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Pickup Trucks

2023-02-19T19:31:18Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:A481:3CCF:B3AD:FB9: /* IRL */

[[File:Toyota Landcruiser.jpg|thumb|right|Get in loser, we're going hunting!]]

{{topquote|Regrettably, the Toyota Land Cruiser and Hilux have effectively become almost part of the ISIS brand!|Mark Wallace}}

This is of course leaving aside the common civilian use of pickup trucks by farmers, construction guys, road crews, other people which need to haul stuff around, country music stars, wannabe country music stars and suburban middle managers who like to LARP as rough and tumble country-folk and tailgate people on the highway.

The Pickup Truck, also known as a Technical, is perhaps one of the greatest weapons of war ever fielded by mankind. And as much as we want to say that is a joke, there is a reason there is a literal war called the "Toyota War".

Yeah when it comes militia vehicles, the Pickup Truck is a tried and tested design. Despite this, you have to remember that for all the memes about the Toyota Hilux the Pickup Truck is literally just that. A civilian Pickup Truck

==In [[Team Yankee]]==

The Pickup Truck is an option for Irregular Militia Groups. And by option, we do mean it's a 1 pt option (2 if you want Machine Guns). The vehicle can help get your militia into position, but bare in mind the rule Resistance. You can already deploy Militia anywhere on the board, so movement isn't that much of a concern. Now granted once the Militia have destroyed their target, they can mount the Pickups to move one. So in that case there may be some advantage to having these things in the unit. But outside of road movement, the Pickup is just barely better than walking.
Before you start suggesting using Pickups as a cheap harassing unit, you have to remember the rules Unit Transport and Passenger Fired. Unit Transport basically means your pickup's leader has to stay near the militia leader if you don't want to lose it. Passenger Fired meanwhile means that unless this vehicle is transporting something, you can't fire the MG. Like the Militia, this unit may be situational. But that can change once the book drops.

==IRL==
[[File:Hilux.jpeg|200px|thumb|right|What a technical looks like over history, as demonstrated in this meme photoshop<ref>We'll ignore that there's only one actual Hilux in this "ad", for the sheer joy of imagining Toyota advertising in glossy magazines to warlords</ref>.]]
Ok, where to begin. The idea of creating a fast moving ranged attack unit has pretty much been a thing since war existed. Some of the first complex weapons invented were Chariot's as mobile archer and fighting platforms. But for the sake of simplicity, we will say that the first use of improvising a civilian vehicle into a military vehicle began with the use of Tachanka. The Tachanka was a horse drawn carriage used in WW1 with a machinegun on the back of it. The general idea was to mount a machinegun onto a "Vehicle" that permitted quick movement and response. With the Dawn of the Automobile, it was only inevitable that mankind would start mounting guns on the things like the Orks we are.

While WW2 had instances of Guns being mounted onto trucks, the image of the Technical wouldn't be a thing until the Bush Wars of Africa; particularly the Toyota War where the Chadian military used truck’s mounted with machine guns and anti-tank missiles to rout Libyan invaders in T-55’s. And from here, the glory of the Toyota Hilux would be known. The vehicle would become something of the AK47 of combat vehicles. Rugged, simple to maintain, cheap, are all words that can be used to describe the Technical.
So why don't actual armies use the thing?

Well, if you want to be technical (don't laugh) they do. The HMMWV is in essence a pickup truck with a machinegun. A Jeep is a pickup with a machinegun. A BTR is pretty much a pickup with a machinegun. But the thing is these and other vehicles are designed for combat. They have things like dedicated weapon mounts, armor, part familiarity, fuel specifications, ETC. Pickup truck meanwhile are meant to transport things like lumber or food produce. While they can be used for combat, that's not their main focus.
[[File:Mortar_Technical.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Mortars are such a good fit for trucks even actual armies use them.]]
So why then are these things so popular with militias? Well as stated earlier, these things are rugged, simple to maintain, and generally cheap. They are also available. A Warlord may not have access to things like a M113, BTR, or even a Deuce-and-a-Half. But they might have a pickup. And if they need to transport their buddies around the battlefield, the truck is more than adequate.

The term "Technical" for these kind of improvised fighting vehicles has a couple possible origins. One often repeated source is that in the 80's Human right groups operating in conflict regions were disallowed from hiring private security as protection, so instead they hired locals gunmen and marking there payment as for "Technical assistance". Another possible origin for the name is that the money to make these vehicles often came from extorting members of various Medical Aid and Relief organizations, which would write off the money they were forced to give as "Technical Expenses".

Ironically, in the case of Team Yankee, the Pickup can have a place in a US army list. The US military has a vehicle called the CUCV. Its literally a military pickup. It's meant more as a vehicle for when you need to transport small amounts of cargo (especially since CUCV stands for Commercial Utility Cargo Vehicle). Still, it's not impossible for a Commander to provide a local militia with these things in exchange for support.

Now when it comes to armaments, well, you're pretty much only limited by what will fit in the back and how strongly you can bolt something down to the chassis and not have it shake apart on firing. Machineguns may be the most popular choice, but they're by no means the only ones. Mortars? [[Dana_SpGH|It's hard to beat a truck for shoot'n'scoot.]] Want anti-armor? An SPG-9 or M40 recoilless rifle will do the trick. Want air defense? ZU-23-2s will just barely fit on back. Want to spam rockets? Ukraine proves that S-5 Rocket Pods will work (though you'll need to come up with a fire control mechanism since those are intended for aircraft). Got some wealthy nation backing you in a proxy war? You can stick a MILAN, BGM-71 TOW Missile, or the recent L3Harris VAMPIRE rocket launcher on the back to make those tanks and drones think twice (training not included).

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:CNCG_Technicals.jpg|"Bolted down and ready!"
File:CNCGRotR_Technicals.jpg|"Our clan is strong."
</gallery>

{{clear}}

{{US Forces in Team Yankee}}

[[Category:Team Yankee]]
[[Category:Vehicles]]

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Chaos Dwarves

2023-02-19T18:43:09Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:A481:3CCF:B3AD:FB9: /* Speculation */

This is the general tactics page on how to play [[Chaos Dwarfs]] (that's DWARFS with an FS at the end, ignore the title of the page) in [[Total War: WARHAMMER]]. As the DLC isn't out yet and we know very little about how the faction will work. However, we can make some early guesses based on the table top.

==Why play Chaos Dwarfs?==
*Because you like seeing things go BOOM!
*While everyone else is in the Renaissance at best, you will show the world the glory and horror of the Industrial Revolution.
*Because you love the shameless evil of the Dark Elves but don't like the actual ''Elf'' part.
*You love to artillery box and shoot things with giant fuck off guns.
*Because you feel like every single villain should use an exceptional amount of fire.
*You wanted to play dwarves but you are tired of the classic honorable mining fellows.
*You have a high tolerance for silly hats.

===Pros===
*'''Gunpowder''': If CA does you justice, you will be THE strongest gunline in the game. Expect to win in a straight up shoot out against pretty much any other faction that relies on guns. Combine that with some of the strongest artillery in the game and no enemy will want you shooting for long.
*'''Armor''': At least for the units you actually care about. Even the lowest Chaos Dwarf has strong armor so you will likely be comparable to the Dwarfs when it comes to durability. Of course your Hobgoblins won't be great in this department, but you don't really care about them now do you?
*'''Fire''': Not only do you have lots of it but you have lots of units resistant to it. Anything weak to fire is going to burn and anything that uses fire will feel damn near useless against you.
*'''Monsters''': You got plenty of them, from Giants, K'Daai, Lamassus and Great Tauruses you have plenty of monsters to throw around.
*'''Versatile''': You got a unit for more or less any occasion. Yeah you prefer to shoot but you got strong Infantry, Cavalry, Fliers and magic as well. It's possible to pull out all kinds of tactics, especially compared to your Dawi cousins.

===Cons===
*'''Lacking Mid Tier Options''': On the tabletop at least, you didn't have a lot of options that were strong while also affordable. Your options consisted either very strong but very few Chaos Dwarfs or plentiful but near useless Hobgoblins. In game, your army is probably going to lack effective mid tier units that can kick ass while still being an affordable price.
*'''Short range shooting''': ''From your Infantry'', lets make that clear. The Chaos Dwarfs always favored blunderbuss over handgun's. While dumping a whole unit of shotgun's into somebody is going to hurt, longer range units can kite away from you. Your other possible option, goblin archers are... not great if we look to the orcs. There is a decent chance you get Fire Glaives, but they’ll at best have the range of traditional guns so they’ll still be out ranged by a lot of other units. So if you want to really touch somebody at distance you'll have to rely on your artillery
*'''Slow''': Chaos corrupted Dwarfs are still Dwarfs, and you still curse the day the Old Ones gave you stubby legs. Sure you're faster than the Karaz Ankor Dwarfs but that's like saying you're faster than your 4 year old nephew, not something you should be bragging about. If slave units and Hobgoblin allies make it into the roster, this weakness is mitigated substantially however, and one should be careful not to underestimate the strength of the heavy Calvary of a bull centaur unit.

*'''Cost inefficient''': The big one: chaos dwarfs don't like fighting in armies as there is too few of them to risk their lives consistently compared to their western brethren. As such, chaos dwarfs will likely require high upkeep for units like chaos dwarf warriors, infernal guard, etc. and will be reliant on slaves-which you will likely only be able to get by fighting and winning battles. Don't expect anything to go cheaply unless it is a slave with low morale or a hobgoblin.

==Faction Traits==
==Speculation==
There have been two army lists for the Chaos dwarves.

The original one lurking about in White Dwarf was a mixed force of Chaos Dwarves and Various goblin and orc slaves. The more recent Forge World List had none of that and had only "Infernal Guard" as an elite Dwarf force with no slaves in sight. These are two very different possible path's to take, one would have the Chaos Dwarves have various Orc and Goblin units, and the other be more like there non-chaos Dwarf version.

An all Chaos Dwarf army would be probably be to similar to the normal Dwarf factions. So we can presume that the Chaos Dwarfs will bring there slave units along with them with Infernal Guard making up a sort of tier 3 option, with normal Dwarves and maybe slave Black Orcs in tier 2, and Hobgoblins in tier 1. Still this does open up some problems. Giving a faction both cheap chaff and heavily armored units seems tricky to balance, other then the Green Skin's and Ogres no other faction has a mix like that as these are typically opposite traits needing different counters. You can't have your can-openers fight Goblins and your anti-chaff can't fight the Heavy Dwarf units, and you have to move quickly before there Doom Rockets and Hell Cannons tear you to pieces.

On paper it's a difficult army to fight and we can only hope CA is being careful with the balance.

==Lords==
===Legendary Lords===
===Generic Lords===
'''Sorcerer-Prophet''':

'''Chaos Dwarf Lord''':

==Heroes==
===Legendary Heroes===
===Generic Heroes===

==Units==
===Infantry===
===Missiles===
===Cavalry===
===Monsters===
===Artillery===

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves

2023-02-18T23:53:43Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:A481:3CCF:B3AD:FB9: /* Legendary Lords */

{{Topquote|Skulls for Khaine! Blood for Khaine!|Game battle chant for Dark Elves. [[Khorne|Why does it sound familiar...]]}}
This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the Dark Elves.

==Why Play Dark Elves==
*Because you'd like your elves to take their arrogance to the next level and just start murdering people for the crime of not being elves.
*Because you believe that everything looks roughly 1000 times better when covered in spikes.
*Because you enjoy the inherent power fantasy that comes from playing a big spiky asshole out to conquer and enslave.
*You like a versatile unit roster with some serious killing power.
*Because being the good guy is just so boring sometimes.

===Pros===
*'''Flexibility''': One of the Druchii's biggest strengths that really can't be understated. While a lot of other factions are forced into a single tactic, the Druchii have more battlefield options than pretty much any other faction in the game, even the High Elves. While they are best at offense thanks to Murderous Prowess, their wide selection of unique units and powerful characters means they can also play defense, kite, use a heavy monster focus, combined arms, and all-around whatever tactic you can think of.
*'''AP for Days''': If you're playing Dark Elves and having a hard time with armoured troops, you're playing them wrong. A large chunk of the roster has majority AP damage, so armor should be the least of your concerns.
*'''Solid Range''': While you may not be the shootiest of factions, the Dark Elves are more than capable. They are fully capable of melting enemy units before they close to melee with the right build.
*'''Anti-large''': The Druchii are renowned for their beast-hunting prowess, and it shows in the game. Most of your unit archetypes have at least one solid anti-large option, whether it be monsters, infantry, or chariots.
*'''Mobility''': You're not as good at it as the Asrai, but Dark Elves have some of the best light cav and missile chariots in the game, if not ''the'' best. Combine that with infantry like Witch Elves and Sisters of Slaughter, and you are able to get around the battlefield pretty damn fast. Light Cav tactics are a favorite among Dark Elf players.
*'''Powerful Lords''': When it comes to lord options, you are spoiled for choice. Most of their lords are at the very least decent and some like Malekith can carry an entire army to victory if given the time.
*'''Strong Heroes''': While you aren't quite the Vampire Counts when it comes to character prowess, your heroes are still very, very good. Death Hags and Masters in particular provide great utility on the battlefield on top of powerful melee stats, and Sorceresses, like all elven casters, are a hero you really can't go wrong with.
*'''Strong Economy''': Your economy is god-tier, and this is even before you bring in trade. Raking in high numbers of slaves all but guarantees that your cash flow reaches insane levels which you can further boost by abusing the Master hero who reduces Slave decay to the point that they literally cannot decay anymore. Combine this with the extremely generous discounts on Black Arks and your pockets will never be empty again.
*'''Naval Supremacy''': An often overlooked, but still important feature is that your Black Arks can dominate the oceans of the world and keeping your homeland secure from any threats. The only faction that rivals your naval power are (big surprise here) the Vampire Coast.

===Cons===
*'''Frail''': Okay, so you don't have it as bad as the Wood Elves, since many of your units are bringing actual armor to the fight, but you're still a glass cannon rush faction. Running into a faction that can simply outlast your burst of melee damage once Murderous Prowess proccs, can and will give you a lot of trouble.
*'''Limited Range''': Their ranged units aren't bad, in fact, Darkshards and Shades are extremely good, but they don't shoot very far. Even some gunpowder units will outrange you, and most factions will get one or two shots off before you get in position.
*'''Lack of Healing''': You're the only Elven faction with no multi-target healing. The only thing you have is Soul Stealer, which only heals the caster. Combine this with your low health pools, and your units will die a lot faster than their tanky statline might lead you to believe.
*'''Expensive''': Not as much as High Elves, but still pretty pricey. Expect to be outnumbered most of the time.
*'''Poor Public Order''': Being the quarrelsome lot that they are, Dark Elves suffer from a multitude of public order penalties (especially once you have a lot of slaves) and don't have a lot of tools to counter them; managing it can quickly devolve into a frantic nightmare, particularly on high difficulties.
*'''No Encampments''': If you are away from your territory, you can't recruit new guys while encamping. This can be offset somewhat with Black Arks, though that's not an option in regions far from the coast.
*'''Temperamental Economy''': You make a ton of money when your slave count is high, but your income will nosedive if you go a couple turns without winning battles. This problem is exacerbated in Immortal Empires where slave decline is % based across your entire empire. True to lore, your economy will crumble the moment you run out of enemies.
*'''DLC''': Scourgerunners and Supreme Sorceresses are some of your best units. They also cost extra. As with most Non DLC factions, you will need to pay extra money to be consistent in multiplayer

==Universal Traits==
*'''Murderous Prowess''': A passive, army-wide ability that gives all units on the map considerable offensive bonuses after you hit a certain threshold of kills (usually around 30-50% of the enemy force). Hard to time right and difficult to control, but extremely effective regardless. Seeing your Corsairs, Shades, and whatnot go into overdrive for 90 seconds is a scary and satisfying spectacle to behold. For a few units, the effect lasts 120 seconds instead of 90. Good in WH2, but terrifying in WH3 where Murderous Prowess also regenerates 1% vigor per second. Watch your entire army get a second wind and go from exhausted to fresh when it triggers.
*'''Slaves''': You get slaves by raiding, winning battles, and looting/sacking settlements. Slaves go to your cities to do the crapwork and are gradually worked to death turn by turn. The Druchii can make a hell of a lot of money by capturing slaves. However the more slaves you've got the harder it is to control them, which leads to unrest.
*'''Black Arks''': A special kind of campaign unit that acts as one of the two true "navies" in the entire game, Black Arks can only exist on the water but they are essentially floating garrisoned cities that can also let your other armies recruit and exchange from them. A powerful incentive for any Druchii player to adopt the raiding lifestyle and an excellent tool for mobile defence across Naggaroth's extensive coastline.

==Lords==

===Legendary Lords===
*'''[[Malekith]]''': Warhammer's rendition of Darth Vader with severe mummy issues arrived on the scene, and he doesn't mess around. This dude is among ''the'' best Legendary Lords in the game bar none. A monster of a Hybrid LL, he is everything the likes of Azhag the Slaughterer and Arkhan the Black wish they could be. He punches hard, gets a Dragon relatively early on and his spellcasting doesn't disappoint either. His economy buffs are ridiculously strong, boosting an already ridiculous economy. His buffs to Black Guard and Dragons are also very useful. You can hardly go wrong with Malekith.
*'''[[Morathi]]''' : Morathi is a ''very'' weird animal (There's gotta be a sex joke in here somewhere). Unlike many other Legendary Lords, her skill tree is the only one in the game where you actually get to make meaningful choices, as she can alternate between ridiculously powerful spellcasting and good backline harasser, both paths are viable. What sets her apart from other Caster Lords as her spellcasting is concerned is that, like Teclis, she doesn't specialize in single Lore and her pool of spells draws from the Lores of Dark, Death, and Shadows and favors all-out offensive spells from all of them. Arguably the second-best Caster Lord in the game, just behind Teclis. Unfortunately her campaign mechanics are badly broken, she has to spread corruption but doesn't get public order benefits from it, only downsides. This makes her campaign more difficult than you'd expect simply due to serous public order issues. They even nerfed the building in quintex that made the public order manageable for no apparent reason. With Immortal Empire's she now spreads Slaanesh corruption and her public order issues have been fixed, she can also recruit both regular and Exalted dDemonettes from her public order building. which is a nice step in the right direction. They forgot to make them affected by her red skill/techs as usual though. Honestly she is just begging for a dedicated rework to make her into a hybrid faction at this point, it would be awesome to see a true cult of Slaanesh faction. I dont know why they didn't give her the cultist of Slaanesh hero given that they are literally dark elf cultists. They did unfortunately significantly nerf her enchanting beauty and her weapons debuff abilities so she cant tank melee stats into the ground just by existing anymore, despite other lords like demon princes having aura's of similar power in campaign. Bizarrely they also removed her -50% upkeep for hero's, I guess someone was convinced her faction was too good, despite none of it being super strong or unique (vampires get -50% hero upkeep and way more from bloodlines).
*'''[[Hellebron]] (DLC)''' : Hellebron exists in her own little niche. Barely armored like Witch Elves, but really, really bloody fast and a buffmachine for your already busted murdermachine frontline. She excels in prolonged combat, preferably against lightly armored chaff and will rack a high kill count very quickly but will cave against elite units and other single entity monsters or characters.
: Get a unique campaign mechanic of her vitality slowly draining way and have to progressively sacrifice more slaves during the Death Night to keep the faction buffed instead of Debuffed, but also create a new stack of frenzied elves to attack [[Ulthwe]].
*'''[[Lokhir Fellheart]] (FLC)''' : Lord of the [[Black Ark]]s. He is a cheaper blender lord in comparison to Hellebron, being a well-armored Infantry blender while on foot like a Vlad von Carstein without magic. CA also gave him his own Dragon mount which only make him better than a Dread Lord on dragon when he pops his attack buffs.
:the Drukii pirate lord starts in the thunder dome that is Lustria but can have a lot of freedom by starting with a middle settlement that is a Black Ark.
*'''[[Malus Darkblade]] (DLC)''': an unremarkable lord until he lets the daemon take over, and then he is a melee powerhouse. Using Malus in combat is like burning a candle wick, his Tz'arkan form and abilities are powerful but drain his hit points so know when he should be in daemon or Malus mode. He does have Resistance and Healing in combat so he won't burn out as fast in a fight. Switching to daemon mode restores all his health and vigor and makes him unbreakable so it's best to wait until the last moment before switching.
:in campaign his battle with his inner deamon is a game mechanic, with having a possession meeter, giving you greater campaign bonuses while Malus is mostly in control, but as Tz'arkan slowly takes over, he gains greater battle prowess but at the cost of large penalties to your empire. You control the possession by drinking a potion that gets progressively more expensive until you finish his storyline to make it free. Tz'arkan will also offer an additional quest to increase the possession but with very good payoffs. For your start position, you get a Black ark in the Southern Land, in addition, have your traditional Drukii hold, [[Hag Graef]], that you can sell for a lot of money but have to listen to [[Malekith]] (which will be an AI) or make it harder by having to run and protect the dame place yourself while also declaring on the big cheese. -disappointingly he is actually more effective if you confederate him then if you play as him, confederated he gets the benefits of full possession with no downsides. making him insanely tanky. His faction benefits are actually more of a hassle than they are helpful.
*'''Rakarth (FLC)''' Your man you pick if you want to go for a full monster build. he comes with heavy armor and Anti Large to deal with enemy big monsters while also providing buffs to his own beasties. He will also have a Scourgerunner for skirmishing, a Manticore and a Dragon for a straight up brawl. He serves as your best counter to mounters, with his whip being able to strip Fear and Terror from monsters (leaving said monsters susceptible to fear and terror) and armor that gives him buffs as enemy monsters are around him. He's also being voiced by [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Ramsay Bolton]].

===Generic Lords===
*'''Dread Lord (Melee & Ranged)''': Your two generic lord with one focused on melee and has a shield while the other is a hybrid that focuses on shooting. In multiplayer, their ability change to help them buff their respective areas, Sword & Shield having buffs to melee attacks and debuffing enemy damage, while Sword & Crossbow supports other crossbows unit while also being a sniper, and gives a burst bonus to Ld. Note that the lords have almost identical melee stats once you put them on a black dragon and the melee lord looses her shield when mounted on one while the ranged lord keeps his ranged weapon. at high levels i cant see much reason to use the melee version instead but she will be better in melee until they get the dragon.
*'''Supreme Sorceress (DLC)''': Makes a Sorceress as a lord for money-saving cost. Somewhat feeble in combat until she levels up enough to get a black dragon mount, after which she fights better than many dedicated melee lords. Student of the Dark Tower is an amazing skill, providing lower cooldowns, reserves, and miscast reduction all in one. These girls are pretty much your best generic lord in a faction with already pretty strong lords.
*'''High Beastmaster (DLC)''': Your monster hunter Lord. Though he looks like a chronic masturbator, he can fill a surprising amount of battlefield roles. Not as tanky in melee as a Dread Lord but deals a good amount of anti-large damage in addition to his burst of additional weapon strength. Also is supportive by giving a single unit a big buff as they charge into melee (don't yet specify anything except can't be used on characters, so go crazy on an Executioners charge). Can Come on a Scouregrunner Chariot(roll though everyone while armed with a ballast) or ride a Manticore which has proven to be cost-effective flying monsters. Can give a big boost to cold ones and monsters in campaign as well as recruiting them faster. If running cavalry or monster stacks, likely your best option. The big MA/MD/ and charge boost they give colds ones really makes them preform better.

==Heroes==
*'''Death Hag''' : Single-entity Witch Elves dialed up to 11. Death Hags excel as extremely vicious infantry blenders with a lot of speed of behind them and, as an added bonus, a variety of buff abilities that make them even deadlier. They tend to get the shorter end of the stick against dedicated duelist characters and their only mount option consists of the Cauldron of Blood, which, to be frank, is a waste, since it sacrifices offensive power and speed for more durability, something that Death Hags with their high Melee Defense don't really need. - I’m not sure what the above was talking about, death hags kinda suck on foot like most foot heroes, the mount is good vs infantry and makes them actually pretty tough plus buffs nearby units. Always mount in campaign, foot may have more use in multiplayer I guess.
*'''Sorceress''' : Caster bitches in the flavours of Death, Dark, Shadows, Beasts, and Fire. Better than most other caster types, and Morathi has some great factionwide buffs for them
*'''Khainite Assassin''' : Good on campaign map, terrible in an actual fight. To expand, Khainite Assassins get high assassination chance, and are really useful at deleting enemy characters from the game. This is exacerbated by some good hero action buffs from techs, and from a few lord skills. Their passive ability increases the amount of slave income in the province they are in, which sounds useful on paper, but isn't really needed since Dark Elves make all the money they could ever want after a while. Their 'scavenge' ability can help armies pick up more money in the early game as well. In battle, they're a dedicated character duelist meant to sneak around the back line with their vanguard and stalk, and kill enemy high-value stuff with a powerful short-ranged missile attack and pretty good melee stats. Honestly though, in melee they kind of underperform vs other duelists, and they're pretty squishy on top of it all. Their ranged attack is... fine, I guess? But it's super slow to reload and very short ranged. This is on top of the fact that they DON'T GET A MOUNT which really limits their mobility, and therefore their usefulness in battle. Seriously, these guys are tailor made to be flying around on manticores or something! Even a freaking horse would increase their usefulness incredibly. As it is, they'll probably get surrounded and killed off pretty quickly. Death Hags and Masters are really, really good heroes, and will fill every battlefield role that you could want, while Sorceresses and your regular missile units can provide crazy ranged utility. Keep these guys for killing off enemy heroes and scouting other provinces on the campaign map.
*'''Master (DLC)''' : Tyrants in Training who never graduate in game to Dreadlords :(. Masters are your tanky Dark Elf hero. You can’t really overuse these, they are amazing. Ap anti large heavily armored high stat combat monsters with great mount options, the guardian skill, easy recruitment from a tier 3 building, the ability to reduce slave decline to zero if stacked, access to martial names of power granting incredibly powerful bonuses, easy to recruit at level 9 and up in any 4 city province. A doom stack of these with the regeneration or hunger/frenzy skill name of power and access to the extra melee attack army wide or leadership reduction traits is probably the campaigns deadliest hero doomstack, rivaling or beating Isabella vampire stacks or lizardmen hero spam. Really, really good heroes. And easier to spam then any comparable hero. Recommend cold one for ground duty (extra armor and ap) or Pegasus for flying (fast and flying with good charge but no shield). Foot is ok too but generally mounts are more than worth it for mobility alone. Immortal empires removed their role in the slave mechanic but they are still extremely stong melee hero's, probably use them in your armies exclusively now.

