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Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Magic

2022-08-19T18:48:28Z

2600:387:2:80F:0:0:0:7A: /* Lore of Fire */

[[Category: Total Warhammer]]

This page goes into details about every single spell (Unique Spells and hero abilities not included) in the game, their uses, and so on. For the general gist of how magic works, head over to [[Total War: Warhammer/Tactics#Magic]]. For up to date #’s on spell damage, cost, and effect see here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-_Swyh0Ifo8cTI4ZUxoVGtmVVk/view
==Generic Lores==

===Lore of Beasts===
Summary of strengths- good at buffing single entities and monsters especially, ok anti horde damage spell, and for many armies their only access to summoning.
:'''Passive - ''Wild Heart''''': Your power recharge rate and power reserves increase for 29 seconds upon casting a spell from this lore, a nice tool that helps maintain the overall combat effectiveness of your Beasts caster over the course of the battle, but it's not to such a degree that you'll likely notice.
*'''Flock of Doom''': Recreate The Birds by siccing flocks of crows on all enemy units within the casting reticle. Has a low winds cost and a rather quick cooldown, but is virtually useless against single entities or smaller units. Save this for the enemy hordes that might try to tie down your forces, armored or not. This affects all units that have so much as a single model within its cast radius, making it highly efficient against infantry-based armies.
*'''Pann's Impenetrable Pelt''': Buff the physical resistance of a target unit by 20% and their melee defense by 24 for 31 seconds. Compared to how it worked before, this makes a unit substantially more durable in melee combat and, especially if combined with other spells like Shield of Thorns, can turn a key frontline unit into an absolute tank. Overcasting turns it into an AoE spell, which might very well be worth it in the opening stages of a frontline engagement to mitigate damage.
*'''The Amber Spear''': The only other damage dealing spell you have, this time as a single projectile geared towards character/monster sniping. It deals pretty hefty damage and is a great option against more heavily armored beasts that would otherwise shrug off other artillery or missile fire from more conventional units. It does have a powerful but short range explosion effect as well, so it can technically nuke an elite unit but aiming may be more trouble than its worth to get a good hit.
*'''The Curse of Anraheir''': A hex that debilitates enemies with -24 Melee Attack and Defense while also crippling them with a 25% speed debuff. Use this to effectively defang enemy units or combine/alternate with Pann's Impenetrable Pelt to keep your key units alive. Alternatively, when used offensively, this will make it easier to pin down and knock around enemy units that you really need cleaned off the board.
*'''Transformation of Kadon''': This is pretty much ''the'' reason most players bother taking the Lore of Beasts in multiplayer at all. After a brief windup period, the Beast Caster summons either a Feral Manticore (standard), Great Eagle (High/Wood Elves) or Varghulf (Von Carstein). As they can be summoned anywhere within 60m of the caster, this allows you to throw a relatively potent combat monster into an opponent's more vulnerable backline while they can do little more than scramble to address the sudden incursion. With a limit of two casts per battle and a moderately short timer on the monsters before they despawn, each cast should be considered wisely.
*'''Wyssan's Wildform''': A surprisingly vicious combat supplement, this spell grants a target unit +25% Base and AP damage as well as +30 Armor for 19 seconds. Due to the offensive portion of this spell's buffs being percentage-based, Wyssan's Wildform gets ''far'' more bang for your buck when cast on elite units or single entity monstrous units that have naturally high weapon/ap damage. The armor supplement helps, though shouldn't really be a major consideration when you could get better defensive utility out of Pann's Impenetrable Pelt (though pairing the two is hardly ill-advised). Much like Pann's Impenetrable Pelt, overcasting Wyssan's Wildform turns it into an AoE spell and can make single-entity doomstacks disgustingly potent.

===Lore of Death===
Summary of strengths: great perfect accuracy direct damage spells for single entities and elite units as as well as a powerful vortex, lacking in both buff and debuff power however. Good at reducing leadership.
:'''Passive - ''Life Leeching''''': Whenever a spell is cast from this discipline, your power recharge rate improves for 25 seconds. Quite frankly, a very nice passive that acts like a built in Arcane Conduit.
*'''Spirit Leech''': The first spell in this Lore and it's one of the best, if we're being honest. A rather cheap, direct damage spell at 8 Winds of Magic. Preferably used against Characters and Monsters and probably the most cost-efficient Character sniping spell in the game (does 834 damage without any resistances on average, ignores armor). It also can serve as a nice counter against Ethereal Units. It actually works very well vs small monstrous cavalry and infantry units, think the 6-24 model range, also ok on smallish elite units also but anything over 20ish models really hurts its efficiency, bjuna is far better for that. one cast can nearly kill most artillery because it (usually) hits the machines, not the crew. Very versatile and mana efficient, the standard to which all direct damage spells are compared.
*'''Doom and Darkness''': Basically the opposite of the Lore of Light's Light of Battle Spell. Sits in the 10 Winds niche of rather specific debuffs. It reduces the leadership of an enemy unit by a whopping 16, enough to send most standard troops into a rout once they have taken some losses and to mitigate any effects the presence of a Character in their vicinity might have. Notably less useful against Undead, who cannot rout, but can still cause them to begin crumbling more quickly if such a tactic is necessary. Of course, this spell is completely useless against Unbreakable units. Pretty useless in very hard or legendary campaign battle difficulty because of the crazy leadership buffs the AI gets, but nice on normal and hard difficulties as well as multiplayer.
*'''Soulblight''': An ok AoE debuff, for its relatively low cost of 8 Winds of Magic/ 14 overcast. Lowers the armor (-30) and weapon damage (-30%) of all units in an AOE for 25 seconds, 50 if overcast. The pairing of armor and weapon damage debuffs don't synergize that well with each other and the lowish base duration can be rough, maybe worth overcasting for double duration if you cast at all. still its a more efficient armor removing spell than plague of rust because of its AOE so that's something. it may only debuff two less important stats but it isn't bad since its an affordable AOE debuff. Doomfire warlocks get this free so never pay winds for it as the dark elves if you can help it. overcast is double duration for slightly cheaper than double so worth it in theory.
*'''Aspect of the Dreadknight''': Same as deal with Soulblight. It might be extremely cheap at 4 Winds of Magic, but its effect of +8 Leadership and Causes Terror for friendly units is simply not good enough, especially when taken into consideration that many factions that can use the Lore of Death (especially the Undead factions) have no shortage of Units that cause fear and terror or are completely exempt from Leadership issues.
*'''The Purple Sun of Xereus''': The good ol' "cast it successfully and the game is over" Vortex from the Tabletop doesn't disappoint here either. At 18 (24 when overcast) Winds of Magic, a fairly expensive Vortex that will completely demolish everything it touches, its only downside being that it is hard to predict where it will eventually go, but even the initial cast on a large moshpit of infantry is worth it. Particularly devastating on Bridge Battles, where Wizards with this spell will rack up a ludicrous amount of kills from one single cast alone.
*'''The Fate of Bjuna''': This is an odd one. An expensive single target direct damage spell That serves mainly as a middle finger to cavalry, elite infantry any thing with a medium model count. Deals large amounts of damage, but needs careful evaluation on when to use it. It's considered op in multiplayer where elite units are expensive and rare. In campaign, where stacks of endgame units are common, it's too expensive where a bombardment, missile or even vortex does more for cheaper. Its price is very inflated because of its power in multiplayer. You can just drop purple sun on a single unit for cheaper vs the AI most of the time. Not very efficient vs anything with less than 45 models.

===Lore of Fire===
Important to note: All spells from the Lore deal Magical and Fire type damage. It counts as both and is resisted by both. Tree sprits, tomb kings, and nurgle demons have notable weaknesses to fire damage in particular.

Summary of strengths: one of the best versus lightly armored infantry or anything with weakness to fire. Poor versus single entities and monsters usually. Not as good versus armored targets. Has one pretty good aoe buff, that got better with changes to magic resistance. The burning head is AMAZING.

:'''Passive - ''Kindleflame''''': Whenever you cast a Lore of Fire spell, it imbues a map wide fire weakness to all enemy units as you cast. The benefits combined with this lore are obvious, and allows for great synergy when used with other units who deal fire damage. Combines nicely with flaming sword.
*'''Fireball''': Inexpensive projectile that is found all over the goddamn place. High Elven Mages and Skink Priests can get 4 uses of them for free. It's... alright-ish. Like all projectiles, Fireballs strongly depend the casters positioning and its damage is kinda meh. Can still be reliably used to snipe big monsters and Lords out of the sky, and its considerable range makes it a very attractive and cheap source of Fire Damage to be used against Ethereal units or Wood Elven tree spirits. The minor boost in damage provided by overcasting generally isn't worth the increased mana cost, so in almost every circumstance you're better off just casting normally. its AP is kind of low so it isn't very impressive versus armored targets, best used on lightly armored monsters or lords/heros.
*'''Flaming Sword of Rhuin''': Cheap (8/12) base/overcast buff for your troops that makes all of their attacks deal fire and magic damage, as well as increasing their damage output by 30% for 22/44 seconds. Don't forget that this can also be cast on ranged units, so have fun experimenting with that. With the upcoming changes to magic resistance set to only affect damage inflicted by spells, this is set to become a solid tool for enabling some of your heavier hitters to shoulder through units with high physical resistances. Just beware, flame resistance will still be able to shrug off the damage.
*'''Cascading Fire Cloak''': Extremely cheap (only 5 winds of magic!) AoE buff that increases AP Damage of your melee troops by 24% and also gives them 25 Melee Defense for 19 seconds. Gives your frontline a bit more staying power and makes Greatswords, not to mention Har Garneth Executioners or Swordmasters of Hoeth downright terrifying. Important to keep in mind is that it won't do jack shit for units that bring no AP damage on their own, like Imperial Swordsmen. A 100% increase of 1 would still be 2. its single target only unfortunately and percentage based so maybe use on a monster or lord/hero for best results.
*'''The Burning Head''': Oh sweet baby, yes! A medium prized (10 Winds of Magic) Wind Spell that deals an intimidating amount of damage and also terrifies people. ''This'' is the prime spell of the Lore of Fire. Tons of Fire Damage, but can also deviate a bit, although not as much as Vortex Spells would. It's cheap size relative to its effectiveness make it a very attractive spell to use, and is available in the campaign very early on. Keep in mind it does zero AP damage even when overcast, so it sucks vs armor. On the positive side, your armored forces can tank a stray blast if you cast it alongside/on top of them when they're in battle with chaff or unarmored infantry, making a great tool for front-line engagements. Maybe even better in WH 3 with the demon factions mostly having bad armor.
*'''Piercing Bolts of Flame''': An expensive and semi-unreliable spell, this is your most effective anti-Armor option outside of Flamestorm spam. It deals a high amount of projectile damage as well, so it can deal respectable damage to monstrous infantry or even regular infantry if they clump up. In general though, you'll probably be better off prioritizing other, more potent/cost efficient spells and leave the dedicated anti-armor to other units in your army.
*'''Flamestorm''': When you need to delete infantry whole-sale, this is your go-to spell. Compared to Burning Head, Flamestorm is less efficient and substantially less consistent, but Flamestorm has substantially higher utility against armored enemies and has the ''potential'' to do much more damage overall. Costs a moderate 13 winds but will utterly annihilate any models caught in its wake, armored or not. Overcasting bumps the WoM cost to 20, doubles the duration from 27 seconds to 54, increases base damage but does nothing for the AP values. Only overcast if you're confident the enemy is locked down and you don't mind it potentially rolling into your forces. Even then, just saving the extra winds for a follow up cast may be a more efficient choice.

===Lore of Heavens===
Summary of Strengths: A damage focused lore that is kind of like fire but with less chaff killing and more AP and anti single-entity, lore attribute is pretty situational though.
:'''Passive - ''Roiling Skies''''': A mapwide debuff that slows down flying units and debuffs their melee defense for 25 seconds upon casting a spell. Frankly a mediocre and situational perk, but it can be handy if your opponent's playing a faction with a lot of flying cavalry.
*'''Wind Blast''': A cost effective breath spell that does wonders against unarmored chaff infantry like skavenslaves or peasant mobs. A side effect of this particular breath spell worth noting is that it disrupts enemy formations, making it valuable if only to help buy time for your own forces to get into position/get the charge into them while they recover. Overcasting the spell gives it a touch more bite against armored units (4 AP damage), but the difference is so marginal that it's not really worth it. Never overcast.
*'''Urannon's Thunderbolt''': A bolt of lightning that strikes a small area for extremely large AP damage. Has impressive range, so it has moderate use against the near-stationary artillery pieces your opponent may have. It's pure AP damage and overcasting does more than 1300 damage (much more than doombolts 1000ish AP or amber spears 700 AP), if you hit a lord or monster they will FEEEEEL it. Best cost to damage ratio of any single target blast. Cheaper and better than any other of its type. It has a minimal area of effect and does not track targets, so you'll need to aim carefully to actually land true with it.
*'''Harmonic Convergence''': A supporting spell that improves the melee defense/attack of a friendly unit by a rather respectable margin for 24 seconds, including their armor value if overcast. A very potent spell that can help turn the tide of an engagement on the front lines at a rather minor cost of 6 winds. It falls a bit behind similar buffing spells from other lores due to the fact it is limited to a single target, but is still a decent option for a key beat-stick unit of yours none-the-less.
*'''Curse of the Midnight Wind''': An AoE Hex that debuffs all enemies within its casting radius with lowered melee attack and armor values for 25 seconds, 50 if overcast. Combined with Harmonic Convergence, this is best served when you need to turn a frontline engagement around. In general though, at 11 WoM per cast, you may rather opt to simply put that power towards one of the damage dealing spells instead.
*'''Chain Lightning''': Now we're getting to the good stuff. One of the strongest vortex spells in the game, Chain Lightning randomly crawls across the battle field for 21 seconds dealing heavy damage to everything caught up in it, armored or not. It deals pure AP damage, highest of any other vortex spell. High elf archmages get this as a bound spell, and can get Urannon's Thunderbolt from a lord trait, making this lore perhaps a waste to use on them, since they could get so much of it free.
*'''Comet of Cassandora''': When you want to call down the celestial thunder, there's no better choice than the Comet of Cassandora. With a relatively large area of effect and massive damage output, the CoC can wipe out entire units with a well-placed blast, even more so if overcast... if anything is still willfully under the targeting cursor while the comet takes its sweet time to actually arrive. Between the rather lengthy delay before the comet itself actually descends onto the battlefield and the rather intense winds of magic cost (especially if overcast), finding a situation to use the CoC in lieu of either Chain Lightning or even Wind Blast will be quite difficult. All in all, it's terribly inefficient. Thunderbolt does much more damage to a single target and chain lighting is usually cheaper and more efficient for hordes/blobs. In Campaigns against AI, the Comet of Cassandora is a considerably more attractive option when engaging in Siege battles or against clumps of elite, relatively immobile units. Since the AI tends to be blissfully oblivious to the impact indicator and is prone to scrunching multiple units together regularly, they'll rarely make any effort to avoid taking the full brunt of a well positioned Comet.

===Lore of Life===
Summary of Strengths: very effective on an army with many monstrous units to keep them alive and make them more durable, in campaign the ability to heal up after fights is invaluable for preventing attrition over multiple fights. Has some decent damage spells also, thought you may prefer to save all winds for healing. Does not revive models, hence it being better on smaller monstrous units with more health per model.
:'''Passive - ''Life Bloom''''': Whenever a life spell is cast, all your units heal up to 40 hitpoints over the course of 5 seconds. It's not much, but it's free healing that applies to your entire army whenever you cast a spell. Every little bit helps.
*'''Earth Blood''': This is the bread and butter for most life wizards. A nice AoE heal for up to four allied units within its radius that lasts for 7 seconds, with double the length and healing if overcast. The main value of this spell is the relatively inconsequential winds of magic cost (6/11), allowing life wizards to support a rather sizeable chunk of your army for a rather extended period of time.
*'''Awakening of the Wood''': A large damage dealing explosion that dramatically slows down everyone caught up in the blast, but deals squat for damage against anything with an armor value.
*'''Shield of Thorns''': A nice offensive/defensive buff that grants percentage based physical resist and weapon damage bonuses to several of your units within the spell's radius. A great supporting power for key units that goes quite nicely with Earth Blood to keep them in peak physical form. Use on units who already resist physical for best results, overcasting can be good if you need extra weapon damage. Can be cast combined with pelt if you have a beast caster to give 50% physical resist on top of any the unit already has.
*'''Flesh to Stone''': A massive boost to an allied unit's armor value for 44 seconds (88 if overcast), this can turn even a squishy unit like Wood Elf Wardancers into surprisingly tanky beat-sticks, especially if stacked with Shield of Thorns. When compared to SoT, however, it tends to be better against non-AP by far but falls off in the later game when more units tend to have AP values. Single target really limits its effectiveness.
*'''Regrowth''': An expensive single target heal that replenishes a substantial amount of HP and vigour to the target unit, especially if overcast. Frankly best reserved for emergencies and/or single entity units as no amount of healing will bring back slain models in a unit. Minor exceptions extend to the very few factions who ''can'' revive slain models, like the Lizardmen when utilizing a Revivification Crystal Bastilodon. In general though, Earth Blood provides better sustain for your army over the course of the battle.
*'''The Dwellers Below''': A shockingly powerful AoE damaging spell for a lore so dedicated to supporting your own units, The Dwellers Below snares all units who travel within the spell's zone with a speed debuff while chipping away at them in the process. While it's good in certain situations, you've likely taken your life wizard for dedicated healing support and will likely have alternative options for offensive spellcasters more suited to the task. Wood elf spellweaver lords get this as a bound spell, which is awesome. Despite its awesome animations, if you look carefully at the spells tooltip, you'll notice that it's a direct damage spell and not a vortex. This is important because it means that instead of centering it on blobs, you want it covering as many enemy units as possible and you don't have to worry about hitting your own units with it.

===Lore of Light===
Summary of Strengths: two good AOE buff spells, a good vortex, and a amazing movement lockdown spells, it best for factions that want to trap units and let their archers or artillery slaughter the enemy, or those who need to boost their frontlines melee potential. or both.
:'''Passive - ''Exorcism''''': Whenever you cast a Lore of Light spell, all your units gain 4 leadership and become immune to psychology (fear/terror) for 11 seconds. Useful, if you are facing armies with lots of scary monsters, but largely useless outside of that.
*'''Shen's Burning Gaze''': Inexpensive Projectile, costs the same as fireball (5 winds), but fires 5 projectiles in a grouping. Has the advantage of higher base damage than said Fireball, and the disadvantage that all projectiles need to land for the spell to deal full damage. Given that most entities except the largest ones aren't even big enough for all projectiles to land, it's kinda mediocre. For what it's worth, it has much better AP damage than fire ball for similar cost. If cast at close range, it can be used like a shotgun to get all of the projectiles to hit. It's best vs a monster sized unit obviously, but it's also good vs flying to due decent air tracking. It fires 5 projectiles base goes up to 10 if overcast. Basically just like gaze of nagash from lore of vampires. Also it has bonus vs large.
*'''Net of Amyontok''': This is why you pick the Lore of Light. A medium-prized (10 winds) AoE debuff that locks an enemy in place, right where they stand. The incredible utility of this spell cannot be understated. A must pick against factions with a lot of mobility, although it only affects units on the ground. Despite that limitation, it ''will'' trap any flying cavalry/monsters/characters who are on the ground (from a charge, for example), so if you can catch them with this before they can retreat into the skies, you can severely punish them. Obviously favored by those with good archers and artillery, Sisters of Avelorn and Salamander Hunting Packs being notable beneficiaries.
*'''Pha's Protection''': A cheap defense buff. Grants 30 armour and 24 Melee Defense at the prize of 5 winds of magic for 22 seconds. overcast adds AOE for 10 winds. unexceptional but nice, short duration is unfortunate, but good AOE buffs are rare. maybe worth it if you can hit enough of your units. great buff for lizardmen suarus and dinosaurs who have high weapon strength but lower MA/MD.
*'''Light of Battle''': AoE buff for 7 Winds of Magic that makes all units unbreakable for 22 seconds. Not to be underestimated, but needs a creative mind to use right. very situational, probably not worth it often.
*'''Bironas Timewarp''': Pretty nifty AOE buff spell that costs 11 Winds of Magic and gives units a whopping 24% increase to their movement speed and 24 melee attack. Perfect for Cavalry and other fast units. Great buff for lizardmen Suarus and dinosaurs who have high weapon strength but lower MA/MD.
*'''Banishment''': A 17/24 overcast winds vortex with good ap damage (7ap same as pit of shades). you get a small zone of bright death. The game advertises this spell as dealing "medium damage", which is bewildering, to say the least. Banishment definitely doesn't need to hide behind its bigger brethren from other Lores. It’s actually incredibly similar to purple sun now, in fact purple sun is probably better now. Still good though. Overcasting increases the base damage by 7, though the AP values are untouched. Generally not worth overcasting in most scenarios. Slann get this as a free bound spell, as always this is awesome.

===Lore of Metal===
Summary of strengths: good to buff or debuff armor, and has possibly the most powerful AOE direct damage spell versus small units and single entities, searing doom is a decent bombardment spell vs lightly armored units and glittering robe is very strong if your facing an army with poor ap. Be aware that this is usually considered one of the weaker lores in the game unless your playing as Gelt.
:'''Passive - ''Metalshifting''''': Your lore attribute that gives your units +10% AP and Weapon Strength for 13 second. Used best on elite units who already have high AP and damage as something like an Empire Swordsman probably won't be noticing the effects too much.
*'''Searing Doom''': A fairly cost effective bombardment ability against low armor. At only 6 winds of magic it can help destroy early game blobs of crappy infantry. It's biggest disadvantage is the wind up time so any opponent who's paying attention should be able to get out of the way. Fortunately the AI doesn't bother with dodging these most of the time. Low projectile damage means wont do shit to higher health models, kroxigors, dragon ogres etc.
*'''Plague of Rust''': One of the most cost effective armor debuffs in the game, especially if you don't have a lot of affordable AP. Being able to get rid of 30 armor for 4 winds (Or 60 for 6 if you overcast) is situationally good. Plus it lasts 44 seconds so you have plenty of time to deal with them before their defensive stats return to normal. It's certainly better against some factions (this can be a god send against Dwarfs and Bretonnia) than others (Beastmen and Wood Elves will laugh if you bring this). In the campaign almost every unit worth using should have AP anyway, really only good situationally/early game. single target is the biggest problem, at least its cheap with good duration. kind of mediocre. I would rather use soul blight with shorter duration, at least's its AOE. a single armored unit is only ever going to matter enough in multiplayer.
*'''Glittering Robes''': it got buffed. now 60 armor for 44 seconds (no leadership effect anymore), overcast for AOE, actually pretty good if fighting non AP. 6 base/12 overcast. AOE is the big deal, much better than the life equivalent.
*'''Gehenna's Golden Hounds''': You can spend an extra 3 winds of magic for a mediocre vortex that only hurts low armor units and might even kill some of your own troops. Doesn't that sound fun? Use Searing Doom, you'll get better bang for your buck. It actually has the same AP damage per tick as Purple Sun, its mostly just small and hard to aim. Cheap though. Not great
*'''Transmutation of Lead''': A fairly solid -24 melee attack and -30% weapon damage for 38 seconds can really put enemy momentum to a halt (if you overcast, -60% weapon damage). costs 11 base, 16 overcast. unfortunately debuffing melee attack and weapon strength while good is somewhat counter synergistic, because if they don't hit the strength doesn't matter, but its just doubling down rather than redundant. Probably don't overcast unless you really think you need it.
*'''Final Transmutation''': Ok so take Spirit Leech, make it a massive AOE and you have a pretty good idea of how Final Transmutation works. This can win you games if you get a big blob in it but at 18 (28 overcast) Winds of Magic it'll probably be all you're casting in multiplayer. In campaign, build up those reserves and you can win battles with this alone. Even if you only hit 2 targets, it has higher damager per winds ratio than Spirit Leech. The overcast version does 2300 damage on average vs Spirit Leech's 834 average. If you can weaken a lord to the 2000 health range this will quickly destroy them. Assuming they have no significant magic resist/healing/wards of course, but still incredibly potent none-the-less. (all direct damage spells bypass armor FYI, so Bejuna, Flock of Doom, Miasma etc., they all do).

===Lore of Shadows===
Summary of Stregnths: a versatile lore with two exceptional damage spells, and only one bad spell. Pit of Shades and Pendulum alone allow you to devastate units. Has all around useful spells and is very versatile and all its damage spells work great on both elite units and chaff.
:'''Passive - ''Smoke & Mirrors''''': A mapwide movement speed buff for 24 seconds whenever you cast a shadows spell is a nice perk that can give you a slight edge in maneuverability over your opponent, though this is very largely dependent on the factions at play. Remember the mediocre speed boosts of pelt or timewarp? This is better, map wide, and free. Still not that great.
*'''Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma''': A Single target direct damage spell that deals damage to one unit while also slowing them down in the process. At 5 winds of magic for a quick cast, it's a great precursor to an engagement or to help prevent your opponent from fleeing. Averages around 1764 direct damage, quite good but only on a large unit, ideally with about 100 or more models. Ok to speed debuff a lord or monster if you really need to as well, other wise dont overcast. best spammed to wear down large units, compare to flock of doom for example.
*'''The Enfeebling Foe''': A 22 second melee defense/attack debuff that cripples a single enemy unit of your choice. Ideally used against characters or monsters who might be trying to wreak havoc in your lines or to give your own lord a step up in a duel against them. Probably worth overcasting for the double duration. One of the best debuffs in the game for a single target. Hit a lord with it then buff your duelist monster, hero, or lord with Mindrazor and you get a nasty killing combo.
*'''The Withering''': Yet another hex that targets a single unit and reduces their armor and leadership for 40 seconds. It only has a prominent niche if you stack lots of leadership debuffs to force opposing units to route, but Doom and Darkness from death does that twice as well (if that discipline is available). all races that can leadership bomb (beastmen, dark elves, norsca, warriors of chaos, and vampires) have access to death, except lizardmen which cant use shadow or death. Generally a very mediocre spell.
*'''The Penumbral Pendulum''': A potent wind spell that is perfect for slicing through frontline units while they're tied up in combat. It's not quite as powerful as the Burning Head or the Winds of Death against unarmored foes, but anything wearing a tin can will get cracked open. This does 36 AP damage base or a whopping 72 if overcast. It actually does more AP damage than wind of death, but usually gets fewer kills due to shorter duration, travel distance, and AOE. Wrecks elite infantry and cavalry.
*'''Pit of Shades''': One of the very select few stationary vortex spells in the game. With a 13 second duration, the Pit of Shades is a fantastic tool in maps that have natural choke points or if you manage to box in a particularly large clump of units. It deals 7 points of pure AP, same as Purple Sun's or Banishment's AP damage, though it has no base damage paired with it. Overcasting doubles the ap to 14, but this is generally unnecessary in most circumstances. It traps enemies inside of it, so not only does it immobilize clumps of enemies for follow-up attacks, it tends to deal tons of damage as long as you get a direct hit. Very reliable.
*'''Okkam's Mindrazor''': A very nasty buff that grants magical attacks to an allied unit as well as a ''very'' substantial 40% buff to weapon and armor piercing damage. Overcast for an expensive but powerful AOE buff. Use on monsters, heroes and lords for best results because it's percentage based; you're gonna get a lot more mileage out of it that way. Good for a goon squad to kill monsters/lords, not worth it for killing infantry usually. Remember weapon strength doesn’t matter if you can’t hit, try to combine it with an a melee attack boost or melee defense debuff for best results. Enfeebling foe for example.

===Scrolls===

In the Campaign, you can occasionally find magic scrolls that give your caster a free spell with limited uses, and some of them aren't available in any lore. Given that they're free, there is no reason to not cast them in any battle. Some of these spells can also be unlocked through faction mechanics or just levelling your caster character up.

*'''Arnzipal's Black Horror''': Stupidly effective Breath Spell that eats chaff alive and even inflicts enough damage to give Elite Units a run for their money. As of the Rakarth Update, Dark Elven Supreme Sorceresses get this spell as a bound spell for levelling up to Level 10 on the Campaign, everyone else has to rely on the enemy to drop the Scroll of Horror.
*'''Assault of Stone''': Probably the strongest Bombardment in the entire game. Covers a huge area, and inflicts a ton AP magic damage. The Dwarfs (of all factions) get the easiest access to it by forging the Sceptre of Stone with Oathgold.
*'''Amber Scroll''': A free leadership debuff on any one unit.
*'''Blast''': Fireball but faster and more immediate.

==Faction-specific Lores==

===Lore of the Deep (Vampire Coast)===
Summary of strengths: You would probably never want to use this instead of vampires but it can be good alongside it. its summon spell is very strong, its accuracy buff is cheap and situationally good, and all its damage spells are solid. Think carefully if you'd be better off casting from lore of vampires instead though.
:'''Passive - ''Kiss of the Deep''''': Each time you cast a spell it does a small amount of magic damage to every enemy unit on the map. This is especially useful when fighting against armies that have fragile units and rely on [[Wood Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|superior speed]] or [[skaven|disposable chaff units]] to keep them protected.
*'''Tidecall''': A breath weapon that expands out in a cone, doing moderate damage and disrupting enemy formations. Basically wind blast from the Lore of Heaven, but wetter.
*'''Spiteful Shot''': A buff that provides +90 accuracy to an allied unit. Great for deck gunners, mortars, Queen Bess, or anything else that can shoot, really. It's the cheapest spell in your arsenal so it can be reliably spammed to get more Kiss of the Deep effects.
*'''Denizens of the Deep''': Summons a unit of Rotting Prometheans. The Rotting Prometheans biggest weakness is its low speed, so the ability to drop a unit right into the enemy is amazing. Need to soak up an enemy charge? Want to disrupt enemy artillery? There's an enemy hero giving you problems? Solve every problem with [[meme|giant enemy crabs]].
*'''Fog of the Damned''': A debuff spell that reduces enemy leadership and movement speed. Not your best spell, but it slows enemy melee units down to give your gunners more time to shoot them. It still causes Kiss of the Deeps which is never bad.
*'''Vangheist's Revenge''': Possibly the coolest looking spell ever. Summons a giant ghost boat to broadside the enemy for heavy damage across a wide area. Expensive and slow to cast, but stylish as hell and can potentially wipe out whole units at once.
*'''Kraken's Pull''': A big vortex full of [[slaanesh|wet groping tentacles]] that traps any unit caught inside of it, dealing damage to them and cutting their speed in half. Anything that keeps the enemy away from your lines is useful. The vortex is also immobile, so there's no risk of it backfiring into your units.

===Lore of High Magic (High Elves, Lizardmen, Wood Elves)===
Summary of Strengths: its great to lockdown and damage flying units or lords/heros with tempest, and it can do a bit of everything, it doesn't do anything particularly well though. You can just spam cheap spells to buff ward save I guess. and it does have a good healing spell, it just cant keep up with life.
:'''Passive - ''Shield of Saphery''''': A 11% Ward Save graces all your units whenever you cast spells from this discipline.
:'''Passive (Wood Elves) - ''Ancients' Protection''''': A slightly worse version of the Shield of Saphery, this only grants a 10% ''Physical'' Resistance buff, meaning it'll do nothing against magic damage/missiles. Still, it works well enough for Wood Elves since they have a reasonable amount of innate physical resist already and can be further supplemented by physical resistance spells from other disciplines.
*'''Hand of Glory''': A relatively cheap buff for a single allied unit that grants them increased reload skill and melee attack for 29 seconds. Reload skill and melee attack don't exactly go hand in hand as far as complimentary buffs go, but it does give it a bit more potential application across your entire army compared to other more specialized buffs. Despite this, and despite it's lower cost, it will not usually do enough to justify the winds cost since one unit can only do so much. A single fireball would usually do more even, depending on your targets.
*'''Apotheosis''': A very cheap single unit heal that also imbues the allied target with Fear for its 22 second duration. This is, all things considered, a pretty nice spell for a tanky frontline unit and does provide more healing to a single target than Earth Blood (granted, Earth Blood heals multiple targets). The addition of Fear does help push through the squishier, meeker chaff units that might simply be trying to tie you down. Unfortunately, the lore of life exists and all factions with high magic have access to life magic. Never overcast it unless you really need the range.
*'''Soul Quench''': A magic missile with artillery levels of range that explodes for quite reasonable damage against groups of infantry. While it's reasonably effective and cost efficient, you'll likely want to reserve your Winds of Magic for more utilitarian purposes and leave the job of long-range bombardment to your actual artillery units, Wood Elves lack artillerysi they *might* get moreuse out of this. Keep in mind it has bad armor piercing, use it like fireball pretty much. If you use it at all.
*'''Tempest''': A snare that deals damage and traps a flying unit in a slow moving vortex. This is a very useful tool for dealing with (Legendary) Lords on flying mounts or flying Monsters like Dragons. While they take impressive damage from the Tempest itself, you should always have a unit or two of missile units or artillery on hand to take advantage of their immobility. In general though, this is worse than the Net of Amyntok if your goal is to snare enemy units in place. Great in multiplayer, crap in single player.
*'''Fiery Convocation''': A relatively potent wind spell that deals reasonable damage to enemies it passes through. Even among directional wind spells, there's a lot of room for variance on the path it takes, so try not to use it too close to your own front line. Does the highest AP damage of any wind spell but lower total damage than pendulum, for example. Not really worth the extra cost for the higher AP, its only ok. Very slow cast time means it's hard to hit savvy opponents with it too.
*'''Arcane Unforging''': A very powerful single-entity spell that deals substantial damage to the target while increasing their ability cooldowns by a considerable amount. This is a very valuable spell against enemy Heroes and Lords due to their ability to completely shut them down. Overcharging the spell can add a whopping 45 seconds to their ability cooldowns which, if used at just the right moment, can utterly ruin an opponent's strategy and potentially cost them the field. Obviously less useful against battering ram-type characters who just charge into battle, but hey. Can't have everything. Higher damage but less efficient than other spells of its kind. Spirit leech, final transmutation and soul stealer are honestly better because their AoE capabilities (or higher efficiency in spirit leech's case) make up for their high cost. Still, not a bad spell though, considering Lizardmen lack access to the aforementioned alternatives. Pick your targets well and only overcast against extremely high priority characters with powerful abilities.

===Lore of Dark Magic (Dark Elves, Wood Elves)===
Summary of Strengths: a good damage lore that has a very powerful AOE Spirit leech equivalent and self-healing combo Spell, some good damage spells for both single entities and hordes, and a powerful winds recharge buff along side a strong single target debuff. Fairly versatile/powerful offensive lore but completely lacking in any form of support.
:'''Passive - ''Spiteful Conjuration''''': Reduces armor map wide, it’s ok, works out to 11% less damage resistance for 18 seconds. Almost the same as the lore of metal attribute effectively but almost always better. It affects missile and spell damage not just melee with a longer duration than metal does. Doesn’t actually affect any of the spells from this lore except bladewind however since the rest do pure AP damage.
:'''Passive (Wood Elves) - ''Wrath of the Woods''''': 12% more missile damage map wide for 8 seconds, it’s nice. Like a free half strength flaming sword and stacks with all other boosts.
*'''Power of Darkness''': Basically a 4 times as strong arcane conduit that causes 500ish damage to a unit over time. Which unit is chosen doesn’t matter. 3 use limit per battle. Very underrated, easily the strongest winds recharge skill in the game. Cast on a hydra and it will just regen through most of the damage or on a bolt thrower out of the way. Don’t ever put the damage on your wizard. in campaign you can consider running dark plus a second lore to have the dark act as a winds battery, recommend to combine with other winds boost like knowledgeable sorceresses
*'''Chillwind''': Cheap wind spell that does 24 points of PURE Ap damage. That’s 2/3rds of a pendulum’s AP component. Also slows and lowers reload speed so multi use. Honestly a bargain, it’s pure AP would be worth the cost alone. Plus triggers lore attribute cheaply. Overcast isn’t worth it. it looks weaker than it is, remember that it wont kill many models but will significantly weaken them, its hard to tell but it adds up to a lot of lost health on infantry. best used on heavily armored infantry and cavalry with lower per model health.
*'''Word of Pain''': A single target only debuff isn’t ideal but it can claim to be probably the best lord or hero off switch in the game. -44 melee attack is massive. Overcast adds a melee defense hit as well. Sometimes worth overcasting. Situational but nice to have.
*'''Blade Wind''': Pretty cheap, pretty damaging vortex. Lowish ap damage but helped by the lore attribute, short duration but that rarely matters. It does it’s job well for its cost. Won’t win any awards but its cheap enough to justify just dropping it on only 1 or 2 units. same cost as base Doombolt so use this on bigger units or blobs usually but Doombolt vs single entities or monstrous units. Overcast doubles duration but unlikely to hit anything long enough for that to matter, not worth overcasting really.
*'''Doombolt''': Does just over 800 pure AP on a direct hit with an decent AOE detonation as well. Plus it’s a bombardment with pretty good tracking. It is like a cheaper comet of casadora with the tradeoff of less AOE range but better single target damage. Comparable damage/efficiency to Amber Spear overcast. Its ideal situation is hitting a lord or monster while surrounded by troops to take advantage of both damage portions. Overcast is proportionate, it only boosts the single target damage though. Against units just use the base version.
*'''Soul Stealer''': AOE spirit leech combined with a caster only heal identical to High Magic’s but with about 50 more healing. Damage is the exact same as Spirit leech, but because it hits every target with their own version it’s more efficient than Spirit Leech with just 2-3 good targets. Plus only healing Dark Elves get. Great spell. Better on Morathi, Malekith, and a black dragon sorceress to make the self healing more valuable.

===Lore of Nehekhara (Tomb Kings)===
Summary of Strengths: not a great lore, 2 good buffs and one decent one but its just not good enough to compete with death or light as a standalone lore. damage spells are lackluster. Either rely on the buffs or just use as a secondary lore.
:'''Passive - ''The Restless Dead''''': Completely identical to the Lore of Vampires passive, heals injured undead before resurrecting models. Unlike the Lore of Vampires, the Lore of Nehekhara contains many more small buff spells but lacks the damage potential of the former. That does, however, mean that this passive will be triggering a lot more frequently.
*'''Djaf's Incantation of Cursed Blades''': One of the cheapest spells in the game at 3 WoM, this little spell buffs weapon and AP damage by 25% on a single unit. Emblematic of the Tomb Kings lore and battle philosophy in general: while there are no standout spells or units that will single-handedly win you your battles, it's the combined-arms nature of the faction that truly makes it succeed. And the Cursed Blades is perfect for giving those cavalry, Ushabti, and other nasty constructs the edge on the offense.
*'''Neru's Incantation of Protection''': Grants 44% Physical Resistance for 6 WoM. Good for keeping your Tomb King rampaging through the enemy lines on his Warsphinx or giving one of your holding units unexpected resilience.
*'''Ptra's Incantation of Righteous Smiting''': The go-to spell for the missile-focused Tomb Kings player. Granting 40% bonus to missile and missile AP damage for another 6 WoM, this is a beastly spell when put on your artillery constructs which will really pile in the pressure on units trying to approach your lines.
*'''Usirian's Incantation of Vengeance''': The first damage spell for the lore and it's... disappointing. Does middling damage to units in a wide area while reducing their speed by 24%. Situational, potentially useful if built around correctly, but generally safe to ignore in favour of more buffs for the troops.
*'''Usekph's Incantation of Desiccation''': -24 MA and MD to enemy units in a huge area for a whopping 15 WoM. Generally not worth it unless you're planning to bust through an infantry line with your own, which works like none of the time with the slow infantry of the Tomb Kings
*'''Sakhmet's Incantation of the Skullstorm''': Generic magical damage vortex for 11 WoM. Impressive to look at, but not very efficient due to a smaller-than-average vortex radius.

===Lore of the Wild (Beastmen)===
Summary of Strengths: actually a very solid damage lore with a great summon, the buff is only ok but the rest is very solid and versatile at damaging all types of enemies.
:'''Passive - ''Bestial Surge''''': When ever you cast you gain an extra 18% Charge Bonus and 5% vigour. Needless to say in a speedy hit and run faction like the Beastmen you will need as much of both as you can get.
*'''Viletide''': For 7 winds of magic you get an AOE kaboom that deals decent damage to unarmoured troops. Great for when you are in a grind and need to get the chaff out of the way so that you can fight better stuff but won't do dick against armour.
*'''Bray-Scream''' A cone shaped wind spell that can do decent damage with decent AP. It has very short range but for 5 Winds of Magic it can actually get you some very good damage against infantry with a ton of armor.
*'''Devolve''': For 11 winds this thing is essentially a mini Final Transmutation, and can do some serious damage to large unit sizes (100 and up ideally). Plus the leadership debuff can help with getting the enemy into a rout so you can chase them off. This is your best blob destroying spell and it's decent for what it is. All direct damage spells ignore armor. It does 1100 damage max, 2300 overcast both only against big enough units. Very cost efficient.
*'''Traitor-Kin''': Essentially an AOE Spirit Leech in that instead of doing a ton of damage to several models at once it will drain one model at a time til it dies and move to the next one. This means that it doesn't do as much damage as Devolve but will kill models. It also supplies a speed debuff for lord sniping, which is great for a faction that relies on outrunning their enemies. It's expensive at 12 winds though
*'''Mantle of Ghorok''': The only buffing spell this list has. It provides a meaty 50 Base Weapon Damage, 40% Melee Attack and 50% AP. Needless to say this is amazing for such an aggressive faction and will turn Minotaurs and Bestigors into killing machines. There is the downside of the -30 armour but.. come on man, you're playing the Beastmen. Unless you use this thing on Bestigors you wont even notice. You'll be more turned off by the 11 winds cost. Probably better against armoured opponents.
*'''Savage Dominion''': Ok let's be real. If you're one of the 3 people in this game who play the Beastmen and you're taking this Lore of Magic into an online match, this is why you're bringing it. I don't really need to tell you why getting 2 Cygors for free is really, really good. Not only do you have a solid monster but you also have an artillery piece to rain death rocks from afar. I don't care if it's 18 Winds of Magic, it's easily the best spell in the lore. You can only use it twice though, so use it wisely.

===Lore of Vampires (Vampire Coast, Vampire Counts)===
Summary of Strengths: everything is good? seriously everyone knows how amazing it is. skip gaze of Nagash and curse of years probably but other than that its great, extremely versatile and powerful.
:'''Passive - ''The Curse of Undeath''''': Heals every undead unit on the map for a small amount over the course of 5 seconds, but in contrast to the Lore of Lifes passive, it can also bring models back. Not a game changer, but free healing is always nice.
*'''Curse of Years''': Not worth it. A big AoE debuff that lowers Melee Defense and Speed at a whopping cost of 16 Winds of Magic. Its general effectiveness is additionally offset by the fact that your Skellies or Deckhands are not all that good at melee in the first place and the debuff just too weak against Lords and Heroes (which are usually the preferred targets for debuffs).
*'''Gaze of Nagash''': Practically interchangeable with Shen's burning gaze from the Lore of Light. Meek Projectile with mediocre damage that also has a hard time even hitting its intended target. Skip.
*'''Invocation of Nehek''': This and Wind of Death are the main reason why the Lore of Vampires is so extremely powerful. Invocation of Nehek brings a very cost-effective heal to the table at a meager 6 Winds of Magic that also resurrects dead models - for 12 on the overcast variant, you get a very big AoE heal that helps especially the many monstrous, low entity units the Counts are able to field. Pumping a half-dead Vargheist or Mourngul unit up a few models can really swing encounters in your favor, not to mention the amount of cheese you can get out of this spell by combining it with the multitude of passive regeneration abilities the Counts have on a lot of units. Maxing it out on Campaign also makes it even cheaper (bringing down the cost from 6/12 down to 5/10) and since it's your first spell, there is no reason to not do so.
*'''Raise Dead (Vampire Counts)''': Summons a unit of Zombies for just 7 Winds. Summons are always awesome, since you can summon these bois behind the melee moshpit for nice charges into the back of your enemy for the additional rear attack moral penalty, or just keeping a nasty unit in the place of your choosing. The mileage of this spell of course depends greatly on your own creativity. The overcast gives you Skeleton Warriors with swords, which is negligible and usually not worth the cost of 13 Winds.
*'''Drowned Dead (Vampire Coast)''': Similar to its Vampire Count cousin, Drowned Dead summons forth a squad of Zombie Gunmen to help shoot down your foes. Fitting for the Vampire Coast considering how much they love guns. The overcast version summons forth a Zombie Pirate Gunnery Mob, but with handguns so they have more fire power, giving you a stronger edge. How useful this spell is depends on where they are summoned.
*'''Vanhel's Danse Macabre''': Sweet Little and extremely cheap buff (only 4 winds, 6 when overcast) that grants +24 Melee Attack and Speed like an inverse Curse of Years. Can be worth it on units like Grave Guard or Black Knights, usually situational, unlike Curse of Years its very low costs make it very useful in a pinch or as last resort spell, when your Magic Reserves have dried up and there's nothing else left to cast.
*'''Wind of Death''': Feast your eyes and despair, for you look at the most powerful offensive spell in the entire game. The only thing holding back is its extremely high price tag of 20 Winds (25 when overcast), so one cast will essentially drain your entire magic pool. But your one shot may as well end the game the instant you get it off. A very fast-moving wind spell that ''will'' evaporate any high model count unit in a single cast with a terrifying reach due to high AP magic damage. It's still effective against units with lower model counts and/or magic resist since it deals so much damage.

===Lore of the Big Waaagh! (Greenskins)===
Summary of strengths: a well round lore with good buffs and damage spells, foot of gork and Ere We Go alone make it very solid. no debuffs though.
:'''Passive - ''Power of da Waaagh!''''': Functionally identical to the Lore of Death attribute, every time you cast a spell it increases the recharge rate for all spells. Nothing fancy, but still useful.
*'''Brain Bursta''': Basically a green fireball. Deals decent damage in a large area from a decent distance. You should probably focus on the other spells in the list.
*''''Eadbutt''': A short, wide little breath attack that sends enemies flying. Great for disrupting enemy formations and pushing clumps of enemies around.
*''''Ere We Go''': A buff that gives a unit [[rip and tear|+40 melee attack]], allowing even weedy little goblins to punch above their weight. Absolutely horrific when used on Black Orcs, but there's basically nothing in the greenskin roster that doesn't appreciate krumpin' stuff.
*'''Fists of Gork''': A cheaper alternative to 'Ere We Go that provides +24 melee attack and defense. It's better to use on a lord or hero to give them an edge in a duel, but 9 times out of 10 you'll want 'Ere We Go instead.
*'''Foot of Gork''': '''SPLAT!!''' Summon Gork himself to stomp the shit out of your enemies with one of the most powerful spells in the game. Creates a giant explosion of armour piercing damage that can win the entire battle on its own if cast on the right target. The winds of magic cost is really steep, especially when overcast; but the damage potential cannot be overstated.
*'''Gaze of Mork''': Often overlooked, but not completely useless. Gaze of Mork is a cheap precise sniper-rilfe style spell that does decent damage to a single entity. The best part of the spell is the long range, which is good for greenskins who normally struggle when the enemy is too far away. Overcasting lets it trade shots with artillery all the way across the map.

===Lore of the Little Waaagh! (Greenskins)===
:'''Passive - ''Sneaky Stealin'''''': The polar opposite of the Lore of the Big Waaagh! passive, this one increases the recharge time for enemy casters. An interesting trait, but the effectiveness depends very strongly on what the opponent is bringing.
*'''Curse of Da Bad Moon''': A hilarious looking vortex that bounces around the map, dealing damage and reducing the speed, armour, and melee attack of whatever it touches. A useful debuff, but the spell moves around like crazy and can often come back to your lines.
*'''Gork'll Fix It''': A targeted hex that reduces enemy speed, charge bonus, and vigor. Tailor made to counter knights and chariots, who should always be the first targets. A pretty cheap spell only costing 7 winds of magic, but you get what you pay for.
*'''Itchy Nuisance''': Another Hex, this one decreases enemy weapon damage and melee attack. More generally useful than Gork'll Fix It, but not nearly as good against knights.
*'''Nightshroud''': A strange buff that gives all friendly units in an area Stalk and Undetectable, making them functionally invisible. A great way to protect your slower units from enemy shooting. Note that Undetectable stops working if the unit attacks or casts a spell, so it's pretty much useless on your archers.
*'''Sneaky Stabbin'''': A cheap and weak little spell that gives the target 18% more AP damage and +34 melee attack. Because the bonus to AP is a percentage and not a flat amount, it doesn't do much on units that struggle against armored foes (you know, the ones that really need it). Most of the time the longer duration and better melee bonus of 'Ere We Go! is better, but if you don't have an orc shaman it can get the job done.
*'''Vindictive Glare''': Launches a bunch of little magic missiles into the target, doing moderate magic damage for each missile that hits. Best against big targets so all of the missiles can hit the same target. Anything that helps you against monsters is useful for Greenskins.

===Skaven Spells of Ruin (Skaven)===
Summary of Strengths: 3 great damage spells with warp lighting as the standout, and a good lore attribute make this a very potent spell lore for damage. The ability to freeze flying enemies is situationally very good.
:'''Passive - ''Musk of Fear''''': Upon casting a spell, enemy units are inflicted with -13 Melee Attack and -4 Leadership. Considering the relatively spammy nature of the Lore of Ruin (in particular Warp Lightning) this may help your tarpits out considerably but don't rely on it to turn the tide of battle on its own.
*'''Warp Lightning''': Cheap bombardment spell, iconic to non-Pestilens Skaven casters and surprisingly powerful for the cost. There are many ways to buff this spell in campaign but it's also perfectly serviceable in multiplayer. Don't ever be conservative with this spell - it's dirt-cheap and you'll need repeated casts of it to really dish out the hurt. Laugh maniacally like Ikit and blast those tarpitted blobs whenever you see them!
*'''Howling Warpgale''': Despite the situational nature of this spell, it is absolutely vital that you take this spell whenever you start acquiring weapons teams. Flying creatures and units are countered hard by Jezzails and Ratling Guns but it's their speed and other pressing concerns of regular cavalry that can often end in a Feral Manticore or others tearing through your helpless gunners. But with this spell you can pin those flying beasties in the air and make them easy targets for your artillery and snipers.
*'''Death Frenzy''': A straightforward combat buff that can turn an outmatched fight into a much more balanced one. It's tempting to cast this on Clanrats to try to hold the line longer but there are better uses for this spell, like letting that Plague Censer-Bearer unit tear through your opponent's elite infantry and eliciting a serious WTF moment from them as you blow a hole in their infantry centre with crazed great-weapon rats pumped full of magic.
*'''Scorch''': A thin breath spell. One of the disappointments of the otherwise serviceable Lore of Ruin, it has a rather small hitbox that deals middling damage to anything not unarmoured chaff. Since the Skaven have better ways of dealing with unarmoured chaff, you're better off skipping this one.
*'''Flensing Ruin''': An unusual area-damage spell that Functions just like Final Transmutation (and has the same Winds of magic to damage ratio), it works best versus single entities and very small units (20ish or less unit size), if you get a group of good targets it's actually very efficient and powerful. Not worth using versus infantry and large units, just use warp lightning for them. Will effect any target clipped by its AOE in full just like flock of doom.
*'''Crack's Call''': Another area damage spell, this time a straight wind spell that's similar to Flensing Ruin in its AP potential. The shape of the wind spell lends itself well to thinning out hapless infantry eating up your Skavenslaves and Clanrats, so it's up to you if you want to use this as a in-between the Warp Lightning casts you're hopefully already spamming.
*'''The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell (Exclusive to Grey Seers of Ruin)''': ''Now'' we're talking. While only Grey Seer of Ruin lords can take this, it's the one spell both old 8th Edition veterans and Total War players will take regardless because of its sheer WTF potential - it's a large-area explosion spell that spawns a unit of sword-and-board Stormvermin right on top of whatever unfortunate infantry are left alive from the blast. The high Winds of Magic cost and long cooldown make this a risky proposition but when you see that chance to flip the table on that blob of chaff and create a dangerous opening in your opponent's formation, you turn to this spell. Maybe just use the cheaper summons from the lore of plague instead though, warlock masters are honestly better than grey seer's anyway.

===Skaven Spells of Plague (Skaven)===
Summary of strengths: Another great lore for the skaven, powerful summoning and damage spells with the ability to provide poison.
:'''Passive - ''Plague Rash''''': Upon casting a spell in this Lore, inflicts -12% Speed on all enemies on the map. This may be nice in multiplayer where speed and kiting is omnipresent, its a lot less impressive versus the AI though.
*'''Bless with Filth''': Cheap poison attacks buff. Nothing much to say, it's a nice way of making those Clanrat Spears extra nasty against the big stuff. Gutter runners with poison slings are arguably more efficient.
*'''Pestilent Breath''': The signature breath spell for Plague casters. Good coverage, damage and low cost makes this a staple for clearing out enemy tarpits in short order. Despite not being very effective against armor, it can potentially disrupt the formation with the breath effect which you can take advantage of.
*'''Vermintide''': The earliest summon spell any of the Skaven casters can get and by far one of the most useful. Do not underestimate being able to suddenly summon Clanrats out of nowhere, they can easily become annoying roadblocks against enemy cavalry or delay infantry advances so that your artillery can shoot at them more. In a pinch, you can even throw them behind a unit in combat as a cheap way to inflict outflanked debuffs.
*'''Wither''': -30 Armour doesn't sound like much of a debuff but Wither stands out by having its duration be longer than the cooldown - meaning with patience you can make those high-armor targets naked for a brief period for maximum rape. Best to use this one on units already in combat that you really want dead quickly, either from grenades or Plague Monk attacks.
*'''Plague''': The best AoE damage spell the Skaven have by far and the most visually impressive as well. Absolutely amazing for crushing mobs of any kind while they eat worthless Clanrats from Vermintide, it has a stupidly low casting cost for the effect and damage area. The Plague is not to be trifled with and can turn the tide of the battle with careful usage.
*'''Pestilent Birth''': While Vermintide is the more defensive summon spell in this lore, this spell is for more aggressive players who would much rather like to win the infantry fight by any means. With this spell you can spawn a unit of Plague Monks nearby the caster - terrific for nasty back attacks or adding unexpected pressure onto an enemy unit chewing up Skavenslaves. A devastating spell if positioned correctly but still useful even if misplaced.

===Skaven Spells of Stealth (Skaven)===
Summary of Strengths: A contender for worst lore in the game, even when used by clan eshin its just not very good.
:'''Passive - ''Toxic Rain''''': Applies Poison in an AOE around the caster. A weird passive that encourages you to keep your mage close to the enemy, which is normally the last place that you would want to keep you caster, especially one without any mount options. One of the many reasons why this is widely considered the worst lore of magic in the entire game.
*'''Skitterleap''': Grants Stalk, Unspottable and a small speed boost to all of the allies affected. Designed as an ambush spell that allows you to quickly move units around in a position to outflank your enemy. Given that this lore was designed to be used with Clan Eshin units it really only helps out said Eshin units. Other than that Skaven aren't much of a flanking faction so it doesn't help them out that much. Overcasting increases the AOE
*'''Warp Stars''': Fires a bunch of AP magic missiles at a target, increasing the number of projectiles when overcasted. Good for poking down units before a main engagement, though it doesn't do as much damage as other missile spells.
*'''Veil of Shadows''': Causes a massive, persistent explosion but does no damage. Designed to displace enemy units and provide a big hole for your units to run through. Great for unclogging gates in sieges against the AI, but the usefulness is questionable since a lot of spell have a similar effect and, you know, actually kill things. Overcast version slows as well.
*'''Armour of Darkness''': Provides armour and missile resistance for a limited amount of time, little extra if overcasted. Once again, since this lore is designed for Clan Eshin units it can help them be a bit more resilient in combat.
*'''Black Whirlwind''': A big AOE damage spell that displaces enemies and causes big damage. This is your crowd clearing spell, and to be fair it's actually not that bad at the job that it's supposed to do. It's biggest problem is other spells, even from other Skaven lores do the same thing more cost effectively. Overcast does more AP damage.
*'''Brittle Bone''': Lowers the speed, vigour, and Melee Defense of a target, making it AOE on overcast. A solid anti Cavalry spell that might actually allow the faster units in your army to catch up to them and bring them down. Probably the best spell on the list, which kind of goes to show how lack luster this particular Lore of Magic is in the first place.

===Rune Magic (Dwarfs)===
: No passive for you. Dwarfs don't use the winds of magic, so every spell in the Runic Magic will be completely free and instead rely on cooldowns that all spells share with each other - i.e. you cast one Rune, all of them will go on cooldown. Fortunately, this is only per Runesmith, so bringing multiple will allow you to cast multiple runes at a time. This does eat into your budget (Gold and Roster-wise), so consider carefully if you really want to invest in multiple Runesmiths.
*'''Rune of Negation''': Gives a unit 40% damage resistance for 24 seconds, 40 seconds if you overcast. This is pretty nice if you really want a unit to hold the line better than they already do (Ironbreakers with this will be untouchable).
*'''Rune of Oath and Steel''': You give a unit 30 extra armor, 60 if overcast. Honestly, this is probably the worst rune in the list due to diminishing returns. Dwarfs already have high armor so just giving them more doesn't really help them out in any way. Unless you're putting this on Slayers to help them against missiles, this one is probably best left skipped.
*'''Rune of Wrath and Ruin''': Casts a big fire explosion roughly the size of an Awakening of the Wood, and does extra AP when overcast. This will probably be one of the go to spells on the list since Dwarfs would love a big burst spell to help clear out chaff.
*'''Rune of Breaking''': Imbues Armor Sundering and extra base and AP Weapon Strength for 33 seconds, 55 if overcast. Can be really good for your frontline when fighting heavy armor enemies since you can cause your standard infantry to do more damage and help your non AP missiles burn down armor better.
*'''Rune of Speed''': Gives 24 melee attack and 45% speed for 18 seconds, 30 if overcast. Want to make Hammerers useful? Bring this. Having a rune that briefly covers one of your big weaknesses can help you actually use offensive tactics.
*'''Rune of Slowness''': Reduces Charge Bonus by 40%, Charge Speed and normal speed by 45% for 30 seconds, 45 if overcast. Really helps deal with chariots and cavalry, acting as a snare to help your missiles or Slayers get a hold of them.

===Lore of Ice (Kislev)===
Summary of Strengths: a lore full of overpriced spells, but it dose have a cheap wind spell and a lot of ways to slow down enemy units, best value is generally to spam the cheap spells and stack slow effects to let missile units do their thing longer.
:'''Passive - ''Frost Shield''''': Upon casting, all friendly units gain an increased 15 armor and 12 missile block chance. Considering that this is a faction that is a bit lacking in armor additional protection against missiles will not be a bad thing to have. Unfortunately its pretty bad vs most of the demons you'll be fighting.
*'''Ice Maiden's Kiss''': This is going to be your cost effective "get this low armor chaff off the field so my units can kill something more important" spell. It's pretty much just Wind Blast only with an ice theme and you use it pretty much the same way.
*'''Ice Sheet''': An area of effect spell that lowers enemy Speed and Charge Speed by 25% for 17 seconds and is extremely cheap. Obviously, this is going to be great against factions that rely on cavalry or are just very mobile in general. Since Winged Lancers and Gryphon Legion are very fast by heavy cav standards, you can use this to let them catch up to units they shouldn't be able to and dominate them. You can also make them easy targets for your ranged troops. Obviously there is no reason to bring this against super immobile factions like Dwarfs but all in all a solid spell against the right foe. Notably the speed reduction will stack with the frostbite status and the Tempest lore attribute, So you can nearly immobilize units by combining them.
*'''Frost Blades''': Your only aggressive buffing ability, it provides 25 % weapon strength and AP and gives a unit 25 melee attack. Using this on Tzar Guard can turn this from pretty decent infantry to surprisingly scary shredders, though given that the strength of your army relies on your missiles and cav you could argue that it is a waste to put this with your infantry. its only a single unit buff as well so maybe ok in multiplayer but when you fighting full stacks in campaign probably a waste of winds to buff one unit. Maybe worth putting on Boris or an Elemental bear or something.
*'''Death Frost''': Spirit Leech but icy. Yeah, that's pretty much it. It does more damage that Spirit Leech though, so use it to help get rid of any single entities on the enemy list, but its also overpriced compared to spirit leach even with the extra damage accounted for.
*'''Crystal Sanctuary''': Now THIS is what you want to use on your infantry. It grants a unit 66% damage resistance at the expense of not being able to move. Considering that your units aren't the best damage sponges this can really help you get a solid anchor in your infantry line since odds are they won't be moving any way. Put this on Tzar Guard and they will be holding for as long as Dwarfs. Not sure if this would work well in multiplayer since they'll just run away until the buff runs out but should be abusable vs the dumb AI.
*'''Heart of Winter''': The big damage AOE spell that also slows. It's a long duration spell that has 5 different stages, each stage increasing in both damage and slow. You can get up to a 60% slow if they stay in here for long enough. Of course, you have to worry about enemies just being able to walk out of it, so you may need to think of a way to lock them down. It's also very expensive, so probably a better in campaign then multiplayer spell. or maybe not used at all, its REALLY OVERPRICED, just use one of tempest more efficient damage spells.

===Lore of Tempest (Kislev)===
Summary of Strengths: a good damage focused lore with two nice buffs also, it has a wide variety of damage spells for multiple situations and they are all cost effective. Probably the best of the two kislev lores.

Lore Attribute reduces enemy speed map wide, pretty good combined with other sources of slow, Ice sheet, frostbite etc

*'''Gust of True Flight''': Grants a friendly missile unit increased range and accuracy. When overcast, it affects all units in an area. Kislev relies a lot on its ranged units, so this will be worth taking for range-heavy defensive builds.
*'''Hailstorm''': An icy version of the Lore of Metals Searing Doom, bombarding an area with projectiles, and can be overcast for a longer duration and more projectiles. very cheap and efficient, not very good AP though.
*'''Swiftwing''': Grants friendly units inside an area increased speed and charge bonus. Overcast to affect a larger area. Probably going to be essential any time you're bringing a lot of cavalry to the fight, which you'll need against armies with more artillery than you. honestly not bad but not great, it would be more versatile if it increased MA or MD but not bad.
*'''Biting Wind''': Your basic damage wind spell. Can be overcast for increased damage, specially of the armor-piercing variety.
*'''Hawks of Miska''': A Vortex spell that has no AP, but it also applies reduces leadership and doesn't damage friendly units. Overcast for increased damage. Bring against lightly armored units and it can get tons of kills with no risk to your units.
*'''Blizzard''': Big bad stationary vortex that deals heavy damage in a large area and also applies Frostbite that slows enemies. Overcast for increased damage. Very good for all the same reasons as pit of shades.

===Lore of Yang (Grand Cathay)===
Summary of Strengths: has some interesting buff spells and some damage spells that are good at chaff killing. Damage spells are lackluster versus armored targets. Jade shields is very nice for lords or a distraction monster unit. Just an ok lore, not amazing.
*'''Jade Shield''': Protective buff that gives a unit damage resistance, overcast it to increase the duration.
*'''Dragon's Breath''': Basic breath spell that, according to the description, also leaves behind a field of fire that damages enemies. Overcast for increased damage.
*'''Wall of Wind & Fire''': Pretty unique as far as wind spells go, as instead of being narrow and fast it's wide and slow. Overcast for bonus armor piercing damage.
**It lasts for quite a bit, akin to a very slow creeping barrage. Even though it's a "wall," units charging through it won't really take a lot of damage it. Best to use it on enemies already stuck in, to deal damage along the length of their unit.
*'''Stone Ground Stance''': Grants friendly units inside an area increased mass, Expert Charge Defense and bonus leadership. For when you really need your line to hold against cavalry and big monsters. Overcast to affect a larger area.
**Stacks with Harmony, other leadership sources (like a Lord, Sky Lantern), and the Jade Warrior defensive stance. Makes your infantry into wall, and your missile units the chance to survive a cav charge.
*'''Might of Heaven & Earth''': Grants a friendly unit magical attacks and flaming attacks, increased melee attack, weapon strength and armor-piercing damage. Overcast for a bigger bonus. Can turn your big melee hitters into absolute blenders.
**Your Celestials will love this, but is most obvious on your Sword Warriors, since their offense is sub-par and AP nonexistent.
**Celestial Crossbow do more damage than the Fire-Magix Sisters of Avelorn, but their missiles are only mundane AP.
*'''Constellation of the Dragon''': Makes a big area go kaboom for huge damage. Overcast for increases armor-piercing damage.

===Lore of Yin (Grand Cathay)===
Summary of Strengths: a fairly versatile lore with a good stationary vortex, a strong summon spell, a hilarious spell to shut down ranged units, other than Blossom wind probably all are generally good and useful to Cathay. Overall I'd call this a good amount better than the lore of yang in most situations. Lacks any sort of anti single entity power other than summons and its lacking in buff or debuff power.
:'''Passive - ''Power of Yin''''': Reduces Armor and speed of nearby enemies for a few seconds after casting a spell.
*'''Storm of Shadows''': Greatly reduces an enemy unit's speed. Overcast to affect all enemy units inside an area.
*'''Cloak of Jet''': Grants a friendly unit Snipe, Stalk and Unspottable, and can be overcast for a longer duration.
**Since you're not very speedy anyway, it's really good to hide your missiles from counter fire.
*'''Missile Mirror''': Probably the most unique spell of the bunch, you choose an enemy unit and for a few seconds reflect all their projectiles back at them. Can be overcast for a longer duration and larger range. Just imagine the hilarity of dropping this on some Ratling Guns or a Helstorm Rocket Battery. In MP, it's a bit less useful when you or your opponent can simply turn fire at will off, but it still shuts down a unit's shooting for some time.
*'''Blossom Wind''': Wind spell that also applies Blinded, so another spell that hampers missile troops. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage.
*'''Talons of Night''': Bog-standard vortex, it's stationary so that's a plus. Overcast for bonus damage.
*'''Ancestral Warriors''': Summons a unit of halberd-wielding Ancestral Warriors, and can be overcast for longer range. Summon spells are always good, particularly for missile factions like Cathay who like chaff units to hold the enemy back while blasting them with projectiles.
**Use on Large single-entities like Stonehorns or Mammoths that dont have magical attacks, so their attacks become pretty negligible.

===Lore of Tzeentch (Daemons of Tzeentch)===
Summary of Strengths: This lore is a contender for best Damage lore vs non single-entities, it can kill chaff as well as the lore of fire and its better vs elite units with Infernal gateway. Blue fire is also better versus lightly armored large targets than fireball. The ability to lower cooldowns by spamming blue fire makes the whole lore even better. Tzeentchs firestorm is one of the best vortexes for killing large numbers of units with its 3 mini-firestorms. Efficient and very powerful. It is almost useless at killing monsters or lords/hero's who have any kind of armor. Many of Tzeentch's spells apply Warpflame, which reduces Armor and Fire Resistance. Finally it has one of the only ways to exceed the 100 WOM reserve cap with gleam of magic.
:'''Passive - ''Fires of Change''''': Ward Save for all units for a few seconds after casting a spell.
*'''Blue Fire of Tzeentch''': Single-target magic missile that applies Warpflame. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. Extremely cheap at only 3 winds of magic and has no cooldown to cast with the prismatic plurality skill (lowers active cooldowns by 10 seconds every time you cast any spell). Spamming this unovercasted will eliminate your cooldowns and wear down single entities and monsters. Very cost effective if it hits. lackluster vs armored targets but still can be spammed to reduce cooldowns.
*'''Pink Fire of Tzeentch''': Breath spell that applies Warpflame. Overcast for bonus damage. Also very cost effective. Spam blue flame to eliminate pink fires cooldown. use overcasted to kill small groups of units or individual units efficiently.
*'''Treason of Tzeentch''': A debuff spell that lowers the Leadership of all enemy units inside an area and, if overcast, also their melee attack. Tzeentch has pretty poor melee, so something like this is useful to tip the scales.
*'''Glean Magic''': Increases your army's power reserves and recharge speed while reducing the opponent's. When overcast, the effect lasts longer. Obviously great for a heavily magic-based faction like Tzeentch.
*'''Tzeentch's Firestorm''': A randomly moving vortex that applies Warpflame, although a slightly more unique one, as it's actually three columns of flame moving randomly in an area, not just one single vortex. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. unfortunately 3 vortexes in different directions makes friendly fire even more of a problem.
*'''Infernal Gateway''': Stationary, high damage vortex. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. Does not apply Warpflame. very powerful and safer/more reliable than firestorm.

===Lore of Nurgle (Daemons of Nurgle)===
Summary of Strengths: It has good AP damage spells that work on units and single entities, a decent buff, and very good AOE healing this is frankly an amazing lore. It doesn't heal better than life or damage better than other lores but its very solid at both. No Nurgle or Chaos undivided army in campaign should ever not have this lore.
Lore attribute is just like life, a small map wide heal to all units.
*'''Miasma of Pestilence''': Reduces the melee attack and charge bonus of an enemy unit, and can be overcast to affect all enemies inside an area. Plays into Nurgle's strengths of tanking damage.
*'''Stream of Corruption''': Basically Pestilent Breath from the Skaven's Lore of Plague, cone that deals damage and applies Poison, but thin and long instead of short and wide. Overcast for bonus damage. Actually very nice on infantry large AOE and easy to aim. efficient damage spell.
*'''Curse of the Leper''': Despite its name, actually a buff. Grants armour and damage reflection (!) to an allied unit, increasing when overcast. Great to let a Great unclean one or soul grinder tank though and grind down enemies.
*'''Rancid Visitations''': Bog-standard direct damage spell on an enemy unit that can be overcast for bonus damage.
*'''Blight Boil''': There's something hilarious about basically popping a giant zit on the enemy. Explosion spell that can be overcast for increased damage. Friendly fire is an issue but good aiming can make it a great way to kill infantry. or you can drop it on top of a great unclean one while surrounded by mobs.
*'''Fleshy Abundance''': Hell yeah. Targeted healing that can be overcast to affect all units inside an area. Nurgle is the tanky demon faction, so just imagine your opponent tearing their hair out as you just heal the damage they struggled to deal to your lardy dudes. Being able to use this AOE heal with all 4 demonic factions rosters is a major advantage of chaos undivided. regening Bloodthirsters and Keepers of secrets are insane. But also great for monogod nurgle.

===Lore of Slaanesh (Daemons of Slaanesh)===
Summary of Strengths: a very offense focused lore that's fairly versatile in its ability to damage or increase your units damage, the lore attribute is very strong and rewards using spells before charging in. It's biggest issue is having to compete with the Lore of Shadows, which does a lot of the same things better, but its still very competitive.

Lore attribute gives a large boost melee attack and a small amount of leadership, actually very nice.

*'''Lash of Slaanesh''': Whip your enemies until they scream "harder dadd-" *ahem* I mean, deals damage in a cone, sends enemies flying, overcast for bonus armor-piercing. mediocre damage but cheap ap. it aims like a cone but its actually a small line or explosion and it does most of its damage at the beginning of the aiming curser. ok way to cheaply trigger the lore attribute.
*'''Acquiescence''': Debuffs a unit's melee defense and speed, overcast for a great reduction in speed. Good to help your squishy units take on tough lords/hero’s/monsters. Wish it was AOE but still decent, use on a lord or monster.
*'''Hysterical Frenzy''': Increases a unit's melee attack and armor-piercing, but also makes them Rampage. Overcast for greater armor-piercing damage. Best used on keeper of secrets exalted or regular or a soul grinder, but mind their health. only works on friendly units. good but an overcasted mindrazor might be better due to AOE.
*'''Pavane of Slaanesh''': Direct damage spell that also reduces melee attack, and can be overcast for a longer duration. little expensive but good. Similar to Fate of bejuna from death so is best vs medium size units so usually elite infantry or cavalry.
*'''Slicing Shards''': Bombards an area with projectiles, can be overcast for increased damage. Pretty meaty AP damage but also a bit hard to aim, actually very good if you get a good hit/good targets. Will delete units with a solid hit.
*'''Phantasmagoria''': Reduces Leadership and PREVENT MOVEMENT for all units inside an area, overcast for a longer duration. You thought Net of Amyntok was strong? Here's her older, hotter, meaner sister. A potential problem (if CA doesn't rework how difficulty in the campaign works, that is) is that the leadership debuff is nullified by the buffs the AI gets - then it becomes just a far less efficient Net of Amyntok, in a faction that unlike, say, Tomb Kings or Empire has little trouble outmanuvering its opponent, hasn't got artillery or missile units to speak of that would need protection against cavalry and as such gets far less use out of an immobilization spell like this... (will be better when immortal empires is released and you fight more enemies that can actually rout)

===Lore of the Great Maw (Ogres)===
*'''Braingobbler''': a -16 debuff to leadership
*'''Bullgorger''': Armour Piecing increased by 25% and melee attack increased by +24
*'''Bonecrusher''': Explosive Spell
*'''Toothcracker''': +30 armour and 22% added to missile resist
*'''The Maw''': A bigger explosion
*'''Trollguts''': A Health Regen spell
{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Magic

2022-08-19T15:00:08Z

2600:387:2:80F:0:0:0:7A: /* Lore of Fire */

[[Category: Total Warhammer]]

This page goes into details about every single spell (Unique Spells and hero abilities not included) in the game, their uses, and so on. For the general gist of how magic works, head over to [[Total War: Warhammer/Tactics#Magic]]. For up to date #’s on spell damage, cost, and effect see here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-_Swyh0Ifo8cTI4ZUxoVGtmVVk/view
==Generic Lores==

===Lore of Beasts===
Summary of strengths- good at buffing single entities and monsters especially, ok anti horde damage spell, and for many armies their only access to summoning.
:'''Passive - ''Wild Heart''''': Your power recharge rate and power reserves increase for 29 seconds upon casting a spell from this lore, a nice tool that helps maintain the overall combat effectiveness of your Beasts caster over the course of the battle, but it's not to such a degree that you'll likely notice.
*'''Flock of Doom''': Recreate The Birds by siccing flocks of crows on all enemy units within the casting reticle. Has a low winds cost and a rather quick cooldown, but is virtually useless against single entities or smaller units. Save this for the enemy hordes that might try to tie down your forces, armored or not. This affects all units that have so much as a single model within its cast radius, making it highly efficient against infantry-based armies.
*'''Pann's Impenetrable Pelt''': Buff the physical resistance of a target unit by 20% and their melee defense by 24 for 31 seconds. Compared to how it worked before, this makes a unit substantially more durable in melee combat and, especially if combined with other spells like Shield of Thorns, can turn a key frontline unit into an absolute tank. Overcasting turns it into an AoE spell, which might very well be worth it in the opening stages of a frontline engagement to mitigate damage.
*'''The Amber Spear''': The only other damage dealing spell you have, this time as a single projectile geared towards character/monster sniping. It deals pretty hefty damage and is a great option against more heavily armored beasts that would otherwise shrug off other artillery or missile fire from more conventional units. It does have a powerful but short range explosion effect as well, so it can technically nuke an elite unit but aiming may be more trouble than its worth to get a good hit.
*'''The Curse of Anraheir''': A hex that debilitates enemies with -24 Melee Attack and Defense while also crippling them with a 25% speed debuff. Use this to effectively defang enemy units or combine/alternate with Pann's Impenetrable Pelt to keep your key units alive. Alternatively, when used offensively, this will make it easier to pin down and knock around enemy units that you really need cleaned off the board.
*'''Transformation of Kadon''': This is pretty much ''the'' reason most players bother taking the Lore of Beasts in multiplayer at all. After a brief windup period, the Beast Caster summons either a Feral Manticore (standard), Great Eagle (High/Wood Elves) or Varghulf (Von Carstein). As they can be summoned anywhere within 60m of the caster, this allows you to throw a relatively potent combat monster into an opponent's more vulnerable backline while they can do little more than scramble to address the sudden incursion. With a limit of two casts per battle and a moderately short timer on the monsters before they despawn, each cast should be considered wisely.
*'''Wyssan's Wildform''': A surprisingly vicious combat supplement, this spell grants a target unit +25% Base and AP damage as well as +30 Armor for 19 seconds. Due to the offensive portion of this spell's buffs being percentage-based, Wyssan's Wildform gets ''far'' more bang for your buck when cast on elite units or single entity monstrous units that have naturally high weapon/ap damage. The armor supplement helps, though shouldn't really be a major consideration when you could get better defensive utility out of Pann's Impenetrable Pelt (though pairing the two is hardly ill-advised). Much like Pann's Impenetrable Pelt, overcasting Wyssan's Wildform turns it into an AoE spell and can make single-entity doomstacks disgustingly potent.

===Lore of Death===
Summary of strengths: great perfect accuracy direct damage spells for single entities and elite units as as well as a powerful vortex, lacking in both buff and debuff power however. Good at reducing leadership.
:'''Passive - ''Life Leeching''''': Whenever a spell is cast from this discipline, your power recharge rate improves for 25 seconds. Quite frankly, a very nice passive that acts like a built in Arcane Conduit.
*'''Spirit Leech''': The first spell in this Lore and it's one of the best, if we're being honest. A rather cheap, direct damage spell at 8 Winds of Magic. Preferably used against Characters and Monsters and probably the most cost-efficient Character sniping spell in the game (does 834 damage without any resistances on average, ignores armor). It also can serve as a nice counter against Ethereal Units. It actually works very well vs small monstrous cavalry and infantry units, think the 6-24 model range, also ok on smallish elite units also but anything over 20ish models really hurts its efficiency, bjuna is far better for that. one cast can nearly kill most artillery because it (usually) hits the machines, not the crew. Very versatile and mana efficient, the standard to which all direct damage spells are compared.
*'''Doom and Darkness''': Basically the opposite of the Lore of Light's Light of Battle Spell. Sits in the 10 Winds niche of rather specific debuffs. It reduces the leadership of an enemy unit by a whopping 16, enough to send most standard troops into a rout once they have taken some losses and to mitigate any effects the presence of a Character in their vicinity might have. Notably less useful against Undead, who cannot rout, but can still cause them to begin crumbling more quickly if such a tactic is necessary. Of course, this spell is completely useless against Unbreakable units. Pretty useless in very hard or legendary campaign battle difficulty because of the crazy leadership buffs the AI gets, but nice on normal and hard difficulties as well as multiplayer.
*'''Soulblight''': An ok AoE debuff, for its relatively low cost of 8 Winds of Magic/ 14 overcast. Lowers the armor (-30) and weapon damage (-30%) of all units in an AOE for 25 seconds, 50 if overcast. The pairing of armor and weapon damage debuffs don't synergize that well with each other and the lowish base duration can be rough, maybe worth overcasting for double duration if you cast at all. still its a more efficient armor removing spell than plague of rust because of its AOE so that's something. it may only debuff two less important stats but it isn't bad since its an affordable AOE debuff. Doomfire warlocks get this free so never pay winds for it as the dark elves if you can help it. overcast is double duration for slightly cheaper than double so worth it in theory.
*'''Aspect of the Dreadknight''': Same as deal with Soulblight. It might be extremely cheap at 4 Winds of Magic, but its effect of +8 Leadership and Causes Terror for friendly units is simply not good enough, especially when taken into consideration that many factions that can use the Lore of Death (especially the Undead factions) have no shortage of Units that cause fear and terror or are completely exempt from Leadership issues.
*'''The Purple Sun of Xereus''': The good ol' "cast it successfully and the game is over" Vortex from the Tabletop doesn't disappoint here either. At 18 (24 when overcast) Winds of Magic, a fairly expensive Vortex that will completely demolish everything it touches, its only downside being that it is hard to predict where it will eventually go, but even the initial cast on a large moshpit of infantry is worth it. Particularly devastating on Bridge Battles, where Wizards with this spell will rack up a ludicrous amount of kills from one single cast alone.
*'''The Fate of Bjuna''': This is an odd one. An expensive single target direct damage spell That serves mainly as a middle finger to cavalry, elite infantry any thing with a medium model count. Deals large amounts of damage, but needs careful evaluation on when to use it. It's considered op in multiplayer where elite units are expensive and rare. In campaign, where stacks of endgame units are common, it's too expensive where a bombardment, missile or even vortex does more for cheaper. Its price is very inflated because of its power in multiplayer. You can just drop purple sun on a single unit for cheaper vs the AI most of the time. Not very efficient vs anything with less than 45 models.

===Lore of Fire===
Important to note: All spells from the Lore deal Magical and Fire type damage. It counts as both and is resisted by both. Tree sprits, tomb kings, and nurgle demons have notable weaknesses to fire damage in particular.
Summary of strengths: great versus lightly armored infantry or anything with weakness to fire. Poor versus single entities and monsters usually. Not as good versus armored targets. Has one pretty good aoe buff, that got better with changes to magic resistance.

:'''Passive - ''Kindleflame''''': Whenever you cast a Lore of Fire spell, it imbues a map wide fire weakness to all enemy units as you cast. The benefits combined with this lore are obvious, and allows for great synergy when used with other units who deal fire damage. Combines nicely with flaming sword.
*'''Fireball''': Inexpensive projectile that is found all over the goddamn place. High Elven Mages and Skink Priests can get 4 uses of them for free. It's... alright-ish. Like all projectiles, Fireballs strongly depend the casters positioning and its damage is kinda meh. Can still be reliably used to snipe big monsters and Lords out of the sky, and its considerable range makes it a very attractive and cheap source of Fire Damage to be used against Ethereal units or Wood Elven tree spirits. The minor boost in damage provided by overcasting generally isn't worth the increased mana cost, so in almost every circumstance you're better off just casting normally. its AP is kind of low so it isn't very impressive versus armored targets, best used on lightly armored monsters or lords/heros.
*'''Flaming Sword of Rhuin''': Cheap (8/12) base/overcast buff for your troops that makes all of their attacks deal fire and magic damage, as well as increasing their damage output by 30% for 22/44 seconds. Don't forget that this can also be cast on ranged units, so have fun experimenting with that. With the upcoming changes to magic resistance set to only affect damage inflicted by spells, this is set to become a solid tool for enabling some of your heavier hitters to shoulder through units with high physical resistances. Just beware, flame resistance will still be able to shrug off the damage.
*'''Cascading Fire Cloak''': Extremely cheap (only 5 winds of magic!) AoE buff that increases AP Damage of your melee troops by 24% and also gives them 25 Melee Defense for 19 seconds. Gives your frontline a bit more staying power and makes Greatswords, not to mention Har Garneth Executioners or Swordmasters of Hoeth downright terrifying. Important to keep in mind is that it won't do jack shit for units that bring no AP damage on their own, like Imperial Swordsmen. A 100% increase of 1 would still be 2. its single target only unfortunately and percentage based so maybe use on a monster or lord/hero for best results.
*'''The Burning Head''': Oh sweet baby, yes! A medium prized (10 Winds of Magic) Wind Spell that deals an intimidating amount of damage and also terrifies people. ''This'' is the prime spell of the Lore of Fire. Tons of Fire Damage, but can also deviate a bit, although not as much as Vortex Spells would. It's cheap size relative to its effectiveness make it a very attractive spell to use, and is available in the campaign very early on. Keep in mind it does zero AP damage even when overcast, so it sucks vs armor. On the positive side, your armored forces can tank a stray blast if you cast it alongside/on top of them when they're in battle with chaff or unarmored infantry, making a great tool for front-line engagements. Maybe even better in WH 3 with the demon factions mostly having bad armor.
*'''Piercing Bolts of Flame''': An expensive and semi-unreliable spell, this is your most effective anti-Armor option outside of Flamestorm spam. It deals a high amount of projectile damage as well, so it can deal respectable damage to monstrous infantry or even regular infantry if they clump up. In general though, you'll probably be better off prioritizing other, more potent/cost efficient spells and leave the dedicated anti-armor to other units in your army.
*'''Flamestorm''': When you need to delete infantry whole-sale, this is your go-to spell. Compared to Burning Head, Flamestorm is less efficient and substantially less consistent, but Flamestorm has substantially higher utility against armored enemies and has the ''potential'' to do much more damage overall. Costs a moderate 13 winds but will utterly annihilate any models caught in its wake, armored or not. Overcasting bumps the WoM cost to 20, doubles the duration from 27 seconds to 54, increases base damage but does nothing for the AP values. Only overcast if you're confident the enemy is locked down and you don't mind it potentially rolling into your forces. Even then, just saving the extra winds for a follow up cast may be a more efficient choice.

===Lore of Heavens===
:'''Passive - ''Roiling Skies''''': A mapwide debuff that slows down flying units and debuffs their melee defense for 25 seconds upon casting a spell. Frankly a mediocre and situational perk, but it can be handy if your opponent's playing a faction with a lot of flying cavalry.
*'''Wind Blast''': A cost effective breath spell that does wonders against unarmored chaff infantry like skavenslaves or peasant mobs. A side effect of this particular breath spell worth noting is that it disrupts enemy formations, making it valuable if only to help buy time for your own forces to get into position/get the charge into them while they recover. Overcasting the spell gives it a touch more bite against armored units (4 AP damage), but the difference is so marginal that it's not really worth it. Never overcast.
*'''Urannon's Thunderbolt''': A bolt of lightning that strikes a small area for extremely large AP damage. Has impressive range, so it has moderate use against the near-stationary artillery pieces your opponent may have. It's pure AP damage and overcasting does more than 1300 damage (much more than doombolts 1000ish AP or amber spears 700 AP), if you hit a lord or monster they will FEEEEEL it. Best cost to damage ratio of any single target blast. Cheaper and better than any other of its type. It has a minimal area of effect and does not track targets, so you'll need to aim carefully to actually land true with it.
*'''Harmonic Convergence''': A supporting spell that improves the melee defense/attack of a friendly unit by a rather respectable margin for 24 seconds, including their armor value if overcast. A very potent spell that can help turn the tide of an engagement on the front lines at a rather minor cost of 6 winds. It falls a bit behind similar buffing spells from other lores due to the fact it is limited to a single target, but is still a decent option for a key beat-stick unit of yours none-the-less.
*'''Curse of the Midnight Wind''': An AoE Hex that debuffs all enemies within its casting radius with lowered melee attack and armor values for 25 seconds, 50 if overcast. Combined with Harmonic Convergence, this is best served when you need to turn a frontline engagement around. In general though, at 11 WoM per cast, you may rather opt to simply put that power towards one of the damage dealing spells instead.
*'''Chain Lightning''': Now we're getting to the good stuff. One of the strongest vortex spells in the game, Chain Lightning randomly crawls across the battle field for 21 seconds dealing heavy damage to everything caught up in it, armored or not. It deals pure AP damage, highest of any other vortex spell. High elf archmages get this as a bound spell, and can get Urannon's Thunderbolt from a lord trait, making this lore perhaps a waste to use on them, since they could get so much of it free.
*'''Comet of Cassandora''': When you want to call down the celestial thunder, there's no better choice than the Comet of Cassandora. With a relatively large area of effect and massive damage output, the CoC can wipe out entire units with a well-placed blast, even more so if overcast... if anything is still willfully under the targeting cursor while the comet takes its sweet time to actually arrive. Between the rather lengthy delay before the comet itself actually descends onto the battlefield and the rather intense winds of magic cost (especially if overcast), finding a situation to use the CoC in lieu of either Chain Lightning or even Wind Blast will be quite difficult. All in all, it's terribly inefficient. Thunderbolt does much more damage to a single target and chain lighting is usually cheaper and more efficient for hordes/blobs. In Campaigns against AI, the Comet of Cassandora is a considerably more attractive option when engaging in Siege battles or against clumps of elite, relatively immobile units. Since the AI tends to be blissfully oblivious to the impact indicator and is prone to scrunching multiple units together regularly, they'll rarely make any effort to avoid taking the full brunt of a well positioned Comet.

===Lore of Life===
:'''Passive - ''Life Bloom''''': Whenever a life spell is cast, all your units heal up to 40 hitpoints over the course of 5 seconds. It's not much, but it's free healing that applies to your entire army whenever you cast a spell. Every little bit helps.
*'''Earth Blood''': This is the bread and butter for most life wizards. A nice AoE heal for up to four allied units within its radius that lasts for 7 seconds, with double the length and healing if overcast. The main value of this spell is the relatively inconsequential winds of magic cost (6/11), allowing life wizards to support a rather sizeable chunk of your army for a rather extended period of time.
*'''Awakening of the Wood''': A large damage dealing explosion that dramatically slows down everyone caught up in the blast, but deals squat for damage against anything with an armor value.
*'''Shield of Thorns''': A nice offensive/defensive buff that grants percentage based physical resist and weapon damage bonuses to several of your units within the spell's radius. A great supporting power for key units that goes quite nicely with Earth Blood to keep them in peak physical form. Use on units who already resist physical for best results, overcasting can be good if you need extra weapon damage. Can be cast combined with pelt if you have a beast caster to give 50% physical resist on top of any the unit already has.
*'''Flesh to Stone''': A massive boost to an allied unit's armor value for 44 seconds (88 if overcast), this can turn even a squishy unit like Wood Elf Wardancers into surprisingly tanky beat-sticks, especially if stacked with Shield of Thorns. When compared to SoT, however, it tends to be better against non-AP by far but falls off in the later game when more units tend to have AP values.
*'''Regrowth''': An expensive single target heal that replenishes a substantial amount of HP and vigour to the target unit, especially if overcast. Frankly best reserved for emergencies and/or single entity units as no amount of healing will bring back slain models in a unit. Minor exceptions extend to the very few factions who ''can'' revive slain models, like the Lizardmen when utilizing a Revivification Crystal Bastilodon. In general though, Earth Blood provides better sustain for your army over the course of the battle.
*'''The Dwellers Below''': A shockingly powerful AoE damaging spell for a lore so dedicated to supporting your own units, The Dwellers Below snares all units who travel within the spell's zone with a speed debuff while chipping away at them in the process. While it's good in certain situations, you've likely taken your life wizard for dedicated healing support and will likely have alternative options for offensive spellcasters more suited to the task. Wood elf spellweaver lords get this as a bound spell, which is awesome. Despite its awesome animations, if you look carefully at the spells tooltip, you'll notice that it's a direct damage spell and not a vortex. This is important because it means that instead of centering it on blobs, you want it covering as many enemy units as possible and you don't have to worry about hitting your own units with it.

===Lore of Light===
:'''Passive - ''Exorcism''''': Whenever you cast a Lore of Light spell, all your units gain 4 leadership and become immune to psychology (fear/terror) for 11 seconds. Useful, if you are facing armies with lots of scary monsters, but largely useless outside of that.
*'''Shen's Burning Gaze''': Inexpensive Projectile, costs the same as fireball (5 winds), but fires 5 projectiles in a grouping. Has the advantage of higher base damage than said Fireball, and the disadvantage that all projectiles need to land for the spell to deal full damage. Given that most entities except the largest ones aren't even big enough for all projectiles to land, it's kinda mediocre. For what it's worth, it has much better AP damage than fire ball for similar cost. If cast at close range, it can be used like a shotgun to get all of the projectiles to hit. It's best vs a monster sized unit obviously, but it's also good vs flying to due decent air tracking. It fires 5 projectiles base goes up to 10 if overcast. Basically just like gaze of nagash from lore of vampires. Also it has bonus vs large.
*'''Net of Amyontok''': This is why you pick the Lore of Light. A medium-prized (10 winds) AoE debuff that locks an enemy in place, right where they stand. The incredible utility of this spell cannot be understated. A must pick against factions with a lot of mobility, although it only affects units on the ground. Despite that limitation, it ''will'' trap any flying cavalry/monsters/characters who are on the ground (from a charge, for example), so if you can catch them with this before they can retreat into the skies, you can severely punish them. Obviously favored by those with good archers and artillery, Sisters of Avelorn and Salamander Hunting Packs being notable beneficiaries.
*'''Pha's Protection''': A cheap defense buff. Grants 30 armour and 24 Melee Defense at the prize of 5 winds of magic for 22 seconds. overcast adds AOE for 10 winds. unexceptional but nice, short duration is unfortunate, but good AOE buffs are rare. maybe worth it if you can hit enough of your units.
*'''Light of Battle''': AoE buff for 7 Winds of Magic that makes all units unbreakable for 22 seconds. Not to be underestimated, but needs a creative mind to use right. very situational, probably not worth it often.
*'''Bironas Timewarp''': Pretty nifty AOE buff spell that costs 11 Winds of Magic and gives units a whopping 24% increase to their movement speed and 24 melee attack. Perfect for Cavalry and other fast units.
*'''Banishment''': A 17/24 overcast winds vortex with good ap damage (7ap same as pit of shades). you get a small zone of bright death. The game advertises this spell as dealing "medium damage", which is bewildering, to say the least. Banishment definitely doesn't need to hide behind its bigger brethren from other Lores. It’s actually incredibly similar to purple sun now, in fact purple sun is probably better now. Still good though. Overcasting increases the base damage by 7, though the AP values are untouched. Generally not worth overcasting in most scenarios. Slann get this as a free bound spell, as always this is awesome.

===Lore of Metal===
:'''Passive - ''Metalshifting''''': Your lore attribute that gives your units +10% AP and Weapon Strength for 13 second. Used best on elite units who already have high AP and damage as something like an Empire Swordsman probably won't be noticing the effects too much.
*'''Searing Doom''': A fairly cost effective bombardment ability against low armor. At only 6 winds of magic it can help destroy early game blobs of crappy infantry. It's biggest disadvantage is the wind up time so any opponent who's paying attention should be able to get out of the way. Fortunately the AI doesn't bother with dodging these most of the time. Low projectile damage means wont do shit to higher health models, kroxigors, dragon ogres etc.
*'''Plague of Rust''': One of the most cost effective armor debuffs in the game, especially if you don't have a lot of affordable AP. Being able to get rid of 30 armor for 4 winds (Or 60 for 6 if you overcast) is situationally good. Plus it lasts 44 seconds so you have plenty of time to deal with them before their defensive stats return to normal. It's certainly better against some factions (this can be a god send against Dwarfs and Bretonnia) than others (Beastmen and Wood Elves will laugh if you bring this). In the campaign almost every unit worth using should have AP anyway, really only good situationally/early game. single target is the biggest problem, at least its cheap with good duration. kind of mediocre. I would rather use soul blight with shorter duration, at least's its AOE. a single armored unit is only ever going to matter enough in multiplayer.
*'''Glittering Robes''': it got buffed. now 60 armor for 44 seconds (no leadership effect anymore), overcast for AOE, actually pretty good if fighting non AP. 6 base/12 overcast. AOE is the big deal, much better than the life equivalent.
*'''Gehenna's Golden Hounds''': You can spend an extra 3 winds of magic for a mediocre vortex that only hurts low armor units and might even kill some of your own troops. Doesn't that sound fun? Use Searing Doom, you'll get better bang for your buck. It actually has the same AP damage per tick as Purple Sun, its mostly just small and hard to aim. Cheap though. Not great
*'''Transmutation of Lead''': A fairly solid -24 melee attack and -30% weapon damage for 38 seconds can really put enemy momentum to a halt (if you overcast, -60% weapon damage). costs 11 base, 16 overcast. unfortunately debuffing melee attack and weapon strength while good is somewhat counter synergistic, because if they don't hit the strength doesn't matter, but its just doubling down rather than redundant. Probably don't overcast unless you really think you need it.
*'''Final Transmutation''': Ok so take Spirit Leech, make it a massive AOE and you have a pretty good idea of how Final Transmutation works. This can win you games if you get a big blob in it but at 18 (28 overcast) Winds of Magic it'll probably be all you're casting in multiplayer. In campaign, build up those reserves and you can win battles with this alone. Even if you only hit 2 targets, it has higher damager per winds ratio than Spirit Leech. The overcast version does 2300 damage on average vs Spirit Leech's 834 average. If you can weaken a lord to the 2000 health range this will quickly destroy them. Assuming they have no significant magic resist/healing/wards of course, but still incredibly potent none-the-less. (all direct damage spells bypass armor FYI, so Bejuna, Flock of Doom, Miasma etc., they all do).

===Lore of Shadows===
:'''Passive - ''Smoke & Mirrors''''': A mapwide movement speed buff for 24 seconds whenever you cast a shadows spell is a nice perk that can give you a slight edge in maneuverability over your opponent, though this is very largely dependent on the factions at play. Remember the mediocre speed boosts of pelt or timewarp? This is better, map wide, and free. Still not that great.
*'''Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma''': A Single target direct damage spell that deals damage to one unit while also slowing them down in the process. At 5 winds of magic for a quick cast, it's a great precursor to an engagement or to help prevent your opponent from fleeing. Averages around 1764 direct damage, quite good but only on a large unit, ideally with about 100 or more models. Ok to speed debuff a lord or monster if you really need to as well, other wise dont overcast. best spammed to wear down large units, compare to flock of doom for example.
*'''The Enfeebling Foe''': A 22 second melee defense/attack debuff that cripples a single enemy unit of your choice. Ideally used against characters or monsters who might be trying to wreak havoc in your lines or to give your own lord a step up in a duel against them. Probably worth overcasting for the double duration. One of the best debuffs in the game for a single target. Hit a lord with it then buff your duelist monster, hero, or lord with Mindrazor and you get a nasty killing combo.
*'''The Withering''': Yet another hex that targets a single unit and reduces their armor and leadership for 40 seconds. It only has a prominent niche if you stack lots of leadership debuffs to force opposing units to route, but Doom and Darkness from death does that twice as well (if that discipline is available). all races that can leadership bomb (beastmen, dark elves, norsca, warriors of chaos, and vampires) have access to death, except lizardmen which cant use shadow or death.
*'''The Penumbral Pendulum''': A potent wind spell that is perfect for slicing through frontline units while they're tied up in combat. It's not quite as powerful as the Burning Head or the Winds of Death against unarmored foes, but anything wearing a tin can will get cracked open. This does 36 AP damage base or a whopping 72 if overcast. It actually does more AP damage than wind of death, but usually gets fewer kills due to shorter duration, travel distance, and AOE. Wrecks elite infantry and cavalry.
*'''Pit of Shades''': One of the very select few stationary vortex spells in the game. With a 13 second duration, the Pit of Shades is a fantastic tool in maps that have natural choke points or if you manage to box in a particularly large clump of units. It deals 7 points of pure AP, same as Purple Sun's or Banishment's AP damage, though it has no base damage paired with it. Overcasting doubles the ap to 14, but this is generally unnecessary in most circumstances. It traps enemies inside of it, so not only does it immobilize clumps of enemies for follow-up attacks, it tends to deal tons of damage as long as you get a direct hit. Very reliable.
*'''Okkam's Mindrazor''': A very nasty buff that grants magical attacks to an allied unit as well as a ''very'' substantial 40% buff to weapon and armor piercing damage. Overcast for an expensive but powerful AOE buff. Use on monsters, heroes and lords for best results because it's percentage based; you're gonna get a lot more mileage out of it that way. Good for a goon squad to kill monsters/lords, not worth it for killing infantry usually. Remember weapon strength doesn’t matter if you can’t hit, try to combine it with an a melee attack boost or melee defense debuff for best results. Enfeebling foe for example.

===Scrolls===

In the Campaign, you can occasionally find magic scrolls that give your caster a free spell with limited uses, and some of them aren't available in any lore. Given that they're free, there is no reason to not cast them in any battle. Some of these spells can also be unlocked through faction mechanics or just levelling your caster character up.

*'''Arnzipal's Black Horror''': Stupidly effective Breath Spell that eats chaff alive and even inflicts enough damage to give Elite Units a run for their money. As of the Rakarth Update, Dark Elven Supreme Sorceresses get this spell as a bound spell for levelling up to Level 10 on the Campaign, everyone else has to rely on the enemy to drop the Scroll of Horror.
*'''Assault of Stone''': Probably the strongest Bombardment in the entire game. Covers a huge area, and inflicts a ton AP magic damage. The Dwarfs (of all factions) get the easiest access to it by forging the Sceptre of Stone with Oathgold.
*'''Amber Scroll''': A free leadership debuff on any one unit.
*'''Blast''': Fireball but faster and more immediate.

==Faction-specific Lores==

===Lore of the Deep (Vampire Coast)===
:'''Passive - ''Kiss of the Deep''''': Each time you cast a spell it does a small amount of magic damage to every enemy unit on the map. This is especially useful when fighting against armies that have fragile units and rely on [[Wood Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|superior speed]] or [[skaven|disposable chaff units]] to keep them protected.
*'''Tidecall''': A breath weapon that expands out in a cone, doing moderate damage and disrupting enemy formations. Basically wind blast from the Lore of Heaven, but wetter.
*'''Spiteful Shot''': A buff that provides +90 accuracy to an allied unit. Great for deck gunners, mortars, Queen Bess, or anything else that can shoot, really. It's the cheapest spell in your arsenal so it can be reliably spammed to get more Kiss of the Deep effects.
*'''Denizens of the Deep''': Summons a unit of Rotting Prometheans. The Rotting Prometheans biggest weakness is its low speed, so the ability to drop a unit right into the enemy is amazing. Need to soak up an enemy charge? Want to disrupt enemy artillery? There's an enemy hero giving you problems? Solve every problem with [[meme|giant enemy crabs]].
*'''Fog of the Damned''': A debuff spell that reduces enemy leadership and movement speed. Not your best spell, but it slows enemy melee units down to give your gunners more time to shoot them. It still causes Kiss of the Deeps which is never bad.
*'''Vangheist's Revenge''': Possibly the coolest looking spell ever. Summons a giant ghost boat to broadside the enemy for heavy damage across a wide area. Expensive and slow to cast, but stylish as hell and can potentially wipe out whole units at once.
*'''Kraken's Pull''': A big vortex full of [[slaanesh|wet groping tentacles]] that traps any unit caught inside of it, dealing damage to them and cutting their speed in half. Anything that keeps the enemy away from your lines is useful. The vortex is also immobile, so there's no risk of it backfiring into your units.

