Plus what DLC to buy first depending on your favourite faction
TheTotal War: Warhammerseries is big.
You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.
Luckily, coming up with completely original quotes is not my only skill.
Ive also become very adept at pouring hundreds of hours into this series ofstrategy games.
In this guide:
What is Total War: Warhammer?
you’ve got the option to think of this part as a very elaborate board game.
Battles
Broadly speaking, battles in the Total War games are real-time strategy, or RTS.
You set up your army in whatever formation you choose and start the battle.
After that, all your units move and attack as soon as you tell them to.
While RTS likeStarcraftorWarhammer 40,000: Dawn Of Wardivide units into individuals, Total War uses formations.
A classic example of this is known as Hammer and Anvil.
Am I wasting this spell on a unit with a high resistance to magic?
Also, all the tropes are the silliest version of themselves.
Its a bit Lord Of The Rings and a bit Monty Python.
Its big and dumb, but also very exciting and incredibly varied.
Put simply, its a confusing mess for a new player.
This is just the way I play, though.
There are many different viable approaches and strategies, and each faction has its own unique systems and considersations.
Don’t be afraid to experiment!
Kislev are a hardy, Slavic-inspired human faction.
Also, Katarin is voiced by Lae’zel actress Devora Wilde!
First up, find the research menu through the quill icon in the bottom right corner.
This will take four turns to research, and afterwards, youll get a bonus togrowthandreplenishment.
Replenishment affects how many turns it takes for your units to replace lost battle casualties.
Theyre both very helpful and I like to grab bonuses for them wherever possible.
Before this, however, were going to want do a couple of Kislev-only faction specific things.
Heroes are powerful units youll want in your armies, and starting this process early is useful.
I like Salyak because of the growth and replenishment, but it’s up to you.
Before the battle starts, youll see three options at the bottom of the screen.
Autoresolve, fight, and retreat.
Fight does what youd expect.
Retreat cancels the fight.
and Katarin will move away from the army on the campaign map.
A close victory means well win but take quite a few losses.
We don’t want that.
Also, you paid for fighting, not mathing.
grab the middle button with the crossed swords.
Before the battle starts, you’re able to do two things.
Secondly, youll be able to organise your army.
As for your lord, it depends.
Katarin is a spellcaster, so were going to keep her away from the frontline for now.
When youre ready, start the battle.
The enemy have decided to stay still, since I have the range advantage.
Then, I tap the speed button at the bottom to ensure they arent running.
This will cause fatigue, and they’ll fight worse.
When the enemy army are just in range of my cones, I stop.
This will pull them out of danger, and set them up for a rear-charge in a little while.
As the enemy clumps up, I use Katarins other spell to deal some damage.
Youll need to set the direction on the spell cone yourself.
Even though these trolls are running off, theyll come back soon once they rally.
Worse, trolls have regeneration, so theyll also get some health back.
I continue shooting at them to deal more damage, then send my horses to chase them.
Also, I got my cat beaten up.
Ah, the bullets did their job!
Youll notice a skull above the trolls banner.
That means they wont come back, and we dont have to worry about them any more.
I bring my archers around the side of this enemy unit to help my melee lads out.
And soon, the entire army breaks and runs off.
After battle, weve got a few different options to choose from.
I grab the replenishment to apologise to my neglected cat.
I am so sorry, my cold friend.
After battle, Katarins got enough experience to gain a skill point.
Route marcher is the mandatory first pick in almost all situations, so grab that first.
Next up, youll attack the nearest enemy settlement.
We plan on keeping this settlement, so occupy it.
With settlements you might not want to keep later, it’s possible for you to sack them first.
You’ll also notice we got some swanky magic armour.
Next up, its time to do some building.
The basic order of building priority to keep in mind is growth, then economy, then military.
Theres two more things we need to do before hitting the end turn button.
First, youll notice a notification in the bottom right corner that you have a commandment available.
This means you own an entire province, and can set a bonus for that province.
Choose Purge the Steppes, which gives the province a bonus to public order.
This gives us a huge headstart.
The final thing well do this turn is recruit a second lord.
Later, hell lead his own army.
Thats our first turn sorted.