==Units==

===Infantry===

*'''Dreadspears''': Your most basic spearmen unit in the DE roster. They're... alright? They lack an offensive punch and High Elf Spearman performs better at the job they are supposed to be doing, being to hold the line to stop enemy cavalry punching through to your precious archers. They work fine in the early game, as well as being cheap, but don't rely on them for too long. stats are even better with Immortal empires now.
**'''The Hellebronai (RoR)''': Dreadspears that are a bit better in general with poison attacks.
*'''Bleakswords''': The offensive counterpart to Dreadspears. With the release of immortal empires they are now surprisingly very solid and killy basic infantry, there's a lot more reason to use them over spears now and they are going to be a very cost effective chaff unit in both multiplayer and campaign.
*'''Black Ark Corsairs''' : ...These guys. Oh, these guys. Frail as all hell, but worth it. Corsairs should make up the majority of melee troops of your midgame armies as soon as they become available. Their raw damage output as well as their armour (having a value of 90, putting them on the same level as dwarf warriors!) makes them a solid frontline and they will cut down all basic infantry used against them with ease and surprising speed. Their easy availability combined with a reasonable price make sure they are always a good choice, especially against horde-centric factions. One glaring weakness is their lack of AP damage. - whoever wrote the above likes corsairs way too much, they’re good but non synergistic with usual dark elf campaign strategies of crossbow spam. And they aren’t worth using after the early game. You can honestly never use them and just go dreadspears/bleakswords and darkshards and usually do better in the early campaign. I hear they are nice in multiplayer, but campaign wise meh.
*'''[[Witch Elves]]''': Talk about glass cannons, Witch Elves are a really weird bunch. They have no armour, but (try to) compensate for this with 20% physical resistance and a 5% ward save after you research technologies. In exchange, they excel in melee attack and apply debuffs to enemy forces attacked by them. The debuff in itself is very unique, as it not only debuffs enemy melee stats but also sends them on a rampage; causing them to stay way longer in a fight which they otherwise would be comfortable with. This is especially useful against all elven factions, since you can lure their expensive specialized elite tropps in matchups that they are not equipped to deal with (i.e. Swordmasters against a Hydra or a Dragon) and ''reliably keep them there''. Well at least as long as your Witch Elves survive the encounter, which, given that their only defense is a meager 28 melee defense and a 5% ward save, might not be that long. no real reason to use them unless you just need/want the rampage ability. sisters of slaughter are much better.
**'''Sisters of Singing Doom (RoR)''' : Schizo witch elves with slightly improved melee stats, a steep cost markup, and fear/terror. Generally not worth it, they still cause rampage on hit which is the last thing you want when you're trying to scare a unit away. Save some money and bring vanilla witch elves if you want to rampage enemies or a manticore if you want to terror bomb them.
*'''Sisters of Slaughter (DLC)''': They wear even less clothes than Witch Elves do, yet are more resilient. Their extremely high melee defense and their 20% physical resistance make them surprisingly tough. As one of the few resilient Dark Elven melee units, their job is to hold the line and grind down other infantry where their poisoned attacks, melee defense, and bonus vs. infantry lets them reliably come out on top. In addition, they have a unique passive that boosts their melee defense and physical resist even more if they are losing their current encounter, which makes them surprisingly viable as a tarpit against enemies like black orks who would otherwise dumpster them. Competes with black guard as your best frontline infantry. Keep in mind that their high melee defense doesn't protect them from missiles or impact damage from enemies on the charge. Back them up with dreadspears or black guard so they don't become the red paintjob on an enemy chariot.
*'''Executioners''': The offensive counterpart to the Black Guards, your ol' reliable murderers of heavy armoured elite troops and anything in between. They won't last long, but kill everything in their path. Frail, especially against missiles, but as a Dark Elf player, you're used to that. I don’t recommend these, they’re fragile, slow and they have weirdly low melee stats compacted to your other elite units. You can replace these with cold one dread knights even. Seriously with the change to primal instincts dread knights have massively higher stats especially with beast master lords skills. And otherwise fill the exact same role but do it better and faster. they got a slight buff and immune to psych so that's something. if you insist on using them, the Name of power khaine marked gives them 15% ward save and reduced upkeep, which is actually very solid.
**'''Blades of the Blood Queen (RoR)''' : Gets frenzy + an aura that gives physical resistance to nearby heroes + lords. Very skippable since their stats are low for an elite infantry unit and your lord will probably be on a mobile mount instead of hiding with the infantry.
*'''Black Guard''': Extremely beefy, these are your dedicated elite line holders and monster slayers. Remember murderous prowess makes them into an absolute force of destruction. And they have very good stats, the only downside is knowing that they’ll never be as awesome as Phoenix guard. Even if they can be offensively much deadlier the survivability of Phoenix guard is insane. they received stat buffs and murderous mastery with immortal empires so are even better now.
*'''Daemonettes''': Exclusive to Morathi's campaign. basically way better witch elves for the same cost, but not effected by red skills or techs because they always forget to do that.
*'''Exalted Daemonettes''': Also exclusive to Morathi's campaign, actually a really good option, they are like way better executioners with no armor, hold the line with sisters of slaughter and flanking with these will be potentially extremely strong. throw in morathi's debuffs and a Bloodwrack shrine and you should destroy any infantry in the game frightfully quickly. Really you can argue that the dark elves much more well-rounded roster actually uses exalted daemonettes better than the Slaanesh factions.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''Darkshards''': Basic Dark Elf ranged unit and all and all pretty darn good for the entire game. Indirect fire with pretty good AP makes them very useful, especially when focusing on firing key targets into oblivion. For a little extra, you can get these guys with shields which makes them excellent in an arrow exchange, which is important given [[High Elves|who one of your biggest foes is]] always go shields.
**'''The Bolt-Fiends (ROR)''' : The cool thing about these guys is that they degrade and nullify shields.
*'''Black Ark Corsairs (Repeater Handbows)''': A mixed bag, making up for the relative lack of skirmish units in the Dark Elf roster. Surprisingly mobile and difficult to catch, their biggest strength is easily their flexibility. Nice vs skaven early on.
*'''Shades''': Don't let the low model count discourage you, Shades rank among the best Missile Troops in the game. The high rate of Fire, high damage output, and even decent in melee, especially with greatswords. Actually not really that much better than dark shards if you just use them as archers, much more expensive for only slightly better ranged performance. However if combined with a shadowdart name of power lord can be as good or better than sisters of avelorn. 210 or more range, crazy ap, and better in melee than the sisters by a large margin due to AP and anti infantry. Even with all that taken into account you need a specific name of power, some later technologies, and the red skill tree to make them as good/slightly better than the sisters. And they cost 50% more upkeep with great swords than sisters do. Which really just shows how op sisters are in campaign.

===Cavalry===
*'''Dark Riders''': Your extremely quick light cavalry, comparable to most other units of their class. One key feature is that they are actually fast enough to chase down most other missile cavalry. If your micromanagement skills hold up, Dark Riders can terrorize the enemy backline very efficiently and do so at the highest speed any base game cavalry unit offers, but they get vaporized the instant their charge bonus wears off, so will need to keep the cycle charges going. One of those units you should probably not use in campaign but can be good in multiplayer.
*'''Dark Riders (Crossbows)''': Ranged harassment cavalry. As using repeater Crossbows, they fire two shots of primarily AP damage. As always Useful to annoying poke an enemy to death but also those higher armor units that are normally resistant to those shenanigans. (most other factions only get close-range hand axes or more squisher handguns).
**'''The Raven Heralds (ROR)''': Rather distinct from their vanilla Dark Riders, these guys ride Dark Pegusii and can fly around the battlefield. Usually passed up for vanilla crossbow dark riders since the raven heralds have fewer models and vanilla dark riders already have the speed to stay out of trouble.
*'''Doomfire Warlocks (DLC)''': Really, really weird hybrid unit. In melee they have actually pretty good attack with magic and poison and charge, plus an aoe melee attack animation. They also have 40% physical resist to help keep them alive. One key advantage they have over comparable light to medium cavalry is their ability to fling around the Doombolt spell from the Lore of Dark and Soulblight from the Lord of Death as bound spells. A unit of these is pretty much always useful if nothing else, plus they look great. They lose access to their bound spells if they drop below 50% HP, so fire them off early so you don't lose them later.
**'''Slaanesh's Harvesters (ROR)''' : Doomfire warlocks with a slightly increased statline that replaces doombolt with soulstealer to drain the HP from single entities. While they're usable in campaign, they're completely unusable in multiplayer where they're more expensive than Grail Knights and Demigryphs.
*'''Cold One Knights''': they were considered bad because of rampage but primal instincts was reworked later in total warhammer 2 so that it only triggered at 20% health and then again for the third game its been changed and the rampage is gone completely, now primal instincts gives buffs to combat stats at low leadership. They are actually cost effective now. Took a long time to come into their own but it was worth the wait.
*'''Cold One Dread Knights''': they were considered bad because of rampage but primal instincts was reworked later in total warhammer 2 so that it only triggered at 20% health and then again for the third game its been changed and the rampage is gone completely, now primal instincts gives buffs to combat stats at low leadership. They are actually cost effective now. Took a long time to come into their own but it was worth the wait. The dread knights aren't going to be the go-to over the regular ones but they are a solid unit now.
**'''Knights of the Ebon Claw (ROR)''': What's this? Cold One Knights that don't spaz out.

===Chariots===
*'''Cold One Chariot''' : A chariot pulled by dinosaurs. They're pretty much meant to be your anti-infantry melee chariot, and they have ap and an ok charge bonus which is nice. They also have a small ranged attack, but don't go using them as a missile chariot, that's what Sourgerunners are for. These guys are overshadowed by Scourgerunners due to the sheer amount of utility and killing power the former brings to the table, but as a melee chariot they can be decent especially in Malekith's army.
*'''Scourgerunner Chariot''' : One of the best units in your roster, Scourgerunner Chariots are your jack of all trades chariot, that has a special boon in being on the very few ranged units in the game that get a bonus vs. large on their ranged attacks. Their key advantage is that they also move at Dark Rider speed, which makes them extremely difficult to catch or even hit, and in a pinch, they can even reliably dispatch basic missile troops and infantry, thanks to a bonus vs. infantry. Bring 3-4 of these guys and have them work as a team, and they can swing battles for you.
**'''The Ravagers of Rakarth (ROR)''' : A scourgerunner chariot with poisoned attacks and a persistent AOE ability that slows down all enemies around it. Get one if you plan to use multiple scourgerunners to delete isolated monsters/infantry.

===Artillery===
*'''Reaper Bolt Thrower''': Essentially identical to the High Elf counterpart (in spite of the significantly more badass name), the Reaper is likewise probably not going to be winning any prizes for the best artillery piece. Alright, it does hit a bit harder and has a smidge less range, but this is not something people would notice much in most situations. Nevertheless, it remains a useful and versatile addition to a Dark Elf army. Just don't go in expecting a WMD. Like the repeater, they possess two firing modes and can be particularly useful for sniping enemy artillery. In short a decent, if not exactly exceptional, artillery unit.
*'''Bloodwrack Shrine (DLC)''': A Bloodwrack Medusa with a Go-Cart. Despite being described as a chariot don't use it as such, it's too slow to pass through a unit. Use it more like a Mortis Engine or Grail Relique, and you'll find it's a surprisingly versatile unit with support ability, decent melee stats, and even a ranged attack. Provides +7 MA and -7 MD to nearby allies/enemies respectively. Similar in purpose to the high elf frost Phoenix but offensive. Quite effective if you want your melee units buffed. Plus ok ranged damage from the Medusa herself.

===Monsters===
*'''Harpies''': Harpies fulfill essentially the same role as war hound and fell bat units. They're intended to be fast-moving harassers best used to hunt down or disrupt enemy missile units and artillery crews. When used in their intended capacity they can get some work done, just don't expect them to do much against anything with actual staying power. Even some of the sturdier archer units can prove a bit too much for them. If you're up against an opponent with a heavy focus on ranged firepower they can be a valuable addition. However, sending them in unsupported against basically anything else is a good way to end up with a whole lot of dead bat-ladies. Rakarth makes then a lot better, giving them bonus Melee Attack as well as a smidge of AP damage.
**'''The Crows of Khaine (ROR)''': Basically Harpies with Fear and the ability to regenerate when fighting. Surprisingly tanky because of it, just watch out for units that counter them.
*'''Feral Manticore''': Surprisingly good backline harasser. Manticores make Harpies pretty much obsolete and make for great mid-tier carnage against everything that doesn't have a bonus against large. They are very susceptible to Rampage, so take care of them. Manticores are best taken in groups of 2-4 in order to kill targets fast enough that they don’t die themselves. Paired with a flying master they can make a fast deadly Air Force for cheap which can act as a single unit killing gank squad. Can usually staggerlock foot heroes. And usually outfight other aerial units short of dragons or heroes.
*'''War Hydra''': One of your standout units, there are lots of nasty surprises with the Hydra, which acts as your standard frontline melee monster. One of its core features is its flexibility; it's effective against a lot of targets and can reliably hunt down infantry thanks to its speed and breath attack. It tends to get the short end of the stick against other monsters and anti large. In campaign you can get these 25% cheaper from a klar karond building. Super cheap and easy to spam regenerating monster.
**'''The Chill of Sontar (ROR)''' : Same regenerating monstery goodness as a normal hydra, though it replaces its flaming breath in exchange for one that slows down whatever it hits.
*'''Kharibdyss (DLC)''' : OMNOMNOMNOM. A Hydra on steroids, trades the regeneration factor and flaming breath for poisoned attacks, anti-large, and lots of AP goodness. Works best against armoured monsters, so if the enemy brings big scary beasts it can go toe to toe. If you want to blend infantry though, you’re better off with the Hydra.
*'''Bloodwrack Medusa (DLC)''': Combination monster and short rate direct fire artillery. Can delete chunks of elite infantry very quickly. These snake waifus have really great utility, but need to be micro'd well to reap the rewards. They aren't like most monsters in the game, so don't send them into melee and forget about them. Their speed, powerful ranged attack, mass and charge bonus means that you should be using them almost like a chariot. Have them blast infantry from range, charge into melee for a short time, and then escape to do it all over again. Got a pretty decent buff to their melee stats in Immortal empires to make them a more well rounded pick.
**'''The Siren of Red Ruin (ROR)''' : Same as a normal Medusa, but gains a AOE ability that causes moderate damage to all enemies around her.
*'''Black Dragon''' : Evil Dragonny Goodness. Roughly equivalent to a moon dragon in terms of killyness and retains the devastating breath attack, high mass, and good mobility that other dragons have. More difficult to use than high/wood elf dragons dark elves don't have the lores of magic to heal it.

===Rakarth Campaign Units===
*'''Feral Cold Ones''' :
*'''Explosive Squig''' :
*'''Giant Wolves''' :
*'''Sabretusk Pack''' :
*'''Feral Bears''' :
*'''Feral Mammoth''' :
*'''Feral Stegadon''' :
*'''Feral Carnosaur''' :

==Tactics==
===Multiplayer Strategies===
Long, Long ago in the distant times of 2017 Dark Elves where one of the top factions in the game with their massive amount of AP, powerful Lords and flexible army. Unfortunately after years of being beaten with the Nerf Bat they have fallen from grace. As of the Twisted and the Twilight patch they are considered low tier they really only have one viable tactic, relying on Scourgerunners and Crossbow Dark Riders. Now just because they are considered low tier doesn't mean you can't win with them as they still have some favorable match ups. As of right now, you are a bit of a one trick pony so you may have to get creative.

*'''Beastmen''':
*'''Bretonnia''':
*'''Chaos Daemons''':
*'''Chaos Warriors''': Chaos Warriors are slow as hell and very vulnerable to anti-armor.
*'''Dark Elves''': Since Murderous Prowess cares about kills and not whose side they're on it's going to trigger roughly at the same time for both factions.
*'''Dwarfs''': You have the heavy AP to pierce your opponent's stunties. Unfortunately, they have the firepower to shut down a lot of your ranged units before you can get close enough to return the favor.
*'''Empire''':
*'''Grand Cathay''':
*'''Greenskins''':
*'''High Elves''':
*'''Khorne''':
*'''Kislev''':
*'''Lizardmen''': This is one of the matchups in which you shine. All their armored dinosaurs are extremely vulnerable to your wide selection of AP troops, with a special shoutout to Dark Shards and Shades. Lizardmen lack missile infantry beyond their rather frail Skink Skirmishers, though their Chameleon Skinks will prove particularly annoying due to their missile resist and loose formations. Scourgerunner Chariots will run circles around the Lizardmen and, with proper positioning, can easily slip around their screening units to chunk the bigger Artillery Stegadons/Bastilodons that could potentially retaliate against your ranged forces. Try to kite them as much as you can, whittle down their frontline before sending in your Executioners and Blackguard to clean up.
*'''Norsca''':
*'''Nurgle''':
*'''Skaven''':
*'''Slaanesh''':
*'''Tomb Kings''':
*'''Tzeentch''':
*'''Vampire Coast''':
*'''Vampire Counts''':
*'''Wood Elves''':

===Campaign Strategies===
Focus on economy in a few good provinces with 4 cities (Hag Graef, Naggarond, Ghrond, Quintex, Har Ganeth, etc) put income, slave pens, and then black roads or special resources on every city/town. Then put all slaves here. Add 3 or 4 masters to reduce slave decline to zero and you have the strongest, easiest, and fastest to grow economy in the game bar none. Can field near unlimited armies of doom stacks. There you go, you win.

Actually, the most prosperous slave province for the Dark Elves is Yvresse owing to the unique Tower of the Warden building which generates 50 gold per 100 slaves. With a maximum slaveholding capacity of 15500 slaves, combined with the multiplicative effect of slaves on base province income and the ability to stack slave income multipliers through heroes that are essentially unlimited, it surpasses any Druchii province in gold-generating potential. Proving, once again, that Naggarond sucks. This wealth is also why it is viable for certain Dark Elf factions to abandon their starting capitals and conquer Ulthuan instead.- while that may be more profitable technically, it’s irrelevant. Any proper slave strategy give’s effectively unlimited money even in just the dark elf lands. Conquer Ulthuan first or not, either way you won’t need for money with even a little strategy.

Unfortunately they heavily nerfed the Slave system in immortal empires, the jury is out still on how good their economy is after the massive nerf, you now have to spend slaves as a global resource on your economic buildings and commandment. Will update as we find out how bad the nerf is but its already clear its going to be dramatically weaker than before. After playing 80 turns I can confirm the economy is still strong as long as you rapidly expand and keep fighting but slaves decline possibly too fast from buildings, and slave pens aren't that useful, all they do is increase capacity and give a tiny 5 slave per turn income, whereas a leveled economy building consumes 40 per turn, so only constant fighting and sacking will be able to keep your slave population up. The public order penalties for slaves are basically gone now. assassins can now generate 10 slaves per turn by staying in your provinces instead of boosting slave income, but that is a waste of them. In general all the buildings or skills which give slaves per turn are completely useless, they are way too weak to keep up with the cost of buildings, you either have to constantly sack other countries or be continuously conquering territory.
Dont Bother with Slave markets or any building that give slaves per turn, the rate of gain can never keep up with the consumption and increasing slave capacity is useless. Having a large stockpile of slaves is actually more or less pointless, you only need 150 slaves to trigger the bonus income at the end of your turn and you dont get any meaningful bonuses for having lots of slaves. you can have a slave consumption of 1000-2000 per turn and all you need to do is get above 150 remaining after the decline before the end of each turn and there is no downside. So slave markets and any special buildings that increase capacity or give a few slaves per turn should just be skipped, this is bad design by CA but it at least frees up your building slots. overall the dark elf income is still extremely strong it just not as strong as before. Unfortunately once your empire gets large enough it will become almost impossible to trigger the bonus income because you can easily end up with -4000-5000 slaves per turn which will be impossible to keep up each turn. Fundamentally as your empire grows amounts of slaves decline per turn increase quickly but your ability to capture slaves remains largely fixed, unless you can simultaneous sack 4-5 provinces a turn (every single turn) it will be impossible to keep up slaves late game, and the slave buildings do nothing to help this. Unfortunately I feel like they failed to playtest the new mechanic adequately as it becomes almost completely useless late game.

===Campaign Specific===

====Malekith====

*'''Beware Hellebron''': Malekith's campaign is generally pretty easy (and very fun!), but it can really depend on what Hellebron does at the start. Usually you can get pretty powerful early, build up diplomatic relations and just confederate her, but it's not unknown for her to just straight up declare war on you, which can really send your campaign down shit swamp. Furthermore, she can actually out-recruit you, making it next to impossible to confederate her. One strategy is to just rush to Har Ganeth immediately after securing Naggarond, while another is trying to out-recruit her in turn. Just ignoring her CAN be fine, but Har Ganeth is a good early game province, and you don't want to risk a civil war with her.

*'''Don't spend too long in Naggaroth''': Look, I get it, who doesn't want to rule a city made entirely out of towers that look like spiky black dildos? But conquering Ulthuan as Malekith can and should be done fairly early in the game, because it takes a loooonnnggg time to take over all those provinces settlement-by-settlement. You definitely want to get Ulthuan conquered before the chaos invasion rolls in, as they basically spawn right on top of Naggarond, and constantly fighting them until someone knocks off Archaon on the other side of the map can be a huge pain.

*'''Tyrant is the way to go''': Malekith has OPTIONS and almost all of them are good, but if it's your first campaign, Tyrant can really bring your slave economy to the next level. More money -> more stacks -> Druchii supremacy, baby!

====Morathi====
*'''The start. Oh god, the start''': Yeahhh, there's no getting around it. Morathi's start is a bitch and a half (kind of like Morathi herself!). She's surrounded by enemies who hate her guts, and one mistake here can spell doom for your campaign. Here's the thing though: she actually has all the tools she needs to deal with it (She's an incredibly strong legendary lord, and tier 1 Dark Elf units like bleakswords and darkshards are awesome even into the late game), it can just be tough learning the first few times around. You need to be EXTREMELY aggressive in consolidating your starting province, as the Ss'ildra Tor can just out-recruit you if you leave them alone long enough. Once you do that and deal with Alith Anar though, everything gets easier so have faith!

This is valid for Mortal Empires, your start in Immortal Empires is actually pretty chill. You may even have the chance to ally with Mazdamundi pretty early on if you fight the minor Skavens on the west and gift the frog some cities. Alith Anar also fucked off up north so you can consolidate your starting provinces and build up easily before starting to rape Ulthuan.

*'''You can use her in melee!''' A mistake I see a lot of players make is using Morathi as you'd use a typical caster lord, i.e. keeping them at a distance and shying away from any fight. If you do this though, you aren't getting her full value. Her unique weapon combined with one of her unique skills (Enchanting Beauty) can lower enemy melee attack by 18 and defence by 9 JUST FOR BEING NEAR HER. She can basically use her darksword as a strap-on to peg enemy melee stats. Be careful how you use her, because of course she isnt going to outduel dedicated melee combatant characters, but these passive abilities combined with lore of shadows make her great for absolutely dumpstering enemies that your units are having a tough time dealing with.

====Hellebron====
*'''Unpaid interns''': Hellebron requires a constant influx of slaves to keep active, which means that you are going to have to be ultra aggressive throughout your campaign, more so than other druchii factions who can just sit back and let their slaves do all their work for them.

*'''Malekith''': It's harder (though not impossible!) to confederate Naggarond than vice-versa, and pissing off Malekith can really become a problem, since he usually skyrockets to strength rank 1 after turn 20 or 30. One strategy is just to leave for Ulthuan right away, but this can be very challenging. Rushing Naggarond is also an option, but you can also ally with them, which is what I'd recommend for less experienced players.