===Lore of High Magic (High Elves, Lizardmen, Wood Elves)===
:'''Passive - ''Shield of Saphery''''': A 11% Ward Save graces all your units whenever you cast spells from this discipline.
:'''Passive (Wood Elves) - ''Ancients' Protection''''': A slightly worse version of the Shield of Saphery, this only grants a 10% ''Physical'' Resistance buff, meaning it'll do nothing against magic damage/missiles. Still, it works well enough for Wood Elves since they have a reasonable amount of innate physical resist already and can be further supplemented by physical resistance spells from other disciplines.
*'''Hand of Glory''': A relatively cheap buff for a single allied unit that grants them increased reload skill and melee attack for 29 seconds. Reload skill and melee attack don't exactly go hand in hand as far as complimentary buffs go, but it does give it a bit more potential application across your entire army compared to other more specialized buffs. Despite this, and despite it's lower cost, it will not usually do enough to justify the winds cost since one unit can only do so much. A single fireball would usually do more even, depending on your targets.
*'''Apotheosis''': A very cheap single unit heal that also imbues the allied target with Fear for its 22 second duration. This is, all things considered, a pretty nice spell for a tanky frontline unit and does provide more healing to a single target than Earth Blood (granted, Earth Blood heals multiple targets). The addition of Fear does help push through the squishier, meeker chaff units that might simply be trying to tie you down. Unfortunately, the lore of life exists and all factions with high magic have access to life magic. Never overcast it unless you really need the range.
*'''Soul Quench''': A magic missile with artillery levels of range that explodes for quite reasonable damage against groups of infantry. While it's reasonably effective and cost efficient, you'll likely want to reserve your Winds of Magic for more utilitarian purposes and leave the job of long-range bombardment to your actual artillery units, Wood Elves lack artillerysi they *might* get moreuse out of this. Keep in mind it has bad armor piercing, use it like fireball pretty much. If you use it at all.
*'''Tempest''': A snare that deals damage and traps a flying unit in a slow moving vortex. This is a very useful tool for dealing with (Legendary) Lords on flying mounts or flying Monsters like Dragons. While they take impressive damage from the Tempest itself, you should always have a unit or two of missile units or artillery on hand to take advantage of their immobility. In general though, this is worse than the Net of Amyntok if your goal is to snare enemy units in place. Great in multiplayer, crap in single player.
*'''Fiery Convocation''': A relatively potent wind spell that deals reasonable damage to enemies it passes through. Even among directional wind spells, there's a lot of room for variance on the path it takes, so try not to use it too close to your own front line. Does the highest AP damage of any wind spell but lower total damage than pendulum, for example. Not really worth the extra cost for the higher AP, its only ok. Very slow cast time means it's hard to hit savvy opponents with it too.
*'''Arcane Unforging''': A very powerful single-entity spell that deals substantial damage to the target while increasing their ability cooldowns by a considerable amount. This is a very valuable spell against enemy Heroes and Lords due to their ability to completely shut them down. Overcharging the spell can add a whopping 45 seconds to their ability cooldowns which, if used at just the right moment, can utterly ruin an opponent's strategy and potentially cost them the field. Obviously less useful against battering ram-type characters who just charge into battle, but hey. Can't have everything. Higher damage but less efficient than other spells of its kind. Spirit leech, final transmutation and soul stealer are honestly better because their AoE capabilities (or higher efficiency in spirit leech's case) make up for their high cost. Still, not a bad spell though, considering Lizardmen lack access to the aforementioned alternatives. Pick your targets well and only overcast against extremely high priority characters with powerful abilities.

===Lore of Dark Magic (Dark Elves, Wood Elves)===
:'''Passive - ''Spiteful Conjuration''''': Reduces armor map wide, it’s ok, works out to 11% less damage resistance for 18 seconds. Almost the same as the lore of metal attribute effectively but almost always better. It affects missile and spell damage not just melee with a longer duration than metal does. Doesn’t actually affect any of the spells from this lore except bladewind however since the rest do pure AP damage.
:'''Passive (Wood Elves) - ''Wrath of the Woods''''': 12% more missile damage map wide for 8 seconds, it’s nice. Like a free half strength flaming sword and stacks with all other boosts.
*'''Power of Darkness''': Basically a 4 times as strong arcane conduit that causes 500ish damage to a unit over time. Which unit is chosen doesn’t matter. 3 use limit per battle. Very underrated, easily the strongest winds recharge skill in the game. Cast on a hydra and it will just regen through most of the damage or on a bolt thrower out of the way. Don’t ever put the damage on your wizard. in campaign you can consider running dark plus a second lore to have the dark act as a winds battery, recomend to combine with other winds boost like knowledgeable sorceressess
*'''Chillwind''': Cheap wind spell that does 24 points of PURE Ap damage. That’s 2/3rds of a pendulum’s AP component. Also slows and lowers reload speed so multi use. Honestly a bargain, it’s pure AP would be worth the cost alone. Plus triggers lore attribute cheaply. Overcast isn’t worth it. it looks weaker than it is, remember that it wont kill many models but will significantly weaken them, its hard to tell but it adds up to a lot of lost health on infantry.
*'''Word of Pain''': A single target only debuff isn’t ideal but it can claim to be probably the best lord or hero off switch in the game. -44 melee attack is massive. Overcast adds a melee defense hit as well. Sometimes worth overcasting. Situational but nice to have.
*'''Blade Wind''': Pretty cheap, pretty damaging vortex. Lowish ap damage but helped by the lore attribute, short duration but that rarely matters. It does it’s job well for its cost. Won’t win any awards but its cheap enough to justify just dropping it on only 1 or 2 units. same cost as base Doombolt so use this on bigger units or blobs usually but Doombolt vs single entities or monstrous units. Overcast doubles duration but unlikely to hit anything long enough for that to matter, not worth overcasting really.
*'''Doombolt''': Does just over 800 pure AP on a direct hit with an decent AOE detonation as well. Plus it’s a bombardment with pretty good tracking. It is like a cheaper comet of casadora with the tradeoff of less AOE range but better single target damage. Comparable damage/efficiency to Amber Spear overcast. Its ideal situation is hitting a lord or monster while surrounded by troops to take advantage of both damage portions. Overcast is proportionate, it only boosts the single target damage though. Against units just use the base version.
*'''Soul Stealer''': AOE spirit leech combined with a caster only heal identical to High Magic’s but with about 50 more healing. Damage is the exact same as Spirit leech, but because it hits every target with their own version it’s more efficient than Spirit Leech with just 2-3 good targets. Plus only healing Dark Elves get. Great spell. Better on Morathi, Malekith, and a black dragon sorceress to make the self healing more valuable.

===Lore of Nehekhara (Tomb Kings)===
:'''Passive - ''The Restless Dead''''': Completely identical to the Lore of Vampires passive, heals injured undead before resurrecting models. Unlike the Lore of Vampires, the Lore of Nehekhara contains many more small buff spells but lacks the damage potential of the former. That does, however, mean that this passive will be triggering a lot more frequently.
*'''Djaf's Incantation of Cursed Blades''': One of the cheapest spells in the game at 3 WoM, this little spell buffs weapon and AP damage by 25% on a single unit. Emblematic of the Tomb Kings lore and battle philosophy in general: while there are no standout spells or units that will single-handedly win you your battles, it's the combined-arms nature of the faction that truly makes it succeed. And the Cursed Blades is perfect for giving those cavalry, Ushabti, and other nasty constructs the edge on the offense.
*'''Neru's Incantation of Protection''': Grants 44% Physical Resistance for 6 WoM. Good for keeping your Tomb King rampaging through the enemy lines on his Warsphinx or giving one of your holding units unexpected resilience.
*'''Ptra's Incantation of Righteous Smiting''': The go-to spell for the missile-focused Tomb Kings player. Granting 40% bonus to missile and missile AP damage for another 6 WoM, this is a beastly spell when put on your artillery constructs which will really pile in the pressure on units trying to approach your lines.
*'''Usirian's Incantation of Vengeance''': The first damage spell for the lore and it's... disappointing. Does middling damage to units in a wide area while reducing their speed by 24%. Situational, potentially useful if built around correctly, but generally safe to ignore in favour of more buffs for the troops.
*'''Usekph's Incantation of Desiccation''': -24 MA and MD to enemy units in a huge area for a whopping 15 WoM. Generally not worth it unless you're planning to bust through an infantry line with your own, which works like none of the time with the slow infantry of the Tomb Kings
*'''Sakhmet's Incantation of the Skullstorm''': Generic magical damage vortex for 11 WoM. Impressive to look at, but not very efficient due to a smaller-than-average vortex radius.

===Lore of the Wild (Beastmen)===
:'''Passive - ''Bestial Surge''''': When ever you cast you gain an extra 18% Charge Bonus and 5% vigour. Needless to say in a speedy hit and run faction like the Beastmen you will need as much of both as you can get.
*'''Viletide''': For 7 winds of magic you get an AOE kaboom that deals decent damage to unarmoured troops. Great for when you are in a grind and need to get the chaff out of the way so that you can fight better stuff but won't do dick against armour.
*'''Bray-Scream''' A cone shaped wind spell that can do decent damage with decent AP. It has very short range but for 5 Winds of Magic it can actually get you some very good damage against infantry with a ton of armor.
*'''Devolve''': For 11 winds this thing is essentially a mini Final Transmutation, and can do some serious damage to large unit sizes (100 and up ideally). Plus the leadership debuff can help with getting the enemy into a rout so you can chase them off. This is your best blob destroying spell and it's decent for what it is. All direct damage spells ignore armor. It does 1100 damage max, 2300 overcast both only against big enough units. Very cost efficient.
*'''Traitor-Kin''': Essentially an AOE Spirit Leech in that instead of doing a ton of damage to several models at once it will drain one model at a time til it dies and move to the next one. This means that it doesn't do as much damage as Devolve but will kill models. It also supplies a speed debuff for lord sniping, which is great for a faction that relies on outrunning their enemies. It's expensive at 12 winds though
*'''Mantle of Ghorok''': The only buffing spell this list has. It provides a meaty 50 Base Weapon Damage, 40% Melee Attack and 50% AP. Needless to say this is amazing for such an aggressive faction and will turn Minotaurs and Bestigors into killing machines. There is the downside of the -30 armour but.. come on man, you're playing the Beastmen. Unless you use this thing on Bestigors you wont even notice. You'll be more turned off by the 11 winds cost. Probably better against armoured opponents.
*'''Savage Dominion''': Ok let's be real. If you're one of the 3 people in this game who play the Beastmen and you're taking this Lore of Magic into an online match, this is why you're bringing it. I don't really need to tell you why getting 2 Cygors for free is really, really good. Not only do you have a solid monster but you also have an artillery piece to rain death rocks from afar. I don't care if it's 18 Winds of Magic, it's easily the best spell in the lore. You can only use it twice though, so use it wisely.

===Lore of Vampires (Vampire Coast, Vampire Counts)===
:'''Passive - ''The Curse of Undeath''''': Heals every undead unit on the map for a small amount over the course of 5 seconds, but in contrast to the Lore of Lifes passive, it can also bring models back. Not a game changer, but free healing is always nice.
*'''Curse of Years''': Not worth it. A big AoE debuff that lowers Melee Defense and Speed at a whopping cost of 16 Winds of Magic. Its general effectiveness is additionally offset by the fact that your Skellies or Deckhands are not all that good at melee in the first place and the debuff just too weak against Lords and Heroes (which are usually the preferred targets for debuffs).
*'''Gaze of Nagash''': Practically interchangeable with Shen's burning gaze from the Lore of Light. Meek Projectile with mediocre damage that also has a hard time even hitting its intended target. Skip.
*'''Invocation of Nehek''': This and Wind of Death are the main reason why the Lore of Vampires is so extremely powerful. Invocation of Nehek brings a very cost-effective heal to the table at a meager 6 Winds of Magic that also resurrects dead models - for 12 on the overcast variant, you get a very big AoE heal that helps especially the many monstrous, low entity units the Counts are able to field. Pumping a half-dead Vargheist or Mourngul unit up a few models can really swing encounters in your favor, not to mention the amount of cheese you can get out of this spell by combining it with the multitude of passive regeneration abilities the Counts have on a lot of units. Maxing it out on Campaign also makes it even cheaper (bringing down the cost from 6/12 down to 5/10) and since it's your first spell, there is no reason to not do so.
*'''Raise Dead (Vampire Counts)''': Summons a unit of Zombies for just 7 Winds. Summons are always awesome, since you can summon these bois behind the melee moshpit for nice charges into the back of your enemy for the additional rear attack moral penalty, or just keeping a nasty unit in the place of your choosing. The mileage of this spell of course depends greatly on your own creativity. The overcast gives you Skeleton Warriors with swords, which is negligible and usually not worth the cost of 13 Winds.
*'''Drowned Dead (Vampire Coast)''': Similar to its Vampire Count cousin, Drowned Dead summons forth a squad of Zombie Gunmen to help shoot down your foes. Fitting for the Vampire Coast considering how much they love guns. The overcast version summons forth a Zombie Pirate Gunnery Mob, but with handguns so they have more fire power, giving you a stronger edge. How useful this spell is depends on where they are summoned.
*'''Vanhel's Danse Macabre''': Sweet Little and extremely cheap buff (only 4 winds, 6 when overcast) that grants +24 Melee Attack and Speed like an inverse Curse of Years. Can be worth it on units like Grave Guard or Black Knights, usually situational, unlike Curse of Years its very low costs make it very useful in a pinch or as last resort spell, when your Magic Reserves have dried up and there's nothing else left to cast.
*'''Wind of Death''': Feast your eyes and despair, for you look at the most powerful offensive spell in the entire game. The only thing holding back is its extremely high price tag of 20 Winds (25 when overcast), so one cast will essentially drain your entire magic pool. But your one shot may as well end the game the instant you get it off. A very fast-moving wind spell that ''will'' evaporate any high model count unit in a single cast with a terrifying reach due to high AP magic damage. It's still effective against units with lower model counts and/or magic resist since it deals so much damage.

===Lore of the Big Waaagh! (Greenskins)===
:'''Passive - ''Power of da Waaagh!''''': Functionally identical to the Lore of Death attribute, every time you cast a spell it increases the recharge rate for all spells. Nothing fancy, but still useful.
*'''Brain Bursta''': Basically a green fireball. Deals decent damage in a large area from a decent distance. You should probably focus on the other spells in the list.
*''''Eadbutt''': A short, wide little breath attack that sends enemies flying. Great for disrupting enemy formations and pushing clumps of enemies around.
*''''Ere We Go''': A buff that gives a unit [[rip and tear|+40 melee attack]], allowing even weedy little goblins to punch above their weight. Absolutely horrific when used on Black Orcs, but there's basically nothing in the greenskin roster that doesn't appreciate krumpin' stuff.
*'''Fists of Gork''': A cheaper alternative to 'Ere We Go that provides +24 melee attack and defense. It's better to use on a lord or hero to give them an edge in a duel, but 9 times out of 10 you'll want 'Ere We Go instead.
*'''Foot of Gork''': '''SPLAT!!''' Summon Gork himself to stomp the shit out of your enemies with one of the most powerful spells in the game. Creates a giant explosion of armour piercing damage that can win the entire battle on its own if cast on the right target. The winds of magic cost is really steep, especially when overcast; but the damage potential cannot be overstated.
*'''Gaze of Mork''': Often overlooked, but not completely useless. Gaze of Mork is a cheap precise sniper-rilfe style spell that does decent damage to a single entity. The best part of the spell is the long range, which is good for greenskins who normally struggle when the enemy is too far away. Overcasting lets it trade shots with artillery all the way across the map.

===Lore of the Little Waaagh! (Greenskins)===
:'''Passive - ''Sneaky Stealin'''''': The polar opposite of the Lore of the Big Waaagh! passive, this one increases the recharge time for enemy casters. An interesting trait, but the effectiveness depends very strongly on what the opponent is bringing.
*'''Curse of Da Bad Moon''': A hilarious looking vortex that bounces around the map, dealing damage and reducing the speed, armour, and melee attack of whatever it touches. A useful debuff, but the spell moves around like crazy and can often come back to your lines.
*'''Gork'll Fix It''': A targeted hex that reduces enemy speed, charge bonus, and vigor. Tailor made to counter knights and chariots, who should always be the first targets. A pretty cheap spell only costing 7 winds of magic, but you get what you pay for.
*'''Itchy Nuisance''': Another Hex, this one decreases enemy weapon damage and melee attack. More generally useful than Gork'll Fix It, but not nearly as good against knights.
*'''Nightshroud''': A strange buff that gives all friendly units in an area Stalk and Undetectable, making them functionally invisible. A great way to protect your slower units from enemy shooting. Note that Undetectable stops working if the unit attacks or casts a spell, so it's pretty much useless on your archers.
*'''Sneaky Stabbin'''': A cheap and weak little spell that gives the target 18% more AP damage and +34 melee attack. Because the bonus to AP is a percentage and not a flat amount, it doesn't do much on units that struggle against armored foes (you know, the ones that really need it). Most of the time the longer duration and better melee bonus of 'Ere We Go! is better, but if you don't have an orc shaman it can get the job done.
*'''Vindictive Glare''': Launches a bunch of little magic missiles into the target, doing moderate magic damage for each missile that hits. Best against big targets so all of the missiles can hit the same target. Anything that helps you against monsters is useful for Greenskins.

===Skaven Spells of Ruin (Skaven)===
:'''Passive - ''Musk of Fear''''': Upon casting a spell, enemy units are inflicted with -13 Melee Attack and -4 Leadership. Considering the relatively spammy nature of the Lore of Ruin (in particular Warp Lightning) this may help your tarpits out considerably but don't rely on it to turn the tide of battle on its own.
*'''Warp Lightning''': Cheap bombardment spell, iconic to non-Pestilens Skaven casters and surprisingly powerful for the cost. There are many ways to buff this spell in campaign but it's also perfectly serviceable in multiplayer. Don't ever be conservative with this spell - it's dirt-cheap and you'll need repeated casts of it to really dish out the hurt. Laugh maniacally like Ikit and blast those tarpitted blobs whenever you see them!
*'''Howling Warpgale''': Despite the situational nature of this spell, it is absolutely vital that you take this spell whenever you start acquiring weapons teams. Flying creatures and units are countered hard by Jezzails and Ratling Guns but it's their speed and other pressing concerns of regular cavalry that can often end in a Feral Manticore or others tearing through your helpless gunners. But with this spell you can pin those flying beasties in the air and make them easy targets for your artillery and snipers.
*'''Death Frenzy''': A straightforward combat buff that can turn an outmatched fight into a much more balanced one. It's tempting to cast this on Clanrats to try to hold the line longer but there are better uses for this spell, like letting that Plague Censer-Bearer unit tear through your opponent's elite infantry and eliciting a serious WTF moment from them as you blow a hole in their infantry centre with crazed great-weapon rats pumped full of magic.
*'''Scorch''': A thin breath spell. One of the disappointments of the otherwise serviceable Lore of Ruin, it has a rather small hitbox that deals middling damage to anything not unarmoured chaff. Since the Skaven have better ways of dealing with unarmoured chaff, you're better off skipping this one.
*'''Flensing Ruin''': An unusual area-damage spell that Functions just like Final Transmutation (and has the same Winds of magic to damage ratio), it works best versus single entities and very small units (20ish or less unit size), if you get a group of good targets it's actually very efficient and powerful. Not worth using versus infantry and large units, just use warp lightning for them. Will effect any target clipped by its AOE in full just like flock of doom.
*'''Crack's Call''': Another area damage spell, this time a straight wind spell that's similar to Flensing Ruin in its AP potential. The shape of the wind spell lends itself well to thinning out hapless infantry eating up your Skavenslaves and Clanrats, so it's up to you if you want to use this as a in-between the Warp Lightning casts you're hopefully already spamming.
*'''The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell (Exclusive to Grey Seers of Ruin)''': ''Now'' we're talking. While only Grey Seer of Ruin lords can take this, it's the one spell both old 8th Edition veterans and Total War players will take regardless because of its sheer WTF potential - it's a large-area explosion spell that spawns a unit of sword-and-board Stormvermin right on top of whatever unfortunate infantry are left alive from the blast. The high Winds of Magic cost and long cooldown make this a risky proposition but when you see that chance to flip the table on that blob of chaff and create a dangerous opening in your opponent's formation, you turn to this spell. Maybe just use the cheaper summons from the lore of plague instead though, warlock masters are honestly better than grey seer's anyway.

===Skaven Spells of Plague (Skaven)===
:'''Passive - ''Plague Rash''''': Upon casting a spell in this Lore, inflicts -12% Speed on all enemies on the map. Absolutely amazing debuff, when combined with the sheer number of summons you can throw at incoming cavalry and fast movers, undoubtedly makes this Skaven lore not only the best for Skaven but one of the strongest Lores in the game.
*'''Bless with Filth''': Cheap poison attacks buff. Nothing much to say, it's a nice way of making those Clanrat Spears extra nasty against the big stuff. Gutter runners with poison slings are arguably more efficient.
*'''Pestilent Breath''': The signature breath spell for Plague casters. Good coverage, damage and low cost makes this a staple for clearing out enemy tarpits in short order. Despite not being very effective against armor, it can potentially disrupt the formation with the breath effect which you can take advantage of.
*'''Vermintide''': The earliest summon spell any of the Skaven casters can get and by far one of the most useful. Do not underestimate being able to suddenly summon Clanrats out of nowhere, they can easily become annoying roadblocks against enemy cavalry or delay infantry advances so that your artillery can shoot at them more. In a pinch, you can even throw them behind a unit in combat as a cheap way to inflict outflanked debuffs.
*'''Wither''': -30 Armour doesn't sound like much of a debuff but Wither stands out by having its duration be longer than the cooldown - meaning with patience you can make those high-armor targets naked for a brief period for maximum rape. Best to use this one on units already in combat that you really want dead quickly, either from grenades or Plague Monk attacks.
*'''Plague''': The best AoE damage spell the Skaven have by far and the most visually impressive as well. Absolutely amazing for crushing mobs of any kind while they eat worthless Clanrats from Vermintide, it has a stupidly low casting cost for the effect and damage area. The Plague is not to be trifled with and can turn the tide of the battle with careful usage.
*'''Pestilent Birth''': While Vermintide is the more defensive summon spell in this lore, this spell is for more aggressive players who would much rather like to win the infantry fight by any means. With this spell you can spawn a unit of Plague Monks nearby the caster - terrific for nasty back attacks or adding unexpected pressure onto an enemy unit chewing up Skavenslaves. A devastating spell if positioned correctly but still useful even if misplaced.

===Skaven Spells of Stealth (Skaven)===
:'''Passive - ''Toxic Rain''''': Applies Poison in an AOE around the caster. A weird passive that encourages you to keep your mage close to the enemy, which is normally the last place that you would want to keep you caster, especially one without any mount options. One of the many reasons why this is widely considered the worst lore of magic in the entire game.
*'''Skitterleap''': Grants Stalk, Unspottable and a small speed boost to all of the allies affected. Designed as an ambush spell that allows you to quickly move units around in a position to outflank your enemy. Given that this lore was designed to be used with Clan Eshin units it really only helps out said Eshin units. Other than that Skaven aren't much of a flanking faction so it doesn't help them out that much. Overcasting increases the AOE
*'''Warp Stars''': Fires a bunch of AP magic missiles at a target, increasing the number of projectiles when overcasted. Good for poking down units before a main engagement, though it doesn't do as much damage as other missile spells.
*'''Veil of Shadows''': Causes a massive, persistent explosion but does no damage. Designed to displace enemy units and provide a big hole for your units to run through. Great for unclogging gates in sieges against the AI, but the usefulness is questionable since a lot of spell have a similar effect and, you know, actually kill things. Overcast version slows as well.
*'''Armour of Darkness''': Provides armour and missile resistance for a limited amount of time, little extra if overcasted. Once again, since this lore is designed for Clan Eshin units it can help them be a bit more resilient in combat.
*'''Black Whirlwind''': A big AOE damage spell that displaces enemies and causes big damage. This is your crowd clearing spell, and to be fair it's actually not that bad at the job that it's supposed to do. It's biggest problem is other spells, even from other Skaven lores do the same thing more cost effectively. Overcast does more AP damage.
*'''Brittle Bone''': Lowers the speed, vigour, and Melee Defense of a target, making it AOE on overcast. A solid anti Cavalry spell that might actually allow the faster units in your army to catch up to them and bring them down. Probably the best spell on the list, which kind of goes to show how lack luster this particular Lore of Magic is in the first place.

===Rune Magic (Dwarfs)===
: No passive for you. Dwarfs don't use the winds of magic, so every spell in the Runic Magic will be completely free and instead rely on cooldowns that all spells share with each other - i.e. you cast one Rune, all of them will go on cooldown. Fortunately, this is only per Runesmith, so bringing multiple will allow you to cast multiple runes at a time. This does eat into your budget (Gold and Roster-wise), so consider carefully if you really want to invest in multiple Runesmiths.
*'''Rune of Negation''': Gives a unit 40% damage resistance for 24 seconds, 40 seconds if you overcast. This is pretty nice if you really want a unit to hold the line better than they already do (Ironbreakers with this will be untouchable).
*'''Rune of Oath and Steel''': You give a unit 30 extra armor, 60 if overcast. Honestly, this is probably the worst rune in the list due to diminishing returns. Dwarfs already have high armor so just giving them more doesn't really help them out in any way. Unless you're putting this on Slayers to help them against missiles, this one is probably best left skipped.
*'''Rune of Wrath and Ruin''': Casts a big fire explosion roughly the size of an Awakening of the Wood, and does extra AP when overcast. This will probably be one of the go to spells on the list since Dwarfs would love a big burst spell to help clear out chaff.
*'''Rune of Breaking''': Imbues Armor Sundering and extra base and AP Weapon Strength for 33 seconds, 55 if overcast. Can be really good for your frontline when fighting heavy armor enemies since you can cause your standard infantry to do more damage and help your non AP missiles burn down armor better.
*'''Rune of Speed''': Gives 24 melee attack and 45% speed for 18 seconds, 30 if overcast. Want to make Hammerers useful? Bring this. Having a rune that briefly covers one of your big weaknesses can help you actually use offensive tactics.
*'''Rune of Slowness''': Reduces Charge Bonus by 40%, Charge Speed and normal speed by 45% for 30 seconds, 45 if overcast. Really helps deal with chariots and cavalry, acting as a snare to help your missiles or Slayers get a hold of them.

===Lore of Ice (Kislev)===
:'''Passive - ''Frost Shield''''': Upon casting, all friendly units gain an increased 15 armor and 12 missile block chance. Considering that this is a faction that is a bit lacking in armor additional protection against missiles will not be a bad thing to have. Unfortunately its pretty bad vs most of the demons you'll be fighting.
*'''Ice Maiden's Kiss''': This is going to be your cost effective "get this low armor chaff off the field so my units can kill something more important" spell. It's pretty much just Wind Blast only with an ice theme and you use it pretty much the same way.
*'''Ice Sheet''': An area of effect spell that lowers enemy Speed and Charge Speed by 48% for 17 seconds and is extremely cheap. Obviously, this is going to be great against factions that rely on cavalry or are just very mobile in general. Since Winged Lancers and Gryphon Legion are very fast by heavy cav standards, you can use this to let them catch up to units they shouldn't be able to and dominate them. You can also make them easy targets for your ranged troops. Obviously there is no reason to bring this against super immobile factions like Dwarfs but all in all a solid spell against the right foe. Notably the speed reduction will stack with the frostbite status and the Tempest lore attribute, So you can nearly immobilize units by combining them.
*'''Frost Blades''': Your only aggressive buffing ability, it provides 25 % weapon strength and AP and gives a unit 25 melee attack. Using this on Tzar Guard can turn this from pretty decent infantry to surprisingly scary shredders, though given that the strength of your army relies on your missiles and cav you could argue that it is a waste to put this with your infantry. its only a single unit buff as well so maybe ok in multiplayer but when you fighting full stacks in campaign probably a waste of winds to buff one unit.
*'''Death Frost''': Spirit Leech but icy. Yeah, that's pretty much it. It does more damage that Spirit Leech though, so use it to help get rid of any single entities on the enemy list.
*'''Crystal Sanctuary''': Now THIS is what you want to use on your infantry. It grants a unit 66% damage resistance at the expense of not being able to move. Considering that your units aren't the best damage sponges this can really help you get a solid anchor in your infantry line since odds are they won't be moving any way. Put this on Tzar Guard and they will be holding for as long as Dwarfs. Not sure if this would work well in multiplayer since they'll just run away until the buff runs out but should be abusable vs the dumb AI.
*'''Heart of Winter''': The big damage AOE spell that also slows. It's a long duration spell that has 5 different stages, each stage increasing in both damage and slow. You can get up to a 60% slow if they stay in here for long enough. Of course, you have to worry about enemies just being able to walk out of it, so you may need to think of a way to lock them down. It's also very expensive, so probably a better in campaign then multiplayer spell. or maybe not used at all, its REALLY OVERPRICED, just use one of tempest more efficient damage spells.

===Lore of Tempest (Kislev)===
Lore Attribute reduces enemy speed map wide, pretty good combined with other sources of slow, Ice sheet, frostbite etc

*'''Gust of True Flight''': Grants a friendly missile unit increased range and accuracy. When overcast, it affects all units in an area. Kislev relies a lot on its ranged units, so this will be worth taking for range-heavy defensive builds.
*'''Hailstorm''': An icy version of the Lore of Fire's Piercing Bolts of Flame, bombarding an area with projectiles, and can be overcast for a longer duration and more projectiles. very cheap and efficient, best used on lightly armored units though.
*'''Swiftwing''': Grants friendly units inside an area increased speed and charge bonus. Overcast to affect a larger area. Probably going to be essential any time you're bringing a lot of cavalry to the fight, which you'll need against armies with more artillery than you. honestly not bad but not great, it would be more versatile if it increased MA or MD but not bad.
*'''Biting Wind''': Your basic damage wind spell. Can be overcast for increased damage, specially of the armor-piercing variety.
*'''Hawks of Miska''': A Vortex spell that has no AP, but it also applies reduces leadership and doesnt damage friendly units. Overcast for increased damage. Bring against lightly armored units and it can get tons of kills with no risk to your units.
*'''Blizzard''': Big bad stationary vortex that deals heavy damage in a large area and also applies Frostbite that slows enemies. Overcast for increased damage. Very good for all the same reasons as pit of shades.

===Lore of Yang (Grand Cathay)===
*'''Jade Shield''': Protective buff that gives a unit damage resistance, overcast it to increase the duration.
*'''Dragon's Breath''': Basic breath spell that, according to the description, also leaves behind a field of fire that damages enemies. Overcast for increased damage.
*'''Wall of Wind & Fire''': Pretty unique as far as wind spells go, as instead of being narrow and fast it's wide and slow. Overcast for bonus armor piercing damage.
**It lasts for quite a bit, akin to a very slow creeping barrage. Even though it's a "wall," units charging through it won't really take a lot of damage it. Best to use it on enemies already stuck in, to deal damage along the length of their unit.
*'''Stone Ground Stance''': Grants friendly units inside an area increased mass, Expert Charge Defense and bonus leadership. For when you really need your line to hold against cavalry and big monsters. Overcast to affect a larger area.
**Stacks with Harmony, other leadership sources (like a Lord, Sky Lantern), and the Jade Warrior defensive stance. Makes your infantry into wall, and your missile units the chance to survive a cav charge.
*'''Might of Heaven & Earth''': Grants a friendly unit magical attacks and flaming attacks, increased melee attack, weapon strength and armor-piercing damage. Overcast for a bigger bonus. Can turn your big melee hitters into absolute blenders.
**Your Celestials will love this, but is most obvious on your Sword Warriors, since their offense is sub-par and AP nonexistent.
**Celestial Crossbow do more damage than the Fire-Magix Sisters of Avelorn, but their missiles are only mundane AP.
*'''Constellation of the Dragon''': Makes a big area go kaboom for huge damage. Overcast for increases armor-piercing damage.

===Lore of Yin (Grand Cathay)===
:'''Passive - ''Power of Yin''''': Reduces Armor and speed of nearby enemies for a few seconds after casting a spell.
*'''Storm of Shadows''': Greatly reduces an enemy unit's speed. Overcast to affect all enemy units inside an area.
*'''Cloak of Jet''': Grants a friendly unit Snipe, Stalk and Unspottable, and can be overcast for a longer duration.
**Since you're not very speedy anyway, it's really good to hide your missiles from counter fire.
*'''Missile Mirror''': Probably the most unique spell of the bunch, you choose an enemy unit and for a few seconds reflect all their projectiles back at them. Can be overcast for a longer duration and larger range. Just imagine the hilarity of dropping this on some Ratling Guns or a Helstorm Rocket Battery. In MP, it's a bit less useful when you or your opponent can simply turn fire at will off, but it still shuts down a unit's shooting for some time.
*'''Blossom Wind''': Wind spell that also applies Blinded, so another spell that hampers missile troops. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage.
*'''Talons of Night''': Bog-standard vortex, it's stationary so that's a plus. Overcast for bonus damage.
*'''Ancestral Warriors''': Summons a unit of halberd-wielding Ancestral Warriors, and can be overcast for longer range. Summon spells are always good, particularly for missile factions like Cathay who like chaff units to hold the enemy back while blasting them with projectiles.
**Use on Large single-entities like Stonehorns or Mammoths that dont have magical attacks, so their attacks become pretty negligible.

===Lore of Tzeentch (Daemons of Tzeentch)===
: Many of Tzeentch's spells apply Warpflame, which reduces Armor and Fire Resistance.
:'''Passive - ''Fires of Change''''': Ward Save for all units for a few seconds after casting a spell.
*'''Blue Fire of Tzeentch''': Single-target magic missile that applies Warpflame. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. Extremely cheap at only 3 winds of magic and has no cooldown to cast with the prismatic plurality skill (lowers active cooldowns by 10 seconds every time you cast any spell). Spamming this unovercasted will eliminate your cooldowns and wear down single entities and monsters. Very cost effective if it hits. lackluster vs armored targets but still can be spammed to reduce cooldowns.
*'''Pink Fire of Tzeentch''': Breath spell that applies Warpflame. Overcast for bonus damage. Also very cost effective. Spam blue flame to eliminate pink fires cooldown. use overcasted to kill small groups of units or individual units efficiently.
*'''Treason of Tzeentch''': A debuff spell that lowers the Leadership of all enemy units inside an area and, if overcast, also their melee attack. Tzeentch has pretty poor melee, so something like this is useful to tip the scales.
*'''Glean Magic''': Increases your army's power reserves and recharge speed while reducing the opponent's. When overcast, the effect lasts longer. Obviously great for a heavily magic-based faction like Tzeentch.
*'''Tzeentch's Firestorm''': A randomly moving vortex that applies Warpflame, although a slightly more unique one, as it's actually three columns of flame moving randomly in an area, not just one single vortex. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. unfortunately 3 vortexes in different directions makes friendly fire even more of a problem.
*'''Infernal Gateway''': Stationary, high damage vortex. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. Does not apply Warpflame. very powerful and safer/more reliable than firestorm.

===Lore of Nurgle (Daemons of Nurgle)===
Lore attribute is just like life, a small map wide heal to all units
*'''Miasma of Pestilence''': Reduces the melee attack and charge bonus of an enemy unit, and can be overcast to affect all enemies inside an area. Plays into Nurgle's strengths of tanking damage.
*'''Stream of Corruption''': Basically Pestilent Breath from the Skaven's Lore of Plague, cone that deals damage and applies Poison, but thin and long instead of short and wide. Overcast for bonus damage. Actually very nice on infantry large AOE and easy to aim. efficient damage spell.
*'''Curse of the Leper''': Despite its name, actually a buff. Grants armour and damage reflection (!) to an allied unit, increasing when overcast. Great to let a Great unclean one or soul grinder tank though and grind down enemies.
*'''Rancid Visitations''': Bog-standard direct damage spell on an enemy unit that can be overcast for bonus damage.
*'''Blight Boil''': There's something hilarious about basically popping a giant zit on the enemy. Explosion spell that can be overcast for increased damage. Friendly fire is an issue but good aiming can make it a great way to kill infantry. or you can drop it on top of a great unclean one while surrounded by mobs.
*'''Fleshy Abundance''': Hell yeah. Targeted healing that can be overcast to affect all units inside an area. Nurgle is the tanky demon faction, so just imagine your opponent tearing their hair out as you just heal the damage they struggled to deal to your lardy dudes. Being able to use this AOE heal with all 4 demonic factions rosters is a major advantage of chaos undivided. regening Bloodthirsters and Keepers of secrets are insane. But also great for monogod nurgle.

===Lore of Slaanesh (Daemons of Slaanesh)===
Lore attribute boosts melee attack and leadership, actually very nice.
*'''Lash of Slaanesh''': Whip your enemies until they scream "harder dadd-" *ahem* I mean, deals damage in a cone, sends enemies flying, overcast for bonus armor-piercing. mediocre damage but cheap ap. it aims like a cone but its actually a line and it does most of its damage at the beginning of the aiming curser. ok way to cheaply trigger the lore attribute.
*'''Acquiescence''': Debuffs a unit's melee defense and speed, overcast for a great reduction in speed. Good to help your squishy units take on tough lords/hero’s/monsters.
*'''Hysterical Frenzy''': Increases a unit's melee attack and armor-piercing, but also makes them Rampage. Overcast for greater armor-piercing damage. Best used on keeper of secrets exalted or regular or a soul grinder, but mind their health. only works on friendly units. good but an overcasted mindrazor might be better due to AOE.
*'''Pavane of Slaanesh''': Direct damage spell that also reduces melee attack, and can be overcast for a longer duration. little expensive but good. Similar to Fate of bejuna from death is best vs medium size units so usually elite infantry or cavalry.
*'''Slicing Shards''': Bombards an area with projectiles, can be overcast for increased damage. Pretty meaty AP damage but also a bit expensive, actually quite good if you get a good hit/good targets.
*'''Phantasmagoria''': Reduces Leadership and PREVENT MOVEMENT for all units inside an area, overcast for a longer duration. You thought Net of Amyntok was strong? Here's her older, hotter, meaner sister. A potential problem (if CA doesn't rework how difficulty in the campaign works, that is) is that the leadership debuff is nullified by the buffs the AI gets - then it becomes just a far less efficient Net of Amyntok, in a faction that unlike, say, Tomb Kings or Empire has little trouble outmanuvering its opponent, hasn't got artillery or missile units to speak of that would need protection against cavalry and as such gets far less use out of an immobilization spell like this...

===Lore of the Great Maw (Ogres)===
*'''Braingobbler''': a -16 debuff to leadership
*'''Bullgorger''': Armour Piecing increased by 25% and melee attack increased by +24
*'''Bonecrusher''': Explosive Spell
*'''Toothcracker''': +30 armour and 22% added to missile resist
*'''The Maw''': A bigger explosion
*'''Trollguts''': A Health Regen spell
{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Magic

2022-08-19T14:56:42Z

2600:387:2:80F:0:0:0:7A: /* Lore of Death */

[[Category: Total Warhammer]]

This page goes into details about every single spell (Unique Spells and hero abilities not included) in the game, their uses, and so on. For the general gist of how magic works, head over to [[Total War: Warhammer/Tactics#Magic]]. For up to date #’s on spell damage, cost, and effect see here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-_Swyh0Ifo8cTI4ZUxoVGtmVVk/view
==Generic Lores==

===Lore of Beasts===
Summary of strengths- good at buffing single entities and monsters especially, ok anti horde damage spell, and for many armies their only access to summoning.
:'''Passive - ''Wild Heart''''': Your power recharge rate and power reserves increase for 29 seconds upon casting a spell from this lore, a nice tool that helps maintain the overall combat effectiveness of your Beasts caster over the course of the battle, but it's not to such a degree that you'll likely notice.
*'''Flock of Doom''': Recreate The Birds by siccing flocks of crows on all enemy units within the casting reticle. Has a low winds cost and a rather quick cooldown, but is virtually useless against single entities or smaller units. Save this for the enemy hordes that might try to tie down your forces, armored or not. This affects all units that have so much as a single model within its cast radius, making it highly efficient against infantry-based armies.
*'''Pann's Impenetrable Pelt''': Buff the physical resistance of a target unit by 20% and their melee defense by 24 for 31 seconds. Compared to how it worked before, this makes a unit substantially more durable in melee combat and, especially if combined with other spells like Shield of Thorns, can turn a key frontline unit into an absolute tank. Overcasting turns it into an AoE spell, which might very well be worth it in the opening stages of a frontline engagement to mitigate damage.
*'''The Amber Spear''': The only other damage dealing spell you have, this time as a single projectile geared towards character/monster sniping. It deals pretty hefty damage and is a great option against more heavily armored beasts that would otherwise shrug off other artillery or missile fire from more conventional units. It does have a powerful but short range explosion effect as well, so it can technically nuke an elite unit but aiming may be more trouble than its worth to get a good hit.
*'''The Curse of Anraheir''': A hex that debilitates enemies with -24 Melee Attack and Defense while also crippling them with a 25% speed debuff. Use this to effectively defang enemy units or combine/alternate with Pann's Impenetrable Pelt to keep your key units alive. Alternatively, when used offensively, this will make it easier to pin down and knock around enemy units that you really need cleaned off the board.
*'''Transformation of Kadon''': This is pretty much ''the'' reason most players bother taking the Lore of Beasts in multiplayer at all. After a brief windup period, the Beast Caster summons either a Feral Manticore (standard), Great Eagle (High/Wood Elves) or Varghulf (Von Carstein). As they can be summoned anywhere within 60m of the caster, this allows you to throw a relatively potent combat monster into an opponent's more vulnerable backline while they can do little more than scramble to address the sudden incursion. With a limit of two casts per battle and a moderately short timer on the monsters before they despawn, each cast should be considered wisely.
*'''Wyssan's Wildform''': A surprisingly vicious combat supplement, this spell grants a target unit +25% Base and AP damage as well as +30 Armor for 19 seconds. Due to the offensive portion of this spell's buffs being percentage-based, Wyssan's Wildform gets ''far'' more bang for your buck when cast on elite units or single entity monstrous units that have naturally high weapon/ap damage. The armor supplement helps, though shouldn't really be a major consideration when you could get better defensive utility out of Pann's Impenetrable Pelt (though pairing the two is hardly ill-advised). Much like Pann's Impenetrable Pelt, overcasting Wyssan's Wildform turns it into an AoE spell and can make single-entity doomstacks disgustingly potent.

===Lore of Death===
Summary of strengths: great perfect accuracy direct damage spells for single entities and elite units as as well as a powerful vortex, lacking in both buff and debuff power however. Good at reducing leadership.
:'''Passive - ''Life Leeching''''': Whenever a spell is cast from this discipline, your power recharge rate improves for 25 seconds. Quite frankly, a very nice passive that acts like a built in Arcane Conduit.
*'''Spirit Leech''': The first spell in this Lore and it's one of the best, if we're being honest. A rather cheap, direct damage spell at 8 Winds of Magic. Preferably used against Characters and Monsters and probably the most cost-efficient Character sniping spell in the game (does 834 damage without any resistances on average, ignores armor). It also can serve as a nice counter against Ethereal Units. It actually works very well vs small monstrous cavalry and infantry units, think the 6-24 model range, also ok on smallish elite units also but anything over 20ish models really hurts its efficiency, bjuna is far better for that. one cast can nearly kill most artillery because it (usually) hits the machines, not the crew. Very versatile and mana efficient, the standard to which all direct damage spells are compared.
*'''Doom and Darkness''': Basically the opposite of the Lore of Light's Light of Battle Spell. Sits in the 10 Winds niche of rather specific debuffs. It reduces the leadership of an enemy unit by a whopping 16, enough to send most standard troops into a rout once they have taken some losses and to mitigate any effects the presence of a Character in their vicinity might have. Notably less useful against Undead, who cannot rout, but can still cause them to begin crumbling more quickly if such a tactic is necessary. Of course, this spell is completely useless against Unbreakable units. Pretty useless in very hard or legendary campaign battle difficulty because of the crazy leadership buffs the AI gets, but nice on normal and hard difficulties as well as multiplayer.
*'''Soulblight''': An ok AoE debuff, for its relatively low cost of 8 Winds of Magic/ 14 overcast. Lowers the armor (-30) and weapon damage (-30%) of all units in an AOE for 25 seconds, 50 if overcast. The pairing of armor and weapon damage debuffs don't synergize that well with each other and the lowish base duration can be rough, maybe worth overcasting for double duration if you cast at all. still its a more efficient armor removing spell than plague of rust because of its AOE so that's something. it may only debuff two less important stats but it isn't bad since its an affordable AOE debuff. Doomfire warlocks get this free so never pay winds for it as the dark elves if you can help it. overcast is double duration for slightly cheaper than double so worth it in theory.
*'''Aspect of the Dreadknight''': Same as deal with Soulblight. It might be extremely cheap at 4 Winds of Magic, but its effect of +8 Leadership and Causes Terror for friendly units is simply not good enough, especially when taken into consideration that many factions that can use the Lore of Death (especially the Undead factions) have no shortage of Units that cause fear and terror or are completely exempt from Leadership issues.
*'''The Purple Sun of Xereus''': The good ol' "cast it successfully and the game is over" Vortex from the Tabletop doesn't disappoint here either. At 18 (24 when overcast) Winds of Magic, a fairly expensive Vortex that will completely demolish everything it touches, its only downside being that it is hard to predict where it will eventually go, but even the initial cast on a large moshpit of infantry is worth it. Particularly devastating on Bridge Battles, where Wizards with this spell will rack up a ludicrous amount of kills from one single cast alone.
*'''The Fate of Bjuna''': This is an odd one. An expensive single target direct damage spell That serves mainly as a middle finger to cavalry, elite infantry any thing with a medium model count. Deals large amounts of damage, but needs careful evaluation on when to use it. It's considered op in multiplayer where elite units are expensive and rare. In campaign, where stacks of endgame units are common, it's too expensive where a bombardment, missile or even vortex does more for cheaper. Its price is very inflated because of its power in multiplayer. You can just drop purple sun on a single unit for cheaper vs the AI most of the time. Not very efficient vs anything with less than 45 models.

===Lore of Fire===
Important to note: All spells from the Lore deal Magical and Fire type damage. It counts as both and is resisted by both. Tree sprits, tomb kings, and nurgle demons have notable weaknesses to fire damage in particular.

:'''Passive - ''Kindleflame''''': Whenever you cast a Lore of Fire spell, it imbues a map wide fire weakness to all enemy units as you cast. The benefits combined with this lore are obvious, and allows for great synergy when used with other units who deal fire damage. Combines nicely with flaming sword.
*'''Fireball''': Inexpensive projectile that is found all over the goddamn place. High Elven Mages and Skink Priests can get 4 uses of them for free. It's... alright-ish. Like all projectiles, Fireballs strongly depend the casters positioning and its damage is kinda meh. Can still be reliably used to snipe big monsters and Lords out of the sky, and its considerable range makes it a very attractive and cheap source of Fire Damage to be used against Ethereal units or Wood Elven tree spirits. The minor boost in damage provided by overcasting generally isn't worth the increased mana cost, so in almost every circumstance you're better off just casting normally. its AP is kind of low so it isn't very impressive versus armored targets, best used on lightly armored monsters or lords/heros.
*'''Flaming Sword of Rhuin''': Cheap (8/12) base/overcast buff for your troops that makes all of their attacks deal fire and magic damage, as well as increasing their damage output by 30% for 22/44 seconds. Don't forget that this can also be cast on ranged units, so have fun experimenting with that. With the upcoming changes to magic resistance set to only affect damage inflicted by spells, this is set to become a solid tool for enabling some of your heavier hitters to shoulder through units with high physical resistances. Just beware, flame resistance will still be able to shrug off the damage.
*'''Cascading Fire Cloak''': Extremely cheap (only 5 winds of magic!) AoE buff that increases AP Damage of your melee troops by 24% and also gives them 25 Melee Defense for 19 seconds. Gives your frontline a bit more staying power and makes Greatswords, not to mention Har Garneth Executioners or Swordmasters of Hoeth downright terrifying. Important to keep in mind is that it won't do jack shit for units that bring no AP damage on their own, like Imperial Swordsmen. A 100% increase of 1 would still be 2. its single target only unfortunately and percentage based so maybe use on a monster or lord/hero for best results.
*'''The Burning Head''': Oh sweet baby, yes! A medium prized (10 Winds of Magic) Wind Spell that deals an intimidating amount of damage and also terrifies people. ''This'' is the prime spell of the Lore of Fire. Tons of Fire Damage, but can also deviate a bit, although not as much as Vortex Spells would. It's cheap size relative to its effectiveness make it a very attractive spell to use, and is available in the campaign very early on. Keep in mind it does zero AP damage even when overcast, so it sucks vs armor. On the positive side, your armored forces can tank a stray blast if you cast it alongside/on top of them when they're in battle with chaff or unarmored infantry, making a great tool for front-line engagements. Maybe even better in WH 3 with the demon factions mostly having bad armor.
*'''Piercing Bolts of Flame''': An expensive and semi-unreliable spell, this is your most effective anti-Armor option outside of Flamestorm spam. It deals a high amount of projectile damage as well, so it can deal respectable damage to monstrous infantry or even regular infantry if they clump up. In general though, you'll probably be better off prioritizing other, more potent/cost efficient spells and leave the dedicated anti-armor to other units in your army.
*'''Flamestorm''': When you need to delete infantry whole-sale, this is your go-to spell. Compared to Burning Head, Flamestorm is less efficient and substantially less consistent, but Flamestorm has substantially higher utility against armored enemies and has the ''potential'' to do much more damage overall. Costs a moderate 13 winds but will utterly annihilate any models caught in its wake, armored or not. Overcasting bumps the WoM cost to 20, doubles the duration from 27 seconds to 54, increases base damage but does nothing for the AP values. Only overcast if you're confident the enemy is locked down and you don't mind it potentially rolling into your forces. Even then, just saving the extra winds for a follow up cast may be a more efficient choice.

===Lore of Heavens===
:'''Passive - ''Roiling Skies''''': A mapwide debuff that slows down flying units and debuffs their melee defense for 25 seconds upon casting a spell. Frankly a mediocre and situational perk, but it can be handy if your opponent's playing a faction with a lot of flying cavalry.
*'''Wind Blast''': A cost effective breath spell that does wonders against unarmored chaff infantry like skavenslaves or peasant mobs. A side effect of this particular breath spell worth noting is that it disrupts enemy formations, making it valuable if only to help buy time for your own forces to get into position/get the charge into them while they recover. Overcasting the spell gives it a touch more bite against armored units (4 AP damage), but the difference is so marginal that it's not really worth it. Never overcast.
*'''Urannon's Thunderbolt''': A bolt of lightning that strikes a small area for extremely large AP damage. Has impressive range, so it has moderate use against the near-stationary artillery pieces your opponent may have. It's pure AP damage and overcasting does more than 1300 damage (much more than doombolts 1000ish AP or amber spears 700 AP), if you hit a lord or monster they will FEEEEEL it. Best cost to damage ratio of any single target blast. Cheaper and better than any other of its type. It has a minimal area of effect and does not track targets, so you'll need to aim carefully to actually land true with it.
*'''Harmonic Convergence''': A supporting spell that improves the melee defense/attack of a friendly unit by a rather respectable margin for 24 seconds, including their armor value if overcast. A very potent spell that can help turn the tide of an engagement on the front lines at a rather minor cost of 6 winds. It falls a bit behind similar buffing spells from other lores due to the fact it is limited to a single target, but is still a decent option for a key beat-stick unit of yours none-the-less.
*'''Curse of the Midnight Wind''': An AoE Hex that debuffs all enemies within its casting radius with lowered melee attack and armor values for 25 seconds, 50 if overcast. Combined with Harmonic Convergence, this is best served when you need to turn a frontline engagement around. In general though, at 11 WoM per cast, you may rather opt to simply put that power towards one of the damage dealing spells instead.
*'''Chain Lightning''': Now we're getting to the good stuff. One of the strongest vortex spells in the game, Chain Lightning randomly crawls across the battle field for 21 seconds dealing heavy damage to everything caught up in it, armored or not. It deals pure AP damage, highest of any other vortex spell. High elf archmages get this as a bound spell, and can get Urannon's Thunderbolt from a lord trait, making this lore perhaps a waste to use on them, since they could get so much of it free.
*'''Comet of Cassandora''': When you want to call down the celestial thunder, there's no better choice than the Comet of Cassandora. With a relatively large area of effect and massive damage output, the CoC can wipe out entire units with a well-placed blast, even more so if overcast... if anything is still willfully under the targeting cursor while the comet takes its sweet time to actually arrive. Between the rather lengthy delay before the comet itself actually descends onto the battlefield and the rather intense winds of magic cost (especially if overcast), finding a situation to use the CoC in lieu of either Chain Lightning or even Wind Blast will be quite difficult. All in all, it's terribly inefficient. Thunderbolt does much more damage to a single target and chain lighting is usually cheaper and more efficient for hordes/blobs. In Campaigns against AI, the Comet of Cassandora is a considerably more attractive option when engaging in Siege battles or against clumps of elite, relatively immobile units. Since the AI tends to be blissfully oblivious to the impact indicator and is prone to scrunching multiple units together regularly, they'll rarely make any effort to avoid taking the full brunt of a well positioned Comet.

===Lore of Life===
:'''Passive - ''Life Bloom''''': Whenever a life spell is cast, all your units heal up to 40 hitpoints over the course of 5 seconds. It's not much, but it's free healing that applies to your entire army whenever you cast a spell. Every little bit helps.
*'''Earth Blood''': This is the bread and butter for most life wizards. A nice AoE heal for up to four allied units within its radius that lasts for 7 seconds, with double the length and healing if overcast. The main value of this spell is the relatively inconsequential winds of magic cost (6/11), allowing life wizards to support a rather sizeable chunk of your army for a rather extended period of time.
*'''Awakening of the Wood''': A large damage dealing explosion that dramatically slows down everyone caught up in the blast, but deals squat for damage against anything with an armor value.
*'''Shield of Thorns''': A nice offensive/defensive buff that grants percentage based physical resist and weapon damage bonuses to several of your units within the spell's radius. A great supporting power for key units that goes quite nicely with Earth Blood to keep them in peak physical form. Use on units who already resist physical for best results, overcasting can be good if you need extra weapon damage. Can be cast combined with pelt if you have a beast caster to give 50% physical resist on top of any the unit already has.
*'''Flesh to Stone''': A massive boost to an allied unit's armor value for 44 seconds (88 if overcast), this can turn even a squishy unit like Wood Elf Wardancers into surprisingly tanky beat-sticks, especially if stacked with Shield of Thorns. When compared to SoT, however, it tends to be better against non-AP by far but falls off in the later game when more units tend to have AP values.
*'''Regrowth''': An expensive single target heal that replenishes a substantial amount of HP and vigour to the target unit, especially if overcast. Frankly best reserved for emergencies and/or single entity units as no amount of healing will bring back slain models in a unit. Minor exceptions extend to the very few factions who ''can'' revive slain models, like the Lizardmen when utilizing a Revivification Crystal Bastilodon. In general though, Earth Blood provides better sustain for your army over the course of the battle.
*'''The Dwellers Below''': A shockingly powerful AoE damaging spell for a lore so dedicated to supporting your own units, The Dwellers Below snares all units who travel within the spell's zone with a speed debuff while chipping away at them in the process. While it's good in certain situations, you've likely taken your life wizard for dedicated healing support and will likely have alternative options for offensive spellcasters more suited to the task. Wood elf spellweaver lords get this as a bound spell, which is awesome. Despite its awesome animations, if you look carefully at the spells tooltip, you'll notice that it's a direct damage spell and not a vortex. This is important because it means that instead of centering it on blobs, you want it covering as many enemy units as possible and you don't have to worry about hitting your own units with it.

===Lore of Light===
:'''Passive - ''Exorcism''''': Whenever you cast a Lore of Light spell, all your units gain 4 leadership and become immune to psychology (fear/terror) for 11 seconds. Useful, if you are facing armies with lots of scary monsters, but largely useless outside of that.
*'''Shen's Burning Gaze''': Inexpensive Projectile, costs the same as fireball (5 winds), but fires 5 projectiles in a grouping. Has the advantage of higher base damage than said Fireball, and the disadvantage that all projectiles need to land for the spell to deal full damage. Given that most entities except the largest ones aren't even big enough for all projectiles to land, it's kinda mediocre. For what it's worth, it has much better AP damage than fire ball for similar cost. If cast at close range, it can be used like a shotgun to get all of the projectiles to hit. It's best vs a monster sized unit obviously, but it's also good vs flying to due decent air tracking. It fires 5 projectiles base goes up to 10 if overcast. Basically just like gaze of nagash from lore of vampires. Also it has bonus vs large.
*'''Net of Amyontok''': This is why you pick the Lore of Light. A medium-prized (10 winds) AoE debuff that locks an enemy in place, right where they stand. The incredible utility of this spell cannot be understated. A must pick against factions with a lot of mobility, although it only affects units on the ground. Despite that limitation, it ''will'' trap any flying cavalry/monsters/characters who are on the ground (from a charge, for example), so if you can catch them with this before they can retreat into the skies, you can severely punish them. Obviously favored by those with good archers and artillery, Sisters of Avelorn and Salamander Hunting Packs being notable beneficiaries.
*'''Pha's Protection''': A cheap defense buff. Grants 30 armour and 24 Melee Defense at the prize of 5 winds of magic for 22 seconds. overcast adds AOE for 10 winds. unexceptional but nice, short duration is unfortunate, but good AOE buffs are rare. maybe worth it if you can hit enough of your units.
*'''Light of Battle''': AoE buff for 7 Winds of Magic that makes all units unbreakable for 22 seconds. Not to be underestimated, but needs a creative mind to use right. very situational, probably not worth it often.
*'''Bironas Timewarp''': Pretty nifty AOE buff spell that costs 11 Winds of Magic and gives units a whopping 24% increase to their movement speed and 24 melee attack. Perfect for Cavalry and other fast units.
*'''Banishment''': A 17/24 overcast winds vortex with good ap damage (7ap same as pit of shades). you get a small zone of bright death. The game advertises this spell as dealing "medium damage", which is bewildering, to say the least. Banishment definitely doesn't need to hide behind its bigger brethren from other Lores. It’s actually incredibly similar to purple sun now, in fact purple sun is probably better now. Still good though. Overcasting increases the base damage by 7, though the AP values are untouched. Generally not worth overcasting in most scenarios. Slann get this as a free bound spell, as always this is awesome.

===Lore of Metal===
:'''Passive - ''Metalshifting''''': Your lore attribute that gives your units +10% AP and Weapon Strength for 13 second. Used best on elite units who already have high AP and damage as something like an Empire Swordsman probably won't be noticing the effects too much.
*'''Searing Doom''': A fairly cost effective bombardment ability against low armor. At only 6 winds of magic it can help destroy early game blobs of crappy infantry. It's biggest disadvantage is the wind up time so any opponent who's paying attention should be able to get out of the way. Fortunately the AI doesn't bother with dodging these most of the time. Low projectile damage means wont do shit to higher health models, kroxigors, dragon ogres etc.
*'''Plague of Rust''': One of the most cost effective armor debuffs in the game, especially if you don't have a lot of affordable AP. Being able to get rid of 30 armor for 4 winds (Or 60 for 6 if you overcast) is situationally good. Plus it lasts 44 seconds so you have plenty of time to deal with them before their defensive stats return to normal. It's certainly better against some factions (this can be a god send against Dwarfs and Bretonnia) than others (Beastmen and Wood Elves will laugh if you bring this). In the campaign almost every unit worth using should have AP anyway, really only good situationally/early game. single target is the biggest problem, at least its cheap with good duration. kind of mediocre. I would rather use soul blight with shorter duration, at least's its AOE. a single armored unit is only ever going to matter enough in multiplayer.
*'''Glittering Robes''': it got buffed. now 60 armor for 44 seconds (no leadership effect anymore), overcast for AOE, actually pretty good if fighting non AP. 6 base/12 overcast. AOE is the big deal, much better than the life equivalent.
*'''Gehenna's Golden Hounds''': You can spend an extra 3 winds of magic for a mediocre vortex that only hurts low armor units and might even kill some of your own troops. Doesn't that sound fun? Use Searing Doom, you'll get better bang for your buck. It actually has the same AP damage per tick as Purple Sun, its mostly just small and hard to aim. Cheap though. Not great
*'''Transmutation of Lead''': A fairly solid -24 melee attack and -30% weapon damage for 38 seconds can really put enemy momentum to a halt (if you overcast, -60% weapon damage). costs 11 base, 16 overcast. unfortunately debuffing melee attack and weapon strength while good is somewhat counter synergistic, because if they don't hit the strength doesn't matter, but its just doubling down rather than redundant. Probably don't overcast unless you really think you need it.
*'''Final Transmutation''': Ok so take Spirit Leech, make it a massive AOE and you have a pretty good idea of how Final Transmutation works. This can win you games if you get a big blob in it but at 18 (28 overcast) Winds of Magic it'll probably be all you're casting in multiplayer. In campaign, build up those reserves and you can win battles with this alone. Even if you only hit 2 targets, it has higher damager per winds ratio than Spirit Leech. The overcast version does 2300 damage on average vs Spirit Leech's 834 average. If you can weaken a lord to the 2000 health range this will quickly destroy them. Assuming they have no significant magic resist/healing/wards of course, but still incredibly potent none-the-less. (all direct damage spells bypass armor FYI, so Bejuna, Flock of Doom, Miasma etc., they all do).

===Lore of Shadows===
:'''Passive - ''Smoke & Mirrors''''': A mapwide movement speed buff for 24 seconds whenever you cast a shadows spell is a nice perk that can give you a slight edge in maneuverability over your opponent, though this is very largely dependent on the factions at play. Remember the mediocre speed boosts of pelt or timewarp? This is better, map wide, and free. Still not that great.
*'''Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma''': A Single target direct damage spell that deals damage to one unit while also slowing them down in the process. At 5 winds of magic for a quick cast, it's a great precursor to an engagement or to help prevent your opponent from fleeing. Averages around 1764 direct damage, quite good but only on a large unit, ideally with about 100 or more models. Ok to speed debuff a lord or monster if you really need to as well, other wise dont overcast. best spammed to wear down large units, compare to flock of doom for example.
*'''The Enfeebling Foe''': A 22 second melee defense/attack debuff that cripples a single enemy unit of your choice. Ideally used against characters or monsters who might be trying to wreak havoc in your lines or to give your own lord a step up in a duel against them. Probably worth overcasting for the double duration. One of the best debuffs in the game for a single target. Hit a lord with it then buff your duelist monster, hero, or lord with Mindrazor and you get a nasty killing combo.
*'''The Withering''': Yet another hex that targets a single unit and reduces their armor and leadership for 40 seconds. It only has a prominent niche if you stack lots of leadership debuffs to force opposing units to route, but Doom and Darkness from death does that twice as well (if that discipline is available). all races that can leadership bomb (beastmen, dark elves, norsca, warriors of chaos, and vampires) have access to death, except lizardmen which cant use shadow or death.
*'''The Penumbral Pendulum''': A potent wind spell that is perfect for slicing through frontline units while they're tied up in combat. It's not quite as powerful as the Burning Head or the Winds of Death against unarmored foes, but anything wearing a tin can will get cracked open. This does 36 AP damage base or a whopping 72 if overcast. It actually does more AP damage than wind of death, but usually gets fewer kills due to shorter duration, travel distance, and AOE. Wrecks elite infantry and cavalry.
*'''Pit of Shades''': One of the very select few stationary vortex spells in the game. With a 13 second duration, the Pit of Shades is a fantastic tool in maps that have natural choke points or if you manage to box in a particularly large clump of units. It deals 7 points of pure AP, same as Purple Sun's or Banishment's AP damage, though it has no base damage paired with it. Overcasting doubles the ap to 14, but this is generally unnecessary in most circumstances. It traps enemies inside of it, so not only does it immobilize clumps of enemies for follow-up attacks, it tends to deal tons of damage as long as you get a direct hit. Very reliable.
*'''Okkam's Mindrazor''': A very nasty buff that grants magical attacks to an allied unit as well as a ''very'' substantial 40% buff to weapon and armor piercing damage. Overcast for an expensive but powerful AOE buff. Use on monsters, heroes and lords for best results because it's percentage based; you're gonna get a lot more mileage out of it that way. Good for a goon squad to kill monsters/lords, not worth it for killing infantry usually. Remember weapon strength doesn’t matter if you can’t hit, try to combine it with an a melee attack boost or melee defense debuff for best results. Enfeebling foe for example.

===Scrolls===

In the Campaign, you can occasionally find magic scrolls that give your caster a free spell with limited uses, and some of them aren't available in any lore. Given that they're free, there is no reason to not cast them in any battle. Some of these spells can also be unlocked through faction mechanics or just levelling your caster character up.

*'''Arnzipal's Black Horror''': Stupidly effective Breath Spell that eats chaff alive and even inflicts enough damage to give Elite Units a run for their money. As of the Rakarth Update, Dark Elven Supreme Sorceresses get this spell as a bound spell for levelling up to Level 10 on the Campaign, everyone else has to rely on the enemy to drop the Scroll of Horror.
*'''Assault of Stone''': Probably the strongest Bombardment in the entire game. Covers a huge area, and inflicts a ton AP magic damage. The Dwarfs (of all factions) get the easiest access to it by forging the Sceptre of Stone with Oathgold.
*'''Amber Scroll''': A free leadership debuff on any one unit.
*'''Blast''': Fireball but faster and more immediate.

==Faction-specific Lores==

===Lore of the Deep (Vampire Coast)===
:'''Passive - ''Kiss of the Deep''''': Each time you cast a spell it does a small amount of magic damage to every enemy unit on the map. This is especially useful when fighting against armies that have fragile units and rely on [[Wood Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|superior speed]] or [[skaven|disposable chaff units]] to keep them protected.
*'''Tidecall''': A breath weapon that expands out in a cone, doing moderate damage and disrupting enemy formations. Basically wind blast from the Lore of Heaven, but wetter.
*'''Spiteful Shot''': A buff that provides +90 accuracy to an allied unit. Great for deck gunners, mortars, Queen Bess, or anything else that can shoot, really. It's the cheapest spell in your arsenal so it can be reliably spammed to get more Kiss of the Deep effects.
*'''Denizens of the Deep''': Summons a unit of Rotting Prometheans. The Rotting Prometheans biggest weakness is its low speed, so the ability to drop a unit right into the enemy is amazing. Need to soak up an enemy charge? Want to disrupt enemy artillery? There's an enemy hero giving you problems? Solve every problem with [[meme|giant enemy crabs]].
*'''Fog of the Damned''': A debuff spell that reduces enemy leadership and movement speed. Not your best spell, but it slows enemy melee units down to give your gunners more time to shoot them. It still causes Kiss of the Deeps which is never bad.
*'''Vangheist's Revenge''': Possibly the coolest looking spell ever. Summons a giant ghost boat to broadside the enemy for heavy damage across a wide area. Expensive and slow to cast, but stylish as hell and can potentially wipe out whole units at once.
*'''Kraken's Pull''': A big vortex full of [[slaanesh|wet groping tentacles]] that traps any unit caught inside of it, dealing damage to them and cutting their speed in half. Anything that keeps the enemy away from your lines is useful. The vortex is also immobile, so there's no risk of it backfiring into your units.

===Lore of High Magic (High Elves, Lizardmen, Wood Elves)===
:'''Passive - ''Shield of Saphery''''': A 11% Ward Save graces all your units whenever you cast spells from this discipline.
:'''Passive (Wood Elves) - ''Ancients' Protection''''': A slightly worse version of the Shield of Saphery, this only grants a 10% ''Physical'' Resistance buff, meaning it'll do nothing against magic damage/missiles. Still, it works well enough for Wood Elves since they have a reasonable amount of innate physical resist already and can be further supplemented by physical resistance spells from other disciplines.
*'''Hand of Glory''': A relatively cheap buff for a single allied unit that grants them increased reload skill and melee attack for 29 seconds. Reload skill and melee attack don't exactly go hand in hand as far as complimentary buffs go, but it does give it a bit more potential application across your entire army compared to other more specialized buffs. Despite this, and despite it's lower cost, it will not usually do enough to justify the winds cost since one unit can only do so much. A single fireball would usually do more even, depending on your targets.
*'''Apotheosis''': A very cheap single unit heal that also imbues the allied target with Fear for its 22 second duration. This is, all things considered, a pretty nice spell for a tanky frontline unit and does provide more healing to a single target than Earth Blood (granted, Earth Blood heals multiple targets). The addition of Fear does help push through the squishier, meeker chaff units that might simply be trying to tie you down. Unfortunately, the lore of life exists and all factions with high magic have access to life magic. Never overcast it unless you really need the range.
*'''Soul Quench''': A magic missile with artillery levels of range that explodes for quite reasonable damage against groups of infantry. While it's reasonably effective and cost efficient, you'll likely want to reserve your Winds of Magic for more utilitarian purposes and leave the job of long-range bombardment to your actual artillery units, Wood Elves lack artillerysi they *might* get moreuse out of this. Keep in mind it has bad armor piercing, use it like fireball pretty much. If you use it at all.
*'''Tempest''': A snare that deals damage and traps a flying unit in a slow moving vortex. This is a very useful tool for dealing with (Legendary) Lords on flying mounts or flying Monsters like Dragons. While they take impressive damage from the Tempest itself, you should always have a unit or two of missile units or artillery on hand to take advantage of their immobility. In general though, this is worse than the Net of Amyntok if your goal is to snare enemy units in place. Great in multiplayer, crap in single player.
*'''Fiery Convocation''': A relatively potent wind spell that deals reasonable damage to enemies it passes through. Even among directional wind spells, there's a lot of room for variance on the path it takes, so try not to use it too close to your own front line. Does the highest AP damage of any wind spell but lower total damage than pendulum, for example. Not really worth the extra cost for the higher AP, its only ok. Very slow cast time means it's hard to hit savvy opponents with it too.
*'''Arcane Unforging''': A very powerful single-entity spell that deals substantial damage to the target while increasing their ability cooldowns by a considerable amount. This is a very valuable spell against enemy Heroes and Lords due to their ability to completely shut them down. Overcharging the spell can add a whopping 45 seconds to their ability cooldowns which, if used at just the right moment, can utterly ruin an opponent's strategy and potentially cost them the field. Obviously less useful against battering ram-type characters who just charge into battle, but hey. Can't have everything. Higher damage but less efficient than other spells of its kind. Spirit leech, final transmutation and soul stealer are honestly better because their AoE capabilities (or higher efficiency in spirit leech's case) make up for their high cost. Still, not a bad spell though, considering Lizardmen lack access to the aforementioned alternatives. Pick your targets well and only overcast against extremely high priority characters with powerful abilities.

===Lore of Dark Magic (Dark Elves, Wood Elves)===
:'''Passive - ''Spiteful Conjuration''''': Reduces armor map wide, it’s ok, works out to 11% less damage resistance for 18 seconds. Almost the same as the lore of metal attribute effectively but almost always better. It affects missile and spell damage not just melee with a longer duration than metal does. Doesn’t actually affect any of the spells from this lore except bladewind however since the rest do pure AP damage.
:'''Passive (Wood Elves) - ''Wrath of the Woods''''': 12% more missile damage map wide for 8 seconds, it’s nice. Like a free half strength flaming sword and stacks with all other boosts.
*'''Power of Darkness''': Basically a 4 times as strong arcane conduit that causes 500ish damage to a unit over time. Which unit is chosen doesn’t matter. 3 use limit per battle. Very underrated, easily the strongest winds recharge skill in the game. Cast on a hydra and it will just regen through most of the damage or on a bolt thrower out of the way. Don’t ever put the damage on your wizard. in campaign you can consider running dark plus a second lore to have the dark act as a winds battery, recomend to combine with other winds boost like knowledgeable sorceressess
*'''Chillwind''': Cheap wind spell that does 24 points of PURE Ap damage. That’s 2/3rds of a pendulum’s AP component. Also slows and lowers reload speed so multi use. Honestly a bargain, it’s pure AP would be worth the cost alone. Plus triggers lore attribute cheaply. Overcast isn’t worth it. it looks weaker than it is, remember that it wont kill many models but will significantly weaken them, its hard to tell but it adds up to a lot of lost health on infantry.
*'''Word of Pain''': A single target only debuff isn’t ideal but it can claim to be probably the best lord or hero off switch in the game. -44 melee attack is massive. Overcast adds a melee defense hit as well. Sometimes worth overcasting. Situational but nice to have.
*'''Blade Wind''': Pretty cheap, pretty damaging vortex. Lowish ap damage but helped by the lore attribute, short duration but that rarely matters. It does it’s job well for its cost. Won’t win any awards but its cheap enough to justify just dropping it on only 1 or 2 units. same cost as base Doombolt so use this on bigger units or blobs usually but Doombolt vs single entities or monstrous units. Overcast doubles duration but unlikely to hit anything long enough for that to matter, not worth overcasting really.
*'''Doombolt''': Does just over 800 pure AP on a direct hit with an decent AOE detonation as well. Plus it’s a bombardment with pretty good tracking. It is like a cheaper comet of casadora with the tradeoff of less AOE range but better single target damage. Comparable damage/efficiency to Amber Spear overcast. Its ideal situation is hitting a lord or monster while surrounded by troops to take advantage of both damage portions. Overcast is proportionate, it only boosts the single target damage though. Against units just use the base version.
*'''Soul Stealer''': AOE spirit leech combined with a caster only heal identical to High Magic’s but with about 50 more healing. Damage is the exact same as Spirit leech, but because it hits every target with their own version it’s more efficient than Spirit Leech with just 2-3 good targets. Plus only healing Dark Elves get. Great spell. Better on Morathi, Malekith, and a black dragon sorceress to make the self healing more valuable.

===Lore of Nehekhara (Tomb Kings)===
:'''Passive - ''The Restless Dead''''': Completely identical to the Lore of Vampires passive, heals injured undead before resurrecting models. Unlike the Lore of Vampires, the Lore of Nehekhara contains many more small buff spells but lacks the damage potential of the former. That does, however, mean that this passive will be triggering a lot more frequently.
*'''Djaf's Incantation of Cursed Blades''': One of the cheapest spells in the game at 3 WoM, this little spell buffs weapon and AP damage by 25% on a single unit. Emblematic of the Tomb Kings lore and battle philosophy in general: while there are no standout spells or units that will single-handedly win you your battles, it's the combined-arms nature of the faction that truly makes it succeed. And the Cursed Blades is perfect for giving those cavalry, Ushabti, and other nasty constructs the edge on the offense.
*'''Neru's Incantation of Protection''': Grants 44% Physical Resistance for 6 WoM. Good for keeping your Tomb King rampaging through the enemy lines on his Warsphinx or giving one of your holding units unexpected resilience.
*'''Ptra's Incantation of Righteous Smiting''': The go-to spell for the missile-focused Tomb Kings player. Granting 40% bonus to missile and missile AP damage for another 6 WoM, this is a beastly spell when put on your artillery constructs which will really pile in the pressure on units trying to approach your lines.
*'''Usirian's Incantation of Vengeance''': The first damage spell for the lore and it's... disappointing. Does middling damage to units in a wide area while reducing their speed by 24%. Situational, potentially useful if built around correctly, but generally safe to ignore in favour of more buffs for the troops.
*'''Usekph's Incantation of Desiccation''': -24 MA and MD to enemy units in a huge area for a whopping 15 WoM. Generally not worth it unless you're planning to bust through an infantry line with your own, which works like none of the time with the slow infantry of the Tomb Kings
*'''Sakhmet's Incantation of the Skullstorm''': Generic magical damage vortex for 11 WoM. Impressive to look at, but not very efficient due to a smaller-than-average vortex radius.

===Lore of the Wild (Beastmen)===
:'''Passive - ''Bestial Surge''''': When ever you cast you gain an extra 18% Charge Bonus and 5% vigour. Needless to say in a speedy hit and run faction like the Beastmen you will need as much of both as you can get.
*'''Viletide''': For 7 winds of magic you get an AOE kaboom that deals decent damage to unarmoured troops. Great for when you are in a grind and need to get the chaff out of the way so that you can fight better stuff but won't do dick against armour.
*'''Bray-Scream''' A cone shaped wind spell that can do decent damage with decent AP. It has very short range but for 5 Winds of Magic it can actually get you some very good damage against infantry with a ton of armor.
*'''Devolve''': For 11 winds this thing is essentially a mini Final Transmutation, and can do some serious damage to large unit sizes (100 and up ideally). Plus the leadership debuff can help with getting the enemy into a rout so you can chase them off. This is your best blob destroying spell and it's decent for what it is. All direct damage spells ignore armor. It does 1100 damage max, 2300 overcast both only against big enough units. Very cost efficient.
*'''Traitor-Kin''': Essentially an AOE Spirit Leech in that instead of doing a ton of damage to several models at once it will drain one model at a time til it dies and move to the next one. This means that it doesn't do as much damage as Devolve but will kill models. It also supplies a speed debuff for lord sniping, which is great for a faction that relies on outrunning their enemies. It's expensive at 12 winds though
*'''Mantle of Ghorok''': The only buffing spell this list has. It provides a meaty 50 Base Weapon Damage, 40% Melee Attack and 50% AP. Needless to say this is amazing for such an aggressive faction and will turn Minotaurs and Bestigors into killing machines. There is the downside of the -30 armour but.. come on man, you're playing the Beastmen. Unless you use this thing on Bestigors you wont even notice. You'll be more turned off by the 11 winds cost. Probably better against armoured opponents.
*'''Savage Dominion''': Ok let's be real. If you're one of the 3 people in this game who play the Beastmen and you're taking this Lore of Magic into an online match, this is why you're bringing it. I don't really need to tell you why getting 2 Cygors for free is really, really good. Not only do you have a solid monster but you also have an artillery piece to rain death rocks from afar. I don't care if it's 18 Winds of Magic, it's easily the best spell in the lore. You can only use it twice though, so use it wisely.

===Lore of Vampires (Vampire Coast, Vampire Counts)===
:'''Passive - ''The Curse of Undeath''''': Heals every undead unit on the map for a small amount over the course of 5 seconds, but in contrast to the Lore of Lifes passive, it can also bring models back. Not a game changer, but free healing is always nice.
*'''Curse of Years''': Not worth it. A big AoE debuff that lowers Melee Defense and Speed at a whopping cost of 16 Winds of Magic. Its general effectiveness is additionally offset by the fact that your Skellies or Deckhands are not all that good at melee in the first place and the debuff just too weak against Lords and Heroes (which are usually the preferred targets for debuffs).
*'''Gaze of Nagash''': Practically interchangeable with Shen's burning gaze from the Lore of Light. Meek Projectile with mediocre damage that also has a hard time even hitting its intended target. Skip.
*'''Invocation of Nehek''': This and Wind of Death are the main reason why the Lore of Vampires is so extremely powerful. Invocation of Nehek brings a very cost-effective heal to the table at a meager 6 Winds of Magic that also resurrects dead models - for 12 on the overcast variant, you get a very big AoE heal that helps especially the many monstrous, low entity units the Counts are able to field. Pumping a half-dead Vargheist or Mourngul unit up a few models can really swing encounters in your favor, not to mention the amount of cheese you can get out of this spell by combining it with the multitude of passive regeneration abilities the Counts have on a lot of units. Maxing it out on Campaign also makes it even cheaper (bringing down the cost from 6/12 down to 5/10) and since it's your first spell, there is no reason to not do so.
*'''Raise Dead (Vampire Counts)''': Summons a unit of Zombies for just 7 Winds. Summons are always awesome, since you can summon these bois behind the melee moshpit for nice charges into the back of your enemy for the additional rear attack moral penalty, or just keeping a nasty unit in the place of your choosing. The mileage of this spell of course depends greatly on your own creativity. The overcast gives you Skeleton Warriors with swords, which is negligible and usually not worth the cost of 13 Winds.
*'''Drowned Dead (Vampire Coast)''': Similar to its Vampire Count cousin, Drowned Dead summons forth a squad of Zombie Gunmen to help shoot down your foes. Fitting for the Vampire Coast considering how much they love guns. The overcast version summons forth a Zombie Pirate Gunnery Mob, but with handguns so they have more fire power, giving you a stronger edge. How useful this spell is depends on where they are summoned.
*'''Vanhel's Danse Macabre''': Sweet Little and extremely cheap buff (only 4 winds, 6 when overcast) that grants +24 Melee Attack and Speed like an inverse Curse of Years. Can be worth it on units like Grave Guard or Black Knights, usually situational, unlike Curse of Years its very low costs make it very useful in a pinch or as last resort spell, when your Magic Reserves have dried up and there's nothing else left to cast.
*'''Wind of Death''': Feast your eyes and despair, for you look at the most powerful offensive spell in the entire game. The only thing holding back is its extremely high price tag of 20 Winds (25 when overcast), so one cast will essentially drain your entire magic pool. But your one shot may as well end the game the instant you get it off. A very fast-moving wind spell that ''will'' evaporate any high model count unit in a single cast with a terrifying reach due to high AP magic damage. It's still effective against units with lower model counts and/or magic resist since it deals so much damage.

===Lore of the Big Waaagh! (Greenskins)===
:'''Passive - ''Power of da Waaagh!''''': Functionally identical to the Lore of Death attribute, every time you cast a spell it increases the recharge rate for all spells. Nothing fancy, but still useful.
*'''Brain Bursta''': Basically a green fireball. Deals decent damage in a large area from a decent distance. You should probably focus on the other spells in the list.
*''''Eadbutt''': A short, wide little breath attack that sends enemies flying. Great for disrupting enemy formations and pushing clumps of enemies around.
*''''Ere We Go''': A buff that gives a unit [[rip and tear|+40 melee attack]], allowing even weedy little goblins to punch above their weight. Absolutely horrific when used on Black Orcs, but there's basically nothing in the greenskin roster that doesn't appreciate krumpin' stuff.
*'''Fists of Gork''': A cheaper alternative to 'Ere We Go that provides +24 melee attack and defense. It's better to use on a lord or hero to give them an edge in a duel, but 9 times out of 10 you'll want 'Ere We Go instead.
*'''Foot of Gork''': '''SPLAT!!''' Summon Gork himself to stomp the shit out of your enemies with one of the most powerful spells in the game. Creates a giant explosion of armour piercing damage that can win the entire battle on its own if cast on the right target. The winds of magic cost is really steep, especially when overcast; but the damage potential cannot be overstated.
*'''Gaze of Mork''': Often overlooked, but not completely useless. Gaze of Mork is a cheap precise sniper-rilfe style spell that does decent damage to a single entity. The best part of the spell is the long range, which is good for greenskins who normally struggle when the enemy is too far away. Overcasting lets it trade shots with artillery all the way across the map.

===Lore of the Little Waaagh! (Greenskins)===
:'''Passive - ''Sneaky Stealin'''''': The polar opposite of the Lore of the Big Waaagh! passive, this one increases the recharge time for enemy casters. An interesting trait, but the effectiveness depends very strongly on what the opponent is bringing.
*'''Curse of Da Bad Moon''': A hilarious looking vortex that bounces around the map, dealing damage and reducing the speed, armour, and melee attack of whatever it touches. A useful debuff, but the spell moves around like crazy and can often come back to your lines.
*'''Gork'll Fix It''': A targeted hex that reduces enemy speed, charge bonus, and vigor. Tailor made to counter knights and chariots, who should always be the first targets. A pretty cheap spell only costing 7 winds of magic, but you get what you pay for.
*'''Itchy Nuisance''': Another Hex, this one decreases enemy weapon damage and melee attack. More generally useful than Gork'll Fix It, but not nearly as good against knights.
*'''Nightshroud''': A strange buff that gives all friendly units in an area Stalk and Undetectable, making them functionally invisible. A great way to protect your slower units from enemy shooting. Note that Undetectable stops working if the unit attacks or casts a spell, so it's pretty much useless on your archers.
*'''Sneaky Stabbin'''': A cheap and weak little spell that gives the target 18% more AP damage and +34 melee attack. Because the bonus to AP is a percentage and not a flat amount, it doesn't do much on units that struggle against armored foes (you know, the ones that really need it). Most of the time the longer duration and better melee bonus of 'Ere We Go! is better, but if you don't have an orc shaman it can get the job done.
*'''Vindictive Glare''': Launches a bunch of little magic missiles into the target, doing moderate magic damage for each missile that hits. Best against big targets so all of the missiles can hit the same target. Anything that helps you against monsters is useful for Greenskins.

===Skaven Spells of Ruin (Skaven)===
:'''Passive - ''Musk of Fear''''': Upon casting a spell, enemy units are inflicted with -13 Melee Attack and -4 Leadership. Considering the relatively spammy nature of the Lore of Ruin (in particular Warp Lightning) this may help your tarpits out considerably but don't rely on it to turn the tide of battle on its own.
*'''Warp Lightning''': Cheap bombardment spell, iconic to non-Pestilens Skaven casters and surprisingly powerful for the cost. There are many ways to buff this spell in campaign but it's also perfectly serviceable in multiplayer. Don't ever be conservative with this spell - it's dirt-cheap and you'll need repeated casts of it to really dish out the hurt. Laugh maniacally like Ikit and blast those tarpitted blobs whenever you see them!
*'''Howling Warpgale''': Despite the situational nature of this spell, it is absolutely vital that you take this spell whenever you start acquiring weapons teams. Flying creatures and units are countered hard by Jezzails and Ratling Guns but it's their speed and other pressing concerns of regular cavalry that can often end in a Feral Manticore or others tearing through your helpless gunners. But with this spell you can pin those flying beasties in the air and make them easy targets for your artillery and snipers.
*'''Death Frenzy''': A straightforward combat buff that can turn an outmatched fight into a much more balanced one. It's tempting to cast this on Clanrats to try to hold the line longer but there are better uses for this spell, like letting that Plague Censer-Bearer unit tear through your opponent's elite infantry and eliciting a serious WTF moment from them as you blow a hole in their infantry centre with crazed great-weapon rats pumped full of magic.
*'''Scorch''': A thin breath spell. One of the disappointments of the otherwise serviceable Lore of Ruin, it has a rather small hitbox that deals middling damage to anything not unarmoured chaff. Since the Skaven have better ways of dealing with unarmoured chaff, you're better off skipping this one.
*'''Flensing Ruin''': An unusual area-damage spell that Functions just like Final Transmutation (and has the same Winds of magic to damage ratio), it works best versus single entities and very small units (20ish or less unit size), if you get a group of good targets it's actually very efficient and powerful. Not worth using versus infantry and large units, just use warp lightning for them. Will effect any target clipped by its AOE in full just like flock of doom.
*'''Crack's Call''': Another area damage spell, this time a straight wind spell that's similar to Flensing Ruin in its AP potential. The shape of the wind spell lends itself well to thinning out hapless infantry eating up your Skavenslaves and Clanrats, so it's up to you if you want to use this as a in-between the Warp Lightning casts you're hopefully already spamming.
*'''The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell (Exclusive to Grey Seers of Ruin)''': ''Now'' we're talking. While only Grey Seer of Ruin lords can take this, it's the one spell both old 8th Edition veterans and Total War players will take regardless because of its sheer WTF potential - it's a large-area explosion spell that spawns a unit of sword-and-board Stormvermin right on top of whatever unfortunate infantry are left alive from the blast. The high Winds of Magic cost and long cooldown make this a risky proposition but when you see that chance to flip the table on that blob of chaff and create a dangerous opening in your opponent's formation, you turn to this spell. Maybe just use the cheaper summons from the lore of plague instead though, warlock masters are honestly better than grey seer's anyway.

===Skaven Spells of Plague (Skaven)===
:'''Passive - ''Plague Rash''''': Upon casting a spell in this Lore, inflicts -12% Speed on all enemies on the map. Absolutely amazing debuff, when combined with the sheer number of summons you can throw at incoming cavalry and fast movers, undoubtedly makes this Skaven lore not only the best for Skaven but one of the strongest Lores in the game.
*'''Bless with Filth''': Cheap poison attacks buff. Nothing much to say, it's a nice way of making those Clanrat Spears extra nasty against the big stuff. Gutter runners with poison slings are arguably more efficient.
*'''Pestilent Breath''': The signature breath spell for Plague casters. Good coverage, damage and low cost makes this a staple for clearing out enemy tarpits in short order. Despite not being very effective against armor, it can potentially disrupt the formation with the breath effect which you can take advantage of.
*'''Vermintide''': The earliest summon spell any of the Skaven casters can get and by far one of the most useful. Do not underestimate being able to suddenly summon Clanrats out of nowhere, they can easily become annoying roadblocks against enemy cavalry or delay infantry advances so that your artillery can shoot at them more. In a pinch, you can even throw them behind a unit in combat as a cheap way to inflict outflanked debuffs.
*'''Wither''': -30 Armour doesn't sound like much of a debuff but Wither stands out by having its duration be longer than the cooldown - meaning with patience you can make those high-armor targets naked for a brief period for maximum rape. Best to use this one on units already in combat that you really want dead quickly, either from grenades or Plague Monk attacks.
*'''Plague''': The best AoE damage spell the Skaven have by far and the most visually impressive as well. Absolutely amazing for crushing mobs of any kind while they eat worthless Clanrats from Vermintide, it has a stupidly low casting cost for the effect and damage area. The Plague is not to be trifled with and can turn the tide of the battle with careful usage.
*'''Pestilent Birth''': While Vermintide is the more defensive summon spell in this lore, this spell is for more aggressive players who would much rather like to win the infantry fight by any means. With this spell you can spawn a unit of Plague Monks nearby the caster - terrific for nasty back attacks or adding unexpected pressure onto an enemy unit chewing up Skavenslaves. A devastating spell if positioned correctly but still useful even if misplaced.

===Skaven Spells of Stealth (Skaven)===
:'''Passive - ''Toxic Rain''''': Applies Poison in an AOE around the caster. A weird passive that encourages you to keep your mage close to the enemy, which is normally the last place that you would want to keep you caster, especially one without any mount options. One of the many reasons why this is widely considered the worst lore of magic in the entire game.
*'''Skitterleap''': Grants Stalk, Unspottable and a small speed boost to all of the allies affected. Designed as an ambush spell that allows you to quickly move units around in a position to outflank your enemy. Given that this lore was designed to be used with Clan Eshin units it really only helps out said Eshin units. Other than that Skaven aren't much of a flanking faction so it doesn't help them out that much. Overcasting increases the AOE
*'''Warp Stars''': Fires a bunch of AP magic missiles at a target, increasing the number of projectiles when overcasted. Good for poking down units before a main engagement, though it doesn't do as much damage as other missile spells.
*'''Veil of Shadows''': Causes a massive, persistent explosion but does no damage. Designed to displace enemy units and provide a big hole for your units to run through. Great for unclogging gates in sieges against the AI, but the usefulness is questionable since a lot of spell have a similar effect and, you know, actually kill things. Overcast version slows as well.
*'''Armour of Darkness''': Provides armour and missile resistance for a limited amount of time, little extra if overcasted. Once again, since this lore is designed for Clan Eshin units it can help them be a bit more resilient in combat.
*'''Black Whirlwind''': A big AOE damage spell that displaces enemies and causes big damage. This is your crowd clearing spell, and to be fair it's actually not that bad at the job that it's supposed to do. It's biggest problem is other spells, even from other Skaven lores do the same thing more cost effectively. Overcast does more AP damage.
*'''Brittle Bone''': Lowers the speed, vigour, and Melee Defense of a target, making it AOE on overcast. A solid anti Cavalry spell that might actually allow the faster units in your army to catch up to them and bring them down. Probably the best spell on the list, which kind of goes to show how lack luster this particular Lore of Magic is in the first place.

===Rune Magic (Dwarfs)===
: No passive for you. Dwarfs don't use the winds of magic, so every spell in the Runic Magic will be completely free and instead rely on cooldowns that all spells share with each other - i.e. you cast one Rune, all of them will go on cooldown. Fortunately, this is only per Runesmith, so bringing multiple will allow you to cast multiple runes at a time. This does eat into your budget (Gold and Roster-wise), so consider carefully if you really want to invest in multiple Runesmiths.
*'''Rune of Negation''': Gives a unit 40% damage resistance for 24 seconds, 40 seconds if you overcast. This is pretty nice if you really want a unit to hold the line better than they already do (Ironbreakers with this will be untouchable).
*'''Rune of Oath and Steel''': You give a unit 30 extra armor, 60 if overcast. Honestly, this is probably the worst rune in the list due to diminishing returns. Dwarfs already have high armor so just giving them more doesn't really help them out in any way. Unless you're putting this on Slayers to help them against missiles, this one is probably best left skipped.
*'''Rune of Wrath and Ruin''': Casts a big fire explosion roughly the size of an Awakening of the Wood, and does extra AP when overcast. This will probably be one of the go to spells on the list since Dwarfs would love a big burst spell to help clear out chaff.
*'''Rune of Breaking''': Imbues Armor Sundering and extra base and AP Weapon Strength for 33 seconds, 55 if overcast. Can be really good for your frontline when fighting heavy armor enemies since you can cause your standard infantry to do more damage and help your non AP missiles burn down armor better.
*'''Rune of Speed''': Gives 24 melee attack and 45% speed for 18 seconds, 30 if overcast. Want to make Hammerers useful? Bring this. Having a rune that briefly covers one of your big weaknesses can help you actually use offensive tactics.
*'''Rune of Slowness''': Reduces Charge Bonus by 40%, Charge Speed and normal speed by 45% for 30 seconds, 45 if overcast. Really helps deal with chariots and cavalry, acting as a snare to help your missiles or Slayers get a hold of them.

===Lore of Ice (Kislev)===
:'''Passive - ''Frost Shield''''': Upon casting, all friendly units gain an increased 15 armor and 12 missile block chance. Considering that this is a faction that is a bit lacking in armor additional protection against missiles will not be a bad thing to have. Unfortunately its pretty bad vs most of the demons you'll be fighting.
*'''Ice Maiden's Kiss''': This is going to be your cost effective "get this low armor chaff off the field so my units can kill something more important" spell. It's pretty much just Wind Blast only with an ice theme and you use it pretty much the same way.
*'''Ice Sheet''': An area of effect spell that lowers enemy Speed and Charge Speed by 48% for 17 seconds and is extremely cheap. Obviously, this is going to be great against factions that rely on cavalry or are just very mobile in general. Since Winged Lancers and Gryphon Legion are very fast by heavy cav standards, you can use this to let them catch up to units they shouldn't be able to and dominate them. You can also make them easy targets for your ranged troops. Obviously there is no reason to bring this against super immobile factions like Dwarfs but all in all a solid spell against the right foe. Notably the speed reduction will stack with the frostbite status and the Tempest lore attribute, So you can nearly immobilize units by combining them.
*'''Frost Blades''': Your only aggressive buffing ability, it provides 25 % weapon strength and AP and gives a unit 25 melee attack. Using this on Tzar Guard can turn this from pretty decent infantry to surprisingly scary shredders, though given that the strength of your army relies on your missiles and cav you could argue that it is a waste to put this with your infantry. its only a single unit buff as well so maybe ok in multiplayer but when you fighting full stacks in campaign probably a waste of winds to buff one unit.
*'''Death Frost''': Spirit Leech but icy. Yeah, that's pretty much it. It does more damage that Spirit Leech though, so use it to help get rid of any single entities on the enemy list.
*'''Crystal Sanctuary''': Now THIS is what you want to use on your infantry. It grants a unit 66% damage resistance at the expense of not being able to move. Considering that your units aren't the best damage sponges this can really help you get a solid anchor in your infantry line since odds are they won't be moving any way. Put this on Tzar Guard and they will be holding for as long as Dwarfs. Not sure if this would work well in multiplayer since they'll just run away until the buff runs out but should be abusable vs the dumb AI.
*'''Heart of Winter''': The big damage AOE spell that also slows. It's a long duration spell that has 5 different stages, each stage increasing in both damage and slow. You can get up to a 60% slow if they stay in here for long enough. Of course, you have to worry about enemies just being able to walk out of it, so you may need to think of a way to lock them down. It's also very expensive, so probably a better in campaign then multiplayer spell. or maybe not used at all, its REALLY OVERPRICED, just use one of tempest more efficient damage spells.

===Lore of Tempest (Kislev)===
Lore Attribute reduces enemy speed map wide, pretty good combined with other sources of slow, Ice sheet, frostbite etc

*'''Gust of True Flight''': Grants a friendly missile unit increased range and accuracy. When overcast, it affects all units in an area. Kislev relies a lot on its ranged units, so this will be worth taking for range-heavy defensive builds.
*'''Hailstorm''': An icy version of the Lore of Fire's Piercing Bolts of Flame, bombarding an area with projectiles, and can be overcast for a longer duration and more projectiles. very cheap and efficient, best used on lightly armored units though.
*'''Swiftwing''': Grants friendly units inside an area increased speed and charge bonus. Overcast to affect a larger area. Probably going to be essential any time you're bringing a lot of cavalry to the fight, which you'll need against armies with more artillery than you. honestly not bad but not great, it would be more versatile if it increased MA or MD but not bad.
*'''Biting Wind''': Your basic damage wind spell. Can be overcast for increased damage, specially of the armor-piercing variety.
*'''Hawks of Miska''': A Vortex spell that has no AP, but it also applies reduces leadership and doesnt damage friendly units. Overcast for increased damage. Bring against lightly armored units and it can get tons of kills with no risk to your units.
*'''Blizzard''': Big bad stationary vortex that deals heavy damage in a large area and also applies Frostbite that slows enemies. Overcast for increased damage. Very good for all the same reasons as pit of shades.

===Lore of Yang (Grand Cathay)===
*'''Jade Shield''': Protective buff that gives a unit damage resistance, overcast it to increase the duration.
*'''Dragon's Breath''': Basic breath spell that, according to the description, also leaves behind a field of fire that damages enemies. Overcast for increased damage.
*'''Wall of Wind & Fire''': Pretty unique as far as wind spells go, as instead of being narrow and fast it's wide and slow. Overcast for bonus armor piercing damage.
**It lasts for quite a bit, akin to a very slow creeping barrage. Even though it's a "wall," units charging through it won't really take a lot of damage it. Best to use it on enemies already stuck in, to deal damage along the length of their unit.
*'''Stone Ground Stance''': Grants friendly units inside an area increased mass, Expert Charge Defense and bonus leadership. For when you really need your line to hold against cavalry and big monsters. Overcast to affect a larger area.
**Stacks with Harmony, other leadership sources (like a Lord, Sky Lantern), and the Jade Warrior defensive stance. Makes your infantry into wall, and your missile units the chance to survive a cav charge.
*'''Might of Heaven & Earth''': Grants a friendly unit magical attacks and flaming attacks, increased melee attack, weapon strength and armor-piercing damage. Overcast for a bigger bonus. Can turn your big melee hitters into absolute blenders.
**Your Celestials will love this, but is most obvious on your Sword Warriors, since their offense is sub-par and AP nonexistent.
**Celestial Crossbow do more damage than the Fire-Magix Sisters of Avelorn, but their missiles are only mundane AP.
*'''Constellation of the Dragon''': Makes a big area go kaboom for huge damage. Overcast for increases armor-piercing damage.

===Lore of Yin (Grand Cathay)===
:'''Passive - ''Power of Yin''''': Reduces Armor and speed of nearby enemies for a few seconds after casting a spell.
*'''Storm of Shadows''': Greatly reduces an enemy unit's speed. Overcast to affect all enemy units inside an area.
*'''Cloak of Jet''': Grants a friendly unit Snipe, Stalk and Unspottable, and can be overcast for a longer duration.
**Since you're not very speedy anyway, it's really good to hide your missiles from counter fire.
*'''Missile Mirror''': Probably the most unique spell of the bunch, you choose an enemy unit and for a few seconds reflect all their projectiles back at them. Can be overcast for a longer duration and larger range. Just imagine the hilarity of dropping this on some Ratling Guns or a Helstorm Rocket Battery. In MP, it's a bit less useful when you or your opponent can simply turn fire at will off, but it still shuts down a unit's shooting for some time.
*'''Blossom Wind''': Wind spell that also applies Blinded, so another spell that hampers missile troops. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage.
*'''Talons of Night''': Bog-standard vortex, it's stationary so that's a plus. Overcast for bonus damage.
*'''Ancestral Warriors''': Summons a unit of halberd-wielding Ancestral Warriors, and can be overcast for longer range. Summon spells are always good, particularly for missile factions like Cathay who like chaff units to hold the enemy back while blasting them with projectiles.
**Use on Large single-entities like Stonehorns or Mammoths that dont have magical attacks, so their attacks become pretty negligible.

===Lore of Tzeentch (Daemons of Tzeentch)===
: Many of Tzeentch's spells apply Warpflame, which reduces Armor and Fire Resistance.
:'''Passive - ''Fires of Change''''': Ward Save for all units for a few seconds after casting a spell.
*'''Blue Fire of Tzeentch''': Single-target magic missile that applies Warpflame. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. Extremely cheap at only 3 winds of magic and has no cooldown to cast with the prismatic plurality skill (lowers active cooldowns by 10 seconds every time you cast any spell). Spamming this unovercasted will eliminate your cooldowns and wear down single entities and monsters. Very cost effective if it hits. lackluster vs armored targets but still can be spammed to reduce cooldowns.
*'''Pink Fire of Tzeentch''': Breath spell that applies Warpflame. Overcast for bonus damage. Also very cost effective. Spam blue flame to eliminate pink fires cooldown. use overcasted to kill small groups of units or individual units efficiently.
*'''Treason of Tzeentch''': A debuff spell that lowers the Leadership of all enemy units inside an area and, if overcast, also their melee attack. Tzeentch has pretty poor melee, so something like this is useful to tip the scales.
*'''Glean Magic''': Increases your army's power reserves and recharge speed while reducing the opponent's. When overcast, the effect lasts longer. Obviously great for a heavily magic-based faction like Tzeentch.
*'''Tzeentch's Firestorm''': A randomly moving vortex that applies Warpflame, although a slightly more unique one, as it's actually three columns of flame moving randomly in an area, not just one single vortex. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. unfortunately 3 vortexes in different directions makes friendly fire even more of a problem.
*'''Infernal Gateway''': Stationary, high damage vortex. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. Does not apply Warpflame. very powerful and safer/more reliable than firestorm.

