons are to destroy them; while probably triggering the good guys ont he path

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

So until you secure the donut island of Ulthuan, it will probably be a boxing ring for a long amount of turns. The problem is that elven factions tend to ally quickly with you as their common ennemy. Moreover, there are 3 major High Elf factions that you face early on and must take upon. Try to focus on diplomacy in order to seduce them with time, use cults and disciple armies as much as possible.

During battles, elves will have a lot of anti-large infantry especially early on, but a lot of projectile units as well. This will push you to use a lot of cavalry - i'm looking at hellstriders here - to quickly get down those archers, while avoiding the pikemen.

Later on, elves AI will have more and more dragons so you will have to really beef up your armies as well. For the more common ennemy armies however, a full stack of disciple army can allow you to 1v1 any midtier elven army, so focus on that. Those armies won't take attrition in fully corrupted provinces, so use that to cover your back as they do not cost upkeep.

Once you take the last settlement of a faction (or i believe the major settlement of a destroyed faction) you can vassalize/revive them so make sure to keep that in mind because you will need allies (or meatshields) in your war against Ulthuan. DarkElves will be more than happy to kneel.

For the longer run, i would recommend to ally with other Slaaneshi factions - Sigvald and Azazel until you can make them your pets as well. Some daemonic factions you must erase will be destroyed by others, but a few of your targets are really really far away from you, so make sure to have a good economy/defense before sailing away.

In mid/end game, your numerous cults and vassals will provide a SOLID economy.

------------------------------------------

Ogre Kingdoms

The Ogre Kingdoms are composed of raw-damage-units and only a few choices for the lores of magic. On the battlefield, you will probably have to use advanced tactics to get a victory without overrunning the enemy.

Ogre Camps:

The Ogre Camps are similar to the "Hordes"-mechanic from Warhammer 2. They are treated as regular main-settlements, so they can be upgraded to level 5. The fact that they give you the ability to place them wherever you want, gives you a decisive flexibility. Like the Hordes, a camp needs population surplus to construct and upgrade the buildings. You can also conquer regular settlements on the map. This makes the Camps a really big advantage.
Contracts:

During the campaign (every 10 turns), you are going to receive a special kind of missions called "Contracts". These contracts give you a relationship boost with the hiring faction, when you complete them.

You can only get contracts from factions you are not at war with.
Meat:

Ogre units have to an additional resource to pay for their units as upkeep: Meat.
You get meat through fighting and a few special buildings.
In the pre-battle screen you can use your meat to give your army a few boosts.

Goldtooth

Greasus Goldtooth

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

With his bonus on income after battle and through riding enemy settlements, it is easy for Greasus to get a pretty high income. In combination with the good trading abilities of the Ogre-Kingdoms, you will be able to trade with many factions in the game.

In the battle, Greasus has some passive skills, which can help you in the fight. In general, the legendary lords of the Ogres aren't really special. Due to the high unit mass and low traits, Greasus can get in trouble against better units.

Main difficulties you might face:

As WH3 faction, the unit roster is smaller than the rosters of WH2 factions. (Some factions can be hard to counter)
Meat supply can be tough to handle
Starting position can be hard
Gresus is only a moderate fighter in battle

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

It is highly recommended starting trading with other factions as quickly as possible. It will ensure your survivability for the early phases of the campaign.

Due to the steady use of meat, you have to fight constantly. Try to fight larger armies (as long as you can win) and try to maximize your meat-income. The bonus traits you can get with meat, are not really necessary. If you play an aggressive campaign, you should economize your meat and use it for better units.

As Cathay is a really strong opponent, it is highly recommended to befriend them. If not, you can easily destroy them, as long as you use your units (every ogre unit, not Gnoblars) like a charging cavalry. Due to the high mass, you can simply break the cathayan formations with the sheer mass of your big Ogres.

The ogre camps give you an enormous flexibility in warfare. Try to build the camps on strategically important positions and catch the enemies on their weakest spots on the map.

Disciples of the Maw

Skrag the Slaughterer

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

The Maneaters

Golgfa.g Maneater

(yes steam was censuring Golg-f-a-g ...)

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

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Chaos Dwarfs

Disciples of Hashut

Astragoth Ironhand

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

The Legion of Azgorh

Drazhoath the Ashen

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

The Warhost of Zharr

Zhatan the Black

Starting Army, Faction and Lord Effects:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting Province:

Leader and Faction specificities

Main difficulties you might face:

Early and long term strategy - Overall tips

Extra ressources

A few links to Steam guides made by other members of the community detailing extra informations about Immortal Empires. Also some external ressources made by the community.