*'''Blood Fleets suckkkk''': Remember how the Greenskins WAAGGHH worked before their update? Theoretically it was a way to encourage aggressiveness and movement on the campaign map. How it actually worked was that they'd spawn AI controlled armies that would allahu-akbar themselves upon the nearest settlement. Wellll, Hellebron's voyages basically have the same idea and it's honestly worse because you can't choose where they spawn. Just don't rely on them to do any heavy lifting.
====Lokhir====
*'''Pillaging the East:''' In Immortal Empires, Lokhir now starts on the Cathayan edge of the map, just south of Villitc, seperated by an impassable (to you of all people) river, and the Great Bastion to the West. The entire Eastern half of Cathay is full of rivers and deltas so you can raid deeper into Cathay.
**'''Black Arks are "free:"''' Lokhir doesnt need to sacrifice to Mathlann to start a Black Ark in IE, so combine that with their absolute loyalty, cheap upkeep, and the many rivers of Cathay, you'll be taking a few of these.
*'''The Blender King''': Ah, Lustria. Let's see, the lizards hate you because they don't want a dark elf caravan on their land. Teclis hates you because he doesn't like your stupid face, the Dwarfs still bear a grudge, and Harkon hates you for... stealing all his treasure, I guess? Packing up and leaving for Ulthuan on turn 1 can actually be a pretty viable strategy here. Lustria-bowl honestly sucks for you, but if you're intent on doing it, allying with the rats can secure your western border, and allow you to focus on Teclis at the start, which takes one of the major pressures off your campaign.
*'''The Black Ark King''': Black Arks are awesome and should be your main method of recruiting units to your armies, especially in the early game. BUILD THE GROWTH BUILDING FIRST! You'll get to those higher tiers so much faster, and can laugh over the corpses of your enemies when your tier 5 dread knights are running over red-crested skinks.

*'''What to do with Karond Kar?''': Lokhir's campaign is pretty weird, because his unique item requires taking over the city of Karond Kar which is wayyyy in the middle of assfuck nowhere compared to where you start. You don't really want to manage a split empire in Warhammer 2, so taking Karond Kar by force isn't really advisable. Luckily, he now has a quest line that allows him to confederate Karond Kar remotely. I'd recommend confederating with them, and then just selling all the buildings and abandoning the province. Keeping it generally means dealing with High elf DEATHstacks every two turns, along with Wood Elves and Taurox if he's still alive which will really make you want to deepthroat a cactus.

====Malus Darkblade====
Malus is a fan-favorite character, and CA honestly did him pretty dirty, which is kind of upsetting. His campaign is very difficult especially at the start, and he slightly boosts cold one knights, a notoriously cost-inefficient unit. He is a monster on the battlefield, but ''it's pretty much always better to play as another dark elf faction and confederate him'', since he gets all his battlefield strengths and none of the weaknesses. If you insist on playing his campaign though, keep these tips in mind:
*'''SNIKCH MUST DIE!''': Snikch must die unless you like having 30 million filthy rats coming over the border to take your land and deflower your sorceresses (oh, who are we kidding? There’s no such thing as a virgin sorceress, they literally worship the goddess of massive orgies). Sometimes you can even make a non-aggression pact with Imrik to focus on Snikch which I definitely recommend. After killing him, you can slow down a little, and pick off your enemies one-by-one, but it's an absolute miserable campaign experience if you allow Snikch to get his shit together.

*'''Black Arks are essential''': You start with a Black Ark and you NEED it to get past Malus' cancerous early game. You probably aren't going to have the money to spend on potions at the start, which means your troops will replenish at the speed of a glacier. A Black Ark can help a lot with this problem, and can provide a good base to recruit from.

*'''Keep your alliance with Malekith going''': Keeping your alliance with Malekith alive allows you to cheese the 'Tz'arkans whispers' mechanic a little bit, since the unique quests might be to declare war on a faction you don't care about halfway across the map. The rewards from these missions can be quite powerful, so complete as many as you can.

====Rakarth====
*'''Ulthuan''': Rakarth's starting place in Albion offers him a variety of options in theory. however, you're kind of forced into attacking Ulthuan which sucks. Once they discover you (which happens very early in the game), they will start sending stack after stack after you, and trying to expand eastward or southward just becomes unviable. Sure, Morathi can sometimes get super aggressive and start conquering Ulthuan early taking some of the pressure off you, but it's a gamble that sometimes doesn't pay off.

*'''Rakarth only for beastpen armies''': Beast pens areeee... interesting? The thing is, the only boosts to monstrous units from the beast pens come from Rakarth's army skills. For your generic lords, it's better to stick to your tried and true druchii units, unless you're in an emergency and need units fast.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves

2023-02-18T23:49:28Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:A481:3CCF:B3AD:FB9: /* Universal Traits */

{{Topquote|Skulls for Khaine! Blood for Khaine!|Game battle chant for Dark Elves. [[Khorne|Why does it sound familiar...]]}}
This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the Dark Elves.

==Why Play Dark Elves==
*Because you'd like your elves to take their arrogance to the next level and just start murdering people for the crime of not being elves.
*Because you believe that everything looks roughly 1000 times better when covered in spikes.
*Because you enjoy the inherent power fantasy that comes from playing a big spiky asshole out to conquer and enslave.
*You like a versatile unit roster with some serious killing power.
*Because being the good guy is just so boring sometimes.

===Pros===
*'''Flexibility''': One of the Druchii's biggest strengths that really can't be understated. While a lot of other factions are forced into a single tactic, the Druchii have more battlefield options than pretty much any other faction in the game, even the High Elves. While they are best at offense thanks to Murderous Prowess, their wide selection of unique units and powerful characters means they can also play defense, kite, use a heavy monster focus, combined arms, and all-around whatever tactic you can think of.
*'''AP for Days''': If you're playing Dark Elves and having a hard time with armoured troops, you're playing them wrong. A large chunk of the roster has majority AP damage, so armor should be the least of your concerns.
*'''Solid Range''': While you may not be the shootiest of factions, the Dark Elves are more than capable. They are fully capable of melting enemy units before they close to melee with the right build.
*'''Anti-large''': The Druchii are renowned for their beast-hunting prowess, and it shows in the game. Most of your unit archetypes have at least one solid anti-large option, whether it be monsters, infantry, or chariots.
*'''Mobility''': You're not as good at it as the Asrai, but Dark Elves have some of the best light cav and missile chariots in the game, if not ''the'' best. Combine that with infantry like Witch Elves and Sisters of Slaughter, and you are able to get around the battlefield pretty damn fast. Light Cav tactics are a favorite among Dark Elf players.
*'''Powerful Lords''': When it comes to lord options, you are spoiled for choice. Most of their lords are at the very least decent and some like Malekith can carry an entire army to victory if given the time.
*'''Strong Heroes''': While you aren't quite the Vampire Counts when it comes to character prowess, your heroes are still very, very good. Death Hags and Masters in particular provide great utility on the battlefield on top of powerful melee stats, and Sorceresses, like all elven casters, are a hero you really can't go wrong with.
*'''Strong Economy''': Your economy is god-tier, and this is even before you bring in trade. Raking in high numbers of slaves all but guarantees that your cash flow reaches insane levels which you can further boost by abusing the Master hero who reduces Slave decay to the point that they literally cannot decay anymore. Combine this with the extremely generous discounts on Black Arks and your pockets will never be empty again.
*'''Naval Supremacy''': An often overlooked, but still important feature is that your Black Arks can dominate the oceans of the world and keeping your homeland secure from any threats. The only faction that rivals your naval power are (big surprise here) the Vampire Coast.

===Cons===
*'''Frail''': Okay, so you don't have it as bad as the Wood Elves, since many of your units are bringing actual armor to the fight, but you're still a glass cannon rush faction. Running into a faction that can simply outlast your burst of melee damage once Murderous Prowess proccs, can and will give you a lot of trouble.
*'''Limited Range''': Their ranged units aren't bad, in fact, Darkshards and Shades are extremely good, but they don't shoot very far. Even some gunpowder units will outrange you, and most factions will get one or two shots off before you get in position.
*'''Lack of Healing''': You're the only Elven faction with no multi-target healing. The only thing you have is Soul Stealer, which only heals the caster. Combine this with your low health pools, and your units will die a lot faster than their tanky statline might lead you to believe.
*'''Expensive''': Not as much as High Elves, but still pretty pricey. Expect to be outnumbered most of the time.
*'''Poor Public Order''': Being the quarrelsome lot that they are, Dark Elves suffer from a multitude of public order penalties (especially once you have a lot of slaves) and don't have a lot of tools to counter them; managing it can quickly devolve into a frantic nightmare, particularly on high difficulties.
*'''No Encampments''': If you are away from your territory, you can't recruit new guys while encamping. This can be offset somewhat with Black Arks, though that's not an option in regions far from the coast.
*'''Temperamental Economy''': You make a ton of money when your slave count is high, but your income will nosedive if you go a couple turns without winning battles. This problem is exacerbated in Immortal Empires where slave decline is % based across your entire empire. True to lore, your economy will crumble the moment you run out of enemies.
*'''DLC''': Scourgerunners and Supreme Sorceresses are some of your best units. They also cost extra. As with most Non DLC factions, you will need to pay extra money to be consistent in multiplayer

==Universal Traits==
*'''Murderous Prowess''': A passive, army-wide ability that gives all units on the map considerable offensive bonuses after you hit a certain threshold of kills (usually around 30-50% of the enemy force). Hard to time right and difficult to control, but extremely effective regardless. Seeing your Corsairs, Shades, and whatnot go into overdrive for 90 seconds is a scary and satisfying spectacle to behold. For a few units, the effect lasts 120 seconds instead of 90. Good in WH2, but terrifying in WH3 where Murderous Prowess also regenerates 1% vigor per second. Watch your entire army get a second wind and go from exhausted to fresh when it triggers.
*'''Slaves''': You get slaves by raiding, winning battles, and looting/sacking settlements. Slaves go to your cities to do the crapwork and are gradually worked to death turn by turn. The Druchii can make a hell of a lot of money by capturing slaves. However the more slaves you've got the harder it is to control them, which leads to unrest.
*'''Black Arks''': A special kind of campaign unit that acts as one of the two true "navies" in the entire game, Black Arks can only exist on the water but they are essentially floating garrisoned cities that can also let your other armies recruit and exchange from them. A powerful incentive for any Druchii player to adopt the raiding lifestyle and an excellent tool for mobile defence across Naggaroth's extensive coastline.

==Lords==

===Legendary Lords===
*'''[[Malekith]]''': Warhammer's rendition of Darth Vader with severe mummy issues arrived on the scene, and he doesn't mess around. This dude is among ''the'' best legendary lords in the game bar none. A monster of a Hybrid LL, he is everything the likes of Azhag the Slaughterer and Arkhan the Black wish they could be. He punches hard, gets a Dragon relatively early on and his spellcasting doesn't disappoint either. His economy buffs are ridiculously strong, boosting an already ridiculous economy. His buffs to Black Guard and Dragons are also very useful. You can hardly go wrong with Malekith.
*'''[[Morathi]]''' : Morathi is a ''very'' weird animal (There's gotta be a sex joke in here somewhere). Unlike many other Legendary Lords, her skill tree is the only one in the game where you actually get to make meaningful choices, as she can alternate between ridiculously powerful spellcasting and good backline harasser, both paths are viable. What sets her apart from other caster lords as her spellcasting is concerned is that, like Teclis, she doesn't specialize in single lore and her pool of spells draws from the Lores of Dark, Death, and Shadows and favors all-out offensive spells from all of them. Arguably the second-best Caster Lord in the game, just behind Teclis. Unfortunately her campaign mechanics are badly broken, she has to spread corruption but doesn't get public order benefits from it, only downsides. This makes her campaign more difficult than you'd expect simply due to serous public order issues. They even nerfed the building in quintex that made the public order manageable for no apparent reason. With Immortal empire's she now spreads Slaanesh corruption and her public order issues have been fixed, she can also recruit both regular and exalted daemonettes from her public order building. which is a nice step in the right direction. They forgot to make them affected by her red skill/techs as usual though. Honestly she is just begging for a dedicated rework to make her into a hybrid faction at this point, it would be awesome to see a true cult of Slaanesh faction. I dont know why they didn't give her the cultist of Slaanesh hero given that they are literally dark elf cultists. They did unfortunately significantly nerf her enchanting beauty and her weapons debuff abilities so she cant tank melee stats into the ground just by existing anymore, despite other lords like demon princes having aura's of similar power in campaign. Bizarrely they also removed her -50% upkeep for hero's, I guess someone was convinced her faction was too good, despite none of it being super strong or unique (vampires get -50% hero upkeep and way more from bloodlines).
*'''[[Hellebron]] (DLC)''' : Hellebron exists in her own little niche. Barely armored like Witch Elves, but really, really bloody fast and a buffmachine for your already busted murdermachine frontline. She excels in prolonged combat, preferably against lightly armored chaff and will rack a high kill count very quickly but will cave against elite units and other single entity monsters or characters.
: Get a unique campaign mechanic of her vitality slowly draining way and have to progressively sacrifice more slaves during the Death Night to keep the faction buffed instead of Debuffed, but also create a new stack of frenzied elves to attack [[Ulthwe]].
*'''[[Lokhir Fellheart]] (FLC)''' : Lord of the [[Black Ark]]s. He is a cheaper blender lord in comparison to Hellebron, being a well-armored Infantry blender while on foot like a Vlad von Carstein without magic. CA also gave him his own Dragon mount which only make him better than a Dread Lord on dragon when he pops his attack buffs.
:the Drukii pirate lord starts in the thunder dome that is Lustria but can have a lot of freedom by starting with a middle settlement that is a Black Ark.
*'''[[Malus Darkblade]] (DLC)''': an unremarkable lord until he lets the daemon take over, and then he is a melee powerhouse. Using Malus in combat is like burning a candle wick, his Tz'arkan form and abilities are powerful but drain his hit points so know when he should be in daemon or Malus mode. He does have Resistance and Healing in combat so he won't burn out as fast in a fight. Switching to daemon mode restores all his health and vigor and makes him unbreakable so it's best to wait until the last moment before switching.
:in campaign his battle with his inner deamon is a game mechanic, with having a possession meeter, giving you greater campaign bonuses while Malus is mostly in control, but as Tz'arkan slowly takes over, he gains greater battle prowess but at the cost of large penalties to your empire. You control the possession by drinking a potion that gets progressively more expensive until you finish his storyline to make it free. Tz'arkan will also offer an additional quest to increase the possession but with very good payoffs. For your start position, you get a Black ark in the Southern Land, in addition, have your traditional Drukii hold, [[Hag Graef]], that you can sell for a lot of money but have to listen to [[Malekith]] (which will be an AI) or make it harder by having to run and protect the dame place yourself while also declaring on the big cheese. -disappointingly he is actually more effective if you confederate him then if you play as him, confederated he gets the benefits of full possession with no downsides. making him insanely tanky. His faction benefits are actually more of a hassle than they are helpful.
*'''Rakarth (FLC)''' Your man you pick if you want to go for a full monster build. he comes with heavy armor and Anti Large to deal with enemy big monsters while also providing buffs to his own beasties. He will also have a Scourgerunner for skirmishing, a Manticore and a Dragon for a straight up brawl. He serves as your best counter to mounters, with his whip being able to strip Fear and Terror from monsters (leaving said monsters susceptible to fear and terror) and armor that gives him buffs as enemy monsters are around him. He's also being voiced by [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Ramsay Bolton]].

===Generic Lords===
*'''Dread Lord (Melee & Ranged)''': Your two generic lord with one focused on melee and has a shield while the other is a hybrid that focuses on shooting. In multiplayer, their ability change to help them buff their respective areas, Sword & Shield having buffs to melee attacks and debuffing enemy damage, while Sword & Crossbow supports other crossbows unit while also being a sniper, and gives a burst bonus to Ld. Note that the lords have almost identical melee stats once you put them on a black dragon and the melee lord looses her shield when mounted on one while the ranged lord keeps his ranged weapon. at high levels i cant see much reason to use the melee version instead but she will be better in melee until they get the dragon.
*'''Supreme Sorceress (DLC)''': Makes a Sorceress as a lord for money-saving cost. Somewhat feeble in combat until she levels up enough to get a black dragon mount, after which she fights better than many dedicated melee lords. Student of the Dark Tower is an amazing skill, providing lower cooldowns, reserves, and miscast reduction all in one. These girls are pretty much your best generic lord in a faction with already pretty strong lords.
*'''High Beastmaster (DLC)''': Your monster hunter Lord. Though he looks like a chronic masturbator, he can fill a surprising amount of battlefield roles. Not as tanky in melee as a Dread Lord but deals a good amount of anti-large damage in addition to his burst of additional weapon strength. Also is supportive by giving a single unit a big buff as they charge into melee (don't yet specify anything except can't be used on characters, so go crazy on an Executioners charge). Can Come on a Scouregrunner Chariot(roll though everyone while armed with a ballast) or ride a Manticore which has proven to be cost-effective flying monsters. Can give a big boost to cold ones and monsters in campaign as well as recruiting them faster. If running cavalry or monster stacks, likely your best option. The big MA/MD/ and charge boost they give colds ones really makes them preform better.

==Heroes==
*'''Death Hag''' : Single-entity Witch Elves dialed up to 11. Death Hags excel as extremely vicious infantry blenders with a lot of speed of behind them and, as an added bonus, a variety of buff abilities that make them even deadlier. They tend to get the shorter end of the stick against dedicated duelist characters and their only mount option consists of the Cauldron of Blood, which, to be frank, is a waste, since it sacrifices offensive power and speed for more durability, something that Death Hags with their high Melee Defense don't really need. - I’m not sure what the above was talking about, death hags kinda suck on foot like most foot heroes, the mount is good vs infantry and makes them actually pretty tough plus buffs nearby units. Always mount in campaign, foot may have more use in multiplayer I guess.
*'''Sorceress''' : Caster bitches in the flavours of Death, Dark, Shadows, Beasts, and Fire. Better than most other caster types, and Morathi has some great factionwide buffs for them
*'''Khainite Assassin''' : Good on campaign map, terrible in an actual fight. To expand, Khainite Assassins get high assassination chance, and are really useful at deleting enemy characters from the game. This is exacerbated by some good hero action buffs from techs, and from a few lord skills. Their passive ability increases the amount of slave income in the province they are in, which sounds useful on paper, but isn't really needed since Dark Elves make all the money they could ever want after a while. Their 'scavenge' ability can help armies pick up more money in the early game as well. In battle, they're a dedicated character duelist meant to sneak around the back line with their vanguard and stalk, and kill enemy high-value stuff with a powerful short-ranged missile attack and pretty good melee stats. Honestly though, in melee they kind of underperform vs other duelists, and they're pretty squishy on top of it all. Their ranged attack is... fine, I guess? But it's super slow to reload and very short ranged. This is on top of the fact that they DON'T GET A MOUNT which really limits their mobility, and therefore their usefulness in battle. Seriously, these guys are tailor made to be flying around on manticores or something! Even a freaking horse would increase their usefulness incredibly. As it is, they'll probably get surrounded and killed off pretty quickly. Death Hags and Masters are really, really good heroes, and will fill every battlefield role that you could want, while Sorceresses and your regular missile units can provide crazy ranged utility. Keep these guys for killing off enemy heroes and scouting other provinces on the campaign map.
*'''Master (DLC)''' : Tyrants in Training who never graduate in game to Dreadlords :(. Masters are your tanky Dark Elf hero. You can’t really overuse these, they are amazing. Ap anti large heavily armored high stat combat monsters with great mount options, the guardian skill, easy recruitment from a tier 3 building, the ability to reduce slave decline to zero if stacked, access to martial names of power granting incredibly powerful bonuses, easy to recruit at level 9 and up in any 4 city province. A doom stack of these with the regeneration or hunger/frenzy skill name of power and access to the extra melee attack army wide or leadership reduction traits is probably the campaigns deadliest hero doomstack, rivaling or beating Isabella vampire stacks or lizardmen hero spam. Really, really good heroes. And easier to spam then any comparable hero. Recommend cold one for ground duty (extra armor and ap) or Pegasus for flying (fast and flying with good charge but no shield). Foot is ok too but generally mounts are more than worth it for mobility alone. Immortal empires removed their role in the slave mechanic but they are still extremely stong melee hero's, probably use them in your armies exclusively now.

==Units==

===Infantry===

*'''Dreadspears''': Your most basic spearmen unit in the DE roster. They're... alright? They lack an offensive punch and High Elf Spearman performs better at the job they are supposed to be doing, being to hold the line to stop enemy cavalry punching through to your precious archers. They work fine in the early game, as well as being cheap, but don't rely on them for too long. stats are even better with Immortal empires now.
**'''The Hellebronai (RoR)''': Dreadspears that are a bit better in general with poison attacks.
*'''Bleakswords''': The offensive counterpart to Dreadspears. With the release of immortal empires they are now surprisingly very solid and killy basic infantry, there's a lot more reason to use them over spears now and they are going to be a very cost effective chaff unit in both multiplayer and campaign.
*'''Black Ark Corsairs''' : ...These guys. Oh, these guys. Frail as all hell, but worth it. Corsairs should make up the majority of melee troops of your midgame armies as soon as they become available. Their raw damage output as well as their armour (having a value of 90, putting them on the same level as dwarf warriors!) makes them a solid frontline and they will cut down all basic infantry used against them with ease and surprising speed. Their easy availability combined with a reasonable price make sure they are always a good choice, especially against horde-centric factions. One glaring weakness is their lack of AP damage. - whoever wrote the above likes corsairs way too much, they’re good but non synergistic with usual dark elf campaign strategies of crossbow spam. And they aren’t worth using after the early game. You can honestly never use them and just go dreadspears/bleakswords and darkshards and usually do better in the early campaign. I hear they are nice in multiplayer, but campaign wise meh.
*'''[[Witch Elves]]''': Talk about glass cannons, Witch Elves are a really weird bunch. They have no armour, but (try to) compensate for this with 20% physical resistance and a 5% ward save after you research technologies. In exchange, they excel in melee attack and apply debuffs to enemy forces attacked by them. The debuff in itself is very unique, as it not only debuffs enemy melee stats but also sends them on a rampage; causing them to stay way longer in a fight which they otherwise would be comfortable with. This is especially useful against all elven factions, since you can lure their expensive specialized elite tropps in matchups that they are not equipped to deal with (i.e. Swordmasters against a Hydra or a Dragon) and ''reliably keep them there''. Well at least as long as your Witch Elves survive the encounter, which, given that their only defense is a meager 28 melee defense and a 5% ward save, might not be that long. no real reason to use them unless you just need/want the rampage ability. sisters of slaughter are much better.
**'''Sisters of Singing Doom (RoR)''' : Schizo witch elves with slightly improved melee stats, a steep cost markup, and fear/terror. Generally not worth it, they still cause rampage on hit which is the last thing you want when you're trying to scare a unit away. Save some money and bring vanilla witch elves if you want to rampage enemies or a manticore if you want to terror bomb them.
*'''Sisters of Slaughter (DLC)''': They wear even less clothes than Witch Elves do, yet are more resilient. Their extremely high melee defense and their 20% physical resistance make them surprisingly tough. As one of the few resilient Dark Elven melee units, their job is to hold the line and grind down other infantry where their poisoned attacks, melee defense, and bonus vs. infantry lets them reliably come out on top. In addition, they have a unique passive that boosts their melee defense and physical resist even more if they are losing their current encounter, which makes them surprisingly viable as a tarpit against enemies like black orks who would otherwise dumpster them. Competes with black guard as your best frontline infantry. Keep in mind that their high melee defense doesn't protect them from missiles or impact damage from enemies on the charge. Back them up with dreadspears or black guard so they don't become the red paintjob on an enemy chariot.
*'''Executioners''': The offensive counterpart to the Black Guards, your ol' reliable murderers of heavy armoured elite troops and anything in between. They won't last long, but kill everything in their path. Frail, especially against missiles, but as a Dark Elf player, you're used to that. I don’t recommend these, they’re fragile, slow and they have weirdly low melee stats compacted to your other elite units. You can replace these with cold one dread knights even. Seriously with the change to primal instincts dread knights have massively higher stats especially with beast master lords skills. And otherwise fill the exact same role but do it better and faster. they got a slight buff and immune to psych so that's something. if you insist on using them, the Name of power khaine marked gives them 15% ward save and reduced upkeep, which is actually very solid.
**'''Blades of the Blood Queen (RoR)''' : Gets frenzy + an aura that gives physical resistance to nearby heroes + lords. Very skippable since their stats are low for an elite infantry unit and your lord will probably be on a mobile mount instead of hiding with the infantry.
*'''Black Guard''': Extremely beefy, these are your dedicated elite line holders and monster slayers. Remember murderous prowess makes them into an absolute force of destruction. And they have very good stats, the only downside is knowing that they’ll never be as awesome as Phoenix guard. Even if they can be offensively much deadlier the survivability of Phoenix guard is insane. they received stat buffs and murderous mastery with immortal empires so are even better now.
*'''Daemonettes''': Exclusive to Morathi's campaign. basically way better witch elves for the same cost, but not effected by red skills or techs because they always forget to do that.
*'''Exalted Daemonettes''': Also exclusive to Morathi's campaign, actually a really good option, they are like way better executioners with no armor, hold the line with sisters of slaughter and flanking with these will be potentially extremely strong. throw in morathi's debuffs and a Bloodwrack shrine and you should destroy any infantry in the game frightfully quickly. Really you can argue that the dark elves much more well-rounded roster actually uses exalted daemonettes better than the Slaanesh factions.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''Darkshards''': Basic Dark Elf ranged unit and all and all pretty darn good for the entire game. Indirect fire with pretty good AP makes them very useful, especially when focusing on firing key targets into oblivion. For a little extra, you can get these guys with shields which makes them excellent in an arrow exchange, which is important given [[High Elves|who one of your biggest foes is]] always go shields.
**'''The Bolt-Fiends (ROR)''' : The cool thing about these guys is that they degrade and nullify shields.
*'''Black Ark Corsairs (Repeater Handbows)''': A mixed bag, making up for the relative lack of skirmish units in the Dark Elf roster. Surprisingly mobile and difficult to catch, their biggest strength is easily their flexibility. Nice vs skaven early on.
*'''Shades''': Don't let the low model count discourage you, Shades rank among the best Missile Troops in the game. The high rate of Fire, high damage output, and even decent in melee, especially with greatswords. Actually not really that much better than dark shards if you just use them as archers, much more expensive for only slightly better ranged performance. However if combined with a shadowdart name of power lord can be as good or better than sisters of avelorn. 210 or more range, crazy ap, and better in melee than the sisters by a large margin due to AP and anti infantry. Even with all that taken into account you need a specific name of power, some later technologies, and the red skill tree to make them as good/slightly better than the sisters. And they cost 50% more upkeep with great swords than sisters do. Which really just shows how op sisters are in campaign.