===Lore of Nurgle (Daemons of Nurgle)===
Lore attribute is just like life, a small map wide heal to all units
*'''Miasma of Pestilence''': Reduces the melee attack and charge bonus of an enemy unit, and can be overcast to affect all enemies inside an area. Plays into Nurgle's strengths of tanking damage.
*'''Stream of Corruption''': Basically Pestilent Breath from the Skaven's Lore of Plague, cone that deals damage and applies Poison, but thin and long instead of short and wide. Overcast for bonus damage. Actually very nice on infantry large AOE and easy to aim. efficient damage spell.
*'''Curse of the Leper''': Despite its name, actually a buff. Grants armour and damage reflection (!) to an allied unit, increasing when overcast. Great to let a Great unclean one or soul grinder tank though and grind down enemies.
*'''Rancid Visitations''': Bog-standard direct damage spell on an enemy unit that can be overcast for bonus damage.
*'''Blight Boil''': There's something hilarious about basically popping a giant zit on the enemy. Explosion spell that can be overcast for increased damage. Friendly fire is an issue but good aiming can make it a great way to kill infantry. or you can drop it on top of a great unclean one while surrounded by mobs.
*'''Fleshy Abundance''': Hell yeah. Targeted healing that can be overcast to affect all units inside an area. Nurgle is the tanky demon faction, so just imagine your opponent tearing their hair out as you just heal the damage they struggled to deal to your lardy dudes. Being able to use this AOE heal with all 4 demonic factions rosters is a major advantage of chaos undivided. regening Bloodthirsters and Keepers of secrets are insane. But also great for monogod nurgle.

===Lore of Slaanesh (Daemons of Slaanesh)===
Lore attribute boosts melee attack and leadership, actually very nice.
*'''Lash of Slaanesh''': Whip your enemies until they scream "harder dadd-" *ahem* I mean, deals damage in a cone, sends enemies flying, overcast for bonus armor-piercing. mediocre damage but cheap ap. it aims like a cone but its actually a line and it does most of its damage at the beginning of the aiming curser. ok way to cheaply trigger the lore attribute.
*'''Acquiescence''': Debuffs a unit's melee defense and speed, overcast for a great reduction in speed. Good to help your squishy units take on tough lords/hero’s/monsters.
*'''Hysterical Frenzy''': Increases a unit's melee attack and armor-piercing, but also makes them Rampage. Overcast for greater armor-piercing damage. Best used on keeper of secrets exalted or regular or a soul grinder, but mind their health. only works on friendly units. good but an overcasted mindrazor might be better due to AOE.
*'''Pavane of Slaanesh''': Direct damage spell that also reduces melee attack, and can be overcast for a longer duration. little expensive but good. Similar to Fate of bejuna from death is best vs medium size units so usually elite infantry or cavalry.
*'''Slicing Shards''': Bombards an area with projectiles, can be overcast for increased damage. Pretty meaty AP damage but also a bit expensive, actually quite good if you get a good hit/good targets.
*'''Phantasmagoria''': Reduces Leadership and PREVENT MOVEMENT for all units inside an area, overcast for a longer duration. You thought Net of Amyntok was strong? Here's her older, hotter, meaner sister. A potential problem (if CA doesn't rework how difficulty in the campaign works, that is) is that the leadership debuff is nullified by the buffs the AI gets - then it becomes just a far less efficient Net of Amyntok, in a faction that unlike, say, Tomb Kings or Empire has little trouble outmanuvering its opponent, hasn't got artillery or missile units to speak of that would need protection against cavalry and as such gets far less use out of an immobilization spell like this...

===Lore of the Great Maw (Ogres)===
*'''Braingobbler''': a -16 debuff to leadership
*'''Bullgorger''': Armour Piecing increased by 25% and melee attack increased by +24
*'''Bonecrusher''': Explosive Spell
*'''Toothcracker''': +30 armour and 22% added to missile resist
*'''The Maw''': A bigger explosion
*'''Trollguts''': A Health Regen spell
{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Magic

2022-08-19T14:53:31Z

2600:387:2:80F:0:0:0:7A: /* Lore of Beasts */

[[Category: Total Warhammer]]

This page goes into details about every single spell (Unique Spells and hero abilities not included) in the game, their uses, and so on. For the general gist of how magic works, head over to [[Total War: Warhammer/Tactics#Magic]]. For up to date #’s on spell damage, cost, and effect see here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-_Swyh0Ifo8cTI4ZUxoVGtmVVk/view
==Generic Lores==

===Lore of Beasts===
Summary of strengths- good at buffing single entities and monsters especially, ok anti horde damage spell, and for many armies their only access to summoning.
:'''Passive - ''Wild Heart''''': Your power recharge rate and power reserves increase for 29 seconds upon casting a spell from this lore, a nice tool that helps maintain the overall combat effectiveness of your Beasts caster over the course of the battle, but it's not to such a degree that you'll likely notice.
*'''Flock of Doom''': Recreate The Birds by siccing flocks of crows on all enemy units within the casting reticle. Has a low winds cost and a rather quick cooldown, but is virtually useless against single entities or smaller units. Save this for the enemy hordes that might try to tie down your forces, armored or not. This affects all units that have so much as a single model within its cast radius, making it highly efficient against infantry-based armies.
*'''Pann's Impenetrable Pelt''': Buff the physical resistance of a target unit by 20% and their melee defense by 24 for 31 seconds. Compared to how it worked before, this makes a unit substantially more durable in melee combat and, especially if combined with other spells like Shield of Thorns, can turn a key frontline unit into an absolute tank. Overcasting turns it into an AoE spell, which might very well be worth it in the opening stages of a frontline engagement to mitigate damage.
*'''The Amber Spear''': The only other damage dealing spell you have, this time as a single projectile geared towards character/monster sniping. It deals pretty hefty damage and is a great option against more heavily armored beasts that would otherwise shrug off other artillery or missile fire from more conventional units. It does have a powerful but short range explosion effect as well, so it can technically nuke an elite unit but aiming may be more trouble than its worth to get a good hit.
*'''The Curse of Anraheir''': A hex that debilitates enemies with -24 Melee Attack and Defense while also crippling them with a 25% speed debuff. Use this to effectively defang enemy units or combine/alternate with Pann's Impenetrable Pelt to keep your key units alive. Alternatively, when used offensively, this will make it easier to pin down and knock around enemy units that you really need cleaned off the board.
*'''Transformation of Kadon''': This is pretty much ''the'' reason most players bother taking the Lore of Beasts in multiplayer at all. After a brief windup period, the Beast Caster summons either a Feral Manticore (standard), Great Eagle (High/Wood Elves) or Varghulf (Von Carstein). As they can be summoned anywhere within 60m of the caster, this allows you to throw a relatively potent combat monster into an opponent's more vulnerable backline while they can do little more than scramble to address the sudden incursion. With a limit of two casts per battle and a moderately short timer on the monsters before they despawn, each cast should be considered wisely.
*'''Wyssan's Wildform''': A surprisingly vicious combat supplement, this spell grants a target unit +25% Base and AP damage as well as +30 Armor for 19 seconds. Due to the offensive portion of this spell's buffs being percentage-based, Wyssan's Wildform gets ''far'' more bang for your buck when cast on elite units or single entity monstrous units that have naturally high weapon/ap damage. The armor supplement helps, though shouldn't really be a major consideration when you could get better defensive utility out of Pann's Impenetrable Pelt (though pairing the two is hardly ill-advised). Much like Pann's Impenetrable Pelt, overcasting Wyssan's Wildform turns it into an AoE spell and can make single-entity doomstacks disgustingly potent.

===Lore of Death===
:'''Passive - ''Life Leeching''''': Whenever a spell is cast from this discipline, your power recharge rate improves for 25 seconds. Quite frankly, a very nice passive that acts like a built in Arcane Conduit.
*'''Spirit Leech''': The first spell in this Lore and it's one of the best, if we're being honest. A rather cheap, direct damage spell at 8 Winds of Magic. Preferably used against Characters and Monsters and probably the most cost-efficient Character sniping spell in the game (does 834 damage without any resistances on average, ignores armor). It also can serve as a nice counter against Ethereal Units. It actually works very well vs small monstrous cavalry and infantry units, think the 6-24 model range, also ok on smallish elite units also but anything over 20ish models really hurts its efficiency, bjuna is far better for that. one cast can nearly kill most artillery because it (usually) hits the machines, not the crew. Very versatile and mana efficient, the standard to which all direct damage spells are compared.
*'''Doom and Darkness''': Basically the opposite of the Lore of Light's Light of Battle Spell. Sits in the 10 Winds niche of rather specific debuffs. It reduces the leadership of an enemy unit by a whopping 16, enough to send most standard troops into a rout once they have taken some losses and to mitigate any effects the presence of a Character in their vicinity might have. Notably less useful against Undead, who cannot rout, but can still cause them to begin crumbling more quickly if such a tactic is necessary. Of course, this spell is completely useless against Unbreakable units. Pretty useless in very hard or legendary campaign battle difficulty because of the crazy leadership buffs the AI gets, but nice on normal and hard difficulties as well as multiplayer.
*'''Soulblight''': An ok AoE debuff, for its relatively low cost of 8 Winds of Magic/ 14 overcast. Lowers the armor (-30) and weapon damage (-30%) of all units in an AOE for 25 seconds, 50 if overcast. The pairing of armor and weapon damage debuffs don't synergize that well with each other and the lowish base duration can be rough, maybe worth overcasting for double duration if you cast at all. still its a more efficient armor removing spell than plague of rust because of its AOE so that's something. it may only debuff two less important stats but it isn't bad since its an affordable AOE debuff. Doomfire warlocks get this free so never pay winds for it as the dark elves if you can help it. overcast is double duration for slightly cheaper than double so worth it in theory.
*'''Aspect of the Dreadknight''': Same as deal with Soulblight. It might be extremely cheap at 4 Winds of Magic, but its effect of +8 Leadership and Causes Terror for friendly units is simply not good enough, especially when taken into consideration that many factions that can use the Lore of Death (especially the Undead factions) have no shortage of Units that cause fear and terror or are completely exempt from Leadership issues.
*'''The Purple Sun of Xereus''': The good ol' "cast it successfully and the game is over" Vortex from the Tabletop doesn't disappoint here either. At 18 (24 when overcast) Winds of Magic, a fairly expensive Vortex that will completely demolish everything it touches, its only downside being that it is hard to predict where it will eventually go, but even the initial cast on a large moshpit of infantry is worth it. Particularly devastating on Bridge Battles, where Wizards with this spell will rack up a ludicrous amount of kills from one single cast alone.
*'''The Fate of Bjuna''': This is an odd one. An expensive single target direct damage spell That serves mainly as a middle finger to cavalry, elite infantry any thing with a medium model count. Deals large amounts of damage, but needs careful evaluation on when to use it. It's considered op in multiplayer where elite units are expensive and rare. In campaign, where stacks of endgame units are common, it's too expensive where a bombardment, missile or even vortex does more for cheaper. Its price is very inflated because of its power in multiplayer. You can just drop purple sun on a single unit for cheaper vs the AI most of the time. Not very efficient vs anything with less than 45 models.

===Lore of Fire===
Important to note: All spells from the Lore deal Magical and Fire type damage. It counts as both and is resisted by both. Tree sprits, tomb kings, and nurgle demons have notable weaknesses to fire damage in particular.

:'''Passive - ''Kindleflame''''': Whenever you cast a Lore of Fire spell, it imbues a map wide fire weakness to all enemy units as you cast. The benefits combined with this lore are obvious, and allows for great synergy when used with other units who deal fire damage. Combines nicely with flaming sword.
*'''Fireball''': Inexpensive projectile that is found all over the goddamn place. High Elven Mages and Skink Priests can get 4 uses of them for free. It's... alright-ish. Like all projectiles, Fireballs strongly depend the casters positioning and its damage is kinda meh. Can still be reliably used to snipe big monsters and Lords out of the sky, and its considerable range makes it a very attractive and cheap source of Fire Damage to be used against Ethereal units or Wood Elven tree spirits. The minor boost in damage provided by overcasting generally isn't worth the increased mana cost, so in almost every circumstance you're better off just casting normally. its AP is kind of low so it isn't very impressive versus armored targets, best used on lightly armored monsters or lords/heros.
*'''Flaming Sword of Rhuin''': Cheap (8/12) base/overcast buff for your troops that makes all of their attacks deal fire and magic damage, as well as increasing their damage output by 30% for 22/44 seconds. Don't forget that this can also be cast on ranged units, so have fun experimenting with that. With the upcoming changes to magic resistance set to only affect damage inflicted by spells, this is set to become a solid tool for enabling some of your heavier hitters to shoulder through units with high physical resistances. Just beware, flame resistance will still be able to shrug off the damage.
*'''Cascading Fire Cloak''': Extremely cheap (only 5 winds of magic!) AoE buff that increases AP Damage of your melee troops by 24% and also gives them 25 Melee Defense for 19 seconds. Gives your frontline a bit more staying power and makes Greatswords, not to mention Har Garneth Executioners or Swordmasters of Hoeth downright terrifying. Important to keep in mind is that it won't do jack shit for units that bring no AP damage on their own, like Imperial Swordsmen. A 100% increase of 1 would still be 2. its single target only unfortunately and percentage based so maybe use on a monster or lord/hero for best results.
*'''The Burning Head''': Oh sweet baby, yes! A medium prized (10 Winds of Magic) Wind Spell that deals an intimidating amount of damage and also terrifies people. ''This'' is the prime spell of the Lore of Fire. Tons of Fire Damage, but can also deviate a bit, although not as much as Vortex Spells would. It's cheap size relative to its effectiveness make it a very attractive spell to use, and is available in the campaign very early on. Keep in mind it does zero AP damage even when overcast, so it sucks vs armor. On the positive side, your armored forces can tank a stray blast if you cast it alongside/on top of them when they're in battle with chaff or unarmored infantry, making a great tool for front-line engagements. Maybe even better in WH 3 with the demon factions mostly having bad armor.
*'''Piercing Bolts of Flame''': An expensive and semi-unreliable spell, this is your most effective anti-Armor option outside of Flamestorm spam. It deals a high amount of projectile damage as well, so it can deal respectable damage to monstrous infantry or even regular infantry if they clump up. In general though, you'll probably be better off prioritizing other, more potent/cost efficient spells and leave the dedicated anti-armor to other units in your army.
*'''Flamestorm''': When you need to delete infantry whole-sale, this is your go-to spell. Compared to Burning Head, Flamestorm is less efficient and substantially less consistent, but Flamestorm has substantially higher utility against armored enemies and has the ''potential'' to do much more damage overall. Costs a moderate 13 winds but will utterly annihilate any models caught in its wake, armored or not. Overcasting bumps the WoM cost to 20, doubles the duration from 27 seconds to 54, increases base damage but does nothing for the AP values. Only overcast if you're confident the enemy is locked down and you don't mind it potentially rolling into your forces. Even then, just saving the extra winds for a follow up cast may be a more efficient choice.

===Lore of Heavens===
:'''Passive - ''Roiling Skies''''': A mapwide debuff that slows down flying units and debuffs their melee defense for 25 seconds upon casting a spell. Frankly a mediocre and situational perk, but it can be handy if your opponent's playing a faction with a lot of flying cavalry.
*'''Wind Blast''': A cost effective breath spell that does wonders against unarmored chaff infantry like skavenslaves or peasant mobs. A side effect of this particular breath spell worth noting is that it disrupts enemy formations, making it valuable if only to help buy time for your own forces to get into position/get the charge into them while they recover. Overcasting the spell gives it a touch more bite against armored units (4 AP damage), but the difference is so marginal that it's not really worth it. Never overcast.
*'''Urannon's Thunderbolt''': A bolt of lightning that strikes a small area for extremely large AP damage. Has impressive range, so it has moderate use against the near-stationary artillery pieces your opponent may have. It's pure AP damage and overcasting does more than 1300 damage (much more than doombolts 1000ish AP or amber spears 700 AP), if you hit a lord or monster they will FEEEEEL it. Best cost to damage ratio of any single target blast. Cheaper and better than any other of its type. It has a minimal area of effect and does not track targets, so you'll need to aim carefully to actually land true with it.
*'''Harmonic Convergence''': A supporting spell that improves the melee defense/attack of a friendly unit by a rather respectable margin for 24 seconds, including their armor value if overcast. A very potent spell that can help turn the tide of an engagement on the front lines at a rather minor cost of 6 winds. It falls a bit behind similar buffing spells from other lores due to the fact it is limited to a single target, but is still a decent option for a key beat-stick unit of yours none-the-less.
*'''Curse of the Midnight Wind''': An AoE Hex that debuffs all enemies within its casting radius with lowered melee attack and armor values for 25 seconds, 50 if overcast. Combined with Harmonic Convergence, this is best served when you need to turn a frontline engagement around. In general though, at 11 WoM per cast, you may rather opt to simply put that power towards one of the damage dealing spells instead.
*'''Chain Lightning''': Now we're getting to the good stuff. One of the strongest vortex spells in the game, Chain Lightning randomly crawls across the battle field for 21 seconds dealing heavy damage to everything caught up in it, armored or not. It deals pure AP damage, highest of any other vortex spell. High elf archmages get this as a bound spell, and can get Urannon's Thunderbolt from a lord trait, making this lore perhaps a waste to use on them, since they could get so much of it free.
*'''Comet of Cassandora''': When you want to call down the celestial thunder, there's no better choice than the Comet of Cassandora. With a relatively large area of effect and massive damage output, the CoC can wipe out entire units with a well-placed blast, even more so if overcast... if anything is still willfully under the targeting cursor while the comet takes its sweet time to actually arrive. Between the rather lengthy delay before the comet itself actually descends onto the battlefield and the rather intense winds of magic cost (especially if overcast), finding a situation to use the CoC in lieu of either Chain Lightning or even Wind Blast will be quite difficult. All in all, it's terribly inefficient. Thunderbolt does much more damage to a single target and chain lighting is usually cheaper and more efficient for hordes/blobs. In Campaigns against AI, the Comet of Cassandora is a considerably more attractive option when engaging in Siege battles or against clumps of elite, relatively immobile units. Since the AI tends to be blissfully oblivious to the impact indicator and is prone to scrunching multiple units together regularly, they'll rarely make any effort to avoid taking the full brunt of a well positioned Comet.

===Lore of Life===
:'''Passive - ''Life Bloom''''': Whenever a life spell is cast, all your units heal up to 40 hitpoints over the course of 5 seconds. It's not much, but it's free healing that applies to your entire army whenever you cast a spell. Every little bit helps.
*'''Earth Blood''': This is the bread and butter for most life wizards. A nice AoE heal for up to four allied units within its radius that lasts for 7 seconds, with double the length and healing if overcast. The main value of this spell is the relatively inconsequential winds of magic cost (6/11), allowing life wizards to support a rather sizeable chunk of your army for a rather extended period of time.
*'''Awakening of the Wood''': A large damage dealing explosion that dramatically slows down everyone caught up in the blast, but deals squat for damage against anything with an armor value.
*'''Shield of Thorns''': A nice offensive/defensive buff that grants percentage based physical resist and weapon damage bonuses to several of your units within the spell's radius. A great supporting power for key units that goes quite nicely with Earth Blood to keep them in peak physical form. Use on units who already resist physical for best results, overcasting can be good if you need extra weapon damage. Can be cast combined with pelt if you have a beast caster to give 50% physical resist on top of any the unit already has.
*'''Flesh to Stone''': A massive boost to an allied unit's armor value for 44 seconds (88 if overcast), this can turn even a squishy unit like Wood Elf Wardancers into surprisingly tanky beat-sticks, especially if stacked with Shield of Thorns. When compared to SoT, however, it tends to be better against non-AP by far but falls off in the later game when more units tend to have AP values.
*'''Regrowth''': An expensive single target heal that replenishes a substantial amount of HP and vigour to the target unit, especially if overcast. Frankly best reserved for emergencies and/or single entity units as no amount of healing will bring back slain models in a unit. Minor exceptions extend to the very few factions who ''can'' revive slain models, like the Lizardmen when utilizing a Revivification Crystal Bastilodon. In general though, Earth Blood provides better sustain for your army over the course of the battle.
*'''The Dwellers Below''': A shockingly powerful AoE damaging spell for a lore so dedicated to supporting your own units, The Dwellers Below snares all units who travel within the spell's zone with a speed debuff while chipping away at them in the process. While it's good in certain situations, you've likely taken your life wizard for dedicated healing support and will likely have alternative options for offensive spellcasters more suited to the task. Wood elf spellweaver lords get this as a bound spell, which is awesome. Despite its awesome animations, if you look carefully at the spells tooltip, you'll notice that it's a direct damage spell and not a vortex. This is important because it means that instead of centering it on blobs, you want it covering as many enemy units as possible and you don't have to worry about hitting your own units with it.

===Lore of Light===
:'''Passive - ''Exorcism''''': Whenever you cast a Lore of Light spell, all your units gain 4 leadership and become immune to psychology (fear/terror) for 11 seconds. Useful, if you are facing armies with lots of scary monsters, but largely useless outside of that.
*'''Shen's Burning Gaze''': Inexpensive Projectile, costs the same as fireball (5 winds), but fires 5 projectiles in a grouping. Has the advantage of higher base damage than said Fireball, and the disadvantage that all projectiles need to land for the spell to deal full damage. Given that most entities except the largest ones aren't even big enough for all projectiles to land, it's kinda mediocre. For what it's worth, it has much better AP damage than fire ball for similar cost. If cast at close range, it can be used like a shotgun to get all of the projectiles to hit. It's best vs a monster sized unit obviously, but it's also good vs flying to due decent air tracking. It fires 5 projectiles base goes up to 10 if overcast. Basically just like gaze of nagash from lore of vampires. Also it has bonus vs large.
*'''Net of Amyontok''': This is why you pick the Lore of Light. A medium-prized (10 winds) AoE debuff that locks an enemy in place, right where they stand. The incredible utility of this spell cannot be understated. A must pick against factions with a lot of mobility, although it only affects units on the ground. Despite that limitation, it ''will'' trap any flying cavalry/monsters/characters who are on the ground (from a charge, for example), so if you can catch them with this before they can retreat into the skies, you can severely punish them. Obviously favored by those with good archers and artillery, Sisters of Avelorn and Salamander Hunting Packs being notable beneficiaries.
*'''Pha's Protection''': A cheap defense buff. Grants 30 armour and 24 Melee Defense at the prize of 5 winds of magic for 22 seconds. overcast adds AOE for 10 winds. unexceptional but nice, short duration is unfortunate, but good AOE buffs are rare. maybe worth it if you can hit enough of your units.
*'''Light of Battle''': AoE buff for 7 Winds of Magic that makes all units unbreakable for 22 seconds. Not to be underestimated, but needs a creative mind to use right. very situational, probably not worth it often.
*'''Bironas Timewarp''': Pretty nifty AOE buff spell that costs 11 Winds of Magic and gives units a whopping 24% increase to their movement speed and 24 melee attack. Perfect for Cavalry and other fast units.
*'''Banishment''': A 17/24 overcast winds vortex with good ap damage (7ap same as pit of shades). you get a small zone of bright death. The game advertises this spell as dealing "medium damage", which is bewildering, to say the least. Banishment definitely doesn't need to hide behind its bigger brethren from other Lores. It’s actually incredibly similar to purple sun now, in fact purple sun is probably better now. Still good though. Overcasting increases the base damage by 7, though the AP values are untouched. Generally not worth overcasting in most scenarios. Slann get this as a free bound spell, as always this is awesome.

===Lore of Metal===
:'''Passive - ''Metalshifting''''': Your lore attribute that gives your units +10% AP and Weapon Strength for 13 second. Used best on elite units who already have high AP and damage as something like an Empire Swordsman probably won't be noticing the effects too much.
*'''Searing Doom''': A fairly cost effective bombardment ability against low armor. At only 6 winds of magic it can help destroy early game blobs of crappy infantry. It's biggest disadvantage is the wind up time so any opponent who's paying attention should be able to get out of the way. Fortunately the AI doesn't bother with dodging these most of the time. Low projectile damage means wont do shit to higher health models, kroxigors, dragon ogres etc.
*'''Plague of Rust''': One of the most cost effective armor debuffs in the game, especially if you don't have a lot of affordable AP. Being able to get rid of 30 armor for 4 winds (Or 60 for 6 if you overcast) is situationally good. Plus it lasts 44 seconds so you have plenty of time to deal with them before their defensive stats return to normal. It's certainly better against some factions (this can be a god send against Dwarfs and Bretonnia) than others (Beastmen and Wood Elves will laugh if you bring this). In the campaign almost every unit worth using should have AP anyway, really only good situationally/early game. single target is the biggest problem, at least its cheap with good duration. kind of mediocre. I would rather use soul blight with shorter duration, at least's its AOE. a single armored unit is only ever going to matter enough in multiplayer.
*'''Glittering Robes''': it got buffed. now 60 armor for 44 seconds (no leadership effect anymore), overcast for AOE, actually pretty good if fighting non AP. 6 base/12 overcast. AOE is the big deal, much better than the life equivalent.
*'''Gehenna's Golden Hounds''': You can spend an extra 3 winds of magic for a mediocre vortex that only hurts low armor units and might even kill some of your own troops. Doesn't that sound fun? Use Searing Doom, you'll get better bang for your buck. It actually has the same AP damage per tick as Purple Sun, its mostly just small and hard to aim. Cheap though. Not great
*'''Transmutation of Lead''': A fairly solid -24 melee attack and -30% weapon damage for 38 seconds can really put enemy momentum to a halt (if you overcast, -60% weapon damage). costs 11 base, 16 overcast. unfortunately debuffing melee attack and weapon strength while good is somewhat counter synergistic, because if they don't hit the strength doesn't matter, but its just doubling down rather than redundant. Probably don't overcast unless you really think you need it.
*'''Final Transmutation''': Ok so take Spirit Leech, make it a massive AOE and you have a pretty good idea of how Final Transmutation works. This can win you games if you get a big blob in it but at 18 (28 overcast) Winds of Magic it'll probably be all you're casting in multiplayer. In campaign, build up those reserves and you can win battles with this alone. Even if you only hit 2 targets, it has higher damager per winds ratio than Spirit Leech. The overcast version does 2300 damage on average vs Spirit Leech's 834 average. If you can weaken a lord to the 2000 health range this will quickly destroy them. Assuming they have no significant magic resist/healing/wards of course, but still incredibly potent none-the-less. (all direct damage spells bypass armor FYI, so Bejuna, Flock of Doom, Miasma etc., they all do).

===Lore of Shadows===
:'''Passive - ''Smoke & Mirrors''''': A mapwide movement speed buff for 24 seconds whenever you cast a shadows spell is a nice perk that can give you a slight edge in maneuverability over your opponent, though this is very largely dependent on the factions at play. Remember the mediocre speed boosts of pelt or timewarp? This is better, map wide, and free. Still not that great.
*'''Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma''': A Single target direct damage spell that deals damage to one unit while also slowing them down in the process. At 5 winds of magic for a quick cast, it's a great precursor to an engagement or to help prevent your opponent from fleeing. Averages around 1764 direct damage, quite good but only on a large unit, ideally with about 100 or more models. Ok to speed debuff a lord or monster if you really need to as well, other wise dont overcast. best spammed to wear down large units, compare to flock of doom for example.
*'''The Enfeebling Foe''': A 22 second melee defense/attack debuff that cripples a single enemy unit of your choice. Ideally used against characters or monsters who might be trying to wreak havoc in your lines or to give your own lord a step up in a duel against them. Probably worth overcasting for the double duration. One of the best debuffs in the game for a single target. Hit a lord with it then buff your duelist monster, hero, or lord with Mindrazor and you get a nasty killing combo.
*'''The Withering''': Yet another hex that targets a single unit and reduces their armor and leadership for 40 seconds. It only has a prominent niche if you stack lots of leadership debuffs to force opposing units to route, but Doom and Darkness from death does that twice as well (if that discipline is available). all races that can leadership bomb (beastmen, dark elves, norsca, warriors of chaos, and vampires) have access to death, except lizardmen which cant use shadow or death.
*'''The Penumbral Pendulum''': A potent wind spell that is perfect for slicing through frontline units while they're tied up in combat. It's not quite as powerful as the Burning Head or the Winds of Death against unarmored foes, but anything wearing a tin can will get cracked open. This does 36 AP damage base or a whopping 72 if overcast. It actually does more AP damage than wind of death, but usually gets fewer kills due to shorter duration, travel distance, and AOE. Wrecks elite infantry and cavalry.
*'''Pit of Shades''': One of the very select few stationary vortex spells in the game. With a 13 second duration, the Pit of Shades is a fantastic tool in maps that have natural choke points or if you manage to box in a particularly large clump of units. It deals 7 points of pure AP, same as Purple Sun's or Banishment's AP damage, though it has no base damage paired with it. Overcasting doubles the ap to 14, but this is generally unnecessary in most circumstances. It traps enemies inside of it, so not only does it immobilize clumps of enemies for follow-up attacks, it tends to deal tons of damage as long as you get a direct hit. Very reliable.
*'''Okkam's Mindrazor''': A very nasty buff that grants magical attacks to an allied unit as well as a ''very'' substantial 40% buff to weapon and armor piercing damage. Overcast for an expensive but powerful AOE buff. Use on monsters, heroes and lords for best results because it's percentage based; you're gonna get a lot more mileage out of it that way. Good for a goon squad to kill monsters/lords, not worth it for killing infantry usually. Remember weapon strength doesn’t matter if you can’t hit, try to combine it with an a melee attack boost or melee defense debuff for best results. Enfeebling foe for example.

===Scrolls===

In the Campaign, you can occasionally find magic scrolls that give your caster a free spell with limited uses, and some of them aren't available in any lore. Given that they're free, there is no reason to not cast them in any battle. Some of these spells can also be unlocked through faction mechanics or just levelling your caster character up.

*'''Arnzipal's Black Horror''': Stupidly effective Breath Spell that eats chaff alive and even inflicts enough damage to give Elite Units a run for their money. As of the Rakarth Update, Dark Elven Supreme Sorceresses get this spell as a bound spell for levelling up to Level 10 on the Campaign, everyone else has to rely on the enemy to drop the Scroll of Horror.
*'''Assault of Stone''': Probably the strongest Bombardment in the entire game. Covers a huge area, and inflicts a ton AP magic damage. The Dwarfs (of all factions) get the easiest access to it by forging the Sceptre of Stone with Oathgold.
*'''Amber Scroll''': A free leadership debuff on any one unit.
*'''Blast''': Fireball but faster and more immediate.

==Faction-specific Lores==

===Lore of the Deep (Vampire Coast)===
:'''Passive - ''Kiss of the Deep''''': Each time you cast a spell it does a small amount of magic damage to every enemy unit on the map. This is especially useful when fighting against armies that have fragile units and rely on [[Wood Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|superior speed]] or [[skaven|disposable chaff units]] to keep them protected.
*'''Tidecall''': A breath weapon that expands out in a cone, doing moderate damage and disrupting enemy formations. Basically wind blast from the Lore of Heaven, but wetter.
*'''Spiteful Shot''': A buff that provides +90 accuracy to an allied unit. Great for deck gunners, mortars, Queen Bess, or anything else that can shoot, really. It's the cheapest spell in your arsenal so it can be reliably spammed to get more Kiss of the Deep effects.
*'''Denizens of the Deep''': Summons a unit of Rotting Prometheans. The Rotting Prometheans biggest weakness is its low speed, so the ability to drop a unit right into the enemy is amazing. Need to soak up an enemy charge? Want to disrupt enemy artillery? There's an enemy hero giving you problems? Solve every problem with [[meme|giant enemy crabs]].
*'''Fog of the Damned''': A debuff spell that reduces enemy leadership and movement speed. Not your best spell, but it slows enemy melee units down to give your gunners more time to shoot them. It still causes Kiss of the Deeps which is never bad.
*'''Vangheist's Revenge''': Possibly the coolest looking spell ever. Summons a giant ghost boat to broadside the enemy for heavy damage across a wide area. Expensive and slow to cast, but stylish as hell and can potentially wipe out whole units at once.
*'''Kraken's Pull''': A big vortex full of [[slaanesh|wet groping tentacles]] that traps any unit caught inside of it, dealing damage to them and cutting their speed in half. Anything that keeps the enemy away from your lines is useful. The vortex is also immobile, so there's no risk of it backfiring into your units.

===Lore of High Magic (High Elves, Lizardmen, Wood Elves)===
:'''Passive - ''Shield of Saphery''''': A 11% Ward Save graces all your units whenever you cast spells from this discipline.
:'''Passive (Wood Elves) - ''Ancients' Protection''''': A slightly worse version of the Shield of Saphery, this only grants a 10% ''Physical'' Resistance buff, meaning it'll do nothing against magic damage/missiles. Still, it works well enough for Wood Elves since they have a reasonable amount of innate physical resist already and can be further supplemented by physical resistance spells from other disciplines.
*'''Hand of Glory''': A relatively cheap buff for a single allied unit that grants them increased reload skill and melee attack for 29 seconds. Reload skill and melee attack don't exactly go hand in hand as far as complimentary buffs go, but it does give it a bit more potential application across your entire army compared to other more specialized buffs. Despite this, and despite it's lower cost, it will not usually do enough to justify the winds cost since one unit can only do so much. A single fireball would usually do more even, depending on your targets.
*'''Apotheosis''': A very cheap single unit heal that also imbues the allied target with Fear for its 22 second duration. This is, all things considered, a pretty nice spell for a tanky frontline unit and does provide more healing to a single target than Earth Blood (granted, Earth Blood heals multiple targets). The addition of Fear does help push through the squishier, meeker chaff units that might simply be trying to tie you down. Unfortunately, the lore of life exists and all factions with high magic have access to life magic. Never overcast it unless you really need the range.
*'''Soul Quench''': A magic missile with artillery levels of range that explodes for quite reasonable damage against groups of infantry. While it's reasonably effective and cost efficient, you'll likely want to reserve your Winds of Magic for more utilitarian purposes and leave the job of long-range bombardment to your actual artillery units, Wood Elves lack artillerysi they *might* get moreuse out of this. Keep in mind it has bad armor piercing, use it like fireball pretty much. If you use it at all.
*'''Tempest''': A snare that deals damage and traps a flying unit in a slow moving vortex. This is a very useful tool for dealing with (Legendary) Lords on flying mounts or flying Monsters like Dragons. While they take impressive damage from the Tempest itself, you should always have a unit or two of missile units or artillery on hand to take advantage of their immobility. In general though, this is worse than the Net of Amyntok if your goal is to snare enemy units in place. Great in multiplayer, crap in single player.
*'''Fiery Convocation''': A relatively potent wind spell that deals reasonable damage to enemies it passes through. Even among directional wind spells, there's a lot of room for variance on the path it takes, so try not to use it too close to your own front line. Does the highest AP damage of any wind spell but lower total damage than pendulum, for example. Not really worth the extra cost for the higher AP, its only ok. Very slow cast time means it's hard to hit savvy opponents with it too.
*'''Arcane Unforging''': A very powerful single-entity spell that deals substantial damage to the target while increasing their ability cooldowns by a considerable amount. This is a very valuable spell against enemy Heroes and Lords due to their ability to completely shut them down. Overcharging the spell can add a whopping 45 seconds to their ability cooldowns which, if used at just the right moment, can utterly ruin an opponent's strategy and potentially cost them the field. Obviously less useful against battering ram-type characters who just charge into battle, but hey. Can't have everything. Higher damage but less efficient than other spells of its kind. Spirit leech, final transmutation and soul stealer are honestly better because their AoE capabilities (or higher efficiency in spirit leech's case) make up for their high cost. Still, not a bad spell though, considering Lizardmen lack access to the aforementioned alternatives. Pick your targets well and only overcast against extremely high priority characters with powerful abilities.

===Lore of Dark Magic (Dark Elves, Wood Elves)===
:'''Passive - ''Spiteful Conjuration''''': Reduces armor map wide, it’s ok, works out to 11% less damage resistance for 18 seconds. Almost the same as the lore of metal attribute effectively but almost always better. It affects missile and spell damage not just melee with a longer duration than metal does. Doesn’t actually affect any of the spells from this lore except bladewind however since the rest do pure AP damage.
:'''Passive (Wood Elves) - ''Wrath of the Woods''''': 12% more missile damage map wide for 8 seconds, it’s nice. Like a free half strength flaming sword and stacks with all other boosts.
*'''Power of Darkness''': Basically a 4 times as strong arcane conduit that causes 500ish damage to a unit over time. Which unit is chosen doesn’t matter. 3 use limit per battle. Very underrated, easily the strongest winds recharge skill in the game. Cast on a hydra and it will just regen through most of the damage or on a bolt thrower out of the way. Don’t ever put the damage on your wizard. in campaign you can consider running dark plus a second lore to have the dark act as a winds battery, recomend to combine with other winds boost like knowledgeable sorceressess
*'''Chillwind''': Cheap wind spell that does 24 points of PURE Ap damage. That’s 2/3rds of a pendulum’s AP component. Also slows and lowers reload speed so multi use. Honestly a bargain, it’s pure AP would be worth the cost alone. Plus triggers lore attribute cheaply. Overcast isn’t worth it. it looks weaker than it is, remember that it wont kill many models but will significantly weaken them, its hard to tell but it adds up to a lot of lost health on infantry.
*'''Word of Pain''': A single target only debuff isn’t ideal but it can claim to be probably the best lord or hero off switch in the game. -44 melee attack is massive. Overcast adds a melee defense hit as well. Sometimes worth overcasting. Situational but nice to have.
*'''Blade Wind''': Pretty cheap, pretty damaging vortex. Lowish ap damage but helped by the lore attribute, short duration but that rarely matters. It does it’s job well for its cost. Won’t win any awards but its cheap enough to justify just dropping it on only 1 or 2 units. same cost as base Doombolt so use this on bigger units or blobs usually but Doombolt vs single entities or monstrous units. Overcast doubles duration but unlikely to hit anything long enough for that to matter, not worth overcasting really.
*'''Doombolt''': Does just over 800 pure AP on a direct hit with an decent AOE detonation as well. Plus it’s a bombardment with pretty good tracking. It is like a cheaper comet of casadora with the tradeoff of less AOE range but better single target damage. Comparable damage/efficiency to Amber Spear overcast. Its ideal situation is hitting a lord or monster while surrounded by troops to take advantage of both damage portions. Overcast is proportionate, it only boosts the single target damage though. Against units just use the base version.
*'''Soul Stealer''': AOE spirit leech combined with a caster only heal identical to High Magic’s but with about 50 more healing. Damage is the exact same as Spirit leech, but because it hits every target with their own version it’s more efficient than Spirit Leech with just 2-3 good targets. Plus only healing Dark Elves get. Great spell. Better on Morathi, Malekith, and a black dragon sorceress to make the self healing more valuable.

===Lore of Nehekhara (Tomb Kings)===
:'''Passive - ''The Restless Dead''''': Completely identical to the Lore of Vampires passive, heals injured undead before resurrecting models. Unlike the Lore of Vampires, the Lore of Nehekhara contains many more small buff spells but lacks the damage potential of the former. That does, however, mean that this passive will be triggering a lot more frequently.
*'''Djaf's Incantation of Cursed Blades''': One of the cheapest spells in the game at 3 WoM, this little spell buffs weapon and AP damage by 25% on a single unit. Emblematic of the Tomb Kings lore and battle philosophy in general: while there are no standout spells or units that will single-handedly win you your battles, it's the combined-arms nature of the faction that truly makes it succeed. And the Cursed Blades is perfect for giving those cavalry, Ushabti, and other nasty constructs the edge on the offense.
*'''Neru's Incantation of Protection''': Grants 44% Physical Resistance for 6 WoM. Good for keeping your Tomb King rampaging through the enemy lines on his Warsphinx or giving one of your holding units unexpected resilience.
*'''Ptra's Incantation of Righteous Smiting''': The go-to spell for the missile-focused Tomb Kings player. Granting 40% bonus to missile and missile AP damage for another 6 WoM, this is a beastly spell when put on your artillery constructs which will really pile in the pressure on units trying to approach your lines.
*'''Usirian's Incantation of Vengeance''': The first damage spell for the lore and it's... disappointing. Does middling damage to units in a wide area while reducing their speed by 24%. Situational, potentially useful if built around correctly, but generally safe to ignore in favour of more buffs for the troops.
*'''Usekph's Incantation of Desiccation''': -24 MA and MD to enemy units in a huge area for a whopping 15 WoM. Generally not worth it unless you're planning to bust through an infantry line with your own, which works like none of the time with the slow infantry of the Tomb Kings
*'''Sakhmet's Incantation of the Skullstorm''': Generic magical damage vortex for 11 WoM. Impressive to look at, but not very efficient due to a smaller-than-average vortex radius.

===Lore of the Wild (Beastmen)===
:'''Passive - ''Bestial Surge''''': When ever you cast you gain an extra 18% Charge Bonus and 5% vigour. Needless to say in a speedy hit and run faction like the Beastmen you will need as much of both as you can get.
*'''Viletide''': For 7 winds of magic you get an AOE kaboom that deals decent damage to unarmoured troops. Great for when you are in a grind and need to get the chaff out of the way so that you can fight better stuff but won't do dick against armour.
*'''Bray-Scream''' A cone shaped wind spell that can do decent damage with decent AP. It has very short range but for 5 Winds of Magic it can actually get you some very good damage against infantry with a ton of armor.
*'''Devolve''': For 11 winds this thing is essentially a mini Final Transmutation, and can do some serious damage to large unit sizes (100 and up ideally). Plus the leadership debuff can help with getting the enemy into a rout so you can chase them off. This is your best blob destroying spell and it's decent for what it is. All direct damage spells ignore armor. It does 1100 damage max, 2300 overcast both only against big enough units. Very cost efficient.
*'''Traitor-Kin''': Essentially an AOE Spirit Leech in that instead of doing a ton of damage to several models at once it will drain one model at a time til it dies and move to the next one. This means that it doesn't do as much damage as Devolve but will kill models. It also supplies a speed debuff for lord sniping, which is great for a faction that relies on outrunning their enemies. It's expensive at 12 winds though
*'''Mantle of Ghorok''': The only buffing spell this list has. It provides a meaty 50 Base Weapon Damage, 40% Melee Attack and 50% AP. Needless to say this is amazing for such an aggressive faction and will turn Minotaurs and Bestigors into killing machines. There is the downside of the -30 armour but.. come on man, you're playing the Beastmen. Unless you use this thing on Bestigors you wont even notice. You'll be more turned off by the 11 winds cost. Probably better against armoured opponents.
*'''Savage Dominion''': Ok let's be real. If you're one of the 3 people in this game who play the Beastmen and you're taking this Lore of Magic into an online match, this is why you're bringing it. I don't really need to tell you why getting 2 Cygors for free is really, really good. Not only do you have a solid monster but you also have an artillery piece to rain death rocks from afar. I don't care if it's 18 Winds of Magic, it's easily the best spell in the lore. You can only use it twice though, so use it wisely.

===Lore of Vampires (Vampire Coast, Vampire Counts)===
:'''Passive - ''The Curse of Undeath''''': Heals every undead unit on the map for a small amount over the course of 5 seconds, but in contrast to the Lore of Lifes passive, it can also bring models back. Not a game changer, but free healing is always nice.
*'''Curse of Years''': Not worth it. A big AoE debuff that lowers Melee Defense and Speed at a whopping cost of 16 Winds of Magic. Its general effectiveness is additionally offset by the fact that your Skellies or Deckhands are not all that good at melee in the first place and the debuff just too weak against Lords and Heroes (which are usually the preferred targets for debuffs).
*'''Gaze of Nagash''': Practically interchangeable with Shen's burning gaze from the Lore of Light. Meek Projectile with mediocre damage that also has a hard time even hitting its intended target. Skip.
*'''Invocation of Nehek''': This and Wind of Death are the main reason why the Lore of Vampires is so extremely powerful. Invocation of Nehek brings a very cost-effective heal to the table at a meager 6 Winds of Magic that also resurrects dead models - for 12 on the overcast variant, you get a very big AoE heal that helps especially the many monstrous, low entity units the Counts are able to field. Pumping a half-dead Vargheist or Mourngul unit up a few models can really swing encounters in your favor, not to mention the amount of cheese you can get out of this spell by combining it with the multitude of passive regeneration abilities the Counts have on a lot of units. Maxing it out on Campaign also makes it even cheaper (bringing down the cost from 6/12 down to 5/10) and since it's your first spell, there is no reason to not do so.
*'''Raise Dead (Vampire Counts)''': Summons a unit of Zombies for just 7 Winds. Summons are always awesome, since you can summon these bois behind the melee moshpit for nice charges into the back of your enemy for the additional rear attack moral penalty, or just keeping a nasty unit in the place of your choosing. The mileage of this spell of course depends greatly on your own creativity. The overcast gives you Skeleton Warriors with swords, which is negligible and usually not worth the cost of 13 Winds.
*'''Drowned Dead (Vampire Coast)''': Similar to its Vampire Count cousin, Drowned Dead summons forth a squad of Zombie Gunmen to help shoot down your foes. Fitting for the Vampire Coast considering how much they love guns. The overcast version summons forth a Zombie Pirate Gunnery Mob, but with handguns so they have more fire power, giving you a stronger edge. How useful this spell is depends on where they are summoned.
*'''Vanhel's Danse Macabre''': Sweet Little and extremely cheap buff (only 4 winds, 6 when overcast) that grants +24 Melee Attack and Speed like an inverse Curse of Years. Can be worth it on units like Grave Guard or Black Knights, usually situational, unlike Curse of Years its very low costs make it very useful in a pinch or as last resort spell, when your Magic Reserves have dried up and there's nothing else left to cast.
*'''Wind of Death''': Feast your eyes and despair, for you look at the most powerful offensive spell in the entire game. The only thing holding back is its extremely high price tag of 20 Winds (25 when overcast), so one cast will essentially drain your entire magic pool. But your one shot may as well end the game the instant you get it off. A very fast-moving wind spell that ''will'' evaporate any high model count unit in a single cast with a terrifying reach due to high AP magic damage. It's still effective against units with lower model counts and/or magic resist since it deals so much damage.

===Lore of the Big Waaagh! (Greenskins)===
:'''Passive - ''Power of da Waaagh!''''': Functionally identical to the Lore of Death attribute, every time you cast a spell it increases the recharge rate for all spells. Nothing fancy, but still useful.
*'''Brain Bursta''': Basically a green fireball. Deals decent damage in a large area from a decent distance. You should probably focus on the other spells in the list.
*''''Eadbutt''': A short, wide little breath attack that sends enemies flying. Great for disrupting enemy formations and pushing clumps of enemies around.
*''''Ere We Go''': A buff that gives a unit [[rip and tear|+40 melee attack]], allowing even weedy little goblins to punch above their weight. Absolutely horrific when used on Black Orcs, but there's basically nothing in the greenskin roster that doesn't appreciate krumpin' stuff.
*'''Fists of Gork''': A cheaper alternative to 'Ere We Go that provides +24 melee attack and defense. It's better to use on a lord or hero to give them an edge in a duel, but 9 times out of 10 you'll want 'Ere We Go instead.
*'''Foot of Gork''': '''SPLAT!!''' Summon Gork himself to stomp the shit out of your enemies with one of the most powerful spells in the game. Creates a giant explosion of armour piercing damage that can win the entire battle on its own if cast on the right target. The winds of magic cost is really steep, especially when overcast; but the damage potential cannot be overstated.
*'''Gaze of Mork''': Often overlooked, but not completely useless. Gaze of Mork is a cheap precise sniper-rilfe style spell that does decent damage to a single entity. The best part of the spell is the long range, which is good for greenskins who normally struggle when the enemy is too far away. Overcasting lets it trade shots with artillery all the way across the map.

===Lore of the Little Waaagh! (Greenskins)===
:'''Passive - ''Sneaky Stealin'''''': The polar opposite of the Lore of the Big Waaagh! passive, this one increases the recharge time for enemy casters. An interesting trait, but the effectiveness depends very strongly on what the opponent is bringing.
*'''Curse of Da Bad Moon''': A hilarious looking vortex that bounces around the map, dealing damage and reducing the speed, armour, and melee attack of whatever it touches. A useful debuff, but the spell moves around like crazy and can often come back to your lines.
*'''Gork'll Fix It''': A targeted hex that reduces enemy speed, charge bonus, and vigor. Tailor made to counter knights and chariots, who should always be the first targets. A pretty cheap spell only costing 7 winds of magic, but you get what you pay for.
*'''Itchy Nuisance''': Another Hex, this one decreases enemy weapon damage and melee attack. More generally useful than Gork'll Fix It, but not nearly as good against knights.
*'''Nightshroud''': A strange buff that gives all friendly units in an area Stalk and Undetectable, making them functionally invisible. A great way to protect your slower units from enemy shooting. Note that Undetectable stops working if the unit attacks or casts a spell, so it's pretty much useless on your archers.
*'''Sneaky Stabbin'''': A cheap and weak little spell that gives the target 18% more AP damage and +34 melee attack. Because the bonus to AP is a percentage and not a flat amount, it doesn't do much on units that struggle against armored foes (you know, the ones that really need it). Most of the time the longer duration and better melee bonus of 'Ere We Go! is better, but if you don't have an orc shaman it can get the job done.
*'''Vindictive Glare''': Launches a bunch of little magic missiles into the target, doing moderate magic damage for each missile that hits. Best against big targets so all of the missiles can hit the same target. Anything that helps you against monsters is useful for Greenskins.

===Skaven Spells of Ruin (Skaven)===
:'''Passive - ''Musk of Fear''''': Upon casting a spell, enemy units are inflicted with -13 Melee Attack and -4 Leadership. Considering the relatively spammy nature of the Lore of Ruin (in particular Warp Lightning) this may help your tarpits out considerably but don't rely on it to turn the tide of battle on its own.
*'''Warp Lightning''': Cheap bombardment spell, iconic to non-Pestilens Skaven casters and surprisingly powerful for the cost. There are many ways to buff this spell in campaign but it's also perfectly serviceable in multiplayer. Don't ever be conservative with this spell - it's dirt-cheap and you'll need repeated casts of it to really dish out the hurt. Laugh maniacally like Ikit and blast those tarpitted blobs whenever you see them!
*'''Howling Warpgale''': Despite the situational nature of this spell, it is absolutely vital that you take this spell whenever you start acquiring weapons teams. Flying creatures and units are countered hard by Jezzails and Ratling Guns but it's their speed and other pressing concerns of regular cavalry that can often end in a Feral Manticore or others tearing through your helpless gunners. But with this spell you can pin those flying beasties in the air and make them easy targets for your artillery and snipers.
*'''Death Frenzy''': A straightforward combat buff that can turn an outmatched fight into a much more balanced one. It's tempting to cast this on Clanrats to try to hold the line longer but there are better uses for this spell, like letting that Plague Censer-Bearer unit tear through your opponent's elite infantry and eliciting a serious WTF moment from them as you blow a hole in their infantry centre with crazed great-weapon rats pumped full of magic.
*'''Scorch''': A thin breath spell. One of the disappointments of the otherwise serviceable Lore of Ruin, it has a rather small hitbox that deals middling damage to anything not unarmoured chaff. Since the Skaven have better ways of dealing with unarmoured chaff, you're better off skipping this one.
*'''Flensing Ruin''': An unusual area-damage spell that Functions just like Final Transmutation (and has the same Winds of magic to damage ratio), it works best versus single entities and very small units (20ish or less unit size), if you get a group of good targets it's actually very efficient and powerful. Not worth using versus infantry and large units, just use warp lightning for them. Will effect any target clipped by its AOE in full just like flock of doom.
*'''Crack's Call''': Another area damage spell, this time a straight wind spell that's similar to Flensing Ruin in its AP potential. The shape of the wind spell lends itself well to thinning out hapless infantry eating up your Skavenslaves and Clanrats, so it's up to you if you want to use this as a in-between the Warp Lightning casts you're hopefully already spamming.
*'''The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell (Exclusive to Grey Seers of Ruin)''': ''Now'' we're talking. While only Grey Seer of Ruin lords can take this, it's the one spell both old 8th Edition veterans and Total War players will take regardless because of its sheer WTF potential - it's a large-area explosion spell that spawns a unit of sword-and-board Stormvermin right on top of whatever unfortunate infantry are left alive from the blast. The high Winds of Magic cost and long cooldown make this a risky proposition but when you see that chance to flip the table on that blob of chaff and create a dangerous opening in your opponent's formation, you turn to this spell. Maybe just use the cheaper summons from the lore of plague instead though, warlock masters are honestly better than grey seer's anyway.

===Skaven Spells of Plague (Skaven)===
:'''Passive - ''Plague Rash''''': Upon casting a spell in this Lore, inflicts -12% Speed on all enemies on the map. Absolutely amazing debuff, when combined with the sheer number of summons you can throw at incoming cavalry and fast movers, undoubtedly makes this Skaven lore not only the best for Skaven but one of the strongest Lores in the game.
*'''Bless with Filth''': Cheap poison attacks buff. Nothing much to say, it's a nice way of making those Clanrat Spears extra nasty against the big stuff. Gutter runners with poison slings are arguably more efficient.
*'''Pestilent Breath''': The signature breath spell for Plague casters. Good coverage, damage and low cost makes this a staple for clearing out enemy tarpits in short order. Despite not being very effective against armor, it can potentially disrupt the formation with the breath effect which you can take advantage of.
*'''Vermintide''': The earliest summon spell any of the Skaven casters can get and by far one of the most useful. Do not underestimate being able to suddenly summon Clanrats out of nowhere, they can easily become annoying roadblocks against enemy cavalry or delay infantry advances so that your artillery can shoot at them more. In a pinch, you can even throw them behind a unit in combat as a cheap way to inflict outflanked debuffs.
*'''Wither''': -30 Armour doesn't sound like much of a debuff but Wither stands out by having its duration be longer than the cooldown - meaning with patience you can make those high-armor targets naked for a brief period for maximum rape. Best to use this one on units already in combat that you really want dead quickly, either from grenades or Plague Monk attacks.
*'''Plague''': The best AoE damage spell the Skaven have by far and the most visually impressive as well. Absolutely amazing for crushing mobs of any kind while they eat worthless Clanrats from Vermintide, it has a stupidly low casting cost for the effect and damage area. The Plague is not to be trifled with and can turn the tide of the battle with careful usage.
*'''Pestilent Birth''': While Vermintide is the more defensive summon spell in this lore, this spell is for more aggressive players who would much rather like to win the infantry fight by any means. With this spell you can spawn a unit of Plague Monks nearby the caster - terrific for nasty back attacks or adding unexpected pressure onto an enemy unit chewing up Skavenslaves. A devastating spell if positioned correctly but still useful even if misplaced.

===Skaven Spells of Stealth (Skaven)===
:'''Passive - ''Toxic Rain''''': Applies Poison in an AOE around the caster. A weird passive that encourages you to keep your mage close to the enemy, which is normally the last place that you would want to keep you caster, especially one without any mount options. One of the many reasons why this is widely considered the worst lore of magic in the entire game.
*'''Skitterleap''': Grants Stalk, Unspottable and a small speed boost to all of the allies affected. Designed as an ambush spell that allows you to quickly move units around in a position to outflank your enemy. Given that this lore was designed to be used with Clan Eshin units it really only helps out said Eshin units. Other than that Skaven aren't much of a flanking faction so it doesn't help them out that much. Overcasting increases the AOE
*'''Warp Stars''': Fires a bunch of AP magic missiles at a target, increasing the number of projectiles when overcasted. Good for poking down units before a main engagement, though it doesn't do as much damage as other missile spells.
*'''Veil of Shadows''': Causes a massive, persistent explosion but does no damage. Designed to displace enemy units and provide a big hole for your units to run through. Great for unclogging gates in sieges against the AI, but the usefulness is questionable since a lot of spell have a similar effect and, you know, actually kill things. Overcast version slows as well.
*'''Armour of Darkness''': Provides armour and missile resistance for a limited amount of time, little extra if overcasted. Once again, since this lore is designed for Clan Eshin units it can help them be a bit more resilient in combat.
*'''Black Whirlwind''': A big AOE damage spell that displaces enemies and causes big damage. This is your crowd clearing spell, and to be fair it's actually not that bad at the job that it's supposed to do. It's biggest problem is other spells, even from other Skaven lores do the same thing more cost effectively. Overcast does more AP damage.
*'''Brittle Bone''': Lowers the speed, vigour, and Melee Defense of a target, making it AOE on overcast. A solid anti Cavalry spell that might actually allow the faster units in your army to catch up to them and bring them down. Probably the best spell on the list, which kind of goes to show how lack luster this particular Lore of Magic is in the first place.

===Rune Magic (Dwarfs)===
: No passive for you. Dwarfs don't use the winds of magic, so every spell in the Runic Magic will be completely free and instead rely on cooldowns that all spells share with each other - i.e. you cast one Rune, all of them will go on cooldown. Fortunately, this is only per Runesmith, so bringing multiple will allow you to cast multiple runes at a time. This does eat into your budget (Gold and Roster-wise), so consider carefully if you really want to invest in multiple Runesmiths.
*'''Rune of Negation''': Gives a unit 40% damage resistance for 24 seconds, 40 seconds if you overcast. This is pretty nice if you really want a unit to hold the line better than they already do (Ironbreakers with this will be untouchable).
*'''Rune of Oath and Steel''': You give a unit 30 extra armor, 60 if overcast. Honestly, this is probably the worst rune in the list due to diminishing returns. Dwarfs already have high armor so just giving them more doesn't really help them out in any way. Unless you're putting this on Slayers to help them against missiles, this one is probably best left skipped.
*'''Rune of Wrath and Ruin''': Casts a big fire explosion roughly the size of an Awakening of the Wood, and does extra AP when overcast. This will probably be one of the go to spells on the list since Dwarfs would love a big burst spell to help clear out chaff.
*'''Rune of Breaking''': Imbues Armor Sundering and extra base and AP Weapon Strength for 33 seconds, 55 if overcast. Can be really good for your frontline when fighting heavy armor enemies since you can cause your standard infantry to do more damage and help your non AP missiles burn down armor better.
*'''Rune of Speed''': Gives 24 melee attack and 45% speed for 18 seconds, 30 if overcast. Want to make Hammerers useful? Bring this. Having a rune that briefly covers one of your big weaknesses can help you actually use offensive tactics.
*'''Rune of Slowness''': Reduces Charge Bonus by 40%, Charge Speed and normal speed by 45% for 30 seconds, 45 if overcast. Really helps deal with chariots and cavalry, acting as a snare to help your missiles or Slayers get a hold of them.

===Lore of Ice (Kislev)===
:'''Passive - ''Frost Shield''''': Upon casting, all friendly units gain an increased 15 armor and 12 missile block chance. Considering that this is a faction that is a bit lacking in armor additional protection against missiles will not be a bad thing to have. Unfortunately its pretty bad vs most of the demons you'll be fighting.
*'''Ice Maiden's Kiss''': This is going to be your cost effective "get this low armor chaff off the field so my units can kill something more important" spell. It's pretty much just Wind Blast only with an ice theme and you use it pretty much the same way.
*'''Ice Sheet''': An area of effect spell that lowers enemy Speed and Charge Speed by 48% for 17 seconds and is extremely cheap. Obviously, this is going to be great against factions that rely on cavalry or are just very mobile in general. Since Winged Lancers and Gryphon Legion are very fast by heavy cav standards, you can use this to let them catch up to units they shouldn't be able to and dominate them. You can also make them easy targets for your ranged troops. Obviously there is no reason to bring this against super immobile factions like Dwarfs but all in all a solid spell against the right foe. Notably the speed reduction will stack with the frostbite status and the Tempest lore attribute, So you can nearly immobilize units by combining them.
*'''Frost Blades''': Your only aggressive buffing ability, it provides 25 % weapon strength and AP and gives a unit 25 melee attack. Using this on Tzar Guard can turn this from pretty decent infantry to surprisingly scary shredders, though given that the strength of your army relies on your missiles and cav you could argue that it is a waste to put this with your infantry. its only a single unit buff as well so maybe ok in multiplayer but when you fighting full stacks in campaign probably a waste of winds to buff one unit.
*'''Death Frost''': Spirit Leech but icy. Yeah, that's pretty much it. It does more damage that Spirit Leech though, so use it to help get rid of any single entities on the enemy list.
*'''Crystal Sanctuary''': Now THIS is what you want to use on your infantry. It grants a unit 66% damage resistance at the expense of not being able to move. Considering that your units aren't the best damage sponges this can really help you get a solid anchor in your infantry line since odds are they won't be moving any way. Put this on Tzar Guard and they will be holding for as long as Dwarfs. Not sure if this would work well in multiplayer since they'll just run away until the buff runs out but should be abusable vs the dumb AI.
*'''Heart of Winter''': The big damage AOE spell that also slows. It's a long duration spell that has 5 different stages, each stage increasing in both damage and slow. You can get up to a 60% slow if they stay in here for long enough. Of course, you have to worry about enemies just being able to walk out of it, so you may need to think of a way to lock them down. It's also very expensive, so probably a better in campaign then multiplayer spell. or maybe not used at all, its REALLY OVERPRICED, just use one of tempest more efficient damage spells.

===Lore of Tempest (Kislev)===
Lore Attribute reduces enemy speed map wide, pretty good combined with other sources of slow, Ice sheet, frostbite etc

*'''Gust of True Flight''': Grants a friendly missile unit increased range and accuracy. When overcast, it affects all units in an area. Kislev relies a lot on its ranged units, so this will be worth taking for range-heavy defensive builds.
*'''Hailstorm''': An icy version of the Lore of Fire's Piercing Bolts of Flame, bombarding an area with projectiles, and can be overcast for a longer duration and more projectiles. very cheap and efficient, best used on lightly armored units though.
*'''Swiftwing''': Grants friendly units inside an area increased speed and charge bonus. Overcast to affect a larger area. Probably going to be essential any time you're bringing a lot of cavalry to the fight, which you'll need against armies with more artillery than you. honestly not bad but not great, it would be more versatile if it increased MA or MD but not bad.
*'''Biting Wind''': Your basic damage wind spell. Can be overcast for increased damage, specially of the armor-piercing variety.
*'''Hawks of Miska''': A Vortex spell that has no AP, but it also applies reduces leadership and doesnt damage friendly units. Overcast for increased damage. Bring against lightly armored units and it can get tons of kills with no risk to your units.
*'''Blizzard''': Big bad stationary vortex that deals heavy damage in a large area and also applies Frostbite that slows enemies. Overcast for increased damage. Very good for all the same reasons as pit of shades.

===Lore of Yang (Grand Cathay)===
*'''Jade Shield''': Protective buff that gives a unit damage resistance, overcast it to increase the duration.
*'''Dragon's Breath''': Basic breath spell that, according to the description, also leaves behind a field of fire that damages enemies. Overcast for increased damage.
*'''Wall of Wind & Fire''': Pretty unique as far as wind spells go, as instead of being narrow and fast it's wide and slow. Overcast for bonus armor piercing damage.
**It lasts for quite a bit, akin to a very slow creeping barrage. Even though it's a "wall," units charging through it won't really take a lot of damage it. Best to use it on enemies already stuck in, to deal damage along the length of their unit.
*'''Stone Ground Stance''': Grants friendly units inside an area increased mass, Expert Charge Defense and bonus leadership. For when you really need your line to hold against cavalry and big monsters. Overcast to affect a larger area.
**Stacks with Harmony, other leadership sources (like a Lord, Sky Lantern), and the Jade Warrior defensive stance. Makes your infantry into wall, and your missile units the chance to survive a cav charge.
*'''Might of Heaven & Earth''': Grants a friendly unit magical attacks and flaming attacks, increased melee attack, weapon strength and armor-piercing damage. Overcast for a bigger bonus. Can turn your big melee hitters into absolute blenders.
**Your Celestials will love this, but is most obvious on your Sword Warriors, since their offense is sub-par and AP nonexistent.
**Celestial Crossbow do more damage than the Fire-Magix Sisters of Avelorn, but their missiles are only mundane AP.
*'''Constellation of the Dragon''': Makes a big area go kaboom for huge damage. Overcast for increases armor-piercing damage.

===Lore of Yin (Grand Cathay)===
:'''Passive - ''Power of Yin''''': Reduces Armor and speed of nearby enemies for a few seconds after casting a spell.
*'''Storm of Shadows''': Greatly reduces an enemy unit's speed. Overcast to affect all enemy units inside an area.
*'''Cloak of Jet''': Grants a friendly unit Snipe, Stalk and Unspottable, and can be overcast for a longer duration.
**Since you're not very speedy anyway, it's really good to hide your missiles from counter fire.
*'''Missile Mirror''': Probably the most unique spell of the bunch, you choose an enemy unit and for a few seconds reflect all their projectiles back at them. Can be overcast for a longer duration and larger range. Just imagine the hilarity of dropping this on some Ratling Guns or a Helstorm Rocket Battery. In MP, it's a bit less useful when you or your opponent can simply turn fire at will off, but it still shuts down a unit's shooting for some time.
*'''Blossom Wind''': Wind spell that also applies Blinded, so another spell that hampers missile troops. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage.
*'''Talons of Night''': Bog-standard vortex, it's stationary so that's a plus. Overcast for bonus damage.
*'''Ancestral Warriors''': Summons a unit of halberd-wielding Ancestral Warriors, and can be overcast for longer range. Summon spells are always good, particularly for missile factions like Cathay who like chaff units to hold the enemy back while blasting them with projectiles.
**Use on Large single-entities like Stonehorns or Mammoths that dont have magical attacks, so their attacks become pretty negligible.

===Lore of Tzeentch (Daemons of Tzeentch)===
: Many of Tzeentch's spells apply Warpflame, which reduces Armor and Fire Resistance.
:'''Passive - ''Fires of Change''''': Ward Save for all units for a few seconds after casting a spell.
*'''Blue Fire of Tzeentch''': Single-target magic missile that applies Warpflame. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. Extremely cheap at only 3 winds of magic and has no cooldown to cast with the prismatic plurality skill (lowers active cooldowns by 10 seconds every time you cast any spell). Spamming this unovercasted will eliminate your cooldowns and wear down single entities and monsters. Very cost effective if it hits. lackluster vs armored targets but still can be spammed to reduce cooldowns.
*'''Pink Fire of Tzeentch''': Breath spell that applies Warpflame. Overcast for bonus damage. Also very cost effective. Spam blue flame to eliminate pink fires cooldown. use overcasted to kill small groups of units or individual units efficiently.
*'''Treason of Tzeentch''': A debuff spell that lowers the Leadership of all enemy units inside an area and, if overcast, also their melee attack. Tzeentch has pretty poor melee, so something like this is useful to tip the scales.
*'''Glean Magic''': Increases your army's power reserves and recharge speed while reducing the opponent's. When overcast, the effect lasts longer. Obviously great for a heavily magic-based faction like Tzeentch.
*'''Tzeentch's Firestorm''': A randomly moving vortex that applies Warpflame, although a slightly more unique one, as it's actually three columns of flame moving randomly in an area, not just one single vortex. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. unfortunately 3 vortexes in different directions makes friendly fire even more of a problem.
*'''Infernal Gateway''': Stationary, high damage vortex. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. Does not apply Warpflame. very powerful and safer/more reliable than firestorm.

===Lore of Nurgle (Daemons of Nurgle)===
Lore attribute is just like life, a small map wide heal to all units
*'''Miasma of Pestilence''': Reduces the melee attack and charge bonus of an enemy unit, and can be overcast to affect all enemies inside an area. Plays into Nurgle's strengths of tanking damage.
*'''Stream of Corruption''': Basically Pestilent Breath from the Skaven's Lore of Plague, cone that deals damage and applies Poison, but thin and long instead of short and wide. Overcast for bonus damage. Actually very nice on infantry large AOE and easy to aim. efficient damage spell.
*'''Curse of the Leper''': Despite its name, actually a buff. Grants armour and damage reflection (!) to an allied unit, increasing when overcast. Great to let a Great unclean one or soul grinder tank though and grind down enemies.
*'''Rancid Visitations''': Bog-standard direct damage spell on an enemy unit that can be overcast for bonus damage.
*'''Blight Boil''': There's something hilarious about basically popping a giant zit on the enemy. Explosion spell that can be overcast for increased damage. Friendly fire is an issue but good aiming can make it a great way to kill infantry. or you can drop it on top of a great unclean one while surrounded by mobs.
*'''Fleshy Abundance''': Hell yeah. Targeted healing that can be overcast to affect all units inside an area. Nurgle is the tanky demon faction, so just imagine your opponent tearing their hair out as you just heal the damage they struggled to deal to your lardy dudes. Being able to use this AOE heal with all 4 demonic factions rosters is a major advantage of chaos undivided. regening Bloodthirsters and Keepers of secrets are insane. But also great for monogod nurgle.

===Lore of Slaanesh (Daemons of Slaanesh)===
Lore attribute boosts melee attack and leadership, actually very nice.
*'''Lash of Slaanesh''': Whip your enemies until they scream "harder dadd-" *ahem* I mean, deals damage in a cone, sends enemies flying, overcast for bonus armor-piercing. mediocre damage but cheap ap. it aims like a cone but its actually a line and it does most of its damage at the beginning of the aiming curser. ok way to cheaply trigger the lore attribute.
*'''Acquiescence''': Debuffs a unit's melee defense and speed, overcast for a great reduction in speed. Good to help your squishy units take on tough lords/hero’s/monsters.
*'''Hysterical Frenzy''': Increases a unit's melee attack and armor-piercing, but also makes them Rampage. Overcast for greater armor-piercing damage. Best used on keeper of secrets exalted or regular or a soul grinder, but mind their health. only works on friendly units. good but an overcasted mindrazor might be better due to AOE.
*'''Pavane of Slaanesh''': Direct damage spell that also reduces melee attack, and can be overcast for a longer duration. little expensive but good. Similar to Fate of bejuna from death is best vs medium size units so usually elite infantry or cavalry.
*'''Slicing Shards''': Bombards an area with projectiles, can be overcast for increased damage. Pretty meaty AP damage but also a bit expensive, actually quite good if you get a good hit/good targets.
*'''Phantasmagoria''': Reduces Leadership and PREVENT MOVEMENT for all units inside an area, overcast for a longer duration. You thought Net of Amyntok was strong? Here's her older, hotter, meaner sister. A potential problem (if CA doesn't rework how difficulty in the campaign works, that is) is that the leadership debuff is nullified by the buffs the AI gets - then it becomes just a far less efficient Net of Amyntok, in a faction that unlike, say, Tomb Kings or Empire has little trouble outmanuvering its opponent, hasn't got artillery or missile units to speak of that would need protection against cavalry and as such gets far less use out of an immobilization spell like this...

===Lore of the Great Maw (Ogres)===
*'''Braingobbler''': a -16 debuff to leadership
*'''Bullgorger''': Armour Piecing increased by 25% and melee attack increased by +24
*'''Bonecrusher''': Explosive Spell
*'''Toothcracker''': +30 armour and 22% added to missile resist
*'''The Maw''': A bigger explosion
*'''Trollguts''': A Health Regen spell
{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War: Warhammer/Tactics

2022-08-18T22:14:25Z

2600:387:2:80F:0:0:0:7A: /* Lores */

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Welcome to the general tactics dump for [[Total War: Warhammer]] and it's sequels. Something to help with noobs and lower the bloat on the main page. If you want to take this knowledge to the online scene (God help your soul) take a look at the community made Banner Rules at [[Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Banner Rules]]

==Basics==
In many ways, Warhammer plays like your standard Total War game. It features real time battles with an army of roughly 20 units max on each side. There will be at least two armies on the field and whoever is able to completely shatter the other side first wins.

Each army has it's own collection of Infantry, Missile troops, Cavalry, Artillery and Monsters to play with, each offering a different play style. For instance, Dwarfs offer a defensive solitary play style focused around heavily armored infantry and strong missiles where as the Beastmen are an aggressive hit and run faction designed to get in, hit the enemy and break leadership, then get away before the enemy can counterattack. The asymmetrical play style of the factions is a massive part of the appeal.

The battle maps also play a huge role in how battle play out. Some maps are heavily forested, meaning missile heavy armies may struggle due to increased cover for the enemy. On the flip side, some maps have a lot of water, debuffing units unless they have the aquatic trait. It is smart to take a look at your terrains before you plan how you're gonna win.

If you play ranked multiplayer, there will be a limit to how many of a certain kind of unit you can bring, mainly to stop you from missile kiting your enemies to death with a mass horse archer spam. As such, focusing on what you might need for the match up is key.

==Units==

Every faction has a mix of different kinds of units. While they are all different, they each fall under one of these categories.

*'''Lords''': The (required) generals of your army and your most important unit. They generally buff leadership and other stats for nearby units and usually tend to be a beast in combat either through melee, missiles or magic. Problem is that if they die, the whole army suffers crippling leadership penalties for it so you have to protect this leader as much as possible.
**'''Legendary Lords''': A "sub"-division of Lord, Legendary Lords are what the name implies: individuals of extraordinary renown who exemplify the best (or worst) qualities of their race. Translation; these are the named characters from Warhammer Fantasy you've grown to know and love. In the campaign, you can only ever have one particular Legendary Lord and you can only acquire other LL's of your race through the complicated process of Confederation. Each Legendary Lord leads their own sub-faction on the campaign map and confers unique bonuses to their faction and army no other mere Lord can offer. In practice, Legendary Lords often have access to stronger perks, stats, gear or abilities over their generic kin but they tend to cost more for it. Because of this (or the Legendary Lords available to you are a bit too niche for the fight you're expecting), it's a pretty common practice in Multiplayer to skip out on these guys and gals for the basic lords to simply save a few gold for the rest of the roster.
*'''Heroes''': Your secondary leaders, usually coming in both melee and mage form. Not as much as a badass as your lord, but are usually cheaper and you can bring more than one. Heroes tend to be slightly more specialized than your Lords, but they can often fill a particular role that your Lord isn't able to. Have a melee beatstick who is magically inept? Bring a mage hero to call down the magical thunder or further buff that beatstick into the stratosphere.
*'''Melee Infantry''': Simply put, the foot boys you are throwing into melee. These infantry tend to be slow but also tend to be pretty good at holding the line and dealing damage in prolonged melee compared to missiles and cavalry. Their job is usually to engage the enemy front line and either hold long enough for your other elements to do their job, or break through and begins pouring into the enemy backline.
**'''Swords/Axes/anything the Lizardmen use instead''': Generally tend to be more DPS focused. If you are buying sword infantry, you get them because you want them to deal damage to the enemy frontline.
**'''Dual Swords/Axes''': Infantry that sacrifice a shield in exchange for an extra weapon. They tend to have much higher attack than the standard sword infantry and usually carry an Anti Infantry bonus, so they are much better in the frontline fight at DPS. However, they have lower defensive stats and a vulnerability to missiles, and the fact that they usually rely on Anti Infantry means they aren't as versatile as the standard sword unit.
**'''Spears''': Your more defensive option. Not as good at killing things but better at holding the line than swords. They also usually come with an anti-large bonus, meaning they do more damage when fighting bigger targets. Many also come with some kind of kind of charge resistance. Units with both will completely turn the tides on enemy cavalry.
**'''Great Weapons''': Infantry that usually carry two handed weapons like great swords and great axes. They tend to have majority AP damage, so they do more damage than normal sword infantry, but also don't have shields so missiles are very effective against them. Most units with great weapons also tend to have a low attack speed, leaving them vulnerable against hordes.
**'''Halberds''': Great weapons for spears, really. Same thing with great weapons, trades a shield and lower attack speed for more AP damage.
*'''Missile Troops''': Your ranged boys. Good at dealing damage from a safe distance but generally suck in melee. They tend to come either with arc fire or line fire. Arc fire like archers can shoot over allied troops and don't need line of sight, but do less damage. Line of sight troops like guns tend to do way more damage, but need to actually see their enemy before they can shoot, so if allies or terrain is in the way, they might not get a shot in. Luckily, their difficulty in positioning correctly is negated by one simple fact: while only the melee troops in actual contact with the enemy will attack, all 120 units of archers will attack at the same time.
**'''Bow Infantry''': Often, but by no means always, the lowest tier of missle infantry you can recruit. Usually trades raw damage for greater range, the ability to fire indirectly and rate of fire.
**'''Crossbow Infantry''': Basically the same as bow infantry, but they trade range for rate of fire (although not much) and more armour-piercing damage. Notable for covering a large variety of different units, such as the rather mediocre Imperial Crossbowman to Darkshards.
**'''Gunpowder Infantry''': Loud, smelly, and more often than not more dangerous for their user than the enemy (a mechanic entirely missing in-game), these are all kinds of primitive guns. They hit hard, don't care about armor and usually come in unpleasant numbers for the receiving end. The only major downside to them being that they can't shoot indirectly, so you have to make use of clever unit deployment and/or flanking to get the most out of them. Of course, if they are forced into melee it is usually an absolute disaster, more so than other ranged units.
**'''Hybrid Infantry''': Sitting comfortably in between ranged and melee infantry, all of these guys (and gals) can switch between ranged and melee combat at the press of a button. The Elf factions in particular use a lot of them (with Great Weapon Shades and Lothern Sea Guard being outright the best options) so be prepared to not charge them blindly with cavalry; nearly all of them are more than capable of dealing with lower tier cav on their own.
**'''Weapon Teams''': Exclusive to Skaven, these are Clan Skyres crazy contraptions of the shooting, burning and drilling variety. They trade unit size in exchange for an ungodly volume of firepower; once they are properly set up, there is hardly anything stopping them. On top of that, they are also armoured and have large HP pools, giving them a surprising resilience against counter fire from enemy ranged units. Beware of cavalry, for what they posses in offensive power, they lack on the defense.
**'''Others''': An umbrella category that includes more unusual weapons such as Javelins, Slings, Blowpipes and Throwing Axes. Mostly rather weak weapons that either benefit from being used in great numbers (slings and javelins) or really strong weapons that suffer from limited ammo-capacity (Norscan Axe Throwers come to mind). A lot of ranged units with weapons of this category tend to be skirmishers; mobile, modestly speedy infantry/cavalry that is able to fire while moving to harass the more vulnerable or slower elements of the enemy army.
*'''Hounds''': Technically, these units can be any kind of very fast, cheap melee cavalry and not just doggies but whatever. These cheap puppers are used to harass and interrupt Artillery crews, chase off routing units, chew on squishy casters and Heroes and sometimes take out a ranged infantry unit. They're not tough by any means of the word but they're fast and can hold a unit back in a few crucial moments. Some of them are specialized to the point where they can be used for other roles, like the Poisoned Warhounds that can charge into the backs of the enemy line to apply a rough debuff.
*'''Cavalry''': Boys on horse (or other fun creature) back. Mobile and has high charge but tend to fall apart fast in prolong melee.
**'''Shock Cavalry:''' Lance cavalry with loads of Charge Bonus but little in the way of defense; charge them into the sides and backs of the enemy, retreat after 10-15 seconds and repeat until the enemy is mashed, red pulp on the ground... Or crushed bones, or green shroom-mush or what-else. One of the reasons you bring Spears and Halberds is to keep these dudes away from your lines. They're also often decent at countering other Cavalry units.
**'''Melee Cavalry:''' Rare mounted troops that excel in longer engagements (but not forever; they're still cavalry). They usually use Great Weapons, Halberds or Sword'n'Board. Almost never used alone; they're better at quickly engaging and messing with a line battle you're already engaging with with you troops.
**'''Skirmish Cavalry:''' The deeply annoying yet totally crucial lighter cavalry. Annoying because they are tiresome to micromanage and run away all the time when fighting against them, and infantry can never catch them. Crucial because Skirmish Cavalry ''can'' fight in melee but usually work better as ranged, mobile units harassing the enemy's ranged units with melee attacks, countering enemy Shock and Melee Cav with ranged attacks and higher movement speed, and shooting into the back of the enemy line.
*'''Chariots:''' Those sweet ones that swing low. Chariots are a bit rare and are used to break through enemy lines with impunity, cycle-charging like a maniac. They are dismantled very quickly in prolonged melee and tend to not do a lot of damage unless they're charging. One of the hardest type of unit to use properly because they need to be micro-managed at every turn. Also out of every unit, chariot suffered the most when they are out of vigor (aka exhausted), which lowers their speed to the point they can't knock over as many infantry as it wishes during charging and gets caught easily in the crowd as result. So always remember in campaign to not get attacked during march stance while fielding those bad boys. Some chariot units have ranged weapons but don't use them as a ranged unit, make sure to turn melee engage on. Their small unit sizes means that their ranged attacks tend to be a lot worse than other units and if they are staying out of melee they are not using their ability to break through enemy lines. That being said, a chariot having ranged attacks isn't a reason to not use it, think of its ranged attacks as just inflicting some extra damage and more importantly, a leadership penalty as it charges and retreats. Many players forego chariots altogether due to their micromanagement and fragility, which is to their detriment. Properly used, they can shatter enemy lines and ruin morale.
**'''Ranged Chariots:''' Unlike the former category where missile attacks are just a way to deal a little extra damage and a leadership penalty, these chariots are specialized for ranged combat and should only be charged into an enemy when out of ammo. Their function is often similar to that of an artillery unit but more mobile, blasting enemy units with powerful ranged attacks and retreating should opponents try to reach it.
*'''Monsters:''' A category that covers a bewildering amount of different units, every Monster does something different for the faction it's found in. Usually they are either infantry-slayers, monster/cavalry-eaters or huge battering rams meant to break up the enemy's line. A few factions even have "artillery" monsters balance their exorbitant cost by being able to hold their own in melee. Some monsters (like Giants) are cheap and cheerful units you can just throw into the enemy for a spell, while others (like the Dread Saurian) can easily eat up a fourth of your money in multiplayer matches. The only faction without access to a monster is the Dwarfs (Gyrocopters does not count). As you would expect from a unit category called "Monsters", virtually all of them count as "large" creatures and thus are more vulnerable to spear infantry. This is particularly notable for them, as due to their physical size and low model count, they can be quite susceptible to being tarpitted by hordes of anti-large spear infantry if you're careless with their positioning.
**'''Monstrous Infantry''': Monsters that generally come in a small units size and feature slow, relatively tanky monsters designed to help out in the front line. Here's a tip, do NOT throw them in alone, team them up with other infantry. That way the enemy units will have to split their damage across 2 different units instead of being able to focus your monsters down.
**'''Monstrous Cavalry''': Faster, harder hitting but also squishier than the infantry option, they are meant to be used a lot like cavalry. Use them as heavy flankers and for pure raw charge bonus and can even be decent in prolong melee. Their downside often comes in the form of cost, frailty and lower model count compared to most cav.
**'''Single Entity Monsters''': Big super monsters meant to be a gigantic problem for the enemy and generally have impressive stat lines along with a combination of fear and/or terror. Their attacks can stagger smaller monsters. However these guys tend to be expensive and have a massive target that says "Shoot me" in every language in the Warhammer world, so use them wisely. They become overpowered if the unit size setting is not set to Large or Huge (the settings the game was balanced for) because while their health is reduced their other stats are not and their attacks damage a higher percentage of a unit. In TWW3, these guys now have a degrading statline based on how wounded they are, reducing their general effectiveness should they take sufficient damage.
**'''Warmachines''': Single entity monsters, but mechanical. These range from imperial Steam Tanks to the Skaven DOOMWHEEL. What all of them have in common is high armour, high morale, large HP pools and very powerful ranged attacks.
*'''Fliers''': Your flying units, ranging from cheap fliers meant to bog down missiles and artillery to fucking dragons. Their edge is that since they can fly they can engage on their terms and you can get them anywhere in the battle they need to. Their downsides comes in needing breathing room to take off again and generally frailty. Even dragons aren't a unit that can stand being in melee for too long, so you got to micro them well. Be warned: soaring around in the skies means ranged units can fire freely without being blocked by either the terrain or their own troops. Many fliers are also large units and can be easy pickings. Wait for them to be preoccupied or flank them so they have to reform their formation before firing.
*'''Artillery''': Your good old catapults, bolt throwers, cannons or what ever crazy contraptions your race can bring to the table. Can lay down an absolute whooping from very long range, some being table to take down even the scariest monsters with fairly little problem. However, they are garbage in melee, are ridiculously slow, are somewhat expensive, and need extra room and a clear line of sight to even fire, which means they need protection more than just about any other unit type in the game. However, it pays off by racking up hundreds of kills before the enemy even meets your front line. Important to note is that while the contraptions themselves offer cover to their crews, they aren't invulnerable and can be destroyed by ranged units and magic. There are some Monster units (usually Single Entity Monsters) like Cygors and Stegadons who can function as artillery (and indeed will only lose their ranged capacity if killed, tied up in melee or if they run out of ammo) ''and'' safely engage in melee as needed, though they tend to be a bit pricier for it.

==Stats==

Each unit in the game has a unit card, which shows the player what they are generally good and bad at. Noobs might be confused as to what the fuck all these words and numbers mean, so here is the breakdown!

*'''Health''': Fairly simple, how much health the unit has. If the unit has more than one model per unit, you can divide the total health by the number of models to see how much health each model has. It's important to know that the threshold at which a model actually dies is surprisingly high and the game itself speads the damage units suffer evenly among the models in that unit.
*'''Armor''': This stat helps mitigate damage coming at your unit. If they are hit by a missile, melee attack, or a spell, a RNG roll goes off to see how much of the non-AP damage goes through the unit's armor (between 50 and 100 percent). Every point of armor is a percentage of reduction, NOT a flat amount. The more armor the unit has, the lower percentage of non-AP damage that will get through. More info on AP and non-AP damage below.
**'''Shield''': If the unit has a shield, this is where it's factored in. Shields help block missile fire coming at you. It comes in two tiers (technically three, but you never see gold shields outside of campaign buffs). Bronze shields block 33% of missiles where are a silver shield block 55%. Keep in mind this only works on small arms fire and not artillery because a shield isn't gonna fucking save you from a cannon. A very few units can deflect arrows (and bullets somehow) with their weapons, being treated as having a bronze shield even when they carry none.
*'''Leadership''': How much morale the unit has. The higher the number is, the less likely your unit is going to rout and run for the hills. Run off the battlefield or rout three times and that unit is gone for the rest of the battle (but not necessarily dead). If it reaches 100, the unit may as well be unbreakable.
*'''Speed''': Fairly simple, the higher the number, the faster the unit. Each unit has a speed cap determined by the animation model, beyond which it cannot move regardless of the speed value. It is not visible to the player.
*'''Melee Attack''': This determines the likelihood of your attacks hitting the other unit. The higher the number, the more likely the attack is to hit against an enemy. This number is often rolled against the next number in this list.
*'''Melee Defense''': Widely considered one of the most important stats in the game. Melee defense is the likelihood your unit has to block the attack of the other unit attacking it, causing it to sustain no damage; However, before either Melee Defense or Melee Attack is applied, there is a base chance of hit of 40% (35% in WH2) before Armor is applied. There is also a minimum of 10% (8% in WH2) and maximum chance to hit of 90%. If you have a choice to buff either Melee Defense or Armor and already have the means to deal with ranged units, take Melee Defense. Because what's better than mitigating damage? Not taking damage at all!
*'''Weapon Strength''': How much damage your attacks do. This stat tends to be split into multiple categories. There are also two hidden mechanics: damage on weapon sweeps is split evenly between all enemies hit and weapon strength does not factor in attack speed.
**'''Weapon Damage''': How much damage is going to be rolled against the enemy armor to see if it gets mitigated or not. Generally, if this makes up the majority of your Weapon Strength you want this unit fighting unarmored units.
**'''Armor-Piercing Damage''': Or AP damage for short. If your attack gets through the other unit's Melee Defense, this is the amount of damage that's going to get through no matter what. If the Weapon Strength is mostly Armor-Piercing, then you want these guys going up against heavily armored units to tear through them.
**'''Anti-Large Bonus''': Damage that is not factored into the roll unless they are fighting something the size of a horse or bigger. If they have this stat, throw them against cav or monsters. Applies to both Melee Attack and non-AP damage.
**'''Anti-Infantry Bonus''': Same as Anti-Large, only meant against infantry or smaller. If they have this stat, they are infantry blenders. Applies to both Melee Attack and non-AP damage.
**'''Magic Damage''': Certain units and some Legendary Lords inflict their attack as magic damage. This is useful against enemies with physical resist like Plague Monks and absolutely needed against supernatural enemies like Cairn Wraiths (whom are known for having 75% physical resist, being a ghost and all). Be wary, though: more units in the game have magic resistance than physical resistance, including every dwarf unit (they were created to resist the winds of magic after all). Of course, this is also the damage types of many of the spells in the game. Good news for units that largely rely on Magic Damage came in the form of a developer Q&A on Discord: Warhammer 3 will rework Magic Resist into Spell Resist, making Magical Attacks on units actually worth a damn and many of them into potent can openers.
**'''Fire Damage''': Like Magic Damage, it deals extra damage to those weak to its damage type (AKA units associate to trees like Treeman, Tree Kin, [[Dryad]] and [[Durthu]], because fuck them racist elf loving trees, right?). Unlike the tabletop version, flaming attack deal extra damage against units that are capable of regenerate health (vampire, trolls, ghouls) instead of just stopping their regeneration. Apparently, CA hates fire damage for some reason and stated in the game that [[derp|flaming attacks are weak to heavy armor units despite Irondrakes being able to deal AP damage on the tabletop, due to their flame being able to melt armor]]. We'll just have to wait and see if CA is willing to fix it. Also, like Magic Damage, some units such as Dragon Princes and Irondrakes have Fire Resistance against its effect. Both Physical resistance and Fire resistance will apply for fire melee damage and fire missile damage. As of Warhammer 3 it now reduces healing for all units, were as before it just did bonus damage to regenerating units.
*'''Charge Bonus''': A bonus to both Melee Attack and Weapon Damage (split between Armor-Piercing and non-Armor-Piercing based on percentage) that lasts for 15 seconds after running into an enemy. It starts decaying immediately upon contact with enemy and is almost negligible after 10 seconds. Note that walking into an enemy unit is not the same as charging, you have to actually run into them. You also have to cover a small distance in order to build up the charge bonus.
*'''Ammunition''': A stat unique to ranged units that tells you how much ammo they have. If the unit has 20 ammunition, then they can make 20 shots before running out. This stat goes down as they shoot, allowing you to keep track of how many shots you have.
*'''Range''': Simple enough: the higher the range, the farther a unit can shoot.
*'''Missile Strength''': The same as Weapon Strength, only this stat doesn't worry about Melee Defense. If it hits, it's doing damage (including if it hits your own troops). It also has all the subcategories of damage listed under Weapon Strength. The value given in the stats is actually over 10 seconds, not per shot (because what constitutes a single shot of a flamethrower?).
*'''Mass''': An important stat that isn't mentioned anywhere inside the game but is still important. Units come in two kinds of sizes: small (anything on foot) and large (anything that's mounted or at least as tall as a man on a horse). The larger the unit, the larger the mass. What's important is how mass affects charges and such, because it determines how one unit able to withstand them. Lowly infantrymen (and heroes and Lords on foot) will get knocked around alot when that Necrosphinx - a massive ancient Egyptian robot wielding two fucking swords - starts attacking them. Knocked down models are unable to move and fight, which can give you an edge. The enemy Lord can't bother you if he ragdolls after every hit. Mass also determines how easily a unit can push through a blob of units, whether it is to retreat or whether it is to attack the ranged units by plowing though the melee infantry line. Nothing can stop a two-ton War Mammoth when it decides it doesn't want to be there.

==Passive Abilities==

Some units have special passive abilities that have a variety of effects; the most common will be listed here.

*'''Flying''': Does what it says on the tin. Can only be engaged by other flying units or ranged attacks/magical projectiles unless ''they'' commit to melee combat on the ground. If all units in the army are flying they must attack or lose the battle, likely so defenders can't [[cheese]] by dealing with ranged units and waiting for the timer to give them the win.
*'''Causes Fear''': Not to be confused with "Causes Terror", Fear inflicts a penalty on the enemy units' leadership, making them more likely to flee. Most monstrous and/or supernatural enemies have this ability, and some Lords and Banners have it as well. If a unit causes Fear, it is itself immune to it. Like Terror, it falls under Psychology, so some units are immune to it.
*'''Causes Terror''': Units that cause Terror can cause large drops in enemy leadership when they charge, or when they're causing large amounts of damage to the enemy; this is on top of the leadership damage they already cause just by charging. All units that cause TERROR are immune to Terror, and are completely ignored by units that are immune to Psychology.
*'''Frenzy''': A unit with frenzy gains a significant bonus to their melee stats as long as their leadership is above 50%.
*'''Aura of Command''': Found on every Lord and Hero, they project an Aura around themselves that increases Leadership for friendly units. Most Lords and Heroes also can be skilled to make their Aura of Command better and/or to include more bonuses. Doesn't stack.
*'''Aquatic''': Aquatic Units fight better and move faster in wet terrain, such as rivers and swamps. Unsurprisingly, most Vampire Coast units have this.
*'''Stalker''': Stalkers remain invisible to the enemy until a certain distance, regardless of line of sight. The only things that can break their invisibility are close distance and if they start to attack. Certain units can fire while invisible without breaking it.
**'''Sniper''': If they have this, they'll most likely also have STALKER. Units with this ability do not reveal themselves when making ranged attacks. Examples include Empires Huntsmen and Chameleon Skinks.
*'''Strider''': Striders ignore any movement and vigour penalties from terrain; they will always move with 100% movement speed, but also can move through obstacles, such as trees.
*'''Perfect Vigour''': Like the name implies, units with Perfect Vigour never suffer fatigue; no matter how intensely they fight, no matter how hard they run, they will always remain at their peak performance from the beginning to the end of any battle.
*'''Berserk''': Once a unit with Berserk falls under a health threshold, they will start a rampage, causing you to lose direct control over them. They will always attack the closest enemy unit they can see. It wears off after a few seconds or if their morale gets broken. Lizardmen call this ability Primal Insticts and it gives them a few stat bonuses but works the same way.
*'''Vanguard Deployment''': An interesting ability with a lot of potential uses; it allows for a unit to be deployed outside your normal deployment zone. Several Legendary Lords can aquire traits and skills that give units this ability (or in the case of Skarsnik, basically your entire roster for the first half of the game).
*'''Sundering strikes''': A very rare ability, melee attacks made by a unit with this ability reduces the armour of the enemy hit with it by 30% for 20 seconds.
*'''Ethereal''': All supernatural enemies (such as Ghosts) have this. Ethereal units take next to nothing in damage from physical attacks and only Magic Damage does damage against them. Generally, creatures with Ethereal tend to pay for that high physical resistance by having tish armor and magic resistance values and will evaporate if targeted by spells or magic attacks.
*'''Ward Saves and Resistances''': Not technically a passive ability, but the game does not do the best job at explaining it, so i'll explain it here. Ward Saves are a flat damage reduction against everything that your unit or character gets hit with, Resistances only against certain kinds of damage. Many characters can have these and in the campaign it is advisable to get them wherever possible. Both Ward Saves and Resistance cap at 80%, so there is (sadly) no invulnerability cheese possible.
**'''Spell Resistance''': As of the the latest Discord Q&A ([https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/nwon8i/total_war_warhammer_3_qa_will_update_as_more/h1ach6r/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3|As can be read here]) Magic Resist will be reworked into Spell Resist. Works like Magic Resist before, but only affects spells.
*'''Poisoned Attacks''': Poisoned attacks reduce the enemies melee stats and movement speed for 10-20 seconds. Some units have different kinds of poison that work in the same way and usually cause the same effects with greater severity. Fun fact: table top version's poison deal constant damage to a unit model each turns, it was changed to stats debuff in this game due to how broken it is when it was put in practice in an actual total war game (In Total War Attila, The Antean faction has a unit called Poison Archers that fires constant damaging poison arrows. If used right, it can annihilate an entire enemy line even on the hardest difficulty).
*'''Regeneration''': Units with Regeneration heal themselves over the course of a battle, up to a maximum that varies greatly on what faction you play, but is usually 60% of the HP stat. Usually more "neat to have" than outright useful, but some units (Like Malus Darkblade) can have outright broken regeneration, so keep that in mind. Important: Regeneration does not replenish dead models on a unit that has more than one.
*'''Unbreakable''': An unbreakable unit will never flee and always fight to the last man, regardless of losses and the situation on the battlefield. This even includes the complete defeat of the rest of the army; while everyone else quits the field, Unbreakable units will continue to fight to the last. Can be a two-sided sword, as most unbreakable units are very expensive elite units that you most of the time really do not want to lose. This is especially true in the campaign, where an unlucky defeat will ''guarantee'' the death of the Unbreakable unit since they will not retreat with the rest of your survivors. Iconic units with this trait are the Dwarf Slayers, Empire Flagellants and Chaos Spawn. Sadly not fearing death also means not bothering with armor so most such units die if a ranged unit as much as looks at them. Undead and Daemon units are functionally Unbreakable as well (see the Undead ability below for details).
*'''Expendable''': Your meat-shield ability. Expendable units do not cause a leadership penalty when they flee from the battle to other units except other expendable units. Very important to keep in mind with the more horde-centric factions of the game like Greenskins and Skaven; this makes tarpits possible without having your main line completely collapse.
*'''Wounds''': A game three trait specifically for single entity units. Once they fall below half health, they lose a chunk of their speed and their weapon damage in both standard and AP. Done to nerf single entity spam, and makes sense given an injured monster wouldn't fight as well as an uninjured one.
*'''Undead''': The Undead work differently from regular units in that they are functionally Unbreakable (meaning that they will never flee), but their Leadership status comes in six steps that are distinct from regular units (here from good to bad): "Strong Binding", "Stable Binding", "Weak Binding", "Critical Binding", "Crumbling" and "Disintegrating". Starting with "Crumbling", the unit will continually lose HP at a slow, but steady pace. "Disintegrating" is the severe form and only occures when the morale would normally be Shattered for living units, the unit will die in a few seconds.
*'''Daemonic''': Signifies that the unit it a Daemon. Pretty much works exactly like undead, the unit is unbreakable and instead starts taking damage when leadership is down before being "Banished" back to the Realm of Chaos.

==Magic==

Magic works in a similar way to the TT game, although there are some differences, but, played right, Magic can be a devastating force that can turn a loss into a victory.

First, the Basics: Like in the Lore, how much Magic you can use depends on the Winds of Magic and how strong they are blowing. On the campaign map, there are visual indicators for how strongly the winds blow but you can also just hover your cursor over any given place on the map and get a number. This number indicates your base power reserve on the battlefield. Certain Lord and Hero traits, followers, and skills can increase your reserve. If it isn't obvious enough, you need a spellcaster Hero or Lord on the battlefield to use one of the many varieties of Magic. All spellcasters know a Lore of Magic; this determines what spells they can learn and use. Some Lords know two Lores or, in the cases of Teclis, Morathi and Alarielle, have an assortment of spells from all Lores. To use spells, you simply select the desired ability and follow the on-screen on placing it. The system is intuitive enough that it doesn't need much explaining and the in-game spell browser even has a video of every spell in action. Once you cast a spell, the cost of it will be deducted from your available power which will regenerate over time at a rate based on your remaining power reserves. Your available magic outside of your reserves is capped at 30, but the amount of spells you can cast is limited via the overall power reserve; once it is drained, you won't get more unless you use abilities like Arcane Conduit. More on Arcane Conduit later. Spells have a chance to be miscast, inflicting minor damage to the spellcaster. You can, at an additional cost in spellpower and a higher chance of a miscast, double click to overcast a spell for more powerful effects, provided you have the spell skilled out.

An exception to the aforementioned rules are bound spells; these are spells that come from magical items your Lord or Hero pick up after a battle or are spells from a different Lore of Magic certain characters can learn, or, more commonly, spells that are tied to a specific item. Bound spells do not cost spellpower or affect power regeneration and have a fixed cooldown, but can often only be cast a fixed number of times. For example, once leveled up, a High Elven mage of any Lore can cast Fireball four times for free except for a 90 second cooldown between each cast.

There are a lot of Lores of Magic to choose from, generally speaking, they can be put into two categories: The Generic Lores (Fire, Light, Death, Beasts, Heavens, Life, Shadows, Metal) and Faction specific Lores (Skaven Spells of Plague, Skaven Spells of Ruin, Skaven Spells of Stealth, Lore of the Big Waaagh!, Lore of the Little Waaagh!, Lore of High Magic, Lore of Dark Magic, Lore of the Deep, Lore of Nehekhara, Lore of the Wild, Lore of Vampires).

The generic Lores are accessible to most factions with some missing here and there. The Empire generally has the broadest variety of Lores (namely, all, plus Lore of Metal through Balthazar Gelt) to choose; Bretonnia and the Wood Elves the least. Faction specific Lores are usually only available for one faction, with some exceptions through bound spells and special characters. Each Lore comes with a passive attribute that affects units map-wide. Before we dive into a deeper description of the Lores themselves, a word on Arcane Conduit and Greater Arcane Conduit.

Arcane Conduit is an active ability that replenishes your power reserves and increases the power recharge rate for 30 seconds, after that, it goes on a 60-second-cooldown. Use this ability! Extra spellpower is never bad and the power you have on hand cannot decay away; only your increased recharge rate reverts to normal after the effect ends. But it's never bad to just use it. It is a no-brainer. The premier mage characters even have access to Greater Arcane Conduit, which is simply a permanently active version of Arcane Conduit. Certain magical items as well as some Lore attributes can increase your reserves and recharge rate as well.

Onto the Lores then.

