Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Khorne

This is the general tactics page on how to play Khorne in Total War: WARHAMMER.

Why play Khorne?

• Because sometimes you just want to not think too hard and rip the other guys apart limb from limb.
• You play aggressive, and don't want to play any of that "defense" bullshit
• Doom is your favorite game franchise and you always wanted to play from the Demon's point of view.
• You are fond of Mesoamerican cultivars that are not beans or squash.
• You want the best/second best warcry in the game
  • Ahem: BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!

Pros

• Unmatched Melee: With the high amounts of charge, damage, and armor in your faction, pretty much no one can beat you in a one to one melee fight. Your units beat pretty much anything in the same tier as them. The only way you could lose a melee fight is if you're peppered by missiles, magic or drained by a Mortis Engine.

• High Armour: The mortal half of your roster has pretty high armour values, so non AP missiles and attacks won't really bother them. Your Daemons aren't so good in the armour department compared to the mortals but they do have plenty of resistances to make up for it.

• Monsters: Bloodthirsters, Bloodcrushers, Skullcrushers, Spawn, Minotaurs and many more means you will have some of the scariest monster units in the entire game. Winning the monstermash shouldn't be an issue and allow your big bois to take over the battle for you.

• Magic Resiliency: Magic is for wimpy nerds and daddy Khorne will make sure you won't die in the most embarrassing way possible. Enemy spells won't hurt you nearly as bad as other faction.

• Mobility: Khorne actually has some wheels on him. You have two different units of warhounds, furies and cavalry to run around the map and out maneuver your opponents. Your infantry, especially Chaos Warriors, are pretty slow however, so keep that in mind.

• Strength through Kills: The more you kill the stronger you get. As such, you are rewarded for being aggressive by getting more damage and shredding potential. Note that Khorne cares not if you're killing phoenix guard or skavenslaves, your units power up even faster if your opponent is dumb enough to throw a bunch of shitty chaff units at you

• Noob Friendly: Khorne right clicks on things until they die. No backline you need to protect, no worrying about magic management or where to place spells, hell you barely need to worry about making sure your enemies are fighting the right targets. Due to your high armor and insane melee buffs, Khorne is actually pretty beginner friendly if you are just starting with game 3.

• Anti-Large: You are the only demon faction with access to multiple (effective) anit-large units in all stages of the game, Halberd Chaos warriors, great weapon minotaur's, and finally Bloodthirsters keep you effective at anti-large at every stage of play.

Cons

• No Magic: What, you want to blow shit up with your mind like a god damn pussy? If that's the case Khorne isn't for you. Even the Dwarfs have a substitute in the form of Runes that make up for it to an extent. You will not be able to contribute any magic to the field in the form of wizards, costing you some AOE burst.

• Less Effective Against Elites: with your battle mechanic keying off number of kills it means that against elite factions that bring fewer soldiers you will be less effective. Not ineffective mind you, but it does mean you'll be at a disadvantage as less units benefit from your Hellblade ability.

• Limited Ranged: Skullcannons and marauder horsemen are your only ranged option, meaning you don't really have any option to play defense. Granted if you wanted to play a defensive set up why the hell are you playing Khorne in the first place?

• Lack of Versatility: Sneakiness and subtlety are for little bitches. You may be one of the most hardcore melee rush factions in the game, but that's really all you got going for you. This can make Khorne relatively easier to game plan for compared to a lot of other factions who have an easier time employing numerous tactics.

• Top Heavy: More of a problem before the Champions of Chaos DLC when Khorne's cheapest infantry unit were freaking Chaos Warriors but Khorne is still missing cheap anti-large infantry and expendable chaff, both of which are necessary to spread the field.

• Friends? What are those?: Well... what do you expect? Not only are you playing a game called Total WAR, you're playing for the Chaos God of Blood. The only mortal "allies" you can make are with the Warriors of Chaos, Beastmen, Norsca and potentially Skaven and Ogres, if they're not feeling duplicitous. Even as far as Daemons go, Slaanesh isn't keen on working with your forces and even other Khornate factions tend to rub each other the wrong way. Everyone else hates your god damn guts and for good reason.