===Cavalry===
*'''Dark Riders''': Your extremely quick light cavalry, comparable to most other units of their class. One key feature is that they are actually fast enough to chase down most other missile cavalry. If your micromanagement skills hold up, Dark Riders can terrorize the enemy backline very efficiently and do so at the highest speed any base game cavalry unit offers, but they get vaporized the instant their charge bonus wears off, so will need to keep the cycle charges going. One of those units you should probably not use in campaign but can be good in multiplayer.
*'''Dark Riders (Crossbows)''': Ranged harassment cavalry. As using repeater Crossbows, they fire two shots of primarily AP damage. As always Useful to annoying poke an enemy to death but also those higher armor units that are normally resistant to those shenanigans. (most other factions only get close-range hand axes or more squisher handguns).
**'''The Raven Heralds (ROR)''': Rather distinct from their vanilla Dark Riders, these guys ride Dark Pegusii and can fly around the battlefield. Usually passed up for vanilla crossbow dark riders since the raven heralds have fewer models and vanilla dark riders already have the speed to stay out of trouble.
*'''Doomfire Warlocks (DLC)''': Really, really weird hybrid unit. In melee they have actually pretty good attack with magic and poison and charge, plus an aoe melee attack animation. They also have 40% physical resist to help keep them alive. One key advantage they have over comparable light to medium cavalry is their ability to fling around the Doombolt spell from the Lore of Dark and Soulblight from the Lord of Death as bound spells. A unit of these is pretty much always useful if nothing else, plus they look great. They lose access to their bound spells if they drop below 50% HP, so fire them off early so you don't lose them later.
**'''Slaanesh's Harvesters (ROR)''' : Doomfire warlocks with a slightly increased statline that replaces doombolt with soulstealer to drain the HP from single entities. While they're usable in campaign, they're completely unusable in multiplayer where they're more expensive than Grail Knights and Demigryphs.
*'''Cold One Knights''': they were considered bad because of rampage but primal instincts was reworked later in total warhammer 2 so that it only triggered at 20% health and then again for the third game its been changed and the rampage is gone completely, now primal instincts gives buffs to combat stats at low leadership. They are actually cost effective now. Took a long time to come into their own but it was worth the wait.
*'''Cold One Dread Knights''': they were considered bad because of rampage but primal instincts was reworked later in total warhammer 2 so that it only triggered at 20% health and then again for the third game its been changed and the rampage is gone completely, now primal instincts gives buffs to combat stats at low leadership. They are actually cost effective now. Took a long time to come into their own but it was worth the wait. The dread knights aren't going to be the go-to over the regular ones but they are a solid unit now.
**'''Knights of the Ebon Claw (ROR)''': What's this? Cold One Knights that don't spaz out.

===Chariots===
*'''Cold One Chariot''' : A chariot pulled by dinosaurs. They're pretty much meant to be your anti-infantry melee chariot, and they have ap and an ok charge bonus which is nice. They also have a small ranged attack, but don't go using them as a missile chariot, that's what Sourgerunners are for. These guys are overshadowed by Scourgerunners due to the sheer amount of utility and killing power the former brings to the table, but as a melee chariot they can be decent especially in Malekith's army.
*'''Scourgerunner Chariot''' : One of the best units in your roster, Scourgerunner Chariots are your jack of all trades chariot, that has a special boon in being on the very few ranged units in the game that get a bonus vs. large on their ranged attacks. Their key advantage is that they also move at Dark Rider speed, which makes them extremely difficult to catch or even hit, and in a pinch, they can even reliably dispatch basic missile troops and infantry, thanks to a bonus vs. infantry. Bring 3-4 of these guys and have them work as a team, and they can swing battles for you.
**'''The Ravagers of Rakarth (ROR)''' : A scourgerunner chariot with poisoned attacks and a persistent AOE ability that slows down all enemies around it. Get one if you plan to use multiple scourgerunners to delete isolated monsters/infantry.

===Artillery===
*'''Reaper Bolt Thrower''': Essentially identical to the High Elf counterpart (in spite of the significantly more badass name), the Reaper is likewise probably not going to be winning any prizes for the best artillery piece. Alright, it does hit a bit harder and has a smidge less range, but this is not something people would notice much in most situations. Nevertheless, it remains a useful and versatile addition to a Dark Elf army. Just don't go in expecting a WMD. Like the repeater, they possess two firing modes and can be particularly useful for sniping enemy artillery. In short a decent, if not exactly exceptional, artillery unit.
*'''Bloodwrack Shrine (DLC)''': A Bloodwrack Medusa with a Go-Cart. Despite being described as a chariot don't use it as such, it's too slow to pass through a unit. Use it more like a Mortis Engine or Grail Relique, and you'll find it's a surprisingly versatile unit with support ability, decent melee stats, and even a ranged attack. Provides +7 MA and -7 MD to nearby allies/enemies respectively. Similar in purpose to the high elf frost Phoenix but offensive. Quite effective if you want your melee units buffed. Plus ok ranged damage from the Medusa herself.

===Monsters===
*'''Harpies''': Harpies fulfill essentially the same role as war hound and fell bat units. They're intended to be fast-moving harassers best used to hunt down or disrupt enemy missile units and artillery crews. When used in their intended capacity they can get some work done, just don't expect them to do much against anything with actual staying power. Even some of the sturdier archer units can prove a bit too much for them. If you're up against an opponent with a heavy focus on ranged firepower they can be a valuable addition. However, sending them in unsupported against basically anything else is a good way to end up with a whole lot of dead bat-ladies. Rakarth makes then a lot better, giving them bonus Melee Attack as well as a smidge of AP damage.
**'''The Crows of Khaine (ROR)''': Basically Harpies with Fear and the ability to regenerate when fighting. Surprisingly tanky because of it, just watch out for units that counter them.
*'''Feral Manticore''': Surprisingly good backline harasser. Manticores make Harpies pretty much obsolete and make for great mid-tier carnage against everything that doesn't have a bonus against large. They are very susceptible to Rampage, so take care of them. Manticores are best taken in groups of 2-4 in order to kill targets fast enough that they don’t die themselves. Paired with a flying master they can make a fast deadly Air Force for cheap which can act as a single unit killing gank squad. Can usually staggerlock foot heroes. And usually outfight other aerial units short of dragons or heroes.
*'''War Hydra''': One of your standout units, there are lots of nasty surprises with the Hydra, which acts as your standard frontline melee monster. One of its core features is its flexibility; it's effective against a lot of targets and can reliably hunt down infantry thanks to its speed and breath attack. It tends to get the short end of the stick against other monsters and anti large. In campaign you can get these 25% cheaper from a klar karond building. Super cheap and easy to spam regenerating monster.
**'''The Chill of Sontar (ROR)''' : Same regenerating monstery goodness as a normal hydra, though it replaces its flaming breath in exchange for one that slows down whatever it hits.
*'''Kharibdyss (DLC)''' : OMNOMNOMNOM. A Hydra on steroids, trades the regeneration factor and flaming breath for poisoned attacks, anti-large, and lots of AP goodness. Works best against armoured monsters, so if the enemy brings big scary beasts it can go toe to toe. If you want to blend infantry though, you’re better off with the Hydra.
*'''Bloodwrack Medusa (DLC)''': Combination monster and short rate direct fire artillery. Can delete chunks of elite infantry very quickly. These snake waifus have really great utility, but need to be micro'd well to reap the rewards. They aren't like most monsters in the game, so don't send them into melee and forget about them. Their speed, powerful ranged attack, mass and charge bonus means that you should be using them almost like a chariot. Have them blast infantry from range, charge into melee for a short time, and then escape to do it all over again. Got a pretty decent buff to their melee stats in Immortal empires to make them a more well rounded pick.
**'''The Siren of Red Ruin (ROR)''' : Same as a normal Medusa, but gains a AOE ability that causes moderate damage to all enemies around her.
*'''Black Dragon''' : Evil Dragonny Goodness. Roughly equivalent to a moon dragon in terms of killyness and retains the devastating breath attack, high mass, and good mobility that other dragons have. More difficult to use than high/wood elf dragons dark elves don't have the lores of magic to heal it.

===Rakarth Campaign Units===
*'''Feral Cold Ones''' :
*'''Explosive Squig''' :
*'''Giant Wolves''' :
*'''Sabretusk Pack''' :
*'''Feral Bears''' :
*'''Feral Mammoth''' :
*'''Feral Stegadon''' :
*'''Feral Carnosaur''' :

==Tactics==
===Multiplayer Strategies===
Long, Long ago in the distant times of 2017 Dark Elves where one of the top factions in the game with their massive amount of AP, powerful Lords and flexible army. Unfortunately after years of being beaten with the Nerf Bat they have fallen from grace. As of the Twisted and the Twilight patch they are considered low tier they really only have one viable tactic, relying on Scourgerunners and Crossbow Dark Riders. Now just because they are considered low tier doesn't mean you can't win with them as they still have some favorable match ups. As of right now, you are a bit of a one trick pony so you may have to get creative.

*'''Beastmen''':
*'''Bretonnia''':
*'''Chaos Daemons''':
*'''Chaos Warriors''': Chaos Warriors are slow as hell and very vulnerable to anti-armor.
*'''Dark Elves''': Since Murderous Prowess cares about kills and not whose side they're on it's going to trigger roughly at the same time for both factions.
*'''Dwarfs''': You have the heavy AP to pierce your opponent's stunties. Unfortunately, they have the firepower to shut down a lot of your ranged units before you can get close enough to return the favor.
*'''Empire''':
*'''Grand Cathay''':
*'''Greenskins''':
*'''High Elves''':
*'''Khorne''':
*'''Kislev''':
*'''Lizardmen''': This is one of the matchups in which you shine. All their armored dinosaurs are extremely vulnerable to your wide selection of AP troops, with a special shoutout to Dark Shards and Shades. Lizardmen lack missile infantry beyond their rather frail Skink Skirmishers, though their Chameleon Skinks will prove particularly annoying due to their missile resist and loose formations. Scourgerunner Chariots will run circles around the Lizardmen and, with proper positioning, can easily slip around their screening units to chunk the bigger Artillery Stegadons/Bastilodons that could potentially retaliate against your ranged forces. Try to kite them as much as you can, whittle down their frontline before sending in your Executioners and Blackguard to clean up.
*'''Norsca''':
*'''Nurgle''':
*'''Skaven''':
*'''Slaanesh''':
*'''Tomb Kings''':
*'''Tzeentch''':
*'''Vampire Coast''':
*'''Vampire Counts''':
*'''Wood Elves''':

===Campaign Strategies===
Focus on economy in a few good provinces with 4 cities (Hag Graef, Naggarond, Ghrond, Quintex, Har Ganeth, etc) put income, slave pens, and then black roads or special resources on every city/town. Then put all slaves here. Add 3 or 4 masters to reduce slave decline to zero and you have the strongest, easiest, and fastest to grow economy in the game bar none. Can field near unlimited armies of doom stacks. There you go, you win.

Actually, the most prosperous slave province for the Dark Elves is Yvresse owing to the unique Tower of the Warden building which generates 50 gold per 100 slaves. With a maximum slaveholding capacity of 15500 slaves, combined with the multiplicative effect of slaves on base province income and the ability to stack slave income multipliers through heroes that are essentially unlimited, it surpasses any Druchii province in gold-generating potential. Proving, once again, that Naggarond sucks. This wealth is also why it is viable for certain Dark Elf factions to abandon their starting capitals and conquer Ulthuan instead.- while that may be more profitable technically, it’s irrelevant. Any proper slave strategy give’s effectively unlimited money even in just the dark elf lands. Conquer Ulthuan first or not, either way you won’t need for money with even a little strategy.

Unfortunately they heavily nerfed the Slave system in immortal empires, the jury is out still on how good their economy is after the massive nerf, you now have to spend slaves as a global resource on your economic buildings and commandment. Will update as we find out how bad the nerf is but its already clear its going to be dramatically weaker than before. After playing 80 turns I can confirm the economy is still strong as long as you rapidly expand and keep fighting but slaves decline possibly too fast from buildings, and slave pens aren't that useful, all they do is increase capacity and give a tiny 5 slave per turn income, whereas a leveled economy building consumes 40 per turn, so only constant fighting and sacking will be able to keep your slave population up. The public order penalties for slaves are basically gone now. assassins can now generate 10 slaves per turn by staying in your provinces instead of boosting slave income, but that is a waste of them. In general all the buildings or skills which give slaves per turn are completely useless, they are way too weak to keep up with the cost of buildings, you either have to constantly sack other countries or be continuously conquering territory.
Dont Bother with Slave markets or any building that give slaves per turn, the rate of gain can never keep up with the consumption and increasing slave capacity is useless. Having a large stockpile of slaves is actually more or less pointless, you only need 150 slaves to trigger the bonus income at the end of your turn and you dont get any meaningful bonuses for having lots of slaves. you can have a slave consumption of 1000-2000 per turn and all you need to do is get above 150 remaining after the decline before the end of each turn and there is no downside. So slave markets and any special buildings that increase capacity or give a few slaves per turn should just be skipped, this is bad design by CA but it at least frees up your building slots. overall the dark elf income is still extremely strong it just not as strong as before. Unfortunately once your empire gets large enough it will become almost impossible to trigger the bonus income because you can easily end up with -4000-5000 slaves per turn which will be impossible to keep up each turn. Fundamentally as your empire grows amounts of slaves decline per turn increase quickly but your ability to capture slaves remains largely fixed, unless you can simultaneous sack 4-5 provinces a turn (every single turn) it will be impossible to keep up slaves late game, and the slave buildings do nothing to help this. Unfortunately I feel like they failed to playtest the new mechanic adequately as it becomes almost completely useless late game.

===Campaign Specific===

====Malekith====

*'''Beware Hellebron''': Malekith's campaign is generally pretty easy (and very fun!), but it can really depend on what Hellebron does at the start. Usually you can get pretty powerful early, build up diplomatic relations and just confederate her, but it's not unknown for her to just straight up declare war on you, which can really send your campaign down shit swamp. Furthermore, she can actually out-recruit you, making it next to impossible to confederate her. One strategy is to just rush to Har Ganeth immediately after securing Naggarond, while another is trying to out-recruit her in turn. Just ignoring her CAN be fine, but Har Ganeth is a good early game province, and you don't want to risk a civil war with her.

*'''Don't spend too long in Naggaroth''': Look, I get it, who doesn't want to rule a city made entirely out of towers that look like spiky black dildos? But conquering Ulthuan as Malekith can and should be done fairly early in the game, because it takes a loooonnnggg time to take over all those provinces settlement-by-settlement. You definitely want to get Ulthuan conquered before the chaos invasion rolls in, as they basically spawn right on top of Naggarond, and constantly fighting them until someone knocks off Archaon on the other side of the map can be a huge pain.

*'''Tyrant is the way to go''': Malekith has OPTIONS and almost all of them are good, but if it's your first campaign, Tyrant can really bring your slave economy to the next level. More money -> more stacks -> Druchii supremacy, baby!

====Morathi====
*'''The start. Oh god, the start''': Yeahhh, there's no getting around it. Morathi's start is a bitch and a half (kind of like Morathi herself!). She's surrounded by enemies who hate her guts, and one mistake here can spell doom for your campaign. Here's the thing though: she actually has all the tools she needs to deal with it (She's an incredibly strong legendary lord, and tier 1 Dark Elf units like bleakswords and darkshards are awesome even into the late game), it can just be tough learning the first few times around. You need to be EXTREMELY aggressive in consolidating your starting province, as the Ss'ildra Tor can just out-recruit you if you leave them alone long enough. Once you do that and deal with Alith Anar though, everything gets easier so have faith!

This is valid for Mortal Empires, your start in Immortal Empires is actually pretty chill. You may even have the chance to ally with Mazdamundi pretty early on if you fight the minor Skavens on the west and gift the frog some cities. Alith Anar also fucked off up north so you can consolidate your starting provinces and build up easily before starting to rape Ulthuan.

*'''You can use her in melee!''' A mistake I see a lot of players make is using Morathi as you'd use a typical caster lord, i.e. keeping them at a distance and shying away from any fight. If you do this though, you aren't getting her full value. Her unique weapon combined with one of her unique skills (Enchanting Beauty) can lower enemy melee attack by 18 and defence by 9 JUST FOR BEING NEAR HER. She can basically use her darksword as a strap-on to peg enemy melee stats. Be careful how you use her, because of course she isnt going to outduel dedicated melee combatant characters, but these passive abilities combined with lore of shadows make her great for absolutely dumpstering enemies that your units are having a tough time dealing with.

====Hellebron====
*'''Unpaid interns''': Hellebron requires a constant influx of slaves to keep active, which means that you are going to have to be ultra aggressive throughout your campaign, more so than other druchii factions who can just sit back and let their slaves do all their work for them.

*'''Malekith''': It's harder (though not impossible!) to confederate Naggarond than vice-versa, and pissing off Malekith can really become a problem, since he usually skyrockets to strength rank 1 after turn 20 or 30. One strategy is just to leave for Ulthuan right away, but this can be very challenging. Rushing Naggarond is also an option, but you can also ally with them, which is what I'd recommend for less experienced players.

*'''Blood Fleets suckkkk''': Remember how the Greenskins WAAGGHH worked before their update? Theoretically it was a way to encourage aggressiveness and movement on the campaign map. How it actually worked was that they'd spawn AI controlled armies that would allahu-akbar themselves upon the nearest settlement. Wellll, Hellebron's voyages basically have the same idea and it's honestly worse because you can't choose where they spawn. Just don't rely on them to do any heavy lifting.
====Lokhir====
*'''Pillaging the East:''' In Immortal Empires, Lokhir now starts on the Cathayan edge of the map, just south of Villitc, seperated by an impassable (to you of all people) river, and the Great Bastion to the West. The entire Eastern half of Cathay is full of rivers and deltas so you can raid deeper into Cathay.
**'''Black Arks are "free:"''' Lokhir doesnt need to sacrifice to Mathlann to start a Black Ark in IE, so combine that with their absolute loyalty, cheap upkeep, and the many rivers of Cathay, you'll be taking a few of these.
*'''The Blender King''': Ah, Lustria. Let's see, the lizards hate you because they don't want a dark elf caravan on their land. Teclis hates you because he doesn't like your stupid face, the Dwarfs still bear a grudge, and Harkon hates you for... stealing all his treasure, I guess? Packing up and leaving for Ulthuan on turn 1 can actually be a pretty viable strategy here. Lustria-bowl honestly sucks for you, but if you're intent on doing it, allying with the rats can secure your western border, and allow you to focus on Teclis at the start, which takes one of the major pressures off your campaign.
*'''The Black Ark King''': Black Arks are awesome and should be your main method of recruiting units to your armies, especially in the early game. BUILD THE GROWTH BUILDING FIRST! You'll get to those higher tiers so much faster, and can laugh over the corpses of your enemies when your tier 5 dread knights are running over red-crested skinks.

*'''What to do with Karond Kar?''': Lokhir's campaign is pretty weird, because his unique item requires taking over the city of Karond Kar which is wayyyy in the middle of assfuck nowhere compared to where you start. You don't really want to manage a split empire in Warhammer 2, so taking Karond Kar by force isn't really advisable. Luckily, he now has a quest line that allows him to confederate Karond Kar remotely. I'd recommend confederating with them, and then just selling all the buildings and abandoning the province. Keeping it generally means dealing with High elf DEATHstacks every two turns, along with Wood Elves and Taurox if he's still alive which will really make you want to deepthroat a cactus.

====Malus Darkblade====
Malus is a fan-favorite character, and CA honestly did him pretty dirty, which is kind of upsetting. His campaign is very difficult especially at the start, and he slightly boosts cold one knights, a notoriously cost-inefficient unit. He is a monster on the battlefield, but ''it's pretty much always better to play as another dark elf faction and confederate him'', since he gets all his battlefield strengths and none of the weaknesses. If you insist on playing his campaign though, keep these tips in mind:
*'''SNIKCH MUST DIE!''': Snikch must die unless you like having 30 million filthy rats coming over the border to take your land and deflower your sorceresses (oh, who are we kidding? There’s no such thing as a virgin sorceress, they literally worship the goddess of massive orgies). Sometimes you can even make a non-aggression pact with Imrik to focus on Snikch which I definitely recommend. After killing him, you can slow down a little, and pick off your enemies one-by-one, but it's an absolute miserable campaign experience if you allow Snikch to get his shit together.

*'''Black Arks are essential''': You start with a Black Ark and you NEED it to get past Malus' cancerous early game. You probably aren't going to have the money to spend on potions at the start, which means your troops will replenish at the speed of a glacier. A Black Ark can help a lot with this problem, and can provide a good base to recruit from.

*'''Keep your alliance with Malekith going''': Keeping your alliance with Malekith alive allows you to cheese the 'Tz'arkans whispers' mechanic a little bit, since the unique quests might be to declare war on a faction you don't care about halfway across the map. The rewards from these missions can be quite powerful, so complete as many as you can.

====Rakarth====
*'''Ulthuan''': Rakarth's starting place in Albion offers him a variety of options in theory. however, you're kind of forced into attacking Ulthuan which sucks. Once they discover you (which happens very early in the game), they will start sending stack after stack after you, and trying to expand eastward or southward just becomes unviable. Sure, Morathi can sometimes get super aggressive and start conquering Ulthuan early taking some of the pressure off you, but it's a gamble that sometimes doesn't pay off.

*'''Rakarth only for beastpen armies''': Beast pens areeee... interesting? The thing is, the only boosts to monstrous units from the beast pens come from Rakarth's army skills. For your generic lords, it's better to stick to your tried and true druchii units, unless you're in an emergency and need units fast.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves

2023-02-18T23:47:20Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:A481:3CCF:B3AD:FB9: /* Pros */

{{Topquote|Skulls for Khaine! Blood for Khaine!|Game battle chant for Dark Elves. [[Khorne|Why does it sound familiar...]]}}
This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the Dark Elves.

==Why Play Dark Elves==
*Because you'd like your elves to take their arrogance to the next level and just start murdering people for the crime of not being elves.
*Because you believe that everything looks roughly 1000 times better when covered in spikes.
*Because you enjoy the inherent power fantasy that comes from playing a big spiky asshole out to conquer and enslave.
*You like a versatile unit roster with some serious killing power.
*Because being the good guy is just so boring sometimes.

===Pros===
*'''Flexibility''': One of the Druchii's biggest strengths that really can't be understated. While a lot of other factions are forced into a single tactic, the Druchii have more battlefield options than pretty much any other faction in the game, even the High Elves. While they are best at offense thanks to Murderous Prowess, their wide selection of unique units and powerful characters means they can also play defense, kite, use a heavy monster focus, combined arms, and all-around whatever tactic you can think of.
*'''AP for Days''': If you're playing Dark Elves and having a hard time with armoured troops, you're playing them wrong. A large chunk of the roster has majority AP damage, so armor should be the least of your concerns.
*'''Solid Range''': While you may not be the shootiest of factions, the Dark Elves are more than capable. They are fully capable of melting enemy units before they close to melee with the right build.
*'''Anti-large''': The Druchii are renowned for their beast-hunting prowess, and it shows in the game. Most of your unit archetypes have at least one solid anti-large option, whether it be monsters, infantry, or chariots.
*'''Mobility''': You're not as good at it as the Asrai, but Dark Elves have some of the best light cav and missile chariots in the game, if not ''the'' best. Combine that with infantry like Witch Elves and Sisters of Slaughter, and you are able to get around the battlefield pretty damn fast. Light Cav tactics are a favorite among Dark Elf players.
*'''Powerful Lords''': When it comes to lord options, you are spoiled for choice. Most of their lords are at the very least decent and some like Malekith can carry an entire army to victory if given the time.
*'''Strong Heroes''': While you aren't quite the Vampire Counts when it comes to character prowess, your heroes are still very, very good. Death Hags and Masters in particular provide great utility on the battlefield on top of powerful melee stats, and Sorceresses, like all elven casters, are a hero you really can't go wrong with.
*'''Strong Economy''': Your economy is god-tier, and this is even before you bring in trade. Raking in high numbers of slaves all but guarantees that your cash flow reaches insane levels which you can further boost by abusing the Master hero who reduces Slave decay to the point that they literally cannot decay anymore. Combine this with the extremely generous discounts on Black Arks and your pockets will never be empty again.
*'''Naval Supremacy''': An often overlooked, but still important feature is that your Black Arks can dominate the oceans of the world and keeping your homeland secure from any threats. The only faction that rivals your naval power are (big surprise here) the Vampire Coast.

