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Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Bretonnia

2022-07-13T06:25:53Z

2601:283:4C80:11C0:C137:6535:94A8:BCF2: /* Multiplayer Strategies */

{{Topquote|For the Lady, as one!|Game battle chant for unexpendable units}}
{{Topquote|We're blessed!|Game battle chant for expendable units}}
This is the tactics page for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of Bretonnia.

==Why play Bretonnia?==
*Because you like the chivalry ideals from ancient legends and don't care about the peasant half.
*Because you enjoy throwing disposable peasant fodder at a problem until the knightly heroes show up to save the day.
*You love the sight of infantry being thrown flat-on-their-back by the force of cavalry charges.
*Because you really do believe that magical swords distributed by women in ponds are the best justification for supreme executive power.

===Pros===
*'''Cavalry''': The widest selection of heavy cav in the entire game, each being able to fill out different purposes. While a minority of other faction's cav units can go fisticuffs with your horse boys, you are ''the'' cav faction.
*'''No $$$ required.''': It's the only completely free faction. All you need is the base game and the Bretonnia download or the Repanse FLC and you get the entire faction (Minus 3 legendary lords if you only get Repanse)
*'''Air Force''': You can really dominate the air if you wanted to invest into it. Louen combined with Hippogriff knights or Pegasus Knights can win most if not all sky engagements, and after that you can pick and choose your fights from the sky.
*'''Numbers''': Your peasants cost about as what you invest in their infrastructure, AKA Nothing! You are more or less the only order faction that can effectively use swarm tactics due to how cheap they are.
*'''High Armor''': Aside from Peasants, knights and high tier units have more armor than most and can be quite resilient.
*'''Good economy''': Your economy is easily the strongest in the game. Farms bring in insane amounts of cash and can be built literally everywhere. The way CA intends to counter this is through the Peasant Economy, that reduces income from farms when you have too much infantry on the field, but being a good Bretonnian, you don't really use Peasants except Archers anyway. Add in trade and a de facto monopoly on wine if you control Bordeleaux, and your treasury will never be empty again.
*'''Easy Diplomacy''': Everyone from the Order factions likes and trusts you, even the High Elves. This makes for easy trade deals and alliances, keeping your heartland safe from any outside threat.
*'''Lack of Supply Lines''': While other factions get a percent increase in upkeep for every Lord they recruit, Bretonnia doesn't. Field as many armies as you like! Follow every army with another army consisting entirely of peasants who lack upkeep for some easy battles.

===Cons===
*'''Piss Poor Infantry''': Your Peasants fight with shitty cheap weapons at best or farming tools at worse. With bad leadership, armor, and defensive stats, even your "elite" infantry gets their booties smacked by most mid tier infantry. Playing Bretonnia means conceding the front line in most cases.
*'''Anti Large''': Any opponent with a functioning brain will get anti large against you. Expect halberds or big anti-large monsters to try to wipe your cav out. Large units are also more susceptible to enemy missile fire and in melee skirmishes the AI can fire with impunity (it usually tries to avoid friendly fire like the plague).
*'''Micro-Intensive''': To make the most out of your cavalry, you will need to micromanage your Knights a lot. Also: The lance formation is a trap, don't use it.
*'''Very Easy Campaign''': It's fair to say that if you are not necessarily a fan of sandbox campaigns where you do not do a whole lot of map painting, Bretonnia can become very dull very fast. Once you have united Bretonnia, there is little to actually do outside of maxing out Chivalry and... that's basically it. Repanse de Lyonesse balances this out with a more unique starting position but not by much.
*'''Convoluted Vow System''': The Vow system is as straightforward as it is convoluted and, at times, constrained in the most annoying of ways due to the weird restrictions it places on your Lords' ability to access the better units in your roster. It's not very fun trying to kill late game Greenskin, Chaos or Dark Elf armies only with Knights Errant and the garbage tier peasant infantry,(especially against their legendary lords) yet you will need to do this to get access to even the most basic of your better cavalry. While it's indeed very fluffy, you will after a while struggle to find enemies to even fulfill your vows, making you feel like Don Quixote chasing after Windmills. Picking the wrong vow at a bad time will slow down your campaign considerably.
*'''Fatigue''': Until you get some research countering this and some perfect vigor units in the late game, expect your horsie boys to tire quickly. Cavalry tire faster than melee infantry when running and lose a significant amount of fatigue while charging — and expect to be doing a lot of both.
*'''Expensive Knights''': The upkeep on knight units is very high even after you fulfill the necessary vows. Expect peasants to take up most of your early game armies until the economy train gets rolling.
*'''One-Trick-Pony''': Bretonnia is known for exactly one thing: Cavalry. While you have mediocre archers and artillery, you will never be able to match the infantry of virtually any other faction, and you have no monsters and only one skimisher unit. If you tee up against a Bretonnian, you'll already know the core strategy they're going to be using against you.
**'''On a battle level''' : Your different legendary lords offer only minimal differences in your army composition (at most, Alberic's army will have more Squires while the Fay will have more Battle Pilgrims), so expect to be easily countered in multiplayer, and all your armies to be pretty similar, making your campaign a series of battles with little variance between them.
**'''On a campaign level''' : Much like the other non-updated races from game one, no lord-unique mechanics for you! While the chivalry mechanic itself is unique to Bretonnia, none of the legendary lords really offer much to differentiate themselves from one another, and the Chivalry meter itself isn't particularly engaging. Not to mention, excluding Repanse (who starts in Nehekhara), the three other LLs will have very similar campaigns after the first twenty turns or so.
* '''Horrible Replenishment''': No Lord or hero skills or technologies to get a good replenishment rate (except for Louen, who gets a skill to let Knight units in his army have an actually good replenishment, and repanse, who give an okay rate to her army with one of her skills). If a unit loses models, it's more often than not a better idea to disband the unit entirely and recruit a new one. Yes, it's ''that'' bad.

==Universal Traits==

*'''Blessing of the Lady''': If one of your armies does a lot of good stuff (conquering enemies, never retreat, not using [[Lawful Stupid|cowardly tactics such as ambushes]]) it earns the favor of Bretonnia's favored deity. The Blessing is really spectacular as it gives a flat 20% physical resistance to all your units. Beware: retreating once means the loss of the Blessing until that lord earns it again.
*'''Lance Formation''': The Mighty Duck's Flying V is a trap. Your cavalry can assume a lance formation, giving them increased speed and charge bonuses, but actually you're better off not using it. Why, you may ask? [[Derp|Because the way the game works, the Charge bonus, which the majority of your units heavily relies on, only gets applied to the models that actually hit the enemy. Also, charge bonuses begin dropping rapidly after contact. Only the tip of the formation will get full damage.]] Maximizing the impact of your charges is crucial to your success on the battlefield and as an added disadvantage, the lance formation makes it also considerably more difficult to retreat from melee combat. CA has stated that it is used to charge through deeper formations to get to the back line, but always expect to see a couple of horses stuck in the center of the enemy.
*'''Vows''': Your most crucial campaign mechanic. Your Lords need to fulfill vows to the Lady to get access to your best bits. You can still recruit them, but they will cost considerably more upkeep (up to 5 times as much as you would pay normally). These vows are essentially mini-quests that become more difficult with each Level, of which there are 3. You always get to choose between 3 such quests but beware: once you take a pledge, you cannot change it. The main problems with the vows comes when sometimes the conditions of the vows cannot be fulfilled anymore (for example, one quest requires your Lord to defeat a Greenskin Legendary Lord, of which there are not many around by the time of the late game), keeping your Lord stuck with a Vow that he cannot fulfill, and damning your army to only use Knights Errant for the rest of the game. Be wary of that. Picking the wrong vow at the wrong time can screw with your campaign more than you would like. The only exceptions to this is Louen Leoncoeur, who starts with all vows already unlocked, and Repanse, who starts with the first two already completed.

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==

*'''King Louen Leoncoeur''': Your dedicated Duellist/Tank lord. The Royarch of Bretonnia and a bona fide Grail Knight rumored to have even kissed the Lady of the Lake. Whether this is exactly true or not doesn't matter, in Total War: Warhammer he is an expensive, balls out, wrecking ball of pure Grail Knight awesomeness. There is little that can give him much trouble, he flat out stomps nearly anything and anyone that dares to face him head on. If you like, you can even put him on a royal Hippogryph. Still, very expensive for what he does.
:On the campaign map, he starts in the main Bretonnian faction of Couronne and, more importantly, has all vows already unlocked at the start. his start primes him for a crudade against Marienburg and Norsca.
*'''The Fay Enchantress''': Your caster Lord wielding the Lore of Life, a buffer/all-rounder caster. Comes with a few buffs, and while she has little armour, she can be surprisingly decent at killing infantry, since her '''Mist of the Lady''' ability deals constant damage to all enemies around her at no cost.
:In campaign she starts in the lower half of Bretonnia, being situating around Estalia (currently an Empire clone without mods), the Wood Elves, Dwarfs, Beastmen, [[Grom the Paunch]], and possibly Skaven if they move north. In the early game she can recruit extra peasants and has stronger casualty replenishment, with her personal army focusing on Grail Guardians and Battle Pilgrims.
*'''Alberic de Bordeleaux''': Your dedicated Anti-large Lord, buffing his army's Knights of the Realm to make them even deadlier against monsters, and Foot Squires to make them actually useful against enemy elite infantry. His '''Trident of Manaan''' gives him the ability to use a water-based Wind spell twice per battle, and greatly reduces attrition damage taken at sea, so feel free to go pirate/black ark hunting with him.
:He is the money maker of Bretonnia in the campaign, betting a bonus to trade, especially since he is closest to Ulthuan. His other bonuses reduce recruitment time for calvary, increase recruit experience for knights, and Knights of the Realm have better melee defense.
*'''Repanse de Lyonesse''': Bretonnian Jeanne d'Arc, if Jeanne didn't meet a tragic end and lives way, WAY longer. Some 500 years after driving the servants of Chaos from Bretonnia, she now leads an [[Errantry War]] against the [[Tomb Kings|undead of Nehekhara]] because... reasons (probably because ultra-conservative Bretonnian lords don't want a PEASANT GIRL leading Lyonesse). In combat, she is a Questing Knight lord, being a dedicated infantry slayer and granting bonuses to help your troops win the grind.
:Unfortunately, as an Errantry War faction, she can't confederate with the other Bretonnian lords, but she can with other Errantry factions in the Southlands with little fuss. She is an old faction total war crusader, giving a bonus to peasant units and Questing Knights, refilling their water supply from fort to fort as they purge the desert of filth.
*'''Sir John Tyrewald''': (campaign only) Not a mainline Legendary Lord, but a buffed unique vanilla Lord with a unique model, a tweaked skill tree, and prepackaged with his own Legendary Hero (Donna). Leads the Knights of Origo, who will confederate with Repanse early on barring early elimination shenanigans.

==Unit Roster==
===Generic Lords===
*'''Bretonnian Lord''': A discount King Louen. Out of the box, he does all the same things as the Legendary knight lords, minus their fancy buffs and bound spells. A decent melee character who can help you save gold to spend on more knights (hard to go wrong with more of those).

*'''Prophetess (Heaven, Life, Beasts)''': Lord version of a Damsel. Saves you on lord and mage in MP making her a cheaper option if you want to focus your gold on other aspects of an army. In the campaign, recruiting a new lord is the fastest way to get a wizard early game.

===Heroes===

*'''Paladin''': Bodyguards of your lords, but most notable as gooners with a roaming pack on Pegasus mounts being a dive bombing threat to most units.
*'''Damsel (Heavens, Life, Beasts)''': Your wizards. They have an aura that reduces magic damage for your nearby units.
*'''Henri Le Massif''': (Chevaliers De Lyonesse only) Repanse's right-hand big boy and the only Paladin in the game with access to a Hippogryph mount. Deals a lot more AP damage. Fun trivia: Big Hank still counts as a large unit even when on foot.
*'''Donna Don Domingio''': (campaign only) A tweaked vanilla Paladin with an alliterative name, a sweet scarf, and an allegiance to a faction that's likely to confederate with Repanse early on.
*'''The Green Knight''': The first Legendary Hero. A ghostly hero that lasts for 15 turns (25 in WH2) every time you summon him. He is basically a Paladin that trades the bonus vs large for drastically increased damage and defense, 70% physical resistance, unbreakable, and the inability to be killed or wounded after the battle (what with already being dead). The downside is that you only gain a summon after reaching certain chivalry thresholds (at least until you reach max chivalry).

===Infantry===
'''Important Note''': All infantry units, as well as Mounted Yeomen, use up slots in your Peasant Economy. If your unit count for Infantry units exceeds the limits of the Peasant Economy, you get less money from Farms, the more, the worse. Not that you mind, because Bretonnian Peasants are really shitty. It's important to keep in mind, because the AI doesn't have this limit and will build Peasants nonstop, so you need to disband many armies when you confederate the various Bretonnian factions or your economy goes haywire pretty fast.

*'''Peasant Mob''': Grab your pitchforks and torches, because this is all you're going to get! Your free, expendable meatshield unit. They win the title of worst infantry in all three games, being defeated even by Zombies and Skavenslaves. Still, they're free. Use only in a pinch.
*'''Men-at-arms/Spearmen-at-arms''': Your okay-ish infantry, mainly used as meat shields to establish a front line. They'll do their job alright, but don't expect them to do a lot. Come in all varieties you could ask for. Will loose to their Imperial Counterparts in a one on one.
*'''Battle Pilgrims''': Now these guys are pretty interesting. They do a much better job at holding the front line than Man-at-Arms could ever hope to and even deal decent damage, especially when combined with a Grail Reliquae. Decent morale, good enough armor, plus a shield for good measure.
*'''Grail Reliquae''': An odd piece, even more so when you realize that these are four guys imitating a horse for a deceased Grail Knight. They won't last long in prolonged combat, are especially vulnerable to ranged units (especially Warplock Jezzails) but buff your melee infantry like crazy, most notably is the +16(!!) bonus to leadership and immunity to Psychology. If you have an infantry-heavy army, one or even two of these won't hurt, but remember to keep them in the second line.
*'''Foot Squires''': Your "elite" Infantry, not as terrible in the damage department as Men-at-arms, but nothing special. They hold longer than the other options, but don't have a shield and most other basic infantry will still make mince meat out of them. I personally recommend just sticking with Battle Pilgrims, because the latter is not as expensive, doesn't require a T4 Barracks and not as vulnerable to missiles. They are considerably more effective in multiplayer, where they are decent and very cost-effective can openers to be used against units like Chaos Warriors.

===Missile Infantry===

*'''Peasant Bowmen''': Your only source of missile troops, but a decent option, just on the merit of cost-effectiveness alone. When used in bulk, they are not to be underestimated. Can come in three flavors: normal, Fire, and Pox arrows.

===Cavalry===

*'''Mounted Yeomen''': Very bad. Like, really, really bad. Why would you use these? They are horrible in melee, have terrible leadership, use up slots in the Peasant economy and their charge bonus isn't exactly anything to write home about either. There is literally no reason to use them in campaign. Knights-Errant perform better for almost the same price. The only way to make them useful is if you recruit their '''Mounted Yeomen Archer''' variation, mounted cavalry able to fire on the move, but even then...
**They are significantly better in Multiplayer where running farms are never a problem and Gold is a serious limiting factor in list building. They still aren't very good in melee but fill a vital role as the fastest units in the Bretonnian roster which is necessary for a throwaway harasser unit.
*'''Knights-Errant''': Your first real piece of cavalry, and an okay one at that. They don't need any vow taken and should form the basis of your early game armies. They cannot take a hit and should largely rely on their charges to deal the majority of damage. Phase them out as soon as you can.
*'''Knights of the Realm''': Your classic Bretonnian Knights. Heavy armour, shield, a great charge bonus, these are the staple of your army and really easy to get. Use them, love them. Require the first Vow to be completed.
*'''Questing Knights''': The linebackers. If you can manage them good enough, they can even replace your melee infantry quite easily. AP attacks mean they are great against any form of melee infantry without bonuses against large units. Require the second vow to be completed.
*'''Grail Knights''': Your definitive elite. There is little that can give them a lot of trouble. They hit hard, move fast, [[Awesome|never tire]], inspire units around them, and get a bonus vs. large. Your dedicated monster and single entity unit killers. Require the third vow to be completed, so they're exceedingly hard to actually unlock.
*'''Grail Guardians''': More defensive versions of the offensive Grail Knights with extremely high melee defense, so high in fact that they can hold their own against units that normally counter cavalry. If you don't like the micro-intensive playstyle of shock cav heavy armies, you can use them. Require the third vow to be completed.

===Flying Cavalry===
*'''Pegasus Knight''': Flying, fast, anti-large killers that are very good at killing monsters and other large units but will die if anything sneezes in their direction and cannot push through a blob to escape. The only high tier unit that requires only the first vow to be completed.
*'''Royal Pegasus Knight''': Slightly better than the above stats-wise, but also come with perfect vigour (never tire) and immunity to psychology. Require the third vow to be completed.
*'''Royal Hippogryph Knights''': Plenty of health and hit very hard: absolute beasts on the battlefield; however, they cost a ton and require the third vow to be completed.

===Artillery===
*'''Field Trebuchet''': Powerful and nice range with very slow rate of fire and below-average accuracy. useful as an artillery to deal AoE damage to enemy infantry but not as a siege weapon, its large hitbox and low HP causes them to lose fights against even the weakest towers.
*'''Blessed Field Trebuchet''': Upgrade to the above: slightly better stat-wise but also come with the bonus of not inflicting friendly fire.

==Tactics==

===Multiplayer Strategies===
A lot of the general strategies against these factions is going to boil down to one simple task; Cycle-charging cavalry. Your cavalry is your bread and butter in every matchup, so the key take-away in this section will be units in particular you'll need to look out for.

*'''Beastmen''': Another particularly fast faction, the Beastmen are largely unarmored, so a few squads of Peasant Bowmen with Pox arrows can get some surprising value against a majority of their units, further crippling them for your famous cavalry charges. Anti-Large cavalry will serve you quite well in this matchup. Grail Knights and even Pegasus Knights will serve as the tip of your spear against Minotaurs, Cygors and Ungors, while Knights of the Realm or even Questing Knights can mop up the rest of the Beastmen roster.

*'''Bretonnia''': A mirror matchup against Bretonnia will go exactly like you'd expect it to go. You'll want to do everything you can to make sure ''you'' initiate combat first, and if that means sacking a peasant mob or two to bog down opposing Grail Guardians so that yours can get the charge bonus against them, then that's what it'll take.

*'''Chaos Warriors''': Hoo boy, that's a lot of armor. Chaos Warriors are one of the slowest armies in the game, so you should have no difficulty outmaneuvering their forces to make that optimal charge. Despite your relative inadequacies at frontline engagements, Battle Pilgrims and Foot Squires can still deal not inconsequential damage to their forces while holding them in place for your Cavalry. You'll want to try to shut down any Hellcannons they bring, as that'll be the primary source of ranged pressure on your forces. Without that, you're free to run circles around them from dusk until dawn.