===Lores===

*'''Lore of Fire''': Fire, so much fire that it has the potential to make the Salamanders jealous and a Sister of Battle rethink her career choice. Provides a few handy buffs, and one of each type of offensive spells. The AOE spells have longer duration than other lores. The Lore attribute makes the enemy more vulnerable to Fire damage, which synergizes well with a variety of units and increases its own damage even further (Lores apply during the countdown to cast). The best Lore of Magic for dealing damage against foes that are unarmored, trees or mummies. Otherwise its offensive spells fall under the "master of none" category when compared to other lores. Archaon the Everchosen's preferred Lore, for some reason.
*'''Lore of Light''': Provides some very good buffs, a mediocre but cheap projectile, and a fairly cost effective Vortex but the main reason to pick this is a Net spell that stops any poor suckers from moving so your missile and artillery units can shoot them. If you want your wizard to primarily buff up your units and stop enemies moving close to your unit, this is your Lore. Also one of the rarer lores, with only four factions (Empire, High Elves, Lizardmen and Tomb Kings having access to it.
*'''Lore of Death''': Basically the opposite of the Lore of Light. Consists primarily of spells that debuff enemy units and some unmissable point-and-click spells. Lore attribute increases your power recharge rate which is never a bad thing. Important to note is that this Lore is the only Lore available to Greenskins other than the Waaagh! Lores. Azhag the Slaughterer uses this Lore (courtesy of his magic crown), as well as Arkhan the Black and that pompous fuck Mannfred von Carstein.
:A favorite lore in multiplayer for powerful direct damage spells you cant avoid, still good but not as effective in single player. purple sun is maybe the best of the armor piercing vortexes, its very large with good ap, some base damage, and disrupts enemy formations by throwing them around. With banishments similar cost (17 vs 18) purple sun is usually as good or better in every situation except it's duration.
*'''Lore of Heavens''': A bit of an odd lore consisting of exactly one good buff for melee units and three potentially powerful damage spells and a very niche Lore Attribute that weakens flying units. Better than Fire if you expect to fight single enties or armored units. Standout spells include wind blast vs unarmored chaff, thunderbolt vs large targets, and chain lighting vs everything because its a powerful, all AP damage vortex. Comet can also be fun.
*'''Lore of Beasts''': A very diverse, jack-of-all-trades lore that abuses cheap spells, with the most significant spells being summoning a Feral Manticore (or a Great Eagle if you're playing High Elves or Wood Elves) and Flock of Doom which is a cheap direct damage spell that wears down large unit sizes (ideally used vs units of 100 or more), basically like miasma from shadow but AOE. amber spear is a decent high AP magic missile but only worth considering on large easy to hit targets. Finally it also has some good defensive and offensive buffs that work best on tough single entities or lords/heros. If you have access to better Lores, you can skip it, unless your desperate for summoning. The Lore attribute is interesting as it recharges your power reserve as well as increase your recharge rate for 29 seconds when you cast a spell, effectively giving you a good discount on your cheaper spells.
*'''Lore of Life''': The ultimate defensive utility Lore. It has lots of spells that buff the survivability of your units and has two decent enough damage spells as well as being the only Lore that has multiple healing spells. The Fae Enchantress and Alarielle the Everqueen specializes in this Lore. The Lore attribute heals all friendly entities (not units, entities!) on the map for some HP which is convenient. However, be warned: healing cannot revive already dead entities in a unit! It is widely considered to be an extremely powerful Lore of Magic if used correctly. Especially if running Sigle entity doom stacks it cant be beaten, heal up to full after every fight. lore attribute works better on low health infantry but other 2 healing spells are much better on small units of monsters or single entities.
*'''Lore of Shadows''': A hybrid Lore that is best suited for a more subtle approach. Most of the buffs and debuffs are good enough. Pit of Shades is one of the few stationary vortex spells but overcomes this by vacuuming up nearby units to deal consistent damage to them. Lore attribute has been nerfed in WH 3 and now only gives a 12% increase in speed mapwide, still good in multiplayer but probably not very useful in campaign unless you rely on kiting a lot. Very good lore for AP damage spells, all 3 are highly effective vs armor. plus a good single target debuff and a potent weapon strength buff. Maybe the most versatile jack of all trades lore since its damage spells all work against armor. It can damage all unit types very well except single entity and its buff and debuff can handle them indirectly. less effective than fire or celestial vs lightly armored chaff generally though miasma is very efficient vs high unit sizes.
*'''Lore of Metal''': Certainly the rarest of the Lores (only the Empire's Balthasar Gelt, High Elves and Chaos' forces have access to it), it mainly focuses on debuffing and buffing armor and weapons. It can reduce enemy armor but on a single unit only, can increase your own as an AOE, and can debuff weapons. The take away spell is Final Transmutation, which is a massive AOE damage spell that gives single entities and small units a middle finger, though its damage falls off greatly against any unit with more than 20 or so entities. Did we mention the passive that gives a percentage weapon damage boost to all your units? Balthasar's preferred Lore as the self-proclaimed (and frequently proven) "Lord of Metal". Ironically not that good vs armor, debuffing a single units armor is useless vs a full stack of enemies in campaign (probably better in multiplayer) and Searing doom is weak vs armor, really Final Transmutation is the only standout spell. Honestly one of the more situational lore's in campaign, you can just use all your winds on Final transformation and it will usually do fine but the rest of the spells are situational or weak in most campaign environments.
*'''Lore of the Little Waaagh!''': As befitting for da Gobbos, tons of stuff that give your hordes of Goblins a fighting chance against the enemy. Little in the way of direct damage, but useful nonetheless. Curse of the Bad Moon is one of the optic highlights of the game, and a great spell to boot. The Lore attribute reduces the enemies power recharge rate.
*'''Lore of the Big Waaagh!''': As subtle as a truck racing down a highway with 250 mph ON FIRE. Perfectly suitable for da Orks t' get Krumpin'. Foot of Gork is a devastating spell that can potentially end a battle with a single cast. 'Ere we go! is one of the best offensive buffs in the game and, combined with the Waaagh mechanic, this is a seriously dangerous Lore for anyone facing against it. Wurrzag the Great Green Prophet specializes in this Lore. The Lore attribute increases your power recharge rate. Decent enough.
*'''Skaven Spells of Ruin''': The first of the three Skaven Lores, and the most offensively minded. Warp Lightning may be the most cost effective damage spell in the game, the other spells are rather niche but nonetheless useful. Howling Warp Gale can help a lot with flying nuisances such as Dragons, leaving them vulnerable to your considerable arsenal of ranged weapons and artillery. Ikit Claw uses this Lore, Warlock Enginners and -Masters use it exclusively. The Lore attribute lowers enemy Leadership and Melee Attack, giving your front line a bit more room to breathe, which you can then fill with Warpfire and Warpstone Bullets. Flensing ruin is underestimated, overcasted it preforms as well as final transmutation overcast in terms of damage done per winds spent.
*'''Skaven Spells of Plague''': Occupying the gap between pure utility of the Skaven Spells of Stealth and the pure damage of the Spells of Ruin. Whats interesting about this Lore is that it has not one but two spells that summon units and its ultimate spell causes immense damage while simultaneously debuffing the enemy - did I mention that Grey Seers with this Lore can summon Stormvermin? One of the best Lores, even if the most shiny bits are difficult to access outside of Clan Pestilens, since it requires you to level up either a Plague Priest or a Grey Seer for a considerable time to make full use of it - but when you can make use it, the enemy-things will feel it, yes-yes. Lord Skrolk uses this Lore and is the best candidate for using it.
*'''Skaven Spells of Stealth''': The only Lore in the game designed to be used with a spefific sub-faction and, frankly, it does show. It offers a lot of utility and a decent Vortex spell but gets overshadowed in almost every regard by the Lore of Plague and the Lore of Ruin - unless you take the Limitations of Sniktch's campaign into consideration. It's still rather niche and, if you're playing as the other Skaven factions, you're better off using either Ruin or Plague.
*'''Lore of Vampires''': Brutal. Definitively the best Lore in the entire game. Wind of Death will wipe entire units off the floor, averaging hundreds of kills per cast. Some general utility is found in using Raise the Dead to summon units to flank, tank damage, or bodyblock for your more valuable units and its Lore attribute heals (and revives) your undead minions. Its starting ability is also the best healing spell in the game in the form of Invocation of Nehek: a cheap, effective spell that uses excess healing to revive dead entities. There is little that can beat this Lore, which makes it only fair that it is exclusive to the Vampire Counts and Vampire Coast. Count Noctilus can use this Lore as well as all Vampire Lords.
*'''Lore of High Magic''': Another jack-of-all-trades lore that is exclusive to High Elves, Spellweavers and Slann. It can do a bit of everything. Healing, direct damage, buffs, debuffs, AOE explosions and a passive damage reduction. Has the main drawbacks that jack-of-all-trades do: they can do a bit of anything but don't excel at anything and, since High Elves have access to ALL the generic lores, it's often better to pick one that fits their specific needs on the battlefield. One of the more useful spells is Tempest, a vortex spell that damages and heavily slows flying units, locking them in place for your archers or fliers to attack. Eltharion is the only Legendary Lord who specializes in this. people only take it in multiplayer for tempest pretty much, crap in campaign. its not even the best jack of all trades lore.
*'''Lore of Dark Magic''': The unique lore of those assholes in Naggaroth and the Wood elves. Where as the Asur Lores do have a few spells that help out their troops, Dark Elves say "Fuck that, let's just use our magic to torture the other guys!". Home to a really good debuff that can help swing fights, and the stand out is Soul Stealer, an AOE damage spell that heals the caster and applies a Spirit leech effect. Malekith specializes in this lore. Underestimated especially in campaign, power of darkness is the most effective WOM generator skill in the game, it gives 3 times as much winds reserves as arcane conduit (30 vs 10) and 4 times as much winds gain speed (plus 60% vs 15%). Chillwind does 24 pure AP damage, 2/3 as much AP as a base pendulum spell does. While Chillwind wont kill models much it can deal lots of cheap AP damage to infantry and cavalry, while being fast, cheap, and easy to aim. Doombolt is pretty good for the large AP damage done with good tracking, basic version is as about as good versus armor as overcast amber spear but much better AOE range to hurt units as well. Finally blade wind is a decent, cheap vortex that does about as well vs armor as firestorm thanks to the lore attribute, good vs hordes. You can even just use a dark caster as a winds of magic battery for another caster. The wood elf lore attribute gives a nice boost to missile damage with every spell cast mapwide while the dark elf attribute debuffs armor map wide. Comparable to the other damage lore's like fire, celestial, and shadow. Excels most vs single targets and Elite units usually. Has a good mixture of anti horde and Anti single-entity damage spells and can be comparable to death and metal at that role thanks to Soul Stealer, Doombolt, and Word of Pain.
*'''Lore of Nehekhara''': If you couldn't guess by the name, it's the Lore of the boney bois. It is a buffing lore, through and through, which can give additional damage and anti large, protections, and missile power. Given the fact that your average Tomb King soldier is a literal pile of bones that barely knows which end of the sword to poke the bad guys with... yeah, this can help out a lot. Settra and Khatep use this lore a lot. Overall it's... ok? The damage spells are VERY subpar, and with access to the Lores of light and death, there's really no reason to pick it. The passive heal is nice but won't let you compete with Vampire healing.
*'''Lore of the Deep''': A Lore made up by CA and designed specifically for the Vampire Coast. It has three specific purposes: 1: Damage and dishing out LOTS OF IT (Vangheist's Revenge is one of the coolest looking spells in the game and can seriously lay down the pain), 2: Buffs to missile troops, which helps any gunpowder faction and 3: Summons. You can summon zombies, zombies with guns, and giant crabs to really push the fight in your favor. Cylostra was given this lore by Stormfels, and Luthor Harkon gets it in campaign when you fix his fractured mind. Is it a fun lore? Absolutely! It's a blast! Are the other lores for the Vampire Coast more practical from a competitive standpoint? Sadly, also yes. You can just use the summons on a deep hero with a vampire general so that's something. Its summons are likely more cost effective then lore of vampires depending on what you need. best as a supplement to vampires, not competition.
*'''Lore of the Wilds''': Beastmen got shafted in a lot of ways in their race pack. Their unique Lore of magic was NOT one of them. Wilds has some surprisingly good damage spells that can really help the goat men clear through crowds. Also, a passive that make restores vigor is never one you can complain about. Oh, did we mention they can summon a Cygor? As in literally have one crawl out of the ground and throw shit at the bad people? Yeah, people like to complain about the shit missing in the Beastmen DLC (with good reason, mind you) but, in terms of their unique magic, Beastmen actually got it pretty good. Obviously, it's Malagor's favored lore.
*'''Lore of Ice''': The more defense focused lore available to kislev, unfortunately at least currently 3 of its spells are hugely overcosted even on Katarina with her spell cost reductions. The 2 most efficient and actually pretty good spells are Ice Maiden's Kiss which is basically wind blast from celestial, so cheap and good vs unarmored chaff, plus causes frostbite, and Ice Sheet a dirt cheap AOE spell that reduces speed and charge speed by 25%, and stacks with frostbite and the tempest lore attribute to make it possible to basically freeze an enemy in their tracks. Deathfrost is an ok anti single-entity spell in the vein of Spirit leach though slightly overpriced. Frost blades is an overpriced single target melee buff. Crystal sanctuary Provides a ton of ward save but prevents movement, probably also overpriced but could be good versus the AI. Finally Heart of Winter is an ok AOE direct damage spell ruined by its way too high cost.
*'''Lore of Tempest''': The more offensive of the two lore options, and probably the better of the two at least according to most streamers. it has a good cheap bombardment that causes frostbite, an AOE accuracy and range buff that is amazing for all of kislevs ranged units, there is an ok speed and charge buff, a decent column damage spell, a very good pit of shades type stationary vortex spell, and a large AOE explosion spell that doesn't damage friendly units.
*'''Lore of Tzeentch''': A spell lore basically entirely focused around damage, it has two different vortex spells, one like a larger pit of shades, one that spawns 3 mini fire storms, two cheap basic spells blue and purple fire. Blue is similar to a weaker but cheaper gaze of nagash, good for wearing down lightly armored single entities or just spamming to lower spell cooldowns. Pink is a decent anti-infantry breath spell. And it has a leadership and melee attack debuff as well as a spell that steals winds of magic from the enemy. Good cause infantry and cavalry but lacking in single entity killing power.
*'''Lore of Nurgle''': An extremely well rounded lore with buffs, debuffs, healing, and a mixture of both anti-unit and anti single entity damage. Probably the best and definitely the most versatile of the demonic lores.
*'''Lore of Slaanesh''': A very offensive lore with a good lore attribute boosting melee attack. It has 3 damage spells, a fate of bejuna like direct damage spell, a powerful AP bombardment, and a cheap AP wind spell that actually hits more like a small line. None damage spells are a speed and melee defense debuff on a single target, an AOE spell that prevents movement and lowers leadership, and a self buff that gives bonus to weapon damage and melee attack but can cause rampage. Versatile and pretty ok lore, though shadows is likely better.
*'''Lore of the Great Maw''': Placeholder for Warhammer 3.

Spells themselves, just like in the tabletop game, come in six flavors: Buffs/Debuffs, Projectiles, Breaths/Winds, Vortexes, Bombardments, and Direct Damage.

===Spell Types===

*'''Buffs/Debuffs''': Pretty self explanatory. You cast them on a unit or group of units, and it improves or weakens a unit's stats. Overcast buffs usually have an area of effect that affects multiple units; you can these spells cast either on one unit or just out in the wild. To be affected by any buff or debuff, a unit must have at least half its models within the area of effect.
*'''Projectiles''': Similar to a ranged attack, it fires one or multiple projectiles in a straight arc at a target of your choosing. They tend to be cheap and very accurate, but need a line of fire to work. Best used by Casters who have access to a flying mount and to snipe monsters or single characters.
*'''Breaths/Winds''': Basically a directional AoE attack. Winds hit the whole area their indicator... indicates, while Breath spells expand in a cone shape. The indicator can sometimes be deceiving; some Breath spells and all Wind spells have a much larger range than the indicator suggests (most notably overcast Wind of Death from the Lore of Vampies AKA the best spell in the game) and it comes down to experience how each spell works best but, fret not, there is not much to it. Like all AoE attacks, they can cause friendly fire. What the game doesn't tell you immediately is that you can change the direction of your Wind or Breath Spell by holding the left mouse button before casting. Also, the Wind spells can deviate from the straight line the indicator shows, which can be quite annoying, but they'll never go as off-course as Vortexes. If a Breath/Wind hits a wall it'll be reflected, potentially letting you hit units that aren't lined up.
*'''Vortexes''': Big pie plates and usually the most potent damage spells in any given lore. Almost all move randomly over the map while they are active but all cause massive damage to units that have a lot of models in them. They never start moving where they can do the most damage so it's best to use them on an enemy unit surrounded by other enemy units. A few lores (shadows, plague, deep) have stationary vortexes, perfect for siege battles.
*'''Bombardments''': Think of them like off-map artillery from other RTS games. You pick an area, and a certain amount of projectiles come down from the sky, inflicting damage. Use it for large units already fighting, otherwise they tend to see it ad get clear in time.
*'''Direct Damage''': Direct Damage spells work differently from the other damage spells; they directly inflict magic damage to a units HP stat rather than its models, like a damage-over-time effect and don't inflict friendly fire. However, unlike the others, individual models can resist them. Usually your more reliable character sniping spells (with Spirit Leech from the Lore of Death being the most effective for its cost), although there are some that work better against whole regiments (Like Final Transmutation from the Lore of Metal or Flensing Ruin from the Skaven Spells of Ruin). Ethereal units really hate those.

You still want to know more? Well just head over to [[Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Magic]] and you will find knowledge a plenty.

==Battle Types==
Not all battles are fought under the same conditions. While most battles will be pitched encounters where you and your opponent are literally starting on an even field, some encounters will reflect overworld conditions.

===Regular Battle===
Plain vanilla, what you'll most likely be fighting in campaign and multiplayer. You and your opponent will start on opposite sides of the battlefield, with someone being "defender" and "attacker." While most of these maps are generally even, sometimes the defender will start out in a favourable, elevated position. Other times, the defender will literally be in the bottom of a steep cliff, with beastmen hordes crashing down on them. The battlefield nominally reflects the type of terrain/environment your army was on the map.

If another army is close enough in the overworld map, they will arrive as reinforcements; the direction they come into the battlefield from is affected by their position on the overworld map, so you can have reinforcements come in from the back of your opponent's deployment zone. One change brought by TWWH3 is that this will take ''time'', generally around 1-2 minutes. While this can be affected by certain traits or ancillaries, the attacker can also initiate a "lightning strike," which will either add another minute or two to the timer, or lead to a blitzkrieg attack with no possibility of reinforcements. At the very least, lightning strike battles will leave the attacker WINDED or EXHAUSTED, which does even the battle in the defender's favor somewhat.

When first encountered, the defending army will be given an option to stand and fight, or retreat, an option you only get once. If you fight and lose, you can still have your army survive if you have units mostly intact. If they choose to retreat, they can still be attacked if the opposing army chooses to chase them; losing this battle will cause you to lose your army entirely.

===Chokepoint Battle===

A variation of the above, and pretty much everything is the same, except there is a natural chokepoint between the two armies. Chokepoint battles are initiated when the attacker needs to cross an overworld terrain feature like a bridge or river-crossing. Generally, the defender gets to deploy over a wider area on their half of the field while the attacker's forces have a more narrow deployment zone, but this depends on where the armies are in relation to the obstruction.

While "chokepoint" would make you think a single narrow mountain pass, most of the maps have 2 or more "chokes", so putting all your units to defend a single pass is an easy way to get yourself encircled.

===Ambush===
All armies can take the AMBUSH stance, where they'll do their best to hide their forces and attack armies that cross their path. Ambush success rates can be influenced by a number of factors, including campaign skills, faction bonuses and even the area on the world map you're attempting to set an ambush up in. Some armies, like Skaven and Beastmen, have ambush as their default attack stance. When ambushing your opponent cannot benefit from reinforcements, but the ambushing army ''can''. An army in Ambush stance can be detected either by independent heroes coming across them or if the defending army has a high enough ambush defense chance, in which case the battle will proceed as a normal engagement.

Ambushing armies can position themselves anywhere on the map, while the defending army marches from one end of the field to the next. Ambushing armies are HIDDEN until someone attacks, or they are spotted by the General.

Another addition in TWWH3 is an escape zone. Ambushed armies will attempt to flee the field, taking them out of play. If the Ambusher is victorious, the opposing army will be totally destroyed.

===Siege Battles===
In the campaign modes of Total War: Warhammer, this is probably going to be the second most common type of battle your armies engage in. Whenever an army assaults a settlement, they will encircle and besiege it. From there, they have a number of options. Settlements without walls can immediately be engaged in battle. Cities with walls (mostly major/capital settlements) will have a few extra defenses in place that require potential preparation. If it's an army with no artillery, monsters or monstrous infantry with the Siege attacker perk, they will need to spend at least 1-3 turns constructing siege equipment in order to actually begin the assault. Armies that ''do'' have entities capable of breaking down the enemy gates can immediately assault walled settlements, though they may still elect to construct siege equipment if they so desire.

Battle can be avoided entirely if so desired; armies can simply starve an enemy city out by besieging a city until the city's ''Hold Out Timer'' runs out (usually 12 turns on average, plus or minus a few turns based on traits earned through skills or campaign performance) then claiming the city. Armies and Garrisons within the city start suffering attrition the longer such sieges last and all city construction/recruitment is put on hold for the duration of the siege.

Of course, it's not much of a war game if you don't commit to the battle proper. Against capital/walled cities, attackers are stationed outside the city walls (obviously), with any siege equipment they may have constructed. Most infantry can man such siege equipment in order to more efficiently breach the city, though if nothing else they can create ladders to scale walls and (eventually) beat their way through a gate. Doing so without siege equipment is dramatically more exhausting, however. Many artillery platforms can not only attack gates and towers, but they can also focus their firepower against the city walls themselves to full on crack open holes for your forces to enter through. Defenders can vanguard deploy some forces outside their walls if they so choose, but for the most part will be able to position their units on or behind their walls. A random note on walls: flying units are really effective at assaulting walls, any model that gets thrown off the wall instantly dies, and it's a lot harder to tarpit a dragon when it's clogging up the wall.

Defenders will typically enjoy the use of (debatably useful) towers to help whittle down the attackers while they approach the walls, though they will need to have at least one unit stationed behind a tower for it to remain active. Defending armies will always have a city garrison available to defend (the strength of which is dependent on the city's tier as well as any defensive buildings constructed within it) as well as any banner army currently stationed within the city.

The goal for the attackers is simple. Take the city. They can do this in one of two primary ways. The first, and most frequent way this occurs, is the elimination of the defending armies. The second way is the capture of the primary victory point within the city. By capturing and maintaining control of it for 200 seconds, the attacker can forcibly claim the city even if there are still defenders present. Conversely, the defender must prevent this from happening. Unfortunately for the defender, they either need to rout the attackers entirely or hold out for the entire hour of the battle while protecting the city's victory point.

Total War: Warhammer 3 introduced a rework of siege battles, both for minor and major settlements. In general, settlement battles are now larger in scale, with more of the actual city being involved in the actual battle. There are now a number of supply points spread throughout the city which provide the controller with a stream of...well, supplies. So long as defenders hold those locations, they will continue to receive resources of which they can construct additional defensive structures and towers throughout the city. Attackers can capture these points to cut off these supplies and destroy any fortifications constructed at that point.

Minor settlements are now properly represented as with their own, distinct maps. Unlike walled siege battles, minor settlements take up the entire center of the map. Aggressors have the entire perimeter of the settlement in which to deploy, granting them substantially more flexibility in picking their engagements. Defensive structures and towers are limited to those the defenders construct over the course of the battle.

Major settlements are larger and now in many cases have bridges, walkways and elevated platforms overlooking or undercutting sections of the city, allowing for more diverse engagements and routes throughout the city.

===Subterranean Battles===
Various races (Skaven, Beastmen, Dwarfs and Wood Elves, for example) have alternate movement stances that allow them to ignore otherwise impassable terrain and slip past enemy armies that may be blocking your path forward. The Dwarves and Greenskins had the ability first, and they do it by traveling underground hence why even if Wood Elves don't dig, it's called 'subterranean'. However, enemy armies have a chance to intercept armies moving near/across them in that stance in a battle not terribly dissimilar from an Ambush battle. Like an Ambush battle, the tunneling army is at your mercy; they cannot retreat from an interception. Most tunneling armies will be totally wiped if they are intercepted and are defeated, but some, like the Beastmen and Wood Elves, can still regroup after being defeated. Unlike Ambush battles, armies will deploy normally and neither of them will have any notable tactical advantages in deployment options over the intercepted. You can decline an interception if it is your best interest (say, your army is too weakened to fight or you need to conserve your strength for a more opportune target... which is ''real'' unlikely all things considered) and allow them to go forth unmolested. But this section assumes you do the correct thing and intercept underway/worldroot traversing armies.

The battlefield itself is substantially more constrained over a regular field; a long narrow tunnel/hallway will typically make up the zone of combat, putting units that rely on maneuverability at a notable disadvantage over those that hold their ground. Gunlines and artillery tend to be quite powerful on these maps due to the (generally) limited cover and dramatically reduced space for armies to spread out. While some such tunnels have some elevation differences (such as beast paths/world roots, because they're not really "underground"), many of the underway maps also tend to be quite level, for better or worse.

==Battlefield Mechanics==
Dynamic effects that can alter your unit's performance during the course of a battle, and things to keep in mind in general.

===Fatigue and Vigour===
As you may expect, running across massive battlefields, slogging through waist-high water, running up hills and shouldering through dense trees to ''then'' engage heavily armed (and armored) foes in a fight to the death can be a bit draining, be you man, elf, greenskin or even lizard. This will manifest in the form of gradually degrading combat performance as your units get worn down through the various stages of fatigue. Running and combat of any kind will start to drain vigour from a unit, while standing or walking slowly replenish it. Terrain does play a role in how quickly fatigue is lost (i.e., charging and fighting uphill is substantially more draining than charging or running downhill).
*'''Fresh''': The initial vigour level for any army not caught in Force March at the beginning of any battle. Fresh to the field, no wear or tear and eager to spill blood on your command. There are no penalties at this stage (obviously).
*'''Active''': Your troops have performed some minor skirmishing or ran a modest distance, so the pep to their step is gone. A 5% melee attack debuff slightly hampers their combat effectiveness.
*'''Winded''': Your troops have engaged in combat and/or have spent a significant amount of time running. A 5% speed and melee attack debuff and a 10% melee damage and reload speed debuff kicks in.
*'''Tired''': Your troops have engaged in extended combat or have run about the field extensively. The initial starting vigour for armies attacked while in a Forced March stance. Exhaustion starts to take it's toll; a 10% Speed, Melee Damage and Charge Bonus debuff accompany a 15% Melee Attack and Reload Speed debuff.
*'''Very Tired''': Combat and maneuvering around the field have all but drained your soldiers. 10% debuffs to melee damage and armor, a 15% speed debuff and a 25% melee attack, charge bonus and reload speed debuff claims a heavy price from your soldiers.
*'''Exhausted''': The final stage of fatigue. Intense, extended combat after extensive maneuvering with little to no respite has put your troops on their last legs. A 10% melee defense and damage debuff, a 15% speed debuff, a 25% armor debuff, a ''30%'' melee attack and charge bonus debuff and a ''35%'' reload speed debuff severely cripple your exhausted units, putting them at a severe disadvantage against any fresh troops they may have yet to face.

This is a universal mechanic that applies to all factions, including Undead ones (they just have different names for the various stages), so you'll always want to keep this in the back of your mind as battles tend to wage on. These penalties (or lack thereof) can make a significant difference in a unit's combat performance, especially if they're further buffed (or debuffed) by magic, abilities or items to give them an edge.

===Morale===

Similar to Exhaustion, Morale determines the willingness of your units to keep fighting. Morale is affected by different factors: such as by being flanked, the death of your Lord, or being hit by artillery/guns.

When a unit's leadership reaches a critical low, their banners will flash and the unit will begin to [[Squad broken|BREAK]]. Broken units will flee and attempt to disengage; their leadership will slowly rise so long as they're out of combat and the LORD is still on the battlefield. Since [[Squad Broken|BROKEN]] units can still regroup and return to the battle, it's a good idea to chase them away with light cavalry to stop them from regrouping. Otherwise, should they continue to take more losses, the unit will [[Squad Broken 2|SHATTER]] and will not regroup at all.

Effects and Attributes that affect morale:
*'''Encourage:''' This affects morale positively. Encouragement is a generic buff given by Heroes, Lords, and certain units (like Cathayan Airships, Longbeards). They raise Leadership and can even help BROKEN units rally quicker.
**'''Lord Dies/Lord Flees:''' On the other hand, when your Lord dies or flees, you army will take a permanent leadership debuff until the end of the battle. DISCIPLINED units will not need to worry, however. Great when you have an army of battle-hardened Dwarfs or Cathayans, absolutely fucked when they're Undead.
*'''Fear and Terror:''' Already mentioned above. Fear is constant, Terror is caused when charging. Causing Fear or Terror makes one immune to Fear/Terror.
**'''Unbreakable:''' As mentioned above, being UNBREAKABLE or IMMUNE TO PSYCHOLOGY makes you immune to psychological effects. Unbreakable units will also fight to the death, so long after the rest of your army has broken, they will continue to hold. Ungrim is notable for often being the last one standing (if he isn't focused down, that is)
*'''Flanks Secured/Flanks Exposed/Attacked in Flanks/Attacked in Rear:''' Positioning is important in TWWH, and unlike older TW games, there are no fancy formations that give you 360 coverage. When your unit's flanks are secured by another friendly unit, they gain a small bump in leadership. When a unit is attacked from their sides, or worse, [[Squad Broken 2|in the rear]], their leadership will drop and they will be more likely to break and disengage.
*'''Charging/Being Charged:''' Unbraced units will take a Leadership hit when they see a unit of [[Cold One|raptor-mounted raptors]] or [[Beastmen|chaos-tainted horsemen]] rushing at them. Having Charge Defense mitigates this.
*Being tired

===Elevation===
No battle is ever truly fought on an even playing field (in this particular case, we're focusing on the the literal sense). From small hills to towering settlement walls, units may find themselves looking down upon the hapless masses crawling their way up the slopes, exhausting themselves over every inch gained, or they might desperately find themselves assailed by a hail of arrows from on high, well out of their retaliatory reach.

Elevation can play a significant role over the course of a battle. Units traveling up hills not only move more slowly (thus reducing charge bonuses), but suffer increased fatigue gains (up to 150%) and deal less damage to enemies fighting above them (up to 30% less). Conversely, enemies charging down hill lose less fatigue, do so more quickly (increasing charge bonuses) and deal up to 30% more damage against foes below them. The benefits/consequences aren't just limited to melee infantry however. To no-one's surprise, firing at enemies beneath your position confers a substantial advantage; not only does this allow your archers/gunners to shoot over potential obstacles, but it also gives them up to a 30% damage buff against their targets as well. Should your archers or gunners find themselves at the base of a hill or wall, not only do they suffer up to a 30% damage reduction, but their shots are far more likely to be blocked by battlements or terrain, wasting precious ammunition. These percentages are calculated entity to entity and based on the relative slope/height difference between the two (depending on the terrain, two different entities in the same unit might deal more or less damage than each other based on how they're engaging the enemy).

==Tutorials==
A collection of tutorial images and infographs made by various anons on /v/ and /twg/. Some are more coherent than others
<gallery>
File:Warhammer_gun_tutorial.png|Tutorial on how to use gunpowder units in the Total War Warhammer trilogy. Four different formations are covered, each of which is effective in different circumstances
File:Warhammer_skaven_tutorial.jpg|Some factions like Skaven or Cathay have ranged units that are too slow for regular chevrons, but deploying your troops behind the front lines and then baiting the enemy in with artillery works almost as well. In this specific example, R is Ratling Guns, J is Jezzails, and G is Globe Mortars while the lightning bolts are Warp Lightning Canons and the star is your lord
File:Warhammer_tercio_tutorial.png|Tericio tactics are a more in depth tactic with more moving parts which is marginally better than chevrons but a lot more fun. It is only effective on factions like Empire or Kislev whose ranged troops have decent speed, do not try this with Dwarfs. Consider replacing common artillery pieces like cannons with artillery units capable of some self defense, such as Little Grom. Doing so gives your backline melee infantry more flexibility as it does not need to stay quite so defensive
File:Warhammer_dwarf_box_tutorial.png|For defensive ranged races with slow units and a strong frontline like Dwarfs or Cathay, putting a box of units around your ranged units can make you very hard to break. Corner camping is considered one of the cheesiest and most overpowered tactics in the game for a very good reason, it will win you battles that you should not have won
File:Warhammer_pile_of_violence_tutorial.png|A lot of melee factions like Greenskins or Khorne can function quite effectively as a "pile of violence" or rush army that simply charges into melee and smashes gits
File:Warhammer_chaos_warriors_tutorial.jpg|As an alternative to just sending everything in one big blob, send you infantry and monsters in a blob while keeping your cavalry on your wings to charge in and then flank the enemy
File:Warhammer_bretonnia_tutorial.png|Some armies favor using powerful lords and heroes to deal large amounts of damage to the enemy while using other units as more of an anvil to the hero's hammer
File:Warhammer_mannlet_tutorial.png|Some armies such as Vampire Counts and Nurgle work better as a more defensive melee blob where you sit your lord inside your other infantry to have them blast spells at the enemy while healing their allies
File:Warhammer_vampire_tutorial.png|A blob army doesn't have to be defensive, factions such as Vampire Counts, Tomb Kings, Greenskins during WAAAGH! and Skaven are quite adept at simply swarming the field with giant blobs of units. This is best done when you handily outnumber the enemy, usually with either multiple armies present for the battle or with lots of summoning
File:Warhammer_tomb_kings_tutorial.png|By end game, most factions will have a doomstack army that they want to build, which features the most powerful units in that faction's roster buffed to the gills and then spammed. In this example, a Tomb Kings player might use a doomstack of Warsphinxes and Greatbow Ushabtis to simply rush the enemy and destroy them with very little tactics necessary
</gallery>

[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay

2022-08-18T19:32:31Z

2600:387:2:80F:0:0:0:7A: /* Monsters */

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

==Why Play Cathay==
*Because Total War: Three Kingdoms didn't go hard enough into fantasy for you.
*These guys are finally being fleshed out (with the full blessings of our [[Games Workshop|evil British overlords]] nonetheless) after years and you want to see what they come up with.
*You're into chinese history and mythology.
*You want to play a defensive gunline but don't want to play as boring white guys, short vengeful alcoholics or the bad guys from Pirates of the Caribbean
*You think it's extremely funny to watch Flamers of Tzeentch, Jezzails, and Artillery pieces nuke themselves when you use Mirror Missile on them.
*You playstyle is similar to the Empire and/or Dwarfs, but you can't play them yet in Warhammer III until Immortal Empires is finally released.

===Pros===
*'''Designed for Total War''': One thing we can say as an advantage for Cathay is unlike the other factions they will be designed from the ground up to be in a Total War game rather than trying to transition from a tabletop game into total war. This gives them the potential to be one of the best-designed races and balanced since they're not trying to fit a square Warhammer peg into a round Total War hole.
*'''Numbers''': In lore, Cathay has the largest population of all the human nations, so they have bodies to spare. Don't expect Skaven numbers, but you'll have large armies compared to other good guy races.
*'''Range''': As the oldest Human nation to have gotten gunpowder, it makes sense it plays a big role in your army. You have access to a ton of gunpowder units and artillery to blast the enemy apart. You also got some elite crossbows to play around with. The harmony system ensures that your ranged units have some of the higest reload skill in the entire game, which means... Well, [[Dakka|you shoot a lot.]]
*'''Air Power''': With your Longma, War Balloons and your Dragons you will be decently scary in the air. You won't be fast, and any opposing faction with decent air cavalry will likely threaten you, but you have some potent options.
*'''Harmony''': Cathay has a solid combination of ranged and melee units that work together well in concert. Similarly, units can either be Yin or Yang aligned and having the two working together provides you with a bonus.
*'''Defensive''': Cathay is built to last. Between your faction mechanics and selection of magical lores, Grand Cathay is built to hold the line. If you crave a faction with a strong, staunch line of spears to keep your enemies at bay, Cathay's going to be the faction for you.
*'''Magic:''' Cathay is actually able to keep up with the best of them when it comes to magic. Sure, you don't have the variety that High Elves or Empire have but with 4 lores you do have the most of the game 3 factions. Plus, with Mastery of the Elemental Winds, your spells do more damage the more mages you have in your army. Especially in campaign, Miao and Zhao can carry the army with their spells alone.

===Cons===
*'''Synergy''': Due to the way Harmony works, you will NEED to keep units close to each other, otherwise individual units will underperform. As such, you will likely be locked into turtling in order to get your units close enough to get the buffs they might need in order to perform efficiently. On their own, your units actually have ''lower'' stats than their equivalent in other armies, only getting better when properly buffed.
*'''Slow''': Cathay won't be winning many foot races compared to other factions. Though not as plodding as the dwarfs or lizardmen, you don't have much in the way of cavalry and your war balloons are pretty susceptible to air cav and missile fire.
*'''Subpar Cavalry''': Out of all the non Chaos human factions, you're easily the worst when it comes to Cavalry. Jade Lancers are on equal footing with Empire Knights, which doesn't seem bad until you realizes that your second best cavalry option is roughly on par with another faction's weakest heavy cav that tend to get flattened by more elite options. Peasant Horsemen are similar to Mounted Yeomen and while Longma aren't bad they are expensive while not having AP or anti large. Could be worse, you at least ''have'' cavalry, but most factions will out match you with their riders.
*'''Limited Skirmishers''': No vanguard deployment, stalk, or cheap fast movers other than peasant horsemen. You're going to suck at harrying broken units off the map and hunting enemy skirmishers + war machines.
*'''AoE Susceptible''': A core mechanic of Cathay units is that they gain bonuses when in close proximity with each other. While this can be great for holding the line, it also makes your forces more vulnerable to vortex or wind spells. You'll have to keep an eye out for enemy wizards.
*'''No Melee Expert Non-Legendary Lords or Heroes''': None of your non-LL and Heroes are really that good in melee combat or can serve as a tank. I know what you're thinking "But the Dragon Siblings!" but they won't be leading all your armies in campaign and they are expensive in multiplayer. 3 out of 4 of your Lords and Heroes are Mages and the one that isn't, the Lord Magistrate, is a support buffing character rather than a melee duelist or a tank. Shugengan lords are stated to be decent in melee but trust me, that's only by Mage Lord standards. You won't have many characters that can be safely thrown into melee combat. Concept art was found for a "Gate Master" hero, which will likely serve as the Cathayan equivalent of the Empire Captain or High Elf Noble, so this issue will probably be fixed with DLC.
*'''Not Designed for Domination''': Forget about Cathay being "Numbah Wan," Cathay is currently one of the Bottom Tier worst factions in multiplayer. As of mid March, Cathay only has a 38% win rate in multiplayer, and recent balance patches and Domination rule changes really didn't help you out too much. You have no real way to play aggressive in Domination and can't force people off of points. If you only care about [[That Guy|winning through OP ways]], don't bother playing Cathay until they get their DLC.
*'''DLC''': There are three guarantees in life. Death, Taxes, and Core Races getting units withheld for DLC. There is already a notable lack of monkey in the Cathay roster. Sorry Cathay, don't expect to be different. (Though in this case, I guess it's less "units being held back" and more "CA and GW making up more shit later.")
**Note that we can generally predict 2-3 lord packs for Cathay. In Mythology china gave each of the 4 cardinal direction's there own set of associations, beast, element, god so on, and with two lords already claiming two of those directions, 2 more for the other two compass points and a possible 5th for the center seems likely.

==Faction traits==
*'''Battle Harmony''': Shared by all non-character Cathay units. Melee units are marked as "Yang", while ranged units are "Yin"; these units gain bonuses when near a unit of the opposite type: leadership and melee defence for melee Yang units, and leadership and reload speed for ranged Yin units. Characters multiply these bonuses for nearby units.
*'''Mastery of the Elemental Winds''': Shared by all Cathayan spellcasters, this ability enhances their spells for each spellcaster present in the army. This encourages taking multiple spellcasters, something not usually done in other factions.
*'''Formation Attack''': A trait that makes the unit try to stay in formation, even when in combat. Presumably, this makes holding chokepoints and positions easier to do.

==Lords==
We finally got the names of the two legendary lords, and they turn out to be new characters. The children of the Dragon Emperor and the Moon Empress, they rule in his stead over the various provinces of Cathay.

===Legendary Lords===
Kathay has a tech unlockable banner that gives 20% ward save, use this on your legendary of choice, if you take the sword of Slaanesh from the chaos realm you'll get another 20% ward save and tons of damage. enjoy being the toughest/deadliest lord in WH 3. even Skarbrand cant compete with 70-80% ward save dragons who also cast spells.
*'''[[Miao Ying]], the Storm Dragon, ruler of the Northern Provinces and Commander of the Great Bastion.''': Daughter of the Dragon Emperor. Miss Cold and Aloof. She is in the north and is daddy's favourite. Can transform between human form where she buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. She will be able to use a hybrid of Life and Yin Magic: Including Earth Blood, Storm of Shadows, Flesh to Stone, Missile Mirror, Regrowth and Talons of Night, with both Lore Traits of Lifebloom and Power of Yin. She has the Wrath of the Storm ability, which increases melee attack, makes attacks magical, and makes those affected immune to psychology. She also has the Disdain of Dragons ability, which lowers enemy melee attacks in a constant radius. She also has access to the Mirror Missile spell which is easily one of the most trollish spells in the entire game, you will never tire of watching the enemy's elite ranged units delete themselves when they fire with the hex activated. She is the only lord kathay had with non bound spell healing, and regrowth is amazing on herself and terracotta sentinels. no inherent access to regeneration as a skill though, the von carstein blade item from caravans is perfect for her.

*'''[[Zhao Ming]], the Iron Dragon, ruler of the Western Provinces and Lord of Shang-Yang''': Son of the Dragon Emperor, and a mama's boy. His faction is stated to focus on and specialize in Alchemists and Astronomers. Can transform between human form where he buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. He uses a hybrid of Metal and Yang magic, unfortunately his spell selection is kinda terrible, his only really great spell is final transmutation and maybe glittering robe early on, but the rest are pretty weak. It feels like they purposely picked only the weakest spells from the lore Yang to give him, he would have been great with jade shield, stone stance, might of heaven and earth to self buff but instead he got the weaker damage spells only. He gets regeneration, an AOE ward save aura (includes him), and can cast final transmutation with a discount which is actually very powerful for taking out the mass soulgrinders you face in campaign/the final battle. He has large army wide buffs to armor and weapon damage. if you want to Terracotta sentinel doomstack he is a great choice but lack of access to healing spells is an issue.

===Lords===
*'''Dragon-Blooded Shugengan Lord''': Descended from when a human pulled a Donkey from Shrek with Cathay's rulers. Your Mage lord, they come with the lores of Yang or Yin and their mounts are Warhorse or Jade Longma for extra mobility. While they are ''slightly'' better than most mage lords in melee don't expect them to last long if a dedicated melee character gets a hold of them. Yin and Yang variants each get to choose from 4 different options of bound spells from other lore’s usable 4 times each, I prefer Yang because they can get earthblood, which is Cathay’s only healing access or spirit leach is good for yin.

*'''Lord Magistrate''': Your cheap normal frontline general. His gimmick is being able to further improve the harmony mechanic of his army, so extra incentive to form up in a sexy turtle. He also comes with the ability to buff the defense, damage or range of units with his army abilities. His mounts are Warhorse or Sky Lantern. Sadly he's garbage in melee, his mounts suck and pretty much anything he can do a Shugengan can do better. As such no real reason to nab him unless you want to hear his gloriously hammy voice acting. He's also unfortunately the only lord that will ever lead your caravans.

===Legendary Heroes===

===Generic Heroes===
*'''Alchemist''': Mages who fight with vials and magic that looks like Chinese calligraphy. Lore of Metal user with some extra bound buffs to armour, melee attack and magic damage with armour piecing. Can mount a warhorse. She has a battle skill buff that gives increased base damage and magic attacks with the ability to specialize in adding either Poison with the same bonus damage as the base version, Flaming which gives double the base damage increase, or a version which gives more AP damage and non AP as an aoe buff power. She can be good just to make sure that your units have other ways to fight the enemy.

*'''Astromancer''': Your lore of heavens caster. His mounts are a Warhorse for mobility or a Wu Xing War Compass which seems as though it will boost his magic output considerably. You pick this mage if you just want to blow shit up, as his War Compass mount gives him two free bound spells to rain upon the enemy.

==Units==

===Infantry===
*'''Peasant Long Spearmen''': Your early chaff unit that's literally expected to run away once things get hairy. The unexpected MVP of the roster (at least until DLCs give you something better). They come with Expendable ''and'' Expert Charge Defense, which is a rarity for tier 1 units.
**Rather than treating them like Skavenslaves, they're a lot more like TK skeleton spearmen without the shields: a really good screen with lots of bodies, relatively high health compared to the rest of your infantry, and high model count that can absorb losses. They're still expendable chaff, and you take them to die in place of your Jade warriors or Celestial Guard.
** Really fucking good for how easy and cheap they are. With the harmony buff, the Peasant Long Spearmen have stats higher than state troops, and function very well as a front line against everything. They are vulnerable to missiles, but you should have outshooting your opponents anyway.
**The Terracotta sentinel is very vulnerable to tarpitting, Peasant Long Spears are mobile and numerous enough to keep some of that pressure off them. They wont provide any harmony benefits though.
**Can tank for ages against pretty much anything with the jade shield 44% ward save buff from the lore of yang. Perfect for sacrificial screening, especially since lore of yang also has really powerful AOE spells you can drop on units getting traffic jammed by the peasants.
**Significantly better in Campaign. By the late game, it wouldn't be hard to produce them at tier 7, and their morale gets significantly better with technology and building upgrades, and can lead to hilarious situations where a single unit of Peasants holds off a band of Chosen on its own. They wont do any damage, of course, but that's why you drop a vortex or airship bomb on them.
*'''Jade Warriors''': Your mid-tier unit and your bread and butter until you can afford Celestial Dragon Guard. Have a unique mechanic where the longer they sit still and brace, the more bonuses they get, gaining higher charge resistance and armour. Make the Dragon Empire into the Turtle Empire with these guys. Just keep in mind that like turtles, they don't move very fast or hit very hard.
**The Sword and Shield combo, when combined with Harmony and their own innate stationary buff, they are very tough and can still find a use to tank hits for the Dragon Guard in the late-game. Excellent front line unit with good missile block chance and armor.
**The Halberd has better melee attack and armor piercing, so theyre like the Wardancers in that even when fighting against heavy infantry, it might be useful to take them to do some damage. Still more of a holding force than an aggressive force. Once you conquer Cathay you will probably just be fighting demons and marauders so these will probably be better than the shield variant.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard''': Your elite, end-game unit, taking the best from both Jade Warriors since they're all armed with Halberds and Shields. They have expert charge defense, AP, and dont get bonuses/lose nothing from moving, meaning you could move them to where they're needed most, or even have them charge though Peasant chaff, foregoing the low charge bonus to keep models alive given the low-model count typical of Elite Infantry.
**'''Dune Dragons''' - Dragon Guard with Magic Attacks, Magic Resist, Immune to Psych and Encourage. These guys are pretty much designed to be a middle finger to large Daemons as they can punch through their physical resist and not get terror routed.

===Missiles===
*'''Peasant Archers''': Like your peasant infantry, but with a bow and arrow. Cheap and expendable, potentially valuable if you need a relatively disposable unit to provide a small amount of ranged support and trigger the yin/yang buff where needed. Has no AP, but that shouldn't be a problem in campaign where the majority of your chaos, norsca, and ogre enemies don't have much armor.
** Very cost effective, especially with the harmony buffs. Can put down a significant amount of fire with their reload skill buffs.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors with crossbows (in case you couldn't have told from their name). Armoured and with a shielded variant, they sit in-between Empire Crossbowmen and Dwarf Quarrelers in terms of durability and power; they still have the same "hunker-down" ability as regular JW, so you'll probably want to move them in position behind Long Spears and refrain from moving them to keep those bonuses.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen With shields''' You know the drill by now. silver shield and a minor buff to melee defence. In campaign avoid getting these unless your economy is absurd as they are a significant upkeep increase for no extra practical combat performance. In mutiplayer currently they're also not reccomended as the only other factions that pose a missile threat are magical-tzeench and kislev's massive cavalry spam. both of which shields don't help great against and it's better to have an extra unit of peasants or some shit over the shielded variant.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors on steroids, once again. Shielded, heavily armoured and with armour-piercing bolts, they're durable archers that can trade shots with the enemy's best.
**On paper, their bolts have more strength than the Sisters of Avelorn, but it's mundane AP versus the Fire/Magic combo that lets the Sisters put in work against pretty much anything. Celestial Crossbowmen have better DPS when buffed, though.
**Desperate and in a pinch? Castle too tight for shooting? Well, they're still Celestial Guard, and so are decent in melee, minus the AP or anti-large bonus. They still give Harmony when in melee.

* '''Iron Hail Gunners''': A living version of the Zombie Handcannons from the Pirate coast, these ladies massacre armoured infantry with their high-AP shotguns. With the Harmony system, being able to keep them closer to your melee units will make them into machinegunning shotgunners. Can fire in melee if the enemy makes contact without breaking through the first rank.
**Unlike your Crossbowmen or Crane gunners, they lack shields or armor, but are much more mobile. You can flank with them to outright delete elite infantry, but even having them shoot through gaps in your formation is also helpful, because they're Cathayan shotguns.
**Considering how quickly you can get these ladies in the Campaign, they're instrumental damage dealers from early to mid.
** Be cautious about using them against the ogres because they will literally just run through your front line, because hurr durr pull through. In campaign, best employed against all chaos factions other than Tzeentch, whose basic units will fucking slaughter the gunners with their ranged attacks, because fuck you I guess.

* '''Crane Gunners''': Human Skaven Jezzails. Much like their rat counterparts, these gunners excel at long-ranged sniping with their second-only-to-artillery range and will likely form a core part of your backline while you make the enemy come to you. They come with shields, which should give them some missile resistance to weather counter-fire and kill those jezzails. You're probably better off going for grand cannons in most match ups though. Grand cannons have better all around combat stats and the exact same movement speed; but with Patch 1.2, they are now shieldbreakers (reducing Missile Block Chance) and their missile go through infantry, which makes them really good at mowing down infantry. Better than cannons at sniping out faster targets and flyers and they can take cover + shoot out of forests while cannons can't.

===Cavalry===
*'''Peasant Horseman''': The fastest thing in your army that can't fly. Probably based on the herdsmen levies that numerous Chinese dynasties employed as scouts and light cav. With an almost identical statline to Brettonian mounted yeomen, the only reason to get peasant horsemen is because Cathay has no alternatives other than Jade Lancers and Longmas who are simply too expensive to waste chasing down routing units + artillery crews. You'll want to grab a few of these guys in Multiplayer and early campaign, but hopefully we'll get better alternatives with future DLC.

*'''Jade Lancers''': Jade warriors on horseback. More defensive than other factions cavalry. More suited defending your flank than running in to attack the enemy. Fucking awful other than their mediocre armor and their shields, ineffective in melee, slow compared to most other heavy cav. Can't even run down enemies because of their glacial speeds. In campaign, consider using the Iron Hail gunners/Jade Crossbows/etc. if you want a flanking unit, who will actually kill the units they are supposed to kill, or just peasant horsemen if you want to run down routing enemies. They can get the Slaanesh devastating flanker ability from a campaign tech so they should do ok if you rear charge anything without too much armor.

*'''Great Jade Longma Riders''': Your versions of pegasus knights, except instead of a rich noble who sneers at peasants, you get a rich noble whose great-great-great-grandad/mom got busy with a dragon. Also comes with Fear, possibly making them an expensive option to spook away and chase routing units. Their true strength will be as a bodyguard unit for your squishy balloons against enemy air forces, and being a hammer to the rest of your rosters anvil.
**Stats wise, they're roughly between pegasus and royal pegasus knights that traded away their Anti-Large bonus in exchange for 30 more armour (110 total), higher weapon strength, and charge bonus. As such, they're better at dealing with multiple different types of opponents but aren't quite as good at dealing with large units and other cav.
**'''Righteous Lances of Wei-Jin''': Comes with majority AP damage and the Guardian ability. If you want a unit that can serve as a body guard for your flying lords and can deal with heavily armored targets these are the horse dragon things for you.

===Chariots===
*'''Wu-Xing War Compass''': A big ol' magical battery that boosts Harmony and counts towards Mastery of Elemental Winds increase the power of your spells. Can cast Urannons Thunderbolt and Comet of Casanodora; the Compass has been buffed in 1.2 to give you 2 free casts of each power without costing WoM, but their ''Celestial Comet'' is half as strong (but also twice as fast) to compensate. Better used as a mount for your spellcasters than an actual unit on it's own
**Also ok in melee as a ...cart. It moves as fast as infantry, literally anyone who gets run over by this thing deserves to die under the hooves of plain old cows dragging a heavy fucking magic compass.

===Monsters===
*'''Terracotta Sentinel''': Take the standard Terracotta soldier from China, make it really big and teach it kung fu and you have this thing. Possible doomstack material. They are unbreakable and hit like a truck, making them good at both clearing chaff and 1v1ing monsters. Don't leave them unsupported against missile units or anti-large elites, as they'll still break down to concentrated AP and missiles. Causes Terror for understandable reasons.
**If you've played Tomb Kings, you know what to expect: keep them away from Halberd tarpits and anti-large monstrous infantry, and if you can't, give them a screen, like Peasant spears or Jade cavalry.
**It's also the best monster in the entire game right now. Like seriously, this thing can beat a Bloodthirster one on one. It's also the cheapest big single entity monster in the entire game as well. Yeah these things are a little bullshit. Given that Cathay is viewed as a little subpar it's nice that they have at least one unit that is really strong, but expect CA to whack these guys with the nerf bat eventually. Seriously with the blue tree you can get these for like 250 upkeep each, just spam doom stacks of these supported by magic and you’ll destroy everything. You don’t even need to use the harmony system. Or can bring a ballon or two if you want to.

===Artillery===
* '''Grand Cannon''': Pulled by oxen making surprisingly mobile, your normal cannon unit. Unlike other factions cannon units, also comes with flaming attacks by default, making it slightly better at burning up trees and mummies, and cutting through regeneration. It is roughly as fast as a standard infantry unit, which is actually a big deal because it will be able to keep up with your main army and rearrange itself much easier than a normal cannon.
** Extremely strong basic artillery unit, which, with the harmony bonuses, can and will kill large units very fucking quickly with their reload bonuses. Always nice to swat Fateweaver out of the sky even before the shit starts spamming searing doom/various fires over your lines.
** It's important to note that these boys are the most accurate cannons we've seen in Total war so far, extremely useful as they're actually capable of swatting tzeench's flying chariots out of mid-air, You can get to tier 3 extremely quickly in campaign and these boys WILL be your bread and butter for the entire campaign.

* '''Fire Rain Rocket''': Imagine a hellstorm rocket battery that fires even faster due to the Harmony mechanic. Terrifying. Aim for big blobs of enemies and watch as they become chunky salsa. Compared to the normal Hellstorm it does more missile damage, but the majority of it isn't actually AP. So while you still want to aim for blobs, those blobs should be of less armoured infantry rather than heavily armoured stuff.

* '''Kongming Sky Lantern''': The smaller of the two airship units with Crane Gunners, and dedicated support. It provides a morale boost to your infantry on top of Harmony, so even your Peasants will hold the line for as long as they humanly can. They also grant vision on units that are hiding in foliage, which can help thwart ambushes. They don't reveal Stalk, though.
**It can fire while moving and line of sight isn't much of a problem, so as long as it doesn't get attacked, it can take potshots at the enemy. It's slow as balls though, so any flying unit that gets its hands on it will be able to tear it to pieces. And pretty much every chaos army has furies who will rip it to shreds
**Almost useless, if it wasn't for the harmony mechanic + its encouragement buff, you probably wouldn't ever take them. As a flying unit, it can provide a source of Harmony that the enemy cant touch unless they devote their other flyers or ranged units on it.
**Offensively, though, their crane guns are like the stormbolter on a Rhino: they just dont shoot enough to actually be dangerous, and don't have the bombs that would otherwise make them useful. You may as well take the Crane Guns on infantry if you want sniper fire, or the Sky Junk for Guns, Bombs, and Rockets.

* '''Kongming Sky-junks''': The heavier of the two airship units that [[Awesome|acts as a flying Helstorm Rocket Battery]]. Can also drop bombs gyrocopter style, and has high armour against missile units. Unlike most other flying units, it can't toggle landing, so try to protect it against flying cav with missile units. It is slow as fuck and will be pretty much useless once it runs out of ammo, but it will hopefully do some devastating damage before that happens.
**Tanky enough to take hits from Furies and other flying beasties that lack AP, they are a nice flying Distraction Carnifex until they run out of ammo. And even when they do, they're a nice flying anvil to hold flyers in place while your Longma riders hammer them.
**They do have an edge against ground artillery, as even if theyre focused down by other artilery pieces, you can expect them to miss more often than not because you're flying, just put them far away enough that those missed shots dont hit your castles infantrybl instead.
**Much more effective when you fire very closely downwards, otherwise, just a shitty fire rain launcher.
**Oddly enough, they can be healed mid-battle with Miao Ying or a dragon blooded lord with bound lore of life spells.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
You are what happens when the Empire, Dwarfs, and Skaven all have the world's weirdest threesome where lingering eye contact was held with the Vampire Coast; and they had a baby. Your themes revolve around plentiful, expendable infantry and strong missiles working in unison to bunker down an area and blast anything that comes at you straight to hell. Harmony is a double edge sword, as while it encourages you to pair units together and builds buffs, it also means units on their own aren't reaching their full potential. This is a quantity over quality faction with limited offensive options, as the closest thing you have to offensive infantry is sword and board Jade Warriors, and while they have cavalry, they're slow and limited compared to other factions.

Since the Cathayan army is so new, there's a massive lack of units for the army compared to all the other established factions, and in some ways, it almost feels unfinished. For example, your have no ranged cavalry options, which means your cavalry options won't be able to receive the Harmony benefit if they go too far (and the bubble is so small, you can lose Harmony just chasing after other cavalry). CA is definitely holding back options to make room for new DLC.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Beastmen| Beastmen]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Bretonnia| Bretonnia]]''': With more flavours of cavalry than you can comprehend, you'll need to set up extremely defensively and bring plenty of halberds to fend off all the armoured horse riders. Be sure to pepper them with your armour piecing missiles, and use peasant chaff to block charges and allow your actual hard hitters to stay in position to fire upon them. Don't bother bringing lanterns and longma riders, Bretonnias air forces are too scary and will easily win any aerial battle, and the lanterns and longma aren't going to be much help against cav and are wasted on peasant chaff.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Daemons of Chaos| Daemons of Chaos]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Warriors of Chaos| Warriors of Chaos]]''':
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Heavily armored barbarians are threatening Cathay's border, and it's up to hot dom dragon waifu and her warpdust snorting fuccboi brother to keep Cathay safe
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
WoC wants to get into melee as soon as they can, and their elite infantry will fuck yours since all your AP is on anti-large; at least your dudes will fuck over any Dragon Ogres, though. Anything bigger than a Dragon Ogre can be handled by the Sentinel
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You outclass them in ranged combat with actual archers, guns, and artillery, WoC players will send Manticores and Cavalry after them, so keep some Halberds next to them (which you should be doing anyway for the Harmony mechanic.)
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That being said, their lack of ranged weapons means that your Sky-Junks will have grand old time, and may be a better investment than ground-based Fire Rockets. Manticores will die to Longma Riders, so keeping them protected will not be an issue.
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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves| Dark Elves]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dwarfs| Dwarfs]]''':
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This will be tough for the same reason the Vampirates are bad in this matchup, they do your main tactic better than you do. They have a wider assortment of guns and artillery, and great ways to kill your large units. They have Catapults to fuck your formations, while your indirect artillery lacks AP to punch through thicc dwarf armor.
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You will need to play offence against the Dwarfs which isn't great as you have no armour-piercing infantry that isn't bonus versus large, and your units only hit their peak efficiency when they're stationary and next to someone of the opposite type. They're also slow, not dwarf-slow, but slow enough that you'll take losses from Dwarf artillery, so it's a good idea to have at least a few peasants in front off your dudes to die for the Greater G--Harmony.

Your shielded crossbowmen are decent with good AP, get better when they're stationary, reload quicker with the Harmony mechanic; so long as their shields are faced where the shots are coming from, you can bounce some missiles off, too; Iron Hail gunners are much quicker than Jade Warriors or Dwarfs, and their shotguns pack a mean punch, especially when they're quick-firing with Harmony. They can be very good flankers when you pair them with Peasant Long Spears to guard their flanks and provide Harmony. Crane Gunners are like Skaven jezzails, use them to shoot down Gyrocopters to clear the skies and give your airships the ability to shoot from afar without being shot down. Speaking of airships, the Skyjunk is a better investment than the Fire Rain rocket; their weapons are similar, but the Skyjunk is harder to hit by enemy artillery, has much better angling, and when it runs out of ammo, can drop bombs that will be much more disruptive than the non-AP Fire Rain rockets.

Jade Warriors with shields will likely by your best melee infantry bet as they might be able to survive salvos as they hold against the dwarven line, but try screening them with Peasant Long Spears; they'll break, but when they regroup you can use them as Harmony buffers with your Iron Hail or Crane Guns. In terms of how to break the line, Ox Cannons are quite mobile for an artillery piece, and Crane Guns can provide covering fire from afar.

Your best lord option is a dragon blooded lore of yin caster on a longma. She's highly disruptive to ranged heavy factions since she can summon fodder into the middle of the enemy gunline like a flying vampire lord and overcast missile mirror to shut down individual ranged units for 36 seconds at a time.
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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Empire| Empire]]''':
Remember what we said in Dwarfs and Vampirates? Yeah you're dealing with a faction that does your thing better than you again. Grand Cannons are better than Great Cannon thanks to Harmony buffs and better mobility, but that's about the only good thing in this particular matchup. Luminarks hard counter Sky Junks and Imperial rocketry has ''significantly'' greater range than your own, while the constant threat of Demigryph up the ass keep you from rushing in without a plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''':
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This game is still too new for a meta, and most games you have on MP will just be people trying shit out. That being said, take Skyjunks and Fire Rockets and shoot the shit out of the enemy castle. Exploit the Grand Cannons mobility and provide harmony with cheap Peasants that you wont mind losing. Pop airships with Longma or Sky Lanterns, and save the Crane Gunners for their Longma. Take a sentinel and if your opponent takes one too, they can practice their kung fu

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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Greenskins| Greenskins]]''': Greenskins shred dwarfs. but you have the great ability of actually having mobile options and magic. a positive matchup in your favor. bring one or two iron hail gunners to melt greenskin monsters and a lore of yang caster for the fire-wall. jade warriors should be able to hold off even black orks buying time for your missiles to bring the pain.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/High Elves| High Elves]]''': Your biggest threat will be dragons or an arcane phoenix and magic. Any sort of mass-AOE will rip apart your packed formations and the helves have a lot of options. bring grand cannons and use their accuracy to snipe their mages and dragons. otherwise your missile line is better than the helves and your frontline is better. a balanced matchup

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Khorne|Khorne]]''': One of your better matchups. Elite armies really don't like wading through gunfire to get to the enemy lines. Khorne will bring hounds, furies, and a bloodletter summoning cultist or two to disrupt you, peasant spearsmen and maybe a longma squad should suffice to tie them up. A terracotta sentinel is highly recommended as an emergency responder to Khorne's monsters along with a lore of yin caster to snare enemies with storm of shadows and block their movement with summoned fodder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Kislev|Kislev]]''': This is a faction that either relies on subpar ranged power or lots of heavy cavalry. pretty much all your infantry is anti-large and you outrange kislev massively. a very positive matchup in your favour as kislev's 'jack of all trades master of none' once again fails against a more specialised faction

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen| Lizardmen]]''': This will theoretically be a tricky match up, but ultimately one in your favor. Your plentiful AP gunpowder units will make quick work of the sluggish Saurus and, when coupled with your multitude of halberd units, can do some serious damage to their bigger beasties, but they're likely not going to be the forces a competent Lizardmen army will bring. Instead, Skinks will be your bane. Fast skirmishers and Chameleons will hassle you from all angles with their poisonous darts while their cavalry (flying or otherwise) disrupts your formations with fear/terror-inducing charges. If they're bringing a Slann, you will NEED to keep on top of your positioning; positioning your forces too close makes them prime candidates for the myriad of vortex and wind spells at their beck and call. Deal with them first, followed by any cavalry/skirmishers and clean up what's left with your plentiful gunpowder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Norsca| Norsca]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Nurgle| Nurgle]]''': Nurgle hates ranged units, enemy large units, an abundance of anti-large, fire damage, and enemies that can hold out in a grindfest against them. You are all of these things and Nurgle has vanishingly few options against you. Long Ma riders take a huge dump all over any of Nurgle's fliers and the fire damage of your artillery, magic, and more will make Nurgle weep with sorrow as you delete his slow moving and utterly unshielded units off the table one after the other. And as Nurgle has extremely anemic charges he can't even reliably break your formations without lucky spell casts; which of course relies on the Nurglites even getting a spellcaster in range through your numerous means to snipe them off the field. You can basically win this matchup while AFK, but something to watch out for is nurgles Army Ability, which can jump from one nearby unit to another, and Harmony forces your units together, so keep an eye out for the plauges.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Ogre Kingdoms| Ogre Kingdoms]]''': High mass charging units will ruin your day. ogres are cathay's worst matchup bar none in warhammer 3. your frontline will get pushed around like paper as while halberds CAN deal a lot of damage and hold off ogres the ogres can bring a lot more ogre bulls for the price than you can bring halberds. It's worth having no magic and getting a cheap lord as your units are a lot more useful than the lores available for once,

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven| Skaven]]''': From the looks of it, this seems to be your hardest matchup by far. Your harmony mechanic relies heavily on having a solid plan for most stages of the game and Skaven excel at disruption, be it through summons, skirmishing Eshin troops or just raw balls-to-the-wall firepower of Clan Skryre. Mirror Missile is your friend in this match-up and for its relatively low winds of magic cost is one of the single most brutal anti-ranged unit spells in the entire game, forcing the Skaven commander to either force their ranged unit into inactivity for twenty seconds or watch their prized shooters wipe themselves out.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Slaanesh| Slaanesh]]''': What's this, a speedy flanking faction designed to dive backlines? This could spell trouble for you. Fortunately, you theoretically have one way to banish Slaanesh's creeps back to the warp, and that's "Invest in flying units and box up with halberds." Slaanesh has no ranged units and only Furies as fliers, so as long as you have a Longma unit or cheap missiles to protect them, your Sky Lanterns and Sky Junks will be pretty much untouchable as they blast apart Slaanesh's ranks. Due to the amount of AP on their roster, Celestial Dragon Guard are a risky choice so invest either in Peasent spears or Jade Warriors with Halberds. You won't win the melee fight so don't bother investing in it. Have your infantry hold while your War Ballons shoot, your flying casters cast (Grab either the Dragon Siblings or a Shugangen in the air to keep them safe) and your Longma use their speed to flank and rear charge. Your balloons will run out of ammo eventually though, so make every shot count. Or just bring crossbows/archers, and shoot the living shit out of the exhibitionists.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''': Lore of yang fire wall. 'nuff said

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tzeentch| Tzeentch]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast| Vampire Coast]]''': If the Coast thinks they can outshoot you they have another thing coming. Rocket artillery devastates Vampirate formations and while they can swat your Sky lanterns out of the sky if they bring terrorgheists, Long Ma riders and your Legendary Lords can swat those out of the air in turn and curbstomp any deck droppers they bring. You have well armoured and shielded ranged units who will tear straight through the fragile ranks of the Coast and can stop any monsters they field cold; while your artillery is able to out-trade Vampirate cannons with a better rate of fire as long as harmony is active. Also Missile Mirror was basically created to troll the Vampire Coast specifically.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Counts| Vampire Counts]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| Wood Elves]]''':

===Domination===
General Tier Rank: '''D'''

You know how Harmony encourages you to stick your units together and to hold down a single point while not getting too aggressive? In Domination you win by doing the exact opposite of that. Since you have to spread out your forces and go on the offensive it's really hard for you to actually keep your Harmony active meaning a good chunk of your units won't be fighting at their price range. What's more, since you're out maneuvered by most factions, odds are you will not being getting to most points first and will have to fight off your enemies to secure them. Good news is that with your high armor, Terrocottas and range once you do have a point it's decently hard to kick you off. It would really help if you had some kind of decent, inexpensive mobile threat or just a fast ranged unit that can help keep harmony on all your infantry. You're way better in normal land battles though, as it's significantly easier to play your game and keep Harmony up.

==Campaign Mechanics and Tactics==

Unlike Kislev, which devolves into a Daemon fuckfest around the third or fourth wave of Rifts, Cathay is so easily-defendable that it's just begging for a rework, or at least a nerfbat.

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'''Bastion:''' You have no real enemies outside the invaders in the Steppes beyond the Bastion, or the Ogres/Chaos Warriors in the Mountains to the South. The Bastion has a unique "Chaos Invasion" mechanic where Kurgans get spawned every so often to lay siege to the Bastion. They are Norscans rather than WoC, though, so have absolutely no artillery or siege ability outside of throwing trolls or mammoths at you, and the Bastion Gates practically pay for themselves once you invest in the Upkeep Lowering building chain, (which can go as far as 90% upkeep reduction for garrisoned armies), and get the settlement to level 4 to build Terracotta Sentinels. The Kurgans pretty much only exist to die against your garrisons and give them free experience. Funnily enough, should an AI Cathayan faction own all the gates, the stacks will do absolutely nothing but wait outside the gates.

'''Trade and Treaties:'''Speaking of Cathayan Factions, there are four hostile rebels (two for each Legendary Lord) and two Loyalist ones, who will be pretty easily confederated once you beat the rebels. Do this as quickly as you can, because your income will rise substantially with their provinces and stability. Cathayan income is comparable to High Elves, without the expensive upkeep. You will actually have enough passive income to station a hero in each province to close rifts as they come up, and the gold needed for each action. You can now just use defense building to stop rifts spawning at all.

You'll also have lots of potential trade partners; by sending Caravans westwards, you can establish diplomatic relations with factions they pass through, and trade treaties can be established with those on the route. These trade relationships can be turned into military treaties, which can eventually lead to Outposts, a new mechanic in Campaign that lets you build military outposts in major settlements (Provincial Capitals with 4+ slots). If you both have an outpost in each other's territories, both factions get to purchase infantry from each other's respective recruitment pools. Cathayan Castles with Kislev Tzar Guard? Na, think Jade Warriors backed by Kroxigors, or Hawk Riders screening for your airships!

'''Harmony and the Compass:''' Harmony is pretty tedious. Your economic/defense buildings, technology, and characters (+1 for heroes, +3 for lords) all have a corresponding Yin-Yang cost. Going too far towards one way will lead to inefficiency at the least, and provincial instability at the worst. Yin and Yang balance will fluctuate as you lose heroes and research tech, and certain buildings will wax and wane in usefulness as your empire expands/contracts: One Yin building, for example, provides better casualty replenishment, while its Yang counterpart ranks up your Peasants; one is more useful when you're trying to replenish losses after capturing a territory, the other is better for giving you quality levies, but both are mutually exclusive per settlement. Since you only need to build the first tier for the yin-yang point, it is sometimes helpful to leave a building slot open for quick rebalancing, or demolishing the ones you dont need anymore. quick recruiting and disbanding hero's is a good way to keep it balanced easily.

The Celestial Compass on the other hand provides campaign bonuses depending on which way the winds of magic is directed: corruption cleansing, casualty replenishment, control, or growth ; as it stays pointed in one direction, a meter fills up, providing grander effects, like increased income, attrition on enemies (but only the regions beyond the Bastion, its also useless since the AI is mostly immune to attrition), or a comet like spell on the battlefield.

'''Actually playing:''' As mentioned above, uniting Cathay is your top priority, because the potential income you can get by having so many peaceful provinces under your direct control. And there's honestly not a lot of directions for you to expand to: The Steppes outside the bastion is simply too chaotic to be worth it, and the Mountains of Mourn are filled with Ogres and Chaos Warriors who will happily take a break from killing each other to kill you instead. Until the late game, your contact with the Old World will be limited to Caravans, which is fine, since they still provide line of sight and diopomacy options in the mountains and beyond in the Old World.

The Rifts will start out delivering only small amounts of corruption, but will get more severe as the campaign drags on, to the point that they can bring a province to 100 corruption in only a few turns. put one of the tier 3 defense building in every province and rifts will no longer spawn in your territory, just have a lord walk to a rift outside your territory instead or leave one province open to rifts. Only your faction leader can enter the Warp or traverse the rifts to fast travel to another place on the map, and when closing a rift with an army will only cause a battle, whereas using a hero only costs gold.

You need to collect four Daemon Prince souls, one from each Realm, to lead to the final battle.

*Slaanesh takes a minimum of 6 turns, as you need to go past each of the six circles and deny all the gifts presented at each exit. You can, however avoid pointless battles the easiest here by simply going straight to each rings portal and avoiding the Slaanesh daemons. If you can deal with missed chance at a soul getting the sword of Slaanesh and personal Sycophant follower is extremely strong.
*Tzeentch's realm is like a pokemon gym, where you go from island to island via teleporter until you arrive at his palace. The islands only really have 2 portals, the one you came from, and the one you need to reach, so as long as you just go from one to the next, you'll be fine. What makes this difficult, though, is that you spend the rest of your movement teleporting, no matter how much you had left. Some islands have Daemons waiting to jump you outside of the teleportation portal, sometimes one stack, others, two. Never march through a portal, since that will leave you exhausted, or worse, with no retreat option. If youre afraid of being jumped on arrival, in TW3 you can still move in the encampment stance(but at 50% range), so this not only prevents attrition but gives you an advantage on the defense
*Khorne wants to watch you fight. His realm is full of rogue armies that you must defeat, and for each kill you get, you fill up a meter. Fill this meter and he will grant you the honor of fighting the Daemon Prince at the Brass Citadel. Pick a fight against the undead or daemons, because rather than run away, they will fight on until the entire unit is wiped. This will fill the bar quickly, and its not like you had lots of ways to chase after routing ememies.
*Nurgle grinds you down with attrition, but thankfully unless Ku'gath is there too, you won't actually catch a "real" plague. The best way to move through his realm is encamped, but doing so cuts movement in half. You can also visit landmarks for some replenishment, because Nurgle is nothing but generous. That being said, his daemons will block your path and respawn right away.
*The Shadow Legion: After collecting all 4 souls, the road to the Forge of Souls is unlocked. Once more, portals will open all throughout the world, but this time Belakors forces will erupt and lay siege to your cities. The amount looks to be variable, amd by this point in the game, you are probably at war with more than just Chaos. If you have any spare heroes, close the portals right away to prevent reinforcements. Since this happens right after collecting the fourth soul, you can time it to happen right after clearing the latest wave of Kurgans, so that at the very least, you're not dealing with a Bastion invasion at the same time you're dealing with literal hell gates erupting all over your empire.
*The Final Battle: Belakor controls the Forge of Souls. It is a survival battle, so you will face three waves while also fighting through the forge. The first wave is nothing difficult, and can be won solely through Sky Junks and Celestial Crossbows, but the 2nd and 3rd will be tedious, since you're in the Forge of Souls, you will be facing a whole bunch of Soul Grinders. Take Celestial Halberds, Celestial Crossbows, and multiple Sentinels. The Halberds are self explanatory, since you will need some tough holding units to hold against the waves of Daemons, and their expert charge defence means that while fighting Bloodletters is inefficient, they wont give up without a fight; Crossbows are quite dangerous when focus firing in volleys, but the two artillery Soul Grinders (Nurgle and Tzeentch) are both also the tankiest. Take out Tzeentch first, because Barrier recharges, and it will recharge once you stop shooting it. When teched up, Sentinels are a good match for Soul Grinders, but are very slow in movement and attacking without support, so you will want to have someone fight the Daemons while the Sentinels fight the Daemon Engines.
**This is where a military alliance really comes in handy. Bloodletters are pretty good against your infantry, and are still pretty dangerous when they mob a sentinel. Tzar Guard or Armored Kossars provide some offensive oomph that your Celestials and Jade Warriors otherwise lack.
**One tricky part about Survival is that even after a wave is "over," you will continue to be harassed until the next wave begins. After the first wave ends, Chaos Hounds wil harass your troops until they capture the secont point, so you will need to leave a rear guard behind to deal with them, otherwise your heavy infantry, or worse, your slow, slow, Sentinels wil get stuck behind swatting them. After the second wave, Belakor spawns endless Daemons. Daemonettes and Bloodletters will rush you, while Pink Horrors will pepper you with magic while taking no damage in return from barrier.
**The Final Wave wont end until Belakor is slain. Belakor summons even more Soul grinders, as well as a bunch of heavier hitters, like Minotaurs of Khorne and Doom Knights. They will be teleporting in from all over the throne room, so you will need to keep an eye out for when a portal opens and for what comes out of it. The only thing that prevents this from being utter Bullshit is that they give you a shit ton of Sentinels (7??) in the final wave of reinforcements, and you will be legitimately retarded if you take anything else besides them. In fact, because of how many Sentinels you get for the final battle, you may be able getting away only three or four in your army, and filling the rest with heavy infantry or crossbows. The final battle is chaotic and all over the place, and warm bodies to hold back the reinforcements might be more helpful than 15 sentinels all trying to gangbang Belakor.

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[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay

2022-08-18T19:30:02Z

2600:387:2:80F:0:0:0:7A: /* Cavalry */

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

==Why Play Cathay==
*Because Total War: Three Kingdoms didn't go hard enough into fantasy for you.
*These guys are finally being fleshed out (with the full blessings of our [[Games Workshop|evil British overlords]] nonetheless) after years and you want to see what they come up with.
*You're into chinese history and mythology.
*You want to play a defensive gunline but don't want to play as boring white guys, short vengeful alcoholics or the bad guys from Pirates of the Caribbean
*You think it's extremely funny to watch Flamers of Tzeentch, Jezzails, and Artillery pieces nuke themselves when you use Mirror Missile on them.
*You playstyle is similar to the Empire and/or Dwarfs, but you can't play them yet in Warhammer III until Immortal Empires is finally released.

===Pros===
*'''Designed for Total War''': One thing we can say as an advantage for Cathay is unlike the other factions they will be designed from the ground up to be in a Total War game rather than trying to transition from a tabletop game into total war. This gives them the potential to be one of the best-designed races and balanced since they're not trying to fit a square Warhammer peg into a round Total War hole.
*'''Numbers''': In lore, Cathay has the largest population of all the human nations, so they have bodies to spare. Don't expect Skaven numbers, but you'll have large armies compared to other good guy races.
*'''Range''': As the oldest Human nation to have gotten gunpowder, it makes sense it plays a big role in your army. You have access to a ton of gunpowder units and artillery to blast the enemy apart. You also got some elite crossbows to play around with. The harmony system ensures that your ranged units have some of the higest reload skill in the entire game, which means... Well, [[Dakka|you shoot a lot.]]
*'''Air Power''': With your Longma, War Balloons and your Dragons you will be decently scary in the air. You won't be fast, and any opposing faction with decent air cavalry will likely threaten you, but you have some potent options.
*'''Harmony''': Cathay has a solid combination of ranged and melee units that work together well in concert. Similarly, units can either be Yin or Yang aligned and having the two working together provides you with a bonus.
*'''Defensive''': Cathay is built to last. Between your faction mechanics and selection of magical lores, Grand Cathay is built to hold the line. If you crave a faction with a strong, staunch line of spears to keep your enemies at bay, Cathay's going to be the faction for you.
*'''Magic:''' Cathay is actually able to keep up with the best of them when it comes to magic. Sure, you don't have the variety that High Elves or Empire have but with 4 lores you do have the most of the game 3 factions. Plus, with Mastery of the Elemental Winds, your spells do more damage the more mages you have in your army. Especially in campaign, Miao and Zhao can carry the army with their spells alone.

===Cons===
*'''Synergy''': Due to the way Harmony works, you will NEED to keep units close to each other, otherwise individual units will underperform. As such, you will likely be locked into turtling in order to get your units close enough to get the buffs they might need in order to perform efficiently. On their own, your units actually have ''lower'' stats than their equivalent in other armies, only getting better when properly buffed.
*'''Slow''': Cathay won't be winning many foot races compared to other factions. Though not as plodding as the dwarfs or lizardmen, you don't have much in the way of cavalry and your war balloons are pretty susceptible to air cav and missile fire.
*'''Subpar Cavalry''': Out of all the non Chaos human factions, you're easily the worst when it comes to Cavalry. Jade Lancers are on equal footing with Empire Knights, which doesn't seem bad until you realizes that your second best cavalry option is roughly on par with another faction's weakest heavy cav that tend to get flattened by more elite options. Peasant Horsemen are similar to Mounted Yeomen and while Longma aren't bad they are expensive while not having AP or anti large. Could be worse, you at least ''have'' cavalry, but most factions will out match you with their riders.
*'''Limited Skirmishers''': No vanguard deployment, stalk, or cheap fast movers other than peasant horsemen. You're going to suck at harrying broken units off the map and hunting enemy skirmishers + war machines.
*'''AoE Susceptible''': A core mechanic of Cathay units is that they gain bonuses when in close proximity with each other. While this can be great for holding the line, it also makes your forces more vulnerable to vortex or wind spells. You'll have to keep an eye out for enemy wizards.
*'''No Melee Expert Non-Legendary Lords or Heroes''': None of your non-LL and Heroes are really that good in melee combat or can serve as a tank. I know what you're thinking "But the Dragon Siblings!" but they won't be leading all your armies in campaign and they are expensive in multiplayer. 3 out of 4 of your Lords and Heroes are Mages and the one that isn't, the Lord Magistrate, is a support buffing character rather than a melee duelist or a tank. Shugengan lords are stated to be decent in melee but trust me, that's only by Mage Lord standards. You won't have many characters that can be safely thrown into melee combat. Concept art was found for a "Gate Master" hero, which will likely serve as the Cathayan equivalent of the Empire Captain or High Elf Noble, so this issue will probably be fixed with DLC.
*'''Not Designed for Domination''': Forget about Cathay being "Numbah Wan," Cathay is currently one of the Bottom Tier worst factions in multiplayer. As of mid March, Cathay only has a 38% win rate in multiplayer, and recent balance patches and Domination rule changes really didn't help you out too much. You have no real way to play aggressive in Domination and can't force people off of points. If you only care about [[That Guy|winning through OP ways]], don't bother playing Cathay until they get their DLC.
*'''DLC''': There are three guarantees in life. Death, Taxes, and Core Races getting units withheld for DLC. There is already a notable lack of monkey in the Cathay roster. Sorry Cathay, don't expect to be different. (Though in this case, I guess it's less "units being held back" and more "CA and GW making up more shit later.")
**Note that we can generally predict 2-3 lord packs for Cathay. In Mythology china gave each of the 4 cardinal direction's there own set of associations, beast, element, god so on, and with two lords already claiming two of those directions, 2 more for the other two compass points and a possible 5th for the center seems likely.

==Faction traits==
*'''Battle Harmony''': Shared by all non-character Cathay units. Melee units are marked as "Yang", while ranged units are "Yin"; these units gain bonuses when near a unit of the opposite type: leadership and melee defence for melee Yang units, and leadership and reload speed for ranged Yin units. Characters multiply these bonuses for nearby units.
*'''Mastery of the Elemental Winds''': Shared by all Cathayan spellcasters, this ability enhances their spells for each spellcaster present in the army. This encourages taking multiple spellcasters, something not usually done in other factions.
*'''Formation Attack''': A trait that makes the unit try to stay in formation, even when in combat. Presumably, this makes holding chokepoints and positions easier to do.

==Lords==
We finally got the names of the two legendary lords, and they turn out to be new characters. The children of the Dragon Emperor and the Moon Empress, they rule in his stead over the various provinces of Cathay.

===Legendary Lords===
Kathay has a tech unlockable banner that gives 20% ward save, use this on your legendary of choice, if you take the sword of Slaanesh from the chaos realm you'll get another 20% ward save and tons of damage. enjoy being the toughest/deadliest lord in WH 3. even Skarbrand cant compete with 70-80% ward save dragons who also cast spells.
*'''[[Miao Ying]], the Storm Dragon, ruler of the Northern Provinces and Commander of the Great Bastion.''': Daughter of the Dragon Emperor. Miss Cold and Aloof. She is in the north and is daddy's favourite. Can transform between human form where she buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. She will be able to use a hybrid of Life and Yin Magic: Including Earth Blood, Storm of Shadows, Flesh to Stone, Missile Mirror, Regrowth and Talons of Night, with both Lore Traits of Lifebloom and Power of Yin. She has the Wrath of the Storm ability, which increases melee attack, makes attacks magical, and makes those affected immune to psychology. She also has the Disdain of Dragons ability, which lowers enemy melee attacks in a constant radius. She also has access to the Mirror Missile spell which is easily one of the most trollish spells in the entire game, you will never tire of watching the enemy's elite ranged units delete themselves when they fire with the hex activated. She is the only lord kathay had with non bound spell healing, and regrowth is amazing on herself and terracotta sentinels. no inherent access to regeneration as a skill though, the von carstein blade item from caravans is perfect for her.

*'''[[Zhao Ming]], the Iron Dragon, ruler of the Western Provinces and Lord of Shang-Yang''': Son of the Dragon Emperor, and a mama's boy. His faction is stated to focus on and specialize in Alchemists and Astronomers. Can transform between human form where he buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. He uses a hybrid of Metal and Yang magic, unfortunately his spell selection is kinda terrible, his only really great spell is final transmutation and maybe glittering robe early on, but the rest are pretty weak. It feels like they purposely picked only the weakest spells from the lore Yang to give him, he would have been great with jade shield, stone stance, might of heaven and earth to self buff but instead he got the weaker damage spells only. He gets regeneration, an AOE ward save aura (includes him), and can cast final transmutation with a discount which is actually very powerful for taking out the mass soulgrinders you face in campaign/the final battle. He has large army wide buffs to armor and weapon damage. if you want to Terracotta sentinel doomstack he is a great choice but lack of access to healing spells is an issue.

===Lords===
*'''Dragon-Blooded Shugengan Lord''': Descended from when a human pulled a Donkey from Shrek with Cathay's rulers. Your Mage lord, they come with the lores of Yang or Yin and their mounts are Warhorse or Jade Longma for extra mobility. While they are ''slightly'' better than most mage lords in melee don't expect them to last long if a dedicated melee character gets a hold of them. Yin and Yang variants each get to choose from 4 different options of bound spells from other lore’s usable 4 times each, I prefer Yang because they can get earthblood, which is Cathay’s only healing access or spirit leach is good for yin.

*'''Lord Magistrate''': Your cheap normal frontline general. His gimmick is being able to further improve the harmony mechanic of his army, so extra incentive to form up in a sexy turtle. He also comes with the ability to buff the defense, damage or range of units with his army abilities. His mounts are Warhorse or Sky Lantern. Sadly he's garbage in melee, his mounts suck and pretty much anything he can do a Shugengan can do better. As such no real reason to nab him unless you want to hear his gloriously hammy voice acting. He's also unfortunately the only lord that will ever lead your caravans.

===Legendary Heroes===

===Generic Heroes===
*'''Alchemist''': Mages who fight with vials and magic that looks like Chinese calligraphy. Lore of Metal user with some extra bound buffs to armour, melee attack and magic damage with armour piecing. Can mount a warhorse. She has a battle skill buff that gives increased base damage and magic attacks with the ability to specialize in adding either Poison with the same bonus damage as the base version, Flaming which gives double the base damage increase, or a version which gives more AP damage and non AP as an aoe buff power. She can be good just to make sure that your units have other ways to fight the enemy.

*'''Astromancer''': Your lore of heavens caster. His mounts are a Warhorse for mobility or a Wu Xing War Compass which seems as though it will boost his magic output considerably. You pick this mage if you just want to blow shit up, as his War Compass mount gives him two free bound spells to rain upon the enemy.

==Units==

===Infantry===
*'''Peasant Long Spearmen''': Your early chaff unit that's literally expected to run away once things get hairy. The unexpected MVP of the roster (at least until DLCs give you something better). They come with Expendable ''and'' Expert Charge Defense, which is a rarity for tier 1 units.
**Rather than treating them like Skavenslaves, they're a lot more like TK skeleton spearmen without the shields: a really good screen with lots of bodies, relatively high health compared to the rest of your infantry, and high model count that can absorb losses. They're still expendable chaff, and you take them to die in place of your Jade warriors or Celestial Guard.
** Really fucking good for how easy and cheap they are. With the harmony buff, the Peasant Long Spearmen have stats higher than state troops, and function very well as a front line against everything. They are vulnerable to missiles, but you should have outshooting your opponents anyway.
**The Terracotta sentinel is very vulnerable to tarpitting, Peasant Long Spears are mobile and numerous enough to keep some of that pressure off them. They wont provide any harmony benefits though.
**Can tank for ages against pretty much anything with the jade shield 44% ward save buff from the lore of yang. Perfect for sacrificial screening, especially since lore of yang also has really powerful AOE spells you can drop on units getting traffic jammed by the peasants.
**Significantly better in Campaign. By the late game, it wouldn't be hard to produce them at tier 7, and their morale gets significantly better with technology and building upgrades, and can lead to hilarious situations where a single unit of Peasants holds off a band of Chosen on its own. They wont do any damage, of course, but that's why you drop a vortex or airship bomb on them.
*'''Jade Warriors''': Your mid-tier unit and your bread and butter until you can afford Celestial Dragon Guard. Have a unique mechanic where the longer they sit still and brace, the more bonuses they get, gaining higher charge resistance and armour. Make the Dragon Empire into the Turtle Empire with these guys. Just keep in mind that like turtles, they don't move very fast or hit very hard.
**The Sword and Shield combo, when combined with Harmony and their own innate stationary buff, they are very tough and can still find a use to tank hits for the Dragon Guard in the late-game. Excellent front line unit with good missile block chance and armor.
**The Halberd has better melee attack and armor piercing, so theyre like the Wardancers in that even when fighting against heavy infantry, it might be useful to take them to do some damage. Still more of a holding force than an aggressive force. Once you conquer Cathay you will probably just be fighting demons and marauders so these will probably be better than the shield variant.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard''': Your elite, end-game unit, taking the best from both Jade Warriors since they're all armed with Halberds and Shields. They have expert charge defense, AP, and dont get bonuses/lose nothing from moving, meaning you could move them to where they're needed most, or even have them charge though Peasant chaff, foregoing the low charge bonus to keep models alive given the low-model count typical of Elite Infantry.
**'''Dune Dragons''' - Dragon Guard with Magic Attacks, Magic Resist, Immune to Psych and Encourage. These guys are pretty much designed to be a middle finger to large Daemons as they can punch through their physical resist and not get terror routed.

===Missiles===
*'''Peasant Archers''': Like your peasant infantry, but with a bow and arrow. Cheap and expendable, potentially valuable if you need a relatively disposable unit to provide a small amount of ranged support and trigger the yin/yang buff where needed. Has no AP, but that shouldn't be a problem in campaign where the majority of your chaos, norsca, and ogre enemies don't have much armor.
** Very cost effective, especially with the harmony buffs. Can put down a significant amount of fire with their reload skill buffs.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors with crossbows (in case you couldn't have told from their name). Armoured and with a shielded variant, they sit in-between Empire Crossbowmen and Dwarf Quarrelers in terms of durability and power; they still have the same "hunker-down" ability as regular JW, so you'll probably want to move them in position behind Long Spears and refrain from moving them to keep those bonuses.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen With shields''' You know the drill by now. silver shield and a minor buff to melee defence. In campaign avoid getting these unless your economy is absurd as they are a significant upkeep increase for no extra practical combat performance. In mutiplayer currently they're also not reccomended as the only other factions that pose a missile threat are magical-tzeench and kislev's massive cavalry spam. both of which shields don't help great against and it's better to have an extra unit of peasants or some shit over the shielded variant.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors on steroids, once again. Shielded, heavily armoured and with armour-piercing bolts, they're durable archers that can trade shots with the enemy's best.
**On paper, their bolts have more strength than the Sisters of Avelorn, but it's mundane AP versus the Fire/Magic combo that lets the Sisters put in work against pretty much anything. Celestial Crossbowmen have better DPS when buffed, though.
**Desperate and in a pinch? Castle too tight for shooting? Well, they're still Celestial Guard, and so are decent in melee, minus the AP or anti-large bonus. They still give Harmony when in melee.

* '''Iron Hail Gunners''': A living version of the Zombie Handcannons from the Pirate coast, these ladies massacre armoured infantry with their high-AP shotguns. With the Harmony system, being able to keep them closer to your melee units will make them into machinegunning shotgunners. Can fire in melee if the enemy makes contact without breaking through the first rank.
**Unlike your Crossbowmen or Crane gunners, they lack shields or armor, but are much more mobile. You can flank with them to outright delete elite infantry, but even having them shoot through gaps in your formation is also helpful, because they're Cathayan shotguns.
**Considering how quickly you can get these ladies in the Campaign, they're instrumental damage dealers from early to mid.
** Be cautious about using them against the ogres because they will literally just run through your front line, because hurr durr pull through. In campaign, best employed against all chaos factions other than Tzeentch, whose basic units will fucking slaughter the gunners with their ranged attacks, because fuck you I guess.

* '''Crane Gunners''': Human Skaven Jezzails. Much like their rat counterparts, these gunners excel at long-ranged sniping with their second-only-to-artillery range and will likely form a core part of your backline while you make the enemy come to you. They come with shields, which should give them some missile resistance to weather counter-fire and kill those jezzails. You're probably better off going for grand cannons in most match ups though. Grand cannons have better all around combat stats and the exact same movement speed; but with Patch 1.2, they are now shieldbreakers (reducing Missile Block Chance) and their missile go through infantry, which makes them really good at mowing down infantry. Better than cannons at sniping out faster targets and flyers and they can take cover + shoot out of forests while cannons can't.

===Cavalry===
*'''Peasant Horseman''': The fastest thing in your army that can't fly. Probably based on the herdsmen levies that numerous Chinese dynasties employed as scouts and light cav. With an almost identical statline to Brettonian mounted yeomen, the only reason to get peasant horsemen is because Cathay has no alternatives other than Jade Lancers and Longmas who are simply too expensive to waste chasing down routing units + artillery crews. You'll want to grab a few of these guys in Multiplayer and early campaign, but hopefully we'll get better alternatives with future DLC.

*'''Jade Lancers''': Jade warriors on horseback. More defensive than other factions cavalry. More suited defending your flank than running in to attack the enemy. Fucking awful other than their mediocre armor and their shields, ineffective in melee, slow compared to most other heavy cav. Can't even run down enemies because of their glacial speeds. In campaign, consider using the Iron Hail gunners/Jade Crossbows/etc. if you want a flanking unit, who will actually kill the units they are supposed to kill, or just peasant horsemen if you want to run down routing enemies. They can get the Slaanesh devastating flanker ability from a campaign tech so they should do ok if you rear charge anything without too much armor.

*'''Great Jade Longma Riders''': Your versions of pegasus knights, except instead of a rich noble who sneers at peasants, you get a rich noble whose great-great-great-grandad/mom got busy with a dragon. Also comes with Fear, possibly making them an expensive option to spook away and chase routing units. Their true strength will be as a bodyguard unit for your squishy balloons against enemy air forces, and being a hammer to the rest of your rosters anvil.
**Stats wise, they're roughly between pegasus and royal pegasus knights that traded away their Anti-Large bonus in exchange for 30 more armour (110 total), higher weapon strength, and charge bonus. As such, they're better at dealing with multiple different types of opponents but aren't quite as good at dealing with large units and other cav.
**'''Righteous Lances of Wei-Jin''': Comes with majority AP damage and the Guardian ability. If you want a unit that can serve as a body guard for your flying lords and can deal with heavily armored targets these are the horse dragon things for you.

===Chariots===
*'''Wu-Xing War Compass''': A big ol' magical battery that boosts Harmony and counts towards Mastery of Elemental Winds increase the power of your spells. Can cast Urannons Thunderbolt and Comet of Casanodora; the Compass has been buffed in 1.2 to give you 2 free casts of each power without costing WoM, but their ''Celestial Comet'' is half as strong (but also twice as fast) to compensate. Better used as a mount for your spellcasters than an actual unit on it's own
**Also ok in melee as a ...cart. It moves as fast as infantry, literally anyone who gets run over by this thing deserves to die under the hooves of plain old cows dragging a heavy fucking magic compass.

===Monsters===
*'''Terracotta Sentinel''': Take the standard Terracotta soldier from China, make it really big and teach it kung fu and you have this thing. Possible doomstack material. They are unbreakable and hit like a truck, making them good at both clearing chaff and 1v1ing monsters. Don't leave them unsupported against missile units or anti-large elites, as they'll still break down to concentrated AP and missiles. Causes Terror for understandable reasons.
**If you've played Tomb Kings, you know what to expect: keep them away from Halberd tarpits and anti-large monstrous infantry, and if you can't, give them a screen, like Peasant spears or Jade cavalry.
**It's also the best monster in the entire game right now. Like seriously, this thing can beat a Bloodthirster one on one. It's also the cheapest big single entity monster in the entire game as well. Yeah these things are a little bullshit. Given that Cathay is viewed as a little subpar it's nice that they have at least one unit that is really strong, but expect CA to whack these guys with the nerf bat eventually.

===Artillery===
* '''Grand Cannon''': Pulled by oxen making surprisingly mobile, your normal cannon unit. Unlike other factions cannon units, also comes with flaming attacks by default, making it slightly better at burning up trees and mummies, and cutting through regeneration. It is roughly as fast as a standard infantry unit, which is actually a big deal because it will be able to keep up with your main army and rearrange itself much easier than a normal cannon.
** Extremely strong basic artillery unit, which, with the harmony bonuses, can and will kill large units very fucking quickly with their reload bonuses. Always nice to swat Fateweaver out of the sky even before the shit starts spamming searing doom/various fires over your lines.
** It's important to note that these boys are the most accurate cannons we've seen in Total war so far, extremely useful as they're actually capable of swatting tzeench's flying chariots out of mid-air, You can get to tier 3 extremely quickly in campaign and these boys WILL be your bread and butter for the entire campaign.

* '''Fire Rain Rocket''': Imagine a hellstorm rocket battery that fires even faster due to the Harmony mechanic. Terrifying. Aim for big blobs of enemies and watch as they become chunky salsa. Compared to the normal Hellstorm it does more missile damage, but the majority of it isn't actually AP. So while you still want to aim for blobs, those blobs should be of less armoured infantry rather than heavily armoured stuff.

* '''Kongming Sky Lantern''': The smaller of the two airship units with Crane Gunners, and dedicated support. It provides a morale boost to your infantry on top of Harmony, so even your Peasants will hold the line for as long as they humanly can. They also grant vision on units that are hiding in foliage, which can help thwart ambushes. They don't reveal Stalk, though.
**It can fire while moving and line of sight isn't much of a problem, so as long as it doesn't get attacked, it can take potshots at the enemy. It's slow as balls though, so any flying unit that gets its hands on it will be able to tear it to pieces. And pretty much every chaos army has furies who will rip it to shreds
**Almost useless, if it wasn't for the harmony mechanic + its encouragement buff, you probably wouldn't ever take them. As a flying unit, it can provide a source of Harmony that the enemy cant touch unless they devote their other flyers or ranged units on it.
**Offensively, though, their crane guns are like the stormbolter on a Rhino: they just dont shoot enough to actually be dangerous, and don't have the bombs that would otherwise make them useful. You may as well take the Crane Guns on infantry if you want sniper fire, or the Sky Junk for Guns, Bombs, and Rockets.

* '''Kongming Sky-junks''': The heavier of the two airship units that [[Awesome|acts as a flying Helstorm Rocket Battery]]. Can also drop bombs gyrocopter style, and has high armour against missile units. Unlike most other flying units, it can't toggle landing, so try to protect it against flying cav with missile units. It is slow as fuck and will be pretty much useless once it runs out of ammo, but it will hopefully do some devastating damage before that happens.
**Tanky enough to take hits from Furies and other flying beasties that lack AP, they are a nice flying Distraction Carnifex until they run out of ammo. And even when they do, they're a nice flying anvil to hold flyers in place while your Longma riders hammer them.
**They do have an edge against ground artillery, as even if theyre focused down by other artilery pieces, you can expect them to miss more often than not because you're flying, just put them far away enough that those missed shots dont hit your castles infantrybl instead.
**Much more effective when you fire very closely downwards, otherwise, just a shitty fire rain launcher.
**Oddly enough, they can be healed mid-battle with Miao Ying or a dragon blooded lord with bound lore of life spells.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
You are what happens when the Empire, Dwarfs, and Skaven all have the world's weirdest threesome where lingering eye contact was held with the Vampire Coast; and they had a baby. Your themes revolve around plentiful, expendable infantry and strong missiles working in unison to bunker down an area and blast anything that comes at you straight to hell. Harmony is a double edge sword, as while it encourages you to pair units together and builds buffs, it also means units on their own aren't reaching their full potential. This is a quantity over quality faction with limited offensive options, as the closest thing you have to offensive infantry is sword and board Jade Warriors, and while they have cavalry, they're slow and limited compared to other factions.

Since the Cathayan army is so new, there's a massive lack of units for the army compared to all the other established factions, and in some ways, it almost feels unfinished. For example, your have no ranged cavalry options, which means your cavalry options won't be able to receive the Harmony benefit if they go too far (and the bubble is so small, you can lose Harmony just chasing after other cavalry). CA is definitely holding back options to make room for new DLC.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Beastmen| Beastmen]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Bretonnia| Bretonnia]]''': With more flavours of cavalry than you can comprehend, you'll need to set up extremely defensively and bring plenty of halberds to fend off all the armoured horse riders. Be sure to pepper them with your armour piecing missiles, and use peasant chaff to block charges and allow your actual hard hitters to stay in position to fire upon them. Don't bother bringing lanterns and longma riders, Bretonnias air forces are too scary and will easily win any aerial battle, and the lanterns and longma aren't going to be much help against cav and are wasted on peasant chaff.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Daemons of Chaos| Daemons of Chaos]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Warriors of Chaos| Warriors of Chaos]]''':
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Heavily armored barbarians are threatening Cathay's border, and it's up to hot dom dragon waifu and her warpdust snorting fuccboi brother to keep Cathay safe
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
WoC wants to get into melee as soon as they can, and their elite infantry will fuck yours since all your AP is on anti-large; at least your dudes will fuck over any Dragon Ogres, though. Anything bigger than a Dragon Ogre can be handled by the Sentinel
</br>
You outclass them in ranged combat with actual archers, guns, and artillery, WoC players will send Manticores and Cavalry after them, so keep some Halberds next to them (which you should be doing anyway for the Harmony mechanic.)
</br>
That being said, their lack of ranged weapons means that your Sky-Junks will have grand old time, and may be a better investment than ground-based Fire Rockets. Manticores will die to Longma Riders, so keeping them protected will not be an issue.
</div></div>
*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves| Dark Elves]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dwarfs| Dwarfs]]''':
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This will be tough for the same reason the Vampirates are bad in this matchup, they do your main tactic better than you do. They have a wider assortment of guns and artillery, and great ways to kill your large units. They have Catapults to fuck your formations, while your indirect artillery lacks AP to punch through thicc dwarf armor.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

You will need to play offence against the Dwarfs which isn't great as you have no armour-piercing infantry that isn't bonus versus large, and your units only hit their peak efficiency when they're stationary and next to someone of the opposite type. They're also slow, not dwarf-slow, but slow enough that you'll take losses from Dwarf artillery, so it's a good idea to have at least a few peasants in front off your dudes to die for the Greater G--Harmony.

