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Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Daemons of Chaos

2022-03-15T21:12:28Z

2600:387:2:811:0:0:0:A6: /* Units */

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

==Why Play Daemons of Chaos?==
*Because why choose between flavors of Daemons when you can have all of them?
*Why would the denizens of damnation require mortal assistance to destroy the world?
*It's not everyday we get a bad guy faction that is actually reasonably flexible so this is a nice change of pace.
*Hey, what other factions lets you wreck the world with your perfect OC?
* You're really loyal to the 8th edition army book
* You really like playing dress up with your lord
* When you want to play as "Chaos" you want your army to look like multicolored vomit from beyond the ken of man
* Because you wanted some more time with the guy from the prologue cause let's be real, the story of the prologue campaign is more interesting than the main campaign.

===Pros===
*'''Flexibility''': Easily the biggest advantage this faction has over the Monogods. Since you have the Daemons from every god, you can actually pick and choose what kind of tactics you want to go for instead of going all out in one department. So if you want to rep Daemons but not get immediately counter picked because you picked Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle or Slaanesh this is the faction for you.

*'''Unbreakable''': What the fuck is going to scare you when you're literally a Daemon? Most of your units crumble instead of running away.

*'''Terror''': Fear and terror are going to be very common across your roster because, you know, literally crawled out of the pits of hell. Factions like Skaven or Beastmen who have leadership problems will find their forces running a ton.

*'''Quality''': Your units are all very good at what they do, and as such you have some very strong elite options that can fill out numerous holes in your roster. There really isn't a department that anyone can say you're weak in.

*'''Resistances''': Ward saves, physical resistance and magic resistance abound in this army. You can't throw a rock without hitting something that's resistant to some type of damage.

*'''Everyone is here!''': You are the only non DLC race that released with your entire 8th edition army book ready to go at launch. Your roster is MASSIVE, especially compared to your other game 3 counterparts and you have so many options to butcher your enemies with. Plus, no DLCS to worry about pay to win bullshit in multiplayer.

*'''Garrisons''': You have two garrison boosting building options for every settlement, stack both of these and you end up with unusually strong garrisons that can often beat AI armies solo, or easily crush them with an army garrisoned as well. helpful with the amount of enemies you face.

*'''Doomstacks''': Go undivided and you have access to all the elite units (soul grinders, greater demons etc) of all 4 factions, you also can get AOE healing on a flying mount from a Nurgle herald. Combine those and you have the possibly the deadliest single entity Doomstacks in the game currently. Undivded dedications is strongly recommended. Alternatively since all your hero's come from tier 3 buidlings you can pull off hero Doomstacks, and all 4 of your hero's are quite good in their roll.

===Cons===
*'''Lack of Specialization''': The downside to trying to appease all the gods at once is you don't get quite as good in any one department as going Monogod. Khorne will out fight you, Tzeentch will out magic you, Nurgle will out last you and Slaanesh will out run you. Add on to the fact that you don't get any of the Exalted Greater Daemons or Mortals in multiplayer (and must specially recruit them in single player) and you can feel how much they outweigh you in certain ways. If you only want to play one playstyle, you'd be better off with Monogods.

*'''Lack of Armor''': Evidently armor is hard to come by in the Realm of Chaos. Aside from a few options (mainly from Khorne) armor values are pretty low so missiles might be a bit of a problem if you can't shut them down.

*'''Expensive''': As is the trend with factions that have a ton of high quality stuff, price points might be a bit high. While you do have some chaff in the form of Nurglings, Blue Horrors, and Slaanesh Marauders, expect to go into most fights outnumbered.

*'''Lack of Updates''': You know how most factions get major updates alongside DLC? And you know how you have your entire roster? Yeah... While some balances changes are inevitable, don't expect big additions to your roster in the form of DLC. Though we may get some of the DLC units of the Monogod factions, if we're lucky that is.
**Exceptions may apply if CA gives Daemons of chaos pieces of DLC made for the dedicated gods. So if Khorne get's a DLC pack then Daemons might get a unit or two at the same time from that pack, but that is pure speculation.

*'''Hard as FUCK''': You are a demon so every single mortal hates you and is at war with you the moment they see you. Unlike the other daemons legendary lords, you start pretty close to Kislev and the Empire, which means you'll be at permanent war from turn 1. You start at war with an empire province , kislev and wood elves and dwarfs, who will send waves after waves at you. Your only respite is with the Norscan tribes and beastmen you can talk with.

==Universal Traits==

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

*'''Barrier''': All Tzeentch daemons have two health pools; their regular health pool, and their Barrier health pool. As long as some of the barrier is left, it will absorb the damage of anything that hits the unit. It probably won't be too big, but it'll be enough to buy your troops some time to do what they need to do. It recharges when out of combat, so it encourages a hit and run ranged style of combat for your ranged units.

*'''Cloud of Flies''': A trait shared by all Nurgle daemons. As they stay in melee combat they actively gain Melee Defense, encouraging you to let them grind it out against the enemy.

*'''Devastating Flanker''':most of your Slaaneshi daemons have this special ability which doubles their charge bonus when attacking an enemy unit from the flank or rear.

*'''Hellblade''': Some (not all) of your Khorne daemons get this ability, which gives them 20% base and AP damage when they get 60 kills. Designed to reward you for being aggressive with your units with more damage. It'll be easier to get this off on squishy swarm factions (you'll get this fighting Skaven in no time) than smaller tank factions (good luck getting this fighting Dwarfs or especially Lizardmen and Woodelves with all their single-entity beatsticks), although it might be reworked to relate to damage instead of raw kills, anything else would make fighting especially against Ogres a nightmare.

*'''Reign of Chaos''': As your lord deals damage a meter on the right hand side of the screen fills up, unlocking three different abilities at three tiers. This meter can fill up more than once, meaning that as long as you keep dealing damage you can unlock these abilities pretty much endlessly. Unlike the other Chaos God factions, who have three set tiers of abilities, your army abilities ''randomly select from the army abilities of the other four Chaos Gods''. You never know exactly what you'll get, only that it will be one of the four abilities for that tier.

==Lords==

===Legendary Lords===
*'''[[God-Slayer]]:''' Customisable daemonic version of Lich King. You can customize not just the look, but the playstyle of him depending on which Chaos God (or Gods) you decide to worship. Looks alone aren't everything though. Each item you can customize also impacts the God-Slayer's stats and abilities. Should you take the Chaos Undivided route, you get access to the entire roster of all 4 gods (there seems to be a myth floating around that you don’t get certain units, that’s untrue, you get the entire roster for every god as undivided) to form the rank and file of your armies. What you lack in specialization you more than make up for in versatility. keep in mind your tech boosts are not as strong at boosting some units as a monogod faction can be. dedication to a specific god gives fairly minor benefits compared to just going undivided, you still get access to tons of god gifts for all 4 gods as undivided. think carefully before dedicating to only one, because you still dont have the faction specific techs the monogod factions do.

:Be warned that he isn't very strong in raw stats unless you build in a specific direction, and because he has no sill tree he makes a mediocre caster unless you go full dedicated Tzeentch, and even then a hero is probably a better dedicated caster. You really want to focus on one area with your parts and stick to it if you expect him to compete with other lords. as a default I recommend mostly khorne if you want high durabillity and melee power. strangely khorne parts tend to make you tougher than nurgle parts. The nurgle wings and khorne/tzeentch tails which cause DOT in melee are particularly good.

*'''[[Be'lakor]]:''' Confirmed to be a LL for the Daemons of Chaos, he can be unlocked in campaign and custom battle by beating the single player campaign.

===Generic Lords===
-Heralds at lvl 15 can be switched to exalted greater demons but they loose slightly over half their levels to do so, you may sometimes be better off not upgrading. GUO are somewhat underwhelming in particular.
*'''Daemon Prince Undivided''':

*'''Daemon Prince of Khorne''':

*'''Herald of Khorne''': A melee focused lord who can be mounted on a Bloodcrusher or Blood Throne and has various AoE buffing abilities that boost the killiness of nearby units. - can be leveled into an exalted bloodthirsty at level 15

*'''Daemon Prince of Nurgle''':

*'''Herald of Nurgle''': A slow and tanky hybrid lord with either the Lore of Death or the Lore of Nurgle. Can be mounted on a Rot Fly or a Palanquin of Nurgle.- can turn to an exalted great unclean one at level 15- but I dont recommend it, honestly a flying spellcaster is probably more useful than a GUO.

*'''Daemon Prince of Tzeentch''':

*'''Herald of Tzeentch''': A dedicated caster lord with access to either the Lore of Metal or the Lore of Tzeentch. Can be mounted on a Disc of Tzeentch or a Burning Chariot, both of which give him added range attacks. - level 15 turn into lord of change option

*'''Daemon Prince of Slaanesh''':

*'''Herald of Slaanesh''': A fast and deadly hybrid lord with either the Lore of Slaanesh or the Lore of Shadows. Can be mounted on a Steed of Slaanesh, Seeker Chariot, or Exalted Seeker Chariot. Has the Devastating Flanker ability, as well as Loci buffs for nearby units. - level 15 turn in exalted keeper of secrets

===Generic Heroes===

*'''Alluress''': A hybrid hero with the Lore of Slaanesh and/or Shadow magic along with AP in melee. Your only hero choice with the Devastating Flanker ability. Can ride the Steed of Slaanesh, Seeker Chariot, or Exalted Seeker Chariot. Have selectable locus abilities and poison and magical attacks on all mounts. fragile but deadly.

*'''Bloodreaper''': He appears to be a combat/support character for going around murdering groups of infantry while also giving offensive buffs to your units. He can ride both a Juggernaut and a Blood Throne, making him a strong mobile threat. With AP and anti infantry he's a scary melee character that can also give other units a helping hand. Has an ability that gives 66% spell resistance to nearby allies, so a useful against magic heavy armies like Tzeentch or the Vampire Counts. or you can pick a locus to boost weapon damage or melee attack. Amusingly every single skill in his combat tree boosts weapon damage in addition to a secondary stat. They get insane weapon damage leveled and equipped with good gear.

*'''Iridescent Horror''': A more dedicated wizard hero, and also your only ranged hero. They have some Loci abilities that allow them to buff troops in combat without using magic. They come with the Lores of Metal and Tzeentch and can mount up on a Disk and a Burning Chariot. On the chariot he comes with a missile attack, allowing him to be pretty decent at kiting enemies. lore options aren't great but they can get a very powerful winds recharge skill to act as a winds battery if you dont want to use their own spells.

*'''Plagueridden''': Another hybrid hero with the Lore of Nurgle/Death and a lot more survivable in melee than the Alluress. Can be mounted on a Rot Fly or Palanquin of Nurgle. locus can do damage over time, or heal. Possibly the most useful lore options for many army setups as both death and nurgle are great, if using monsters then the nurgle AOE heal is amazing. spirit leach always great too on any flying mage. like all nurgle applies poison.

==Units==

===Infantry===

*'''Chaos Warriors of Khorne''': slower but heavily armored infantry in sword and board, dual axe, and halberd variants. slower and more defensive than your demon troops, if desperate for shields then the basic are good, but dual axe wont keep up with exalted demons in infantry killing power, halberd are your only anit-large troop with charge defense and AP so are a useful and viable niche unit all game long.

*'''Blue Horrors of Tzeentch''': Horrors will have a flaming range attack to pepper enemies from afar, though they will likely be the worse of the lesser daemons in combat (not that they will be useless). They will serve as your chaff infantry, meant to throw off some magic volleys then run in and die to hold for your more important troops. The range attack is meant more so as a precursor attack before charging into melee, especially since they only have 5 ammo. probably not going to see much use for legion, you have better screening units.

*'''Bloodletters''': Your mid tier Khornate unit, meaning that unlike Furies these guy might actually kill what they're fighting. They wield great swords with fire, magical, AP damage and anti-infantry, so they're really good at busting through armored infantry. As Daemons they're also unbreakable and contain nice defensive buffs, which is good because 30 armour isn't great. They will likely be your cheapest source of AP in the infantry fight, which will make them highly desirable when fighting heavy armor. a good reliable troop choice to build an army around, well rounded and deadly. Easier to use than Demonettes.

*'''Exalted Bloodletters''': Bloodletters plus. They're a very similar unit only just much better at the job but also much more expensive. These guys will let you carve through more elite options than your standard Bloodletters can. many guides have called these the best troops in the game so far, they can take any infantry unit in the game head on and win.

*'''Daemonettes''': Very fast, very AP heavy, and very squishy Daemonic infantry unit. Roughly equivalent to Wardancers, stats wise, but considerably faster. Has Devastating Flanker. Worse than bloodletters in frontal fights but better on the flank, performance depends heavily on how well they are used used. in legion lists you may be better off with seekers or chariots from Slaanesh as they have better speed, charge and poison.

*'''Exalted Daemonettess''': Faster, killier, sexier Daemonettes. Roughly equivalent to Bladesingers, stats wise, but considerably faster. Have the Devastating Flanker and Soulscent passive abilites.

*''' Nurglings''': The first real swarm unit in the game. While there are technically only 60 models in a unit, those models consist of roughly 5-6 Nurglings meaning there's roughly 300 of these little shits in the same unit. In terms of use, they're chaff and look to be damn good chaff at that. They have Vanguard in order to block the enemy attack and mostly just exist to waste the enemy time and wear them down. fast, vanguard deploying chaff unit with poison. tarpit with these then charge in your Demonettes and Bloodletters.

*'''Plaguebearers''': The tank to your Daemonettes and Bloodletter's spank. As slow as zombies and minimally armored, but decent melee stats, regeneration/poison, and a fuckheug HP pool means they'll hold for ages and grind most basic infantry to dust through attrition. keep in mind they are too slow to keep up with your faster units, if you want mobility maybe use Nurglings in their role instead. or if you want box tactics use then to guard pink horrors while they rain fire on the enemy.

*'''Exalted Plaguebearers''': Aside from being a standard upgrade, they have the ability to throw a smaller versions of the Plague Drone’s Death’s Heads at foes as they approach, similar to Dwarf Miners and Chameleon Stalkers.

===Missiles===
*'''Pink Horrors of Tzeentch''': Upgrades to the blue guys. Has a better flaming range attack, and actually decent melee stats. Sadly, it has been confirmed that they will not split into Blue Horrors upon death. Will likely replace Blue Horrors once you have the money for them, as they do everything that they do but way better.

*'''Exalted Pink Horrors of Tzeentch''': And the Pink Horrors will be replaced by these guys. They come with insane ranged damage, out damaging the elite skirmishers of other factions, and increase the Winds of Magic recharge rate for your army as long as they're alive. This will be one of your likely Doomstacks in the late game, as strong missiles combined with extra magic is something no one will want less of. low AP on the ranged attack, but with a missile damage of 35 heavily armored units still won't like being hit by these guys.

===Cavalry and Chariots===
*'''Plague Drone''': Same as Nurgle, your armor piercing flying cavalry. Comes in two variants, standard melee (essentially an upgrade of rot flies) and a ranged version that tosses Death’s Heads at their foes. you have two flying non-monster options as legion, Nurgle or Tzeentch. These offer poison and some ranged power, with decent melee ability. but late game a blood thirster or unit of doom knights may out compete them.

*'''Bloodcrusher''': An angry Daemon riding a Robo-Rhino. Well armored and has an Anti Infantry bonus.

*'''Blood Shrine of Khorne''': A support oriented single entity chariot. Tt will likely be the weakest of the motorcycle Khorne units in combat but will provide leadership and melee attack buffs to nearby units. Plus, it heals while it's in melee so the poorer melee stats won't be the worst thing in the world for it as it'll be hard to bring down.

*'''Burning Chariot:''' A flying ranged focused chariot that has one of the most devastating ranged attacks in the entire game. It can apparently shred monsters but has low armor ''and'' ammo to compensate. basically a better exalted flamer with flight, its ranged attack doesn't have a ton of AOE so its usually better vs single entities, and very low model units.

* '''Pox Rider''': Essentially just an upgrade to the Plague Toads, only with Plaguebearers on top of them instead. lack luster for legion, everything they can do is better done by other units.

*'''Seekers:''' Extremely fast light cavalry, unfortunately they don’t even have any armour, so cycle charging might be your best strategy when using them. Has Devastating Flanker and Vanguard deployment, making them well suited for getting right up in the face of range-heavy armies. also provide poison which is great. can be used instead of demonettes as flanking units due to greater speed, charge, and poison.

*'''Heartseekers:''' Named after the unit champion of Seekers, these things are most likely meant to be a straight upgrade. Unlike your regular Seekers these guys have the Soulscent passive ability which increases their armour piercing and melee attack capability when within range of an enemy unit with morale wavering or lower. Also has Devastating Flanker and Vanguard deployment.

*'''Seeker Chariot:''' A low model chariot unit with poison and Devastating Flanker. Super fast for a chariot but probably even more brittle when trapped in prolonged melee.

*'''Hellflayer:''' Essentially acts as a giant lawnmower, able to plough through infantry. Unfortunately it’s a wide target so might get singled out by ranged fire. Has Devastating Flanker but unlike the other chariots this one also has the Soulscent ability.

*'''Exalted Seeker Chariot:''' An extremely fast but extremely fragile single-entity chariot that will mow down any heavily armored infantry it comes across. Has Poison, Perfect Vigour, and Devastating Flanker.

*'''Doom Knights:''' flying monstrous cavalry with good stats and high armor, though at this level you have to ask if a Bloodthirster or Lord of change is better for a similar roll. use as hit and run to maximize their barrier.

===War Beasts===
*'''Chaos Furies (Undivided)''': Basically Chaos Furies who incorporate aspects from all the chaotic factions, with a preference depending on which side you are currently favoring.

*'''Flesh Hounds''': They share the same speed as normal Warhounds (95) but have a much smaller model count per unit but are much stronger and tougher. They also have magic resistance of 50% like Furies do. They seem to inhabit that space of smaller war hound units from Drycha and the Norscans, and act as light cavalry. You have better light cav from slaanesh and flying cav from nurgle, not sure these have a great use for legion.

*'''Screamers of Tzeentch''': flying ap anti-large harassers, with barrier of course, good early but should be replaced later on. need to be micro'ed for maximum effectiveness.

===Monsters===
*'''Soul Grinder of Tzeentch''': This thing channels the power of Zeus to chuck lightning bolts from its hands that do AP and Anti Large damage. It seems to be a very versatile unit as it can deal with large units from afar and still deal some good damage up close. It also has magic attacks, so it will also be hitting for most of its damage. Still pretty decent in melee, but it's the Anti Large range attacks you want this thing for. Their ranged attack is ok but has low ammo, honestly I think they are the least useful soul grinder but still good.

*'''Soul Grinder of Khorne''': A tanky cannon platform that can fire while moving. It also comes with a scattergun that does 800 damage with 120 range. The Khorne soul grinder can chop up the Tzeentch + Nurgle variants in melee, but gets it's ass handed to it by the Slaanesh version who traded the cannon away for anti-large choppy power.

*'''Soul Grinder of Nurgle''': Looks and acts like a 40K Plague Hulk, only replace the sword with a claw. It's good, anti infantry artillery and good melee power plus toughness.

*'''Soul Grinder of Slaanesh''': A purely melee version of the Soul Grinder with 75 speed, anti-large, and lots of armour piercing damage. compare and contrast with greater demons, I'd usually take a Bloodthirster or Keeper of secrets over this personally. but still good. Tougher than either greater demon but less mobile.

*'''Flamers of Tzeentch''': A mobile flamethrower unit that can pump out ludicrous damage to targets. Apparently still ok in melee, though don't expect them to last long against most dedicated melee units. They require good positioning to use effectively, especially since they only have 10 ammo. Notably it's the first flamethrower unit that has AP damage, which might signal some hope for things like Irondrakes or Warp Fire Throwers.

*'''Exalted Flamer:''' A single entity purple version that has one of the most devastating ranged attacks in the game, able to deal heavy damage to elite units and single entities. Downside is that it has very limited ammo, so every shot has to count. It also applies Fire weakness in both melee and ranged, allowing it to set up your other unit to do more damage to the enemy. Aoe on the ranged attack is not large, not very effective against infantry. more for dedicated single entity killing. burning chariots are this but flying so pretty much a straight upgrade.