*'''Dark Elves''': Mobility is the name of the game here. Both you and the Dark Elves are good at it, so it will largely come down to who can micro their army better. Just forget about peasant spam. Even Bleakswords will shred them, to say nothing about Witch Elves and Sisters of Slaughter which will show any infantry you bring their own assholes in seconds. Peasant archers are a good choice in theory to put pressure on their light cav, but they are extremely difficult to protect if you aren't a seasoned player. No, this match will come down to your cavalry play. Luckily you have a HUGE advantage in the heavy cav game, since all they have in that department are Cold One Knights which are pretty much garbage. A solid airforce can be a powerful tool here, since the Dark Elves don't have much of an aerial presence. Masters on pegasi are pretty cost-inefficient (but can still threaten with their anti-large) and your flying knights or Paladins will easily shred dragons. Even Rakarth on Bracchus can't stack up if you goon him out. Plus, Pegasus Knights especially will have a pretty solid shot of dodging Scourgerunner projectiles and catching up with them to deliver death. Grail Knights are a great choice against Doomfire Warlocks or any other light cav, as long as you can tie them down. This is one of the few matchups where their elite infantry (read: Black Guard of Naggarond) can really threaten, so isolate them and goon them out with your lords/heros asap. Louen is probably the lord to bring here to support your airforce, your caster lords are just too squishy to stand up to their ludicrous amount of ap.

*'''Dwarfs''': Toss up, but with an advantage to you. Dwarfs units are slow, they don't have cavalry of their own, so your cavalry will be able to move unopposed, especially since Slayers can be counter-charged easily. On the other hand, a good chunk of their units have Defense Against Charge, high mass, and their gunline can wreck you.

*'''Empire''': It can be a bit tricky to have a plan against the Empire due to their sheer versatility, but there's one thing you know for certain; your Cavalry is better than theirs. Peasant bowmen will not deal remotely as much damage against the rank and file as the gun-wielding Empire missile units would against yours, but they can still get some honest work done against them. Foot-Squires can also best Empire missile units in combat if you can manage to get them there relatively unmolested, but don't imagine for a second that they'll hold the line against their dedicated melee troops. Trebuchets are also a solid backline option to help punch holes in the Empire's formations for your cavalry.

*'''Grand Cathay''':

*'''Greenskins''': You're in luck, Greenskins don't really have anti-large units. Their huge monsters (araknarock spiders, rogue idols) can be tough, but your anti-infantry cav should have a good time. What's better, is that the leadership of the Greenskins is surprisingly lower than what you might expect; a few successful flanking charges against their front line units can break them quite readily.

*'''High Elves''': The battle of the noble arrogant assholes, and believe it or not you actually have a very sizable advantage. The Asur have NO chance against you in the Cav fight, so grab some Grail Knights and watch as they run amok. Silverin Guard tend to be popular here as their Charge Defense, Anti Large and Magic Resist make them a semi decent counter to Grail Knights, though if you swarm them in peasants then you don't have to worry about them resisting your charge. If you don't want to risk your knights against the spear wall then grab some Field Trebuchets and kill them from afar. Dragons can easily be taken care of by either archers or double paladins. Plus Paladin support plus healing from the Fey Enchantress can make your Grail Knights all but unkillable for the Elves. Sure you have no chance at winning the infantry fight in a vacuum, but if you care about winning the infantry fight why the hell are you playing Bretonnia?

*'''Khorne''': This is probably going to be a challenging one. You beat Khorne in general mobility as all of your cavalry is faster than his. You beat him in ranged because his only ranged unit is a single-entity artillery-chariot while your trebuchets come with multiple models and you have archers. Your cavalry also has several anti-large options while Khorne has none. However your peasants will get shredded by almost everything in Khorne's roster, his cavalry units are much tougher and harder hitting even if they are slower, and he has plenty of ways to tangle up your ranged units in the form of Hounds and Furies. Bloodthirsters will be a big problem as their Terror will easily rout off your infantry and with that anti-large bonus they'll put a big dent on your knights, who will have trouble surrounding them. This might not be a bad matchup to bring Hippogryphs and Pegasus Knights. Used defensively they can fend off Hounds and Furies, can isolate Bloodthirsters in the air and surround them with anti-large damage, and in the case of the Hippogryphs still hit pretty hard against infantry. Skull Cannons will be ill-equipped to shoot them down and only Bloodthirsters can contest the sky.

*'''Kislev''':

*'''Lizardmen''': First thing, leave the kids (peasants) at home. None of your infantry options stand a ghost of a chance against the Lizardmen; even the lowly Skink Cohorts are capable of besting them in combat and that's not even mentioning how quickly their massive Dinosaurs will chow through the pitchfork-wielding masses. Assuming they don't immediately just route the field from the sheer amount of fear/terror caused by all the monsters. Instead, double down on your strengths. Bretonnian cavalry will easily outpace anything the Lizardmen could ever field. Key units to build lists around would be your Grail Knights and (Royal) Pegasus Knights, who not only specialize against large targets, but are also immune to fear and terror. Though you can't expect their support for long, your peasant bowmen can really hinder the Lizardmen frontline and combat potential with the Pox variant, allowing some of your higher tier cavalry a touch more staying power for when you need to hold the line.

*'''Norsca''': Don't even think about it. Norscans are just as mobile as you are and have an abundance of Anti-Large damage that will burn through your Knights as if they were gasoline-soaked tissue paper, both of their LLs completely wipe the floor with yours and there is no hope of winning the infantry fight either. And that's not even taking their monstrous options into account, with Fimir smashing through your precious few heavily armoured units. Evade them where you can and better pick something else.

*'''Nurgle''':

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''': Don't expect your flimsy infantry to stick around for long after they're hit with the first ogre charge. This may be a matchup where you're best off getting your knights stuck in early and keeping them there. Cycle charging is alot less effective against an enemy who can dish out a tremendous amount of hurt by counter charging your cavalry every time they cycle charge back into the fight. That and your forces have better stamina in a protracted brawl thanks to lore of life and perfect vigor Hrail Knights. Your anti-large air cav will reign uncontested due to Ogres lacking air presence, and they should be useful for tying up Ironblasters and Leadbelchers. They're also the only units you got who can reliably charge ogres without getting counter charged in return.

*'''Slaanesh''':

*'''Skaven''': While the Skaven missile units and artillery will put yours to shame, your cavalry is among the most suited to ruining the general Skaven strategy of blowing things up from across the map. Virtually nothing the Skaven have will be able to outrun your cavalry and a few well timed charges can break the relatively fickle leadership of their infantry quite easily. Knights of the Realm can do solid enough work against the general unarmored masses, but you'll want to keep some Questing Knights in reserve for any Stormvermin or Warpfire Throwers they might be packing... Unless the Skaven roll out Throt. A Clan Moulder-lead army can be one of your most difficult matchups, since Mutant Rat Ogres have little trouble blasting through your knights, Abominations are nearly unkillable for your piss poor infantry and Throt himself can frequently give Bonus vs. Large to all Skaven around him.

*'''Tomb Kings''': '''Don't''', despite what a Repanse campaign would suggest. The undead spears/halberds will tie your cavalry down and kill them, while the constructs are tough enough that even your anti-large cavalry will have a lot of trouble killing them, and their Necropolis Knights/Chariots/Nehekharan Warriors will mulch your infantry. You easily outshine them in the flying department, so a couple of Paladins on pegasi, Pegasus Knights and Hippogryphs will be very useful.

*'''Tzeentch''':

*'''Vampire Coast''':

*'''Vampire Counts''':

*'''Wood Elves''': If there's any faction capable of rivaling your cavalry charges, it's the Wood Elves. When engaging a mounted Wood Elf army, it really boils down to who gets the best initial engagement. If you can inflict a decisive charge against the Wood Elf cavalry, you'll neuter their offensive presence significantly, if they're not straight up cleaned off the battlefield. With the Wood Elf cavalry gone, you'll have virtually free reign to outmaneuver and slaughter the elves with your cycle charging prowess. Now, when it comes to dealing with the trees, you have several options; magical attacks and/or fire. Peasant Bowmen are a cheap as chips choice that can actually get quite a lot of value against Wood Elves as a whole (as not only are they unarmored, but a majority of them are unshielded as well). Lastly, though you'll need to screen them quite aggressively if you want them to stay online, your Trebuchet, though inaccurate, can blow holes in the Wood Elven front line and archer ranks long before they get into retaliatory range. Just make sure to keep tabs for sneaky vanguard deployments trying to circle around.

===Campaign Strategies===
** Always recruit an extra Lord to follow your main armies around. You don't pay supply lines, so the few hundreds of upkeep it costs you will be dwarfed by the Chivalry gained (since you gain Chivalry for each army that takes part in a battle), and that way you can do the "Raze evil faction's settlement for the bonus to Chivalry" while using your extra Lord to colonize it if you want.

** The Bretonnian economy is based around peasants. You can only have a certain number of non-knightly units before your economy starts sputtering; however, knights are expensive and your only archers and siege units are peasants. Luckily, Vows enable you to cut the upkeep of knights by significant amounts, meaning all-knight armies will be feasible in the early game if you do enough fighting to complete a lord's vows, and the more settlements you own the more peasants you can draft into your armies. The other unique aspect of the Bretonnian economy is that it is divided into two chains: farming and industry. Building the highest tier of one industry will soft-lock the other out of a settlement's productivity, meaning you'll have to demolish that other building chain. Generally speaking, farms earn much more than industry; the exception is in settlements with a Gold or Iron resource, whose unique buildings benefit from the industry bonus building. However, industry also functions independent of the faction's peasant cap, meaning you can field armies of peasants without losing income. You'll simply be making less than you do with farms.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Bretonnia

2022-07-13T06:21:45Z

2601:283:4C80:11C0:C137:6535:94A8:BCF2: /* Multiplayer Strategies */

{{Topquote|For the Lady, as one!|Game battle chant for unexpendable units}}
{{Topquote|We're blessed!|Game battle chant for expendable units}}
This is the tactics page for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of Bretonnia.

==Why play Bretonnia?==
*Because you like the chivalry ideals from ancient legends and don't care about the peasant half.
*Because you enjoy throwing disposable peasant fodder at a problem until the knightly heroes show up to save the day.
*You love the sight of infantry being thrown flat-on-their-back by the force of cavalry charges.
*Because you really do believe that magical swords distributed by women in ponds are the best justification for supreme executive power.

===Pros===
*'''Cavalry''': The widest selection of heavy cav in the entire game, each being able to fill out different purposes. While a minority of other faction's cav units can go fisticuffs with your horse boys, you are ''the'' cav faction.
*'''No $$$ required.''': It's the only completely free faction. All you need is the base game and the Bretonnia download or the Repanse FLC and you get the entire faction (Minus 3 legendary lords if you only get Repanse)
*'''Air Force''': You can really dominate the air if you wanted to invest into it. Louen combined with Hippogriff knights or Pegasus Knights can win most if not all sky engagements, and after that you can pick and choose your fights from the sky.
*'''Numbers''': Your peasants cost about as what you invest in their infrastructure, AKA Nothing! You are more or less the only order faction that can effectively use swarm tactics due to how cheap they are.
*'''High Armor''': Aside from Peasants, knights and high tier units have more armor than most and can be quite resilient.
*'''Good economy''': Your economy is easily the strongest in the game. Farms bring in insane amounts of cash and can be built literally everywhere. The way CA intends to counter this is through the Peasant Economy, that reduces income from farms when you have too much infantry on the field, but being a good Bretonnian, you don't really use Peasants except Archers anyway. Add in trade and a de facto monopoly on wine if you control Bordeleaux, and your treasury will never be empty again.
*'''Easy Diplomacy''': Everyone from the Order factions likes and trusts you, even the High Elves. This makes for easy trade deals and alliances, keeping your heartland safe from any outside threat.
*'''Lack of Supply Lines''': While other factions get a percent increase in upkeep for every Lord they recruit, Bretonnia doesn't. Field as many armies as you like! Follow every army with another army consisting entirely of peasants who lack upkeep for some easy battles.

===Cons===
*'''Piss Poor Infantry''': Your Peasants fight with shitty cheap weapons at best or farming tools at worse. With bad leadership, armor, and defensive stats, even your "elite" infantry gets their booties smacked by most mid tier infantry. Playing Bretonnia means conceding the front line in most cases.
*'''Anti Large''': Any opponent with a functioning brain will get anti large against you. Expect halberds or big anti-large monsters to try to wipe your cav out. Large units are also more susceptible to enemy missile fire and in melee skirmishes the AI can fire with impunity (it usually tries to avoid friendly fire like the plague).
*'''Micro-Intensive''': To make the most out of your cavalry, you will need to micromanage your Knights a lot. Also: The lance formation is a trap, don't use it.
*'''Very Easy Campaign''': It's fair to say that if you are not necessarily a fan of sandbox campaigns where you do not do a whole lot of map painting, Bretonnia can become very dull very fast. Once you have united Bretonnia, there is little to actually do outside of maxing out Chivalry and... that's basically it. Repanse de Lyonesse balances this out with a more unique starting position but not by much.
*'''Convoluted Vow System''': The Vow system is as straightforward as it is convoluted and, at times, constrained in the most annoying of ways due to the weird restrictions it places on your Lords' ability to access the better units in your roster. It's not very fun trying to kill late game Greenskin, Chaos or Dark Elf armies only with Knights Errant and the garbage tier peasant infantry,(especially against their legendary lords) yet you will need to do this to get access to even the most basic of your better cavalry. While it's indeed very fluffy, you will after a while struggle to find enemies to even fulfill your vows, making you feel like Don Quixote chasing after Windmills. Picking the wrong vow at a bad time will slow down your campaign considerably.
*'''Fatigue''': Until you get some research countering this and some perfect vigor units in the late game, expect your horsie boys to tire quickly. Cavalry tire faster than melee infantry when running and lose a significant amount of fatigue while charging — and expect to be doing a lot of both.
*'''Expensive Knights''': The upkeep on knight units is very high even after you fulfill the necessary vows. Expect peasants to take up most of your early game armies until the economy train gets rolling.
*'''One-Trick-Pony''': Bretonnia is known for exactly one thing: Cavalry. While you have mediocre archers and artillery, you will never be able to match the infantry of virtually any other faction, and you have no monsters and only one skimisher unit. If you tee up against a Bretonnian, you'll already know the core strategy they're going to be using against you.
**'''On a battle level''' : Your different legendary lords offer only minimal differences in your army composition (at most, Alberic's army will have more Squires while the Fay will have more Battle Pilgrims), so expect to be easily countered in multiplayer, and all your armies to be pretty similar, making your campaign a series of battles with little variance between them.
**'''On a campaign level''' : Much like the other non-updated races from game one, no lord-unique mechanics for you! While the chivalry mechanic itself is unique to Bretonnia, none of the legendary lords really offer much to differentiate themselves from one another, and the Chivalry meter itself isn't particularly engaging. Not to mention, excluding Repanse (who starts in Nehekhara), the three other LLs will have very similar campaigns after the first twenty turns or so.
* '''Horrible Replenishment''': No Lord or hero skills or technologies to get a good replenishment rate (except for Louen, who gets a skill to let Knight units in his army have an actually good replenishment, and repanse, who give an okay rate to her army with one of her skills). If a unit loses models, it's more often than not a better idea to disband the unit entirely and recruit a new one. Yes, it's ''that'' bad.

==Universal Traits==

*'''Blessing of the Lady''': If one of your armies does a lot of good stuff (conquering enemies, never retreat, not using [[Lawful Stupid|cowardly tactics such as ambushes]]) it earns the favor of Bretonnia's favored deity. The Blessing is really spectacular as it gives a flat 20% physical resistance to all your units. Beware: retreating once means the loss of the Blessing until that lord earns it again.
*'''Lance Formation''': The Mighty Duck's Flying V is a trap. Your cavalry can assume a lance formation, giving them increased speed and charge bonuses, but actually you're better off not using it. Why, you may ask? [[Derp|Because the way the game works, the Charge bonus, which the majority of your units heavily relies on, only gets applied to the models that actually hit the enemy. Also, charge bonuses begin dropping rapidly after contact. Only the tip of the formation will get full damage.]] Maximizing the impact of your charges is crucial to your success on the battlefield and as an added disadvantage, the lance formation makes it also considerably more difficult to retreat from melee combat. CA has stated that it is used to charge through deeper formations to get to the back line, but always expect to see a couple of horses stuck in the center of the enemy.
*'''Vows''': Your most crucial campaign mechanic. Your Lords need to fulfill vows to the Lady to get access to your best bits. You can still recruit them, but they will cost considerably more upkeep (up to 5 times as much as you would pay normally). These vows are essentially mini-quests that become more difficult with each Level, of which there are 3. You always get to choose between 3 such quests but beware: once you take a pledge, you cannot change it. The main problems with the vows comes when sometimes the conditions of the vows cannot be fulfilled anymore (for example, one quest requires your Lord to defeat a Greenskin Legendary Lord, of which there are not many around by the time of the late game), keeping your Lord stuck with a Vow that he cannot fulfill, and damning your army to only use Knights Errant for the rest of the game. Be wary of that. Picking the wrong vow at the wrong time can screw with your campaign more than you would like. The only exceptions to this is Louen Leoncoeur, who starts with all vows already unlocked, and Repanse, who starts with the first two already completed.

==Legendary Lords and Subfactions==

*'''King Louen Leoncoeur''': Your dedicated Duellist/Tank lord. The Royarch of Bretonnia and a bona fide Grail Knight rumored to have even kissed the Lady of the Lake. Whether this is exactly true or not doesn't matter, in Total War: Warhammer he is an expensive, balls out, wrecking ball of pure Grail Knight awesomeness. There is little that can give him much trouble, he flat out stomps nearly anything and anyone that dares to face him head on. If you like, you can even put him on a royal Hippogryph. Still, very expensive for what he does.
:On the campaign map, he starts in the main Bretonnian faction of Couronne and, more importantly, has all vows already unlocked at the start. his start primes him for a crudade against Marienburg and Norsca.
*'''The Fay Enchantress''': Your caster Lord wielding the Lore of Life, a buffer/all-rounder caster. Comes with a few buffs, and while she has little armour, she can be surprisingly decent at killing infantry, since her '''Mist of the Lady''' ability deals constant damage to all enemies around her at no cost.
:In campaign she starts in the lower half of Bretonnia, being situating around Estalia (currently an Empire clone without mods), the Wood Elves, Dwarfs, Beastmen, [[Grom the Paunch]], and possibly Skaven if they move north. In the early game she can recruit extra peasants and has stronger casualty replenishment, with her personal army focusing on Grail Guardians and Battle Pilgrims.
*'''Alberic de Bordeleaux''': Your dedicated Anti-large Lord, buffing his army's Knights of the Realm to make them even deadlier against monsters, and Foot Squires to make them actually useful against enemy elite infantry. His '''Trident of Manaan''' gives him the ability to use a water-based Wind spell twice per battle, and greatly reduces attrition damage taken at sea, so feel free to go pirate/black ark hunting with him.
:He is the money maker of Bretonnia in the campaign, betting a bonus to trade, especially since he is closest to Ulthuan. His other bonuses reduce recruitment time for calvary, increase recruit experience for knights, and Knights of the Realm have better melee defense.
*'''Repanse de Lyonesse''': Bretonnian Jeanne d'Arc, if Jeanne didn't meet a tragic end and lives way, WAY longer. Some 500 years after driving the servants of Chaos from Bretonnia, she now leads an [[Errantry War]] against the [[Tomb Kings|undead of Nehekhara]] because... reasons (probably because ultra-conservative Bretonnian lords don't want a PEASANT GIRL leading Lyonesse). In combat, she is a Questing Knight lord, being a dedicated infantry slayer and granting bonuses to help your troops win the grind.
:Unfortunately, as an Errantry War faction, she can't confederate with the other Bretonnian lords, but she can with other Errantry factions in the Southlands with little fuss. She is an old faction total war crusader, giving a bonus to peasant units and Questing Knights, refilling their water supply from fort to fort as they purge the desert of filth.
*'''Sir John Tyrewald''': (campaign only) Not a mainline Legendary Lord, but a buffed unique vanilla Lord with a unique model, a tweaked skill tree, and prepackaged with his own Legendary Hero (Donna). Leads the Knights of Origo, who will confederate with Repanse early on barring early elimination shenanigans.