Your shielded crossbowmen are decent with good AP, get better when they're stationary, reload quicker with the Harmony mechanic; so long as their shields are faced where the shots are coming from, you can bounce some missiles off, too; Iron Hail gunners are much quicker than Jade Warriors or Dwarfs, and their shotguns pack a mean punch, especially when they're quick-firing with Harmony. They can be very good flankers when you pair them with Peasant Long Spears to guard their flanks and provide Harmony. Crane Gunners are like Skaven jezzails, use them to shoot down Gyrocopters to clear the skies and give your airships the ability to shoot from afar without being shot down. Speaking of airships, the Skyjunk is a better investment than the Fire Rain rocket; their weapons are similar, but the Skyjunk is harder to hit by enemy artillery, has much better angling, and when it runs out of ammo, can drop bombs that will be much more disruptive than the non-AP Fire Rain rockets.

Jade Warriors with shields will likely by your best melee infantry bet as they might be able to survive salvos as they hold against the dwarven line, but try screening them with Peasant Long Spears; they'll break, but when they regroup you can use them as Harmony buffers with your Iron Hail or Crane Guns. In terms of how to break the line, Ox Cannons are quite mobile for an artillery piece, and Crane Guns can provide covering fire from afar.

Your best lord option is a dragon blooded lore of yin caster on a longma. She's highly disruptive to ranged heavy factions since she can summon fodder into the middle of the enemy gunline like a flying vampire lord and overcast missile mirror to shut down individual ranged units for 36 seconds at a time.
</div></div>
*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Empire| Empire]]''':
Remember what we said in Dwarfs and Vampirates? Yeah you're dealing with a faction that does your thing better than you again. Grand Cannons are better than Great Cannon thanks to Harmony buffs and better mobility, but that's about the only good thing in this particular matchup. Luminarks hard counter Sky Junks and Imperial rocketry has ''significantly'' greater range than your own, while the constant threat of Demigryph up the ass keep you from rushing in without a plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''':
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">There is no war in Grand Cathay
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
This game is still too new for a meta, and most games you have on MP will just be people trying shit out. That being said, take Skyjunks and Fire Rockets and shoot the shit out of the enemy castle. Exploit the Grand Cannons mobility and provide harmony with cheap Peasants that you wont mind losing. Pop airships with Longma or Sky Lanterns, and save the Crane Gunners for their Longma. Take a sentinel and if your opponent takes one too, they can practice their kung fu

</div></div>

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Greenskins| Greenskins]]''': Greenskins shred dwarfs. but you have the great ability of actually having mobile options and magic. a positive matchup in your favor. bring one or two iron hail gunners to melt greenskin monsters and a lore of yang caster for the fire-wall. jade warriors should be able to hold off even black orks buying time for your missiles to bring the pain.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/High Elves| High Elves]]''': Your biggest threat will be dragons or an arcane phoenix and magic. Any sort of mass-AOE will rip apart your packed formations and the helves have a lot of options. bring grand cannons and use their accuracy to snipe their mages and dragons. otherwise your missile line is better than the helves and your frontline is better. a balanced matchup

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Khorne|Khorne]]''': One of your better matchups. Elite armies really don't like wading through gunfire to get to the enemy lines. Khorne will bring hounds, furies, and a bloodletter summoning cultist or two to disrupt you, peasant spearsmen and maybe a longma squad should suffice to tie them up. A terracotta sentinel is highly recommended as an emergency responder to Khorne's monsters along with a lore of yin caster to snare enemies with storm of shadows and block their movement with summoned fodder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Kislev|Kislev]]''': This is a faction that either relies on subpar ranged power or lots of heavy cavalry. pretty much all your infantry is anti-large and you outrange kislev massively. a very positive matchup in your favour as kislev's 'jack of all trades master of none' once again fails against a more specialised faction

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen| Lizardmen]]''': This will theoretically be a tricky match up, but ultimately one in your favor. Your plentiful AP gunpowder units will make quick work of the sluggish Saurus and, when coupled with your multitude of halberd units, can do some serious damage to their bigger beasties, but they're likely not going to be the forces a competent Lizardmen army will bring. Instead, Skinks will be your bane. Fast skirmishers and Chameleons will hassle you from all angles with their poisonous darts while their cavalry (flying or otherwise) disrupts your formations with fear/terror-inducing charges. If they're bringing a Slann, you will NEED to keep on top of your positioning; positioning your forces too close makes them prime candidates for the myriad of vortex and wind spells at their beck and call. Deal with them first, followed by any cavalry/skirmishers and clean up what's left with your plentiful gunpowder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Norsca| Norsca]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Nurgle| Nurgle]]''': Nurgle hates ranged units, enemy large units, an abundance of anti-large, fire damage, and enemies that can hold out in a grindfest against them. You are all of these things and Nurgle has vanishingly few options against you. Long Ma riders take a huge dump all over any of Nurgle's fliers and the fire damage of your artillery, magic, and more will make Nurgle weep with sorrow as you delete his slow moving and utterly unshielded units off the table one after the other. And as Nurgle has extremely anemic charges he can't even reliably break your formations without lucky spell casts; which of course relies on the Nurglites even getting a spellcaster in range through your numerous means to snipe them off the field. You can basically win this matchup while AFK, but something to watch out for is nurgles Army Ability, which can jump from one nearby unit to another, and Harmony forces your units together, so keep an eye out for the plauges.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Ogre Kingdoms| Ogre Kingdoms]]''': High mass charging units will ruin your day. ogres are cathay's worst matchup bar none in warhammer 3. your frontline will get pushed around like paper as while halberds CAN deal a lot of damage and hold off ogres the ogres can bring a lot more ogre bulls for the price than you can bring halberds. It's worth having no magic and getting a cheap lord as your units are a lot more useful than the lores available for once,

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven| Skaven]]''': From the looks of it, this seems to be your hardest matchup by far. Your harmony mechanic relies heavily on having a solid plan for most stages of the game and Skaven excel at disruption, be it through summons, skirmishing Eshin troops or just raw balls-to-the-wall firepower of Clan Skryre. Mirror Missile is your friend in this match-up and for its relatively low winds of magic cost is one of the single most brutal anti-ranged unit spells in the entire game, forcing the Skaven commander to either force their ranged unit into inactivity for twenty seconds or watch their prized shooters wipe themselves out.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Slaanesh| Slaanesh]]''': What's this, a speedy flanking faction designed to dive backlines? This could spell trouble for you. Fortunately, you theoretically have one way to banish Slaanesh's creeps back to the warp, and that's "Invest in flying units and box up with halberds." Slaanesh has no ranged units and only Furies as fliers, so as long as you have a Longma unit or cheap missiles to protect them, your Sky Lanterns and Sky Junks will be pretty much untouchable as they blast apart Slaanesh's ranks. Due to the amount of AP on their roster, Celestial Dragon Guard are a risky choice so invest either in Peasent spears or Jade Warriors with Halberds. You won't win the melee fight so don't bother investing in it. Have your infantry hold while your War Ballons shoot, your flying casters cast (Grab either the Dragon Siblings or a Shugangen in the air to keep them safe) and your Longma use their speed to flank and rear charge. Your balloons will run out of ammo eventually though, so make every shot count. Or just bring crossbows/archers, and shoot the living shit out of the exhibitionists.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''': Lore of yang fire wall. 'nuff said

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tzeentch| Tzeentch]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast| Vampire Coast]]''': If the Coast thinks they can outshoot you they have another thing coming. Rocket artillery devastates Vampirate formations and while they can swat your Sky lanterns out of the sky if they bring terrorgheists, Long Ma riders and your Legendary Lords can swat those out of the air in turn and curbstomp any deck droppers they bring. You have well armoured and shielded ranged units who will tear straight through the fragile ranks of the Coast and can stop any monsters they field cold; while your artillery is able to out-trade Vampirate cannons with a better rate of fire as long as harmony is active. Also Missile Mirror was basically created to troll the Vampire Coast specifically.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Counts| Vampire Counts]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| Wood Elves]]''':

===Domination===
General Tier Rank: '''D'''

You know how Harmony encourages you to stick your units together and to hold down a single point while not getting too aggressive? In Domination you win by doing the exact opposite of that. Since you have to spread out your forces and go on the offensive it's really hard for you to actually keep your Harmony active meaning a good chunk of your units won't be fighting at their price range. What's more, since you're out maneuvered by most factions, odds are you will not being getting to most points first and will have to fight off your enemies to secure them. Good news is that with your high armor, Terrocottas and range once you do have a point it's decently hard to kick you off. It would really help if you had some kind of decent, inexpensive mobile threat or just a fast ranged unit that can help keep harmony on all your infantry. You're way better in normal land battles though, as it's significantly easier to play your game and keep Harmony up.

==Campaign Mechanics and Tactics==

Unlike Kislev, which devolves into a Daemon fuckfest around the third or fourth wave of Rifts, Cathay is so easily-defendable that it's just begging for a rework, or at least a nerfbat.

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'''Bastion:''' You have no real enemies outside the invaders in the Steppes beyond the Bastion, or the Ogres/Chaos Warriors in the Mountains to the South. The Bastion has a unique "Chaos Invasion" mechanic where Kurgans get spawned every so often to lay siege to the Bastion. They are Norscans rather than WoC, though, so have absolutely no artillery or siege ability outside of throwing trolls or mammoths at you, and the Bastion Gates practically pay for themselves once you invest in the Upkeep Lowering building chain, (which can go as far as 90% upkeep reduction for garrisoned armies), and get the settlement to level 4 to build Terracotta Sentinels. The Kurgans pretty much only exist to die against your garrisons and give them free experience. Funnily enough, should an AI Cathayan faction own all the gates, the stacks will do absolutely nothing but wait outside the gates.

'''Trade and Treaties:'''Speaking of Cathayan Factions, there are four hostile rebels (two for each Legendary Lord) and two Loyalist ones, who will be pretty easily confederated once you beat the rebels. Do this as quickly as you can, because your income will rise substantially with their provinces and stability. Cathayan income is comparable to High Elves, without the expensive upkeep. You will actually have enough passive income to station a hero in each province to close rifts as they come up, and the gold needed for each action. You can now just use defense building to stop rifts spawning at all.

You'll also have lots of potential trade partners; by sending Caravans westwards, you can establish diplomatic relations with factions they pass through, and trade treaties can be established with those on the route. These trade relationships can be turned into military treaties, which can eventually lead to Outposts, a new mechanic in Campaign that lets you build military outposts in major settlements (Provincial Capitals with 4+ slots). If you both have an outpost in each other's territories, both factions get to purchase infantry from each other's respective recruitment pools. Cathayan Castles with Kislev Tzar Guard? Na, think Jade Warriors backed by Kroxigors, or Hawk Riders screening for your airships!

'''Harmony and the Compass:''' Harmony is pretty tedious. Your economic/defense buildings, technology, and characters (+1 for heroes, +3 for lords) all have a corresponding Yin-Yang cost. Going too far towards one way will lead to inefficiency at the least, and provincial instability at the worst. Yin and Yang balance will fluctuate as you lose heroes and research tech, and certain buildings will wax and wane in usefulness as your empire expands/contracts: One Yin building, for example, provides better casualty replenishment, while its Yang counterpart ranks up your Peasants; one is more useful when you're trying to replenish losses after capturing a territory, the other is better for giving you quality levies, but both are mutually exclusive per settlement. Since you only need to build the first tier for the yin-yang point, it is sometimes helpful to leave a building slot open for quick rebalancing, or demolishing the ones you dont need anymore. quick recruiting and disbanding hero's is a good way to keep it balanced easily.

The Celestial Compass on the other hand provides campaign bonuses depending on which way the winds of magic is directed: corruption cleansing, casualty replenishment, control, or growth ; as it stays pointed in one direction, a meter fills up, providing grander effects, like increased income, attrition on enemies (but only the regions beyond the Bastion, its also useless since the AI is mostly immune to attrition), or a comet like spell on the battlefield.

'''Actually playing:''' As mentioned above, uniting Cathay is your top priority, because the potential income you can get by having so many peaceful provinces under your direct control. And there's honestly not a lot of directions for you to expand to: The Steppes outside the bastion is simply too chaotic to be worth it, and the Mountains of Mourn are filled with Ogres and Chaos Warriors who will happily take a break from killing each other to kill you instead. Until the late game, your contact with the Old World will be limited to Caravans, which is fine, since they still provide line of sight and diopomacy options in the mountains and beyond in the Old World.

The Rifts will start out delivering only small amounts of corruption, but will get more severe as the campaign drags on, to the point that they can bring a province to 100 corruption in only a few turns. put one of the tier 3 defense building in every province and rifts will no longer spawn in your territory, just have a lord walk to a rift outside your territory instead or leave one province open to rifts. Only your faction leader can enter the Warp or traverse the rifts to fast travel to another place on the map, and when closing a rift with an army will only cause a battle, whereas using a hero only costs gold.

You need to collect four Daemon Prince souls, one from each Realm, to lead to the final battle.

*Slaanesh takes a minimum of 6 turns, as you need to go past each of the six circles and deny all the gifts presented at each exit. You can, however avoid pointless battles the easiest here by simply going straight to each rings portal and avoiding the Slaanesh daemons. If you can deal with missed chance at a soul getting the sword of Slaanesh and personal Sycophant follower is extremely strong.
*Tzeentch's realm is like a pokemon gym, where you go from island to island via teleporter until you arrive at his palace. The islands only really have 2 portals, the one you came from, and the one you need to reach, so as long as you just go from one to the next, you'll be fine. What makes this difficult, though, is that you spend the rest of your movement teleporting, no matter how much you had left. Some islands have Daemons waiting to jump you outside of the teleportation portal, sometimes one stack, others, two. Never march through a portal, since that will leave you exhausted, or worse, with no retreat option. If youre afraid of being jumped on arrival, in TW3 you can still move in the encampment stance(but at 50% range), so this not only prevents attrition but gives you an advantage on the defense
*Khorne wants to watch you fight. His realm is full of rogue armies that you must defeat, and for each kill you get, you fill up a meter. Fill this meter and he will grant you the honor of fighting the Daemon Prince at the Brass Citadel. Pick a fight against the undead or daemons, because rather than run away, they will fight on until the entire unit is wiped. This will fill the bar quickly, and its not like you had lots of ways to chase after routing ememies.
*Nurgle grinds you down with attrition, but thankfully unless Ku'gath is there too, you won't actually catch a "real" plague. The best way to move through his realm is encamped, but doing so cuts movement in half. You can also visit landmarks for some replenishment, because Nurgle is nothing but generous. That being said, his daemons will block your path and respawn right away.
*The Shadow Legion: After collecting all 4 souls, the road to the Forge of Souls is unlocked. Once more, portals will open all throughout the world, but this time Belakors forces will erupt and lay siege to your cities. The amount looks to be variable, amd by this point in the game, you are probably at war with more than just Chaos. If you have any spare heroes, close the portals right away to prevent reinforcements. Since this happens right after collecting the fourth soul, you can time it to happen right after clearing the latest wave of Kurgans, so that at the very least, you're not dealing with a Bastion invasion at the same time you're dealing with literal hell gates erupting all over your empire.
*The Final Battle: Belakor controls the Forge of Souls. It is a survival battle, so you will face three waves while also fighting through the forge. The first wave is nothing difficult, and can be won solely through Sky Junks and Celestial Crossbows, but the 2nd and 3rd will be tedious, since you're in the Forge of Souls, you will be facing a whole bunch of Soul Grinders. Take Celestial Halberds, Celestial Crossbows, and multiple Sentinels. The Halberds are self explanatory, since you will need some tough holding units to hold against the waves of Daemons, and their expert charge defence means that while fighting Bloodletters is inefficient, they wont give up without a fight; Crossbows are quite dangerous when focus firing in volleys, but the two artillery Soul Grinders (Nurgle and Tzeentch) are both also the tankiest. Take out Tzeentch first, because Barrier recharges, and it will recharge once you stop shooting it. When teched up, Sentinels are a good match for Soul Grinders, but are very slow in movement and attacking without support, so you will want to have someone fight the Daemons while the Sentinels fight the Daemon Engines.
**This is where a military alliance really comes in handy. Bloodletters are pretty good against your infantry, and are still pretty dangerous when they mob a sentinel. Tzar Guard or Armored Kossars provide some offensive oomph that your Celestials and Jade Warriors otherwise lack.
**One tricky part about Survival is that even after a wave is "over," you will continue to be harassed until the next wave begins. After the first wave ends, Chaos Hounds wil harass your troops until they capture the secont point, so you will need to leave a rear guard behind to deal with them, otherwise your heavy infantry, or worse, your slow, slow, Sentinels wil get stuck behind swatting them. After the second wave, Belakor spawns endless Daemons. Daemonettes and Bloodletters will rush you, while Pink Horrors will pepper you with magic while taking no damage in return from barrier.
**The Final Wave wont end until Belakor is slain. Belakor summons even more Soul grinders, as well as a bunch of heavier hitters, like Minotaurs of Khorne and Doom Knights. They will be teleporting in from all over the throne room, so you will need to keep an eye out for when a portal opens and for what comes out of it. The only thing that prevents this from being utter Bullshit is that they give you a shit ton of Sentinels (7??) in the final wave of reinforcements, and you will be legitimately retarded if you take anything else besides them. In fact, because of how many Sentinels you get for the final battle, you may be able getting away only three or four in your army, and filling the rest with heavy infantry or crossbows. The final battle is chaotic and all over the place, and warm bodies to hold back the reinforcements might be more helpful than 15 sentinels all trying to gangbang Belakor.

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[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay

2022-08-18T19:28:44Z

2600:387:2:80F:0:0:0:7A: /* Infantry */

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

==Why Play Cathay==
*Because Total War: Three Kingdoms didn't go hard enough into fantasy for you.
*These guys are finally being fleshed out (with the full blessings of our [[Games Workshop|evil British overlords]] nonetheless) after years and you want to see what they come up with.
*You're into chinese history and mythology.
*You want to play a defensive gunline but don't want to play as boring white guys, short vengeful alcoholics or the bad guys from Pirates of the Caribbean
*You think it's extremely funny to watch Flamers of Tzeentch, Jezzails, and Artillery pieces nuke themselves when you use Mirror Missile on them.
*You playstyle is similar to the Empire and/or Dwarfs, but you can't play them yet in Warhammer III until Immortal Empires is finally released.

===Pros===
*'''Designed for Total War''': One thing we can say as an advantage for Cathay is unlike the other factions they will be designed from the ground up to be in a Total War game rather than trying to transition from a tabletop game into total war. This gives them the potential to be one of the best-designed races and balanced since they're not trying to fit a square Warhammer peg into a round Total War hole.
*'''Numbers''': In lore, Cathay has the largest population of all the human nations, so they have bodies to spare. Don't expect Skaven numbers, but you'll have large armies compared to other good guy races.
*'''Range''': As the oldest Human nation to have gotten gunpowder, it makes sense it plays a big role in your army. You have access to a ton of gunpowder units and artillery to blast the enemy apart. You also got some elite crossbows to play around with. The harmony system ensures that your ranged units have some of the higest reload skill in the entire game, which means... Well, [[Dakka|you shoot a lot.]]
*'''Air Power''': With your Longma, War Balloons and your Dragons you will be decently scary in the air. You won't be fast, and any opposing faction with decent air cavalry will likely threaten you, but you have some potent options.
*'''Harmony''': Cathay has a solid combination of ranged and melee units that work together well in concert. Similarly, units can either be Yin or Yang aligned and having the two working together provides you with a bonus.
*'''Defensive''': Cathay is built to last. Between your faction mechanics and selection of magical lores, Grand Cathay is built to hold the line. If you crave a faction with a strong, staunch line of spears to keep your enemies at bay, Cathay's going to be the faction for you.
*'''Magic:''' Cathay is actually able to keep up with the best of them when it comes to magic. Sure, you don't have the variety that High Elves or Empire have but with 4 lores you do have the most of the game 3 factions. Plus, with Mastery of the Elemental Winds, your spells do more damage the more mages you have in your army. Especially in campaign, Miao and Zhao can carry the army with their spells alone.

===Cons===
*'''Synergy''': Due to the way Harmony works, you will NEED to keep units close to each other, otherwise individual units will underperform. As such, you will likely be locked into turtling in order to get your units close enough to get the buffs they might need in order to perform efficiently. On their own, your units actually have ''lower'' stats than their equivalent in other armies, only getting better when properly buffed.
*'''Slow''': Cathay won't be winning many foot races compared to other factions. Though not as plodding as the dwarfs or lizardmen, you don't have much in the way of cavalry and your war balloons are pretty susceptible to air cav and missile fire.
*'''Subpar Cavalry''': Out of all the non Chaos human factions, you're easily the worst when it comes to Cavalry. Jade Lancers are on equal footing with Empire Knights, which doesn't seem bad until you realizes that your second best cavalry option is roughly on par with another faction's weakest heavy cav that tend to get flattened by more elite options. Peasant Horsemen are similar to Mounted Yeomen and while Longma aren't bad they are expensive while not having AP or anti large. Could be worse, you at least ''have'' cavalry, but most factions will out match you with their riders.
*'''Limited Skirmishers''': No vanguard deployment, stalk, or cheap fast movers other than peasant horsemen. You're going to suck at harrying broken units off the map and hunting enemy skirmishers + war machines.
*'''AoE Susceptible''': A core mechanic of Cathay units is that they gain bonuses when in close proximity with each other. While this can be great for holding the line, it also makes your forces more vulnerable to vortex or wind spells. You'll have to keep an eye out for enemy wizards.
*'''No Melee Expert Non-Legendary Lords or Heroes''': None of your non-LL and Heroes are really that good in melee combat or can serve as a tank. I know what you're thinking "But the Dragon Siblings!" but they won't be leading all your armies in campaign and they are expensive in multiplayer. 3 out of 4 of your Lords and Heroes are Mages and the one that isn't, the Lord Magistrate, is a support buffing character rather than a melee duelist or a tank. Shugengan lords are stated to be decent in melee but trust me, that's only by Mage Lord standards. You won't have many characters that can be safely thrown into melee combat. Concept art was found for a "Gate Master" hero, which will likely serve as the Cathayan equivalent of the Empire Captain or High Elf Noble, so this issue will probably be fixed with DLC.
*'''Not Designed for Domination''': Forget about Cathay being "Numbah Wan," Cathay is currently one of the Bottom Tier worst factions in multiplayer. As of mid March, Cathay only has a 38% win rate in multiplayer, and recent balance patches and Domination rule changes really didn't help you out too much. You have no real way to play aggressive in Domination and can't force people off of points. If you only care about [[That Guy|winning through OP ways]], don't bother playing Cathay until they get their DLC.
*'''DLC''': There are three guarantees in life. Death, Taxes, and Core Races getting units withheld for DLC. There is already a notable lack of monkey in the Cathay roster. Sorry Cathay, don't expect to be different. (Though in this case, I guess it's less "units being held back" and more "CA and GW making up more shit later.")
**Note that we can generally predict 2-3 lord packs for Cathay. In Mythology china gave each of the 4 cardinal direction's there own set of associations, beast, element, god so on, and with two lords already claiming two of those directions, 2 more for the other two compass points and a possible 5th for the center seems likely.

==Faction traits==
*'''Battle Harmony''': Shared by all non-character Cathay units. Melee units are marked as "Yang", while ranged units are "Yin"; these units gain bonuses when near a unit of the opposite type: leadership and melee defence for melee Yang units, and leadership and reload speed for ranged Yin units. Characters multiply these bonuses for nearby units.
*'''Mastery of the Elemental Winds''': Shared by all Cathayan spellcasters, this ability enhances their spells for each spellcaster present in the army. This encourages taking multiple spellcasters, something not usually done in other factions.
*'''Formation Attack''': A trait that makes the unit try to stay in formation, even when in combat. Presumably, this makes holding chokepoints and positions easier to do.

==Lords==
We finally got the names of the two legendary lords, and they turn out to be new characters. The children of the Dragon Emperor and the Moon Empress, they rule in his stead over the various provinces of Cathay.

===Legendary Lords===
Kathay has a tech unlockable banner that gives 20% ward save, use this on your legendary of choice, if you take the sword of Slaanesh from the chaos realm you'll get another 20% ward save and tons of damage. enjoy being the toughest/deadliest lord in WH 3. even Skarbrand cant compete with 70-80% ward save dragons who also cast spells.
*'''[[Miao Ying]], the Storm Dragon, ruler of the Northern Provinces and Commander of the Great Bastion.''': Daughter of the Dragon Emperor. Miss Cold and Aloof. She is in the north and is daddy's favourite. Can transform between human form where she buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. She will be able to use a hybrid of Life and Yin Magic: Including Earth Blood, Storm of Shadows, Flesh to Stone, Missile Mirror, Regrowth and Talons of Night, with both Lore Traits of Lifebloom and Power of Yin. She has the Wrath of the Storm ability, which increases melee attack, makes attacks magical, and makes those affected immune to psychology. She also has the Disdain of Dragons ability, which lowers enemy melee attacks in a constant radius. She also has access to the Mirror Missile spell which is easily one of the most trollish spells in the entire game, you will never tire of watching the enemy's elite ranged units delete themselves when they fire with the hex activated. She is the only lord kathay had with non bound spell healing, and regrowth is amazing on herself and terracotta sentinels. no inherent access to regeneration as a skill though, the von carstein blade item from caravans is perfect for her.

*'''[[Zhao Ming]], the Iron Dragon, ruler of the Western Provinces and Lord of Shang-Yang''': Son of the Dragon Emperor, and a mama's boy. His faction is stated to focus on and specialize in Alchemists and Astronomers. Can transform between human form where he buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. He uses a hybrid of Metal and Yang magic, unfortunately his spell selection is kinda terrible, his only really great spell is final transmutation and maybe glittering robe early on, but the rest are pretty weak. It feels like they purposely picked only the weakest spells from the lore Yang to give him, he would have been great with jade shield, stone stance, might of heaven and earth to self buff but instead he got the weaker damage spells only. He gets regeneration, an AOE ward save aura (includes him), and can cast final transmutation with a discount which is actually very powerful for taking out the mass soulgrinders you face in campaign/the final battle. He has large army wide buffs to armor and weapon damage. if you want to Terracotta sentinel doomstack he is a great choice but lack of access to healing spells is an issue.

===Lords===
*'''Dragon-Blooded Shugengan Lord''': Descended from when a human pulled a Donkey from Shrek with Cathay's rulers. Your Mage lord, they come with the lores of Yang or Yin and their mounts are Warhorse or Jade Longma for extra mobility. While they are ''slightly'' better than most mage lords in melee don't expect them to last long if a dedicated melee character gets a hold of them. Yin and Yang variants each get to choose from 4 different options of bound spells from other lore’s usable 4 times each, I prefer Yang because they can get earthblood, which is Cathay’s only healing access or spirit leach is good for yin.

*'''Lord Magistrate''': Your cheap normal frontline general. His gimmick is being able to further improve the harmony mechanic of his army, so extra incentive to form up in a sexy turtle. He also comes with the ability to buff the defense, damage or range of units with his army abilities. His mounts are Warhorse or Sky Lantern. Sadly he's garbage in melee, his mounts suck and pretty much anything he can do a Shugengan can do better. As such no real reason to nab him unless you want to hear his gloriously hammy voice acting. He's also unfortunately the only lord that will ever lead your caravans.

===Legendary Heroes===

===Generic Heroes===
*'''Alchemist''': Mages who fight with vials and magic that looks like Chinese calligraphy. Lore of Metal user with some extra bound buffs to armour, melee attack and magic damage with armour piecing. Can mount a warhorse. She has a battle skill buff that gives increased base damage and magic attacks with the ability to specialize in adding either Poison with the same bonus damage as the base version, Flaming which gives double the base damage increase, or a version which gives more AP damage and non AP as an aoe buff power. She can be good just to make sure that your units have other ways to fight the enemy.

*'''Astromancer''': Your lore of heavens caster. His mounts are a Warhorse for mobility or a Wu Xing War Compass which seems as though it will boost his magic output considerably. You pick this mage if you just want to blow shit up, as his War Compass mount gives him two free bound spells to rain upon the enemy.

==Units==

===Infantry===
*'''Peasant Long Spearmen''': Your early chaff unit that's literally expected to run away once things get hairy. The unexpected MVP of the roster (at least until DLCs give you something better). They come with Expendable ''and'' Expert Charge Defense, which is a rarity for tier 1 units.
**Rather than treating them like Skavenslaves, they're a lot more like TK skeleton spearmen without the shields: a really good screen with lots of bodies, relatively high health compared to the rest of your infantry, and high model count that can absorb losses. They're still expendable chaff, and you take them to die in place of your Jade warriors or Celestial Guard.
** Really fucking good for how easy and cheap they are. With the harmony buff, the Peasant Long Spearmen have stats higher than state troops, and function very well as a front line against everything. They are vulnerable to missiles, but you should have outshooting your opponents anyway.
**The Terracotta sentinel is very vulnerable to tarpitting, Peasant Long Spears are mobile and numerous enough to keep some of that pressure off them. They wont provide any harmony benefits though.
**Can tank for ages against pretty much anything with the jade shield 44% ward save buff from the lore of yang. Perfect for sacrificial screening, especially since lore of yang also has really powerful AOE spells you can drop on units getting traffic jammed by the peasants.
**Significantly better in Campaign. By the late game, it wouldn't be hard to produce them at tier 7, and their morale gets significantly better with technology and building upgrades, and can lead to hilarious situations where a single unit of Peasants holds off a band of Chosen on its own. They wont do any damage, of course, but that's why you drop a vortex or airship bomb on them.
*'''Jade Warriors''': Your mid-tier unit and your bread and butter until you can afford Celestial Dragon Guard. Have a unique mechanic where the longer they sit still and brace, the more bonuses they get, gaining higher charge resistance and armour. Make the Dragon Empire into the Turtle Empire with these guys. Just keep in mind that like turtles, they don't move very fast or hit very hard.
**The Sword and Shield combo, when combined with Harmony and their own innate stationary buff, they are very tough and can still find a use to tank hits for the Dragon Guard in the late-game. Excellent front line unit with good missile block chance and armor.
**The Halberd has better melee attack and armor piercing, so theyre like the Wardancers in that even when fighting against heavy infantry, it might be useful to take them to do some damage. Still more of a holding force than an aggressive force. Once you conquer Cathay you will probably just be fighting demons and marauders so these will probably be better than the shield variant.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard''': Your elite, end-game unit, taking the best from both Jade Warriors since they're all armed with Halberds and Shields. They have expert charge defense, AP, and dont get bonuses/lose nothing from moving, meaning you could move them to where they're needed most, or even have them charge though Peasant chaff, foregoing the low charge bonus to keep models alive given the low-model count typical of Elite Infantry.
**'''Dune Dragons''' - Dragon Guard with Magic Attacks, Magic Resist, Immune to Psych and Encourage. These guys are pretty much designed to be a middle finger to large Daemons as they can punch through their physical resist and not get terror routed.

===Missiles===
*'''Peasant Archers''': Like your peasant infantry, but with a bow and arrow. Cheap and expendable, potentially valuable if you need a relatively disposable unit to provide a small amount of ranged support and trigger the yin/yang buff where needed. Has no AP, but that shouldn't be a problem in campaign where the majority of your chaos, norsca, and ogre enemies don't have much armor.
** Very cost effective, especially with the harmony buffs. Can put down a significant amount of fire with their reload skill buffs.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors with crossbows (in case you couldn't have told from their name). Armoured and with a shielded variant, they sit in-between Empire Crossbowmen and Dwarf Quarrelers in terms of durability and power; they still have the same "hunker-down" ability as regular JW, so you'll probably want to move them in position behind Long Spears and refrain from moving them to keep those bonuses.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen With shields''' You know the drill by now. silver shield and a minor buff to melee defence. In campaign avoid getting these unless your economy is absurd as they are a significant upkeep increase for no extra practical combat performance. In mutiplayer currently they're also not reccomended as the only other factions that pose a missile threat are magical-tzeench and kislev's massive cavalry spam. both of which shields don't help great against and it's better to have an extra unit of peasants or some shit over the shielded variant.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors on steroids, once again. Shielded, heavily armoured and with armour-piercing bolts, they're durable archers that can trade shots with the enemy's best.
**On paper, their bolts have more strength than the Sisters of Avelorn, but it's mundane AP versus the Fire/Magic combo that lets the Sisters put in work against pretty much anything. Celestial Crossbowmen have better DPS when buffed, though.
**Desperate and in a pinch? Castle too tight for shooting? Well, they're still Celestial Guard, and so are decent in melee, minus the AP or anti-large bonus. They still give Harmony when in melee.

* '''Iron Hail Gunners''': A living version of the Zombie Handcannons from the Pirate coast, these ladies massacre armoured infantry with their high-AP shotguns. With the Harmony system, being able to keep them closer to your melee units will make them into machinegunning shotgunners. Can fire in melee if the enemy makes contact without breaking through the first rank.
**Unlike your Crossbowmen or Crane gunners, they lack shields or armor, but are much more mobile. You can flank with them to outright delete elite infantry, but even having them shoot through gaps in your formation is also helpful, because they're Cathayan shotguns.
**Considering how quickly you can get these ladies in the Campaign, they're instrumental damage dealers from early to mid.
** Be cautious about using them against the ogres because they will literally just run through your front line, because hurr durr pull through. In campaign, best employed against all chaos factions other than Tzeentch, whose basic units will fucking slaughter the gunners with their ranged attacks, because fuck you I guess.

* '''Crane Gunners''': Human Skaven Jezzails. Much like their rat counterparts, these gunners excel at long-ranged sniping with their second-only-to-artillery range and will likely form a core part of your backline while you make the enemy come to you. They come with shields, which should give them some missile resistance to weather counter-fire and kill those jezzails. You're probably better off going for grand cannons in most match ups though. Grand cannons have better all around combat stats and the exact same movement speed; but with Patch 1.2, they are now shieldbreakers (reducing Missile Block Chance) and their missile go through infantry, which makes them really good at mowing down infantry. Better than cannons at sniping out faster targets and flyers and they can take cover + shoot out of forests while cannons can't.

===Cavalry===
*'''Peasant Horseman''': The fastest thing in your army that can't fly. Probably based on the herdsmen levies that numerous Chinese dynasties employed as scouts and light cav. With an almost identical statline to Brettonian mounted yeomen, the only reason to get peasant horsemen is because Cathay has no alternatives other than Jade Lancers and Longmas who are simply too expensive to waste chasing down routing units + artillery crews. You'll want to grab a few of these guys in Multiplayer and early campaign, but hopefully we'll get better alternatives with future DLC.

*'''Jade Lancers''': Jade warriors on horseback. More defensive than other factions cavalry. More suited defending your flank than running in to attack the enemy. Fucking awful other than their mediocre armor and their shields, ineffective in melee, slow compared to most other heavy cav. Can't even run down enemies because of their glacial speeds. In campaign, consider using the Iron Hail gunners/Jade Crossbows/etc. if you want a flanking unit, who will actually kill the units they are supposed to kill, or just peasant horsemen if you want to run down routing enemies.

*'''Great Jade Longma Riders''': Your versions of pegasus knights, except instead of a rich noble who sneers at peasants, you get a rich noble whose great-great-great-grandad/mom got busy with a dragon. Also comes with Fear, possibly making them an expensive option to spook away and chase routing units. Their true strength will be as a bodyguard unit for your squishy balloons against enemy air forces, and being a hammer to the rest of your rosters anvil.
**Stats wise, they're roughly between pegasus and royal pegasus knights that traded away their Anti-Large bonus in exchange for 30 more armour (110 total), higher weapon strength, and charge bonus. As such, they're better at dealing with multiple different types of opponents but aren't quite as good at dealing with large units and other cav.
**'''Righteous Lances of Wei-Jin''': Comes with majority AP damage and the Guardian ability. If you want a unit that can serve as a body guard for your flying lords and can deal with heavily armored targets these are the horse dragon things for you.

===Chariots===
*'''Wu-Xing War Compass''': A big ol' magical battery that boosts Harmony and counts towards Mastery of Elemental Winds increase the power of your spells. Can cast Urannons Thunderbolt and Comet of Casanodora; the Compass has been buffed in 1.2 to give you 2 free casts of each power without costing WoM, but their ''Celestial Comet'' is half as strong (but also twice as fast) to compensate. Better used as a mount for your spellcasters than an actual unit on it's own
**Also ok in melee as a ...cart. It moves as fast as infantry, literally anyone who gets run over by this thing deserves to die under the hooves of plain old cows dragging a heavy fucking magic compass.

===Monsters===
*'''Terracotta Sentinel''': Take the standard Terracotta soldier from China, make it really big and teach it kung fu and you have this thing. Possible doomstack material. They are unbreakable and hit like a truck, making them good at both clearing chaff and 1v1ing monsters. Don't leave them unsupported against missile units or anti-large elites, as they'll still break down to concentrated AP and missiles. Causes Terror for understandable reasons.
**If you've played Tomb Kings, you know what to expect: keep them away from Halberd tarpits and anti-large monstrous infantry, and if you can't, give them a screen, like Peasant spears or Jade cavalry.
**It's also the best monster in the entire game right now. Like seriously, this thing can beat a Bloodthirster one on one. It's also the cheapest big single entity monster in the entire game as well. Yeah these things are a little bullshit. Given that Cathay is viewed as a little subpar it's nice that they have at least one unit that is really strong, but expect CA to whack these guys with the nerf bat eventually.

===Artillery===
* '''Grand Cannon''': Pulled by oxen making surprisingly mobile, your normal cannon unit. Unlike other factions cannon units, also comes with flaming attacks by default, making it slightly better at burning up trees and mummies, and cutting through regeneration. It is roughly as fast as a standard infantry unit, which is actually a big deal because it will be able to keep up with your main army and rearrange itself much easier than a normal cannon.
** Extremely strong basic artillery unit, which, with the harmony bonuses, can and will kill large units very fucking quickly with their reload bonuses. Always nice to swat Fateweaver out of the sky even before the shit starts spamming searing doom/various fires over your lines.
** It's important to note that these boys are the most accurate cannons we've seen in Total war so far, extremely useful as they're actually capable of swatting tzeench's flying chariots out of mid-air, You can get to tier 3 extremely quickly in campaign and these boys WILL be your bread and butter for the entire campaign.

* '''Fire Rain Rocket''': Imagine a hellstorm rocket battery that fires even faster due to the Harmony mechanic. Terrifying. Aim for big blobs of enemies and watch as they become chunky salsa. Compared to the normal Hellstorm it does more missile damage, but the majority of it isn't actually AP. So while you still want to aim for blobs, those blobs should be of less armoured infantry rather than heavily armoured stuff.

* '''Kongming Sky Lantern''': The smaller of the two airship units with Crane Gunners, and dedicated support. It provides a morale boost to your infantry on top of Harmony, so even your Peasants will hold the line for as long as they humanly can. They also grant vision on units that are hiding in foliage, which can help thwart ambushes. They don't reveal Stalk, though.
**It can fire while moving and line of sight isn't much of a problem, so as long as it doesn't get attacked, it can take potshots at the enemy. It's slow as balls though, so any flying unit that gets its hands on it will be able to tear it to pieces. And pretty much every chaos army has furies who will rip it to shreds
**Almost useless, if it wasn't for the harmony mechanic + its encouragement buff, you probably wouldn't ever take them. As a flying unit, it can provide a source of Harmony that the enemy cant touch unless they devote their other flyers or ranged units on it.
**Offensively, though, their crane guns are like the stormbolter on a Rhino: they just dont shoot enough to actually be dangerous, and don't have the bombs that would otherwise make them useful. You may as well take the Crane Guns on infantry if you want sniper fire, or the Sky Junk for Guns, Bombs, and Rockets.

* '''Kongming Sky-junks''': The heavier of the two airship units that [[Awesome|acts as a flying Helstorm Rocket Battery]]. Can also drop bombs gyrocopter style, and has high armour against missile units. Unlike most other flying units, it can't toggle landing, so try to protect it against flying cav with missile units. It is slow as fuck and will be pretty much useless once it runs out of ammo, but it will hopefully do some devastating damage before that happens.
**Tanky enough to take hits from Furies and other flying beasties that lack AP, they are a nice flying Distraction Carnifex until they run out of ammo. And even when they do, they're a nice flying anvil to hold flyers in place while your Longma riders hammer them.
**They do have an edge against ground artillery, as even if theyre focused down by other artilery pieces, you can expect them to miss more often than not because you're flying, just put them far away enough that those missed shots dont hit your castles infantrybl instead.
**Much more effective when you fire very closely downwards, otherwise, just a shitty fire rain launcher.
**Oddly enough, they can be healed mid-battle with Miao Ying or a dragon blooded lord with bound lore of life spells.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
You are what happens when the Empire, Dwarfs, and Skaven all have the world's weirdest threesome where lingering eye contact was held with the Vampire Coast; and they had a baby. Your themes revolve around plentiful, expendable infantry and strong missiles working in unison to bunker down an area and blast anything that comes at you straight to hell. Harmony is a double edge sword, as while it encourages you to pair units together and builds buffs, it also means units on their own aren't reaching their full potential. This is a quantity over quality faction with limited offensive options, as the closest thing you have to offensive infantry is sword and board Jade Warriors, and while they have cavalry, they're slow and limited compared to other factions.

Since the Cathayan army is so new, there's a massive lack of units for the army compared to all the other established factions, and in some ways, it almost feels unfinished. For example, your have no ranged cavalry options, which means your cavalry options won't be able to receive the Harmony benefit if they go too far (and the bubble is so small, you can lose Harmony just chasing after other cavalry). CA is definitely holding back options to make room for new DLC.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Beastmen| Beastmen]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Bretonnia| Bretonnia]]''': With more flavours of cavalry than you can comprehend, you'll need to set up extremely defensively and bring plenty of halberds to fend off all the armoured horse riders. Be sure to pepper them with your armour piecing missiles, and use peasant chaff to block charges and allow your actual hard hitters to stay in position to fire upon them. Don't bother bringing lanterns and longma riders, Bretonnias air forces are too scary and will easily win any aerial battle, and the lanterns and longma aren't going to be much help against cav and are wasted on peasant chaff.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Daemons of Chaos| Daemons of Chaos]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Warriors of Chaos| Warriors of Chaos]]''':
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Heavily armored barbarians are threatening Cathay's border, and it's up to hot dom dragon waifu and her warpdust snorting fuccboi brother to keep Cathay safe
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WoC wants to get into melee as soon as they can, and their elite infantry will fuck yours since all your AP is on anti-large; at least your dudes will fuck over any Dragon Ogres, though. Anything bigger than a Dragon Ogre can be handled by the Sentinel
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You outclass them in ranged combat with actual archers, guns, and artillery, WoC players will send Manticores and Cavalry after them, so keep some Halberds next to them (which you should be doing anyway for the Harmony mechanic.)
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That being said, their lack of ranged weapons means that your Sky-Junks will have grand old time, and may be a better investment than ground-based Fire Rockets. Manticores will die to Longma Riders, so keeping them protected will not be an issue.
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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves| Dark Elves]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dwarfs| Dwarfs]]''':
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This will be tough for the same reason the Vampirates are bad in this matchup, they do your main tactic better than you do. They have a wider assortment of guns and artillery, and great ways to kill your large units. They have Catapults to fuck your formations, while your indirect artillery lacks AP to punch through thicc dwarf armor.
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You will need to play offence against the Dwarfs which isn't great as you have no armour-piercing infantry that isn't bonus versus large, and your units only hit their peak efficiency when they're stationary and next to someone of the opposite type. They're also slow, not dwarf-slow, but slow enough that you'll take losses from Dwarf artillery, so it's a good idea to have at least a few peasants in front off your dudes to die for the Greater G--Harmony.

Your shielded crossbowmen are decent with good AP, get better when they're stationary, reload quicker with the Harmony mechanic; so long as their shields are faced where the shots are coming from, you can bounce some missiles off, too; Iron Hail gunners are much quicker than Jade Warriors or Dwarfs, and their shotguns pack a mean punch, especially when they're quick-firing with Harmony. They can be very good flankers when you pair them with Peasant Long Spears to guard their flanks and provide Harmony. Crane Gunners are like Skaven jezzails, use them to shoot down Gyrocopters to clear the skies and give your airships the ability to shoot from afar without being shot down. Speaking of airships, the Skyjunk is a better investment than the Fire Rain rocket; their weapons are similar, but the Skyjunk is harder to hit by enemy artillery, has much better angling, and when it runs out of ammo, can drop bombs that will be much more disruptive than the non-AP Fire Rain rockets.

Jade Warriors with shields will likely by your best melee infantry bet as they might be able to survive salvos as they hold against the dwarven line, but try screening them with Peasant Long Spears; they'll break, but when they regroup you can use them as Harmony buffers with your Iron Hail or Crane Guns. In terms of how to break the line, Ox Cannons are quite mobile for an artillery piece, and Crane Guns can provide covering fire from afar.

Your best lord option is a dragon blooded lore of yin caster on a longma. She's highly disruptive to ranged heavy factions since she can summon fodder into the middle of the enemy gunline like a flying vampire lord and overcast missile mirror to shut down individual ranged units for 36 seconds at a time.
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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Empire| Empire]]''':
Remember what we said in Dwarfs and Vampirates? Yeah you're dealing with a faction that does your thing better than you again. Grand Cannons are better than Great Cannon thanks to Harmony buffs and better mobility, but that's about the only good thing in this particular matchup. Luminarks hard counter Sky Junks and Imperial rocketry has ''significantly'' greater range than your own, while the constant threat of Demigryph up the ass keep you from rushing in without a plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''':
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This game is still too new for a meta, and most games you have on MP will just be people trying shit out. That being said, take Skyjunks and Fire Rockets and shoot the shit out of the enemy castle. Exploit the Grand Cannons mobility and provide harmony with cheap Peasants that you wont mind losing. Pop airships with Longma or Sky Lanterns, and save the Crane Gunners for their Longma. Take a sentinel and if your opponent takes one too, they can practice their kung fu

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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Greenskins| Greenskins]]''': Greenskins shred dwarfs. but you have the great ability of actually having mobile options and magic. a positive matchup in your favor. bring one or two iron hail gunners to melt greenskin monsters and a lore of yang caster for the fire-wall. jade warriors should be able to hold off even black orks buying time for your missiles to bring the pain.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/High Elves| High Elves]]''': Your biggest threat will be dragons or an arcane phoenix and magic. Any sort of mass-AOE will rip apart your packed formations and the helves have a lot of options. bring grand cannons and use their accuracy to snipe their mages and dragons. otherwise your missile line is better than the helves and your frontline is better. a balanced matchup

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Khorne|Khorne]]''': One of your better matchups. Elite armies really don't like wading through gunfire to get to the enemy lines. Khorne will bring hounds, furies, and a bloodletter summoning cultist or two to disrupt you, peasant spearsmen and maybe a longma squad should suffice to tie them up. A terracotta sentinel is highly recommended as an emergency responder to Khorne's monsters along with a lore of yin caster to snare enemies with storm of shadows and block their movement with summoned fodder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Kislev|Kislev]]''': This is a faction that either relies on subpar ranged power or lots of heavy cavalry. pretty much all your infantry is anti-large and you outrange kislev massively. a very positive matchup in your favour as kislev's 'jack of all trades master of none' once again fails against a more specialised faction

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen| Lizardmen]]''': This will theoretically be a tricky match up, but ultimately one in your favor. Your plentiful AP gunpowder units will make quick work of the sluggish Saurus and, when coupled with your multitude of halberd units, can do some serious damage to their bigger beasties, but they're likely not going to be the forces a competent Lizardmen army will bring. Instead, Skinks will be your bane. Fast skirmishers and Chameleons will hassle you from all angles with their poisonous darts while their cavalry (flying or otherwise) disrupts your formations with fear/terror-inducing charges. If they're bringing a Slann, you will NEED to keep on top of your positioning; positioning your forces too close makes them prime candidates for the myriad of vortex and wind spells at their beck and call. Deal with them first, followed by any cavalry/skirmishers and clean up what's left with your plentiful gunpowder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Norsca| Norsca]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Nurgle| Nurgle]]''': Nurgle hates ranged units, enemy large units, an abundance of anti-large, fire damage, and enemies that can hold out in a grindfest against them. You are all of these things and Nurgle has vanishingly few options against you. Long Ma riders take a huge dump all over any of Nurgle's fliers and the fire damage of your artillery, magic, and more will make Nurgle weep with sorrow as you delete his slow moving and utterly unshielded units off the table one after the other. And as Nurgle has extremely anemic charges he can't even reliably break your formations without lucky spell casts; which of course relies on the Nurglites even getting a spellcaster in range through your numerous means to snipe them off the field. You can basically win this matchup while AFK, but something to watch out for is nurgles Army Ability, which can jump from one nearby unit to another, and Harmony forces your units together, so keep an eye out for the plauges.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Ogre Kingdoms| Ogre Kingdoms]]''': High mass charging units will ruin your day. ogres are cathay's worst matchup bar none in warhammer 3. your frontline will get pushed around like paper as while halberds CAN deal a lot of damage and hold off ogres the ogres can bring a lot more ogre bulls for the price than you can bring halberds. It's worth having no magic and getting a cheap lord as your units are a lot more useful than the lores available for once,

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven| Skaven]]''': From the looks of it, this seems to be your hardest matchup by far. Your harmony mechanic relies heavily on having a solid plan for most stages of the game and Skaven excel at disruption, be it through summons, skirmishing Eshin troops or just raw balls-to-the-wall firepower of Clan Skryre. Mirror Missile is your friend in this match-up and for its relatively low winds of magic cost is one of the single most brutal anti-ranged unit spells in the entire game, forcing the Skaven commander to either force their ranged unit into inactivity for twenty seconds or watch their prized shooters wipe themselves out.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Slaanesh| Slaanesh]]''': What's this, a speedy flanking faction designed to dive backlines? This could spell trouble for you. Fortunately, you theoretically have one way to banish Slaanesh's creeps back to the warp, and that's "Invest in flying units and box up with halberds." Slaanesh has no ranged units and only Furies as fliers, so as long as you have a Longma unit or cheap missiles to protect them, your Sky Lanterns and Sky Junks will be pretty much untouchable as they blast apart Slaanesh's ranks. Due to the amount of AP on their roster, Celestial Dragon Guard are a risky choice so invest either in Peasent spears or Jade Warriors with Halberds. You won't win the melee fight so don't bother investing in it. Have your infantry hold while your War Ballons shoot, your flying casters cast (Grab either the Dragon Siblings or a Shugangen in the air to keep them safe) and your Longma use their speed to flank and rear charge. Your balloons will run out of ammo eventually though, so make every shot count. Or just bring crossbows/archers, and shoot the living shit out of the exhibitionists.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''': Lore of yang fire wall. 'nuff said

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tzeentch| Tzeentch]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast| Vampire Coast]]''': If the Coast thinks they can outshoot you they have another thing coming. Rocket artillery devastates Vampirate formations and while they can swat your Sky lanterns out of the sky if they bring terrorgheists, Long Ma riders and your Legendary Lords can swat those out of the air in turn and curbstomp any deck droppers they bring. You have well armoured and shielded ranged units who will tear straight through the fragile ranks of the Coast and can stop any monsters they field cold; while your artillery is able to out-trade Vampirate cannons with a better rate of fire as long as harmony is active. Also Missile Mirror was basically created to troll the Vampire Coast specifically.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Counts| Vampire Counts]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| Wood Elves]]''':

===Domination===
General Tier Rank: '''D'''

You know how Harmony encourages you to stick your units together and to hold down a single point while not getting too aggressive? In Domination you win by doing the exact opposite of that. Since you have to spread out your forces and go on the offensive it's really hard for you to actually keep your Harmony active meaning a good chunk of your units won't be fighting at their price range. What's more, since you're out maneuvered by most factions, odds are you will not being getting to most points first and will have to fight off your enemies to secure them. Good news is that with your high armor, Terrocottas and range once you do have a point it's decently hard to kick you off. It would really help if you had some kind of decent, inexpensive mobile threat or just a fast ranged unit that can help keep harmony on all your infantry. You're way better in normal land battles though, as it's significantly easier to play your game and keep Harmony up.

==Campaign Mechanics and Tactics==

Unlike Kislev, which devolves into a Daemon fuckfest around the third or fourth wave of Rifts, Cathay is so easily-defendable that it's just begging for a rework, or at least a nerfbat.

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'''Bastion:''' You have no real enemies outside the invaders in the Steppes beyond the Bastion, or the Ogres/Chaos Warriors in the Mountains to the South. The Bastion has a unique "Chaos Invasion" mechanic where Kurgans get spawned every so often to lay siege to the Bastion. They are Norscans rather than WoC, though, so have absolutely no artillery or siege ability outside of throwing trolls or mammoths at you, and the Bastion Gates practically pay for themselves once you invest in the Upkeep Lowering building chain, (which can go as far as 90% upkeep reduction for garrisoned armies), and get the settlement to level 4 to build Terracotta Sentinels. The Kurgans pretty much only exist to die against your garrisons and give them free experience. Funnily enough, should an AI Cathayan faction own all the gates, the stacks will do absolutely nothing but wait outside the gates.

'''Trade and Treaties:'''Speaking of Cathayan Factions, there are four hostile rebels (two for each Legendary Lord) and two Loyalist ones, who will be pretty easily confederated once you beat the rebels. Do this as quickly as you can, because your income will rise substantially with their provinces and stability. Cathayan income is comparable to High Elves, without the expensive upkeep. You will actually have enough passive income to station a hero in each province to close rifts as they come up, and the gold needed for each action. You can now just use defense building to stop rifts spawning at all.

You'll also have lots of potential trade partners; by sending Caravans westwards, you can establish diplomatic relations with factions they pass through, and trade treaties can be established with those on the route. These trade relationships can be turned into military treaties, which can eventually lead to Outposts, a new mechanic in Campaign that lets you build military outposts in major settlements (Provincial Capitals with 4+ slots). If you both have an outpost in each other's territories, both factions get to purchase infantry from each other's respective recruitment pools. Cathayan Castles with Kislev Tzar Guard? Na, think Jade Warriors backed by Kroxigors, or Hawk Riders screening for your airships!

'''Harmony and the Compass:''' Harmony is pretty tedious. Your economic/defense buildings, technology, and characters (+1 for heroes, +3 for lords) all have a corresponding Yin-Yang cost. Going too far towards one way will lead to inefficiency at the least, and provincial instability at the worst. Yin and Yang balance will fluctuate as you lose heroes and research tech, and certain buildings will wax and wane in usefulness as your empire expands/contracts: One Yin building, for example, provides better casualty replenishment, while its Yang counterpart ranks up your Peasants; one is more useful when you're trying to replenish losses after capturing a territory, the other is better for giving you quality levies, but both are mutually exclusive per settlement. Since you only need to build the first tier for the yin-yang point, it is sometimes helpful to leave a building slot open for quick rebalancing, or demolishing the ones you dont need anymore. quick recruiting and disbanding hero's is a good way to keep it balanced easily.

The Celestial Compass on the other hand provides campaign bonuses depending on which way the winds of magic is directed: corruption cleansing, casualty replenishment, control, or growth ; as it stays pointed in one direction, a meter fills up, providing grander effects, like increased income, attrition on enemies (but only the regions beyond the Bastion, its also useless since the AI is mostly immune to attrition), or a comet like spell on the battlefield.

'''Actually playing:''' As mentioned above, uniting Cathay is your top priority, because the potential income you can get by having so many peaceful provinces under your direct control. And there's honestly not a lot of directions for you to expand to: The Steppes outside the bastion is simply too chaotic to be worth it, and the Mountains of Mourn are filled with Ogres and Chaos Warriors who will happily take a break from killing each other to kill you instead. Until the late game, your contact with the Old World will be limited to Caravans, which is fine, since they still provide line of sight and diopomacy options in the mountains and beyond in the Old World.

The Rifts will start out delivering only small amounts of corruption, but will get more severe as the campaign drags on, to the point that they can bring a province to 100 corruption in only a few turns. put one of the tier 3 defense building in every province and rifts will no longer spawn in your territory, just have a lord walk to a rift outside your territory instead or leave one province open to rifts. Only your faction leader can enter the Warp or traverse the rifts to fast travel to another place on the map, and when closing a rift with an army will only cause a battle, whereas using a hero only costs gold.

You need to collect four Daemon Prince souls, one from each Realm, to lead to the final battle.

*Slaanesh takes a minimum of 6 turns, as you need to go past each of the six circles and deny all the gifts presented at each exit. You can, however avoid pointless battles the easiest here by simply going straight to each rings portal and avoiding the Slaanesh daemons. If you can deal with missed chance at a soul getting the sword of Slaanesh and personal Sycophant follower is extremely strong.
*Tzeentch's realm is like a pokemon gym, where you go from island to island via teleporter until you arrive at his palace. The islands only really have 2 portals, the one you came from, and the one you need to reach, so as long as you just go from one to the next, you'll be fine. What makes this difficult, though, is that you spend the rest of your movement teleporting, no matter how much you had left. Some islands have Daemons waiting to jump you outside of the teleportation portal, sometimes one stack, others, two. Never march through a portal, since that will leave you exhausted, or worse, with no retreat option. If youre afraid of being jumped on arrival, in TW3 you can still move in the encampment stance(but at 50% range), so this not only prevents attrition but gives you an advantage on the defense
*Khorne wants to watch you fight. His realm is full of rogue armies that you must defeat, and for each kill you get, you fill up a meter. Fill this meter and he will grant you the honor of fighting the Daemon Prince at the Brass Citadel. Pick a fight against the undead or daemons, because rather than run away, they will fight on until the entire unit is wiped. This will fill the bar quickly, and its not like you had lots of ways to chase after routing ememies.
*Nurgle grinds you down with attrition, but thankfully unless Ku'gath is there too, you won't actually catch a "real" plague. The best way to move through his realm is encamped, but doing so cuts movement in half. You can also visit landmarks for some replenishment, because Nurgle is nothing but generous. That being said, his daemons will block your path and respawn right away.
*The Shadow Legion: After collecting all 4 souls, the road to the Forge of Souls is unlocked. Once more, portals will open all throughout the world, but this time Belakors forces will erupt and lay siege to your cities. The amount looks to be variable, amd by this point in the game, you are probably at war with more than just Chaos. If you have any spare heroes, close the portals right away to prevent reinforcements. Since this happens right after collecting the fourth soul, you can time it to happen right after clearing the latest wave of Kurgans, so that at the very least, you're not dealing with a Bastion invasion at the same time you're dealing with literal hell gates erupting all over your empire.
*The Final Battle: Belakor controls the Forge of Souls. It is a survival battle, so you will face three waves while also fighting through the forge. The first wave is nothing difficult, and can be won solely through Sky Junks and Celestial Crossbows, but the 2nd and 3rd will be tedious, since you're in the Forge of Souls, you will be facing a whole bunch of Soul Grinders. Take Celestial Halberds, Celestial Crossbows, and multiple Sentinels. The Halberds are self explanatory, since you will need some tough holding units to hold against the waves of Daemons, and their expert charge defence means that while fighting Bloodletters is inefficient, they wont give up without a fight; Crossbows are quite dangerous when focus firing in volleys, but the two artillery Soul Grinders (Nurgle and Tzeentch) are both also the tankiest. Take out Tzeentch first, because Barrier recharges, and it will recharge once you stop shooting it. When teched up, Sentinels are a good match for Soul Grinders, but are very slow in movement and attacking without support, so you will want to have someone fight the Daemons while the Sentinels fight the Daemon Engines.
**This is where a military alliance really comes in handy. Bloodletters are pretty good against your infantry, and are still pretty dangerous when they mob a sentinel. Tzar Guard or Armored Kossars provide some offensive oomph that your Celestials and Jade Warriors otherwise lack.
**One tricky part about Survival is that even after a wave is "over," you will continue to be harassed until the next wave begins. After the first wave ends, Chaos Hounds wil harass your troops until they capture the secont point, so you will need to leave a rear guard behind to deal with them, otherwise your heavy infantry, or worse, your slow, slow, Sentinels wil get stuck behind swatting them. After the second wave, Belakor spawns endless Daemons. Daemonettes and Bloodletters will rush you, while Pink Horrors will pepper you with magic while taking no damage in return from barrier.
**The Final Wave wont end until Belakor is slain. Belakor summons even more Soul grinders, as well as a bunch of heavier hitters, like Minotaurs of Khorne and Doom Knights. They will be teleporting in from all over the throne room, so you will need to keep an eye out for when a portal opens and for what comes out of it. The only thing that prevents this from being utter Bullshit is that they give you a shit ton of Sentinels (7??) in the final wave of reinforcements, and you will be legitimately retarded if you take anything else besides them. In fact, because of how many Sentinels you get for the final battle, you may be able getting away only three or four in your army, and filling the rest with heavy infantry or crossbows. The final battle is chaotic and all over the place, and warm bodies to hold back the reinforcements might be more helpful than 15 sentinels all trying to gangbang Belakor.

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[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay

2022-08-18T19:25:52Z

2600:387:2:80F:0:0:0:7A: /* Generic Heroes */

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

==Why Play Cathay==
*Because Total War: Three Kingdoms didn't go hard enough into fantasy for you.
*These guys are finally being fleshed out (with the full blessings of our [[Games Workshop|evil British overlords]] nonetheless) after years and you want to see what they come up with.
*You're into chinese history and mythology.
*You want to play a defensive gunline but don't want to play as boring white guys, short vengeful alcoholics or the bad guys from Pirates of the Caribbean
*You think it's extremely funny to watch Flamers of Tzeentch, Jezzails, and Artillery pieces nuke themselves when you use Mirror Missile on them.
*You playstyle is similar to the Empire and/or Dwarfs, but you can't play them yet in Warhammer III until Immortal Empires is finally released.

===Pros===
*'''Designed for Total War''': One thing we can say as an advantage for Cathay is unlike the other factions they will be designed from the ground up to be in a Total War game rather than trying to transition from a tabletop game into total war. This gives them the potential to be one of the best-designed races and balanced since they're not trying to fit a square Warhammer peg into a round Total War hole.
*'''Numbers''': In lore, Cathay has the largest population of all the human nations, so they have bodies to spare. Don't expect Skaven numbers, but you'll have large armies compared to other good guy races.
*'''Range''': As the oldest Human nation to have gotten gunpowder, it makes sense it plays a big role in your army. You have access to a ton of gunpowder units and artillery to blast the enemy apart. You also got some elite crossbows to play around with. The harmony system ensures that your ranged units have some of the higest reload skill in the entire game, which means... Well, [[Dakka|you shoot a lot.]]
*'''Air Power''': With your Longma, War Balloons and your Dragons you will be decently scary in the air. You won't be fast, and any opposing faction with decent air cavalry will likely threaten you, but you have some potent options.
*'''Harmony''': Cathay has a solid combination of ranged and melee units that work together well in concert. Similarly, units can either be Yin or Yang aligned and having the two working together provides you with a bonus.
*'''Defensive''': Cathay is built to last. Between your faction mechanics and selection of magical lores, Grand Cathay is built to hold the line. If you crave a faction with a strong, staunch line of spears to keep your enemies at bay, Cathay's going to be the faction for you.
*'''Magic:''' Cathay is actually able to keep up with the best of them when it comes to magic. Sure, you don't have the variety that High Elves or Empire have but with 4 lores you do have the most of the game 3 factions. Plus, with Mastery of the Elemental Winds, your spells do more damage the more mages you have in your army. Especially in campaign, Miao and Zhao can carry the army with their spells alone.

===Cons===
*'''Synergy''': Due to the way Harmony works, you will NEED to keep units close to each other, otherwise individual units will underperform. As such, you will likely be locked into turtling in order to get your units close enough to get the buffs they might need in order to perform efficiently. On their own, your units actually have ''lower'' stats than their equivalent in other armies, only getting better when properly buffed.
*'''Slow''': Cathay won't be winning many foot races compared to other factions. Though not as plodding as the dwarfs or lizardmen, you don't have much in the way of cavalry and your war balloons are pretty susceptible to air cav and missile fire.
*'''Subpar Cavalry''': Out of all the non Chaos human factions, you're easily the worst when it comes to Cavalry. Jade Lancers are on equal footing with Empire Knights, which doesn't seem bad until you realizes that your second best cavalry option is roughly on par with another faction's weakest heavy cav that tend to get flattened by more elite options. Peasant Horsemen are similar to Mounted Yeomen and while Longma aren't bad they are expensive while not having AP or anti large. Could be worse, you at least ''have'' cavalry, but most factions will out match you with their riders.
*'''Limited Skirmishers''': No vanguard deployment, stalk, or cheap fast movers other than peasant horsemen. You're going to suck at harrying broken units off the map and hunting enemy skirmishers + war machines.
*'''AoE Susceptible''': A core mechanic of Cathay units is that they gain bonuses when in close proximity with each other. While this can be great for holding the line, it also makes your forces more vulnerable to vortex or wind spells. You'll have to keep an eye out for enemy wizards.
*'''No Melee Expert Non-Legendary Lords or Heroes''': None of your non-LL and Heroes are really that good in melee combat or can serve as a tank. I know what you're thinking "But the Dragon Siblings!" but they won't be leading all your armies in campaign and they are expensive in multiplayer. 3 out of 4 of your Lords and Heroes are Mages and the one that isn't, the Lord Magistrate, is a support buffing character rather than a melee duelist or a tank. Shugengan lords are stated to be decent in melee but trust me, that's only by Mage Lord standards. You won't have many characters that can be safely thrown into melee combat. Concept art was found for a "Gate Master" hero, which will likely serve as the Cathayan equivalent of the Empire Captain or High Elf Noble, so this issue will probably be fixed with DLC.
*'''Not Designed for Domination''': Forget about Cathay being "Numbah Wan," Cathay is currently one of the Bottom Tier worst factions in multiplayer. As of mid March, Cathay only has a 38% win rate in multiplayer, and recent balance patches and Domination rule changes really didn't help you out too much. You have no real way to play aggressive in Domination and can't force people off of points. If you only care about [[That Guy|winning through OP ways]], don't bother playing Cathay until they get their DLC.
*'''DLC''': There are three guarantees in life. Death, Taxes, and Core Races getting units withheld for DLC. There is already a notable lack of monkey in the Cathay roster. Sorry Cathay, don't expect to be different. (Though in this case, I guess it's less "units being held back" and more "CA and GW making up more shit later.")
**Note that we can generally predict 2-3 lord packs for Cathay. In Mythology china gave each of the 4 cardinal direction's there own set of associations, beast, element, god so on, and with two lords already claiming two of those directions, 2 more for the other two compass points and a possible 5th for the center seems likely.

==Faction traits==
*'''Battle Harmony''': Shared by all non-character Cathay units. Melee units are marked as "Yang", while ranged units are "Yin"; these units gain bonuses when near a unit of the opposite type: leadership and melee defence for melee Yang units, and leadership and reload speed for ranged Yin units. Characters multiply these bonuses for nearby units.
*'''Mastery of the Elemental Winds''': Shared by all Cathayan spellcasters, this ability enhances their spells for each spellcaster present in the army. This encourages taking multiple spellcasters, something not usually done in other factions.
*'''Formation Attack''': A trait that makes the unit try to stay in formation, even when in combat. Presumably, this makes holding chokepoints and positions easier to do.

==Lords==
We finally got the names of the two legendary lords, and they turn out to be new characters. The children of the Dragon Emperor and the Moon Empress, they rule in his stead over the various provinces of Cathay.

===Legendary Lords===
Kathay has a tech unlockable banner that gives 20% ward save, use this on your legendary of choice, if you take the sword of Slaanesh from the chaos realm you'll get another 20% ward save and tons of damage. enjoy being the toughest/deadliest lord in WH 3. even Skarbrand cant compete with 70-80% ward save dragons who also cast spells.
*'''[[Miao Ying]], the Storm Dragon, ruler of the Northern Provinces and Commander of the Great Bastion.''': Daughter of the Dragon Emperor. Miss Cold and Aloof. She is in the north and is daddy's favourite. Can transform between human form where she buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. She will be able to use a hybrid of Life and Yin Magic: Including Earth Blood, Storm of Shadows, Flesh to Stone, Missile Mirror, Regrowth and Talons of Night, with both Lore Traits of Lifebloom and Power of Yin. She has the Wrath of the Storm ability, which increases melee attack, makes attacks magical, and makes those affected immune to psychology. She also has the Disdain of Dragons ability, which lowers enemy melee attacks in a constant radius. She also has access to the Mirror Missile spell which is easily one of the most trollish spells in the entire game, you will never tire of watching the enemy's elite ranged units delete themselves when they fire with the hex activated. She is the only lord kathay had with non bound spell healing, and regrowth is amazing on herself and terracotta sentinels. no inherent access to regeneration as a skill though, the von carstein blade item from caravans is perfect for her.

*'''[[Zhao Ming]], the Iron Dragon, ruler of the Western Provinces and Lord of Shang-Yang''': Son of the Dragon Emperor, and a mama's boy. His faction is stated to focus on and specialize in Alchemists and Astronomers. Can transform between human form where he buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. He uses a hybrid of Metal and Yang magic, unfortunately his spell selection is kinda terrible, his only really great spell is final transmutation and maybe glittering robe early on, but the rest are pretty weak. It feels like they purposely picked only the weakest spells from the lore Yang to give him, he would have been great with jade shield, stone stance, might of heaven and earth to self buff but instead he got the weaker damage spells only. He gets regeneration, an AOE ward save aura (includes him), and can cast final transmutation with a discount which is actually very powerful for taking out the mass soulgrinders you face in campaign/the final battle. He has large army wide buffs to armor and weapon damage. if you want to Terracotta sentinel doomstack he is a great choice but lack of access to healing spells is an issue.

===Lords===
*'''Dragon-Blooded Shugengan Lord''': Descended from when a human pulled a Donkey from Shrek with Cathay's rulers. Your Mage lord, they come with the lores of Yang or Yin and their mounts are Warhorse or Jade Longma for extra mobility. While they are ''slightly'' better than most mage lords in melee don't expect them to last long if a dedicated melee character gets a hold of them. Yin and Yang variants each get to choose from 4 different options of bound spells from other lore’s usable 4 times each, I prefer Yang because they can get earthblood, which is Cathay’s only healing access or spirit leach is good for yin.

*'''Lord Magistrate''': Your cheap normal frontline general. His gimmick is being able to further improve the harmony mechanic of his army, so extra incentive to form up in a sexy turtle. He also comes with the ability to buff the defense, damage or range of units with his army abilities. His mounts are Warhorse or Sky Lantern. Sadly he's garbage in melee, his mounts suck and pretty much anything he can do a Shugengan can do better. As such no real reason to nab him unless you want to hear his gloriously hammy voice acting. He's also unfortunately the only lord that will ever lead your caravans.

===Legendary Heroes===

===Generic Heroes===
*'''Alchemist''': Mages who fight with vials and magic that looks like Chinese calligraphy. Lore of Metal user with some extra bound buffs to armour, melee attack and magic damage with armour piecing. Can mount a warhorse. She has a battle skill buff that gives increased base damage and magic attacks with the ability to specialize in adding either Poison with the same bonus damage as the base version, Flaming which gives double the base damage increase, or a version which gives more AP damage and non AP as an aoe buff power. She can be good just to make sure that your units have other ways to fight the enemy.

*'''Astromancer''': Your lore of heavens caster. His mounts are a Warhorse for mobility or a Wu Xing War Compass which seems as though it will boost his magic output considerably. You pick this mage if you just want to blow shit up, as his War Compass mount gives him two free bound spells to rain upon the enemy.

==Units==

===Infantry===
*'''Peasant Long Spearmen''': Your early chaff unit that's literally expected to run away once things get hairy. The unexpected MVP of the roster (at least until DLCs give you something better). They come with Expendable ''and'' Expert Charge Defense, which is a rarity for tier 1 units.
**Rather than treating them like Skavenslaves, they're a lot more like TK skeleton spearmen without the shields: a really good screen with lots of bodies, relatively high health compared to the rest of your infantry, and high model count that can absorb losses. They're still expendable chaff, and you take them to die in place of your Jade warriors or Celestial Guard.
** Really fucking good for how easy and cheap they are. With the harmony buff, the Peasant Long Spearmen have stats higher than state troops, and function very well as a front line against everything. They are vulnerable to missiles, but you should have outshooting your opponents anyway.
**The Terracotta sentinel is very vulnerable to tarpitting, Peasant Long Spears are mobile and numerous enough to keep some of that pressure off them. They wont provide any harmony benefits though.
**Can tank for ages against pretty much anything with the jade shield 44% ward save buff from the lore of yang. Perfect for sacrificial screening, especially since lore of yang also has really powerful AOE spells you can drop on units getting traffic jammed by the peasants.
**Significantly better in Campaign. By the late game, it wouldn't be hard to produce them at tier 7, and their morale gets significantly better with technology and building upgrades, and can lead to hilarious situations where a single unit of Peasants holds off a band of Chosen on its own. They wont do any damage, of course, but that's why you drop a vortex or airship bomb on them.
*'''Jade Warriors''': Your mid-tier unit and your bread and butter until you can afford Celestial Dragon Guard. Have a unique mechanic where the longer they sit still and brace, the more bonuses they get, gaining higher charge resistance and armour. Make the Dragon Empire into the Turtle Empire with these guys. Just keep in mind that like turtles, they don't move very fast or hit very hard.
**The Sword and Shield combo, when combined with Harmony and their own innate stationary buff, they are very tough and can still find a use to tank hits for the Dragon Guard in the late-game. Excellent front line unit with good missile block chance and armor.
**The Halberd has better melee attack and armor piercing, so theyre like the Wardancers in that even when fighting against heavy infantry, it might be useful to take them to do some damage. Still more of a holding force than an aggressive force.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard''': Your elite, end-game unit, taking the best from both Jade Warriors since they're all armed with Halberds and Shields. They have expert charge defense, AP, and dont get bonuses/lose nothing from moving, meaning you could move them to where they're needed most, or even have them charge though Peasant chaff, foregoing the low charge bonus to keep models alive given the low-model count typical of Elite Infantry.
**'''Dune Dragons''' - Dragon Guard with Magic Attacks, Magic Resist, Immune to Psych and Encourage. These guys are pretty much designed to be a middle finger to large Daemons as they can punch through their physical resist and not get terror routed.

===Missiles===
*'''Peasant Archers''': Like your peasant infantry, but with a bow and arrow. Cheap and expendable, potentially valuable if you need a relatively disposable unit to provide a small amount of ranged support and trigger the yin/yang buff where needed. Has no AP, but that shouldn't be a problem in campaign where the majority of your chaos, norsca, and ogre enemies don't have much armor.
** Very cost effective, especially with the harmony buffs. Can put down a significant amount of fire with their reload skill buffs.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors with crossbows (in case you couldn't have told from their name). Armoured and with a shielded variant, they sit in-between Empire Crossbowmen and Dwarf Quarrelers in terms of durability and power; they still have the same "hunker-down" ability as regular JW, so you'll probably want to move them in position behind Long Spears and refrain from moving them to keep those bonuses.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen With shields''' You know the drill by now. silver shield and a minor buff to melee defence. In campaign avoid getting these unless your economy is absurd as they are a significant upkeep increase for no extra practical combat performance. In mutiplayer currently they're also not reccomended as the only other factions that pose a missile threat are magical-tzeench and kislev's massive cavalry spam. both of which shields don't help great against and it's better to have an extra unit of peasants or some shit over the shielded variant.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors on steroids, once again. Shielded, heavily armoured and with armour-piercing bolts, they're durable archers that can trade shots with the enemy's best.
**On paper, their bolts have more strength than the Sisters of Avelorn, but it's mundane AP versus the Fire/Magic combo that lets the Sisters put in work against pretty much anything. Celestial Crossbowmen have better DPS when buffed, though.
**Desperate and in a pinch? Castle too tight for shooting? Well, they're still Celestial Guard, and so are decent in melee, minus the AP or anti-large bonus. They still give Harmony when in melee.

* '''Iron Hail Gunners''': A living version of the Zombie Handcannons from the Pirate coast, these ladies massacre armoured infantry with their high-AP shotguns. With the Harmony system, being able to keep them closer to your melee units will make them into machinegunning shotgunners. Can fire in melee if the enemy makes contact without breaking through the first rank.
**Unlike your Crossbowmen or Crane gunners, they lack shields or armor, but are much more mobile. You can flank with them to outright delete elite infantry, but even having them shoot through gaps in your formation is also helpful, because they're Cathayan shotguns.
**Considering how quickly you can get these ladies in the Campaign, they're instrumental damage dealers from early to mid.
** Be cautious about using them against the ogres because they will literally just run through your front line, because hurr durr pull through. In campaign, best employed against all chaos factions other than Tzeentch, whose basic units will fucking slaughter the gunners with their ranged attacks, because fuck you I guess.

* '''Crane Gunners''': Human Skaven Jezzails. Much like their rat counterparts, these gunners excel at long-ranged sniping with their second-only-to-artillery range and will likely form a core part of your backline while you make the enemy come to you. They come with shields, which should give them some missile resistance to weather counter-fire and kill those jezzails. You're probably better off going for grand cannons in most match ups though. Grand cannons have better all around combat stats and the exact same movement speed; but with Patch 1.2, they are now shieldbreakers (reducing Missile Block Chance) and their missile go through infantry, which makes them really good at mowing down infantry. Better than cannons at sniping out faster targets and flyers and they can take cover + shoot out of forests while cannons can't.

===Cavalry===
*'''Peasant Horseman''': The fastest thing in your army that can't fly. Probably based on the herdsmen levies that numerous Chinese dynasties employed as scouts and light cav. With an almost identical statline to Brettonian mounted yeomen, the only reason to get peasant horsemen is because Cathay has no alternatives other than Jade Lancers and Longmas who are simply too expensive to waste chasing down routing units + artillery crews. You'll want to grab a few of these guys in Multiplayer and early campaign, but hopefully we'll get better alternatives with future DLC.

*'''Jade Lancers''': Jade warriors on horseback. More defensive than other factions cavalry. More suited defending your flank than running in to attack the enemy. Fucking awful other than their mediocre armor and their shields, ineffective in melee, slow compared to most other heavy cav. Can't even run down enemies because of their glacial speeds. In campaign, consider using the Iron Hail gunners/Jade Crossbows/etc. if you want a flanking unit, who will actually kill the units they are supposed to kill, or just peasant horsemen if you want to run down routing enemies.

*'''Great Jade Longma Riders''': Your versions of pegasus knights, except instead of a rich noble who sneers at peasants, you get a rich noble whose great-great-great-grandad/mom got busy with a dragon. Also comes with Fear, possibly making them an expensive option to spook away and chase routing units. Their true strength will be as a bodyguard unit for your squishy balloons against enemy air forces, and being a hammer to the rest of your rosters anvil.
**Stats wise, they're roughly between pegasus and royal pegasus knights that traded away their Anti-Large bonus in exchange for 30 more armour (110 total), higher weapon strength, and charge bonus. As such, they're better at dealing with multiple different types of opponents but aren't quite as good at dealing with large units and other cav.
**'''Righteous Lances of Wei-Jin''': Comes with majority AP damage and the Guardian ability. If you want a unit that can serve as a body guard for your flying lords and can deal with heavily armored targets these are the horse dragon things for you.

===Chariots===
*'''Wu-Xing War Compass''': A big ol' magical battery that boosts Harmony and counts towards Mastery of Elemental Winds increase the power of your spells. Can cast Urannons Thunderbolt and Comet of Casanodora; the Compass has been buffed in 1.2 to give you 2 free casts of each power without costing WoM, but their ''Celestial Comet'' is half as strong (but also twice as fast) to compensate. Better used as a mount for your spellcasters than an actual unit on it's own
**Also ok in melee as a ...cart. It moves as fast as infantry, literally anyone who gets run over by this thing deserves to die under the hooves of plain old cows dragging a heavy fucking magic compass.

===Monsters===
*'''Terracotta Sentinel''': Take the standard Terracotta soldier from China, make it really big and teach it kung fu and you have this thing. Possible doomstack material. They are unbreakable and hit like a truck, making them good at both clearing chaff and 1v1ing monsters. Don't leave them unsupported against missile units or anti-large elites, as they'll still break down to concentrated AP and missiles. Causes Terror for understandable reasons.
**If you've played Tomb Kings, you know what to expect: keep them away from Halberd tarpits and anti-large monstrous infantry, and if you can't, give them a screen, like Peasant spears or Jade cavalry.
**It's also the best monster in the entire game right now. Like seriously, this thing can beat a Bloodthirster one on one. It's also the cheapest big single entity monster in the entire game as well. Yeah these things are a little bullshit. Given that Cathay is viewed as a little subpar it's nice that they have at least one unit that is really strong, but expect CA to whack these guys with the nerf bat eventually.

===Artillery===
* '''Grand Cannon''': Pulled by oxen making surprisingly mobile, your normal cannon unit. Unlike other factions cannon units, also comes with flaming attacks by default, making it slightly better at burning up trees and mummies, and cutting through regeneration. It is roughly as fast as a standard infantry unit, which is actually a big deal because it will be able to keep up with your main army and rearrange itself much easier than a normal cannon.
** Extremely strong basic artillery unit, which, with the harmony bonuses, can and will kill large units very fucking quickly with their reload bonuses. Always nice to swat Fateweaver out of the sky even before the shit starts spamming searing doom/various fires over your lines.
** It's important to note that these boys are the most accurate cannons we've seen in Total war so far, extremely useful as they're actually capable of swatting tzeench's flying chariots out of mid-air, You can get to tier 3 extremely quickly in campaign and these boys WILL be your bread and butter for the entire campaign.

* '''Fire Rain Rocket''': Imagine a hellstorm rocket battery that fires even faster due to the Harmony mechanic. Terrifying. Aim for big blobs of enemies and watch as they become chunky salsa. Compared to the normal Hellstorm it does more missile damage, but the majority of it isn't actually AP. So while you still want to aim for blobs, those blobs should be of less armoured infantry rather than heavily armoured stuff.

* '''Kongming Sky Lantern''': The smaller of the two airship units with Crane Gunners, and dedicated support. It provides a morale boost to your infantry on top of Harmony, so even your Peasants will hold the line for as long as they humanly can. They also grant vision on units that are hiding in foliage, which can help thwart ambushes. They don't reveal Stalk, though.
**It can fire while moving and line of sight isn't much of a problem, so as long as it doesn't get attacked, it can take potshots at the enemy. It's slow as balls though, so any flying unit that gets its hands on it will be able to tear it to pieces. And pretty much every chaos army has furies who will rip it to shreds
**Almost useless, if it wasn't for the harmony mechanic + its encouragement buff, you probably wouldn't ever take them. As a flying unit, it can provide a source of Harmony that the enemy cant touch unless they devote their other flyers or ranged units on it.
**Offensively, though, their crane guns are like the stormbolter on a Rhino: they just dont shoot enough to actually be dangerous, and don't have the bombs that would otherwise make them useful. You may as well take the Crane Guns on infantry if you want sniper fire, or the Sky Junk for Guns, Bombs, and Rockets.

* '''Kongming Sky-junks''': The heavier of the two airship units that [[Awesome|acts as a flying Helstorm Rocket Battery]]. Can also drop bombs gyrocopter style, and has high armour against missile units. Unlike most other flying units, it can't toggle landing, so try to protect it against flying cav with missile units. It is slow as fuck and will be pretty much useless once it runs out of ammo, but it will hopefully do some devastating damage before that happens.
**Tanky enough to take hits from Furies and other flying beasties that lack AP, they are a nice flying Distraction Carnifex until they run out of ammo. And even when they do, they're a nice flying anvil to hold flyers in place while your Longma riders hammer them.
**They do have an edge against ground artillery, as even if theyre focused down by other artilery pieces, you can expect them to miss more often than not because you're flying, just put them far away enough that those missed shots dont hit your castles infantrybl instead.
**Much more effective when you fire very closely downwards, otherwise, just a shitty fire rain launcher.
**Oddly enough, they can be healed mid-battle with Miao Ying or a dragon blooded lord with bound lore of life spells.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
You are what happens when the Empire, Dwarfs, and Skaven all have the world's weirdest threesome where lingering eye contact was held with the Vampire Coast; and they had a baby. Your themes revolve around plentiful, expendable infantry and strong missiles working in unison to bunker down an area and blast anything that comes at you straight to hell. Harmony is a double edge sword, as while it encourages you to pair units together and builds buffs, it also means units on their own aren't reaching their full potential. This is a quantity over quality faction with limited offensive options, as the closest thing you have to offensive infantry is sword and board Jade Warriors, and while they have cavalry, they're slow and limited compared to other factions.

Since the Cathayan army is so new, there's a massive lack of units for the army compared to all the other established factions, and in some ways, it almost feels unfinished. For example, your have no ranged cavalry options, which means your cavalry options won't be able to receive the Harmony benefit if they go too far (and the bubble is so small, you can lose Harmony just chasing after other cavalry). CA is definitely holding back options to make room for new DLC.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Beastmen| Beastmen]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Bretonnia| Bretonnia]]''': With more flavours of cavalry than you can comprehend, you'll need to set up extremely defensively and bring plenty of halberds to fend off all the armoured horse riders. Be sure to pepper them with your armour piecing missiles, and use peasant chaff to block charges and allow your actual hard hitters to stay in position to fire upon them. Don't bother bringing lanterns and longma riders, Bretonnias air forces are too scary and will easily win any aerial battle, and the lanterns and longma aren't going to be much help against cav and are wasted on peasant chaff.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Daemons of Chaos| Daemons of Chaos]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Warriors of Chaos| Warriors of Chaos]]''':
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Heavily armored barbarians are threatening Cathay's border, and it's up to hot dom dragon waifu and her warpdust snorting fuccboi brother to keep Cathay safe
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
WoC wants to get into melee as soon as they can, and their elite infantry will fuck yours since all your AP is on anti-large; at least your dudes will fuck over any Dragon Ogres, though. Anything bigger than a Dragon Ogre can be handled by the Sentinel
</br>
You outclass them in ranged combat with actual archers, guns, and artillery, WoC players will send Manticores and Cavalry after them, so keep some Halberds next to them (which you should be doing anyway for the Harmony mechanic.)
</br>
That being said, their lack of ranged weapons means that your Sky-Junks will have grand old time, and may be a better investment than ground-based Fire Rockets. Manticores will die to Longma Riders, so keeping them protected will not be an issue.
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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves| Dark Elves]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dwarfs| Dwarfs]]''':
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
This will be tough for the same reason the Vampirates are bad in this matchup, they do your main tactic better than you do. They have a wider assortment of guns and artillery, and great ways to kill your large units. They have Catapults to fuck your formations, while your indirect artillery lacks AP to punch through thicc dwarf armor.
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You will need to play offence against the Dwarfs which isn't great as you have no armour-piercing infantry that isn't bonus versus large, and your units only hit their peak efficiency when they're stationary and next to someone of the opposite type. They're also slow, not dwarf-slow, but slow enough that you'll take losses from Dwarf artillery, so it's a good idea to have at least a few peasants in front off your dudes to die for the Greater G--Harmony.

Your shielded crossbowmen are decent with good AP, get better when they're stationary, reload quicker with the Harmony mechanic; so long as their shields are faced where the shots are coming from, you can bounce some missiles off, too; Iron Hail gunners are much quicker than Jade Warriors or Dwarfs, and their shotguns pack a mean punch, especially when they're quick-firing with Harmony. They can be very good flankers when you pair them with Peasant Long Spears to guard their flanks and provide Harmony. Crane Gunners are like Skaven jezzails, use them to shoot down Gyrocopters to clear the skies and give your airships the ability to shoot from afar without being shot down. Speaking of airships, the Skyjunk is a better investment than the Fire Rain rocket; their weapons are similar, but the Skyjunk is harder to hit by enemy artillery, has much better angling, and when it runs out of ammo, can drop bombs that will be much more disruptive than the non-AP Fire Rain rockets.

Jade Warriors with shields will likely by your best melee infantry bet as they might be able to survive salvos as they hold against the dwarven line, but try screening them with Peasant Long Spears; they'll break, but when they regroup you can use them as Harmony buffers with your Iron Hail or Crane Guns. In terms of how to break the line, Ox Cannons are quite mobile for an artillery piece, and Crane Guns can provide covering fire from afar.

Your best lord option is a dragon blooded lore of yin caster on a longma. She's highly disruptive to ranged heavy factions since she can summon fodder into the middle of the enemy gunline like a flying vampire lord and overcast missile mirror to shut down individual ranged units for 36 seconds at a time.
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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Empire| Empire]]''':
Remember what we said in Dwarfs and Vampirates? Yeah you're dealing with a faction that does your thing better than you again. Grand Cannons are better than Great Cannon thanks to Harmony buffs and better mobility, but that's about the only good thing in this particular matchup. Luminarks hard counter Sky Junks and Imperial rocketry has ''significantly'' greater range than your own, while the constant threat of Demigryph up the ass keep you from rushing in without a plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''':
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This game is still too new for a meta, and most games you have on MP will just be people trying shit out. That being said, take Skyjunks and Fire Rockets and shoot the shit out of the enemy castle. Exploit the Grand Cannons mobility and provide harmony with cheap Peasants that you wont mind losing. Pop airships with Longma or Sky Lanterns, and save the Crane Gunners for their Longma. Take a sentinel and if your opponent takes one too, they can practice their kung fu

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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Greenskins| Greenskins]]''': Greenskins shred dwarfs. but you have the great ability of actually having mobile options and magic. a positive matchup in your favor. bring one or two iron hail gunners to melt greenskin monsters and a lore of yang caster for the fire-wall. jade warriors should be able to hold off even black orks buying time for your missiles to bring the pain.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/High Elves| High Elves]]''': Your biggest threat will be dragons or an arcane phoenix and magic. Any sort of mass-AOE will rip apart your packed formations and the helves have a lot of options. bring grand cannons and use their accuracy to snipe their mages and dragons. otherwise your missile line is better than the helves and your frontline is better. a balanced matchup

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Khorne|Khorne]]''': One of your better matchups. Elite armies really don't like wading through gunfire to get to the enemy lines. Khorne will bring hounds, furies, and a bloodletter summoning cultist or two to disrupt you, peasant spearsmen and maybe a longma squad should suffice to tie them up. A terracotta sentinel is highly recommended as an emergency responder to Khorne's monsters along with a lore of yin caster to snare enemies with storm of shadows and block their movement with summoned fodder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Kislev|Kislev]]''': This is a faction that either relies on subpar ranged power or lots of heavy cavalry. pretty much all your infantry is anti-large and you outrange kislev massively. a very positive matchup in your favour as kislev's 'jack of all trades master of none' once again fails against a more specialised faction

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen| Lizardmen]]''': This will theoretically be a tricky match up, but ultimately one in your favor. Your plentiful AP gunpowder units will make quick work of the sluggish Saurus and, when coupled with your multitude of halberd units, can do some serious damage to their bigger beasties, but they're likely not going to be the forces a competent Lizardmen army will bring. Instead, Skinks will be your bane. Fast skirmishers and Chameleons will hassle you from all angles with their poisonous darts while their cavalry (flying or otherwise) disrupts your formations with fear/terror-inducing charges. If they're bringing a Slann, you will NEED to keep on top of your positioning; positioning your forces too close makes them prime candidates for the myriad of vortex and wind spells at their beck and call. Deal with them first, followed by any cavalry/skirmishers and clean up what's left with your plentiful gunpowder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Norsca| Norsca]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Nurgle| Nurgle]]''': Nurgle hates ranged units, enemy large units, an abundance of anti-large, fire damage, and enemies that can hold out in a grindfest against them. You are all of these things and Nurgle has vanishingly few options against you. Long Ma riders take a huge dump all over any of Nurgle's fliers and the fire damage of your artillery, magic, and more will make Nurgle weep with sorrow as you delete his slow moving and utterly unshielded units off the table one after the other. And as Nurgle has extremely anemic charges he can't even reliably break your formations without lucky spell casts; which of course relies on the Nurglites even getting a spellcaster in range through your numerous means to snipe them off the field. You can basically win this matchup while AFK, but something to watch out for is nurgles Army Ability, which can jump from one nearby unit to another, and Harmony forces your units together, so keep an eye out for the plauges.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Ogre Kingdoms| Ogre Kingdoms]]''': High mass charging units will ruin your day. ogres are cathay's worst matchup bar none in warhammer 3. your frontline will get pushed around like paper as while halberds CAN deal a lot of damage and hold off ogres the ogres can bring a lot more ogre bulls for the price than you can bring halberds. It's worth having no magic and getting a cheap lord as your units are a lot more useful than the lores available for once,

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven| Skaven]]''': From the looks of it, this seems to be your hardest matchup by far. Your harmony mechanic relies heavily on having a solid plan for most stages of the game and Skaven excel at disruption, be it through summons, skirmishing Eshin troops or just raw balls-to-the-wall firepower of Clan Skryre. Mirror Missile is your friend in this match-up and for its relatively low winds of magic cost is one of the single most brutal anti-ranged unit spells in the entire game, forcing the Skaven commander to either force their ranged unit into inactivity for twenty seconds or watch their prized shooters wipe themselves out.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Slaanesh| Slaanesh]]''': What's this, a speedy flanking faction designed to dive backlines? This could spell trouble for you. Fortunately, you theoretically have one way to banish Slaanesh's creeps back to the warp, and that's "Invest in flying units and box up with halberds." Slaanesh has no ranged units and only Furies as fliers, so as long as you have a Longma unit or cheap missiles to protect them, your Sky Lanterns and Sky Junks will be pretty much untouchable as they blast apart Slaanesh's ranks. Due to the amount of AP on their roster, Celestial Dragon Guard are a risky choice so invest either in Peasent spears or Jade Warriors with Halberds. You won't win the melee fight so don't bother investing in it. Have your infantry hold while your War Ballons shoot, your flying casters cast (Grab either the Dragon Siblings or a Shugangen in the air to keep them safe) and your Longma use their speed to flank and rear charge. Your balloons will run out of ammo eventually though, so make every shot count. Or just bring crossbows/archers, and shoot the living shit out of the exhibitionists.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''': Lore of yang fire wall. 'nuff said

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tzeentch| Tzeentch]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast| Vampire Coast]]''': If the Coast thinks they can outshoot you they have another thing coming. Rocket artillery devastates Vampirate formations and while they can swat your Sky lanterns out of the sky if they bring terrorgheists, Long Ma riders and your Legendary Lords can swat those out of the air in turn and curbstomp any deck droppers they bring. You have well armoured and shielded ranged units who will tear straight through the fragile ranks of the Coast and can stop any monsters they field cold; while your artillery is able to out-trade Vampirate cannons with a better rate of fire as long as harmony is active. Also Missile Mirror was basically created to troll the Vampire Coast specifically.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Counts| Vampire Counts]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| Wood Elves]]''':

===Domination===
General Tier Rank: '''D'''

You know how Harmony encourages you to stick your units together and to hold down a single point while not getting too aggressive? In Domination you win by doing the exact opposite of that. Since you have to spread out your forces and go on the offensive it's really hard for you to actually keep your Harmony active meaning a good chunk of your units won't be fighting at their price range. What's more, since you're out maneuvered by most factions, odds are you will not being getting to most points first and will have to fight off your enemies to secure them. Good news is that with your high armor, Terrocottas and range once you do have a point it's decently hard to kick you off. It would really help if you had some kind of decent, inexpensive mobile threat or just a fast ranged unit that can help keep harmony on all your infantry. You're way better in normal land battles though, as it's significantly easier to play your game and keep Harmony up.

==Campaign Mechanics and Tactics==

Unlike Kislev, which devolves into a Daemon fuckfest around the third or fourth wave of Rifts, Cathay is so easily-defendable that it's just begging for a rework, or at least a nerfbat.

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'''Bastion:''' You have no real enemies outside the invaders in the Steppes beyond the Bastion, or the Ogres/Chaos Warriors in the Mountains to the South. The Bastion has a unique "Chaos Invasion" mechanic where Kurgans get spawned every so often to lay siege to the Bastion. They are Norscans rather than WoC, though, so have absolutely no artillery or siege ability outside of throwing trolls or mammoths at you, and the Bastion Gates practically pay for themselves once you invest in the Upkeep Lowering building chain, (which can go as far as 90% upkeep reduction for garrisoned armies), and get the settlement to level 4 to build Terracotta Sentinels. The Kurgans pretty much only exist to die against your garrisons and give them free experience. Funnily enough, should an AI Cathayan faction own all the gates, the stacks will do absolutely nothing but wait outside the gates.

'''Trade and Treaties:'''Speaking of Cathayan Factions, there are four hostile rebels (two for each Legendary Lord) and two Loyalist ones, who will be pretty easily confederated once you beat the rebels. Do this as quickly as you can, because your income will rise substantially with their provinces and stability. Cathayan income is comparable to High Elves, without the expensive upkeep. You will actually have enough passive income to station a hero in each province to close rifts as they come up, and the gold needed for each action. You can now just use defense building to stop rifts spawning at all.

You'll also have lots of potential trade partners; by sending Caravans westwards, you can establish diplomatic relations with factions they pass through, and trade treaties can be established with those on the route. These trade relationships can be turned into military treaties, which can eventually lead to Outposts, a new mechanic in Campaign that lets you build military outposts in major settlements (Provincial Capitals with 4+ slots). If you both have an outpost in each other's territories, both factions get to purchase infantry from each other's respective recruitment pools. Cathayan Castles with Kislev Tzar Guard? Na, think Jade Warriors backed by Kroxigors, or Hawk Riders screening for your airships!

'''Harmony and the Compass:''' Harmony is pretty tedious. Your economic/defense buildings, technology, and characters (+1 for heroes, +3 for lords) all have a corresponding Yin-Yang cost. Going too far towards one way will lead to inefficiency at the least, and provincial instability at the worst. Yin and Yang balance will fluctuate as you lose heroes and research tech, and certain buildings will wax and wane in usefulness as your empire expands/contracts: One Yin building, for example, provides better casualty replenishment, while its Yang counterpart ranks up your Peasants; one is more useful when you're trying to replenish losses after capturing a territory, the other is better for giving you quality levies, but both are mutually exclusive per settlement. Since you only need to build the first tier for the yin-yang point, it is sometimes helpful to leave a building slot open for quick rebalancing, or demolishing the ones you dont need anymore. quick recruiting and disbanding hero's is a good way to keep it balanced easily.

The Celestial Compass on the other hand provides campaign bonuses depending on which way the winds of magic is directed: corruption cleansing, casualty replenishment, control, or growth ; as it stays pointed in one direction, a meter fills up, providing grander effects, like increased income, attrition on enemies (but only the regions beyond the Bastion, its also useless since the AI is mostly immune to attrition), or a comet like spell on the battlefield.

'''Actually playing:''' As mentioned above, uniting Cathay is your top priority, because the potential income you can get by having so many peaceful provinces under your direct control. And there's honestly not a lot of directions for you to expand to: The Steppes outside the bastion is simply too chaotic to be worth it, and the Mountains of Mourn are filled with Ogres and Chaos Warriors who will happily take a break from killing each other to kill you instead. Until the late game, your contact with the Old World will be limited to Caravans, which is fine, since they still provide line of sight and diopomacy options in the mountains and beyond in the Old World.

The Rifts will start out delivering only small amounts of corruption, but will get more severe as the campaign drags on, to the point that they can bring a province to 100 corruption in only a few turns. put one of the tier 3 defense building in every province and rifts will no longer spawn in your territory, just have a lord walk to a rift outside your territory instead or leave one province open to rifts. Only your faction leader can enter the Warp or traverse the rifts to fast travel to another place on the map, and when closing a rift with an army will only cause a battle, whereas using a hero only costs gold.

You need to collect four Daemon Prince souls, one from each Realm, to lead to the final battle.