===Cons===
*'''Frail''': Okay, so you don't have it as bad as the Wood Elves, since many of your units are bringing actual armor to the fight, but you're still a glass cannon rush faction. Running into a faction that can simply outlast your burst of melee damage once Murderous Prowess proccs, can and will give you a lot of trouble.
*'''Limited Range''': Their ranged units aren't bad, in fact, Darkshards and Shades are extremely good, but they don't shoot very far. Even some gunpowder units will outrange you, and most factions will get one or two shots off before you get in position.
*'''Lack of Healing''': You're the only Elven faction with no multi-target healing. The only thing you have is Soul Stealer, which only heals the caster. Combine this with your low health pools, and your units will die a lot faster than their tanky statline might lead you to believe.
*'''Expensive''': Not as much as High Elves, but still pretty pricey. Expect to be outnumbered most of the time.
*'''Poor Public Order''': Being the quarrelsome lot that they are, Dark Elves suffer from a multitude of public order penalties (especially once you have a lot of slaves) and don't have a lot of tools to counter them; managing it can quickly devolve into a frantic nightmare, particularly on high difficulties.
*'''No Encampments''': If you are away from your territory, you can't recruit new guys while encamping. This can be offset somewhat with Black Arks, though that's not an option in regions far from the coast.
*'''Temperamental Economy''': You make a ton of money when your slave count is high, but your income will nosedive if you go a couple turns without winning battles. This problem is exacerbated in Immortal Empires where slave decline is % based across your entire empire. True to lore, your economy will crumble the moment you run out of enemies.
*'''DLC''': Scourgerunners and Supreme Sorceresses are some of your best units. They also cost extra. As with most Non DLC factions, you will need to pay extra money to be consistent in multiplayer

==Universal Traits==
*'''Murderous Prowess''': A passive, army-wide ability that gives all units on the map considerable offensive bonuses after you hit a certain threshold of kills (usually around 30-50% of the enemy force). Hard to time right and difficult to control, but extremely effective regardless. Seeing your Corsairs, Shades, and whatnot go into overdrive for 90 seconds is a scary and satisfying spectacle to behold. For a few units, the effect lasts 120 seconds instead of 90. Good in WH2, but terrifying in WH3 where murderous prowess also regenerates 1% vigor per second. Watch your entire army get a second wind and go from exhausted to fresh when it triggers.
*'''Slaves''': You get slaves by raiding, winning battles, and looting/sacking settlements. Slaves go to your cities to do the crapwork and are gradually worked to death turn by turn. The Druchii can make a hell of a lot of money by capturing slaves. However the more slaves you've got the harder it is to control them, which leads to unrest.
*'''Black Arks''': A special kind of campaign unit that acts as one of the two true "navies" in the entire game, Black Arks can only exist on the water but they are essentially floating garrisoned cities that can also let your other armies recruit and exchange from them. A powerful incentive for any Druchii player to adopt the raiding lifestyle and an excellent tool for mobile defence across Naggaroth's extensive coastline.

==Lords==

===Legendary Lords===
*'''[[Malekith]]''': Warhammer's rendition of Darth Vader with severe mummy issues arrived on the scene, and he doesn't mess around. This dude is among ''the'' best legendary lords in the game bar none. A monster of a Hybrid LL, he is everything the likes of Azhag the Slaughterer and Arkhan the Black wish they could be. He punches hard, gets a Dragon relatively early on and his spellcasting doesn't disappoint either. His economy buffs are ridiculously strong, boosting an already ridiculous economy. His buffs to Black Guard and Dragons are also very useful. You can hardly go wrong with Malekith.
*'''[[Morathi]]''' : Morathi is a ''very'' weird animal (There's gotta be a sex joke in here somewhere). Unlike many other Legendary Lords, her skill tree is the only one in the game where you actually get to make meaningful choices, as she can alternate between ridiculously powerful spellcasting and good backline harasser, both paths are viable. What sets her apart from other caster lords as her spellcasting is concerned is that, like Teclis, she doesn't specialize in single lore and her pool of spells draws from the Lores of Dark, Death, and Shadows and favors all-out offensive spells from all of them. Arguably the second-best Caster Lord in the game, just behind Teclis. Unfortunately her campaign mechanics are badly broken, she has to spread corruption but doesn't get public order benefits from it, only downsides. This makes her campaign more difficult than you'd expect simply due to serous public order issues. They even nerfed the building in quintex that made the public order manageable for no apparent reason. With Immortal empire's she now spreads Slaanesh corruption and her public order issues have been fixed, she can also recruit both regular and exalted daemonettes from her public order building. which is a nice step in the right direction. They forgot to make them affected by her red skill/techs as usual though. Honestly she is just begging for a dedicated rework to make her into a hybrid faction at this point, it would be awesome to see a true cult of Slaanesh faction. I dont know why they didn't give her the cultist of Slaanesh hero given that they are literally dark elf cultists. They did unfortunately significantly nerf her enchanting beauty and her weapons debuff abilities so she cant tank melee stats into the ground just by existing anymore, despite other lords like demon princes having aura's of similar power in campaign. Bizarrely they also removed her -50% upkeep for hero's, I guess someone was convinced her faction was too good, despite none of it being super strong or unique (vampires get -50% hero upkeep and way more from bloodlines).
*'''[[Hellebron]] (DLC)''' : Hellebron exists in her own little niche. Barely armored like Witch Elves, but really, really bloody fast and a buffmachine for your already busted murdermachine frontline. She excels in prolonged combat, preferably against lightly armored chaff and will rack a high kill count very quickly but will cave against elite units and other single entity monsters or characters.
: Get a unique campaign mechanic of her vitality slowly draining way and have to progressively sacrifice more slaves during the Death Night to keep the faction buffed instead of Debuffed, but also create a new stack of frenzied elves to attack [[Ulthwe]].
*'''[[Lokhir Fellheart]] (FLC)''' : Lord of the [[Black Ark]]s. He is a cheaper blender lord in comparison to Hellebron, being a well-armored Infantry blender while on foot like a Vlad von Carstein without magic. CA also gave him his own Dragon mount which only make him better than a Dread Lord on dragon when he pops his attack buffs.
:the Drukii pirate lord starts in the thunder dome that is Lustria but can have a lot of freedom by starting with a middle settlement that is a Black Ark.
*'''[[Malus Darkblade]] (DLC)''': an unremarkable lord until he lets the daemon take over, and then he is a melee powerhouse. Using Malus in combat is like burning a candle wick, his Tz'arkan form and abilities are powerful but drain his hit points so know when he should be in daemon or Malus mode. He does have Resistance and Healing in combat so he won't burn out as fast in a fight. Switching to daemon mode restores all his health and vigor and makes him unbreakable so it's best to wait until the last moment before switching.
:in campaign his battle with his inner deamon is a game mechanic, with having a possession meeter, giving you greater campaign bonuses while Malus is mostly in control, but as Tz'arkan slowly takes over, he gains greater battle prowess but at the cost of large penalties to your empire. You control the possession by drinking a potion that gets progressively more expensive until you finish his storyline to make it free. Tz'arkan will also offer an additional quest to increase the possession but with very good payoffs. For your start position, you get a Black ark in the Southern Land, in addition, have your traditional Drukii hold, [[Hag Graef]], that you can sell for a lot of money but have to listen to [[Malekith]] (which will be an AI) or make it harder by having to run and protect the dame place yourself while also declaring on the big cheese. -disappointingly he is actually more effective if you confederate him then if you play as him, confederated he gets the benefits of full possession with no downsides. making him insanely tanky. His faction benefits are actually more of a hassle than they are helpful.
*'''Rakarth (FLC)''' Your man you pick if you want to go for a full monster build. he comes with heavy armor and Anti Large to deal with enemy big monsters while also providing buffs to his own beasties. He will also have a Scourgerunner for skirmishing, a Manticore and a Dragon for a straight up brawl. He serves as your best counter to mounters, with his whip being able to strip Fear and Terror from monsters (leaving said monsters susceptible to fear and terror) and armor that gives him buffs as enemy monsters are around him. He's also being voiced by [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Ramsay Bolton]].

===Generic Lords===
*'''Dread Lord (Melee & Ranged)''': Your two generic lord with one focused on melee and has a shield while the other is a hybrid that focuses on shooting. In multiplayer, their ability change to help them buff their respective areas, Sword & Shield having buffs to melee attacks and debuffing enemy damage, while Sword & Crossbow supports other crossbows unit while also being a sniper, and gives a burst bonus to Ld. Note that the lords have almost identical melee stats once you put them on a black dragon and the melee lord looses her shield when mounted on one while the ranged lord keeps his ranged weapon. at high levels i cant see much reason to use the melee version instead but she will be better in melee until they get the dragon.
*'''Supreme Sorceress (DLC)''': Makes a Sorceress as a lord for money-saving cost. Somewhat feeble in combat until she levels up enough to get a black dragon mount, after which she fights better than many dedicated melee lords. Student of the Dark Tower is an amazing skill, providing lower cooldowns, reserves, and miscast reduction all in one. These girls are pretty much your best generic lord in a faction with already pretty strong lords.
*'''High Beastmaster (DLC)''': Your monster hunter Lord. Though he looks like a chronic masturbator, he can fill a surprising amount of battlefield roles. Not as tanky in melee as a Dread Lord but deals a good amount of anti-large damage in addition to his burst of additional weapon strength. Also is supportive by giving a single unit a big buff as they charge into melee (don't yet specify anything except can't be used on characters, so go crazy on an Executioners charge). Can Come on a Scouregrunner Chariot(roll though everyone while armed with a ballast) or ride a Manticore which has proven to be cost-effective flying monsters. Can give a big boost to cold ones and monsters in campaign as well as recruiting them faster. If running cavalry or monster stacks, likely your best option. The big MA/MD/ and charge boost they give colds ones really makes them preform better.

==Heroes==
*'''Death Hag''' : Single-entity Witch Elves dialed up to 11. Death Hags excel as extremely vicious infantry blenders with a lot of speed of behind them and, as an added bonus, a variety of buff abilities that make them even deadlier. They tend to get the shorter end of the stick against dedicated duelist characters and their only mount option consists of the Cauldron of Blood, which, to be frank, is a waste, since it sacrifices offensive power and speed for more durability, something that Death Hags with their high Melee Defense don't really need. - I’m not sure what the above was talking about, death hags kinda suck on foot like most foot heroes, the mount is good vs infantry and makes them actually pretty tough plus buffs nearby units. Always mount in campaign, foot may have more use in multiplayer I guess.
*'''Sorceress''' : Caster bitches in the flavours of Death, Dark, Shadows, Beasts, and Fire. Better than most other caster types, and Morathi has some great factionwide buffs for them
*'''Khainite Assassin''' : Good on campaign map, terrible in an actual fight. To expand, Khainite Assassins get high assassination chance, and are really useful at deleting enemy characters from the game. This is exacerbated by some good hero action buffs from techs, and from a few lord skills. Their passive ability increases the amount of slave income in the province they are in, which sounds useful on paper, but isn't really needed since Dark Elves make all the money they could ever want after a while. Their 'scavenge' ability can help armies pick up more money in the early game as well. In battle, they're a dedicated character duelist meant to sneak around the back line with their vanguard and stalk, and kill enemy high-value stuff with a powerful short-ranged missile attack and pretty good melee stats. Honestly though, in melee they kind of underperform vs other duelists, and they're pretty squishy on top of it all. Their ranged attack is... fine, I guess? But it's super slow to reload and very short ranged. This is on top of the fact that they DON'T GET A MOUNT which really limits their mobility, and therefore their usefulness in battle. Seriously, these guys are tailor made to be flying around on manticores or something! Even a freaking horse would increase their usefulness incredibly. As it is, they'll probably get surrounded and killed off pretty quickly. Death Hags and Masters are really, really good heroes, and will fill every battlefield role that you could want, while Sorceresses and your regular missile units can provide crazy ranged utility. Keep these guys for killing off enemy heroes and scouting other provinces on the campaign map.
*'''Master (DLC)''' : Tyrants in Training who never graduate in game to Dreadlords :(. Masters are your tanky Dark Elf hero. You can’t really overuse these, they are amazing. Ap anti large heavily armored high stat combat monsters with great mount options, the guardian skill, easy recruitment from a tier 3 building, the ability to reduce slave decline to zero if stacked, access to martial names of power granting incredibly powerful bonuses, easy to recruit at level 9 and up in any 4 city province. A doom stack of these with the regeneration or hunger/frenzy skill name of power and access to the extra melee attack army wide or leadership reduction traits is probably the campaigns deadliest hero doomstack, rivaling or beating Isabella vampire stacks or lizardmen hero spam. Really, really good heroes. And easier to spam then any comparable hero. Recommend cold one for ground duty (extra armor and ap) or Pegasus for flying (fast and flying with good charge but no shield). Foot is ok too but generally mounts are more than worth it for mobility alone. Immortal empires removed their role in the slave mechanic but they are still extremely stong melee hero's, probably use them in your armies exclusively now.

==Units==

===Infantry===

*'''Dreadspears''': Your most basic spearmen unit in the DE roster. They're... alright? They lack an offensive punch and High Elf Spearman performs better at the job they are supposed to be doing, being to hold the line to stop enemy cavalry punching through to your precious archers. They work fine in the early game, as well as being cheap, but don't rely on them for too long. stats are even better with Immortal empires now.
**'''The Hellebronai (RoR)''': Dreadspears that are a bit better in general with poison attacks.
*'''Bleakswords''': The offensive counterpart to Dreadspears. With the release of immortal empires they are now surprisingly very solid and killy basic infantry, there's a lot more reason to use them over spears now and they are going to be a very cost effective chaff unit in both multiplayer and campaign.
*'''Black Ark Corsairs''' : ...These guys. Oh, these guys. Frail as all hell, but worth it. Corsairs should make up the majority of melee troops of your midgame armies as soon as they become available. Their raw damage output as well as their armour (having a value of 90, putting them on the same level as dwarf warriors!) makes them a solid frontline and they will cut down all basic infantry used against them with ease and surprising speed. Their easy availability combined with a reasonable price make sure they are always a good choice, especially against horde-centric factions. One glaring weakness is their lack of AP damage. - whoever wrote the above likes corsairs way too much, they’re good but non synergistic with usual dark elf campaign strategies of crossbow spam. And they aren’t worth using after the early game. You can honestly never use them and just go dreadspears/bleakswords and darkshards and usually do better in the early campaign. I hear they are nice in multiplayer, but campaign wise meh.
*'''[[Witch Elves]]''': Talk about glass cannons, Witch Elves are a really weird bunch. They have no armour, but (try to) compensate for this with 20% physical resistance and a 5% ward save after you research technologies. In exchange, they excel in melee attack and apply debuffs to enemy forces attacked by them. The debuff in itself is very unique, as it not only debuffs enemy melee stats but also sends them on a rampage; causing them to stay way longer in a fight which they otherwise would be comfortable with. This is especially useful against all elven factions, since you can lure their expensive specialized elite tropps in matchups that they are not equipped to deal with (i.e. Swordmasters against a Hydra or a Dragon) and ''reliably keep them there''. Well at least as long as your Witch Elves survive the encounter, which, given that their only defense is a meager 28 melee defense and a 5% ward save, might not be that long. no real reason to use them unless you just need/want the rampage ability. sisters of slaughter are much better.
**'''Sisters of Singing Doom (RoR)''' : Schizo witch elves with slightly improved melee stats, a steep cost markup, and fear/terror. Generally not worth it, they still cause rampage on hit which is the last thing you want when you're trying to scare a unit away. Save some money and bring vanilla witch elves if you want to rampage enemies or a manticore if you want to terror bomb them.
*'''Sisters of Slaughter (DLC)''': They wear even less clothes than Witch Elves do, yet are more resilient. Their extremely high melee defense and their 20% physical resistance make them surprisingly tough. As one of the few resilient Dark Elven melee units, their job is to hold the line and grind down other infantry where their poisoned attacks, melee defense, and bonus vs. infantry lets them reliably come out on top. In addition, they have a unique passive that boosts their melee defense and physical resist even more if they are losing their current encounter, which makes them surprisingly viable as a tarpit against enemies like black orks who would otherwise dumpster them. Competes with black guard as your best frontline infantry. Keep in mind that their high melee defense doesn't protect them from missiles or impact damage from enemies on the charge. Back them up with dreadspears or black guard so they don't become the red paintjob on an enemy chariot.
*'''Executioners''': The offensive counterpart to the Black Guards, your ol' reliable murderers of heavy armoured elite troops and anything in between. They won't last long, but kill everything in their path. Frail, especially against missiles, but as a Dark Elf player, you're used to that. I don’t recommend these, they’re fragile, slow and they have weirdly low melee stats compacted to your other elite units. You can replace these with cold one dread knights even. Seriously with the change to primal instincts dread knights have massively higher stats especially with beast master lords skills. And otherwise fill the exact same role but do it better and faster. they got a slight buff and immune to psych so that's something. if you insist on using them, the Name of power khaine marked gives them 15% ward save and reduced upkeep, which is actually very solid.
**'''Blades of the Blood Queen (RoR)''' : Gets frenzy + an aura that gives physical resistance to nearby heroes + lords. Very skippable since their stats are low for an elite infantry unit and your lord will probably be on a mobile mount instead of hiding with the infantry.
*'''Black Guard''': Extremely beefy, these are your dedicated elite line holders and monster slayers. Remember murderous prowess makes them into an absolute force of destruction. And they have very good stats, the only downside is knowing that they’ll never be as awesome as Phoenix guard. Even if they can be offensively much deadlier the survivability of Phoenix guard is insane. they received stat buffs and murderous mastery with immortal empires so are even better now.
*'''Daemonettes''': Exclusive to Morathi's campaign. basically way better witch elves for the same cost, but not effected by red skills or techs because they always forget to do that.
*'''Exalted Daemonettes''': Also exclusive to Morathi's campaign, actually a really good option, they are like way better executioners with no armor, hold the line with sisters of slaughter and flanking with these will be potentially extremely strong. throw in morathi's debuffs and a Bloodwrack shrine and you should destroy any infantry in the game frightfully quickly. Really you can argue that the dark elves much more well-rounded roster actually uses exalted daemonettes better than the Slaanesh factions.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''Darkshards''': Basic Dark Elf ranged unit and all and all pretty darn good for the entire game. Indirect fire with pretty good AP makes them very useful, especially when focusing on firing key targets into oblivion. For a little extra, you can get these guys with shields which makes them excellent in an arrow exchange, which is important given [[High Elves|who one of your biggest foes is]] always go shields.
**'''The Bolt-Fiends (ROR)''' : The cool thing about these guys is that they degrade and nullify shields.
*'''Black Ark Corsairs (Repeater Handbows)''': A mixed bag, making up for the relative lack of skirmish units in the Dark Elf roster. Surprisingly mobile and difficult to catch, their biggest strength is easily their flexibility. Nice vs skaven early on.
*'''Shades''': Don't let the low model count discourage you, Shades rank among the best Missile Troops in the game. The high rate of Fire, high damage output, and even decent in melee, especially with greatswords. Actually not really that much better than dark shards if you just use them as archers, much more expensive for only slightly better ranged performance. However if combined with a shadowdart name of power lord can be as good or better than sisters of avelorn. 210 or more range, crazy ap, and better in melee than the sisters by a large margin due to AP and anti infantry. Even with all that taken into account you need a specific name of power, some later technologies, and the red skill tree to make them as good/slightly better than the sisters. And they cost 50% more upkeep with great swords than sisters do. Which really just shows how op sisters are in campaign.

===Cavalry===
*'''Dark Riders''': Your extremely quick light cavalry, comparable to most other units of their class. One key feature is that they are actually fast enough to chase down most other missile cavalry. If your micromanagement skills hold up, Dark Riders can terrorize the enemy backline very efficiently and do so at the highest speed any base game cavalry unit offers, but they get vaporized the instant their charge bonus wears off, so will need to keep the cycle charges going. One of those units you should probably not use in campaign but can be good in multiplayer.
*'''Dark Riders (Crossbows)''': Ranged harassment cavalry. As using repeater Crossbows, they fire two shots of primarily AP damage. As always Useful to annoying poke an enemy to death but also those higher armor units that are normally resistant to those shenanigans. (most other factions only get close-range hand axes or more squisher handguns).
**'''The Raven Heralds (ROR)''': Rather distinct from their vanilla Dark Riders, these guys ride Dark Pegusii and can fly around the battlefield. Usually passed up for vanilla crossbow dark riders since the raven heralds have fewer models and vanilla dark riders already have the speed to stay out of trouble.
*'''Doomfire Warlocks (DLC)''': Really, really weird hybrid unit. In melee they have actually pretty good attack with magic and poison and charge, plus an aoe melee attack animation. They also have 40% physical resist to help keep them alive. One key advantage they have over comparable light to medium cavalry is their ability to fling around the Doombolt spell from the Lore of Dark and Soulblight from the Lord of Death as bound spells. A unit of these is pretty much always useful if nothing else, plus they look great. They lose access to their bound spells if they drop below 50% HP, so fire them off early so you don't lose them later.
**'''Slaanesh's Harvesters (ROR)''' : Doomfire warlocks with a slightly increased statline that replaces doombolt with soulstealer to drain the HP from single entities. While they're usable in campaign, they're completely unusable in multiplayer where they're more expensive than Grail Knights and Demigryphs.
*'''Cold One Knights''': they were considered bad because of rampage but primal instincts was reworked later in total warhammer 2 so that it only triggered at 20% health and then again for the third game its been changed and the rampage is gone completely, now primal instincts gives buffs to combat stats at low leadership. They are actually cost effective now. Took a long time to come into their own but it was worth the wait.
*'''Cold One Dread Knights''': they were considered bad because of rampage but primal instincts was reworked later in total warhammer 2 so that it only triggered at 20% health and then again for the third game its been changed and the rampage is gone completely, now primal instincts gives buffs to combat stats at low leadership. They are actually cost effective now. Took a long time to come into their own but it was worth the wait. The dread knights aren't going to be the go-to over the regular ones but they are a solid unit now.
**'''Knights of the Ebon Claw (ROR)''': What's this? Cold One Knights that don't spaz out.

===Chariots===
*'''Cold One Chariot''' : A chariot pulled by dinosaurs. They're pretty much meant to be your anti-infantry melee chariot, and they have ap and an ok charge bonus which is nice. They also have a small ranged attack, but don't go using them as a missile chariot, that's what Sourgerunners are for. These guys are overshadowed by Scourgerunners due to the sheer amount of utility and killing power the former brings to the table, but as a melee chariot they can be decent especially in Malekith's army.
*'''Scourgerunner Chariot''' : One of the best units in your roster, Scourgerunner Chariots are your jack of all trades chariot, that has a special boon in being on the very few ranged units in the game that get a bonus vs. large on their ranged attacks. Their key advantage is that they also move at Dark Rider speed, which makes them extremely difficult to catch or even hit, and in a pinch, they can even reliably dispatch basic missile troops and infantry, thanks to a bonus vs. infantry. Bring 3-4 of these guys and have them work as a team, and they can swing battles for you.
**'''The Ravagers of Rakarth (ROR)''' : A scourgerunner chariot with poisoned attacks and a persistent AOE ability that slows down all enemies around it. Get one if you plan to use multiple scourgerunners to delete isolated monsters/infantry.

===Artillery===
*'''Reaper Bolt Thrower''': Essentially identical to the High Elf counterpart (in spite of the significantly more badass name), the Reaper is likewise probably not going to be winning any prizes for the best artillery piece. Alright, it does hit a bit harder and has a smidge less range, but this is not something people would notice much in most situations. Nevertheless, it remains a useful and versatile addition to a Dark Elf army. Just don't go in expecting a WMD. Like the repeater, they possess two firing modes and can be particularly useful for sniping enemy artillery. In short a decent, if not exactly exceptional, artillery unit.
*'''Bloodwrack Shrine (DLC)''': A Bloodwrack Medusa with a Go-Cart. Despite being described as a chariot don't use it as such, it's too slow to pass through a unit. Use it more like a Mortis Engine or Grail Relique, and you'll find it's a surprisingly versatile unit with support ability, decent melee stats, and even a ranged attack. Provides +7 MA and -7 MD to nearby allies/enemies respectively. Similar in purpose to the high elf frost Phoenix but offensive. Quite effective if you want your melee units buffed. Plus ok ranged damage from the Medusa herself.