*'''Burning Chariot''': an exalted flamer that flies, all the same applies to these.

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

*'''Fiend of Slaanesh:''' Imagine faster and bigger Rat Ogres with poison and you’ll get the idea. Able to keep up with the rest of your forces, but unfortunately have just as much armour as other Slaaneshi daemons. Has the Sophoric Musk passive ability which lowers enemy melee defense and melee attack. good flanking monstrous infantry unit.

*'''Lord of Change''' A flying bird that is said to be a full spellcaster. In campaign there are technologies that can unlock more spells for them, but game footage so far shows that in multiplayer they're limited to the Blue Fire of Tzeentch and the Pink Fire of Tzeentch. they arent good spellcaster though due to lacking overcast and cost reductions. It is a decent monster in melee, though don't expect it to go toe to toe with a Bloodthirster any time soon. in undivided armies not as useful because you lack the magic buffing technologies the monogod faction can get and ways to boost their barrier. They are ok but I cant see any situation where a Bloodthirster wouldn't be better. you can just use iridescent horrors on mounts if you want a flying mage. best used as hit and run to take advantage of barrier.

*'''Bloodthirster''': The smaller, more accessible version of its Exalted cousin. It trades a lot of the scary combat stats in return for Anti Large, making it more of a dedicated monster fighter. Aside from that, it functions as a cheaper version of the Exalted lord version. tough, deadly, fast, probably the easiest greater demon to use for undivided, and with a nurgle herald healing will never die.

*'''Rotflies''': Riderless Rotflies. They appear to be melee only, using their flight speed and armour piercing to harass enemy back lines.

*'''Plague Toads''': A surprising addition from the [[Forge World]] Throne of Chaos book, but a cool one non the less. Fairly slow, being giant amphibians and all, but have a very high charge bonus and do well against infantry. probably avoid, legion has better ant infantry options from slaanesh and khorne.

*'''Great Unclean One''': Nurgle's big bulbous boys of mass and rot capable of withstanding the blast from a hell cannon and shrug it off. These jolly green giants are casters of the lore of Nurgle and the massive swords they wield can shear through armour. like lords of change they aren't as useful in undivided as they are for pure Nurgle due to lacking some powerful tech buffs and they cant keep up with many faster units you're likely to use in an undivided force. highly vulnerable to ranged and low maneuverability. probably skip, a Nurgle soul grinder is much more versatile and can play a similar role.

*'''Keeper of Secrets:''' Slaanesh's Greater Daemon unit is fast, has lots of weapon strength and armor piercing, as well as Blissful Rapture, Devastating Flanker, and Strider. Can cast two spells from the Lore of Slaanesh: Lash of Slaanesh and Acquiescence. Will likely be a powerful duelist character but will struggle with dealing with hordes compared to the other Greater Daemons. Probably more powerful for undivided than for pure Slaanesh because while they dont have the same tech buffs they can be healed by Nurgle heralds which can pretty much eliminates their relative fragileness. great flankers and duelists. You need to use their speed, mass, and devastating flanker ability to hit and run targets for best affect.

===Artillery===

*'''Skull Cannon''': Your only artillery option, not counting the soul grinders. It has good range and damage, and its mobility allows it to keep itself safe from enemy ranged and cavalry that try to take it out. Plus, if something does get its hands on it, it'll be hard to kill with its high armor and ability to regenerate in melee. With good micro this thing has to potential to be frustrating as hell to play against. Of course, it has only 18 melee defense so if something does catch it it might take some hits, but they'll have to actually catch the damn thing first. If it runs out of ammo it can replenish it by killing enemies in melee.

==Campaign Strategies==

You start off in Norsca at war with Nordland, a nearby Norscan tribe and Kostaltyn.

It would be wise to maintain a non-agression pact with Skarbrand so he doesn't curbstomp you. . . although you start with it, a stable diplomacy with him may be easier said then done with the most bloodthirsty bloodthirster to ever thirst for blood in all of space and time, maybe think about dedicating to Khorne above the others.

Expand you territory towards the Kislevite factions while waiting for the Rifts.

Early on, you will get a mission to take the Bay of Blades, just ignore this. Taking the settlement will make you discover Laurelorn Forest, which is a bad idea unless you fancy being invaded by Wood Elves.

When building armies don't be overwhelmed by your giant roster, try to focus on using the best units from each faction and focus on synergy between units, use strategies that work for the monogod factions and then think which other units synergize. For example, Bloodletters or Khorne Chaos Warriors are amazing main troops that have great killing power and decent/good survivability, good support options are from Slaanesh (fast flankers with access to poison) to do hammer and anvil tactics, Nurgle (flanking flying units both with poison) and Tzeentch (Pink Horrors for ranged fire or Flamers) Warpflame makes them weaker to fire damage so boosts the Bloodletters' flaming attacks. Find units that work then support them. dont try to do everything at once.

When choosing how to allocate Glory, some things to prioritize early might be wings from Nurgle, tails from Khorne/Tzeentch and the first head from Khorne. This combination lets Daniel regen in melee and provides him two Mortis Engine effects. Other than that, the first bonus mechanic to unlock should be switchable plagues from Nurgle, one of them lets you vanguard deploy your whole army like you're Vlad.

==Multiplayer Strategies==

Having the favor of all 4 chaos gods means you can take advantage of their roster in ways nobody else can. Bring a plaguebearer frontline and support them with fast Slaanesh flankers. Trigger fire vulnerability with flamers of Tzeentch right before you slam your enemy with flaming attacks from bloodletters and skullcannons. Stack your army with expensive Khorne heavy hitters and back them up with healing from the lore of Nurgle. Use your imagination and go nuts.

Alternately, you can go for a mostly monogod strategy. Your opponent has to spread himself thin to prepare for every crazy combination you can pull out of your ass so a good chunk of his army will be stuck with unfavorable matchups if you go all in on one god. Building rosters for particular match-ups was a big part of TW2 and the unpredictability you get as Chaos Undivided means you have a high chance of winning the pre-battle mind game. Someone who brought a bunch of armor piercing to deal with armored Khorne units isn't going to be happy when they find out you bought an unarmored Nurgle/Slaanesh STD themed army.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Beastmen| Beastmen]]''': Nurgle Daemons are a great option against the squishy beastmen. Their lack of range units means Tzeentch Daemons are free to damage them without risk

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Bretonnia| Bretonnia]]''': Nurgle and Tzeentch Daemons are very useful. The former stops the Bretonnian charge while the latter burns them!

*'''Daemons of Chaos''':

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves| Dark Elves]]''': Slaanesh Daemons are a must to rip-through their armor

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Empire| Empire]]''': Flexibility vs flexibility

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay| Grand Cathay]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Greenskins| Greenskins]]''': Nurgle units are great at bashing the Orcs in melee. Tzeentch Daemons easily outclass them at range.

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Khorne|Khorne]]''': Biggest advantage is access to various Lores of magic. Use Nurgle melee units combined with Tzeentch range.

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

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

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Nurgle| Nurgle]]''': Use Tzeentch Daemons to whittle them down and force them to rush you, that's when you use Slaanesh Daemons to flank and finish them off

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Ogre Kingdoms| Ogre Kingdoms]]''': Tzeentch/Nurgle or Slaanesh/Nurgle combo is great here

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Slaanesh| Slaanesh]]''': A combined Nurgle-Tzeentch army would counter and decimate Slaanesh

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tzeentch| Tzeentch]]''': Play mostly with Slaanesh units with a few Tzeentch/Nurgle air units. Use Nurgle's Lore to heal the squishy Slaanesh units.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast| Vampire Coast]]''': Nurgle-Slaanesh combo is good here

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| Wood Elves]]''': This is one match up Daemons Undivided has a better chance than all of the Monogod factions. Combining Nurgle units (to absorb hits and slowly advance at the Wood Elves) with Tzeentch (for range damage to quickly obliterate squishy Elves) or Slaanesh (to outflank and brutally overrun them) to deal a lot of damage

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Daemons of Chaos

2022-03-15T21:06:54Z

2600:387:2:811:0:0:0:A6: /* Generic Heroes */

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

==Why Play Daemons of Chaos?==
*Because why choose between flavors of Daemons when you can have all of them?
*Why would the denizens of damnation require mortal assistance to destroy the world?
*It's not everyday we get a bad guy faction that is actually reasonably flexible so this is a nice change of pace.
*Hey, what other factions lets you wreck the world with your perfect OC?
* You're really loyal to the 8th edition army book
* You really like playing dress up with your lord
* When you want to play as "Chaos" you want your army to look like multicolored vomit from beyond the ken of man
* Because you wanted some more time with the guy from the prologue cause let's be real, the story of the prologue campaign is more interesting than the main campaign.

===Pros===
*'''Flexibility''': Easily the biggest advantage this faction has over the Monogods. Since you have the Daemons from every god, you can actually pick and choose what kind of tactics you want to go for instead of going all out in one department. So if you want to rep Daemons but not get immediately counter picked because you picked Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle or Slaanesh this is the faction for you.

*'''Unbreakable''': What the fuck is going to scare you when you're literally a Daemon? Most of your units crumble instead of running away.

*'''Terror''': Fear and terror are going to be very common across your roster because, you know, literally crawled out of the pits of hell. Factions like Skaven or Beastmen who have leadership problems will find their forces running a ton.

*'''Quality''': Your units are all very good at what they do, and as such you have some very strong elite options that can fill out numerous holes in your roster. There really isn't a department that anyone can say you're weak in.

*'''Resistances''': Ward saves, physical resistance and magic resistance abound in this army. You can't throw a rock without hitting something that's resistant to some type of damage.

*'''Everyone is here!''': You are the only non DLC race that released with your entire 8th edition army book ready to go at launch. Your roster is MASSIVE, especially compared to your other game 3 counterparts and you have so many options to butcher your enemies with. Plus, no DLCS to worry about pay to win bullshit in multiplayer.

*'''Garrisons''': You have two garrison boosting building options for every settlement, stack both of these and you end up with unusually strong garrisons that can often beat AI armies solo, or easily crush them with an army garrisoned as well. helpful with the amount of enemies you face.

*'''Doomstacks''': Go undivided and you have access to all the elite units (soul grinders, greater demons etc) of all 4 factions, you also can get AOE healing on a flying mount from a Nurgle herald. Combine those and you have the possibly the deadliest single entity Doomstacks in the game currently. Undivded dedications is strongly recommended. Alternatively since all your hero's come from tier 3 buidlings you can pull off hero Doomstacks, and all 4 of your hero's are quite good in their roll.

===Cons===
*'''Lack of Specialization''': The downside to trying to appease all the gods at once is you don't get quite as good in any one department as going Monogod. Khorne will out fight you, Tzeentch will out magic you, Nurgle will out last you and Slaanesh will out run you. Add on to the fact that you don't get any of the Exalted Greater Daemons or Mortals in multiplayer (and must specially recruit them in single player) and you can feel how much they outweigh you in certain ways. If you only want to play one playstyle, you'd be better off with Monogods.

*'''Lack of Armor''': Evidently armor is hard to come by in the Realm of Chaos. Aside from a few options (mainly from Khorne) armor values are pretty low so missiles might be a bit of a problem if you can't shut them down.

*'''Expensive''': As is the trend with factions that have a ton of high quality stuff, price points might be a bit high. While you do have some chaff in the form of Nurglings, Blue Horrors, and Slaanesh Marauders, expect to go into most fights outnumbered.

*'''Lack of Updates''': You know how most factions get major updates alongside DLC? And you know how you have your entire roster? Yeah... While some balances changes are inevitable, don't expect big additions to your roster in the form of DLC. Though we may get some of the DLC units of the Monogod factions, if we're lucky that is.
**Exceptions may apply if CA gives Daemons of chaos pieces of DLC made for the dedicated gods. So if Khorne get's a DLC pack then Daemons might get a unit or two at the same time from that pack, but that is pure speculation.

*'''Hard as FUCK''': You are a demon so every single mortal hates you and is at war with you the moment they see you. Unlike the other daemons legendary lords, you start pretty close to Kislev and the Empire, which means you'll be at permanent war from turn 1. You start at war with an empire province , kislev and wood elves and dwarfs, who will send waves after waves at you. Your only respite is with the Norscan tribes and beastmen you can talk with.

==Universal Traits==

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

*'''Barrier''': All Tzeentch daemons have two health pools; their regular health pool, and their Barrier health pool. As long as some of the barrier is left, it will absorb the damage of anything that hits the unit. It probably won't be too big, but it'll be enough to buy your troops some time to do what they need to do. It recharges when out of combat, so it encourages a hit and run ranged style of combat for your ranged units.

*'''Cloud of Flies''': A trait shared by all Nurgle daemons. As they stay in melee combat they actively gain Melee Defense, encouraging you to let them grind it out against the enemy.

*'''Devastating Flanker''':most of your Slaaneshi daemons have this special ability which doubles their charge bonus when attacking an enemy unit from the flank or rear.

*'''Hellblade''': Some (not all) of your Khorne daemons get this ability, which gives them 20% base and AP damage when they get 60 kills. Designed to reward you for being aggressive with your units with more damage. It'll be easier to get this off on squishy swarm factions (you'll get this fighting Skaven in no time) than smaller tank factions (good luck getting this fighting Dwarfs or especially Lizardmen and Woodelves with all their single-entity beatsticks), although it might be reworked to relate to damage instead of raw kills, anything else would make fighting especially against Ogres a nightmare.

*'''Reign of Chaos''': As your lord deals damage a meter on the right hand side of the screen fills up, unlocking three different abilities at three tiers. This meter can fill up more than once, meaning that as long as you keep dealing damage you can unlock these abilities pretty much endlessly. Unlike the other Chaos God factions, who have three set tiers of abilities, your army abilities ''randomly select from the army abilities of the other four Chaos Gods''. You never know exactly what you'll get, only that it will be one of the four abilities for that tier.

==Lords==

===Legendary Lords===
*'''[[God-Slayer]]:''' Customisable daemonic version of Lich King. You can customize not just the look, but the playstyle of him depending on which Chaos God (or Gods) you decide to worship. Looks alone aren't everything though. Each item you can customize also impacts the God-Slayer's stats and abilities. Should you take the Chaos Undivided route, you get access to the entire roster of all 4 gods (there seems to be a myth floating around that you don’t get certain units, that’s untrue, you get the entire roster for every god as undivided) to form the rank and file of your armies. What you lack in specialization you more than make up for in versatility. keep in mind your tech boosts are not as strong at boosting some units as a monogod faction can be. dedication to a specific god gives fairly minor benefits compared to just going undivided, you still get access to tons of god gifts for all 4 gods as undivided. think carefully before dedicating to only one, because you still dont have the faction specific techs the monogod factions do.

:Be warned that he isn't very strong in raw stats unless you build in a specific direction, and because he has no sill tree he makes a mediocre caster unless you go full dedicated Tzeentch, and even then a hero is probably a better dedicated caster. You really want to focus on one area with your parts and stick to it if you expect him to compete with other lords. as a default I recommend mostly khorne if you want high durabillity and melee power. strangely khorne parts tend to make you tougher than nurgle parts. The nurgle wings and khorne/tzeentch tails which cause DOT in melee are particularly good.

*'''[[Be'lakor]]:''' Confirmed to be a LL for the Daemons of Chaos, he can be unlocked in campaign and custom battle by beating the single player campaign.

===Generic Lords===
-Heralds at lvl 15 can be switched to exalted greater demons but they loose slightly over half their levels to do so, you may sometimes be better off not upgrading. GUO are somewhat underwhelming in particular.
*'''Daemon Prince Undivided''':

*'''Daemon Prince of Khorne''':

*'''Herald of Khorne''': A melee focused lord who can be mounted on a Bloodcrusher or Blood Throne and has various AoE buffing abilities that boost the killiness of nearby units. - can be leveled into an exalted bloodthirsty at level 15

*'''Daemon Prince of Nurgle''':

*'''Herald of Nurgle''': A slow and tanky hybrid lord with either the Lore of Death or the Lore of Nurgle. Can be mounted on a Rot Fly or a Palanquin of Nurgle.- can turn to an exalted great unclean one at level 15- but I dont recommend it, honestly a flying spellcaster is probably more useful than a GUO.

*'''Daemon Prince of Tzeentch''':

*'''Herald of Tzeentch''': A dedicated caster lord with access to either the Lore of Metal or the Lore of Tzeentch. Can be mounted on a Disc of Tzeentch or a Burning Chariot, both of which give him added range attacks. - level 15 turn into lord of change option

*'''Daemon Prince of Slaanesh''':

*'''Herald of Slaanesh''': A fast and deadly hybrid lord with either the Lore of Slaanesh or the Lore of Shadows. Can be mounted on a Steed of Slaanesh, Seeker Chariot, or Exalted Seeker Chariot. Has the Devastating Flanker ability, as well as Loci buffs for nearby units. - level 15 turn in exalted keeper of secrets

===Generic Heroes===

*'''Alluress''': A hybrid hero with the Lore of Slaanesh and/or Shadow magic along with AP in melee. Your only hero choice with the Devastating Flanker ability. Can ride the Steed of Slaanesh, Seeker Chariot, or Exalted Seeker Chariot. Have selectable locus abilities and poison and magical attacks on all mounts. fragile but deadly.

*'''Bloodreaper''': He appears to be a combat/support character for going around murdering groups of infantry while also giving offensive buffs to your units. He can ride both a Juggernaut and a Blood Throne, making him a strong mobile threat. With AP and anti infantry he's a scary melee character that can also give other units a helping hand. Has an ability that gives 66% spell resistance to nearby allies, so a useful against magic heavy armies like Tzeentch or the Vampire Counts. or you can pick a locus to boost weapon damage or melee attack. Amusingly every single skill in his combat tree boosts weapon damage in addition to a secondary stat. They get insane weapon damage leveled and equipped with good gear.

*'''Iridescent Horror''': A more dedicated wizard hero, and also your only ranged hero. They have some Loci abilities that allow them to buff troops in combat without using magic. They come with the Lores of Metal and Tzeentch and can mount up on a Disk and a Burning Chariot. On the chariot he comes with a missile attack, allowing him to be pretty decent at kiting enemies. lore options aren't great but they can get a very powerful winds recharge skill to act as a winds battery if you dont want to use their own spells.

*'''Plagueridden''': Another hybrid hero with the Lore of Nurgle/Death and a lot more survivable in melee than the Alluress. Can be mounted on a Rot Fly or Palanquin of Nurgle. locus can do damage over time, or heal. Possibly the most useful lore options for many army setups as both death and nurgle are great, if using monsters then the nurgle AOE heal is amazing. spirit leach always great too on any flying mage. like all nurgle applies poison.

==Units==

===Infantry===

*'''Chaos Warriors of Khorne''': slower but heavily armored infantry in sword and board, dual axe, and halberd variants. slower and more defensive than your demon troops, if desperate for shields then the basic are good, but dual axe wont keep up with exalted demons in infantry killing power, halberd are your only anit-large troop with charge defense and AP so are a useful and viable niche unit all game long.

*'''Blue Horrors of Tzeentch''': Horrors will have a flaming range attack to pepper enemies from afar, though they will likely be the worse of the lesser daemons in combat (not that they will be useless). They will serve as your chaff infantry, meant to throw off some magic volleys then run in and die to hold for your more important troops. The range attack is meant more so as a precursor attack before charging into melee, especially since they only have 5 ammo. probably not going to see much use for legion, you have better screening units.

*'''Bloodletters''': Your mid tier Khornate unit, meaning that unlike Furies these guy might actually kill what they're fighting. They wield great swords with fire, magical, AP damage and anti-infantry, so they're really good at busting through armored infantry. As Daemons they're also unbreakable and contain nice defensive buffs, which is good because 30 armour isn't great. They will likely be your cheapest source of AP in the infantry fight, which will make them highly desirable when fighting heavy armor. a good reliable troop choice to build an army around, well rounded and deadly. Easier to use than Demonettes.