*Slaanesh takes a minimum of 6 turns, as you need to go past each of the six circles and deny all the gifts presented at each exit. You can, however avoid pointless battles the easiest here by simply going straight to each rings portal and avoiding the Slaanesh daemons. If you can deal with missed chance at a soul getting the sword of Slaanesh and personal Sycophant follower is extremely strong.
*Tzeentch's realm is like a pokemon gym, where you go from island to island via teleporter until you arrive at his palace. The islands only really have 2 portals, the one you came from, and the one you need to reach, so as long as you just go from one to the next, you'll be fine. What makes this difficult, though, is that you spend the rest of your movement teleporting, no matter how much you had left. Some islands have Daemons waiting to jump you outside of the teleportation portal, sometimes one stack, others, two. Never march through a portal, since that will leave you exhausted, or worse, with no retreat option. If youre afraid of being jumped on arrival, in TW3 you can still move in the encampment stance(but at 50% range), so this not only prevents attrition but gives you an advantage on the defense
*Khorne wants to watch you fight. His realm is full of rogue armies that you must defeat, and for each kill you get, you fill up a meter. Fill this meter and he will grant you the honor of fighting the Daemon Prince at the Brass Citadel. Pick a fight against the undead or daemons, because rather than run away, they will fight on until the entire unit is wiped. This will fill the bar quickly, and its not like you had lots of ways to chase after routing ememies.
*Nurgle grinds you down with attrition, but thankfully unless Ku'gath is there too, you won't actually catch a "real" plague. The best way to move through his realm is encamped, but doing so cuts movement in half. You can also visit landmarks for some replenishment, because Nurgle is nothing but generous. That being said, his daemons will block your path and respawn right away.
*The Shadow Legion: After collecting all 4 souls, the road to the Forge of Souls is unlocked. Once more, portals will open all throughout the world, but this time Belakors forces will erupt and lay siege to your cities. The amount looks to be variable, amd by this point in the game, you are probably at war with more than just Chaos. If you have any spare heroes, close the portals right away to prevent reinforcements. Since this happens right after collecting the fourth soul, you can time it to happen right after clearing the latest wave of Kurgans, so that at the very least, you're not dealing with a Bastion invasion at the same time you're dealing with literal hell gates erupting all over your empire.
*The Final Battle: Belakor controls the Forge of Souls. It is a survival battle, so you will face three waves while also fighting through the forge. The first wave is nothing difficult, and can be won solely through Sky Junks and Celestial Crossbows, but the 2nd and 3rd will be tedious, since you're in the Forge of Souls, you will be facing a whole bunch of Soul Grinders. Take Celestial Halberds, Celestial Crossbows, and multiple Sentinels. The Halberds are self explanatory, since you will need some tough holding units to hold against the waves of Daemons, and their expert charge defence means that while fighting Bloodletters is inefficient, they wont give up without a fight; Crossbows are quite dangerous when focus firing in volleys, but the two artillery Soul Grinders (Nurgle and Tzeentch) are both also the tankiest. Take out Tzeentch first, because Barrier recharges, and it will recharge once you stop shooting it. When teched up, Sentinels are a good match for Soul Grinders, but are very slow in movement and attacking without support, so you will want to have someone fight the Daemons while the Sentinels fight the Daemon Engines.
**This is where a military alliance really comes in handy. Bloodletters are pretty good against your infantry, and are still pretty dangerous when they mob a sentinel. Tzar Guard or Armored Kossars provide some offensive oomph that your Celestials and Jade Warriors otherwise lack.
**One tricky part about Survival is that even after a wave is "over," you will continue to be harassed until the next wave begins. After the first wave ends, Chaos Hounds wil harass your troops until they capture the secont point, so you will need to leave a rear guard behind to deal with them, otherwise your heavy infantry, or worse, your slow, slow, Sentinels wil get stuck behind swatting them. After the second wave, Belakor spawns endless Daemons. Daemonettes and Bloodletters will rush you, while Pink Horrors will pepper you with magic while taking no damage in return from barrier.
**The Final Wave wont end until Belakor is slain. Belakor summons even more Soul grinders, as well as a bunch of heavier hitters, like Minotaurs of Khorne and Doom Knights. They will be teleporting in from all over the throne room, so you will need to keep an eye out for when a portal opens and for what comes out of it. The only thing that prevents this from being utter Bullshit is that they give you a shit ton of Sentinels (7??) in the final wave of reinforcements, and you will be legitimately retarded if you take anything else besides them. In fact, because of how many Sentinels you get for the final battle, you may be able getting away only three or four in your army, and filling the rest with heavy infantry or crossbows. The final battle is chaotic and all over the place, and warm bodies to hold back the reinforcements might be more helpful than 15 sentinels all trying to gangbang Belakor.

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[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay

2022-08-18T19:18:31Z

2600:387:2:80F:0:0:0:7A: /* Lords */

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

==Why Play Cathay==
*Because Total War: Three Kingdoms didn't go hard enough into fantasy for you.
*These guys are finally being fleshed out (with the full blessings of our [[Games Workshop|evil British overlords]] nonetheless) after years and you want to see what they come up with.
*You're into chinese history and mythology.
*You want to play a defensive gunline but don't want to play as boring white guys, short vengeful alcoholics or the bad guys from Pirates of the Caribbean
*You think it's extremely funny to watch Flamers of Tzeentch, Jezzails, and Artillery pieces nuke themselves when you use Mirror Missile on them.
*You playstyle is similar to the Empire and/or Dwarfs, but you can't play them yet in Warhammer III until Immortal Empires is finally released.

===Pros===
*'''Designed for Total War''': One thing we can say as an advantage for Cathay is unlike the other factions they will be designed from the ground up to be in a Total War game rather than trying to transition from a tabletop game into total war. This gives them the potential to be one of the best-designed races and balanced since they're not trying to fit a square Warhammer peg into a round Total War hole.
*'''Numbers''': In lore, Cathay has the largest population of all the human nations, so they have bodies to spare. Don't expect Skaven numbers, but you'll have large armies compared to other good guy races.
*'''Range''': As the oldest Human nation to have gotten gunpowder, it makes sense it plays a big role in your army. You have access to a ton of gunpowder units and artillery to blast the enemy apart. You also got some elite crossbows to play around with. The harmony system ensures that your ranged units have some of the higest reload skill in the entire game, which means... Well, [[Dakka|you shoot a lot.]]
*'''Air Power''': With your Longma, War Balloons and your Dragons you will be decently scary in the air. You won't be fast, and any opposing faction with decent air cavalry will likely threaten you, but you have some potent options.
*'''Harmony''': Cathay has a solid combination of ranged and melee units that work together well in concert. Similarly, units can either be Yin or Yang aligned and having the two working together provides you with a bonus.
*'''Defensive''': Cathay is built to last. Between your faction mechanics and selection of magical lores, Grand Cathay is built to hold the line. If you crave a faction with a strong, staunch line of spears to keep your enemies at bay, Cathay's going to be the faction for you.
*'''Magic:''' Cathay is actually able to keep up with the best of them when it comes to magic. Sure, you don't have the variety that High Elves or Empire have but with 4 lores you do have the most of the game 3 factions. Plus, with Mastery of the Elemental Winds, your spells do more damage the more mages you have in your army. Especially in campaign, Miao and Zhao can carry the army with their spells alone.

===Cons===
*'''Synergy''': Due to the way Harmony works, you will NEED to keep units close to each other, otherwise individual units will underperform. As such, you will likely be locked into turtling in order to get your units close enough to get the buffs they might need in order to perform efficiently. On their own, your units actually have ''lower'' stats than their equivalent in other armies, only getting better when properly buffed.
*'''Slow''': Cathay won't be winning many foot races compared to other factions. Though not as plodding as the dwarfs or lizardmen, you don't have much in the way of cavalry and your war balloons are pretty susceptible to air cav and missile fire.
*'''Subpar Cavalry''': Out of all the non Chaos human factions, you're easily the worst when it comes to Cavalry. Jade Lancers are on equal footing with Empire Knights, which doesn't seem bad until you realizes that your second best cavalry option is roughly on par with another faction's weakest heavy cav that tend to get flattened by more elite options. Peasant Horsemen are similar to Mounted Yeomen and while Longma aren't bad they are expensive while not having AP or anti large. Could be worse, you at least ''have'' cavalry, but most factions will out match you with their riders.
*'''Limited Skirmishers''': No vanguard deployment, stalk, or cheap fast movers other than peasant horsemen. You're going to suck at harrying broken units off the map and hunting enemy skirmishers + war machines.
*'''AoE Susceptible''': A core mechanic of Cathay units is that they gain bonuses when in close proximity with each other. While this can be great for holding the line, it also makes your forces more vulnerable to vortex or wind spells. You'll have to keep an eye out for enemy wizards.
*'''No Melee Expert Non-Legendary Lords or Heroes''': None of your non-LL and Heroes are really that good in melee combat or can serve as a tank. I know what you're thinking "But the Dragon Siblings!" but they won't be leading all your armies in campaign and they are expensive in multiplayer. 3 out of 4 of your Lords and Heroes are Mages and the one that isn't, the Lord Magistrate, is a support buffing character rather than a melee duelist or a tank. Shugengan lords are stated to be decent in melee but trust me, that's only by Mage Lord standards. You won't have many characters that can be safely thrown into melee combat. Concept art was found for a "Gate Master" hero, which will likely serve as the Cathayan equivalent of the Empire Captain or High Elf Noble, so this issue will probably be fixed with DLC.
*'''Not Designed for Domination''': Forget about Cathay being "Numbah Wan," Cathay is currently one of the Bottom Tier worst factions in multiplayer. As of mid March, Cathay only has a 38% win rate in multiplayer, and recent balance patches and Domination rule changes really didn't help you out too much. You have no real way to play aggressive in Domination and can't force people off of points. If you only care about [[That Guy|winning through OP ways]], don't bother playing Cathay until they get their DLC.
*'''DLC''': There are three guarantees in life. Death, Taxes, and Core Races getting units withheld for DLC. There is already a notable lack of monkey in the Cathay roster. Sorry Cathay, don't expect to be different. (Though in this case, I guess it's less "units being held back" and more "CA and GW making up more shit later.")
**Note that we can generally predict 2-3 lord packs for Cathay. In Mythology china gave each of the 4 cardinal direction's there own set of associations, beast, element, god so on, and with two lords already claiming two of those directions, 2 more for the other two compass points and a possible 5th for the center seems likely.

==Faction traits==
*'''Battle Harmony''': Shared by all non-character Cathay units. Melee units are marked as "Yang", while ranged units are "Yin"; these units gain bonuses when near a unit of the opposite type: leadership and melee defence for melee Yang units, and leadership and reload speed for ranged Yin units. Characters multiply these bonuses for nearby units.
*'''Mastery of the Elemental Winds''': Shared by all Cathayan spellcasters, this ability enhances their spells for each spellcaster present in the army. This encourages taking multiple spellcasters, something not usually done in other factions.
*'''Formation Attack''': A trait that makes the unit try to stay in formation, even when in combat. Presumably, this makes holding chokepoints and positions easier to do.

==Lords==
We finally got the names of the two legendary lords, and they turn out to be new characters. The children of the Dragon Emperor and the Moon Empress, they rule in his stead over the various provinces of Cathay.

===Legendary Lords===
Kathay has a tech unlockable banner that gives 20% ward save, use this on your legendary of choice, if you take the sword of Slaanesh from the chaos realm you'll get another 20% ward save and tons of damage. enjoy being the toughest/deadliest lord in WH 3. even Skarbrand cant compete with 70-80% ward save dragons who also cast spells.
*'''[[Miao Ying]], the Storm Dragon, ruler of the Northern Provinces and Commander of the Great Bastion.''': Daughter of the Dragon Emperor. Miss Cold and Aloof. She is in the north and is daddy's favourite. Can transform between human form where she buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. She will be able to use a hybrid of Life and Yin Magic: Including Earth Blood, Storm of Shadows, Flesh to Stone, Missile Mirror, Regrowth and Talons of Night, with both Lore Traits of Lifebloom and Power of Yin. She has the Wrath of the Storm ability, which increases melee attack, makes attacks magical, and makes those affected immune to psychology. She also has the Disdain of Dragons ability, which lowers enemy melee attacks in a constant radius. She also has access to the Mirror Missile spell which is easily one of the most trollish spells in the entire game, you will never tire of watching the enemy's elite ranged units delete themselves when they fire with the hex activated. She is the only lord kathay had with non bound spell healing, and regrowth is amazing on herself and terracotta sentinels. no inherent access to regeneration as a skill though, the von carstein blade item from caravans is perfect for her.

*'''[[Zhao Ming]], the Iron Dragon, ruler of the Western Provinces and Lord of Shang-Yang''': Son of the Dragon Emperor, and a mama's boy. His faction is stated to focus on and specialize in Alchemists and Astronomers. Can transform between human form where he buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. He uses a hybrid of Metal and Yang magic, unfortunately his spell selection is kinda terrible, his only really great spell is final transmutation and maybe glittering robe early on, but the rest are pretty weak. It feels like they purposely picked only the weakest spells from the lore Yang to give him, he would have been great with jade shield, stone stance, might of heaven and earth to self buff but instead he got the weaker damage spells only. He gets regeneration, an AOE ward save aura (includes him), and can cast final transmutation with a discount which is actually very powerful for taking out the mass soulgrinders you face in campaign/the final battle. He has large army wide buffs to armor and weapon damage. if you want to Terracotta sentinel doomstack he is a great choice but lack of access to healing spells is an issue.

===Lords===
*'''Dragon-Blooded Shugengan Lord''': Descended from when a human pulled a Donkey from Shrek with Cathay's rulers. Your Mage lord, they come with the lores of Yang or Yin and their mounts are Warhorse or Jade Longma for extra mobility. While they are ''slightly'' better than most mage lords in melee don't expect them to last long if a dedicated melee character gets a hold of them. Yin and Yang variants each get to choose from 4 different options of bound spells from other lore’s usable 4 times each, I prefer Yang because they can get earthblood, which is Cathay’s only healing access or spirit leach is good for yin.

*'''Lord Magistrate''': Your cheap normal frontline general. His gimmick is being able to further improve the harmony mechanic of his army, so extra incentive to form up in a sexy turtle. He also comes with the ability to buff the defense, damage or range of units with his army abilities. His mounts are Warhorse or Sky Lantern. Sadly he's garbage in melee, his mounts suck and pretty much anything he can do a Shugengan can do better. As such no real reason to nab him unless you want to hear his gloriously hammy voice acting. He's also unfortunately the only lord that will ever lead your caravans.

===Legendary Heroes===

===Generic Heroes===
*'''Alchemist''': Mages who fight with vials and magic that looks like Chinese calligraphy. Lore of Metal user with some extra bound buffs to armour, melee attack and magic damage with armour piecing. Can mount a warhorse. She comes with various buff by giving Poison, Magic Attacks or more AP to specific units so she can be good just to make sure that your units have other ways to fight the enemy.

*'''Astromancer''': Your lore of heavens caster. His mounts are a Warhorse for mobility or a Wu Xing War Compass which seems as though it will boost his magic output considerably. You pick this mage if you just want to blow shit up, as his War Compass mount gives him two free bound spells to rain upon the enemy.

==Units==

===Infantry===
*'''Peasant Long Spearmen''': Your early chaff unit that's literally expected to run away once things get hairy. The unexpected MVP of the roster (at least until DLCs give you something better). They come with Expendable ''and'' Expert Charge Defense, which is a rarity for tier 1 units.
**Rather than treating them like Skavenslaves, they're a lot more like TK skeleton spearmen without the shields: a really good screen with lots of bodies, relatively high health compared to the rest of your infantry, and high model count that can absorb losses. They're still expendable chaff, and you take them to die in place of your Jade warriors or Celestial Guard.
** Really fucking good for how easy and cheap they are. With the harmony buff, the Peasant Long Spearmen have stats higher than state troops, and function very well as a front line against everything. They are vulnerable to missiles, but you should have outshooting your opponents anyway.
**The Terracotta sentinel is very vulnerable to tarpitting, Peasant Long Spears are mobile and numerous enough to keep some of that pressure off them. They wont provide any harmony benefits though.
**Can tank for ages against pretty much anything with the jade shield 44% ward save buff from the lore of yang. Perfect for sacrificial screening, especially since lore of yang also has really powerful AOE spells you can drop on units getting traffic jammed by the peasants.
**Significantly better in Campaign. By the late game, it wouldn't be hard to produce them at tier 7, and their morale gets significantly better with technology and building upgrades, and can lead to hilarious situations where a single unit of Peasants holds off a band of Chosen on its own. They wont do any damage, of course, but that's why you drop a vortex or airship bomb on them.
*'''Jade Warriors''': Your mid-tier unit and your bread and butter until you can afford Celestial Dragon Guard. Have a unique mechanic where the longer they sit still and brace, the more bonuses they get, gaining higher charge resistance and armour. Make the Dragon Empire into the Turtle Empire with these guys. Just keep in mind that like turtles, they don't move very fast or hit very hard.
**The Sword and Shield combo, when combined with Harmony and their own innate stationary buff, they are very tough and can still find a use to tank hits for the Dragon Guard in the late-game. Excellent front line unit with good missile block chance and armor.
**The Halberd has better melee attack and armor piercing, so theyre like the Wardancers in that even when fighting against heavy infantry, it might be useful to take them to do some damage. Still more of a holding force than an aggressive force.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard''': Your elite, end-game unit, taking the best from both Jade Warriors since they're all armed with Halberds and Shields. They have expert charge defense, AP, and dont get bonuses/lose nothing from moving, meaning you could move them to where they're needed most, or even have them charge though Peasant chaff, foregoing the low charge bonus to keep models alive given the low-model count typical of Elite Infantry.
**'''Dune Dragons''' - Dragon Guard with Magic Attacks, Magic Resist, Immune to Psych and Encourage. These guys are pretty much designed to be a middle finger to large Daemons as they can punch through their physical resist and not get terror routed.

===Missiles===
*'''Peasant Archers''': Like your peasant infantry, but with a bow and arrow. Cheap and expendable, potentially valuable if you need a relatively disposable unit to provide a small amount of ranged support and trigger the yin/yang buff where needed. Has no AP, but that shouldn't be a problem in campaign where the majority of your chaos, norsca, and ogre enemies don't have much armor.
** Very cost effective, especially with the harmony buffs. Can put down a significant amount of fire with their reload skill buffs.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors with crossbows (in case you couldn't have told from their name). Armoured and with a shielded variant, they sit in-between Empire Crossbowmen and Dwarf Quarrelers in terms of durability and power; they still have the same "hunker-down" ability as regular JW, so you'll probably want to move them in position behind Long Spears and refrain from moving them to keep those bonuses.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen With shields''' You know the drill by now. silver shield and a minor buff to melee defence. In campaign avoid getting these unless your economy is absurd as they are a significant upkeep increase for no extra practical combat performance. In mutiplayer currently they're also not reccomended as the only other factions that pose a missile threat are magical-tzeench and kislev's massive cavalry spam. both of which shields don't help great against and it's better to have an extra unit of peasants or some shit over the shielded variant.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors on steroids, once again. Shielded, heavily armoured and with armour-piercing bolts, they're durable archers that can trade shots with the enemy's best.
**On paper, their bolts have more strength than the Sisters of Avelorn, but it's mundane AP versus the Fire/Magic combo that lets the Sisters put in work against pretty much anything. Celestial Crossbowmen have better DPS when buffed, though.
**Desperate and in a pinch? Castle too tight for shooting? Well, they're still Celestial Guard, and so are decent in melee, minus the AP or anti-large bonus. They still give Harmony when in melee.

* '''Iron Hail Gunners''': A living version of the Zombie Handcannons from the Pirate coast, these ladies massacre armoured infantry with their high-AP shotguns. With the Harmony system, being able to keep them closer to your melee units will make them into machinegunning shotgunners. Can fire in melee if the enemy makes contact without breaking through the first rank.
**Unlike your Crossbowmen or Crane gunners, they lack shields or armor, but are much more mobile. You can flank with them to outright delete elite infantry, but even having them shoot through gaps in your formation is also helpful, because they're Cathayan shotguns.
**Considering how quickly you can get these ladies in the Campaign, they're instrumental damage dealers from early to mid.
** Be cautious about using them against the ogres because they will literally just run through your front line, because hurr durr pull through. In campaign, best employed against all chaos factions other than Tzeentch, whose basic units will fucking slaughter the gunners with their ranged attacks, because fuck you I guess.

* '''Crane Gunners''': Human Skaven Jezzails. Much like their rat counterparts, these gunners excel at long-ranged sniping with their second-only-to-artillery range and will likely form a core part of your backline while you make the enemy come to you. They come with shields, which should give them some missile resistance to weather counter-fire and kill those jezzails. You're probably better off going for grand cannons in most match ups though. Grand cannons have better all around combat stats and the exact same movement speed; but with Patch 1.2, they are now shieldbreakers (reducing Missile Block Chance) and their missile go through infantry, which makes them really good at mowing down infantry. Better than cannons at sniping out faster targets and flyers and they can take cover + shoot out of forests while cannons can't.

===Cavalry===
*'''Peasant Horseman''': The fastest thing in your army that can't fly. Probably based on the herdsmen levies that numerous Chinese dynasties employed as scouts and light cav. With an almost identical statline to Brettonian mounted yeomen, the only reason to get peasant horsemen is because Cathay has no alternatives other than Jade Lancers and Longmas who are simply too expensive to waste chasing down routing units + artillery crews. You'll want to grab a few of these guys in Multiplayer and early campaign, but hopefully we'll get better alternatives with future DLC.

*'''Jade Lancers''': Jade warriors on horseback. More defensive than other factions cavalry. More suited defending your flank than running in to attack the enemy. Fucking awful other than their mediocre armor and their shields, ineffective in melee, slow compared to most other heavy cav. Can't even run down enemies because of their glacial speeds. In campaign, consider using the Iron Hail gunners/Jade Crossbows/etc. if you want a flanking unit, who will actually kill the units they are supposed to kill, or just peasant horsemen if you want to run down routing enemies.

*'''Great Jade Longma Riders''': Your versions of pegasus knights, except instead of a rich noble who sneers at peasants, you get a rich noble whose great-great-great-grandad/mom got busy with a dragon. Also comes with Fear, possibly making them an expensive option to spook away and chase routing units. Their true strength will be as a bodyguard unit for your squishy balloons against enemy air forces, and being a hammer to the rest of your rosters anvil.
**Stats wise, they're roughly between pegasus and royal pegasus knights that traded away their Anti-Large bonus in exchange for 30 more armour (110 total), higher weapon strength, and charge bonus. As such, they're better at dealing with multiple different types of opponents but aren't quite as good at dealing with large units and other cav.
**'''Righteous Lances of Wei-Jin''': Comes with majority AP damage and the Guardian ability. If you want a unit that can serve as a body guard for your flying lords and can deal with heavily armored targets these are the horse dragon things for you.

===Chariots===
*'''Wu-Xing War Compass''': A big ol' magical battery that boosts Harmony and counts towards Mastery of Elemental Winds increase the power of your spells. Can cast Urannons Thunderbolt and Comet of Casanodora; the Compass has been buffed in 1.2 to give you 2 free casts of each power without costing WoM, but their ''Celestial Comet'' is half as strong (but also twice as fast) to compensate. Better used as a mount for your spellcasters than an actual unit on it's own
**Also ok in melee as a ...cart. It moves as fast as infantry, literally anyone who gets run over by this thing deserves to die under the hooves of plain old cows dragging a heavy fucking magic compass.

===Monsters===
*'''Terracotta Sentinel''': Take the standard Terracotta soldier from China, make it really big and teach it kung fu and you have this thing. Possible doomstack material. They are unbreakable and hit like a truck, making them good at both clearing chaff and 1v1ing monsters. Don't leave them unsupported against missile units or anti-large elites, as they'll still break down to concentrated AP and missiles. Causes Terror for understandable reasons.
**If you've played Tomb Kings, you know what to expect: keep them away from Halberd tarpits and anti-large monstrous infantry, and if you can't, give them a screen, like Peasant spears or Jade cavalry.
**It's also the best monster in the entire game right now. Like seriously, this thing can beat a Bloodthirster one on one. It's also the cheapest big single entity monster in the entire game as well. Yeah these things are a little bullshit. Given that Cathay is viewed as a little subpar it's nice that they have at least one unit that is really strong, but expect CA to whack these guys with the nerf bat eventually.

===Artillery===
* '''Grand Cannon''': Pulled by oxen making surprisingly mobile, your normal cannon unit. Unlike other factions cannon units, also comes with flaming attacks by default, making it slightly better at burning up trees and mummies, and cutting through regeneration. It is roughly as fast as a standard infantry unit, which is actually a big deal because it will be able to keep up with your main army and rearrange itself much easier than a normal cannon.
** Extremely strong basic artillery unit, which, with the harmony bonuses, can and will kill large units very fucking quickly with their reload bonuses. Always nice to swat Fateweaver out of the sky even before the shit starts spamming searing doom/various fires over your lines.
** It's important to note that these boys are the most accurate cannons we've seen in Total war so far, extremely useful as they're actually capable of swatting tzeench's flying chariots out of mid-air, You can get to tier 3 extremely quickly in campaign and these boys WILL be your bread and butter for the entire campaign.

* '''Fire Rain Rocket''': Imagine a hellstorm rocket battery that fires even faster due to the Harmony mechanic. Terrifying. Aim for big blobs of enemies and watch as they become chunky salsa. Compared to the normal Hellstorm it does more missile damage, but the majority of it isn't actually AP. So while you still want to aim for blobs, those blobs should be of less armoured infantry rather than heavily armoured stuff.

* '''Kongming Sky Lantern''': The smaller of the two airship units with Crane Gunners, and dedicated support. It provides a morale boost to your infantry on top of Harmony, so even your Peasants will hold the line for as long as they humanly can. They also grant vision on units that are hiding in foliage, which can help thwart ambushes. They don't reveal Stalk, though.
**It can fire while moving and line of sight isn't much of a problem, so as long as it doesn't get attacked, it can take potshots at the enemy. It's slow as balls though, so any flying unit that gets its hands on it will be able to tear it to pieces. And pretty much every chaos army has furies who will rip it to shreds
**Almost useless, if it wasn't for the harmony mechanic + its encouragement buff, you probably wouldn't ever take them. As a flying unit, it can provide a source of Harmony that the enemy cant touch unless they devote their other flyers or ranged units on it.
**Offensively, though, their crane guns are like the stormbolter on a Rhino: they just dont shoot enough to actually be dangerous, and don't have the bombs that would otherwise make them useful. You may as well take the Crane Guns on infantry if you want sniper fire, or the Sky Junk for Guns, Bombs, and Rockets.

* '''Kongming Sky-junks''': The heavier of the two airship units that [[Awesome|acts as a flying Helstorm Rocket Battery]]. Can also drop bombs gyrocopter style, and has high armour against missile units. Unlike most other flying units, it can't toggle landing, so try to protect it against flying cav with missile units. It is slow as fuck and will be pretty much useless once it runs out of ammo, but it will hopefully do some devastating damage before that happens.
**Tanky enough to take hits from Furies and other flying beasties that lack AP, they are a nice flying Distraction Carnifex until they run out of ammo. And even when they do, they're a nice flying anvil to hold flyers in place while your Longma riders hammer them.
**They do have an edge against ground artillery, as even if theyre focused down by other artilery pieces, you can expect them to miss more often than not because you're flying, just put them far away enough that those missed shots dont hit your castles infantrybl instead.
**Much more effective when you fire very closely downwards, otherwise, just a shitty fire rain launcher.
**Oddly enough, they can be healed mid-battle with Miao Ying or a dragon blooded lord with bound lore of life spells.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
You are what happens when the Empire, Dwarfs, and Skaven all have the world's weirdest threesome where lingering eye contact was held with the Vampire Coast; and they had a baby. Your themes revolve around plentiful, expendable infantry and strong missiles working in unison to bunker down an area and blast anything that comes at you straight to hell. Harmony is a double edge sword, as while it encourages you to pair units together and builds buffs, it also means units on their own aren't reaching their full potential. This is a quantity over quality faction with limited offensive options, as the closest thing you have to offensive infantry is sword and board Jade Warriors, and while they have cavalry, they're slow and limited compared to other factions.

Since the Cathayan army is so new, there's a massive lack of units for the army compared to all the other established factions, and in some ways, it almost feels unfinished. For example, your have no ranged cavalry options, which means your cavalry options won't be able to receive the Harmony benefit if they go too far (and the bubble is so small, you can lose Harmony just chasing after other cavalry). CA is definitely holding back options to make room for new DLC.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Beastmen| Beastmen]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Bretonnia| Bretonnia]]''': With more flavours of cavalry than you can comprehend, you'll need to set up extremely defensively and bring plenty of halberds to fend off all the armoured horse riders. Be sure to pepper them with your armour piecing missiles, and use peasant chaff to block charges and allow your actual hard hitters to stay in position to fire upon them. Don't bother bringing lanterns and longma riders, Bretonnias air forces are too scary and will easily win any aerial battle, and the lanterns and longma aren't going to be much help against cav and are wasted on peasant chaff.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Daemons of Chaos| Daemons of Chaos]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Warriors of Chaos| Warriors of Chaos]]''':
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Heavily armored barbarians are threatening Cathay's border, and it's up to hot dom dragon waifu and her warpdust snorting fuccboi brother to keep Cathay safe
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WoC wants to get into melee as soon as they can, and their elite infantry will fuck yours since all your AP is on anti-large; at least your dudes will fuck over any Dragon Ogres, though. Anything bigger than a Dragon Ogre can be handled by the Sentinel
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You outclass them in ranged combat with actual archers, guns, and artillery, WoC players will send Manticores and Cavalry after them, so keep some Halberds next to them (which you should be doing anyway for the Harmony mechanic.)
</br>
That being said, their lack of ranged weapons means that your Sky-Junks will have grand old time, and may be a better investment than ground-based Fire Rockets. Manticores will die to Longma Riders, so keeping them protected will not be an issue.
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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves| Dark Elves]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dwarfs| Dwarfs]]''':
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This will be tough for the same reason the Vampirates are bad in this matchup, they do your main tactic better than you do. They have a wider assortment of guns and artillery, and great ways to kill your large units. They have Catapults to fuck your formations, while your indirect artillery lacks AP to punch through thicc dwarf armor.
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You will need to play offence against the Dwarfs which isn't great as you have no armour-piercing infantry that isn't bonus versus large, and your units only hit their peak efficiency when they're stationary and next to someone of the opposite type. They're also slow, not dwarf-slow, but slow enough that you'll take losses from Dwarf artillery, so it's a good idea to have at least a few peasants in front off your dudes to die for the Greater G--Harmony.

Your shielded crossbowmen are decent with good AP, get better when they're stationary, reload quicker with the Harmony mechanic; so long as their shields are faced where the shots are coming from, you can bounce some missiles off, too; Iron Hail gunners are much quicker than Jade Warriors or Dwarfs, and their shotguns pack a mean punch, especially when they're quick-firing with Harmony. They can be very good flankers when you pair them with Peasant Long Spears to guard their flanks and provide Harmony. Crane Gunners are like Skaven jezzails, use them to shoot down Gyrocopters to clear the skies and give your airships the ability to shoot from afar without being shot down. Speaking of airships, the Skyjunk is a better investment than the Fire Rain rocket; their weapons are similar, but the Skyjunk is harder to hit by enemy artillery, has much better angling, and when it runs out of ammo, can drop bombs that will be much more disruptive than the non-AP Fire Rain rockets.

Jade Warriors with shields will likely by your best melee infantry bet as they might be able to survive salvos as they hold against the dwarven line, but try screening them with Peasant Long Spears; they'll break, but when they regroup you can use them as Harmony buffers with your Iron Hail or Crane Guns. In terms of how to break the line, Ox Cannons are quite mobile for an artillery piece, and Crane Guns can provide covering fire from afar.

Your best lord option is a dragon blooded lore of yin caster on a longma. She's highly disruptive to ranged heavy factions since she can summon fodder into the middle of the enemy gunline like a flying vampire lord and overcast missile mirror to shut down individual ranged units for 36 seconds at a time.
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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Empire| Empire]]''':
Remember what we said in Dwarfs and Vampirates? Yeah you're dealing with a faction that does your thing better than you again. Grand Cannons are better than Great Cannon thanks to Harmony buffs and better mobility, but that's about the only good thing in this particular matchup. Luminarks hard counter Sky Junks and Imperial rocketry has ''significantly'' greater range than your own, while the constant threat of Demigryph up the ass keep you from rushing in without a plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''':
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This game is still too new for a meta, and most games you have on MP will just be people trying shit out. That being said, take Skyjunks and Fire Rockets and shoot the shit out of the enemy castle. Exploit the Grand Cannons mobility and provide harmony with cheap Peasants that you wont mind losing. Pop airships with Longma or Sky Lanterns, and save the Crane Gunners for their Longma. Take a sentinel and if your opponent takes one too, they can practice their kung fu

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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Greenskins| Greenskins]]''': Greenskins shred dwarfs. but you have the great ability of actually having mobile options and magic. a positive matchup in your favor. bring one or two iron hail gunners to melt greenskin monsters and a lore of yang caster for the fire-wall. jade warriors should be able to hold off even black orks buying time for your missiles to bring the pain.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/High Elves| High Elves]]''': Your biggest threat will be dragons or an arcane phoenix and magic. Any sort of mass-AOE will rip apart your packed formations and the helves have a lot of options. bring grand cannons and use their accuracy to snipe their mages and dragons. otherwise your missile line is better than the helves and your frontline is better. a balanced matchup

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Khorne|Khorne]]''': One of your better matchups. Elite armies really don't like wading through gunfire to get to the enemy lines. Khorne will bring hounds, furies, and a bloodletter summoning cultist or two to disrupt you, peasant spearsmen and maybe a longma squad should suffice to tie them up. A terracotta sentinel is highly recommended as an emergency responder to Khorne's monsters along with a lore of yin caster to snare enemies with storm of shadows and block their movement with summoned fodder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Kislev|Kislev]]''': This is a faction that either relies on subpar ranged power or lots of heavy cavalry. pretty much all your infantry is anti-large and you outrange kislev massively. a very positive matchup in your favour as kislev's 'jack of all trades master of none' once again fails against a more specialised faction

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen| Lizardmen]]''': This will theoretically be a tricky match up, but ultimately one in your favor. Your plentiful AP gunpowder units will make quick work of the sluggish Saurus and, when coupled with your multitude of halberd units, can do some serious damage to their bigger beasties, but they're likely not going to be the forces a competent Lizardmen army will bring. Instead, Skinks will be your bane. Fast skirmishers and Chameleons will hassle you from all angles with their poisonous darts while their cavalry (flying or otherwise) disrupts your formations with fear/terror-inducing charges. If they're bringing a Slann, you will NEED to keep on top of your positioning; positioning your forces too close makes them prime candidates for the myriad of vortex and wind spells at their beck and call. Deal with them first, followed by any cavalry/skirmishers and clean up what's left with your plentiful gunpowder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Norsca| Norsca]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Nurgle| Nurgle]]''': Nurgle hates ranged units, enemy large units, an abundance of anti-large, fire damage, and enemies that can hold out in a grindfest against them. You are all of these things and Nurgle has vanishingly few options against you. Long Ma riders take a huge dump all over any of Nurgle's fliers and the fire damage of your artillery, magic, and more will make Nurgle weep with sorrow as you delete his slow moving and utterly unshielded units off the table one after the other. And as Nurgle has extremely anemic charges he can't even reliably break your formations without lucky spell casts; which of course relies on the Nurglites even getting a spellcaster in range through your numerous means to snipe them off the field. You can basically win this matchup while AFK, but something to watch out for is nurgles Army Ability, which can jump from one nearby unit to another, and Harmony forces your units together, so keep an eye out for the plauges.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Ogre Kingdoms| Ogre Kingdoms]]''': High mass charging units will ruin your day. ogres are cathay's worst matchup bar none in warhammer 3. your frontline will get pushed around like paper as while halberds CAN deal a lot of damage and hold off ogres the ogres can bring a lot more ogre bulls for the price than you can bring halberds. It's worth having no magic and getting a cheap lord as your units are a lot more useful than the lores available for once,

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven| Skaven]]''': From the looks of it, this seems to be your hardest matchup by far. Your harmony mechanic relies heavily on having a solid plan for most stages of the game and Skaven excel at disruption, be it through summons, skirmishing Eshin troops or just raw balls-to-the-wall firepower of Clan Skryre. Mirror Missile is your friend in this match-up and for its relatively low winds of magic cost is one of the single most brutal anti-ranged unit spells in the entire game, forcing the Skaven commander to either force their ranged unit into inactivity for twenty seconds or watch their prized shooters wipe themselves out.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Slaanesh| Slaanesh]]''': What's this, a speedy flanking faction designed to dive backlines? This could spell trouble for you. Fortunately, you theoretically have one way to banish Slaanesh's creeps back to the warp, and that's "Invest in flying units and box up with halberds." Slaanesh has no ranged units and only Furies as fliers, so as long as you have a Longma unit or cheap missiles to protect them, your Sky Lanterns and Sky Junks will be pretty much untouchable as they blast apart Slaanesh's ranks. Due to the amount of AP on their roster, Celestial Dragon Guard are a risky choice so invest either in Peasent spears or Jade Warriors with Halberds. You won't win the melee fight so don't bother investing in it. Have your infantry hold while your War Ballons shoot, your flying casters cast (Grab either the Dragon Siblings or a Shugangen in the air to keep them safe) and your Longma use their speed to flank and rear charge. Your balloons will run out of ammo eventually though, so make every shot count. Or just bring crossbows/archers, and shoot the living shit out of the exhibitionists.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''': Lore of yang fire wall. 'nuff said

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tzeentch| Tzeentch]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast| Vampire Coast]]''': If the Coast thinks they can outshoot you they have another thing coming. Rocket artillery devastates Vampirate formations and while they can swat your Sky lanterns out of the sky if they bring terrorgheists, Long Ma riders and your Legendary Lords can swat those out of the air in turn and curbstomp any deck droppers they bring. You have well armoured and shielded ranged units who will tear straight through the fragile ranks of the Coast and can stop any monsters they field cold; while your artillery is able to out-trade Vampirate cannons with a better rate of fire as long as harmony is active. Also Missile Mirror was basically created to troll the Vampire Coast specifically.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Counts| Vampire Counts]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| Wood Elves]]''':

===Domination===
General Tier Rank: '''D'''

You know how Harmony encourages you to stick your units together and to hold down a single point while not getting too aggressive? In Domination you win by doing the exact opposite of that. Since you have to spread out your forces and go on the offensive it's really hard for you to actually keep your Harmony active meaning a good chunk of your units won't be fighting at their price range. What's more, since you're out maneuvered by most factions, odds are you will not being getting to most points first and will have to fight off your enemies to secure them. Good news is that with your high armor, Terrocottas and range once you do have a point it's decently hard to kick you off. It would really help if you had some kind of decent, inexpensive mobile threat or just a fast ranged unit that can help keep harmony on all your infantry. You're way better in normal land battles though, as it's significantly easier to play your game and keep Harmony up.

==Campaign Mechanics and Tactics==

Unlike Kislev, which devolves into a Daemon fuckfest around the third or fourth wave of Rifts, Cathay is so easily-defendable that it's just begging for a rework, or at least a nerfbat.

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'''Bastion:''' You have no real enemies outside the invaders in the Steppes beyond the Bastion, or the Ogres/Chaos Warriors in the Mountains to the South. The Bastion has a unique "Chaos Invasion" mechanic where Kurgans get spawned every so often to lay siege to the Bastion. They are Norscans rather than WoC, though, so have absolutely no artillery or siege ability outside of throwing trolls or mammoths at you, and the Bastion Gates practically pay for themselves once you invest in the Upkeep Lowering building chain, (which can go as far as 90% upkeep reduction for garrisoned armies), and get the settlement to level 4 to build Terracotta Sentinels. The Kurgans pretty much only exist to die against your garrisons and give them free experience. Funnily enough, should an AI Cathayan faction own all the gates, the stacks will do absolutely nothing but wait outside the gates.

'''Trade and Treaties:'''Speaking of Cathayan Factions, there are four hostile rebels (two for each Legendary Lord) and two Loyalist ones, who will be pretty easily confederated once you beat the rebels. Do this as quickly as you can, because your income will rise substantially with their provinces and stability. Cathayan income is comparable to High Elves, without the expensive upkeep. You will actually have enough passive income to station a hero in each province to close rifts as they come up, and the gold needed for each action. You can now just use defense building to stop rifts spawning at all.

You'll also have lots of potential trade partners; by sending Caravans westwards, you can establish diplomatic relations with factions they pass through, and trade treaties can be established with those on the route. These trade relationships can be turned into military treaties, which can eventually lead to Outposts, a new mechanic in Campaign that lets you build military outposts in major settlements (Provincial Capitals with 4+ slots). If you both have an outpost in each other's territories, both factions get to purchase infantry from each other's respective recruitment pools. Cathayan Castles with Kislev Tzar Guard? Na, think Jade Warriors backed by Kroxigors, or Hawk Riders screening for your airships!

'''Harmony and the Compass:''' Harmony is pretty tedious. Your economic/defense buildings, technology, and characters (+1 for heroes, +3 for lords) all have a corresponding Yin-Yang cost. Going too far towards one way will lead to inefficiency at the least, and provincial instability at the worst. Yin and Yang balance will fluctuate as you lose heroes and research tech, and certain buildings will wax and wane in usefulness as your empire expands/contracts: One Yin building, for example, provides better casualty replenishment, while its Yang counterpart ranks up your Peasants; one is more useful when you're trying to replenish losses after capturing a territory, the other is better for giving you quality levies, but both are mutually exclusive per settlement. Since you only need to build the first tier for the yin-yang point, it is sometimes helpful to leave a building slot open for quick rebalancing, or demolishing the ones you dont need anymore. quick recruiting and disbanding hero's is a good way to keep it balanced easily.

The Celestial Compass on the other hand provides campaign bonuses depending on which way the winds of magic is directed: corruption cleansing, casualty replenishment, control, or growth ; as it stays pointed in one direction, a meter fills up, providing grander effects, like increased income, attrition on enemies (but only the regions beyond the Bastion, its also useless since the AI is mostly immune to attrition), or a comet like spell on the battlefield.

'''Actually playing:''' As mentioned above, uniting Cathay is your top priority, because the potential income you can get by having so many peaceful provinces under your direct control. And there's honestly not a lot of directions for you to expand to: The Steppes outside the bastion is simply too chaotic to be worth it, and the Mountains of Mourn are filled with Ogres and Chaos Warriors who will happily take a break from killing each other to kill you instead. Until the late game, your contact with the Old World will be limited to Caravans, which is fine, since they still provide line of sight and diopomacy options in the mountains and beyond in the Old World.

The Rifts will start out delivering only small amounts of corruption, but will get more severe as the campaign drags on, to the point that they can bring a province to 100 corruption in only a few turns. put one of the tier 3 defense building in every province and rifts will no longer spawn in your territory, just have a lord walk to a rift outside your territory instead or leave one province open to rifts. Only your faction leader can enter the Warp or traverse the rifts to fast travel to another place on the map, and when closing a rift with an army will only cause a battle, whereas using a hero only costs gold.

You need to collect four Daemon Prince souls, one from each Realm, to lead to the final battle.

*Slaanesh takes a minimum of 6 turns, as you need to go past each of the six circles and deny all the gifts presented at each exit. You can, however avoid pointless battles the easiest here by simply going straight to each rings portal and avoiding the Slaanesh daemons. If you can deal with missed chance at a soul getting the sword of Slaanesh and personal Sycophant follower is extremely strong.
*Tzeentch's realm is like a pokemon gym, where you go from island to island via teleporter until you arrive at his palace. The islands only really have 2 portals, the one you came from, and the one you need to reach, so as long as you just go from one to the next, you'll be fine. What makes this difficult, though, is that you spend the rest of your movement teleporting, no matter how much you had left. Some islands have Daemons waiting to jump you outside of the teleportation portal, sometimes one stack, others, two. Never march through a portal, since that will leave you exhausted, or worse, with no retreat option. If youre afraid of being jumped on arrival, in TW3 you can still move in the encampment stance(but at 50% range), so this not only prevents attrition but gives you an advantage on the defense
*Khorne wants to watch you fight. His realm is full of rogue armies that you must defeat, and for each kill you get, you fill up a meter. Fill this meter and he will grant you the honor of fighting the Daemon Prince at the Brass Citadel. Pick a fight against the undead or daemons, because rather than run away, they will fight on until the entire unit is wiped. This will fill the bar quickly, and its not like you had lots of ways to chase after routing ememies.
*Nurgle grinds you down with attrition, but thankfully unless Ku'gath is there too, you won't actually catch a "real" plague. The best way to move through his realm is encamped, but doing so cuts movement in half. You can also visit landmarks for some replenishment, because Nurgle is nothing but generous. That being said, his daemons will block your path and respawn right away.
*The Shadow Legion: After collecting all 4 souls, the road to the Forge of Souls is unlocked. Once more, portals will open all throughout the world, but this time Belakors forces will erupt and lay siege to your cities. The amount looks to be variable, amd by this point in the game, you are probably at war with more than just Chaos. If you have any spare heroes, close the portals right away to prevent reinforcements. Since this happens right after collecting the fourth soul, you can time it to happen right after clearing the latest wave of Kurgans, so that at the very least, you're not dealing with a Bastion invasion at the same time you're dealing with literal hell gates erupting all over your empire.
*The Final Battle: Belakor controls the Forge of Souls. It is a survival battle, so you will face three waves while also fighting through the forge. The first wave is nothing difficult, and can be won solely through Sky Junks and Celestial Crossbows, but the 2nd and 3rd will be tedious, since you're in the Forge of Souls, you will be facing a whole bunch of Soul Grinders. Take Celestial Halberds, Celestial Crossbows, and multiple Sentinels. The Halberds are self explanatory, since you will need some tough holding units to hold against the waves of Daemons, and their expert charge defence means that while fighting Bloodletters is inefficient, they wont give up without a fight; Crossbows are quite dangerous when focus firing in volleys, but the two artillery Soul Grinders (Nurgle and Tzeentch) are both also the tankiest. Take out Tzeentch first, because Barrier recharges, and it will recharge once you stop shooting it. When teched up, Sentinels are a good match for Soul Grinders, but are very slow in movement and attacking without support, so you will want to have someone fight the Daemons while the Sentinels fight the Daemon Engines.
**This is where a military alliance really comes in handy. Bloodletters are pretty good against your infantry, and are still pretty dangerous when they mob a sentinel. Tzar Guard or Armored Kossars provide some offensive oomph that your Celestials and Jade Warriors otherwise lack.
**One tricky part about Survival is that even after a wave is "over," you will continue to be harassed until the next wave begins. After the first wave ends, Chaos Hounds wil harass your troops until they capture the secont point, so you will need to leave a rear guard behind to deal with them, otherwise your heavy infantry, or worse, your slow, slow, Sentinels wil get stuck behind swatting them. After the second wave, Belakor spawns endless Daemons. Daemonettes and Bloodletters will rush you, while Pink Horrors will pepper you with magic while taking no damage in return from barrier.
**The Final Wave wont end until Belakor is slain. Belakor summons even more Soul grinders, as well as a bunch of heavier hitters, like Minotaurs of Khorne and Doom Knights. They will be teleporting in from all over the throne room, so you will need to keep an eye out for when a portal opens and for what comes out of it. The only thing that prevents this from being utter Bullshit is that they give you a shit ton of Sentinels (7??) in the final wave of reinforcements, and you will be legitimately retarded if you take anything else besides them. In fact, because of how many Sentinels you get for the final battle, you may be able getting away only three or four in your army, and filling the rest with heavy infantry or crossbows. The final battle is chaotic and all over the place, and warm bodies to hold back the reinforcements might be more helpful than 15 sentinels all trying to gangbang Belakor.

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[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay

2022-08-18T19:14:47Z

2600:387:2:80F:0:0:0:7A: /* Legendary Lords */

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

==Why Play Cathay==
*Because Total War: Three Kingdoms didn't go hard enough into fantasy for you.
*These guys are finally being fleshed out (with the full blessings of our [[Games Workshop|evil British overlords]] nonetheless) after years and you want to see what they come up with.
*You're into chinese history and mythology.
*You want to play a defensive gunline but don't want to play as boring white guys, short vengeful alcoholics or the bad guys from Pirates of the Caribbean
*You think it's extremely funny to watch Flamers of Tzeentch, Jezzails, and Artillery pieces nuke themselves when you use Mirror Missile on them.
*You playstyle is similar to the Empire and/or Dwarfs, but you can't play them yet in Warhammer III until Immortal Empires is finally released.

===Pros===
*'''Designed for Total War''': One thing we can say as an advantage for Cathay is unlike the other factions they will be designed from the ground up to be in a Total War game rather than trying to transition from a tabletop game into total war. This gives them the potential to be one of the best-designed races and balanced since they're not trying to fit a square Warhammer peg into a round Total War hole.
*'''Numbers''': In lore, Cathay has the largest population of all the human nations, so they have bodies to spare. Don't expect Skaven numbers, but you'll have large armies compared to other good guy races.
*'''Range''': As the oldest Human nation to have gotten gunpowder, it makes sense it plays a big role in your army. You have access to a ton of gunpowder units and artillery to blast the enemy apart. You also got some elite crossbows to play around with. The harmony system ensures that your ranged units have some of the higest reload skill in the entire game, which means... Well, [[Dakka|you shoot a lot.]]
*'''Air Power''': With your Longma, War Balloons and your Dragons you will be decently scary in the air. You won't be fast, and any opposing faction with decent air cavalry will likely threaten you, but you have some potent options.
*'''Harmony''': Cathay has a solid combination of ranged and melee units that work together well in concert. Similarly, units can either be Yin or Yang aligned and having the two working together provides you with a bonus.
*'''Defensive''': Cathay is built to last. Between your faction mechanics and selection of magical lores, Grand Cathay is built to hold the line. If you crave a faction with a strong, staunch line of spears to keep your enemies at bay, Cathay's going to be the faction for you.
*'''Magic:''' Cathay is actually able to keep up with the best of them when it comes to magic. Sure, you don't have the variety that High Elves or Empire have but with 4 lores you do have the most of the game 3 factions. Plus, with Mastery of the Elemental Winds, your spells do more damage the more mages you have in your army. Especially in campaign, Miao and Zhao can carry the army with their spells alone.

===Cons===
*'''Synergy''': Due to the way Harmony works, you will NEED to keep units close to each other, otherwise individual units will underperform. As such, you will likely be locked into turtling in order to get your units close enough to get the buffs they might need in order to perform efficiently. On their own, your units actually have ''lower'' stats than their equivalent in other armies, only getting better when properly buffed.
*'''Slow''': Cathay won't be winning many foot races compared to other factions. Though not as plodding as the dwarfs or lizardmen, you don't have much in the way of cavalry and your war balloons are pretty susceptible to air cav and missile fire.
*'''Subpar Cavalry''': Out of all the non Chaos human factions, you're easily the worst when it comes to Cavalry. Jade Lancers are on equal footing with Empire Knights, which doesn't seem bad until you realizes that your second best cavalry option is roughly on par with another faction's weakest heavy cav that tend to get flattened by more elite options. Peasant Horsemen are similar to Mounted Yeomen and while Longma aren't bad they are expensive while not having AP or anti large. Could be worse, you at least ''have'' cavalry, but most factions will out match you with their riders.
*'''Limited Skirmishers''': No vanguard deployment, stalk, or cheap fast movers other than peasant horsemen. You're going to suck at harrying broken units off the map and hunting enemy skirmishers + war machines.
*'''AoE Susceptible''': A core mechanic of Cathay units is that they gain bonuses when in close proximity with each other. While this can be great for holding the line, it also makes your forces more vulnerable to vortex or wind spells. You'll have to keep an eye out for enemy wizards.
*'''No Melee Expert Non-Legendary Lords or Heroes''': None of your non-LL and Heroes are really that good in melee combat or can serve as a tank. I know what you're thinking "But the Dragon Siblings!" but they won't be leading all your armies in campaign and they are expensive in multiplayer. 3 out of 4 of your Lords and Heroes are Mages and the one that isn't, the Lord Magistrate, is a support buffing character rather than a melee duelist or a tank. Shugengan lords are stated to be decent in melee but trust me, that's only by Mage Lord standards. You won't have many characters that can be safely thrown into melee combat. Concept art was found for a "Gate Master" hero, which will likely serve as the Cathayan equivalent of the Empire Captain or High Elf Noble, so this issue will probably be fixed with DLC.
*'''Not Designed for Domination''': Forget about Cathay being "Numbah Wan," Cathay is currently one of the Bottom Tier worst factions in multiplayer. As of mid March, Cathay only has a 38% win rate in multiplayer, and recent balance patches and Domination rule changes really didn't help you out too much. You have no real way to play aggressive in Domination and can't force people off of points. If you only care about [[That Guy|winning through OP ways]], don't bother playing Cathay until they get their DLC.
*'''DLC''': There are three guarantees in life. Death, Taxes, and Core Races getting units withheld for DLC. There is already a notable lack of monkey in the Cathay roster. Sorry Cathay, don't expect to be different. (Though in this case, I guess it's less "units being held back" and more "CA and GW making up more shit later.")
**Note that we can generally predict 2-3 lord packs for Cathay. In Mythology china gave each of the 4 cardinal direction's there own set of associations, beast, element, god so on, and with two lords already claiming two of those directions, 2 more for the other two compass points and a possible 5th for the center seems likely.

==Faction traits==
*'''Battle Harmony''': Shared by all non-character Cathay units. Melee units are marked as "Yang", while ranged units are "Yin"; these units gain bonuses when near a unit of the opposite type: leadership and melee defence for melee Yang units, and leadership and reload speed for ranged Yin units. Characters multiply these bonuses for nearby units.
*'''Mastery of the Elemental Winds''': Shared by all Cathayan spellcasters, this ability enhances their spells for each spellcaster present in the army. This encourages taking multiple spellcasters, something not usually done in other factions.
*'''Formation Attack''': A trait that makes the unit try to stay in formation, even when in combat. Presumably, this makes holding chokepoints and positions easier to do.

==Lords==
We finally got the names of the two legendary lords, and they turn out to be new characters. The children of the Dragon Emperor and the Moon Empress, they rule in his stead over the various provinces of Cathay.

===Legendary Lords===
Kathay has a tech unlockable banner that gives 20% ward save, use this on your legendary of choice, if you take the sword of Slaanesh from the chaos realm you'll get another 20% ward save and tons of damage. enjoy being the toughest/deadliest lord in WH 3. even Skarbrand cant compete with 70-80% ward save dragons who also cast spells.
*'''[[Miao Ying]], the Storm Dragon, ruler of the Northern Provinces and Commander of the Great Bastion.''': Daughter of the Dragon Emperor. Miss Cold and Aloof. She is in the north and is daddy's favourite. Can transform between human form where she buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. She will be able to use a hybrid of Life and Yin Magic: Including Earth Blood, Storm of Shadows, Flesh to Stone, Missile Mirror, Regrowth and Talons of Night, with both Lore Traits of Lifebloom and Power of Yin. She has the Wrath of the Storm ability, which increases melee attack, makes attacks magical, and makes those affected immune to psychology. She also has the Disdain of Dragons ability, which lowers enemy melee attacks in a constant radius. She also has access to the Mirror Missile spell which is easily one of the most trollish spells in the entire game, you will never tire of watching the enemy's elite ranged units delete themselves when they fire with the hex activated. She is the only lord kathay had with non bound spell healing, and regrowth is amazing on herself and terracotta sentinels. no inherent access to regeneration as a skill though, the von carstein blade item from caravans is perfect for her.

*'''[[Zhao Ming]], the Iron Dragon, ruler of the Western Provinces and Lord of Shang-Yang''': Son of the Dragon Emperor, and a mama's boy. His faction is stated to focus on and specialize in Alchemists and Astronomers. Can transform between human form where he buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. He uses a hybrid of Metal and Yang magic, unfortunately his spell selection is kinda terrible, his only really great spell is final transmutation and maybe glittering robe early on, but the rest are pretty weak. It feels like they purposely picked only the weakest spells from the lore Yang to give him, he would have been great with jade shield, stone stance, might of heaven and earth to self buff but instead he got the weaker damage spells only. He gets regeneration, an AOE ward save aura (includes him), and can cast final transmutation with a discount which is actually very powerful for taking out the mass soulgrinders you face in campaign/the final battle. He has large army wide buffs to armor and weapon damage. if you want to Terracotta sentinel doomstack he is a great choice but lack of access to healing spells is an issue.

===Lords===
*'''Dragon-Blooded Shugengan Lord''': Descended from when a human pulled a Donkey from Shrek with Cathay's rulers. Your Mage lord, they come with the lores of Yang or Yin and their mounts are Warhorse or Jade Longma for extra mobility. While they are ''slightly'' better than most mage lords in melee don't expect them to last long if a dedicated melee character gets a hold of them.

*'''Lord Magistrate''': Your cheap normal frontline general. His gimmick is being able to further improve the harmony mechanic of his army, so extra incentive to form up in a sexy turtle. He also comes with the ability to buff the defense, damage or range of units with his army abilities. His mounts are Warhorse or Sky Lantern. Sadly he's garbage in melee, his mounts suck and pretty much anything he can do a Shugengan can do better. As such no real reason to nab him unless you want to hear his gloriously hammy voice acting. He's also unfortunately the only lord that will ever lead your caravans.

===Legendary Heroes===

===Generic Heroes===
*'''Alchemist''': Mages who fight with vials and magic that looks like Chinese calligraphy. Lore of Metal user with some extra bound buffs to armour, melee attack and magic damage with armour piecing. Can mount a warhorse. She comes with various buff by giving Poison, Magic Attacks or more AP to specific units so she can be good just to make sure that your units have other ways to fight the enemy.

*'''Astromancer''': Your lore of heavens caster. His mounts are a Warhorse for mobility or a Wu Xing War Compass which seems as though it will boost his magic output considerably. You pick this mage if you just want to blow shit up, as his War Compass mount gives him two free bound spells to rain upon the enemy.

==Units==

===Infantry===
*'''Peasant Long Spearmen''': Your early chaff unit that's literally expected to run away once things get hairy. The unexpected MVP of the roster (at least until DLCs give you something better). They come with Expendable ''and'' Expert Charge Defense, which is a rarity for tier 1 units.
**Rather than treating them like Skavenslaves, they're a lot more like TK skeleton spearmen without the shields: a really good screen with lots of bodies, relatively high health compared to the rest of your infantry, and high model count that can absorb losses. They're still expendable chaff, and you take them to die in place of your Jade warriors or Celestial Guard.
** Really fucking good for how easy and cheap they are. With the harmony buff, the Peasant Long Spearmen have stats higher than state troops, and function very well as a front line against everything. They are vulnerable to missiles, but you should have outshooting your opponents anyway.
**The Terracotta sentinel is very vulnerable to tarpitting, Peasant Long Spears are mobile and numerous enough to keep some of that pressure off them. They wont provide any harmony benefits though.
**Can tank for ages against pretty much anything with the jade shield 44% ward save buff from the lore of yang. Perfect for sacrificial screening, especially since lore of yang also has really powerful AOE spells you can drop on units getting traffic jammed by the peasants.
**Significantly better in Campaign. By the late game, it wouldn't be hard to produce them at tier 7, and their morale gets significantly better with technology and building upgrades, and can lead to hilarious situations where a single unit of Peasants holds off a band of Chosen on its own. They wont do any damage, of course, but that's why you drop a vortex or airship bomb on them.
*'''Jade Warriors''': Your mid-tier unit and your bread and butter until you can afford Celestial Dragon Guard. Have a unique mechanic where the longer they sit still and brace, the more bonuses they get, gaining higher charge resistance and armour. Make the Dragon Empire into the Turtle Empire with these guys. Just keep in mind that like turtles, they don't move very fast or hit very hard.
**The Sword and Shield combo, when combined with Harmony and their own innate stationary buff, they are very tough and can still find a use to tank hits for the Dragon Guard in the late-game. Excellent front line unit with good missile block chance and armor.
**The Halberd has better melee attack and armor piercing, so theyre like the Wardancers in that even when fighting against heavy infantry, it might be useful to take them to do some damage. Still more of a holding force than an aggressive force.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard''': Your elite, end-game unit, taking the best from both Jade Warriors since they're all armed with Halberds and Shields. They have expert charge defense, AP, and dont get bonuses/lose nothing from moving, meaning you could move them to where they're needed most, or even have them charge though Peasant chaff, foregoing the low charge bonus to keep models alive given the low-model count typical of Elite Infantry.
**'''Dune Dragons''' - Dragon Guard with Magic Attacks, Magic Resist, Immune to Psych and Encourage. These guys are pretty much designed to be a middle finger to large Daemons as they can punch through their physical resist and not get terror routed.

===Missiles===
*'''Peasant Archers''': Like your peasant infantry, but with a bow and arrow. Cheap and expendable, potentially valuable if you need a relatively disposable unit to provide a small amount of ranged support and trigger the yin/yang buff where needed. Has no AP, but that shouldn't be a problem in campaign where the majority of your chaos, norsca, and ogre enemies don't have much armor.
** Very cost effective, especially with the harmony buffs. Can put down a significant amount of fire with their reload skill buffs.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors with crossbows (in case you couldn't have told from their name). Armoured and with a shielded variant, they sit in-between Empire Crossbowmen and Dwarf Quarrelers in terms of durability and power; they still have the same "hunker-down" ability as regular JW, so you'll probably want to move them in position behind Long Spears and refrain from moving them to keep those bonuses.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen With shields''' You know the drill by now. silver shield and a minor buff to melee defence. In campaign avoid getting these unless your economy is absurd as they are a significant upkeep increase for no extra practical combat performance. In mutiplayer currently they're also not reccomended as the only other factions that pose a missile threat are magical-tzeench and kislev's massive cavalry spam. both of which shields don't help great against and it's better to have an extra unit of peasants or some shit over the shielded variant.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors on steroids, once again. Shielded, heavily armoured and with armour-piercing bolts, they're durable archers that can trade shots with the enemy's best.
**On paper, their bolts have more strength than the Sisters of Avelorn, but it's mundane AP versus the Fire/Magic combo that lets the Sisters put in work against pretty much anything. Celestial Crossbowmen have better DPS when buffed, though.
**Desperate and in a pinch? Castle too tight for shooting? Well, they're still Celestial Guard, and so are decent in melee, minus the AP or anti-large bonus. They still give Harmony when in melee.

* '''Iron Hail Gunners''': A living version of the Zombie Handcannons from the Pirate coast, these ladies massacre armoured infantry with their high-AP shotguns. With the Harmony system, being able to keep them closer to your melee units will make them into machinegunning shotgunners. Can fire in melee if the enemy makes contact without breaking through the first rank.
**Unlike your Crossbowmen or Crane gunners, they lack shields or armor, but are much more mobile. You can flank with them to outright delete elite infantry, but even having them shoot through gaps in your formation is also helpful, because they're Cathayan shotguns.
**Considering how quickly you can get these ladies in the Campaign, they're instrumental damage dealers from early to mid.
** Be cautious about using them against the ogres because they will literally just run through your front line, because hurr durr pull through. In campaign, best employed against all chaos factions other than Tzeentch, whose basic units will fucking slaughter the gunners with their ranged attacks, because fuck you I guess.

* '''Crane Gunners''': Human Skaven Jezzails. Much like their rat counterparts, these gunners excel at long-ranged sniping with their second-only-to-artillery range and will likely form a core part of your backline while you make the enemy come to you. They come with shields, which should give them some missile resistance to weather counter-fire and kill those jezzails. You're probably better off going for grand cannons in most match ups though. Grand cannons have better all around combat stats and the exact same movement speed; but with Patch 1.2, they are now shieldbreakers (reducing Missile Block Chance) and their missile go through infantry, which makes them really good at mowing down infantry. Better than cannons at sniping out faster targets and flyers and they can take cover + shoot out of forests while cannons can't.

===Cavalry===
*'''Peasant Horseman''': The fastest thing in your army that can't fly. Probably based on the herdsmen levies that numerous Chinese dynasties employed as scouts and light cav. With an almost identical statline to Brettonian mounted yeomen, the only reason to get peasant horsemen is because Cathay has no alternatives other than Jade Lancers and Longmas who are simply too expensive to waste chasing down routing units + artillery crews. You'll want to grab a few of these guys in Multiplayer and early campaign, but hopefully we'll get better alternatives with future DLC.

*'''Jade Lancers''': Jade warriors on horseback. More defensive than other factions cavalry. More suited defending your flank than running in to attack the enemy. Fucking awful other than their mediocre armor and their shields, ineffective in melee, slow compared to most other heavy cav. Can't even run down enemies because of their glacial speeds. In campaign, consider using the Iron Hail gunners/Jade Crossbows/etc. if you want a flanking unit, who will actually kill the units they are supposed to kill, or just peasant horsemen if you want to run down routing enemies.

*'''Great Jade Longma Riders''': Your versions of pegasus knights, except instead of a rich noble who sneers at peasants, you get a rich noble whose great-great-great-grandad/mom got busy with a dragon. Also comes with Fear, possibly making them an expensive option to spook away and chase routing units. Their true strength will be as a bodyguard unit for your squishy balloons against enemy air forces, and being a hammer to the rest of your rosters anvil.
**Stats wise, they're roughly between pegasus and royal pegasus knights that traded away their Anti-Large bonus in exchange for 30 more armour (110 total), higher weapon strength, and charge bonus. As such, they're better at dealing with multiple different types of opponents but aren't quite as good at dealing with large units and other cav.
**'''Righteous Lances of Wei-Jin''': Comes with majority AP damage and the Guardian ability. If you want a unit that can serve as a body guard for your flying lords and can deal with heavily armored targets these are the horse dragon things for you.

===Chariots===
*'''Wu-Xing War Compass''': A big ol' magical battery that boosts Harmony and counts towards Mastery of Elemental Winds increase the power of your spells. Can cast Urannons Thunderbolt and Comet of Casanodora; the Compass has been buffed in 1.2 to give you 2 free casts of each power without costing WoM, but their ''Celestial Comet'' is half as strong (but also twice as fast) to compensate. Better used as a mount for your spellcasters than an actual unit on it's own
**Also ok in melee as a ...cart. It moves as fast as infantry, literally anyone who gets run over by this thing deserves to die under the hooves of plain old cows dragging a heavy fucking magic compass.

===Monsters===
*'''Terracotta Sentinel''': Take the standard Terracotta soldier from China, make it really big and teach it kung fu and you have this thing. Possible doomstack material. They are unbreakable and hit like a truck, making them good at both clearing chaff and 1v1ing monsters. Don't leave them unsupported against missile units or anti-large elites, as they'll still break down to concentrated AP and missiles. Causes Terror for understandable reasons.
**If you've played Tomb Kings, you know what to expect: keep them away from Halberd tarpits and anti-large monstrous infantry, and if you can't, give them a screen, like Peasant spears or Jade cavalry.
**It's also the best monster in the entire game right now. Like seriously, this thing can beat a Bloodthirster one on one. It's also the cheapest big single entity monster in the entire game as well. Yeah these things are a little bullshit. Given that Cathay is viewed as a little subpar it's nice that they have at least one unit that is really strong, but expect CA to whack these guys with the nerf bat eventually.

===Artillery===
* '''Grand Cannon''': Pulled by oxen making surprisingly mobile, your normal cannon unit. Unlike other factions cannon units, also comes with flaming attacks by default, making it slightly better at burning up trees and mummies, and cutting through regeneration. It is roughly as fast as a standard infantry unit, which is actually a big deal because it will be able to keep up with your main army and rearrange itself much easier than a normal cannon.
** Extremely strong basic artillery unit, which, with the harmony bonuses, can and will kill large units very fucking quickly with their reload bonuses. Always nice to swat Fateweaver out of the sky even before the shit starts spamming searing doom/various fires over your lines.
** It's important to note that these boys are the most accurate cannons we've seen in Total war so far, extremely useful as they're actually capable of swatting tzeench's flying chariots out of mid-air, You can get to tier 3 extremely quickly in campaign and these boys WILL be your bread and butter for the entire campaign.

* '''Fire Rain Rocket''': Imagine a hellstorm rocket battery that fires even faster due to the Harmony mechanic. Terrifying. Aim for big blobs of enemies and watch as they become chunky salsa. Compared to the normal Hellstorm it does more missile damage, but the majority of it isn't actually AP. So while you still want to aim for blobs, those blobs should be of less armoured infantry rather than heavily armoured stuff.

* '''Kongming Sky Lantern''': The smaller of the two airship units with Crane Gunners, and dedicated support. It provides a morale boost to your infantry on top of Harmony, so even your Peasants will hold the line for as long as they humanly can. They also grant vision on units that are hiding in foliage, which can help thwart ambushes. They don't reveal Stalk, though.
**It can fire while moving and line of sight isn't much of a problem, so as long as it doesn't get attacked, it can take potshots at the enemy. It's slow as balls though, so any flying unit that gets its hands on it will be able to tear it to pieces. And pretty much every chaos army has furies who will rip it to shreds
**Almost useless, if it wasn't for the harmony mechanic + its encouragement buff, you probably wouldn't ever take them. As a flying unit, it can provide a source of Harmony that the enemy cant touch unless they devote their other flyers or ranged units on it.
**Offensively, though, their crane guns are like the stormbolter on a Rhino: they just dont shoot enough to actually be dangerous, and don't have the bombs that would otherwise make them useful. You may as well take the Crane Guns on infantry if you want sniper fire, or the Sky Junk for Guns, Bombs, and Rockets.

* '''Kongming Sky-junks''': The heavier of the two airship units that [[Awesome|acts as a flying Helstorm Rocket Battery]]. Can also drop bombs gyrocopter style, and has high armour against missile units. Unlike most other flying units, it can't toggle landing, so try to protect it against flying cav with missile units. It is slow as fuck and will be pretty much useless once it runs out of ammo, but it will hopefully do some devastating damage before that happens.
**Tanky enough to take hits from Furies and other flying beasties that lack AP, they are a nice flying Distraction Carnifex until they run out of ammo. And even when they do, they're a nice flying anvil to hold flyers in place while your Longma riders hammer them.
**They do have an edge against ground artillery, as even if theyre focused down by other artilery pieces, you can expect them to miss more often than not because you're flying, just put them far away enough that those missed shots dont hit your castles infantrybl instead.
**Much more effective when you fire very closely downwards, otherwise, just a shitty fire rain launcher.
**Oddly enough, they can be healed mid-battle with Miao Ying or a dragon blooded lord with bound lore of life spells.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
You are what happens when the Empire, Dwarfs, and Skaven all have the world's weirdest threesome where lingering eye contact was held with the Vampire Coast; and they had a baby. Your themes revolve around plentiful, expendable infantry and strong missiles working in unison to bunker down an area and blast anything that comes at you straight to hell. Harmony is a double edge sword, as while it encourages you to pair units together and builds buffs, it also means units on their own aren't reaching their full potential. This is a quantity over quality faction with limited offensive options, as the closest thing you have to offensive infantry is sword and board Jade Warriors, and while they have cavalry, they're slow and limited compared to other factions.

Since the Cathayan army is so new, there's a massive lack of units for the army compared to all the other established factions, and in some ways, it almost feels unfinished. For example, your have no ranged cavalry options, which means your cavalry options won't be able to receive the Harmony benefit if they go too far (and the bubble is so small, you can lose Harmony just chasing after other cavalry). CA is definitely holding back options to make room for new DLC.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Beastmen| Beastmen]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Bretonnia| Bretonnia]]''': With more flavours of cavalry than you can comprehend, you'll need to set up extremely defensively and bring plenty of halberds to fend off all the armoured horse riders. Be sure to pepper them with your armour piecing missiles, and use peasant chaff to block charges and allow your actual hard hitters to stay in position to fire upon them. Don't bother bringing lanterns and longma riders, Bretonnias air forces are too scary and will easily win any aerial battle, and the lanterns and longma aren't going to be much help against cav and are wasted on peasant chaff.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Daemons of Chaos| Daemons of Chaos]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Warriors of Chaos| Warriors of Chaos]]''':
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Heavily armored barbarians are threatening Cathay's border, and it's up to hot dom dragon waifu and her warpdust snorting fuccboi brother to keep Cathay safe
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WoC wants to get into melee as soon as they can, and their elite infantry will fuck yours since all your AP is on anti-large; at least your dudes will fuck over any Dragon Ogres, though. Anything bigger than a Dragon Ogre can be handled by the Sentinel
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You outclass them in ranged combat with actual archers, guns, and artillery, WoC players will send Manticores and Cavalry after them, so keep some Halberds next to them (which you should be doing anyway for the Harmony mechanic.)
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That being said, their lack of ranged weapons means that your Sky-Junks will have grand old time, and may be a better investment than ground-based Fire Rockets. Manticores will die to Longma Riders, so keeping them protected will not be an issue.
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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves| Dark Elves]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dwarfs| Dwarfs]]''':
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This will be tough for the same reason the Vampirates are bad in this matchup, they do your main tactic better than you do. They have a wider assortment of guns and artillery, and great ways to kill your large units. They have Catapults to fuck your formations, while your indirect artillery lacks AP to punch through thicc dwarf armor.
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You will need to play offence against the Dwarfs which isn't great as you have no armour-piercing infantry that isn't bonus versus large, and your units only hit their peak efficiency when they're stationary and next to someone of the opposite type. They're also slow, not dwarf-slow, but slow enough that you'll take losses from Dwarf artillery, so it's a good idea to have at least a few peasants in front off your dudes to die for the Greater G--Harmony.

Your shielded crossbowmen are decent with good AP, get better when they're stationary, reload quicker with the Harmony mechanic; so long as their shields are faced where the shots are coming from, you can bounce some missiles off, too; Iron Hail gunners are much quicker than Jade Warriors or Dwarfs, and their shotguns pack a mean punch, especially when they're quick-firing with Harmony. They can be very good flankers when you pair them with Peasant Long Spears to guard their flanks and provide Harmony. Crane Gunners are like Skaven jezzails, use them to shoot down Gyrocopters to clear the skies and give your airships the ability to shoot from afar without being shot down. Speaking of airships, the Skyjunk is a better investment than the Fire Rain rocket; their weapons are similar, but the Skyjunk is harder to hit by enemy artillery, has much better angling, and when it runs out of ammo, can drop bombs that will be much more disruptive than the non-AP Fire Rain rockets.

Jade Warriors with shields will likely by your best melee infantry bet as they might be able to survive salvos as they hold against the dwarven line, but try screening them with Peasant Long Spears; they'll break, but when they regroup you can use them as Harmony buffers with your Iron Hail or Crane Guns. In terms of how to break the line, Ox Cannons are quite mobile for an artillery piece, and Crane Guns can provide covering fire from afar.

Your best lord option is a dragon blooded lore of yin caster on a longma. She's highly disruptive to ranged heavy factions since she can summon fodder into the middle of the enemy gunline like a flying vampire lord and overcast missile mirror to shut down individual ranged units for 36 seconds at a time.
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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Empire| Empire]]''':
Remember what we said in Dwarfs and Vampirates? Yeah you're dealing with a faction that does your thing better than you again. Grand Cannons are better than Great Cannon thanks to Harmony buffs and better mobility, but that's about the only good thing in this particular matchup. Luminarks hard counter Sky Junks and Imperial rocketry has ''significantly'' greater range than your own, while the constant threat of Demigryph up the ass keep you from rushing in without a plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''':
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This game is still too new for a meta, and most games you have on MP will just be people trying shit out. That being said, take Skyjunks and Fire Rockets and shoot the shit out of the enemy castle. Exploit the Grand Cannons mobility and provide harmony with cheap Peasants that you wont mind losing. Pop airships with Longma or Sky Lanterns, and save the Crane Gunners for their Longma. Take a sentinel and if your opponent takes one too, they can practice their kung fu

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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Greenskins| Greenskins]]''': Greenskins shred dwarfs. but you have the great ability of actually having mobile options and magic. a positive matchup in your favor. bring one or two iron hail gunners to melt greenskin monsters and a lore of yang caster for the fire-wall. jade warriors should be able to hold off even black orks buying time for your missiles to bring the pain.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/High Elves| High Elves]]''': Your biggest threat will be dragons or an arcane phoenix and magic. Any sort of mass-AOE will rip apart your packed formations and the helves have a lot of options. bring grand cannons and use their accuracy to snipe their mages and dragons. otherwise your missile line is better than the helves and your frontline is better. a balanced matchup

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Khorne|Khorne]]''': One of your better matchups. Elite armies really don't like wading through gunfire to get to the enemy lines. Khorne will bring hounds, furies, and a bloodletter summoning cultist or two to disrupt you, peasant spearsmen and maybe a longma squad should suffice to tie them up. A terracotta sentinel is highly recommended as an emergency responder to Khorne's monsters along with a lore of yin caster to snare enemies with storm of shadows and block their movement with summoned fodder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Kislev|Kislev]]''': This is a faction that either relies on subpar ranged power or lots of heavy cavalry. pretty much all your infantry is anti-large and you outrange kislev massively. a very positive matchup in your favour as kislev's 'jack of all trades master of none' once again fails against a more specialised faction

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen| Lizardmen]]''': This will theoretically be a tricky match up, but ultimately one in your favor. Your plentiful AP gunpowder units will make quick work of the sluggish Saurus and, when coupled with your multitude of halberd units, can do some serious damage to their bigger beasties, but they're likely not going to be the forces a competent Lizardmen army will bring. Instead, Skinks will be your bane. Fast skirmishers and Chameleons will hassle you from all angles with their poisonous darts while their cavalry (flying or otherwise) disrupts your formations with fear/terror-inducing charges. If they're bringing a Slann, you will NEED to keep on top of your positioning; positioning your forces too close makes them prime candidates for the myriad of vortex and wind spells at their beck and call. Deal with them first, followed by any cavalry/skirmishers and clean up what's left with your plentiful gunpowder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Norsca| Norsca]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Nurgle| Nurgle]]''': Nurgle hates ranged units, enemy large units, an abundance of anti-large, fire damage, and enemies that can hold out in a grindfest against them. You are all of these things and Nurgle has vanishingly few options against you. Long Ma riders take a huge dump all over any of Nurgle's fliers and the fire damage of your artillery, magic, and more will make Nurgle weep with sorrow as you delete his slow moving and utterly unshielded units off the table one after the other. And as Nurgle has extremely anemic charges he can't even reliably break your formations without lucky spell casts; which of course relies on the Nurglites even getting a spellcaster in range through your numerous means to snipe them off the field. You can basically win this matchup while AFK, but something to watch out for is nurgles Army Ability, which can jump from one nearby unit to another, and Harmony forces your units together, so keep an eye out for the plauges.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Ogre Kingdoms| Ogre Kingdoms]]''': High mass charging units will ruin your day. ogres are cathay's worst matchup bar none in warhammer 3. your frontline will get pushed around like paper as while halberds CAN deal a lot of damage and hold off ogres the ogres can bring a lot more ogre bulls for the price than you can bring halberds. It's worth having no magic and getting a cheap lord as your units are a lot more useful than the lores available for once,

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven| Skaven]]''': From the looks of it, this seems to be your hardest matchup by far. Your harmony mechanic relies heavily on having a solid plan for most stages of the game and Skaven excel at disruption, be it through summons, skirmishing Eshin troops or just raw balls-to-the-wall firepower of Clan Skryre. Mirror Missile is your friend in this match-up and for its relatively low winds of magic cost is one of the single most brutal anti-ranged unit spells in the entire game, forcing the Skaven commander to either force their ranged unit into inactivity for twenty seconds or watch their prized shooters wipe themselves out.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Slaanesh| Slaanesh]]''': What's this, a speedy flanking faction designed to dive backlines? This could spell trouble for you. Fortunately, you theoretically have one way to banish Slaanesh's creeps back to the warp, and that's "Invest in flying units and box up with halberds." Slaanesh has no ranged units and only Furies as fliers, so as long as you have a Longma unit or cheap missiles to protect them, your Sky Lanterns and Sky Junks will be pretty much untouchable as they blast apart Slaanesh's ranks. Due to the amount of AP on their roster, Celestial Dragon Guard are a risky choice so invest either in Peasent spears or Jade Warriors with Halberds. You won't win the melee fight so don't bother investing in it. Have your infantry hold while your War Ballons shoot, your flying casters cast (Grab either the Dragon Siblings or a Shugangen in the air to keep them safe) and your Longma use their speed to flank and rear charge. Your balloons will run out of ammo eventually though, so make every shot count. Or just bring crossbows/archers, and shoot the living shit out of the exhibitionists.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''': Lore of yang fire wall. 'nuff said

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tzeentch| Tzeentch]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast| Vampire Coast]]''': If the Coast thinks they can outshoot you they have another thing coming. Rocket artillery devastates Vampirate formations and while they can swat your Sky lanterns out of the sky if they bring terrorgheists, Long Ma riders and your Legendary Lords can swat those out of the air in turn and curbstomp any deck droppers they bring. You have well armoured and shielded ranged units who will tear straight through the fragile ranks of the Coast and can stop any monsters they field cold; while your artillery is able to out-trade Vampirate cannons with a better rate of fire as long as harmony is active. Also Missile Mirror was basically created to troll the Vampire Coast specifically.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Counts| Vampire Counts]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| Wood Elves]]''':

===Domination===
General Tier Rank: '''D'''

You know how Harmony encourages you to stick your units together and to hold down a single point while not getting too aggressive? In Domination you win by doing the exact opposite of that. Since you have to spread out your forces and go on the offensive it's really hard for you to actually keep your Harmony active meaning a good chunk of your units won't be fighting at their price range. What's more, since you're out maneuvered by most factions, odds are you will not being getting to most points first and will have to fight off your enemies to secure them. Good news is that with your high armor, Terrocottas and range once you do have a point it's decently hard to kick you off. It would really help if you had some kind of decent, inexpensive mobile threat or just a fast ranged unit that can help keep harmony on all your infantry. You're way better in normal land battles though, as it's significantly easier to play your game and keep Harmony up.

==Campaign Mechanics and Tactics==

Unlike Kislev, which devolves into a Daemon fuckfest around the third or fourth wave of Rifts, Cathay is so easily-defendable that it's just begging for a rework, or at least a nerfbat.

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'''Bastion:''' You have no real enemies outside the invaders in the Steppes beyond the Bastion, or the Ogres/Chaos Warriors in the Mountains to the South. The Bastion has a unique "Chaos Invasion" mechanic where Kurgans get spawned every so often to lay siege to the Bastion. They are Norscans rather than WoC, though, so have absolutely no artillery or siege ability outside of throwing trolls or mammoths at you, and the Bastion Gates practically pay for themselves once you invest in the Upkeep Lowering building chain, (which can go as far as 90% upkeep reduction for garrisoned armies), and get the settlement to level 4 to build Terracotta Sentinels. The Kurgans pretty much only exist to die against your garrisons and give them free experience. Funnily enough, should an AI Cathayan faction own all the gates, the stacks will do absolutely nothing but wait outside the gates.

'''Trade and Treaties:'''Speaking of Cathayan Factions, there are four hostile rebels (two for each Legendary Lord) and two Loyalist ones, who will be pretty easily confederated once you beat the rebels. Do this as quickly as you can, because your income will rise substantially with their provinces and stability. Cathayan income is comparable to High Elves, without the expensive upkeep. You will actually have enough passive income to station a hero in each province to close rifts as they come up, and the gold needed for each action. You can now just use defense building to stop rifts spawning at all.

You'll also have lots of potential trade partners; by sending Caravans westwards, you can establish diplomatic relations with factions they pass through, and trade treaties can be established with those on the route. These trade relationships can be turned into military treaties, which can eventually lead to Outposts, a new mechanic in Campaign that lets you build military outposts in major settlements (Provincial Capitals with 4+ slots). If you both have an outpost in each other's territories, both factions get to purchase infantry from each other's respective recruitment pools. Cathayan Castles with Kislev Tzar Guard? Na, think Jade Warriors backed by Kroxigors, or Hawk Riders screening for your airships!

'''Harmony and the Compass:''' Harmony is pretty tedious. Your economic/defense buildings, technology, and characters (+1 for heroes, +3 for lords) all have a corresponding Yin-Yang cost. Going too far towards one way will lead to inefficiency at the least, and provincial instability at the worst. Yin and Yang balance will fluctuate as you lose heroes and research tech, and certain buildings will wax and wane in usefulness as your empire expands/contracts: One Yin building, for example, provides better casualty replenishment, while its Yang counterpart ranks up your Peasants; one is more useful when you're trying to replenish losses after capturing a territory, the other is better for giving you quality levies, but both are mutually exclusive per settlement. Since you only need to build the first tier for the yin-yang point, it is sometimes helpful to leave a building slot open for quick rebalancing, or demolishing the ones you dont need anymore. quick recruiting and disbanding hero's is a good way to keep it balanced easily.

The Celestial Compass on the other hand provides campaign bonuses depending on which way the winds of magic is directed: corruption cleansing, casualty replenishment, control, or growth ; as it stays pointed in one direction, a meter fills up, providing grander effects, like increased income, attrition on enemies (but only the regions beyond the Bastion, its also useless since the AI is mostly immune to attrition), or a comet like spell on the battlefield.

'''Actually playing:''' As mentioned above, uniting Cathay is your top priority, because the potential income you can get by having so many peaceful provinces under your direct control. And there's honestly not a lot of directions for you to expand to: The Steppes outside the bastion is simply too chaotic to be worth it, and the Mountains of Mourn are filled with Ogres and Chaos Warriors who will happily take a break from killing each other to kill you instead. Until the late game, your contact with the Old World will be limited to Caravans, which is fine, since they still provide line of sight and diopomacy options in the mountains and beyond in the Old World.

The Rifts will start out delivering only small amounts of corruption, but will get more severe as the campaign drags on, to the point that they can bring a province to 100 corruption in only a few turns. put one of the tier 3 defense building in every province and rifts will no longer spawn in your territory, just have a lord walk to a rift outside your territory instead or leave one province open to rifts. Only your faction leader can enter the Warp or traverse the rifts to fast travel to another place on the map, and when closing a rift with an army will only cause a battle, whereas using a hero only costs gold.

You need to collect four Daemon Prince souls, one from each Realm, to lead to the final battle.

*Slaanesh takes a minimum of 6 turns, as you need to go past each of the six circles and deny all the gifts presented at each exit. You can, however avoid pointless battles the easiest here by simply going straight to each rings portal and avoiding the Slaanesh daemons. If you can deal with missed chance at a soul getting the sword of Slaanesh and personal Sycophant follower is extremely strong.
*Tzeentch's realm is like a pokemon gym, where you go from island to island via teleporter until you arrive at his palace. The islands only really have 2 portals, the one you came from, and the one you need to reach, so as long as you just go from one to the next, you'll be fine. What makes this difficult, though, is that you spend the rest of your movement teleporting, no matter how much you had left. Some islands have Daemons waiting to jump you outside of the teleportation portal, sometimes one stack, others, two. Never march through a portal, since that will leave you exhausted, or worse, with no retreat option. If youre afraid of being jumped on arrival, in TW3 you can still move in the encampment stance(but at 50% range), so this not only prevents attrition but gives you an advantage on the defense
*Khorne wants to watch you fight. His realm is full of rogue armies that you must defeat, and for each kill you get, you fill up a meter. Fill this meter and he will grant you the honor of fighting the Daemon Prince at the Brass Citadel. Pick a fight against the undead or daemons, because rather than run away, they will fight on until the entire unit is wiped. This will fill the bar quickly, and its not like you had lots of ways to chase after routing ememies.
*Nurgle grinds you down with attrition, but thankfully unless Ku'gath is there too, you won't actually catch a "real" plague. The best way to move through his realm is encamped, but doing so cuts movement in half. You can also visit landmarks for some replenishment, because Nurgle is nothing but generous. That being said, his daemons will block your path and respawn right away.
*The Shadow Legion: After collecting all 4 souls, the road to the Forge of Souls is unlocked. Once more, portals will open all throughout the world, but this time Belakors forces will erupt and lay siege to your cities. The amount looks to be variable, amd by this point in the game, you are probably at war with more than just Chaos. If you have any spare heroes, close the portals right away to prevent reinforcements. Since this happens right after collecting the fourth soul, you can time it to happen right after clearing the latest wave of Kurgans, so that at the very least, you're not dealing with a Bastion invasion at the same time you're dealing with literal hell gates erupting all over your empire.
*The Final Battle: Belakor controls the Forge of Souls. It is a survival battle, so you will face three waves while also fighting through the forge. The first wave is nothing difficult, and can be won solely through Sky Junks and Celestial Crossbows, but the 2nd and 3rd will be tedious, since you're in the Forge of Souls, you will be facing a whole bunch of Soul Grinders. Take Celestial Halberds, Celestial Crossbows, and multiple Sentinels. The Halberds are self explanatory, since you will need some tough holding units to hold against the waves of Daemons, and their expert charge defence means that while fighting Bloodletters is inefficient, they wont give up without a fight; Crossbows are quite dangerous when focus firing in volleys, but the two artillery Soul Grinders (Nurgle and Tzeentch) are both also the tankiest. Take out Tzeentch first, because Barrier recharges, and it will recharge once you stop shooting it. When teched up, Sentinels are a good match for Soul Grinders, but are very slow in movement and attacking without support, so you will want to have someone fight the Daemons while the Sentinels fight the Daemon Engines.
**This is where a military alliance really comes in handy. Bloodletters are pretty good against your infantry, and are still pretty dangerous when they mob a sentinel. Tzar Guard or Armored Kossars provide some offensive oomph that your Celestials and Jade Warriors otherwise lack.
**One tricky part about Survival is that even after a wave is "over," you will continue to be harassed until the next wave begins. After the first wave ends, Chaos Hounds wil harass your troops until they capture the secont point, so you will need to leave a rear guard behind to deal with them, otherwise your heavy infantry, or worse, your slow, slow, Sentinels wil get stuck behind swatting them. After the second wave, Belakor spawns endless Daemons. Daemonettes and Bloodletters will rush you, while Pink Horrors will pepper you with magic while taking no damage in return from barrier.
**The Final Wave wont end until Belakor is slain. Belakor summons even more Soul grinders, as well as a bunch of heavier hitters, like Minotaurs of Khorne and Doom Knights. They will be teleporting in from all over the throne room, so you will need to keep an eye out for when a portal opens and for what comes out of it. The only thing that prevents this from being utter Bullshit is that they give you a shit ton of Sentinels (7??) in the final wave of reinforcements, and you will be legitimately retarded if you take anything else besides them. In fact, because of how many Sentinels you get for the final battle, you may be able getting away only three or four in your army, and filling the rest with heavy infantry or crossbows. The final battle is chaotic and all over the place, and warm bodies to hold back the reinforcements might be more helpful than 15 sentinels all trying to gangbang Belakor.

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[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay

2022-08-18T19:09:46Z

2600:387:2:80F:0:0:0:7A: /* Legendary Lords */

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

==Why Play Cathay==
*Because Total War: Three Kingdoms didn't go hard enough into fantasy for you.
*These guys are finally being fleshed out (with the full blessings of our [[Games Workshop|evil British overlords]] nonetheless) after years and you want to see what they come up with.
*You're into chinese history and mythology.
*You want to play a defensive gunline but don't want to play as boring white guys, short vengeful alcoholics or the bad guys from Pirates of the Caribbean
*You think it's extremely funny to watch Flamers of Tzeentch, Jezzails, and Artillery pieces nuke themselves when you use Mirror Missile on them.
*You playstyle is similar to the Empire and/or Dwarfs, but you can't play them yet in Warhammer III until Immortal Empires is finally released.

===Pros===
*'''Designed for Total War''': One thing we can say as an advantage for Cathay is unlike the other factions they will be designed from the ground up to be in a Total War game rather than trying to transition from a tabletop game into total war. This gives them the potential to be one of the best-designed races and balanced since they're not trying to fit a square Warhammer peg into a round Total War hole.
*'''Numbers''': In lore, Cathay has the largest population of all the human nations, so they have bodies to spare. Don't expect Skaven numbers, but you'll have large armies compared to other good guy races.
*'''Range''': As the oldest Human nation to have gotten gunpowder, it makes sense it plays a big role in your army. You have access to a ton of gunpowder units and artillery to blast the enemy apart. You also got some elite crossbows to play around with. The harmony system ensures that your ranged units have some of the higest reload skill in the entire game, which means... Well, [[Dakka|you shoot a lot.]]
*'''Air Power''': With your Longma, War Balloons and your Dragons you will be decently scary in the air. You won't be fast, and any opposing faction with decent air cavalry will likely threaten you, but you have some potent options.
*'''Harmony''': Cathay has a solid combination of ranged and melee units that work together well in concert. Similarly, units can either be Yin or Yang aligned and having the two working together provides you with a bonus.
*'''Defensive''': Cathay is built to last. Between your faction mechanics and selection of magical lores, Grand Cathay is built to hold the line. If you crave a faction with a strong, staunch line of spears to keep your enemies at bay, Cathay's going to be the faction for you.
*'''Magic:''' Cathay is actually able to keep up with the best of them when it comes to magic. Sure, you don't have the variety that High Elves or Empire have but with 4 lores you do have the most of the game 3 factions. Plus, with Mastery of the Elemental Winds, your spells do more damage the more mages you have in your army. Especially in campaign, Miao and Zhao can carry the army with their spells alone.

===Cons===
*'''Synergy''': Due to the way Harmony works, you will NEED to keep units close to each other, otherwise individual units will underperform. As such, you will likely be locked into turtling in order to get your units close enough to get the buffs they might need in order to perform efficiently. On their own, your units actually have ''lower'' stats than their equivalent in other armies, only getting better when properly buffed.
*'''Slow''': Cathay won't be winning many foot races compared to other factions. Though not as plodding as the dwarfs or lizardmen, you don't have much in the way of cavalry and your war balloons are pretty susceptible to air cav and missile fire.
*'''Subpar Cavalry''': Out of all the non Chaos human factions, you're easily the worst when it comes to Cavalry. Jade Lancers are on equal footing with Empire Knights, which doesn't seem bad until you realizes that your second best cavalry option is roughly on par with another faction's weakest heavy cav that tend to get flattened by more elite options. Peasant Horsemen are similar to Mounted Yeomen and while Longma aren't bad they are expensive while not having AP or anti large. Could be worse, you at least ''have'' cavalry, but most factions will out match you with their riders.
*'''Limited Skirmishers''': No vanguard deployment, stalk, or cheap fast movers other than peasant horsemen. You're going to suck at harrying broken units off the map and hunting enemy skirmishers + war machines.
*'''AoE Susceptible''': A core mechanic of Cathay units is that they gain bonuses when in close proximity with each other. While this can be great for holding the line, it also makes your forces more vulnerable to vortex or wind spells. You'll have to keep an eye out for enemy wizards.
*'''No Melee Expert Non-Legendary Lords or Heroes''': None of your non-LL and Heroes are really that good in melee combat or can serve as a tank. I know what you're thinking "But the Dragon Siblings!" but they won't be leading all your armies in campaign and they are expensive in multiplayer. 3 out of 4 of your Lords and Heroes are Mages and the one that isn't, the Lord Magistrate, is a support buffing character rather than a melee duelist or a tank. Shugengan lords are stated to be decent in melee but trust me, that's only by Mage Lord standards. You won't have many characters that can be safely thrown into melee combat. Concept art was found for a "Gate Master" hero, which will likely serve as the Cathayan equivalent of the Empire Captain or High Elf Noble, so this issue will probably be fixed with DLC.
*'''Not Designed for Domination''': Forget about Cathay being "Numbah Wan," Cathay is currently one of the Bottom Tier worst factions in multiplayer. As of mid March, Cathay only has a 38% win rate in multiplayer, and recent balance patches and Domination rule changes really didn't help you out too much. You have no real way to play aggressive in Domination and can't force people off of points. If you only care about [[That Guy|winning through OP ways]], don't bother playing Cathay until they get their DLC.
*'''DLC''': There are three guarantees in life. Death, Taxes, and Core Races getting units withheld for DLC. There is already a notable lack of monkey in the Cathay roster. Sorry Cathay, don't expect to be different. (Though in this case, I guess it's less "units being held back" and more "CA and GW making up more shit later.")
**Note that we can generally predict 2-3 lord packs for Cathay. In Mythology china gave each of the 4 cardinal direction's there own set of associations, beast, element, god so on, and with two lords already claiming two of those directions, 2 more for the other two compass points and a possible 5th for the center seems likely.

==Faction traits==
*'''Battle Harmony''': Shared by all non-character Cathay units. Melee units are marked as "Yang", while ranged units are "Yin"; these units gain bonuses when near a unit of the opposite type: leadership and melee defence for melee Yang units, and leadership and reload speed for ranged Yin units. Characters multiply these bonuses for nearby units.
*'''Mastery of the Elemental Winds''': Shared by all Cathayan spellcasters, this ability enhances their spells for each spellcaster present in the army. This encourages taking multiple spellcasters, something not usually done in other factions.
*'''Formation Attack''': A trait that makes the unit try to stay in formation, even when in combat. Presumably, this makes holding chokepoints and positions easier to do.

==Lords==
We finally got the names of the two legendary lords, and they turn out to be new characters. The children of the Dragon Emperor and the Moon Empress, they rule in his stead over the various provinces of Cathay.

===Legendary Lords===
Kathay has a tech unlockable banner that gives 20% ward save, use this on your legendary of choice, if you take the sword of Slaanesh from the chaos realm you'll get another 20% ward save and tons of damage. enjoy being the toughest/deadliest lord in WH 3. even Skarbrand cant compete with 70-80% ward save dragons who also cast spells.
*'''[[Miao Ying]], the Storm Dragon, ruler of the Northern Provinces and Commander of the Great Bastion.''': Daughter of the Dragon Emperor. Miss Cold and Aloof. She is in the north and is daddy's favourite. Can transform between human form where she buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. She will be able to use a hybrid of Life and Yin Magic: Including Earth Blood, Storm of Shadows, Flesh to Stone, Missile Mirror, Regrowth and Talons of Night, with both Lore Traits of Lifebloom and Power of Yin. She has the Wrath of the Storm ability, which increases melee attack, makes attacks magical, and makes those affected immune to psychology. She also has the Disdain of Dragons ability, which lowers enemy melee attacks in a constant radius. She also has access to the Mirror Missile spell which is easily one of the most trollish spells in the entire game, you will never tire of watching the enemy's elite ranged units delete themselves when they fire with the hex activated. She is the only lord kathay had with non bound spell healing, and regrowth is amazing on herself and terracotta sentinels. no inherent access to regeneration as a skill though, the von carstein blade item from caravans is perfect for her.

*'''[[Zhao Ming]], the Iron Dragon, ruler of the Western Provinces and Lord of Shang-Yang''': Son of the Dragon Emperor, and a mama's boy. His faction is stated to focus on and specialize in Alchemists and Astronomers. Can transform between human form where he buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. He uses a hybrid of Metal and Yang magic, unfortunately his spell selection is kinda terrible, his only really great spell is final transmutation and maybe glittering robe early on, but the rest are pretty weak. He gets regeneration, an AOE ward save aura (includes him), and can cast final transmutation with a discount, actually very powerful for taking out the mass soulgrinders you face in campaign. He has large army wide buffs to armor and weapon damage. if you want to Terracotta sentinel doomstack he is a great choice but lack of access to healing spells is an issue.

===Lords===
*'''Dragon-Blooded Shugengan Lord''': Descended from when a human pulled a Donkey from Shrek with Cathay's rulers. Your Mage lord, they come with the lores of Yang or Yin and their mounts are Warhorse or Jade Longma for extra mobility. While they are ''slightly'' better than most mage lords in melee don't expect them to last long if a dedicated melee character gets a hold of them.

*'''Lord Magistrate''': Your cheap normal frontline general. His gimmick is being able to further improve the harmony mechanic of his army, so extra incentive to form up in a sexy turtle. He also comes with the ability to buff the defense, damage or range of units with his army abilities. His mounts are Warhorse or Sky Lantern. Sadly he's garbage in melee, his mounts suck and pretty much anything he can do a Shugengan can do better. As such no real reason to nab him unless you want to hear his gloriously hammy voice acting. He's also unfortunately the only lord that will ever lead your caravans.

===Legendary Heroes===

===Generic Heroes===
*'''Alchemist''': Mages who fight with vials and magic that looks like Chinese calligraphy. Lore of Metal user with some extra bound buffs to armour, melee attack and magic damage with armour piecing. Can mount a warhorse. She comes with various buff by giving Poison, Magic Attacks or more AP to specific units so she can be good just to make sure that your units have other ways to fight the enemy.

*'''Astromancer''': Your lore of heavens caster. His mounts are a Warhorse for mobility or a Wu Xing War Compass which seems as though it will boost his magic output considerably. You pick this mage if you just want to blow shit up, as his War Compass mount gives him two free bound spells to rain upon the enemy.

==Units==

===Infantry===
*'''Peasant Long Spearmen''': Your early chaff unit that's literally expected to run away once things get hairy. The unexpected MVP of the roster (at least until DLCs give you something better). They come with Expendable ''and'' Expert Charge Defense, which is a rarity for tier 1 units.
**Rather than treating them like Skavenslaves, they're a lot more like TK skeleton spearmen without the shields: a really good screen with lots of bodies, relatively high health compared to the rest of your infantry, and high model count that can absorb losses. They're still expendable chaff, and you take them to die in place of your Jade warriors or Celestial Guard.
** Really fucking good for how easy and cheap they are. With the harmony buff, the Peasant Long Spearmen have stats higher than state troops, and function very well as a front line against everything. They are vulnerable to missiles, but you should have outshooting your opponents anyway.
**The Terracotta sentinel is very vulnerable to tarpitting, Peasant Long Spears are mobile and numerous enough to keep some of that pressure off them. They wont provide any harmony benefits though.
**Can tank for ages against pretty much anything with the jade shield 44% ward save buff from the lore of yang. Perfect for sacrificial screening, especially since lore of yang also has really powerful AOE spells you can drop on units getting traffic jammed by the peasants.
**Significantly better in Campaign. By the late game, it wouldn't be hard to produce them at tier 7, and their morale gets significantly better with technology and building upgrades, and can lead to hilarious situations where a single unit of Peasants holds off a band of Chosen on its own. They wont do any damage, of course, but that's why you drop a vortex or airship bomb on them.
*'''Jade Warriors''': Your mid-tier unit and your bread and butter until you can afford Celestial Dragon Guard. Have a unique mechanic where the longer they sit still and brace, the more bonuses they get, gaining higher charge resistance and armour. Make the Dragon Empire into the Turtle Empire with these guys. Just keep in mind that like turtles, they don't move very fast or hit very hard.
**The Sword and Shield combo, when combined with Harmony and their own innate stationary buff, they are very tough and can still find a use to tank hits for the Dragon Guard in the late-game. Excellent front line unit with good missile block chance and armor.
**The Halberd has better melee attack and armor piercing, so theyre like the Wardancers in that even when fighting against heavy infantry, it might be useful to take them to do some damage. Still more of a holding force than an aggressive force.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard''': Your elite, end-game unit, taking the best from both Jade Warriors since they're all armed with Halberds and Shields. They have expert charge defense, AP, and dont get bonuses/lose nothing from moving, meaning you could move them to where they're needed most, or even have them charge though Peasant chaff, foregoing the low charge bonus to keep models alive given the low-model count typical of Elite Infantry.
**'''Dune Dragons''' - Dragon Guard with Magic Attacks, Magic Resist, Immune to Psych and Encourage. These guys are pretty much designed to be a middle finger to large Daemons as they can punch through their physical resist and not get terror routed.