==Unit Roster==
===Generic Lords===
*'''Bretonnian Lord''': A discount King Louen. Out of the box, he does all the same things as the Legendary knight lords, minus their fancy buffs and bound spells. A decent melee character who can help you save gold to spend on more knights (hard to go wrong with more of those).

*'''Prophetess (Heaven, Life, Beasts)''': Lord version of a Damsel. Saves you on lord and mage in MP making her a cheaper option if you want to focus your gold on other aspects of an army. In the campaign, recruiting a new lord is the fastest way to get a wizard early game.

===Heroes===

*'''Paladin''': Bodyguards of your lords, but most notable as gooners with a roaming pack on Pegasus mounts being a dive bombing threat to most units.
*'''Damsel (Heavens, Life, Beasts)''': Your wizards. They have an aura that reduces magic damage for your nearby units.
*'''Henri Le Massif''': (Chevaliers De Lyonesse only) Repanse's right-hand big boy and the only Paladin in the game with access to a Hippogryph mount. Deals a lot more AP damage. Fun trivia: Big Hank still counts as a large unit even when on foot.
*'''Donna Don Domingio''': (campaign only) A tweaked vanilla Paladin with an alliterative name, a sweet scarf, and an allegiance to a faction that's likely to confederate with Repanse early on.
*'''The Green Knight''': The first Legendary Hero. A ghostly hero that lasts for 15 turns (25 in WH2) every time you summon him. He is basically a Paladin that trades the bonus vs large for drastically increased damage and defense, 70% physical resistance, unbreakable, and the inability to be killed or wounded after the battle (what with already being dead). The downside is that you only gain a summon after reaching certain chivalry thresholds (at least until you reach max chivalry).

===Infantry===
'''Important Note''': All infantry units, as well as Mounted Yeomen, use up slots in your Peasant Economy. If your unit count for Infantry units exceeds the limits of the Peasant Economy, you get less money from Farms, the more, the worse. Not that you mind, because Bretonnian Peasants are really shitty. It's important to keep in mind, because the AI doesn't have this limit and will build Peasants nonstop, so you need to disband many armies when you confederate the various Bretonnian factions or your economy goes haywire pretty fast.

*'''Peasant Mob''': Grab your pitchforks and torches, because this is all you're going to get! Your free, expendable meatshield unit. They win the title of worst infantry in all three games, being defeated even by Zombies and Skavenslaves. Still, they're free. Use only in a pinch.
*'''Men-at-arms/Spearmen-at-arms''': Your okay-ish infantry, mainly used as meat shields to establish a front line. They'll do their job alright, but don't expect them to do a lot. Come in all varieties you could ask for. Will loose to their Imperial Counterparts in a one on one.
*'''Battle Pilgrims''': Now these guys are pretty interesting. They do a much better job at holding the front line than Man-at-Arms could ever hope to and even deal decent damage, especially when combined with a Grail Reliquae. Decent morale, good enough armor, plus a shield for good measure.
*'''Grail Reliquae''': An odd piece, even more so when you realize that these are four guys imitating a horse for a deceased Grail Knight. They won't last long in prolonged combat, are especially vulnerable to ranged units (especially Warplock Jezzails) but buff your melee infantry like crazy, most notably is the +16(!!) bonus to leadership and immunity to Psychology. If you have an infantry-heavy army, one or even two of these won't hurt, but remember to keep them in the second line.
*'''Foot Squires''': Your "elite" Infantry, not as terrible in the damage department as Men-at-arms, but nothing special. They hold longer than the other options, but don't have a shield and most other basic infantry will still make mince meat out of them. I personally recommend just sticking with Battle Pilgrims, because the latter is not as expensive, doesn't require a T4 Barracks and not as vulnerable to missiles. They are considerably more effective in multiplayer, where they are decent and very cost-effective can openers to be used against units like Chaos Warriors.

===Missile Infantry===

*'''Peasant Bowmen''': Your only source of missile troops, but a decent option, just on the merit of cost-effectiveness alone. When used in bulk, they are not to be underestimated. Can come in three flavors: normal, Fire, and Pox arrows.

===Cavalry===

*'''Mounted Yeomen''': Very bad. Like, really, really bad. Why would you use these? They are horrible in melee, have terrible leadership, use up slots in the Peasant economy and their charge bonus isn't exactly anything to write home about either. There is literally no reason to use them in campaign. Knights-Errant perform better for almost the same price. The only way to make them useful is if you recruit their '''Mounted Yeomen Archer''' variation, mounted cavalry able to fire on the move, but even then...
**They are significantly better in Multiplayer where running farms are never a problem and Gold is a serious limiting factor in list building. They still aren't very good in melee but fill a vital role as the fastest units in the Bretonnian roster which is necessary for a throwaway harasser unit.
*'''Knights-Errant''': Your first real piece of cavalry, and an okay one at that. They don't need any vow taken and should form the basis of your early game armies. They cannot take a hit and should largely rely on their charges to deal the majority of damage. Phase them out as soon as you can.
*'''Knights of the Realm''': Your classic Bretonnian Knights. Heavy armour, shield, a great charge bonus, these are the staple of your army and really easy to get. Use them, love them. Require the first Vow to be completed.
*'''Questing Knights''': The linebackers. If you can manage them good enough, they can even replace your melee infantry quite easily. AP attacks mean they are great against any form of melee infantry without bonuses against large units. Require the second vow to be completed.
*'''Grail Knights''': Your definitive elite. There is little that can give them a lot of trouble. They hit hard, move fast, [[Awesome|never tire]], inspire units around them, and get a bonus vs. large. Your dedicated monster and single entity unit killers. Require the third vow to be completed, so they're exceedingly hard to actually unlock.
*'''Grail Guardians''': More defensive versions of the offensive Grail Knights with extremely high melee defense, so high in fact that they can hold their own against units that normally counter cavalry. If you don't like the micro-intensive playstyle of shock cav heavy armies, you can use them. Require the third vow to be completed.

===Flying Cavalry===
*'''Pegasus Knight''': Flying, fast, anti-large killers that are very good at killing monsters and other large units but will die if anything sneezes in their direction and cannot push through a blob to escape. The only high tier unit that requires only the first vow to be completed.
*'''Royal Pegasus Knight''': Slightly better than the above stats-wise, but also come with perfect vigour (never tire) and immunity to psychology. Require the third vow to be completed.
*'''Royal Hippogryph Knights''': Plenty of health and hit very hard: absolute beasts on the battlefield; however, they cost a ton and require the third vow to be completed.

===Artillery===
*'''Field Trebuchet''': Powerful and nice range with very slow rate of fire and below-average accuracy. useful as an artillery to deal AoE damage to enemy infantry but not as a siege weapon, its large hitbox and low HP causes them to lose fights against even the weakest towers.
*'''Blessed Field Trebuchet''': Upgrade to the above: slightly better stat-wise but also come with the bonus of not inflicting friendly fire.

==Tactics==

===Multiplayer Strategies===
A lot of the general strategies against these factions is going to boil down to one simple task; Cycle-charging cavalry. Your cavalry is your bread and butter in every matchup, so the key take-away in this section will be units in particular you'll need to look out for.

*'''Beastmen''': Another particularly fast faction, the Beastmen are largely unarmored, so a few squads of Peasant Bowmen with Pox arrows can get some surprising value against a majority of their units, further crippling them for your famous cavalry charges. Anti-Large cavalry will serve you quite well in this matchup. Grail Knights and even Pegasus Knights will serve as the tip of your spear against Minotaurs, Cygors and Ungors, while Knights of the Realm or even Questing Knights can mop up the rest of the Beastmen roster.

*'''Bretonnia''': A mirror matchup against Bretonnia will go exactly like you'd expect it to go. You'll want to do everything you can to make sure ''you'' initiate combat first, and if that means sacking a peasant mob or two to bog down opposing Grail Guardians so that yours can get the charge bonus against them, then that's what it'll take.

*'''Chaos Warriors''': Hoo boy, that's a lot of armor. Chaos Warriors are one of the slowest armies in the game, so you should have no difficulty outmaneuvering their forces to make that optimal charge. Despite your relative inadequacies at frontline engagements, Battle Pilgrims and Foot Squires can still deal not inconsequential damage to their forces while holding them in place for your Cavalry. You'll want to try to shut down any Hellcannons they bring, as that'll be the primary source of ranged pressure on your forces. Without that, you're free to run circles around them from dusk until dawn.

*'''Dark Elves''': Mobility is the name of the game here. Both you and the Dark Elves are good at it, so it will largely come down to who can micro their army better. Just forget about peasant spam. Even Bleakswords will shred them, to say nothing about Witch Elves and Sisters of Slaughter which will show any infantry you bring their own assholes in seconds. Peasant archers are a good choice in theory to put pressure on their light cav, but they are extremely difficult to protect if you aren't a seasoned player. No, this match will come down to your cavalry play. Luckily you have a HUGE advantage in the heavy cav game, since all they have in that department are Cold One Knights which are pretty much garbage. A solid airforce can be a powerful tool here, since the Dark Elves don't have much of an aerial presence. Masters on pegasi are pretty cost-inefficient (but can still threaten with their anti-large) and your flying knights or Paladins will easily shred dragons. Plus, Pegasus Knights especially will have a pretty solid shot of dodging Scourgerunner projectiles and catching up with them to deliver death. Grail Knights are a great choice against Doomfire Warlocks or any other light cav, as long as you can tie them down. This is one of the few matchups where their elite infantry (read: Black Guard of Naggarond) can really threaten, so isolate them and goon them out with your lords/heros asap. Louen is probably the lord to bring here to support your airforce, your caster lords are just too squishy to stand up to their ludicrous amount of ap.

*'''Dwarfs''': Toss up, but with an advantage to you. Dwarfs units are slow, they don't have cavalry of their own, so your cavalry will be able to move unopposed, especially since Slayers can be counter-charged easily. On the other hand, a good chunk of their units have Defense Against Charge, high mass, and their gunline can wreck you.

*'''Empire''': It can be a bit tricky to have a plan against the Empire due to their sheer versatility, but there's one thing you know for certain; your Cavalry is better than theirs. Peasant bowmen will not deal remotely as much damage against the rank and file as the gun-wielding Empire missile units would against yours, but they can still get some honest work done against them. Foot-Squires can also best Empire missile units in combat if you can manage to get them there relatively unmolested, but don't imagine for a second that they'll hold the line against their dedicated melee troops. Trebuchets are also a solid backline option to help punch holes in the Empire's formations for your cavalry.

*'''Grand Cathay''':

*'''Greenskins''': You're in luck, Greenskins don't really have anti-large units. Their huge monsters (araknarock spiders, rogue idols) can be tough, but your anti-infantry cav should have a good time. What's better, is that the leadership of the Greenskins is surprisingly lower than what you might expect; a few successful flanking charges against their front line units can break them quite readily.

*'''High Elves''': The battle of the noble arrogant assholes, and believe it or not you actually have a very sizable advantage. The Asur have NO chance against you in the Cav fight, so grab some Grail Knights and watch as they run amok. Silverin Guard tend to be popular here as their Charge Defense, Anti Large and Magic Resist make them a semi decent counter to Grail Knights, though if you swarm them in peasants then you don't have to worry about them resisting your charge. If you don't want to risk your knights against the spear wall then grab some Field Trebuchets and kill them from afar. Dragons can easily be taken care of by either archers or double paladins. Plus Paladin support plus healing from the Fey Enchantress can make your Grail Knights all but unkillable for the Elves. Sure you have no chance at winning the infantry fight in a vacuum, but if you care about winning the infantry fight why the hell are you playing Bretonnia?

*'''Khorne''': This is probably going to be a challenging one. You beat Khorne in general mobility as all of your cavalry is faster than his. You beat him in ranged because his only ranged unit is a single-entity artillery-chariot while your trebuchets come with multiple models and you have archers. Your cavalry also has several anti-large options while Khorne has none. However your peasants will get shredded by almost everything in Khorne's roster, his cavalry units are much tougher and harder hitting even if they are slower, and he has plenty of ways to tangle up your ranged units in the form of Hounds and Furies. Bloodthirsters will be a big problem as their Terror will easily rout off your infantry and with that anti-large bonus they'll put a big dent on your knights, who will have trouble surrounding them. This might not be a bad matchup to bring Hippogryphs and Pegasus Knights. Used defensively they can fend off Hounds and Furies, can isolate Bloodthirsters in the air and surround them with anti-large damage, and in the case of the Hippogryphs still hit pretty hard against infantry. Skull Cannons will be ill-equipped to shoot them down and only Bloodthirsters can contest the sky.

*'''Kislev''':

*'''Lizardmen''': First thing, leave the kids (peasants) at home. None of your infantry options stand a ghost of a chance against the Lizardmen; even the lowly Skink Cohorts are capable of besting them in combat and that's not even mentioning how quickly their massive Dinosaurs will chow through the pitchfork-wielding masses. Assuming they don't immediately just route the field from the sheer amount of fear/terror caused by all the monsters. Instead, double down on your strengths. Bretonnian cavalry will easily outpace anything the Lizardmen could ever field. Key units to build lists around would be your Grail Knights and (Royal) Pegasus Knights, who not only specialize against large targets, but are also immune to fear and terror. Though you can't expect their support for long, your peasant bowmen can really hinder the Lizardmen frontline and combat potential with the Pox variant, allowing some of your higher tier cavalry a touch more staying power for when you need to hold the line.

*'''Norsca''': Don't even think about it. Norscans are just as mobile as you are and have an abundance of Anti-Large damage that will burn through your Knights as if they were gasoline-soaked tissue paper, both of their LLs completely wipe the floor with yours and there is no hope of winning the infantry fight either. And that's not even taking their monstrous options into account, with Fimir smashing through your precious few heavily armoured units. Evade them where you can and better pick something else.

*'''Nurgle''':

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''': Don't expect your flimsy infantry to stick around for long after they're hit with the first ogre charge. This may be a matchup where you're best off getting your knights stuck in early and keeping them there. Cycle charging is alot less effective against an enemy who can dish out a tremendous amount of hurt by counter charging your cavalry every time they cycle charge back into the fight. That and your forces have better stamina in a protracted brawl thanks to lore of life and perfect vigor Hrail Knights. Your anti-large air cav will reign uncontested due to Ogres lacking air presence, and they should be useful for tying up Ironblasters and Leadbelchers. They're also the only units you got who can reliably charge ogres without getting counter charged in return.

*'''Slaanesh''':

*'''Skaven''': While the Skaven missile units and artillery will put yours to shame, your cavalry is among the most suited to ruining the general Skaven strategy of blowing things up from across the map. Virtually nothing the Skaven have will be able to outrun your cavalry and a few well timed charges can break the relatively fickle leadership of their infantry quite easily. Knights of the Realm can do solid enough work against the general unarmored masses, but you'll want to keep some Questing Knights in reserve for any Stormvermin or Warpfire Throwers they might be packing... Unless the Skaven roll out Throt. A Clan Moulder-lead army can be one of your most difficult matchups, since Mutant Rat Ogres have little trouble blasting through your knights, Abominations are nearly unkillable for your piss poor infantry and Throt himself can frequently give Bonus vs. Large to all Skaven around him.

*'''Tomb Kings''': '''Don't''', despite what a Repanse campaign would suggest. The undead spears/halberds will tie your cavalry down and kill them, while the constructs are tough enough that even your anti-large cavalry will have a lot of trouble killing them, and their Necropolis Knights/Chariots/Nehekharan Warriors will mulch your infantry. You easily outshine them in the flying department, so a couple of Paladins on pegasi, Pegasus Knights and Hippogryphs will be very useful.

*'''Tzeentch''':

*'''Vampire Coast''':

*'''Vampire Counts''':

*'''Wood Elves''': If there's any faction capable of rivaling your cavalry charges, it's the Wood Elves. When engaging a mounted Wood Elf army, it really boils down to who gets the best initial engagement. If you can inflict a decisive charge against the Wood Elf cavalry, you'll neuter their offensive presence significantly, if they're not straight up cleaned off the battlefield. With the Wood Elf cavalry gone, you'll have virtually free reign to outmaneuver and slaughter the elves with your cycle charging prowess. Now, when it comes to dealing with the trees, you have several options; magical attacks and/or fire. Peasant Bowmen are a cheap as chips choice that can actually get quite a lot of value against Wood Elves as a whole (as not only are they unarmored, but a majority of them are unshielded as well). Lastly, though you'll need to screen them quite aggressively if you want them to stay online, your Trebuchet, though inaccurate, can blow holes in the Wood Elven front line and archer ranks long before they get into retaliatory range. Just make sure to keep tabs for sneaky vanguard deployments trying to circle around.

===Campaign Strategies===
** Always recruit an extra Lord to follow your main armies around. You don't pay supply lines, so the few hundreds of upkeep it costs you will be dwarfed by the Chivalry gained (since you gain Chivalry for each army that takes part in a battle), and that way you can do the "Raze evil faction's settlement for the bonus to Chivalry" while using your extra Lord to colonize it if you want.

** The Bretonnian economy is based around peasants. You can only have a certain number of non-knightly units before your economy starts sputtering; however, knights are expensive and your only archers and siege units are peasants. Luckily, Vows enable you to cut the upkeep of knights by significant amounts, meaning all-knight armies will be feasible in the early game if you do enough fighting to complete a lord's vows, and the more settlements you own the more peasants you can draft into your armies. The other unique aspect of the Bretonnian economy is that it is divided into two chains: farming and industry. Building the highest tier of one industry will soft-lock the other out of a settlement's productivity, meaning you'll have to demolish that other building chain. Generally speaking, farms earn much more than industry; the exception is in settlements with a Gold or Iron resource, whose unique buildings benefit from the industry bonus building. However, industry also functions independent of the faction's peasant cap, meaning you can field armies of peasants without losing income. You'll simply be making less than you do with farms.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves

2022-07-11T09:01:31Z

2601:283:4C80:11C0:C137:6535:94A8:BCF2: /* Faction Counterplay */

{{Topquote|Lacoi Endri Loren! (Might of the Great Forest!)|Game battle chant for Wood Elves}}
This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the Wood Elves.

==Why Play Wood Elves==
*Cause you're tired of tree hugger jokes.
*You have a need, a need for speed, and would rather not side with that [[Slaanesh|crazy sense-freak Daemon god to get it]].
*Rather than blot out the sun you want to light the sky with hundreds of magical arrows.
*You love the parts from Lord of the Rings where Ents get shit done. Or you saw the Elves in Lord of the Rings and thought "yeah, that's cool...but wouldn't it be cooler if they had dragons, psycho tree-men, and [[Zoat|lizard centaurs]]?"
*Because you want the world to learn of your peaceful ways, by force.
*You really have a hard-on for <s>The Vietcong</s> sneaky militas that sneak through the enviroment instead of taking the enemy head on.