• DLC: Every core race has joined this club, and you are noticeably missing core units from the mortals side of things unless you open your wallet.

• Poor Economy: What the hell were you expecting? It's the Blood God, not the Personal Finance God. The only money you'll be making is from post battle loot, sacking and raiding. Combine that with your expensive units and the fact that Blood Hosts cost upkeep and you'll be in the red most of the time.

Faction traits

• Hellblade: Units gain 20% base and AP damage when they get 60 kills. Designed to reward you for being aggressive with your units with more damage. It'll be easier to get this off on squishy swarm factions (you'll get this fighting Skaven in no time) than smaller tank factions (good luck getting this fighting Dwarfs or especially Lizardmen and Wood Elves with all their single-entity beatsticks), although it might be reworked to relate to damage instead of raw kills, anything else would make fighting especially against Ogres a nightmare.

• Daemonic: Undead with extra steps, really. Once your daemonic units lose enough leadership, they'll begin to lose health and fade back into the Warp in the same vein that undead units crumble away. The good news is that even if your daemons are doomed to evaporate, they'll at least stick in and fight to the last model.

• Blood for the Blood God: As you kill off individual enemy models over the course of a battle a meter on the right hand of the screen slowly fills, unlocking three abilities at three different tiers. As you use these abilities the meter goes back down, but you can refill it by killing more enemy models. This, plus the Hellblade ability for your daemons, is going to make you a terror in the night for swarming factions like Skaven, Beastmen, or the undead, but is going to be a lot less useful against low-model count factions like the High Elves or Ogres.
  • Horn of Khorne: The first ability is an area of effect buff that can be cast anywhere on the map, granting 24 melee attack to any of your units in the radius. Lasts for 31 seconds and has a cooldown of 90 seconds.
  • Relentless Rage: The second ability is another area of effect buff, granting any of your units in the radius Unbreakable but also making them unkillable for the duration of the effect, similar to the Cohort of Sotek RoR's special ability. Lasts for 20 seconds and has a cooldown of 90 seconds.
  • Blade of Khorne: The final ability is a massive explosion spell that can be cast anywhere on the map and deals magical and armor piercing damage. Has a cooldown of 120 seconds.

Lords

Legendary Lords

• Skarbrand: SKARBRAND APPRECIATES NOT BEING DLC!!!! Our first Legendary Lord along with being a pure combat beast. His weapon strength increases with every kill he makes, meaning unlike most single entities getting tied up by chaff might be beneficial in the long run. He has two special abilities called Wrathful Reaper and Rage Embodied. Wrathful Reaper gives Skarbrand hefty bonuses to his AP and weapon strength at the cost of rampaging him. Rage Embodied is an activated ability that causes enemy units around him with less than half leadership to rampage. He can also spit fire now. Despite being stuck on the ground unlike other Bloodthirsters, Skarbrand has 80 speed so escaping him will be a challenge. This also applies to his campaign, as his faction bonuses provide bonus campaign movement after razing settlements and Skarbrand himself gets even more speed by winning battles in general, making him extra speedy post-siege.
  • Skarbrand may well be the absolute strongest melee lord in the game. You can send him out one his own against an entire army and he'll win, see for yourself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1umE3zobwEU, https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=skarbrand+one+man+doomstack+.

• Valkia the Bloody (DLC, Multiplayer only): The Gorequeen has the raw melee stats to rival Skarbrand. She makes a great hit + run duelist with 100 speed, a temporary invincibility ability, and a bound wind ability to clear out chaff. She's infantry sized so avoids the risk of anti-large sniping and is a small target for enemy ranged fire.