===Missiles===
*'''Peasant Archers''': Like your peasant infantry, but with a bow and arrow. Cheap and expendable, potentially valuable if you need a relatively disposable unit to provide a small amount of ranged support and trigger the yin/yang buff where needed. Has no AP, but that shouldn't be a problem in campaign where the majority of your chaos, norsca, and ogre enemies don't have much armor.
** Very cost effective, especially with the harmony buffs. Can put down a significant amount of fire with their reload skill buffs.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors with crossbows (in case you couldn't have told from their name). Armoured and with a shielded variant, they sit in-between Empire Crossbowmen and Dwarf Quarrelers in terms of durability and power; they still have the same "hunker-down" ability as regular JW, so you'll probably want to move them in position behind Long Spears and refrain from moving them to keep those bonuses.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen With shields''' You know the drill by now. silver shield and a minor buff to melee defence. In campaign avoid getting these unless your economy is absurd as they are a significant upkeep increase for no extra practical combat performance. In mutiplayer currently they're also not reccomended as the only other factions that pose a missile threat are magical-tzeench and kislev's massive cavalry spam. both of which shields don't help great against and it's better to have an extra unit of peasants or some shit over the shielded variant.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors on steroids, once again. Shielded, heavily armoured and with armour-piercing bolts, they're durable archers that can trade shots with the enemy's best.
**On paper, their bolts have more strength than the Sisters of Avelorn, but it's mundane AP versus the Fire/Magic combo that lets the Sisters put in work against pretty much anything. Celestial Crossbowmen have better DPS when buffed, though.
**Desperate and in a pinch? Castle too tight for shooting? Well, they're still Celestial Guard, and so are decent in melee, minus the AP or anti-large bonus. They still give Harmony when in melee.

* '''Iron Hail Gunners''': A living version of the Zombie Handcannons from the Pirate coast, these ladies massacre armoured infantry with their high-AP shotguns. With the Harmony system, being able to keep them closer to your melee units will make them into machinegunning shotgunners. Can fire in melee if the enemy makes contact without breaking through the first rank.
**Unlike your Crossbowmen or Crane gunners, they lack shields or armor, but are much more mobile. You can flank with them to outright delete elite infantry, but even having them shoot through gaps in your formation is also helpful, because they're Cathayan shotguns.
**Considering how quickly you can get these ladies in the Campaign, they're instrumental damage dealers from early to mid.
** Be cautious about using them against the ogres because they will literally just run through your front line, because hurr durr pull through. In campaign, best employed against all chaos factions other than Tzeentch, whose basic units will fucking slaughter the gunners with their ranged attacks, because fuck you I guess.

* '''Crane Gunners''': Human Skaven Jezzails. Much like their rat counterparts, these gunners excel at long-ranged sniping with their second-only-to-artillery range and will likely form a core part of your backline while you make the enemy come to you. They come with shields, which should give them some missile resistance to weather counter-fire and kill those jezzails. You're probably better off going for grand cannons in most match ups though. Grand cannons have better all around combat stats and the exact same movement speed; but with Patch 1.2, they are now shieldbreakers (reducing Missile Block Chance) and their missile go through infantry, which makes them really good at mowing down infantry. Better than cannons at sniping out faster targets and flyers and they can take cover + shoot out of forests while cannons can't.

===Cavalry===
*'''Peasant Horseman''': The fastest thing in your army that can't fly. Probably based on the herdsmen levies that numerous Chinese dynasties employed as scouts and light cav. With an almost identical statline to Brettonian mounted yeomen, the only reason to get peasant horsemen is because Cathay has no alternatives other than Jade Lancers and Longmas who are simply too expensive to waste chasing down routing units + artillery crews. You'll want to grab a few of these guys in Multiplayer and early campaign, but hopefully we'll get better alternatives with future DLC.

*'''Jade Lancers''': Jade warriors on horseback. More defensive than other factions cavalry. More suited defending your flank than running in to attack the enemy. Fucking awful other than their mediocre armor and their shields, ineffective in melee, slow compared to most other heavy cav. Can't even run down enemies because of their glacial speeds. In campaign, consider using the Iron Hail gunners/Jade Crossbows/etc. if you want a flanking unit, who will actually kill the units they are supposed to kill, or just peasant horsemen if you want to run down routing enemies.

*'''Great Jade Longma Riders''': Your versions of pegasus knights, except instead of a rich noble who sneers at peasants, you get a rich noble whose great-great-great-grandad/mom got busy with a dragon. Also comes with Fear, possibly making them an expensive option to spook away and chase routing units. Their true strength will be as a bodyguard unit for your squishy balloons against enemy air forces, and being a hammer to the rest of your rosters anvil.
**Stats wise, they're roughly between pegasus and royal pegasus knights that traded away their Anti-Large bonus in exchange for 30 more armour (110 total), higher weapon strength, and charge bonus. As such, they're better at dealing with multiple different types of opponents but aren't quite as good at dealing with large units and other cav.
**'''Righteous Lances of Wei-Jin''': Comes with majority AP damage and the Guardian ability. If you want a unit that can serve as a body guard for your flying lords and can deal with heavily armored targets these are the horse dragon things for you.

===Chariots===
*'''Wu-Xing War Compass''': A big ol' magical battery that boosts Harmony and counts towards Mastery of Elemental Winds increase the power of your spells. Can cast Urannons Thunderbolt and Comet of Casanodora; the Compass has been buffed in 1.2 to give you 2 free casts of each power without costing WoM, but their ''Celestial Comet'' is half as strong (but also twice as fast) to compensate. Better used as a mount for your spellcasters than an actual unit on it's own
**Also ok in melee as a ...cart. It moves as fast as infantry, literally anyone who gets run over by this thing deserves to die under the hooves of plain old cows dragging a heavy fucking magic compass.

===Monsters===
*'''Terracotta Sentinel''': Take the standard Terracotta soldier from China, make it really big and teach it kung fu and you have this thing. Possible doomstack material. They are unbreakable and hit like a truck, making them good at both clearing chaff and 1v1ing monsters. Don't leave them unsupported against missile units or anti-large elites, as they'll still break down to concentrated AP and missiles. Causes Terror for understandable reasons.
**If you've played Tomb Kings, you know what to expect: keep them away from Halberd tarpits and anti-large monstrous infantry, and if you can't, give them a screen, like Peasant spears or Jade cavalry.
**It's also the best monster in the entire game right now. Like seriously, this thing can beat a Bloodthirster one on one. It's also the cheapest big single entity monster in the entire game as well. Yeah these things are a little bullshit. Given that Cathay is viewed as a little subpar it's nice that they have at least one unit that is really strong, but expect CA to whack these guys with the nerf bat eventually.

===Artillery===
* '''Grand Cannon''': Pulled by oxen making surprisingly mobile, your normal cannon unit. Unlike other factions cannon units, also comes with flaming attacks by default, making it slightly better at burning up trees and mummies, and cutting through regeneration. It is roughly as fast as a standard infantry unit, which is actually a big deal because it will be able to keep up with your main army and rearrange itself much easier than a normal cannon.
** Extremely strong basic artillery unit, which, with the harmony bonuses, can and will kill large units very fucking quickly with their reload bonuses. Always nice to swat Fateweaver out of the sky even before the shit starts spamming searing doom/various fires over your lines.
** It's important to note that these boys are the most accurate cannons we've seen in Total war so far, extremely useful as they're actually capable of swatting tzeench's flying chariots out of mid-air, You can get to tier 3 extremely quickly in campaign and these boys WILL be your bread and butter for the entire campaign.

* '''Fire Rain Rocket''': Imagine a hellstorm rocket battery that fires even faster due to the Harmony mechanic. Terrifying. Aim for big blobs of enemies and watch as they become chunky salsa. Compared to the normal Hellstorm it does more missile damage, but the majority of it isn't actually AP. So while you still want to aim for blobs, those blobs should be of less armoured infantry rather than heavily armoured stuff.

* '''Kongming Sky Lantern''': The smaller of the two airship units with Crane Gunners, and dedicated support. It provides a morale boost to your infantry on top of Harmony, so even your Peasants will hold the line for as long as they humanly can. They also grant vision on units that are hiding in foliage, which can help thwart ambushes. They don't reveal Stalk, though.
**It can fire while moving and line of sight isn't much of a problem, so as long as it doesn't get attacked, it can take potshots at the enemy. It's slow as balls though, so any flying unit that gets its hands on it will be able to tear it to pieces. And pretty much every chaos army has furies who will rip it to shreds
**Almost useless, if it wasn't for the harmony mechanic + its encouragement buff, you probably wouldn't ever take them. As a flying unit, it can provide a source of Harmony that the enemy cant touch unless they devote their other flyers or ranged units on it.
**Offensively, though, their crane guns are like the stormbolter on a Rhino: they just dont shoot enough to actually be dangerous, and don't have the bombs that would otherwise make them useful. You may as well take the Crane Guns on infantry if you want sniper fire, or the Sky Junk for Guns, Bombs, and Rockets.

* '''Kongming Sky-junks''': The heavier of the two airship units that [[Awesome|acts as a flying Helstorm Rocket Battery]]. Can also drop bombs gyrocopter style, and has high armour against missile units. Unlike most other flying units, it can't toggle landing, so try to protect it against flying cav with missile units. It is slow as fuck and will be pretty much useless once it runs out of ammo, but it will hopefully do some devastating damage before that happens.
**Tanky enough to take hits from Furies and other flying beasties that lack AP, they are a nice flying Distraction Carnifex until they run out of ammo. And even when they do, they're a nice flying anvil to hold flyers in place while your Longma riders hammer them.
**They do have an edge against ground artillery, as even if theyre focused down by other artilery pieces, you can expect them to miss more often than not because you're flying, just put them far away enough that those missed shots dont hit your castles infantrybl instead.
**Much more effective when you fire very closely downwards, otherwise, just a shitty fire rain launcher.
**Oddly enough, they can be healed mid-battle with Miao Ying or a dragon blooded lord with bound lore of life spells.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
You are what happens when the Empire, Dwarfs, and Skaven all have the world's weirdest threesome where lingering eye contact was held with the Vampire Coast; and they had a baby. Your themes revolve around plentiful, expendable infantry and strong missiles working in unison to bunker down an area and blast anything that comes at you straight to hell. Harmony is a double edge sword, as while it encourages you to pair units together and builds buffs, it also means units on their own aren't reaching their full potential. This is a quantity over quality faction with limited offensive options, as the closest thing you have to offensive infantry is sword and board Jade Warriors, and while they have cavalry, they're slow and limited compared to other factions.

Since the Cathayan army is so new, there's a massive lack of units for the army compared to all the other established factions, and in some ways, it almost feels unfinished. For example, your have no ranged cavalry options, which means your cavalry options won't be able to receive the Harmony benefit if they go too far (and the bubble is so small, you can lose Harmony just chasing after other cavalry). CA is definitely holding back options to make room for new DLC.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Beastmen| Beastmen]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Bretonnia| Bretonnia]]''': With more flavours of cavalry than you can comprehend, you'll need to set up extremely defensively and bring plenty of halberds to fend off all the armoured horse riders. Be sure to pepper them with your armour piecing missiles, and use peasant chaff to block charges and allow your actual hard hitters to stay in position to fire upon them. Don't bother bringing lanterns and longma riders, Bretonnias air forces are too scary and will easily win any aerial battle, and the lanterns and longma aren't going to be much help against cav and are wasted on peasant chaff.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Daemons of Chaos| Daemons of Chaos]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Warriors of Chaos| Warriors of Chaos]]''':
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Heavily armored barbarians are threatening Cathay's border, and it's up to hot dom dragon waifu and her warpdust snorting fuccboi brother to keep Cathay safe
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
WoC wants to get into melee as soon as they can, and their elite infantry will fuck yours since all your AP is on anti-large; at least your dudes will fuck over any Dragon Ogres, though. Anything bigger than a Dragon Ogre can be handled by the Sentinel
</br>
You outclass them in ranged combat with actual archers, guns, and artillery, WoC players will send Manticores and Cavalry after them, so keep some Halberds next to them (which you should be doing anyway for the Harmony mechanic.)
</br>
That being said, their lack of ranged weapons means that your Sky-Junks will have grand old time, and may be a better investment than ground-based Fire Rockets. Manticores will die to Longma Riders, so keeping them protected will not be an issue.
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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves| Dark Elves]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dwarfs| Dwarfs]]''':
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This will be tough for the same reason the Vampirates are bad in this matchup, they do your main tactic better than you do. They have a wider assortment of guns and artillery, and great ways to kill your large units. They have Catapults to fuck your formations, while your indirect artillery lacks AP to punch through thicc dwarf armor.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

You will need to play offence against the Dwarfs which isn't great as you have no armour-piercing infantry that isn't bonus versus large, and your units only hit their peak efficiency when they're stationary and next to someone of the opposite type. They're also slow, not dwarf-slow, but slow enough that you'll take losses from Dwarf artillery, so it's a good idea to have at least a few peasants in front off your dudes to die for the Greater G--Harmony.

Your shielded crossbowmen are decent with good AP, get better when they're stationary, reload quicker with the Harmony mechanic; so long as their shields are faced where the shots are coming from, you can bounce some missiles off, too; Iron Hail gunners are much quicker than Jade Warriors or Dwarfs, and their shotguns pack a mean punch, especially when they're quick-firing with Harmony. They can be very good flankers when you pair them with Peasant Long Spears to guard their flanks and provide Harmony. Crane Gunners are like Skaven jezzails, use them to shoot down Gyrocopters to clear the skies and give your airships the ability to shoot from afar without being shot down. Speaking of airships, the Skyjunk is a better investment than the Fire Rain rocket; their weapons are similar, but the Skyjunk is harder to hit by enemy artillery, has much better angling, and when it runs out of ammo, can drop bombs that will be much more disruptive than the non-AP Fire Rain rockets.

Jade Warriors with shields will likely by your best melee infantry bet as they might be able to survive salvos as they hold against the dwarven line, but try screening them with Peasant Long Spears; they'll break, but when they regroup you can use them as Harmony buffers with your Iron Hail or Crane Guns. In terms of how to break the line, Ox Cannons are quite mobile for an artillery piece, and Crane Guns can provide covering fire from afar.

Your best lord option is a dragon blooded lore of yin caster on a longma. She's highly disruptive to ranged heavy factions since she can summon fodder into the middle of the enemy gunline like a flying vampire lord and overcast missile mirror to shut down individual ranged units for 36 seconds at a time.
</div></div>
*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Empire| Empire]]''':
Remember what we said in Dwarfs and Vampirates? Yeah you're dealing with a faction that does your thing better than you again. Grand Cannons are better than Great Cannon thanks to Harmony buffs and better mobility, but that's about the only good thing in this particular matchup. Luminarks hard counter Sky Junks and Imperial rocketry has ''significantly'' greater range than your own, while the constant threat of Demigryph up the ass keep you from rushing in without a plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''':
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">There is no war in Grand Cathay
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
This game is still too new for a meta, and most games you have on MP will just be people trying shit out. That being said, take Skyjunks and Fire Rockets and shoot the shit out of the enemy castle. Exploit the Grand Cannons mobility and provide harmony with cheap Peasants that you wont mind losing. Pop airships with Longma or Sky Lanterns, and save the Crane Gunners for their Longma. Take a sentinel and if your opponent takes one too, they can practice their kung fu

</div></div>

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Greenskins| Greenskins]]''': Greenskins shred dwarfs. but you have the great ability of actually having mobile options and magic. a positive matchup in your favor. bring one or two iron hail gunners to melt greenskin monsters and a lore of yang caster for the fire-wall. jade warriors should be able to hold off even black orks buying time for your missiles to bring the pain.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/High Elves| High Elves]]''': Your biggest threat will be dragons or an arcane phoenix and magic. Any sort of mass-AOE will rip apart your packed formations and the helves have a lot of options. bring grand cannons and use their accuracy to snipe their mages and dragons. otherwise your missile line is better than the helves and your frontline is better. a balanced matchup

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Khorne|Khorne]]''': One of your better matchups. Elite armies really don't like wading through gunfire to get to the enemy lines. Khorne will bring hounds, furies, and a bloodletter summoning cultist or two to disrupt you, peasant spearsmen and maybe a longma squad should suffice to tie them up. A terracotta sentinel is highly recommended as an emergency responder to Khorne's monsters along with a lore of yin caster to snare enemies with storm of shadows and block their movement with summoned fodder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Kislev|Kislev]]''': This is a faction that either relies on subpar ranged power or lots of heavy cavalry. pretty much all your infantry is anti-large and you outrange kislev massively. a very positive matchup in your favour as kislev's 'jack of all trades master of none' once again fails against a more specialised faction

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen| Lizardmen]]''': This will theoretically be a tricky match up, but ultimately one in your favor. Your plentiful AP gunpowder units will make quick work of the sluggish Saurus and, when coupled with your multitude of halberd units, can do some serious damage to their bigger beasties, but they're likely not going to be the forces a competent Lizardmen army will bring. Instead, Skinks will be your bane. Fast skirmishers and Chameleons will hassle you from all angles with their poisonous darts while their cavalry (flying or otherwise) disrupts your formations with fear/terror-inducing charges. If they're bringing a Slann, you will NEED to keep on top of your positioning; positioning your forces too close makes them prime candidates for the myriad of vortex and wind spells at their beck and call. Deal with them first, followed by any cavalry/skirmishers and clean up what's left with your plentiful gunpowder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Norsca| Norsca]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Nurgle| Nurgle]]''': Nurgle hates ranged units, enemy large units, an abundance of anti-large, fire damage, and enemies that can hold out in a grindfest against them. You are all of these things and Nurgle has vanishingly few options against you. Long Ma riders take a huge dump all over any of Nurgle's fliers and the fire damage of your artillery, magic, and more will make Nurgle weep with sorrow as you delete his slow moving and utterly unshielded units off the table one after the other. And as Nurgle has extremely anemic charges he can't even reliably break your formations without lucky spell casts; which of course relies on the Nurglites even getting a spellcaster in range through your numerous means to snipe them off the field. You can basically win this matchup while AFK, but something to watch out for is nurgles Army Ability, which can jump from one nearby unit to another, and Harmony forces your units together, so keep an eye out for the plauges.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Ogre Kingdoms| Ogre Kingdoms]]''': High mass charging units will ruin your day. ogres are cathay's worst matchup bar none in warhammer 3. your frontline will get pushed around like paper as while halberds CAN deal a lot of damage and hold off ogres the ogres can bring a lot more ogre bulls for the price than you can bring halberds. It's worth having no magic and getting a cheap lord as your units are a lot more useful than the lores available for once,

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven| Skaven]]''': From the looks of it, this seems to be your hardest matchup by far. Your harmony mechanic relies heavily on having a solid plan for most stages of the game and Skaven excel at disruption, be it through summons, skirmishing Eshin troops or just raw balls-to-the-wall firepower of Clan Skryre. Mirror Missile is your friend in this match-up and for its relatively low winds of magic cost is one of the single most brutal anti-ranged unit spells in the entire game, forcing the Skaven commander to either force their ranged unit into inactivity for twenty seconds or watch their prized shooters wipe themselves out.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Slaanesh| Slaanesh]]''': What's this, a speedy flanking faction designed to dive backlines? This could spell trouble for you. Fortunately, you theoretically have one way to banish Slaanesh's creeps back to the warp, and that's "Invest in flying units and box up with halberds." Slaanesh has no ranged units and only Furies as fliers, so as long as you have a Longma unit or cheap missiles to protect them, your Sky Lanterns and Sky Junks will be pretty much untouchable as they blast apart Slaanesh's ranks. Due to the amount of AP on their roster, Celestial Dragon Guard are a risky choice so invest either in Peasent spears or Jade Warriors with Halberds. You won't win the melee fight so don't bother investing in it. Have your infantry hold while your War Ballons shoot, your flying casters cast (Grab either the Dragon Siblings or a Shugangen in the air to keep them safe) and your Longma use their speed to flank and rear charge. Your balloons will run out of ammo eventually though, so make every shot count. Or just bring crossbows/archers, and shoot the living shit out of the exhibitionists.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''': Lore of yang fire wall. 'nuff said

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tzeentch| Tzeentch]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast| Vampire Coast]]''': If the Coast thinks they can outshoot you they have another thing coming. Rocket artillery devastates Vampirate formations and while they can swat your Sky lanterns out of the sky if they bring terrorgheists, Long Ma riders and your Legendary Lords can swat those out of the air in turn and curbstomp any deck droppers they bring. You have well armoured and shielded ranged units who will tear straight through the fragile ranks of the Coast and can stop any monsters they field cold; while your artillery is able to out-trade Vampirate cannons with a better rate of fire as long as harmony is active. Also Missile Mirror was basically created to troll the Vampire Coast specifically.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Counts| Vampire Counts]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| Wood Elves]]''':

===Domination===
General Tier Rank: '''D'''

You know how Harmony encourages you to stick your units together and to hold down a single point while not getting too aggressive? In Domination you win by doing the exact opposite of that. Since you have to spread out your forces and go on the offensive it's really hard for you to actually keep your Harmony active meaning a good chunk of your units won't be fighting at their price range. What's more, since you're out maneuvered by most factions, odds are you will not being getting to most points first and will have to fight off your enemies to secure them. Good news is that with your high armor, Terrocottas and range once you do have a point it's decently hard to kick you off. It would really help if you had some kind of decent, inexpensive mobile threat or just a fast ranged unit that can help keep harmony on all your infantry. You're way better in normal land battles though, as it's significantly easier to play your game and keep Harmony up.

==Campaign Mechanics and Tactics==

Unlike Kislev, which devolves into a Daemon fuckfest around the third or fourth wave of Rifts, Cathay is so easily-defendable that it's just begging for a rework, or at least a nerfbat.

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'''Bastion:''' You have no real enemies outside the invaders in the Steppes beyond the Bastion, or the Ogres/Chaos Warriors in the Mountains to the South. The Bastion has a unique "Chaos Invasion" mechanic where Kurgans get spawned every so often to lay siege to the Bastion. They are Norscans rather than WoC, though, so have absolutely no artillery or siege ability outside of throwing trolls or mammoths at you, and the Bastion Gates practically pay for themselves once you invest in the Upkeep Lowering building chain, (which can go as far as 90% upkeep reduction for garrisoned armies), and get the settlement to level 4 to build Terracotta Sentinels. The Kurgans pretty much only exist to die against your garrisons and give them free experience. Funnily enough, should an AI Cathayan faction own all the gates, the stacks will do absolutely nothing but wait outside the gates.

'''Trade and Treaties:'''Speaking of Cathayan Factions, there are four hostile rebels (two for each Legendary Lord) and two Loyalist ones, who will be pretty easily confederated once you beat the rebels. Do this as quickly as you can, because your income will rise substantially with their provinces and stability. Cathayan income is comparable to High Elves, without the expensive upkeep. You will actually have enough passive income to station a hero in each province to close rifts as they come up, and the gold needed for each action. You can now just use defense building to stop rifts spawning at all.

You'll also have lots of potential trade partners; by sending Caravans westwards, you can establish diplomatic relations with factions they pass through, and trade treaties can be established with those on the route. These trade relationships can be turned into military treaties, which can eventually lead to Outposts, a new mechanic in Campaign that lets you build military outposts in major settlements (Provincial Capitals with 4+ slots). If you both have an outpost in each other's territories, both factions get to purchase infantry from each other's respective recruitment pools. Cathayan Castles with Kislev Tzar Guard? Na, think Jade Warriors backed by Kroxigors, or Hawk Riders screening for your airships!

'''Harmony and the Compass:''' Harmony is pretty tedious. Your economic/defense buildings, technology, and characters (+1 for heroes, +3 for lords) all have a corresponding Yin-Yang cost. Going too far towards one way will lead to inefficiency at the least, and provincial instability at the worst. Yin and Yang balance will fluctuate as you lose heroes and research tech, and certain buildings will wax and wane in usefulness as your empire expands/contracts: One Yin building, for example, provides better casualty replenishment, while its Yang counterpart ranks up your Peasants; one is more useful when you're trying to replenish losses after capturing a territory, the other is better for giving you quality levies, but both are mutually exclusive per settlement. Since you only need to build the first tier for the yin-yang point, it is sometimes helpful to leave a building slot open for quick rebalancing, or demolishing the ones you dont need anymore. quick recruiting and disbanding hero's is a good way to keep it balanced easily.

The Celestial Compass on the other hand provides campaign bonuses depending on which way the winds of magic is directed: corruption cleansing, casualty replenishment, control, or growth ; as it stays pointed in one direction, a meter fills up, providing grander effects, like increased income, attrition on enemies (but only the regions beyond the Bastion, its also useless since the AI is mostly immune to attrition), or a comet like spell on the battlefield.

'''Actually playing:''' As mentioned above, uniting Cathay is your top priority, because the potential income you can get by having so many peaceful provinces under your direct control. And there's honestly not a lot of directions for you to expand to: The Steppes outside the bastion is simply too chaotic to be worth it, and the Mountains of Mourn are filled with Ogres and Chaos Warriors who will happily take a break from killing each other to kill you instead. Until the late game, your contact with the Old World will be limited to Caravans, which is fine, since they still provide line of sight and diopomacy options in the mountains and beyond in the Old World.

The Rifts will start out delivering only small amounts of corruption, but will get more severe as the campaign drags on, to the point that they can bring a province to 100 corruption in only a few turns. put one of the tier 3 defense building in every province and rifts will no longer spawn in your territory, just have a lord walk to a rift outside your territory instead or leave one province open to rifts. Only your faction leader can enter the Warp or traverse the rifts to fast travel to another place on the map, and when closing a rift with an army will only cause a battle, whereas using a hero only costs gold.

You need to collect four Daemon Prince souls, one from each Realm, to lead to the final battle.

*Slaanesh takes a minimum of 6 turns, as you need to go past each of the six circles and deny all the gifts presented at each exit. You can, however avoid pointless battles the easiest here by simply going straight to each rings portal and avoiding the Slaanesh daemons. If you can deal with missed chance at a soul getting the sword of Slaanesh and personal Sycophant follower is extremely strong.
*Tzeentch's realm is like a pokemon gym, where you go from island to island via teleporter until you arrive at his palace. The islands only really have 2 portals, the one you came from, and the one you need to reach, so as long as you just go from one to the next, you'll be fine. What makes this difficult, though, is that you spend the rest of your movement teleporting, no matter how much you had left. Some islands have Daemons waiting to jump you outside of the teleportation portal, sometimes one stack, others, two. Never march through a portal, since that will leave you exhausted, or worse, with no retreat option. If youre afraid of being jumped on arrival, in TW3 you can still move in the encampment stance(but at 50% range), so this not only prevents attrition but gives you an advantage on the defense
*Khorne wants to watch you fight. His realm is full of rogue armies that you must defeat, and for each kill you get, you fill up a meter. Fill this meter and he will grant you the honor of fighting the Daemon Prince at the Brass Citadel. Pick a fight against the undead or daemons, because rather than run away, they will fight on until the entire unit is wiped. This will fill the bar quickly, and its not like you had lots of ways to chase after routing ememies.
*Nurgle grinds you down with attrition, but thankfully unless Ku'gath is there too, you won't actually catch a "real" plague. The best way to move through his realm is encamped, but doing so cuts movement in half. You can also visit landmarks for some replenishment, because Nurgle is nothing but generous. That being said, his daemons will block your path and respawn right away.
*The Shadow Legion: After collecting all 4 souls, the road to the Forge of Souls is unlocked. Once more, portals will open all throughout the world, but this time Belakors forces will erupt and lay siege to your cities. The amount looks to be variable, amd by this point in the game, you are probably at war with more than just Chaos. If you have any spare heroes, close the portals right away to prevent reinforcements. Since this happens right after collecting the fourth soul, you can time it to happen right after clearing the latest wave of Kurgans, so that at the very least, you're not dealing with a Bastion invasion at the same time you're dealing with literal hell gates erupting all over your empire.
*The Final Battle: Belakor controls the Forge of Souls. It is a survival battle, so you will face three waves while also fighting through the forge. The first wave is nothing difficult, and can be won solely through Sky Junks and Celestial Crossbows, but the 2nd and 3rd will be tedious, since you're in the Forge of Souls, you will be facing a whole bunch of Soul Grinders. Take Celestial Halberds, Celestial Crossbows, and multiple Sentinels. The Halberds are self explanatory, since you will need some tough holding units to hold against the waves of Daemons, and their expert charge defence means that while fighting Bloodletters is inefficient, they wont give up without a fight; Crossbows are quite dangerous when focus firing in volleys, but the two artillery Soul Grinders (Nurgle and Tzeentch) are both also the tankiest. Take out Tzeentch first, because Barrier recharges, and it will recharge once you stop shooting it. When teched up, Sentinels are a good match for Soul Grinders, but are very slow in movement and attacking without support, so you will want to have someone fight the Daemons while the Sentinels fight the Daemon Engines.
**This is where a military alliance really comes in handy. Bloodletters are pretty good against your infantry, and are still pretty dangerous when they mob a sentinel. Tzar Guard or Armored Kossars provide some offensive oomph that your Celestials and Jade Warriors otherwise lack.
**One tricky part about Survival is that even after a wave is "over," you will continue to be harassed until the next wave begins. After the first wave ends, Chaos Hounds wil harass your troops until they capture the secont point, so you will need to leave a rear guard behind to deal with them, otherwise your heavy infantry, or worse, your slow, slow, Sentinels wil get stuck behind swatting them. After the second wave, Belakor spawns endless Daemons. Daemonettes and Bloodletters will rush you, while Pink Horrors will pepper you with magic while taking no damage in return from barrier.
**The Final Wave wont end until Belakor is slain. Belakor summons even more Soul grinders, as well as a bunch of heavier hitters, like Minotaurs of Khorne and Doom Knights. They will be teleporting in from all over the throne room, so you will need to keep an eye out for when a portal opens and for what comes out of it. The only thing that prevents this from being utter Bullshit is that they give you a shit ton of Sentinels (7??) in the final wave of reinforcements, and you will be legitimately retarded if you take anything else besides them. In fact, because of how many Sentinels you get for the final battle, you may be able getting away only three or four in your army, and filling the rest with heavy infantry or crossbows. The final battle is chaotic and all over the place, and warm bodies to hold back the reinforcements might be more helpful than 15 sentinels all trying to gangbang Belakor.

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[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay

2022-08-18T19:07:27Z

2600:387:2:80F:0:0:0:7A: /* Legendary Lords */

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

==Why Play Cathay==
*Because Total War: Three Kingdoms didn't go hard enough into fantasy for you.
*These guys are finally being fleshed out (with the full blessings of our [[Games Workshop|evil British overlords]] nonetheless) after years and you want to see what they come up with.
*You're into chinese history and mythology.
*You want to play a defensive gunline but don't want to play as boring white guys, short vengeful alcoholics or the bad guys from Pirates of the Caribbean
*You think it's extremely funny to watch Flamers of Tzeentch, Jezzails, and Artillery pieces nuke themselves when you use Mirror Missile on them.
*You playstyle is similar to the Empire and/or Dwarfs, but you can't play them yet in Warhammer III until Immortal Empires is finally released.

===Pros===
*'''Designed for Total War''': One thing we can say as an advantage for Cathay is unlike the other factions they will be designed from the ground up to be in a Total War game rather than trying to transition from a tabletop game into total war. This gives them the potential to be one of the best-designed races and balanced since they're not trying to fit a square Warhammer peg into a round Total War hole.
*'''Numbers''': In lore, Cathay has the largest population of all the human nations, so they have bodies to spare. Don't expect Skaven numbers, but you'll have large armies compared to other good guy races.
*'''Range''': As the oldest Human nation to have gotten gunpowder, it makes sense it plays a big role in your army. You have access to a ton of gunpowder units and artillery to blast the enemy apart. You also got some elite crossbows to play around with. The harmony system ensures that your ranged units have some of the higest reload skill in the entire game, which means... Well, [[Dakka|you shoot a lot.]]
*'''Air Power''': With your Longma, War Balloons and your Dragons you will be decently scary in the air. You won't be fast, and any opposing faction with decent air cavalry will likely threaten you, but you have some potent options.
*'''Harmony''': Cathay has a solid combination of ranged and melee units that work together well in concert. Similarly, units can either be Yin or Yang aligned and having the two working together provides you with a bonus.
*'''Defensive''': Cathay is built to last. Between your faction mechanics and selection of magical lores, Grand Cathay is built to hold the line. If you crave a faction with a strong, staunch line of spears to keep your enemies at bay, Cathay's going to be the faction for you.
*'''Magic:''' Cathay is actually able to keep up with the best of them when it comes to magic. Sure, you don't have the variety that High Elves or Empire have but with 4 lores you do have the most of the game 3 factions. Plus, with Mastery of the Elemental Winds, your spells do more damage the more mages you have in your army. Especially in campaign, Miao and Zhao can carry the army with their spells alone.

===Cons===
*'''Synergy''': Due to the way Harmony works, you will NEED to keep units close to each other, otherwise individual units will underperform. As such, you will likely be locked into turtling in order to get your units close enough to get the buffs they might need in order to perform efficiently. On their own, your units actually have ''lower'' stats than their equivalent in other armies, only getting better when properly buffed.
*'''Slow''': Cathay won't be winning many foot races compared to other factions. Though not as plodding as the dwarfs or lizardmen, you don't have much in the way of cavalry and your war balloons are pretty susceptible to air cav and missile fire.
*'''Subpar Cavalry''': Out of all the non Chaos human factions, you're easily the worst when it comes to Cavalry. Jade Lancers are on equal footing with Empire Knights, which doesn't seem bad until you realizes that your second best cavalry option is roughly on par with another faction's weakest heavy cav that tend to get flattened by more elite options. Peasant Horsemen are similar to Mounted Yeomen and while Longma aren't bad they are expensive while not having AP or anti large. Could be worse, you at least ''have'' cavalry, but most factions will out match you with their riders.
*'''Limited Skirmishers''': No vanguard deployment, stalk, or cheap fast movers other than peasant horsemen. You're going to suck at harrying broken units off the map and hunting enemy skirmishers + war machines.
*'''AoE Susceptible''': A core mechanic of Cathay units is that they gain bonuses when in close proximity with each other. While this can be great for holding the line, it also makes your forces more vulnerable to vortex or wind spells. You'll have to keep an eye out for enemy wizards.
*'''No Melee Expert Non-Legendary Lords or Heroes''': None of your non-LL and Heroes are really that good in melee combat or can serve as a tank. I know what you're thinking "But the Dragon Siblings!" but they won't be leading all your armies in campaign and they are expensive in multiplayer. 3 out of 4 of your Lords and Heroes are Mages and the one that isn't, the Lord Magistrate, is a support buffing character rather than a melee duelist or a tank. Shugengan lords are stated to be decent in melee but trust me, that's only by Mage Lord standards. You won't have many characters that can be safely thrown into melee combat. Concept art was found for a "Gate Master" hero, which will likely serve as the Cathayan equivalent of the Empire Captain or High Elf Noble, so this issue will probably be fixed with DLC.
*'''Not Designed for Domination''': Forget about Cathay being "Numbah Wan," Cathay is currently one of the Bottom Tier worst factions in multiplayer. As of mid March, Cathay only has a 38% win rate in multiplayer, and recent balance patches and Domination rule changes really didn't help you out too much. You have no real way to play aggressive in Domination and can't force people off of points. If you only care about [[That Guy|winning through OP ways]], don't bother playing Cathay until they get their DLC.
*'''DLC''': There are three guarantees in life. Death, Taxes, and Core Races getting units withheld for DLC. There is already a notable lack of monkey in the Cathay roster. Sorry Cathay, don't expect to be different. (Though in this case, I guess it's less "units being held back" and more "CA and GW making up more shit later.")
**Note that we can generally predict 2-3 lord packs for Cathay. In Mythology china gave each of the 4 cardinal direction's there own set of associations, beast, element, god so on, and with two lords already claiming two of those directions, 2 more for the other two compass points and a possible 5th for the center seems likely.

==Faction traits==
*'''Battle Harmony''': Shared by all non-character Cathay units. Melee units are marked as "Yang", while ranged units are "Yin"; these units gain bonuses when near a unit of the opposite type: leadership and melee defence for melee Yang units, and leadership and reload speed for ranged Yin units. Characters multiply these bonuses for nearby units.
*'''Mastery of the Elemental Winds''': Shared by all Cathayan spellcasters, this ability enhances their spells for each spellcaster present in the army. This encourages taking multiple spellcasters, something not usually done in other factions.
*'''Formation Attack''': A trait that makes the unit try to stay in formation, even when in combat. Presumably, this makes holding chokepoints and positions easier to do.

==Lords==
We finally got the names of the two legendary lords, and they turn out to be new characters. The children of the Dragon Emperor and the Moon Empress, they rule in his stead over the various provinces of Cathay.

===Legendary Lords===
Kathay has a tech unlockable banner that gives 20% ward save, use this on your legendary of choice, if you take the sword of Slaanesh from the chaos realm you'll get another 20% ward save and tons of damage. enjoy being the toughest/deadliest lord in WH 3. even Skarbrand cant compete with 70-80% ward save dragons who also cast spells.
*'''[[Miao Ying]], the Storm Dragon, ruler of the Northern Provinces and Commander of the Great Bastion.''': Daughter of the Dragon Emperor. Miss Cold and Aloof. She is in the north and is daddy's favourite. Can transform between human form where she buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. She will be able to use a hybrid of Life and Yin Magic: Including Earth Blood, Storm of Shadows, Flesh to Stone, Missile Mirror, Regrowth and Talons of Night, with both Lore Traits of Lifebloom and Power of Yin. She has the Wrath of the Storm ability, which increases melee attack, makes attacks magical, and makes those affected immune to psychology. She also has the Disdain of Dragons ability, which lowers enemy melee attacks in a constant radius. She also has access to the Mirror Missile spell which is easily one of the most trollish spells in the entire game, you will never tire of watching the enemy's elite ranged units delete themselves when they fire with the hex activated. She is the only lord kathay had with non bound spell healing, and regrowth is amazing on herself and terracotta sentinels. no inherent access to regeneration as a skill though, the von carstein blade item from caravans is perfect for her.

*'''[[Zhao Ming]], the Iron Dragon, ruler of the Western Provinces and Lord of Shang-Yang''': Son of the Dragon Emperor, and a mama's boy. His faction is stated to focus on and specialize in Alchemists and Astronomers. Can transform between human form where he buffs harmony and a big dragon to melee it up in battle. He uses a hybrid of Metal and Yang magic, unfortunately his spell selection is kinda terrible, his only really great spell is final transmutation and maybe glittering robe early on, but the rest are pretty weak. He gets regeneration, army wide ward save (includes him), and can cast final transmutation with a discount, actually very powerful for taking out the mass soulgrinders you face in campaign. He has large army wide buffs to armor, weapon damage, and ward save. if you want to Terracotta sentinel doomstack he is a great choice but lack of access to healing spells is an issue.

===Lords===
*'''Dragon-Blooded Shugengan Lord''': Descended from when a human pulled a Donkey from Shrek with Cathay's rulers. Your Mage lord, they come with the lores of Yang or Yin and their mounts are Warhorse or Jade Longma for extra mobility. While they are ''slightly'' better than most mage lords in melee don't expect them to last long if a dedicated melee character gets a hold of them.

*'''Lord Magistrate''': Your cheap normal frontline general. His gimmick is being able to further improve the harmony mechanic of his army, so extra incentive to form up in a sexy turtle. He also comes with the ability to buff the defense, damage or range of units with his army abilities. His mounts are Warhorse or Sky Lantern. Sadly he's garbage in melee, his mounts suck and pretty much anything he can do a Shugengan can do better. As such no real reason to nab him unless you want to hear his gloriously hammy voice acting. He's also unfortunately the only lord that will ever lead your caravans.

===Legendary Heroes===

===Generic Heroes===
*'''Alchemist''': Mages who fight with vials and magic that looks like Chinese calligraphy. Lore of Metal user with some extra bound buffs to armour, melee attack and magic damage with armour piecing. Can mount a warhorse. She comes with various buff by giving Poison, Magic Attacks or more AP to specific units so she can be good just to make sure that your units have other ways to fight the enemy.

*'''Astromancer''': Your lore of heavens caster. His mounts are a Warhorse for mobility or a Wu Xing War Compass which seems as though it will boost his magic output considerably. You pick this mage if you just want to blow shit up, as his War Compass mount gives him two free bound spells to rain upon the enemy.

==Units==

===Infantry===
*'''Peasant Long Spearmen''': Your early chaff unit that's literally expected to run away once things get hairy. The unexpected MVP of the roster (at least until DLCs give you something better). They come with Expendable ''and'' Expert Charge Defense, which is a rarity for tier 1 units.
**Rather than treating them like Skavenslaves, they're a lot more like TK skeleton spearmen without the shields: a really good screen with lots of bodies, relatively high health compared to the rest of your infantry, and high model count that can absorb losses. They're still expendable chaff, and you take them to die in place of your Jade warriors or Celestial Guard.
** Really fucking good for how easy and cheap they are. With the harmony buff, the Peasant Long Spearmen have stats higher than state troops, and function very well as a front line against everything. They are vulnerable to missiles, but you should have outshooting your opponents anyway.
**The Terracotta sentinel is very vulnerable to tarpitting, Peasant Long Spears are mobile and numerous enough to keep some of that pressure off them. They wont provide any harmony benefits though.
**Can tank for ages against pretty much anything with the jade shield 44% ward save buff from the lore of yang. Perfect for sacrificial screening, especially since lore of yang also has really powerful AOE spells you can drop on units getting traffic jammed by the peasants.
**Significantly better in Campaign. By the late game, it wouldn't be hard to produce them at tier 7, and their morale gets significantly better with technology and building upgrades, and can lead to hilarious situations where a single unit of Peasants holds off a band of Chosen on its own. They wont do any damage, of course, but that's why you drop a vortex or airship bomb on them.
*'''Jade Warriors''': Your mid-tier unit and your bread and butter until you can afford Celestial Dragon Guard. Have a unique mechanic where the longer they sit still and brace, the more bonuses they get, gaining higher charge resistance and armour. Make the Dragon Empire into the Turtle Empire with these guys. Just keep in mind that like turtles, they don't move very fast or hit very hard.
**The Sword and Shield combo, when combined with Harmony and their own innate stationary buff, they are very tough and can still find a use to tank hits for the Dragon Guard in the late-game. Excellent front line unit with good missile block chance and armor.
**The Halberd has better melee attack and armor piercing, so theyre like the Wardancers in that even when fighting against heavy infantry, it might be useful to take them to do some damage. Still more of a holding force than an aggressive force.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard''': Your elite, end-game unit, taking the best from both Jade Warriors since they're all armed with Halberds and Shields. They have expert charge defense, AP, and dont get bonuses/lose nothing from moving, meaning you could move them to where they're needed most, or even have them charge though Peasant chaff, foregoing the low charge bonus to keep models alive given the low-model count typical of Elite Infantry.
**'''Dune Dragons''' - Dragon Guard with Magic Attacks, Magic Resist, Immune to Psych and Encourage. These guys are pretty much designed to be a middle finger to large Daemons as they can punch through their physical resist and not get terror routed.

===Missiles===
*'''Peasant Archers''': Like your peasant infantry, but with a bow and arrow. Cheap and expendable, potentially valuable if you need a relatively disposable unit to provide a small amount of ranged support and trigger the yin/yang buff where needed. Has no AP, but that shouldn't be a problem in campaign where the majority of your chaos, norsca, and ogre enemies don't have much armor.
** Very cost effective, especially with the harmony buffs. Can put down a significant amount of fire with their reload skill buffs.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors with crossbows (in case you couldn't have told from their name). Armoured and with a shielded variant, they sit in-between Empire Crossbowmen and Dwarf Quarrelers in terms of durability and power; they still have the same "hunker-down" ability as regular JW, so you'll probably want to move them in position behind Long Spears and refrain from moving them to keep those bonuses.

*'''Jade Warrior Crossbowmen With shields''' You know the drill by now. silver shield and a minor buff to melee defence. In campaign avoid getting these unless your economy is absurd as they are a significant upkeep increase for no extra practical combat performance. In mutiplayer currently they're also not reccomended as the only other factions that pose a missile threat are magical-tzeench and kislev's massive cavalry spam. both of which shields don't help great against and it's better to have an extra unit of peasants or some shit over the shielded variant.

*'''Celestial Dragon Guard Crossbowmen''': Jade Warriors on steroids, once again. Shielded, heavily armoured and with armour-piercing bolts, they're durable archers that can trade shots with the enemy's best.
**On paper, their bolts have more strength than the Sisters of Avelorn, but it's mundane AP versus the Fire/Magic combo that lets the Sisters put in work against pretty much anything. Celestial Crossbowmen have better DPS when buffed, though.
**Desperate and in a pinch? Castle too tight for shooting? Well, they're still Celestial Guard, and so are decent in melee, minus the AP or anti-large bonus. They still give Harmony when in melee.

* '''Iron Hail Gunners''': A living version of the Zombie Handcannons from the Pirate coast, these ladies massacre armoured infantry with their high-AP shotguns. With the Harmony system, being able to keep them closer to your melee units will make them into machinegunning shotgunners. Can fire in melee if the enemy makes contact without breaking through the first rank.
**Unlike your Crossbowmen or Crane gunners, they lack shields or armor, but are much more mobile. You can flank with them to outright delete elite infantry, but even having them shoot through gaps in your formation is also helpful, because they're Cathayan shotguns.
**Considering how quickly you can get these ladies in the Campaign, they're instrumental damage dealers from early to mid.
** Be cautious about using them against the ogres because they will literally just run through your front line, because hurr durr pull through. In campaign, best employed against all chaos factions other than Tzeentch, whose basic units will fucking slaughter the gunners with their ranged attacks, because fuck you I guess.

* '''Crane Gunners''': Human Skaven Jezzails. Much like their rat counterparts, these gunners excel at long-ranged sniping with their second-only-to-artillery range and will likely form a core part of your backline while you make the enemy come to you. They come with shields, which should give them some missile resistance to weather counter-fire and kill those jezzails. You're probably better off going for grand cannons in most match ups though. Grand cannons have better all around combat stats and the exact same movement speed; but with Patch 1.2, they are now shieldbreakers (reducing Missile Block Chance) and their missile go through infantry, which makes them really good at mowing down infantry. Better than cannons at sniping out faster targets and flyers and they can take cover + shoot out of forests while cannons can't.

===Cavalry===
*'''Peasant Horseman''': The fastest thing in your army that can't fly. Probably based on the herdsmen levies that numerous Chinese dynasties employed as scouts and light cav. With an almost identical statline to Brettonian mounted yeomen, the only reason to get peasant horsemen is because Cathay has no alternatives other than Jade Lancers and Longmas who are simply too expensive to waste chasing down routing units + artillery crews. You'll want to grab a few of these guys in Multiplayer and early campaign, but hopefully we'll get better alternatives with future DLC.

*'''Jade Lancers''': Jade warriors on horseback. More defensive than other factions cavalry. More suited defending your flank than running in to attack the enemy. Fucking awful other than their mediocre armor and their shields, ineffective in melee, slow compared to most other heavy cav. Can't even run down enemies because of their glacial speeds. In campaign, consider using the Iron Hail gunners/Jade Crossbows/etc. if you want a flanking unit, who will actually kill the units they are supposed to kill, or just peasant horsemen if you want to run down routing enemies.

*'''Great Jade Longma Riders''': Your versions of pegasus knights, except instead of a rich noble who sneers at peasants, you get a rich noble whose great-great-great-grandad/mom got busy with a dragon. Also comes with Fear, possibly making them an expensive option to spook away and chase routing units. Their true strength will be as a bodyguard unit for your squishy balloons against enemy air forces, and being a hammer to the rest of your rosters anvil.
**Stats wise, they're roughly between pegasus and royal pegasus knights that traded away their Anti-Large bonus in exchange for 30 more armour (110 total), higher weapon strength, and charge bonus. As such, they're better at dealing with multiple different types of opponents but aren't quite as good at dealing with large units and other cav.
**'''Righteous Lances of Wei-Jin''': Comes with majority AP damage and the Guardian ability. If you want a unit that can serve as a body guard for your flying lords and can deal with heavily armored targets these are the horse dragon things for you.

===Chariots===
*'''Wu-Xing War Compass''': A big ol' magical battery that boosts Harmony and counts towards Mastery of Elemental Winds increase the power of your spells. Can cast Urannons Thunderbolt and Comet of Casanodora; the Compass has been buffed in 1.2 to give you 2 free casts of each power without costing WoM, but their ''Celestial Comet'' is half as strong (but also twice as fast) to compensate. Better used as a mount for your spellcasters than an actual unit on it's own
**Also ok in melee as a ...cart. It moves as fast as infantry, literally anyone who gets run over by this thing deserves to die under the hooves of plain old cows dragging a heavy fucking magic compass.

===Monsters===
*'''Terracotta Sentinel''': Take the standard Terracotta soldier from China, make it really big and teach it kung fu and you have this thing. Possible doomstack material. They are unbreakable and hit like a truck, making them good at both clearing chaff and 1v1ing monsters. Don't leave them unsupported against missile units or anti-large elites, as they'll still break down to concentrated AP and missiles. Causes Terror for understandable reasons.
**If you've played Tomb Kings, you know what to expect: keep them away from Halberd tarpits and anti-large monstrous infantry, and if you can't, give them a screen, like Peasant spears or Jade cavalry.
**It's also the best monster in the entire game right now. Like seriously, this thing can beat a Bloodthirster one on one. It's also the cheapest big single entity monster in the entire game as well. Yeah these things are a little bullshit. Given that Cathay is viewed as a little subpar it's nice that they have at least one unit that is really strong, but expect CA to whack these guys with the nerf bat eventually.

===Artillery===
* '''Grand Cannon''': Pulled by oxen making surprisingly mobile, your normal cannon unit. Unlike other factions cannon units, also comes with flaming attacks by default, making it slightly better at burning up trees and mummies, and cutting through regeneration. It is roughly as fast as a standard infantry unit, which is actually a big deal because it will be able to keep up with your main army and rearrange itself much easier than a normal cannon.
** Extremely strong basic artillery unit, which, with the harmony bonuses, can and will kill large units very fucking quickly with their reload bonuses. Always nice to swat Fateweaver out of the sky even before the shit starts spamming searing doom/various fires over your lines.
** It's important to note that these boys are the most accurate cannons we've seen in Total war so far, extremely useful as they're actually capable of swatting tzeench's flying chariots out of mid-air, You can get to tier 3 extremely quickly in campaign and these boys WILL be your bread and butter for the entire campaign.

* '''Fire Rain Rocket''': Imagine a hellstorm rocket battery that fires even faster due to the Harmony mechanic. Terrifying. Aim for big blobs of enemies and watch as they become chunky salsa. Compared to the normal Hellstorm it does more missile damage, but the majority of it isn't actually AP. So while you still want to aim for blobs, those blobs should be of less armoured infantry rather than heavily armoured stuff.

* '''Kongming Sky Lantern''': The smaller of the two airship units with Crane Gunners, and dedicated support. It provides a morale boost to your infantry on top of Harmony, so even your Peasants will hold the line for as long as they humanly can. They also grant vision on units that are hiding in foliage, which can help thwart ambushes. They don't reveal Stalk, though.
**It can fire while moving and line of sight isn't much of a problem, so as long as it doesn't get attacked, it can take potshots at the enemy. It's slow as balls though, so any flying unit that gets its hands on it will be able to tear it to pieces. And pretty much every chaos army has furies who will rip it to shreds
**Almost useless, if it wasn't for the harmony mechanic + its encouragement buff, you probably wouldn't ever take them. As a flying unit, it can provide a source of Harmony that the enemy cant touch unless they devote their other flyers or ranged units on it.
**Offensively, though, their crane guns are like the stormbolter on a Rhino: they just dont shoot enough to actually be dangerous, and don't have the bombs that would otherwise make them useful. You may as well take the Crane Guns on infantry if you want sniper fire, or the Sky Junk for Guns, Bombs, and Rockets.

* '''Kongming Sky-junks''': The heavier of the two airship units that [[Awesome|acts as a flying Helstorm Rocket Battery]]. Can also drop bombs gyrocopter style, and has high armour against missile units. Unlike most other flying units, it can't toggle landing, so try to protect it against flying cav with missile units. It is slow as fuck and will be pretty much useless once it runs out of ammo, but it will hopefully do some devastating damage before that happens.
**Tanky enough to take hits from Furies and other flying beasties that lack AP, they are a nice flying Distraction Carnifex until they run out of ammo. And even when they do, they're a nice flying anvil to hold flyers in place while your Longma riders hammer them.
**They do have an edge against ground artillery, as even if theyre focused down by other artilery pieces, you can expect them to miss more often than not because you're flying, just put them far away enough that those missed shots dont hit your castles infantrybl instead.
**Much more effective when you fire very closely downwards, otherwise, just a shitty fire rain launcher.
**Oddly enough, they can be healed mid-battle with Miao Ying or a dragon blooded lord with bound lore of life spells.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
You are what happens when the Empire, Dwarfs, and Skaven all have the world's weirdest threesome where lingering eye contact was held with the Vampire Coast; and they had a baby. Your themes revolve around plentiful, expendable infantry and strong missiles working in unison to bunker down an area and blast anything that comes at you straight to hell. Harmony is a double edge sword, as while it encourages you to pair units together and builds buffs, it also means units on their own aren't reaching their full potential. This is a quantity over quality faction with limited offensive options, as the closest thing you have to offensive infantry is sword and board Jade Warriors, and while they have cavalry, they're slow and limited compared to other factions.

Since the Cathayan army is so new, there's a massive lack of units for the army compared to all the other established factions, and in some ways, it almost feels unfinished. For example, your have no ranged cavalry options, which means your cavalry options won't be able to receive the Harmony benefit if they go too far (and the bubble is so small, you can lose Harmony just chasing after other cavalry). CA is definitely holding back options to make room for new DLC.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Beastmen| Beastmen]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Bretonnia| Bretonnia]]''': With more flavours of cavalry than you can comprehend, you'll need to set up extremely defensively and bring plenty of halberds to fend off all the armoured horse riders. Be sure to pepper them with your armour piecing missiles, and use peasant chaff to block charges and allow your actual hard hitters to stay in position to fire upon them. Don't bother bringing lanterns and longma riders, Bretonnias air forces are too scary and will easily win any aerial battle, and the lanterns and longma aren't going to be much help against cav and are wasted on peasant chaff.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Daemons of Chaos| Daemons of Chaos]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Warriors of Chaos| Warriors of Chaos]]''':
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Heavily armored barbarians are threatening Cathay's border, and it's up to hot dom dragon waifu and her warpdust snorting fuccboi brother to keep Cathay safe
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WoC wants to get into melee as soon as they can, and their elite infantry will fuck yours since all your AP is on anti-large; at least your dudes will fuck over any Dragon Ogres, though. Anything bigger than a Dragon Ogre can be handled by the Sentinel
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You outclass them in ranged combat with actual archers, guns, and artillery, WoC players will send Manticores and Cavalry after them, so keep some Halberds next to them (which you should be doing anyway for the Harmony mechanic.)
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That being said, their lack of ranged weapons means that your Sky-Junks will have grand old time, and may be a better investment than ground-based Fire Rockets. Manticores will die to Longma Riders, so keeping them protected will not be an issue.
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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves| Dark Elves]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dwarfs| Dwarfs]]''':
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This will be tough for the same reason the Vampirates are bad in this matchup, they do your main tactic better than you do. They have a wider assortment of guns and artillery, and great ways to kill your large units. They have Catapults to fuck your formations, while your indirect artillery lacks AP to punch through thicc dwarf armor.
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You will need to play offence against the Dwarfs which isn't great as you have no armour-piercing infantry that isn't bonus versus large, and your units only hit their peak efficiency when they're stationary and next to someone of the opposite type. They're also slow, not dwarf-slow, but slow enough that you'll take losses from Dwarf artillery, so it's a good idea to have at least a few peasants in front off your dudes to die for the Greater G--Harmony.

Your shielded crossbowmen are decent with good AP, get better when they're stationary, reload quicker with the Harmony mechanic; so long as their shields are faced where the shots are coming from, you can bounce some missiles off, too; Iron Hail gunners are much quicker than Jade Warriors or Dwarfs, and their shotguns pack a mean punch, especially when they're quick-firing with Harmony. They can be very good flankers when you pair them with Peasant Long Spears to guard their flanks and provide Harmony. Crane Gunners are like Skaven jezzails, use them to shoot down Gyrocopters to clear the skies and give your airships the ability to shoot from afar without being shot down. Speaking of airships, the Skyjunk is a better investment than the Fire Rain rocket; their weapons are similar, but the Skyjunk is harder to hit by enemy artillery, has much better angling, and when it runs out of ammo, can drop bombs that will be much more disruptive than the non-AP Fire Rain rockets.

Jade Warriors with shields will likely by your best melee infantry bet as they might be able to survive salvos as they hold against the dwarven line, but try screening them with Peasant Long Spears; they'll break, but when they regroup you can use them as Harmony buffers with your Iron Hail or Crane Guns. In terms of how to break the line, Ox Cannons are quite mobile for an artillery piece, and Crane Guns can provide covering fire from afar.

Your best lord option is a dragon blooded lore of yin caster on a longma. She's highly disruptive to ranged heavy factions since she can summon fodder into the middle of the enemy gunline like a flying vampire lord and overcast missile mirror to shut down individual ranged units for 36 seconds at a time.
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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Empire| Empire]]''':
Remember what we said in Dwarfs and Vampirates? Yeah you're dealing with a faction that does your thing better than you again. Grand Cannons are better than Great Cannon thanks to Harmony buffs and better mobility, but that's about the only good thing in this particular matchup. Luminarks hard counter Sky Junks and Imperial rocketry has ''significantly'' greater range than your own, while the constant threat of Demigryph up the ass keep you from rushing in without a plan.

*'''Grand Cathay''':
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This game is still too new for a meta, and most games you have on MP will just be people trying shit out. That being said, take Skyjunks and Fire Rockets and shoot the shit out of the enemy castle. Exploit the Grand Cannons mobility and provide harmony with cheap Peasants that you wont mind losing. Pop airships with Longma or Sky Lanterns, and save the Crane Gunners for their Longma. Take a sentinel and if your opponent takes one too, they can practice their kung fu

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*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Greenskins| Greenskins]]''': Greenskins shred dwarfs. but you have the great ability of actually having mobile options and magic. a positive matchup in your favor. bring one or two iron hail gunners to melt greenskin monsters and a lore of yang caster for the fire-wall. jade warriors should be able to hold off even black orks buying time for your missiles to bring the pain.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/High Elves| High Elves]]''': Your biggest threat will be dragons or an arcane phoenix and magic. Any sort of mass-AOE will rip apart your packed formations and the helves have a lot of options. bring grand cannons and use their accuracy to snipe their mages and dragons. otherwise your missile line is better than the helves and your frontline is better. a balanced matchup

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Khorne|Khorne]]''': One of your better matchups. Elite armies really don't like wading through gunfire to get to the enemy lines. Khorne will bring hounds, furies, and a bloodletter summoning cultist or two to disrupt you, peasant spearsmen and maybe a longma squad should suffice to tie them up. A terracotta sentinel is highly recommended as an emergency responder to Khorne's monsters along with a lore of yin caster to snare enemies with storm of shadows and block their movement with summoned fodder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Kislev|Kislev]]''': This is a faction that either relies on subpar ranged power or lots of heavy cavalry. pretty much all your infantry is anti-large and you outrange kislev massively. a very positive matchup in your favour as kislev's 'jack of all trades master of none' once again fails against a more specialised faction

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen| Lizardmen]]''': This will theoretically be a tricky match up, but ultimately one in your favor. Your plentiful AP gunpowder units will make quick work of the sluggish Saurus and, when coupled with your multitude of halberd units, can do some serious damage to their bigger beasties, but they're likely not going to be the forces a competent Lizardmen army will bring. Instead, Skinks will be your bane. Fast skirmishers and Chameleons will hassle you from all angles with their poisonous darts while their cavalry (flying or otherwise) disrupts your formations with fear/terror-inducing charges. If they're bringing a Slann, you will NEED to keep on top of your positioning; positioning your forces too close makes them prime candidates for the myriad of vortex and wind spells at their beck and call. Deal with them first, followed by any cavalry/skirmishers and clean up what's left with your plentiful gunpowder.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Norsca| Norsca]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Nurgle| Nurgle]]''': Nurgle hates ranged units, enemy large units, an abundance of anti-large, fire damage, and enemies that can hold out in a grindfest against them. You are all of these things and Nurgle has vanishingly few options against you. Long Ma riders take a huge dump all over any of Nurgle's fliers and the fire damage of your artillery, magic, and more will make Nurgle weep with sorrow as you delete his slow moving and utterly unshielded units off the table one after the other. And as Nurgle has extremely anemic charges he can't even reliably break your formations without lucky spell casts; which of course relies on the Nurglites even getting a spellcaster in range through your numerous means to snipe them off the field. You can basically win this matchup while AFK, but something to watch out for is nurgles Army Ability, which can jump from one nearby unit to another, and Harmony forces your units together, so keep an eye out for the plauges.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Ogre Kingdoms| Ogre Kingdoms]]''': High mass charging units will ruin your day. ogres are cathay's worst matchup bar none in warhammer 3. your frontline will get pushed around like paper as while halberds CAN deal a lot of damage and hold off ogres the ogres can bring a lot more ogre bulls for the price than you can bring halberds. It's worth having no magic and getting a cheap lord as your units are a lot more useful than the lores available for once,

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven| Skaven]]''': From the looks of it, this seems to be your hardest matchup by far. Your harmony mechanic relies heavily on having a solid plan for most stages of the game and Skaven excel at disruption, be it through summons, skirmishing Eshin troops or just raw balls-to-the-wall firepower of Clan Skryre. Mirror Missile is your friend in this match-up and for its relatively low winds of magic cost is one of the single most brutal anti-ranged unit spells in the entire game, forcing the Skaven commander to either force their ranged unit into inactivity for twenty seconds or watch their prized shooters wipe themselves out.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Slaanesh| Slaanesh]]''': What's this, a speedy flanking faction designed to dive backlines? This could spell trouble for you. Fortunately, you theoretically have one way to banish Slaanesh's creeps back to the warp, and that's "Invest in flying units and box up with halberds." Slaanesh has no ranged units and only Furies as fliers, so as long as you have a Longma unit or cheap missiles to protect them, your Sky Lanterns and Sky Junks will be pretty much untouchable as they blast apart Slaanesh's ranks. Due to the amount of AP on their roster, Celestial Dragon Guard are a risky choice so invest either in Peasent spears or Jade Warriors with Halberds. You won't win the melee fight so don't bother investing in it. Have your infantry hold while your War Ballons shoot, your flying casters cast (Grab either the Dragon Siblings or a Shugangen in the air to keep them safe) and your Longma use their speed to flank and rear charge. Your balloons will run out of ammo eventually though, so make every shot count. Or just bring crossbows/archers, and shoot the living shit out of the exhibitionists.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''': Lore of yang fire wall. 'nuff said

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tzeentch| Tzeentch]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast| Vampire Coast]]''': If the Coast thinks they can outshoot you they have another thing coming. Rocket artillery devastates Vampirate formations and while they can swat your Sky lanterns out of the sky if they bring terrorgheists, Long Ma riders and your Legendary Lords can swat those out of the air in turn and curbstomp any deck droppers they bring. You have well armoured and shielded ranged units who will tear straight through the fragile ranks of the Coast and can stop any monsters they field cold; while your artillery is able to out-trade Vampirate cannons with a better rate of fire as long as harmony is active. Also Missile Mirror was basically created to troll the Vampire Coast specifically.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Counts| Vampire Counts]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| Wood Elves]]''':

===Domination===
General Tier Rank: '''D'''

You know how Harmony encourages you to stick your units together and to hold down a single point while not getting too aggressive? In Domination you win by doing the exact opposite of that. Since you have to spread out your forces and go on the offensive it's really hard for you to actually keep your Harmony active meaning a good chunk of your units won't be fighting at their price range. What's more, since you're out maneuvered by most factions, odds are you will not being getting to most points first and will have to fight off your enemies to secure them. Good news is that with your high armor, Terrocottas and range once you do have a point it's decently hard to kick you off. It would really help if you had some kind of decent, inexpensive mobile threat or just a fast ranged unit that can help keep harmony on all your infantry. You're way better in normal land battles though, as it's significantly easier to play your game and keep Harmony up.

==Campaign Mechanics and Tactics==

Unlike Kislev, which devolves into a Daemon fuckfest around the third or fourth wave of Rifts, Cathay is so easily-defendable that it's just begging for a rework, or at least a nerfbat.

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'''Bastion:''' You have no real enemies outside the invaders in the Steppes beyond the Bastion, or the Ogres/Chaos Warriors in the Mountains to the South. The Bastion has a unique "Chaos Invasion" mechanic where Kurgans get spawned every so often to lay siege to the Bastion. They are Norscans rather than WoC, though, so have absolutely no artillery or siege ability outside of throwing trolls or mammoths at you, and the Bastion Gates practically pay for themselves once you invest in the Upkeep Lowering building chain, (which can go as far as 90% upkeep reduction for garrisoned armies), and get the settlement to level 4 to build Terracotta Sentinels. The Kurgans pretty much only exist to die against your garrisons and give them free experience. Funnily enough, should an AI Cathayan faction own all the gates, the stacks will do absolutely nothing but wait outside the gates.

'''Trade and Treaties:'''Speaking of Cathayan Factions, there are four hostile rebels (two for each Legendary Lord) and two Loyalist ones, who will be pretty easily confederated once you beat the rebels. Do this as quickly as you can, because your income will rise substantially with their provinces and stability. Cathayan income is comparable to High Elves, without the expensive upkeep. You will actually have enough passive income to station a hero in each province to close rifts as they come up, and the gold needed for each action. You can now just use defense building to stop rifts spawning at all.

You'll also have lots of potential trade partners; by sending Caravans westwards, you can establish diplomatic relations with factions they pass through, and trade treaties can be established with those on the route. These trade relationships can be turned into military treaties, which can eventually lead to Outposts, a new mechanic in Campaign that lets you build military outposts in major settlements (Provincial Capitals with 4+ slots). If you both have an outpost in each other's territories, both factions get to purchase infantry from each other's respective recruitment pools. Cathayan Castles with Kislev Tzar Guard? Na, think Jade Warriors backed by Kroxigors, or Hawk Riders screening for your airships!

'''Harmony and the Compass:''' Harmony is pretty tedious. Your economic/defense buildings, technology, and characters (+1 for heroes, +3 for lords) all have a corresponding Yin-Yang cost. Going too far towards one way will lead to inefficiency at the least, and provincial instability at the worst. Yin and Yang balance will fluctuate as you lose heroes and research tech, and certain buildings will wax and wane in usefulness as your empire expands/contracts: One Yin building, for example, provides better casualty replenishment, while its Yang counterpart ranks up your Peasants; one is more useful when you're trying to replenish losses after capturing a territory, the other is better for giving you quality levies, but both are mutually exclusive per settlement. Since you only need to build the first tier for the yin-yang point, it is sometimes helpful to leave a building slot open for quick rebalancing, or demolishing the ones you dont need anymore. quick recruiting and disbanding hero's is a good way to keep it balanced easily.

The Celestial Compass on the other hand provides campaign bonuses depending on which way the winds of magic is directed: corruption cleansing, casualty replenishment, control, or growth ; as it stays pointed in one direction, a meter fills up, providing grander effects, like increased income, attrition on enemies (but only the regions beyond the Bastion, its also useless since the AI is mostly immune to attrition), or a comet like spell on the battlefield.

'''Actually playing:''' As mentioned above, uniting Cathay is your top priority, because the potential income you can get by having so many peaceful provinces under your direct control. And there's honestly not a lot of directions for you to expand to: The Steppes outside the bastion is simply too chaotic to be worth it, and the Mountains of Mourn are filled with Ogres and Chaos Warriors who will happily take a break from killing each other to kill you instead. Until the late game, your contact with the Old World will be limited to Caravans, which is fine, since they still provide line of sight and diopomacy options in the mountains and beyond in the Old World.

The Rifts will start out delivering only small amounts of corruption, but will get more severe as the campaign drags on, to the point that they can bring a province to 100 corruption in only a few turns. put one of the tier 3 defense building in every province and rifts will no longer spawn in your territory, just have a lord walk to a rift outside your territory instead or leave one province open to rifts. Only your faction leader can enter the Warp or traverse the rifts to fast travel to another place on the map, and when closing a rift with an army will only cause a battle, whereas using a hero only costs gold.

You need to collect four Daemon Prince souls, one from each Realm, to lead to the final battle.

*Slaanesh takes a minimum of 6 turns, as you need to go past each of the six circles and deny all the gifts presented at each exit. You can, however avoid pointless battles the easiest here by simply going straight to each rings portal and avoiding the Slaanesh daemons. If you can deal with missed chance at a soul getting the sword of Slaanesh and personal Sycophant follower is extremely strong.
*Tzeentch's realm is like a pokemon gym, where you go from island to island via teleporter until you arrive at his palace. The islands only really have 2 portals, the one you came from, and the one you need to reach, so as long as you just go from one to the next, you'll be fine. What makes this difficult, though, is that you spend the rest of your movement teleporting, no matter how much you had left. Some islands have Daemons waiting to jump you outside of the teleportation portal, sometimes one stack, others, two. Never march through a portal, since that will leave you exhausted, or worse, with no retreat option. If youre afraid of being jumped on arrival, in TW3 you can still move in the encampment stance(but at 50% range), so this not only prevents attrition but gives you an advantage on the defense
*Khorne wants to watch you fight. His realm is full of rogue armies that you must defeat, and for each kill you get, you fill up a meter. Fill this meter and he will grant you the honor of fighting the Daemon Prince at the Brass Citadel. Pick a fight against the undead or daemons, because rather than run away, they will fight on until the entire unit is wiped. This will fill the bar quickly, and its not like you had lots of ways to chase after routing ememies.
*Nurgle grinds you down with attrition, but thankfully unless Ku'gath is there too, you won't actually catch a "real" plague. The best way to move through his realm is encamped, but doing so cuts movement in half. You can also visit landmarks for some replenishment, because Nurgle is nothing but generous. That being said, his daemons will block your path and respawn right away.
*The Shadow Legion: After collecting all 4 souls, the road to the Forge of Souls is unlocked. Once more, portals will open all throughout the world, but this time Belakors forces will erupt and lay siege to your cities. The amount looks to be variable, amd by this point in the game, you are probably at war with more than just Chaos. If you have any spare heroes, close the portals right away to prevent reinforcements. Since this happens right after collecting the fourth soul, you can time it to happen right after clearing the latest wave of Kurgans, so that at the very least, you're not dealing with a Bastion invasion at the same time you're dealing with literal hell gates erupting all over your empire.
*The Final Battle: Belakor controls the Forge of Souls. It is a survival battle, so you will face three waves while also fighting through the forge. The first wave is nothing difficult, and can be won solely through Sky Junks and Celestial Crossbows, but the 2nd and 3rd will be tedious, since you're in the Forge of Souls, you will be facing a whole bunch of Soul Grinders. Take Celestial Halberds, Celestial Crossbows, and multiple Sentinels. The Halberds are self explanatory, since you will need some tough holding units to hold against the waves of Daemons, and their expert charge defence means that while fighting Bloodletters is inefficient, they wont give up without a fight; Crossbows are quite dangerous when focus firing in volleys, but the two artillery Soul Grinders (Nurgle and Tzeentch) are both also the tankiest. Take out Tzeentch first, because Barrier recharges, and it will recharge once you stop shooting it. When teched up, Sentinels are a good match for Soul Grinders, but are very slow in movement and attacking without support, so you will want to have someone fight the Daemons while the Sentinels fight the Daemon Engines.
**This is where a military alliance really comes in handy. Bloodletters are pretty good against your infantry, and are still pretty dangerous when they mob a sentinel. Tzar Guard or Armored Kossars provide some offensive oomph that your Celestials and Jade Warriors otherwise lack.
**One tricky part about Survival is that even after a wave is "over," you will continue to be harassed until the next wave begins. After the first wave ends, Chaos Hounds wil harass your troops until they capture the secont point, so you will need to leave a rear guard behind to deal with them, otherwise your heavy infantry, or worse, your slow, slow, Sentinels wil get stuck behind swatting them. After the second wave, Belakor spawns endless Daemons. Daemonettes and Bloodletters will rush you, while Pink Horrors will pepper you with magic while taking no damage in return from barrier.
**The Final Wave wont end until Belakor is slain. Belakor summons even more Soul grinders, as well as a bunch of heavier hitters, like Minotaurs of Khorne and Doom Knights. They will be teleporting in from all over the throne room, so you will need to keep an eye out for when a portal opens and for what comes out of it. The only thing that prevents this from being utter Bullshit is that they give you a shit ton of Sentinels (7??) in the final wave of reinforcements, and you will be legitimately retarded if you take anything else besides them. In fact, because of how many Sentinels you get for the final battle, you may be able getting away only three or four in your army, and filling the rest with heavy infantry or crossbows. The final battle is chaotic and all over the place, and warm bodies to hold back the reinforcements might be more helpful than 15 sentinels all trying to gangbang Belakor.

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[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War: Warhammer/Tactics

2022-08-18T16:15:25Z

2600:387:2:80F:0:0:0:7A: /* Lores */

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Welcome to the general tactics dump for [[Total War: Warhammer]] and it's sequels. Something to help with noobs and lower the bloat on the main page. If you want to take this knowledge to the online scene (God help your soul) take a look at the community made Banner Rules at [[Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Banner Rules]]

==Basics==
In many ways, Warhammer plays like your standard Total War game. It features real time battles with an army of roughly 20 units max on each side. There will be at least two armies on the field and whoever is able to completely shatter the other side first wins.

Each army has it's own collection of Infantry, Missile troops, Cavalry, Artillery and Monsters to play with, each offering a different play style. For instance, Dwarfs offer a defensive solitary play style focused around heavily armored infantry and strong missiles where as the Beastmen are an aggressive hit and run faction designed to get in, hit the enemy and break leadership, then get away before the enemy can counterattack. The asymmetrical play style of the factions is a massive part of the appeal.

The battle maps also play a huge role in how battle play out. Some maps are heavily forested, meaning missile heavy armies may struggle due to increased cover for the enemy. On the flip side, some maps have a lot of water, debuffing units unless they have the aquatic trait. It is smart to take a look at your terrains before you plan how you're gonna win.

If you play ranked multiplayer, there will be a limit to how many of a certain kind of unit you can bring, mainly to stop you from missile kiting your enemies to death with a mass horse archer spam. As such, focusing on what you might need for the match up is key.

==Units==

Every faction has a mix of different kinds of units. While they are all different, they each fall under one of these categories.

*'''Lords''': The (required) generals of your army and your most important unit. They generally buff leadership and other stats for nearby units and usually tend to be a beast in combat either through melee, missiles or magic. Problem is that if they die, the whole army suffers crippling leadership penalties for it so you have to protect this leader as much as possible.
**'''Legendary Lords''': A "sub"-division of Lord, Legendary Lords are what the name implies: individuals of extraordinary renown who exemplify the best (or worst) qualities of their race. Translation; these are the named characters from Warhammer Fantasy you've grown to know and love. In the campaign, you can only ever have one particular Legendary Lord and you can only acquire other LL's of your race through the complicated process of Confederation. Each Legendary Lord leads their own sub-faction on the campaign map and confers unique bonuses to their faction and army no other mere Lord can offer. In practice, Legendary Lords often have access to stronger perks, stats, gear or abilities over their generic kin but they tend to cost more for it. Because of this (or the Legendary Lords available to you are a bit too niche for the fight you're expecting), it's a pretty common practice in Multiplayer to skip out on these guys and gals for the basic lords to simply save a few gold for the rest of the roster.
*'''Heroes''': Your secondary leaders, usually coming in both melee and mage form. Not as much as a badass as your lord, but are usually cheaper and you can bring more than one. Heroes tend to be slightly more specialized than your Lords, but they can often fill a particular role that your Lord isn't able to. Have a melee beatstick who is magically inept? Bring a mage hero to call down the magical thunder or further buff that beatstick into the stratosphere.
*'''Melee Infantry''': Simply put, the foot boys you are throwing into melee. These infantry tend to be slow but also tend to be pretty good at holding the line and dealing damage in prolonged melee compared to missiles and cavalry. Their job is usually to engage the enemy front line and either hold long enough for your other elements to do their job, or break through and begins pouring into the enemy backline.
**'''Swords/Axes/anything the Lizardmen use instead''': Generally tend to be more DPS focused. If you are buying sword infantry, you get them because you want them to deal damage to the enemy frontline.
**'''Dual Swords/Axes''': Infantry that sacrifice a shield in exchange for an extra weapon. They tend to have much higher attack than the standard sword infantry and usually carry an Anti Infantry bonus, so they are much better in the frontline fight at DPS. However, they have lower defensive stats and a vulnerability to missiles, and the fact that they usually rely on Anti Infantry means they aren't as versatile as the standard sword unit.
**'''Spears''': Your more defensive option. Not as good at killing things but better at holding the line than swords. They also usually come with an anti-large bonus, meaning they do more damage when fighting bigger targets. Many also come with some kind of kind of charge resistance. Units with both will completely turn the tides on enemy cavalry.
**'''Great Weapons''': Infantry that usually carry two handed weapons like great swords and great axes. They tend to have majority AP damage, so they do more damage than normal sword infantry, but also don't have shields so missiles are very effective against them. Most units with great weapons also tend to have a low attack speed, leaving them vulnerable against hordes.
**'''Halberds''': Great weapons for spears, really. Same thing with great weapons, trades a shield and lower attack speed for more AP damage.
*'''Missile Troops''': Your ranged boys. Good at dealing damage from a safe distance but generally suck in melee. They tend to come either with arc fire or line fire. Arc fire like archers can shoot over allied troops and don't need line of sight, but do less damage. Line of sight troops like guns tend to do way more damage, but need to actually see their enemy before they can shoot, so if allies or terrain is in the way, they might not get a shot in. Luckily, their difficulty in positioning correctly is negated by one simple fact: while only the melee troops in actual contact with the enemy will attack, all 120 units of archers will attack at the same time.
**'''Bow Infantry''': Often, but by no means always, the lowest tier of missle infantry you can recruit. Usually trades raw damage for greater range, the ability to fire indirectly and rate of fire.
**'''Crossbow Infantry''': Basically the same as bow infantry, but they trade range for rate of fire (although not much) and more armour-piercing damage. Notable for covering a large variety of different units, such as the rather mediocre Imperial Crossbowman to Darkshards.
**'''Gunpowder Infantry''': Loud, smelly, and more often than not more dangerous for their user than the enemy (a mechanic entirely missing in-game), these are all kinds of primitive guns. They hit hard, don't care about armor and usually come in unpleasant numbers for the receiving end. The only major downside to them being that they can't shoot indirectly, so you have to make use of clever unit deployment and/or flanking to get the most out of them. Of course, if they are forced into melee it is usually an absolute disaster, more so than other ranged units.
**'''Hybrid Infantry''': Sitting comfortably in between ranged and melee infantry, all of these guys (and gals) can switch between ranged and melee combat at the press of a button. The Elf factions in particular use a lot of them (with Great Weapon Shades and Lothern Sea Guard being outright the best options) so be prepared to not charge them blindly with cavalry; nearly all of them are more than capable of dealing with lower tier cav on their own.
**'''Weapon Teams''': Exclusive to Skaven, these are Clan Skyres crazy contraptions of the shooting, burning and drilling variety. They trade unit size in exchange for an ungodly volume of firepower; once they are properly set up, there is hardly anything stopping them. On top of that, they are also armoured and have large HP pools, giving them a surprising resilience against counter fire from enemy ranged units. Beware of cavalry, for what they posses in offensive power, they lack on the defense.
**'''Others''': An umbrella category that includes more unusual weapons such as Javelins, Slings, Blowpipes and Throwing Axes. Mostly rather weak weapons that either benefit from being used in great numbers (slings and javelins) or really strong weapons that suffer from limited ammo-capacity (Norscan Axe Throwers come to mind). A lot of ranged units with weapons of this category tend to be skirmishers; mobile, modestly speedy infantry/cavalry that is able to fire while moving to harass the more vulnerable or slower elements of the enemy army.
*'''Hounds''': Technically, these units can be any kind of very fast, cheap melee cavalry and not just doggies but whatever. These cheap puppers are used to harass and interrupt Artillery crews, chase off routing units, chew on squishy casters and Heroes and sometimes take out a ranged infantry unit. They're not tough by any means of the word but they're fast and can hold a unit back in a few crucial moments. Some of them are specialized to the point where they can be used for other roles, like the Poisoned Warhounds that can charge into the backs of the enemy line to apply a rough debuff.
*'''Cavalry''': Boys on horse (or other fun creature) back. Mobile and has high charge but tend to fall apart fast in prolong melee.
**'''Shock Cavalry:''' Lance cavalry with loads of Charge Bonus but little in the way of defense; charge them into the sides and backs of the enemy, retreat after 10-15 seconds and repeat until the enemy is mashed, red pulp on the ground... Or crushed bones, or green shroom-mush or what-else. One of the reasons you bring Spears and Halberds is to keep these dudes away from your lines. They're also often decent at countering other Cavalry units.
**'''Melee Cavalry:''' Rare mounted troops that excel in longer engagements (but not forever; they're still cavalry). They usually use Great Weapons, Halberds or Sword'n'Board. Almost never used alone; they're better at quickly engaging and messing with a line battle you're already engaging with with you troops.
**'''Skirmish Cavalry:''' The deeply annoying yet totally crucial lighter cavalry. Annoying because they are tiresome to micromanage and run away all the time when fighting against them, and infantry can never catch them. Crucial because Skirmish Cavalry ''can'' fight in melee but usually work better as ranged, mobile units harassing the enemy's ranged units with melee attacks, countering enemy Shock and Melee Cav with ranged attacks and higher movement speed, and shooting into the back of the enemy line.
*'''Chariots:''' Those sweet ones that swing low. Chariots are a bit rare and are used to break through enemy lines with impunity, cycle-charging like a maniac. They are dismantled very quickly in prolonged melee and tend to not do a lot of damage unless they're charging. One of the hardest type of unit to use properly because they need to be micro-managed at every turn. Also out of every unit, chariot suffered the most when they are out of vigor (aka exhausted), which lowers their speed to the point they can't knock over as many infantry as it wishes during charging and gets caught easily in the crowd as result. So always remember in campaign to not get attacked during march stance while fielding those bad boys. Some chariot units have ranged weapons but don't use them as a ranged unit, make sure to turn melee engage on. Their small unit sizes means that their ranged attacks tend to be a lot worse than other units and if they are staying out of melee they are not using their ability to break through enemy lines. That being said, a chariot having ranged attacks isn't a reason to not use it, think of its ranged attacks as just inflicting some extra damage and more importantly, a leadership penalty as it charges and retreats. Many players forego chariots altogether due to their micromanagement and fragility, which is to their detriment. Properly used, they can shatter enemy lines and ruin morale.
**'''Ranged Chariots:''' Unlike the former category where missile attacks are just a way to deal a little extra damage and a leadership penalty, these chariots are specialized for ranged combat and should only be charged into an enemy when out of ammo. Their function is often similar to that of an artillery unit but more mobile, blasting enemy units with powerful ranged attacks and retreating should opponents try to reach it.
*'''Monsters:''' A category that covers a bewildering amount of different units, every Monster does something different for the faction it's found in. Usually they are either infantry-slayers, monster/cavalry-eaters or huge battering rams meant to break up the enemy's line. A few factions even have "artillery" monsters balance their exorbitant cost by being able to hold their own in melee. Some monsters (like Giants) are cheap and cheerful units you can just throw into the enemy for a spell, while others (like the Dread Saurian) can easily eat up a fourth of your money in multiplayer matches. The only faction without access to a monster is the Dwarfs (Gyrocopters does not count). As you would expect from a unit category called "Monsters", virtually all of them count as "large" creatures and thus are more vulnerable to spear infantry. This is particularly notable for them, as due to their physical size and low model count, they can be quite susceptible to being tarpitted by hordes of anti-large spear infantry if you're careless with their positioning.
**'''Monstrous Infantry''': Monsters that generally come in a small units size and feature slow, relatively tanky monsters designed to help out in the front line. Here's a tip, do NOT throw them in alone, team them up with other infantry. That way the enemy units will have to split their damage across 2 different units instead of being able to focus your monsters down.
**'''Monstrous Cavalry''': Faster, harder hitting but also squishier than the infantry option, they are meant to be used a lot like cavalry. Use them as heavy flankers and for pure raw charge bonus and can even be decent in prolong melee. Their downside often comes in the form of cost, frailty and lower model count compared to most cav.
**'''Single Entity Monsters''': Big super monsters meant to be a gigantic problem for the enemy and generally have impressive stat lines along with a combination of fear and/or terror. Their attacks can stagger smaller monsters. However these guys tend to be expensive and have a massive target that says "Shoot me" in every language in the Warhammer world, so use them wisely. They become overpowered if the unit size setting is not set to Large or Huge (the settings the game was balanced for) because while their health is reduced their other stats are not and their attacks damage a higher percentage of a unit. In TWW3, these guys now have a degrading statline based on how wounded they are, reducing their general effectiveness should they take sufficient damage.
**'''Warmachines''': Single entity monsters, but mechanical. These range from imperial Steam Tanks to the Skaven DOOMWHEEL. What all of them have in common is high armour, high morale, large HP pools and very powerful ranged attacks.
*'''Fliers''': Your flying units, ranging from cheap fliers meant to bog down missiles and artillery to fucking dragons. Their edge is that since they can fly they can engage on their terms and you can get them anywhere in the battle they need to. Their downsides comes in needing breathing room to take off again and generally frailty. Even dragons aren't a unit that can stand being in melee for too long, so you got to micro them well. Be warned: soaring around in the skies means ranged units can fire freely without being blocked by either the terrain or their own troops. Many fliers are also large units and can be easy pickings. Wait for them to be preoccupied or flank them so they have to reform their formation before firing.
*'''Artillery''': Your good old catapults, bolt throwers, cannons or what ever crazy contraptions your race can bring to the table. Can lay down an absolute whooping from very long range, some being table to take down even the scariest monsters with fairly little problem. However, they are garbage in melee, are ridiculously slow, are somewhat expensive, and need extra room and a clear line of sight to even fire, which means they need protection more than just about any other unit type in the game. However, it pays off by racking up hundreds of kills before the enemy even meets your front line. Important to note is that while the contraptions themselves offer cover to their crews, they aren't invulnerable and can be destroyed by ranged units and magic. There are some Monster units (usually Single Entity Monsters) like Cygors and Stegadons who can function as artillery (and indeed will only lose their ranged capacity if killed, tied up in melee or if they run out of ammo) ''and'' safely engage in melee as needed, though they tend to be a bit pricier for it.

==Stats==

Each unit in the game has a unit card, which shows the player what they are generally good and bad at. Noobs might be confused as to what the fuck all these words and numbers mean, so here is the breakdown!

*'''Health''': Fairly simple, how much health the unit has. If the unit has more than one model per unit, you can divide the total health by the number of models to see how much health each model has. It's important to know that the threshold at which a model actually dies is surprisingly high and the game itself speads the damage units suffer evenly among the models in that unit.
*'''Armor''': This stat helps mitigate damage coming at your unit. If they are hit by a missile, melee attack, or a spell, a RNG roll goes off to see how much of the non-AP damage goes through the unit's armor (between 50 and 100 percent). Every point of armor is a percentage of reduction, NOT a flat amount. The more armor the unit has, the lower percentage of non-AP damage that will get through. More info on AP and non-AP damage below.
**'''Shield''': If the unit has a shield, this is where it's factored in. Shields help block missile fire coming at you. It comes in two tiers (technically three, but you never see gold shields outside of campaign buffs). Bronze shields block 33% of missiles where are a silver shield block 55%. Keep in mind this only works on small arms fire and not artillery because a shield isn't gonna fucking save you from a cannon. A very few units can deflect arrows (and bullets somehow) with their weapons, being treated as having a bronze shield even when they carry none.
*'''Leadership''': How much morale the unit has. The higher the number is, the less likely your unit is going to rout and run for the hills. Run off the battlefield or rout three times and that unit is gone for the rest of the battle (but not necessarily dead). If it reaches 100, the unit may as well be unbreakable.
*'''Speed''': Fairly simple, the higher the number, the faster the unit. Each unit has a speed cap determined by the animation model, beyond which it cannot move regardless of the speed value. It is not visible to the player.
*'''Melee Attack''': This determines the likelihood of your attacks hitting the other unit. The higher the number, the more likely the attack is to hit against an enemy. This number is often rolled against the next number in this list.
*'''Melee Defense''': Widely considered one of the most important stats in the game. Melee defense is the likelihood your unit has to block the attack of the other unit attacking it, causing it to sustain no damage; However, before either Melee Defense or Melee Attack is applied, there is a base chance of hit of 40% (35% in WH2) before Armor is applied. There is also a minimum of 10% (8% in WH2) and maximum chance to hit of 90%. If you have a choice to buff either Melee Defense or Armor and already have the means to deal with ranged units, take Melee Defense. Because what's better than mitigating damage? Not taking damage at all!
*'''Weapon Strength''': How much damage your attacks do. This stat tends to be split into multiple categories. There are also two hidden mechanics: damage on weapon sweeps is split evenly between all enemies hit and weapon strength does not factor in attack speed.
**'''Weapon Damage''': How much damage is going to be rolled against the enemy armor to see if it gets mitigated or not. Generally, if this makes up the majority of your Weapon Strength you want this unit fighting unarmored units.
**'''Armor-Piercing Damage''': Or AP damage for short. If your attack gets through the other unit's Melee Defense, this is the amount of damage that's going to get through no matter what. If the Weapon Strength is mostly Armor-Piercing, then you want these guys going up against heavily armored units to tear through them.
**'''Anti-Large Bonus''': Damage that is not factored into the roll unless they are fighting something the size of a horse or bigger. If they have this stat, throw them against cav or monsters. Applies to both Melee Attack and non-AP damage.
**'''Anti-Infantry Bonus''': Same as Anti-Large, only meant against infantry or smaller. If they have this stat, they are infantry blenders. Applies to both Melee Attack and non-AP damage.
**'''Magic Damage''': Certain units and some Legendary Lords inflict their attack as magic damage. This is useful against enemies with physical resist like Plague Monks and absolutely needed against supernatural enemies like Cairn Wraiths (whom are known for having 75% physical resist, being a ghost and all). Be wary, though: more units in the game have magic resistance than physical resistance, including every dwarf unit (they were created to resist the winds of magic after all). Of course, this is also the damage types of many of the spells in the game. Good news for units that largely rely on Magic Damage came in the form of a developer Q&A on Discord: Warhammer 3 will rework Magic Resist into Spell Resist, making Magical Attacks on units actually worth a damn and many of them into potent can openers.
**'''Fire Damage''': Like Magic Damage, it deals extra damage to those weak to its damage type (AKA units associate to trees like Treeman, Tree Kin, [[Dryad]] and [[Durthu]], because fuck them racist elf loving trees, right?). Unlike the tabletop version, flaming attack deal extra damage against units that are capable of regenerate health (vampire, trolls, ghouls) instead of just stopping their regeneration. Apparently, CA hates fire damage for some reason and stated in the game that [[derp|flaming attacks are weak to heavy armor units despite Irondrakes being able to deal AP damage on the tabletop, due to their flame being able to melt armor]]. We'll just have to wait and see if CA is willing to fix it. Also, like Magic Damage, some units such as Dragon Princes and Irondrakes have Fire Resistance against its effect. Both Physical resistance and Fire resistance will apply for fire melee damage and fire missile damage. As of Warhammer 3 it now reduces healing for all units, were as before it just did bonus damage to regenerating units.
*'''Charge Bonus''': A bonus to both Melee Attack and Weapon Damage (split between Armor-Piercing and non-Armor-Piercing based on percentage) that lasts for 15 seconds after running into an enemy. It starts decaying immediately upon contact with enemy and is almost negligible after 10 seconds. Note that walking into an enemy unit is not the same as charging, you have to actually run into them. You also have to cover a small distance in order to build up the charge bonus.
*'''Ammunition''': A stat unique to ranged units that tells you how much ammo they have. If the unit has 20 ammunition, then they can make 20 shots before running out. This stat goes down as they shoot, allowing you to keep track of how many shots you have.
*'''Range''': Simple enough: the higher the range, the farther a unit can shoot.
*'''Missile Strength''': The same as Weapon Strength, only this stat doesn't worry about Melee Defense. If it hits, it's doing damage (including if it hits your own troops). It also has all the subcategories of damage listed under Weapon Strength. The value given in the stats is actually over 10 seconds, not per shot (because what constitutes a single shot of a flamethrower?).
*'''Mass''': An important stat that isn't mentioned anywhere inside the game but is still important. Units come in two kinds of sizes: small (anything on foot) and large (anything that's mounted or at least as tall as a man on a horse). The larger the unit, the larger the mass. What's important is how mass affects charges and such, because it determines how one unit able to withstand them. Lowly infantrymen (and heroes and Lords on foot) will get knocked around alot when that Necrosphinx - a massive ancient Egyptian robot wielding two fucking swords - starts attacking them. Knocked down models are unable to move and fight, which can give you an edge. The enemy Lord can't bother you if he ragdolls after every hit. Mass also determines how easily a unit can push through a blob of units, whether it is to retreat or whether it is to attack the ranged units by plowing though the melee infantry line. Nothing can stop a two-ton War Mammoth when it decides it doesn't want to be there.

==Passive Abilities==

Some units have special passive abilities that have a variety of effects; the most common will be listed here.

*'''Flying''': Does what it says on the tin. Can only be engaged by other flying units or ranged attacks/magical projectiles unless ''they'' commit to melee combat on the ground. If all units in the army are flying they must attack or lose the battle, likely so defenders can't [[cheese]] by dealing with ranged units and waiting for the timer to give them the win.
*'''Causes Fear''': Not to be confused with "Causes Terror", Fear inflicts a penalty on the enemy units' leadership, making them more likely to flee. Most monstrous and/or supernatural enemies have this ability, and some Lords and Banners have it as well. If a unit causes Fear, it is itself immune to it. Like Terror, it falls under Psychology, so some units are immune to it.
*'''Causes Terror''': Units that cause Terror can cause large drops in enemy leadership when they charge, or when they're causing large amounts of damage to the enemy; this is on top of the leadership damage they already cause just by charging. All units that cause TERROR are immune to Terror, and are completely ignored by units that are immune to Psychology.
*'''Frenzy''': A unit with frenzy gains a significant bonus to their melee stats as long as their leadership is above 50%.
*'''Aura of Command''': Found on every Lord and Hero, they project an Aura around themselves that increases Leadership for friendly units. Most Lords and Heroes also can be skilled to make their Aura of Command better and/or to include more bonuses. Doesn't stack.
*'''Aquatic''': Aquatic Units fight better and move faster in wet terrain, such as rivers and swamps. Unsurprisingly, most Vampire Coast units have this.
*'''Stalker''': Stalkers remain invisible to the enemy until a certain distance, regardless of line of sight. The only things that can break their invisibility are close distance and if they start to attack. Certain units can fire while invisible without breaking it.
**'''Sniper''': If they have this, they'll most likely also have STALKER. Units with this ability do not reveal themselves when making ranged attacks. Examples include Empires Huntsmen and Chameleon Skinks.
*'''Strider''': Striders ignore any movement and vigour penalties from terrain; they will always move with 100% movement speed, but also can move through obstacles, such as trees.
*'''Perfect Vigour''': Like the name implies, units with Perfect Vigour never suffer fatigue; no matter how intensely they fight, no matter how hard they run, they will always remain at their peak performance from the beginning to the end of any battle.
*'''Berserk''': Once a unit with Berserk falls under a health threshold, they will start a rampage, causing you to lose direct control over them. They will always attack the closest enemy unit they can see. It wears off after a few seconds or if their morale gets broken. Lizardmen call this ability Primal Insticts and it gives them a few stat bonuses but works the same way.
*'''Vanguard Deployment''': An interesting ability with a lot of potential uses; it allows for a unit to be deployed outside your normal deployment zone. Several Legendary Lords can aquire traits and skills that give units this ability (or in the case of Skarsnik, basically your entire roster for the first half of the game).
*'''Sundering strikes''': A very rare ability, melee attacks made by a unit with this ability reduces the armour of the enemy hit with it by 30% for 20 seconds.
*'''Ethereal''': All supernatural enemies (such as Ghosts) have this. Ethereal units take next to nothing in damage from physical attacks and only Magic Damage does damage against them. Generally, creatures with Ethereal tend to pay for that high physical resistance by having tish armor and magic resistance values and will evaporate if targeted by spells or magic attacks.
*'''Ward Saves and Resistances''': Not technically a passive ability, but the game does not do the best job at explaining it, so i'll explain it here. Ward Saves are a flat damage reduction against everything that your unit or character gets hit with, Resistances only against certain kinds of damage. Many characters can have these and in the campaign it is advisable to get them wherever possible. Both Ward Saves and Resistance cap at 80%, so there is (sadly) no invulnerability cheese possible.
**'''Spell Resistance''': As of the the latest Discord Q&A ([https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/nwon8i/total_war_warhammer_3_qa_will_update_as_more/h1ach6r/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3|As can be read here]) Magic Resist will be reworked into Spell Resist. Works like Magic Resist before, but only affects spells.
*'''Poisoned Attacks''': Poisoned attacks reduce the enemies melee stats and movement speed for 10-20 seconds. Some units have different kinds of poison that work in the same way and usually cause the same effects with greater severity. Fun fact: table top version's poison deal constant damage to a unit model each turns, it was changed to stats debuff in this game due to how broken it is when it was put in practice in an actual total war game (In Total War Attila, The Antean faction has a unit called Poison Archers that fires constant damaging poison arrows. If used right, it can annihilate an entire enemy line even on the hardest difficulty).
*'''Regeneration''': Units with Regeneration heal themselves over the course of a battle, up to a maximum that varies greatly on what faction you play, but is usually 60% of the HP stat. Usually more "neat to have" than outright useful, but some units (Like Malus Darkblade) can have outright broken regeneration, so keep that in mind. Important: Regeneration does not replenish dead models on a unit that has more than one.
*'''Unbreakable''': An unbreakable unit will never flee and always fight to the last man, regardless of losses and the situation on the battlefield. This even includes the complete defeat of the rest of the army; while everyone else quits the field, Unbreakable units will continue to fight to the last. Can be a two-sided sword, as most unbreakable units are very expensive elite units that you most of the time really do not want to lose. This is especially true in the campaign, where an unlucky defeat will ''guarantee'' the death of the Unbreakable unit since they will not retreat with the rest of your survivors. Iconic units with this trait are the Dwarf Slayers, Empire Flagellants and Chaos Spawn. Sadly not fearing death also means not bothering with armor so most such units die if a ranged unit as much as looks at them. Undead and Daemon units are functionally Unbreakable as well (see the Undead ability below for details).
*'''Expendable''': Your meat-shield ability. Expendable units do not cause a leadership penalty when they flee from the battle to other units except other expendable units. Very important to keep in mind with the more horde-centric factions of the game like Greenskins and Skaven; this makes tarpits possible without having your main line completely collapse.
*'''Wounds''': A game three trait specifically for single entity units. Once they fall below half health, they lose a chunk of their speed and their weapon damage in both standard and AP. Done to nerf single entity spam, and makes sense given an injured monster wouldn't fight as well as an uninjured one.
*'''Undead''': The Undead work differently from regular units in that they are functionally Unbreakable (meaning that they will never flee), but their Leadership status comes in six steps that are distinct from regular units (here from good to bad): "Strong Binding", "Stable Binding", "Weak Binding", "Critical Binding", "Crumbling" and "Disintegrating". Starting with "Crumbling", the unit will continually lose HP at a slow, but steady pace. "Disintegrating" is the severe form and only occures when the morale would normally be Shattered for living units, the unit will die in a few seconds.
*'''Daemonic''': Signifies that the unit it a Daemon. Pretty much works exactly like undead, the unit is unbreakable and instead starts taking damage when leadership is down before being "Banished" back to the Realm of Chaos.

==Magic==

Magic works in a similar way to the TT game, although there are some differences, but, played right, Magic can be a devastating force that can turn a loss into a victory.

First, the Basics: Like in the Lore, how much Magic you can use depends on the Winds of Magic and how strong they are blowing. On the campaign map, there are visual indicators for how strongly the winds blow but you can also just hover your cursor over any given place on the map and get a number. This number indicates your base power reserve on the battlefield. Certain Lord and Hero traits, followers, and skills can increase your reserve. If it isn't obvious enough, you need a spellcaster Hero or Lord on the battlefield to use one of the many varieties of Magic. All spellcasters know a Lore of Magic; this determines what spells they can learn and use. Some Lords know two Lores or, in the cases of Teclis, Morathi and Alarielle, have an assortment of spells from all Lores. To use spells, you simply select the desired ability and follow the on-screen on placing it. The system is intuitive enough that it doesn't need much explaining and the in-game spell browser even has a video of every spell in action. Once you cast a spell, the cost of it will be deducted from your available power which will regenerate over time at a rate based on your remaining power reserves. Your available magic outside of your reserves is capped at 30, but the amount of spells you can cast is limited via the overall power reserve; once it is drained, you won't get more unless you use abilities like Arcane Conduit. More on Arcane Conduit later. Spells have a chance to be miscast, inflicting minor damage to the spellcaster. You can, at an additional cost in spellpower and a higher chance of a miscast, double click to overcast a spell for more powerful effects, provided you have the spell skilled out.

An exception to the aforementioned rules are bound spells; these are spells that come from magical items your Lord or Hero pick up after a battle or are spells from a different Lore of Magic certain characters can learn, or, more commonly, spells that are tied to a specific item. Bound spells do not cost spellpower or affect power regeneration and have a fixed cooldown, but can often only be cast a fixed number of times. For example, once leveled up, a High Elven mage of any Lore can cast Fireball four times for free except for a 90 second cooldown between each cast.

There are a lot of Lores of Magic to choose from, generally speaking, they can be put into two categories: The Generic Lores (Fire, Light, Death, Beasts, Heavens, Life, Shadows, Metal) and Faction specific Lores (Skaven Spells of Plague, Skaven Spells of Ruin, Skaven Spells of Stealth, Lore of the Big Waaagh!, Lore of the Little Waaagh!, Lore of High Magic, Lore of Dark Magic, Lore of the Deep, Lore of Nehekhara, Lore of the Wild, Lore of Vampires).