100% Achievement by Joller
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2756002273
Legendary Lords defeat trait by Azrael
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2756079339
Skill trees of every Lords
https://totalwarhammerplanner.com/

Thanks and credit to them.

Final thoughts

Thank you for scrolling through this humble summary, we hope the informations gathered here helped you somehow.

Remember that the guide is a work in progress, a few factions are completely different from their warhammer 2 situation so a lot of work had to be done after the actual release of the update.

Sometimes we just aren't in the mood for playing Total War, so no sections are progressing for some time.

If you deem a strategy written here is not decent or valid, feel free to comment down there, we might adapt our informations.

Feel free to rate and set the guide to your favorites if it helped you.

Have a nice day and summon the elector counts !

Updates

18/12/2024:
Ironclaw Orcs, The Maneaters, Blooded Wanderers and Challengers of Khorne factions added, details are coming

08/09/2024:
Dwarfs race mechanics updated
Karaz-a-Karak updated

09/05/2024:
Wissenland&Nuln updated

23/04/2024:
Warhost of the Apocalypse faction updated

Wissenland&Nuln, Masters of Innovation, The Maggot Host and Tallymen of Pestilence factions added.

19/04/2024:
Clarified the summary to have both faction's name and icon while taking less overall space

12/04/2024:
Clan Skryre faction added

2023:
Ironbrow's Expedition faction updated

Huntsmarshal's Expedition, The Changeling, The Jade Court and Daughters of the Forest factions updated

The Changeling, The Jade Court and Daughters of the Forest factions added

Von Carstein faction updated

Grimgor's 'Ardboyz faction updated

Bonerattlaz faction updated

Fancy and Useless faction icons added in the Update tab
Knights of Caledor faction updated

Order of the Loremasters faction added and starting position updated

Eataine faction slightly updated

6000 of you clicked on this guide, wouhoo !

Clan Rictus faction added and updated with the new faction stats

Immortal empire map updated with 3.0 positions thx to u/KingsYakuzi on reddit.

Clan Pestilens faction updated

Chaos Dwarfs faction icons updated

Disciples of Hashut, Legion of Azgorh and Warhost of Zharr factions added

Count Noctilus faction added

200 favorites, wuhuuuu!

Prepared the ground for the Dawi-zharr

The Cult of Sigmar faction updated

Five thousand views, my lord.

Puppets of Misrule faction added

All races are up-to-date, yay!
Tomb Kings race added
Wintertooth faction added

Corrected some typo concerning World Walkers

Oracles of Tzeentch faction added (and starting position updated)

Added a Skill tree viewer website

Goldtooth faction added

Informations for Itza added and adjusted

Ogre Kingdoms race added
Vampire coast race added

Happy New Year !

2022:
We've just hit 100 favorites, yaaay !
Slightly filled Reikland faction

Solland faction updated

Exiles of Khorne faction added

Lizardmen race added
Skaven race added

Dark Elves race added
Blessed Dread faction added

Khorne race added
Nurgle race added

Last Defenders faction updated

Seducers of Slaanesh faction updated

Slaanesh race added

Tzeentch race added

We've just hit 3000 unique visits, yaaay !
Norsca race added
World-walkers faction added

Reikland faction updated

Precised when the described section is Outdated (Written for Mortal Empire)

Legion of Chaos faction updated

Grand Cathay race added

Daemons of Chaos race updated

Kislev race updated
The Ice Court faction added

Wargrove of Woe faction added

Itza faction updated

Warriors of Chaos race added
Legion of the Gorequeen faction added

Clan Mors faction updated

Added Extra Informations part

25/08:
Guide published

13 opmerkingen

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D4_ 3 mrt om 0:28

Very detailed guide

FreeMetal [auteur] 12 jul 2023 om 0:22

As 4.0 approaches my heart regains interest into the game, i'm trying to play through High-Elves Lords currently.
I'll add your tip into the guide and try it out when my Imrik campaign starts, many thanks !

Drakk 11 jul 2023 om 21:25

Really nice to have info specific to immortal empires, thank you! Some suggestions for Imrick starting tips because I've been playing him recently: rushing ruins end -> pigbarter is a big help in the first few turns. I didn't know this my first time but the skaven towards Nagash/Nagshizzar are actually isolationist and won't invade. Since the patch the chaos dwarves are a huge threat early game.

Short Victory:
Occupy, loot, raze or sack 30 different settlements.
Destroy the following factions: Clan Rictus, Poxmakers of Nurgle
Encounter 2 Legendary Dragons

Long Victory:
Occupy, loot, raze or sack 70 different settlements.
Destroy the following factions: Clan Mors, The Bloody Handz, Exiles of Khorne
Encounter 5 legendary dragons

FreeMetal [auteur] 10 mei 2023 om 15:53

That was the least i could do 😄