Generic Lords

• Exalted Bloodthirster: One of two possible Bloodthirster units available in the army, this one being the Lord equivalent. As you'd expect, it's really fucking scary. The stat line on this thing is absolutely absurd, giving it flaming and magical attacks along with a plentiful amount of AP. It also has a bunch of gnarly special abilities including one called Deathblow that buffs its already spooky weapon strength by 50% (both AP and Non AP), and another that causes automatic miscast damage to any wizard casting spells nearby. The ability to fly also allows it to pick and choose its targets and stay on the move. Combine all of this with it being unbreakable due to it's Daemonic trait and the Exalted Bloodthirster is extremely hard to get rid of. Great in campaign, BUT you should really think twice before taking him in multiplayer where he costs 3150! gold. An exalted bloodthirster is good, but not when you can get two units of exalted bloodletters and one unit of chaos warriors for the same price. And if you're absolutely deadset on paying out the nose for a single entity murder machine, you can pay 200 more gold and get Skarbrand instead.

• Herald of Khorne: A Bloodletter lord focused more on buffing and support rather than the pure killing power of a Bloodthister. He gives offensive buffs to your units, making him the closest thing to a caster lord you get. He can be mounted on both a Juggernaut and a Blood Throne, so while the Bloodthirster is more of a general melee beast the Heralds will be more of an anti infantry specialist. While no slouch in melee (especially with Hellblade) his big selling point are his buffs, one of which is a constant leadership/melee attack aura and the other is a big AoE boost to melee attack that lasts for 25 seconds. In campaign, upgrading a herald lord is the only way to get an exalted greater daemon lord so you're gonna use these guys a lot.

• Chaos Lord of Khorne (DLC): Serves a similar buffing + support role as a herald, except with better armor and overall survivability.

• Daemon Prince of Khorne (DLC): A flying monster lord who's unfortunately inferior to an exalted bloodthirster in almost every way despite costing almost the same price. CA really should have taken away his wings and buffed his stats so he could fit a niche as a non-legendary ground bound monster lord. His is much more worth it in campaign however.

Heroes

Generic Heroes

• Cultist of Khorne: Murderhobo taken to it's most literal. With a shield and decent armor he's one of your tankier characters, but not quite as good on offense. His primary use, as with all of the Cultist characters, is the ability to summon a unit of Bloodletters once per match. He comes with a Chaos Steed, allowing him to get across the field quickly, or a Chaos Warshrine of Khorne to buff nearby allies. Can summon up to 3 bloodletters and one bloodthirster per fight with campaign skills. Can easily be khornes best doomstack if you want, the 3 bloodletters and one bloodthirster each on 18 of these is of course insane.

• Bloodreaper: A combat/support character for going around murdering groups of infantry while also giving offensive buffs to your units. He can ride both a Juggernaut and a Blood Throne, making him a strong mobile threat. With Hellblade, AP, and anti infantry he's a scary melee character. Has an ability that gives 66% spell resistance to nearby allies, so useful against magic heavy armies like Tzeentch or the Vampire Counts but thats unlikely to be useful except in multiplayer. In campaign you'll probably prefer the one boosting weapon strength or melee attack.

• Exalted Hero of Khorne (DLC): Another support hero, only one who buffs melee attack, charge bonus, and weapon damage for everyone around him. Also a very good combat character in his own right. Can come on a chaos steed, chariot, or juggernaut.

Units

Infantry

• Marauders of Khorne (DLC): Your only cheapish infantry with performance and cost similar to ork boyz.

• Marauders of Khorne (Dual Weapons) (DLC): An upgrade to vanilla marauders with more models, more weapon damage, and more armor piercing than freaking chaos warriors! Problem is, they have no shields, armor, or melee defense. Try to get them to fight something more valuable than they are before they get charged or shot to death by missiles. Their cost puts them in the ballpark of units like wardancers and daemonettes, so mulching chaff units will likely result in them dying before you get your money's worth out of them.

• Brutes of the Hound (Marauder Berserkers) (RoR) (DLC):

• Bloodletters: Your mid tier Daemon unit, meaning that unlike Furies these guy might actually kill what they're fighting. They wield great swords with fire, magical, AP damage and anti-infantry, so they're really good at busting through armored infantry. As Daemons they're also unbreakable and contain nice defensive buffs, which is good because 30 armour isn't great. They're your cheapest source of AP in the infantry fight, which makes them highly desirable when fighting heavy armor. Against factions with high AP (Slaanesh), probably skip the chaos warriors for bloodletters as the bloodletters are slightly more killy and are unbreakable.