===Pros===
*'''Sheer Speed''' - The majority of your army is quite fast. Even the most basic infantry available to you, Eternal Guards, will outpace a significant portion of the footsoldiers available to most other armies. You'll be able to dance around the plodding pace of slower armies like the <strike>dwarves</strike> Dwarfs <sub>(that's a grudgin')</sub> or lizardmen. Even fast races such as Beastmen will have trouble keeping up with your mounted units and flying monsters.
*'''Excellent Missile Infantry''' - The Wood Elves have an abundance of fantastic missile units. Ranged infantry, cavalry, fliers, lords, heroes with access to dedicated poison, anti-armor, magic or rapid fire missiles gives you immense flexibility against any threats you may face. With the new DLC, the Wood Elves have perhaps the single best ranged Legendary Lord(s) in the game in the form of the Sisters of Twilight, who are capable of not only dealing heavy single target damage but also horde clearing shots from their unique bows.
*'''Savage Melee Combatants''' - Wood Elves have access to some pretty heavy-hitting, if squishy infantry options that can scythe through hordes like lawnmowers. Additionally, Wild Riders are capable of dealing some of the most damaging charges in the game thanks to their ''immense'' charge bonus. The new Great Stag Knight unit hits even harder on the charge, and moves even faster.
*'''Micro Intensive''' - For experienced players looking for more a more dynamic faction, Wood Elves will prove quite interesting indeed. Due to the design philosophy of their army, players will need to keep on their toes and constantly be shifting a majority of their army about the battlefield to get the most out of them, more so than pretty much any other faction.
*'''Playing tall''': True to their nature, aquiring huge tracts of lands is of little interest to the Wood Elves. This makes managing your forces one hell of a lot more manageable. It also mitigates the tediousness of managing an Empire.

===Cons===
*'''Fragile''' - The Wood Elves are debatably ''the'' frailest overall faction in the game. A few niche units like the Tree Kin or Treemen can hold their own in prolonged fights, but the rest of your army will wither away in a sustained assault. A successful Wood Elf army must strike with surgical precision and do so swiftly and from afar. Because of this constant skirmishing, Wood Elves are arguably the most difficult race to play, as they require the most micromanagement on the battlefield.
**'''Micro Madness''' - A bit of an elaboration on the prior point, to the newer player, you may struggle to keep up with all the maintenance most Wood Elf units require to operate effectively. Unlike some of the easier or more flexible factions, it cannot be overstated that Wood Elves cannot afford to just be smashed against enemy forces recklessly or be committed to a grindfest against sturdier or more rounded factions.
*'''Weakness to Fire''': Duh. Anything that can burn or brings flaming attacks will give you a lot of trouble. A lot of your roster is especially vulnerable to this, since it directly counters your otherwise tanky Treekin frontline units, and several of the games factions have no trouble bringing it to the table, either through units (Dwarfs and Skaven in particular have no trouble to get some Irondrakes or Warpfire Throwers) or through the Lore of Fire, which is also a very common lore to find, with 6 factions (Empire, High Elves, Dark Elves, Lizardmen, Norsca and Warriors of Chaos) having access to it.
*'''Absent Artillery''' - Though you have plenty of long-ranged missile units to choose from and one or two missile units who can act similarly to artillery, you have no dedicated artillery platforms. This isn't a ''major'' issue primarily because you have so many archers that can fill every role the otherwise absent artillery would perform, but you will lack a notable source of hard-hitting burst damage. This is only getting worse in campaign with the Twisted and the Twilight's changes to Wood Elf hero skills, now only the Lords can buff your missile units range meaning no more 300 range Waywalker cheese, it was fun while it lasted. Use the Arrow of Kuronous ability instead of Artillery, with a range of 600 it's quite capable of sniping out enemy artillery and lords before you get close.
*'''Limited Roster''' - Wood Elves have fewer unit choices than a number of other playable factions. This limits your army composition into fairly predictable builds that does nothing for players looking for adaptable playstyles. It also means your faction has a number of fairly obvious weaknesses, such as the aforementioned fragility and lack of artillery but also a vulnerability to heavy cavalry and fire damage. These weaknesses can be exploited by your opponent relatively easily since most of them will have the flexibility to gear specifically against those weaknesses.
*'''DLC Faction''' - In order to play the Wood Elves at all, you need to buy at least one of the two optional DLC packs featuring them. "Realm of the Wood Elves", their initial release, is DLC for the first Total War: Warhammer game. "The Twisted and the Twilight", a lord pack for Total War: Warhammer II, will allow players of the second game a way to play them if they don't own both the original game and the original DLC, but some of the roster will be somewhat limited (more so than it already is). Regardless, if you want to have the whole faction available to play, you'll need to purchase two full price games and two separate DLC packs in order to access everything. If that's not premium content, I don't know what is.

==Universal Trait==
Wood Elves don't really have much in the way of extra abilities or perks, there is one particular thing they have going for them though:

*'''Hide (Forest)''' - What did you expect? They're ''Wood'' Elves. Hell, some of their units are literally just tree people. The only units in the entire elven roster who can't hide in forests are the Great Eagle, Hawk Riders and Forest Dragon.

*'''Forest Spirit''' - Though this affects only a portion of the Wood Elf roster, it still is frequent enough that it warrants a mention. All of your tree units possess this trait, which simultaneously provides extra defense against standard melee attacks and bequeaths magical attacks unto the tree units in question. While this helps make them particularly durable against most infantry armies, it dramatically weakens how effective your tree units are when faced against magically potent/resistant enemies, who will deal heightened damage to them while taking less in turn. Thankfully such enemy units are in relatively limited supply, but you definitely need to consider the type of opponent you're facing before you build a list around Tree Kin and Treemen. As of game three magical attack damage is no longer reduced my magic resistance (MR will only reduce actual spell damage), so this will be at least partially relieved.

==Lords==
Compared to the swollen ranks of the Warhammer II races, your available lord list is a little lacking. With all the Wood Elf DLC, you do have a grand total of 7 choices, though in Multiplayer you'll have little reason to take any of the generic choices. Even in the campaign, where confederating your fellow Wood Elves is relatively easy (usually only requiring the completion of a specific mission per WE faction to confederate), it can be difficult to justify recruiting the generic dudes outside of filling Office Slots on your council. Drycha is a notable exception, as the only lord she can confederate with is Durthu; she's not exactly a fan of the meatbags infesting Athel Loren.

===Legendary Lords===
*'''[[Orion]]''' - Orion is a hybrid ranged/melee beatstick who specializes against infantry. At a distance, he's one of the best ranged lords in the game and deals ''hefty'' anti-armor damage, perfect for sniping large monsters and individual lords/heroes. He's also blisteringly fast for a foot lord and can even keep pace with some of the slower cavalry found in other armies. This pairs well with his impressive melee attack and charge bonuses; it's a common tactic to skirmish at range with a few well timed missiles to then follow up with a charge. Though he's not a caster, Orion also has access to a powerful bound vortex spell, ''Hounds of Orion'', which will easily burn through most (elite) infantry when the burst damage is needed. All in all, a solid, well rounded lord that you can't go wrong with.

*'''[[Durthu]]''' - Everyone's favorite genocidal tree ([[Drycha|no, not that one]]) is your best dedicated duelist. In a similar vein to Orion, Durthu is a hybrid lord who has access to the lore of beasts; a reasonably useful set of supporting or offensive spells that can turn either himself or supporting treekin into terrifying combat monsters that will deal death to many a foe. As a massive monster, Durthu can wade through infantry and cavalry with relative ease and can go root-to-toe with a majority of the single-entity monsters in the game. Unfortunately, not everything to be said of Durthu is good. First, as a giant monster, Durthu is particularly vulnerable to both anti-armor weaponry and anti-large weaponry. This size also makes him an easy target to missile fire. Secondly, he's also vulnerable to fire damage, something many factions have access to and something modestly abundant on missile units. If caught in a crossfire of several such tools, Durthu will melt away frighteningly quickly, so you'll need to take extra care and support him with life magic should he get stuck in. in campaign Durthu's faction gets aspect upgrades for tree spirits like drycha but still gets the full wood elf roster. he plays as a middle ground between traditional wood elf tactics and drycha's spirit focused roster.

*'''[[Sisters of Twilight]] Naestra and Arahan (DLC)''' - These two ladies are collectively the only true-blooded ''elf'' Legendary Lord available to the Wood Elves. They are exclusively mounted on either a Great Eagle or a Forest Dragon and function best as a dedicated ranged unit. They do have decent combat stats, particularly when on the dragon, but they'll almost always lose against any other dedicated duelist unit or character worth their weight in gold. They excel in sniping targets from afar and have all tools to do so; both flying options safely keep them away from any melee combatant, and also have a very nice AoE attack not unlike the split shot ammo from the DE and HE artillery pieces. The SoT also grant Hawk Riders the "Arrows of Kurnous" ability, which is basically a "fuck you in particular" button that outright deletes any big unit you point it at.

*'''[[Drycha]] (FLC)''' Everyone's favorite genocidal tree ([[Durthu|no, not that one]]) returns as a "free" bonus Legendary Lord for Mortal Empires exclusively. Like her Branchwraith kin, Drycha is a hybrid melee combatant and spellcaster who can actually hold her own in combat if properly supported, but she will certainly not win any one-on-one duels with any characters with an actual melee statline. Unlike her generic sisters, Drycha is a pure-strain Lore of Shadows caster and as such is a shockingly vicious blob blender. As far as unique abilities go, Drycha brings two things to the table; she can summon a unit of (Malevolent) Dryads up to two times per battle and she provides a progressively more potent AoE buff that increases the melee attack of fellow Treekin units the lower her health is. Combined with the Frenzy ability found on a lot of her campaign unique units, this can be a particularly nasty combination that allows her and her angry trees to carve through quite a lot of the squishy, meaty competition. In campaign and custom battle she gets her own little roster of unique Malevolent Tree Spirit/Wild Beast units including Coeddil himself (unfortunately though none of her units have custom models, just reskins). Sadly, as mentioned, she is exclusive to the Mortal Empires campaign and so likely won't be seeing much time in the spotlight. also shares an Aspect mechanic with durthu that can modify tree spirits to be better at certain rolls.

===Generic Lords===
*'''Glade Lord''' - Your generic elf dude/dudette, glade lords are flexible and very customizable lords who can lead from the front or afar. They are specialized duelists at heart and will excel at hunting enemy lords/heroes if you can separate them from their armies but, unlike Durthu, tend to be vulnerable to getting tied down by hordes of enemies. Normally your cheapest lord, you can invest in a steed/eagle to maximize their mobility (take the steed if you want to utilize forest terrain) or place them atop a Forest Dragon to allow them to fight a much wider selection of enemies. Note that while the male/female distinction is cosmetic only in campaign, in multiplayer battles, male glade lords are specced for melee while the female glade lords are specced for range. The glady tends to be more popular there since she gets an magic missile with arrow of kurnous and a snare with prey of Anath Raema.

*'''Ancient Treeman''' - Ancient treemen function somewhat like Durthu (understandably) in that they are hybrid lords with respectable melee damage output and access to a supplementary lore of magic. However, unlike Durthu, the regular ancient treeman has access to the significantly more useful lore of life. This makes them fantastic centerpieces for a treeman-style/focused army who can hold their own far more effectively than your spellsingers, but this comes with the same inconveniences plaguing Durthu. As a large, flammable monster, treemen are very weak to flamming attacks, anti-armor attacks and anti-large attacks. Even if he's healing himself, he can and absolutely will melt quite quickly if focused down (and believe me, he will be focused). You will absolutely need additional screening units to help protect him in combat.

*'''Spellweaver (DLC)''' - Caster ladies who can straight up lead your armies into battle, letting you save your hero slots for something else, if you so wish. In a manner similar to the High Elves, the Spell Weavers have access to a much wider variety of magic lores than their lesser variants (and by that, I mean they get two more schools). Otherwise, they're virtually identical to their sisters.
**'''Life Spellweaver''' - Virtually identical to your Life Spellsinger, only large and in charge.
**'''Beasts Spellweaver''' - Virtually identical to your Beasts Spellsinger, only large and in charge.
**'''Shadows Spellweaver''' - Virtually identical to your Shadows Spellsinger, only large and in charge.
**'''Dark Spellweaver''' - Now we're getting somewhere new. An offensive discipline, the Lore of Dark Magic provides some solid anti-lord/hero spells via Doombolt and Soul Stealer while also providing some decent anti-infantry spells in Chillwind and Blade Wind. Frankly, not a bad pick at all. Lore attribute passively increases missile damage map wide which is actually pretty nice stacked with all the other auras/skill bonuses you can get.
**'''High Spellweaver''' - This Spellweaver got a little too into the 'shrooms and learned a whole new lore of magic. With a little bit of everything, the High Spellweaver can provide a bit of healing support, single target damage, AoE damage and can even trap/damage flying units with a cast or two of Tempest. To be frank, a lot of what she can do is overshadowed by her sisters, so you'll probably want to pick one of them if you want offensive or supportive magic. Lore attribute is nice for stacking physical resist map wide but honestly it’s not a great lore. Dark has much better damage. And you can just bring a secondary caster for buffs.

==Heroes==
You have one (two for ME) Legendary hero and three flavors of generic heroes, each with their own uses.

===Legendary Heroes===
*'''Ariel (DLC)''' - Ariel is an obscenely powerful caster hero that starts with a full roster of spells taken from the Lores of Life, High and Dark, but also Greater Arcane Conduit and two bound healing spells that rival Alarielle the Everqueens Heart of Avelorn in terms of raw healing potential. In direct combat itself, she's rather frail when put up against her direct DLC-counterpart Ghoritch, not to mention Throt, so her use against enemy single-entity-units is rather limited; her Magic combined with her Ward Save of 25% relegates her to Chaff clearing duty, where she performs very well.

===Generic Heroes===
*'''Branchwraith''' - If ever there could only be a single unit that could be defined as a "hybrid", branchwraiths would be strong contenders for the title. Not only are they capable melee fighters in their own right, but they have access to a variety of handpicked spells from both the lore of life and lore of shadows. This gives them equal measure of frontline support and damage. Penumbral Pendulum gives you a strong sweeping wind spell that excels at softening harder units for your Wardancers and Rangers. Their additional access to earthblood gives them a cheap multi-target heal that, when paired with Shield of Thorns, will make your frontline units extremely resilient for a brief period of time. AOE aura buffing melted attack is quite nice for your frontline. Best on bladesingers or dryads especially.

*'''Waystalker''' - These guys are lord/hero hunters, pretty much strictly designed and specialized for that singular purpose. They can easily vanish from your foe's view thanks to their Master Ambusher ability which, combined with their speed, also allows them to easily kite footlords while blasting them with arrows. A few limited use abilities, like the Arrow of Kurnous, can allow them to deal decent damage and disrupt infantry in a pinch. It can also be reserved for sniping and destroying artillery pieces. Despite being built to hunt characters, Waystalkers are actually only decent melee combatants and will falter against melee-focused foot lords. Only send them in if they're completely out of ammo and/or properly supported by reinforcements. AOE aura buff missile damage, park by your archers.

*'''Spellsinger''' - Your cheap, dedicated mages. Spellsingers, like the purestrain generic mages of other factions, only exist to cast spells and nothing more. Keep these gals behind your front lines and out of harms way if you want their support to last you the battle. If you can spare the coin, consider placing them on elven steeds or unicorns so that they can quickly respond to changing conditions on the battlefield and quickly escape should enemies come for them. You have three flavors to choose from:
**'''Beasts Spellsinger''' - A dedicated vector for the mixed lore of beasts, spellsingers of this category are ideal for supporting fellow elves/trees with buffs while contributing occasional bursts of AoE damage. A spare flock of doom can do decent work to clusters of infantry, though you'll get better AoE damage going with a shadows spellsinger. The spellsinger variant of Transformation of Kadon received a fluffy nerf; instead of summoning a feral manticore, now it summons eagles. Eagles are dramatically inferior to the manticore, but they can still be summoned to provide a surprise flank or to tie down enemy artillery in a pinch.
**'''Life Spellsinger''' - Your cheapest source for lore of life spells. All in all, you really can't go wrong with her; healing magic is invaluable and can absolutely mean the difference between a winning/losing engagement on the field. You'll get a lot of mileage out of her if you pair her with treemen/forest dragons.
**'''Shadows Spellsinger''' - The lore of shadows is your most offensive choice for your spellsingers, and it's not a bad one. Your two primary offensive spells, the Penumbral Pendulum and the Pit of Shades both deal impressive AoE damage and thus specialize in clearing out armored frontlines. The Pit of Shades also holds the distinct honor of being the only stationary vortex spell in the game. This ensures that it'll never randomly roll over your own troops, but it also cannot potentially flow into neighboring enemy formations to cause greater damage, so it's a bit of a trade off there. If nothing else, you can use it to create a zone of denial in chokepoints.

*'''Glade Captain (DLC)''' - A baby Glade Lord, Glade Captains are effectively identical to their lord counterparts in form and function. Frankly speaking, being relegated to the hero slot suits them better than the Lord slot, as you aren't sacrificing the offensive prowess of the Sisters of Twilight or Durthu for a generic damage dealer. Having said that, it's still somewhat hard to justify taking a Glade Captain over a Spellsinger or Branchwraith in most lists just due to the lack of utility they provide, but if you're in need of a more flexibly inclined damage dealer, Glade Captains are decently suited to the task. However, while it's definitely hard to justify bringing a glade captain to a multiplayer custom match, she's a must include in campaign since she passively increases an army's movement range and grants army wide buffs depending on what mount she has. Giving her a great stag allows cavalry to ignore movement penalties. Giving her an eagle causes hawkriders to instill fear. Taking her on foot allows wardancers and bladesingers to vanguard deploy, which is very effective when comboed with the Sisters of Twilight office that gives them stalk stance. Probably best on foot if you want vanguard bladesingers or on stag to accompany great stag knights where she is amazing. Makes great cavalry even better.

==Units==

====Melee Infantry====
*'''Eternal Guard''' - Eternal Guard are the closest thing to a defensive front line unit you have. Available shielded or unshielded (you should ''always'' take shielded Eternal Guard, precious other units in your army resist ranged attacks), these stalwart warriors are in that perfect twilight zone of being cheap and somewhat expendable while also remaining rather competent combatants capable of holding their own against other units above their weight class. Though they'll often lose in drawn out fights against stronger, higher tier melee infantry, they can pin them down long enough for your archers or dryads to flank and make up for their sub-optimal damage output. Eternal Guard, being exclusively armed with spears, are excellent anti-cavalry/monster screens and, when braced, can easily halt enemy charges in their tracks. No matter your focus, be it cavalry, missile units or treemen, you'll want your line held by a few of these guys. They don’t hold up to elite infantry well though, late game may want to replace with treekin, who are much more durable generally. Take note that they are AP spearmen with access to shields, which is incredibly rare. probably the best of the 3 elven races spearmen units for this alone. they wont get a lot of kills but can do okay even against heavily armored infantry.
**'''Winterheart Guards (RoR)''' - Eternal Guard, only with charge defense against everything, an encouragement aura for nearby allied units and ''unbreakable''. These guys will hold the line until the bitter end, something they'll ensure takes a long time due to their increased defensive stats. You'll want these guys somewhat centrally located in your front line to ensure their leadership buff affects as many Eternal Guard as possible.