*'''Exalted Bloodletters''': Bloodletters plus. They're a very similar unit only just much better at the job but also much more expensive. These guys will let you carve through more elite options than your standard Bloodletters can. many guides have called these the best troops in the game so far, they can take any infantry unit in the game head on and win.

*'''Daemonettes''': Very fast, very AP heavy, and very squishy Daemonic infantry unit. Roughly equivalent to Wardancers, stats wise, but considerably faster. Has Devastating Flanker. Worse than bloodletters in frontal fights but better on the flank, performance depends heavily on how well they are used used. in legion list you may be better off with seekers or chariots for slaanesh they have better speed and charge as well as poison. if your using a bloodletter or plaguebearer frontline both will make for better flankers than demonettes.

*'''Exalted Daemonettess''': Faster, killier, sexier Daemonettes. Roughly equivalent to Bladesingers, stats wise, but considerably faster. Have the Devastating Flanker and Soulscent passive abilites.

*''' Nurglings''': The first real swarm unit in the game. While there are technically only 60 models in a unit, those models consist of roughly 5-6 Nurglings meaning there's roughly 300 of these little shits in the same unit. In terms of use, they're chaff and look to be damn good chaff at that. They have Vanguard in order to block the enemy attack and mostly just exist to waste the enemy time and wear them down. fast, vanguard deploying chaff unit with poison. tarpit with these then charge in your Demonettes and Bloodletters.

*'''Plaguebearers''': The tank to your Daemonettes and Bloodletter's spank. As slow as zombies and minimally armored, but decent melee stats, regeneration/poison, and a fuckheug HP pool means they'll hold for ages and grind most basic infantry to dust through attrition. keep in mind they are too slow to keep up with your faster units, if you want mobility maybe use Nurglings in their role instead. or if you want box tactics use then to guard pink horrors while they rain fire on the enemy.

*'''Exalted Plaguebearers''': Aside from being a standard upgrade, they have the ability to throw a smaller versions of the Plague Drone’s Death’s Heads at foes as they approach, similar to Dwarf Miners and Chameleon Stalkers.

===Missiles===
*'''Pink Horrors of Tzeentch''': Upgrades to the blue guys. Has a better flaming range attack, and actually decent melee stats. Sadly, it has been confirmed that they will not split into Blue Horrors upon death. Will likely replace Blue Horrors once you have the money for them, as they do everything that they do but way better.

*'''Exalted Pink Horrors of Tzeentch''': And the Pink Horrors will be replaced by these guys. They come with insane ranged damage, out damaging the elite skirmishers of other factions, and increase the Winds of Magic recharge rate for your army as long as they're alive. This will be one of your likely Doomstacks in the late game, as strong missiles combined with extra magic is something no one will want less of. low AP on the ranged attack, but with a missile damage of 35 heavily armored units still won't like being hit by these guys.

===Cavalry and Chariots===
*'''Plague Drone''': Same as Nurgle, your armor piercing flying cavalry. Comes in two variants, standard melee (essentially an upgrade of rot flies) and a ranged version that tosses Death’s Heads at their foes. you have two flying non-monster options as legion, Nurgle or Tzeentch. These offer poison and some ranged power, with decent melee ability. but late game a blood thirster or unit of doom knights may out compete them.

*'''Bloodcrusher''': An angry Daemon riding a Robo-Rhino. Well armored and has an Anti Infantry bonus.

*'''Blood Shrine of Khorne''': A support oriented single entity chariot. Tt will likely be the weakest of the motorcycle Khorne units in combat but will provide leadership and melee attack buffs to nearby units. Plus, it heals while it's in melee so the poorer melee stats won't be the worst thing in the world for it as it'll be hard to bring down.

*'''Burning Chariot:''' A flying ranged focused chariot that has one of the most devastating ranged attacks in the entire game. It can apparently shred monsters but has low armor ''and'' ammo to compensate. basically a better exalted flamer with flight, its ranged attack doesn't have a ton of AOE so its usually better vs single entities, and very low model units.

* '''Pox Rider''': Essentially just an upgrade to the Plague Toads, only with Plaguebearers on top of them instead. lack luster for legion, everything they can do is better done by other units.

*'''Seekers:''' Extremely fast light cavalry, unfortunately they don’t even have any armour, so cycle charging might be your best strategy when using them. Has Devastating Flanker and Vanguard deployment, making them well suited for getting right up in the face of range-heavy armies. also provide poison which is great. can be used instead of demonettes as flanking units due to greater speed, charge, and poison.

*'''Heartseekers:''' Named after the unit champion of Seekers, these things are most likely meant to be a straight upgrade. Unlike your regular Seekers these guys have the Soulscent passive ability which increases their armour piercing and melee attack capability when within range of an enemy unit with morale wavering or lower. Also has Devastating Flanker and Vanguard deployment.

*'''Seeker Chariot:''' A low model chariot unit with poison and Devastating Flanker. Super fast for a chariot but probably even more brittle when trapped in prolonged melee.

*'''Hellflayer:''' Essentially acts as a giant lawnmower, able to plough through infantry. Unfortunately it’s a wide target so might get singled out by ranged fire. Has Devastating Flanker but unlike the other chariots this one also has the Soulscent ability.

*'''Exalted Seeker Chariot:''' An extremely fast but extremely fragile single-entity chariot that will mow down any heavily armored infantry it comes across. Has Poison, Perfect Vigour, and Devastating Flanker.

*'''Doom Knights:''' flying monstrous cavalry with good stats and high armor, though at this level you have to ask if a Bloodthirster or Lord of change is better for a similar roll. use as hit and run to maximize their barrier.

===War Beasts===
*'''Chaos Furies (Undivided)''': Basically Chaos Furies who incorporate aspects from all the chaotic factions, with a preference depending on which side you are currently favoring.

*'''Flesh Hounds''': They share the same speed as normal Warhounds (95) but have a much smaller model count per unit but are much stronger and tougher. They also have magic resistance of 50% like Furies do. They seem to inhabit that space of smaller war hound units from Drycha and the Norscans, and act as light cavalry. You have better light cav from slaanesh and flying cav from nurgle, not sure these have a great use for legion.

*'''Screamers of Tzeentch''': flying ap anti-large harassers, with barrier of course, good early but should be replaced later on. need to be micro'ed for maximum effectiveness.

===Monsters===
*'''Soul Grinder of Tzeentch''': This thing channels the power of Zeus to chuck lightning bolts from its hands that do AP and Anti Large damage. It seems to be a very versatile unit as it can deal with large units from afar and still deal some good damage up close. It also has magic attacks, so it will also be hitting for most of its damage. Still pretty decent in melee, but it's the Anti Large range attacks you want this thing for. Their ranged attack is ok but has low ammo, honestly I think they are the least useful soul grinder but still good.

*'''Soul Grinder of Khorne''': A tanky cannon platform that can fire while moving. It also comes with a scattergun that does 800 damage with 120 range. The Khorne soul grinder can chop up the Tzeentch + Nurgle variants in melee, but gets it's ass handed to it by the Slaanesh version who traded the cannon away for anti-large choppy power.

*'''Soul Grinder of Nurgle''': Looks and acts like a 40K Plague Hulk, only replace the sword with a claw. It's good, anti infantry artillery and good melee power plus toughness.

*'''Soul Grinder of Slaanesh''': A purely melee version of the Soul Grinder with 75 speed, anti-large, and lots of armour piercing damage. compare and contrast with greater demons, I'd usually take a Bloodthirster or Keeper of secrets over this personally. but still good. Tougher than either greater demon but less mobile.

*'''Flamers of Tzeentch''': A mobile flamethrower unit that can pump out ludicrous damage to targets. Apparently still ok in melee, though don't expect them to last long against most dedicated melee units. They require good positioning to use effectively, especially since they only have 10 ammo. Notably it's the first flamethrower unit that has AP damage, which might signal some hope for things like Irondrakes or Warp Fire Throwers.

*'''Exalted Flamer:''' A single entity purple version that has one of the most devastating ranged attacks in the game, able to deal heavy damage to elite units and single entities. Downside is that it has very limited ammo, so every shot has to count. It also applies Fire weakness in both melee and ranged, allowing it to set up your other unit to do more damage to the enemy. Aoe on the ranged attack is not large, not very effective against infantry. more for dedicated single entity killing. burning chariots are this but flying so pretty much a straight upgrade.

*'''Burning Chariot''': an exalted flamer that flies, all the same applies to these.

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

*'''Fiend of Slaanesh:''' Imagine faster and bigger Rat Ogres with poison and you’ll get the idea. Able to keep up with the rest of your forces, but unfortunately have just as much armour as other Slaaneshi daemons. Has the Sophoric Musk passive ability which lowers enemy melee defense and melee attack. good flanking monstrous infantry unit.

*'''Lord of Change''' A flying bird that is said to be a full spellcaster. In campaign there are technologies that can unlock more spells for them, but game footage so far shows that in multiplayer they're limited to the Blue Fire of Tzeentch and the Pink Fire of Tzeentch. they arent good spellcaster though due to lacking overcast and cost reductions. It is a decent monster in melee, though don't expect it to go toe to toe with a Bloodthirster any time soon. in undivided armies not as useful because you lack the magic buffing technologies the monogod faction can get and ways to boost their barrier. They are ok but I cant see any situation where a Bloodthirster wouldn't be better. you can just use iridescent horrors on mounts if you want a flying mage. best used as hit and run to take advantage of barrier.

*'''Bloodthirster''': The smaller, more accessible version of its Exalted cousin. It trades a lot of the scary combat stats in return for Anti Large, making it more of a dedicated monster fighter. Aside from that, it functions as a cheaper version of the Exalted lord version. tough, deadly, fast, probably the easiest greater demon to use for undivided, and with a nurgle herald healing will never die.

*'''Rotflies''': Riderless Rotflies. They appear to be melee only, using their flight speed and armour piercing to harass enemy back lines.

*'''Plague Toads''': A surprising addition from the [[Forge World]] Throne of Chaos book, but a cool one non the less. Fairly slow, being giant amphibians and all, but have a very high charge bonus and do well against infantry. probably avoid, legion has better ant infantry options from slaanesh and khorne.

*'''Great Unclean One''': Nurgle's big bulbous boys of mass and rot capable of withstanding the blast from a hell cannon and shrug it off. These jolly green giants are casters of the lore of Nurgle and the massive swords they wield can shear through armour. like lords of change they aren't as useful in undivided as they are for pure Nurgle due to lacking some powerful tech buffs and they cant keep up with many faster units you're likely to use in an undivided force. highly vulnerable to ranged and low maneuverability. probably skip, a Nurgle soul grinder is much more versatile and can play a similar role.

*'''Keeper of Secrets:''' Slaanesh's Greater Daemon unit is fast, has lots of weapon strength and armor piercing, as well as Blissful Rapture, Devastating Flanker, and Strider. Can cast two spells from the Lore of Slaanesh: Lash of Slaanesh and Acquiescence. Will likely be a powerful duelist character but will struggle with dealing with hordes compared to the other Greater Daemons. Probably more powerful for undivided than for pure Slaanesh because while they dont have the same tech buffs they can be healed by Nurgle heralds which can pretty much eliminates their relative fragileness. great flankers and duelists. You need to use their speed, mass, and devastating flanker ability to hit and run targets for best affect.

===Artillery===

*'''Skull Cannon''': Your only artillery option, not counting the soul grinders. It has good range and damage, and its mobility allows it to keep itself safe from enemy ranged and cavalry that try to take it out. Plus, if something does get its hands on it, it'll be hard to kill with its high armor and ability to regenerate in melee. With good micro this thing has to potential to be frustrating as hell to play against. Of course, it has only 18 melee defense so if something does catch it it might take some hits, but they'll have to actually catch the damn thing first. If it runs out of ammo it can replenish it by killing enemies in melee.

==Campaign Strategies==

You start off in Norsca at war with Nordland, a nearby Norscan tribe and Kostaltyn.

It would be wise to maintain a non-agression pact with Skarbrand so he doesn't curbstomp you. . . although you start with it, a stable diplomacy with him may be easier said then done with the most bloodthirsty bloodthirster to ever thirst for blood in all of space and time, maybe think about dedicating to Khorne above the others.

Expand you territory towards the Kislevite factions while waiting for the Rifts.

Early on, you will get a mission to take the Bay of Blades, just ignore this. Taking the settlement will make you discover Laurelorn Forest, which is a bad idea unless you fancy being invaded by Wood Elves.

When building armies don't be overwhelmed by your giant roster, try to focus on using the best units from each faction and focus on synergy between units, use strategies that work for the monogod factions and then think which other units synergize. For example, Bloodletters or Khorne Chaos Warriors are amazing main troops that have great killing power and decent/good survivability, good support options are from Slaanesh (fast flankers with access to poison) to do hammer and anvil tactics, Nurgle (flanking flying units both with poison) and Tzeentch (Pink Horrors for ranged fire or Flamers) Warpflame makes them weaker to fire damage so boosts the Bloodletters' flaming attacks. Find units that work then support them. dont try to do everything at once.

When choosing how to allocate Glory, some things to prioritize early might be wings from Nurgle, tails from Khorne/Tzeentch and the first head from Khorne. This combination lets Daniel regen in melee and provides him two Mortis Engine effects. Other than that, the first bonus mechanic to unlock should be switchable plagues from Nurgle, one of them lets you vanguard deploy your whole army like you're Vlad.

==Multiplayer Strategies==

Having the favor of all 4 chaos gods means you can take advantage of their roster in ways nobody else can. Bring a plaguebearer frontline and support them with fast Slaanesh flankers. Trigger fire vulnerability with flamers of Tzeentch right before you slam your enemy with flaming attacks from bloodletters and skullcannons. Stack your army with expensive Khorne heavy hitters and back them up with healing from the lore of Nurgle. Use your imagination and go nuts.

Alternately, you can go for a mostly monogod strategy. Your opponent has to spread himself thin to prepare for every crazy combination you can pull out of your ass so a good chunk of his army will be stuck with unfavorable matchups if you go all in on one god. Building rosters for particular match-ups was a big part of TW2 and the unpredictability you get as Chaos Undivided means you have a high chance of winning the pre-battle mind game. Someone who brought a bunch of armor piercing to deal with armored Khorne units isn't going to be happy when they find out you bought an unarmored Nurgle/Slaanesh STD themed army.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Beastmen| Beastmen]]''': Nurgle Daemons are a great option against the squishy beastmen. Their lack of range units means Tzeentch Daemons are free to damage them without risk

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Bretonnia| Bretonnia]]''': Nurgle and Tzeentch Daemons are very useful. The former stops the Bretonnian charge while the latter burns them!

*'''Daemons of Chaos''':

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves| Dark Elves]]''': Slaanesh Daemons are a must to rip-through their armor

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Empire| Empire]]''': Flexibility vs flexibility

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay| Grand Cathay]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Greenskins| Greenskins]]''': Nurgle units are great at bashing the Orcs in melee. Tzeentch Daemons easily outclass them at range.

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Khorne|Khorne]]''': Biggest advantage is access to various Lores of magic. Use Nurgle melee units combined with Tzeentch range.

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

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

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Nurgle| Nurgle]]''': Use Tzeentch Daemons to whittle them down and force them to rush you, that's when you use Slaanesh Daemons to flank and finish them off

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Ogre Kingdoms| Ogre Kingdoms]]''': Tzeentch/Nurgle or Slaanesh/Nurgle combo is great here

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Slaanesh| Slaanesh]]''': A combined Nurgle-Tzeentch army would counter and decimate Slaanesh

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tzeentch| Tzeentch]]''': Play mostly with Slaanesh units with a few Tzeentch/Nurgle air units. Use Nurgle's Lore to heal the squishy Slaanesh units.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast| Vampire Coast]]''': Nurgle-Slaanesh combo is good here

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| Wood Elves]]''': This is one match up Daemons Undivided has a better chance than all of the Monogod factions. Combining Nurgle units (to absorb hits and slowly advance at the Wood Elves) with Tzeentch (for range damage to quickly obliterate squishy Elves) or Slaanesh (to outflank and brutally overrun them) to deal a lot of damage

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

Total War: Warhammer/Tactics/Magic

2022-03-15T19:09:11Z

2600:387:2:811:0:0:0:A6: /* Lore of Slaanesh (Daemons of Slaanesh) */

[[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. A direct damage spell that costs 22 Winds and 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.

:'''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.
*'''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 Defence 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.
*'''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.
*'''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 centreing 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 entites 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, kroxikors, 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, becasue if they dont hit the strength doesn't matter, but its just doubling down rather than redundant. Probably dont 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. 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.
*'''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.
*'''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.
*'''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.

===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 is supposedly Warp Lightning's superior but in truth it suffers from overly high cost in exchange for improved damage against armoured enemies. Skaven have much better non-magic AP weapons to kill their foes with, and casting this means less castings of Warp Lightning - skip this one too.
*'''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.

===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.
*'''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.
*'''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. 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.
*'''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.
*'''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.
*'''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.

===Lore of Tempest (Kislev)===
*'''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.
*'''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.
*'''Biting Wind''': Your basic damage wind spell. Can be overcast for increased damage, specially of the armor-piercing variety.
*'''Hawks of Miska''': Your run of the mill, randomly moving damaging vortex, only it also applies Discouraged, reducing Leadership. Overcast for increased damage. Bring against Skaven, who will otherwise be a bad matchup for you.
*'''Blizzard''': Big bad stationary vortex that deals heavy damage in a large area and also applies Frostbite that slows enemies. Overcast for increased damage.

===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.
*'''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.
*'''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.
*'''Infernal Gateway''': Stationary, high damage vortex. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. Does not apply Warpflame.

===Lore of Nurgle (Daemons of Nurgle)===
*'''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.
*'''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.
*'''Curse of the Leper''': Despite its name, actually a buff. Grants armour and damage reflection (!) to an allied unit, increasing when overcast. Numbers are still unknown, but damage reflection in melee is a pretty unique effect, so one to watch out for.
*'''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.
*'''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.

===Lore of Slaanesh (Daemons of Slaanesh)===
*'''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
*'''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, however the slaanesh army ability can rampage enemies
*'''Pavane of Slaanesh''': Direct damage spell that also reduces melee attack, and can be overcast for a longer duration.
*'''Slicing Shards''': Bombards an area with projectiles, can be overcast for increased damage.
*'''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

2022-03-15T19:06:20Z

2600:387:2:811:0:0:0:A6: /* Lore of Tzeentch (Daemons of Tzeentch) */

[[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. A direct damage spell that costs 22 Winds and 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.

:'''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.
*'''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 Defence 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.
*'''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.
*'''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 centreing 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 entites 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, kroxikors, 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, becasue if they dont hit the strength doesn't matter, but its just doubling down rather than redundant. Probably dont 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. 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.
*'''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.
*'''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.
*'''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.

===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 is supposedly Warp Lightning's superior but in truth it suffers from overly high cost in exchange for improved damage against armoured enemies. Skaven have much better non-magic AP weapons to kill their foes with, and casting this means less castings of Warp Lightning - skip this one too.
*'''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.

===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.
*'''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.
*'''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. 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.
*'''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.
*'''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.
*'''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.

===Lore of Tempest (Kislev)===
*'''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.
*'''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.
*'''Biting Wind''': Your basic damage wind spell. Can be overcast for increased damage, specially of the armor-piercing variety.
*'''Hawks of Miska''': Your run of the mill, randomly moving damaging vortex, only it also applies Discouraged, reducing Leadership. Overcast for increased damage. Bring against Skaven, who will otherwise be a bad matchup for you.
*'''Blizzard''': Big bad stationary vortex that deals heavy damage in a large area and also applies Frostbite that slows enemies. Overcast for increased damage.

===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.
*'''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.
*'''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.
*'''Infernal Gateway''': Stationary, high damage vortex. Overcast for increased armor-piercing damage. Does not apply Warpflame.

===Lore of Nurgle (Daemons of Nurgle)===
*'''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.
*'''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.
*'''Curse of the Leper''': Despite its name, actually a buff. Grants armour and damage reflection (!) to an allied unit, increasing when overcast. Numbers are still unknown, but damage reflection in melee is a pretty unique effect, so one to watch out for.
*'''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.
*'''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.