===Monsters===
*'''Harpies''': Harpies fulfill essentially the same role as war hound and fell bat units. They're intended to be fast-moving harassers best used to hunt down or disrupt enemy missile units and artillery crews. When used in their intended capacity they can get some work done, just don't expect them to do much against anything with actual staying power. Even some of the sturdier archer units can prove a bit too much for them. If you're up against an opponent with a heavy focus on ranged firepower they can be a valuable addition. However, sending them in unsupported against basically anything else is a good way to end up with a whole lot of dead bat-ladies. Rakarth makes then a lot better, giving them bonus Melee Attack as well as a smidge of AP damage.
**'''The Crows of Khaine (ROR)''': Basically Harpies with Fear and the ability to regenerate when fighting. Surprisingly tanky because of it, just watch out for units that counter them.
*'''Feral Manticore''': Surprisingly good backline harasser. Manticores make Harpies pretty much obsolete and make for great mid-tier carnage against everything that doesn't have a bonus against large. They are very susceptible to Rampage, so take care of them. Manticores are best taken in groups of 2-4 in order to kill targets fast enough that they don’t die themselves. Paired with a flying master they can make a fast deadly Air Force for cheap which can act as a single unit killing gank squad. Can usually staggerlock foot heroes. And usually outfight other aerial units short of dragons or heroes.
*'''War Hydra''': One of your standout units, there are lots of nasty surprises with the Hydra, which acts as your standard frontline melee monster. One of its core features is its flexibility; it's effective against a lot of targets and can reliably hunt down infantry thanks to its speed and breath attack. It tends to get the short end of the stick against other monsters and anti large. In campaign you can get these 25% cheaper from a klar karond building. Super cheap and easy to spam regenerating monster.
**'''The Chill of Sontar (ROR)''' : Same regenerating monstery goodness as a normal hydra, though it replaces its flaming breath in exchange for one that slows down whatever it hits.
*'''Kharibdyss (DLC)''' : OMNOMNOMNOM. A Hydra on steroids, trades the regeneration factor and flaming breath for poisoned attacks, anti-large, and lots of AP goodness. Works best against armoured monsters, so if the enemy brings big scary beasts it can go toe to toe. If you want to blend infantry though, you’re better off with the Hydra.
*'''Bloodwrack Medusa (DLC)''': Combination monster and short rate direct fire artillery. Can delete chunks of elite infantry very quickly. These snake waifus have really great utility, but need to be micro'd well to reap the rewards. They aren't like most monsters in the game, so don't send them into melee and forget about them. Their speed, powerful ranged attack, mass and charge bonus means that you should be using them almost like a chariot. Have them blast infantry from range, charge into melee for a short time, and then escape to do it all over again. Got a pretty decent buff to their melee stats in Immortal empires to make them a more well rounded pick.
**'''The Siren of Red Ruin (ROR)''' : Same as a normal Medusa, but gains a AOE ability that causes moderate damage to all enemies around her.
*'''Black Dragon''' : Evil Dragonny Goodness. Roughly equivalent to a moon dragon in terms of killyness and retains the devastating breath attack, high mass, and good mobility that other dragons have. More difficult to use than high/wood elf dragons dark elves don't have the lores of magic to heal it.

===Rakarth Campaign Units===
*'''Feral Cold Ones''' :
*'''Explosive Squig''' :
*'''Giant Wolves''' :
*'''Sabretusk Pack''' :
*'''Feral Bears''' :
*'''Feral Mammoth''' :
*'''Feral Stegadon''' :
*'''Feral Carnosaur''' :

==Tactics==
===Multiplayer Strategies===
Long, Long ago in the distant times of 2017 Dark Elves where one of the top factions in the game with their massive amount of AP, powerful Lords and flexible army. Unfortunately after years of being beaten with the Nerf Bat they have fallen from grace. As of the Twisted and the Twilight patch they are considered low tier they really only have one viable tactic, relying on Scourgerunners and Crossbow Dark Riders. Now just because they are considered low tier doesn't mean you can't win with them as they still have some favorable match ups. As of right now, you are a bit of a one trick pony so you may have to get creative.

*'''Beastmen''':
*'''Bretonnia''':
*'''Chaos Daemons''':
*'''Chaos Warriors''': Chaos Warriors are slow as hell and very vulnerable to anti-armor.
*'''Dark Elves''': Since Murderous Prowess cares about kills and not whose side they're on it's going to trigger roughly at the same time for both factions.
*'''Dwarfs''': You have the heavy AP to pierce your opponent's stunties. Unfortunately, they have the firepower to shut down a lot of your ranged units before you can get close enough to return the favor.
*'''Empire''':
*'''Grand Cathay''':
*'''Greenskins''':
*'''High Elves''':
*'''Khorne''':
*'''Kislev''':
*'''Lizardmen''': This is one of the matchups in which you shine. All their armored dinosaurs are extremely vulnerable to your wide selection of AP troops, with a special shoutout to Dark Shards and Shades. Lizardmen lack missile infantry beyond their rather frail Skink Skirmishers, though their Chameleon Skinks will prove particularly annoying due to their missile resist and loose formations. Scourgerunner Chariots will run circles around the Lizardmen and, with proper positioning, can easily slip around their screening units to chunk the bigger Artillery Stegadons/Bastilodons that could potentially retaliate against your ranged forces. Try to kite them as much as you can, whittle down their frontline before sending in your Executioners and Blackguard to clean up.
*'''Norsca''':
*'''Nurgle''':
*'''Skaven''':
*'''Slaanesh''':
*'''Tomb Kings''':
*'''Tzeentch''':
*'''Vampire Coast''':
*'''Vampire Counts''':
*'''Wood Elves''':

===Campaign Strategies===
Focus on economy in a few good provinces with 4 cities (Hag Graef, Naggarond, Ghrond, Quintex, Har Ganeth, etc) put income, slave pens, and then black roads or special resources on every city/town. Then put all slaves here. Add 3 or 4 masters to reduce slave decline to zero and you have the strongest, easiest, and fastest to grow economy in the game bar none. Can field near unlimited armies of doom stacks. There you go, you win.

Actually, the most prosperous slave province for the Dark Elves is Yvresse owing to the unique Tower of the Warden building which generates 50 gold per 100 slaves. With a maximum slaveholding capacity of 15500 slaves, combined with the multiplicative effect of slaves on base province income and the ability to stack slave income multipliers through heroes that are essentially unlimited, it surpasses any Druchii province in gold-generating potential. Proving, once again, that Naggarond sucks. This wealth is also why it is viable for certain Dark Elf factions to abandon their starting capitals and conquer Ulthuan instead.- while that may be more profitable technically, it’s irrelevant. Any proper slave strategy give’s effectively unlimited money even in just the dark elf lands. Conquer Ulthuan first or not, either way you won’t need for money with even a little strategy.

Unfortunately they heavily nerfed the Slave system in immortal empires, the jury is out still on how good their economy is after the massive nerf, you now have to spend slaves as a global resource on your economic buildings and commandment. Will update as we find out how bad the nerf is but its already clear its going to be dramatically weaker than before. After playing 80 turns I can confirm the economy is still strong as long as you rapidly expand and keep fighting but slaves decline possibly too fast from buildings, and slave pens aren't that useful, all they do is increase capacity and give a tiny 5 slave per turn income, whereas a leveled economy building consumes 40 per turn, so only constant fighting and sacking will be able to keep your slave population up. The public order penalties for slaves are basically gone now. assassins can now generate 10 slaves per turn by staying in your provinces instead of boosting slave income, but that is a waste of them. In general all the buildings or skills which give slaves per turn are completely useless, they are way too weak to keep up with the cost of buildings, you either have to constantly sack other countries or be continuously conquering territory.
Dont Bother with Slave markets or any building that give slaves per turn, the rate of gain can never keep up with the consumption and increasing slave capacity is useless. Having a large stockpile of slaves is actually more or less pointless, you only need 150 slaves to trigger the bonus income at the end of your turn and you dont get any meaningful bonuses for having lots of slaves. you can have a slave consumption of 1000-2000 per turn and all you need to do is get above 150 remaining after the decline before the end of each turn and there is no downside. So slave markets and any special buildings that increase capacity or give a few slaves per turn should just be skipped, this is bad design by CA but it at least frees up your building slots. overall the dark elf income is still extremely strong it just not as strong as before. Unfortunately once your empire gets large enough it will become almost impossible to trigger the bonus income because you can easily end up with -4000-5000 slaves per turn which will be impossible to keep up each turn. Fundamentally as your empire grows amounts of slaves decline per turn increase quickly but your ability to capture slaves remains largely fixed, unless you can simultaneous sack 4-5 provinces a turn (every single turn) it will be impossible to keep up slaves late game, and the slave buildings do nothing to help this. Unfortunately I feel like they failed to playtest the new mechanic adequately as it becomes almost completely useless late game.

===Campaign Specific===

====Malekith====

*'''Beware Hellebron''': Malekith's campaign is generally pretty easy (and very fun!), but it can really depend on what Hellebron does at the start. Usually you can get pretty powerful early, build up diplomatic relations and just confederate her, but it's not unknown for her to just straight up declare war on you, which can really send your campaign down shit swamp. Furthermore, she can actually out-recruit you, making it next to impossible to confederate her. One strategy is to just rush to Har Ganeth immediately after securing Naggarond, while another is trying to out-recruit her in turn. Just ignoring her CAN be fine, but Har Ganeth is a good early game province, and you don't want to risk a civil war with her.

*'''Don't spend too long in Naggaroth''': Look, I get it, who doesn't want to rule a city made entirely out of towers that look like spiky black dildos? But conquering Ulthuan as Malekith can and should be done fairly early in the game, because it takes a loooonnnggg time to take over all those provinces settlement-by-settlement. You definitely want to get Ulthuan conquered before the chaos invasion rolls in, as they basically spawn right on top of Naggarond, and constantly fighting them until someone knocks off Archaon on the other side of the map can be a huge pain.

*'''Tyrant is the way to go''': Malekith has OPTIONS and almost all of them are good, but if it's your first campaign, Tyrant can really bring your slave economy to the next level. More money -> more stacks -> Druchii supremacy, baby!

====Morathi====
*'''The start. Oh god, the start''': Yeahhh, there's no getting around it. Morathi's start is a bitch and a half (kind of like Morathi herself!). She's surrounded by enemies who hate her guts, and one mistake here can spell doom for your campaign. Here's the thing though: she actually has all the tools she needs to deal with it (She's an incredibly strong legendary lord, and tier 1 Dark Elf units like bleakswords and darkshards are awesome even into the late game), it can just be tough learning the first few times around. You need to be EXTREMELY aggressive in consolidating your starting province, as the Ss'ildra Tor can just out-recruit you if you leave them alone long enough. Once you do that and deal with Alith Anar though, everything gets easier so have faith!

This is valid for Mortal Empires, your start in Immortal Empires is actually pretty chill. You may even have the chance to ally with Mazdamundi pretty early on if you fight the minor Skavens on the west and gift the frog some cities. Alith Anar also fucked off up north so you can consolidate your starting provinces and build up easily before starting to rape Ulthuan.

*'''You can use her in melee!''' A mistake I see a lot of players make is using Morathi as you'd use a typical caster lord, i.e. keeping them at a distance and shying away from any fight. If you do this though, you aren't getting her full value. Her unique weapon combined with one of her unique skills (Enchanting Beauty) can lower enemy melee attack by 18 and defence by 9 JUST FOR BEING NEAR HER. She can basically use her darksword as a strap-on to peg enemy melee stats. Be careful how you use her, because of course she isnt going to outduel dedicated melee combatant characters, but these passive abilities combined with lore of shadows make her great for absolutely dumpstering enemies that your units are having a tough time dealing with.

====Hellebron====
*'''Unpaid interns''': Hellebron requires a constant influx of slaves to keep active, which means that you are going to have to be ultra aggressive throughout your campaign, more so than other druchii factions who can just sit back and let their slaves do all their work for them.

*'''Malekith''': It's harder (though not impossible!) to confederate Naggarond than vice-versa, and pissing off Malekith can really become a problem, since he usually skyrockets to strength rank 1 after turn 20 or 30. One strategy is just to leave for Ulthuan right away, but this can be very challenging. Rushing Naggarond is also an option, but you can also ally with them, which is what I'd recommend for less experienced players.

*'''Blood Fleets suckkkk''': Remember how the Greenskins WAAGGHH worked before their update? Theoretically it was a way to encourage aggressiveness and movement on the campaign map. How it actually worked was that they'd spawn AI controlled armies that would allahu-akbar themselves upon the nearest settlement. Wellll, Hellebron's voyages basically have the same idea and it's honestly worse because you can't choose where they spawn. Just don't rely on them to do any heavy lifting.
====Lokhir====
*'''Pillaging the East:''' In Immortal Empires, Lokhir now starts on the Cathayan edge of the map, just south of Villitc, seperated by an impassable (to you of all people) river, and the Great Bastion to the West. The entire Eastern half of Cathay is full of rivers and deltas so you can raid deeper into Cathay.
**'''Black Arks are "free:"''' Lokhir doesnt need to sacrifice to Mathlann to start a Black Ark in IE, so combine that with their absolute loyalty, cheap upkeep, and the many rivers of Cathay, you'll be taking a few of these.
*'''The Blender King''': Ah, Lustria. Let's see, the lizards hate you because they don't want a dark elf caravan on their land. Teclis hates you because he doesn't like your stupid face, the Dwarfs still bear a grudge, and Harkon hates you for... stealing all his treasure, I guess? Packing up and leaving for Ulthuan on turn 1 can actually be a pretty viable strategy here. Lustria-bowl honestly sucks for you, but if you're intent on doing it, allying with the rats can secure your western border, and allow you to focus on Teclis at the start, which takes one of the major pressures off your campaign.
*'''The Black Ark King''': Black Arks are awesome and should be your main method of recruiting units to your armies, especially in the early game. BUILD THE GROWTH BUILDING FIRST! You'll get to those higher tiers so much faster, and can laugh over the corpses of your enemies when your tier 5 dread knights are running over red-crested skinks.

*'''What to do with Karond Kar?''': Lokhir's campaign is pretty weird, because his unique item requires taking over the city of Karond Kar which is wayyyy in the middle of assfuck nowhere compared to where you start. You don't really want to manage a split empire in Warhammer 2, so taking Karond Kar by force isn't really advisable. Luckily, he now has a quest line that allows him to confederate Karond Kar remotely. I'd recommend confederating with them, and then just selling all the buildings and abandoning the province. Keeping it generally means dealing with High elf DEATHstacks every two turns, along with Wood Elves and Taurox if he's still alive which will really make you want to deepthroat a cactus.

====Malus Darkblade====
Malus is a fan-favorite character, and CA honestly did him pretty dirty, which is kind of upsetting. His campaign is very difficult especially at the start, and he slightly boosts cold one knights, a notoriously cost-inefficient unit. He is a monster on the battlefield, but ''it's pretty much always better to play as another dark elf faction and confederate him'', since he gets all his battlefield strengths and none of the weaknesses. If you insist on playing his campaign though, keep these tips in mind:
*'''SNIKCH MUST DIE!''': Snikch must die unless you like having 30 million filthy rats coming over the border to take your land and deflower your sorceresses (oh, who are we kidding? There’s no such thing as a virgin sorceress, they literally worship the goddess of massive orgies). Sometimes you can even make a non-aggression pact with Imrik to focus on Snikch which I definitely recommend. After killing him, you can slow down a little, and pick off your enemies one-by-one, but it's an absolute miserable campaign experience if you allow Snikch to get his shit together.

*'''Black Arks are essential''': You start with a Black Ark and you NEED it to get past Malus' cancerous early game. You probably aren't going to have the money to spend on potions at the start, which means your troops will replenish at the speed of a glacier. A Black Ark can help a lot with this problem, and can provide a good base to recruit from.

*'''Keep your alliance with Malekith going''': Keeping your alliance with Malekith alive allows you to cheese the 'Tz'arkans whispers' mechanic a little bit, since the unique quests might be to declare war on a faction you don't care about halfway across the map. The rewards from these missions can be quite powerful, so complete as many as you can.

====Rakarth====
*'''Ulthuan''': Rakarth's starting place in Albion offers him a variety of options in theory. however, you're kind of forced into attacking Ulthuan which sucks. Once they discover you (which happens very early in the game), they will start sending stack after stack after you, and trying to expand eastward or southward just becomes unviable. Sure, Morathi can sometimes get super aggressive and start conquering Ulthuan early taking some of the pressure off you, but it's a gamble that sometimes doesn't pay off.

*'''Rakarth only for beastpen armies''': Beast pens areeee... interesting? The thing is, the only boosts to monstrous units from the beast pens come from Rakarth's army skills. For your generic lords, it's better to stick to your tried and true druchii units, unless you're in an emergency and need units fast.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves

2023-02-18T23:46:21Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:A481:3CCF:B3AD:FB9: /* Pros */

{{Topquote|Skulls for Khaine! Blood for Khaine!|Game battle chant for Dark Elves. [[Khorne|Why does it sound familiar...]]}}
This is the tactica for the [[Total War: Warhammer]] version of the Dark Elves.

==Why Play Dark Elves==
*Because you'd like your elves to take their arrogance to the next level and just start murdering people for the crime of not being elves.
*Because you believe that everything looks roughly 1000 times better when covered in spikes.
*Because you enjoy the inherent power fantasy that comes from playing a big spiky asshole out to conquer and enslave.
*You like a versatile unit roster with some serious killing power.
*Because being the good guy is just so boring sometimes.

===Pros===
*'''Flexibility''': One of the Druchii's biggest strengths that really can't be understated. While a lot of other factions are forced into a single tactic, the Druchii have more battlefield options than pretty much any other faction in the game, even the High Elves. While they are best at offense thanks to Murderous Prowess, their wide selection of unique units and powerful characters means they can also play defense, kite, use a heavy monster focus, combined arms, and all-around whatever tactic you can think of.
*'''AP for Days''': If you're playing Dark Elves and having a hard time with armoured troops, you're playing them wrong. A large chunk of the roster has majority AP damage, so armor should be the least of your concerns.
*'''Solid Range''': While you may not be the shootiest of factions, the Dark Elves are more than capable. They are fully capable of melting enemy units before they close to melee with the right build.
*'''Anti-large''': The Druchii are renowned for their beast-hunting prowess, and it shows in the game. Most of your unit archetypes have at least one solid anti-large option, whether it be monsters, infantry, or chariots.
*'''Mobility''': You're not as good at it as the Asrai, but Dark Elves have some of the best light cav and missile chariots in the game, if not ''the'' best. Combine that with infantry like Witch Elves and Sisters of Slaughter, and you are able to get around the battlefield pretty damn fast. Light Cav tactics are a favorite among Dark Elf players.
*'''Powerful Lords''': When it comes to lord options, you are spoiled for choice. Most of their lords are at the very least decent and some like Malekith can carry an entire army to victory if given the time.
*'''Strong Heroes''': While you aren't quite the Vampire Counts when it comes to character prowess, your heroes are still very, very good. Death Hags and Masters in particular provide great utility on the battlefield on top of powerful melee stats, and Sorceresses, like all elven casters, are a hero you really can't go wrong with.
*'''Strong Economy''': Your economy is god-tier, and this is even before you bring in trade. Raking in high numbers of Slaves all but guarantees that your cash flow reaches insane levels which you can further boost by abusing the Master hero who reduces Slave decay to the point that they literally cannot decay anymore. Combine this with the extremely generous discounts on Black Arks and your pockets will never be empty again.
*'''Naval Supremacy''': An often overlooked, but still important feature is that your Black Arks can dominate the oceans of the world and keeping your homeland secure from any threats. The only faction that rivals your naval power are (big surprise here) the Vampire Coast.

===Cons===
*'''Frail''': Okay, so you don't have it as bad as the Wood Elves, since many of your units are bringing actual armor to the fight, but you're still a glass cannon rush faction. Running into a faction that can simply outlast your burst of melee damage once Murderous Prowess proccs, can and will give you a lot of trouble.
*'''Limited Range''': Their ranged units aren't bad, in fact, Darkshards and Shades are extremely good, but they don't shoot very far. Even some gunpowder units will outrange you, and most factions will get one or two shots off before you get in position.
*'''Lack of Healing''': You're the only Elven faction with no multi-target healing. The only thing you have is Soul Stealer, which only heals the caster. Combine this with your low health pools, and your units will die a lot faster than their tanky statline might lead you to believe.
*'''Expensive''': Not as much as High Elves, but still pretty pricey. Expect to be outnumbered most of the time.
*'''Poor Public Order''': Being the quarrelsome lot that they are, Dark Elves suffer from a multitude of public order penalties (especially once you have a lot of slaves) and don't have a lot of tools to counter them; managing it can quickly devolve into a frantic nightmare, particularly on high difficulties.
*'''No Encampments''': If you are away from your territory, you can't recruit new guys while encamping. This can be offset somewhat with Black Arks, though that's not an option in regions far from the coast.
*'''Temperamental Economy''': You make a ton of money when your slave count is high, but your income will nosedive if you go a couple turns without winning battles. This problem is exacerbated in Immortal Empires where slave decline is % based across your entire empire. True to lore, your economy will crumble the moment you run out of enemies.
*'''DLC''': Scourgerunners and Supreme Sorceresses are some of your best units. They also cost extra. As with most Non DLC factions, you will need to pay extra money to be consistent in multiplayer

==Universal Traits==
*'''Murderous Prowess''': A passive, army-wide ability that gives all units on the map considerable offensive bonuses after you hit a certain threshold of kills (usually around 30-50% of the enemy force). Hard to time right and difficult to control, but extremely effective regardless. Seeing your Corsairs, Shades, and whatnot go into overdrive for 90 seconds is a scary and satisfying spectacle to behold. For a few units, the effect lasts 120 seconds instead of 90. Good in WH2, but terrifying in WH3 where murderous prowess also regenerates 1% vigor per second. Watch your entire army get a second wind and go from exhausted to fresh when it triggers.
*'''Slaves''': You get slaves by raiding, winning battles, and looting/sacking settlements. Slaves go to your cities to do the crapwork and are gradually worked to death turn by turn. The Druchii can make a hell of a lot of money by capturing slaves. However the more slaves you've got the harder it is to control them, which leads to unrest.
*'''Black Arks''': A special kind of campaign unit that acts as one of the two true "navies" in the entire game, Black Arks can only exist on the water but they are essentially floating garrisoned cities that can also let your other armies recruit and exchange from them. A powerful incentive for any Druchii player to adopt the raiding lifestyle and an excellent tool for mobile defence across Naggaroth's extensive coastline.