*'''Wardancers''' - These lovely ladies serve as dedicated infantry blenders, a job they do really, really well. They are exceptionally quick for infantry themselves, able to outrun a majority of the targets you'd throw them at (only a select few infantry units can even keep pace with them, namely Skinks). They do their best work against unarmored foes, so you should generally avoid sending them in against particularly hardy front line units. This is because, like a significant portion of your army, Wardancers are frail. Really frail. They take damage just as quick as they (try to) give it, so if they enemy they're fighting just won't die then they'll begin to. They do have an active skill that trades some of their melee attack for a defensive buff, which can help them come out on top in a DPS race, though they'll still be left far worse for wear without support. Pairing Wardancers with Eternal Guard is recommended to alleviate this; while the Eternal Guard pins down and tanks a particularly dangerous enemy, the Wardancers step in and carve them to pieces. Obsolete compared to spear version and blade singers, and really what they can do to light infantry a unit of archers can usually do better.

*'''Spear Wardancers''' - Wardancers who specialize against large foes instead of infantry formations. Where regular Wardancers simply appreciate having Eternal Guard tank the hits, Spear Wardancers actually synergize with them extremely well due to their shared offensive niche. Just like the regular Wardancers, have the Eternal Guard intercept cavalry or monsters before sending these gals in. Spear Wardancers have an activated ability that grants them additional missile resistance, but it comes at the cost of their melee defense. They do much better vs armoured elite infantry than the normal version because of AP.
**'''Loec's Tricksters (RoR)''' - If you thought regular Wardancers were glass cannons, you haven't seen these ones at work. This regiment of renown exchanges the normal Spear Wardancer activated ability in exchange for one that pumps up their melee attack in exchange for their defense (literally the opposite effect of the regular Wardancers ability) which, when combined with the addition of Frenzy, makes them do ''obscene'' damage to large units. Unfortunately, this also means that a stiff breeze will slaughter them to the last. Hold these ladies in reserve for a critical fight, such as engaging the enemy lord or a key monster in their army and support them with magic to make sure they survive the ensuing melee.

*'''Wildwood Rangers''' - The Wildwood Rangers have an... interesting role. Previously, they were your only dedicated source of melee armor piercing damage, which they deal a lot of, but they also only specialize against large targets. While these two perks often work fantastically against monsters and cavalry, it tends to pay off less on the armored masses you may often find yourself against. They still hold a somewhat viable niche if you expect to face armored cavalry/monster armies like the Lizardmen or Bretonnia, but they are thoroughly outclassed by the new Bladesingers against all forms of infantry without good magic resistance you might face.
**'''Wardens of Cythral (RoR)''' - Take the Wildwood Rangers, give them silver shields, armor sundering and a ''beefy'' charge defense against large targets and send them on their way. These guys are better suited to prolonged fights against large foes than Spear Wardancers, particularly because they have actual stats in their defenses. With support, these guys can chunk most armored targets relatively well in good time.

*'''Dryads''' - The first of your treekin soldiers, Dryads are better suited to tanking and dealing physical damage than your Eternal Guard, but are notably weaker than them against magical and fire based attacks. Dryads also have virtually no charge defense and cannot deal with enemy cavalry remotely as well as the Eternal Guard either. Having said that, Dryads do have two notable selling points over Eternal Guard: They are immune to psychology (so Fear and Terror) and they have vanguard deployment. Cleverly hidden trees can easily fall upon a squishier back line to disrupt/shut down artillery and archers while formations of Eternal Guard distract the heavy hitters long enough for your angry trees to come into play. unless you play drycha or maybe durthu these shouldn't see use past the early game, they just aren't good enough at what limited tasks they can preform.
**'''Wraiths of the Frozen Heart (DLC, RoR)''' - These dryads have been gifted with attacks that freeze and slow their targets, helping to ensnare and lock down enemies.

*'''Bladesingers (DLC)''' - At first glance, you'd assume these fiery redheads are just reskinned Wardancers. You wouldn't necessarily be wrong to assume that, but you will pay dearly if you underestimate them for that mistake. These ladies are your elite melee infantry and ''butcher'' anything not horse-sized or larger due in no small part to a combination of magical attacks and high armor-piercing damage. Bladesingers also have the ability to "turn off" their armor piercing damage modifier to give themselves a melee attack buff, letting them effectively cut down virtually any flavor of infantry you could throw them at. You can switch between the two modes at will, unlike the Wardancers, so they are exceptionally flexible for how killy they are. The main drawback is exactly what you'd expect from a bunch of half-naked ladies; their defensive stats are hot tish. Though they have access to Dodge and a decent melee defense, they will still die in droves if targeted by archers or thrown against an enemy a touch outside their weight class. None-the-less, having at least one squad of these fine warrior women is strongly recommended against literally any army that fields frontline infantry.

====Missile Infantry====
*'''Glade Guard''' - Your first, cheapest and ever reliable missile infantry, Glade Guard are the troops you'll have in your back-line in order to rain hell upon the enemies your melee infantry is currently harassing. Frankly speaking, there's little that can honestly be said about the bog-standard Glade Guard; they'll do decent work against unarmored enemies and they're pretty damn cost efficient, but you might find yourself looking at one of the two variants if you want to get some real work done.
**'''Glade Guard (Hagbane Tips)''' - Glade Guard with poisonous arrows. Though they deal slightly less direct damage with their missiles, they more than make up for it if they're supporting your melee infantry by applying poison debuffs all over their target's back. Using these particular Glade Guard for that purpose is a touch tricky however, as you need to be incredibly mindful of your positioning so as to not fire into your own unit's backsides while they're mashed against the enemy. available from the start of campaign, you should never use the basic. these should completely replace the basic version.
**'''Glade Guard (Starfire Shafts)''' - Glade Guard with armor-piercing arrows. These guys are a fantastic ranged answer to the likes of Dwarves, Chaos Warriors and Lizardmen and should almost always be taken over regular Glade Guard (or at the least, alongside them) to ensure that you can still deal damage to them.

*'''Deepwood Scouts''' - Sneaky elves who can utilize the combination of their stealth and vanguard deployment to sneak up and ambush the vulnerable backsides of enemy formations. Unlike Glade Guard, the Deepwood Scouts can fire while moving and can do so from any angle, letting them easily kite slower, unarmored units. Inferior in every way to waywatchers, however, they do have a use in multiplayer as a budget option against factions that don't have many armored units.
**'''Deepwood Scouts (Swiftshiver Shards)''' - Deepwood Scouts that fire two shots at a time. Even with the reduced range over regular Deepwood Scouts, the doubled DPS more than makes up for that minor inconvenience. these in skirmish mode can get insane kill numbers on light infantry as long as they are fast enough to not get caught, niche but effective.

*'''Waywatchers''' - Your premium archer unit, and one of the highest damaging archer units in the game. Considering that this is factoring in units like the Sisters of Averlorn, that's saying something. All the strengths of the Deepwood Scouts are combined the Starfire Glade-Guard's utility with yet more impressive range and heightened movement speed that allows them to function both as a back-line unit or as vanguard ambusher.
**'''Hawk-eyes of Drakira (RoR)''' - Waywatchers that also come packing with a smokebomb to slow and discourage anyone from getting too close. They also have a slightly faster reload speed and slightly better accuracy than their generic kin, which alone is worth the slight upsell.

====Melee Cavalry====
*'''Glade Riders (Spears) (FLC)''' - Cheap, fast cavalry. At 94 speed they're faster than your Wild Riders but that and the price tag are basically the only good things you can say about them. They lack the armor piercing damage and Frenzy of the Wild Riders and, despite what the (Spears) tag might have you believe, they are not actually anti large, at least not in multiplayer though they can get an anti-large technology in campaign. As a fast, cheap melee harasser they will likely be best used in a similar fashion to hounds or feral cold ones, chasing down ranged infantry and artillery units and chasing units off the field

*'''Wild Riders''' The premier Wood Elf light cavalry and [[Orion|Mel Gibson's]] personal guard, these units can blend infantry they get a rear charge into but their squishiness will mean you don't want to leave them in combat for long. With decent melee attack, a nice charge bonus and armor piercing damage, these units can effectively kill things, but with low melee defense and armor they can certainly be killed back. Some physical resist makes them a bit tougher than their otherwise low defensive stats would lead you to believe, but don't send them into combat with units that deal magical damage or they'll melt fairly fast. All varieties of Wild Riders have Frenzy, meaning they'll be extra choppy until their leadership gets below 50% so if you want them at their most effective don't let them take too much damage. in campaign once you can use great stag knights you probably want to switch over completely.
**'''Wild Riders (Shields)''' A straight upgrade to Wild Riders, other than the price. Silver shields make them much more resistant to ranged fire and slightly higher melee defense lets them stick in combat for longer. They're still not heavy cavalry though, and are much more comfortable attacking from the side or rear than the front.
**'''Wild Hunters of Kurnous (RoR)''' With naturally higher melee attack than your standard Wild Riders and magic damage on top of that, these dendrophiles are even choppier than your standard variety stag-riding knife-ear. Don't bring them against Dwarfs though, the magic resistant little bastards will actually be harder to kill than if you'd brought standard Wild Riders.

*'''Great Stag Knights''' What's better than riding a stag into battle? Riding a really big stag into battle, of course! These monstrous cavalry are even faster than normal Wild Riders, with slightly higher melee attack and melee defense than even the shield variant. More importantly the Great Stage Knights have some actual armor meaning they're capable of taking a hit, though they certainly don't want to stay in melee combat for too long. Send them into infantry formations then giggle as the infantry goes flying. A few cycle charges from these will even break Chaos Chosen. Pair with a great stag riding glade captain and a sisters of the thorn unit giving ranged support for best results. Captain provides strider, melee support, and a Melee defense buff. sisters proved poison, buffs spells, and a debuff spell all together. 2-3 stag knight, the captain, and the sisters will combine into a terrifying cavalry deathstar.
**'''Lost Sylvan Knights (RoR)''' What's better than riding a really big stag into battle? Riding a really big ghost stag into battle, of course! As an ethereal unit, all the standard ethereal rules apply. They've got a ton of physical resist and no armor. Throw them into melee with bog standard swordsmen and you can leave them there safely but as soon as some wizard wazzock starts tossing magic damage around your Sylvan Knights will start dying, really fast. Don't let them fight anything that deals magic damage unless you want them to become lost again, permanently this time. They're undead, which means they crumble instead of routing which is generally a good thing as they can still hold a line and attack while crumbling. Back them up with lore of life, they can take advantage of it better than any other unit in the game thanks to their high physical resist and ability to run away from unfavorable engagements.

====Missile Cavalry====
*'''Glade Riders''' - Your fairly standard missile cavalry, Glade Riders only really stand out above other faction's similar missile cav by having slightly better than average range. They have somewhat decent melee capabilities, but in this regard they're only useful in charging lightly armored units, like opposing missile infantry. If you need something cheap to kite and harass enemy lines, these guys will get the job done. If nothing else however.
**'''Glade Riders (Hagbane Tips)''' - Debatably far more useful than their regular variants, Hagbane Tipped Glade Riders use poisonous ''and'' magical arrows, making them an excellent force against magic-weak armies and solid support units. Between their high speed and ability to apply poison against enemy units, they are virtually uncatchable by opposing cavalry and are simultaneously a fantastic unit for crippling faster units for your slower infantry to engage. consider as an alternative to hagbane glade guard, you dont need both probably.

*'''Hawk Riders''' - A rarity, Hawk Riders are one of the few dedicated flying missile units in the game. Extremely fast, Hawk Riders can easily dodge incoming enemy fire if microed properly (something you'll have to do if you want them to live long enough to do their job) and makes them ideal for flanking enemy positions to rain hell upon them from on high. Unfortunately, like much of the WE roster, Hawk Riders have non-existent defensive statlines and they will drop like flies if you allow them to take missile fire or get pinned down in combat. Additionally, when they ''are'' in combat, their melee attack and defense scores are ''terrible''. This is ever so slightly mitigated by their mediocre charge bonus and hefty (melee) armor-piercing damage bonuses, letting them act as halfway decent shock cavalry against armored infantry in a pinch. This should definitely only be done as a last resort or if you have sufficient forces to support them however, else they just impotently kamikaze themselves into your opponent's ranks like so many gnats on a windshield. In the Sisters of Twilight campaign, they received a ''major'' buff in the Volley of Kurnous ability, letting them fire a high damage burst of arrows into ground bound enemy targets. Be it a single character or horde of infantry, the Volley of Kurnous does ''ludicrous'' damage and a doomstack of Hawk Riders can delete massive ground-bound armies with the click of a single button. This makes them ''the'' premiere airforce army in the campaign.

*'''Sisters of the Thorn''' - Elite missile cavalry that, unlike anything else in your roster on four hooves, can do a little bit of everything. Though they don't have the charge bonus of your Wild Riders or Great Stag Knights, Sisters of the Thorn can actually remain in combat for extended periods of time due to their superior defensive abilities (both innate and through access to their on demand bound abilities). This can be further supplemented by their poisonous arrows, letting them soften up and slow down enemy forces for a follow up charge. Unfortunately, in any single attribute they typically fall short of the rest of your options; they lack the range of your Glade Riders while being slightly slower, they don't have as impactful a charge as your Wild Riders/GSK and they don't even have any armor-piercing damage like your Hawk Riders do. Despite that, alongside their rather steep price tag, they are still wonderfully flexible missile cav units (flexible by WE standards) that will likely find more opportunistic match-ups against a wider range of foes than some of your other options. great at supporting other cav, wild riders, stag knights etc

====Monsters====
*'''Tree Kin''' - Your monstrous infantry and the only units in your roster that can actually hold their own in a grindfest, even if they themselves won't really be doing much damage in the process. With thick armor, high melee defense and charge defense against large, these bark monsters will take an eternity to die if the enemy units fighting them find themselves lacking anti-armor or magic/fire damage. Against most factions, these guys are fantastic "meat" shields for your considerably squishier elven units. Just keep the matchbox away from them. Ancient treeman lords can give them 10% ward and an extra 10% physical resist from the red skill tree in campaign. they can become tough enough to hold well even vs anti large and armor piercing especially with lore of life support.
**'''Firebark Elders (RoR)''' - This is what you get when your Treekin ''are'' the matchbox. With a 70% fire resistance and the ability to bequeath that resistance to nearby units, you can patch a fairly notable (and semi-common) weakness of your other tree units. If you expect that you'll be facing an army with relatively easy access to flaming attacks, like Bretonnia or Lizardmen, having these guys form your frontline core is strongly advised.

*'''Zoats (DLC)''' - Boy, we're going deep for these guys. These guys are effectively Wood Elf Dragon Ogres and very much fill the same role; anti-large monstrous cavalry that can deal crippling damage to the big beasties. They sacrifice some of the innate damage and durability the Dragon Ogres possess for much greater utility with access to two bound Lore of Life spells: Earth Blood and Flesh to Stone. With these, Zoats can support themselves and other Wood Elf units without imposing on the Winds of Magic reserves ideally utilized by your Lord/Heroes. Take a care though, Zoats don't have the stats their Dragon Ogre counterparts do and aren't quite as flexible in their engagement choices. Have a unit of Tree Kin or at the very least Eternal Guard support your Zoats to help mitigate incoming damage.
**'''Enigmas of Ghyran (RoR)''' - Zoats who have better stats and two charges of Regrowth instead of Earth Blood. These guys are fantastic support for lists with a focus on monster units and can easily pair up with a lore of life spellsinger for immense burst healing.

*'''Great Eagle''' - Something of a squishy unit, Great Eagles are extremely fast flying units that are pretty much designed to do one thing; body slam artillery pieces and backline units with cycle charges while your infantry holds them in place. Unfortunately, that's... pretty much all they can do. They are not remotely as punchy or durable as a majority of other single entity monsters and will quickly die if left in melee combat with anything that can hold a sharp stick. Cycle charging this guy is ''imperative'' if you want them to stay alive. Fortunately, when airborne, almost nothing can catch them and they can evade missile fire from dusk until dawn. They do have a unique kill animation that can take out a third of a blob but don't expect to see it unless fighting the frailest units.

*'''Treeman''' - An all-purpose wrecking ball, Treemen are melee beatsticks that can throw a mean left hook and stand in an ocean of angry infantry without a care in the world. Unless they have fire, in which case... enjoy the lightshow, I guess. Unlike the smaller Tree Kin, Treemen are actually threatening in melee combat and are quite capable against a wonderfully wide variety of targets, large and small, armored and not. As they are very tall, bipedal trees, Treemen make a fantastic [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX]] that your opponent can't afford to outright ignore, especially since they cause fear and terror. Be cautious though; they're big, slow moving trees. They're very vulnerable to getting focused down at range and though they can wade through any infantry tarpit dancing around their roots, they can't do so quickly enough to evade incoming missile fire. And unlike their Ancient Treemen leaders, who at least can utilize magic for defense an a modicum of offense if necessary, regular Treemen don't have ''any'' way to deal with ranged assaults on their own.

*'''Forest Dragon''' - Your one and only Dragon, Forest Dragons are pretty much the crown jewel of the Wood Elf monster units. Unfortunately, when compared to the full selection of dragons available to High Elves, Forest Dragons fall fairly short in relative power, being roughly on par with Sun Dragons. They do make up for this slightly with their additional physical resist and poisonous attacks, letting them dive into the thick of it more confidently than the other flavors of dragon other factions have. When paired with a lore of life spellsinger/Ancient Treeman, these dragons can tough it out in a fight for a ''very'' long time. Defensively, a lot of the same cautionary measures other dragons use should be taken at range; their flying speed coupled with their size isn't conducive for dodging ranged attacks and their resistances don't apply against projectiles. Try to pin down enemy archers and artillery with cavalry or a Great Eagle before having the Forest Dragon swoop in for the kill.

====Drycha Campaign Units====

These units can only be used by Drycha's Wargrove in campaign or custom battles, but as campaign units are unavailable to multiplayer (or custom battle if you have unit caps turned on). The units are split into two distinct groups, Malevolent Tree Spirits who are essentially just ordinary Tree Spirits with Frenzy and a kickass purple glow, and Wild Beasts, beefed up versions of monstrous animal units from other factions most of which have vanguard deployment and Forest Stalker, making them effective flankers and slightly tougher in the trees. All of these units, like Drycha herself, are FLC units given to anyone who owns the original Realm of the Wood Elves DLC, and are exclusive to the Mortal Empires campaign. Drycha and her units cannot be played in Vortex, though she does appear in the background of Throt's campaign and in the final battle. you start with one amber as drycha which should always be used on the Tech to give poison to all tree spirits, making them much more survivable.

*'''Coeddil''' - A little treat that CA didn't really feel like advertising, Coeddil makes a surprise appearance as a Legendary Hero available in Drycha's Mortal Empire campaign. [[FAIL|And only in that campaign.]] Befitting his psychopathic hatred for all things not made of bark, Coeddil is an absolute melee menace who constantly saps nearby enemy unit's health while giving all allied nearby a minor melee buff. He's a mixed Beasts/Dark caster with several choice spells from both winds including Transformation of Kadon and Power of Darkness. If that wasn't enough, Coeddil is unbreakable and will stay in the fight until the bitter end. It's worth noting that in custom battle he's considered a campaign exclusive unit rather than a hero so if you really feel like shenanigans [[Rip and tear|you can make an army of Coeddils.]]