The generic Lores are accessible to most factions with some missing here and there. The Empire generally has the broadest variety of Lores (namely, all, plus Lore of Metal through Balthazar Gelt) to choose; Bretonnia and the Wood Elves the least. Faction specific Lores are usually only available for one faction, with some exceptions through bound spells and special characters. Each Lore comes with a passive attribute that affects units map-wide. Before we dive into a deeper description of the Lores themselves, a word on Arcane Conduit and Greater Arcane Conduit.

Arcane Conduit is an active ability that replenishes your power reserves and increases the power recharge rate for 30 seconds, after that, it goes on a 60-second-cooldown. Use this ability! Extra spellpower is never bad and the power you have on hand cannot decay away; only your increased recharge rate reverts to normal after the effect ends. But it's never bad to just use it. It is a no-brainer. The premier mage characters even have access to Greater Arcane Conduit, which is simply a permanently active version of Arcane Conduit. Certain magical items as well as some Lore attributes can increase your reserves and recharge rate as well.

Onto the Lores then.

===Lores===

*'''Lore of Fire''': Fire, so much fire that it has the potential to make the Salamanders jealous and a Sister of Battle rethink her career choice. Provides a few handy buffs, and one of each type of offensive spells. The AOE spells have longer duration than other lores. The Lore attribute makes the enemy more vulnerable to Fire damage, which synergizes well with a variety of units and increases its own damage even further (Lores apply during the countdown to cast). The best Lore of Magic for dealing damage against foes that are unarmored, trees or mummies. Otherwise its offensive spells fall under the "master of none" category when compared to other lores. Archaon the Everchosen's preferred Lore, for some reason.
*'''Lore of Light''': Provides some very good buffs, a mediocre but cheap projectile, and a fairly cost effective Vortex but the main reason to pick this is a Net spell that stops any poor suckers from moving so your missile and artillery units can shoot them. If you want your wizard to primarily buff up your units and stop enemies moving close to your unit, this is your Lore. Also one of the rarer lores, with only four factions (Empire, High Elves, Lizardmen and Tomb Kings having access to it.
*'''Lore of Death''': Basically the opposite of the Lore of Light. Consists primarily of spells that debuff enemy units and some unmissable point-and-click spells. Lore attribute increases your power recharge rate which is never a bad thing. Important to note is that this Lore is the only Lore available to Greenskins other than the Waaagh! Lores. Azhag the Slaughterer uses this Lore (courtesy of his magic crown), as well as Arkhan the Black and that pompous fuck Mannfred von Carstein.
:A favorite lore in multiplayer for powerful direct damage spells you cant avoid, still good but not as effective in single player. purple sun is maybe the best of the armor piercing vortexes, its very large with good ap, some base damage, and disrupts enemy formations by throwing them around. With banishments similar cost (17 vs 18) purple sun is usually as good or better in every situation except it's duration.
*'''Lore of Heavens''': A bit of an odd lore consisting of exactly one good buff for melee units and three potentially powerful damage spells and a very niche Lore Attribute that weakens flying units. Better than Fire if you expect to fight single enties or armored units. Standout spells include wind blast vs unarmored chaff, thunderbolt vs large targets, and chain lighting vs everything because its a powerful, all AP damage vortex. Comet can also be fun.
*'''Lore of Beasts''': A very diverse, jack-of-all-trades lore that abuses cheap spells, with the most significant spells being summoning a Feral Manticore (or a Great Eagle if you're playing High Elves or Wood Elves) and Flock of Doom which is a cheap direct damage spell that wears down large unit sizes (ideally used vs units of 100 or more), basically like miasma from shadow but AOE. amber spear is a decent high AP magic missile but only worth considering on large easy to hit targets. Finally it also has some good defensive and offensive buffs that work best on tough single entities or lords/heros. If you have access to better Lores, you can skip it, unless your desperate for summoning. The Lore attribute is interesting as it recharges your power reserve as well as increase your recharge rate for 29 seconds when you cast a spell, effectively giving you a good discount on your cheaper spells.
*'''Lore of Life''': The ultimate defensive utility Lore. It has lots of spells that buff the survivability of your units and has two decent enough damage spells as well as being the only Lore that has multiple healing spells. The Fae Enchantress and Alarielle the Everqueen specializes in this Lore. The Lore attribute heals all friendly entities (not units, entities!) on the map for some HP which is convenient. However, be warned: healing cannot revive already dead entities in a unit! It is widely considered to be an extremely powerful Lore of Magic if used correctly. Especially if running Sigle entity doom stacks it cant be beaten, heal up to full after every fight. lore attribute works better on low health infantry but other 2 healing spells are much better on small units of monsters or single entities.
*'''Lore of Shadows''': A hybrid Lore that is best suited for a more subtle approach. Most of the buffs and debuffs are good enough. Pit of Shades is one of the few stationary vortex spells but overcomes this by vacuuming up nearby units to deal consistent damage to them. Lore attribute has been nerfed in WH 3 and now only gives a 12% increase in speed mapwide, still good in multiplayer but probably not very useful in campaign unless you rely on kiting a lot. Very good lore for AP damage spells, all 3 are highly effective vs armor. plus a good single target debuff and a potent weapon strength buff. Maybe the most versatile jack of all trades lore since its damage spells all work against armor. It can damage all unit types very well except single entity and its buff and debuff can handle them indirectly. less effective than fire or celestial vs lightly armored chaff generally though miasma is very efficient vs high unit sizes.
*'''Lore of Metal''': Certainly the rarest of the Lores (only the Empire's Balthasar Gelt, High Elves and Chaos' forces have access to it), it mainly focuses on debuffing and buffing armor and weapons. It can reduce enemy armor but on a single unit only, can increase your own as an AOE, and can debuff weapons. The take away spell is Final Transmutation, which is a massive AOE damage spell that gives single entities and small units a middle finger, though its damage falls off greatly against any unit with more than 20 or so entities. Did we mention the passive that gives a percentage weapon damage boost to all your units? Balthasar's preferred Lore as the self-proclaimed (and frequently proven) "Lord of Metal". Ironically not that good vs armor, debuffing a single units armor is useless vs a full stack of enemies in campaign (probably better in multiplayer) and Searing doom is weak vs armor, really Final Transmutation is the only standout spell. Honestly one of the more situational lore's in campaign, you can just use all your winds on Final transformation and it will usually do fine but the rest of the spells are situational or weak in most campaign environments.
*'''Lore of the Little Waaagh!''': As befitting for da Gobbos, tons of stuff that give your hordes of Goblins a fighting chance against the enemy. Little in the way of direct damage, but useful nonetheless. Curse of the Bad Moon is one of the optic highlights of the game, and a great spell to boot. The Lore attribute reduces the enemies power recharge rate.
*'''Lore of the Big Waaagh!''': As subtle as a truck racing down a highway with 250 mph ON FIRE. Perfectly suitable for da Orks t' get Krumpin'. Foot of Gork is a devastating spell that can potentially end a battle with a single cast. 'Ere we go! is one of the best offensive buffs in the game and, combined with the Waaagh mechanic, this is a seriously dangerous Lore for anyone facing against it. Wurrzag the Great Green Prophet specializes in this Lore. The Lore attribute increases your power recharge rate. Decent enough.
*'''Skaven Spells of Ruin''': The first of the three Skaven Lores, and the most offensively minded. Warp Lightning may be the most cost effective damage spell in the game, the other spells are rather niche but nonetheless useful. Howling Warp Gale can help a lot with flying nuisances such as Dragons, leaving them vulnerable to your considerable arsenal of ranged weapons and artillery. Ikit Claw uses this Lore, Warlock Enginners and -Masters use it exclusively. The Lore attribute lowers enemy Leadership and Melee Attack, giving your front line a bit more room to breathe, which you can then fill with Warpfire and Warpstone Bullets. Flensing ruin is underestimated, overcasted it preforms as well as final transmutation overcast in terms of damage done per winds spent.
*'''Skaven Spells of Plague''': Occupying the gap between pure utility of the Skaven Spells of Stealth and the pure damage of the Spells of Ruin. Whats interesting about this Lore is that it has not one but two spells that summon units and its ultimate spell causes immense damage while simultaneously debuffing the enemy - did I mention that Grey Seers with this Lore can summon Stormvermin? One of the best Lores, even if the most shiny bits are difficult to access outside of Clan Pestilens, since it requires you to level up either a Plague Priest or a Grey Seer for a considerable time to make full use of it - but when you can make use it, the enemy-things will feel it, yes-yes. Lord Skrolk uses this Lore and is the best candidate for using it.
*'''Skaven Spells of Stealth''': The only Lore in the game designed to be used with a spefific sub-faction and, frankly, it does show. It offers a lot of utility and a decent Vortex spell but gets overshadowed in almost every regard by the Lore of Plague and the Lore of Ruin - unless you take the Limitations of Sniktch's campaign into consideration. It's still rather niche and, if you're playing as the other Skaven factions, you're better off using either Ruin or Plague.
*'''Lore of Vampires''': Brutal. Definitively the best Lore in the entire game. Wind of Death will wipe entire units off the floor, averaging hundreds of kills per cast. Some general utility is found in using Raise the Dead to summon units to flank, tank damage, or bodyblock for your more valuable units and its Lore attribute heals (and revives) your undead minions. Its starting ability is also the best healing spell in the game in the form of Invocation of Nehek: a cheap, effective spell that uses excess healing to revive dead entities. There is little that can beat this Lore, which makes it only fair that it is exclusive to the Vampire Counts and Vampire Coast. Count Noctilus can use this Lore as well as all Vampire Lords.
*'''Lore of High Magic''': Another jack-of-all-trades lore that is exclusive to High Elves, Spellweavers and Slann. It can do a bit of everything. Healing, direct damage, buffs, debuffs, AOE explosions and a passive damage reduction. Has the main drawbacks that jack-of-all-trades do: they can do a bit of anything but don't excel at anything and, since High Elves have access to ALL the generic lores, it's often better to pick one that fits their specific needs on the battlefield. One of the more useful spells is Tempest, a vortex spell that damages and heavily slows flying units, locking them in place for your archers or fliers to attack. Eltharion is the only Legendary Lord who specializes in this. people only take it in multiplayer for tempest pretty much, crap in campaign. its not even the best jack of all trades lore.
*'''Lore of Dark Magic''': The unique lore of those assholes in Naggaroth and the Wood elves. Where as the Asur Lores do have a few spells that help out their troops, Dark Elves say "Fuck that, let's just use our magic to torture the other guys!". Home to a really good debuff that can help swing fights, and the stand out is Soul Stealer, an AOE damage spell that heals the caster and applies a Spirit leech effect. Malekith specializes in this lore. Underestimated especially in campaign, power of darkness is the most effective WOM generator skill in the game, it gives 3 times as much winds reserves as arcane conduit (30 vs 10) and 4 times as much winds gain speed (plus 60% vs 15%). Chillwind does 24 pure AP damage, 2/3 as much AP as a base pendulum spell does. While Chillwind wont kill models much it can deal lots of cheap AP damage to infantry and cavalry, while being fast, cheap, and easy to aim. Doombolt is pretty good for the large AP damage done with good tracking, basic version is as about as good versus armor as overcast amber spear but much better AOE range to hurt units as well. Finally blade wind is a decent, cheap vortex that does about as well vs armor as firestorm thanks to the lore attribute, good vs hordes. You can even just use a dark caster as a winds of magic battery for another caster. The wood elf lore attribute gives a nice boost to missile damage with every spell cast mapwide while the dark elf attribute debuffs armor map wide. Comparable to the other damage lore's like fire, celestial, and shadow. Excels most vs single targets and Elite units usually. Has a good mixture of anti horde and Anti single-entity damage spells and can be comparable to death and metal at that role thanks to Soul Stealer, Doombolt, and Word of Pain.
*'''Lore of Nehekhara''': If you couldn't guess by the name, it's the Lore of the boney bois. It is a buffing lore, through and through, which can give additional damage and anti large, protections, and missile power. Given the fact that your average Tomb King soldier is a literal pile of bones that barely knows which end of the sword to poke the bad guys with... yeah, this can help out a lot. Settra and Khatep use this lore a lot. Overall it's... ok? The damage spells are VERY subpar, and with access to the Lores of light and death, there's really no reason to pick it. The passive heal is nice but won't let you compete with Vampire healing.
*'''Lore of the Deep''': A Lore made up by CA and designed specifically for the Vampire Coast. It has three specific purposes: 1: Damage and dishing out LOTS OF IT (Vangheist's Revenge is one of the coolest looking spells in the game and can seriously lay down the pain), 2: Buffs to missile troops, which helps any gunpowder faction and 3: Summons. You can summon zombies, zombies with guns, and giant crabs to really push the fight in your favor. Cylostra was given this lore by Stormfels, and Luthor Harkon gets it in campaign when you fix his fractured mind. Is it a fun lore? Absolutely! It's a blast! Are the other lores for the Vampire Coast more practical from a competitive standpoint? Sadly, also yes. You can just use the summons on a deep hero with a vampire general so that's something. Its summons are likely more cost effective then lore of vampires depending on what you need. best as a supplement to vampires, not competition.
*'''Lore of the Wilds''': Beastmen got shafted in a lot of ways in their race pack. Their unique Lore of magic was NOT one of them. Wilds has some surprisingly good damage spells that can really help the goat men clear through crowds. Also, a passive that make restores vigor is never one you can complain about. Oh, did we mention they can summon a Cygor? As in literally have one crawl out of the ground and throw shit at the bad people? Yeah, people like to complain about the shit missing in the Beastmen DLC (with good reason, mind you) but, in terms of their unique magic, Beastmen actually got it pretty good. Obviously, it's Malagor's favored lore.
*'''Lore of Ice''': The more defense focused lore available to kislev, unfortunately at least currently 3 of its spells are hugely overcosted even on Katarina with her spell cost reductions. The 2 most efficient and actually pretty good spells are Ice Maiden's Kiss which is basically wind blast from celestial, so cheap and good vs unarmored chaff, plus causes frostbite, and Ice Sheet a dirt cheap AOE spell that reduces speed and charge speed by 25%, and stacks with frostbite and the tempest lore attribute to make it possible to basically freeze an enemy in their tracks. Deathfrost is an ok anti single-entity spell in the vein of Spirit leach though slightly overpriced. Frost blades is an overpriced single target melee buff. Crystal sanctuary Provides a ton of ward save but prevents movement, probably also overpriced but could be good versus the AI. Finally Heart of Winter is an ok AOE direct damage spell ruined by its way too high cost.
*'''Lore of Tempest''': The more offensive of the two lore options, and probably the better of the two at least according to most streamers. it has a good cheap bombardment that causes frostbite, an AOE accuracy and range buff that is amazing for all of kislevs ranged units, there is an ok speed and charge buff, a decent column damage spell, a very good pit of shades type stationary vortex spell, and a large AOE explosion spell that doesn't damage friendly units.
*'''Lore of Tzeentch''': A spell lore basically entirely focused around damage, it has two different vortex spells, one like a larger pit of shades, one that spawns 3 mini fire storms, two cheap basic spells blue and purple fire. Blue is similar to a weaker but cheaper gaze of nagash, good for wearing down lightly armored single entities or just spamming to lower spell cooldowns. Pink is a decent anti-infantry breath spell. And it has a leadership and melee attack debuff as well as a spell that steals winds of magic from the enemy. Good cause infantry and cavalry but lacking in single entity killing power.
*'''Lore of Nurgle''': An extremely well rounded lore with buffs, debuffs, healing, and a mixture of both anti-unit and anti single entity damage. Probably the best and definitely the most versatile of the demonic lores.
*'''Lore of Slaanesh''': A very offensive lore with a good lore attribute boosting melee attack. It hass 3 damage spells, a fate of bejuna like direct damage spell, a powerful AP bombardment, and a cheap AP wind spell that actually hits more like a small line. None damage spells are a speed and melee defense debuff on a single target, an AOE spell that prevents movement and lowers leadership, and a self buff that give bonus to weapon damage and melee attack but can cause rampage. Versatile and pretty ok lore, though shadows is likely better.
*'''Lore of the Great Maw''': Placeholder for Warhammer 3.

Spells themselves, just like in the tabletop game, come in six flavors: Buffs/Debuffs, Projectiles, Breaths/Winds, Vortexes, Bombardments, and Direct Damage.

===Spell Types===

*'''Buffs/Debuffs''': Pretty self explanatory. You cast them on a unit or group of units, and it improves or weakens a unit's stats. Overcast buffs usually have an area of effect that affects multiple units; you can these spells cast either on one unit or just out in the wild. To be affected by any buff or debuff, a unit must have at least half its models within the area of effect.
*'''Projectiles''': Similar to a ranged attack, it fires one or multiple projectiles in a straight arc at a target of your choosing. They tend to be cheap and very accurate, but need a line of fire to work. Best used by Casters who have access to a flying mount and to snipe monsters or single characters.
*'''Breaths/Winds''': Basically a directional AoE attack. Winds hit the whole area their indicator... indicates, while Breath spells expand in a cone shape. The indicator can sometimes be deceiving; some Breath spells and all Wind spells have a much larger range than the indicator suggests (most notably overcast Wind of Death from the Lore of Vampies AKA the best spell in the game) and it comes down to experience how each spell works best but, fret not, there is not much to it. Like all AoE attacks, they can cause friendly fire. What the game doesn't tell you immediately is that you can change the direction of your Wind or Breath Spell by holding the left mouse button before casting. Also, the Wind spells can deviate from the straight line the indicator shows, which can be quite annoying, but they'll never go as off-course as Vortexes. If a Breath/Wind hits a wall it'll be reflected, potentially letting you hit units that aren't lined up.
*'''Vortexes''': Big pie plates and usually the most potent damage spells in any given lore. Almost all move randomly over the map while they are active but all cause massive damage to units that have a lot of models in them. They never start moving where they can do the most damage so it's best to use them on an enemy unit surrounded by other enemy units. A few lores (shadows, plague, deep) have stationary vortexes, perfect for siege battles.
*'''Bombardments''': Think of them like off-map artillery from other RTS games. You pick an area, and a certain amount of projectiles come down from the sky, inflicting damage. Use it for large units already fighting, otherwise they tend to see it ad get clear in time.
*'''Direct Damage''': Direct Damage spells work differently from the other damage spells; they directly inflict magic damage to a units HP stat rather than its models, like a damage-over-time effect and don't inflict friendly fire. However, unlike the others, individual models can resist them. Usually your more reliable character sniping spells (with Spirit Leech from the Lore of Death being the most effective for its cost), although there are some that work better against whole regiments (Like Final Transmutation from the Lore of Metal or Flensing Ruin from the Skaven Spells of Ruin). Ethereal units really hate those.

You still want to know more? Well just head over to [[Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Magic]] and you will find knowledge a plenty.

==Battle Types==
Not all battles are fought under the same conditions. While most battles will be pitched encounters where you and your opponent are literally starting on an even field, some encounters will reflect overworld conditions.

===Regular Battle===
Plain vanilla, what you'll most likely be fighting in campaign and multiplayer. You and your opponent will start on opposite sides of the battlefield, with someone being "defender" and "attacker." While most of these maps are generally even, sometimes the defender will start out in a favourable, elevated position. Other times, the defender will literally be in the bottom of a steep cliff, with beastmen hordes crashing down on them. The battlefield nominally reflects the type of terrain/environment your army was on the map.

If another army is close enough in the overworld map, they will arrive as reinforcements; the direction they come into the battlefield from is affected by their position on the overworld map, so you can have reinforcements come in from the back of your opponent's deployment zone. One change brought by TWWH3 is that this will take ''time'', generally around 1-2 minutes. While this can be affected by certain traits or ancillaries, the attacker can also initiate a "lightning strike," which will either add another minute or two to the timer, or lead to a blitzkrieg attack with no possibility of reinforcements. At the very least, lightning strike battles will leave the attacker WINDED or EXHAUSTED, which does even the battle in the defender's favor somewhat.

When first encountered, the defending army will be given an option to stand and fight, or retreat, an option you only get once. If you fight and lose, you can still have your army survive if you have units mostly intact. If they choose to retreat, they can still be attacked if the opposing army chooses to chase them; losing this battle will cause you to lose your army entirely.

===Chokepoint Battle===

A variation of the above, and pretty much everything is the same, except there is a natural chokepoint between the two armies. Chokepoint battles are initiated when the attacker needs to cross an overworld terrain feature like a bridge or river-crossing. Generally, the defender gets to deploy over a wider area on their half of the field while the attacker's forces have a more narrow deployment zone, but this depends on where the armies are in relation to the obstruction.

While "chokepoint" would make you think a single narrow mountain pass, most of the maps have 2 or more "chokes", so putting all your units to defend a single pass is an easy way to get yourself encircled.

===Ambush===
All armies can take the AMBUSH stance, where they'll do their best to hide their forces and attack armies that cross their path. Ambush success rates can be influenced by a number of factors, including campaign skills, faction bonuses and even the area on the world map you're attempting to set an ambush up in. Some armies, like Skaven and Beastmen, have ambush as their default attack stance. When ambushing your opponent cannot benefit from reinforcements, but the ambushing army ''can''. An army in Ambush stance can be detected either by independent heroes coming across them or if the defending army has a high enough ambush defense chance, in which case the battle will proceed as a normal engagement.

Ambushing armies can position themselves anywhere on the map, while the defending army marches from one end of the field to the next. Ambushing armies are HIDDEN until someone attacks, or they are spotted by the General.

Another addition in TWWH3 is an escape zone. Ambushed armies will attempt to flee the field, taking them out of play. If the Ambusher is victorious, the opposing army will be totally destroyed.

===Siege Battles===
In the campaign modes of Total War: Warhammer, this is probably going to be the second most common type of battle your armies engage in. Whenever an army assaults a settlement, they will encircle and besiege it. From there, they have a number of options. Settlements without walls can immediately be engaged in battle. Cities with walls (mostly major/capital settlements) will have a few extra defenses in place that require potential preparation. If it's an army with no artillery, monsters or monstrous infantry with the Siege attacker perk, they will need to spend at least 1-3 turns constructing siege equipment in order to actually begin the assault. Armies that ''do'' have entities capable of breaking down the enemy gates can immediately assault walled settlements, though they may still elect to construct siege equipment if they so desire.

Battle can be avoided entirely if so desired; armies can simply starve an enemy city out by besieging a city until the city's ''Hold Out Timer'' runs out (usually 12 turns on average, plus or minus a few turns based on traits earned through skills or campaign performance) then claiming the city. Armies and Garrisons within the city start suffering attrition the longer such sieges last and all city construction/recruitment is put on hold for the duration of the siege.

Of course, it's not much of a war game if you don't commit to the battle proper. Against capital/walled cities, attackers are stationed outside the city walls (obviously), with any siege equipment they may have constructed. Most infantry can man such siege equipment in order to more efficiently breach the city, though if nothing else they can create ladders to scale walls and (eventually) beat their way through a gate. Doing so without siege equipment is dramatically more exhausting, however. Many artillery platforms can not only attack gates and towers, but they can also focus their firepower against the city walls themselves to full on crack open holes for your forces to enter through. Defenders can vanguard deploy some forces outside their walls if they so choose, but for the most part will be able to position their units on or behind their walls. A random note on walls: flying units are really effective at assaulting walls, any model that gets thrown off the wall instantly dies, and it's a lot harder to tarpit a dragon when it's clogging up the wall.

Defenders will typically enjoy the use of (debatably useful) towers to help whittle down the attackers while they approach the walls, though they will need to have at least one unit stationed behind a tower for it to remain active. Defending armies will always have a city garrison available to defend (the strength of which is dependent on the city's tier as well as any defensive buildings constructed within it) as well as any banner army currently stationed within the city.

The goal for the attackers is simple. Take the city. They can do this in one of two primary ways. The first, and most frequent way this occurs, is the elimination of the defending armies. The second way is the capture of the primary victory point within the city. By capturing and maintaining control of it for 200 seconds, the attacker can forcibly claim the city even if there are still defenders present. Conversely, the defender must prevent this from happening. Unfortunately for the defender, they either need to rout the attackers entirely or hold out for the entire hour of the battle while protecting the city's victory point.

Total War: Warhammer 3 introduced a rework of siege battles, both for minor and major settlements. In general, settlement battles are now larger in scale, with more of the actual city being involved in the actual battle. There are now a number of supply points spread throughout the city which provide the controller with a stream of...well, supplies. So long as defenders hold those locations, they will continue to receive resources of which they can construct additional defensive structures and towers throughout the city. Attackers can capture these points to cut off these supplies and destroy any fortifications constructed at that point.

Minor settlements are now properly represented as with their own, distinct maps. Unlike walled siege battles, minor settlements take up the entire center of the map. Aggressors have the entire perimeter of the settlement in which to deploy, granting them substantially more flexibility in picking their engagements. Defensive structures and towers are limited to those the defenders construct over the course of the battle.

Major settlements are larger and now in many cases have bridges, walkways and elevated platforms overlooking or undercutting sections of the city, allowing for more diverse engagements and routes throughout the city.

===Subterranean Battles===
Various races (Skaven, Beastmen, Dwarfs and Wood Elves, for example) have alternate movement stances that allow them to ignore otherwise impassable terrain and slip past enemy armies that may be blocking your path forward. The Dwarves and Greenskins had the ability first, and they do it by traveling underground hence why even if Wood Elves don't dig, it's called 'subterranean'. However, enemy armies have a chance to intercept armies moving near/across them in that stance in a battle not terribly dissimilar from an Ambush battle. Like an Ambush battle, the tunneling army is at your mercy; they cannot retreat from an interception. Most tunneling armies will be totally wiped if they are intercepted and are defeated, but some, like the Beastmen and Wood Elves, can still regroup after being defeated. Unlike Ambush battles, armies will deploy normally and neither of them will have any notable tactical advantages in deployment options over the intercepted. You can decline an interception if it is your best interest (say, your army is too weakened to fight or you need to conserve your strength for a more opportune target... which is ''real'' unlikely all things considered) and allow them to go forth unmolested. But this section assumes you do the correct thing and intercept underway/worldroot traversing armies.

The battlefield itself is substantially more constrained over a regular field; a long narrow tunnel/hallway will typically make up the zone of combat, putting units that rely on maneuverability at a notable disadvantage over those that hold their ground. Gunlines and artillery tend to be quite powerful on these maps due to the (generally) limited cover and dramatically reduced space for armies to spread out. While some such tunnels have some elevation differences (such as beast paths/world roots, because they're not really "underground"), many of the underway maps also tend to be quite level, for better or worse.

==Battlefield Mechanics==
Dynamic effects that can alter your unit's performance during the course of a battle, and things to keep in mind in general.

===Fatigue and Vigour===
As you may expect, running across massive battlefields, slogging through waist-high water, running up hills and shouldering through dense trees to ''then'' engage heavily armed (and armored) foes in a fight to the death can be a bit draining, be you man, elf, greenskin or even lizard. This will manifest in the form of gradually degrading combat performance as your units get worn down through the various stages of fatigue. Running and combat of any kind will start to drain vigour from a unit, while standing or walking slowly replenish it. Terrain does play a role in how quickly fatigue is lost (i.e., charging and fighting uphill is substantially more draining than charging or running downhill).
*'''Fresh''': The initial vigour level for any army not caught in Force March at the beginning of any battle. Fresh to the field, no wear or tear and eager to spill blood on your command. There are no penalties at this stage (obviously).
*'''Active''': Your troops have performed some minor skirmishing or ran a modest distance, so the pep to their step is gone. A 5% melee attack debuff slightly hampers their combat effectiveness.
*'''Winded''': Your troops have engaged in combat and/or have spent a significant amount of time running. A 5% speed and melee attack debuff and a 10% melee damage and reload speed debuff kicks in.
*'''Tired''': Your troops have engaged in extended combat or have run about the field extensively. The initial starting vigour for armies attacked while in a Forced March stance. Exhaustion starts to take it's toll; a 10% Speed, Melee Damage and Charge Bonus debuff accompany a 15% Melee Attack and Reload Speed debuff.
*'''Very Tired''': Combat and maneuvering around the field have all but drained your soldiers. 10% debuffs to melee damage and armor, a 15% speed debuff and a 25% melee attack, charge bonus and reload speed debuff claims a heavy price from your soldiers.
*'''Exhausted''': The final stage of fatigue. Intense, extended combat after extensive maneuvering with little to no respite has put your troops on their last legs. A 10% melee defense and damage debuff, a 15% speed debuff, a 25% armor debuff, a ''30%'' melee attack and charge bonus debuff and a ''35%'' reload speed debuff severely cripple your exhausted units, putting them at a severe disadvantage against any fresh troops they may have yet to face.

This is a universal mechanic that applies to all factions, including Undead ones (they just have different names for the various stages), so you'll always want to keep this in the back of your mind as battles tend to wage on. These penalties (or lack thereof) can make a significant difference in a unit's combat performance, especially if they're further buffed (or debuffed) by magic, abilities or items to give them an edge.

===Morale===

Similar to Exhaustion, Morale determines the willingness of your units to keep fighting. Morale is affected by different factors: such as by being flanked, the death of your Lord, or being hit by artillery/guns.

When a unit's leadership reaches a critical low, their banners will flash and the unit will begin to [[Squad broken|BREAK]]. Broken units will flee and attempt to disengage; their leadership will slowly rise so long as they're out of combat and the LORD is still on the battlefield. Since [[Squad Broken|BROKEN]] units can still regroup and return to the battle, it's a good idea to chase them away with light cavalry to stop them from regrouping. Otherwise, should they continue to take more losses, the unit will [[Squad Broken 2|SHATTER]] and will not regroup at all.

Effects and Attributes that affect morale:
*'''Encourage:''' This affects morale positively. Encouragement is a generic buff given by Heroes, Lords, and certain units (like Cathayan Airships, Longbeards). They raise Leadership and can even help BROKEN units rally quicker.
**'''Lord Dies/Lord Flees:''' On the other hand, when your Lord dies or flees, you army will take a permanent leadership debuff until the end of the battle. DISCIPLINED units will not need to worry, however. Great when you have an army of battle-hardened Dwarfs or Cathayans, absolutely fucked when they're Undead.
*'''Fear and Terror:''' Already mentioned above. Fear is constant, Terror is caused when charging. Causing Fear or Terror makes one immune to Fear/Terror.
**'''Unbreakable:''' As mentioned above, being UNBREAKABLE or IMMUNE TO PSYCHOLOGY makes you immune to psychological effects. Unbreakable units will also fight to the death, so long after the rest of your army has broken, they will continue to hold. Ungrim is notable for often being the last one standing (if he isn't focused down, that is)
*'''Flanks Secured/Flanks Exposed/Attacked in Flanks/Attacked in Rear:''' Positioning is important in TWWH, and unlike older TW games, there are no fancy formations that give you 360 coverage. When your unit's flanks are secured by another friendly unit, they gain a small bump in leadership. When a unit is attacked from their sides, or worse, [[Squad Broken 2|in the rear]], their leadership will drop and they will be more likely to break and disengage.
*'''Charging/Being Charged:''' Unbraced units will take a Leadership hit when they see a unit of [[Cold One|raptor-mounted raptors]] or [[Beastmen|chaos-tainted horsemen]] rushing at them. Having Charge Defense mitigates this.
*Being tired

===Elevation===
No battle is ever truly fought on an even playing field (in this particular case, we're focusing on the the literal sense). From small hills to towering settlement walls, units may find themselves looking down upon the hapless masses crawling their way up the slopes, exhausting themselves over every inch gained, or they might desperately find themselves assailed by a hail of arrows from on high, well out of their retaliatory reach.

Elevation can play a significant role over the course of a battle. Units traveling up hills not only move more slowly (thus reducing charge bonuses), but suffer increased fatigue gains (up to 150%) and deal less damage to enemies fighting above them (up to 30% less). Conversely, enemies charging down hill lose less fatigue, do so more quickly (increasing charge bonuses) and deal up to 30% more damage against foes below them. The benefits/consequences aren't just limited to melee infantry however. To no-one's surprise, firing at enemies beneath your position confers a substantial advantage; not only does this allow your archers/gunners to shoot over potential obstacles, but it also gives them up to a 30% damage buff against their targets as well. Should your archers or gunners find themselves at the base of a hill or wall, not only do they suffer up to a 30% damage reduction, but their shots are far more likely to be blocked by battlements or terrain, wasting precious ammunition. These percentages are calculated entity to entity and based on the relative slope/height difference between the two (depending on the terrain, two different entities in the same unit might deal more or less damage than each other based on how they're engaging the enemy).

==Tutorials==
A collection of tutorial images and infographs made by various anons on /v/ and /twg/. Some are more coherent than others
<gallery>
File:Warhammer_gun_tutorial.png|Tutorial on how to use gunpowder units in the Total War Warhammer trilogy. Four different formations are covered, each of which is effective in different circumstances
File:Warhammer_skaven_tutorial.jpg|Some factions like Skaven or Cathay have ranged units that are too slow for regular chevrons, but deploying your troops behind the front lines and then baiting the enemy in with artillery works almost as well. In this specific example, R is Ratling Guns, J is Jezzails, and G is Globe Mortars while the lightning bolts are Warp Lightning Canons and the star is your lord
File:Warhammer_tercio_tutorial.png|Tericio tactics are a more in depth tactic with more moving parts which is marginally better than chevrons but a lot more fun. It is only effective on factions like Empire or Kislev whose ranged troops have decent speed, do not try this with Dwarfs. Consider replacing common artillery pieces like cannons with artillery units capable of some self defense, such as Little Grom. Doing so gives your backline melee infantry more flexibility as it does not need to stay quite so defensive
File:Warhammer_dwarf_box_tutorial.png|For defensive ranged races with slow units and a strong frontline like Dwarfs or Cathay, putting a box of units around your ranged units can make you very hard to break. Corner camping is considered one of the cheesiest and most overpowered tactics in the game for a very good reason, it will win you battles that you should not have won
File:Warhammer_pile_of_violence_tutorial.png|A lot of melee factions like Greenskins or Khorne can function quite effectively as a "pile of violence" or rush army that simply charges into melee and smashes gits
File:Warhammer_chaos_warriors_tutorial.jpg|As an alternative to just sending everything in one big blob, send you infantry and monsters in a blob while keeping your cavalry on your wings to charge in and then flank the enemy
File:Warhammer_bretonnia_tutorial.png|Some armies favor using powerful lords and heroes to deal large amounts of damage to the enemy while using other units as more of an anvil to the hero's hammer
File:Warhammer_mannlet_tutorial.png|Some armies such as Vampire Counts and Nurgle work better as a more defensive melee blob where you sit your lord inside your other infantry to have them blast spells at the enemy while healing their allies
File:Warhammer_vampire_tutorial.png|A blob army doesn't have to be defensive, factions such as Vampire Counts, Tomb Kings, Greenskins during WAAAGH! and Skaven are quite adept at simply swarming the field with giant blobs of units. This is best done when you handily outnumber the enemy, usually with either multiple armies present for the battle or with lots of summoning
File:Warhammer_tomb_kings_tutorial.png|By end game, most factions will have a doomstack army that they want to build, which features the most powerful units in that faction's roster buffed to the gills and then spammed. In this example, a Tomb Kings player might use a doomstack of Warsphinxes and Greatbow Ushabtis to simply rush the enemy and destroy them with very little tactics necessary
</gallery>

[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Magic

2022-08-18T13:59:10Z

2600:387:2:80F:0:0:0:7A: /* Lore of Death */

[[Category: Total Warhammer]]

This page goes into details about every single spell (Unique Spells and hero abilities not included) in the game, their uses, and so on. For the general gist of how magic works, head over to [[Total War: Warhammer/Tactics#Magic]]. For up to date #’s on spell damage, cost, and effect see here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-_Swyh0Ifo8cTI4ZUxoVGtmVVk/view
==Generic Lores==

===Lore of Beasts===
:'''Passive - ''Wild Heart''''': Your power recharge rate and power reserves increase for 29 seconds upon casting a spell from this lore, a nice tool that helps maintain the overall combat effectiveness of your Beasts caster over the course of the battle, but it's not to such a degree that you'll likely notice.
*'''Flock of Doom''': Recreate The Birds by siccing flocks of crows on all enemy units within the casting reticle. Has a low winds cost and a rather quick cooldown, but is virtually useless against single entities or smaller units. Save this for the enemy hordes that might try to tie down your forces, armored or not. This affects all units that have so much as a single model within its cast radius, making it highly efficient against infantry-based armies.
*'''Pann's Impenetrable Pelt''': Buff the physical resistance of a target unit by 20% and their melee defense by 24 for 31 seconds. Compared to how it worked before, this makes a unit substantially more durable in melee combat and, especially if combined with other spells like Shield of Thorns, can turn a key frontline unit into an absolute tank. Overcasting turns it into an AoE spell, which might very well be worth it in the opening stages of a frontline engagement to mitigate damage.
*'''The Amber Spear''': The only other damage dealing spell you have, this time as a single projectile geared towards character/monster sniping. It deals pretty hefty damage and is a great option against more heavily armored beasts that would otherwise shrug off other artillery or missile fire from more conventional units. It does have a powerful but short range explosion effect as well, so it can technically nuke an elite unit but aiming may be more trouble than its worth to get a good hit.
*'''The Curse of Anraheir''': A hex that debilitates enemies with -24 Melee Attack and Defense while also crippling them with a 25% speed debuff. Use this to effectively defang enemy units or combine/alternate with Pann's Impenetrable Pelt to keep your key units alive. Alternatively, when used offensively, this will make it easier to pin down and knock around enemy units that you really need cleaned off the board.
*'''Transformation of Kadon''': This is pretty much ''the'' reason most players bother taking the Lore of Beasts in multiplayer at all. After a brief windup period, the Beast Caster summons either a Feral Manticore (standard), Great Eagle (High/Wood Elves) or Varghulf (Von Carstein). As they can be summoned anywhere within 60m of the caster, this allows you to throw a relatively potent combat monster into an opponent's more vulnerable backline while they can do little more than scramble to address the sudden incursion. With a limit of two casts per battle and a moderately short timer on the monsters before they despawn, each cast should be considered wisely.
*'''Wyssan's Wildform''': A surprisingly vicious combat supplement, this spell grants a target unit +25% Base and AP damage as well as +30 Armor for 19 seconds. Due to the offensive portion of this spell's buffs being percentage-based, Wyssan's Wildform gets ''far'' more bang for your buck when cast on elite units or single entity monstrous units that have naturally high weapon/ap damage. The armor supplement helps, though shouldn't really be a major consideration when you could get better defensive utility out of Pann's Impenetrable Pelt (though pairing the two is hardly ill-advised). Much like Pann's Impenetrable Pelt, overcasting Wyssan's Wildform turns it into an AoE spell and can make single-entity doomstacks disgustingly potent.

===Lore of Death===
:'''Passive - ''Life Leeching''''': Whenever a spell is cast from this discipline, your power recharge rate improves for 25 seconds. Quite frankly, a very nice passive that acts like a built in Arcane Conduit.
*'''Spirit Leech''': The first spell in this Lore and it's one of the best, if we're being honest. A rather cheap, direct damage spell at 8 Winds of Magic. Preferably used against Characters and Monsters and probably the most cost-efficient Character sniping spell in the game (does 834 damage without any resistances on average, ignores armor). It also can serve as a nice counter against Ethereal Units. It actually works very well vs small monstrous cavalry and infantry units, think the 6-24 model range, also ok on smallish elite units also but anything over 20ish models really hurts its efficiency, bjuna is far better for that. one cast can nearly kill most artillery because it (usually) hits the machines, not the crew. Very versatile and mana efficient, the standard to which all direct damage spells are compared.
*'''Doom and Darkness''': Basically the opposite of the Lore of Light's Light of Battle Spell. Sits in the 10 Winds niche of rather specific debuffs. It reduces the leadership of an enemy unit by a whopping 16, enough to send most standard troops into a rout once they have taken some losses and to mitigate any effects the presence of a Character in their vicinity might have. Notably less useful against Undead, who cannot rout, but can still cause them to begin crumbling more quickly if such a tactic is necessary. Of course, this spell is completely useless against Unbreakable units. Pretty useless in very hard or legendary campaign battle difficulty because of the crazy leadership buffs the AI gets, but nice on normal and hard difficulties as well as multiplayer.
*'''Soulblight''': An ok AoE debuff, for its relatively low cost of 8 Winds of Magic/ 14 overcast. Lowers the armor (-30) and weapon damage (-30%) of all units in an AOE for 25 seconds, 50 if overcast. The pairing of armor and weapon damage debuffs don't synergize that well with each other and the lowish base duration can be rough, maybe worth overcasting for double duration if you cast at all. still its a more efficient armor removing spell than plague of rust because of its AOE so that's something. it may only debuff two less important stats but it isn't bad since its an affordable AOE debuff. Doomfire warlocks get this free so never pay winds for it as the dark elves if you can help it. overcast is double duration for slightly cheaper than double so worth it in theory.
*'''Aspect of the Dreadknight''': Same as deal with Soulblight. It might be extremely cheap at 4 Winds of Magic, but its effect of +8 Leadership and Causes Terror for friendly units is simply not good enough, especially when taken into consideration that many factions that can use the Lore of Death (especially the Undead factions) have no shortage of Units that cause fear and terror or are completely exempt from Leadership issues.
*'''The Purple Sun of Xereus''': The good ol' "cast it successfully and the game is over" Vortex from the Tabletop doesn't disappoint here either. At 18 (24 when overcast) Winds of Magic, a fairly expensive Vortex that will completely demolish everything it touches, its only downside being that it is hard to predict where it will eventually go, but even the initial cast on a large moshpit of infantry is worth it. Particularly devastating on Bridge Battles, where Wizards with this spell will rack up a ludicrous amount of kills from one single cast alone.
*'''The Fate of Bjuna''': This is an odd one. An expensive single target direct damage spell That serves mainly as a middle finger to cavalry, elite infantry any thing with a medium model count. Deals large amounts of damage, but needs careful evaluation on when to use it. It's considered op in multiplayer where elite units are expensive and rare. In campaign, where stacks of endgame units are common, it's too expensive where a bombardment, missile or even vortex does more for cheaper. Its price is very inflated because of its power in multiplayer. You can just drop purple sun on a single unit for cheaper vs the AI most of the time. Not very efficient vs anything with less than 45 models.

===Lore of Fire===
Important to note: All spells from the Lore deal Magical and Fire type damage. It counts as both and is resisted by both. Tree sprits, tomb kings, and nurgle demons have notable weaknesses to fire damage in particular.

:'''Passive - ''Kindleflame''''': Whenever you cast a Lore of Fire spell, it imbues a map wide fire weakness to all enemy units as you cast. The benefits combined with this lore are obvious, and allows for great synergy when used with other units who deal fire damage. Combines nicely with flaming sword.
*'''Fireball''': Inexpensive projectile that is found all over the goddamn place. High Elven Mages and Skink Priests can get 4 uses of them for free. It's... alright-ish. Like all projectiles, Fireballs strongly depend the casters positioning and its damage is kinda meh. Can still be reliably used to snipe big monsters and Lords out of the sky, and its considerable range makes it a very attractive and cheap source of Fire Damage to be used against Ethereal units or Wood Elven tree spirits. The minor boost in damage provided by overcasting generally isn't worth the increased mana cost, so in almost every circumstance you're better off just casting normally. its AP is kind of low so it isn't very impressive versus armored targets, best used on lightly armored monsters or lords/heros.
*'''Flaming Sword of Rhuin''': Cheap (8/12) base/overcast buff for your troops that makes all of their attacks deal fire and magic damage, as well as increasing their damage output by 30% for 22/44 seconds. Don't forget that this can also be cast on ranged units, so have fun experimenting with that. With the upcoming changes to magic resistance set to only affect damage inflicted by spells, this is set to become a solid tool for enabling some of your heavier hitters to shoulder through units with high physical resistances. Just beware, flame resistance will still be able to shrug off the damage.
*'''Cascading Fire Cloak''': Extremely cheap (only 5 winds of magic!) AoE buff that increases AP Damage of your melee troops by 24% and also gives them 25 Melee Defense for 19 seconds. Gives your frontline a bit more staying power and makes Greatswords, not to mention Har Garneth Executioners or Swordmasters of Hoeth downright terrifying. Important to keep in mind is that it won't do jack shit for units that bring no AP damage on their own, like Imperial Swordsmen. A 100% increase of 1 would still be 2. its single target only unfortunately and percentage based so maybe use on a monster or lord/hero for best results.
*'''The Burning Head''': Oh sweet baby, yes! A medium prized (10 Winds of Magic) Wind Spell that deals an intimidating amount of damage and also terrifies people. ''This'' is the prime spell of the Lore of Fire. Tons of Fire Damage, but can also deviate a bit, although not as much as Vortex Spells would. It's cheap size relative to its effectiveness make it a very attractive spell to use, and is available in the campaign very early on. Keep in mind it does zero AP damage even when overcast, so it sucks vs armor. On the positive side, your armored forces can tank a stray blast if you cast it alongside/on top of them when they're in battle with chaff or unarmored infantry, making a great tool for front-line engagements. Maybe even better in WH 3 with the demon factions mostly having bad armor.
*'''Piercing Bolts of Flame''': An expensive and semi-unreliable spell, this is your most effective anti-Armor option outside of Flamestorm spam. It deals a high amount of projectile damage as well, so it can deal respectable damage to monstrous infantry or even regular infantry if they clump up. In general though, you'll probably be better off prioritizing other, more potent/cost efficient spells and leave the dedicated anti-armor to other units in your army.
*'''Flamestorm''': When you need to delete infantry whole-sale, this is your go-to spell. Compared to Burning Head, Flamestorm is less efficient and substantially less consistent, but Flamestorm has substantially higher utility against armored enemies and has the ''potential'' to do much more damage overall. Costs a moderate 13 winds but will utterly annihilate any models caught in its wake, armored or not. Overcasting bumps the WoM cost to 20, doubles the duration from 27 seconds to 54, increases base damage but does nothing for the AP values. Only overcast if you're confident the enemy is locked down and you don't mind it potentially rolling into your forces. Even then, just saving the extra winds for a follow up cast may be a more efficient choice.

===Lore of Heavens===
:'''Passive - ''Roiling Skies''''': A mapwide debuff that slows down flying units and debuffs their melee defense for 25 seconds upon casting a spell. Frankly a mediocre and situational perk, but it can be handy if your opponent's playing a faction with a lot of flying cavalry.
*'''Wind Blast''': A cost effective breath spell that does wonders against unarmored chaff infantry like skavenslaves or peasant mobs. A side effect of this particular breath spell worth noting is that it disrupts enemy formations, making it valuable if only to help buy time for your own forces to get into position/get the charge into them while they recover. Overcasting the spell gives it a touch more bite against armored units (4 AP damage), but the difference is so marginal that it's not really worth it. Never overcast.
*'''Urannon's Thunderbolt''': A bolt of lightning that strikes a small area for extremely large AP damage. Has impressive range, so it has moderate use against the near-stationary artillery pieces your opponent may have. It's pure AP damage and overcasting does more than 1300 damage (much more than doombolts 1000ish AP or amber spears 700 AP), if you hit a lord or monster they will FEEEEEL it. Best cost to damage ratio of any single target blast. Cheaper and better than any other of its type. It has a minimal area of effect and does not track targets, so you'll need to aim carefully to actually land true with it.
*'''Harmonic Convergence''': A supporting spell that improves the melee defense/attack of a friendly unit by a rather respectable margin for 24 seconds, including their armor value if overcast. A very potent spell that can help turn the tide of an engagement on the front lines at a rather minor cost of 6 winds. It falls a bit behind similar buffing spells from other lores due to the fact it is limited to a single target, but is still a decent option for a key beat-stick unit of yours none-the-less.
*'''Curse of the Midnight Wind''': An AoE Hex that debuffs all enemies within its casting radius with lowered melee attack and armor values for 25 seconds, 50 if overcast. Combined with Harmonic Convergence, this is best served when you need to turn a frontline engagement around. In general though, at 11 WoM per cast, you may rather opt to simply put that power towards one of the damage dealing spells instead.
*'''Chain Lightning''': Now we're getting to the good stuff. One of the strongest vortex spells in the game, Chain Lightning randomly crawls across the battle field for 21 seconds dealing heavy damage to everything caught up in it, armored or not. It deals pure AP damage, highest of any other vortex spell. High elf archmages get this as a bound spell, and can get Urannon's Thunderbolt from a lord trait, making this lore perhaps a waste to use on them, since they could get so much of it free.
*'''Comet of Cassandora''': When you want to call down the celestial thunder, there's no better choice than the Comet of Cassandora. With a relatively large area of effect and massive damage output, the CoC can wipe out entire units with a well-placed blast, even more so if overcast... if anything is still willfully under the targeting cursor while the comet takes its sweet time to actually arrive. Between the rather lengthy delay before the comet itself actually descends onto the battlefield and the rather intense winds of magic cost (especially if overcast), finding a situation to use the CoC in lieu of either Chain Lightning or even Wind Blast will be quite difficult. All in all, it's terribly inefficient. Thunderbolt does much more damage to a single target and chain lighting is usually cheaper and more efficient for hordes/blobs. In Campaigns against AI, the Comet of Cassandora is a considerably more attractive option when engaging in Siege battles or against clumps of elite, relatively immobile units. Since the AI tends to be blissfully oblivious to the impact indicator and is prone to scrunching multiple units together regularly, they'll rarely make any effort to avoid taking the full brunt of a well positioned Comet.

===Lore of Life===
:'''Passive - ''Life Bloom''''': Whenever a life spell is cast, all your units heal up to 40 hitpoints over the course of 5 seconds. It's not much, but it's free healing that applies to your entire army whenever you cast a spell. Every little bit helps.
*'''Earth Blood''': This is the bread and butter for most life wizards. A nice AoE heal for up to four allied units within its radius that lasts for 7 seconds, with double the length and healing if overcast. The main value of this spell is the relatively inconsequential winds of magic cost (6/11), allowing life wizards to support a rather sizeable chunk of your army for a rather extended period of time.
*'''Awakening of the Wood''': A large damage dealing explosion that dramatically slows down everyone caught up in the blast, but deals squat for damage against anything with an armor value.
*'''Shield of Thorns''': A nice offensive/defensive buff that grants percentage based physical resist and weapon damage bonuses to several of your units within the spell's radius. A great supporting power for key units that goes quite nicely with Earth Blood to keep them in peak physical form. Use on units who already resist physical for best results, overcasting can be good if you need extra weapon damage. Can be cast combined with pelt if you have a beast caster to give 50% physical resist on top of any the unit already has.
*'''Flesh to Stone''': A massive boost to an allied unit's armor value for 44 seconds (88 if overcast), this can turn even a squishy unit like Wood Elf Wardancers into surprisingly tanky beat-sticks, especially if stacked with Shield of Thorns. When compared to SoT, however, it tends to be better against non-AP by far but falls off in the later game when more units tend to have AP values.
*'''Regrowth''': An expensive single target heal that replenishes a substantial amount of HP and vigour to the target unit, especially if overcast. Frankly best reserved for emergencies and/or single entity units as no amount of healing will bring back slain models in a unit. Minor exceptions extend to the very few factions who ''can'' revive slain models, like the Lizardmen when utilizing a Revivification Crystal Bastilodon. In general though, Earth Blood provides better sustain for your army over the course of the battle.
*'''The Dwellers Below''': A shockingly powerful AoE damaging spell for a lore so dedicated to supporting your own units, The Dwellers Below snares all units who travel within the spell's zone with a speed debuff while chipping away at them in the process. While it's good in certain situations, you've likely taken your life wizard for dedicated healing support and will likely have alternative options for offensive spellcasters more suited to the task. Wood elf spellweaver lords get this as a bound spell, which is awesome. Despite its awesome animations, if you look carefully at the spells tooltip, you'll notice that it's a direct damage spell and not a vortex. This is important because it means that instead of centering it on blobs, you want it covering as many enemy units as possible and you don't have to worry about hitting your own units with it.

===Lore of Light===
:'''Passive - ''Exorcism''''': Whenever you cast a Lore of Light spell, all your units gain 4 leadership and become immune to psychology (fear/terror) for 11 seconds. Useful, if you are facing armies with lots of scary monsters, but largely useless outside of that.
*'''Shen's Burning Gaze''': Inexpensive Projectile, costs the same as fireball (5 winds), but fires 5 projectiles in a grouping. Has the advantage of higher base damage than said Fireball, and the disadvantage that all projectiles need to land for the spell to deal full damage. Given that most entities except the largest ones aren't even big enough for all projectiles to land, it's kinda mediocre. For what it's worth, it has much better AP damage than fire ball for similar cost. If cast at close range, it can be used like a shotgun to get all of the projectiles to hit. It's best vs a monster sized unit obviously, but it's also good vs flying to due decent air tracking. It fires 5 projectiles base goes up to 10 if overcast. Basically just like gaze of nagash from lore of vampires. Also it has bonus vs large.
*'''Net of Amyontok''': This is why you pick the Lore of Light. A medium-prized (10 winds) AoE debuff that locks an enemy in place, right where they stand. The incredible utility of this spell cannot be understated. A must pick against factions with a lot of mobility, although it only affects units on the ground. Despite that limitation, it ''will'' trap any flying cavalry/monsters/characters who are on the ground (from a charge, for example), so if you can catch them with this before they can retreat into the skies, you can severely punish them. Obviously favored by those with good archers and artillery, Sisters of Avelorn and Salamander Hunting Packs being notable beneficiaries.
*'''Pha's Protection''': A cheap defense buff. Grants 30 armour and 24 Melee Defense at the prize of 5 winds of magic for 22 seconds. overcast adds AOE for 10 winds. unexceptional but nice, short duration is unfortunate, but good AOE buffs are rare. maybe worth it if you can hit enough of your units.
*'''Light of Battle''': AoE buff for 7 Winds of Magic that makes all units unbreakable for 22 seconds. Not to be underestimated, but needs a creative mind to use right. very situational, probably not worth it often.
*'''Bironas Timewarp''': Pretty nifty AOE buff spell that costs 11 Winds of Magic and gives units a whopping 24% increase to their movement speed and 24 melee attack. Perfect for Cavalry and other fast units.
*'''Banishment''': A 17/24 overcast winds vortex with good ap damage (7ap same as pit of shades). you get a small zone of bright death. The game advertises this spell as dealing "medium damage", which is bewildering, to say the least. Banishment definitely doesn't need to hide behind its bigger brethren from other Lores. It’s actually incredibly similar to purple sun now, in fact purple sun is probably better now. Still good though. Overcasting increases the base damage by 7, though the AP values are untouched. Generally not worth overcasting in most scenarios. Slann get this as a free bound spell, as always this is awesome.

===Lore of Metal===
:'''Passive - ''Metalshifting''''': Your lore attribute that gives your units +10% AP and Weapon Strength for 13 second. Used best on elite units who already have high AP and damage as something like an Empire Swordsman probably won't be noticing the effects too much.
*'''Searing Doom''': A fairly cost effective bombardment ability against low armor. At only 6 winds of magic it can help destroy early game blobs of crappy infantry. It's biggest disadvantage is the wind up time so any opponent who's paying attention should be able to get out of the way. Fortunately the AI doesn't bother with dodging these most of the time. Low projectile damage means wont do shit to higher health models, kroxigors, dragon ogres etc.
*'''Plague of Rust''': One of the most cost effective armor debuffs in the game, especially if you don't have a lot of affordable AP. Being able to get rid of 30 armor for 4 winds (Or 60 for 6 if you overcast) is situationally good. Plus it lasts 44 seconds so you have plenty of time to deal with them before their defensive stats return to normal. It's certainly better against some factions (this can be a god send against Dwarfs and Bretonnia) than others (Beastmen and Wood Elves will laugh if you bring this). In the campaign almost every unit worth using should have AP anyway, really only good situationally/early game. single target is the biggest problem, at least its cheap with good duration. kind of mediocre. I would rather use soul blight with shorter duration, at least's its AOE. a single armored unit is only ever going to matter enough in multiplayer.
*'''Glittering Robes''': it got buffed. now 60 armor for 44 seconds (no leadership effect anymore), overcast for AOE, actually pretty good if fighting non AP. 6 base/12 overcast. AOE is the big deal, much better than the life equivalent.
*'''Gehenna's Golden Hounds''': You can spend an extra 3 winds of magic for a mediocre vortex that only hurts low armor units and might even kill some of your own troops. Doesn't that sound fun? Use Searing Doom, you'll get better bang for your buck. It actually has the same AP damage per tick as Purple Sun, its mostly just small and hard to aim. Cheap though. Not great
*'''Transmutation of Lead''': A fairly solid -24 melee attack and -30% weapon damage for 38 seconds can really put enemy momentum to a halt (if you overcast, -60% weapon damage). costs 11 base, 16 overcast. unfortunately debuffing melee attack and weapon strength while good is somewhat counter synergistic, because if they don't hit the strength doesn't matter, but its just doubling down rather than redundant. Probably don't overcast unless you really think you need it.
*'''Final Transmutation''': Ok so take Spirit Leech, make it a massive AOE and you have a pretty good idea of how Final Transmutation works. This can win you games if you get a big blob in it but at 18 (28 overcast) Winds of Magic it'll probably be all you're casting in multiplayer. In campaign, build up those reserves and you can win battles with this alone. Even if you only hit 2 targets, it has higher damager per winds ratio than Spirit Leech. The overcast version does 2300 damage on average vs Spirit Leech's 834 average. If you can weaken a lord to the 2000 health range this will quickly destroy them. Assuming they have no significant magic resist/healing/wards of course, but still incredibly potent none-the-less. (all direct damage spells bypass armor FYI, so Bejuna, Flock of Doom, Miasma etc., they all do).

===Lore of Shadows===
:'''Passive - ''Smoke & Mirrors''''': A mapwide movement speed buff for 24 seconds whenever you cast a shadows spell is a nice perk that can give you a slight edge in maneuverability over your opponent, though this is very largely dependent on the factions at play. Remember the mediocre speed boosts of pelt or timewarp? This is better, map wide, and free. Still not that great.
*'''Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma''': A Single target direct damage spell that deals damage to one unit while also slowing them down in the process. At 5 winds of magic for a quick cast, it's a great precursor to an engagement or to help prevent your opponent from fleeing. Averages around 1764 direct damage, quite good but only on a large unit, ideally with about 100 or more models. Ok to speed debuff a lord or monster if you really need to as well, other wise dont overcast. best spammed to wear down large units, compare to flock of doom for example.
*'''The Enfeebling Foe''': A 22 second melee defense/attack debuff that cripples a single enemy unit of your choice. Ideally used against characters or monsters who might be trying to wreak havoc in your lines or to give your own lord a step up in a duel against them. Probably worth overcasting for the double duration. One of the best debuffs in the game for a single target. Hit a lord with it then buff your duelist monster, hero, or lord with Mindrazor and you get a nasty killing combo.
*'''The Withering''': Yet another hex that targets a single unit and reduces their armor and leadership for 40 seconds. It only has a prominent niche if you stack lots of leadership debuffs to force opposing units to route, but Doom and Darkness from death does that twice as well (if that discipline is available). all races that can leadership bomb (beastmen, dark elves, norsca, warriors of chaos, and vampires) have access to death, except lizardmen which cant use shadow or death.
*'''The Penumbral Pendulum''': A potent wind spell that is perfect for slicing through frontline units while they're tied up in combat. It's not quite as powerful as the Burning Head or the Winds of Death against unarmored foes, but anything wearing a tin can will get cracked open. This does 36 AP damage base or a whopping 72 if overcast. It actually does more AP damage than wind of death, but usually gets fewer kills due to shorter duration, travel distance, and AOE. Wrecks elite infantry and cavalry.
*'''Pit of Shades''': One of the very select few stationary vortex spells in the game. With a 13 second duration, the Pit of Shades is a fantastic tool in maps that have natural choke points or if you manage to box in a particularly large clump of units. It deals 7 points of pure AP, same as Purple Sun's or Banishment's AP damage, though it has no base damage paired with it. Overcasting doubles the ap to 14, but this is generally unnecessary in most circumstances. It traps enemies inside of it, so not only does it immobilize clumps of enemies for follow-up attacks, it tends to deal tons of damage as long as you get a direct hit. Very reliable.
*'''Okkam's Mindrazor''': A very nasty buff that grants magical attacks to an allied unit as well as a ''very'' substantial 40% buff to weapon and armor piercing damage. Overcast for an expensive but powerful AOE buff. Use on monsters, heroes and lords for best results because it's percentage based; you're gonna get a lot more mileage out of it that way. Good for a goon squad to kill monsters/lords, not worth it for killing infantry usually. Remember weapon strength doesn’t matter if you can’t hit, try to combine it with an a melee attack boost or melee defense debuff for best results. Enfeebling foe for example.

===Scrolls===

In the Campaign, you can occasionally find magic scrolls that give your caster a free spell with limited uses, and some of them aren't available in any lore. Given that they're free, there is no reason to not cast them in any battle. Some of these spells can also be unlocked through faction mechanics or just levelling your caster character up.

*'''Arnzipal's Black Horror''': Stupidly effective Breath Spell that eats chaff alive and even inflicts enough damage to give Elite Units a run for their money. As of the Rakarth Update, Dark Elven Supreme Sorceresses get this spell as a bound spell for levelling up to Level 10 on the Campaign, everyone else has to rely on the enemy to drop the Scroll of Horror.
*'''Assault of Stone''': Probably the strongest Bombardment in the entire game. Covers a huge area, and inflicts a ton AP magic damage. The Dwarfs (of all factions) get the easiest access to it by forging the Sceptre of Stone with Oathgold.
*'''Amber Scroll''': A free leadership debuff on any one unit.
*'''Blast''': Fireball but faster and more immediate.

==Faction-specific Lores==

===Lore of the Deep (Vampire Coast)===
:'''Passive - ''Kiss of the Deep''''': Each time you cast a spell it does a small amount of magic damage to every enemy unit on the map. This is especially useful when fighting against armies that have fragile units and rely on [[Wood Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|superior speed]] or [[skaven|disposable chaff units]] to keep them protected.
*'''Tidecall''': A breath weapon that expands out in a cone, doing moderate damage and disrupting enemy formations. Basically wind blast from the Lore of Heaven, but wetter.
*'''Spiteful Shot''': A buff that provides +90 accuracy to an allied unit. Great for deck gunners, mortars, Queen Bess, or anything else that can shoot, really. It's the cheapest spell in your arsenal so it can be reliably spammed to get more Kiss of the Deep effects.
*'''Denizens of the Deep''': Summons a unit of Rotting Prometheans. The Rotting Prometheans biggest weakness is its low speed, so the ability to drop a unit right into the enemy is amazing. Need to soak up an enemy charge? Want to disrupt enemy artillery? There's an enemy hero giving you problems? Solve every problem with [[meme|giant enemy crabs]].
*'''Fog of the Damned''': A debuff spell that reduces enemy leadership and movement speed. Not your best spell, but it slows enemy melee units down to give your gunners more time to shoot them. It still causes Kiss of the Deeps which is never bad.
*'''Vangheist's Revenge''': Possibly the coolest looking spell ever. Summons a giant ghost boat to broadside the enemy for heavy damage across a wide area. Expensive and slow to cast, but stylish as hell and can potentially wipe out whole units at once.
*'''Kraken's Pull''': A big vortex full of [[slaanesh|wet groping tentacles]] that traps any unit caught inside of it, dealing damage to them and cutting their speed in half. Anything that keeps the enemy away from your lines is useful. The vortex is also immobile, so there's no risk of it backfiring into your units.

===Lore of High Magic (High Elves, Lizardmen, Wood Elves)===
:'''Passive - ''Shield of Saphery''''': A 11% Ward Save graces all your units whenever you cast spells from this discipline.
:'''Passive (Wood Elves) - ''Ancients' Protection''''': A slightly worse version of the Shield of Saphery, this only grants a 10% ''Physical'' Resistance buff, meaning it'll do nothing against magic damage/missiles. Still, it works well enough for Wood Elves since they have a reasonable amount of innate physical resist already and can be further supplemented by physical resistance spells from other disciplines.
*'''Hand of Glory''': A relatively cheap buff for a single allied unit that grants them increased reload skill and melee attack for 29 seconds. Reload skill and melee attack don't exactly go hand in hand as far as complimentary buffs go, but it does give it a bit more potential application across your entire army compared to other more specialized buffs. Despite this, and despite it's lower cost, it will not usually do enough to justify the winds cost since one unit can only do so much. A single fireball would usually do more even, depending on your targets.
*'''Apotheosis''': A very cheap single unit heal that also imbues the allied target with Fear for its 22 second duration. This is, all things considered, a pretty nice spell for a tanky frontline unit and does provide more healing to a single target than Earth Blood (granted, Earth Blood heals multiple targets). The addition of Fear does help push through the squishier, meeker chaff units that might simply be trying to tie you down. Unfortunately, the lore of life exists and all factions with high magic have access to life magic. Never overcast it unless you really need the range.
*'''Soul Quench''': A magic missile with artillery levels of range that explodes for quite reasonable damage against groups of infantry. While it's reasonably effective and cost efficient, you'll likely want to reserve your Winds of Magic for more utilitarian purposes and leave the job of long-range bombardment to your actual artillery units, Wood Elves lack artillerysi they *might* get moreuse out of this. Keep in mind it has bad armor piercing, use it like fireball pretty much. If you use it at all.
*'''Tempest''': A snare that deals damage and traps a flying unit in a slow moving vortex. This is a very useful tool for dealing with (Legendary) Lords on flying mounts or flying Monsters like Dragons. While they take impressive damage from the Tempest itself, you should always have a unit or two of missile units or artillery on hand to take advantage of their immobility. In general though, this is worse than the Net of Amyntok if your goal is to snare enemy units in place. Great in multiplayer, crap in single player.
*'''Fiery Convocation''': A relatively potent wind spell that deals reasonable damage to enemies it passes through. Even among directional wind spells, there's a lot of room for variance on the path it takes, so try not to use it too close to your own front line. Does the highest AP damage of any wind spell but lower total damage than pendulum, for example. Not really worth the extra cost for the higher AP, its only ok. Very slow cast time means it's hard to hit savvy opponents with it too.
*'''Arcane Unforging''': A very powerful single-entity spell that deals substantial damage to the target while increasing their ability cooldowns by a considerable amount. This is a very valuable spell against enemy Heroes and Lords due to their ability to completely shut them down. Overcharging the spell can add a whopping 45 seconds to their ability cooldowns which, if used at just the right moment, can utterly ruin an opponent's strategy and potentially cost them the field. Obviously less useful against battering ram-type characters who just charge into battle, but hey. Can't have everything. Higher damage but less efficient than other spells of its kind. Spirit leech, final transmutation and soul stealer are honestly better because their AoE capabilities (or higher efficiency in spirit leech's case) make up for their high cost. Still, not a bad spell though, considering Lizardmen lack access to the aforementioned alternatives. Pick your targets well and only overcast against extremely high priority characters with powerful abilities.

===Lore of Dark Magic (Dark Elves, Wood Elves)===
:'''Passive - ''Spiteful Conjuration''''': Reduces armor map wide, it’s ok, works out to 11% less damage resistance for 18 seconds. Almost the same as the lore of metal attribute effectively but almost always better. It affects missile and spell damage not just melee with a longer duration than metal does. Doesn’t actually affect any of the spells from this lore except bladewind however since the rest do pure AP damage.
:'''Passive (Wood Elves) - ''Wrath of the Woods''''': 12% more missile damage map wide for 8 seconds, it’s nice. Like a free half strength flaming sword and stacks with all other boosts.
*'''Power of Darkness''': Basically a 4 times as strong arcane conduit that causes 500ish damage to a unit over time. Which unit is chosen doesn’t matter. 3 use limit per battle. Very underrated, easily the strongest winds recharge skill in the game. Cast on a hydra and it will just regen through most of the damage or on a bolt thrower out of the way. Don’t ever put the damage on your wizard. in campaign you can consider running dark plus a second lore to have the dark act as a winds battery, recomend to combine with other winds boost like knowledgeable sorceressess
*'''Chillwind''': Cheap wind spell that does 24 points of PURE Ap damage. That’s 2/3rds of a pendulum’s AP component. Also slows and lowers reload speed so multi use. Honestly a bargain, it’s pure AP would be worth the cost alone. Plus triggers lore attribute cheaply. Overcast isn’t worth it. it looks weaker than it is, remember that it wont kill many models but will significantly weaken them, its hard to tell but it adds up to a lot of lost health on infantry.
*'''Word of Pain''': A single target only debuff isn’t ideal but it can claim to be probably the best lord or hero off switch in the game. -44 melee attack is massive. Overcast adds a melee defense hit as well. Sometimes worth overcasting. Situational but nice to have.
*'''Blade Wind''': Pretty cheap, pretty damaging vortex. Lowish ap damage but helped by the lore attribute, short duration but that rarely matters. It does it’s job well for its cost. Won’t win any awards but its cheap enough to justify just dropping it on only 1 or 2 units. same cost as base Doombolt so use this on bigger units or blobs usually but Doombolt vs single entities or monstrous units. Overcast doubles duration but unlikely to hit anything long enough for that to matter, not worth overcasting really.
*'''Doombolt''': Does just over 800 pure AP on a direct hit with an decent AOE detonation as well. Plus it’s a bombardment with pretty good tracking. It is like a cheaper comet of casadora with the tradeoff of less AOE range but better single target damage. Comparable damage/efficiency to Amber Spear overcast. Its ideal situation is hitting a lord or monster while surrounded by troops to take advantage of both damage portions. Overcast is proportionate, it only boosts the single target damage though. Against units just use the base version.
*'''Soul Stealer''': AOE spirit leech combined with a caster only heal identical to High Magic’s but with about 50 more healing. Damage is the exact same as Spirit leech, but because it hits every target with their own version it’s more efficient than Spirit Leech with just 2-3 good targets. Plus only healing Dark Elves get. Great spell. Better on Morathi, Malekith, and a black dragon sorceress to make the self healing more valuable.

===Lore of Nehekhara (Tomb Kings)===
:'''Passive - ''The Restless Dead''''': Completely identical to the Lore of Vampires passive, heals injured undead before resurrecting models. Unlike the Lore of Vampires, the Lore of Nehekhara contains many more small buff spells but lacks the damage potential of the former. That does, however, mean that this passive will be triggering a lot more frequently.
*'''Djaf's Incantation of Cursed Blades''': One of the cheapest spells in the game at 3 WoM, this little spell buffs weapon and AP damage by 25% on a single unit. Emblematic of the Tomb Kings lore and battle philosophy in general: while there are no standout spells or units that will single-handedly win you your battles, it's the combined-arms nature of the faction that truly makes it succeed. And the Cursed Blades is perfect for giving those cavalry, Ushabti, and other nasty constructs the edge on the offense.
*'''Neru's Incantation of Protection''': Grants 44% Physical Resistance for 6 WoM. Good for keeping your Tomb King rampaging through the enemy lines on his Warsphinx or giving one of your holding units unexpected resilience.
*'''Ptra's Incantation of Righteous Smiting''': The go-to spell for the missile-focused Tomb Kings player. Granting 40% bonus to missile and missile AP damage for another 6 WoM, this is a beastly spell when put on your artillery constructs which will really pile in the pressure on units trying to approach your lines.
*'''Usirian's Incantation of Vengeance''': The first damage spell for the lore and it's... disappointing. Does middling damage to units in a wide area while reducing their speed by 24%. Situational, potentially useful if built around correctly, but generally safe to ignore in favour of more buffs for the troops.
*'''Usekph's Incantation of Desiccation''': -24 MA and MD to enemy units in a huge area for a whopping 15 WoM. Generally not worth it unless you're planning to bust through an infantry line with your own, which works like none of the time with the slow infantry of the Tomb Kings
*'''Sakhmet's Incantation of the Skullstorm''': Generic magical damage vortex for 11 WoM. Impressive to look at, but not very efficient due to a smaller-than-average vortex radius.

===Lore of the Wild (Beastmen)===
:'''Passive - ''Bestial Surge''''': When ever you cast you gain an extra 18% Charge Bonus and 5% vigour. Needless to say in a speedy hit and run faction like the Beastmen you will need as much of both as you can get.
*'''Viletide''': For 7 winds of magic you get an AOE kaboom that deals decent damage to unarmoured troops. Great for when you are in a grind and need to get the chaff out of the way so that you can fight better stuff but won't do dick against armour.
*'''Bray-Scream''' A cone shaped wind spell that can do decent damage with decent AP. It has very short range but for 5 Winds of Magic it can actually get you some very good damage against infantry with a ton of armor.
*'''Devolve''': For 11 winds this thing is essentially a mini Final Transmutation, and can do some serious damage to large unit sizes (100 and up ideally). Plus the leadership debuff can help with getting the enemy into a rout so you can chase them off. This is your best blob destroying spell and it's decent for what it is. All direct damage spells ignore armor. It does 1100 damage max, 2300 overcast both only against big enough units. Very cost efficient.
*'''Traitor-Kin''': Essentially an AOE Spirit Leech in that instead of doing a ton of damage to several models at once it will drain one model at a time til it dies and move to the next one. This means that it doesn't do as much damage as Devolve but will kill models. It also supplies a speed debuff for lord sniping, which is great for a faction that relies on outrunning their enemies. It's expensive at 12 winds though
*'''Mantle of Ghorok''': The only buffing spell this list has. It provides a meaty 50 Base Weapon Damage, 40% Melee Attack and 50% AP. Needless to say this is amazing for such an aggressive faction and will turn Minotaurs and Bestigors into killing machines. There is the downside of the -30 armour but.. come on man, you're playing the Beastmen. Unless you use this thing on Bestigors you wont even notice. You'll be more turned off by the 11 winds cost. Probably better against armoured opponents.
*'''Savage Dominion''': Ok let's be real. If you're one of the 3 people in this game who play the Beastmen and you're taking this Lore of Magic into an online match, this is why you're bringing it. I don't really need to tell you why getting 2 Cygors for free is really, really good. Not only do you have a solid monster but you also have an artillery piece to rain death rocks from afar. I don't care if it's 18 Winds of Magic, it's easily the best spell in the lore. You can only use it twice though, so use it wisely.

===Lore of Vampires (Vampire Coast, Vampire Counts)===
:'''Passive - ''The Curse of Undeath''''': Heals every undead unit on the map for a small amount over the course of 5 seconds, but in contrast to the Lore of Lifes passive, it can also bring models back. Not a game changer, but free healing is always nice.
*'''Curse of Years''': Not worth it. A big AoE debuff that lowers Melee Defense and Speed at a whopping cost of 16 Winds of Magic. Its general effectiveness is additionally offset by the fact that your Skellies or Deckhands are not all that good at melee in the first place and the debuff just too weak against Lords and Heroes (which are usually the preferred targets for debuffs).
*'''Gaze of Nagash''': Practically interchangeable with Shen's burning gaze from the Lore of Light. Meek Projectile with mediocre damage that also has a hard time even hitting its intended target. Skip.
*'''Invocation of Nehek''': This and Wind of Death are the main reason why the Lore of Vampires is so extremely powerful. Invocation of Nehek brings a very cost-effective heal to the table at a meager 6 Winds of Magic that also resurrects dead models - for 12 on the overcast variant, you get a very big AoE heal that helps especially the many monstrous, low entity units the Counts are able to field. Pumping a half-dead Vargheist or Mourngul unit up a few models can really swing encounters in your favor, not to mention the amount of cheese you can get out of this spell by combining it with the multitude of passive regeneration abilities the Counts have on a lot of units. Maxing it out on Campaign also makes it even cheaper (bringing down the cost from 6/12 down to 5/10) and since it's your first spell, there is no reason to not do so.
*'''Raise Dead (Vampire Counts)''': Summons a unit of Zombies for just 7 Winds. Summons are always awesome, since you can summon these bois behind the melee moshpit for nice charges into the back of your enemy for the additional rear attack moral penalty, or just keeping a nasty unit in the place of your choosing. The mileage of this spell of course depends greatly on your own creativity. The overcast gives you Skeleton Warriors with swords, which is negligible and usually not worth the cost of 13 Winds.
*'''Drowned Dead (Vampire Coast)''': Similar to its Vampire Count cousin, Drowned Dead summons forth a squad of Zombie Gunmen to help shoot down your foes. Fitting for the Vampire Coast considering how much they love guns. The overcast version summons forth a Zombie Pirate Gunnery Mob, but with handguns so they have more fire power, giving you a stronger edge. How useful this spell is depends on where they are summoned.
*'''Vanhel's Danse Macabre''': Sweet Little and extremely cheap buff (only 4 winds, 6 when overcast) that grants +24 Melee Attack and Speed like an inverse Curse of Years. Can be worth it on units like Grave Guard or Black Knights, usually situational, unlike Curse of Years its very low costs make it very useful in a pinch or as last resort spell, when your Magic Reserves have dried up and there's nothing else left to cast.
*'''Wind of Death''': Feast your eyes and despair, for you look at the most powerful offensive spell in the entire game. The only thing holding back is its extremely high price tag of 20 Winds (25 when overcast), so one cast will essentially drain your entire magic pool. But your one shot may as well end the game the instant you get it off. A very fast-moving wind spell that ''will'' evaporate any high model count unit in a single cast with a terrifying reach due to high AP magic damage. It's still effective against units with lower model counts and/or magic resist since it deals so much damage.

===Lore of the Big Waaagh! (Greenskins)===
:'''Passive - ''Power of da Waaagh!''''': Functionally identical to the Lore of Death attribute, every time you cast a spell it increases the recharge rate for all spells. Nothing fancy, but still useful.
*'''Brain Bursta''': Basically a green fireball. Deals decent damage in a large area from a decent distance. You should probably focus on the other spells in the list.
*''''Eadbutt''': A short, wide little breath attack that sends enemies flying. Great for disrupting enemy formations and pushing clumps of enemies around.
*''''Ere We Go''': A buff that gives a unit [[rip and tear|+40 melee attack]], allowing even weedy little goblins to punch above their weight. Absolutely horrific when used on Black Orcs, but there's basically nothing in the greenskin roster that doesn't appreciate krumpin' stuff.
*'''Fists of Gork''': A cheaper alternative to 'Ere We Go that provides +24 melee attack and defense. It's better to use on a lord or hero to give them an edge in a duel, but 9 times out of 10 you'll want 'Ere We Go instead.
*'''Foot of Gork''': '''SPLAT!!''' Summon Gork himself to stomp the shit out of your enemies with one of the most powerful spells in the game. Creates a giant explosion of armour piercing damage that can win the entire battle on its own if cast on the right target. The winds of magic cost is really steep, especially when overcast; but the damage potential cannot be overstated.
*'''Gaze of Mork''': Often overlooked, but not completely useless. Gaze of Mork is a cheap precise sniper-rilfe style spell that does decent damage to a single entity. The best part of the spell is the long range, which is good for greenskins who normally struggle when the enemy is too far away. Overcasting lets it trade shots with artillery all the way across the map.

===Lore of the Little Waaagh! (Greenskins)===
:'''Passive - ''Sneaky Stealin'''''': The polar opposite of the Lore of the Big Waaagh! passive, this one increases the recharge time for enemy casters. An interesting trait, but the effectiveness depends very strongly on what the opponent is bringing.
*'''Curse of Da Bad Moon''': A hilarious looking vortex that bounces around the map, dealing damage and reducing the speed, armour, and melee attack of whatever it touches. A useful debuff, but the spell moves around like crazy and can often come back to your lines.
*'''Gork'll Fix It''': A targeted hex that reduces enemy speed, charge bonus, and vigor. Tailor made to counter knights and chariots, who should always be the first targets. A pretty cheap spell only costing 7 winds of magic, but you get what you pay for.
*'''Itchy Nuisance''': Another Hex, this one decreases enemy weapon damage and melee attack. More generally useful than Gork'll Fix It, but not nearly as good against knights.
*'''Nightshroud''': A strange buff that gives all friendly units in an area Stalk and Undetectable, making them functionally invisible. A great way to protect your slower units from enemy shooting. Note that Undetectable stops working if the unit attacks or casts a spell, so it's pretty much useless on your archers.
*'''Sneaky Stabbin'''': A cheap and weak little spell that gives the target 18% more AP damage and +34 melee attack. Because the bonus to AP is a percentage and not a flat amount, it doesn't do much on units that struggle against armored foes (you know, the ones that really need it). Most of the time the longer duration and better melee bonus of 'Ere We Go! is better, but if you don't have an orc shaman it can get the job done.
*'''Vindictive Glare''': Launches a bunch of little magic missiles into the target, doing moderate magic damage for each missile that hits. Best against big targets so all of the missiles can hit the same target. Anything that helps you against monsters is useful for Greenskins.

===Skaven Spells of Ruin (Skaven)===
:'''Passive - ''Musk of Fear''''': Upon casting a spell, enemy units are inflicted with -13 Melee Attack and -4 Leadership. Considering the relatively spammy nature of the Lore of Ruin (in particular Warp Lightning) this may help your tarpits out considerably but don't rely on it to turn the tide of battle on its own.
*'''Warp Lightning''': Cheap bombardment spell, iconic to non-Pestilens Skaven casters and surprisingly powerful for the cost. There are many ways to buff this spell in campaign but it's also perfectly serviceable in multiplayer. Don't ever be conservative with this spell - it's dirt-cheap and you'll need repeated casts of it to really dish out the hurt. Laugh maniacally like Ikit and blast those tarpitted blobs whenever you see them!
*'''Howling Warpgale''': Despite the situational nature of this spell, it is absolutely vital that you take this spell whenever you start acquiring weapons teams. Flying creatures and units are countered hard by Jezzails and Ratling Guns but it's their speed and other pressing concerns of regular cavalry that can often end in a Feral Manticore or others tearing through your helpless gunners. But with this spell you can pin those flying beasties in the air and make them easy targets for your artillery and snipers.
*'''Death Frenzy''': A straightforward combat buff that can turn an outmatched fight into a much more balanced one. It's tempting to cast this on Clanrats to try to hold the line longer but there are better uses for this spell, like letting that Plague Censer-Bearer unit tear through your opponent's elite infantry and eliciting a serious WTF moment from them as you blow a hole in their infantry centre with crazed great-weapon rats pumped full of magic.
*'''Scorch''': A thin breath spell. One of the disappointments of the otherwise serviceable Lore of Ruin, it has a rather small hitbox that deals middling damage to anything not unarmoured chaff. Since the Skaven have better ways of dealing with unarmoured chaff, you're better off skipping this one.
*'''Flensing Ruin''': An unusual area-damage spell that Functions just like Final Transmutation (and has the same Winds of magic to damage ratio), it works best versus single entities and very small units (20ish or less unit size), if you get a group of good targets it's actually very efficient and powerful. Not worth using versus infantry and large units, just use warp lightning for them. Will effect any target clipped by its AOE in full just like flock of doom.
*'''Crack's Call''': Another area damage spell, this time a straight wind spell that's similar to Flensing Ruin in its AP potential. The shape of the wind spell lends itself well to thinning out hapless infantry eating up your Skavenslaves and Clanrats, so it's up to you if you want to use this as a in-between the Warp Lightning casts you're hopefully already spamming.
*'''The Dreaded Thirteenth Spell (Exclusive to Grey Seers of Ruin)''': ''Now'' we're talking. While only Grey Seer of Ruin lords can take this, it's the one spell both old 8th Edition veterans and Total War players will take regardless because of its sheer WTF potential - it's a large-area explosion spell that spawns a unit of sword-and-board Stormvermin right on top of whatever unfortunate infantry are left alive from the blast. The high Winds of Magic cost and long cooldown make this a risky proposition but when you see that chance to flip the table on that blob of chaff and create a dangerous opening in your opponent's formation, you turn to this spell. Maybe just use the cheaper summons from the lore of plague instead though, warlock masters are honestly better than grey seer's anyway.

===Skaven Spells of Plague (Skaven)===
:'''Passive - ''Plague Rash''''': Upon casting a spell in this Lore, inflicts -12% Speed on all enemies on the map. Absolutely amazing debuff, when combined with the sheer number of summons you can throw at incoming cavalry and fast movers, undoubtedly makes this Skaven lore not only the best for Skaven but one of the strongest Lores in the game.
*'''Bless with Filth''': Cheap poison attacks buff. Nothing much to say, it's a nice way of making those Clanrat Spears extra nasty against the big stuff. Gutter runners with poison slings are arguably more efficient.
*'''Pestilent Breath''': The signature breath spell for Plague casters. Good coverage, damage and low cost makes this a staple for clearing out enemy tarpits in short order. Despite not being very effective against armor, it can potentially disrupt the formation with the breath effect which you can take advantage of.
*'''Vermintide''': The earliest summon spell any of the Skaven casters can get and by far one of the most useful. Do not underestimate being able to suddenly summon Clanrats out of nowhere, they can easily become annoying roadblocks against enemy cavalry or delay infantry advances so that your artillery can shoot at them more. In a pinch, you can even throw them behind a unit in combat as a cheap way to inflict outflanked debuffs.
*'''Wither''': -30 Armour doesn't sound like much of a debuff but Wither stands out by having its duration be longer than the cooldown - meaning with patience you can make those high-armor targets naked for a brief period for maximum rape. Best to use this one on units already in combat that you really want dead quickly, either from grenades or Plague Monk attacks.
*'''Plague''': The best AoE damage spell the Skaven have by far and the most visually impressive as well. Absolutely amazing for crushing mobs of any kind while they eat worthless Clanrats from Vermintide, it has a stupidly low casting cost for the effect and damage area. The Plague is not to be trifled with and can turn the tide of the battle with careful usage.
*'''Pestilent Birth''': While Vermintide is the more defensive summon spell in this lore, this spell is for more aggressive players who would much rather like to win the infantry fight by any means. With this spell you can spawn a unit of Plague Monks nearby the caster - terrific for nasty back attacks or adding unexpected pressure onto an enemy unit chewing up Skavenslaves. A devastating spell if positioned correctly but still useful even if misplaced.

===Skaven Spells of Stealth (Skaven)===
:'''Passive - ''Toxic Rain''''': Applies Poison in an AOE around the caster. A weird passive that encourages you to keep your mage close to the enemy, which is normally the last place that you would want to keep you caster, especially one without any mount options. One of the many reasons why this is widely considered the worst lore of magic in the entire game.
*'''Skitterleap''': Grants Stalk, Unspottable and a small speed boost to all of the allies affected. Designed as an ambush spell that allows you to quickly move units around in a position to outflank your enemy. Given that this lore was designed to be used with Clan Eshin units it really only helps out said Eshin units. Other than that Skaven aren't much of a flanking faction so it doesn't help them out that much. Overcasting increases the AOE
*'''Warp Stars''': Fires a bunch of AP magic missiles at a target, increasing the number of projectiles when overcasted. Good for poking down units before a main engagement, though it doesn't do as much damage as other missile spells.
*'''Veil of Shadows''': Causes a massive, persistent explosion but does no damage. Designed to displace enemy units and provide a big hole for your units to run through. Great for unclogging gates in sieges against the AI, but the usefulness is questionable since a lot of spell have a similar effect and, you know, actually kill things. Overcast version slows as well.
*'''Armour of Darkness''': Provides armour and missile resistance for a limited amount of time, little extra if overcasted. Once again, since this lore is designed for Clan Eshin units it can help them be a bit more resilient in combat.
*'''Black Whirlwind''': A big AOE damage spell that displaces enemies and causes big damage. This is your crowd clearing spell, and to be fair it's actually not that bad at the job that it's supposed to do. It's biggest problem is other spells, even from other Skaven lores do the same thing more cost effectively. Overcast does more AP damage.
*'''Brittle Bone''': Lowers the speed, vigour, and Melee Defense of a target, making it AOE on overcast. A solid anti Cavalry spell that might actually allow the faster units in your army to catch up to them and bring them down. Probably the best spell on the list, which kind of goes to show how lack luster this particular Lore of Magic is in the first place.

===Rune Magic (Dwarfs)===
: No passive for you. Dwarfs don't use the winds of magic, so every spell in the Runic Magic will be completely free and instead rely on cooldowns that all spells share with each other - i.e. you cast one Rune, all of them will go on cooldown. Fortunately, this is only per Runesmith, so bringing multiple will allow you to cast multiple runes at a time. This does eat into your budget (Gold and Roster-wise), so consider carefully if you really want to invest in multiple Runesmiths.
*'''Rune of Negation''': Gives a unit 40% damage resistance for 24 seconds, 40 seconds if you overcast. This is pretty nice if you really want a unit to hold the line better than they already do (Ironbreakers with this will be untouchable).
*'''Rune of Oath and Steel''': You give a unit 30 extra armor, 60 if overcast. Honestly, this is probably the worst rune in the list due to diminishing returns. Dwarfs already have high armor so just giving them more doesn't really help them out in any way. Unless you're putting this on Slayers to help them against missiles, this one is probably best left skipped.
*'''Rune of Wrath and Ruin''': Casts a big fire explosion roughly the size of an Awakening of the Wood, and does extra AP when overcast. This will probably be one of the go to spells on the list since Dwarfs would love a big burst spell to help clear out chaff.
*'''Rune of Breaking''': Imbues Armor Sundering and extra base and AP Weapon Strength for 33 seconds, 55 if overcast. Can be really good for your frontline when fighting heavy armor enemies since you can cause your standard infantry to do more damage and help your non AP missiles burn down armor better.
*'''Rune of Speed''': Gives 24 melee attack and 45% speed for 18 seconds, 30 if overcast. Want to make Hammerers useful? Bring this. Having a rune that briefly covers one of your big weaknesses can help you actually use offensive tactics.
*'''Rune of Slowness''': Reduces Charge Bonus by 40%, Charge Speed and normal speed by 45% for 30 seconds, 45 if overcast. Really helps deal with chariots and cavalry, acting as a snare to help your missiles or Slayers get a hold of them.

===Lore of Ice (Kislev)===
:'''Passive - ''Frost Shield''''': Upon casting, all friendly units gain an increased 15 armor and 12 missile block chance. Considering that this is a faction that is a bit lacking in armor additional protection against missiles will not be a bad thing to have. Unfortunately its pretty bad vs most of the demons you'll be fighting.
*'''Ice Maiden's Kiss''': This is going to be your cost effective "get this low armor chaff off the field so my units can kill something more important" spell. It's pretty much just Wind Blast only with an ice theme and you use it pretty much the same way.
*'''Ice Sheet''': An area of effect spell that lowers enemy Speed and Charge Speed by 48% for 17 seconds and is extremely cheap. Obviously, this is going to be great against factions that rely on cavalry or are just very mobile in general. Since Winged Lancers and Gryphon Legion are very fast by heavy cav standards, you can use this to let them catch up to units they shouldn't be able to and dominate them. You can also make them easy targets for your ranged troops. Obviously there is no reason to bring this against super immobile factions like Dwarfs but all in all a solid spell against the right foe. Notably the speed reduction will stack with the frostbite status and the Tempest lore attribute, So you can nearly immobilize units by combining them.
*'''Frost Blades''': Your only aggressive buffing ability, it provides 25 % weapon strength and AP and gives a unit 25 melee attack. Using this on Tzar Guard can turn this from pretty decent infantry to surprisingly scary shredders, though given that the strength of your army relies on your missiles and cav you could argue that it is a waste to put this with your infantry. its only a single unit buff as well so maybe ok in multiplayer but when you fighting full stacks in campaign probably a waste of winds to buff one unit.
*'''Death Frost''': Spirit Leech but icy. Yeah, that's pretty much it. It does more damage that Spirit Leech though, so use it to help get rid of any single entities on the enemy list.
*'''Crystal Sanctuary''': Now THIS is what you want to use on your infantry. It grants a unit 66% damage resistance at the expense of not being able to move. Considering that your units aren't the best damage sponges this can really help you get a solid anchor in your infantry line since odds are they won't be moving any way. Put this on Tzar Guard and they will be holding for as long as Dwarfs. Not sure if this would work well in multiplayer since they'll just run away until the buff runs out but should be abusable vs the dumb AI.
*'''Heart of Winter''': The big damage AOE spell that also slows. It's a long duration spell that has 5 different stages, each stage increasing in both damage and slow. You can get up to a 60% slow if they stay in here for long enough. Of course, you have to worry about enemies just being able to walk out of it, so you may need to think of a way to lock them down. It's also very expensive, so probably a better in campaign then multiplayer spell. or maybe not used at all, its REALLY OVERPRICED, just use one of tempest more efficient damage spells.

===Lore of Tempest (Kislev)===
Lore Attribute reduces enemy speed map wide, pretty good combined with other sources of slow, Ice sheet, frostbite etc

*'''Gust of True Flight''': Grants a friendly missile unit increased range and accuracy. When overcast, it affects all units in an area. Kislev relies a lot on its ranged units, so this will be worth taking for range-heavy defensive builds.
*'''Hailstorm''': An icy version of the Lore of Fire's Piercing Bolts of Flame, bombarding an area with projectiles, and can be overcast for a longer duration and more projectiles. very cheap and efficient, best used on lightly armored units though.
*'''Swiftwing''': Grants friendly units inside an area increased speed and charge bonus. Overcast to affect a larger area. Probably going to be essential any time you're bringing a lot of cavalry to the fight, which you'll need against armies with more artillery than you. honestly not bad but not great, it would be more versatile if it increased MA or MD but not bad.
*'''Biting Wind''': Your basic damage wind spell. Can be overcast for increased damage, specially of the armor-piercing variety.
*'''Hawks of Miska''': A Vortex spell that has no AP, but it also applies reduces leadership and doesnt damage friendly units. Overcast for increased damage. Bring against lightly armored units and it can get tons of kills with no risk to your units.
*'''Blizzard''': Big bad stationary vortex that deals heavy damage in a large area and also applies Frostbite that slows enemies. Overcast for increased damage. Very good for all the same reasons as pit of shades.

===Lore of Yang (Grand Cathay)===
*'''Jade Shield''': Protective buff that gives a unit damage resistance, overcast it to increase the duration.
*'''Dragon's Breath''': Basic breath spell that, according to the description, also leaves behind a field of fire that damages enemies. Overcast for increased damage.
*'''Wall of Wind & Fire''': Pretty unique as far as wind spells go, as instead of being narrow and fast it's wide and slow. Overcast for bonus armor piercing damage.
**It lasts for quite a bit, akin to a very slow creeping barrage. Even though it's a "wall," units charging through it won't really take a lot of damage it. Best to use it on enemies already stuck in, to deal damage along the length of their unit.
*'''Stone Ground Stance''': Grants friendly units inside an area increased mass, Expert Charge Defense and bonus leadership. For when you really need your line to hold against cavalry and big monsters. Overcast to affect a larger area.
**Stacks with Harmony, other leadership sources (like a Lord, Sky Lantern), and the Jade Warrior defensive stance. Makes your infantry into wall, and your missile units the chance to survive a cav charge.
*'''Might of Heaven & Earth''': Grants a friendly unit magical attacks and flaming attacks, increased melee attack, weapon strength and armor-piercing damage. Overcast for a bigger bonus. Can turn your big melee hitters into absolute blenders.
**Your Celestials will love this, but is most obvious on your Sword Warriors, since their offense is sub-par and AP nonexistent.
**Celestial Crossbow do more damage than the Fire-Magix Sisters of Avelorn, but their missiles are only mundane AP.
*'''Constellation of the Dragon''': Makes a big area go kaboom for huge damage. Overcast for increases armor-piercing damage.

===Lore of Yin (Grand Cathay)===
:'''Passive - ''Power of Yin''''': Reduces Armor and speed of nearby enemies for a few seconds after casting a spell.
*'''Storm of Shadows''': Greatly reduces an enemy unit's speed. Overcast to affect all enemy units inside an area.
*'''Cloak of Jet''': Grants a friendly unit Snipe, Stalk and Unspottable, and can be overcast for a longer duration.
**Since you're not very speedy anyway, it's really good to hide your missiles from counter fire.
*'''Missile Mirror''': Probably the most unique spell of the bunch, you choose an enemy unit and for a few seconds reflect all their projectiles back at them. Can be overcast for a longer duration and larger range. Just imagine the hilarity of dropping this on some Ratling Guns or a Helstorm Rocket Battery. In MP, it's a bit less useful when you or your opponent can simply turn fire at will off, but it still shuts down a unit's shooting for some time.
*'''Blossom Wind''': Wind spell that also applies Blinded, so another spell that hampers missile troops. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage.
*'''Talons of Night''': Bog-standard vortex, it's stationary so that's a plus. Overcast for bonus damage.
*'''Ancestral Warriors''': Summons a unit of halberd-wielding Ancestral Warriors, and can be overcast for longer range. Summon spells are always good, particularly for missile factions like Cathay who like chaff units to hold the enemy back while blasting them with projectiles.
**Use on Large single-entities like Stonehorns or Mammoths that dont have magical attacks, so their attacks become pretty negligible.

===Lore of Tzeentch (Daemons of Tzeentch)===
: Many of Tzeentch's spells apply Warpflame, which reduces Armor and Fire Resistance.
:'''Passive - ''Fires of Change''''': Ward Save for all units for a few seconds after casting a spell.
*'''Blue Fire of Tzeentch''': Single-target magic missile that applies Warpflame. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. Extremely cheap at only 3 winds of magic and has no cooldown to cast with the prismatic plurality skill (lowers active cooldowns by 10 seconds every time you cast any spell). Spamming this unovercasted will eliminate your cooldowns and wear down single entities and monsters. Very cost effective if it hits. lackluster vs armored targets but still can be spammed to reduce cooldowns.
*'''Pink Fire of Tzeentch''': Breath spell that applies Warpflame. Overcast for bonus damage. Also very cost effective. Spam blue flame to eliminate pink fires cooldown. use overcasted to kill small groups of units or individual units efficiently.
*'''Treason of Tzeentch''': A debuff spell that lowers the Leadership of all enemy units inside an area and, if overcast, also their melee attack. Tzeentch has pretty poor melee, so something like this is useful to tip the scales.
*'''Glean Magic''': Increases your army's power reserves and recharge speed while reducing the opponent's. When overcast, the effect lasts longer. Obviously great for a heavily magic-based faction like Tzeentch.
*'''Tzeentch's Firestorm''': A randomly moving vortex that applies Warpflame, although a slightly more unique one, as it's actually three columns of flame moving randomly in an area, not just one single vortex. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. unfortunately 3 vortexes in different directions makes friendly fire even more of a problem.
*'''Infernal Gateway''': Stationary, high damage vortex. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. Does not apply Warpflame. very powerful and safer/more reliable than firestorm.

===Lore of Nurgle (Daemons of Nurgle)===
Lore attribute is just like life, a small map wide heal to all units
*'''Miasma of Pestilence''': Reduces the melee attack and charge bonus of an enemy unit, and can be overcast to affect all enemies inside an area. Plays into Nurgle's strengths of tanking damage.
*'''Stream of Corruption''': Basically Pestilent Breath from the Skaven's Lore of Plague, cone that deals damage and applies Poison, but thin and long instead of short and wide. Overcast for bonus damage. Actually very nice on infantry large AOE and easy to aim. efficient damage spell.
*'''Curse of the Leper''': Despite its name, actually a buff. Grants armour and damage reflection (!) to an allied unit, increasing when overcast. Great to let a Great unclean one or soul grinder tank though and grind down enemies.
*'''Rancid Visitations''': Bog-standard direct damage spell on an enemy unit that can be overcast for bonus damage.
*'''Blight Boil''': There's something hilarious about basically popping a giant zit on the enemy. Explosion spell that can be overcast for increased damage. Friendly fire is an issue but good aiming can make it a great way to kill infantry. or you can drop it on top of a great unclean one while surrounded by mobs.
*'''Fleshy Abundance''': Hell yeah. Targeted healing that can be overcast to affect all units inside an area. Nurgle is the tanky demon faction, so just imagine your opponent tearing their hair out as you just heal the damage they struggled to deal to your lardy dudes. Being able to use this AOE heal with all 4 demonic factions rosters is a major advantage of chaos undivided. regening Bloodthirsters and Keepers of secrets are insane. But also great for monogod nurgle.

===Lore of Slaanesh (Daemons of Slaanesh)===
Lore attribute boosts melee attack and leadership, actually very nice.
*'''Lash of Slaanesh''': Whip your enemies until they scream "harder dadd-" *ahem* I mean, deals damage in a cone, sends enemies flying, overcast for bonus armor-piercing. mediocre damage but cheap ap. it aims like a cone but its actually a line and it does most of its damage at the beginning of the aiming curser. ok way to cheaply trigger the lore attribute.
*'''Acquiescence''': Debuffs a unit's melee defense and speed, overcast for a great reduction in speed. Good to help your squishy units take on tough lords/hero’s/monsters.
*'''Hysterical Frenzy''': Increases a unit's melee attack and armor-piercing, but also makes them Rampage. Overcast for greater armor-piercing damage. Best used on keeper of secrets exalted or regular or a soul grinder, but mind their health. only works on friendly units. good but an overcasted mindrazor might be better due to AOE.
*'''Pavane of Slaanesh''': Direct damage spell that also reduces melee attack, and can be overcast for a longer duration. little expensive but good. Similar to Fate of bejuna from death is best vs medium size units so usually elite infantry or cavalry.
*'''Slicing Shards''': Bombards an area with projectiles, can be overcast for increased damage. Pretty meaty AP damage but also a bit expensive, actually quite good if you get a good hit/good targets.
*'''Phantasmagoria''': Reduces Leadership and PREVENT MOVEMENT for all units inside an area, overcast for a longer duration. You thought Net of Amyntok was strong? Here's her older, hotter, meaner sister. A potential problem (if CA doesn't rework how difficulty in the campaign works, that is) is that the leadership debuff is nullified by the buffs the AI gets - then it becomes just a far less efficient Net of Amyntok, in a faction that unlike, say, Tomb Kings or Empire has little trouble outmanuvering its opponent, hasn't got artillery or missile units to speak of that would need protection against cavalry and as such gets far less use out of an immobilization spell like this...

===Lore of the Great Maw (Ogres)===
*'''Braingobbler''': a -16 debuff to leadership
*'''Bullgorger''': Armour Piecing increased by 25% and melee attack increased by +24
*'''Bonecrusher''': Explosive Spell
*'''Toothcracker''': +30 armour and 22% added to missile resist
*'''The Maw''': A bigger explosion
*'''Trollguts''': A Health Regen spell
{{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}