===Lore of Slaanesh (Daemons of Slaanesh)===
*'''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
*'''Acquiescence''': Debuffs a unit's melee defense and speed, overcast for a great reduction in speed.
*'''Hysterical Frenzy''': Increases a unit's melee attack and armor-piercing, but also makes them Rampage. Overcast for greater armor-piercing damage. only works on friendly units, however the slaanesh army ability can rampage enemies
*'''Pavane of Slaanesh''': Direct damage spell that also reduces melee attack, and can be overcast for a longer duration.
*'''Slicing Shards''': Bombards an area with projectiles, can be overcast for increased damage.
*'''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/Beastmen

2022-03-15T17:14:33Z

2600:387:2:811:0:0:0:A6: /* Monsters */

{{Topquote|Chaos comes!|Game battle chant for Beastmen}}
This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the [[Beastmen]].

==Why Play Beastmen?==
*Because you love the half-human half-animal creatures from Greek Mythology, but wanted to see them as destructive, crazy, violent, rapist raiders who hate everything that so much as looks orderly.
*You want to worship Chaos but don't care about the recognition.
*You're a [[Furry]].
*Because you don't need no OP armor or Daemons to burn the world down.

===Pros===
*'''Speed''': You are up with Wood Elves as one of the fastest factions in the game. Your infantry and cavalry can outpace their competition from most other factions, and even their monsters are very speedy for their size.
*'''Mass Vanguard''': Most of your units have Vanguard Deployment, meaning you can set up troops in places most newer players wouldn't expect. This really helps exemplify them as an ambush faction who relies on catching their opponents with their pants down.
*'''Summons''': With access to Lore of Beasts, Lore of Wilds, and Morghur's Chaos Spawn abilities, you are ''the'' most powerful summoning army in the entire game. You can summon a lot of really powerful units like Manticores, Cygors, and Spawn to really give you an edge over your opponents and snowball out of control.
*'''Hitting Power''': Believe it or not, a goat-man that stands roughly a foot and a half taller than a normal human and is made of nothing but muscle hits really, really hard. That's not even getting into Minotaurs, which hit with the force of a freight train with a rocket tied to the back.
*'''Chase down Potential''': Because of how fast your units are, chasing down routing units is something that few factions in the game can compete with you at. Hounds and Centigors will get rid of all that pesky infantry and make sure that terrified Lord is escorted cleanly off the map.
*'''Monsters''': Well, this one is only a super positive if you bought The Silence and The Fury, but yes Beastmen have a ton of cool monsters to pick from. Ghorgon, Jabberslythes, Minotaurs and many more will let you run the beast horde of your dreams.

===Cons===
*'''DLC Faction''': Unlike the base game factions, who are merely supplemented by DLC, the entire Beastmen faction is locked behind an additional paywall. Combine that with the fact that you need to buy BOTH GAMES AND ANOTHER DLC just to get the full roster, and it can get pretty pricey just to be able to play the cowmen. This is combined with the fact that Ghorgon and Jabberslythe are so important that honestly Silence and the Fury is a must buy for multiplayer.
*'''Lack of Defense''': You are a very fragile faction and are prone to mass missile fire and losing out in pure grindfests. You want to hit hard and get out before the enemy can retaliate.
*'''Poor Leadership''': Most of your army has leadership that can best be described as "A 50's reality show housewife who just saw a [[Skaven|Rat]]." expect your units to be running a lot. The Wargor helps a little but he won't be keeping your troops in line for long as he doesn't provide any fear immunities.
*'''No Heavy Cav''': You don't have any cavalry options which can win in a one on one slugging match against enemy heavy cavalry. Centigors get pimpslapped even by Orc Cav.
*'''Poor Ranged''': While you are ok at ranged by Chaos standards, you are made to primarily be a melee faction. Raiders and Throwing Axe Centigors have very limited range and Cygors are uber expensive. While you do have options, you will need to get up close and personnel to deal with the enemy most of the time.

==Universal Traits==

*'''Primal Fury''': As the first DLC faction since launch, the Beastmen were the first race to get some kind of passive battle ability on most of their units. As such, it's pretty outdated compared to what the newer faction received. Whenever a Beastmen unit's leadership is over 50%, they gain extra charge bonus, melee attack, speed, and immune to psychology. It's pretty much Frenzy only instead of getting extra weapon damage they move faster. This may sound like a great way to deal with the army's Leadership problems, however since it goes away when leadership is below 50% it means that it doesn't help as well as you think. Combine this with the general low leadership the army has, and sometimes you forget they have immune to psych in the first place. The bonus to stats are nice, but hopefully, this gets updated when the Beastmen update comes.

==Legendary Lords==

*'''[[Khazrak The One-Eye]]''': Your big named bastard who focuses on combat. With armor that provides a 20% damage resistance when in melee and a massive anti Infantry combat steroid, he's a beast in physical combat, especially on his chariot. Since Beastmen chariots are actually pretty good, this guy can be a menace with microed well. His biggest problem is that while he is a decent combat lord he really doesn't do much to help the army as a whole, and mostly just exists to run over the enemy. Granted, he does that pretty darn well, but since the Beastmen units generally need some form of leadership support in order to keep them in the fight this guy usually gets overlooked when it comes to multiplayer. He probably won't lose you a battle, but he probably also won't be the reason you win either.

*'''[[Malagor The Dark Omen]]''': The only caster Legendary Lord you currently have, and after his rework he has become one of the best lords in the whole game. he comes with a mixed lore of magic from Beasts, Shadows, Death and Wild with some good damage spells and the ability to summon Cygors out of the ground to bash your enemies to pieces. He flies meaning he's easier to maneuver or run to safety than most lords but if the enemy has any flying units harpies are mandatory to cover for him. In campaign, this guy is so fast and can get so much magic reduction costs that in the late game he can win battles all on his own. However the Beastmen lack of air power means that if you're up against a faction with a strong air force like Bretonnia, High Elves and Vampire Counts he's pretty much dead.

*'''[[Morghur The Shadowgave]]''':Morghur's main draw is the ability to get free value on the field and supply your army with free units. For one, while he is a foot lord he has crazy high regeneration, meaning killing him is actually pretty damn hard. On top of that, his abilities are just flat out amazing. He gets a free Chaos Spawn summon to use whenever the hell he feels like it, so you can surprise the enemy with surprise butt sex. On top of that, he has a really cool passive that makes it so that once per battle, when an enemy unit reaches below a certain health point, they die and spawn a friendly unit of spawn. That means this guy can get you two extra units on the battlefield FOR FREE. Needless to say, that is amazing and as such he is the go-to lord pick for 90% of Multiplayer Beastmen lists.

*'''[[Taurox The Brass Bull]] (DLC)''': Available in The Silence and The Fury, Big daddy bull is coming to save the Beastmen in their hour of need. He is the Beastmen's monstrous lord and his main job will be to beat the living crap out of whatever you point him at. He is a tanky beast with Armor Piercing fire damage and numerous abilities and weapons that increases his melee prowess even further. His Brass Body ability gives him a 40% damage resistance and melee defense making him even harder to kill, though interestingly his weak point doesn't play into the game even though it shows up on the model. I guess CA didn't like the idea of you randomly losing your lord because Tzeentch felt like being a dick. If he does get in harm's way he also has an AOE explosion around himself to give him a get out of jail free card. In multiplayer he's very expensive, has a big hit box and weak to armor piercing missiles, so there are probably safer, if less fun, options there.

==Units==
===Lords===

*'''[[Beastlord]]''': Your infantry melee choice and as far as generic lords go he's... Meh? He's pretty much just Khazrak only he trades some melee prowess in exchange for an extra buffing ability for him and his army. Ironically this means in multiplayer he's considered better than Khazrak since he can actually help out all the poor goatmen who are stuck in melee. Other than that, you pretty much use him like you use Khazrak. Put him on that chariot and blast Ludacris on your speakers as you run your enemies the fuck over.

*'''[[Doombull]] (DLC)''': Budget Taurox, only instead of using axes he just punches people to death. He's a big bruiser lord similar to The Kroxigor Ancient, and comes with the ability to Daze his opponents so when he punches someone in the face they lose speed and Melee Defense, making them easier to stick on and kill. His Barbed Knuckle Boxing also gives him more attack and weapon damage. Very similar to Taurox, though less survivable and cheaper.

*'''Great Bray Shaman''': Confirmed as a FLC lord for the Beastmen on Total War access. He will be the generic caster lord for the goatmen, giving them some much needed lord variety. He comes with a Tuskgor and Razorgor chariot mount. He's great if you just want to save money on a caster by wrapping him up with your lord.

===Heroes===

*'''[[Bray Shaman]]''': Your generic caster hero and he does what you expect most mages in this game to do to be honest, so he's always handy to have around. He has access to the Lore of Beasts, Shadows, Death, and Wilds, so he focuses more only blowing shit up with magic prowess more than healing or straight-up buffs, not that he's incapable of doing that. Since you pretty much got to bring this guy in most armies unless you have Malagor, you may as well put him on the chariot, as when you do that he becomes pretty decent at cycle charging infantry to death as well. If mounted on a Tuskgor Chariot he gains vanguard development.
*'''[[Gorebull]]''': The first monstrous character (aside from Kholek and Sarthoreal) to be put into the game. This guy is a beast who specializes in AP anti large, so see if you can throw him against any monsters to chip down. He also acts as a pretty good bodyguard for your squishier lords or casters since who the hell wants to be fighting a nine-foot-tall minotaur with a big fuck off axe. The Gorebull does have one infamous weakness that makes him a meme in the community though, his mass. For whatever reason, it is really easy to knock this guy around like a pinball and send him flying to Saturn. Now a Dragon or Giant would understandably be able to do this, but something like a troll should NOT be able to throw this guy around so easily. Seriously, look up Gorebull Mass and you will probably find some damn good memes. This means he has issues sticking to his targets since anything big can just throw him halfway across the map. Still, a pretty good hero is you're able to keep him within orbit.
**<s>The Twisted and Twilight patch has fixed some knockdown problems that have been plaguing all foot lords, not just Gorebull, so rocketing will be a rarer occasion than in the past.</s> Nope, this guy still has the mass of a rubber ball. Sorry.

*'''[[Wargor]] (DLC)''': A hero gor and a budget version of the Beastlord. He will serve as your melee infantry hero, providing some defensive buffs for your armies to help keep them in the fight. Both on foot and his chariot mount he is more of an infantry blob fighter with mostly base weapon damage and anti infantry. He also gives +4 leadership and +5 melee defense so he can help your units stick around a bit longer. he's also fairly cheap in multiplayer, so bringing two isn't that crazy. Likely best to use against super infantry reliant factions. If mounted on a Tuskgor Chariot he gains vanguard development.

===Melee Units===

*'''Ungor Spearmen''': Your chaff spear unit, designed to absorb damage and make sure enemy cav doesn't stick around too long. Stat wise they're pathetic and lose to anything not a meat shield but they do have a high entity count and can use vanguard deployment for ambush tactics. They also gain advantages when fighting in the forest, so get tree engagements if you can. By far the best part about them is that they have the expendable trait, meaning you don't have to worry about them scaring the troops you actually care about when they rout.

*'''Ungor Spearmen (Shield)''': They will make your frontline in most multiplayer battles, though in campaign you'll want better troops as soon as you can get them. Always get the shields variant.
**'''Destroyers of the Drakwald''': Not only does this unit have much better melee defense, meaning it might actually stick around for a while, it also has poison attacks. This can be a good support unit and help enemy cav get stuck if they get their hands on them.

*'''Ungor Herd''': The same as above only this is a much more offensive infantry. These axe wielders sacrifice some defensive stats in exchange for better offensive ones, meaning they can pump out a bit more damage than the spear version. They will still lose to most halfway decent infantry of the same tier, but they're meant to be expendable anyway so don't worry too much about it.

*'''Gor Herd''': Your mid-tier infantry and man are these guys lawnmowers against low armored units. They come with two versions, a shielded version with more defense and a dual axe version with more attack. These guys are some of the best chaff clearing infantry in the game and will get rid of all the low-level fodder some factions love to bring to the table. Their armor is garbage so even the shielded version will die to missiles, but can still be great if they get on the right troops. Plus vanguard can help with sneaky shenanigans. Get the shielded version against factions with tons of missiles and the unshielded one against factions who don't.
**'''Black-Horn’s Ravagers''': They have better armor and stats than a normal Gor Herd, stalk, and an ability that gives them perfect vigor. This makes them great early game damage dealers, but their usefulness will drop off as the battle rages on and they sustain damage.

*'''[[Harpy|Harpie]]s''': They're like fell bats, only they might actually kill whatever they're fighting. They are usually used to tie up enemy skirmishers and get them off the field so that your troops can fight unmolested. They will die if anything so much as sneezes on them too hard, so be careful when sending them in, as they may not be able to pull out again.

*'''[[Bestigor|Bestigor Herd]]''': One of the few units that can best be described as "Shock Infantry." They have a monstrous charge bonus for an infantry unit and combine that with a decently high model count and they can cause havoc. If they can get a clean charge off on an opponent, these guys will be doing roughly the amount of a monstrous infantry unit PER ENTITY. They will clear through most mid-tier infantry if they can get the drop on them. The bad news for you is they're very reliant on the charge as their defensive stats aside from armor suck, so if they're the ones getting charged, don't expect them to last long. Great for punching through heavy armor.
**'''Khorrok’s Manrippers''': These guys trade a great axe for a halberd, meaning instead of armored infantry you want them fighting cavalry. They are your only halberd unit and you can only bring one, so they're almost a requirement against heavy cav factions.

===Missile Infantry===

*'''Ungor Raiders''': Your only foot skirmisher unit, and by Khorne's Bloody Taint are these guys not exactly the model most ranged units strive to be. With pitiful range, accuracy, and AP you'd think there's be absolutely no point in bringing them, right? Well, they do have some uses. They can be used to force away skirmisher cav and can do some ok damage against units that don't have a ton of armor. They also have vanguard and stalk, meaning you can use them to get some sneaky ambushes on an unsuspecting opponent. That said, they aren't Waywatchers, so don't expect them to carry the day for the Beastmen.

===Cavalry===

*'''[[Centigor]]s''': These horse goatman things are lighter cavalry designed to go after enemy skirmishers. Their special trait Rowdy gives them perfect vigor while their leadership is above 50% which is great for cavalry as they will be at peak fighting capacity for a large chunk of the battle. Vanguard can also help them with cheeky ambushes Beastmen love to do and a shield will help them against any missile fire coming in. Don't charge these guys into heavy cav, however. That job belongs to...

*'''Centigors (Great Weapons)''': These guys are very similar to the above, but they trade their shield for AP. This makes them a good can opener unit that can get through some heavy armor. They shouldn't be thrown in alone, however, and are best used in support with other units, preferably with debuffs like poison. If you can get the drop on your opponent and give them support, they can get some real value for your army.
**'''Sons of Ghorros''': Not only do they get way more armor, but they also get magic attacks which can help deal with any physical resistance. Guardian is also fun to help protect your characters if they ever get caught out. Though sadly they are much faster than all the Beastmen lords so you won't get to see it much.

*'''Centigors (Throwing Axes)''': Skirmisher cav with a whole lot of AP, these boys are your best answer to heavily armored units from range. They're decent in melee but you want them for the throwing axes and all the AP they bring to the table. Granted with only 14 shots you need to be able to use them wisely and you best hope your enemy's light cav don't catch them or they won't last very long. And of course with goodies like vanguard they can be great for ambushes, though it's usually better to keep them with units that can protect them.
**'''The Groghooves of Wolf’s Run (DLC)''': Centigors blessed by Nurgle with poison and regeneration due to a unique passive. This will make them far more deadly in close combat due to the healing and debuffs they can spit out. This likely isn't as useful as you think because any centigor Throwing axe unit in melee is going to be losing models and you generally bring them because they're decently cheap, so a more expensive version isn't the best. Still if they poison something nothing will catch them.

===Chariots===

*'''Tuskgor Chariots (DLC)''': Your budget chariots. They may not hit as hard as your more expensive option but they are much cheaper and have vanguard, giving them much more interesting versatility on the battlefield. You can now get some cheap, relatively strong units in your early game vanguard and hit your opponent with the surprise chariot. In multiplayer these guys pretty much make razorgor Chariots redundant since they do essentially the same thing but for cheaper.

*'''Razorgor Chariot''': Not much to say about these guys to be honest. They're a very solid chariot unit that causes fear. If you're fighting against a faction that loves armored infantry like Dwarfs or Warriors of Chaos these guys will be able to run over them and supply good flank support.

===War Beasts===

*'''Chaos Warhounds''': Fairly cheap, expendable skirmisher hunters that can be vanguarded. Plus with missile resistance, you don't have to worry too much about them getting torn up by arrows or bullets on the way in. They come in a normal and a poison variant, and nine times out of ten you will take the poison version because it's literally the exact same thing but with poison, with the only downside being that it's ever so slightly more expensive.

*'''[[Razorgor|Razorgor Herd]]''': Don't let the crummy statline fool you, Pumba's warped cousins are one of the MVPs of the entire roster. Heavy AP combined with fear is already pretty good, but combine that with high mass and they can fill a variety of roles if they get support. You can team them up with your frontline to tear through armor or help out Centigors with pinning cav or monsters and laying the hurt. Plus they're only 600 gold meaning you can spam the field with bacon. They do have rampage which really sucks, but honestly, at only 600 gold you won't miss them that much if they suicide charge into halberds. Their attack and defense may suck, but the mass, AP, and combo potential more than makeup for it, and they can really punch above their weight.

===Monsters===

*'''[[Chaos Spawn]]''': Pretty much identical to what the Warriors of Chaos have, only these guys trade a lot of Weapon Strength for poison. Believe me, it is a worthwhile trade-off. With poison not only can they do a ton of damage to light armor but they can provide support for your frontline, meaning your ungors may actually be able to do something! And of course, having a unit that will never run is welcome in a faction that's prone to mass routs. Serves as a great inexpensive monstrous infantry in your armies, but if you're worried about armor, see below.

*'''[[Bullgor|Minotaur]]s''': Let's be honest I think everyone who has wanted to play Beastmen plays them for a chance to use these guys. With high AP, charge, and attack they can tear apart anything that they get their hands on, but their low armor and melee defense mean they can't take much of a beating in return. Bloodgreed also makes them immune to psych while their leadership is up, so they'll stick around longer than your average goat person (good thing too cause their leadership ain't great). This unshielded version has an anti-infantry bonus, so if you can get your hands on armored infantry they won't last long but archers will tear them to pieces.

*'''Minotaurs (Shields)''': These cowmen give up the extra axe and anti-infantry bonus for a shield so they don't have to worry about missiles as much. Generally, the preferred choice over dual weapons since they can still tear up infantry just fine and might actually survive an arrow volley or two. They have significantly better melee defense than the dual axe variant also, so they last longer in prolonged melee’s
**'''Butchers of Kalkengard''': These guys evidently had some troll meat with Grom because they come with regeneration. This more or less negates their one weakness in being squishy, so they can absolutely run train on whatever you need them to. Keep them away from fire or your enemy will be having a nice steak dinner.

*'''Minotaurs (Great Weapons)''': With a two-handed weapon comes anti large for these guys. If the enemy has a big monster they'll chop it up if they get their hands on it, though the lack of a shield once again makes them very vulnerable to missile fire.

*'''[[Giant]]''': God this thing sucks and doesn't synergize at all with the roster. It hits like a truck but it's slow, has no armor, can't ambush or hide, and kind of craps on what Beastmen like to do in general. And now that the Ghorgon is finally here it's redundant on top of that since the big cow now fill every hole that this thing filled. Now there is absolutely no reason to grab this thing, as aside from survivability the Ghorgon just does its job way better.

*'''[[Jabberslythe]] (DLC)''': THE CHARGLEMAGNE MEME IS DEAD! A monster with a bound vortex that goes off automatically, a damaging aura, and poison/magic attacks, making it an infantry blob killing machine. Its best ability is the damage aura, which turns it into a Mortis Engine against any unit that has less than 50% leadership. It's very good against infantry factions that love to blob with a bunch of chaff. Throw this thing at the Vampire Counts and watch it munch skeletons for days. It sadly can't fly despite the wings.
**'''The Vorbergland Broodmother (DLC)''': This one comes with armor sundering and an armor-piercing vortex, making it much better against heavily armoured opponents.