*'''Malevolent Ancient Treeman''' - The only lord on this list, basically just an ancient Treeman with Frenzy. This makes it even more of a melee powerhouse than ordinary Ancient Treemen, though a strong anti-large duelist lord can still take it down. Unlike ordinary Ancient Treemen, the Malevolent ones get access to three distinct Lores of Magic instead of being locked to Lore of Life. They can take Lore of Life, but can instead choose to take Lore of Beasts or Lore of Shadows. Like Coeddil, the Malevolent Ancient Treeman is considered a campaign exclusive unit rather than a lord and so you can take as many as you like, provided you have the funds for it. Lore of Beasts can summon the usual Matincores instead of Great Eagles and gives beast units frenzy. Shadows gets improved glamour removing the debuff from elf units. Life gets regen as a skill. Beasts is probably the most useful for buffing your army. A life branch wraith is probably better than putting life on your lord due to less competition for skill points.

*'''Malevolent Branchwraith''' - A Branchwraith with frenzy. Whereas the standard Branchwraith is not the best melee fighter, the Malevolent variant is actually a decent damage dealer so long as you keep her away from flaming attacks. Similar to the Malevolent Ancient Treeman, the Malevolent Branchwraith has an expanded list of Lores it can choose from. Ordinary Branchwraiths are a mix of Lore of Shadows and Lore of Life, while their Malevolent kin can specialize in either full Lore of Life, full Lore of Shadows or Lore of Beasts. Strangely, there is no mixed Lore of Life/Lore of Shadows Malevolent Branchwraith. Life gets regen, beasts gets extra melee attack, shadows gets stalk. Recommend life only and get beasts or shadows from your lord. Lords get nice army buffs.

*'''Malevolent Dryads''' - These are basically ever so slightly buffed Dryads with the added Frenzy ability, making them substantially more threatening right out of the gate. Drycha herself can summon two of them per battle using one of her unique abilities, making them the only unit on this list usable in multiplayer (if only as summons). red skill tree can give them extra melee attack, weapon strength, melee defense and an extra 15% physical resist. They can outfight chaos warriors with all the buffs applied, and even against things they might not beat they are like more tanky non-AP hex wraiths that dont crumble. just keep them away from magic attacks.

*'''Cave Bats''' - Non-undead Vampire Count Fell Bats with an extra 20 leadership, vanguard deployment and the ability to hide in trees. Used in essentially the same way as Fell Bats, they're great at tying down fast units, distracting ranged units, nomming artillery, causing chaos on walls and being meat shields for more important flying creatures. As previously stated they're not undead so they won't hold the line while crumbling the way Fell Bats do but they're also dirt cheap and expendable so you won't care when they're inevitably slaughtered. replace with hawks later probably, they have actual AP.

*'''Giant Wolves''' - Norscan Ice Wolves without the Frostbite, considered small units instead of large for some reason meaning the standard anti-large tactics don't work on them. They're quite speedy and have a decent weapon strength though it's not majority armor piercing, meaning they're effective against low armor opponents. Charge them into the flanks of infantry or ranged units and use them to kill routing enemies, but don't expect them to hold the line.

*'''Giant Spiders''' - These big angry arachnids don't really have a direct parallel to any other units. These are essentially buffed up Forest Goblin Spider Riders but without the Goblin. This unfortunately means they lose the shield held by said goblin, but considering it was a bronze shield anyway the 70 armor, armor piercing damage, increased melee attack and forest stalker attributes more than make up for it. Their poison in conjunction with their decent armor means they can serve surprisingly well as front line fighters, especially with magical support spells like Shield of Thorns or Wyssan's Wildform

*'''Great Hawks''' - The only unit on this list that probably should have been available to the entire Wood Elf faction, these are essentially slightly cheaper Hawk Riders with improved melee stats but no ranged attack. They have the standard vanguard deployment and Forest Stalker traits and are VERY fast. Give them some Cave Bats to act as meat shields and they can be quite effective melee combatants. They'll very quickly rip apart ranged infantry and artillery and can be absolute terrors in sieges, capable of massacring any infantry on the walls with flying cycle charges. They are fragile though, so good micro and support from other units is essential when using them.

*'''Feral Manticore''' - Of course Drycha would get at least one Chaos unit. This is literally the exact same unit as fielded by Warriors of Chaos and Dark Elves. Notably, the Feral Manticore lacks the Vanguard Deployment and Forest Stalker attributes of the rest of the Wild Beasts. It's essentially a slightly tougher but slower terror causing Great Eagle. It's an effective source of flying terror, but it's certainly not the biggest beastie out there and is somewhat vulnerable to anti large, ranged fire and other more powerful single entity monsters like dragons. Its rampage is especially bad, as it means that you can easily lose control of it at the worst possible time and, as a (reluctant) member of the Wood Elf faction, you're a bit lacking in tools to go get it. These still get 20 physical resistance from a tech and frenzy from drycha or a beasts lore Treeman skill, with physical resist can frenzy they become extremely cost effective. can replace hawks even.
**With both frenzy and the tech boost they the same nearly the same raw killing power and physical resist as a Forrest dragon for less than half the cost. They don’t have breath attacks or poison but they are faster and smaller so can dodge arrows much easier. Actually very cost effective. Plus Unlike the other manticore using factions Dycha has lore of life to keep them alive. Can replace hawks entirely except for lacking vanguard.
**Wut? A Forest Dragon is niche and only really good when in the woods, but its health, breath attack, damage type and the fact that its a dragon means that they have their best use is supplementing your line, flying in and out of combat as needed. Manticores do not get forest bonuses, but are much more accessible and expendable. Manticores take out missiles, artillery, and flame weapons so your trees and forest creatures don't have to take those shots upon approach. Dragons use their breath attack, smash into the lines, then leave so you can do it all over again
***The Feral Manticore is your mom's boyfriend that comes over before the party and helps out but doesnt stick around for long, the Forest Dragon is your drunk dad who comes in and wrecks shit

==Tactics==

===Multiplayer Strategies===
The first and most important component of playing Wood Elves; stay moving. Due to how frail the majority of the Wood Elf roster is, you cannot afford to allow your opponent to take the initiative in a fight. The good news is that many of your work-horse units are quite fast; many standard or slow moving armies will rarely be able to pin down your forces if you literally just stay one step ahead of them. Additionally, your Cavalry does almost all of their work in the charge; they will ''greatly'' diminish in strength and value if they remain in extended combat. Cycle charging is the name of the game for you, and it's a tenant you'll need to stick to if you actually want to give Bretonnia a run for their money. All of this combines to make Wood Elves one of the most micro-intensive factions in the game, if played right. While this can make them more interesting and fun to play, it also makes them considerably more challenging with mistakes punishing you much more severely than what other factions might've endured for similar errors.

====Faction Counterplay====
*'''Beastmen''' - The only other faction that can consistently keep pace or even outrun your in a flat out foot race. Beastmen are very much a rush faction and will do their damndest to close the gap between your forces; something you should take every measure to prevent. Eternal Guard or Tree Kin are reasonable front line screens and have a natural affinity for fighting against the Beastmen's larger units, like Minotaurs, while Wardancers can quickly butcher a majority of the infantry they tango with. Just make sure none of your damage dealing units ever take a head on charge. Beastmen have a very notable weakness that you can exploit; a near complete lack of armor and relatively limited missile units means that they'll be taking the full force of your ranged assaults. Hagbane Glade Guard/Riders not only deal respectable damage to the beastmen units, but the application of poison helps your footbound infantry catch up to and slaughter their infantry with considerable ease. In a cavalry face off, these hagbane missile units can slow down opposing Centagors for your Wild Riders and Great Stag Knights to deliver crippling blows with a few cycle charges. Lastly, Waywatchers and Deepwood Scouts (swiftsilver) are fantastic character or monster hunters who can pop up behind enemy lines and burst down Bray shaman, Giants or Cygors.

*'''Bretonnia''' - Make no mistake, Bretonnian cavalry is beyond your league. Though Wild Riders and Great Stag Knights have impressive charges of their own, they cannot remain engaged in a fight. This isn't really a problem for Bretonnian cav, who have the stats and tools to remain in a fight and still come out on top. The two biggest units to watch out for are Questing Knights and Grail Knights. Though they specialize primarily against armored units, Questing Knights will easily catch up to and slaughter a majority of your infantry in quick order. Grail Knights are the swiss-army knife of the faction against you; with magical attacks as well as an anti-armor and bonus against large, these guys are tailor made to chop down your tree units. It's less than ideal, but try to box them in or screen them with Eternal Guard, who will at the very least hold them off and allow your vulnerable missile units to reposition or support them with anti-armor fire. If you can at least pin them in long enough, Wardancers with Spears can do impressive damage against them despite their armor. As far as the peasantry goes... you have nothing to worry about. Your archers will absolutely dominate theirs in a firefight and literally any of your infantry options will win against theirs.

*'''Dark Elves''' - Fortunately, much of their AP ammunition and melee specialization goes to waste in this matchup. Even better, their lack of firing range means you can often fire off several volleys before they can, even with their missile chariots. The best of news, their heavy cavalry is among the worst in the game, and is hardly able to keep up with yours. Not to be confused with their light cavalry, which is actually quite capable and the most picked flavor of Dark Elf cavalry. Black Ark Corsairs, Witch Elves and Sisters of Slaughter are particularly feisty in melee combat and are the best suited to dealing with your kind, so try to wear them down at range before you contest them with Wildwood Rangers/Wardancers. Dryads and Tree Kin are not recommended units to bring in this matchup; they're too slow and the Dark Elf emphasis on AP will shred them before they so much as take a step out of the woods. Keep an eye peeled for when Murderous Prowess procs and do everything you can to avoid engaging the Dark Elves while it's active; the offensive bonuses can easily turn a losing engagement into a winning one for them and you definitely aren't suited to DPS race another glass cannon faction.

*'''Dwarfs''' - This used to be one of the most unbalanced and memeable matchups in Mortal Empires, but with the addition of Throt and the thots, it's gotten much more even. Don't bother too much with shooters here. Running around shooting for what feels like hours is super boring, and you'll also probably lose. Instead, lean into the melee rush. Your Wardancers and Wildwood Rangers should be able to deal with Dwarf Warriors and Longbeards, but remember, you have to respect the tankiness. Your higher-tier infantry WILL beat Longbeards, but it will take way too long to be cost-effective, and shooting at them just isn't cost-efficient. If your opponent tries to artillery box with Organ Guns, Naestra and Arahan can sit back and trade with their artillery all day, leaving the rest of their army open for your fast rush build to stomp on. Drycha with her dryad summons and lore of shadows is also a great choice. Tree Kin and Treemen are a wonderful bastion to center your army around, but you will ''need'' to take out any Irondrakes the opponent may have fielded before you commit them to battle. The Firebark Elders RoR can help mitigate this fire weakness. Bladesingers will soon become excellent beard-cutters once the magic-resistance only applies to spell damage as opposed to magic attacks, giving you a much needed way to carve through Dwarf armor. You're really gonna want to watch out for Bugman's rangers. With their regeneration and charge defence, they are a unit type that has everything you hate dealing with, and shutting them down quickly is quite difficult. Lost Sylvan Knights can be rockstars in this matchup IF you bring them at the right time. Dwarf rune magic is pretty much a hard counter to them, but if your opponent doesn't bring rune magic, they can swing the battle for you.

*'''Empire''' - That artillery... is going to be a problem. A rather shocking array of long range artillery well suited for every occasion will make any frontal assault all but suicidal. Play to your strengths; try to flank and ambush weak points in empire lines. Stay on the move and don't give their missile infantry a chance to set up and fire. If you can, vanguard deploy cavalry or dryads in a position to shut down careless artillery placements so that your archers can start picking apart empire gunpowder before ''they'' can get into range. Great Eagles are also fantastic for this purpose, just make sure you keep an eye on any halberds that might be standing by. Otherwise, Wardancers and Bladesingers thoroughly outclass Empire infantry if they can make it in safely, though don't expect them to get out unscathed.

*'''Greenskins''' - Little to no armor? Check. General lack of anti-large? Check. Relatively sluggish frontline? Also check. You have a lot of things going for you in this matchup, but that's not to say Greenskins aren't able to give you a damn good fight. Goblins and Goblin Skirmishers will be a bitch to deal with; exceedingly numerous, nimble and accurate with their bows and ultimately disposable if you pin them down, they'll often distract or whittle away enough of your forces that the Ork Boyz about to crash into your lines will be able to deal some serious damage. Dryads are solid counters to the non-armored Boyz, though you'll want Wildwood Rangers or Bladesingers to deal with Black Orks. Your Cavalry is well suited to deal with the Greenskins, but only if you continuously cycle charge with them.

*'''Grand Cathay''' - Yet another defensive gunpowder faction. Your air force does outclass Grand Cathay's in a skirmish and you can easily take down their Skyjunks with Great Eagles or Forest Dragons (something you'll want to do if you don't want fiery hot death spewing from it), but the same can't be said for the rest of their artillery. Grand Cannons will be very problematic for your forest spirits and surprisingly difficult to pin down due to their speed while Fire Rain Rockets put out enough anti-infantry firepower to make Hellstorm Batteries blush. Your missile cav will prove quite valuable at outmaneuvering and outranging most of the gunpowder and can generally keep away from Grand Cathay's own lackluster cavalry selection, though just make sure you don't directly charge into any braced infantry with your cavalry; flank them or charge them with less valuable units like Dryads or Eternal Guard before sending in your heavy hitters.

*'''High Elves''' - High Elves share many of the same strengths you do. Their Sisters of Avelorn can very nearly match Waywatchers in ranged dps while their weakest dragon, the Sun Dragon is comparable to your Forest Dragon in stats. Also, their units have a durability yours simply can't match, a large part of which is their Martial Prowess. Worse, many of their units come with a 55% block chance against missile fire, which can be incredibly potent against a faction such as yours that relies heavily on missile fire. Fortunately, you have an advantage that can help negate both of those difficulties: your speed. Wood Elves are the best skirmish faction in the game, use that to your advantage. Take some ranged cavalry to circle the enemy or vanguard deploy some archers behind enemy lines and shoot their infantry in the back to ignore those pesky shields. Remember that Waywatchers don't duel other archers very well due to their low model count, save them to shoot at large targets or lords. If your enemy is smart they won't try to contest the air, if they're not shoot their dragons and phoenixes out of the sky with a combination of prey of anathraema (so you'll probably want to take female glade lord as your lord) and waywatcher fire. Either way you should be able to field some flying units such as hawk riders which you can use for more skirmishing. Remember that if possible you don't want to engage the enemy in melee until their units are at half health and their Martial Prowess is gone. The new DLC units are quite effective against the High Elves, Zoats are strong anti-cavalry and Bladesingers can blender High Elf infantry, especially if Martial Prowess is lost. Don't bring tree spirits unless you're willing to invest in Firebark Elders because the High Elves have a ton of sources of fire damage. Branchwraiths might also be a poor choice as the High Elf Fireborn RoR can kill a Branchwraith in seconds.

*'''Khorne''' -

*'''Kislev''' - Bring some spears and some Tree Kin because cavalry is likely going to be the name of Kislev's game. Keep an eye out for any Ice Guard; while Kossars and Streltsi will not pose much of a threat (at range) the Ice Guard are quite capable at any range and will be very adept at scything through your forest spirits if you give them the opportunity. If you can contain them and any Ice Witches, your Tree Kin will be pretty well set to hold back any Winged Lancers or War Bear Riders trying to get at your backline. Use Eternal Guard and Spear Wardancers to mop up any such cavalry and you should be golden.

*'''Lizardmen''' - While you will have absolutely no issues outrunning and kiting Saurus and Kroxigors, you should take a caution against Skink units. They might be cute little lizards who deal relatively minor damage against most other factions, but you're not most other factions. Since a majority of your infantry is unarmored, you'll be taking the full brunt of their little assaults and they're one of the precious few infantry units that can reliably keep pace with yours and even outrun a fair chunk of your own frontline formations. Additionally, Skink Skirmishers and Chameleon Skinks will prove shockingly effective at whittling down your unarmored forces with poisonous missile fire while proving to be a frustrating target in turn due to their lose formations and (for Chameleons) ranged damage resist. Lastly, you will want to take an extreme care around Fire Slann and Salamanders, who will be the ''bane'' of your Tree units. If you can shut down their fiery assaults, Tree Kin will prove a reliable walling unit to hold down and defend against Saurus frontlines and can even resist the onslaught of their varied monsters. Your cavalry will also prove extremely effective against the Lizardmen with their superior speed and devastating charges; there's precious little the Lizardmen can do if they can't pin down your Wild Riders/Great Stag Knights.

*'''Norsca''' - The general disdain for armor among Norscans makes dealing with them at range substantially more viable than their heavily armored cousins (WoC), though their higher speeds and more prolific monsters will prove troublesome should they manage to catch up to you. Anti-Large is a must in some flavor (not that it's particularly hard to come by for you).

*'''Nurgle''' - The only thing Nurgle can do to your skirmishers are furies and Ku'gath if your opponent brought him. Try to avoid melee for as long as you have any ammunition left, there's no sense letting Nurgle deal any unnecessary damage to your forces.

*'''Ogre Kingdoms''' - Under no circumstances are you to try to meet their charges head on; any non-Tree Kin infantry that tries will get utterly demolished before the ''actual'' fighting begins. Instead, divide and conquer; Ogre Kingdoms are going to generally have a lower unit/model count than most other armies, so every dead ogre adds up fairly quickly and they can't be everywhere at once. Spread out your forces so that even if they manage to pin down some of your units, you still have reinforcements ready to reposition and hit them where it hurts. Additionally, their relative lack of armor means your abundance of ranged units can soften them up significantly before they get close. Tree Kin, with their expert charge defense, melee resistance and high melee defense stats, are one of the few units that can safely stop an Ogre charge in its tracks. Follow this up with some Eternal Guard to further tie them down.

*'''Skaven''' - Other than the High Elves, if any other faction can rival you at range, it's the Skaven. Between their Jezzails, Ratling Guns, Poisonwind Globadiers, Plagueclaw Catapults and Warplightning Cannons, Skaven have a gun for every conceivable job. You on the other hand, have virtually no armor and shielded units are few and far in between. Thankfully, many of your archers still outrange their missile units and so long as you don't allow yourself to get backed into a corner, you shouldn't have too much issue kiting their slightly slower ranged infantry. Dealing with Skaven artillery will always be your first priority; Great Eagles or Wild Riders/Great Stag Knights can swiftly slip behind enemy lines and shut down artillery long enough for your archers to set up and deal some damage. In general, your melee infantry shouldn't really be too bothered by theirs; skavenslaves and clanrats are a mere nuisance to your considerably more "elite" infantry, though don't get complacent; even skavenslaves can deal not inconsiderable damage to your unarmored elves and, like all chaff infantry, their main value lies in simply tying your guys down. Key Skaven infantry to watch out for are their Plaguemonks and Death Runners.

*'''Slaanesh''' - The only faction that can definitively claim to be faster than you... and at least in this matchup, that doesn't necessarily do them too many favors. Much of the Slaaneshi roster is geared to fight armored opponents, which thankfully (in this particular case, at least), you generally aren't. Having said that, Slaanesh isn't without claws or teeth; if you want your Waywatchers or Glade Guard to get any work done, you're going to need to screen them diligently. Slaanesh lacks much in the way of range (effectively non-existent ranged roster) or armor (...it's Slaanesh after all), so you can get some serious work done from afar if you can keep his/her chariots, cavalry and/or daemonettes from scything through your backlines. Hawk Riders can also serve you quite well in this matchup, as once you clear out any potential furies from assaulting them, they'll be virtually uncontested while they rain arrows down upon the backsides of those horny, horny daemons. You'll want to take the ever vigilant Eternal Guard to combat enemy cavalry/chariots and as general damage sponges while Wardancers can mop up any infantry currently engaged with them. Bladesingers in particular will be more than a match for Slaanesh's infantry if you permanently activate their dance skill to get more raw damage and the expense of armor piercing.