• Chaos Warriors of Khorne: Compared to undivided Warriors of Chaos they have Frenzy and higher attack and charge in exchange for less melee defense. They are way more designed for going on the offensive, which is what you should expect from Khorne. They aren't exactly glass cannons either, as they also have very good armor to block missiles.
  • They come in three variants; axe and shield for a holding force, halberd for anti large and dual axes for anti infantry. Their biggest drawback compared to daemonic infantry is that they will run away, so they may not be your best choice against factions with fear and terror aplenty like the undead. Exalted bloodletters will probably outcompete the dual axe or shield version unless you're in desperate need of shields. Halberd variant is your only anti-large infantry with charge defense so should remain a useful niche all game.

• Exalted Bloodletters: Bloodletters plus. They're a very similar unit only just much better at the job but also much more expensive. These guys will let you carve through more elite options than your standard Bloodletters can. Best go-to late game troops.
  • Because of auto-resolves preference for skirmishers, Exalted Bloodletters don't do very well in autoresolve; the fact that they don't rout also makes it really likely for you to lose even Rank 7 units in difficult sieges.
  • Hellforged Host: Hey look, Daemons who actually know what armor is! These guys come in with 60 armor so unlike the normal Exalted Bloodletters they don't have to worry about getting torn apart if missiles look at them funny. They also get their Hellblade buff on 40 kills instead of 80, so unless you REALLY misuse them, you should get that buff no problem.

• Chosen of Khorne (DLC): your tankiest elite infantry but they lack AP, so more a defensive or anti-chaff unit compared to exalted bloodletters.

Cavalry

• Skullcrusher: Not to be confused with Bloodcrushers which is a Bloodletter riding a Juggernaut, because Khorne is not very creative at naming things. They will be your Monstrous Cav similar to Demigryphs, and oh can they lay the whooping. With AP, Frenzy and 77 CHARGE these things will turn whatever they charge at into paste. They're decently slow by cavalry standards, but with 130 armor they won't care that much if most standard cav get their hands on them. Their biggest weakness is that unlike their Daemon counterparts they actually will run away, but if that's their biggest problem I don't think they have much to worry about.

• Bloodcrusher: Very similar to the Skullcrusher, though instead of an angry man riding the Robo-Rhino, it's an angry Daemon riding the Robo-Rhino. The big difference between these guys and Skullcrushers is that they're Daemonic so they have physical resistance and will crumble instead of running away. They also have an Anti Infantry bonus, making them a bit more specialized than their mortal counterparts. The big trade off for these is a noticeable decrease in stats, making them less effective against other cavalry. Still a good unit, especially against heavy infantry factions.
  • Heralds of Khorne's Fury: RoR Bloodcrushers with a fancy new brass color scheme. Their Hellblade ability is upgraded ti trigger at only 40 kills so they'll get their buffs from that much faster. They also have an aura that reduces the fire resistance of nearby enemy units which is useful against enemies who have fire resistance but doesn't seem to be of much use otherwise. The tooltip makes it sound like it applies the "Flammable!" effect but in-game testings has so far shown no evidence of this.

• Chaos Knights of Khorne (DLC): While chaos knights are by no means bad units, Khorne benefited from their addition less than the other chaos gods did since bloodcrushers and skullcrushers are superior in most matchups. That said, Khorne chaos knights have fire attacks, so they can be useful against flammable factions like tomb kings and wood elves.

Missile Cavalry

• Marauder Horsemen of Khorne (DLC): Your ranged skirmisher with flaming, armor piercing throwing axes. Use them to pick away at high value armored targets like heavy cavalry. Can also do double duty as light cavalry thanks to melee bonus vs. infantry and frenzy.

Chariots

• Chaos Chariots of Khorne (DLC): More or less the same as the WoC version except with frenzy and spell resistance.

• Gorebeast Chariot of Khorne: More or less the same as the WoC version, only coming with frenzy and even bigger bonuses to melee stats. Very solid unit for countering heavy infantry factions and will be very rewarding with good cycle charging.