*'''[[Ghorgon]] (DLC)''': Finally, after five goddam years you have a dedicated monster duelist. Fast, anti large and with regen in melee they are exactly what the Beastmen needed to help them out against heavily armored monsters. Its biggest weakness is the lack of armor, so even relatively cheap missiles can tear this thing to pieces. Best used on the flanks were it can take advantage of its fast movement without being at risk of taking the brunt of enemy fire. Best to keep him away from ranged faction such as Elves and save him for more monster focused races like Lizardmen, Tomb Kings or Vampire Counts.
**'''The Bloodbrute Behemoth (DLC)''': This one must have taken lessons from Snikch, since he does more damage to lower health opponents, making him the ultimate anti-monster character.

===Artillery===

*'''[[Cygor]]''': Now this is the big scary monster you want to bring into battle. It's not as good as the giant in melee but it serves as a hybrid monster/artillery platform to rain down giant death rocks upon the enemy. It's also a great counter to mages due to magic resistance and a passive that increases miscast chances map-wide. The rocks are great at taking out infantry formations and if light cav does get on it, well, it's still a giant cow monster that can defend itself with fairly little issue. Won't last long if a big scary monster dedicated to melee gets it though, so throw the rocks at them to push them back.
**'''The Eye of Morrslieb''': Same as above only with a single target net ability. Now it can lock down incoming enemies to either make its escape or throw more rocks at it. Just supplies that extra usefulness for an army that likes to get the charge but not be charged.

==Tactics==

So you may have noticed a theme in your army. Almost everything has high charge, vanguard, great attack, and shit defensive stats. This is an army that wants to get the drop on your opponent, get a charge off, rout their units and chase them away before they can hit back. It's a hard to use army that rewards good micro and timing, and due to a lot of their key units being locked behind DLC, you can argue that they're pay to win, like a lot of factions are in multiplayer. Needless to say playing defense is a horrible idea with these guys and if you prefer to sit back and let your enemy come to you this is one of the last factions you should consider playing.

===Multiplayer Strategies===

*'''Beastmen''': When you're fighting your fellow goat people, Chaos Spawn are your friends. Due to the low armor of the roster they can pump in a ton of damage and apply poison to the whole roster. Morghur is a fantastic choice for getting more of them on the field. Aside from that this often comes down to who can come out on top in the mobility game, as the Brayherd who has the edge in mobility often times can come out on top in the end. Go mainly for an spear frontline to help with cav and spawn and to get as much funds as possible into your mobile and monster elements. Raiders can also poke down the low armor of enemy spawn, but watch out for Centigors. You can also grab Lore of Wilds for a free Cygor, and take advantage of their weakness to monsters.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Bretonnia| Bretonnia]]''': This is an interesting match up as both factions are heavily reliant on getting the charge in order to win. You will have absolutely no issues in the infantry grind, the big issue is dealing with Knights. Obviously you want an Ungor spear frontline in order to get as much anti large as possible, and they should be able to deal with the unwashed peasants that come their way. Razorgors are great, not only because they're cheap mobile AP but they can pin knights in place and allow your Great Weapon Minotaurs on top of them to cut them to pieces. Of course with most Bretonnian knights having anti large, be careful with the big cows when you send them in. Bretonnia also loves spamming archers, especially of the poison variety, so grabbing some Poison Warhounds or Centigors to deal with them can help you. Remember, while Centigors stand no chance at beating knights one on one, they are are a lot faster than them and should be able to avoid them rather easily. If you can deal with the Cav you shouldn't have much trouble dealing with the rest of their army. DO NOT BRING MALAGOR! Double Paladins combined with the Bretonnian air force will fuck him up.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves| Dark Elves]]''': Dark Elves are known for bringing a ton of Mobile AP with Dark Rider Crossbows, Scourgerunners and Darkshards. This means your lack of Armor actually comes in handy as you don't really care about the AP. They don't really bring elite infantry so Gor Herds will be able to get you control of the frontline fairly quickly. Don't bring Minotaurs, as Scourgerunners will kite them into another dimension. Cygors are also great here as Elves don't really have much that can deal with them, allowing you to send rocks into their Cav and crossbows with relative safety. Bonuses with the Eye of Morsslieb, as it can lock down Crossbow Cav for your Centigors to rip to pieces. Ungor Raiders are also good for poking skirmish cav if they come close. Aside from that get some cheap spears for bodies and just try your best to beat the Druchii in the mobile game.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dwarfs| Dwarfs]]''': Yeah you are more than well equipped enough to deal with the Dwarfs. Bestigors are of course amazing here as they can take on the vast majority of the Dwarf frontline and win, though they can be vulnerable to missile fire. If you want to go cheap and expend elsewhere, go for more expendable axe ungors and invest more in Chariots and Minotaurs. Razorgors and Razorgor chariots are great for their AP to get through the Dwarf line and get to the juicy ranged units that are behind them. Minotaurs are a risky pick as they can be taken out by skirmishers and Slayers but if you can micro them well they can do a lot for you. Harpies can also do a ton for you as they can fly over the Dwarf lines and get on the guns and artillery before they get the chance to cause too much damage. And if the Dwarfs waste ammo on your expendable fliers, all the better. Raiders can also be useful, as while their arrows will boink off the armor of the standard Dwarf line, they can cause some cost effective damage to Slayers and help out your large targets. With your mobility and plentiful AP options you'll be able to handle most Dwarf armies, though don't be surprised if one catches you off guard now and then.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Empire| Empire]]''': Once again, dealing with Knights is going to be your big hurdle, though fortunately they aren't quite as big of a pain in the ass as the Bretonnian version. Of course, grabbing spear Ungors is a must to spread the field in Anti Large, so a few of those will certainly help you. Grab Centigor Great Weapons and Razogors to pin them down and you can get some charges off for some good damage. Poison Warhounds are also good for dealing with Outiders and Pistoliers since they can slow them down for Centigors to get on top of. If you can keep them safe, throwing axe Centigors can also help out a ton in dealing with Knights. Once the heavy cav is gone their skirmishers and artillery are free food for your Centigors and Hounds. Gor Herds with shields should be enough to deal with most Empire frontlines as Greatswords tend to be pretty rare in this match up. The Butchers are of debatable usefulness since while they can survive arrow volleys and help with Knights the Empire has plenty of ways to deal with monsters, especially of the regenerating kind. It's fairly similar to the Bretonnia match up only the Knights are slightly weaker.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay| Grand Cathay]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Greenskins| Greenskins]]''': Black Orcs aside Greenskins don't have much in terms of armor in their frontline so Chaos Spawn can help out a lot. Of course, with their plentiful skirmishing options they have ways of shooting Spawn to pieces. Centigors can thus be a good asset in chasing down Spider and Wolf cav and getting them away from your squishier units. You likely won't see Black Orcs due to your lack of armor and if you do, Razorgor support can help your Ungor and Gor frontline deal with them. Of course the biggest thing you will have to worry about here is all the big armoured monsters Orcs love to bring like Rogue Idols and Arachnarok Spiders. In this situation, throwing axe Centigors are your friends, as they can deal with the heavy armor without getting into melee with them. If you struggle with micro or ammo preservation you can also go with one or two Gorebulls with Minotaur support. They will have issues with ranged attacks and aren't as safe as throwing axe Centigors but if you can get them on and Idol or support an attack on a Spider they can rip a very sizable chunk out of it. Or, if you have The Silence and The Fury throw a Ghorgon at them and make sure the enemy skirmishers stay the hell away. With a bit of support the big cow should deal with any monsters the Orcs can throw at you.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/High Elves| High Elves]]''': Fairly similar to the Dark Elves in that in this match up they tend to rely on mobile skirmishing to get the job done. In that case, a Cygor can work wonders. It will be able to chuck rocks at the Reaver Archers and get some of that annoying archer cav off the field. In the same vein Raiders can unleash some volleys into Ellyrion Reaver Archers if they get too close. Centigors aren't that great here because High Elves have one thing that Dark Elves don't, reliable mid to high tier cav. As such some spears can be helpful to scare off any attempt at a cav charge while Gors can carve through most of the frontline that Elves tend to bring. Rangers can do some decent damage to your infantry and Silverin Guard can hold for a while, but that's about as elite as you can expect to see from High Elf infantry. Swordmasters and Phoenix Guard are too expensive and easy to counter. In case of a Dragon, get a ton of Razorgors and pin that bitch in place for Minotaurs to get on top of and tear to pieces. Centigors with Throwing Axes can also do some reliable damage if he's a bit more apprehensive about landing. Most smart High Elf players won't bring standard archers or bolt throwers but if they do they are free value for your mobile units.

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

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen| Lizardmen]]''': <s>This match up sucks</s> or at least it did before the Ghorgon showed up! Now that you actually have a way to take down big monsters you no longer need to worry about losing the game simply because you have no way to deal with giant monsters. Hold them down with Razorgors and spam spears for anti large and try to get your big cows to slap them around. Just make sure that you bring plenty of tools to take down Chameleon Skins, because other wise the lack of army is going to put the Ghorgon down fast. Bestigors can fight Saurus and with cheap, cost effective chariots the infantry fight shouldn't be the hardest thing ever.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Norsca| Norsca]]''': This used to be a relatively not fun one since you had very little that could effectively deal with both large monsters and Berserker rushes, but with the Silence and the Fury now you do! Most Norscans will bring berserkers as they will easily mow down most of your infantry and allow their big monsters to run amok in your lines. There are two ways to handle them, either get Ungor chaff with Spawn to rip apart Berserkers and get mass for monsters in exchange for missile vulnerability. The other option is simply throw Bestigors at them, as they'll win against any Norscan infantry in a vacuum and aren't as vulnerable to missiles but can't really stop monsters. For monsters you get either get a Ghorgon to slap them down in a straight brawl or, if you want something less vulnerable to missiles, get a Doombull/Taurox and Gorebull combo as a more mobile combo to tie down and tear Mammoths apart. If you aren't going for a Doombull get Malagor as frankly he is OP right now.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Nurgle| Nurgle]]''': Prepare to suffer. you rely on getting that charge in and Nurgle has enough toughness and healing power to weather through it while grinding you down.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Ogre Kingdoms| Ogre Kingdoms]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven| Skaven]]''': Honestly Skaven are one of your favorite match ups, as you have a ton that can counter what they bring to the table. Gor Herds will dominate any infantry that aren't Stormvermin, and honestly most try hard Skaven builds never bring Stormvermin anyway. And of couse, Chaos Spawn are a blessing against low armor, so anything aside from Stormvermin will die quickly. Plus you have plenty of tools to get rid of the gunline, from Hounds to Centigors to get into the backline and get rid of those Jezails, Poisoned Wind Mortars and other Skryre tech before they can cause serious damage. With you mobility and plentiful access to fear and terror you can chase any fleeing ratmen with little issue. Now I know what you're thinking, didn't you say Beastmen have a hard time fighting heavily armoured, single entity monsters? What if they go for a Moulder Rush? Ahh, the answer is in the word *HEAVILY ARMOURED.* While strong, Clan Moulder monsters have piss poor armour meaning Raiders and other units can burn them down with no issue. The match up got a bit more complicated when Skaven got their own mobile skirmishers in the form of Wolf Rats, but your hound and mobile units generally outclasses theirs. Combine that with their low leadership and they're actually somewhat easy for the Beastmen to get rid of. What do you know, a match up you actually have a solid advantage in!

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Slaanesh| Slaanesh]]''': Well what do you know, a faction that is actually faster than you are. I wouldn't bother with Centigors or Ungor Raiders here. Seekers will out pace and beat Centigors in a fight and dive into your archers. You'll need mass to lock Slaanesh down and keep them there to butcher. Gor Herds should trade decently into most Slaanesh Troops aside from Exalted Daemonettes, and considering Bestigors are a bad idea in this match up considering all the AP, they might not bring them anyway. Minotaurs and Razorgors should be your way to go for this army, as while they won't catch Slaanesh, they will be able to hold them in once they engage and keep them there with their high mass. Once in, you can use either anti infantry of anti large Minos to slap them around. Since they have low armor, a Ghorgon isn't too necesarry to deal with with large units, and honestly a Jabberslythe might be more helpful to help against Daemonettes. Malagor is a decently safe Lord options since all he will have to worry about is Furies and a Wargor on a chariot can help keep the goats in the fight. Honestly the main goal here is to lock down Slaanesh with mass and pray to any Chaos god that isn't a depraved sex freak that you grind them down before they do.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''': Gor Herd will have absolutely no problem dealing with Tomb Guard, let alone the basic chaff skellies, but the fact that they're undead makes them a bigger problem than their stats would say. In general, Beastmen hate fighting undead because not only are they all unbreakable, which screws over your "route quick and chase them off" strategy, but they also all have fear, which will hurt the Beastmen's already poor leadership. So while your goats will win in a grind, sadly they may run before that happens. Consider investing in a Wargor to keep morale up. Centigors with throwing axes are a must in this match up as they're your most reliable AP unit, and their mobility will make it hard for the Tomb Kings to catch. Razorgors can also pin them in place so Minotaurs with Great Weapons can get on top of them and carve them to pieces, but if you want a dedicated monster-killer the Ghorgon is the way to go -- just watch out for archers. Finally, Chaos Spawn are just reliable in general because you don't have to worry about them shitting their pants and running away.

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast| Vampire Coast]]''': Out of all the Undead factions, you hate these guys the least as they at least slightly play into what you like to fight against. An immobile, gunline reliant faction that you can abuse your mobility against. Get a shit ton of harpies and yeet them on top of the gunline so that your Gors with Shields can get to the deckhands unmolested. Of course, that bad leadership is still a thing, so watch out for terror routes. Archer spam is a well known counter to the Coast in general so a crap ton of raiders will be able to get their value back fairly quickly. Lore of Wilds wizard with a Cygor summon can also do some reliable damage from long range so see if you can grab one of those. Big Crabs can be a pain in your ass, though really shooting them with the plentiful amount of Archers you should bring will usually be enough to being them down.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Counts| Vampire Counts]]''': What used to be one of the worst possible matchups for the Cloven Ones is now one of their better ones thanks to the monsters provided in The Silence & The Fury. The vamps have no archers to target, everything is unbreakable and will kill your already poor leadership. Unlike the Lizardmen you know exactly what they will bring, an expendable frontline with 3 Blood Knights and a Mortis Engine to kill blobs. That was all once very scary, but now you have the tools to deal with it. Ghorgons have arrived and they can hunt Blood Knights or Mortis Engines to the ends of the Earth. You also now have your own Mortis Engine in the form of the Jabberslythe, who is excellent at burning through blobs of chaff. Aside from these showstoppers Chaos Spawn are nice since they can't rout and can take on most Vampire Infantry with no issue. Centigors with throwing axes are good against Blood Knights, so save your ammo for then. Razorgors are also good for blocking in Blood Knights and other more mobile threats, carving them up with AP while your Ghorgons beeline for the kill. Aside from that, grab a bunch of ungors or gors to throw into the grind; you're probably not going to need anything fancy in the infantry department considering how crummy skeletons and zombies are, but consider bringing a Wargor to buff up the leadership of your own troops.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Warriors of Chaos| Warriors of Chaos]]''': In order to prove to the pretenders that you are the true servants of the gods, you will need to find a way through all that armor. Fortunately all that armor is usually in their infantry not their monsters, so a Bestigor or two can cut through Chaos Warriors without much issue. If you want more numbers in your AP options, cycle charging Razorgors combined with Ungors can provided a hard hitting AP mess that Chaos Warriors can have a hard time getting through. If they go for Marauders for a frontline and invest elsewhere, then infantry shouldn't be a problem. Minotaurs can also help, especially the Butchers as they can regen through most of what Chaos can throw at them. Marauder Horseman can be a pain in your ass since their mobility can allow them to get their javelins into your unarmoured troops. Centigors can beat them in melee and have the speed to catch them, though they won't last long if something scary gets a hold of them. Raiders are also useful as Chaos Spawn tend to be popular so arrow volleys can come in handy. Since you don't have too many scary SEM or heavy cav Dragon Ogres are fairly uncommon, but if they show up drown them in spears and cycle charge Minotaurs or Ghorgons to carve them up.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| Wood Elves]]''': Two things you want to bring against the Asrai, shields and mobility. You will need hounds and Centigors to hunt down all of the annoying archers that Wood Elves love to bring against you. They should be able to deal with Asrai Spear cav if you bring enough of them, then you can swarm them into the archer position. Dryads tend to be the most popular frontline for the Wood Elves, so Gors with shield should be your infantry option against them. You may question the use of Razorgors due to the lack of armor, but they are useful for pinning Dragons or other monsters in place for your raiders or cav to get a hold of. It's a battle of mobility, and if you win out in the mobile game you should be able to take the field fairly quickly.

===Campaign Strategies===

With the announcement of the rework finally here, we can take a look at it and finally take our evil goat friends and and burn down the non furries to our heart's content.

The first big change is that now, similar to Tomb Kings, Beastmen units don't cost recruitment or upkeep, but are now locked behind a unit cap. Only Ungor Spears (without shields) and Ungor Raiders can be recruited an unlimited amount of times. Armies are also very limited since you aren't affected by supply lines. As such, similar to the Tomb Kings, make sure that you always have as many full stacks around as the game will let you. Remember, having two armies where one is a full stack of useless ungors is still better than only having one. Even if the second army isn't great for combat, you can still use it to raid, set up ambushes for your main armies, and defend Herdstones. As such once you have an extra army get a full stack as soon as you can, you can always replace those ungors with better units once you have them available. Also when units are damaged after a battle, don't wait to replenish and instead merge the wounded units and rerecruit the ones you lost. They cost no money anyway and it's faster than waiting for them to replenish.

Speaking of Herdstones, that is your new main gimmick for the race. Every time you raze a city it will give you a resource called a '''Herdstone Shard''' and once you have enough you can erect a '''Herdstone''' at a settlement you burn down. These are very basic settlements with only two building slots, but turns the regions close to it into a '''Bloodground'''. Every city in a Bloodground has a value called a '''Devastation level''' depending on the level of the settlement (a Tier 1 Settlement is worth 4). Every burned down settlement will add it's Devastation level to the Herdstone, so if you make a Herdstone from a tier one settlement and burn down another Tier 1 settlement, that Herdstone's devastation level will become 8. Once it's at ten, you can start a ritual that once completed adds the Herdstone's level to your '''Marks of Ruination''', a bar that tracks your progress and gives you new units and armies along the way, and makes ALL RUINS IN THE BLOODGROUND UNINHABITABLE UNTIL THE HERDSTONE IS DESTROYED!!!! You also get enough shards to make a new Herdstone.

That may sound really complicated, especially for Beastmen, but it's actually pretty simple. Slap down a Herdstone, burn down as many cities in the Bloodground as you can, complete the ritual, then move on. The big idea is to get as many Marks of Ruination because not only does it get you closer to the final battle but it also increases your unit caps and army capacity. As such, while the goal needed to perform the ritual is quite low, you actually want to get it as high as possible in order to progress the campaign and get a ton of good units quickly. You also need to defend the hell out of Herdstones in order to make sure you don't have other factions plague you with resettlements like in the old Beastmen campaign, so make sure you always have a spare army nearby to make sure no one tries to burn them down. As for the buildings under a herdstone, you have four options. By far the best one is Shaman's Ceremony, which increases your Winds of Magic and gives you vision across the entire bloodground the Herdstone is a part of. I don't need to tell you why vision and extra magic are something you want. The others improve your siege battles, gives you bonus replenishment and can spread plagues. Pick the one that most fits your playstyle.