==Lords==

===Legendary Lords===
*'''[[Malekith]]''': Warhammer's rendition of Darth Vader with severe mummy issues arrived on the scene, and he doesn't mess around. This dude is among ''the'' best legendary lords in the game bar none. A monster of a Hybrid LL, he is everything the likes of Azhag the Slaughterer and Arkhan the Black wish they could be. He punches hard, gets a Dragon relatively early on and his spellcasting doesn't disappoint either. His economy buffs are ridiculously strong, boosting an already ridiculous economy. His buffs to Black Guard and Dragons are also very useful. You can hardly go wrong with Malekith.
*'''[[Morathi]]''' : Morathi is a ''very'' weird animal (There's gotta be a sex joke in here somewhere). Unlike many other Legendary Lords, her skill tree is the only one in the game where you actually get to make meaningful choices, as she can alternate between ridiculously powerful spellcasting and good backline harasser, both paths are viable. What sets her apart from other caster lords as her spellcasting is concerned is that, like Teclis, she doesn't specialize in single lore and her pool of spells draws from the Lores of Dark, Death, and Shadows and favors all-out offensive spells from all of them. Arguably the second-best Caster Lord in the game, just behind Teclis. Unfortunately her campaign mechanics are badly broken, she has to spread corruption but doesn't get public order benefits from it, only downsides. This makes her campaign more difficult than you'd expect simply due to serous public order issues. They even nerfed the building in quintex that made the public order manageable for no apparent reason. With Immortal empire's she now spreads Slaanesh corruption and her public order issues have been fixed, she can also recruit both regular and exalted daemonettes from her public order building. which is a nice step in the right direction. They forgot to make them affected by her red skill/techs as usual though. Honestly she is just begging for a dedicated rework to make her into a hybrid faction at this point, it would be awesome to see a true cult of Slaanesh faction. I dont know why they didn't give her the cultist of Slaanesh hero given that they are literally dark elf cultists. They did unfortunately significantly nerf her enchanting beauty and her weapons debuff abilities so she cant tank melee stats into the ground just by existing anymore, despite other lords like demon princes having aura's of similar power in campaign. Bizarrely they also removed her -50% upkeep for hero's, I guess someone was convinced her faction was too good, despite none of it being super strong or unique (vampires get -50% hero upkeep and way more from bloodlines).
*'''[[Hellebron]] (DLC)''' : Hellebron exists in her own little niche. Barely armored like Witch Elves, but really, really bloody fast and a buffmachine for your already busted murdermachine frontline. She excels in prolonged combat, preferably against lightly armored chaff and will rack a high kill count very quickly but will cave against elite units and other single entity monsters or characters.
: Get a unique campaign mechanic of her vitality slowly draining way and have to progressively sacrifice more slaves during the Death Night to keep the faction buffed instead of Debuffed, but also create a new stack of frenzied elves to attack [[Ulthwe]].
*'''[[Lokhir Fellheart]] (FLC)''' : Lord of the [[Black Ark]]s. He is a cheaper blender lord in comparison to Hellebron, being a well-armored Infantry blender while on foot like a Vlad von Carstein without magic. CA also gave him his own Dragon mount which only make him better than a Dread Lord on dragon when he pops his attack buffs.
:the Drukii pirate lord starts in the thunder dome that is Lustria but can have a lot of freedom by starting with a middle settlement that is a Black Ark.
*'''[[Malus Darkblade]] (DLC)''': an unremarkable lord until he lets the daemon take over, and then he is a melee powerhouse. Using Malus in combat is like burning a candle wick, his Tz'arkan form and abilities are powerful but drain his hit points so know when he should be in daemon or Malus mode. He does have Resistance and Healing in combat so he won't burn out as fast in a fight. Switching to daemon mode restores all his health and vigor and makes him unbreakable so it's best to wait until the last moment before switching.
:in campaign his battle with his inner deamon is a game mechanic, with having a possession meeter, giving you greater campaign bonuses while Malus is mostly in control, but as Tz'arkan slowly takes over, he gains greater battle prowess but at the cost of large penalties to your empire. You control the possession by drinking a potion that gets progressively more expensive until you finish his storyline to make it free. Tz'arkan will also offer an additional quest to increase the possession but with very good payoffs. For your start position, you get a Black ark in the Southern Land, in addition, have your traditional Drukii hold, [[Hag Graef]], that you can sell for a lot of money but have to listen to [[Malekith]] (which will be an AI) or make it harder by having to run and protect the dame place yourself while also declaring on the big cheese. -disappointingly he is actually more effective if you confederate him then if you play as him, confederated he gets the benefits of full possession with no downsides. making him insanely tanky. His faction benefits are actually more of a hassle than they are helpful.
*'''Rakarth (FLC)''' Your man you pick if you want to go for a full monster build. he comes with heavy armor and Anti Large to deal with enemy big monsters while also providing buffs to his own beasties. He will also have a Scourgerunner for skirmishing, a Manticore and a Dragon for a straight up brawl. He serves as your best counter to mounters, with his whip being able to strip Fear and Terror from monsters (leaving said monsters susceptible to fear and terror) and armor that gives him buffs as enemy monsters are around him. He's also being voiced by [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Ramsay Bolton]].

===Generic Lords===
*'''Dread Lord (Melee & Ranged)''': Your two generic lord with one focused on melee and has a shield while the other is a hybrid that focuses on shooting. In multiplayer, their ability change to help them buff their respective areas, Sword & Shield having buffs to melee attacks and debuffing enemy damage, while Sword & Crossbow supports other crossbows unit while also being a sniper, and gives a burst bonus to Ld. Note that the lords have almost identical melee stats once you put them on a black dragon and the melee lord looses her shield when mounted on one while the ranged lord keeps his ranged weapon. at high levels i cant see much reason to use the melee version instead but she will be better in melee until they get the dragon.
*'''Supreme Sorceress (DLC)''': Makes a Sorceress as a lord for money-saving cost. Somewhat feeble in combat until she levels up enough to get a black dragon mount, after which she fights better than many dedicated melee lords. Student of the Dark Tower is an amazing skill, providing lower cooldowns, reserves, and miscast reduction all in one. These girls are pretty much your best generic lord in a faction with already pretty strong lords.
*'''High Beastmaster (DLC)''': Your monster hunter Lord. Though he looks like a chronic masturbator, he can fill a surprising amount of battlefield roles. Not as tanky in melee as a Dread Lord but deals a good amount of anti-large damage in addition to his burst of additional weapon strength. Also is supportive by giving a single unit a big buff as they charge into melee (don't yet specify anything except can't be used on characters, so go crazy on an Executioners charge). Can Come on a Scouregrunner Chariot(roll though everyone while armed with a ballast) or ride a Manticore which has proven to be cost-effective flying monsters. Can give a big boost to cold ones and monsters in campaign as well as recruiting them faster. If running cavalry or monster stacks, likely your best option. The big MA/MD/ and charge boost they give colds ones really makes them preform better.

==Heroes==
*'''Death Hag''' : Single-entity Witch Elves dialed up to 11. Death Hags excel as extremely vicious infantry blenders with a lot of speed of behind them and, as an added bonus, a variety of buff abilities that make them even deadlier. They tend to get the shorter end of the stick against dedicated duelist characters and their only mount option consists of the Cauldron of Blood, which, to be frank, is a waste, since it sacrifices offensive power and speed for more durability, something that Death Hags with their high Melee Defense don't really need. - I’m not sure what the above was talking about, death hags kinda suck on foot like most foot heroes, the mount is good vs infantry and makes them actually pretty tough plus buffs nearby units. Always mount in campaign, foot may have more use in multiplayer I guess.
*'''Sorceress''' : Caster bitches in the flavours of Death, Dark, Shadows, Beasts, and Fire. Better than most other caster types, and Morathi has some great factionwide buffs for them
*'''Khainite Assassin''' : Good on campaign map, terrible in an actual fight. To expand, Khainite Assassins get high assassination chance, and are really useful at deleting enemy characters from the game. This is exacerbated by some good hero action buffs from techs, and from a few lord skills. Their passive ability increases the amount of slave income in the province they are in, which sounds useful on paper, but isn't really needed since Dark Elves make all the money they could ever want after a while. Their 'scavenge' ability can help armies pick up more money in the early game as well. In battle, they're a dedicated character duelist meant to sneak around the back line with their vanguard and stalk, and kill enemy high-value stuff with a powerful short-ranged missile attack and pretty good melee stats. Honestly though, in melee they kind of underperform vs other duelists, and they're pretty squishy on top of it all. Their ranged attack is... fine, I guess? But it's super slow to reload and very short ranged. This is on top of the fact that they DON'T GET A MOUNT which really limits their mobility, and therefore their usefulness in battle. Seriously, these guys are tailor made to be flying around on manticores or something! Even a freaking horse would increase their usefulness incredibly. As it is, they'll probably get surrounded and killed off pretty quickly. Death Hags and Masters are really, really good heroes, and will fill every battlefield role that you could want, while Sorceresses and your regular missile units can provide crazy ranged utility. Keep these guys for killing off enemy heroes and scouting other provinces on the campaign map.
*'''Master (DLC)''' : Tyrants in Training who never graduate in game to Dreadlords :(. Masters are your tanky Dark Elf hero. You can’t really overuse these, they are amazing. Ap anti large heavily armored high stat combat monsters with great mount options, the guardian skill, easy recruitment from a tier 3 building, the ability to reduce slave decline to zero if stacked, access to martial names of power granting incredibly powerful bonuses, easy to recruit at level 9 and up in any 4 city province. A doom stack of these with the regeneration or hunger/frenzy skill name of power and access to the extra melee attack army wide or leadership reduction traits is probably the campaigns deadliest hero doomstack, rivaling or beating Isabella vampire stacks or lizardmen hero spam. Really, really good heroes. And easier to spam then any comparable hero. Recommend cold one for ground duty (extra armor and ap) or Pegasus for flying (fast and flying with good charge but no shield). Foot is ok too but generally mounts are more than worth it for mobility alone. Immortal empires removed their role in the slave mechanic but they are still extremely stong melee hero's, probably use them in your armies exclusively now.

==Units==

===Infantry===

*'''Dreadspears''': Your most basic spearmen unit in the DE roster. They're... alright? They lack an offensive punch and High Elf Spearman performs better at the job they are supposed to be doing, being to hold the line to stop enemy cavalry punching through to your precious archers. They work fine in the early game, as well as being cheap, but don't rely on them for too long. stats are even better with Immortal empires now.
**'''The Hellebronai (RoR)''': Dreadspears that are a bit better in general with poison attacks.
*'''Bleakswords''': The offensive counterpart to Dreadspears. With the release of immortal empires they are now surprisingly very solid and killy basic infantry, there's a lot more reason to use them over spears now and they are going to be a very cost effective chaff unit in both multiplayer and campaign.
*'''Black Ark Corsairs''' : ...These guys. Oh, these guys. Frail as all hell, but worth it. Corsairs should make up the majority of melee troops of your midgame armies as soon as they become available. Their raw damage output as well as their armour (having a value of 90, putting them on the same level as dwarf warriors!) makes them a solid frontline and they will cut down all basic infantry used against them with ease and surprising speed. Their easy availability combined with a reasonable price make sure they are always a good choice, especially against horde-centric factions. One glaring weakness is their lack of AP damage. - whoever wrote the above likes corsairs way too much, they’re good but non synergistic with usual dark elf campaign strategies of crossbow spam. And they aren’t worth using after the early game. You can honestly never use them and just go dreadspears/bleakswords and darkshards and usually do better in the early campaign. I hear they are nice in multiplayer, but campaign wise meh.
*'''[[Witch Elves]]''': Talk about glass cannons, Witch Elves are a really weird bunch. They have no armour, but (try to) compensate for this with 20% physical resistance and a 5% ward save after you research technologies. In exchange, they excel in melee attack and apply debuffs to enemy forces attacked by them. The debuff in itself is very unique, as it not only debuffs enemy melee stats but also sends them on a rampage; causing them to stay way longer in a fight which they otherwise would be comfortable with. This is especially useful against all elven factions, since you can lure their expensive specialized elite tropps in matchups that they are not equipped to deal with (i.e. Swordmasters against a Hydra or a Dragon) and ''reliably keep them there''. Well at least as long as your Witch Elves survive the encounter, which, given that their only defense is a meager 28 melee defense and a 5% ward save, might not be that long. no real reason to use them unless you just need/want the rampage ability. sisters of slaughter are much better.
**'''Sisters of Singing Doom (RoR)''' : Schizo witch elves with slightly improved melee stats, a steep cost markup, and fear/terror. Generally not worth it, they still cause rampage on hit which is the last thing you want when you're trying to scare a unit away. Save some money and bring vanilla witch elves if you want to rampage enemies or a manticore if you want to terror bomb them.
*'''Sisters of Slaughter (DLC)''': They wear even less clothes than Witch Elves do, yet are more resilient. Their extremely high melee defense and their 20% physical resistance make them surprisingly tough. As one of the few resilient Dark Elven melee units, their job is to hold the line and grind down other infantry where their poisoned attacks, melee defense, and bonus vs. infantry lets them reliably come out on top. In addition, they have a unique passive that boosts their melee defense and physical resist even more if they are losing their current encounter, which makes them surprisingly viable as a tarpit against enemies like black orks who would otherwise dumpster them. Competes with black guard as your best frontline infantry. Keep in mind that their high melee defense doesn't protect them from missiles or impact damage from enemies on the charge. Back them up with dreadspears or black guard so they don't become the red paintjob on an enemy chariot.
*'''Executioners''': The offensive counterpart to the Black Guards, your ol' reliable murderers of heavy armoured elite troops and anything in between. They won't last long, but kill everything in their path. Frail, especially against missiles, but as a Dark Elf player, you're used to that. I don’t recommend these, they’re fragile, slow and they have weirdly low melee stats compacted to your other elite units. You can replace these with cold one dread knights even. Seriously with the change to primal instincts dread knights have massively higher stats especially with beast master lords skills. And otherwise fill the exact same role but do it better and faster. they got a slight buff and immune to psych so that's something. if you insist on using them, the Name of power khaine marked gives them 15% ward save and reduced upkeep, which is actually very solid.
**'''Blades of the Blood Queen (RoR)''' : Gets frenzy + an aura that gives physical resistance to nearby heroes + lords. Very skippable since their stats are low for an elite infantry unit and your lord will probably be on a mobile mount instead of hiding with the infantry.
*'''Black Guard''': Extremely beefy, these are your dedicated elite line holders and monster slayers. Remember murderous prowess makes them into an absolute force of destruction. And they have very good stats, the only downside is knowing that they’ll never be as awesome as Phoenix guard. Even if they can be offensively much deadlier the survivability of Phoenix guard is insane. they received stat buffs and murderous mastery with immortal empires so are even better now.
*'''Daemonettes''': Exclusive to Morathi's campaign. basically way better witch elves for the same cost, but not effected by red skills or techs because they always forget to do that.
*'''Exalted Daemonettes''': Also exclusive to Morathi's campaign, actually a really good option, they are like way better executioners with no armor, hold the line with sisters of slaughter and flanking with these will be potentially extremely strong. throw in morathi's debuffs and a Bloodwrack shrine and you should destroy any infantry in the game frightfully quickly. Really you can argue that the dark elves much more well-rounded roster actually uses exalted daemonettes better than the Slaanesh factions.

===Missile Infantry===
*'''Darkshards''': Basic Dark Elf ranged unit and all and all pretty darn good for the entire game. Indirect fire with pretty good AP makes them very useful, especially when focusing on firing key targets into oblivion. For a little extra, you can get these guys with shields which makes them excellent in an arrow exchange, which is important given [[High Elves|who one of your biggest foes is]] always go shields.
**'''The Bolt-Fiends (ROR)''' : The cool thing about these guys is that they degrade and nullify shields.
*'''Black Ark Corsairs (Repeater Handbows)''': A mixed bag, making up for the relative lack of skirmish units in the Dark Elf roster. Surprisingly mobile and difficult to catch, their biggest strength is easily their flexibility. Nice vs skaven early on.
*'''Shades''': Don't let the low model count discourage you, Shades rank among the best Missile Troops in the game. The high rate of Fire, high damage output, and even decent in melee, especially with greatswords. Actually not really that much better than dark shards if you just use them as archers, much more expensive for only slightly better ranged performance. However if combined with a shadowdart name of power lord can be as good or better than sisters of avelorn. 210 or more range, crazy ap, and better in melee than the sisters by a large margin due to AP and anti infantry. Even with all that taken into account you need a specific name of power, some later technologies, and the red skill tree to make them as good/slightly better than the sisters. And they cost 50% more upkeep with great swords than sisters do. Which really just shows how op sisters are in campaign.

===Cavalry===
*'''Dark Riders''': Your extremely quick light cavalry, comparable to most other units of their class. One key feature is that they are actually fast enough to chase down most other missile cavalry. If your micromanagement skills hold up, Dark Riders can terrorize the enemy backline very efficiently and do so at the highest speed any base game cavalry unit offers, but they get vaporized the instant their charge bonus wears off, so will need to keep the cycle charges going. One of those units you should probably not use in campaign but can be good in multiplayer.
*'''Dark Riders (Crossbows)''': Ranged harassment cavalry. As using repeater Crossbows, they fire two shots of primarily AP damage. As always Useful to annoying poke an enemy to death but also those higher armor units that are normally resistant to those shenanigans. (most other factions only get close-range hand axes or more squisher handguns).
**'''The Raven Heralds (ROR)''': Rather distinct from their vanilla Dark Riders, these guys ride Dark Pegusii and can fly around the battlefield. Usually passed up for vanilla crossbow dark riders since the raven heralds have fewer models and vanilla dark riders already have the speed to stay out of trouble.
*'''Doomfire Warlocks (DLC)''': Really, really weird hybrid unit. In melee they have actually pretty good attack with magic and poison and charge, plus an aoe melee attack animation. They also have 40% physical resist to help keep them alive. One key advantage they have over comparable light to medium cavalry is their ability to fling around the Doombolt spell from the Lore of Dark and Soulblight from the Lord of Death as bound spells. A unit of these is pretty much always useful if nothing else, plus they look great. They lose access to their bound spells if they drop below 50% HP, so fire them off early so you don't lose them later.
**'''Slaanesh's Harvesters (ROR)''' : Doomfire warlocks with a slightly increased statline that replaces doombolt with soulstealer to drain the HP from single entities. While they're usable in campaign, they're completely unusable in multiplayer where they're more expensive than Grail Knights and Demigryphs.
*'''Cold One Knights''': they were considered bad because of rampage but primal instincts was reworked later in total warhammer 2 so that it only triggered at 20% health and then again for the third game its been changed and the rampage is gone completely, now primal instincts gives buffs to combat stats at low leadership. They are actually cost effective now. Took a long time to come into their own but it was worth the wait.
*'''Cold One Dread Knights''': they were considered bad because of rampage but primal instincts was reworked later in total warhammer 2 so that it only triggered at 20% health and then again for the third game its been changed and the rampage is gone completely, now primal instincts gives buffs to combat stats at low leadership. They are actually cost effective now. Took a long time to come into their own but it was worth the wait. The dread knights aren't going to be the go-to over the regular ones but they are a solid unit now.
**'''Knights of the Ebon Claw (ROR)''': What's this? Cold One Knights that don't spaz out.

===Chariots===
*'''Cold One Chariot''' : A chariot pulled by dinosaurs. They're pretty much meant to be your anti-infantry melee chariot, and they have ap and an ok charge bonus which is nice. They also have a small ranged attack, but don't go using them as a missile chariot, that's what Sourgerunners are for. These guys are overshadowed by Scourgerunners due to the sheer amount of utility and killing power the former brings to the table, but as a melee chariot they can be decent especially in Malekith's army.
*'''Scourgerunner Chariot''' : One of the best units in your roster, Scourgerunner Chariots are your jack of all trades chariot, that has a special boon in being on the very few ranged units in the game that get a bonus vs. large on their ranged attacks. Their key advantage is that they also move at Dark Rider speed, which makes them extremely difficult to catch or even hit, and in a pinch, they can even reliably dispatch basic missile troops and infantry, thanks to a bonus vs. infantry. Bring 3-4 of these guys and have them work as a team, and they can swing battles for you.
**'''The Ravagers of Rakarth (ROR)''' : A scourgerunner chariot with poisoned attacks and a persistent AOE ability that slows down all enemies around it. Get one if you plan to use multiple scourgerunners to delete isolated monsters/infantry.

===Artillery===
*'''Reaper Bolt Thrower''': Essentially identical to the High Elf counterpart (in spite of the significantly more badass name), the Reaper is likewise probably not going to be winning any prizes for the best artillery piece. Alright, it does hit a bit harder and has a smidge less range, but this is not something people would notice much in most situations. Nevertheless, it remains a useful and versatile addition to a Dark Elf army. Just don't go in expecting a WMD. Like the repeater, they possess two firing modes and can be particularly useful for sniping enemy artillery. In short a decent, if not exactly exceptional, artillery unit.
*'''Bloodwrack Shrine (DLC)''': A Bloodwrack Medusa with a Go-Cart. Despite being described as a chariot don't use it as such, it's too slow to pass through a unit. Use it more like a Mortis Engine or Grail Relique, and you'll find it's a surprisingly versatile unit with support ability, decent melee stats, and even a ranged attack. Provides +7 MA and -7 MD to nearby allies/enemies respectively. Similar in purpose to the high elf frost Phoenix but offensive. Quite effective if you want your melee units buffed. Plus ok ranged damage from the Medusa herself.

===Monsters===
*'''Harpies''': Harpies fulfill essentially the same role as war hound and fell bat units. They're intended to be fast-moving harassers best used to hunt down or disrupt enemy missile units and artillery crews. When used in their intended capacity they can get some work done, just don't expect them to do much against anything with actual staying power. Even some of the sturdier archer units can prove a bit too much for them. If you're up against an opponent with a heavy focus on ranged firepower they can be a valuable addition. However, sending them in unsupported against basically anything else is a good way to end up with a whole lot of dead bat-ladies. Rakarth makes then a lot better, giving them bonus Melee Attack as well as a smidge of AP damage.
**'''The Crows of Khaine (ROR)''': Basically Harpies with Fear and the ability to regenerate when fighting. Surprisingly tanky because of it, just watch out for units that counter them.
*'''Feral Manticore''': Surprisingly good backline harasser. Manticores make Harpies pretty much obsolete and make for great mid-tier carnage against everything that doesn't have a bonus against large. They are very susceptible to Rampage, so take care of them. Manticores are best taken in groups of 2-4 in order to kill targets fast enough that they don’t die themselves. Paired with a flying master they can make a fast deadly Air Force for cheap which can act as a single unit killing gank squad. Can usually staggerlock foot heroes. And usually outfight other aerial units short of dragons or heroes.
*'''War Hydra''': One of your standout units, there are lots of nasty surprises with the Hydra, which acts as your standard frontline melee monster. One of its core features is its flexibility; it's effective against a lot of targets and can reliably hunt down infantry thanks to its speed and breath attack. It tends to get the short end of the stick against other monsters and anti large. In campaign you can get these 25% cheaper from a klar karond building. Super cheap and easy to spam regenerating monster.
**'''The Chill of Sontar (ROR)''' : Same regenerating monstery goodness as a normal hydra, though it replaces its flaming breath in exchange for one that slows down whatever it hits.
*'''Kharibdyss (DLC)''' : OMNOMNOMNOM. A Hydra on steroids, trades the regeneration factor and flaming breath for poisoned attacks, anti-large, and lots of AP goodness. Works best against armoured monsters, so if the enemy brings big scary beasts it can go toe to toe. If you want to blend infantry though, you’re better off with the Hydra.
*'''Bloodwrack Medusa (DLC)''': Combination monster and short rate direct fire artillery. Can delete chunks of elite infantry very quickly. These snake waifus have really great utility, but need to be micro'd well to reap the rewards. They aren't like most monsters in the game, so don't send them into melee and forget about them. Their speed, powerful ranged attack, mass and charge bonus means that you should be using them almost like a chariot. Have them blast infantry from range, charge into melee for a short time, and then escape to do it all over again. Got a pretty decent buff to their melee stats in Immortal empires to make them a more well rounded pick.
**'''The Siren of Red Ruin (ROR)''' : Same as a normal Medusa, but gains a AOE ability that causes moderate damage to all enemies around her.
*'''Black Dragon''' : Evil Dragonny Goodness. Roughly equivalent to a moon dragon in terms of killyness and retains the devastating breath attack, high mass, and good mobility that other dragons have. More difficult to use than high/wood elf dragons dark elves don't have the lores of magic to heal it.

===Rakarth Campaign Units===
*'''Feral Cold Ones''' :
*'''Explosive Squig''' :
*'''Giant Wolves''' :
*'''Sabretusk Pack''' :
*'''Feral Bears''' :
*'''Feral Mammoth''' :
*'''Feral Stegadon''' :
*'''Feral Carnosaur''' :

==Tactics==
===Multiplayer Strategies===
Long, Long ago in the distant times of 2017 Dark Elves where one of the top factions in the game with their massive amount of AP, powerful Lords and flexible army. Unfortunately after years of being beaten with the Nerf Bat they have fallen from grace. As of the Twisted and the Twilight patch they are considered low tier they really only have one viable tactic, relying on Scourgerunners and Crossbow Dark Riders. Now just because they are considered low tier doesn't mean you can't win with them as they still have some favorable match ups. As of right now, you are a bit of a one trick pony so you may have to get creative.

*'''Beastmen''':
*'''Bretonnia''':
*'''Chaos Daemons''':
*'''Chaos Warriors''': Chaos Warriors are slow as hell and very vulnerable to anti-armor.
*'''Dark Elves''': Since Murderous Prowess cares about kills and not whose side they're on it's going to trigger roughly at the same time for both factions.
*'''Dwarfs''': You have the heavy AP to pierce your opponent's stunties. Unfortunately, they have the firepower to shut down a lot of your ranged units before you can get close enough to return the favor.
*'''Empire''':
*'''Grand Cathay''':
*'''Greenskins''':
*'''High Elves''':
*'''Khorne''':
*'''Kislev''':
*'''Lizardmen''': This is one of the matchups in which you shine. All their armored dinosaurs are extremely vulnerable to your wide selection of AP troops, with a special shoutout to Dark Shards and Shades. Lizardmen lack missile infantry beyond their rather frail Skink Skirmishers, though their Chameleon Skinks will prove particularly annoying due to their missile resist and loose formations. Scourgerunner Chariots will run circles around the Lizardmen and, with proper positioning, can easily slip around their screening units to chunk the bigger Artillery Stegadons/Bastilodons that could potentially retaliate against your ranged forces. Try to kite them as much as you can, whittle down their frontline before sending in your Executioners and Blackguard to clean up.
*'''Norsca''':
*'''Nurgle''':
*'''Skaven''':
*'''Slaanesh''':
*'''Tomb Kings''':
*'''Tzeentch''':
*'''Vampire Coast''':
*'''Vampire Counts''':
*'''Wood Elves''':

===Campaign Strategies===
Focus on economy in a few good provinces with 4 cities (Hag Graef, Naggarond, Ghrond, Quintex, Har Ganeth, etc) put income, slave pens, and then black roads or special resources on every city/town. Then put all slaves here. Add 3 or 4 masters to reduce slave decline to zero and you have the strongest, easiest, and fastest to grow economy in the game bar none. Can field near unlimited armies of doom stacks. There you go, you win.