• Blood Shrine of Khorne: Your support oriented platform. It's the weakest of the motorcycle Khorne units in combat but will provide big leadership buffs to anything around it. Plus, it heals while it's in melee so the poorer melee stats aren't be the worst thing in the world for it as it'll be hard to bring down.

War Beasts

• Chaos Furies (Khorne): They're Chaos harpies, only they lean even more into the glass cannon playstyle. They have surprisingly high melee attack and weapon strength. Combine that with having vanguard and high speed, and they will feast upon any artillery or archers you can get on them. Unlike the furies of the other gods, these guys come with Frenzy. Their melee defense is pitiful and they have low model count, so keeping them alive may be some work. They also have 50% magic resistance. Good skirmisher harassers, but Flesh Hounds are better.

• Chaos Hounds: Serve the same purpose they have in the WoC roster as skirmisher and artillery hunters and a cheap way to chase routing units off of the map. You'll want to swap them out for Flesh Hounds where possible, as the only advantage they bring is being more numerous and less expensive.

• Flesh Hounds: They share the same speed as normal Warhounds (95) but have a much smaller model count per unit but are much stronger and tougher. They also have magic resistance of 50% like Furies do. They inhabit that space of smaller war hound units from Drycha and the Norscans, and act as light cavalry. Hit like absolute trucks. Very good in multiplayer for chewing up (literally) low armored units/heros. They do terribly in auto resolve though.

Monsters

• Spawn of Khorne: Chaos Spawn for Khorne. Yeah that's pretty much it. They have significantly higher weapon strength so they will lawn mower light troops even faster than normal spawn do already. They trade this for some slightly reduced melee defense, as you'd expect from the all out offense Khorne style, but they also have Rampage which limits their reliability. Despite these drawbacks, they're one of Khorne's more reliable multiplayer units. An exalted bloodthirster is great, but 3 units of chaos spawn is better. A must-pick in multiplayer but a never-pick in campaign

• Minotaurs of Khorne: Or "Khornatuars" as stated in the blog reveal (Khornbulls sound better, don't at me). Compared to normal minotaurs these guys have way heavier armor and get stronger as they gain more kills, meaning they are designed more for sustained combat than the hit and run style of the Beastmen version. They come in a dual axe version for anti infantry and a great weapon version for anti large. The dual axe variant is kinda redundant with your exalted bloodletters and blood/skull crushers for infantry killing. The great weapon variant definitely will butcher large enemies but ask yourself if a halberd chaos warrior wouldn’t be tougher and more cost effective. Use with care, they are expensive and have small unit sizes. Great speed if you want mobile anti-large, But bloodthirsters do mobile anti-large even better. Good but hard to find a place for versus other units.

• Chaos Warshrine of Khorne: Gives a small, increasing buff to weapon damage and melee attack as units die around it. Do not recommend, the weapon damage buff tops out at a measly 5%. That and bloodshrines of khorne provide the same +8 melee attack buff as a maxed out khorne warshrine and they fight better and cost less too.

• Soul Grinder of Khorne: Did anyone think we were getting this thing? It's a tanky single entity monster that comes with a precursor scattergun that does 800 damage with 120 range and can fire on the move. The Khorne soul grinder can chop up the Tzeentch + Nurgle variants in melee, but gets its ass handed to it by the Slaanesh version who traded the cannon away for anti-large choppy power.

• Bloodthirster: The smaller, more accessible version of its Exalted cousin. It trades a lot of the scary combat stats in return for Anti-Large, making it more of a dedicated monster fighter. Aside from that, it functions as a cheaper version of the Exalted lord version, with whom it can make a good goon squad. Can take on pretty much any flying unit and win.
  • Khorne's Bloody Fist: An RoR Bloodthirster who has the ability "Goreshell" which gives him extra physical resistance when fighting large targets. Odd for a Khorne unit to focus on tanking damage rather than delivering it. Be careful as the enemy will likely be throwing magical attacks against you anyway, which Goreshell will do nothing to deflect.

• The Bloodbrute Behemoth (Ghorgon) (RoR) (DLC): Costs more than a bloodthirster and can't fly like a bloodthirster, but killier than a bloodthirster in every way that matters. It also gets bonuses vs weaker enemies and like Skarbrand gets increased weapon strength as it kills things during battles. Pair him with Skarbrand for a terrifying, if expensive deathstar.