You also have a new unique currency called '''Dread''', which you get for winning battles. Using Dread lets you increase your unit caps, give you more heroes, and gives you general upgrades and magic items for your armies to play around with. By far the coolest thing about it is that you can use it to essentially purchase the other Beastmen Legendary Lords into your faction, auto confederating with them if they're alive and bringing them back if not. This means that you don't have to worry about confederating other Beastmen factions to get their Legendary Lords if you don't want to worry about it. '''Bestial Rage''' is also still around, but now it only connect to Horde Growth so you don't have to worry about attrition. Technologies have been changed to '''Challenges of the Dark Gods''' which won't let you research until you complete some challenges (win 5 ambushes, win 4 battles in one turn, stuff like that.) More will be revealed as gameplay comes out.
[[Category:Total Warhammer]] {{Total War Warhammer Tactics}}

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Khorne

2022-03-15T17:11:08Z

2600:387:2:811:0:0:0:A6: /* Monsters */

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

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

===Pros===
*'''Unmatched Melee''': With the high amounts of charge, damage, and armor in your faction, pretty much no one can beat you in a one to one melee fight. Your units beat pretty much anything in the same tier as them. The only way you could lose a melee fight is if you're peppered by missiles, magic or drained by a Mortis Engine.
*'''High Armour''': Considering every unit showed off so far has been dressed head to toe in it, it's safe to say armour values for your units are generally going to be very high. Your Daemons aren't so good in the armour department compared to the mortals but they do have plenty of resistances to make up for it.
*'''Monsters''': Bloodthirsters, Bloodcrushers, Skullcrushers, Spawn, Minotaurs and many more means you will have some of the scariest monster units in the entire game. Winning the monstermash shouldn't be an issue and allow your big bois to take over the battle for you.
*'''Magic Resiliency''': Magic is for wimpy nerds and daddy Khorne will make sure you won't die in the most embarrassing way possible. Enemy spells won't hurt you nearly as bad as other faction.
*'''Mobility''': Khorne actually has some wheels on him. You have two different units of warhounds, furies and cavalry to run around the map and out maneuver your opponents. Your infantry, especially Chaos Warriors, are pretty slow however, so keep that in mind.
*'''Strength through Kills''': Based on what we know about their faction mechanics, the more you kill the stronger you get. As such, you are rewarded for being aggressive by getting more damage and shredding potential. Note that Khorne cares not if you're killing phoenix guard or skavenslaves, your units power up even faster if your opponent is dumb enough to throw a bunch of shitty chaff units at you
*'''Noob Friendly''': Khorne right clicks on things until they die. No backline you need to protect, no worrying about magic management or where to place spells, hell you barely need to worry about making sure your enemies are fighting the right targets. Due to your high armor and insane melee buffs, Khorne is actually pretty beginner friendly if you are just starting with game 3.

===Cons===
*'''No Magic''': What, you want to blow shit up with your mind like a god damn pussy? If that's the case Khorne isn't for you. Even the Dwarfs have a substitute in the form of Runes that make up for it to an extent. You will not be able to contribute any magic to the field in the form of wizards, costing you some AOE burst.
*'''Less Effective Against Elites''': with your battle mechanic keying off ''number'' of kills it means that against elite factions that bring fewer soldiers you will be less effective. Not ''ineffective'' mind you, but it does mean you'll be at a disadvantage as less units benefit from your Hellblade ability.
*'''Very Limited Range''': Skullcannons are your only ranged option, meaning you don't really have any option to play defense. Granted if you wanted to play a defensive set up why the hell are you playing Khorne in the first place?
*'''Lack of Versatility''': Sneakiness and subtlety are for little bitches. You may be one of the most hardcore melee rush factions in the game, but that's really all you got going for you. This can make Khorne relatively easier to game plan for compared to a lot of other factions who have an easier time employing numerous tactics.
*'''Top Heavy''': As it turns out, Khorne doesn't just want blood and skulls, he also wants your wallet. You have zero chaff or cheap infantry units. Warhounds are your cheapest unit and Chaos Warriors with shields make up your cheapest infantry at 750 gold. Even High Elves can get infantry at a cheaper price point. You will have a very difficult time spreading the field and in multiplayer you should expect to be outnumbered in most match ups.
*'''Friends? What are those?''': Well... what do you expect? Not only are you playing a game called Total '''WAR''', you're playing for the Chaos God of Blood. The only mortal "allies" you can make are with the Warriors of Chaos, Beastmen, Norsca and ''potentially'' Skaven and Ogres, if they're not feeling duplicitous. Even as far as Daemons go, Slaanesh isn't keen on working with your forces and even other Khornate factions tend to rub each other the wrong way. Everyone else you're automatically at war with.
*'''DLC''': Every core race has joined this club, and you are noticeably missing some big units, especially from the mortals side of things. You may as well apply early.

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

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

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

==Lords==

===Legendary Lords===

*'''[[Skarbrand]]''': SKARBRAND APPRECIATES NOT BEING DLC!!!! Our first Legendary Lord along with being a pure combat beast. He gets stronger with every kill that he gets, meaning unlike most single entities getting tied up by chaff might be beneficial in the long run. He has two special abilities called Wrathful Reaper and Rage Embodied, but neither have been explored much in detail. Supposedly Rage Embodied allows him to cause Rampage in enemy units with less than half leadership, which if true is going to make him a true nightmare on the battlefield.[[Awesome|He can also spit fire now]]. Despite being stuck on the ground unlike other Bloodthirsters, Skarbrand has 80 speed so escaping him will be a challenge. This also applies to his campaign, as his faction bonuses provide bonus campaign movement after razing settlements and Skarbrand himself gets even more speed by winning battles in general, making him extra speedy post-siege.
** Use of Skarbrand shows him to be the absolute strongest melee lord in the game. You can send him out one his own against an entire army and he'll win, see for yourself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1umE3zobwEU, https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=skarbrand+one+man+doomstack+.

===Generic Lords===

*'''Exalted Bloodthirster''': Budget Skarbrand. One of two possible Bloodthirster units available in the army, this one being the Lord equivalent. As you'd expect, it's really fucking scary. The stat line on this thing is absolutely absurd, giving it flaming and magical attacks along with a plentiful amount of AP. It also has a bunch of gnarly special abilities including one called Deathblow that buffs its already spooky weapon strength by 50% (both AP and Non AP), and another that causes automatic miscast damage to any wizard casting spells nearby. The ability to fly also allows it to pick and choose its targets and stay on the move. Combine all of this with it being unbreakable due to it's Daemonic trait and it will be extremely hard to get rid of.

*'''Herald of Khorne''': A Bloodletter lord focused more on buffing and support rather than the pure killing power of a Bloodthister. He gives offensive buffs to your units, making him the closest thing to a caster lord you get. He can be mounted on both a Juggernaut and a Blood Throne, so while the Bloodthirster is more of a general melee beast the Heralds will be more of an anti infantry specialist. The loci abilities he will likely bring will make him an aggressive buffing lord meant to ride in with your troops and give them powerful buffs to keep them in the fight. In campaign, upgrading a herald lord is the only way to get an exalted greater daemon lord. So you're gonna use these guys alot.

==Heroes==

===Legendary Heroes===

===Generic Heroes===

*'''Cultist of Khorne''': Based on what we heard, this guy will be your dedicated combat character/duelist. His known stats make him similar to the Warriors of Chaos' Exalted One. Further, he has the ability to summon a unit of Bloodletters once per match. He only comes with a Chaos Steed, allowing him to get across the field quickly. Outside of battle he may have something to do with setting up the various Blood Cult buildings in enemy settlements. Can summon up to 3 bloodletters and one bloodthirster per fight with campaign skills.

*'''Bloodreaper''': He appears to be a combat/support character for going around murdering groups of infantry while also giving offensive buffs to your units. he can ride both a Juggernaut and a Blood Throne, making him a strong mobile threat. With AP and anti infantry he's a scary melee character that can also give other units a helping hand. Has an ability that gives 66% spell resistance to nearby allies, so useful against magic heavy armies like Tzeentch or the Vampire Counts. or a more generally useful agility to boost weapon damage or melee attack.

==Units==

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

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

*'''Exalted Bloodletters''': Bloodletters plus. They're a very similar unit only just much better at the job but also much more expensive. These guys will let you carve through more elite options than your standard Bloodletters can. best go-to late game troops.

===Cavalry===

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

*'''Bloodcrusher''': Very similar to the Skullcrusher, though instead of an angry man riding the Robo-Rhino, it's an angry Daemon riding the Robo-Rhino. The big difference between these guys and Skullcrushers is that they're Daemonic, so they won't run away and will crumble instead. They also have an Anti Infantry bonus, making them a bit more specialized than their mortal counterparts. The big trade off for both of these is a noticeable decrease in stats, so they will likely not be as effective against other cavalry. Still, potentially a good unit, especially against heavy infantry factions.

===Chariots===

*'''Gorebeast Chariot of Khorne''': Probably going to be more or less the same as the WOC version, only coming with frenzy and even bigger bonuses to melee stats. Very solid unit for heavy infantry faction and will be very rewarding with good cycle charging.

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

===War Beasts===

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

*'''Chaos Hounds''': Appeared in the trailer. Will likely serve the same purpose they have in the WoC roster as skirmisher and artillery hunters and a cheap way to chase routing units off of the map.

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

===Monsters===

*'''Spawn of Khorne''': Chaos Spawn for Khorne. Yeah that's pretty much it. They have significantly higher weapon strength so they will lawn mower light troops even faster than normal spawn do already. They trade this for some slightly reduced melee defense, as you'd expect from the all out offense Khorne style. Ever a questionable unit. Probably not worth using.

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

*'''Soul Grinder of Khorne''': Did anyone think we were getting this thing? Based on what has been revealed it is a tanky cannon platform that can fire while moving. It also comes with a scattergun that does 800 damage with 120 range. The Khorne soul grinder can chop up the Tzeentch + Nurgle variants in melee, but gets it's ass handed to it by the Slaanesh version who traded the cannon away for anti-large choppy power.

*'''Bloodthirster''': The smaller, more accessible version of its Exalted cousin. It trades a lot of the scary combat stats in return for Anti Large, making it more of a dedicated monster fighter. Aside from that, it functions as a cheaper version of the Exalted lord version. Can take on pretty much any flying unit and win.

===Artillery===

*'''Skull Cannon''': CANNON ON WHEELS! khorne's only reliable ranged unit (for now, anyway) and it seems to be trying to really make up for being the Blood God's only ranged piece. It has good range and damage, and it's mobility allows it to keep itself safe from enemy ranged and cavalry that try to take it out. Plus, if something does get its hands on it, it'll be hard to kill with its high armor and ability to regenerate in melee. With good micro this thing has to potential to be frustrating as hell to play against. Of course, it has only 18 melee defense so if something does catch it it might take some hits, but they'll have to actually catch the damn thing first. If it runs out of ammo, it also functions well as a chariot.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay| Grand Cathay]]''':

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

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

*'''Khorne''':

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''': Mostly the Tomb Kings are falling to their bony knees weeping tears of sand in joy that despite all appearances you can't use the Lore of Fire. Their ranged units will punish you on the approach but once you're there the skulls will be plentiful. The downside is hounds and Furies aren't going to cut it against Ushabti Greatbows.

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

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

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

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

==Campaign Strategies==

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

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

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

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Khorne

2022-03-15T17:08:30Z

2600:387:2:811:0:0:0:A6: /* Monsters */

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

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

===Pros===
*'''Unmatched Melee''': With the high amounts of charge, damage, and armor in your faction, pretty much no one can beat you in a one to one melee fight. Your units beat pretty much anything in the same tier as them. The only way you could lose a melee fight is if you're peppered by missiles, magic or drained by a Mortis Engine.
*'''High Armour''': Considering every unit showed off so far has been dressed head to toe in it, it's safe to say armour values for your units are generally going to be very high. Your Daemons aren't so good in the armour department compared to the mortals but they do have plenty of resistances to make up for it.
*'''Monsters''': Bloodthirsters, Bloodcrushers, Skullcrushers, Spawn, Minotaurs and many more means you will have some of the scariest monster units in the entire game. Winning the monstermash shouldn't be an issue and allow your big bois to take over the battle for you.
*'''Magic Resiliency''': Magic is for wimpy nerds and daddy Khorne will make sure you won't die in the most embarrassing way possible. Enemy spells won't hurt you nearly as bad as other faction.
*'''Mobility''': Khorne actually has some wheels on him. You have two different units of warhounds, furies and cavalry to run around the map and out maneuver your opponents. Your infantry, especially Chaos Warriors, are pretty slow however, so keep that in mind.
*'''Strength through Kills''': Based on what we know about their faction mechanics, the more you kill the stronger you get. As such, you are rewarded for being aggressive by getting more damage and shredding potential. Note that Khorne cares not if you're killing phoenix guard or skavenslaves, your units power up even faster if your opponent is dumb enough to throw a bunch of shitty chaff units at you
*'''Noob Friendly''': Khorne right clicks on things until they die. No backline you need to protect, no worrying about magic management or where to place spells, hell you barely need to worry about making sure your enemies are fighting the right targets. Due to your high armor and insane melee buffs, Khorne is actually pretty beginner friendly if you are just starting with game 3.

===Cons===
*'''No Magic''': What, you want to blow shit up with your mind like a god damn pussy? If that's the case Khorne isn't for you. Even the Dwarfs have a substitute in the form of Runes that make up for it to an extent. You will not be able to contribute any magic to the field in the form of wizards, costing you some AOE burst.
*'''Less Effective Against Elites''': with your battle mechanic keying off ''number'' of kills it means that against elite factions that bring fewer soldiers you will be less effective. Not ''ineffective'' mind you, but it does mean you'll be at a disadvantage as less units benefit from your Hellblade ability.
*'''Very Limited Range''': Skullcannons are your only ranged option, meaning you don't really have any option to play defense. Granted if you wanted to play a defensive set up why the hell are you playing Khorne in the first place?
*'''Lack of Versatility''': Sneakiness and subtlety are for little bitches. You may be one of the most hardcore melee rush factions in the game, but that's really all you got going for you. This can make Khorne relatively easier to game plan for compared to a lot of other factions who have an easier time employing numerous tactics.
*'''Top Heavy''': As it turns out, Khorne doesn't just want blood and skulls, he also wants your wallet. You have zero chaff or cheap infantry units. Warhounds are your cheapest unit and Chaos Warriors with shields make up your cheapest infantry at 750 gold. Even High Elves can get infantry at a cheaper price point. You will have a very difficult time spreading the field and in multiplayer you should expect to be outnumbered in most match ups.
*'''Friends? What are those?''': Well... what do you expect? Not only are you playing a game called Total '''WAR''', you're playing for the Chaos God of Blood. The only mortal "allies" you can make are with the Warriors of Chaos, Beastmen, Norsca and ''potentially'' Skaven and Ogres, if they're not feeling duplicitous. Even as far as Daemons go, Slaanesh isn't keen on working with your forces and even other Khornate factions tend to rub each other the wrong way. Everyone else you're automatically at war with.
*'''DLC''': Every core race has joined this club, and you are noticeably missing some big units, especially from the mortals side of things. You may as well apply early.

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

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

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

==Lords==

===Legendary Lords===

*'''[[Skarbrand]]''': SKARBRAND APPRECIATES NOT BEING DLC!!!! Our first Legendary Lord along with being a pure combat beast. He gets stronger with every kill that he gets, meaning unlike most single entities getting tied up by chaff might be beneficial in the long run. He has two special abilities called Wrathful Reaper and Rage Embodied, but neither have been explored much in detail. Supposedly Rage Embodied allows him to cause Rampage in enemy units with less than half leadership, which if true is going to make him a true nightmare on the battlefield.[[Awesome|He can also spit fire now]]. Despite being stuck on the ground unlike other Bloodthirsters, Skarbrand has 80 speed so escaping him will be a challenge. This also applies to his campaign, as his faction bonuses provide bonus campaign movement after razing settlements and Skarbrand himself gets even more speed by winning battles in general, making him extra speedy post-siege.
** Use of Skarbrand shows him to be the absolute strongest melee lord in the game. You can send him out one his own against an entire army and he'll win, see for yourself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1umE3zobwEU, https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=skarbrand+one+man+doomstack+.

===Generic Lords===

*'''Exalted Bloodthirster''': Budget Skarbrand. One of two possible Bloodthirster units available in the army, this one being the Lord equivalent. As you'd expect, it's really fucking scary. The stat line on this thing is absolutely absurd, giving it flaming and magical attacks along with a plentiful amount of AP. It also has a bunch of gnarly special abilities including one called Deathblow that buffs its already spooky weapon strength by 50% (both AP and Non AP), and another that causes automatic miscast damage to any wizard casting spells nearby. The ability to fly also allows it to pick and choose its targets and stay on the move. Combine all of this with it being unbreakable due to it's Daemonic trait and it will be extremely hard to get rid of.

*'''Herald of Khorne''': A Bloodletter lord focused more on buffing and support rather than the pure killing power of a Bloodthister. He gives offensive buffs to your units, making him the closest thing to a caster lord you get. He can be mounted on both a Juggernaut and a Blood Throne, so while the Bloodthirster is more of a general melee beast the Heralds will be more of an anti infantry specialist. The loci abilities he will likely bring will make him an aggressive buffing lord meant to ride in with your troops and give them powerful buffs to keep them in the fight. In campaign, upgrading a herald lord is the only way to get an exalted greater daemon lord. So you're gonna use these guys alot.

==Heroes==

===Legendary Heroes===

===Generic Heroes===

*'''Cultist of Khorne''': Based on what we heard, this guy will be your dedicated combat character/duelist. His known stats make him similar to the Warriors of Chaos' Exalted One. Further, he has the ability to summon a unit of Bloodletters once per match. He only comes with a Chaos Steed, allowing him to get across the field quickly. Outside of battle he may have something to do with setting up the various Blood Cult buildings in enemy settlements. Can summon up to 3 bloodletters and one bloodthirster per fight with campaign skills.

*'''Bloodreaper''': He appears to be a combat/support character for going around murdering groups of infantry while also giving offensive buffs to your units. he can ride both a Juggernaut and a Blood Throne, making him a strong mobile threat. With AP and anti infantry he's a scary melee character that can also give other units a helping hand. Has an ability that gives 66% spell resistance to nearby allies, so useful against magic heavy armies like Tzeentch or the Vampire Counts. or a more generally useful agility to boost weapon damage or melee attack.

==Units==

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

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

*'''Exalted Bloodletters''': Bloodletters plus. They're a very similar unit only just much better at the job but also much more expensive. These guys will let you carve through more elite options than your standard Bloodletters can. best go-to late game troops.

===Cavalry===

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

*'''Bloodcrusher''': Very similar to the Skullcrusher, though instead of an angry man riding the Robo-Rhino, it's an angry Daemon riding the Robo-Rhino. The big difference between these guys and Skullcrushers is that they're Daemonic, so they won't run away and will crumble instead. They also have an Anti Infantry bonus, making them a bit more specialized than their mortal counterparts. The big trade off for both of these is a noticeable decrease in stats, so they will likely not be as effective against other cavalry. Still, potentially a good unit, especially against heavy infantry factions.

===Chariots===

*'''Gorebeast Chariot of Khorne''': Probably going to be more or less the same as the WOC version, only coming with frenzy and even bigger bonuses to melee stats. Very solid unit for heavy infantry faction and will be very rewarding with good cycle charging.

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

===War Beasts===

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

*'''Chaos Hounds''': Appeared in the trailer. Will likely serve the same purpose they have in the WoC roster as skirmisher and artillery hunters and a cheap way to chase routing units off of the map.

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

===Monsters===

*'''Spawn of Khorne''': Chaos Spawn for Khorne. Yeah that's pretty much it. They have significantly higher weapon strength so they will lawn mower light troops even faster than normal spawn do already. They trade this for some slightly reduced melee defense, as you'd expect from the all out offense Khorne style. Ever a questionable unit. Probably not worth using.

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

*'''Soul Grinder of Khorne''': Did anyone think we were getting this thing? Based on what has been revealed it is a tanky cannon platform that can fire while moving. It also comes with a scattergun that does 800 damage with 120 range. The Khorne soul grinder can chop up the Tzeentch + Nurgle variants in melee, but gets it's ass handed to it by the Slaanesh version who traded the cannon away for anti-large choppy power.