*'''Tomb Kings''' - An unpredictable matchup. Their frontline will be slow, and much of it can be whittled down with skirmish tactics before your own melee units will even need to engage them. Ushabti Great Bows pose a serious threat to the Wood Elves as they can steadily fire upon your Lords from afar, especially Orion and Durthu whose large model sizes makes them much more vulnerable, as well as outranging the Sisters of Twilight by a considerable margin. Faster constructs such as the Warsphinx and the Necrosphinx puts a great damper on the skirmishing tactics which Wood Elves mainly rely on, being capable of chasing down kiting units such as Deepwood Scouts and Waystalkers. Keep the Tomb Kings player on their toes with a good mix of Cav, ranged units and anti-large spear units, making sure to avoid engaging their frontline units in melee until absolutely necessary due to their fear effect putting you at a disadvantage.

*'''Tzeentch''' - First; leave anything with bark for skin in the woods; trying to mitigate the sheer amount of flaming, magical damage at Tzeentch's disposal is impossible. Instead, you're going to want a dedicated cavalry build; Tzeentch relies heavily on cycle charging and keeping out of extended fights. Use your superior speed to prevent any daemons from escaping. Once you manage to pin any particular units down, Wardancers and Bladesingers will dominate anything they come into contact with. Of course, you'll want to have a few archers contest/discourage any Horrors attempting to line up some shots of their own if only to further soften them up for your melee kill squads.

*'''Vampire Coast''' - Look out for artillery. If you can do that, this matchup can become modestly easy; Vampire Coast infantry is rather slow and you easily outrange all non-artillery missile units they can bring to bear. So long as you're careful with your positioning, pick your engagements and keep two steps ahead of them, you can pick apart much of their gunlines before they can get a chance to return fire. Once you do so, Wardancers with Spears and Eternal Guard are pretty suited towards dealing with the bigger monsters they might have.

*'''Vampire Counts''' - One of your best matchups. VCs have a tough time handling your skirmishers since they don't have any ranged units or light cav. They also have a tough time handling your forest spirits. Treemen/treekin can easily smush skeleton spearmen and shut down blood knights with their charge def vs. large. If you really want to be an asshole, take sisters of twilight/hawkriders, park them on top of enemy, and pick away at their key units while they impotently shake their fists at you. VC lords are frequently put on flying mounts such as Hellsteeds and Zombie Dragons. An excellent strategy against these picks is to expose archer units in hopes of baiting the VC Lord in before trapping him or in place with the female Glade Lord's Prey of Anath Raema ability. As long as Dire Wolves and Vampire Cav are kept far away while this commences, a full back line of archers can easily whittle the VC Lord down within the sixteen seconds of prey of Anath Raema, especially given its twenty percent missile resistance debuff, thereby automatically securing your victory.

*'''Warriors of Chaos''' - A heavily armored melee faction with virtually no ranged options, you won't have much trouble keeping your distance from a majority of the WoC roster. The problem is, between their heavy armor and shields, Wood Elves had a bit of trouble actually dealing with their front lines until recently. Though Wildwood Rangers are reasonably decent at facing them in combat, the addition of Bladesingers has given Wood Elves a very strong melee-oriented answer for all that bulk. When properly supported, Bladesingers can and will carve a path of death through Chaos front lines, especially if you have anti-armor missile support from the flanks. Eternal Guard, as ever, are the best screening unit you can ask for against enemy cavalry while Tree Kin are a bit more suited to holding back the tide of enemy infantry while your Bladesingers get into position. One major issue you'll need to keep in mind; if the WoC brought a Hellcannon, you will want to prioritize that before anything else. WE have no direct artillery to answer them in kind and with virtually no defensive statlines on most of your units, Hellcannons can deal terrible damage to a majority of your roster if you let them fire at you uncontested.

*'''Wood Elves''' - Oh boy, fantasy guerilla warfare. If you're facing other fleshy wood elf infantry, don't expect a straight up fight. Try to outflank and shut down their archer units to force them into a more direct confrontation and shut down their healers to prevent them from shaking off the damage you deal to them. Try to save your magical arrows for any Trees looking at you funny.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Coast

2022-07-11T08:26:00Z

2601:283:4C80:11C0:C137:6535:94A8:BCF2: /* General Battle Strategies */

This is the tactics page for the Total War: Warhammer version of the Vampire Coast.

==Why Play the Vampire Coast==
Do I really need to explain? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHh1TxryWlw This trailer should do all the explaining for me!.] OK, fine!

*You love vampires, but want something a bit different from the gothic style normally associated with them.
*Because you don't find it weird at all CA added a naval themed faction in a game with no naval battles.
*Cause you loved Pirates of the Caribbean but really wanted the bad guys to win.
*You pirated the game and find playing as pirates, even undead ones, fitting.
* You really, really like Alestorm.
===Pros===
*'''Range, Range and yet more Range''': You are one of the 3 gunpowder factions currently in game, and of the 3, you lean the most heavily into them. You have a gun for every type of occasion! Cheap guns, long range guns, multi shot guns, flying guns, guns on monsters, artillery, GUNS FOR EVERYONE!
*'''Monsters''': And lots of cool ones that can fill a variety of roles. You can bring sturdier crabs to help with the frontline, stealthy flankers, cheap sacrificial monsters, ones that are great from range and up close, you have a monster for every occasion.
*'''Cheap Frontline''': Zombies don't really ask for paychecks, even zombies who are actually sentient enough to talk! Because of this, you can usually bring a crap load of them and drown the enemy in bodies, then use their bodies to fill up your ranks again when the battle is over.
** Bonus for the fact that Zombie Deckhands with polearms are slightly more killy than regular zombies and get Anti-Large, making them one of the better expendable meatshields.
*'''Aquatic''': Pretty much everything has it, you're a pirate faction after all. This means you have an army that doesn't need to worry about swampy maps or ones with a lot of water because you ignore all the penalties and get some benefits in water too.
*'''Magic''': You have Lore of Vampires, which is already one of the best lores in the entire game, and can carry you throughout most games just fine. Honestly you don't need to look at their other lores because of just how goddamn strong this one is.
*'''Harassment''': You got extremely good harassing troops in fell bats and doggies, meaning going for skirmishers and artillery is something a skilled player can do really well.
*'''Armour Piercing''': Almost your entire roster deals AP damage, both ranged and in melee. Big armoured units and monsters are no challenge to you.

===Cons===
*'''Weakness to Ranged''': While you love to sit back and shoot the enemies to pieces, you REALLY hate it when the enemy is capable of shooting back. Downside of gunpowder is then they don't have much range, so if the enemy shoots first you are at a disadvantage. Combine this with the fact that your units either have low armour, low model count, or both, and NOTHING in your army has a missile block chance, and missiles can be devastating. Ironically, archer spam is one of the better ways to fight this gunpowder army.
*'''Immobility''': You don't have it as bad as the Dwarfs, but you're pretty slow. No cav or inexpensive monsters and a reliance of guns and artillery means you will not be moving much in your average game.
*'''Weak Frontline''': There's a reason your frontline is so cheap, and it's that they are garbage in a fight. They get decimated by most tier-one infantry and are meant to hold, not to kill. Even Depth Guard aren't really that cost effective after all the nerfs that went their way, so expect your guns and monsters to carry.
*'''Everyone Needs to do their Job:''' Unlike more beginner-friendly and more so then the empire, VC units heavily rely on every unit fighting against its appropriate matchup, or else everyone dies. There are strong synergy but if that gun bunker cracks it's all over. Need Deckheands and Prometheans need hold the enemy and absorb the damage, Your blender troops need to kill what's caught in the holding line, and your guns need to kill threats like other guns and monsters before they kill your bunker. If someone slips up, the game may be over

===Universal traits===

*'''Undead''': Almost any unit you have is undead. Who would have guessed. There are just two exceptions: The Sartosan Pirates and Sartosan Free Company that are exclusive to Aranessa Saltspite, and Aranessa herself.
*'''Aquatic''': Being the only truly maritime faction means that every unit is Aquatic; they fight better in watery areas, such as puddles and swamps.
*'''Extra Powder''': A special rule for all of your ranged units that gives you 30% more damage when you're above 80% of your ammo. This makes your opening salvo your most effective, and goes a long way toward softening up enemy units right off the bat. It's also the reason the Gunnery Wight is such an essential hero: his ability to restore lost ammo can keep your units above the threshold for more high-powered shooting.
*'''Loyalty''': Your Lords aside from Legendary ones have the same Loyalty mechanic as Dark Elves and Skaven do, so be cautious when disbanding units and picking targets.
*'''Pirate Fleet''': Your Legendary Lords work like the Horde Factions of the game do; meaning that you can accumulate Population Surplus on your LL armies and build certain buildings directly on your army, essentially making them a mobile city with 10 slots. This can be used in a variety of ways, but essentially allow your main army to act much more independently than other factions armies do because they aren't as reliant on the settlements and territory your faction holds.
*'''Infamy''': Maxing out your Infamy is your main campaign goal, this is achieved by killing enemy armies, razing and sacking settlements and stomping the competition (other Pirate Factions and the rogue pirate armies that roam the seas). In addition to that, increasing Infamy and beating the miniboss armies that come your way, Infamy also gives you Verses of the Lost Sea Shanty, powerful buffs for your entire army. Some technologies also cost Infamy.
*'''Pirate Coves''': you can set up small outposts in enemy settlements after successfully attacking them or with heroes. Said outposts can either spread vampiric corruption or siphon money out of the enemy's coffers into yours. Although the latter building is bugged since the last WH2 update and you should refrain from using it because it'll never make back its exorbitant costs.

==Unit Roster==

===Lords===
*'''[[Luthor Harkon]] (The Awakened) ''': [[Meme|The worst Vampire you'll ever hear of, but will still do so nonetheless]]. Ol' Arch Commodore Luthor commands the main part of the Vampire Coast and ironically spends most of his time trying to hold onto his little fiefdom in northeast Lustria. The Lizardmen hate your guts with your innate diplomatic malus against them but with clever planning you can easily ally with the Skaven down south and exterminate the lizards. You are the premier Vampire Coast faction but you'll spend more time fighting on land than at sea which is... odd. This is mostly due to the fact you're hemmed in at sea from both north and east by another two Vampire Coast main factions, and you do not want to have to fight them that early...
*:Luthor on the battlefield is a hybrid combat lord who has no Lores of Magic to command at the beginning of the game, which is unusual for an vampire lord. This is due to his fractured mind that schizophrenically switches from personality to personality, changing his battlefield stats and abilities at a whim. One minute you're ripping through a hapless unit of Saurus Warriors as the Mad and the next you're running away in terror as his Coward personality takes over. Later on in the campaign you will be able to unlock the Lore of Deeps for him, which will improve his usefulness.

*'''[[Count Noctilus]] ([[Dreadfleet]])''': The arch-nemesis of Captain Roth returns to wreak terror across the Great Ocean. Starting smack in the middle of the seas in the Galleon's Graveyard your starting position is nearly unassailable and is the perfect lair for you to strike out at targets of opportunity. Noctilus is the true star of the Vampire Coast for one very simple reason - he buffs and makes cheaper the best unit the roster, the mighty Necrofex Colossi. Despite your promising prospects in the lategame it can get a little difficult to find suitable targets early on without bringing down the full might of their alliances down on you.
*:Count Noctilus is the grand admiral that leads from the front with his Anti-Large AP pike and is arguably a contender for the cheesiest doomstack army as Noctilus himself can mount a Necrofex Colossus to lead nineteen other Colossi in an unstoppable tide of cannonball rape. Oh, did we mention he also has access to the Lore of Vampires and Shadow? No? Well he does, to add to his already insane bevy of options for himself and his army. If you're not building or planning to build Necrofex for Noctilus, you're doing it wrong.

*'''[[Aranessa Saltspite]]''': Aranessa holds the dubious honour of being the only Vampire Coast LL with no access to spellcasting (but makes up for it with a really, really great backstory). She herself is a bit in an odd niche, being a rather flimsy single-target damage dealer that has a ton of trick up her sleeve. What makes her particularly interesing is her netting ability that keeps any unit you choose from going anywhere. In combat she is... alright. Nothing all that groundbreaking and she will get her ass handed to her by almost any dedicated combat lord.
*:Aranessa leads the '''[[Pirates of Sartosa]]''', located on not-Sicily in the city of the same name. She has unique access to the only two mortal units of the Vampire Coast roster which gives her an edge over the other VC factions in the early game. She plays largely the most like a true pirate faction; hitting targets of opportunity, establishing pirate covens and raiding the coast line of Ulthuan.

*'''[[Cylostra Direfin]]''': Clyostra is currently the only ethereal lord in the game. Does it make her as tough as Cairn Wraiths or Hexwraiths? You wish. She's your standard caster LL, with good access to the Lore of the Deeps. She holds up fairly well in combat, and can even take a Rotting Leviathan as mount. However, she comes with some cool boons that make her a force in her own right. She starts with a cursed Bretonnian Paladin that has the stats of a regular Paladin except that he is Ethereal and pretty much unstoppable early on. She can also summon Ethereal Grail Knights. Yes, you read that right. Summoned. Etheral. Fucking. Grail Knights.
*:Unfortunately, her faction has by far the hardest start of any of the Vampire Coast Factions. She leads '''The Drowned''' on the small Peninsula in the Isthmus of Lustria, smacked in the middle between Morathi and Lord Mazdamundi. Unlike the other three VC factions, your initial situation is rather peculiar and you have to build a resonably good basis in Lustria before you can even think of raiding your enemies.

*'''[[Vampire Fleet Admiral]]''': There is no sexism in undeath, you can either get a halberd wielding dude Admiral or a Cutlass and Pistol wielding lady Admiral. They make up for being the sole generic Lord option for your faction by being pretty good on their own; even more so if you put them on a rotting Promethean. Combined with their extremely potent spellcasting with options from the three best Lores in the game they make for terrifying opponents.

===Heroes===
*'''[[Vampire Fleet Captain]] (Vampires, Deep, Death)''': In contrast to your other heroes, the vampire captain is obtained by normal expansion, meaning you can easily field plenty of them. While they are alright in melee, they are best used to get more access to the lore of vampires to assist your lords (especially the legendary lords that lack spellcasting ability). In the campaign, they have the unique ability to create pirate coves as a hero action. The ability is quite expensive, and the price goes up for each cove you have, but it can be extremely useful to get a cove in a port without having to siege the settlement.- can choose ap anti-large or ranged hybrid. I generally recommend the anti large because the ranged output is quite weak but personal preference. Can mount a giant crab which I always recommend.
*'''[[Mournghul|Mournghul Haunter]]''': The Mournghul Haunter is your best (arguably your only) melee hero. Although it doesn't bring nearly the utility that the other two can provide, the Haunter is still useful as a beatstick. Deceptively fast with vanguard deployment and stalk, as well as sporting a very high melee defense stat and regeneration, the Haunter works best to intercept and hold enemy lords/heroes while the rest of the army gets in position to finish them off. His chilling aura debuff is great for keeping his target locked in combat, and his regeneration allows him to stay in the fight even against tougher foes. Just don't send him in unsupported; he doesn't do enough damage to win most fights on his own. Also take in mind that while he's a hero, he's got a much larger model, meaning about 12 infantry models can attack him at once, versus the 4-5 normal foot heroes tank. Absolutely hilarious in a nineteen model doomstack.
*'''[[Gunnery Wight]]''': By far the best support hero you have on offer, despite his outlook being very deceiving. Sharing the statline, combat role and unit profile of a Dwarfen Master Engineer (and most of their passives), Gunnery Wights are best utilized as your backline artillery support unit. The Black Powder mechanic gives you tremendous bonuses when your units have a lot of ammo left and Gunnery Wights most crucial ability is theirs to replenish ammunition to any ranged unit you have on the field, as well as giving some nice passive bonuses for ranged units and some AoE grenade abilities to keep faster units away from your precious cannons. So, do they have a downside? Quite frankly, in the campaign, you will never have enough of them, since the only way to increase your hero cap isn't though teching up or expanding - but exclusively through your pirate coves. Random events occasionally can give you one for free, but this is just a very small remedy for the problem that the supply is short and the demand very, very high.
*'''[[Damned Bretonnian Paladin]]''' (Cylostra Direfin only): An ethereal Bretonnian paladin unique to Cylostria Direfin's army. Don't kid yourself, this guy is nowhere near as powerful as the [[Green Knight|other ghostly paladin]], but he is a welcome addition to an army in need of fast moving heroes. He's a decent duelist hero with enough melee power to make up for Cylostria's subpar fighting abilities (until she gets her rotting leviathan mount).

===Infantry===
*'''[[Zombie Pirate Deckhand|Zombie Deckhand Mob]] (Regular, Polearms)''': Your fodder. They have next to no offensive capabilities but make up for it by being undead and having a tremendous body count of 160 models on large settings. Sure they won't kill much, but that's not their job, they perform the job of a meatshield really well and are cheap. Try to avoid the dual-sword variety; the added defenses of the polearm type make them a better meatshield and they have actual ap which is rare for chaff, and if you want damage (for whatever reason) the pistol gunnery mob is almost as good in melee and brings a shooting attack. Still raise dead mostly gives the regular so only use them if you must. otherwise you almost always want polearms.
**'''The Tide of Skjold''' (RoR): Upgraded sword-zombies with frenzy and perfect vigor while above 50% morale.
*'''[[Zombie Pirate Gunner|Zombie Gunnery Mob]] (Pistols, Bombs, Handguns, Handcannons)''': The mainstay of your armies until the late game. These are the guys your Deckhands are supposed to keep the enemies away from. Their weapons are generally a bit below average as far as missile damage is concerned - until you realize that you have 120 of them in a single unit and good range on top of that. They are excellent missile infantry for their cost and the bread and butter of your faction. They come in four varieties. The Pistol Variant has low range but can handle itself well enough in melee. Bombers inflict fire damage at the cost of range (and being somewhat finicky to use). Handguns are basically a big blob of Imperial Handgunners and work pretty much the same, large Range, Armour Piercing. Handcannons on the other hand work a bit more like shotguns. They have a shorter range than Handguns, but blast anything that comes into their range and work the best up close, where their low accuracy doesn't hold them back as much. Always turn skirmish mode off for them. They're too slow to get away from melee combat anyway and work good enough as fodder if someone manages to catch them.
**'''The Black Spot''' (RoR): Handgunners with polearms, giving them decent melee defense and anti-large damage. Strictly better than the normal handgunners and the normal polearm mobs, but you are paying extra for a unit that can only do one of those two roles at once.
*'''[[Deck Gunner]]s''': Serious firepower for the lategame. They share a lot of similarities with Skaven Weapon teams. They offer tremendous firepower in exchange for a low unit count, but their high damage, AP and Shieldbreaking missiles make short work of nearly anything that get thrown in their general vicinity. also great range.
**'''Shadewraith Gunners''' (RoR): [[awesome|Ethereal deck gunners with magic attacks]]. The only downside (if you can call it that) is that they trade Shieldbreaking for a leadership debuff for whatever they're shooting at, so they work best blasting an enemy that's pinned in melee to maximize your fear effects.
*'''[[Depth Guard]] (Axes, Polearms)''': Sadly, not as great as they used to be. These are your elite line breakers, low model count, but insane melee capabilities and regenerating on top of that. Depth Guard with Polearms in particular make mincemeat of all Cavalry that is stupid or unfortunate enough to just look at them wrong. As always ap is so important that the polearm version outperforms the axe variant against almost everything you would actually care about. Still expensive and fragile but very effective especially with campaign skill buffs and magic support. You can pull off a frontline of polearms even if you want to.
**'''The Bloody Reaver Deck Guard''' (RoR): Polearm depthguard with the ability to temporarily gain 44% physical resistance, making them the best heavy tanking infantry you've got.
*'''[[Sartosan Pirates]]''': Mixing it up are non-undead infantry with a pair of cutlasses for some early game DPS and movement speed. Running out of morale makes them rout, which will affect the morale of undead units as well. They have perfect vigor while the leadership is high, but the ability is much more noticeable on the free company.
*'''Sartosan Free Company''': Like the Empire free company but better because these ones have perfect vigor as long as their leadership is above half. Only Aranessa can recruit these guys that must have huge balls or mushy brains to be seen siding with the undead. Due to the Vampire Coast's preference for gunlines that can also hold their ground, these guys often ironically perform your foot skirmishing role as they have considerably more speed. Running out of morale makes them rout, which will affect the morale of undead units as well.
*'''[[Syreen]]s''': Damned spirits of the deep shanking unfortunate living sailors since forever. Ethereal infantry with decent melee stats, their ability to shrug off normal frontline damage is not to be denied but they will die to a single breath or vortex. Tricky to use effectively and for the most part avoided in army compositions.