Artillery

• Skull Cannon: CANNON ON WHEELS! Khorne's only reliable ranged unit (for now, anyway), and it's a mixed bag. It has good range and damage, and its mobility allows it to keep itself safe from enemy ranged and cavalry that try to take it out. However its accuracy isn't great, its ammo count is low, and as a single entity it can't put out a very good volume of fire. If something does get its hands on it, it's hard to kill with its high armor and ability to regenerate in melee, although it has only 18 melee defense, so if something does catch it it might take some hits. If it runs out of ammo, it also functions well as a chariot, where it can then gain ammo while in melee, which slightly offsets its low ammo count.

Multiplayer Strategies

Khorne is geared up to be the hyper offense faction. You have aggressive heavy infantry and a plentiful number of monsters, so you are going to absolutely dominate any melee grind that you find yourself in. Your biggest problem is going to be getting there in the first place. You have one ranged option (which aren't exactly Sisters of Avelorn or Waywatchers), and no disposable infantry chaff to soak up enemy fire. This means that if the enemy has sufficient fire they will be able to blast you to pieces before you even get to melee, and if half your army is already dead the battle may already be lost. You do have hounds and furies to deal with that, but most factions have ways to deal with them. The lack of magic means you also don't have any big burst abilities or big buff and debuffs outside of heralds and heroes. The lack of magic and missiles means this is one of the few factions were elite infantry might be a decent option to take against you (though that means they are trying to out melee you, which is usually never a smart idea). getting to the lines will be a bit of a chore but once you do, no one will be able to stop you. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

• Beastmen: You're both rush armies with limited range options. The big differences are that the Beastmen are faster than you are but have worse leadership and armor. If you can drag this out into a war of attrition you'll probably win, as the Beastmen rely so heavily on their charge bonuses. Negate that and they will quickly break before you. A clever Beastmen player will probably try to kite you with Throwing Axe Centigors and Ungor Raiders, while using his greater speed to cycle charge you and avoid prolonged engagements. To counter this bring some Flesh Hounds, who hit hard but are still fast. Also consider bringing Skarbrand, who can cause the low-leadership Beastmen troops to Rampage into bad matchups.

• Bretonnia: Your faction abilities make your army stronger the more skulls you collect, and Bretonnia's peasants have an awful lot of skulls. You'll roll over their front line like it's not even there and get more powerful as you do it. Their knights might be a bit more problematic, as may their powerful heroes, but your knights are nothing to scoff at either. The biggest risk to you might be trebuchets and archers, as they can soften you up before you can get into melee and do your butchering. Be sure to bring some hounds or Furies to give them something else to worry about. Bretonnia also sometimes struggles against big single entity monsters so maybe bring a Bloodthirster or two.

• Chaos Dwarfs:

• Daemons of Chaos:

• Warriors of Chaos: Between giant monsters and hardy infantry you and the WoC are well matched, but Hellcannons are probably going to beat your Skull Cannons. Send fliers or hounds after it if you can. Otherwise hope you can make it into melee where you might be able to rack up some kills for your army abilities, especially Relentless Rage.

• Dark Elves: What's that? You don't like the idea of fighting a super AP heavy faction with a ton of mobility you can't keep up with? Well do I have bad news for you! Dark Elves tend to do well against slower armored races and sadly that includes you. If you want some edge elf skulls for Khorne, you should probably grab war hounds to chase down Dark Riders and Scourgerunners to keep them away from all your armor. You could choose to go for Bloodletters if you want a cheap (well, by Khorne standards) frontline, or Chaos Warriors with shields to try and soak up as much missile fire as possible. Once you do get into melee, the Druchii are fucked but they will still have a ton of AP fire to worry about, so that should be your priority. Avoid big monsters, they will get shot to hell.