*'''Bloodthirster''': The smaller, more accessible version of its Exalted cousin. It trades a lot of the scary combat stats in return for Anti Large, making it more of a dedicated monster fighter. Aside from that, it functions as a cheaper version of the Exalted lord version. Can take on pretty much any flying unit and win.

===Artillery===

*'''Skull Cannon''': CANNON ON WHEELS! khorne's only reliable ranged unit (for now, anyway) and it seems to be trying to really make up for being the Blood God's only ranged piece. It has good range and damage, and it's mobility allows it to keep itself safe from enemy ranged and cavalry that try to take it out. Plus, if something does get its hands on it, it'll be hard to kill with its high armor and ability to regenerate in melee. With good micro this thing has to potential to be frustrating as hell to play against. Of course, it has only 18 melee defense so if something does catch it it might take some hits, but they'll have to actually catch the damn thing first. If it runs out of ammo, it also functions well as a chariot.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay| Grand Cathay]]''':

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

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

*'''Khorne''':

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''': Mostly the Tomb Kings are falling to their bony knees weeping tears of sand in joy that despite all appearances you can't use the Lore of Fire. Their ranged units will punish you on the approach but once you're there the skulls will be plentiful. The downside is hounds and Furies aren't going to cut it against Ushabti Greatbows.

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

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

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

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

==Campaign Strategies==

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

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

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

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Slaanesh

2022-03-15T17:00:17Z

2600:387:2:811:0:0:0:A6: /* Missiles */

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

==Why Play Slaanesh?==
*You prefer Speed and using your mobility to outmaneuver and tear apart your enemy as opposed to the simple rip and tear.
*Because you're a sexual deviant and this is the best way to show your horniness without going out in public. (Though given that this game is T rated expect the more sexual parts of Slaanesh to be toned down, at least until some of the modders have their say)
*Because fuck armor, your crab claw ladies don't give a fuck about it.
*You want to play the only army in the game that is non-binary inclusive.
*Some degenerate is going to give you a NSFW mod, it's only a matter of time.

===Pros===
*'''Speed''': You ARE the fastest army in the entire game. Trailers and unit stats show so far that your cavalry, chariots, and Legendary Lord have a base speed of 100, daemonettes outrun most skirmishers with base speed over 50, and even slaanesh marauders have above average cardio with 38 speed. Your army will run circles around everyone else, wood elves and beastmen included.
*'''AP''': Heavy armour shouldn't be a problem for you in the slightest. Factions that rely on armour like Dwarfs and Warriors of Chaos will dread when you come on to the battlefield.
*'''Cavalry and Chariots''': With numerous varieties of both Cav and Chariots you have the ability to be a really strong threat while on the move. Sure, Heartseekers and Hellstriders probably won't beat Grail Knights in a fair one on one fight but their sheer speed will mean that back line is probably doomed. Plus the chariot variety means an armored front line is going to suffer.
*'''Flanking Potential''': Cavalry aside, many of your units are fast and have "Devastating Flanker" as well. You can expect to be one of the best factions for penetrating a soft spot in the enemy's army.
*'''Fatigue fighting''': Fatigue heavily penalizes melee attack and armor stacking to -30% melee attack and -25% armor when a unit is completely exhausted. Melee defense remains surprisingly good with only a maximum -10% penalty from fatigue. This significantly benefits you since most of your units rely on melee defense and ward saves for survival. While you're not going to outlast Nurgle or any faction with lore of life, your army of half naked tarts will fight. . .well not better but less bad compared to other factions the longer a battle drags on.
*'''Immunity to Fear''': A big part of the Mark of Slaanesh on the tabletop was immune to psych. This is carried over as Immune to Psych for your mortal units. Combined with all your daemons being unbreakable, you really won't give a shit about big scary monsters or units.
*'''Diplomacy''': Few mortals can resist the God(dess) of Pleasure. Unlike other Daemonic Forces, you have diplomatic options at your disposal. This can be useful to close off a front with a non-aggression pact, or even an alliance of convenience when necessary.

===Cons===
*'''Fragile''': The downside of having an army of half naked monster girls/boys/things? There isn't a ton of armour to go around. Expect to be taking a punishing on the way in (Not that Slaanesh has an issue with that), so long as you aren't using ward saves. Which you shouldn't since Slaanesh units have some bound ward save abilities which are generally far more impactful than armor.
*'''Lack of Ranged''': You can't hump your opponent to death from the other side of the map. You have no ranged units to speak of. Seriously, even freaking KHORNE has ranged units. You have no chance at playing defense.
*'''Lack of Fliers''': When Furies are the best flying unit you have, it's safe to say you aren't a faction that is designed around dogfighting and controlling the skies. You will easily be the weakest Monogod faction when it comes to the air.
*'''No Flexibility''': The other monogods are one dimensional too but you have it the worst. Everyone fighting you knows you're going to bring a fast glass cannon army. Like your other chaos monogod siblings, you do one thing well and can't do much else. Somewhat ironic that the factions closest to chaos are the most predictable opponents.
*'''Fast Games''': Because of their fragility and need to be maneuvered correctly to win, expect Slaanesh games to be quick, regardless of who wins. Slaanesh will either completely slaughter the enemy or run into a brick wall and crumple to dust. If you like long, tense game where the winner can be decided at any moment you won't get that from Slaanesh too much.
*'''DLC''': Sorry but trends are trends and some of your better units may be reserved for Lord Packs. From a launch standpoint you got Tzeentch and Nurgle beat, but you could use some more mortals/boob snakes.
*'''not beginner friendly''': a bit of an odd one sure, but it has to be said, slaanesh is not a faction for beginners with no range units, no somewhat tanky monsters and all of your units being made of used condoms where even a cheap unit of archers can kill your lord in milliseconds, slaanesh heavily punishes you for one mistake and one has to sell there soul and become the dark lord of micromanagement if you want to win consistently as slaanesh, especially in multiplayer.

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

*'''Devastating Flanker''': A bunch of your units have this special ability which doubles their charge bonus when attacking an enemy unit from the flank or rear. Considering your Furies and all your cavalry have Vanguard, as well as the obscenely high speed of your army overall, this incentivizes you to try to encircle the enemy as quickly as possible and... well no way to say this that's not going to be a double entendre, '''Hit them hard and fast in the rear!'''

*'''Sensuous Seductions''': Like with the other Chaos god armies you have a battlefield resource that unlocks map-wide abilities as you accumulate it. As with the other daemonic factions these battlefield resources have three tiers and when you use one of them it reduces the resources you've accumulated so far. This one is gained by killing units that have negative morale, meaning you can keep replenishing these abilities so long as there are still units on the battlefield to kill. The three abilities (in order of strength and cost) are:
**''Fascination'': A direct-damage spell that also causes Rampage on the target
**''Narcissism'': An AoE snare, similar to Net of Amyntok
**''Sweet Sorrow'': An AoE buff to speed and vigor

==Lords==

===Legendary Lords===

*'''[[N'Kari]]''': He's here and he's looking a lot like his classic artwork where he's facing down Aenarion. He's big, he's fast, he's purple, and he's got four nipples. Has a blistering 100 speed, which means he's a single entity monster that can keep up with warhounds and light cavalry. This guy is going to blitz across the battlefield and right into your "backline," which is good because he has only 5 armor and will need to hurry if he doesn't want to get turned into Swiss cheese by ranged units. His offensive potential is extremely high, and you can stack physical resist and ward save to make him quite durable in melee, but best used to hit and run/flank. Also a caster of the Lore of Slaanesh, but your probably better off putting skill points elsewhere, use a hero caster. His special abilities include:
**''Harvester of Souls'': heals him when nearby units are complete destroyed (this stacks)- combine with high ward and he'll be extremely tough
**''Willing Prey'': debuffs an enemy's melee attack and defense
**''The Witstealer Sword'': massively boosts his AP and base weapon damage.-Alternative live dangerously and take the Sword of Slaanesh from his chaos realm first visit if possible and enjoy a greater demon with well over 100 speed 60-70% physical resist/40% ward and a sword of Khaine equivalent. doing 1.2k weapon damage.

===Generic Lords===

*'''Exalted Keeper of Secrets''': Same as Blood boi, Bird Boi, and Plague Boi. The Exalted Keeper of Secrets acts as the lord while the standard one is a monster you can recruit. An anti-large AP monster with the Lores of Slaanesh and Shadows that can get around the battlefield very quickly. Believe it or not it's slower than a Bloodthirster and less mobile since it can't fly. That said it has a lot of nasty special abilities, including a Mortis Engine effect against low-leadership enemies, AoE hexes that causes rampage or reduce melee attack, and an activatable buff that massively boosts its melee damage over the course of three stages. also gets some regen while killing broken units.

*'''Herald of Slaanesh''': A hybrid lord with the Lore of Slaanesh and/or Shadow magic along with AP in melee. Think a Loremaster for the High Elves only faster and frailer. Your only lord choice with the Devastating Flanker ability. Can ride the Steed of Slaanesh, Seeker Chariot, or Exalted Seeker Chariot. Will also realistically be your only Lord choice in the early campaign as you can't get the Exalted Greater Daemon without evolving one of these things like a Pokemon. Like other daemonic Herald lords she also has three "locus" abilities, which include:
**''Grace'': A ward save that greatly improves melee defence and physical resistance. -By far the best, helps fragile Slaanesh units survive
**''Swiftness'': An augment which greatly improves charge bonus, speed and charge speed.
**''Beguilement'': A hex which reduces leadership and melee defence.

==Heroes==

===Legendary Heroes===

===Generic Heroes===

*'''Alluress''': A hero version of the Herald, like for the other three gods. Same spell lores and mounts. Also has Devastating Flanker.

*'''Cultist of Slaanesh''': A Dark Elf cultist who is mostly intended to be a campaign map agent, on the battlefield she is a skilled fighter with a number of unique abilities including Devastating Flanker and "Gate of Slaanesh" which grants up to 3 demonette summons and later one keeper of secrets per battle. actually quite good. usually want them on campaign map do spread cults and give gifts of slaanesh but good to increase mobility to lords and summon disposable tarpits and a giant suicide keeper of secrets each fight.

==Units==

===Infantry===

*'''Marauders of Slaanesh''': Slannesh's warriors of pain and seduction ([[Emperor's Children|no, not those guys.]] [[Daemonette|or those guys.]] [[Hedonites of Slaanesh|Look, Slaanesh has a lot of freaks working for them, ok?]]) The big difference between these guys and normal Mauraders is they have Immune to Psych, meaning they are far less likely to run than their cousins in the Warriors of Chaos and Norsca. Come with an Anti Large spear version, and standard version, and a tanky whip version. Use them as your cheap screeners to protect your Daemonettes from missiles. These are also your only shielded infantry options. whip version is the most useful long term due to good/decent staying power but you may just have to forgo a traditional frontline late game.

*'''Daemonettes''': Very fast, very AP heavy, and very squishy Daemonic infantry unit. Roughly equivalent to wardancers, stats wise, but considerably faster. Has Devastating Flanker.

*'''Exalted Daemonettess''': Faster, killier, sexier Daemonettes. Roughly equivalent to bladesingers, stats wise, but considerably faster. Has Devastating Flanker and the Soulscent passive ability, which increases their armour piercing and melee attack when within range of an enemy unit whose morale is wavering or lower.

===Missiles===

None, until a dlc adds one possibly.

===Cavalry===

-all of these have poison

*'''Seekers:''' Has the potential to be one of the fastest units in the entire series, unfortunately they don’t even have any armour, so cycle charging might be your best strategy when using them. Has Devastating Flanker and Vanguard deployment, making them well suited for getting right up in the face of range-heavy armies.

*'''Heartseekers:''' Named after the unit champion of Seekers, these things are a straight upgrade. Unlike your regular seekers these guys have the Soulscent passive ability which increases their armour piercing and melee attack capability when within range of an enemy unit with morale wavering or lower. Also has Devastating Flanker and Vanguard deployment.

*'''Hellstriders:''' Essentially the same as the above, only they’ll cut their losses and run rather than fight to the bitter end. Will come with lances (or pincers rather) and Hellscourge whips. Another unit with Vanguard, the lance variants also get anti-large. Do ''not'' have Devastating Flanker.

===Chariots===
*'''Seeker Chariot:''' A low model chariot unit with poison and Devastating Flanker. Super fast for a chariot but probably even more brittle when trapped in prolonged melee.
*'''Hellflayer:''' Essentially acts as a giant lawnmower, able to plough through infantry. Unfortunately it’s a wide target so might get singled out by ranged fire. Has Devastating Flanker but unlike the other chariots this one also has the Soulscent ability.
*'''Exalted Seeker Chariot:''' An extremely fast but extremely fragile single-entity chariot that will mow down any heavily armored infantry it comes across. Has Poison, Perfect Vigour, and Devastating Flanker.

===War Beasts===
*'''Fiend of Slaanesh:''' Imagine even faster, bigger, rat ogres with a debuff aura and you’d get the idea. Would be able to keep up with the rest of your forces, but unfortunately has just as much armour as the rest of them. Has the Soporific Musk passive ability which lowers enemy melee defense and melee attack.
*'''Chaos Furies (Slaanesh):''' Essentially the same as the other furies, acting like daemonic harpies with buffs from their god. In this case, speed, armour piercing and Devastating Flanker. Most importantly it has Vanguard deployment, which means it can deploy alongside your cavalry units for punishing encirclements.

===Monsters===
*'''Chaos Spawn of Slaanesh''': Appeared in the Nurgle vs Slaanesh video. Will likely be used the same way you use normal Spawn, only might be faster and have better AP
*'''Soul Grinder of Slaanesh''': A purely melee version of the Soul Grinder with 75 speed, anti-large, and lots of armour piercing damage. May be preferable for most uses to the keeper of secrets because they have actually good armor and fill a similar role. trade some speed and lack of devastating flanker for being the only Slaanesh unit with good armor.
*'''Keeper of Secrets:''' Your Greater Daemon unit is fast, has lots of weapon strength and armor piercing, as well as Blissful Rapture, Devastating Flanker, and Strider. Can cast two spells from the Lore of Slaanesh: Lash of Slaanesh and Acquiescence. powerful melee killer vs monsters and infantry but need to flank/ hit and run for best affect due to low durability. use size and high mass to run in and out of the fight. if you want a stand up fight monster use the soul grinder. Campaign tech tree can give them the whole lore of Slaanesh but they aren't good casters, just use a lord or hero instead. good targets for buffs to weapon damage like mind razor or the Slaanesh rampage buff.

===Artillery===

None to speak of. You don't have any ranged units at all.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
Slaanesh is all about one thing, going at your opponent as fast as possible. Oh, they will resist, but you'll get your way in the end. Slaanesh really needs to find that perfect vulnerable position and slide right in. Don't go for grinding here, get into the habit of rhythmically pulling in and out to get the best result possible. Be sure to conserve as much of your unit's energy and fight too, you don't wait to climax too early. If all goes well eventually everything will come together in one big- '''SNAP''' I'm the embodiment of ecstasy and excess and even ''I'' was getting sick of the sex puns! Ok fine, you have a ton of mobility, AP and dps on your units but they will fall apart really fast if they meet stern resistance. Your units are built to flank, so if you try to take a frontal fight with any semi sturdy faction you are going to get massacred. The lack of ranged and fliers also means you will have to get to that backline the old fashioned way. It will be a Micro heavy army that will reward good timing and have one of the higher skill floors in the game. Now go teach those ungrateful bastards our horny ways!

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Beastmen| Beastmen]]''': One of a few factions hornyer then you! (Rimshot). Your faster but not by as much as you are with other factions, expect a game of trying to get a charge off while not being charged in turn. That they have Archers and a sorta Artillery in the Cygor might force you to be a little bolder then you might otherwise want. Over all: an intresting match up.

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

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

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

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dwarfs| Dwarfs]]''': Oh man, if you can micro well you are going to have a field day with Dwarfs. You have pretty much everything that they hate fighting from an affordable AP frontline, fast flankers to dive the backline and chariots galore. Daemonettes will likely make the most cost effective front line, and a few mauraders to screen will allow them to get in without taking too much in the way of missile fire. It's unknown whether Seekers or Hellstriders (probably Hellstriders, they can have shields) will make the better choice for cav, but either way they should be able to rapidly get around and dive those cannons and guns before they can do much damage. Even your furies have AP and Devastating Flanker, which will make them great for killing dwarf ranged units. With three options of chariots to pick from (go for normal seeker chariots, they'll be available in more numbers) you should be able to punch through their lines and dry hump that silly book of theirs. Really, the only thing that won't work are monsters as Dwarfs have plenty of missiles and Anti Large, so Fiends, Spawns and KOS can stay at home, meaning a Herald will likely be your best Lord option. If you can micro well you can dominates this match up but if not... well, prepare for a lot of your skimpy crab ladies to get turned into sexy ground beef.

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay| Grand Cathay]]''':

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

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

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

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen| Lizardmen]]''': Saurus based formations will be child's play to your forces. Slow and heavily armored, even your infantry will be able to cycle charge them with impunity. Larger dinosaurs will be at your tender mercies as well, Soul Grinders, Keepers of Secrets and even just Marauders with Spears will be suited to dealing with the heavily armored beasts. The units to keep tabs on here will be the Skinks. Reasonably fast (not as fast as you, but still worth noting) and unarmored, putting all that juicy AP to waste. Units to be particularly wary of will be the Terradon Riders. You can do virtually nothing as they rain poisonous javelins from the sky, crippling and slowing your forces to be a better match for Skink Cohorts or Chameleon Stalkers. So long as you keep on the move, cycle charge their forces and try to waste as much ammo as you can, they'll eventually be forced to commit to a losing fight.

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Nurgle| Nurgle]]''': This might actually be a difficult one. Your biggest strengths are speed and armor piercing, but Nurgle's units have almost no armor to begin with and don't really have a back line to speak of. Fighting them is going to be like when someone in a cartoon punches a fat guy and their arm just sinks into his gut. You don't have the things that scare Nurgle the most, namely fire damage and ranged units. Instead you're going to have to rely on your superior mobility to cycle charge his slow moving units again and again. You might not benefit from your AP but you still have substantial charge bonuses. The real question is how many charges it takes to cut through Nurgle's absurdly large health pools and healing. If you get dragged into a war of attrition you're going to lose.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Ogre Kingdoms| Ogre Kingdoms]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven| Skaven]]''': You'll be able to dive their backline in record speeds, but you should not underestimate the firepower they can plug you with before you reach them. They'll likely have hordes of Skavenslaves to simply tie down your forces through unarmored bodies alone, so try to keep on the move.

*'''Slaanesh''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tzeentch| Tzeentch]]''': Tzeentch's ground units are squishy, and bad at melee, and not as fast as yours, so you ''should'' use that to your advantage by encircling them and shredding them in melee as quick as possible; they are probably the only Daemons you'll be okay with sticking around in melee with, but you should be charging as much as possible still just for the Charge Bonus. All those ranged shots won't matter if you're already up close and give them no chance to use it. Plus, they don't really have a lot of ammo, so after the first few volleys they will run out of shit to throw at you and start cycle charging.

:That being said, Tzeentch also has the ''most flyers'' out of the 4 gods, so you should expect a Tzeentch player to take some of them just to fuck with you; screamers or doom knights will intercept your chariots. Tzeentch also has Barrier, which nullifies the first few hits they take in combat, which will be your charge. Models will still get thrown, they just wont get hurt right away.