===Monsters, Flying Units & Cavalry===
*'''[[Bloated Corpse]]''': A one-use suicide unit that walks up to enemies and then blows up that is in general a mixed bag. On the one hand exchanging a cheap ass disposable unit that you often can get instantly with Raise Dead to delete a unit of Chaos Knights or Black Orcs is satisfying and useful in a pinch. On the other hand they can also delete your guys and enemy ranged forces will focus fire them into premature detonation if you let them.
*'''[[Deck Dropper]]s (Pistols, Handguns, Bombs)''': These are basically flying Gunnery Mobs with the glaring weakness that their unit count is miniscule and the survivability really bad. They can have a niche as skirmish units to distract fat flying monsters like Dragons or Terradon Riders, but their use outside of this niche is fairly limited and a unit of Gunnery Zombies does their job a lot better at this than they do. If you really want to use them, the bombers are the best choice; the low range and awkward shooting arc are both solved by the superior speed and height of the deck droppers.
**'''Saltlord Scuttlers''' (RoR): The best deck-droppers by far and often the only ones worth taking. Their bombs sunder enemy armour, making them a great surgical tool for swooping in and weakening a specific enemy.
*'''[[Animated Hulk|Animated Husks]]''': Fat blobs with Frenzy. That's basically it. They are your beefy monstrous infantry, and provide you with much needed early AP damage, but their usefulness tanks once dedicated Infantry Killers or units with bonuses against large arrive on the scene.
*'''[[Mourngul|Mournghuls]]''': These things are really nice and work best as a substitute for cavalry. Vanguard deployment means they can chase off enemy skirmishers quickly and they get regeneration as long as they are in melee. Sadly, their lack of armour makes them rather fragile, but they a solid unit throughout the midgame.
**'''Night Terrors''' (RoR): Mournguls with terror and rampage. Terror is nice, but rampage is hard to justify on such a fragile unit. And it's not like you don't have other units that cause terror.
*'''[[Rotting Promethean]]s''': If you need a point to not budge, these are your choice. They tank damage like crazy and dish out good AP damage on their own. They are not very fast, but their durability makes up for that.
*'''Rotting Promethean Gunners''': It's Rotting Prometheans with two Handcannoneers on top. Surprisingly durable, and the additional AP damage from its riders works wonders. The Gunners will keep firing even when they are melee and shred most foot units except the most elite ones (Think Phoenix Guard or Chosen) to pieces in quick order. Combine this with their obscene armour value of 120 and you got your dedicated frontline melee unit. these DO NOT benefit from campaign boosts which specify the regular version, which means they tend to be much less durable than the basic version. likely not worth the trade off in campaign.
**'''The Lamprey's Revenge''' (RoR): Rotten Promethean gunnery mobs with regeneration, just in case the normal variety wasn't tanky enough for you. With the right magic support this unit can hold the line against almost anything.
*'''[[Rotting Leviathan]]''': Your dedicated frontline melee monster, and a really good one to boot. It has everything you could ask for: Armour, AP damage, huge unit size and looks great on top of that. It's very slow and any opponent worth his two cents will use Anti-Large infantry or AP missiles against it; however, drawing fire away from your main force is again a quality in itself, don't you think?
*'''[[Necrofex Colossus]]''': The big things from the trailer. And wow, they are not messing around. Necrofexes can altogether replace your artillery by the time they become available. They fire 3 cannon balls with good accuracy over massive distances and can hold their ground really good in melee. Get them. There is no excuse. GET THEM.
**'''The Gallows Giant''' (RoR): A necrofex colossus that trades the three canons for a [[awesome|goddamn flamethrower]], allowing it to torch swaths of enemy units all at once. It should be noted that the Gallows Giant is shorter range than other Necrofex Colossi, cementing it's role as a frontline brawler.
*'''[[Fell Bat]]s''': Your old friends from the Vampire Counts, it's exactly the same unit. Really fast, really squishy, really good at chasing off the enemy backline or annoying flying monsters.
*'''[[Scurvy Dog]]s''': They differ very little from Chaos Wardogs or Vampire Counts Wolves. Fast and flimsy, these undead pups are ideal for tying down opposing skirmishers or chasing routing units off the field.
*'''[[Terrorgheist|Deathshriek Terrorgheist]]''': Now there's a letdown one didn't expect, but this is more due to how amazing the other monsters in the Vampire Coast roster is. The Terrorgheist isn't really that spectacular, needs a lot of babysitting and can't hold itself up against Dragons and the like - you're better off skipping it, it performs too badly for its exorbitant price tag.

===Artillery===
*'''[[Mortar]]s''': Inaccurate as hell, but will absolutely wreck infantry regiments if a proper shot lands. Due to the Extra Powder mechanic these guys are best employed dealing with elite infantry in the opening stages of a battle as the extra damage will definitely help. Good for splatting archers.
*'''[[Carronade]]s''': Great cannons hauled up from the deep and put into use under an undead crew. Flat arc-like nearly every other cannon in the game, excellent for mulching cavalry and monsters at range.
*'''[[Queen Bess]]''': Go home Hellcannons, the new FUCK HUEG howitzer on the block is here and boy is she a beauty. Has really bad reload speed but that won't matter when an entire unit crumbles in one shot from this mammoth of an artillery piece. Extra Powder gives even more cheese to this dripping-wet curd-maker, letting you select which units to make completely irrelevant from the very start of the battle. She works best to punish infantry blobs (especially if not given constant evasive micro) but struggles to hit fast-moving skirmish targets. Be careful in Multiplayer matches, this cannon is exceptionally vulnerable to getting sniped by opposing artillery and can very easily be gimped early in the battle if unattended. Protip: Combined with the Gunnery Wight passive abilities, Extra Powder and Spiteful Shot from the Lore of the Deep transforms her shots into pinpoint-accurate cruise missiles against infantry or anything that stands still.

==General Battle Strategies==
You are the [[Tau]] of Total War Warhammer. Sure you will fall apart extremely fast if the enemy can get into melee with you, but the hard part is going to be surviving long enough to get there in the first place. Coast have been the kings of the competitive meta ever since they came out... until their nerfs finally caught up with them and now they're considered decent but not unbeatable. There are plenty of people who pick up this faction for their old reputation only for it to turn out they can't actually protect a gunline to save their lives. However, a GOOD Coast player can be one of the most frustrating things to fight in the game, and here's how you become that:

*'''Beastmen''': Just shoot them. Jokes aside; the beastmen aren't a difficult matchup for you: you've got plenty of high-damage ranged attacks, both your depth guard and your deckhands can take polearms to counter their larger threats, and your monsters can easily stand up to theirs. Sure, they'll be running circles around you, but they can't outrun your bullets.
*'''Bretonnia''': Going against Bretonnians is a difficult one. Their Knights will run circles around you and there is little you can do about it. Prepare to get flanked a lot and your artillery being pretty much worthless. That being said: Their Peasants are no match for your melee troops, even Deckhands hold up okay-ish against them. While the Knights are their biggest advantage, their flying cavalry is no match against permanent gunfire and you got some decent flying options of your own against them. The few times Terrorgheists can shine in your roster is neutralizing big flying threats like Royal Hippogryph Knights and Louen Leoncoeur. Their Knights have also no real answer to your big monsters. Hold your ground, force your opponents into chokepoints and you'll out on top.
*'''Grand Cathay''':
*'''Dark Elves''': Depends very strongly on what you're going up against. The big challenge here is to not play into the Dark Elves strengths and lock them into prolonged encounters where they are in no way equipped to hold out for long. Rely on your ranged options to whittle their terrifying melee line down and shut down their fast units wherever you can, be it with your monsters, Mournghuls or just Deckhands.
*'''Dwarfs''': This is without question your worst match up. Your bombers are going to do diddly dick to even the cheapest dwarf infantry, you have no chance at breaking the frontlines in an infantry grind even with Depth Guard, your monsters will die fast to slayers and guns and they do artillery boxes way better than you. What your cannons lack in quality compared to Dawi they make up for in numbers, so if you bring a crap ton of them you may be able to shoot out the artillery on the other side. After that, just shoot and hope you can shatter them before they reach the frontline. Use bats to mess up gyrocopters and just pray to stormfels you got enough artillery to take away their biggest advantage. Special mention to your ethereal units, especially Cylostria and her Ethereal Paladin pal; with only a few units that can deal any sort of magic damage, your ghosts can charge the enemy lines without fear.
*'''Empire''': The Empire is a tough match-up for you because they have several viable builds that can counter you hard. They've got great cavalry, great skirmishers, and pretty good artillery; three of the things you don't like to fight against. This isn't to say they're unbeatable, they're infantry lines are frail and don't have much leadership, so you can scare them off the battlefield with your monsters and magic. You'll probably want to be more aggressive with the Empire than with most enemies; learn to love your anti-infantry Depth Guard and hand-cannoneers. Special shout-out to the rotten promethean gunnery mobs when fighting the Empire; their toughness and versatility is really useful against such a hard to predict foe.
*'''Greenskins''': Greenskins have a surprisingly decent ranged game; especially with skirmishing wolf and spider cavalry that can run circles around everything you've got. Stock up on long range artillery and grab some bats and dogs to pin them down. Ironically, the scariest units in the greenskin roster aren't nearly as much of a problem for you as they are for others; you've got enough armour-piercing shooting and magic to cripple black orcs, rogue idols, and arachnarok spiders before they can reach your line. Just make sure you do shoot them, any of those units will turn your zombies into paste if they can get them in melee.
*'''High Elves''': This has the potential to be a hard one for you as even their basic archer units are going to out range any guns that you have. Against literally any High Elf archer unit, mortars are going to be your best friends. Their lack of need for line of sight and high damage to low armour means that even Sisters of Avelorn are going to have a rough time getting to a point where they can start getting value. You should also grab Noctilus as the Necrofex + magic can devastate any Asur who isn't ready for it. Scurvy Dogs are also very useful for picking off routing units or catching archers out of position. In the melee grind bombers will be able to get their frontline off the field pretty quickly if they can avoid being blasted to kingdom come, so make sure that you have plenty of chaff. A Rotting Leviathan can hold for ages since the High Elves lack inexpensive ranged AP, so one or even two of them can be more than what the pointy ears can handle. They do have plague of rust though, so kill that mage if you can.
*'''Kislev''':
*'''Khorne''': Stay the hell away. Like the WoC your guns will destroy them, but you better hope you have a front line able to hold long enough to blast anyone that gets close. In particular you should keep an eye on furies and Khorne's calvary before they take your ranged. On the other hand, given that Khorne has literally only two ranged units period and tends to blob up into big infantry mosh-pits; this might be an ideal match-up for the bloated corpse.
*'''Lizardmen''': You're one of the few factions to have monsters that can savely engage their big Dinosaurs and come out on top, just by the merit of being absurdly tanky alone. Lizardmen are very slow and have a lot of trouble getting to your lines without being shredded to pieces in the process. While Saurus will utterly demolish Deckhands, the LMs poor ranged Arsenal works in your favor. Deck Gunners and Carronades snipe the big monsters from a comfortable distance. Just be careful to not be outmanveured by Cold Ones.
*'''Norsca''': Norsca are a pretty easy match for you. Like the Beastmen, their speed and melee prowess is no match for your guns and polearms. Just be sure to bring a few cannons to deal with their mammoths and watch out for their chariots.
*'''Nurgle''': Can the undead even get sick? Well, it doesn't really matter cause the only affliction your zombies are gonna get is carpal tunnel from firing their guns so much. This is nearing laughable territory for you. Sure their infantry will outgrind even Depth Guard, let alone deckhands, but unlike faster factions it takes 'time' for them to do so. Time that you can spend shooting them full of holes. Nurgle is slow as hell and has pretty much no anti-large, which plays right into your 2 biggest strengths. Luthor on his Wuhan bat buddy is an absolute terror in this matchup, and if Nurgle doesn't get a roster update before Immortal Empires drops, there's pretty much nothing they can do about him. But that's far from your only option, it all depends on how exactly you want to ruin your opponents day. Gallows Giant can be an awesome pick here for the flaming damage, and Queen Bess can decimate their plodding infantry. Deck droppers can easily zone out any of their 'fast' units and hell, you could even throw in a Bloated Corpse or two for even more blob-destroying potential. Or just go with a full crab rush and use handgun summons or deck gunners to kill any big monsters they try and bring. The possibilities are endless! As if that wasn't enough, your lores of magic are also tailor made for taking them out, since they're too slow to move out of the way of a Wind of Death or Vangheists Revenge if you're careful with your timing and aim.
*'''Ogre Kingdoms''':
*'''Slaanesh''': You'd think this would be a horrible match up for you because Slaanesh is a fast faction that can easily flank and overwhelm ranged units, but there is actually one thing that saves this matchup for you. That's the fact that Slaanesh really can't do shit against ranged fliers. Good Deck Dropper play can really be a nightmare for the Prince of Excess's minions. Get the pistol option with maybe one or two handgun versions and bring something like Luthor or fell bats to stop Furies and you will have an untouchable gunline. As for your ground forces, just get as many bodies as you can in order to bog Slaanesh down. Don't bother with artillery, it will just get eaten by Seekers or Hellstriders. Focus down the key targets like Soul Grinders, Keepers of Secrets or Heralds and just try your best to stay safe. Cycle charge Luthor around to support your inevitably doomed ground forces and to pin down important targets with your bat guns. If you can keep the Deck Droppers safe, this may end up being a decent match up. Another thing that Slaanesh will also learn to hate is your Bloated Corpses because Slaanesh has no ranged units at all. Not a single one. And those big blobs of extremely fragile units' speed will only serve to get them closer to the bloated corpse faster.
*'''Skaven''': If there was ever a battle to bring the Queen Bess it's this one; skaven have massive blobs of weak infantry that will crumble in just a few shots. Beyond that, you'll want to be aggressive against the skaven; you can't out shoot their weapons teams directly, but your abundance of fear and terror effects will drive them away in short order. Mournguls are especially useful here, the can vanguard deploy to flank the skaven and have enough anti-infantry damage to chew through the chaff they usually use to protect those units. Just make sure to keep them hidden until they're ready to strike; they don't have the defenses to survive weapons team shooting.
*'''Tomb Kings''': Tomb Kings are an interesting fight because they have many of the same strengths and weaknesses that you do. You'll both want to avoid infantry battles and stock up on bigger units to do the real work. They'll be faster but you'll shoot harder. Bunkering up with some Rotting Prometheans to deal with their chariots is a pretty safe bet. Just don't send your necrofex collosi against their necro-sphynxes; they'll be slaughtered in short order.
*'''Tzeentch''': This will be a more unpredictable one, so we'll have to see what happens once immortal empires drops. On paper though, this probably won't be fun for you. You heavily out-range them, and can probably get some damage in before they close, but ironically they probably have the ranged advantage. You already struggle with missiles, and the sorcerers will be cackling maniacally while they thrust you into Satan's asshole because of the absurd amount of flaming damage they have. Plus, contesting the skies against them is probably not a good option, since their fliers have the speed and melee prowess to win any aerial engagements and swoop down on your unprotected ranged units. It's not all bad though. Harkon on his bat with that sweet sweet magic resist can be pretty damn useful here, and if you micro them well enough, your fell bats and scurvy dogs (and even Mournghouls if you're feeling lucky) can tie down horrors well enough.
*'''Vampire Coast''': This mirror-match can be more interesting than you'd think; whilst you can just use your normal tactics, you can do some clever things against other pirates. The enemy is most likely going to be building a gun-bunker with powerful artillery support, but that isn't the only game plan you have. Bringing a bunch of mournguls and syreens can make for a decent flanking division that can ruin the enemies day. Don't include Rotting Prometheans or leviathans, they have way too much AP shooting for those to be effective (on that same note, you should bring a few deck-gunners in case the enemy tries to bring the big monsters).
*'''Vampire Counts''': You're going to want to play very defensibly against these guys; they'll eat you alive in melee. Fortunately, ranged combat is a foreign concept to the Vampire Counts and you'll have little trouble dealing with them from afar. Mortars and the Queen Bess can be especially useful here; the enemy chaff can't reposition fast enough to avoid your bombardments. Just keep some deckhands nearby to protect them from enemy flanking. Remember that the enemy has the Lore of Vampires as well, you'll want to spread your units out to mitigate the inevitable winds of death coming your way.
*'''Daemons of Chaos''':
*'''Warriors of Chaos''': Another faction your gunpowder units are going to eat alive, your first major concern is going to be shutting down any Hellcannons and Marauder Horsemen the WoC might be bringing to bear. If you do that, your artillery will wreak havoc among the Chaos lines. A majority of your army should avoid melee like the plague, but Rotting Prometheans and Syreens can get somewhat decent work done against Chaos Warrior forces while pinning them down. If you can keep it safe from being picked off, a Bloated Corpse or two can be a gimmicky, yet surprisingly effective and hilarious way to delete a particularly elite squad of infantry, like the Mirror Guard.
*'''Wood Elves''': Their lack of shielding and armor means your missile units will mow down the tree-huggers with sickening efficiency, when they're in range. Generally, your main challenge is going to be cornering their forces in order to get ''into'' range, because Wood Elves can loose arrows at your Deck Gunners and Gunnery Mobs long before you can return the favor. Fortunately, your mortars and artillery will heavily discourage them from staying still for very long and a few packs of Scurvy Dogs can easily chase down rogue Waywatchers trying to outflank your forces. The biggest thing you'll need to keep an eye on is their cavalry. Have some Polearm Deckhand Mobs ready to sponge potential charges; a couple Wild Rider/Great Stag Knight charges will decimate your forces, but if you can gun them down before they make contact against your important forces, you'll come out on top in the end.

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