• Dwarfs: Good news: the Dwarfs have no mobility and very limited crowd control! Bad news: they have high morale, high melee defense, great artillery and great range. Getting in melee will be a slog, and once you do get in melee it will be a slow affair. You have the armor-piercing and strength + attack to get through their lines, but they have the leadership and melee defence to still resist for a while. Take a couple of hounds and furies to try to disrupt their artillery/ranged while your main army gets into melee.

• Empire:

• Grand Cathay: Similar to fighting dwarfs, except Cathay traded some ranged/melee proficiency away in exchange for magic disruption options and mobile units capable of intercepting your own fast movers. You'll want to go heavier on skirmishers than fighting vs. dwarfs and maybe bring a cultist or two to summon bloodletters behind the enemy line.

• Greenskins: This has a lot more going on than you'd think, while usually the greenskins rely on melee a lot going up against your anti-infantry bloodletters is suicidal for even big'uns however the greenskins do have a lot of cavalry options that can body you. anti-large boar boy big'uns can shut down your cavalry pretty fast and chariots and wolf riders can really hurt your frontline. Do your best to bring enough 'chaser' units like flesh hounds to bog down a greenskin player if he tries to skirmish you while maintaining a strong front line to mulch his infantry.

• High Elves:

• Khorne:

• Kislev:

• Lizardmen: This is a faction that is actually decently similar to you, only they trade a lot of the melee bullshit in exchange for actual skirmishers and magic. First of all, if he's dumb enough to bring Skink Cohorts, you got nothing to worry about. They'll die stupid fast and make your units stronger. It's Saurus and Dinos you got to watch out for because not only are they tough but they make getting your buffs harder due to lower model counts. A front line of Bloodletters can trade pretty cost effectively into Saurus, but they are vulnerable to Chameleon Skink fire. Grabbing a few Furies or Hounds to make sure the blowpipes are busy should let you tear up the Saurus with your daemons. To handle Dinos, grab a Bloodthirster or two and watch them go to town. They should be able to outbox most dinos the Lizards can throw at you, and if they can't your monsters can fly and their can't so just cycle charge until it dies. If he has a brain he's bringing a Slaan, so have some cav or mobile units ready to hunt him down. This is going to be a bloody fight either way, but hey that just make Khorne happier.

• Norsca:

• Nurgle: A Nurgle favored match up. Who knew that getting into a melee infantry grind with Nurgle might be a bad idea? Nurgle has plentiful access to aoe debuffs and mortis engine effects, which mean, your killily infantry will actually won't be killing that well. Currently, the meta for Nurgle is to bring a top-heavy build focusing on single entities, usually a Exalted Great Unclean One, a beast of Nurgle, and two Nurgle Cultists. Generally, you are advised to try to snipe the Exalted Great Unclean One before it can spam heals and debuffs and drag your army down. A similar single entity heavy build such as an Exalted Bloodthirster (Either generic or Skarbrand, either is typically fine) along with another regular Bloodthirster to beat the Exalted Great Unclean One's face in quickly might be decent to try. That, and halberds.

• Ogre Kingdoms: This might end up being one of your worst matchups. The Ogres have plenty of powerful ranged units that can shell you as you try to reach them. Once you do most of their units are monsters or monstrous infantry, so unless he's stupid and brings Gnoblars your Blood for the Blood God ability might as well not exist. You can't even counter their cannons with your few cheap fast units because the ogres will step on them without even noticing. Bring lots of anti-large and hope for the best.

• Skaven: The Skaven front line will evaporate the moment you touch it and all those rat skulls will juice your army up nice and good. That's the good news. The bad news is you're going to get blasted to hell and back as you approach them. Your best bet is probably to go as wide and cheap as you can. Hounds, Furies, the cheapest infantry you can get away with, anything that lets you keep the pressure up from all fronts. It's not like you actually need the really tough stuff to stomp clanrats.