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Counts| Vampire Counts]]''': The Vampire Counts might be your comrades in terms of shunning ranged weapons but beyond that they're very different from you. You have almost no flyers, Vampires have a bunch. Your units hit really hard but are super fragile, while the undead excel at grinding you down with blobs of durable chaff. This second part is the biggest problem for you, as wars of attrition are the ultimate bane of your existence. All those flying units will also mean your great speed still won't give you your choice of engagements, as the vargheists can charge you but you can't charge the vargheists. Your best bet is probably going to be to act as a scalpel, cutting the enemy lords an heroes neatly out of their army. If you can do that the rest won't matter. Unfortunately, since a lot of their lords can take flying mounts, that will be easier said than done. Definitely bring Furies and anything that can act as an assassin or elite anti-large. The fact that their units don't route is good and bad for you. Bad because you can't stack your army abilities while fighting them, and good if you bring N'Kari as when they die he can get a ton of heals.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| Wood Elves]]''': Calling it now, this will be an interesting mashup. You both are going to be fast, and very squishy, so dealing with their archers should be easy. However, your lack of armor on your nude beasts will make them easy targets. So basically a drag race of vegans vs virgins. Likely to go very poorly for Slaanesh as Slaaneshi armies will be paying for AP that is not going to do anything to the hippies, and Slaaneshi armies tend to be very allergic to missiles, which the wood elves are just about the most shoot happy faction in the entire game.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Slaanesh

2022-03-15T16:59:30Z

2600:387:2:811:0:0:0:A6: /* Cavalry */

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

==Why Play Slaanesh?==
*You prefer Speed and using your mobility to outmaneuver and tear apart your enemy as opposed to the simple rip and tear.
*Because you're a sexual deviant and this is the best way to show your horniness without going out in public. (Though given that this game is T rated expect the more sexual parts of Slaanesh to be toned down, at least until some of the modders have their say)
*Because fuck armor, your crab claw ladies don't give a fuck about it.
*You want to play the only army in the game that is non-binary inclusive.
*Some degenerate is going to give you a NSFW mod, it's only a matter of time.

===Pros===
*'''Speed''': You ARE the fastest army in the entire game. Trailers and unit stats show so far that your cavalry, chariots, and Legendary Lord have a base speed of 100, daemonettes outrun most skirmishers with base speed over 50, and even slaanesh marauders have above average cardio with 38 speed. Your army will run circles around everyone else, wood elves and beastmen included.
*'''AP''': Heavy armour shouldn't be a problem for you in the slightest. Factions that rely on armour like Dwarfs and Warriors of Chaos will dread when you come on to the battlefield.
*'''Cavalry and Chariots''': With numerous varieties of both Cav and Chariots you have the ability to be a really strong threat while on the move. Sure, Heartseekers and Hellstriders probably won't beat Grail Knights in a fair one on one fight but their sheer speed will mean that back line is probably doomed. Plus the chariot variety means an armored front line is going to suffer.
*'''Flanking Potential''': Cavalry aside, many of your units are fast and have "Devastating Flanker" as well. You can expect to be one of the best factions for penetrating a soft spot in the enemy's army.
*'''Fatigue fighting''': Fatigue heavily penalizes melee attack and armor stacking to -30% melee attack and -25% armor when a unit is completely exhausted. Melee defense remains surprisingly good with only a maximum -10% penalty from fatigue. This significantly benefits you since most of your units rely on melee defense and ward saves for survival. While you're not going to outlast Nurgle or any faction with lore of life, your army of half naked tarts will fight. . .well not better but less bad compared to other factions the longer a battle drags on.
*'''Immunity to Fear''': A big part of the Mark of Slaanesh on the tabletop was immune to psych. This is carried over as Immune to Psych for your mortal units. Combined with all your daemons being unbreakable, you really won't give a shit about big scary monsters or units.
*'''Diplomacy''': Few mortals can resist the God(dess) of Pleasure. Unlike other Daemonic Forces, you have diplomatic options at your disposal. This can be useful to close off a front with a non-aggression pact, or even an alliance of convenience when necessary.

===Cons===
*'''Fragile''': The downside of having an army of half naked monster girls/boys/things? There isn't a ton of armour to go around. Expect to be taking a punishing on the way in (Not that Slaanesh has an issue with that), so long as you aren't using ward saves. Which you shouldn't since Slaanesh units have some bound ward save abilities which are generally far more impactful than armor.
*'''Lack of Ranged''': You can't hump your opponent to death from the other side of the map. You have no ranged units to speak of. Seriously, even freaking KHORNE has ranged units. You have no chance at playing defense.
*'''Lack of Fliers''': When Furies are the best flying unit you have, it's safe to say you aren't a faction that is designed around dogfighting and controlling the skies. You will easily be the weakest Monogod faction when it comes to the air.
*'''No Flexibility''': The other monogods are one dimensional too but you have it the worst. Everyone fighting you knows you're going to bring a fast glass cannon army. Like your other chaos monogod siblings, you do one thing well and can't do much else. Somewhat ironic that the factions closest to chaos are the most predictable opponents.
*'''Fast Games''': Because of their fragility and need to be maneuvered correctly to win, expect Slaanesh games to be quick, regardless of who wins. Slaanesh will either completely slaughter the enemy or run into a brick wall and crumple to dust. If you like long, tense game where the winner can be decided at any moment you won't get that from Slaanesh too much.
*'''DLC''': Sorry but trends are trends and some of your better units may be reserved for Lord Packs. From a launch standpoint you got Tzeentch and Nurgle beat, but you could use some more mortals/boob snakes.
*'''not beginner friendly''': a bit of an odd one sure, but it has to be said, slaanesh is not a faction for beginners with no range units, no somewhat tanky monsters and all of your units being made of used condoms where even a cheap unit of archers can kill your lord in milliseconds, slaanesh heavily punishes you for one mistake and one has to sell there soul and become the dark lord of micromanagement if you want to win consistently as slaanesh, especially in multiplayer.

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

*'''Devastating Flanker''': A bunch of your units have this special ability which doubles their charge bonus when attacking an enemy unit from the flank or rear. Considering your Furies and all your cavalry have Vanguard, as well as the obscenely high speed of your army overall, this incentivizes you to try to encircle the enemy as quickly as possible and... well no way to say this that's not going to be a double entendre, '''Hit them hard and fast in the rear!'''

*'''Sensuous Seductions''': Like with the other Chaos god armies you have a battlefield resource that unlocks map-wide abilities as you accumulate it. As with the other daemonic factions these battlefield resources have three tiers and when you use one of them it reduces the resources you've accumulated so far. This one is gained by killing units that have negative morale, meaning you can keep replenishing these abilities so long as there are still units on the battlefield to kill. The three abilities (in order of strength and cost) are:
**''Fascination'': A direct-damage spell that also causes Rampage on the target
**''Narcissism'': An AoE snare, similar to Net of Amyntok
**''Sweet Sorrow'': An AoE buff to speed and vigor

==Lords==

===Legendary Lords===

*'''[[N'Kari]]''': He's here and he's looking a lot like his classic artwork where he's facing down Aenarion. He's big, he's fast, he's purple, and he's got four nipples. Has a blistering 100 speed, which means he's a single entity monster that can keep up with warhounds and light cavalry. This guy is going to blitz across the battlefield and right into your "backline," which is good because he has only 5 armor and will need to hurry if he doesn't want to get turned into Swiss cheese by ranged units. His offensive potential is extremely high, and you can stack physical resist and ward save to make him quite durable in melee, but best used to hit and run/flank. Also a caster of the Lore of Slaanesh, but your probably better off putting skill points elsewhere, use a hero caster. His special abilities include:
**''Harvester of Souls'': heals him when nearby units are complete destroyed (this stacks)- combine with high ward and he'll be extremely tough
**''Willing Prey'': debuffs an enemy's melee attack and defense
**''The Witstealer Sword'': massively boosts his AP and base weapon damage.-Alternative live dangerously and take the Sword of Slaanesh from his chaos realm first visit if possible and enjoy a greater demon with well over 100 speed 60-70% physical resist/40% ward and a sword of Khaine equivalent. doing 1.2k weapon damage.

===Generic Lords===

*'''Exalted Keeper of Secrets''': Same as Blood boi, Bird Boi, and Plague Boi. The Exalted Keeper of Secrets acts as the lord while the standard one is a monster you can recruit. An anti-large AP monster with the Lores of Slaanesh and Shadows that can get around the battlefield very quickly. Believe it or not it's slower than a Bloodthirster and less mobile since it can't fly. That said it has a lot of nasty special abilities, including a Mortis Engine effect against low-leadership enemies, AoE hexes that causes rampage or reduce melee attack, and an activatable buff that massively boosts its melee damage over the course of three stages. also gets some regen while killing broken units.

*'''Herald of Slaanesh''': A hybrid lord with the Lore of Slaanesh and/or Shadow magic along with AP in melee. Think a Loremaster for the High Elves only faster and frailer. Your only lord choice with the Devastating Flanker ability. Can ride the Steed of Slaanesh, Seeker Chariot, or Exalted Seeker Chariot. Will also realistically be your only Lord choice in the early campaign as you can't get the Exalted Greater Daemon without evolving one of these things like a Pokemon. Like other daemonic Herald lords she also has three "locus" abilities, which include:
**''Grace'': A ward save that greatly improves melee defence and physical resistance. -By far the best, helps fragile Slaanesh units survive
**''Swiftness'': An augment which greatly improves charge bonus, speed and charge speed.
**''Beguilement'': A hex which reduces leadership and melee defence.

==Heroes==

===Legendary Heroes===

===Generic Heroes===

*'''Alluress''': A hero version of the Herald, like for the other three gods. Same spell lores and mounts. Also has Devastating Flanker.

*'''Cultist of Slaanesh''': A Dark Elf cultist who is mostly intended to be a campaign map agent, on the battlefield she is a skilled fighter with a number of unique abilities including Devastating Flanker and "Gate of Slaanesh" which grants up to 3 demonette summons and later one keeper of secrets per battle. actually quite good. usually want them on campaign map do spread cults and give gifts of slaanesh but good to increase mobility to lords and summon disposable tarpits and a giant suicide keeper of secrets each fight.

==Units==

===Infantry===

*'''Marauders of Slaanesh''': Slannesh's warriors of pain and seduction ([[Emperor's Children|no, not those guys.]] [[Daemonette|or those guys.]] [[Hedonites of Slaanesh|Look, Slaanesh has a lot of freaks working for them, ok?]]) The big difference between these guys and normal Mauraders is they have Immune to Psych, meaning they are far less likely to run than their cousins in the Warriors of Chaos and Norsca. Come with an Anti Large spear version, and standard version, and a tanky whip version. Use them as your cheap screeners to protect your Daemonettes from missiles. These are also your only shielded infantry options. whip version is the most useful long term due to good/decent staying power but you may just have to forgo a traditional frontline late game.

*'''Daemonettes''': Very fast, very AP heavy, and very squishy Daemonic infantry unit. Roughly equivalent to wardancers, stats wise, but considerably faster. Has Devastating Flanker.

*'''Exalted Daemonettess''': Faster, killier, sexier Daemonettes. Roughly equivalent to bladesingers, stats wise, but considerably faster. Has Devastating Flanker and the Soulscent passive ability, which increases their armour piercing and melee attack when within range of an enemy unit whose morale is wavering or lower.

===Missiles===

None, until a dlc adds one possibly.

===Cavalry=== all your cavalry applies poison
*'''Seekers:''' Has the potential to be one of the fastest units in the entire series, unfortunately they don’t even have any armour, so cycle charging might be your best strategy when using them. Has Devastating Flanker and Vanguard deployment, making them well suited for getting right up in the face of range-heavy armies.

*'''Heartseekers:''' Named after the unit champion of Seekers, these things are a straight upgrade. Unlike your regular seekers these guys have the Soulscent passive ability which increases their armour piercing and melee attack capability when within range of an enemy unit with morale wavering or lower. Also has Devastating Flanker and Vanguard deployment.

*'''Hellstriders:''' Essentially the same as the above, only they’ll cut their losses and run rather than fight to the bitter end. Will come with lances (or pincers rather) and Hellscourge whips. Another unit with Vanguard, the lance variants also get anti-large. Do ''not'' have Devastating Flanker.

===Chariots===
*'''Seeker Chariot:''' A low model chariot unit with poison and Devastating Flanker. Super fast for a chariot but probably even more brittle when trapped in prolonged melee.
*'''Hellflayer:''' Essentially acts as a giant lawnmower, able to plough through infantry. Unfortunately it’s a wide target so might get singled out by ranged fire. Has Devastating Flanker but unlike the other chariots this one also has the Soulscent ability.
*'''Exalted Seeker Chariot:''' An extremely fast but extremely fragile single-entity chariot that will mow down any heavily armored infantry it comes across. Has Poison, Perfect Vigour, and Devastating Flanker.

===War Beasts===
*'''Fiend of Slaanesh:''' Imagine even faster, bigger, rat ogres with a debuff aura and you’d get the idea. Would be able to keep up with the rest of your forces, but unfortunately has just as much armour as the rest of them. Has the Soporific Musk passive ability which lowers enemy melee defense and melee attack.
*'''Chaos Furies (Slaanesh):''' Essentially the same as the other furies, acting like daemonic harpies with buffs from their god. In this case, speed, armour piercing and Devastating Flanker. Most importantly it has Vanguard deployment, which means it can deploy alongside your cavalry units for punishing encirclements.

===Monsters===
*'''Chaos Spawn of Slaanesh''': Appeared in the Nurgle vs Slaanesh video. Will likely be used the same way you use normal Spawn, only might be faster and have better AP
*'''Soul Grinder of Slaanesh''': A purely melee version of the Soul Grinder with 75 speed, anti-large, and lots of armour piercing damage. May be preferable for most uses to the keeper of secrets because they have actually good armor and fill a similar role. trade some speed and lack of devastating flanker for being the only Slaanesh unit with good armor.
*'''Keeper of Secrets:''' Your Greater Daemon unit is fast, has lots of weapon strength and armor piercing, as well as Blissful Rapture, Devastating Flanker, and Strider. Can cast two spells from the Lore of Slaanesh: Lash of Slaanesh and Acquiescence. powerful melee killer vs monsters and infantry but need to flank/ hit and run for best affect due to low durability. use size and high mass to run in and out of the fight. if you want a stand up fight monster use the soul grinder. Campaign tech tree can give them the whole lore of Slaanesh but they aren't good casters, just use a lord or hero instead. good targets for buffs to weapon damage like mind razor or the Slaanesh rampage buff.

===Artillery===

None to speak of. You don't have any ranged units at all.

==Multiplayer Strategies==
Slaanesh is all about one thing, going at your opponent as fast as possible. Oh, they will resist, but you'll get your way in the end. Slaanesh really needs to find that perfect vulnerable position and slide right in. Don't go for grinding here, get into the habit of rhythmically pulling in and out to get the best result possible. Be sure to conserve as much of your unit's energy and fight too, you don't wait to climax too early. If all goes well eventually everything will come together in one big- '''SNAP''' I'm the embodiment of ecstasy and excess and even ''I'' was getting sick of the sex puns! Ok fine, you have a ton of mobility, AP and dps on your units but they will fall apart really fast if they meet stern resistance. Your units are built to flank, so if you try to take a frontal fight with any semi sturdy faction you are going to get massacred. The lack of ranged and fliers also means you will have to get to that backline the old fashioned way. It will be a Micro heavy army that will reward good timing and have one of the higher skill floors in the game. Now go teach those ungrateful bastards our horny ways!

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Beastmen| Beastmen]]''': One of a few factions hornyer then you! (Rimshot). Your faster but not by as much as you are with other factions, expect a game of trying to get a charge off while not being charged in turn. That they have Archers and a sorta Artillery in the Cygor might force you to be a little bolder then you might otherwise want. Over all: an intresting match up.

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

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

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

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dwarfs| Dwarfs]]''': Oh man, if you can micro well you are going to have a field day with Dwarfs. You have pretty much everything that they hate fighting from an affordable AP frontline, fast flankers to dive the backline and chariots galore. Daemonettes will likely make the most cost effective front line, and a few mauraders to screen will allow them to get in without taking too much in the way of missile fire. It's unknown whether Seekers or Hellstriders (probably Hellstriders, they can have shields) will make the better choice for cav, but either way they should be able to rapidly get around and dive those cannons and guns before they can do much damage. Even your furies have AP and Devastating Flanker, which will make them great for killing dwarf ranged units. With three options of chariots to pick from (go for normal seeker chariots, they'll be available in more numbers) you should be able to punch through their lines and dry hump that silly book of theirs. Really, the only thing that won't work are monsters as Dwarfs have plenty of missiles and Anti Large, so Fiends, Spawns and KOS can stay at home, meaning a Herald will likely be your best Lord option. If you can micro well you can dominates this match up but if not... well, prepare for a lot of your skimpy crab ladies to get turned into sexy ground beef.

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Grand Cathay| Grand Cathay]]''':

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

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

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

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen| Lizardmen]]''': Saurus based formations will be child's play to your forces. Slow and heavily armored, even your infantry will be able to cycle charge them with impunity. Larger dinosaurs will be at your tender mercies as well, Soul Grinders, Keepers of Secrets and even just Marauders with Spears will be suited to dealing with the heavily armored beasts. The units to keep tabs on here will be the Skinks. Reasonably fast (not as fast as you, but still worth noting) and unarmored, putting all that juicy AP to waste. Units to be particularly wary of will be the Terradon Riders. You can do virtually nothing as they rain poisonous javelins from the sky, crippling and slowing your forces to be a better match for Skink Cohorts or Chameleon Stalkers. So long as you keep on the move, cycle charge their forces and try to waste as much ammo as you can, they'll eventually be forced to commit to a losing fight.

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Nurgle| Nurgle]]''': This might actually be a difficult one. Your biggest strengths are speed and armor piercing, but Nurgle's units have almost no armor to begin with and don't really have a back line to speak of. Fighting them is going to be like when someone in a cartoon punches a fat guy and their arm just sinks into his gut. You don't have the things that scare Nurgle the most, namely fire damage and ranged units. Instead you're going to have to rely on your superior mobility to cycle charge his slow moving units again and again. You might not benefit from your AP but you still have substantial charge bonuses. The real question is how many charges it takes to cut through Nurgle's absurdly large health pools and healing. If you get dragged into a war of attrition you're going to lose.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Ogre Kingdoms| Ogre Kingdoms]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven| Skaven]]''': You'll be able to dive their backline in record speeds, but you should not underestimate the firepower they can plug you with before you reach them. They'll likely have hordes of Skavenslaves to simply tie down your forces through unarmored bodies alone, so try to keep on the move.

*'''Slaanesh''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''':

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tzeentch| Tzeentch]]''': Tzeentch's ground units are squishy, and bad at melee, and not as fast as yours, so you ''should'' use that to your advantage by encircling them and shredding them in melee as quick as possible; they are probably the only Daemons you'll be okay with sticking around in melee with, but you should be charging as much as possible still just for the Charge Bonus. All those ranged shots won't matter if you're already up close and give them no chance to use it. Plus, they don't really have a lot of ammo, so after the first few volleys they will run out of shit to throw at you and start cycle charging.

:That being said, Tzeentch also has the ''most flyers'' out of the 4 gods, so you should expect a Tzeentch player to take some of them just to fuck with you; screamers or doom knights will intercept your chariots. Tzeentch also has Barrier, which nullifies the first few hits they take in combat, which will be your charge. Models will still get thrown, they just wont get hurt right away.

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Counts| Vampire Counts]]''': The Vampire Counts might be your comrades in terms of shunning ranged weapons but beyond that they're very different from you. You have almost no flyers, Vampires have a bunch. Your units hit really hard but are super fragile, while the undead excel at grinding you down with blobs of durable chaff. This second part is the biggest problem for you, as wars of attrition are the ultimate bane of your existence. All those flying units will also mean your great speed still won't give you your choice of engagements, as the vargheists can charge you but you can't charge the vargheists. Your best bet is probably going to be to act as a scalpel, cutting the enemy lords an heroes neatly out of their army. If you can do that the rest won't matter. Unfortunately, since a lot of their lords can take flying mounts, that will be easier said than done. Definitely bring Furies and anything that can act as an assassin or elite anti-large. The fact that their units don't route is good and bad for you. Bad because you can't stack your army abilities while fighting them, and good if you bring N'Kari as when they die he can get a ton of heals.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| Wood Elves]]''': Calling it now, this will be an interesting mashup. You both are going to be fast, and very squishy, so dealing with their archers should be easy. However, your lack of armor on your nude beasts will make them easy targets. So basically a drag race of vegans vs virgins. Likely to go very poorly for Slaanesh as Slaaneshi armies will be paying for AP that is not going to do anything to the hippies, and Slaaneshi armies tend to be very allergic to missiles, which the wood elves are just about the most shoot happy faction in the entire game.

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