Actually, the most prosperous slave province for the Dark Elves is Yvresse owing to the unique Tower of the Warden building which generates 50 gold per 100 slaves. With a maximum slaveholding capacity of 15500 slaves, combined with the multiplicative effect of slaves on base province income and the ability to stack slave income multipliers through heroes that are essentially unlimited, it surpasses any Druchii province in gold-generating potential. Proving, once again, that Naggarond sucks. This wealth is also why it is viable for certain Dark Elf factions to abandon their starting capitals and conquer Ulthuan instead.- while that may be more profitable technically, it’s irrelevant. Any proper slave strategy give’s effectively unlimited money even in just the dark elf lands. Conquer Ulthuan first or not, either way you won’t need for money with even a little strategy.

Unfortunately they heavily nerfed the Slave system in immortal empires, the jury is out still on how good their economy is after the massive nerf, you now have to spend slaves as a global resource on your economic buildings and commandment. Will update as we find out how bad the nerf is but its already clear its going to be dramatically weaker than before. After playing 80 turns I can confirm the economy is still strong as long as you rapidly expand and keep fighting but slaves decline possibly too fast from buildings, and slave pens aren't that useful, all they do is increase capacity and give a tiny 5 slave per turn income, whereas a leveled economy building consumes 40 per turn, so only constant fighting and sacking will be able to keep your slave population up. The public order penalties for slaves are basically gone now. assassins can now generate 10 slaves per turn by staying in your provinces instead of boosting slave income, but that is a waste of them. In general all the buildings or skills which give slaves per turn are completely useless, they are way too weak to keep up with the cost of buildings, you either have to constantly sack other countries or be continuously conquering territory.
Dont Bother with Slave markets or any building that give slaves per turn, the rate of gain can never keep up with the consumption and increasing slave capacity is useless. Having a large stockpile of slaves is actually more or less pointless, you only need 150 slaves to trigger the bonus income at the end of your turn and you dont get any meaningful bonuses for having lots of slaves. you can have a slave consumption of 1000-2000 per turn and all you need to do is get above 150 remaining after the decline before the end of each turn and there is no downside. So slave markets and any special buildings that increase capacity or give a few slaves per turn should just be skipped, this is bad design by CA but it at least frees up your building slots. overall the dark elf income is still extremely strong it just not as strong as before. Unfortunately once your empire gets large enough it will become almost impossible to trigger the bonus income because you can easily end up with -4000-5000 slaves per turn which will be impossible to keep up each turn. Fundamentally as your empire grows amounts of slaves decline per turn increase quickly but your ability to capture slaves remains largely fixed, unless you can simultaneous sack 4-5 provinces a turn (every single turn) it will be impossible to keep up slaves late game, and the slave buildings do nothing to help this. Unfortunately I feel like they failed to playtest the new mechanic adequately as it becomes almost completely useless late game.

===Campaign Specific===

====Malekith====

*'''Beware Hellebron''': Malekith's campaign is generally pretty easy (and very fun!), but it can really depend on what Hellebron does at the start. Usually you can get pretty powerful early, build up diplomatic relations and just confederate her, but it's not unknown for her to just straight up declare war on you, which can really send your campaign down shit swamp. Furthermore, she can actually out-recruit you, making it next to impossible to confederate her. One strategy is to just rush to Har Ganeth immediately after securing Naggarond, while another is trying to out-recruit her in turn. Just ignoring her CAN be fine, but Har Ganeth is a good early game province, and you don't want to risk a civil war with her.

*'''Don't spend too long in Naggaroth''': Look, I get it, who doesn't want to rule a city made entirely out of towers that look like spiky black dildos? But conquering Ulthuan as Malekith can and should be done fairly early in the game, because it takes a loooonnnggg time to take over all those provinces settlement-by-settlement. You definitely want to get Ulthuan conquered before the chaos invasion rolls in, as they basically spawn right on top of Naggarond, and constantly fighting them until someone knocks off Archaon on the other side of the map can be a huge pain.

*'''Tyrant is the way to go''': Malekith has OPTIONS and almost all of them are good, but if it's your first campaign, Tyrant can really bring your slave economy to the next level. More money -> more stacks -> Druchii supremacy, baby!

====Morathi====
*'''The start. Oh god, the start''': Yeahhh, there's no getting around it. Morathi's start is a bitch and a half (kind of like Morathi herself!). She's surrounded by enemies who hate her guts, and one mistake here can spell doom for your campaign. Here's the thing though: she actually has all the tools she needs to deal with it (She's an incredibly strong legendary lord, and tier 1 Dark Elf units like bleakswords and darkshards are awesome even into the late game), it can just be tough learning the first few times around. You need to be EXTREMELY aggressive in consolidating your starting province, as the Ss'ildra Tor can just out-recruit you if you leave them alone long enough. Once you do that and deal with Alith Anar though, everything gets easier so have faith!

This is valid for Mortal Empires, your start in Immortal Empires is actually pretty chill. You may even have the chance to ally with Mazdamundi pretty early on if you fight the minor Skavens on the west and gift the frog some cities. Alith Anar also fucked off up north so you can consolidate your starting provinces and build up easily before starting to rape Ulthuan.

*'''You can use her in melee!''' A mistake I see a lot of players make is using Morathi as you'd use a typical caster lord, i.e. keeping them at a distance and shying away from any fight. If you do this though, you aren't getting her full value. Her unique weapon combined with one of her unique skills (Enchanting Beauty) can lower enemy melee attack by 18 and defence by 9 JUST FOR BEING NEAR HER. She can basically use her darksword as a strap-on to peg enemy melee stats. Be careful how you use her, because of course she isnt going to outduel dedicated melee combatant characters, but these passive abilities combined with lore of shadows make her great for absolutely dumpstering enemies that your units are having a tough time dealing with.

====Hellebron====
*'''Unpaid interns''': Hellebron requires a constant influx of slaves to keep active, which means that you are going to have to be ultra aggressive throughout your campaign, more so than other druchii factions who can just sit back and let their slaves do all their work for them.

*'''Malekith''': It's harder (though not impossible!) to confederate Naggarond than vice-versa, and pissing off Malekith can really become a problem, since he usually skyrockets to strength rank 1 after turn 20 or 30. One strategy is just to leave for Ulthuan right away, but this can be very challenging. Rushing Naggarond is also an option, but you can also ally with them, which is what I'd recommend for less experienced players.

*'''Blood Fleets suckkkk''': Remember how the Greenskins WAAGGHH worked before their update? Theoretically it was a way to encourage aggressiveness and movement on the campaign map. How it actually worked was that they'd spawn AI controlled armies that would allahu-akbar themselves upon the nearest settlement. Wellll, Hellebron's voyages basically have the same idea and it's honestly worse because you can't choose where they spawn. Just don't rely on them to do any heavy lifting.
====Lokhir====
*'''Pillaging the East:''' In Immortal Empires, Lokhir now starts on the Cathayan edge of the map, just south of Villitc, seperated by an impassable (to you of all people) river, and the Great Bastion to the West. The entire Eastern half of Cathay is full of rivers and deltas so you can raid deeper into Cathay.
**'''Black Arks are "free:"''' Lokhir doesnt need to sacrifice to Mathlann to start a Black Ark in IE, so combine that with their absolute loyalty, cheap upkeep, and the many rivers of Cathay, you'll be taking a few of these.
*'''The Blender King''': Ah, Lustria. Let's see, the lizards hate you because they don't want a dark elf caravan on their land. Teclis hates you because he doesn't like your stupid face, the Dwarfs still bear a grudge, and Harkon hates you for... stealing all his treasure, I guess? Packing up and leaving for Ulthuan on turn 1 can actually be a pretty viable strategy here. Lustria-bowl honestly sucks for you, but if you're intent on doing it, allying with the rats can secure your western border, and allow you to focus on Teclis at the start, which takes one of the major pressures off your campaign.
*'''The Black Ark King''': Black Arks are awesome and should be your main method of recruiting units to your armies, especially in the early game. BUILD THE GROWTH BUILDING FIRST! You'll get to those higher tiers so much faster, and can laugh over the corpses of your enemies when your tier 5 dread knights are running over red-crested skinks.

*'''What to do with Karond Kar?''': Lokhir's campaign is pretty weird, because his unique item requires taking over the city of Karond Kar which is wayyyy in the middle of assfuck nowhere compared to where you start. You don't really want to manage a split empire in Warhammer 2, so taking Karond Kar by force isn't really advisable. Luckily, he now has a quest line that allows him to confederate Karond Kar remotely. I'd recommend confederating with them, and then just selling all the buildings and abandoning the province. Keeping it generally means dealing with High elf DEATHstacks every two turns, along with Wood Elves and Taurox if he's still alive which will really make you want to deepthroat a cactus.

====Malus Darkblade====
Malus is a fan-favorite character, and CA honestly did him pretty dirty, which is kind of upsetting. His campaign is very difficult especially at the start, and he slightly boosts cold one knights, a notoriously cost-inefficient unit. He is a monster on the battlefield, but ''it's pretty much always better to play as another dark elf faction and confederate him'', since he gets all his battlefield strengths and none of the weaknesses. If you insist on playing his campaign though, keep these tips in mind:
*'''SNIKCH MUST DIE!''': Snikch must die unless you like having 30 million filthy rats coming over the border to take your land and deflower your sorceresses (oh, who are we kidding? There’s no such thing as a virgin sorceress, they literally worship the goddess of massive orgies). Sometimes you can even make a non-aggression pact with Imrik to focus on Snikch which I definitely recommend. After killing him, you can slow down a little, and pick off your enemies one-by-one, but it's an absolute miserable campaign experience if you allow Snikch to get his shit together.

*'''Black Arks are essential''': You start with a Black Ark and you NEED it to get past Malus' cancerous early game. You probably aren't going to have the money to spend on potions at the start, which means your troops will replenish at the speed of a glacier. A Black Ark can help a lot with this problem, and can provide a good base to recruit from.

*'''Keep your alliance with Malekith going''': Keeping your alliance with Malekith alive allows you to cheese the 'Tz'arkans whispers' mechanic a little bit, since the unique quests might be to declare war on a faction you don't care about halfway across the map. The rewards from these missions can be quite powerful, so complete as many as you can.

====Rakarth====
*'''Ulthuan''': Rakarth's starting place in Albion offers him a variety of options in theory. however, you're kind of forced into attacking Ulthuan which sucks. Once they discover you (which happens very early in the game), they will start sending stack after stack after you, and trying to expand eastward or southward just becomes unviable. Sure, Morathi can sometimes get super aggressive and start conquering Ulthuan early taking some of the pressure off you, but it's a gamble that sometimes doesn't pay off.

*'''Rakarth only for beastpen armies''': Beast pens areeee... interesting? The thing is, the only boosts to monstrous units from the beast pens come from Rakarth's army skills. For your generic lords, it's better to stick to your tried and true druchii units, unless you're in an emergency and need units fast.

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

Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Daemons of Chaos

2023-02-17T01:26:44Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:A481:3CCF:B3AD:FB9: /* Lords */

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

==Why Play Daemons of Chaos?==
* Because why choose between flavors of Daemons? Gotta catch 'em all!
* Why would the denizens of damnation require mortal assistance to destroy the world?
* It's not everyday we get a bad guy faction that is actually reasonably flexible, so this is a nice change of pace.
* Hey, what other factions let you wreck the world with your perfect OC?
* You're really loyal to the 8th edition army book.
* You really like playing dress up with your lord.
* Because you wanted to continue the story of guy from the prologue. Cause let's be real, the story of the prologue campaign is much more engaging than the Realm of Chaos campaign.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*'''Doomstacks''': Go Undivided and you have access to all the elite units (Soul Grinders, Greater Daemons, etc) of all 4 factions, you also can get AOE healing on a flying mount from a Nurgle Herald. Combine those, and you have the possibly the deadliest single entity Doomstacks in the game currently. Undivided dedications are strongly recommended. Alternatively, since all your heroes come from tier 3 buildings, you can pull off hero Doomstacks, and all 4 of your heroes are quite good in their role.

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

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

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

*'''Multiplayer limitations''': This isn't as much of an issue in campaign, but your multiplayer battle armies are Daemon only clubs. No mortals need apply. This really bites, since you miss out on cultist heroes and their in-battle summoning + exclusive lores of magic. And now that the Champions of Chaos DLC is out, you also miss out on the various flavors of marauders and chaos warriors that every chaos faction but you get. Also, Daemon Princes are your only lord choice, which is going to cause problems if you go up against a faction that's good at sniping big single entity monsters.

*'''Hard as FUCK''': You are a Daemon, so every single mortal hates you and is at war with you the moment they see you. Unlike the other Daemon Legendary Lords who get some breathing room by starting either surrounded by daemons (Skarband and N'kari) or at war with just one mortal faction (Kairos and Ku'gath), you start at war with an Empire province, Kislev, Wood Elves, ''and'' Dwarfs, who are all pretty close to boot. So look forward to stack after stack being sent after you as soon as you meet any of them! Your only respite is with the Norscans and the Beastmen, who you can mercifully talk with. (As of 1.3 however, the Anti player bias has been worked on some. You are less likely to face attacks as often, but still keep your guard up.) This is only a problem in the Realm of Chaos campaign, immortal empires placed Daniel north of Troll Country where Boris is the only order faction that might give him trouble.

==Universal Traits==

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Lords==

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

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

*'''[[Be'lakor]]:''' He can be unlocked in campaign and custom battle by beating the single player campaign. However, he will be part of the Warriors of Chaos faction when Immortal Empires launches
And in Immortal Empires he works a bit differently than Daniël.
While having access to most of the same units and systems daniel does Be'lakor has additional mechanics and systems daniel doesn't, the biggest note to make about his campaign is the 'daemon prince' system as in theory he has the ability after attacking a lord with an army or agent to inflict them with a debuff that after 10 turns turns them into a daemon prince that you can recruit and depending on the lords faction gives unique traits. However in practise the AI usually either switches out the lord or gets them killed so unless you can guarantee the suvival of an ENEMY lord for 10 entire turns the daemon prince lords are hard to come by

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

===Generic Heroes===

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

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

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

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

==Units==

===Infantry===

*'''Chaos Warriors of Khorne''': slower but heavily armored infantry in sword and board, dual axe, and halberd variants. slower and more defensive than your demon troops, if desperate for shields then the basic are good, but dual axe wont keep up with exalted demons in infantry killing power, halberd are your only anit-large troop with charge defense and AP so are a useful and viable niche unit all game long. great if you need armor but remember that their low speed may make them struggle to keep up with your fast units, of which you have many.

*'''Marauders of Slaanesh ''': come in a anti-infantry base version, an anti-large spear version, and a Defensive version with whips. all are cheap and cost effective. In campaign (you cant use them in multiplayer as legion) they will probably get replaced by more elite units quickly but they do pretty decent for their cost.

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

*'''Bloodletters''': Your mid tier Khornate unit, meaning that unlike Furies these guy might actually kill what they're fighting. They wield great swords with fire, magical, AP damage and anti-infantry, so they're really good at busting through armored infantry. As Daemons they're also unbreakable and contain nice defensive buffs, which is good because 30 armour isn't great. They will likely be your cheapest source of AP in the infantry fight, which will make them highly desirable when fighting heavy armor. a good reliable troop choice to build an army around, well rounded and deadly. Easier to use than Demonettes. You can get these guys as early as turn 2 and will single-handedly carry you through the entire campaign if you let them.

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

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

*'''Exalted Daemonettess''': Faster, killier, sexier Daemonettes. Roughly equivalent to Bladesingers, stats wise, but considerably faster. Have the Devastating Flanker and Soulscent passive abilites. Also have a charmed attack ability which reduces melee attack. harder to use the exalted bloodletters or chaos warriors but very effective on the flank or micro'ed.
*''' Nurglings''': The first real swarm unit in the game. While there are technically only 60 models in a unit, those models consist of roughly 5-6 Nurglings meaning there's roughly 300 of these little shits in the same unit. In terms of use, they're chaff and look to be damn good chaff at that. They have Vanguard in order to block the enemy attack and mostly just exist to waste the enemy time and wear them down. fast, vanguard deploying chaff unit with poison. tarpit with these then charge in your Demonettes and Bloodletters. good early source of poison.

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

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

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

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

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

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

*'''Blood Shrine of Khorne''': A support oriented single entity chariot. Tt will likely be the weakest of the motorcycle Khorne units in combat but will provide leadership and melee attack buffs to nearby units. Plus, it heals while it's in melee so the poorer melee stats won't be the worst thing in the world for it as it'll be hard to bring down. not really very good, not tough or killy enough late game and their buff aura is kinda weak.

*'''Burning Chariot:''' A flying ranged focused chariot that has one of the most devastating ranged attacks in the entire game. It can apparently shred monsters but has low armor ''and'' ammo to compensate. basically a better exalted flamer with flight, its ranged attack doesn't have a ton of AOE so its usually better vs single entities, and very low model units. if you only wants one of these consider just using a herald on one instead. or having a herald lead 1-2 more as a hero/lord/monster sniping team.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*'''Skullcrushers''': deadlier and tougher than Bloodcrushers with better stats and less focused on infantry killing, not immune to morale but unlikely to lose many fights. more expensive though. probably better overall than the crushes due to more killing power and versatility.

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

*'''Flesh Hounds''': They share the same speed as normal Warhounds (95) but have a much smaller model count per unit but are much stronger and tougher. They also have magic resistance of 50% like Furies do. They seem to inhabit that space of smaller war hound units from Drycha and the Norscans, and act as light cavalry. You have better traditional light cav from slaanesh and flying cav from nurgle, but Flesh hounds are very good at killing lightly armored units and less micro dependent than seekers. great in multiplayer but maybe switch to other units late in campaign.

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

===Monsters===
*'''Soul Grinder of Tzeentch''': This thing channels the power of Zeus to chuck lightning bolts from its hands that do AP and Anti Large damage. It seems to be a very versatile unit as it can deal with large units from afar and still deal some good damage up close. It also has magic attacks, so it will also be hitting for most of its damage. Still pretty decent in melee, but it's the Anti Large range attacks you want this thing for. Their ranged attack is ok but has low ammo and it really doesn't do very much damage, honestly they might be the least useful soul grinder but still good.

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

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

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

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

*'''Exalted Flamer:''' A single entity purple version that has one of the most devastating ranged attacks in the game, able to deal heavy damage to elite units and single entities. Downside is that it has very limited ammo, so every shot has to count. It also applies Fire weakness in both melee and ranged, allowing it to set up your other unit to do more damage to the enemy.
*When shooting, it fires a single stream of fire that hurts anything it hits, but doesn't "splash". It's good against single entities, or really bunched up infantry.
*Burning chariots are this but flying so pretty much a straight upgrade.

*'''Burning Chariot''': an exalted flamer on a flying chariot. Much, much better than if it was "on foot".
*One difference as well is that it has crazy animations (colission attacks) when in melee, such as flying straight up and crashing back down. Animations aren't just for looking pretty, but affect how many models you hit/can hit you back. Does it mean you should keep it in melee? No, absolutely not, but it does mean that they're not totally useless.

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

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

*'''Lord of Change''' In a recent patch all greater demons (except Bloodthirsters) received single use of 2 basic spells from their demonic lore's as bound spells instead of being a mediocre caster with no skill tree like they were previously and the tech tree of the monogod factions can expand this to 2 uses of every lore's spells for free, which is amazing. It is a decent monster in melee, though don't expect it to go toe to toe with a Bloodthirster any time soon. With free uses of damage spells and a regening barrier they are amazing for wearing down enemies with hit and run attacks, charge them in then pull out when barrier is about to break. Undivided does not have the ability to expand their spell access so you are limited to one cast each of the two starting spells. Meaning that you cannot get nearly as many free spells from greater demons as a monogod army.

*'''Bloodthirster''': The smaller, more accessible version of its Exalted cousin. It trades a lot of the scary combat stats in return for Anti Large, making it more of a dedicated monster fighter. Aside from that, it functions as a cheaper version of the Exalted lord version. tough, deadly, fast, probably the easiest greater demon to use for undivided, and with a Nurgle herald healing will never die. The only greater demon that didn't benefit from the bound spell update since they dont cast spells.

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

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

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

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

===Artillery===

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

==Campaign Strategies==

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

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

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

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

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

In campaign try to always have a few key abilities in your armies 1. units with '''poison''' like from nurgle or slaanesh to debuff the enemy, 2. a source of '''healing''' (so a nurgle lord/herald with the locus or lore of nurgle.), 3. '''anti-large''' (lots of soul grinders late game you'll need to kill. 4. some '''ranged or artillery''' (lot of campiagn fights are easy to cheese by camping near towers with ranged units), 5. '''hero's''' ( you get a lot of gear from all the fighting you'll do and properly leveled and geared hero's are extremely strong, plus provide army buffs from locus abilities.

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

This shouldn't have to be mentioned, but never go anything other than undivided for your 'final' choice unless you like losing access to 90% of all your unit options and giving up massive upkeep and battle ability bonuses. If you want to play monogod just go play the monogod factions, they've got better mechanics to support it.

==Multiplayer Strategies==

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

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Beastmen| Beastmen]]''': Nurgle Daemons are a great option against the squishy beastmen. Their lack of range units means Tzeentch Daemons are free to damage them without risk, so long as you have some meatshields to guard them with.

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

*'''Daemons of Chaos''': Everything you can do they can do. This mirror matchup can be very tricky to plan for. Bring a relatively balanced roster and try to pick apart your foe by targeting their daemon's respective weaknesses.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Warriors of Chaos| Warriors of Chaos]]''': Slaanesh daemons. The slow, cumbersome warriors of Chaos are known for their armor and few other daemons are better suited to tearing through such things. Tzeentch daemons wouldn't go amiss here for skirmishing potential and Nurgle Daemons are useful for sponging some of the punishment grindfests can deal out to your squishier Slaanesh/Tzeentch units. Khorne can do well here as well, though Slaanesh's units will be a bit more efficient at chewing through the majority of the WoC roster.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dark Elves| Dark Elves]]''': Slaanesh Daemons are a must to rip-through their armor, otherwise Tzeentch ranged units will get some solid value against most of their unarmored forces.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Dwarfs| Dwarfs]]''': Slaanesh units through and through. As one of the de-facto armor factions, Slaanesh AP will be invaluable for popping open this tin-can army.

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

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

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/High Elves| High Elves]]''': A wide and varied roster armed with magic, missiles and monsters for virtually every scenario. Leave Nurgle to stew at home, High Elves simply have far too much ranged output for them to get much value. Slaanesh will also slightly struggle due to the relative lack of armor to be found on their units, though their ability to dive in and tie up the various missile units until your Khorne Daemons can get stuck in isn't to be underestimated. Tzeentch units will do wonders with their staggering ranged DPS, you'll just want to take a care against any cavalry that may dive them.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Khorne|Khorne]]''': Biggest advantage is access to various Lores of magic. Use Nurgle melee units combined with Tzeentch range. Slaanesh can be useful against some of the armored units to be found within, but no non-Khorne unit will be able to survive a grindfest unaided.

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Lizardmen| Lizardmen]]''': When facing the Lizardmen, you'll want to go fast and hot. Slaanesh units are fantastic at dealing with much of the armored front line and can get solid damage in against their monsters. Additionally, Tzeentch Flamers and Chariots can deal shocking burst damage against their monstrous units. You may want to take some Screamers to help chew through their cavalry and to help screen the skies from any Terradon Riders or Coatls.

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

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

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Skaven| Skaven]]''': Khorne units will absolutely curbstomp Skaven in a straight fight, though you'll want to run some Slaanesh cavalry to help disrupt their gunlines until the Blood God's servants can catch up to the fray.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Slaanesh| Slaanesh]]''': A combined Nurgle-Tzeentch army would counter and decimate Slaanesh pretty thoroughly. Leave Khorne at home.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tomb Kings| Tomb Kings]]''': With a relative lack of armor and a general aversion to fire, Khorne and Tzeentch demons will be your go-to picks here. Some anti-large would be recommended to deal with their constructs.

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Tzeentch| Tzeentch]]''': Play mostly with Slaanesh units with a few Tzeentch/Nurgle air units. Use Nurgle's Lore to heal the squishy Slaanesh units. Khorne will struggle to deal with all the ranged pressure, but if you can successufully drain the relatively low ammo reserves from their units, Khorne daemons will mince pretty much any unit you throw them at.

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

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Counts| Vampire Counts]]''': Bloodletters will mulch through all vampire infantry, basically just don't bring any 'mortal' units as daemons are immune to fear and terror tactics right out of the gate. bring some mounted bloodreapers and snipe the vampire lords. no magic and no terror will have your vampiric opponent crying in the corner

*'''[[Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Wood Elves| Wood Elves]]''': This is one match up Daemons Undivided has a better chance than all of the Monogod factions. Combining Nurgle units (to absorb hits and slowly advance at the Wood Elves) with Tzeentch (for ranged fire damage to quickly obliterate squishy Elves ''and'' their Forest Spirits) or Slaanesh (to outflank and brutally overrun them) to deal a lot of damage. Khorne, though quite potent in their own right, will struggle slightly to keep up or outperform the other factions against the wood elves. True, they'll generally win whatever combat you toss them in, but their lack of range and slightly slower movement speed holds them back against this skirmish faction. Nurgle demons at least have the girth and healing support to shoulder through the elves' ranged volleys.

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