• Slaanesh: Your main rival in the warp, Khorne will be slightly less pissed if you show the Lord of Excess who the real boss of the warp is. Dual axe Khorne Chaos Warriors are great here, as they beat Daemonettes in a head on charge due to their high eapon strength and infantry bonus. Bloodletters and Exalted Bloodletters might be the better option, as while the AP is largely useless against Slaanesh, the fact they're unbreakable and have Anti Infantry means they should be able to handle the front line. Yes, they have low armor but it's not like the other guys have missiles to take advantage of that anyway. Also, Minotaurs might end up being great here. While slower than the Beastmen version they are still speedy enough to potentially check some of the horny guys on the other side. The lack of missiles means Slaanesh will have to deal with them in melee, and not only do you have both an anti infantry and anti large variant, they act as great mass for if a KOS or cavalry engage and try to pull out. With that in mind, a Bloodthirster will beat a KOS in extended melee, so keeping it tied up with heavy mass will help them stomp on the four armed goat things. Their cavalry will run circles around you, but it's not like you have much of a backline to dive anyway. If the fight devolves into a brawl, you'll win. The hard part is going to be pinning the masochistic freaks down long enough to get to that point.

• Tomb Kings: Mostly the Tomb Kings are falling to their bony knees weeping tears of sand in joy that despite all appearances you can't use the Lore of Fire. And then they realized the Champions of Chaos DLC gave you skirmish cavalry with flaming throwing axes. Marauder horsemen of Khorne were made for this matchup. Put them somewhere safe until you've tied up their ranged, then ride in and take apart their constructs + lords.

• Tzeentch:

• Vampire Coast:

• Vampire Counts: Let's see here, their armies are mostly chaff, which only helps you get buffs for your units and your army abilities. They also have a large reliance on magic in order to do a lot of their damage, which you are resistant to. Your Daemons are unbreakable, so you don't give a crap about their Fear and Terror, and their lack of missiles mean they can't really hurt you before melee is reached (though keep an eye out for flying spell casters). Oh, and your Daemons do fire damage which stiffles healing, their biggest advantage. Yeah, this match up is probably going to be very one sided for you. The biggest thing you will likely have to worry about are their air force and cavalry. Blood Knights may also be troublesome, though getting some halberds and support from Skull Crushers should deal with that. Bloodletters will have a field day here, as they will shred most Vampire infantry, get their Hellblade buff up pretty fast and don't have to worry too much about missiles. Skarbrand or an Exalted Bloodthirster + a normal Bloodthirster should deal with any monsters they bring to the table.

• Wood Elves: If you're against a Wood Elf player, expect to participate in the most annoying game of "Keep Away" you've ever experienced. A wise Wood Elf player will be bringing many skirmisher units; Hawk Riders, Sisters of the Thorn or even Glade Riders will be plinking away at your sides all damn day. If they have a front line, it's really just there to slow you down; while some of their units can be pretty lethal in a fist fight, they simply lack the durability your (im)mortal hosts possess. Instead, their real killing power will be a mix of their ranged units and cavalry. To this end, you're going to need to go wide and use the landscape to the best of your ability to limit their mobility and box them in. Flesh hounds and Furies are fantastic at dealing with their ranged forces so long as you can create an opening for them. Hilariously, you have more artillery options than they do; a Skull Cannon can help crack a hole through a key section of their army or help focus down a lord/hero unit in need of killing. When it comes to their cavalry, don't let them cycle charge; if you can pin them into an extended fight, they'll quickly melt under your sustained assault. If you can do that, you're in the clear.

Campaign Strategies

Do you really NEED a campaign guide for Khornate factions? Khorne is able to wipe out SEVERAL Armies and Settlements in just ONE TURN

Depending on how great you are and how much manual playing of battles you do your Blood Hosts pretty much will keep on razing settlements and making MOAR Blood Host Armies!

Bring a Khornate Cultist to summon dispoable Daemons as they and Skarbrand will do most of the fighting and killing in the main army

Total War: Warhammer Tactics Articles
General Tactics	Tactics Magic Banner Immortal Empires
Total War: Warhammer	The Empire Dwarfs Greenskins Vampire Counts Bretonnia Warriors of Chaos Beastmen Wood Elves Norsca
Total War: Warhammer 2	High Elves Dark Elves Lizardmen Skaven Tomb Kings Vampire Coast
Total War: Warhammer 3	Kislev Khorne Tzeentch Nurgle Slaanesh Grand Cathay Ogre Kingdoms Daemons of Chaos Chaos Dwarfs